Corsair icue 220t rgb airflow review in Spanish (full analysis)

Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow was introduced a few weeks ago and we have already had access to it. It is a fairly compact mid-tower chassis and is focused above all on optimizing cooling in enthusiastic ATX configurations. What is certainly striking is its front face with steel grille and three new pre-installed Corsair SP120 RGB PRO fans that will use the iCUE Lighting Node CORE controller to manage its lighting. A certainly different and aggressive bet by Corsair for nonconformists and that as always, we will analyze in depth in Professional Review.

Before continuing, we thank Corsair for the loan of this chassis, a long-time partner who trusts our analyzes and opinions.

Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow technical characteristics

Unboxing

Well, we started by taking the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow from its box, one that as always is made of rigid neutral cardboard and that shows on its different faces the sketch of the tower in question, as well as information related to it. In this case it is not too big, and it also has two handles on the sides to transport it, so it is not a difficult task.

Well, inside we find the chassis wrapped in a plastic bag with enough static electricity due to the two white polystyrene corks that hold and protect it from knocks.

The bundle consists of the following elements:

• Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow Chassis Instruction Manual Cable Tie Clips Screws

As we'll see later, the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow has an iCUE controller inside, and it wouldn't have been a bad idea to include an adapter to connect RGB strips or something like that in addition to compatible fans.

Exterior design

As for exterior design, we do not have too many surprises in regards to its sides, one with sheet metal and the other with glass. Surely the most striking is its front part, which may be liked by some and not at all, but will not leave anyone indifferent. The fact of having so many chassis on the market, makes manufacturers increasingly bet on revolutionary and somewhat eccentric designs.

The measurements of the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow are quite tight in this case. We come from mounting considerably large and space-consuming chassis, and here is just the opposite. At 395mm deep, 210mm wide, and 450mm high, we won't be able to install E-ATX boards, but it's not a huge drawback, either. In addition, this chassis can be found in black or white, so at least we can choose the one that suits us best.

We will start this time with the front, since it is its most differential element, and what we have is a hard plastic frame around it with a die-cut steel sheet in the central area. This sheet is completely removable and its function is to provide a greater amount of space for the passage of air to the interior or exterior. What's more, the sides of the frame also have openings that facilitate flow.

If we remove this sheet, we find an excellent fine mesh dust filter mounted on a plastic frame that we can remove and clean easily and quickly. Behind him is the space for fan installation, which in this case comes packed with three pre-installed Corsair SP120 RGB PRO, the brand's new fans. Although it is true that between the front and sheet there is space to mount them, the best place will be in the interior area, since otherwise we could not place the filter.

We continue with the lateral areas, which in this case are practically the same as in many of the configurations that we have already tested. The left zone consists of a non-darkened tempered glass that completely occupies the entire zone and is basically fastened with four manual thread screws. It is the easiest way, true, but integrating a metal frame and taking it back would have been much more elegant, since other nearby chassis in cost have already implemented it.

The right side is simple, just a sheet of steel painted in the color of the chassis with a good thickness and that is held by two screws on the back. Behind it, there is a space to manage cables about 3 cm thick.

We go to the upper area, where we find a huge opening that occupies almost the entire face and of course the I / O panel. The hole is centered and completely covered with a magnetic coarse mesh dust filter, to improve the aesthetic result of the whole as much as possible. This opening features capacity for two 120 or 140mm fans or All in One liquid cooling.

The I / O panel has the following controls and ports:

• 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A 3.5mm Audio Combo Jack + Microphone Power Button RESET Button

Keep in mind that the lighting controller is managed through iCUE, so it makes no sense to place a button here for this purpose. What we do miss is at least a USB Type-C, although it seems that these are still intended for chassis that exceed the barrier of 100 euros.

The back area of Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow does not keep any secret to our eyes, since we only found the corresponding hole for the plate, PSU and fan, which is not a pre-installed one. We have 7 horizontal expansion slots, and despite making room to install vertical GPU, the manufacturer has not enabled the slot system for this purpose.

Finally, in the lower area we have the four regulatory legs with a small rubber that acts as an anti-vibration support. In addition to that, a small 120mm fine mesh dust filter is responsible for protecting the air suction opening for the power supply. Using a rail system, we can extract the filter perfectly, since it is built with a plastic frame similar to the front one.

