Some of the most convenient computer enclosures I’ve used for LAN parties and shows in the past have had an integrated handle on top. While handles make it very simple to transport a system, they were still very much your typical vertical tower style enclosures. Some were mid-tower and others were nearly full tower meaning you’re still hauling around a large system. Cooler Master, a big promoter of some very unique modder friendly enclosures, decided to get horizontal. In other words, they designed an attractive horizontal enclosure but gave it the heart of an open air test bench.
The Cooler Master HAF XB offers an open air design inside, but integrates the right amount of features including handles on each side, just in case you decide to go mobile when you take it to a place like a LAN party. Recently, I hit the InfernaLAN LANfest and with the help of GIGABYTE, I put together a very cool system to show offer featuring this chassis. Let’s see how it did in the field!
Features and Specifications
Since the Cooler Master HAF XB is a horizontal computer enclosure, this means the motherboard and connected system all mount horizontally instead of vertically as they would in a tower. There’s even room for liquid cooling systems that mount in a traditional tower.
The big features are the removable motherboard tray with CPU cooler cut out, hot-swap removable 3.5″ hard drive trays, filtered front ventilation, and deep formed handles for easy lifting when taking the system on the go. While theses handles are about 1.5″ deep, it would help a lot of they tilted upwards as well, providing some additional grip. In terms of the engineering and uber-geek specifications, the HAF XB is designed to support very large CPU coolers and video cards. Additional specifications are below.
Other things to note are that the enclosure comes with two front 120mm 1800rpm intake fans and one rear 120mm exhaust fan. These are unfortunately only 3-pin fans so they aren’t PWM controllable. Manual control via the motherboard or fan controller are two other options for tuning.
As far as different trim or customizations go, the HAF XB comes with a mesh top lid but users can purchase an optional top with an acrylic window instead for about $15 USD from the Coolermaster online parts store. Unfortunately, the case only comes in black which means that you’ll have to paint it if you want anything other than that.
The total price of the Cooler Master HAF XB from $94.07 – $130.94 from various retailers. Although not a bad price at all for such a unique chassis, its primary competition has to be the equally LAN party friendly BitFenix Prodigy which comes in at as low as $79.99 and comes in both a range of colors. But the HAF XB offers just a little more in our opinion.
What’s In The Box?
Include in the box with the Cooler Master XB are matching black screws and extras just in case you lose a few during assembly. Also included are tool-less drive rails for the SSDs. The front hot swap trays already have tool-less, flexible frames for hard drives installed.
In terms of extras, black zip ties are included for tidying the wiring up. However, we’d love to see Velcro straps as a standard as they are both reusable and a little more environmentally friendly. The manual finishes off the goodies and is easy to read if you need some extra DIY help.
Cooler Master HAF XB – Exterior
The enclosure is made of SECC steel and painted jet black inside and out. The handles, removable trays, and bezel all match well in terms of fit and finish. The front bezel (face plate) looks similar to the HAF series in design with its mesh finish. The two 5.25″ drive bay plates have two tabs that allow them to clip on and off easily, which is very similar to the ones on many of their CM Storm cases. This means there is no metal to bend or cut out to gain access to those bays.
The two 3.5″ hot swap bays have a single lock tab and swivel arm that pulls the drive out and naturally locks the drive in place. They’re flexible and tool-less. All you have to do is slide the drive in place, press the bolts thru the sides and slide them back in position. These must have been inspired by the ones in their flagship Cosmos II chassis.
The left and right side panels offer a large amount of ventilation. The bottom also features a fan vent for the power supply. The back of the case equally offers large ventilation machining in the chassis. Air flow should not be a problem for the Cooler Master HAF XB and we will verify that in testing. The top of the chassis is made with mesh along with rubber grommets for an optional 120mm fan. Since it’s raised, it won’t conflict with your large video cards or CPU coolers. It’s very nicely planned out!
HAF XB – Inside the Chassis
Removing six thumb screws opens up the top and two sides. This gives you access to the removable motherboard tray, hot swap PCB underneath, 3.5″(HDD) and 2.5″(SSD) mini cages. The front panel wiring are just long enough to do a little creative routing if you want to hide wires. Naturally, the USB 3.0 ports receive their own cable since most motherboards come standard with that particular connector. The hot swap PCB board is just visible through the CPU cooler cut out.
Let’s pull the tray out and have a look down below…
HAF XB – Pulling the Motherboard Tray
Two thumb screws on the left and right fasten the motherboard tray in place. The holes ensure it lines up with the back PCI brackets. You don’t have to pull the motherboard but I did in order to install some LED lights underneath the motherboard for an added effect. It takes a little dexterity to get the tray out out but even more patience putting it back in if you pre-installing the CPU cooler and RAM which is a common practice.
