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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: MrFex on Sun, 18 January 2015, 13:22:24

Title: Looking for small keyboard such as Vortex Race or equivalent layout
Post by: MrFex on Sun, 18 January 2015, 13:22:24

Gentemen,


I've been eyeballing various keyboard models such as the Poker, Filco TKL's, Coolermaster's and the Vortex Pure / Race boards.
What I love about the Race is that it has F1 through F12 keys, the full arrow keys and PageUp / PageDown / Home / End keys.

Unfortunately I cannot find a place that sells this model anymore, and the Race II doesn't seem to have the same layout (F11 and F12 keys are swapped out).

I'll want to use the board for programming which is the only reason I have the requirements mentioned above. Do you have any suggestions for other boards / brands / models? Or perhaps a place to buy a nice Race. The Pure looks like a great board too but aside from the F1 I think it would be too small for me.

Title: Re: Looking for small keyboard such as Vortex Race or equivalent layout
Post by: MrFex on Sun, 18 January 2015, 14:35:15

Noppoo Choch Mini has the same layout .. but not able to get it anywhere in europe.

Title: Re: Looking for small keyboard such as Vortex Race or equivalent layout
Post by: Oobly on Mon, 19 January 2015, 02:13:27

There's not a big difference in size between a 75% board (KBT Race, Noppoo Choc Mini, Keycool 84, etc) and TKL, all the 75% boards have at least some non-standard size keycaps (which means that you can't fit most aftermarket keycap sets on them) and the TKL has all the keys where you're used to them being. So unless you REALLY want a 75% size board for some particular reason, I'd recommend rather getting a KUL, Ducky, Filco or CMStorm Quickfire TKL.

If it MUST be a 75% then the Keycool 84 is a reasonable choice, although they now use Kailh switches (which seem to be okay to use, even though they're "clones").

Noppoo now also make the Nano 75-s. It's not a full 75% board since it doesn't have dedicated arrow keys (it's sort of a 60% with added F key row), but it does have separate F keys and the right hand modifiers can be turned into an arrow cluster by putting it in "media mode". It's also a standard ANSI layout, so practically all aftermarket keycap sets will fit, too :)

Title: Re: Looking for small keyboard such as Vortex Race or equivalent layout
Post by: berserkfan on Mon, 19 January 2015, 23:15:41

If you want small, go for 2 GH36s. The desktop footprint will be really small and still ergonomic.

[Very frustrated that so few people go for matrix layouts.]