The 3500X Mid-Tower PC case is the latest case series from manufacturer Corsair. Developed as a more compact solution to the 2500 and 6500 Series while still maintaining the iconic fishbowl aesthetic, the 3500X series is built with the same design principles but an impressively thinner profile. The result is a clean, sleek design without the bulk in the aforementioned 2500 and 6500 series cases.
However, slimming down the chassis comes at a cost. With this narrower profile, the 3500X does have to sacrifice internal space for the PSU, remove the dual chamber from the design and reduce the onboard cable management solutions. With internal components becoming progressively larger in recent years one has to wonder if the cost is worth the thinned-out profile. After transferring my existing build from its roomy dual chamber NZXT case to the 3500X ARGB Case, it's time to see just how well it all comes together. Grab that coffee, kick back and find out how it went in our review of the 3500X ARGB Mid-Tower PC Case graciously provided to us by the good folks at Corsair.
Specifications
- Current Price: $109.99 (Amazon)
- Case Height: 506mm
- Case Length: 460mm
- Case Width: 240mm
- Rad Compatibility: 120mm, 140mm, 240mm, 280mm, 360mm
- Max GPU Length: 410mm
- Max CPU Cooler Height: 170mm
- Max PSU Length: 180mm
- Case Expansion Slots: 7 Horizontal or 4 Vertical
- Case Front IO: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x Audio in/out
- Case Window: Tempered Glass
- Internal 3.5” Drive Bays: 2
- Internal 2.5” Drive Bays: 2
Compact and Cool
One of the most pleasing aesthetics of many modern dual chamber case designs is the inclusion of the fishbowl wrap-around tempered glass. While some cases have attempted to capture some of this design in single chamber chassis few mimic the fishbowl design quite like the 3500X series. Leveraging a clip design, each side, front and top panel pop off the main chassis with very little applied pressure making it exceptionally simple to access the various elements of the case.
The Motherboard housing is raised about an inch and a half from the rest of the backplane leaving a decent amount of room for cable passthrough. On the note of the motherboard, the 3500X can easily handle motherboards from a mITX to an E-ATX giving builders several options for mounting and securing their board of choice. The Gigabyte X670E Aorus Pro X used for testing fit exceptionally well with plenty of room for my sausage fingers to slide it into place. It is worth noting that the 3500X series is fully compatible with both ASUS BTF and MSI Project Zero motherboards allowing for no visible cables in the build.
One critique of the design has to do with the PSU shroud placement relative to a full-size motherboard. Once installed there isn’t a whole lot of room at the bottom of the motherboard to feed cables up through the shroud once the PSU is installed. It's quite tight in fact, to the point that I would recommend running any cabling needed before installing the PSU. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself forcing cabling between the top of the PSU and the shroud.
On the note of PSUs, while a dual chamber design does mean that the PSU can easily sit behind the backplane leaving the bottom of the case wide open the 3500X series relies on a traditional PSU shroud that is visible when examining the case. This is one of the sacrifices necessary to maintain the coveted thinner profile that the 3500X series is striving for. However, the shroud, like every other surface that isn’t tempered glass, carries the same patterned cutout helping it to blend in with its surroundings. While I do miss the hidden PSU design, the 3500X series does a nice job of dressing up the visible shroud.
Corsair has also done a solid job of leveraging surfaces that are not dedicated to the motherboard backplane as mounting points for fans and coolers. As a result, there are plenty of configuration options for builders to mount up to a 360mm cooler either on the top or backplane of the 3500X series easily and still have room to install up to three 120mm fans in the location opposite the cooler. Additionally, there is room in the bottom front for another 120mm intake fan as well as a 120mm exhaust fan on the rear side of the case. This along with all of the passive patterned cutouts allows for a lot of active and passive cooling. All of which helps offset the more compact design of the 3500X.
The 3500X series case comes in three flavors (available in white and black); the 3500X, 3500X ARGB and the 3500X iCUE LINK. The difference between the three lies in the fan and controller options. While the base 3500X comes with only the case, the ARGB comes with three Corsair RS120 ARGB fans that can easily be connected to an ARGB-supported hub or directly to the Motherboard. The 3500X iCUE LINK is ready to go with three iCUE LINK RX120 fans and the LINK System Hub. We received the White 3500X ARGB for review and picked up an additional RS120 for the exhaust. Once set up and connected the 3500X does look beautiful in all its ARGB glory.
