• The first full tower chassis with two 90 degrees rotatable 4-in-3 HDD modules
• The first with an easy-to-carry handle, and hidden tool box for storing private goods
• Removable dust filters on bottom and top intakes
• A built in fan controller for cool or quiet operation
• Supports up to 14 hard-drives for future upgrades
• Convenient external 2.5” HDD/SSD X-dock
• Supports high-end hardware, includes XL-ATX board, multiple GPUs in SLI or Crossfire
• Can support up to two water cooling radiators

Some interesting features listed there, this includes paying close attention to the two water cooling radiators. Of course this does beg the question ‘does it mean 2x120mm radiators or larger?’

Let us move on and find out.

Packaging

The box arrived to us a little mangled (we never seem to have much luck with our delivery people) on the top panel. The front panel has a nice design and it is eye catching; whilst subtle images have been faded into the background; namely what looks to be a few American special forces (no friendly fire please) troops going on a rampage.  The front panel also depicts a black chassis rather than white. This is a little strange as when anyone mouths the word ‘Storm Trooper’ they think of the colour white and the ‘Star Wars’ films. However, when we say Star Wars we mean the old films and not the dire and ham-acted new ones.

Finally we notice that unlike previous Coolermaster products, there is not even a hint of purple in the box design or logo. Instead they use a red and black theme, obviously to match up with the product itself.

Removing the outer packaging shows the standard foam protectors placed on either side of the product itself. Over the product and again as standard is the scratch protector. What would be nice to have from Coolermaster is to take a small leaf from Thermaltake’s book and have a nice fancy dust protector that can be used when the computer is powered off.

It is pretty much standard fare up until now so let us move on to the exterior looks of the case

External Looks

Remember where we just mentioned that everything was standard faire (packaging section) ? Well now Overclockers Tech are forced to eat humble and crow pie for lunch, dinner and breakfast! When looking at the overall design of the case, it simply oozes evil! With its dark black looks overall and its shaped top panel (more on this later) it exudes more than just the presence of a wimpy ‘Dark-Side’ lord from Star Wars! Instead it goes much further to an almost Alien Xenomorph/Necromonger feel.

Now that we have a basic feel for the external looks of the chassis, let us turn our attention to the first stop on our tour, the I/O section and the upper panel.

The I/O panel sports many features that are certainly based around the centre, of which is the power button and the fan controller device. The latter mentioned is an attention getting hexagon shape with the fan controller buttons placed beneath it. In the centre of these and just below the power switch is the FAN LED’s on/off with the ‘less than and greater than’ voltage controls for the fans placed at either side. However, as you can see by the photographs these buttons are finger print ‘magnets as well as attracting a huge amount of dust motes to the IO panel as a whole.

Underneath and to the left of the power switch we have the headphone/microphone jacks and the USB 3 ports. The right hand side almost mirrors the left except for the additional reset and external SATA button. Finally, when the chassis is powered on it emits a suspiciously evil glow, rather like the scary ‘eye’ shaped windows in the first Amityville film.

Next we move onto the top panel proper. In all fairness we love the design as this part, more than any other, reminds us of the Alien Xenomorph look.

The upper panel is removable by a gentle tug (more on this during the Internal case tour) and feels very solid. Half way between the ‘Trooper’ logo and the I/O panel is the carry handle. Coolermaster has assured us that that this can support up to 45Kilograms in weight and as such can be used to carry the product to a LAN Party. The previously mentioned feature sports a ‘rubberised’ grip in order to give the end user a much more comfortable experience. The best way we can describe this is to imagine yourself lifting heavy plastic shopping bags that twist and dig into the fingers, not to mention cutting off blood flow. Now, to us most carry handles for cases are like that, however this is not the case (pardon the pun) here.

Next, we found a nice surprise! Underneath the top panel and placed just before the fans is a rather large dust filter. This prevents dust from clogging up the consumer’s precious fans.

We move on to the front panel and the incorporation of Coolermaster’s X-dock feature. This feature allows the consumer to insert a Solid State Drive whilst the power is switched on (providing ACHI is enabled).

