CM HAF Owners...Chime in

[Puffnstuff]

I have a haf 932 and love it. I've built two pc's with this case and two with the 922. I wish cm made a pedestal for peeps who wc so the pump, res and rads could be located under the chassis.

 

[BoomerD]

Wow!! I put my system together last night and today. (yeah, I know...I'm slow...but I'm old!)

This case (HAF 932) is a dream to work with. I'll try to get some pics later. My cable management looks no where near as nice as some of the pics posted in this thread... maybe I need you to come visit. :biggrin: (my wife bakes...)
I went with the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, and OMG! That thing is HUGE, but to my surprise, not only does it fit very nicely in the case, it looks small in that "warehouse."
I did put the wheels on the case, just to get it a bit higher off the carpet to help reduce dust problems in the PSU.
For some reason, I thought the side fan and top fan were LED fans...to my great surprise, they're not...(YAY!)

I'm still in the process of updating Vista, (590 Mb download) and installing drivers and such, so I don't know how loud my video card will be, but this case is VERY quiet...especially when compared to the Aspire case I had...with 7 82mm case fans...that thing was like sitting next to an idling 747.

 

[hclarkjr]

While I really don't NEED a case as big as the HAF 932 or the HAF X, I'm seriously considering one of them for my upcoming build.
I have big hands and have a tough time hooking up all the damned little wires as it is, but in a tight case, I leave blood and bits of hand everywhere.
I like that these cases have enough room for a large CPU cooler should I decide I need one...and they look like they're very well ventilated. Air flow is always a good thing.
I also like that they LOOK very well built. Lots of room for cable management, lots of room for big video cards, lots of options for adding more fans if they're needed, but why don't they paint the inside of the 932 case black like they've done with the X? That's a much nicer look than the silver.

So people...tell me about your CoolerMaster HAF case.

What do you like about them, what do you hate, what would you change, and what changes have you made?

(me, I don't like the red LED fans...and will probably change that somewhere down the road.)

i love mine since i got it. easy to install hardware with lots of room. i have trouble in smaller cases getting my hands in like you so this was great case for me to buy. only thing i do not like is where you screw the cards into back of case. they could have done better job there. other than that no complaints. have not made any mods to mine as i like it as is. plenty of room for big video cards too. currently have 4870x2 in mine with a 6950 soon to replace it. have a HAF932 BTW.

 

[BoomerD]

I LOVE this new case...it's so quiet. As I sit here running stress tests on the CPU, I only hear a gentle whisper sound from the PSU fan...it's the loudest thing running. Heck, the Samsung DVD burner is louder than anything else when it's running.
A big :thumbsup: to the folks at Coolermaster and Noctua for building a quiet case...the video card, (EVGA GTX460 Superclocked EE) is very quiet as well...or at least as compared to the Visiontek X850XT PE card in the previous build. That thing was LOUD.

 

[BoomerD]

First thing I do with all these cases that use blue LEDs for power/HDD activity is change them out. Green LED for power, Red for HDD. Much more civilized IMO.

I have a job for you...Everyone was right. The blue LED's for power and CPU are BRIGHT!
Somehow, I had Vista set so that turning the pc off only set it into "sleep/hibernation" mode...and that caused the LED's to flash continually...HOLY CRAP! You could use those as aircraft landing lights!!
Fortunately, I figured out the cause and corrected it...but I had to cover them the first night it happened. I think those can be seen from the space station!

 

[Rubycon]

I have a job for you...Everyone was right. The blue LED's for power and CPU are BRIGHT!
Somehow, I had Vista set so that turning the pc off only set it into "sleep/hibernation" mode...and that caused the LED's to flash continually...HOLY CRAP! You could use those as aircraft landing lights!!
Fortunately, I figured out the cause and corrected it...but I had to cover them the first night it happened. I think those can be seen from the space station!

Yeah that blinking on and off while in standby/sleep warrants a magazine on top of the case. Nice thing about these boxes along with the Cosmos line is it's very easy to replace the LEDs. (unlike the stacker 830 line which required drilling rivets and other nonsense)

 

[BoomerD]

I thought I posted a pic here earlier?

Anyway, I took this pic earlier this evening. Not the best cable management...looks like crap when compared to some of the pics posted in this thread, but it's definitely the best of any build I've ever had.

Those long rubber-coated fan wires on the Noctua cooler are a PITA to try to hide...so I just wrapped them around the fan housing and called it good enough.


I really do NOT want to take a pic of the "other side." There are cables and wires going everywhere...not quite a mess of spaghetti...but still very crammed and busy.

 

[Aikouka]

I thought I posted a pic here earlier?

Anyway, I took this pic earlier this evening. Not the best cable management...looks like crap when compared to some of the pics posted in this thread, but it's definitely the best of any build I've ever had.

I believe I have the same Cooler Master case as you and I absolutely hate that case. I think I'm honestly just spoiled from working with Lian-Li cases, which in my opinion, have the best build quality that I've ever seen in a consumer-grade case. I haven't worked with some of their newer cases, but I own a few of their older V series... the V1000B+ II , V1200B+ II and V2000B+ II. The 2000 is very large and the 1000... a bit small for my tastes.

But anyway... the side panels are flimsy as hell and are not scratch resistant at all. The case, like very many others that talk about "great cable management" has very little room on the back side to actually route the cables and not cause them to be pressed up against the side panel.

I also had an odd problem with the case with a really annoying humming noise that I could never truly locate and it would always go away once I took off the side panel.

