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On September 06 2013 13:02 Blisse wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2013 11:30 issh wrote:On August 30 2013 08:36 frontline- wrote:
How resilient is the Blackwidow TE? There is a ton of negative feedback about the Blackwidow keyboards... I feel bad for ordering it and think about cancelling my order tomorrow.
Uhh. I've had the blackwidow keyboard for a few years, and overall it's been an amazing keyboard, up untill recently mine is starting to break down (i actually smashed it, so it's my own fault) I don't know why it's got such a bad reputation, in my opinion it's a solid keyboard. I've been bashing my head against this topic for the last 2 years if you want to check that far, but it's honestly just because Razer has a significantly larger fanbase and a much more active one, I want to say, than the rest of the gaming peripheral manufacturers combined. While we like to think that we more tech-savvy communities are large, we're actually pretty goddamn small, and don't really put any kind of pressure on Razer. Just going by raw numbers because that's all I have (they don't release sales figures sadly), Razer's Facebook page has 3 million Likes versus 800K for SteelSeries, 1.3 million for Logitech, and none others come close. But the more important figure is "Talking about this", which is the activity in the community, which is 23K for SteelSeries, 10K for Logitech, and 140K for Razer. Cooler Master is a bit of a dark horse with ~300K Likes, 20K active. I'm not saying that Facebook represents buyers, but just going by the numbers, Razer honestly completely crushes the rest of the manufacturers in terms of numbers. So as my argument has been all along, while the failure rate appears to be higher, you also honestly have to consider how many more units Razer sells than the other manufacturers, and judge by the % failure rate by considering the # of units sold, rather than the # of failures by looking at how many reviews online complain about it failing. Razer's not only the largest manufacturer, but basically priced beside CM's boards, conveniently a couple dollars higher to give that feeling of "Razer premium quality", which honestly is pretty true. You do get something that works well for a decent amount of time, if you're not an idiot about your peripherals. However, I have to admit, it honestly feels like that either the product lasts you a good 2-3+ years, or it'll fail within 3 months. I've had good and bad experiences with them (I'm looking at you Razer Onza), but that goes with all products. In the end though, I would still put Logitech > SteelSeries > Razer in terms of their longevity, but Razer is not complete crap like the vocal minority of the Internet keeps spewing. Because it is the minority. Sorry for the long post!
You dont have to look at units sold or any of that to see the low quality. It just takes a few seconds to see razers build quality is MUCH lower than almost everyone if you own their keyboard.
Pull a keycap and you will be greeted by a ridiculously thin stem (the part the connects to the switch), that is KNOWN to crack. You can easily see why when compared to ANY other keycap, razers are just thin all around. The keycaps really twist and flex easily.
You will also see MUCH thinner stabilizer wire, smaller stabilizer wire guides, and stabilizer inserts ALL unique to razer and their manufacturer. (iOne?) Their stabilizers are like an imitation Costar stabilizer system. Standard Costar parts and build are available (CMStorn uses them for manufacture) but razer chooses to opt for a manufacturer with their own weaker Costar imitation. Their steel plate in the keyboard is also thinner than others, and has been reported to rust.
I know all of this because I (regretfully) own a BWU, the keyboard that is shaped like an arch from the factory... as in the middle rubber 'foot' under the spacebar hovers 4-5mm above the desk. Quality.
The newish tournament one has shown some promise in terms of PCB quality from what i've read via modders, Razer also (finally) introduced true 6KRO on their keyboards. But im sure they still use their cheap stabilizer system. This is enough to see their $greed$ in terms of 'cheaping out' on internals.
If you get the tournament for a great price or its your only mechanical option is the only reason to get one.
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On September 06 2013 13:36 Lu_e wrote:Show nested quote +On September 06 2013 13:02 Blisse wrote:On August 30 2013 11:30 issh wrote:On August 30 2013 08:36 frontline- wrote:
How resilient is the Blackwidow TE? There is a ton of negative feedback about the Blackwidow keyboards... I feel bad for ordering it and think about cancelling my order tomorrow.
