G.Skill RIPJAWS KM780 RGB Keyboard Review

Overview

 

It’s always an interesting time when a new manufacturer enters the world of PC Gaming peripherals, one of our favourite subjects here at pcG! The latest manufacturer to do so is no stranger to the pcG review archives and its probably no stranger to you either, we’ve all heard of G.Skill, right!? When thinking about G.Skill most of us think or Memory (RAM), but as we know they make SSDs too, among other memory related components. But today we would like to focus on the first of three new peripherals (Keyboard, Mouse & Headset) from G.Skill, this is the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB keyboard.

The Ripjaws KM780 RGB is a mechanical Gaming keyboard with Cherry MX switches and full N-Key Rollover support and 100% Anti-Ghosting support. This particular sample features Cherry MX Brown switches (Red is also available) and also features a US layout (UK coming soon). The keyboard’s most important feature though is its RGB illumination, with full per-key control. In addition to this the KM780 RGB features a media control panel with a volume wheel and a volume indicator, as well as dedicated Macro control keys. There’s also a wrist rest, additional Gaming keycaps and a mouse cable holder!?

 

 

The G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB Keyboard arrived at pcG in a smart looking, rather large box with a large image of the Ripjaws KM780 on the front. In the top right hand corner we are reminded of the keyboards RGB credentials, while over on the right we have confirmation of the Cherry MX Brown switches. Below this G.Skill have highlighted the following features:

The back of the box has another image of the Ripjaws KM780 RGB from the left side and at an angle, numerous indicators then highlight various (well eleven, or is that twelve!?) aspects of the keyboard, most of these are a repeat of the ones found on the front of the box. In addition to this there’s a description of each of the features in the lower left corner, in English and various other languages. But the font is so small I cant actually read it! 😉

 

 

With the inner cardboard box slid out from within the outer sleeve, we can see that the contents are adequately protected and presented. There we certainly no issues found during the un-boxing, although the main cable was pretty darn awkward to get out from within its cardboard sleeve.

 

 

Within the box other than the keyboard itself we find the soft touch wrist rest, a Quick Start Guide and a small plastic box, with what appears to be hooks on it?

 

At the time of writing the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB Keyboard retail price here in the UK is somewhat unknown, unfortunately. But the keyboard is already on sale in the US (here) and is retailing for approximately $160, this suggests a retail price here in the UK of around £105. The keyboard also features a 2 year limited warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of G.Skill

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

First impressions of the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB are really rather good, I’ve not seen a keyboard quite like this before, so it looks like G.Skill may have designed their own, which is something I always applaud. It’s a good looking keyboard too, although it is big (and heavy) and it seems to be equipped with all of the features most Gamers would want! Being Cherry MX based the Gaming response should be good too, although personally I would have liked to have been given a Red switch sample instead of Brown…

 

 

Looking at the keyboard as a whole we can see that the design is dominated by the aluminium bar that runs around four sides of the keyboard (left, right, back & front). This along with the fact that the keyboard’s base is also made from aluminium helps to give the keyboard some rigidity, and I can assure you it works! The sides also look rather cool with their bars and angular accents, the one on the left also sports a rather nice G.SKILL logo. At the top in the centre there’s a nice simple silver G.Skill logo and here you can also see the attached braided 2m long cable.

Over on the left side, at the top of the KM780 RGB we find a dedicated Macro recording control panel. This comprises of a Macro recoding button (MR) and the six G keys that are dedicated Gaming (Macro) keys. This allows the KM780 RGB to perform on-the-fly Macro recording. Just to the right of the MR button we find three more buttons (M1 – M3) these are the dedicated Mode (Profile) buttons, allowing on-board profiles to be recalled at any time, without the use of software. The set of three buttons to the right of this are: Windows Lock, Brightness and a Timer.

Over on the right side of the keyboard we find a dedicated Media control panel comprising of Stop, Rewind, Play/Pause and F-Forward. To the left of this we find a Volume Mute and a dedicated volume control. The control wheel itself is an aluminium scroll wheel with some knurled edges, and it’s kinda nice to use. But the best part is that when you use the Volume control a row of LEDs light up beneath the control panel, and help to give you some idea of the current volume setting. Here you will also find the standard Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock indicators.

