NZXT PODCAST - #120 - Andy Johnston (Keyboards, Mice, Mousepads)

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

This week, we're joined by our Associate PR Manager, Andy Johnston! We talk about our newly launched keyboards, mice, and mousepads! Also, CLEAN YOUR MOUSEPADS. PLEASE. WE'RE BEGGING. Follow Andy at twitter.com/MrSlyGuyInDaSky Tune in live every Thursday at 10AM PT on twitch.tv/NZXT and send your questions to: [e-mail]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 120 of the NXT podcast, the official podcast of the NXT community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NXT Twitch and is available on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. My name is Mike and with me as always is Ivan. How are you doing, Ivan? Hey, Mike. Welcome to our first podcast together. my friend how are you I'm doing pretty good uh still coming down on a little bit of a sickness but you know we're good we're back sorry for to delay everyone I was gone

to vacation for a little bit so the podcast is delayed I swear this podcast is cursed we've tried to do it I think three times uh since Mike started working with me and uh each time something happened but promise we are back and we are here to stay we're not going anywhere until uh someone sues us for using copyrighted music that we shouldn't be using. But anyway, today's special guest is none other than the world famous Mr. Sly Guy in the sky, Andy Johnston. And he's here today because we're going to talk about our new NZXT peripherals and Andy is the guy that knows all about him.

So we're going to quiz him and make sure he knows this stuff here. So welcome to the show, Andy, for like the fifth time, man. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Always happy to talk keyboard because I'm a keyboard dude. Yes, but before we talk keyboard, can you please quickly introduce yourself, let everyone know what it is you do here at NZXT? Well, for those who don't know me, my name is Andy.

I'm the associate PR manager and I deal with all the media and strategy when we launch these magnificent products. Yes, and which products did we launch, Andy? Tell us. Well, Ivan, we launched a whole set of keyboards and a mouse. For those listening to the audio, I'm showing it off. But yeah. We also launch more stuff, Andy. Oh, in the customization service as well.

Yes. And I was going to get to that. Is there more? Yeah, it's mouse pads. Oh, yeah, the mouse pads and mouse pads. And a cable? But that's part of the customization service, I would say. Are you sure you reckon PR, Andy?

Did you know? You know, there's so much to this launch that I just got the main highlights, you know? Just the stuff that people care about is the keyboard. Tell us more about it. Tell us more about this. beautiful keyboard. I will be honored to. So we launched three different sizes of keyboards.

First, a full size, 10 keyless, and this is somewhat unique to us, is called the Mini TKL. It's basically all the functionality of a 10 keyless, shmushed, that is a word, into the smallest form factor possible. So, like, I have 65% board,

60% boards and you lose the function key functionality and some other things. So this, you get nearly the size, but with all the function, got to throw in the name there. One thing that's unique about this board, it allows for customization. So each switch is hot swappable, which means you can, I'll show you, all lovely people, you can pop out and put in your own switch. So if you want a different feel, because switches give how the, basically how the keyboard feels.

There's linear, tactile, and clicky. So it's how they sound, how they feel like if they have like a bump or a click. You know, you can do whatever you want with it. You can, you know, buy the board at Best Buy. And if you don't like the included switches, go on a website and find some high-end switches. Loob them if you want,

which I recommend doing. Because it totally changes the game. Then you just place them in here. Also another question. You said it was called the function. Why do you call it the function keyboard? It was a name, I think, because it has to do with the function key. Oh, interesting story, Andy.

I wasn't a part of those meetings. Yeah. But it's just keyboard function. It's functional function. The function button. We should have called it Cotarral. That's already taken. Oh, it is taken?

Yes. We should still use it anyway. Or we should have called it a print screen. Or a home. Because when you, it's something you build, you build the home. Home is where the heart is. And my heart is with this keyboard. Speaking of keyboards,

when we first, one of our first ever, not like our keyboards, but when we did a actual like crossover was the nz-xie duckie shine three have you ever used one of those i think i seen the box for it just lying around the office but i don't think i've actually used the ducky shine and there was another mouse i believe was called the avatar yeah oh yeah that was that was one of the old old ones i have the the shine the ducky ducky shine three right here on my desk it's really dirty but that's it right there.

It's actually number one out of 150. That's the first one. Yeah, it's numbered. That's pretty cool. And I have number two out of 150 at home in white. Look at you. Just getting all the limited edition keyboards. I know.

You know, what's funny is like I never, I never like asked for the keyboards or try to get the keyboards. Like literally my first day at NZXT, when they had me build my PC, they're like, oh, you a keyboard here take these oh cool thanks like we make these well a couple months later i was like looking at the back of them and uh i realized here i'll show you i don't know if you can see this on camera it just looks oh uh i don't think you guys can see it but uh it just yeah it says uh it says n zxte ducky number one out of 150 and I was like oh cool I guess I got a limited edition keyboard

I've been using it for a really long time I love the keyboard How long I've been using for? Like seven years Sheesh Or more You're old man I know I am old

How long you've been at NCXT for Seven years Oh wow okay Yeah I've seen some stuff man I've seen some stuff You have you've seen how we've grown This past seven years

especially this past since I've been here, three and a half. Yeah, but that's a different podcast episode. Let's take to the script. Yes, sir. There's more to the keyboard. There's more to the keyboard. But before we get into that, because I do want to, I do want to answer questions from people on that.

