My new m-ITX Chassis - Case Labs X2M

The XM2 Case from Kabs: A Review of the Modular Mini ITX Chassis

As I was setting up this case, I couldn't help but feel that the fact that I'm going to have so much water cooling in this stuff uh that seems like it would make the most sense. The modular aspect of these cases is certainly what gives Case Labs a name in the modding Community. It's a clever move by the manufacturer to keep this thing price-pointed at a place where more people can afford it.

However, one notable omission in the XM2 case is the removable motherboard tray. In Case Labs' previous designs, they have integrated this feature, allowing users to easily remove and replace their motherboards. Unfortunately, the XM2 case omits this feature, instead opting for four screws on the back that allow users to unscrew them and take off the back plate for motherboard installation and removal.

On a more positive note, the XM2 case has some great features for cable management. The cutouts are large enough to accommodate long cables, and there are slots for fans both above and below the motherboard tray. Additionally, the case has some mounting points for hard drives, although it's worth noting that this particular model might not be compatible with a 3.5" drive due to its limited depth.

The design of the XM2 case also allows for flexibility in terms of water cooling setup. The holes drilled into the back plate can serve as guides for installing reservoirs and other components, making it easier to get everything properly mounted. Furthermore, the cover plate is held in place by four screws, allowing users to easily mark the location of their components before drilling through.

In conclusion, the XM2 case from Kabs is a great option for those looking for a modular mini ITX chassis with plenty of room for water cooling and cable management. While it may not have all the bells and whistles of other cases, its price-point and design make it an attractive choice for builders on a budget.

Behind the Motherboard Tray

As I mentioned earlier, the XM2 case omits the removable motherboard tray. Instead, users must rely on four screws to remove the back plate and access their motherboard. However, this is not a major drawback, as most motherboards can be removed and reinstalled without too much trouble. The lack of a slide-out tray does make it more difficult to access the case's interior, but with a little patience and effort, users should be able to navigate the XM2's innards with ease.

The mounting points for hard drives are located on the back plate, although it's worth noting that this particular model might not be compatible with a 3.5" drive due to its limited depth. On the other hand, the holes drilled into the back plate can serve as guides for installing reservoirs and other components, making it easier to get everything properly mounted.

Cable Management

One of the XM2's strongest features is its cable management system. The cutouts are large enough to accommodate long cables, and there are slots for fans both above and below the motherboard tray. This makes it relatively easy to keep the case's interior tidy and organized. However, one thing that might be seen as a drawback is the lack of grommets on the case's internal components. While this can make cable management more difficult, users who are familiar with cable routing may still find it manageable.

Overall, the XM2's cable management system is a major selling point for anyone looking to build a compact PC. With a little creativity and planning, users should be able to keep their cables organized and tidy even in this relatively cramped case.

Additional Features

The XM2 case has several other features that make it an attractive option for builders. The design of the case allows for flexibility in terms of water cooling setup, with holes drilled into the back plate serving as guides for installing reservoirs and other components. Additionally, the cover plate is held in place by four screws, allowing users to easily mark the location of their components before drilling through.

The XM2's windforce card also serves as a reminder that this case is designed for compact builds. Despite its mini ITX size, the card has an additional inch and a half of length, which can add up when working with long cables or complex water cooling setups.

