Mechanical keyboard appreciation...

[Darren S]

Having used a myriad USB based keyboards over the years - some basic, some very expensive, I 'rescued' an old PS/2-based Dell clunker from the basement at my mum's work and connected it to my office PC.

In a nutshell - it's awesome. :smile: Being 24 years old (the manufacturing date of 1991 is still on the base!) - it had collected a fair few fag stains, coffee smears, food crumbs and god-knows what else. It all works, but it needs cleaning...

However - being mechanical, the whole device is wonderfully put together with solid screws and fitments. In no time at all, I've got the faceplate and backing board removed and also have a key-puller tool to make a start on the keys themselves. The solvent cleaner from work got rid of the majority of marks on the outer case - followed by a grit-based hand cleaner.

Once I've got all the keys cleaned - it will be back on my works PC. I've never gone down the route of having a mechanical gaming keyboard before for home - but the idea now intrigues me. I don't understand why mechanical boards ever fell out of favour - unless it was purely based on unit cost?

 

[DrR]

I remember using keyboards in the 90s, but don't remember them being any different to your average office keyboard now?

 

[DrR]

Just looked at this site

http://www.pckeyboard.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PCK&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=UB4044A

Looks like they take old keyboards and refurb them, also putting a usb on instead of the old ps2 one.

 

[Addicted]

Mechanical keyboards FTW.

Here's my work keyboard:

- A Ducky Shine 3 with Brown switches and O-Ring Dampeners.


At home I have:
* Poker 2 with Aluminium case and it will have the Toxic Keycap set. Red switches.

* Ducky Shine 3 Year of the Snake Ltd Edition (996 of 999) - Red Switches - fantastic keyboard, got offered some serious money for it from a guy who collects them! Currently sporting the "rainbow" LED covers, runs nicely.

Mine are all new keyboards, sorry :smiley:



I really really want a HHKB - but they're around £250 so held off for a couple of years. Also been looking at work for IBM Model M's lying around, but found none so far

 

[DrR]

Is this not a mechanical one?

 

[Darren S]

DrR - I don't think the one above is? Does it have an audible click with each key-press?
Addicted - glad you posted that middle picture m8. I'm a little short on desk space at home and the one you have without the numeric keypad would be very good for me. When was the last time you used a numeric keypad game, in-game??
Glad it's not just me who appreciates them - though yours look like serious bits of kit compared to my old Dell one!

 

[Gareth]

I don't get the appreciation personally, if I had to type with a mechanical keyboard all day each day it would drive me up the wall. Quiet & wireless is what I prefer.

 

[DrR]

No audible click, I love laptop keyboards for typing personally

 

[charltjr]

Cost and noise is what killed off most mechanical keyboards.

I bloody love them

 

[Darren S]

I don't get the appreciation personally, if I had to type with a mechanical keyboard all day each day it would drive me up the wall. Quiet & wireless is what I prefer.

Lol - I'm the exact opposite m8! Hate wireless for both keyboards and mice - they have to be wired for me. There's something quite 'old skool' about mechanical keyboards that I like. Strangely - unless it's some weird placebo affect as well - I seem to make fewer typos on a mechanical keyboard.

Must be my fat fingers!

 

[Addicted]

It's all about the feel, it's plenty easy enough to reduce the noise (my work one with o-ring dampers is no noisier than a normal keyboard), but standard keyboards just feel like s**t when typing on them. And when I'm typing on one all day every day at work, I want it to be a bit nicer :smile:

As for keyboard size - yep it's fantastic - there are various "mainstream" sizes you can get:

* TKL - TenKeyLess - probably the one you want which is no numpad - but has the arrow keys/insert/home etc - I wish I had that rather than the one below.
* 60% - the one you see above - no arrow keys or keypad :smile:

There's even custom smaller sizes - 20% and 40%, but theyre just silly.

It also majorly comes down to how well the keyboard is built - the poker 2 was a plastic base, but I bought the Aluminium case for it (to replace the Plastic one) - and no joke it's about 3x heavier now but also feels WAY better when typing on it. The same with the Ducky Ltd Edition in that respect being 3mm aluminium.

 

[daveski]

Never realised there was so much to keyboards!

 

[Jack!]

Have to be wireless here too, because I fidget when I'm sitting for long periods and end up in weird positions, so need to be able to move stuff - I'll normally end up with my feet up and keyboard on lap etc. Shame most decent keyboards are still wired.

 

[Gareth]

I know a lot of people hate wireless, but one of the big attractions for me is the fact that if I want the use of my desk for something other than using the computer, it takes seconds to just put the mouse and keyboard elsewhere and I have the full use of the desk.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Yeah... never got this! I actually have my keyboard attached but I do prefer very little travel. Silent is also good :smile: but different strokes for different folks innit.

 

[Keydogg]

Wired for the win (PC gamer so everything else is too laggy), but I really do not get the fascination with mechanical. At all.

 

[Cookie]

I still don't have a mechanical keyboard. What's recommended under 100 quids? I have a Sidewinder X4 that I love still. Shiny red lights.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Complete opposite really but just got these at work and they're fantastic!

 

[Wilkeh]

Ducky Shine 3 with Blacks

 

[Captain Hat]

At home I have an old-school IBM Model M. At work I'm still using a sh*tty rubberdome, but I have a semi-functional (and incidentally ultra-rare) Alps buckling spring keyboard that I've been meaning to bolt-mod. If I was to use a mech board at work though, it'd probably have to be a new board with MX Browns, as some of my workmates are inordinately sensitive to noise.

