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Cooler Master HAF XM Custom Side Panel

Troika

So I made a post yesterday about improving the vrm and chipset cooling on my MSI X58 Big Bang Xpower. While I was talking with the folks in the Tech Yes City discord and it dawned on me. I could simply make a new side panel for the case I'm using, a Cooler Master HAF XM. While the stock side panel does have fan mounts, the tubing for the gpu would be in the way and I definitely don't need to add extra stress there. What I was thinking was getting a large acrylic sheet that's sufficiently thick enough to not warp or bend. I could cut out new holes for 120/140mm fans towards the top of the case and pay someone to 3dprint me some fan ducting to direct airflow down towards the vrm and chipset. For mounting, I was thinking just drilling four holes, two at the top and two at the bottom and using thumb screws to secure the panel to the case. My roommate's dad has metal working equipment that I can probably borrow.

I'd hate to waste material, especially now when money is a bit tight. What would be the best approach to making a compatible side panel? Good tools for cutting through acrylic? Should I be concerned about needing to sand or polish the acrylic to make sure it remains clear/mostly clear? Is there an easier way to do this or would that be the most ideal way to direct airflow to the components I want to cool?

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I run a fully looped PC in a CoolerMaster HAF XM and the 200mm side intake does not interfere with it.

 

I personally mounted an 80mm arctic F8 above the VRMs on my board (still have a 240mm rad up top too) blowing air straight down on it.

 

What do you mean compatible side panel?  

 

EDIT - it is literally pressed outward to have space for all of this that you are talking about - probably one of the most versatile cases Ive had the pleasure to work in lol - theres like 14 fans in it right now or more I lost count 

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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4 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

I run a fully looped PC in a CoolerMaster HAF XM and the 200mm side intake does not interfere with it.

 

I personally mounted an 80mm arctic F8 above the VRMs on my board (still have a 240mm rad up top too) blowing air straight down on it.

 

What do you mean compatible side panel?

 

I have a phat 45mm thick 280mm at the top, though only the fans are visible on the inside, and a 140mm at the rear that currently prevents the stock panel from being able to shut properly. That's my fault, I should have gone for a 120mm instead for the rear.

How do you have the fans mounted securely? I'd hate for them to move or fall off and damage something.

By compatible I just mean something that sits flush with the case so there isn't a significant panel gap.

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If it were me I would mod the top (which gets covered by that panel that comes off and on) by cutting out more material closer to the fron 5.25" drive bays, mount the 280mm rad forward and then be able to add a downdraft 80mm onto the VRM's - at least thats what I would do.  

 

The 200mm side intake is more than a wind tunnel (plus I have the rads in push pull - 1x240mm front, 1x240mm top, 1x120mm rear) - here is an old pic I have on this PC Im currently using prior to stuffing a blocked GPU in it.  Where you see the black hose is the same position the fittings sit, so no collision at all.

 

I just screw my fans in with fan screws - I use 1 screw on the 80mm downdraft.  It doesnt need more than that

 

EDIT - I modded the basement, hot swap bays and HDD tray out of this case

 

 

RR2.jpg

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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People have done loops in them before and didn't have to modify the side panel fan placement so it should just work. At worst you have to get a slim fan.

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I see I see. I can't really do anything to fit a rad at the front because I'm actually using the drive sleds to hold 4x4TB drives and my pump/res currently lives on a hotswap drive sled and sits in the 5.25" bays. (Yes I know the res cap is crooked in the picture, I've fixed it since then. The pictures were also taken a few months ago during a test fit and leak test of the system.)

The build pictured is also my Ryzen rig that's currently living in that case. It'll be moved out into a different case soon as I want the X58 system to live in this case.

This is also my first loop but I think I did an ok job. There's stuff I probably would have done differently but for now, it works just fine. The fluid is distilled water with 15% of the volume being antifreeze and about 50ml of colloidal silver.
 

IMG_20200923_165650_1.jpg

IMG_20200923_165639_4.jpg

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4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

People have done loops in them before and didn't have to modify the side panel fan placement so it should just work. At worst you have to get a slim fan.

I have a pair of Noctua NF-F12 ippc 3000s I was hoping to use for this because its what I have on hand.

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3 minutes ago, Troika said:

I have a pair of Noctua NF-F12 ippc 3000s I was hoping to use for this because its what I have on hand.

Your problem has a super easy solution. Just get an L couple. Then the tube doesn't have to do such a weird long bend and can just go immediately in the correct direction saving you a ton of space. Could even do 3 and basically connect a straight piece of tube between them.

