Cooler Master Storm Quickfire Rapid

The CM Storm Quickfire Rapid is a Tenkeyless Cherry MX Red Switch keyboard. I purchased my keyboard at the CM Store . It took about a week to ship out (even though the site claims there is a 2-3 day turn around after the order is placed). The price was $89.99 + shipping.

My initial impressions of the keyboard are very positive. Build quality is great. I also own a Filco Tenkeyless with Black switches. The CM Storm build is very, very similar to the Filco in quality and craftsmanship. It's built very sturdy and the base has a good weight to it (not too heavy though). Part of the heft comes from the rubber-coating but it doesn't cause it to flex. There are four rubber coated feet + two foldable stands on the bottom.



This is my first time trying red switches and I must say, I really, really like them. You can definitely feel a difference between red and black MX's (if you like linear switches).



The keyboard comes with a mini-USB to USB cable that is sleeved. The sleeving looks very similar to TechFlex nylon sleeving and is very sturdy. It might be too sturdy if you plan to use the grooves behind the keyboard to place the cable through. The point at which the mini-USB attaches to the keyboard doesn't give much lenient space for the cable to be routed through the left or right grooves. It will fit, but it almost looks as if the bent portion of the cable after routing it is a bit too stressed.



Cooler Master also provides a PS/2 adapter if you want full NKRO for the keys. If you are just using the USB, you will be getting a polling rate of 1000Hz (1ms response time) for the keys.

Another valued addition, in my opinion, is the media keys.


These are enabled via the Fn key. There are 8 media keys and my favorite is the "Disable Windows Key" key. I love disabling it for when playing games that can cause me to hit that darn key and switch to the Windows OS by mistake. There are red LED's on the Disable Windows key, Scroll Lock and Caps Lock. Also included in the box are a keycap puller and red replacement keycaps for your arrows keys. There are also spare keycaps with the Cooler Master logo for your Ctrl or Alt keys. As far as aesthetics, the keyboard is red and black. Black casing and black keycaps with a red board underneath the key sections. The keycaps are laser etched with a very nice robotic looking font. Some of the keycaps I could feel the etching more than others and it took a bit getting used to. The keycaps themselves are a bit more rougher than Filco keycaps but my fingertips liked how they felt.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this keyboard for anyone who wants a tenkeyless keyboard with MX red switches. It is simply divine.

I added O-rings to my keys as to lessen me bottoming out when I type. It also helps reduce that oh so hated mechanical keyboard clacks that some folks don't like . These are not included with the package.