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100 comments

  • Don't buy shitty gaming keyboards with shitty software and shitty styling from shitty gaming companies.

    Buy a decent mechanical keyboard from a reputable keyboard producer. Make sure it has VIA/QMK support and you will not need shitty software. Many also come with RGB, if that's what you want.

    If you can avoid falling into the trap that is "the mechanical keyboard hobby", you will be set for at least a decade.

  • After just 2 weeks with an Aerox 5 wireless, I refuse to buy anything Steelseries again myself.

    Bought it on their website, they refused my in-warranty 30-day refund until I talked with support. After dealing with their troll support for over a week, I then resubmitted for a refund and was initially denied because it was past the 30 days. I then had to argue I wanted the refund weeks prior.

    Steelseries are just shit products now with a shit support.

    Ended up buying one of the last Microsoft Mice only because it has reliable kailh button switches.

    • Not to mention their Engine garbage crashes constantly and has barely any real illumination support. The shit about booting with certain applications works like 25% of the time. No idea why I trusted people and bought this crap. Only thing I like about it is the volume scroll wheel and the media button. Outside of that, meh. Actually the wrist rest is good but not exactly unique to them.

  • Steelseries is absolute dog water with keyboards, same with Razer. If you want a good mech for cheap, get an Epomaker, or build your own. I personally got a barebones for like $10 from a thrift store, put $35 of Gateron Milky Yellow switches in, then got some nice keycaps for $15. Sounds/feels nicer than anything you can buy off a shelf, and it doesn't come packaged with shitty software for basic functionality.

    • Once upon the SteelSeries keyboards were pretty good, I had a split one that I swore I'd use forever. One day a windows update flagged the driver as suspicious, and I was left with a keyboard that clicked and clicked but did nothing. MS support said it was up to SteelSeries to update their drivers, and SteelSeries basically told me to get fucked.

      I don't want pretty lights on my keyboard. I want all the keys in the wrong spots so people who don't touch type have an aneurysm when they use my computer.

  • I've been a gamer and intensive pc user most of my 45 years of my life, and my experience in the last years regarding input devices:

    • razer sucked 20 years ago and sucks still
    • never buy no-name input devices for more than minimal investment, even if the featureset sounds nice
    • logitech (my brand of choice for a long time) is only held afloat by their brand name, not by their hardware quality anymore (the last good mouse i had was the mx-5, the last keyboard the G11)
    • but there are exceptions: my roccat keyboard works like a charm, and my current roccat mouse is robust and comfortable (but no RGB compatibility with anything else -.-)

    • Logitech mice can still be decent if you're comfortable with opening it up and replacing or doing maintenance on the button switches. Had to do my G900 after owning it for about 4 years (though that was with several months of noticing the left button was going before doing something about it). It was a similar story with my G7 20 years ago.

      Though using better switches in the first place would have only added dollars to the cost. It's ridiculous that a 3 figure mouse doesn't come with high quality switches.

      Razor hardware can be ok (I really like my wireless headphones from them), but their software sucks. And I once bought a razor mouse when my old one died and that same day decided to buy another new mouse and keep the razor one as a backup. The scroll wheel was both loud and would skip some turns.

      Their software is even worse. It had an auto update and for some reason always had an update any time I restarted, but would still frequently just "lose" the devices it was supposed to control. The devices would still be working fine, you just can't go into the software to adjust any of the settings for them, which meant all it was going was showing ads (because of course it had ads; business majors just can't stand something having attention without trying to use it to sell more shit or something).

      Read customer reviews for pretty much any device from a known brand or not. Focus on the distribution of ratings and what the 2-4 star ratings say to reduce the number of fake reviews. There are unknown gems out there (I mean, a mouse or keyboard isn't a very complicated piece of technology and can be done well for cheap), and we're also deep in the age of enshitification and planned obsolescence.

  • i don't care how good a keyboard is, if the only option is RGB lights i'm not buying it

  • SteelSeries always seemed like the new-age version of Corsair. I used to have Corsair everything and got disillusioned with the build quality and software functionality loss over the years, and when SteelSeries came into play I watched some of my friends do the exact same dive. It seemed like they were a decently priced, decent quality peripherals brand when they started, but now it seems like they shared the same fate. I'm definitely done with brand loyalty, and I trust what I build more than anything I buy.

  • My main use for a keyboard's RGB is syncing it to rhythm games, really puts me in the mood seeing it flashing to the rhythm in my peripheral vision.

  • I'll get the Ducky one 3 when it's half off. There is no reason for it to cost £120

100 comments