Razer Blackwidow v2 vs Corsair K70 Rapid-fire (Razer Yellow vs Cherry MX Speed)

[Mindstalk3R]

Hello guys. 

So since I'm planning to build a new PC, I'm also looking for peripherals. 

I was browsing threw the internet trying to find some comparisons but couldn't find any. 

I want to the 'fastest' mechanical keyboard possible, so I did some research and ended up with the BlackWidow v2 with Razers Yellow Switches and the K70 Rapid-fire with Cherry MX Speed Switches, both having a 1,2mm activation point. 

So, which one is faster? 

 

Btw: While searching for the fastest mechanical keyboard I also found the bloody 9 B820R. Many people say it's the fastest mechanical keyboard because of their laser technology. 

Any one can confirm that it's faster like f.e the K70 or Blackwidow? 

 

Greetings 

[jcoops]

1 minute ago, Mindstalk3R said:

Hello guys. 

So since I'm planning to build a new PC, I'm also looking for peripherals. 

I was browsing threw the internet trying to find some comparisons but couldn't find any. 

I want to the 'fastest' mechanical keyboard possible, so I did some research and ended up with the BlackWidow v2 with Razers Yellow Switches and the K70 Rapid-fire with Cherry MX Speed Switches, both having a 1,2mm activation point. 

So, which one is faster? 

 

Btw: While searching for the fastest mechanical keyboard I also found the bloody 9 B820R. Many people say it's the fastest mechanical keyboard because of their laser technology. 

Any one can confirm that it's faster like f.e the K70 or Blackwidow? 

 

Greetings 

I know this is irrelevant to the speed part of the keyboard, but I've found Razer to not have very quality products.  I have a Corsair keyboard, and even with brown switches it's very fast.  So I would go Corsair.

[Syntaxvgm]

do you want the fastest input latency or shallow actuation point? The latency is hardly noticeable, and the actuation point is more the type of switches you go with, not the keyboard itself. 

[Syntaxvgm]

19 minutes ago, Erik Sieghart said:

Have you actually owned the blackwidow keyboards? I have. I also have a k70. It's currently sitting the closet. Your brand bias is showing.

 

---

I've tried out the yellow switches and found them to have a pretty good feel. Synapse is fantastic software as well. And the Chroma RGB is better than anything Corsair has to offer. As far as I've experienced firsthand, the Blackwidow build quality of the actual keyboard is fantastic. The rubber feet may eventually fall off but you can glue them back on easy.

 

I'd recommend the Razer one.

I own a blackwidow. None of the switches felt the same, which was the case with the blackwidow I bought for a friend. Odd, becuase I got a few cherry knock off keyboards that are just fine, even kailh. Now it's worn down and odd to type on. 0 Key on keypad is fucked. I keep it at a station I don't use much, and every time a friend comes over and set up there, more often than not they get rid of it in favor of a different keyboard, even membrane. One thinks I'm doing it on purpose, like giving someone the 'madcatz controller'. I refuse to throw it away because the light effects are so good, so much better than other RGB keyboards. I want to replace the switches, but I've been putting it off. 

I think mine was defective, but it's not my first bad experience with razer keyboards. 

 

[Mindstalk3R]

@Jackson, I had multiple Razer products and except from the Mamba Chroma I was happy with their products

 

@Syntax The activation point and the weight to push the key down is important to me, both have an 1,2mm activation point, but idk the weight they need to push the key down tho

 

 

[Syntaxvgm]

23 minutes ago, Erik Sieghart said:

There's a large difference between "Everything Razer makes is bad." vs. "I owned the Razer keyboard we're specifically talking about and it broke."

I've persoanlly bought 2 and I've tried multiple ones at stores since you can the arrow keys through the box. All of the keycaps wobble because they are thin, in many cases the left and right arrows felt significantly different. My m5 key is the best on the keyboard. The switches are somehow worse than regular kailh, which are quite fine. I even own cheaper knockoffs that are great, I'm tying on epicgear purples. Love them, consistent. 

I've also encountered plenty of owners in the wild who've said the same. 

Bonus, I've been putting off replacing the switches on the one I still have because I know from experience the PCBs are so cheap they literally crumble when you solder to them

The keycaps are so flexible because the plastic is cheap and thin- they are meant to bend not break. MY g710+ doens't do that, and its keycaps are notorious for breaking. Thicker plastic though. My k70 doens't wobble. Shit the only keyboard I have that does that is my epic gear defiant, and again cheap keys meant not to break. Even then it's not nearly as flexible, and it way cheaper than even the non backlit razer one was, and this one has swappable key switches. 

 

 

 

(look at that stem)

old razer keycaps, when they used cherry mx blues. Still less plastic than normal keycaps, but more than now

They above photos are from a couple of years ago.

Here's the keycaps to my current chroma, I just pulled off the esc key and took this pic right now

and yes they wobble just as much 

 

 

k70 esc key

Epicgear defiant (these flex a bit)

g710+

 

That's all the keyboards with cherry style stems I have in this room right now

It's one thing that they cheap out, another when they don't lower the price accordingly. 

