Assembly

As you can see, the Scout does not have a lot of space above the mainboard. We have used an OEM heatsink, which is not larger than the surrounding area of the socket. Any aftermarket unit, which is larger will block access to any plugs in the top left corner of the mainboard. Cooler Master should have designed the top plastic cover to fit the ceiling fan in there, instead of placing it inside the metal structure of the case.


Installing a hard drive does not get much easier than with the system found in the Scout and does not require any tools at all. Simply place the plastic rails on the sides of the drive and slide it in until it snaps into place.


You will need to remove the front cover to gain access to the drive slots. This entire contraption feels very flimsy and the clips holding the covers in place are thin and fragile, so you have to work very carefully not to damage anything. The optical drive stays in place quite nicely with the supplied sliding locks, but you should still use a single screw on the adjacent side, just to make sure.


Installing the power suppy is nothing out of the ordinary. Just screw it down with four of the black case screws and you are done.


After installing all the parts, there is still a bit of space left to work with. You will be able to store any unneeded PSU cables on the bottom of the Scout, but large graphic cards will block most of the mainboard and the SATA or IDE connectors. The Scout is a very compact chassis in this regard, maybe too compact for some. The other side of the chassis does look quite clean, but you have to watch out if these cables interfere with the side panel or not. Even though Cooler Master does offer little holes to route cables through with the help of the included zip ties, most PSUs do not have long enough cables to use these far enough toward the rear to take advantage of the dent of the side panel.

Finished Looks

Once we closed up the chassis and turned things on, we were surprised that the LEDs of the fans were so weak as these are powered seperately, so they will not glow brighter with faster fan speed. If you really want to light up the interior you should grab yourself a red CCFL or additional LED fans. The three cooling fans are extremely quiet and should make for some nice gaming sessions - even at home.


The front LED fan can be barely seen during the day. This should be better when sitting in a dark room during a LAN party. The same goes for the rear fan. Cooler Master should have gone for slightly brighter lighting effects, so the users can easily show off their internal parts.