With another year comes another Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas every January.  CES represents one of the three major showcasing events in the calendar, the other two being Computex held during June in Taiwan, and CeBIT held in Germany in March.  Typically the North American and Asian shows hit hardest in terms of new releases and previews of upcoming equipment, and this year’s CES is no different.  Corsair got in touch with us before the event regarding their new releases and previews, including new power supplies, cases, liquid cooling and keyboards.  Here’s a sneak peak before we head on over to their booth.

New Cases: Graphite Series 760T and 730T

Corsair’s Graphite range currently includes the 230T and the 600T in a series of colors, but as of February the higher end full tower sized 760T and 730T will join the ranks.  The 760T is shown below, using swing out windowed side panels to look in to the PC – the 730T will be almost identical in design except the side panels which will be steel for a simpler and sleeker appearance. 

These cases will feature nine expansion slots for a full on multi-GPU arrangement, six 3.5”/2.5” hard disk mounts can be relocated to any of four mounting locations.  This is in addition to four side mounted 2.5” bays to allow the cages to be removed entirely.  The front features two LED lit 140mm fans with another at the rear, all with an integrated fan speed toggle (760T only).  The front can be adjusted into a 280mm radiator mount, and the top can also be changed into a 360mm radiator mount, alongside the three 5.25” bays.

• Expansion Room
  - 9 expansion slots
  - Six 3.5”/2.5” combo bays in two modular hard drive cages, with room for two more cages
  - Four tool-free 2.5” side-mounted drive cages
  - Three tool-free 5.25” bays for expansion
  - Four front mounted USB ports (two USB 3.0)
• Cooling Flexibility
  - Fan Hi/Low controller (760T only)
  - Three included high-airflow 140mm fans (2 front LED, 1 rear)
  - Room for up to 8 fans:
   - Top – 3 x 120mm or 3 x 140mm
   - Front – 2 x 140mm/120mm
   - Rear – 1 x 140mm/120mm
   - Bottom – 120mm
  - Radiator compatibility:
    - Top – 360mm or 280mm
    - Front – 280mm or 240mm
    - Bottom – 120mm
    - Rear – 140mm or 120mm
• Easy to build
   - Full swing out side panels release with a single latch,
   - Tool-free drive bays.
   - Center-post standoff holds motherboard in place while you secure the other screws.
   - Thumbscrews included for all expansion slots.
   - Cable routing room and plentiful tie-downs behind the motherboard tray
• Dimensions
   - 22.4” x 9.7” x 22.2”

The 760T should retail at $180 (black) and $190 (Arctic White), while the 730T edition has an MSRP of $140, while both come with a two year warranty.

New Closed-loop Liquid Cooler: Hydro Series H105

Love them or hate them, CLCs are here to stay.  I have owned several over the years, including the H50, H80i and H100 – they offer a very reasonable cooling performance without seeming overly bulky and are not restricted by motherboard or large CPU cooler + large GPU designs.  The new one in the Corsair family for Q1 2014 is the H105, a 240mm design like the H100 and H110, though this time the radiator is 38mm thick.

Being a fan manufacturer as well, Corsair are keen to promote their use of high static pressure fans (the exact value of the static pressure has been requested) that combine performance and a suitable noise profile, with up to 73CFM (800-2700 RPM) @ 37.7 dBA.  All modern sockets (AM2 and up, 1156 and up) are supported.

The H105 will retail for $120, come with a 5-year limited warranty and be available from January.

New Mini-ITX Case: Obsidian 250D

Corsair is finally jumping on the mini-ITX bandwagon with the 250D – a model designed to follow cues from the popular Obsidian series.  The 250D is marketed with a ‘no-compromise’ banner, supporting large liquid coolers, full-length graphics cards and full size modular power supplies.  Dimensions for all this come in at 11.4 x 10.9 x 13.81 inches (290 x 277 x 351.2 mm) at 9.7 lbs with a brushed aluminum outlook over a steel construction.