 

[Syntaxvgm]

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

My keys are razer greens and look like the bottom ones. I've never had any issues with key wobble, probably because I don't use my fists to type.

check my post again, I added tons of new pics of literally any keycap that's not razer having more plastic. Also notice how I slam the corsair keyboard and dont use much force on the black widow in that one video. 
It has little to do with typing, the inconsistency of the switches takes care of making that suck. It just shows the cheapness. 

[Syntaxvgm]

26 minutes ago, Erik Sieghart said:

But my point is I've never experienced any issues, and the Razer keyboard I'm currently using to type this message has been working just fine for over a year now despite extremely heavy use, not that what you experienced is invalid.

 

On key flex, has this ever been a significant issue for you? Have you ever snapped a key or broken one or something? Has a key you pushed not registered because it flexed too far over to the side? I've never experienced any of these, and you'd be the first person I'd hear from that from. Which is fine. I mean if that's you just go ahead and get yourself the thickest plastic in the game, since you'd need it.

I've just never heard of this being a significant problem, but to be sure I asked a friend of mine who happens to be a hardcore mechanical keyboard enthusiast. This is what he said when I asked about key flex being an indicator of build quality:

He then went on to recommend these:

--- 

In fact, I think I misspoke in my original post because the OP only cares about the speed of the two keyboards. To address this question: if the actuation points are the same, then results between the two are going to be insignificant, so you should pick whichever one you like better

he's right. Actually I found a video in the same folder as those pictures on my phone from when I tested a ton of razer boards at best buy and found regular kailh keyboard and same thing happened. From my memory I concluded that the keycaps contributed to it but the switches themselves are the main cause, by sticking a strong keycap on the blackwidow it still wobbled. Not as much, but it did  a lot more than normal. I don't own a kailh keyboard but I've used quite a few and liked them. It seems to me the biggest difference as far as inconsistency goes is it feels like razer keyboards are made with multiple batches. Who knows, but it blows my mind that razer has more quality control built in than the plain kailh switches yet they feel more consistent. Even the cheaper switches on my epicgear are really close. 

None of the switches on the razer ones felt bad, they all felt different. Even cherry has this problem, but mostly I've seen that it varies from keyboard to keyboard not on the same keybard (a lot more than you think, I've actually gotten into arguments because my razer boards felt much less stiff/lighter than mx blues, then found even mx blues have wide range of feel)

My current black widow chroma has some keys now that actuate but don't always click. I know the actuation point on plugner keys is lower than the plunge point, and that's a problem you see when gaming, but I'm talking typing. I really don't know what happened to this one, but I noticed that the keys that have problems are the ones that felt differnet in the first place, leading me to believe that there was a bad batch and indeed I'm right about mixed batches on razer keyboards. Again, they should feel better than kailh since they are the same base switches with better QC but they don't. From my memory, the other BW I bought and gave to a friend feels this way as well now according to him , but I would like to test it myself. 

But to the point of the wobble, this must be why my EG defiant wobbles closer to the razer one despite solid keycap stems, they are cherry knock offs and I assume the stem must be different plastic or something. Proof positive it has nothing to do with typing because I really like them and they do feel really consistent.  

Neither the  cherry reds I have or the browns wobble like this though. They wobble some, but I have a feeling the plastic is harder. In fact, I snapped a red stem on a keyboard years ago when I threw something on my desk. I imagine this is the drawback if you want to make a stiffer stem with cheaper plastic, much like the really stiff and solid keycaps on the g710+, they are made of cheap palstic, and when you go cheap you need to have it more flexible than hard, g710+ caps are known for breaking. 

I'm pretty sure cherry mx stems are some kind of  Polyoxymethylene blend, but I couldn't be 100% sure of that off the top of my head. I bet kailhs are ABS. Seeing how I was even able to snap an MX stem, which I've been told I'm lying about and only a gorilla on PCP could possibly do, I guess the wobble is not a bad thing if it's a cheaper plastic. Gotta save money somehow if you wanna make a compelling cherry alternative, I'd rather have something that's not brittle. 

[scottyseng]

10 hours ago, Mindstalk3R said:

-snip-

I'm not sure about speed, but you might also consider Ducky Shine keyboards (or Ducky one if you don't like RGB). They also have silver (speed switches). 

 

I have a Ducky Shine 6 Snow White Edition (with silver switch) and I quite like it myself. However, I couldn't tell you much of a speed difference between my keyboard and my cousin's K70 (I don't know anyone with a Razer keyboard). 

 

You might consider one of those optical switch keyboards if you're eager for speed?

[Mindstalk3R]

9 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

I'm not sure about speed, but you might also consider Ducky Shine keyboards (or Ducky one if you don't like RGB). They also have silver (speed switches). 

