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Guru3D.com » Review » Cooler Master HAF XB review » Page 9

Cooler Master HAF XB review - Final Words & Conclusion

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/02/2013 10:38 AM [ 9 comment(s) 4 ]

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The Verdict

What Cooler Master is best at is top design unusual gear. I mean really, what design of theirs is not unique in some way, fashion or form ? With the HAF XB Mid Tower then once again succeed in making something unique. Truth be told, I like the chassis very much. But I can also understand that quite a few of you would dislike the design. The cube is not for everybody man.

Overall though this is a very sturdy build that is easy to carry around with it's two carry-handles. And despite it's size it simply is a well through through product. 

 

 

 

Nothing is difficult. You can reach the two compartments really easily with removing just a few thumbscrews.We also think that this is a lot of chassis for the money.

Aesthetics

The looks then, well that's always subjective as heck of course. You either like or dislike the design, I mean that's always very personal. I must admit that when you look at a photo of the chassis, you could end up a little puzzled and unsure about its aesthetics. However once you start to unpack the XB, you'll change your mind real fast, it really is a nice looking chassis and the photos as such do not do it 100% justice.

A bit of a downer is that there have not been LED activated fans included. As the example photo's show, the ambient LED lighting will bring an extra dimension towards this chassis.

Features

For a mid tower chassis the HAF XB is pretty feature packed. It is pretty much tool free, handy to use, has a lot of space graphics cards with a  length of 334mm/13.1inch can be mounted, CPU cooler height is 180mm / 7.1inch and albeit not easy to accomplish, water cooling with a 240mm radiator is possible. Then you get two USN connectors and the very handy dual bay XDock. The thing people could complain about is the fact that you can only mount two 3.5" HDDs. Then again, isn't everybody using one SSD and a massive HDD these days as the perfect combo in storage ?

Final Words

We think the HAF XB is a very unique product. It won't be for everybody though, but the once that do like to carry around high-end gear towards a LAN party, well, it won't get and handier then this mate. The chassis could function as a test bench as well. but the top bars are a bit of a downer. But still, you could easily reach the components aside from the backside of the motherboard tray. 

The looks are great and the amount of space you get to work with is downright very decent for a mid-tower chassis. The fans are not silent, bit not too noisy either yet offer a nice steady airflow inside the chassis cooling down your high-end gear, and that's a very important aspect alright. The design combined with its features and looks make this a  recommendable product to opt for or at the very least think about if you need something like this.

It is a sturdy product that can be found for roughly 99 USD. Low volume availability right now however is driving price upwards badly. But yeah, we like to recommend the rugged looking HAF XB very much.

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