Corsair Carbide Air 540 Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on July 3, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- ATX
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One of the joys of being based out of the bay area is getting to actually visit the headquarters of some of these vendors. I've had one on one time with Antec, NVIDIA, Logitech, and my last visit to Corsair's headquarters in Fremont got me a good look at the early prototyping stages of both the Obsidian 900D and the Carbide Air 540. Corsair's designers were pretty enthusiastic about where they were going with what became the Air 540, and with good reason. Now that I've had a chance to handle the final product, I feel like I'm looking at the next BitFenix Prodigy.
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Outside of Lian Li's eclectic lineup, cube style ATX cases are rare as hen's teeth and seeing one from Corsair is especially unusual. The one-off Graphite 600T notwithstanding, Corsair has tended to produce fairly conservative, extremely refined case designs. But the dual-chambered Carbide Air 540 is a radical departure and a much needed one. It's not a perfect design and there's plenty of room for improvement, but there are very good reasons I chose the Air 540 for my upcoming custom liquid cooling loop review.
| Corsair Carbide Air 540 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 2x 5.25" |
| Internal | 2x 3.5", 4x 2.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 2x 140mm intake fan (supports 3x 120mm) |
| Rear | 1x 140mm exhaust fan (supports 120mm) | |
| Top | 2x 140mm/120mm fan mounts | |
| Side | - | |
| Bottom | - | |
| Expansion Slots | 8 | |
| I/O Port | 2x USB 3.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearances | HSF | 170mm |
| PSU | 200mm | |
| GPU | 320mm | |
| Dimensions |
16.33" x 13.07" x 18.03" 415mm x 332mm x 458mm |
|
| Special Features |
USB 3.0 via internal header Almost completely toolless assembly Unique dual-chambered design Supports 360mm radiator in front and 280mm radiator in top |
|
| Price | $139 | |
I'm going to address a minor elephant in the room before getting into the nitty gritty of the Carbide Air 540: a cube-shaped enclosure is arguably less space efficient than a typical tower. As someone who lives in an apartment smaller than he needs, I can tell you that floor space is always at a premium, and the Air 540 does have a pretty large footprint. It's not as tall as a conventional case, it's a bit wider, and when running it probably looks like a good place for a cat to sleep.
Of course, on the flipside, by breaking out of the ATX standard, Corsair's designers were suddenly free to start rethinking about how everything can come together to truly maximize performance and efficiency. The Carbide Air 540 is in many ways operating on the same principles SilverStone's Temjin TJ08-E, Raven RV-04, and Fortress FT-04 are: as direct a path for air as humanly possible. Yet while SilverStone's designs moved the power supply and 5.25" bays to the top of the enclosure, Corsair made the enclosure wider and created a separate chamber for all the parts that didn't need direct, active cooling.
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Margalus - Saturday, July 6, 2013 - link
exactly, this looks like a great case as is. If I was building a rig right now, this would most likely be the case I would choose.ImSpartacus - Friday, July 5, 2013 - link
I would love to see a microATX version. I love the wideset form factor, but it's just too big right now.I suppose it's meant to be a tinkerer's case, but I think the Prodigy proved that enthusiasts can tinker with a small case just fine.
Slomo4shO - Saturday, July 6, 2013 - link
This is essentially a Cooler Master HAF XB placed on its side.Istrilyin - Monday, July 8, 2013 - link
About the empty space: why not have a door/removable panel and some space for the manuals / guarantee papers / driver CDs that you may one day use / plugs and adaptors? I mean after getting a new computer, I usually have a graphics card box full of stuff that is going to sit somewhere on some shelf where I it gets lost...adamdz - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
This case is growing on me. Any word if a solid or meshed side panel might be available for it? I don't care much for windows and I'd rather had a meshed side panel with two 140mm fans.lwatcdr - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
Please offer a color besides blackZak - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
You can have any color as long as it's black;)1Angelreloaded - Saturday, July 13, 2013 - link
This is interesting, cube cases are and tend to be expensive, like the MM cases, I believe starting the Bob slay is about $150. Bitfenix with the prodigy, seems to have sparked an interest in pre-engineered cases, which is nice especially for their price of $89. I wish we could get a Silverstone Cube case about the size of this to see what they do with the form factor, while these cases are cheap and refined to an extent for modders they are a perfect start. The Achilles heal of this case is that back chamber which could easily be resolved with some added server fans mounted to circulate the air.infoilrator - Sunday, July 14, 2013 - link
Power supplies are about 3.4 inches tall or wide, depending on your perspective.80mm is about 3.16 inches.
So on the dull side, front, bottom, or front and bottom 80mm fans would be a workable mod, as would top I think.
Looks like fun, too expensive for me though. My budget, not price, special costs extra.
And any case mounting double radiators front and top does cost.