| Corsair Carbide 500R Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | ||||||||
| Written by Dan Ferguson | ||||||||
| Tuesday, 01 November 2011 | ||||||||
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Closer Look: ExteriorThe Corsair Carbide 500R comes in two flavors, black or white. Benchmark Reviews has the privilege of showing you the white version (which in the author's opinion is the better-looking case). Both black and white versions are an improvement over the 400R which seemed a little unbalanced with the raised front.
The Carbide 500R has straight panels and straight lines on the main edges that give it a balanced, clean look. The side panels protrude in the center of the case which give it some styling and break up the pure geometry of the edges which helps it avoid the solid box shape of a boring computer. The left panel has a perforated grill for improved airflow that also improves the style.
In a matching fashion, the front of the Carbide 500R is mostly covered in the dark, perforated pattern of the side. The front panel provides an appealing veneer for two 120 mm fans, four 5.25" bays, and the array of input and output ports and buttons. Behind the grill are dust filters to help keep the interior of the case cleaner and increase the longevity of your components. It's very straight-forward to remove the front panel with a firm jerk to clean the filters or service the fans.
Similar to the left panel, the right panel is also distended to provide room for cables, fans, CPU coolers, etc. Both panels are easily removable with captive thumb-screws so the screws won't be unintentionally lost. Quickly and easily removable panels are features on my list of things that you don't notice until they're missing. I've been surprised by cases with difficult to remove front and back panels, but you won't have to worry about that with the 500R.
The back of the 500R better shows the cases true size. It measures on the taller side at 20.5", and the extra width is contained mostly at the convex extensions of the side panels. With the extra height, Corsair added an extra expansion slot, a 120 mm fan w/ option for 140 mm, and room at the top for additional fans or a radiator. Eight expansion slots are usually only necessary when using three or four graphics cards. That type of power needs serious cooling, and four water-cooling ports are provided if necessary.
From underneath the case can be seen a removable dust filter, thumb-screws (for one of the removable drive cages) and the support feet. The support feet have two nice features that are easy to overlook. 1) They are made of soft rubber which helps dampen extra case noise. 2) They extend underneath the front panel. With the feet under the front panel this provides better access to the handle at the bottom of the front panel. It also means that the front panel can be removed and replaced without lifting the front of the case off the ground. Perhaps a small nuisance, but one I'm happy to discard.
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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.