Since Jim announced the introduction of user reviews on OC3D today and I already have two dutch reviews on the internet, I have translated my review of the Cooler Master HAF 932.
On saturday the 6th, December the parts of my new rig arrived. The dutch version of this review was written on 09/12/08.
Packaging
The packaging of the HAF932 is pretty standard. The case is put into a plastic bag to prevent scratches and then put between two styrofoam blocks. These blocks fit snugly into the huge box the HAF932 is shipped in.
This box itself is also pretty standard. A few glamour shots of the case and a listing of the features on the back. Personally I am only interested in the contents of the box, so for pictures I will redirect you to the official OC3D review of this case: *click*
First impression / design
The first thing I noticed while unpacking was the weight of the case. The site of Cooler Master tells me it weighs in at about 13.2 kg, and I really do not doubt that number. The wheels were the first thing I installed in/on the case.
This installing of the wheels was suprisingly everything but easy. The holes in the wheels and the case did not line up exactly, causing the screws to need a tremendous force to be screwed in. In the end I only installed two diagonally aligned screws in each wheel, which was sufficient.
The way the case looks is something opinions differ about. One just loves it, the other hates it. Personally I quite like the rigid design, and I'm not looking at my case a lot anyway.
Features
The most important feature I found on this case were the holes in the motherboard tray which allowed for easy cable management and the front panel with its 4 USB, e-SATA, Firewire and sound connections. And of course the most obvious feature: the airflow. Three (3) 230mm fans and one (1) 140mm fan are sure to produce quite a lot of flow. More about that in the 'airflow' section.
A little con on the part of the front panel is the fact that the USB ports seem to be up side down. Normally, you would put the carbon connectors on the lower side of the connector. Now I have to put the carbon at the top.
The front panel with a nice place to put your accessoires in on top. Note that SanDisk titanium being upside down in the USB slot
Airflow
As previously mentioned, the HAF932 features the following fans:
- 1x 230mm front red LED intake. Sadly the harddisk caddy is directly behind this fan, damaging its airflow and silence.
The front 230mm red LED fan caught in the zoom lens
- 1x 230mm side intake keeping your GPU('s) nice and cool. The wire was júst too short to reach my motherboard connector when opening the case, so I had to give it a little more room:
If you put the fan wire through the grill, you get just that little more room to open your case
- 1x 230mm top exhaust. Nothing to say about this... well, it exhausts obviously.
- 1x 140mm back exhaust. Since your CPU fan will probably be aimed towards this fan, it has a huge airflow. Also noticable in the sound levels.
Sound production
After having used this case for a day or two without any form of fan controlling I thought it was time for some more silence. I purchased a Scythe kaze master ace (review) to go with it. With the fans at 50% the noise coming from the case itself is reduced to just audible. Although I do not have any equipment to test it I can quite certainly say it goes three times as silent to barely audible.
Building the system
Well, it's easy as pie
To give you the best impression I will shortly be describing the building progress:
- Putting in the motherboard. I haven't thought about this when taking pictures for the review, so you will have to do without
. Putting the motherboard in isn't much of an art. Cooler master included a sheet of paper exactly matching the motherboard tray with indications where all the motherboard standoffs should go. This is a nice touch, except for the part where the sheet indicated 10 standoffs to be inserted and my motherboard only needed 9... Make sure you count both the standoffs and the screws you use and make sure those amounts match. I would probably have shorted my motherboard if I didn't
- The power supply. It's really as simple as you can get it. Adjust the special rails if needed, put in your power supply, screw in four screws and you are done. People with non modular power supplies might have a little more trouble stuffing all their cables through the motherboard hole, but that's about it.
- Assembling the harddisks is clearly something Cooler master has thought about. The first thing you have to do is take out some sort of 'clip' out of the harddisk caddy. Then you put your harddisk in the clip and you put the clip with harddisk back into the caddy. The weakness of this system are probably the clips, which feel quite flimsy.
