WEBVTT 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:09.160 so today we have an exciting new product to talk about this is The Cooler Master 00:00:05.279 --> 00:00:10.960 half X and um really this comes down to 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:16.600 a complaint that I've had for quite a while with uh EVGA and their overly long 00:00:14.719 --> 00:00:22.039 motherboards they've been releasing motherboards like their classified 00:00:18.439 --> 00:00:26.119 fourway SLI their new sr2 uh super 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:29.480 record 2 dual slot or sorry dual socket 00:00:26.119 --> 00:00:32.160 um LGA 1366 motherboard they've been 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:36.840 releasing motherboards with too many PCI slots they're actually longer than a 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:41.920 standard case which is seven PCI slots now the half X fixes that complaint that 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:46.680 I've had that they're releasing these motherboards that there are no cases for 00:00:44.559 --> 00:00:50.920 well now we have a case for it so let's have a look at the overall specs of this 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.520 before we take it out of the box it is a black case it is made of steel and 00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:59.079 plastic uh there's a bunch of boring stuff now something that they have seem 00:00:56.600 --> 00:01:02.960 to forgotten here is that it is Micro ATX ATX eatx and it is also something 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:10.200 called XL ATX which is kind of a an ATX that is 00:01:07.320 --> 00:01:16.920 too long because if we come down here PCI slots nine so rather than having a 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:19.159 standard seven PCI slots this case can 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:23.799 accept either motherboards with eight slots and then an overhanging dual slot 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:30.079 card in the bottom slot or even a motherboard with nine PCI slots so two 00:01:27.119 --> 00:01:36.079 nine uh two too long like the classified four-way okay so cooling system this is 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:39.680 probably relevant included we have a 230 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:42.479 mm red LED fan at the front a 200 two 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:47.920 200 mm fans at the top and oh one is optional okay so only one a 200 mm fan 00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:53.960 at the side and a 140 mm fan at the rear there's apparently also a 120 mm 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:59.360 fan which is a VGA fan cover and then a VGA holder has an optional 80mm fan so 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:06.200 one of the big features of the half X is actually also that it is firmy ready so 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:09.399 it is ready for NVIDIA's latest GTX 470 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:12.000 and 480 graphics cards that means it has 00:02:09.399 --> 00:02:15.640 really good GPU cooling that kind kind of goes without saying okay we got an 00:02:13.480 --> 00:02:20.120 installation guide here so this is going to tell you how to install your 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:24.040 components in the uh system I'll actually just let you read that you can 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:29.920 freeze the frame if you want to figure out oh this is neat USB 3.0 converting 00:02:26.519 --> 00:02:31.200 to USB 2.0 C I'm sure they mean cable 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:37.080 but that's a that's a pretty useful thing to know how to do how to install the VGA bracket okay we can kind of 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:41.280 refer to this a little bit later and then uh let's get the case out let's 00:02:40.040 --> 00:02:45.599 have a look at it the first thing I noticed about it is that it is black 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:50.159 black everywhere black on the inside black on the back black on the top on 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:56.159 the front very nice that is what I like to see for almost any case these days is 00:02:52.959 --> 00:02:58.280 a nice black interior as with a black 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:01.720 exterior black goes with everything it's the New Black we got a plane flying 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:06.200 overhead so I don't know how well you're going to be able to hear me but let's 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:12.040 get all these plastic bits off and have a look at this case so cooler Master's 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:17.280 half line of cases is all about half high air flow so we'll start at the 00:03:14.239 --> 00:03:20.159 front the entire front of the case is 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:24.760 covered in grills so all of this is potentially if you've got a lot of 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:26.599 exhaust going to be a passive intake and 00:03:24.760 --> 00:03:32.799 then down here we have I'm just going to use this as a cheat she at the front we 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:34.680 have our two 130 mm red LED fan up at 00:03:32.799 --> 00:03:40.400 the front we've got all of our front connectivity so they've got everything 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:43.280 here we have USB 3.0 super speed which 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:50.439 you can convert to extra USB 2.0 ports we've got eat fire wire USB 2.0 as well 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:54.280 as front audio so it has everything and then this panel actually looks like you 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:58.959 might even be able to remove it and mount something else there oh maybe not 00:03:56.480 --> 00:04:03.599 okay here we've got a little slider okay so that has your o fan LED button that's 00:04:01.519 --> 00:04:08.360 pretty cool then a reset switch as well as a power switch so those can all be um 00:04:06.519 --> 00:04:11.560 