Cooler Master HAF XB Chassis Review

The chassis features a very bulky, very bold looking design and overall looks very durable. There is a huge full width air intake grille that provides airflow for any front mounted fans and the chassis features two pre-installed 120mm fans, but you can install 2 x 140mm here if you wish.

The front panel isn’t overly equipped for connectivity, but all the basics are covers, aside from the power and reset buttons you will find the headset, microphone and a pair of USB 3.0 connections.

The two reusable covers for the 5.25″ drive bays can be removed from the front with ease and there are two slide out hot-swap bays that support both 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives.

The left side of the chassis features a panel which is held in place with a pair of quick release thumb screws for easy access, a heavy-duty handle that helps you quickly remove the panel but also doubles as a handy carry handle. There’s also plenty of ventilation holes here to assist with airflow and cooling.

The right side panel is the same as the left and features the same cooling holes and handle design.

There is a lot going on around the back of this chassis. We have the 120mm fan mount in the top left, perfect for mounting an exhaust fan or 120mm radiator / CPU water cooler, a little extra ventilation in the top right, 7 ventilated expansion slot covers and the motherboard I/O panel. The bottom half we have a PSU extension mounting bracket that is held in place with quick release thumb screws, allowing for easy installation of the PSU from the rear of the chassis and a pair of optional 80mm fan mounting points.

The top of the chassis features a raised and ventilated section that not only gives you a good view of the chassis interior, but also provides you with space to mount an extra 200mm fan.

The underside features 9 cut-away holes that can provide airflow or cable routing, I’m not sure if that is what they are designed for but I’m sure someone will find a use for them. The PSU section features a slide out, high quality air/dust filter that will keep airflow to your PSU nice and clean, it’s also accessible from the rear of the chassis and this means you don’t have to invert your system to clean the filter. There are four large heavy-duty rubber feet that provide a firm base for the chassis, these should help keep vibrations to a minimum and given that this unit is designed for use on a desk, it should prevent it from sliding around too much when you’re installing and removing test components.