Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Gaming Keyboard $53 + Free shipping

DRM for a keyboard?

Why do you need internets to fully utilize the keyboard?

mechanicals for reliability and durability.
mechanical switches have over 50 million keystroke lifespan
though the black widow's a hit/miss on that....

if you're fine with the X4, dont bother upgrading
this is really for those who want a cheap mechanical keyboard

i'd recommend a rosewill one actually next time they go on sale instead of this board frankly.
just more reliable.

Ok thanks. So if this mechanical keyboard isn't that sturdy then I guess that takes away a lot of pros of being a mechanical keyboard. I'm not in a rush for a keyboard, but it'd be nice to replace my failing 6 year old logitech keyboard. May wait out for Rosewill one then or go ahead and get that Sidewinder. Thx.

gaming -> blue switches...........?
will take a rosewill over this anyday unless macro key is like OMG to you

The Cherry Blues on this keyboard are pretty loud, but work very well for RTS style games. I am more of a shooter player myself, so I prefer Reds/Blacks. Cherry Blues create a tactile click as soon as they are pressed, while Reds/Blacks only make noise when they "bottom out" on the keyboard itself. Blues will likely annoy the crap out of anyone nearby, but they work very well for certain kinds of games (the audible and physical tactile response lets you be sure you hit the key).

I have not had a very good experience with Razer products, unfortunately. Their "gamer" marketing scheme seems to inflate their prices above their build quality.

Reviews for this keyboard are mixed, but at this price it's a nice entry level mechanical keyboard for the RTS gamers out there. I wouldn't expect it to last the 10+ years that many other mechanical keyboards can last, though.

Can anyone with this keyboard confirm for me if you need to have the Synapse program thing running in to order to assign the macro side keys to buttons in games?

Thanks, is this a good deal in relation to the cooler master brown one a few days ago i missed?

I can't confirm from my personal experience, I've never installed the software or assigned macros, but according to the faq on their site [razerzone.com], you should have all the functionality of the keyboard without using synapse and synapse does not require the user to be online as there are online and offline modes.