Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO E-ATX High Airflow Case

Built like a tank, spacious, premium. However, there are small things that add up to a disappointing experience. Normally, I wouldn’t be so picky about such minor things. But I also don’t normally spend $650 on a case.

The fit for the seem on the glass panel near the top where the two metal plates meet at the front of the case form an “S” bend and don’t join neatly together, causing them to overlap. This has an effect of making it look cheap and poorly manufactured.

The grommets inside the case have a tendency to bunch up toward the center of the opening. Instead of them being firmly against the opening, they slide off.

Everything in this case is tool-less. Except the main retention screw that you need to remove in order to take off the top panel. The top panel is the lynch pin, permitting access to the the rest of the case by allowing you to remove the side panels. You’d think it would be a retention screw on something this expensive. Not so. Hopefully you don’t lose this one important screw that’s effectively holding together your entire case.

The glass inserts on the front panel of the case are exceptionally dirty, requiring me to use some window cleaner and microfiber cloth to get them to a satisfactory appearance. This is despite the many plastic peel films on each side of the glass inserts. In fact, it made the effect stand out more. Dirty and clean glass clashed, making the foggy glass apparent even from 5ft away, especially when lit.

Even though this case is large enough to house an enitre smaller computer within its cavernous interior, it lacked enough width to let me use my noctua NH-D15 with both fans (one raised up due to ram) on the cpu cooler. I was honestly shocked since this case is all about airflow. How could you not let the premier air cooler fit in what is intended to be THE airflow case?

All in all, I’m satisfied with my purchase. Sadly, Cooler Master decided to forgo the final 10% of effort required to polish this case to a masterful product and at this price point, it hurts a lot more. I’ve seen more attention to detail in cases 1/3rd the price. If it weren’t the fact I had already purchased the case now armed with this knowledge, I would have likely gone with the lian li o11 dynamic and saved myself $400.

The best case I’ve built in. Case comes completely apart making building very easy and accommodating for water cooling. Had the Coolermaster C700M and this is a huge leap above that case. More air flow and nicer to maintain.

Beautiful spacious and very well designed. Has great cable management. It’s kind of expensive but it’s worth it. Great to see your stats. Just chilling right on the front of your case too

I have been a fan of Cooler Master cases for many years. Having built several personal PCs over the last couple of decades. So when I decided that it was time to build one last one (wife laughing in background) I chose the EVO 700. I was not disappointed. I has a huge capacity for any MB/cooler/graphics combo you wish to build and that’s just the main compartment! A second compartment allows for your power Supply and storage drives. It supports a mix of 3.5, 2.5 HDDs or SSDs with a well designed tool less system that is sufficient for almost any use case from Gamer PC, Workstation or even as a server.
My only personal con has to do with the mounting of the Power Supply. I chose an ASUS ROG Thor 1200W Power Supply which has an ARGB display area. Since the case is designed with a divider and the Power Supply fits in the lower rear right area of the case the display is not visible. There may be a mod to remedy this but I did see an easy solution for now and since I can monitor the Power Supply voltages and temps onscreen it is only a minor concern compared to all the advantages this case offers.