Since the motherboard cooler cut out is so large, I recommend you leave the tray in place for most conventional installations.
HAF XB – Peaking Underneath
You’ll find a lot of cut outs in the right places to creatively run your wiring. Especially if you want to organize it well. Most of the PSU wiring will be underneath any ways and hidden well from plain sight. The front chassis area will actually accommodate a dual 120mm radiator if you feel so inclined to install a liquid cooling system. Just make sure your video cards aren’t too long.
HAF XB – Power Supply Placement
The power supply doesn’t actually sit completely inside. About an inch of it will stick out the back, covered with a rear chassis extender. This is a similar feature that the Cosmos II employs, allowing the largest of power supplies to be installed without impeding the installation of modular cables. The PSU sits on rubber feet inside the case to prevent vibration and of course scratching.
When completely open, the HAF XB is a real open air test bench or tech station if you’ve owned one of HighSpeedPC’s original designs. Let’s see how the chosen components did with the build.
Test System Setup and Installation Notes
My Cooler Master HAF XB was used for a GIGABYTE demo system at the InfernaLAN LANfest back in November of 2012. I’ve since continued to use it for other events and demos. A liquid cooling system was installed for the CPU but no extra fans were installed except for what it came with. Here’s the break down:
- Processor 2: Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge LGA1155
- Motherboard 2: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP7 “OC”
- Memory 2: Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB 2666MHz DDR3
- Graphics: GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC Edition
- Power Supply (both systems): Rosewill Tachyon 1000 Platinum
- Storage (both systems): Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
- Enclosure: Coolermaster HAF XB
- Windows 7 Pro 64bit
I ran into a couple issues when installing a dual 120mm radiator on the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme CPU cooler. Here’s where the HAF XB really adapts to any dual 120mm really well.
It’s the long GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC or ZOTAC GTX 680 AMP! that would collide with the radiator, or the fans depending on how you mounted it. The HAF XB front bezel is easily removable via a few locking tabs. Once the face was off, I mounted the radiator using four long included screws through the front 120mm fans. Everything lined up perfectly and was quite secure. That left me with a couple extra 120mm fans to use on the top panel or wherever else was needed.
Thermal Testing and Noise Cancellation
A computer enclosure should manage any installed computer system whether high-performance or not. The HAF XB has plenty of ventilation and operating system temps were quite low. The CPU didn’t top 42C under maximum load and was as low as 11C at idle using the Thermaltake BigWater 2.0 system. The factory overclocked GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC didn’t top 68C which resulted in a quiet card that didn’t have to spin up at all under heavy gaming. The GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 OC chipset also didn’t top 45C which is good since I was running KINGSTON HyperX 3K 240GB SSDs in RAID 0.
Even though the HAF XB is pretty exposed and open, the good direct airflow keeps the fans from spinning up at all. During Assassin’s Creed III or Battlefield 3 gaming, the system noise was around 24dB. It takes artificial load programs to get the cooling fans to reach 32dB in this chassis, but under real world loads, the Coolermaster HAF XB was cool and quiet.
Final Thoughts
There are some cool aspects that make the Cooler Master HAF XB well worth the average price of $99. One of which is that it’s really neat change from the typical enclosures on the market and it’s different enough from the BitFenix Prodigy that it’s really a matter of personal taste. But unlike the Prodigy, it’s an open test bench too, even if it’s just a bit tight working around inside. But it’s no smaller or larger than an old school DangerDen Torture Rack open test bench.
Setting a system up won’t be a problem and the chassis is easy to customize if you need to adapt an installation. The enclosure worked quite well with any of the all in one integrated liquid cooling systems, even the larger 240mm Thermaltake BigWater 2.0 unit we used. It also keeps air moving efficiently, cooling the system well right out of the box. With just a couple LED fans installed, your HAF XB will turn plenty of heads.
Overall, Cooler Master included everything that really matters whether you need a tech station or a LAN party friendly system. The Cooler Master HAF XB has many enthusiast and modder possibilities waiting to exploited. This is why I can’t help but wonder what it would look like in white, or two tone black with NVIDIA green. Tired of the usual enclosures? Grab the Cooler Master HAF XB.
Pros
- Doubles as an Open Air Test Bench
- Modular construction adapts easily to installation challenges
- Accommodates 240mm and 280mm radiators
- Very portable for LAN parties
- Reasonably priced between $94.07 – $130.94
Cons
- Windowed panel only available at additional cost
- As a test bench it could be fairly tight to work within
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10
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