Final Thoughts
I’m going to say it again, Corsair has another great case on their hands. When it comes to cases their track record has been pretty amazing. I don’t think I’ve reviewed one of their cases that I had an issue with or that I did not like. The Carbide Series 500R is the perfect case for a system builder, enthusiast or gamer. We received the white version of the case, which looks great and I like that Corsair has made the interior black to give it that contrast.
As far as features go you have quite a lot on this case. When it comes to cooling you have 4 included fans (1x 200mm, 3x 120mm), with room to install an additional 3 more fans. The two front fans and side panel fan are LED fans and light up bright white. If you do not like the LEDs on the fans they can easily be turned off. These same three fans are connected to a fan controller so they can be turned up or down depending on what you are doing.
Even though this is a mid tower you do have room for four 5.25-inch optical drives and up to six 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives. The quality on the hard drive trays is a little weak in my opinion, they seemed flimsy. A more heavy duty plastic or metal would have been a better fit here. There is a lot of room inside the case already, but if you wanted to install watercooling or extremely long video cards you are able to remove both of the hard drive cages.
Of course Corsair has taken cable management into account and they have installed 4 large cable routing holes as well as a hole at the top for your CPU power cable. I like that the CPU power cable opening has been cut out so the top lip of the case is not partially covering it. I see this on so many cases and it makes it quite difficult to install your CPU power cable. On the backside of the case there is more than enough room to hide all of your cables and Corsair does include cable ties to keep everything nice and neat.
Right now the 500R can be found online for around $129, which for the features is a great price and when you compare other mid tower cases it seems to be one of the top choices. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Corsair Carbide Series 500R Case a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Sleek design
– Room for 6 hard drives and 4 optical drives
– Both hard drive cages can be removed
– 4 included fans
– Fan controller and LED on/off switch
Cons:
– Hard drive trays were a little weak
