Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Case Review

Jos

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I almost don't know where to start commenting on this case. At every paragraph I find something to add, making me wonder if I should simply write a separate article in "General Discussions".

First, we're treating the CM "Storm Scout" as a standard mid-tower high performance case. It's no such thing.

The original, (which I have 2 of), is intended to be a portable LAN party case. The first one I got for $60.00 bucks a few Black Fridays ago, and the second I got for $32.00 bucks, brand new! (Not a misprint).

So, if we are to believe the Thermaltake Level 1 MK II attracts a certain type of following because of its, "rakish good looks", then either of the Scouts are by any definition, "crowning aesthetic achievements".

The Scouts airflow does not in any way compare to that of the Antec 900 series, (One of the originals I also have).

My unscientific conclusion is based on this; I have two cats, and two litter boxes filled with the cheapest, dustiest, clumping litter I can find. (Walmart's house brand). After a couple days the Antec's grill is loaded with dust, While the Scout could go a couple more days before being hit with the vacuum.

The Antec wins hands down on airflow. Mine is the original model, and sadly the new series are too ugly to be dragged even into my lowly hovel. However, you can't easily pick up the Antec, and cart it over to your friends house for game night either.

I don't know what the spec is on the new model, but the original's published limit on video card length was 10.5", so these case are really designed for mid-line gear, not the extravagant components which were shoehorned into the new model for this test. And the cooling numbers suffered badly because of it. It would have been nice to get the temps compared with the original Scout chassis, but I seriously doubt you could get all of that stuff into it.

I realize testing procedure is dictated by what gear is available to do the testing with, but it's hardly fair to stuff the same gear into a full tower cabinet, as you do into a portable case. If there isn't a huge temperature disparity toward cooler, the full tower is the junker.

The original has a 140mm roof fan as standard equipment, and is a quiet running case in general.

Don't quite know where CM gets the hubris to calls this case "tool-less", but you do have to screw drive rails onto the HDDs to get them into the case. Maybe, "sorta tool-less" would be less of a stretch.

I love the Scouts blackout interiors,. (Both models have it), and I've seriously toyed with the idea of yanking my Antec 900 apart and gunning its interior flat black also. (I think the new 900s have a black interior, the old ones didn't).

The CM "Storm Scout" relevance, (or lack thereof), is really based on a comparison with cases designed to the same purpose, which this review didn't quite establish.

As to its price, this new model is likely to become the same type of promotional football as its predecessor. I picture it to be a decent to great buy in the $60.00 to $70.00 range. Of course even at that price, the original Scout is a better buy because of the supplied fans.

If you intend to equip this case with a more reasonable rig, perhaps a 500 watt PSU, a GT560 card and 2 or 3 HDDs, you'll be operating in its comfort zone.
 
In South Africa the CM Scout 2 is actually quite good value for money. It's far cheaper than both the Lian Li that you mentioned & Corsair 300R. As for the exclusion of the eSATA port... Who the hell uses it? I've never met anybody who does. Even if I fitted it with 3 extra decent fans it would still be a bit cheaper than the aforementioned cases. I'm quite impressed with it.
 
I found something weird while reading the article.

On Page 3 you said half a dozen Scorpio Blue drives + one Hitachi drive was installed. But the image shown only shows 5 drives in total, and one of them is a 3TB drive which wasn't stated in the article...

Then on the last page you conclude that the case has only 4 3.5" hard disk bays when I saw 5 drives being installed on Page 3...

Weird much?
 
Uhm... I must say I'm more than happy with my Storm Scout 1, it has very neat cable managment, good airflow, fits everything I need and I'm very tempted at giving this one a test drive, it looks nice.

I would have to agree with the guys talking about eSata, I've never seen a single person using it.
 
I have to agree, I don't anyone who has ever used eSata, I wouldn't use that a negative for this case, USB3 (and 2 ports as well) is a much bigger better plus than eSata anyway
 
My 2 complaints I see on it are 1) I don't like how the USB ports in the front face up. It would be fine for just jump drives, especially if your case is sitting on the floor, but if you plug something with a cord into those front drives I see a lot of stress being put on the USB plug.
2) Lacking of front fans turns me away also. I like to have 2 fans preferable in the front of my case cooling my hdd's.
And for the price tag I think I could get a better case. I personally consider $90-$100 for a case to be at my high end. For $90 that case better be damn near perfect.
 
