EVGATech_MattV

Looks really nice. To bad the 5.25" drive bays can only be locked from the one side and the 3.5" hot swap bays need some airflow. 

Great price though, I might consider it for a future build

clemsonfan_2001

The XB has nice features included in it's design, but it is absolutely "fugly".   The cheap, plastic looking exterior is a definite deterrent.

1ceTr0n

EVGATech_MattV

To bad the 5.25" drive bays can only be locked from the one side

Honestly, do you really need to lock optical drives on both sides nowadays, let alone use screws?  Hell, some peeps are not even using optical drives anymore and just plug in a USB one when they need it.

EVGATech_MattV

1ceTr0n

EVGATech_MattV

To bad the 5.25" drive bays can only be locked from the one side

Honestly, do you really need to lock optical drives on both sides nowadays, let alone use screws?  Hell, some peeps are not even using optical drives anymore and just plug in a USB one when they need it.

I made no mention of an optical drive, but if you want a fan controller or something else mounted there, it would only be attached on one side. 

1ceTr0n

EVGATech_MattV

1ceTr0n

EVGATech_MattV

To bad the 5.25" drive bays can only be locked from the one side

Honestly, do you really need to lock optical drives on both sides nowadays, let alone use screws?  Hell, some peeps are not even using optical drives anymore and just plug in a USB one when they need it.

I made no mention of an optical drive, but if you want a fan controller or something else mounted there, it would only be attached on one side. 

And how hard do you really need to touch a fan controller were not having one side locked would be an issue? Obviously, this case isn't up to your personal standards, and thats fine, but don't be the party pooper for us who are excited to own one

Originally Posted by 1ceStall10n 

1. Why bother putting in a front fan filter when it requires the user to manually have to remove all 3 side panels and then unclip 7 freaking clips to remove the entire FRONT benzel to get at? Why was there no simple design to slide the filter in and out from the sides like Silverstones SG08 Tamjin?
2. I honestly don't see why you couldn't have made the secondary drive cage to hold 3.5'' and 2.5'' HDD's and simply give the user the OPTION to user either drive size with rails and or adapters. SSD's still aint cheap and most people still use standard 3.5'' HDD and will for the forseeable future.

3. More cable routting holes in the motherboard would have made obvious sense, so why only one?
4. Why not give users the option of just buying the window itself for the top panel instead of requiring people to pay for an entire front panel at a higher price?
5. For the watercoolers, why didn't you allow the top panel mesh to have 120/140mm fan mounts like you have in so many other cases? I really don't find any reason to leave that out
6. Couldn't you have thrown in some rubber seals so if people do use the rear water cooling holes after punching out the covers, the bare metal won't possibly cut the tubing?

Again, im really excited to get this case and give it a looks and play around with it on Monday, but these were burning questions I had and it seems like people don't get responses very fast from your forums, so I thought i'd ask you directly here.

It will be our pleasure to give the answers since CMUSA was deeply involved with the HAF Xb project.

1. The reason why is we had to stay true to our roots as DIY enthusiast chassis. One of the mockup HAF Xb's last year had a removable filter frame that was in the front panel and pulled out the top, on paper it was great but in reality some of the mechanical engineers brought some issues to our attention. If we kept the front filter we would lose 140mm front fan support. Some of our international focus groups complained they needed much more space to mount fans outside the frame of the chassis. The people who complained the most used 27-30mm thick radiators which need fans on both sides for acceptable performance. So we kept the massive room for a radiator and 2 sets of fans on both sides. We had to put the filter on the front panel because there was nowhere else to put it.

2. There isn't enough space to do two 3.5" drive cages in the area you mention. Once you get your HAF Xb, try to take some measurements. We reserved the space so you will have just enough cable management if you can't afford a modular power supply. As it is now, we had to make the 2.5" HDD cages removable because some PSUs have huge masses of cables.

3. Its a TRAP!

Seriously, this cable management hole was added at the last revision before production by our engineers. Their reason was that if you never removed the motherboard tray, you could use the port for some audio or USB cable. Functionally, we have more than enough cable tie downs on the side of the rail that you should never need to use this. We joke its a trap because whatever you stuff through that hole, you have to unstuff it because it will block the motherboard tray from being removed. You should never be using this hole if you want to use the HAF Xb removable motherboard tray since it will cost you 5 mins of time.

4. We're a big company and tiny pieces of acrylic wander off by themselves.

5. Its an issue of the strength of the mesh attachment. The top panel mesh attaches in the same way as an acrylic window would with plastic push pins. These pins could fail if you put a heavy weight on them like a radiator. There are plenty of other good places for radiators.

6. Nobody we surveyed wanted to pay more for the rubber grommets on the holes in the back. Our research found people use these holes for things we don't intend, and don't use them anymore. Remember Olivia Munn and G4TV?
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