| SilverStone Raven SST-RVM01B Gaming Mouse |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Input Devices | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Thursday, 11 September 2008 | |
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Raven SST-RVM01B Peripheral devices have become a sensitive subject for those who use them most. When I tested and recommended the Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse there were a few readers who wrote in just to tell me how much they disliked it; and yet the opposite was true when I cursed the Logitech G15 2007 LCD Gaming Keyboard. Well, I still dislike that lousy keyboard, but I can see how someone might have a few personal hang-ups with the G9. So when SilverStone jumped into the peripheral market and showed Benchmark Reviews their SilverStone ESA Commander and SaberTooth Mouse back in January at the 2008 CES, I was a little concerned how well enthusiasts and gamers would embrace it. Apparently, SilverStone thought it would need a little tweaking, and SaberTooth would eventually be renamed into Raven, but other than a pointless name change the product has remained identical to what we witnessed many months back. Released just a few weeks ago, the Raven SST-RVM01B is changing the way gamers interact with their system.
The SilverStone When SilverStone offered the Raven 3D gaming mouse for review, I felt compelled to pass it over just to avoid the controversy. But what if the SST-RVM01B was the next great thing? That's what Benchmark Reviews is about to find out. About the company: SilverStone Technology
Founded in 2003, SilverStone is an established leader in its field, with an elite team of engineers; we started our quest of providing products that create inspirations. We have since expanded the lines of products as well as types of products we produce, giving our customers a wide selection of choices. With distribution centers in different areas of the globe, SilverStone products can be seen all over the world, not just for computer users but also for home entertainment use. Providing leisure with integration of advanced technologies that is functional and making them enjoyable to use. Here at SilverStone Technology, we continue to pride ourselves in providing the highest level of standards in designing and manufacturing computer enclosures, power supplies, and accessories. Our pursuit for the first class aesthetic appeal is relentless; our teams of devoted engineers are constantly searching for the best technologies that suit end-users with different needs and will make our products as technologically sound as they are beautiful. As gaming and computer productivity become more refined, having the ability to fine-tune and customize the mouse movements becomes more crucial than ever. To help meet this challenge, SilverStone created the Raven gaming mouse. This brilliantly designed input device gives gamer and users unprecedented control over the mouse movement by not only utilizing a blistering fast laser sensor capable of 3200 dpi and 50G of acceleration, but also adds independent X & Y axis adjustments. The result of these combined features ensures that the Raven mouse can respond to every movement from the user with pinpoint accuracy and tailor-made feel not possible before with ordinary gaming mice. With perfectly centered laser, 50-50 weight balance, carbon fiber surfacing, and a convenient thumb wheel that can perform quick task switching (in Windows XP) and flip 3D (in Windows Vista), the Raven is ready to play and work for the most demanding gamers and power users.
Raven Features
RVM01B SpecificationsSilverStone Raven 3D Gaming Mouse SST-RVM01B
Closer Look: RavenMy first impressions of the SilverStone Raven SST-RVM01B was that it was super-sexy. It somehow captured a loot that fit somewhere between a formula road-racing motorcycle and import street car. The Carbon Fiber palm finish certainly adds a nice change from the norm- meaning it's not another all-black mouse. But the real show-stealer was the bulbous thumb wheel.
It's really very hard to miss the large illuminating thumb wheel attached to the left side of the Raven. The bulbous orb-like wheel commands the Aero interface inside Windows Vista, but also lends itself to other functions. The embedded thumb button allows the savvy gamer to switch between five generic pre-defined configurations, or any of the custom profiles created. These custom profiles are illuminated in a small LCD window between the scroll-wheel and carbon fiber palm rest (pitch-black area in the image above).
SilverStone placed two additional buttons ahead of the Raven's 3D flip wheel. While there is room above the wheel for these buttons, SilverStone made them index-finger accessible on the RVM01B. I suspect some muscular retraining will be required to successfully manipulate this mouse. On the opposite side (right side), there are two more buttons along the edge. These buttons are designed for the ring finger to activate, which was a new experience for me. The Raven has a right-hand only layout, which might leave a hefty portion of the gaming population to play with their basic mouse pointers.
The underside of the SST-RVM01B gaming mouse is fairly well engineered. There are two Teflon anti-friction pads at the tip of the mouse (near the USB cord 'tail'), which are just small enough reduce drag yet big enough to withstand long-term use. At the back end (palm end) of the SilverStone Raven 3D gaming mouse, the two longer Teflon pads are positioned perfectly at the locations where most of the downward pressure is created.
