My thoughts on the Air 540

[ganji]

Howdo folk's!
While looking for build log's on the Corsair Air 540 before i bought it i came across a few post's about the fault's it has. To me they seemed to be really minor issue's though. So here are my thought's on the case and these are just my opinion's.
I really enjoyed the build in this case for a couple of reason's but it does have a few minor issue's. Nothing that can't be overcome or that makes it a bad case as such.

Overall it feel's pretty solid and well built like my Carbide 500R was, apart from the windowed side panel has quite a bit of flex to it due to the Mahoosive window having a narrow/thin frame around it. There is tonne's of space inside so installing components is easy and you get to keep ya knuckle's and airflow is great. Although if doing a custom loop with multiple rad's it could get quite tight in there but there are plenty of cable management grommet's. So keeping the front section tidy is easy enough.
The rear fan grill is a much better idea than the usual honey comb type hole's at the back and much less restrictive. As the psu,Hdd cage's and optical bay's are in the back there is nothing to restrict the airflow beween the fan's and components. So even the stock AF140L's can move a sh** tonne of air through without any restrction's and they're not that loud either, My gpu's are louder but i do plan to replace them with some AF140's. I think the front fan's could have done with being mounted about an inch lower though as the bottom of the lower fan is inline with the top of my second gpu.
This will sound odd but the thing i liked most about installing components in the front was something i'd not seen before which was on the center motherboard standoff. Instead of the usual threaded one it had a little nipple stuck out the top which helped me out loads. I have Arthritis in my hand's so it can sometimes be difficult getting the motherboard in place while still being able to get the first screw in. with the nipple it was loads easier as i just put it in place and the nipple held it there leaving me with 2 free hands to fit the screw's 😄
So the only thing's i can find to dislike about the front section is the Hdd mount on the floor with the big holes underneath, I'd much rather some sort of mount for them in the rear and the Ssd's in the front and a full floor or some sort of blanking plate.
The rear has plenty of space too and if you put the effort in (I didn't) you could keep it reletively tidy cable wise but this is where i found the very few things i could fault the case on.
when installing the psu the fittings for the hot swap bay's get in the way slightly but with a bit of twisting of the wire's you can keep them out of the way.
Secondly is the optical drive bay's, They're the wrong way around as if you use an optical drive still (yes i still do, needs must) when you open it it faces outwards so the top of the tray face's away from you. I don't know if it's sized wrong or wether it was my Lamptron FC2 that was odd but no matter how i tried i could not get the fan controller to fit and would stick out by about an inch and a half. So i need to buy another one as i'd bought that one a while ago, No rma 😞 The drive bay's also block the use of the top cable grommets if they're occupied but it's not really a problem.
I did say there wasn't much i could fault it on 😄

Comparing it to my Corsair Carbide 500R it's a massive improvement as in that case i used to get a really hot pocket of air behind the optical bay's which could i could feel through the side panel. I also had a hot northbridge which would reach between 65-71c playing BF3 on a warm day and cpu 53c ish. The hot northbridge was probably down to using a Cougar Vortex as an exhaust fan though.
Since moving to this case i have had a good drop in temps all round but the cpu and northbridge the most, I am running push/pull intake in this case though where before i was running pull intake.
Not running any stress test's but playing BF3 my cpu temp hasn't been over 41c with the socket being about 36c. Northbridge temp's are right down and i've not seen it above 53c and motherboard is usually around 28c. The coolant in the H100i read via Corsair Link is usually around 28c but i've not checked it while at load. Gpu temps are pretty much the same as before but with slightly lower fan speed's.
It's not been as hot as it was though so temps may increase some.

Overall i'm very happy with it 😄

Here's a build log i found on this case but rammed with rad's http://www.overclock.net/t/1402099/build-log-water-cooled-corsair-carbide-series-air-540

Sorry if the page loaded slow, i resized the pics but it may not have been enough.

[HiVizMan]

Man that is for sure my next case, thanks for posting up this thread Ganji. So much space....

[ganji]

No probs chap,
I hope you enjoy it if you decide to get one 😄 No doubt it will be a great build.

[HiVizMan]

Pretty builds are not what I am good at.

[ganji]

Neither was i lol.
It's a bit warmer today and cpu, Nb temps did increase slightly core temp 44c,Soocket 46c,Nb 59c and Mb 33c so still low but i've not run any benches yet.

[Menthol]

Nice ganji, I installed a M6E in one of these cases, I like it so far

[ganji]

Cheers Menthol!
Nice 1 chap it's a pretty decent case enit and seem's quite popular. So we should see some really nice build's in the near future hopefully 😄