HAVN BF360 Flow case review: Air scoop design delivers low GPU temps

HAVN takes a different approach to GPU temperatures, with a ramp directing the airflow of its large 180mm intake fans.

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HAVN BF360 Flow
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

Tom's Hardware Verdict

HAVN’s BF360 Flow forgoes ARGB in favor of a black aesthetic with a stone-textured front panel. It also notably incorporates an “air scoop” design, which results in some of the lowest GPU temperatures we’ve seen yet.

Pros

  • +

    Excellent GPU temperatures

  • +

    Great cable management support

  • +

    Gripped panel tabs for easy removal of sides

  • +

    Stone textured front panel

  • +

    Supports up to ten 2.5-inch drives (eight by default)

Cons

  • -

    1-year warranty

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HAVN’s latest flagship PC case, the BF360 Flow, ditches RGB for a black aesthetic flanked with a stone-textured front panel. But its most notable feature is its unusual approach to airflow, incorporating a “scoop” at the bottom to direct air directly against the GPU.

Will this engineering choice result in performance that stands out enough to make our list of the best PC cases? Let’s take a look at the specifications and features of the case, then we’ll get to the design and features before wrapping up our review with thermal and acoustic benchmarks to see how well the case performs.

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Product Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Motherboard Support

E-ATX (up to 277mm), ATX, M-ATX, Mini-ITX

Color

Black or White

Type

Mid-tower

Case Dimensions (H x L x W)

522.6 x 515 x 254 mm / 20.6 x 20.3 x 10

inches

Storage Support

Two drive trays support either two 3.5” drives or four 2.5” drives. An additional drive bay tray (not included) can be installed, for a maximum of five 3.5” drives or ten 2.5” drives.

PCI-E Expansion Slots

Seven

Fan Support

Up to six fans
Front: 2x 180mm
Rear: 1x 140mm or 120mm
Top: 2 x 180mm, 2x 140mm, or 3x 120mm

Pre-Installed fans

2x 180mm intake, 1x 140mm exhaust

CPU Cooler Clearance

195mm

GPU Clearance

410mm, 4.5 slots

Vertical GPU Support

No

PSU Length

ATX up to 200mm

Radiator Support

Up to 360mm on the top

MSRP

$189.99

Dust Filters

Front (Built-in), Top (Built-In), Bottom (removable)

Other features

Stone-textured front panel, GPU anti-sag, air scoop design

Warranty

1 year

Features of HAVN’s BF360 Flow

▶️ Solid black and stone-textured design, massive 180mm fans

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The stone-textured front panel covers two of HAVN’s enormous H18 (180mm) fans for air intake.

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

These fans are much larger than your typical PC parts. To give you a better idea of just how massive they are, here are a couple of photos with HAVN’s H18 placed next to Montech’s extra-thick E28 fan!

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Swipe to scroll horizontally

Dimensions

180 x 180 x 40mm

Bearing

Fluid Dynamic Bearing

Speed

0 – 1300 RPM

Airflow

164.63 CFM

Static Pressure

2.19 mmH₂O

MTTF

> 150,000 hours

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

▶️ Air scoop for superior GPU cooling performance

The BF360 Flow incorporates an air scoop, which directs the airflow of the bottom fan directly toward the GPU, resulting in some of the best GPU temperatures we’ve seen in any PC case.

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

▶️ GPU anti-sag support

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

For lage GPUs, the case includes a highly adjustable anti-sag bracket that mounts on the motherboard tray area and can be slid up and down as well as swiveled out to best support your specific graphics card.

▶️ PWM hub

At the top of the case’s backside is a hardware PWM controller, supporting up to six fans (the maximum supported by this case).

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Rear view, Storage support, cable management

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Starting at the top left corner, you’ll see the PWM hub. Below it are two drive trays, which can each support two 2.5-inch drives or a single 3.5-inch drive.

If you by chance need more storage, an additional tray (not included) can be installed next to the cable management routing path.

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The cable management paths have velcro straps to secure the cables and keep things organized. The cable pass-through paths are lined with a flexible material, and have securing braces (shown above) that can be used to keep cables from moving.

