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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Stare Roe on Thu, 09 May 2013, 01:41:08
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Necessary
- white, because it's an officer where coordinated decoration matters. Got some evil eyes when I brought in my black Unicomp Spacesaver.
- works in OSX (but not necessarily Mac layout), because the office uses Macs
- reliable. The cost of these things makes me not want to end up with the 1 year Ducky that I hear about.
- number pad. I input numbers pretty often and hate having to deal with a separate number pad.
- buyable from some US reseller
Preferences
- tactile feedback
- non-clicky, unless it's a fairly quiet one. My coworkers seem to bottom out their scissors switch KBs pretty frequently, to the point that I can hear them next door.
- no backlight
- high actuation force, because I'm coming from a BS keyboard
I've found some candidates:
Matias Tactile Pro full (how loud are the white ALPS?)
Filco Majestouch 2 full (trying to justify paying for this. Also only found it on Amazon, where the listing also included some black keyboard pictures, which makes me afraid that the seller will random choose the color)
Keycool 108 (according to a thread I found on deskthority, the >6kro on USB on these work on Macs, but no confirmation, and mechanicalkeyboards doesn't include it as Mac compatible)
Leopold full (seems out of stock at elitekeyboards, and I can't find it anywhere else)
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Noppoo Choc Pro with MX Brown. Those are just a little bit cheaper than the Filcos but haven't heard of many reliability issues so far. Only problem is that they aren't available in white.
Others include the white HPE 104 with MX Brown, but that model seems just a bit too cheap and has rather too bright LEDs.
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Cherry G80-3000LQCEU-0 may fit most of the requirements and preferences. The only one it might not easily fit is US seller. They are often fairly tough to find in USA.
It is a full size 104 ANSI keyboard in 'white' more of an extremely light grey, work in any OS, and has clear switch which are non-click tactile and have high force. Also they are on the cheaper side usually somewhere between $70 and $90 depending on where sourced from.
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Do not get a matias tactile. You will wake the dead with the sound.
Have you considered a white RealForce? That would be quite quiet.
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Just FYI: The Matias Tactile Pro has a Matias switch based on Grey Tactile Alps. They're not the original Clicky White Alps. And the Tactile Pro switches aren't as loud as the Clicky White Alps but they're still loud. I would suggest a Matias Quiet Pro personally.
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After a quick search I was only able to find the Keycool 108 browns on mechanicalkeyboards that was a full size in white. It does have some backlighting but it does have 3 settings and I'm sure off is one of those settings. It does say it is limited for OS X. I'm guessing it is referring to the rollover, probably not NKEY, most likely 6KEY. I wish they would elaborate more on the limited definition.
I have the Noppoo Choc Mini and I enjoy the keyboard so I would recommend it as a brand to buy.
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As far as I know, the Noppoo's NKRO implementation makes it incompatible with Macs, though I could go with a weird USB to PS/2 to USB bridge if I really wanted one.
Supposedly Keycool's 21KRO does work with Macs, so that's a possibility.
Thanks for the alert about the Matias. I think I'll cross that off the list.
Any idea where to buy these? For example, the HPE is available from qtan's eBay site, but it seems he only has blue switches atm. Amazon has some Filcos for sale, but they're also blue only (at least for the full layout). mechanicalkeyboards does have all types of Keycool in stock, so that's definitely an advantage.
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As far as I know, the Noppoo's NKRO implementation makes it incompatible with Macs, though I could go with a weird USB to PS/2 to USB bridge if I really wanted one.
Supposedly Keycool's 21KRO does work with Macs, so that's a possibility.
Thanks for the alert about the Matias. I think I'll cross that off the list.
Any idea where to buy these? For example, the HPE is available from qtan's eBay site, but it seems he only has blue switches atm. Amazon has some Filcos for sale, but they're also blue only (at least for the full layout). mechanicalkeyboards does have all types of Keycool in stock, so that's definitely an advantage.
I haven't seen many keyboards available with browns. Are you looking to get browns or did you want blacks since you were looking for something with high actuation force?
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I recently purchased a Filco Majestouch 2 Ninja which is black but you can always change out the keycaps. It works fine with my mac at work.
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Base on my test of Keycool, it work as 6KRO at least in our testing Mac system, so as HPE.
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For example, the HPE is available from qtan's eBay site, but it seems he only has blue switches atm.
Here it is on his eBay site (http://www.ebay.com/itm/HPE-104-Mechanical-Gaming-keyboard-Cherry-MX-Brown-switches-W-White-body-/290896086236?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item43bac204dc).