Cooler Master is one of those companies that does not sit back on their laurels. They are constantly looking to innovate and come up with something new for the enthusiasts out there.  As I am writing this review, they have probably moved on from this case and are making plans for their next offering.  The last case we reviewed, HAF 932, was an instant hit with us as it featured large silent fans moving a ton of air, cut-outs for passing water cooling tubes through and tool-less installation.

Cooler Master Storm Sniper takes all of these great features from HAF 932 while improving on some of the nuisances that we had with it.  Sniper gives the enthusiasts even more bang for buck.

Lets look at the Sniper before going any further.

Sniper is a part of the Storm Series by Cooler Master.  CM Storm is co-developed with some of the most prolific names in the professional gaming industry including Team Fnatic, SK-Gaming, Mousesports and the Kode5 organization.

Cooler Master will be putting what they like to call “Storm Tactics” into each and every product of this line.

Storm Tactics are a combination of strength, security and control.  We will later discover how Sniper accomplishes these tactics.

 

About Cooler Master

Cooler Master was founded in 1992 with the goal of providing high quality thermal solutions. By providing high quality products over the years, Cooler Master is one of the best known and respected names in the industry today. Since its formation, Cooler Master has also provided the PC enthusiast community with CPU coolers, power supplies, PC cases, water cooling components, case fans and many other accessories. They are one of the most talked about manufacturers in the PC do-it-yourself community forums today . Cooler Master products are recommended to anybody seeking to build a new system.

Of Cases and Cooling …

PC cases have evolved over the years.  As PC component cooling has evolved over the years, so have cases to meet the cooling needs of these components.  Gone are the days when PC components could be passively cooled.  The latest components require air cooling.  CPUs, GPUs, northbridges, and RAM have all grown hotter over the years.  They output all of this heat into the case, and without any way to remove this heat from the case, the case temperature rises.  In turn, a hotter case raises the temperature of these components, leading to a shortened lifespan.  Lifespan to an overclocker won’t matter, since they will always be at the front end of new technology and they will swap out their components in the space of a few months.  What will matter to them is the temperature; lower the temperature and the higher you can overclock.  Case manufacturers have come up with revolutionary designs over the years to meet these needs.  Gone are the days of white closed PC cases.  The latest PC cases come equipped with fans that can intake and exhaust large amounts of air, thus lowering the temperature of the components inside.  Modern cases come with an intake fan in front and exhaust fan at the back. Extreme cases incorporate these fans along with adding fans at the bottom, top and side.

Features & Specifications

Packaging & Accessories

Sniper ships in a large box which has all the features and specifications listed on it.  Other than that, the box is quite flashy and well designed and should appeal to shoppers.  The box design is important especially if the case is selling in  retail locations such as BestBuy, Fry’s, or Microcenter, as a good design plus all the listed features will make heads turn.  The “Sniper” on the Box is most certainly a good design choice.

 

On opening the box we get a first glimpse of the Sniper.  Two thick foam pieces protect the box at the top and the bottom. T he foam keeps the Sniper snugged-in tightly so that it doesn’t move around in the box and damage itself during shipping.  This kind of protection is especially important because online retailers like Newegg, ZipZoomFly, and Amazon ship the case in this box.  And you wouldn’t want to receive damaged goods after spending your hard earned money, would you?

The case is covered in plastic to prevent it from getting scratched, although it doesn’t look like that could happen as the foam keeps the case away from the sides of the box.

Once the foam is removed, we see a manual on top of the case.  It’s a good idea from a beginner’s perspective.  Anybody building a PC for the first time would appreciate that the manual is the first thing that they will lay their hands on.

Included accessories are  four rubber feet, two water cooling grommets, a bag of screws and some 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch converter drive bay rails.

We will include this image to show the dimensions and the weight of the box.  If you are selling your Storm (although you shouldn’t have to) you can use this shot to determine the shipping cost.

Exterior

The first thing I noticed when I lifted the case out of the box is how easy it was to lift it with the provided handles.  I also noticed how light the case felt although it weighs in at 23 lbs.  Although Sniper is sold as a mid-tower case, I was surprised at its size.  The size is nearly identical to the HAF 932 which is a full-tower case.  Still the Sniper is an inch wider than HAF 932.

