Installation
Installation time! So what are we going to be installing in this case? Our system is comprised of the following items.
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Memory: 8GB Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3-1600
Cooling: Thermaltake FRIO OCK
Storage: SATA Drive and Optical Drive
Power: Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650W
To show you how easily installation is on the Cooler Master HAF XM you can check out our installation video below.
If you do not want to watch the video you can see how to install your components below. Let’s start with the motherboard. Install your standoffs then attach your motherboard with screws.
Take out one of the hard drive trays to install your hard drive, remember they support both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives. In our case we are using a 3.5-inch drive so we just slide it in and lock it into place. Once you have all of your drives in the tray just slide them right back in.
To install your optical drives you need to take off the front panel of the case. Before you do make sure you remove the two hot-swap X-Docks or your will not be able to take off the front of the case. To remove the front of the case pull on it from the bottom and it will pop off. Now take off the bay covers for as many optical drives you have, for us it is only one. Now put the front of the case back on and slide your optical drive in. Lock it into place with the tool-less system.
Now you are going to want to install your power supply. It fits perfectly on the bottom of the case, you secure it with 4 screws. Now you are going to route all of the cables around the backside of the case. There is quite a lot of room behind the case so you should have any issue routing all of your cables. One thing that did both me was the opening for the CPU power connector. It is partially blocked by the top part of the case and this makes routing your CPU cable around the back part of the case very annoying as it takes some time to do. This is something we’ve seen on so many cases and I don’t see how companies like Cooler Master can overlook this. Also you can see how large the CPU cut out is.
Finally install your video card and connect all of your cables. As you can see the inside of the case looks nice and clean, even with all of our hardware installed.
When you power the system on the front LED fan will light up bright red. There is a button on top of the case that allows you to turn the LEDs on the fan off. Also the power button illuminates when the system is powered on.
