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Cooler Master Storm Sniper Case Review
Author: William West
Published: Friday, March 20, 2009
Case Cooling System
The front of the CM Storm Sniper is a large 200 x 30mm Blue LED fan with an easy to clean front grill. The fan is on the quiet side of the sound spectrum with 1000RPMs at its highest rated speed and only giving off 23 dBA.
With very little effort, going from the bottom, the front grill can be pulled off for cleaning and removing the fan. The grill gives the impression of a sniper rifle sight with its crosshair shape. This is a pretty cool looking design.
Behind the awesome well built handle resides a huge 200 x 30mm Blue LED Fan to help pull hot air up out of the case. Using a type of convection type cooling targeted around the “hot air rises” theory. This area also house some extra holes for two 120mm fans instead of the one 200mm in case you wanted to trade up.
Looking at this area from underneath also brings up the idea of a great water cooling setup. The CM Storm Sniper is a very roomy case that can allow for a watercooling system very easily. With being able to mount a dual 120mm radiator with fans on the top without interfering with the rest of the setup is very welcomed by many people. So lots of cooling potential is ready to be explored on the CM Storm Sniper.
On the back is a nice and quiet 120mm fan that helps remove the hot air from the back of the case near the CPU. The fan can also be swapped out for either a 92mm or 80mm fan.
Here is another area that can be used to add a little more cooling by adding a 120mm or 140mm fan and all of the mounting hardware is included to do either. This is also happens to be a problem area, and really the only one that comes to mind. The issue here is related to the size of your PSU. When using a standard sized PSU the remaining space becomes a very tight and when routing cables behind the motherboard tray you create pressure on the mount at the bottom of the case.
The cooling fan mount also makes it difficult to install or remove the PSU without first removing the fan bracket. On a related note the fan bracket tabs are rather weak and can break off by simply getting your power cables to close so be careful here.
It would be our suggestion to forgo any additional cooling benefits and simply remove the fan bracket and save yourself the headache of dealing with the additional cooling option. Besides there is already ample cooling in the CM Sniper.
The cooling fan mount also makes it difficult to install or remove the PSU without first removing the fan bracket. On a related note the fan bracket tabs are rather weak and can break off by simply getting your power cables to close so be careful here.
It would be our suggestion to forgo any additional cooling benefits and simply remove the fan bracket and save yourself the headache of dealing with the additional cooling option. Besides there is already ample cooling in the CM Sniper.
