At the front of Trooper there are 9x 5.25” bay covers. Though we do have 9, there are just 3 that can be used for optical drive usage. The rest will remove to reveal HDD storage options. At the bottom is a section with the CM Storm branding – this plate is removable, once removed we have access to a small box containing important items for building within Trooper. More on this a little later when we inspect the internals.

Around the back of Trooper there is an opening at the bottom of the case for mounting a PSU. Above this are 9x PCI expansion slot covers each with ventilation holes for better airflow, to the side is “Storm Guard” to prevent peripheral theft. Above this is a 140mm rear exhaust fan and 3x rubber grommets for water-cooling tubes.



The underside of Trooper features 4x rubberised feet and 2 separate sections of air filter that are easy removed from the outside of the chassis.



At the top of Trooper towards the front is the front panel connectivity. Here we have a plethora of controls to use. The options we have available are:

• Power button with LED
• Fan Control with LED on/off button
• Power/HDD activity LEDs
• Headphone and Microphone jacks
• 2x USB 3.0 ports (motherboard header connector)
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• 1x E-SATA port
• Reset button

Beneath these controls, hidden away is a section labelled X-Dock. Here a 2.5” SSD hot-swapped for quick and easy access to data. Simply slot the SSD beyond the cover until it clicks into place.



Over the page we will look at the top section of Trooper.