Cooler Master Storm Havoc Gaming Mouse Review

[PAGETITLE=Introduction][Top Ad] Almost exactly one year ago, Techgage's overlord, Rob, reviewed Cooler Master's Storm Sentinel Advance II gaming mouse. It didn't quite win Rob over completely, though. Too many niggling issues deprived it the honor of earning our Editor's Choice award. Could it be that Cooler Master, through its Storm gaming brand, took notice? After a rather short year on the market, CM Storm has thought it necessary to kill the Sentinel Advance, designating it EOL (End of Life). Taking its place in CM Storm's laser sensor-equipped gaming mouse lineup is the new Havoc. The Havoc slots in just beneath the top-of-the-line Inferno. But don't let its lower price and market position fool you into thinking this is a budget model. Its specs and features list suggest that there is a lot more than meets the eye going on here. Eight programmable buttons. Avago 9800 laser sensor capable of 100-8200 DPI. Japanese Omron micro-switches (rated for up to 5 million clicks) for each button. 128kb onboard memory for storing up to four user profiles. Rubber side grip (thumb side) Smooth yet grippy rubberized coating. Fully customizable lighting coloration effects. Now that we've had a look at the Havoc's features list, let's go for a more detailed visual tour of the mouse. This angle shows off many of the Havoc's salient features. You can clearly see the mouse's matte black rubber coating, the two main buttons (left- and right-click), the scroll wheel (which also features a down-click action), the DPI adjustment buttons behind the scroll wheel, the three left-side thumb buttons, and the rubber grips on the left flank. On the left edge of the left-click button are four notches that house the LEDs which indicate the mouse's current DPI setting. You can also see part of the braided cable on the front of the mouse. What might not be so obvious is the fact that the Havoc is not an ambidextrous mouse. It is strictly a right-handed design. Here you can see the three thumb buttons and the rubber grips more closely. The right side of the Havoc features the only visible surface not endowed with the black rubber coating. Instead, the right flank has a fairly glossy black finish. The contrast with the rest of the Havoc's flat black coloration is striking, to say the least. Here is a look at the bottom of the mouse. The emitter for the Avago 9800 laser sensor sits just north of dead center. You can also see the Havoc's Teflon feet and a whole bunch of branding and certifications in this view. Here you can see the braided cable and the typical CM Storm gold-plated USB connector. Now that we've had a good look at the Havoc, let's turn our attention to its software package. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Software][Top Ad] Per my usual practice, it's good to remind our readers that the Havoc works perfectly fine using just the generic Windows USB device driver. However, to take full advantage of all the Havoc's features, you must download the correct software from the CM Storm website. Before having a look at the Havoc's software, let me indulge in a small bit of commentary. After our recent turns with Logitech's G-Series peripherals, it was a little bit strange to discover that CM Storm apparently has a unique software package for each of its products. While the LGS (Logitech Gaming Software) is a unified driver/software application that works on every G-Series peripheral I've tried, Cooler Master uses a bespoke software for each of its products. For example, I own a Sentinel Zero-G; its software package is different compared to the Havoc's. It's a different approach compared to a market competitor, sure. But it's not a problem per se, just as long as it works. It would also help if Cooler Master's software mavens ensured that their work didn't give customers a spot of trepidation. You see, when I downloaded the software from the company's website, Chrome flagged it as potentially "malicious". This occurred on two machines, no less (I tested this on my primary rig, and not just on my dedicated Techgage testing PC). Further, someone else who tested the download also encountered the issue, but it's become clear through further testing that it does not occur for everyone. Thankfully, I can confirm that the software is indeed safe. Still, I doubt customers would enjoy seeing that kind of warning message, even if ultimately it's a false positive. After downloading and installing the Havoc's software, you'll see that the graphical user interface just breathes naked aggression with its black and red aesthetic. On the more functional side, the GUI has six sections. The Main section deals with button assignments. This is where you can configure what each button's function will be. There are multiple options available for each button, including simply disabling it. Also, note that at the bottom of the GUI you'll see four spots for user profiles. You can access these profiles no matter which section of the GUI you happen to be in. Also, notice that you can add up to a 