Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 (CC-9011030-WW) Black Steel High Airflow ATX Cube Case Support ATX Power Supply

Pros: Corsair has really made a splash in the chassis market with their industrial good looking cases that spare no expense while incorporating much of the feedback Corsair actively seeks from end-users and enthusiasts alike. The results are evident as the Air 540 gives a new take to the mid-tower chassis. This is my 1st Corsair case and I am extremely impressed, read on for pros/cons and further suggestions +This case LOOKS AMAZING. I really love the white and black constrast and the white is a nice quality powder coat that does not pick up fingerprints. I personally think it looks better than the black (fingerprints pick up) and the gunmetal grey, but this is of course personal preference. +The form factor isn't quite new, admittedly the HAF-XB did this compartment thing first but Corsair twists this on its side and adds an amazing looking window that is super clean with all the right cut outs. The big, clean side panel lets you really emphasize all those expensive components you put in there to show off that fancy GeForce GTX or Fury X Radeon Logo. Simply brilliant looking. +Quiet!!!! Much quieter than my Cooler Master HAF X. These 140mm Corsair fans are really quiet and move a ton of air. With a 2x120mm rad on top, that's quite a bit of exhaust too. +The double compartment is really brilliant, as it allows you to route your PSU and SATA cables from the back and keep it as messy as you like while the windowed portion is really minimal and clean. +Top and front grilles are really easy to remove and clean. +The stockier and wider look of the case looks more like an appliance than the standard ATX full tower, and it manages to hold almost as much. Its just a much more balanced looking case that looks fantastic imo. There are a few improvements to be made, but overall I think Corsair really gets it. +Power and HDD led are bright but not overpowered. Front looks clean and well-balanced. I prefer it in vertical mode, I don't like how it looks when oriented horizontally.

Cons: None of these are enough to take eggs off, these are more suggestions for Corsair because I know their top notch employees look for feedback to make their products perfect. -Not enough SSD holders. Some may say 4 in the cage, 2 on the hot swap are enough, but high-end platforms like X99 have 10 SATA3/6G slots and I use them all. There's enough room above the SATA cage for another SATA cage and this would go a long way to making this case perfect. -There's no screens below the hot swap bays leaving gaping holes there. -Could use more USB 3.0 or even USB 2.0 front headers. There's only 2xUSB3.0 which is low compared to most chassis. -A slightly wider case (Air 740?) would allow the 5.25" bays to be horizontal instead of vertical. While vertical is OK for optical drives, it is non-optimal, and anything like fan controller LEDs or add-in slot displays like the Asus Rampage V will only display in horizontal mode. -A drive bay cage for the 5.25" slots would be nice to accommodate more 3.5" or 2.5" drives. I ended up buying the IcyDock bay from Newegg for 3.5" and 2x2.5" drives which ended up allowing me to use all drives. I also used a dremel to rub the edges down to allow use of the native white front bay cover. -The side panels are not as flimsy as some reviews stated, so maybe they improved the rigidity after early complaints. The big window however means air flow is not as good as the case I came from, the CM HAF X -The bottom hot swap bay holders are not as sturdy as you would like with SSDs installed. With 3.5" HDDs you would get extra support from the drive, but its really hard to remove 2.5" drives with an SSD. You can just insert the SSDs without a bracket though without any problems. -The grommet come loose from the mobo holes and are really hard to replace once that happens. -The PSU compartment gets a little bit tight with longer PSUs. Also, I found the PSU tends to rattle a little bit with this mounting system. Corsair can maybe use some rubber on the PSU standoffs to absorb rattling noises.

Overall Review: This is my first Corsair case, I have a ton of their other products but this case has thoroughly impressed me. I know Corsair really combs reviews, forums for feedback and it really shows. The attention to detail on this thing is amazing and everytime I look over I just smile because it really accentuates all that money I've put in there. Highly recommend to anyone, even though cooling has dropped off slightly compared to my bigger full tower, its worth it for the great looks and functionality.

