Cooler Master Goes Apples at 2014 CES, Gets HAF Stacked
By Hank Tolman
Along with seemingly everyone else at CES 2014, I caught Cooler Master straying from their PC case and peripheral’s roots and into other areas of interest. Benchmark Reviews visited Cooler Master’s suite at the Palm’s Resort and Casino during CES 2014 and we found some interesting new products that you might not expect to see from the company that brought us the HAF series of cases.
Apple Fever
An entire room in the Cooler Master suite at CES 2014 was actually dedicated to Apple device peripherals. This story isn’t completely new, as Cooler Master’s JAS Mini has been around for a short time already. According to Cooler Master, the JAS Mini is one of the hottest iPad Mini and iPhone stands available through the Apple Store. In addition to the JAS Mini, however, Cooler Master had on display a slew of Apple-centered peripherals. Although they are targeted at Apple devices, however, it should be noted that most, if not all, of these peripherals can also be used with other smartphones and tablets.
DUO
The Cooler Master R9-TPS-DUOSA-GP, also known as the DUO was on display at CES 2014. The DUO is a tablet and smartphone stand and charger and quickly splits apart into a dual-function stand and charger for both your tablet AND your smartphone.
Bluetooth Dock
Set up next to the DUO was a concept Bluetooth tablet dock with pop-up speakers. Two speakers pop up out of the dock and retract back into to save space and look good when the dock is not in used. The speakers have a groove in the top of them where the tablet sits.
Monitor Stand
Okay, so this one isn’t really Apple-centric necessarily, but Cooler Master did have an Apple monitor sitting on it. The monitor stand is lightweight and easily portable, but durable enough to hold a heavy and large monitor. The feet on the bottom of the stand can be screwed in and out to adjust the height of the stand to your desired level. The monitor stand has spacers between the two platforms so that it forms a little cubby where you can hide your valuables.
JAS Music Pro and JAS Music Mobile
Two other stands that Cooler Master had on display in their suite were the JAS Music Pro and the JAS Music Mobile laptop stands. These stands are designed for DJs and music professionals to be able to quickly and efficiently set up their equipment in a more organized fashion. The laptop sits on the upper deck of the stands while other music equipment can slide below onto the lower deck. The JAS Music Pro, while lightweight, conforms more to a music maker that stays in one place. The JAS Music Mobile, on the other hand, conforms to its name by folding up for easy transportation.
The JAS Pro, a Macbook and iPad stand, and the Cube, another tablet stand, were also on display.
HAF Stacker and Mods
The Apple peripherals weren’t the only thing Cooler Master had on display, of course. I just found it to be an interesting move. What actually stood out the most in the Cooler Master suite at CES 2014 was the HAF Stacker implementations.
Right as I walked in the door to the Cooler Master suite, I was greeted by three huge HAF Stacker case mods, built either by Cooler Master or by enthusiasts. They were giant and ominous and looked really cool. The center case was easily close to 5 feet tall and was designed like an armored vehicle with battle-worn plating up and down the sides.
The HAF Stacker is a very unique and interesting. Cooler Master was showing off a dual-system design with a HAF 925 with your typical system (albeit with a 1200W 80+ Platinum power supply) on bottom and a HAF 915 with a complete mini-ITX system on top. This is one example of the HAF Stacker has been shown to do, but other uses include isolating a liquid cooling system or the PSU. Cooler Master wants to expand on the potential uses of the HAF Stacker by offering number of new peripherals.
One such peripheral is your standard drive cage, but made to fit side by side by side in the HAF 915. If you wanted to set up a home-based cloud or a very extensive hard-drive array, you could fit around 16 3.5” drives in HAF 915 with these modular bays. There has to be a reason why my motherboard has 10 SATA ports, right?
Other modular upgrades proposed by Cooler Master at CES 2014 include a windowed side panel for the HAF 915 to replace the traditional mesh side, additional front I/O panels, and a slim optical drive bay. That slim bay would replace the I/O panel on the HAF 925 or HAF 915 if you so desired.
