Deleted member 101777
Deleted member 101777
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Are Retail Prices of Gaming Peripherals Rising Too Steeply?
They are just about getting silly, even a couple of years ago I don't think I ever spent more than £30 and while I don't mind spending the £40-45 or so I got my Zowie FKs for once it starts going much over £50 let alone £70 it feels too much unless there is something really really special about the mouse.
Keyboards wise I'm quite happy to spend around £100 for a good quality mechanical keyboard - the switches are a lot more expensive to produce than those in cheap keyboards and the good ones have a feeling of quality, substance and performance that feels about £100 worth.
Keyboards wise I'm quite happy to spend around £100 for a good quality mechanical keyboard - the switches are a lot more expensive to produce than those in cheap keyboards and the good ones have a feeling of quality, substance and performance that feels about £100 worth.
Yes you're probably right it doesn't cost much to produce and ship. but theres mark up for each companies hands on the way through and tax.
Intel saved about 3 cents by putting cheap ass tim on their ivybridge chips per chip. just 3 cents almost seems worthless until you think about the scale of operations.
They have risen in the last few years you are right I bought a roccat kone for £40 5/6 years ago they are now around 50.
remove Vat from 6 years ago which is 15% not the current 20
34
vs
40
6 pounds 1 pound a year which is roughly 3.3% which matches inflation.
Ignoring that though I feel your pain but I do feel you get better value for money on keyboards these days
Intel saved about 3 cents by putting cheap ass tim on their ivybridge chips per chip. just 3 cents almost seems worthless until you think about the scale of operations.
They have risen in the last few years you are right I bought a roccat kone for £40 5/6 years ago they are now around 50.
remove Vat from 6 years ago which is 15% not the current 20
34
vs
40
6 pounds 1 pound a year which is roughly 3.3% which matches inflation.
Ignoring that though I feel your pain but I do feel you get better value for money on keyboards these days
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Deleted member 101777
Deleted member 101777
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Over £100 each for a mouse and keyboard? Nah sounds fine.
I'll stick with my 12 quid keyboard and 10 quid mouse which aren't covered in flashy lights.
I'll stick with my 12 quid keyboard and 10 quid mouse which aren't covered in flashy lights.
I agree to a certain extent however a well built mech is by far better than a mesh keyboard, does it make me better no probably not but does it improve my enjoyment definitely. Mice are way to personal to say a 80 quid mouse is better than a 20 quid mouse whatever mouse you go for though the important part is that it fits you, i bought a rat 7 a few years ago never really got on with it my naos 7000 though I love, the price doesnt always mean anything
No one denies they're better, but is, for instance, a Corsair K70 Brown worth £60 more than a K40?
..I don't think that kind of price difference is justified in any way whatsoever.
I've no doubt that these items are very high profit margin sales for all concerned.
It totally depends on what you feel is performance. Is it going to suddenly turn you into a gaming god, no it wont, do i believe the the k70 is worth 40 quid more than the k40 yes I believe a mech keyboard is worth the cost having recently made the change from a saitek v5 to a dusky shine. There is a markup on all equipment peripherals being no exception.
Im not going to say rush out and buy a 150 quid mech, im suggesting try a handful of cherry based keyboards for a day then go back to your mesh board and tell me you feel the same
Im not going to say rush out and buy a 150 quid mech, im suggesting try a handful of cherry based keyboards for a day then go back to your mesh board and tell me you feel the same
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I paid for my mouses:
SS ikari £45-48
MS IE 3.0 around £6-7
Logitech G400 £20
Keyboard 'gaming'
Razer Arctosa - £32 I regret this as a £10 keyboard feels better than this poo...
Headphones - not a big difference over normal ones, so no point paying for 'PRO GAMING' sign.
SS ikari £45-48
MS IE 3.0 around £6-7
Logitech G400 £20
Keyboard 'gaming'
Razer Arctosa - £32 I regret this as a £10 keyboard feels better than this poo...
Headphones - not a big difference over normal ones, so no point paying for 'PRO GAMING' sign.
I paid what felt like a fortune at the time for my logitech G15, this was years ago and it's still going, my favourite feature being the media buttons so I can scroll through my music without tabbing out. I feel like it's more than made it's moneys worth, I also have a logitech MX518 mouse which I adore.
