Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means. The Graphite 230T actually comes with all the spacers pre-attached, saving you the time it takes to screw them in yourself. Things are a bit tight along the top of the motherboard, which makes connecting cables to the upper part of the board a bit of a chore. The overall size of the chassis also limits the CPU cooler to 160 mm of height, which means that any 140 mm tower unit is pretty much out of the question. You will then have to resort to 120 mm variants, top-blow, or liquid cooling instead. There is no real limit in terms of graphics cards; that is, if you stick to a dual-GPU configuration at most. Those crazy enough to stuff three or more cards into the 230T will be limited to 320 mm—plenty for most choices.


Installing a 3.5" hard drive does not require any tools. Simply slide the drive into the bay of your choice until the plastic lock snaps into place. The top lock of our sample unfortunately broke off in the process because the locking lever is held in place by two tiny plastic pins at its rotational point. While the piece stayed in place without a drive in it, it would have popped off as soon as the bay is filled. Installing our drive into the second bay worked, though the drive still had a bit of play. Drives you can wiggle around will vibrate, especially if fast-spinning hard drives are installed, so you will have to resort to sinking a screw into the bay. While the plastic cage itself is well-designed, the locks are just too flimsy for a chassis of this price range. It is one thing if they do not work well, but another if they use soft plastic locks that break off.


Installing a 2,5" drive within the Graphite 230T is done quite quickly as well. Just slide the unit into the bay of your choice and screw it down. That is it, and it also works well for smaller units, although the cage is made of plastic.


To install an optical drive within the chassis, one has to pop the cover out before sliding the drive in until the tension lock snaps into place. While it will hold in place quite well, you can sink a screw into the opposite side to pin the drive down properly. It looks as though you can use a fan in the ceiling of the chassis without blocking the top drive bay after all, but any 280 mm liquid-cooling system will definitely get in the way.


Adding a power supply is straightforward and does take traditional screws and a screwdriver. There is plenty of space for longer units here; that is, if you do not install a fan on the floor of the Graphite 230T.



With everything in place, cable management does work, but I had to get creative and go all over the place to really tie down each unused lead, or for enough tension to those that were too long. Rubber grommets would really work wonders for the interior look of the chassis, but it is nice to see that the opening in the motherboard tray is large enough to even accommodate the unusually placed CPU socket of the AsRock motherboard I used.

Finished Looks

With the side panels back in place, the Corsair Graphite 230T makes a good impression. Both LED fans in the front light up brightly, with another such colored LED turning on inside the power button as soon as the system is up and running.


The window is actually well-placed and sized, as you can see the entire CPU fan, nearly the full length of the graphics card, and part of the PSU. Any ugly cables or drives are nicely hidden out of sight. Everything in the rear is also where you would expect it to be.