Pros: Excellent airflow Fantastic cable management Attractive cube design Plenty of room for radiators Fans are pretty quiet

Cons: Hard Drive cover to clean up presentation would be nice, not really a con though, just a wish list item. SSD cage is a little flimsy

Overall Review: I have owned lots of cases in my day and every few years a new design really jumps out as having some outstanding features. If you are into watercooling, even with AIO units, you owe it to yourself to take a look at this case as it is something special for enthusiasts. With the PSU, wiring and SSD's in the other chamber, it allows excellent airflow to the components that really need to cooling. I was concerned that my MSI GTX780 Lightning that is OC'd to 1306/1650 might run hotter than in my Cooler Master Storm Sniper case, however temps are actually almost the same even without a giant 200mm fan blowing in from the side. The opening on the back to the back side of the motherboard is large and allows easy access to swap out coolers backplates. Speaking of coolers, mounting a Cooler Master Glacer 240L was easy and fit perfectly with the provided fan spacing. With the radiator in place there in ample room to access the motherboard and wiring. Future plans are to add my Corsair H110 to the front position and it will water cool my 780 with a NZXT G10 bracket. The only con that I can think of is that the removable SSD cage is a little flimsy and could use a redesign to provide a more solid mounting mechanism.

Pros: I tried out the black RGB version of this case with both ITX and micro-ATX motherboards. Oddly enough, the ITX build was the more challenging, though I’ll get into that in the cons section. I like the concept of compartmentalizing the components as this case has done. It makes for a very wide case but on the plus side there are no hard drive bays blocking airflow to your graphics card, and hiding away the PSU hides away the cable mess. If you’re looking at this case, then you are looking for some serious bling… and it delivers. The light loop (LL) fans look fantastic. The customization combinations using Corsair’s iCUE software are mind boggling. If you want even more bling, the included fan hub can handle up to six of Corsair’s RGB fans. By the way, the case can house seven 120/140 mm fans: 2 in the front, two on the top, two on the bottom (ITX builds only), and then there’s a spot near the hard drives on the non-windowed side of the case. Oh, and every single one of these locations has magnetic dust filters. This case is quite the deal with the bundled two Corsair LL 120mm fans ($35 each), Corsair Lighting Node Pro ($60), and Corsair fan hub ($10). Doing the math that’s $140 MSRP of extras compared to the $50 premium over the non-RGB version of this case. That’s value right there.

Cons: Now, I have gushed about this case for a bit. However I do have a laundry list of cons to cover. This case has room for a number of improvements that I must point out to help fellow shoppers. Most egregious is the graphic card retention mechanism. There’s no way to securely install your video card other than the case clamping system. When clamped onto my particular card there was an awful lot of looseness in the card. I discovered how much of a problem this was when I first tried to boot after completing my build. With the side window off, the system would successfully boot. When the window was on I would get no display. Further investigation discovered that since the main chamber of this case is a bit narrow, the external power cable plugged into my video card was being pushed in by the window when it was installed. This combined with a not so secure video card resulted in the card being unseated when the side was installed. I was able to solve this problem by seriously bending the thick GPU power cables down so they wouldn’t move the card when pressed by the side panel. Next con is Corsair pre-managing the case cables. That sounds like a good idea, but using zip ties instead of twist ties is a semi-permanent way to go about it. If you want the fans or any of the cables anywhere else but where Corsair put them, you’ll need to carefully cut the ties without damaging the cables. Some of the zip ties were very tight and had very little slack to insert a cutting tool. Next up, the USB cable for the Lighting Node Pro module was too short to reach the USB header on my ITX build. For my micro-ATX build the USB headers are on the right side of the motherboard and that works great for this setup. ITX motherboards like to put USB headers at the top and the motherboard. My solution was to detach the lighting module from the case side (it’s stuck on with adhesive tape) to allow the USB cable to reach the ITX USB header. I have two strikes against the thumb screws used to attach the glass panels on this case. Strike one is the thumbscrews are hard to grip and they thread very stiff in the tapped holes. Every single time I had to open this case up I would try to do it by hand, but eventually just grabbed a screwdriver to get the thumb screws to move. Strike two is the decision to have the thumb screw rubber grommets installed in the glass panels rather than have the grommets as part of the case, like competing cases have. Unless you have gravity working with you (case on its side), you have to carefully balance the glass while trying to thread the thumb screws into the holes. At the same time, you are trying not to drop the glass panel, scratch the glass panel, get fingerprints on the inside of the glass panel, etc. On the flip-side, when removing the glass panel it drops right off when the last screw pop out since it is completely suspended by the thumb screws, so be careful. The next con is about heatsink clearance. Call me old fashioned but I don’t have and AIO cooler and still use a tower cooler. 150mm headspace is all you get. This case is definitely intended for 240/280 mm radiators. The cooler I use is 152mm tall and sure enough it touches the side panel and there is the smallest 1-2 mm gap in the side panel, though it is secured well enough for me since all screws are threaded and it's not even noticeable. The point I’m trying to make is even though this is a very wide case, it really only has 150mm clearance. The final con is there is no HDD light on this case. I guess it’s not really a con but rather an amusing footnote because the case instead comes with a power LED. With this case being lit up with a complete RGB light show, it’s pretty obvious if the computer is powered on or not but they have added a power LED just in case you’re not sure (well… it does help you find the power button in the dark). Also, you could always use the power LED wires to the HDD activity header, so it’s not really a con.

