When you’re so late to the peripheral game, what’s a manufacturer to do to get noticed in a sea of competing, well established, products? Well, you take a shotgun and blast your product with every technological buzzword you can get. G.Skill seem to have done exactly that, as the ambidextrous RipJaws MX 780 RGB comes with a mouth watering checklist of features like weight customisation, height adjustable palm rest and different grip sides. Catering to both left and right handers also can’t hurt, especially when there are not too many high end ambidextrous mice. All this at a competitive price of $69.99 at the time of writing makes the MX 780 make you take notice, especially when you compare it to the likes of Logitech G502 or Razer Orobouros.

Ambidextrous Delight

Top shot

The features one gets with this mouse are impressive. For starters it has 8 full customisable buttons; three primary buttons, two side “thumb” buttons on either side of the mouse, as well as a DPI switch above the scroll wheel. As a modern day high end gaming mouse, it uses Omron switches, a polling rate of up to 1000Hz, 512KB of on-board storage while toting an 8200DPI laser sensor. Unsurprising, yet impressive “checklist” at the high end of the rodent roster. Where the MX780 starts to really shine is not on paper, but in looks, feel, and unique features that separate it from the rat-pack.

Underneath

I hope the people who designed and saw to the build quality got a beer, or at least a pat on the back by their overlords. G.Skill’s continuing love affair with aluminium has them using an aluminium frame structure, which is both stunning to look as well as durable. This durability makes its way to the excellent soft-touch coating on the mouse—after using the mouse for more than two weeks, it showed very little evidence of the usual “finger oil stains”, so props to the coating used.

Front

The “edgy” panels and removable side grips on a pseudo-open looking frame add a unique quality to the mouse: a look that lives up to the eccentric aesthetic of their RipJaws RAM range. There is an unmistakeable premium quality that this mouse embodies as it simply does not look or feel like something a first time peripheral maker would produce. It’s good to see G.Skill take its product quality, and customer, seriously from the start.

The Missing Left: True Ambidextrous In Our Lifetime

What makes this ambidextrous mouse special is its catering for both the elite “rightists” as well as the “missing” left-handed gamers. Unlike the ambidextrous and oversized Razer Ouroboros, the MX780 can either be a regular right handed or left handed mouse, thanks to the modular magnetic side grips. It’s a design that works well and does not impact on looks.

IMG_5587

With the side grips easily clipping in, the mouse looks as clean and polished as any other mouse. For those who are worrying about the strength of the magnets, don’t; they are magneto levels of strong.  For a new mouse manufacturer, having such a clean aesthetic preserved while offering both modularity multi-hand support is something to be applauded.

Weight

For any high end mouse today, having things adjustable or customisable is a given—G.Skill give us both, with a little extra. The adjustable palm rest can affect the comfort based on your claw/palm grip profile, although since they added some height adjustability, the MX780 could have added horizontal “back-front” adjustability to fine tune the adjustment. To fatten up the mouse, we’ve got two 4.5g weights that slide into either side. Placing weights on the side of the mouse is a bit unconventional as it may offset the balance, adding weight away from the center. Even so, it is only a total of 9grams, bringing the mouse from slim 111g to 120g, so it’s still relatively lightweight.

IMG_5529

Despite these somewhat minor niggles, the overall comfort of the mouse was relatively pleasant, if not enjoyable once your ring finger adjusts to having buttons underneath it. Height-adjustments, weight customisation and extra side grips offer a level of comfort customisation that not many other mice makers can lay claim to, and even fewer who have done it well. Now, how does it perform?

Mouse Performance: Fire the Laser

The mouse uses the tried and tested Avago 9800 Laser sensor, which is capable of 8200DPI; pretty pointless for most humans. This sensor is also notorious for having a bit of built-in acceleration, which mouse makers usually counter with some tweaking of the MCU and firmware. In this regard G.Skill have done well, and there is not a great deal of acceleration or “enhance pointer precision”. The sensor tracking performed well in my “squiggle” tests, showing very little jitter at high DPIs, no angle snapping and nearly perfect results at low DPI–in games the same performance was noted.

