How the CoolerMaster CM HAF 932?

[The_Blood_Raven]

i don't know, i like pulling it out and working on my desk without hunching over you know... but blood, you may be right about the over rated... think i should sell my stacker and get that? i should have more than enough... and im thinking about getting a watercoolign system in the future, will save me time and trouble

The CM 932 is a good case with what looks like some great water cooling potential. That said I would have to say that you should stick with your stacker for now and if you absolutely know you will be doing water cooling then consider another case, until then be happy with your stacker. Sorry for a late answer been kind of busy.

 

[snakeeyez67]

I'm looking to build a new system next month and was going to use the Antec 1200 and now leaning towards this . Just wondering how the 2 stack up .

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Snakeyez67,

Originally I went to Fry's Electronics to purchase an Antec 1200 case. I had a good look at a 1200 on display as well as a large number of other cases. Then I saw the Coolermaster 932 HAF case. In my mind it had a lot of excellent potential for future expansion and flexibility. I liked it so much I bought one.

Time for Monday Night Football - Eagles vs Cowboys!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

Soooooo....other than it's large, what do you think about your new case? Is it going to be okay for your Cylon case mod?

The 24 inch Sata cables and the 36 inch round floppy cable arrived. Looks to be just about right for my plans. The floppy cable was very cool. I didn't know the round cable could be so thin. The cable is just a little thicker than a pen or pencil. It has silver colored braid encased in clear plastic. Very cool. I think people with standard width cases could easily hide it between the motherboard tray and the side panel. In fact, I'm sure of it. The only thing better would have been a 30 inch cable but I didn't find any on line.

The chrome/silver split flexible tubing will arrive tomorrow.

I had a little bad luck with the motherboard. There was a server error during the order process and the order was never completed. I checked online this morning and discovered the order was still waiting to be processed. I telephoned the retailer which led to the discovery of the problem. I decided to cancel the order and start over. GEEZ!

 

[bohman]

JohnnyLucky,

the case is what i wanted, save the plastic. but plastic SOMEWHERE on the case (especially the bezel) is pretty much unavoidable these days (without breaking the bank).

i wanted: a large case (true full tower, and then some), high air flow, possible water cooling, all steel, under $150 USD, front/top mounted output panel with plenty of USB, firewire, esata, bottom mounted PSU, cable management, at least 5 5.25 inch bays, at least 4 HDD racks.

it scores very well on most of those.

i would have liked 6 USBs on the output panel, but 4 is good.

that this allows two PSUs is a bonus. not that i'll put in two, but it is nice to have the ability. probably could save some money by putting in two lesser PSUs than one big one.

on the high air flow, it should shine - i like that it has a few large fans instead of a lot of smaller ones, that will help cut down on the noise while still having high CFM.

it is plenty large enough for the biggest video cards, and the tallest cpu coolers, with room to spare and good air-flow. these were very big deciding factors for me, whereas i am making an air-cooled gaming rig.

price of 139.99 was very solid.

the steel construction will let me do my chrome mod, once i strip off the paint. i also like steel for its strength, not going to do any lan parties with this, so weight was not a concern.

i did not care for a removeable mobo tray. i am a mechanical engineer, and i appreciate strentgh/stability.

the six 5.25'' bays is actually the perfect amount, allowing me to install my cylon eye mod, two opticals, a floppy + media reader, and a fan/temp monitor/control panel. the open one can be used later if i want a dedicated sound card with I/O panel.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

You're right, the case does score very well but what in the world would you do with 6 USB ports on the front panel? I'm just the opposite. All I really need up front is one Firewire port for a proprietary card reader.

The chrome/silver split flexible plastic tubing I ordered from Fry's arrived today. From a distance it really looks like chrome. The tubing was coiled inside a plastic bag. When I opened one of the bags the tubing stayed coiled. I thought all I had to do was bend the tubing to the shape I wanted. It didn't work very well. I need to figure out a way to straighten the tubing. Cutting should be easy. I think I can cut it with a simple hacksaw blade.

Buying a motherboard has turned into a royal pain in the butt. This past year and a half I have had some very bad luck with the newer Gigabyte boards. Generally web sites that have motherboard reviews tend to publish favorable reviews. However, when I go to have a dozen sites and read user comments it seems like an unusually large percentage of users receive defective or dead motherboards. Last night I decided to check out ASUS and MSI motherboards. I made a list of three boards from each company. I stopped in at Fry's on the way home from work. With list in hand I checked their boards. They didn't have any on my list. I'll do a little more research tonight and probably purchase from Newegg.

