Corsair Forgot How to Make a Case: 6500D Airflow & 6500X Review

in one word this case is unfocused it

has a few problems it's got a mess of

solutions and one of them is that it

seems like the drive cage was designed

in isolation from the back connect

motherboard compatibility so for example

because this case is trying to support

those boards that have cables going into

the back they've carved out this pass

through hole in the back wall of the

motherboard tray that then has to pass

through through the drive cage which

then passes through the drive cage sled

if you want to keep it in there and

eliminates a drive cage Mount so it's

like the two were designed in isolation

of each other but that's not the only

shortcoming here additionally corsairs

filters on the case are large and loose

fitting without sufficient integrated

support as you can see here and they've

got this huge piece of aftermarket

plastic structure that we've branded

corsair's oh moment of product

design where they already got through

and designed everything else and needed

a solution to stop the fans from sucking

this large loose filter into the

fans God damn it of course I also used

heavy Steel on the top with this thick

structure to create this exaggerated

Valley effect down the center but went

really cheap with the mesh panels like

that nice bending effect uh but that's

because they've reinforced all of the

mesh panels with instead of Steel and

metal like they have ample amounts of up

here plastic and the end result is that

every mesh panel on this case sags this

is as charitable as possible cuz I'm not

going to hold it up this is the normal

orientation and it's got quite a radius

on it bending like a banana as can pin

would say in fact even the top panel

does this where if we hold this

one you can see the SAG right in the

middle there it's like Corsair saw what

they were doing with video cards and

thought they'd jump in except there's

not like four pounds of heat sink

attached to this of course there has

some nice touches on this case like the

yellow Accent on the USB ports and on

the washer for some of the screws but

they didn't follow this through like

they've done in years past so typically

they've also done a yellowing on the

pull tab or in some other small areas of

the case that show an intentional

attention to detail and by on the front

of the case really only showing it in

those USB ports has the opposite effect

where they make it look like a mistake

like it's some left over Port from the

9s there's also a documentation problem

with the case where one it's not

consistent between its materials uh two

they're kind of scattered but it's a

good idea it just wasn't executed well

and then three open loop Hardware is

technically supported it's just not

documented very well so these are the

Corsair 6500 cases one's the 6500 x with

the glass one is the 65 500d airflow

with the mesh front panel today we're

reviewing them these are $200 each no

fans included in either one of these

before that this video is brought to you

by thermal Grizzly's aeronaut and

hydronaut thermal pastes aeronaut is

thermal Grizzly's entry-level thermal

solution marketed as resistant to curing

and for long-term endurance hydronaut is

thermal Grizzly's Next Step Up targeted

for overclocking and higher performance

applications we've used hydronaut on a

lot of our systems internally over the

years you can learn more at the link in

the description below the styling of

these dual chamber cases feels familiar

to the family another 0d a montech

k95 uh the game Max hype the another 01

the antec

C8 AR argb

[Music]

