New Saitek keyboard Eclipse II

WotDa · 28 Sep 2006 at 20:22

I'm tempted by one of these myself. My recently bought M$ jobby has some sticking probs on the CTRL keys.

Willbo · 28 Sep 2006 at 22:42

Got mine today as well as my MX518 mouse and great combo. Keyboard is brilliant, nice quiet keys, comfy to use, and the lights in the dark are so useful....admitedly the blue isnt great but the red and purple are nice bright and very clear.....

my rooms dark now and its working a treat. truly recommended!!!

right well i'm off to play some games

WotDa · 28 Sep 2006 at 23:10

How are the media keys? All working ok and all that?

Wonder if the extra power it draws would be less than this halogen lamp I got blinding me... Uhm..

Willbo · 28 Sep 2006 at 23:38

to be honest, i havent tried the media keys. bought the keyboard as more of a general/gamign keyboard.....

but just trying the volume keys now and yea work ok

WotDa · 28 Sep 2006 at 23:43

Cool. don't spose it has a cool slider on screen when you change the volume?

Not that I'm getting picky or anything.

Thx in advance.

Willbo · 29 Sep 2006 at 03:11

afraid not, if we all had what we wanted it would be wireless lol

dafloppyone · 29 Sep 2006 at 05:26

wireless... as in batteries dead withiin a few hours wireless?

2StepSteve · 29 Sep 2006 at 09:30

Well ive ordered one along with the MX518 mouse like the previous poster did, hope i'll be impressed!

Willbo · 29 Sep 2006 at 10:16

2StepSteve said:
Well ive ordered one along with the MX518 mouse like the previous poster did, hope i'll be impressed!

i'd say you will be, ive never really been picky about mice or keyboards before...just bought what looks stylish or does loads rather than ones that are more suitable for what i need them for....and to be honest, i havent been let down....

the mouse is as good as everyone says, so responsive, and being able to change how responsive it is whilst playing a game is great. as for the keyboard, its so quiet to use and the light comes in great use...just a shame the brightest colour is purple

2StepSteve · 29 Sep 2006 at 10:33

Willbo said:
i'd say you will be, ive never really been picky about mice or keyboards before...just bought what looks stylish or does loads rather than ones that are more suitable for what i need them for....and to be honest, i havent been let down....

the mouse is as good as everyone says, so responsive, and being able to change how responsive it is whilst playing a game is great. as for the keyboard, its so quiet to use and the light comes in great use...just a shame the brightest colour is purple

Thats cool

yeah the mouse comes so recommended it gets mentioned everywhere and its over a yr old i saw. In the past ive norm bought fairly priced keyboards and mice.. MS optical is what im using now.

lol could have been worse with the keyboard... having a pink colour and it being the brightest

hyper_piper45 · 29 Sep 2006 at 10:33

has anyone got any user pics of the new saitek keyboard?

stoofa · 29 Sep 2006 at 11:44

I'll see if I can get some pictures taken this evening - I need to do a little bit of a tidy on my desk first.
I can't have pictures of my computing area all over the Internet in the state it is in right now

I use my new Eclipse II along side my Logitech G5 mouse - I still personally cannot trust wireless mice although I'm sure they are fine.
I just love the little box of weights I got with the G5 and spent ages finding the perfect weight distribution.

ZUTON · 29 Sep 2006 at 12:17

Tryed my new Saitek Keyboard II today works a dream very happy bunny go and buy one today from Overclockers

Reload · 30 Sep 2006 at 21:39

Final got to try out mine today.

Keys have a good feel to them and very comfortable to use. The media keys do the job.

Overall build quality is excellent and the large rubber pads ensure it does slip on my desk.

As already reported the purple is by far the brightest of the 3 colours. I'd guess that's because it uses the red and blue to produce the colour. I'm a little dissapointed that the Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll lock lights remain blue regardless of the colour of light used.

Overall a great keyboard, well made and the lights just give it that extra edge.

WotDa · 30 Sep 2006 at 21:42

Reload said:
Final got to try out mine today.

Keys have a good feel to them and very comfortable to use. The media keys do the job.

Overall build quality is excellent and the large rubber pads ensure it does slip on my desk.

As already reported the purple is by far the brightest of the 3 colours. I'd guess that's because it uses the red and blue to produce the colour. I'm a little dissapointed that the Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll lock lights remain blue regardless of the colour of light used.

Overall a great keyboard, well made and the lights just give it that extra edge.

Will more than likely be ordering one of these on Monday then.

Might get a red, blue and purple cathode for my case at the same time, green won't cut it anymore.

stoofa · 3 Oct 2006 at 03:20

"I was so impressed by the item I bought the company....."

OK, not quite.
However I have been very impressed by this keyboard so I've written a small review, added a few pictures and posted it on my site.
You can find a link to the review among some stuff I really must get updated at the following URL:

http://www.cifi.com/computing.html

Hope some people find it useful.

hyper_piper45 · 3 Oct 2006 at 09:21

Nice little review, thanks stoofa

pegasus1 · 3 Oct 2006 at 18:23

Just got mine and its sooo much better than the horrid large beige microsoft keyboard it replaces

Slyman2k4 · 3 Oct 2006 at 18:35

it has been a fantastic keyboard so far but the only minor problem i have with it is the space bar. If i press at either end of the space bar it is like it just bends up and doesnt press in. Yea i know its a small problem but it just does my head in, my crappy oem keyboard did that too, but my wireless logitech didnt when it was in its prime.Going to have to get used to hitting near the centre of the space bar nowlol.

Edit: oh forgot about not being able to use it during bootup, is there any way aorund this?

stoofa · 4 Oct 2006 at 01:12

Slyman2k4 said:
it has been a fantastic keyboard so far but the only minor problem i have with it is the space bar. If i press at either end of the space bar it is like it just bends up and doesnt press in. Yea i know its a small problem but it just does my head in, my crappy oem keyboard did that too, but my wireless logitech didnt when it was in its prime.Going to have to get used to hitting near the centre of the space bar nowlol.

Edit: oh forgot about not being able to use it during bootup, is there any way aorund this?

I'm not seeing the space bar issue that you mention.
Now I will admit that I do usually strike the spacebar around the center.
However I've just spent the last five minutes striking it at the end and it hasn't yet failed to put in a space wherever I strike it.

As for not being able to use it during bootup - I'm not seeing that either.
Well I'm using the Eclipse II and I can get into and then navigate around the BIOS OK as I could with the USB keyboard I replaced.

Is it the Spacebar you have to hit to access your BIOS?
Is it possible you've got a faulty spacebar on the keyboard - so it appears to not respond during boot/post and you're having this issue when you strike it at either end?