Mechanical keyboard

[psxpetey]

  Ok so i've been looking at these for a while and have a few questions. All these cherry mx switch keyboards look really attractive in black and all that but here's my question: Didn't old dell keyboards along with a few others have mechanical keys? Alps switches along with buckling spring and topre? granted these all have different feelings and are ps2 but aren't cherry mx's based off of alps? some of the cherries have slightly different mechanism like the blue. Only thing I cant find out is what the key rollover for old ps2 keyboards was. but what i'm getting at is depending on the functionality 100$-200$ seems pretty steep for a keyboard that costs almost nothing to make. 60$-80$ seems like a fair price for something like this. 

 

I have tried out a few and definitely like them and ill be buying one eventually, well actually I might just buy an old alps one of ebay for ten bucks but I digress. So don't get all fired up and personally offended that I question your keyboard God of choice just seems like companies are taking advantage of consumers big time on this fad.Anyways feel free to enlighten me.

[SpaceSquid]

The dell at101w had mechanical alps switches, Model M can be found for pretty cheap too. If you want a cheap cherry keyboard buy the monoprice one

[psxpetey]

The dell at101w had mechanical alps switches, Model M can be found for pretty cheap too. If you want a cheap cherry keyboard buy the monoprice one

Not really what I am asking though. I know you can get cheap old keyboards and some lower end backlite keyboards how can a keyboard be worth 200$?

[STRMfrmXMN]

  Ok so i've been looking at these for a while and have a few questions. All these cherry mx switch keyboards look really attractive in black and all that but here's my question: Didn't old dell keyboards along with a few others have mechanical keys? Alps switches along with buckling spring and topre? granted these all have different feelings and are ps2 but aren't cherry mx's based off of alps? some of the cherries have slightly different mechanism like the blue. Only thing I cant find out is what the key rollover for old ps2 keyboards was. but what i'm getting at is depending on the functionality 100$-200$ seems pretty steep for a keyboard that costs almost nothing to make. 60$-80$ seems like a fair price for something like this. 

 

I have tried out a few and definitely like them and ill be buying one eventually, well actually I might just buy an old alps one of ebay for ten bucks but I digress. So don't get all fired up and personally offended that I question your keyboard God of choice just seems like companies are taking advantage of consumers big time on this fad.Anyways feel free to enlighten me.

If you want to know about rollover in PS2 mode - ten-key rollover.

If you want an old ALPS keyboard then by all means go for it.

[SpaceSquid]

Not really what I am asking though. I know you can get cheap old keyboards and some lower end backlite keyboards how can a keyboard be worth 200$?

They are very high quality, mechanical keyboards can lost 10x longer than membrane, and feel much nicer too. Lots of people spend all day on computer, why not be comfortable?

[Chucksta]

Keyboards in the $100- $200 range are usually more premium as of quality of materials, build quality, and things like LEDs and RGB back lighting. Keyboards like the ones from Das or WASD just are more expensive because of their reliability, build quality, and quality of materials. Also, the K65, K70, the K95 and all their variants have brushed aluminum which make it feel like you are paying for something that is built to last. Regardless, there is probably an exception for the CM Storm mechanical keyboards because they are reliable and have good build quality as well.

[psxpetey]

They are very high quality, mechanical keyboards can lost 10x longer than membrane, and feel much nicer too. Lots of people spend all day on computer, why not be comfortable?

Dude i'm not talking about rubber membrane vs mechanical. I am comparing mechanical to mechanical  you can buy older mechanical keyboards for like 20-30 bucks which when sold came with the computer like rubber membrane keyboards do today aka free. So why are these "premium" keyboards so expensive using tech which is like 30 years old and REALLY cheap to make. Like literally they are making a 500% profit. Even charging double the worth of a device is not so bad but charging 5 times is ridonkulous. Sure they have leds and whatnot but the added price of those leds is so little its not a reason to raise the price by 100$. So it really comes down to the switches made of a spring a metal swtich and 3 peices of plastic. Im not denying they are great devices but the price is ridiculous for what you are getting. 

 

They used to give away mechanical keyboards so why are they suddenly so valuable?

