Hardware

Next Level Wheel Stand Lite

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/26/2019
Posted in: Hardware, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Manufacturer: Next Level

Release Date: 11/17/2017

MSRP: $149.99

Having a good wheel setup is important for racing sim fans, but taking it to the next level is something very few do. While there are a ton of crappy and cheap wheels out there, there are almost as many shoddy cockpit setups that cut corners. Next Level is one of the top racing sim cockpit makers out there and for those who want be between a solid setup and not hacking to turn your room into a virtual race car, the Wheel Stand Lite is for you.

I have to talk about the assembly process here. Once you open the package the stand it nicely folded in half with most of the bolts in place. All you really have to do is mount your hardware. I had some assembly issues mainly due to poor instructions. The booklet just shows some photographs of the stand, that are poor quality, with red lines and comments about what is what, but everything is hard to see. It also doesn’t help that there is no wheel setup on the stand in the photos so I actually had no clue how the stand was supposed to be oriented. I wound up setting the whole thing up backwards with the vertical bar farthest away from me and ran into an issue with my screw holes on the Thrustmaster T300RS not lining up. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how it wasn’t lining up until I had to watch a YouTube of it being assembled. I then spent another hour reversing everything and it all came together nicely.

Despite the poor assembly instructions, I also had an issue with the U-bolt clamp being bent and I had to re-bend the prongs with a hammer. The piece of metal that the vertical bar locks onto was bent outwards either in shipping or manufacturing. Once you lock the vertical bar into place you can adjust the height with two large thumb screws. I was able to attach my Thrustmaster TH8A shifter with four bolts to the shifter addon and the petals fit nicely on the bottom bracket. The wheel plate allows for some tilting and so do the petals. You can tilt them down as needed. It’s kind of a pain because multiple bolts need to be adjusted for this tilting. A pull down locking bolt mechanism would have been much more conveinent.

Once everything was setup I used to cable ties to secure the cables down and I plugged everything in. When I put my feet on the pedals I noticed the first issue: the brake pedal is behind the vertical bar if you have three pedals. This isn’t a huge issue as your leg is slightly bent sideways, but you can’t have your legs straight or you will never reach your brake pedal. The last issue I ran into is folding the stand down it rests on the brake pedal and can’t lie flat I don’t know if this is an oversight, but it doesn’t fold up quite like advertised and stays open about 45 degrees, so don’t expect to store it under anything. I personally bought this as I was tired of attaching everything to my desk when I wanted to play. I can now drag this over and just plug everything in.

Overall, the medal is nice, there weren’t any weird smells, oils, or sharp edges that I noticed, but the thing weighs a ton and isn’t easy to transport or move around, or store. This is mainly for the simple convenience of having everything bolted to one unit. I highly recommend having a large enough room to stick this in a corner somewhere. At least the build quality is up there and when heavily racing there was little wobble and everything stayed in place. For the price, this is surely worth the purchase if you want a solid stand alone setup.

Corsair K95 Platinum Keyboard

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/10/2019
Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

CORSAIR-K95-RGB-Platinum-Cherry-MX-Brown-MechanicalManufacturer: Corsair10

Release Date: 01/05/2017

MSRP: $199.99

 

bar

 

I’ve had various keyboards over the years, but there’s always something off about them. The keys don’t feel right, I never use the features on them, the software is horrible, or something along those lines. I’ve held off on Corsair keyboards for so long because they’re the most expensive ones on the market, but after 6 months with the K95 Platinum, I can see why and it’s justified.

IMG_20190313_204623

The K95 is one of the most solid keyboards I’ve ever used. Just holding it out of the box you can feel the solid build with an aluminum body and very satisfying keycaps. From the sleek media buttons and the subtle yet useful proprietary keys up top and the awesome wrist wrest. The K95 just oozes quality and style before you even plug it in. The K95 has a thick braided cable just also features USB 3.0 passthrough which I actually love and use myself.

