CM Storm Havoc Mouse Review

Overview

 

We’ve not seen a mouse from CM Storm for a while and judging by past experiences, I’ve been looking forward to the next one. Here we have the CM Storm Havoc, a right handed only laser mouse with an Avago 9880 8200 DPI sensor. This professional grade Gaming mouse features the highest grade Japanese OMRON micro switches, designed to last up to 5 million clicks (now that’s a lot of Gaming!). The Havoc also features eight programmable buttons and a rubber (left only) side grip. It also sports 128K of on-board memory supporting up to four Profiles.

 

 

As is the norm for CM Storm (hey that rhymes!) the Havoc came in a smart black ‘n red box, with a large image of the Havoc on the front. You can also see from the front of the box that the Havoc supports DPI from 100 all the way to its 8200 maximum.

The back of the box lists the main specifications of the mouse (see image above for more detail).

The side of the box highlights the Havoc Storm Tactics: Strength, Security & Control! Security, WTF!?

 

 

Opening the lid of the box allows us to see the Havoc in all of its glory. The left hand panel also goes on to showcase some of the Havoc’s main features (see image above).

Within the box there’s not much to be fair (although I’m not sure what you’d expect!); other than the mouse itself we find just a couple of warranty documents, not even a user guide!

At the time of writing the CM Storm Havoc is retailing for approximately £50 and comes with a 2 year warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Cooler Master

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

First impressions are good, the design while right handed only, is a safe design, no crazy ergonomics here and that I applaud. The back of the mouse does seem a little high and wide, but first impressions suggest that it’s actually quite comfortable, even for my Claw style of grip. It’s a nice weight too, weighing in at around 125g (I’m not too keen on light mice!).

 

 

• Top

Looking at the the CM Storm Havoc from above there’s not that much to see due to its safe (regular) design, although you can see how wide the Havoc is at the back. The top features a single plastic piece (with a soft touch rubber surface) that incorporates both the left and right click buttons. Both buttons also seem notably light in actuation. Incorporated within the left button are 4 cut-outs, these house the LED indicators for the selected DPI; meaning that you should always be aware of what DPI you have selected, unlike another mouse recently tested!

The centrally located thumb wheel has a soft rubber coating and is easy to scroll and provides good feedback. Unfortunately it seems rather difficult to press, requiring significant force to actuate. Behind the thumb wheel we have a couple of round buttons, these act as the DPI plus/minus buttons allowing you to adjust the DPI on the fly. The four DPI settings are also user definable via the CM Storm Havoc software.

• Front / Back

Looking at the Havoc from the front once again reveals the regular, safe design that Cooler Master has opted for. Here we also see the centrally located 1.8m braided cable.

Luckily at the back there’s a little more to talk about, although at first glance you may wonder why!? It’s because within the back of the Havoc Cooler Master have rather cleverly hidden a CM Storm logo that illuminates when in use, nice!

 

• Sides (left & right)

The left side of the Havoc features a large rubber grip that’s covered in ridges, possibly offering additional grip. Above this area there are three thumb buttons (one more than the norm), with the central one sporting a small rubber raised indicator. This is supposed to give you some idea of what button you finger is on (when you’re not looking), but in practice it doesn’t really bring anything to the mix. But the buttons are well placed though, with the central button being right where my thumb naturally seemed to rest.

The right side of the havoc is effectively featureless, but has a glossy plastic surface, unlike the rest of the mouse that is covered with a soft touch rubber coating.

 

• Underside

The underside of the Havoc features 3 very large glides (the largest that I have ever seen!), surrounding the centrally located Avago 9880 8200 DPI sensor.

 

 

From a mouse design point of view the Havoc scores well, with all of the features the average/professional Gamer needs, only the ergonomics remain a question and that rather stiff to press mouse wheel. Time to find out I guess…

 

Hardware Installation

 

The CM Storm Havoc mouse was simply connected by way of its single USB connection. This was connected directly to the back-plate of the MSI Z87-G45 GAMING motherboard that forms part of our dedicated Intel Test Rig.

Software is required (but not supplied) for full functionality of the CM Storm Havoc…

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

The Havoc was tested using our Intel Test Rig with a fresh installation of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (service pack 1) installed together with all the latest relevant drivers and software.

Surprisingly (again!) there seems to be no mention of any software for the CM Strom Havoc. But it does indeed exist and is very useful to say the least. It can be found here.

Mouse Surface:

The CM Storm Havoc was tested using a OcUK Mega-Mega Mat 3XL Elite Tactical Gaming Surface.

The following games were used to help in the evaluation of the CM Storm Havoc:

• Battlefield 4
• Survarium (BETA)
• TitanFall

 

Hardware Performance

 

• MOUSE

I really enjoy reviewing mice as they are so important when it comes to PC Gaming, without a decent mouse you’re sure to find yourself nearer the bottom than the top of the leader-board.

