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Razer BlackWidow, Other Products On Linux?

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  • #11
    This kind of flabbergasts me. Razer makes _terrible_ products in terms of build quality. The worst.

    I have owned a large number of Razer products and know a lot of people who have owned them as well. I am in fact typing this on a BlackWidow right now. The third BlackWidow I've have since I had to replace the first two due to manufacturing glitches straight from Razer's factory, and I have to even fix this one myself since it came with a mushy spacebar that needed a new spring. It also tends to have problems where it won't work after first booting some PCs its attached to (it has to be unplugged and plugged back in after powering on some AMD-based PCs; sometimes but not always). Let's not also forget that some of its "features" like the extra USB and audio ports are just pass-through cables and basically serve no purpose to exist at all besides making the keyboard's cable thicker and more unmanageable than it needs to be. Other people I know who've had this or other Razer keyboards have had endless problems as well, including people who've bought them years apart from me in other parts of the continent (so it's neither a problem with a single batch of products nor a small hiccup in manufacturing quality). You have very good odds of getting a BlackWidow that has unusable keys (an alarming number of people, for instance, get keyboards where the left Alt key and Spacebar are too close together, and pressing one forces the other down) or keys that twist or just don't work.

    I've owned several of their mice, and know many people who have as well. Their DeathAddr mice are glitchy at best, and tend to have mushy or broken keys out of the factory. Their Bluetooth mouse has been the most erratically working piece of crap I've ever used, even after having Razer support replace it, while other Bluetooth mice work perfectly. A number of people I know have had their Razer mice just stop working after a few months of use for no apparent reason.

    Here's the deal: Razer has no quality control, at all. They do not perform even basic tests on their products before shipping them. The only redeeming fact here is that their support department will usually just RMA your product with no questions asked, but that's only really acceptable if you like having to wait an additional several weeks after buying a product to get one that works, not to mention having to pay the shipping costs to return the defective unit. Sometimes Razer will not require you to ship back the old unit but rather just "cut the cord" and send them a picture of it; they've had to streamline their RMA process this much because of how many shitty broken units they have to replace.

    The only product of theirs I've had that hasn't either required me to return it _multiple_ times to get a working unit or which just broke down after a few months of regular use is one of their headsets (which was the whole reason I started buying Razer in the first place).

    Best thing is, there's no reason to buy Razer anyway. Every single product they sell has a better quality (and often cheaper) counterpart sold by a competitor:

    Gaming Mice - go with SteelSeries Xai mice. Many (all?) of them have a built-in LCD that allows you to tweak all the mouse parameters completely independent of any OS utility, so there's no need to even ask if it's Linux compatible or not. These mice are generally as cheap as or cheaper than the Windows/Mac-only Razer DeathAddr mice.

    Mechanical Keyboards - SteelSeries also makes mechanical keyboards using the same Cherry MX switches that Razer uses for the same good tactile feel; they are cheaper but not backlit. Both XArmor and Deck make backlit keyboards with mechanical Cherry switches as well. They of course work perfectly with Linux.

    Gamepads - The Linux xpad driver sucks and no games really use gamepads the way that most Windows games do these days, so you're free to go for one of the many PS2-style cloned gamepads (which personally I prefer anyway). If you want an XBox/XInput-style gamepad, the newer official Microsoft ones are actually just fine. They don't have the mechanical buttons or adjustable tension of the Razer Onza Tournaments, but they don't break down in 3 months of use, and are wireless. They work just as well with the xpad driver as the Onza or any other USB XBox controller (which is to say, they show how much Linux sucks at gaming peripherals).

    Headsets - Sony, Logitech, Turtlebeach, and a wide variety of other companies sell excellent headsets that work just fine with any OS. Many of them will have better build quality on their mics than the Razer headsets (I find mine to be difficult to get to adjust and sometimes to just make work), and if you're a stickler about audio fidelity the Razer headsets have fairly weak bass (I'm not a fan of deep bass at all, so that was fine with me) so you're better off looking elsewhere in any case.

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    • #12
      Cherry G80-3000, just perfect. From my experience, the mechanical ones are the best. Or just the best for me.

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      • #13
        lol, razor. I started off with a copperhead mouse, I should have stopped there. I've moved onto Roccat.

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        • #14
          Indeed, if I ever wanted a new keyboard or mouse with a little extra power (which I do not really see the point in, as the only keyboards that have broken for me are on laptops, and I am baffled towards the point of the back-lights and programmable keys, besides how cool they look) it would probably be a Roccat. You can get them now from NCIX in both Canada and the United States for prices comparable to their competitors:

          NCIX.ca is Canada's Computer Parts & Home Goods online warehouse. We promise the best selection and the best prices!


          That being said, I am perfectly happy with my old USB keyboard I picked up from a thrift store (no joke) and $20 mouse even if I do consider myself a gamer. The only gaming peripherals I am at all interested in would be a gamepad (probably from Logitech) so that I could play my Humble Frozenbyte Bundle games in co-op, as none of them support network play.

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          • #15
            I wouldn't recommend a Logitech Attack 3 USB joystick. Mine didn't last two months.

            I had quite a collection of analog pads and sticks but recycled them since the ports are extinct and were never precise or reliable. Most games treated potentiometers as buttons so there was never any proportional control (really annoying in driving games).

            For keyboards I've been using whatever is handy. Of course, my laptop and netbook don't have any options.

            I have a Keytronics FlexPro (keyboard section splits and tilts up) and an old Northgate Omnikey but I don't use them since they are AT DIN-5. Will probably dump them on eBay at some point.

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            • #16
              Originally posted by jhansonxi View Post
              I wouldn't recommend a Logitech Attack 3 USB joystick. Mine didn't last two months.
              Funny that you mention that, I actually do have one on my desk right now that we got six or seven years ago. It is a bit beat up, but still works fine, though I have barely used it as I tend not to play games where it would actually come in handy.

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              • #17
                Originally posted by elanthis View Post
                This kind of flabbergasts me. Razer makes _terrible_ products in terms of build quality. The worst.
                I couldn't agree more... The constant mention of 'well constructed' and 'great build quality' throughout the article really goes against my experience (and the rants of others I know who have bought Razer).

                There's a lot of 'gaming' and 'enthusiast' products about that are sold on these images, which are often little more than completely average (or otherwise...) devices blinged up with blue lights and "100000 DPI" or "45 kilos of copper heatpiping" marketing (and a whole industry-creating fleet of idiots that buy in to this).

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