But I also want you to tell us more about the mouse. Yes, the Lyft mouse. It is an Ambedestricht's mouse. relatively lightweight. It's 67 grams. One thing it's cool about it is coming soon, you can get accent colors that fit your accent keyboard or accent keys on your keyboard

so you can just tie your setup oh so evermore. And do you know why we called it lift, Andy? Because you lift your mouse. I've never lifted my mouse once in my life. No, I'm kidding. Yeah. You just use mind control. Yeah.

What's another name we could have given the mouse that's like a mousy word. Do I actually have a name? I always wish we would have come up, made a mouse and called it rat. The NZXT rat. The rat. I don't know that's a very good marketable thing. I think it would be funny. I think people would want an NZXT rat mouse.

I dig the rat. imagine a rat pad that sounds like like just a house filled with rats yeah I don't know the questionable marketing on that maybe a little

a little off yes a rat that's a good idea yeah I'll pitch it to the product team that's why you send the tweets yeah if we ever make RAM I think we should call it goat

or sheep or sheep I guess that'd be good too because that's more or something related to that. The Ewe? Isn't that a baby sheep? Yes.

I don't know. Yes. Yes, it is. We got great product names. You brought up the avatar earlier. Have you ever seen or used that mouse? Maybe. There's so much stuff in the product room.

Yeah. It's like, you know, in Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. when the Ark of the Covenant is put in the warehouse. That's essentially like our marketing room because there's just, you know, priceless treasures abound. Yeah. And you'll just like, what the heck is this?

Like, and just old systems from way back when in old cases. There is a lot of old stuff in there. I don't know. Like, we definitely have to do something with it because there's not a lot of room. And it's not a lot of stuff. It's mostly your stuff, Andy, that takes up all the room, honestly. It's like... I have a lot of stuff, but not a lot of space.

Boxes of PR samples. Yeah. It's actually part of the reason why I wanted to make this little room I'm in right now. This was actually a broom closet. And I'm not joking. It was a broom closet that was right in front of the marketing room where we used to keep like rooms and mops and clean supplies and things like that. And then I just asked them,

Hey, do you mind if I make that little podcast studio? Because we had my room in that marketing room to do that to set up a little podcast studio. And I remember. We had couches in there and like a cooler from Red Bull, I think. I kind of hate it though because there's no circulation in here. It's like super hot. Do you have a little fan down there? I did have a fan.

I just didn't turn it on today. But yeah, it's pretty hot in here. It's toast. You don't want that buzz in. on the podcast. You need to get an actual like circulating fan or just some sort of ventilation

that actually draws some sort of air out of there. My recommendation is a Vornado fan. It's called the Vornado. And it has cyclone circulation. So it feels like it's oscillating.

That's actually the fan I have in here. Well then there you go. That's all you need. Yeah. I just remember a very specific memory of going to bedbath and beyond and buying that van. Is that the one without the actual turbine things? No, that's the Dyson. I actually have the Dyson Air Pierfire.

I bought it because, you know, thought I would need it. Turns out he didn't really need it. Do you use it at all or no? Sometimes. Also, to get back onto topic about it. Since we now just launched the keyboard and the mice, what do you think about the actual keyboard and mice community? Like, you know, how they actually have some sort of sound and voice to them? Well, I'm somewhat a part of that community because I have built custom keyboards.

It's a very passionate community. It's not as big as building, like PC building, but it kind of feels has the same vibe. like kind of within the same niche, I would say. They're very passionate about this, about keyboards and like, people who customize keyboards go to great lengths in order to get that perfect sound. And that's like, I think,

what building keyboards is all about. Finding something you like that fits your aesthetic, that fix, you know, your sound preferences. And then, you know, just, building off that and then going from there. What's the most amount you spent on like building a keyboard and stuff? I didn't know this was a trial on my spending habits. You shouldn't be buying keyboards when you're trying to buy a house.

That's the reason why you don't qualify for a loan. Yeah, like some of these key caps you just look at it and you're just like, oh my God. A lot. I'll just say that. A lot. Got it. A lot.

Like more than $500 on one keyboard? Maybe. A lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. You're right about the keyboarded mouse community being very passionate. And I also think it's been growing really fast in recent years. Like the last couple of years, it's really been exploding because, like, I brought up a Ducky

shine three, you know, like I remember when when this keyboard was first like new, like there wasn't that many options really like to, you know, with switches and different like accessories

and colors and things like that. And now you can literally customize a keyboard like any little aspect of it whatsoever that you want to change you can and I think there's definitely more people now that are interested in that. That's kind of the reason why I like the function keyboard is, so I feel like we do make it easier for people to get into that sort of stuff without having, like you said, to spend $500 or whatever to do.

So yeah, I'm excited to see what people do with them. No, yeah, no for sure. Like one thing, I'll bring up a couple points about like the, like it has exploded in for better for worse. But, you know, in the past years and especially with COVID, because, you know, people. people you're using their keyboards all the time. So might as well spend money on making it something you enjoy to use. And like content creators like random Frank P, Teja types,

Brandon Taylor, bad C tech. I felt like kind of have made the hobby more popular. And that comes with both good and bad things. good did you know that did you know that everyone that has a computer also has a keyboard

what no really yeah and a mouse yes of course Mike actually uses a controller with his PC well not necessarily everything

because steam decks are PCs and they don't and there's different and different input devices as well like I'm sure there's some accessibility thing. Yeah, there is accessibility devices for computers that are not keyboards or mice. And technically, the phone is a computer, right?

