Cooler Master Storm product series is intended for gamers and Scout is new addition to that gaming family. After Sniper case, in our test labs arrived Scout: younger and smaller brother of Sniper. It main characteristics are: military stealthy design paired with traditional Cooler Master build quality. Since it shares a lot of features with previously reviewed Sniper we won’t waste your time on describing all of its features.
In the package we found all the necessary accessories along side with black screws, a very nice detail since the whole case is black. There are also 3.5 and 5.25 inch drive bay converter, manual and 10 mounting HDD brackets. Beside these in package are also included few additional very useful accessories like 3.5 inch to 2.5 or 1.8 inch drive converter for devices like SSDs.
Since Scout belong to same Storm product family as Sniper does, it also features Security Rear Panel (safeguards your gaming peripherals) that helps securing mouse and keyboard to your chassis in case of theft attempt which is, unfortunately, often occurrence on LAN parties and similar events.
Also this chassis features handles for easier carrying which is one of the main concerns of any serious gamers when deciding which chassis to purchase. As we already mentioned the whole chassis is colored black, and by that we mean whole: inside and out. Quality materials were used with good final finish so no noise is expected to be generated by loose or badly fitted parts. Dust filters are present on front grill that can be easily accessed for cleaning since front grill can be dismounted.
Another dust filter is present at power supply mounting place but this filter cannot be cleaned without taking off power supply. Power supply mounting place is at the bottom, which is best position because of better airflow. Upper segment of chassis is made entirely out of plastics which central part forms a carrying handle. It also houses one 140mm fan that is used to take hot air out of the chassis.
Another 140mm fan is mounted at lower part of front panel behind front grill and in front of HDD rack. This fan is lighted with red LEDs. At the backside is mounted one transparent 120mm fan also lighted with red LEDs. As it was the case with Sniper model, button for disabling fan lighting is present on front control panel.
Scout has five 5.25 inch drive bays. One of these can be converted to 3.5 inch bay for floppy drive, if anyone uses them anymore, or card reader. All drives can be secured with plastic clips, which are also used for securing PCI cards.
Left side is transparent and two 120mm fans can be mounted on it. Right side is not transparent but shaped identically to the left one. Because of this shape and holes in motherboard mounting plate there is enough place for intelligent and better airflow cable management.
Also changing CPU cooler will be piece of cake since there is whole that allows easy access to CPU cooler backplate. On front control panel are present four USB 2.0 connectors, eSATA port and both audio connectors, but there is no FireWire connector. Our humble opinion is that two USB connectors should have been replaced by one FireWire connector. Of course, power and reset buttons are present.
Conclusion
Build quality of Cooler Master Storm Scout chassis is at top level. Compared to other chassis it performs very well. Only real problem presents small gap between top of the mounted motherboard and top chassis side: just 14mm. This can be a problem if really big CPU fan must be mounted, but since air flow in the chassis is good there is no real necessity for such coolers. In addition, when full ATX motherboard is mounted, HDD cage is positioned only 2cm from its right side so mounting some full sized graphics cards can be a problem. These are only conditional problems and shouldn’t be considered as too serious. With all fans at minimal RPM, this chassis is silent while at maximum RPM noise generated by fans and chassis can be noticed, but only if there is no surrounding noise. If budget for your new chassis doesn’t go over 100€ and you consider yourself a gamer Cooler Master Storm Scout should be one of the top few choices on the shopping list.
| Cooler Master Storm Scout | |
| Dimensions | 219 x 495 x 489 mm |
| Weight | 8.7kg |
| Supported Motherboard formats | Micro-ATX / ATX |
| 5.25 inch drive bays | 5 |
| 3.5 inch drive bays | 5+1 |
| I/O Panel | 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x eSATA, 1 x MicIn, 1 x LineOut |
| Power supply bays | 1 |
