Corsair does Dual Chamber... with style! The Corsair 6500x Ultimate Review

Corsair is getting back into the dual chamber PC  case game in both a bigger and smaller way and today we're going to talk about one of their  newest offerings in the category. This is just one of Corsair's new 6500 series PC cases and we  have to know everything about them. What parts fit inside, how easy cable management is, and how they  take their coffee. I'm guessing this one takes it black. Well we're going to find out almost all of that and more right now, right here on Robeytech. This

isn't Corsair's first rodeo when it  comes to dual chamber cases. Heck it's not even their second, but rather than reliving their  Glory Days flipping their emo hair from side to side and yelling it's not a phase mom. They took  everything that people loved about the 690x and the air 540 PC cases and let them Inspire the 6500  series for a new generation of PC Builders. And here it is at least one version of it. Corsair's  6500 series are available in two variants. The Airflow Focus 6500d a

nd the Showcase Focus 6500X. Both cases have a tempered glass side panel, but the 6500X has a tempered glass front panel  as well. And if you've been following Corsair for a while this is not a new naming convention. Then  there is a third option that we have to mention, because it adds a little pizzazz to the 6500X.  That's this case right here the 6500X RGB. The 6500 X RGB adds three of Corsair's new IQ link  RX 120 performance RGB fans to the case, as well as a white IQ link system Hub if y

ou get a  white system or black if you get a black system . Now the Corsair 6500d and 6500X cases retail  for $199.99, while the 6500X RGB retails for $259.99. As far as dimensions go the 6500 series  cases are about 12.91 in or 328 mm wide, about 18.97 in or 480 mm tall and about 19.35 in or 196 mm deep. For case IO and controls the 6500 series  cases have four USB 3.2 gen 1 ports, one USB 3.2 gen2 type-c port, as well as a power, a reset button,  and a combination audio jack. All of the cas

e IO connections and buttons are located in the top  right hand side of the case, which you'll either love for your convenience or despise when all of  your plugged in cables make your PC look like a squid. Listen I'm not going to yuck or yum if  you like having squid nearby that's a choice that's yours to make. What is also a choice is  that Corsair offers each of these cases in both black and white, but wait there's more. Corsair also  sells five different Elite PC case panel kits for the 6

500 series. These panel kits that replace  the front and top parts of the case right here bordering the mesh or the tempered glass. You can  either get brushed aluminum for $99.99 or add a bamboo teak or walnut woodz aesthetic to your  build for $74.99. These are just a few of the options from Corsair, but I also think there's  going to be more in the future if the design takes off. It's kind of like the whole Xbox, you know I  don't know if you remember the Xbox 360 with the face plates. No

w you can get like face plates and  I think they're going to let you print on there as well. Now as far as weight goes and and and get  ready for this. This thing weighs in at a hefty 30 lb and 13.8 oz, Now moving inside of this house  of glass and steel the 6500 series case supports microatx, miniitx, and ATX motherboards, as well as  eatx motherboards up to 270 mm or 10.9 in wide. On paper that's enough space for the monstrous  motherboards like the ASUS ROG Maximus z790 Xtreme, but not qui

te wide enough for the z790  Aorus Extreme X. Did the extra X is, is that like what pushed it over the line like, no sir. We've had  like one X to many and you do not need another. Thank you very much. Now there's one more thing I want  to talk about as far as motherboards go, but you're going to have to wait a little bit on that. See  how we're like trying to get them to stay through the whole video. Now as for GPUs the 6500 series  supports graphics cards up to 400 mm or 15.74 in in leng

th without a front maned radiator or 370  mm or 14.56 in with a radiator installed in the front. Wile either orientation leaves space for  some of the longer GPUs on the market. If you're front or side mounting a radiator you might just  want to be mindful of that fit. Now since we're talking about radiators the Corsair 6500 series  can support either 280 or 360 mm at the top and bottom of the case, while the side mount is limited  to either 240 mm or 360 mm radiator. If you're looking at th

e 6500d or the airflow version the  front can support either 280 or 360 mm radiators just like the top and the bottom. Now a quick note  here. We did notice that the gap at the top of the case between the mounting bracket and the mesh  is very narrow. If the AIO you're planning on installing has thicker washers you might just  want to swap those out for some thinner ones. As for the fans the top and the bottom of these cases  can support either 3-120 mm or 140 mm fans with the front of the 65

