kent1147

Rosewill RGB80. Newegg's house brand Tenkeyless keyboard. Detachable cable. Cherry MX Blues. Macro capability. http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16823201071&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile-_-pla-_-Gaming+Keyboard-_-N82E16823201071&gclid=Cj0KEQiAlae1BRCU2qaz2__t9IIBEiQAKRGDVTiThwlzPoPbvetzbCfBm-CyTgB2qC25M15TND9DDScaAq_Y8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

For what it's worth, here are two completely valid reasons (plus one subjective reason) for hating on Razer, that have nothing to do with someone's anal OCD tendencies to have a completely clean System Tray and save 10KB of RAM out of the 16,000KB typically seen in self-built coPCs today:1). Razer Synapse has been known to misbehave. When it does, its not uncommon for it to consume 100% CPU of a single core. 2). Using Razer Synapse to store mouse profiles in the cloud is a cop-out to lower production costs. Razer marketing claims its to free us from "last-generation onboard memory". And that it makes your mousing profiles available anywhere you go. But you know what else makes your mousing profiles available anywhere you go? Onboard memory. And it doesn't require you to download & install software, create or log in to a Razer account, or have an internet connection (e.g. plugged-in laptop gaming on a train or plane). 3). Subjective reason. My opinion is Razer quality is pretty poor. Deathadder dies after 18 months, Razer Orochi rubber coating is starting to disintegrate and get sticky after 24 months.

Two things:1). If you're using WiFi, try an Ethernet cable instead. This will show if you're getting any significant speed loss through WiFi interference. 2). If you're using a router, plug directly into the modem provided by the ISP through an Ethernet cable. This will show the raw speed coming through into your home. If you are getting faster raw speed coming in by plugging Ethernet directly into the modem, then you know it's either the router or WiFi signal that is the issue.

Go 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide. It's essentially a 5:4 dual-monitor setup, without the bezel in the middle. Absolutely fantastic for productivity use, and movie watching. I'll talk about gaming later. I frequently use a 3-window arrangement for work. Left window is for the "work product" document. Middle window is for reference. Right-window is for my monitoring of personal stuff (Facebook, LinkedIn, personal email, etc). All on one screen, all easily readable, no bezel. If your budget is ~$700-$800 and you specifically want a fantastic movie & productivity monitor, with some trade-offs for gaming, you'll want a 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide display; like the LG 34UM95 (link) or Dell Ultrasharp U3415W (link). If your budget is $1300, and you want fantastic movie, productivity, and gaming, you'll want a 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide display with GSync. The Acer Predator X34 (link). But definitely expect more options and price drops in 2016, as more manufacturers make competing panels. In general, a 27" 2560x1440 (1440p) 16:9 display will suit you. Make sure the panel type is IPS. If your budget is ~$400, you'd want to go with an Asus PB278Q (link) or BenQ GW2765HT (link). If your budget is ~700, you'll want an upgrade to an Asus PG278Q (link). As far as 27" gaming monitors go, it's pretty much the cat's meow. If your budget is ~$700-$800 and you specifically want a fantastic movie & productivity monitor, with some trade-offs for gaming, you'll want a 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide display; like the LG 34UM95 (link) or Dell Ultrasharp U3415W (link). If your budget is $1300, and you want fantastic movie, productivity, and gaming, you'll want a 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide display with GSync. The Acer Predator X34 (link). But definitely expect more options and price drops in 2016, as more manufacturers make competing panels.

In general, a 27" 2560x1440 (1440p) 16:9 display will suit you. Make sure the panel type is IPS. If your budget is ~$400, you'd want to go with an Asus PB278Q (link) or BenQ GW2765HT (link). If your budget is ~700, you'll want an upgrade to an Asus PG278Q (link). As far as 27" gaming monitors go, it's pretty much the cat's meow. If your budget is ~$700-$800 and you specifically want a fantastic movie & productivity monitor, with some trade-offs for gaming, you'll want a 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide display; like the LG 34UM95 (link) or Dell Ultrasharp U3415W (link). If your budget is $1300, and you want fantastic movie, productivity, and gaming, you'll want a 34" 3440x1440 21:9 ultrawide display with GSync. The Acer Predator X34 (link). But definitely expect more options and price drops in 2016, as more manufacturers make competing panels. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A single GeForce GTX 970 can acceptably drive 27" 1440p or 34" 1440p-ultrawide for most games. For the absolutely top-end games that punish your system, you'll need to lower graphics settings to get a smooth framerate. However, things should work fine, especially if you get a monitor with Gsync to smooth out framerate drops. But you'll want to start looking into GPU upgrades either now, or after the next generation of GPU comes out (nVidia Pascal, in mid 2016), in order to be able to reliably push framerates above 60Hz.

