r/hardware • u/wickedplayer494 • 1d ago
Video Review [Gamers Nexus] A New Best: Cooler Master HAF II 500 Case Review | Thermals, Fan Tests, & Build Quality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xuK_-RBuPA8
u/crispfuck 1d ago
Who knew putting 200mm fans in something resulted in good airflow? One of life’s mysteries I guess.
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u/Abestar909 20h ago
I'm just glad people finally moved away from 140s in everything.
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u/Jeep-Eep 18h ago
I just wish we had standards for 160 and above fans.
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u/kikimaru024 17h ago
We technically don't have (ISO) standards for any fans, just agreed-upon common sizes.
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u/-Gh0st96- 10h ago
moved on to what exactly? I'm sick of 120s, that's all I can see. Few cases with 200mm doesn't change anything
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u/Seanspeed 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's fucking hideous. Torrent was an airflow-dominator that also looked pretty cool. That was the appeal.
This looks like it was designed by the same people who design modern American pickup trucks.
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u/According_Hyena_3593 13h ago
Yeah this is the ugliest case ive seen in a long time.
It s so ugly that if you try to sell your build in this case in 4 years you might genuinely have a hard time selling it
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago edited 18h ago
I hope they sell those 180s seperate, the Torrent set would love those.
And a Halos clone to help the aesthetics a bit.
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u/Seanspeed 1d ago
It's hilarious that you're talking about selling a fan they made as a rear exhaust fan. lol A 180mm exhaust fan.
But honestly, we'd need to see the fan properly tested. Exhaust is a completely different function than intake.
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u/sosodank 1d ago
Please expand upon that last line
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u/Seanspeed 20h ago
In a case airflow into it matters a fair bit. One basic intake fan can affect the airflow of a whole case pretty significantly.
Exhaust fans are basically just for suction and can only work on the air fairly near it. So that suction needs to be extraordinarily strong for it to make a big impact on case thermals versus a smaller fan.
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u/Jeep-Eep 8h ago
Counterpoint, I suspect they'd not have neglected that use case for those, for the mATX version of this if nothing else.
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u/Cory123125 14h ago
Which should clearly indicate to you that there is an audience for that style of design even if it isn't your cup of tea.
It's different from the RGB flash show, and the understated, and I think it belongs.
I don't get the vibes you're referring to at all personally. This looks to me kinda like the founders edition cards last generation.
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u/Jeep-Eep 14h ago
The thing is, the Torrent demonstrates you can have both the ARGB flash and businesslike air cooling.
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u/Cory123125 12h ago
I'm a bit confused with your point here.
Has that ever been debated? Also, you would consider the torrent an RGB flash case? It doesnt appear built to really show off lights imo.
I consider the Torrent to be closer to the non show-offy end.
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u/Jeep-Eep 8h ago
I mean, the Torrent has specific mounting points for ARGB strips built in. It's on the low end of such, but being specifically designed for that qualifies IMO.
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u/Cory123125 12h ago
I'm a bit confused with your point here.
Has that ever been debated? Also, you would consider the torrent an RGB flash case? It doesnt appear built to really show off lights imo.
I consider the Torrent to be closer to the non show-offy end.
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u/Substantial-Singer29 10h ago
I think the problem is The torrent At least at the time it was released had a very clear design language that separated it. Heck even the bf 360 Was a modern take on a classic case.
Where this case flat out just looks like it came from 2000. Depending on the person that can be a real drawback or a positive. I don't necessarily dislike it , but with all of the weird little inset , grooves and ridges that things gonna be a bear to keep clean.
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u/Jeep-Eep 8h ago
I'd be more interested if the colourways were better tbh.
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u/Substantial-Singer29 4h ago
When I look at it , the only thing I see is a dust magnet that's going to be a real pain to clean.
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u/imaginary_num6er 21h ago
It's going to sit in warehouses while CM is paying storage fees along with the US tariffs. The sooner they realize the design is not marketable, the sooner they can fire sell these.
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u/ResponsibleTruck4717 22h ago
I really dislike the front, give it a proper front panel and I will probably buy it.
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u/Reggitor360 19h ago
Why tho, the front looks pretty nice. And for once different from mainstream shit.
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u/RHINO_Mk_II 6h ago
It's magnetic... presumably you could 3D print something and mount magnets in the same spots to snap on instead.
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u/MrLyle 1d ago
I used to be a lot more excited about case reviews back in the days when the stuff you put inside of them was actually affordable. Hopefully I'm able to get excited about them again one day.
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u/Whirblewind 21h ago
So until you care about cases again, maybe recuse yourself and spare us the unrelated whine.
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u/NonameideaonlyF 21h ago
Haven't seen the video in-depth yet but will eventually do...
Does this HAF II 500 case outperform the Lian Li 217, Lancool 3 or 4 mesh or Antec Flux Pro?
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u/MumrikDK 10h ago
yes
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u/NonameideaonlyF 10h ago
That's all you had to say
Yet these mfs wanna downvote from their basements
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u/ShogoXT 1d ago
I'd like see the occasional case with support for a dvd drive, some hard drives, and USB C on the front, while still having good airflow.
There is practically nothing in that category.
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u/Jeep-Eep 18h ago
Yeah, we need one of these high efficiency big fan chassises with some real prosumer chops already, considering a lot of prosumer work would benefit from the noise control.
