Mechanical Keyboard Guide

yeah, been eyeballing that one. It was an additional $15 off last week but I missed it :(

Now the question is - wait for another discount or buy now to make sure I get one at all.

Also makes you wonder about the others. With Browns being such a popular switch, and the frames being the same, are they discontinuing all the RK9000's?
 
Looks like it's even $65 after rebate. Good price.

However, I'm really not a fan of the look. I suppose I could fill in the styling, sand it down and paint the frame, and get different keycaps. But at that point it's back up to the cost of the other board.
 
It happens some times on Newegg, but I've also heard rumors of Cherry MX Black being labeled EoL. I don't know if it's true or not, but I wouldn't worry about it too much (there's easy ways to mod Cherry MX switches if you want to put the effort into it).





Blame the patent system! I think it's silly to monopolize what would other wise be popular tech if not for the patent holders; smart, but still silly.

They could license it, or sell the assemblies for others to use, like Cherry does... Would probably make more money too...
 
Asia already has multiple Cherry Corp clones if ZF abandons the biz.

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Spilled tea with honey on my black widow ultimate a few days ago, promptly unplugged it and let it dry out. Already washed the keys and aprox a dozen switches are quite stiff from the honey so I was thinking I'd soak in distilled water and spam only the keys that I have issues with? Don't really want to soak it in isopropyl alcohol but I can. Any recommendations on how long to soak and etc?

Ended up washing all the keys in warm water + dish soap, and the pcb in room temp distilled water, dried the pcb with a heat gun and left it with keys faced down in a dry place for about 12 hours. Works fine now :)
 
I was just about to purchase a Ducky Shine II. But the Cherry Stabilizers are repellent. :(

They're different from normal Cherry stabs, not as much contact so they feel smoother.

Edit; almost every backlit board you'll find will have Cherry type stabilizers, only recently have Costar's been made compatible with LEDs.
 
They're different from normal Cherry stabs, not as much contact so they feel smoother.

Edit; almost every backlit board you'll find will have Cherry type stabilizers, only recently have Costar's been made compatible with LEDs.

WASD is releasing LED boards with Costar stabilizers in March.
 
I just got a Logitech G510, and it seems to already have the same problem that my pair of G15s developed over the years: The left shift key isn't sensitive enough. When I'm sprinting in first person shooters, I'll suddenly start walking unless I press down much harder than I'd like.

So I'm wondering if a mechanical keyboard would solve this issue, specifically the Logitech G710+. Do the keys register with less pressure? And for a rectangular key like shift, does pressing towards one end of the key still reliably register the key press?
 
Yeah, that would pretty much never happen with a mechanical keyboard I would think... The key switch registers halfway thru the travel, so if you never lift the key you're not even putting any pressure on the actuation point. Never mind that mechanical boards last much longer in general. Problem with rubber domes is that you absolutely have to bottom out for the strike to register and any wear or lack of even pressure will affect that.
 
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I have way too many mechanical keyboards already, and I want more. I'm an addict. :(

On the bright side I was able to justify my most recent addition by the fact that it is my first backlit mechanical keyboard. :) A Ducky Shine with Cherry Browns and blue LEDs is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. But already I want another backlit board with Cherry Reds, Costar stabilizers and white backlighting. Sigh.

Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the feel of Blue switches and the sound is neat. But I do a lot of late night gaming & typing on the weekends, and I feel they are just too loud when others are trying to sleep in adjacent rooms. For that reason, my Das Ultimate has been in a drawer for probably over a year but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. :(
 
I have way too many mechanical keyboards already, and I want more. I'm an addict. :(

I went through a few weeks last summer where I was seriously considering a Realforce with Topre switches, and I already have two other keyboards with Cherry switches.

Fortunately I talked myself out of it. :eek:
 
Reliable key registering and even pressure are the main reasons why I use mechboards.

When a membrane keyboard starts to fail you have those problems. At that point it's time to get a new one. I've had my Das Keyboard Professional for over two years and I had a hard time getting half that out of any membrane based keyboard.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039027813 said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I will check in with them. They may still have some older 1 piece keys in stock (the customizes used to come with them I understand) but as of today, everything they are making new appears to be two piece.

