allup Posted November 11, 2008 Posted November 11, 2008 (edited) SteelSeries Ikari Laser Mouse, QcK MousePad, and Siberia Neckband Headset Review Here I am going to review three of SteelSeries Pro Gaming offerings: 1. SteelSeries IKARI Pro Gaming Laser Mouse 2. SteelSeries QCK Pro Gaming Mouse Pad 3. SteelSeries SIBERIA Neckband Headset Steelseries IKARI Pro gaming Laser Mouse http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/mi...ser/information Written by Jim S Edited by Mz.Teddy It is getting close to the holidays and time to start thinking about gifts, either for someone else or yourself. We will look at these 3 gaming essentials to see a great gift pack idea. Also on there own, take a good look at each product and see how they stack up in today's high-end gaming market. When it comes to gaming every little bit that you can do to game at a higher level is essential. Whether an avid gamer or casual "fun" gamer, when you have the right tools for the job, it makes your time gaming a much better experience. With today's much more immersive games with more life-like environments and player-to-player interaction in multi-player modes. A lot of folks tend to find themselves climbing into the games for long periods of playing time, and with good equipment, your time spent is kept at a higher level for a longer period. Which means better results for time spent gaming. The best parts being: stats, levels, and owning the "other players" (I'm not calling them NOOBs - just "Owned". This is where these SteelSeries gaming essentials come in to play. The first essential we will look at is the SteelSeries IKARI Pro Gaming laser Mouse P/N 62001/1 The packaging is of very good quality and will survive shipping without issue. The next thing you notice is that it is multi-language exterior being good for retail use. Also for gamers from many countries, get benefits from the packaging. The other thing is the mouse itself is through clear plastic cover so you can see what you are getting. Upon opening the box it has an interior slide out holding the mouse, plastic cover, and CD package which includes a decent instruction book, product foldout and SteelSeries badging. Now for the goods. Taking the mouse out of the slide out you can feel the quality of the material right away. Some mice I have used have felt cheap right out of the package. The buttons rattled or were hard to click or just felt plain sloppy all-together. None of that here. I think this mouse would take repeated drops and falls with no problem, though I do not recommend it. It has a great feel right off when you hold it in your hand, the design is top notch and feels solid and comfortable. Even with my large hands which can cover the mouse end to end. It feels like one solid piece, in fact it is. Not different pieces that make up a mouse like most do. The cord is the next part. It is a weaved or braided fiber material and seems like it will stand up to being pulled on quite a bit which does happen, or getting pinched by the keyboard tray etc. It looks and feels like it would hold up real well and not wear like the regular covering materials. At the end of the cord you will find a noise choke and gold-plated USB connector. Next, the mouse gutz. To start with, the scroll wheel moves solid and easy, either slow or fast it is constant and the click feels tight. Under or behind the scroll wheel is a button. "What is it" you ask? This mouse has adjustable on-the-fly CPI. CPI means "Counts per inch" or how many times the mouse counts in an inch of movement. "The advanced SteelSeries XY2 laser engine supports resolution settings with increments of only 1 CPI, which for the first time ever gives the user the ability to fine tune the mouse exactly to your personal reaction pattern. Set your windows and in-game sensitivity to default and set the CPI on your hardware instead of forcing software calculations." Also says it has Acceleration of 20G`S "WOW!" Meaning, you can set the mouse speed and control to just how you like it or in gaming terms, you can set the higher speed to close quarters combat for fast precise movement and use the lower setting for getting just the right aiming point fast and precise for sniping or shooting from a distance with one click of the button. Now that is real cool! The best part of all this is on the right front end of the mouse are white LCD`s that you can see the hi or lo settings easy. Also on the bottom of the mouse is another LCD readout that, when you hold the button behind the scroll a couple seconds, then by turning the scroll button changes the CPI on the fly and can tell you what preset you have loaded