A seemingly never-ending stream of press releases bombards the review world with flowery language and hard-to-prove claims of superiority, often from case manufacturers maintaining that a specific model is perfect for nearly anyone’s gaming rig. In the face of all this fluffy stuff, we have to ask ourselves what really qualifies as an ATX enclosure for gaming use. Is it a combination of features? The way certain graphics cards fit? Could ventilation be the deciding factor? Portability, perhaps? Or could the term “gaming case” simply be one of those nondescript descriptors that define nothing more than a styling theme?
Flat-black paint, top-panel ports, and manual fan control are three things that all of today’s competing cases have in common. Now that we know the similar features that chassis designers believe gamers desire, here’s a short list of differences.
Zalmans’ small Z7 Plus stands out as having the most external bays, though four of these are consumed by an internal 3.5” drive cage. Meanwhile, Thermaltake’s Element V actually has 11 external bays, though the bottom six are covered in groups of three. With explanations like these needed for such a simple features table, a closer examination is required for each product before testing begins.
Not to be confused with the smaller Storm Scout, Cooler Master’s Storm Sniper suits high-end gaming systems by supporting cards over an inch longer than ATI’s super-sized Radeon HD 5970.
The combination of support for an extra-long graphics card and a dual-fan radiator was, in fact, what caused us to initially select the Storm Sniper for our most recent high-end System Builder Marathon configuration, only to find out that adding a radiator really isn’t an option for many users. More on that below.
The bulge that exists on the mesh side panel is reflected on the opposite side, providing cavernous capacity for storing cables behind the motherboard tray.
The top-panel angles slightly forward for easier access from the front and provides power and reset buttons, a fan controller with center-touch fan LED control, eSATA connectivity, a headset, four USB connections, and a single FireWire port.
Mesh panels up front are backed by a fine screen to reduce dust, though these will obviously require regular cleaning to retain their sharp appearance.
An extra slot plate placed on the back panel’s right side is designed to hold peripheral cables securely, but could alternatively be replaced with one of the interface plates that accompany many motherboards. Also notice the rubber grommets at the top of the rear panel, which are necessary for installing an external radiator.
Server-style swing-out feet add stability to the base, though Cooler Master also includes standard feet in the Storm Sniper’s installation kit that reduce overall height by around half an inch.
Inside The Storm Sniper
Though the Sniper stands at a full-tower 21.75” height, it’s built on a 19” mid-tower chassis. Users who argue for the superior internal capacity of full towers certainly can’t use this bulked-up mid-tower as an example, even though it is rather spacious by mid-tower standards. With 13.38” between the expansion slots and drive cages, there’s even room for a 13”-wide extended ATX motherboard.
A hole behind the CPU area allows cooler plates to be installed and removed easily. Other holes allow cable ingress and egress from behind the motherboard panel.
With 1.75” between the motherboard and top panel, there’s simply too little space to add a standard 1.3” thick radiator and 1” cooling fans internally, especially with crowded “high end” motherboards that use the last 0.5” of space for heat pipe sinks. Scaling back to a low-capacity, 1”-slim radiator could solve the problem for some users, but only if the top-.25” of their motherboards is obstruction-free. The fans could alternatively be stuffed into the gap between the top of the metal chassis and plastic lid, but the destructive modification of the plastic lid would be required to place the second (rear) fan there.
Liquid-cooling aspirations aside, the Storm Sniper still has several other thoughtful features to consider, such as Cooler Master’s inclusion of two standoffs with raised edges that accurately center a motherboard.
Thoughtful features continue with easy-to-use card latches that work with every graphics card we could find in the lab.
Cooler Master includes a manual, a 5.25”-to-3.5” external drive adapter, a 3.5”-to-2.5” or -1.8” internal drive adapter, replacement grommets and feet, and several screw packs in its Storm Sniper installation kit.
One of the Storm Sniper’s bay panels features a removable center section for use with 3.5” drives and the above adapter brackets.
Hard drives slip into a slide bracket easily, with rubber-mounted pins, preventing the transmission of noise-producing vibrations to the chassis. The internal cage holds five of these brackets, though our test required only one.
The Storm Sniper proves that an adequately-sized mid-tower can have more than enough space for full-sized components, easily swallowing our test configuration.
Blue lighting looks great, but can also be turned off without disabling fans.
source:tomshardware continued