So I, this is going to be very off topic and very random. But one of my dreams in life was to learn Morris Code. And that was one of your dreams. It was one of my dreams. And I kind of did learn Morse code through this thing that Google has. It's like a Morse code trainer. And they're showing like why they were having it. And it was an accessibility thing because people who don't have certain motor skills with their hands can't type.

So they have these input devices based on Morse code. So they can start typing, which is I find intriguing and awesome. Do you know any Morse code? dash dot dash that dash dot dash dot dash dash dash what'd you call me um i'm i'm a bit rusty on my morris code it's it's honestly writing it is easy but listening to it because it's it goes really fast it's just like and it's hard to discern words and there's also i tried getting my friends in on it but no one cared and rightly so i feel like you would never at a million years need to you know how to use

Morse code. But if we stranded on an island and we need to do like smoke signals and stuff, I'm your guy. Okay. Going back to the keyboard or mouse community question, Andy, follow up question.

Why do you think keyboard and mouse people are so picky? Because they're a little picky, right? Picky, and I mean picky in a good way, not picky like it's a negative way I think

I have this conversation with my friend and I think it's an enthusiast thing it's because they're very highly educated about what they love and you can control every aspect of your typing experience so again like with keyboards

you can literally control the case the lights the key caps you can like I have a friend he likes flipping space bars like it's just a more comfortable typing experience for him like the stabilizers you loove them you move every switches you film at your switches you you know buy these elaborate key cap sets from GMK and wait like three years in order to get them and pay a lot of money up front um i think uh

rainfall wall here in the chat says it best where it's the main interface of how you use your computer. So I guess it does make, when you think about it like that, you know, it does make a lot of sense why you'd want to be picky because you use your keyboard and mouse more than anything. I guess besides the monitor because you're staring at it. But in terms of like controlling the PC, it's all your keyboard and mouse. So if you're going to spend a lot of money into it and spend a lot of time on your PC, you probably earned the right to be a little picky. Yeah, I think it's like a like a car. You know, you also have to think like people that like deck out their car. and customize it on that point, you know,

they know everything inside and out of their car, and they pretty much, you know, it's their baby. So, you know, if you put your time and effort and money into it, you know, you want to get the best experience out of it. So I don't think picky is definitely right. Like, but it's more like they kind of like what Andy said. They know what they want. Exactly.

If you find what you want and you like what you want, it's, I guess I'm probably going to misquote this, but the general vibe is still there is that, is that life's too short to have bad experiences. And if something that you care about and you want something that you, it's like sitting on a chair. Like you could sit on like the worst chair in the world. But, you know, most people be fine.

But if, you know, if you want to, I know, I know we don't like using this word, level up your experience. Like, you know, you'll get a nice chair. And it's the same thing with type. I want the best sitting experience possible you need a chair that looks like a race car seat right exactly exactly and that costs $500 I like mine look see I have a knockoff IKEA vibe I have the same chair at my house it's really comfortable I yeah it's it's it's I mean I've enjoyed it it's basically the thing I sit the most. Speaking of cars, Mike, can we just briefly

bring up the fact that you have the world's smallest car? Puppy. Oh, yeah. He does not want to be here. Yeah, I have a Honda CRZ, which is, I mean, gosh, back then. Is this smaller than my fit? I think so.

Oh, yeah, it's definitely smaller than your fit. I think it's one of the smallest Honda's out there. Because back then, I was like, when I was in high school, I was like, okay, I could get a, like, we knew this guy at the Honda dealership, so I could get some pretty decent stuff out of it. And I was just like, oh, okay, so I could do like a civic CRV, you know, standard, standard Honda. But in my head, I'm like, no, I don't want to drive people. I don't want to be that guy because I'm getting my car first. I'm going to do that.

But like two years later, I go, why did I do that? Now, I only have a two-seater. So, like, literally- It's like a one-seater, man. Things tiny. It's so tiny. It's great gas mileage. It's fantastic.

It's great driving. But, you know, I drive a lot of people. And half the time, I'll be like, sorry, guys, I can't. I would drive you, but I can't. I've driven a lot of people's cars before, though. I've driven a lot of friends' cars. But, like, God, I don't know what got into me. I don't know what got into me.

A couple of weeks ago when you came to the office, like, I told him, like, A man, Like now that you're officially on the social media team, I got to make sure that you have, you know, a nice, nice little setup over there with, you know, your mic and you need a better case. You need, like, a green screen. You need to get, like, the whole chaband going.

Come over to the office so I can help you load it up in your car. I mean, he shows up in this little one-seater. Like, the entire car was, like, packed, like, from front to bed. back top to bottom like i don't even know how you drove home dude like there was enough room for you to just sit there and like move the steering wheel i guess with your thumbs or something well in my defense i thought i was picking up like one or two things you know i was as expecting like i was just picking up a mic um some sound equipment maybe like some lighting equipment at most uh and then i just goes all right here just take all this stuff like right like i have i didn't know i was going to have one but i have

the elgato key light so now i have like this thing that literally like it flashbang me if i really need to um just like a bunch of stuff the key light's great i have key light is very good without it like i i didn't realize like as someone to this photography i didn't realize but like how dark i am right now just because the background is so but then when i have this on you can actually see my face and I'm like, wow, that's kind of crazy. It's like something so minuscule that you would perceive. It makes such a huge difference. But I think I might have said this on the podcast once,

but I don't believe that you need a big car for the most part. I have my Honda fit. I can routinely fit large Costco runs. Granted, yes, with two people. for but I also fit a queen-sized mattress in my car I don't know how you fit a queen in the Honda fit what I don't know how I did it

I did it I did it I did it and my friend can attest he was moving and we just you know shoved this whole mattress in my car I was the only one that could drive granted and these cars is a different story though because your car always has

like the most random things inside of it. You know, like you'll have like one, one glove. One glove. You have like one glove or you'll have like a piece of leather from a baseball mitt or something. It's just like the most random things in there. I mean, I am a pack rat of some sorts.

