After a short period without much news, Corsair’s PC case sector is starting to come back to life. The brand’s brand-new 2500X is a reference in mini-tower format for micro-ATX motherboards. In addition to its compartmentalized design, it offers a panoramic view of the inside of your configuration thanks to its two glass panels. Is it a good reference? We tell you all about it!
The exterior of the 2500X:
With this new case, Corsair offers us a compact reference… Even though. This model measures 304 (W) x 479 (D) x 376 (H) mm. While the case’s height is limited, its width is much greater, as you can see. Where this case surprises us, however, is in its weight. At 11.84 kg, it’s heavy for its size. At the same time, it has to be said that it benefits from a construction combining steel and tempered glass!
What’s more, this model boasts a sober design, with a front panel combining a glass section with a steel one. The steel section takes up two-thirds of the 2500X’s width, and displays the brand logo at the bottom. Otherwise, the glass section joins the side panel, also in glass, all without any visible pillars.
Before we move on to the exterior, a word about pricing. Officially, Corsair is positioning this model at €149.90 in retail outlets.
The control panel :
Like DeepCool’s CH560 Digital, for example, this model’s control panel is located on the top. This is a classic control panel, featuring :
- A reset button
- Two USB-A 3.2 Gen1 ports
- One USB-C 3.2 Gen2 port
- 3.5 mm jack
- A power button
In actual fact, this panel is intended to be functional, and one will be able to transfer data from USB key to USB key without having to go through the back of the motherboard, for example. Indeed, with a single USB-A it’s much more complicated.
The underside :
Underneath this 2500X, we again find this compartmentalized design, with a long ventilation grille on one side. This is covered by a long dust filter. The other side, on the other hand, is nothing special.
The feet of the case are shaped directly from the steel, and Corsair is not particularly stingy with its non-slip pads. This case has six of them, four on the wide feet, two on the thinner ones.
Rear :
At the rear, we find the storage and power supply slots on one side, and the motherboard I/O Shield and expansion slots on the other. However, due to the mini-tower case, the number of expansion slots is limited to four. As for the power supply, Corsair installs an ATX/SFX adapter as standard!
What’s more, we’ll note that the side panel on the power/storage side is made of mesh.
The top:
The case also features the separation characteristic of compartmentalized cases. The motherboard section features a removable upper mesh held in place by a push-pin system.
[nextpage title=”Inside the 2500X”]
Inside the 2500X :
The interior is accessed in the classic way by removing the side panels, which are held in place by two captive hand screws backed by a push-pin system. As you can see, once you’ve unscrewed the panels, you’ll need to pull on them to remove them. In our opinion, the push-pin screw combination is a duplicate of the simpler push-pin.
The chassis :
Inside, when you look at the motherboard tray, you quickly realize that something isn’t quite right. Don’t panic, this is perfectly normal. This reference is compatible with motherboards from the ASUS BTF and MSI Project Zero projects. As a reminder, the concept is to hide the power cables as much as possible by positioning the main connector on the back of the motherboard. This case is therefore compatible with this type of board (ASUS TUF Gaming B760M-BTF WiFi, MSI B760M Project Zero and MSI B650M Project Zero).
Of course, given the case’s format, motherboard compatibility is limited to µATX and mini-ITX formats. Of course, you can also mount conventional boards. In fact, there are numerous cable openings all around the main board.
At the rear, because of the positioning of the power supply unit, don’t worry, there’s plenty of room. However, unlike a NZXT H6 Flow for example, there’s no system to simplify wiring.
Storage slots :
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a storage rack with actual baskets. This is what the 2500X contains: a cage with two baskets, 2.5″ and 3.5″ compatible. In addition to these baskets, on the front of the case are two plates specially dedicated to 2.5″ units!
Power supply location:
Like that of the H6 Flow, the power supply unit is as basic as it gets, with no anti-vibration devices. However, an adapter for ATX and SFX blocks is included. This is an interesting point, since not all SFX power supplies come with it.