Interestingly, we found some slots to fix cables using clips in this area, which is a great detail. And of course we clearly see the four screws that are responsible for holding the interior hard drive cabinet, which we can move conveniently to insert the power supply.

Interior and assembly

We proceed to disassemble the two side plates to see what we are in the interior of the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow. And the first thing to note is the rubber protectors that have the holes to pull cables, we could think that it is nonsense, but it is difficult to see these details implemented in a chassis of less than 100 euros. Similarly, we have a large free space to be able to work on the socket of the plates without the need to uninstall them.

Due to the tight measurements of the chassis, we did not find too much space, being practically just and necessary to install a motherboard and front or side cooling systems. In fact, it offers compatibility with ATX, Micro ATX and Mini ITX boards as normal, no Workstation configurations with E-ATX. In the refrigeration section we will study the available space in more detail.

And being a 210mm wide chassis, it's easy to guess that it supports CPU coolers up to 160mm tall and graphics cards up to 300mm. The latter is important, since we must be careful with top-of-the-range models on the market such as the 2080 Ti Custom or the colossal Chinese COLORFUL, which will surely not fit.

Finally, it will support power supplies of up to 180 mm, but whenever we remove or move the hard drive cabinet to the far side, since it is located in the same area. If we do not plan to install mechanical disks, it is best to uninstall it directly, and thus leave as much space as possible to store cables. In our case we had to withdraw, since there was no room for a Corsair AX860 80 PLUS Platinum, this is because we could not move it to the bottom because it had a third fan.

Storage capacity

As always happens in these slightly less technically detailed chassis, due to its tight price, we do not have any space available for storage units on the cover of the PSU. And it could well have been a good place to put one or even two instead of an opening for hot air to pass into the main compartment.

In any case, we must go to the back of the board to see what options we have, being in the first instance two metal brackets compatible with 2.5-inch SSD or HDD units. Said brackets can be easily removed thanks to a screw in each manual thread that keeps them attached.

The second and last storage element is the metal cabinet, which supports two 3.5 ”or 2.5” units thanks to two removable hard plastic trays. The system is the one used in most Corsair chassis, and a priori, we will not need to remove this cabinet to mount the units.

Refrigeration

Let us now turn to the cooling section of the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow, which in its case is one of its main strengths and bets of the manufacturer. Let's start by citing the space available for fans:

• Front: 3x 120mm / 2x 140mm Top: 2x 120mm / 2x 140mm Rear: 1x 120mm

Due to the shallow depth of the chassis, we find the upper space to be limited to just two fans of both types. Best of all, 3 Corsair SP120 RGB PRO fans are pre-installed on the front, new generation ones recently introduced by the manufacturer. Keep in mind that, if we buy one of them separately, their price is 17.90 euros, (so 3 are worth 53.70 euros) which is not bad.

These fans have integrated lighting through 8 directional LEDs and feature a hydraulic bearing. Its main features are 1400 fixed RPM, eye, no PWM control available, 26 dBA of noise, 1.45 mmH2O of static pressure and an air flow of 52 CFM.

The cooling capacity will also be quite good:

• Front: 120/140/240/280 / 360mm Top: 120/140 / 240mm Rear: 120mm

Something to keep in mind is that we will need to remove the HDD cabinet to be able to install a 360 mm radiator, since there is not enough space for it, the cabinet and the PSU. Furthermore, we do not see it possible to simultaneously install a double front and top 360 and 240mm cooling system, as both systems would collide with each other in the upper corner. It is possible to do this by locating the front fans in the outdoor area, although it is not the most aesthetic nor recommended.

Another detail that we should know is that in the upper area there are several rails available to install fans or Refrigeration, and for this we must always choose the most removed to the plate. In this way, the plate and a radiator + fans of up to 240 mm can coexist in the same space.

In any case, this chassis does not have space available for installations of custom systems such as the Corsair Hydro X, since there is no physical space for the tank. In any case, you can always consult the system configuration page to see all the available chassis and possibilities. We also believe that Corsair makes the mistake of mounting three fans to the front, when it would be better to include a fourth fan in the rear area, or move one of the three to the rear area.

illumination

Another element that is worth explaining in more detail is the one related to lighting, since Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow has an iCUE Lighting Node Core controller. This is a control system that is also available with the pack of 3 Corsair SP120 RGB PRO fans and that can be purchased for around 57 euros. In this case we have everything pre-installed in the chassis, moreover we can even buy three other fans and install them on this same controller.

