Which mechanical keyboard should i buy?

You can get some sample key-demonstration things from a couple of places that will let you feel how the key presses are at least. Won't give you the feel of typing on a full keyboard, of course, but it will give you a sense of how hard you have to press or how loud they'll actually be.

My local Best Buy had a couple mechanical keyboards available to play with. Surely there is one near you.

There is but I didn't see any out last I was there. I might drop by but Amazon'll have my CM w/MX reds here Saturday. The dillydallying is--for a time--over.

Had good luck with https://elitekeyboards.com/
I have a black widow at work and a Leopold Tenkeyless Brown at home.

I found Cherry Reds to be actually too light for me, sold off that keyboard within a week and went with Cherry Browns instead and haven't looked back since.

It's just different for everyone and can take some time to see what you really are comfortable using over the long term. Good luck!

Cherry Reds are very good if you're a big PC gamer, especially action titles because they need such a light touch, you actually are more agile. I actually found I played better at shooters after getting my Aivia Osmium. If you're mostly using it for typing, Browns or Blues are probably better depending on how much clicking you like.

So Amazon delivered the CM Storm QuickFire XT with MX reds Friday. I was concerned that the reds would be too easy, with a 45cN actuation force, but that's not the case at all. I love it. Even after only limited use, now back at work on my Lenovo rubber-domer, I miss it. I bottom out, of course, given that I've been using almost exclusively rubber-dome keyboards for the 35 years I've had anything to do with computers. (Although now I wanna check what's under my Tandy CoCo III and Amiga 500 keys.) Actually, I've almost been overly cautious, tender even, with the keys.

But sitting here on this Lenovo at work, I can feel that it (a) requires a stronger actuation force and (b) the key action is mushy. I had pondered last week porting back and forth but thought today that would be dumb. I might have to adjust that thinking. I wouldn't mind getting some kind of case for it, like El Mariachi!

EDIT: Per Wikipedia, most Amiga 500s use Mitsumi hybrid switches, likely with a coiled spring for linear force (though some may have a buckling rubber sleeve for tactile feedback instead). I can't seem to find the switches for the CoCo III. I should get them out and compare.

Pretty sure that the A500 had a membrane keyboard.

I remember the A500 keyboard as being pretty good. It wasn't a bottom-of-the-barrel part, it was decent.

You will start porting a keyboard. Then you'll buy one for work. It is the natural progression of these things.

I don't have the budget and not sure it's the best use of company money.

I've been using a Das Ultimate for maybe 6 or so months at home. I like it (I even nerded out and got replacement keys for it. I could handle the blank keys fine but passwords were just... untenable). Now I'm getting the itch to sell it off for a TKL or even a crazy ass 60% model.

I suppose I'm waiting to see what Matias does with their 60% if it ever gets announced. But how are people's experience moving down from a full size to the more compact formats?

SuperHiro wrote:

I've been using a Das Ultimate for maybe 6 or so months at home. I like it (I even nerded out and got replacement keys for it. I could handle the blank keys fine but passwords were just... untenable). Now I'm getting the itch to sell it off for a TKL or even a crazy ass 60% model.

I suppose I'm waiting to see what Matias does with their 60% if it ever gets announced. But how are people's experience moving down from a full size to the more compact formats?

Just buy a set of keycaps.

Massdrop is doing another Ergodox run if anyone else is interested. Just put in my purchase order and dropped the price down to the 2nd tier it is currently $239 for the kit.

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/ergodox...

IMAGE(https://d3jqoivu6qpygv.cloudfront.net/img_bucket/ergodox/_W3T2166.jpg)

Well, I've had my Aivia Osmium Cherry Brown for a few months now, and I love it. I like the bump feel of the Brown for typing, and I got used to the light touch quickly (usually I thump when I type, I learned a long time ago on an old Underwood). It's incredibly fast for gaming, never misses a keypress, and the frame is solid and unshifting. The build quality is fantastic, and the variable backlighting is perfect. I don't use the other features much, although the sound roller does come in handy sometimes.

The one bad thing is that for some reason, on boot-up, when the system starts the keyboard is seen and lights up, but when Windows itself loads, it turns off and I have to pull one or sometimes both USB cables to get it to wake up. Anyone have any insight on this?

For typing and gaming, though, in all lighting conditions, it's spectacular. I wonder why the mechanical keyboard subreddit doesn't list Aivia, though? Odd.

Arovin wrote:

Massdrop is doing another Ergodox run if anyone else is interested. Just put in my purchase order and dropped the price down to the 2nd tier it is currently $239 for the kit.

Speaking of which; they just sent me my shipping notification for my order in the previous batch! Quite excited now.

Robear wrote:

Well, I've had my Aivia Osmium Cherry Brown for a few months now, and I love it.

So I am originally a naysayer, but I am looking closer at the mechanical keyboards. I have noticed lately a bit of lag in my input for competitive style gaming. I will push a button and not get the response I am looking for.

As an example: I will hit one button to bring up a loadout, a second button to bring up a ground target, and a third button to initiate a skill... all while strafing or dodging (5-6 keypresses in close or immediate tandem).
Usually the combinations occur with a second; sometimes the avatar doesn't swap the loadout or fire the skill and it takes me a couple seconds to figure out what part of the process got left behind so I can pick it up midfight.

