gaming peripherals – Tech Raman

Corsair Vengeance K60 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 18:41:44 +0000

Corsair has been popular for their power supplies, RAM, and cases but recently they have build an armory of gaming peripherals including keyboard, mouse and headsets that not only looks great but also are sturdy and good to use. What we have today at our review desk is Corsair Vengeance K60 gaming keyboard with its own unique charms like swappable key caps for frequently used gaming keys, and a left-hand wrist rest/keycap-storage bin. For gaming buffs, its a serious arena and the right gaming gear makes a lot of difference to the gaming experience. Corsair K60 falls under the lower deck of the Corsair’s keyboard portfolio with K70 and K90 better upgrades. Still if you are a casual gamer you can look at K60 for performance gaming.

Design and build

The K60 is a looker though not very flamboyant like some of other gaming peripherals in the market including from the Corsair’s own range. Metal body wins over me and K60 has brushed aluminum deck plate and along with the two tone color-scheme it looks neat. The K60 mixes two type of switches for the keys, while it uses Cherry MX Red mechanical switches which are a real-must for gaming keyboards due to their rapid actuation and light weighting are used for all the typing and numeric pad, the lesser used function keys uses the cheaper silicone dome switches. The keys are nicely spaced and the Cherry MX Red mechanical switches are joy to tap. On the top right corner there are media controls like buttons for stop, play/pause, forward and back search, as well as a rolling volume control and mute button. There is also a windows lock key for interference free gaming. A good, sturdy cable is a a must for a good gaming keyboard. K60 uses a durable braided USB cable. It has two USB connections and the braided covers prevents chord tangling and can withstand much of wear and tear for longer life. A unique addition to the K60 is a detachable left hand wrist rest which also combines as a little stowaway place to keep the switchable key caps and a handy key removable tool. The keyboard out of the package comes with all black keys but you also get 1-6 and WASD bright red swappable caps for easy identification and navigation while in gaming. The swappable caps are also textured for comfort. The wrist rest is very ergonomic. Even the space bar has a texture on it and these minute detailing comes handy during game play. With ‘anti-ghosting’ on works, the keyboard allows you to press any number of keys simultaneously something that only a serious gamer appreciates. Imagine a situation in battlefield where you have to run diagonally as well as keep firing your gun at opponents! Corsair Vengeance K60 is a good gaming keyboard for starters but it lacks the back-light and programmable keys which many serious gamers would look forward to. For that, you can look at K90 in the series but if you are looking for a started gaming keyboard, K60 is a good choice.]]>

Corsair Vengeance K60 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 18:41:44 +0000

Design and build

Corsair Vengeance M65 review – A great gaming mouse for FPS

Lakshmi Rajan — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 01:35:14 +0000

To begin the Corsair Vengeance M65 review on a lighter note, am I the only one or do you agree that this gaming rodent looks inspired by the head gear of Predator movie?! Whatever be the design inspiration, Vengeance M65 looks wicked, menacing and in the same breath appealing. You might either like it or just dislike it, the rodent does not fall into borderline. Looks apart what matters most is how it performs during our gaming bouts and that is what we are going to find out in this review. Ask any serious gamer and he would know the importance of the right and dedicated gaming armory to give him that extra edge to separate the men from the boys. Vengeance M65 is particularly made with First-person shooters (FPS) genre in mind. It also happens to be my favorite genre. Vengeance M65 is the company’s upgrade to it’s earlier excellent weaponry, Vengeance M60. The upgraded mouse retains the same skin and design but has boosted the laser sensitivity to 8,200dpi. Under the hood it uses an upgraded Avago LaserStream sensor – the ADNS-9800 that replaces the ADNS-9500 that was in the M60. The upgrade gives a top-notch 8,200 dpi super sensitivity. If that is too much to handle, you can drop down the dpi and also have three profile setting to any value between 50 dpi and that tall 8,200 mark. We will talk in length on this in a moment. A brushed aluminum unibody form the skeleton of Vengeance M65, while three plastic parts cover it but frees strategic openings to give the glimpse of the metal frame beneath. While the top soft-touch plastic is smooth, then two flanking contoured plates have a coarse texture to give a better grip and the thumb feels battle-ready on it. [gallery link="file" ids="4319,4318,4317,4316,4310"] A dedicated sniper button is strategically located in the thumb side plate. When you are scrambling to take a long aim during a battle, you need maximum accuracy and the sniper button instantly lowers the M65’s DPI conveniently. A little above the top of the sniper button and on the edge of the right plastic panel is a pair of buttons which are per-configured to “forward” and “back” buttons. Talking about the configuration, Vengeance M65 like most gaming mice allows configuration options which we will talk in a while. Wedged between the left and right click buttons is a metal tracking wheel with cuts in rubber giving a good feel and control during the navigations. A little above the wheel is buttons for DPI adjustments. Five flat footings on the bottom gives the right amount of friction to minimize drag during movements. I usually hate those mouse pads and the flat footings make sure I don’t need them. Three removable weights are placed on the bottom, so you can choose the right mass for your hands. In case you are new to these weight-lifting operation, this is how it works. Notice that three screw type round rings? Each one is a weight and upon removal each one lightens the mouse a bit. A thick braided chord is confidence-inducing, I have a habit of carelessly damaging the chords and this one promises high endurance. M65 is a wired mouse and there is no wireless option but it is understandable cos while the wireless keeps the desk clutter-free, wired-devices are free from interference and in the combative, explosive gaming world, precision is more important and wired mouse are more reliable. Once you hook the M65 to USB port, it glows blue. In case it distracts you, you can switch it off in the software control panel.

