Corsair Carbide Air 540 Case Review

Conclusion: You Know if You Want It

After testing the Corsair Carbide Air 540, I'm increasingly convinced it's 2013's BitFenix Prodigy. The review of the Prodigy was one of our most popular case reviews, and it drew a lot of attention for its potential as the foundation of powerful, unorthodox builds. While the Carbide Air 540 doesn't share the Prodigy's smaller form factor, it also doesn't share the Prodigy's weaknesses. What's common between the two is the way they, at the risk of sounding incredibly art school pretentious, open up possibilities for the end user. These aren't cases that merely serve a purpose, they're cases that create a purpose.

Corsair hit a lot of the right notes with the Carbide Air 540. For the first time they've produced a case that has excellent air cooling performance. This was pretty much the last issue I was having with their hardware, and it's largely been resolved here. Ease of assembly continues in that same great Corsair tradition, and I think this is actually one of the most aesthetically pleasing cases I've ever tested. The square footprint makes it a little more difficult to find a place for the 540, but I'd argue that it belongs in a shelf above or below, say, a multifunction laser printer. A system built in the Air 540 doesn't look like a tower, it looks like a computer.

Despite the fantastic thermal performance, excellent ease of assembly, and beautiful aesthetic, though, the Air 540 isn't a homerun. Lacking any fan control, Corsair is using three case fans that are efficient but noisy nonetheless. It's impressive that the sound floor of the case remained consistent among our three testbeds, but that sound floor was very high in the first place. This isn't an unresolvable problem; the performance potential is obviously present, but you'll have to buy aftermarket hardware to get the Air 540 where you want it to be. At the risk of nitpicking, I'm also not particularly sold on the mounting system for the 5.25" drives, and I do feel like the drive and power supply chamber has room for improvement and optimization. Corsair could get this case a little thinner if they really wanted to, and I worry that the case is such an unorthodox design that they may not iterate on it. I desperately want them to.

Everything else about the Corsair Carbide Air 540 is pretty right, though. The $139 price tag feels appropriate for such an unusual but solidly performing case, and builders who like to experiment will undoubtedly have a field day with it. I've elected to use it for my upcoming custom liquid cooling loop article and expect it will continue to perform well there. This isn't a perfect design, but Corsair strayed off the beaten path and came up with a frankly outstanding enclosure. I'd say that merits at least a Silver Editor's Choice Award.