Yup. This isn't uncommon for monitors to not hold overclocks very well. You'll find most monitors will refuse to go beyond 60Hz. It's only a few select handful of monitors that either advertise >60Hz, or have been found by the community to go beyond >60Hz through the community just experimenting. It's a bummer... but the best way to guarantee a higher refresh rate is to just buy a monitor that has been advertised and rated to run at 75Hz / 120Hz / 144Hz.

tl;dr - Don't buy it. You can do better. Get a CMStorm Quickfire TK instead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't buy it. Like most Razer peripherals, they have basic "good enough" features found in any comparable product; advertise / market using flashy colored LEDs; and have questionable build quality. If you like the tenkeyless design, you'd be better off with something from CMStorm, like the: >> CMStorm Quickfire Rapid ($75, Amazon). This is a direct comparison to the Razer Deathadder TE in terms of layout, features, and mechanical switch feel (Cherry MX Brown). >> CMStorm Quickfire Rapid-i ($100, Amazon). Same basics as CMStorm Quickfire Rapid, except with configurable and adaptable lighting behavior, in white LED only. Offers multiple gaming-type switches (Cherry MX Black, Red, Brown); >> CMStorm Quickfire TK ($105, Amazon). Tenkeyless layout, with a dual-function navigation / NumPad area. Offers tactile "typing" keys (Cherry MX Blue, Green), or gaming-type switches (Brown, Red) with different LED colors for each. Personally, I have a CMStorm Quickfire TK Blue at home for gaming, a CMStorm Quickfire TK Brown for home-office work use, and a CMStorm Quickfire TK Brown at my work desk when I physically go to the office. You can tell how highly-regarded that keyboard is to me.

tl:dr: No. Buy something else, like a Mionix Naos 7000 or Mionix Avior 7000, depending on the shape you want. ---------------------------------------- Most gaming mice are pretty similar. But when you get into the world of gaming mice, you're paying for two things to differentiate the mice from each other: sensor quality, and features (like lots of programmable buttons, onboard memory to store mouse profiles, colored LEDs, wireless capability, etc). A mouse with: >> good sensor, and low features: ~$40 >> good sensor, moderate features: ~$70 >> good sensor, and every feature they could cram in there: above $100 The Razer Deathadder Chroma is a mouse with a good sensor, low features (only colored LEDs), and costs $60-$70. It's overpriced for what you get. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, that's what you pay for. But the most important part of buying a mouse is the comfort of that mouse. If you're open to different shapes that are all comfortable for right-handed mouse users, you have lots of options. Logitech G303; Logitech G502 Proteus Core; Steelseries Rival 100 (not the 300); Mionix Naos 7000 (not 8200). Mionix Avior 7000 (not 8200). The $80 Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum (upgrade from the G502 Proteus Core, by addition of RGB lighting) is a pretty solid choice. Good sensor, and every feature you could think of. It's a very solid mass-market choice. It's like wanting a tablet, and buying an iPad. You can buy them everywhere, lots of people own & love them, and nobody can really fault you for buying a very solid choice. The $47 Logitech G303 is a great (superior) alternative to the Razer Deathadder Chroma. Good sensor on it, basic mouse features, colored LED lighting, onboard memory The $55 Mionix Naos / Avior 7000 (not the 8200) are fantastic mice. The only difference between the two is the shape. The Mionix Naos 7000 is more contoured for right-handed users, whereas the Mionix Avior 7000 is ambi-dexterous like the Razer Deathadder. Absolutely fantastic sensor, moderate features (programmable buttons, onboard memory, colored LED lighting). Many hardcore mice nerds consider the Mionix Naos 7000 to be the best mouse you can buy, out of any mouse out there. By comparison the $60 Razer Deathadder Chroma uses a decent sensor, low features (colored LEDs). It doesn't even have onboard memory... which it tries to play off on its website as "No longer limited by last generation onboard device memory, Razer Synapse brings the brain of the Razer DeathAdder Chroma to the cloud..." That is code for a requirement to install & run, and the fact that they wanted to save on manufacturing expense by omitting the memory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final variable is software. All of these mice use mouse configuration software that just about does the same thing... configure DPI, USB polling rate, button configurations, etc. All of the mice I mentioned allow you to store profiles onto onboard mouse memory, which means you don't need to be running the mouse software in the background. The Razer Deathadder Chroma, with its "not-limited by onboard memory, and going to the cloud" does require you run their software. And on top of that, their software is TERRIBLE. It's intrusive, requires to be online and create a Razer profile. And when it misbehaves (which it does from time to time), it will run a single CPU core at 100%. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long story short, skip the Razer Deathadder Chroma. It's has only basic "good enough" performance you can find in any mouse; advertise / sell on flashy colored LEDs; and then sell it to you at a premium. You can do a lot better for your money. And their mouse software is terrible when it misbehaves. And this is coming from a guy who owns a Razer Deathadder, Razer Orochi, and typing on a Razer Blade laptop.

