| Corsair Carbide 500R Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Dan Ferguson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 01 November 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Page 1 of 6 Corsair Carbide 500R Computer Case Review
Manufacturer: Corsair Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Corsair If you're looking for more than a normal mid-sized ATX case can offer, or if you are having a hard time finding all the features you want without breaking the bank, then you'll definitely be interested in the Corsair Carbide 500R. Benchmark Reviews recently showed you the 400R and its excellent capabilities. A step above that is the 500R. We looked at model CC9011012-WW which has an arsenal of features. Four stock fans for massive cooling, tool-less installation, modular/configurable drive bays, eight expansion slots. It's got everything you need, and nothing you don't. This is a great case for the expanding system; for users who want to step out of something small and start getting big on their performance. Mid-tower ATX cases are like mid-range video cards. The decision of which one to buy is far more involved than just buying the most expensive case or card and calling it good because you got everything that could possibly be offered. The mid-range market, for both cases and video cards, offers something slightly less than top-of-the-line. This means that to save on cost you are sacrificing SOMETHING whether it's room, performance, features...SOMETHING. Often you don't realize how much you need a certain feature until you are suffering from its absence, when it's already too late. So every time we look at a mid-range video card or a mid-tower case we are trying to find out what features were included, and which features were left out to fit into the mid-tower footprint and price-range. If you have this understanding when looking for a case then you can save yourself some time and money by finding exactly the features you need at the expense of others. Sometimes. There's almost always something you learn with each case, something you realize that would have been nice to have. But your odds are still better at finding a case geared towards your specific needs. If you are new to custom builds then you may not be sure what you need. If you are a more experienced builder then you probably have a growing list of likes and dislikes as well as pet peeves. Now enter the Corsair Carbide 500R. It's designed to be more than your average mid-tower case. It can simultaneously meet the needs of new builders and aficionados. Its feature list is long enough to warrant issuing a pamphlet, and the features are not only useful, but they are exactly what you need for a near-perfect build. It's still not a perfect case, if there is such a thing, and we'll again show you what you're getting and what you may be sacrificing.
With this in mind, Benchmark Reviews will take a more comprehensive look at the features of the Carbide 500R compared to the less expensive 400R and other similar cases. We will focus on the core features for which this case was designed: cooling, ease of build, expandability and looks. All aspects will be gauged while keeping price in mind and what you could otherwise get for your money. In the end a score will be assigned based on this evaluation. Corsair Carbide 500R Features
Computer Case Specifications
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Comments
120mm fans are good, but compared to 140mm of today, the 120mm just doesn't compare. A good 140mm fan can best a good 120mm by 10dba and still provide the same overall cfm. That's cutting the noise by half.
The 690-II Advanced still has this case beat hands down in price and features.
The 690-II Advanced is a pretty nice case for sure, and has two main advantages I could see (the room for a bottom mounted rad and the external SATA hot swap bay), but it has no grommets, the drive cages are not removable, not as many fan choices on the side panel, not so much room for the cable management, none of the front panel or fan cables are sleeved (or at least black, and yeah little things like that make a difference). Of course you can't put as big a card in it as you can this case because you cannot remove the drive cages. And there's only 7 expansion slots instead of eight. I would agree Corsair should get this case price down by $20 or $30, but I would not say the 690-II "has this case beat hands down in price and features".
A good case modder can always find equivalent performance when altering fan sizes and numbers.
Anything you can achieve with a 200mm fan I can achieve with any other sized fans, even if they're 5 or 10% less efficient and even if I had to use more of them. Adding in multiple fans or faster fans or whatever. Yeah yeah, we know about the centre hub area. So what? Someone may purchase a 700 RPM 200mm fan that only moves, say, 70 CFM. Someone else may chose a 120mm fan running at 2000 RPM that moves 110 CFM. So what if the 200mm fan is more efficient, what does it matter? So you may get a little less noise moving the same amount of air, that's about all your increased efficiency is good for.
I'm not arguing the physics, I'm arguing the point that higher efficiency is not necessarily any better unless you're strictly looking at noise per unit airflow.
Another advantage is that smaller fans can fit in smaller areas. One more thing to consider is that if you go looking for 200mm fans you'll find that, as a percentage, there's a lot more crappy large sized fans than in the smaller sizes. I've seen people in build forums going through a lot of larger fans because they purchase them and then are unhappy with their performance. As a matter of fact, many of them end up with the same NZXT 166 cfm 200mm fan I use in the front of my case because they're looking for better airflow, not lower noise. A lot of 200mm fans don't have especially good airflow for such large fans, especially in places where you could mount two 120mm fans and get exceptional airflow (like 2 x 120mm Scythe 2000 RPM Slipstream fans at 2 x 110 CFM for 220 CFM). There are other 120mm fans that offer lower airflow and lower noise, but add two together and they're better than most 200mm fans. This goes right back to my first post where my point was what type of fans you use is really a personal choice, efficiency be damned. After all, if it wasn't, ALL manufacturers would be using the SAME fans.
##amazon.com/MAXXAIR-HVCF4000-4000-Heavy-duty-Carpet/dp/B001V5J2LQ/ref=pd_cp_hi_1
Duct that into the side of your case, and you'll only need one fan.
that would be very very nice ghetto cooling... :D
I can't decide for you, as I said I'm sort of biased. Hope some of this info helps you out a bit though.