▶️ IO panel

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The IO panel is located at the front and top of the case. It features a lighted power button, two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and an audio jack.

▶️ Dust filters

The BF360 Flow has three dust filters – located in the top (pictured below), front, and bottom (below the PSU).

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The dust filter on the bottom of the chassis is independent and easily removed. The other two filters are part of the top panel (shown above) and the stone-textured front panel (shown below), but are also easily removable.

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

▶️ Rear view

For the most part, if you’ve seen the back of one computer case – you’ve seen most. With this case, you have your standard seven PCI-e slots and exhaust fan, and the PSU slot at the bottom. What stands out in the BF360 Flow is the side panel cutouts or grips, which are used to remove the panels, and a pull tab at up top for removing that panel.

HAVN BF360 Flow

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Thermal tests, test setup, and testing methodology

Swipe to scroll horizontally

CPU

Intel i9-14900K

CPU Cooler

Ocypus Iota A62 WH dual-tower cooler, configured with a single fan

System fans

Hyte FA12 fans

Motherboard

ASUS Z790-P Prime Wifi

GPU

MSI Ventus 3X Black RTX 4070 Ti Super OC

PSU

Asus TUF Gaming 850W PSU

I’ve benchmarked this case primarily to focus on the efficiency of its thermal transfer.

Our thermal tests are presented to give you more information about the product’s performance, but aren’t intended as the sole judgment of the chassis. The style, price, features, and noise levels of a case should also be considered, and we all have different preferences. What I might like in a case, you might not, and that’s OK. My goal with these reviews is to give everyone, no matter their preferences, enough information to decide whether or not a product is right for them.

Albert Thomas
Albert Thomas
Freelancer, CPU Cooling Reviewer

Albert Thomas is a contributor for Tom’s Hardware, primarily covering CPU cooling reviews.

30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Loadedaxe
    I’ve been eyeing their cases for a while now, but since I run mATX boards, their lineup doesn’t really work for me. I’m also not into having a giant case taking up half my desk.

    If they ever start making some smaller mATX options, they’ll definitely have my attention.
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    I'm interested in this case and it'll likely be the one I buy despite the testing here not falling quite in line with some of the others I've seen. it's also important to note that they didn't run the full setup of fans (don't know if that's on TH or HAVN for not sending enough), as HAVN recommends an intake on top and an exhaust to go along with the exhaust in the rear. That'd likely bring temps down a lot.

    As I'd begin by having this on the floor, the size really doesn't matter all that much to me but likely will to others.
    Reply
  • tennis2
    Loadedaxe said:
    I’ve been eyeing their cases for a while now, but since I run mATX boards, their lineup doesn’t really work for me. I’m also not into having a giant case taking up half my desk.

    If they ever start making some smaller mATX options, they’ll definitely have my attention.
    The industry needs to move away from ATX. Really thought we were making headway on that 10 years ago, then it just kinda.....poof. Now it's even worse for mATX support.

    mATX is the perfect standard, 4 RAM slots, supports more than a 2-slot GPU, most of the time you still have 1 free expansion slot above or below the GPU, all the amenities of ATX, none of the unnecessary expansion slots.
    Then just reserve mITX for small builds.

    ATX is just an antiquated standard that hasn't been relevant in the consumer space for 15+ years.
    Reply
  • DougMcC
    Looks wise this is exactly what I want ... death to RGB!
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    tennis2 said:
    ATX is just an antiquated standard that hasn't been relevant in the consumer space for 15+ years.
    If this were so, they'd have killed it off by now. Seems your opinion is just that.
    Reply
  • tennis2
    SkyBill40 said:
    If this were so, they'd have killed it off by now. Seems your opinion is just that.
    My 15 year comment was regarding the "death" of dual GPU consumer systems (SLI/Crossfire) and the turn of WiFi being widely used and included in the mobo instead of needing a WiFi card. But adoption is reliant on mobos AND cases.

    mATX sits in an awkward middle-ground in terms of case size in a 3-size environment. Because of that, mATX has generally served as a "budget" market. Hard to let the market speak for itself when feature-parity is unbalanced and with such a large disparity of SKUs to choose from. That also affects economy-of-scale for mATX. So you just end up giving consumers 2 choices, mITX which does have sacrifices for some, or ATX which is more than what the vast majority needs/uses.

