PC gaming is better than its ever been, custom rigs are hugely popular so making sure you have all the best components for your setup is a must.
Roccat have released the Vulcan 121 AIMO Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, an excellent mechanical gaming keyboard m, it’s a well made live e of kit that looks stylish and feels premium but is let down by its supporting software.
The Vulcan is a gorgeous piece of kit, the body is made of brushed aluminium, giving a premium look to the keyboard. Without the RGB lighting this keyboard would look stylish with any gaming setup. The keys, look and feel fantastic too, all of the keys parts are exposed with the removable keycaps sitting on top.
When the RGB lighting is active the keyboard really comes to life. Depending on how you set up the keyboard the Vulcan has various options to suit any gamer’s needs, but more on that later. The Macro keys double up as the Insert, Page up/down, home, end and delete buttons while F1-12 act as switches between profiles and media keys when used with the function button. There are three media buttons and a dial in the top right hand corner of the keyboard that can control the volume and the brightness of the lighting on the back board.
It also comes with a magnetic wrist rest that attaches to the bottom of the keyboard. I started of using it but after a while I felt it got in the way.
The Roccat Vulcan 121 switches feel very similar to the Cherry MX browns, except there is a shorter difference on the Vulcan by 0.2mm. Whether you are gaming on working you’ll feel like you everything is responding faster thanks to the way the switches react to your touch.
I’ve played various games from Fortnite to Two-Point Hospital, with Fortnite you reactions need to be quick, especially when building structures and having tested the difference when using my standard keyboard you could really feel the difference (it didn’t make many any better however!). For the most part I really like the RGB options, there are various options to choose from including Roccat’s intelligent lighting that responds to the colours on your screen.
The biggest let down for the keyboard was the Swarm Software, this is where you can customise the different profiles, as well as any other customisation you require, whether its remapping the keys or setting up macros. My issues started straight away, having installed the software, I was notified that it needed to update, which then crashed. After much googling I managed to get the software updated, but it’s been buggy ever since, crashing often and not responding to the changes I request. One annoying issue involves switching users, I’ve set up profiles for each user but quite often the software ignores this and does what it feels like. It’s a huge let down for the keyboard as it’s a great bit of kit.
The Keyboard isn’t cheap, coming in at £149.99, however it’s an awesome keyboard that is well built and looks brilliant, Its hard going back to normal keyboards now…
