Questions about the "new" Belkin n52 game pad

So i have searched the site for "belkin n52 game pad" and read all the hits as well as looking through the wiki and reading some of the hardware posts that didn't seem to come up on my search. I am still wondering a few things.

I like the design of the n52 as it looked to me like you could map your movement keys and still have ability keys all around within easy reach. The physical keys available still are not enough but as i understand it you can hit some modifier buttons and bring up a fresh set of keys to bind. This might give enough keys mixed in with some keys on my mouse.

I have read that the older version of the n52 (which is still available) had 4 settings to switch between where as the new version only has 3 settings to switch between and that with the old version you could activate this with the click of one button but with the new version you can't do this. I am wondering if i would be better off going with the older version over the newer version? Appearance is nice but that is not a deciding factor for me. The newer version is prettier.

You can set modifiers in game with control, alt and shift... is this in addition to the three or four different key bindings you can do with the n52 or something else?

I would like to hear some of the experiences the community has had with the n52 or at least some of your opinions.

thanks

I've used the belkin n52 in the past... and have actually moved to a similar product the Saitek Cyborg Command Unit. They are setup pretty much the same I found that the thumbstick on the saitek was more comfortable to use than the dpad on the belkin.


http://catalog.belkin.com/images/pro..._F8GFPC100.jpg http://saitek.com/uk/images/product/command-unit.jpg


My setup is as follows... please refer to the button layout on the saitek.

Modifiers... easily pushed by my pinky.

12 = shift
13 = CTRL
14 = ALT

1-10 = 1-0
F1-F4=f1-f4

The thumbstick is bound to Up/Down/Left/Right arrow keys.

With modifiers this gives me a total of 40 hotkeys. Most importantly.. I'm able to use all 40 while moving... It's quite easy for me to be running away from an Mob... jump.. turn.. frost shock.. turn back... all while not losing a step.

In game.. I use bartender2... with paging turned on...
Bar 1 = Normal
Shift pages to Bar 2
CTRL pages to bar 3
ALT pages to Bar 4

My paladin skills are on bars 1/2 with nothing bound on bars 3/4.
My shammys are on bars 3/4. With nothing bound on bars 1/2.
This ends up giving me 20 hotkeys to work with for each character type.

I have my bartender2 bars setup to look like the buttons on the pad. I'll take pictures and post them when I get home.

So far this has worked pretty well for me... It worked super awesome with 1 character... we'll see if I run out of hotkeys with 5 characters :D

-Finges

I reccomend the Zboard Fang http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/zboard...s/fangfull.jpg if you want a similar product to the belkin

i use the Zboard Merc http://www.itsdirect.com.au/product_...ERC/izmerc.jpg