after using a microsoft natural 4000 for a few years now, i really like the idea of a negative slope keyboard tray for an ergonomic type of keyboard such as the northgate one. hopefully the one you recommended can suit my wants.
i am only 25, but i want to make sure i dont develop rsi. my right wrist is a lil messed up from playing so much of fps games, a long time ago. now im trying to develop good habits and a proper ergonomic working environment. its a lot harder than it sounds for some reason though.
I know *exactly* how you feel because I am in the same exact boat. Yes, for *me* (and you) it is a lot harder than it sounds. Other people get it much easier (or so it seems).
1. Are you comfortable with an armless chair? The advantages are that your arms are more free to move around. Otherwise, if you keep your forearms locked at one position (the armrest) then your fingers or wrists sometimes make weird angles to access certain keys or the mouse. More likely, the armrests get in the way of your wrists (especially if they're placed towards the front of the chair).
Despite mentioning the advantages, my shoulders get tired and sometimes I lack guidance for my arms or elbow on armless chairs. Perhaps I need to learn more on proper posture for armless chairs.
Anyway, my "compromise" is to use a chair that has well designed arm rests. The armrests are placed closer to the back of the chair so they support only my elbows but don't get in the way of my wrists when I'm typing or mousing. A lot of generic chairs don't lower the armrests enough (or high enough) but my chair has sufficient height adjustments. Further, I can pivot the armrests outwards to get them out of the way if I do want more of a "armless" feeling. Additionally, I can quickly lower the arms so low that they feel like they aren't there.
This is a nice solution but armless is still better. More importantly, an armless chair is significantly cheaper than getting the chair I got. While I was saving up for the chair, my economic solution was to keep 2 chairs (one without arms and one with arms). For computing I'd try the armless and for reading / writing I'd try the one with arms. It got annoying for me to keep switching chairs (especially when I type for a few minutes than read notes back and forth). Also like I said I personally wasn't good with armless chairs (despite its advantages). That just goes to show that there are no "dead set" ergonomic rules. You have to use your personal discretion.
2. My chair also has something called forward tilt. It's nice for computing (fps especially) but then I personally "feel" like I'm slouching because the weight of my back is now forward (instead of *pointing* backwards against the backrest). It's subjective. Therefore I don't use the forward tilt feature for more than short periods (say a gam of COD4) but it may be a consideration for you.
3. Another consideration is to get a keyboard that doesn't slant upwards. I don't know why so many ergonomic keyboards (or even the Model M for that matter) are shaped that way. It encourages you to twist up your wrists which isn't good. I guess my negative tilt compensates for that.
4. Despite having a very good ergonomic set up, I have quit playing FPS games for ergonomic reasons. I'm (was) a low sensitivity gamer (60 cm / 360 degrees) so my wrists got tired after an hour of play. So far I've quit completely but maybe in the future I play but significantly less (20 min per session).
Take your time with your decision and sort through all your options.