Gaming Peripherals advice

Hey,

Unfortunately its time to replace my Razer Abyssus which has been going strong since 2012 and I also want to upgrade by 10 pound microsoft keyboard and get my first mechanical keyboard to pair with my new pc.

The majority of games I play are fps' (Battlefield, Call of duty, battlefront, CS go) and was wondering what the best type of mouse for those type of games is. logitech g502, Razer deathadder chroma, the Mamba chroma or corsair's branded fps mouse with the wierd sniper button.

Also, I was going to get a compact mechanical keyboard as I never use the num pad anyway.

I was looking at the Corsair k65 rgb Would that be a good choice as this is my first mechanical keyboard I know nothing about all the different switches and their benefits.

Thanks

CM storm quickfire keyboards are really nice,all depends on the budget( you didnt mention it).

For the mice,Zowie has some pretty bad ass mice for CS that a lots of pro's use.Also Final Mouse is ok.

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for Mice I really like Mionix but that is as far as my advice on mice goes.

Keyboards on the other hand, well lets just say I am typing on a mechanical board that is plugged into my phone. I love them and all about them. I disslike Corsair greatly, so I personally will say no don't get a k65RGB but it is up to you. You did how ever say you wanted a smaller keybaord without a numpad, you are looking for TKL keyboards or TenKeyLess is what you want, there are hundred at this stage.

I personally use a Filco Ninja TKL and I recetly bought a Magicforce 68 (see cheap chinese mechaincal) I use the latter for my phone and travel it is smaller than most missing both the numpad and the Function row so it is samll indded.
Other very good mechainicals I can recommend are:
CMStorms quickfire line of boards,
Keyed Up Labs KUL 87,
WASD V2 if you like to customise the colour of the keycaps too right from the store,
Das Keyboards for a more professional style and they also usually have voluem knobs and such,
Ducky are very highly regarded and will do RGB in the Shine 5 and a few others,
Varmillo if you are on massdrop come around every so often,

You may also be interested in 60% boards which are just the letters the numbers and the modifiers like Shitft, Ctrl, Enter and such. No arrows or function row, very small keybaords indded. About the smallest you can get before you start to really have to deal with being short of keys for stuff.

In the 60%s we have stuff like:
The Infinity keyboard from InputClub.
The Pok3r currently on the third revision of the poker now with LEDs but not RGB yet.
And many self build board where you buy the PCB, the case , the switches, the resistors, the leds, the keycaps everything and build the board youself. The Infinity board comes in either prebuilt or DIY version. There is also the GH60 Satan which is completely self built.

Switches. There are a few main companies, Cherry, Gateron, Khail, and a few smaller ones like Outemu and TTC and verious others. Qualtiy is varying depending on who you talk to. Cherry is the old faithful, original , tried and tested. Gateron are newer cherry clones (the pattent ended so people can make copies) and are butter smooth they also comes with clear housings to let LEDs shine through them compared to cherry's black housings. I prefer Gateron to cherry now though both are extremely good. Khail are Razers go to switches, the Green and Orange Razer switches are made for them by khail and are exclusive to razer the regualr Khail cherry clones are in all sorts of boards and are generally regarded as fine though some problem cases come back from time to time. The lower end again are things like the Outemu switches I mentioned. My magicforce cheapo board has Outemu balck switches and I really quite like them I tyeped all this on it, but the switches are a little noisy and stiffer than regular black switches.

Colours nad their meanings:
You have three main styles of switch, Linear, Tactile and CLicky.

Linear which are smooth and quieter provide no tactile feed back or click when pressed. Though I say no click you will still get the sound from the keycap hitting the switch when you bottom out and the slider in the switch hitting the switch housing on the way back up, so they still make noise but not a click while pressing them. Examples are the MX Red, Black and rarer Grey (dark grey also referd to as linear grey) switches

Tactile switches have a bump half way down the key press to give feedback for when the key has been pressed with out bottoming th switch out. The bump can vay in size depending on the particular switch. Browns have the smallest bump and clear/grey have a much larger bump. Still no click sound from the switch only tactile feedback. Examples of tactiel switches are MX Brown, Clear and Grey (light grey also refered to as tactile grey) switches.

Clicky switches are the whole hog, they have a bump half way dow and when you hit the bump it makes an audible click too. Examples of clikcy switches are MX Blue, Green and White siwtches.

