Saitek PC Gaming Keyboard

[Clay]

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/saitek_pc_gaming_keyboard/index.shtml

Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks!

[jAkUp]

Nice! Same keyboard I have, its great. The only thing I don't like about it is the light settings don't stay when I reboot

[SH64]

Another nice review Clay .. the Saitek keyboard looks tempting ! :D

my only take on the review is ~2 pages for the disassembly is more than what the readers need . in fact who would care much on the dissasembly of the product ??
thats maybe just me though & i could be wrong .

I found the wrist rest on the Command Pad to be a bit shallow for my hand. I've also felt the same about the past two Nostromo SpeedPads so maybe it's just me.

You are not alone in this one . i felt the same about the Nostromo pad .. maybe we need to change our hands ?? :p

[|MaguS|]

Question on the board, Do the keys have the same type of clasp standard boards have? If I purchased this board, I would want to replace the keys with clear ones so they could be lit up but the led lights.

[Sazar]

nice... I saw one @ fry's yesterday... still workin my logitech keyboard but a coupla the REALLY well used keys are stickin a bit :(

the ctrl key especially (my crouch)... but I wanna stick to wireless... hopefully a similiar board will come out wireles...

[Clay]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

@jAkUp: Interesting about the light settings not being retained on reboot, I'd not noticed that.

@SH64: Sure, not everyone will care about the disassembly but everyone is different and I'm sure some will find it interesting/useful. :) Also, I wanted to offer something that other reviews have not. Anyone can regurgitate a whitepaper but I like to try and bring something unique to my reviews if possible.

@ebgtmagus: I don't have it in front of me at the moment, not sure and I've already closed it back up. I should've taken some macro shots of the keys.

@Saz: Yeah I love my wireless Logitech too. I stay pretty close to my desk though so this being wired wasn't really that big of a deal to me.

[Sazar]

yah thats true... when I was living by myself I would have the keyboard all over the place... its more limited now since we have a tv in every room (not my choice) so I am using the AIW less and less... only a tivo now...

due to that, the keyboard stays where it is on my desk...

dell makes a very similar board for its workstations, but w/o the lights and cleaner lines... I've been trying to buy one for a while but they don't sell it on the consumer side :(

[superklye]

Good work, Clay. :)

However, on mine, the command pad stays backlit when I use a shifted button, but maybe that wasn't what you were talking about...?

And you were able to get the Windows key to work? Every time I tried to use it in a macro or key sequence, the button image would show up in the macro for a brief second but then it would cancel out as the start menu popped up. :(

[Clay]

Good work, Clay. :)

However, on mine, the command pad stays backlit when I use a shifted button, but maybe that wasn't what you were talking about...?

And you were able to get the Windows key to work? Every time I tried to use it in a macro or key sequence, the button image would show up in the macro for a brief second but then it would cancel out as the start menu popped up. :(
Thanks. No, what I said was: "Command Pad shift mode buttons do not illuminate" That was one of the "cons" as I saw it. The shift mode buttons themselves do not illuminate. The Windows key issues were my second "con" as they usually wouldn't work or if they seemed to there was a substantial delay.

[superklye]

Thanks. No, what I said was: "Command Pad shift mode buttons do not illuminate" That was one of the "cons" as I saw it. The shift mode buttons themselves do not illuminate. The Windows key issues were my second "con" as they usually wouldn't work or if they seemed to there was a substantial delay.
Ohhh! Okay, I gotcha now wrt the buttons.

And that sucks about the Windows key. :( Without that being able to work, I can't have my one-touch AIM, Gmail notifier, internet, email, etc launchers. :( sigh.

[Clay]

Yeah it seems Saitek concentrated solely on making that Command Pad programmable for gaming (which it does an excellent job of). It's not, however, the best "macro" pad for within Windows itself.

[saturnotaku]

Hopefully Saitek can address this shortcoming in a future hardware and/or software revision.

[superklye]

I hope so too...I don't suppose there are any other macro programs I could use that would work with the command pad, are there?

[SH64]

Since i cant get the Saitek keyboard because its not available here ATM .. i'm eyeing another gaming keyboard which is the Zboard Gaming Keyboard (http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/zboard/) :D

so i wonder if Clay or any of you guys have experianced this one ? if so what do you think of it ? is it worth it ? .. that review gave it a thumbs up but i like to hear more from actual users to make a decision .

[Clay]

I've not used it but I have tinkered with it in the stores. I was not impreseed. It might be okay to some for gaming but it seemed a bit on the cheaply made side and just didn't feel very "put together". You might want to check out Ed's review of the Logisys KB606SL Illuminated Keyboard just posted tonight: http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/logisys_kb606sl/index.shtml

[SH64]

Yeah i checked Ed's review , but that Logisys keybaord isnt a gaming keyboard as i see . i'm looking for a pure gaming keyboard.

[Clay]

Yeah i checked Ed's review , but that Logisys keybaord isnt a gaming keyboard as i see . i'm looking for a pure gaming keyboard.
IMO, the "pure gaming" keyboards that I've seen are lacking. I don't cosider the Saitek to fit into that "pure gaming" category. It's traditional in every since except for the command pad. The only thing I've ever like remotely resembling anything like that has been the Nostromos, those are nice.