when you load them up. That is high-end Stuff. EH? The left and right buttons are built right into the top mouse body. That's right boys and girls, a one-piece top! Which helps not only to the overall look, but adds to the solid feel of the mouse. Also, I am sure it will help with wear over a long period of time, protecting your investment. The clicks are smooth and easy without feeling the need to push hard on the buttons, which for me is good cuz, I hate mouse finger. During long (like 12 hour or longer) gaming sessions, which I am well known for. I am the type of gamer when I buy a game I will play the single player all the way through in one sitting. That is before I ever go to multi-player if the game has it. And comfort for me is important when gaming that length of time. This mouse seems to be great with comfort. The side buttons are both on the left side of the mouse. ALL of the buttons, including the scroll, can be programmed with keys or macros. The side buttons are in easy thumb reach and I found they can be manipulated easily with the front or back of my thumb for fast operation. Great for drop and jump in multi-player games. In my gaming I used it in some multi-player games and had a great time with using this mouse all around, sniping and CQB. Not having played BHD for over 6 months, I went in and on the first full map after setting up the mouse I had 25 knife kills in a sniper server small map. And, out long, I went 20-0 sniping in the next map. For a new mouse and going from a Logitech marble mouse to this IKARI Laser Mouse was very easy. I will enjoy it much! The Software The software that comes with the mouse is straight forward. It has sections for button settings, macros, and sensitivity settings. You can import profiles from the website from Gaming Pro`s, or set up your own, to match whatever games you play as well. They can be set into profiles loaded at your convenience. Then you can read it from LCD readout on the bottom of the mouse itself for quick reference or in the profiles settings folder. The last setting is called Freemove. Which is a slider that corrects the mouse path to your movement for doing straight lines, great also for folks like me that can't make the mouse do straight lines, and/or cad-cam and design. There are 7 points of adjustment, each one making the movement straighter the higher you go. I loaded the driver/software from the website for this IKARI, to have the latest set. Which I recommend always. The software is rated for all Windows and Mac. I also use Kbuntu4 both 8.04 and 8.10, which I do not see drivers for, but plug and play works great and you can adjust the CPI as well. Seems to also have the great acceleration. Now to the Mouse`s Bottom This Steelseries IKARI Laser Mouse has 4 LARGE glide points on the bottom. Top, Right, Left, Bottom or Back. This is my only concern not having used many mice with the type of glide pad's that this mouse has. After using the mouse for a few days real hard, I saw some light scratches on the glide pads. This is more then likely normal, even with a new SteelSeries QcK Mousepad. Might just be my own ignorance of putting the mousepad next to the open side of my pc case, but I did notice them so I was concerned. As far as the glide of the mouse it is very accurate and I do not feel any effects of the light scratches. It is as smooth as Taylor Swift's backside. The XY2 laser is inset to help keep it clean and is adjustable in increments of 1 CPI at a time. This way you can fine tune the mouse to your own reaction patterns. To me it means it is adjustable to my over-active mouse movements. Conclusion! This is a great mouse! Pro`s Decent price for this quality of mouse. Very accurate and smooth. Fully programmable buttons with macros. Quality design and very solid build. Adjustable CPI with LCD Readout and dual CPI settings on the fly. Con's The only con I saw was the light scratches on the glide pads after use but again, I am not sure how the pads are supposed to look, and that could be normal with use. That and no Linux driver posted. So I give it a 9.5 out of 10 Allup's go and buy now Recommendation! Now for the website specs: Specifications for SteelSeries Ikari Laser: #62001/1 - Samples per second: 40.000 - Inches per second: 50 - Counts per inch: 1 - 3.200 (1 CPI Steps) - Acceleration: 20 G - Sensor data path: True 16 bit - Lift distance: 0,07 inch - Buttons: 5 - Cord: 6.5 ft (braided to improve durability) - Polling: 1000 Hz - Gold-plated USB connector - Measurements: 5,1 x 3,3in - height 1,4in - CPI high/low indicator - SteelSeries FreeMove Technology - Large pressure points that reduce friction