Cougar Attack X3 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

The competition between keyboard manufacturers is fierce, each one adding a new feature that many might not use, but you can brag about it.  Then others copy other manufacturers designs and call it their own, and then some that come out with basic boring keyboards.   Today I bring you my review of the Cougar ATTACK X3 RGBa Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, not a clone, not boring and no extra unneeded features here.  Talking about features, let’s check out the features and specifications.

Features and Specifications

• 104 keys
• Guaranteed lifetime of at least 50 Million clicks
• Cherry MX Blue Mechanical Switches
• Roller Over Keys
  • 6-Key Roll Over (PS/2 Mode) 6 simultaneous keys
  • N-Key Roll Over (USB Mode) Unlimited simultaneous key
• RGB Backlights
• 9 Preset Lighting Effects
• 5 Mode Brightness adjustment
• 1000Hz Poling Rate
• 10 Programmable Keys
• On-Board Memory
• Anti-Slip Rubber Feet
• Cougar UIX System Software (Drivers)
• 7 Multi-Media Keys
• 10 Programmable Macro Keys
• Aluminum Brushed Structure
• On the Fly Mode Switching, allows you to change keyboard configurations quickly
• 3 full configuration profiles with on board memory to store them
• 8m (5.9Feet) Braided USB Cable
• Compatible with Windows XP, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10

Let’s check out the unboxing

Aside from the keyboard itself, the box only comes with a User Guide.

The User Guide is actually a foldout pamphlet.

One side goes over the features, keyboard shortcuts and functions.

Short chapter, since there was nothing else in the box aside from the keyboard, so let’s get into the Keyboard itself.

[nextpage title=”The Keyboard”]Starting the keyboard off with a side view.  The keyboard is plastic with a brushed aluminum frame.  The black you see on the keyboard is the plastic, then you can see the brushed aluminum bolted onto the plastic.  I love the cold feeling of the aluminum.

A closer look so that you can see the little lines of the brushed aluminum and the plastic boarder but we also see here the Cherry MX switches.

Flipping it over for now, we find the back of the keyboard.

The center houses a Cougar Attack X3 RGB Cherry MX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard sticker.

This also shows all of the certificates, ratings and serial number.

Along the top corner of the keyboard, you have the antislip rubber feet.

The front also has rubber feet, just not ones that can fold out.

I am not sure if this is just the molding, but it looks like the bottom can also hold foldable feet, though of course it does not included.

See what I mean, it looks like you can slip them in there, but there’s no reason for them here.

A look at the bottom of the keyboard at an angle with the feet out.  I like it more when keyboards stand higher, but it still feels natural.

Coming back up towards the top of the keyboard, we find at the top, where the thick cable plugs into.  This might be a little surprising on how this cable works.

Following up the 8m (5.9Feet) Braided USB Cable we find the cable splits into two pieces.

The end with the keyboard logo allows the lights to turn on and allows you to use the keyboard, like any other keyboard’s USB connection would.

The other connector shows a double-sided arrow, this provides additional power to the keyboard for the lighting effects.  I have tried the lighting effects with and without these cables without any issues, but in speaking with Cougar they do recommend it for times that the single cable does not provide enough power.  You might have missed it but notice that the USB Connections are gold plated as well.

Coming back to the other end of the cable we find the top of the keyboard with the Cougar silk screening.

We can see some of the keys here, but let’s look for the odd ones, by the way, this keyboard has 104 keys.

On the left-hand side on the function keys, we find M1, M2, M3 and Brightness.  M1~M3 allow you to switch between your macro keys.  F4, allows you to cycle through the 4 modes of

A little more to the right, we find the F5~F8.  F5 is to mute the volume, F6 is the lower the volume, F7 is to raise the volume and F8 is to open up a media player.  By default, this opens Windows Media Player… but you can change this default of course.  I prefer Media Player Classic (MPC-HC)… what do you use?

F9~F12 double as multi-media keys.  F9 is Play/Pause, F10 is stop, F11 is to rewind and F12 is to Fast Forward or Skip.

A little sneak peek here, but Page Up is the raise the brightness and Page Down is to lower the brightness or completely turn the lights off.  Scroll lock doubles as the 6Key roller over and Pause Break doubles as the N-Key rollover.

