Gadgetory

well what do you know another case from Corsair this is unlike anything we've gotten our hands on so it should be pretty interesting to see what this new air 540 can do now the name is sort of the giveaway of the focus of the case and that's obviously airflow released at $139 many will find this appropriately priced given this a score sir but let's first analyze that how well this case is designed before jumping to any conclusions so this cube case utilizes this dual chamber design where components that do not require active cooling are moved to the back so your SSDs power supply that can cool itself and of course optical drives leaving more room in the actively cool chamber I think that side panel window is very much needed for such an interesting case as you'll most likely want to show off what you've done with the internals the side panels do not impress us and it's surprising to see such poor quality on such a premium product the rest of the construction is mainly steel with plastic front and top panels that are slightly rubberized to give off quality feel to the touch due to unconventional layout to optical base have been rotated with front panel connectors right underneath with a pair of USB 3 ports chrome-plated audio jacks and your power and reset buttons the case is elevated with large rubberized feet for scratch-free floors and provide stability for such a wide case now looking in the back extra venting is located at the top followed by exhaust fan and eight PCI expansion slots the side chamber is where you install your power supply and there's some additional venting holes to the top the power supply is rotated so you'll be pulling air from the side but notice there's no dust filter and I think this is the first case we've seen from Corsair that does not include a power supply dust filter and then such a high price tag that's unacceptable removing both mesh panels is really simple this gives you access to your fans and to the magnetic dust filter for your main intake there's no dust filter for the top panel and even though I'll most likely be used for exhaust it's disappointing to see the air 540 being short on to dust filters on the bright side however a total of three 140mm your friends are included with two in the front and one in the back so are pretty decent pooling configuration at its default state now the front supports triple 120-millimeter fans as well making the air 540 a very good candidate for air cooling now let's check out how this dual chamber design is executed first thing we notice is clearance no more drive cages hogging the airflow the two front fans delivered direct cooling to all your components and that's the selling point of the air 540 to 3.5 inch drive caddies are kept at the bottom with some opening right underneath for the drives to breathe and these are also hot swappable drives which makes future upkeep very convenient both the front and top support 240 and 280 millimeter radiators and even the 360 millimetre rad can be installed in the front now we have over three and a half inches of clearance at the top for a push and pull radiator setup and fourteen and a half inches of horizontal clearance so you can still install a radiator as long as your GPU allows now looking in the back the optical drive cage used to last melting very welcome sight here and the entire cage can also be removed if needed now the power supply sits on the platform which you can adjust in length with maximum supported units of 200 millimeters this provides extra security that your power supply won't be moving around during shipping now on top of your power supply sets the SSD cage which is completely to us and very convenient to work with it supports up to 4 as these with now appropriate spacing added for right angled SATA and your power cables so fully assembled we get an idea of the type of airflow you can expect front fans blow directly over your graphics card memory and the CPU area making this ideal for air coat systems however water cooling is also sort of the main selling point here as large rubber grommets allow tubing to pass through into the other chamber however coming around to the back since all your cables are concentrated into one spot it might be difficult finding room to mount your pump or the reservoir also do obey reservoirs will not be compatible as the optical drive gauge is rotated so it might be very tricky refilling your reservoir also the rear chamber is not designed all that efficiently as there is unused room above the SSD cage that could potentially house additional 3.5 inch drives so in reality only the all-in-all water cooling systems will work with the air 540 with potential for a real water cooling loop only if user modified so to sum things up the air 540 utilizes a dual chamber designed for more direct airflow for all your actively cooled components and it does that very well with the front intake and plenty of exhaust the entire assembly is pretty much a breeze with toolless SSD caged and hot swappable 3.5 inch drives plus you don't even have to worry about cable management as that is out of sight out of mind now on the flip side of the coin no dust filter for your power supply north to the top panel and on the market where even $35 cases have power supply filters it's a big question mark while the dual chamber works very well I feel the rear chamber is not optimized and could potentially include more drive storage and lastly both side panels are quite flimsy and while we know the windowed panel is mostly acrylic thicker steel would make us happier in that regard especially for such a price tag so Corsairs additions to the combat series with the air 540 leaves much to be desired from future revisions but until then users are going to have to be satisfied with its air flow capabilities as long as you can live with its limitations so thanks guys for watching let us know what you think of the air 540 and exactly how you'd optimize the rear chamber to be more effective leave your comments down below don't forget to subscribe bribe you will see guys in the next one