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The best Black Friday deals 2017 (updated)
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The best mechanical keyboards
By Kimber Streams, Dan Frakes, and Ryan Whitwam This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. If you spend most of your day typing, a mechanical keyboard can be a worthwhile upgrade: Mechanical keyboards are more durable, responsive, comfortable, and customizable than other types of keyboards. The best for you depends a lot on personal preference and what you're using it for, but after spending months testing 31 top-rated keyboards with a four-person panel, we unanimously agree that the WASD Code 87-Key is a great place to start because of its fantastic key feel, build quality, and elegant design.
The best PC-gaming gear for students
While many of you will likely make your school computer some sort of all-purpose laptop, a few of you need something that can also withstand extensive gameplay sessions. For that reason, we've included in our back-to-school guide a handful of gaming-specific notebooks along with three GPUs, should your existing rig be due for an upgrade. Already have a system you're happy with? Treat yourself to a mouse, keyboard, or a game or three.
Corsair's first gaming desktop isn't for tinkerers
It's been almost two months since PC parts maker Corsair teased its first finished computer, giving us nothing but a name and a picture of the front and sides of the system. Now, the company is finally ready to show off the Corsair One in detail, and we've already had a chance to take a closer look at the new system. But before we let you start drooling over the pictures of this VR-ready gaming PC, here's some basic information. The Corsair One will be available for $1,800 (a $2,200 Pro version is also available) via Amazon, Newegg and other online retailers starting today. We tried the Corsair One Pro in particular, and promptly took a slew of pictures for those of you who love gaming hardware. Enjoy.
Corsair teases its first whole computer
You likely know Corsair as a computer parts and peripherals manufacturer. It makes DRAM modules for laptops and desktops, flash drives, PC cases, SSDs, keyboards, mice and so on and so forth. An ad published in Maximum PC's March issue, however, reveals that the company has become a full-fledged PC maker. Its first ever whole computer is fittingly called Corsair One, and it features a dark, Tron-esque design.
Corsair's new K95 gaming keyboard is surprisingly classy
When I first encountered the Corsair Rapidfire K70, it was love at first sight: The feel of the brand-new Cherry MX Speed keys and their short 1.2mm actuation point was par excellence, and the RGB lighting gave me faint Candy Land vibes with its bright colors. However, while it was good for typing and many games, configuration fanatics were left out of the fun by the lack of dedicated macro keys. This month, Corsair finally added MX Speed keys to its flagship K95 model, but that's not the only upgrade gamers and typists will discover. The $200 K95 RGB Platinum features some redesigned buttons, a reversible wrist rest and a snazzy lighting bar. It's more of a refinement than a revamp, but it's one that makes the new K95 a flashy, yet somehow tasteful, addition to any desk. Yes, even with the colors.
The Rapidfire K70 is a gaming keyboard that typists will love
Mechanical keyboards are favored by gamers and programmers for how precise and springy the buttons feel under their fingers. The latter is important not just for improving a player's reaction time in a heated match, but a shorter key depression is also way kinder to a typist's hands. So it seems that Corsair's new Rapidfire K70 RGB would be the ultimate step up thanks to its new "Cherry MX Speed" keys, which only need to be pushed down 1.2mm: the shortest actuation point on the market. I've been using it as my work keyboard for the past two months and it's been a sweet experience, though not without a few bumps.
Which gaming headsets are worth buying?
We may call them "video games," but audio plays a big part in the experience too. Good music and sound effects can set the mood, immerse us in the story and alert us to impending danger. But all of this could easily be hampered by crappy speakers or a surfeit of background noise, making a quality headset key to an ideal gaming experience. Do you need surround sound, or can stereo do the job just fine? And how much is good audio quality worth? We've scoured the market to find the best headsets available now to fit the needs of both hard-core and casual gamers.
Which gaming keyboards are worth buying?
