Our sample is the classic black but the entire family comes in a total of 6 default colors with another 2 look variant available via the Elite Panel Kit. Most of the weight of the chassis comes from the solid panels if you’re using the stock colors (Black or White). The wooden panels give a massive drop in weight to the case.
Going over the outside of the chassis, we start off with the main side panels. As an aquarium-style case, we have a massie tempered glass side panel which sits flush to the rest of the cause, almost blending in seamless to the front glass. The rear panel is a fully perforated side panel allowing effortless passthrough of air for both intake and exhaust duties of rear components e.g. the PSU.
There’s not much going on at the front with the glass meeting the steel panel on the front. The 6500D Airflow swaps the front glass for a perforated grill which has mounting slots for fans. The airflow version is for those that want a horizontal airflow similar to standard single chamber towers.
Looking the Corsair 6500 from the back we can properly gauge how tall the case is with plenty of space on the top side and room below as well. A total of 8 expansions slots is present with an optional vertical GPU mounting conversion (sold separately) switching that up to only 4.
A nice addition on the back is the preinstalled strap for cable organizartion although to be honest, my cables don’t drape all straight down sadly but when it does, you can use this strap to keep them all tied to the case.
If you noticed that here’s no grip or recess for the glass panel, Corsair uses the space on the front leg post to serve as the handle for the glass side panel. It uses a ball stud and receiver to secure the glass panel to the side with the hinge secure to posts that are screwed to the back.
Moving over to the bottom side we see the large dust filter on the bottom slotted thru grooves on the intake hole of the 6500. This is full removable if you want to do exhaust on the bottom.
The rest of the top has a removable panel which we’ll show later so let’s focus on the front panel buttons. We have large power button with the LED lighting for power around it. We then proceed to a 3.5mm audio combo jack, a USB Type-C port and four USB Type-A ports and a reset button.
Not a lot of action going on in the front accent piece.
Flipping over to the back we check out some details mainly the 120mm/140mm fan mount as well as the removable cover on the back and the PSU slot. We already talked about the tie down strap on the bottom but I want to point out that small hole below the PSU. That’s a hole sized for an iCUE LINK cable but looks like Corsair intended it to be a female port of sort as it has screw holes for a fixed mount.
So that we don’t risk damaging the glass side panel, we need to remove it. Opening the hinge won’t let us lift it up straight as there’s a screw block the top post. Let’s work on that and see the interior.