The dual-mode switch is recessed at the base of the underside, which might require some effort to move from one side to the other. After some short comparisons I noticed that the Raven would glide effortlessly across the RatPadz XT Gaming Surface even better than the Logitech G9 does. Perhaps SilverStone did their homework when they designed the Raven? We will soon find out. SST-RVM01B Detailed FeaturesIn our last section, Benchmark Reviews skimmed over the outer shell that builds on the appearance of SilverStone's new Raven 3D gaming mouse. In this section, I will showcase a few of the more detailed features which define the SST-RVM01B. To begin our inventoried look at this complex mouse, we begin with the myriad of buttons. Because SilverStone has integrated more than twice as many button functions as we have fingers, learning the in's and out's of the Raven can be tricky. I'm not accustomed to using my ring finger (or pinky finger for some) to control mouse buttons, so the learning curve was very steep for me.
There are a few things that seem to fit nicely into place, and more than a few other that do not. The scroll wheel is a perfect example. On the Logitech G9, this wheel could spin with a simple flick. However on the Raven the scroll wheel would have definitive clicks while spinning downward (scrolling down), and a very pronounced clicking while spinning upward. Additionally, the two buttons directly before the scroll wheel are extremely difficult to train yourself for, and could have been done with a side tilting scroll wheel.
SilverStone integrates a super-powerful Philips PLN2030 twin-eye laser in the Raven SST-RVM01B gaming mouse. Capable of 3200 dpi precision, the Raven can scale from super sensitive down to ultra-fine 400 dpi. It took me some time at first to get used to using even less movement to control the mouse position, but after a few minutes it was as if I had been using this mouse resolution forever. Gamers will enjoy the ability to reduce the sensitivity for controlled sniping, while the run-and-gun crowd can keep it at the full 3200 dpi.
Weight systems have never made any sense to me. The manufacturer contrives this elaborate weight carriage system and somehow expects the unwitting gamer to know how to make use of them. I have never once added weight to my mouse, primarily because I want it light and movable. SilverStone has solved this mystery for us, and simply designed the Raven with a 50/50 balanced weight distribution over the center point (directly at the laser).
Overall, the Raven SST-RVM01B has got me a little intimidated. There's a lot of buttons I'm not used to, and serious gamers might not want to take time out to relearn the basics. In the next section, I will test the SilverStone Raven myself and see how much better (or worse) it performs in comparison to the Logitech G9. Testing & ResultsTesting a mouse for any technical article is a lot like testing a pencil: if it works, everything else is relative. So without being to heavy on my own personal qualifications for what makes up a "good" mouse, I have decided to test the SilverStone Raven 3D gaming mouse SST-RVM01B in three different environments. In the first environment, I browse various web pages and used the Raven to help me gather information for my daily news posting here at Benchmark reviews. The second environment was a mixture of productivity tasks, from editing images to writing this article. The third environment was gaming, which more or less included Call of Duty 4 exclusively.
After the software was installed from the included CD-ROM and the dual-mode switch moved over to gaming, I was able to configure the Raven to my personal liking. Since I am such a spastic player in up-close fire-fights, I optioned to cut down my vertical sensitivity so that I wouldn't shoot into the air or ground so easily. So far as I am aware, this is the only mouse that allows custom X and Y axis adjustments; especially with 400 dpi to 3200 dpi limits.