This is not a different key but the asterisk looks a little like the Plymouth logo.

Running to the bottom left hand corner of the keyboard, we find the Function Key.  This key when pressed and held activates all of the F keys alternative functions as well as the brightness levels of the Page Up/Down keys.

On the right side of the keyboard, we find the Windows Lock button, when used with the Function Key locks the Windows key from activating the Start menu.  Next to that we find the properties key.  This key provides the same functions as the right mouse button.

Remember the lighting tease I showed you earlier, let’s see how that works out.

[nextpage title=”Lighting Effects, Keys and UIX”]

Before I ever owned and/or review backlit keys on a keyboard, I never understood why people liked this…. but you will never know till you try it.  Lighting alone is nice, but the RGB aspect of these types of keyboards I find so relaxing.

Let me run you through some of the features.

On that video, I ran you through all of the lighting effects, all 10 of them as well as the dimming features as well.  That was through the keyboard itself though.  In the video, I also show you how to control the lighting effects of the keyboard and various other controls of the UIX software.  I will get into the software a little later but let’s see what’s under the keys that let’s those lights work.

So removing some of the keys, you can see the Cherry MX Red switches.

With a flick of a key, we turn on the lighting effects here and you can see the blue lighting, but remember it has 16.8 million colors.

Removing the arrow keys, we can see some more of the lighting, here is the rainbow effect.

A closer look at keys like these.

Alright, let’s take a closer look at the UIX software.

Well, when you install the software, it does a quick scan to look for a firmware update for the keyboard.  There is one big thing this firmware update can address, but stay tuned because I will go over that.

The first screen brings up the “Key Assignment” tab.  On this screen, you can assign each and every key a different function.  By simply clicking on the key you want to provide a function to, then on the right, dragging the mode to the key and dropping it into the swap key box.

Like you can see here, I clicked on the I key then dragged Mode 2 over and dropped it into the box.  Afterwards click Apply and OK and now I’s section function when you hold the function key and I is Mode 2.

Zooming in a bit on the right, you can see the mode keys, but there’s more here.  There’s not only the option to choose different modes, you can select between “Ins. Mode Switch”, “Launch Program”, “Mouse Function”, “Media Function” and “FN/WN” functions as well.  Let’s go over those too.

Ins. Mode Switch or Instant Mode Switch allows you to switch the keyboard to the game profiles.  I will go over those profiles later in this review.  Like before, you can assign a key, then drag an I-Mode to that key.

Launch Program mode, allows you to assign a particular program to a single keystroke.

For example, here, I dragged the “Quick Launch” button to the swap key section and it brought up this Quick Launch tab.  From there, I clicked on the file explorer button.

Selected a program I wanted to launch and clicked OK.

So now when I click Function + I, Overwatch launches.

Mouse Function as the title implies, allows any key you select to function as a mouse click, any of those listed.  An odd feature I guess, but why not.

Media Function act like the already present Media keys on the keyboard.  Maybe you just don’t like them all the way up there on the top of the keyboard, well now you can fix that.

FN/WIN,… I think they ran out of ideas with this one.  These keys allow you to remap the Function and Windows key… very strange but if it wasn’t there,… surely someone would complain.

Clicking on that Macro key, allows you to create new groups and new macros per group.  They allow you to not only create those macro’s but you can export them and give them to friends and even import them.  If your friends newly imported macro is nice, but could use a little more, you can even edit it.  Ok, let’s check out the Performance section.

Polling Rate, this feature allows you to determine the frequency in which the computer receives input form the keyboard.  The higher the polling rate, the shorter the response time, the lower the response time, the longer it takes for your actions to be recognized.

There should be no reason to go below 1000Hz, am I right?  With that in mind, this is a relatively common thing to find in keyboards, but what would someone want to lower the response time?

N-Key Rollover allows you to select between 6K and NK Rollover.  The 6 Key Rollover function allows you to only press a max of 6 simultaneous keys where the computer will actually receive that feedback.  N Key Rollover allows you to press as many keys as you want and accurately receive feedback.  Most of course would select N-Key Rollerover, but the 6-Key Rollerover is there for compatibility purposes.

