Mechanical Keyboard Club!

[spwath]

one more thing @charger, what kind of wire should i use? I dont have any wire laying around, just speaker wire, and that wont work with all the strands

[sgtrecker78]

i've got a corsair strafe RGB and k70 RGB with cherry mx red FOR THE WIN... and yes... i have the razer blackwidow chroma stealth + razer orbweaver chroma stealth with razer's patented "silent switches"

[TacoSenpai]

I've got a red switch mechanical keyboard from ibuypower which my friend handed down to me for free and I gotta say I love it. 

[Skydiver]

On 03/02/2016 at 5:41 AM, TheProfosist said:

did you opt to grab the more standard caps?

No I am fine with the out of the box key caps, they are not as bad as everybody claims they are (imo).

[Extrememining]

I have the cooler maser quickfire in that strange combo of a tkl size and function of a not tkl with mx browns

[TheProfosist]

7 hours ago, Skydiver said:

No I am fine with the out of the box key caps, they are not as bad as everybody claims there are (imo).

they are horrible for typing and make it impossible to compare directly towards something like a Cherry MX

 

[Wolf_Lbh]

I own the Corsair K95 with Cherry Mx Browns and a Mionix Zibal 60. I find the Corsair K95 to be the best currently available although it does have some issues. Here is my review in case anyone is considering it:

The Amazing:
1) Cherry Mx brown key switches - give you all of that great cherry feel and just enough of that mechanical typing sound to pleasure your ears without being loud enough to make everyone listening to your mic that is not fond of mechanical switches want to stab you in the face after hours of gaming. Many brands such as Razer and Logitech switched to their own version of mechanical switches but Corsair staid true to course and trusted in legendary quality.
2) Aluminum frame - sleek, black, simple, elegant, virtually indestructible without adding too much weight if you tend to travel with your keyboard. But if you are active with your keyboard you will certainly appreciate the fact it can take more of a beating than anything else on the market I have seen. Also if you are attacked by a home intruder you can quickly beat him into submission with your keyboard baseball, baseball bat style, and return to gaming.
3) Full rgb support, if you are into that, if not you can turn it off.
4) Volume scroll wheel and media keys - Didn't think I was going to like this but honestly having tried it I love the volume wheel so much more than the up/down volume shortcut keys.
5) Braided usb cord - you really can't break this keyboard unless you are being seriously dumb/reckless/unlucky.
6) 18 dedicated macro keys. If you play an mmo or any game with an ability rotation or actions like healing and such you can bind to keys most gaming keyboards give you around 5-10 dedicated macro keys and that simply isn't enough for any game like that I've ever played. 18 on the other hand... that is enough for my full ability rotation and my favorite windows shortcut keys.
7) Internal memory - I only use keypresses for my macros so I can't talk about anything like complicated mouse movements but all my keybinds and basic color preferences save locally! This means you don't need to have any drivers run at startup or 24/7 to use the majority of the features of this keyboard. So no annoying Razer Synapse in your face spazzing out and making you double click or eating up 100% of one of your cpu cores when it goes off the wall.

The meh:
This keyboard is TALL. Placing this next to my laptop (which is a laptop and thus has an entire computer under it) this keyboard is taller! I'm a little worried about the exposed keyswitches getting dirt in them but the keycaps are very easy to pull up so I don't think cleaning it will be a problem if it collects dirt. I did notice I was making a good deal of typos until I adjusted to the height which took under a week. Now it is second nature.

The bad:
1) This keyboard uses 2 usb ports on usb 3.0 or 1 on usb 2.0 Despite having an extra usb plug already right there Corsair fails to take advantage of this and doesn't offer a usb passthrough for people with usb 3.0 The path is already there, they just need to add a damn port! A built in usb port for a mouse should be standard issue on any gaming keyboard and it was on the previous non-rgb version of this keyboard. If you don't "need" rgb I can't suggest strongly enough you get the original.
2) The keyboard is haunted! If you leave it plugged in and turn the computer off/hibernate it and the keyboard can still get any power it will randomly cycle through different lighting modes. I'm frankly disgusted this has not been patched yet and somehow made it to production with no one being like "we should probably fix that". An easy way to prevent this is just to press the lighting button and turn the lights off before you power down your computer.

