Mechanical Keyboard Guide

They listed it as deactivated several times before when it was out of stock.
 
Pylon said:
They listed it as deactivated several times before when it was out of stock.
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Whatever chinese company was producing the Rosewills and the old ABS's (before Newegg requested a run of Rosewill branded versions) probably stopped production or ran out of supply. As with all Rosewill/ABS stuff that Newegg caries, they are off the shelf items in Asia that Newegg simply orders a certain production run with their in-house branding. They might get new batches in the future or a different product line. Maybe Newegg only had limited number made and didn't anticipate the growing market for mechanical keyboards.
 
It's actually Taiwan I believe. Costar, the same guys that OEMs the Das and Filco.

EliteKeyboards cut off relations with Diatech (who owns the Filco brand and contracts Costar to manufacture for them) partly because they could not keep up with supplying enough keyboards for rising demand.
 
Also, Cherry is raising prices on their MX switches by 20-25% from what I've heard.
 
Not any longer, as Elitekeyboards stopped carrying them due to supply issues. They're switching to Leopolds.

If you want a Filco, you have to buy from an overseas vendor like Armygroup.
 
Pylon said:
It's actually Taiwan I believe. Costar, the same guys that OEMs the Das and Filco.

EliteKeyboards cut off relations with Diatech (who owns the Filco brand and contracts Costar to manufacture for them) partly because they could not keep up with supplying enough keyboards for rising demand.
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I wonder what Diatec would say to that?

pm_ said:
I initially emailed Diatec in December. They said they were working out an agreement with a new distributor for North America, and initially hoped to announce by the end of January. I emailed them again last week, and they said they're still working on the agreement and hope to announce by the end of February.

I'm not holding my breath for the end of February, but it does look like there will be a new North American Filco distributor in the not-to-distant future. I look forward to having a state side choice for both Filco and Leopold, and will wait until that time to make a decision.
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And more recently...
Hutch said:
Just thought I would provide a little update by saying that I emailed Diatec regarding when Filco distribution in North America would resume. This is an extract from the reply from Diatec:
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Just got my Ducky DK 9008-BELLB with Cherry Browns. I had to RMA a steelseries G6v2 because the left shift key didn't work out of the box. (bought new from Newegg)

My experience with black switches wasn't pleasant. The keys were really stiff and rigid. I don't want to be challenged when typing-

The Browns are perfect. King of all switches!
 
my filco shorted out where the cord comes out of the keyboard.. I'm going to try to fix it one of these days.. right now i'm using my buckling spring keyboard but not for long.. don't want to annoy the person below me. :)
 
I didn't go through all 35 pages, but I didn't see it on the original list.

I've got the Raptor-Gaming K1 Keyboard and I absolutely love it. I've been using it for amazingly over 4 years now, and that's using it every day. That should tell you something about the build quality. I got it in January 2007. Still works perfectly to this day, typing on it right now in fact. It's just a truly excellent mechanical keyboard.

I have a Das Keyboard as well, but I prefer the Raptor.
 
You can buy Filco keyboards from Amazon now. This is one of those times where I wish that Amazon took paypal since I have some money sitting in there.
 
Ripster55 said:
Congrats!

No cheetos while using that keyboard. Too expensive to replace.
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Indeed. I bought that keyboard, ended up selling my desktop, file server, and tv :eek:

Seriously though, I don't think I would enjoy the keyboard if I didn't spend some time on a blue cherry filco. Felt it was a little too harsh, hhkb <3
 
I've come straight from a rubber domed keyboard to a Razer BlackWidow and I absolutely love it, the blue switches are a dream to type on, but I'm starting to feel as though they're not that great for gaming.

Would anybody recommend any other swtiches over the blue? I've heard brown is pretty good with gaming, btu would it be good at typing. I sort of like the click of the blue switches, but at the same time I find them a bit too loud lol.
 
