Innovation seems to be sporadic at best in the PC case market. We tend to see many more copycats and trend followers than trendsetters. Several true innovators come to mind, though, when we think about cases, and one of those innovative companies is Cooler Master. Sure, not every case designed by Cooler Master is a massive success or appealing to everyone, but it is one of the companies that the copycats watch and imitate. As a result of its innovation and success, Cooler Master is a proven and trusted brand and has been for quite some time.

Cooler Master recently sent us a new full tower chassis to evaluate named the HAF 932. Interesting name, huh? It's not the catchiest one we've ever heard, but most case names don't make much sense to begin with, at least not at first glance. In this case (no pun intended), HAF stands for High Air Flow. When you have a big, full tower chassis like the HAF 932, you can include some big fans, and that is just what Cooler Master decided to do. The HAF 932 is outfitted with a front 230mm red LED fan, a side 230mm fan, a top 230mm fan, and a rear 140mm fan. If you know anything about fans, then you know this is going to push a lot of air over the system components that reside within the case. We've had the case for a while, and we are still impressed by the fan layout.

We always think it's interesting to see how companies explain and market their products. Here's what Cooler Master says about the HAF 932:

"With pure innovative strength, Cooler Master, the leader in enthusiast computer components, has unleashed yet another prevailing arsenal to compete in the full-tower chassis segment. Proud and robust in its appearance, the HAF 932 presents its sturdy sentinel housing and revolutionary High Air Flow structure to enhance and protect any hardware component that is worthy of the highest performance."

Well, that's a really wordy way of saying that this is a big, sturdy case with more cooling potential than your average full tower case. It's quite obvious as well from that description that Cooler Master is aiming at enthusiasts with this offering. We know full tower cases aren't for everyone, but for those of you wanting a lot of flexibility for motherboards and other components, they are worth your consideration. Follow along in this article as we take a tour of the HAF 932 to determine if it is worthy of housing your precious PC parts.

Cooler Master HAF 932 Specifications & Features

Specifications:

Features:

• The HAF932 features a fully-rugged appearance and is housed in a tough casing to offer outstanding protection.
• A rugged HAF932 comes equipped to operate with unparalleled thermal performance.
• Patented finger-press buttons for quickly maintaining or upgrading 5.25 inch drive devices.
• Removable HDD racks and cable management system for better cable routing and neatness.

The HAF 932 is packed in a rather large box, which shouldn't be surprising since this is a full tower case we are talking about. The box highlights the case's features and specifications. As with other cases we've evaluated and used, the HAF 932 is surrounded by Styrofoam to protect it from damage while being transported and carried in the box.

In addition to the case itself, Cooler Master includes a handful of accessories in the HAF 932 box. These accessories include a 5.25" to 3.5" drive bay cover, screws, motherboard stand-offs, zip ties, a small speaker (in case your motherboard doesn't have one built in), wheels (or casters), an installation guide, and a poster / guide that helps you install the motherboard stand-offs for ATX, mATX and E-ATX motherboards and helps you with cable management. Together, the installation guide and the poster should definitely be helpful to anyone, especially newbies to PC building, using the HAF 932.

When you see the HAF 932 in person, you get the immediate impression that Cooler Master really does mean business with this big, black case. As with other full tower cases, you can tell there is going to be plenty of room inside to fit all your gear, and then some. We know many of you don't need much motivation to buy more PC components, but this case will definitely challenge you to fill it up.

Closer Look: External The outside of this full tower beast

Unless you are already accustomed to huge cooling fans, you can't help but be stunned by the massive size of the fan in the left side panel. That beast is a 230x200x30mm fan spinning at 700 RPM. The benefit of such a huge fan is that it can spin slowly and still push a lot of air, all at a very comfortable noise level (rated at 19 dBA according to the specs on Cooler Master's web site). If you don't like the single big fan, you can replace it with four 120mm fans. In addition to the large side fan, you will no doubt notice the rectangular window above the fan and the "HAF" logo running diagonally to the right of the window. Turning the case around 180° reveals the right side, and as you can see, there isn't much worth mentioning there. You probably have noticed, though, that both sides do feature five slits that sort of look like gills. These help air move in and out of the case for better overall airflow.

We'll continue our external tour of the HAF 932 by looking at the front, back and bottom of the case in the next three pictures. The HAF 932's front reveals the case's six external 5.25" drive bays, which is definitely more than enough for the majority of users. If you need an external 3.5" drive bay, you can use the included replacement cover to convert one of the 5.25" drive bays to a 3.5" drive bay. We definitely appreciate the fact that Cooler Master included the ability to convert one of the 5.25" drive bays. If you look closely, you can see that the bay covers are all mesh and not solid like you see with most other cases. At the back of the case towards the top, Cooler Master included two holes for easy external routing of watercooling hoses. Beneath the holes, you will see the honeycomb grill for the rear fan followed by seven expansion slots. A power supply can be installed at the bottom, or if you'd rather, you can take out the top fan and install the fan in the top position (where the watercooling tube holes are). The last picture shows the bottom of the case. There's not much to see here except the four feet of the case and more honeycomb mesh to maximize airflow. The four feet can be replaced with the included wheels if you need some mobility with your system.

