Pretty happy and overall impressed in build quality and design for the price even tho Im into simplistic square shapes when getting a case!
Pros:
-Tempered Glass (1st time user) Wow it looks great with all the lightning!
-The red color looks awesome! I thought it was going to be a glossy red. Thank god its a matte red!
(No smudges or fingerprints when handling)
-Includes 1 LED Fan
-The line in the front panel lights up red too and goes with the build
Cons:
-Doesn't include PSU shroud. Mine has one because my last corsair case had one and its compatible.
- Not much space for cable management on the blind side.
-Allen key needed to get the TG off. (Included in the case)
Last thoughts:
As far as airflow goes in this case I don't see it as a negative.
Temps when gaming go up to ~58°c ish on an i5 6600k 4.5ghz (air cooled) and on the gpu side a 1080 sc ~78°c ish (normal temps on sc version).
There are two ways to look at this case, price and the brand.
If you factor the price alone it is an amazing case for the money spent, but I expected a little better from a company like Corsair.
The good:
Decent cable management
Fair number of drive bays
Can fit a full sized ATX motherboard
PSU mounting is at the bottom of the case
Dust filters
Good air flow/plenty of fan mounts
The bad:
Considering Corsair makes more than a couple water coolers, it would have been nice if they made the case an inch or so taller to have room to mount an AIO water cooler. I had to take out the 3.5/2.5 drive bays and stick my SSD in a 5.25 bay to mount my H100i v2 Corsair water cooler.
The included fans are far from the loudest I have heard, but they are also a little loud for my taste. I will eventually replace the fans.
I really wish there was an option to not have a window, but pretty much all quality cases have windows. Then again most people want windows.
The metal is a little thinner than I would have liked to seen from Corsair, still better than your average cheap case, and very solid when put together, but the parts individually have a bit of flex to them.
Wish the dust filters were magnetic, at least the top dust filter. The bottom and front dust filters are fairly easy to remove, the top one is not so easy and a magnetic dust filter there would have changed this.
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At the end of the day I am happy I purchased this case. I did expect a bit better with the Corsair name on the case, but it is still better than any other case I have had in this price range. So if you are planning on an air cooler I would not hesitate to purchase this case. If you plan on a water cooler, I would still not hesitate to purchase it as long as you understand you will have to mount all of your drives in the 5.25 drive bays. This does mean some added expense for drive mounts though, unless you do like I did and put a dab of hot glue on your SSD to secure it. I would not recommend this for a mechanical drive though. I have a NVME and a SSD, with no other drives, so it worked out for me. With the added expense of drive mounts, I might look to see what else is out there.
Easy to build in, but it can be incredibly difficult if not impossible to install a GPU with some motherboard combinations, and the plastic side scratches fairly easily. Other than that, the case is sexy with some RGB lights inside, it's very ways to build in, and there's room for a reasonable number of HDDs and SSDs, multiple GPUs, hefty coolers, and there's a surprising amount of space on the non-displaying side of the case for cables. The little hooks, nooks, and crannies for cable management are astoundingly useful, and make it simple to have a gorgeous build to look at. The problematic motherboard for me was the AX370 from Gigabyte, due to the placement of the HD sound unit.
It's a good looking case, but there are a couple things that bothered me.
The Pros: Good looking case that has an excellent hidden cable management tray under the motherboard mounting plate. A definite plus since you can see in through the window on the side. Two 2.5" mounting bays are a big plus for using SSDs and has three standard desktop size drive bays. Keeps my high performance PC cool with additional fans.
The cons: The biggest one is that the double size radiator for processor liquid cooling from the same manufacturer as the case did not fit and I had to modify the inside of the case. I had to remove the hard drive bays and the disc drive bays. Not a big issue for me since I use SSD's and don't have a need for a disc drive. Another thing is that it doesn't have a SD card reader which I think should be a standard feature. Lastly, before I got the liquid cooling I did have a DVD-RW drive in it. The front panel of the case has to be removed to clean the air filter and the disc drive installs with the front plate on. Meaning every time you want to clean the air filter you have to remove the disc drive. Frustrating and unnecessary.
In conclusion, I should have bought a bigger case, but I still feel like I shouldn't have had to modify the case as much as I did to put their own liquid cooling system in it. If you do plan on using liquid cooling, go with the smaller radiator, or get a bigger case.
I included a picture so you can get an idea of its size and see the modifications I had to make.
Amazing! One of the best looking cases so far! Extremely easy(not necessarily toolless if screws are fixed so tight) to open. Fantastic quality, both inside and outside. Three fans come included, one in the rear has no led light. Changed it myself.
