Cooler Master HAF XB Computer Case Review

Manufacturer: Cooler Master, Inc.
Product Name: HAF XB Computer Case
Model Number: RC-902XB-KKN1
UPC: 884102019616 EAN: 4719512040355
Price As Tested: $99.00 MSRP

Full Disclosure: Cooler Master provided the product sample used in this article.

I told my wife recently that building computer systems for me was like knitting was for her. There's design, execution and a certain contemplative mental state involved in both disciplines. By now, Benchmark Reviews has seen just about every significant interpretation of the "full size ATX tower case" design possible, so I've gotten pretty used to builds in these types of cases, and know what to look for via component placement and cable routing.

But a tower is not the only possible design for ATX cases, and Cooler Master's HAF XB RC-902XB-KKN1 case proves it. It's likely different from anything you've ever seen before, and its design, while not unique, is certainly not common in the consumer desktop computer arena.

Cooler Master says that this case's design makes it suitable for both a (large) LAN box as well as a test bed for people who like to tinker with their systems.

To test these claims, I'm going to examine this case and detail and build a complete gaming system in it. Onwards!

HAF XB Features

• Direct front to back airflow over CPU and motherboard for excellent cooling performance.
• Supports 240mm radiators with extra clearance for thick performance radiators or push-pull fan configurations.
• Supports Tower CPU coolers with a height of up to 180mm and up to 334mm long high end graphics cards.
• Motherboard Tray can be removed to install, remove or swap components.
• The first Case that quickly and easily transforms into a Testbench - Ideal for Enthusiasts and Overclockers
• Dual USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports and X-Dock slots at the front panel for lightning fast plug-n-play I/O.
• Rigid carry handles on the side panels that are reinforced by steel.

RC-902XB-KKN1 Specifications

Let's take a closer look at this interesting case in the next section.

Closer Look: Exterior

The Cooler Master HAF XB is a squat, almost cubical, case. Next to a more traditional full size ATX tower it looks rather strange. As you can see, compared to an HAF 932, the HAF XB is smaller in height and front-to-back dimensions, but much wider.

My review unit was delivered in a box marked "SAMPLE ONLY. NOT FOR RESALE." and didn't include any documentation. The accessories pack consisted of these two small plastic baggies, one containing screws and motherboard standoffs, the other containing zip ties, a small speaker, and mounting rails for 2.5" drives.

The front of the case comprises a large ventilated panel that occupies the top half; below that are the front panel buttons, audio, and USB ports, and the two 5.25" device bays and the two 3.5" hot-swap drive bays. Given the large swath of unused space above the hot swap bays, it would have been nice to see some more USB ports or perhaps an e-SATA port. The power switch illuminates with a red LED when the power is on, and a red drive activity light is positioned just below the reset button. The top of the case has a raised mesh panel with four grommeted holes for mounting an optional Cooler Master 200mm fan. The recessed area in the top panel ensures that the fan will not encroach on any internal components.

The front panel snaps off easily to reveal the two 120mm intake fans. There's an integrated air filter in the front panel, but it doesn't slide out; you have to remove the front panel to clean it, and that means removing the top and side panels first. The front panel's reset switch is designed with an integrated plastic spring so that it has a definite "push" action, but oddly the power switch has no spring mechanism provided. This means the power switch feels "dead" and provides almost no tactile feedback. Also, remember my complaint about not having some more front panel ports in the previous paragraph? In this images you can see the design of the case allows for the front printed circuit board to be an inch or two wider than it is, which is plenty of room for a few more ports. Oh well...

Both sides of the case are identical: a plain steel panel with large ventilation holes and a deep, sturdy handle for carrying the case. The design of the handles places the recessed area directly under the bottom of the sturdy side rails, which will bear the weight of the case when you carry it.

The rear of the case shows the two-level design, with the motherboard tray mounted above the other components. A 120mm exhaust fan mount is positioned above the I/O panel cutout, and there's a small ventilation panel above the seven card slot openings (there seems to be plenty of room for an eighth slot, and it's a mystery why the HAF XB doesn't include one). Two 80mm fan mounts to the right of the power supply opening offer the option of adding some air flow to the lower part of the case. There are knockouts for water cooling hoses at the left of the back panel should you need them.

At the bottom of the case we see a slide-out filter for the power supply air intake, four rubber feet, and a recurring theme in this case: lots of tie-down points. There are nine such points visible in this shot.

Let's take a look at the interior of this case in the next section...

