Corsair Bulldog (2.0) High Performance PC Barebone Kit

First things first, don't expect this thing to be as small as a game console. It's still a fairly large system, about the size of a decent home theater receiver. But it's a heck of a lot smaller than your average desktop. The pros are obvious as soon as you open the box. Everything inside is very well-packaged and protected, and even divided out based on what it goes to (CPU cooler, power supply, etc.). Attention to detail and care for the product just keeps going from there. You can't beat the value of getting case and motherboard and water cooler all in one neat package, and everything was of good quality. The only cons are those to be expected when dealing with small form factor systems. It is cramped. Plan ahead on how to get everything installed, especially the cables, because once that cooler goes on, you're pretty much locked in unless you have very thin hands. All the expected drivers came on a rather hefty USB flash stick (which I will certainly repurpose to add a backup image) and installed without a hitch in Windows 10. Wireless works great, cooler works great, fans work great, all in all this is an excellent product. Fair warning: NO DVD DRIVES ALLOWED. There's no where to stick one. Buy a USB-to-SATA adapter or an external drive if you need to use disks for any reason.

I will preface with this: this case is aesthetically great, quiet, fits in my entertainment center in the living room OR gaming desk, and is stacked with just about everything you need pretty much installed. Where the one star gets dropped is in building the REST of it. RAM clearance is insane (don't buy the Corsair Dominators), cable management is as close to terrible as it gets, and the damn USB 3.0 got bent upon installing the the CPU cooler so no more front panel 3.0. This is not a build for amateurs! I've built a few PC's and this was one of the more difficult just based on space constraints. (see attached picture BEFORE everything else is inside) The WiFi sucks so very bad. SO very bad. If you're not next to your modem for LAN connection, go get a great USB adapter like the TCP Link Archer AC1200 (https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Adapter-Archer-T4U/dp/B00JBJ6VG8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1482868938&sr=8-3&keywords=tp-link+archer+ac1200) That being said, again, this is a fantastic build! Here's what I added to the Bulldog: G.Skill 16GB (Dual Channel Kit) 3200MHz DDR4 Trident Z Desktop Memory (F4-3200C16D-16GTZB) Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00 GHz Unlocked Quad Core Skylake Desktop Processor, Socket LGA 1151 [BX80662I76700K ] MSI Computer Video Graphic Cards GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X One FINAL NOTE:::> Do NOT forget to plug in the fan hub power cable. It's barely talked about in the book (page 3 they show it and the last page mentions it) but this is by far one of the most important things to plug in. It's an easily overlooked part in the box of cords you get and it is NOT mentioned in Corsair's own walkthrough of the build. it plugs into the fan hub splitter at the front of the case and the other end plugs into the SATA strip you plug your SSD/HDD's into. Miss this and your CPU pump and GPU fan will overheat. tl;dr: Great case. Quiet. Powerful. WiFi sucks. All around dope. Don't forget fan hub power.

This is working GREAT in our living room! It was easy to install the components. This unit is limited on expansion capabilities (only two RAM slots, no additional PCI (or other) slots. The sideways video card installation is a bit cumbersome... but, works well. As another con, this unit does not currently support 8th generation i7 CPU's. So, you have to get a 7th gen or 6th generation i7. I added the 7700K and it is smokin fast! So, I don't see that as a huge issue. I added the CORSAIR K63 wireless gaming keyboard and Logitech G603 Lightspeed wireless gaming mouse. Now i'm playing Overwatch from the couch on my 65 inch 4k TV... and it is AMAZING!

Good design, compact size and still water cooling. This case may be the best of its class currently. But it's super hard to assemble. I don't recommend it to first-time DIY-ers. The steps in the manual is wrong. With what it suggests, I promise you that you'll remove just-installed components several times to fit in another. Always install the video card first, don't install CPU water cooler too early, and move cable plugging-in to the final step. The 24-pin ATX cable is so short that you have to use your full force to bend, stretch and fit it onto your motherboard. Other power cables are also not easy to install. You may need to split the bundled wires to make them bend well. If you brought the recommended MSI Seahawk X series water-cooling video cards, your situation get worse. The huge radiator is very hard to fit right in the case. And the huge fan on the radiator triples the noise of the full system. The CPU cooler fan is quite mostly. But the radiator fan runs at a constant speed producing three times the noise which you can't control. And because you always use the full force, please get prepared to be have cuts and hurts on your fingers.

