Cooler Master Storm Scout Mid-Tower Case Review

Packaging and Accessories


The Storm Scout ships in a moderately sized box measuring 22x22x11 inches and weighs in at a little over 23 pounds. We were actually surprised to see it ship in a box of this size as many enclosures come in absolutely massive boxes by comparison. On a positive note, the smaller size will inevitably equate to cheaper shipping costs.

The packaging is nice and colourful with a large front-on view of the case as well as a listing of the Scout’s features on the other side. Some of the marketing phrases included on the packaging are pretty off the wall, like “Fierce exterior design inspired by military weapons” and “..will keep your most vital gear fortified and well tuned at all times”. On the other hand though, some quotes from the gaming communities that worked with Cooler Master hints to the amount of collaborative effort put into the development of the “Storm” line. Mouse Sports says “With CM Storm’s expertise in producing top notch hardware and our knowledge about the gamers’ needs, we are sure that this partnership will finally result in some of the finest gaming gear”.


On the sides of the packaging, Cooler Master has thoughtfully placed a full list of pertinent specifications for prospective buyers.


Although we’re a big fan of reducing wasteful packaging material, we couldn’t help but feel that there wasn't sufficient space between the walls of the box and the case itself. The Styrofoam provides some spacing, but not quite enough in our opinion. Thankfully, our Storm Scout sample arrived in perfect condition. The entire case is wrapped in plastic to keep dust out during shipping and warehousing.

As we have mentioned in previous case reviews, it is important to remember that online vendors almost never place an enclosure box within another box filled with protective packaging like they would with smaller items. What comes from the case manufacturer is what gets tossed around by the courier company.


The Scout comes with a pretty decent spread of accessories. The list includes hard drive mounting brackets, a dozen or so cable zip-ties, screws and stand-offs, a 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch external drive bay cover and even a small PC-Speaker. Including a mini PC-Speaker on a short lead was a nice touch as it lets the buyer decide if they want to bother with one. Keeping the PC speaker out of the case means fewer header leads to hide away in the case. Many case manufacturers don’t even bother with PC-Speakers any more as many motherboards include them “on-board”.

Another nice touch is the 3.5 to 2.5/1.8 inch hard drive adaptor. Since solid state drives are gaining popularity, it is nice to be able to mount a 2.5 inch drive without the need to purchase an adapter or to have to resort to “ghetto mounting it” with duct tape or Velcro. It would have been even better had Cooler Master provided another set, as buyers with dual drive SSD raid arrays are out of luck.

We’d also like to make special mention of the screws included with the Scout. All of them are black; even the self-tapping fan screws. Although this may seem seemingly insignificant, we were pleased to see the “dark” theme of the case continued to this level of detail.

Cooler Master includes a pretty decent manual to walk a buyer through the installation process. There isn’t much in the way of wording, but pictures are often worth a thousand words and there are plenty of them in the Storm Scout manual. The manual can also be downloaded on-line at Cooler Master’s Storm Scout product page.