So when you travel as much as I do, you're down to to find some peculiar things. I think you're right though. Like a small car, especially here and basically L.A., you're going to need it. Especially, like, after going on East Coast for a little bit, going to, like, abroad and having, like, actual public transportation versus here where you're driving airwear, you're just going to need something. Like, especially here, having a gas cusser is going to be the worst thing. Well, I used to, I, the car I had previously was a hand-me-down truck. and then when I would go to school,

because I went to a commuter school at Cal State Fullerton, Go Titans, we reach higher, I think is their slogan. Anyways, the parking lot was just always so crowded. And like with my fit, I can easily park into like compact spaces and have a ton of room.

But this giant Toyota Tundra, like the first time I like drove it in, I like almost hit a car because it's like, you know, so compact. And there's like literally the only space out of like the 50,000 spaces at CSUF. It's just like, oh, man. I can relate.

I'm an alum. Yeah, I've spent days in that parking structure. Just getting to school early. Just like waiting. Nowadays, though, I guess it does make sense to have a small car with gas prices so high. my dream car is basically a I know they they do exist is basically a Honda fit

but electric there is an electric fit but Honda doesn't really care about it I think is they just made it to make it there was a funny tweet that IST the rapper made today he stole the tweet

but you know his is the one that's going viral I saw this posted yesterday on Twitter he said I was robbed at a gas station in New Jersey last night. After my hand stopped trembling, I managed to call the cops, and they were quick to respond and called me down.

My money is gone. The police asked me if I knew who did it. I said, yes, it was pump number nine. Oh, that's pretty funny. Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, that was pretty good. Oh, wasn't, you know, it's fuel efficient, and since I work remotely,

I'm very fortunate to have a fuel-efficient car. and I don't have to drive as much. So I looked out there, but yeah. Small cars for the win, at least for L.A. Enough car talk, Mike. What else do you want to ask, Andy? Let's move on to the next part. So tell us about the actual configurator for the keyboard.

Tell us a little about it. Oh, and there's a couple of features that we kind of glossed over on the basic boards. you don't mind, then if we can sit. Okay, cool. So also within our keyboard, it has standardized bottom row for the keycaps, which means if you were to buy a fancy GMM or GMK set and wait years for, you could put them on the board and any other keycaps set you find. So we wouldn't have compatibility issues with keyboard. So that just furthers your, the customization prowess of the board. a detachable USBC cable so you can buy a fancy coiled cable or straight cable. And then I'll further tie your setup together.

But back to the configurator, one thing that's cool that we're allowing to do for people to do is by using our build or NZXC build, we can allow for people to customize their board even further and have someone else do the work because doing keyboard stuff is very tedious and some people don't want to spend the time building their board so that's why we're doing that. And through this configurator we have multiple options for switches. They're all Gator on switches, I believe.

For the non-premium switch, it's red, brown, and blue. Then for the premium switches, We have the silent egs, and I always say this wrong, the silent Elias. Yeah. Elias, yeah. So with all those options with the non-premium switches, they're linear, tactile, and clicky. Then for the silent ones, it's silent linear, silent tactile. But you would never want silent because we all know, the louder the keyboard, the more FPS you get.

so you got to get the loud keys. You got to click clack. I'm actually a silent a silent blacks on mine because like I don't know why like I like the feel of the silence lot but like whenever I have like friends over

or like whenever like my parents are near or something like that all they hear for hours on it just clicking I had blues for a while they hated it because they walk by my room and all the hear for like hours.

Blues are like typewriters. Yeah. They feel so good though. I think I have one of the most clickiest, which is the box jades, I believe. And I have one right here. It's pretty,

it's pretty quickly. Ooh. That's nice. But having a whole keyboard full of them. That's it. That actually made my ears tickle. I'm starting my A, SMR stream very shortly.

Going along with a little bit of configurators, tell us a little bit about the cable in the mouse pad. Oh yeah. So in addition, you're able to custom, like, add custom cables along with custom

accent keys. So again, to add a little splash of color to your setup. Then we have three different sizes of mouse pads with three different colors as well. white, black, and gray, which gray is kind of a new to NZXT color way.

I dare anyone to get a white mouse pad. That just sounds like a bad time. Sounds awful, man. Oh, my God. Get it if you must, but you know, all the dirt and grime. Your hands

over time will just get it so disgusting. Yeah. Like, I have my Mac keyboard. It gets super dirty. Like, anything white is going to get stained eventually. That you touch all the time. Yeah, Thunder Gun says it correctly.

