Cooler Master HAF XB Mid-Tower Chassis Review

The Cooler Master HAF XB Mid-Tower chassis is part of the 'High Air Flow' range of cases, but it is crafted into a new and special form factor. Is this a case you need to be shortlisting for a new system build? The Cooler Master HAF XB is eyecatching. At 330 mm it is just a bit taller than the length of a ruler but can cope with all standard sized motherboards and components. The HAF XB should also offer great thermal performance in both its Mid-Tower Chassis set-up and the Test Bench set-up - great for enthusiasts and overclockers. Specifications Material Steel body, Front Mesh, Plastic bezel Dimension (W / H / D) 442 x 330 x 423mm / 17.4 x 13 x 16.7inch Weight 8.2kg / 18.1lb M/B Type ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX 5.25" Drive Bay 2 3.5" Drive Bay 2 (from X-Dock) 2.5" Drive Bay 6 (2 from X-Dock) I/O Panel USB 3.0 x 2 (internal) Audio In & Out x 1 (supports HD Audio) Expansion Slots 7 Cooling System Front: 120mm fan x 2, 1800 RPM, 21 dBA (or 140mm fan x 2) Rear: 120mm fan x 1 (optional), and 80mm fan x 2 (optional) Top: 200mm fan x 1 (optional) Power Supply ATX PS2 (Support Max. of the PSU in 180mm length) Maximum Compatibility VGA card length: 334mm/13.1inch CPU cooler height: 180mm/7.1inch Water cooling support: 240mm radiator x 1(front), 120mm radiator x 1(rear) The Cooler Master HAF XB Mid-Tower Chassis ships in a dark purple box, which is immediately noticeable due to the unusual shape. The back of the box shows three labelled diagrams and lists the features in eight different languages. As expected the case has been packaged inside two large Styrofoam blocks to offer protection during shipping. Also included is a bag of screws, several cable ties, and eight slides for 2.5" HDD's. Cooler Master have also included a very useful, well written user manual. The Cooler Master HAF XB is a very square case, but is not that high. It certainly isn't going to win any awards for its looks, but we expect it to be very functional. The front features: An On/Off button, a reset button, headphone and microphone sockets, as well as 2 x USB 3.0 ports. On the right-hand side are two 'X-Dock' bays which can fit either 3.5" or 2.5" HDD's, allowing for really easy installation and access to the drives. The back of the chassis features the standard 1 x 120mm fan slot, but also features 2 x 80 mm fan spaces - neither of which are included. There are also seven PCI expansion slots, and a power supply bay that does stick out a few inches. Both sides of the chassis feature very sturdy carry handles, which is great if you plan on moving this chassis around regularly. The top of the chassis has space to fit a 200mm fan if you need to improve the thermal performance. The bottom of the chassis features an air intake vent for the power supply. This has a removable dust filter as well as more air intake vents on either side. Taking the left-hand side of the chassis off, we find there are two 'levels' to the CM HAF XB. On the bottom we find 4 x 2.5" bays, and 2 x 5.25" bays (accessible from the front). Removing the right-hand side of the chassis, we see space for a power supply and the 2 x 3.5" X-Dock bays. Removing the top gives us direct access to the inside of the chassis. The motherboard tray can be removed to allow the installation of hard disk drives, a power supply and optical drives. This is also great if you are likely to switch motherboards, but keep everything else the same. At the front of the chassis are 2 x 120mm CM high rpm fans which are configured in an intake position. The X-Dock is fitted to the front of the chassis, and allows 2 x SATA HDD's to be powered by one Molex connector. Removing the front of the chassis, we can see the Optical Drive bays and the two fans from the other side. We installed the Seasonic Platinum 1000W Fully Modular power supply by first screwing the mounting fascia into place and then sliding it to the bay. It is secured with four thumbscrews. Installing a 3.5" drive is easy. Clip the hard disk drive into one of the X-Dock trays, slide it into the bay and lock it in place. Installing a 2.5" drive is an even simpler affair, just push the two slides in place on either side and then slide it into the bay. We then installed the motherboard with an Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler straight onto the Motherboard tray. There is plenty of space, and this approach gives really easy access to all of the screw mounts. You then just slide the tray into place within the chassis. There is plenty of space on all sides to route cables. Installing a graphics card is very easy. Simply unscrew a PCI Expansion slot and push the card in place and screw it tight with a thumbscrew. After connecting everything up we were very impressed with how tidy the Chassis looks. This is because all of the messy SATA and Molex connectors are hidden behind the motherboard tray. This should be very good for airflow too. Today’s test system will give us a good idea of how well this case works in terms of thermal and acoustical performance. Processor: AMD FX-4170 Quad Core @ 4.6 GHz. