Cooler Master MasterSet MS120 Gaming RGB Keyboard & Mouse, Clicky Mem-chanical Switches, Precision Pixart Sensor with Omron Mouse Switches & On-the-fly DPI settings

Pros: My first reaction to the Cooler Master MS120 set is that the keyboard feels fairly heavy. The keys stand up proud of the plastic base and there are no multimedia keys or programmable keys. The bottom has two small rubber feet and two substantial snap up pegs to hold it up for more comfortable typing.
One nice thing is that all the RGB options are in the keyboard. There is no need to load a program into the System tray. You can adjust color, intensity, speed and choose the particular RGB pattern that strikes your fancy. It does the usual RGB tricks just like my much more expensive Corsair mechanical keyboard. These dances of color are mesmerizing when you first get the keyboard and you’ll invite all your friends over and they’ll ohh and ahh appropriately. Then one day you’ll get tired of them and set the keyboard to one color and get on with your life. But they are really cool.
The new thing about this keyboard is the switches. They are combination of mechanical and membrane, thus the ‘mem-chanical’ tag. To be honest, when you’re typing it’s hard to tell what you have. They are clicky but the click is sort of anemic although it’s there and I suppose you can convince yourself you’re using a pure mechanical keyboard. The thing is the click comes a split second before the key bottoms out and it just feels strange if you’ve ever used a mechanical keyboard.
The right hand only mouse also does not require a tray app. You can adjust the DPI 3 ways and it appears the color on the wheel of the mouse and under your palm changes to represent which DPI setting you have chosen. There is also an RGB strip at the bottom back of the mouse that can be changed to any color you wish but does not pulse or any other function.

Cons: Mouse is cheap feeling and light. It seems more suited to being included as a freebee when you buy the keyboard and is certainly not up its level of finish. Think of what kind of mouse you get if you buy an OEM computer and that’s what this mouse reminds me of. Also, none of the DPI settings seemed to make general typing easier. It was too difficult to highlight a word or character with any of the three settings. One was far too slow to use and the other was far too fast. The middle setting seemed the best but it still made the cursor skittish. The fact the mouse was so light it seemed to float around on my desk didn’t help easier.
I don’t particularly like the sound the keyboard keys make. It’s certainly not the sound a real mechanical keyboard makes, more a sort of anemic snick. And even though the keyboard is heavy it seems cheap. The space bar rattles and the keys feel flimsy.
Finally, the USB cords are cheap looking plastic. The cords are stiff and in the week I used the Cooler Master MS120 set they never really straightened out and got any softer.

Overall Review: First off let me say the keyboard and mouse in the Cooler Master MS120 set worked every time and worked perfectly. I gamed with them and typed with them and they never let me down. This is a medium priced kit and for the money it worked as advertised. My comments about the bargain basement feel of the mouse do not take away from the fact it worked fine.
I wouldn’t use this set on a serious gaming machine. The keyboard seems fragile and the snick, snick of the keys bothers me. I’d be afraid too much pounding on it would break it. Now that’s just my humble opinion. It works and works well. The RGB effects are as good as my much more expensive Corsair mechanical keyboard and to get that to do RGB tricks requires a program in the computer. To be honest my girlfriend loves the Cooler Master MS120, at least the keyboard. She’s already claimed it.
The mouse is not as well loved. Once again it works perfectly. But it’s light and cheap looking and seems more suited to being included with an inexpensive desk top. Left handers do not need to apply. I’d say for light office duty it’s fine and with the added bonus of RGB elements.
The price of this kit is modest but if it was up to me, I’d spend the money on a low level real mechanical keyboard and skip the mouse.

Pros: = Keyboard =

- Appearance -
* RGB backlit
* Multiple built in patterns and color schemes
* Speed control of lighting
* Direction control of lighting.
* Raised Keys

- Functionality -
* Key pressed feel mechanical
* Key presses sound mechanical
* Limited Flex (especially good compared to other budget priced decks)
* Simple in execution.
* No Software needed. Just Plug and Play.
* Heavy and Weighted. Stays in place.
* FN + style media key controls
* Windows Key lockout
* 24 Simultaneous key press readability

= Mouse =

- Appearance -
* RGB Lighting
* Per Profile Lighting

- Functionality -
* DPI selecting
* Comfortable for palm resting grip
* Mid to Light Weight feel
* Simple no frills straight to the point approach
* No Software needed for full functionality

= Summary =
If all the pros listed here are all needed at the price being asked, then this could be right for you. Read on though to understand the costs and trade-offs needed to pack all these features in at this price.

Cons: = Keyboard =

- Appearance -
* Back light bleed predominant over key cap lighting
* Limited lighting options due to settings being hosted from the keyboard itself.
* Most color profiles range from unimpressive to highly distracting.

- Functionality -
* Loud Key presses
* Keys jostle around when resting at their top position
* No wrist rest of any kind.

