Cooler Master never dissapoints with their box art. Always sporting flashy box art and clearly listing all of the main features on the backside. Other brands prefer a more dull approach by just using a brown cardboard box, probably just to reduce the costs. Ofcourse they will tell you: it's what's inside what matters!

The case is well protected by the two styrofoam inserts. At first glance we see some influences from the Storm Trooper Case, especially in the sidepanel design. The sidepanel protrusions aid either cable management on the backside or allow the installation of optional fans, to extra cool down your favourite graphic cards and other hardware components.

Some might say, another bulky looking case coated in black enclosure. Looks are ofcourse purely subjective and tastes differ. However the Cooler Master gaming series cases seems to be a nice blend between what's hot and what's practical. Again it's what's inside that matters the most doesn't it ? The right hand side panel can easily be opened via the installed latch.

The Cooler Master HAF XM has 6 tool-less and quick removable HDD bays. But most interesting are the two hot swappable front HDD bays. One of the main drawbacks of the great Storm Trooper X-docking station was the support for only a single 2.5 inch HDDs or SSDs. Cooler Master has corrected this flaw in a neat way, by doubling the capacity and now also supporting 3.5 inch drives.

New feature also is the sliding PSU cable cover. Facilitating hiding all the cables coming out of your favourite power supply; another touch of class is that most plastic parts are labelled with the Cooler Master brand:

Since we are in the PSU region of the case. We don't find a commonly quick removable dust filter, but rather a mesh overlay in the inside of the case, not as practical to clean as you need to remove the PSU for proper cleaning:

A serious gaming case has to have adequate cooling, to dissipate all the generated heat as fast as possible. But most importantly doing this at an acceptable noise level. Lety's have a closer look on how Cooler Master approached this.

To obtain access to the top 200mm cooler, just one thumb screw has to be removed and then the top cover slides out. Mark also the three rubber grommet holes for routing the watercooling tubing:

Due to the presence of the big 200mm top fan, heat can hardly remain trapped in the upper part of the case. There's room for an optional second 200mm fan or to install a dual 120/140mm combo. For those that fancy some LED action, the top fan is ready to house them:

Since noise remains a sensitive matter, Cooler Master opted to use a silent 140mm fan in the rear of the case and a second 200mm fan in the front. No high speed, nor noisy rpm fans in this housing. On the left picture you can spot the big cutout for easy CPU cooler installation. The front 200mm fan has an on/off switchable red LED. The LED function button is to be found on the left side of the front panel. In the center there is a generously sized power button and finally the mandatory reset button positioned on the far right:

The front panel sports two USB2.0 and two USB3.0 ports and the obligatory in- and out-audio jacks. There's a small top compartment with a rubber pad foreseen, to place some of your personal belongings. This rubber pad can easily be removed for cleaning purposes:

Due to the gaming nature of the HAF series we directly opted to install two GTX 480 GPU's. Secondly all future case testing will be done with just the Corsair H80 Hydro cooler. This to get more balanced results and particularly with this case to allow the installed top 200mm fan to do it's job. The hardware comprises of the following parts:

• ASUS Sabretooth X79 mainboard
• Intel i7-3960X OC'ed at 4.5Ghz 1.37Vcore
• Corsair Hydro80 cooling (medium fan setting)
• 16Gb G.Skill RipjawsZ 2133C9 RAMs
• 2 x GTX480 Fermi graphic cards
• 4 x Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green Hard Drives
• 1 x Intel 520 240GB SSD
• Cooler Master 1200W Gold Power Supply.

Obtaining a clean build is no problem with the numerous cable management possibilities of this HAF XM. Room to spare between both our GTX480 GPU's and the installed top HDD bay. The Corsair Hydro 80 cooler blends in perfectly, no clearance issues with our G.Skill RAMs at all. Even routing the top 8 pin CPU power plug is a breeze with this enclosure, as all cutouts are adequately sized.

The top HDD tray is equipped with a fast Intel 520 240GB SSD. If needed an SSD can also be mounted on the back of the motherboard tray.

The cutout to route the USB and AUDIO cables has got decent clearance with the power supply. In many housings this luxury is most of the times not foreseen. We opted not to install the slideable plastic PSU cable cover.

Time for the test results:

With our i7-3960X running prime95 custom test ( 12-12K ) at 4500Mhz (1.37Vcore) we never breached 80°C. Which is quite an excellent value since it is just cooled by the humble Corsair Hydro 80 cooler. All credit goes out to the two 200mm fans that provide excellent airflow from the front to the top of the case. On top of that, the top fan aids to dissipate the PWM heat fast.  The 88°C measured in the PWM area is one of the better values we have seen till now on our X79 test bed, this while being 100% stressed.

Both our GTX480 Fermi cards remain sub 90°C level to while running the 3DMark Vantage loop. Nuff said, the thermal dissipation is excellent in this case. No hot air remains trapped, thanks to the good airflow. Noise wise we tested the case with the H80 at low speed setting to exclude both the 120mm Corsair fans. We measured a meazle 37dBa with the case fans at full blast, which is just above room ambient noise. Bigger seems better :P

The XM midi tower version of Cooler Master's HAF X is by all means a brilliant case. Very well crafted and mega versatile regarding all the different hardware, no matter the size, it can house. Large E-ATX motherboards are supported, even fitting big size tower coolers should be a breeze. Multi GPU enthousiasts can install easily up to three graphics cards. The maximum length of the cards can reach up to 354mm, this with the top HDD bay installed. More then adequate for most graphic monsters out there. In case this should not be sufficient, removing the top HDD bay increases the maximum GPU length up to a massive 463mm, but you loose of course 3 HDD bays.

Storage wise Cool Master has got you covered. Up to six Hard Drives via easily removable trays and best off all an extra two hot swappable ones, via the X-docking station. A feature that most will appreciate, as it so easy to slide in a HDD and start to transfer your data at high speeds. No more slow downs via USB.

Cooling wise this case is brilliant. Two big 200mm fans, allow for massive air circulation and the rear 140mm fan also contributes it fair share. We already mentioned on the previous page that the airflow in the HAF XM is more than generous. But not if it's at the cost of extra humming noise. No worries with the HAF XM as the included case fans are really quiet, close to near silent in operation.

A short coming with this case is the lack of a real PSU dustfilter. No idea why Cooler Master didn't opt for a slideable version, that can be easily removed and cleaned. The HAF XM solution obliges the end user to remove the PSU, to properly clean the meshed dustfilter version. The absence of an internal USB3.0 to 2.0 adaptor is a miss too.

With the HAF XM you can't go wrong. Strong cooling performance at low noise is what most gamers are looking for. Secondly you get excellent craftmanship, great storage capacity, plus two hot swappable bays and maximum hardware compatibility for a fair price of around 110 euros. Maybe at first glance a bit over the budget of most gamers, but this case is really worth every penny.

PROS:

• Solid crafted case, easy to work in
• Excellent, yet silent cooling solution
• Two hot swappable bays
• Maximum GPU compatibility

CONS:

• Meshed dustfilter, why oh why ?
• no USB3.0 to 2.0 adaptor

A big thank you to Marco from Cooler Master for the HAF XM sample

Mia and Kaysta from G.Skill for the RipjawsZ kit

And finally Rogier from ASUS for the Sabretooth X79