The brand Cooler Master is not one I was too familiar with up until I attended the Auckland TechXpo a few months ago. I’d known Cooler Master for their PC hardware and cooling products but was only made aware of their gaming peripheral range when I stood at their booth and saw all the colourful accessories on display.
Thanks to an introduction by the lovely folks at GGPC, I was given two different gaming mice to review; the Master Mouse MM520 and the Master Mouse MM530.
Before delving further into this review, I must admit that I didn’t play around too much with the customisation of buttons on each of the two mice. I simply used it as it, much like I did with other gaming mice I reviewed in the past.
Both the MM520 and MM530 are very similar in terms of their technical specifications, with the only extra addition to the MM530 being an extra button on the top due to its palm grip based design. Both mice boast powerful sensors despite being incredibly affordable, with an RRP of $79.95NZD each.
The MM520 is designed for a claw grip with barely any concessions for palm grip usage, though I found it perfectly comfortable using it with my palm grip, which is my preferred style when using a mouse. In comparison, the MM530 has a more flexible design, having a bit more of an ambidextrous shape, which allows it to be used by both left handed and right handed users. The mouse also has a much nicer feel to the grip due to the soft touch textured rubber on both sides.
Both mice utilise RGB lighting on the scroll-wheel and on the sliver of space around the logo. However, due to such minimal RGB lighting coming through, both mice end up looking rather full in comparison to other gaming mice, such as the Razer DeathAdder Elite and Logitech G903.
The highlight of both mice is the PMW 3360 sensor, which allows for accurate tracking, however, packing in such expensive hardware into an affordable piece of technology certainly forces some compromises to be made. For example, the MM530 comes with rubberised grips on both sides allowing it to comfortably suit both claw and palm grips but overall, the accommodate this, the mouse ends up feeling a lot cheaper and made of plastic.
Of course, the MM520 may feel more robust but, again, due to accommodations being required, the mouse is forced to do away with the same rubberised grip and extra top button.
While there are concessions, I personally didn’t really notice them and found both mice to be great. They both certainly do the trick and are a great entry gaming mice to use. I personally prefer the MM530 due to it having a more natural palm grip design. However, after using the Razer DeathAdder Elite and Logitech G903 and G703, the MM520 and MM530 just felt slightly ‘budget’. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for an affordable gaming mouse which packs a decent punch, Cooler Master’s Master Mouse range is one to check out.