Cooler Master HAF 500 Black Case Review

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Construction Quality

The Cooler Master HAF 500 is built very well. Cooler Master has used a tried and true base to build the HAF 500 on, which does show with parts that look like they could move but instead are riveted in. But to be clear, these are just observations – the final product is solid through and through.

As for the core of what makes the HAF 500 a worthy ‘high air flow’ case, the 200mm fans up front are definitely up to the task of quietly moving buckets of air. The lighting is a bit odd as the eight RGB light positions are very distinct, and the two front fans as well as the rear 120mm fan exhibit some fan hub wobble – something made more noticeable by lighting.

Packaging

As you can see, Cooler Master packaged the HAF 500 well, using a standard and effective packaging scheme.

Cooling Potential

The HAF 500 supports 280mm and 360mm radiators in the front and the top. This is enough flexibility to use AIOs or custom water cooling on both the CPU and GPU, though as we’ll note in our performance results the stock fans are quite capable.

As the stock 200mm fans up front quite literally fill the front fan positions, we opted to add a single 200mm Noctua fan to the rear-most top fan position. This increases exhaust airflow without imbalancing the stock positive pressure setup, and we wanted to make sure that the other major 200mm fan on the market did indeed fit the HAF 500.

Installation Notes

Being a roomier case, we didn’t run into any issues when installing the review rig into the HAF 500. Cooler Master had the included fan cables as well as the top I/O cables routed to their appropriate locations for an ATX build, and all cable routing cutouts were generous enough to pass bulky power leads and USB cables alike.

Cooler Master HAF 500 Case Back of Case with Side Panel Off

Cooler Master does also claim 30mm of space behind the motherboard tray, and while this does result in the case being a bit wider than it would be otherwise, the extra room is absolutely appreciated.

Cooler Master HAF 500 Case Opened Up with Removable Panels

Finally, and this is huge when it comes to working with larger air coolers or installing various watercooling setups, the top panel is completely removable. The tray covering the first set of cable routing cutouts can also be removed, though we didn’t find this necessary while installing the review rig.

Our Build Recommendation

  • Install any radiators for water cooling
  • Install any additional fans
  • Install memory, CPU, air CPU cooler if used, and the CPU 12v leads into the motherboard
  • Install the motherboard into the case
  • Run the fan power leads and any lighting cables to their appropriate headers and secure them loosely to the back of the motherboard tray
  • Run any remaining front-panel connections to the bottom of the motherboard along with any other cables needed, loosely securing along the way
  • Run the remaining power supply leads for GPU(s), 24-pin motherboard header
  • Connect all power supply leads while the power supply is still outside the case
  • Install the power supply
  • Route the power supply leads along the back of the case and secure
  • Fully secure all other leads
John Tharp
Long-time follower of computer gaming and computer assembly from the days of the i386, photographer, husband, and lover of gaming peripherals

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