Where to try (or buy/return) Cherry switches near Mountain View?

[heuristicist]

Hi all,

I find myself living in Mountain View for a few months and am in the mood to buy a mechanical keyboard. I've tried Cherry MX Blues, Blacks, and Browns but not Reds yet. I'm quite certain that I didn't like the Blacks, and I think I liked the Blues (on a CM Storm) better than the Browns (on a TE) but I'd really like to be able to put some Blues and Browns side-by-side and compare them. And I also want to see how the Reds feel.

Of course, I'm pretty cheap and am thinking of a CM Storm. I am neutral towards tenkeyless; I like the keypad but also like having the mouse nearby. The CM storm doesn't have the keypad, but it's also pretty cheap compared to what else is out there in terms of mechanical keyboards. After my mixed experience with the TE I'm not quite ready to jump into an ergonomic keyboard until I start to feel RSI or carpal tunnel issues, given how expensive such things are (the ErgoDox is the exception I'm willing to try, though...).

Given the above, I'm wondering if anyone knows of any place near Mountain View or in the broader San Francisco Bay area that has such keyboards out on display that I could try, or else has a good return policy. The only electronics place I know of offhand is Fry's, which I will be checking out, but I'd love to hear if anyone has any specific suggestions. TIA!

[chord]

Those corsair keyboards have reds and are on the testing counter at Fry's on Hamilton at least, you could check online at your nearest location to see if they've go them.

[Zenzou]

Sunnyvale Central Computers has a Rosewill MX Red on display (Not for sale).  They have the new CM Storm browns as well as the TKL blue.  They also have those MaxKeyboard nhx8/9.  Last I Checked they only had the x9 left.  You could always ask to try them out before buying.

[rodya]

Not Cherry, but Microcenter has the Siig Mechanical with clicky Simplified Alps (Type I according to the wiki) on display.  My favourite clicky switch, much better than Cherry MX Blues IMO.

[polpo]

WASDKeyboards is based in Milpitas: http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/contacts/

Perhaps you can contact them to see if you can drop by and try some keyboards. They offer local pickup on orders, and they seem pretty friendly here on GeekHack, so there's a good chance.

[heuristicist]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I actually went over to Sunnyvale Fry's and picked up a Corsair F60 which has reds as well as a CMStorm QuickFire Pro (browns). I'm waiting for a blue to arrive (shipped from Best Buy) and then I'm probably going to return all of them and buy the blues one from the cheapest possible place, but we'll find out for sure once I give them a shot. So far, I don't like the reds that much. They're all right, but it seems that I like my feedback. I also feel like browns aren't that dissimilar from reds; the feedback isn't that strong. It's better on this keyboard than on the TE, but I feel like blues are really the crispest there is. To hell with co-habitants.

[heuristicist]

Yep, going with the blues. They are a bit stiffer than the browns, which I mildly dislike, but the overall feel and very clear tactile switch (plus the audible click) are quite preferable to me. Plus I found myself a bit faster on blues than on browns.