Boxart is similar to the Carbide 400 case we have tested before. No fancy design as we are accustomed to with Corsair products. A print of the case plus specs on one side. And on the back, just an exploded view off the case. Showing off the main features of this 500R. Our first sample that arived was heavily bashed and the case received a few heavy brewses and dents. End result : it was inops to be reviewed. Number two arrived on our doorstep in far better shape. Thanks for the quick shipment Gareth !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must say this case relly looks stunning, the white finish is astonishing. Quite a difference from the all black cases we mostly review. The 500R is in fact a souped up version from the 400R. Featuring a humongous 200mm sidepanel fan, two removable Hard drive bays and a build in fan controller. The case lines have been refined too.

 

 

 

While the 400R had only room for max 2 140mm sidepanel fans, the 500R goes one step beyond. Out of the box inclusion of a slow spinning 200mm fan. Blowing cool air straight onto the graphics card and vital motherboard components. The fan speed can be adjusted via the 3 fan speed controller.

 

 

 

In the front Corsair installed two 120mm fans alike the 400R model. But this time they are extra damped by utilising rubber grommets. The rear 120mm fan is still present to exhaust that hot air. Sadly the latter can not be connected to the fan controller.

 

 

 

On the top part of the case there are two cutouts to facilitate installing Corsairs high end Hydro 100 all in one liquid cooling unit. Let's give the cooling aspect a rest and continue with the other features.

 

 

 

The front panel can be popped off quite easily. No need for screwdrivers or other tools. As you can see in the below pictures decent dust filters are installed. Similar filters on top and the bottom off the case. Sadly no dust filter on the sidepanel.

 

 

 

 

If we look at the innards of the case we see the big cutout to facilitate CPU cooler installation. 4 big cutouts, protected by rubber to allow easy cable routing. If you make a cable mess in this case, it's entirely your fault or just utter lazyness.

 

  

 

Another shot of the rear fan and the room to install Corsairs Hydro100 on top. We also spot ventilated rear brackets and four cutouts for water tubing.

 

 

 

Just above the PSU, another small cutout for routing your audio, USB cables from behind the mobo tray. On top we have a similar hole, for routing the 8 pin CPU power cable. Indeed Corsair has got you entirely covered !

 

  

 

The 6 Hard Drive trays are divided over two removable Hard Drive cages. The top 5 1/2 inch drives can be locked without the use of any tool. Just slide them in and they are securely locked into position. No screws involved at all.

 

 

 

The entire case rests on 4 rubber feet. The front ones however seem a bit fragile. Our first sample had one broken, but noone knows what really happened to that case, while being shipping.

 

 

 

All screws are seperately packed, a USB3.0 to USB2.0 adaptor is included for the motherboards that are not USB3.0 onboard connector equipped.

 

 

 

 

The top grill needs a gentle press to pop open. Similar action is required to secure it back into position. 

 

 

 

The powersupply is damped by 4 rubber grommets. The PSU dust filter is easily removable as it can slide. You can spot the position to mount another 120/140mm fan.

 

 

 

Time to focus on the two removable Hard Drive cages. It only takes 4 thumbscrews and some sliding action to remove an entire bay. This leaves room for ultra long graphics cards. With both trays installed you are limited to maximum 316mm long GPU cards. With the top bay removed, you can install up to 452mm cards in length.

 

 

 

 

 

As previously mentioned up to 3 HDD's per bay. Holes are foreseen for SSD installation on every plastic tray.

 

 

 

Let's get this case filled with hardware...

 

 

 

 

Let's install a brand new ASUS X79 Sabretooth motherboard. This for one particular reason. With the Thermal Radar Software (included in the AI Suite) we can read out different sensors on the motherboard. So no fiddling with extra 3rd party sensors.

 

  

 

• Asus Sabretooth X79 mainboard
• Intel 3960X OC'ed at 4.5Ghz 1.37Vcore
• Corsair Hydro100 cooling
• 8Gb Corsair GTX8 2400 C10 rams
• 2 x GTX480 Fermi graphic cards
• 2 x Western Digital 300Gb Velociraptor Hard Drives
• Corsair TX850 Power Supply.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the numerous cutouts, it's pretty easy to get rid of most of the PSU cables. Plus due to the small protrusion on the sidepanel you can quite easily tuck them away. The finished case with the black and white theme is a real show stopper.