 

I have a Ducky Shine 6 Snow White Edition (with silver switch) and I quite like it myself. However, I couldn't tell you much of a speed difference between my keyboard and my cousin's K70 (I don't know anyone with a Razer keyboard). 

 

You might consider one of those optical switch keyboards if you're eager for speed?

 

I will take a look at the Ducky Shine Keyboard. 

And I already thought of getting a optical switch keyboard, the bloody 9 b820r 'is the fastest mechanical keyboard' they say on the internet, but I still need to do some research on it,  if they are actually good or not. 

Thanks 

[scottyseng]

Just now, Mindstalk3R said:

I will take a look at the Ducky Shine Keyboard. 

And I already thought of getting a optical switch keyboard, the bloody 9 b820r 'is the fastest mechanical keyboard' they say on the internet, but I still need to do some research on it,  if they are actually good or not. 

Thanks 

Yeah, just note, there's the Shine 6 and the Shine 6 Special Edition. The special edition has these floating keycaps (My keyboards as them as well, but white). Also, ducky shine keyboard LEDs are really bright, like my cousin's K70 looks dim compared to my keyboard. 

 

But yeah, I'm pretty sure those optical keyboards are for the speed happy (I don't remember which keyboards use the optical switches though).

[jcoops]

On 9/19/2017 at 2:25 PM, Erik Sieghart said:

Have you actually owned the blackwidow keyboards? I have. I also have a k70. It's currently sitting the closet. Your brand bias is showing.

 

---

I've tried out the yellow switches and found them to have a pretty good feel. Synapse is fantastic software as well. And the Chroma RGB is better than anything Corsair has to offer. As far as I've experienced firsthand, the Blackwidow build quality of the actual keyboard is fantastic. The rubber feet may eventually fall off but you can glue them back on easy.

 

I'd recommend the Razer one.

I have owned a Razer Blackwidow, it was complete and udder garbage.  The key switches became mushy and would get stuck down sometimes.  The lights also started to die out after only 2 months.  I don't have a bias between each brand, I actually own a Razer Man O' War and it's pretty damn nice.  

[Guest]

On 9/19/2017 at 9:54 PM, Erik Sieghart said:

But my point is I've never experienced any issues, and the Razer keyboard I'm currently using to type this message has been working just fine for over a year now despite extremely heavy use, not that what you experienced is invalid.

 

On key flex, has this ever been a significant issue for you? Have you ever snapped a key or broken one or something? Has a key you pushed not registered because it flexed too far over to the side? I've never experienced any of these, and you'd be the first person I'd hear from that from. Which is fine. I mean if that's you just go ahead and get yourself the thickest plastic in the game, since you'd need it.

I've just never heard of this being a significant problem, but to be sure I asked a friend of mine who happens to be a hardcore mechanical keyboard enthusiast. This is what he said when I asked about key flex being an indicator of build quality:

He then went on to recommend these:

--- 

In fact, I think I misspoke in my original post because the OP only cares about the speed of the two keyboards. To address this question: if the actuation points are the same, then results between the two are going to be insignificant, so you should pick whichever one you like better

Razer has had quality control issues ALOT in the past. They are getting better but still not great

[Steemax]

I've owned 2 Razer mice, both ended up with frayed wires within a few months and developed issues in their double clicks and mouse wheel. Same thing with my cousin who has gone through two razer mice as well as one of their keyboards. 

 

I tried their "Green switches" at Bestbuy and the wobble/rattle was out of this world. The switches were just so darn loose.

 

Not hating just sharing my experience with the brand. Take it with a grain of salt. 

[Brett_Bst]

well I have had a few razor keyboards, even the newest one, didn't like it, felt cheap for the amount of money it was, brought the k95 rgb instead

[Jessop]

On 9/19/2017 at 8:25 PM, Erik Sieghart said:

Have you actually owned the blackwidow keyboards? I have. I also have a k70. It's currently sitting the closet. Your brand bias is showing.

 

---

I've tried out the yellow switches and found them to have a pretty good feel. Synapse is fantastic software as well. And the Chroma RGB is better than anything Corsair has to offer. As far as I've experienced firsthand, the Blackwidow build quality of the actual keyboard is fantastic. The rubber feet may eventually fall off but you can glue them back on easy.

 

I'd recommend the Razer one.

I have to second that - I own an early 2014 Blackwidow Chroma and i have to admit that the key switches on the older BW Chroma ( Khail ) were shitty and had terrible key wobble .

I now own a Corsair K70 Rapidfire RGB and also a New 2017 Blackwidow Chroma V2 with Greens ( Greetech )

The new BW V2 is definitely as good as the Corsair in quality and the new Greetech key switches are excellent

they still have some key wobble compared to the cherry mx switches found in corsair boards but it's minor -

I love the new BW Chroma V2 -

[food158]

What is your reason for needing a keyboard so fast? Are you a 150 wpm typer? Gamer? Really, the speed difference between those keyboards is not noticeable. Even from a Cherry MX red to a silver. I say pick a keyboard you like.