Edition but despite fitting in with this

trend corser isn't actually a follower

here it actually came before all of

these and it was with the carbide air

540 and they had others that were dual

chamber as well I wrote about the air

540 in 2013 and it's been a few years

but about 10 to 12 years ago Corsair was

fighting fiercely in the case Market the

Corsair C70 and its edgy military

theming had some highlights like a flip

up button cover and heavyduty panel

latches Corsair had the bulbous 600t and

the popular 780t lately they've moved

away from styling and featured

development in the case industry and

these days cors strategy seems to be to

make safe styles that follow or fit in

with Trends in the industry the Corsair

4000d gets huge credit though for

keeping the more affordable case Market

alive and the 5000d remains available

and was corsair's last mid-range case

launched in 20121 it seems like

corsair's strategy with the 4,000 5000d

7000d and with these is to build and

design a case that is relatively

Timeless for an era something that's

safe so they can launch the market and

in 3 years

they can still sell it for roughly the

same price that allows them to spread

the R&D and tooling cost over more years

and it's a big company move of course

there's a big company now it's somewhere

around three times the size it was

minimally for employee account compared

to when the air 540 came out it's

different now but big company moves

despite being sometimes character at

list can have their advantages as well

so the 6500 series it feels like a

spiritual successor in some ways to the

Corsair 680 but improved before we get

into more detail on it we need some

Alternatives alternatives to this case

include the lean lee1 Dynamic Evo series

the height y60 and y70 non-touch that we

just reviewed on the channel if you want

to check it out the k95 pro from montech

the antec C8 AR argb and that's just

some of the recent dual chamber cases

all in the same general form factor and

price category and we've got fresh data

for each of those from our recent height

y70 review to compare that we'll look at

today in our new ATX case testing

methodology and looking big picture

first this case is pretty heavy for a

case everything I'm showing today are

very heavy and a lot of that weight

comes from these swappable panels so the

front and the top here can be exchanged

they've got a couple variants one of

them is aluminum this just by default is

steel and swapping this if you look at

how thick that steel is swapping that

for an aluminum panel actually has a

meaningful weight reduction if you

needed an example of why companies will

often go to aluminum for weight this is

the perfect one the 6500 though it's

interesting because it feels like this

combination of sturdy and relatively

quality feeling materials in assembly

with really cheap and really bad

materials in assembly let's start with

some of the small weirder oversights the

first weird one is compatibility with

backconnect motherboards corsair's

trying to satisfy this demand but the

whole thing feels like an afterthought

that started partway through design

maybe for corporate political Capital to

please their Partners in the ecosystem

Corsair included a full set of cutouts

for normal ATX boards and back connect

Mini ITX Micro ATX and ATX motherboards

from both Asus and MSI Corsair is pretty

confident in its abilities in this

regard re-engineering is such a crucial

part of case design for entirely new

standards without compromising something

else obviously isn't easy but at the

same time we are Corsair so it was

absolutely fine so the problem with all

this unfolds here there's an awkward Gap

underneath where the power supply mounts

it mounts here it doesn't make much

sense feels like just kind of a

byproduct of something they were trying

to do rather than intentional the hard

drive

cage gets in the way so you've got this

cutout through the hard drive cage for

the EPS 12vt cables and back connect

boards but if we bring the camera down a

little bit you'll see the normal cutout

for the normal EPS 12vt that doesn't get

in the way this is why cors are punched

what seems like an otherwise completely

random hole through the hard drive cage

which isn't discussed in the manual at

all they have two 2 and A2 for 3 and 1/2

in Sleds on the drive cage and two 2 and

1/2 in mounts on the side which Corsair

calls quote expansive storage options

but if you use one of corsair's rotated

shift power supplies which has been

specifically sh at the 6500 series the

hard drive cage must be removed

completely eliminating all official

drive support from the case all of it no

drives except nvme or whatever you lay

on the floor of the case if you just

route CPU power cables through the cage

but without a shift power supply one of

the sleds is unusable there's another

spot in the bottom of the case where you

could Force One of the 2 and 1/2 in

mounts with some bending but it's not

officially supported we recommend using

the sleds inside the drive cage first

since cabling for the mounts on the side

can press against the side panel and

you've already seen how flimsy that is

