Corsair Carbide Air 540 Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on July 3, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- ATX
Testing Methodology
For testing full 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.
| ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-2700K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H |
| Graphics Card |
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP (tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V) 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 in SLI (full fat testing only) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive 3x HGST DeskStar 3TB 7200-RPM HDD |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Plus 1000W 80 Plus Silver |
Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.
For the "full fat" testbed, the GTX 560 Ti is swapped out for a pair of GTX 580s, and three hard disks are added to fill out the case.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z77X-UD4H motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- Thank you to HGST for providing us with the trio of hard drives.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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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.