In conclusion, the XM2 case from Kabs is a great option for anyone looking to build a compact PC with plenty of room for water cooling and cable management. While it may have some drawbacks, its design and features make it an attractive choice for builders on a budget.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up guys js2 sense here and today we're going to be taking a look at what is going to be my new chassis for my land rig that I'm building and I bet you can't guess who makes it can you before we talk about the xm2 I want to take a moment to talk to you about a documentary hosted by Norton Security called most dangerous towns and it actually follows a few hackers in an area of Romania that's actually known as being kind of ground zero of some of the most notorious hackers in the world my story is simple I hacked a email account George Bush Hillary Clinton so much accounts of the Rockefellers but I am not sorry for what I've have done never never in my lifetime I think what stood out to me most during this documentary was the interview with gfer who has absolutely no remorse for hacking into the email accounts of some of the highest ranking politicians in the United States and we were talking the bushes the Clinton even hacked into pretty much all of the Rockefellers I mean it's just absolutely fascinating what some of these people can do and I actually had no idea that the internet in Romania was typically faster than here anywhere here in the United States I mean we're talking like complete fiber optics throughout the entire city so anyway why don't you go ahead and head to the link in the description or The annotation here on the screen and watch the documentary presented by Norton Security in search of the most dangerous town on the internet okay so today's video is all about the new chassis I'm using for a land rig that I'm building you guys know I did the parvam build uh but the parvam case itself was not very uh portable friendly it was made all of acrylic and I wasn't a huge fan of that now back in December December guys oh six over six months ago uh Cas Labs teased me about an upcoming chassis that they were doing called the X2 which was a completely redesigned uh micro it or mini ITX with the Micro ATX variant U new chassis for small form factor builds now they current have a chassis that's already a mini ITX but it's a horizontal design and I'm not a fan of that so we're taking a look today at the brand spanking new I think I have one of the very first ones uh xm2 chassis and we're going to go ahead and dive into this chassis and show you how it's modular how you can set it up it's one of the things Cas laabs is really known for is it's completely modular designs where you can definitely uh make it your own and and kind of set it up for per your needs you don't have to set up your build to the case you can set your case up to the build that's one of the things I love about case Labs now obviously it has a huge side window on here and it's got a protective film on there which I'm going to be leaving on simply because I do not want to scratch it up um but the entire thing the entire case is made out of a heavy grade aluminum now I went with white on this chassis even though I could have done even a custom color they offered to do a custom color for me I stuck with white because I've always wanted to do a white and green build I've always liked white and green so that's what I'm going to be doing with this one here now the first thing you can see here is you have your cutout for your motherboard which is so itty bitty because of the fact that it's Mini ITX it's so small in fact you've got all this open space over here which uh kind of leaves you wondering well it's a pretty decent Siz chassis for being a mini ITX what gives well guys you can configure this any way you want like I said you can put in a whole row of uh Drive cages there if you want you can put in Optical drives you can put in water cooling obviously we're going to be doing water cooling you have plenty of room here for reservoirs and radiators on the top and on the front and pumps and tubes and pipes and all that other goodness you got plenty of room up top here for LEDs I mean the list just goes on and on now I've already put the feet on this thing and don't worry guys I'm not going to hit my monitor I know you guys are freaking out there's actually a lot of space between the back and the monitor it's just a optical illusion but anyway I've already put the rubber feet on the bottom as you can see um so I guess we'll start on the bottom better place than ever you do have a 100 140 mm fan cutout on the bottom so you can bring air in if you want just keep in mind case Labs cases at least at the time of making this video still are not fan filtered so it's going to be pulling in any dirt and debris that's right on your floor or on your desk or on your carpet so you're going to want to keep that in mind maybe install a fan filter on the inside uh but they just it doesn't come with any filtration options built in now up here you also have a honeycomb design for the power supply fan intake so that you can pull in uh air from from the bottom of the case again same thing regarding filtration keep that in mind and so you can exhaust that right out of the back now on the back you can see here your power supply is going to mount and then you do have uh a rigid mounting system for your graphics card and that was one of the things that I really didn't like about the Parvin build was that it had a very poor at least in my opinion a very poor mounting mechanism for the graphics cards now on the back right here you also have a honeycomb design for the exhaust fan or it could be an intake technically as well so it's 12 20 mm and then you've got your cutout right here for your mini ITX motherboard now on the front I've got an optional piece installed on here and this is the uh radiator Mount which gives me a place to be able to mount either two 120 or two 140 mm fans as well as a radiator on the front now the top is already as you can see it is already precut