geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: khamer on Tue, 14 February 2012, 20:43:22
-
After reading posts on here for a few months, I finally registered.
I'm a coder by day and evenings, and gamer by late night. From the wisdom of this site, I originally went with a Steelseries G6v2 for work, but quickly discovered that I couldn't adapter to the L-style enter key, the repositioning of the keys around the enter, or suffer with me left meta key being exclusively a function key; I use vim at work, run linux and windows 7, and have meta+h/j/k/l mapped to work much like the typical win+left/down/up/right for window positioning. Anyway, so that keyboard was a total bust.
I did like the Cherry MX Black keyswitches however, so, round two, I return the G6v2 and picked up a Leopold FC200RL/AB (http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyless&pid=fc200rlab). It seems to be working out perfectly; for a while, it used the space key 'flipped' as I found the angle of the key more pleasant when I was resting my thumb against that way, but it isn't anymore.
Now it's time to fully commit and buy a mechanical keyboard for home. At this point, I'm all in for getting MX Black's again; I don't really want the noise from blues, and I think there's benefit in having my work/home keyboard using matching keyswitches. The only hitch is that home, I do enjoy some media functions (pretty much just mute and volume control.) I did see the thread on the upcoming FC700R series from Leopold, which sounds great, but I need a new one from home now (my old keyboard broke and I'm stuck with a cheapo right now.) I also found (via that thread) CoolerMaster's Storm QuickFire Rapid (http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=3060&product_name=CM%20Storm%20QuickFire%20Rapid), but it looks like it only comes with blue or red keyswitches.
So, I'm trying to find any other tenkeyless keyboards with at least some kind of volume control, either via bonus keys or a function key (on the right ideally.) MX Blacks would be very nice too. Any ideas? I suppose worst case I could just map some keyboard shortcuts.
-
If you order overseas such as from PCHome, you can get a CM Storm QuickFire Rapid with black switches. PCHome and other Asian retailers will give you Asian characters on the keys though, so you might want to get your own keycap set for it. The standard ones are typical ABS anyway, so if you want you can get a nice PBT set. I have a red switch version of the keyboard and I think it's excellent. Very solid build quality, I like having the detachable cable, they give you a few key replacements and puller, and it just has everything I need.
-
I didn't realize that I'd be able to get more options beyond what CoolerMaster offered by changing to an overseas reseller. Thanks for the tip.
-
Not sure if your post was intended sarcasm or not, but it took them a long time to bring the blues to the US much less reds. I don't believe the brown or black models will make it to the US unfortunately. Here is the black one.
http://global.pchome.com.tw/DCAH28-A58431867
Many users here and on other forums have ordered from there. It comes out to somewhere between $110-$120 shipped if I remember correctly, which is quite a price increase...
-
I just ordered a Quick Fire with black switches too, from qtan5370's shop (http://www.vendio.com/stores/E-sports-Gaming-equipments/item/cm-storm-quick-fire-tlk-80-key/lid=20591404)
I specifically wanted the keycaps with Asian characters, so that worked out fine for me.
-
There's also the Filco Multicam. Has multimedia fn keys (the only one from filco still available). Comes in Cherry blacks and the option of TKL or Full deck.... Though the CM's are fantastic, if you don't mind the camo, this is the better board. I've got both boards and though both are Costar, the Filco keycaps feels more solid.