Even black mouse pads still get dirty. So, yes, clean your mouse pads, please. That's the ability to hide it. That's the thing. Its ability to hide it. It's funny. The last time Mike came to the office, he saw my mouse pads. I had like this giant like nzdxte purple mouse pad and he he literally said hey man you got to clean that mouse pad and I looked at it and I was like I'm not gonna waste my time cleaning it just throw it in the trash

it's so disgusting man literally if I'm gonna I'm gonna gross a lot of people out right now but if you you need to clean your mouse pad if you can if you scratch the top of your mouse pad and you see like a like a street you need to clean your mouse pad well I feel attacked right yes it just if you can see like a streak that means one there's a lot of dust but not dust but also like skin um and just other grime got to clean the mouse fads also it's actually better for gaming because um if you have like a set where you're like a lot of grime and stuff it can actually like slow your aim and stuff so clean your mouse pads please it's one of my biggest things I just wrote my name on my mouse pad. Is that normal? Oh, God.

Please, clean the mouse pad, man. Please, I beg you. Enough, enough nasty talk, Mike. We have a brand new segment on the podcast, Andy, and you're going to be our guinea pig here. Yay. Yeah. So we're introducing a rapid fire question segment here

that is tailored to, our guest. So the questions are things that only you would, you know, know how to answer quickly. So Mike's going to read them off and you're going to have to answer them as fast as

possible without thinking too much. That's my M.O. Shoot from a hip baby. You ready? All right. First question. What's your favorite NZXT product? Why? Crackenzie. The gift. Oh, makes sense. What products should N6T make

one day and why? GPUs so I can get one easy. That's good one. Who's the best up-and-coming tech tuber and why? I don't know. There's so many. Ben, can I make a suggestion? Yeah.

It's the one that you told us to retweet yesterday. Oh, Top Tech Geek. Mnir. Manir, right? That's his idea. Munir Mohammed. It's awesome. I've been seeing him on

TikTok and Twitter and yeah like he's he's a very charismatic kid he's going places yeah no he does great content I'd love supporting him thank you for like I talk to so many people that I've

kind of forget sometimes but no yeah Mooneer is awesome I love working with him he he has a future and um so young too how old is he 15 he's been doing this for years too like like that's that's a crazy thing and the thing that my favorite types of people like

content creators is you could see a joy in what he does like he's happy he's happy to do he puts a smile on my face yeah like he he's excited to be here in the best possible way not like I'm here so I won't get fined kind of way. Like he, you know, he's passionate about tech. He does a great job presenting. We,

we can talk more about him when you secure him as a guest in the podcast. This gets back to the rapid fire questions. All right. Next question. What's the greatest video game of all time and why? Oh, shit. Um, this isn't the greatest one,

but it's the greatest to me. I love Metal Gear Solid For. That's a good one. That's a good choice. And why? What's the greatest? I love Metal Gear. Metal Gear is such a ridiculous game. The box.

Like it, it, it was a game that I had a lot of fun with. It was like during the summer when I was in high school. Like, my whole family was away on a trip or something. And I got the game at midnight at GameStop, just installed it, and it just literally nonstop played it. and then I went to my cousin's graduation, like literally after I beat the game. And I was like, oh, I have to go to Huntington Beach now. And, you know, it's like one of the,

one of the first games I just marathoned and beat it just, you know, right then and there. And then going along with that, what's the greatest video game console of all time? for me it's probably the n64 because it was my first and has a lot of great games on it it's you know ocarina diamond jura's mask super mario's 64 banjocazui um a lot of those games haven't aged well for to be honest but at least some of like majoras mask ocarina i felt have super mario 64 has um Mario party Mario party is always a stupid fun time it's the most

ridiculous game and there's so much luck involved but and it's just a lot of random swings in people's favor um like yes it's a lot of BS but I that's I live for the BS I live for the when you're in fourth place then steal someone's star at the last possible second or the stupid bonus stars like um you know like oh the candy star and you're like what the shopping star the happening star it's like it's it's chaotic it it's fun the mini games are fun but yeah next question mustaches or goatees and why mustache do you want to care elaborate um mustaches that like they're cool like you know it makes you look I thought you're going to say it because you can't grow a goatee.

I was thinking about that, but I wanted to give a more non-bitter answer. Yeah, I can't say anything. I can't grow facial hair at all, so, you know. I've actually thought about shaving the stash, but... You should auction it off, man. Or do it do it for like a fundraiser. If something raises, you know, $1,000, I will shave it on the NXT podcast. You.

Live for all you beautiful people out there. Keep that in mind. Next question. Speed or string. And why? Strength. Because I like lifting. Anime or manga?

And why? Anime, because I don't read manga. Do you read? Barely. Subtitles or dub titles. Subs. I'm at, yeah, like, the,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I understand people who like dubs and I don't, you know, begrudge you, but I like seeing the something that the original language is in, regardless of it's anime or, you know, a live action thing. Like parasite. Yeah, like, like parasite. To, like, you can, like, it, like, it kind of just melts away once you're reading. And, like, it kind of, you know, it's just, I don't know, like, it's not that big of a deal to me. Dogs are cats and why?

