Today we are taking a look at a rather interesting case from Cooler Master. It is their HAF Stacker 935. What makes this case so interesting is that it is actually two cases in one. You have the HAF Stacker 925 (main compartment) which can house E-ATX, ATX and Micro-ATX motherboards. Then there is the HAF Stacker 915F which can house a Mini-ITX system or external watercooling. What is really cool about these cases is that they are stackable, hence the name HAF stacker. So with the 935 you are able to stack the 915 on the top or on the bottom of the main compartment to create the ultimate system. Cooler Master has designed these cases so you are able to route cables between the two as well. Read on as we take a look…
Special thanks to Cooler Master for providing us with the HAF Stacker 935 Case to review.
Features
– World’s first “mod-tower” with stacking functionality for limitless utility
– Stack extra 915F or 915R for dual/triple system or additional water cooling and storage
– Dust filtered intakes and sliding filter frames
– Intuitive design for flexible and easy installations
– Greater storage expandability with transferrable drive cages between chassis
– Full window version (tinted)
– Modular I/O functionality for future-proof connectivity
– Multiple removable dust filters (top, front, bottom, side panel) for improved system maintenance
Specifications
Packaging
The HAF Stacker 935 comes in a rather large box. This is because both the 925 and 915 cases are in the same box. Opening up the box box cases inside are protected by large pieces of styrofoam and wrapping around the cases.
HAF Stacker Series Overview
We have done a complete video overview of the HAF Stacker series. This includes an overview of both the 915R and 915F cases, the main 925 unit, how to stack the cases and the HAF Stacker 935 and HAF Stacker 945 setups.
The HAF Stacker 915
The smaller Mini-ITX case on the HAF Stacker 935 is the 915. There are actually two different 915 cases, but when you get the 935 the 915R is the case that you will get. The 915R and 915F are pretty much the same case, except for a few minor details. The cases themselves have dimensions of 228 x 248 x 578mm / 8.97 x 9.76 x 22.75 in.
The 915R that comes with the case does not have any power buttons or anything like that on the front. This is because it is made for external watercooling or storage. The front is all mesh and has a single 5.25-inch drive bay. The 915R on the other hand does have a power button on the front along with HD audio and dual USB 3.0 ports. Now if you wanted to use those on the 915R the I/O panels are interchangeable between the cases.
The sides of the cases are exactly the same. In the shots below you can see that the 915 is a rather long case. This is so it can stack with the main compartment of the 935. Each side of the case has a large mesh section that can support three 120 mm or two 140 mm fans. These side panels can also support 360 mm or 280 mm radiators. So in total you could fit six 120 mm fans, or four 140mm fans, or dual 360/280 mm radiators! That is awesome for a mini-ITX case!
Both cases support mini-ITX motherboards and have two expansion slots to support a single dual-slot graphics card. The 915R as the name suggest has the power supply mounting on the rear of the unit. Both cases support normal-sized ATX power supplies. The 915F has a 140mm exhaust fan on the back of the case as well as a power connection that has been routed from the front of the case. Because the 915F does not have a power supply mounting on the rear of the case it makes room for larger CPU coolers on your mini-ITX system. There are thumbscrews on each side panel for easy removal.
The top of each 915 has a mesh design to allow air to easily enter and exit the case. The top section of each case can be easily removed to stack the cases and to allows cables from other systems in your stack to be routed between the systems. The bottom of the case also has one large cable routing hole as well as 4 smaller ones to help do the same thing.
Moving inside we can see another difference between the cases. On the left we have the 915R which has a hard drive cage. The 915F on the other hand does not have a hard drive case as that area of the case is made for the power supply. Do not worry though there is still room inside of the case for three hard drives and you can actually take the cages out of the main compartment and install them in the 915F if you like.
The hard drive cage on the 915R has three hard drive trays in it. These trays easily come out and support both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives.
While the 915F does not have hard drive cage there is room for hard drives to be mounted on the bottom of the case and vertically along the back wall of the case.
The HAF Stacker 925 (Main Compartment)
The main compartment of the Stacker 935 looks just like your typical mid-tower case. This case will not be sold separately from the 935. The case has the same style as the 915 cases of course so they look good when you stack them. The case does not come with a top as the 915 is meant to be stacked on top of it. Now if you wanted to stack the 915 on the bottom you can take the top off the 915 and install it here.
The front of the case is all mesh. At the top you have a power button, audio connections, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. Below that you have three 5.25-inch drive bays. The rest of the front of the case is mesh and has support for dual 120 mm intakes or a single 92 mm intake.
The side of the case has a rather large window on it. This will show off everything installed.
Moving along to the back of the case there are three watercooling holes at the top, a 140 mm exhaust fan, 8 expansion slots and and your power supply mount at the bottom. There is also a removable fan filter that comes out from the bottom of the case.
The bottom of the case has two large openings that will allow you to route your cables between systems.
Opening the case up and getting inside we can see that there is quite a lot of room to work with. The main compartment has room for E-ATX, ATX and Micro-ATX cases. There are 4 cable routing holes that has the rubber inserts installed and a smaller one at the top for your CPU power cable.
The three 5.25-inch drive bays use Cooler Master’s simple tool-less locking system, which has worked very well on previous Cooler Master cases.
