Chicony keyboards

Magna224 · 24 Mar 2011, 03:13

How do you know which ones are mechanical? I heard they have a large variety of switches too.

webwit · 24 Mar 2011, 03:21

Chicony is always a surprise for me.

Magna224 · 24 Mar 2011, 14:59

Nobody will tell me? =,(

itlnstln · 24 Mar 2011, 15:58

No one knows. Even if they did, you wouldn't know what switches it has.

Findecanor · 24 Mar 2011, 16:25

I don't have any myself, but from what I have seen on the web, the models KB-5181 and KB-5191 are the most common with mechanical switches.

KB-5161, KB-5162, KB-5181, KB-5182: ALPS-compatible clicky.
Could be Blue ALPS or clicky SMK "Monterey" switches, or perhaps something else... I don't know.
The Blue ALPS are known to be the nicest clicky ALPS. People have described the Monterey as something in-between Blue ALPS, Cherry MX Blue and buckling springs.

KB-5191: Cherry MX-compatible clicky switches. Either (the really old) Cherry MX White, Cherry MX Blue, Futaba or some kind of copy that looks like Cherry MX White but is clicky and of lower quality than real Cherry switches.
The real Chery MX White and Cherry MX Blue are the only ones that are any good, from what I have heard.

If you see one for sale, then the only way to know for sure is to ask the seller to remove a key cap and take a picture.

sixty · 24 Mar 2011, 17:15

Nice list! Its a shame Chicony never made keyboards with the proper ANSI layout. Hate the bigass enter key.

ripster · 24 Mar 2011, 17:47

Findecanor wrote:I don't have any myself, but from what I have seen on the web, the models KB-5181 and KB-5191 are the most common with mechanical switches.

KB-5161, KB-5162, KB-5181, KB-5182: ALPS-compatible clicky.
Could be Blue ALPS or clicky SMK "Monterey" switches, or perhaps something else... I don't know.
The Blue ALPS are known to be the nicest clicky ALPS. People have described the Monterey as something in-between Blue ALPS, Cherry MX Blue and buckling springs.

KB-5191: Cherry MX-compatible clicky switches. Either (the really old) Cherry MX White, Cherry MX Blue, Futaba or some kind of copy that looks like Cherry MX White but is clicky and of lower quality than real Cherry switches.
The real Chery MX White and Cherry MX Blue are the only ones that are any good, from what I have heard.

If you see one for sale, then the only way to know for sure is to ask the seller to remove a key cap and take a picture.

Lol. I thought of putting that in the ALPS wiki and then said......ah fuggedaboutit. The most common KB5181s used to be Montereys on Ebay but those $15 NIB days are long gone.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:8771

sixty · 24 Mar 2011, 18:41

At least in ISO layout they also made 5191s with rubber domes btw.

gore · 24 Mar 2011, 19:00

I lucked out with mine and got MX blues, I got it just for the caps so was quite a nice surprise, its currently my 'daily driver'.

webwit · 24 Mar 2011, 20:03

I always get the ones with the white Alps.