Corsair 3500X ARGB Review

In the PC case, what is meant by “mid-price” has changed somewhat over time. But don’t expect PC builders to demand! Most of us still want room for two large (or at least large) radiators and an external pump with an integrated reservoir. Do we need it? Probably not: most of us are using nothing more than a single closed-loop all-in-one cooler for our CPU. Of course, we are say We’ll use the extra space someday, but even if we never fill the case, we hope we’re paying extra. The Corsair 3500X ARGB meets most of these expectations: plenty of room, plenty of fan mounts, even plenty of pre-installed fans. It also gives a lot of fish-tank-glass visibility into your system build, like it or not, so bring your cabling A-game. It offers great value and quality for its $109.99 price, and earns the Editors’ Choice award for a mainstream-priced ATX showcase chassis.

Design: A ‘lighter’ 20-pound case

Think of the 3500X as a stripped-down, single-chamber version of Corsair’s pricier dual-chamber 6500X from earlier this year. Corsair offers the 3500X in white or black, in three versions of each: an $89.99 3500X model without a fan; 3500X ARGB we tested, with three pre-installed ARGB fans; and the $149.99 iCUE Link 3500X RGB version with Corsair’s proprietary iCUE Link fans and an iCUE Link hub. (See our hands-on build with Corsair’s iCUE Link gear.)

Between the extra glass and the optional white finish, the 3500X looks all lit up while also reflecting room light. The “extra glass” we’re talking about is the front panel, and like many competing models, the Corsair makes up for the lack of a front fan by placing a vertical stack of fans on the front right panel.

Shrinking the image enough to show detail, we see two USB 3 Type-A and single USB 3 Type-C ports flanked by an illuminated power button, a four-pole (combination headphone/microphone) headset jack, and a reset button.

On the way back to the power supply inlet, the bottom dust filter slides forward for added convenience. We had to lift the case slightly to grab its pull tab.

We don’t see any exhaust fans around, just a bare 120mm fan mount with screw slots that allow room for vertical adjustment for the end caps of the 120mm-format liquid cooling radiator, mounted back there if you still have one of those. Seven expansion slots sit in an old-fashioned inset panel, as they should, and the entire motherboard space is sandwiched between a top-panel fan mount and a full-ATX power supply bay.

Magnetic tape secures some metal mesh sheets under the top panel and right side panel vents. Corsair has an extra strip of (packaging) tape on both to keep the sheets from moving out of position.

Notice some more details as the panels close, such as additional cutouts in the tray for reverse-connector motherboards in both ATX and MicroATX formats (Asus BTF, MSI Project Zero) and offset motherboard trays between the side-panel fans. This offset will hold a radiator up to 36mm thick between the fan and the leading edge of a tall graphics card and sits in a space that measures 417mm vertically. Since this entire space is to the right of any top-mounted fan, most 360mm-format radiators should fit without a hitch.

Although the top panel has mounts for both 120mm and 140mm fans, its slots extend enough to hold two of the latter. The end of the slot has enough space to hold a 360mm-format radiator up to 426mm tall, and enough vertical clearance to fit a combined 60mm radiator and fan thickness without hanging over the top edge of the motherboard.

You can install three more fans above and in front of the power supply enclosure, although the mounts on the cover lack the offset needed to reduce noise in a frame-upward (traditionally accepted) orientation. The top mount has four additional holes for mounting a vertical graphics card riser (not included, and will block the installation of any fans here), while the four additional holes on the forward-most mount are spaced to fit an optional 140mm fan size. .

As you’ll notice by the opposite connector access holes, the 3500X’s motherboard tray is barely wider than a standard ATX. Although it won’t hold a full-spec (13-inch-deep) board, Corsair calls it Extended ATX (EATX) compatible because many motherboards that are similarly slightly larger than ATX also carry the EATX label. Corsairs tend to be 10.6 to 10.8 inches deep, and the front-facing cable passages sitting behind the factory 120mm fans seem to fit them perfectly, as well as standard (9.6-inch-deep) ATX boards.

