Corsair Carbide Air 740 Case Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
The original Air 540 was released around three years ago, and is still a highly sought after case. Corsair has taken their time and really listened to the enthusiasts on what they would like to have improved on for the follow-up. With the Air 740, Corsair has taken what they heard and implemented the updates.
As this case is just being announced, it is not available for purchase yet, however I’m sure soon you’ll be able to find it on Amazon, Newegg and other popular retailers. Corsair has said that they have placed a MSRP of $149.99 on this case, and while there are lower cost cases that provide many of the same features, Corsair is well known for standing behind their products and manufacturing top quality gear that lasts for years. However, if you should have an issue, Corsair provides a 2 year warranty on their cases.
Cooling the Air 740 is done by Corsairs Direct Airflow Path, which focus’s the air cooling effect on the hottest components; the GPU, CPU, Motherboard and Memory. These are all on their own side of the case, and has a huge number of cooling options. For example, if you are an air cooler person, you can fit up to eight 120mm or seven 140mm fans (Corsair gets you started with three AF140L fans), and we found room for an 80mm exhaust fan on the power supply side. If you prefer liquid cooling, there is support for a 280mm radiator at the top and bottom, up to a 360mm in the front, and up to a 140mm in the back of the case.
After finishing the system, and thinking about it a little while, I did have two little areas of concerns. First the issue of the CPU cooler support bracket, while removing the 2.5″ drive cage is extremely easy, there aren’t many better options. Next we have the issue of fingerprints, this is an extremely minor and a personal annoyance. Fingerprints drive me crazy and maybe I’m in the minority. A change to the finish could resolve this as other Corsair cases don’t show fingerprints as easily as the Air 740 did.
Two new features we haven’t seen before is the VR add-on, that is an HDMI/USB 3.0 pass-through option, and the LED SW header which is to control lighting on Corsair’s new HD/SP LED fans.
Overall, this is probably one of my favorite dual chamber cases I have had the pleasure to work with. If the style is to your liking, there shouldn’t be any reason not to build your next system inside this case.
Legit Bottom Line: Updating the look and feature set of the award winning Air 540 was no easy task, but Corsair has done it! The Carbide Air 740 is a great case to build a system in, and should be able to accommodate even the toughest builds.