Keyboard help / Recommendations

[SM Phoo]

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I fancy a new keyboard. My partner bought me a G910 Orion when I first got my PC, but I feel I'm missing out somewhere, so initially I narrowed it down to SS Apex Pro, Huntsman Elite or K95 Plat (From the UK, all 3 boards are around £200, but I didn't mind going for 'hardly used' for more around the £100 mark, minus the Apex pro, which doesn't really have a used market yet)

 

After doing a K95 vs Huntsman Elite search on google, I dropped in on a reddit page asking the exact same question, and one of the first replies was:

"What are you looking for in a keyboard? Because no one here is going to recommend those two."

 

So after more reading and youtube videos, I came across the Ducky Mecha Mini and the Duragod Venus. I decided I wanted the Mecha Mini with speed silver switches, but people still recommended the huntsman elite as a very top keyboard for gaming. The only downside was the price...(but used is a little less than the Ducky Mecha Mini and comes with a wrist rest)

 

So I was coming here to ask the question, is the Ducky going to be a better build than the Huntsman elite, but I saw a keyboard topic and people mentioned the GMMK. I did look at this keyboard, but what put me off, was on the overclockers website they only sold Gateron or Kailh switches, and being influence in the past, I just assumed Cherry keys were the best, yet people on here were saying otherwise, so now I'm sort of back to the drawing board.

 

My options right now are:

Nearly new Huntsman Elite

Ducky Mecha Mini

GMMK with xx switches and keycaps

 

 

What are your recommendations?

A few things.

Keyboard size - Really not bothered

Switches - I'd rather them be quiet, but it's not an issue. After reading, the Speed Silver seemed the ones I'd like as it'll purely be used for gaming

Extras - I'm not bothered about USB pass through, media keys, macro keys but may like a wrist rest in the future. I'd have to get a feel for the keyboard first I guess

RGB - It's nice, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Price - Isn't an issue as such, as long as I feel I'm getting a good keyboard

 

Also, if I decided to go down the GMMK route, where are the best places to buy quality keycaps

 

Thanks!

[Constantin]

5 minutes ago, SM Phoo said:

Skip spoiler if you just want to recommend a keyboard

Read spoiler if you want to read a long post!

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I fancy a new keyboard. My partner bought me a G910 Orion when I first got my PC, but I feel I'm missing out somewhere, so initially I narrowed it down to SS Apex Pro, Huntsman Elite or K95 Plat (From the UK, all 3 boards are around £200, but I didn't mind going for 'hardly used' for more around the £100 mark, minus the Apex pro, which doesn't really have a used market yet)

 

After doing a K95 vs Huntsman Elite search on google, I dropped in on a reddit page asking the exact same question, and one of the first replies was:

"What are you looking for in a keyboard? Because no one here is going to recommend those two."

 

So after more reading and youtube videos, I came across the Ducky Mecha Mini and the Duragod Venus. I decided I wanted the Mecha Mini with speed silver switches, but people still recommended the huntsman elite as a very top keyboard for gaming. The only downside was the price...(but used is a little less than the Ducky Mecha Mini and comes with a wrist rest)

 

So I was coming here to ask the question, is the Ducky going to be a better build than the Huntsman elite, but I saw a keyboard topic and people mentioned the GMMK. I did look at this keyboard, but what put me off, was on the overclockers website they only sold Gateron or Kailh switches, and being influence in the past, I just assumed Cherry keys were the best, yet people on here were saying otherwise, so now I'm sort of back to the drawing board.

 

My options right now are:

Nearly new Huntsman Elite

Ducky Mecha Mini

GMMK with xx switches and keycaps

 

 

What are your recommendations?

A few things.

Keyboard size - Really not bothered

Switches - I'd rather them be quiet, but it's not an issue. After reading, the Speed Silver seemed the ones I'd like as it'll purely be used for gaming

Extras - I'm not bothered about USB pass through, media keys, macro keys but may like a wrist rest in the future. I'd have to get a feel for the keyboard first I guess

RGB - It's nice, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Price - Isn't an issue as such, as long as I feel I'm getting a good keyboard

 

Also, if I decided to go down the GMMK route, where are the best places to buy quality keycaps

 

Thanks!

I would go for the Corsair rapid fire RGB, as the price got quite low

[thedangerine]

Personally I really like the brown switches, they are still quiet and I feel like they are harder to bottom out which causes a lot of noise for non clicky switches. I'm a sucker for corsair keyboards, iCUE is pretty great as well with all the customization you can do

[The Torrent]

huntsman elite or k95,

issue i have with corsair keyboards is dodgy all capital font

but you say you want quiet switches which huntsman elite is not so i guess k95 with silver switches?

apex pro is also good if you like low actuation

 

huntsman elite has best wrist wrest, apex pro wrist wrest not so great, but you say you dont care about rgb so i feel huntsman elite may not be for you.

i dont know the other two keyboards your looking at so cant help with those.