The feet can be turned so that they face perpendicular to the case direction, which in turn gives the case extra stability to “stay on its feet”.

The materials used to make this case are steel and plastic.  The plastic Cooler Master used seems to be of good quality.  The paint feels textured and it appears to be scratch resistant.

 

The front of the case has a Control Center at the top, as Cooler Master likes to call it.  To the left is a small reset button.  It’s small because hopefully your system will be free from any instability and you won’t have to access this button as much as other buttons.  To the right, you see the Power button. Right next to it is the most eye-catching feature of the case for me.  It’s the fan controller which controls the speed of the fans included in Sniper. This control center also features a button which can be used to turn off the LEDs in these fans.  This is a nifty little feature because if you like to sleep in the same room as your PC, you don’t have to worry about the light coming from the Sniper.  The rest of this area includes an eSATA port, four USB 2.0 ports, an additional FireWire port and a microphone input and a headphone jack.  Extra points go to to Cooler Master for the Control Center. You will find the USB connections in this area on Sniper really useful if your case is below your desk and it is hard for you to reach the back of it.

Below the control center are the 5 external drive bays.  The bottom one can be used as a 3.5 inch with the included 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch converter supplied with the case. Just below that is the 200mm Intake fan which features a Blue LED.

At the bottom of the front side is a large 200mm intake fan. The fan cover can be removed and it has a dust filter lining to stop the dust from entering the system.

The front is made mostly of wire and mesh and you can see through the to back of the case. This should make a few heads turn at LAN Parties as you hardware will be almost visible, especially if you have some lights in there.  The dust might be a problem here.

We now move on to the back of the case.  The power supply is mounted at the bottom in this case. This is another useful features as the power supply would draw in the cold air from the outside of the case, rather than drawing in the hot air spit out by other components inside the case.

A 120mm fan is charged with hot air exhausting duty here.  This hasn’t changed much from other cases on the market.  I wonder how long will it be before we see a large fan on the back of cases too.  Most other fans in cases today are often 200mm or 230mm, but the exhaust fan at the back is smaller, usually 92mm to 140mm size.

The expansion slots covers are vented so that it allows air to move in or out through them.  This also prevents excessive dust from entering the case.

To the right is what Cooler Master like to call the Storm Guard.  This is the security feature of Storm Tactics marketing.  Basically this is just a way to route your peripheral wires through through this piece of metal. With the side panel locked, this can deter thieves from walking away with your peripherals at LAN Parties.

Two water cooling grommets can be found above the 120mm exhaust fan.  Another set of these is located to the right of the power supply opening.  These two are punch-out holes that can be used for additional water cooling tube access and Cooler Master  includes two grommets in the accessory bundle.

The right side of this case is different from other enthusiast cases. It does not feature an acrylic see through window. Instead we have a metallic mesh with dust filter lining inside covering most of this side. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Although it will allow air to pass through and keep the components inside cool, some dust will also pass through this mesh. Some noise will also escape through the mesh which may make the case louder than it would have been with an acrylic window.

The left side is simple in design, but it is extruded which should allow some extra space for the cables that will be routed behind the motherboard tray.

Interior

This is what you will see when you first open the case. A box of accessories and all the wires from the control center.

The insides of the case are not painted.

Introduced with the HAF, the Sniper also features a cut-out in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area. This should allow you to remove and install coolers without taking out the motherboard.  A nice innovation.  The motherboard tray features another cut-out near the power supply area which should allow the power supply wires to be routed behind the motherboard tray.  In addition to lending a clean feel to the case, this will also stop the wires from causing any obstruction to the airflow inside the case which should provide you with the lowest temperature possible for the components inside.

Cooler Master also sticks a paper  to the motherboard tray to help the users identify the motherboard standoff locations for ATX and mATX boards. But no markings are made on the motherboard tray, which is a concern as once this paper is lost it will hard for beginners to identify the correct standoff locations for the motherboard.

