We mentioned in the past that the Corsair Carbide 600C is an excellent case, and it certainly is. But, as a segue into today's review, the 400Q, and, thus, the 400C, may be even better in terms of price-to-performance. The Carbide 400 series is a bit more compact while still offering enough space for large components. It also lacks the fan controller of its bigger brethren, but such speed adjustments are taken care of by modern motherboards. Lastly, the two noticeably differences are the lack of USB 2.0 ports and the third fan.

Before you go on saying that the 600 series also has two 5.25" drive bays, let me stop you there. Yes, that is one point that should steer you toward the larger Carbide variants if you really need such a drive bay. However, with physical media losing in importance with Steam, Netflix etc., so do such drive bays.

The Corsair Carbide 400Q costs a full 50 US dollars or euros less than the bigger variant, but still offers the same excellent quality, liquid-cooling capability, and even better cable-management and routing, as well as different highlights in terms of engineering. These attributes make the 400 series a better choice for the main market all around, which warrants a slightly better score over the already great 600 series. In the end, both the Carbide 400 and 600 are great, but the smaller 400C or 400Q are just slightly greater.