Octopus Overlords

Thanks for the link to the colour profiles. I had no idea what I was going to do with the lighting components, I only knew that I wanted them. Because my mouse has green highlighting and it looks awesome, I guess.

GreenGoo wrote:Thanks for the link to the colour profiles. I had no idea what I was going to do with the lighting components, I only knew that I wanted them. Because my mouse has green highlighting and it looks awesome, I guess.

Just be warned that, other than basic color profiles (IE - an all red or all blue profile, or maybe the letters one color and the rest another), the editor has a fair learning curve.

I just got the Corsair Strafe Cherry MX Silent a couple weeks ago and love it so far. The Cherry MX Silent switches feel great and really don't make any more noise than the Logitech membrane keyboard that I replaced. This is my first mechanical keyboard and I'm very happy with it so far.

As for the lighting and key programmability, I really haven't made use of either yet, but the software seems very detailed, flexible, and easy to use. The animated lighting schemes that come with the keyboard are pretty crazy, and you can download more user-created profiles from Corsair's website. It's something neat to play with, but I don't know that I personally have much use for that capability. It is pretty cool though.

I have zero use for the lighting, except to look cool sitting on my desk.

I'm basically burning money.

Too much oomph on the lighting is a big negative for me, too. I have just a few profiles - one that makes my desk look fancy, one for regular typing (all keys bright), one for gaming (alphanumeric keys bright, others dim), and one for gaming in the dark (all red.)

The other thing about the software, though, is the ability to rebind keys right in it. I have caps lock set up as Shift-CTRL-Numpad period, which is what I bind things like TeamSpeak and such to, making Caps Lock useful. The application key (have I ever intentionally pressed that?) is set to switch profiles.

You can also set up a per-game profile, then have it switch to that profile automatically. Combine that with the ability to remap keys per-profile and no game will ever have un-rebindable keys again. It is sort of a built-in AutoHotKey.

Did Corsair ever fix their repeating key problem?

I've got a first generation K90, and back when they came out (and for quite a while afterward), a lot of folks (myself included) were noticing that we'd once in a while hit a key once anddddddddddd that would happen (totally random keys would do this), and it wouldn't stop until you hit another key. At that time, Corsair was working on a firmware fix, but it never materialized. But I haven't checked lately either, so it's possible that they've resolved it. It was very infrequent, but I mention it in case it's still a problem.

In any case, mine is still doing it. It's always been rare, maybe once or twice a month, but it's random, and annoying when it happens.

Other than that though, I've been exceedingly happy with my K90. It's been perfect in all other ways. It still looks and feels as it did when it was new. It's a great-looking board. Mine just has the blue backlighting with three brightness settings, but that's all I need. I've had it just over four years now, and none of the backlighting has ever failed. I also bought the Corsair M60 mouse at the same time, and it is still functioning perfectly and still looks and feels great after all this time. I even bought a spare because truly great mice are hard to find. Overall, this is the best mouse and keyboard set I've ever owned.

Oh, one more thing. Keep all liquids away from it! I twice spilled a tiny amount of water (maybe an ounce the first time, and half a teaspoon the second time about year later) into it, which rendered the entire keyboard absolutely useless (it typed random gibberish) until it completely dried out the following day. Once it dried out however, it's been totally fine since. I've done this twice, both times thankfully with just a small amount of water, but it recovered fine both times. It just took a long time to dry it out. Maybe the newer models have improved that too, I have no idea.

I've had my K70 for the better part of a year now, and I've never had that issue, nor have I heard of it. I notice that while you can still find the K90 on the Corsair site by searching, it is no longer listed with their regular products.

I also have a Corsair mouse (M95 RGB), and love it. FWIW, pretty much my entire hobby budget last year went to the keyboard and mouse. I don't really spend money on any other leisure activities, so I don't feel too badly about it, but in retrospect it was a great investment.

There's a thread about it here on the Corsair forums. It's not a mechanical (key-related) issue, but rather some glitch in the firmware.

Those guys were saying it happened to them much more frequently than it does to me, however. My instances are very rare. So rare that I never considered returning it.

In any case, I'm glad that Corsair has at least apparently fixed it with their newer models. If this board ever wears out, I'm fairly certain my next one will also be a Corsair. But after 4 years, mine is still going strong, still functioning as if it were brand new.

That's good to hear (low wear and tear), thanks for writing about it.

Man, letting go of the money has been harder than I thought.

I don't need the extra 18 macro keys and it just seems like more could go wrong with the K95.

Interestingly, from the time I loaded the NCIX website and clicked on the K95 link, it went off sale. Talk about "great" timing.

In any case, does anyone want to tell me what the difference is between the K70 and the K95? I like the idea of an aluminum keyboard.

GreenGoo wrote: In any case, does anyone want to tell me what the difference is between the K70 and the K95? I like the idea of an aluminum keyboard.

Macro keys. That's about it.

Here.

Thanks. I realize I was being lazy but I've spent a ton of time this week doing work related research and I'm plum tuckered out (I believe that's the expression).

edit: K70 is back ordered but currently on sale for 30 bucks off. I don't have my phone (forgot it. Grr) with me so I can't pull the trigger right now. Will do when I get home. Should ship next week.

