Coolermaster Storm Scout

[QueBert]

I got this case last week, here's my impressions so far

inside and back panel are painted black, looks pretty nice. My silver IO shield sticks out like a sore thumb, so I'm going to have to figure out an easy way to paint it black. The handle on top is nice, I lug my box around sometimes so it's helpful, and I think it actually adds to the look of the case. The included cans are pretty quite, 3 120MM's with room for 2 more on the side window. With a big heatsink only 1 fan would fit on the side. 2 of the included ones have red LED's, which can be turned on and off with a button on the front. The red is pretty mellow and doesn't blind me. It has 4 USB's + SATA + audio on the front top, I know ports are standard now-a-days, but my last 2 cases only had 2 USB and no SATA. Audio ones are worthless as they don't work with my sound card (wish they did)

The side window has tint on it, so it's a bit darker when you look inside. And while not anything groundbreaking, it has some space behind the MB for cable management. I'll take a pic or 2 when I get home and have access to my camera. I suck with wiring, I spent about 10 minutes on this one and it already looks pretty clean. I think with a little more effort everything with the exception of my 8pin ATX power one could be almost totally hidden. Cooling seems good, I'm coming from a Coolermaster Ammo, and my temps are a few degrees lower. It comes with mounting rails for 5 HD's, a 3.5 to 5.25 converter and a 2.5 to 3.5 converter. Also a bunch of thumb screws, some twist ties and other various screws. All the screws are glass black looking, which is a small, but nice touch. Has a screw less system for 5.25 drives. I had to push my DVD pretty damn hard to get it to go in. Has tool less card brackets, my dual slot video card seemed to go in fine, if you have bigger/heavier ones you can use screws. The slot locks are plastic and probably not that strong.


pros -
Not too expensive, was $122 shipped from Newegg, not exactly cheap but the build quality + decent included fans is nice.
Looks good, this is subjective, but I like how they painted everything black. My MB, sound card & video card are also black.
Handle's a nice touch, the case is about 20lb's empty, not sure how much with all my components on it, but it's definitely not light so the handle's a good addition.
Front ports are at the top, last few cases they were at the bottom which was a PITA when I needed to access them.
Has cut out behind the CPU area so you can install huge heatsinks without taking MB out. This would have been LOVELY a month ago when I had to take my MB out of my old case to install my new heatsink, and did something accidentally that killed 2 of my memory slots lol.
the feet are plastic, a little bitchy here maybe, but I prefer rubber feet so I don't scratch up shit. It's not like rubber feet would have added anything to the price...

cons -
Thumb screws on the panels were too tight for me to remove by hand. This seems normal for cases that include them. Sort of defeats the whole "tool less" theme though
I routed my ATX cable behind the HD drive bays to hide it, with that + all the other cables already back there. I had a bitch of a time getting the side panel on. This is probably largely due to my sucking at routing though lol.
No removable MB tray, There's a decent amount of room to work inside, but this is a point people seem to love to bitch about.
The included wires aren't sleeved, if they had been all sleeved black it would have completed the all black theme.


So far I really like this case, it's quiet enough to where I don't believe I'll be replacing any of the fans. The price was good, and it seems to be really well built. This is my 3rd Coolermaster case, and I have liked them all. I was semi torn between the Storm and this one. Ultimately the price difference lead me to the Scout. Can't say I'm disappointed at all, but I haven't used a Storm so I can't compare them. I think for the price this case is a pure win.

 

[Strandwolf]

Fry's has the Cooler Master Storm Sniper for $140 now.

 

[faxon]

for $122 shipped that seems like a rip off, when the HAF 922 is $129 at frys and microcenter, and the 922 is better in so many ways than the scout. given, it's not a bad case, but the 922 just owns it in so many ways

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: faxon
for $122 shipped that seems like a rip off, when the HAF 922 is $129 at frys and microcenter, and the 922 is better in so many ways than the scout. given, it's not a bad case, but the 922 just owns it in so many ways

the 922 is nice, but I don't like the mesh window on the side, and the inside isn't black. I think the case is basically about the same on most other levels. They might even be based off the same chassis, I dunno. I looked at the 922 and thought it looks kind of ugly, the handle + the black inside/back panel of the Scout is what sold me on it. It was also about $25 cheaper on Newegg compared to the 922. I just looked at the specs and I'm not sure in what ways the 922 owns it. I see it has holes on the back for water cooling tubing, but the rest is pretty much the same.

*shrug* I like the Scout lol

 

[faxon]

hehe i was in a hurry when i made my original post so i didnt go into detail. i got to build a rig inside a scout for a friend who picked it off the shelf at the frys i work at (not seeing the HAF 922). the rig was comprised of a PH2 940, GA-MA790GP-UD4P, 8GB of G.Skill 1066 C5 ram in 4x2gb (my standard kit), a 300GB Vraptor for a boot/apps drive, a 4x2TB RAID5 for storage since he is doing 3D graphical design and each project takes up about 10-15gb according to him, a GTX285 2GB, and a coolermaster 600W modular PSU to power the whole thing, with a lapped TRUE in push/pull on the CPU. basically, the only way to cram any extra hardware into the case was to swap out the mobo or go ATI and get a second or 3rd graphics card.

now, when working inside a fully loaded case, space is at a major premium, and i ran into issues managing all the wires inside the scout. sure, it has good wire managment, but the 922 has more space behind the mobo tray, and it's also physically longer, with a large gap to the right of the mobo tray. once i got everything inside the scout, it was extremely crammed, and i had a hard time wiring everything up even with modular cabling, through that one hole at the bottom of the mobo tray. once i fired it up, he noticed just how crammed it was, and his hard drives started getting rather hot when he was doing work on projects off of the drives. we ended up bringing the case back and switching it out for a HAF922 (which i would have told him to do in the first place), and it only took me like 20 minutes to get everything transfered over because of the extra wire management holes on the side of the mobo tray, vs the hour it took with the scout because it only had bottom holes, and the 200mm fan blowing extra air across his HDDs cooled everything down significantly.

sure, the scout is a good case, but when you fully load your case up like that and you need excessive cable routing directly from the side of the mobo tray, it helps a lot to have the few features the 922 has over the scout, and it's for this reason that we sell about twice as many 922s as we do scouts right now, since they are our 2 best mid tower options (no one seems to like the 900 LOL), and the scout doesnt offer enough extra features over the 690 vs the 922.

for some perspective, the cases i sell the most are the 690 if you're on a budget, the 922 if you want a mid tower with the features of a full tower, and either the 932 or the P193 if you want a full tower, depending on if airflow or quiet running are your priority, with most getting the 932 since it's so much cheaper as well. other than that, most of our other cases are significantly lower volume, at least since i have been there.

ed: btw my friend is bringing this comp back to the east coast with him on a plane, so he couldnt get a full tower since it was over his weight limit lol