Cooler Master Storm Scout II Advanced Case Review: Falling Behind the Curve

Conclusion: Too Conservative By Half

I know for a fact that Cooler Master has good cases in their repertoire, and they offer them at all price points. I actually quite like Cooler Master's hardware; the sheer amount of hit and miss in their line is something I chalk up largely to the breadth and depth of products they offer. That's why I'm so disappointed in the Storm Scout II Advanced.

First, the good. Cooler Master pursues the "gamer" aesthetic with their Storm line of hardware, but with the Scout II Advanced, that aesthetic is at least smartly tempered. The case is full of attractive curves and angles, and there's a smart uniformity to it that stands in stark contrast to the more ungainly and gaudy case designs out there. A gamer looking for something with a little flash to bring to a LAN party probably wouldn't be too poorly served by the Scout II Advanced, and it certainly wouldn't look out of place. If vendors are going to persist in selling gaming-targeted cases, they should take some cues from what Cooler Master has done here.

Where things essentially collapse with the Storm Scout II Advanced is the conservative internal design, the conservative cooling, and the lack of any real advances in the field. The price tag of this case is irrelevant; at $109 it's obviously too high, but the case would really have to be unprofitably inexpensive to merit a recommendation over a competing enclosure. The problem is that there are no 140mm fans or fan mounts to improve cooling (and reduce noise in the process), there's no acoustic padding, there's no fan control, and there are very few allowances towards ease of assembly beyond the basics. Case technology has been advancing, but the only thing identifying the Storm Scout II Advanced as a modern enclosure is the inclusion of internal USB 3.0.

Unfortunately, it's kind of a damning criticism. If you like the way the Storm Scout II Advanced looks, and you're not going to tax its cooling too hard, there's really nothing stopping me from recommending it to you. But the problem is that no matter what your needs are, invariably there's a case either at the same price tag that does almost everything better, or there's a much cheaper case that may still be competitive. At the price, Antec's Eleven Hundred is superior in nearly every way. Duck under $99 (which the Storm Scout II Advanced likely will due to sales) and it still has to contend with Antec's GX700, to say nothing of the host of hungry competitors from Corsair and BitFenix.

If the Cooler Master Storm Scout II Advanced were to receive a report card, it would be all C's. That would be fine to pass all of the classes, but there are plenty of A and B students willing to work harder for your dollar. Unless there's something particularly compelling about it to you (like the handle, or the look), there are better deals to be found elsewhere.