Inside The Air 540
Getting inside the Carbide Air 540 is straightforward enough with the removal of two thumbscrews per door. Taking off the left door reveals the motherboard tray, designed to support Mini ITX, Micro ITX, ATX and E-ATX motherboards.
Surrounding the motherboard tray are a series of cable management holes complete with rubber grommets. There are eight holes with a larger ninth hole at the bottom that doesn't have a rubber piece.
At the base of the enclosure are two removable hot-swap 3.5" tool-less drive cages that also support 2.5" devices. The fact that these bays are hot-swappable makes installing and removing drives into the Air 540 extremely quick and easy.
Finally, there are three high quality Corsair Air Series AF140L fans found in the left side of the case, two at the front as intakes and a single exhaust at the rear. The front fans each have a large dust filter as well as four white LEDs.
While Corsair has included three 140mm fans it is also possible to install and additional two in the top of the case. As for radiator mounting locations, the front can support 240/280/360mm radiators while the top can handle 240/280mm radiators and the rear a 140mm radiator.
We find all the pre-installed cables around the other side where the bulk of the storage is located along with the power supply. Those hot-swap bays both have data and power extension cords pre-installed. All pre-installed cables are black and blend into the design well.
Surprisingly, there are no further 3.5" drive cages in the Air 540 despite their being plenty of room. Corsair could have easily fit another four to six drives in the right side of the case.
The company has only provided room for two 5.25" drives and four 2.5" devices. This means the hot-swap bays found in the left side of the case are all the Air 540 has to offer in terms of 3.5" storage, limiting the case to 8TB of hard drive space. Having first imagined this box as a cool workstation/server, the lack of 3.5" drive support is disappointing.
Although Corsair hasn't taken full advantage of the room available in the right side of the Air 540 there is plenty of room for cable management. There is also room for power supplies as long as 200mm, though realistically if there was a power supply longer than that the Air 540 would still fit it.
The Air 540 also supports CPU coolers up to 170mm tall with the maximum GPU length being 320mm.
Overall, while we are pleased that Corsair offered hot-swap 3.5" drive bays, we are disappointed that there are just two. Still, where the Air 540 really excels is in cable management and cooling performance.