 

[bohman]

JohnnyLucky,

i plan to use this as my gaming machine (i do not own a console). so i want the ability to hook up as many controllers and joysticks as possible. my buddies and i will spend many hours on street fighter 4, oh yeah!

i also want the ability to plug in a rock-band setup if that ever comes to the PC, which is stupid that it hasnt already.

as for your tubing, the only thing i can think of is hanging it with a weight at the bottom and applying some heat to the tube (powerful hair dryer) when it is stretched out.

mobo - seems to be a crap-shoot even with the more reputable manufacturers. shopping online seems the best way to go (the egg). i browsed the mobos at microcenter when i got my 932 and they only had older editions and chipsets.

make sure to post some pics when your rig is done.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

OK! Now I uderstand why you want so manyUSB ports. I never would have thought of gaming because I am not a gamer anymore. I'm an old fart who is into digital imaging. Bought my first computer in 1984. First game I played was a text only game called Zork. There were no graphics. Well....that's not exactly right. Based on text displayed on the screen you tried to draw a dungeon maze on a large sheet of paper. I was never able to draw them accurately. We had computer software shops back then and you could buy a magazine with hints, tips, and tricks. The magazine would also have a drawing of the maze. That same year some new fangled thing called EGA was introduced. It could display 16 colors on screen. I can't remember the first graphical game I played. I am growing old disgracefully and I forget things.

I made my decision about a new motherboard. I purchased an ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe from Newegg. The motherboard has a lot more features than I need right now. I was thinking about future upgrades when I made the decision. I liked the layout of the board too. Virtually all of the headers are around the edges of the board. Cable management will be easy. The heatsinks are interesting. The northbridge, southbridge, and mosfett heatsinks are all connected with copper tubes. I'm hoping I'll be able to remove it easily and apply new TIM.

The chrome/silver split flexible tubing will not be a problem. I played with one of the tubes for a while. I just kept bending the tube in the opposite direction of the existing bend. The tube almost straightened out. I just have to play with it some more.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I'm up early today. Received an email from Newegg. New motherboard is already here in Phoenix. It will be delivered later today. I'll have to stop by Fry's on the way home from work and buy an extension for the small ATX power cable that connects to the motherboard. The board has a 4 pin header in a 2x2 configuration. I don't have a spare one in my parts box.

So far I'v managed to use spare parts I had. Started out just buying the case and a motherboard. Due to the large size of the case and location of headers on the motherboard I also had to buy three longer SATA data cables, a longer floppy cable, and now an ATX power cable extension. The flex tubing is optional. Not too bad.

 

[bohman]

JohnnyLucky,

yeah, i played all those games growing up. Zork and Wizardry on my old IBM. Moria later on. drawing the dungeons on graph paper was half the fun. great stuff. so much went on in your head. first graphical game i played may have been "where in the world is carmen sandiego?".

nice mobo, good layout for sure. although i plan on going with a E8600 or Q9550 intel.

good luck w/your build. make sure to post pictures when it's all done.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

The Asus motherboard arrived today. It's a good looking board. It has a heavy duty metal backplate. Should be excellent for a large heatsink. The heatsinks for the northbridge, southbridge, and moffsets are interesting. They are secured with small but very sturdy plastic pushpins. I don't know if it is my imagination but it seemed as if those small pins were more sturdy and held the pieces in place better than the larger pins on most retention brackets. Must be the tension created by the small springs on the pins. The ASUS cpu retention bracket, motherboard, and metal backplate are secured with metal screws. I'm wondering if the screws and backplate will work with the retention bracket and heatsink I have. I'll find out tomorrow.

I noticed several things about the board. It is a full size ATX board and there are mounting holes for 9 standoffs and screws instead of the typical 6 or 7 standoffs. There is only one PS2 port on the back panel for either a keyboard or a mouse. Luckily I have an optical mouse that uses a USB port. The small ATX power header at the top rear of the board is actually an 8 pin header in a 2x4 configuration. Four of the pins are covered with a black plastic cover. I hope it is explained in the manual.

On the way home from work I stopped by Fry's. I wanted to buy an extension cable for the small ATX power cable. The store did not have the item. I'll have to try and find one on line so I can hide the cable behind the motherboard tray.

When I'm finished I'll post a few photos on a web site I have.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

Slow start this morning. I read the ASUS manual last night. According the photos and text in the manual the small ATX power header at the top left of the board is supposed to be used with a standard 8-pin ATX power cable. There was no explanation why the header has a black plastic cover on 4 of the pins.

The manual is pretty good but there are a lot of items, especially in the BIOS section that need a more detailed explanation in plain English. Unfamiliar terms without adequate explanation will confuse and frustrate some people.

