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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Shawn Stanford on Wed, 09 September 2009, 18:01:54

Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Wed, 09 September 2009, 18:01:54: ...who has no particular interest in mechanicals? I've got my eye on a Cherry G80-1800 and a BTC 5100. She's currently happily in the process of killing a Creative Fatal1ty keyboard.

Thoughts?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: ch_123 on Wed, 09 September 2009, 18:03:59: Linear Filco?

Some games benefit from having a numpad, so I'd lean more towards the 104-key model as opposed to the Tenkeyless.

Link. (http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=filco_keyboards,majestouch_104key&pid=fkbn104mleb)
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Wed, 09 September 2009, 18:07:33: Thanks, but she's all WASD and mouse. Losing the tenkey is not a problem. I see that Majestouch makes a tenkeyless. Is that a good board for gaming?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: ch_123 on Wed, 09 September 2009, 18:08:27: Then the Tenkeyless (http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=filco_keyboards,majestouch_87key&pid=fkbn87mleb) version might be a better idea, get the mouse closer in for better ergonomics.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: yode on Wed, 09 September 2009, 18:58:23: I'm currently a casual gamer, mostly fps + mmo, and was wondering if blue cherries were ok for gaming. I heard brown cherries were better, but why?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: timw4mail on Wed, 09 September 2009, 19:07:13: Quote from: yode;116362
I'm currently a casual gamer, mostly fps + mmo, and was wondering if blue cherries were ok for gaming. I heard brown cherries were better, but why?

Brown cherries don't click, and the resistance is lower.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: yode on Wed, 09 September 2009, 19:10:08: Quote from: timw4mail;116373
Brown cherries don't click, and the resistance is lower.

what's the problem with clicking?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: mike2h on Wed, 09 September 2009, 19:28:53: graphic card sales are down due to 2 things: poor economy & last years ati & nv gpu release are not being pushed very hard by curent crop of games.
outside of sli there is no real reason to upgrade your graphics if you have mid range or better card from curent gen or even last gen.
imo there is also this issue- lack of compelling titles...

as far as the kb/switch thing goes i can offer no informed opinion at this point, my first 'real' kb :) is arriving friday- a deck frost tactile. it uses clear/white switches(suppossed to be a brown swich with a blk spring from what i have read here), these sound like a good compromise between gaming & typing. i will give my opinion once i have used it for a few days.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: F2a on Wed, 09 September 2009, 19:45:32: I am the person Ripster was referring to. For gaming get Black Cherrys. Search my posts for my comments yesterday.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: yode on Wed, 09 September 2009, 20:36:40: Quote from: ripster;116376
Casual gaming it doesn't matter what you use. We had a pro gamer come through yesterday who swore by the Black Linear Cherrys but he couldn't type text on them - they are too stiff.

I stopped recommending particular switches to gamers since I'm just not gaming that much anymore on a PC. Seems like I am not alone - graphic card sales are down 15% (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2352067,00.asp)from last year and it's mainly low end junk.

so, blue cherrys wouldn't be horrible for gaming?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Rajagra on Wed, 09 September 2009, 20:57:48: Quote from: yode;116406
so, blue cherrys wouldn't be horrible for gaming?

They might be horrible for button-mashing games. The combination of the loud click and well defined hysteresis (the make point is lower than the release point) might make it tiresome.

Now, call me crazy, but would a FKBN87Z/EB-Y (http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=filco_keyboards,majestouch_87key&pid=fkbn87zeby) make a good gaming board? The XM switches might be disliked for typing, but games are an entirely different matter.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: alpslover on Wed, 09 September 2009, 21:56:13: Quote from: Rajagra;116412
They might be horrible for button-mashing games. The combination of the loud click and well defined hysteresis (the make point is lower than the release point) might make it tiresome.

Now, call me crazy, but would a FKBN87Z/EB-Y (http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=filco_keyboards,majestouch_87key&pid=fkbn87zeby) make a good gaming board? The XM switches might be disliked for typing, but games are an entirely different matter.

the xm's are quite a bit stiffer than cherry blues so they may end up being more fatiguing, especially in button mashing games.

i've always played games with click tactile switch keyboards and have never felt that they didn't respond quickly enough or were tiring to game on for extended intervals. with the exception of the model m - it felt like i had to try that much harder to get the keys to respond quickly, and as a result my fingers would get tired a lot sooner. come to think of it, i'm not much of a fan of the m for typing, either.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: F2a on Wed, 09 September 2009, 22:10:26: Blues are fine for casual gaming. I just played an FPS game with them now to check it out and they were fine.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: yode on Wed, 09 September 2009, 23:04:29: Quote from: F2a;116419
Blues are fine for casual gaming. I just played an FPS game with them now to check it out and they were fine.

sounds good man
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: hyperlinked on Wed, 09 September 2009, 23:15:29: I was a dedicated FPS gamer in the past before my left hand started hating my gaming habit. My best FPS gaming days were spent with a keyboard with Black ALPS. I liked to play very fast paced one-shot one-kill type of FPS games and was never as good once my MicroConnectors board with the Black ALPS died.

I'm using a Filco Brown Cherry right now and haven't tried gaming on it at all yet. I just got it so I can't say how this would compare with a Black ALPS board, but I think it'd be inferior. I picked this board because of the low resistance, which I love most of the time, but I've found that it's hard for to me feel if I've pressed a key at times when I'm typing very fast. This will be a problem playing a game in which you need to scramble around a lot.