The act of building a great gaming rig isn't just about finding the most powerful processor, a capable graphics card or massive amounts of RAM. It's also about what you use to interact with the machine itself -- the peripherals you bring to the table. A few months ago, we told you about the best gaming mice available. Now we take a look at some recent gaming keyboards to see which ones have the most to offer in terms of lighting, macros and, of course, how good they feel to type on.
Tests show modern SSDs can handle a thousand years of use
Most heavy data users can't wait for the day when hard disks, with their fragile, spinny parts, are put out to pasture for good. But just how much better are SSDs? Despite any horror stories you may have heard, the answer is a lot, according to tests on recent models by The Tech Report. It forced six drives -- including Kingston's HyperX 3K, Samsung's 840 Pro and Intel's 335 series -- to continuously write and rewrite 10GB of small and large files. Four drives bit the dust prior to hitting the petabyte mark (though still far, far past their specified limits), often after their SMART systems moved thousands of bytes from failing flash sectors.
Which gaming mice are worth buying?
The peripherals you play with can be just as important to your gaming success as actual skill. A suboptimal keyboard or sluggish mouse can open the door to defeat, which is why it's a good idea to pick up equipment specifically made for the job. But like a lot of specialized tools, gaming mice don't come cheap, and you wouldn't want to spend a pretty penny on one only to find it lacking in speed or features. We don't review mice very often here at Engadget, so we've consulted the opinions of trusted critics to find some recent options that can help pave a path to victory.
Visualized: Intel's Haswell Core i7 overclocked to 6.88GHz on an ASUS motherboard
After winning yesterday's Corsair Overclocking competition at Computex, the same folks were brought over to ASUS' ROG event earlier today, where they overclocked an Intel Haswell Core i7-4770K from its typical 3.5GHz to a staggering 6.88GHz -- just a tad less than yesterday's 6.98GHz -- on an ASUS Maximus VI Extreme motherboard. As a bonus, the DRAM frequency was also pushed to 4.1GHz, which is believed to be the fastest yet on Haswell. As usual, the overclockers poured liquid nitrogen onto the chip every now and then to keep it cool, thus giving us the above photo opportunity. %Gallery-190236%
Corsair unveils $130 Vengeance K70 gaming keyboard with backlit keys
Just a few months after Corsair revealed its high-end K95 mechanical gaming keyboard, the company has unveiled a slightly lower-end K70 for those who want to save a bit of money. Essentially an upgrade to the K60, the K70 still has those Cherry MX Red mechanical switches, but each key is now individually backlit -- the backlighting can be adjusted to four levels of intensity and can be independently enabled or disabled. Other features include 20-key rollover, a 1000Hz reporting rate, contoured keycaps for WASD keys, dedicated multimedia controls, a detachable wrist rest and an extra USB connector. The K70 will be available in April for $130 in two different color schemes; silver aluminium with blue backlight and anodized black with deep red backlight.
Corsair pops the question, acquires Scotland-based Simple Audio
Scotland-based Simple Audio announced today that it has been acquired by American computer component maker Corsair. The five-year-old audio firm is best known in Europe for its networked set-top receivers, which are capable of sharing music from PCs, Macs, TVs, iPods and MP3 players. In an effort to expand its reach, Simple Audio hopes that this multi-million dollar deal will help bring its products stateside sometime this year. While there's no word how many doubloons Corsair shelled out, the company stated that it had been eyeing Simple Audio since 2010 and felt that it was the right time to make a move. To take a closer look at this acquisition, click through to the press release after the break.
Corsair's Voyager GT Turbo USB 3.0 flash drives put super fast I/O speeds in your pocket
Corsair's best known for its SSD and HDD storage solutions and gaming peripherals, but at CES this year the company has unveiled a trio of new USB 3.0 jump drives. Called the Flash Voyager GT Turbo, it promises to deliver read speeds of up to 260MB/s and writes of up to 235 MB/s. Corsair claims those speeds make it the fastest USB 3.0 flash drive on the planet -- a claim we can neither confirm nor deny -- but we can tell you that pricing starts at $50 for the 32GB version, while the 64 and 128GB models cost $90 and $180, respectively, and can be yours now if you venture over to Corsair's website.