    That being said, the recent trend toward >2 slot GPUs in the past 5-ish years is sure to affect something since mITX cases rarely offer >2 expansion slots, and if they do, they're 1 slot from being a mATX case.
    Also seeing more people putting their case on TOP of their desks (which baffles me, but whatever), but that's also tough with ATX-or-ITX landscape if you have a >2-slot GPU.

    In a logical world, mATX would be the most popular mobo/case size, and ATX and ITX would serve niche markets.....which is arguably opposite of the current situation. But again....we're not given a fair choice to make, so here we are.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    I was curious how these front fans compare to Noctua's current flagship 140 mm PWM model. While the current US price for these Nocuta fans is crazy (esp. for buying multiple of them), I think they do show what's technically possible in a 140x140x25 mm package.
    MetricHAVN H18Noctua NF-A14x25 PWM G2Dimensions180x180x40140x140x25Max Speed1200 RPM1500 RPMMax Airflow164.6 CFM91.6 CFMMax Static Pressure2.19 mm H202.56 mm H20Airflow per RPM per mm^24.23 x 10^-6 feet3.12 x 10^-6 feet
    The last row is my attempt to get a sense of how efficient these fans are, relative to their speed and size. I didn't divide out the depth of each fan. If I do that, then Noctua comes out on top, with an efficiency of 1.24 x 10^-7 vs. HAVN's 1.06 x 10^-7. However, I think depth isn't nearly as proportional to airflow as area and RPMs generally are.

    Also, keep in mind that this is based on each fan's claimed specs, yet we don't know how accurate those are nor how much airflow the HAVN fans would achieve through something like a case grille. HW Cooling has plenty of airflow measurements of the NF-A14x25 PWM G2 through various types & degrees of restriction, BTW. I didn't find any review of the HAVN fan, on their site.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    SkyBill40 said:
    it's also important to note that they didn't run the full setup of fans (don't know if that's on TH or HAVN for not sending enough), as HAVN recommends an intake on top and an exhaust to go along with the exhaust in the rear. That'd likely bring temps down a lot.
    The case comes with 2x 180mm and 1x 140mm fans so that's how the main testing was done. If you scroll down you'll see the additional fan configuration tested which had moderate CPU temperature reductions.
    tennis2 said:
    The industry needs to move away from ATX. Really thought we were making headway on that 10 years ago, then it just kinda.....poof. Now it's even worse for mATX support.
    Unfortunately the market just was never really there for mATX. Going smaller became the shift for most enthusiasts who cared about size and the rest largely don't care about the small size difference between ATX and mATX. The rise of M.2 storage on desktop puts mATX at a clear disadvantage as it's limited to 3 slots. I do wish there were more quality options for mATX and sometimes there are decent lower-mid range boards, but the only high end one I can think of for a long time was the X670E Gene and it disappeared off the market very quickly.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    While the HAVN cases are interesting in general they're just not really competitive if you take into account cost. I do like their mechanical design and hope they keep bringing new ideas to the table. I just don't see why anyone would pick this case over say a Lian-li Lancool 217 for example unless the aesthetics really spoke to them.
    Reply
  • call101010
    tennis2 said:
    ATX is just an antiquated standard that hasn't been relevant in the consumer space for 15+ years.
    Not true ... with GPU going three and four slots , they will cover the ATX space anyways and there is no point of wasting that space using mATX motherboard .

    Also , M2 slots need space and the more we have the better. ATX will be always the Enthusiast choice.

    Actually it is the mATX that should be removed ... if you want small size go for mini ITX , and if you want more components , then full ATX ...,

    why ? because all the slots on the mATX will be covered by the GPU anyways so it is as a mini ITX slotwise .. and 4 slots memory is also not needed , Overlockers use only 2 DIMMS.

    Itx however gives you shorter depth and smaller size. so the mATX is the least wanted motherboard ...

    The only scenario that micro ATX is better is for business PC where the GPU is small but you need extra slots for other hardware and at the same time smaller PC ...
    Reply