Cooler Master Musketeer

Reviews: Cases

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Cooler Master
Oct. 20, 2003

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First Looks

When you open the box, you will find inside the following items: Musketeer, thermal sensor cable, 3-pin to 4-pin molex fan cable, 3-pin (power) to 3-pin (temp. sensor) + 3-pin fan cable, PCI bracket for sound relay, Dual 3.5mm stereo plug audio cable, screws (8), and user's manual. I was confused for a moment when I saw the 3-pin to 4-pin molex cable, because it doesn't plug into the Musketeer anywhere. After a moment I realized that Cooler Master has included this cable as a convenience to the user. This cable may come in handy, or it may not. Either way, it is a nice gesture on Cooler Master's part.

When I look at the Musketeer, I feel like I'm in the cockpit of a cheap plane that only has 3 gauges. However, I must admit, cheap plane or not, these gauges look cool. The vertical sliders follow the style of the design, but may present a minor (or major) issue later.

The back of the Musketeer is where you will find all of the various connections. I'll briefly explain what each connection is for:

TEMP

This is where you will plug in the 2-pin temperature sensor. The temperature sensor cable is plenty long so that you can observe any temperature inside your case (including your case temperature) that you would like.

POWER

A 4-pin molex connector from your power supply will plug into this connection to provide power to the device.

VU

This is where you will plug in the cable trailing from the included PCI bracket. Sound will relay from the PCI bracket to your sound card as normal. This allows the device to detect sounds coming from your computer.

FAN

Any variety of electric elephants can be plugged in here. Huh? Perhaps a fan would be better suited to this connection. The user's manual suggests you plug the CPU fan into the Musketeer, but as I will go into a little more detail about later, this may not be the best idea.

Installation

Having forgotten that the Musketeer came with screws, I pulled out my "bag o' screws' and started trying to mount drive rails on either side. After several different types of screws I got frustrated and looked in the box, and sure enough I saw the screws Cooler Master included. I recommend you skip my first step of installation and immediately try to use the screws the Musketeer came with...

Once I got the drive rails on, I ran into another problem... I found it quite difficult to get the Musketeer mounted. Apparently it is just a tiny bit too wide. I was, however, able to get it in, with a bit of force.

Once the Musketeer was installed, I had everything hooked up and ready to go within minutes thanks to the user's manual. If you have any questions during installation (whatever language they may be in), consult the manual.

The Musketeer looks just as great in my Antec Sonata as it did on my floor, perhaps even better. Enough talking, let's play with our new toy.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks & Installation
Page 3: Testing & Conclusion

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5 User Comments

1 - Posted by A Person on October 20, 2003 - 7:07 pm

I really like how it looks. I like blue stuff.

But it seems like there are better, more efficent, ways to use your 5.25 inch bays. To only have 3 functions and one of them being a sound meter seems like a waste. I would rather have 3 temp meters. Well, if I didn't have an Aero7+ I might like 2 temps and a voltage.

But still, it looks pretty cool.

2 - Posted by Kurtis on October 20, 2003 - 11:46 pm

yeah 'a person' that pretty much sums up my thoughts...

sure it looks cool...

but would i recommend paying $46 for it? i couldn't do that unless i recommended that you give me $46 as well :D

3 - Posted by MaNiAk21 on October 21, 2003 - 2:12 pm

Haha, yeah, they look nice, but I'd rather go wtih something with more functionality myself. And damn, has anyone else noticed that those things are like flooding review sites? Musketeers everywhere... :shock:

4 - Posted by handrail on October 21, 2003 - 2:37 pm

yeah, the case that i am reviewing now has a great little temp gauge built right into the front bezel and it seems there are several case companies that are starting to include that feature.

the big problem i see is that almost every decent mobo has auto shutdown for when your machine temp goes too high. in most cases it shuts down faster than you can hit the powerswitch...ask rich about this and his recent "oops i knocked the cpu fan power wire off the mobo" incident. not to mention that most mobos also come with a temp monitoring program.

i agree, i like the look of the temp monitors, but monitoring the temp on the outside of the case is rarely a necessity.

5 - Posted by Kurtis on October 21, 2003 - 3:56 pm

but its so cool! ;)

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