Gadgetory

coolermaster has received a lot of positive feedback on their portable full tower the CM storm trooper so it was a no-brainer trying to expand the line with the white edition of the case which nowadays seems to be very popular for manufacturers and in addition of a large windows side panel so you can admire your hardware while it's scratching through games and chewing through frames so we get the striker so the new color and side panel are going to add just the tab to the price but this being a sub $200 portable full tower it is still quite appealing and this new exterior is no longer coated with rubber resistant surface like we saw on the trooper but instead they've chosen to go with the glossy white finish which actually is quite popular so let's check out the new color job and the windowed side panel the top and the front panels are made entirely of plastic with the rest of the body made of steel so there is an obvious color difference between the two materials the plastic resembles more of this arctic white while the steel panels are a little bit more muted and have a different shade of white you really have to call a creep to notice the difference but it is still worth mentioning and the windowed side panel is very large thankfully we don't have any fan mounting options to ruin the aesthetics but some might say it's a bit too low and will show the power supply and all the cabling so perhaps it's something to rethink for coolermaster for future designs and also we have some mesh on the side to allow the hard drive cage fan to pull in air and so for the front panel we have a single 2.5 inch hot swap drive a very welcoming feature that we hope manufacturers would implement then we have 9 54 inch drive base easily removable from the front and very importantly have built-in dust filters and at the bottom of the CM storm signature toolbox which includes the 3.5 inch mounting bracket along with some accessories and an inked and extension and moving back to the top this is where all the panel connections are located with your activity lights audio ports USB ports two of which are USB 3 ready and a recent button now the case also has an integrated fan controller with the large power button in the along with the LED on and off switch and speed adjustments the power button has a bright red CM storm logo going through it and the LEDs underneath determined the speed of the fans and we have two fans included for the front they are white and have white LEDs to keep a consistent color scheme and they can also be switched on or off and the fan controller supports up to six fans now the case features a durable handle at the top for easy transport which would make it ideal for land events and an occasional workout session and there's a supporting handle at the back so you can easily carry this thing with two hands and handles are attached to the metal frame and will hold anything up to 43 kilograms looking in the back we have our usual scene with water cooling holes exhaust fan IO area 9 PCI slots plus an additional storm guard security bracket and the bottom mounted power supply now the storm guard security bracket is this anti-theft feature that lets you secure your peripherals to the case for LAN events and on-the-go gaming the other side panel has additional venting to allow the exhaust for the hard drive cage fans and notice the side panel is designed with cable management in mind with additional space provided and every user wants to keep his Hardware dust free and the striker keeps us happy in that department with dust filters on every intake on the top at the back and in the front and taking a look inside we have an identical interior as with the trooper we have two fans cooling your drives and this is a module design so you can rotate either one or both of the cages to deliver airflow for the rest of the internals now this type of airflow is limiting if you have fan exhausting through the side panel there is no incoming airflow for the motherboard area unless you have bottom intake fans installed if you rotate the cage facing inside then you'll have to deal with all the additional cabling coming from your drives so choose the compromise that suits you best we also have an additional driver rack for up to four 2.5 inch drives this is a very good way to utilize the space but might be difficult to wire the bottom drive and if it's not something that you need it is removable and allows dual one 20 male fans to be installed at the bottom and with that a bottom 240 rod is also supported and cable management should come at ease with all these rubber grommets and I really like the oversized one at the bottom which makes the initial process of wiring super easy and looking in the back we get a bunch of cable tie notches scattered all around and an additional cut out at the top which would come in handy for wiring the top fans the drive brackets are also standard nothing new here just simple tools design snaps right in place and allows two point five inch drives to be installed in the center and the case comes equipped with the top 200 millimeter fan for exhaust and supports dual 120 or 140 millimeter fans as well so you can install the second 240 rod at the top for a sweet water cooling setup unfortunately we can't have it also notice the fans are practically touching the motherboard standoffs so only the standard 15 millimeter radiators are supported and nothing thicker and since you cannot install fans outside of the frame push and pull configurations are out of the window and when it comes to GPU support we have about 13 inches to work with so no need to worry in that department and checking out the system assembled the interior is spacious and definitely allows for multi radiator water cooling setup and master graphics cards to be installed I've had no issues doing any of the wiring and everything cleans up pretty well the integrated fan controller is welcomed especially if you are going to water cool the side window also allows a glance for the internals and the carrying handle is a bonus and might come in handy even if you don't frequently travel with your PC however there are some drawbacks to the striker one starting with the color many will notice the difference between the steel and the plastic and those wanting to opt out to the black version will miss out on the windows side panel unless you purchase that separately and secondly having a hard drive cage fans facing the backside panel will drastically limit your airflow for the internals unless you install bottomed fans and this being a full tower I was expecting push and pull support at the top which unfortunately is not available but having said that the CM storm striker is very appealing if you require a portable enthusiast enclosure if you don't mind the white color and can work around limiting airflow this may be a good choice for you and we're giving you the hardware canucks damn good a word and that concludes our review for the CM storm striker thanks guys for watching and we'll see you next one