00d supporting the absolute  same. Now you got 3-120 mm fans on the side for intake and either one 120 mm or 140 mm fan in  the case for the rear exhaust. Since the model we received was the 6500X RGB we had three fans  pre-installed, which we're going to talk about a little bit later. Now as for air coolers Corsair  gave us about 190 mm or about 7.48 in of clearance to work with, but unless you're using the 6500d  we don't recommend using a power style cooler in cases without direct air flow

supplying the actual  air cooler. It's just not great for performance and we don't want to do that to you. What we do want  though is for you to slap that subscribe button whip that like button and ring that notification  Bell so that you don't miss videos like this one. Live streams where we build in cases like the  Corsair 6500 series and give away PCs, laptops, monitors, and so much more. I mean, I mean we've  given away so much just in the beginning of the year. Now let's talk about PSU

support. Corsair  did something really thoughtful here for the 6500 series. While the PSU Mount is located near  the bottom of the case there is a cubby hole to tuck like, extra cables, hide controller modules, or  maybe create a small apartment for your favorite animal, like you know like, a little hamster down  there. I mean sure they might eat your cables, but you know what there's some nice space to work  with down there. As for drive mounts Corsair did something pretty neat with the 650

0 series. In the  back there's a removable panel that gives access to two hot swappable 3.5 in bays and then right  on the outside there are mounting spots for two additional 2.5 in drives. And I also have to point  this out before we move on. There's a huge thank you to Corsair here. Thank you so much for matching  your case cables to the color of your case. It's a little thing, but I can't tell you what a downer it  is when you've got a crisp clean arctic white out build ready to plug in

and enjoy and then you have  mismatched black whatever cabling, Dude it just it throws off my groove man, Speaking of grooves  though Corsair 6500 series cases are compatible with both MSI's Project Zero and ASUS's BTF back  connect series of motherboards and components. These cutouts provide ample room for motherboard  connections like, fan headers, internal USB board, and CPU power and so much more that come with back  connect motherboards. We got to see the case for the first time at CES a

nd we would have loved to  show it to you sooner, but Linus was pretty busy making his own video with it before he photobombed  one of ours. And you know what. You know what I'm not even mad about it. I'm just, I'm just glad we  finally met in person. I mean we've done crazy collaborations together, but we actually have never  met, which was pretty crazy. We did however build a 6500X RGB on the live stream recently and it was  cool to see not only how excited people were about this case, as

well as showing off the potential of  building back connect systems. But there's a nice little bonus thing that I want to talk about in  there, because of the back connect creeks, the little crevices. I was able to run cables like, it was like  hidden behind the motherboard. It was pretty rad. Will this become the new motherboard standard? Who knows, but it is really neat to see another option for PC Builders and a means for less seasoned builders to put something together that's really clea

n looking without a ton of trouble. Not only  that, but Corsair's decision to actually make this case back connect compatible is big news for the  standardization of the motherboard form factor. Now that we understand how much we can slap into this  puppy it's time to talk about thermos. While idling the Corsair 6500X RGB averaged 29° C on the CPU  and 33° C on the GPU. These numbers position the 6500 near Lian Li's Evo RGB, the NZXT H9 flow, and  the Cooler Master td500 mesh V2. Under full

CPU load the 6500X hang out in the middle of the PC  case pack with CPU Temps at 74° C and GPU hovering around 30° C. This positioned the 6500 series case  between the ASUS ROG Hyperion and the non-rgb Lian Li 011 Evo. As for our 1440p gaming benchmarks the  6500X was smack in the middle of our charts with CPU Temps at 40 8° C and GPU thermal performance  averaging 58° C. The 6500X buddied up with cases like the APNX C1 and the Hyte y70. While we  look at our charts the thermals were decent,

but we'll unpack all that when we talk about closing  thoughts here in a minute. Now to get there we have some considerations that are worth pointing out  if you're looking at this for your next PC case. Thing number one is that the case tear down isn't  quite as easy or intuitive as we'd like for it to be. Starting with a glass side panel. The thing  is on a hinge and it has a latch point at the underside of the case. It's not a negative, but I  felt kind of dumb just trying to figure out

how it was being held in place and how to open the  thing. This panel does have a screw holding it in place on the hinge so if you're not looking for it  it might seem like you have to take off the entire hinge of the case, which you don't have to do you  just have to remove that screw. Now the screw was a bit tight for us on the first build, but if you  watched us build the 6500 xrgb on stream it ends up being a non-issue. Wat was however an issue  was getting the PCI covers out. While the

