Today we are looking at the latest edition to the Storm series of products, a new chassis. The name? Star Wars fans will no doubt have fun with this one: it’s the Cooler Master Storm Trooper.
Provided By: Cooler Master
Price: $189.99
Closer Look:
Cooler Master’s Storm Trooper comes in a black box with red and white ascents. The front of the box features a large graphic of the case itself and another graphic of a SWAT team behind it. The back of the box is full of Specifications.
Taking the Storm Trooper out of the box we see it’s secured between two blocks of fitted styroam and wrapped in a foam bag.
The Trooper is not entirely like Storm cases of the past. All the Storm series cases were mid towers; the Trooper is a full tower. The styling is still the same military feel, but more stealthy than rugged. Unlike the Storm cases of the past, all the plastic bezels of the Trooper are covered with a rubberized skin.
The back of the trooper has three pre-cut holes for water cooling tubing. They could also be used for routing cables to provide access from the outside of the case to the inside, or vice versa. Just below those is the 140mm rear exhaust fan. In the middle are the expansion slot covers. There are 9 slots for expansion cards and 1 off to the side for the Storm Guard Peripheral lock for locking your headphones, keyboard, and mouse cables to the case.
On the right panel is a vent that lines up with the hard drive cage. There is also a slight bulge in the side panel. This lines up with the main wire routing holes in the motherboard tray to give extra room to run wiring.
The left panel is almost a mirror image, but the bulge on the panel is all vent. The panel can also hold two 120mm fans.
The front panel futures a large power button with the CM logo, when the system is powered up the CM Storm logo will glow. Blow that is the fan controller, that’s right, it has a built-in fan controller that can take charge of up to four fans. The two fans on the HDD modules are already pre-connected to the fan controller. The other two are up to you to decide which fans you would like to control. I plugged in the top case fan and the rear fans for my setup. The rest of the front panel consists of power and hard drive activity lights, audio ports, two USB3 ports, two USB2 ports, eSATA, and reset button.
Up top behind the front panel are the top exhaust vents and carry handle. The carry handle has the same rubberized coating as the side panels. It is also separate from the top bezel and attached straight to the case frame. Just under the front panel is the external 2.5” drive dock that Cooler Master is calling X-Dock.
With the side panel off the Trooper we can get a look at the inside, it’s quite large. The maximum cooler height the Storm Trooper can accommodate is 7.3” or 186mm; that’s one tall CPU cooler. The Storm Trooper also handles video cards up to 12.7” or 322mm. The power supply area has two rubber pads that the power supply can sit on to absorb vibrations and in front of the power supply area is a 2.5” drive cage that can hold four 2.5” drives. The back of the motherboard tray has many loops shaped into the metal for holding wires in place with the included zip ties.
The main drive cage area consists of two drive cages that hold four 2.5/3.5” hard drives each. The drive cages come mounted in such a way that they run side to side. They can be turned independently of one another, to run front to back. The cage is held into the case with two thumb screws; with those removed it can be slid out of the case frame.
Features & Specification:
| Model | SGC-5000-KKN1 |
| Available Color | All Black |
| Material | Steel body, Front Mesh / Plastic bezel |
| Dimension | 250 x 605.6 x 578.5 mm (9.8 x 23.8 x 22.8 in) |
| Weight | 14.4 KG / 31.7 lbs |
| M/B Type | Micro-ATX, ATX, XL-ATX |
| 5.25″ Drive Bay | 9 |
| 3.5″ Drive Bay | 8 (converted from 5.25” bay by two 4-in 3 HDD modules) |
| 2.5″ Drive Bay | 13 (converted from 5.25” bay by two 4-in 3 HDD modules) |
| Cooling System | Front: 120 mm LED fan x2 (1200 RPM, 17dBA)Top: 200 mm fan x 1 (1000 RPM, 23 dBA)Rear: 140 mm fan x1 (1200 RPM, 19 dBA) (converted to 120 mm fan)Bottom: 120 mm fan x 2 (optional)Side: 120 mm fan x 2 (optional) |
| Expansion Slots | 9+1 |
| I/O Panel | USB 3.0 x 2 (internal), USB 2.0 x 2, e-SATA x 1, Audio In and Out ( Supports HD audio) |
| Power Supply | Standard ATX PS2 / EPS 12V (optional) |
| Maximum Compatibility | CPU cooler height: 186 mm / 7.3 in GPU card length: 322 mm / 12.7 in |
| Warranty | 2 years |
| UPC Code | 884102013928 |
Conclusion:
Overall, this case is a great addition to the storm family. The structure of the case is built solidly and is not flimsy in any way. The handle on top makes the case easy to carry from one room to the next or LAN party. The X-Dock on the front is great for backup, but it’s a pain to remove a drive. The fan controller on top with the red LED colors looks great, along with the addition of 2 USB3.0 connections to help keep the Trooper up to date with the latest devices. The wire management on the Trooper is very well done, and I love the massive pre cut hole for all the extra PSU wires to fit through. I also love that from top to bottom it has removable dust filter. For only $190, the Cooler Master Trooper is an outstanding deal and one of the better full towers you’ll find on the market.
The CM Storm Trooper receives the Xtreme Tech Junkie’s Xtreme Award.!