 

 

 

As expected, the Hydro 100 fit's like a glove. The radiator rests on the case, the fans are screwed in via the bottom. Top notch cooling guaranteed without the requirement of a bulky air cooler. Dual GTX480's installed for some high FPS Battlefield 3 action.

 

 

 

 

 

For the temperature test we opted for a dual GTX480 GPU setup. More than adequate to see if the sidefan is able to bring some extra coolness to our two hot Fermi cards.

The Idle results are measured after 15 mins of idling. The CPU Load test results are obtained after 30 mins of number crunching prime95, custom test 12 - 12K, set to run on 12 threads. The GPU load was measured and logged via AIDA64 by running a tri loop of 3DMark Vantage.

We conducted the above tests with the side fan disconnected ( off ) and once running it at full blast (fan controller maxed).

 

 

In idle mode, the side fan already shows it's effect. The motherboard sensor is aligned straight on the air flow of the fan. Hence the explenation for the massive 6°C temp drop. For the rest of the sensors a 2-3 °C temp drop in CPU and GPU temps are observed.

 

 

While running prime 95, the CPU goes up to 66-68°C. The Hydro 100 was set at balanced mode and had close to no issue with the CPU at 4.5Ghz. Scary though are the PWM temperatures. Even surpassing both hot Fermi GPU's. And this with only 1.37Vcore set with the loadline setting at Optimised. Imagine pushing close to 5Ghz with +1.45Vcore. It will get scorching hot in that area. Definitely a recommendation to choose a well ventilated case, like this Carbide 500R.

 

However while the 500R officially only supports ATX format motherboards, our E-ATX format Gigabyte X79 UD5 blended in perfectly. But drawback is that you can't use all S-ATA ports. The picture below explains more than 100 words will ever do :

 

 

 

With the Carbide series Corsair is able to adress yet another public then with it's fancy high end, but also more expensive, Graphite and Obsedian lineup. A public that still wants to own a high quality chassis, but at a more affordable price level. The 400R retailing around 90 euros, for the 500R you will have to cash out plus minus 105 euros. But to be honest you get a far more complete package in my book with the 500R. Let's start with the big 200mm sidefan, extra cooling for the vital parts of the motherboard and the installed GPU(s). The foreseen top cutout for eg the Hydro, all in one cooling solutions, series is very nice to have. The 3 step fan controller adds up to the value too. But it would have been recommendable to have more free connectors for eg the rear fan and optional top or bottom fans.

The two removable Hard Drive cages or bays allow you to install very long graphic cards. Or remove one to optimise the air flow straight onto the GPU('s). Removing one bay will limit your hard drive capacity to 3 HDDs, but for most PC users that's more than plenty.

 

 

The abundance of motherboard tray cutouts either facilitates easy CPU cooler installation and/or makes cable management pure childs play. The only major drawback of this case is that it is limited to ATX and mATX motherboards. If you have an E-ATX motherboard, like the Rampage 3 Extreme, you will have small installation woes as the motherboard's PCB will touch the rear tray and might slightly bend the PCB. The addition of a side panel dust filter should be adressed in future case revisions.

All in all this is a sleek and well designed case. The Carbide series are by no means lacking in build quality. It's the little details, like eg the rubber damped fans, that set these Corsair cases apart from some of the cheaper imitations/versions. The cooling is top notch and leaves close to no options open for improvement. Maybe a bit more silent fans could have topped it all off, but the excellent cooling performance makes us a bit more forgiving.

The Arctic White paint job makes this case stand out from the crowd. The Black interior coating is the icing on the cake. The black/white combo makes it all look very professional. Plus if you devote some time to cable management you can build yourself a very lean, clean and well cooled PC. The Carbide 500R is not perfect, but it comes darn close.

 

 

 

Pros :

• Excellent cooling capacity
• High quality build
• Onboard Fan controller
• Removable HDD cage(s) to support extra long videocards
• USB3.0 to 2.0 Adaptor included
• Easy cable management

 

Cons :

• Lacking side panel dust filter
• Only official mATX and ATX mobo supported
• Fans could be a bit more silent