A Look Inside
Opening up the Carbide 500R you will notice something a little different from other white cases, the interior is black. This gives the case an interesting contrast. The 200mm fan on the side panel uses a 3pin connector so you can connect it to the fan controller or your motherboard.
Starting at the front of the case you have the four 5.25-inch drive bays. They use a simple tool-less system to lock your optical drive into place. We will see how well it works once we get into our installation. If you choose to not use the tool-less system the holes are still there for you to use screws.
Hard drive storage is separated into two cages. Each cage has three trays inside which support both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives. Both of these cages can be removed to make room for long video cards or watercooling solutions. With the cages removed we can get a good look at the two 120mm intake fans.
On the bottom of the case you have room for another 120/140mm fan. There are 4 rubber feet that will lift your power supply off the bottom of the case, which will make for better airflow. Looking towards the top of the case you can see the two top mounts for cooling fans.
There is a large CPU cutout in the motherboard tray. This will allow you to install an aftermarket CPU cooler without having to remove your motherboard from the case. As far as cable routing holes you have 4 large holes which do have the rubber inserts installed.
Taking the opposite side panel of the case off we can see how we are going to route everything. One thing many case companies neglect is the opening for your CPU power cable. Normally it is slightly covered by the top locking section of the case. Corsair has cut that part out of the case so you won’t run into any issues when routing this cable.
There is an “L” shaped section on the motherboard tray that is pushed in to allow you to hide your cables behind the motherboard tray. This should be sufficient room for most people. In this section there are a few hooks that will allow you to use wire ties to keep everything nice and neat. In this “L” section there is about an inch of space between the motherboard tray and back of the case.