Dogs. Dogs are very sweet and loving. What your dogs name to get? Daisy, after Princess Daisy. When we were getting her, she's a pandemic pup. And when we were getting her, I was talking about names with my, sister and I wanted to name her Pete after Princess Peach and she's like, no. And I'm like, all right, go to the next princess. And you're like, Bazette. And she said, no, like,

Bobzette, no. I'm like, Rosalina, no. And then I'm like, I guess Daisy. And she's like, okay. Going along with that, would your dog, Daisy or Amanda's dog Bandit went in a fight? Oh, Daisy's a A wuss Like Daisy's all bark no bite Like when she see other dogs She just runs

I mean granted She hasn't been socialized Really because of COVID So you know She hasn't had exposure to other dogs So Well since she was born essentially But

O Daisy would lose She would just like Run up the stairs and bark And if you could be any animal, what would it be and why? A falcon. Why a falcon? Because they're fast and you can fly and you have great eyesight. That contradicts your speed or strength answer.

I'm a nuanced man, Ivan. Okay. And I think you'll really enjoy this last one. Why is baseball the best sport? It just is. If you want a simple answer, it just is. I can opine and pontificate all you want, but it just is. Excited for the new season. Of course. We're going to go to a game this year, Andy?

Or games? I mean, I've been only bugging in the chat since the lockout ended. Yeah. I literally, like today, like I wanted to join, I wanted to do fantasy baseball this year. and I've always wanted to do like a dynasty league because like I don't know it just adds more depth to it you're talking to the reigning NZXT fantasy baseball champion I know and you did you did very well

I won the only year we ever did it and that I like people think fantasy baseball is really hard it's hard as you make it like the way I normally have done it's just a weekly thing and how many weeks are in the football season 23? 17 if you don't come to playoffs I mean it's just like a month longer essentially if you do it weekly

The difference though is that In football there's 17 regular season games And in baseball there's 162 regular season games True but the weekly The weekliness of it though It's true Somewhat negated that you just set

how long is baseball season from April to October or November depending yeah it's baseball's life man I really wanted to go to spring training because

but the lockout kind of ruined the plans because it's like all right when's spring going to start no one knows so you have to book the hotel and just you know get time off and kind of

plan around it? Yeah, I don't want to turn it into a baseball podcast, but it always ends up. For me, baseball, honestly, like, I'm not, when I said it's a way of life, like, I really, I really do think baseball is like a huge part of my life, personally, because during baseball season, it's like, as soon as I wake up, I check the scores, watch the highlights, you know, keep up with the news and stuff. Anytime it was a baseball game on, if I'm not watching it, I have to put,

on the radio and listen to the Dodgers. Baseball is very good radio sport. Like the action is very measured. It's not constant. You can easily commentate it and not miss a lot. I can't imagine a summer without me, you know, barbecuing, listening to the Dodger game and like just, you know, chilling outdoors, you know, in my shorts or whatever.

Like, it's a huge part of my life, so. Love baseball. Do you have that bat? I have something similar. I use baseball theater. I support indie devs, Andy. You support indie devs and not a corporation. So, but it's this, it's actually the guy that developed it,

he works at Bungie, believe it or not. He developed his app where he, he basically pulls every single team's schedule and highlights and you can even like watch streams on there it's really cool I like it a lot and it's like $5 a month or something I think I have MLB.tv still it's on like auto renew I like had a student discount years ago and I think it still continued I'm not entirely sure but I

I don't have it because I hate their blackout restrictions. That's the worst thing about it. Like, I don't, it, to me, it's dumb because it might shift cable views, but like, that's not where the people are, man. MLB has never heard of, of a VPN. Some to actually, like, they crack down on it on certain VPNs. MLB has never heard of, Mike, get ready to get ready to, get ready to, bleep this because I'm going to say a URL

the stream stream east livee I didn't say wow yeah but you can literally watch any sport there so they say I don't I won't take your advice

then because I'm a good paying customer at mopee dot TV I don't know anything about baseball so I'm a hot yeah get ready to learn boy. There are other rules.

Oh man, I don't know. Like I, I don't know. Baseball is just one of those things where I just, I think you either had to start like watching when you're young and you like it. I don't think a lot of people can pick it up as easy as like basketball or soccer or something like that. I like games with turnovers where it's like, oh, someone gets something. Oh, but, you know, they have the puck now.

They have the ball now. Let's go. I'm very like, I want. like quick action you know even if football is a little could be a little bit boring half the time because like there'll be like two minutes can last half an hour because a timeouts and running out the clock and stuff like that yeah that's the first part about basketball it's like the last five minutes of a game is like half an hour like hockey and soccer or football technically because they just it's so quick times go by really quickly very few times it'll stop the clock either

of a penalty or like something actually happened most of the time it's just all the clock's always going versus like baseball football it just takes so long well also it depends on what you define as action in baseball because people not all people but people generally favor hitting and for me pitching is my favorite part of baseball like it's such a chess match between you know hitter it's hitter and pitcher is essentially the hitters have certain strengths and the job of the pitcher is to exploit those, you know, their weaknesses essentially.

And, you know, it's basically mono e mono. It's like, you know, I'm going to throw you my best stuff and you hit it. Or like, I know you can't hit the curveball, so I'm just going to throw you curve balls. If only pitcher wins mattered, Andy. If only, tis, tis. If only.

All right, it's time to do some community questions here. I have a handful. God, it's almost 11. Geez. Yeah. But if anyone has any more questions, they want to ask Andy, or us too, but mostly Andy, he's our special guest of honor here.

Feel free to drop up in the chat, and I'll throw him his way. So first question, Andy. from Shadiest Star are the mouse and keyboard wireless? No, they're wired. You know how many times people have asked that on social media? It's driving me crazy.

