Gigabyte Aivia K8100 Gaming Keyboard Review

Conclusion
Overall I’m very pleased with this board, the outstanding quality that Gigabyte puts into its motherboards and graphics cards has certainly been passed on here. Its comfortable to use and its striking design fits in well on the desk.

Do note though that the yellow board as I’ve looked at here is only available in a US layout and so if you’re after a UK layout, Red and Black are the only options.

A couple of personal niggles and these are only little things, it would have been nice to be able to change the backlight colour but then the orange does go well with the yellow, but more so I’d have rather seen the backlight switch on the top of the board as mentioned earlier in the review, it just seems lost behind the board.

Some people may ask why there are no media keys (play, pause, f/fwd etc) but you have to remember that this is designed as a gaming board not a multimedia board – you could always program the macro keys for multimedia control if you were that insistent.

As soon as I had this out of the box and saw the high gloss finish I thought there was going to be problems in keeping this clean, but this is not that case. Yes the wrist rest clearly has signs of where my hands have been, but being yellow it’s not immediately noticeable; this may not be that case with the black board but a simple wipe with a lint free cloth would bring the shine back. I did also note, and how this is I do not know on a new board, even though the silicon cover kept the keys covered and clean all the time except for whilst gaming, there appeared to me more dirt and dust stuck to the base than the top. The grippier feel to the underside of it as well also made it harder to clean but a quick run under some water and a good dry out sorted this.

Overall, would i recommend this board to you? I certainly would, it may have a couple of things that I personally would change, but as i’ve said throughout these are purely a personal thing and you may prefer it that way.

For gaming use it is fantastic even though the macro keys are a little out of quick reach but this is compensated by the long term comfort that you get from the specially designed force of the keys.

If you’re looking for a board that’s different, yet still stylish and practical, then the Aivia K8100 is one to seriously consider.

Pros:

• Ergonomic board is comfortable to use for long periods
• Variable elasticity of keys
• Macro keys with multiple profiles
• Onboard memory for storing macros and profiles
• Wired board to reduce latency
• 20 anti-ghosting keys

Cons:

• Odd position for the backlight switch
• Would have been nice to see the macro keys lit as well
• Wrist rest not easily detachable
• Macro keys a little out easy reach whilst gaming

Ratings:

• Design – 7
• Features – 7
• Performance – 8
• Value – 8
• Overall – 7.5