Cooler Master HAF 932 Case Review

Exterior Impressions

The very first thing which springs to mind when you look at this case for the first time is: Cooler Master was right to design the shipping box as a if it was a work of art; for only a work of art would be good enough to house this beauty. Unfortunately, just like art not everyone is going to think it is beautiful (or even art for that matter); some people may look at it as nothing more than the love child of a boring server case and a wild child gaming rig.


While the HAF is mainly built from steel (and not light weight aluminum) there is a fair amount of plastic used as well. The best example of Cooler Master’s uncharacteristic use of plastic is on the front panel which is it literally festooned with it. Regardless of this use of plastic, it seems like this case is still extremely sturdy as well-built. To us this combination of plastic and metal gives it a style which is uniquely its own.


After all this, the next thing which springs to mind is that this new Cooler Master case looks a lot like a Antec 1200 “killer” as it has similar styling (though more over the top and aggressive), bigger fans and arguably better air flow (and arguably more water cooling friendly) all in a comparably priced package.


The top of this case is unique in that it has been segmented into two separate and very distinctive zones. The larger zone, which is about 2/3 of the case starting at the back and working its way forward, is designed for proper ventilation of the massive 230mm top exhaust fan. As you can see it is very neat and tidy and appears to be a fairly free flowing design. More importantly, this area has also been designed with alternative fan mounting points. Cooler Master says this area can house up to three 120mm fans or even a triple radiator and it will be interesting to see how this is possible as it looks like it will be a tight fit. We will be investigating this claim more closely later in the review but for now we are cautiously optimistic by these possibilities.

The only drawback to the design of this area is you can’t place anything on top of the case here as it will (at the very least) block some of these oh so important ventilation holes. So if you are like many of us, you can’t use (most of) the top of this case as a improvised shelf.


To us, losing our most used shelf (i.e. the one on top of the case) is not an issue as the front zone -while smaller- has been designed with storage in mind. This zone (besides the power and reset buttons) is one rather large yet shallow storage container. The bottom of this container has a removable rubber mat which means things which are placed in here (e.g. spare glasses, USB “pen” drives, etc.) will NOT slide around, yet the mat can be removed and hosed down to get rid of any nasty Cheeto crumbs.

One very interesting feature of this container is a 1 inch hole which allows you to fill up a water reservoir. This hole has been precut for a Danger Den filler port, which is the biggest hassle in using those ingenious little devices. Of course, having the hole already there for you is only half the battle and it may or may not be useable depending on how you route your water lines (e.g. a 5.25 bay reservoir vs. a fill tube, etc). Whether or not it is useful for every situation is beside the point, as this is a great addition to the case and really underscores how good Cooler Master is at looking out for their customer's needs…even if the customer doesn’t know they need something yet.


In a layout very similar to other higher end Cooler Master cases, the power button and reset switch are located on the top of the HAF but the peripheral ports are located on the front. This makes for a very clean layout which minimizes the likelihood of pressing the power (or reset) switch while blindly groping around for a free USB, eSATA or even headphone jack.

One nice enhancement however is the fact that the HAF 932 also has its power and hard drive activity LEDS on the front of the case rather than mounted on the top. This tens to make it easier to see you computer's activity if you are like many people and have the case on top of your desk; though some people may find the blinking lights at eye-level to be annoying.

The full list of peripheral ports is as follows: four USB ports in a double stack configuration, with each stack separated by the lone Firewire 400 port, then an eSATA port and finally MIC and headphone ports with the aforementioned HDD and Power LEDs on the extreme right. All in all, this is a very clean layout which is not only ascetically pleasing, but highly functional as well; though we do have to wonder if overly large USB drives will block the Firewire port and vice-versa.