Cooler Master Storm Scout Mid-Tower Case Review

Interior Impressions


Perhaps one of the Storm Sniper’s most touted features is its massive 200mm fans. It seems that case manufacturers are pushing the envelope more and more with oversize fans these days. Standard 120mm fans are positively dwarfed in comparison.

Once we cracked open the Scout, we were greeted with a relatively compact interior which means there isn’t a lot of “extra” real-estate in the Scout. Aside from the bottom area of the case, the main compartment is quite literally not much wider than a standard ATX motherboard. This obviously raises some concerns about video card length compatibility. We can say with confidence that slightly longer than ATX motherboard cards to a maximum of 10.5 inches will fit (like a GTX 285 for example) but extra long cards like the Sapphire 4850X2 will not. Unfortunately, the hard drive cage is riveted in place, so it cannot be removed to find any extra length either. We’ll see how the Scout fairs once we get it filled with hardware shortly.

Video card length concerns aside, we were very pleased to find the entire interior of the Scout painted in a nice powder coat black finish. Black case interiors are becoming standard fare in premium quality cases, so we’re pleased that Cooler Master followed suit; especially in this price range. Interestingly, this feature was not included in the Scout’s big brother; the Storm Sniper.


A nice feature - that was included with the Sniper as well - is the paper template over the motherboard tray which is included so buyers no longer need to guess the mounting hole locations for their motherboard. Simply screw stand-offs into the prescribed labelled openings and away you go. The template is held on by a few small pieces of tape and can be easily removed without tearing it.

As mentioned earlier, the bottom-most expansion bracket contains the “Storm Guard” device. From the inside we can see small metal ‘hooks’ that act as guides for the thin cabling. Based on the openings visible, a maximum of three devices can be protected simultaneously.


Moving toward the front of the case, we find a large sideways mounted hard drive cage that allows a maximum of five 3.5 inch drives to be installed. You’ll notice that Cooler Master does not include removable caddies like they did with the Sniper. Drive caddies tend to look a little cleaner, but in actuality, they just block airflow to the drive’s metal casing. On the flip side, having caddies populating all of the drive bays provides an excellent location to hide away PSU leads and unwanted cabling. We’ll discuss cable management in the “Installation” sections.

Even farther toward the front of the case, we find a 140mm clear LED fan. This fan provides intake airflow through the drive cages and ultimately the main compartment of the case. There is very little space between the fan and the drive cage, which means that a great deal of airflow will reach the hard drives. Unfortunately – or fortunately if accessibility is important to you – the cage is oriented in such a way as to be restrictive to the overall airflow in the system. Based on the space constraints in the case, this hard drive mounting direction is understandable and we can definitely understand Cooler Master’s decision. Mounting hard drives in a front-to-back orientation would only steal more valuable video card real-estate.


Cooler Master included tool-free 5.25 inch bay locks, like they did with the Sniper and many of their other cases. Unlike the push-button locks of the Sniper, the Scout employs little rails that push down and then forward to lock in place. We’ll take a closer look at these in the Installation section, but we can definitely say that we prefer the feel of the mechanism used in the Scout as it locks into place nice and securely.


A nice rat’s nest of header cables can be found peeking through a handy opening at the bottom of the case. All of the headers are long enough for just about any motherboard, but it would have been nice to see Cooler Master keep the dark theme going and either sleeve them or opt for black insulation. It just seems a little off to have this wonderful black case with a slew of rainbow colour cables within.

We were also a little disappointed to see just a small piece of filter mesh held in place by four removable plastic rivets on the PSU fan grille. It isn’t held in place very firmly yet can’t be removed easily for cleaning. Not only do you need to remove the PSU, but you’ll need to pop the rivets from the bottom of the case.

Frankly, we’d suggest removing this prior to installing your PSU if it has a fan in this orientation. Not only will you get much improved airflow – especially if the filter gets clogged up – but it’s much easier to use some compressed air to dust our your PSU once in a while than to go through the trouble of dealing with this filter. A better solution would have been to have a small plastic framed filter mounted below the case on rails that can be easily removed for cleaning.

We should also mention that the PSU fan grille is only sized for a standard ATX size PSU. Long models, like the Corsair HX1000 for example won’t have their fan line-up with this opening properly. If you have a PSU like this, we would recommend mounting it upside-down to ensure it received adequate airflow under high-load conditions.