= Mouse =

- Appearance -
* Only back bottom of mouse light strip changes color when color profile is set to rainbow color changing
* Scroll wheel and back logo are always afixed to a static color based on profile
* The back logo doesn't light up anywhere other than a thin strip around the logo, which just looks strange and incomplete.

- Functionality -
* DPI is constrained to only 4 preset values to choose from
* Right side ring finger rest is comfortable only for palm grip
* Ackward feel when claw gripping.
* Side buttons area between has slit between buttons that can be felt a sharp edge when sliding thumb over from button to button.
* Mouse feet don't seem to lift the mouse away from the mouse pad enough as I can feel and hear scrapping as I use it.

= Summary =
Remembering that if you "use it" first and "look at it" second that you could do so much better for the price by getting a good mouse first, then taking the remaining cash and getting a more solid keyboard without the RGB and other things that don't matter.

Overall Review: I'm pretty middle of the road with this keyboard and mouse. Let me first say that I really like Cooler Master products having owned some of their best cases through the years and some of my first mechanical keyboards were from cooler master (some of which today I still use at work because of their built in macro keys not requiring software support). That being said, some of their more current products are pretty questionable (cough cough MasterCase H500P). I think it's no secret that the market they operate in is pretty cut throat and trying to bring a good product at the lowest possible cost is challenging. This is certainly the case with this keyboard (and mouse).

Today, who isn't selling a mechanical keyboard? I mean seriously, is there any peripheral on the market that inst' more saturated than mechanical keyboards? I think my Grandmother even has her own line. And like most of them, isn't offering anything unique to distinguish them from any other competitor. So everyone's looking for an angle. All the big names have done it with their own type of special mechanical keys and other gimmicks, the most of which no user can perceive a difference in daily usage.

Cooler Master is trying their angle too with the Mem-chanical switch. When I first read about it, I liked the idea of. Mechanical switches offer a very satisfactory feel when pressing them, but usually the cost of noise and sometimes other things such as travel distance and key press force. Of course there are plenty of mechanical key choices out there to help mitigate these things making it a sea of difficult choices when you haven't tried them all. Membrane however are usually fairly quiet, but often feel spongy, inconsistent and just plain cheap feeling. So when I heard Cooler Master was combining the two types into some type of a hybrid, I only assumed it was because they were going to leverage the strengths of the two types to form the basis and still come out ahead in terms of cost and therefore offer a competitive solution at a lower cost. Sounds pretty good right?

Unfortunately, the realization is what they ended up with is a switch that is as loud or louder than any mechanical switch I've ever used. I'm not sure what was gained with the membrane part of the switch (other than cost maybe, but even then maybe?). Quiet keys alone would have been enough to look past some of the other minor faults. But these aren't quiet keys. Not only that, but if I lightly rest my fingers atop the keys and wiggle around a bit, the keys jostle in place making them feel oh so cheap and further add even more noise to the picture. Yes the keys travel like mechanical. Yes the keys press like mechanical. But that's about it. I can't help but feel like they were trying to mimic the blue cherry mx "clicky" keys a bit, but took it too far. Regardless, most people around you are going to be quite bothered by the sound this keyboard gives.

Next let's talk about the lighting. I'm not a fan. Sorry. I like RGB back-lit keyboards, but none that show the under key light bleed. The Corsair keyboards do this also and I've never liked it. I prefer the Logitech Romer-G back-lit keys instead there only the tops of the keys are lit. So if you don't mind the Corsair approach, then this is no worse. That is until you compare tops to bleed. At least in the Corsair keyboards the tops are as brilliantly lit as the under bleed is. I can't say that for this. The under bleed is brilliantly lit, while the tops are dull.

The mouse is not terrible. But it's not great either. I can use it. I just can't enjoy it. It's most satisfactory part is the mouse wheel. It's got a good texture, turns at the right resistance an looks pretty good when lit up. It's easy to click also without accidentally scrolling up or down. But the mouse feel fairly cheap otherwise. Either the mouse feet aren't set right to properly lift the mouse away from the mouse pad, or the mouse bottom isn't supported and flat enough to keep ti dragging. Every horizontal movement creates a scrapping noise on my hard surface mouse pad. Maybe it needs to be on a soft cloth one instead. I can do without the extra width created by the extra right side finger rests also. After having used a G900 for so long, I simply prefer it.

I'm probably being far too rough on this product. For the features it's offering at the price, it's not bad. You get a semi-sorta mechanical typish keyboard that is RGB and a multi-DPI RGB mouse for far less than anything else it's competing with at the same price range. Yes there are other very affordable keyboards out there that are RGB (in some sorts) that can be paired with a decent mouse, but few bundled together. So it's good in it's own right and I can't say I don't like the product, because I do. But it feels like it's being sold a very small group of people looking for both items at the same time at this price.

If this has enough pros to outweight the cons, then by all means try it out.