e7ffb913-8cc6-4444-98a4-9545c62bbddd_1.a562c1e4ebc973e427f0375f48d88ba0

I want to start with the proprietary buttons on this keyboard before talking about anything else. On the right side, you have six shortcut or macro keys and I love the placement of these. They are out of the way enough to allow you to ignore them or also if you use them they are easily accessible. Along the top, you have three buttons on the left that are used with Corsair iCUE. The little person icon allows you to flip through RGB profiles while the sun icon has three brightness stages and the lock button keeps the Windows button locked. Further right is three white LEDs for Scroll Lock, Caps Lock, and Num Lock. I love how small and minimal these are. They are just big enough to tell you what’s on. To the far right are a volume wheel and a mute button. I honestly love these to death. An easy to use the mute button and the volume wheel feels amazing as it has some weight, isn’t plastic, and feels good to use. I’ve never once had a useful volume adjustment option on my keyboard until now. Below that just above the Numpad are the four media keys. Again, the best I’ve ever used. No need for a function button just press the buttons and they work. I use these all the time when listening to music and they feel solid and actually are shaped differently than the other buttons.

Corsair-K95-Shot-14

The keys themselves are nice and big and just feel right. I can’t do the keyboard justice by just describing it. This is the most satisfying keyboard I’ve ever used as it just feels perfect. The actuation distance is perfect, the keycap size, and each key is spaced perfectly apart. I’ve spent 6 months with this keyboard so I can really tell if it’s all that different from other premium keyboards and it is. I don’t think I can use any other keyboard as they all feel sub-par compared to this one. The other major attraction is the RGB lighting as Corsair has the best RGB in the business and the K95 is beautiful. With a lightbar up top and bright, vivid lights underneath each key I have never seen a better RGB keyboard. Nothing tops this. Corsair iCUE is the most versatile RGB software out there and the customization options are endless. You can make scrolling logos, insane patterns, with endless possibilities. I have seen some of the craziest RGB setups on this thing and it looks amazing with all of my other Corsair products.

2017-01-23-product-7

The wrist wrest actually has a magnetic reversible rubber pad that sits inside the rest. It’s not adjustable, but I highly recommend using it. I also haven’t’ found the rubber to deteriorate over time like over products. It’s a very hard rubber material and the rubber under my wrists is the same as it was when I bought it. Overall, the K95 Platinum is expensive but well worth the price as you won’t get a better experience anywhere else. Corsair are masters in their class and have perfected the keyboard over the years and it clearly shows.

ck95p

 

Corsair Void Pro RGB Wireless Headset

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/10/2019
Posted in: Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

195238121Manufacturer: Corsair8.5

Release Date: 08/22/2017

MSRP: $129.99

Colors: White, Black, Yellow

 

bar

Headsets are always some of the most subjective pieces of tech out there because everyone’s listening preferences are different. I’ve never owned any audio devices from Corsair before as these replaced my HyperX Cloud S headset from a year ago. The Void Pro is a solid headset with a few issues, but nothing that really brings the experience down.

The headset itself is built quite solidly with large ear cups and a cushioned band on top and a large range for adjustment. There are two RGB logos on the outside of each cup and these can, of course, be turned off to save battery life. The battery typically lasts around 14 hours and maybe 16 without the lights on. I found the overall sound quality to be very clear but lacking a deep bass that I normally like. Now, this headset is also touted as having 7.1 surround sound with the press of a button, and that’s negligible. It seems to only add an effect to make it sound like surround sound as I couldn’t really tell in some games. Now if you turned surrouned sound on in the game there was a striking difference. I can’t tell if this is a true 7.1 headset or not or if it’s just a gimmick. Usually, surround audio in headsets is hit or miss, but it seems okay here when it actually is supported.

dsc09879_final-100752083-large

The largest issue I have with this headset is the software support. Sure, Corsair iCUE is a great piece of software and my headset can now light up in sync with the rest of my Corsair products, but the equalizer portion is abysmal. You can’t export or import EQ settings so every time I changed a lighting theme I had to take a screenshot of my EQ settings and manually enter them every single time. The preset EQ settings are also horrible and I can never seem to find the perfect adjustments. It’s either too much treble or not enough bass. I’m really disappointed in this aspect as it almost made me return the headset for something else. For $130 I expected better software support and it hasn’t changed and I’ve had this headset for 6 months now. I also found the volume to be too low on some things at max volume.

Corsair-VOID-PRO-Wireless-Headset-RGB

The headset features a fold-up boom mic and there’s a red LED on the end to show if it’s muted. When you fold it down it unmutes and seems to be of really nice quality and it bendable and adjustable. The headset also comes with a long USB cable for charging and a wireless dongle. I paired this with the Corsair headset stand and it works nicely. The dongle could stand to be smaller, but overall I never ran into connection issues or cut-outs, crackling, or the headset having trouble finding it. This is the best wireless headset I have had just for this alone as all my previous ones constantly cut out and the range seems to be great. I was able to walk into my kitchen without any audio cutting out.

