Cooler Master Storm Trooper
Our fondness for Cooler Master's full tower computer cases began roughly three years ago when we reviewed the HAF 932. Its stylish, aggressive design was backed by an excellent build quality. The affordable price tag was the icing on the cake for us. At the time, it was easily the ultimate tower case and that opinion remains strong today. The HAF 932 Advanced and HAF X are among the finest full tower chassis money can buy at $150-$200.
Cooler Master has also released various cases under its "Storm" banner, a
subsidiary tasked with "arming the gaming revolution." Naturally, this
duty is fulfilled by developing new keyboards, mice, cases, mouse pads
and audio gear for gamers. To date, the brand has released a strong
lineup of mid-sized ATX cases, including the Sniper, Scout and Enforcer.
We featured the Enforcer in our recent roundup and found it to be an excellent value at only $85.
Cooler Master is at it again, releasing yet another gaming-oriented
chassis and the first full size model in the Storm lineup. Called the
"Trooper," it's priced at $190 -- right alongside the venerable HAF X --
packing several new features: 90-degree rotatable 4-in-3 HDD modules,
an easy-to-carry handle, a hidden toolbox to store private goods, a
built-in fan controller, an external 2.5" storage drive X-dock and the
ability to support up to 14 internal hard drives.
It's been a year since the HAF X's arrival, and Cooler Master may have already outdone itself...
External Design
The Storm Trooper's design isn't as flashy as some competing gaming
cases try to be (Thermaltake's offerings come to mind), but it's not as
spartan as Lian Li's products either. Cooler Master seems to have a
knack for producing aggressive, yet clean cases. The Trooper is dressed
in strict conservative attire, but it's not afraid to show a little leg,
if you will.
The Trooper's size is fairly typical for a full tower ATX case,
measuring 9.8" wide, 22.8" long and 23.8" tall (25 x 57.8 x 60.6cm).
It's constructed from SECC (Steel, Electrogalvanized, Cold-rolled,
Coil), a type of metal known for its low cost and high thermal
conduction properties making it ideal for computer cases. There's also
plenty of plastic used, but it's blended well with metal, so don't let
that scare you off.
Front on, the Trooper looks astonishing, be sure to check out the
pictures for the different angles. The face carries nine metal mesh
5.25" drive bay plates and one 3.5" adapter. There are also two
front-mounted 120mm fans that hide behind six of the nine 5.25" mesh
plates.
Below the 5.25" bays is a hidden toolbox that can be accessed by removing the CM Storm-branded module. There's a pair of quick release clips on either side which must be pressed in to remove the panel. Once removed, the hidden toolbox slides out.
Directly above the 5.25" drive bays we find the external 2.5" HDD/SSD
X-dock. This is similar to Thermaltake's BlacX Docking Station utilized
by the recently reviewed Chaser MK-1, though that particular design
supported both 3.5" and 2.5" drives. Still, we welcome the convenient
access to 2.5" devices.
Above the X-dock is the Trooper's front I/O panel, which features two
USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports along with a single eSATA connector and
two audio jacks. There are also two red LEDs that indicate hard drive
activity and power. The power switch is the large button with the CM
Storm logo at the very top of the I/O panel while the reset button is
much smaller and off to the right.
Integrated into the power button area are three red light indicators
that light up when the red LEDs on the case fans are active. Directly
below the middle light is a small button that enables and disables the
lights. Either side of this button the user will find another two
buttons with plus and minus symbols that increase or decrease the
internal fan speeds.
The top of the Trooper looks as impressive as the rest of the case and
is again very functional. Behind the front panel is a rubber handle that
should make it a bit easier to transport the 30.2lbs (13.7kgs)
enclosure (that's before adding components, mind you). Along with the
handle is a large amount of ventilation for the top-mounted 200mm fan
that also features its own removable dust filter.
Moving around to the left side, the case door has yet another grill with
support for a pair of optional 120mm fans. Although this door doesn't
have a window, we're satisfied with the extra ventilation.
The opposite case door features the same indentation and a smaller grill.
Moving around to the rear of the Trooper, you'll find a simple setup
that mounts the power supply at the bottom of the case. Above the power
supply bracket are nine expansion slots and a 140mm exhaust fan.
At the very top, we have some inlet and outlet holes for water-cooling
tubes. There is a tenth expansion slot mounted vertically, which could
be used for an expansion bracket with USB ports or some other
connectivity.
Internal Design
We held the HAF X's internals in high regard, but in many ways the CM
Storm Trooper takes things to the next level. You'll notice some of the
more obvious changes when looking at the motherboard tray which features
an improved cable management setup.
The Cooler Master finger-press buttons for the expansion drives have
been scrapped. In fact, the drive bay area of the Trooper has been
completely redesigned. The new configuration accommodates a pair of what
Cooler Master calls 90-degree rotatable 4-in-3 HDD modules. We like
this addition for several reasons.
The Trooper essentially has nine 5.25" drive bays. The 4-in-3 HDD
modules take up the bottom six, converting them into eight 3.5" bays
that can also support eight 2.5" devices. With the modules removed, the
bays can still be used to house 5.25" devices, making the case's storage
expansion highly customizable.
Cooler Master also provides a small 2.5" 4-bay drive cage on the bottom
of the Trooper, so you don't have to sacrifice your larger bays to
install SSDs or other compact drives.