Moving down there are two hard drive cages. Both cages are completely removable. Each cage has three trays that easily come out and support both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives.
There is a spot for your power supply on the bottom of the case. Moving up there are 8 expansion slots and an extra one that you can use for a VGA cooler or some type of controller. Finally towards the top of the case is the 140 mm exhaust fan.
There is also a very large CPU cutout on the motherboard which will allow you to install aftermarket CPU coolers without having to remove your motherboard from the case. Taking the opposite side panel of the case off we can see how everything it setup. There is quite a lot of room on the the backside of the case to route cables.
Installation
Before we get into installation I wanted to go over the different stacking modes. The normal HAF Stacker 935 mode is where you have the 915 stacked either on the top or bottom of the main compartment.
The other is the 945 setup which includes the main compartment and two 915 cases. Remember all of these cases are modular and can be stacked so if you like you can only buy two or three 915 cases and stack those together.
Now to start out installation we will be install our hardware in the main compartment first. There is quite a lot of room to work with inside and our motherboard goes in very easily.
Hard drives will be installed in the included trays. Cooler Master has made thing easy for 3.5-inch drives as the process is totally tool-less. The tray itself actually expands so you have an easier time getting the drive in. 2.5-inch drives attach to the trays by 4 small screws on the bottom. Once you have your hard drives installed you can go ahead and slide your drives back in.
Optical drive installation requires you to remove the front bezel to take out the bezel covers. Once you have done that you can put the front bezel back on and slide in your drive. Simply lock it into place with the tool-less locking system.
The power supply slides right into the bottom of the case and now it is time to route all of our cables. Since we can route them around the back of the motherboard tray it makes for a rather clean install.
No onto the 915, I decided to use the 915F for my build. The first thing to do was to install our mini-ITX motherboard. It makes things much easier if you remove to the top of the case.
We will be installing a single 2.5-inch hard drive in this case. Install the rubber standoffs as you see in the first image below. For installation on the bottom of the case just line up the standoffs with the holes then go ahead and slide it into place. Installation would be the same on the far side panel. While this installation works well we were unable to connect our SATA power connector and we were using Cooler Master own V850 power supply. I would have liked to have seen a single SATA power connector adapter included.
To install and secure the power supply at the front of the case you need to take off the front bezel. Here you can see the power cable that connects to your power supply and gets routed to the back of the case.
The last thing to install is our video card. Here we ran into an issue as well. The bottom part of the case actually gets in the way on the end of the metal I/O shield on the graphics card. We tested 3 different cards and got the same result. Because of this the card is not fully in our PCI-Express slot and we were unable to re-install the thumbscrews to secure the card. You can see though that the 915 can support very long graphics cards.
Here are shots of the two cases stacked together.
Final Thoughts
To be honest when Cooler Master announced the HAF Stacker series I was not really that impressed, but after spending some time with the cases and building a system in them my mind has been changed. They make complete sense and can really help you build the ultimate system.
The fact that you are able to stack the cases gives you many different possibilities of the type of system you can put together. The HAF Stacker 935 that we received will allow you to have your main system in the 925 case and either watercooling, storage or a mini-ITX system in the 915 case. If you wanted to build upon that you could add another 915 case, you can even stack 2 or 3 915 cases together. What’s great is that Cooler Master makes it very easy to route your cables between all of the different cases and stacking them is just as easy.
Talking about things being easy installation in the HAF Stacker cases was extremely easy and straight forward. No one wants a complicated installation process. I did run into a couple of issues during installation, but for the most part it was smooth.
Cooler Master has really put a lot of thought into these cases. As expected you have support for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch hard drives, tool-less installation, USB 3.0 and cable routing holes but there is much more. The 915 case is designed to hold dual 360 mm radiators, which is very impressive. It also can support long graphics cards if you were building a mini-ITX system in it. Say you want a storage array, the 915 can support three hard drive cages! So you could actually take the cages out of the main compartment and use them on the 915.
Now as I said I did run into some issues with the cases. On the 915 I was not able to completely install my video card. Then end on the I/O shield on the card actually hits the bottom part of the case. I tried 3 different cards with the same result. This actually meant that our video card was not fully installed. I’m not sure if this was just the sample that we received, but it seems like it would be a big issue to me. Also on the 915 if you install a hard drive on the bottom part of the case you will need to find a flat SATA power connector. The ones on Cooler Masters own V850 unit did not work here.
Another thing that I do not like is that the 935 system can only be purchased as the 925 (main compartment) plus the 915R. Users who want a 915F have to buy that separate. It would be nice if Cooler Master gave users the choice of what 915 case they wanted depending on their needs.
Right now you can find the HAF Stacker 935 case online for around $150, that is a great deal as you are basically getting two cases for that price. If you want to add another 915 case those are selling for around $60. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 Case an 8 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Stackable
– Can route cables / tubing between both cases
– Lots of room in both cases
– Easy installation
– Price
– The 915 can support dual 360 mm radiators
Cons:
– Users do not have a choice of what 915 case they get
– Unable to completely install a dual-slot video card in the 915
– Bottom mounted hard drives require a thin SATA power connector