Coolermaster Storm Scout

[Gregzz4]

Hey all. Just signed up here as the reviews on this site are awesome, as are the forums, for finding great info.

I just unpacked my new Coolermaster Scout and thought I'd add some info for those of you who may be looking into this case. Although every review I read was invaluable in helping me make a decision, these are some points not covered anywhere I could find that I would have found useful in making my final decision.

First off is clearance from the Mobo to the Top Fan. Those of us who have a CPU cooler which exceeds the top edge of the board will find this very helpful. I am assuming all boards have the same clearance as the dead board I used for this photo.

As I hope you can see there is only about 3mm clearance from the Mobo to the Top Fan. This is a let down for me as I will need to remove the top fan of my 2-fan verticle CPU cooler. This may not bother many of you as there are plenty of CPU coolers out there that do not exceed the edges of the Mobo. Like many of us, I bought this case for It's Top Fan feature and wish CM had had the forethought to place this Fan a little higher inside the top.

 

Secondly, I could not find any info about the front Bezel to answer my question; can I use unused slot covers to replace the lower Fan Guard? The answer is no, sadly enough.

You'll see there are Tabs which hold the drive bay covers in place.

The mesh on the 'Target' has little tabs inserted through the front of the Bezel and folded over. You could remove it and clean the foam filter but I'll try just blowing it out for now as I don't want to disturb the factory metal tension.

The Fan Guard, with it's 'Target' shaped protector, is molded into the Bezel Cover and is not removable.

Of course, we modders will fix this issue but bear in mind that each drive bay cover measures approx 42mm and the 'Target' measures approx 176mm. This means that you would need to use 4 bay covers and have a bit of slop, approx 8mm, left over which you could of course spread out amongst the 4 bays. I only currently need 3 drive bays so I'll pass on the modding for now.

 

Next issue with this case is the supplied screws. All of the screws supplied with this case are anodized. Good on you CM.

This goes well with their Powder-Coated theme but the ones for the Mobo are not your standard sized serated-flange style screws. They are smaller-head screws which leave me less-than-confident about screwing them in tight. They are the same as what they supply for the FDD, and we all know how small they are. The rest of the pack of screws is great.

Included are some things worth noting;

7 thumb screws for the Expansion slots, in case you have overly heavy gear ( recommend you use for big GPUs, especially if you move it around/LAN a lot )

9 Brass stand-offs ( not shown as brass anywhere I could find, all pictures looked like they were steel )

10 Optical screws for the other side of the locking bays

4 Screws for 1.8" HDD

4 Screws for 2.5" HDD

Also in the pack are 10 sliding rails for 5 x 3.5" drives, a Lock Buckle and screw for the back of the door ( like we'll use that, or do you? ), and most notably, not mentioned in any reviews, 4 PSU screws, 8 Fan screws and 8 Fan Silicone washers for the side Door.

As I mentioned, all of the supplied screws are anodized. They don't quite look black, but are definately not chromed. I like 'em.

 

Moving on to the next issue is the lack of information about the PSU area.

It does Not have a foam/rubber plate or pads like some other CM cases. Disappointing.

The intake area is a metal mesh which IS removable. Some have stated that it is riveted to the case. This is not so! There are removable pins which many of us have seen on cars.

The picture I took was so awful I will not include it. It basically consists of a 'T' style pin, like a Tack, which is pushed through the Mesh and then expands the 'Claw', which is first installed through the Mesh and the Case bottom at the same time. When the T is pushed through the Mesh and the Claw, it expands the Claw to grab the outside bottom of the Case. This is very straight-forward. Turn you Case either on It's Side or Top and push the 'Pin' in the Center of the Claw ( use something plastic friendly like your fingernail ) and then reach inside the Case, grab the 'T'-shaped Pin and pull it out. Now you can pull the Claw out of the hole with either you fingernails or a tool. Don't be surprised if the Claw comes out with it. Just pull the T out of the Claw. Be carefull not to 'Squish' the Claw part as this is what is most important to keep the filter in place. Replacing is best done if you pull the T out of the Claw first, otherwise you will have trouble. Put the Mesh back in place, place the Claw in the hole like, well, like putting a plug in a hole, then push the T Pins back in. That's it.

 

There were no pictures of the structure of the Top Handles so here is one

To remove the Top of the Case you will need to remove; 2 Top Case screws at @ the back, the 2 Back Fan screws ONLY and the 2 Bezel screws located at the Top Front which you'll see in the next Pic.

If you want to take the whole top off, which I have not done yet, you have to find the slide clips and I gather you slide the top off.

 

I have been quite surprised by this Case so far with It's ease of parts removal so I will assume the rest of the dismantle procedure is easy.

 

I almost bought a CM 690 and was scared off by comments about the Bezel. This appears to be the same style but I am happy to report that the Bezel removal is quite easy and does not leave me feeling that it will eventually break. It just pops off ( with some force, like they say ), but it snaps back on by pushing on the contact points. No worries. It doesn't appear that there is anything we Modders could do to make the Bezel removal better except checking the clearance of the holes and shaving down the Bezel Pins, but that will be something I will attack.

The last thing I would like to point out is Paint.

I have seen posts of Peeps worried about scratching the interior and so on.

This Case is NOT PAINTED. It is POWDER COATED. This coating is Very Durable but may chip as it did to me when using Tin Snips.

I am happy with the coating, as you will be too once you see it.

Only complaints I have are shipping blemishes and so forth which you can expect. Nothing was damaged but box was wrecked.

I am going to now tear down my PC and build this Bad Boy. Sleeving included.

I won't post any old Pics as I hate my old Thermaltake XaserII 5000AS. It's window is way too big. Shows all the shuttle bays and so on. Bleh.

I am not expecting any differences in Cooling as I already have a great case but I am moving into a bottom mounted PSU and so on.

I'll post more pics when I'm done the build.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Gregzz4

[Gregzz4]

I'm replying to my own post to show you interested guys what you can do with this case.

I'm very happy with all the cable management features. I had to cut 2 extra holes in the back of the drive bays.

I know it would look better if I had SATA but even with IDE it's not bad. The only thing I might change is the routing of the main power cable.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Gregzz4

[Gregzz4]

So I'm reporting back.

After almost a year of use, I took my tower apart and was quite amazed by the Small amount of dust inside.

As is to be expected, the front cover was quite dusty, but most of the heavy stuff brushes off with a finger. The same goes for the side fans I installed after having a new door insert cut.

View My Door Fans Here

 

So I took it apart somewhat and found that the dust cover for the power supply was doing such a good job that I would recommend it be cleaned out regularly. It was coated and I gather the PSU was getting it's air from inside the case.

 

All in all, I am very happy with the filtration. And you can be assured that this case can cool as I hadn't cleaned it for 9 months.

Edited March 31, 2010 by Gregzz4

[Andrewr05]

WOW

I missed this the first time around, good info on the case.

Case fiters really do do wonders, as you said though they however should be cleaned out regularly...

 

Glad to see it is working out for you.

[_TheAlexO]

Case fiters really do do wonders

 

 

haha you said doodoo .. get it? yea im 5