At first I would like to thank Cooler Master for sending a sample of their CM Storm Stryker Computer Case for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About CM Storm:

"Owning the PC trenches for almost two decades, Cooler Master ’s veterans present their scars from battles past as claims of triumph over the competition. United with a new generation of eSports athletes and engineers, now marching under the flag of CM Storm, the time has come to reveal truly ground-breaking, military grade hardware for the gaming revolution.

 

Through long-standing research programs, CM Storm is co-developed with the world’s most prolific enthusiasts and eSports prodigies. Thanks to intensive testing and continuous feedback, the CM Storm division has been able to encompass and improve upon gamers’ needs and their tough to handle scenarios.

 

By working directly with the gaming community we have injected our Storm Tactics into each and every product we make. Storm Tactics, with a heavily dedicated focus on Strength, Security and Control, will keep your most vital gear fortified and well tuned at all times.

 

2008 marks a new era for Cooler Master, as its fierce Storm Gear stands ready at bay to mobilize and back up your gaming skills.

 

CM Storm – Arming the Gaming Revolution"

 

Product Features:

 

Stylish black and white design with mesh front panel provides constant cooling

Top ultra-strong carrying handle with rubber coating

The unique 90 degree rotatable 5.25"/3.5" Combo Cages offer flexibility for installation

Rich I/O support with two USB 3.0 super speed ports (int.) and 9+1 expansion slots for great expandability

The fan speed can be adjusted on the front panel

The internal tool box and Storm Guard™ bracket help gamers to secure their peripherals

Supports the longest graphics cards, including AMD Radeon HD 7970 and NVIDIA GTX 690

 

Product Specifications:

 

The CM Storm Stryker is shipped inside a large cardboard box, and the sides we will see many details regarding the case:

 

 

 

 

After opening the top of the enclosure we will reveal the case, fully protected on the top and sides:

 

 

 

The case is fully wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag and on the sides it is enclosed in polystyrene:

 

 

 

Cooler Master proposes with the Stryker a white/black theme and features a side window to reveal all our system goodies; a ventilation grill is also present on the sides, which acts as intake as default:

 

 

 

On the bottom side of the case, we will spot multiple filters, which are easy to remove and clean; the first filter can be found on the back side of the case, the PSU area:

 

 

 

 

The second bottom filter is more in the front, can be removed the same way and is ideal when installing two extra fans on the bottom of the case (not included initially):

 

 

 

 

The 4 feet add a lot of style to the case and look similar to the ones we have also seen on the ATCS 840 behemoth (no longer in production):

 

 

The same theme can be also found on the back side of the case:

 

 

 

No less than 9 expansion slots are available with this enclosure:

 

 

 

One extra slot is to be found on the lateral, which can also help at cable routing:

 

 

 

The exhaust fan opening on the back features holes for both 120mm and 140mm fans:

 

 

 

On the top there are 3 holes for water cooling:

 

 

 

Near them we can observe the third removable filter:

 

 

 

 

The side panels are kept securely closed with two thumb screws each:

 

 

 

 

When looking from the top, we can see that the case features a very "sporty" design and a central rubber handle, to carry around the case much easier:

 

 

The case features black metallic grills even on the top and in the center we will also find the Stryker logo:

 

 

 

 

The case comes with 9 5.25'' bay covers, one of which containing an adapter for 3.5'':

 

 

 

On the bottom, we'll find a CM Storm cover, that will reveal even more goodies:

 

 

 

The top side features an X-DOCK, where we can plug in any SSD or 2.5'' HDD for immediate usage:

 

 

 

 

On the top we will also find a central power button, other buttons for turning on/off the fan LEDs, adjusting the FAN speed, one Reset button, the HDD and Power LEDs, the Microphone and Headphone jacks, two USB 3.0 ports along with another two USB 2.0 ports:

 

 

 

The other side panel features an identical design, but this time without the Plexiglass window:

 

 

 

By removing the panel, we will expose the case innards; the case cables are held together with a clip and on the right we can see the two preinstalled white fans:

 

 

 

The motherboard tray has a small guide printed on it which shows where to place the spacers depending on what type of motherboard we are installing:

 

 

 

On the top we have preinstalled a single 200mm fan; in the same place we can fit in either two 120mm fans or two 140mm:

 

 

 

On the back we have an additional 140mm exhaust fan preinstalled:

 

 

 

In the PSU area, we have multiple rubber bands installed:

 

 

 

All 9 expansion slots are provided with ventilated black covers and thumb screws:

 

 

 

The two fans we have mentioned earlier are 120mm and are meant to cool the HDD/SSD cages:

 

 

 

One extra 2.5'' drive cage is present on the bottom of the case:

 

 

 

The frontal 5.25'' covers can be removed by pressing onto the lateral black plastic clips; these are also fitted with filters:

 

 

 

 

As we have mentioned before, one of the covers has a 3.5'' adapter included:

 

 

 

By removing all the covers, we will expose the drive cages:

 

 

Let's see now what we have behind the CM Storm branded cover; this one is easy to remove, by pressing the lateral buttons with equal pressure:

 

 

With it removed, we will uncover a smaller plastic enclosure, which can be freed only after the removal of the two fixing screws:

 

 

The box contains some more useful accessories like screws, motherboard spacers, cable zip ties and one adapter:

