Interesting little Case ..... HAF XB ---- Project log

Went in to get some gas the other night but the stations pumps were down at the moment so I decided to take a quick peek in at what was new at Canada Computers ..... that can be a bad thing for me as I really don't need more computer parts let alone another case. I came across this little beast .... http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/category.php?category_by=0&category_id=1755&category_name=LAN Box

Now I had just finished putting together a build in my Corsair 700T that I just wasn't completely happy with how the final layout with the water cooling I installed ended up so I was kinda on the lookout for a cheap case that could do the job better or maybe more to my liking. So far I have been impressed.

Coolermaster HAF XB
ASUS CHV
FX8150 @ 4.74GHZ
ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 TI
8 GSKILL DDR3 2000 9 9 9 24 PIE Series
ENERMAX Revolution 920 PSU

Loop Parts .....

Front Rad - Black Ice® GT Stealth 240
Top Rad - Phobya XTREME 200
2 X Gentle Typhoon AP15's (Front)
1 X BitFenix Spectre Pro All White LED Green 200mm (Top)
Swiftech Apogee XT Rev 2 CPU Block
Monsoon 3/8" Compression Fittings
Master Kleer 3/8" White Tubing
EK-D5 X-TOP CSQ Pump Top
Siftech MCP655 Pump
MCRES Micro Rev2 Reservoir
2 X 90 Degree Double Rotary Adapter M/F G1/4 Black BP-MB90R2
Distilled Water, Kill Coil and Dead Water




First thing first I popped in the front rad, Black Ice® GT Stealth 240 and all the fans 2 X AP15's and 2 X Arctic Cooling Arctic F8 Pro PWM 80mm and power supply Enermax Revolution 920. Although I used a slim rad in this build you can use thicker rad's on the front depending on the length of your video card. I did have a ASUS 6970 DCUII card that would fit but I ran into a little clearance issues with the wiring and the top fan.



Time to get the motherboard ASUS CHV and video card ASUS GTX 650 TI 1GB ready. I used the narrower 2 slot GTX 650 to allow me to use the #3 PCIE X16 Slot instead of the #1 Slot. The HAF XB was 1 card slot short of being able to fit the 3X wide card for the #3 Slot. Dropped in 8GIG or GSKILL PIE 2000MHZ 9 9 9 24 ram as well.




Now its time to close up the top and add the top rad Phobya XTREME 200 with 1 X BitFenix Spectre Pro All White LED Green 200mm fan. I am hoping that 1 fan will be enough as I am not sure there is enough room for a second for a push pull.



Now comes the fun part getting all the MasterKlear 3/8" tubing cut with Monsoon Compression fittings and routed inside this case, Not really used to working on something this small. All in all it wasn't too bad and was still roomy enough to allow me to used the wrench on the Monsoon fittings. As you can see I am still waiting for some parts.

Originally this build was using the XSPC D5 Bay Res but with only room for 2 5" bays devices the fan controller and BLU-RAY drive took them up. I had planned to use the stock pump top but unfortunately it has 1/2" barbs so I am waiting for a new EK-D5 X-TOP CSQ - Acetal pump top which should be in tomorrow by UPS Then it is filling and leak testing time.

nice build Bassnut!

nice

Thanks Mandrake, briansun ..... got my pump top in today and am bleeding the system now. Tomorrow we shall see how what kind of a difference this case made.

It should be nice an cool with that much raddage and just the cpu being cooled.

Quick question, I just ordered this case and it looks like your PSU is kind of tight. Is yours longer than normal or an "average" size? Looks great though! Did you read about the hot swap bay killing hdd's? You might remove the PCB on it and hook the power+data right to it.

Not sure if the PSU is bigger than normal but can check when I get home tonight. Where did you hear about the hot swap issues? This is the first I heard about it.

Most of the low star reviews on newegg talk about it, but it seemed to have been fixed. They may have revised it in the newer cases. Mine just got in today so I'll see if there is a revision number on it so we can compare.

As far as the size of my power supply .... 7" X 6" X 4" deep

Thanks! The numbers on the PCB say S2042Rev.A
20120828

yes same as mine. I've already had my drives drop off twice now ..... just pulled it all apart and have pulled the PCB Board. Just about to run a test ..... give me a couple min

Everything runs fine with the drives hooked up directly by cables
drives are running fine

Great! I didn't even try mine, I'll see if they have a newer model.

Well it's all back together and finished so I just thought I would update and finish this post.

The EK-DS X-TOP CSQ Pump Top came in and fit nicely on the Swiftech D5 pump I had kicking around.

Time to fill my loop ..... this one is for you Conumdrum. Just simple distilled, kill coil and a couple drops of dead water for hell of it. Nothing fancy here.



Now to bleed it out. I found this little power supply at DazMode .....

http://dazmode.com/store/product/2a_12v_5v_external_dc_power_supply_molex_for_system_testing/

Makes Bleeding your loop so much easier just plug in your molex for your pump and let it run.



Now a quick run to see how my temps are ..... Not bad Max at P95 Load of 53*C @ 4.74GHZ I can live with that.

This build was not without it's little problem, seems there is always one. Seems there is an issue with the PCB board for the hot swap bays as blakehenry00 pointed out. After some testing, prime run I found my hard drives which were in the 2 hot swap bays were dropping off after about 20 min of prime95. Simple solution I just removed the PCB and used the cables directly as there was plenty of room. I wasn't really in need of hot swap bays anyways but could be an issue for someone who bought the case for that option. Hopefully this issue will be dealt with by Coolermaster in time.

I've heard issues with hot swap bays, at least you got it sorted out.

I have used hot swap bats on my seedbox as well as my encoding machine with no issues ..... mind you I have always shut down before removing the drives. I have never had issues where the drives will just drop off like they did here. Time will sort it out I am sure.

Even with these issues I enjoyed this build and this case.

Nice build. I really like this case. It's got a lot of room for a SFF/bench style case.