Overall Review: Even though my cons seem to overpower my pros, it’s actually quite the opposite. This case is so well built and the layout is so good I’m not docking any eggs. It really is a nice case and once built is quite eye catching. Some extra info for those of you considering this case: It has a drive cage for three 2.5 hard drives and two 3.5 hard drives, as stated in the specifications. What you may not know is that the trays for the 3.5 hard drives has the mounting holes to secure 2.5 hard drives so you can actually have five 2.5 drives, or just remove the 2.5 cage and use the 3.5 cage which has convenient exterior access for your 2.5 drives. I was clear about hating the thumb screws on this case. Corsair was kind enough to include alternative low profile allen head screws to replace them and an allen key to secure them. Since I pretty much required a tool to remove the thumb screws anyway I opted to swap them out for the allen screws since they look better in my opinion. You’ll want to invest in some glass cleaner for your project, because this thing is a fingerprint magnet. One of the challenges of building in this case is trying to avoid fingerprints on the inside of the glass panels since you must disassemble to wipe them off.

Pros: First let me put this up front, I did not purchase this case. It was offered for review and I had always wanted to see what the crazy was for these type of gaming cases. When I first got it and looked it over the first thing I noticed was there were no bays for the legacy Blu-Ray, DVD, or CD (my age is showing here). This case has many unique features and the design is very sleek and modern. It may not be the case for you if you are looking for sharp angles and curves. If you are looking for gaming case then this could be the case for you. Corsair has delivered a case that shows some true progress and a new structure that in my opinion actually work. This is a great looking case. It is shorter than most normal mATX cases, but the wideness accommodates the PSU compartment behind the motherboard. Cable management can be a breeze if you want your stuff where Corsair has already placed the cables. There is a lot of space in this case to accommodate the components of your build (see cons). Building in this case was a great experience and for the gamer I highly recommend its flashiness, but for the average user, I recommend a more standardized computer case, Corsair or another brand. There is no need for a bottom PSU area or a PSU shroud that would waste space in the forefront of your computer build. There is great fan support: Top: 2 x 120 mm, 2 x 140 mm (1 x LL120 RGB Included); Front: 2 x 120 mm, 2 x 140 mm (1 x LL120 RGB Included); Bottom: 2 x 120 mm, 2 x 140 mm. There is also a Radiator Options: Bottom - Up to 240 mm / Front - Up to 240 mm / Top - Up to 240 mm. Keep in mind this is a 15.96-pound case, so the selection of a PSU will add to this weightage. Two other things to keep in mind is the max GPU length allowance is 300 mm and if you are installing a tower cooler on your CPU is a max CPU Cooler height allowance is 150 mm. Another note is the RGB Lighting with CORSAIR iCUE Software Control: Two included CORSAIR LL120 RGB fans boast 32 individually customizable LEDs, controlled by CORSAIR iCUE software to deliver a symphony of color that will stun you when working properly (advice, go to Corsair support and download latest drivers and firmware). There is good airflow depending on how you set up your case. There is plenty space to route cables around all edges of the motherboard and very good noise isolation.

