Logitech G600 Mouse Review!

Logitech have been around for quite some time now and though they’ve been creating pretty solid gear consistently over time, occasionally they produce a diamond from the rough, and today it’s the G600 MMO Gaming Mouse.

Let’s start with the big fat elephant in the room; the G600 has 20 MMO-tuned buttons. My first thought to that is how the heck people manage 20 buttons with just their thumbs. Holding it in my palm my brain went into a frenzy trying to adjust to the sheer number of buttons. But before we get in to the performance let’s take a look at the packaging.

In true Logitech style the box comes with a front facing door that once opened showcases the mouse at an angle that highlights the 20 buttons covered in thin perfectly moulded plastic allowing you to get a feel of the shape of the mouse.

Once opened you get a real good feel in the build quality of the mouse. You know you can always trust Logitech to build a solid piece of equipment and the G600 is no less. The long braided corded allows to be tangle-free and easily slide through crooks and crannies until it gets to your computer.

The driver with the G600 is surprisingly well polished. I’ve tested a lot of mice over the past year and seen a lot of drivers, yet the Logitech is definitely up there competing in top spot. The intuitive interface allows you to quickly and easily setup macro buttons and assign mouse buttons. 

Unfortunately for me you cannot assign the G keys as generic mouse buttons as they must be setup as actual keyboard inputs. This means basically the mouse is purely useful for MMO gamers. What this mouse also has is a third mouse button where your ring finger goes. I thought it was a neat resting place for the finger but it turned out to be another button which I think is a bit inventive to be honest. Generally mice have two main buttons but Logitech have gone and added a third which I think actually works pretty well.

 

I couldn’t really test out the mouse in a MMO game, I assigned generic key macros like copy and paste and tried it out in various applications and it worked out pretty good all in all! In general FPS games the mouse is actually very comfortable and easily glides across my mouse pad. The shape of the mouse allows for palmers to easily adjust to it.

 

The software also allows you to set the colour and effect of the G keys. You can either select a particular colour or set it to automatically cycle through automatically.

sahin.s@centrecom.com.au

Corsair Vengeance C70 Case

The Corsair Vengeance C70 is a mid tower competitive gaming grade case. Crafted from solid steel i thought i would take a closer look at one in time for our massive gaming sale. Read on for more.

Let's take a look at it's features:

• Room for two 240mm radiators when lower drive cage is removed for outstanding watercooling potential.
• Tool-free thumbscrews for each of the eight expansion slots, making it easy to upgrade to dual, triple, or quad video card setups
• Front panel USB 3.0 ports with internal header for modern peripherals
• Tinted side window with dual fan mounts lets you cool, and view your hardware in style
• Three 5.25” bays and Six 3.5”/2.5” hard drive bays for excellent expansion capabilities
• Two included 120mm intake fans directly blowing across your GPU for maximum cooling potential, and a single 120mm fan for heat exhaust

Specifications:

• Warranty: Two years
• Dimension: 501mm (H) x 232mm (W) x 533mm (L)
• MB Support: ATX, mATX
• Expansion Slots: 8
• Form Factor: Mid-tower
• Material: Steel
• Drive Bays: Three (3x) 5.25” bays, and Six (6x) 3.5”/2.5” hard drive bays
• Cooling: Three (3x) 120mm fans
• Front I/O: (x2) USB 3.0, (x1) Headphone, (x1) MIC, Power, and Reset Switches
• Power Supply: ATX (not included)

 Pretty nifty looking features, taking a closer look at the case from outside one can not be impressed by the build quality. Even when taking off the front cover it feels solid and not a whimsy like plastic. It stays sturdy and firm and shows off the full steel interior, yes it is all steel. Apart from the hard drive racks which i'll be honest i wasn't the greatest fan of as they seemed pretty cheap, the rest of the case is nothing but steel. This gives an it an incredibly durable feel to it and is sure to be favoured by a lot of gamers.

Even the fans inside feel incredibly strong. They are almost identical to those found of the H60, H80 and H100 series water coolers. The fans on those are amazingly built and are ridiculously heavy and strong for their size. All the wiring supplied within the case is all black which gives me the sense that Corsair put good thought into this case. Having all the cables a single colour matching the case gives a good touch to it. The rear side of the motherboard tray is thick enough for me to fit my fingers in and looking at the back we can see Corsair have added nice clips that help with cable management and holding cables together.