Closer Look: Interior

The top and side panels slide off easily once the thumbscrews (each panel secures with two) are removed. The top compartment of the case is for the motherboard, and as you can see the two front 120mm fans are positioned to provide a cool air flow across the entire width of the motherboard. This is also where you'd mount a 2x120mm radiator were you so inclined.

At the lower left of this image is a separate vertical cage for mounting up to four 2.5" drives. These mount with the rails included in the accessories pack. At the lower right are the locking levers for the two 5.25" device bays. The design of the case means that the other side of the 5.25" bays isn't accessible (not without drilling out rivets, anyway), so mounting things like fan controllers or card readers that don't fully engage the locking mechanism will be difficult.

Four thumbscrews secure the removable motherboard tray. I like removable motherboard trays, but this one is removable only to provide access to the bottom compartment. Since the tray doesn't include the back panel, it's less useful than a "normal" removable motherboard tray because you can't mount any cards or case exhaust fans. If you're using an all-in-one cooler with a 120mm radiator, you'll have to install it after the motherboard and tray are mounted back in the case.

Each of the two hot swap bays use a removable drive caddy similar to what we've seen in other Cooler Master cases. 3.5" drives like this Western Digital Velociraptor just snap in; 2.5" drives and SSDs mount with four screws through the bottom of the caddy. Although I used a Velociraptor for this picture, it might not be the best choice for a drive here, since the hot swap bays receive virtually no airflow.

The connection panel for the hot swap bays sports two SATA connectors and supplies power to the drives through a single Molex connector. It's directly in front of the power supply, so depending on the length of your power supply and whether or not it's modular, you might want to use SATA cables with right-angled connectors. A right-angled Molex connector would have been nice here, too.

Up to four 2.5" drives slide into this bay located behind the 5.25" bays. Cooler Master provides rails for all four drives so they just slide in and lock into place. While there's no airflow for the hot swap drive bays, these 2.5" drive bays are just inches from two 60mm fan mounts, so if you're concerned about their temperatures, you can ensure they'll stay cool.

An almost absurd number of tie-down points populate the inside of the case. There are 10 in this view alone.

OK, now for the real test: building a system...

Building a System

Building a system in the Cooler Master HAF XB is different from building a system in a traditional tower case. For this build I used a Seasonic X750 modular power supply, a 256GB SSD, a 1TB 3.5" drive, and a generic optical drive. In this shot all these components are installed in the lower section of the case. Before you install the motherboard tray, you need to consider your cable routing, since it will be difficult to change once the tray's in place. From this perspective, I routed the ATX and EPS power cables out the left side, the SATA cables between the hot swap bays and 5.25" bays coming up at the front of the motherboard, and the PCI-E power cables for the video cards around the right side.

This side shot shows the potential interference problem between the power supply cables and the back of the hot swap bays. The Seasonic X750 is a 160mm-long power supply, which is standard, and the HAF XB's design keeps about 20mm of this length outside the case proper. A larger wattage power supply of 180mm or 200mm length might be problematic, though.

With the motherboard tray and components installed, one of the advantages of this case design becomes apparent: you can keep the motherboard area mostly free of cabling, since most of the cable runs are under the tray. With an Antec water cooler and two Radeon graphics cards, there's still plenty of open space. There's even room for nonstandard motherboard sizes like ASUS' Rampage series, although the case will not accommodate an Extended ATX motherboard. There's also ample room for a 2x120mm radiator such as used by the Corsair H100 cooler at the front of the case.

There's just over an inch of clearance between the rails supporting the motherboard tray and the side panels, providing plenty of room for even the thick main ATX power cable. The side rails are festooned with tie down points, too.

All in all this was a very easy build. The design of the case keeps the motherboard area clear of cable clutter, so swapping out your memory, CPU, and video cards is easier than it would be in most other cases, especially since the motherboard's laying flat rather than at 90 degrees. Also, the case side rails are very sturdy, and exhibited no flexing at all even when they were used to pick up a fully loaded case.

In the next section I'll present my final thoughts and conclusion on this case.

Computer Case Final Thoughts

Although the design of the Cooler Master HAF XB is unusual, it's not unique. Lian Li's PC-343B case uses a similar design, as do custom cases like the Mountain Mods U2-UFO series. But these cases are very expensive, with the Lian Li going for $300 and the Mountian Mods cases for potentially much more, depending on the options you choose. The HAF XB, in contrast, costs only $99.99.