Overall: Typing on this keyboard is a dream! The quality of the materials is fantastic! I'm upset it doesn't have usb passthrough and it requires two usb ports if you are still on usb 2.0 The height will cause typos at first and take a little while to adjust to but I got used to it very quickly. If your computer is plugged in after you turn it off you will need to turn the light button to off if you don't want random blinding color flashes all night.

[Mattr567]

On 2/5/2016 at 11:01 AM, Skydiver said:

No I am fine with the out of the box key caps, they are not as bad as everybody claims there are (imo).

 

Once you get used to thick PBTs or ABS, you cant go back. Funnily enough most of my vintage boards already have great keycaps (SGI, Model M) so I don't need to replace them.

[TheProfosist]

I still can't get behind Corsair's keyboards that don't have a case. I can see a bunch of stuff they changed in the Strafe to lower RMA's due to this.

[Charger]

3 minutes ago, TheProfosist said:

I still can't get behind Corsair's keyboards that don't have a case. I can see a bunch of stuff they changed in the Strafe to lower RMA's due to this.

As someonen that tends to build caseless keyboards or atleast based on your statement I have no problem with that. The rma is probably more to do with buying cheap parts then their design.

[TheProfosist]

As someonen that tends to build caseless keyboards or atleast based on your statement I have no problem with that. The rma is probably more to do with buying cheap parts then their design.

Most from my understanding are due to LEDs going out which you don't have. A full keyboard of.

I do notice static around here during winter. I get a nice zap when I touch my mousepad probably one a week. I have to be careful as one time I even knocked out the usb hub until I restarted when I touched my keyboard....

[Charger]

1 minute ago, TheProfosist said:

Most from my understanding are due to LEDs going out which you don't have. A full keyboard of.

I do notice static around here during winter. I get a nice zap when I touch my mousepad probably one a week. I have to be careful as one time I even knocked out the usb hub until I restarted when I touched my keyboard....

I dont but I have not heard of an led going out in that 60% I made yet.

[Limecat86]

15 hours ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

I own the Corsair K95 with Cherry Mx Browns and a Mionix Zibal 60. I find the Corsair K95 to be the best currently available although it does have some issues. Here is my review in case anyone is considering it:

The Amazing:
1) Cherry Mx brown key switches - give you all of that great cherry feel and just enough of that mechanical typing sound to pleasure your ears without being loud enough to make everyone listening to your mic that is not fond of mechanical switches want to stab you in the face after hours of gaming. Many brands such as Razer and Logitech switched to their own version of mechanical switches but Corsair staid true to course and trusted in legendary quality.
2) Aluminum frame - sleek, black, simple, elegant, virtually indestructible without adding too much weight if you tend to travel with your keyboard. But if you are active with your keyboard you will certainly appreciate the fact it can take more of a beating than anything else on the market I have seen. Also if you are attacked by a home intruder you can quickly beat him into submission with your keyboard baseball, baseball bat style, and return to gaming.
3) Full rgb support, if you are into that, if not you can turn it off.
4) Volume scroll wheel and media keys - Didn't think I was going to like this but honestly having tried it I love the volume wheel so much more than the up/down volume shortcut keys.
5) Braided usb cord - you really can't break this keyboard unless you are being seriously dumb/reckless/unlucky.
6) 18 dedicated macro keys. If you play an mmo or any game with an ability rotation or actions like healing and such you can bind to keys most gaming keyboards give you around 5-10 dedicated macro keys and that simply isn't enough for any game like that I've ever played. 18 on the other hand... that is enough for my full ability rotation and my favorite windows shortcut keys.
7) Internal memory - I only use keypresses for my macros so I can't talk about anything like complicated mouse movements but all my keybinds and basic color preferences save locally! This means you don't need to have any drivers run at startup or 24/7 to use the majority of the features of this keyboard. So no annoying Razer Synapse in your face spazzing out and making you double click or eating up 100% of one of your cpu cores when it goes off the wall.

The meh:
This keyboard is TALL. Placing this next to my laptop (which is a laptop and thus has an entire computer under it) this keyboard is taller! I'm a little worried about the exposed keyswitches getting dirt in them but the keycaps are very easy to pull up so I don't think cleaning it will be a problem if it collects dirt. I did notice I was making a good deal of typos until I adjusted to the height which took under a week. Now it is second nature.

