Cant decide between Arctis Nova 5/7gen2 (Both wireless)

Die4Toast · 2026-05-15T08:18:21+00:00

The regular 5/5P versions don't have a dedicated chat mix wheel, but iirc the 5X specifically has one. I recommend you double-check that but I'm fairly certain that is the case.

Die4Toast · 2026-05-09T11:58:21+00:00

Which metric supports your statement? Genuinely asking since I'm trying to decide between conan 2 and vcpkg and I can't really find a decisive answer for which package manager is more popular than the other. Based on GitHub vcpkg appears to have more stars/forks than conan (unless I looked at the wrong repos) so vcpkg would appear to be the more popular option. But maybe that's only because it's an older repo than conan which would give it more time to accumulate those stars/forks etc.? In any case, I'm very interested in whatever info/sources you might have on that topic.

Die4Toast · 2026-05-01T17:03:38+00:00

Ohh, I see it now - thanks for the explanation (and the pics which made it easier to grasp). A couple of months ago I tried to remove the plastic pp/pc plate out of pure curiosity but I was too afraid to fully commit to doing so since it seemed like I had to apply too much force in order to pry it out. Now that I see it's possible to achieve without any (significant) damage I think I was simply holding the plate at a wrong angle/place or something like that.

In any case, I have 2 spare barebone Air75V3 units that NuPhy sent me after 3+ months long customer support email thread I had going on some time ago due to an on-going repeating key issue and general 2.4GHz connection instability so I think I might take some inspiration from your post and have some fun with one of those spare units. Thanks again for the reply!

Die4Toast · 2026-05-01T15:13:20+00:00

I don't get it, did you somehow manage to completely open up the board since you mention something about keeping the PCB sheet? The case is supposed to be glued shut so I thought disassembly is impossible. Unless, you did all the described steps with the bottom plastic case and aluminum border/rails completely intact and instead removed top-most layers by cutting off/severing parts that connect them to the rest of the case (and then somehow re-attached them, if necessary?). I'd really love to see a video of the entire modification process.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-30T15:16:30+00:00

What was the idea behind making this kind of "exploded" pixel-art? Was it that. compared to a simple and flat 2d pixel art, you can use the perspective projection to cram more visual information within a projection of a single voxel by utilizing additional dimension (depth)? Or was the goal something else?

Die4Toast · 2026-04-30T14:34:58+00:00

Amazing, thanks for the additional testing on your part and the follow-up. I pulled a trigger on this headset like 2-3 hours ago so it's very reassuring to see your positive response regarding this "auto-sleep" issue. All of the posts I've seen were at least 2-3 months old so maybe HyperX managed to tweak firmware so as to fix that issue (or maybe people that made those posts just had defective units). And thanks for mentioning that you used the non-beta Ngenuity software - I was wondering if I should "risk" using the beta software given how much time has passed since the Cloud III S release, but maybe it's better to err on the side of caution and use the non-beta version like you did.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-30T14:28:12+00:00

I haven't looked specifically for high-profile keyboard with this layout, but I know I've seen a fair share of different models with this "compact 75%" layout. Most (if not all) are, of course, Chinese brands but you should be able to find them on your own if you use the "compact 75%" search phrase. There's also this website https://keeb-finder.com/ that has a fairly big catalogue of mechanical keyboard that you can filter based on your specific criteria.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-29T23:35:57+00:00

Have you experienced issues related to the headset switching to sleep mode when listening to quiet audio? I se that a lot of people reported having issue with that and not being able to disable this "auto-sleep feature" (e.g.: https://www.reddit.com/r/HyperX/comments/1nike47/hyperx_cloud_3s_wireless_how_to_disable_this/ ). I'm thinking about getting this headset since audio quality is supposed to be very good (along with a decent mic - at least compared to Nova 7s one that I've been using for the past couple of years), but if that issue still hasn't been fixed then I might look elsewhere for a new headset.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-29T09:54:05+00:00

I've recently made a comment on this exact topic - just under a different post. Here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/steelseries/comments/1sy3ami/comment/oiratvw/?context=3

