Air cooling the Carbide Air 540

[Durende]

What would be the optimal way to cool this case? I want the computer to be well cooled, but also to have as little dust as possible, although I could live with dust if necessary. The case will stand on my desk, and it's right side will be crammed into a corner, so I hope the PSU won't get too hot. I would also like to know which fans I should use (with blue LED if possible). Is any fan with a high CFM number a good one, as long as it's from a brand like Corsair, CoolerMaster or Noctua (I know that non static fans usually have a lower CFM, but works better for cooling through stuff).

[W-L]

What would be the optimal way to cool this case? I want the computer to be well cooled, but also to have as little dust as possible, although I could live with dust if necessary. The case will stand on my desk, and it's right side will be crammed into a corner, so I hope the PSU won't get too hot. I would also like to know which fans I should use (with blue LED if possible). Is any fan with a high CFM number a good one, as long as it's from a brand like Corsair, CoolerMaster or Noctua (I know that non static fans usually have a lower CFM, but works better for cooling through stuff).

 

If there is little restriction go for airflow fans but if there are HDD cages or heatsinks a static pressure fan would be ideal. For that case however I would add some custom filters since they don'y really have any but that fairly open mesh.

[raultherabbit]

If you don't want dust go make a custom filter or cover for beneath the hard drives, as they're completely open.  If you have pets, forget about this being a low dust case unless you make the top and front fan slots intakes and hope there's enough pressure in the case to keep dust out.  You may also want to invest in decent filters for the rest of the openings.  The case is very open for airflow and while it was great for keeping temps down, I stopped using my 540 because of the dust.

[Brendance]

I use 3 Corsair AF120s on the front, an AF140 on the rear with a H100i GTX exhausting on the top. All with blue LEDs. As for filters I use Demcifilter filters along with the Gelid PCI slot covers (not sure if they help but it think they look a bit nicer). I've had nearly no dust at all in my system considering my TV cabinet in the same room gets filthy in days.

 

http://www.demcifilter.com/p0431/Corsair-Air-540-Dust-Filter-Kit.aspx

 

http://gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=1&cid=13&id=76

[Flowroro]

I recommt the cooler master jetflo 95 cfm at max speed. It's slightly more expensive than the af120s. It comes with a silent mode cable for low noise and u can crank it up to 2000 rpm for max airflow. I've got 3 of these as intake and they work wonders not even at max rpm