Recomendations: Replacement keyboard

[Bikerdude]

Evening

 

My trust Dell keyboard is now showing its age (5+ yrs) and its time to replace it. I've selected a keyboards from several the shops near where I live and they are all utter crap, either they feel horrible to use or the keys just plain don't work reliably.

 

What I know about the dell is it has normal longish travel keys, unlike all the ones that plague the above shops. I cant stand keyboard that try to be like laptop keyboards, with short travel, keys that are too close together and no solid sensation when you press a key.

 

ta.

[SeriousToni]

Cherry is total crap. Buy yourself a gaming keyboard with LED lights!

[Bikerdude]

Buy yourself a gaming keyboard with LED lights

I don't particularly need all that nonsense, its more important that its solid, sturdy and reliable.

[Sotha]

I've always been perfectly happy with the ordinary logitech keyboards. My trusty deluxe 250 may be ancient, but it works and has never let me down.

[7upMan]

I have a Cherry MY 3000 USB. I'm okay with it, too. Until a few months, I used an ur-ancient Chicony KB-5312R. It has a DIN connector and NO WINDOWS KEYS!!!!! I'd continue to use it, but it has a purely German layout, not the mixed German/Russian I need for work.

 

Also, I must add that in the beginning, the Cherry felt like crap too, but after some use, the keys are wearing in, so to say. Or maybe I'm getting used to it...

 

Edit: Just checked the Chicony website, and the keyboard that comes closest to my old one is this: http://www.chicony.c...l/special-1.htm

 

 

Edited September 25, 2012 by 7upMan

[Xarg]

Just as I was coming in to post IBM Model M....

[SeriousToni]

I don't particularly need all that nonsense, its more important that its solid, sturdy and reliable.

 

Non-sense?! There is nothing better than playing "dark games" (TDM, Thief, Dead Space, ...) with lights out so you can actually see where you're running AND seeing where your keys are! Also working deep in the night on TDM maps is also cool with LED backlight so you find your shortcuts Gaming Keyboards are very reliable because they used to been used many hours a day, since they are gaming keyboards

[Bikerdude]

I dont need it because, my monitors arent completely dark so I dont play in the dark, hence I dont need a keyboard that i can use in that scenario.

[New Horizon]

I picked up this keyboard last week. http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboards/illuminated-keyboard

First nice keyboard I've ever bought for myself but it was well worth the money.

 

It's illuminated, which you say you don't need, but in terms of overall construction and sturdiness I would highly recommend it. The typing action is pretty quiet too, especially compared to my clackity old Acer keyboard.

[Bikerdude]

That Logitech keyboard looks like it has short travel keys(despite what the blurb says), which I don't get on with. The price over here is around £50 at which point we are into mechanical keyboard prices.

[Bikerdude]

Well after a bit of searching I cam across this keyboard

 

Qpad MK-50 Pro Gaming, and you have a choice of which type of key switch is comes with. Our non-english members will like the fact it comes in different layouts :-)

 

The product website - http://www.corporate.qpad.se/modules/news/article.php?storyid=252

The review - http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/mechanical-keyboard-guide#post6025204

 

The cost is around the £50 mark.

[Professor Paul1290]

The keyboard I'm using right now is a Rosewill RK-9000BL and I've had it for almost two years now.

It isn't very fancy and it's one of the cheaper lower quality mechanical keyboards, but even this keyboard has been far better than any of the membrane keyboards I've had over the years (and I've gone through quite a few).

On the other hand, I would hesitate to recommend this model at this point as I've recently been hearing about some defects in some of the some batches of this particular keyboard. I guess I got kind of lucky on this one. XD

 

 

I suppose as far as something I would recommend having a look at, I did find something rather interesting.

 

Unicomp, one of the companies that manufactured the Model M "buckling spring" keyboards, seem to still make and sell modern versions of that keyboard:

www.pckeyboard.com/

 

They should be a nice option if you want a keyboard with buckling spring switches like the reliable Model M, but don't want something that's had everyone's dirty fingers all over it over the years.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Professor Paul1290

[Bikerdude]

That Rosewill has the Cherry black MX switches so should on paper be a good keyboard, and yeah I have read about the "buckling spring" and those Unicomb keyboards look very solid and beefy.

 

I am typing on the Qpad atm, and I have observed 2 things:

 

1. Its a way too loud when typing (I dont know if I will be able to get used to this)

2. I keep mistyping left right and center, and that's because the keys are a tad smaller & closer together then my old Dell SK-8125.

 

As I have found a brand new replacement for my SK-8125 I will most likely send this Qpad back.