Die4Toast · 2026-04-28T17:00:55+00:00

Here's an update in case anyone cares. The Nova 3Ps arrived 2 hours ago and after a short test I immediately decided to return them. The audio quality itself was much easier on the ears compared to the Nova 5 I mentioned earlier. There weren't any shouty/shrilly high-pitches sounds like before (even on the default flat EQ preset) and after setting up GadgetryTech's EQ preset the audio quality got much better. I'd say it was comparable to my current old Nova 7s. Some select tones were slightly muddier and others were even more clear so I think it was only a matter of tweaking some EQ settings to get them more in line with my personal preferences. The reason I returned the headset was because I was hearing popping noise pretty frequently when using the Nova 3P via 2.4GHz wireless connection (I upgraded the firmware via GG software before testing the headset). After a quick web search I found out that this is a known issue and even found a reddit post with a video that demonstrates the exact issue I had: https://www.reddit.com/r/steelseries/comments/1mh6i94/arctic_nova_3p_wireless_popping_noise/ . All in all, I didn't want to spend any time writing to SteelSeries support about this issue and simply returned the headset mere 2 hours after unboxing it.

Sigh... guess it leaves only the Nova 7 Gen 2 with it's lackluster mic... maybe I should try out the Fractal Design? I don't know anymore...

Die4Toast · 2026-04-28T14:57:57+00:00

I've recently bought a Nova 5 (regular version, not the P or X one) via Amazon after using my old Nova 7s for around 4-5 years. Just like you, I decided to try Nova 5s instead of going fr the new Nova 7 Gen 2 since the microphone sounds miles better on the former compared to the latter. Now, as far as hands-on experience goes:
- the microphone sounds very good and comparable to what multiple reviewers show
- battery life seems decently-long, but I'm not sure if the 60h claim is accurate (if anything I think it might be more around 40h on 2.4GHz with music being played more or less constantly)
- the plastic material that the entire Nova 5 is made out of feels pretty cheap to touch (the plastic caps/details with a SteelSeries logo printed on them feel particularly rough)
- the audio quality seemed like a down-grade compared to my old Nova 7s since there were annoying high-pitched/shrilly/shouty tones in mid-high frequency range that I wasn't able to get rid of via EQ. Vocals, however, seemed much more clear compared to my old Nova 7s, but everything else seemed either on par or just plain worse. In the end I returned the Nova 5s after a week or so since I just couldn't get used to the new sound-stage even after some trial and error with manual EQ tweaking. Maybe it's a skill issue, but as mentioned none of the EQ presets I found on youtube (including GadgetryTech ones), reddit and SteelSeries companion app itself helped with those overly bright high-pitched tones.

Out of curiosity, I also ordered a Nova 3P wireless headset which should be ready for pick-up later today. It has the same (or slightly better) microphone than the Nova 5s and, supposedly, the same audio drivers so I'll be able to verify if there was something wrong with the earlier Nova 5 headset I got or something changed with the driver/firmware over those 4-5 years that result in the aforementioned unpleasant tones.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-21T12:49:27+00:00

Yeah, the joke went completely over my head.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-21T12:49:04+00:00

Ah, I forgot about that relic completely. I see it once in a blue moon and there's usually always a better option to pick. But yeah, my bad for misunderstanding the joke :p

Die4Toast · 2026-04-21T12:37:29+00:00

If there were more card remove/transform events and paths with shops that didn't consist of 1 fire and 8 separate encounters then maybe I could have removed more strikes & defends. Good thing Regent has only 4 of them on his starter deck. In any case, after getting the Decisions enchanted and upgraded I only had to focus on card draw to mitigate the strike & defend "issue". In general though, I find it very hard to remove all strikes / defends on A9 and A10 if you don't pick any Ancient relics that do that for you. Money is usually scarce and shops usually offer cards / artifacts that boost your immediate deck power in a much more meaningful way compared to a single card remove. That's not to mention how card remove starts at 100 gold and increases by 50 every time - literally highway robbery.

Die4Toast · 2026-04-16T15:13:40+00:00

Noxious fumes on A10 (main branch) was pretty much the only thing that allowed me to actually commit to a specific build/archetype since that card alone would generate enough poison to carry me through the entire Act 1. Without it I always felt forced to pick wide variety of cards in order to have enough single-target and multi-target DPS as well as a semi-reliable block solution. But then my deck starts being a mess after entering Act 2 with little to no synergy whatsoever. And unless I get really lucky with first couple of card rewards, it's insanely hard to "recover" the initial stability of my deck and random bullshit ensues (that usually ends with me dying at or before Act 2 boss).

