Corsair 6500X test: A case that may be practical but is far from perfect

The Corsair 6500X is a case launched at the beginning of the year, but it’s far from perfect. Corsair wanted to offer a dual-chamber case, with the possibility of placing fans in several places. However, while the 6500X is certainly interesting in many respects, it is sadly disappointing in others. Let’s see what it’s really worth.

Corsair 6500X design

The Corsair 6500X has a dual-chamber design. The first houses the motherboard and all other components, while the second, on the back, accommodates the power supply, as well as a few SSDs/HDDs in a supplied rack if required. But first let’s take a look at the front of the Corsair 6500X, with a steel panel on the right and a glass panel on the left. Quite simply, to distinguish the two sides, the two chambers of the case. There’s no full glass here, but there is glass on the left side of the beast. This is a fairly standard feature on many of today’s windowed cases.This is also the case with the Be Quiet! Dark Base 701, the MSI MRG Prospect 700R and other cases of this type, all fairly high-end models. This glass can be opened, but not completely, although it can be removed. A screw secures it to the upper hinge, and you simply remove this screw to remove the glass completely. The case is sold with accessories, and it is possible to change the front panels, as well as the orientation of the graphics card, by fitting a vertical support and a riser. However, this is not the most practical solution, as we’ll see in a few lines.What I really like is the discreet, meshed look of the right and top front panels. Both are really well done aesthetically. However, on the right-hand front, it’s not easy to understand. It’s true that a passageway is left for fan air, but not over the whole area… Otherwise, you can see what a mess the cables inside make!Yes, this case is very practical in certain respects, but cable management is not its strong point. Above all, it is not optimized for use with a Corsair RM1000x Shift power supply. Aesthetically speaking, the case is well designed. The details are there, sometimes without much thought behind them, as in the case of the right-hand side panel revealing the cables, but we can’t reproach the case for its fine finish.What is also noteworthy is the weight of the Corsair 6500X, at over fifteen kilos. But Corsair doesn’t even supply a single fan in the box. You have to buy the fan kits separately, and even the fan on the back of the case is missing. It’s disappointing that, for a case costing 200 euros, we’d at least expect something on that front.On the top, in addition to the start button and forced restart button, there’s a 3.5 mm jack, a USB-C and four USB-A 3.2 connectors. However, a motherboard with two internal USB 3 connectors is required.

Corsair 6500X specifications

Corsair 6500X features

The Corsair 6500X stands out like very few other cases, but notably the NZXT H9 Elite, for its double vertical chamber. The latter is devilishly practical for housing the power supply on the other side of the motherboard without too much trouble with cables, in theory. You can easily fit decorations such as Corsair LC100s and RGB light triangles, but these must find their place in this case. It’s also possible to fit a graphics card, as in all cases. Except that the latter can’t come in. The reason for this is that none of the brackets supplied with the RTX 4080 Super tested are long enough to fit from the bottom. In any case, the fans would already be there, so it would be difficult to fit a graphics card.So Corsair offers a support to place the card vertically with a riser. Great at first glance, but the bracket isn’t practical at all. How do you remove the screws to remove the PCI covers from the outputs, in particular to connect the displays to the graphics card? Do you have to remove them first? So how do you put them back on once you’ve affixed the graphics card to them? Not to mention the vertical stand that has to support the 2.4 kilos of a ROG Strix RTX 4080 Super … On top of that, we can mention the very rare presence of cable-management gutters, which is disappointing once again. There’s virtually nowhere to store or secure cables, which is a pity, and the iCue Link cables for the fans wander all over the place to find their place, in short, a lack of aesthetics that ultimately creates disappointment.It is possible, however, to save a little space by removing the hard disk / SSD rack. In theory, this can accommodate two 3.5″ mechanical disks, as well as two 2.5″ SATA or HDD SSDs. However, if you only use M.2, removing it saves a little space for cables. Not to store them properly, but to leave them lying around… The Corsair 6500X can accommodate watercooling up to 360 mm, which is very convenient. Although 420 mm watercoolers are also very practical, they are so rarely used that a 360 mm model, or even a 240 mm model for smaller budgets, will suffice. Note that it can also accommodate motherboards such as the MSI Project Zero or other boards with connectivity on the back.

Corsair 6500X noise levels

In terms of noise pollution, the Corsair 6500X isn’t too noisy. It’s supplied without a fan, but you can add one if you buy it separately, which you should do in any case: buy at least four extra. But in terms of performance, this case isn’t too bad: it comes out with an average temperature of 34°C, even though the configuration includes an RTX 4080 Super.As far as noise levels are concerned, there’s a hum of around 31 to 34 dB in normal use. In intense use, i.e. gaming, or during the benchmarks I was able to carry out, we find ourselves with noise levels of around 44 dB, which is a little higher than other cases from Be Quiet! in particular, but not catastrophic. You can add quite a few fans, which add noise, but what are a few extra decibels compared to the look of the Corsair iCue Link QX120 RGB? Not much!

Corsair 6500X: Reviews

The Corsair 6500X isn’t a bad box, but it’s clearly not the box I’d buy. This is due to too many design errors. This box was designed by designers, of course, but certainly not by engineers who have thought through every detail. Hiding a cable is a pain in the ass, and some access points are not at all practical. Want to put in the vertical GPU support? No problem, but good luck unscrewing the screws without damaging them… In short, there’s very little that’s really practical, which is a disappointment. If I had to choose, I’d definitely buy an NZXT H9 Elite instead!