Looking for a Cherry MX Blue Keyboard...

[Richtofen_]

I am having a lot of trouble having to find a good keyboard that has what I need. Here is what I will need in the keyboard I am looking for:

- Cherry MX Blue switches (MX Blue mock-off's can work too)

- RGB Lighting

- Media keys (Simillar to Corsairs, but regular keys can work too)

- At least one USB hub

- Non-plasticy build

- Full 104 keys

- Under $170

 

Optional requirements

- Wrist rest

- Dedicated software

- Mic and Headphone audio in

 

What I don't want

- Extra macro keys

- Aggressive gamer fonts

 

[dizmo]

The GSkill KM780 has all of that, except it does have macro keys down the left side. Only one row though.

RGB generally goes with gamer, so you're less likely to see a top end one with all the requirements you have.

[Richtofen_]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

The GSkill KM780 has all of that, except it does have macro keys down the left side. Only one row though.

RGB generally goes with gamer, so you're less likely to see a top end one with all the requirements you have.

As for the macros, yeah. It is only one row, and it isn't that bad. 

 

My only disagreement with your response is that I have seen keyboards with great features, but they are the red lighting or other pointless lighting colors. And the blue switches I found on their website are only in the red lighting colors. But maybe I am not looking hard enough. Thank you for your response!

[Aytex]

Max Keyboard Nighthawk Pro X

Shine 6

[dizmo]

58 minutes ago, Richtofen The Hyena said:

As for the macros, yeah. It is only one row, and it isn't that bad. 

 

My only disagreement with your response is that I have seen keyboards with great features, but they are the red lighting or other pointless lighting colors. And the blue switches I found on their website are only in the red lighting colors. But maybe I am not looking hard enough. Thank you for your response!

Nope, they're available in RGB as well. Just not looking hard enough.

 

[Falkentyne]

Your best bet would be the shine 6, as they are using MUCH better batches of MX RGB blues than the inconsistent trash you were seeing 1-2 years ago, that made Corsair stop production.  Proof? I have a shine 6 and a YOTM with blues AND two iKBC F108's with blues.  The shine 6 blues feel heavenly and REALLY nice to type on and are actually QUIETER with very crisp clicks.  The iKBC feels much more inconsistent, scratchy and the clicks sound "longer" and louder and harsher.  Even with the exact same keycaps used, the bottom out sound also sounds much louder.  The shine 6 sounds much more muted almost as if you are using O rings, so it has to be different material being used on the switch housings.

 

Now my shine 6 isn't perfect...the backspace key sounds really loud (like an Outemu switch), and the F key has a strange scratchy feel BEFORE you reach the click bump, but perfectly smooth after (the click is just fine itself), but it's miles better than the iKBC even though they both are using genuine cherry switches.  I can not speak for the coolermaster, Pok3r or other boards with RGB blues however.

 

The thing about the switch housing does matter.  For example my YOTG with mx RGB browns sounds MUCH MUCH quieter on bottoming out (almost the same as an older switch with O rings) than either the G710+, Shine 3 and shine 4.  It's actually pretty impressive.

 

Anyway: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=2130

 

You can also grab some Vortex doubleshot PBT keycaps with it.  The white ones which look like the YOTG set, will look fantastic.  These are the new Vortex sets that the iKBC keyboards use, not the old ones that have horrendous backlight bleed.  These look like a YOTG diffused bleed at night.

 

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1330

 

Or black version if you don't like white:

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1329

[Kleever]

On 1/29/2017 at 2:57 PM, Falkentyne said:

Your best bet would be the shine 6, as they are using MUCH better batches of MX RGB blues than the inconsistent trash you were seeing 1-2 years ago, that made Corsair stop production.  Proof? I have a shine 6 and a YOTM with blues AND two iKBC F108's with blues.  The shine 6 blues feel heavenly and REALLY nice to type on and are actually QUIETER with very crisp clicks.  The iKBC feels much more inconsistent, scratchy and the clicks sound "longer" and louder and harsher.  Even with the exact same keycaps used, the bottom out sound also sounds much louder.  The shine 6 sounds much more muted almost as if you are using O rings, so it has to be different material being used on the switch housings.