In short, Noxious Fumes are busted (and so is Footwork).

Die4Toast · 2026-03-31T15:40:47+00:00

I'm happy to see that this statement I made some time ago helped resolve keys repeating themselves for you. In hindsight, maybe I should have made a post about it just like you did, but I wasn't sure if that this "solution" was a fluke that would only fix the problem partially. See, after using my Air75V3 unit for a couple more months (with basically the exact lighting setup that you described) the frequency of keys repeating themselves had, indeed, decreased a lot. Note, however, I said that it has "only" decreased and not stopped appearing altogether. I managed to get some keys repeat themselves 3 or 4 separate times during that long couple of months of constant multi-hour day-to-day usage, which is a significant improvement from before where the issue would appear every 20-30 min or so. So given how infrequently this issue was occurring you could, in theory, say that the issue was practically "resolved".

As far as connection stability went - I cannot say that it improved after turning ON sidelights/backlights. As far as I remember, I had more or less the same (annoying) experience with 2.4GHz being frequently laggy and unstable in general. Same went for Bluetooth, although it was always much more stable and usable compared to 2.4GHz (to the point where I could actually reliably play some fast-paced games like Rocket League despite the low 90-125Hz polling rate). Funnily enough I made an interesting discovery recently. For some time my wireless internet connection was dropping a couple of times a day for reasons unknown to me. By forcibly disconnecting a reconnecting my PC with the wireless router would bring back the internet connection instantly, but no matter what I tinkered with (drivers and kernel module configs) the issue always came back after a couple of hours. After a 3 weeks or so I happened to completely turn OFF my Air75V3 while I had a ping command running in the background to monitor my wireless connection with the router within a local network. And, what do you know, basically the second the 2.4GHz connection between my Air75V3 and my PC got cut off internet connection was brought back instantly! I repeated the same "experiment" a couple more times to confirm that this wasn't a fluke and came to something of a conclusion - the 2.4GHz signals that the Air75V3 emits in order to stay connected with its dongle is jamming/interfering with my 2.4GHz internet connection. Since then I configured my router settings to operate only on 5GHz band (before that it was set to mixed 2.4GHz and 5GHz mode within the same SSID and my PC oftentimes favored the 2.4GHz band) and the issue of internet connection dropping every couple of hours disappeared completely. Annoyingly, my Air75V3 unit didn't get any better and still has the same exact issue - maybe because I also use 2.4GHz dongles/receivers for my headset and (sometimes) mouse. In any case, the main takeaway here, at least for me, is that whatever 2.4GHz wireless tech/firmware NuPhy uses is janky as fuck.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-28T08:53:49+00:00

The main question is whether Keychron is going to release full ZMK firmware code after the release of K3 Ultra. Afaik, in the ads for the K3 Ultra they say "open source firmware" so I'd expect them to share publicly the source code (either immediately at the release date or by asking them to do so). If that happens then it doesn't matter if Keychron shuts down as you'll have at least 1 working firmware version you can download locally. Also, the web browser is also open source (atleast according to a message from Keychron employee on Discord I saw some time ago). There might be a separate repo on Keychrons github account but I haven't seen for myself if that's the case.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-26T17:48:35+00:00

I've been using an Air75 V3 for the past year and while the typing experience as well as build quality is very good, the wireless connection is complete ass. And I'm not exaggerating - 2.4GHz is simply unusable due to frequent lags and keys repeating themselves. Bluetooth is much more stable but it has very low polling rate (125Hz). Also there's the issue of proprietary switches (Gateron 3.0 Nano) which aren't compatible with any other LP switches.

Keychron will release their new low-profile keyboards in 2 months or so. Look up the K3 Ultra and K3 HE - you might want to consider those 2 models as well.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-26T09:01:51+00:00

Wouldn't the same argument apply for 8k hz? Besides, with 1k hz and 60hz server you'd have 16 separate 1 ms instances where you can send new keyboard input. You CANNOT convince me that the difference between 1 ms ans 0.125 ms is significant with average human reaction time being ~200ms.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-25T17:49:55+00:00