for mounting of either two 120s or two 140 mm fans and or radiator but the top piece at least as far as I know only comes in one size you can't actually add the thicker top piece on here like you can with like the sm8 and the sm8 and stuff to be able to do push pull so as far as I know this is the only piece available maybe they'll have other options I'm not sure I didn't actually order this case this is one they configured and sent to me um based on what I requested so maybe they will have a thicker panel but as of right now I'm not too sure but to give you an idea of just how rigid this aluminum is um this this sucker is freaking phenomenal and it's all one piece of aluminum that's been cut stamped out and then the edges are press brake uh bent to to give it so much stability in fact I took a tour of the case lab's facility and it's really amazing how much work goes into the quality of the panels now on the front here once again uh we do have the cutout here the little front panel that you can pop off and as you can see it's got the cutout here on the bottom for the power switch uh audio options in USB again this is all configurable so you can pretty much I just put a sticker on there on accident whoops you can uh order this based on your needs you can get it with just the power button with just uh without the audio without the USB I mean there's a bunch of different options that they actually have but here's what I think is really neat let's say you're not a fan of having this on the bottom like this maybe you want the power buttons on the top well you simply unscrew these two screws pull the thing out with all of the wires put it in the top right here take this guy flip it over and then you've got your top mounted buttons so you guys can actually put it however you want bottom or top to be honest I haven't decided how I'm going to do it probably on the bottom because of the fact that I'm going to have so much water cooling in this stuff uh that seems like it would make the most sense but in any case again as I mentioned the modular aspect of these cases is certainly what gives case Labs uh you know one hell of a a name in the modding Community now let's go ahead and take a look at behind the motherboard tray now in order to keep this thing price pointed at a place where more people can afford it they've gone ahead and omitted uh the removable motherboard tray which case Labs um you know has integrated into their cases so there's no removable motherboard tray but you do have the or at least it's not a slide out you do have these four screws on the back so you can unscrew those and you can take uh the back plate here for the motherboard off and then you could work on the motherboard and install it back into the case and then over here you also have some mountings for your hard drives you know ssds and things of that nature I don't believe that this is actually going to fit a 3 and A2 in drive on the back it's just simply not thick enough but you are going to be able to fit quite a few ssds on here and the cool thing too as well is all of these holes that are drilled um they could work for either SSD mounts and they could even work for mounting uh reservoirs and such on there so you could use these as kind of hole guides and then drill through on the front here you've got these four screws holding in this cover plate so that you don't actually have to do any of the measuring for where the reservoirs and stuff would go you could just put a mark on there through the holes on the back and then drill through this plate directly as well in terms of cable management you've got some pretty large cutouts here uh the these are actually strapped in I can't get them out of the way but you have some pretty large cutouts here to be able to run your cables through you got slots for your fans and you've got a slot below and above the motherboard so Cable Management should be pretty easy these are not grommeted there's no grommets on here another thing that they did to be able to accommodate um you know keeping things a little bit more uh price friendly although you could put rubber gromets in there without too much problem uh but this case was actually designed with all-in-one coolers more in mind but still flexible enough to be able to put a complete custom Loop in here and large enough to put a complete custom Loop in here if you wanted and obviously that's what we're going to be doing with this build so there you go guys that's a quick look here at the xm2 from kabs their brand new Mini ITX chassis that I'm going to be doing a green and white build in um I might end up putting my 980 TI reference in here I haven't decided I still have the 67 or how do I keep saying 670 I still have the 970 um G1 gaming from gigabyte with EK water block on there but I kind of feel like I want to go with as much power in this thing as I possibly can so putting the 980 TI reference in there might make a lot of sense so anyway guys oh and you know what in terms of depth as well I might as well mention that so here is the windforce card which we already took a look at the G1 gaming um 980 TI and you can see for being a mini ITX chassis just how much length you actually have in this thing but you can also see how you have to be careful when it comes to how you set up your your water cooling config because you're not going to have a lot of extra space now granted the card's got about an inch and a half of extra length on it which is going to add up but yeah you can see um it's going to be a tight fit no matter how you go about it so it's going to be a challenging build but I think it's going to look really good and I mean shoot with How much stuff I crammed in the parvam this is going to be a piece of cake so anyway thanks for watching hope you guys have enjoyed today's video um follow on social media if you have any questions um I don't know exactly when this video went live to be honest with you I've kind of been shooting a bunch of videos because I'm going to E3 in fact by the time this goes up I may have already went to E3 I might be past tense I don't even