Needing advice, why should I buy a mechanical keyboard?

[LuckyBadger]

Hey all, new to the site and looking for some advice!

So I'm wanting to buy a new keyboard, but I'm not sure if I want to go with an Optical or Mechanical keyboard.

With everything I researched on optical keyboards there seems no reason not to buy one. They can have clicky switches, RGB, longer life, and actuate quicker. They seem pretty much the same as mechanical, just an upgraded version.

However, I still see mass appeal for mechanical keyboards and while I do like them myself, I'm wondering if it's really worth sticking with mechanical or moving to optical.

Do you guys have any thoughts on why I should consider one over the other?

[Excelso]

All have moving parts that may degrade over tim/use. optical switch have better response in first key actuation. That may be a good point in high competitive gaming but I can't really benefit much if the time it takes me to do the second click is in another scale. 0,2ms response time is a plus but I need like 100 ms between my first and second keystrokes so I can't really benefit much.

[Sangdrax]

Optical keyboards are mechanical as much as magvalve and hall effect are. They're just a different kind of switch. And if you're asking for reasons they're not superior to contact switches, well, they are superior from a lot of points. Mostly, you only need to compare feel. There's contact switches that might be more tactile, linears that might be smoother and so on. But as far as the tech itself, the only weakness is that it's on all the time. That means a more set life on the LED's than something like a contact switch where the life is measured by the amount of times it's actually used instead of how long you've had the board plugged in. I haven't heard of how to replace IRLED diodes if they fail either but if the alignment isn't super complicated, it shouldn't be any harder than soldering in a new contact switch as long as the part is still made.