craig5320

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Review

Recently Cooler Master expanded their HAF range further with the release of the HAF 932 Advanced, a refreshed version of the popular HAF 932 which has been around for a while now. Today we have the Advanced version of the HAF 932 on our test bench so let's find out whether it is a worthwhile evolution of the original.

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mac_angel

looks like the only thing different is the USB 3. Sorry if I might have missed something else, but I didn't read through the whole article. Everyone should know what I think of CoolerMaster by now.
For those that don't. I had two of the 932 cases. Both had to be RMA'd. Never heard of having to RMA a case before. One fried my motherboard, litterally. Smoke, melting wires, etc. The wires for the front panel audio were crossed and when I moved my computer from an antec P182 to the HAF 932 and turned it on, it started sending out smoke signals. Really bad experience with the tech support. They kept trying to tell me I plugged it into the wrong jack. I'm sure you all know enough that the front panel audio jack can't fit into many other places. Not to mention I'm a retired IBM technician. I've built more than my fair share of computers. Luckily it was an EVGA mobo and even though it wasn't under warranty any more, since I'm a long time customer of theirs, and they are just plain awesome, they exchanged the motherboard for me.
I thought it might have been a one time bad luck thing. I bought a second CM HAF 932 case. Front case fan wouldn't work. It would light up, but not spin. Yea, pretty small thing to complain about, but since I had problems with the first case, second case having problems as well, I couldn't wait to get rid of them. And HUGE thank you for DH and NZXT for the Phantom case draw that I won. So much happier with that than the HAF.

Takaharu

A 2.5" bay for USB3. Seriously, why? Give me one good reason as to why they'd use USB2 front ports built-in and a 2.5" bay for USB3.
Motherboards provide USB3 bays to allow cases to be forwards-compatible. Cases, particularly the most modern, should be USB3 as standard.
The HAF-X has two USB2 ports and two USB3 ports. Couldn't they have given the option to use USB3 headers for the front panel ports?

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Veridian3

The trend with most recent motherboards I have seen is to kit out the board with a front panel USB 3 connector. Usually mid board which makes it the ideal location to wire up the two ports from the bay in this case. In addition to that we also get to retain the four USB 2.0 (and other connectors) at the top of the case without it being too cluttered.

If mobo makers were not going with mid-board internal headers for USB 3 I would be against Cooler Masters decision but given the current trend they were right to go with a drive bay method as it will minimise clutter and leave the back panel ports free.

Veridian3

Lol, let it go

And glad you are still enjoying your current case. Every time i see the white one i think of a Storm Trooper... which is no bad thing

As an interesting side note, SK who is the author of this review, uses the Phantom too. He has reviewed other cases recently such as the 650D white and other high quality models and said to me on Sunday that the 932 Advanced was the first case he has covered that made him think about moving his main rig away from the Phantom. High praise indeed.

sheriff12

Everything in your review is exactly right. I bought this model last week for the afore-mentioned price. The case itself is impressive in it's size, compared to the puny looking Presario CQ 5500F I was using previously. The massivness of the interior makes me wonder if I can ever afford to fill it with components. Overall, I would recommend this case to anyone that is going to build either their first or tenth computer. This case will more than likely last me a lifetime, due to the fact it has so much going for it as far as expansion and ease of working with it because of it's size and cooling features.

mac_angel

lol, actually, it is a good case, when it works. It's well built, sturdy, and great air flow. It's freakin' huge, but when you're talking about a gaming rig that you want to keep cool, it is good.
The idea that I've never heard of RMA'ing a case except them is a bit of a piss off, and I've heard of a few others that have had problems with CM cases. I'm one to hold a grudge as well. If they had have just owned up to the problem, said sorry, etc, I'd be cool about it instead of flaming them every chance I get (don't piss off a retired techy that has a lot of time on his hands, lol).
They do look like they have a lot of nice products and decent prices. I'll just never touch any of them again because of the "what if" factor. It's why I buy from EVGA for most other things. Great products, great support. I actually had a really good experience with MSI a bit ago as well. Extremely fast turn around time. Instead of sending me a refurbished board they sent me a brand new box.