Cooler Master CM Storm Gaming, Cases & Coolers - Linus Tech Tips CES 2013
Cooler Master CM Storm Gaming, Cases & Coolers - Linus Tech Tips CES 2013
2013-01-11
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Linksys the Quickfire is already cooler
masters most popular mechanical keyboard
but that doesn't mean they're gonna stop
changing things about it and I don't
mean changing things like randomly
changing things that aren't necessarily
good things I mean making changes that
have been asked for so you see this is
an older version this has sort of CM
storm branding here it has CM storm
branding sort of over here on the right
by the arrow keys it's got some CM storm
branding on the top of the keyboard the
feedback from gamers that Coolermaster
received was look we like these premium
mechanical keyboards they're awesome we
love the Quickfire but what we don't
like is having branding all over it we
want a cleaner look so they introduced
sort of the newer revision which has a
very very very very plain very clean
look as well as just a small CM storm
logo up here at the top now this is an
existing product so this is this is
nothing that new the quick-fire stealth
on the other hand changes the quick fire
making it again even cleaner so moving
the writing to the side of the key like
this does a couple of things number one
is it makes the keyboard look extremely
stealthy and very cool from the top and
number two is it actually increases the
durability of the keys themselves so
even though they're laser etched there
is still the the eventual chance that
the writing can wear down or it can
become less visible but because of the
way that they've done this it is
absolutely absolutely impossible so no
matter how greasy or oily or cheeto
stained your fingers are you are not
going to be able to affect the way the
typing appears on the keyboard now this
guy over here is new this is basically a
longer version of the Quickfire this is
the XT which stands for extension or
extended or extreme tactile or whatever
you want it to stand for basically this
is a full 104 key layout so you get the
number pad in addition to everything you
already liked about the Quickfire one
thing that's missing from the Quickfire
is the cable routing here at the bottom
so the reason for that is that they've
actually D
priest there you go they've decreased
the profile of keyboard it is 28
millimeters at its thickest and 18
millimeters at its thinnest making it
the thinnest mechanical keyboard using
Cherry MX switches on the market they've
also added and I believe oh shoot yes
okay I missed something on both of these
so they've added an 8 X polling rate
option to both the stealth and the XT
that makes it the fastest input
available for a mechanical keyboard
which is if you're looking for every
little competitive edge obviously a
factor for you so right instead of the
cable routing on the bottom they've just
gone with a full-size USB port although
they are going to implement it a little
bit differently I think on the final
model where it'll be kind of coming out
at an angle so it's a little bit easier
to route while the four types of Cherry
MX switches that we're most familiar
with our blues Browns reds and blacks
there are actually other kinds of
switches from Cherry now some of the
reasons that we haven't seen these as
often is maybe they aren't as ideal so
you know maybe people don't like them as
much or maybe they're more expensive and
companies haven't wanted to implement
them now cooler masters taking almost
every model they have and throwing a
whole bunch of different switch types at
it because their idea is that look we're
not gonna say okay you're a typist you
want blues you're a gamer you want reds
we're gonna say you're a whoever you are
and you want whatever you want and go
for it so this is the trigger green this
is the first fully your MX green
keyboard that I have ever encountered
and both slick and I are in perfect
agreement that it is without a doubt
pretty much as good as it gets it feels
like a heavier blue so it has an 80 gram
spring in it and what that means is as
you push down to things it eliminates a
bit of the DoubleTap issue that you have
with blues where the actuation point is
actually a little bit before the click
so you don't have that that audible
feedback for the actuation point on a
blue here they line up much more closely
and it also gives you more well
more resistance and more pushback so it
feels more like a buckling spring if
you've ever used a model M this is as
close as it gets with a cherry MX key
switch without you having to sort of
find an old model M on eBay or something
along those lines now it's got some of
the
estimize ability that we've seen with
other Coolermaster keyboards so you can
change the mode of the keys you got
breathing you've got a gaming mode that
lights up your arrow keys you can adjust
the brightness you can turn the LEDs off
outright but what I think is the coolest
feature about it is the fact that you
can fully program any key so if you
decide okay I want a Windows key over
here I don't want a storm key you
reprogram that to a Windows key it has a
few macro profiles as well as profile
keys and if you decide ok I want my
delete key here then you can do that the
only key on the keyboard that cannot be
reprogrammed is the one right here I
also really like the implementation of
the wrist rest here I know that large
wrist rest sometimes don't look as sexy
as a very small compact wrist rest but I
can tell you guys right now that for
some people my wife being one of them
