Corsair Carbide Air 240 Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on August 15, 2014 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- ATX
- Case
- Carbide
Conclusion
Aesthetically, the Carbide Air 240 is certainly eye-catching and very well designed. We cannot really claim that it is a unique case, both because many cubic cases are available and because it is based on the same external design as the Carbide Air 540, a case released over a year ago. However, this does not reduce the aesthetic value of the Carbide Air 240. Based on a minimalistic design of simple geometric shapes and grids, the Carbide Air 240 is a case that attracts attention without being extravagant. It is an understated, yet elegant design that ought to look great on any desk.
Due to its unorthodox shape, there are some limitations as well. For example, despite the width of the case, it is not possible to install very tall CPU coolers, leaving the end user to either settle for a smaller cooler or go for a liquid cooling solution instead. The large width is also going to be a problem for spaces and offices designed to hold standard tower cases, as the cubic Carbide Air 240 will obviously not fit.
One major weakness of the Carbide Air 240 is that there are no external drive slots, for 3.5" or 5.25" devices. Some advanced users have ditched optical media (never mind floppy disks and the like) a long time ago, but others still like to install a DVD-RW or Blu-ray drive. This severely limits the potential of the Carbide Air 240 to be used as a media center. However, that was never the intended purpose of this case, as it has obviously been designed to house little monster gaming PCs, not to function as an HTPC.
When it comes to performance, the Carbide Air 240 delivers as promised. It should easily be able to cover the thermal needs of even the most powerful gaming system that can fit inside it, even with the stock cooling setup if no overclocking takes place. For low-noise setups and overclocking, the installation of at least a good CPU cooler is highly recommended. If a Mini-ITX motherboard is installed, the installation of two liquid coolers, one for the CPU and one for the GPU respectively, can help to create a very powerful system with low operating noise. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, the installation of two GPUs and two liquid coolers does not seem possible, so it would be rather difficult to create a silent dual-GPU gaming system.
As far as quality goes, the Corsair Carbide Air 240 is a very well made product for its class. The plastics are solid and the mechanical cohesion of the chassis is very good as well. Our only complaint would concern the use of metallic meshes as dust filters. Although these metallic meshes are durable and convenient, they will not help with smaller dust particles at all. Furthermore, the panels need to come off in order to clean them, which is not very convenient. The mesh on the right side panel is an exception, as it is denser and can be cleaned very easily.
Recommending the Carbide Air 240 is easy enough, though as usual that depends on individual preferences. Aside from the fact that aesthetics are an entirely subjective matter, which is typically a major factor when it comes to choosing a case, the unorthodox design of the Carbide Air 240 is simply not meant for the majority of the users. Simply put, it is not a product meant for the average Joe to stick beneath an office desk and forget about it. Instead, this is a case meant to show off your powerful and yet compact gaming system, with an eye-catching cubic design. If that's what you're looking for, the Carbide Air 240 is definitely worthy of consideration. Pricing is reasonable as well, with both the white and the black models listed at Amazon and priced at $90 – $40 less than the larger Carbide Air 540.
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kyuu - Friday, August 15, 2014 - link
I love the Carbide Air 540, and have been planning on using it for my next build (or perhaps just transplanting my current one, since I've yet to feel compelled to upgrade my overclocked Sandy Bridge system). The idea of a smaller one is great, since the relative girth of the 540 is one of its only drawbacks, as far as I'm concerned.However, the fact that you can't fit radiators unless you go down to a mini-ITX mobo, which only have one PCIe slot I believe, kind of kills it. They also really should have found a way to add a slimline optical drive slot.
Antronman - Friday, August 15, 2014 - link
No 5.25" inch drive bay?I mean, you can't find any room for anywhere in there?
Grok42 - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
If they do find room, I hope they add more 3.5" or 2.5" internal bays.notlurking - Sunday, August 17, 2014 - link
Why would you need a few more 3.5" bays? That's what a NAS is for. The Air 540 looks like a great NAS case from the outside but needs a serious redesign on the inside to make it useful in that function.I don't know what Corsair was thinking. There is so much empty space in that case. It looks great on the outside but doesn't work on the inside for any specific role.
DanNeely - Sunday, August 17, 2014 - link
They might be able to fit a slimline above the front fans. Maybe not, it'd be tight due to the 45* bevel on the top edge. The only way they could get a full size bay in without making the case bigger would be to put it in vertically below the 2.5" bays (and shift the front panel connectors around). It'd work for fan controllers or optical drives there; but probably not bay reservoirs. OTOH you could shoehorn in a small non-bay res into that space now.ImSpartacus - Friday, August 15, 2014 - link
It's 2014, why do those graphs have gradient backgrounds?If this was a middle schooler's first powerpoint, then I'd be forgiving. Nope, it's a modern tech blog's technical presentation.
You don't have to have 100% flat diagrams, but a little minimalism could go a long way.
juhatus - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
Thanks for great article, again! Few comment:Please post the component listing you used for this? Would be great starting point for build.
Also please post on conclusion what are the main competitors (even few examples) for this case. I´m right about to order something like this with mini-itx, Z97 and 4790k. I´m kind of liking Cooler Master 130 but it would need to be white so no go. I am having really hard time deciding what case to go for :)
know of fence - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
A picture with the cooler mounted would be appreciated.People, please stop buying these double shoe-box form factors and closed loop water coolers. Both are inferior alternatives to what is out there: real men buy towers and tower coolers.
This whole market segment exists because people try to be cute and think "out-of-the-box" making the same mistake, but some alternatives just aren't worth considering. A PC goes on the floor where it's least in the way and furthest from one's ears, this thing you could put on a shelf, but wouldn't you rather have the shelf space?
kyuu - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
CLC coolers are a perfectly good alternative to giant, heavy air tower coolers. They're also really, really good for cooling GPUs. I'm planning on using a CLC on both my CPU and GPU for my next build.Towers are fine, but cubes work well too, and having two separate compartments for the components like the Air makes a lot of sense. It's also a helluva lot easier to assemble. The 240 is too small, though, unless you're fine with mini-ITX. Have to go with the 540.
juhatus - Sunday, August 17, 2014 - link
If you ask the miss, than you should be buying a ultrabook of the size 11", or why not just buy an IPAD. These are harsh realities some men live. So its mini-itx or ipad, you choose.Ill take mini-itx.