Construction / Quality
The Cooler Master Striker case is very well built. This is the closest thing to a brick ..erm.. “out house” in terms of cases that we’ve seen. I can’t find one thing about this product that feels less than sturdy. Not only is it solid but it seems to be well thought out – many points were not really appreciated until I took the time to actually complete a full build inside it.
As stated, the case is solid – and understandably heavy. Although it seems aimed at LAN gamers (or at least people who move their rig around a bit), I wouldn’t want to lug this thing around on a regular basis. The handle is built into the chassis and there are two of them, both on the top, one in the middle with a rubber grip and one on the back. The top housing comes off as easy as can be, revealing the handles and how they have been integrated into the frame. The middle handle has a practical rubber grip that is also aesthetically pleasing and tied in well with the black grills.
The build quality, powder coat and general finish on our unit is flawless. The rubber and plastic components are also well moulded and clean cut without any unsightly seam lines or burrs. Aesthetically the design is appealing, being mostly white with black front bay covers, handle and grills. Even the feet have more detail that we expected – black and silver with rubber pads underneath so doesn’t move around too easily. The side window is a nice touch with the white interior showing off your components and reflecting light around the interior of the case and giving it a cleaner look – you will want to make your cabling tidy because the clear plastic window will is big, giving good visibility inside. Both side panels have raised sections in the middle giving a uniform profile. This is especially helpful with the back of the case as its excellent the cable routing and dealing with thicker bundles or overlaps.
Top of the case
The top comes off the case very easily and unlike other cases with top mounted I/O ports, when you remove the top from the striker you are left with a carry handle and I/O plate with all of the ports the ports exposed. There are no cables to worry about… After releasing each of the 5 plastic tabs underneath the roof, the plastic housing just lifts straight off so you can get to work and clip it straight back on again without any fiddling around or dramas.
Interior
Inside, it is very spacious and the options at the top for fan placement is also good. When mounting the H100 in the roof, I had space to offset it towards the window side of the case, allowing for more space between the motherboard and the radiator. There was still not enough space for push/pull fans without blocking RAM slots but it sure made cable routing and motherboard placement easier. The grommets are also good quality and don’t look like they are going to fall out easily.
There are number of points around case for cable management and anchoring zip ties. There’s also compartment at the bottom with a concealed tray for screws cables and other bits and pieces
There is an SSD drive cage attached to the floor of the case that does look a bit like an afterthought but it is very practical so we could well be wrong. Although it is difficult to fit in SSD into this without removing the cage first, it’s also a good use of the space and removable so we won’t complain – in fact, we’ll use it.
Front of the Case
5.25″ covers are easy to remove and clip back into place. They are a nice combination of black metal mesh and flexible plastic. Again, good build quality is obvious here and the drive covers feel solid and secure.
The drive cages are easily accessed and can be orientated in either 90° blowing across the case or straight through. By default case comes with them angled 90 across the case. It would probably be better if the cages were configured out of the box blowing into the case to feed a graphics card (or two). It took about 10 minutes to re-orientated both of the drive cages to intake from the front instead of the side.
There is a 2.5″ SSD X doc at the top of the case although we didn’t use this in our testing testing but it’s a nice feature nonetheless. a rear mounted 140 mm seems quite effective and is also very quiet as was the top 200mm fan. The two white LED fans at the front are also quiet on low speed and appear to be ample in terms of feeding the case with fresh air. The white LEDs give a nice glow without being too bright. They shine through the mesh and would probably be distracting if you shared a bedroom with the Stryker and wanted to sleep with them on. As it happens, there is an LED on/off switch so this isn’t going to be a problem.
Dust filtering
There are three removable dust filters on the Stryker. There is one of the top is about 240 mm long and 2 in the floor. These filters look like they will stop much of the dust and are an improvement on other dust filters and Cooler Master cases in the past. They slide in and out easily, clipping into place to stop them moving around when they shouldn’t.