Quote from: ripster;116376
Casual gaming it doesn't matter what you use. We had a pro gamer come through yesterday who swore by the Black Linear Cherrys but he couldn't type text on them - they are too stiff.

Yeah, I think having some resistance can really allow you to get a better feel for movement and control of a character in a game. Think of driving a car and driving a car that has some responsive steering with some resistance in it and driving a car with uber power steering in which a hard turn at 50mph feels no different on the wheel than a slow lazy curve at 10mph.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: hyperlinked on Wed, 09 September 2009, 23:25:48: BTW, the only problem with the higher resistance switches is the strain it puts on your hand. The Black ALPS were a perfect balance between that responsive feel and low resistance for me so that I could play an hour here and an hour there without having wrist pain.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: AndrewZorn on Thu, 10 September 2009, 00:43:06: hey, a use for my future $15 dell at last!
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Thu, 10 September 2009, 07:18:43: Okay, I'm in for the B-stock Filco...
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Thu, 10 September 2009, 07:20:02: Other than the Decks, any backlit mechanicals out there..?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: itlnstln on Thu, 10 September 2009, 09:50:56: Quote from: Shawn Stanford;116547
Other than the Decks, any backlit mechanicals out there..?

There are the Telxon 'boards, but they made by the parent company of Deck, so they're basically the same thing with a different font on the caps.

So really, no. At least not that I am aware of.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: hamlet on Thu, 10 September 2009, 10:51:11: Quote from: ch_123;116339
Then the Tenkeyless (http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=filco_keyboards,majestouch_87key&pid=fkbn87mleb) version might be a better idea, get the mouse closer in for better ergonomics.

I agree, a black switch ten key less will be perfect, it makes two hands closer. Also Filco has a small set of ASWD PBT caps with no print, so you will never worry about the print will fade or the raising of cap
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: AndrewZorn on Thu, 10 September 2009, 11:51:24: Quote from: itlnstln;116582
There are the Telxon 'boards, but they made by the parent company of Deck, so they're basically the same thing with a different font on the caps.

So really, no. At least not that I am aware of.

hmmm... hate the deck font... might have to look
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: itlnstln on Thu, 10 September 2009, 11:52:47: Quote from: AndrewZorn;116648
hmmm... hate the deck font... might have to look

They're not much better. The Telxon 'boards are pretty ugly.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: hamlet on Thu, 10 September 2009, 12:16:36: i'd say TG3 is more like an artwork, some of my friends were killed by its layout
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: cmr on Thu, 10 September 2009, 12:32:55: blue cherries are okay for gaming if you don't mind the clicking. my favorite gaming keyboard is my AT-101W.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Thu, 10 September 2009, 15:02:25: Well, she's not a professional or anything; it's just that her desktop keyboard at home is primarily used to idly surf the net (not a lot of keypresses there) or on WoW and LOTRO. She's happy enough with the backlit Fatal1ty with the scissors, but it's starting to fill up with crumbs. It still works well enough, but it's getting to the point where it's a little... Uh... Gross to use; since you can see the food detritus under the clear keys.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: timw4mail on Thu, 10 September 2009, 16:05:21: Quote from: Shawn Stanford;116730
Well, she's not a professional or anything; it's just that her desktop keyboard at home is primarily used to idly surf the net (not a lot of keypresses there) or on WoW and LOTRO. She's happy enough with the backlit Fatal1ty with the scissors, but it's starting to fill up with crumbs. It still works well enough, but it's getting to the point where it's a little... Uh... Gross to use; since you can see the food detritus under the clear keys.

If the only factor is cleanliness, get a $10 rollup silicone keyboard. On the other hand, maybe a Model M or Unicomp board, with a silicone cover?
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: rdjack21 on Thu, 10 September 2009, 16:08:46: If she is happy with it why not just give it a good cleaning and give it back to her.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: AndrewZorn on Thu, 10 September 2009, 16:55:02: Quote from: cmr;116671
blue cherries are okay for gaming if you don't mind the clicking. my favorite gaming keyboard is my AT-101W.

second time ive heard this, such good news, the AT-101W i ordered from ebay combined with the model m im about to get (combined with the hhkb that costs way more) sounds like ill have a pretty complete starter collection!
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: cmr on Thu, 10 September 2009, 16:59:05: oh my god, the backspace/backslash/enter on that TG3... close enough? i think i could use that...
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: timw4mail on Thu, 10 September 2009, 19:15:16: Quote from: ripster;116820

Show Image
(http://customersrock.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/keyboard-love.jpg)
That had better be double-shot.
Title: Keyboard for my wife the gamer...
Post by: Shuki on Thu, 10 September 2009, 20:48:33: Cherry brown switches take some getting used to after using blacks in games. On my Filco with browns in games such as quake 3 I was missing some jumps at first as putting the same force (muscle memory) would activate the key at a different time than my Deck keyboard with cherry blacks. Although after getting used to it I must say I much prefer the browns on the Filco as the control button is easily pressed with my little finger without straining my hand. The keys are lighter which is nice for prolonged sessions. The space-bar is great as it is a light and so I am able to press it rapidly with accuracy in games. The other benefit is that it is far more comfortable to tpye on than my keyboards I have had with blacks.

Plus the Filco has the perfect layout for me, if I designed a keyboard it would look like this. Oh except with a pound sign instead of a dollar sign :)