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-UD3 Cooler: Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1800MHz Graphics Cards: XFX Radeon HD7770 Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Full Modular Boot Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB OS: Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit Pyle Digital Sound Level Meter PSPL25 These temperatures are impressive, and are the best processor temperatures we have recorded in quite some time. This is due to the fast spinning 120mm fans fitted at the front and the large air intake/exhaust spaces on both sides of the chassis. This 'out-of-the-box' performance can easily be improved by adding another 120mm at the rear of the chassis, a 200 mm fan on top, as well as two additional 80mm fans. There is also the possibility of upgrading the 120mm fans to 140 mm fans to help improve airflow while reducing the sound level output. If this wasn't enough, you could go down the watercooling route by fitting a 240mm radiator. Today, to test this chassis we have set our Sound Level Meter one meter away from the case. We then temporarily turned the two Akasa Venom Voodoo fans off, which leaves us with only the included case fan and very little noise from the power supply fan. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA – High Quality Computer fan 40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Sadly the overall build is very loud indeed and rather annoying. The 120mm fans spin up to 1800 rpm but don't do it quietly. This chassis is clearly aimed at the hardcore enthusiast. It would be possible to replace these fans with high grade units from Be Quiet!, however you are going to lose airflow. There is however the potential to fit a 240 mm radiator at the front and create a silent chassis, but this will add to the overall cost substantially. The Cooler Master HAF XB is a remarkable design concept. It caters to the experienced system builder and hardcore enthusiast user. Not only does it have a vast array of features including plenty of space for CPU Coolers and watercooling radiators, but it fits it all in effortlessly without any serious system build concerns. In terms of features the HAF XB can support thick 240mm radiators ... even in a push-pull configuration, or if you prefer, it can cater for CPU Coolers with a maximum height of 180mm. One of the greatest design features is the motherboard tray which can be completely removed via four thumbscrews. This allows for easy installation of new motherboards without requiring a complete system disassembly. Obviously you can use this chassis as a test bench, giving easy access to all computer components. We also appreciated the dual carry handles which allow you to move the case around without much effort. The design is not without a few niggles. It is very hard for example to fit power cables as the space between the supply and the back of the X-Dock bays is quite limited, especially when you have to try and bend a thick 24-pin power cable. Admittedly, there is a solution as you can unscrew the power supply and slide it out an extra few inches before installing any cables. However, when you try to refit the power supply, it can be quite tricky to seat the cables in the correct position. The thermal performance of the HAF XB is exceptional as there is a high-level of airflow through the chassis which really reduces the temperatures of all components. With just these two fans fitted the CPU temperature dropped 10 degrees lower than our expected value inside a standard case. Even the motherboard temperature only increased by 2 degrees on load. Sadly this incredible airflow comes with a caveat. Noise emissions are very high. That said, this chassis is only really designed for those of you who want to overclock your system and keep it extremely cool, or want easy access to the components - with multiple system rebuilds. It would be possible to reduce noise levels, by swapping out the fans for low noise models, obviously at extra cost. Overall, we did really like using the Cooler Master HAF XB. It is really designed for reviewers and people who are always tinkering with their system components. The build quality is also excellent and the chassis feels very solid. No doubt, we love it. Pros Can be used as a test bench. Excellent thermal performance. Great case for system building. Can fit 240mm watercooling radiator. Tons of features. Cons Poor acoustic performance. Hard to router power supply cables easily. Has a broad footprint. Kitguru says: A well made, versatile chassis design for people always playing with components. Just be prepared to deal with some noise.