Early Look: Cooler Master Sniper

The top also houses some big chunky handles seamlessly integrated into the design so you can get a firm grip when lifting it and even though the case was steel it was surprisingly light. Well, that is until you throw in a few hundred pounds (weight or £) of kit into it.

The sides are both bevelled and mesh grilled so the fan attached on the one business side doesn't impede on your build area. The gap on the rear side then allows for cable storage. Cooler Master did mention that the backside grill might not make it to the final design but to be honest, we prefer having both sides look even. As a design change - maybe continuing the linear grill from the top over the sides might create a more uniform overall effect rather than just having very separate "top" and "side” parts.


Cooler Master did not mention specific watercooling support - whether it would include sets of standard 120mm mounts in a row for radiators and their fans, but each fan will have an "easily removable dust filter" so your case doesn't become a very expensive vacuum cleaner. The PSU is mounted in the base like the Cosmos for better stability, and it is several inches off the ground so the bottom facing fan again doesn't fill it with dust, hair and crumbs. Mmmm, so much potential nastiness will thankfully be avoided.

The case is mounted on legs that hide away, although for the larger models especially we were particularly keen to see some (detachable) wheels on the bottom to help shift it.

One thing’s for sure - we like the entire black look because it brings a focus on the hardware installed rather than the case itself. The motherboard try isn't removable; however there is a deliberate hole in the back of motherboard tray behind the CPU socket so you can get to rear heatsink mounts without removing the motherboard from the case - big win! (or acceptable compromise, depending on your favour to removable mobo trays).


The last thing to note is that Cooler Master said the front panel will likely change - right now it was just a mock-up in place to match the sides but Cooler Master hasn't finalised what to do with it yet. Given that the design matches the rest of the case, we can't imagine it'll change too much except for a bit of refinement and the inevitable Storm logo.


Cooler Master will still make its mainstream models like the old Stacker and current Cosmos; there will just be more variety in future. What do you think though? Ugly as sin or the next best thing to the Antec 900 (that flood LAN halls)? Cooler Master is keen to hear (constructive) feedback from our international readership moddership.