The bad:
1) This keyboard uses 2 usb ports on usb 3.0 or 1 on usb 2.0 Despite having an extra usb plug already right there Corsair fails to take advantage of this and doesn't offer a usb passthrough for people with usb 3.0 The path is already there, they just need to add a damn port! A built in usb port for a mouse should be standard issue on any gaming keyboard and it was on the previous non-rgb version of this keyboard. If you don't "need" rgb I can't suggest strongly enough you get the original.
2) The keyboard is haunted! If you leave it plugged in and turn the computer off/hibernate it and the keyboard can still get any power it will randomly cycle through different lighting modes. I'm frankly disgusted this has not been patched yet and somehow made it to production with no one being like "we should probably fix that". An easy way to prevent this is just to press the lighting button and turn the lights off before you power down your computer.

Overall: Typing on this keyboard is a dream! The quality of the materials is fantastic! I'm upset it doesn't have usb passthrough and it requires two usb ports if you are still on usb 2.0 The height will cause typos at first and take a little while to adjust to but I got used to it very quickly. If your computer is plugged in after you turn it off you will need to turn the light button to off if you don't want random blinding color flashes all night.

^ This! Got exactly the same keyboard. I went with Cherry MX Brown because next to gaming, I also do alot of programming/scripting.

[TheProfosist]

I dont but I have not heard of an led going out in that 60% I made yet.

I mean you could test it but I probably wouldn't... Does he have cats? Idk what causes mine. I think it might be my plastic chair mat.

[techguy142]

On February 6, 2016 at 4:59 PM, Wolf_Lbh said:

I own the Corsair K95 with Cherry Mx Browns and a Mionix Zibal 60. I find the Corsair K95 to be the best currently available although it does have some issues. Here is my review in case anyone is considering it:

The Amazing:
1) Cherry Mx brown key switches - give you all of that great cherry feel and just enough of that mechanical typing sound to pleasure your ears without being loud enough to make everyone listening to your mic that is not fond of mechanical switches want to stab you in the face after hours of gaming. Many brands such as Razer and Logitech switched to their own version of mechanical switches but Corsair staid true to course and trusted in legendary quality.
2) Aluminum frame - sleek, black, simple, elegant, virtually indestructible without adding too much weight if you tend to travel with your keyboard. But if you are active with your keyboard you will certainly appreciate the fact it can take more of a beating than anything else on the market I have seen. Also if you are attacked by a home intruder you can quickly beat him into submission with your keyboard baseball, baseball bat style, and return to gaming.
3) Full rgb support, if you are into that, if not you can turn it off.
4) Volume scroll wheel and media keys - Didn't think I was going to like this but honestly having tried it I love the volume wheel so much more than the up/down volume shortcut keys.
5) Braided usb cord - you really can't break this keyboard unless you are being seriously dumb/reckless/unlucky.
6) 18 dedicated macro keys. If you play an mmo or any game with an ability rotation or actions like healing and such you can bind to keys most gaming keyboards give you around 5-10 dedicated macro keys and that simply isn't enough for any game like that I've ever played. 18 on the other hand... that is enough for my full ability rotation and my favorite windows shortcut keys.
7) Internal memory - I only use keypresses for my macros so I can't talk about anything like complicated mouse movements but all my keybinds and basic color preferences save locally! This means you don't need to have any drivers run at startup or 24/7 to use the majority of the features of this keyboard. So no annoying Razer Synapse in your face spazzing out and making you double click or eating up 100% of one of your cpu cores when it goes off the wall.

The meh:
This keyboard is TALL. Placing this next to my laptop (which is a laptop and thus has an entire computer under it) this keyboard is taller! I'm a little worried about the exposed keyswitches getting dirt in them but the keycaps are very easy to pull up so I don't think cleaning it will be a problem if it collects dirt. I did notice I was making a good deal of typos until I adjusted to the height which took under a week. Now it is second nature.