I'm not super fond of cherry blues. My favorite cherry switch is easily browns. The tactile bump is just enough for me. That said my favorite switch is buckling springs, easily. They are great for typing and I enjoy gaming on them. The only downside is that they are loud but I don't find the noise irritating. It's not a high pitched click like blues. Don't be afraid to give a Model M or Unicomp a shot.
 
Just placed a pre-order for a tenkeyless Leopold with MX browns. First mechanical keyboard so I'm pretty excited! Amazon now has Filco's with reds too.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
I'm not super fond of cherry blues. My favorite cherry switch is easily browns. The tactile bump is just enough for me. That said my favorite switch is buckling springs, easily. They are great for typing and I enjoy gaming on them. The only downside is that they are loud but I don't find the noise irritating. It's not a high pitched click like blues. Don't be afraid to give a Model M or Unicomp a shot.
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I am a Model M lover, and have two (One 52G9700 from 1993 which I use at work and one black Model M13 Trackpoint II for my home rig.)

I absolutely love these two keyboards, and have a difficult time imagining having to type on anything else.

That being said, I just refurbished the M13 and got the last replacement keycaps available in black. I am considering retiring this keyboard to a "museum" status, as I don't want to wear out the last remaining keys. I don't want to use a more common grey model which leaves me with moving away from the Model M's.

Since I like tactile keys I have been considering Cherry Blues, and I have come to like the appearance of the XArmor U9BL, I just hope I'll like the feel.

Since you have used both blues and Model M's can youi try to descripe in more detail how they feel compared to eachother?

Thanks,
Matt
 
I hate to even mention this but here goes:

After a few weeks I've noticed some fading on some of the keys on my Rosewill rk-9000. It's not the end of the world but a little disappointing to see something like that happen so quickly.

Is that pretty much just par for the course with a lot of these to have it happen that quickly?
 
Q-BZ said:
I hate to even mention this but here goes:

After a few weeks I've noticed some fading on some of the keys on my Rosewill rk-9000. It's not the end of the world but a little disappointing to see something like that happen so quickly.

Is that pretty much just par for the course with a lot of these to have it happen that quickly?
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I've had my rk9000 for a few weeks as well and the keys are all mint. I've read about some people's sweat being more acidic than others. Maybe thats the case?

I believe you can buy replacment keys to replace whatever keys you want on the rk9000

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=14955
 
Q-BZ said:
I hate to even mention this but here goes:

After a few weeks I've noticed some fading on some of the keys on my Rosewill rk-9000. It's not the end of the world but a little disappointing to see something like that happen so quickly.

Is that pretty much just par for the course with a lot of these to have it happen that quickly?
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Wow. I thought my black Model M was bad, and it took 4 years of frequent typing for the white lettering to start to wear off... Something isn't right there.


Yes, on keys that are pad printed, (versus other methods, like dye sublimation and two shot molding) finger oils over time soften the ink and cause it to wear off... But a few weeks is ridiculous.

I'd see if you can RMA it. Maybe there was a bad batch of ink or something?

Oftentimes on keyboards that are pad printed (a lot of black ones with white letters that are not double-shot, because dye sublimation does not work, white on black) what they do is they first pad print the lettering, and then clear coat with a thin resistant lacquer on top of it.

It still eventually wears off, but it usually takes years, not weeks. Maybe you got a batch where the coating was mistakenly not applied or something?
 
Zarathustra[H];1036953481 said:
Wow. I thought my black Model M was bad, and it took 4 years of frequent typing for the white lettering to start to wear off... Something isn't right there.


Yes, on keys that are pad printed, (versus other methods, like dye sublimation and two shot molding) finger oils over time soften the ink and cause it to wear off... But a few weeks is ridiculous.
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http://geekhack.org/showpost.php?p=294822&postcount=32

^^ That's me. I posted that a few days after I started to notice it. The KB was purchased January 20 so inside of a month of ownership I was seeing this.

I'm glad to know this isn't considered "normal" or "just the way it is."


I'd see if you can RMA it. Maybe there was a bad batch of ink or something?

