When it comes to LAN parties most like to try and make their case stand out from the crowd with bright LEDs, or unique case designs.  With these concerning some minds of gamers, some forget that ease of transporting the case can be just as important. Well with the Cooler Master Scout you can put your mind at ease. With its sleek military design, tinted windows, and a toggle switch for the LEDs you can have the looks, and with the steel reinforced carrying handle you can have the ease of packing it around without worry of dropping your precious equipment. Let’s take a closer look at this combat ready case.

Price: $109.99

Closer Look:

Cooler Master Storm Scout Gaming Chassis

Let's take look at the spces and features:

CM Storm deploys Scout, the True LAN Gaming Chassis. Mobility, security and 20 years of advanced technology converge in one rugged portable mid-tower chassis. Every Scout is engineered with Storm Tactics: a dedicated focus on Strength, Security and Control. The Scout blends into the darkness with a menacing all black interior showcasing your internal hardware. An automotive tinted side window with dual fan exhaust brings efficient cooling with subtle transparency. A single button triggers stealth mode deactivating cooling fan LEDs. This covert outlook is complimented by innovative internal designs allowing swapping CPU coolers without motherboard removal. Inside, intelligent cable management maximizes space while supporting internal 2.5" and 1.8" SSD bays. On top, a rugged, steel reinforced handle allows the Scout to be easily wielded in a single hand.

The Scout has been built around a solid steel body, and comes equipped with a 140mm front intake fan, as well as 140mm top and 120mm rear exhaust fans, providing an accurate airflow to efficiently manage the heat from your gaming hardware. The aggressive window side panel, with its dark automotive tint, provides mounting locations for yet another 2 x 120mm fans to deal with thermal hotspots from over-clocked CPUs and GPUs. The Scout has been fortified even further with the patented StormGuard™ accessory; this unique and widely acclaimed security solution from the CM Storm Labs consists of a specially designed PCI-bracket located at the rear of the chassis body. By locking your peripherals and side panel firmly in place, Storm Tactics and the StormGuard™ will protect your PC and gaming gear from thieves and other thuggish individuals whenever you are AFK. Never again return to your seat at a LAN-party, only to find that some villain has grabbed your gaming mouse and headset, or even worse, your entire system.

The most attention-grabbing feature of the Scout is found right on the top of the chassis. These sturdy, reinforced carrying handles make mobilization and relocation to your next LAN-party an extremely easy task. The carrying handle is inspired by assault rifle charging handles. Moving to the front of the Scout, the I/O panel offers not only extensive connectivity through eSATA, FireWire, HD Audio and a whopping four USB2.0 ports, but it also sports an integrated LED-switch, letting you decide exactly when to show off the red lights and the menacing all black interior, and when to go into stealth mode and chill out in the dark with your favorite movies.

 Let's get to the testing:

Testing Setup:

• CPU: Q6600
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
• Memory: 2 x 2GB Kingston
• OS: Windows XP Home SP3
• Video Card: ATI Radeon EAH 4550
• Power Supply: 550 W PSU
• Case: NZXT Tempest

Testing:

For the testing portion I will be doing our standard case benchmarks. I will start by pulling the average temps of the CPU, the GPU, the HDD, and the internal case temp, I will do this both while the case sits idle and while its under load. To achieve the under load status I will be running a Prime-95 Burn-In test to get things a little warmer inside the case. The room will stay a constant 23°C (73°F) to ensure a fair test for both competitors. I will be putting the Cooler Master Scout head-to head against an In-Win X-Fighter.

Temp Test

So alright the Cooler Master Storm Scout might not have done as well as the X-Fighter, but you know what? Who cares! The X-Fighter comes stock with a CPU snorkel and 80mm fans blowing on the GPU. On the other hand once I installed the additional two 120mm fans in the side of the Master Storm Scout that changed everything and I got even better results than I had with the X-Fighter; plus it’s a lot easier to haul with me whenever I decide to take it with me.

Let’s move on to my final thoughts:

While not as quite as a proper scout in the field should be, this one still get high marks in performance. Originally when I did the benchmark I found that the temps where on average with most cases that we have tested in the past. With the option of installing two more 120mm case fans in the side would boost its cooling performance even higher.

So the question is, would I recommend this? Of course I would, I would have to be crazy not to. With its sleek military look, tinted window, great cooling power, solid steel case, full black interior, steel reinforced carrying handle, and even a LED toggle switch it was not to recommend it. In addition with the cooling power, with the power supply sucking air in from below can be a double edged sword. While not stealing air that could be cooling your other components, and having its own dust filter, it also might have a slight problem when placed on some surfaces.  What I mean when I say that this shouldn’t be placed on some surfaces, I mean that if you are using the downward facing PSU setup, you might not want to place the case on a long shaggy carpet and risk cutting off air flow to your PSU, but in most cases this might not be of huge concern. With all these features and more this should definitely put the Cooler Master Scout Gaming Chassis near the top of the list for any LAN party gamer or enthusiast.

Pros:

• Great Cooling Power (With Option of Even More)

• Sleek Military Grade Look

• LED Toggle Switch (The Included Fans Already Have The Toggle Cable Ready, New LED Fans Would Need To Be Modded)

• Solid Steel Case

• Steel Reinforce Handle

• Easy Tool Less Setup

Cons:

• Hard to Fit in Some Larger CPU Coolers (i.e. Noctua NH-C12P)

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