safely hidden for whatever reason just kind of kind of cool to have little 00:04:09.959 --> 00:04:16.320 things that slide around on the case like that okay the overall build of the 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.280 thing actually I'm just going to kind of see what I think of 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:25.160 it as soon as you fill up a case like this it's going to be really heavy but 00:04:22.840 --> 00:04:29.759 it's also very very solid like you could easily put all of my weight on it even 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:32.800 when it's empty and even though it has has plastic to the construction because 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:36.880 you can see the way that they've constructed the plastic is very rugged 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:42.840 it's very reinforced and it also has kind of a cool look to it it's along the 00:04:39.400 --> 00:04:44.680 visual stylings of previous half cases 00:04:42.840 --> 00:04:50.280 but it doesn't take everything out of their book either so let's take the side 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:54.400 panel off side panel fit and finish is pretty good let me just kind of put it 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:59.240 back on and see what I think of that because it's not perfect by any means 00:04:57.320 --> 00:05:03.479 but yeah it gets in there pretty good so you can see even when we take it off and 00:05:00.919 --> 00:05:07.479 put it back on there are no unnecessary gaps in the case everything fits in 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:11.360 really nice that's something hey you can't actually take it for granted so 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:15.680 you just pull it away pull it out there we go let's have a look at the inside 00:05:12.919 --> 00:05:20.720 here that is a hardcore looking fan and ducked right there so besides the window 00:05:18.479 --> 00:05:25.120 we've got this huge Grill which you can actually remove the fan from but still 00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:28.880 leave the grill on so it'll still look pretty cool and you can actually remove 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:33.400 this duct from the fan as well if you don't want that but this fan is designed 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:39.960 to send as much air flow over the graphics cards as is um humanly or fanly 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:44.280 possible you can see it can plug in either using a three pin connector or 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:49.440 you can use the included four pin Molex adapter so we can go ahead and uh file 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:55.120 this side panel away and have a look at some more aspects of this case the 00:05:52.319 --> 00:06:00.800 interior once again it borrows a lot from previous half cases so we've got 00:05:58.039 --> 00:06:04.120 cooler Masters 3 and 1/2 in in or rather this one has an SSD adapter already 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:08.720 included in it but I'm assuming yeah you can take that out so they're 3 and 1/2 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:12.319 in Drive Bays uh now these look really flimsy but as soon as you install a hard 00:06:10.599 --> 00:06:16.080 drive in them they're really really sturdy so I I love their hard drive 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:21.039 mounting system personally and then they've also gone and included a 2 and 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:25.400 1/2 in adapter so if you have an SSD boot drive just right out of the box you 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:30.520 can put a couple screws in it slide that into their convenient tooless system and 00:06:27.960 --> 00:06:37.199 clip it in awesome so it takes up to 1 2 3 4 5 3 and 1/2 in Bays here and then 00:06:34.080 --> 00:06:38.840 what appears to be a hot swap module in 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:42.120 the front but why don't we'll have a closer look at that later actually I 00:06:40.520 --> 00:06:47.319 just want to have a look at the overall layout of the Interior first so down 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:52.319 here this is the oh they've got a little cool design by Cooler Master stamp on 00:06:49.919 --> 00:06:55.960 here this is going to hold your power supply all right so your power supply it 00:06:54.479 --> 00:07:03.440 goes into the bottom of this case and they don't have an option for a top mount which I don't think really matters 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:05.680 you got little rubber um here where's my 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:10.560 knife see I actually have a knife today check that out all right so why don't we 00:07:08.280 --> 00:07:18.000 sort of figure out how this works by removing this okay oh yeah this 00:07:14.919 --> 00:07:20.160 is interesting this is the duct for the 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:26.280 NVIDIA fmy graphics cards this is part of what makes it fmy ready because 00:07:22.919 --> 00:07:28.240 you're ducting dedicated airflow to the 00:07:26.280 --> 00:07:33.919 graphics cards using like kind of a segmented uh Zone cooling Paradigm that 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:37.160 we first saw with the antech p180 okay but you can actually remove this if you 00:07:35.479 --> 00:07:40.680 don't want it if you don't like it you can just pull it out just like that it's 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:44.479 only two thumb screws so it's no big deal okay so then I'm going to now that 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:48.919 I've removed that I'm going to go ahead and remove my power supply bracket here 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:53.680 because honestly in a build that I'm doing I probably won't use any of this 00:07:51.159 --> 00:07:58.440 stuff so while something like this power supply cover is great if you're not 00:07:55.919 --> 00:08:02.599 using a modular power supply because you can hide all the wires behind it if you 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:05.720 are using a modular power supply you're probably just going to