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
Introduction
Corsair is a company originally known for their quality RAM modules, but they have expanded into many other areas of the PC market. Today, Corsair is one of the most important players in the computer hardware market, with the company offering dozens of products, designed to cater to as wide an array of people as possible. Looking just at their computer cases, Corsair offers five series with an ever-expanding number of products, ranging from super-large cases for enthusiasts to low-cost products for budget-driven users. In this review, we will look at one of their latest case designs, the Carbide Air 240.
Compact cases and small form factors are all the rage nowadays. Some companies, such as Silverstone, have focused many of their R&D resources on the development of such designs. The first compact case that we reviewed from Corsair was the Obsidian 250D, a cubic Mini-ITX case of not so compact proportions; instead, it was designed to fit fairly powerful combinations of hardware. This is also true of the Carbide Air 240 that we will be reviewing today. Although it is designed to fit up to Micro-ATX motherboards, the Carbide Air 240 can accommodate very powerful hardware, including two top-tier GPUs and dual liquid cooling radiators. We will look at its design, features, strengths, and weaknesses in this review.
| Corsair Carbide Air 240 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | - |
| Internal |
3 x 2.5" or 3.5" (rear cage) 3 x 2.5" (top cage) |
|
| Cooling | Front | 2 x 120 (2 x 120mm included) |
| Rear | 2 x 80mm (optional) | |
| Top | 2 x 120mm (one included) | |
| Right Side | 1 x 120mm (optional) | |
| Bottom | 2 x 120 (optional) | |
| I/O Port |
2 × USB 3.0 2 × USB 3.0 1 × Headphone 1 × Mic |
|
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearances | HSF | 125mm |
| PSU | 200mm | |
| GPU | 360 mm | |
| Dimensions |
~315mm × 265mm × 400mm (H×W×D) ~12.4in × 10.43in × 15.75in (H×W×D) |
|
| Pricing | ~$90 online | |
Packaging and bundle
The Corsair Carbide Air 240 comes supplied in a simple, brown cardboard box. The artwork on the box is limited to schematics of the case and text. Inside the box, the lightweight case is protected by thick polystyrene foam slabs and is wrapped in a nylon bag.
Corsair kept the items bundled with the Carbide Air 240 down to a minimum but organized them well, supplying each type of screw inside a separate nylon bag. There are also four rubber feet for the case and a few short cable ties.
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63 Comments
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bnjohanson - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
...in order to understand, consider believing it a must for car companies to still install cassette players in their newest models because..." I use mine for taping mixes of songs and backups for my CD's, etc. I constantly use it nearly everyday. Not to mention to just listen to a movie soundtrack while I am washing my car...Even on my home stereo system, I use the cassette player with some regularity. Sony Walkmans never have interested but with a car this huge, why isn't there one cassette-slot somewhere, even in the trunk? I just don't get it. I also drive motorcycles, smaller than my car, but it still has a cassette player."
ABSURD !
ZeDestructor - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
Well done, that gave me a good chuckle...notlurking - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
Your analogy is bad because you are comparing listening to media in a car with content creation.Someone needs to do the rips that you download. Those people need a 5.25 drive to get movies and music onto their NAS or PC.
If you want a car analogy, buy a small SUV (Corsair 240 is 15.75" deep!) without a trunk. Why do you need a trunk in your small SUV when everyone already uses Amazon to deliver things right to your door?
ZeDestructor - Monday, August 18, 2014 - link
External drives exist. As do full-size 5.25" eSATA/USB3.0/Firewire cases.Using the car analogy, that would be a trailer you would tow behind your small, fast Ferrari 458 for bringing extra tyres to trackdays.
notlurking - Monday, August 18, 2014 - link
If you are going to bring up eSata, then why do cases need 3.5" drives? Just use an external 3.5" eSata drive for those times you need to access those extra media files or games.RE: car
But the Corsair Air 540 is NOT a tiny Ferrari! It's 15.75" deep! It's the computer case equivalent of a small SUV. Look at the picture gallery. Fully filled, it has large empty areas.
Grok42 - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
There are very few cases without 5.25" bays, why must they all have them? If you like this case better than the hundreds of ones with a 5.25" bay maybe it's because not having a 5.25" bay frees up the case designers to build better designs. Every example you gave for using an optical drive I answered with "Internet". I have an external 5.25" drive that I use to do the odd OS install but I'm not even sure when I last did that.notlurking - Sunday, August 17, 2014 - link
Someone needs to do the rips that you download from the Internet. Not to mention that many downloads are sub-perfect quality that make me do my own rips for my NAS.Black Obsidian - Monday, August 18, 2014 - link
Was that same inane comment really worth making almost half a dozen times in the same comment thread?Others have already pointed out that such people are perfectly free to buy one of the many cases that DO have 5.25" drives, or buy this case and a USB optical drive. It's not a difficult problem to solve.
notlurking - Monday, August 18, 2014 - link
Yes, because of all the people making the same inane comment that everything is on the Internet a half a dozen times in the same comment thread.re: buy something else.
Then don't read reviews that are critical of anything. Is this facebook where only upvotes of products are allowed?
My criticism is for the remote chance that it gets back to Corsair and they improve their product.
flyingpants1 - Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - link
No need for discs anymore. I put everything on my phone, or USB stick, or external HDD.