CM Storm Scout II Chassis Review

CM Storm have been updating some of their products this year and today is the turn of the CM Storm Scout model, which was first launched several years ago. On paper, the CM Storm Scout II looks to be a vast improvement on its predecessor, as it features USB 3.0, improved carrying handles and much more. For a mid-tower chassis it can also fit a whopping 9 x 120mm fans, which should give some serious cooling performance although only a single fan is included in the box. Specifications Model Number SGC-2100-KWN1 Available Color Full Midnight Black Materials Appearance: Polymer, Coated Steel Mesh and Body Dimensions (W x H x D) 230 x 513 x 517.5mm / 9.1 x 20.2 x 20.5 inch Net Weight 8.3 kg / 18.3 lbs Motherboard Type Micro-ATX, ATX 5.25" Drive Bays 3 (exposed) 3.5" Drive Bays 7 (hidden) 2.5" Drive Bays 2 (converted from one 3.5" drive bay) I/O Panel USB 3.0 x 2 (int.), USB 2.0 x 2, Mic x 1, Audio x 1 (supports AC97 / HD Audio) Expansion Slots 7 Cooling System Top: 120mm fan x 2 (optional) Front: 120mm fan x 2 or 140mm fan x 1 (optional) Rear: 120mm red LED fan x 1 (with LED on/off function) Bottom: 120mm fan x 1 (optional) Side: 120mm fan x 2 (optional) HDD cage: 120mm fan x 1 (optional) Power Supply Type PS2 Maximum Compatibility VGA card length: 287mm / 11.3 inch (with HDD cage); 399mm / 15.7 inch (without HDD cage) CPU cooler height: 147mm / 5.8 inch (with side fan); 162mm / 6.4 inch (without side fan) The CM Storm Scout II ships in a dark black box, with the bright red streaks that we have come to expect from the CM Storm branding. The front of the box has a gunman hiding behind the case aiming at an unknown target. The back of the box lists the product features in 8 different languages. Features include; Steel reinforced handles, 2 x USB 3.0 ports and more. The packaging is as you would expect for a chassis and includes two Styrofoam blocks to protect either side of the chassis. The bundled accessories include a collection of 3.5" HDD sliders, several cable ties and a selection of screws. There is also a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter, to allow you to install Solid State Drives or 2.5" drives. The front of the case is very similar to that of the Scout I, although the I/O panel has been moved and the design tweaked slightly. The handle on top of the chassis has changed significantly, it looks to be a lot stronger and nicer to use. The left-hand side of the case still features 'two 120mm fan spaces' but these have been moved to the bottom, allowing you to see more of the components. The back of the chassis has changed the least, it still has 7 PCI expansion slots but now also features 2 watercooling holes. The right hand-side has the mirror image of the left-hand side without the transparent window and the fan holes. This should allow a little bit more space for cable tidying. The bottom of the case features 4 circular feet which are a decent height, allowing air to circulate through the vents of the PSU and directly into the case. A dust cover could be fitted to the bottom fan slot, but it does not come with the chassis. As we have already discussed the top of the case features a large handle, which is extremely strong. Below this, is a 240mm panel which can be removed to allow easy installation of two 120mm fans on top. The top of the chassis features 3 buttons, one is the Fan LED button (either on or off), and the other two are Power On/Off and Restart. The I/O ports have been moved to the top of the chassis, with their own cover to stop dust getting in when not in use. They have upgraded two of the USB ports to USB 3.0, and still feature a further 2 x USB 2.0 ports giving you four in total. This mid tower chassis has plenty of room inside for components. In fact this chassis can actually fit the largest graphics cards (although you will have to remove the top HDD cage). There are 7 x 3.5" bays, and one can be converted to fit 2 x 2.5" drives. There are 3 x 5.25" bays with a tool-less installation mechanism, which is simple and effective. The back of the chassis features an LED lit fan (a nice red), and 7 PCI expansion slots. At the bottom of the chassis you can install an extra 120mm fan, although the company haven't even included a dust filter here. The top of the chassis can fit 2 x 120mm fans, which have a thin dust mesh already fitted. This allows for improvements to be made in terms of thermal performance when compared to the out-of-the-box performance. On the other side of the chassis we can see the cable routing holes, and the large CPU cut-out, which allows easy access to the CPU cooler backplate. Taking the front bezel off the chassis, we can see that you can fit a further 2 x 120mm fans to the front of the chassis or a single 140 mm fan. The fan mountings are also set