The size of the case is nice overall, but it certainly doesn't hold a candle to my V2000+

 

[Makaveli]

Here is the inside of mine:

Like I said above, the only thing I wish different is the inside being painted black. One day I might just paint it myself.

Thats pretty nice!

 

[Chocu1a]

Thats pretty nice!

Thanks. I have changed a few things since then. I switched to a gtx 480 with a Zalman vf3000f, added another 6Gb ram-12Gb total. I will get pics soon.

 

[zi0n.]

Had to revive this topic...

Anyone of you with the 932 or the X that had an Antec 900 before? I recently build an SB on my old antec 902 but man I NEED more space.. its so messy. Wondering if I'll get more space moving to the 932 or the X.

 

[james1701]

I had the 900, and went to the X. World of difference in the room, you will never go back to small cases again.

 

[FunkZ]

I have the AMD edition which did not come painted inside however I disassembled and painted it myself. The rear panel gets tight with all the wiring behind it, wish it had a little more room there. The badge says "Phenom II X4" which is already out of date as I'm running an X6, and most likely going BD when it releases. The weight can be an issue if you move it around a lot. Other than these few minor things I like it.

 

[AfroThunder]

I have an unusual question regarding cooling...

I am concerned about the ammount of power draw with the NUMEROUS fans that this case has (HAF X). Would it be possible to (or helpful) install a fan controller that would be supplied by an additional power supply.

The PSU would be very small and mounted internally. The smallest PSU I have found is a Pico PSU and it is very small, about the size of 2 AA batteries.

Link:
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f?sc=8&category=13

Is this a good idea or waste of time? I have a CM GX750 Watt PSU. The case is maxxed out with the normal fan slots....

Thanks for the input all.......

 

[BoomerD]

Seems like a waste IMO. Your PSU should very easily handle the load from the fans.
If you have more fans than you have fan headers for on the motherboard, you can power them with molex connectors. You may need to buy adapters to go from four-pin molex to 3 pin fan connectors...but they're easy to find and pretty cheap.
http://www.xoxide.com/4to3.html

 

[AfroThunder]

I have seen data that suggest typical 120mm fans pull .5 amp ish of current. Is that ammount essentially negligable in terms of PSU usage on modern systems?

 

[james1701]

I have an unusual question regarding cooling...

I am concerned about the ammount of power draw with the NUMEROUS fans that this case has (HAF X). Would it be possible to (or helpful) install a fan controller that would be supplied by an additional power supply.

The PSU would be very small and mounted internally. The smallest PSU I have found is a Pico PSU and it is very small, about the size of 2 AA batteries.

Link:
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f?sc=8&category=13

Is this a good idea or waste of time? I have a CM GX750 Watt PSU. The case is maxxed out with the normal fan slots....

Thanks for the input all.......

There is not that many fans in the X, one top, one side, one front, and one on back, add in a cpu fan and that's it.

Depending what you put in it, just about any power supply should be able to handle it, unless its one of those cheap $20.00 jobs.

 

[BoomerD]

I have seen data that suggest typical 120mm fans pull .5 amp ish of current. Is that ammount essentially negligable in terms of PSU usage on modern systems?

Yes. Unless you're trying to daisy-chain several fans off the motherboard fan header, the load from a fan is very negligible.
My last case, (Aspire Super-XAlien) had (IIRC) six 80 mm case fans plus two in the PSU. All ran just fine on a POS Aspire 500 watt PSU...I finally got tired of worrying about the PSU crapping out, (not from the load, but just because it was a crappy PSU...Aspire = Perspire...you always sweat whether it's gonna work or not) and replaced it with a Corsair HX620.

 

[AfroThunder]

Thanks for all of the replies...

I am fairly sure that I will get a fan controller at a minimum for this excellent case.

I was going over this case (HAF X) when it arrived and I am very impressed with the quality. CM even used black pop rivets to construct the drive bay towers, etc. The entire inside is black, the screws, rivets, everything... Very nice...

 

[BoomerD]

OK, I took the HAF down for a monthly "de-dusting" and decided to let you all see the spaghetti-nightmare behind the OTHER side panel...

I need to do some more work cleaning this side up a bit...but since no one ever sees it...

 

[james1701]

That's not bad.

I liked my X so much, I decided to go with CM again for a build for my son. I picked up the HAF 922. I love this case. If they would make a black edition, with the rubber grommets, and the plastic power supply cover, I would pick this case all day long. I love the bigger back panel bulge for the cables. Its an inch shorter than the 932, but its also an inches wider, and as almost the same interior room. Awesome case.

 

[Rubycon]

The FT-02 needs a PSU cover like the X.

 

[Meph3961]

I just my Haf X in, wow this thing is bigger and heavier than i thought, I love it! I should be getting the rest of my system in next week and will post pics, so you guys can critique my cable management abilities.

 

[Pohemi]

In the process of building my tower now, with the HAF 932 (regular). I removed the top 230mm to install 3x 120mm fans (including my H70 radiator), all on intake. I switched the top fan with the front one because I don't care for the light.
Mounted PSU on bottom, with 1x 120 intake beside it. I switched the direction of the side 230mm to be exhaust.
Summary: intake on bottom, front, and top; exhaust on rear and side. We'll see how it works after it's finished, and maybe I'll get a few pics.

Pros: lots of space, nice, heavy build, awesome cable management

Cons: plastic parts are cheap (snapped a peg off the front lower cover trying to remove it), heavy

 

[Pohemi]

Built and running, I'll get some pics when I finish my installs.

Edit: Initial WEI was 7.7 @ everything stock

Big non-modular PSU makes for spaghetti^

Sorry pics are crappy, taken on an ipod