The 3500X’s motherboard tray has a very large access hole to help install and remove the CPU-cooler support plate. Covering the middle of that hole is a removable tray that can host two 2.5-inch drives on the motherboard-facing side and two 3.5-inch drives on the outside. 3.5-inch drives hide the screw holes of 2.5-inch drives, so any 2.5-inch-format drives must be installed first.

Building with Corsair 3500X ARGB

Although Corsair sent our 3500X ARGB sample without an installation guide, it is by doing Has all the screws needed to attach a motherboard and drive. In the accessory pack, you’ll find one more set of screws (steel, quarter-inch plastic thread) to attach the fan to any of the larger threaded holes, and one more screw to attach the fan to the threaded hole on the lower fan mount. To secure the front edge of the 13-inch-deep EATX motherboard discussed a few paragraphs earlier, there are also three additional standoffs. Also there: some zip-style cable ties, and a breakout cable to split the now-standard one-piece front-panel header connector into legacy pins for buttons and LEDs.

Corsair’s inclusion of three additional standoffs in a case that doesn’t have room to install them is a complication that occurs when a company labels an “EATX” case that isn’t fully EATX-compatible. Factory fans fill in the space where these standoffs went, and adding a radiator to this range makes the motherboard depth 11.5 inches. Throw these standoffs in your spare parts bin.

The ARGB fans that give our 3500X samples the “ARGB” in its name are connected via PWM and ARGB cables, each providing a pass-through connector to feed the next fan. This means we only need to connect a PWM and an ARGB cable (two pictures below) to the motherboard and control its fans, which we appreciate. That’s in addition to front-panel audio, combined front-panel header cables, a legacy 19-pin USB 3 cable for the two Type-A ports, and a dual-link Type-E cable for the Type-C port.

The triple-slot graphics card we used for case testing is thick, but its 12-inch cooling length is far from atypical. This means the 3500X ARGB has a bunch of extra room for mounting additional devices, although we didn’t do any of that with our standard set of test parts.

The extra glass and white finish highlight all the space around our black full ATX motherboard, so some of you may feel compelled to put a radiator in front, a long graphics card, or both just to fill the space.

Corsair 3500X ARGB Testing: A ‘Sound’ Performance

We locked down our CPU to ensure consistent power usage from case to case. Here’s a rundown of our current standardized test sections…

Proceed for the exam. A second-place finish in CPU cooling in this competitive set is a great place for a nicely priced mid-market segment, and a third-place finish in voltage-regulator and GPU temperature still puts the 3500X ARGB in the top half of the performers.

However, there is one thing that the 3500X ARGB doesn’t do a great job of in the tests above: staying cool. At full fan speed to get this low temperature, it makes a lot of annoying noise. The 45.2-decibel reading from the loudest corner doesn’t even seem realistic because the fans seem to be trying to crush the air, but our SPL meter measures quantity without regard to quality (ie, the same volume of white noise would be less annoying). You’ll want to adjust the fan curves to your noise tolerance level, which may cost some cooling.

The good news regarding noise is that even with the fan speed reduced by 20%, the 3500X becomes a much less intrusive roommate. But that statement ties into our general recommendation to use your motherboard’s automatic fan controls to maintain your sanity without peak thermal load.

Verdict: More than you need, less than your budget

The Corsair 3500X ARGB is a fine value in a midrange case that should provide adequate performance at acceptable volume levels, or very good performance with some noise. The ARGB variant we tested gives you an attractive wrap-around design that you’ll want to weigh against what you’ll be installing; It can look a little empty with small portions. This is emphasized by some for the lack of a corner support beam or obstructing glass sides. Despite fan noise in our tests for maximum performance, it earns the Editors’ Choice award because it’s easily solvable. We suspect many casual builders will be very happy with the attention to detail and acoustic balance for the build quality and price that a more restrictive fan curve would bring.