Best Peripherals for Gaming?

Corsair make great peripherals. Expensive though.
Roccat make some good mice.
Logitech are also pretty good for peripherals - reasonably priced as well.

the difference between mechanical keyswitches and rubber dome keyswitches can be summed up with this comparision: mechanical feels very precise while rubber domes can feel spongey. this is not of course saying that rubber dome keyboards are bad. rubber dome keyboards are far less noisy and less expensive.

if you plan on typing then you want a cherry blue or brown. blues make a clicking noise while browns do not. red and blacks are linear switches without the tactile feedback or clicking so some prefer them for gaming however they are far less than ideal to type on.

personally my favorite switch is the original ibm buckling spring (currently only found on the unicomp customizer) which is still being sold today. its very loud but its also the best switch design. the keyboard is made far superior to modern boards. it includes a full drip tray so minor spills will not ruin your keyboard. on cherry boards a minor spill CAN kill your keyboard by making the keys stick and react badly since the design lets all the liquid drain into the switches. the customizers are built using better plastic and have a solid steel plate for mounting the switches. essentially you can use the keyboard as a self defense object and still manage to type with it afterwards. that is quality for you.

that isnt to say cherry keyboards are bad... just not built like they used to be. at the expense of some quality features you get nkey rollover, macros and some other features not on the older style board.

most keyboards will be over your $70 range so perhaps you may want to spend less on the mouse and more on the keyboard. say $40, $100 and even that may cut it close.

wasd offers keyboards around $110 (i had one which i had a spill on). good keyboard but definitely dont drink near ANY cherry keyboard. maxkeyboard also offers some nice keyboards at around $150 but they have backlighting and macro buttons which the wasd doesnt. das, deck and ducky are also good but are likely out of your price range.

as far as mice go you may want to look into the old style (not the 2013 version) razer deathadder. excellent large mouse. the reason i say to avoid the new 2013 version is that it uses synapse 2.0 drivers which blow and are invasive. both the blue backlit version and the deathadder black edition are considered the old versions and have drivers (not synapse 2.0).

never heard of that mouse so i couldnt tell you. the old razer i mentioned is also around $35-40.

i've never had a ducky but i've heard good things about them.

do you need the backlighting? the ducky doesnt have macro keys.

honestly just look for features that matter most to you. personally i dont mind a basic keyboard without backlighting as long as it works well which is why i orgininally bought a wasd. its $30 cheaper too.

i originally bought a cherry board to replace my 1987 (yes you read that right) ibm m which died only because someone (not me) spilled a whole glass of 80 proof into it which overflowed the internal drip tray and got into the membrane assembly.

after using the wasd for awhile it certainly wasnt a bad keyboard at all and in fact worked rather well but i will be going back to the old style keyboard with a replacement unicomp customizer since its alot more hardy.

what works for me may not work for you though which is why i explained everything above so you can make a choice.

do you have any electronics stores nearby?

the razer ultimate has cherry mx blues and may be on display so you can try it out. i wouldnt buy one but you can get a feel for what blues are like at least. the corsair mechanical keyboard uses reds and may also be at many stores.

if you live near a microcenter they have models with blues, browns reds and blacks.

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its easy enough to determine what switches are best for you with a few questions though....

how important is typing to you?
are you a fast typist?
what are your thoughts on rubber dome switches? (the kind you are probably using now) ie, stiff, spongey, quiet etc.
do you prefer stiffer keyboards for better typing accuracy or softer touch keyboards?
would keyboard clicking annoy you (wasdkeyboards has a video of sounds on their website)
how important is keyboard noise in general?
on your current keyboard the switch most likely presses down at a constant resistance then suddenly drops out and bottoms out (key letoff). does this bother you during gaming?

okay thats a good baseline.

take a look at this guide
http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/mechanical-keyboard-guide

[strike]cherry mx red[/strike] not good for typing
[strike]cherry mx black[/strike] not good for typing
cherry mx blue
cherry mx brown
cherry mx clear
[strike]ibm buckling spring[/strike] too loud? see below before you rule it out.

