LGR - Cooler Master Musketeer 2 VU Meters

Chris Rogers

Sounds like a fun gig. Computer hardware is so boring now.

LGR

I've gotten a dozen emails with that same link, no worries :p

I found a website with the Musketeer III for sale. I'm not sure how Patreon would react to me posting a eCommerce link in the comments so if you'd like the link just PM me. Looks like its about $35 bucks but not sure about shipping costs. Seems to be new old stock.

LGR

Definitely did back then, you can see a number of them at 03:32 in the video!

Uncleawesome

When I saw these many years ago, I thought you had some more advanced versions that could measure temperature, fan speed, cpu voltage and stuff? After a quick google search I found modern versions, but I thought we had that around 2004 also.

I started working at a computer store in 1990, everything you have shown on the channel I personally have held in my hand and/or installed in some way to many customer computers, and my own.

TBthegr81

I also appreciate Midtown Madness 2!

LGR

Heck yeah, things like this would've gone a long way towards making your rig stand out. Cheap and useless, but pleasant. Kinda like Christmas lights, heh.

LGR

Thank you! These things are always a fun little diversion in between larger projects :)

LGR

I wonder why seemingly none of the manufacturers of these things went to the effort of doing so. Can't imagine it would add *that* much towards total cost.

LGR

Indeed! I can't get enough of them, I've already got another half dozen I wanna show at some point, haha

LGR

That would be most disconcerting.

LGR

Glad you enjoy the Blerbs! Not everyone deos. So they'll remain on a separate channel, there's no need to clutter up the main one and I'm doing quite well with the number of videos I upload as-is. There are legit reasons so many YouTubers end up with second channels for low-effort content, especially when it comes to tech stuff :)

LGR

It really is a comforting little thingie. Doesn't do much of anything and it kinda sucks, but dang it, Cooler Master sure tried. Sort of.

LGR

That it is! Nothing more, nothing less, just silly fun :)

LGR

Excellent!

LGR

I do wonder what it would do connected to a modern machine running something like that from SSDs.

LGR

Nah, it's not quite substantial enough of a piece of hardware to make it an Oddware video. It's more just... a weird old case mod, like the Thermaltake CircleFire, which also wasn't released under the Oddware banner. Now, the Musketeer 3 with its vacuum tube amplifier? That would qualify, since it's actually doing something beyond aesthetics :)

TroyTakesPhotos

Does this qualify as “oddware”?

Laurent

"En garde!" I am surprised that the case is not in plastic; it looks not bad at all. They could have a put a clock or thermometer in the middle. The harddisk will probably hypnotize you when you run defrag, and the Flight Sim2020 would kill it ;-)

Dan Fiscus

I enjoy unusual 5.25" bay items, and I love VU meters, so this video was right up my alley :-)

Peter Metzger

2.5 minutes in: okay welp yeah you covered everything hahaha

Peter Metzger

I'm about to watch so maybe you mentioned this, but I remembered the Musketeer being blue on the front and did some research - apparently I was thinking of the fan controller model. ANYWAY it turns out there was a Musketeer 3 as well, which for some reason had a vacuum tube displayed in the front. I mean, sure, I get how tubes affect sound, but I don't think anything jammed into a $50 drive bay accessory is going to actually IMPROVE it 😂

Richard Kearney

What a fun little thing!

avfusion

Looking at the internal workings of that drive, I don't see enough discrete components to properly do fast switching for those VU meters, which probably lends to them being pretty sloppy and out of sync. There are single-component solutions for it but nothing in there looked like that either. In any case, I love these kitschy little doodads from the early 2000's. I love how nobody knew what to do with personalization and it bled over into all these awfully gimmicky things. Warms my heart.

Joon Choi

By the way Clint just saw your Wasteland 3 CE Blerb - - for what it’s worth, I think you should integrate the Blerbs into the main channel. The content is compelling if casual and I bet you’d get more views. Also increases the frequency of updates for the main channel, which I think the YouTube recommendation algorithm cares about. Your off the cuff stuff is better than most channels’ prepared episodes. Just my two highly uninformed cents.

Joon Choi

After watching all of Techmoan’s videos about VU meters on his old HIFI components, I can’t help but look askance at “VU meters” like this that are entirely aesthetic. 😂 Tell me something useful Cooler Master!!

Annabella Williams

Great video, wonder if a compactor on the HD header would make the dial smoother moving.

Nice!! It's always fun to look back at the crazy add-ons that were available. Anything to make your PC stand out from the crowd. Love it!

Jim Solblad

YEEEAAAAAYY! another plasticy-finkiky-absurd-weird thing to enhance your desktop computing experience! Love it dude! Keep it up!!

Kilrah

The VU meter for HD activity is a cool idea, it would just need some filtering to average the flashing over a short period and it would look great and actually give a decent percentage - the same is needed for the audio VU meters, like real ones...

Hernando Heilbron

I've also heard of certain aircraft models where the fuel pressure gauge dances like the HD meter here, people pretty much fly like 👀

Frederic St-Georges

I just love your overwhelming enthusiasm over that new Star Wars Sims 4 stuff! You're not the only one who loves those 5.25" light shows... things... They do look neat even if they're pure crap...

Hernando Heilbron

This unit is cool and all, but can it take you to flavor town?