Hardware Review
Cooler Master Storm Scout
When thinking of LAN cases, you would think of a case that you can bring to LAN parties. It has to be light, portable and of course it has to turn heads too. Many manufacturers also sometimes overlook the interiors of their case design, but CM's cases has always been top notch in their exterior and interior designs. Cooler Master sent us a sample of their newer CM Scout case which looks to be a very attractive chassis. We would like to thank the CM team for making this review possible.
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Let's take a look at the Scout case. Our sample came in a nicely packaged black CM box. The first thing we noticed with the case is that the exterior design is very well crafted. The exterior shell also has a nice black finish. Looking at the top, you'll see the nicely crafted handles. Located also at the top of the case, you'll see the front panel ports as well as the power and reset button. We also noticed an extra button that basically turns the case's LED lights turn on or off. The front of the case is made up of a nice steel mesh material. The side panel window also is very well designed, it also can sport two 120mm fan for extra cooling. Over all the construction and exterior of the CM Scout case is very well done. From its design and aesthetics, the overall look and feel of the case jives very well.
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Inspecting the Scout's interior showed more of the same creativity of the case's designs. Let's begin with the tool less rail design the Scout uses to secure your 5.25" optical drives. Not only the rails make installation a breeze, it also blends well with the case's black interiors. For hard drive installation, CM provides rails that attaches to both sides of your drive and in turn secures your hard drives onto the 3.5" bays. The Scout can hold up five 5.25" drive and five 3.5" drives. CM also included one 140mm LED intake fan at the front as well as one 120mm LED out-take fan at the back. The PSUs chamber is positioned at the bottom of the case instead of the traditional top location. CM also implemented a tool less locking clips to secure your AGP/PCI slots. Another neat feature that CM implemented is the wire management system it uses to hide the cables on the the right hand side panel of the case. CM also incorporated a feature that allows swapping of CPU cooler without the removal of the motherboard. CM did this by making an opening on the motherboard area where the CPU would be located, thus accessing the back plate of the CPU cooler a breeze. The interiors of the Scout case is one of the best we've seen on a mid tower case by far.
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The CM Scout really blew us away, with it's nice exterior and interior design. We can't say enough good things that CM implemented in the case. From the nicely designed handles to the tool less drive rails of its interiors, the Scout has to be one of the most complete mid tower case we've reviewed so far. We really liked how the overall look and feel jived together to bring out a very sleek and aggressive looking desktop. We are giving the CM Scout case a score of 9 out 10 with our Editor's Choice.
Pros:
Sleek aesthetic design
Nice black finish
Tool less drive rails
Great interiors
Comes with 3 120mm fans
Cons:
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