61j21hz3dAL._SL1500_

Overall, the Corsair Void Pro headset is a solid piece of tech with crisp and clear sound despite a terrible EQ and lacking bass. If you can get the EQ adjusted right for yourself you’re going to have a great time. While the 7.1 surround sound is iffy as it’s simulated, it’s there if you can get it to work right and with decent battery life, you can game all night without charging it.

cvwp

Corsair ST100 Headset Stand

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/06/2019
Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

6080702cv12dManufacturer: Corsair

Release Date: 09/27/2017

MSRP: $59.99

bar

Headset stands are usually not something most people run out and by, but they are useful so your expensive headset isn’t just sitting around getting tossed and knocked around. Corsair’s headset stand goes a little farther than most by providing USB pass through and RGB effects which look amazing.

IMG_20190313_204623

Setup is pretty simple as iCue will automatically recognize and install the drivers. Once you have everything plugged in you will notice a USB port on top of the base and on the side as well as an audio pass through. This is a fully featured headset stand and is great for the Void Pro wireless headset as the dongle can be plugged in the USB slot on top of the base and the charger cable can plug into the side. For a non-wireless headset, the audio pass-through does a good job if your PC is too far away.

corsair-st100-premium-rgb-headset-stand-built-7-1-surround-lingloong-1710-11-lingloong@20

In iCue, you can customize the lights where are around the base and the Corsair logo on the arm itself. Syncing with your other Corsair products just adds another level of cool factor to your setup and I couldn’t be happier. My only gripe about the stand is the software in which you can’t save EQ profiles across other lighting profiles. You have to screenshot your settings and recreate it in the sliders with each profile. It’s really irritating and I hope Corsair changes this soon. At least the pass-through offers 7.1 channel audio for devices that are 7.1 enabled and the USB slots are 3.1 which most hardware USB pass-throughs are not.

st100-rgb-headset-stand-Content-12

The RGB effects aren’t as advanced as the keyboard or other Corsair RGB products, but Corsair does have the best RGB suite of any PC company thus far and it’s just one more product that adds a dynamic to your RGB setup. Overall, the ST100 stand is a must have and is at a decent price as well.

st100

Thrustmaster TH8A Shifter Add-On

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/18/2019
Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Xbox One, Xbox360. Leave a comment

81RlBGmAQGL._AC_Manufacturer: Thrustmaster

Release Date: 04/22/2016

MSRP: $169.99

bar

If you’re going to have a racing wheel, especially one as expensive as the T300 RS-GT Edition, then you need a shifter add-on. For people who really don’t care about shifting, it’s fine, but enthusiasts are really missing out on half of the experience. Shifting adds a whole new layer of challenge and control to racing games like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

The shifter is much bigger than I thought, and heavier, being made of 90% metal and using something called the H.E.A.R.T. system so it feels and acts like a real car shifter. The box comes with a DIN to DIN and DIN to USB cable. This is actually really important as PC requires DIN to USB as most games won’t recognize the shifter plugged into the back of the wheel. That’s mainly reserved for consoles. You also get an optional sequential plate for those who want to shift but not use the H pattern. You can also change the plate by rotating it 180 degrees and even tighter the stick itself to make it looser or tight based on your preference. There’s so much more to this shifter than I anticipated and it impressed me every step of the way.

61B0YjctcUL._AC_

I opted to make the shifter as tight as it could go as it felt more like a newer car and gave me better feedback as to where I was at. After installing the drivers and making sure everything worked I booted up Forza Motorsport 7 and the shifter was recognized right away. Even without using the clutch, the shifter added a new dimension to my racing that I have never experienced before. It took a while to get the timing down, but I noticed a new depth of difficulty to these games that weren’t present before and that’s learning the shift timing of your vehicles and where to shift correctly on the track. This may scare some people away, but it actually improved my lap times and my first place wins went way up because the shifter forced me to learn the track rather than just memorize where all the turns were.