 

Sensor Test

There was one minor flaw in design of the mouse that resulted in a bit of traction when moving the mouse a certain way. It’s a feeling I’ve never experienced in a mouse before, and after a bit of time I figured out that it’s due to the way G.Skill have made their side grips. At the edge of the side grip, there is a little “lip and dip” that causes the mouse to “grab” the mouse mat if you move the mouse slightly raised and drooped to the right(or left of left-handed). It’s not so bad once you realise what’s causing it, but it can be a concern for gamers who simultaneously lift and move their mouse.

Lip

The ambidextrous modularity did make grip suffer ever so slightly. As a right handed gamer, I found that the pinky side’s ambidextrous buttons interfered with my ring finger, often resulting in wayward clicking, rendering them more or less unusable at first. They are disabled by default, but it’s distracting nonetheless. Using a palm grip, the pinky side grip area results in a small, almost non-existent, groove on which to cradle your ring and pinky finger. Together with trying to keep my ring finger off the side buttons, it meant I often pushed my pinky finger down along the mouse mat.

Pushing my buttons[7]

Things are better on thumb side as your thumb can sit nice and snug, although the grip slightly suffers due to the plastic RipJaws logo gap that half your thumb sits in. If you’re moving your mouse and pressing the side buttons, smooth plastic is not the most graspable material.

IMG_5589

Even though the mouse uses Omron switches all round the side buttons were to be a bit too loud and very wobbly—pretty much the only foible I have regarding the build quality of the mouse. The rubber coated scroll wheel scrolls in a well defined manner although it is hard to press which makes it limited in fast paced gaming scenarios. The grooved out wheel is a strange choice for maximising grip, as less surface area to touch meant less grip.

Scroll wheel

Software: Un-Unified Driver.

Much like the RipJaws KM 780, the Unified Driver software support is very basic, sometimes buggy and mostly bare with nothing of note to help it rise above its peers. It has the same issues of not syncing with your other G.Skill devices, even though there are hints of it dotted around the software.

The software still does what its meant to do, which is provide macro options with some predefined mouse functions, different DPI, sensitivity and LOD settings. There are rare moments where features get me smiling: it has space for 5-on-board profiles as well as mutiple lighting customisation zones to fiddle with. In terms of lighting performance and colour accuracy, the results are a mixed bag—red’s seemed far too pink,yellows too green and greens too blue. Colour consistency was also pretty poor along the middle lights.

Colour

As with the RipJaws MK 780, the MX 780 suffers the exact same problem: to even see if your new Lighting profile looks good or if your profile works, you have to “save and exit” the program instance, which becomes time consuming and a chore.

Conclusion: Ambidextrous Done Mostly Right

The RipJaws MX 780 RGB delivered well in almost all aspects regarding aesthetics, comfort, build quality, customisability and generally good gaming performance, with only software being the weakest feature. It’s by no means a perfect amalgamation of features: its weights are positioned awkwardly while some infrequent mouse movements can cause the mouse to “grab” the mouse mat. Its grip and comfort could be better and its side buttons could be quieter and more robust. That being said, its performance and quality feel outweigh its shortcomings.

Last Updated: September 29, 2016

G.Skill RipJaws MX 780 RGB
For the price and promise of a good ambidextrous mouse with good features and good performance, it’s an exemplary first effort from G.Skill. The MX 780 RGB does have a few issues that tarnish the performance and software usability somewhat, but its performance and features far out weigh its shortcomings.
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64 Comments

  1. Ottokie

    September 29, 2016 at 14:12

    Looks good for a mouse that’s competing with the Cyborg R.A.T

    Reply

  2. ??????? ????? ™

    September 29, 2016 at 14:22

    My, what a hairy wheel…

    Reply

    • Ottokie

      September 29, 2016 at 14:24

      I was singing cotton eye joe all the way through

      Reply

      • Raptor Rants

        September 29, 2016 at 14:24

        Am I the only one who looked at his index finger and asked “WTF”?

