Cooler Master HAF 932--Build And Installation
Build, Continued
The chassis’ interior is a pleasure to work in, as most of its steel edges are rolled to prevent cuts and scrapes. There’s even a hole cut in the non-removable motherboard tray. If you’re installing a Core i7 920 and using a heatsink like Thermalright’s Ultra 120 Extreme, simply pop off the right side panel and work under the CPU socket without having to pull the motherboard out. The problem with this, unfortunately, is that motherboard vendors aren’t universal in their respective layouts, so the feature won’t be useable on some platforms, like the Asus Rampage II Extreme featured in our testing.
Cooler Master’s full tower design means that there is plenty of room for hard disks and optical drives. The chassis takes up to five 3.5” hard drives in one cage and up to six 5.25” externally-accessible drives in a separate cage above that. A bundled adapter turns one 5.25” bay into a 3.5” slot for a floppy drive or card reader. Hard drives are installed toollessly, which is nice. But the power and I/O ports face to the right side of the case, meaning you’ll need to snake SATA and power cables through the motherboard tray in order to connect them.
Installation
The HAF 932 is able to take a lot of hardware. It’s one of the few towers that’ll accept an eATX motherboard. Plus, with five hard drive and six 5.25” drive bays, there’s copious room for expansion. And yet, if you’re installing a high-end configuration, you’ll likely feel cramped inside the case.
With our PC Power and Cooling power supply installed, there isn’t enough room at the bottom of the case to take a third double-wide graphics card. You’d need an EVGA X58 motherboard in order to fit a 3-way SLI setup here. Also, given the way that the auxiliary power connectors on the Radeon HD 4870s face, accessing front panel connectors, storage ports, and FireWire/USB headers at the bottom right-hand of your motherboard might be difficult. Make all of your motherboard connections before dropping in discrete cards.
Here’s the really tricky thing about the HAF 932, though. Configured as it is from the factory, the case is all set up for a water cooling setup. There’s a fill port up top, grommetted holes in the back of the chassis for running hose, and room for a radiator if you yank the top 230 mm fan—don’t worry, you aren’t likely to miss the airflow. Unbolt that plate up top and relocate your power supply, though, and the case’s floor suddenly get a lot roomier. In fact, a pair of vents at its bottom are already cut out for 120 mm intake fans.
With its vents, window, and tasteful LED lighting, the HAF 932 is a chassis you’ll want to peek into. Plenty of nooks and crannies designed to help aid cable management make the case easy to organize for just that reason. Just bear in mind that gobs of airflow are enabled by large vents on almost every surface. If you have noisy hardware inside the HAF 932, large, low-speed fans aren’t going to help suppress the din.