To add to your buying options, I picked a Rosewill mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches for $79 last week. It's a no frills keyboard, but it is fantastic so far. There's no macro buttons, no lights, or anything else like that. But, it's very solid and has an incredible feel. It's also very affordable. All in all, it my favorite keyboard that I've ever purchased.

Nice. I have 2 computers and likely will have more in the future so I'll keep that board in mind.

May as well throw in my keyboard buying guide I wrote for Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... opping_ie/

Kasey Chang wrote:May as well throw in my keyboard buying guide I wrote for Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... opping_ie/

Hey, that's the guide I used when trying to decide what to buy! Had no idea you wrote it. Nice job.

Finally pulled the trigger and ordered the K70 Lux RGB.

Now we play the waiting game.

Theres now keyboards that are a combination of mechanical and membrane. I get emails or see it somewhere...dont recall the make or anything though.

EDIT: maybe it was Razer...
http://www.windowscentral.com/razers-la ... nical-tech

Razer's behind the times. Coolermaster had "Mem-chanical" for over a year already.

http://www.coolermaster.com/peripheral/ ... stator-ii/

So I want to track the status of my order but it looks like I just get sent to the NCIX US site, and my account that I used to order the board is not valid with the US site. Do I really need to make another account just to see where my order is?

Was it just data lag, and will my account with NCIX.ca eventually migration to the IS site?

edit: Interestingly, an email arrived while I typed the above. It was a pretty slick order status update. Hasn't shipped yet, but they took my money.

Delivered.

Will report back after I get home and set it up.

Just downloading the software now. The keyboard is actually a bit narrower (left to right) than I expected or am used to. In particular the letter key area is shorter left to right. My hands feel a bit like they are crowding each other. Not a real problem, just my first impression.

My computer had to be on and running before I plugged it in. Plugging it in prior to powering up meant it wasn't recognized, not even with the legacy "bios" setting. I just switched out of the bios setting and the keyboard stopped working. Guess I need that software installed. Once my system booted and I plugged the keyboard in, it worked (at least I could type stuff).

The keyboard has some psychedelic patterns when I first plugged it in.

It's pretty. It looks slick. They keys feel great, although I'm a heavy typer when I get going and it feels like I'm pounding the keys more than I'd like. Just new toy jitters I'm sure. Nice brightness button, rotates through 3 brightness settings + lights off, so 4 settings I guess.

Going to take some time to get used to the right side of the keyboard. I'm left handed and I use the numpad and all the keys around it for my first person shooter needs. So there will be some muscle memory rewiring required. That's never fun, but obviously that's not the keyboard's fault.

Installing software now.

So far, not impressed with the software. Full of ads for other products, social media buttons, not particularly intuitive. When it said "no device detected" I turned the keyboard from bios mode to 1ms scan time and the software appears to have crashed.

I love my razer taipan mouse, but I freakin' hate the software that comes with it. Since it's a software suite, it's the same software for all of their products, which means every time it gets an update for any product, it gets pushed out to all users. That means my mouse gets an update at least once a day, and sometimes twice. I only let the update run maybe once a week but it annoys me.

Now Corsair seems to be doing the same thing, but even worse due to the marketing attached. Annoying. Since both software suites are for keyboards and mice, I'm just hoping they don't conflict with each other. That would be too annoying for words.

Let's see if I can get this software to run successfully...

edit: Ta da. Started the software while the keyboard was NOT in bios mode and it detected it right away. Now to see what's what.

Ok, new firmware for the keyboard is installed. Set the colours to cycle slowly through whatever palette is there by default. So the entire keyboard is all the same colour at any one time. I played with the installed patterns and they were fun but not really practical. Not if you have epilepsy anyway (I don't, but man...).

I set the lock colours. It defaulted to pale green when locked and red when unlocked, which I thought was weird. I reversed them.

So the keyboard is plugged in, software installed, basic lighting pattern running and that's it.

Good enough.

Despite some wonky aspects (not recognized when plugged in before startup (to be fair, the manual tells you to plug it in after startup), software lockup) impressions are positive. I still feel like my hands are too close together though. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. And next week.

There is a bit of a learning curve on the software. One of the biggest things people seem to get wrong is plugging them in wrong. Many Corsair keyboards require certain types of USB ports. Some have multiple plugs as well. For the K70 RGB, there are two. If you have USB 3.0 ports, you just use the connector with the keyboard icon. If you only have USB 2.0 ports, you use both, but have to plug the one with the arrows in first, the keyboard one second (I think this has to do with the amount of power USB 2.0 ports can deliver.)

There is also a learning curve on mechanical keyboards, as you will likely keep resting your fingers in the wrong place and holding down a keyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy until you get used to how much less pressure they require.

The demos for their other stuff in the software (which I am guessing is the marketing you referred to) are new, as they've just redesigned the software. I believe they mainly put them in there as placeholders for those types of devices if you buy one (IE - if you just have a Corsair mouse, the keyboard slot is still there, but would be to demo one of their keyboards.) If the alternative was just a static 'mouse' image, I don't mind the demos too much. The space would have an image there regardless. I've never seen anything else that would qualify as advertising for their stuff.

