CORSAIR CARBIDE 600C Inverse Full-Tower Case, Window Side Panel - Clear Edition

As the title suggests, this is a review from having only been using this case for about 12 hours now, 6 hours of those are me being sleep. Later, I plan on updating this review to reflect how well this case fares against a....very rugged user. I guess I'll find out if this baby's built to last, won't I?Firstly, this case is gorgeous. Alot of reviews had people disappointed about how it looked in real life as opposed to how it looked in the promotional photographs. I have to say myself though, I think it looks amazing in person; I'd go as far to say better, even. From reviews, I expected the side panel to be some cheap, scratchy, wishy-washy piece of plastic, but I'm actually stunned at how rigid it is. On a side note, it's bigger than I expected. I mean, it's a mid-case tower with vertical spacing for an IO-shield, 7 PCI slots, and a PSU- same as my other case. I don't know what I expected there, in retrospect.The entire case is extremely rigid feeling- albeit metal helps, but I still was expecting something with a ton of wiggle at this price point. It didn't look particularly sturdy in pictures, but it's alot more...dense than I was expecting, and I'm actually very happy about that. My last case was one of those 'i'm a gamer look at my gamer case" type of deals, and it was mostly fancified plastic, and while it was a decent case, I'm glad to get away from that thing and to something that feels this amazing. The way Corsair worded the product description around various websites, I was sure there would be a lot of skimping out on the metal in various places, but the only part of plastic I know of is the shroud cover (which is also MUCH more solid than I expected), the feet, and the air grooves behind the metal front- so not very much. Just about anything else you touch will be metal. So if this case has an underlying plastic chassis, that's fine, because this still feels like it'll hold up very well for a long time.I'm not able to say much about installation- it's not too far off from many Mid-tower cases, honestly. Everything's pretty simple. I didn't particularly need the manual for anything- tool-less drive installations are officially a must have for me. My old case was trying to eat my SSD and the laptop hard drive I use for back-ups, so not having to go through something like that again with stubborn screws and wrong-sized screwdrivers (I have literally one Phillips screwdriver and that's it right now. Really sucks.) The only difficulty I had was actually tying down the motherboard. It seemed like my screws just weren't working, then I discovered that my unit was mailed without motherboard screws. I ended up screwing in three identical screws I had laying around from my old case. I don't particularly have any resentment towards this situation though, because hey, sometimes screws are forgotten; my computer's running (well and cool, too boot) so I have no real reason to be angry. I simply messaged them telling them I could use a shipment of them, and now I'm just waiting on that.So I got the nice little baby all hooked up, cut it on, and nothing set on fire, which is a plus. I'm extremely grateful for these super tall feet, because I have carpet, and my PSU is annoying (and probably gonna die soon, actually) so I have this fire-starter using the vents on the bottom because I have enough clearance now to do so without worrying about dust from the carpet being a serious issue. So thank you for that choice, Corsair.The case has very little (read: no) noise prevention or anything, and you'll be able to hear this thing at idle in a quiet room. So if quiet is your deal, you might want to consider getting a 400Q instead of this. I'm not a sucker for a silent build though, myself. However, my PSU's fan is dying on me, so when it starts whirring it's actually very very loud. I'm chocking this one up to EVGA for the PSU, not Corsair.A few final notes about the case, and I'll be done with this ramble of a review. The lighting behind the buttons and HD light are very emmissive and I love it. The buttons are also ultra solid feeling, and feel tough and responsive. The sidepanel door is easy to open- almost too easy, but unless you live with small children who like to bang on the side of your case, it'll be fine. PCs are made for sitting there, after all, it shouldn't be that much of a hassle. The plexiglass/acrylic/whatever is very thick and doesn't bend as easy as I'd expect from pictures. The case is nice and cool if your hardware is also nice and cool.Speaking of hardware, I'll close this review with a spec list;- AMD FX-8320 @ Stock (I'm going to OC it, now that I feel alot more comfortable with heat not being an issue)- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO- ASUS M5A97 R2.0- 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600Mhz- MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G- WD Black 1TB- SiliconPower 120GB SSD (actually really good, check it out if you're on a budget)- Some other 250GB laptop hard drive I ripped out of a dead notebook- EVGA 500wIf you decide to pick up this case, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

So I'd had a mid tower Dell that I'd stuck a 660ti in for about 5 years, and I decided it was time for an upgrade. I always have my PC on my left side because my desk doesn't allow for one on the right, so I was very happy to know there was an inverted case out there.Being my first build, I was very pleased to know that this case had tons of room to work in, and had nice rubber holes and some metal ones for easy cable routing. It is very intuitive as far as the placement of things goes in the case, and I was definitely happy with the options for radiator mounting. As far as mounting goes, do not follow the picture's example on this page or Corsair's that shows air coming in the front and going out the bottom and the back. Your case will get dusty fast. Instead, take advantage of both the convenient dust filters and pull air in through the front and bottom, and exhaust out the back.On liquid cooling:As you can tell by my pictures I have a Ekwb water cooling loop with a pump/res combo. If you get a larger gpu such as a gtx 1080, you will not have many options for the res position. The gpu will block off side mounting as well as a clean route for your tubing. Also, I do not recommend using a thick radiator with this for your fans will be very close to the gpu. Also, since the gpu is inverted, I had to make my entrance and exit for my liquid into the radiator work against gravity: usually you would want the pump to feed up into the rad, and then let the tube slope downward towards the res, but that wasn't a realistic option.Another gripe I have is that cable management in the back is AWFUL. There is nowhere to tie down the cables, and so they stick out terribly, which makes the side panel very hard to close. It took two people, and me pushing it closed with my head to get it to go. This could be due in part to me using thick custom sleeves cables, but I digress. One last gripe: at an angle, you get an oily rainbow on the plastic around the handle on the window side, sort of annoying, but manageable. There are no glass aftermarket panels either, so you'll have to live with it.Despite my complaints, everything else is basically perfect with the case, and I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out.P.S. I added a picture of my desk setup so you can see how big the case is if you need to gauge the scale for your own space. And in the picture where the lights seem overwhelming, it's definitely not in real life. Last tip for you guys out there who haven't had experience building a PC: I highly recommend you do not use lots of bright LED strips and fans with leds on them (unless they're Thermaltake Riing fans). It will super saturate your case with light and it will be a major eyesore. With fan leds, and leds from the gpu, motherboard, and ram, it is sufficient lighting enough. It actually adds to the features in the case instead of taking away from them. I have gotten multiple comments from people about how "the lighting is just right", so I hope you don't make the mistake I almost made myself. Naturally, this is just my two cents. You do you.Edit: There are cable tie downs, I was just an total PC building novice 4 years prior.