| CM Storm Sentinel Advance II Gaming Mouse |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Input Devices | |
| Written by Hank Tolman | |
| Tuesday, 08 May 2012 | |
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Sentinel Advance II Detailed FeaturesThe CM Storm Sentinel Advance II has a couple a really interesting features that I would be remiss if I didn't explore. Right above the display of the DPI settings is a 32 x 32 area for your own logo. You can put your clan's logo or pretty much anything else you want (as long as it's 32 x 32 pixels) up there. The image has to be in .bmp format and has to be black and white. It can't be grayscale. The downside is that it sits right under your hand, so you won't see it much while you are playing.
Those two small buttons right above the mouse wheel on the CM Storm Sentinel Advance II come set to increase and decrease the DPI settings. The button on the left has a small bump on it so you can recognize it on the fly. The button below the mouse wheel is set to change the color scheme. All of these buttons can, of course, be set to something else in the software manager.
If you haven't used a mouse with changeable DPI settings before, you might want to look into it a little. DPI (dots per inch) is a representation of the actual pixel count per inch. So the DPI settings for the Sentinel Advance II and any other mouse are really telling you how many pixels the mouse cursor will move per each inch that you move the mouse across the pad. Therefore, when the Sentinel Advance II Gaming Mouse is set to 8200 DPI, the mouse cursor will move 8200 pixels across the screen for every inch you move the mouse across the pad.
You can estimate what DPI settings you will need based off your resolution. If you are playing a first person based game at a resolution of 1024 X 768, then a complete 360 degree turn for your character will encompass about 1024 * 4 pixels, or 4096. Therefore, if you have set the Sentinel Advance II to 8200 DPI, it will take about half an inch of movement on the mouse pad to turn your character 360 degrees. For gaming purposes, CM Storm suggests using a multiplier of 2.5 to determine your DPI settings. A resolution of 1024 X 768 would then need a DPI setting for the Sentinel Advance II of about 2600. With a resolution of 2560 X 1600, then a 5600 DPI setting would make sense. To make it even more accurate, you can adjust the DPI settings for the Sentinel Advance II individually for the X and Y axis, allowing your mouse precision to be that much more accurate.
When using high DPI settings (above about 4000), you really need to be aware of your surface as well. A soft surface provided by the most common mouse pads, and even 100% rubber pads such as the CM Storm Battle Pad can react unpredictably to vibrations. With your DPI settings high, this can cause undesired results. Metal and alloy surfaces are recommended when using high DPI settings for the Sentinel Advance Laser Gaming Mouse. I've experienced this first hand with the Sentinel Advance II while playing an FPS game where the bass rumbling caused the mouse to move around slightly, interrupting my pwnage. Lame.
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Comments
Laser is old, and you don't need that when gaming!
Microsoft's sidewinder gaming line has the Sidewinder x8 mouse that uses blue track.
I love the feel and fit of the microsoft sidewinder x6 I just wish they would fix the r ghost and change to mech ( Azio makes an x6 MECH clone with detachable num pad but they tossed the low profile keys sadly and changed from the hexa sexy stealth design to an immature chunky industrial look.. :-( )
And Blue track would have been a nice companion however tactile fit trumps any consideration as a mouse is your extension into the screen. If any mouse can match the customisation of my R.A.T. 9 I will give it a chance if it is as lag free wireless ( the blue track x8 was lag free as well ). Saitek made an MMO R.A.T. with more buttons but sadly they switched from the cool stealth matt black and added steam punk bronzish accents and did not make a wireless version!
Beside more buttons I wish these new wave of mice would include levels of pressure sensitivity... I prefer drawing with my mouse given that customized fit and the comfort is not lost when using button combinations. Which I lose when trying to manage control with my wacom's pen. If not built into the mouse then maybe pressure sensitivity built into a foot pedal in the same way I use my wah pedal with my guitar?
But then any pressure senitivity would have to support Photoshop, Zbrush, Maya etc...
8000 dpi sounds nice ( particularly for use with nvidia surround and amd eyefinity ).
On the other hand, I find that I have to dial in the right control @ my mouse's max dpi ( 5600 on the R.A.T. the Sidewinder's blue track only went up as high as 4000 dpi? don't know if that was a limitation of bluetrack or if that has improved any ) using the Window's mouse control panels "Speed option". However, I wonder if by doing this I am dialing back that resolution? In theory I imagine that the speed just slows down the mouse at the given resolution still giving me the benefit of the greater resolution's precision. No way of knowing for sure though other than what "feels best".
Otherwise if there is no other way to control the speed at higher resolutions...
I can not imagine that the CM storms 8000 DPI could be useful unless 9000p monitors are dur out any time soon...
Beautiful design
custom weight
lot of work went into the gui
AMAZING price!
I can't imagine switching mice( RATs ) any time soon. Or giving up on wireless now that the tech is virtually lag free.
But at this pricepoint CoolerMaster provides enough competition and has the cred to bring prices down for the rest of us. ( certainly have my eye on their mech boards as well )
And if other manufacturers do not follow suit it is nice to have that alternative! ( even with the ripple warning johnny guru still gave a rare recommend to Coolermasters gold rated silentProGold 1200. Where PSU prices are insane I am happy with their quality over the past 2 years given the cheaper price )
Nice review. One question: I'm currently using a Logitech G9x gaming mouse. One of the cool things about the Logitech software is that it can automatically detect which application is in focus, and apply a profile I've set up for that application. In your example, running a game, Photoshop, and a web browser all at the same time, the Logitech software would detect which app is in front, and change the mouse buttons, DPI, etc. for that application automatically, no buttons to push. Does the software for this mouse do that? Apologies if this was covered in the review and I missed it.
Thanks
As you mentioned, there are not all that many buttons on this mouse. Consider that personally I would not be reprogramming any of the three buttons around the mouse wheel (DPI and Color), so now you're at 5 buttons. That's pretty average. There is no tilt on the wheel. Many of us have gotten used to tilt (or some other means of horizontal scrolling). Also, now that it's appearing on so many other mice, I would also like a sniper button of some kind. Those are some of the things I noticed.
Another thing I would ask about is how it is for a palm grip and a claw grip. I use a claw grip most of the time. 9.6 is an awfully high score. I think there needs to be some type of score chart for features, movement, feel, shape, and anything else you can come up with that would more standardize the scores.
I'm also using a RAT, and it's my favorite mouse right now, but I would only give it maybe a 7 or 8 out of 10 score even when it was new.
Too bad we can't just give a company our own design for a custom mouse and have it built for us.