Overall I don't recommend it. There was a problem with one little piece and I had to return the whole thing after I spent Hours Building it. The manufacturer was uncertain if I could Buy a riser screw for their case from them. Knowing that. I will just not get another one of these. I have lots of cases from Corsair and I like those very much. This was just not a really good concept. Better ITX solution Available.

I have had this system a little over a year now. Here is a short list of the problems with this product: Serious security vulnerabilities and outdated drivers, outdated buggy BIOS, loose CPU bracket, temperamental RAM slots that cause a no power condition, inability to add common fan filters/no fan filters included, liquid cooling solution inadequate for cpu thermal load, and company will leave you high and dry for support. If you buy this or any other product from this company, be prepared for instant regret. I had to RMA this product when I first received it, because of a no power issue. The CPU bracket has a tendency to warp and falls out very easily - it's best to either use a piece of cardboard or take the motherboard out completely when installing the CPU, remember to remove the cardboard once bracket is secured. The RAM slots require excessive force to properly seat the modules, which could easily break the motherboard, be very careful when installing modules and slowly ramp up force until the brackets click. Note that the liquid cooling on this system performs about the same or even slightly worse than an air cooler in my testing (with the same CPU on a new system cannibalized from the scraps of this one). I replaced the fans in this one with Noctua's - they performed well, but not enough to compensate for the bad design of the case and cooling system. This system uses a slightly modified MSI z270i gaming pro carbon ac motherboard. The slightly modified is the real catch here - it means you cannot install the BIOS from MSI, which is updated regularly (last update, May, 2018). Instead you must use the one provided by Corsair (dated Jan, 2017). BIOS updates tend to fix a lot, particularly security and stability. When resuming from sleep, this system simply stops on a black screen. Certain devices will show exclamations in device manager, with hardware error/stopped messages. There are also a few NVMe and USB issues. Occasionally when booting the system, it will simply stop somewhere during the boot process with no output to the monitor - this requires a reboot. These issues have been fixed by MSI, but not by Corsair - so no fix current exists for this product. This product has the feel of a real jalopy. Have to treat it in just the right way to get it to boot and run properly. Overall I HIGHLY recommend avoiding this product and other similar poorly built/designed/supported products from this company.

This is probably the best case on the market, hands down. It has ventilation on pretty much every side of the case and it's extremely easy to work with, if you are looking for a great small form factor case, than this is it! You've found your case, it's especially good for gaming on your tv, it fits perfectly on the TV stand and it doesn't make the room hot like some small form factor cases. This thing is just wonderful, I'm loving every second of it! Do note, if you have small hands that you will definitely have a hard time working inside the case, I just worked right through this and was happy once I was finished because the end product is super worth it!

There were some issues with this build, but overall it looks great, runs cool, and was priced right. Pros: 1. Great case -- looks great, and just a bit bigger than a game console. 2. Straightforward build. 3. Good price for this bundle. 4. Included WiFi on the mobo (was pulling ~8MB/s from Steam). 5. Just add CPU, GPU, RAM, and SSD. Cons: 1. The included fan splitter wouldn't operate one of the fans. Until I replace this part, one of the fans runs full speed, generating lots of noise. 2. Build does not come with a internal speaker, which became a problem when it wouldn't post. Turns out the issues was that it would not post with Intel 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors (e.g i5 7600k). Switched out for an i7 6600k and it worked no problem. 3. BIOS was unaccessible until I flashed it. 4. Gigabyte software is, frankly, terrible. All-in-all it seems like my biggest problems were with the motherboard, so hopefully future revs can iron those details out.