the 3 and 1/2 in mounting is tooless but

it lacks vibration damping so another

place for improvement so they designed

for drives and they designed for back

connect motherboards but they didn't

design for both of them at least not

properly not in a way that seems like it

was all intentional they're made an

isolation of of each other where one

causes compromises with the other and

yet there's all this extra space in the

backside that seems like it just could

have been used more thoughtfully for

open Loops there appear to be pump or

Reservoir mounting holes next to the

expansion slots and a drain hole at the

bottom of the case we say appear to be

because corser doesn't mention these

features in the online manual there's no

physical manual at least not with ours

or the reviewer guide or the jumble of

tagged posts on their website that tries

to be a extra manual or something this

is a premium case with showcase glass

panels as they say made by a company

that has its own line of open loop

Hardware but corsair's only

acknowledgement of op Loop Hardware in a

6500 is in this video and the article

that accompanies it Corsair needs to

organize its materials there are

genuinely helpful blog posts for this

case but finding specific information is

a chore let's bring it back to the

filters so the 6500 series it's got

filters in a couple places for the

there's one in the mesh front panel with

the mesh itself so there's that metal

layer then this really fine almost kind

of invisible nylon style filter except

it's not invisible because you can see

that it is it is bulbous it's like the

precursor to Bulbasaur or something

there's another filter over here on this

side there's one in the top there's a

pullout filter in the bottom which is a

little more standard these panels are

already all kind of bowed I mean you can

see this one pretty clearly as we talked

about earlier but you've got the extra

problem of such a large piece of mesh

with no reinforcement whatsoever and

then as we said earlier this piece is

designed to move around which is

interesting uh maybe that for the power

supply over here or something but in

either case uh this is clearly to stop

that filter from just getting sucked

into the side mounted fans and causing

new problems so uh all of these seem

like they are going to Sag with time and

we like airf flow and we like Corsair

trying ventle Motif but the mesh panels

are unpleasantly fragile it's a strange

contrast with the complete Overkill

armor plating another areas where you've

got steel it seems like it could stop a

bullet since all the panels snap into

place removing them requires prying them

up on one side which unavoidably curls

them interestingly Corsair also has

quite a few add-ons available for the

6500 and we actually don't hate all of

them there's some interesting ideas here

there's a rapid route kit of cable

channels and velcro ties that cost $15

there's a glass kit to convert the 6500d

airf flow to a 6500 X that's $35 a

vertical GPU mount kits available with a

riser cable for 75 bucks there's a

wooden Elite panel kit and then the

black or silver aluminum Elite panel

kits which are $100 the wood one at 75

we'd like to see the rapid route kit

included with the case we noticed that

some of the included twist ties are the

type that disintegrate like you get on a

bag of bread the elite panel kits

replace four plates on the 6500d air

flow three on the 6500 X the stock

plates are extremely heavy they're 3.2

mm thick steel the single plate that the

io attaches to weighs 1.3 Kg on its own

while its aluminum equivalent weighs 0.4

kg fresh out of the box the 6500 X

weighs 14.5 kg and the 6500d air flow

weighs 14.8 kg with the non-structural

plates making up a large share of those

numbers the case is pretty heavy now if

you're watching this and you're like

that's a lot of kilograms I don't know

what those are you can do like one of

our commenters did previously and

unironically say why do you hate Freedom

use inches and to that I would say we

have a full blog post that will give you

the measurements in cubits furons Reams

and choirs hopefully one of those is

useful to

you I didn't write a blog post you can

just go to Google and convert it but

those are all real measurements

installing an elite panel kit isn't

complicated although it's hard to access

the screws on the front plate it is

pretty straightforward though the

tolerances on our sample were tight with

minimal gaps between the plates and

around the io ports this is great and

one of the better places of attention to

detail from cor a despite the

shortcomings the side fan and the

radiator Mount is held in with a single

screw and the tray can be screwed down

without being hooked into place properly

which stood out to us as one example

where corser manufacturing rather than

its design let us down on the case this

Mount is 120 mm only but there would

have been space to fit a 140mm mount

without expanding the case on to the

less negative features of the case so uh

the side and bottom mounts for radiators

can both support 360 mm radiators

without being in conflict with each

other which is great installing fans and

a radiator in the bottom mount will

