Which mechanical keyboard should i buy?

Need new board for home. Need browns, no numpad, but with arrow keys.
Suggestions? Massdrop is taking their sweet time getting anything quality looking up.

I don't know if they have the right switches but the razer blackwidow tournament editions meet your form factor requirements. I have the stealth edition and I really like it.

edit: nevermind it looks like they have green or orange switches depending on model

boogle wrote:

Need new board for home. Need browns, no numpad, but with arrow keys.
Suggestions? Massdrop is taking their sweet time getting anything quality looking up.

Order an ergodox kit on mass drop and select browns!

Agent 86 wrote:

I don't know if they have the right switches but the razer blackwidow tournament editions meet your form factor requirements. I have the stealth edition and I really like it.

edit: nevermind it looks like they have green or orange switches depending on model

I have had some less than fun experiences with Razer products (specifically audio, ah the folly of youth) fwiw.

Nice joke btw DanD.

boogle wrote:
Agent 86 wrote:

I don't know if they have the right switches but the razer blackwidow tournament editions meet your form factor requirements. I have the stealth edition and I really like it.

edit: nevermind it looks like they have green or orange switches depending on model

I have had some less than fun experiences with Razer products (specifically audio, ah the folly of youth) fwiw.

Nice joke btw DanD.

Srsly!

I've got two of them now. One with cherry clears and one with cherry blues. Admittedly a bit pricey and the self assembly is a bit daunting but I'd never soldered anything before and it still turned out ok.

Re razer: I too have had a crappy experience with their products. The 360 controller started great but disintegrated within a year

I really would prefer to not have the ergo setup.
Looking at this badboy.

The Rapid is a very solid board. I have the red switch model somewhere. The only reason I'm not using it is I just prefer brown switches for typing. I tend to make typos a lot more often on red switches.

Thin_J wrote:

The Rapid is a very solid board. I have the red switch model somewhere. The only reason I'm not using it is I just prefer brown switches for typing. I tend to make typos a lot more often on red switches.

Ordered. Also same reason I'm switching from MX blacks back to browns. I need my clicks.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The space bar on my keyboard stopped working perfectly (Cherry MX Black switches). It sometimes wouldn't register if I was typing quickly or didn't hit the key very deliberately.

Spraying a little DeoxIT contact cleaner fixed the problem. You could probably get away with using cheaper contact cleaner. I just happened to have this laying around.

So, if you have any wonky Cherry MX switches, try spraying a little bit of that stuff in the switch while it's pressed down. It may fix your problem.

FYI cherry switches can be completely dismantled so you can get right inside to clean the contacts (or replace the springs) if you need to.

DanB wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The space bar on my keyboard stopped working perfectly (Cherry MX Black switches). It sometimes wouldn't register if I was typing quickly or didn't hit the key very deliberately.

Spraying a little DeoxIT contact cleaner fixed the problem. You could probably get away with using cheaper contact cleaner. I just happened to have this laying around.

So, if you have any wonky Cherry MX switches, try spraying a little bit of that stuff in the switch while it's pressed down. It may fix your problem.

FYI cherry switches can be completely dismantled so you can get right inside to clean the contacts (or replace the springs) if you need to.

Well, I bought spares and have replaced them before. This is more of a quick fix solution that's worth a shot. I didn't know you could actually take them apart, so that's good to know in case my spares run out.

boogle wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The Rapid is a very solid board. I have the red switch model somewhere. The only reason I'm not using it is I just prefer brown switches for typing. I tend to make typos a lot more often on red switches.

Ordered. Also same reason I'm switching from MX blacks back to browns. I need my clicks.

Clear is the new brown.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
DanB wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The space bar on my keyboard stopped working perfectly (Cherry MX Black switches). It sometimes wouldn't register if I was typing quickly or didn't hit the key very deliberately.

Spraying a little DeoxIT contact cleaner fixed the problem. You could probably get away with using cheaper contact cleaner. I just happened to have this laying around.

So, if you have any wonky Cherry MX switches, try spraying a little bit of that stuff in the switch while it's pressed down. It may fix your problem.

FYI cherry switches can be completely dismantled so you can get right inside to clean the contacts (or replace the springs) if you need to.

Well, I bought spares and have replaced them before. This is more of a quick fix solution that's worth a shot. I didn't know you could actually take them apart, so that's good to know in case my spares run out.