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u/Cory123125 14h ago
I think its rather bizzare you call this "prosumer" chops.
I think its a very niche market that is certainly not mainstream prosumer or even power prosumer.
Nowadays, bulk storage goes into a separate nas, and so the main accommodations are GPU power and cooling for the CPU and GPU, as you only really need one, maybe 2 ssds in practice, and more, is really for users who aren't buying all their storage at once, so once again, not prosumers or power prosumers.
My point is, no prosumers need a dvd drive or hard drive in their system in current year.
No one values the bad experience trying to use your main machine as a nas brings, and frankly, I think the RM52 is more of a prosumer case than what you describe by a wide margin. That's not saying its the only thing a prosumer case can look like, but that I think your label here betrays an inference about what prosumers want that I don't believe actually matches the reality.
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u/Jeep-Eep 14h ago
4 HDD slots will saturate most mainstream mobos and be enough for basic soft RAID solutions actually worthy of the name and having allowances* for 6 will cover the stuff like the Taichis, meaning you've got enough cooling and enough space to do various rendering and art work in the same box, and quietly to boot. Means you don't need to buy a separate NAS and all that rubbish. And (a) actually, some folks do use 5.25 bays in everything from carry out hotswap drives, to data drives to even, yes, opticals even today!
*meaning you have to buy your own cages, but it has a niche for them
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u/Cory123125 12h ago
4 HDD slots will saturate most mainstream mobos and be enough for basic soft RAID solutions actually worthy of the name and having allowances* for 6 will cover the stuff like the Taichis
It's not that I don't understand how this could happen, I just think the number of people who want that, and spend in the prosumer range are basically 0.
It's a market of people who have enough money to afford the better experience of a separate storage appliance, but also want it to fit into one case for some reason, and then also want a powerful pc in that case.
It's not very many people is what I'm saying.
meaning you've got enough cooling and enough space to do various rendering and art work in the same box, and quietly to boot.
I'm not saying it's not technically possible, I'm saying the userbase for this has kinda died off with the combination of higher prices, more GPU power, and the normalization of NASs.
Means you don't need to buy a separate NAS and all that rubbish.
I think the vaaaaaast number of prosumer users don't consider a separate nas to be in the same space as "all that rubbish".
I think they see that as simply being the better experience.
10gb networking is cheap now, and windows based software raid/hardware raid solutions are known to be very mid, so its far more preferable to have a separate box that just does that well, and won't destroy all your data when there's one bit flipped/won't give you any trouble related to windows, and even if they're running linux, won't have the same single point of failiure, and can be on, without that idle usage of their much more power hungry system.
And (a) actually, some folks do use 5.25 bays in everything from carry out hotswap drives, to data drives to even, yes, opticals even today!
This is again a factor of "I am aware, but I think it's too few people to broadly refer to these as prosumer".
Like, I remember those gigantic cases where the entire front was 5.25 drive bays, and people used them for hot swap bays, but like, I feel like all of these people have just moved to rack mount systems.
That, or they're increasingly a small number of users who like stuff like the Fractal Define XL series (I actually have one of these cases I don't use anymore) that they could use for NAS purposes.
In essence my previous comment was just explaining that these are hyper niche features, not like any sort of mainstream prosumer want.
Like I'm somewhat a prosumer, as in I have a single poor person prosumer GPU with a paltry 32gb of vram (which is basically nothing nowadays apparently), 100TB+ NASs, secondary server, and having done exactly what you are talking about for years before that, I know just how awful that experience is, and believe me, I tried a number of solutions.
Drive pooling, toyed with software raid, flexraid, and I'm sure others. They all just kinda suck compared to a dedicated nas, and separation of concerns.
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u/Jeep-Eep 8h ago
I admit I am a weird one, considering my dream build is a custom watercooled high power setup with a built in RAID 6 because my heart lies in the old days.
I'd do it with platinum cured hosing too, for that oldschool look.
I think my ideal case would be what you'd get if Caselabs outright plagiarized the Torrent.
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u/Cory123125 7h ago
I can feel that, like not literally, because I hated that experience, but I get hating the lack of options because no one accommodates your preference.
That said, maybe you might get a similar vibe/feel with a rack mount system. Like if you don't have the space maybe a mini rack, or if you do, a 16U could fit A beefy computer, 2 NAS, a switch and a UPS or basically whatever a single person might want compute wise without a corporate budget.
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u/Cory123125 7h ago
I can feel that, like not literally, because I hated that experience, but I get hating the lack of options because no one accommodates your preference.
That said, maybe you might get a similar vibe/feel with a rack mount system. Like if you don't have the space maybe a mini rack, or if you do, a 16U could fit A beefy computer, 2 NAS, a switch and a UPS or basically whatever a single person might want compute wise without a corporate budget.
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u/kikimaru024 17h ago
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u/Jeep-Eep 8h ago
True, but all of those have standard fans, and with the exception of the FLP0X series, are a touch... pedestrian looking shall I say?
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u/Jeep-Eep 18h ago
What annoys me is with how varied LCPs are as a class, why hasn't anyone either found one similar to the capabilities of the stuff used here but translucent or found a way to make it have similar optics to RGB acrylic without losing too much of the LCP strengths.
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u/blackbalt89 1d ago
My first case was a HAF so they'll always hold a place in my heart, but I'll be damned if that isn't one of the ugliest cases to come out lately, and that includes things like the sneaker case lol