As far as the updates go, I have both the keyboard and one of their mice. I get maybe one update every month or two.

I think I use the same color pattern on my Razer KB. It is all one color then it slowly cycles to another and another and so on. I dont even notice it.

Thinking of switching to a storm pattern one. Its a color like blue or red that is Matrix like and suddenly...or when you type a key.....it flashes white from that area.

Daehawk wrote:I think I use the same color pattern on my Razer KB. It is all one color then it slowly cycles to another and another and so on. I dont even notice it.

Thinking of switching to a storm pattern one. Its a color like blue or red that is Matrix like and suddenly...or when you type a key.....it flashes white from that area.

Yeah, that's the one, but it was too boring considering the keyboard is brand new, so I switched to another, slightly flashier, but not seizure inducing pattern. Slow wave of colour changes, moving left to right, so the keyboard is always rainbow coloured, but the colours appear to be moving. The colours are in vertical bands.

After a night of use, the space bar is a little smaller than I'd like, but I can adjust. It's also feels less robust. I tend to hammer the space bar with my thumb and it feels like I'm going to break it. There's only a single switch under it, so there is a lot of "overhang" on the left and right of the switch which is probably contributing to the flimsy feeling.

It has awesome feet which keep it from sliding around, unfortunately I'm in the habit of moving the keyboard forward and back depending on my sitting posture, so it doesn't move easily like I'm used to. Again, not the keyboard's fault, just an observation based on my habits.

Oh, and it's the sailboat logo if anyone cares.

GreenGoo wrote:Oh, and it's the sailboat logo if anyone cares.

Yes, but is it the classic sailboat logo with rounded sails, or the new sailboat logo with pointed sails?

I'm kidding. I never got why people were so upset over the logo change. I don't even notice the logo unless I go looking for it.

i just ordered this one because of $8 off coupon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EAFSTCQ/

for $27.99, i'll see how i like it.

EDIT : got it today. for that price, it's an enjoyable keyboard and should be reasonably portable. i feel the letters are going to wear off in a few months (paint feels kinda cheap), but i don't care toooo much about that - build quality seems decent otherwise. typing on it is quite nice.

I'm finding the keyboard a little...not sure what I'd call it. Flimsy? The board itself is awesome, and the keys are very cool, but I think I'm just too rough a typer. I'll be very curious to see how long it takes before I knock a cap off, or break a switch.

That's part of the learning curve for mechanical keyboards. It isn't that they're flimsy so much as they require a lot less pressure than membrane boards, so they feel weak compared to the thick chunk of rubber we're used to typing through. You don't have to hit the keys nearly as hard.

After a couple of weeks limited to the mechanical, plug your old membrane keyboard back in. I did for kicks and it surprised me how awful it felt.

i feel the letters are going to wear off in a few months

Theres tons of 3rd party keys for all mechanical keyboards. Ive seen some that are made of metal even.

never occurred for me to check out mechanical keyboards for sale on craigslist. found a few interesting deals already (e.g. like-new Ducky Shine 3 for a reasonable price). not in the market anymore, as i'm doing ok right now with my cheapy board.

Son spilled soft drink into numpad and the keyboard went nuts. Rebooting the machine brought me straight to the bios, which means the motherboard thinks the keyboard is broken and can't be used to enter the bios using the normal keys.

I rinsed out the keyboard repeatedly using 99% isopropyl alcohol and let it dry over night.

All is well.

Some of the numpad keys are still a bit sticky but they seem to be loosening up with use. All keys appear to work and the keyboard is behaving itself.

Got lucky. Phew.

edit: Damn it, spoke too soon. Keyboard has a volume mute button and an +/- volume control. The mute button is randomly turning on and off every few seconds. So close. I never use this keyboard mute so if I can turn it off with software config, I will. I will probably re-rinse the keyboard again, paying special attention to the volume control area.

Sigh.

edit2: Forced a reflashing of the firmware, then messed around until it suddenly started working. I don't think it was anything that I did specifically, I think it just cleared up on its own. Still not sure what was causing it, but it's working now.

Second phew.

For best results, I recommend following the advice in the Reddit Mechanical Keyboard Spill Guide. There are many nifty tricks listed there that can work wonders.

Neat. I basically did the IPA one.

Had to go out and buy a new keyboard today after spilling nearly a full cup of hot liquid onto it last night. I saw the Corsair K70 Lux in red with Cherry Red switches, and I almost went for that, but in the end I went with the Razer Blackwidow 2016. I had the 2014 version which had a slightly more solid feel to the keys. Maybe my next one will be a Corsair.

I have that Corsair and it is amazing. The key feel is the best I ever tried. I also love that volume wheel.

Yeah, I might yet go back and get that Corsair. The BlackWidow 2016 has an issue I can see will become annoying quickly. The lighting pulses from bright to dim as its default configuration, and I can't figure out how to turn that off. And I'm not installing the software if that's the only way.