 

 

As I mentioned earlier the G.Skill Ripjaws MK780 RGB has a rather cool bar that runs around the outside of the keyboard that exposes itself (ooh er!) in certain places. It probably looks its best on the left side of the keyboard, thanks to that angled accent, the exposed screws and that G.Skill logo! In the image below left you can also see the brushed black anodised surface of the aluminium base plate, as well as all of those dedicated Macro keys (G1 – G6).

Looking at the back edge of the keyboard we see a simple IO panel. This panel comprises of a USB (pass-through), microphone and headphone outputs and a rather curious looking switch. This switches the keyboards NKRO Mode from 6-Key (S for Standard!?) to Full (G for Gaming).

 

 

Looking at the back of the KM780 RGB allows us to appreciate that aluminium bar that runs around the edge of the keyboard. In each corner we find a large rubber foot, while at the back, in addition to the flat rubber feet, there are also two legs allowing the back of the keyboard to be tilted up even further, should you wish. Also note the rather heavy duty braided cable at the back there, you’re going to want clear your desk before placing this on the desk, this cable will take out everything in its path, even a monitor! 😉

As you can see each corner features a retracting leg or foot, but what’s that other thing next to it? It looks like it pops up too! Indeed it does…

That ladies and gentlemen is the Foldable Cable Holder! What’s that I hear you ask? Well it’s designed (although there’s not a lot of design in it to be fair!) to support your mouse cable should the pesky thing have a mind of its own. It also slides along the bar too, and (jumping ahead) I’ll tell you now I used it and it actually kinda works! 🙂

 

 

Of course lurking in the box there’s that wrist rest, a welcome addition to any keyboard as far as I’m concerned. But this is not just a simple plastic wrist rest, no this is a Soft-Touch Wrist Rest and very nice it is too! The central area of the rest sports a nice soft rubber surface, that’s got some form of pattern built into it, so not only does it work, it looks good too.

 

 

Finally we get to that plastic box from earlier, what’s inside I wonder? Well that will be some extra keycaps, Ergonomically Contoured Keycaps at that! Now while I very much like the idea of specific dedicated Gaming keycaps, the ones supplied with the KM780 RGB are, well, horrible. Especially as the rest of the keyboard exudes quality, not only do these keycaps look gimicky, the WASD keys are bad shape (too angular!) and they look and feel cheap! Sorry G.Skill, I think these are best left in the box. I do quite like the idea of the box itself though that can be attached to the back of the keyboard courtesy of that aluminium bar.

As we can see from the image below centre, this example of the Ripajaws KM780 RGB came with Cherry Brown MX switches (Red (my preference) also available). Note how the whole switch illuminates (not just your normal LED), the down/plus side of this is that a lot of light is emitted from the side of the keyboard. Personally I quite like it, and to be fair it’s not noticeable when sat at the keyboard anyway…

The final image shows those rather cheap looking extra keycaps in place on the WASD keys, not only do the look a little nasty but the angles of the WASD keys are just to steep IMHO! Trust me I never had them fitted for long…

 

 

To be honest I’m a little shocked at just how good this debut keyboard from G.Skill is. OK so I’m not a lover of those extra keycaps, but that’s what they are, extra! The rest of the keyboard is to die for, the design I like a lot, especially as it’s different to most of the keyboards I’ve seen in the past! It’s also very well made and packed with features, I especially love the volume LED indicator strip.

 

Hardware Installation

 

The G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB connects by way of its extremely stiff 2m long braided cable. It’s not the worst I’ve come across (here’s looking at you Zibal), but I do wish manufacturers would do a little more to keep the size and rigidity of this cable to a minimum. Not only could this keyboard help take the enemy out, it could take out your monitor too! 😉 At the end of the 2m long braided cable we find x2 USB plugs, one for the keyboard and one for the USB pass-through and two audio 2.5mm Jack plugs (Headphone/Microphone).

