Corsair STRAFE RGB Silent Keyboard On Sale; Cherry MX Blue Variant Optional

At PAX Prime, Corsair added its trademark RGB lighting to a handful of its peripherals, including the lineup of VOID headsets, the Scimitar mouse and the STRAFE keyboard. However, there was also a new keyboard called the STRAFE RGB Silent, which uses Cherry MX Silent switches. Now, those keyboards are finally on sale for $159.99.

For the most part, the STRAFE has the same features as some of Corsair's other keyboards: dedicated keycaps for FPS and MOBA games, multimedia controls, and a USB pass-through port. However, its most unique attribute is the switches. The company stated that the new Cherry MX Silent switches are up to 30 percent quieter than its other configurations (then again, that depends on whether you're using a Cherry MX Red or Cherry MX Blue switch).

If you're not a fan of the new switches and prefer loud typing noises, Corsair also has a version of the STRAFE RGB with Cherry MX Blue switches. With that in mind, it's important to note that the company store page lists that the other mechanical RGB keyboards — the K95, K70, and K65 — only offer Cherry MX Red or Brown switches. However, the K70 with only red backlighting does offer Blue switches. Corsair stated that other keyboards will have the Cherry MX Blue option soon.

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Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.

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  • turkey3_scratch
    $160 - I still don't get it. Put it into a GPU!
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    $160 - I still don't get it. Put it into a GPU!

    True, unless your GPUs are 650$ a piece.
    Reply
  • jhanschu
    $160 - I still don't get it. Put it into a GPU!

    True, unless your GPUs are 650$ a piece.

    Maybe "put it towards getting a better GPU" is what he meant.
    Reply
  • tical2399
    If this is anything like the k95 rgb, there will be a total of like 6 made with the blue switches. I had to settle for the damn browns because of this.
    Reply
  • Skhmt
    The Strafe RGB Silent has been shipping from Corsair directly for three weeks already.

    Source: I bought one on October 5th and it was delivered on the 8th.
    Reply
  • Skhmt
    The Strafe RGB Silent has been shipping from Corsair directly for three weeks already.

    Source: I bought one on October 5th and it was delivered on the 8th.
    Reply
  • demonkoryu
    Fixed LED controller? This one is actually better than the K70. I was about to get a blackwidow chroma for proper 16 million colors, but it looks like the strafe rgb silent will replace my ducky shine...
    Reply
  • popatim
    LoL
    I came here to se the sale price ...
    Only to see he meant "Available for purchase" :(
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    16852093 said:
    $160 - I still don't get it. Put it into a GPU!

    To each their own. I have owned a K90 (my work keyboard now) and a K95 RGB and I wouldn't buy anything else. They work great and are built very well (love the brushed aluminum design instead of all plastic). Sure I could get one of the cheaper Logitech gaming keyboards but they tend to break a lot faster. Logitech does, however, makes great mice still and I love my G502.

    Wish they were cheaper but you can get them on sale. I got my K95 RGB for $150 at Frys on sale one day which is not too bad considering the thing can be used for any game type and cool effects.
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    I thought Corsair had cased selling RGB Cherry MX blues because they were difficult to manufacturer and weren't in demand?

    http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showpost.php?p=751211&postcount=86]
    "Due to extremely low yield on RGB blue switch, it is not possible for Corsair to continue production on this product. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for patience thus far, please contact our Customer Service if you have an open order with Corsair and waiting for fulfillment. For those of you who do not need RGB but still want Cherry MX blue switches, we ARE producing the non-RGB K70/K95 keyboards with Cherry MX blue switches.

    I would like to take this opportunity to clarify it more though. First I want to apologize that we didn't announce it earlier. We ultimately made the decision to discontinue the Cherry MX Blue during the company shutdown so our distributors would know and react accordingly. We felt that it was best most of the customers who had pre-orders know right away rather than wait even longer for us to return to make it public.

    Second, MX RGB Blue switches were difficult to create in the first place and we had constant issues of not having enough from Cherry due to their limited production capacity as they were also producing RGB MX Red/Brown and single-LED MX Red/Blue/Brown keys.

    Third, Cherry MX Blue as a key overall isn't a very popular switch in comparison to Red and Brown. This may be contrary to what many believe but based on the volume of what we've been asked to produce, Cherry MX Blue is vastly outsold by Red and Brown MX (both RGB and single LED). This isn't just from a single region either and ultimately played a role in our decision to discontinue the MX Blue RGB.

    We do apologize for those who were anticipating this version of our Corsair Gaming RGB Keyboards. For those customers who have issues with their already-purchased MX Blue RGB keyboards, our customer service are prepared to assist you accordingly. Feel free to post or PM me any questions or concerns you may have and I'll address them personally.

    Thanks again for your patience and understanding."
    Reply