Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 Review

Performance Analysis

In most other cases here, the low profile cooler in our mini-ITX test rig has been largely left to its own devices. However, with the Air 240, the top 120mm fan may well be competing for airflow, although it will also be drawing warm air away from it. In addition, the front fans are quite a way from the CPU cooler compared to many other cases on test. This is why we've seen a mediocre result for the CPU delta T as the CPU cooler isn't being assisted in the usual way that you'd see with a tower cooler and rear/top mounted fan. With such a low CPU cooler clearance, if you do opt for air cooling, any form of top-down cooled low profile cooler isn't going to result in spectacular thermals.


The GPU delta T was much more where you'd expect it to be and only a few degrees of some of the best performing cases on test. There's no drive cages to interfere here - they're all in the rear chamber and as such there are no cables to get in the way too so this result isn't surprising. Of course, there's also the option of planting a 120mm fan in the lower fan mount too and directing it at the graphics card fan.


This would undoubtedly improve the situation and is the main reason why the SilverStone Raven RVZ01 did so well too. Noise-wise, the fans were noticeable, mainly because all three sit right next to open vents but they're pleasantly quiet nonetheless and tuning them down with a fan controller or 7V resistor cables would mean they'd be all but silent.


Conclusion

We're really excited by the possibilities the Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 offers. It's an interesting case that gets your brain thinking about all sorts of scenarios, and one thing we did consider is reversing the airflow so the fans at the front act as exhausts. There's so much ventilation that the out-of-the-box configuration, which lends itself to positive air pressure, may actually not be the best option here.

In fact, it might even be interesting to add a couple of 80mm intake fans at the rear and slap a 120mm intake fan in the base pointing at your graphics card as this may well help the CPU cooling. Then there are the water-cooling options and again we're itching to see what the community comes up with here as there's certainly a lot of potential both out-of-the-box and with a little modding too.

Considering the case is roughly the same size as a BitFenix Prodigy, Corsair has done very well indeed to make it so water-cooling friendly and to offer so much expansion, especially given its dual chamber design. The thermals aren't spectacular, but they're far from bad and if you're not looking to cram a custom water-cooling system inside, then an all-in-one liquid cooler is definitely the way to go.