Mechanical Keyboard Guide

[rent.a.john]

Got my white ducky tenkeyless today, and realized its cherry black. Apparently only the blank white board is cherry brown. Can someone with experience shed some insight on this? I know brown is suppose to be tactile and black not, but can someone explain what exactly that means?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

@Zarathustra

You do have a strange layout for FPS. The BWU would definitely not be up your alley.

I always wondered why the WASD layout became so popular...

The way I figured it is, we have arrow keys, why not use them?

I wouldn't mind the WASD layout as much if the W were more centered over the S, but the fact that it's shifted to the left bothers me... Arrow keys are perfectly symmetrical

 

[Cabbs]

I always wondered why the WASD layout became so popular...

The way I figured it is, we have arrow keys, why not use them?

I wouldn't mind the WASD layout as much if the W were more centered over the S, but the fact that it's shifted to the left bothers me... Arrow keys are perfectly symmetrical

WASD has more keys right next to them than the arrow keys. Easier to reach and more to map.

 

[manfaux]

Got my white ducky tenkeyless today, and realized its cherry black. Apparently only the blank white board is cherry brown. Can someone with experience shed some insight on this? I know brown is suppose to be tactile and black not, but can someone explain what exactly that means?

Cherry Blacks and Browns are just different switches underneath your keycaps. Blacks are linear, non tactile, has a little more actuation force and travel distance than the browns.

Duckys come in every switch type (blues browns blacks), you just happened to buy the blacks.

 

[patric]

I just got my Black Widow. And yeah, when I hit Z X and C at the same time, it fails to type any of the characters. It hasn't affected my gaming at all though, but I mainly play FPS games anyways.

The keys are loud and it took me a few minutes to stop lining my hands up so I hit Q instead of W, but overall I'm really liking it. The keys are textured, and it's way better than any of the MS keyboards I've ever owned.

The only thing I don't really like about it is the piano gloss finish. But it's not too hard to wipe fingerprints off of it.

Now I just have to convince my work to let me put a quieter mechanical keyboard on my system there...

 

[Q-BZ]

I just got my Black Widow. And yeah, when I hit Z X and C at the same time, it fails to type any of the characters. It hasn't affected my gaming at all though, but I mainly play FPS games anyways.

For the kind of money this thing commands I'd be unhappy about this.

Overall, though, it's a nice keyboard but that's kind of troubling IMO. Not the end of the world, though.

 

[rflcptr]

Once I sifted through the copy-pasta of Amazon's customer service, I found out that the 6Gv2 won't be shipped until at least March 10.

My search continues ...

 

[Q-BZ]

Once I sifted through the copy-pasta of Amazon's customer service, I found out that the 6Gv2 won't be shipped until at least March 10.

My search continues ...

Can you get it at Newegg if that's the keyboard you really want? Or even shop direct from the company?

 

[jeremyshaw]

Got my BlackWidow Ult..... though I'm likely going to be using it more for typing than gaming. I replaced my original crud filled NEC OEM PS/2 KB that has an annyoing habit of switching around the keys I type. Like if I type "scaffold" it will become "sacffold" most of the time. I'm confident this isn't my fault, since my laptop (m11x's) KB doesn't have this issue.

Only thing I will miss are the hanji typing assist pre-form charaters on the KB... Though I did get a nice Hanvon tablet a while back for written -.-

 

[Vittra]

Retired my Filco /w Blacks and swapped over to a Noppoo Choc Mini /w Cherry MX brown switches, liking it quite a bit so far. Wanted to try lighter keys and also get something with a smaller layout. Also available in blue or blacks for those who prefer those.

Here's a review someone over on Geekhack did on it:

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:13825

 

[Pylon]

Got my BlackWidow Ult..... though I'm likely going to be using it more for typing than gaming. I replaced my original crud filled NEC OEM PS/2 KB that has an annyoing habit of switching around the keys I type. Like if I type "scaffold" it will become "sacffold" most of the time. I'm confident this isn't my fault, since my laptop (m11x's) KB doesn't have this issue.

