Corsair’s new iCue 5000X RGB tower case ($204.99) is the latest entry in its iCue product line, clearly meant to build off the company’s successful iCue 4000X RGB. At first glance, you could mistake one of these cases for the other, but a few interior differences make the mid-tower, ATX-form-factor 5000X stand out. Unfortunately, most of the changes are not for the better, and make working inside the iCue 5000X RGB a bit more difficult than it should be. It will still turn out an attractive build, but at the expense, in spots, of usabiilty.
The Design: Bring on the Bling!
Before getting into the snags I hit when building a system in the 5000X RGB, let’s talk over the case’s features. First off, the chassis is unquestionably stylish, combining an elegant black exterior (it’s also available in white) with four tempered glass panels. Up front sit three Corsair SP RGB Elite fans that not only cool the internal components but give the case a splash of LED-enhanced color when your system’s powered on.
The glass on top of the case is held on by powerful magnets. It’s a little tough to pull off, but that also makes it unlikely to fall off on its own. Even considering how heavy tempered glass is, the panel doesn’t budge even when the case is turned upside down. Pulling it up gets you access to a dust filter and a mounting bracket that can be used for either a few case fans or a liquid-cooling radiator.
Also atop the case is the front I/O panel, which consists of two USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-C port, and a combo audio jack, along with the usual power and reset buttons.
The side panels are both screwed on and a little fidgety to remove, but not exceedingly so. As with the top panel, I’m inclined to believe this is for the best, as it helps to reduce the chance of the panels accidentally falling off on their own.
Inside the main compartment of the case is the motherboard mounting tray and a raised lip, which isn’t for cables as you might think (more on this later). There are cutouts all along the motherboard tray to let cables pass through where needed, which helps make for a tidy finished build.
Behind the right panel is where the case starts to get interesting. The first thing that stands out here is a large bracket for mounting fans that runs the full height of the case and can hold up to three 120mm spinners. The glass panel has perforations and a dust filter embedded in it to let air pass through to these fans. You can mount 120mm fans here by simply aligning them with the holes in the bracket and screwing them in place. Installing a tall liquid-cooler radiator here is also possible, but that involves a bit more work.
To add a radiator, you will need to first remove the metal panel that runs behind the fan bracket. You do this via a series of screws located in the motherboard tray, as well as a few more wedged between the metal panel and the fan bracket itself and screwed into the front panel. Getting to these screws can be a bit tricky, but after they are removed, you can lift the metal panel up and angle it out of the case. From there, you gain much better access to the fan brackets and can substantially improve the amount of air that can flow through this area. Though the case looks cleaner with the metal plate installed, if you are concerned about airflow it may be best to remove this panel if you plan to add fans to the right side of the case, too.
To the right of this fan bracket is a metal door that covers the bulk of the remaining area and most of the cables in the case running behind the motherboard tray. This is one of the positive aspects of the iCue 5000X RGB, as it gives you a very clean-looking finished build, given that this side has a glass panel. The door doesn’t stay closed well on its own, however—it’ll fall open if the case is tilted with the door facing downward. When building, you can remove the door simply by opening it all the way and lifting up, which I’d highly recommend before starting your build. You can always put it back on later when the system is complete.
Also stashed away beneath this door are three 2.5-inch drive mounts and a pair of fan controllers, including one of Corsair’s iCue Lighting Node Core controllers. Each fan controller is able to control up to six fans, and the iCue Lighting Node Core can connect to a USB 2.0 header on your motherboard for software control of the lighting of connected fans.
Corsair’s documentation indicates that there should be a fourth 2.5-inch drive mount somewhere in the case. I asked the company about this, and they explained that there are actually just three 2.5-inch drive mounting brackets, but there are four places these brackets can be mounted. The fourth location, which is left vacant by default, is on a plastic panel that runs behind the CPU socket. The case also has room for two 3.5-inch drives in a cage at the bottom. There’s plenty of clearance between the cage and the metal partition above it for another 2.5-inch mount, but this space goes unused.