Vengeance M65 Performance analysis

A maximum DPI of 8,200 is the best you can find for gaming sensors and if that is like a hot potato for your hands, you can customize the DPI settings as per your liking anywhere from 50 to the max mark. For the on-the-fly DPI shifts, you have three level DPI buttons to access. M65 allows for customization of the buttons, set the various DPI settings (including that of the sniper button) and assign profiles for easy access. For this, you need to download the control panel software from Corsair website and it is free. [gallery link="file" ids="4320,4321,4322"]

M65 is aimed at first-person shooter genres, if you are a serious MMO players and have leanings for button-laden mouse, you might have to take a look at Vengeance M95 which gives 15 programmable buttons as compared to M65’s 8 buttons. I don’t like a heavily buttoned mouse, so M65 suits me neat. If you are left-handed, Vengeance M65 offers you no respect. You have to look elsewhere. Vengeance M65 is amazingly accurate and stands among the best out there. There is absolutely no lag in responsiveness and along with the super-precise laser sensor, Vengeance M65 mouse proves to be one of the best weapon for serious gamers. On the ergonomics front, apart from the killer looks, it gives a very comfortable grip, the textures are great. M65 is more suited for claw and fingertip grips. [pros]

killer design
Sturdy build quality
lag-free responsiveness
super-precise laser sensor

[/pros] [cons]

Not for left-handed people

[/cons]]]>

Corsair Vengeance 1500 review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 11:47:45 +0000

Design and build quality Vengeance 1500 features a circumaural design which fits nice over each ear. Sticking to a functional design, it looks premium and tasteful thanks to the chrome accents and glossy and matte black plastic body. In spite of the plastic construction, it has a sturdy build quality. Corsair logo is embossed subtly over either ear, giving the brand a confident aura as well as sleek look. The over-sized ear pads have velvety material, though comfortable they tend to catch dust easily. The ear pads can also be folded 90 degree with the fabric side in, comfortable when you hang it around your neck. The adjustable headband with faux leather material is well padded and rests comfortably on head. The microphone can be retracted and when not in use pushed conveniently up to the side. The in-line remote is simple and functional featuring plus and minus volume buttons and a microphone mute button. There are two blue illuminated rings, which turns red when mic is muted.

Drivers

The clear giveaway that Corsair is serious about delivering a premium product is the massive 50mm drivers nested in the earpads instead of the more common sub-40 mm drivers usually used. It provides accurate and detailed sound reproduction, keeps the distortions to minimum and gives clear audio.

Driver software control panel

Vengeance 1500 works butter smooth even without having to install the driver software but it would be good to download the Corsair driver software from their website and fiddle around with the headset control panel for more customized options. The control panel is simple and straightforward. There are three sections – main, equalizer on the left and on the right you have the surround sound processing setup. The main section has the basic volume and mic adjustments while the equalizer section below features a 10-band equalizer function with several gaming oriented presets. Move to the right half, the bypass section which will be your default setting sends the audio waves directly to the stereo cups while the next option Dolby gives 5.1 emulation in stereo headphones. It has three set of ‘audio room’ options to choose like studio, cinema and hall. The third option is 7.1 Virtual Speaker shifter which emulates the audio to a 7.1 processing mode. It also has set of options to ‘position’ the speakers for better audio output. For experiencing the 7.1 processing one of course need 7.1 compatible games and compatible audio media files in case you are listening to music or watching a movie.

Performance

I immersed myself playing hours of games, listened to my collection of music and took time to watch a couple of movies. So how does Corsair Vengeance 1500 rate in my usage? Pretty high, both as a gaming peripheral and as a audiophile headphone. The build quality is good. On long hours of usage, it is soft on ears but it also rests a bit heavy on head. Though I had no issues over extended hours of usage, my friend did have to take a break in between. The audio output is pretty good, though the positional awareness during multiplayer games were bit confusing for a serious gamer, the audio range is pretty impressive. The surround sound experience is impressive at dolby but that can’t be said the same with 7.1 sound processing. It is good but does not deliver the accurate positioning but then one has also has to consider the headset only emulates the 7.1 speaker processing. So it can be excused considering the audio delivery and the range is pretty good stuff. For music experience and with few tweaking of the equalizer, the output is premium enough. It also has to be noted that the Vengeance 1500 digital amplifier can be cranked up high without being noisy on your ears. In fact you can hear it couple of feet away from the headset on high volume but still without discomforting your ear.

Conclusion

Overall Corsair Vengeance 1500 proves to be a able and strong performer. With a good build quality, premium look and delivering full and good audio range and comfortable on ears, Vengeance 1500 is both a good gaming headset to have a look as well as gives overall immersive experience for audiophiles. [pros]

Good build quality
50 mm driver
Superb audio quality
Volume can be cranked up without distortion and discomfort
Braided cable feels more durable

[/pros] [cons]

7.1 surround processing is not up to the mark
Fabric ear muff needs more care

[/cons]]]>