Closing Thoughts
The Cooler Master HAF 912 creates a new spot at the lower range of cases available in the HAF series. Although seemingly stripped down to the bare essentials, the 912 still shares the rugged good looks and high cooling potential of its larger siblings.
There's room to fit up to six 120mm fans, or a combination of two 200mm and two 120mm units, and while there's not much space to install water cooling components inside the 912, there are grommets to run tubing to the outside of the case.
Cooler Master thoughtfully adds a 2.5" drive cage for those who are using solid state drives in their desktop system, while allowing both 2.5" and 3.5" cages to be removed if extra space is required. There's also a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter, tool-less drive rails, and latching mechanism for the optical bay, and oversize access opening in the motherboard tray.
The included fans move a decent amount of air while running quietly at a claimed 17dB.
A few concessions have been made with the HAF 912 however. Like the 922 there is no side window, only a mesh opening in the panel to mount a fan, which is not included. Only two 120mm fans (non-LED) come with the 912 with the majority of the fan locations left empty out of the box. The interior of the case is left on plain grey, not painted to match the exterior color, although granted without a side window there's not much chance of showing that off anyway. Gone are the latching drive trays and push-button bay locks of the higher-end HAF series cases, although snap-on rails for the hard drives and a single lever style lock are included for the optical drive. Any riser slot cards must be installed with screws as there's no tool-less latching mechanism provided there.
As mentioned in the introduction, the HAF 912 is the most affordable model in the series, being sold already by a few online retailers for $59.99, placing it in the bargain basement as far as costs go.
With many mid-tower cases aimed at enthusiasts on a budget pushing the $100 mark, the HAF 912 offers a lot of potential for a very small price. Of course, you will have to figure in the cost of adding additional fans if you want them, however this allows the user to customize the case however they want.
Republished with express permission from OCIA.