Question Corsair 4000-series cases @ Newegg

[VirtualLarry]

4000 SERIES MID-TOWER CASES | Newegg.com

Not a bad price on most of them. I would go for the "Airflow" one. Type-C and USB3 Type-A and a combo headset jack on front.

 

[Aikouka]

I've been quite hesitant about buying a Corsair case after what I considered to be a poor showing with their 3000D. I bought one pretty soon after it released, and the metal pins on the hard drive trays were rusted. Not that it hurt anything, but given that I had just spent $330 on a brand new case, I expected to at least open the box without any internal blemishes (excluding potential shipping damages). What also irked me is that the 3000D was billed as a case designed for custom water cooling, but it had huge deficiencies... such a the lack of a good spot for a water pump. Don't get me wrong as it had plenty of open area, but it just lacked a good mounting platform. This was before fan-based mounts were really common, but even if they were as common as they are today, it would've only had a single spot available on the back of an HDD cage.

Although, looking at the 4000D, it's odd that they'd reuse that name for such a low-end case. One thing that I'm not a fan of is one thing that you mentioned... the USB ports. First of all, I don't understand the obsession with USB Type-C on a desktop. Don't get me wrong as Type-C has its places. For example, it's great on mobile devices, and it also works well on laptops or other integrated devices that can use it for USB-PD or Thunderbolt. A random desktop port doesn't get any of those aforementioned items. Depending on your motherboard, it's either a USB 3.1 Gen 1 or Gen 2 connection, which makes it no different than the Type-A connector near it. The important difference is that almost none of your cables will work with it, because USB spec denotes that end-points are supposed to be a Type-B connector (or Type-C). So, your Type-A to Type-C cables can't just be flipped around and used in the Type-C port on the computer as the remote device will likely have some Type-B or Type-C connector.

Ultimately, not to sound like I want to rail on Corsair, but I feel like they come out with interesting products that just don't really hit the mark completely. For example, I have a Commander Pro, and it's not a bad product... except it has a horrible stock mounting. Similar components from other manufacturers have magnetic mounting solutions, which actually work, or sticky solutions that are strong enough to stay. The Commander Pro didn't stay attached to my O11D XL for more than 5 minutes before it fell down. (Add to that how it appears to no longer work correctly as it fails to report voltages and doesn't report the water loop temperatures.)

 

[CP5670]

I actually find the type C port useful to connect to my phone, but only one regular USB port is too little. Their older cases had at least two along with the type C. I have their 500D RGB SE and love the look and build quality, although it's a little overpriced at $250 (it comes with a Commander Pro and fans, but even still). Mine came with the Commander Pro already glued on and it stays up fine, but you're right that it's not a great mounting solution. It takes up one of the SSD slots but I would rather leave it where it is.

 

[VirtualLarry]

but only one regular USB port is too little.

Agreed. That's one thing that I like about most (business-oriented?) branded OEM cases, is enough front and rear USB2.0/3.0 ports.

 

[Aikouka]

I actually find the type C port useful to connect to my phone

I think my qualm is really centered around how a desktop doesn't have a lot that it will likely connect to that uses Type-C. A phone may benefit from Type-C's higher maximum amperage (3.0A vs. 0.9A), but I'm not sure if the motherboard-based ports even provide the higher amperage. I was going to note that there's a wasted Type-C port on the back of my motherboard, but then I realized... I actually do have a Type-C device available! My Scarlett 2i2 uses Type-C, and if I use the Type-C port with that, that's one more Type-A port for something else. (I had to add a USB 2.0 expansion slot hub just due to how many USB ports I'm using.)

Although, my Lian Li O11D has a Type-C port on the front and my motherboard has the internal plug for it, but I find Lian Li's plug is just... too loose? I tried it with the Oculus Quest with its Oculus Link feature, and I had a good amount of connectivity problems due to the cable not making good contact. (I haven't checked my O11D XL to see if it has the same problem.) That does make me wonder if it might be better to have a setup like Corsair where the port is on the top rather than on the front. I ended up switching to a Type-C port on the back, and the problems went away.

but only one regular USB port is too little.

I absolutely agree with you here. One of the reasons why I went with the O11D XL for my main machine is that it has four USB 3.0 Type-A on the front (and one Type-C). I know most motherboards don't have two USB 3.x internal headers, but mine does, and when you're sacrificing ports to leave controllers and such plugged in, you don't want to be limited. Although, I was also fine with how my Fractal Design Define R5 cases have 2x USB 3 ports and 2x USB 2 ports.

All in all, I find it far less common than I'd like to see a case with more than two USB ports, and unfortunately, that Corsair case is not the only one that I've seen with only a single Type-A on the front. (I think there's an NZXT case like that too.)

 

[CP5670]

I would have liked 4 front ports too rather than only 2, even if not all are USB 3.0. The motherboards these days have lots of rear ports but I still managed to fill up all of mine with peripherals. I just use a powered hub for a few things now. My old case actually had a total of 12 USB ports (an old Coolermaster Stacker with an extra USB 2.0/3.0 drive bay), but 10 were USB 2.0 and I never had enough motherboard headers for all of them anyway.