Detailed Exterior Features

The front panel of the Cooler Master HAF XM case sports three distinctive sections. The top section is comprised of the I/O panel and the three external 5.25" drive bays. Starting with the I/O panel, you can see that the HAF XM has all the basics covered but not much else. There are a total of four USB ports, the two in black are USB 2.0 ports and the two in blue are USB 3.0 ports. Between the two sets of USB ports are the front audio jacks. They are clearly labeled, which is nice. Believe it or not, I've come across cases that don't have these labeled.

Below the I/O panel is the 5.25" external drive bays. Three is a good amount for a Mid-Tower case. In all honesty, I can't see myself using any more than that, even on a bigger case. The drive bays are meshed and allow for air to flow into the case if there isn't a drive installed in the bay.

Under those is the next section, made up of two X-Dock slots. The X-Dock slots are hot-swappable 3.5" or 2.5" drive bays. Press the latches on the bays and they swing open and pull out for installation or removal of the drives. These X-Dock bays can be removed and you can install a 3.5" external faceplate like an SD card reader or a fan controller.

The third section of the front panel is the meshed intake fan area. You can see the Cooler Master logo in the middle of this section. This area comes with a 200mm red LED fan included, but you can swap it out for two 120mm or 140mm fans if you'd like. Of course, you'd give up the cool red LED, unless your fans have that too.

Up on top of the case, above the I/O panel is the power and reset buttons. That button farthest left on the top here is the fan LED controller. When the light is on above this button, the front panel LED is on.

An interesting feature of the Cooler Master HAF XM is the fact that all of the intake fan areas on the case have filters. This includes the front panel fan and the fan areas on the main panel. It also includes the area at the bottom of the case where your PSU intake fan is located.

Now let's move inside the Cooler Master HAF XM.

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