Corsair Carbide Air 540 Cube Case Review

Cube style cases aren’t new, they just aren’t very common. The arrangement allows for some interesting advantages though, let’s take a look and see what those might be.

• Warranty: Two years
• Dimensions: 415mm x 332mm x 458mm
• MB Support: ATX, EATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX
• Expansion Slots: 8
• Form Factor: Mid-tower
• Material: Steel and plastic
• Front I/O: (x2) USB 3.0
• (x1) Headphone
• (x1) Mic
• Power Supply: ATX (not included)

Technical Specifications

• Dual-chamber Direct Airflow Path™ design for outstanding cooling potential
• Clever, space-saving design still offers lots of internal volume
• Includes three High Performance Air Series AF140L fans for better, quieter cooling
• Tons of expansion room for high performance air cooling and liquid cooling
• Full side panel window
• Front dust filter
• Black interior
• Cable routing cutouts with rubber grommets
• CPU cutout in motherboard tray for easy CPU cooler swap-out
• Dual front USB 3.0 ports with internal connector
• Headphone, Microphone front ports
• Eight expansion slots for quad GPU installations
• Fan Mount Locations:
  • Front: 2 x 140mm (included), 3 x 120mm (pre-spaced for radiators)
  • Top: 2 x 140mm or 2 x 120mm (pre-spaced for radiators)
  • Rear: 1 x 140mm (included) or 1 x 120mm
• Dual 3.5” hot swap bays
• Four 2.5” tool-free SSD drive cages
• Maximum GPU Length 320mm
• Maximum CPU Cooler Height 170mm
• Maximum PSU length 200mm

Specifications taken from the manufacturer’s product page.

Obviously, the Carbide Air 540 is set up a little differently than a standard ATX enclosure. Looking through the side panel window, you can catch a glimpse of some of the differences. Most noticeable here are the tool-less 3.5″ HDD trays with a built in SATA data and power connector where one would be accustomed to seeing a power supply. I’ll touch more on these in the detailed features, but they are a pretty exciting addition. They seem a little close in proximity to a second GPU though…we’ll have to see how that turns out.

On the right side you can see the intake vent for the power supply in the lower right corner. This intake isn’t filtered, so it will remain to be seen if dust is an issue in this compartment – the power supply fan is the only “moving” part over here, so perhaps that isn’t much of an issue in the first place.

The exterior of the Carbide Air 540 is mainly coated in a pleasant, soft-touch matte paint that does a decent job of reducing fingerprints while looking classy. I’m a big fan of matte finishes, and it is done well on the Carbide Air 540. It makes the plastic sections look and feel “premium,” and it blends well with the other portions, not to mention your overall setup wherever you may choose to place the case.

Both of the mesh panels along the right side and top of the case are easily removable, but the top panel needs to be removed first (the front then slides up). Both of the panels are quite rigid, and snap nicely back into place. Many times these types of removable panels can contribute a “flimsy” feeling to a case, but Corsair has done a great job with the fit and locking mechanisms of these panels. A subtle (and arguably unimportant?) detail, but it contributes to the overall impression of quality when working with the Carbide Air 540.

More than anything, the back of the Carbide Air 540 clues you in to the overall layout and how the partitioned design is executed. I want to point out one surprising attribute that I don’t believe I’ve seen on any other case – the rear 140mm fan has an easily removable grill. Why is this a big deal? Many CFM ratings on fans are done in “open air” – as soon as you add any type of restriction, you’ll reduce the performance (and possibly add noise as well). Many modders will simply cut a hole in the back to remove the offending mesh – Corsair thoughtfully tackles this issue eloquently and gives you the choice, no cutting or modification required. Even in its stock form, the wire grill allows for a substantial amount of airflow (less restriction than mesh). Maybe it’s a small detail, but I really appreciated this. These small details throughout really added up for me.

Looking at the bottom however seems as if they may have missed a small detail. I’m going to assume the open cutouts on the bottom are to assist in airflow to the 3.5″ HDD sleds or GPU that could be mounted just above them… It almost seems as if there should be more here, some mesh or something. Frankly, it probably wasn’t needed, so why add expense where it isn’t necessary? Still, I would have liked to see this area with a dust filter as well, and the possibility to mount some fans in place of drives. Options are always good, and a chassis that provides many of them can just fit that many more builds.

The rest is quite functional though, you can see the various mounting holes for the power supply support bracket as well as the substantial rubber feet in the corners. This won’t be a chassis that slides around easily, given its wide footprint.

Finally, there’s ample space for 2x120mm or 2x140mm fans or radiators up top, under the panel pictured here. That about completes the outside view, let’s take some panels off and look inside.

Now we can really dig into what makes the Carbide Air 540 different from most of the other cases out there.

This is the “hot” side. One of the advantages of moving drive cages and other components out of the way is a direct path for cool air to get to hot components – the other useful advantage (but perhaps more of a side effect) is it makes cable management very easy. In return, that makes swapping components around a much simpler process. For someone that likes to constantly try different builds, that can be a game-changer in and of itself. Otherwise, the layout here is about what you would expect, with enough rubber grommets and standoffs to accommodate motherboards from Mini-ITX all the way to E-ATX.

I’m very appreciative of those upper cable routing holes – any case with space for radiators and top mounted fans should have these, as they are wonderful for cable management. Of course, in the upper left the 12V AUX line for the CPU has a dedicated routing hole as well. With some PSU and case combinations that AUX line can be quite a stretch, but the Carbide Air 540 places it directly above the PSU for a much shorter path than normal. A nice side effect of splitting the chassis into two compartments, this could make your PSU choices a little easier as well. I’ve had some cases that the left case frame actually got in the way of the cable routing hole here for the 12V AUX CPU connector – it seems this is yet another issue rendered irrelevant by this type of case layout. It almost makes you wonder, “why haven’t we seen this more often?”

Here’s a closer view of the 3.5″ drive sleds. I didn’t have any problems with the fit or operation of these – in fact, they felt nice and snug, and had a satisfying and secure “click” when in place. The plastic trays are tool-less for 3.5″ drives, but contain mounting holes for 2.5″ drives as well. With a normal hard drive, the trays are as sturdy as they need to be. I didn’t test these with a 2.5″ drive (as the modular cage on the back side is tool-less and makes more sense for 2.5″ drives), but they might feel a little more flimsy with a smaller drive mounted. I don’t really feel that’s an issue anyone should be concerned about – there’s better places for smaller drives.

That better place is right here, in the unique stacking drive cage first introduced in an earlier Corsair case (the 350D, if I remember correctly). If you look closely, you can easily see how each drive cage snaps and locks into the next one in line. It is possible to remove this entire assembly if desired, but it doesn’t really obstruct anything and is quite useful.

Completely tool-less as well, 2.5″ drives stayed admirably secure. While they seem durable enough, it would be interesting to see how the plastic clips would hold up over time if they were constantly attached/removed. The entire assembly is more than sturdy enough for SSD duty, and I can’t image laptop hard drives would cause much trouble here either. An accommodation for active cooling may not be necessary, but it would probably be appreciated to have an exhaust here just in case (if you were running four 7200 RPM laptop drives and were really concerned, I’m sure an 80mm fan wouldn’t be hard to mod in…).

Now for the back side. There is a LOT of room here. Cable management won’t be an issue, but if you like things really neat and tidy there are tie down points along the “separating wall” as well as the front panel for cables. You will NOT experience any problems getting this side panel back on. By the way, each of the side panels is of the hinged variety, not the slotted type – another checked box for me (these types of panels are so much easier to open and close, and are much faster to work with if you open your case regularly).

The only issue I ran into back here was if I wanted to route the main 24-pin connector through one of those routing holes under the 5.25″ trays – there wasn’t a lot of room between the main panel and the optical drive trays. They can be removed after taking off the front panel entirely – it would be nice if these were a little more accessible. With most builds, a lower routing hole will work just fine, but something to keep in mind.

Those panels are pretty easy to take off if it were ever necessary to do so. Here’s the top panel, along with a better view of the fan/radiator mounting holes. Again, 2x120mm or 2x140mm fans/radiators can fit here, and there’s enough space above a normal ATX board to fit push/pull arrangements if desired.

After removing the top panel, the front rigid panel slides up and off to reveal a magnetic dust filter for the intake fans. This front intake area can also accept anything that would fit in the top, as well as a 360 radiator.

Of course, the simplest way to test an enclosure is just build a system in it. I’ll throw a somewhat typical “enthusiast” build (consisting of a Core i5 2500K, Radeon 7970, 3.5″ HDD, 2.5″ SSD, with a Swiftech H220 providing cooling for the CPU) into the Carbide Air 540 and note any issues in doing so.

First, the power supply. Interestingly enough, one could easily do without the typical four screws to secure the PSU, as the Carbide Air 540 includes a bracket that fits snugly against most PSUs (the range of adjustment is quite large – I don’t have every size of PSU ever made to test, but it looks like most won’t cause a problem here). If for some reason your power supply can’t use this function, this bracket is easy to remove. Again, a nice touch and thoughtful addition by Corsair. There’s nothing more frustrating for a tinkerer like me to work with a case that advertises “tool-less” features but still require a screwdriver – not a problem with the Carbide Air 540.

The segmented approach tends to segment the build as well – while most time in other cases is probably spent alternating between the two sides, I found most of my time was spent on this side in the Carbide Air 540. Once all of the components are screwed in on the “hot” side, it’s easy to just poke whatever power connectors you need through and plug them in. Or, perhaps because of the many convenient features on the “hot” side (center post for installing motherboard, tool-less 3.5″ trays, tool-less PCI-E slot covers…) I just didn’t end up spending near as much time over there.

I had wanted to show a picture of how much room was available for stashing cables in front of the power supply. No need to have a modular supply if you don’t want one, as there are more than enough tie down points in this area to tie up every single cable if need be. Or, if you prefer, leave em all in a nest of cables – they won’t be in the way or obstructing any airflow anyway!

The only part of this case that isn’t tool-less would be removing the actual front panel, which wouldn’t be necessary unless you needed to remove the 5.25″ bays. Two small screws will do the trick, then thumbscrews are exposed for the optical drive bays. You can see the five tie down points on the front wall as well in this picture.

With the motherboard installed and a Swiftech H220 mounted up top, you can see there would be just enough room for a normal push/pull arrangement if desired. The radiator is mounted far enough away from the motherboard to still allow for some room to work back there and route cables. Depending on the motherboard, a push/pull configuration might still get in the way of plugging in the 8-pin CPU connector so make sure this is connected first if using such an arrangement!

Finally, the system is completely assembled. Notice the proximity of those intake fans, pointing straight at the Radeon 7970 and CPU area. With its unique configuration, there is still quite a bit of room to work in even with large GPUs, but the overall dimensions stay relatively short in height and depth allowing cool air to directly hit the hottest components.

Overall, I was very impressed with the Carbide Air 540. There you go – review over, right? In terms of “innovation” (rather, daring to produce a design outside the norm) the Carbide Air 540 deserves your consideration, if only in respect to taking a risk and executing so well. Thankfully, Corsair has also delivered an incredible enclosure in doing so. I’m constantly switching cases and trying different configurations of hardware – this is the first enclosure I’ve built a system in that I really felt whoever designed it was thinking of me when they were drawing up the plans.

Everything from the center motherboard post to the SATA backplanes for 3.5″ drives, to truly tool-less 2.5″ (modular!) cages and tie down points everywhere… I’d still like the option for a side fan for those really hot CrossfireX configurations, but building systems in the Carbide Air 540 more than makes up for that specific scenario. Besides, anyone spending more than $700 in graphics cards will probably end up spending more than $140 on a case (or water cooling) to put them in. For virtually every other build out there, the convenience features of the Carbide Air 540 are very much appreciated and well worth the price.

That said, it still isn’t perfect. For a relatively unique enclosure, it’s very well done, but it could still benefit from some tweaks. I didn’t mind that it was so wide, but it did feel that there was at least an inch of wasted space on the right side (power supply and cable management area). The side panels (thank you for using hinged panels!) felt a little flimsy by themselves, but were adequate when secured – and since they were hinged, they weren’t difficult to close whatsoever. They were thin though, and didn’t do much to block any noise from the components inside – but Corsair makes other cases for that purpose.

Perhaps the biggest issue for me was the heat caused by the hard drive below being in close proximity to the 7970 when I tried an overclocked “worst case scenario” Crossfire X configuration – while the hard drive temps in the location shown weren’t horrible, they were about 9 degrees Celsius warmer than most other cases (and the Crossfire configuration ran a little warmer as well – but that’s been my experience with any case that doesn’t use a side panel fan). With an option to mount some fans on the bottom panel, that might have changed slightly. Also, using a 3x120mm fan configuration on the front might have provided a more direct path of cool air to the very bottom of the Carbide Air 540.

The Carbide Air 540 performed well. It can easily handle most of the common/popular configurations. It struggled with high temperature overclocked Crossfire X configurations (7970 and 7950 @ 1050MHz), but most cases do in that particular instance. Not to mention, using some high powered exhaust fans up top instead of intaking cool air for the CPU radiator may give better results as well (for the GPU, not for the CPU). I’m sure there’s some room for improvement if you want to dig into some aftermarket fan options, but as delivered I would be satisfied with the performance. Throw in the ease of use factor, and those hiccups become minor issues that are easily dismissed due to how easy it is to build in the Carbide Air 540!

The Carbide Air 540 looks good as well. This is the most subjective rating of all of them, but it was refreshing to have a good looking case that wasn’t a black monolith. I liked the way Corsair designed the intake and exhaust grills/mesh, and the whole thing has a very server/industrial vibe to it. The plastic used doesn’t really look or feel like plastic, and the color/finish is great!

The construction of the Carbide Air 540 is par with Corsair’s other cases (specifically the Carbide series). This series was meant to be a little more accessible than the Obsidian series, for example. This means that it’s a little lighter than it looks, and the steel a little thinner than more expensive cases. The Carbide Air 540 does not suffer because of this – it is one of the sturdiest cases I’ve used, and I fully expect it to provide years of service without any problems. If anything, the thinner panels and higher airflow let quite a bit of noise escape, but to get a well built case with this much functionality AND muffle noise, you’ll need to pay quite a bit more.

Speaking of functionality, this thing has it in spades. If you’re a constant tinkerer (like I imagine many enthusiasts are), this case is one of the best on the market in my opinion. It can fit almost any configuration, and do it simply, quickly, and neatly. The tool-less features throughout (that are truly tool-less!) make adding and swapping components enjoyable! You may have to give up some 3.5″ bays for the privilege, but there’s isn’t much else you have to compromise when you build a system in the Carbide Air 540.

The thing is, a computer case is the one component that one could technically do without – adding $100 to any other component gets you quite a bit more in almost every scenario. As of the mid-July 2013, the Carbide Air 540 was listed for $129.37 (Amazon | NewEgg) – so why spend the money here? In short, it’s a great value. This is one of those cases that you really get your money’s worth, especially if you are working inside your computer often (swapping components, trying different builds, etc.). This is a case that will make your life easier, accommodate various builds, and look good while holding/protecting all of your expensive components. It isn’t perfect, but it’s well worth the price. There are a lot of cases to choose from at this price point, but very few will give you the sheer amount of functionality and builder-friendly features that the Carbide Air 540 will.

If I can sum up my experience with this case, it’s the following: we need more manufacturers to think like this. Corsair is relatively new to the computer case scene, and with every release they seem to deliver an enclosure that contains features you just don’t find in many other cases. I can say with certainty this is a case I would wholly recommend to anyone that likes to tinker inside their builds, as I’ve never had such an easy time working around inside a computer case. I hope to see more innovation in this direction from Corsair and other manufacturers, and feel the Carbide Air 540 deserves a Silver Tachometer award at the very least for delivering a unique enclosure full of forward-thinking features and overall excellent build quality and performance. The attention to detail and pure thought that went into the design of the Carbide Air 540 will hopefully push the rest of the industry to experiment and innovate with some other unique designs. It won’t accommodate absolutely every crazy build out there, but it gets pretty close – and the usability features more than make up for any shortcomings.

+ Unique
+ Lots of airflow
+ Appearance, build quality
+ Numerous time-saving features
+ Accommodates almost every type of build
+ Ridiculously easy to build a system in
+ Partitioned layout works very well
+ Tool-less throughout
+ Hinged side panels!

– Might be difficult to place in/around most desks…
– Stock fans are adequate, but slightly noisy
– Struggles with hot GPUs in stock form, although experimenting with the fan configuration may help…
– Fans lack PWM or a controller

• Performance: 8.00
• Appearance: 9.00
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.50
• Value: 9.00

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.

COMMENT QUESTION: Who makes your favorite computer case?