61Er4ArUVgL._AC_

Having it clamped to my desk next to my wheel is sure made this already bulky setup pretty monstrous, but it feels so good to play and I can’t go back to racing with a controller on simulators anymore. I spent hours racing and it sucked me into the game, even more, when I would get bored after a half dozen races or so. This is the way these games are meant to be played, and thankfully this shifter is compatible with any wheel because it’s USB and connects seperately from the wheel. The DIN to DIN connections makes it compatible with other wheels that had add-on DIN ports so it’s widely universal.

My only gripe is that adjusting the tension on the stick isn’t easy and I nearly stripped the screw doing it. The manual says you can do two full turns but in reality, it was a half a turn from completely loose to tight. The screw is pretty deep and at an angle, so it’s very hard to get to and damaging the screw the way I did means after so long it won’t be adjustable anymore, so make sure you get it to a setting you like and leave it.

61PwE8pht7L._AC_

Overall, the TH8A shifter add-on is a must have, and while it costs more than most cheaper wheels alone, it adds a layer of experience and enjoyment that you can’t get with just the wheel itself. If you ever wanted to dive into a more enthusiast experience and you have either a cheap or expensive wheel consider this add-on and you won’t regret it.

th8as

Thrustmaster T300 RS-GT Edition

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/18/2019
Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

4c6150a0-e659-48b2-ac6a-b0ce30177af3._SL300__Manufacturer: Thrustmaster

Release Date: 10/16/2016

MSRP: $399.99

 

 

bar

The last time I had a steering wheel was when I was 15. I had a Logitech racing wheel branded for Gran Turismo 4 at the time and it was cheap, but worked decently enough and my late father even welded together a steering wheel cockpit that everything attached to as I didn’t know that you had to mount them to a table to use them. There were lap wedges you could buy, but we couldn’t really afford that, so he used scrap metal from his work to make the stand. It was a short-lived experience as, sadly, I didn’t really get many games back then and the following year I got an Xbox 360 so the wheel just collected dust. I was just learning to drive a real car at the time so there was a disconnect between myself and the wheel. It felt more like something on an arcade machine than truly appreciating not having to use a controller.

5c52c934-996b-4d5d-bbfb-14498fcaed53._SL300__

Fast forward 14 years and things have really changed, and surprisingly, wheels really haven’t. Logitech doesn’t really make the best wheels on the planet anymore and Thrustmaster has stepped in the niche peripheral market with fantastic wheels, flight sticks, and other weird controllers. When unboxing the T300 wheel I really noticed the build quality right off the bat. The servo unit is nice and heavy and you can feel the weight of the metal parts inside and the clamp it comes with is really sturdy and does its job keeping the wheel locked onto a table. The pedals feel great, and while the base has weight to it, it’s still not enough to keep from sliding around a bit during furious gaming. The pedals themselves are metal and you can swap them out physically and even swap them in the software with a mode button on the wheel. It’s rather customizable with a brake stop mod, being able to raise and lower the pedal pads and even flip the wedges to make the pedals more flush or have them angled.

8c599333-4286-430f-a295-c6c506743728

Connecting the wheel and setting up the drivers was a little easier than I thought. Once you start the driver installation it tells you to connect the wheel to the PC via USB and everything is pretty much done. The calibration software lets you change various settings, and lets you test all the buttons. I was also surprised that all the recent racings games recognize this wheel and how well it just works. Playing with a wheel and a controller is like night and day and I can never really go back unless it’s an arcade racer. I tried this wheel out with Forza Motorsport 7, DiRT Rally 2.0, Project Cars, and Forza Horizon 3. Each game felt great playing with the wheel and I noticed my lap time improving and being able to play just felt more natural.

The wheel’s force feedback capabilities are fantastic as I felt every bump in the road and when I hit grass or spun out or hit another car the wheel would act accordingly. The 1080 degrees of turning makes the cars feel even more realistic when turning and every slight move was registered in game 1:1. The pedals felt nice and with the brake mod installed it felt more like a real brake pedal and less like an arcade set. Sadly, this wheel does not come with a shifter and it must be purchased seperately, however, there are paddle shifters on the wheel which makes up for it a little. The buttons all click well and despite being made for the PS4 and PS3 they seem to be mapped like the Xbox One controller on PC for most games.

f5549876-c506-4161-a895-417fc0c31939

The fans inside the servo unit keep it from getting hot and it’s not all that loud. The servo itself is really quite while gaming and the only time it was loud was when the wheel would spin back around really fast on its own, but that was only after a crash usually. The rubber grips feel great and it almost feels like a full-size steering wheel, it’s just incredible how well made this wheel is and how much it made driving the cars to feel real.

