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Mechanical kb recommendation

B

bendic

n00b
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
45
Is the CM Storm QF Rapid ($67 at amazon) a good value for a mechanical keyboard? Any downsides to it that I should know off. I don't mind it not having the numeric keypad.
 
I also have it and it's a fine keyboard, especially at that price. It's pleasant to type on it, and build quality is quite good. So long as you don't mind the lack of the keypad it's a great choice so enjoy it.
 
+1. Just make sure all your keys work. If you read the reviews, some boards have an issue with the left ctrl/alt. Mine had an issue with the left Windows key (I had a cherry mx red board). So pretty much that area of the board may have a problem. But yeah, very durable keyboard. Build quality was good, just a minor issue that made me return mine. Overall, good value.
 
Not sure how correct that is. To my knowledge, no, it's not true. The Quickfire uses regular sized keycaps.

If you want something even cheaper, you can shoot for the Cherry 4100 from eBay. It can be had for $18 from time to time. Though, the Cherry ML notebook switches on it are half-sized. It's something like in between mechanical and membrane. Still a good keyboard though.

Might want to consider the Vortex KBT Pure as well. It's a higher quality made keyboard than the Quickfire.
 
Had my QFR for well over a year now and have no complaints. Great keyboard, has softened my typing quite a bit, I was so used to crushing little rubber domes before.

I'm sure you could build a better quality keyboard...but I don't see why you would want to. I've never encountered any sort of flex or wobble in the QFR, all the keys operate smoothly including the space bar (no Black Widow sticky keys here), and it supports NKRO.
 
Not saying the QFR is a low quality keyboard, it indeed is a good keyboard.

But, if you do the research, you can and will find out that there're higher quality keyboards around, for not so expensive.
 
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To my knowledge, the Pure is of equal or (most likely) lower quality when compared to the QFRs.

Either way, the Pure is PCB mount with inadequate mount design resulting in PCB flex in most cases. There are ways to fix this; the simplest is to take it apart and torque the screws evenly (unsure how long this method last before it needs to be redone), the next simplest way to fix this issue permanently is to mod the case+PCB by adding a stand-off, the most tedious and probably most expensive way (not overly so) is to desolder the switches and add a custom backplate. This may be moot if my info is outdated and any new company that's picked up it's production has fixed this issue.

I'm not saying the Pure is a bad board, the 60% design is intriguing, but it's not amazing when it comes to build quality. As far as quality per price-point, I don't think there are any better than the QFRs when they're on sale; that's mostly considering location and shipping though, outside of the US there may be better options, but I haven't seen them personally.
 
Yeah, it's hard to find a better keyboard AT the same price of the QFR. But if looked closely on eBay, there're a bunch of tenkeyless mechanicals, mostly around $100, though, some can be found cheaper, and are of higher quality than the QFR.

As for the Pure, I wouldn't even consider it. It's, AFAIK, built by iOne whereas the QFR is built by Costar. Much lower quality OEM.
 
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