A Closer Look - Outside

Out of the box, it quickly becomes apparent why the 6500X is so heavy. Corsair has done an excellent job with the material mix, with thick steel panels and clean glass. Due to these material choices, the 6500X doesn't try to push the envelope in comparison to the referenced 680X or Air 540 as both of those utilized plastic panels, required for more detailing. That said, the resulting understated look of the 6500X makes sense in the current market, where most enclosures are clearly shifting their looks towards clean, straight lines anyway.


Looking at the front, you can clearly see that the 6500X glass panels are lightly tinted and framed in a way, that the two separate glass elements allow for a nearly seamless view of the hardware within. A simple Corsair logo can be found in the front, this is a thin foil sticker. While a sticker is fine, silk-screening would have been a better, longer lasting option. Taking a quick peek at the rear, it quickly becomes apparent that the interior is laid out pretty traditionally for a dual-chamber chassis.


The main side continues the glass aesthetic and is held in place by heavy-duty hinges and pins. The bottom right of the glass, right above the case foot is where you are meant to grab the panel to swing it open - no tools required. On the opposite side, we see a full mesh panel, which is quite an uncommon sight. Most stay away from this setup, as metal mesh is quite easy to bend and ding. While the implementation on the 6500X certainly is not as rigid as a steel or glass panel, it doesn't feel overly fragile either. That said, if you wanted to, you will surely be able to bend it with your bare hands.


In the top, sandwiched between two solid metal pieces, there is another mesh cover, which you may pull off with a firm tug. Underneath, you will find mounting possibilities for three 120 or 140 mm fans. Alternatively, this part of the case can hold a radiator of up to 360 mm in size. On the larger steel top panel, you will find four yellow USB-A 3.0 ports as well as a single USB-C connector in the same color. This has become a bit of a design signature from Corsair and can be found on all of their recent enclosures. Besides the audio combo port, there is a small reset button and an LED equipped, larger square power switch as well.


In the rear, at the top left, you will find two plastic HDD trays behind a vented metal cover. While typically plastic is perfectly fine, these are really the only components that are not metal, so Corsair could have gone the extra mile and offered metal trays here for consistency. The practical upside of plastic on the other hand, is the fact that these trays are tool-less when installing 3.5" drives. Below that, there is the full-size ATX PSU bay, which can hold a unit of up to 225 mm in length. Underneath the PSU bay, there is a square cutout which allows you to install an iCUE LINK plug so that you can properly interface external RGB elements like Corsair's LINK-enabled LED strips to the system. That is certainly a nice touch and something we will see more of with Corsair's future enclosures.


At the top right, there is a hefty vent above the 120/140 fan or AIO mounting area. This means that you will have no issues using thick radiators or a push/pull configuration in the ceiling of the Corsair 6500X. Below that, there are eight expansion slots. If you look closely, you will notice that the bottom six can be removed by removing a single thumbscrew. This is so that you can accommodate the vertical GPU mounting kit that Corsair sells separately. At the very bottom, there is a single Velcro strip, so you can do some basic cable management. However, if you look closely at the back as a whole, there are hooks for zip ties as well, so that you could go the extra mile and keep the exterior cables clean as well.


On the underside, there is a full-length, fine mesh dust filter. If you look closely, you will also find a drain port here as it is the lowest point of the case, which could come in handy for custom liquid cooling loops. You may conveniently pull the dust filter out the front instead of the back for extremely easy access even while everything is neatly placed on your desk and running.