Cons: These are the cons, but I did not deduct any eggs, because to me they are minor. The HDD tray covers the back of the motherboard and blocks access when installing a cooler. It is really easy to remove and replaced with the 5 securing screws. There is no fan slot for the rear of the case. The graphic card retention mechanism needs improvement. The Corsair pre-managing the case cables are a good idea, but using zip ties instead of twist ties make it semi-permanent. If you want to move the fans or any of the cables anywhere else in the case. There is a need to carefully cut the ties without damaging the cables and some of the zip ties are very tight and have very little slack to insert a cutting tool (advice get some flush cutters and micro pliers). I noticed the same thing as another reviewer: The USB cable for the Lighting Node Pro module is too short to reach the USB header on the ITX motherboards. For micro-ATX build the USB headers are on the right side of the motherboard and the cable length is adequate. The problem arises with the ITX motherboards and their placement of USB headers at the top and the motherboards. One solution is to detach the lighting module from the case side (it’s stuck on with adhesive tape) to allow the USB cable to reach the ITX USB header. The other is to purchase a Phanteks RGB LED 4 pin adapter ($2.80) that will work in this case.

Overall Review: Overall this was an exciting and challenging build that I will donate to a charity for a raffle. It is a bit too flashy for my taste but the younger people will enjoy this build consisting of the following components: GIGABYTE AB350M-DS3H AM4 AMD B350 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. AMD RYZEN 5 1600 6-Core 3.2 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo) Socket AM4 65W YD1600BBAEBOX Desktop Processor. PCcooler X6 CPU Cooler 5 Heatpipes 12cm fan 4pin PWM LED Quiet for intel 775 115x 2011 AMD am3 FM2 AM4 cpu cooling radiator fan. CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200. GIGABYTE Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 GV-RX570GAMING-4GD 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support ATX Video Card. Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-1000FX 1000W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan 10 Years Warranty Compact 140 mm Size Power Supply. 1 Each WD Red Pro WD4003FFBX 4TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal. 2 Each Mushkin Enhanced TRIACTOR 3DL 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3D TLC Internal SSD. EDUP Wifi Adapter ac600Mbps Wireless Usb Adapter 5.8GHz/2.4GHz Dual Band. Corsair 256GB Voyager Slider X1 USB 3.0 Flash Drive, Speed Up to 130MB/s (CMFSL3X1-256GB). Corsair K95 RGB PLATINUM Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, Cherry MX Speed, Backlit RGB LED, Gunmetal. Corsair Gaming SCIMITAR PRO RGB Gaming Mouse, Backlit RGB LED, 16000 DPI, Black Side Panel, Optical. LG 25UM56-P 25" Class 21:9 UltraWide IPS Gaming Monitor 2560 x 1080 5ms GTG 60Hz 5,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio with Black Stabilizer and Dynamic Action Link, SRGB Over 99% and 4-Screen Split. RAZER RZ05-01260100-R3U1 Leviathan - Elite Gaming & Music Sound Bar. Corsair HS70 Wireless Gaming Headset with 7.1 Surround Sound, Carbon.

Pros: +Beautiful looks, mine is black theme intended for CPU & GPU AIO cooling later down the road +With some LED lighting options this case can be a nice show off +Tempered glass panels are amazing and nicely show what’s behind them +Separate compartment for drives and PSU with wiring +Great cable management features +Dust filters +Choice of mounting space for 2 sets of 280mm radiators (top and bottom) and 240mm in front

Cons: -With my mATX board I can really use only 1 out of 3 cable management cutouts as the other 2 are nearly completely covered by the board -You will have to worry about fingerprints on glass panels :D -There could be more space under the bottom-most PCIe slot -No HDD activity LED, but it doesn’t seem to be greatly missed nowadays -Be careful not to drop the glass door when removing mounting screws, it drops dead down right after you remove the last one – maybe the door should have a handle? -after installing 240 radiator in front (part of Corsair H100i Pro) I noticed the magnetic filter will not fit anymore (dropped an egg)

Overall Review: I like this case a lot, really impressed with looks and flexibility of cooling solutions available for use in this little (although fat) case I guess the front and top glass panels can stay at all times since they do block the air flow, but I think they might be limiting it a bit? I don't think any of Cons I found are actually big enough top drop an egg from rating, it's still an awesome product and also backed by superb Corsair support!