Uhh. I've had the blackwidow keyboard for a few years, and overall it's been an amazing keyboard, up untill recently mine is starting to break down (i actually smashed it, so it's my own fault) I don't know why it's got such a bad reputation, in my opinion it's a solid keyboard. I've been bashing my head against this topic for the last 2 years if you want to check that far, but it's honestly just because Razer has a significantly larger fanbase and a much more active one, I want to say, than the rest of the gaming peripheral manufacturers combined. While we like to think that we more tech-savvy communities are large, we're actually pretty goddamn small, and don't really put any kind of pressure on Razer. Just going by raw numbers because that's all I have (they don't release sales figures sadly), Razer's Facebook page has 3 million Likes versus 800K for SteelSeries, 1.3 million for Logitech, and none others come close. But the more important figure is "Talking about this", which is the activity in the community, which is 23K for SteelSeries, 10K for Logitech, and 140K for Razer. Cooler Master is a bit of a dark horse with ~300K Likes, 20K active. I'm not saying that Facebook represents buyers, but just going by the numbers, Razer honestly completely crushes the rest of the manufacturers in terms of numbers. So as my argument has been all along, while the failure rate appears to be higher, you also honestly have to consider how many more units Razer sells than the other manufacturers, and judge by the % failure rate by considering the # of units sold, rather than the # of failures by looking at how many reviews online complain about it failing. Razer's not only the largest manufacturer, but basically priced beside CM's boards, conveniently a couple dollars higher to give that feeling of "Razer premium quality", which honestly is pretty true. You do get something that works well for a decent amount of time, if you're not an idiot about your peripherals. However, I have to admit, it honestly feels like that either the product lasts you a good 2-3+ years, or it'll fail within 3 months. I've had good and bad experiences with them (I'm looking at you Razer Onza), but that goes with all products. In the end though, I would still put Logitech > SteelSeries > Razer in terms of their longevity, but Razer is not complete crap like the vocal minority of the Internet keeps spewing. Because it is the minority. Sorry for the long post! You dont have to look at units sold or any of that to see the low quality. It just takes a few seconds to see razers build quality is MUCH lower than almost everyone if you own their keyboard. Pull a keycap and you will be greeted by a ridiculously thin stem (the part the connects to the switch), that is KNOWN to crack. You can easily see why when compared to ANY other keycap, razers are just thin all around. The keycaps really twist and flex easily. You will also see MUCH thinner stabilizer wire, smaller stabilizer wire guides, and stabilizer inserts ALL unique to razer and their manufacturer. (iOne?) Their stabilizers are like an imitation Costar stabilizer system. Standard Costar parts and build are available (CMStorn uses them for manufacture) but razer chooses to opt for a manufacturer with their own weaker Costar imitation. Their steel plate in the keyboard is also thinner than others, and has been reported to rust. I know all of this because I (regretfully) own a BWU, the keyboard that is shaped like an arch from the factory... as in the middle rubber 'foot' under the spacebar hovers 4-5mm above the desk. Quality. The newish tournament one has shown some promise in terms of PCB quality from what i've read via modders, Razer also (finally) introduced true 6KRO on their keyboards. But im sure they still use their cheap stabilizer system. This is enough to see their $greed$ in terms of 'cheaping out' on internals. If you get the tournament for a great price or its your only mechanical option is the only reason to get one.
I never said Razer made keyboards with higher quality components. I said that the failure rate is greatly exaggerated.
It does have lower quality components, but does that mean that it'll fail more? .. you haven't proved that. You'll need to give actual evidence that the Razer stems crack more frequently than others, and have that stand up to scrutiny if you're going that route (and honestly, I have never heard of anyone complaining about the key stem cracking).
The main point being, nothing you've said actually says, "yes, this is a reason the BW boards fail more". All you've done is tell me that they're made of lower quality. You need to justify why the higher quality in other boards is disproportionate to the pricing of the BlackWidow and how the same lack of quality has meant the BW fails more often than it should compared to the other boards. On the same vein, does the increase in price of higher quality boards actually justify the decreased failure rate, or if you're comparing to similarly priced boards, can you show that the similar boards fail less often than the BlackWidow. You haven't proven any of these points.
Also, your anecdotal evidence has absolutely zero weight. I have multiple BlackWidows and none of them have experienced any sort of warping. Great quality. See what I can do?
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On September 06 2013 14:45 Blisse wrote:Show nested quote +On September 06 2013 13:36 Lu_e wrote:On September 06 2013 13:02 Blisse wrote:On August 30 2013 11:30 issh wrote:On August 30 2013 08:36 frontline- wrote:
How resilient is the Blackwidow TE? There is a ton of negative feedback about the Blackwidow keyboards... I feel bad for ordering it and think about cancelling my order tomorrow.
