Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Keyboard
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,873 words · ~9 min read
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so my first reaction to the arrival of my sample of a retail k70 RGB was like G
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awesome I'm going to go plug it in right now and I'm going to it's going to be
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sweet and I can't wait I then proceeded
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to calmly and patiently wait for the new
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Corsair utility engine Q software to
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download and install fired it up and
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after faffing about for a couple minutes realized I had no idea how to do
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anything so I checked the box for the manual only to discover that the reason
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Corsair makes you download the manual is that it's 142 pages long that's when it
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hit me this review was going to take a
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while Cooler Master nepton Series CPU coolers are available in a variety of
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radiator sizes to perfectly suit your next build click now to learn more we'll
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start with a physical over review if you've seen 1 k70 you've pretty much
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seen them all the layout is a standard 104 key with no deal breaking
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alterations like a short backspace key and a couple much appreciated additions
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namely a Hardware switch for polling rates I recommend leaving this at the
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default setting and BIOS mode which improves compatibility particularly
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outside of your OS on older Hardware it's got a three-level brightness toggle
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a Windows lock key five media keys and a
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classy looking textured metal volume wheel Corsair continues to include soft
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touch rubberized wrist rests and as someone who won't use a keyboard without
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one I consider this very important and they continue to deliver the same
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pleasing fit and finish that we've come to expect over the last few years with a
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gorgeous solid brushed aluminum back plate rubber bottom flipout feet and a
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braided dual USB power cord although it should be noted that the second
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connector with two arrows on it is not
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for a pass through Port but just extra power for the RGB LED lighting and
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significantly upgraded microcontroller when you're using USB 2 if you plug in
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via USB 3 you only need the connector with the picture of the keyboard on it
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and you can leave the other one dangling so let's dive right into it shall we the
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well publicized and much anticipated
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Special Sauce here is Cherry's implementation for now exclusive to
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Corsair of RGB lighting within their MX
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series key switches replacing the single
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3mm two-lead LED embedded on the top of the switch directly below the key cap is
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a new system that mounts an RGB led to
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the PCB of the keyboard and uses a translucent keycap housing and lens to
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focus the light so from the outside it looks very similar to the older style of
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course this would all be meaningless if performance was compromised in any way
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and keyboard enthusiasts will be happy to know that the tactile characteristics
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of the red blue and brown cherrymx switches that this keyboard is available
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with at launch are untainted and another
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desirable side effect is that the LEDs are less susceptible to failure due to
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static discharge because they're surface mounted in the keyboard so so far sounds
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good all around but of course if it's impossible to use then this is all a
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purely academic discussion so let's dive into the documentation for the Corsair
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utility engine software the main reason this keyboard has been delayed and
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delayed and delayed some more and find out if a little B of good oldfashioned
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rtfm is going to get me through
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this we'll start with profiles not to be
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confused with modes which are sort of like subprofiles
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profiles store their modes and foreground lighting effects and can be
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switched automatically when certain applications launch or manually using
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the system Tri icon something you may find yourself doing often when setting
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up lighting effects since sometimes you'll have to change them to get
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settings to apply modes coexist with profiles you must
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always have one of each loaded at least
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they can have their own background color schemes over which the foreground
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lighting effects will run but they are inexplicably missing functionality like
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the ability to have continuous wave patterns or their own reactive typing
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schemes so you'll likely need a handful of profiles to get the variety that you
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obviously crave because you just spent a couple of hundred dollars on a keyboard
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that lights up funny modes also store button assignments and
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the options here are basically endless every button on the keyboard even the
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LED brightness toggle which I rebound to mode switching because the keyboard
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lacks any dedicated buttons for that or even general purpose macro buttons is
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completely reprogrammable we're talking text input shortcuts to the the homepage
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of your your favorite website or applications or whatever overlaid
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countdown timers for gamers although that overlay features a bit of a work in
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proc progress Mouse DPI changes Mouse
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movement Mouse clicks separate macro
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execution for the downstroke and release of the key and even different lighting
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effects to go along with it it's pretty cumbersome but the groundwork has been
