Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Gaming Case Review
Author: Darren McCain
Published: Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Interior and Drive Features
The interior of the Scout 2 is finished in the same durable black finish. It is nice to see Cooler Master is making this a standard in their windowed cases. Like any good high-end case, every edge is finished or rolled to remove any sharp edges. This Midnight Black finish is a bit hard to photograph but it looks great in person.
With the door removed you can see a more traditional layout which remind me of more recent Cooler Master designs like the CM Storm Enforcer that we recently reviewed and this layout is where much of the improvement over the previous Scout can be found. The new drive cage supports the three external 5.25" drive bays and up to 7 internal 3.5" drives using a rail mounting system. A single drive adapter is included to convert a 3.5" slot to a 2.5" slot.
The center portion of the drive cage can be removed via four screws. This trades four of your internal drives out in favor of opening up the center for larger video cards or improved air flow. Cards up to 15.7 inches are supported in this configuration and it covers the first five PCI slots pretty easily. Adding a top fan to the front will move air directly through this space where internal water-cooling elements could easily be mounted.
A closer look at top shows the cooling options more clearly. The single 120mm red LED fan setup is probably adequate for most simple gaming setups but more airflow is always a good thing. More airflow is critical when looking at SLI/Crossfire, overclocking and more complicated builds.
The center portion of the drive cage can be removed via four screws. This trades four of your internal drives out in favor of opening up the center for larger video cards or improved air flow. Cards up to 15.7 inches are supported in this configuration and it covers the first five PCI slots pretty easily. Adding a top fan to the front will move air directly through this space where internal water-cooling elements could easily be mounted.
A closer look at top shows the cooling options more clearly. The single 120mm red LED fan setup is probably adequate for most simple gaming setups but more airflow is always a good thing. More airflow is critical when looking at SLI/Crossfire, overclocking and more complicated builds.
Removing the right panel gives us a good look at the motherboard tray. The Scout 2 officially supports ATX and Micro-ATX motherboards only. A large ~6 x 5 inch hole allows for changing the heat sink easily and provides more airflow across the back of the board. A series of 3 large rubber grommeted cable slots help make cable management easier and cleaner for the windowed install. Coupled with an abundance of cable tie mounting locations, cleaning up cabling runs should be easy.
Cable management is made easier by the large amount of space behind the motherboard tray. Nearly an inch of space is provided along the entire back of the case. An additional ½ inch is available thanks to the flair outs of the embossing on the sides. Cable management is often mentioned as a weak spot in previous designs but the Scout 2 shows this is no longer an issue.
Cable management is made easier by the large amount of space behind the motherboard tray. Nearly an inch of space is provided along the entire back of the case. An additional ½ inch is available thanks to the flair outs of the embossing on the sides. Cable management is often mentioned as a weak spot in previous designs but the Scout 2 shows this is no longer an issue.
