Corsair Carbide Air 240 Micro-ATX Chassis Review
Peter Donnell / 10 years ago
Final Thoughts
Pricing
The Corsair Air 240 was never going to be a cheap product with this level of build quality and specification, but at £70 inc. VAT / €70 Exc. VAT it is still very good value for money. This brings it in line with similar offerings from the likes of Fractal, Aerocool and BitFenix (to name but a few), but I think in terms of specifications, the Air 240 has something of an edge on the competition in this price range.
Overview
I absolutely love what Corsair have done here, the Air 240 is easily one of the coolest chassis I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. It’s not quite perfect in my opinion, but on a per-user basis, nothing ever is. The only thing I would love to see tweaked on this chassis is the dust filtering systems. Panels are filtered, but most feature a hard fitted mesh that requires you to remove and sweep out the panel when cleaning, at the cost of thicker panels and a slightly elevated price tag I’d have loved to see slide out or fully magnetic filters put into place. This is of course a minor issue, as it’s not like Corsair forgot to add filters at all.
Cable routing is often a big problem in small form factor cases, but as small as this case may be, its dual compartment design makes great use of what space there is. All the less exciting components are tucked out-of-the-way in the back, so all the extensive racks of hard drive cables and excess PSU cables as out of sight all of the time. This means that your shiny new components are the main focus through the side panel window and even a complete beginner should have no problems putting a clean-looking build together here.
The unique design allows for the chassis to be laid with the side panel facing sideways or upwards, which is a welcome bonus as it allows you more flexibility dependant on your personal setup. It never hurts to have more choice on how and where you can place your chassis and little touches like the rotatable front panel logo and included stick on rubber feet help you get the most out of the chassis no matter how you’ve orientated it.
In terms of features the chassis is very capable, with dual radiator support, lots of fans mounts, dust filters, room for two graphics cards, tool free drive installation and more; this is backed up by sturdy build quality and flawless aesthetics.
“The Corsair Air 240 is a very impressive product, it’s packed full of features that make it ideal for a high-end gaming system, it’s very nicely designed, the modding community are going to love it and it’s competitively priced. If you’re on the market for a LAN friendly chassis for your next rig, the Air 240 should be at or very close to the top of your shopping list.”
Pros
- Great build quality
- Well thought out design
- Stylish
- Excellent cable management
- Lots of fan mounts
- Three high quality fans pre-installed
- Dust filters on all major intakes
- Rotatable design
- Tool free and removable drive-bays
- Competitive price
Cons
- Non fixed dust filters would have been preferred
Thank you Corsair for providing us with this sample.