A few months back, I had the pleasure of thoroughly dissecting Cooler Master’s Storm Series: Scout Gaming Case. To give you a quick summary, it’s arguably my favorite LAN party case. It has a useful handle, ample silent cooling and it looks pretty darn sweet once it’s all built up with its slick lighting and black interior. My only gripe was that my GTX295 video cards just barely fit even with special maneuvering.
Cooler Master is back with a new enclosure from their gamer oriented Storm Series. This one is specially designed to improve upon the features that make today’s enclosures functional in so many ways as well as stirring up gamer emotions with some fancy design work. Let’s see if this new CM Sniper Black Edition Gaming Case has learned from previous engagements and can accomplish the mission with ZERO casualties.
Features and Specifications
First, you should know that the Sniper comes in two variants: Sniper Black Edition and regular Sniper. The regular Sniper has been seen in a few places at about the $100 level (depending on the sale) while the Black Edition (BE) costs about $149.99 currently at Newegg. Earlier in the year there were some rebates dropping the price to $110, but most have since expired. Keep your eyes peeled, because those can come back at any time.
While some of the concepts and features are similar to the Scout, such as Storm Guard which helps tie up your USB periperhals so they don’t ‘walk off’ at your favorite LANs, the Black Edition improves upon this with things such as even better and expandable cooling options.
The “BE” will arrive boasting three 200mm x 30mm monster fans located at the Front, Right Side Panel, Top, and one 120 x 25mm up Top of the enclosure. If that’s not enough, you can add an additional 120 or 140mm bottom fan for even more air flow. Most of these are connected to the built in Control Center where the turn of a knob sets the very low 23dB rated cooling fans.
What’s in the Box?
Some of the boxed goodies are very similar to other bundles. Included in the brown box there are zip ties, SSD adapter brackets, lots of screws and stand offs for mounting all your components. Though not included, Cooler Master also shipped along one of their Tactics gaming pads which may show up in bundles if you’re looking for a great pad to go with a case.
Retailing for only $12.99, the pad is well built and reminds you of the “Do’s and Don’ts” with a couple phrases you’ve probably already seen used in game, unless you game like us. The material is of pretty decent quality while the bottom of the mouse pad is made from rubber. Can’t pwn if your mouse pad is slipping all over the place. Cooler Master is definitely taking the Storm branding seriously and we’re sure it will show in our evaluation of the Sniper Black Edition as well.