Cooler Master Cm Storm Quickfire Tk Review

[Nerd.]

I have been using the Cooler Master Quickfire Tk for almost a week now, and I decided that i would do a review of it. I purchased it for $125 (including tax, $109.99 without) from Canada Computers and Electronics in Newmarket, Ontario. I myself ordered it in cherry mx blues, because of my love for that beautiful clickety clackety sound that they produce. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed using this beautiful keyboard. 

 

The backlight is very bright, with three different modes to choose from; fully backlit, breathing, and only wasd, I myself prefer the fully backlit mode. There are 5 different brightness levels; 1 being the dimmest,  5 being the brightest. I must say, the back light is amazing, especially for a $110 keyboard. The indicator Leds are somewhat dim. this I love, because having numlock on does not put my eyes through pain.The case has a nice look to it, with a Cm Storm logo on the front and on by the indicator leds, and some subtle lines on the sides and back. I like that it doesn't have the obnoxious "i'm a gamer rawr" look to it like *cough* Razer *cough*.                   

 

Now, on to the things that matter the most (unless you think looks make or break a keyboard). The Cherry Mx blue switches that are inside of my Tk feel nice and crisp. I love the tactile feedback and the audible click. My typing speed increased by about 5 wpm as soon as I started typing, which was nice. In this board are cherry stabilizers, which some people like and others don't. Personally I don't mind cherry stabilizers as long as they are lubed.There is a blue steel back plate underneath the keys that makes the backlight reflect better, as well as making the keyboard heavier, less flexible. The board itself feels very solid to type on, with only slight bit of flex to it. I did need to pick it up off of my desk to get it to flex, so in your most intense rage sessions the keyboard will hold up. The keycaps are okay. They are not the best keycaps ever, but I actually do like the texture on them. 

 

The layout of this keyboard aims to incorporate the features of a full size keyboard but with the form factor of a tenkeyless keyboard. The layout will be either  a hit or miss for you. For me, the layout was perfect, because I rarely use the number pad but I still like to have it there. Although if you regularily switch between the numpad and the arrow keys in things like spreadsheets than the layout may pose a threat to your productivity. The size of the keyboard is nice if desk space is an issue for you, or maybe you just want that extra desk space for that evil bag of Cheetos. My biggest complaint with this layout is the nonstandard bottom row. This means that finding custom keycaps for it will be a pain. I do like that that the fn keys double as media keys, backlight brightness, mode, on/off, 6k/nkro, and a windows lock key, as they can come in handy sometimes. 

In my testing the nkro over usb actually works, yes, it actually works. For instance, 8[as-wvz/xje.udhtnmblpog,qf;45790rk were all just pressed at once over usb! Unfortunately there is an issue with the 00 key ghosting, so if I hit "1" and then "00" quickly after "1001" will appear instead of '100". 

 

Overall I would say that the keyboard has very nice build quality and the board feels very solid to type on, the backlight is very nice, and the multimedia keys come in handy. On the other hand the layout does have its quirks, and the 00  ghosting can be annoying sometimes, but I definitely think that Cooler Master did an amazing job with this keyboard, and I am looking forward to testing more of their products in the future! 

 

-Nerd.

[Artificial Ignorance]

I can agree with the assessment here. I have had mine for about a week and I love my keyboard. I am however getting custom keys for mine.

[Tim Drake]

Picture and this will be a great review.

[Nerd.]

Picture and this will be a great review.

I was going to do that but i have been busy and haven't gotten around to adding any, i will soon though.