My friend spent more money on his razer products and he has gone through several in the same time frame. Not sure if that's a comment on razer or his heavy hands but I feel I can rely on logitech. if I was to spend money on a new keyboard today I know I'd be looking at £100+ for something desirable, it's quite a price jump but then again with the VAT increase and the massive influx of mechanical keyboards it kind of makes sense.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand why the prices have gone so steep but the technology and benefits of spending the money do show in the long term if you choose wisely. However, you don't always get what you pay for in terms of reliability so thats something to bare in mind.
My friend spent more money on his razer products and he has gone through several in the same time frame. Not sure if that's a comment on razer or his heavy hands but I feel I can rely on logitech. if I was to spend money on a new keyboard today I know I'd be looking at £100+ for something desirable, it's quite a price jump but then again with the VAT increase and the massive influx of mechanical keyboards it kind of makes sense.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand why the prices have gone so steep but the technology and benefits of spending the money do show in the long term if you choose wisely. However, you don't always get what you pay for in terms of reliability so thats something to bare in mind.
I can tell you that upgrading from a £10 mouse makes a huge difference. I used to use a cheap one, but when moving fast it would not sense position.movement accurately. Now I got a MX518 (£38) and its awesome. Its the single biggest improvement I have found in gaming! I also have a mechanical keyboard but it makes a negligible improvement.
A lot of the "high end" gaming peripherals are little more than snake oil and many actually are worse than fairly cheap basic mice/keyboard but thats not entirely the case.
For a very long time for me a fairly basic keyboard (£9) and the cheap and cheerful WMO1.1a (approx. £12) was the cream of peripherals, I tried a lot of "high end" pricey alternatives that were supposed to improve on them and all fell far short but the Zowie FK (£40-50) and Ozone Strike w/ Blacks (approx. £80) have finally given me peripherals that improve over those more basic offerings on how well my skill translates into what happens in the game.
For a very long time for me a fairly basic keyboard (£9) and the cheap and cheerful WMO1.1a (approx. £12) was the cream of peripherals, I tried a lot of "high end" pricey alternatives that were supposed to improve on them and all fell far short but the Zowie FK (£40-50) and Ozone Strike w/ Blacks (approx. £80) have finally given me peripherals that improve over those more basic offerings on how well my skill translates into what happens in the game.
I absolutely disagree. Just do not buy 'GAMING' headphones. It is a well known fact that music gear that is made to play music is better than music gear made to play game sounds. Even at playing game sounds. If you have a decent sound card (that can drive the headphones) you will hear the difference of a 10 quid headphones and 100 quid headphones in pretty much any scenario including gaming.
I love the way how marketing makes some people believe and create that wonderful placebo effect. Buy yourself for example koss ur40 and some 100 quid gaming headset, than if you have a good hearing and you aren't blind then you'll see that gaming headset will only have a little bit more bass.
P.s. Don't waste money on soundcards, get yourself external dac/amp.
P.s. Don't waste money on soundcards, get yourself external dac/amp.
An Asus DG/DGX is ~£25 and is more than capable of driving even 60-100Ω cans. Despite the high output impedance of the DG/DGX (it really is quite high, roughly 100Ω), you can drive headphones, I would say under £100 ones, quite comfortably. If you have very expensive headphones, of course you are going to get a DAC+AMP but then the budget starts to go insane very fast as a decent combo is north of £150 and you are starting to enter audiophile/hi-fi territory.
I currently have a HyperX Cloud (Qpad QH-90/Takstar Monitor PRO 80) and on a DG/DGX (have both) I more often am annoyed by low quality music - badly compressed/badly recorded than by the sound card. Not that it is impossible to get to that point too but a lot rarer.P.S. Otherwise I completely agree about the rest of your post. Just that gaming headphones usually have only bass, not more bass.
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Manufacturing costs very little, development costs a lot. You could buy Chinese knock-offs for some of the more popular models. Don't forget that a good bit of the money you are paying for a gaming peripheral is going to sponsor pro teams and tournaments too.
I bought my Ducky Shine keyboard for the improved ergonomics, not for twitch gaming (at which I suck). I use the keyboard every day and my hands are worth it.
I look on the mouse wars with a mixture of amusement and dread. Amusement because I no longer use mice; dread because there's only one real manufacturer of ambidextrous trackballs, Kensington, and should they stop producing them, I'll be really stuffed.
I look on the mouse wars with a mixture of amusement and dread. Amusement because I no longer use mice; dread because there's only one real manufacturer of ambidextrous trackballs, Kensington, and should they stop producing them, I'll be really stuffed.