Corsair unleashes second gen Vengeance gaming peripherals at CES, goes fully mechanical with K95 keyboard
When Corsair introduced its Vengeance line of PC gaming accessories last year, it made the odd choice of creating the K90, a mostly mechanical keyboard marred by a collection of out of place membrane keys. The keyboard was a little less expensive for the effort, but was nearly universally reviewed as a "really weird decision." Corsair got the message, and is now releasing the Vengeance K95, a black anodized brushed aluminum take on the K90, but with fully mechanical Cherry MX Red switches on every single key, including 18 dedicated macro toggles. In addition to normalizing the keyboard's tactile pleasures, Corsair has also upgraded its backlighting, allowing each key to individually enable or disable its illumination. Eliminating its predecessor's cheapo membrane keys does kill their savings, however, giving the K95 a $150 price tag. Corsair's filling out its pointer line-up too, trotting out the M95 and M65 gaming mice. Both of these rodents feature an 8200 DPI sensor and an aluminum unibody chassis, but veer off wildly when it comes to toggles. The M95, for instance, features 15 programmable buttons and onboard storage for six switchable profiles, whereas the M65 is a more modest clicker -- featuring little more flair than a DPI dropping sniper button. Choose your weapon in a variety of colors for $79 and $69, respectively.
Corsair outs Voyager Air with WiFi storage, NAS, USB 3.0 and repeater all in one
Corsair is very much associated with devices that need a physical connection to work, whether they're thumb drives or memory sticks. It's looking to cut the cord in style through its new Voyager Air. You'll have seen some of what it does with a predecessor like Kingston's Wi-Drive, with media streaming to Android and iOS devices, a WiFi repeater mode and USB 3.0 support, but Corsair's drive goes the extra mile by serving as network attached storage through a gigabit Ethernet link. The 7-hour battery life when completely wireless certainly helps its prospects, at least among its immediate rivals. Corsair plans to ship the Voyager Air by early February in a 500GB version for $180 and 1TB for $220; either price sounds reasonable for a home media server that ultimately doesn't have to stay at home.
IRL: Kiboko 22L+ backpack, Corsair Vengeance K90 keyboard and the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ with Jelly Bean
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. After some camera-heavy IRLs lately, this week's edition is more of a mixed bag. Darren tests out a camera backpack big enough to carry his D3S and D3200, Sean buys a Corsair K90 keyboard for his homemade gaming rig and Edgar makes the jump from iPhone owner to proud Jelly Bean user.
Corsair's Force GS SSD series offer its best speeds in its biggest capacities
If you liked the look of Corsair's Force GT family of SSDs, but were after a little more space, the Force GS models might fit the bill -- with some Sandforce-beating performance improvements along for the ride. The SSD sizes start from 180GB, reaching the capacious heights of 480GB, and each offers SATA 6 Gb/s connectivity. The SSDs tote a sequential read speed of up to 555 MB/s, while it tops out at 530 MB/s during writing. The 2.5-inch drives will all arrive with an adapter for 3.5-inch cubbies in tow, while you can expect to pay between $190 to $490 -- depending on your storage needs.
Corsair Force GT SSDs put through their paces, have graphs to prove it
Instead of singling out one of Corsair's latest SandForce-equipped SSDs, the folks at StorageReview sussed out performance differences by putting each drive through the wringer. Though read / write specs are relatively uniform across the line, barring some slight dips in speed, they dug up a few juicy morsels of info that could benefit both frugal and performance-minded shoppers. In a read intensive gaming test, the 60GB entry drive performed similarly to the 480GB behemoth. Another notable result was a 60% jump in throughput between the 120GB and 180GB models. Keen on eking out the most performance-bang for your buck? Hop over to the source for the full skinny and a bevy of charts.