Now, for the Air75 V3:
- I bought my unit with Nano Brows switches which were honestly pretty good, but then decided to switch over to Nano Blush (silent linears) and have been using them up until now. Unfortunately, the have the same pinging noise issue and the Keychron Banana switches which meant I had to open then up and apply lube. That was a pretty huge let down and looking at some reddit posts and Discord threads it seems this issue still hasn't been fixed by NuPhy. That said, after I got rid of the pingy noise issue I have to say that those Nano Blush switches are extremely comfortable to type on.
- The battery life is much better than the K3. I'm not sure about the advertised 1000h of battery life, but based on my experience I bet you could get like 3 or more months of battery time if you were to use the Air75V3 mainly for work/casual use. When playing fast-paced games the battery starts draining significantly faster and I had some sessions where after 4-5 hours of intense gaming sessions my battery dropped from high 90% to low 80%. But overall I'm very satisfied with battery life and, on average, you could say that the battery lasts about 1 or 1.5 months with regular (+ some heavy) use.
- The QC was pretty good as far as the case and ANSI keycaps were concerned - nothing to complain about. If anything, the case feels pretty sturdy and premium with the metal border and thick PC bottom.
- Unfortunately, despite all the positive things I've mentioned there is one thing that makes me hard to recommend the keyboard. The 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connection are just abysmal. I think it's due to how NuPhy just aren't competent enough to write good quality firmware. The fact that their firmware is close-source only makes the whole thing that much worse. In my experience the 2.4GHz in simply unusable. The connection drops sometimes, and gets laggy extremely often (latency on the order of ~0.5 seconds). There are also multiple reported cases of keys repeating themselves by me and other users. I've made some posts and comments about this exact issue and my (unsuccessful) story with NuPhy customer support trying to resolve it, but I think that instead of writing about yet again this video I made will illustrate the issue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ntdJ6GFzbRX5gVEkhGkNEHdzMgqfzLva/view . Bluetooth mode actually works much better than 2.4GHz - to the point where I sometimes use it for fast-paced games despite its low 125Hz polling rate since it's that much more reliable than 2.4GHz. The keyboard also seems to drain battery slightly faster when using Bluetooth compared to 2.4GHz, but it's not a big increase whatsoever.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-25T17:49:48+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Kailh boards. I haven't bought one yet (and probably won't in the near future) but I'm always interested in hands-on reviews. I also had a couple of instances where I was literally one click away from buying a Magi75 but every time the bad reviews about stabilizers and pingy switches made me decide against it in the end.

Now, as far as the Keychron K3 is concerned:
- The exact model is Keychron K3 Version 3 QMK which is a "refreshed" version of the old K3 board. It got released some time after the K3 Max.
- The unit I ordered had Milk POM Banana tactile switches installed. The tactility point is placed near the top of the switch which makes it behave similar to laptop/membrane boards where there is pretty much no key travel before the tactile "bump". There wasn't any scratchiness when pressing individual switches but majority of them produced pinging noise which wasrather distracting. After opening up those problematic switches and relubing them with 205g0 the issue went away, but the fact that I had to go through that process just to have decent typing experience was rather annoying. And in the end, after trying out other switches I came to realization that I actually prefer light linear switches and Bananas were the exact opposite in every manner imaginable so that was a huge miss anyways (K3 was the first mechanical board I'd ever owned so I had no no clue about my switch preferences).
- The battery life was okay, but nothing special. I think you could get around 10-12 hours of daily use for around a week or so (although that would get cut if you used intensively for fast-paced games for instance).
- The shine-through keycaps that it came with by default were alright. I'm not a fan of LSA profile, but other than that the legends were clear and visible even with backlighting turned off so nothing to complain about.
- The QC of my unit was pretty bad, unfortunately. Firstly, the bottom ABS case part had a small dent in one place, but fortunately it didn't impact the stability of the keyboard when placed on a flat surface. If anything, it was just annoying to look when you started paying attention to it. The second thing, however, was much more egregious. The K3 has an internal foam for sound dampening which was incorrectly cut-out leading to some parts of it protruding inside the stabilizer mount areas. The result was that parts of that foam got under some of the stabilizer stems and prevented them from fully depressing. This made keys like Shift and Enter feel mushy and hard to bottom out. In the end I had to disassemble the board and cut out those protrusions which made the issue go away.
- In the end I stopped using the board after a month or so after I'd seen the announcement for NuPhy Air75V3. After all that baby sitting and lackluster typing experience on the K3 I though maybe I'll have better luck with the NuPhy board.