for optimized glide - Driverless, plug-and-play feature for LAN gamers - Operating systems: Win XP/Vista/Win 2000/Win 98/Win ME/Mac OS Avalable at most all large online retailers. http://www.steelseries.com/us/where_to_buy/ Now go out and buy 2 or 3 PART 2 SteelSeries QcK MousePad http://www.steelseries.com/us/products/sur...qck/information Written by Jim S. Edited by Mz. Teddy In this part we will look at the accompanying mouse pad essential for the Steelseries IKARI Pro Gaming Laser Mouse. The QcK MousePad comes in a few different sizes, 6 to be exact, in the QcK series. Also one is called "Heavy." Also 2 for the ladies - one in white and one in pink. The one I received is P/N#03004. It's about 12 in x 12 in and comes rolled up in a tube-type package. The package is well meant for retail and as with the Ikari Laser Mouse is multilingual. Great for gamers in many countries. Upon opening package, the pad was all rolled up as with other things like posters and such I have received in tube type packages. I was concerned about it curling. I set it on my desktop next to my PC and left it for 5 minutes and it was perfect, not a warp or wrinkle anywhere. It feels like my old Harley rain-gear but slightly grainy on the top at the same time, smooth-grainy but not over smooth. Inside the package as well, was a wrap for the Mousepad, product brochure, and a SteelSeries Badge. The color I got was a flat black and looks decent on my cherry-wood color desktop. In the bottom left corner is the SteelSeries badging, clean and neat in white. With the Laser mouse it is very smooth on the glidepad, which produced very accurate results over the period of a week of testing. I had no rogue mouse movements, no skipping or hanging. IMHO it does the job nicely. Even with the tunes pounding from the speakers. The bottom was of a smooth rubber and of good quality as well and did not slip on my desk at all, which I would expect and it had no smells that sometimes accompany mousepads. Conclusion! A big plus to those that own animals. I have 3 catz. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a.../Picture005.jpg[/img] http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a...os/DSCF0033.jpg[/img] They leave enough fur about to make more catz quickly. After a week of using this Mousepad, I was unable to find fur of any consequence on the mousepad! I did blow it off a couple times but the hairs did not stick, which I would have expected from this kind of material. Just a blow-off of air was all I needed to keep it clean. Pretty straight forward and simple, it works, looks good, and holds up well from what I have read. I give it a 10 of 10 for the Cat Fur and stuff not sticking to the top. To me that is important. Allup Highly Recommended Go buy now product, especially if you have animals at home. Website Specs here: SteelSeries QcK heavy highlights: - XXL-sized cloth mouse pad - Heavy thickness eliminates uneven surfaces - 17,7" x 15,7" - thickness 0,23" SteelSeries QcK+ highlights: - XXL-sized cloth mouse pad - 17,7" x 15,7" - thickness 0,08" SteelSeries QcK highlights: - M-sized cloth mouse pad - 12,6" x 11,2" - thickness 0,08" SteelSeries QcK mini highlights: - S-sized cloth mouse pad - 9,8" x 8,3" - thickness 0,08" They highly recommend measuring your desktop mouse area before ordering! Part 3 SteelSeries SIBERIA Neckband-Headset http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/au...and/information Written by Jim S. Edited by Mz. Teddy This third part is like the dessert essential. We received these a week ago and the only time I can get them is when Mz. Teddy, my editor, is at work. She is in love with this headset! I can tell you she has gone through at least 5 of them in the last 4 years, some of them as much as $100 or more U.S. These are the most I have heard positive feedback from her then any other. I have a set of Creative S750 surround sound THX 750 watt 7.1 speakers. So I do not do headphones much, and she does! ;-) So when she has been at work and I laze around writing up reviews. "Hey, I am retired what can I say?" I grabbed the headphones and gave them a good spin, in fact I am using them right now as I write this review. I traded them out with my Sharper-Image Bose knockoff noise canceling headphones, which I thought were real good, and these Siberia's blew them away with room to spare. From what I had read from other reviews of this headset I was not expecting much from them, honestly. I was wrong! I think those that tested them must have been using old on-board sound from a poor motherboard or something, because I pulled the green plug from my X-FI Extreme sound card, using