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laid here for Corsair's RGB series to be the most powerful keyboards ever made
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and never mind just for gaming for anything that requires execution of of
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macros or other complex functionality and we haven't even talked about the
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lighting yet it took me a few hours to get the hang of it but not at least not
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entirely because I'm an idiot I spent most of that time being frustrated by
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bugs like needing to drag a mode to the top of the list and sometimes quickly
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switch profiles in order to preview what I was doing and not being able to find
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mode switching within the actions editor because it's the one thing that's not in
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there no you need to rightclick the button instead but once I got the hang
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of it I found myself able to do some moderately cool stuff I can set up
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different key actions per mode uh clone my modes entirely within a profile
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change any key to any color I want even
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the media Keys set up reactive typing on a single key or in a ripple effect I can
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set up waves starting on the side or in the center with whatever colors I want I
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can export the file to carry it with me to other computers or share with friends
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and coolest of all I can just not be ared to do any of this and download
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profiles from the course there forum where folks are already doing stuff that
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I couldn't figure out how to do but here
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I ran into another problem when you import someone else's profile it adds
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all of the crap from theirs into yours
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with the only way to get around that being to manually delete them all or
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wipe out everything in the software and while I saw stuff that I wasn't sure how
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to do most of it was pretty simple different time delays longer or shorter
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Trails on an effect more or fewer colors
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where's the full programmability that you promised Corsair Lua as they call it
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is not here yet which I guess is both
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encouraging and discouraging because it means it's less complicated for now but
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it also means that it's going to get more complicated later in order to unlock the full potential of this bad
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boy so I guess that leads pretty well into conclusion time and it's not a
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simple conclusion in the 10 years I've been using Corsair products I've seen
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Innovation and I've seen success but I've also seen failure so what is the
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k70 right now I would say it's both the
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idea is a success but the endless delays gave their competitors the better part
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of a year to react and bring their own solutions to market now that it's
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finally here I'd say the quality of the hardware is a smashing success but the
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software is to put it bluntly not I mean
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its features are a success compared to other products currently on the market
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but compared to the expectations that they set they're not and I'm sure they'd
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prefer if I just ignore the Uproar over the Corsair gaming Rebrand initiative
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speaking of things that are not that successful right
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now so the k70 RGB won't be taking home
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an editor's choice or anything today but what I will say based on my experience
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with corer is that while this was not a smooth product launch the battle for RGB
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keyboard dominance is far from over for
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all their flaws Corsair's RGB keyboards have a few key advantages versus their
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competition number one is excitement this is the most anticipated keyboard in
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the history of computer enthusiasts ever as far as I can tell number two they are
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first to Market they exist people are buying them and more importantly not
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returning them the bugs appear to be software rather than hardware issues
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which makes patching the ones in the field relatively simple and gives
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Corsair much needed Capital to continue to develop the product and number three
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is that Corsair always comes up swinging when they smell blood and I bet they do
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right now I mean this is the first time an established gaming peripheral maker
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and in this case two of them has ever reacted so quickly to something little
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old Corsair has done and if I was those competitors I would make damn good
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ensure that the chroma and the g910 are strong reactions the last time Corsair
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entered a category this aggressively the PC power supply in case industry was
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dominated by a little company called antech and the rest is history It Anyway
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expect to see coverage of the k95 or K65
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the macro button equipped and 10 keyless variants of the k70 when I've had a
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chance to scope out the competition or when Corsair turns their software from
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something that limps along functionally
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into something worthy of the Corsair name or the Corsair gaming name with
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some batl thing or whatever it is they're calling themselves these days
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guys thanks for watching like this video
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if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me
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know do you believe that Corsair can
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ultimately deliver what they promised with the hardware here and if so are you
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buying one guys check out the link in the video
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our affiliate code so we get a small Kickback and you can even give us a monthly contribution directly all that
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stuff helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget
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