Cooler Master HAF 932: Regular Edition vs. AMD Edition

[Hyperfluxe]

I've been debating this for a while now, and I would definitely like to hear your opinions on this. Firstly, I shall list the facts. The only differences between these two cases as a lot of people know is the design. The HAF 932 looks much better in my opinion, but it is 35$ more expensive currently, which I think is worth the price premium for such a good looking case. But that's not all there is to it...people tend to ignore the fact that the HAF 932 AMD edition is lacking a 230mm fan on the side panel, which was replaced by a big window.

My question: does the lack of a 230mm fan on the side make any difference on the airflow, ventilation, and performance of this case. I assume that it does, but not by a considerable amount, but I just need to make sure. I plan on overclocking my i7 920, ATI 5850, and my RAM a lot so I'm wondering if I'll lose any performance because of the absence of this fan. This is my primary and only concern. There's another thing that almost nobody knows about, the HAF 932 AMD edition is a tiny bit bigger in width than the regular edition, but a tiny bit smaller in length and height (22.20" x 9.60" x 22.04" for the AMD edition compared to 22.70" x 9.00" x 21.50" for the regular edition). The dimensions are (L x W x H).

Any opinions would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[AMW1011]

To be honest the performance difference should be minimal, side fans, especially high airlfow ones, tend to be poor for performance. The case should do just fine without it, I would actually prefer the case without it.

That said, isn't it kind of silly to have an AMD case when you have an Intel processor? Maybe look at other cases in that price range.

 

[Hyperfluxe]

To be honest the performance difference should be minimal, side fans, especially high airlfow ones, tend to be poor for performance. The case should do just fine without it, I would actually prefer the case without it.

That said, isn't it kind of silly to have an AMD case when you have an Intel processor? Maybe look at other cases in that price range.

How does it do bad in performance? Unless there's something missing here...the HAF 932 fans are great for cooling according to reviews.

And what's wrong with having Intel hardware under an AMD case? As long as it looks good, I'm fine.

 

[welshmousepk]

the reasoin side fans are generally not so great is because the disrupt airlow.

having an exhaust on the side is fine, but then the rear exhaust fans are unable to pull as much air as they would normally. so while the side fan can move alot of air, removing it allows the rear fans to move more air. so the performance difference will be small.

i have to admit, i would prefer a side window to a side fan. my current case is a windowed edition, but still has plenty of fans and more airflow than you could ever need.

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

Agree with welshmousepk. The side fans are not as effective due to disrupting airflow.
I have had two computers with side fans and I'd end up turning them off completely due to noise and not making a significant difference to temps.

 

[megamanx00]

Pretty much as everyone said. The side fans don't help as much as they should because they disrupt airflow. Of course the nice thing about them is it's convenient to put an extra water cooler radiator . Anyway, for air cooling, as long as your front intake fans roughly match your exhaust fans your airflow should be fine and you won't notice much of a cooling performance difference if any. Also, the side window dragon is really cool .

 

[Hyperfluxe]

So you guys are suggesting that it's no big deal that a side fan is missing? So if I overclock my i7 920 to 4+ghz and overclock my graphics card/RAM, will there be good enough airflow? Also, does that mean that the Antec 1200 will perform better than the HAF 932 AMD edition in airflow/ventilation?

 

[micky_lund]

only good thing about a side intake fan is to slightly decrease GPU temps, when 2 or more are used. but if the front->back cooling is enough, it doesn't really matter (if they have space). however, as you are only using 1GPU, i doubt you would see any positive difference in lower temps

 

[micky_lund]

EDIT: double posted
sorry

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Side fans are usually optional for addressing GFX cards issues....while the air flow disruption is a bit overstated, simply put adding a fan ..... no matter where ya put it may not substantially change case temps. For example, turning all the 1200 case fans from low speed to hi speed, all 8 of em, changes CPU temps just 1 degree under full load. MoBo temp right now is 74 degrees in a 72 degree room

That case side fan OTOH, may have an effect on GPU temps.

Now for the 932 question, here's the standard cooling

Front: 230 x 30 mm red LED fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA
Side: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA
Top: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dB
Rear: 140 x 25 mm standard fan x 1, 1200 RPM, 60 CFM, 17 dBA

In a case with 8 fans, removing one, wouldn't have much impact....but removing 1 outta 4, that could be significant. It also has the case trying to blow more air out than in which, given the amount of grating on that case and no dust filters, could be a dust issue.

