Four Keyboards And Four Mice For LAN Party Gamers, Rounded-Up

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We have four portable keyboards and a quartet of gaming mice that could turn heads at your next LAN party. We put the boards through a number of performance-oriented metrics, and handed the hardware off to some gamer friends for their opinions, too.

Portable Performance Peripherals, Perfect For LAN Party Participants

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The LAN party is a mainstay of modern PC gamer culture. With the proliferation of high-speed Internet access, high-quality console graphics, and online match-making services, the LAN party might not hold the same place as it once did, but it's still far from dead.

Today, we’re going to examine some of the better keyboard and mouse options for today’s LAN party attendee. We chose to focus on portable equipment that can be easily taken from the desk to the road, while at the same time keeping the functionality and responsiveness needed for competitive hardcore PC gaming.

DreamHack Winter 2004

On the bench, we have four svelte gaming keyboards: the Kensington K72357US, Logitech K800, Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition, and Siig JK-US0412-S1. While each of these slim-profile keyboards keep with our LAN party theme, the Logitech K800 we tested is the wireless model, since the otherwise identical corded version was not available when our request for submissions went out.

Our mouse line-up includes two entries from Logitech, the G500 and the G9x, the wired/Bluetooth combo Razer Orochi, and the color-changing Thermaltake TT eSports Theron. This selection gives us a couple of different ergonomic styles to choose from, and all four are driven by the latest-generation high-performance laser sensors.

For keyboards, we’ll be testing noise level, activation pressure, ghosting, and key rollover. Meanwhile, we’ll debunk the need for performance testing mice for DPI, polling rate, and acceleration. Finally, we’ll wrap up with a subjective assessment of comfort by bringing in nine test subjects with varying hand sizes to rate the ease of using these eight peripherals.

Let’s get started with a look at the first two keyboards on our list: the Kensington K72357US and Logitech K800.

64 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Hadoe
    "high-quality console graphics"

    Heh, good one Toms... good one.
    Reply
  • atavax
    i wonder at what dpi's they tested acceleration. It was my understanding that a lot of mice have acceleration issues at different dpi's. I have seen multiple sources that say the G9 has negative acceleration at low sensitivities.
    Reply
  • samwelaye
    I've had my g9x for quite a while now, love this mouse!
    Reply
  • Trewyy
    G9x now down to $55 on Newegg :) I should mention that it was a good review, as always!

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104261
    Reply
  • ShadyHamster
    Five programmable buttons near the thumb rest, a mechanical button below the scroll wheel, and a battery indicator set the G500 apart from standard mice.

    That should be DPI indicator not battery.

    And whats up with pitting 1 mechanical keyboard up against 3 membrane keyboards? Before even reading the article i knew that the mechanical keyboard would be the clear winner, who would care about the loudness of the keys at a lan party, 99.9% of people would have headphones.
    Reply
  • Swordkd
    Before I bought my Razer mouse(Imperator 2012), I read reviews on newegg and decided to discount the issue that they seemed to be having. After a few months of use, the mice would start to double-click from a single "click". Sure enough, less than 6 months of light to moderate use, my mouse now suffers from this malady once out of every 20 clicks or so. Enough to annoy me.

    I will not recommend that brand mouse to anyone ever again.
    Reply
  • Soda-88
    No 6Gv2?
    Reply
  • kitsunestarwind
    Logitech G9X is a fantastic mouse, been using mine since they first came out, never a complaint and has led to me having very sharp and accurate aim in games like BF3. Buy one it is worth it!
    Reply
  • alidan
    das keyboard professional
    razor naga

    that's my setup...

    that said, sound and weight to press are not lower or higher is better... they are prefferences, i personally love the sound that a cherry blue makes and wish it was a bit louder because i make more sound on each key by bottoming them out apposed to activating the switch.

    and weight, i hear it more often than not that for gaming heavier presses are better because its less likely to accidently activate.

    now, impersonally just because of prior things i have had, i can never recommend razor... but at the same time i use a razor because i want that 12 key pad, and Logitech mouse is even smaller than the already small naga, and i cant get use to its bad form factor... its really the only razor anything i recommend just because there is no other competition that i can tell people to go with outside the small logitech and only if they have small hands.

    also, i dont know if it was mentioned, but the razor keyboard from what i remember has such a strict policy, that if you remove a key cap, you void the warranty. there are story's of the s and j key switched, but because of razors warranty, they have to send it in and get it replaced that way, and its a razor product, you know it will fail... the keyboard doesn't have a mounting plate, so its more likely to fail than other mechanical keyboards because of the solder point stress before the keys naturally give out.
    Reply
  • blubbey
    'The G500 was reported to be too long,'

    I know of course this is personal preference and everyone's different, but either their hands are small or mine are of reasonable size because I can almost cover the entire mouse (fingertips and base of my hand can just about hit the mouse mat at the same time). Unfortunately I don't have much else to compare it to, only random mice however it is larger than any I can remember, so I might just have larger than 'normal' hands.

    Something else you might want to consider that others have found is that the scroll wheel is very 'light' to use. I'm indifferent about it seeing as I'm used to light scroll wheels but a few people have raised that point in reviews that I saw before buying it (~$45 on sale). I've also found that the weights are prety much useless, it's already quite a weighty mouse so an extra few grams really didn't matter for me.
    Reply