Feature Product
- Minimalist exterior design with an edge-to-edge tinted side panel window
- Room for up to five 120mm fans with one 120mm front fan pre-installed. Clean, front panel with high-speed USB 3.0 port
- Expansive storage space with mounts for up to three HDD's and two SSD's
- Cable routing cutouts and tie downs keep your build looking clean and uncluttered
- Radiator compatibility is 4.72 x 5.51 x 9.45 in inches. Compatible corsair liquid coolers is h55, h60, h75, h80i, h90 and h100i
Description
The CORSAIR Carbide Series SPEC-05 is a mid tower ATX case gaming case that combines a stylish and distinctive exterior with excellent cooling potential and a straightforward layout. The stunning edge-to-edge window shows off your build and SPEC-05's roomy interior, able to fit up to five 120mm fans, multiple graphics cards and plentiful storage options. Removable dust filters work to keep your PC clean as the SPEC-05's styling, while dedicated cable routing cutouts and tie downs make building a great-looking system easy. With subtle design and a straightforward layout, SPEC-05 makes your PC simple to build, with distinctive style.
The case looks great, and it's not too difficult to build in. This was my first build and I had no real issues, although cable management could definitely be better. A couple gripes, one is that the glass side panel is not held on by thumb screws. You need a hex key (included) to take the panel off. Also, the rubber grommets in the screw holes on the side panel fall out VERY easily. I think I spent fore time looking for those after they fell out time and time again than I spent actually building my PC. All in all I would recommend it if the things I complained about don't bother you too much, because it is a great looking case.
I like this case for a few reasons. One is that it's a midsize so it fits well on my desk. My Cooler Master tower is almost as tall as my desk. LOL. Second, I was able to install an external BDR on this as it has two bays for external drives. This is a disappearing feature on cases these days. There is plenty of room on the inside for internal drives like SSDs. The only issue I had was mounting the motherboard as the screws didn't all work. I had to mix and match to get it secured. Other than that, there is plenty of room for the mobo, the wires hide pretty well on the bottom and side, and room for the graphics card. I only installed two things in the mobo's PCI-E slots and that's a wireless card and the graphics card. Both fit fine. By installing extra fans in this case, I have plenty of airflow. I removed the top screen since that's the exhaust for the two fans I added there. I kept the other screens in place (front and bottom). This case comes with two fans. One in the front and one in the back for supply and exhaust. By adding two additional supply and exhaust fans (bottom supply, two top exhaust, two front supply and one exhaust rear), there is plenty of airflow. This machine is used to edit photos and update a website. I may be used to edit videos in a pinch, and I wanted plenty of airflow if needed. Since this is in my bedroom, I was concerned about fan noise. That is the least of my issues as the speakers make far more noise and my wife gets up really early blaring them. Overall, this case is built solid and is a good value.
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler (YD1600BBAEBOX)
ARCTIC ORACO-MX40001-BL MX-4 Thermal Compound Paste - 4 Grams
ASUS Prime B350-Plus AMD Ryzen AM4 DDR4 HDMI DVI VGA M.2 USB 3.1 ATX B350 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM
Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-02 Mid Tower Gaming Case
EVGA 750 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 750W, Semi Modular, 5 Year Warranty Power Supply 110-BQ-0750-V1
Corsair Air Series AF120 LED Quiet Edition High Airflow Fan Twin Pack - Red
JBtek All Red Sleeved PWM Fan Splitter Cable 1 to 2 Converter, 2 Pack
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N105TWF2OC-4GD 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)
LG WH16NS40 Super Multi Blue Internal SATA 16x Blu-ray Disc Rewriter
LG - 24" IPS LED FHD FreeSync Monitor
Monoprice 18-Inch SATA III 6.0 Gbps Cable
Cable Matters 3-Pack Gold Plated High Speed
APC Battery Back-UPS, 1350VA (BN1350G)
This case is fantastic. I added two RGB fans up top and used a Noctua Fan splitter to install all the fans on the same fan header and they can all change colors great now. I installed the push button switch and zip tied it out the top grate next to the first fan and it works great for me. For the money the build quality is great. I really like the tinted window, and the RGB effects are great, lots of options to choose from...I spent an hour just going through them all.
If you are looking for a great case, that is inexpensive but has great room to build and route cables, then this is the case for you.
If you're looking for a great case that can conceal cables and looks good, this is your case. The tempered glass looks really good allowing you to see into the side of the case. Unlike fiberglass, it wont attract dust that loves to stick to statically charged plastic surfaces. If you take your time while building your PC using this case, you can build a very attractive, clutter free PC like I did! It will even fit the MasterAir Maker 8 CPU cooler. Barely, but it fits with centimeters to spare. I bought 2 of these cases. One for me and one for my wife. We love the fact we can change the colors to our liking and the iCUE software makes it a breeze. You have 2 fans and the front RGB strip on the case itself that you can change. The software works with other Corsair peripherals as well.
It's a great eye catcher and cool design I love this tower, I think the only complaint I could have with this tower is that it is pretty small inside and not much room for extra things. No room for liquid cooled CPU, some room behind the panels for cable management but the SSD slots inside do not work if you have a long GPU like my 1070 triple fan Gigabyte. But no problems here besides those small inconvenience. (:
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