HAF XC
Cooler Master had a prototype of what they are tentatively calling the HAF XC on display at their suite. The HAF XC is just a concept right now, and the current edition houses a lot of features that Cooler Master is checking out. In the end some or all of the features may change based on consumer feedback. The HAF XC is too fat for my tastes, but a lot of that girth may have been just to show off the potential new features.
Right off the bat you can see the wrap around clear panel that is a very prominent feature on the HAF XC. Rather than just showing off a section of your build through a window, the HAF XC clear side panel shows off the entire inside portion of the case. Well, that’s not entirely true. The reason for showing off everything is that Cooler Master has designed the HAF XC to be the new standard in cable management. Not even the PSU itself is located in the main body section of the case, so there is nothing to hide from on-looking eyes. The PSU, all the cabling, and potentially all your hard drives are actually located behind the motherboard tray in the back section of the case. Your typical enthusiast case concerned with cable management might give you half an inch to an inch of space behind the motherboard tray. The HAF XC gives you enough space to fit a power supply.
When talking with Cooler Master, I found out that they went with that design based on feedback from consumers that didn’t want to spend time tying up cables and making the inside of the case neat. To fit all those cables into a half-inch space behind the motherboard, you have to be pretty dedicated. With the HAF XC, none of that tedious monotony is necessary. There is so much space back there that you can just shove all of the cables out of the way, close up the case, and not worry about it. Since it is isolated from the rest of the case, you also won’t have to worry about those cables causing thermal concerns.
The middle section of the HAF XC is where all the magic happens. This section is covered in mesh that is stylized with a wave-like pattern all across it. This section can house up to a massive 360mm liquid-cooling radiator and enough fans to cure global warming. As I said before, this case is a concept. Cooler Master wants to hear your feedback on what you like and what you don’t like. Your ideas could very well be the basis of the next Cooler Master gaming chassis. Make sure to leave your comments below. I’ll make sure Cooler Master sees them.
Elite 110
A little further down the table at Cooler Master’s CES 2014 suite was the Elite 110 mini-ITX case. Mini-ITX cases are nothing new, and Cooler Master already has a line of them, but the Elite 110 seems like it was designed specifically with the Steambox in mind.
The Elite 110, while housing a mini-ITX motherboard, has enough room to keep most of the other components full-sized. That means you don’t have to skimp on the cooling, power, or storage of your mini-ITX system like you might have to for similar cases. A full sized PSU can fit in the Elite 110, offering lots of power for a gaming rig. The Elite 110 that Cooler Master had on display also housed a 120mm water-cooling radiator and the case has room for a full-sized 3.5” drive. The Elite 110 offers enough room for a decent GPU up to 8.62” in length. That does limit the graphics power you can stuff in here, but never fear, check out the article depicting my interview with MSI and you’ll find a specially designed mini-ITX motherboard and short, slim GTX 760 that will fit perfectly in the Elite 110. That should give you enough GPU power to run any game you want. The Elite 110 should be available now with a very impressive MSRP of only $49.
Silencio Series
Moving away from the in-your-face designs and into a sleeker, more modest look, Cooler Master showed off both a mid-tower and full-tower option for its Silencio line of cases.
Both of these cases will utilize Cooler Master’s Silent Flow fan technology, of which they would not provide much detail. The case panels are padded for silent operation and lack adornment. The I/O panel on both cases interestingly included an SD card reader, which is a nice touch. On the full-tower Silencio case, the top panel can be easily removed and gives way to a mesh cover. This space can be used to install a water-cooling radiator in a push-pull configuration if desired.
Novatouch TKL “Hybrid Electrostatic Capacitive Switch” Keyboard
One of the most interesting new designs shown off by Cooler Master is that of their new Novatouch TKL Keyboard. Upon first glance, I didn’t think the keyboard was anything new because it looks very much like a Quickfire TK. After further inspection, however, and some help from the Cooler Master reps, I discovered the difference is actually under the keys. I guess I should have pushed some of them. The thing that sets the Novatouch TKL apart, aside from some cool lighting tricks we’ll talk about, are the switches. The Novatouch TKL was described to me as having a “Hybrid Electrostatic Capacitive Switch”. That confused me, but when we pulled of a key I could see that they were Japanese Topre switches.
