ROCCAT Ryos MK FX Keyboard Review
Overview
Well we’ve seen the Renga and we’ve seen the Kova, so that’s the ROCCAT headset and the mouse out of the way! Finally today, in our roundup of ROCCAT peripherals it’s time for the Keyboard. Enter the ROCCAT Ryos MK FX
The Ryos MK FX is a full size mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. It also features full RGB per-key back-lighting, anti-ghosting with N-key rollover, eight additional programmable keys, audio pass-through and two 32bit ARM processors with 2MB of on-board memory. The Ryos MK FX measures in at 50.8cm (W) x 4.4cm (H) x 23.4cm (L) and weights in at 1600g.
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‘Do you pick style or performance when you look for the perfect weapon to add to your gaming arsenal? Do it the ROCCAT way: pick both. Purpose built for hardcore gamers, the Ryos MK FX is the most advanced mechanical gaming keyboard on the market. Using all of ROCCAT’s industry expertise and gaming experience, the Ryos MK FX boasts a feature set so comprehensive and a design so eye-watering you’ll be leading the pack by miles – complete with 16.8 million color per-key RGB illumination.’ |
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The ROCCAT Ryos MK FX arrived at pcG in massive colourful box with a large image of the illuminated Ryos on the front. The front of the box is awash with imagery highlighting the various features of the keyboard. We can also clearly see that this particular keyboard features Cherry MX (Brown) switches.
Looking at the back of the box further highlights various aspects of the Ryos MK FX, including Easy-Shift[+], ROCCAT Swarm, industry leading Cherry MX key switches and ROCCAT Talk.
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Un-boxing the Ryos MK FX is a most pleasing experience as the product is both beautifully packaged and well presented. The top of the keyboard was also further protected by a plastic cover (not shown).
There’s not much in the box though, just a Quick-Installation Guide, Disposal Information and some stickers. Not even a key-puller; strange as some time ago this was common place with all mechanical keyboards, but not anymore…
At the time of writing the ROCCAT Ryos MK FX is available from Amazon
Specifications/Features
courtesy of ROCCAT
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DIMENSIONS / WEIGHT Width 50.8 cm, Height 4.4 cm, Length 23.4 cm, Weight 1600 g SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Windows® 7 32 Bit, Windows® 7 64 Bit, Windows® 8, Windows® 10 Internet connection for driver installation 2 x USB 2.0 Ports 1 x 3.5mm jack (sound) 1 x 3.5mm jack (mic) |
* Additional details available here
First Impressions
First impressions of the ROCCAT Ryos MK FX are all about its size, as the Ryos is one big keyboard and it’s going to take up plenty of desk space. But despite this it’s still quite the looker and seems well made too, although at times (when typing especially) it can seem a little, well plasticky…
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Looking at the front of the keyboard we can see that’s it sports a full layout with an additional set of five keys (M1-M5) on the left. The wrist rest is integral, which is something that I like, but this and the additional keys adds to the overall size. The inner section features a dimpled surface, but is still made of plastic. Unusually the lock key indicators are not to be found in the top right (replaced by a Ryos logo), but are instead above the cursor keys.
Flipping the Ryos over and taking a look at the back there’s predictably not too much to see. Other than the large central cable, the legs (see below) we also find four very large rubber feet and a central rubber strip at the front this ensures that the keyboard stays in position even during those frantic firefights.
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The back of the keyboard features two legs that can be extended to raise the back of the keyboard up. These legs flip out to the back of the keyboard, but once locked into position they stay locked. Meaning that if you push the keyboard backwards, the legs don’t tend to collapse. Each of the two legs also feature their own rubber feet.
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With the Ryos MK FX flat on the desk the keyboard’s surprisingly comfortable thanks in part to the large integral wrist rest. The legs at the rear only raise the back of the keyboard by around 10mm, which I thought wouldn’t be enough, but I was wrong! All in all a very comfortable Gaming/Typing experience.
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The far left of the Ryos MK FX features five dedicated keys these are M1 through to M5, logically they are for Macros, but can be used for anything and are fully programmable via the ROCCAT Swarm software. One of the issues though with keys in this position is that your muscle memory will likely tell you these are the Shift, CTRL keys etc; but no, not anymore!
Along the top of the keyboard there’s additional functionality built into keys F1 through to F12. F1 to F3 are Mute, volume down and volume up, while F4 is rather oddly a shortcut to Windows’ Calculator, always useful in the middle of firefight that!? 😮 F5 through to F8 are Media controls and F9 Windows Explorer, F10 is Web Browser, F11 is brightness control (6 to choose from) and Finally F12 is for recording Macros.
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The wrist rest is made from plastic, with no real soft touch surface to speak of (bit of a shame!), but it does feature a smart looking ROCCAT logo and a ‘Mechanical Keyboard’ inscription. Above the logo and below the space bar we find the three Thumbster keys T1 – T3, these are perfectly positioned for Gaming and it’s a great place for additional, easy to reach keys. Of course these are also fully programmable via the ROCCAT Swarm software.
Oddly in the far top left corner of the keyboard we find the audio pass-through ports. I say odd as surely a USB pass through/hub would have been better or even both! Especially as we don’t really recommend using these types of audio pass-through ports as it can often increase noise on the line.
Overall the Ryos MK FX offers plenty for the dedicated Gamer, everything that’s here is good and we’ve not even powered it up yet to witness that RGB lighting. But the keyboard’s use of plastic throughout its build makes it feel cheaper than it is and it’s also (maybe down to this fact) a little noisy, despite the use of quiet Cherry MX (Brown) key switches.