The Raven allowed me to save up to five custom dpi settings, which could then be cycled through using the thumb button (dpi switch) on the bulbous flip wheel. I configured the SilverStone Raven SST-RVM01B with the system specified below, and set out to mix work with play for the next few days. Test System
ResultsAfter almost five days of testing, I finally found myself less frustrated by the myriad of controls and buttons and becoming a lot more productive. At first I was quickly losing patience, and was only one more improper click away from throwing this peripheral device into the round file (trash). After I gave myself a few hours of slow work, it began to actually feel very good in my hand. By the third day of use, I was far from an expert with the Raven (mastery comes with constant practice), but I knew where to press and what my limitations were. At the end of the test period, I found that overall I liked the Raven - but it is not without serious faults. Perhaps it is because of my daily use of the Logitech G9 for almost a year now, but there are a few buttons on the Raven that were just poorly placed. SilverStone suggests that users keep the thumb on top of the flip-wheel bulb, and three fingers (index, middle, and ring) on top of the Raven. I have traditionally used on my index and middle finger atop any mouse, with the thumb to one side and the ring and pinky finger at the other. This is where the retraining takes some serious commitment, because if you try to mix standard mouse usage with the Raven, you're in trouble. The thumb button at the end of the flip 3D orb was perfectly placed, but not for the sensitivity selector. I found myself wanting the click this button an much as I use the index or middle finger. The thumb wheel itself was nice, but I almost never positioned my thumb atop the bulbous scroll "wheel" as SilverStone suggests. Furthermore, the two buttons ahead of this orb are so far out of reach for my thumb, that only awkward index finger movements will reach them. Ultimately these two buttons went to waste, whereas if they had been positioned above the thumb-wheel they would have been more useful. The middle finger was retrained to use the scroll wheel, but under no circumstance did I ever get my finger to curl back towards my palm while keeping the other strait (revered "bird") just to control the directional buttons. Again, a waste of space that could have been better fitted as a tilting middle scroll wheel. My ring finger didn't have any problem learning to press the right-click button, but the two smaller buttons seemed to be placed just a little too far rearward for my hand. Surprisingly, despite the abandonment of a few non-essential buttons, the Raven was very smooth to operate. It felt great, in fact it felt 10x better than the Logitech G7 and G9 in my hand, as it was ergonomic and very slick on the mouse pad. The scroll wheel needs the free-spinning and side-tilt treatment, and the bulbous orb thumb-wheel could have been identical to the center wheel, but I eventually got used to them. The laser sensitivity was phenomenal, and 3200 dpi should be a set-in-stone standard for gaming devices. Please read on to learn of my final thoughts on the Raven gaming mouse and the various ups and downs I experienced. Final Thoughts: RavenSilverStone knows how to build computer cases; I'll give them that. Peripheral devices are a completely different story though. While I absolutely enjoyed the feel and responsiveness of the Raven gaming mouse, the buttons were just way too complicated for an old dog like me. I suspect that manual dexterity doesn't come to people who have abused their hands with martial arts for so many years, but I would like to think that my hands are no different than the average persons. Nevertheless, the Raven is a composition of over-done buttons matched onto a phenomenal performing mouse. SilverStone has given the Raven SST-RVM01B a tremendous amount of functionality, and God speed to the gamer that can learn to use it. While some of the gaming peripherals we feature in our Input Devices section convinces me that people have actually learned to adapt to these custom demands, I can't help but wonder if SilverStone has a "Lite" version of the Raven in the works? For those of us aging gamers, maybe that would be more to our speed. The Raven offers so much, perhaps too much, that I really have high-hopes for a more refined version.
SST-RVM01B ConclusionI like what SilverStone has done with the retail packaging for the Raven. I am already a fan of crows, and ravens are birds of the same family, so it adds a little something for me that there are accents on the package. Additionally, there's plenty of product information covering the box that serves to inform the consumer. Once the Raven is removed from the package, super-sleek looks shine from the combination of carbon-fiber palm finish and unique button placement. The bulb-shaped flip-wheel lights to shine light blue once connected, and a small 128 x 32 pixel OLED screen displays a raven with flapping wings before showing the dpi sensitivity setting. SilverStone has done a very good job of constructing the Raven gaming mouse. The Teflon pads are perfectly positioned along the bottom of the mouse, and there's nothing that feels 'cheap' about the Raven. The Freescale MCU MC68H908JW32 controller and Philips PLN2030 twin-eye laser sensor are two top-tier premium technologies behind the Raven SST-RVM01B. The high-resolution laser and smooth-moving action are great incentives, but the button locations could have been more ergonomic and offer a smoother transition for standard mouse users. At the time of this writing, the SilverStone Raven is available from NewEgg for $79.99. This pricing places the SST-RVM01B near the high-end of corded laser gaming mouse peripherals. The Raven is a brand new item available to retailers, so I suspect the price will eventually settle at a more value-conscious level. In conclusion, I find myself torn between the firm technology found inside the SilverStone Raven and the awkward button combinations for this 3D gaming mouse. The SST-RVM01B feels great in my hand, but my hand just isn't up to the task of relearning a lifetime of button placement habits. If you're a truly hardcore gamer, the Raven isn't going to scare you away. If you mix your environments and utilize a mouse at work that is different than the Raven, then you're going to have a difficult time adapting. I personally enjoyed the custom X and Y sensitivities for correcting the poor habits I've developed in gaming, but many of the controls were just too difficult to utilize. Learning curve and button placement are my only gripes with the Raven, otherwise the SST-RVM01B is a perfect specimen. Pros:
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