I'm having nightmare. It's the new, can I get a free PC? Or white Cracken or airflow. I hope we make him wireless eventually. I think just one thing about this, this is our first. step into a category.

You know, we essentially, this is our opening salvo. We have to just kind of stake our position, then iterate from there. These things take time. I, you know, if it, if it, if it happens, it happens. But, you know, we built the foundation, then we'll go from there, essentially. it's just a start it's just the start next question this isn't going to be our only keyboard

like we're going to iterate and go on and on and on you just leak leak the product Andy no it's obvious like it's not leaking anything we're committed to this category um know some asks what happens to the RGB LEDs on the keyboard

if you replace the switches nothing it won't it won't change the thing yeah that's actually another common question we get about the keyboard on social media is like people like the the hardcore keyboard uh warriors out there they want to know which direction the LEDs are facing i think it's north it's north yeah but they ask because of their keycaps so they know yeah keycaps look um the lights wow they didn't realize that i think north or south matter I don't have a switch for it on me

But What does it say? The LED is like on top of the sock or it's like there's the socket and there's a little bump for the light Then you just kind of insert the switch in there. So it doesn't it doesn't affect it whatsoever unless you mess with it. Next question is from Zainawa. Another common question we get on social. But I'll throw it to you, Andy.

I want to hear your answer. What's the best gaming PC you can get for $2,000? I don't have PC part picker in my brain right now. The correct answer is... Whatever pre-build we sell at $2,000. Oh, what's the streaming. If you're just using the computer for... If you're just using the computer for playing Among Us,

you probably don't need a $2,000 computer. But if you, you know, if you want to stream or if you want to, you know, record a podcast or if you want to, you know, do some graphic design and things like that, it's going to dictate the hardware you get and where the money goes, right? So the answer is it depends on what you need. But if you do go to nzzyxc.com, you can, our computer started at, 899 or 799 or 700? I can look it up.

I forget it with the fund. I think the foundation. 799. Yeah, 799. 799. And then from there we go out to $4,000, I think, is the most expensive one we currently have. Or infinite, essentially, because... Or infinite, I guess.

Like, you can build something that's super overkill. I want 43080s in my computer. That's it? Not the 3090s? 3080s. So you have a limit. Mokubu asked, how does Andy feel about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie with Oscar Isaac?

I don't know, man. Like keyboards. Video game movies or whatever. I mean, it's hard when, like, I think the Uncharted movie, and the Mario movie to some degree is going to suffer. When you have such an iconic voice actor tied to a character such as David Hater,

we're not going to talk about Kiefer Sutherland. Andy's actually a horrible person to ask about movies, to be honest. I don't... I'll tell you why. Well, can I... Let me finish the... Let me finish. I don't know.

Exactly. That's probably the reason why he's a horrible person to ask about movies. But the other reason is because this is something I recently discovered because here on the comms team, the communications team, which is PR, social, and community. We recently started a bi-weekly movie hangout. And we just started it was like a month ago. And we're right now going through the Indiana Jones movies.

Quite trilogy. Yeah, we got talking about movies. And I suggested we watch some baseball movies, because baseball season's starting, and Andy goes, you know, I've never watched Major League. I've never watched Major League. And I'm like, how do you call yourself a baseball fan if you've never watched Major League?

Raleigh Fingers would make you shave that mustache, Andy, if he ever found that out. So you should watch Major League before you watch the Metal Gear Solid movie, please. Well, I have some time. I have some time. Um, Thundergun 7 wants to know when are blue accent mice back in stock? Soon.

I, like, it, logistics is hard right now. Um, just due to COVID and other circumstances. And the best way to find out when, not just the mouse, but when anything is available on our website, is on that same page where we tell you it's like out of stock you can actually click a button right underneath that that says notify me when it becomes available and as soon as it comes back in stock you'll get an email you'll be like literally the first person to know when that happens yeah i think that's the best way to be quite frank casey gnarly asked p c c c c c PCIE versus or external capture card. PCIE. Easy answer there.

Why? For me, it's just a space thing. Like, I don't like having a dongle floating around. And I believe the performance is better. I'm not entirely sure. Speaking of dongles, I saw this Reddit thread this morning on PC Master race that. blew my mind and made me rethink the way I plug stuff into my computer.

Uh-oh. So I have like, you know, my microphone, my controller, my webcam, three monitors, all hooked up, you know, to my computer. Uh, sometimes my phone. Sometimes I plug a bunch of different stuff, right? And, um, someone made a post on the PC MasterRae subreddit asking, does anybody use the USB ports? on their monitor and I was thinking I don't use the USB ports

on my monitor and I have so I have a bunch of USB ports on my monitors and people were commenting they're like yeah that's where I plug in my webcam that's where I plug in my mic

and I'm like well I have literally like gone mad because I have no space to plug stuff into my computer and like I just forget like oh yeah I can plug USB devices into my monitor so I'm gonna rewire

my setup today here at the I'm going to plug in my webcam and my mic into my monitor because it's like super more convenient than my PC. I used to do it, but then I switched monitors. Then I just don't anymore. But yeah, no, it's convenient. I think I did like my keyboard or mouse. Oh, no, I think because I had a pass-through on that keyboard. I totally forgot you could plug anything in there.

