Cooler Master Storm Scout Cabinet – Ramp Walk

My cyborg arm has been itching for a few days due to the lack of the modding for an insanely long time. So, solely to satisfy the inner BuckRodger, I decided to dump my previous cabinet and freshen things up.

I am also a photography hobbyist with a Canon 500D and since spending the whole Diwali snapping fireworks, I wanted to do something different. So, I went with a mod that would look the coolest in pictures :D As you may be able to tell, shooting colourful lights is the best kind of photography I like. (Straight LowDown -  See all the pics of this cabinet – slideshow, set)

Enter Cooler Master Storm Scout (see manufacturer page, video review). I purchased one from theitdepot.com along with some neons and internal lighting paraphernalia. I spent the last weekend switching cabinets and installing the internal lighting.

This is my first time with a ‘proper’ cabinet. I was amazed by the tool-free design, the solid steel, wire management, dust filters, wire mesh and side window. The best however is the quality of cooling it provides. My system temperatures went down 10 degrees right away in comparison to the temps in the previous cabinet. The handles on the top are really sturdy and made it very easy to move it around for the ‘photoshoot’ ;)

It is such a shame that I didn’t move to a branded cabinet earlier then now. The benefits are so many and indispensable once you have tasted them.  The stock fans are huge and very well placed. It is also such a wonder that the cabinet is so quite. 

Radical Modes (Green/Red/Blue) - Rear View

Another feature I really love is the small switch on the front panel that can switch ON/OFF the LEDs and attached with the other additions I made works very well when you need it to be dark. In addition I installed a parallel port controllable relay to turn off the chassis fans as well. It is very handy when you want that zero decibel  sound level. I use Win7’s powershell to switch to a quite mode that throttles down CPU and GPU clocks and runs my tiny utility to switch of the fans. When I get time, I am planning to write a full utility to control the internals of a system via the age old parallel port electronics addon method.

Frontal Assault - Mode Green and Red

Other owners of the same cabinet may be really happy to know that the ceiling fan actually has speed control support. The default wireup of the cabinet just attaches it to the +12v rail and we can disconnect it from that and plug it into the mobo. Which will allow us to monitor and control the fan speed. Unfortunately, and this is the only thing I dont like about this cabinet is, the other fans dont have speed control capability. It would have been nice to have a switch like the the ones offered by Antec.

HDD Rack, Read Exhaust and the GPU

This cabinet is a far cry from my last 500Rs one. That one was so old and so modded out that it had become rickety like a UP Roadways Bus. Years ago, I had to mod it out to make it functional(new HDD rack, front exhaust, addition front panel USB etc) to my hardware and was unable to upgrade from a long time as I knew that the other local ones would have the same shortcomings and would required modding. So I am very happy that this cabinet is already functional and so I am free to concentrate on visual pleasure alone!

This brings me to the end of the outside view of the cabinet. I will do the internals next time, when I get time. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Dont forget the view the other equally awesome pics slideshow, set.