Recommend me a gaming keyboard

boogle wrote:

Learn to love mechanical.

Show me a mechanical with an lcd and lit keys and I will.

Edit for typos

Tigerbill wrote:
boogle wrote:

Learn to love mechanical.

Show me a mechanical with and lcd an lit keys and I will.

Razer actually makes one.

Yeah, and I will side with mechanical keyboard lovers any day.

Edit: no lcd

There's something about a typo in a keyboard thread.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Tigerbill wrote:
boogle wrote:

Learn to love mechanical.

Show me a mechanical with and lcd an lit keys and I will.

Razer actually makes one.

Yeah, and I will side with mechanical keyboard lovers any day.

I knew someone was going to suggest this; please show me the one they make with the LCD. Edit: Crap took to long responding.

As far as mechanicals go, I don't personally see the point to them. None of their "advantages" really apply to me.

List of my reasons why I think, I wouldn't prefer them:
-I don't touch type that well, so I prefer a lit keyboard for late night gaming.
-Don't play hard core, fast paced games needing a lot of key rollover.
-Tactile feedback doesn't matter to me.
-Price is important.
-I hate noise (the Razor Black Widow uses Cherry MX Blue's) Yes, I know the Cherry Browns and Blacks are silent, this is more a point about the one lit mechanical most recommend.

Speaking of mechanical keyboards, Rosewill just announced they're going to make some.

Rosewill, which is Newegg's house brand, actually produced a mechanical plank once before. It appears the RK-9000 model is making a comeback decked out with blue switches, along with three other models, including one with Cherry MX Brown switches (RK-9000BR), Cherry MX Black switches (RK-9000BL), and Cherry MX Red switches (RK-9000RE). All four switch types will be offered in the same keyboard enclosure, you see pictued below.

I gave my G15 to a friend whose one year old loves to pound on a keyboard while his dad uses the PC.

Mechanical boards all the way. I will never again own another rubber dome based POS of a keyboard. Ew.

I'm using a Model M myself. Awesome, awesome keyboard. But the rollover is very limited, and gets annoying sometimes. I'd replace it, but I'd want another hard-strike keyboard, because it keeps my incipient carpal tunnel suppressed. (soft-touch keyboards actually make carpal tunnel WORSE, because they let your muscles go weak, so your tendons take more load. Hard-strike keyboards keep your muscles strong and help prevent the various forms of tendinitis.)

I haven't been able to sort out which of the newer keyboards has the same kind of tactile feel. What I'd REALLY like would be exactly this keyboard, but with unlimited rollover.

I may check out those rosewills as a board to bring into work.

Razer announces a supposedly quite mechanical keyboard. I was hoping for more douche-y CEO dude, but no luck:

So, probably Cherry Brown switches, then?

They should have gone with matte plastic for the original BlackWidow, but I like a clicky keyboard and none of the neighbors have complained yet.

I have one complaint with my DasKeyboard. That would be the glossy plastic shell. Hate. I deal with it because I love the keyboard and the Das won't fit in my laptop bag the way my Leopold does, but if I ever have the extra disposable income to replace it with another Leopold or a Filco, I will do it in a heartbeat just to get away from the glossy plastics.

Dear companies everywhere: Stop putting glossy plastics on things people touch with their hands on a regular basis. It's just stupid.

Thin_J wrote:

Dear companies everywhere: Stop putting glossy plastics on things people touch with their hands on a regular basis. It's just stupid.

Add to this to stop putting reflective screens on laptops. All of this is a pet peeve of mine.

I did see where MS is stopping production on the 360S black shiny cases. Going forward, all of them will be matte like the 4GB models. So that's a win.

I've actually come around to liking the shiny screens, at least the Apple ones, which use glass. I've had some sort of coating come off of matte surfaces before over time, which really sucked. The glass Apple's been using, on the other hand, is much more resilient than plastic. (In short: I was very skeptical at first when Apple started doing matte and glossy displays, then saw somebody else's glossy display, and switched to glossy and have been happy since. However, if it's not Apple it's probably glossy plastic instead of glossy glass, yeah, worst of all possible worlds.)

I don't think there's anything wrong with glossy screens, either on laptops or with desktops. But I do think you have to give people the choice. Some people might tend to use their laptop in a lot of public places where they don't have direct control over the lighting and can't get away from terrible glare.

I've yet to see a glass or plastic screen that works as well as matte when there's light behind me. But I've not used a Mac laptop.

MannishBoy wrote:

Razer announces a supposedly quite mechanical keyboard. I was hoping for more douche-y CEO dude, but no luck:

Oh good, I was actually going to post in here about this.

Does anyone else have one of the loud mechanical razers? I'd very much like your impressions.

oilypenguin wrote:

Oh good, I was actually going to post in here about this.

Does anyone else have one of the loud mechanical razers? I'd very much like your impressions.

It's just ok. BestBuy carries either the Ultimate or the regular and usually has one out on display if you want to see whether you like it or not.

Again though, glossy plastic is the devil!

