I’m not a dad but that doesn’t mean I can’t make dad jokes.

Back in the days of yore, say 1999 just to riff off the song, Logitech was pretty much THE PC peripheral brand, at least in my circles. Microsoft took a shot at going after Logitech and had some success for a while, and they still do make mice and keyboards, but I have to admit I had to go check Amazon to see if that was even that case. Logitech was king.

Times change and particularly in the world of gaming, new brands came along. Razer, Corsair, Redragon and Steel Series come to mind. A couple years back (2019) I decided to be like the cool PC gamers and invested in a Steelseries RBG keyboard and mouse, the former being a mechanical keyboard that feels OK but is pretty noisy. I think I went with Steelseries because the gaming laptop I had at the time had a Steelseries keyboard built in. I can’t remember for sure.

Anyway after about, I dunno, a day of using these peripherals I pretty much forgot about them. The mouse was a mouse. The keyboard made letters appear.

Except every peripheral brand has to have its own software to go with it, and the Steelseries software has caused a certain amount of trouble for me. An update of it completely broke my laptop keyboard and after I got it rolled back I had to be careful to never let it update. On my new machine it has helpfully installed a bunch of virtual audio devices for some reason. I’m 99% sure this was operator error and I installed something I shouldn’t have, and they don’t seem to cause any issues but it’s annoying having them there (none of them seem to do anything).

But hey, I roll with stuff like this because I’m lazy.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a ton of issues getting a microphone to work with both my last PC and my current one. I’ve been working from home long enough, and being on Zoom and Teams meetings enough, that I now feel pretty comfortable chatting with people (my work machine has no issues with the headset attached to it). I kind of thought, who knows? Maybe I can talk to other gamers? Eventually I bought a cheap USB “gaming headset” and eureka, the mike worked. The sound was OK for gaming, but not for music, so I ended up having 2 different headsets hanging off the machine, one for music and one for gaming. Except, again, lazy, so I rarely switched to the gaming headset with the working mike.

A few nights back I decided to give this voice thing another go. Put on the gaming headset which clamped onto my head like I’d stuck it in an alligator’s mouth. I have a big fat head and a lot of stuff doesn’t fit well (one-size-fits-all caps? they don’t fit this noggin). I took the headset off and tried to gently bend it open a bit and SNAP! It broke in half. I guess that’s what you get for $20

Undeterred and embracing the idea that a gaming PC is just a black hole that sucks up money, I headed to Amazon and picked out a better headset, and I thought back to the olden days and decided to go with Logitech. Specifically the Logitech G Pro X SE. It arrived the next morning (how does Amazon manage that?) and it is fantastic. It is comfortable, the sound is really decent, and the mike works perfectly as far as I can tell (haven’t actually talked to anyone cuz no friends). But of course, new brand of peripheral means new software, in this case the Logitech G-Hub software. But this software seems pretty slick. It even has an equalizer that comes with presets, and other owners with more time and confidence than me can upload theirs as well. Took me just a few minutes to find something that sounded good to me. It I was a REAL real gamer I’d swap to one profile for music and another for gaming. Oh also it is a surround sound headset; I have no idea how the physics work to create surround sound in a headset but damned if it doesn’t work really well. I nearly jumped out of my skin the first time I heard an NPC say something from right “behind” me.

Anyway while all THIS was happening, I was also looking to use more custom buttons on my mouse for PC gaming. This Steelseries mouse has 4 extra buttons, 2 on either side, but the two on the outside, which I guess you’re supposed to hit with your ring finger, are really hard for me to use. And anyway I wanted MORE! MORE BUTTONS PLEASE! And by now I was on a spending roll, so back to Amazon I go and order a Logitech gaming mouse, the G502 X Wired mouse that has I think 13 buttons altogether? More than I need, anyway. This thing is SO light it feels fake. Like an empty shell. And it feels really good in my hand. Early days but I think I’m going to really like it. It has no RGB on it though so… fail? (Kidding, I really do not care about lights on my mouse.) I assume no RGB because it isn’t wireless. I believe the wireless model of the same mouse does have a light strip.

And just so I could get rid of the Steelseries software, I bought a Logitech Keyboard, too. (The G915 TKL Wireless with “Tactile” mechanical keyboard.) They make a few versions of this keyboard, all mechanical but with different levels of clickiness. This one is pretty quiet which I really appreciate. ( @partpurple doesn’t believe it is mechanical because it doesn’t make a racket.) I bought the wireless version mostly because it was what I could get fast. I just wanted media keys and a backlight and a good typing experience — the keyboard does have RGB and you can program the colors through the Ghub software or through Windows 11’s Dynamic Lighting system. I’m pretty happy with a solid backlight color. I am so boring. The keyboard is going to take a little bit of getting used to but it really hits the sweet spot of feeling good without being loud. My ONE gripe with it is that the symbols on the number keys (#,$,%,^, etc) are not backlit. After 50 years of typing you’d think I would know where they are, but…I don’t. LOL

So now you get the dumb title of this post. I am back where I started, using all Logitech peripherals. They may not be what the cool kids use, but I’m really happy with all three of them so far. Granted it is early days, so if some weird issue crops up I’ll be sure to share.

Now I just need a new chair, and maybe a new desk, and then… just maybe, I can stop spending money on returning to PC gaming! Though you know, my widescreen monitor is only 1440P. 4K widescreen OLED monitor, maybe?!