the latest driver for Vista and I am Impressed! I set it for phones and made a couple adjustments to the EQ. Set the CMSS-3D and let the Jet-Audio-Free version fly with a flat EQ. I think they sound great myself. Well they could use a bit higher volume for me. Music wise, the sound placement is proper and clear, be it Anthrax, the B-52's, some RATM pistol grip punk or ZZ-Top or even a lil' James Brown. It's all good on this headset with only a small volume adjustment according to the quality of the recording. The better the quality the higher the volume and so it goes. To be fair I also plugged them into the control box on my S750's and had just a small drop in quality. So the answer is not there. So next I fired up the onboard HD sound with my XFX 680i-LT Realtek which uses the ALC889DD chip. This is supposed to lessen the use of the PCI bus but improve sound quality at the same time. I used the latest driver on the Realtek site. The R.07 Driver. A-HA! There is the issue, the other reviews I had read had used onboard sound! The reason I know this now, is I made sure my HD-audio was plugged in for my front panel on my Antec 900. Popped the headphones in and defaulted the onboard sound. Sure enough, the onboard sound lessened the quality by almost half. Though the sound was still pretty good, it was not near the sound of my PCI sound card. If that's not an add for buying PCI or better sound cards nothing is. It was that much difference! So that issue is solved far as I am concerned. I understand the other reviews, and why they were how they were. Sound quality-wise. As far as gaming I played 3 titles. GTA3 San Andreas, Merc's 2 World in Flames and BHD. The sound was correct to the area and fully discernable with both sound setups (onboard and PCI), though the quality on the PCI card with EAX Advanced HD was better. I was able to find my enemies easy enough with both sound options, (Side note: The sound package with Merc's2 is not that great. ) Ok my soapbox is gone, on to the meat of this review. The package for this neckband headset was just as the others, of good quality and multi-lingual. With the clear plastic over the phones so you see what you are getting for your hard earned cash. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a...os/DSCF0608.jpg[/img] The package contains a slide out like the mouse did only larger of course and made of vacu-form plastic. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a...os/DSCF0621.jpg[/img] The phones are wired to the plastic with wire ties to protect them during shipping. As to be expected from a quality item. The phones themselves are white with black trim and gray badging and the R & L. The sides on the speaker centers are black and vented so you can hear outside sound if not turned up to high. Overall the design of this headset is great color-wise and would look good anywhere on any desk or head in my opinion. The back or top of the neckband is covered in a dark stretchy cloth material, covering the expansion hardware and has the SteelSeries Badging on the center back. (Note If you have a real small head these phones might slip on you a little bit.) But for myself and Mz. Teddy that was not a problem as our heads are swelled plenty and had no problems. The cord is white, quality material and has soft rubber protectors at both ends to help prevent shorts in the cord. The cord is about 4 ft or so long. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a...os/DSCF0631.jpg[/img] One of the nice things with the headset, cord-wise, is that it has quality 4 foot cord extension that has a hard plastic solid plug in for the phones and Mic with a rotary volume knob. Though there is no Mic button or adjustment on the connector, which is ok for me cuz I always use push to talk so as not to bug my fellow gamers with background noise. To me, that is very irritating and I will move someone to another channel or mute them if it is bad. ;-) Anyway this extra connector cord is longer than the first and will easily allow for those whose gaming rigs that are on the floor a couple feet from the desktop. This extra cord is also white and has good guality connectors and ends to help prevent shorts. The headset itself is of real good quality material and fit's us at least, in a most comfortable way. Two things of note here. After 6 hours of use the tops of my ears did feel the effects of the phones as I do not wear them often. Some other folks my find the same issue. Some not. The other is over a long time of use which I have not had the privilege of yet, the foam around the ear-sets could wear a bit hard. Though I could not figure in how long, the foam feels of good quality and is very comfortable to wear. So I imagine with good care and a decent cleaning once in a while and not throwing them about, they should last a long time. Save the dog chewing them. