Cooler Master has announced its second HAF case and although it follows in the footsteps of its older sibling, the HAF 932, the HAF 922 is a fair bit smaller. Despite the HAF 922 being almost 6cm shorter, it has gained 10cm in width which should make it a fairly stable case.

We're still not keen on the design, as we find the HAF cases looking a bit too industrial without any flair, but as always, everyone has different taste. The internals of the HAF 922 are slightly improved over the 932 in some ways. Most tings remain the same, such as the hard drive brackets and quick release system for the 5.25-inch drive bays, although the cable management has been changed, as the motherboard tray doesn't touch the drive bays like it does in the 932. This means slightly easier access to cables, although it won't be quite as easy to hide all of them away.

The HAF 922 features a bottom mounted PSU and there are holes for the cables to be routed behind the motherboard tray and out at the top of the case near where the power connectors on the motherboard should be. There's also a hole in the motherboard tray which allows access to the rear of the CPU cooler, although this won't work with all motherboards as the CPU socket would have to be located in the right place for this to be a useful feature.

Cooler Master has also added an 8th expansion slot mounted vertically, just as with the CM Storm Sniper case, which can come in handy for adding expansion brackets etc. Cooler Master doesn't supply the StormGuard with the HAF 922 though, which is a bit of a shame for those wanting to be able to lock their mouse and keyboard cables to their chassis in an easy way. The front mounted 200mm fan has a top mounted on/off switch for the built in LED's which seems to be coming a re-occurring feature on high-end Cooler Master cases.

The front I/O panel offers a pair of USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA connector and two 3.5mm audio jacks. There are five 5.25-inch drive bays, although the bottom one has an adapter for a 3.5-inch drive and there are also five internal 3.5-inch drive bays. Apart from the front mounted 200mm the HAF 922 also comes with a top mounted 200mm fan and a rear mounted 120mm fan. There's also space for a side mounted fan up to 200mm and a bottom mounted 120 or 140mm fan. The top fan can be swapped for an internal watercooling radiator with dual 120mm fans and the case also has pass-through holes for watercooling pipes to go outside of the case.

The HAF 922 should retail for $129.99 in the US, but we have yet to confirm EU pricing. You can find a product portal here with plenty of pictures and additional details.