Uhh. I've had the blackwidow keyboard for a few years, and overall it's been an amazing keyboard, up untill recently mine is starting to break down (i actually smashed it, so it's my own fault) I don't know why it's got such a bad reputation, in my opinion it's a solid keyboard. I've been bashing my head against this topic for the last 2 years if you want to check that far, but it's honestly just because Razer has a significantly larger fanbase and a much more active one, I want to say, than the rest of the gaming peripheral manufacturers combined. While we like to think that we more tech-savvy communities are large, we're actually pretty goddamn small, and don't really put any kind of pressure on Razer. Just going by raw numbers because that's all I have (they don't release sales figures sadly), Razer's Facebook page has 3 million Likes versus 800K for SteelSeries, 1.3 million for Logitech, and none others come close. But the more important figure is "Talking about this", which is the activity in the community, which is 23K for SteelSeries, 10K for Logitech, and 140K for Razer. Cooler Master is a bit of a dark horse with ~300K Likes, 20K active. I'm not saying that Facebook represents buyers, but just going by the numbers, Razer honestly completely crushes the rest of the manufacturers in terms of numbers. So as my argument has been all along, while the failure rate appears to be higher, you also honestly have to consider how many more units Razer sells than the other manufacturers, and judge by the % failure rate by considering the # of units sold, rather than the # of failures by looking at how many reviews online complain about it failing. Razer's not only the largest manufacturer, but basically priced beside CM's boards, conveniently a couple dollars higher to give that feeling of "Razer premium quality", which honestly is pretty true. You do get something that works well for a decent amount of time, if you're not an idiot about your peripherals. However, I have to admit, it honestly feels like that either the product lasts you a good 2-3+ years, or it'll fail within 3 months. I've had good and bad experiences with them (I'm looking at you Razer Onza), but that goes with all products. In the end though, I would still put Logitech > SteelSeries > Razer in terms of their longevity, but Razer is not complete crap like the vocal minority of the Internet keeps spewing. Because it is the minority. Sorry for the long post! You dont have to look at units sold or any of that to see the low quality. It just takes a few seconds to see razers build quality is MUCH lower than almost everyone if you own their keyboard. Pull a keycap and you will be greeted by a ridiculously thin stem (the part the connects to the switch), that is KNOWN to crack. You can easily see why when compared to ANY other keycap, razers are just thin all around. The keycaps really twist and flex easily. You will also see MUCH thinner stabilizer wire, smaller stabilizer wire guides, and stabilizer inserts ALL unique to razer and their manufacturer. (iOne?) Their stabilizers are like an imitation Costar stabilizer system. Standard Costar parts and build are available (CMStorn uses them for manufacture) but razer chooses to opt for a manufacturer with their own weaker Costar imitation. Their steel plate in the keyboard is also thinner than others, and has been reported to rust. I know all of this because I (regretfully) own a BWU, the keyboard that is shaped like an arch from the factory... as in the middle rubber 'foot' under the spacebar hovers 4-5mm above the desk. Quality. The newish tournament one has shown some promise in terms of PCB quality from what i've read via modders, Razer also (finally) introduced true 6KRO on their keyboards. But im sure they still use their cheap stabilizer system. This is enough to see their $greed$ in terms of 'cheaping out' on internals. If you get the tournament for a great price or its your only mechanical option is the only reason to get one. I never said Razer made keyboards with higher quality components. I said that the failure rate is greatly exaggerated. It does have lower quality components, but does that mean that it'll fail more? .. you haven't proved that. You'll need to give actual evidence that the Razer stems crack more frequently than others, and have that stand up to scrutiny if you're going that route (and honestly, I have never heard of anyone complaining about the key stem cracking). The main point being, nothing you've said actually says, "yes, this is a reason the BW boards fail more". All you've done is tell me that they're made of lower quality. You need to justify why the higher quality in other boards is disproportionate to the pricing of the BlackWidow and how the same lack of quality has meant the BW fails more often than it should compared to the other boards. On the same vein, does the increase in price of higher quality boards actually justify the decreased failure rate, or if you're comparing to similarly priced boards, can you show that the similar boards fail less often than the BlackWidow. You haven't proven any of these points. Also, your anecdotal evidence has absolutely zero weight. I have multiple BlackWidows and none of them have experienced any sort of warping. Great quality. See what I can do?
A slough of dissatisfied owners in this thread and on Geekhack beg to differ. They are poorly made boards with sketchy firmware. When you pay $60 for a keyboard you are mostly paying for the switch. It's why Filco costs $140 instead.
I had a Razer rep offer to send me one of the tournament editions to test out but never received one. Perhaps he was told by a superior that that was a bad idea to get a keyboard expert's opinion on it? IDK... :d
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On September 05 2013 23:00 MaukkaNamski wrote:
Has anyone else having the annoying issue where as you tap a letter, in my case S and R, it doubles the letter sometimes even does like 4 times it even if I press it just once. Anyone know what is up? Could it be contact issue or just dirty switches? I looked it up on internet and someone had posted about the same issue to geekhack.
Just mash the switch abit (roughly press the key). That should fix it.