If you look on the underside of the switch you can see the the tabs which hold the top housing to the bottom half. If you push two tabs in you can pop the top housing off and then the spring will ping off across your living room. I've found that just pulling keycaps can occasionally pull the top housing off as the stem butts into the top housing (although that happens less now I have decent keycap puller and not the cheap plastic one I was using) . Thankfully putting them back together is simple; put the spring in place, put the coloured stem on the spring and then pop the top housing in place.

*Legion* wrote:
boogle wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The Rapid is a very solid board. I have the red switch model somewhere. The only reason I'm not using it is I just prefer brown switches for typing. I tend to make typos a lot more often on red switches.

Ordered. Also same reason I'm switching from MX blacks back to browns. I need my clicks.

Clear is the new brown.

Don't try to change me Legion.

boogle wrote:

I really would prefer to not have the ergo setup.

It's a very comfortable set up to type on and as the board is fully programmable you can switch to any arbitrary layout. I have mine set up to switch between 3 lay outs: QWERTY, numpad and gaming/FPS

boogle wrote:
*Legion* wrote:
boogle wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The Rapid is a very solid board. I have the red switch model somewhere. The only reason I'm not using it is I just prefer brown switches for typing. I tend to make typos a lot more often on red switches.

Ordered. Also same reason I'm switching from MX blacks back to browns. I need my clicks.

Clear is the new brown.

Don't try to change me Legion.

No one can be told how awesome the Clear switches are. They must feel them for themselves.

After going with a K70RGB, I didn't realize how held back I was from Ghosting issues with dome boards. Now that I've been using a mech for 6 months, there is a major difference in response. I'll have both 'a' and 'd' strafe going and tap '2' or another num key and it won't register. I've found that with a dome board I have to hit a certain key multiple times or make sure my fingers are off the other keys around it if I need to ensure it takes.

I've seen some deals on DAS Keyboards for a second mech, but they only have 6 key anti-ghost over USB. Even that limit turns me off of a mech since I know I do hit the limits. I wouldn't mind an NKRO over USB for around $80 with a wrist rest that isn't Rosewill and have been keeping an eye out. Looking for a full board since I use the numpad.

I took my K70 to the office and want to bring it home, but I need another mech to replace it. Just want the second one on the cheap since it's just an office board.

I got a Das Keyboard Model S with Cherry Browns. Really like it so far (in the .5 hours I have used it at least). Not quite as clacky as my Unicomp IBM Model M clone and quite a bit less stiff. A lot lighter too.

boogle, if you still need a tenkeyless keyboard, I got a Nixeus Moda for my office, and I really like it. My co-workers can tell when I'm angry because my typing suddnely gets faster and louder.

Already got the rapid. Now I'm waiting for some blue on white double shot keycaps to really make that sucker pop.

In other Pimp My Board news, I want to figure out a Razer version of this over the weekend:

That is hilarious

Yeah, it's so obnoxious I have to at least know how it works. I found that when I was setting up VSXu for something else.

tboon wrote:

I got a Das Keyboard Model S with Cherry Browns. Really like it so far (in the .5 hours I have used it at least). Not quite as clacky as my Unicomp IBM Model M clone and quite a bit less stiff. A lot lighter too.

This. They make a 10 keyless model. Browns are awesome.

Has anyone owning a Corsair K70/95 RGB had issues when starting Steam? I'm deciding between the Standard and RGB versions but the problems I've seen mentioned about the RGB not working with Steam could be a deal breaker.

I have had no issues with Steam. The worst issue I had was with running the keyboard on USB 3.0. Sometimes it would default back to the normal red profile instead of a custom profile. Since I switched the keyboard to dual USB 2.0 ports, the problem went away. So it was more of a USB 3.0 thing for me and I didn't feel like updating BIOS or Chipset drivers so I just changed ports.

Here's the official boards:

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/forumdis...

You could also buy a bunch of other RGB lighted mechanical boards.

boogle wrote:

You could also buy a bunch of other RGB lighted mechanical boards.

Suggestions are welcome.

I bought a non-RGB mechanical about two years ago (Tesoro Durandal). Had to send it back for repairs due to lighting problems less than a year after purchase. It completely crapped out about two months later.

I wish the Corsair K70 just had a couple extra programmable keys (I like a dedicated key for vent). The K95 is extremely overkill for what I want.