Corsair Carbide 400R: Succeeding in Reverse

Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock

Since the Corsair Carbide 400R doesn't include a fan controller, the case fans are pretty much at the mercy of ASUS's questionable motherboard fan controls. As I mentioned before, though, I opted to test the 400R both in its factory configuration and with an additional two 140mm intake fans mounted to the inside panel to see how much they would improve cooling, if at all. For the other enclosures we've previously tested that do use fan controllers, I've included their most balanced and optimal results.

So far my theory doesn't seem to be working out so well. The improvement in cooling performance is very minor compared to just using the 400R's default fan configuration, with only the Zotac GeForce GTX 580 seeing any real improvement in thermal performance. Overall temperatures are reasonable, just not particularly exciting.

Unfortunately, noise levels aren't so great either. With or without those intake fans, the 400R is one of the loudest cases we've tested at both idle and load. Corsair switched from using a giant intake fan on the front of the enclosure to a pair of 120mm fans, and now that we're testing the 400R I have to wonder if including a fan controller wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all.