I have a 500R with a Pc power and cooling 750. I dont know what you guys are talking about but there is ample room on the backside of the case for all my wires.
This case is a dream for cable management
I got a 500R to replace my three hundred. My god, it was a nightmare to move stuff over.
- 2 of my SATA cables, the connector was incompatible with the case because the hard plastic part was too long. The drives sit way back so there is room in front of the drives, but that made the connectors interfere with the door when I tried to close up the case. I never even thought this might be an issue, so I ended up breaking one of my drive's SATA connectors because of it. If the bulges were in a different place (near the HD rack) that might not be an issue, but they aren't, the drive is skinniest right where the HD connectors are. I had to root around in my stash to find "short" SATA connectors.
Perhaps that is a problem with all cross mounted HD cases, I don't know, but it was a surprise to me to find that I had cables that were incompatible with my
case.
- As a result of the SATA connector breaking off in the cable, I had to temporarily use an old IDE drive. The power connector wouldn't fit through the space in the cage unless I pried the drive over with a screwdriver while I plugged it in... compressing the rubber on one side and eliminating any vibration damping. Also the power connector is constantly side loaded now. At least until I can replace that drive with a SATA drive.
- The case as a whole does not feel as sturdy or is as low resonance like my cheaper three hundred with it's rigid drive bays. The removable / modular 3.5" drive bays may be great for airflow, but there is a definite trade off in rigidity and resonance of the case vs. the three hundred's design with a solid piece top to bottom.
- The cable management was good in that there were grommets and such, but not much room behind the door meant some very careful planning of cable routes and even then some muscle was needed to get that door on and closde. I do have a modular PSU, so I don't have quite the same issues that the OPs are talking about. I have just 5 cables to the PSU (24 pin, Aux 12v 8-pin mobo, 6 pin GPU, SATA, fan).
I can see how the OP would have some issues. At the end of the (long) night, I ended up with a cleaner looking install than my 300, but it came only after a fair bit of time figuring out the best way to route things, some frustration and even some muscle in getting that cover in place.
The 300 routing is quite easy and intuitive, with re-closeable fasteners and the conventional 3.5" drive bay leaves a LOT more room on the side for cables. I always had plenty of room, even though that case is not as wide as the 500R.
- The really awkward thing is that Corsair includes a really nice, easily removable fan intake filter... on the bottom of the case where very few people mount fans. But the front of the case? Where fans come pre installed? That one's much more difficult to deal with, and is significantly more difficult than the one on the 300.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I was not as impressed as most of the reviewers of the case. Comparing it to a significantly cheaper case, I found many faults. It seems a lot of attention to detail in the aesthetics with everything painted. I think they ended up trading more functionality than I expected for these aesthetics. Conventional 3.5" HD mounting or 0.5-1" extra width would go a long way on this case, IMO.
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