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

 

The following games were used during testing:

• Survarium (BETA)
• Mad Max
• Divinity Original Sin
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

 

Hardware Performance

 

BACKLIGHTING

 

 

In general the backlighting of any RGB keyboard is nothing short of dazzling, seeing all of those colours dancing around in front of your eyes is simply mesmerising and is sure to impress you and your friends and family. And, thankfully the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB is as good as any RGB keyboard that we’ve seen, when looking at just the hardware. On the keyboard itself there’s three levels of illumination and an off mode (off, you must be crazy!). One thing to note about the off mode is the fact that only the keycaps themselves go out, all of the other illuminated controls (Macro Controls & Media Controls) stay illuminated (Red). This didn’t bother me per se, but it’s certainly something that may bother others, although I’m guessing this could be controlled through the software in a future update.

The illumination itself is controlled via the software (download here) where there’s plenty of options including the ability to do per-key lighting, various colours are also supported at the same time (see image above right). We will cover this more further down in the review when we look at the software.

 

KEYBOARD & SWITCHES

 

 

Over the last few years we have seen here at pcG almost every mechanical switch known to man (well apart from the Topre switch), and I personally have also tested and Gamed with each and every type. The industry stalwart switch is the Cherry MX and is obviously the most prominent switch on the market today and here aboard the Ripjaws KM780 RGB we find the Cherry MX Brown switch. This particular switch features 45g of actuation force with a palpable (a small bump at 2mm) feedback, although there’s no click (like Cherry MX Blue) to speak of. It is very similar to the Cherry MX Red, the Red is just missing the feedback bump and for that reason I prefer it, but the Brown come a close second for me…

In Gaming these switches provide a level of feedback and consistency that no membrane keyboard can offer, for that reason alone I prefer to Game with a mechanical switch when possible. The switches aboard the Ripjaws MK780 RGB performed as well as I would have hoped for thanks in part to the extremely rigid base upon which they sit.

I also found the Ripjaws KM780 RGB keyboard very comfortable even when playing Games for a long period of time (that’s you MGS V). This was helped by the natural rake of the keys, the incline of the keyboard (thanks to those rear feet) and that rather pleasant Soft-Touch wrist rest. Overall there’s not much here to grumble about or even nit pick about when we look at the pure performance of the keyboard alone. Good job G.Skill! 🙂

 

SOFTWARE

 

The G.Skill software can be downloaded here and comprises of a single application with three main tabs. The first of which is the Customize tab, here you can assign any of the main keys and of course those dedicated Macro keys. The keys are simply assigned by clicking on the key in question using the image on the right, I really like this approach to programming the keyboards, intuitive yet simple. Over on the left we see the Profile creation section at the top and the three dedicated Profiles (Modes) below. Profiles are simply created and then (should you wish assigned to one of the three Modes (M1 – M3), don’t forget there’s dedicated buttons on the keyboard for these Modes. In addition to this Modes can be directly assigned to Games. As you can see in the images below I set up a Metal Gear Solid V (MGS V) Mode complete with custom illumination.

The second tab (Setting) allows control over the Polling Rate (best left at 1000Hz), N-Key Rollover (best left at N-Key (Full Key)) and the ability to create an Alert Mode. The Alert Mode allows you to configure the effect that takes place when the Timer button is used and the time runs out, either an On Screen Display or a Lighting Effect. Here you can also mess with the Repeat Rate Acceleration and the Repeat Delay, I would leave these at their default settings as this can upset your Gameplay, so be careful with these. A Sleep Mode can also be set forcing the keyboard to go to sleep after a period of inactivity.

The Lighting tab is the best tab of them all! Here you can mess with the Ripjaws KM780 RGB’s illumination to your hearts content and fun it is too. You can either use some of the built in Lighting Effects (Wave, Ripple, Reactive or Breathing) by clicking on the Red dot next to Effect Lighting, or simply create your own. These effects must be based on one of the original Profiles, as these are used as a starting point. Of course you can create your own specific per-key lighting effect by using the Background Lighting option and switching to Single mode. Below (right) you can see the lighting effect that I set up for MGS V.

