The top of the case can also mount a 480/420 radiator and again it’s concealed behind a clever dust filter that really does look the business:
Although it looks the business it’s a real pain to remove. The instructions for the case are essentially non existent and it took a literal hour and some youtube videos that confused me more before I figured out how to remove the dust filter. Like the radiator side mounts this is something that could be improved or at least better labelled. Once removed the radiator mount is built into the frame of the case:
Because the mount is in the frame the radiator must be mounted from inside the case which can be quite awkward if you’re trying to run push fans in between the frame and the radiator as the fans can slide around:
Running a 480 is much harder because of the limited access space due to the 5 1/4″ bays. The radiator clearance is less at the top than it is at the bottom of the case. A thick radiator like the XSPC RX series can not run push/pull without interfering with the top of the motherboard. Some motherboards may still fit – for example the Rampage III Extreme did work, while the Rampage IV Extreme had clearance issues with the 8 pin CPU EPS power connectors:
As can be seen there is a supplied 140mm rear exhaust fan included by Corsair. The mount is also compatible with a 120mm fan and while a 120 radiator might be able to be mounted here, because the case is really designed to be run with positive pressure venting hot air out the back of the case it means that most likely any radiator situated there will only receive warm air and acheive very little.
The top filter does catch dust pretty well, however this means that the case does quickly look dusty:
Even after removing the filter and cleaning it with the perpetually handy Metro Datavac, it was hard to get the dust out from the nooks and crannies of the cool filter design:
In order to really get the corners you have to unbend some metal tabs to separate the layers. This is a bad idea in the long run and again is another minor quibble that could have been improved on.
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Great review. I have been looking for a long term review for the 900D. I have heard problems with production quality, like bits snapping off. But you give no mention of that so I’m assuming these are isolated incidents.
Hey Terry – Yes I haven’t seen problems in the long run with anything failing. Most complaints I’ve seen were things being delivered with something broken. There’s definitely improvements that can be made and corners that were cut to save costs, but for the non-msrp price it’s a great deal!
Like the 900D. But – 480 rads can be obstructing to the upper bay as the rad will intrude on optical drive lengths / area. For this reason I swapped over to a 420 up top. Plenty of room all round and leaving many other options open, so I would disagree on the 480 recommendation up top.
Had to remove the lower intake fan as well to accommodate the 480 which is 60mm deep as the rear chamber just impinged on the fan mounts – using Alphacool nexus 480 x 60 unit with the 420 x 60 up top. Also a 140mm below as well. This aside, a joy to work in but still not the same as my lianLi 2120 workstation unit. may well look at the boutique brigade next time..
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