If it doesn't then try take the cap off an blow it out with compressed air, if still having issues then look at something more drastic like taking it apart.
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Hey guys ,
I am planning to go to Hong Kong .
Is there a great market in Hong Kong for mechanical keyboards , because I've heard that mechanical keyboards in Asia are a lot more common and if so are they cheaper or are they as same as in the westerncountries?
Are there any stores to buy mechanical keyboards?
Thanks
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On September 06 2013 23:43 Tokikong wrote:
Hey guys ,
I am planning to go to Hong Kong .
Is there a great market in Hong Kong for mechanical keyboards , because I've heard that mechanical keyboards in Asia are a lot more common and if so are they cheaper or are they as same as in the westerncountries?
Are there any stores to buy mechanical keyboards?
Thanks
You can oftentimes pick up the cheap keycool/hpe/noppoo stuff there off of taobao.com. But the prices may have risen enough that it doesn't make much sense compared to just buying like a CM QFR outside of China. I dunno.
Also be careful about buying hardware in physical stores in China - make sure to test it before finalizing the purchase, because there's a plethora of sketchy or non-functioning electronics for sale.
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On September 06 2013 10:04 [S9] taeZaKi wrote:That's really interesting, considering I play fighting games with a stick as well. Curious to try them out for myself!
Yea it's cool, but the whole 'silent/quieter' thing is sort of a misnomer when it's reported on. The dB change is very minor, it's still loud, just not as loud. It's kind of like a "silencer" for a gun, it's still loud as fuck.
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Thank you. i'm searching a keyboard with mx brown switches. which keyboard is the cheapest on the market now ?
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How do you remove a space bar without fucking up those plasticky thingys?
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On September 07 2013 22:49 Zealos wrote:
How do you remove a space bar without fucking up those plasticky thingys?
You can't fuck up them, worst case scenario they come off from the spacebar, they're not glued, at least they shouldn't be.
I usually pull it so the switch (middle) has come off then move it sideways while pulling on the wire to the other way.
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On September 07 2013 22:49 Zealos wrote:
How do you remove a space bar without fucking up those plasticky thingys?
U mean the stabilizers? They'll be fine as long as ur not too liberal. Be sure to use a keycap puller or some sort of string to even out the pressure.
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On September 08 2013 01:38 slytown wrote:Show nested quote +On September 07 2013 22:49 Zealos wrote:
How do you remove a space bar without fucking up those plasticky thingys? U mean the stabilizers? They'll be fine as long as ur not too liberal. Be sure to use a keycap puller or some sort of string to even out the pressure.
You even out the pressure hell of a lot better with 10 fingers than any keycap puller.
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On September 08 2013 05:10 DERPDERP wrote:Show nested quote +On September 08 2013 01:38 slytown wrote:On September 07 2013 22:49 Zealos wrote:
How do you remove a space bar without fucking up those plasticky thingys? U mean the stabilizers? They'll be fine as long as ur not too liberal. Be sure to use a keycap puller or some sort of string to even out the pressure. You even out the pressure hell of a lot better with 10 fingers than any keycap puller.
How small are your fingers that you can get in there? Are you part spider or something?
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On September 08 2013 05:11 slytown wrote:Show nested quote +On September 08 2013 05:10 DERPDERP wrote:On September 08 2013 01:38 slytown wrote:On September 07 2013 22:49 Zealos wrote:
How do you remove a space bar without fucking up those plasticky thingys? U mean the stabilizers? They'll be fine as long as ur not too liberal. Be sure to use a keycap puller or some sort of string to even out the pressure. You even out the pressure hell of a lot better with 10 fingers than any keycap puller. How small are your fingers that you can get in there? Are you part spider or something?
I got small womanly hands. However I do prefer to remove the bottom alpha and modifier rows but you can also just press the keys down and get a good enough of a grip from the spacebar and pull that sucker off the switch.
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I am trying to decide between a CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid or a Razer Blackwidow :/ Want to chuck out my terrible plastic microsoft thing xD
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QFR. Cheaper, better quality. None of that flashy LED shit.
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On September 07 2013 22:14 obican wrote:Thank you. i'm searching a keyboard with mx brown switches. which keyboard is the cheapest on the market now ?
Probably Quickfire Rapid from Cooler Master, though if you live in Turkey I don't know for certain. In the US that is probably the cheapest brown board.
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Thought I'd share this, it was posted over at GH. CM Storm Quick Fire Pro with brown switches is $50 shipped with MIR. A pretty good deal for anyone who wants to try out brown switches at a cheap price or want another keyboard. These usually go between $80-$100.
Link
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EPT
