Mechanical Keyboard Club!

[Ridska]

Today , I found out about whether do i like RGB's or don't. used to or kinda still dont like em really.

The truth is , the type of RGB that i like is kinda minimalist. The main gripes that i had with RGB's  is that when the lights shine through or between the gaps of the caps. IMO , too much light and unnecessarily bright. the thing that would be IMO is that it just lit up the letters and there no light between the caps. that IMO is cool in my book. minimalist yet not too flashy. 

 

SO the main question is , where can i find such a mechanical keyboard............? ( plz help ? ) 

 

[YellowMenace]

Whaddup guys, I've got some questions. I've got a Blackwidow X chroma TE and it's pretty nice, considering getting some vortex doubleshot pbt caps for it just for the backlighting.

Anything I should know about them? Any other pbt doubleshot backlit key caps that I should consider under $50?

 

Also, any gateron red keyboard anyone can recommend for under/around $50? I want something quiet for typing at night since I live with roommates who don't like the loud clacking at night. I'm not a fan of cherry reds, they feel way too plastic-y/grainy for my taste.
Monoprice makes one that seems pretty nice, but that iso/ansi hybrid layout companies keep using kills it for me. And there's a Qisan keyboard on Amazon, but with a price of around $70, it seems pretty pricey for knockoff switches that can be found on cheaper boards.

[Aytex]

Them vortex set is pretty much the only ones I think.

Its pretty decent. good price imo

[Silent Node]

I'm on my third mechanical keyboard now. First up was a Razor Blackwidow, then a Chroma. Upon the death of that Chroma, I have gone Corsair (K70 LUX RGB). Got it with Cherry MX Browns, since I thought my Razor was too loud.

 

I already love this thing. Even aside from the acoustic difference, I love the feel of these switches vs the Razor ones. The build quality seems really solid. I'm extremely happy with the choice that I made.

[PocketNerd]

I bet you folks have had this question asked repeated so I apologize if it brings any annoyance. Which switch allows for the need to make deliberate (heavy?) key presses? The descriptions in the OP aren't exactly clear on that for me.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, PocketNerd said:

I bet you folks have had this question asked repeated so I apologize if it brings any annoyance. Which switch allows for the need to make deliberate (heavy?) key presses? The descriptions in the OP aren't exactly clear on that for me.

Chery Black?

[YellowMenace]

24 minutes ago, PocketNerd said:

I bet you folks have had this question asked repeated so I apologize if it brings any annoyance. Which switch allows for the need to make deliberate (heavy?) key presses? The descriptions in the OP aren't exactly clear on that for me.

Cherry blacks or greens are what you're looking for.

Blacks for a heavy linear switch, greens for heavier tactile switchs

[AMDPRO]

Great thread, I have a k70 lux, Cherry MX Blue is definitely the best!

[PocketNerd]

7 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Chery Black?

 

7 hours ago, Yellow Screaming Madness said:

Cherry blacks or greens are what you're looking for.

Blacks for a heavy linear switch, greens for heavier tactile switchs

Awesome, thanks!

[iFreilicht]

On 4/19/2017 at 8:11 PM, Ridska said:

Today , I found out about whether do i like RGB's or don't. used to or kinda still dont like em really.

The truth is , the type of RGB that i like is kinda minimalist. The main gripes that i had with RGB's  is that when the lights shine through or between the gaps of the caps. IMO , too much light and unnecessarily bright. the thing that would be IMO is that it just lit up the letters and there no light between the caps. that IMO is cool in my book. minimalist yet not too flashy. 

 

SO the main question is , where can i find such a mechanical keyboard............? ( plz help ? ) 

 

Something like that doesn't exist to my knowledge, because it is very hard to close the gaps between the caps.

Maybe it would be possible to design a 3D-printable shield that goes over the switch and prevents light from leaking out. Or you could cut all the caps down and design a CNC-milled insert that converted an existing keyboard to something like a chiclet-style keyboard. In any case, quite hard things to do, which is probably why no board like this exists. If you want to go minimalist with LED lighting, you could also use thick, black, blank keycaps that don't allow any light to bleed through, or you could not light the top of the board at all and go for underglow instead.

[Falkentyne]

On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 11:11 AM, Ridska said:

Today , I found out about whether do i like RGB's or don't. used to or kinda still dont like em really.

The truth is , the type of RGB that i like is kinda minimalist. The main gripes that i had with RGB's  is that when the lights shine through or between the gaps of the caps. IMO , too much light and unnecessarily bright. the thing that would be IMO is that it just lit up the letters and there no light between the caps. that IMO is cool in my book. minimalist yet not too flashy. 

 

SO the main question is , where can i find such a mechanical keyboard............? ( plz help ? ) 

 

The Logitech RGB keyboards with Romer-G switches will be exactly what you want, in that case.

[iFreilicht]

On 4/20/2017 at 7:56 PM, PocketNerd said:

I bet you folks have had this question asked repeated so I apologize if it brings any annoyance. Which switch allows for the need to make deliberate (heavy?) key presses? The descriptions in the OP aren't exactly clear on that for me.

Ah sorry I didn't see this question before.

Others have mentioned blacks, but those are actually not as heavy as they are made out to be. Here's a complete list of all flavours of Cherry MX switches.

You can see that the actuation force of the MX Black is only 60cN, which is a little less than MX Clear at 65cN. This is due to the linear action of the switch, there is no peak in force before actuation.

 

My recommendation would be Green (80cN) or Clear if you're going for a consumer board, those are readily available for many boards. MX Whites (Clicky at 80cN, so quite similar to Green in terms of force) are not so easy to get but available in some places. In a work environment, I'd recommend going with the Clears if you can.

