KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The CM Storm Trooper case is shipped in a huge, heavy box with a futuristic image of the product on the front.
It is shipped protected between thick pieces of Styrofoam and covered with a soft protective cover to help against scuffing.
There is a box shipped with the product which contains 7 plastic drive bays. We will look at these later in the review.
The CM Storm Trooper is an angular case with some dramatic edges cut into the corners. I think it looks really good, and different to anything else I have seen in recent months. It weighs 13.7 kg, so you won't be lugging this about without some effort. Case dimensions are 250 x 605.6 x 578.5 mm. It supports Micro ATX/ ATX / XL-ATX motherboards.
There are 9 expansion slots at the rear, with a large fan set to exhaust at the top. There are routing holes for watercooling kits here as well.
The side panels follow the same angular design with plenty of venting holes to support substantial air flow. There are mounting holes on the right side panel for two 120mm fans.
Cooler Master have built a carrying handle into the top panel, which looks dramatic and very futuristic. It is rubberised to ensure it won't slip out of your hand easily and according to Cooler Master will support 43 kg of weight, which is rather impressive. This section has a removable dust filter section which slides out from the rear of the case, a great touch.
The top I/O panel is very different to anything else we have seen. In the center is a giant illuminated power button with the Storm logo taking prime position. Below this are buttons for the built in fan controller which can control the lights of the installed fans as well as the RPM of four fans. At the side are ‘+' and ‘-‘ buttons which vary the fan speeds from 1 to 6. In this area are power and hard drive activity LED's, a headphone and microphone port and reset button. Cooler Master have also included four USB ports (2 x USB 2.0 and 2 x USB 3.0) with an ESATA port above. Cooler Master have intentionally spaced the USB ports far apart to ensure that fatter devices won't cause installation problems for others close by.
The Storm Trooper includes an ‘X Dock' slot at the top to allow for the hot connection of a 2.5 inch drive. This is ideal for quick access to a storage drive.
Underneath the case are two pull out, cleanable dust filters. The smaller filter at the bottom of the picture above is designed for the power supply. The larger filter would be ideal for a large radiator.
The front of the case is meshed to allow for maximum airflow from front to back. At the bottom is a removable panel which hides the parts tray.
We received no manual with our sample so we only noticed this tray storage system when we heard the rattling of screws and components inside. Two screws need to be removed to pull out the tray inside. This contains all the screws, bolts needed for the system build. Cooler Master also include a handy EPS 12V power extension cable and some cable tidies along with some eight long screws for mounting 120mm fans to the side panels. When you are finished with the build, you can use this tray to store all the remaining parts. Clever.
