My H100i & 550D & Vengeance incompatibility-everything nightmare / feedback

Firstly the Obsidian 550D doesn't have enough room to adequately house a push/pull radiator at the top. It won't clear ram dims on any MB (especially my corsair vengeance flamboyant heatsinks) and it collides with my asus p9x79's chipset heatsink. So its push or pull only for this case.

Next up, Obsidian 550D has these really wide case screw holes that require giant fat screws that won't attach to the radiator of the H100i.

It was supposed to come with 8 shorter screws but only came with 4, and it was supposed to come with washers but it didn't come with any.

The shorter screw that came with the H100i fell right through the giant gaping case holes of the 550D, so I went to the hardware store today and got some washers large enough to cover the 550D's giant holes.

Great so the shorter screws don't fall through the case now, I installed the radiator to the top of the case.. but the the screws lose grip. Need to use #6 wood screws now.

Pretty disappointed really.

- Asus for putting oversized heatsinks on voltage regulators, when they should leave that area of the mobo as low profile as possible.

- Corsair for putting giant heatsinks on their ram, at least don't extend the length of the dim by 10mm. If not for the asus voltage heatsinks being too bling bling and high profile, then the corsair ram heatsinks would still have prevented push/pull, but only because they extend the length.

- Corsair for trying to be too clever with the 550D case holes, when normal sized case holes with silicone washers would have been perfectly fine.

- Corsair for the indentation on the top and side case fan screw mounts. 7mm of indentation! These don't just cause problems with mounting push/pull, but also mounting side door fans! Using a 1200 corsair PSU with corsair fans mounted on the side door, the bottom fan smashes up against the PSU and rattles!

- While not a problem for me, the front of the case will not house corsair's own radiator, which I assumed it would, for future modification.

Please forgive me if I seem too upset, but understand that I've essentially thrown away 180 because this case simply will not work for me. I made a foolish assumption that corsair products would be compatible with each other, but really they should be. And sadly the 550D WOULD be compatible with lots of enthusiast cooling options if not for the things I mentioned.

The indentation and ram heatsink problems would save 10mm in clearance and a push/pull would fit. Instead of having the case fan lids pop off and on from the front, have them connect from the back. If you have fans installed you aren't going to pop the doors back on anyways. They could even be mounting options that you need to screw in, I think very few people will be popping that door on and off with any frequency anyways.

Eliminate one of the FOUR front ports and you could fit a radiator. I'm sorry but NOBODY uses four front ports anymore.

I understand your frustration, but some things need to be pointed out here.

Before dropping your hard-earned cash, checking any number of case reviews or modding forums would have helped you decide whether this case would suit your needs. A little research before choosing this case could have saved you a lot of trouble.

This is a mid-tower enclosure designed for quiet computing, not aimed at monster builds. Push/pull radiator compatibility up top on a mid-tower is not common, this is more often found on full-tower cases. Likewise, front 240 radiator compatibility is exceedingly rare on a mid-tower.

The H100/H100i comes with 1 set of fans, going push/pull is a non-standard configuration. It also doesn't have hoses long enough to reach the front intake location. The 550D is perfectly capable of accepting it up top where it is designed to go. Also, Corsair does make Vengeance Low Profile DIMMs specifically for clearance issues.

You could make a request to Corsair for the missing screws and washers, they are very good about rectifying these things.

There's a quote made famous by Abe Lincoln (although a poet originally said it):

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.

Some people do, in fact use 4 x 5.25" bays - Some people like to separate their Blu-Ray burner from their DVD burner, then there are fan controllers, card readers, hot-swap HDD/SSD racks, L/C reservoirs, temp monitors, etc.

I'm sorry your motherboard heatsinks are causing problems, but no manufacturer can predict every combination that someone will try to install in their case.

I genuinely hope for the best in getting your situation taken care of, I myself have had to mod a computer case and motherboard combination to achieve a decently performing build. It isn't up to my standards and I will be replacing the case soon, but it's really the PCIe slot configuration of my mobo that started causing problems when I got a 2nd GPU after a year and a half of ownership. I will be taking more steps to make it work properly in a new case but it shouldn't cost any more than the case and some new fans (and a loooong SLI bridge!).

So, please don't get me wrong - I hear you. I learned from my mistakes and read up on everything before I buy. ;):

I'm sorry for my emotional post, my patience reservoir finally emptied last night, waiting about 2 weeks for all the parts to arrive, going to put it together and it not fitting.

Though after some more consideration, I think I have an idea for a case mod that could work out better than having the cooling solution fully enclosed.

For the side door indentation problem I think I can gently flatten the panel without damaging the function and look. Just need a couple mm more to ensure that the fans don't rattle against the psu.

I finally got the H100i with a single pull configuration fitted and working, well the fans don't turn on atm but I assume that will require some software configuration, the pump is working fine though.

Because I've got that nice big side door cover to work with, I believe I can create a nice looking elevated canopy to help with noise and.. possibly fitting some fans on top of the case, but I'll save doing that until I need to, need to get the rest of this thing configured first.

Hey, modding your case is what makes it truly yours!

Please post pics of whatever you decide to try out, sounds interesting...

Great so the shorter screws don't fall through the case now, I installed the radiator to the top of the case.. but the the screws lose grip. Need to use #6 wood screws now.

- Corsair for putting giant heatsinks on their ram, at least don't extend the length of the dim by 10mm. If not for the asus voltage heatsinks being too bling bling and high profile, then the corsair ram heatsinks would still have prevented push/pull, but only because they extend the length.

Sorry, I don't see where that is their fault. They make plenty of LowProfile memory too. And the 55D being on the smaller side of the cases isn't really suited for a push/pull config. You would be better off with a larger case. The 650 and up will house a P/p confgig pretty easy.

Also if you look at the product page specs and pics your case should have come with 8 grommets in the top panel. So i would open a ticket and request a set.

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/obsidian-series-550d-mid-tower-quiet-case

- Corsair for the indentation on the top and side case fan screw mounts. 7mm of indentation! These don't just cause problems with mounting push/pull, but also mounting side door fans! Using a 1200 corsair PSU with corsair fans mounted on the side door, the bottom fan smashes up against the PSU and rattles!

Again , i would expect clearance issues with a larger PSU in a smaller case. I understand your frustration, I just think you are trying to cram to large of components in not a big enough case.