In all, the Trooper can support three 5.25" devices (nine if you remove
the 4-in-3 HDD modules), eight 3.5" drives and four 2.5" drives (twelve
if you use the larger HDD modules).
Moving back over to the motherboard tray, the Trooper preserves the rear
CPU hole in the motherboard tray that makes it easier to install and
uninstall heatsinks, which would normally require you to remove the
entire tray. This hole has been enlarged so it spans almost the entire
length of a standard ATX motherboard, thus ensuring better compatibility
with your hardware.
The tray is surrounded by various rectangular holes that let you hide
your tacky wires. There's plenty of room behind the tray as we managed
to fit several power cables along with SATA and USB cables.
The case can support CPU coolers as tall as 7.3" (186mm) which covers
virtually everything on the market. Likewise, all GPUs should be covered
with enough clearance for cards measuring up to 12.7" (322mm) long. For
reference, the Radeon HD 6990 is the longest gaming graphics card and
measures 12" long (304mm).
The CM Storm Trooper includes a 200mm fan, a 140mm fan and two 120mm
fans. Additionally, you can install another four 120mm fans in the
bottom and side door of the case.
The top-mounted 200mm fan operates at 1000 RPM, generating 23dBA of
noise. The front 120mm fans are attached to the 4-in-3 HDD modules and
feature red LED lights, spin at 1200 RPM and make 17dBA of noise. The
rear 140mm fan excludes LED lights, spins at 1200 RPM and produces 19dBA
of noise
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As enthusiasts have come to expect of higher-end cases, the Trooper has a
full interior paint job. Overall, we prefer the internal design of
Cooler Master's latest case over the acclaimed HAF X.
installation Impressions
We installed our standard hardware configuration for a full tower case,
including an OCZ ZX PSU, Asrock 890FX Deluxe4 motherboard, 8GB (2x4GB)
Kingston RAM, AMD Phenom II X6 1100T CPU with the Prolimatech Megahalems
and Inno3D GeForce GTX 580 OC GPU. We also crammed in half a dozen
Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB HDDs and a Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000
1TB.
We began by installing the heatsink's CPU bracket to the back of the
Asrock 890FX Deluxe4. Given the massive hole in the motherboard tray,
forgetting this step wouldn't be a big deal. The motherboard slotted
into place without any fuss and connecting everything else was as easy
as can be.
The DVD-RW slipped in effortlessly and although the Trooper doesn't have
a tool-less design, Cooler Master still managed to keep things simple.
Installing the 500GB hard drives was just as easy, but we do have one
small complaint: the 3.5" bays are not hot-swappable. We believe this
would've made the Trooper unbeatable at $190 and it's not a particularly
expensive feature to add.
However, Cooler Master redeemed itself with the cable management setup,
which provides plenty of space behind the motherboard tray for excess
wires. The large bulge in the right hand door also helps with this and
we have no trouble getting the door back on despite the mass of cables
behind it.
Securing the OCZ ZX 850w PSU in its bottom mounted position was easy and
there is a ton of extra space to accommodate a bigger power supply,
such as the Thermaltake Toughpower 1500w. Extra-long graphics cards will
fit with surprising ease, as there's slightly less than 13" of
clearance. As shown in the photo, there is plenty of room behind the GTX
580 to work with power and data cables.
The Storm Trooper is a real pleasure to work with, offering the
necessary features and space required to build the ultimate performance
PC. Some might complain about the lack of dividers separating individual
sections, but given the design and airflow structure of this case, they
aren't necessary and we have no qualms with their absence.
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Temperatures and Conclusion
To ensure accurate thermal results, we installed the same hardware in
each case in virtually the same way. The test was performed with the
Asrock 890FX Deluxe4 loaded with a Phenom II X6 1100T which was cooled
using the Prolimatech Megahalems in passive mode (i.e. no fan actively
dispelling heat). We also stuffed in the Inno3D GeForce GTX 580 OC, half
a dozen Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drives and OCZ's ZX
power supply.
When set to low, the Storm Trooper is barely audible. While making
almost no noise the Trooper provided our lowest hard drive results
keeping the WD drive at just 20 degrees. The processor results were
equally impressive as the idle temperature of 25 degrees was better than
Corsair Obsidian 650D.
Unfortunately, the Trooper's GPU results were somewhat mediocre as it
kept the GTX 580 around 41 degrees at idle. Increasing the fan speed to
high reduced GPU temperature to 38 degrees, putting Cooler Master's
enclosure on par with the Lian-Li Lancool PC-K63.
We used Prime95 and FurMark to generate as much heat as possible and the
Cooler Master Storm Trooper handled itself very well. When set to low,
it achieved similar performance to the Chaser MK-1 and Obsidian 650D.
Again the only weakness was the Trooper's GPU temperature, but 81
degrees isn't downright abysmal either.
Cranking the fan speed up to high didn't help the GPU temperature much,
but it did have a profound impact on the CPU temperature. The Phenom II
X6 1100T load temperature was reduced to just 53 degrees. Keep in mind,
during our testing, the Prolimatech Megahalems heatsink had no active
cooling, so the amount of air the case directs over this heatsink has a
huge impact on performance.
source:www.techspot.com
