HAX XM is a mid-tower case. Its chassis is made of steel and it weighs 10.5kg. We see plenty air exhausts, which is typical for HAF (high air flow) series. One of the first things we noticed was a latch on the left panel. The panel is rotated by 90° and it makes taking it off and putting it back a breeze - unlatch and pull. If you’re transporting the case, you can secure the panel with additional screws.   

If you like to flaunt your equipment, you may like the HAF XM with a side window better (picture below).

Note however that the windowed panel won’t take any fans. The non-window version can take one 200mm or two 120/140mm fans.

One thing where HAF XM disappointed us is dust filters. Namely, there isn’t a single filter in the true sense of the word. Cooler Master uses pieces of mesh that act as filters, and they’re not easy to take out and clean either. One such filter can be found on the left side panel.

Only the main panel is rotated and it comes with a latch. The other panel is a traditional one, i.e. you must pull it backwards to release it. Both panels have large protrusions which turned out to be quite useful.

HAF XM will take four large 200mm fans. Two such fans come with the case – one on the top and the other on the front panel. Cooler Master’s logo on the front hides the front fan.

The picture below shows HAF XM’s front panel when disassembled. The top three 5.25’’ bays are intended for 5.25’’ drives, while the bottom two were turned into the company’s X-dock hot-swap units. Optical devices require you to take of the front panel. Too bad there aren’t any converters that would help us put card readers or some other 3.5’’ gadgets into 5.25’’ slots. Cooler Master used to ship two metal rails which could do the trick but we didn’t find any in the box, despite it being quite simple to make. The front fan has a red LED, which can be turned off.

X-dock bays come with stickers that warn users they’ll have to take the panel off before taking X-docks out. You can use the X-docks for 3.5’’ or 2.5’’ drives.

There are no real dust filters on the front. Cooler Master opted on using only the mesh.

You’ll find two USB 3.0 connectors (internal ones), two USB 2.0 connectors as well as audio-in and audio-out jacks. All the keys are towards the top of the front panel. Left to the power key is the LED switch; reset key is on the right.

The top panel has a practical rubber padded compartment, which always comes in handy.

The top panel has two large air exhausts – one of them already comes with a 200mm fan while the other must be equipped with a 200mm or smaller fan. The entire panel can be entirely taken off after unscrewing a single screw at the end of the panel.

The top panel can hold radiators up to 240/280mm. Bear in mind that the radiator must not exceed 45mm. Fans go inside unless you want the radiator in, in which case thickness of the radiator must not exceed 33.6mm.

HAF XM is 252 mm (9.9 inch) wide which is ok. There’s a single vertical expansion slot to go with eight standard ones, but there seems to be much unused room. This suggests that tall CPUs and coolers will fit easily. We’ll say more on the following pages, as well as show you a secret drive bay in HAF XM.