When I met with Cooler Master at Computex 2014, the company at the time was discussing the fact that they had lost their focus over the past few years. A portfolio of over 2000 products was difficult to maintain, and Cooler Master had lost their roots in the PC cooling space by entering many different areas with middle of the road products. At that time the main question on the lip of Cooler Master was ‘what do you think when you hear our name?’. As a result of the feedback, there is almost a new, focused company here at CES.

The main element of the adjustment is to place all the product lines that were kept into three different market segments, with a special fourth model for cases.

These segments are Essential, Mainstream and Performance, covering low, medium and high end models. Cases also get Ultra, pointing at the extreme consumer. Each of their product ranges is split as follows:

Keyboards (Small Form) at Cooler Master Users Model MSRP PERFORMANCE NovaTouch TKL $150-$200 MAINSTREAM QuickFire TK

QuickFire Rapid-i $100-$150 ESSENTIAL QuickFire Rapid $30-$90 Keyboards (Full Size) at Cooler Master Users Model MSRP PERFORMANCE Trigger-Z $150-$200 MAINSTREAM QuickFire Ultimate $100-$150 ESSENTIAL QuickFire XT $30-$90 Mice at Cooler Master Users Model MSRP PERFORMANCE Reaper $70-$90 MAINSTREAM Mizar $50-$70 ESSENTIAL Xornet v2 $30-$50

Power Supplies at Cooler Master Users Model Connector Warranty Efficiency MSRP PERFORMANCE V-Series Fully Modular 7 Years 1200W @ Plat

1000W @ Gold

850W @ Gold $190-$300 MAINSTREAM VSM Modular 5 Years 750W @ Gold

650W @ Gold

550W @ Gold $100-$120 ESSENTIAL GM Modular 5 Years 750W @ Bronze

650W @ Bronze

550W @ Bronze $80-$100

Headsets at Cooler Master Users Model MSRP PERFORMANCE Sirus C $90-$130 MAINSTREAM Ceres 500 $50-$90 ESSENTIAL Ceres 300 $30-$50

Cases at Cooler Master Users Model Size MSRP ULTRA Cosmos II Ultra $300+ PERFORMANCE Stryker Full $160-$200 MAINSTREAM Silencio 652S Mid $80-$130 ESSENTIAL HAF 912 Mid $50-$70

Air Cooling (Top Down) at Cooler Master Users Model Fan Size MSRP PERFORMANCE Gemini S524 V2 120 mm, fits 140 mm $45+ MAINSTREAM Gemini M4 120 mm Slim $30-$40 ESSENTIAL Vortex Plus 92 mm $20-$30 Air Cooling (Tower) at Cooler Master Users Model Fan Size MSRP PERFORMANCE V8 GTS 140 mm x2 $80-$100 MAINSTREAM Hyper 612 v2

Hyper D92

Hyper 212 EVO 140 mm

92 mm x2

120 mm $35-$50 ESSENTIAL Hyper T4

Hyper TX3

Hyper T2 120 mm

92 mm

92 mm $18-$30 AIO Liquid Cooling at Cooler Master Users Model Size MSRP PERFORMANCE Nepton 280/140 mm $100-$130 MAINSTREAM Nepton 240/120 mm $100-$130 ESSENTIAL Seidon 120 mm $50-$70

The new element to the product line is a product in development that sounds like a dream power supply for reviewers. Cooler Master are working on a system with an SoC (some ARM variant) with built in Bluetooth to connect to an app on a phone/tablet to be able to measure and/or diagnose a power supply when the PC is either on or off.

From the reviewer perspective, the best bit is the application. Here is a nice looking interface that shows the power consumption to two significant figures, with Cooler Master promising a future feature to be able to track power consumption over time, both from the wall and going through the power supply given losses or the power factor.

The app currently has a segment which, with the right price per kWh, will let you know how much money is being used on electricity.

Cooler Master has said that this is still a very early prototype right now, but it will be a premium feature for their high end (1000W plus models). Ideally I would like something around the 500W Platinum mark or less for testing, and the opportunity to track multiple power supplies given that I usually have three test beds on the go. Nevertheless, it is something slightly different to the other power supply manufacturers, and has potential uses in office environments in order to diagnose faults if enough functionality is built into the app.

There is no clear expectations about when this product would hit the shelves (Q4 ?), or the extra pricing on the top. Hopefully we will see an update at Computex in June.