The front panel is pretty army-like and features a flick switch for the reset button. Once the front cover is removed you'll notice an area to fit up to 2 fans in for extra intake through the hard drive bays. Along the top you'll find handles which allow for easy carrying and clips to hold in the side panel covers.

Overall this is a solid piece of steel case which i'm sure would be a favourite amongst gamers. With adequate room inside to fit a beefy gaming rig and the ability to carry it around with ease means fun times!

Thrustmaster Gaming Gear

New to Centre Com is the not so new brand Thrustmaster. With gaming week in full swing I thought it would be good to try out some new Thrustmaster gaming gear!

Thrustmaster is anything but a new company, founded in 1990, the company worked on developing flight control simulations on IBM computers. So basically they know what they’re doing. They did go through a rough patch between 1999 and 2002, releasing a lot of cheap and generally poorly made equipment, however it seems like they are back and better than they have ever been!

 

Ok so let’s get straight into it, firstly I would like to point out that ever since I first got a PlayStation and started playing racing games I’ve always wanted a steering wheel! Unfortunately for me my parents thought time would be better spent on homework instead of playing games (Deja-vu anyone). Until today (I’m 27 years old mind you) I’d never played with a steering wheel for console or PC (Racing games at Intencity don’t count) so truth be told I was pretty excited at the opportunity to play with one. You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face and I was excited to finally give it a crack!

Ripping through the packaging of the Thurstmaster Ferrari GTExperience I was getting more and more anxious to get it going. Setup was simple as connecting the pedals to the main steering unit via the attached wiring and then plugging the USB cable from the steering unit to your computer. A quick driver installation later and I was ready to go in Dirt 3. Looking at the overall build quality it is not too bad. It does reflect its price a bit with thick plastic being used pretty much everywhere with a few rubbers striped along where you’d be expected to hold the steering wheel from. You will find a few stray pieces of plastic here and there which to be honest can be expected from a $60 steering wheel. You really do get what you pay for with it, but it’s not something that will affect the performance of it.

 

I won’t lie, the first few races were a bit of a learning curve to try and get used to the awesomeness that it was. The steering goes 90 degrees either way so you are a bit restricted in that sense but I didn’t  find myself the need to go any further to be honest. It is pretty sensitive enough to allow it to not need any more than it offers (you can change the sensitivity on it).

All the buttons on the unit can be configured to virtually whatever you want. The steering wheel is also compatible with PS3’s so it has all the buttons you’ll usually find on a PS3 controller. The steering wheel comes with a nice clamp that allows it to be sturdily placed on your table, however I did tend to pull it out a few times and I found myself needing to push it back in to sit over the table again properly. The sections that actually touch the table do have rubber padding on them to prevent such slips but there just doesn’t seem to be enough grip to really keep it planted. Of course as always though this can come down to a user problem, I was pretty vigorous at times in my steering so if you’re a bit more calm headed and easy driver you may not find this to be an issue. The pedals on the other hand are quite good and responsive. I had it here on a carpet surface and did find it to slide back a few times but this something that can be easily overcome by putting something behind (most would simply have a wall) so I don’t think this should be a concern for anyone.

 

The feedback on the unit is good but not great. It’s just enough to give you a bit of a shaky hand but doesn’t really offer a punch or a big hit when you accidentally lose control of your Subaru rally car and hit a tree causing you to do a 720 spin (not implying this actually happened…)

Overall a great steering wheel, so great that I bought one! Not the first time I’ve reviewed something and then gone and bought it! For my first steering wheel I am happy with it and can’t wait to have some fun with it! If you’re looking for your first steering wheel purchase, I can safely highly recommend this one!

Next was the Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X Joystick for both PC and PS3. Now, I didn’t have a game to test this bad boy on so I quickly looked over the unit to see its build quality and functions. For around the same price as the steering wheel this seemed to be a better build. Stronger and sturdier plastic with much better and more rubber grips gave it a bit more premium feel that what it is. The joystick and throttle level feel great and extremely solid. It has gre1at resistive settings to suit your needs and overall just looks and feels great!

 

So far with both these entry level Thrustmaster gaming gear I got to say I am impressed. Though not the prettiest and strongest they offer great performance to price ratio and bring joys of entertainment for hours!

sahin.s@centrecom.com.au