CM Storm Mech Aluminum Keyboard! - How does it stack up?
CM Storm Mech Aluminum Keyboard! - How does it stack up?
2014-01-22
guys I would be honestly lying if I said
that this was not the biggest keyboard
box I've ever seen in my entire life
it's huge anyway guys we're going to go
ahead and take a look today at the CM
storm it really is a big box I'm not
lying BCM storm a mech keyboard here
from coolermaster now the Met keyboard
here is part of an aluminum series that
they have going where we've already
taken a look at the Reaper mouse and we
are going to be taking a look at the
pulse our headset this is actually quite
a diamond in the rough I can't wait to
talk about this a little more in a
future video so if you want to know more
about the Reaper mouse go ahead and
click somewhere on the video now it'll
bring you to that review and once this
review is done i'll go ahead and come
back and re annotate this video to make
sure that you guys are able to see that
video if you're watching this sometime
in the future and if you are from the
future I would generally appreciate it
if you would tell me the lottery numbers
because then if you do and I win I will
buy us all entire mechanical keyboards
an aluminum series from coolermaster
wouldn't that be awesome
okay so since you guys know me and you
know that I like to use product rather
than just take it out of the box I'm go
ahead and take the box and toss it aside
and I'm going to unplug the keyboard
from my computer because i have been
using it and here it is when it comes to
the design first when i first saw this
at CES in 2013 i saw through videos and
others other youtubers um i don't know
if i was entirely sold on the design but
over time it really kind of grew on me
because it has that it has a very unique
style to it doesn't look like any other
keyboard on the market and a lot of
keyboards just look like each other and
I hate that I'd like to stand out and be
different um obviously I like to be
different I'm a very different kind of
guy so what I didn't like about it
initially were the angles like see how
this is kind of cut this way and that
kind of goes that way and in the end it
makes it straight but it's just very I
know kind of retro looking I guess but
it grew on me and it has a lot of style
and uniqueness to it that I really
appreciate one of the things that it
features that the aluminum series from
coolermaster is is really about is
customization and you see these screw
holes on here they do come with a key
cap remover as well as a little allen
key so that you can remove this plate
for easy cleaning you can also remove it
for easy customization you can paint it
put on some vinyl decals do whatever you
want to make it your own nor the
keyboard on the market right now offers
easy customization of the top plate like
that the keys obviously are mechanical I
have the brown right here so that
naturally means it has a white backlight
it is also available in red and blue it
may have other colors available i'm not
entirely sure you'll have to check out
cmcm store for that right now this
keyboard is only available in the CM
store at the time of recording but you
may start seeing it pretty soon in your
local brick-and-mortar another online
retailers so keep an eye out for it but
like i mentioned this is the brown
switch the f ro has all of the multi
function keys that you come to expect
with using function for you know pit
play pause rewind
you volume up volume down windows lock
key very important for a gaming keyboard
I cannot tell you how many times in the
past I've accidentally bumped that
stupid windows key that pops me out of
full screen mode and then gets me killed
in when I used to do arena and warcraft
and battlefield 3 in battlefield 4 I
still do it because sometimes I forget
to lock the stupid thing but it's there
so it's very important I don't think
there's any reason for any keyboard on
the market to not include that function
today now it does have 5m keys and these
are macro keys and we'll talk a little
more about that when we talk about
what's inside the keyboard now one thing
that is very important with this
keyboard and is something that I
desperately love when it comes to
keyboards desperately love this like in
a very awkward sense of the word it has
a built-in USB 3.0 hub with two USB
ports a lot of keyboards aren't
including these these days they're
they're trying to make the keyboards
cheaper which means that they're in
leaving stuff like that out now with
that set this keyboard is a little bit
on the premium side of cost of things I
don't like to talk about costco that's
always changing but I will tell you that
this is sort of a premium keyboard
because of the features that are
included with it so not only does it
have a USB 3.0 and built-in hub it has
built-in audio controller ports for both
microphone and your headset I don't like
to have to reach behind the computer and
I don't use front panel inputs on cases
because they tend have more noise in
them we'll talk about that later but
anyway so i can plug my headphone into
this which is awesome if it's a USB
powered headphone like the pulsar is it
gets power from USB to drive the
built-in amplifier for the the drivers
and plugging it right there it's got
everything you need now one of the
things I'm a little bit disappointed
about is you can kind of see it in the
video right there there's a little bit
of etching hopefully it shows up a
little bit it's really hard to show
there's a little bit of etching there
