Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini ITX PC Chassis Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Overall the Corsair Obsidian 250 is a great chassis if you’re looking for a mini-ITX chassis. Although it is designed for a mini-ITX motherboard which is mainly a small form factor motherboard, the 250D is pushing the limits of SFF. The Corsair Obsidian 250D measures 11.42″ (H) x 10.9″ (W) x 13.82″ (D) (290mm (H) x 277mm (W) x 351mm (D)) which is definitely on the larger side of the SFF spectrum. As we have seen throughout the review today, the size isn’t wasted space and Corsair has been able to take advantage of the room offered. While the Obsidian 250D offers a lot of room and features, it asks for little in return, only $89.99.
Over the last couple of years small form factor PC’s have become more and more common. A number of years ago a friend of mine built his ‘toaster’, it was an LGA775 system that used a mATX motherboard (if memory serves), water cooling, and was a system ahead of its time. We spent time modifying the case to fit a 120mm radiator, reservoir , as well as a couple of other mods to fit the parts he wanted. These days though, they are producing small form factor chassis that fit everything you’ll need. The Corsair Obsidian 250D is one of those cases, it will fit a 240mm radiator out of the box, multiple SSD’s and hard drives, an optical drive and pretty much everything you’ll find in a system built in a tower! Though it is a bit amusing that it won’t fit the latest in the Hydro Series, the H105. The H105 radiator is 11mm thicker than the H100 that I stuffed into the 250D, there isn’t enough room between the chassis frame and the PCB of the motherboard for it to fit. You’d think that the Corsair Obsidian 250D would have been designed to fit all the Corsair Hydro Series coolers on the roadmap, but it is obvious that was not the case.
The only other gripe I had with the Corsair Obsidian 250D was the 2.5″ storage drive bays, they are a little close together. Plugging in the SATA power cable from the Corsair AX860i put a lot of stress on the SSD power adapters as shown above. There are a couple of ways that this can be remedied. First and the easiest way, if you aren’t using the 3.5″ hard drive cages, you can mount one of the SSD’s in there. Putting the SSD in the 3.5″ HDD tray will space them out and put less pressure on the power plugs. Another option is to pick up a 15pin SATA power cable splitter like this one.
Using an adapter like this will allow you to use both the 2.5″ drive trays and the 3.5″ drive trays without any issues and it won’t put any pressure on the SSD power connectors. I think this is something that Corsair should include with the bundle for the Obsidian 250D, though not doing that does help keep the cost down as I’m sure not everybody will be running a pair of 2.5″ drives.
With the minor gripes that I have about the Corsair Obsidian 250D out of the way, we can move on to what I liked about the mini-ITX case. Just about everything else falls into that catagory! The best part of the Corsair Obsidian 250D for me, is the build quality. I’ve looked at cases in the past that look great, but when you get down to it, there are sharp corners, pieces don’t go together quite like they are supposed to or crack when they do. That’s just not the case with the Corsair Obsidian 250D (or any of the Corsair Cases I’ve used). It used to be that whenever I built a system, no matter how big the chassis it was inevitable that I would come out of it drawing blood at least once from a sharp corner or edge. The Obsidian 250D while it’s large for a SFF PC, it is still a little snug to work in, and I fully expected to find a sharp corner but that didn’t happen. All of the corners are rounded off and I came out of the build with all my blood still in my body!
During the build, the only time I ran into any issues was when I was installing the Corsair Hydro H100. Though the fault lies with me, so hopefully you can learn from my mistake. The H100 fits inside the Obsidian 250D without any issues, installing it was a different story. The easiest way to install the radiator was to remove the four screws that hold the 5.25″ drive cage in place and pull it out. Once the 5.25″ drive cage was out of the way everything went in without a hitch!
When you look at all you get for $89.99, the Corsair Obsidian 250D really is a great deal. If by some chance you should have an issue with the craftsmanship, or find an issue with the materials used in the construction of the Corsair Obsidian 250D, Corsair warranties the Obsidian series of PC cases for a period of two years. The warranty covers defects in material and workmanship but not issues like wear and tear, modifications, or operation outside of the intended use. The full details of the Corsair warranty can be found here on the Corsair website.
Legit Bottom Line: If you’re in the market for a small form factor case, the Corsair Obsidian 250D should make the short list. It may not be the smallest SFF chassis out there, but it has a no compromise attitude for the components you want inside of it!