A few years ago Cooler Master made a big push, slowly redoing their entire mouse lineup switching most of them over to their MM then numbers naming scheme. This also included a new exterior finish for mice like the Spawn/Xornet shaped MM520 and the Alcor shaped MM530, new sensors, and switches as well. They covered all of the main mouse shapes that you might be looking for at that time, but today they are finally jumping into the MMO mouse market. Their new MM830 has the same PBT finish as the previous mice, an Avago PMW3360 sensor, and Omron switches. But the big change in addition to its shape is the D-pad buttons that are tucked away on the left side. So today I’m going to check out the new mouse and see what it is all about.

Product Name: Cooler Master MM830

Review Sample Provided by: Cooler Master

Written by: Wes Compton

Pictures by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

specs

 


Packaging

Cooler Master stuck with the same dark grey and purple that most of their products are boxed up in. This includes the Make It Yours branding up along the top. The front of the box has a large photo of the MM830 taking up most of the front. But they did slip in a few icons on the top right that show some of features including the D-Pad and OLED screen. The sensor, RGB, and D-pad are repeated again on the bottom left under the model name as well. The back of the box doesn’t have as much going on. There is a photo of the side profile of the mouse along with a transparent hand over it that highlights the screen and D-Pad locations. Below that they have a short list of features listed in 9 different languages that takes up most of the rest of the back of the box.

image 5

image 6

Inside the mouse comes tucked in between two plastic trays. With the design of the tray, you would have thought that the box also had a window or a door to let you get your hands on the mouse but it didn’t. Also with the mouse, you get a small manual.

image 7

image 8

 


Photos and Features

The PBT plastic finish on the MM830 is the same textured finish that the previous MasterMouse mice introduced used. I took a look at the MM520 and MM530 back in 2017 HERE. PBT is the same plastic that good keyboard keycaps use and that is because it holds up very well to wear so that nice texture will hold up for a while. The MM830 has a slightly different look that takes some of the styling from Cooler Master cases. You can see what I’m talking about in the thumb area, this same layout is used on Masterbox Q300L. With the thumb wing and a built-in OLED screen, the M830 is a little on the heavy side. Cooler Master has it listed as 122 grams in a world where some companies are going with honeycomb shells to cut down on mouse weight so if weight is a concern you aren’t going to be a big fan of the MM830.

image 9

Here is a better look at the side profile of the MM830. The left wing sticks out on the bottom of the mouse for your thumb to sit on and the D-Frame design on the side of the mouse is the big focus on this mouse. This doubles up on the normal two side buttons you get to allow extra binds in MMOs. The plus shape helps prevent accidental clicks. The back button is set back farther to allow for different thumb lengths and it gives you a small area where you can keep your thumb if you lift your mouse up like I do. Also on this side, Cooler Master added an OLED screen, it is the glossy finished area up front. This isn’t the first mouse with a screen in it, SteelSeries has especially given this a go with a few different mice. The only good use of this was the original Sensei where you could use the screen to change the mouse settings without any software. But we will have to see what Cooler Master does with it this time. The right side of the mouse is the complete opposite of the left, there is nothing at all going on over on that side. I was happy to see they kept the rubber finish just to the left side to cover up the buttons. The right side is PBT with a texture just like the top of the mouse.

image 10

image 12

Our top-down looks helps to get a better look at the actual shape of the MM830. If you ignore the wing on the left it reminds me a lot of the old CM Sentinel mice. It is an ergonomic design and is specific to right-handed users. Up on top, the two triggers have a large defined gap between them and the base, very similar to what SteelSeries did with their mice as well as Logitech with the G520. Between them, there is a DPI switching button and three LEDs to show which of the four DPI settings you are on. Then the scroll wheel has a transparent center for RGB lighting and a rubber grip around the ring.

image 14

In the back under your palm, the MM830 does have the same outlined Cooler Master logo shape lit up. I still like this a lot more than a full lit logo, those who know the CM logo will know the shape but it isn’t pushing full on branding in your face with lighting which I always hate. There is also another LED light up under the back of the mouse. This back view helps give us a better look at that wing on the left side. We can also see how the shape leans a little to the right.

image 11

Cooler Master was careful to keep anything and everything away from those triggers, they don’t have any potential areas where they could have catching issues like Logitech has had recently. The triggers are also extremely thick as you can see. Under them, they went with 20 million click Omron switches which most people like their defined clicks.

image 13

The bottom of the MM830, like Cooler Masters last few mice, has large gliders that take up a lot of space on the bottom. The front and back gliders are the largest, but the wing also has one as well which is good because your thumb pressure there may press down some. The bottom sticker has all of the normal certifications as well as the model name. The serial number is here as well along with a barcode for the serial number as well. Then above that, you have the Cooler Master branding as well as the MasterMouse name and model in the same font CM uses on their packaging. I was surprised to not see a glider ring around the sensor here on the bottom, hopefully, the other lager gliders give enough support. But on the plus side, not having gliders there lessens the chance to have dust and hairs suck around the sensor. Speaking of the sensor, the MM830 uses the Avago PMW3360 optical sensor this is the same sensor that the MM520 and MM530 use except they have this one cranked up to support up to 24,000 DPI. The tracking speed is the same 250 ips so performance really hasn’t changed and no one needs that high of a DPI, it's just a marketing point to put on the box I guess. That isn’t to say this isn’t a good sensor because the PMW3360 and variations on the same sensor dominate the market and is considered a flawless sensor.

