Corsair Carbide 500R Overview
For a full video overview of the Carbide Series 500R check out our video below.
I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of white cases. We’ve seen quite a lot of white cases lately, but Corsair has done something a little different with the Carbide 500R. Instead of keeping the entire case white the center of the case is black, sort of like a black stripe. I actually like it and it gives a cool contrast to the case. If you are not a fan of the white Corsair does offer the case in black as well. The case itself is made of mostly steel and plastic. The official dimensions of the case are 20.5” x 8.1” x 20”.
Starting at the front of the case you can see the large mesh section that stretches down the front of the case. Towards the top of the case you are going to find all of your connections and buttons. You have power and reset buttons, a fan controller slider, button to turn the fan LEDs on and off, two USB 3.0 ports, a Firewire port, headphone and microphone connections and a hard drive activity LED.
Moving down there are four 5.25-inch drive bays. Finally moving down towards the bottom there is a large mesh section. Behind it you are going to find two 120mm LED cooling fans.
Moving back up to the top of the case there is a place where you can you put your phone, keys or other accessories. This is perfect if you are going to have your case on the floor. The rest of the top of the case is mesh. You can fit two 120/140mm fans here, but they are not included.
On the side panel of the case you will find the largest fan out of all the ones that are included. There is a 200mm fan here. If for some reason you do not want the 200mm fan you can mount two 120/140mm here as well.
At the back of the case is the fourth included fan which is a 120mm fan. If you want you can install a 140mm fan in its place. Moving down you have your expansion slots as well as 4 watercooling holes. The holes do have the rubber inserts included. Finally at the bottom of the case you have your power supply mount. Below it is a dust filter that can easily be removed for easy cleaning.
Taking a look at the bottom of the case we can see that the dust filter is actually quite large. It covers your power supply as well as the bottom fan mount. I also wanted to note that the thumbscrews on the side panel are the ones that stay attached to the side panel after you release them. This makes it so you don’t lose them!