MX Red Switches: 45~g actuation force, Linear. Gamers seem to like them as they are fast for double and tripple taps of the key. I find them too soft, theya re in my Filco. FIne but not satisfying. Not usually recommended for typing for long periods.

MX Black Switches: 55-60~g actuation force, Linear. Also liked by gamers though maybe not as much they are stiffer switches. I much prefer them as i like still harder to press keys.

MX Brown Switches: 45~g actuation force, Tactile. Like reds these are soft and have a small, slight bump half way down again gamers like these but they are also suited to longer periods of typing as the feed back is better.

MS Clear Switches: 55~g actuation force, Tactile. Sensing a pattern yet? There are always a few of each type wihich are stiffer. The clear also has a larger bump half way so is more noticabel than the Brown switch. Much loved by the mech community and has had many modification and variations liek teh Ergo clear and the Zealios switch.

MX Blue Switches: 45~g, Clicky. Clues are soft but the adtional bump and click offer a little more resistance so feels marginally harder to press than Reds or Browns. They are loud and will likey get you kicked out of an office, public place or you house if you are gaming at 2AM with them. That said if you are a typist these are the switch for you! Theya re more comfortabela nd natural for touch typing and long sessions of writing.

MX Green: 80~g, Clicky. These are the big daddy of the commonly available switches. Weighing in at 80 Grams ish they are some of the hardest switches available. Again loud but those with heavy hands or looking for a chalange go for these. Less commonly available but still common enough to be found.

MX Grey Switches: 80~g, Linear or Tactile. There are tow of these and both very similar in colour one is linear like the Reds and Blacks and one is Tactile like the Browns and Clears, both are rare and not commonly seen in boards for sale, both hard to press,

MX White Switches: 50-55~g, Clicky. These are also hard to find midrange clicky switches. They are noted for not being a loud click like the Blues and Greens, but are also noted for being very inconsistent in its click, some will be very quiet almost like a tactile with a different feel and some are as loud as the Blues/Greens so it is a gamble. The up side is theya re rare enough you should never have to worry about it.

The K65 has Cherry MX silent siwtches, basically MX red switches with some foam or padding or something to silence them. Slightly different but not enough to warrent it and while they are called MX silent and are certainly quieter than other switches it is still not actually silent if you bottom out the keys.

Gaterons get special metion as unlike others theyr switches are made from different plastics. The houseing are translucent and their stems super smooth. Cherry and other has a slighty scrathcy feel as you press them and the parts rub against each other, gateron has used a plastic that reduces this friction a lot and thus feel much smoother. Their houseings also let LED light through much better.

That is a lot of information and I seem to always retype the whole thing, maybe I should make a blog post and just link that.

For more infor mation ask and for a wealth of information check out /r/mechanicalkeyboards on reddit. I hope it helps.

Thanks for your detailed reply,

I was looking at the ducky shine 5 on amazon, so do you think that is a good choice.

Also, what do you think of razor's offerings like the blackwidow?

Its crap,dont buy them.

for which one haha

The Ducky keyboards are great. The Shine 5 in particular, the LEDs on it are great.

I don't like "gamer" stuff in general so razer is not high on my list. I like quality more so than flashy stuff.

This seems like the best choice but the question still remains for typing and gaming is a mechanical keyboard worth the 140 pounds this keyboard costs?

definately avoid most razer mice. there are a couple exceptions, like the deathadder is fine. But Razer is implementing Philips Twin Eye sensors in most of their new mice which pretty clearly track worse than conventional sensors, but in terms of DPI, the sky is basically the limit. So they are pretty clearly sacrificing mouse performance so marketing can show off high DPI.

Looking at light weight ambidextrous mice, like the abyssus you're switching from, The two obvious choices are the Logitech g303 and the Finalmouse Tournament Pro. The g303 has the best sensor on the market, it has pretty solid build quality, very light weight and responsive lmb and rmb. RGB lighting. The Finalmouse Tournament Pro is much lighter than the Logitech g303, while the g303 i would say is borderline lightweight, the Tournament Pro is clearly knee deep into light weight. Finalmouse is very small company, which means they can't provide as much value as Logitech or Razer or Steelseries. their products aren't as tested, and quality control is probably a bit worse, you are probably more likely to need to sens it back. It has the 3310 sensor which is a very good, not great sensor. Basically it has no main flaws, its just not as powerful as the 3988 or 3366 or 3360, so the speed related variance is going to be slightly worse and the max speed will be lower (you are still very unlikely to exceed it), but if you really want a light weight mouse, They might be the best option. Finalmouse is also coming out with the Scream One i think in month or two, that should be lighter than the tournament pro, and have the 3360 sensor, a much more powerful sensor and i would expect it to be quite expensive.