she refuses to type on anything that
doesn't have a wrist rest about this big
so the only keyboard out there for her
is a SteelSeries 7g as soon as I get my
hands on one of these I'm gonna get her
to try and see what she thinks cuz she's
a much faster typist than me she was
about 145 words per minute and she's
kind of one of my one of my go-to people
but slick is the only one I have here
you'll you'll have to do for today's
slick and he says sounds great I love it
too these products don't actually exist
yet this codename luxe or something like
that and they're sort of referred to as
the Coolermaster CM storm aluminum
series or something what they are is
they're kind of a concept that they're
working on right now for customizable
keyboards now you might have seen back
in the day I think there was I forget
who it was but they were custom painting
Logitech G 15s I can tell you guys right
now the finish you're gonna get painting
something like made of plastic is never
gonna be as good as you can do with
something metal also the fact that you
can't take them apart makes it much more
difficult to do you have to have more
specialized equipment and it's just it's
never gonna look as good so what they've
done is they've integrated aluminum
metal aspects into a full range of
gaming peripherals chips so we've got a
headset that has two removable plates
one on each side that allow you to take
it off you can paint it you can color it
you can take it off completely if you
want it to look kind of goofy but that's
totally up to you it's sort of the point
there's also a keyboard that has the
entire top plate removable so you want
to put your
favorite game graphic let's say you're
let's say you're a partner of cooler
masters you want to release you know a
game branded keyboard or even you want
to do like a cool giveaway so you grab a
few of these you send them to a sweet
paint shop you get some really cool
airbrushing done on them boom you're
done so it's the pretty much thing meant
to be a template for the easiest to
customize peripherals there's also a
mouse and a mousepad so you can see
here's the aluminium plate on this guy
this is full aluminum and while I
probably don't think I'd recommend
painting a mousepad I guess you'd have
the option if you really want to the
last thing I missed here before was the
control Rx and what's cool about this
guy is it's sorry polyurethane back
correct polyurethane back and it's very
very thick so this is great for land
parties where you don't always get your
own table and sometimes you're stuck on
sort of the butt crack between the
tables so what you could do is you take
this and at least as long as you don't
have a huge lip you're gonna have a
reasonably smooth surface bridging that
gap because it's so thick and because
the back is so stiff it's also extremely
sticky probably the most grippy back
I've ever felt on a mousepad and I think
that pretty much wraps it up for CM
storm so they've got a lot of exciting
stuff going on don't miss any of our CES
2013 coverage by making sure you're
subscribed to Linus tech tips not
content to just make PC cases anymore
Coolermaster has on display at CES a
fairly wide range of Apple accessories
so I want to start with the rock
basically it's a sort of no frills nice
heavy typing the name is appropriate
because it feels and looks about like a
rock except like a more of a glossy
elegant Rock and the idea is you take
your iPad or I don't know presumably you
can even check an iPhone there if you
felt like it there you go you could do
that or you take your MacBook you put it
in there it slides in pretty nicely it's
got a nice rubberized finish on the
inside so it's not going to slip out or
go anywhere you put that next to your
computer if you use an external display
and it's sort of a stand it's just a
stand speaking of just a stand this is
the jazz pro which does not stand for
just a stand pro but what this guy does
is it allows you to put your Mac next to
an external display it's probably not
that practical from me sitting there
using the computer perspective and I
just hit
the power button I'm very sorry about
that but if you're going to put it next
to a display then and use actually an
external keyboard and mouse then
something like that could work very well
for you
moving right along over here we have the
Wren so this guy is an iPad iPad mini
holder and I actually didn't get briefed
on how it all look there's a button
there you go
I didn't get briefed on how it works but
what it does is it locks into several
different positions depending on whether
you want to be in portrait mode with a
full size iPad landscape mode with a
full size iPad or in portrait mode with
an iPad Mini it rotates like this so it
allows you to kind of take your tablet
and prop it up like this take your
tablet prop it up like this it also
comes with a couple of accessories so
this guy allows you to hang it off of
sort of a horizontal surface this is a
very thick table so that's not gonna
work for me but if you're gonna hang it
off a bookshelf or something like that
then you just slot this into the back
here
there you go hang it off something sort
of rotate it wherever you want it to go
and then it also comes with another
optional one right here which allows you
to clip it to a vertical surface so then
you could sort of rotate it out and
around this way and sort of I figured my
pitch to them was you should come you
should sell them as a 10 pack so that
the customers can actually put them all
over their house and then just carry the
