The Corsair SPEC Omega - Bling...Beauty...Boldness!
Corsair took the market by storm when it released the SPEC Alpha in 2016 mid tower gaming chassis, a design inspired by their bulldog SKUs that got such warm reception that Corsair incorporated it into the SPEC-04 last year. Sadly we never saw or heard about a successor to the SPEC-Alpha until this year where Corsair has finally brought out the Corsair Carbide SPEC Omega Gaming Cabinet out just in time for CES 2018.
Thanks to Corsair India I already have one on my table today for review and by the looks of this I'm sure we are in for some seriously interesting and fun filled building and reviewing session today.
With a tentative price of $99 the Corsair SPEC-Omega may appear like the older SPEC-Alpha at first but look closer and we can see a whole new product sitting in front of us. The SPEC Omega being a bit smaller in size than the Alpha has surprisingly more room and provision inside for installing components! Coming in three color combinations as of now namely as black-red. black-grey and the one that we have today, black-white the case has full tempered glass side panel along with a front panel which is made out of solid plexiglass. It comes with two 120mm fans one LED and on non-LED right out of the box & is backed up by the solid 5 years warranty from Corsair.
What's in the Box!?
Corsair stuck to the usual outer packing with the SPEC Omega and we have a plain brown cardboard box with the product name, images, specifications and even a detailed diagram of the dissembled case printed in black all over the box.
The box is quite heavy for a product of this size and this is mainly due to the weight of the tempered glass used which tends to be a thick heavy slab of, well glass! Glad to see that Corsair has opted for thick blocks of styrofoam here over normal thermocol blocks that tend to break at times during rough transit risking bending of the side panels which over here would've resulted in catastrophic cracked glass so good move by Corsair here.
Inside the box apart from the Corsair SPEC Omega we have the installation guide, warranty manual, a hex key or allen wrench for the tempered glass screws along with a bunch of cable ties, motherboard screws, fan screws, SSD screws etc all of which can be found inside a small brown box located inside the case in the first drive caddie.
A Closer Look at the Omega!
Corsair SPEC Omega is a direct successor to the SPEC Alpha and hence we can see a similar design on the Omega aswell which is angular from almost every corner. The entire side is a big tempered glass window while the body is made out of premium quality plastic.
The other side is plain and opaque with nothing special going on and the metal sheet matches perfectly with the matte color of the plastic used in the body which is really good to see and shows the attention to minute details that have been put into the case designing here.
Front fascia of the Omega is where we find the most number of direct changes. The biggest one coming in with the partial plexiglass use which gives a direct insight to the case and in case you are using a LED fans in the front they'll be easily visible from here giving a more refreshed look to the case. You might not be able to distinguish it but there is a LED strip tracing the division between the plastic and plexiglass area of the fascia which I'll be coming to later on. The vent at the bottom is meshed for air intake by the front fans and we also see that the legs at the bottom are glossy this time in the Omega to gel in with the theme of the product.
All the connectivity options for the SPEC Omega are located right in the front only on a glossy panel located at the top right side. We have a white LED lit power button, mic and headphone jack, reset button, HDD activity light and two USB 3.0 ports. Even though two USB 3.0 ports are enough for most users but I was expecting atleast three if not four ports on this cabinet like this.
The top is angular, vented and is removable by loosening the two thumb screws at the back which hold this panel in place. Once removed we find provision for two 120mm/140mm fans here which can be used as intake or exhaust depending upon your preferences. Obviously you cannot install a radiator here unless you plan for some DIY. This is definitely an improvement over previous designs since this time the panel is easily removable unlike previous designs which required the removal of the front fascia to facilitate the removal of the top panel.
At the back we have a 120mm non LED SP120 fan from Corsair installed out of the box which can be swapped with a 140mm one aswell if required. At the bottom end we have seven expansion slots and the PSU installation area which supports ATX form factors and has a removable dust filter under it which slides out for easy cleaning process.
Underneath the chassis we have the PSU dust filter which is removal and another screw that is clearly protruding out and holds the drive cage in place. Its evident that Corsair wants to provide the users the flexibility to remove the drive cage here by providing screw such as this for greater flexibility and accommodation capacity.
Inside on we see that the Corsair SPEC Omega is quite clean and spacious with neat clean edges. There is a HDD cage that has a capacity of two 3.5" HDD or two 2.5" SSDs along with a SP120mm white LED fan is pre-installed in the front and there is provision for three 120mm or two 140mm fans in the front. There are neat markings made near the motherboard installation area for smoother and easier installation for new users for any motherboard form factor. A great feature is the raised motherboard mounting tray and the space created under the mounting tray for hiding wires.
At the back we see enough cuts and crevices for routing cables and using zip ties. There is provision to install three SSDs here using holders designed to do the same. I haven't seem them on Corsair cases for a while since the Obsidian series so I'm happy to see them back since they make SSD installation a lot more easier. Also you may observe that the front USB 3.0 wire is flat rather than cylindrical to aid in cable management.
Time for the fun part - Installation
Before I proceed further I'd like to say that I had a very limited time with this case hence I've concentrated more on bringing you a more detailed review and less of fancy photographs so excuse me for the bad photography here at times.
With the Corsair SPEC Omega I observed that there has been a lot of changes not only in terms of designs but also in what all the case can accommodate so I decided to go with two different style configurations altogether. One with the Corsair H115i Pro RGB liquid cooler which is a 280mm AIO and another with the MSI Core Frozr L which is a tall Air Cooler along with three high CFM 120mm blue LED fans in front.