know I don't even know anymore I'm just going to go ahead and get the heck on out of here guys thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next onehey what's up guys js2 sense here and today we're going to be taking a look at what is going to be my new chassis for my land rig that I'm building and I bet you can't guess who makes it can you before we talk about the xm2 I want to take a moment to talk to you about a documentary hosted by Norton Security called most dangerous towns and it actually follows a few hackers in an area of Romania that's actually known as being kind of ground zero of some of the most notorious hackers in the world my story is simple I hacked a email account George Bush Hillary Clinton so much accounts of the Rockefellers but I am not sorry for what I've have done never never in my lifetime I think what stood out to me most during this documentary was the interview with gfer who has absolutely no remorse for hacking into the email accounts of some of the highest ranking politicians in the United States and we were talking the bushes the Clinton even hacked into pretty much all of the Rockefellers I mean it's just absolutely fascinating what some of these people can do and I actually had no idea that the internet in Romania was typically faster than here anywhere here in the United States I mean we're talking like complete fiber optics throughout the entire city so anyway why don't you go ahead and head to the link in the description or The annotation here on the screen and watch the documentary presented by Norton Security in search of the most dangerous town on the internet okay so today's video is all about the new chassis I'm using for a land rig that I'm building you guys know I did the parvam build uh but the parvam case itself was not very uh portable friendly it was made all of acrylic and I wasn't a huge fan of that now back in December December guys oh six over six months ago uh Cas Labs teased me about an upcoming chassis that they were doing called the X2 which was a completely redesigned uh micro it or mini ITX with the Micro ATX variant U new chassis for small form factor builds now they current have a chassis that's already a mini ITX but it's a horizontal design and I'm not a fan of that so we're taking a look today at the brand spanking new I think I have one of the very first ones uh xm2 chassis and we're going to go ahead and dive into this chassis and show you how it's modular how you can set it up it's one of the things Cas laabs is really known for is it's completely modular designs where you can definitely uh make it your own and and kind of set it up for per your needs you don't have to set up your build to the case you can set your case up to the build that's one of the things I love about case Labs now obviously it has a huge side window on here and it's got a protective film on there which I'm going to be leaving on simply because I do not want to scratch it up um but the entire thing the entire case is made out of a heavy grade aluminum now I went with white on this chassis even though I could have done even a custom color they offered to do a custom color for me I stuck with white because I've always wanted to do a white and green build I've always liked white and green so that's what I'm going to be doing with this one here now the first thing you can see here is you have your cutout for your motherboard which is so itty bitty because of the fact that it's Mini ITX it's so small in fact you've got all this open space over here which uh kind of leaves you wondering well it's a pretty decent Siz chassis for being a mini ITX what gives well guys you can configure this any way you want like I said you can put in a whole row of uh Drive cages there if you want you can put in Optical drives you can put in water cooling obviously we're going to be doing water cooling you have plenty of room here for reservoirs and radiators on the top and on the front and pumps and tubes and pipes and all that other goodness you got plenty of room up top here for LEDs I mean the list just goes on and on now I've already put the feet on this thing and don't worry guys I'm not going to hit my monitor I know you guys are freaking out there's actually a lot of space between the back and the monitor it's just a optical illusion but anyway I've already put the rubber feet on the bottom as you can see um so I guess we'll start on the bottom better place than ever you do have a 100 140 mm fan cutout on the bottom so you can bring air in if you want just keep in mind case Labs cases at least at the time of making this video still are not fan filtered so it's going to be pulling in any dirt and debris that's right on your floor or on your desk or on your carpet so you're going to want to keep that in mind maybe install a fan filter on the inside uh but they just it doesn't come with any filtration options built in now up here you also have a honeycomb design for the power supply fan intake so that you can pull in uh air from from the bottom of the case again same thing regarding filtration keep that in mind and so you can exhaust that right out of the back now on the back you can see here your power supply is going to mount and then you do have uh a rigid mounting system for your graphics card and that was one of the things that I really didn't like about the Parvin build was that it had a very poor at least in my opinion a very poor mounting mechanism for the graphics cards now on the back right here you also have a honeycomb design for the exhaust fan or it could be an intake technically as well so it's 12 20 mm and then you've got your cutout right here for your mini ITX motherboard now on the front I've got an optional piece installed on here and this is the uh radiator Mount which gives me a place to be able to mount either two 120 or two 140 mm fans as well as a radiator on the front now the top is already as you can see it is already precut for mounting of either two 120s or two 140 mm fans and or radiator but the top piece at least as far as I know only comes in one size you can't actually add