OCZ Alchemy Elixir Gaming Keyboard

[Rob Williams]

Our latest recruit, Zach Brown, takes a look at OCZ's first gaming keyboard, the Elixir, which is part of their new Alchemy series.

OCZ prepares to take on the world of gaming keyboards with their new Alchemy Elixir, part of the company's Alchemy lineup of gaming peripherals. How does it stack up to the competition from established gaming peripheral companies like Razer, Logitech, and Creative?

You can read the full article here and then discuss it here!

[b1lk1]

Great job on your first review Zach! Looks like a nice piece for the money too.

This keyboard is the Razer Tarantula... at least a 1:1 copy.

It looks the same, down to the drivers and the casing.
This is - well, good or bad? - I don´t know.

But as I like my Tarantula very much, I think this keyboard will be one of the best for this price tag, especially if you´ve got larger hands.

Best regards, Erol K.

[Yangster]

I'm planning on getting this keyboard because of the price.

But I have one question. How many buttons can you press at a time with it? I don't recall the review mentioning anything about that.

The main reason I'm switching keyboards is because I can only press 3-4 buttons at a time, which is really inconvenient. So I'm hoping that this keyboard can press around 6-8. Has anyone bought or tried it yet?

And I'm guessing that it doesn't have the anti-ghosting feature that the Tarantula has? Though I'm not sure what "ghosting" is. XD

[Merlin]

Okay, I'll bite.....
Why would you press 8 keys at one time?
The most I use is 3 ( Ctrl+Alt+Del )

Merlin

[wildstrike]

Hello everyone, this is Zach.

There wasn't any information in the manual or box stating the maximum number of keys that can be pressed at once. I looked for this information on the OCZ website, but didn't have any luck. In the macro programing software, it would allow up to 6 keys being pressed down at once, but no more than that. For right now, I would say it is safe to assume this is the maximum -- but I will keep digging around and see if I come up with any new information.

[Yangster]

Originally Posted by Merlin

Okay, I'll bite.....
Why would you press 8 keys at one time?
The most I use is 3 ( Ctrl+Alt+Del )

Merlin

That's out of game. In-game, you might need to press a lot of keys at the same time. For example, you could be crouching/walking in a diagonal direction. That's 3 keys already, ctrl/shift (or another key to walk, etc.) + directional keys (W and a or d). And then you might want to jump to peek over a crate or something, so that's 4 buttons you're holding down. And I personally bound my talk button to caps lock, so I might be talking as well, making it 5 buttons. And maybe if I'm really bored or something, I could be weapon switch spamming, making that 6 buttons. Though I don't think that I have pressed up to 6 buttons intentionally, since I only have 5 fingers. Lulz.

I'm sure people can probably come up with even more combinations, but that's just a situation I have faced before, minus the weapon spamming. So you could easily have 5 buttons pressed down at a time.

And thanks wildstrike. I take it that you actually have the keyboard? Can you try it in a game or something and just press 5 buttons that do something down and see if they all respond?

Where did you buy it from, and how much? I checked newegg, and they have it at $29.99, but + $8 shipping. Making it around $38. On amazon it was basically the same. I checked buy.com and they have it at $32 with free shipping, so I think I'm going to buy it there; but there aren't any pictures or any info on it yet, so I'll probably wait a bit.

Hi everybody who have elixir.

I would like to know if CTRL+Space work in this board.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...ing_keyboard/5 say not, but techage's test didn't say that CTRL+SPACE didn't work.

Please tell me if CTRL+SPACE work in this board.

Thanks

I bought this keyboard, for gaming, and like u , mostly FPS. and it will not take many keys at once.

Ex: i was trying to run, jump (Bunny Hop) and shoot at the same time....Negative

A+s+caps lock+space ....did not work. so unfortunatly i will have to return it and get a Razer
or an old microsoft one.

[Optix]

If the keyboard cannot take more than 3 key presses it does not qualify as a gaming keyboard in my books. Other features aside like macros, programmable buttons, back lighting and such a gaming keyboard needs to be able to handle multiple commands at once, end of story. If the manufacturer didn't succeed on that then their gaming keyboard is a dismal failure.