Cooling options :
By default, the case is not supplied with a fan. Inevitably, you’ll need to purchase a small batch of fans, perhaps the affordable and silent Arctic P12s. In addition, this model offers a number of slots:
- Top: 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm
- Bottom: 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm
- Side: 2x 120 mm
- Rear: 1x 120 mm
On the watercooling side, there’s plenty to do, with a double 360/280 mm radiator slot at both top and bottom. If required, a 240 mm radiator can be fitted to the side of the motherboard, and a small 120 mm one to the rear.
However, if an air-cooling heatsink is fitted, space will be at a premium, with a height of no less than 180 mm. The new A115, with its 164.8 mm height, will easily fit into this space.
The bundle:
The accessories section features
- A safety guide
- A transparent, compartmentalized box containing the housing’s screws and bolts
- Nylon clamps
- An adapter for the F_PANEL
In itself, this accessory section is nothing extraordinary, but it’s really nice to see the screws and bolts arrive in a compartmentalized box. At least you know everything’s neatly arranged and won’t move around, unlike those plastic bags you have to rip out.
Small details:
On its own, the 2500X turns out to be a pretty basic box, and it won’t be showcasing a plethora of features. However, it does boast a dust filter that can be removed from the front panel!
Otherwise, what’s interesting about this model is that the brand will be offering a whole range of accessories. These include wood or aluminum panels for the front panel. Cable guide systems and a cable cover are also available. All these accessories will be there to help you personalize your case to the full!
In a nutshell:
Basically, Corsair offers us a rather basic case. Unlike be quiet! for example, we won’t have a plethora of features, but what it does offer will be sufficient. On the other hand, the lack of fans is a shame on a €150 case!
[nextpage title=”Assembly”]
Assembly
We’re now ready to assemble our configuration inside this Corsair 2500X. Here are the components that will be used for assembly:
- Motherboard: MSI B350i Pro AC
- CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X
- Graphics card: ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3050
- CPU cooler: Cryorig C1
- Power supply: Silverstone SX750
Power supply:
In this 2500X case, we can easily mount SFX power supplies as you can see. By default, the SFX/ATX adapter is present, so all we have to do is position the block and screw it onto the back of the case. In the case of an ATX block, we’ll proceed in the same way, but with the proviso that we remove the aforementioned adapter present as standard.
Storage:
As we’re not using an M.2 SSD on our ITX configuration, we need to fit a 2.5″ SSD. To do this, we’ve chosen to mount it in the HDD cage, as close as possible to our power supply unit. There’s nothing complicated here, as we’ll need to remove the hatch securing the storage units. We pull out a basket, position our SSD, screw it in and put everything back in place. Of course, you’ll need to pay close attention to the direction of the connectors in order to plug in the SSD.
Installing the motherboard :
Installing the motherboard is straightforward: simply place the board in its slot and screw it in place. The spacers are already in place, so there’s no additional handling required. Note that while a wide backplate access is present, this is obstructed by the HDD cage mounted just behind it.
Cabling :
Control panel:
Wiring the control panel is no problem. Most cables exit at the bottom of our motherboard to connect to their various headers. So we use the small opening in the expansion slots to pass the F_PANEL and HD_AUDIO connectors. The cables will run just in front of the motherboard’s PCIe x16 connector, so we won’t have any problems plugging in our graphics card.
As forUSB 3.0, this will come out on the right-hand side of our motherboard… Finally, through the wide backplate access. On the other hand, with an ITX motherboard, we can afford it. However, as we’re not equipped with a corresponding header, theUSB-C won’t be plugged in.
Of course, to clamp the cables, we use two clamps, one at the wide opening on the left of the motherboard, the other in the bottom left-hand corner.
Motherboard, graphics card:
Once again, we take advantage of the compact size of our B350i Pro AC to run theATX24 pins through the wide backplate access, once again.
However, when it comes toEPS12V for the processor, things get more complicated. In fact, the cable passages above the motherboard are not accessible by default. To access them, you’ll need to remove the hard disk cage in front. Two small screws hold the cage in place.
As for the PCIe for the graphics card, we’ve chosen to run it just below the motherboard’s 24-pinATX.