back quite a bit giving around 4.5cm of clearance. This is enough for a watercooling radiator. We removed the top cover. This allows the user to gain access to the top of the chassis to install up to 2 x 120mm fans. First stage of the system build is to install a power supply. Installing an SSD is straightforward, thanks to the 2.5" to 3.5" bay adapter. Installing 3.5" drives requires you to push into place a slider on each side of the HDD. Then you can just slide the 2.5" or 3.5" drives into place. We then installed an ASUS motherboard and AKASA CPU cooler in one go. There is a good amount of space above the CPU cooler, giving plenty of clearance for installing fans at the top of the chassis. We then installed a XFX Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. It is clear there is plenty of space for much larger graphics cards, and you can even remove the top set of 3.5" bays if you are planning on installing either the nVidia 690 or the Radeon 7970, for instance. Finally, we connected everything. We didn't spend a lot of time with cable routing but it is easy with this chassis. Today’s test system will give us a good idea of how well this case works in terms of thermal and acoustic performance. Processor: AMD Phenom X4 965 Black Edition @ 3.9 GHz. Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD- M Evo Cooler: Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1800MHz Graphics Cards: XFX Radeon 5450 HD (GPU @ 700 MHZ, Memory Clock @ 650 MHz) Power Supply: Akasa Venom Power 750W Boot Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB OS: Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit Pyle Digital Sound Level Meter PSPL25 In terms of thermal performance, this isn't a bad result, especially with our AMD Phenom X4 965 running at 3.9 GHz. However, we did notice that our motherboard temperature had risen by a whole 7 degrees, which suggests there isn't enough airflow going through the case to remove all of the produced heat. This is because the case only has 1 x 120mm fan fitted at the rear, which means air will be sucked into the case from the closest vents at the side. Fitting 2 x 120mm intake fans at the front would solve this as the air would have to pass over the motherboard to escape the chassis. Today, to test this chassis we have set our Sound Level Meter one meter away from the case. We then temporarily turned the two Akasa Venom Voodoo fans off, which leaves us with only the included case fan and very little noise from the power supply fan. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA – High Quality Computer fan 40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum This is good acoustical performance for any chassis but as it only features 1 x 120mm fan this is not a big surprise. The CM Storm Scout II builds on the heritage and design ethic of the original chassis, which has proven a big seller for the company since it was launched. Cooler Master has taken the original design and improved various areas. As expected, the company have upgraded two of the USB 2.0 ports to USB 3.0, as well as moving the I/O panel to a more convenient location. The handle on top of the chassis has been redesigned, and it is now extremely strong and ideal for carrying the case around, even when fully loaded. The design of the chassis is simple but aesthetically pleasing, although it won't win any awards for its looks. The window on the left-hand side of the chassis is positioned to highlight key components, including the CPU Cooler and graphics card. We do like that Cooler Master have included a 120mm red LED fan, however a couple more fans would have been beneficial. The thermal performance of the chassis isn't bad 'out-of-the-box' but has plenty of room for improvement, as you can fit a further eight 120mm fans into the case. You would have to budget at least an extra £15 for two more quality case fans. The acoustical performance was good with only a single case fan installed. If you adopted another two quality case fans the noise level wouldn't rise significantly and the cooling performance would be at a level which would accommodate a higher specified system. The Storm Scout II is certainly built to a high standard, and we really enjoyed using it. If it had shipped with additional fans we wouldn't have hesitated at giving this chassis one of our best awards, but with a price tag that is £87 from OCUK we would have expected at least two quality chassis fans. That said, it is a great case, and holds a lot of potential for gaming systems. Pros Well built chassis. Plenty of internal space for mid-tower. Can fit 9 x 120mm fans. Sturdy handle design. Cons Only 1 x 120mm fan included. Competition is high in this sector. Kitguru Says: We really like this case but it just needs to have a little more to justify the price tag.