Logitech G602. It is superior to the Logitech G700 in every single way >> Superior sensor. Avago A3010 >> Superior weight and balance profile. Logitech G602 can be adjusted between a heavier rear-balanced weight profile (using 2x AA Alkaline batteries); or a lighter center-balanced weight profile (using 2x AA Lithium batteries). The Logitech G700 is stuck with a heavy rear-balanced weight profile, due to its dependence on NiMH rechargeable batteries. >> Superior battery life. G602 gets 1 month on alkaline; 3 months on lithium. G700 gets about 18-36 hours. Don't be fooled by the high DPI of the Logitech G700. It uses an inferior laser sensor to get that high DPI number, whereas the Logitech G602 uses a superior optical sensor to get that number. And the optical sensor being used in the Logitech G602 is considered to be among the family of "perfect" sensors from Avago / Pixart. Additionally, you won't actually ever use DPI above about ~2000 anyway, so anything above that is meaningless. Manufacturers put high-DPI sensors on their mice to go after the uneducated buyer who things "bigger number must mean better." It's the same thing as the Megahertz race (CPUs), Megapixel race (digital cameras), and the Screen Size race (smartphones). Buy the Logitech G602. It's as perfect as a wireless gaming mouse as you can get. Note: Yes, the Mionix Naos 7000 is a fantastic mouse too. If you had to find a "perfect" mouse overall, the Mionix Naos 7000 would be on the short list of contenders. But it's wired. Completely different class than Logitech G602 or G700.

Oh, another note. If you're into this kind of thing, go to Massdrop. They have listings for keycaps pop up a few times a month, of different shapes / styles. Someone will usually try and arrange a drop of a few dozen or low-hundreds of keycaps from the manufacturer. I ended up getting some printed keycaps of different designs, like Starcraft logos, Diablo logos, DC comics logos, Marvel comics logos, etc for about $4 each. That's a way to get non-standard keycaps at a lower rate than $7-$10 each.

$10 for a single custom printed keycap is in the ballpark of the going rate. If you thought *selecting* a keyboard was a crazy new world, take a look at the world of selecting non-mainstream keyboards (Vortex, Royal Kludge, Ducky, etc). And THEN take a look at the world of custom printed keycaps and keycap sets for those. In some cases, a set of custom keycaps can cost over $100, like the awesome Galaxy Class keycaps. (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Enterprise-D style). Mechanical keyboards and keycaps is a very very very deep rabbit hole.

Massdrop is legit. Not a scam.But I'd say only go in for rare goods... Things like obscure audio gear or custom keyboards / keycaps. For something like easily found like an SSD, just buy it straight up from some place like amazon. It will be equivalent price or cheaper; it will arrive much faster; and you'll have a much better return policy.

On a related note, I'm partial to Logitech. I absolutely love their stuff. If you want a wired mouse, check out the Logitech G303. It uses the Pixart Avago AM010 sensor, which is considered to be the top-of-the-line among the family of "perfect" optical sensors. The family of sensors includes the Avago S3090 / S3095 / S3398 / AM010; Pixart PMW-3310. They're all basically minor variants of each other in some form or another... and you couldn't go wrong with any of those. I don't know how much you care, but the Logitech G302 was also "Designed for MOBAs" with mouse-button switches that have a certain actuation force and spring. It sounds like a bunch of marketing fluff to me... but hardcore CS:Go players (who are among the most hardcore of the "sensor nerds" in terms of finding the perfect mouse sensor) swear by this mouse. If you want a wireless mouse, you can't go wrong with the Logitech G602. It's about as close to a perfect wireless mouse as you can get. Fantastic optical sensor (Avago AM010); long battery life; great weight profile; stores profiles on-mouse. Battery life of this mouse is about 1 month of 8-10 hours per day of gaming, using 2x AA Alkaline batteries. However, I actually suggest you spend the extra money to get 2x AA Lithium batteries in this instead. The lighter and longer-lasting AA Lithium batteries will change the weight profile of the mouse from a heavy rear-balanced mouse to a lighter center-balanced mouse, and give you about 3 months of battery life. P.S. The Corsair Strafe uses the Avago S3988 sensor... another one of the family of "perfect" optical sensors. Can't go wrong with that mouse either.

Corsair Sabre is a decent "basic" gaming mouse. You really can't go wrong with most mice from the major mouse manufacturers, as long as you get something that has an optical sensor (not those garbage high-DPI laser sensors).

If I'm not mistaken, don't you need Razer Synapse (or whatever mouse config / driver program, for your particular brand of mouse) to be running in order to affect USB polling rate? Isn't polling rate modified through a "driver" that Razer Synapse installs? For what it's worth, I absolutely hate Razer Synapse. It frequently misbehaves, and consumes 100% of a CPU core. Hate Razer Synapse, and all Razer products, with a passion (except my Razer Blade. Which I love... with a passion?)