GAMDIAS Ares Essential Gaming Combo Keyboard & Mouse Review

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

As it stands, with Gamdias, we have only had the opportunity to review one product. That being said, the Zeus eSports Edition mouse was one doozy of a gaming mouse that showed us that Gamdias was and still is serious when it comes to their peripherals. With the Zeus, we found a very well sculpted mouse that without a doubt, was designed to offer gamers the most functionality you can pack cleanly into a single mouse. Above and beyond that, the Hera software suite that comes along with it offered users the full gamut of options for profiles, button reassignment, and Macros. Even a timer system that you can program to remind you to let the dog out, grab the pizza out of the oven, or even set a time length to remind you to get out of the chair and walk around for a bit. That being said, it is hard to knock a company when they come out swinging as strongly as Gamdias has.

Today, things are a bit different, though, as we are not just looking at one peripheral. Gamdias has sent over one of the many combo kits of peripherals that they offer, and we are covering both a mouse and a keyboard with this. The kit is designed with gamers in mind, no doubt about that, and is offering a rubber dome keyboard with tons of features and extra keys to give gamers every chance of using the layout to their utmost advantage when it comes to what can be done with the left hand. Addressing what goes under the right hand, in this kit also comes an optical sensor based mouse. Both also use the Hera software, and as you will see later in the review, this takes the ceiling of what can be done out of the box with their peripherals, and totally blows it away.

The ARES Essential Gaming Combo Kit ships with the Ares Gaming keyboard as well as the Ourea Optical Gaming Mouse. This gives gamers all the tools needed to get to gaming right in one package. This isn't just a standard rubber dome keyboard, though, it is a bit larger than the usual suspects, offers nine extra keys, and with the software installed, and it can do more than what we would have initially expected from it. On the flip side of this kit, the Ourea mouse is ambidextrous in design, so that not only do right-hand dominant gamers feel comfortable but with all of the same offerings, left-handed gamers can also get the same advantages as anyone else. There is a lot to cover with this pair of peripherals, so buckle in for the ride that is the Ares Essential Gaming Combo from Gamdias.

The Ares Essential keyboard half of this kit is what starts the chart out for us. We find there that the Ares is 477mm wide, it is 185mm deep, and is only 29.5mm thick. It offers three colors of backlighting with four levels of brightness and even has 19-key rollover support. There are eleven multimedia keys, and Gamdias states that these rubber dome switches offer a ten million click lifecycle. You can swap the arrow and WASD keys, there is a consecutive attack mode, you can record Macros on-the-fly, it offers a Windows lockout key, and offers an All-keys lock as well. It states that we should have two meters of braided cable, but neither cable has braid on it. It uses the Hera software, plugs in via USB, and also goes by the call sign of GKC6000 if you have issues looking it up by the Ares Essential naming.

The Ourea Optical mouse is based on an advanced gaming optical sensor to track your movements. The mouse is 129mm long, 66mm wide, and stands 40mm from the desk at its highest point. The Ourea offers six buttons and offers adjustable DPI up to 2500 DPI as its maximum. There is an adjustable polling rate, it offers 64KB of onboard memory, and even sports a five weight weighting system to customize its feel. The Ourea also shows a ten million click lifecycle for the switches, and the two meters of cable ends in a gold plated USB 2.0 connection. This too is also customizable via the Hera software, and can also be found using the GMS5500 product naming.

Shopping for this combo kit shows a wide availability at this time. We also like that pricing is not all over the place depending on where you shop for it. What did give us a bit of sticker shock, was not that this kit is way overpriced, but rather the opposite. Over at Newegg, we found that the Ares Essential gaming combo is only going to set you back $29.99 for what you are about to see in this review, and Amazon is asking five dollars less, with their pricing set at $24.99 and free shipping. For such a minor investment into gaming peripherals, regardless of switch type or the sensor in the mouse, anyone would agree that this is a steal of a deal and hard not to be able to justify it, even if just to try it out for a little while or keep it around as a spare.

Chad's Peripherals Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS X99-E WS - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• CPU: Intel Core i7 5930K - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Memory: KLevv Cras DDR4 3000 - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Video Card: ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Matrix Platinum - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Storage: Intel 730 480GB - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Case: SilverStone TJ11 - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional 64-bit - Buy from Amazon