check out elitekeyboards.com That's where I got my Filco with brown cherry switches. I prefer them to all others. They don't click like Das so they are not annoying. Also they are easier to push down than black cherries in the SteelSeries which means you can be faster. Mechanical keyboards are 100% worth it!!

MachuPicchu

United States47 Posts

April 07 2011 21:12 GMT

#22

P.S. With Filco you can get a 87 key version without the numpad like I have since the numpad is useless for most games. Also I recently found out Liquid Tyler uses a Filco with browns.

aMelo

Canada38 Posts

April 08 2011 05:36 GMT

#23

NCIX is a great store for any of your computer necessities! They carry a few mechanical keyboards including the Razer Blackwidow, Steelseries 7G and 6Gv2, and Das keyboards. You can check out what they have on their website.
Good luck with your search for a new keyboard

Dhalphir

Australia1305 Posts

April 08 2011 06:20 GMT

#24

I think stick to a Steelseries 6GV2 or 7G (Black switches). They are the least different to standard rubberdome keyboards while still doing away with all the disadvantages of the dome ones.

djcube

United States985 Posts

April 08 2011 06:58 GMT

#25

The safest bet would be brown switches. I have both a SteelSeries 6Gv2 (black switches) and das professional silent (brown) and I can't really think of a reason why I'd ever choose a black over brown. That's not to say black switches are bad, but brown switches have been more comfortable for everything I've done so far (typing for lengthy periods of time, playing sc2). I'd say that browns are a safer choice than blues as well, just because you or others around you may not like the loud clicky noise that blues make. That said, bottoming out (pushing the keys all the way down) on any mechanical keyboard is still louder than your standard rubber dome, or "computer keyboard" as you called it. There isn't much to say because you haven't told us much of what you're looking for in the keyboard. You did mention that your current one has problems registering keys, so it may want to look into keyboards that support at least 6-KRO (up to 6 simultaneous key presses will register) or full N-KRO (any amount of simultaneous key presses will register).

Quick rundown of switch types (Cherry) you'll find in popular mechanical keyboards:
Brown: low force required to push down keys (to activate them), tactile (small bump so you can feel when the key's been actuated), low sound
Blue: low force (around same as brown or a bit higher), tactile, loud sound (it's personal taste whether or not your enjoy the loud click)

Black: high force (a bit harder to push down keys), non-tactile (linear; there is no tactile bump), low sound - people over exaggerate the force requirement of black keys; they feel quite nice once you get used to them
Red: low force (around same as brown or lower), non-tactile, low sound

On April 07 2011 05:55 Michaelj wrote:
2. Requires two USB ports

afaik, this is only if you want to use the extra usb ports on the keyboard.

I found out everything there is to know about mechanical keyboards from the geekhack website, so I'd definitely recommend you check it out if you decide to purchase one.

djcube

United States985 Posts

April 08 2011 07:02 GMT

#26

On April 08 2011 15:20 Dhalphir wrote:
I think stick to a Steelseries 6GV2 or 7G (Black switches). They are the least different to standard rubberdome keyboards while still doing away with all the disadvantages of the dome ones.

If anything, blacks are probably the most different to standard rubberdome keyboards because blacks have no tactile feedback and have a high force requirement, while rubberdomes have tactile bumps and generally much lower force requirements than blacks.

tirentu

Canada1257 Posts

April 08 2011 08:02 GMT

#27

If it's of any relevance, I use a Steelseries 6gv2 and love the shit out of it.

Char711

United States862 Posts

April 08 2011 08:31 GMT

#28

On April 08 2011 06:06 MachuPicchu wrote:
check out elitekeyboards.com That's where I got my Filco with brown cherry switches. I prefer them to all others. They don't click like Das so they are not annoying. Also they are easier to push down than black cherries in the SteelSeries which means you can be faster. Mechanical keyboards are 100% worth it!!

They don't carry Filcos any more. They carry Leopolds, which were designed by the same person. Other than rounded edges that some people don't like as much as the regular straight ones, it's technically better than the Filco (the average person would probably just think they're basically the same, but I'm going on what I've read from the folks at GeekHack and such).

A massive benefit of the Leopold is the price: $100 as compared to the $130 that the Tenkeyless Filco was when EliteKeyboards was selling it (they only sell Tenkeyless Leopolds at the moment).

If it helps in any way, I've done massive amounts of research about this over many months and have concluded that browns are (either) safer and/or better than the other switches: you're most likely to enjoy them and you won't run into a noise problem (helpful for me since I share a wall with my roommate; and, in general, less noise is usually good) (browns are also held to be the best switch type for RTS players). My research has also shown that the Filco was far and away the best choice, meaning that, when you're in North America, the Leopold is the clear winner now (EliteKeyboards does extra testing and quality control meaning that it's nice to get it from them). I just bought parts to build myself a new computer and believe that I'm finally going to take the plunge and buy one myself, and, as someone who never makes decisions like this lightly (as you can probably tell by now), I feel confident in telling you that this would be one of your very best options.

MachuPicchu

United States47 Posts

April 08 2011 12:29 GMT

#29

Ah, I haven't been to EliteKeyboards.com in a while. I was heavily involved in the GeekHack site/community a couple years ago, but after I found the keyboards I like, I stopped checking in. So, that's why I didn't know about the Leopolds.

Thanks for the info!

Char711

United States862 Posts

April 08 2011 20:13 GMT

#30

On April 08 2011 21:29 MachuPicchu wrote:
Ah, I haven't been to EliteKeyboards.com in a while. I was heavily involved in the GeekHack site/community a couple years ago, but after I found the keyboards I like, I stopped checking in. So, that's why I didn't know about the Leopolds.

Thanks for the info!

My pleasure!

I do have a question for anyone who is reading. In a thread I just made I mentioned that I want to buy a Leopold ASAP and just didn't know if they were shipping right now (from what I see I would say yes, but I haven't gotten a concrete statement of it anywhere, much less EliteKeyboards's site). Does anyone know?

Edit: Check that thread to hear the analysis of when everything is shipping. My tl;dr is that I expect it to take maybe a week at most in contrast to their regular shipping time of 1-2 days. I'm going to order one right now!