If you want to go all out and build a board yourself, you could also try to get your hand on Linear or Tactile Greys, which are normally used for the spacebar on boards with blacks or browns/clears, respectively. Those switches are hard to come by, but they have 80cN activation force like Greens, so if you try out clears or blacks and feel they are not heavy enough, grey may be your best bet. As @lw88 said, to use those switches it's best to get a modular board if you don't want to build one yourself.

 

However, if you do want to DIY, you could also get normal switches and do a spring swap to make them heavier.

 

On 4/22/2017 at 5:19 PM, Falkentyne said:

The Logitech RGB keyboards with Romer-G switches will be exactly what you want, in that case.

Oh right, the stem of Romers really helps with light leakage. As @Ridska asked for a minimal look, the G810 seems like the best option.

What might also work is to paint the plate of a regular keyboard with some Black 2.0, which absorbs almost all light in the visible spectrum.

 

6 hours ago, lw88 said:

Looks awesome, are those keys G20? How does typing feel with them?

[iFreilicht]

10 hours ago, lw88 said:

One thing they're much better for is gaming.

That I would imagine, at least compared to sculpted profiles like Cherry or DCS. I wonder how much difference there is between between these and DSA or XDA.

[iFreilicht]

Yeah maxkey SA seems tempting, they have much coarser texture than SP SA, which was my main gripe with those. But I think I'm converging more to lower profile boards, so SA is a little counter-productive in that regard

[BristolBrick]

I have a Hewlett Packard C1405B from 1992.

It is so old it has no windows key.

.

It's not actually mechanical. But It does a damn good job. Having compared it to a mech (high end one too) it is arguably better. It's noisy, it feels great to type on (even compared to a $350 mech keyboard)

[Ramen Man]

On 30/04/2017 at 9:06 AM, lw88 said:

Is it membrane? Or buckling spring?

No, i don't think so. He has pointed out that it isn't in fact mechanical... so i would safely assume that it is membrane?

[Aytex]

It's rubber dome

[steezemageeze]

On 4/26/2017 at 9:13 AM, BristolBrick said:

I have a Hewlett Packard C1405B from 1992.

It is so old it has no windows key.

.

It's not actually mechanical. But It does a damn good job. Having compared it to a mech (high end one too) it is arguably better. It's noisy, it feels great to type on (even compared to a $350 mech keyboard)

I have a similar one (forget the model number), i thought it felt pretty great when I picked it up but I realized it was pretty meh when I compared it to the blues in my QFR. I still use it occasionally though

[ArmswieldTheHero]

Heh, I know I'm gonna get crucified for this, but I personally like a very specific kind of membrane keyboard better than I like cherry MX browns. I've never found a membrane keyboard like this one, but it feels damn good to type AND to game on it. Its very clicky, its got a somewhat high actuation force (which I actually prefer since working has made my hands and fingers very strong). This specific keyboard is actually an extremely old dell.  I dont even know what model it is, my dad had it in his shop and when I went to type on it, it felt absolutely wonderful and I NEEDED it. 

[iFreilicht]

15 hours ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

Its very clicky,

The word you're searching for is tactile. A rubber dome cannot click.

Other than that, no hard feelings. Some rubber domes are very well made, my Sidewinder X6 still feels awesome even after using Gateron Browns for almost a year now. My grandparents have that exact board as well, but it's been a long time since I typed on it

[ArmswieldTheHero]

13 hours ago, iFreilicht said:

The word you're searching for is tactile. A rubber dome cannot click.

Other than that, no hard feelings. Some rubber domes are very well made, my Sidewinder X6 still feels awesome even after using Gateron Browns for almost a year now. My grandparents have that exact board as well, but it's been a long time since I typed on it

No, its tactile and clicky.

[iFreilicht]

1 hour ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

No, its tactile and clicky.

A clicky keyboard requires a dedicated mechanism that produces an audible click. No rubberdome keyboard I've ever heard of has such a mechanism. If yours does, please take pictures of that mechanism, that would be a world first and extremely interesting to see.

 

Tactile refers to the bump in the actuation force curve, which is mostly unrelated to a switch being clicky or not. Theoretically it would be possible to make a clicky switch that isn't tactile, but the way click mechanism are usually implemented in keyboard switches leads to all currently available clicky switches being tactile as well.

[ArmswieldTheHero]

Just now, iFreilicht said:

A clicky keyboard requires a dedicated mechanism that produces an audible click. No rubberdome keyboard I've ever heard of has such a mechanism. If yours does, please take pictures of that mechanism, that would be a world first and extremely interesting to see.

 

Tactile refers to the bump in the actuation force curve, which is mostly unrelated to a switch being clicky or not. Theoretically it would be possible to make a clicky switch that isn't tactile, but the way click mechanism are usually implemented in keyboard switches leads to all currently available clicky switches being tactile as well.

I didnt mean that it has a dedicated clicker mechanism, I just meant that it makes a clearly audible click every time its pressed. Even if I gently put my finger on it and THEN click it.

[iFreilicht]

14 hours ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

I didnt mean that it has a dedicated clicker mechanism, I just meant that it makes a clearly audible click every time its pressed. Even if I gently put my finger on it and THEN click it.

Could you make a video of that? I'm genuinely interested in this now, I haven't heard of a rubber dome that makes an audible click and it would be very cool to see that.

[ArmswieldTheHero]

On 5/4/2017 at 7:19 AM, iFreilicht said:

Could you make a video of that? I'm genuinely interested in this now, I haven't heard of a rubber dome that makes an audible click and it would be very cool to see that.

Sure, let me take a video. I have a funeral today so I should have it up sometime tomorrow.