550D: Crippled by crap paint and door hinges.

I was really looking forward to this case. Design wise it was reasonably perfect. The reality of it has been much less so. The paint and plastic finish on this thing are abysmal; a complete design failure. It’s not just thin, it’s not just cheap, it’s abrasive. Even the plastic.

 

Aside from an abrasive finish picking up more dirt from handling, it essentially grips onto and forces anything it touches to leave some sort of scratch that a normal paint job would have just allowed it to glide over. A prime example of this is the drive bays. Like sandpaper on sandpaper. I was going to put my HDDs under the optical drive so I could take the cages out for unimpeded airflow. Well since the drive bays are pressure fitted and coated in cheap abrasive paint naturally they scratch EVERYTHING as they slide out. The top of the case, the bottom of the case, the top and bottom of each cage.

 

So alright, w/e. I learned my lesson. Don’t touch the plastic without gloves because even microfiber has trouble getting hand oils out of its pits, and don’t mess with the drive cages – I stuck them back in to cover up the scratching. Oh and learn how to push the knowledge that there are hidden scratches in your brand new case out of mind, because otherwise you’ll be super depressed about it.

 

But it doesn’t end there. Now everyone knows the door hinge system sucks. I’m not going to beat that dead horse, but it certainly played a part in this. When I first got the case I noticed a slight line of missing paint on the corner of the door so I ordered a replacement because while I could have argued it came that way after seeing the drive mess there was no way I could be sure I didn’t do it. So I get the new door and pack up the old. I notice two things right off the bat. One, the door itself is about a fraction of a millimeter taller than the old one leaving zero room between it and the top plastic ledge. Genius. This would have had me worried that it would scratch the paint up on the top rim when opening and closing if it weren’t for the fact that it was ALREADY SCRATCHED! Right on the top there was a bald spot on this new door. I figure alright w/e I won’t see it when the door is closed at least. I should have known that wouldn’t be the end of it. The door was damn near impossible to open safely; this going back to that horrid hinge system now compounded by the tighter fit at the top. Opening the door consisted of a violent pop. It’s on, you’re pushing, pushing, pushing, and bam! It flies open. I had been able to mitigate this by catching it, but on the most recent occasion I failed to stop it. The door flies open, smacks against the wall, comes off the second set of hinges and falls behind the desk, and you better believe I call it a miracle that it wasn’t scratched by that event.

 

Where are your perfectionists Corsair? Where are the QC people that play around with the actual products? This kind of frustration should simply not exist in a “quality” case from a “quality” brand. Someone is going to try opening that door one day, it’s going to fly off again and get messed up, and I’m going to have to waste more money on another new door because I’m sure like Apple would say it’s my fault for not opening the “special” door in a “special” way. Why don’t you just get it together and design a better latch? I see they unscrew and slide out so get on it already and offer us a free latch fix.

 

As for the paint - you know I ditched acrylic windows because they scratched just breathing on them. Hell shine a flashlight on one and you can see they come scratched from the factory. But if anything the paint job on the 550D easily exceeds the headaches of acrylic. Unfortunately all you can do is improve later batches; the people who already own this thing are shafted on the paint.

 

I don’t even know what note to end on here. I guess beware of this company’s lack of passion for their products. If they had any none of this would make it to retail. Unfortunately I can’t say that problem is exclusive to Corsair.

i have one of these cases and havent experienced anything like this,nor have i seen another such issue on the board

why not file a rma and in the rma comment section,explain your issues.

corsair will take care of things

Damn, and I was considering buying a 550D. I have been reading horrible reviews all day just like this one. If everything in these reviews is true, then Corsair simply doesn't care.

Damn, and I was considering buying a 550D. I have been reading horrible reviews all day just like this one. If everything in these reviews is true, then Corsair simply doesn't care.

 

go to any support board on the internet and youll see problems,thats their purpose

most that are problem free rarely post that things are working good

go to any support board on the internet and youll see problems,thats their purpose

most that are problem free rarely post that things are working good

 

I said reviews, not support forums.

Damn, and I was considering buying a 550D. I have been reading horrible reviews all day just like this one..

 

this one is on here,which i why i mentioned the forum,you however didnt mention where;):

I'd also like to add that I'm suspicious of this case's grounding. When I touch my mouse it freezes briefly from static discharge. This was never an issue on my prior cases. And I've also tracked down a vibration noise at the front of the case to my hard drives. Should I blame the drives or the mounts for not dampening it?

 

i have one of these cases and havent experienced anything like this,nor have i seen another such issue on the board

why not file a rma and in the rma comment section,explain your issues.

corsair will take care of things

 

I find that highly irregular. The door complaints at least I've seen all over the place. Perhaps they had a decent production run at one point? Idk. I can understand the paint as the average person wouldn't have touched the drive bays.

 

And do they advance you a case when you RMA? I can't have down time. Also not sure what the point would be. I've not yet seen any reports of them fixing these issues so I'd be in the exact same boat with a new one.

I'm pretty sure that Corsair can do an advanced RMA for you...