In the meantime, I am going to make a custom Windows XP installation disc using NLite. The program will allow me to pick and choose what I want to install. It's also capable of integrating SATA drivers for a variety of southbridge chipsets. In my case I only need the drivers for the SB750 chipset. No point in letting Windows install drivers for a lot of other chipsets that I don't need or want. The program will also incorporate addons like Speedfan and other cool stuff. There's a list with links to well over 100 useful programs and utilities. A very cool one is the Atomic Clock Sync utility. Once a day it gets the official U.S. Atomic Clock time and makes sure the onboard clock is correct - VERY COOL!

Here's the link:

http://icrontic.com/articles/slipstream_windows_xp

 

[xringx]

me and my brother played Zork for all kinds of hours on a commodore. I cant remember if it was the 64 or the one before.. we had both......we also gave Moria a crack....

 

[JohnnyLucky]

xringx,

I remember a Commodore Pet. I wound up buying a genuine IBM PC.

8 pin ATX power cable - I stopped in at the other Fry's store on the other side of the valley. They didn't have one either. I found several sites on line that had the cable. Prices ranged from $2.99 to $9.99 for what appeared to be the same identical extension cable. One site had a braided version of the cable and another site offered to add the braid and heat shrink. The shipping charges will probably be more than the price of the cable.

Custom Windows Installation - I am just about ready to start NLite and begin the process. I just have to go back and read the section about drivers to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Time for an afternoon siesta.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I managed to make a custom Windows XP Pro installation disc with Service Pack 3, Internet Explorer 7, the SATA/Raid drivers, and several utilities that are already integrated into XP. NLite let me remove lots of XP stuff that I did not need or want like Outlook Express, Messenger, and Telephony support. NLite is set up so you can add the MS Product Key and several other boot-up items. In theory I should be able to start the install process and have everything done automatically. VERY KOOL!

Making the disc took longer than I expected. The first time you use NLite a lot of time will be spent trying to understand Windows items and deciding whether or not to include or remove them. There's always a possibility you might remove a critical item necessary for Windows operation. Luckily NLite uses red text with a brief explanation for most critical items. Sometimes there are explanations indicating that the item can safely be removed. It's the unfamiliar optional items that will slow you down. Plan on taking about two hours to make the installation disc. There must be hundreds of choices to make.

I don't know what progress I'll make today assembling the computer. I have the NFL football package on DirecTV. Lots of games to watch. The other thing that might slow me down is I have been thinking about painting the interior of the pc case flat black. It might look good with all the shiny copper on the motheboard and the chrome/silver split flex tubing. That would definitely cause a delay.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Not much progress today due to televised football games.

I did manage to attache the tower style heatsink with fan to the motherboard. The first thing I did was check to see if any of the motherboard components would be in the way of the large heatsink. I had to install one stick of memory before installing the heatsink. The memory module is located almost under the outer edge of the heatsink fan. I applied ArticSilver Ceramique following the directions at the manufacturer's web site. The manufacturer provides different directions and photos for different types of cpu's. Despite the large size of the heatsink and the awkwardness of having to align the retention bracket and metal back plate, it was an easy installation.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

Thanks for posting the link to the CM forum in another thread here at THG. I managed to find the specifications for the stock cooling fans:

Front: 230 x 30 mm red LED fan x 1, 700 rpm, 19 dBa (75 CFM)
Side: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 rpm, 19 dBa (support 120 x 25 fan x 4)(75 CFM)
Top: 230 x 30 mm standard fan x 1, 700 rpm, 19 dBa (support 120 mm fan x 3 or 120 mm x 1 + 230 x 30 mm x 1)(75CFM)
Rear: 140 x 25 mm standard fan x 1, 1200 rpm, 17 dBa (support 120 mm fan x 1)(57 CFM)

Did you ever get an answer about the type of steel used to make the case? I don't know diddly squat about chrome plating steel. However, when I saw the word chromate I associated it with zinc chromate primer used to prime galvanized steel.

In the meantime, the 8 pin ATX extension cable should arive in two or three days. I am seriously considering painting the interior of the case flat black. Driving home from work today a few more ideas for the interior popped into my head. I'll have to check out Radio Shack and Fry's to see if they have something I could use. I keep thinking that black plastic horizontal grill at the front bottom of the case would look very cool in either chrome or copper. What do you think?

 

[bohman]

johnnylucky,

nice board you got there, it would be fun to fill up with 4850's. i read that asus was covering some pins on the power connectors in order to not confuse people, it seems it may have the opposite effect. i am looking at a similar asus board for intel cpu's, a p45 chipset. i plan to get a nice, fast duo chip and pair it with a 4870 or 260.

but my build date isnt until december, so i can take my time and research. i will be making my purchases on black friday, most likely.

so in the meantime i can work on my case mod. i am taking apart the case right now, and hope to have it at the chroming facility later this week. i am confident that i can chrome it, regardless of current coating (i can take off anything with our sulphuric acid bath). i am also thinking about making the frame of the case flat black, but i would be using our parko coating oven to do it. it doesnt allow stainless steel, however, and i think that is waht the frame is, so i may be out of luck, which is unfortunate.

i found a bunch of circuit designs for the cylon eye scanner, and will be getting that running in the meantime as well.

i also have the same issue as you with the front grill. since the rest of my case will be crome, the black plastic bezel will stick out. so i thought about spray painting it chrome. if you do, please post photos. the copper is very intriguing. i thnk that would be very unique and look good.

oh, and thanks for that nlite tip, i will look into it.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

Not much progress yesterday evening due to Monday Night Football.

