My first post here... I have been a bit of a gamer since EQ and use computers for work as well. I've always appreciated a mechanical keyboard but maybe never had a really good one. I've used a Ducky Shine 5 (two of them) for 3 or 4 years. They both have Cherry MX switches, and I'm not impressed with the switches). I was recently shopping for a mechanical keyboard for a new iMac that I just decided to order as an experiment to see if I can tolerate Mac OS, and I have learned that nice keyboards with Mac buttons are rather hard to come by, and Mac buttons that match my existing keyboard are also hard to come by. I found
https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/, so I've ordered one of those (F77), which should be good fun. But I can't bring myself to order enough $500 keyboards to have one for each of my computers, and a 77-key board is quite a compromise for me anyway, (though if the Ellipse guy does an F107 project, I'll definitely buy one, and maybe several). Anyway, in the meantime I'm thinking about building a keyboard or three for my other computers, and I had some questions...
1) I am a CPA, so a number pad is a 100% non-negotiable requirement. But I'm finding it near impossible to find a case, a plate, and a PCB for a full size (at least 104 key) keyboard. I looked at mechanicalkeyboards.com, kbdfans.com, maxkeyboard.com, and others... full size parts seem to be a rarity.
2) Switches... The Cherry MX have worked fine, but are not fantastic. When I was in college I worked the front desk in a girls dorm (around 1999), and the computer at the front desk had probably been there for 15 years by that time, which meant it was really slow and had an amazing keyboard. Finding good switches that are as satisfying to use as that computer was is near impossible. Alps is out of business. Cherry MX is everywhere but I'm not impressed. I'll probably try to find some Zealios... If anyone knows of a readily available switch that could be better, let me know. I'm not sure what the clicky version of Zealios would be, but I'm not really interested in Cherry MX Blues.
3) I'm thinking about dismantling my Ducky keyboards for the cases and PCBs if there's no better option, but I really hate to do that - unsoldering 104 keys per board seems like more trouble than it's worth, especially with the boards in otherwise fine working order, and there being nothing particularly exciting about the cases. If dismantling a board makes sense, is it better to dismantle the Duckies or is there another keyboard that might have a better case/plate/pcb? Anyone else making cast zinc cases or just Ellipse?
