Corsair Carbide Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case

Background: I just started learning how to build computer systems. I am a physician of a small medical practice that has three offices. I like to game and enjoy watching people on YouTube build computer systems. Thus, when our computer systems in our offices started to reach the end of their lives and needed to be replaced, I volunteered to use this as an opportunity to build the computer systems from the ground up.The old computers for mostly Dell and HP systems that were running windows XP on fairly slow and small mechanical hard drives. The systems themselves were of such an age it wasn't worth it trying to replace individual components such as swapping in a solid-state drive into such an old system. Also I wanted to learn how to assemble a computer from the ground up and what better opportunity.I started with a lot of research. I used websites such as part picker, Life hacker, Linus tech tips, and Tested. There are multiple others and YouTube is a fantastic resource.Now to the case. The Corsair 540 is quite a well built device. It looks fantastic, it's more of a cube or square shape. Has a giant beautiful glass window to show off the pretty bits of your computer build. Is neither large nor small. It actually uses efficiently the space of the cube quite efficiently.Here are my bullet pros and cons:Pros:-lots of flexibility for modding the case to your need-well built - most screws used are thumb screws making assembly easy-although others have dissed the tool-less assembly, I love it for it's simplicity and speed.-designed to work well with Corsair coolers (again less hassles with assembly)-awesome air flow design: good for over clockers or those builds with heat generating bits (Multiple mechanical hard drives, CPU, GPU ect )-did I mention how pretty the case is?-large area to work in behind the motherboard --section where wires are supposed to be hidden and routed along with optical drives + solid-state drives. Some have again not favored this design because it is a fairly large section, has little of the great air flow design of the rest of the case. I, however loved all the space to route cables, and hide bits I don't want displayed in the window. You could throw a fan in to exhaust heat but again airflow not great here.-multiple USB3 / 2 ports - can never have enough-comes with quality fans included: good airflow and quiet- should be easy to clean and remove dustCons:-shipped in a box with hard styrofoam front / back caps. Very cheap + poor protection for the less than gentle UPS delivery handling. I purchased four cases for my builds. Of the four cases one came with a box that had a large gash/dent. When I opened the package the window panel was shattered and thus the case had to be return. Also every time you remove the case with the Styrofoam generates an enormous static charge. I had several painful shocks taking the case out of the box. That said, Amazon is awesome with the return policy. Just follow the online instructions, drop off the damage goods at your local UPS store free of charge, and Amazon at the same time sends a new package free of charge rush delivery. My damaged goods only cost me about a day and a half in wait time.-large cut out holes under the swappable hard drive bays: With the hard drives in place the holes are covered up but it does make the box look a little less in quality. They don't add to airflow or to aesthetic design.-footprint of the case will limit where it can be placed: I am using these cases for computer builds for our billing department. They have limited desk space on top but large amounts of room underneath the desk. The Corsair 540 will fit nicely and look great underneath there - so I've already thought out the limitations here. Unless you have quite a large area of deskspace the 540 will not fit too well on top of your desk where you keep your monitor and keyboard. My other builds have space limitations. For example our nurses and the front desk check-in checkout area have very little below desk and on desk space so I have gone with a smaller case build.Again I think most people looking at these reviews will see there is very little to complain about with the Corsair 540. I would read the reviews and notice the theme that repeats itself listed in most peoples' Cons remarks. They could be deal breakers for you when considering a case purchase.After learning how to build about a dozen computers, I would have to say the money is well spent: saves time, effort, damage to your knuckles and fingers from poor quality material. Hi recommendation from me!

This is a wonderful case. It is very large and I ordered two of them. I have them stacked and it's an imposing monolith of black on the end of my desk. These have so much room and the cable management is extraordinary. I love that I don't have to clean up all the wires that are partitioned behind the motherboard with the power supply. The fans are very quiet and there is plenty of room for all sorts of things in this case...except 3.5" drives. This can be improved with a 5.25" to 3.5" adapter for the other media bay and with some creativity, you could fashion some brackets to mount 2-3 more in the compartment with the power supply. I have a very long EVGA GeForce GX470 video card...yeah...yeah...I know...I'm saving for a GX1080, but the long video card fits well with a few inches remaining before the front of the case. If you are stacking the cases, the top of the case is metal where the rubber feet will rest from the top case and it is very stable, provides great cooling and doesn't mar the lower case.My only gripe is that when I push against the case to remove a USB cable or headphone jack, the entire front flexes (next to the power button) and sometimes I inadvertantly power off my computer. I've not pulled it apart to see if this can be remedied or not. As others have noted, there is no protection underneath the 3.5" drives on the bottom of the case but I could only see an issue placing it on tall carpeting. I bought a set of USB powered LED lights and ran them around the large window, just inside the case frame and it illuminates the innards nicely.

tl;dr:Great airflow for high performance gaming rigs and aesthetically pleasing, however lacking in space for those who wish to use more than two 3.5" HDDs.Aesthetically, this case is both clean and unique. It supports two 3.5" disks in the main chamber and up to four 2.5" disks in the SSD cage. (I would recommend a small fan be added if 2.5" HDDs are used)I needed an upgrade from my old CM 430 elite case that just didn't have the air flow for a powerful setup, and the direct airflow and dual chamber design looked promising.Rig specs:Motherboard - Asus p8z77-v wifi versionCPU/cooler - i7-3770k @ 4ghz (1.05v), CM hyper 212 evo cooler, stock fan push, sickleflow pullGPU - Gigabyte windforce ghz boost 7950 (1ghz, 1.15v)Memory - 16gb (8x2) corsair vengeance 1600mhz ramSSD - Samsung 840 series 120gbHDDs - 1tb seagate barracuda and 1.5tb WDPSU - ABS 1000W semi-modularThe first thing I noticed when assembling this case was how easy the assembly was. It isn't the least bit cramped and is extremely easy to work with and has all the cable management room you could ever want. I moved the 2x AF 140mm fans from the front to the top as intakes and added 3x 120mm CM sickleflow 2k rpm fans as intakes. The GPU and CPU both top out at just under 60C with max load in 28C ambient temperature. There are almost no extra cables in the main chamber because of the large amount of grommets for cable management. The bottom slot, however, does not have a grommet, which although a minor annoyance, is not a great issue.My only complaints are the lack of top filter, openings below the 3.5" bays, no grommet in the bottom slot, and that my specific PSU did not match up with corsair's tool-less PSU mounting hardware, though it screwed in place just fine. Thinner SSDs will need screwed into the cages.