Performance
We suspect the Air 540's cooler configuration will be heavily modified by most users, however if you do choose to stick with the stock layout, you needn't worry about airflow. There's not a great deal separating most modern-day chassis, but having little obstruction does seem to help; our overclocked Core i5-3570K is kept nice and cool during a stint of Prime95.
It's a similar story on the GPU front, where the two 140mm intakes are providing ample airflow for our dual Radeon HD 7950s. Out-the-box cooling performance is more than adequate for most high-end rigs.
Things aren't looking so good on the noise front, though. The Air 540 has mesh openings wherever possible and Corsair has made little effort to prevent noise from leaking through to the user. This, clearly, is a chassis that prioritises airflow above all else, and those seeking to build an ultra-quiet rig will need to source a fan controller or a couple of near-silent PWM-controlled fans.