The HDD caddy with a builtin harddisk and a clip taken out
- 5.25" devices are installed using a toolless design also seen in the Cosmos cases. You put in your device from the front of the case, push on a button and it is secured into place.
Pressing the black button locks or unlocks the DVD drive
- PCI cards. The second thing I completely forgot to take pictures of. The cards are held by a screwless systeem also seen in the centurion 590 and 690. The pci slot is 'unlocked' by pressing on a small lever. After putting the card in your can lock it again but pressing the other end of the lever. Most of the time the card is securely attached, but the system is not entirely failsafe.
A closeup of the PCI levers. I'm sorry for the low quality image, it's a crop from the psu picture
The other points I did not put in any other category
The enthusiast watercooler can completely enjoy himself with this case. Even though I'm not exactly an expert I'm sure a 360mm could fit in the roof and a 120mm in the rear. With some modding maybe another 240mm at the bottom too.
Another note I'd like to make is the cable management. It has always been one of the things I dislike about building a rig, but it really was easy in this case. Despite the amount of cables coming from the front panel.
The front being nice and clean...
... but the back is 'a bit' worse Also note the hole for CPU cooler switching being misplaced, making the mobo tray still covering two of the four screws. I did manage to close the side panel btw, although it has cost some effort.
Design
Personally I do not dislike it, but I certainly did not buy this case for its looks. Decide for yourself:
Please note that this picture was taken with an extremely long 'sluitertijd'. The blue is a lot less in real life. In fact the front just looks black
Conclusion
The Cooler master HAF932 is a nice case to work with. although it's not quiet with all fans on 12v, it does deliver a hell of an airflow. The front panel is pretty good once you are used to the USB slots being up side down, the case is easy to open and close and also easy to move... Once you have installed the wheels.
Positive points:
+ Easy cable management
+ Sturdy
+ Revolving side panels; easy to open and close
+ Large, 'huge' would be a better description
+ Wheels included, saves your back
+ Watercooling ready
Negative points:
- Plastic front panel
- The hole in the motherboard tray is misplaced
- USB ports upside down
- Noisy with the fans all on full
- Very open; my motherboard's lighting the whole room and noise is unhindered
On saturday the 6th, December the parts of my new rig arrived. The dutch version of this review was written on 09/12/08.
Packaging
The packaging of the HAF932 is pretty standard. The case is put into a plastic bag to prevent scratches and then put between two styrofoam blocks. These blocks fit snugly into the huge box the HAF932 is shipped in.
This box itself is also pretty standard. A few glamour shots of the case and a listing of the features on the back. Personally I am only interested in the contents of the box, so for pictures I will redirect you to the official OC3D review of this case: *click*
First impression / design
The first thing I noticed while unpacking was the weight of the case. The site of Cooler Master tells me it weighs in at about 13.2 kg, and I really do not doubt that number. The wheels were the first thing I installed in/on the case.
This installing of the wheels was suprisingly everything but easy. The holes in the wheels and the case did not line up exactly, causing the screws to need a tremendous force to be screwed in. In the end I only installed two diagonally aligned screws in each wheel, which was sufficient.
The way the case looks is something opinions differ about. One just loves it, the other hates it. Personally I quite like the rigid design, and I'm not looking at my case a lot anyway.
Features
The most important feature I found on this case were the holes in the motherboard tray which allowed for easy cable management and the front panel with its 4 USB, e-SATA, Firewire and sound connections. And of course the most obvious feature: the airflow. Three (3) 230mm fans and one (1) 140mm fan are sure to produce quite a lot of flow. More about that in the 'airflow' section.
A little con on the part of the front panel is the fact that the USB ports seem to be up side down. Normally, you would put the carbon connectors on the lower side of the connector. Now I have to put the carbon at the top.
The front panel with a nice place to put your accessoires in on top. Note that SanDisk titanium being upside down in the USB slot
Airflow
As previously mentioned, the HAF932 features the following fans:
- 1x 230mm front red LED intake. Sadly the harddisk caddy is directly behind this fan, damaging its airflow and silence.
