Corsair Carbide 500R: A Corsair in Every Home
by Dustin Sklavos on October 25, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
Enclosures in this price range are more apt to prove their worth when faced with a substantially increased thermal load, and our overclocked testbed provides exactly that. Note that again, the 500R seems to really be geared towards including a 240mm radiator (like, for example, Corsair's own H100). The side intake fan should help keep the GTX 580 running cool and is worth keeping in mind for dual-GPU configurations.
Thermal performance isn't perfect, but it's pretty solid. The 500R keeps the GTX 580 about as cool as any other enclosure, while processor temperatures are on the lower end of our testing spectrum. Once again, it's clear that toggling fan speeds just isn't the way to go to keep temperatures down, only noise. The 500R is already doing a fine job of moving air in its stock configuration.
Idle noise is way down compared to some of the other enclosures we've tested, too, though once again it goes up pretty substantially once stress is applied. It stands to reason that the 500R would do very well in a configuration with dual graphics cards and a 240mm radiator handling CPU cooling. Keep an eye on Fractal Design's Arc Midi, though: while it's louder under idle, it's also $40 cheaper than the 500R while providing mostly equivalent thermal performance.
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CloudFire - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
no one's going to convince you... once you have worked with corsair cases, then you will know. i came from an antec900, and my 600t is beyond 2.5x better. atrocious is an understatement for the antec series, in terms of cable management and management for everything else for that matter. in the corsair cases, cables are virtually gone from sight, you are only left with the cleanest build you will ever witness.Wardrop - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
Does anyone put performance over a case over aesthetics? I'd never buy a case just because it performed well. For me, aesthetics are 90% of what I look for in a case.surt - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
I certainly do. Function #1, Noise #2, Heat #3, Aesthetics ... not even #4.justben314 - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
Any thoughts on if an 11 inch card would fit equally as well as the ZOTAC at 10.5 inches? How close to 11.5 inches is getting too close?danjw - Friday, October 28, 2011 - link
Corsair's website states that this case has "Six 120mm/140mm fan mounts" and "Four 120mm fan mounts". You only list 4 140mm mounts, where are the other 2?justben314 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
The top 2 mounts support 120mm or 140mm. I believe that is the omission.