reduce access to the bottom of ATX

motherboards but Corsair has oriented

the cable cutouts in this location so

that they can't be blocked that's also

excellent the front mount in the 6500d

airf flow does have some overlap with

the bottom mount so we recommend

focusing on the bottom and the side for

liquid coolant some positives with the

right side panel as well for both of

these first of all the gap between the

front and the Side Glass here these two

pieces is really well done the

tolerances are super tight they fit

together really flly that's good also on

the back over here there is a screw to

hold things in place so we like seeing

that it is lacking a way to fully secure

the panel so it can still swing open but

at least they've got something basic in

there now there are some downsides to

the side panel so as a quick aside point

out

the just I mean I I don't even know just

look at it I guess I don't need to say

anything this is when it's not socketed

clearly and it's just it's lacking some

of that structure that rigidity to help

bring it up to stay level and it

actually looks like as pointed out by

vital behind the camera this is

something that Corsair became aware of

during the design process because they

strapped this piece of ch hampered metal

to the bottom so that when it starts to

approach it will collide with that

bottom lip and then guide it up and in

in case the user is just pushing without

much thought so as you can see it

eventually gets it there definitely just

a weird place to have a cheaper feeling

so while it's a positive that they have

a guide if it gets misaligned it's a

negative that they need one and as it

sags more and more it could just scratch

the paint anyway there are no fans

included with the two less expensive

6,500 SKS that we're covering here but

even so Corsair has included fan screws

and they're

trademarked they trademarked

screws allow me to introduce the new one

twist quick turn registered TM where

quick is spelled

wrong it's a screw just to be clear it's

trademarked has a name we're mentioning

them though because corser went through

the trouble of painting the screw heads

which is actually nice if they spent

that level of attention on other places

it would be a much better case the

positive is that these are much faster

to use and again they include them

anyway the accessory kit also includes a

color matched splitter for the front

panel Connections in case your

motherboard doesn't have the usual

layout the I/O cables are all color

matched as well with our white case

which is another touch that we liked and

the rubber grommets are double shot

molded with the inner portion made from

a more Flex ible material while the

outer Rin is rigid enough to keep the

grommet from popping out this works and

it's excellent attention to detail but

it also means that the white grommets

are slightly different for shade around

the edges we overall like this element

of detail though finally the bar between

the power supply chamber and the side

fan Mount is extremely easy to remove

and it's well designed the entire front

panel comes off without much effort

although that's another thing you'll

need to dig through the coair blogs for

now for thermal testing this is with all

of our new methodology which we've been

really excited about so we showed the

most recent version of it in our height

y70 non-touch review it's on the channel

you should check it out lay some of the

groundwork we made some changes from the

fractal North XL methodology basically

the changes were we wanted to increase

the heat load make it a little more

challenging for the cases and so we've

done that uh for this so since it

doesn't come with any fans we've used

our standardized set of fans this is the

solution we've chosen when a cases

fanless we use the same ones for all of

them and for all of the fanless cases

that is and then we do have a chart that

uses only standardized fans none of the

included ones that's all explained as we

walk through The Thermals this case is a

little different though the exception is

that the side mount only fits 120 mm

fans so for side intake tests we changed

out the usual two noct 140 fans for two

Arctic p12 Max fans we'll start with

noise normalized thermal results which

are gathered by lowering the case fan

speeds for the included fans until the

total noise level hits 27 DBA measured

in our Hemi anic Chamber from 1 M

directly in front of the case we leave

the CPU and the GPU fan speeds

undisturbed for all cases now we noise

normalize configuration separately but

there was only a tiny difference in

noise levels between the 6500 x with

side intake and the 6500d airflow with

side intake so those two configurations

used the same fan speed for CPU thermals

amongst the Corsair cases and using the

standardized fans since these don't

include any the straightforward front

intake configuration for the 6500d

airflow came out on top at 48° C above

ambient for the average all core CPU

temperature and 52° for the Pees alone

the two cases were warmer with side

intake with both averaging about 49° all

core and 53 for the Pees bottom intake

in the 6500 X was the worst among them