On the right we see five hard drive trays.  These trays are made of flexible plastic.  It is very easy to remove these trays and install hard drives in these trays.  The  hard drives do not plug into any hot swap adapter on the other side.  Cabling needs to be connected on other side. This is another plus point for this case as the SATA cables that are routed behind the motherboard tray are connected on this side.

Above this are the five 5.25 inch optical drive bays. Sniper uses a push-button optical drive mounting.  This is great little feature which makes installing the drives a breeze.  Just take out the drive cover by pushing a button from the inside and pulling on it.  Then move the drive into place and push the button to hold it in place.

The bottom rear of the case features the power supply bay. The power supply is placed on two foam rubber strips which should take care of any noise due to vibration.  The power supply is mounted so that it draws air through the open vent in the floor of the case. This area does not have a dust filter, which means that the power supply will accumulate dust over time.

Just to a little right of the power supply bay is an optional 140mm fan mounting location. The mounting bracket included can secure a 140mm fan in place without using any screws, but mounting holes are included for a 120mm fan. This fan has a dust filter, which should keep the dust out.

Above this are the expansion slots which feature a tool-less design which uses a plastic locking mechanism.  Unfortunately, cards which are covered with plastic shrouds like Nvidia reference designed GT200 series and the Palit 9800GT in the picture will not be able to use this feature although you can still use the traditional screw method to lock the card in place.

To the left of the expansions slots is a security feature called “Storm Guard”.  Basically you can wrap your USB peripherals through the openings of this slot which should stop people at LAN parties from just unplugging your peripherals and walking away with your belongings.

Above this is the 120mm exhaust fan.

Things like power consumption and noise are some of the things that enthusiasts can neglect if they can get bleeding-edge performance.  But manufacturers have been trying to offer both lately.  It goes with this case too.  Gone are the days of 92mm fans.  They are not even heard of in any enthusiast cases these days.  These days manufacturers choose to use big fans that spin at low RPMs thus keeping the noise levels down while moving a lot of air at the same time.  The Sniper employs two 200mm fans.  One is an intake fan at the front and the other is an exhaust fan mounted at the roof.  Another 200mm fan can be installed on the inside of the mesh panel side but it may interfere with large CPU coolers.

Finished Look and Conclusion

Our test setup consists of Intel Q9450, Zerotherm Nirvana 120mm, Gigabyte EX-38 DS4, 2 x 640GB WD 6400AAKS HDD’s, Palit 9800GT 1GB, and Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio. Here is a pic of some of the components:

Installation was pretty easy.  Place the power supply on the floor of the case and use the screws to hold it to the case.  Then install the motherboard standoffs (which are included in the accessories that come with the case) according to the motherboard form factor.  Place the motherboard on these standoffs and use the included screws that hold the motherboard in place.  Install the components like CPU, CPU cooler, expansion cards, hard drives and optical drives next.  Connect the cables and you are done.

Installation was one of the easiest ever in this case thanks to the cut-outs in the motherboard tray.  Cables were routed at the back and the case looked nice and clean.  Also, the low weight of the case was another big factor in ease of installation.  As we had to flip the case around to access the front and back of the case, low weight certainly helped.

Here’s the finished look:

Pros-

Lightweight, very easy to move around

Security for your peripherals at a LAN Party

Can fit the longest of video cards without any problem

Hard drives and optical drives are easy to install

Big fans provide very good cooling

Cut-out in the motherboard tray allows the CPU cooler backplate to be fastened without removing the motherboard

Cut-outs in the motherboard tray and space behind the motherboard tray allow the wires to be routed behind the tray

Feet can turned sideways to provide extra stability

Fans speed can be turned down to lower the noise

Fan LEDs can be turned off

Tool-less installation of PCI expansion cards

Cons-

Fans loud at full speed

Could have more cut-outs in the motherboard tray for better cable routing

Storm looks like an improved product over Cooler Master’s previous high-end offering, HAF 932.  Some of the small nuisances like dust filters have been taken care of in the Storm.  We highly recommend this case to anybody building a new PC.

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