Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO Review 28

Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO Review

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Value and Conclusion

  • The Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO has an MSRP of US$650 excl. taxes.
  • Crazy, 10 mm thick glass inserts in the front
  • Round LCD screen in the front
  • Excellent level of engineering
  • Cool glass panel to show off hidden areas of the build
  • Functional, tool-less expansion-slot locking mechanism
  • Functional, plastic locks for several internal components
  • Vertical PCIe 4.0 kit included
  • Lots of screws, nicely sorted in a box
  • Lots of zip-tie hooks for incredibly clean build
  • Plenty of well-placed grommet openings
  • Can hold a crazy number of storage drives
  • Tons of space for immense liquid-cooling setups
  • Removable mounting frames for fans and radiators
  • Tool-less entry and HDD, PSU, and GPU installation
  • Two 200 mm fans in the front and three additional 120 mm SickleFlow fans inside
  • Underside dust filter may be pulled out from the side
  • MasterPlus software functional and well built
  • Massive amounts of space for anything you can throw at it
  • Well thought out unpacking experience
  • Massive chassis, a full system approaches 46 kg
  • Overkill of a case results in it being expensive
  • Some areas of the case are a little underutilized
  • Plastic clips for cables not needed
  • Bottom case fan just a nice to have, not really needed
  • HDD mounting plates block intake areas
Several brands design and sell cases that are their answer to cost is no object. Most of these tend to rely heavily on unique manufacturing processes and materials that result in a unique-looking enclosure with a focus on design instead of function. However, a select few tend to put function first and design, which still gets plenty of love, second. This is also clearly the approach Cooler Master is taking with the HAF 700 EVO. It is massive and costs more on its own than some entry-level systems as a whole, but uncompromising with the usual restraints of price and size gone.

Even so, looking at the outside, there are no curved glass panels like with the Cosmos. However, Cooler Master still incorporated thick glass elements into the design and lights them in a way that makes the chassis stand out, something no other brand has managed. And while a display is not unique on its own, a circular one with the level of engineering for a detaching connector so that you may pull off the front like any traditional chassis is. Such attention to details clearly walks the path of the best-possible user experience even if it costs more.

On the interior, Cooler Master makes very good use of the space with a massive number of potential storage elements and up to four big radiators, all without compromising at all when it comes to component choices. The only downside is that the multi-purpose mounting plates restrict airflow, but the HAF 700 EVO manages to provide excellent thermal and noise results even so. Looking closer, there are a few elements we will surely see trickle down into enclosures at a lower price point, like the functional plastic locking elements.

With all of that in mind, the Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO absolutely deserves our Innovation award, and if you really plan to use the space to fill it with the biggest, fastest top-of-the-line components, thus somewhat normalizing the cost of the HAF 700 EVO against the thousands of dollars spent on parts anyway, feel free to grab yourself the HAF 700 EVO—for those people, it certainly is an Editor's Choice as well.
Editor's Choice
Innovation
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Dec 2nd, 2024 22:47 CST change timezone

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