 

 

A small speaker that plugs right into the motherboards' respective header is also present:

 

 

Cooler Master has also included an adapter for fixing the needed spacers:

 

Many power supplies do not have long enough 4+4 or 8pin 12V cables and an extension is supplied just for solving this problem:

 

 

 

By looking on the back side of the motherboard tray, we can spot a quite large cut-out that helps when fixing the CPU cooler backplate without the need of removing the motherboard and multiple holes for cable routing:

 

 

 

The two smaller holes can be used for routing the SATA cables, PCI-Express power cables and more:

 

 

 

The bottom, larger hole will be used for routing the PSU cables:

 

 

 

On the back side of the motherboard tray we will also find a lot of places for using cable zip ties:

 

 

 

The fans that come preinstalled with the cages are not your usual 3 or 4-pin fans but feature two separate connectors; one of the connectors is used for supplying power to the fans and regulating power and the LED connector is to be found separately. This practically means that it would be a little difficult to find a similar type of fan construction on the market from other manufacturers:

 

 

 

By removing one thumb screw on the side for each cage, we can remove them from the case; after the removal, we will see that the metallic adapters in which they slide in are also removable and can be placed in the direction of our choice; this is a great customization feature, meaning that we can place the cages with the intake fans on the front, like most of the cases on the market, if we do not like their default position:

 

 

 

Here are some views on the removed cages:

 

 

 

 

The Cooler Master fans also have their manufacturing date printed onto them:

 

 

 

The drives are fixed into the cages with plastic trays, which are supplied in a separate plain cardboard box:

 

 

 

 

The trays have rubber rings for vibration dampening purposes and one pin in each corner:

 

 

 

 

 

The installation of the HDDs can be done in a snap (the trays also have pre-drilled holes for installing SSDs on them):

 

 

 

 

 

After the trays have been attached, we can simply slide the drive into the cage:

 

 

To make use of the X-DOCK, we have to supply power to it via the MOLEX connector and also connect it with a SATA Data cable to our motherboard:

 

 

 

After installing the main components, we will have a lot of space remaining inside the case; thanks to the extra space in the back of the motherboard tray, most of the cables can be hidden there:

 

 

 

After the system has been powered up, the two 120mm fans will light up the enclosures:

 

 

 

The top console will also light up; the different fan speed modes will be shown with the LEDs underside the power button:

 

 

 

The case looks really cool after attaching the lateral side window panel:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 3570K Retail @ 4.7GHz

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: ECS Z77H2-AX Black Extreme

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: Sparkle X580 Calibre @ Stock

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840, CM Storm Stryker

 

After all components were installed inside the case, we have started up the system, installed a fresh Windows 7 x64 OS, along with the latest drivers and the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark. To record the maximum temperatures for each component, we have used the free HWINFO x64 monitoring utility and kept the Heaven utility running for about 1 hour; then, we have closed the application and left the system in IDLE mode for about 30 minutes, to record the lowest temperature.

In the tests we will compare the temperatures with the ATCS 840 from Cooler Master with the new CM Storm Striker; first we will set the fan speeds at minimum and then they will be cranked to the max from the console.

Here is the summary graph:

 

 

As it can be seen from the table, the Storm Stryker succeeded to score very good temperatures for the CPU, but it was beaten in the other areas when the fans were set to “Low”. However, when we set the fans to their maximum speed, the results in the CPU area are even better and in the other areas we have a very tight competition.

The CM Storm Stryker is a sightly updated version of the previously launched CM Storm Trooper, which did not feature a side window and is only available on white. The eSATA port is not available anymore on the Stryker, but most of the other features are still present like a robust carrying handle, dust filters, fan controller with LED controls, external 2.5'' hot-swap dock and two big HDD cages.

 

We get a lot of space inside to work with and the two HDD cages allow us to change their position completely; the case offers us no less than 9 expansion slots plus an additional one which can be used for cable routing of the peripherals. The case is water cooling ready and is equipped right from the start with one 140mm fan in the back, a large 200mm on the top and two 120mm fans with LEDs on the HDD cages. Like the two HDD cages weren't enough, we also get a smaller 2.5'' rack on the bottom of the case, for a total of 10 storage drives, more than enough for a workstation/gaming machine.

 

A small compartment is also available behind the CM Storm cover in the front; the box is initially filled with the case extra bundle, but we can always empty it up and place other useful accessories.

 

In the back of the motherboard tray we have enough space for the cables and these can be also routed cleanly by using the provided zip ties.

 

We have mentioned previously of the sturdy rubber handle; this can be used for transporting the case safely from one room to another, but we will avoid to recommend transportation to LAN parties since after we fill the case with the necessary components, it will become quite heavy.

 

The air cooling performance of the Stryker is impressive and the difference in temperatures when comparing it with the older ATCS is quite noticeable; the integrated fan controller allows us to select the fan speed of our choice and eliminates the need of buying a separate one that would occupy an extra 5.25'' bay.

 

The case is now available to buy at the online retailers for about 150 Euros, which we think that is quite acceptable considering the multiple customization options, air cooling performance and the total number of available storage bays.

 

Cooler Master CM Storm Stryker Computer Case Recommended For:

 

I would like to thank again to Cooler Master for making this review possible!