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So I thought I’d finally catch up with the times and invest in a mechanical keyboard, but I have literally no idea where to start, so what mechanical keyboards do the good people of ETF2L recommend?

I’ve already had a look at the Tt Esports Meka G1 and Steelseries 6GV2, and they seem quite nice, but I guess I’d like a backlit one if possible…

Budget is probably around £90 or less.

Thanks!

beach :)

Quoted from Spike Himself

I got myself the 6GV2 a while ago and the only thing that’s annoyed me, and still does, is the position of the backslash key (left of Shift instead of above Enter). Other than that it’s fantastic.

Buy a US lay-out version, those shouldn’t have that.

Steelseries made up their own layout.

Do you want/need a numpad?

Where are you located?

The Choc Mini is a good board, would recommend the white version over the black since the keycaps are thicker and feel nicer to type on (no idea why they aren’t the same)

So here’s the bottom line, 95% of the people suggesting stuff regarding mechanical keyboards and absolutely full of shit.

So you’ve got your 4 key types:
MX Black: The strongest force required to press
MX Brown: Less force the black
MX Blue: Roughly similar force required, but has an audible and physical “click” about 2/3rds down the key that tells you when it’s pressed. Gives much better feedback.
MX Red: Lightest force required to press.

So you pick a switch you like. I’d suggest waiting till you go to LAN to get if possible so you can try them all out, Kustom PC have them all on display. Once you’ve picked the switch, you find a keyboard you like that has that switch. In terms of build quality, you’ve got Filco, Ducky, Leopold, Noppoo, Das who are solid. If you can afford it, get one from these companies. Beyond that, you’ve got the usual suspects for gaming peripherals making their own cheaper/lower quality versions with Cherry MX switches. Qpad are pretty crap, avoid them. Steelseries are definitely the best of this group although they have some dumb stuff like no windows keys on the left (as gamers hitting the windows key by accident is a major concern, obviously). The keyboards TT are making are fairly plasticy things, but if you just close your eyes and type you won’t notice too much. Can’t really comment on many of the others since I’ve not tried them too much.

Geekhack.org is a great website to check out if you really want to investigate this stuff. Don’t think I’ve seen a community of people so knowledgeable on one particular topic.

So, if I was looking for a budget mech keyboard for around £60-£70, what would be your recommendation skyride/nvc?

Quoted from rtan

So, if I was looking for a budget mech keyboard for around £60-£70, what would be your recommendation skyride/nvc?

If it was me, at that pricerange:

– Compact: noppoo choc mini (mx red) – .US layout though :(
– Tenkeyless: CM Storm Quickfire Rapid (mx red)
– Full Size: qpad mk-50 (mx red)

If you could go to £100-110 the only changes i’d make would be a Filco Tenkeyless and a Ducky Shine Full Size. The QPad MK-85 is a nice Full Size board (a few people have bought it from my recommendation and like it), but it’s just the MK-50 with lights and additional inputs that are useless for most users. So unless the MK-85 was to drop below 100, maybe the Ducky Shine provides better value for money if you’re prepared to wait on an imported product (returns etc). The Steelseries boards are sturdy, but i dislike their layouts and Razer use blue switches.

Cheers skyride/nvc..the different types of switches were the most confusing things :p I tried a couple of people’s keyboards at lan, I did like the steelseries 6gv2, but I think I’ll wait until I can go and try some more, they’re pretty expensive and don’t want to waste money on something I don’t like !