Only thing I will miss are the hanji typing assist pre-form charaters on the KB... Though I did get a nice Hanvon tablet a while back for written -.-

That's called a transposition error, which is a controller issue and not easily fixable. ABS M1s, Filco Zeroes,
and some earlier Das keybaords had similar issues.

Long article:
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7122

 

[rflcptr]

Can you get it at Newegg if that's the keyboard you really want? Or even shop direct from the company?

Out of stock, lol. Amazon was more than happy to forward me links to non-mechanical keyboards I wanted to avoid in the first place.

 

[jeremyshaw]

That's called a transposition error, which is a controller issue and not easily fixable. ABS M1s, Filco Zeroes,
and some earlier Das keybaords had similar issues.

Long article:
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7122

Interesting read, thank you! I like how the article author went through a lot of lenghts to prove his point rather well with evidence it wasn't a finger training issue , but rather, a real technical issue with the KB.

I do like the feel of my KB, though it's a wee bit on the loud side

At least the letters don't get switched around anymore

 

[patric]

For the kind of money this thing commands I'd be unhappy about this.

Overall, though, it's a nice keyboard but that's kind of troubling IMO. Not the end of the world, though.

I don't a need to depress those 3 keys all at the same time any time soon though. Every other key combination seems to work fine. Overall, it's a pretty good keyboard for the price.

 

[rflcptr]

Apparently, the SteelSeries site is timing out at the shopping cart. Sigh.

 

[Q-BZ]

I don't a need to depress those 3 keys all at the same time any time soon though. Every other key combination seems to work fine. Overall, it's a pretty good keyboard for the price.

Good enough then.

 

[Riddleofsteel]

Can anyone recommend a good, clean looking board (less bling preferred) that uses cherry browns or clears for gaming? I love the Rosewill RK-9000 I bought, for typing it rules, but I want to try out a brown or clear board since I game a lot. Thanks.

 

[Pylon]

Wait for Elite Keyboards to get Leopolds in stock.

 

[Lpb45]

got my first mech on the way, a filco 104 cant wait! thanks for the great guide

 

[mythofnomads]

these keyboards too pricy for me
but one day i'll use one

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Why isn't Unicomp listed in the OP? I find the spacesaver far more comfortable to type on than my blackwidow. I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be more popular.

 

[Q-BZ]

Why isn't Unicomp listed in the OP? I find the spacesaver far more comfortable to type on than my blackwidow. I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be more popular.

The OP hasn't updated that post since November 10 of last year. Guess he's done with it. Still wish this thread would get stickied at least.

 

[Dan_D]

these keyboards too pricy for me
but one day i'll use one

The thing is though that these keyboards will outlast what is now considered a conventional keyboard. They'll do so while providing a superior typing experience. I've got mechanical keyboards with almost no visible wear and no functional wear that I can see which are 13 years old or more. You invest in a good quality mechanical keyboard today and you could conceivably still use that same keyboard 10 years or more down the line. The typing experience on membrane keyboards degrades over time. This results in a poor typing experience and although the keyboards will "last" a long time they do not hold up as well. Over time you'll desire to replace the keyboard because of how it feels or how it looks over time. Any membrane keyboard I've ever used looks worn out and hammered after just a year of use. I can feel the differences between my old membrane keyboards and new ones within that time frame. Granted my keyboards suffer more use in a single year than most would suffer in 3 years or more.

 

[Q-BZ]

The thing is though that these keyboards will outlast what is now considered a conventional keyboard. They'll do so while providing a superior typing experience. I've got mechanical keyboards with almost no visible wear and no functional wear that I can see which are 13 years old or more. You invest in a good quality mechanical keyboard today and you could conceivably still use that same keyboard 10 years or more down the line. The typing experience on membrane keyboards degrades over time. This results in a poor typing experience and although the keyboards will "last" a long time they do not hold up as well. Over time you'll desire to replace the keyboard because of how it feels or how it looks over time. Any membrane keyboard I've ever used looks worn out and hammered after just a year of use. I can feel the differences between my old membrane keyboards and new ones within that time frame. Granted my keyboards suffer more use in a single year than most would suffer in 3 years or more.

