Corsair Adds to Carbide Chassis Series with Trio of SPEC Gaming Cases

Corsair, renowned for its Obsidian series of PC chassis, has announced three additions to its more affordable Carbide range.

Called SPEC, the new additions, simply named SPEC-01, SPEC-02, and SPEC-03, “have been designed with PC gamers in mind,” according to Corsair. Marked by their distinctive aggressive looks, air cooling-optimized design, expandability, and modern features such as USB 3.0 ports, integral SSD mounts, and a focused approach to cable management, the SPEC range of chassis “offers everything gamers need from a case and nothing they don’t.”

Every chassis in the SPEC range of Carbide cases supports mini-ITX, mATX, and ATX motherboards. They all also have the following features in common: Tool-free hard drive bays; direct airflow path to the GPU; a pair of 5.25″ optical drive bays; at least three 3.5″ drive bays (the SPEC-01 can host up to four); two 2.5″ drive bays (the SPEC-01 can host up to four of these devices, but only if the user doesn’t use the drive bays for 3.5″ drives); seven PCI expansion slots; a 120mm rear exhaust fan; a windowed left side panel; an all-black interior; and dust filters for the air intakes. All three SPEC chassis also boast similar design philosophies as far as fan options are concerned. All three host a pair of fans at the front intake position (2 x 120mm for the SPEC-01, 2 x 140mm for both the SPEC-02 and SPEC-03) and a pair of fans on the chassis’ roofs (2 x 120mm for the SPEC-01, 2 x 140mm/2 x 120mm for the SPEC-02 and SPEC-03).

The three chassis diverge in just a few details. As already hinted at, the SPEC-01 is a little limited in terms of storage capacity. Where the SPEC-02 and SPEC-03 both support three 3.5″ HDDs and two 2.5″ SSDs/HDDs, the SPEC-01 supports only up to a maximum of four of either type of storage device. Another difference is in the type of fans the chassis can support. The entry-level SPEC-01 supports only 120mm fans, while the other two SPEC chassis can accommodate both 120mm and 140mm fans. The SPEC-02 and SPEC-03 both have bottom fan mounts as well, where the SPEC-01 does not. Finally, the SPEC-01 differs in terms of physical dimensions (467mm x 200mm x 413mm) compared to the other two SPEC chassis (445mm x 185mm x 440mm).

The SPEC-01 and SPEC-03 look quite similar to each other with their bigger grille pattern, while the SPEC-02 has a finer grille design. Otherwise, the SPEC-02 and SPEC-03 are basically identical to each other.

Corsair has priced the SPEC-01 at a very accessible $49.99, while both the SPEC-02 and SPEC-03 have an MSRP of $59.99. All three will be available in April 2014, and all will be covered by a limited 2-year warranty and Corsair’s customer service and technical support.