Pros: Where do I start, this case is great it has plenty of room for building in. Tempered glass on the top, side, and front lets you show off your build, and with the RGB led fans that are included it looks amazing. Front audio, mic, and 2x USB 3.0 ports. It comes with 2 fans but has room to add up to 5 more.The side and bottom filters are magnetic so you can take em off easily, clean them and slap em right back on. The front filter is magnetic but you have to remove the front panel to get to it, not hard but just takes a little more time. It comes with the corsair light node to control the rgb fans, colors, and which way you want the colors to move, you have to download a program from corsair called iCUE. It does only support micro atx and mini atx but for me that was no problem. I put an MSI b360m gaming plus m-atx board in it with 16gb ddr4 2400 ram, and a corsair 550 watt psu, along with an ADATA 128gb m.2 ssd for OS and 3tb WD HDD for storage. For video I went with a PNY nvidia gtx 1060 oc led card, pcie-3.0 running on an LG 4k uhdtv in 4k looks beautiful. For starters I slapped in an intel celeron g4900 (300 series cpu) but its a beast for celeron. I plan to up it to an i7 later (300 series 6- core).

Cons: I have not found any cons for this case personally, I love it, I got the white one but think maybe I should have gone with black.

Overall Review: I highly recommend this case for building a nice home pc, or gaming pc. Its a great case for the price. It has room in it for 2x 3.5 inch HDDs and 3x 2.5 inch HDDs or SSDs.

Pros: Love the white, colors match well from metal to plastic also. Very solid build quality. Plenty of room for watercooling, 240mm or 280mm in front and top. Air coolers up to about 155mm tall will fit. PSU fits in back and has it's own vent, please be sure to mount it fan out. Ask the Verge. Cable management is very easy with all of the room in the back you can make a clean build without spending a top of time trying to hide everything. Air flow and noise are OK. Fans can fit in the bottom if you use a mITX motherboard. Tempered glass all over and it looks awesome. Better in person then even in pictures.

Cons: The screw holding the tempered glass in are a bit long, I understand safety but it's a bit overboard. Not a fan of the graphics card hold down but also understand this due to space, I had issues with a heavy duty HDMI cable fitting. Had to change aircoolers and either had to remove the motherboard completely or remove the HDD cage and PSU. Kind of makes me wonder why the cutout in the motherboard tray at all?

Overall Review: All in all I really like the finished build and for the most part the build process. It's a great looking case with Corsairs usual attention to what enthusiasts want. My minor issues really don't take away from how nice this case is. Might get a black one for my HTPC. Modest build for my son...Asus Maximus Gene IV V3, i5 2500k, R9 270x, 8 Gigs of Corsair DDR3 @ 1600 all used, 256 Gb SSD 1 TB storage drive.Total build with the current cost of this case would be about $425

Pros: RGB lighting can match any color setup that you may choose for your PC build tempered glass increases strength, rigidity, and peace of mind there is plenty of room in the back of the case for hiding the wires and route cords for tidy cable management front audio ports are very handy to have and were simple to install to the motherboard the two fans that this case comes with are quiet magnetic air filters for the fans the h100i that I own from a previous build fit snug in this case ample amount of airflow keeps your components nice and cool in this case

Cons: iCUE, the software to control the lighting on almost all Corsair products, was not stable for me on my old computer and is not stable on a fresh install of Windows 10 on this new computer. Corsair needs to straighten out the issues with this softwares frequent and annoying crashes. I have a Corsair Void headset, Corsair K65 keyboard, and Corsair Glaive mouse. I wish Corsair concentrated a bit less on making a flashy UI and more on stability.

Overall Review: this is the second corsair case that I have owned. The first case, the 650D is humoungus compared to this case and I much prefer the size of this case. join the RGB gaming hardware craze. If you are going to fork out the money to have this feature, you will want your build to look good both on the outside lighting and the inside