• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 14:05
CET 19:05
KST 03:05
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy5ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289
Community News
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool42Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win42026 KungFu Cup Announcement6BGE Stara Zagora 2026 cancelled12Blizzard Classic Cup - Tastosis announced as captains18
StarCraft 2
General
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Potential Updates Coming to the SC2 CN Server Weekly Cups (March 2-8): ByuN overcomes PvT block Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win
Tourneys
World University TeamLeague (500$+) | Signups Open RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV Team League Season 10 KSL Week 87
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026]
External Content
Mutation # 518 Radiation Zone The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 517 Distant Threat Mutation # 516 Specter of Death
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Soulkey's decision to leave C9 JaeDong's form before ASL [ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos ASL21 General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro24 Group A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues ASL Season 21 LIVESTREAM with English Commentary [BSL22] Open Qualifiers & Ladder Tours
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine YouTube Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Cricket [SPORT] Formula 1 Discussion Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
U4GM Tips Counter Enemy Gadgets Fast in Black Ops rsvsr How to Keep Reward Chains Rolling in Monopol u4gm What to Do First in MLB The Show 26 Spring
Blogs
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Money Laundering In Video Ga…
TrAiDoS
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1538 users

Looking for a keyboard

Blogs > Sejanus
Post a Reply
Sejanus
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Lithuania550 Posts
April 11 2012 18:56 GMT
#1
Hey guys, past few weeks I was looking for a keyboard and I don't seem to find the one I like. What makes it even more difficult is that it will not be very easy for me to test use them before buying, i.e. I may find a way to test one or two models but I certainly won't find a place with all of different Razer, Logitech, Microsoft, etc. keyboards lined up for my testing.

I figured maybe you would have any suggestions. It may very well be that my criteria is too narrow and the keyboard like that doesn't even exist So feel free to suggest the closest match you know in the worst case.

So here is what I'm looking for:

A must:
* First things first, StarCraft is not the main concern but is somewhat important nevertheless. It's enough for me if it's an adequate keyboard for RTS, don't need nothing pro-level. I.e. I used to have Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and it was damn near impossible to play War3 with it (while very good for most of other purposes).
* Backlit and I wanna be able to adjust the brightness. I do need it. Not a red color. Also I want to still see labels when lighting is turned off.
* Mechanical. Brown or Black switches would be nice.
* CTRL is in the left-most bottom-most corner, period. Or the layout is such that it's near impossible to confuse CTRL button with some silly macro key without looking.
* Audio controls, i.e. standard forward, backward, stop, play, pause, maybe sound.
* No silly kitsch ok. Looking at you, alien face on Alienware keyboards.

Nice to have but not decisive factors
* Backlit blue or green color or shades thereof. Or the option to choose colors.
* Price matters, up to $100 is prefered, but I'd shell out something up to $150 is the product is really good.


Keyboards I already considered (or still considering)

* Microsoft SideWinder X6. I really, really liked it from reviews but: red color lighting and a macro key where the CTRL should be. Those are basically the biggest two dealbreakers for me. Otherwise seems to be pretty close to what I am looking for.
* Razer Lycosa. I really like the design, maybe the best looking keyboard I've seen, and the lighting color is very nice, but (1) you can hardly see the key labels without lighting; (2) you cannot adjust the brightness; (3) I've read some pretty bad reviews on how the keys sometimes doesnt even work and so on.
* Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth is what I'd very likely may buy if I won't find anything better. What I didn't like about it was ofcourse the damn CTRL is not where it's supposed to be. F keys doubling as audio controls ain't cool either but not a dealbreaker. Otherwise I pretty much like everything about this keyboard. Stealth is for brown switches and I don't really know the differences between Ultimate and other Blackwidows (I will certainly look into it).
* Alienware stuff. Closed all reviews the moment I saw an alien head. I may consider buying it for my 5 years old children, tho... once I have them )
* Saitek Cyborg... I don't know, I just didn't like it. It's design is like washed down Alienware, nearly usable but not really.

So that's pretty much it... Sorry for lots of text, I just figured it may help you to help me Thank you in advance!

