Corsair 3500X ARGB Mid-Tower Chassis Review

TweakTown's Rating: 99%

The Bottom Line

Corsair's 3500X ARGB is a mid-tower case that checks all the boxes while being a great value. If you value silence, make sure you control the included fans.

Pros

• Great price for the non-iCUE model
• Three RS120 ARGB fans included
• BTF/Project Zero/Reverse motherboard connection compatible
• Ten 120mm fan locations

Cons

• None

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Newegg for $109.99 USD

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Well, we have all heard about Corsair's 6500X and now it's time we look at the little brother in the lineup, the 3500X ARGB. Priced at a staggeringly low $109.99 for the ARGB model, the 3500X is available in black or white. Other models in the 3500X product line that Corsair offers are as follows: 3500X ($89.99), 3500X ARGB ($109.99), and the iCUE LINK 3500X RGB ($149.99). Only the ARGB and iCUE LINK models come with three of Corsair's new RS120 or RX120 fans pre-installed as side intake.

For this review, Corsair sent over the black 3500X ARGB model for us to look at. So, why don't we see if the 3500X ARGB from Corsair lives up to its more prominent brother name?

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Packaging

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The exterior of the Corsair 3500X series of packaging looks nearly identical to those of the 6500X and older. Still, I have to say it's nice to see the old-school (but still updated) ship sail that Corsair has chosen to fall back on instead of that nasty gaming logo they used briefly.

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Kicking things off with Corsair's packaging is pretty basic, but it gets done. Closed cell foam on both top and bottom, along with a plastic bag, makes sure the 3500X gets to its destination in one piece, hopefully.

Outside the Corsair 3500X ATX Case

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Removing all the packing materials, the 3500X ARGB is in full view. It is what I like to call a compact fish tank design.

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The front of the 3500X is an all-glass tempered glass panel held in place via POGO pins. A removable dust filter is also accessible via the front for easier cleaning. A very subtle Corsair sail logo is positioned in the lower center of the tempered glass side panel.

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The rear side panel shows a mesh cutout for air intake, which also has a magnetic dust filter. Again, this side panel is in place with the POGO pin design.

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Now, moving around to the rear, there is the traditional ATX layout with 7 PCIe slots, the PSU mount on the bottom, a 120mm rear fan mount, and a matching mesh pattern throughout the entire design. What is interesting here is the LINK plastic popout panel, so I guess I will have to investigate that function later in the build.

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The top panel, again with the same mesh pattern, also houses the front, or should I say top I/O, consisting of a square power button, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, a combination 3.5mm 4-pole microphone/headphone jack, and a small square reset button.

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The bottom of the 3500X ARGB has a full-length dust filter, a fan favorite that slides out from the front. The 3500X case feet look larger than they are, and they could use more rubber damping to ensure they don't slip around your desk.

Inside the Corsair 3500X ATX Case

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Removing the tempered glass side panel gets us inside the 3500X ARGB, which we are greeted first with the accessory box tied to the motherboard wall, which also has support for BTF or reverse connection motherboards. The 3500X supports up to a 280/360mm radiator and its corresponding fans in the side and roof locations. The rear fan location can also support a 120mm radiator or fan. Two more 120mm fan mount locations can be found on the PSU shroud, and another 120mm fan on the floor.

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Corsair has included three new RS120 120mm fans pre-installed in the side intake location with this version of 3500X. Corsair also touts these new fans as daisy-chainable and uses the traditional 3-pin ARGB header. Due to their design, these fans are well suited for either case fan or radiator work.

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Now we move to the rear side of the 3500X ARGB, mainly most of the front I/O cabling hanging down; thankfully, most is blacked out. HDD support for either 2 2.5" SSD/HDDs or 2 3.5" HDDs are supported on the bracket held in place via a single captive thumbscrew on the bottom of the bracket. The PSU compartment has a maximum PSU supported length of 180mm, which is somewhat limited, but with today's PSUs becoming more and more compact, it's less of an issue.

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Inside the accessory box, a safety and compliance information leaflet, a bag of various screws, and zip ties.

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The last little thing I noticed was this front panel connector cable. Interestingly, this cable only seems to be more of an extension, if anything.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: Z690 AORUS Pro (Intel Z690) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: Intel Core i5 12600K - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5-7200 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity OC - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: Corsair 3500X ATX Case
• Power Supply: Enermax PlatiGemini 1200w 80 PLUS Platinum ATX 3.1 and 12VO PSU - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer v7.35.7000, CPU-z 2.10.0 x64. GPU-Z 2.60.0, and HWiNFO64 v8.07-5515

Final Thoughts

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Testing the Corsair 3500X ARGB ATX case, I used the Intel Core i5 12600K on a Z690 AORUS Pro motherboard. For the memory, two DDR5 sticks of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB ran at DDR5-7200M/T. The test GPU is the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity, which was run at stock power limits and clocks via MSI's Afterburner GPU Overclocking and Monitoring utility. The three RS120 120mm intake fans Corsair has pre-installed allow airflow via the side of the chassis. In contrast, triple 120mm Mobius fans mounted on the Cooler Master PL360 Flux, which was mounted to the roof, leveled the air pressure nicely. The Intel Core i5 12600K CPU, which has 10 cores with 16 threads, had temps only rise to an average temperature of 57C while maintaining average boost clocks of 4.5GHz with 1.212v for vcore. In contrast, the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity's GPU core only averaged 75.2C while keeping an average frequency of over 1.8 GHz for its boost clocks.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.35.7000 for over 24 hours; the ambient temperature was 23C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v8.07-5515, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.60.0, and CPU-Z 2.10.0.x64.

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The rear of the 3500X, with all the cabling, is organized, with a cable path or raceway up the center. Only a single NVME M.2 PCIe 4.0 drive was used in the build, so the HDD mounting bracket made sense as a place to use the ARGB controller from Cooler Master.

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And here we have the final build, isn't she a beauty? It seems that Corsair has just about nailed it with the 3500X ARGB. We like everything to do with it; the pricing is spot on, three included ARGB fans don't require iCUE to operate, and an overall build quality of much higher priced ATX fish bowl style cases in its class. The only negative thing about the 3500X is that the included fans are loud at full speed. With pricing in mind, it will be hard to recommend any other case in the fishbowl style of ATX cases with two tempered glass panels; there is simply no competition for the 3500X ARGB. Now, for the different versions of the 3500X, the value is a little bit worse, specifically the 3500X iCUE LINK version, but it is not horrible by any means.

Corsair, for so long, has made it hard or impossible for other RGB ecosystems to work with its products, but with the 3500X ARGB, Corsair includes three of their new RS120 120mm fans that are daisy-chainable and use the standard 3-pin ARGB header, finally. So the long-awaited question is, does the 3500X ARGB live up to its bigger brother, the 6500X? It does; I think it surpasses its older, larger brother in value. Build quality is also on par with the 6500X, which makes sense. So, if you are in the market for a compact fish tank-style ATX case, the 3500X might be the one.

Corsair's 3500X ARGB is a mid-tower ATX case that checks all the boxes while being a great value. If you value silence, make sure you control the included fans.