Cooler Master CES 2016: Modular Chassis and PSU, Peripherals & More

Cooler Master continued to impress us with its latest offerings for CES 2016. While there was the usual peripheral refresh, as well as new designs for fans and water-blocks, there was an exciting, new enthusiast class power supply and chassis concepts built around Makers. Let’s take a quick peek at what Cooler Master has up its sleeve for the coming year.

Cooler Master MasterWatt Maker 1200

This is Cooler Master’s first all aluminum, Titanium Efficiency (94%) digital power supply, and all the connections are modular. This unit offers incredible performance while giving the end-user amazing monitoring of what is going on with your power supply with the Cooler Master Connect app, which is available for iOS, Android, and a desktop version as well, connecting via Bluetooth.

This power supply measures 200mm(length)x150mm(width)x86mm(height), right on par with other power supplies of this output. This really is a handsome unit, and will make a great addition to the MasterMaker, or any other case for that matter.

MasterCase Maker 5

An Interesting concept where the chassis itself is modular. Panels are held on through a mix of magnetics, snap and hold, as well as screws. Sound-proofing can be added, panels replaced for different aesthetics using what CM calls its FreeForm system, and even the interior re-arranged to a certain extent. Specifics about additional panels haven’t been released yet, so maybe still in development, but the exploded diagrams show you the modularity.

The power supply is isolated to keep cable mess under control. A now common feature is mounting brackets behind the motherboard tray for SSDs. USB Type-C also makes an appearance on the front panel – should your motherboard support it.

Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro L / Pro S

A couple of new planks from the Cooler Master camp are the MasterKeys Pro L and the Pro S. The Pro L is the full-size, and the Pro S is the shorter, tenkey-less variant. Both plans offer 100% authentic Cherry brand switches, which are truly the industry standard for premium keyboards, no copy-cats here!

These switches are actually mounted on a stainless-steel plate in between the chassis and the PCB of the keyboard, giving it amazing ruggedness and unmatched longevity, so that when the end user gets to pounding on the keys, the PCB is not bearing the brunt, the plate will keep the PCB from flexing, a truly remarkable design, one of those things that shows that the company is really designing these keyboards with care.

They come with RGB lighting, and those are capable with a myriad of colors that can be changed via the accompanying software, or by using actual keys themselves on the keyboard, which is a great feature.

Devastator II KB/Mouse Combo

Cooler Master has refreshed its budget-friendly keyboard/mouse combo with the Devastator II offering. These keys are not Cherry, but do sport a mechanism called “Mem-chanical”.  As I mentioned, these are not true Cherry MX switches, but they do have a very, very nice feel to them. They do have a tactile feedback, giving you the feel that real MX planks offer, and offer LED backlighting in red, blue, or green.

The accompanying mouse is no slouch either, offing industry standard Omron switches that have an amazing lifespan. These have LED backlighting as well, on-the-fly DPI presets, side buttons, and is ambidextrous, a formidable offering for a gamer on a budget, or for a gamer that wants to leave his super expensive gear at home when he travels for LAN parties.

MasterLiquid Maker

A new set of open-loop water cooling parts will be released, with an emphasis on ease of installation. The rather powerful 600L pump fits directly to the reservoir, eliminating a step (and tube) in the installation. It was built with the MasterCase in mind, and has mounting points for it, so you don’t need to worry about adding extra mounting points to the case – if you go with the full CM setup.

MasterLiquid Pro 240

If open-loop isn’t your thing, a new closed loop AIO water block and radiator will be released soon. The tubing has been increased in size to allow for more water to flow. While the pump is only 120L per hour, these are fine for a small loop. The pump is also rated to have a 7 year life-cycle (that’s not the warranty mind you). A little bit of blue bling helps make things look cool, as well as be cool.

MasterFan Pro 120/140

A new set of specifically designed and tuned fans for different purposes will be released as well. One for maximum air flow for exhaust and system fans, high static pressure for those tight gaps in radiators, and a more balanced fan for those awkward positions like HDD cages and where dust-filters are placed on the chassis inlets. The fans make use of POM bearings which are rated to 160,000 hours – a little excessive, but at least they are not the awful sleeve type. CM makes note of the fans variable duty-cycle on the PWM IC, so that fans will scale in speed without the high-pitch wine that sometimes comes with it.

MasterAir Maker 8

If water cooling isn’t your thing, then a new air cooler might be what you’re after. The MasterAir Maker 8 is a classic monumental tower cooler with dual fan configuration (push and pull). The big trick up its sleeve is the use of a 3D vapor chamber, instead of just heatpipes or a solid-copper base plate. Heatpipes are still used for the fins, but the vapor chamber in contact with the CPU is much more effective than just a solid base. Two fan mounts are included for clearance issues with RAM or GPUs. Also, like the rest of the Maker set, different shrouds are available, with 3D printer schematics if you wish to design your own.