Patriot started out 2017 strong with two prominent keyboards, the V730 and the V770. The V730 is a keyboard for those new and casual gamers. While its big brother, the V770, is sure to “be the envy of all your friends at the next LAN party.” Right away I can state that you’ll be above and beyond the envy of all your gaming friends. How does such a keyboard do this? We’ve spent the past month with the Viper V770 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard, learning every detail of it. Is this gaming accessory a worthy addition to your rig? Without further delay, let’s take a closer look in this Patriot Viper V770 gaming keyboard review.

Key Features of the Viper V770 Keyboard

• RGB Illuminated Backlighting
• 11 Lighting & 4 Palm Rest Effects
• Kailh Red Mechanical Switches
• 100% Anti-Ghosting Support
• 109-Key rollover
• Multimedia Controls
• USB 2.0 Pass-Through Port
• Aircraft-Grade Aluminum Front Plate

Viper V770 Gaming Keyboard Review

V770 Design and Features

Per Roger Shinmoto, Patriot VP of Product Design, “Our new RGB V770 keyboard is a high-end, feature-rich keyboard, designed with the serious gamer in mind. With thoughtful design, onboard media controls, dedicated macros, and a high degree of customization, the V770 is a great compliment to any high-end rig.”

The Viper V770 keyboard is one of those ‘Big Boys’ which requires two USB slots. This gives it those added features like five programmable keys, eight buttons to quickly control the lighting options, media switches, and a scroll wheel to control volume. It’s also physically large at 19.5″, approximately 2″ longer than such popular keyboards like the HyperX Alloy Elite and the Corsair K70 LUX. You can thank the five dedicated macro keys on the left for half of the difference in length.

The Kailh Red switches with their 50 million push-button life cycle are terrific for those FPS games. They’re quite sensitive (2.0±0.6 mm pre-travel, 4 mm total travel) requiring little activation force. It took me a couple of days to stop making accidental presses. While we’re still on the design if you look under the volume wheel you’ll notice there’s no indicator for which toggle keys you have enabled (Num, Caps Lock, Scrl Lock). That’s because the keys when enabled light up in white. When disabled, they return to whatever color you have currently selected.

The numerous lighting effects are great. They’re better than most mid-tier and some upper-tier gaming keyboards. The keyboard has about 11 lighting options, 10 of which you can change both the brightness and speed of. A lot of these lighting options can be in RGB or one color. You can create up to 5 custom lighting profiles too.

The keys are top-mounted over a brushed aluminum faceplate with a unique font that helps it stand out from the crowd. The finish on the keyboard is attractive and appears to be fingerprint resistant.

There’s also has a detachable magnetic palm rest which holds better than the Gamdias P1 RGB, which occasionally pops off. Sadly, it does smudge a little. The palm rest lights up and has its own lighting options, four to be exact. Two customizable solid color options with the remaining two as RGB only. Beware, the edges of the wrist plate are sharp, so don’t go knocking it off your desk. It could strike your foot or leg and cause some pain.

You can also re-program almost every key. There’s the USB 2.0 and audio pass-through ports on opposite sides of the keyboard. I don’t find much use for the pass-through ports as it leads to messy wires all over. But there is this one exception. On the back center of the board, there’s slide out phone holder. This feature comes in very handy when you want to charge your mobile phone.

On the back end of the right-of-center braided cord, there are two USB plugs plus one for headphones and another for a microphone to connect to your PC enclosure. If you’re connecting via USB 2.0, use both connectors. If you’re connecting via USB 3.0, you may only need to use one connector. If you’re looking to use either of the keyboard pass-through ports, then connect either the microphone and headset jacks to the PC enclosure. The underside is plastic with six rubber foot pads and two retractable legs.

Editor’s Note: I kept finding myself striking the Caps Lock key and having to correct my misspelling constantly. I’ve not encountered this issue on other gaming boards. I don’t know what to make of it.

Specifications

Patriot Viper Keyboard V770 Software

The high majority of today’s higher-end gaming keyboards come with software to adjust the device, and the Viper V770 is no different. This software support (Version 2.1) configures the RGB LED lighting effects, palm rest effects, profiles, macros, response time, and report rate, just to name a handful.

Truth be told, you don’t actually need the software. Almost every adjustment can be made with either the buttons on the keyboard or a combo of Fn + insert key. The software though is lightweight and clean. It didn’t even require a restart. It worked right away and was very easy to use.

From the main page, seen in the image gallery, you can adjust the 11 light effects, the brightness, and the speed on all but Static mode. There are seven starter colors, all adjustable on a pop-up color map, with an 8th option that’s multi-color. Under the five lighting profiles, the first two of which are displayed below, there are now Keymap and DIY check boxed options.

Under Palm Rest Effects, there are four of the most popular lighting effects. You can alter the direction originating from the left or right, its brightness, and speed. Like the keyboard, you have access to 16.8M color options on the detachable wrist rest. But this is only so for the Static and Breathing selections. The remaining two choices are RGB only. As I’m sure you just figured out, you can configure the speeds and brightness of the keyboard and palm rest separately.

Below this, there are check boxes to select Game Mode and Windows Key Lock, plus slider controls for Response Time and Report Rate. It’s all here.

At the bottom left, you’ve got Profiles and Macros. In the 4th gallery image above is a display of the Macros window. Create and delete Macro(s), Keystroke Input, and Options are all there. Clicking Profiles opens another dialog box (not shown) where you can import and export.

Under the upper right gear icon, you see the current software version, plus can reset settings and update the firmware.

Conclusion

Overall, Patriot Memory has created a great keyboard with plenty of features. Furthermore, they’ve done a great job with the lighting options. I’m convinced many people will like this keyboard as much as I did. You can tell there was a lot of thought put into it. Once you add up everything: lighting, macros, easy software, design, etc., this Viper V770 turned out to be one fantastic keyboard. If you want to have a big league keyboard, this is the real deal.

The Viper V770 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard is available for purchase on Amazon for under $120 (see link below) as well as on the Patriot Store at a list price of just under $140. All-in-all, this is a well-designed RGB mechanical gaming keyboard which easily earned a 4.5 out of 5-star rating.

What do you think of this Patriot Viper V770 gaming keyboard review? Do you agree or disagree with our verdict? Let us know in the comment section below or via social media. We’re eager to hear your thoughts.

Don’t hesitate to head over to Patriot’s Viper Gaming page to see their newest products. To learn more about service and support, click here for their Support page. The Viper V770 keyboard comes with a 2-year warranty.

FTC Disclosure: Patriot Memory provided Beantown LLC with one (1) Viper V770 gaming keyboard sample for review purposes. This writer’s opinion is 100% his own and not a paid product ambassador.

All photographs are the copyrighted property of Patriot Memory LLC and Beantown LLC © 2017