since incoming air was blocked by the

GPU in total though the bottom to top

range between all the Co Air

configurations for all core CPU average

was less than 3° within the 6500 series

The Bottom intake configuration directed

less noise towards our microphone for

testing which meant the fan speeds

didn't need to be reduced as much to hit

the noise normalized threshold this is

actually awesome because this is a huge

advantage of the change we made with the

noise chamber we wouldn't have been able

to identify these types of really minor

differences before and now we can and so

we get to see a a different picture of

things which is that because the bottom

int configuration now as measurable as

not directing as much noise towards the

mic we're able to see that it helped out

the performance here to have that

slightly higher RPM but still hit noise

normalized both of these 6500 SKS are

$200 which puts them close to the $220

height y70 for CPU thermals the 6500 x

with bottom intake tied the y70 with

bottom intake and both 6500s with side

intake nearly tied the y70 with side

intake the y70 isn't capable of front

intake so the 6500d airflow has an

advantage in being able to more directly

Target the cooler with this specific

test bench it's going to change a little

bit so if you have like a massive aiio

different scenario among our dual

chamber case results the St leyd Evo XL

did best at 43° all core and 47p core

and both it and the montech k95 pro beat

all of the 6500 series results the anex

C8 AR argb with its stock bottom intake

configuration performed nearly the same

as the y70 and the 6500 a with bottom

intake ignoring dual Chambers the

fractal torrent Remains the goat here

this chart is for GPU load thermals with

the stock case fans or those we've added

to empty cases at full speed the 6500 X

averaged 45 celsus above ambient on the

GPU with bottom intake while the 6500d

air flow with front intake averaged 49°

both of these results were gathered with

the standard noctua fans uh there aren't

any p12 Max results on this chge the

bottom intake configuration benefits GPU

thermals as well as noise levels from

the front with the 6500 X running both

cooler and quieter at 35.6 DBA versus

the 6500d air flow at 40.8 remember the

last chart though CPU cooling was better

with front intake front intake with a

6500d air flow made it louder than the

rest of the dual chamber cases on the

chart all of which were tested with side

or bottom intake but didn't put it up at

the same level of GPU performance as the

similarly loud 42.3 DBA torrent the

torrent remains unbelievably good here

keeping in mind that this is with

included fans and it has an advantage

there but even from a noise efficiency

standpoint it's doing well from the

perspective of GPU thermals the 6500d

was both hot and Loud during this test

the 11d Evo XL was about 1 DBA quieter

and 1° cooler while the ca AR argb and

the y70 with side intake were both at

least 1 DB louder and at least 4° cooler

this chart covers our standardized fan

test where all cases use the same set of

noct to fans at full speed these are not

noise normalized but they do use the

same fan speeds throughout the case

bottom intake in the 6500 X was still

worse for CP thermals than front intake

in the 6500d at 47° all core versus 41

it's a big difference it makes sense but

it is a large difference removing the

front panel from the 6500d showed what a

difference an unobstructed airflow path

can make with an all core average of

37° and P core average of 41 that's

cooler than any other logged results for

both metrics this is noteworthy because

we've removed all of that double

filtering so an improvement of say 4° is

relatively large from the impedance of

those filters and the mesh double

stacked sorted by CPU thermals the best

results for course there are with front

intake then side intake then bottom

intake and then there's almost no

deviation from that order competing

cases without removing panels would have

been the lean Le 11d Evo

as advantaged as with the Evo XL and the

torrent also advantaged even without its

huge 180 mm fans back to the original

noise normalized results but focusing on

GPU thermals rather than CPU the bottom

intake configuration for the 6500 X was

the clear winner at 44° above ambient on

average with the two side intake results

again within variance of each other

around 45° and front intake in last

place at 47 the C8 argb was the clear

winner among dual chamber cases at 42°

average and an impressive result and

attributable to antech decisions on its

fan placement and type the bottom in

take y70 configuration came close to the

6500 X at 45° back to the standardized

fan chart the 6500 series's GPU thermals

didn't compare as well as all the fans

matched and running at full speed the

6500 X bottom intake result at 45 Dees

above ENT was the best among the 6500

series which is beaten by the o1d Evo XL

and the y70 bottom intake at 44° and the

kid 95 Pro and anex 8 at 43° the y70

with side intake also did unusually well

here at 41° average Fe M thermals for

the 6500 X fell within a tight 33 to 35

degree range above ambient for the most

part with the bottom intake 6500 X on