the thicker top piece on here like you can with like the sm8 and the sm8 and stuff to be able to do push pull so as far as I know this is the only piece available maybe they'll have other options I'm not sure I didn't actually order this case this is one they configured and sent to me um based on what I requested so maybe they will have a thicker panel but as of right now I'm not too sure but to give you an idea of just how rigid this aluminum is um this this sucker is freaking phenomenal and it's all one piece of aluminum that's been cut stamped out and then the edges are press brake uh bent to to give it so much stability in fact I took a tour of the case lab's facility and it's really amazing how much work goes into the quality of the panels now on the front here once again uh we do have the cutout here the little front panel that you can pop off and as you can see it's got the cutout here on the bottom for the power switch uh audio options in USB again this is all configurable so you can pretty much I just put a sticker on there on accident whoops you can uh order this based on your needs you can get it with just the power button with just uh without the audio without the USB I mean there's a bunch of different options that they actually have but here's what I think is really neat let's say you're not a fan of having this on the bottom like this maybe you want the power buttons on the top well you simply unscrew these two screws pull the thing out with all of the wires put it in the top right here take this guy flip it over and then you've got your top mounted buttons so you guys can actually put it however you want bottom or top to be honest I haven't decided how I'm going to do it probably on the bottom because of the fact that I'm going to have so much water cooling in this stuff uh that seems like it would make the most sense but in any case again as I mentioned the modular aspect of these cases is certainly what gives case Labs uh you know one hell of a a name in the modding Community now let's go ahead and take a look at behind the motherboard tray now in order to keep this thing price pointed at a place where more people can afford it they've gone ahead and omitted uh the removable motherboard tray which case Labs um you know has integrated into their cases so there's no removable motherboard tray but you do have the or at least it's not a slide out you do have these four screws on the back so you can unscrew those and you can take uh the back plate here for the motherboard off and then you could work on the motherboard and install it back into the case and then over here you also have some mountings for your hard drives you know ssds and things of that nature I don't believe that this is actually going to fit a 3 and A2 in drive on the back it's just simply not thick enough but you are going to be able to fit quite a few ssds on here and the cool thing too as well is all of these holes that are drilled um they could work for either SSD mounts and they could even work for mounting uh reservoirs and such on there so you could use these as kind of hole guides and then drill through on the front here you've got these four screws holding in this cover plate so that you don't actually have to do any of the measuring for where the reservoirs and stuff would go you could just put a mark on there through the holes on the back and then drill through this plate directly as well in terms of cable management you've got some pretty large cutouts here uh the these are actually strapped in I can't get them out of the way but you have some pretty large cutouts here to be able to run your cables through you got slots for your fans and you've got a slot below and above the motherboard so Cable Management should be pretty easy these are not grommeted there's no grommets on here another thing that they did to be able to accommodate um you know keeping things a little bit more uh price friendly although you could put rubber gromets in there without too much problem uh but this case was actually designed with all-in-one coolers more in mind but still flexible enough to be able to put a complete custom Loop in here and large enough to put a complete custom Loop in here if you wanted and obviously that's what we're going to be doing with this build so there you go guys that's a quick look here at the xm2 from kabs their brand new Mini ITX chassis that I'm going to be doing a green and white build in um I might end up putting my 980 TI reference in here I haven't decided I still have the 67 or how do I keep saying 670 I still have the 970 um G1 gaming from gigabyte with EK water block on there but I kind of feel like I want to go with as much power in this thing as I possibly can so putting the 980 TI reference in there might make a lot of sense so anyway guys oh and you know what in terms of depth as well I might as well mention that so here is the windforce card which we already took a look at the G1 gaming um 980 TI and you can see for being a mini ITX chassis just how much length you actually have in this thing but you can also see how you have to be careful when it comes to how you set up your your water cooling config because you're not going to have a lot of extra space now granted the card's got about an inch and a half of extra length on it which is going to add up but yeah you can see um it's going to be a tight fit no matter how you go about it so it's going to be a challenging build but I think it's going to look really good and I mean shoot with How much stuff I crammed in the parvam this is going to be a piece of cake so anyway thanks for watching hope you guys have enjoyed today's video um follow on social media if you have any questions um I don't know exactly when this video went live to be honest with you I've kind of been shooting a bunch of videos because I'm going to E3 in fact by the time this goes up I may have already went to E3 I might be past tense I don't even know I don't even know anymore I'm just going to go ahead and get the heck on out of here guys thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one\n"