Cooler Master is celebrating 20 years of life (we got to celebrate with them at CES 2012), but it has only been in the last five or so that we have really watched them take off. With the launch of the HAF line and their push into the enthusiast level of hardware (and the CM Storm line) Cooler Master has simply bloomed. Over the years we have tested many products from Cooler Master and still have more to go through. Today we are finally able to show you their newest edition to the HAF line up; the HAF XM. The HAF XM is a mid-tower case that has plenty of room for your three-way SLI or Crossfire plus all of the hard drives you could want. You get all of this for around $130 so let’s take a look and see if the HAF XM is worth the price of admission.Value -
Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item. At $160 the Cooler Master HAF XM is an excellent value (even if it is not that good looking). You get a very flexible case that you can grow with in addition to one of the easiest cases that we have worked with for cable management. If you have ever tried to hide the cables from a non-modular power supply over 1000 watts you will know that what the HAF XM can do here is amazing. The airflow options along with the ability to handle three-way Crossfire and SLI only add to the value you get here. We would have no problem laying down $160 for this case although we do wish it was a little better looking.
Conclusion -
As we mentioned before, once you get past the looks the HAF XM is a solid mid-tower for gaming, workstations and pretty much any other system that needs room, expandability and good airflow. During our build with the Medusa like UCP 1100 we were more than amazed at how quickly the HAF XM tamed the cables that we did not need and being able to tame that mess can be half the battle when it comes to keeping up airflow. The multiple pass-through ports in the backplane allowed us to quickly and easily run things along the back (and out of the way). This will give you the chance to build a very clean and unobstructed system into the HAF XM. On the downside, no one will be able to see how clean it is as there is no window (again for cost here). Overall Cooler Master has a good offering in the mid-$100 price point in the HAF XM. You are going to get items and options that you would be hard pressed to find in many cases that cost more. If the HAF XM looked better it certainly would have deserved our Gold Key award with everything that it brings to the table. As it is; the HAF XM merits our Silver Key for amazing cable management options, airflow and for price.
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