[SM Phoo]

Thanks for the replies so far

I've never used a Corsair keyboard but wary that quite a few people say they use cheap keycaps and the build quality isn't really up to the price tag, hence leaving the K95 out of my shortlist.

 

As for clicky keys and RGB, they don't bother me either way, so I wouldn't want to rule the huntsman out just because of this if it's a great board.

The Apex pro does interest me a lot with their keys. Being able to change the actuation feels like it opens up to a lot of testing to find what I like, I'm just wary about dropping £200 on a board that may be a lot of buzz words and a lack of performance

[seon123]

You could consider the XD75. There is an ortholinear variant of the PCB that has hot-swap sockets.

https://kprepublic.com/collections/xd75/products/xd75re-xd75am-xd75-xiudi-60-custom-keyboard-pcb

For linear switches, there are plenty of good options. Gateron Yellow is a popular budget alternative, then there's Kailh Box, NK Cream, Tealios, Alpacas, C3 Tangerines etc. Don't even bother with modern Cherry MX switches, as they are just worse than the alternatives, even the cheaper ones. There are also plenty of alternatives for tactile and clicky switches, if you want those.

For keycaps, you can get doubleshot PBT keycaps from Aliexpress for quite cheap.

[Pikatchu]

Drop Ctrl or Alt Mechanical Keyboard.

Since you mentioned price and size dont matter, those are some good ones.

 

IDK if they ship UK though.

Other then that, the huntsman elite is good for gaming.

 

Or, you could do some research and build your own keyboard! (This route is very expensive!)

[Elisis]

10 minutes ago, Pikatchu said:

(This route is very expensive!)

Not really? Cheap customs are very common, especially for people starting out

Edited February 5, 2020 by Elisis

[Pikatchu]

9 minutes ago, Elisis said:

Not really? Cheap customs are very common for people starting out.

Yeah, speaking for myself.

If I were to go that route, I can see myself spend 500$-ish.

[SM Phoo]

10 minutes ago, Pikatchu said:

Drop Ctrl or Alt Mechanical Keyboard.

Since you mentioned price and size dont matter, those are some good ones.

 

IDK if they ship UK though.

Other then that, the huntsman elite is good for gaming.

 

Or, you could do some research and build your own keyboard! (This route is very expensive!)

I actually stumbled across creating my own.. I did post in the topic at the top of the page but no reply yet.

Making my own would be interesting, no idea where to start and I do like the idea of having it custom enough to have a broken up keyboard so my thumb had more control of buttons around it, if that makes sense

[Pikatchu]

1 hour ago, SM Phoo said:

I actually stumbled across creating my own.. I did post in the topic at the top of the page but no reply yet.

Making my own would be interesting, no idea where to start and I do like the idea of having it custom enough to have a broken up keyboard so my thumb had more control of buttons around it, if that makes sense

Ergonomic keyboards are hard to do custom.

 

For custom mechanical keyboards, there are 4 main components:

PCB - main circuit board. (Soldered / Plate Mount)

Chassis - just like PC, it will house the circuit board. (Usually this will come with a layout board that is used to cover up the PCB, and keyboard layout)

Switch - (Soldered / Plate Mount)

KeyCap

 

The different between soldered or plate-mount is how the switches are mounted onto the PCB.

Plate-mount is like KeyCaps, pull and switch when you need to change Switches.

 

Be very careful when selecting PCB and Switches, they either need to be both Plate-mount or be both soldered.

 

Last thing, some PCB will house a USB C plug for connectivity, mostly detachable. You need to make sure the chassis you buy will have a cut out aline with the plug.

 

I might have missed somethings, but this is all I know on top of my head.

[seon123]

5 minutes ago, Pikatchu said:

Ergonomic keyboards are hard to do custom.

What's particularly hard about them? There are boards like the Dactyl, Ergodox and Iris.

6 minutes ago, Pikatchu said:

Chassis - just like PC, it will house the circuit board. (Usually this will come with a layout board that is used to cover up the PCB, and keyboard layout)

Should also mention the switch plate, which is often separate from the case.

7 minutes ago, Pikatchu said:

The different between soldered or plate-mount is how the switches are mounted onto the PCB.

Plate-mount is like KeyCaps, pull and switch when you need to change Switches.

 

10 minutes ago, Pikatchu said:

Be very careful when selecting PCB and Switches, they either need to be both Plate-mount or be both soldered.

No. Plate mount means that the switches have 3 pins, PCB mount means they have 2 extra friction mount pins to hold the switch in place. This is completely separate from whether the PCB supports hot swap, or whether the switches are soldered in.