with a CM storm logo continues past the
plastic on to the aluminum and if you
look at the box right here they kind of
show see right there it looks really
dark I kind of had hoped that
design was going to show up a little bit
more because i like the CM storm logo
and so it doesn't that kind of makes me
sad but maybe they felt it would be
easier we're going to be customizing it
not to have to worry about that so not
only does it have you know a built-in
wrist rest which is another really
important thing for me personally it has
this built-in handle which is really
awesome if you're going to be taking it
to halloo that would like 3d to bet on
the 3d camera anyway it's got this
built-in handle as you can see it's very
rigid there's no flex to it that's
really hard to roll like that there's no
flex to it see it's perfectly straight
and its really really rigid that's for
two reasons one has an aluminum top
plate which we've already talked about
but it also has steel reinforcement
inside so it's very very sturdy but it's
actually not that heavy it's a little
bit lighter than I expected it to be in
fact it's lighter than my black widow
from razor was so I like that on the
bottom kudos to coolermaster for
including huge rubber feet like this for
a huge guy like me so that I'm not
sliding this thing all over my desk when
I'm gaming and the flip-up feet also
have rubberized feed on them so it's not
going to slide around that's really cool
now when it comes to interfacing with
your computer it has a proprietary plug
on there it looks like a standard USB
plug and not the mini USB be like the
standard size but with a little extra
piece on there so don't lose the cable
it is proprietary to this which means it
requires their cable to work that's how
the audio and stuff works so when you
plug it into your computer it's going to
be recognizes its own USB interface
which means the audio is going to play
through a built-in USB driver that's
included in this so it technically takes
your three-and-a-half millimeter
headphones and turns them into a USB
device now I was concerned about whether
or not that would degrade sound quality
at all compared to plugging in directly
to my motherboard and I was surprised
that the sound quality actually was no
different than when it was plugged in so
that made me happy now it's going to
talk about what's inside it does feature
a built on built-in 32 megabytes 72
megahert a quick-fire where they call it
rapid fire engine so what that means is
that it has a built-in processor as well
as memory so that will remember all of
your profile
regardless of what computer you hook it
up to so you don't have to use any of
the built in software to control any of
the profiles I mean you can set up the
profiles through the software but you
can take it to another computer and
those profiles are saved onto the
keyboard so you're not gonna have to
reset that up if you decide to go to a
land party or you go use somebody else's
computer you're not going to have a
problem with that so all in all when it
comes to the construction of the
keyboard and physical properties it's
really really cool now you have 75
different combinations with between the
five different profiles and the five
macro keys here that you can save when
it comes to various functionality of the
macro so 75 is more than I would ever
use in fact I generally don't use macros
but they're there and I might start
using them in the future now when it
comes to backlighting this is where I
kind of feel the keyboard lacks a little
bit and I'm not dogging the keyboard for
that because honestly I'm the kind of
guy that puts on all keys backlit full
brightness all the time I don't care
about any of the flashy stuff where it
swirls around or follows your traces of
your typing I don't care about that
stuff I just like it to be lit but I
know there's people out there that do
care about that so there's three modes
there is a all on mode where
everything's on there is a breathing
mode where it fades in and out and then
there's a gamer mode where the only keys
that light up are the macro keys the
WASD and the arrow keys nothing else not
even the little channel light that
exists down here inside I know there's
gamers out there that like flashy and
they want to see everything kind of
twinkle and around so would be nice if
they may be good in the future maybe
offer some way to incorporate that into
the keyboard considering it's a it's a
high-end keyboard you kind of expect
that sort of high-end functionality but
when it comes to the use of the keyboard
I got used to typing on it really
quickly I played some battlefield 4 on
it immediately when I got it and it
feels a little interesting at first
because your palm kind of rests on metal
and plastic at the same time got used to
it real quick didn't bother me at all in
fact I love typing on this keyboard so
guys what do you think about this
keyboard what do you think about the
design and the features what would you
like to see in a mechanical keyboard
like what features are important to you
so I'd like to hear let's go and talk
about it
we know what's important you guys with
mechanical keyboards and I'm gonna go
ahead and get the hell on out of here
and I think you guys should too I think
you guys should go play some games and
tell me what you think about this
keyboard guys as always I appreciate
your likes I appreciate your follows it
means a lot to me in the channel and I
will see you in my next video
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