| Corsair Carbide 500R Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | ||||||||
| Written by Dan Ferguson | ||||||||
| Tuesday, 01 November 2011 | ||||||||
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Detailed Exterior FeaturesNow we start to get a more intimate view of the features of the Carbide 500R. The front IO panel concentrates all your main access points to one location high on the case. The ports are forward facing which fits better in confined spaces. The 500R has two USB 3.0 ports, the requisite audio jacks, and one firewire port. If you're a firewire user then you'll love this, if you're an e-SATA user then you'll probably be a little upset. Maybe we should just make another new standard to make everyone happy. OK, the case has USB 3.0, everyone stop fighting. Really, the USB 3.0 ports are great to give the case long-term viability as well as backwards compatibility.
Power and reset switches are also present, nothing to complain about construction-wise for any of these. Two extra switches provide control over fans and LEDs. One turns the LEDs on or off, and the other controls the fans. The Carbide 500R has a multi-channel fan controller which can provide varying levels of cooling to the case.
On the top side of the case is a small tray good for holding who-knows-what nonsense. Behind that, the remainder of the top is covered in the same grill as the front and side panels giving a nice touch of congruency to the case. A gentle push on the front end of the grill allows it to unlatch and lift off.
Under the top cover are two 120 mm fan mounts. As the image above shows, a 240 mm radiator could be installed here instead. Even without installing either, the open ports on top allow some heat to escape. It also allows sound right out of the top and into the room. If you need the cooling, install the fans, otherwise you may want to stuff something in there.
There are lots of cases that tout removable and washable dust filters in various places. The Carbide 500R actually holds partially true to the claim. The filter on the bottom easily slides out. The mesh is mounted to a plastic backbone so it stays rigid and can be washed without worry of degradation. To clean the other filters either requires sticking painted metal parts under the faucet, or removing foam and mesh inserts without any reinforcement. Overall the exterior of the Corsair Carbide 500R is very nice both to use and to look at. The panels can all be removed without tools and without much effort. They are easy to remove but sturdy when in place. The IO ports, fans and filters are accessible and convenient. For exterior performance the Carbide 500R gets high marks.
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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.