[saturnotaku]

I've not used it but I have tinkered with it in the stores. I was not impreseed. It might be okay to some for gaming but it seemed a bit on the cheaply made side and just didn't feel very "put together".

One of the CompUSA stores around here had one up as a demo and I will agree with this sentiment. It's a great idea no doubt, but the execution just seemed way off.

i'm looking for a pure gaming keyboard.

I suppose that begs the question, what exactly is a "gaming keyboard" to you? What are some specific features that you're looking for?

[SH64]

I suppose that begs the question, what exactly is a "gaming keyboard" to you? What are some specific features that you're looking for?

Well no specific features in mind right now , but the more that keyboard is geared towards gaming .. the better .
i'd like the idea of the extra gaming pad for exmaple .. different layouts .. the illumination is a cool feauture , but still not enough all by itself .

[snowmanwithahat]

hey, i just read the review and so far the reviews on this board, this is the most helpful.

anyway, my question is, can the keypad be programmed to do stuff like stop, play/pause, fast forward, rewind ? i noticed the keyboard itself doesn't have those, just the volume up/down, and that is really what i need, i play cs and other games alot and when i'm playing CS i'll turn on music after i die to help pass the time until the next round, and i can't play very well with music on all the time, so basically i'm just wondering if the keypad can be programmed to do those functions, if so, i'm getting this, nice black with blue LED's, perfect match for my razer copperhead i got for christmas

[superklye]

hey, i just read the review and so far the reviews on this board, this is the most helpful.

anyway, my question is, can the keypad be programmed to do stuff like stop, play/pause, fast forward, rewind ? i noticed the keyboard itself doesn't have those, just the volume up/down, and that is really what i need, i play cs and other games alot and when i'm playing CS i'll turn on music after i die to help pass the time until the next round, and i can't play very well with music on all the time, so basically i'm just wondering if the keypad can be programmed to do those functions, if so, i'm getting this, nice black with blue LED's, perfect match for my razer copperhead i got for christmas
I don't believe it can, unless they've released new drivers from when I last used the gamepad (almost a year ago now).

I thought that thing was going to be the greatest addition to my computer EVER, but in fact, it was rather limited in what it could do. I thought I would be able to launch programs from it, etc, but you can't. It's pretty much limited to in-game functions only.

However, I believe it's Logitech that just came out with some extreme gaming keyboard that even has an LCD read-out on it...THAT board lets you launch programs and do all that awesome stuff.

All that being said...the PC Gamer's Keyboard is still awesome, has some of the best action I've ever used on a keyboard and is just sweet looking with that blue background. If you can take it back though, I would if I were you, and get the Eclipse instead. The backlight comes through the letters so you can actually see what keys you're pushing (the Gamer's letters don't let light through).

[tillin9]

Anybody try this under Linux? I have the non-gamers and it works pretty well. I have a feeling that X.org on Linux could handle the keypad a lot better than Saitek's Windows driver, especially since they don't appear to be maintaining it. If someone could open a Konsole or xterm and run:

xev | grep keycode

and then press some normal keys on the board (A, Shift, etc.) and then some of the keys on the keypad, and post what comes up, I'd be much obliged.

If it does produce sane keycodes one can map them to macros for gaming or to any number of XKeysyms to do things like launch applications or control multimedia aspects of the computer.

On my non-gamer's the volume control keys are automatically mapped properly to the XKeysym values to control volume. I could remap them to launch applications easily enough. My plan was to hack on some switches to get a few hotkeys as the non-gamer's has the contacts for the keypad.

[retsam]

Anybody try this under Linux? I have the non-gamers and it works pretty well. I have a feeling that X.org on Linux could handle the keypad a lot better than Saitek's Windows driver, especially since they don't appear to be maintaining it. If someone could open a Konsole or xterm and run:

xev | grep keycode

and then press some normal keys on the board (A, Shift, etc.) and then some of the keys on the keypad, and post what comes up, I'd be much obliged.

If it does produce sane keycodes one can map them to macros for gaming or to any number of XKeysyms to do things like launch applications or control multimedia aspects of the computer.

On my non-gamer's the volume control keys are automatically mapped properly to the XKeysym values to control volume. I could remap them to launch applications easily enough. My plan was to hack on some switches to get a few hotkeys as the non-gamer's has the contacts for the keypad.why dont you ask this question in our linux forum? you will get a better response in there then you will in here.

[jameyc]

Anybody try this under Linux?

Not to bump an old thread, but I didn't see this re-asked in the linux forum, and having just gotten one of these I had to do some googling myself...

It works in linux with a bit of monkying around. The keypad shows up as a separate input/event device but there's no evdev support so no, xev won't see it and you can't just map x keys directly to it :(

That said, theres' some shim drivers that grab it's input device and let you map keys though them. I havn't had a chance to test it much in games, so hopefully they are low enough level for, say, sdl games to see.

As a side note, the device seems to be the keyboard itself so you can happily disconnect the pad and reconnect it without your event system being fiddled with. That also means I'll be taking a multimeter to it at some point to figure out the pinout -- one could make a custom button bank with an rj45 connector and it wouldn't know the difference...