geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: volund on Wed, 22 February 2012, 18:07:31
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Ok....
I'm looking for a new board, something a bit different from my frigging massive Razer Blackwidow, but still sticking with MX Blue switches. My first thought was something really tiny, like a Poker, RACE, or Choc Mini, but none of those seemed "right" for me.
So I started looking a bit bigger, to Tenkeyless boards, but there don't seem to be many options
So far I've seen reviews on the Filco tenkeyless, which is going for around $150 from KeyboardCoUK on Amazon, and the Leopold Tenkeyless from elitekeyboards at around $110. Am I missing any potential options?
My main criteria is that the keyboard comes in black, and has Cherry MX Blues
it would be nice if the board had a detachable USB cable, but I can live without that.
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Leopold is cheaper and has a detachable cable, but I still prefer Filco. I like Filco more not only for the stabilizers, but for the slightly more solid feel. Either one is a good choice though.
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Keycool, Ducky are other options in black tenkeyless with blue switch. Not necessarily recommend but available. If you can live with gunmetal grey body and lots of logos there is CM Storm.
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After shipping (free prime shipping at amazon) they are within $30 of each other, so the price difference isn't to big of a deal to me really.
what specifically do you mean by "more solid"? If I'm not mistaken both are plate mounted switches.
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I guess the casing feels a bit more solid to me.
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I just got a Cooler Master CM Storm Quickfire Rapid with the MX Blues and I really like it. It comes with a detachable cable and has extra keycaps for the WASD and Windows keys. And this is just something random but the font on the keys is similar to that of the Razer keyboards, even though you might change them out, the stock ones are the same.
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You can't go wrong with a Filco, they're great boards.
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white (grey) leopolds are 89 on ek
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white (grey) leopolds are 89 on ek
Agreed. (http://www.elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyless&pid=fc200rcaw) Probably the best price to quality ratio you're going to get. You can also pay an extra 20$ (http://www.elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyless&pid=fc200rcab) for a black one.
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Go with the Leo if you like white for sure. Such a good deal. Other than that I love my Ninja keycaps so you can try the Filco if money isn't that big of an issue.
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I have 2 Filco's and 2 Leo's. For some reason it was love at first sight with the Filco's, but the Leo's are really growing on me as time goes by. Plus Leo's are cheaper and easier to get in different switches (at least in US from elitekeyboards.com).
Oh yeah, and get a TKL and you will not regret it. Poker, Race, Choc mini are not the same, and are a bit gimmicky, IMO. The various Mini layouts are not bad, but the TKL is a real keyboard.
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I'd say A Quickfire Rapid, as the Leopolds are great for price and all, but the stabilizers don't match up to Costar's.
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You can't go wrong with the Quickfire Rapid, they appear to have Filco quality with a bargain price.
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You can't go wrong with the Quickfire Rapid, they appear to have Filco quality with a bargain price.
Make it +3 to the quickfire rapid.
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I vote for the CM Storm QuickFire Rapid. Mine is great.
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Thanks for all of the input guys, there is just something about the QF Rapid that I don't like, probably the excessive amount of branding on it, I would have to paint it plus get a set of replacement keys for it, as the font is just as bad as on the blackwidow
I'll probably just go with the white Leopold from EliteKeyboards, and get a set of black doubleshots somewhere down the line.
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That will look sweet
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I thought so :P
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Thanks for all of the input guys, there is just something about the QF Rapid that I don't like, probably the excessive amount of branding on it, I would have to paint it plus get a set of replacement keys for it, as the font is just as bad as on the blackwidow
I'll probably just go with the white Leopold from EliteKeyboards, and get a set of black doubleshots somewhere down the line.
You're better off with the QF Rapid + new keycaps imo
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As I said, I'm not happy with the amount of branding on the QF, which would just end up with a rather lousy paintjob.
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I´d like a Leopold TKL...but there is no ISO version afaik :(
The QF should be released as ISO this march...so maybe i´ll get one.
I agree with the branding...the spacebar / tribal stuff is definately too much :(
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I'm pretty happy with my filco. I bought a couple of extra leopolds to try blue and clear switches and found I didn't really like the stabilizers on the leos as much as the stabilizers on the filco. Keypresses on the cherry stabilizers feel odd to me somehow.
If you buy a Filco you will have to also get replacement keycaps for it if you value texture on the keys.
Can't wait for Q4 when WASD rolls out the tenkeyless; then the one true keyboard will reign.
If only they'd offer thick PBT keys as an option instead of just the thin ABS stuff :(