Cooler Master Storm Scout Mid-Tower Case Review

Exterior Impressions


From an overall aesthetic perspective, the CM Scout is a somewhat aggressive looking enclosure; much like the Storm Sniper. It’s dark powder-coat finish, angled side window and – straight from Cooler Master’s marketing – “military design” set it apart from your average ‘classic style’ mid-tower. This case definitely would not look at home in an office cubicle, but certainly wouldn’t have any trouble fitting in at a LAN party.

Measuring a relatively modest 19.5 inches tall and 19.2 inches deep, it is quite a bit more compact than many of the case’s we’ve had pass through our labs as of late. Its overall dimensions make it roughly the same size as the popular Antec 900, and quite significantly smaller than the Storm Sniper.

When it comes to materials, the Storm Scout is constructed almost entirely out of thick-grade steel save for its front panel and top, which are made of thick ABS plastic. Despite its sturdy steel construction, it weighs in at a somewhat reasonable 19 pounds.


A gamers’ case wouldn’t be a gamers’ case without providing a window to keep an eye on – or show off – your hardware. After all, what good is a $400 video card if you can’t show it to everyone at the next LAN party? The Storm Scout’s acrylic window is not your average case window either. It is constructed of thick acrylic with an “automotive” tint applied to it. You’ll also notice that there are ventilation strips cut out so that two 120mm fans can be mounted onto the side panel for extra CPU and GPU cooling. Cooler Master does not include fans for this purpose, but just about any 25mm thick model should fit without issue. We’ll be testing the case with and without these optional fans to see what kind of performance role they play.

The other side of the case has a solid panel, but you’ll notice that the centre portion of the panel begins to protrude as you move from the front of the case to the back. We’ll get into why this is important later on.


Unlike the Storm Sniper, you’ll notice that the rear of the Scout is painted black. This is a nice touch that many enthusiasts will appreciate. As you’ll see shortly in the “Interior Impressions” section, Cooler Master didn’t stop there either.

Like most enthusiast cases these days, the Storm Scout employs a “bottom mounted” PSU and a fairly standard layout with a single 120mm exhaust fan. The fan grille is a simple ‘honeycomb’ stamped variety with mounting holes for not only 120mm fans, but also 92 and 80mm models. Most buyers won’t be interested in downgrading to these sizes, but its options are never a bad thing.

Further down, a ventilation opening is provided directly beside the expansion slot covers, but unfortunately, the Scout does not include vented expansion slot brackets. Keeping the rear of the case breathing, especially the expansion slot area is very important as toasty video cards do not always exhaust air directly out of the case very well. We’ll see how the Scout is able to keep a pair of HD3850 cards cool in the “Performance Testing” section.


Bottom mounted PSUs are becoming ever more popular these days. There are some thermal advantages to having the PSU at the bottom of the case, but some cable management challenges usually go along with them. Thankfully, case manufacturers are starting to implement some innovative ways to manage cabling in this sort of orientation, and PSU makers are providing longer power leads to ensure they’ll reach the extra distance required. Thankfully, the Storm Scout is not a very tall case, so just about any modern PSU will have long enough leads to reach all areas of the motherboard and case.

The mounting holes exist to allow the PSU to be mounted right-side-up or upside-down. Some PSUs with a 120mm or larger fan at the bottom of the casing may benefit from an upside down orientation as they can draw in air with less restriction from the case. On the flip side, mounting it right side up allows the PSU to draw in cooler air from underneath the case. If the air temperature within the case is high, this orientation may be preferred. At any rate, it’s good to be able to choose between the two mounting possibilities.


Moving back up the case a little, we see that Cooler Master included the “Storm Guard” system that we were fond of in the Storm Sniper. This incredibly simple contraption allows LAN gamers to wrap their USB peripherals through the openings to “securely” fasten them to the case. With this, an unsavoury character at a LAN party won’t be able to walk away with your precious keyboard or gaming mouse while you are on a bathroom break. Although this is definitely not the “be-all-end-all” of peripheral security, it is an excellent deterrent, and we are happy that Cooler Master continued to include this with the Storm Scout. Since the Storm Scout – like the Storm Sniper – is targeted at the LAN gaming community, this is a great feature that really sets the Storm series cases apart; you won’t find from other manufacturers.


About the only negative aspect of Cooler Master’s implementation of “Storm Guard” in the Storm Scout is that it occupies an expansion slot. In the Storm Sniper, the “Storm Guard” bracket mounts away from and independent of the slot openings. Although not as ideal as the Sniper, the bracket can still be moved to any vacant expansion slot, which won’t be an issue for most.