So when it comes to peripherals most people think of their keyboard and mouse, maybe their headset. But with some things, especially your mouse, you need other hardware to get the best possible performance. Wrist Rests for keyboards add to comfort and can help prevent long-term issues and well mouse pads are needed most of the time for your mouse to work or at least work well. So it's no surprise that keyboard and mouse manufacturers would get into the market. Cooler Master has sold wrist rests with some of their keyboards and they have had a few different mouse pads. Well, today they are introducing new lineups of both and I’m going to take a quick look at them.

Product Name: Cooler Master WR530 Wrist Rest and MP510 Mouse Pad

Review Sample Provided by: Cooler Master

Written by: Wes Compton

Pictures by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate link: Cooler Master WR530 Wrist Rest and MP510 Mouse Pad

So while we just got the two models in, there are a few different sizes available so let's look at the breakdown. Keep in mind that while both of these are being introduced today the MP510 mouse pads won’t be available until June 10th.

specs

Packaging

So the WR530 and MP510 are two different products but they both fall into the same “masteraccessories” product lineup. With that, they also look a lot for packaging. They both have the normal Cooler Master purple along the bottom edge. The CM logo is in the top left corner with the Make It Yours tagline. Then under that is the branding. Then, of course, there is a picture of each of the products. With each having different sizes available I was happy to see that the pictures show the actual version in the box, not just a one size fits all for the photos. The rest of the packaging was mostly boring but I did like that for the mouse pads they did include a picture that shows a size comparison of all of the pads over each other. They also glued on a sample of the surface as well. Nothing like getting home from the store to find out what you bought isn’t what you expected.

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Photos, Features, and Performance

While I’ve only had a few wrists rests come through the office like our coverage of the Noko Leatherworks Wrist Rest, and the Grifiti Fat Wrist Rests. But even so, the WR530 looks really familiar. That is because it matches the design of the Grifiti pads almost perfectly. That isn’t a bad thing though, I’ve been using those almost exclusively for years now. Basically, this design is a really thick mouse pad. You have the Jersey Cloth top layer like an old mouse pad and then the rest is made out of Styrene-butadiene Rubber. On a mousepad it was thin, giving just a little padding and helping it grip to the table. Here though, going this thick, you get a LOT of padding. This same design goes all the way back to the original mechanical keyboards, so it's not Grifiti exclusive, companies used to give them out with their old PCs when I was young. So why would this design stick around and now come back? It’s because this design is cheap and easy to make and it is really comfortable.

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The WR530 is 18mm thick and because of the design, the edges do sometimes get this mushroomed shape. It happens a lot when they were packed tightly or after some use.

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I’m really digging what Cooler Master did for branding. They did include a logo, but rather than something in your face they went with a simple purple outline of their logo. You know what it is, but it's not bright white or too large.

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The thick rubber is finished on the bottom with a textured shape to help it get traction on your desk. You can see just how much dust ours picked up just putting it on our photo table. This is the same shape that some soft mouse pads have so no big surprise here.

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Now the MP510 mouse pads are obviously not as thick as the wrist rests but they are built well. Cooler Master went with a Cordura Fabric for the top layer on these pads. It has more texture than the microfiber like the finish on a lot of mouse pads. They then have the rubber bottom for grip and a thick stitching all the way around the outside edge to prevent any fraying or pealing. The MP510 is available in four sizes but only three of them are available in the US. The Medium is a normal pad size, the large is going to take up a lot of your desk on the right of your keyboard. But then the extra large model that I have is a full desk pad. This goes up under your keyboard, your wrists, and of course gives a ton of space for the mouse as well.

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The stitching might seem like a small thing, but in addition to how much effort it takes, it really adds to the durability of the MP510. It also adds to the thickness, so keep in mind around the whole edge you will have a bump. The rubber finish on the bottom of the Mp510 has a similar bumpy design to the WR530 only smaller. It is grippy to the touch and given the size of our XL model I really doubt it is going to move around much.

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Without anything on the desk for scale, the XL doesn’t look that large but I assure you it is. In fact, when zoomed out looking at the whole pad the top fabric looks like the silky smooth microfiber but as you can see in the third zoomed in picture there is a textured finish. This has the same simple Cooler Master logo as the Wrist Rest had, it is just a purple ring in the shape of their logo without any words. Basically, you can see who it was made by but aren’t reminded over and over with a billboard for a logo across the entire pad. Given that is over on the bottom left cover its also away from your mouse so it shouldn’t see much wear as well.

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For my testing, I actually couldn’t fit the MP510 on my personal desk so I had to use it down in my workshop in the basement. A wide mousepad would normally work for my desk but this one was a little too tall, I hope that Cooler Master might offer a wide but less tall version in the future. Noone wants to see the mess that is my workshop right now, so I took photos of the wrist rest and mouse pad in out photo area first then moved it down there. So please excuse the unhooked up keyboard, the mouse was wireless though. You can see already that the WR530, even before getting into my workshop was collecting any amount of dust and hair it could pick up. The soft finish is great to the touch, but it is hard to keep clean and trust me it is going to get dirty. My experience with similar pads is that they will need to be replaced from time to time, both because the fabric top will eventually start to come up and also because of the funk and dirt that they will collect.  That’s okay though, though as Cooler master has priced these well. The small is $6.99, the large that I’m testing is just $9.99, and the extra large model is $14.99. For comparison, the competition charges about $15 for one similar in size to the large.

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When you step back and check it all out you can see just how large the extra large mouse pad is. Even with the wrist rest and a full-size keyboard you have more than enough mouse space. You could honestly fit a second keyboard just above the first one with all of the extra space there as well. Or you have room to sit the keyboard at an angle if you game like that. I should also point out just how perfectly the wrist rest fits the Masterkeys Pro L, of course though as that is a Cooler Master board lol.

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So how did they perform? Well, it’s a wrist rest and a mouse pad so there isn’t too much to be said that hasn’t already been said. The MP510 did a great job of tracking and while it has a little more texture than some pads it still felt smooth. This is closer to the hard mouse pad that I prefer so that is good, but I think anyone who likes a soft pad is still going to be happy. The MP510 is very similar to the Razer Goliathus, both in the size available and with the top finish and stitching around the outside edge. The WR530 wrist rest performed well also. That’s about what I expected though as it is exactly the same as the Grifiti pad that I’ve been using around the office. It is soft to the touch, much softer than any built-in pad or leather or wood wrist rest. But it still gives you support. The main downside is going to be how quickly it gets and stays dirty. You can clean it with a damp cloth but they are only going to handle that so many times before the top layer starts to come apart. That’s where Cooler Masters pricing comes in to play.

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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