A Detailed Look – At the Inside
The Cooler Mater HAF XM offers a lot of usable space inside for a mid-tower enclosure. Looking into the case from the left side reveals a fairly typical ATX mid-tower case layout with the power supply located at the bottom instead of up top.
The top section of the enclosure is dominated by the motherboard area, which features a large cutout opening behind the CPU area for easy access to mount CPU coolers. The HAF XM can accommodate large, tower-style CPU coolers up to 196mm (7.7”) high. There are several openings behind the motherboard area trimmed in plastic for neatly routing cables and wires.
In the upper right are three 5.25” drive bays, which include very easy to use, tool-less drive locking mechanisms.
In the photos above you can see all three of the included case fans: 200mm intake in front, 200mm exhaust up top, and a 140mm exhaust on the back panel.
Looking down towards the bottom of the HAF XM reveals six HDD cages towards the front and the power supply mounting area towards the back. Between the PSU and the HDD cages is an adjustable plastic cover for concealing/containing the PSU cables.
The HDD cage can hold up to six HDDs, each with a tool-less slide-out drawer that mounts one 3.5” HDD (more on these in the next section). The HDD cage is divided into an upper and lower section (three drives each) and comes with mounting holes on both sections to mount optional 120mm cooling fans.
Mounted in between the three upper 5.25” bays and six lower 3.5” HDD bays are two 3.5” hot-swap X-Dock bays. The connector board for attaching SATA power and two data cables is visible in the photo above.
Here is a photo showing the HAF XM enclosure with the front panel pulled off. You can see the front side of the X-Dock connector board there in the middle.
Removing the left side panel provides access to the areas behind the motherboard and beside all the drive cages, which offers a lot of options for neatly routing and concealing cables.
There is a hidden mounting location behind the motherboard tray for one 2.5” HDD/SSD.
Great review. Keep these
Great review. Keep these Tower/Enclosure Reviews coming
Great review but, I think
Great review but, I think they neglected to mention about that the button where the PSU would be facing down, Has a removable Dust Filter that cannot be remove unless you remove the PSU entirely.
“What is the difference
“What is the difference between DSL, IDSL, HDSL, SDSL, ADSL, CDSL, Ci – DSL, etc. I’m Roni” ( you might want to use your own name)
off course, don’t forget to look directly into her “bridge” this will completely create a subconscious breakdown
in her mind. It is difficult to say that the theory of repression is false in the
case of sexual abuse, because there is some evidence that people do forget things
that were especially traumatic.
great review, you guys
great review, you guys overlooked the fact the how HAF-XM has latches only on one side-panel and other one has thumb screws. Also in order to remove the front panel, both the X-docks need to be removed which is a real shame considering how good CM has implemented hot-swap HDD bays on their other cases.
Good case, but for $110 you
Good case, but for $110 you can get a nice Corsair case as well.
I have a Corsair 500r and I
I have a Corsair 500r and I have had nothing but trouble with the front panel connectors. I am about to replace it for the second time under warranty.