at a bare minimum for typing i would suggest key letoff and tactile feedback. letoff is as you described on your keyboard and tactile feedback is a small tick that you feel when you press a key down a certain distance on a mechanical keyboard. personally i like having the audible element as well and consider both to be essential for the best typing experience. you can do without the audible though if you dont like it

this video shows the difference between keyswitch sounds
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/videos

you can add rubber o-ring dampers to reduce noise a bit if you want.

cherry mx blues will have both tactile feedback and audible.

cherry mx browns will only have tactile and are a bit softer to press than blues.

cherry mx clears will only have tactile like browns but are harder to press than browns and blues.

since i will openly admit i'm a fanatic for ibm model m keyboards and the buckling springs here is a video showing the sound difference between a cherry mx blue and buckling spring keyswitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2-H61noDE4

they are louder for sure but the keyswitches are better. the tactile and audible feedback occur at the exact time a switch activates and a letter command is sent while on cherry switches this is not the case. slight difference but i like it better.

the keys also feel more precise than cherry switches. cherry switches are more precise feeling than rubber dome and buckling springs even more so than cherry switches.

you can remove the keycaps and wash them as often as you like. this allows you to clean out the dust and dirt in the tray under the keys as well from normal use. normally its just dead skin cells.

the only two issues with them are that they are too loud for some people and that they dont support nkro but i'm not sure if any of them is really much of an issue for the average user.

okay i suppose that is enough about my obsession with the m/customizer but seriously at least give it it a moment of thought.

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cherry mx blues, browns, clears (or possibly buckling if you dont think they are too loud) are all switch options at this point.

to narrow it down i personally feel that cherry mx blue (or buckling spring) are the best for typing and should be the main choice.

if you want something a bit quieter then you could go for cherry mx blues with o-rings installed or cherry mx browns or clears.

the key resistance on blues is higher than that of some soft-touch or quiet-touch rubber dome keyboards but less than stiff models like the stock dell keyboards. i know this isnt much of a go-by but its the best reference i can give that you may understand. going by resistance in grams really isnt very easy to understand.

i personally have used a wasdkeyboard http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/
the semi-customs are $120 and allow you to pick some keycap colors, the type of switches and i believe a few other options. they are not backlit and have no macro keys though.

i've heard good things about maxkeyboard http://www.maxkeyboard.com/
they do have a cheaper model for $80 which is non backlit but has macro keys and also some for around $150 with backlighting and macro keys.

if you can live with a louder keyboard (or are like me and love the sound of mechanical keys) then you could get a unicomp customizer for $80. i havent used the customizer but its virtually identical to the m (employees bought the rights and started their own company with the same manufacturing machines) and i can tell you that they are certainly tanks.

the difference in feel and heft alone is quite an improvement.

now... you may ask why new cherry mx keyboards do not have this heft or quality feel and i can say that they do but they are also more expensive. products like the deck keyboard http://www.deckkeyboards.com/ are more similar to this heft and quality feel but also tip the scales at $180. i'm still not sure they have a spill tray inside though. since i dont think the cherry mx switches are set up to work with one.

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so... read the post, watch the videos and get back to me on your thoughts on everything.

again...

unless you know EXACTLY what one of those keyboards feels like you cannot really go by the force numbers.

blues may be a little harder to press than some quiet-touch or soft-touch keyboards but not by a huge margin. in fact its actually a good thing. they are still lighter and easier to press than keyboards such as the dell standard.

agreed. blacks and reds are probably out.

look at the resistance on the buckling springs... 65-70g. i used them as a daily typer and they worked fine. keep in mind that you dont need to press them hard all the time. once you get the key below a certain point it drops out to almost zero resistance.

the less resistance the easier it is to accidentally press keys so a stiffer key is actually a good thing unless you have little sissy fingers.

a more pronounced tactile feedback is better for typing..

i used blues for gaming and they work perfectly fine. the only reason i wouldnt go with blues (or buckling) is if you dont like the clicking noise in which case browns or clears are the way to go or you could use dampers instead to lessen the noise.

topres are hard to find keyswitches and you are right they are expensive. they arent really much better than cherries though.

what are your thoughts on my favorite keyboard the m/customizer? not pushing you to go that route really but just want to know your opinion.