[SpaceSquid]

Dude i'm not talking about rubber membrane vs mechanical. I am comparing mechanical to mechanical  you can buy older mechanical keyboards for like 20-30 bucks which when sold came with the computer like rubber membrane keyboards do today aka free. So why are these "premium" keyboards so expensive using tech which is like 30 years old and REALLY cheap to make. Like literally they are making a 500% profit. Even charging double the worth of a device is not so bad but charging 5 times is ridonkulous. Sure they have leds and whatnot but the added price of those leds is so little its not a reason to raise the price by 100$. So it really comes down to the switches made of a spring a metal swtich and 3 peices of plastic. Im not denying they are great devices but the price is ridiculous for what you are getting. 

 

They used to give away mechanical keyboards so why are they suddenly so valuable?

Those 30 dollar ones are used, same thing as me going out to buy a 1995 mercedes will obviously be much cheaper than me going out to buy one. Also they are not cheap to make, a set of cherry mx switches costs around 40 and then most over 100 dollar ones have leds and such

[Typho]

Dude i'm not talking about rubber membrane vs mechanical. I am comparing mechanical to mechanical  you can buy older mechanical keyboards for like 20-30 bucks which when sold came with the computer like rubber membrane keyboards do today aka free. So why are these "premium" keyboards so expensive using tech which is like 30 years old and REALLY cheap to make. Like literally they are making a 500% profit. Even charging double the worth of a device is not so bad but charging 5 times is ridonkulous. Sure they have leds and whatnot but the added price of those leds is so little its not a reason to raise the price by 100$. So it really comes down to the switches made of a spring a metal swtich and 3 peices of plastic. Im not denying they are great devices but the price is ridiculous for what you are getting. 

 

They used to give away mechanical keyboards so why are they suddenly so valuable?

For example metal backplate, software, customer support, warranty are all included in a  new mechanical keyboard. Well some companies have pretty horrible customer support, but anyways...

And yeah well it's logical that the product will cost more if there are like 2 companies making it(Cherry + ....) and both are taking some profit of it. There are various reasons why they cost so much. In some 200$ keyboards the technology requires "new" experiments which are going to cost some money. Some "high quality" keyboards such as Ducky are made in Taiwan and that could be one of the many reasons why they cost so much. (In my country shine 4 and 3 are over 150€)

[Charger]

well lets say this... I built a keyboard for $50 from used parts then i built a numpad that cost me $100 because i used new parts so i can understand why keyboards cost so much

http://imgur.com/a/Nf5re

As for older keyboards most were made before there was concerns about ghosting in the gaming area of keyboards so there will be some ghosting or blocking of key presses at least on the few older keyboards i have used. I have come across boards that will not let you use w and a or d together as well as some the would not let you use w and space bar at the same time and those were just things i have noticed playing games with them

[psxpetey]

well lets say this... I built a keyboard for $50 from used parts then i built a numpad that cost me $100 because i used new parts so i can understand why keyboards cost so much

http://imgur.com/a/Nf5re

As for older keyboards most were made before there was concerns about ghosting in the gaming area of keyboards so there will be some ghosting or blocking of key presses at least on the few older keyboards i have used. I have come across boards that will not let you use w and a or d together as well as some the would not let you use w and space bar at the same time and those were just things i have noticed playing games with them

best answer goes too!!

 

I can see how a keyboard could cost 100$ easily but 2 hundred blows my mind. Software and updated hardware boards aside its crazy how you can retail 3 peices of plastic and a tiny metal tang and spring which cost rougly 3% of a cent for 3-4 bucks. Boggles my mind some for even more!! but than conkers bad furday n64 retails for 100$ these days LOL!

[rmast95]

The BOM cost of something doesn't have as much affect on the price of the item as you might think. The keyboards are worth what consumers are willing to spend on them. I have no idea how much it costs to produce the keyboards, but you may be right about the pricing. I bought a K95 rgb and it was worth the price to me. The build quality of the keyboard along with the ease of cleaning it and good looks make it worth it to me. You can probably get a similar typing experience for much cheaper, but the overall experience will be much better. If you have a very tight budget, then do what you must; however, the experience is worth it to me.