| CM Storm Sentinel Advance II Gaming Mouse |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Input Devices | |
| Written by Hank Tolman | |
| Tuesday, 08 May 2012 | |
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CM Storm Sentinel SoftwareThe GUI that comes with the software for the CM Storm Sentinel Advance II Gaming Mouse is very helpful for managing the mouse settings. CM Storm recommends turning off the mouse controls in the windows control panel, such as "enhanced pointer precision", "snap to", and "mouse acceleration", and using the GUI only. I agree with this whole-heartedly. The sensitivity settings are much easier to fine tune in the GUI and although the pointer precision and snap to may be somewhat useful in Office or Windows based applications (it's arbitrary), they are useless in games.
The GUI also allows you to change profile settings, button functions, color schemes, and DPI settings. You can have up to 5 different profiles set up in the Sentinel Advance II at any time. This becomes very useful when switching between programs. Though you may enjoy that high DPI setting for games, when using Office programs or even Photoshop, the high DPI settings can cause difficulties when trying to pinpoint a location on the screen. Switching to a different profile quickly alleviates that issue. You can also adjust the DPI without changing the profile by using the 6th and 7th buttons located above the scroll wheel as was mentioned earlier. Any changes you make outside the GUI will not be saved to your profile.
The profiles also house the color schemes and the OLED settings. Seven different color schemes are avialable, or the OLED color can be disabled completely for a black-out operation. 
One final note on the GUI is that it provides you the opportunity to change the button presets any way you see fit. Don't like firing with your left mouse button? You don't have to. You can also set a button to rapid fire and have the color scheme blink like a disco light while you destroy your enemies. You can even build macros or complex key strings and assign them to the click of a button. I like to use alt+tab a lot while gaming or even just while multi-tasking. Using the CM Storm Sentinel Advance Laser Gaming Mouse, I can program one of the 8 buttons to alt+tab for me.
I can program the buttons to work with iTunes or RealPlayer as play, stop, next, previous, anything I want. The customizability offered by the CM Storm Sentinel Advance is nearly limitless. You can even customize the report rate on the USB input, from 100hz all the way up to 1000hz. You certainly won't have to worry about mouse lag again. I had my younger brother down for a visit not too long ago and he was fascinated that the macro program in the Sentinel Advance GUI would allow him to perform complex strings of keyboard and mouse commands with the click of a single button. His WoW dual-boxing days just got a lot easier.
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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.