Corsair Blog

Obsidian Series 800D case owners can upgrade the SATA 3Gb/s backplane on their hot swap bay to a SATA 6Gb/s compliant backplane using a kit now avaialble on Corsair.com. The kit includes the new SATA 6Gb/s back plane, a power cable, and mounting screws.

800D SATA 6Gb/s Backplane

Swapping out the old units ones for the new 6Gb/s backplane is simple and requires only one #2 Phillips or cross head screw driver. A short handled screw driver is useful if you wish to avoid removing your graphics card.

The Obsidian Series 700D and 800D cases are now USB 3.0 compatible.

Good news, everyone. You can now add USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) capabilities to your existing Obsidian Series case! It's a fairly quick swap that replaces the old I/O panel with a new one.

The new panel includes two USB 3.0 SuperSpeed USB ports that connect to the rear USB 3.0 ports on your motherboard. 

This is currently the best way to guarantee full USB 3.0 speeds and data accuracy, while maximizing compatibility with older USB 3.0 compatible motherboards that do not have internal headers. 

The USB 3.0 kit can be purchased from Corsair.com for $14.99 plus shipping. It's quick to install and requires only a few minutes and a phillips-head screwdriver. 

Corsair is at Planet Reseller at CeBIT 2011. If you're attending the show, please stop by. You'll find us at booth F40 in Hall 14. If you're not attending, here's what you need to know.

Our first announcement is the availability of our Vengeance™ DDR3 memory in Cerulean Blue. It offers the same high performance and outstanding overclockability, but with aluminum heat spreaders anodized to match the colors of the latest 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor family motherboards. The color is also shared with Corsair Gaming Series™ power supplies, providing the opportunity to create some striking system builds. Here at the Corsair labs, we've been building systems with a mix of Cerulean Blue and the original Jet Black for an even more dramatic look.

The new 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor family, aka Sandy Bridge, architecture has changed the way you overclock your processor. With the first ceneration of Core processors you were able to raise the base clock to overclock. If you had one of the Extreme or K series CPUs with the unlocked multipliers, you could also raise the multiple to overclock. This meant that unless your motherboard did not support overclocking, you would be able to overclock your processor.

Although you can still overclock the 2^nd generation Intel Core processors by raising the base clock you will only be able to adjust the base clock by 7-8%. This means in order to overclock the 2^nd generation Intel Core processors to their limit, you need to have a processor with an unlocked multiplier. The unlocked processors are denoted by the K at the end of the processor model, such as the Intel Core i7-2600K. If you do not have a K series CPU you will be limited as to how far you can overclock. With the Core i5 and Core i7 non K series CPUs you will only be able to raise the multiplier by 4 and the base clock by 7-8%.

Legit Reviews, Vengeance™ 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory Kit Review — "The Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 memory kit is a great performer in every regard. Being able to overclock this memory kit easily to 1866MHz is huge! While it does not win outright in benchmarks it is narrowly behind. The results are so close that it would be tough to actually see the difference in everyday scenarios. Its true value lies in its cost per GB where at just $5 more provides double the capacity of the highest performing 2133MHz kit!

The Corsair Vengeance memory kit has a good looking heat spreader and is much more aggressive looking than the Dominator and XMS lines. Those of you showing off your PC are going to have a tough call on your hands, but again looking at the GB per dollar ratio it is hard to ignore the Vengeance kit."

PC Perspective, Gaming Audio Series™ SP2500 Speakers Review — "If Corsair wanted to make a big splash in computer audio, they certainly have succeeded. The SP2500s are the best 2.1 set of computer speakers that I have set ears to."

And...

