nOOb looking for first Mechanical Keyboard

[KingBlank]

Hello, I'm new here and I've come looking for a new keyboard.
I would love to hear some recommendations because I'm not really sure where to start.

I've been using a Logitech G510s keyboard for almost a year now and while I do find the little screen to be handy at times the keyboard itself is not holding up very well, My space bar is getting stuck and squeaking along with a few other keys and its just plain unpleasant to use.

I game alot and program a bit but never use the numpad or pageup/down + home key etc
I also play Osu which involves insane amounts of pressing the 'o' and 'p' keys that I have bound my controls too.

Whatpulse keyboard heatmap.


I'm interested in getting a 10 keyless mechanical keyboard thats durable and suitable for gaming with low key travel distance and slightly more resistance than rubber domes.

I like the feel of my Lattitude e6400 chiclet keyboard but sometimes my hand seems to slip when typing quickly and I start pressing the wrong keys on it for some reason, so I probably want a keyboard with a bit more 'control'?

my price range is under $200 USD.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Muirium]

$200 is a nice budget. People often show up saying half to a quarter of that! You have a lot more choice available.

A TKL definitely sounds the right layout. I like even smaller, myself, but they take a bit of extra learning to use. Here's my home made 60% (the smallest layout that's at all mainstream) vs. the classic Tenkeyless board, my IBM SSK:



Key travel is an interesting point to bring up. Pretty much every mechanical keyboard is in the region of 3 to 4 mm. Usually 4 mm on the nose. I'm building another custom board with significantly shorter throw, but those switches are rare. I don't know any currently produced mechanical to suggest with distinctly shorter travel. Well, unless you put o-rings on. That could well be your best answer.

What are your thoughts about caps? Some of us care for those quite a bit!



And what about switches: do you want something clicky or quiet? Something tactile or smooth? There's a world of choice out there. In fact, if you're looking for a rundown (and can put up with my longwinded style) here's my review of a Ducky Tenkeyless that illustrates a lot of all this with pictures and video.

[scottc]

The first mechanical keyboard that I bought was a $30 Model M that I had sent to a friend in the US. So $200 isn't so bad!

[KnightlyWishes]

$200 is a nice budget. People often show up saying half to a quarter of that! You have a lot more choice available.

A TKL definitely sounds the right layout. I like even smaller, myself, but they take a bit of extra learning to use. Here's my home made 60% (the smallest layout that's at all mainstream) vs. the classic Tenkeyless board, my IBM SSK:

Hey I was wondering where you got those key caps as I am interested in buying a 60% keyboard but I hate the look of the keys. I think I am going to be buying this one: http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/ind ... tail&p=112

[Muirium]

They are the (currently unobtainable) Round 4 SPH set. An homage to the Space Cadet.



I enjoy showing them off almost as much as I do typing on them!

You're right that the Poker comes with crappy caps. Fortunately, the rest of the keyboard is pretty good and it's compatible with most of the best key sets out there. Including, potentially, a rerun of SPH that I'd like to do someday.

(I didn't run the original. And I don't want to annoy 7bit too much. But there's a lot of people out there who want these.)

[KnightlyWishes]

Oh okay, do you know of any companies or people that sell key caps similar to those? I really like how big the letters are on the keys and just how it looks, any suggestions would be awesome thanks.

[Muirium]

Those caps, and the Granite set with Russian letters, are from Signature Plastics. They run a store for group buys here:

http://www.pimpmykeyboard.com/group-buys/

The Space Cadet caps are what Signature Plastics calls SA profile. There's often GBs for caps very much like that, but none currently active (well, besides the leftovers of Round 5, but I wouldn't bother trying to stitch together a full keyboard out of those). So my advice is to wait until something nice shows up.

Or if you're impatient, Filco does something quite similar:


http://deskthority.net/product-news-f44 ... filco%20sa

The Keyboard Company sells them for a not-too-horrible price here in Britain. And they should be 100% Poker compatible.

[KingBlank]

I enjoy showing them off almost as much as I do typing on them!

And I can see why!
Really nice looking keyboard you have there.

As for key switches, I like having a tactile click, but I really prefer quiet keyboards, I don't like listening to my friends Cherry mx blue switches all the time either.

I've not tried many keycaps and don't know any of the terminology, but I like the idea of having metal keycaps.
I don't want tall keycaps as tall as those on the razor blackwidow prefer them being about the same height as the keyboard (like laptop keys)
What sort of pros and cons do different varieties of keycaps have?

EDIT:
Those granite caps you sent look quite nice, they look to be the kind of height (maybe slighty higher than) the kind of height Im looking for, also my house is really dusty so caps with steeper edges would be good, the caps on my g510s gather so much dust.

[Muirium]

I'd put something over the keyboard when it's not in use. (In fact, I do, as we have a cat so fur goes everywhere in time.)

Those Granite caps are DSA, which are some of the shortest caps you can find for mechanical keyboards. There are flatter ones, but they are rarer.

Most of the caps stuff we talk about comes down to looks. They do feel a bit different to each other, too, but you have to try that for yourself. Like switches, different ones suit different people and it's hard to predict without trying. I like tall caps. I like shorter caps like DSA. But I don't like "chiclet" caps such as my MacBook Pro's. There's more to it than just shape (I prefer rough PBT, like Granite) but shape is indeed important. They will all collect dust, though. Better to keep that stuff off, rather than let it settle in.

MX switches come in a bunch of varieties. MX blue is the loudest. They are in most mechanical keyboards, so it's probably a good idea to find your favourite. There are switch testers for this purpose, which give you half an idea what a full keyboard is like. And there's plenty of recordings of people typing on each kind of them, so you can get a sense of the sound. I have a few examples of those for many different keyboards.

Of course, you don't have to go MX. There are other switches, too. Especially if you want to spend all your budget at once! Depends how quickly you want to wind up with a fancy keyboard, fast or slow…

[KingBlank]

After listening to some samples and reading up, I've narrowed my search down to MX brown / Topre switches, I would prefer Topre but They seem more expensive.

The Realforce 87U Tenkeyless 55g (White/Gray) that Muirium linked looks like the ideal keyboard for me, its a bit outside my budget though sadly even costing an additional $30 for New Zealand shipping

Ill keep looking for something similar at a lower price.

I also had a look at the HHKB but the lack of arrow keys is unappealing.

So to summarize what I've decided so far, my ideal keyboard would be.

Tenkeyless
Topre > cherry MX brown
DSA caps
all around 45g weighted
Under 200 USD (not including shipping)
With arrow keys
matte black, grey or white

And I would prefer some kind of wrist rest, one that's large enough to actually rest your wrists on too but that's something I can buy separate.

Thanks for all your help so far
I hope I'm not being too difficult.

[Laser]

Then, just wait for the any-day-now release of the new Novatouch keyboard, it's Topre with MX compatible keycaps (best of both worlds), TKL (so it has arrow keys, but no numpad) and it would be under 200 USD as far as i know.

[Muirium]

Yeah, should be. Even the prototype version is better than any MX brown or clear that I've tried. It's a nice slender black design and takes DSA very nicely:

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/novat ... t8488.html