Corsair Carbide 500R: A Corsair in Every Home
by Dustin Sklavos on October 25, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Assembling the Corsair Carbide 500R
The night I started working on the Corsair Carbide 500R, I knew I wanted something simple. Some of the cases on my backlog are going to require more work than others, but seeing that Corsair logo on the box gave me a sense of comfort and ease. I've already built computers in the 600T, 650D, and 400R, and every assembly was an absolute joy. And just as I expected, putting the 500R together was just like taking a vacation while still on the job.
Ease of installation with the 500R starts from the very beginning. Once you remove the thumbscrewed side panels, the pre-installed motherboard standoffs make popping in the I/O shield and mounting the motherboard a very simple affair. Installing the drives was just as easy: pop out a bay shield for the optical drive, gingerly apply a bit of force, and the optical drive locks into Corsair's tool-less system; these tool-less mounts are, by the way, the firmest ones I've seen. When you get that drive locked into place in the 500R, it's not going anywhere. You can still screw it in on both sides if you want, but I honestly found that isn't necessary.
The drive sleds are business as usual for Corsair. While they seem flimsy, that also makes it easier to flex them and snap a hard drive into place, and from there they use the bulk of the drive to maintain their shape. 2.5" drives and SSDs require snapping out the pins from one side and then screwing them into the drive tray manually, which does affect the tray's rigidity. Still, it's a good enough system and overall storage installation is very easy.
Corsair once again employs thumbscrews for the expansion slot covers, and I'm always happy to see eight instead of seven. What I noticed was that while some of the other enclosures required me to stretch and bend our GeForce GTX 580 a little bit to mount it properly, the card was able to align and mount perfectly in the 500R.
Getting the power supply and cabling in was also fairly simple, although there are the usual hiccups. The accursed AUX 12V line rears its head again, as the space above the motherboard tray feels just a touch narrow. Corsair also opts to use a molex connector to power the fans and fan controller instead of a SATA power connector; honestly I almost never use/need molex connectors anymore and desperately wish the standard would just fall by the wayside already. Note that the two front fans are pre-connected to the fan controller while the side intake fan needs to have its line run into the case before you close up. The rear exhaust fan doesn't work with the fan controller at all, either; the fan controller is only good for three fans.
Ultimately I think the 500R's hiccup is really the fan controller, but I can also sort of understand why it's designed the way it is. In addition to offering three fan speeds, you can also toggle the LEDs in the fans on and off. I'm assuming Corsair took criticism of the 600T's white LED fans to heart, because the 400R offered the same toggle. I personally like how the fans look, but if you're trying to sleep in the same room while the tower is running, I can see wanting to turn them off.
Everything else is a breeze, though, and as I mentioned on my work Facebook, the only way Corsair could realistically make assembling systems in their cases any easier would be to actually ship a technician with them to just do it for you. If you're prone to tinkering with your system, you'll want to give Corsair enclosures serious consideration for this reason alone.
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JonnyDough - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
I third it. I spent way too much on a Kandalf case from Thermaltake back in the day and to be honest, I prefer my smaller Ultra case I got free with a purchase from TigerDirect. The big case is fancy, but I don't do water cooling, and it ends up just taking up more room and being harder to work on due to having to move it with limited space. What we need to see more of is a focus on useability when it comes to putting parts in and taking them out.No more craning to get your fingers around a jumper, or working to get cables out of the way, or to get one plugged in, etc. Building a PC needs to become a bit easier.
I think that it starts with chip makers (CPU sockets and cooler designs), moves to motherboard makers (who have always had to consider the case and access in design), and ends with case makers.
Seems to me we could use some sort of new design, perhaps a new style of motherboard. I like the idea of one that has PCB in the shape of a blanket draped over a wire to form a lean/to or tent. I haven't had geometry in awhile and its a pretty useless subject in most career fields.
Like this, /\ A fan at the bottom could draw in cool air along the bottom edge of a case and push it upwards over several components. The heat would rise some off each component and since they are on a slope, the heat would not all blow onto the next component. Just imagine a slew of newly designed cases that would come along with it. Conical ones could be quite interesting.
I would love it if a motherboard manufacturer branched off and decided to try perfecting some arching/joining PCB. I wonder if anything like that has been done? What about two-sided PCB with the cooler running parts on the bottom and reinforced mounting brackets?
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
$139 for a case, on the other hand, is totally worth it. ;)C300fans - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
A good case does not mean that it must have more holes. Fracle design labeled 139$ has much better quality, which provides you sound sponge isolation and dust filters on all holes as well as 3 pieces of silent cute fans.jamyryals - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
If they are going to do a white case, I would prefer the grills to be white as well.Lazlo Panaflex - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
FWIW, I personally haven't had any problems with Corsair rebates...but they do take their sweet time sending out the rebate card.
ckryan - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
Your detailed description of hot case-on-case action was appreciated. Have you considered trying your hand at bodice-ripping romance novels?justaviking - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
The sun glistened on his 6-core abs. As he approached, the motherboard could feel the heat radiating from him as his fan breathed warmly on her neck. Her heart began to overclock...No, I don't think so.
SquattingDog - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
Damn we need a like button here - this is awesome @ justaviking - made my morning :)Jeffk464 - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
It would take a lot of convincing for someone to prove to me that its 2.5 times better than my antec 300. Oh, and its white.compudaze - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
I went from an antec 300 to a corsair 600t. I loved my 300. It was the best case I ever owned until I got the 600t. But honestly, u don't know what u r missing until you build a pc in a corsair case.