Hardware Installation
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The ROCCAT Ryos connects by way of two USB plugs found at the end of the large yet flexible 2m long braided cable. I’m unsure as to why there’s two plugs but assume one is to power the keyboard and the other to power the two ARM processors and the RGB lighting, perhaps!? Additionally there’s also audio pass-through on the Ryos MK FX so there’s an additional two plugs (microphone, headphone) at the end of the cable also, although these were not used. |
Testing Methodology/Setup
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For full functionality of the ROCCAT Ryos MK FX keyboard you’ll want to install the ROCCAT Swarm software (here) as it’s not supplied. At the time of review the software version was labelled as V1.45 and the firmware version was 1.18, this was used throughout testing. |
The following games were used during testing:
Hardware Performance
Performance wise the ROCCAT Ryos performed well thanks in part to the use of Cherry MX Brown switches, although to be honest I would prefer MX Red switches. But at the time of review the Ryos MK FX was not available with such a switch type. While the switches were very good and Gaming was responsive with no hint of lag or ghosting, I did feel that the chassis of the Ryos was a little plasticky (made up word!). I’m sure that the chassis itself is made from plastic and not metal and this can be felt when both Gaming and typing as the keyboard can feel a little noisy and cheap at times.
I do like then additional dedicated Macro keys (M1-M5) and I especially like the Thumbster keys (T1-T3) which are perfectly positioned within the fixed wrist rest. The lack of dedicated volume control though is shame.
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The RGB lighting aboard the ROCCAT Ryos MK FX is very good indeed with plenty of colour depth and good levels of illumination. There’s also (rather importantly) per-key lighting and also full Profile control via the ROCCAT Swarm software.
Overall the keyboard is very good and great for Gaming, but at this price the slightly plastic feel and the lack of dedicated volume controls and USB pass-through means that some of the competition offer more for similar money. Having said that very few offer as much as ROCCAT offers via their Swarm software, so let’s take a look at that next…
Software
The impressive ROCCAT Swarm software is unified meaning that all other ROCCAT peripherals are integrated within one software suite which is always good IMHO. At first the Swarm software can seem a little daunting as there’s simply so much functionality. The software itself is split across three main tabs (Settings, Key Assignment & Illumination). Note that the five default Profiles that sit at the bottom of each section within the software ensures that whatever you do is bound to the currently selected Profile.
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The first tab (Settings) allows access to some of the usual suspects such as Repeat Rate and some other more interesting functions/features such as the ability to Deactivate Keys (always useful), Timeouts and the ability to enable the Sound Feedback (voice over on Profile switch etc) as well as LED Feedback during Macro execution. There’s also a Reset Settings should you get yourself a little lost; easy to do if you ask me…
The Key Assignment tab is the one stop shop for all of your key programming as well as where you’ll find the Profile and Macro Managers. Keys can be bound to other key strokes, Mouse functions, Windows functions as well as Profile switching and of course Macros. It’s just a simple case of drag and drop.
The Illumination tab is possibly the most exciting tab as it’s here you can have hours of fun messing with the plethora of RGB illumination options that the Ryos MK FX has. But most important of all is that there’s per Profile, per key illumination and there’s even the ability to apply an effect to just one (or more) of the keys that you’ve selected. In fact it’s one of the most comprehensive RGB implementations I’ve seen to date.
Overall the ROCCAT Swarm Software is most impressive, especially if you have other ROCCAT peripherals such as Mouse and Headset. The only thing I did notice is that the Ryos MK FX didn’t seem to recover well from a Windows sleep state, with it often losing the Profile it was on or losing all illumination altogether. But hey what’s your Gaming rig doing in a sleep state eh, you should be busy Gaming right!? 😉
Final Thoughts
The ROCCAT Ryos MK FX
The ROCCAT Ryos MK FX arrived at pcG in what must be one of the biggest keyboard boxes that we’ve seen. This is not just down to the impressive packaging it’s simply because the Ryos MK FX is one big keyboard. Once out of the box you begin to appreciate how much desk space the Ryos is going to take up, this is mainly down to the additional Macro keys (left side) and the integral wrist rest. It looks good though and it’s well made too, but there’s a lot of hard plastics used and that can make it look a little cheaper than it is as well as make the keyboard experience feel a little clattery also! Despite its two USB plugs the Ryos MK FX (somewhat surprisingly) lacks a USB pass through and there’s no dedicated volume control either, which would have been nice. There’s plenty of additional keys though; five on the left and the additional Thumbster keys below the space bar are just perfectly positioned.
Once you’ve plugged in all of those plugs (four if you use the audio ones) the Ryos MK FX can be powered up and damn good it looks too! The RGB lighting is both vivid and bright and is totally customisable via the ROCCAT Swarm software. From a pure Gaming (and to a lesser extent typing) experience the feel and responsiveness of the Cherry MX (Brown) key switches is very good, although I would personally prefer Red key switches for Gaming. Also the keyboard can feel a little noisy at times, probably down to the use of those hard plastics, it’s not noisy per se, it just feels noisier than perhaps it should!
ROCCAT’s Swarm software really is the icing on the cake though and once your accustomed to its complexities (simply because it does so much!) any other niggles are soon forgotten. The software really does seem to have it all and is something that ROCCAT have obviously worked hard on, as not only is it highly functional but it looks polished too! One of my favourite discoveries was that when designing my own custom per-key lighting Profile I could apply not only any colour but also any effect too to any key! Now that’s true customisation! 🙂
Overall there’s really is a lot to like about the ROCCAT Ryos MK FX from the overall design with the Thumbster keys and the awesome Swarm software to back up the keyboard’s additional functions. Although the slightly plastic feel does let it down a little and for £130 I would have perhaps expected a USB pass-through and would have liked to have seen a dedicated volume control. But yet again, maybe I’m now just nitpicking…
Verdict
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Many thanks to ROCCAT for providing this sample for review
