Review

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-04 TG Case Review

These days Computer cases design trend presumably with a premium tag is going more toward RGB lighting and tempered glass panels. Every brand has a premium aka expensive product line featuring RGB lighting and tempered glass. We have reviewed few of such computer chassis and definitely RGB lighting and tempered glass do great to the overall look of the build.

But slowly these materials are finding its place in mid-range products too. So now budget PC builder can also make their PC look premium.

Today we got a chance to have a look at the Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-04 TG Case. This is the same original Spec-04 design but Corsair has just fitted it with a tempered glass side panel.

Now let's have a look on what features does Corsair SPEC-04 case have for us.

Features

TEMPERED GLASS WINDOW AND ANGULAR EXTERIOR DESIGN
The asymmetrical design brings bold styling to your build.

CABLE ROUTING CUTOUTS AND TIE-DOWNS
Hide your cables behind the motherboard tray to keep your build looking tidy and out of the airflow path for improved cooling.

ROOM FOR UP TO FIVE 120MM FANS
Excellent cooling potential with one 120mm LED front fan pre-installed.

AMPLE STORAGE
Three HDD and two SSD drive cages are easy to install and keep your system and cables looking clean.

CLEAN SIDE I/O PANEL
Featuring a high-speed USB 3.0 port and additional ports for all modern connections.

REMOVABLE, BUILT-IN DUST FILTERS
A clean case keeps your components cooler and running longer.

STUNNING STYLE
The expansive and sturdy side tempered glass panel allows for an unimpeded view of SPEC-04's roomy interior.

READY TO BUILD
The clean, side I/O panel and USB 3.0 port, cable routing cutouts and tie downs, and built-in dust filters combine for you to build a system that's as bold as the SPEC-04's design.

Specifications

Packaging

Standard plain brown packaging with product image and few paragraph describing features outside.

Inside, two hard foam cutout blocks suspends the case and protecting from every corner and side. Box also includes guide and accessories for the SPEC-04 case

Close look

Front air inlet with build in filter.

Tempered glass side panel is secured with four thumb screws.

Top of the case can support two 120mm fans or 240mm AIO. Many sites have mentioned that you can't install a 240 AIO in this case, but in my build you can see that I was easily able to install Corsair H100i GTX.

Back cover is made of thin sheet and do give that low-end product feel. Corsair could have used slight more thicker steel sheet here. Rest of the case frame is light weight but rigid.

This is the main issue I found in this case. With the glass panel being on the left side of the case and most user will likely want to place the case to their right or tempered glass side facing them. Unfortunately, this makes the positioning of the front I/O panel on the right or back side making access to front ports and switched very problematic. Second, Corsair when you are using the onboard USB3.0 connectors for front panel, why you have wired or better say downgraded one USB 3.0 port to 2.0 leaving only one of the two USB ports meets the 3.0 standard.

Bottom of the case have a removable PSU air filter and four big rubber feets.

Being a compact design, case still have ample space for support upto ATX motherboard form factor and long graphics cards.

Case comes with one LED (red) fan installed in the front.

For storage we have support for tool free installation of 3 x 3.5" HDD drives and extra 2 x 2.5" drives can be screwed on to the tray panel. And the HDD cage is mounted via screws making it easy to remove if needed.

Back of the motherboard tray we have decent cable management scope. And a big cutout for CPU cooler mounting support.

Approx 50% of front removable panel is having front air inlet with some filtaration .

Components Installation

Installing hardware was easy and smooth in this case also as many other Corsair Cases.

The whole tempered glass made the case look good. Addition to single red LED fan I also installed 2 more LED fans in the front of the case.

Top AIO mountings are perfect to install 240mm AIO solutions even with big VRM heatsink of my AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming motherboards.

With total of 6 fans (3 inlet and 3 outlet), the case provided a balanced air flow with low noise. Managed to overclock i7-8700K up to 5.1GHz stable.

At this extreme overclocking, CPU do sometime hits 100C, but that is just due to TIM used by Intel on these chips. Waiting for some liquid metal and delid kit to arrive, sure these crazy temps will come under control then. Will update you more on this.

Pros

• Nice price
• Nice Tempered glass panel
• Easy hardware installation
• Great Air flow design (If extra fans are installed)
• Corsair H100i AIO support
• Removable HDD Cage
• Removable filter for PSU
• Decent Cable management options

Cons

• Bad Front I/O panel position
• Only one USB 3.0 port in front
• Side panel cover is made from very thin metal sheet.
• Only one fan included

Corsair SPEC-04 is the great appealing case at a price tag of approx Rs.5K. Offering good exterior esthetics with its angular design and tempered glass side panel, providing bold styling and shows off build for a budget.

Installing more fans have helped to move enough air through this case to keep my i7-8700K cool at stock settings with very low noise. Providing more than one fan for the price could be hard for Corsair, but downgrading one front USB 3.0 port to USB 2.0 is not acceptable. Please Corsair, you are using motherboard's 2 x USB 3.0 ports and not giving users two USB 3.0 front ports.

So at conclusion, if you are on budget and looking for a show off PC case with nice air cooling and AIO support, than the Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-04 TG Case can be your choice for the price.

Manufacturers Info

Site link

Thanks.

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