I did manage to remove the cpu heatsink and check the Ceramique. The circular pattern looked just like the photos at the manufacturer's web site. Right on the money. Thinking about giving that IC Diamond 7 Carat a try just to see what happens. Some of the review sites seem to indicate it does a better job than the Ceramique.

I also removed the nb/sb/mosfett heatsink combo from the motherboard. Nothing to it. Looks like each heatsink had a thick thermal pad. Each pad came off in one piece. Contact with the mosfetts was uneven. I'm guessing pressure was uneven. I'm toying with the idea of purchasing individual copper heatsinks.

I'll keep you posted on painting the grill. The problem is that painting plastic to make it look like chrome or copper will never look as good as the real thing.

 

[bohman]

JL,

agreed on the bezel, it will not look like the real thing, but what ya gonna do? it's plastic.

i havn't tried the diamond either, i thought about picking some up and giving it a shot.

as for the copper heatsinks, sounds like a capital idea. i am going to do the same thing. i figure i am going to (hopefully) do this build just once, so might as well do it right!

the MNF game sucked! actually, a lot of the games were quite boring this weekend. they all can't be winners.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

What "might" help is several layers of clear coat over the copper. I'll give it a shot. Local hobby shops should have the paint.

Lunch time is over. I'll post this evening

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

What type of copper heatsinks for northbridge and southbridge chips? Active with fan or passive?. The ThermalTake Extreme Sprit II looks good as does the Enzotech One Piece Forged Copper:

http://www.coolerguys.com/chipsetcooling.html

Have you already taken you case apart? How easy or hard was it to remove that front top panel with all those USB and other ports?

 

[bohman]

JohnnyLucky,

i took the case apart yesterday. it wasn't hard at all. the top panel with the USB, firewire, and esata port just slid right off when you remove the screws up there. i think i am going to remount it differently, with the ports facing vertical. that will give the top of the case a flat surface. i will remount the power button where the fill-port is for H20 cooling. will drill a hole for reset button.

the front bezel came right off too, like you said, which was nice. it seems that all the screens can easily be removed for chroming, which is nice. it seems that i can recreate the plastic parts withs some simple sheet metal work.

i am going to drill out the rivets today and get it all into sectional panels. then bring the panels in to work for paint acid stripping or bake-off. i will probably have to take them home again after stripping/bake to buff/lap them nice and smooth before getting the chrome, which likes a smooth surface for good application. that may take a bit of time, luckily, i have it.

as for cooling, i was planning on an active cooler like the TT (i like led ) for the NB, and a nice copper passive one for the SB. the SB doesnt run as hot, and can take more heat.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bohman,

Thanks for the info about that top front panel.

I've got less than hour before I get off work. I'm going to stop by Fry's on the way home. The last time I was there they still had a couple of those Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II northbridge heatsinks. The southbridge is the exact same size on my ASUS board. With a little luck I can also install one of those heatsinks on the southbridge. From reading other threads and user comments I'm pretty sure the heatsinks will fit okay.

The mosfet heatsink is a different matter. The Thermalright mosfet heatsinks will not fit the motherboard. The mounting holes are not the same. A great big thank you to ThermalRight for providing compatibilty charts on their web site. I think I found a different heatsink over at Sidewinder Computers that has the mounting holes in the right position. I just have to measure the existing heatsink to find out which model I need.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

b,

I stopped by Fry's on the way home from work. They only had one ThermalTake Extreme Spirit II northbridge heatsink with fan which turned out to be a good thing. When I got home I discovered the heatsink was too large for the northbridge chip. The chip is located just below the cpu and just above primary PCI express x16 slot #1. Not enough room. I checked the motherboard manual and discovered I could move the video card down to PCI express x16 slot #3 which would move the video card out of the way. I still didn't have enough room due to the large cpu heatsink. The Tt heatsink is okay for the southbridge chip.

I took some measurements and determined there was sufficient room for the Enzotech 40mmx40mm one piece forged copper heatsink. I can attach a 40mm fan to the top or a 25mm fan to the side of the heatsink.

I did not have any luck finding an appropriate mosfet heatsink. Turns out the existing one was longer than any available online. I may have to use the existing one.