The front of the case features more than just drive bays of course. At the top, the HAF 932 boasts four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, a e-SATA, a headphone jack, and a microphone jack. Next to these ports, you will find the power LED and the hard drive activity indicator LED (both are blue by the way). In case you are curious, the 5.25" drive bay covers are quite easy to remove. As you can see in the second picture below, they are very simple and straightforward. You just push in the tab releases on each side of the cover, and it just pops out.

To end our look at the outside of the HAF 932, we are taking a bird's eye view of the top of the case. When we do this, we get a really good look at another surprisingly large fan. This fan happens to be the same size as the side fan we mentioned previously (230x200x30mm), and it has the same speed and noise specs (700 RPM and 19 dBA, respectively). Similar to the side fan, you have other options if you don't like the single, massive fan. You can add a 120mm fan to the top of the case, or you can remove the 230mm fan and replace it with three 120mm fans. For those of you keeping track, you probably realize we haven't mentioned the power and reset buttons yet. As you can see in the second picture, both buttons are located on the top of the case, which is quite convenient considering the fact that most users will have the HAF 932 sitting on the floor next to their desks. To the left of the buttons, you can see an inset square. Cooler Master installed a small, rubber "mat" there and even suggests that you could store stuff there (like flash drives, remotes, etc.).

Now that we have shown you the outside of the HAF 932, it's only natural that we move to the inside to show you some of the case's other cool features.

Closer Look: Internal Check out the guts

Once we removed the left side panel, we couldn't help but snap a picture of the massive 230mm side fan. The first picture below shows it in all its glory, including its metal protective grill and the 3-pin fan power to 4-pin Molex power adapter. The next picture simply shows the case's inside with bot panels removed. If you are thinking that looks like a lot of room, then you are right on the money. It is quite spacious. Turning the case around gives us a better look at the cable management cut-outs. Cooler Master really wanted to make it easy for HAF 932 users to create a clean-looking installation. Preventing cable spaghetti should be significantly simplified with these strategically placed holes.

At the rear of the case, you can see the 140mm rear fan. This fan runs at 1200 RPM, and Cooler Master claims its noise level is 17 dBA. Once again, this big, relatively slow fan should help keep things cool and quiet. Like the side fan, this fan also sports the appropriate adapter to connect directly to your power supply. Under this fan, you can see the tool-less expansion slots. These are simple to operate: you just push the locking mechanism in and then back, which releases the slot cover. Sometimes these types of tool-less features don't work very well, but this one seems to be designed well. The last picture shows the inside view of the top fan we mentioned on the previous page. There is not protective grill on this fan (or the rear fan either as a matter of fact), and we aren't sure why. Cooler Master felt compelled to include one on the side fan but not the rear or the top fan. We think you'd be just as likely, or maybe even more so, to accidentally stick something in the top or rear fan as you would on the side fan. Don't consider it a major gripe; we just find it curious.

The first picture below shows the bottom of the case. You can see a slotted platform in the corner. This is where the power supply would sit if you install it in the bottom position. That platform actually extends for longer power supplies. Furthermore, you can completely remove the platform if you don't need it. The next shot shows off all of the cables that are routed from the top of the case. These are for the front ports, power, reset and the LEDs. This image also features the tool-less 5.25" drive bays. Those things that look like buttons in the middle of all six bays are just what they look like: buttons. Pressing the button results in two metal "spikes" pushing into the bay, as seen in the third picture. These "spikes" will match up with the holes in optical drives that you install in these bays and secure them in the correct position. In practice, this works quite well, but the drives don't feel nearly as secure as they do when you use screws. They are secure enough for daily use, but they probably aren't secure enough for transport.

The final aspect of the HAF 932's interior that we want to focus on is the 3.5" drive cage. As you might have guessed, this cage is also tool-less. Each bay holds a rail that a hard drive can be installed in. Once you install a hard drive in the rail, you simply insert it back into the cage and lock it in place. Like the other tool-less features offered by this case, these are a breeze to operate and work quite well.

The best way to truly get to "know" a case is to use it, and by use it, we of course mean install a system in it. And that's just what we did. Below, you will find a list of the components we installed in the HAF 932.

Installation and Use Fill it up and use it

• Motherboard: EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 (3 GHz)
• CPU Cooler: Retail Intel cooler
• Video Card: ASUS EN9800GTX TOP
• Hard Drive 1: Western Digital 74GB Raptor
• Hard Drive 2: Maxtor 120GB SATA
• CD/DVD Drive 1: Lite-On DVD ROM
• CD/DVD Drive 2: Plextor SATA DVD+/-RW
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 680W

As we stated earlier, the HAF 932 is quite spacious. We suspected that it would be very easy to work inside the case to install all of our components because of its size, and our suspicion proved to be true. When installing your system in this case, the first thing you should do is get out the included poster/guide and lay it inside the case, which is exactly what we did in the image below. This will help you install the motherboard stand-offs in the correct locations, and it will help you get familiar with the case's cable management options. Most of you will find this poster/guide to be useful.

