ATTN G11 / G15 Keyboard Owners

[Stromgarde]

My current keyboard is on its last legs, and I was hoping I could get some opinions on whether or not either of these would be worth the money... it seems pretty expensive for a keyboard, but the macro functionality combined with windower sounds really nice. Any opinions on these or other good keyboards?

[Shuemue]

From the research I've done, the earlier G15 is fucking awesome, the current G15 version not so spectacular. After being told that, I'm sticking to £3 keyboards.

[Stromgarde]

From what I've read about the G11 is that it's more or less the old G15 for $10-20 less and no LCD screen, which I don't really care about.

[Shuemue]

I know nothing about the G11, but I'm interested now. I'll stfu and hopefully someone will enlighten us both :D

[Epical]

The G15 is easily one of man's greatest inventions. It makes playing XI (and, in the past, WoW) sooo much better/easier/more comfortable, I can't describe it with words. Get one. Between the Gkeys, the media controls at the top, the windows key disabler, the dimly lit backlit keys, the on-board volume controls/mute, and the lights for ___-Lock... yeah.

From what I've read about the G11 is that it's more or less the old G15 for $10-20 less and no LCD screen, which I don't really care about.

Had I known about the G11 when I bought my G15, I would've got one, because I also don't particularly care for the LCD. Some people swear by it though, and I will admit it has some pretty cool uses, so it's all based on your discretion.

[Auspice]

I fell out of the loop on a lot of the G15 customizations but back in the day I used all 18 macro keys for EVERYTHING. There was even an app for the LCD screen that showed Vana'diel time and guild open/close etc.

I still use it but I don't mess with all the mods anymore, still a great KB. :D

[Lexa]

I have the newer version of G15, and I love it! I won't say anything as to its quality/usefulness compared to the old version, because I've never tried it. If anything, my main complaint would be that there's not as much available for the newer version as the old version, so that alone might be worth getting the older one for.

There was even an app for the LCD screen that showed Vana'diel time and guild open/close etc.

Wait, now I'm intrigued!

[Haruk]

I've tried out both G15's, and I personally like the first one the best. The newer one has a smaller LCD screen that doesn't fold up, the volume isn't a spin wheel(spin wheel is useful for some custom apps for the lcd) and got rid of a lot of G keys, so I'd personally go for the blue one if you don't have any problems with it being pretty big.

[mootsfox]

I have and have been using a G15 for about 2 years now. The Rev 1 with the foldable LCD and blue LEDs are almost impossible to find now. The Rev 2 with the orange lights has 1/3 the macro keys, a much smaller screen and is.. orange.. and ugly.

Anyways, if you don't use the LCD then the G11 is a good deal. It's the exact same keyboard, minus the LCD and the five small black buttons for the LCD controls.

I use my G15 LCD to display CPU/RAM usage and the time, thats it. You can get a program like LCDMonitor and make your own layouts for the screen, have it read in game stuffs, check gear prices online, whatever. It could be very useful.

If you can find a rev 1, grab it, because Logitech isn't making any more of them.

[Stromgarde]

I run a dual monitor setup, so anything I might be using the LCD for, I can pretty easily use the right-hand monitor for. I wound up ordering a G11, in part because I took a look at my keyboard tray, and based on how far I keep it out I wouldn't even be able to see the LCD most of the time. I found some overlay images online I can use to swap on and off until I can memorize what's what, although I'll have to wait for it to arrive on Monday before I can get exact measurements for the print size.

[mootsfox]

I run a dual monitor setup, so anything I might be using the LCD for, I can pretty easily use the right-hand monitor for. I wound up ordering a G11, in part because I took a look at my keyboard tray, and based on how far I keep it out I wouldn't even be able to see the LCD most of the time. I found some overlay images online I can use to swap on and off until I can memorize what's what, although I'll have to wait for it to arrive on Monday before I can get exact measurements for the print size.