covers look like they're held in in by thumb screws they  were super tight to get out and I had to use three different screwdrivers to find the right fit and  honestly I was super worried about stripping them out. And the other thing too is their overall like  their circumference is small compared to the other ones. They're tiny and I don't know this is just  one thing I really wish they would change. It's also worth mentioning that we love the design of  the drive tray, but it does look lik

e it could get in the way of CPU power connectors on the back  connect motherboards. This might be a non-issue if you're using like really flexible cables, but  it also might mean that the drive tray does have to be sacrificed to make more room for the cables.  Again these are the things to think about when you're planning your build not necessarily things  that should keep you away from actually choosing this case. Now thing number two is observational,  but these are things that might be con

cerning and worth bringing up here. Our 6500 xrgb came with the  rx10 fans installed on the side intake position, but the fans were installed for exhaust not intake.  This was easy to fix since the side intake fans are on a removable bracket, which by the way is  the only removable fan bracket in the case, but we couldn't test whether or not this fan orientation  worked for this case since there weren't drivers ready for the fans when we started our testing.  Typically we like to leave stock fa

ns installed during our testing so that you have a better  picture of the out of box build performance. So we did the next best thing. We swapped out the rx120  fans for Corsair QX 120s. They aren't a one to one comparison, but they give us a decent approximation  of performance. So that leaves us in this funny place with thermals. Again it was decent, neither  terrible nor impressive, but as we've preached with other PC cases your performance is going to  largely depend on the components yo

u put inside. Higher powered components are going to generate  higher heat. Be conscious of this and the 6500 series case will work fine for you. Then again if  you're looking for better thermal performance the 6500d might be the better choice. Before we move  on from fans we have to point out that Corsair is using new fan screws that are called quick  turn screws. These are supposed to be one- turn screws to help Builders install other fans quickly  and then move on. Basically Corsair has

ruined any love that I have for normal fan screws, which to be  honest I never had love for, but these new screws save so much time. I think I'm going to need a  bucket of these things, because they're awesome. Okay thing number three. Like the new screws here  are a couple more things that we really loved about the case. These cases were made for IQ link  and it makes sense seeing that it is a Corsair case, but the integration it's just brilliant. There  are cable channel specifically desig

ned for IQ link cabling so rather than having to guess where  the best spots are for the cables Corsair has everything laid out for you. They're so nice and  Corsair laid them out in a super smart way too, but if you're not looking to use IQ link Corsair does  have a cable management add-on, the rapid route kit, that adds extra tie downs for cables. Even  without the routing kit though there is a ton of room for cable management. I was able to gather  up all of my power cables into a bundle t

he size of a banana and it fit without an issue. Literally  showed that it was the size of a banana so that's not even just a funny joke. We also really like  that there is an easy option for customization with swappable panels. This is an easy way for  novice Builders to have a boutique looking build without the effort of fully modifying the case. I  can also see where PC modders, like our friend Ron from Blue Horse Studios having a blast making  custom panels to fit these slots. And hey s

tick around because you'll probably see some of them  used right here on Robeytech. Overall the Corsair 6500 series is everything that we've come to expect  from a Corsair PC case. They're solidly built, fairly straightforward to build in, and they add  Corsair's iconic flare, fit, and finish into the category of dual chamber cases. And it works. We  love the 6500 series for their smart design for both back connect and standard motherboards  and the multitude of ways you can cleanly run cabl

es. I mean the builds just look so clean. So if  you're looking to build a beautiful showcase PC or you want a dual chamber case to build in the 6500  series is actually pretty slick. As we wrap this up we want to give a huge shout out to to Corsair for  allowing us to give our impressions of the Corsair 6500 series of PC cases, but we want to know what  you think. You've heard a lot about what I think, but what do you think about corsair's design? Would  you use it to build a back connect

system and how would you customize the removable panels if you  could, if you could customize them your way? Let us know down in the comments below. Now while you're  down there go ahead and slap that subscribe button whip that like button and ring that notification  Bell so that you get a notification each and every time we post a video like this right here on  Robeytech. Also if you have questions or you want to talk more about PC cases or what parts to  put inside of a case like this. Hea

d over to our Discord server discord.gg/robeytech where we  have like minded people who love to talk about tech and you know what you might make a friend. Also  feel free to follow us @Robeytech absolutely everywhere. Thank you so much for watching this  video. We look forward to seeing you on the next one [Music]