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There are no shortage of keyboards available on the market today with many companies expanding their portfolio into the ‘gaming' sector. Today we are looking at the latest design from Cooler Master, called the CM Storm Quick Fire Pro, incorporating mechanical keys.
We have previously reviewed their CM Storm Trooper keyboard and the company also sell a CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid keyboard which all utilise the latest Cherry MX switches.
The Quick Fire Pro also offers customisable LED backlighting and several other gaming features.
The competition for gaming keyboards is certainly intense with several big brands like Corsair, Steelseries, Razer and Roccat all targeting this sector with prices ranging from around £60 to well over £100.
Specifications and Features
- Key Switch: CHERRY Black / Blue/ Brown/ Red.
- N-Key Rollover: 6/Full N Key.
- Polling Rate: 1000HZ/1ms.
- Backlighting: Partial Keys.
- Windows Key Disable: Yes.
- Media Keys: Yes.
- Interface: USB 2.0 Full Speed.
- Cable Length: 1.8 m.
- Dimensions: 454(L) x 155(W) x 31(H) mm/ 17.9(L) x 6.1 (W) x 1.2(H) inch.
- Weight: 1300 g / 2.86 lb.
The CM Storm Quick Fire Pro keyboard ships in a red and black themed box, as you'd expect from the CM Storm family. The front of the box tells us that this is the Pro version with the English Keyboard layout and Cherry MX Red switches.
The back of the box details more about the product, including the features in 9 different languages. The features include; mechanical CHERRY MX switches, NKRO in USB mode and partial red LED backlighting.
The packaging is fairly simple but effective. They ship the keyboard with a thick transparent plastic cover to protect the keys.
CM Storm have included a quick start guide which explains how to use all the extra function keys. That said, it doesn't explain the differences between the NKRO modes.
As the cable isn't attached a thick braided USB cable is included in the box. CM Storm have also supplied a keycap tool for removing the keys, although unlike other products there are no different colour keycaps included.
The keyboard has a traditional appearance and it looks great. It is a little thicker than we would expect, and the keys sit up at least 3 cm from the desk surface.
Looking at the keyboard layout closely, we can see the company have replaced the windows key with a CM Storm logo, which can also be seen top right. They have also added a function button.
Some keys have dual-functions, including all of the F1-12 keys. There are others, which we will look at in more detail shortly.
At the top right of the keyboard we find the ‘Num Lock/Caps Lock/Scroll Lock' lights, which have been embedded into three grooves.
At the top of the NUM pad, we can see four options: ‘8ms/4ms/2ms/1ms'. Yes, it is possible to adjust the Polling Rate of this keyboard (1ms represents 1000Hz and 8ms represents 125Hz).
The keyboard offers the choice of either 6-key rollover or N key rollover, which have been placed as functions of the INS/DEL keys respectively.
The function keys F9-F11 deal with the volume controls of the computer, while F12 will deactivate the windows key, this is very useful for gaming.
Finally, we can see the remainder of the function keys, F5-F9 are standard music play controls (Play/Pause, Stop, Back and Forward) and F1-F4 alter the backlight settings of the keyboard (On/Off, Brightness Down, Brightness Up, Mode).
The back of the CM Storm Quick Fire Pro is much like any other keyboard, although at first glance you may wonder where the cable is.
Instead of having the USB cable fixed, it can be removed using this mini-USB port.
The feet of this keyboard are small, mainly because the keys are already high. This does allow you to have the keyboard tilted slightly, making it easier to reach the top rows of keys.
Once the USB cable is fitted, you can route it into 1 of the 3 routing guides. Plugging the USB cable in is a little fiddly as the port is so close to the underside of the keyboard.
Cherry is renowned for producing the very best gold-plated mechanical key switches which have found their way into nearly all high grade gaming keyboards, from a variety of manufacturers. The CM Storm Quick Fire Pro is no exception.