Cooler Master pitches this case as a "LAN box/test bed", which initially sounds silly: LAN boxes are supposed to be small and easy to transport, while test bed cases are generally open-air designs with dangling cables and bits that make transporting them clumsy when they're loaded with components. I was surprised to find, however, that Cooler Master's assertions are completely valid: the rigid steel frame and large handholds in the side panels make carrying the case much easier than carrying a traditional tower case of the same weight, and although it wouldn't be my first choices for a test bed case, it takes only seconds to remove the slide-off top and side panels and gain full access to most of the components you'd need access to in a test situation. In fact I used the case for a test bed for my AMD FX-8350 CPU review and the ease of swapping out the processor in this design made it a good choice.

Given the price and features of the case, it might seem picky to complain, but I would have liked to see an eigth card slot, since there's plenty of room for it; and a few more front panel ports would have been nice, too. And although there's an easily removable filter for the power supply air intake, the front panel fan filter is non-removable and built into the front panel, which requires that you remove the top and side panels to clean it. Last, I'm disappointed that there's no easy way to accomodate a 3.5" device like a card reader or fan controller in one of the 5.25" bays; and the inability to secure both sides of a 5.25" device means that even 5.25" non-drive devices won't work well.

But these are minor complaints. The design of the case means the entire width of your motherboard area receives airflow from the front fans; it has plenty of room for most builds, its design confers a number of advantages, and best of all it's priced very reasonably.

HAF XB Conclusion

A computer case's main purpose is simply to hold your components. Beyond that, there are other considerations, but these will vary depending upon the use you put the system to. For example, thermal management and airflow isn't very important in a low-powered HTPC system, but is critical for high performance systems. And if you're building a high performance system, you've probably checked out Cooler Master's other HAF series cases, all of which are designed to provide high air flow. However, while a traditional tower design places the drive bays between the front fans and the rest of the system, airflow from the HAF XB's front fans has an unobstructed path across the width of the motherboard. This is one of the very best cases I've ever seen for air cooled systems, rivalled only by some of Silverstone's Raven and FT cases with their rotated motherboard design.

The HAF XB shares its "industrial look" with the rest of Cooler Master's HAF series, continuing the line's blocky surface detailing and flat black coloration. It is a striking case only because of its unusual shape, and probably only computer geeks will be impressed visually...most people will see it as just some black lump. One aesthetic point is dust collection on the front panel: there's visible dust on the front panel of my unit after only a week of use on a desktop in a relatively low-dust environment.

As you might expect from Cooler Master, the construction quality was very good. All the parts fit smoothly, and the steel design is very strong. With the top and side panels off, the temptation is to pick up the case by grabbing one of the top rails, but don't worry: even a single rail is easily strong enough to bear the weight of an entire loaded system with no discernible flexing.

The HAF XB is more functional than most tower cases, especially if you include things like "ease of transport" and "ease of access to the motherboard components" in your definition of "functional." Some might argue that it's easier to get at the motherboard in a tower case with hinged, swing open doors, or at least as easy if the tower case side panels come off easily. But then you're left with the reality of a tower case: the motherboard's positioned vertically, and that makes getting components in and out harder than it is when the motherboard's laying flat. That's the reason why you'll never see a test bed case that mounts the motherboard vertically. The only functional concession this case design makes is the limited number of 3.5" and 5.25" devices you can have, and even so, the ability to add four 2.5" devices helps if you need more hard drive room. This is also the least expensive case I've seen with hot swap drive bays.

The value: ah, the value. I admit I was surprised by the relatively low cost of this case. For what you're getting, I think $99.99 is a screaming deal; I have reviewed other cases at a similar price point that offer nowhere near this level of function and convenience. Cooler Master's HAF series has always been about a good price/performance ratio, but I think this one hits it out of the park.

If you've the desk space for it, and you like easy transport of and access to your full ATX system, this is the best case on the market for you now.

Pros:

+ Unusual, visually interesting design
+ Exceptional air flow across the full width of the motherboard
+ Hot swap bays for two 3.5" drives
+ Easier to build a neat system
+ Very sturdy construction
+ Actually can be used both as LAN box and test bed
+ Excellent price/performance

Cons:

- Only two front USB ports
- Only seven PCI slots
- No easy way to accomodate non-optical drive devices in 5.25" bays
- Takes up a lot of room on your desk
- Must remove front panel to clean its dust filter

Ratings:

• Presentation: 9.00
• Appearance: 8.50
• Construction: 9.75
• Functionality: 9.75
• Value: 9.75

Final Score: 9.35 out of 10.

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

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