Photos: The Box and Case Exterior
The packaging survived very well through shipping. No dents, breaks or other damage at all. I have to say that was the first case that came without any damage on the outside of the box
Opening up the box everything seems packaged nice and tight. The use of hard foam is slightly disapointing since it has a tendency to break apart if shipping is rough. Thankfully nothing was broken and the foam did its job which is the most important thing.
Pulling the case out of the box I have to say it certainly does draw attention. This is not your standard case, it is sort of like a benching station and a HAF case had a full-sized baby. Since it is a cube it is a bit wider than your standard case and a bit shorter. There is plenty of space inside but just allotted differently when compared with your traditional case being taller than it is wide.
The first thing I noticed about the case is that for its size it is relatively light for being made of Steel. It certainly doesn’t weigh as much as an aluminum case but you certainly aren’t paying for an all-aluminum case either. That weight does come at a cost, there are tons of vents everywhere in the case. From the top to the bottom to the sides pretty much everywhere on this case is a big air vent. If you’ve got lots of dust in your home this might not be the best case for you since it would be extremely hard to put dust filters over all of the holes.
Those holes also give a sense that the side-doors are made a bit cheaply. While the steel used is the same as other cases, since there are so many holes it gives a feeling that it is not as solid-feeling as an all-steel design. Structurally the case is fine and the vents are nothing to worry about, but it can give a FEEL of being cheaply made when it is not.
A real nice feature on this case are the hot-swap hard drive bays. Two 3.5″ hard drives can be added using the two hot-swap bays in the front of the case. Our first sample of this case had a defective drive bay and would not open.While our second case did not have this issue, I have not seen people complaining about the issue so I can only assume it was a one-off defect
If you are someone who likes to travel to LAN events the HAF XB has a feature you might love in a couple of carrying handles. They are quite handy for pulling off the size of the case or for carrying the case. They are made of plastic so they certainly are not for carrying extended amounts of time.