image 15

Last but not least, the MM830’s cord is 1.8 meters long which is just a touch under 6 feet long. The cord is sleeved in a black paracord. The cord under the sleeving is flexible, even with the sleeving you can bend the cord around easily. I still prefer no sleeving at all with a flexible cord, but this isn’t too bad. At the end the USB connection is Cooler Master specific with its purple plastic inside the end and the large squared off plug design with the Cooler Master logo on it, you should be able to figure out which cord is your mouse when looking at everything on the back of your PC.

image 16

 


Software

So from the last time I took a look at software from Cooler Master until now they have significantly changed their software for the better. What stood out to me when getting into Portal, which is the name of their software was that it was quick and responsive. Partially because Cooler Master didn’t go with a basic program and then put a skin over it like a lot of companies do. But also because they didn’t overload the program at all. It has the grey and purple theme that Cooler Master is known for and depending on what you have plugged in all of your supported devices will list over on the left along with a picture.

The main page you land on with the MM830 is your normal button programming page. You have a top-down view of the mouse with each visible button with a drop-down menu with all of the normal programming options as well as some that you don’t always see like rapid fire that Cooler Master has always liked to include as you can see from one of our videos from 9 years ago. Up in the top right corner, you can switch the view to the side profile and once you set everything you can reset or apply your new settings down in the bottom right corner.

other 1

other 2

other 3

The performance tabs main function is setting your mouse DPI for the four different DPI settings. I would love to see the option to adjust the number of DPI modes down to two or even one but you can click on them or use the drop down to pick which you are adjusting then type in the number in the X-Y area or the slider. Sadly because of the way too inflated DPI numbers, the slider is basically useless. You can also get into other sensor settings like the lift-off distance, turning angle snapping on if for some reason you would want that and clicking settings. You can also add surface tunes. For different mouse pads.

other 4

The lighting tab is most likely the main thing you might come back to the software after initial setup and you again have the top and side mouse views. You can program different lighting effects or set a static color. You also have the full-color spectrum to pick from as well as brightness and LED speed options. What really stood out to me though was that the options when you get down to controlling the LEDs individually are a little more limited. You can turn all of the lights on or off, and you can even turn each of the individual lights in the Cooler Master logo on or off. But when it comes to changing the brightness or color independently of the other lights you are out of luck.

other 5

other 11

The other big area I was wondering about was the OLED screen tab and I was actually impressed with the options that Cooler Master gives you. You can create multiple profiles over on the left and from there pick different options to display. You can lick in just one or have it rotate through as many as you would like as a rate which you set as well. I expected to be able to do custom pictures but showing PC stats was unexpected. I’m not sure how helpful they will be, but the APM counter might be useful or the DPI setting that will show what your current DPI is. The custom artwork option opens up a different page where you can draw your own designs in black or white. The other option is to upload your own and they have the required size. I played around with this with our logo like I did in the past with SteelSeries. The resolution of this screen is smaller than our Rival 700 screen so I had to make changes to the design and I spent a LOT of time changing it all by hand. Sadly when I uploaded it into the software it didn’t import pixel to pixel. No big deal I will fix it again, right? Well, then it would lock in and only let me apply one color so any mistakes weren’t fixable. Undo also wouldn’t work. So clearly this part of the software could use a little work, but I do like the direction Cooler Master is going. Maybe an auto text input that lets you type in text would be nice as well for people with no art skills like me.

other 6

other 9

The Macro tab is about what you would expect. You can create a new one over on the left then after that, you can manually program it one action at a time or you can click record and do it that way. Later you can go back in and change things around including the delays to create anything you might need. Then lastly the profile tab is where you can control your different profiles. You can name them and reset them. Then import or export them.

other 7

other 8

Overall I was extremely impressed with the software. When I first booted up it checked for both a firmware update and a software update and gave me the option on which if any that I wanted to do. I did find a few issues, especially with the screen. But hopefully those are related with this being a newly launched product, they don’t exactly have a lot of products with a screen in them.

 


Performance

Normally I would focus a lot on the sensors performance, but Cooler Master went with the Avago PMW3360 optical sensor that so many mice now use. Everyone goes with it or a variation because it is a quality sensor with great tracking. So most of my testing was focused just on the overall usability of the MM830 itself. I personally prefer an ambidextrous shape normally, so the ergonomic shape of the MM830 was a little off to me. I have large hands but when I palmed the mouse it would push it a little forward from where I would like to hold it. A claw shape worked better for me to keep my thumb right in the center of the D-Pad and closer to the front of the triggers.

