CM Storm Scout 2 Ghost White Chassis

Product: CM Storm Scout 2 Ghost White Chassis
Provided By: CM Storm
Price: ~$110 online at time of publication

Introduction:

Today we have a brand new mid-tower case from CM Storm - a division of Cooler Master. The victim we are looking at today is the Scout 2 Advanced mid-tower case.  The Scout 2 Advanced case is from Cooler Masters line of products that are aimed at gamers and what they want.  As you know, Cooler Master is well known for manufacturing PC components like cases, power supplies and coolers along with various products for laptops.  If you want to know more, please feel free to check out their website.

First Impressions:

The CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced comes in a very detailed box covered with high quality graphics.  Unlike some others, it isn't just a plain old brown box with some black stencils on it.  The Scout 2 Advanced box comes in the standard Black with some white and red accents and it will surely catch you eye when sitting on a retail shelf.

Once the box is opened, we find that it is protected by the standard Styrofoam and plastic bag.  This did a great job of protecting it during its travels.  After removing it from all its packaging, we can see that the Scout 2 Advanced has some style.  The sample that I received came in “Ghost White” (Part No: SGC-2100-WWN1). This is my first white case and it is sweet! 

Starting from the front, the first thing I noticed was that the CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced  has a door on top right near the front that hides two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a Microphone port as well as a Headphone port.  Right behind the door is the CM Storm logo, the Power button, the Reset button and a switch for the front LEDs that are located in the intake fans.  Moving on, I really liked the convenient rubberized carrying handle.  It also has a mesh part on top that can be used to vent air from the case with several exhaust fans.

Moving down to the front, we may notice the HDD and Power LEDs are located at the top.  The front of the Scout 2 Advanced is covered with a steel mesh and has three 5.25-inch optical drive bays that are covered with steel mesh blanks.  The lower section of the case has space for two 120mm fans that are covered by the same mesh with the CMStorm logo at the bottom.

Front Removed

The rear of the Scout 2 Advanced has the standard motherboard I/O opening, as well as two apertures for water cooling.  Also located at the back is a black 120mm exhaust fan, 7+1 expansion slots and an opening for the bottom mounted power supply.  The +1 expansion slot is for securing all you peripherals when you are at a LAN party.  The bottom has a removable dust filter covering the power supply intake area and additional space for mounting an extra 120mm intake fan.  This area did not have a dust filter but was fitted for one.  I believe it was missed when they were installed.  Last but not least the Scout 2 Advanced has some large feet on which to rest.

The left side panel of the Scout 2 Advanced has a raised area with a window at the top for viewing all your goodies and hard work.  Below the window there are two openings for mounting a couple of 120mm fans.  The right side panel is solid with the same style raised area.

After removing the left side panel, we can seethe the Scout 2 Advanced has a black interior and thankfully there are no sharp edges!  You don’t have to worry about leaving a little of yourself in your build.  It has seven 3.5-inch HDD bays and two of them can be converted to 2.5-inch HDD bays.  There are also two dedicated 2.5-inch bays and this will give you a total of four 2.5-inch HDD bays.  I just wish I had four SSDs to install.  The upper HDD cage can be removed to accommodate larger video cards if needed.  The Scout 2 Advanced comes with two 120mm white LED intake fans installed in front of the HDD mounting area.  The 5.25-inch optical drive bays have a tool-less design that is very easy to use.  Flip the lever forward to unlock and flip it to the rear to lock.  The seven expansion slots use a traditional screw to hold them in place. 

Cooler Master did incorporate a large cut-out for installing an after-market CPU cooler which is a standard features in many cases now. I did notice that the cut-out needs to be a little bigger.  At the top rear there is a 120mm exhaust fan mounted.  After removing the right side panel we can see that there is ample room for wire management and several opening just for that purpose. 

On the next page, we'll take a look at the features and specifications before we continue.