"Most users will balk at paying $250 for a set of 2.1 speakers. Then again, there are those who do take audio much more seriously than others. While $250 is a lot of money, I feel that Corsair delivers a product worth every cent. I have been following computer audio since the days of those tiny, tinny 2.0 speakers that were battery powered. The jump to the Altec Lansing ACS-31s was massive from those terrible speakers. This was followed by plenty of competition from Creative (the original Megaworks 510D were fantastic), Klipsch (ProMedia series), and Logitech (Z-560 followed by the Z-5x00 series). Over the past 20 years we have seen tremendous leaps in sound quality in computer speakers. Now as we enter 2011, I can honestly say that these are the most accurate, well rounded, and best engineered desktop speakers that I have yet heard."

ThinkComputers, Graphite Series™ 600T Mid-Tower Case Review — "As I said earlier in this review all Corsair products either are best in class or right up there, so does the 600T make the cut?  It sure does, it is everything that a case should be.  Starting out with the build quality the internal steel chassis feels very strong and sturdy.  There is some plastic on this case, but it feels very solid.  The case doors come off very easily and the latch system works great and I wouldn’t expect the latches to break either."

Benchmark Reviews, Gaming Audio Series™ HS1 USB Review — "It may be pure coincidence or genuine quality, but somehow the Corsair [HS1] USB Gaming Headset hit a sweet spot. It is instantly my favorite headset for listening to music, watching movies, and gaming. Much of it can be attributed to the fine-tuned 50mm drivers delivering top-notch audio. The decision to use Dolby for surround sound is wise, as they are the industry standard for music, games and movies. This is also the most comfortable pair of headset I've used. The mic isn't the best but if you're in a noisy room with lots of ambient noise this mic will manage to capture your voice and your voice only."

That's all from me this week... have a good weekend!

I recently spent some time assembling and testing a new gaming rig using our Graphite Series™ 600T mid-tower case. I used quite a few other Corsair components, combined with a solid CPU, GPU, and motherboard to make a great little gaming rig.

 I documented the component selection, the build, and the testing in 3 different sections. The end result was an extremely capable rig perfect for gaming and a variety of other tasks. The most fun part was getting a 1.2GHz OC with very little effort! 

CPU-Z: Stock Settings (left) v.s. CPU-Z: OCed Settings (right)

Due to the excellent feature set and functionality of the 600T, the build was quick and seamless. Read along and see how well the build went and you can see how the included Corsair components might integrate into your existing build or even a new system.

Read the complete build log at Corsair Graphite Series 600T Build Log: Yellowbeard’s Revenge.

Legit Reviews, Air Series™ A50 CPU Cooler review — " With the Corsair A50 doing as well as it does and costing what it does, I feel it would make for a nice budget cooler because it will get the job done and not break the bank in the process. The documentation is very easy to follow, it was easy to install, and will fit all the popular sockets out today -- even the new Intel LGA1155 socket for 'Sandy Bridge' processors as that socket same hole pattern as the LGA1156 socket. The Corsair A50 even comes backed by a 2-year warranty, which is nice for the price you pay. Not too many things can go wrong on a HSF, but you never know one of the three 8mm heatpipes might blow up or something! :)"

TweakTown, Gaming Audio Series™ SP2500 Speakers review — "What we really liked almost of all was that Corsair have covered everything that's important. And let it be said we have never seen a system in this class do that. There's always something that's been missed; the quality of the cables, the size of the sub or not having a tweeter; maybe even poor amplification. But that's just the thing, they've got everything right! - We almost had to rub our eyes to make sure it was true."

That's all from me this week... have a good weekend!

Above is a comparison of the Force Series™ F60 in RAID 0 vs. a single SSD.

Today enthusiasts are looking for ways to boost the performance of their machines; one way is by upgrading to an SSD. Solid-state drives offer several benefits, including cutting down load times for operating systems, applications, and games. To take this idea a step further, a RAID 0 array can be created using two identical SSDs, which can almost double performance speeds.

What is RAID 0? RAID 0 increases performance and storage space by splitting data evenly between the raided drives sharing I/O operations into equal-blocks. It increase storage amount by adding the drives lowest amount across each drive. Setting up a RAID 0 is very easy task to accomplish, but if this is your first time doing so see the link below: