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‘Cubic’ Chassis Corsair Carbide Air 540 Review

Corsair is renowned for the whole galaxy of products designed for contemporary PC platforms. Its PSUs, memory modules, SSDs, cooling solutions, peripherals, and cases are widely incorporated in desktop and mobile segments. The latter count a list of series, targeted various customers with various needs. The most peculiar one is Carbide series that currently consists of eight models. Carbide Air 540 differs from its comrades, in the first place, by its cubic framework and, in the second place, by its mini-tower height but midi-tower internal spacing. Those are not the only attractions of the model, since Corsair always offers more than it’s seen on the surface.

Design and Ergonomics

Corsair Carbide Air 540 features 458x322x419 mm dimensions and is distinguished by a rather strict design. Exterior and interior facets are totally painted black, except for ‘Corsair’ label and sockets with inscriptions. The case is made of thin steel but for the external plastic panels and one of the side panels that has got a tint-transparent window. The stems are made of plastic and are accompanied by rubber pads, which enhance their dampening facilities. Frontal and top patches differentiate themselves by longitudinal ribs with an ornamental metallic grid.

The central-right part of the frontal panel accommodates all control buttons and external sockets. It should be mentioned that Corsair equipped the case with only two USB 3.0 ports, unfortunately, along with a pair of audio slots, activity indicators and control buttons. Their localization stipulates that the chassis should be placed on a table; otherwise, the user will find it difficult to manipulate its functional. The nominal delivery kit cannot be called complete as well; it consists of a fixing kit for fans and one-off cable couplings.

Layout

To continue, in addition to an original external design, Carbide Air 540 boasts quite original internal layout. The chassis is divided into two sections. Left section (the bigger one) is able to house motherboards of up to E-ATX standard with expansion cards and a couple of 2.5/3.5-inch drives; right section is estimated for the installation of PSU and other drives, including 5.25-inch ones. PSU has got an uncommon localization: instead of horizontal assignment it boasts vertical assignment.

Bays for 3.5-inch devices are located crosswise to the case’s base; they are furnished with special SATA sockets that facilitate HDD/SSD manipulations, due to plastic slides. In case the user needs to extend disk subsystem, he would have to integrate a removable bay, estimated for four drives.

According to Corsair, the chassis is ready to welcome up to four graphics adapters, the overall length of which does not surpass 320 mm. If there is no need in the frontal fans, it’s possible to place even more lengthy adapters – up to 352 mm. In regard to CPU cooling, the case can accommodate rather high coolers (up to 170 mm).

Ventilation System

The availability of two internal sections allows for the proportional division of air currents and for an efficient motherboard cooling down. The case is delivered with three pre-installed 140 mm fans (Corsair Air Series AF140L) that are characterized by high CFM index and low noise level. All of them feature three-contact connectors and are located in the left section: the two blow-in items are located in the frontal part, whereas a single blow-off item – in the rear part.

In case the user sees the nominal cooling kit insufficient, there is always a chance for modification. Hence, it’s feasible to incorporate two 120/140 mm fans at the top panel; a pair of frontal 140 mm items might be replaced by three 120 mm ones. Finally, it’s possible to remove both, the frontal and top fans, and place liquid-cooling heatsinks instead of them. As for the rear fan, it might be substituted by a 120 mm model.

The right section, unfortunately, is void of any ‘cooling signs’. This implies that the removable drive bay does not feel any cooling effect. Moreover, its framework does not allow the airflow to freely circulate in this section. The only source of fresh air is a perforated ventilation grid at the rear panel.

There is one more thing to take into account. Despite the three onboard fans, only the frontal one received a filter. With the purpose to clean it, the user needs to unscrew the bolts and remove an ornamental grid. The filter itself consists of a plastic frame and nylon net. Neither top fans nor PSU might boast built-in filters.
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  • 09 August 2013, 18:37
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