Oftentimes on keyboards that are pad printed (a lot of black ones with white letters that are not double-shot, because dye sublimation does not work, white on black) what they do is they first pad print the lettering, and then clear coat with a thin resistant lacquer on top of it.

It still eventually wears off, but it usually takes years, not weeks. Maybe you got a batch where the coating was mistakenly not applied or something?
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Maybe on any of that. A few years after ownership, yeah, I'd expect to see some fading and think nothing of it.


You basically wrote out what I've been thinking. Something just seems strange and excessive about this in terms of how fast it happened.

If I RMA it back to Newegg...and I think it's too late now anyways...they don't have any more so I'd be flat out losing this thing.

I'll email Rosewill themselves and see what they say to me. It's not the end of the world but it is a bit disappointing nonetheless.
 
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Zarathustra[H];1036951153 said:
I am a Model M lover, and have two (One 52G9700 from 1993 which I use at work and one black Model M13 Trackpoint II for my home rig.)

I absolutely love these two keyboards, and have a difficult time imagining having to type on anything else.

That being said, I just refurbished the M13 and got the last replacement keycaps available in black. I am considering retiring this keyboard to a "museum" status, as I don't want to wear out the last remaining keys. I don't want to use a more common grey model which leaves me with moving away from the Model M's.

Since I like tactile keys I have been considering Cherry Blues, and I have come to like the appearance of the XArmor U9BL, I just hope I'll like the feel.

Since you have used both blues and Model M's can youi try to descripe in more detail how they feel compared to eachother?

Thanks,
Matt
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They are different. The tactile bump is much stiffer on blues. Thats probably the main thing that I just did not like. The second thing is that the key doesn't deactivate until you almost completely release the key which can make double tapping a key a pain. The sound is also different. I find the higher pitched noise a little annoying. Some people love blues. I don't see why but they might be worth a shot. On the other hand you can't go wrong with a Unicomp customizer.

Take a look at this article at geekhack about the differences between cherry switches. My favorite cherry switch is MX browns but I still prefer the feel of buckling springs. The only reason that I use browns is because they are quiet.
 
Wow. This is impressive. After posting in this thread last night I fired off a friendly email to Rosewill's tech support themselves and this is what was waiting for me in the mailbox this morning:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting Rosewill Support Service.

We humbly apologize for the inconvenience that may have caused you.

We have confirmed that it is a common issue.

We have forwarded this issue to our upper management for further investigation. Please rest assured that our mission is to provide the most reliable quality products and best services with the lowest price possible to our customers. We view our customers as our most important assets and aim to create lasting customer relationship.

If there are some quality issues on the keyboard, you can simply email us with SO# or Invoice# and your current shipping, we are more than happy to issue an RMA for a replacement for you.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.
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Q-BZ said:
Wow. This is impressive. After posting in this thread last night I fired off a friendly email to Rosewill's tech support themselves and this is what was waiting for me in the mailbox this morning:
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I'm impressed that they are owning up to that it is a common issue.

My guess is they are currently investigating why this is happening, and don't want to just offer you another one as a replacement, as it might just happen again with the new one.
 
Zarathustra[H];1036956566 said:
I'm impressed that they are owning up to that it is a common issue.

My guess is they are currently investigating why this is happening, and don't want to just offer you another one as a replacement, as it might just happen again with the new one.
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Exactly. I'm not going to take them up on an RMA for exactly that reason. They could send me another one and a month from now I'd be right back to the same issue.

And again, the KB itself works great and is fantastic so I'd say I'm well satisfied at this point and we'll see where this goes.
 
Q-BZ said:
Exactly. I'm not going to take them up on an RMA for exactly that reason. They could send me another one and a month from now I'd be right back to the same issue.

And again, the KB itself works great and is fantastic so I'd say I'm well satisfied at this point and we'll see where this goes.
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Its good that they're owning up to the issue. I would be in the same boat you are because I touch type so blank keys aren't a problem.
 
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