Do you enjoy customizing your mouse? To have several commands literaly at hand, at your fingertips? Do you consider having seven or eight reprogrammable buttons to little? Then the CM Storm's Inferno gaming-grade mouse is for you. The company released a eleven-button (nine of them reprogrammable) model with a huge scroll wheel and a comprehensive software that is capable of everything but making coffee. We were impressed with the choices the Inferno had to offer, pardon the hellish pun. As usual, we'll begin exploring the physical aspects of the mouse than its configuration options and, finally, we'll go to the best part: how it fared while gaming. To the test, then.

The first impression is amazing since the Inferno mouse features several buttons more than the usual gaming-grade models we're all used to. Apart from the traditional side buttons (usually assigned to web browsing), there's a special one near the thumb for the so-called Storm Tactics (more on that later). Above and to each side of the clicking buttons, there are two more options: a Rapid Fire button and a macro button. Below the scroll wheel you can find the two resolution buttons (up and down) and the one that changes the current user profile stored in the 128 KB internal memory. The final tally is eleven buttons at your fingertips. The speed of the double-sided scroll wheel can be reprogrammed (and also its function, naturally), but it doesn't do sidescrolling.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: The Inferno from above

The mouse has an ambidextrous ergonomic design but since it features three thumb buttons usage is geared towards right-handed users. The sides are covered in rubber and the plastic body alternates shiny areas and dull coverings. There are five LEDs to indicate the five resolution levels. The scroll wheel is also rubberized and covered with niches to provide a better grip. The palm rest features the  Inferno logo, a stylized hellish flame.

click to enlarge
Figure 2: Front detail

There is no weighting system on the underside of the peripheral, just the 4.000 dpi twin sensor and three Teflon feet. The mouse also features the now standard cloth-wrapped cable and gold-coated USB plug.

click to enlarge
Figure 3: The underside