Corsair CC-9011048-WW Carbide Series Air 540 Windowed ATX High Airflow Cube Performance Computer Case with White LED Fan - Arctic White

I got the Carbide Series White and Black and it's Beautiful. I just put together the cleanest build ever. There are no cables showing through the windows and every wire is strung through the correctly placed grommets with precision.This case has full tower capability in a small form factor. [Drawback in Negatives section].It will accept a Dh-15 Fan [One of the Tallest Fans Ever] Extended Motherboards, Extra Long Video Cards, Extra long Power supplies. And all this in the form factor of a corpulent Mini Tower.Now about the size. I compared it to a minitower on a co-workers desk and it was only 1 inch higher. It's probably twice as wideIt is the first high power computer ever that I was able to put on the desk at my house. Any Mid or Full size tower is simply too highand deep. Also for stability reasons I wouldn't feel comfortable.Transporting this case was a dream compared to my Mid Tower. While not a really light case, it's a lot lighter then myAll metal Haf 922 was. I would not suggest that anyone looking for a mobile case purchase this. Too much plastic and plexiglass to scuff and break.Especially in the White and Black model.When transporting from my office [Where I assembled it] to my house I used the black cloth cover that came with it. Soit arrived immaculate. Kudos to you Corsair for including the cloth cover. A necessity for a machine with exposed white plastic partsand a immense plexiglass type side window.Putting in my car was easy and I followed this technique.I moved the passenger side chair all the way forward. Then I put it in the back with thefront facing backwards. Then I moved the passenger side front seat all the way back and reclined it.Perfect, because this is cubular the center of gravity is stable and it didn't' fall over.In addition carrying it around, I found it easier to hold ,the lower profile box shape is just easier to carry.Now to the negatives.1st and Biggest Negative -Possible Deal Breaker. The biggest drawback for some would be that it has limited 3.5" and 5.25" Slots. My build all fit.The Two 5.25 taken by a BluRay DVD Burner and a Lamptron Fan ControllerThe Two 3.5" by a 1tb Velociraptor and a 1 tb CaviarMy 540Gb EVO SSD Drive taking 1 of the 6 SSD SlotsI believe with a little mickey mousing I could add another 2 3.5" drives,.2nd Negative Possible Deal Breaker- and a reason this case may end up $30.00 to $100.00 more expensive.Warning Will Robinson the DVD Burner is positioned sideways and many drives won't' operate that way. in normal position. I found I could tip the case at an angleand the burner would open. Then put it back to normal and the burner had no problem working sideway. To operate normally you need a slot burner instead of tray burner and theydon't make those in 3 1/2 or 5 1/4 size. So you need to get a Slimline Slot Burner a frame by Digistor and cables around $100.00. Or one company sells it pre-assembled for $110.00Any way who really wants to be tipping a high end system. I don't need a superior player for the most part. So I ended up buying an slimline external USB DVD Writer for $30.00. I almost never watch BD movies so I'll leave the BD Player in and just use [by using the tip method] a few times a year for Blu-Ray ovies.Another thought, if you are into CD - DVD Rom Copying etc and have lot's of burners then this is not the case for you.3rd Negative: Possible Deal Breaker - If you plan to move this case around a lot. lot's of plastic. This is not a sturdy and indestructible definitely do not go drop kicking it around the fields.4th Negative- Annoying but not a deal breaker. If I'm going to spend this kinda money on a case, I want my build [through the window] to be immaculate. Well the Motherboard 24Pin Connectors closest Grommet Top Grommet is blocked by the 5.25" Cage. Their is no way you can get those connectors to slip behind that cage. YOu have my motherboard and you want perfection then you have to remove the cage.I'm telling you almost the longest part of the build was dissasembling the case to get that rack out.Attn: Corsair, if you are listening, your manual is really lousy. There are no instructions on how to do this. So I had to figure out through Trial and error. I repeat your manual sucks! Not a clue. Hey if my whole build is going to be seen through that huge side window it's gotta look awesome and the cables be arranged perfectly. I would think anyone buying this case isn't going for a mediocre build.Removing the 5.25 cage was a necessity for me. In addition, it's hard to secure the 5 1/4 in the slot. I forgot to do it while open and I think I'm just going to use a temporary style glue to hold them in because taking that rack out is a bear of a job.I was really conflicted on whether to give this product a 4 star or 5 Star. Really I wanted to give it a 4.5 but that doesn't exist.So while pondering this dilemma, I went out and looked at the Assembled system , the white on black [Sharp as heck], and the huge Plexiglass window [showing my cleanest build ever]. I just had to give it a 5 star.After taking it home and seeing how it fit on my desk and the great trans portability I see no need to change the 5 star. There is no other case that I'veseen that offers so much in such a small form factor.As long as you can live with the pausity of 3.5" and 5.25" bays and aren't looking for indestructibility, you will be very happy owning this case.

