Overall and FV
I really think Cooler Master is onto something here with this design. The layout isn’t really anything new when you considering last test bench designs. What makes it unique is that it is a real case. This means you have easy access to swapping out products as needed but when not swapping things out you can just toss the top and side panels back on and enjoy the perks of a normal case like quietness and better protection for your components. The case isn’t without its flaws, I really think they should have considered making the motherboard tray and PCI slots one piece to prevent you from having to remove the video card each time you need to swap something out. There is also the issue with the case’s size as LAN ‘s with a table size of 3 foot. My solution of turning the case on its side actually had me very interested in just seeing a HAF XC with this exact layout, but turned on its side. This would be a wide but short case design that might be the best of both worlds. Working with the HAF XB otherwise was great. Cooling and noise was great and the side panel handles were a great idea!
What really impressed me the most about the HAF XB was its price. At Under $100 MSRP, this is a good case with a large list of features. Things like the front panel USB 3.0 ports costs money and drive up the costs normally. I expected a slightly higher price point because of that, but I think Cooler Master priced this in a way that should bring in a lot of interest to this unique case design.