Speaking of the D-Pad, with this being one of the main features I spent more time playing around with it than I normally would with side buttons. Normally as long as my thumb can reach them and they work with my push to talk button I am happy. What I found was the distance between the front and back buttons that was put there to make room for your thumb might be a little too far apart. I had to pull my thumb back much farther than I am used too to reach the back button and if my hand was smaller it would be me trying to reach my thumb up to get to the front button. The top button is actually in a good spot for using it by itself, when I moved my thumb down between the top and bottom I had to rotate my thumb up and down to use them both and even then the bottom button was hard to push with my fat thumb. My wife didn’t have the same trouble with her small hands, but I did confirm with a third person that the bottom button was hard to get their thumb down into.

I’ve had some experience with previous Cooler Master mice with the PBT finish and I still like this as a material. My preferred finished is that soft rubber finish, but I have learned over the years that the rubber finish will wear off or if it lasts it will eventually get a nasty sticky residue. So combine that with PBT being a stronger plastic than ABS and you have a finish that should hold up for a long time. Now the rubber grip on the left side of the mouse doesn’t get too much use because of the buttons and I didn’t have any issues with it getting greasy which I get sometimes with side grips. I did, however, have to use the D-Pad buttons to get the grip on the mouse when picking it up. The left side does have a tiny bit of scoop shape to it, but not enough to make up for the curved shape on the right side.

What about the OLED? Well, I mentioned earlier that in my experience most screens like this aren’t very usable. You have to have a very specific use for them or they become a gimmick. When digging through the software most of the options they give you weren’t very usable but two I did find useful. The current DPI display option is a nice way to confirm what setting you are on, though the three profile LEDs should do the same. Then there was the APM display that shows your actions per minute at any given moment. I don’t think I would need to look at that on the fly and really you can’t see the screen from a normal position, but it does look cool I guess. In other words, yeah the screen ends up being a gimmick, unless you want to display your custom logo design.

other 10

As for the lighting on the MM830, well Cooler Master went a little crazy here if you ask me and this is from someone who doesn’t mind RGB lighting. I’m not a huge fan of the underglow lighting at the back of the mouse but it can be turned off. I actually liked that they just lit up the CM logo outline under your palm and the RGB scroll wheel is normal. But the brightness on the DPI indicator lights pushes things a little overboard for me. They are much brighter than they need to be. Thankfully you can turn down the lighting, but all of the lighting is linked together so when you turn down the bright DPI indicators you also turn the other lighting down even more and those aren’t as bright to start. There was a workaround, setting a multizone lighting effect but turning on every clickable light turns off the DPI indicator but leaves everything else on. You also cant set different colors to different areas of the mouse. The one big plus I can say though is Cooler Master is the first company to get orange right. Normally the orange setting in the software gets you a washed out almost orange and you have to slide over into the early reds to get a real orange lighting but the orange in the software was a nice rich orange.

image 2

image 3

image 4

 


Overall and Final Verdict

Well its finally out, the MM830 was teased almost a year ago and then nothing. But it looks like Cooler Master hasn’t been just sitting on it, they have been working on the design. Now I will be the first person to say that I’m not an active MMO player, but I did spend some time with the MM830 to get a feel for it. Cooler Master took the same PBT finish that I liked with their last few mice and carried that over to this design. The textured PBT design is going to hold up a lot better than the rubber finishes that a lot of mice use and PBT as a whole is a big improvement over ABS which will start to get glossy in no time. Add to that they went with quality 20 million click Omron switches and the 3350 optical sensor that is a tried and true solid sensor and you have the basics for a long lasting mouse. Not to mention the huge gliders that should help hold up, even on a hard mouse pad like I prefer.

The biggest surprise to me though was Cooler Masters Portal software. There isn’t really any good way to show in pictures just how improved it is when it comes to responsiveness, but it doesn’t feel like a skin tossed over an OEM program anymore. In fact it is right up there with Logitech’s software which I have always been a big fan.

Now one of the downsides to the MM830 is its weight, at 122 grams it does weigh a lot more than a lot of the newer mice. The only plus to its weight is when you compare it to the Rival 710 from Steel Series it weighs less and that does seem like the most direct competition given they both have screens. Speaking of the OLED screen, I really dig some of what Cooler Master was doing in their software and they do give you a few potential uses. But as a whole I just don’t think people will use it. The only use I would like is to be able to use it to program the mouse without the software and that is the one thing that you can’t do with it. I was also torn with the MM830’s lighting as well. On one hand they finally got orange perfect, it looks amazing. But I could do without the underglows and the DPI status LEDs are far too bright for my taste. I would fix that in the software but lighting is a little limited. You can’t for example set two different colors to the different LEDs. Which is a shame because the logo outline on the palm area could look really good with alternating colors on it. Hopefully that comes in a future software update.

So I really think that most people are going to prefer the other Master Mouse designs, but if the D-Pad design is what you are most interested in then Cooler Master does have the MM830 priced to compete with the Rival 710. It has an MSRP of $79.99 where the 710 has a $99.99 MSRP. Of course without the OLED screen that pricing could be a lot better IMO.

fv5

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

Log in to comment

We have 1811 guests and no members online

supportus