Cooler Master HAF 932 Case Review

Exterior Impressions Con't

Side panel itself is made of extra thick material and we will go into greater detail about it later in the interior section; for now let’s just say it is a very impressive door and is darn near bullet proof. The only issue we have with it is the locking mechanism, or lack thereof. In a nutshell, this door uses a front hinge and swings closed but there is no retention mechanism to hold it closed besides the two screws.

What we can point to as a disappointment is the fact these thumb screws are not captured screws and are supposed to be completely removed when you want to open the door. When you do open the door, you now have a handful of door screws to contend with and we can see them going MIA pretty fast.


On first blush, the back of the case looks like many top mounted PSU enclosures out there. You have the PSU blanking plate, the ubiquitous rear exhaust fan (more on this in a moment) slots for your motherboard's peripheral boards and then the cutout for your bottom mounted PSU. Err…ummm, yeah. This sort of threw us for a loop too the first time we saw it and NO it is not a mistake; the HAF really is set up to allow you mount your power supply at the top of the case or the bottom. This is another one of those simple little refinements which turns your expectations upside down. Doing a build where your customer (or you) wants a top mounted PSU? What about if customer 2 wants a bottom mounted PSU based case? In the past this meant you had to have two different cases, whereas now BOTH can have the same case. For system builders this will certainly make life easier. Heck, even if you build your own system one way and then change your mind (maybe the bottom mounted PSU is sucking in too much dust, or the top mounted PSU is no longer your thing) this case will work with you and keep you from having to start all over again with a different case.

To make matters even better, the PSU blanking plate holds a pair of rubber grommets so you can easily pass your water cooling hoses into the HAF. Absolutely brilliant.


Like we said earlier, dual mounted PSU options is a simple little tweak which I’m sure has many a case manufacturer out there going “Why didn’t I think of that!” and to us this is the true sign of genius. Being able to recognize a core idea (people like choices and change) and being able to implement it is what separates the Isaac Newtons / Albert Einsteins/ Galileo Galileis (etc.) from the rest of us. Bloody good job CoolerMaster, you ingenious wizards.


Before we continue lets go back to the rear exhaust fan we lightly touched on earlier. We have all seen the Cooler Master 690 case (for example) which allows you to mount any fan from a 80mm, 92mm to even a 120mm fan as your exhaust fan, and this is pretty standard fare. What is unusual about the HAF is that it comes with a 140mm fan which can be swapped out for a 120. Is 14cm becoming the new 12cm? Everything about 120mm vs. 92mm or 8 mm fans holds true for a 14cm vs. 12cm debate as well. You can have an even lower RPM (thus quieter) 140mm fan moving the same amount of air as a higher RPM (and consequently louder) 120mm fan. If 14cm is poised to replace 12cm I hope certain fan manufactures extended their FDB/SSO bearing fans to a 140mm line soon.


When you tip the case over onto its side and take a look at the bottom, you can see CM didn’t forget about the underside since there are some interesting things happening here as well. What really stood out were the ventilation holes CM has designed into it. As you can see your power supply should have no trouble sucking in all the fresh air in needs, regardless of the length of it. If these exhaust holes look suspiciously like a dual radiator mounting area you would be correct as a dual rad can easily be mounted here. We will get into all the WC’ing options later in the review but lets just say they are numerous enough to merit their own section.


The other important feature is the feet CM has selected for the HAF. As you already know Cooler Master did include casters to make this a mobile case, but in its factory stock configuration the HAF 932 comes with four downright gorgeous feet. These feet are the type you see on expensive Audio/Visual equipment in that they are not only beautiful to look in all there chromed glory, but they also have integrated rubber feet to give them a great grip. This is certainly a nice touch and we are surprised with their inclusion on what many will consider a mid priced case.