Review on Corsair K100 Optical Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by Jennifer Johnson

I came with the K70 LUX and at first I had my doubts about this keyboard. However, it was on sale briefly during Prime Day, so I relented and grabbed one. My old board was Cherry MX Reds and this time I went with Corsair OPX Optical Switches. First impression: The keys have a different texture/finish than the K70 keys, they look a bit rougher, like a slightly grainy varnish. It's not uncomfortable and actually keeps your hands from slipping off the keys like they do on the K70. The wrist strap (not shown in the picture) is also very comfortable, but I found it made my wrists/hands sweat quickly. Typing: I typed around 100-120 wpm on my K70. The layout on the K100 is slightly different due to the macro keys on the left side of the keyboard - my pinky keeps confusing the G1 macro key for ESC, but my muscle memory has been slowly rewiring itself over the past few days. However, this is probably a common complaint early on. I find typing on the K100 more comfortable than the K70 due to the speed of the Corsair OPX switches. Games: I play Counterstrike: Global Offensive the most. In terms of FPS, the K100 is much more responsive than my K70 LUX. I set the hardware polling rate to 2000Hz and my CSGO movements are much more responsive and faster. It feels like the game has gotten better, but really it's just my hardware that's improved. Note: Playing CSGO on a 244Hz monitor with a K100 feels like cheating half the time. I've been kicked out twice because people think I'm breaking walls. Build Quality: I've only had the keyboard for a few days, but it's holding up well. The keys feel more solid than on the K70. You get what you pay for and this keyboard /appears/ to be reliable and durable. For comparison I had a K70 for 3 years before the comma broke, and that's after 1300+ hours of playtime and 2000+ hours of DM text playback in Roll20 for my D&D groups. Software: The Corsair iCue software is very intuitive and pleasant to use. I prefer to have my board set to a static blue color, but it has many powerful features. For example, you can set colors according to the relative temperature of your motherboard/CPU/GPU to let you know when you're working. The top left color wheel is useful for more than just RGB, and I appreciate it because it allows you to skip/skip tracks. The media controls are great too, and the iCue software lets you remap the buttons to any other button of your choosing. Macros: Macro keys (G1-G6) can be disabled or configured to perform specific actions. For example, I set G1 to open Google Chrome (my browser) and G2 to open Notepad++ (my word processor). G3 and G6 are currently disabled, but they can be configured to perform specific in-game actions. Final Thoughts: Starting with the K70, some of the changes took some getting used to, but I adapted quickly and, as always, appreciate Corsair's updates and build quality. I am very happy with my purchase and feel that it has improved my gaming experience and typing speed.