Can I Use an Air Cooler in the CORSAIR AIR 5400?

The CORSAIR AIR 5400 is our first triple chamber case. It was designed from the ground up with AIO CPU cooling in mind, hence the triple chamber design. That being said, we understand there's a lot of air cooler loyalists out there. So is the AIR 5400 compatible with an air cooler?

The answer is yes. Technically there is nothing stopping you from installing an air cooler. As long as the tower doesn't conflict with the air duct at the top, but even then, the ducts are removable.

However, if you use an air cooler in the AIR 5400, you stand to miss the point. The airflow of this case was designed specifically for an AIO to be mounted in the third chamber. This means that unlike a regular case, there is no airflow coming through the front of the main chamber.

This would force the fresh air from the intake fans at the bottom to take a circuitous around the GPU to get to the tower cooler. Additionally, with most modern GPUs using a flow through design, the GPU would exhaust hot air into the tower cooler directly.

Obviously, doing so is not going to give the same temperature results as using an AIO in the dedicated chamber. The whole purpose of the three chambers was to keep the heat generated by the most heat sensitive components apart, allowing them to perform at their best.

So in summary, you can use an air cooler in the AIR 5400, but wouldn't be making the most of the case.. If you're really keen on using an air cooler, you would be better off with a more conventionally designed case like the 3000D or FRAME 5000D.