Quake3World

What are your guys' thoughts on mechanical keyboards?

I dropped in to Best Buy last night to grab a hard drive and ended up walking out of the store with a Razer Black Widow. Impulse buy.

I'm not sure how I feel about it though. It feels like there's slightly more effort involved in pressing down a key (not a huge deal, just something I've noticed) with the new keyboard vs the Lycosa. I also liked the height of the keys on the old keyboard more. I keep catching my fingers on the edges of the surrounding keys as I reach up from homerow.

I have noticed that the key presses are much more responsive and it definitely feels like a more solid keyboard. I haven't really played with the macro functionality on this thing yet and, unfortunately, it's loud as fuck from the key clicking (some people like that apparently?)

Do any of you guys use mechanical keyboards and, if so, what brand/model do you like the most? This is my first one I've used and I'm still on the fence about whether I like it or not. On the plus side, it makes me sound busy as fuck.

Black Widow with Cherry MX Browns. I like it. I liked the Lycosa too but the build quality was shit.

I have the daskeyboard Model S Ultimate Silent. I couldn't get myself to use a membrane keyboard after I got it for home, so I got one for work, too. I love it.

why would you get blank keys?

The more I'm typing on this thing the more I'm beginning to actually really enjoy and possibly even prefer this keyboard over the old lycosa.

There's just something about the way these keys pop back that just feels right. It's just a much more responsive experience.

Still a little disappointed that I bought a new keyboard when I really didn't need one that much. Whatever.

Silicone_Milk wrote:The more I'm typing on this thing the more I'm beginning to actually really enjoy and possibly even prefer this keyboard over the old lycosa.

There's just something about the way these keys pop back that just feels right. It's just a much more responsive experience.

Still a little disappointed that I bought a new keyboard when I really didn't need one that much. Whatever.

Thing about mechanicals is that the key is activated once you hear the click of the switch so the idea is you don't need to press all the way down (bottoming out as they call it) to trigger it, making typing faster. But on the lycosa there's no distance to push really so it's probably about the same distance, only with yours, the presses will feel more tactile and satisfying.

I've been considering replacing my lycosa with a mech keyboard for ages. For the hell of it, not because I actually need one. I still enjoy the look of the lycosa and the low profile keys. But yeah, build quality leaves a lot to be desired. Touchpad backlight stopped working on my first and this replacement I have under warranty also has it's issues.

I personally wouldn't buy any of the razer black widows because I've heard stories about the spacebar pushing down the alt key next to it and other key problems, but in almost every other respect it would suit me as I prefer glossy, backlit and MX cherry blues for the clicky sound. I wish DAS keyboards (the ones that aren't blank as I'm a peck and hunt typer, definitely no expert touch typist like I presume Toxic Bug is) would do a backlit version but it doesn't seem like they ever will. They're very nice looking and very high quality. I've been considering this one but not 100% on its looks. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=2107

andyman wrote:why would you get blank keys?

Because it's cool

Going to have to try some of these. I really do love my Apple k/b though. Going strong after 4 years.

i'm using the steel series g6v2 right now. great kb except they moved the \ key next to shift which is fucking lame.

i'm gonna buy the Das Keyboard for my iMac soon, they are sick.

Reminds me of those old IBM keyboards. They went click click click click.

type "m" keyboards

Big Kahuna Burger wrote:i'm using the steel series g6v2 right now. great kb except they moved the \ key next to shift which is fucking lame.

i absolutely hate that.

Big Kahuna Burger wrote:i'm using the steel series g6v2 right now. great kb except they moved the \ key next to shift which is fucking lame.

i'm gonna buy the Das Keyboard for my iMac soon, they are sick.

That Das Keyboard really looks and sounds great. Damn this thread.

shaft wrote:Black Widow with Cherry MX Browns. I like it. I liked the Lycosa too but the build quality was shit.

I'm using a Lycosa now and I like it.

The only problem i have with it is that it sometimes types the letter next to the one I should have used.

I blame it on having too fat fingertips.

I mostly had Logitech G series keyboards in the past , those things were utter garbage due to the massive keys you had to press, unresponsiveness and way too large in size , with so many macrofunctionality I can't imagine any person who would have use for activating them all.

DRuM wrote:
But yeah, build quality leaves a lot to be desired. Touchpad backlight stopped working on my first and this replacement I have under warranty also has it's issues.

What operating system are you using? I have no problems under Ubuntu 12.04 regarding backlighting. Makes me think it's not a hardware issue, but the software/driver is badly coded.

my model is RZ03-0018.

Lol loud clicking moronics...

yeah i had read about the spacebar/alt button issues as well after buying the keyboard and then looking it up to see if I made a decent decision.

Luckily my keyboard was produced in a good batch and it has zero of the problems mentioned for this model.

Solid keyboard. I like it.

I've found that the downside to mechanical keyboards is that now every other keyboard feels like spongy shit and are dreadful to type on.

Silicone_Milk wrote:I've found that the downside to mechanical keyboards is that now every other keyboard feels like spongy shit and are dreadful to type on.

Yep