If you look up Topre Corp, you’ll find that is actually how they describe their switches. I won’t get into details on Topre switches here, but they have a low actuation force and some people like them more than mechanical switches. The cool thing that Cooler Master has done with these Topre switches, though, is put a Cherry MX fitting onto them. That means that if you’ve found some cool, custom Cherry MX keys that you want to fit onto the Novatouch, you can.
The Novatouch also integrates some interesting new lighting functions. Most LED backlit keyboards now come with a few different LED presets including a gaming preset with WASD and some other keys lit. The Novatouch certainly includes this function, as well as a full-lit function. The Novatouch also has a few lighting schemes that you probably won’t find many other places. The first is a touch-lighting scheme that lights up a key when you touch it. The light turns off when the key is no longer depressed. This function can also be extended so that the light stays on for a short while after the key has been depressed and then fades out. It makes for a pretty cool lighting effect. The other interesting function is the ability to light up any key that you want lit. By simply holding down the lighting key and pushing the individual keys, you can choose which keys you want lit and which ones you want dark. You can then save that profile for use later. Don’t go spelling any dirty words now. The Novatouch was also shown off with the key labels in front of the keys rather than on top. It made for a interesting looking keyboard that I found somewhat appealing.
Mizar and Alcor Gaming Mice
In addition to the Novatouch Keyboard, Cooler Master also showed off a pair of sleek gaming mice at CES 2014. These two mice are a clear throwback to the Microsoft Intellimouse and get rid of a lot of the bulky features of some gaming mice in an effort to bring back a smaller, more ergonomic and lightweight design.
The Mizar Gaming mouse is a laser mouse that uses the Avago 9800 laser sensor for up to 8200dpi. The resolution can be adjusted on the fly. The Mizar has seven programmable buttons, although two of those are really only useful as dpi adjusters. That’s fine by me. I used the 5 button Intellimouse until it died because it felt perfect. I’m excited to get my hands on the Mizar and Alcor to compare.
Both mice are fully customizable through LED lighting and macros programmable in the software. The Alcor is an optical mouse, rather than a laser mouse, and uses the Avago 3090 sensor for up to 4000dpi.
Speaking of the software, this seems like a good time to talk about Cooler Master’s intent to bring together all of the individual peripheral software pieces controlling their devices. I recently reviewed the CM Storm MECH keyboard and was impressed by the ability to pair a saved profile with a program so that it would change to that profile upon launch. That’s great, but then I also have to go in and change the profile for my CM Storm Sentinel Advance II mouse and my CM Storm Pulse R Gaming Headset.
Cooler Master wants to take care of that by integrating all three of those peripherals into the same piece of software. I checked out an early working version of the software while I was at Cooler Master’s suite and it seems like a great solution. At the time I played with it, though, it only supported the keyboard and mouse, with a third, empty tab waiting for a headset icon.
Sirus S2 Headset and Aurus Gaming Earphones
The final piece of the Cooler Master puzzle lies in their audio products. I currently use the CM Storm Pulse R gaming headset and I like it a lot. At CES 2014, Cooler Master showcased two more audio peripherals; the Sirus S2 Headset and the Aurus Gaming Earphones.
Now, you may not immediately think of earphones as a gaming audio solution, but don’t be so quick to judge. If you’ve ever watched a first-person shooter gaming tournament, you might change your mind. A lot of those gamers use earphones and then put shooting earcups on over the top to shut out the sound. The Aurus gaming earphones build upon your typical earphone by adding a bass dial for each driver. You can order up the perfect level of bass by tuning the dial on the back of either earphone. The Aurus earphones use flat cables to avoid tangling, are encased in an aluminum housing, and sport a breakaway splitter for easy use with multiple devices.
The Sirus S2 Gaming Headset is more of what you might think of when looking into a gaming audio solution. The Sirus S2 houses both a 40mm and a 44mm driver in each ear for robust 2.2 channel sound. The Sirus S2 also has a built-in hi-fi amplifier to add power to the drivers. The ear cups on the Sirus S2 are interchangeable to your desires, whether you prefer mesh or leather, and the headset uses an inline remote for control.
