Round 2 of unboxing! The goodies! First up group shot!
Component list:
Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
Processor: Intel Core i7-4770k
Memory: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400
Graphics: MSI GTX 780 (this is a reference model, no OC, no special heat sink)
PSU: Corsair AX860i
Not pictured:
Storage: 3x Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache drives. These have been sitting in a corner of my apartment for literally 6 months waiting for a purpose.
Unboxing the 650D, I promise this is the largest chunk of images in this post. I wanted to give everyone a good look at the case without anything added to it, but the rest of the components we will get plenty of look during install I'm sure. Opening up the box reveals our favorite Styrofoam packing with it's squeaking (it did) and making a mess (not as much but it's only a matter of time). Corsair also wrapped the case in a nice black cover for additional protection. Overall it survived well despite the gash in the box I blame FedEx for.
The top of the case features a large fan grill with a 200mm fan mounted and mountings for 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm fans. It will also accept a 240 or 280mm radiator here for water cooling though I have heard that not all 240mm radiators will fit. Also up top we have that little bay with is a hot swap 3.5/2.5 inch sata port and also contains a three position switch fan controller. Looking inside it appears to support 4 fans, conveniently the number of fans you can fit in the case.
On the front we have a very nice brushed metal plate with 4x 5.25 inch drive bays and our front panel inputs hidden behind a plate at the top. Beside that plate is the power switch and activity light, underneath is found 2x USB 3.0 ports, microphone and headphone ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port, and the reset button. Down at the bottom is the intake for the system, which pops out with a quick press so you can clean the fan filter easily enough.
Around back we find a 120mm fan, two grommeted ports for running water cooling tubes, the power supply opening, and 8 slots for your various graphics cards and expansions. Unpictured is the underside fan filer which covers the PSU intake should you mount it with the intake facing down.
The main side view it taken up primarily by a nice large window with no fans to obstruct the view. The window is also cut off just before the drive bays would become visible. The lack of an intake here however means this case is decidedly negative pressure in stock configuration with only a single 200mm intake up front while a 200mm top fan, 120mm back fan, and possibly your PSU fan drawing air out. I would much prefer a positive presure setup to reduce dust, but I have plans there.
Inside we can see that the black finish continues from the exterior with every single piece of this case being painted black entirely. Even the screws are black. This is the extra's you get for your money. We can also see the numerous grommets for running cabling being the motherboard tray where there Corsair has given us ample room to fit everything we could want. Both of the 3.5 inch drive bays are removable. The upper one can be remounted on the bottom of the case should you desire. The drives in this case mount with the sata and power connections facing the rear to easily hide the cabling.
From the rear side we can see the generous room for running cables behind the board. There is also a nice opening for accessing the back of the motherboard to mount heat sink backings if necessary. Again, even this which will never be seen in a completed case is completely painted to match the rest of the case all the way down to the screws and rivets.
For now I'll likely just mount the drives and be done with it. I plan to water cool eventually and when I do I'll move the drives down to the bottom of the case and remove the second tray so that I can fit a 200mm radiator in front. I also plan on a 240mm radiator up top, or a 280mm if I can find one that fits well. At the time I'll also likely buy a magnetic fan filter and have the fear 120mm as an intake and I may do that early. I would much prefer to have a positive pressure setup to keep out the dust. PSU will be mounted intake down, no need to exacerbate the case pressure situation.
Nicely packaged on the outside, back shows the highlights of this board. Opening the lid we find the nicely packages motherboard which we'll see more closely on the install. Lifting the board out reveals the various accessories. They could have done a little better on the packaging here. Nothing too fragile but you can see it exactly as I found it. I've become used to a little higher standard. overall we have a pair of user guides, driver disc, what looks to be a guide around the board, our back plane and a SLI cable, 4x sata cables, headers for case hookups, a couple of power monitoring connectors, a door hanger (lulz) and the largest case badge I've ever seen. Not too shabby. Notably absent is the mounting hardware and standoffs, but that came packaged with the case so no hold ups there.
Next up we have our PSU. Picked to provide me with all the power I need as well as a bit of headroom for overclocking and for it's incredible efficiency and stability. I don't have the tools to confirm it but the reviews I read clock it at up to 93% efficient at peak with a mere 0.12% variance on the 12v rail at 110% load. That's good enough for me. Corsair went all out with the packaging here and it's frankly a little overboard I think. While the felt bag for the PSU is nice I can't help but wonder what I'm supposed to do with it after I've installed it. Our second bag provided contains all the cables we could want as this is a modular PSU. I didn't bother figuring them all out yet, maybe later.
Memory. Not much to say here. It's well packaged. it's pretty. It's fast. What more do you want?
This ones staying in it's case until install. Nothing exciting to see here anyway. i7-4770k chosen because I can and what more reason do you really need?
Finally! The piece de resistance: The GTX 780! Yeah yeah, I know. Not a Titan. This guy still counts as the most expensive single component and is only outdone by all three monitors combined. The packaging is clean and tidy but there isn't much to see here. A couple of adapters, user guide, and driver disc is all that is to be found hiding.
Final notes:
I know someone is going to comment on the lack of an SSD. I'm waiting for the right one(s) at the right price. I need at least 1TB for my main drive and I didn't want to drop another $800~ on this right now, so as soon as I see a good deal I'm going to snap some up and get them in here. Until then, I will have to live on hard drives. Fortunately I haven't personally experienced the glory of SSD so I'm not going to be missing it. Also while I only have a single 780 here I suspect it won't drive all of my games across all three screens as well as I would like so I'm betting there will be a second on route to me soon enough to SLI up.
Now I go to put the system together and document that. We'll see if I get that done written and posted tonight. I'm betting on... Maybe. I'll probably write/edit it while the system installs.