Awesome, you'll love it

There are some pre made overlays for the macro keys...

http://www.interceptor-one.com/G15_Temp ... 5_Overlays

They even happen to have...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y24...I_Template.jpg

[Stromgarde]

Yeah, that's the page I got them from, probably going to go with a blank one however... I don't like the look of the FFXI one, it even has a CG from one of the FFIV-VI PSX remakes on there for some inexplicable reason.

[Auspice]

Yeah, that's the page I got them from, probably going to go with a blank one however... I don't like the look of the FFXI one, it even has a CG from one of the FFIV-VI PSX remakes on there for some inexplicable reason.

Looks like Krile from FFV iirc, weird.

[Darwinion]

I've had the G11 for quite a while now. It's fucking awesome and I couldn't play without it. I remember when i first got it though and I set up the 18x G keys for my WHM macros.... I'd only been in my linkshell for a short while. And when I was in events i would keep hitting the wrong G keys for spells.

Basically it does take a little while to get used to which spells you placed on which keys as there are 18 of them. I would be casting Poisona instead of Paralyna etc. I have all the more common spells on the G keys and then use the normal macro palette for other stuff like Barspell windower macros, sneak/invis, raise etc.etc.

Those 18 keys have three settings too so you can switch to another job just by pressing one button. Seriously, my G11 keyboard is just like Windower itself. I couldn't play FFXI now without either of them.

[Stromgarde]

Yeah, I've been spending the past couple days making up overlays and macros for them. When I get back from work I'll shrink some and post a few.

[Akucaen]

My current keyboard is on its last legs, and I was hoping I could get some opinions on whether or not either of these would be worth the money... it seems pretty expensive for a keyboard, but the macro functionality combined with windower sounds really nice. Any opinions on these or other good keyboards?

The G15 is superior for FFXI. While I tend to have one-line macros bound to the G keys, (Utsu in a punch, flash, barspells, etc.) it's just as fast for getting things into the chatbuffer as the windower is. The only drawback is that if you use the MR+G key macros on the fly, capslock can fuck you over. There's nothing like spamming /MA 'uTSUSEMI; nI' aKUCAEN with no results whatsoever, or you get a hung last line and you get "example sentence here/ma "Utsusemi: Ni" Akucaen" sent to the linkshell.

The earlier G15 is very awesome. The G11 will get you by definitely, but I'm one of those that swear by the LCD. It's my personal clock on the PC since I use fullscreen windower XI, let's me spam through my media player and know what's up without alt-tabbing, shows me performance usage, and I have a good number of games that support the LCD itself. It's a great addition, and the G11 looks rather barren without it. The media-keys are stupidly useful (As in, why the FUCK isn't is standard on every keyboard EVER,) and the software suite pushing the LCD screen/utilities is pretty user-friendly, but I *REALLY* prefer the old 1.4 suite compared to the newer one, but I don't get a choice in the matter really.

With that said, the newer G15 variant looks cheap and nasty. They removed a majority of the macro keys and turned the volume wheel into a button. After having a Logitech Z-5300 speaker setup, I love volume wheels versus buttons, especially since I rock that wheel a lot depend on my mood and the music playing. Plus the orange is a kinda turn-off. The backlight blue is so nice on my eyes.

If you get a macro keyboard, get a G11, if my presentation makes you even go, "Hmm. Maybe," get the earlier, blue G15. You will not regret it.

Edit - Oh. I wrote all that for nothing.

[Stromgarde]

I wound up getting the G-11. With a second monitor and a clock on my desk, the LCD really didn't have enough appeal for me to track down an old style G15 on Ebay. Took me a while to find the exact print size, but once I got everything to scale correctly pumping out templates was no problem. PLD and BRD are below, along with the template (.psd) as an attachment. I personally found that having graphics on the overlay distracts from the purpose of the overlay (i.e. removing confusion and providing quick reference), but your mileage may vary. For the template, the resolution should be set to 500 dpi, 12.78 x 16.3 cm if for some reason it doesn't carry over.

http://www.pikabluels.com/hosted/overlays/PLD.gif http://www.pikabluels.com/hosted/overlays/BRD.gif