Repeat delay allows you to define the amount of time a key must be pressed before that key repeats.  The Shorter the delay, the quicker the keys repeat when you press them.  The longer the repeat, the longer it takes before that held key repeats itself.

Repeat rate test allows you to test just what you did on the “Repeat delay” section.  Now, the most fun section in my opinion, the Lighting Control Section.

Here you can change the lighting effects, we start off on the Rainbow drop down.  Each one of these lighting effects on this drop down can be added to the custom mode, so each mode can have 3 different lighting effects.

Here I will show you each mode I went over on the previous video.

Now, in the center of the triangle shows the lighting effects, you can see that it shows you some brightness control.

On the bottom of each of these screens is the TIPS section.  This section provides valuable tips regarding the section you are in.

The drop menu shows us some more of the basic features offered here.  Let’s go over them again.

Cycle allows you to cycle between the 2-different color cycle modes.

Reactive, is the mode where each key typed lights up, and like before it can be imported into a customer cycle.

The arrow effect, is the lighting effect that when each key is press, an arrow of light goes out from that key.

The Ripple effect, the LED keys illuminate as if each key pressed why a pond and a drop fell into it and instead of a wave of water, light radiates.

The wave effect on wave 1, passes a wave from right to left, each wave a different color.  Wave 2, a color wave goes towards the right, the ping pongs to the left a different color until each color has been shown.  Wave 3, a wave of color radiates from the bottom of the keyboard to the top.

Rainbow, my favorite selection is where all colors slowly radiate from the right to the left in a very smooth relaxing stream.  Just my preference.

As I mentioned, 3 different lighting effects can be store, but what I didn’t mention was that you can have 3 different lighting effects on each Mode, for a total of 9 modes.

Going a little deeper we find “Game Profile Management”.  Each mode, up to as many as you want, can have a different icon and mode assigned to it.  The previous mode I had showed you where there are 3 modes can be store on the keyboards memory, but if you wanted these additional/unlimited modes, those would have to be stored on your computers storage.

As you saw, there are a ton of features on the UIX software.  Due to the fact that the keyboard has onboard memory, you don’t really need to install UIX, it can be controlled mostly from the keyboard itself, there are a few features that need this software as well as the additional Game Profiles.

Another nice feature about the UIX software, if for example you were to pair this keyboard up with the Cougar Revenger mouse I just review, once you installed the UIX software for that, you can from a single interface control the mouse or the keyboard.  If you notice the arrows on each side of the keyboard, if you hover it, would show you the nice device connected.

Then you can always go back.  Of course, when you go to the mouse for example, all of the selections will change because of the course the mouse does not have the same features the keyboard does and visa versa.

Alright, we have covered a lot here, and it looks nice but how loud is it?   Let’s check out the next section, Typing and Noise.

[nextpage title=”Typing and Noise”]

This keyboard comes with Cherry MX Blue, Cherry MX Red, Cherry MX Brown and Cherry MX Black switches.  Let me break down these switches a bit.

Cherry MX Black:  One of the oldest switches.  These are the stiffest of the bunch.  These switches help prevent accidental pressing because of the weight and stronger spring.  The stronger spring means that it rebounds quickly with enough force though due to them being more stiff can cause your fingers to tire more quickly.  These provide a high tactile feedback, so they are very clicky and loud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry MX Red: More commonly marketed as gaming switches are very light weight allowing for more rapid movements.  These keys are not very tactile so there is are clickies here, you almost don’t hear there.  What you here when you press these keys is the base of the key slamming against the aluminum faceplate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry MX Blue:  The original switch and most common clicky switch.  Coming from a typewriter myself, the Cherry MX Blue switch provides a very familiar sound and feedback and is chosen more commonly by typist.  The Blue switch has a very tactile bump and audible click and are noticeably louder than other mechanical switches.  Even though these are one of the loudest, they making multiple pressing of the keys a little more difficult gaming since the being that they are weighted slightly higher than Brown or Red switches but falling slightly under the Black Switch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry MX Brown:  The most common switch.  This switch is not a clicky switch at all and was made to provide the smoothest resistance.  These are more commonly used in office scenario’s but are also very popular for gaming.  While I love the clickies of a loud switch, these are made with everyone else in mind since they are so quiet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cougar Attack X3 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard comes in all 4 flavors, so if you like the way this one looks but need a little more in than a red switch, you can dabble a bit.  Just in case you don’t know what a Red switch sounds like, check this out.