 

[Hyperfluxe]

Now for the 932 question, here's the standard cooling

Front: 230 x 30 mm red LED fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA
Side: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA
Top: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dB
Rear: 140 x 25 mm standard fan x 1, 1200 RPM, 60 CFM, 17 dBA

In a case with 8 fans, removing one, wouldn't have much impact....but removing 1 outta 4, that could be significant. It also has the case trying to blow more air out than in which, given the amount of grating on that case and no dust filters, could be a dust issue.

That's what I was thinking, but are there any benchmarks to prove this? Perhaps someone could run a test on their HAF 932 and compare the temperature with all fans on compared to the temperature with all fans on except the side fan. That would surely help.

 

[AMW1011]

In general negative air pressure cooling (more exhaust than intake) cools better than positive air pressure cooling (more intake than exhaust), but negative air pressure cooling intakes a lot more dust.

 

[AMW1011]

Side fans are usually optional for addressing GFX cards issues....while the air flow disruption is a bit overstated, simply put adding a fan ..... no matter where ya put it may not substantially change case temps. For example, turning all the 1200 case fans from low speed to hi speed, all 8 of em, changes CPU temps just 1 degree under full load. MoBo temp right now is 74 degrees in a 72 degree room

That case side fan OTOH, may have an effect on GPU temps.

Now for the 932 question, here's the standard cooling

Front: 230 x 30 mm red LED fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA
Side: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA
Top: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dB
Rear: 140 x 25 mm standard fan x 1, 1200 RPM, 60 CFM, 17 dBA

In a case with 8 fans, removing one, wouldn't have much impact....but removing 1 outta 4, that could be significant. It also has the case trying to blow more air out than in which, given the amount of grating on that case and no dust filters, could be a dust issue.

Generally you are correct but you must think of the front, top, and side fans as 2 "traditional" fans, so you are going from 7 fans to 5 fans and gaining negative pressure which tends to cool better and getting a better airflow path.

All in all, I would say the cooling difference should be very minimal.

 

[Hyperfluxe]

Are there any numbers at all to prove any of this? I'd just like to know how many degrees of difference it would make without a side fan, could somebody test the heat in their PC with the side fan turned off? Thanks, that would be much appreciated.

 

[AMW1011]

Alright in an Antec 900:

Q6600 @ stock w/ Zalman 9700 cooler
2x 8600 GTs
XFX 680i LT

One Scythe Slipstream (110CFM) to the side panel

CPU temps at ides:

w/ fan: 32 35 34 32
wo/ fan: 31 34 34 32

CPU temps at load:

w/ fan: 55 57 55 56
wo/ fan: 52 56 54 55

GPU temps at idle:

w/ fan: 55 55
wo/ fan: 56 58

GPU temps at load:

w/ fan: 71 73
wo/fan: 71 75

all in degrees Celsius

I guess a side fan helps the second GPU a bit, and may help more if the GPUs were hotter running than 8600 GTs. CPU temperature increased a bit with it, but the variables are many. For instance, if the cooler was drawing air off of the GPU area and exhausting it towards top of the case then there might not be much a difference, or the side fan may have helped a little. All in all a 110 CFM fan didn't really make much of a difference, and the cooling is pretty similar to the haf 932

 

[AMW1011]

I guess that was a pretty good test:

Side: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 RPM, 110 CFM, 19 dBA (support 120 x 25 fan x 4)

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2810

So the side fan I used pushed as much air as the side fan used in the HAF 932.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Phew! Sorry I'm late for the discussion. I'm still recovering from a wild holiday weekend.

I have a HAF932 case with stock case fans. I can easily test it with and without the fan on the side panel. It's just a matter of unplugging the fan. Unfortunately, I am not at home right now. I won't be able to test it until this evening.

It's my old AMD system that I do not overclock. What I need to know is which temperature monitoring utility ya'll want me to use for the test. There are numerous utilities and they all produce different results. I also need to know which program to run for a full load test. Same thing again, different programs produce different results. It gets kind of crazy sometimes.

