Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Looking for Keyboard Advice
darkcircuit
Member Posts: 211
Hey all,
I recently had a Razer Lycosa keyboard purchased for me for Christmas and from the moment I plugged it in I had troubles with it (posted on another thread). I returned the keyboard for a refund and it was granted no quibble (guessing other peeps have had troubles with this keyboard). Silly me decided that as I still needed a keyboard and that I had heard good reviews of the Razer Blackwidow Stealth and that Razer confirmed it wouldn't have the same problems as the Lycosa, I decided to wait for that. Well I have been waiting nearly a month for Razer to get the keyboard back in stock, been mucked around by Razer's support in the meantime and finally today they confirmed that the keyboard would not be coming out in UK format for the foreseeable future. Well that was the final straw, I will now no longer buy Razer products ever.
However I'll now get to the point of this thread, can anyone recommend a good keyboard? To give you an idea of what I am looking for:
I don't care about flashy lights as I touch type anyway; if the keyboard has these I don't mind, but its not a defining requirement.
I would prefer mechanical as after reading up about the blackwidow stealth it seems the way to go.
If mechanical it has to use Cherry MX Brown switches as I am looking for quieter operation than the blues.
I not only use the keyboard for gaming (although it is its primary use), so a keyboard thats nice to type on would also be advantageous.
I'm not looking for any funky shapes like ergonomic ones as I use a standard keyboard at work and switching between 2 different keyboard styles is a nightmare IMO.
I dont care about tons of macro keys as I tend to use ingame macros anyway and other than the 1,2,3, etc keys I tend to be a clicker.
Has to be available in the UK, in a UK format and around £70.
Thanks for all advice
Comments
mech switch type depends on whether or not you want tactile feedback.
If you do, the certainly go brown if you don't like the click of the blue ( personally I love my blues)
If you do not want tactile feedback, consider going for red switches.
Having never used a mechanical keyboard I can't really comment too much on how each key feels, but from my understanding I definately want tactile feedback (means I feel when the switch engages right?), and I know the browns aren't silent, but I need them as quiet as possible as I do share the room with my other half.
Well I decided in the end not to go for mechanical, guess thats a future upgrade when mechanical keyboards stop looking like they came off an old BBC :P (not including Razer ones as I wont buy another Razer product).
I got myself a Logitech G19 instead, hope I don't live to regret it.
I like my G19. The LCD on it is more or less useless though, but the keyboard itself is nice to type on, fairly quiet and responsive. It does need a separate power cord aside from the USB connection, which is a bit inconvenient.
If I had to do it over again, I'd not have paid extra for the LCD. At the time I got it, it was nice for Ventrilo. Now I can't stand Vent and stay out of it at all possible costs, and it really has little useful purpose outside of that. Most of the widgets for it are developed for the G15, so they are mono color and distorted anyway, and by and large I just turn it off and ignore it.
It does have 3 banks of 12 on-the-fly programmable macros, which are nice. I don't use them either.
All in all, it's a nice keyboard, thankfully it was paid for by some Christmas Best Buy gift cards I needed to waste on something. But I wouldn't have spend a whole lot extra just for the features it has over a standard Logitech keyboard.
After getting my BlackWidow Ultimate I will never go back to using something with Rubber Domes again.
I even take it into work, much to my work mates annoyance. I might think about getting something with Brown switches in future or possibly black/red but to be honest I quite like the clicky feedback as when muscle memory kicks in you stop making the keys 'clunk' as the key hits the bottom of the board.
It's loud but it's a dream to type and use. I know the Lycosa had quality issues but this has been perfect so far. I've had to take the keys off and clean them quite a few times now and I don't see any issues with any of them at all.
(I'm in IT and type up reports when I'm done jobs in work and in between I browse the web and post on forums etc. Outside of work I play stuff ranging from League of Legends to Starcraft II and Skyrim. All in all the keyboard has been used a lot and has held up perfectly so far.)