what... this isnt modern enough for you.... :lol:

unicomp customizer in black


original ibm model m in beige


the only model which ever came in solid black was the trackpoint which featured a laptop-like pointer stick in the center of the keyboard. most of the older ones came in beige or sometimes dark grey. the new ones are available in the standard beige or also in a black with grey keycaps combination which really doesnt look too bad at all.

as far as the shape is concerned it definitely has an old school design but to be honest its far more practical, more durable, more scratch resistant and it doesnt slide all over your desk.

i will agree that the old ibm is an ugly beige color but some people have been known to paint or dye them. you can also dye the keycaps a color and use the trackpoint keycaps which are black. there are quite a few options for the adventurous.

the ibm m and new customizer literally have a cult following. the original ibm mouse not so much! there are a great many people who like me think its the ideal keyboard. i realize that it has a few modernizations to go through (i've already sent suggestions to the unicomp staff such as updating the keymatrix so that its nkey rollover capable) but i think this is a rather minor issue that doesnt affect the masses in general.

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i agree it would be great to test all of the switches out however i dont know if you will be able to.

some keyswitches you may be able to find locally such as cherry mx blues in the razer products, reds in the corsair and perhaps browns in some other products. clears may be hard to find. you will likely not find any buckling springs unless you happen upon an old model m somewhere in a used electronics shop. or if you know someone who has one!

what you need to do at the least is test one. a blue would be the best if you had to test only one since you can feel what "tactile feedback" and "audible feedback" are like. you can then see how easy they are to press and judge from there. again, while far from my keyboard of choice the razer mechanical keyboard uses blues and is so common that you find it at many stores.

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i know this has been rather keyboard centric... but what are your thoughts on mice?

honestly as i said before i have to say the old style razer deathadder is a good mouse to go with. the new style (2013 edition) not so much because of the new crappy drivers (razer synapse 2.0 which is on a "cloud server").

i find it fits my hand perfectly. its also reasonably priced.

the logitech gaming mice and corsair gaming mice are also good.

here is my razer deathadder and wasd keyboard (before i spilled into it!)


here is a closeup of the mouse with a palm grip with ruler for scale


just for shits and giggles... in case you wanted to see the whole system

i've never had one but i've heard good things about the corsair mice.

again, you can likely find the deathadder just about in any store so you can at least see if it fits your hand. the k65 may be harder to find unless you have a microcenter nearby.

hey, all i'm suggesting is to not limit your options. up to you to decide what you finally pick.

the nearest microcenter is about an hour away from me as well.

i have an uncle who lives at the halfway point so i normally swing by while i'm on the way.

kill two birds with one stone you know. perhaps there is another store out that way you want to visit.

in any case microcenter has ALOT of keyboards. they carry mechanical products from razer, logitech, corsair, addesso and a few other brands. i know i definitely saw blues and reds. i think i saw browns. not sure about clears.

you wont find buckling springs.

i'm not sure they approve but many people open the boxes on one to see what the keyboards are like :lol: i know i do.

even if there isnt anything else out that way (surely there is though) its still worth a drive just to see all the pc tech.

you do not have to buy at microcenter. you can probably beat their prices online for keyboards and mice by shopping around but you cannot beat the selection they offer for "touch and feel" which you dont get online. as long as the prices are within $5-10 i buy at the store but thats me. i'm not sure if you wanted to make a snap decision on the spot or mull it over for a few days while you think about it which may be better.

i didnt buy my mechanical from them (didnt have the brands i wanted) but i got to feel the switches which is why i went. the keyboard i did buy from them is a cheap $7 rubber dome keyboard i can use while i order a unicomp customizer to replace the wasd i spilled into. i have two complete ibm model m frames but some issues with the internals so i'm debating on whether i want to buy a standard non-windows key customizer which i can disassemble and drop into my old frame (hey i'm partial to it since it has a detatchable cable and is only 2 years newer than i am old!) or if i want to buy a unicomp customizer with a windows key in black and grey and buy a membrane kit for the m to try and rebuild it. not sure what i want to do yet so i've been sitting on it... i want to make a decision by the end of the week though as i'm not really partial to this $7 keyboard. it sure is quiet though but the keys dont register unless i pound a few of them :lol:

well... just get back to us if you have any more questions.