Installing the cooler and graphics card :
As we said earlier, the HDD cage seriously obstructs the wide backplate access. To fit the cooler, you’ll need to remove it if you wish to fit a heatsink while the motherboard is in place. Otherwise, we’ll mount the heatsink on the motherboard before installing it in the case.
As for the graphics card, there’s no difficulty, just proceed as usual: remove the expansion slots corresponding to the graphics card slot. Plug the CG into its PCIe slot and screw the graphics card in place with its bracket.
Overall :
The assembly of our configuration required a few additional disassemblies. In this model, the HDD cage is positioned in front of the large backplate access, which is a problem both for wiring and for mounting a CPU cooler. However, given the format of the case, it becomes difficult to position it elsewhere.
For the rest, we encountered no particular difficulty. Behind the motherboard, thanks to the presence of the power supply unit, there’s plenty of space and wiring is easy!
[nextpage title=”Protocol”]
We’ve updated our test protocol in order to test the qualities of our cases. We’ll be evaluating the performance of the various models according to three criteria:
- Insulation
- Original ventilation noise
- Air flow
Here, the configuration changes; you’ll find the details below. As for software, the CPU will run on PowerMax, while the graphics card will run on Furmark, both simultaneously. Note that CPU ventilation is forced to 50%, while graphics card ventilation will run at 50%.
In addition, in order to limit temperature variations linked to frequency/consumption variations, we clip the graphics card curve at 1800 MHz, the original boost frequency of the ASUS RTX 3050 Strix.
A warm-up period of 8 to 9 minutes is applied before two 2-minute averaging sessions. The tests are run one after the other, uninterrupted, so as to observe variations in component temperature as a function of case fan speeds. A delta is then applied: component temperature subtracted from ambient temperature.
To add ventilation, we chose to integrate two Riing 14 red fans from Thermaltake. Both are located at the bottom of the case in the intake section. Alternatively, a Fractal Silent Series R2 fan is added to the side of the motherboard in suction.
Configuration :
- Motherboard: MSI B350i Pro AC
- CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X
- Graphics card: ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3050
- CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black
- Power supply: Silverstone SX750
[nextpage title=”Tests”]
Tests
Airflow :
Additional ventilation takes the form of two Thermaltake Riing 140 fans placed at the bottom in suction and a third 120 mm fan mounted on the side of the motherboard in suction.
CPU airflow, original ventilation then completed:
Let’s start with the temperature of our CPU. We’ll keep the front and top of our test case. Let’s see if the airflow is sufficient to influence the cooling of the Ryzen 5 3600X.
By default, the case is fanless, so we logically record higher temperatures than when the configuration is on the benchtop. With the heat accumulating inside this 2500X, we recorded a delta of 45.5°C.
However, the addition of fans drastically reduces the temperature, bringing it down to 38.4°C. A delta very similar to that of the desktop configuration.
Original CPU airflow without front panel or top :
In order to ascertain the limiting factor in the story (and by how much), we remove the top covers while removing the bottom dust filter. The aim here is to show the raw performance of the integrated ventilation… Or to see how well the case retains heat, since the 2500X has no built-in fan.
The temperature difference with and without the upper mesh panel and lower filter is very small. In fact, by removing these elements, we go from 45.5°C to 44.6°C, a difference of 1°C. Clearly, even without a fan, the case won’t turn into an oven.
GPU airflow, original ventilation then supplemented :
We repeat the operation, but with measurements taken on the graphics card. Here, we test with original ventilation, then with added ventilation.
As far as graphics card temperatures are concerned, we don’t find anything alarming, with a delta of 42.4°C by default. Once again, the addition of a fan lowers the temperatures recorded on our ASUS RTX 3050 Strix. The latter benefits directly from the airflow provided by the two Thermaltake fans mounted below.
Original GPU ventilation airflow without front panel or top:
We repeat the same test, but remove the case’s front panel and top. Let’s see how this affects card temperatures.
As with the processor, the part of the case mounted just in front of our graphics card proves very unrestrictive in terms of airflow. Once again, the difference is around 1°C.
Insulation :
Here, we’re simply measuring the noise emitted by our configuration when we run the CPU cooling and GPU cooling very fast.
