Cooler master storm quickfire rapid wired gaming keyboard
- #Cooler master storm quickfire rapid wired gaming keyboard skin
- #Cooler master storm quickfire rapid wired gaming keyboard simulator
The bold characters are legible and stand out with their own unique font. That being said, the type face on the keys is solid. Most of the appeal comes from the ActivLight technology. It provided a cool visual when the keyboard was providing the primary illumination in a darkened room.Īesthetically there isn’t much to the Quick Fire Rapid-I. In our case, the white back plate reflected the white between the gaps of the keys for an emanating glow. As with the previous Quick Fire Rapid keyboards, the Rapid-I has a colored back plate beneath the keys. The Rapid-I which we got for review came equipped with white LEDs in contrast to the matte black rubber finish of the housing. That offered an immense benefit for the flight sims in particular as they have a ton of hotkeys, and you have to constantly focus on your instruments to avoid stalls, crashing, and in the case of Falcon 4 BMS, getting shot down.Īs for the LEDs, each key is individually lit by a diode on the switch. At a glance these profiles allowed me to quickly peak at the keyboard to find the specific keys I needed. With four profiles in whole that can be saved within the circuitry of the keyboard I set custom lighting profiles for my hotkeys in Wargame: Red Dragon, DCS World, and Falcon 4 with the BMS mod, leaving the rest darkened.
#Cooler master storm quickfire rapid wired gaming keyboard simulator
The ones I played in particular were real-time strategy and flight simulator titles. You are commonly focusing on the action in game and on your monitor.įrom that perspective the best games for these lighting profiles are those that don’t require your hands to garrison your keyboard. Yes it can be useful highlighting them with LEDs, but for the games that rely on these keys for control you aren’t looking down at your keyboard to begin with. Gamers already know where these keys are, we are intimately familiar with them. However, the lighting profiles proved to be beneficial in a few circumstances.įor games that use WASD, Shift, Control, Spacebar, and other keys that surround these the lighting profiles are a moot feature. In truth the ActivLight system is nothing more than a gimmick - albeit a cool gimmick - as the light show provided by ActivLight doesn’t add much to the experience of using a mechanical gaming keyboard.
The pulsing illumination mode slowly increases and decreases the brightness levels of the keys, which is fun but not that big of a deal. The ActivLight system causes the keys you press to light up when you press them, and then either turn off instantly or gradually fade away. The additional lighting modes which are the showcase feature of the Rapid-I are neat, but not necessary. ActivLight TechnologyĪlthough the Spartan re-design of the CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid is simple and without ornamentation (the Rapid-I isn’t covered in logos like its predecessors), Cooler Master’s ActivLight technology gives this keyboard some serious swagger. That same immediacy coupled with the NKRO 10-key rollover feature also got me killed with greater frequency in Dark Souls at first until I had properly adjusted after a few quick and senseless deaths I began to choose my keystrokes carefully.
#Cooler master storm quickfire rapid wired gaming keyboard skin
The switches afforded a commanding experience in the skin of Niko Bellic, responding on demand with immediacy. The MX Cherry Brown switches were exceptionally useful during my play-through of GTA IV as the responsive and smooth operation made the tap-dance of driving around Liberty City much easier.
However, once I placed the keyboard away from the edge of my desk and collapsed the swiveling feet, laying the board flat, the discomfort I had begun to feel in my wrists dissipated.įrom that point on I could finally put this gaming keyboard to the proper test, and it performed well regardless of the game genre. Though the full-sized keys are comfortable for typing and gaming the compact design took a few days to get used to. Though I was initially reluctant to embrace it, the CM Storm QuickFire Rapid-I grew on me over the couple of weeks I tried out the board. While most keyboards of the day exhibit a unique flair or ergonomics in their design, the CM Storm QuickFire Rapid has a minimalistic chassis in the truest sense just enough to house the keys with nothing more. Outfitted with MX Cherry Brown switches, the Quick Fire Rapid-I, is a sound mechanical keyboard with some of the best switches in the business. Stretching into its sophomore year of production, the Cooler Master CM Storm QuickFire Rapid is an interesting sheep in the herd of mechanical keyboards.