My 2 complaints I see on it are 1) I don't like how the USB ports in the front face up. It would be fine for just jump drives, especially if your case is sitting on the floor, but if you plug something with a cord into those front drives I see a lot of stress being put on the USB plug.
This is a compromise made in the Antecx 900 series as well. That's exactly the point of the front mounted USB ports, ease of access with jump drives. To neaten up a permanent install, you'd have to glue USB hub on the back. A less than ideal solution, but serviceable where absolute speed isn't required.
2) Lacking of front fans turns me away also. I like to have 2 fans preferable in the front of my case cooling my hdd's.
My P-4 rig (eMachines T-5026 is Matx w/ no front fan has been turning me off about that for 8 years now, yet it survives..(it's IGP though)).
And for the price tag I think I could get a better case. I personally consider $90-$100 for a case to be at my high end. For $90 that case better be damn near perfect.
Case prices have gone up in general, ostensibly because the metal markets are up. Point being, I "dry shop" all the time, and Newegg's case "sales", aren't anywhere near as good as they used to be.
 
In South Africa the CM Scout 2 is actually quite good value for money. It's far cheaper than both the Lian Li that you mentioned & Corsair 300R. As for the exclusion of the eSATA port... Who the hell uses it? I've never met anybody who does. Even if I fitted it with 3 extra decent fans it would still be a bit cheaper than the aforementioned cases. I'm quite impressed with it.

It's possible you are in the minority in both cases.

I found something weird while reading the article.

On Page 3 you said half a dozen Scorpio Blue drives + one Hitachi drive was installed. But the image shown only shows 5 drives in total, and one of them is a 3TB drive which wasn't stated in the article...

Then on the last page you conclude that the case has only 4 3.5" hard disk bays when I saw 5 drives being installed on Page 3...

Weird much?

Not weird. The hardware we use to test the cases is quite old now so we take photos with more recent hardware installed that's all. Plus when working on these reviews we don't just install the test configuration and move on, we try a number of different hardware configurations to see if there are any compatibility issues we should mention.
 
Somewhat off topic, but lately there's been such an influx of announcements and articles and rumors... it made me feel like we hadn't had a computer hardware review on this site in a month... oh wait, strictly speaking it was; the matter-of-fact review WD 3TB drive did not bring anything new to the table, and then before that you had the battle of the green cases (lol).

So... this review was a pleasure to read, if not just because of it's existence. Thanks for the good work. :)
 
Somewhat off topic, but lately there's been such an influx of announcements and articles and rumors... it made me feel like we hadn't had a computer hardware review on this site in a month... oh wait, strictly speaking it was; the matter-of-fact review WD 3TB drive did not bring anything new to the table, and then before that you had the battle of the green cases (lol).

So... this review was a pleasure to read, if not just because of it's existence. Thanks for the good work. :)

It was a 4TB WD Black hard drive review but whatever lol. I think you can safely assume going forward that every December and probably even January are going to be quiet months for reviews. They will largely be dominated by announcements and articles and rumors.
 
My bad, I meant 4TB. I wouldn't have even read it if it was 3TB; a slip of the fingers, honest! =p

Also, I noticed the same thing recollecting from last year and the year before, but I never said anything until now. Though things ought to get interesting when CES rolls through next week; with those announcements and rumors of course. Come on, Daddy still needs to buy a new laptop!
 
The Cooler Master Storm Scout I & II really have very little competition in my opinion. I know the article stated several, but the massive appeal to this case is the handle, of which none of the competition had.. I never hesitate to volunteer to take my comp anywhere since I know I am very unlikely to drop it. For those that ever take their computer out of their house, buying this case is a no brainer. I am actually surprised of how little mention there was of this feature, since that is the massive appeal to this case.
 
The Cooler Master Storm Scout I & II really have very little competition in my opinion. I know the article stated several, but the massive appeal to this case is the handle, of which none of the competition had.. I never hesitate to volunteer to take my comp anywhere since I know I am very unlikely to drop it. For those that ever take their computer out of their house, buying this case is a no brainer. I am actually surprised of how little mention there was of this feature, since that is the massive appeal to this case.
No mention, really?

While it isn't in the article proper, I did address it in the first comment.....
I realize testing procedure is dictated by what gear is available to do the testing with, but it's hardly fair to stuff the same gear into a full tower cabinet, as you do into a portable case. If there isn't a huge temperature disparity toward cooler, the full tower is the junker.

Part of the original Scout's charm, (at least for me), is the way it always calls to mind the, army "jerry can". I'm sure CM was trying for a slightly more modern, aggressive, weapons related association, yet still, you can't fight a war without without gasoline and water:

BEN1357.jpg


And I happily have 2 of the originals, but I'm luke warm on the new one, 'cause the handle doesn't look quite as sturdy.:eek:
 
I personally cannot see this case being good value for money, in the U.K anyway, at just over £82 (£ 94 With Shipping) from one of the big computer component stockists plus the cost of adding a further 6 good quality fans at an average price of £10 each the case tops the price of £152, there are numerous other cases which represent better value for money for less than £152.00..................
 
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