Finished Looks

Once installed, the Corsair A500 has a classy look to it with the top plate being quite the eyeful without going overboard, and the black fan frames blending into the background. It is not until you look at it from different angles that the fans become fully visible with their gray blades.


Memory clearance is a bit of an issue. While the fans can be raised to accommodate taller DIMMs, you will lose some performance. That, however, is all related to the system memory you pick. For the best performance results, I would suggest using standard-height sticks, or at least stay below 44 mm in total DIMM height.

There is also the issue of expansion-slot clearance. On some Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, the cooler will likely conflict with the first expansion slot, which typically is your PCIe X16 slot. Some standard ATX motherboards are also affected. As such, potential buyers should take a moment to make sure they have plenty of space to fit this large cooler which has the same issue as some other top-tier air coolers.