geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: mozaiq on Wed, 02 April 2014, 10:44:11
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Hi fellow keyboard enthusiasts! After lurking around this forums for quite some time, a question came to my mind I need some sort of advice on. Of course I know that you cannot tell whether I will like a certain switch or not but I hope that you can share at least some experience on this.
First of all I am not new to mechanical keyboards. I am using a board with MX Blues for 2.5 years now. I bought this board since I got annoyed by those cheap rubber dome keyboards. Especially I wanted to learn touch typing or at least a more effortless version of typing since on my previous keyboards typing for a prolonged period of time could get very tiring. Since I mainly use my keyboard for typing and coding I went for Cherry MX Blue switches since the tactile and clicky feedback really felt great. I still think that those are great switches but I am afraid they are not the perfect ones for me. The main reason for this is the fact that I still bottom out more or less constantly. I know that this not that bad but I really would like to stop this behavior especially for the noise it creates. I guess the main problem actually is the tactile feedback. You need a certain force to activate the switch. After this point the force needed drops down again (probably not telling anything new to you here :)) But this drop in force almost instantly makes me bottom out the key. It is like I either don't activate the key or I put it to the metal.
Because of this my first thought was to get some stiffer switches. Greens or clears are almost impossible to get around here so I went for blacks. A friend of mine who owns a board with MX Blacks currently is on vacation so he lend me his board. Currently I am typing on this one. But I really don't know whether I can accommodate to this. At first a linear switch feels rather weird if you are used to blues. But I think that I could actually get used to the linear feeling. It is not that bad all I think. What bothers me is the force needed to actuate the key. If using the keys isolated it feels perfectly fine. E.g. reading this forum I am too lazy to switch my hand to my mouse to scroll so I use the arrow keys. This really feels great. But if I am typing normally the switches feel much stiffer. On one hand this is great since this instantly reduced my bottoming out by a huge margin. On the other hand I sometimes miss keystrokes since I don't press the key strong enough. This is especially true for the keys I hit with my ring finger or my pinky. Or it feels like I didn't activate the key but actually I did. I guess this is mainly because I am not used to the heavy switches yet. I am using this board for just some hours. But this now arises the main question for me: Will it be easier to accommodate to the heavier blacks or maybe reds? Or maybe even browns? Since there are no other boards available to me I ordered one of WASD's switch testers but it will take some time to ship I guess. But then again trying a single key feels entirely different that typing on a board full of them. Again for a single key blacks feel great to me but for constant typing it feels somehow too heavy at points.
So since you probably won't be able to tell me "this is the perfect switch for you", from your experience what is easier to "learn"? A heavier or a lighter switch? I am somehow stuck here since I don't have enough money to just go on and simply buy them all.
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You could try out a switch tester from cooler master.. they are pretty cheap and you get the price you pay for the tester as a coupon off of a keyboard if you buy it from them also, I think
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I would say that the problem isn't the switch, it might be the approach you take to typing. A switch won't make you not bottom out; some might force you to bottom out (domes and Topre to an extent), but if you want to type softly, you need to practice deliberately, probably for a week or so. Slow down, type gently. Using Greens for a while helped refine my typing on Blues, but other than Clears, Blues are considered much easier to actuate in the middle than linear or tactile switches.
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Haha that's quite the write up, giving the MX blacks a whirl I see :P
Anyways, heavy switches can feel sluggish, even if you often bottom out lighter switches. In my experience, because of the whole heavy tiring thing, heavy switches are a bit unappealing, and I find that over extended use, my fingers get tired. If blacks continue to give you a bit of an issue, I think you should definitely try reds or browns. I was on blues like you for a long time, and I thought I really like the whole tactile thing for a long time. After trying browns and using them for a while, however, blues are now my least favorite switch. I think browns are often describes as a safety switch in a way, because of the naturalness of it's features, and I don't hear people being disappointed with them too often.
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You could try out a switch tester from cooler master.. they are pretty cheap and you get the price you pay for the tester as a coupon off of a keyboard if you buy it from them also, I think
The coupon's savings only work if you buy the keyboard for their full retail price, which is much higher than just buying one when they're on sale somewhere like Newegg.
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Slap some o-rings on your blues keyboard. That's what I'm going to do when I buy a barebones WASD keyboard with blues and one green in the spacebar. WASD used to have black o-rings which are stiffer than their current blue and red o-rings. I recommend getting the blue rings if you want to try them out.
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Topre?
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purchase
You could try out a switch tester from cooler master.. they are pretty cheap and you get the price you pay for the tester as a coupon off of a keyboard if you buy it from them also, I think
this is what i did and i ended up with brown switch.
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Slap some o-rings on your blues keyboard.
O-rings are great for all other Cherry switches, but I like soft landing pads for blue Cherries.
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I had red but I returned for blue and I am very happy.
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model f ftw