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Corsair Strafe RGB MX Silent Gaming Keyboard Review
By David Ramsey
Manufacturer: Corsair Components, Inc.
Product Name: Strafe RGB Mechanical Keyboard – Cherry MX Silent
Model: CH-9000121-NA
UPC: 843591068024
Price As Tested: $149.99 (Best Buy | Amazon)
Full Disclosure: Corsair Components, Inc. provided the product sample used in this article.
The glut of mechanical keyboards with per-key RGB lighting continues with the release of Corsair’s Strafe RGB Cherry MX Silent series. In addition to features such as extremely versatile programmable lighting, a pass-through USB port, optional textured key caps, and a detachable wrist rest, Corsair adds a unique to them (for now) “silent” version of the Cherry MX Red key switch, which Benchmark Reviews will check out.
Mechanical switches are beloved for their crisp feel and response, but are much noisier to type on than membrane or rubber dome keyboards. Even “non-clicky” switches like Cherry MX Reds or Blacks will make an audible “clack” sound when the stem of the key cap hits the switch body. Will these “MX Silent” switches fix that?
Features
- Cherry MX mechanical key switches, rated for 50 million keystrokes
- Programmable per-key full RGB backlighting
- Pass through USB 2.0 port
- Included extra textured and contoured FPS and MOBA key caps
- Easy access media keys (via Fn key)
- Detachable, soft-touch wrist rest
- 100% anti-ghosting with 104-key rollover over USB
Let’s take a look at this keyboard in the next section.
2 comments
Neil Mathieson
15 December 2015 at 8:34 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This looks like a good enough Keyboard, but for a lot of us, it’s price puts it out of reach.
What these companies need to add as a feature is affordability to go along with those mechanical keys.
David Ramsey
15 December 2015 at 9:16 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
There are a number of sub_$100 mechanical keyboards. Look for Newegg’s in-house “Rosewill” brand.
But there’s no way around it: keyboards built with individual mechanical switches will always cost more than simple rubber-dome keyboards. I think it’s worth spending more money on the part of your computer you use the most. That said, the Strafe does come in at the high end of the scale for factory keyboards (you don’t even want to know about bespoke keyboards from companies like Datamancer or Gon Keyboard Works).
Besides, a well built keyboard will last almost forever. My day-to-day keyboard is an IBM Model F built in 1985.