This is probably the right choice for them, as most people seem to prefer the two piece keys (and they appear more expensive to make), I'm just an oddball.

Maybe I can find an owner of an older customizer with 1 piece keys who wants to swap? :p



Problem is, most of those keycaps are going to be the ivory/taupe color scheme, not dark grey or black. I already have a full set of those keycaps from my 52G9700 that was water damaged (roof leak at work) but they look like absolute crap on a black keyboard.

I appreciate your suggestions.

I think the combination of the black top half from an M13 combined with the white bottom half and keys from a 1391401 look really good actually. The 1391401 keys are quite beautifully done. And the black case bridges it aesthetically to the rest of the computer...

(BTW: Someone on eBay is selling M13s presently. Apparently NOS...)
 
My latest scissor switch board started having key failure problems after less than 2 months use. With all these boards, the left shift key goes bad first, then it spreads to other keys. Screw it. I'm gonna make myself proficient on a mech board no matter how long it takes. I just got a Ducky Shine MX Red with yellow backlighting. I always preferred white, but this yellow looks really good.

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Just a quick question- I'm a nub when it comes to mechanical keyboards. I just purchased a Quickfire Rapid with black switches, and I will be using it via USB which does not have NKRO. However, it does advertise "anti-ghosting" even in USB mode.

I play a lot of fighting games, namely BlazBlue or SSF4AE, and I'm often pressing 4-5 keys simultaneously (A+S+D or Z+X+C at the same time along with a few arrow keys). Will it still have ghosting issues as I'm using a USB connection rather than PS/2?
 
Just a quick question- I'm a nub when it comes to mechanical keyboards. I just purchased a Quickfire Rapid with black switches, and I will be using it via USB which does not have NKRO. However, it does advertise "anti-ghosting" even in USB mode.

I play a lot of fighting games, namely BlazBlue or SSF4AE, and I'm often pressing 4-5 keys simultaneously (A+S+D or Z+X+C at the same time along with a few arrow keys). Will it still have ghosting issues as I'm using a USB connection rather than PS/2?

Yes, USB can handle NKRO up to 6 keys. Some makers like Corsair, will allow 7-20 NKRO using USB.
 
Its called 6KRO if its only allows 6 keys, NKRO means more than 12, IE more than any amount you can press to most people which is typically 18 for most NKRO keyboards now days.
 
I've never tried any of these new mechanical keyboards, but I had an old keytronic in the 90's that I used until it broke sometime around 2001. How do they compare to these new ones? I guess a problem is that very few people have old hardware left to compare with...

I wonder though if we are going to get a new generation of youngsters hitting the keys so hard that you can hear them a mile away. My dad manages to break every single laptop keyboard in less than a year. Back in the early 80's he spilled a bottle of coke on his UNIX terminal at work and after that he had to punch the keys HARD in order to press them down. He got used to typing like that and never unlearned this typing habit...
 
I just got word that WASD V2 Code might be dropping sometime next week. V2 Code will only be available with Cherry MX Clear switches.... Good news for me, bad news if you don't like Clears.
 
I've never tried any of these new mechanical keyboards, but I had an old keytronic in the 90's that I used until it broke sometime around 2001. How do they compare to these new ones? I guess a problem is that very few people have old hardware left to compare with...

I wonder though if we are going to get a new generation of youngsters hitting the keys so hard that you can hear them a mile away. My dad manages to break every single laptop keyboard in less than a year. Back in the early 80's he spilled a bottle of coke on his UNIX terminal at work and after that he had to punch the keys HARD in order to press them down. He got used to typing like that and never unlearned this typing habit...

Get him a IBM model M, the most solid keyboard ever made.
 
I finally ordered my Ducky Shine 3! Should arrive tomorrow; MX Blues with red backlight.
 
I finally ordered my Ducky Shine 3! Should arrive tomorrow; MX Blues with red backlight.

A couple of hours after I bought mine (browns) from MechanicalKeyboards, they announced that Ducky changed the name of the Purple version to "Magenta". Guess which color I ordered.

me too. although the longer I wait the more tempted I get for a ducky shine 3...

DO IT. Go czech out the kb/m pics thread for a preview.
 
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