Cooler Master CM Storm Scout 2 Mid-Tower PC Chassis Review

CM Storm clearly have made a big effort on updating the Scout and the Scout 2 is definitely a great effort, while I’m not so sure its going to swing fans of the original to upgrade to the new edition, it may be enough to tempt more people over to the Scout range, given its revised fan mounting points and some slick new styling it’s certainly a tempting option for those looking to upgrade their chassis.

But first, I think its best to get a few minor issues out of the way first before we move on, the first being the lack of high quality pre-installed cooling fans, while sure they are something you can easily purchase separately, a complement of Antec True Quiet fans at £10 can add up when you want three or more, given this chassis supports 2 in the front, 2 in the top, 2 more on the side, one in the base and one at the back, it’s starting to get expensive. Now of course I’m not saying that it should have that many fans installed, but one is simply not enough and it should at the very least have 1 x 120mm intake fan installed in the front of the chassis.

Dust filters, or more importantly the lack of proper filters on this chassis could also be an issue dependant on how you use the top fan mounts at least, while they do come with a filter, it features holes that are too large to stop dust particles if you were to use it for air intake, the same can be said for the front and base of the chassis with only the PSU featuring a purposeful dust filter, again these can be bought separately but to miss out on fans and filters in a chassis that doesn’t give much change from £100 seems a little odd to me.

Now onto the good stuff, first of all I think the style on this chassis looks fantastic, I wasn’t so sure about the swollen plastic look to the front of the chassis at first, but it does help give the chassis a unique look and is in keeping with the rest of the design. CM Storms choice to smooth out the angles a little on the updated chassis has worked well and it manages to make the chassis look more modern and stylish. Even though there is a lot of plastic there, there are also some quality metal finished panels and grills combined with a slick paint job and a good quality windowed side panel, given the whole thing a good premium finish and feel, even out of the box there were no rattle and squeaks from the chassis as build quality is solid throughout, very handy if you’re carrying this thing to lan events on a regular basis.

Little touches like the inclusions to control two LED fan lights from the top panel are great too, as some of you will know, when it comes to gaming late at night those fan lights can often be distracting, its a small feature but a welcome one nonetheless and the huge amount of space provided for cable management behind the motherboard is extremely helpful when it comes to installing your components.

Its a solid all rounder then from the CM Storm and one that I think is definitely going to prove popular with the gaming crowd, but even if you’re not a gamer, this is still a great chassis and it has a good selection of features, it’s not the really the cheapest chassis of this size, but your extra money gets you a lot of build quality, reliability, style and of course a very convenient carry handle. I really like this chassis and thankfully the minor issues with fans are easy to look past and resolve, all I know is I would be more than happy to use this chassis day to day, which is why I am award this chassis our Editors Choice Award.