Cooler Master HAF 932

You're talking Silent PC Review. It's for a whole different audience and case design. It's really not as bad as you'd expect - it's certainly tolerable.

It's like trying to make "Pro AV Monthly" appeal to someone like me who thinks £5 is expensive for a HDMI cable.

Have One and I love it :) Keeps my quad core and 4850 cool during the hot African (30+ degrees ambient temp) summer days... Yeah ok the dust is a bit of a bother ...

well ive just set up my computer in this case and i have to say the cooling is amazing...
I was using a rather crowded lian li PC-65B which had been my case from 2002. The idle temp of my cpu and graphics have gone down by 15-20 degrees C!

Having said that it isnt all good, as its creating a bit breeze and making me cold whereas the lian li used to keep my feet warm :(
And one of the screw holes for the motherboard stand offs wasn't done properly which required a bit of fixing. But other than that im very pleased with it so far...

Ps. whoever decided to put the power connectors on the asus p5ql-e where they did is a tit!http://www.mousehouse.hu/shop/images/2272_l.jpg

It has to be one of the ugliest cases I've ever seen... And has an excellent uglyness/price-ratio as usually expensive and ugly don't come in the same box.. (160 € here in Finland)

How sick would this thing look in orange. If I ever bought it, the non-plastic bits would have to be painted orange.

i think sick would be the right word...

The Silverstone Fortress scored better than the Cooler Master HAF at keeping a
CPU cool, and the Silverstone Fortress is a lot better at keeping dust out and
being liked for its looks than the Cooler Master HAF.

If the main count against the Silverstone Fortress is it scored worse at keep-
ing a GPU cool, and it has a removable hard drive tray between a big fan and
the GPU, how does the Silverstone Fortress score at keeping a GPU cool with the
middle hard drive tray removed? If that doesn't help enough, would putting
another fan across from the GPU do it? If it scores good at that, it could be a
pretty good air cooled case for people who only want one or a few hard drives.

Welcome! :)

Originally Posted by glenster
The Silverstone Fortress scored better than the Cooler Master HAF at keeping a CPU cool,

Very true, with it's massive fan over the top of the CPU socket

and the Silverstone Fortress is a lot better at keeping dust out

True, but you can't actually get the dust filter out, iirc. Kind of a fundamental design flaw.

being liked for its looks than the Cooler Master HAF.

Entirely subjective depending on the market - the Germans and Americans love stuff like this, but the Brits and Scandinavians generally have a dislike.

If the main count against the Silverstone Fortress is it scored worse at keep-
ing a GPU cool, and it has a removable hard drive tray between a big fan and
the GPU, how does the Silverstone Fortress score at keeping a GPU cool with the
middle hard drive tray removed?

Well that's what modding is for too!

If that doesn't help enough, would putting another fan across from the GPU do it? If it scores good at that, it could be a pretty good air cooled case for people who only want one or a few hard drives.

True, but people would complain that there isn't enough hard drive space or they don't like a fan in the side, or it gets noisier.. etc It's down to personal choice and needs. Another fan sucking the air through the HDDs onto the GPU area would give better airflow but at the expense of noise and it wouldn't be cooler air if it's had several HDDs heating it up beforehand. It depends how many you use, I suppose?

I was thinking of using one hard drive. I can't afford a good watercooling
setup for my next PC, which includes a Core i7 920, so I want the best air
cooling for it. If anyone has removed the middle hard drive bay of the
Silverstone, and knows if there's an easy way to place a fan (I was thinking of
using a $20 Noctua) to blow on the GPU (which I guess should be a specially
cooled one) to cool the GPU successfully, please let me know how to do it.

I don't think a fan placed high to blow on the GPU would be near my one hard
drive, which would be placed low. The upper compartments could hold my optical
drive. (I'm planning on getting a LG GGW-H20LK.)

Either case could use a spray from a can of condensed air now and then, but
the reports on newegg make the Cooler Master sound like a vacuum cleaner with
dust collecting on everthing. It probably would be less of a problem to use a
can of condensed air to clean a couple of air filters. I thought I might, if I
go for the Silverstone, set a book up horizontally a few inches above the top
fan to prevent anything from falling directly down into it, anyway.

The appearance of the case is secondary to performance to me. I was also
waiting to see reports on the Cooler Master Sniper, which has air filters.

Any opinions on this case from people who have used it for a while?

ive had mine for a few months now...

Pros: it is much cheaper than it was when i bought it
it does keep stuff very well cooled


cons: it is a little loud
The push in connectors on mine used to occasionally rattle in a really annoying way but i fixed that with a bit of sellotape...

Had mine for 6 months now got i9t for £90 on ebuyer :P, really quiet, extremely big inside with lots of space to work with, the HDD trays are amazingly quiet and stable, I have to listen very closely to hear both my Seagate 80GB and WD 160GB making noises, only downside is the CD/DVD mounting system, burning or reading at high speed causes the drive to rattle because it only locks on one side so make sure you screw it on the other side aswell.

Oh I forgot. HOW BRIGHT ARE THE POWER/HDD LED'S! Whatever you do don't look at that directly at night, would be like looking directly at the sun at 12am. Buy some thick black tape or do what I do and get an old credit card, cut it up and stick it over the LED's lol

Originally Posted by Tyrmot
I dunno, the faux-industrial thing doesn't look too bad to me... but the lack of dust filters with all that mesh is definitely a big oversight...

I agree. This is what stopped me from buying a HAF series case which is a shame. I wanted good air cooling and settled for the Antec 902 in the end. :(

I LOVE IT!

I had been trying to decide between:
Cooler Master - 932 HAF, ATCS 840, or Sniper;
or Antec 902.

After studying this review, I have decided on the HAF 932.

I like the front ports.
I like the low velocity, high volume air flow system.
I like the super slick transverse drive mounting system.
I like the ease of working in the case.
I like the clean neat cabling and overall roomy , uncluttered" openness" in the case.
I like the design flexibility.

I have even come to like the rugged good looks.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.