Overall, due to the price point, this is not an entry level wheel being almost $400. This is a mid-high range wheel for serious enthusiasts and the quality really shows compared to a $100 wheel. I just wish it came with a shifter, but you can’t knock the build quality at all and the overall feeling of this wheel.

tt300rsgte

Alienware AW3418DW 34″ Ultrawide Monitor w/Gsync

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/14/2019
Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

24-260-555-V01Manufacturer: Dell

Release Date: 10/01/2017

MSRP: $1,499.99

bar

I used to love Alienware as it was my first gaming laptop back in 2010, but now that’s it’s long gone and obsolete I went for their desktops and have since parted ways with that. Alienware makes slick looking hardware, but their build quality and prices have been questionable over the last decade. I never thought I’d have them back in my gaming life with a monitor of all things. I wanted a 34″ ultrawide monitor with Gsync and Alienware just so happens to have the best on the market right now. I sacrificed HDR for Gsync as I felt it was a little more important for PC gaming.

Alienware-AW3418DW-release-date

When I received the box in the mail I didn’t realize you could park a car in it. Seriously, the thing barely fit into an SUV with the back seats folded down, and I was surprised to see most of it was foam to support this massively bulky and heavy monitor. Because of the Gsync chip and the vents on top, this monitor is largest I have ever seen and it weighs nearly 30 lbs. After assembling this beast I plugged it in via DisplayPort (You can’t get a higher refresh rate without it) I immediately noticed the lighting zones which are freaking beautiful. Alienware has always been knowns for sleek lighting effects and there are zones on the bottom and rear of the panel. It looks fantastic, but I noticed that they aren’t bright enough on the back to really see unless you stare at them and the bottom one is more of a glow. It looks awesome, but you won’t really notice them if your monitor is up against a wall. The stand is designed for cable management and I loved this as you can hide your cables behind the monitor thanks to the nifty design. The 3 USB 3.0 ports came in real handy and expanded my USB slots and I didn’t have to run everything to the tower.

This monitor comes stock clocked at 100Hz and you have to go into the monitor settings and overclock it to 120 yourself. It’s as simple as an OSD setting on the monitor and changing it in your display control panel. There are some other settings in the OSD such as setting the lighting zones (which is a pain here), displaying an FPS counter, various picture settings, response time, dark stabilization, and power saving. I didn’t really need to mess with anything as it comes very well calibrated out of the box.

images

Once I started gaming I noticed right away that Gsync was working. With Vsync turned off in games, you will notice how smooth turning the camera is and for games that can reach 120FPS it’s the silkiest gaming experience I have ever had. Of course for games these days you need a 2070 or higher to get anything FPS over 60 to notice the 120Hz kicking in, but the Gsync is well worth the price alone. With the monitor being curved the way it is it kind of sucks your visuals in and keeps you focused. After looking at a flat monitor again I noticed the difference right away and realized that curves aren’t just gimmicks.

IMG_20190313_204623

While games look fantastic on this monitor there are some issues that are serious gripes, but not deal breakers. The rear IO panel is thin plastic and doesn’t slide on correctly and I have never been able to make it flush with the monitor and the tabs started breaking off. I also absolutely despise Alienware’s software as they rarely ever update it and the AlienFX don’t work correctly. Every time I set a color scheme it resets when the monitor wakes or the PC restarts and the presets do not work and save your settings. I have to constantly go in and reset the colors so it’s too much effort and I just left it on color spectrum mode. I then later found out that the Monitor Control Center is heavily outdated and you actually need Alienware Command Center to probably set the lights correctly. Because of the Gsync chip the monitor gets really hot and there’s a lot of heat coming out of the top of the vent, this is what is supposed to happen of course, but you will notice a small room heat up a bit from it.

Overall, the Alienware AW3418DW is the best monitor I’ve ever laid eyes and there are so many reasons to spend the money on this thing. Sure, it’s a dream level price for a monitor, but it’s dream level for a reason. Gsync alone is well worth the money and helps free up frames that your GPU doesn’t have to worry about. Great cable management, cool lighting, wide crisp display, 120hz refresh rate, 3 USB ports, and plenty of OSD options is nothing to sneeze at.

aw3418dw