Four Keyboards And Four Mice For LAN Party Gamers, Rounded-Up

[nilfisktun]

Get the Logitech G400 instead, much better and supreme value for your money.

The G500 is a laser mouse, and i prefer optic as it gives a more true movement tracking.

The surface of the G400 is to slippery for my taste so i took som rough sand paper to it, and scrathced the sucker everywhere.. Now its the best mouse i ever had

 

[Guest]

Hm, so it's ok now to take some of the specs fed to you by the manufacturer and say "Well, they're over the top, so there's no point in ever testing them." , while not mentioning anything on prediction and accelleration (not the one measured in g forces ), 2 measurable factors which influence the precision of a mouse greatly? I understand this review is more about personal preference than measurable differences anyway, but dont make up silly excuses for not doing so.

 

[Guest]

One of the often overlooked issues is laser placement. I'm surprised this isn't even mentioned here. Some mice have the sensor too far back or off-center or both. This makes all the difference in terms of wrist yaw movements. A sensor at the butt of the mouse will not move as far as a sensor at the top of a mouse. This placement will make fine movements feel and react as different as their placements.
Logitech sometimes moves the laser to the left (thumb/index) position which makes a completely different feel than one in dead center or high center.
My reference would be to keep the laser near top-center or possibly correlated with the axis between the thumb and pinky. - or better yet, at that intersection (right behind the wheel).
My 2cents.

 

[animeman59]

Instead of the Razer Black Widow Tournament Edition (of which, there has been build quality concerns), why not go with Cooler Master's CM Quickfire TK or Rapids? Much better build quality, and has a much better feature set than Razer's offering. And they're priced the same, as well.

 

[tstng]

On my Sidewinder X4 I can press any 10 buttons simultaneously (i wanted to try more but ran outta fingers; did not employ toes though). True Anti-Ghosting keyboard, nicely illuminated, not too noisy, macro buttons, and at 60$ its a steal. Although it's size would exclude it from this line up, I recommend it.

 

[daniel starkey]

I'd like to eventually see a comparison of mechanical keyboards from DAS keyboard and Cherry, as well as the all too common black widow. We're always hearing about the Razer keboard but the other two common options are nowhere to be found.

Great idea, I'll definitely try to take that into consideration when planning future content.

 

[atavax]

[citation][nom]nilfisktun[/nom]Get the Logitech G400 instead, much better and supreme value for your money.The G500 is a laser mouse, and i prefer optic as it gives a more true movement tracking.The surface of the G400 is to slippery for my taste so i took som rough sand paper to it, and scrathced the sucker everywhere.. Now its the best mouse i ever had[/citation]

my problem with the g400 is the cable is a cheap PoS. i would have issues with it stop working all together in the middle of games. Never had a problem with any other mice and i had a friend test the mouse with his computer and he had the same issues, so definitely the mouse. Looking on logitech forums, it isn't an uncommon issue with the g400. Its really a shame because the sensor is great and the ergonomics are great on the mouse, and it would be an unbeatable deal if the cord wasn't a PoS.

 

[slicedtoad]

a note about the orochi, the wireless is USELESS. It has some sort of sleep function that makes your mouse freeze for half a second after coming out of about 5 seconds of inactivity. It's infuriating. And the cord is too short for many setups.

 

[youssef 2010]

I have both the G9x and the Roccat Kone[+]. IMHO, the Kone[+] is the best mouse I've ever owned despite the problems I've had with it. There were two problems, a weird jitter whenever I tried to use the scroll wheel and, much later, a double click issue. Both were solvable with a few drops of WD-40, a little amount of patience and some dexterity.

 

[boldintrepid]

I like the mechanicals... Didn't see any of those in this review though

 

[icypyro]

Surprised that they vouched for Razer's more expensive option of the Blackwidow Tournament Edition, rather than Cooler Master's Storm Quickfire Rapid series, which happen to go on sale quite a bit on Newegg for around 65$.

 

[nssv]

Love the G9x!

 

[nssv]

The K800 is also an excellent keyboard.

 

[L1Cupid]

My Desktop Peripheral Rig

Mouse : Roccat Kone (original)
Keyboard : Logitech G15 (V1 - no longer available and I dont rate its replacement, best near match is G510)
Headset : Roccat Kave (original)
Fragpad : Razer Nostromo (I own 2 of these a V1 and a V2 - the V1 being Belkin N52TE before Razer nicked it)

I'm an I.T. Technician, woking in the commercial and industrial sectors for 18 years. Ive been through many many many mice, and keyboards, headsets etc etc etc. I have even bought more AFTER the above setup, but always ended up back with the fab 4.