There are four types of Cherry MX switches available for mechanical keyboards: red, black, blue and brown. Mechanical keyboards offer large advantages over their membrane counterparts, mainly that the key press is registered much earlier, and as such allows you to type and respond quicker.
They can also offer much better feedback. The keys are pushed back up ready to be pressed again, and several keys can be registered at once.
The CM Storm Quick Fire Pro is offered with all 4 switch types and the sample we received was equipped with Cherry MX Red switches that have a low actuation force. These are easy to press down – and offer linear feedback.
The differences between the four Cherry MX switches are small, yet noticeable and will be mostly based on personal taste.
For instance, the Steelseries 6GV2 features Cherry MX black switches, which are similar to the red switches but require a higher actuation force.
The Razer BlackWidow Ultimate features Cherry MX Blue switches offer high tactile feedback, which is brilliant for gaming and typing, but they do generate a lot of noise.
Zardon likes Cherry MX Blue switches, but in my opinion, Cherry MX Red switches are the best compromise. This is all individual taste and it will take a little trial and error to find out your own personal favourite.
We are very impressed with the functionality that this keyboard offers. For instance, the four standard Music Play controls, Volume controls and backlight adjustments are the most important and are likely to be used everyday. Of course many gamers will be expecting macro keys and other useful features, but this keyboard just doesn't offer them.
The CM Storm Quick Fire Pro does feature a few basic gaming functions, polling rate, NKRO modes and windows key disabling, all of which are controlled from the keyboard itself. The adjustment of the polling rate is certainly a nice feature, however we have never really noticed any differences between the modes. That said, if you are a very keen gamer this may be something that you will tweak to improve responsiveness.
The option to switch NKRO modes is also useful for different games, but we feel that it is poorly documented. It must be noted that N-key rollover can lead to more errors if you are using the keyboard for typing, but can be a must for gaming. 6-key rollover on the other hand is more reliable for typing and you would produce less errors but is still not going to be the best option for a typist.
We are also slightly against the use of the function key … which once activated stays on, and so it is easy to accidentally adjust more settings than you originally wanted. On many laptop keyboards the function key needs to be held down which is intuitive, simple and quick.
Unlike may other recent gaming keyboard releases, the CM Storm Quick Fire Pro does not have any software available and many gamers will expect the extra options in an easy to use Windows based interface. However, the backlighting and other modes can be controlled easily from the keyboard. Whether this will be a positive or negative point is purely going to be based on personal taste.
The keyboard sits quite high off the desk and does put the wrists at more of an angle than many other gaming keyboards I have used. I am not sure why it has been designed like this and quite frankly I find it less comfortable to use long term. The keyboard is however built to a very high standard and it is worth pointing out that the Cherry MX switches have an expected lifetime of over 50 million key presses.
Overall, the CM Storm Quick Fire Pro delivers great performance. It is certainly superior to any membrane-based keyboard available and we are fond of the Cherry MX Red switches. It is a product suitable for everyday use as well as gaming, but it doesn't have all the gaming features that some people might expect.
The price is said to be around the £80 mark so it is certainly a lot cheaper than several other mechanical keyboards on the market. That said, the Steelseries 6GV2 is priced around £10 less and is just as impressive.
Pros
- Choice of MX Switches available.
- Extra functionality (media and volume controls).
- Backlighting is subtle but pleasant.
- Good build quality.
- Competitive price.
Cons
- Keys are too high up.
- No software.
- No macro buttons.
Kitguru says: Worth considering, but it isn't quite as balanced as the market leading keyboards.
This is almost identical to the original IBM keyboards in styling and I know for a fact im ordering one. I think ill opt for cherry blue myself as ive used them on the razer black widow ultimate and I love them, although as reviewer said, they are very loud.
weird they dont make software for it, almost all of the gaming keyboard have macro software which is very indepth.
looks quite good though. I just bought a steelseries a month or so ago and im very happy with it. id love to have a side by side with all the cherry switches as I think ive only used brown before.