The case allows 290mm of internal clearance for GPUs, and 200mm for PSUs.  Alongside two 3.5”/2.5” bays and two 2.5” only bays is a full size 5.25” bay on the front, next to two USB 3.0 ports on the polished case frontage.  Two fans are included (140mm and 120mm), with room up to five fans.

We have the Obsidian 250D and H105 in for review, so keep an eye out for those.  The 250D should be on sale in late January with a two year warranty and an MSRP of $90.

New PSU: Corsair AX1500i Digital ATX PSU

Over recent years Corsair’s PSU business has been booming, at least in terms of how often I find them mentioned in new builds in online forums.  Newegg and Amazon both have a wealth of reviews showing that Corsair has established itself as one of the main players.  In recent quarters the push in the PSU market has been towards the digital – being able to manage and monitor how the power supply responds to load, as well as keeping logs of temperatures and how each rail and voltage line is performing are the new features.  In order to bolster their digital AX line, currently occupied by the AX760i, the AX860i and the AX1200i, Corsair is releasing a higher end model – the AX1500i, rated at 1500W for 80 PLUS Platinum:

Corsair claims this is the world’s most technologically advanced and efficient PSU for PC enthusiasts, and that the unit will perform beyond the 80 PLUS Platinum standard – stating that if the Titanium standard for 230V (Europe and others) was available for 115V today and this unit was tested for it, it would receive that award instead (the spec is currently being drafted).

1500W is clearly a lot and most builds need not apply.  I remember when testing a dual Xeon 32-thread workstation and four 7970s that drew 1550W when overclocked – that is the market that this power supply is aiming for.  The AX1500i comes fully modular, and is configurable in both multi-rail and single rail format (users can set their own overcurrent protection limits) via Corsair Link.  The PSU also uses a zero RPM fan mode, such that the power supply will not even spin its fan until the power draw exceeds 450W.

Aside from the 150 x 86 x 225mm dimensions and the 7-year warranty, the AX1500i will be available in Q2 at an MSRP of US$450.

New Keyboard and Mouse: Raptor K40 and Raptor M45

Many of the more traditional component manufacturers are coming out with their own line of peripherals – what used to be the home of companies like Logitech are now filled with GIGABYTE and Corsair-like brand wanting a piece of the action.  This is all a good thing for consumers – competition breeds innovation, and for gamers, having the right equipment is only one piece of the puzzle.  In that gamer element, after the PC, there are several other items that deserve a $50-$200 investment apiece: gaming mice, gaming keyboards, gaming mouse mats, gaming headsets, gaming chairs, gaming glasses, or even more expensive gaming monitors and so on.

To add to their Raptor lines, Corsair is ‘unleashing’ a new keyboard and mouse at CES.

The Raptor K40 is a non-mechanical (rubber-dome) keyboard with onboard macro storage, full-key rollover on USB, and the main selling point is the 16.8 million color customizable backlighting.  This is a whole motherboard backlighting, rather than the per-key backlighting we saw with the Cherry MX RGB which allowed users to customize their gaming experience on a per-game basis.  The macro features give six keys on the left hand side of the keyboard and three separate bank keys to adjust as necessary.  The WASD and arrow keys are also in grey to differentiate from the rest of the black keys.  Corsair are saying the K40 will be available in January with a two-year warranty and an MSRP of $80.

The gaming mouse debate is a long and exhaustive one – wired or wireless, large grip or small grip, adjustable DPI, optical or laser, how many macro keys, and so on.  Back when I was clan gaming, I ran a wireless gaming mouse – I could not stand the wire being caught on the side of the table.  Each to their own of course and this is why there are plenty of models in the market to cater for everyone: now the M45 from Corsair, continuing on from their M65 and M60, is coming out to play.

The right handed M45 starts with a Pixart PMW3310 5000 DPI optical sensor with a high-mass scroll wheel in a soft-touch housing.  The rear has large PTFE glide pads and an adjustable weight system in order to get the responsiveness a user needs for their type of gaming.  The buttons on the side are macro buttons, configurable through software, and the DPI is adjustable on top.  The wired M45 should be available in January with a two-year warranty and an MSRP of $60.