Moving on to inspection of the case we quickly see that it carries on quite well the industrial/military theme of the HAF 932. Many of the features mirror things we saw in that case including the large 200mm fans that adorn the top and front of the case. The large areas of mesh along the front, top and sides as well as the pronounced top front area of the case all seem to pull from the earlier design. We also see that Cooler Master has again decided to add the “HAF” logo on the side in a shiny contrasting finish to the base matte coat of the case.
Although there are many similarities between the design of the HAF 932 and the HAF 922 there are also several notable differences. Most apparent are the side doors of the case which now have angular projecting designs pressed into them. The original HAF 932 had these to some extent but the extrusions are more akin to the sniper style and more pronounced. On the left side there is a mesh area that is centered in this raised feature. The right side door also has extrusion but without the mesh. I imagine this is to help provide more space for hiding cables behind the motherboard. You will also note that absent from the left side door mesh is a large fan like the HAF 932 comes with. There are mounting holes for two 120mm fans or one larger 200mm fan that will have to be purchased separately.
The back exhaust fan is also a smaller 120mm as compared to a 140mm in the HAF 932. I wonder how these small changes will effect cooling performance in this smaller case. Still with two very large fans on top and bottom along with the 120mm back fan the case still has enough going for it to still be called “High Airflow”.
The sturdy steel case has carried over some design characteristics from the first case like the front top “holding tray” and the rubber water cooling grommets at the back of the case. Also there is a new and improved spot for the power supply to reside at the bottom. This new rubber cushioned area now gives you the option to mount your PSU with your intake bringing air in from the mesh bottom or flipped around so it sucks heat from your case and exhaust it out the back area. A fine improvement to the old design.
Still even with the HAF 922 out on the floor I felt the case was still rather large. As you can see with it sitting next to it’s bigger brother the difference is really not all that apparent. It seems we really only lost the option to mount a PSU in the top area of the HAF 922 giving us a case that is really only a few inches shorter. I was actually hoping for more of a difference in size. When I heard they were making a smaller more portable version of the HAF, I thougt that was a rather good idea. In fact several of us around here started calling it the half HAF. It’s far from a small size however. So if you thought you were going to get a more manageable LAN HAF with this new “mid-sized” design I’m sorry to tell you it ain’t happening. This sucker is still large.