42 pixel x 42 pixel image that you can associate with a specific user profile. As you can see, I put an appropriately-sized Techgage logo to Profile 1 to demonstrate this feature. Under Advanced you can configure your Havoc's DPI (including linking/unlinking X-Y axes), adjust USB polling rates per DPI setting, various aspects of the mouse's LEDs' behavior (including brightness, coloration, and lighting mode), OS Sensitivity and OS Double Click Speed, as well as Button Response Time. You can also Lock OS settings and enable/disable Angle Snapping (cursor predictive positioning) in this section of the GUI. Macro is where you can add macro functionality to each of your Havoc's buttons across three of your user profiles. That means you can program up to a maximum of 24 macro commands. Profiles is where you manage the on-board memory profile storage capability of your Havoc. The Library section is where you manage the Havoc's library of macros. You can export macro sets from the mouse's onboard memory to off-device storage; you can also import a macro set onto the onboard memory and assign it to a particular user profile. Finally, Support is where you can access the CM Storm website (by clicking Online Support) to get software updates and other helpful paraphernalia as well as check your Havoc's software and firmware versions. With our tour of the Havoc's software done, let's move on to testing and some concluding thoughts. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Testing; Final Thoughts][Top Ad] I've been using the Havoc for about a week-and-a-half. In that time I've put it through all sorts of usage scenarios: Gaming, Web browsing, even using it one day at my day job just to get a feel for it as something far more utilitarian than its gaming mouse classification. Let's talk about the software first. In my opinion, this is the weakest part of the Havoc package by far. I have to confess that I'm not a big fan of the aggressive black and red aesthetic and the splashy Havoc graphics on the top of the GUI. It's not that I don't like the color scheme; I guess I just prefer cleaner and more elegant presentation over garish graphics. I'll concede that I may not be the target audience for this product and its software (I'm far closer to forty than I am to fourteen). But there's nothing wrong with straightforward and simple. But it's not just the visual presentation where the software seems weak to me. While the GUI lays everything out with an admittedly sensible organization scheme, there are a couple of specifically bad things about it. Foremost of these is in the Macro section. I have to confess that I never got to test this part of the software simply because I couldn't make it work for me. For whatever reason, it was simply impossible to program macro commands in. I tried consulting the manufacturer's website for a user's manual, but the .pdf supplied was utterly useless insofar as teaching you how to use the software. That's hugely disappointing. The other bad thing is a similar issue with the Library section of the GUI. I couldn't test this out either because, well, obviously I never got to program any macros in. I was at least able to intuit what this part of the software is for by clicking around it. I'd say that it's entirely possible that my inability to test these parts of the software package is purely just my issue, but Rob highlighted the same sort of issues just last summer with his look at the Sentinel Advance II. Still, other end users might be able to figure out how to program macro commands and use the Library section of the software with no problems. In my opinion, though, one end user unhappy with a product for the specific reason that he or she can't figure out how to use a feature is one too many. I think that Cooler Master would do its customers a huge service if it wrote and issued a proper user's manual for the Havoc, particularly with a focus on the software. What good are a product's features if end users don't know how to use them? Happily, the rest of the Havoc's software is pretty solid. It's very easy to assign new functions to the buttons; assigning and manipulating user profiles is also very intuitive. Configuring other settings such as DPI, the lighting scheme and coloration, and click speeds is likewise very user-friendly. I especially like the responsiveness and granularity of the software: You tweak something, and you'll feel the Havoc's performance change predictably. Turning our attention to the mouse itself, it's superb on several levels, and a little quirky in a couple of others. Let's save the best for last and highlight the quirks first. First is the trio of thumb buttons on the left flank. This is the second mouse I've tested with three thumb buttons. Unlike the other one, though, the Havoc has its three thumb buttons all in the same horizontal row. While the middle button has a totally different texture compared to the ones flanking it, I found it too easy to...

Cooler Master Storm Havoc Gaming Mouse Review

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