Do these highly expensive thingies make me a L33T gamer. Nope I dont think anything could ever do that, but they do improve my game somewhat. More to the point, is that they improve my gaming experience in so much volume that they more than warrant the expense.

Roccat Kone (Original) :
Does my mouse make my hand autonomously spin to the right direction and fire the perfect shot, NOPE, but its comfortable, plenty of fucntionality, macro enabled and I've never even had a hint of RSI (Repetetive Strain Injury) even after 12 - 16 hour sessions.

Logitech G15 (No Longer Available - suggest G510 as an alternative) :
Keyboards for me are a major bugbear, I touchtype at 130+ words per minute with the right keyboard. not only is this a fantastic keyboard to type on, the extensive amount of macro keys on the left side is a massive gaming plus. In combination with a fragpad (gaming keyboard) it provides ultimate skill access for all genres of games. weather used for macro's or single key replacement. The LCD display is a well used added boon and can be set up for various gaming features or just system monitoring, and even plugs into Ventrillo so I can see who's talking without the need to clutter my screen with an overlay. Never have I had even a hint of RSI using this keyboard (and this I have to say is a rarity when it comes to keyboards).

Roccat Kave (Gaming Headset) :
The jewel in the crown. Another gizmo that I take everywhere with me. It doesnt matter whether you are watching movies, listening to music, playing games, Voice over ip ontop of games, it handles it all, sound is crystal clear, 3 speakers in each headphone, true surround sound. If im being ultra critical, it could be a little more bass'y, but ill take that hit give its crystal clear clarity, comfortable fit, adjustability, features, and I've never had to take it off due to long term pressure, again, this was a first for me with headsets. (I will add at this point that I use this headset in conjuction with the external USB soundcard X-Fi GO. Purely because it eliminates annoying interferance / hiss, from on-board or cheap sound cards)

Razer Nostromo / Belkin N52TE (fragpad / gaming keyboard)
OK I lied, the other 3 are nice, and make things great for extended sessions gaming / movie watching. The fragpad is what makes me a L33T gamer p. Seriously maybe not this model (its right for me, may not be to your hand / fit.) but if you enjoy playing games and play for long periods, GET A FRAGPAD, learn to use itand you will never look back and wonder how you ever loved gaming without it. Its portable, has onboard memory to retain settings / macro's no matter what you plug into (not sure if the nostromo does this but the V1 N52TE does). 15 buttons, a quick shift profile thumb key giving easy access to profile switching on teh fly, 8 way D-pad, jump button. And to confirm the comment from earlier, it fits in perfectly for MMO gamers and FPS alike. Ive also tried the Logitech G11, the G11 has its bonus's but ultimately its too wide and even though I have long fingers, gives me RSI after a couple of hours use. The Nostromo IMHO is the best of the bunch, the new Razer fragpad looks really nice, but without that all important scroll wheel its a deal-breaker for me (I use it for target switching).

In summary. Ive tried a lot of gizmo's, spent a lot of money but ended up with all of the above. There are mice with more buttons, but give me RSI, there are bigger better headsets, but they are not true surround with ultimate comfort, there are snazzier keyboards, but that bank of 18 customizable keys sitting right next to my fragpad suits me. There are other fragpads, that are nice but just dont combine all that lovely Nostromo functionality and comfort. Of it all theres only one thing I cant Game without, the fragpad, the rest is down to personal preference and comfort.

I can certainly vouch for the mouse, fragpad and headset for build quality, mine get carted around with me whilst im on the road for use with my laptop. they have all been dropped, bashed, yanked out of the socket, etc etc etc, I have never had to replace any of them. Ive broken other mice because i squeeze to hard when I fall off a cliff, Ive broken other fragpads hitting the keys to hard, and Ive gone through countless headsets (some of which have been a lot more costly than the Kave headset). If you want quality, well built produce, thats comfortable to use, full of features and robust, I can highly recommend Roccat for Keyboards, Mice and Headsets, I will also recommend Logitech G15 and G510 keyboards for static, solid keyboards for your desktop. For fragpads, I only recommend one, the Razer Nostromo (or Belkin N52TE if you can get one).

 

[Aleppi]

I love my razer mamba cuz of the wireless freedom but i also have the razer deathstalker (not ultimate) it is okay, i just got before i knew the advantage of mech keyboards