At first I wasn’t sure that I was going to get on with the CM Storm Havoc, due to its ergonomic shape. It’s very wide at the back and also very tall, lifting the palm of your hand and promoting a Palm style of grip. My default grip is a Claw style, and I thought that the Havoc would force a grip upon me that I wouldn’t like…

Well, I was wrong! After a day or so, I found that I actually warmed to the Havoc’s overall shape and comfort levels were actually very good; brought about by that wide, high back giving my Claw grip just that little bit of extra support. I also rather like the rubber grip on the left of the Havoc, giving your thumb a definitive resting position and aiding to overall grip. So from a comfort level the CM Storm Havoc is a hit for me.

From an ergonomics/usability point of view the Havoc also put in a good showing with a good number of programmable buttons and good button placement too. The OMRON switches also performed well, requiring very little actuation force, meaning that rapid fire was easy and fast. But as I noted earlier the mouse wheel is indeed just too damn stiff for its own good! OK, you’re not going click it accidentally (and that’s good!), but if you want to press it, I just hope you’ve had your Weetabix! 😉

The Avago 9880 8200 DPI sensor also performed flawlessly during my two week test period. At all times I felt in full control of my movements, be they fast in games like TitanFall or slower during games like the new Survarium (BETA).

 

• SOFTWARE

Rather oddly there’s no mention of this software on the box or within, which seems silly as some users may not even realise that software exists for the Havoc. Well as you can see it certainly does and it can be found here. During testing I used version 1.1.3 of the software and the Firmware version was 1.2.8.

The Havoc software consists of six main tabs, these are outlined below.

 

• SOFTWARE – MAIN & SUPPORT

 

 

The MAIN tab allows you to make simple button assignments, there are eight programmable buttons in total. At the bottom of the screen is the Profile selection section, meaning that anything you do here, on this screen (and in all the others) is Profile specific. There are four Profiles in total each with its own image (should you wish to assign one), it’s worth noting that the Button assignment for Profile Zero (CM STORM) cannot be modified, as it’s the default Profile. All others are obviously fully customisable.

The SUPPORT tab is found at the end of the tab list and provides access to CM Storm’s online support site and also provides version information (Software and Firmware).

 

• SOFTWARE – ADVANCED & MACRO

 

 

The ADVANCED tab allows you to customise the four main DPI settings in increments of one hundred. Both X and Y can be modified independently, although why someone would do this is a mystery to me! The USB polling rate can also be adjusted per DPI. The Havoc’s LED configuration can me modified here, with seven (wow that’s an odd number!) colours to choose from (Red, White, Yellow, Green, Blue, Cyan & Magenta). Various effects can also be applied, Breathing, Rapid Fire etc, there’s an Off option also. Four sliders allow control over LED brightness, OS sensitivity, OS double click speed and Button response time. A couple of other options allow you to Lock the OS setting and turn Angle Snapping On (it’s Off by default).

The MACRO tab, unsurprisingly is where you come to record and edit your macros. The tab is pretty simple to use and I have recoded a simple macro in the screenshot above. Macros can be both be created here and deleted, it’s also possible to edit existing macros with the option to insert additional commands. The macros can then be assigned directly to a Profile and a specific button via the controls in the top left of the tab.

 

• SOFTWARE – PROFILES & LIBRARY

 

 

PROFILES is where you can manage your Profiles, should you wish to have more than the four supported by default. Profiles can be saved to disk and moved to and from the Havoc’s memory as needed. While simple enough the process does seem to take longer than one would expect…

Finally we have the LIBRARY tab, here you can manage you Macros. This tab, similar to the Profiles tab allows you to manage all of your macros, either storing them on a local hard disk or aboard the Havoc’s memory.

 

Final Thoughts

 

I have really enjoyed the last couple of weeks with the CM Storm Havoc; why, of course is the question… Well it’s hard to pick out one or two things that I like about the Havoc because to be honest, I like it all! It’s well made, it looks good, has great ergonomics as well as a good array of programmable buttons and the Avago Laser sensor track beautifully in Game.

Everything that Cooler Master have done with the Havoc is good, from the packaging to the overall design of the mouse and the materials used, the build quality is very good too. The Ergonomic shape was a concern at first but over time I actually began to fall for the design, even liking the wide high back of the mouse as it lent a small degree of support for my Claw like grip. Three thumb buttons are also a boon and they’re well placed too. The rubber thumb rest/grip is also nice (even useful) as it seems to add an extra level of overall control to the mouse. The DPI LED indicators are well paced and the actuation of those OMRON switches is just perfect; actuating with ease, but never mis-firing! But the mouse wheel is still a concern; even after a couple of weeks the wheel click is still very stiff in operation, too stiff IMHO!

It looks good too, with its customisable lighting (ok there are limited colours!), but all of the common choices are here! There’s even a nice 1.8m braided cable.

From a performance point of view the Havoc never put a foot wrong in all of my testing. In fast Games such as TitanFall the Avago sensor was more than capable of matching my moves (). During slower games such as the new Survarium (BETA) the sensor once again delivered, giving me the accuracy that I needed to survive.

The software’s good too offering all of the options the avid Gamer desires, with the ability to customise all aspects of the mouse from DPI, to Polling rate and from Profiles to Macros all of which can be stored aboard the Havoc’s on-board memory.

There is no doubt, that the CM Storm Havoc is a damn fine mouse; with a better scroll wheel (click) it would have been Gold, and with a slighter better price it would have been perfect!

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Cooler Master for providing this sample for review