Breaking into the peripherals market is G.Skill's next foray, with a pair of keyboards, a gaming mouse and a new surround sound headset.
G.Skill has been around for a long time; the company was founded in 1989. In the last few years it has found a nice foothold in the performance RAM market, having earned some overclocking records. The company also sells a series of solid state drives. Memory chips have always been what G.Skill does, until now.
The KM780 is the company's new mechanical keyboard. It will feature fully illuminated Cherry MX Brown or Red keys, and will come in two editions: KM780 MX lights up crimson red, and the KM780 RGB, well, has RGB lighting.
Both keyboards have local memory with the ability to save up to three profiles, which are switched using a set of mode hotkeys. Each profile stores a barrage of settings, including lighting patterns, macro setup, timer settings, key delay and repeat rate, and polling rate. G.Skill has included six dedicated macro keys, as well as per-key programmability and per-key lighting effects.
The Ripjaws MX780 RGB is a new gaming mouse, which features RGB lighting with four programmable zones, PTFE glide pads and a notched scroll wheel. It includes eight fully programmable buttons with Omron micro-switches, and an Avago laser sensor with five programmable settings, capable of up to 8200 DPI. G.Skill claims the MX780 RGB has a polling rate of 1000 Hz and is able to track up to 150 IPS and 30g of acceleration. To handle all the processing, a 32-bit ARM chip has also been installed.
G.Skill developed the G.Skill Unified Driver System (G.U.D.S.) to navigate the myriad options available for Ripjaws peripherals. Here you'll find access to each setting on all devices; you can also manage profile settings and adjust the configurations for each mode.
Two headsets have also been introduced into the Ripjaws line. G.Skill claims the SR910 has real 7.1 surround sound. It features 10 discrete audio drivers inside the ear cups. The SV710 uses Dolby Pro Logic IIx technology and dual 50 mm drivers to create virtual 7.1 surround.
Both headsets feature circumaural ear cup design with leatherette lined ear pads, which G.Skill says creates a distraction-free audio experience. The microphone features environmental noise cancellation, which should limit background noise, and in-line audio control. A software suite is also included with the headset, which features a 10-band equalizer and the ability to customize surround sound speaker location.
G.Skills' new line of Ripjaws peripherals will be available in Q3 2015. Pricing will be disclosed at a future date.
Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
Q. What's your industry Sir?
A. I pick up dog shit around my local parks, but I'm about to put out a range of peripherals to broaden my market diversity a little.
You can't compare or talk like you are. You have to look at what you pay, what you want, and what you get for your every dollar. AMD APUs are (which I thought were a waste until until these) are still around half the price of the new 6200 and Iris pros Broadwells and keep growing exponentially.
Also, stop talking about the Nvidia cards. The 290X is AMAZING. I'm still doing builds with it, paying around $270-290 each. Crossfire with FreeSync is still cheaper than a 980 but, STILL, amazing alone. No CF/SLI bridge needed n boom! Either way, Intel is winning if you wanna pay more. I have clients with smaller budgets and I have to physically go with AMD.