Cooler Master Storm Scout Mid-Tower Case Review

Interior Impressions pg.2


And the dark theme continues! Even the rear of the motherboard tray is painted in black powder-coat. Good show, Cooler Master. As you can see, quite a few cables run from the top of the case to the PSU opening at the bottom and Cooler Master has them bundled up all nice and tidy using zip-ties. There are actually about a dozen hooks that can be found at the rear of the motherboard tray for cable management.

Unfortunately, the PSU lead opening is not terribly large, and the header cables stuff it pretty well out of the box.


The inside roof of the Scout is dominated by a second non-LED 140mm fan that we’ll take a closer look at shortly. The fan is secured using self-taping fan screws from the top panel and can be swapped out for a 120mm model without modification.

All of the front I/O panel leads run just above the top-most 5.25 inch drive bay and through a small opening near the top right corner of the motherboard tray. Buyers will need to be careful when installing their motherboard as these cables do tend to creep into the ATX footprint a little.

The front, top and rear fans all connect using 4-pin molex connectors, although the top panel fan can be converted to a 3-pin by undoing Cooler Master’s zip-tie job at the rear of the case and removing the molex adapter installed on it. Due to the small amount of space between the hard drive cage and the fan, only 25mm thick replacement fans can be mounted in this location.


The front panel of the Scout is nice and easy to remove. A little bit of pulling pressure simply snaps it out of place. Although the panel is constructed entirely out of plastic, it has a nice and sturdy feel to it.

Behind the front panel, we find a stamped ‘honeycomb’ style grille for the front intake fan. It mounts using simple self-taping fan screws and mounting holes are present to swap out this oversize 140mm fan with standard 120x25mm fans if so desired.


At the rear of the front panel, individual pieces of dust-filtering foam are held into each 5.25 inch drive bay cover, and in front of the fan. The foam is a little on the thick side, and will definitely restrict airflow to some degree but will be very effective at keeping dust out of the case. Those more interested in maximum cooling performance can very easily pull it out and keep it in a drawer for future use.


The front 140mm fan bears the label “A14025-10CB-4MN-F1” and a quick Google search turned up very little information on this fan. Cooler Master does not provide any revealing information on these fans, aside from the fact that they are 140mm in diameter and 25mm thick. Not even CFM values or noise ratings are provided for some odd reason. Usually, marketing departments are eager to show off these values for comparison purposes. Although we are not 100% certain, we do believe this is a sleeve bearing model.

The fan motor receives power via a 4-pin molex connector and LED power via a 2-pin proprietary connector. The two-pin LED power connector mates to the Scout’s LED controller switch to toggle the light on and off.


The 140x25mm fan located at the top of the case is a non-LED model with a simple 3-pin fan connector. Those interested in monitoring the RPM of this fan should remove the 3-pin to 4-pin adapter that Cooler Master installs and use the native 3-pin connector.
The model number “A14025-10CB-3BN-F1” is very similar to the aforementioned LED model. They both draw 0.14 amps at 12V, so we can likely assume that these fans are almost identical in their motors, dimensions and airflow characteristics.


The rear 120mm exhaust fan turned up a little more information as this particular model is used in other Cooler Master cases. The black, non-LED variety of this fan is actually used in the Storm Sniper. It appears to be a sleeve bearing fan rated for 0.16A at 12V and 44CFM at a full rotational speed of 1200RPM. At 44CFM and only 1200RPM, this model was definitely chosen for its low-noise characteristics.

Like the other 140mm LED fan, this model also employs a 4-pin molex power connector for the motor, and a proprietary 2-pin LED power connector for the Scout’s LED switch.

Although we wish we could have provided some more detailed information about the fans used in the Scout, we’ll be giving its overall cooling configuration a run for its money in our “Cooling Performance” section.