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
Testing Methodology
For testing ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
Full ATX Test Configuration | |
CPU |
Intel Core i7-875K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 3.8GHz @ 1.38V) |
Motherboard | ASUS P7P55D-E Pro |
Graphics Card | Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 MAX with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
A refresher on how we test:
Acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's what my silent apartment measures with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
For more details on how we arrived at this testbed, you can check out our introductory passage in the review for the IN-WIN BUC.
Last but not least, we'd also like to thank the vendors who made our testbed possible:
Thank You!
We have some thanks in order before we press on:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS9900 MAX heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, Intel Core i7-875K processor, ASUS P7P55D-E Pro motherboard, and Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
26 Comments
View All Comments
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.