Going from an ergo/natural keyboard to mechanical...

I

Impulse

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 5, 2001
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I've been using a MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for the last few years on my main desktop... Before that I had one of the older MS Natural kb (which were still beige/off-white), moved to the 4000 mostly for the padded wrist rest and the new multimedia key layout. Anyway, I've been wanting to move on to a mechanical keyboard for a while and I was wondering if anyone's gone thru a similar transition.

I've always felt the natural split layout really did help w/wrist fatigue... But it was never the most efficient layout for gaming, anything on the right side of the split is basically unreachable w/my left hand during a game, and I dunno how much it's really helped me.

It's not like I type on that thing exclusively, because I type a lot (and even code) on my netbook as well as my tablet recently (ASUS TF), and I'm always working at school labs or other computers at home w/keyboards I have laying around (even got an old IBM Model M that came w/my first PC, a 33MHz 486DX!)... So I don't expect it'd take me much to get accustomed to a regular layout.

I'm just curious if anyone left their natural/ergo keyboard behind and felt they traded away some long term comfort... :eek:
 
I never found any with a layout similar to the MS Natural kb, got a Corsair K90 now and a Rosewill tho, pretty happy with both after some adjustment.
 
i modded 2 ms ergo 4k with cherry browns, in the end my daily driver is a kinesis (which still needs modding to be perfect), try a kinesis if you can, if you really like split ergo.
 
Lanx said:
i modded 2 ms ergo 4k with cherry browns, in the end my daily driver is a kinesis (which still needs modding to be perfect), try a kinesis if you can, if you really like split ergo.
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Good to see you on this board (i'm not active at Geekhack). I saw some of your build logs, pretty wild stuff. I think I might try to do a cherry switched mouse now that I've seen yours. I wonder how easy it is to make something like that look "pretty." Have you ever considered a more ergonomic base platform? Something a little more angled and contoured to fit the hand?
 
what do you mean by "base platform" are we talking mouse or keyboard here?
if mouse
for the cherry mod, depends on mouse really, some mice doesn't seem physically possible to mod (like if you had to mod a rat7, you'd take out so much electronics, doesn't make it worthwhile,and the rat7 sucks)

so far i've modded razer death adder, cm storm tactics and spawn, all successful. as far as ergonomic mouse, i pick the that best fits my hand (i've tried a lot more, various logitech and other mice, lots of hand sanitizer at best buy, lol) and just mod the cherry switch on.

as far as ergonomic base keyboard? the kinesis is a almost there. the keywells and palm rest are nice, too bad the whole thing is stationary (which is why i wanted to split it in half) if the kinesis were 2 separate units that could tilt in, then yea thats better, but nothing out there really, so you just gotta mod.
 
The Kinesis looks like it'd take as much of an adjustment coming from an MS Natural as a regular layout keyboard, perhaps more so.
 
Lanx said:
what do you mean by "base platform" are we talking mouse or keyboard here?
if mouse
for the cherry mod, depends on mouse really, some mice doesn't seem physically possible to mod (like if you had to mod a rat7, you'd take out so much electronics, doesn't make it worthwhile,and the rat7 sucks)

so far i've modded razer death adder, cm storm tactics and spawn, all successful. as far as ergonomic mouse, i pick the that best fits my hand (i've tried a lot more, various logitech and other mice, lots of hand sanitizer at best buy, lol) and just mod the cherry switch on.

as far as ergonomic base keyboard? the kinesis is a almost there. the keywells and palm rest are nice, too bad the whole thing is stationary (which is why i wanted to split it in half) if the kinesis were 2 separate units that could tilt in, then yea thats better, but nothing out there really, so you just gotta mod.
Click to expand...
i was referring to mice. I'm talking about something like one of these:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?6439-Battle-Of-The-Ergo-Mice-Evoluent-vs-Contour-Design
:)
 
idk, all i know is all those ergo mice have crappy sensors, i'd get irritated, need a good sensor first. (which is why i hated the rat7)
 
i'm against truly ergonomic, TE, mainly cuz of their b.s. and even more b.s. pricing, however if you can get it for $150, it looks decent.
 
I went from a Natural elite to a mechanical with a nice 3m leatherette gel wrist rest...2yrs ~ ago.. i was worried about wrist strain too but i have found that it is a non issue for me if anything i have less strain using my WASD V1 (mx-browns) then with the ergo keyboard


this is the wrist rest i use... and have had good results with

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Keyboard-L...qid=1414124448&sr=8-5&keywords=gel+wrist+rest
 
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why is the maltron keyboard at $750 and that their key is not QWERTY break down?

Also, if you buy Kinesis, can you get the numeric keypad from another co. that is Also mechanical? I imagine it should be fine, as it's just another USB device, but I want to be very sure.

and why is Kinesis so stupid? They have all that empty space at the center, and they refuse to make a numeric keypad?
 
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