Case Deconstructed – Inner Components

The HAF XB features a removable motherboard tray with both sides powder coated to match the rest of the case innards and outer shell. Cooler Master took the guess work out of the motherboard screw mount hole configuration by including letter markings for all motherboard screw holes and a legend describing which holes require hold downs on a per form factor basis.

The removable 2.5" drive cage is held in place with four screws attaching it to the case bottom and can hold up to four 2.5" hard drives or SSDs.

The hot swap bay PCB is a simple pass through device, providing standard SATA drive data and power ports for both hot swap bays on the front side. On the back side of the PCB are two SATA ports and a four pin MOLEX power connector. You plug cables into the PCB and into two ports on your motherboard with power provided via a drive connector from your PSU. Since the PCB is unprotected in the case, you just need to be careful when connecting or disconnecting cables from your PSU if it is modular.

The HAF XB comes standard with two plastic hot swap trays designed to fit both 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives or SSDs. The trays are designed to slide into the two bays in the lower right side of the case front with the drives plugging into the data and SATA connections integrated into the PCB controller at the back of the bays and the front panel of the bays snapping into the front of the case. The front of the tray is on a hinge that opens to the right. The tray is released by the pull handle on the front left of the tray front cover.

The hot swap trays come standard with four rubber anti-vibration pins to hold 3.5" devices in the tray without need for additional screws. You simply turn the tray over and release the catch on the middle left of the tray to expand the tray. Then you place the drive in and retract the expanded side to lock the drive in place. For 2.5" drives, you must use the provided drive screws through the bottom tray holes to mount the drive in place.

The PSU filter on the bottom of the case is constructed with fine metal mesh covering the bottom layer of the filter, sandwiched in between two plastic layers for strength and rigidity. The plastic support layers are laid out in a square configuration to allow maximum air flow through the filter. The filter is easy to remove without taking the case apart for cleaning.

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