Exactly.

This Rosewill RK-9000 was the easiest $100 upgrade I could have done for myself and I went into it as skeptical as anyone.

 

[Lateralus]

I just can't believe it took me so long to see the light. I've tried many varieties of keyboards over the years, from the cheap ones Dell and Gateway included with their systems to the Microsoft Ergo boards to low-profile boards with laptop style keys (these became my favorite after rocking a Saitek Eclipse for a while). I finally decided to shell out a good bit of money for a Das Keyboard Ultimate after discovering that there was a community of mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, and that's all she wrote. Now I also have a Filco with Cherry MX Browns and a Topre Realforce that is just orgasmic...I can't see having anything other than a mechanical keyboard for my main rig anymore.

 

[Riddleofsteel]

Can someone link me to where I can buy a filco majestouch with cherry brown switches that's a good model? I am looking at the chinese armygroup store and the other chinese store that was floating around and I can't seem to find the "one" I need even though I've been using a page translator. Thanks very much.

EDIT: Ducky brand is fine, too. Just need english keycaps.

 

[DirtyB]

I can't decide if I should wait and see what kind of leopolds are available or if I should just get a steelseries 6gv2, a lot of wow with some fps games and web browsing. Coming from a saitek eclipse. Thinking cherry browns or blacks because I want it to be quiet. Unless Leopold has cherry reds.

 

[WorldExclusive]

Can someone link me to where I can buy a filco majestouch with cherry brown switches that's a good model? I am looking at the chinese armygroup store and the other chinese store that was floating around and I can't seem to find the "one" I need even though I've been using a page translator. Thanks very much.

EDIT: Ducky brand is fine, too. Just need english keycaps.

Did you look at the first post with all the boards I listed?

 

[Burnout01]

Did you look at the first post with all the boards I listed?

I looked at the first post and the links are pointing to a store that no longer sell them.

I would like to find a Filco with the cherry browns myself.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

You should probably read the Geekhack army group discussion thread.

 

[WorldExclusive]

I looked at the first post and the links are pointing to a store that no longer sell them.

I would like to find a Filco with the cherry browns myself.

Wow I just checked the link.
Small companies like Filco and maybe Deck could disappear, they're such a small division that could close at anytime.
Buy the boards when they're available, you never know which models may become extinct.

 

[sok0]

http://www.keyboardco.com/ is a UK company that sells filco. Might be easier to deal with but they have limited stock.

 

[Jaz709]

Call me a fussy "B" when it comes to keyboards. For years i could never find anything I've been hapy with when it came to computer keyboards. Back in the day I learned to type with the old manual typewriters along with the IBM office electrics that had the one touch correction. I used to love those old IBM's. Just wish there were something similar in a computer keyboard with the same touch.

Out of the boards that were available, the Logitech illuminated was the only thing that I remotely liked. I hate the smooth texture of the keys along with them being a flat layout among the usual gripes with cheaper boards. Not sure whether it's just me or whether this thing is starting to crap out on me like the other units I've used.

For the past week I've been researching mechanical boards. I've never seen them in stores and wasn't aware they were still being manufactured because of this. From what I've read they hold most everything I've been missing in my typing experience. They have stepped keys, not mushy along with the usuals. I figured either the cherry brown or blues would do the trick. Then I stumbled upon the Topre units. I wanted a true mechanical up till that point. Sigh!

A lot of people are happy with the browns and blues but I was under the impression that, for many, the Topre were the ultimate in keyboards. At this point I'm sick and tired of spending my money on crap and never being happy with the cheaper boards. I could have bought several mechanical boards for what I've spent on boards in the past 10 years. So tonight I said to hell with it and purchased a Realforce 103UB (Black).