Friends don't let friends massacre civilians
Ettick
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States2434 Posts
April 11 2012 18:58 GMT
#2
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=260143 check out this thread if you haven't already
Silidons
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States2813 Posts
April 11 2012 19:37 GMT
#3
i don't think you can pay <$100 for a mechanical backlit keyboard with media controls.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon Bonaparte
itsjustatank
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Hong Kong9169 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-11 19:50:59
April 11 2012 19:46 GMT
#4
Look for the Ducky Shine; seems like it would meet most of your requirements.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:21007

Edit: The Q-Pad MK-80 looks good for your uses too.
Photographer"nosotros estamos backamos" - setsuko
Beaza
Profile Joined March 2011
Germany203 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-11 19:56:04
April 11 2012 19:53 GMT
#5
Steelseries 6gv2 has everything u need. I have it too and its very good.
oops it doesnt have backlit. But why do you need Backlit if you dont want kitsch O__o ?
Sejanus
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Lithuania550 Posts
April 11 2012 20:23 GMT
#6
On April 12 2012 04:46 itsjustatank wrote:
Look for the Ducky Shine; seems like it would meet most of your requirements.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:21007

Edit: The Q-Pad MK-80 looks good for your uses too.


Thank you, at the first glance they really look good. I will definitely do more research on them!
Friends don't let friends massacre civilians
tymt
Profile Joined October 2010
Sweden293 Posts
April 11 2012 21:49 GMT
#7
On April 12 2012 04:46 itsjustatank wrote:
Look for the Ducky Shine; seems like it would meet most of your requirements.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:21007

Edit: The Q-Pad MK-80 looks good for your uses too.

Yea the Q-pad seems to suit you perfectly
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Monday Night Weeklies
17:00
#45
RotterdaM615
TKL 247
SteadfastSC169
IndyStarCraft 110
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 615
mouzHeroMarine 301
TKL 247
SteadfastSC 169
ProTech127
IndyStarCraft 110
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 5705
Jaedong 2215
Bisu 2163
Horang2 756
BeSt 654
Shuttle 611
Larva 535
Stork 481
Mini 445
Hyuk 402
[ Show more ]
Light 301
Soma 266
ggaemo 258
Rush 174
Dewaltoss 148
Leta 141
Shine 76
PianO 50
Free 44
sorry 41
Shinee 24
Aegong 22
910 21
Hm[arnc] 20
IntoTheRainbow 16
Movie 14
soO 12
Terrorterran 11
ajuk12(nOOB) 10
Dota 2
Gorgc5970
canceldota138
BananaSlamJamma0
Counter-Strike
fl0m4486
Fnx 2459
shoxiejesuss2003
pashabiceps1744
byalli378
adren_tv20
Heroes of the Storm
MindelVK13
Other Games
Grubby2855
FrodaN1099
Liquid`RaSZi856
B2W.Neo784
KnowMe179
shahzam159
Trikslyr70
C9.Mang066
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream59
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Reevou 10
• kabyraGe 1
• Kozan
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Migwel
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• FirePhoenix5
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota292
League of Legends
• Nemesis3665
• Shiphtur403
Other Games
• imaqtpie823
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
15h 55m
Afreeca Starleague
15h 55m
Soulkey vs Ample
JyJ vs sSak
Replay Cast
1d 14h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 15h
hero vs YSC
Larva vs Shine
Kung Fu Cup
1d 16h
Replay Cast
2 days
KCM Race Survival
2 days
The PondCast
2 days
WardiTV Team League
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Team League
3 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Cure vs Zoun
herO vs Rogue
WardiTV Team League
4 days
Platinum Heroes Events
4 days
BSL
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
ByuN vs Maru
MaxPax vs TriGGeR
WardiTV Team League
5 days
BSL
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
Light vs Calm
Royal vs Mind
Wardi Open
6 days
Monday Night Weeklies
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-03-22
WardiTV Winter 2026
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
BSL Season 22
CSL Elite League 2026
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 1
ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
RSL Revival: Season 4
Nations Cup 2026
NationLESS Cup
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

2026 Changsha Offline CUP
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 2
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.