In general I swapped front Corsair SP120 white LED fan with the rear one for aesthetics purposes since both have the same RPM and CFM. Cable management on this case is absolutely simple especially at the back where there is enough room to route and hide the cable even if you are using a non-modular PSU like me. The grommets are aptly cut and even in a tight space with thick hands such as mine it wasn't much of an issue dealing with all the connections.
For the build here I went with the following components -
CPU: Intel Core i7 5930K
Motherboard: Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P
RAM: Kingston HyperX Predator 16GB DDR4 3000Mhz
Cooler: Corsair H115i Pro RGB and MSI Core Frozr L
Graphics Card: MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G
Storage: Corsair Neutron XTi 480GB
Power Supply: Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 700
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
With MSI Core Frozr L
The build looks absolutely fantastic with the beefy MSI Core Frozr L in place and I had absolutely no issue in installing the cooler or the three 120mm fans in the front. The air flow inside the case is optimum and it looks absolutely beautiful from the front where we can see the blue LEDs of the fan clearly through the plexiglass. All the three fans are visible from this angle and if you are into RGB fans then this case would make a worthy enclosure for your setup.
A point worth noticing here is that we've put in three thick 120mm fans here that use LED rings and rubber washers and still we have ample of space left between the fans and the HDD cage, it clearly shows that you can put in a 360mm AIO inside this case without a shadow of a doubt just like the spec sheet says so!
With Corsair H115i Pro RGB
Alright so this is where the SPEC Omega shines out bright, in the beginning I had apprehensions about installing this cooler inside the Omega not due to its massive size but its thickness since the Corsair ML140 fans on the Corsair H115i Pro RGB are quite thick and can cause obstruction with the HDD cage but none as such happened and the cooler was in place without any issue or the need of an extra pair of hands.
If we look at the clearance between the HDD cage and the radiator then its just enough for a decent air flow. Now I know why Corsair has made the HDD cage readily removable, if removed then we have enough room for a push-pull configuration on any size of coolers be it 280 or a 360! And this is with both pair of fans inside the main chassis and not one pair outside between the main frame and the plastic fascia and the other pair inside since that ways the air flow is extremely poor with this type of case with a partially vented fascia.
The tempered glass on the side is very clean and thick and I don't see any distortion in the lighting of the LEDs in place. Its obviously a finger print magnet but that's how glass pieces works so simply wipe it clean once everything is in place.
Since at the time of reviewing or writing this the Corsair SPEC Omega was not out officially this took me a while to figure out since I'd not received the reviewer's guide or any sort of information regarding the case till a few days back. The case has a front LED bar which is powered by a SATA connector which is entangled with the other set of cables inside the case. Once lit its a solid white bar which looks more like a light saber in the dark! Sadly you cannot control its color or behavior but the impression of it is impeccable.
Among the other noticeable design improvements and features are the series of holes near the expansion slots to easily screw in and tighten the graphics card once installed. This is major design feature as when installing heavy and beefy cards the toughest part is to screw them in inside mid-tower and other smaller form factors. Kudos to Corsair for bringing this in the SPEC Omega!
Temperature Readings
To get the temperature readings across various components I've used HWMonitor and run every test twice taking the highest reading out of the two. Only on exhaust SP120 fan is used & CPU cooler is the Corsair H115i Pro RGB and its set to default settings via the BIOS just as the exhaust fan.
Reading is taken with the Intel Core i7 5930K overclocked to 4.5Ghz using excess voltage of 1.45v to generate a bit more heat than it usually would and fan curve for the MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G is set to default that is the fans would only spin after the card hits 60°C or more. CPU and Graphics Card are loaded for 15mins using the MSI Kombuster and FurMark suit respectively. Readings are in degree Celsius and readings are in delta temperature.
My Verdict
Corsair Carbide SPEC Omega is a true successor to the iconic SPEC-Alpha in every right possible. At first it may just look like an Alpha re-branded with the addition of tempered glass but in all truthfulness the SPEC Omega is an entirely different product all together.
While some cases out there are just about tempered glass and bling the SPEC Omega has done all of that, and more, with excellent air flow keeping even the hottest components cool under extreme loads and a packed up interiors which denotes the hardwork that Corsair designers have put into this case. Its as if there was a guy sitting in their office listening to all the customer's feedback and requests over the years to create a perfect amalgamation of looks and functionality in form of the SPEC-Omega that would woo in system builders and modders alike.
"The Corsair SPEC-Omega has a sophisticated flare of craftsmanship due mainly to the added tempered glass panels. Building a system using this case can make the most novice builder look like a polished pro at building gaming computers"
Pros - - Good use of tempered glass
- Can house a 360mm AIO cooler
- Available in three color combinations
- Five years warranty applicable on glass break aswell
- Great air flow
- Lots of fan mounts
- Flexible design
- Only two USB ports in the front
- Lack of dust filters
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I just bought the case and was wondering where did you plug your data power cable coming out of the case thanks in advance
ReplyDeleteHello,
DeleteThe LED in the front is powered via a SATA power connector which you can plug into one of the SATA connectors coming out from your PSU. Its the same connector that you use to power your HDD/SSD.
Thanks a lot
DeleteAnytime. Happy to help.
Delete