HAF XB Internal Design
Getting inside the HAF XB is straightforward enough with the removal of two thumbscrews per panel. Once inside, we noticed that the motherboard tray makes it difficult to access the drive bays below.
The motherboard tray also has a large hole in it behind the CPU socket allowing the installation and removal of aftermarket coolers without having to remove the motherboard first.
Although accessing the drives internally isn't easy outright, the motherboard tray can be removed by undoing four thumbscrews, and that lets you get hands on with the 2.5", 3.5" and 5.25" bays.
There is a surprisingly large amount of room under the motherboard tray considering the HAF XB only accommodates two 5.25" drives, two 3.5" drives and four 2.5" drives. To be fair, most gamers are only going to require a pair of 3.5" drive bays, but with so much room around the 2.5" cage, we can't help but feel that Cooler Master could have offered more.
The upside to all this spare room is that there is loads of space to tuck away all those extra power cables should you not have a modular power supply. Cooler Master has included half a dozen raised taps on the floor of the case allowing users to cable tie down excess cables.
Before we move on, it's worth mentioning the X-Dock feature which makes those external hot-swappable 3.5" drive bays possible. On the back of the 3.5" drive cage is a small PCB that features a pair of SATA ports along with a single 4-pin power connector. This means that installing hard drives into the HAF XB is not only quicker and easier than most traditional tower cases, but this design also frees up a power cable.
Back up above the motherboard tray there are two 120mm front-mounted intake fans that rotate at 1800RPM and generate 21dBA of noise. Both can be replaced by larger 140mm fans. The 120mm fans are the beginning and the end of the HAF XB's stock cooling, though it does provide room for an optional 120mm rear fan along with a pair of 80mm rear fans.
The HAF XB can house ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, with the standard ATX support being fairly impressive in this type of case. The HAF XB is also designed to accommodate serious hardware as it can handle graphics cards as long as 13.1" (33.4mm) and CPU coolers standing as tall as 7.1" (18.0cm).
Finally, if you are into water cooling the HAF XB can also hold a 240mm front-mounted radiator and/or a 120mm rear radiator.