tablet around with them and have it kind
of you know like hanging up here above
the shower and sort of in the kitchen
and wherever else it happens to be this
right here is not actually available yet
this is the cooler master macbook air
they are going directly up against Apple
with this we know I'm just kidding
it's actually the stand underneath of it
so this is an evolutionary step forward
from the jazz pro where not only can you
adjust the height but you can actually
also adjust the angle so you know you're
a DJ you're someone who wants to use
their computer and have it sit on a nice
solid aluminum stand with rubberized
base and rubberized grips it has a very
very nice feel to it I mean look how
thick the aluminum is here this most of
this stuff is available on the Apple
store so it's all Apple approved Apple
Authorized accessories so if you're into
Apple then you might care about that
sort of thing
last but not least we have the duo so
this guy right here slides together like
this so you can use it as an iPad Mini
stand or presumably a full
as iPad stand although I haven't tested
that personally on the bottom you see a
couple of different things so you have a
past three four headphones you have a
pass through four I don't know what the
difference between battery and battery
is here I guess they allow you to run
two cables into it either way when you
pop it out here you can see you can
there we go you can actually plug
because of the iPhone 5 has the
headphone jack on the bottom you can
plug your audio cable in there and you
can just kind of have it sitting in the
dock next to this one you can kind of
hide it a little bit inside this one you
can put it completely inside this one
and it's got like a nice rubberized feel
to it and this is a solid piece of
aluminum all down here so that pretty
much wraps up the Apple accessories
don't miss any of our CES 2013 coverage
and don't forget to subscribe to Linus
tech tips they're our bucket loads of
new desktop products at the cooler
master suite we're gonna start with the
Centurion six this brings back sort of
the the metal accent and the that feel
of sort of metal quality that I think
has been missing a little bit from the
$69.99 price point because that's where
they're going to be positioned this
stripped down here on both the silver
accented version and the black accented
version is aluminum and check this out
guys these are not plastic meshes we are
done with plastic meshes on $70 cases
these are actually metal meshes but
gives I hope you can see this in the
video but in person it gives it a better
look and it gives it a better overall
feel to the chassis other than that it's
a pretty it's something we're pretty
used to seeing on the inside so it has
support for dual 120 millimeter rads in
the top and it has a removable cage here
so you can put in as long a graphics
card as you could possibly want to have
this guy right here is a little bit
unique this is the elite 241 it's a very
very small chassis and the idea is it
fits an ATX motherboard and it's at a
very very low cost and it's small and
narrow so there you go next up here this
is kind of a concept chassis right now
this actually repositions the water
cooling radiator to the side so check
this out dual 120 millimeter rad on the
side what this allows you to do is save
on the height of the case so if you had
for example a little all Club you wanted
to chuck your water cooled
system into this would allow you to save
at least a couple inches on the top of
the case in order to make that fit so
the radiator is look it's slipping the
radiator is right here which gives you
not as ideal of an airflow situation as
if you had it in the top of the case but
it allows this case to come in at a
lower price point because it has a top
power supply and it doesn't have to have
that extra height last but not least
we've got the end 200 and this is sort
of representative of what will be a bit
of a new look for some Coolermaster
cases so it's glad this is a plastic
mesh again but it's just sort of a
cleaner look so the half line has been
has done really well and that aesthetic
has been great and it's gonna continue
but they're also experimenting with a
few different things as well so the idea
behind this guy is that you can have
check this out a dual 120 millimeter rad
and up to another 120 millimeter add in
the back can throw a couple hard drives
in there and there's lots of space so
it's an idea the idea is it's an m-80 X
chassis that gives you options so you're
not gonna be able to put in a ton of
hard drives and a long graphics card and
a bunch of water cooling but you can do
kind of any two of the three without
sacrificing very much at all
this is the Scout to ghost white so
they've got a couple different colors on
display you can check out the inside
it's just basically showcasing all the
really cool stuff that Coolermaster has
going on in terms of their technologies
so they've got their iceberg cooler in
there you got your removable cages
you've got your support for liquid
cooling I really love the handles on the
top of this case they're extremely
robust they're extremely strong this is
the case that I actually took in my
video where I unboxed it lifted it up by
the by the handle alone on the top over
my head shook it around and it didn't
have any flex to it whatsoever thank you
for checking out our coverage of the
cooler master desktop products at CES
2013 don't miss any of our CES 2013
videos and don't forget to subscribe to
Linus tech tips
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