For gaming I actually use a Logitech gamepad most of the time (partially due to the fact that the M is only 3KRO and partially due to the fact that the gamepad is completely programmable) but I have been thinking about rebuilding it with switches (probably Reds).

If I were to get a proper gaming board, at the moment it would have to be one of the larger Corsair boards. I don't like having keys missing and I have plenty of space on my desk (the Model M isn't exactly compact).

As for what the appeal is- well, the feel of the keys is great. I can't compare typing at home to typing at work really, the Model M is so much more satisfying to use, and if I'm typing a long document it's easier to use as well because the clear "click" and tactile response when a key has been activated means you don't have to thump it to make sure a key has been actually pressed, which results on less stress on the fingers etc etc and the longer key travel is actually an advantage as it reduces the instance of tendon injuries due to small movements (this is actually a thing, very small finger movements are actually more likely to lead to this kind of injury and due to the amount of time I spend in front of a computer this has been a serious issue for me in the past).

If you don't type a lot or you're not into the SRS BZNS end of gaming you're unlikely to notice a huge difference but if you do a lot of essay writing or whatever then having a mechanical keyboard can actually make quite a significant difference to your keyboard use. I know it looks silly, spending upwards of £80 on a keyboard or mouse when you can get them both for under a fiver, but what you have to bear in mind is that pretty much all of your input to the computer goes through those two items- they are your key point of contact with the machine. And when you spend somewhere north of eight hours on the computer in a day, as I do on a semi-regular basis (at work and at home) it's well worth the money to invest even when the difference per click or per key-press is very small.

 

[Addicted]

Agreed, surprising how much difference it makes. I keep hunting our offices for some old Model M's, no luck so far :'(

 

[Captain Hat]

Heh, I got lucky. I used to work at a charity that dealt with second-hand IT kit, all of my "classic" boards came from the bins there. I used to have a couple of Dell Alps boards as well, but I ended up selling them off as they weren't particularly spectacular.

 

[Darren S]

The old clunker at work. Disassembled, put back together, been washed, chucked in the dishwasher, scrubbed, had cleaning agents poured it - the list goes on. Bloody tank quality it is!

Noticed an increasing number of small product stickers coming in with the kit I buy in - graphics cards, memory, laptops, etc. Going to start sticker-bombing the top of the board working my way left. Shouldn't take too long!

 

[Captain Hat]

Hm, yeah. Looks like a Dell AT102W, we used to get a lot of those at my old work. As I recall they use Alps Black switches usually, which are tactile but non-clicky (but not reliably so- some blacks do click for no discernible reason though they still lack the "click plate" that produces the noise in the white switches). They're very solid boards! I used one for a bit, and so did my brother. I modded one for a guy on the GeekHack forums who paid over £100 for it to have Alps White switches (the whites click), and for it to have white keys and a midnight blue body. I built it out of a working white AT102W, a broken blue AT102W and another broken board I had that used white Alps switches. I actually rather enjoyed doing it, but then I am an engineer and a bit of a nerd.

 

[Darren S]

Hm, yeah. Looks like a Dell AT102W, we used to get a lot of those at my old work. As I recall they use Alps Black switches usually, which are tactile but non-clicky (but not reliably so- some blacks do click for no discernible reason though they still lack the "click plate" that produces the noise in the white switches). They're very solid boards! I used one for a bit, and so did my brother. I modded one for a guy on the GeekHack forums who paid over £100 for it to have Alps White switches (the whites click), and for it to have white keys and a midnight blue body. I built it out of a working white AT102W, a broken blue AT102W and another broken board I had that used white Alps switches. I actually rather enjoyed doing it, but then I am an engineer and a bit of a nerd.

You're right on the model number - I've just flipped it over and checked :wink:

If the switches are physically coloured to match their description - you're right on that also. They are indeed black.

Really liking it tbh - my Logitech G15 at home feels a bit flimsy and wishy-washy in comparison.

 

[Captain Hat]

Yeah, the part of the switch that changes colour depending on switch type is the riser- the central pillar bit that the key clips onto. A lot of keyboard snobs look down on the old Alps black switches, but I've never seen anything wrong with them and as you say the AT102W board is extremely sturdy and well-built.

 

[Gareth]

Pre-ordered one of the ASUS Claymore 100% keyboards, a lot of cash but should finish my system off nicely, never really got on with the keyboard I have at the moment.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

That's pretty standard money for a quality keyboard. Assuming it's quality that is! Most likely just a reached something else anyway (hopefully).

I've got a ducky shine 5 and a WASD tenkeyless keyboard both with brown switches.

 

[HarvB]

Glad to see some appreciation here as well, my home board is a Leopold FC660M with Cherry Browns:

At work I've got a Filco with blues, also lovely!

 

[Goodj]

Clicky keyboads are the best.
IBM Model 2 FTW

 

[Cookie]

I have a Corsair Strafe RGB. Rainbooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

 

[Goodj]

I have a Corsair Strafe RGB. Rainbooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

That doesn't surprise me at all. :laughing:

 

[Silent_Scone]

I have a Corsair Strafe RGB. Rainbooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

Me too arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh colours.

The default profile drives me NUTS, though. You running the latest CUE?

Red switches here. (Not sure the Strafe came with anything else)

 

[Cookie]

Me too arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh colours.

The default profile drives me NUTS, though. You running the latest CUE?

Red switches here. (Not sure the Strafe came with anything else)

I have brown switches. I think I am but I'm not sure. There was a bug in one of the versions where CUE would laaaag the entire PC for no reason

 

[Silent_Scone]

I have to run it for my Void headset. b**ch likes to tell me when my battery is low