Corsair Carbide Air 540 Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on July 3, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- ATX
Noise and Thermal Testing
It's reasonable to expect the Corsair Carbide Air 540 to provide excellent thermal results, and you'll see it definitely delivers. Where we do make a sacrifice is in acoustics; Corsair is using three very powerful 140mm fans, and while they're not especially noisy, they're not silent either.
What I think Corsair does have a lot of with the Air 540 is play. Similar to the much larger Obsidian 900D, the Air 540 really seems like a case that demands some experimentation. I couldn't resist experimenting with the case a bit and tried to see if I could match stock performance with a stack of silent aftermarket fans. With three 120mm be quiet! fans in the front as intakes and three 140mm ones in the top and back as exhausts, all running at 7V, I was able to get idle noise down to sub-30dB and load temperatures only increased about 3C. This is anecdotal and by no means conclusive, but something to keep in mind.
Stock thermal performance is pretty excellent, with only the powerful Rosewill Armor EVO really competing. But the Armor EVO has build quality issues that the Air 540 doesn't share.
The Air 540 is also, unsurprisingly, louder than most of the competition. Our stock testing configuration is actually the worst scenario for the Air 540; this is swatting a fly with a Buick. The stock cooling of the 540 wasn't designed to handle this light a workload.
Switch to our overclocked system configuration and the Corsair Carbide Air 540 continues to be extremely competitive and near the top of all of the charts.
Now that we're dealing with an overclocked system, suddenly the Air 540's noise levels aren't as bad as they used to be. Idle noise is still unpleasant, but at least the character of it continues to be a low, hollow whoosh that's far less irritating than the sound of several smaller fans.
Before getting into full fat testing, it's important to point out that while other cases are tested with three 3.5" drives, the Air 540 only technically supports two. While I could theoretically have installed a third in the second 5.25" drive bay, I didn't feel like it would have any relevant impact on the case's overall performance. The 3.5" drives sit at the bottom of the primary chamber and receive modest airflow, but they don't impede airflow in any way the way they would in a traditional ATX enclosure.
While you could argue the Air 540 isn't operating on a completely level playing field, I don't personally think adding the third drive into the second 5.25" bay would have any tangible impact on the case's performance.
The drives aren't running especially cool, but they're nowhere close to hitting spec either. In exchange, you get absolutely stellar cooling performance in the primary chamber on all of your major heat-generating components.
The NZXT H630 is able to provide better noise suppression, but it sacrifices thermal performance to get there. Our full fat testbed is an absolute beating, though, and so far the only case I've seen get halfway decent noise levels under load has been the SilverStone Raven RV-04.
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Kevin G - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
Agreed. This case is just begging for a front mounted hot swap back plane in that side chamber.It also would have been nice to see a second PSU mount in the side chamber too for those who like to run multiple PSU's for their multiple GPU setups. I would howver default this area to the internal 2.5" drive cage.
The 3.5" bays at the bottom of the main chamber aren't a bad idea but storage really should all be located in the side chamber.
Sabresiberian - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
Since most large cases fill up their "empty space" with drive cages that I don't use, the "wasted" space in the back is no problem at all for me. Still, I agree, I would like to have seen something like more drive bays in sections that you could pull out if you didn't need or want in there.And, it's in the back chamber and so not visible. Personally I don't care for the way drive bays look anyway, so that is a very good solution for me. :)
Subyman - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
I wouldn't say this is a case pushing the boundaries. Its more of a case bringing a Case Labs design to a new price bracket. Has Anandtech ever done a Case Labs review?GoliathPtXs - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
i love this case, right when i saw it at computex 2013 i fell for it, but it could be thinner indeed.hard drives should be in the back, not under a gpu... gpus eat up for themselfs, don't need help from the hdds... they should be in the back compartment with the ssds and the annoying opticals, also, the back compartment should have a exaust fan at least
i'm still waiting for manufacturers start producing REAL gaming cases, with no optical drives... you can download all games nowadays.
i do know this is not a "gaming case" but still... all mid towers are gaming cases...
genghisquan - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
If the user wants to put in some high-end performance HDD, then they will need to get some airflow. That's why the put them in the front. I still agree with you that they should've put the HDDs in the back, though. If there was a HDD cage in the back, then this case could easily fit 4-5 HDD with at least 4 SSD along with it. With that amount of HDD, though, then they'd definitely have to put an intake fan on the secondary compartment, but I don't think that'd destroy the case.dpimente - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
This Case is more of a pure desktop, and not for entry level users either. With that said, there shouldn't even be HDD's. Clearly it's designed with SSD's in mind, thus I feel the 2 x 3.5" HDD bays were merely adding in for the interim.JDG1980 - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
I understand the importance of using a consistent testbed platform, but I think you do an injustice to direct-airflow cases like the 540 and RV04 by using the ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP video card. The problem is that this card has heatsink fins that are perpendicular to the airflow, not parallel - so the air can't go across the length of the heatsink, and cooling performance is substantially reduced. I suspect you would have gotten much better results if you used a card like the ASUS DirectCU GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 (which does have parallel fins) or one of the MSI Twin Frozr models. The Arctic Accelero S1 Plus aftermarket cooler would probably also work very well.Building a serious PC entails designing an overall *system*, not just throwing a bunch of components together in a box based on whatever Newegg has for sale this week.
genghisquan - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
I'm confused because the GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP has two fans, but the cards that are shown in the assembly picture look like they're are using single blower style fans. LOL.thesavvymage - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
I believe the ones in the picture are the 580s that they are using for sliSabresiberian - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - link
I wish I had a purpose for a new case, I'd very likely buy one of these. It is innovative and attractive enough that I think Corsair deserves a pat on the back, and what better way to pat a company on the back than spend your money on one of their products. :) Considering the price of many tower cases, I think it's something of a bargain.Well written and thorough review Dustin, thanks!