Easy To Build In
As for working with the 3500X series, this is one of the biggest highlights of the case. With easy-to-detach panels, stripping the case down to the chassis takes less than a minute and gives you more than enough room to access every inch of the motherboard. It manages to be one of the most compact cases I’ve built in recently while still being the easiest to access and run cables, mount components and simply access everything. Additionally with all the panels off the chassis becomes quite light making it easy to reorient for easier access while running cable or installing a component.
The 3500X also comes with a removable SSD/HDD mounting panel. This makes it a simple affair to install up to 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs. Simply detach the panel, mount the aforementioned drives with their included screws and slot the panel back in place. No extra mounting plates or weird clips are required. It's simple and still leaves a decent amount of space to run your cabling to each drive.
The other element of the 3500X series that makes it easy to work with comes back to the easy-to-remove panels. During the build two of the fans that were daisy chained together were disconnected due to my overzealous zip tie work. unbeknownst to me at the time, I continued the build, buttoned it all back together and powered it on. While the ARGB was working great the fans weren’t spinning. Thankfully because of how easy it is to remove panels, I was able to quickly pop off the back, reconnect the cables and get everything back up and running in under a minute. Before you ask, yes I did fully power down the system before working on it.
The point here is that while the 3500X is a more compact design than many of the more popular cases on the market at the moment it's one of the nicer ones to work with with a few small caveats that I’ll unpack shortly. Overall though the 3500X is one of the easier-to-work with cases I’ve reviewed this year. All despite being the most compact one so far. It's a smart design that is implemented quite well.
Room For Improvement
However, as much as I like the 3500X for its smaller footprint, compact profile and solid cooling it isn’t a perfect design. I mentioned earlier that there are costs associated with reducing the overall size of your case. The PSU shroud issue was one of those costs. It's not a deal breaker but is of some concern if you need to run cables to that lower left portion of your Motherboard. This becomes even more daunting if you plan on leveraging the bottom PCIe slot on your board as there isn’t a lot of clearance for, say, a capture card.
The other major issue of note relates to cable management. While the 3500X does support hidden connector boards as mentioned above, for those of us using traditional boards cable management is a bit of a hassle on the 3500X series. While there is a decent amount of room to feed cables to the board thanks to the raised motherboard mounting point, cable management in the back is tight, hard to feed cable ties through and becomes problematic with thicker PSU cables.
In this build, I installed a be Quiet! Straight Power 12 1500W PSU. This is no small PSU and the cables are a beast to manage even in larger dual-chamber cases. When installed in the 3500X ARGB Mid-Tower it became an interesting challenge to feed all the cables and then attempt to tie it all up nice and clean. It became harder when adding all of the ARGB cabling which was fed to an ARGB controller for easy lighting management. While it is possible to run everything through the back of the 3500X it's not easy and it's difficult to keep clean. Thanks to the bump out in the motherboard bracket you can fit it all in, it just doesn’t necessarily look pretty.
Honestly, though this isn’t a new issue, cable management has always been a point of contention for builders and case manufacturers alike. In the case of the 3500X series, I had hoped that they may have engineered a cleaner solution to this age-old problem. Unfortunately, it still exists and is a weak point in the otherwise solid and beautiful case from Corsair.
Final Thoughts
The 3500X ARGB Mid-Tower PC Case from Corsair is a beautiful case that offers a smart, compact design. While not perfect, it does a lot of things right. From great fan and cooler mounting options to its wrap-around fishbowl tempered glass, the 3500X series is a slick-looking case. While it does suffer a bit from poor cable management and potentially tight cable feed points for larger motherboards it is nonetheless one of the better compact cases I’ve tested in recent years. If you’re in the market for a beautiful and affordable case (did I mention it’s priced at $109.99?) and can handle a bit of cable management finagling, the Corsair 3500X series case is one I’d recommend taking a look at.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
