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FRONTPAGE Cooler Master Storm Stryker Case Review

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The Cooler Master "Storm" product line has added a new member to the family recently, the full tower Stryker chassis. From all appearances this seems to be a design much like that of the previously released Storm Trooper, albeit with some new wrinkles added, most notably a left side window as well as the white and black color scheme.

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I should stop visiting OCF for a while... Every time I log in, I see something awesome at the FP, and I start drooling and killing keyboards. :D

That case qualifies for awesome! Just if it had a couple more spots where I could install radiators...
 
oh my gosh, that is my perfect case... and then some! holy cow!

the wifes gonna kill me payday
 
I love my storm trooper personally. :)

freaking awesome.
What I like about it, is that you can FIT a LOT in there.

I have 3 radiators inside, a 240 on top and bottom, the legs you can easily replace with tallers wheels, which I did. (gives more air room for the radiator to suck in too) and the back I have another 120 rad.

the handle cause some thinking, cause I really like to do push/pull with my rad, and I had to mod a 120x12mm fan to squeeze it under the top handle, but it works, and I have push/pull for my top rad too. :) I can show a photo if you guys want to know how it can be done.

the rest of my Storm Trooper is in my profile's album. :)
 
Thanks guys, was an awesome case to work with!

Keep in mind the motherboard mounted in there is the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 which is about an inch less in width than a normal ATX motherboard. Not that it really mattered, there is a ton of room in there....LOL
 
Keep in mind the motherboard mounted in there is the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 which is about an inch less in width than a normal ATX motherboard. Not that it really mattered, there is a ton of room in there....LOL

I put a RIVE in there, still lots of room to work with.
and your observations were very correct, the backplate gives a lot of room for cable management. (I can even fit in a fan for rear VRM cooling)

The Stryker's window is just very sexy. :)
 
Pros:
-Features
-Easy access and good cable management
-Look?! Well, its a matter of taste and usualy its adorable to the "big baby" lovers. ;) It got a bit of a Star Wars design.
-Travel ready carrying handle (at least something new, which is rarely seen).*

*However, im not to certain if it would be successfull in any country other than US, because such a fully equipped big tower is pretty heavy and only some strong men could actually move it around without feeling "tired" on theyr hands, after a while. Not everyone is that strong, and most people, in term a notebook is to less powerful, would rather chose to use some SFF sized system in order to move it around (frequently). In most terms such a build is successful in performance (and drive bays) and a huge tower not truly required.

Cons:
-Material from main chassis is bleach (steel bleach).
-Material from HDD bays is plastic **
-Huge (for traveling use).
-Price, for the same price a brushed ALU case could be gotten from Lian Li.

**Although when the fans are blowing at the HDDs, it should not create any negative impact to the drives. I would still prefer to use bleach bays with a gummi-holding in order to remove possible vibration (at the same time its insulating to other factors such as electrical charge).

For my taste the stuff is to huge and i got no need for more than 4 internal HDD bays. I simply upgrade to 4 TB HDDs, which would give a impressive 12 TB in a RAID 6 compound. I dunno why i would need more than that. But thats just a personal preference and not everyone got endless space in front of theyr nose (where a PC, or several PCs, usualy belong). I definitely am investitigating the factors of raw size vs. highest material quality. Considering both builds have 2 intake fan and 2 outtake fan (chassis attached).


-It would be interesting to check out if a huge tower made with lacqued bleach, is able to dissipate more heat than a smaller build but with brushed ALU. Which is a raw and brushed (surface enhanced) surface without any kind of coating.

-Investigating the factor of airflow and space requirement for that airflow to be sustainable without hinderance to the fans.

-Investigating how much the cables are able to decrease cooling when there is no hidden "cable chamber".

Knowledge is never able to satisy...

Still, its not a matter of fit or not fit, its a matter of "does it actually make sense", because a chassis is always a compromise between size and space management related to parts and cooling. If we could just build a endless huge space... then we can just use our room and attach the parts at the wall... then we have space for anything we could ever wish for, but it doesnt work like that. Its always a compromise building a suitable case. The parts have to be matched and the size not to less and not to much, it simply need to be able to hit the sweet and effective spot.

The true challenge building a case is not seen on a near unlimited space, but when someone have to scramp as much as possible in a way to limited space. On top of that, combining that mess with very few sacrifices on cooling and noise (so that it could nearly match bigger builds), stuff like that is challenging and the stuff i feel most adorable when it is successfull. Of course, nice builds those towers, yes, but nothing new at all, its a very old and proven 08/15 design in its main architecture, and still not the mother of all possibilitys.

So i say... fine but still not impressed.
 
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Nice review, lucky you.

I continue to be impressed with the more rapid pace of case improvements over the past few years. It will be fun and interesting to watch developments over the next several I'm sure. (My first PC build was in an old IBM expansion case I got for $5 and modified which no doubt contributes to my fascination with cases)
 
I think it's a nice case but I don't like the fact that you have to remove the side panel to access the HDD bays.
 
I think it's a nice case but I don't like the fact that you have to remove the side panel to access the HDD bays.

you don't have to. that's just 1 config.
you can rotate it to the front like normal, the HDD box is totally rotatable.
 
I have the black version the storm trooper.

it can fit a 240 on top, a 240 on the bottom, and a 120 at the rear.
some mod on the front can fit a 360, but that will sacrifice the drive bays, which I choose to keep.

the top:
a 240 will fit very easily, can have fans in push/pull as well. i have the top fans on top the chassis which is elegantly consealed by the top shelf. the bottom can fit a 240 rad easy, but if you want push/pull, you will need a thin/normal rad, a THICK rad will make push/pull impossible without mods.

you can take a look at my flow chart in my profile album if you want to see what I did with the rads. :)
 
I have the black version the storm trooper.

it can fit a 240 on top, a 240 on the bottom, and a 120 at the rear.
some mod on the front can fit a 360, but that will sacrifice the drive bays, which I choose to keep.

the top:
a 240 will fit very easily, can have fans in push/pull as well. i have the top fans on top the chassis which is elegantly consealed by the top shelf. the bottom can fit a 240 rad easy, but if you want push/pull, you will need a thin/normal rad, a THICK rad will make push/pull impossible without mods.

you can take a look at my flow chart in my profile album if you want to see what I did with the rads. :)

yes i know ur rig by heart, no need to look again :D its the nicest storm trooper in my book, so the new white one is the EXACT same platform just with extra mesh and window huh?
 
yeah, the styker differ from the black storm trooper in 3 ways.

1, window panel, which kicks a$$.
2, white instead of black (duh)
3, stryker doesn't have the e-Sata on the top panel. (i guess cause no one uses it)

all else they are identical. :)
 
yeah, the styker differ from the black storm trooper in 3 ways.

1, window panel, which kicks a$$.
2, white instead of black (duh)
3, stryker doesn't have the e-Sata on the top panel. (i guess cause no one uses it)

all else they are identical. :)

all 3 of these features are the ones that killed the market for the storm trooper in the first place!
 
3, stryker doesn't have the e-Sata on the top panel. (i guess cause no one uses it)
Seriously! Does anyone use those things? :shrug:

I'd rather see an extra USB port in every case with an eSATA front port, but what do I know?
 
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