I've stuck with full towers for my first two builds (2009, 2012) so, for my third, I wanted something completely different and something that really stood out. I compared the Air 540 against the Thermaltake X5 and the Cooler Master HAF XB EVO and the Air 540 won on all counts. I wanted something quiet, lightweight, and smaller than a full tower and I loved the idea of sectioning off the primary PC components (Mobo, CPU, cooler, Gfx card, HDDs, etc...) from secondary, functional components (SSDs, PSU, Optical Drive).The Thermaltake X5 did all this BUT it had a lot of mesh so I worried about noise. it was also the largest of the three. The HAF XB EVO did all this as well but the inability to make easy changes to the lower components turned me off to it. The Mobo tray removal was a nice feature and I liked the idea of sitting the Mobo flat in the build. But this case was also the one with the largest footprint and it lays squad on the floor or desk.The Air 540 retained the ability to quick, make on-the-spot, tool-less changes by keeping the two sides separate. It also had plenty of elbow room even after you've completed the build and all of your ugly cables were hidden in the right compartment (if looking at the case from the front).I went with the Black and White version of the Air 540 for even more change (may last two builds were silver and black, respectively.This build was made primarily for Photoshop illustrating / web programming work and (of course!) general gameplay, namely Overwatch, DCS World, and Battletech right now.PROS:- Good spacing of the individual components: PSU, SSD, Optical Drive, and header panel are all on the right side of the frame. The Mobo, Gfx card and HDD are all on the left side.- Good spacing of the grommet holes for cable pass-through, makes cable management a snap and clean.- Good space for the longer Gfx cards (I have the EVGA 1070ti SC edition).- Good headroom for larger air coolers on your CPU if you go that route (I went with water cooling).- The front-mounted mesh strip allows for easy, relatively unfettered air pull-through and this air gets rushed over the Mobo and its attached components (CPU and cooler) - 2 x 140mm Corsair fans are included; exhausting is through a single fan and mesh area at the rear (another Corsair 140mm fan) of the case.- The top mesh strip section supports dual-fan All-in-One (AIO) watercoolers and easily exhausts air up or can pull air down.- There is an air filter for the front mesh only, which is fine for me. I removed it for better air flow. Both mesh strips can be removed which makes building your PC very easy.- The right compartment can mount one to three 80mm fans at the mesh at the rear face if you want some airflow on the right side of the case. Note that anything larger, including 120mm fans, will not fit.- The case sports two spots for optical drives at the right side. Many newer cases have dropped this feature as the world moves to USB drive types for external data retrieval (such as seen with WIN 10 installs).- Two USB 3.0 ports in front is enough for me; the mobo gives me any more I would ever use.- The empty case is easy enough to tote around with just one arm, making building a snap as you move the box around though the weight of components eventually adds up.- The sides are closed off solid so noise reduction is reduced; the left side is nearly all transparent so builders can show off their important internals; the other side has only a small mesh area to exhaust the PSU, which sits on its side in this case.- You can fit 2 x HDDs in the lower section of the left compartment and they reside in tool-less hotswap bays aired from underneath, along their sides, and overhead.- There is a plastic SSD cage in the right compartment that snaps behind the Mobo area and above the PSU. This cage can hold up to 4 x SSDs and each section can snap off from the main cage so you only have to use the cages you need!CONS:- No major faults with this case really. It was everything I was looking for in my new 2018 build and it arrived with no damage and all of the parts were where they should be. The cardboard box IS marked with what the contents are so keep that in mind if you have dodgy neighbors.- The Black and White edition of this case retails for $20 more than the all-black version, another thing to note.BUILD SPECS:i7-8700K ProcessorCorsair H105 AIO CPU water coolerEVGA Z370 Classified K MoboG.SKILL 3000MHz CL15 32GB RAMEVGA 1070i SC Video CardEVGA 850w G3 PSU power supplySamsung EVO M.2 SSD 1TB (Primary Boot)Samsung EVO 840 SSD 1TB (Data)Western Digital HDD 1TB (Backup for Data drive)ASUS DVD Burner/Player optical drive (will prob get removed once I make my installs of old software).Corsair Air 540 CaseHope that helps anyone on the fence about this case! I hope more manufacturers jump on the cube shape for future cases - it really is the way to go.