Manufacturer: Corsair

Release Date: 01/05/2017

MSRP: $199.99

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Manufacturer: Corsair

Release Date: 09/27/2017

MSRP: $59.99

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.

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.

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.

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.

Manufacturer: Dell

Release Date: 10/01/2017

MSRP: $1,499.99

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.

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.

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.

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.

Manufacturer: Corsair

Release Date: 10/12/2017

MSRP: $119.99 (x3 fans)

After having awful experiences with the Thermaltake Riing fans I had purchased almost 2 years ago, I decided to finally drop the premium cash on premium fans. The biggest draw to the LL fans is that the fans themselves light up and not just the rings around them. Corsair is the best RGB suite in existence right now, so this was my start to move exclusively toward corsair for my RGB needs. They are expensive but well worth the purchase.

Sadly, the installation process is a huge nightmare, especially if you install 9 fans like I did. You need a fan port for each fan plus a spare USB port on the motherboard for the Node Pro that controls the lighting and syncs everything. You also need SATA power the control box (yeah there’s two things in here, not just one) and then plug the fans you want in the correct lighting order you prefer into the control box. For multiple fans, you have to link these control boxes up to the single Node Pro as it allows two control boxes for a total of 12 fans to be controlled by one Node. It took me 5 hours to install all these fans and figure what to do with the fans I didn’t have fan ports for. You can buy a Commander Pro that allows more internal fan ports or connect them directly to the PSU which I had to do for my bottom fans.

Once you get past the awful installation process the software side is extremely easy. The iCUE software recognizes everything right away and you just have to assign lighting profiles as the lights kick on. This is by far the most beautiful RGB fan setup I have ever seen and the depth of the LEDs capabilities and software is astounding. You can individually color the ring and different parts of the fan itself which is mind-blowing. The profiles available online show amazingly detailed and well made orchestrated effects that will make your PC the center of attention in any room.

After having the fans for nearly a week I can’t get enough of them. From solid color to spiraling rainbows and flashing light shows, the LL fans are incredibly impressive and they keep my case cooler than my Thermaltakes did. They do have style and substance and Corsair seriously made some great fans. They are whisper quiet even at full speed which is around 1600RPMs and I barely notice it in a quiet office and not at all with games blaring.

If you have the cash to drop try to get at least a full set of these. Combined with Corsair’s other RGB items an entire PC suite with the same color profile is just out of this world and the fans just pull an entire rig together to make it look sharp and insanely beautiful.