 

 

The two supporting tabs found top left of the main screen are Macros and Lighting Profiles. The first tab we will look at is the Lighting Profiles tab as it ties in with the illumination discussed above. Here you can create your own Profiles, but as I said they must be based on one of the default effects that you can then modify. Here you really get to play RGB, you can control the Duration of the effect and even add some notes of your own. I created a simple pcGameware Red/White/Blue effect that actually looked pretty cool. Apart from the fact that the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB struggles to do pure white, which is shame, but this has been seen before on other RGB keyboards we have tested…

The final tab is the Macros tab, here you can record your Macros and edit them too, full keyboard and mouse recording is also supported. Macros can be recorded with a fixed delay (Default Delay) on in real time. These Macros can them be assigned to any of the keys on the keyboard and in particular to the six dedicated Gaming keys (G1 – G6) found on the left side of the keyboard.

 

 

Overall the software, while a little quirky is well presented and easy to use. The software could do with a little ‘Spit ‘n Polish’ here and there, but overall it’s pretty good, even more impressive as this is G.Skill’s first attempt! The software is supposed to be unified from what I’ve seen and read, and images within the software (see keyboard image bottom right) also seems to suggest this, but having other G.Skill peripherals on hand during this review suggest that that feature is yet to be realised…

 

Final Thoughts

 

Well I wasn’t really expecting that! G.Skill’s first foray into the world of PC Gaming peripherals has seen them produce one of the best Gaming keyboards on the market today. As long as the price is right (uncertain at the time of review) G.Skill will have a winner on their hands…

The G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB arrived at pcG in a large heavy, but nice box, featuring different textures (pcG Iain would be pleased!) on the front to help highlight the keyboard itself. Once out of the outer sleeve we found a more standard cardboard box and standard packaging, but what lies within is a little bit of a gem! Once out of the box I was pleased to see that the Ripjaws KM780 RGB has a design all of its own, with the stand-out feature being the aluminium frame that runs around the outside of the keyboard that helps to lend that already sturdy brushed black anodised aluminium base extra rigidity. The end result is a keyboard that’s built to last, you could easily take on any enemy with the KM780, no really with just the keyboard I mean! 😉

Of course the party trick of the Ripjaws KM780 RGB is not the design, the media controls, the dedicated Macro controls or even the dedicated volume LEDs (although I really like that feature!) it’s the RGB illumination! Every time I get to take a look at an RGB keyboard it brings a smile to my face and thankfully G.Skill’s first foray into the world of Gaming keyboards sees this trend continue. The lighting is awesome and the provided effects (Wave, Ripple, Reactive & Breathing) will keep you and your friends entertained for days, well hours perhaps! The only downside is that the colour representation is not perfect, in particular the Ripjaws KM780 RGB struggles a little with the colour White, but we’ve seen others struggle with this is the past too…

As far as the keyboard goes there’s really nothing to complain about with the Cherry MX Brown switches and that sturdy base producing a great Gaming and typing experience. This is helped by the keyboard’s great ergonomics thanks in part to the inclining rear feet and a nice soft-touch wrist rest. Unfortunately G.Skill also included some dedicated Gaming keycaps, now while the storage box is welcome, and the way it attaches to the keyboard is kind of clever, the caps themselves are horrible! They let the rest of the keyboard down IMHO and I hope G.Skill update them with better ones in the future…

Even G.Skill’s software is pretty good, ok it might need a little ‘Spit ‘n Polish’, but out of the box (or is that downloaded from the net!) the software’s easy on the eye and relatively easy to use. The most important thing is that most of the Bells ‘n Whistles that you would expect are here; Macros, Lighting Profiles, Gaming Modes, per-key lighting and key-mapping etc. Although (because I have other G.Skill peripherals here) the Unified Driver doesn’t seem to be working as of yet, which is a bit of a shame!

At the time of review the retail price here in the UK is somewhat unknown, unfortunately. But the keyboard is already on sale in the US (here) and is retailing for around $160, this suggests a retail price here in the UK of around £105. If they can bring it in under £120 it will make the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB a bit of a bargain in my eyes…

I have to confess I’m quite taken with the G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB Keyboard, I very much like the design, I’m impressed with the overall quality (apart from those extra keycaps) and I just love the RGB illumination. Considering this is G.Skill’s first Gaming keyboard, it’s simply amazing how close they’ve come to perfection… Good job guys 😉

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to G.Skill for providing this sample for review