Another option if you're ok with only very lightly lighter than average to average is mionix. They have very high build quality. The mionix castor being an obvious option. The only thing i would advise against is the Naos if you play FPS. The ergonomics, while for many people it is quite comfortable for palming, it can be quite difficult to re-position the mouse quickly like is common in FPS.

what kind of keyboard do you currently use?

You should go to a store that has them on display or a friend's house that has a mechanical keyboard and try it out. My keyboard was well over $200, and i think it was well worth it. But i'm sure many would disagree.

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This one lol

When I bought it I could justify the money but now I have a really nice pc with a 6700k and 980 ti and want to improve my peripherals somewhat.

I will probs go to a shop and try out the typing experience. As mice go, for a heavy option would the deathadder and mamba chroma's be decent choices?

oh, when you said 10 pound, i thought you meant weight, not currency. And i was thinking old and heavy keyboards can be quite good in terms of performance. :)

the mamba is one of those razer mice using the inferior phillips twin eye sensor because it allows them to market stupid high DPI. Do not get it.

If you get a razer mouse, the Deathadder is the one to get. If you get a Mionix mouse, get the castor or one from the 7000 series. the 8200 series has a higher dpi, but worse sensor. Do not get a laser mouse, or any mouse with a max dpi of 8200. Any modern Logitech mouse is pretty good. the g100s is obviously budget and you shouldn't get if you want a high end mouse.

Nope lol i really cheaped out on my keyboard as I believed they didn't make a difference in gaming, so the G502 or the razer deathadder are the best choices out of the Razer and logitech range

They are expensive, no mistake there. So it comes down to will you like it because if you spend the money and don't it would really be annoying.

For that I have two things in mind and neither are a perfect solution.
1. Buy a key sampler/tester, these usually come with 2 6 or 8 switches of different colour to try out. I have the Max Keyboards one I got on amazon but it is still a $20 ish things so not cheap just to find out.
2. Go to a store that sells Mechs and try some out, they usually have them on display to try. EDIT: Maplins usually have some, at least they do here.

Or maybe someone you know owns one?

For me the feel is worth it all day alone. Then you can customise them to you wallets limit, new case/body milled out of Aluminium, new keycaps in ABS or PBT in a rainbow of colours and profiles* , for colours you can buy custom keycap sets that will make you cry with the cost but are so very pretty or just buy some white PBT keys and dye them (I did this), desolder and swap switches and springs fro different key feels, mod for LEDs, fall madly in love and hand build one from scratch, learn to program keyboards, make custom layouts for the keys like QWERTY, DVORAK and COLEMAK and get good at typing with them.

For me mechs are a wonderful piece of equipment, makes typing enjoyable and open up a world of things you can do, and spend colossal amounts of money on (thankfully I have avoided this)

*(OEM (tall), DSA (short spherical surface), SA (tall spherical), DCS (cylindircal surface most common type), Devlin Q (like DSA but sharper), G20 (flar like laptop keys), Cherry (same a DCS and OEM but shorter), etc..)

EDIT: Now that I see you are UK I can link some specifics.

http://www.keyboardco.com/category.asp?path=mechanical%20keyboards Damn! You can get Filco for £114 now, but they are plain as day, no LEDs, built to last.

http://www.mechsupply.co.uk/ Not much here but it is a group buy place so stuff changes, set up recently to be the UK group buy custom mech stuff shop. It is getting there.

http://www.ukkeycaps.co.uk/ The day to day front end shop for MechSupply above.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/peripherals/input-devices/keyboards/mechanical-keyboards Overclockers are my go to parts shop and also have some mechs.

A great many other shops are outside the UK but them shipping becomes a problem and import tax as these are expensive.

When I was shopping for a good keyboard I discovered that I like cherry mx blues and cherry mx blacks. First familiarize yourself with basic mechanical switch knowledge. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3FJPGpwyzOA

After you watch a few videos like this go to an electronics store and play with their keyboards. What feels right? Do you like clicks or silence? Heavy handed typing or light easy typing etc.

I like the way that the green switches from Razer feel but if I ever had to replace a switch I would have to go through them to get a new one (probably) which I'm not into. Good luck!