The bad:
1) This keyboard uses 2 usb ports on usb 3.0 or 1 on usb 2.0 Despite having an extra usb plug already right there Corsair fails to take advantage of this and doesn't offer a usb passthrough for people with usb 3.0 The path is already there, they just need to add a damn port! A built in usb port for a mouse should be standard issue on any gaming keyboard and it was on the previous non-rgb version of this keyboard. If you don't "need" rgb I can't suggest strongly enough you get the original.
2) The keyboard is haunted! If you leave it plugged in and turn the computer off/hibernate it and the keyboard can still get any power it will randomly cycle through different lighting modes. I'm frankly disgusted this has not been patched yet and somehow made it to production with no one being like "we should probably fix that". An easy way to prevent this is just to press the lighting button and turn the lights off before you power down your computer.

Overall: Typing on this keyboard is a dream! The quality of the materials is fantastic! I'm upset it doesn't have usb passthrough and it requires two usb ports if you are still on usb 2.0 The height will cause typos at first and take a little while to adjust to but I got used to it very quickly. If your computer is plugged in after you turn it off you will need to turn the light button to off if you don't want random blinding color flashes all night.

About the lights not turning off: I believe that Corsair has fixed that. If not, there is a BIOS setting (I think it's called EuP) that cuts power to the USB ports when you shutdown or put the computer to sleep.That's what I did and it works quite well.

[Wolf_Lbh]

6 minutes ago, techguy142 said:

About the lights not turning off: I believe that Corsair has fixed that. If not, there is a BIOS setting (I think it's called EuP) that cuts power to the USB ports when you shutdown or put the computer to sleep.That's what I did and it works quite well.

I'm using Firmware version 1.33 for my Corsair K95 v2 and version 1.14.43 for CUE and both say they are up to date yet I do not see "EuP" anywhere in settings under program or device, or Profiles assignments or lighting.

If you can tell me where it is that would be a great help. It is possible CUE updated my firmware and the setting is no longer a setting but simply part of the firmware and if I hibernate my computer again the fix is already in place as I have not tried that since installing CUE. I will do that tonight and see if the flashbang issue has been fixed or not.

[Wolf_Lbh]

@techguy142 I tried it out and you were correct. After CUE updated the firmware the keyboard no longer flashes random colors but I am disappointed that Corsair could not be bothered to update they keyboards they continue to make before sending them out. It would be just as easy to put newer firmware on them as opposed to continually using the old broken firmware so I'm still going to glare angrily at them about it, but I won't count it as a half point against them for being annoying. I'll give the entire keyboard a 4.5/5

[Smellslikeralph]

i just picked up my first Mech keyboard. I usually would never spend this much on a keyboard but decided just to go for it. I picked up a Corsair K65 RGB and I love it so far. (Cherry Red). I tried alot of other boards and I Just really liked the Reds firmness. Not a bad deal for $120 IMO. 

[SteezusChrist]

Shout out to the people that know what this board is. I have nixdorf blacks on the way to put in this bad boy.

 

[Charger]

6 minutes ago, SteezusChrist said:

Shout out to the people that know what this board is. I have nixdorf blacks on the way to put in this bad boy.

 

 

I saw your thread on geekhack. Are you making threads over here as well?

[SteezusChrist]

3 minutes ago, Charger said:

I saw your thread on geekhack. Are you making threads over here as well?

Possibly, I like to come here every so often and see what's up. I'm more dedicated to geekhack but I enjoy being on this site as well. Once I start looking into building a new desktop again I'll most likely be more active.

[Charger]

Just now, SteezusChrist said:

Possibly, I like to come here every so often and see what's up. I'm more dedicated to geekhack but I enjoy being on this site as well. Once I start looking into building a new desktop again I'll most likely be more active.

I just try to get people to make keyboard build threads over here although there is such a small group of people really interested in it around here it is a little pointless.

[SteezusChrist]

Just now, Charger said:

I just try to get people to make keyboard build threads over here although there is such a small group of people really interested in it around here it is a little pointless.

Yeah I can understand that, I could most likely do a little copy paste from my build log over at geekhack over to here so share the build log. I want to build it so bad but still waiting on parts. 

[Wolf_Lbh]

50 minutes ago, SteezusChrist said:

Yeah I can understand that, I could most likely do a little copy paste from my build log over at geekhack over to here so share the build log. I want to build it so bad but still waiting on parts. 

please @ me in it.

[SteezusChrist]

31 minutes ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

please @ me in it.

I'll try my best to remember.