        Reply

        • Ottokie

          September 29, 2016 at 14:24

          Nope, I wanted to ask if the ripjaws bit him 😛

          Reply

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:25

            Ok, good. I’m not the only one. Phew

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:25

            He looks related to you with that funny thumb…

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:26

            Thumb point is to short to be related to my majestic thumb

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:27

            majestic tiny

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:28

            It’s normal sized

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:28

            For tiny people, yes

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:28

            that’s what she said?

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:28

            Can’t be, there is no “she”

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:29

            ouch

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:29

            “she” is powered by a Corsair 860 PSU mmmmk

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:29

            *twitch*

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:29

            And I know I meant PSU

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:30

            Just wash your hands pls

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:30

            Thank you for the correction. I was about to go all postal

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:30

            He always loses focus when I insult his tiny thumb

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:31

            I just miss the keys OK!

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:31

            CAN’T REACH WITH TINY THUMB?

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:32

            That damn Deadpool scene keeps popping up in my head

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:37

            Remember the unicorn….

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:30

            Bloody disqus not updating edits immediately anymore xD

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:30

            This is not discord…….

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:31

            Discord app is YOLO for me, has no spell correction

        • ??????? ????? ™

          September 29, 2016 at 14:25

          Voting?

          Reply

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:25

            That doth not look like voting ink

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:27

            Looks more like not aiming the hammer

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:27

            “Hou my dop vas, ek kan dit doen!”

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:28

            inderdaad

        • Marco

          September 29, 2016 at 14:51

          I recently changed the brake pads on my car, and got wounded in the process.

          Reply

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:54

            Do explain?

          • Marco

            September 29, 2016 at 14:58

            It’s the reason for that part of my finger looking like it does in the picture XD

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:59

            Yes I know that.

            HOW did you wound yourself is the question

          • Marco

            September 29, 2016 at 15:03

            I was attempting to unscrew a bolt & nut, was a bit too vigorous, torque wrench slipped, hit my finger on the suspension. GG finger.

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:06

            LOL, at least you still have a finger left.

            What car?

          • Marco

            September 29, 2016 at 15:10

            Hyundai i20. I’d recently got a quote from a service center to replace the rear brake pads: R1800.

            Two words: Piss Off.

            Phoned a friend, went and bought a set of brake pads for R450, spent an hour that weekend changing them. Boom

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:11

            Nice, yeah, rather spend that bucks on PC gear

          • Marco

            September 29, 2016 at 15:11

            Or, ya know, bread and beans.

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:12

            Pfffffffffffffffffffffff

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 15:09

          • Marco

            September 29, 2016 at 15:10

            You win today XD

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 15:11

            *takes a bow*

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:11

            *pants Rants while he is distracted*

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 15:13

            HA! RAPTORS DON’T WEAR PANTS!

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:16

            OH MY GLOB DID I PULL YOUR SKIN OFF????

            *strolls away to make schweet raptor-leather chair covers*

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 15:23

            That sounds really bad

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:26

            I can rub my butt up against what used to be your butt?

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 15:27

            Closed for business.,

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:35

            Indeed, since it is on my chair now

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 15:11

            NO DODGEBALL FOR YOU!

  3. Raptor Rants

    September 29, 2016 at 14:23

    That is a smexy mouse it is

    Reply

    • ??????? ????? ™

      September 29, 2016 at 14:24

      Ah, but you liked the RAT mouse, thought you might like this one

      Reply

      • Raptor Rants

        September 29, 2016 at 14:24

        Indeed. Love the look.

        Reply

        • ??????? ????? ™

          September 29, 2016 at 14:26

          Razer for me tx

          Reply

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:26

            R.A.T 4life

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:28

            How long have you had your’s? How is the condition?

          • Raptor Rants

            September 29, 2016 at 14:29

            urrrr… when did I buy it? 2 years? 3 years? Still perfect condition

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:29

            Cute, call me in 9 more years and let’s talk again

          • Ottokie

            September 29, 2016 at 14:32

            You need a new mouse 😛

          • ??????? ????? ™

            September 29, 2016 at 14:38

            Nope, mine still working like a charm

  4. ??????? ????? ™

    September 29, 2016 at 14:23

    DAT 8200 DOE!!!

    😛

    (so funny drawing)

    Reply

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