I play RTS (Starcraft), MOBA (Smite), and FPS style games at an enthusiast competitive level. I went to the local office depot to check out some mechanical keyboards and they didn't have any on hand. I cannot decide between brown or red switches and am not fully convinced it will solve my issues (vs it being lag) enough to justify a large purchase.

I prefer ergonomic keyboards, but there are times in games where one hand is on the mouse and the other has to handle all the shortcuts across the keyboard. I have ran out of keys on the left side for binding, so I was looking at the logitech G70+ for the extra buttons over there as I am binding Caps lock, shift, alt, tab, and the like.

If there was one on sale or a refurb, I would be more willing to blindly give it a try since I cannot find one to test.

GoldenDog wrote:

So I am originally a naysayer, but I am looking closer at the mechanical keyboards. I have noticed lately a bit of lag in my input for competitive style gaming. I will push a button and not get the response I am looking for.

As an example: I will hit one button to bring up a loadout, a second button to bring up a ground target, and a third button to initiate a skill... all while strafing or dodging (5-6 keypresses in close or immediate tandem).
Usually the combinations occur with a second; sometimes the avatar doesn't swap the loadout or fire the skill and it takes me a couple seconds to figure out what part of the process got left behind so I can pick it up midfight.

I play RTS (Starcraft), MOBA (Smite), and FPS style games at an enthusiast competitive level. I went to the local office depot to check out some mechanical keyboards and they didn't have any on hand. I cannot decide between brown or red switches and am not fully convinced it will solve my issues (vs it being lag) enough to justify a large purchase.

I prefer ergonomic keyboards, but there are times in games where one hand is on the mouse and the other has to handle all the shortcuts across the keyboard. I have ran out of keys on the left side for binding, so I was looking at the logitech G70+ for the extra buttons over there as I am binding Caps lock, shift, alt, tab, and the like.

If there was one on sale or a refurb, I would be more willing to blindly give it a try since I cannot find one to test.

This sounds like it could be a key rollover issue or an accuracy issue (being uncertain as to whether a key is pressed or not pressed). Any decent mechanical board will solve the rollover for you, but accuracy would slightly affect your purchasing decision.
I personally have a brown and a black board used for typing at work and gaming at home respectively.
I will admit that my accuracy for typing is superior with the brown board, but I enjoy the smooth nature of the linear switch for gaming.
Tl;dr Buy one dude. Monoprice boards are pretty legit and reasonably priced.

Are mechanical more inherently resistant to water damage? The G710 looks like it comes with 0 rings, but I got to factor in the beer spillage.

Are mechanical more inherently resistant to water damage?

No, they're kind of fragile, actually, at least Cherry switches. They don't deal well with environmental insults.

If you want something really durable, either an old-style Model M or a Topre Realforce board are probably what you want. Topres are basically rubber domes with springs, and while they feel very much like a rubber dome when you first get them, they become exceedingly comfortable in a month or so, and are very durable. And, what with the capacitative sensing and the solid rubber sheet, they're one of the harder keyboards to beerkill.

Most of the Topre keyboards are very expensive ($200-$300), but Amazon has a $150 model that's basically the same keyswitches, but made in China instead of Japan. It's called the Type Heaven.

So our office has been around since the 80s, and we have a computer graveyard. I figured I would take a paperclip down there and start popping the keys off of discarded keyboards.

I found a BTC-53 down there that uses linear capacitive switches

I have a few more boards to check out later. I may get lucky...

Any experiences gaming with a 60%? I'm paitently waiting to see what Matias offers for their 60% but the idea of paying more for less keyboard is... jarring.

Just feel that a TKL or a 60% would fit my desk a bit better.

I'll never buy another full size keyboard again, now that I've had TKL form factor boards for a while.

I haven't used a 60% though. I'm currently using the CM Storm board that's got the numpad mixed in with the arrow keys and home/end block and I've been super happy with it. It's TKL size and build quality is solid.

It's a small detail, but I LOATHE that stupid font CM uses for their keyboards.

Bleh, TKL boards suck for roguelikes.

Malor wrote:

Bleh, TKL boards suck for roguelikes.

Using vi-keys never killed anyone

If my deskspace was at a premium, I might consider getting a small board, but I prefer to have a numpad.

EriktheRed wrote:

Using vi-keys never killed anyone :)

Only because nobody has been within arms reach when I tried to play Crawl with vi keys.

SuperHiro wrote:

It's a small detail, but I LOATHE that stupid font CM uses for their keyboards.

There's always custom/alternate keycap sets, which are available in several places now.

I was having trouble with the connector on my Topre board, and I bought a Corsair K70 with Reds as a substitute. It's a decent board. I like the Topre feel better, but Reds are comfortable, and the build quality seems good.

I like clicky keyboards when the click actually means something, but a click that doesn't even sound at the point of actuation strikes me as silly frippery, so I avoided Blues.

Thin_J wrote:
SuperHiro wrote:

It's a small detail, but I LOATHE that stupid font CM uses for their keyboards.

There's always custom/alternate keycap sets, which are available in several places now.

Yep, I got a set for my Das because while I can do blank keys, passwords just weren't going to happen. And man some of those sets look awesome but they're clearly hobbyist class.

The one you have has a "non-standard" bottom row, so not every key can be replaced. My original plan before the Das came up cheap on ebay was to grab a Quickfire Rapid and switch keys out.

I guess that's still the plan... haha. I also am really digging the Corsair K65, unique looking without being stupid. though that also has a non-standard bottom row.