G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 MX Keyboard Review

LED lighting is adjustable in four presets directly on the keyboard and can be turned off completely if desired.   The lights provide plenty of background glow thanks to the clear Cherry MX switch design.  The overall effect is quite nice thanks to the laser cut key design.  I know mqny will opt for the millions of colors a full RGB setup provides but I have found that most users only make use of those functions untill the newness wears off.

Of course more functionality can be found in the software suite.

Like all of the G.Skill Ripjaws products the KM780 uses the G.Skill Unified Driver System software.  The unification is still not as unified as I would expect and requires eack device driver to be installed seperately.  As of this review the KM780 is using Firmware 23 and software version 0.71 so there is definitely room to grow.

The software is divided into four major areas; Customize, setting, Lighting and Macros.  Customize is where you build your profiles assign them to the mode keys or to be triggerd off of a specific program.  The profiles can be saved to the device directly, imported or exported.  Each individual key can be customized individually or disabled if desired.

Settings is the home of most of the typical keyboard settings: Polling rate N-key rollover repeat rate.  This is also where you can setup the timer and enable a sleep setting

The lighting section offers the ability to customize the light effects.  Once again you can change the keyboard in full, sections  or by individual keys.  Lighting up those FPS accent keys gives a pretty awesome visual impact!  A total of 8 different preprogrammed effects are available including my favorite Breathing effect!

Finally we have the Macro section.  Macros can also  be recored from the keyboard real time.  The Macro recording is a simple to use interface.  I founs recording simple macros pretty easy.  Where the software comes a bit short I sin your ability to edit more advanced functionality into your macros.  Still the software suite is pretty new so I hovev hope that this is an area tha can be inproved apon.  I rarely have need of these macros myself .

I spent a couple weeks on the Ripjaws Km780 MX Keyboard together with the Ripjaws MX780 Gaming  Mouse to really get the feel for the shape.  I tested both with the keycaps and without.  Long sessions of Battlefield 4 provided the foundation for my review as usual.  My initial aprehensiveness at the raised key design quickly moved to appreciation for the design.   I have grown to love the Chery MX Brown switches over my usual reds for the quieter and more forgiving keypress.

Overall I came away impressed with the confident quality the G.Skill KM780 MX Keyboard brings to the table.  The build oozes quality and the performane was predictably solid.  Yes I do find myself wondering about the RGB bling but I don’t really need it.  G.Skill may be late to the gaming keyboard party but the KM780 MX keyboard shows they came prepaired to compete.

Fantastic build quality.
Great selection of keyboard options.
Chery MX Brown switches.
Great warranty.

Macro support is limited.
Only one USB port on the pass-through.
Larger footprint.