The front of the chassis matches exactly with the back of the case, Id-Est. nine PCIE plates and nine 5.25 inch drive bays. Each of the bay covers are easily removable by the use of two tabs; which are simply pressed towards each other in order for them to be removed. Each cover has a dust filter attached and feels very durable.

At the lower part of these drive bays there resides the massive CM Storm badge. This itself can be removed (similar to the tabs) and behind this resides a small box (more on this later)

The aforementioned panel is contoured to an extreme amount. No gentle sloping curves here, rather a more ‘in your face’ style panel. This has a grill that serves as an air intake, but this has no facility to add a fan. However, since this case is designed for water cooling it would have been nice to have a window here in order to fully show off all that lovely water cooling goodness! A good idea would be for CoolerMaster to make this as an extra option. This could however spoil the overall ‘malignant’ look of the case.

Moving on to the lower panel presents even more surprises around the power supply unit area. This also sports a filter to prevent dust motes entering the consumers crucial and very expensive power supply.

Just when we cannot get enough of the amount of filters present within this case, we find yet another. This one resides underneath where two fans or the lower radiator (more on this later) might be installed.

The final photos above show the back panel with its nine PCIE bays, its 140mm fan (which can also accommodate a 120mm Fan) and routing holes for external radiators.

Well, that is about it for the external tour. So far we are very much impressed with the quality of the case. There are one or two things we would have done differently Id-Est. a side window,  however these are minor gripes only. The overall impression of this chassis is one of a malignant nature. This case does not even pretend to hide its true side, instead it seems to revel in its evil nature and looks.

Unlike the recent foul crop of ’emo-like-angst ridden’ vampire films  this chassis delights on its killer looks and it simply oozes pure evil!

 Internal Looks

Continuing our tour of the Coolermaster Storm Trooper, or as we in our offices have unofficially dubbed it ‘The Overlord of Evil’ we move on to the internal area of this case. So far we have not had anything to be concerned about. However can the ‘Overlord’ continue its reign of ‘perfect evil’ and seduce us to do its whim? Only a Internal tour and installation will tell.

As usual the side panels are held in place by two black thumbscrews and once taken out the panels come of with a reassuring and meaty ‘thunk’

At last the innards are exposed and we view the motherboard tray itself. The later mentioned looks to be of a high standard and the wire management looks to be 100 percent correct. There is a large management whole placed right after the power supply unit (which is well supported) in order to hide those cables. The best thing is that (Unlike the HAF-X) the eight-pin 12 volt EPS (CPU) connector is in exactly the right place. We did find it a bit puzzling as to why the hole for the CPU connector has no rubber grommet. Surely it would need to be present, even if to give a sense of consistency throughout the rest of the management system?

Next we see what the wire management system looks like from behind.

All the leads go into their logical areas, without stretching and the quality of the rubber grommets themselves are excellent and are hard to remove. Speaking of the latter, there are a great many cases out in the market where the previously mentioned grommets simply fall out of their sockets when subject to the slightest stress; so with this in mind it is great to see that these stay securely in place.

So that’s it for this part of the wire management section, let us now move onto the drive cage assembly.

We think Coolermaster have really been listening to their customers needs and instead of manufacturing the drive bays in a ‘fixed’ position they can now be rotated at 90 degree angles. However, the buck does not stop there. If the consumer so chooses they can even remove the drive cages and the bays that support them. This will ensure there is plenty of room for a large radiator (placed on the bottom panel) in a push-pull configuration.

Radiator installation will be covered later in the review.

Each of the drive cages has a 120mm fan in order to cool any hard drive that may be installed there. Theses drive cages are held in place by two thumbscrews (one at either side) and then the whole assembly simply slides out.

The drives themselves are placed within a caddy and then inserted into the drive cages shown above. However when looking at these, they do not feel as durable as the drive caddies available with the Thermaltake Chaser Mk1, but they do the job and that is what counts.

The actual process of turning the cages 90 degrees will be covered during the water cooling installation section of this review.

Remember earlier we were speaking of the ‘Storm badge’ that clips off the front panel to reveal a box? Well here it is, this contains all the extra screws, mounting bolts and various other devices needed to make installation a little bit easier.