Conclusion
Today we dove into the new, the revived, Cooler Master HAF cases with the new Cooler Master HAF 500 mid-tower case which they’ve billed as a ‘Homecoming Classic’. The HAF 500 is a fully-featured ATX mid-tower with plenty of stock airflow, a wide variety of supported cooling configurations, and an innovative hinged fan placement that helps keep GPUs cool – and quiet, all for $149 MSRP.
Summary of Features
High-airflow cases don’t always go well – what works in a lab doesn’t always pan out when put to task by end-users, and there are plenty of variables and gotchas that can keep a case from performing as intended.
Cooler Master’s HAF 500 navigates the potential pitfalls masterfully. The big fans up front deliver on their promise of moving air without making a racket, and the innovative hinged GPU fan helps keep power-sucking graphics cards from having to spin their own fans up and acoustically dominating the case – and the room.
The two 120mm SickleFlow fans are also above-average performers, spinning at up to 1900RPM without generating significant mechanical noise. All loaded up, the HAF 500 sounds like air moving, which is perhaps as good as one can get when air cooling ~800W of components.
Last, the included fan and lighting hub is convenient and useful for those with motherboards that are limited in terms of fan or ARGB headers, and the overall look of the case fits a certain shiny aesthetic that Cooler Master is known for.
Our Experiences
The Cooler Master HAF 500 is an overall pleasant case to work in. Initial frustrations with removing the glass protector fade, and the effort required to open and close the glass panel is countered by the reassurance of tighter tolerances. As the HAF 500 appears to share chassis components with other similar models, we rate this as a positive – Cooler Master has done what they do well, and the HAF 500 is certainly a solid enclosure.
We can’t go without mentioning also that the HAF 500 is a rather shiny enclosure, too. We’ll leave it up to readers’ taste, and the release shots from Cooler Master do capture the ‘shininess’ well. We’re just reporting that it indeed is that shiny.
Moving on to the RGB fans, it’s difficult to direct too much criticism at Cooler Master as in general, no one does RGB ‘well’. Our observation here then is that the two front fans have a different ‘white’ color than the rear 120mm fan, and all three differ from the Cooler Master fan bracket that’s used to support our ASUS GPU. Of course, the ASUS GPU, the MSI motherboard, and the Corsair RAM all have their own interpretations of ‘white’.
Again, we’re not counting this against Cooler Master as much as noting that color matching among RGB components is pretty difficult.
Final Points
The Cooler Master HAF 500 is an excellent choice for performance-oriented builds and especially for those with power-hungry GPUs. Stock cooling is very good, and expansion is above average with support for two 360mm or 280mm radiators.
While a bit shiny, for excellent cooling while keeping noise in check, the HAF 500 earns a gold award. Is the new HAF 500 worthy of the HAF name? Yes, Yes it is.
Discussion