The front 230mm red LED fan caught in the zoom lens
- 1x 230mm side intake keeping your GPU('s) nice and cool. The wire was júst too short to reach my motherboard connector when opening the case, so I had to give it a little more room:
If you put the fan wire through the grill, you get just that little more room to open your case
- 1x 230mm top exhaust. Nothing to say about this... well, it exhausts obviously.
- 1x 140mm back exhaust. Since your CPU fan will probably be aimed towards this fan, it has a huge airflow. Also noticable in the sound levels.
Sound production
After having used this case for a day or two without any form of fan controlling I thought it was time for some more silence. I purchased a Scythe kaze master ace (review) to go with it. With the fans at 50% the noise coming from the case itself is reduced to just audible. Although I do not have any equipment to test it I can quite certainly say it goes three times as silent to barely audible.
Building the system
Well, it's easy as pie
To give you the best impression I will shortly be describing the building progress:- Putting in the motherboard. I haven't thought about this when taking pictures for the review, so you will have to do without
. Putting the motherboard in isn't much of an art. Cooler master included a sheet of paper exactly matching the motherboard tray with indications where all the motherboard standoffs should go. This is a nice touch, except for the part where the sheet indicated 10 standoffs to be inserted and my motherboard only needed 9... Make sure you count both the standoffs and the screws you use and make sure those amounts match. I would probably have shorted my motherboard if I didn't - The power supply. It's really as simple as you can get it. Adjust the special rails if needed, put in your power supply, screw in four screws and you are done. People with non modular power supplies might have a little more trouble stuffing all their cables through the motherboard hole, but that's about it.
- Assembling the harddisks is clearly something Cooler master has thought about. The first thing you have to do is take out some sort of 'clip' out of the harddisk caddy. Then you put your harddisk in the clip and you put the clip with harddisk back into the caddy
. The weakness of this system are probably the clips, which feel quite flimsy.
The HDD caddy with a builtin harddisk and a clip taken out
- 5.25" devices are installed using a toolless design also seen in the Cosmos cases. You put in your device from the front of the case, push on a button and it is secured into place.
Pressing the black button locks or unlocks the DVD drive
- PCI cards. The second thing I completely forgot to take pictures of. The cards are held by a screwless systeem also seen in the centurion 590 and 690. The pci slot is 'unlocked' by pressing on a small lever. After putting the card in your can lock it again but pressing the other end of the lever. Most of the time the card is securely attached, but the system is not entirely failsafe.
A closeup of the PCI levers. I'm sorry for the low quality image, it's a crop from the psu picture
The other points I did not put in any other category
The enthusiast watercooler can completely enjoy himself with this case. Even though I'm not exactly an expert I'm sure a 360mm could fit in the roof and a 120mm in the rear. With some modding maybe another 240mm at the bottom too.
Another note I'd like to make is the cable management. It has always been one of the things I dislike about building a rig, but it really was easy in this case. Despite the amount of cables coming from the front panel.
The front being nice and clean...
... but the back is 'a bit' worse
Also note the hole for CPU cooler switching being misplaced, making the mobo tray still covering two of the four screws. I did manage to close the side panel btw, although it has cost some effort.Design
Personally I do not dislike it, but I certainly did not buy this case for its looks. Decide for yourself:
Please note that this picture was taken with an extremely long 'sluitertijd'. The blue is a lot less in real life. In fact the front just looks black
Conclusion
The Cooler master HAF932 is a nice case to work with. although it's not quiet with all fans on 12v, it does deliver a hell of an airflow. The front panel is pretty good once you are used to the USB slots being up side down, the case is easy to open and close and also easy to move... Once you have installed the wheels.
Positive points:
+ Easy cable management
+ Sturdy
+ Revolving side panels; easy to open and close
+ Large, 'huge' would be a better description
+ Wheels included, saves your back
+ Watercooling ready
Negative points:
- Plastic front panel
- The hole in the motherboard tray is misplaced
- USB ports upside down
- Noisy with the fans all on full
- Very open; my motherboard's lighting the whole room and noise is unhindered
