Introduction

For those of you who never owned or haven't ever used a mechanical keyboard and are quite happy pounding away on muddy keys, maybe it is about time you step away from the pig sty and move into one of the new offerings specifically designed with gamers in mind, while offering Cherry MX switches for a much better feel. With the specific sample we are going to be looking at today and one of the first I have seen to go this far, Cooler Master actually offers this keyboard with four choices of switches depending on the "feel" you want in your mechanical keyboards.

For those that don't use mechanical keyboards, the switch types offer different tactile feels to the way the switch moves. Some switches are linear in feel, that is to say the same pressure applied at the beginning finishes the keystroke, while others have Force Feedback with a stiff spot in the middle of the press that require a bit of extra love to activate. On top of that there are more silent keys like the red switches used in the Corsair products we have seen and on the opposite end are keys that produce that satisfying "clack" when the key completes its travel when pressed. The sample I received today comes equipped with Cherry MX brown switches which have a "bump" in the middle of the stroke where the key registers and isn't a loud "clacker", but still gives that mechanical key click to each press of any and all keys on the keyboard.

The keyboard we are going to be getting in depth within a page or two is the CM Storm QuickFire Pro mechanical gaming keyboard from Cooler Master. This is low man on the totem pole for the Cooler Master mechanical offerings, they introduced three to be exact, but all three have their own style and flavor to set the apart, along with what they offer. In this instance we are going to be looking at a somewhat backlit keyboard with a detachable USB cable and in my instance Cherry MX browns, but even then you have the choice between browns, blues, reds and blacks, just be sure you look at the correct model number when ordering.

That in mind let's see how this version of the CM Storm QuickFire Pro takes on what I have already seen in mechanical keyboards immediately directed towards gamers.