Mechanical Keyboards

[Hobie-wan]

For the right price it's a good investment purchase though.

FTFY

[crux]

I meant in terms of price vs utility, but semantics blah blah blah too. I concede the point.

[jay_red]

I am not sure anyone worried about loudness of their keyboard should look at mechanical ones, the one I got has the brown switches, which are considered "quieter" and it is plenty clicky and loud, especially the space bar, which has a noticeably different tone when pressed.

About the most common switch version (blue, brown, black etc...) from what I saw when searching is that the blues were much more common than any other version, brown being second, then black. There are some other versions that can be had, but they did not seem to be very common.

[isiolia]

I am not sure anyone worried about loudness of their keyboard should look at mechanical ones, the one I got has the brown switches, which are considered "quieter" and it is plenty clicky and loud, especially the space bar, which has a noticeably different tone when pressed.

Something to consider is that you may be adding to the noise by bottoming out keys.

Browns aren't loud in and of themselves. Pull a key off and just press the switch, or just press keys slowly and notice where the actuation is. Compare that to a "normal" keystrike.
Browns have a perceptible "bump", which is as far as you actually need to press the key down. Some switch types actually click there, browns are silent.

Once you get used to the mechanical, and the lighter touch needed, you'll probably find things get quieter - while membrane keyboards become more noticeably cumbersome to type on.

Another option is to fit o-rings on the keys, which some suppliers (like WASD) offer as a built-to-order option. That serves to cushion the keys when they bottom out, quieting things.

[jinx]

I use a Model M and a BlackWidow Ultimate at home. I've been wanting to find a small Mechanical keyboard to bring to work, but all the small form-factors seem to be ten-keyless, which I can't stand. I'm using the smaller IBM SK-8809 at work for now, but it's not mechanical.

[Hatta]

Hey, speaking of mechanical USB keyboards, does anyone know of one with n-key rollover? My Das Keyboard does not, unfortunately. But it's one of the older models. Fortunately I don't do a lot of gaming on that box. Do the Unicomp USB model Ms have NKRO?

You can test for NKRO by hitting caps lock, holding both shift keys, and typing "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog". Here's what it looks like with this generic Gateway USB kb:

he quik brown fo juped oer he la dog

If you get the full sentence, you have at least 3 key rollover, which is probably plenty for most games.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Hey, speaking of mechanical USB keyboards, does anyone know of one with n-key rollover? My Das Keyboard does not, unfortunately. But it's one of the older models. Fortunately I don't do a lot of gaming on that box. Do the Unicomp USB model Ms have NKRO?

You can test for NKRO by hitting caps lock, holding both shift keys, and typing "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog". Here's what it looks like with this generic Gateway USB kb:

he quik brown fo juped oer he la dog

If you get the full sentence, you have at least 3 key rollover, which is probably plenty for most games.

Tested mine and I guess mine does.

[Hobie-wan]

If you get the full sentence, you have at least 3 key rollover, which is probably plenty for most games.

Woo mine passes. My work PC keyboard... atrocious.

[Xevin]

Im a HUGE mechanical keyboard fan. I've tried out a ton, but the one I always come back to is the WASD keyboards (http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/). They are made with the same quality of Filco, but they have many improvements over them. Including the ability to custom print the keycaps and choose their colors if you want. They also sell two types of dampeners to prevent bottoming out noise. I prefer Cherry Blues and no dampening. Maximum sound!!!

I love them so much I bought two of them. One for home and one to use at work! You are totally right too. Once you go mechanical you cannot go back. It ruins you forever.

I just visited their site and realized that they have released the V2 keyboards! They looks like they offer a lot of improvements over the V1s that I have. The only thing I don't particularly like about the V1 is the extremely bright blue leds for the lock indicators. The new V2s have tiny red leds, so I bet they are not as bright. Also detachable cable and no branding. I think I might need a 3rd keyboard from them...

Also!!! Key caps can greatly improve the typing experience. I never really cared much about the type of plastic that is used for the key caps before, but I would always rub the labels off all my keys. And the keys would lose their texture and get smooth and slimey on me. I even rubbed a hole in one of my space bars once... Then I discovered that on mechanical keyboards they can make the keycaps out of different materials. After a bit of research I settled on PBT as my material of choice. I tried a few out, but eventually I settled on some side printed PBT key caps I found from a seller on ebay. I freaking love them. All keyboards should have side printed keys. It just makes sense. and the texture is going strong after more then 2 years of use. I have a set of orange ABS keys for my WASD cluster and they are super shiney and smooth, but all the other PBT keys are still rough and textured. Even the space bar!

And some pics:

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[KalessinDB]

IBM Model M. I think it just turned 20 this year. I like knowing that I can bludgeon someone to death with my keyboard and then use it to type their obituary.