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2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Your problem has a super easy solution. Just get an L couple. Then the tube doesn't have to do such a weird long bend and can just go immediately in the correct direction saving you a ton of space. Could even do 3 and basically connect a straight piece of tube between them.

Yeah, that curvy bend was super awkward and I don't like it but its what I had to do at the time. Are there inexpensive ones that are good to use? I'm not picky on color or style, as noted by the gatling barrel looking fittings I got from Frozencpu's discount section xD

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1 minute ago, Troika said:

Yeah, that curvy bend was super awkward and I don't like it but its what I had to do at the time. Are there inexpensive ones that are good to use? I'm not picky on color or style, as noted by the gatling barrel looking fittings I got from Frozencpu's discount section xD

Look at the discount section again maybe :p. Really any decently reviewed ones that fit will do.

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hmm i didn't no the HAF XM had an half psu basement?  that metal in front of the front fan thow🤔 thow this was stander at the time.

I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

also i edit post alot because you no why...

Thrasher_565 hub links build logs

Corsair Lian Li Bykski Barrow thermaltake nzxt aquacomputer 5v argb pin out guide + argb info

5v device to 12v mb header

Odds and Sods Argb Rgb Links

 

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16 hours ago, Troika said:

Is $7.99 per fitting typical price for L connectors?

Have seen as cheap as 3,50 but that is about it. 8 isn't a odd price.

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11 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

hmm i didn't no the HAF XM had an half psu basement?  that metal in front of the front fan thow🤔 thow this was stander at the time.

S'not really a "basement" persay. Its more like a positionable cover that can be adjusted by undoing a pair of thumb screws, or in my case, a single one cause I seem to have lost the other one. It is nice to be able to hide all the psu cables even in a decade year old case! 😄 I can't say its super standard but If I had to hazard a guess based on the other legacy case I have, a CM Cosmos II, it was probably a feature only really seen in large cases with E-ATX or SSI-EEB/SSI-CEB motherboard support. Despite its solid steel panel, its cool to see that mid towers back in that era were as full featured as full towers are now. From what I could gather, the retail price of the HAF XM when it was new was $129.99 USD. That puts it solidly in the higher end case category. Granted, I paid $50 for it from a guy that had it locally about five years ago. I'm pretty happy with that purchase, its a solid case that I'll probably find very hard to replace.

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1 hour ago, Troika said:

S'not really a "basement" persay. Its more like a positionable cover that can be adjusted by undoing a pair of thumb screws, or in my case, a single one cause I seem to have lost the other one. It is nice to be able to hide all the psu cables even in a decade year old case! 😄 I can't say its super standard but If I had to hazard a guess based on the other legacy case I have, a CM Cosmos II, it was probably a feature only really seen in large cases with E-ATX or SSI-EEB/SSI-CEB motherboard support. Despite its solid steel panel, its cool to see that mid towers back in that era were as full featured as full towers are now. From what I could gather, the retail price of the HAF XM when it was new was $129.99 USD. That puts it solidly in the higher end case category. Granted, I paid $50 for it from a guy that had it locally about five years ago. I'm pretty happy with that purchase, its a solid case that I'll probably find very hard to replace.

Mines power button died a few months back.  Im about to retire her.  Dont know if I will send her out on a boat and shoot her with a flaming arrow or stick her in a closet and pray I can use it in the future 😉  I have one of those chinese power buttons on it, but I dont like it anymore (the power button, liked it at first now its bleh)

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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55 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Mines power button died a few months back.  Im about to retire her.  Dont know if I will send her out on a boat and shoot her with a flaming arrow or stick her in a closet and pray I can use it in the future 😉  I have one of those chinese power buttons on it, but I dont like it anymore (the power button, liked it at first now its bleh)

the reset works as a button too.

imo i would mod the hell of it bring it back to modern. remove the hhd cage and the 5.25 bay and mount probably 140mm fans in the front.  and side mount the ssd

there one locally for $50 but i dont drive and its a long way a way and they wont deliver it... dont really want to pay more for it thow

I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

also i edit post alot because you no why...

Thrasher_565 hub links build logs

Corsair Lian Li Bykski Barrow thermaltake nzxt aquacomputer 5v argb pin out guide + argb info

5v device to 12v mb header

Odds and Sods Argb Rgb Links

 

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I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

also i edit post alot because you no why...

Thrasher_565 hub links build logs

Corsair Lian Li Bykski Barrow thermaltake nzxt aquacomputer 5v argb pin out guide + argb info

5v device to 12v mb header

Odds and Sods Argb Rgb Links

 

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