After installing the motherboard, we moved on to the other components. We were pleasantly surprised by how well all of the tool-less features worked. When we installed the 9800 GTX, which utilizes two slots, we were worried the holes weren't lining up correctly for the tool-less expansion card holder, but it worked just fine. The card was secured without a hitch. The hard drives were about as easy to install as we have ever experienced. You can see a hard drive in one of the rails below. The optical drives were also a cinch to install. We simply slid the drives into place and then pressed the buttons to secure the drives.

The final component we installed was the power supply, and we opted to use the bottom position. The power supply didn't go in as easily as we had hoped, mainly because of the fan grill on the bottom of our unit. The grill caused the fan to sit up on the case's power supply shelf a bit higher than required. In other words, the holes didn't line up very well. This made it a little more difficult to get the screws in, but we managed without too much extra effort. Our next challenge was to utilize the cable management system to route all our cables and plug everything in. In the picture below, you can see the result of some of our effort. We pulled most cables through the various openings in the motherboard tray.

The final picture shows the entire system installed in the HAF 932. We didn't get a chance to come up with the best organization yet, but with a little more time and planning, we know it could look a lot better. One thing to keep in mind with a case this big and for cable management is that some power supplies don't have very long cables. During our installation, we discovered that our 8-pin power connector was too short to go through any of the cable management openings, so we had to string it over the video card and other components. Still, we freely admit that many of you could probably come up with a great solution and do an awesome job organizing the cables in the HAF 932. Thankfully, Cooler Master took steps to make that process easier for you.

We wish we could show you a picture to represent the HAF 932's airflow and noise level. If we could, it would be a pretty picture. We felt a ton of air being sucked into and flowing out of the case, and this was achieved with very little noise.
 

Evaluation Summary: The Cooler Master HAF 932 is a spacious and innovative full tower case. In addition to ample space and great features, it offers flexibility for watercooling and for fan options. The included fans will undoubtedly impress anyone who sees or uses this case. They definitely help the case earn its "High Air Flow" badge. In many cases, high air flow equates to a lot of noise, but that isn't the case with the HAF 932. It is not noisy at all.

We are sure that some of out there don't need a full tower case.  Then again, as PC enthusiasts, we all seem to have a lot of things we don't need.  But if you want easier installations and don't want worry about how much space you have left in your case, then a full tower may be a good fit. If you don't have physical space limitations and aren't transporting your system regularly, then we'd suggest at least considering a full tower case. And the HAF 932 seems to be a good choice. Don't jump into it lightly, though. Like other full towers, the HAF 932 is a beast compared to the mid-towers that you may be more familiar with.

There is a lot to like about the HAF 932. For one thing, its huge fans suck in and push out a lot of air, which will definitely make your system components happy. You'll be happy too because the noise level is very low, and the noise that can be heard is a low hum that isn't irritating at all. Another thing we like about the HAF 932 is all of the tool-less features. They all work well, which is more than can be said about many cases that offer similar features. They aren't flawless and won't secure your components as well as screws, but they are quite adequate and a breeze to operate. In case that isn't appealing enough, Cooler Master created the HAF 932 with flexibility in mind. You can swap out the top and side fans for 120mm fans if you prefer. Additionally, you can install a CPU cooler backplate without removing the motherboard. These are nice, unexpected touches, that will cause other case makers to rethink what they are doing.

On the downside of things, we noticed that some of the paint was chipping around the side panel thumbscrews. We don't think it's a sign of poor quality, but we do think Cooler Master may want to check its painting and finishing process to ensure it is doing all it can to prevent chipping like this. We didn't notice any other finish issues. Another area that gives us pause is the inclusion of two power supply installation options. We do like the flexibiility, but we don't like the fact that you have to remove the top fan in order to use the top power supply position. This is a minor gripe and a compromise that each user will have to deal with individually though. None of the flaws we've mentioned are even close to being deal breakers.

The Cooler Master HAF 932 should definitely be on your list if you are shopping around for a new case. We would love to see this case in aluminum rather than steel, but you can't always get what you want. The plus side to steel is that it is cheaper than aluminum. The HAF 932 would definitely be more than the current $160-180 street price if it were aluminum. Overall, we think the street price is fair, considering all of the great features and spaciousness you get with the HAF 932. If you want a case that is a treat to work with, then you should check it out.

Good tool-less features that actually work Big, quiet fans Sturdy structure Flexible fan installation options Watercooling tube holes Plenty of drive bays Motherboard tray opening for installing cooler backplate Good cable management system Decent price	Paint chipping around thumbscrews 5.25" drives wiggle a little after installation; could be more secure No protective grill on top and rear fans Top PSU position requires top fan removal A few sharp edges to watch out for