Corsair Carbide Air 540 Builds

That is very clean, nice job :)

I really wish that the 540 air had different spots for mounting 3.5" hard drives, I may need to put a cage in the back side for some if I end up watercooling in mine
 
That is the problem with the 540 air not enough Hard drive space perhaps it was over looked when they designed this case.
They must have thought people don't have many hard drives these days so we wont bother making any room for them. The Atlas dual chamber will take over from the 540 Air as it has loads more Hard drive space
 
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chippy08 said:
That is the problem with the 540 air not enough Hard drive space perhaps it was over looked when they designed this case.
They must have thought people don't have many hard drives these days so we wont bother making any room for them. The Atlas dual chamber will take over from the 540 Air as it has loads more Hard drive space
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Yeah we saw a few people made a comment about the 540 having a limited amount of 3.5 drive support during the initial launch but it wasn't big of a deal to most. To be honest, the one feedback from the community that really caught our attention was when they asked us why put the 3.5 trays MB side (bottom) while we can easily hide them in the PSU side to give the case a cleaner look. Our retort was, HDD requires active cooling like all the components in the MB side, it's only right that we include the HDD there. As for the PSU side, all hardware there doesn't really generate massive amount of heat, hence they are on the passive cooling side.

In that regard, we definitely didn't overlook the HDD support, we figured 2 HDD trays would be enough to get you started since HDDs are rapidly increasing in capacity as time goes by. On average, 2 drives are more than enough to store a good amount of data.
 
SSD/HDD options are about my only real complaint with this case - personally I like the HDD bottom tray as it makes it really easy to slip drives in and out for semi-temporary use without the mess of having them connected externally - an option to hide that bit away as stock without modding would be nice though.

Dunno what I'm doing wrong but I just didn't find the SSD cage very easy to work with and not easy to change it around a bit to suit different configurations either.

Would find it really hard to go back to any other type of case after setting my main system up in the 540.
 
Bungee modded mine into the 5.25" bay. I originally screwed it to the mesh but it was too noisy.

IMG_20150106_235104.jpg
 
Looking forward to putting my first loop together in this case at a later date. Going to be mounting 3x 120s in the front on a 360 rad (it's a 27mm thick rad). 2x 45 degree fittings (if needed) should help me keep use of the right HDD bay. To get the EKWB D5 Pump/Res combo mounted using the plates will I need to drill any holes? I plan on mounting it above the PSU where the SSD cage is.
 
Greybeard said:
Yeah we saw a few people made a comment about the 540 having a limited amount of 3.5 drive support during the initial launch but it wasn't big of a deal to most. To be honest, the one feedback from the community that really caught our attention was when they asked us why put the 3.5 trays MB side (bottom) while we can easily hide them in the PSU side to give the case a cleaner look. Our retort was, HDD requires active cooling like all the components in the MB side, it's only right that we include the HDD there. As for the PSU side, all hardware there doesn't really generate massive amount of heat, hence they are on the passive cooling side.

In that regard, we definitely didn't overlook the HDD support, we figured 2 HDD trays would be enough to get you started since HDDs are rapidly increasing in capacity as time goes by. On average, 2 drives are more than enough to store a good amount of data.
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Why not put 2 Hard drive cages in with fans attached to the cages for cooling and let people decide how many hard drives they want to use. I know hard drives are getting bigger but if say a 8Tb drive goes down then all info is lost and don't say back up with another 8tb drive as it all costs money.
Well its just an option i will go with the other case as they included lots more hard drive space which is more of a benefit for me.
 
Rroff said:
Dunno what I'm doing wrong but I just didn't find the SSD cage very easy to work with and not easy to change it around a bit to suit different configurations either.
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Quite interesting, is it the SSD installation? or it has something to do with the positioning of the SATA connectors that are plugged in to the SSD? I am trying to imagine what type of issue you could run into when working with the SSD cage.


chippy08 said:
Why not put 2 Hard drive cages in with fans attached to the cages for cooling and let people decide how many hard drives they want to use. I know hard drives are getting bigger but if say a 8Tb drive goes down then all info is lost and don't say back up with another 8tb drive as it all costs money.
Well its just an option i will go with the other case as they included lots more hard drive space which is more of a benefit for me.
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Fair point, but I think at the end of the day, specific feature set or functionality of the case will have an impact to those who are really looking for a case that will meet their specific needs. In your situation, the Air540 lacks the feature to support more than 2 HDDs with its default configuration. From that, you're right, it'd best to get a case that will benefit you the most, that's totally fair game.
 
Was quite awhile ago so little hazy on details but despite the reviews saying you could easily remove the SSD cage by sliding it up a little (as does the manual) I could never get mine to budge an inch which made it a bit tricky to work with as I had the PSU already in place. Overall even with the ability to remove it to make installation easier it was probably the weakest design aspect for me of an otherwise excellent case.
 
First thing I did was break a leg off one of the hdd caddy racks, even after taking great care due to reviews saying they were made of marzipan. This annoyed me so I flattened the racks out of the base with a large hammer and an anvil, and covered the level'd field with polycarb.

I then used one of these jobbies
Silverstone SST-SDP10B

3.5" + 2 x 2.5", perfect for my ssd raid and mech storage
the other bay has sentry2 fan controller in it

res above the psu, when needs must we do...

2014-09-26-3441_zpsmkzwjjh9.jpg
 
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Rroff said:
Was quite awhile ago so little hazy on details but despite the reviews saying you could easily remove the SSD cage by sliding it up a little (as does the manual) I could never get mine to budge an inch which made it a bit tricky to work with as I had the PSU already in place. Overall even with the ability to remove it to make installation easier it was probably the weakest design aspect for me of an otherwise excellent case.
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Thank you for this feedback, good to know. I'll definitely keep this in mind, and will keep an eye on reports from other forums similar to this.
 
Apologies for the slight necro!

I'm putting an X99 rig together at the moment using the Air 540 with the DEMCiflex dust filter kit and it's been good so far. My PSU is a hybrid modular unit so the rear compartment is like a jungle of cables - I'd like to fit a ULN 120mm Noctua fan in there somewhere to get some airflow over the 2x SSDs I've got in the cage.

Anyone know if there's an adaptor I can buy to somehow hang it over the SSD's or attach it to the 5.25 bays? I've a Blu-ray writer in one of the 5.25 bays. Or am I going to have to work on a Macgyver-style bungee solution? :D
 
BrynS said:
Apologies for the slight necro!

I'm putting an X99 rig together at the moment using the Air 540 with the DEMCiflex dust filter kit and it's been good so far. My PSU is a hybrid modular unit so the rear compartment is like a jungle of cables - I'd like to fit a ULN 120mm Noctua fan in there somewhere to get some airflow over the 2x SSDs I've got in the cage.

Anyone know if there's an adaptor I can buy to somehow hang it over the SSD's or attach it to the 5.25 bays? I've a Blu-ray writer in one of the 5.25 bays. Or am I going to have to work on a Macgyver-style bungee solution? :D
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I have a 80mm fan on the back, Above the PSU, I have my HDD's there SSD's below them.

ILK5tjOl.jpg
 
Cheers Evian. That's one way to go about it - I'd prefer to have the fan inside the case blowing air over the SSDs and out the vents but that should be better than nothing.
 
A quick shot of mine -

WP_20150906_004_zpsy80752aj.jpg


Over a year and a half old and no desire to change it at all.

All fans are Be Quiet (3 x 12mm intakes and 1 x 140mm exhaust) apart from the Corsair H55 cooling the 290X
 
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