Entusiast Peripherals

In order to combat the growing popularity of console gaming (and also to support a growing population of gamers) many peripheral companies began to invest money into making real devices to support gaming on the PC. We have seen many of these products (usually mice of game controllers), but with the exception of a few of the mice we were not all that impressed with them. That is until we started to see the first mechanical switch based keyboards. As we spend a large amount of time behind the keyboard (and also still game) we had a serious interest in these devices. Most of them are centered on the Cherry MX switch. These mechanical switches come in different colors; each of these has different properties. We have shown you blue and brown and what they each bring to the table. Now we are going to take a look at the Thermaltake Tt eSports MEKA G1 Mechanical gaming keyboard. This product takes a little different tack on switches and has opted for Cherry MX Black. So let’s dive in and see if the MEKA G1 will be worth the $100 Thermaltake wants for it.

Cooler Master is celebrating 20 years of life (we got to celebrate with them at CES 2012), but it has only been in the last five or so that we have really watched them take off. With the launch of the HAF line and their push into the enthusiast level of hardware (and the CM Storm line) Cooler Master has simply bloomed. Over the years we have tested many products from Cooler Master and still have more to go through. Today we are finally able to show you their newest edition to the HAF line up; the HAF XM. The HAF XM is a mid-tower case that has plenty of room for your three-way SLI or Crossfire plus all of the hard drives you could want. You get all of this for around $130 so let’s take a look and see if the HAF XM is worth the price of admission.

As you might have noticed we are getting back into our coverage of not only the core components to computers, but also the peripherals that make the computing experience what it is. One of the most used (and often overlooked) components is the mouse. We have covered a few of these handy little items in the past; some good, some bad. One of our favorite manufacturers has been Cooler Master and their CM Storm line. When we first heard about this line we were a little skeptical; we have seen where other manufacturers have branched off and ended up with not much more than gaudy versions of what they already sell. However, with Cooler Master and the CM Storm line we have seen quite a bit more. Ever since we first tested out the Sentinel Advance we knew that Cooler Master was not playing around here and as you have been able to see with their recent releases of the QuickFire Rapid and Pro mechanical gaming keyboard the CM Storm line is here to stay. So with that in mind we are going to take a look at the highly anticipated Sequel to the mouse that started it all off for CM Storm, the Sentinel Advance II along with the CM Storm Speed-RX L Mousing Surface.

As the PC Gaming scene ramps up (now that nVidia has finally released Kepler) we are starting to see some very nice accessories to take advantage of the flexibility and power that you get when you build a PC for the purpose of gaming. We have shown you more than a few items that are meant to improve your gaming experience including headsets, monitors, audio cards and now even mechanical keyboards. Only a few days ago we showed you Cooler Master’s new CM Storm QuickFire Rapid mechanical gaming keyboard and already have its big brother in the lab. So let’s take a look at the QuickFire Pro and see if this Cherry MX sporting partially backlit gaming keyboard has what it takes to earn the cool $100 that it will cost you.