Corsair Vengeance C70 Case Review: Going for the Gamers
by Dustin Sklavos on May 17, 2012 5:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Assembling the Corsair Vengeance C70
I've gone on record repeatedly as saying the only way Corsair cases could be easier to assemble would be if Corsair included an engineer with them to just do the whole thing for you, so imagine my surprise when assembling the C70 turned out to be a hair more fraught than I'm used to experiencing from them. It's still worlds easier than many competing brands, but there were a couple of hitches.
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Maybe it was just my review unit, or maybe it was just my rotten luck, but I found installing the motherboard to be unusually difficult despite the fact that Corsair includes both a mounting post (for the center screw hole of the motherboard) and pre-installed mounts in the tray. The problem is that the mounts used are actually in unbelievably tightly (the top six are permanently affixed to the tray), and the screw holes for them don't seem to have been machined quite wide enough. That, or the green paint used for the finish is abnormally thick, but either way I wound up having such a hard time moving the mounts that I just left the side of the board "dangling." I also had one of the screws I was using actually break inside a mount. I can see all of this being much easier for someone else, and if you use a standard ATX motherboard you won't even have to bother with moving the mounts.
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Installing our optical drive in a 5.25" bay was a little different, too. The bay shields are in very securely, and to remove one I wound up having to actually remove the front fascia of the case. Once I did so, though, the optical drive went in with just a bit of force (which is common), and the toolless mechanism (along with general tension of the drive cage) actually holds the drive in very securely without a need for screws.
Everything else went pretty swimmingly after those two, though. The drive trays continue to be very easy to work with, snapping neatly onto 3.5" drives while 2.5" drives screw into the bottoms of the trays. Expansion cards go in just as easily, with thumbscrews holding the expansion bay shields in place. And of course, the power supply went in without a hitch.
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Corsair has almost perfectly evolved cable management in the C70. There's a healthy amount of clearance above the motherboard (owing to the space needed for a 240mm radiator and fans) that makes connecting the AUX 12V line a breeze. Meanwhile, routing cables behind the motherboard tray just got even simpler, as the channels in the tray help direct the cables while the included clamps allow you to essentially lock everything down. Cabling was ultimately unbelievably simple, and every other vendor should be taking note here: this is how it's done.
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Despite hiccups with the motherboard (and to a much lesser extent the 5.25" bay), Corsair continues to set the standard for ease of assembly and service, and I can't wait to see these advances appear in future designs of theirs.
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SilthDraeth - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
But then again, I am a sucker for that ammo can military green.kyuu - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
Pretty sure the "ammo can" was actually the basis for the aesthetics, with the military green, the clips for the side panels, and the handles on top. I actually rather like it as well (though I'd personally probably go with the gunmetal grey instead).The cooling performance is disappointing, unfortunately. However, didn't I see the reviewer state that the ambient temperature was higher than normal, which would skew the results...?
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
Thermal performance is listed as the delta above ambient, so all of the thermal results are adjusted to compensate for differences in ambient temperature.Arghem - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
But as the base temperature of the CPU goes up it will draw more current and produce more heat. So making the temperature relative to ambient does not correct for a higher baseline temperature. If this was done in hot conditions then the thermal performance data for the chassis is not accurate relative to other chassis.I realize they are doing as good as they can here but making the temperature relative does not remove bias created by lower or higher environmental temperatures.
JarredWalton - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
It removes a large portion of the bias. It's not like Dustin is testing at 19C for one case and 30C for another; the temperatures are relatively constant at 23~26C (25.5C for this review). A 2C ambient difference should not create a 5C delta, which is basically what we're seeing with this case.Now, you could stuff more fans into the C70, and that might help. I also think Dustin is right in that the initial positioning of fans is poorly selected -- I'd say at the very front of the drive cages would be better at least. Or you could use a watercooling setup and that would likely help tremendously. The thing is, you can do all those same things with a P280 or Eleven Hundred, and you should still end up with superior results.
kevith - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
You nailed it!Arghem - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
Your certainly right that the front fan placement is highly questionable. I wasn't meaning to imply that the higher ambient accounted for the entire difference in thermal performance only a portion of it. And yes probably a small portion in this case.I was just pointing out that presenting the temperature as relative to ambient isn't perfect. It's simply the best that can be done without a perfectly controlled environment.
BMAN61 - Saturday, May 19, 2012 - link
" Or you could use a watercooling setup and that would likely help tremendously."Yes; watercooling any setup vastly improves temperatures, but still requires air cooling to expel air from within the case (via the radiator), and a balanced amount of air coming into the case to create positive air pressure. So if the chassis has dismal airflow; it doesn't matter if you're using water cooling or not, temperatures will still be bad.
Being one that owns a (water cooled) Corsair 700D; I can say that airflow is what has been the problem with many of these cases, the 140mm fans that were shipped with the 700/ 800D cases are all garbage, but neither of these cases had (have) any fan mounts (other than one fan mount on the bottom) to bring fresh air into the chassis.
m0n5t3r - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
Out of the box, yes the cooling performance isn't great. The stock fans really don't contribute in the cooling, they are pretty shitty. But as you can see that is a lot of ventilation and fan mount options.Chaitanya - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
I still own a Ammo, I kept it aside just because of the looks were awesome.