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a...os/DSCF0625.jpg[/img] Now on to the Mic! This is one of the coolest features of this Siberia Headset. The Mic is almost fully retractable. The reason that this is cool is that in this day and age of portable music players, you can retract the Mic into the headset and cruse around with your Siberia's anywhere with out looking like a dork with the Mic hanging out. That alone is a big point because it allows a much higher usage for your money. Also good in the car I found out. By plugging them into the backseat headphone plug in my car on a trip to town (about a 25 mile round trip) they had good sound quality as well. Can you say "long trips without distraction?"? As far as Mic quality the folks that I spoke to in both Messenger and on TS said I was real clear and much better then my normal Mic (an Andrea Sound Max array Mic that does tend to pick up a lot of background noise). This Mic seemed to not have that issue from Mz. Teddy or myself. Also of note is that I found out she does not talk or "yell" as loud with this headset, which is also another very good point and good on my poor ears. ;-) http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/a...os/DSCF0625.jpg[/img] After figuring out the sound quality issue, then the ear-foam possible issue, plus the small head thing: I will give this headset a 9.3 out of 10 Allup's go and buy now Recommendation! Now for the website specs: Specifications for SteelSeries Siberia Neckband: Headphone - Frequency response: 18 - 28.000 Hz - Impedance: 40 Ohm - SPL@1kHz, 1V rms: 104 dB - Cable length: 4.3 + 4.6 = 8.9 ft. - Jack: 3.5 mm (6.3 mm converter included) Microphone - Frequency response: 80 - 15.000 Hz - Impedance: 2K Ohm - Pick-up pattern: Uni-directional - Sensitivity (1V/P@1 kHz): -38 dB Final Thoughts Again with the holidays coming and gifts needed under the tree, I do not believe you could go wrong with any or all of these high quality products from SteelSeries. Which does stand for Professional Gaming Gear. Buy them together as gift pack for your favorite gamer you will be loved forever IMHO. I did not much know about SteelSeries until they bought out the maker of my Keyboard, the Ideazon Merc Stealth Illuminated Gaming Keyboard. See my review for that last year. http://www.sniperkustom.co.uk/phpbb/viewto...f=20&t=9464 Yes the pics where not good. My digital camera broke and I had to use my phone cam for some of it. Anyways the SteelSeries folks did line me up to review these 3 products. Upon my first readings the headset did not seem real good. I was swayed on that upon hearing them for myself. I would put them up to any on the market. The thing is. Look, you need the best quality sound coming out of the computer to get the best quality sound into the speakers or headset. Period! With that said. The Laser Mouse and QcK Mousepad stand on there own. I had read lots of good things on both. All 3 of these products are, as far as I can see first-hand, among some of the best quality accessories or "input-output devices" known in the retail world that I have used. That goes back 25 years to my first computer experience. Yes I am old. But I am also trustworthy, and those of you that know me know that as well. If something is crap. I would not go near it, unless to improve it, let alone give it a review. That's why I do not do a ton of reviews. Also I buy the products I use whenever possible. If I do review them it is to be truthful about liking the product. These products from SteelSeries are Very Good, and we will enjoy using them. Edited November 12, 2008 by allup Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted November 12, 2008 Posted November 12, 2008 (edited) You can inset pictures using [/img] EDIT: Great review(s), flavor and detailed just how i like it On a side note the Teflon feet or "glide pads" dont have much of an effect when they receive scratches, usuage actually. I suppose in time if could become a problem but that would take a while. Edited November 12, 2008 by damian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allup Posted November 12, 2008 Posted November 12, 2008 (edited) Thanks for the positive input man! I retagged the images but i am only allowed so many so if some are missing i`m sorry! :thumbs-up: Edited November 12, 2008 by allup Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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