I went out on a limb with this one but hopefully it'll be well worth it. I'm sure my girlfriend will be happy to not hear me complain about a keyboard not working or crabing that I don't like this or that with the thing. I haven't read anything about owners returning these things nor selling them because of a bad purchase so hopefully I'll be able to return with a happy story.

 

[Pylon]

Well, IBM Model Ms (and modern day Unicomps) use pretty much the same mechanisms as on the IBM Wheelwriters.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Well, IBM Model Ms (and modern day Unicomps) use pretty much the same mechanisms on the IBM Wheelwriters.

He should probably just pick up a Unicomp. I absolutely love mine. It's so crisp and comfortable to type on.

 

[RickyJ]

Yeah I'm thinking going from a typewriter to a Topre isn't going to do it for him. Unicomp for sure, or something with Cherry blue's would be a solid choice.

 

[MrBucket]

I can't decide if I should wait and see what kind of leopolds are available or if I should just get a steelseries 6gv2, a lot of wow with some fps games and web browsing. Coming from a saitek eclipse. Thinking cherry browns or blacks because I want it to be quiet. Unless Leopold has cherry reds.

I ruled out the 6gv2 since they removed the left windows key, I use that key probably 100 times a day.

 

[tekneek]

Exactly.

This Rosewill RK-9000 was the easiest $100 upgrade I could have done for myself and I went into it as skeptical as anyone.

just ordered the rk-9000. can't wait till it comes. thanks

 

[kubla_khan]

Actually, the Deck Legend 105 Tactile looks pretty neat (though I like the appearance of the BlackWidow better).

I have a Deck, think it's the legend (all black with dimmable blue leds under each key) model #KBA-CBL-105B, bought in 2007 for the redonkulous price of $160. It is mechanical, feels even better to me than the old IBMs, came with a lot of extra replacement keys (skulls, trucker flap girl silhouette, penguin/windows, etc.) very stiff, heavy and moddable. Cool, right?
Caveat: It's a super huge pain in the ass. Within a couple of months, I started getting missed keystrokes (some wouldn't have a result, push it several times, and then have that letter show up as a random repeat) and multiples of keys (like zzzzz after one press), also some random delay. Never seen probs like this before, and I've had probably a dozen different KBs over the years. Thought it might be a USB problem or BIOS setting, eliminated those possibilities and emailed Deck. They seemed in denial and said it must be dirty, that ashes and/or dust could foul the keys and blah blah we're no help it's your fault and we'd love to service it at a ridiculous expense to you, if only you'll also pay the shipping. Both ways. lolwut?!?
Even though no other KB I have ever used had these probs, they were correct (though wrong in design and/or at least in customer service). Though I have no idea how some invisible microscopic dust particles can foul the mechanics (and so quickly), I can correct these probs by cleaning it inside, which is a super-huge pain in the ass (you have to take it apart completely as a vacuum alone or even a blower won't work) and IMO shouldn't be necessary, it's not like it's the internals of a hard drive, and I am more than sanitary in my habits (wash hands dozens of times a day, vacuum all the time, kind of a germaphobe, etc). It can't really be depended on much past a week or two after cleaning, so I live w/it, afraid to purchase another mech (a different brand, of course) until I know it won't have these probs and I refuse to use a non-mech.
Has anybody else experienced anything even remotely similar?
Any other Deck owner out there? Please pipe up.

 

[SH1]

That black Model M is sweet. I have the gray one, and while it's displeasing in color, it conveys emotion. My wife can always tell when I typing an angry e-mail!

Great information. Thanks for sharing.

While I wouldn't want everything to still be computer beige, the keyboard being uniquely so and constructed to such an amazing level of quality, works for me. It's quite lovely in it's own way I think...

Maybe kind of like the automakers got rid of a lot of the chrome after a period of garrish excess, but eventually re-introduced it in more tasteful quantities...