pull it out 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:10.639 anyway but I mean hey they think of everything right so this box is probably 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:14.560 all of our accessories that's strapped in just like that you can see the way 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:19.159 they've positioned the uh the cooling holes here there aren't actually any fan 00:08:16.919 --> 00:08:25.080 mounts on them but the reason for that is that they just wanted to have a nice 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:27.120 open well supported place to put your 00:08:25.080 --> 00:08:31.000 power supply so even if you have one of those ridiculously long power supplies I 00:08:29.080 --> 00:08:34.479 mean they can be up to this long you will have proper little rubber supports 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:40.560 for it you'll have your four screws at the back and you'll have the right ventilation spacing no matter where the 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:44.039 fan on your power supply is so that's pretty cool as well and let's see what 00:08:42.760 --> 00:08:48.000 else I want to talk about in the interior here right right why don't we 00:08:45.959 --> 00:08:54.720 just kind of cut right to the chase here here it is this is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 nine 00:08:52.360 --> 00:09:00.640 PCI slots and here's an interesting thing there's actually room for another 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:06.360 slot right here so even if you have a nine slot motherboard you can even put a 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:09.200 dual slot card in the last one and you're still not going to interfere with 00:09:07.920 --> 00:09:14.640 your power supply and there's going to be a spot to rest the card right in the 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:16.279 case there so that's pretty crazy okay 00:09:14.640 --> 00:09:20.000 then we've also got the cutout for the CPU Cooler nice big cutout so pretty 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:23.120 much no matter where your CPU is positioned you're going to be able to 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:27.600 access the back plate we've got our 140mm fan at the back we've got water 00:09:25.800 --> 00:09:31.720 cooling grommets here in case you wanted to do an external water cooling system 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:35.399 now up at the Top This is a little bit of a disappointment but the first one 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:41.079 I've had about this case I don't actually see a convenient place to mount 00:09:37.760 --> 00:09:44.560 a radiator but that may just be because 00:09:41.079 --> 00:09:46.760 I'm not uh I don't have a radiator here 00:09:44.560 --> 00:09:52.120 to kind of line up against it because something that I do see is that there 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:54.560 are a lot of sort of extraneous looking 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:59.680 mounting points in here so it's quite possible that they do have the holes 00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:01.720 there but I'm not seeing them so uh I 00:09:59.680 --> 00:10:06.000 wish yeah I wish I had a radiator to try it but I don't have one on me 00:10:03.839 --> 00:10:09.320 unfortunately there we go I just undid the other panel so let's have a quick 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:13.079 look at that on the inside we've got a bit of a sort of textured thing going on 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:19.120 here now this is a smart thing that they've done you see how this panel is 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:21.959 not flat there's actually quite a bit of 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:25.440 Bulge and rather than just sort of having this be flat and working the 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:30.200 texture into this side what they've actually done is they've given you more 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:32.760 room at the back of the motherboard tray 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:36.760 to Route all of your cables so with this kind of depth you can you can route all 00:10:34.920 --> 00:10:40.959 of your PCI Express cables behind the video cards and then with this slightly 00:10:39.160 --> 00:10:44.440 less depth you can do the few cables required for the eight pin around the 00:10:42.560 --> 00:10:47.440 back of the motherboard and your 24 pin so that's a really smart thing that 00:10:45.680 --> 00:10:50.959 they've worked right into the case they've made it look like just a design 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:54.720 element but it's there for a very practical reason so that brings us 00:10:52.760 --> 00:10:59.680 around to the back where we've got oh These are nice actually we've got really 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:03.920 really soft rubber grommets to to mount all of our power or to mount to Route 00:11:01.800 --> 00:11:08.040 all of our power supply cables through so these are the kind that even if you 00:11:05.760 --> 00:11:12.279 have a cable sticking through it and and butting up against it it's still going 00:11:09.959 --> 00:11:16.120 to snap right back to its original place we have a nice big hole at the bottom 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:20.880 cuz I mean in theory you're routing as many as eight PCI Express connectors 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:24.480 through this a 24 pin an eight pin up to the back you're mounting like you're 00:11:22.760 --> 00:11:28.440 putting tons and tons of cables in here so it's great that they have a nice big 00:11:25.800 --> 00:11:33.320 hole for that okay we've got our five 5 and a/4 in rather 6 5 and 1/4 in Bay 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:36.560 these are all standard tooled Affairs but personally I don't mind that some 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:42.279 people will complain that they're not tlist but I mean oh they are Tess four 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:47.160 four of them are Tess my bad and then the other two actually have the hot swap 