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Thread: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

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    Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Corsair's first cube chassis goes under the spotlight.
    Read more.

  2. #2
    Spreadie
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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    It looks lovely, if a bit big. The radiator support is impressive too, but the noise rating would give me pause.

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    chown -R me ./base BlackDwarf's Avatar
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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    I used to have a Yeong Yang YY-0221B Server Cube back in the day. It was a cracking case. Seriously tempted by this.
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    Moderator chuckskull's Avatar
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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    If this had been around 6 months ago I'd of bought one instead of the 500R. Looks like it ticks all the boxes. If corsair ever does do an obsidian version they should really tidy up the bottom of the case and carry the styling on around so it looks good running window up(use magnetic feet or something to keep it looking clean). It looks really nice in that 3rd shot. Looks more squat and solid.

  5. #5
    Spreadie
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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Quote Originally Posted by BlackDwarf View Post
    I used to have a Yeong Yang YY-0221B Server Cube back in the day. It was a cracking case. Seriously tempted by this.
    That's what this reminded me of.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    I have a cubby hole under my desk for a new build. This case is a bit too wide for that space but gives me ideas for a bespoke case.

    I suspect the noise issue can be easily dealt with some proper sound proofing material stuck everywhere - after all there is plenty of room!

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Are the feet removable? To me it just looks like it should naturally sit on its' side so the optical drive and all the mesh lines are horizontal and the window is facing upwards, sitting somewhere on the corner of my desk.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Quote Originally Posted by cjs150 View Post
    I suspect the noise issue can be easily dealt with some proper sound proofing material stuck everywhere - after all there is plenty of room!
    The idea of having to throw more money at a case in this price bracket to address a problem they should have tackled isn't very appealing to me.
    Quote Originally Posted by BiblicalShower View Post
    Are the feet removable? To me it just looks like it should naturally sit on its' side so the optical drive and all the mesh lines are horizontal and the window is facing upwards, sitting somewhere on the corner of my desk.
    Yes, that pic of it on it's side looked more like the natural position for it, but you'd need to relocate the feet to the side panel. It still might be worth it.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Great idea and concept but whilst it performs reasonably well it doesn't really back up Corsair's claims does it??

    I think it will be great for watercooling and modders but I think for an everyday case it would be far too noisy and the lack of drive bays really is a killer for me .... hopefully somebody will take this concept and actually correct the flaws I see as I do like the idea.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    On it's side with a nice loop and a bit of subtle lighting in the window border(just a couple of leds) I think would look fantastic, just enough of a glow to reach through the vents and draw the eye to the window. The layout means only the pretty bits would be showing, hate when you can see drive cages, PSU etc through windows, would give lovely clean look inside and out. Just a shame modding the bottom would be a monumental job, doubly so if you want to carry on that styling round to the 3 sides. You'd block the PSU intake, but that's a pretty easy fix, just own feet.

    But if you've got a stereo or something on your desk to push it up against you can skip that whole headache and get the same look.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Quote Originally Posted by Spreadie View Post
    The idea of having to throw more money at a case in this price bracket to address a problem they should have tackled isn't very appealing to me.
    To be fair it's only 1.2 decibels over the Silencio.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    giving the Air 540 a fun and almost playful attraction.
    I think Hexus needs to get out more

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    I actually want this case and like the looks of it and usually hate mini cases.
    JABULANI NONKE

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    Mini???

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    I really like the look of it, I'm a sucker for the chamfered edge look.
    It does have a bit of an old server cube look to it, I think if the bits around the vents where silver rather than black it would look good.
    I'd agree it looks good great and maybe better on it's side, but only from that angle.
    You'd need to mod it to continue the lines of the vents and chamfered edges around to what was the bottom.

    I'm a bit dissapointed in the lack of drive bays, they could of put a 2nd small removable cage above the 2.5" cage for say two 3.5" drives.

    The price doesn't really surprise me, no corsair cases are cheap and this is a fairly specialist chassis.
    Apart from 2nd hand Yeong Yang YY-0221B (£75) the only other atx cube case I know of are the mountain mods and you're looking at $200+shipping+customs at least.

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    Re: Reviews - Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

    I really like the concept, but it just seems so big. I have a 600T at the moment and have managed to get it looking fairly neat but like many cases I have built with recently the area behind the motherboard is much too narrow, the side panel struggles to go back on however neatly I try and route my cables. that is despite the 600T being a very wide case.

    It seems such an obvious thing to do extend that area to also contain a side on PSU, side on optical drive, and enough room for maybe a single 3.5" and single 2.5" and thats all I would need. The case just looks so damn wide though. I feel like Headroom for CPU cooler and a side on PSU account for so much, but this looks like it adds a fair bit of width beyond that.

    I guess its not really any different to what something like the P180 was doing a while ago though, with a completely seperate chamber for PSU and HDD. Cable Management makes this approach so much easier though with all that delicious space behind the motherboard.

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