*Wait wait wait, that one has a matte finish? Interesting. Have they said which switches it uses?

I have a loud Razer Blackwidow. I got it because it was the cheapest mechanical keyboard on the market at the time and wasn't sure if I'd like them. Well I love it and the *click clack* never gets old. It's like using a fight stick, just pressing the buttons is fun (Sanwa buttons ftw). I can't imagine myself ever going back to cheap rubber domes.

Having said that, if I had to do it over again I would get a Das instead. On the left side of the Razer are macro keys that I don't use and all they do is mess up my hand position. I will feel for cntl with my left pinky and it will sometimes land on the macro key shifting my left hand over and then it all goes haywire. I ended up popping off that key to solve that problem but regardless I think it was a poor decision to put them there. Another reason I would go Das is superficial in that I don't really care for the look of the Razer or the l33t g4m3r lights stuff. It is a shame though that the Das keyboard are glossy because the Razer is as well and all it does is attract dust.

BNice wrote:

Having said that, if I had to do it over again I would get a Das instead. On the left side of the Razer are macro keys that I don't use and all they do is mess up my hand position. I will feel for cntl with my left pinky and it will sometimes land on the macro key shifting my left hand over and then it all goes haywire. I ended up popping off that key to solve that problem but regardless I think it was a poor decision to put them there. Another reason I would go Das is superficial in that I don't really care for the look of the Razer or the l33t g4m3r lights stuff. It is a shame though that the Das keyboard are glossy because the Razer is as well and all it does is attract dust.

Leopold or Filco! Same switches, same/better build quality, and no stupid glossy plastics.

The Filco's are harder to find since Elitekeyboards stopped carrying them, but they do still pop up on Amazon on occasion.

Thin_J wrote:

Leopold or Filco! Same switches, same/better build quality, and no stupid glossy plastics.

The Filco's are harder to find since Elitekeyboards stopped carrying them, but they do still pop up on Amazon on occasion.

The full size Leopold definitely looks sweet. I'll have to do some research whenever I buy a new keyboard. What's going on with this super expensive $245 keyboard? Why does it cost so much?

Malor wrote:

I'm using a Model M myself. Awesome, awesome keyboard.

The PC building guru uses a Model M. Awesome. If you didn't use a super awesome mechanical keyboard I think part of me would die inside. Can you even buy a Model M new these days?

BNice wrote:

The full size Leopold definitely looks sweet. I'll have to do some research whenever I buy a new keyboard. What's going on with this super expensive $245 keyboard? Why does it cost so much?

It uses a different kind of switch. The Topre switches are always more expensive. They also feel different. But if you want silly cost, look at the Realforce Tenkeyless boards. They're all $345.

Stick with a Cherry MX board. You'll be fine. They have enough different types of switches that you should be able to find one that suits you.

BNice wrote:

Can you even buy a Model M new these days?

Yes, as NOS or in a slightly modernized version (your choice of PS2 or USB connection).

I hope this isnt a crazy question but are there any wireless keyboards that will hold up for gaming. I.e. I like the idea of the Logitech unifying connectors for wireless keyboards and mice, but I'm not sure how they hold up for gaming (multiple simultaneous keypresses etc) I'm not worried about pro-level fps twitch gaming or anything, but something that would be good for the occasional mp gaming and primarily... just me playing with my pc using an hdtv as a display.

Is wireless just not compatible with gaming?

Irongut wrote:

Is wireless just not compatible with gaming?

I have a Logitech K-750 that I use when I hook my laptop up to my big TV. I wouldn't use it for my main rig, ever really, but it's decent enough for using on the couch and it's nice to never have to use batteries. It spends most of the time sitting in a dark room and I've still never seen the charge level on it below 99%.

There might be the tiniest bit of input lag due to the wireless, but it's negligible.

That said, that's seriously the only wireless keyboard I have any experience with whatsoever so I can't tell you if there's anything better for gaming.

Thin_J wrote:

It uses a different kind of switch. The Topre switches are always more expensive. They also feel different. But if you want silly cost, look at the Realforce Tenkeyless boards. They're all $345.

That price is why I bought my Leopold tenkeyless. I thought I had found my keyboard in the Realforce, and then I saw the price.
Then the Leopolds appeared on EliteKeyboards, just in time.

Looks like Corsair's now doing mechanical keyboards, too. With an interesting twist on one of them with rubberized WASD and number keys that you can install.

And now I know why the HS1 headsets have been so cheap lately, they're putting out newer models.

Anandtech has a pretty good quick look up.

The K60 looks great. I may have to pick one up if I can't order those keys separately. Anyone know where to get some of those rubbery keys that fit on Cherry switches? I thought about painting some to give color and texture but never got around to it.

Meh. Call me when they make a tenkeyless. I'm still using my DAS right now, but soon as I can find the extra $100 for another Leopold Tenkeyless my DAS will be relegated to a "spare peripherals" box.

Dude I will buy your das for work. f*ck this dell pos.