See what I mean, this is from a foot away and they are super quiet.  Mind you, I slam keys and if you are a little more delicate you experience will be much quieter.

I learned to type on a typewriter, not an electric one, one of the good old fashioned ones where the head would slam the sheet of paper and the only thing stopping that quick rod from actually hitting was the paper was the ribbon where the ink was kept on.  You had to push hard on these keys to make that level hit the paper to make that ink transfer to the paper.  As I kept taking typing classes, they evolved from the type writer to the computer and the need to slam the keys was reduced, if not removed but I didn’t want to stray and so I slam today.  That being said, I like the red, but I prefer something like the Cherry MX Black.

With that blast from the past, check out how quickly I can type with this keyboard.  For my tests, I used www.10fastfingers.com

While not amazingly fast for some of you, this was one was actually a pretty quick round.  I was surprised at how well the keys actually bounced back.  I would type so much fast if I still used my ring fingers and pinky fingers for typing but it seems that my hands don’t want to use them, haha.

Alright, it looks like we are done here, so let’s check out my Final Thoughts and Conclusion.

[nextpage title=”Final Thoughts and Conclusion”]

I previously review the Cougar Attack X3 4IS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and this keyboard is almost identical.  The multimedia keys are a little different, mainly the fact that they removed the separate Volume Up/Down/Mute keys and functioned them onto the F7~F8 keys.  I preferred them, but it’s nothing you can’t get used to.

Out of the box, I loved the way this keyboard felt with the aluminum faceplate, it just feels so nice and cool, literally.

It took me a bit to get used to the Red Switches, I like my clickies but actually I kind of liked it.  It’s a soft and cushy button push and my typing was not affected.

They resolved the issue I had previously that the Cougar Attack X3 4IS only came with Red LED lights, this keyboard has all 16.8Million colors.  While I loved the Rainbow effect, it seems that there is no way to have the keyboard shine a single color, it has to radiate through them all.  Maybe this is something they can resolve through a firmware update, though odd that it does not come on here by default.

3 things this keyboard needs to be perfect, 2 of them actually are not very common and one of them should be.

1. This keyboard, especially taking up 2 USB ports does not offer a USB hub, you would think since it is taking additional power, they would be able to divert some of the extra power to another device.
2. This could be potentially resolved with the additional USB port but there should be some 3.5mm headphone/microphone jacks on here and finally Apple.
3. Even though I am not an Apple fan at all, I do believe that they should build support for Apple, not only make Mac users happy but so that they can make some more money.

So, let’s check out the Pros and Cons:

Pros

• Pricing is on point with named brand options
• Braided cable
• RGB LED Backlit
• Offers 9 modes of lighting
• Programmable Keys
• Multi-Media Keys
• High Quality Components
  • Brushed Aluminum
• High variety of Cherry MX Switches (Red, Black, Blue and Brown)
• Optional Software Install: Does not require software to utilize all of the features

Cons

• Takes up 2 USB Ports.
• No USB Hub
• No 3.5mm Headphone/Microphone Jack
• No Apple Support
• Cannot select a single color

While I would have loved to have seen the USB HUB and 3.5mm jacks as a reviewer the keyboard would have taken a hit in pricing.  The Apple support while nice cannot be taken away from the keyboard since it is not advertised to support Mac but it would have been nice but the biggy is the fact that it takes 2 USB ports.

This is an amazing keyboard but the fact that it takes up 2^nd USB port and that even though you have the choice between 16.8 million colors to marvel at, you cannot actually leave the keys lit in a single color.  If you like blue, they cannot all be blue, you have to cycle through all the colors, a bit of an oversight.  The pricing is a bit high but being that it does have the aluminum faceplate and still comes in cheaper than the known name brands makes it a good choice.  I want to give this 5 Stars, but it has to get passed either the 2 USB ports or color, the color one being the easiest to address.

With this, I give the Cougar Attack X3 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard 4 out of 5 Stars  but a recommended buy.