Finally, we’ll examine OCZ’s Alchemy Elixir board. There were three things that immediately caught my attention with the Elixir: the neon blue columns of macro keys, a thin and subtly-textured wrist rest and a comprehensive suite of media keys. OCZ shows attention to gamers in a fresh way: they’ve included a replacement set of WASD, shift, space bar, and arrow keys right in the box. Clearly, OCZ knows what keys we’ll be abusing the most. The aforementioned macro buttons are labeled L1 through L5 and R1 through R5 for left and right, and are flanked on the surround by the Elixir’s multimedia keys.
In the upper left, the Elixir’s game mode key disables the macros, not the Windows keys as on our other boards. Below that is a button to open My Computer, a button to open your email program, and a suite to replicate the navigation buttons in a browser. On the right, you’ll see the standard open player, play/pause, stop, forward, back, volume up and down, and mute buttons.
In order to retain a reasonable size, OCZ took the home/end cluster and oriented it vertically. They also moved the insert key up to the printscreen cluster in order to extend the delete key, which now occupies the area of two keys. The arrow cluster is also closer to the rest of the keys, as the alt/win/menu/ctrl cluster was moved closer to the primary keys to make room for the left arrow.
Up at the top right of the keyboard, you’ll see a mode button; this switches between three profiles, for a total of 30 programmable keys. Like the Lycosa, the keys have rubberized surfaces which offer a similar friction. When I received the board, I noticed that the left alt and control keys were flipped around. Other reviewers have identified this issue as well, but the keys pop off easily for rearrangement.
The wrist rest has a gentle bulge to it, and while it feels leathery, it’s a solid surface with little give. The keys are low-profile, but the amount of downward travel fits somewhere in between the Lycosa and the G15.
The upper portion of the board is a long, glossy strip carrying the Alchemy and Elixir logos. The key lock indicators and a set of profile/mode indicators are at the right edge. Like both the Lycosa and the G15, the Elixir also offers a cable track on the bottom of the board to keep cables tidy.
Each macro key can accept a macro composed of up to eight keystrokes, select a profile, or launch a program. One limitation of the current software seems to be that you can’t insert mouse actions into a macro. Other than that, the software is straightforward: you double-click the box next to a given macro key to assign a macro or action, change profiles using the “mode selection” box at the bottom, and select the media player of choice to open with the media key at the top.
It appears the media player setting will allow you to pick any executable to run with the “other” option, but given you can map other executables to the macro keys, you’re probably best off sticking with a media player. Windows Media Player, iTunes, and Real Player were provided as presets, while others can be chosen. One interesting point is the menu key, which OCZ currently allows you to set as the normal right-click option, or a direct link to the configuration software. That way, a single keystroke takes you back to the utility to correct or create macros. Each individual key can also be remapped to any other single key, but cannot be assigned to macros.
Still, there are a few nitpicks:
- Like the Lycosa, the board is a smudge-magnet: the rubber picks up random detritus, and the glossy finishes on the edges pick up hand oils.
- Secondly, I was troubled by a group of problems that may be because of the software. For example, the computer button didn’t seem to do anything on my XP x64 install, and the macro keys were erratic in testing.
- The inability to add mouse events to macros may hinder some gamers.
- The indicator lights for the lock and mode clusters are a bit dull; the LEDs appear to be recessed from the cutouts in the plastic. This means an angled look at them, such as from a chair, will yield a dim light.
- The left-hand Windows key has been removed. While this key is the scourge of gamers and has booted many from their game, it impacts workflow.
The problem with the Windows key arrangement is in how much it impacts many users’ keyboard shortcut habits. I regularly use the Win+E shortcut to get to Windows Explorer; not having a left Windows key now makes this a two-handed shortcut. The same goes for Win+R for run, Win+D for desktop, and Win+Tab for Flip3D in Vista.