Its specifications are simple: it has a total of 6 4-pin ports to connect compatible fans. These ports unfortunately are not generic RGB headers, but it will take a specific connector like the one for the fans to use them, which reduces the possibilities a bit if we do not have converter headers. The controller will be powered by a SATA header, which in turn will power the lighting. On the other hand, it has an internal USB connector for the motherboard, necessary to integrate with Corsair iCUE and manage it directly from the operating system.

Keep in mind that, if we do not connect the controller to the USB of the board, we will not have lighting in the fans, much less customization capacity. The 8 LED lamps of each fan can be managed independently and autonomously using the brand's software, as well as placing generic or custom animations by ourselves.

Installation and assembly

Now we are going straight to the assembly of our example bench in Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow, which consists of the following elements:

• Asus Crosshair VII X470 ATX motherboard and 16GB RAMAMD Ryzen 2700X memory with RGB stock heatsink AMD Radeon Vega 56PSU Corsair AX860i graphics card

As you can understand, the assembly will not be as fast and comfortable as for example in larger chassis such as the Carbide, which do support custom cooling. Although there have been no problems for the pieces we have chosen. It has only been necessary to move the hard disk cabinet to place the power supply, which in this case measures 150 mm deep and 160 mm wide.

We have plenty of holes to pull cables, although it is also true that the one located in the upper corner for the CPU connectors is quite small in size and it is somewhat complicated to pull and take the cables with the previously installed board. The rear space is enough if we are not going to have too much hardware, we are talking about hard drives, although we do not have any routing system beyond the clips.

We do miss the rear fan so that it is in charge of drawing air, but since it also has the enormous upper opening, we will compensate for that lack due to the action of natural air convection.

Final score

We finally leave you with the final result of the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow chassis fully assembled and with the fans running and illuminated. Let's consider that the chassis is optimized for ventilation, and when that sheet steel arrives at the front, we will not enjoy the lighting as much because part of it will remain covered.

Final words and conclusion about Corsair 220T RGB Airflow

Well, you have already seen in the photos the final result of this chassis in operation, which is presented as yet another alternative that combines excellent cooling capacity with the new Corsair SP120 RGB PRO fans pre-installed on its front. Precisely your front may like more or less, but without denying that it is different, and a risky bet. Personally I consider that there are more elegant ones, that without a doubt, but the effect of the night lighting is quite striking and original.

By installing Corsair iCUE we will be able to manage up to 6 fans connected to the i CUE Lighting Node Core in advance, which sounds great for lighting enthusiasts. Therefore, we can consider it a very good choice for ATX gaming equipment where we will have to pay special attention to the size of the hardware and the space available.

We really liked that the Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow has very narrow dimensions, this is ideal for having an ATX format device with a very compact size. But everything has its disadvantages… the possibility of mounting a liquid cooling kit with a 360mm radiator is very tedious, that's why we recommend that you opt for a 240mm kit.

We recommend reading the best chassis on the market

What we liked least, is that if you mount a mid / high-end power supply, you will surely have to remove the hard drive cabinet. With our Corsair AX860i we have had to completely remove the cabin. Also keep in mind that it does not include a fourth fan to locate it in the rear area or, failing that, it has a configuration that improves air flow. As we see key, mount a 120mm rear fan to have excellent cooling.

Currently we can buy it for a price of 99.90 euros. We think it is a very good price for a chassis with its features and design. If we buy a fourth fan, we would have one of the best options on the market.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ DESIGN IN WHITE COLOR LOOKS VERY GOOD AND IS WELL BUILT	- WE HAVE TO REMOVE THE HARD DRIVE CABIN TO MOUNT A HIGH OR MEDIUM / HIGH RANGE POWER SUPPLY
+ TEMPERED GLASS AND RGB LIGHTING FROM iCUE	- WE MISSING A FAN IN THE REAR ZONE OF THE CHASSIS
+ EASY ASSEMBLY AND ALLOWS LIQUID AND AIR SOLUTIONS

The Professional Review team awards you the gold medal and recommended product:

Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow

DESIGN - 85%

MATERIALS - 90%

WIRING MANAGEMENT - 90%

PRICE - 0%

66%