I also have a brand new Lian Li / Lancool Dragon Lord case with a narrow side window. It does not have a fan on the side panel. It's for my new Intel Core i7 860 build. Trying to compare it to the AMD system in the HAF 932 would be like comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Hyperfluxe]

Alright in an Antec 900:

Q6600 @ stock w/ Zalman 9700 cooler
2x 8600 GTs
XFX 680i LT

One Scythe Slipstream (110CFM) to the side panel

CPU temps at ides:

w/ fan: 32 35 34 32
wo/ fan: 31 34 34 32

CPU temps at load:

w/ fan: 55 57 55 56
wo/ fan: 52 56 54 55

GPU temps at idle:

w/ fan: 55 55
wo/ fan: 56 58

GPU temps at load:

w/ fan: 71 73
wo/fan: 71 75

all in degrees Celsius

I guess a side fan helps the second GPU a bit, and may help more if the GPUs were hotter running than 8600 GTs. CPU temperature increased a bit with it, but the variables are many. For instance, if the cooler was drawing air off of the GPU area and exhausting it towards top of the case then there might not be much a difference, or the side fan may have helped a little. All in all a 110 CFM fan didn't really make much of a difference, and the cooling is pretty similar to the haf 932

Thanks a lot dude!
I've averaged all the temperatures, and all in all, the difference between having a side fan and not is 0.5-2.0 degrees. That is definitely not even remotely a big deal. I don't think that it will make a difference at all even for extreme overclocking.

Phew! Sorry I'm late for the discussion. I'm still recovering from a wild holiday weekend.

I have a HAF932 case with stock case fans. I can easily test it with and without the fan on the side panel. It's just a matter of unplugging the fan. Unfortunately, I am not at home right now. I won't be able to test it until this evening.

It's my old AMD system that I do not overclock. What I need to know is which temperature monitoring utility ya'll want me to use for the test. There are numerous utilities and they all produce different results. I also need to know which program to run for a full load test. Same thing again, different programs produce different results. It gets kind of crazy sometimes.

I also have a brand new Lian Li / Lancool Dragon Lord case with a narrow side window. It does not have a fan on the side panel. It's for my new Intel Core i7 860 build. Trying to compare it to the AMD system in the HAF 932 would be like comparing apples and oranges.

If a second person could run a test, then that would be great! If would hopefully further confirm the above guy's test. I honestly don't know what utility you should use...I know absolutely nothing about this. Maybe try the most popular one that measures temperature? Thanks.

 

[AMW1011]

Thanks a lot dude!
I've averaged all the temperatures, and all in all, the difference between having a side fan and not is 0.5-2.0 degrees. That is definitely not even remotely a big deal. I don't think that it will make a difference at all even for extreme overclocking.

I would recommend waiting to see Johnny's results if you are that worried, as the airflow change might be different in an Antec 900. Also, do remember that my GPUs aren't all that hot so it may be that if you ended up with a hot GPU you might see better results. All in all, I don't think it will make much of a difference because the HAF 932 has great cooling even without the side fan.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

OK! I have some numbers.

Please remember this is for my old AMD system.

case: Coolermaster HAF 932
cpu: Athalon X2 6000+ (Windsor) @ 3.0 Mhz (no overclocking)
motherboard: Biostar TA 790GX 128
memory: 4 GB (4x1GB) Corsair XMS
cpu heatsink: ThermalRight Ultra 120 (the grandfather of tower heatsinks)
thermal compound: IC Diamond 7 Carat
video: XFX 8600GT
psu: Corsair HX620 - fan on bottom side of psu
drives: Two Seagate Barracuda hard drives, one Plextor optical drive
os: Windows XP SP3

temperature monitoring utility: CoreTemp
100% load test utility: All 3 Prime95 tests

ambient room temperature: 18C

At idle it did not matter whether the large fan on the side panel was on or off. The two cores remained fairly constant at 2.5C above ambient temperature. There were some very minor fluctutations for Core 0 which I'm guessing were related to Windows running in the background. This is the same result I got back in August 2008 when I built the system.

At 100% load for all three Prime95 tests both core temperatures fluctuated between 18C and 20C above ambient temperature with the side panel fan running. Without the side panel fan running both core temperatures fluctuated between 20C and 22C above ambient temperature. It appears I have on average a 2C increase in core temperatures without the side fan.

After I disconnected the side panel fan I noticed an interesting phenomenom. The side panel fan is an intake fan. It blows fresh air into the case. When the fan is turned off fresh air should still be pulled into the case. When I moved my hand around the perforated mesh I discovered that was no longer true. Air was still being drawn in toward the front and being blown out toward the rear. I wet my finger and checked a second time. I got the same thing. Then I lit a candle. Sure enough air was being pulled in through the mesh at the front edge of the side panel and blown out through the mesh at the rear edge of the side panel. I wish I could do a smoke test like those those done by Silverstone so I could see what the airflow is really like.

 

[jsc]

Phew! Sorry I'm late for the discussion. I'm still recovering from a wild holiday weekend.

Welcome back. I was starting to get worried.

 

[Hyperfluxe]

Thanks a lot guys! I've concluded that a side fan barely makes a difference, so I'll get the AMD edition.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Good Luck with your new case.