you plug in a hard drive I know Henry C. White wants to know H1 or H210 H1 the H210 the thing that's cool about it is

you can use an ATX power supply but the H1 is more compact it's easy to build in and it's a cool case I really enjoy it the correct answer was Amanda Andy

You know what? I should have known that actually. Tactical Turtle 48, great username, wants to know what's been your best memory you've made at NZXT? The friends I made along the way. That's partially true. Going to Taipei, going to conventions. Travel's really fun. meeting a bunch of people

inside and outside the company because I have a very external facing role so I get to talk to a lot of people in the media a lot of YouTubers Andy has literally touched Linus have I? Yeah I mean there's a weird creeper photo

because he was signing something for us and I just look like like that pre-mustache Well, thank you, Andy, for answering the community questions. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for being our first guest on the return of the podcast with Mike running the show here. Before we leave and Mike goes through the announcements, Andy, do you have any parting words for us for the community?

Anything you want to say? Yes. Go Dodgers. We're going to win the World Series, baby. Yeah, baby. I should have had my Dodger hat while saying that. All right. Thank you, Andy. All right.

Any other parting words? We'll go over to announcements. Freddie Freeman MVP. All right. All right. Andrew Friedman MVP. For the announcements. To follow Andy and all he is doing,

It is at Mr. Sly Guy in the Sky. If you guys want to follow him on Twitter, we're going to drop into the link to chat right now. I appreciate that. Also, you can also listen to Andy's podcast, Twitter.com slash roll re-roll, if you want to talk a little bit about that as well. It's a role-playing podcast that I do with my friends.

The whole point is to do a lot of short campaigns. We're doing a Mario-themed one. I play a Pianta from Mario Sunshine. And it's like a somewhat of a Mario Party one. And there's another like horror one that we did. And I played a diva named Salem. And she was very, she had a TV show, a ghost hunting TV show.

But that's just, but it's also very good. It wasn't hard for you to role play a diva, was it, Andy? Oh, no. It's so easy for me to role play a diva. Like, basically all my characters and RPGs are just a form of Miss Piggy. Like, she's my inspiration, so. And I'm fun to roleplay with, because I'm the wild card baby. All your best laid plans, just go out the window because I'll just kick down with the door,

or kick down the door and then just start shooting people with my shotgun. So yeah go follow go follow roll re-roll if you guys want to learn a little bit more about that Uh, continuing on learn about our new products on nzxte.com. We are releasing a bunch of stuff right now and into future hopefully. Uh, so keep an eye out for that. And then enter our keyboard giveaway on social media for a chance to win an nz60 function keyboard and artisan key caps made by tiny big stings.

Uh, there, oh, hotkeys and. and jelly keys. So we got a lot of key caps and of actual keyboard that we're also going to be giving way. Yeah. Artisan key caps are so cool. Actually, when I came to the office today, I had the artist in keycaps waiting for me at my desk. Do you guys going to see them real quick? Yes, please.

I want to see them. These are the Hot Keys Project. They're really cool. They're almost like Darth Mall type of characters. Oh, it's like the black and red one. Oh, I love that. Yeah, they look. pretty cool and then this is the jelly key one the jelly key one is like a little um they're like becoming

this cool little like it looks like a metal cork almost and then it has like a dog tag and then inside the key cap it's a little uh miniature television set like a retro tv set that's really cool wow It's beautiful. So whoever wins this stuff is really lucky. And I don't have the ones that Tiny made, but Tiny made some Pucci. Poochie. Yeah.

Those ones I'm super excited about. Yeah. So yeah, thank you, Tiny. Thank you, Hotkeys Project. Thank you, Jelly Key. I have a jelly key on one of my keyboards. It's like a, like a Mario-esque thing.

It's really cool. I forgot I ordered it and it just showed up. And I was like, oh, this is really cool. Yeah, so check out those giveaways, guys. We're giving away a lot of fun stuff, keyboard, key caps, everything. So go join that giveaway. It's free. So go ahead and do it.

Or pin tweet. Pin tweet. Hence tomorrow. All right. I think that is it for the announcements. Does anyone have anything else to say? I don't know if not. I do.

Yeah. I want to say Mike did a fantastic job today for his first podcast episode. I know you're a little nervous, but it didn't show. You did great. You can only go out from here. It will get better. I got a lot of things to tweak, got things to learn. But, hey, it's the first time.

We're going to keep going and we're going to learn. It's funny because we were practicing earlier this week. And we made a giant checklist on Trello of all the different things we have to do. and Mike said, I didn't realize this thing was so much work. I'm like, yeah, it's literally like a, the whole thing, man. I thought I just like poddream. Remote podcasting is hard as someone. Because ours is remotely recorded.

We're not live, but, and that adds just more complications. But we use this thing where you have like five different audio tracks and editing just since it's over an hour long and it's somewhat narratively driven. so it's a little tighter in the editing. Because this is just a conversation. You don't have to edit much other than Ivan encouraging people to go to a website. Website's legal. Website's legal. But you know what I mean.

Yeah. It's hard. Yeah. Good job, Mike. You did create. Thank you. It'll get better as it goes on. So, you know, first time we're going to learn.

It's like the function keyboard. Exactly, exactly. All right, so thank you guys for joining us. And remember to tune in live next week at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NXT Twitch. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Also, please leave us a positive review if you like what you hear and even if you don't. Got questions for us. Send an email to podcast at nzxte.com or tag at NZXT on all social media platforms.

See you guys next week.