00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:53.279 module mounted in them now I wish I could figure out how that works because 00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:55.560 it h you know it may not actually be hot 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:59.760 swap it might just be like a a back plane thing although it looks like hot 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:04.800 swap there's there's got a be a way to do this so just bear with me here I 00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:10.399 apologize for trying to figure this out on camera but 00:12:07.800 --> 00:12:15.079 uh no I don't really I do this all the time okay let me just take off the front 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:20.079 bezel and see what we can see what we can Discover at the back 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:24.160 here or at the front rather behind the front there that's what I meant to 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:31.199 say okay H this is interesting I wonder if 00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:33.160 you actually have to take off the top as 00:12:31.199 --> 00:12:37.760 well as the front and uh cameraman's complaining to 00:12:35.839 --> 00:12:43.920 me about how long this video is so I guess we can wrap it up at some point 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:49.079 well you know what I'll find out how those work and then I'll upload an 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:56.360 annotation never mind I got it I got it there we go yes they are hot SWAT 00:12:53.639 --> 00:13:01.160 Bays so I figured out how they work hold on let me pop the front bezel back in 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:05.320 okay so you just take these two clips at either side push them in pull it out all 00:13:03.839 --> 00:13:09.399 you do is screw your drive in it'll accept 2 and 1/2 in or 3 and 1/2 in 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:12.800 drives you can see into the back plane there so it accepts up to two drives so 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:18.399 that brings the 3 and 1/2 in drive capacity up to a potential of 7 as well 00:13:16.079 --> 00:13:24.680 as the 2 and 1/2 in drive capacity by default with this case up to three let's 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:27.040 me see what else I want to still cover 00:13:24.680 --> 00:13:31.199 um what else do we got we talked about XL so our camera cut off no big deal 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:37.440 let's have a look at the front panel connectors here's our two USB 3.0 00:13:34.160 --> 00:13:39.240 connectors and then so these are there's 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:43.399 there's a guide in the uh in the users manual for how to convert them to USB 00:13:40.959 --> 00:13:47.880 2.0 so uh yeah I'm guessing there will be some way to do that we've got HD 00:13:45.199 --> 00:13:52.279 audio we've got a hard drive LED we've got our sort of standard power switch 00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:57.680 power LED reset switch all of those we've got our eSATA connection then we 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:59.279 have our regular USB 2.0 front header 00:13:57.680 --> 00:14:04.240 and then we have our fire wire front header so no matter how what connectivity options your motherboard 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:07.959 has you are going to be able to hook it up in this case uh just wanted to 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:11.120 quickly show the tooless mechanism for the 5 and a/4 inch Bay you just press 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:17.000 the button it locks in the drive you press it again it unlocks the drive very straightforward okay now one thing that 00:14:14.920 --> 00:14:21.639 I totally forgot about while I was doing the last segment was the included 00:14:19.560 --> 00:14:26.000 accessories so what do we have in here oh we got wheels hey hey they really did 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:29.680 think of everything with this case cuz I mean one of the things I said was oh 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:34.399 it's kind of heavy there you go they put wheels on it oh here here we go 00:14:32.040 --> 00:14:40.279 so here's how to adapt the USB 3.0 cables to USB 2.0 headers all you do is 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:44.240 this you plug this in here hide it somewhere in all of the oh no that 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:48.360 doesn't work okay I have no idea interesting you know what I bet I can 00:14:46.160 --> 00:14:53.360 figure it out I bet it's not too hard I'm willing to Y yep I'm willing to 00:14:51.880 --> 00:14:56.639 wager that at the front of the case there's actually ports that you plug 00:14:55.240 --> 00:15:02.040 these into and then you just run a regular USB 2.0 header very nice 00:14:59.560 --> 00:15:05.279 okay we have an8 pin extension cable like I said they thought of everything 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.600 because a lot of motherboard or a lot of power supplies aren't going to have a 00:15:06.839 --> 00:15:14.160 long enough eight pin to account for those extra two slots of height so there 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:15.560 you go they include one and this I think 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:19.720 is something to do with the graphics card uh duct I believe it supports the 00:15:17.959 --> 00:15:23.279 graphics cards unless you're shipping the system around is probably not a big 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:29.040 deal but I think it kind of goes in like that or something okay and then last but 00:15:26.079 --> 00:15:32.399 not least we have a big baggie of screws mostly black screws all the ones you're 00:15:30.880 --> 00:15:37.000 going to see are black nice little finishing touches like that black zip 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:40.759 ties as well as a little speaker you can attached to your motherboard for Di 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:44.800 diagnostic purposes thank you for checking out my unboxing of The Cooler 00:15:42.680 --> 00:15:47.800 Master half X and don't forget to subscribe