Mad Catz MCB43109N002/02/1 Noir

This keyboard is a high class keyboard great for gamers and business alike. I have had this keyboard for 2 years now and it has held up great, however i do have a couple of complaints...

Pros
*High quality keyboard, and very durable.
*Stealthy keys, the keys on this board make much less sound than a normal keyboard.
*Touchscreen apps, the note app has great function for both gaming and business, to write either quick notes or a quest down its up to you.
*The customization, when I got this board I was astonished with what you could do with it. The macros, parts, keys, everything is customizable! It even comes with its own kit to take keys off with and add new ones.
*Very comfortable hand/ wrist rests covering the entire length of the board.

Cons
*As many other people have said, there drivers are not exactly the easiest to install. However, it is not the companies fault, (Entirely, the directions to download them are pretty rough) it's just so easy computers can not load the drivers correctly. (You don't even need the drivers to run the keyboard either.)
*Their customer support is not exactly the greatest either, but they do have a fabulous faq and informational center where you can look up the problem you are currently having.

Details you should be aware of...
*This key boards price tag can be a little steep for what you get. At the time of my purchase it was 300$! But since then it has gone down and is more reasonable. But I would not recommend such a complicated and pricey board for those who are just using it for business or mild gaming.
*This board needs both a power supply via wall outlet, and USB cable.
*The 2 Micro USB cables that it claims to add, get taken up by the wires needed to operate the board correctly.
*In order to take advantage of the macros the board has to offer, you need the drivers and software which can be difficult to install.
*The clock app is a 24 Hour clock not a 12 Hour. (Cannot be changed) You are also stuck with UK time.

Over all..
I think this board is well worth the investment, due to its customizable parts, working touch screen, and sleek look. And despite what others say about it, it will remain my favorite keyboard that I have ever gotten.

I am able to type on this $300 keyboard. Programming software cannot find the device, the device drivers appear to install but never completely finish. I should have completed far more research before spending the money. It is obvious that other users have submitted support tickets for the programming software not finding the device as there are entries all over the web about the issue. I verified it should work perfectly on Windows 7 64 bit before purchasing but I am unable to get the full functionality. I have been working in technology for over 20 years and I can't make it work. Even the manual that comes with the $300 product fails to even provide details on what software is required and where to obtain it. Perhaps these guys know hardware, but they should fire every programmer and product manager on the team.

horrible customer service. does not support Windows 8. been trying to get drivers and firmware updates for 3 months from them and the keyboard is still not working. DO NOT waste your money. Buy a Razer or a Steelseries keyboard. Wish i could give zero stars.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy a Mad Catz item again, years ago I was a big fan but they stopped updating drivers and within a year nothing would work with windows again. BUT I love this keyboard! It is working great with Windows 10 ! It only took me 20 min to build and install all the drivers and software. It would be nice to have a easy way to change the main Icon to whatever I want.

I would say buy the extended warranty so if the drivers stop working you can return to Amazon.

UPDATE - I use a logitech wireless headphone and every time I would leave the room it would lose connection, with the headphones plugged into the Strike 7 keyboard I can go all over my house without being disconnected !

I bought this keyboard for several reasons:
1- the Venom touchscreen appeared to be useful for displaying in-game information
2- I could separate the game pad from the keyboard to better accommodate my desk layout
3- programmable keys would let me build macros and design the keyboard as I saw fit
4- the game pad looked comfortable and easy to use

The STRIKE7 failed on all 4 accounts. My largest disappointment was that the arrow keys on the game pad couldn't be re-programmed to be WASD keys. This failed the very simple task of allowing me to not have to re-bind keys in every game I play, but instead just build out profiles on the keyboard. Since I would be playing with a programmable game pad, I would have to build a keyboard profile, but I would also have to re-bind keys in game to accommodate the numerous keys that are not programmable.

The M keys were not easy to reach and not viable game buttons. I ended up using them for ESC and other keys that I would normally have to lift my hand completely from the keyboard to hit. The bottom M key was the only one I could reach just barely with my pinkey, and it would not consistently respond to key presses because it was being pressed at an angle. This made it a bad button to try to use for a crouch or sprint key, or any other key necessary to gameplay. Basically, the M keys are not usable for gaming.

The VENOM touchscreen was not very useful. It's primary purpose was to drive the software that runs the keyboard. Without the touchscreen, the keyboard does not work. Period. So if you want this keyboard and don't care about the touchscreen, which is reasonable, then know that a very large chunk of your money is going to a feature you won't use and can also have errors and break the rest of your keyboard, as mine did. The ability to launch applications from the Venom sounds nice, but it ultimately is no more useful than simply clicking an icon on your desktop or Start menu. You can control the RGB lights through it, but that easily could have been built into the profile software, which you still need to install on your PC to get the keyboard to use programmable keys.

Another let-down for me was that one of the USB cables shipped was damaged, and although no damage was apparent externally, it caused the VENOM touchscreen to crash repeatedly. I wanted to use my own USB cable to take care of the problem, but M2M USB Mini cables are very difficult to find. I tried to cobble one together with adapters I had on hand and discovered that the USB cables Mad Catz provides are not technically USB 2.0 Mini B cables, but instead they are something very similar but not compatible. Possibly USB 3.0 Mini B, but I couldn't get an answer out of them and none of their documentation says what the cable is. It doesn't matter, because I couldn't find any USB 3.0 Mini B cables at all. This also ruined my plans of setting the keyboard on top of my desk and the gameboard on my keyboard tray with my mouse, since the cables they provided couldn't reach that distance.

The profile software was the same software used for the RAT mouse. Why Mad Catz doesn't make a single piece of software that handles all Cyborg peripherals is beyond me. The simplicity of having both your mouse and keyboard managed in a single profile would make a lot of sense, especially for people who also have the joystick or other peripherals.

I would **not** recommend this keyboard. I ended up going back to my Steelseries Merc Stealth, which although discontinued, is about the same price as the STRIKE7 and is fully programmable. That's right- the entire keyboard plus the gameboard (I think they num pad is not programmable though) can be set to any key, macro, or key combination. The main reason I love the Merc is the amazing feel of the butterfly key layout. The software is a bit clunky, but it's worth it.