 

Now my shine 6 isn't perfect...the backspace key sounds really loud (like an Outemu switch), and the F key has a strange scratchy feel BEFORE you reach the click bump, but perfectly smooth after (the click is just fine itself), but it's miles better than the iKBC even though they both are using genuine cherry switches.  I can not speak for the coolermaster, Pok3r or other boards with RGB blues however.

 

The thing about the switch housing does matter.  For example my YOTG with mx RGB browns sounds MUCH MUCH quieter on bottoming out (almost the same as an older switch with O rings) than either the G710+, Shine 3 and shine 4.  It's actually pretty impressive.

 

Anyway: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=2130

 

You can also grab some Vortex doubleshot PBT keycaps with it.  The white ones which look like the YOTG set, will look fantastic.  These are the new Vortex sets that the iKBC keyboards use, not the old ones that have horrendous backlight bleed.  These look like a YOTG diffused bleed at night.

 

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1330

 

Or black version if you don't like white:

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1329

 

That's really nice to hear, did you have any initial issues with your RGB MX Blue switches or were they good out of the box? I'm asking because I bought a K70 LUX with RGB Blues when they first came and it was pretty bad, especially out of the box, there was a lot of switch inconsistency. I'm pretty sure they discontinued them again since they only sold them for like 2 months and never bought them back. If the switches are better now on the DS6, I might try it out if they release a standard edition.

[Falkentyne]

I didn't get any RGB blues when they first came out.  I didn't get any until the Shine 6 and YOTM (I have one of each).  Both are fine, and from what I read about people complaining about RGB blues from the last two years, definitely seem better.  They're not as good as the very consistent MX Greens on my Ducky shine fire 69, but they're very nice and I recommend them.  The blues on the iKBC F108 are noticably worse than the shine 6 and YOTM, the clicks aren't as crisp, the click feels harsher and longer on many keys, some keys feel scratchy and the bottom out sound is much louder.  So I assume the iKBC is using blue samples that people often complain about.  They did improve with use, but still nowhere near as good as on the Shine 6 and YOTM.

 

The MX Blues on my shine 6 are amazingly consistent.  The backspace key has a much louder click, not sure if that's on purpose or not, but all the other keys on the alphanums are excellent.

 

Somehow my YOTM is a bit less consistent than the Shine 6, but still close, and miles better than the iKBC F108, though a few keys feel a bit harder to press.  I'm actually getting the F key replaced by mechanicalkeyboards.com on my YOTM (long story).  But other than that, the keys are probably miles better than you experienced with your Lux.

 

Yes Corsair was getting bad batches of RGB blues and couldn't get enough good ones for a lot of boards.  Ducky had problems getting good blues for a long time also on their shine 5, which is why they were almost always sold out for ages.

 

Seems like they're finally getting some decent blues now.  I'm typing this right now on my shine 6, and the blues feel wonderful.  Nice, crisp and bouncy.  Even with the exact same keycaps being used, the iKBC F108 simply doesn't feel as clean and bouncy.

 

I also got 120 Gateron SMD compatible Greens to hot swap into my teamwolf vod ray hotswappable RGB keyboard.  Pulling out the Outemu blues is a pain.  The gaterons come out (after you put them in) MUCH easier than the Outemus, and the gateron greens feel every bit as good as the Cherry MX greens on the Shine fire 69.  Maybe even slightly smoother, but the Shine 69 had very good MX greens to begin with.

 

I do recommend you try a Shine 6.  Just make sure you grab the 126 key Vortex PBT doubleshot set along with it if you order from mk.com.  The white sets should look better than the black set, as more light gets through the legends.  The new vortex sets are much better than the old PBT+Pom white sets.  You'll be glad you did (Yes I know the window title says 104 key but the description says 126 key; they need to update their title when they changed the keysets to the newer Vortex version).

 

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1330