Price is no object - Cherry MX Brown Tenkeyless, backlit

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y0bailey

Gawd
Joined
Mar 31, 2003
Messages
558
I just want a good keyboard. My Noppoo Choc Mini has been great for the past 3-4 years, until I murdered it with a rum drink. It still works, but random double inputs are driving me mad.

I do want a backlit keyboard. I would even go as far as to say I want fancy WASD colored differently than the rest in backlit mode (not a requirement, just a want).

My Noppoo had cherry MX black keys, which get tiring after much typing. I love them for gaming, but I think brown will be my best compromise.


Lastly, Tenkeyless for sure. I have fallen in love with my Noppoo choc mini's size.

If you had no restrictions, what would you buy?
 
Try washing it with soap and warm water and then letting it completely dry upside down for a few days (or smothered in a desiccant, like rice).

I did that with my Nighthawk and it ended up just fine (but I also have a bunch of Das mechanicals KBs sitting around so it wasn't a big of a hassle).
 
Your mini can be salvaged, but it requires either a tear down or lengthy soaking process. The tear down isn't hard if you know how to work with a soldering iron; you basically desolder the affected switches, disassemble and clean them, test and reinstall them. The other option is a distilled (not spring or de-ionized) water soak, which can possibly take days depending on the substance; you want to submerge the board in a tub of distilled water for several hours at a time before replacing the water, and actuate the effected keys a few times every couple of hours, when you're satisfied with the results let it dry thoroughly and it should be ok. The only issue with the soak method is that it may remove factory lube and cause the keys to feel differently.

If you're set on buying a new board and money really is no issue, I'd take what the board is being used for in consideration to decide whether to stick with Cherry MX or find something else. For me, Cherry MX is fine and I'd take a look into full custom boards, get a nice one with the layout I wanted and mod it to my liking.
 
Well my board is drying from it's soaking last night. Hopefully it will be OK and live to fight another day. If not I am debating between a Deck and Max Blackbird.

Thoughts between the two?
 
You could consider the Cooler Master Quickfire Rapid-I: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129031 and the Ducky Shine 3: http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=551. Mechanicalkeyboards.com carries the Ducky Shine 3 TKL (MX Brown) with other backlit colors also. I really like Ducky's products. I've owned multiple keyboards from Ducky as well as Cooler Master and a number of other brands, but Ducky's build quality and internals are top notch.

If you're set between the Deck and Max Blackbird, I'd go with the Deck as long as you can tolerate the font of the key caps. The Deck key caps are PBT and more durable than the Max Blackbird's.
 
The only two keyboards I would look at in your criteria is the Blackbird, or the Deck.

Blackbird has a nicer font and is a good board (Uses doubleshot ABS keycaps), the Deck (US Only version) uses doubleshot PBT keycaps but has an ugly font.

All others will have laser etched or painted keycaps....

The maxkeyboard Blackbird has custom key lighting for WASD as an option. (I did mine in red and white).
 
Well the distilled water trick worked wonders. Everything is back in running order.

Thanks for the tips. I get to keep my keyboard for a few more months. I am however still itching for some backlighting.
 
If price is truly no object go with a custom Korean keyboard (KMAC, LZ, Duck, etc.) and a nice set of GMK/cherry doubleshots. You'd have to buy one second hand or buy a kit to put it together yourself, but they're arguably the best keyboard money can buy.

If you're only interested in boards that are mass-produced, then I would probably go with the CM Storm QFR-i or Ducky Shine 3 TKL. Depends on your preference of stabilizer (costar former and cherry latter). If you don't know or care what that is then either would be a great keyboard. The Deck/Max isn't worth the price premium IMO.
 
y0bailey said:
I just want a good keyboard. My Noppoo Choc Mini has been great for the past 3-4 years, until I murdered it with a rum drink. It still works, but random double inputs are driving me mad.

I do want a backlit keyboard. I would even go as far as to say I want fancy WASD colored differently than the rest in backlit mode (not a requirement, just a want).

My Noppoo had cherry MX black keys, which get tiring after much typing. I love them for gaming, but I think brown will be my best compromise.


Lastly, Tenkeyless for sure. I have fallen in love with my Noppoo choc mini's size.

If you had no restrictions, what would you buy?
Click to expand...
I spilled tomato soup on mine. I just soaked it in the tube for 5-10 minutes and made sure to press down aggressively onto every key multiple times.

My Ducky shine is now good as new!
 
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