Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
Opening up the Corsair 3500X ARGB is a matter of popping off the sides. Both of the side panels, as well as the front, are held on with ball-and-socket joints. The tempered glass has steel on its top and bottom with protruding stems. A small lip on the back makes it easier to get a handle on and pull off. Furthermore, once the sides are propped open, both remain balanced in place until you open it further. Both panes of tempered glass are 4mm thick without any tinting. As such, you will have easy visibility into your system. It also means you should tidy up your cables well. There is no padding between the glass or with the rest of the case, which would have been nice to cushion any hard surfaces making contact. This area does not overlap nicely like the Antec C5 ARGB with its beveled edges. Instead, there is a slight gap in between here with a bit more clearance at the bottom. It would have been nice to reduce this or at least maintain a consistent space between the two panes of glass, but this is what we have. Otherwise, the surrounding edges of the glass have a white frame, so you can hold the side and front without leaving noticeable fingerprints on the inside.
Similar to the front and side, the top panel is also held on with some ball and socket joints. This means you should be careful when carrying the Corsair 3500X ARGB from the top, as this area can easily detach accidentally. This is a thin steel panel that sits up here and covers the top exhaust area. As I have mentioned previously, the panel has a removable mesh underside to prevent dust from entering at the top. Under, we have mounting rails to install various cooling components. For fans, this can fit up to three 120mm or two 140mm options. Alternatively, you can install up to a single 360mm radiator.
With all panels removed, you can see the Corsair 3500X ARGB maintains a mostly open-concept design, with a notable box at the bottom to separate the power supply from the rest of the build. Everything inside is white, which maintains a consistent color throughout. The primary screws, risers, and other mounting hardware are silver, which I think blends well with the rest of the enclosure. The paint on the panels is applied evenly and does not scratch off easily, which is good to see. The Corsair 3500X series of cases can accommodate E-ATX motherboards up to 27.7cm wide, which is pretty surprising given the overall compact footprint of the enclosure. In general, most of your system and its components will sit in this main area, with only the power supply and storage relegated to the back side.
At the back corner, you can see the large opening behind the motherboard. This is useful when installing third-party coolers, as you can change the mounting mechanism while keeping the motherboard in place. There are also two openings above the motherboard to route cables here. Unfortunately, none of these holes are lined with rubber grommets. There are even more holes around the edges of where your motherboard would be, and this is to support the back connectors on some new motherboards. This trend is pretty recent and is meant to let users hide their cables even better, since it means the system’s connection points are all hidden away from direct view. It is great to see this continued support for the latest trends, especially with these more price-conscious options. As we mentioned, the top has mounting rails to install cooling options. There is approximately 6cm between the rails and the top of the motherboard, which is more than enough space for radiators or fans. There is also a set of three hooks behind the rails, presumably so users can manage the excess fan cables and prevent them from hanging low.
Down to the bottom, we can see the expansion slot covers. There is a total of seven slots, which is typical for a mid-tower case. As mentioned previously, all of the slots can rotate to accommodate for vertical mounting of your video cards. This requires removing them all from the back, but it is pretty straightforward to do so. At the bottom, you can see the division between the power supply and the rest of the chassis. There are ventilation holes on the shroud with mounting points for two more 120mm fans. However, installing fans here will prevent you vertically mounting your GPU, so do keep this in mind. There are more routing holes at the back and even more openings nearby for back-facing connectors.
At the front, we have the sole differentiator between the Corsair 3500X ARGB and the rest of the lineup, which is the included fans. The base 3500X comes with no fans out of the box. Meanwhile, the highest price iCUE Link 3500X RGB comes with three iCUE Link RX120 RGB fans and an iCUE Link System Hub to control everything.
Our ARGB edition today is the mid-tier option with three 120mm RS120 ARGB fans. These have standard 3-pin ARGB and 4-pin PWM headers with daisy-chaining capabilities so you can control lighting, fan power, and speed of all three fans through two headers. According to Corsair, there are magnetic dome bearings internally for excellent lifespan and low noise output. They can output a maximum 72.8CFM airflow and 4.15mmH2O static pressure. They spin up to 2100 RPM while producing up to 36dBA. If you want to swap these fans out, you can mount two 140mm fans or a radiator up to 360mm in length. These are the only three fans included, so I would recommend adding one more as an exhaust in the back or moving one of these from the front to the back. At the bottom, you can install one more 120mm or 140mm fan. Finally, there are even more holes in the back, with an additional area hidden from the side. This should help with covering some cables, but rubber grommets would still be more effective.
Flipping to the back, we have the cable management area. At the front, you can see the flip side of the fans, which nearly makes contact with the side panel. All of the routing is done directly behind the motherboard. All of the front I/O cables are white in color, which blends well into the rest of the chassis. At the top, we have a drive tray to mount your 2.5" or 3.5" drives in place. This is the only location for these storage options, which means you can install up to two of each size. If you have more of these storage drives, you may need to look at another case to keep them all in a single system. The tray stays mounted with a captive thumbscrew, which makes installation even easier.
At the back is ample space for cables around the area, with a minimum of 35mm of space between the motherboard and the side panel. There are multiple points to tie down cables around the case, as well as a neat tunnel at the back to perfectly route the CPU power cable through to the top. At the bottom, we have the power supply area with foam pads to keep the PSU in place and prevent vibration noises.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
