COOLER MASTER IS a company that has been branching out over the past couple of years and is now doing a lot more than just cases. This doesn’t mean that it has lost focus on its case business and it was showing off a couple of new models at Computex, alongside a wide range of other new products like the Inferno gaming mouse, a range of new 80 Plus gold power supplies and some other interesting things.
Let’s start with the cases. First up we have the latest addition to the HAF series, simply called the HAF X. This is close to a classic full-tower in size and it can house XL-ATX motherboards, although you’re limited to eight rear slots which mean you can’t fit four dual slot graphics cards in the HAF X. It easily handles long graphics cards such as the Radeon HD 5970.
The HAF X has space for five internal hard drives, but it also has two hot swappable front bays that accept either 3.5 or 2.5-inch drives. There’s also room for four 5.25-inch drives. It has a front mounted 200mm fan; one side mounted 200mm fan and two top mounted 200mm fans as well as a rear 140mm fan. The two top fans can be swapped for a triple 120mm radiator for those that would rather use watercooling.
Some other neat features include a shroud that covers up all the unused cables from the power supply, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, although for the time being these are connected to the rear USB 3.0 on the motherboard, a front mounted eSATA port, as well as a FireWire port, a pair of USB 2.0 ports and a pair of audio jacks. The HAF X should retail for about $199.
Next up we have the CM Storm Inferno gaming mouse. Compared to its previous gaming mouse, the Sentinel, the Inferno looks a little bit more generic at first. Although it looks like it’s been made for lefties in mind, there are no thumb buttons on the opposite side, but if you can live without them, this mouse is potentially ambidextrous.
The Inferno has a 4000 dpi laser sensor, slightly less than the 5600 dpi of the Sentinel, but most people aren’t going to be too concerned about this. It intended mainly for FPS games, but felt good in the hand and can be held in several different ways depending on what you’re comfortable with. It’s got a nice arch to it as well making it just high enough.
You’re looking at a total of six buttons that can be used in game play, as well as the scroll wheel. Just like the Sentinel, it has quick selection for the DPI settings but relies on a simpler LED indicator rather than an LCD screen to tell you which setting you’ve chosen. It also has 128kb of onboard memory which allows for various profiles as well as macros to be stored.
Cooler Master also unveiled its new Silent Pro Gold series of power supplies ranging from 600 to 1200W and all models are of course 80 Plus gold certified. All models also feature modular cables. The 1200W isn’t quite as powerful as Corsair’s new 1200W model, as it can “only” deliver 98A on its single 12V rail. Still, we can’t see many people exceeding this.
Cooler Master was also showing off a more affordable case called the Elite 430 Black and this model is expected to retail for around $50. It can hold five hard drives, two external 3.5-inch drives and three 5.25-inch drives. It’s also has enough room for three dual-slot graphics cards and just about anything you could possibly want to fit in your case.
Cooler Masters’s Choiix brand was showing off a pair of portable power solutions that allows you to charge your mobile devices on the go called the Power Fort. The smaller of the two is very pocket or bag friendly and would allow you to boost the life of your phone by a couple of charges. Choiix was also showing of its new Cruiser mice with blue LED technology called Blue Trace which allows them to work on a wider range of surfaces than laser or LED mice.
Cooler Master also had its new USNA 95 notebook charger on display which is a really compact and light weight notebook charger that delivers up to 95W. It has a handy USB port on it as well which allows you to charge your mobile gadgets at the same time as you’re charging your notebook. Last but not least, Cooler Master had a new cooler on display called the Geminii B5 which has a horizontal 120mm fan and five heat pipes.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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