Corsair Air 540 Silver Edition vs Fractal Design Pop XL Aircomputed

Datasheet figures next to each other, and the airflow balance, pressure verdict and case air heating that the fans in each box compute to behind that case's own front. Calculated with the CaseFlow model, not measured.

Side by side

Corsair Air 540 Silver EditionFractal Design Pop XL Air
FormATX mid towerATX mid tower
Volume63.1 L62.4 L
Dimensions332 × 415 × 458 mm522 × 230 × 520 mm
Frontmesh dust filtermesh dust filter
Fan mountsfront 3 × 140/120, top 2 × 140/120, rear 1 × 140/120front 3 × 120/140, top 2 × 120/140, rear 1 × 120/140
Radiator supportfront 360 mm, top 280 mm, rear 120 mmfront 360 mm, top 280 mm, rear 140 mm
Dust filtersfront, bottomfront, top, psu
GPU length320 mm455 mm
Cooler height170 mm185 mm
Stock fans2 × Air Series AF140L (front), 1 × Air Series AF140L (rear)3 × Aspect 12 (front), 1 × Aspect 12 (rear)
Stock airflow, max rpm–131 in / 49 out CFM
Stock pressure verdictstock fans named but no datasheet - nothing computedpositive, worst case included
Case air at 290 W–+4.1 K
Stock fan noise–39.2 dB(A)
All mounts, reference fans176 in / 198 out CFM 3 / 3 mounts176 in / 198 out CFM 3 / 3 mounts

The stock fans of the Air 540 Silver Edition are named without figures behind them, so its stock columns stay empty. The pressure verdict describes the stock fan set, not the case: stronger or extra intake fans in the free mounts, or slower exhaust fans, turn a negative balance positive.

Air 540 Silver Edition — mounts and stock fans

TOPBOTTOMREARFRONT · mesh

Pop XL Air — mounts and stock fans

TOPBOTTOMREARFRONT · mesh

Case air heating with the stock fans — computed

0 5 0 100 200 300 400 450 W GPU (open cooler) + 40 W board Pop XL Air K case air above room

Use it

How these numbers are computed

Each stock fan contributes CFMmax · derate · rpm/rpmmax behind its wall's mounting class: filtered mesh front and side mounts as dust filter, bottom as floor + filter, top and rear as open grille, solid and glass fronts as side-slit intake at roughly half of a mesh front. Front, bottom and side blow in; top and rear blow out.

MountingAirflow bladesPressure-optimized
Open grille0.88 (0.80–0.95)0.88 (0.80–0.95)
Dust filter0.70 (0.60–0.80)0.78 (0.70–0.86)
Floor + filter0.64 (0.52–0.74)0.72 (0.62–0.80)
Solid or glass front0.50 (0.40–0.62)0.58 (0.48–0.68)

Worst case sums intake at the low end of each band and exhaust at the high end; positive there means positive regardless of how the estimates fall. Case air: ΔT = 3.1 · W / throughput (m³/h), with an open-cooler GPU putting its full board power into the case air plus board, RAM and drives. Capacity puts a reference pressure-optimized fan on every mount at max rpm — 120 mm 60 CFM, 140 mm 75 CFM — a generic good fan, not a product.

Mount counts, radiator support and clearances are datasheet figures. Nothing here is measured; the same model runs in CaseFlow.