Gallery Corsair Carbide Air 540 build

[maverick_brent]

killswitch...i am itching for that case......how satisfying is it from going from a standard case to this? is it obnoxiously wide? ius it a "on a stand case" or would it be good with a decemnt desk say 27' wide? ....

 

[Killswitch]

killswitch...i am itching for that case......how satisfying is it from going from a standard case to this? is it obnoxiously wide? ius it a "on a stand case" or would it be good with a decemnt desk say 27' wide? ....

Well to start off, my last case wasn't quite a "standard" one. :haha: But going from a Thermaltake Level 10 GT to the Air 540 was a nice change. My biggest gripe about the Level 10 GT was the lack of serious watercooling options. I was stuck with a 240 and 120 rad unless I went with an external one, which wasn't appealing to me. The thing I will miss however is the HDD mounting in the Level 10. I only have one spot in the Carbide for a HDD because the front 360 rad wouldn't allow me to have my second HDD in the front.

The Carbide is only 13" wide so it's not a wide as you'd expect. As you see in the pics I have it on a little table. My buddy Slik has his sitting right on top of his desk. Also given the width I think there's just the right amount of room in the backside compartment. Not too big, not too small.

Regarding some of the things you asked me via PM..... ya the side panels are a bit flimsy but I wouldn't consider that a deal breaker considering you get a nice large tinted window which REALLY looks sweet if your internals are layed out nicely and get the lighting just right. For the pump and res you'll have to get creative if you're planning to use parts you already have. I found some brackets at work and bolted up a make-shift to the rear of the chassis and it rests on top of the PSU. I was going to take a picture of that but the backside of my build is messy. :haha: I should anyhow just to show you what I did.

The other other option is to just buy this and be done with it. -> Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 Cube Case - Custom Dual Radiator Series - FrozenCPU.com
It looks soooo sexy in orange!! :thumb:

 

[maverick_brent]

Well to start off, my last case wasn't quite a "standard" one. :haha: But going from a Thermaltake Level 10 GT to the Air 540 was a nice change. My biggest gripe about the Level 10 GT was the lack of serious watercooling options. I was stuck with a 240 and 120 rad unless I went with an external one, which wasn't appealing to me. The thing I will miss however is the HDD mounting in the Level 10. I only have one spot in the Carbide for a HDD because the front 360 rad wouldn't allow me to have my second HDD in the front.

The Carbide is only 13" wide so it's not a wide as you'd expect. As you see in the pics I have it on a little table. My buddy Slik has his sitting right on top of his desk. Also given the width I think there's just the right amount of room in the backside compartment. Not too big, not too small.

Regarding some of the things you asked me via PM..... ya the side panels are a bit flimsy but I wouldn't consider that a deal breaker considering you get a nice large tinted window which REALLY looks sweet if your internals are layed out nicely and get the lighting just right. For the pump and res you'll have to get creative if you're planning to use parts you already have. I found some brackets at work and bolted up a make-shift to the rear of the chassis and it rests on top of the PSU. I was going to take a picture of that but the backside of my build is messy. :haha: I should anyhow just to show you what I did.

The other other option is to just buy this and be done with it. -> Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 Cube Case - Custom Dual Radiator Series - FrozenCPU.com
It looks soooo sexy in orange!! :thumb:

Thanks for your answers, great ones i will say ..I'm coming from a case with zero w/c options imho..nice to know there is opportunity to moddify for a pump/res....how is the dust situation with the lack of filters?

 

[Killswitch]

Thanks for your answers, great ones i will say ..I'm coming from a case with zero w/c options imho..nice to know there is opportunity to moddify for a pump/res....how is the dust situation with the lack of filters?

I haven't had it long enough yet to know if dust will be a major problem, but there is a magnetic dust filter under the front cover. I don' think it will be that bad.

 

[hitek]

Very cool build, the custom loops and corsair SP fans look sexy.

I just happened to find an Air 540 for a very solid price on Kijiji earlier tonight and he asked if I also wanted the H110 closed loop cooler he currently has installed.
So all in all even before taxes and shipping it's going to cost me less than I was planning on spending on the case alone from NCIX!

I'm interested in seeing the backside of the build too,
one thing I wish they added was support for more 3.5" drives.
I currently have three 2TB drives along with a SSD.

 

[SugarJ]

If you don't put an optical drive in, you can put your extra drives in the 5.25" bays. Or get a cheap NAS off Craigslist for your storage.

 

[hitek]

If you don't put an optical drive in, you can put your extra drives in the 5.25" bays. Or get a cheap NAS off Craigslist for your storage.

Yeah, I'm planning on using my old Q6600 as a Plex server/NAS anyways.

But I always like the challenge of finding out a way to do what I want with pieces of hardware.
I can probably gut one of my older cases that has 3.5" drive cage and sleds and mount that on the back side of the case with the PSU.

I saw a few builds where people tossed a drive or two back there.

 

[SugarJ]

The whole 5.25" cage is attached with thumbscrews, it's very easy to remove. It should be fairly simple to mod a 3.5" cage to attach there, or in place of the 2.5" cage. Because my WC loop is completely in the mobo side of the case, there's actually a lot of room in the other half to mount things.

 

[CyseroTheMage]

Looks clean, how's the noise on that?
My dual SP120's are quite on the loud side...