Corsair Carbide Series White 500R Mid Tower Computer Case

The 500R is phenomenally good. I will start with the cons.Cons:1. Front panel over the dual fans is not an easy access removable filter panel.(why they did not include this is beyond me).2. The 5 1/4" drive bay covers are a little tricky to remove.3. Doesn't make me a sammich... that's all for the cons, now on to the good stuff.Pros:1. BIG space inside, plenty of room for anything your heart desires.2. Cable management galore, offers the perfect amount of rubber grommets for wire routing. Also has tie down points.3. Front loading, easy mounting/locking/removal system for all 5 1/4" drive bays.4. 4 fans included. (3 that light up).5. Self-contained water cooling option.6. 8 expansion slots.7. 2 USB 3.0's on the front I/O board.8. Bottom rubber mounted PSU - also has an open face bottom with air filter. (true cold air intake for optimum performance from the PSU).9. Bulges on side panels look great and add extra room for cable management - (I believe this is a must).10. Removable HDD cages.*I cannot stress enough on how important it is to research everything to the fullest before buying multiple component systems. Also, I did not include all pros for this case as you can find everything else that you need to know on the description of the item itself - although I will say that NEWEGG has a video review of the 500R which helped me with my decision.On another note, this case is the perfect blend between style and functionality. The tray on top is a very nice touch, also having a front facing I/O board was a must for me. (I do not like top mounted I/O boards due to them clogging with dirt/grime/dust easier.The 500R has a flat finish which I adore, looks fantastic and will not collect fingerprints.(I have the white 500R).I could literally ramble on and on all day about how successful, easy, and fun my build was with my new 500R - but there's more fun to be had with my PC, so I must say farewell and good luck to all of you with your own builds. I hope this review was insightful and memorable!MY PC BUILD IS AS FOLLOWS:-Corsair 500R-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard-PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W High Performance 80PLUS Silver SLI CrossFire ready-Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW Drive (Black)-EVGA GeForce GTX480 1536MB GDDR5 Dual DVI, HDMI, SLI Graphics Cards 015-P3-1480-KR-Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB cache-G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000)-AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

The Corsair Carbide Series 500R Computer Case:The Corsair 500R can be bought as an all black or a black and white unit, I bought the all-black unit. The case is approximately 20.5" x 20.5" and it is about 8 1/4 inches wide. As far as looks are concerned I would not say this a "jazzy" looking case and if you're looking for something that catches the eye like many gamers prefer then this case is not for you.On the other hand it has a simple straightforward and 'clean' appearance and is actually pleasing to look at from that perspective. I personally bought this case to transfer the interior of my HP computer case to a larger case because I had modified pretty much the entire computer on the inside.I added large cooling systems, (I installed the Corsair H 100; please see my review on that product in Amazon), and a good number of fans as well as a larger power supply and a more powerful CPU and GPU.I'm not going to go into great detail about each specific item that can be removed and or replaced within this big case. This is referred to as a mid-tower case and is made to handle an ATX style power supply. The Corsair 500R has a good many places to put your hard drives, optical drives, and additional cooling systems and fans. The exact specs are listed in the Corsair ad and you can find all the information there very easily.The process to build a computer from scratch or transfer one to a new case is not very difficult. In fact it is quite simple but does require an understanding of how to physically handle exposed electronics and micro processing systems. I personally don't recommend that this be done by someone who's never done this kind of thing before without someone to assist them who has experience.What I like about the case is that it came with at least five fans one of which was the 200 mm fan. The other four are 120 mm fans and Corsair also made it easy to attach their H 100 cooling system. The front panel of the 500R contains a headphone and microphone jack, (2) 3.0 USB ports, a FireWire connection, a reboot switch, a three position switch that apparently is supposed to change the speed of the fans, (something that I have not yet been able to determine if in fact it does), and one last button that turns the fan lights on and off.From a functional point of view I like this case a lot. It has decreased my temperatures of my CPU and GPU by an incredible amount just because of the fan configurations. As best as I can determine, the airflow of all the fans that came with the case are pulling air from outside into the case. I say this because I can't feel the air blowing against my hand.I would've set the fans to pull the hot air out of the case but when I saw the results of my temperatures in the case and on the CPUs I have to believe that Corsair knew what they were doing with these fans.The H 100 that I had set up did a fantastic job using the push pull configuration and of course, pulling the cool air from outside the case into and through the radiator, (again, please see my review about the H 100 for full explanation as to how to set that up).But what I didn't like about the case was the fact that all the screws were black. Even if you get the black and white case the interior of the case is black and so are the screws. I'm a machinist by trade and I can tell you one of the hardest things to do is spot a black screw on a black background.In addition, I think that Corsair could have provided 12"-14" SATA cables for the Hard Drive and Optical Drive, (at least one of each), for the money that they are charging for this case. With so many places to add these 2 drives, I still couldn't get close enough to the mobo to reach the drives with the stock 8" SATA cables I had. Corsair could have easily forseen this possiblity.But perhaps the one thing I don't like the most about the Corsair 500R is that Corsair did not bother to put a single word in their paperwork about how to apply the connections that they supplied to any motherboard configuration. What I'm saying is that if you're working with a motherboard that was assembled in a factory by HP, Dell, or any other computer manufacturer as I was, you are not going to have connections broken down into single pin plugs.As I said earlier I was transferring an HP OEM motherboard to this case. The power plugs as well as many the other plugs all come in groups to make up a single plug end. Corsair broke the power plug down to a multiple of single and double prong plugs that leave you uncertain as to how exactly they would be placed in the OEM, single plug, configuration. However if you bought your own motherboard you would probably have a better idea as to what to do with those single pin plugs.I'm just saying that it wouldn't have killed Corsair to make it a bit clearer but these days it seems that the instruction manual has gone the way of the dinosaur. At any rate it didn't take long for me to figure it out but I still think that they could have helped that procedure along.So just for the record I think you should know that their so-called "quick start guide" is pretty much useless. Even their one specification about how they supplied a plug to convert the 3.0 USB jacks on the front of the case into the ability to handle at 2.0 USB plug is shown incorrectly. If you look at the picture that they supplied in the guide and then look at the plug itself you'll quickly see that neither look the same but it's easy to figure out.All in all I give this case an 8.5 out of 10 on a 10 scale. I do in fact recommend this case to anyone who wants a good many choices of where to place their optical drives and hard drives. But if you're looking for an eye-catching case this is not the one. The Corsair 500R is a good, sturdy, and well-built case made up primarily of plastic and metal. Corsair supplied some very good quality fans that run much quieter at their maximums then my fans did in my original case. I do like this case.