The Building Experience
The best aspect of working with this case is that there’s an exceptional amount of room around the motherboard tray for getting the board into place. Corsair even left a few inches open above the board to make adding a water cooler easy; there’s more vertical clearance than in almost any other chassis of this size I’ve worked with.
The experience goes downhill from there, though. The problems primarily revolve around the fan mounting bracket on the right side of the case and the surrounding area. Having fans here is more cosmetic than necessary, and the bracket causes some problems when installing storage and the power supply.
Due to the presence of the fan bracket, Corsair was forced to set the hard drive cage in the bottom middle of the case. From this location, you can extract the drive mounts from the cage and wire up the drives. The fan bracket still gets in the way of doing this, but you can work around it.
With the drive cage in its starting position in the middle of the case, however, adding a power supply is nearly impossible. For this build, I used SilverStone’s fully modular ST75F-PT power supply, and ran into trouble almost immediately. Without moving the cage, I could fit the power supply without any cables attached to it into position, but the space between the PSU and cage was too cramped for me to then add cables to the PSU.
So I extracted the PSU and added the cables, but was then unable to get the PSU past the cage. In other words, the only way I could add a functional power supply was to slide the cage toward the front of the case. It’s possible to do this, but it’s then impossible to add or remove 3.5-inch drives from the cage without moving it back or taking it out. Wiring drives is also more difficult in this position.
This brings us to the next problem: wiring. The metal lip I mentioned earlier wasn’t designed for cables to pass through it; instead, it’s meant to allow air to pass through from the fans mounted on the right side of the case. The lip is fairly short, though, and it partially hangs over the cable cutouts on the right side of the motherboard. This gets in the way of passing cables through—especially large cables like the 24-pin main motherboard power feed. It also makes connecting cables to right-angle headers on the board more difficult. Naturally, as there are cables passing through right in front of this lip as well, this is going to restrict airflow from the fans.
To summarize: The three fan mounts have a metal bracket that runs behind them, directing air through a thin slit that gets clogged with cables, seriously limiting airflow. At the same time, this blocks your ability to add a power supply by putting the drive cage in the way, and the only fix for it is to relocate the cage to where you can no longer add or remove 3.5-inch drives—and wiring them is problematic, if not impossible. These design moves left me scratching my head. My best guess: The designers wanted RGB LED fans on the right side of the case, to the exclusion of other problems that their mounting might cause, and assumed that many users might not use any 3.5-inch hard drives, anyway.
This problem could be resolved by removing the fan bracket. This looks to be possible at a glance, as the bracket’s secured with three screws on one side. But the other side is welded onto the motherboard mounting tray…so much for that idea.
I hit one other stumble: a plastic panel installed behind the motherboard CPU socket…
Taking out a few screws lets you remove the panel, giving you access to add a CPU-cooler mounting bracket to your motherboard’s rear side. But there’s scant reason for this plastic panel to be here in the first place. Corsair didn’t cover this area in the iCue 4000X RGB, which was a smart design choice as most high-end coolers need a custom mounting bracket, which this open area accommodates. The iCue 5000X RGB’s plastic panel seems to add value at first glance—the Lighting Node Core is mounted onto it, and there’s room to add a fourth (not-included) 2.5-inch drive bracket as well—but it’s just in a bad spot.
The Lighting Node Core could have been mounted directly on the back of the motherboard tray if the plastic panel wasn’t in the way. There are also a bunch of places where a fourth 2.5-inch drive mount could have gone, such as (as mentioned) atop the hard drive cage. Ultimately, this panel just makes building a system harder.
Verdict: Needs a Price Drop…and Some Re-Org
The last important aspect of the iCue 5000X RGB left to consider is its price: $204.99 is out of line with the number of build issues. The older iCue 4000X RGB is $70 cheaper and has none of the same problems.
True, the newer 5000X case gives you a few more premium aspects, including an extra USB port and the tempered-glass top and right panel not found on the 4000X RGB. But its building headaches make us recommend either that case or the even more affordable Corsair 4000D Airflow instead. The iCue 5000X RGB is only worth considering if you love its look and want to have more than seven RGB LED fans.