Compared to the bare-bones configuration, Corsair’s case attenuates the noise of our configuration when it’s heavily loaded. The noise level drops from 41.5 dB to 38 dB, not bad for a case with a number of mesh panels.
Original fan noise :
This time, we measure the noise emitted by the case’s original fan. To do this, the configuration is run in idle mode ( CPU and GPU fans at minimum), while readings are taken successively at 5V, 8V and 12V on the case fan.
Obviously, with 0 fans supplied, fan noise will not be emitted by the case’s fans, but by those of the graphics card and the CPU cooler. To be on the safe side, we nevertheless recorded the noise level of our config in idle: ≤30 dB.
To sum up:
It’s clearly a shame that the case comes without a fan as standard, since the 2500X is a case that breathes well. As we’ve seen, the various panels do very little to impede airflow. Otherwise, in terms of insulation, it also does the job, attenuating noise pollution when the ventilation of our configuration is running at full speed.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]
We’ve now come to the end of our test of Corsair’s 2500X. So, good case or not? We tell you all about it!
A small, compartmentalized model:
With this new case, Corsair offers us a compartmentalized reference in mini-tower format. Clearly, this case replaces the previous 280X, which had a similar design.
In execution, we have no particular criticism to make. Indeed, the 2500X looks good and, above all, boasts a solid construction. The combination of steel and tempered glass makes for a very rigid and solid unit, as well as an attractive, sober design. However, despite its size, it will be heavier than some medium-tower cases!
A spacious model with simple wiring!
However, inside, it’s spacious, so you don’t need to worry if you’ve got a big graphics card… Likewise with a big cooler or a 360 mm watercooling radiator, everything fits!
However, this model remains rather lacking in functionality. Where the current trend is to simplify cabling with cable management trunking, here there’s nothing or nothing at all optional. However, Corsair at least has the merit of offering a dust filter accessible from the front of the case!
The other special feature of this model is its compatibility with BTF or Project Zero motherboards. The tray of this component features additional openings for mounting these references.
However, the big drawback is that, by default, there are no fans installed, forcing you to pay a second time… Or to pay an extra bill for the RGB version with two fans. The extra charge is €80. Clearly, it’s better to buy a pack of mills separately!
Strange temperatures, to say the least..
As mentioned above, it’s a pity that the 2500X doesn’t come with a fan by default, although it’s not a case that will turn into an oven for all that… That is, provided you don’t have a Core i9 14900K with an unbridled power limit, all coupled with an RTX 4090.
As we’ve seen, by adding a few well-positioned fans, we can seriously reduce temperatures within this model. What’s more, the different panels allow the fans to breathe, a positive point.
As for noise, of course, without the default fans, noise pollution is contained. And as for the natural insulation of this model, it’s pretty good.
A rather high price :
As far as the price is concerned, as we said on the first page, you’ll have to pay €149.90 officially, or more depending on the store. So this is a rather expensive reference, especially for its size, and all the more so as it arrives without fans, which adds to the price. For less, we find, for example, MSI’s MAG Pano, which is also compatible with BTF/Project Zero boards and comes with fans as standard. A little effort on the bill would have been welcome!
Corsair 2500X:
We liked:
- The sober design of this case, with no visible pillars where the glass panels meet.
- Serious steel and tempered glass construction.
- The compartmentalized design leaves plenty of room for cabling.
- Screws and bolts arrive in a compartmentalized box, so there’s nothing to lose!
- Filter accessible from the front panel
- Compatibility with ATX/SFX power supplies.
- Compatibility with motherboards with connectors on the rear of the PCB.
- Hard disk cage with real baskets!
- The various panels that let the fans express themselves.
We didn’t like :
- The total absence of a standard fan.
- The rather high price for a mini-tower case!
- The hard disk cage, which has to be dismantled for wiring or mounting a cooler.
- The high price for a case of this format.
If you’re looking for a µATX case for your configuration, this model is worth considering. Well-finished and with an elegant design, it will convince you, provided you spend €150. This is still a high price given the average for this type of case, especially as you’ll need to add a few extra euros for fans. Fortunately, this is a model that breathes well while offering good natural insulation. For us, it’s the money.
Many thanks to Corsair !