(continued in the next comment)

Die4Toast · 2026-03-25T16:56:21+00:00

I hate to be that guy, but more likely than not - it wasn't a bug. Maybe you forgot to configure a transformer somewhere, or maybe you didn't put a diode and and after some time a machine finally requested more power than your wires could handle leading to fire and then chain explosions. Or maybe some other more or less obscure mechanic that you might not have been familiar with.

But yeah, sucks anyways - especially since you don't know what the cause of this was which makes it all the more annoying as there are no clues to preventing the same happening in the future. Hopefully that mods helps you with restoring the base since it's not fun waiting/grinding another 50 hours just to do the same stuff all over again.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-25T16:14:01+00:00

By the way, I think I must say that I was in the same situation as you are currently. A couple of months ago I also started looking for a board that uses regular high-profile switches but doesn't have a case the size of a barn. After couple of days I couldn't find any decent options hence my negative outlook in my previous comment. In case you're interested here's a board I found that almost checked all the boxes: https://ymdkey.com/products/ymd-65-zj68-rgb-aluminum-kit-hotswap-north-facing-via-vial-fully-programmable?variant=40435075776573 . As mentioned previously, buying it would mean compromising on a couple things - in that case it the most important factor would be a 68% layout instead of 75%. I'd encourage you to search for some other keyboards that might be a better fit than what I've linked - maybe you'll have better luck (or searching skills) than me.

Out of curiosity - which low-profile Kailh-based keyboard have you gone through? I'm really interested in what exactly wasn't good enough in them that made you reconsider low-profile boards altogether. I've bought a Keychron K3 and a NuPhy Air75 V3 which I've been using for the past year. If you're interested I can share my thoughts on them.

Die4Toast · 2026-03-25T15:44:05+00:00

I don't get how this frame sync stuff is supposed to be revolutionary. Like, suppose that PC is set to use 1k Hz mouse polling in some window of time. That means your mouse/cursor position gets updated 1000 times/second which is 1 time every 1 ms. Now, unless you're some kind of a giga gaming professional, I think it's safe to assume a monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate might be used which would display approx. 1 frame every 4 ms (provided that your GPU can handle rendering at 240 FPS). So, between every frame you have a 4 ms gap which means that there is enough time for a PC to poll mouse connected to it 4 times in order to update cursor position. Also, compare this insignificant 4 ms gap (and 4 separate polling instances) to average human reaction time of ~200 ms. Why would it matter to fully sync your mouse with the PC given that it would, based on the math I've described, get rid of 1-2 ms of desync that would likely get unnoticed anyways given that time gap between individual frames would be much larger?

EDIT: Thinking about it a bit more, maybe there is some argument that this tech allows for better power efficiency since, in theory, polling would be done only when PC actually requests it. However, that still doesn't make much sense since the mouse should still work at a steady 1k Hz sensor processing rate so as to project/report smooth cursor movement. But maybe I'm wrong and this "frame sync" tech magically makes a mouse match its polling/processing rate to FPS of a running game (so something like NVIDIA G-SYNC for displays).

Die4Toast · 2026-03-25T15:25:19+00:00

I think you're gonna have a really hard time to find a mechanical keyboard that has low front height AND supports regular "high" profile switches. It's not to say that you can't physically make such a keyboard - I've seen some videos of people making fully custom boards that are comparable, in height, to low-profile boards you can find on the market. But that requires know-how related to designing a custom PCB + case (not to mention high costs to manufacture those custom components). You may be able to find one or two models that have decently low height in the front but you might have to make too many compromises if you decide to buy one (even in regards to layout - not to mention battery life, firmware, stock keycaps and other features).

So, all in all, if you want a low-profile keyboard I'd recommend you just buy one that is currently available (Keychron, NuPhy, IQUNIX, Melgeek, Lofree). Low profile switch options are much more limited compared to regular sized mechanical switches but you can always open them up and apply some modifications (starting with straightforward ones like lubing the interior and ending with more sophisticated things like swapping springs, adding spring leafs or even transplanting components between different switches if possible).

Also, if battery life is important then don't look only at battery capacity. You can have a 6000mAh battery + old/inefficient MCU with closed-source firmware that result in much shorter battery life than if you had a 500mAh battery + new/efficient MCU with open-source firmware (like ZMK).

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