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Coolermaster HAF 922 case review: it's not the size that counts page 1
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Did you love the look and layout of the Coolermaster HAF 932, but couldn't bear to deal with the monstrosity that is a full tower? For those of you that voiced your opinions on the size and other features, you will be glad to know that Coolermaster listens. All of this feedback gave rise to the HAF 922.
The HAF 922 shouldn't be construed as a mere mid-tower shrink of the HAF 932 that contains the usual bells and whistles. That would be an affront to the case's elegance. As I have stated, Coolermaster listened to your pleas. I am sure that could be a hard pill to swallow for some. The idea of a company listening to its customers can be scary at times, but it is true. It is also true that the HAF 922 has most of the HAF 932's strengths and does follow the standard layout and styling, but that is where the similarities end.
The new HAF 922 is on the left and its bigger sibling, the HAF 932, is on the right. You can see that the amount of available ports has changed on the front panel. There are now two USB ports and the firewire connection was removed. Also, the status lights have been changed from blue to red while being moved from the front to the top near the power and reset switches. I could not be happier about the status lights being moved. I have used the HAF 932 on my i7 test system for quite some time which often continues until late night. I swear those blue status lights could beam a distress signal to an orbiting space craft with the amount of light that is emitted. That beam has blinded me on more than one occasion, but now I can look forward to the spotlight illuminating my ceiling instead of my retinas.
The most notable change is that the HAF 922 comes with larger tubing ports for watercooling. It's hard to tell from the picture below, but the new tubing holes easily fit 3/4" outer diameter (OD) tubing. This change allows pretty much all watercooling enthusiasts to utilize these ports for external radiator mounting which is great for people like me that almost exclusively use the larger tubing. There is a catch though. The fill port, included with the HAF 932, is not available on the HAF 922. I suspect it was removed because of less available internal space for watercooling parts, but I imagine most of us would still appreciate the option.
Other changes were likely made for fine tuning. I'm speaking of the expansion port mounts being reverted back to thumbscrews instead of the sometimes flimsy plastic snap style locks found in the HAF 932. I think they found that the time honored phrase, "If it aint broke, don't fix it", holds true here.
Next.... Testing
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