First Time Buying A Mechanical Keyboard

[flare4000]

Hi everyone I need a new keyboard and it seems mechanical are the way to go. For switch types I think I am going with either browns or blues, I want clear but only a few keyboards come with them.
My budget is around $125 and I live in Canada, right now I am looking at the ducky zero, quickfire trigger, quickfire xt (once it comes out), are there any other good suggestions?

Thanks, and forgot to mention but I do not want to go tkl.

[ITzNybble]

WASD V1, Non-custom. Also the V2 should be out soon so I would wait for that but if you have to have one now WASD makes a quality board.

[flare4000]

I looked at the wasd keyboards but when I factor in shipping and Ontario's crazy 13% tax a wasd keyboard will cost me around $178 for a keyboard which is way to much for me. The price I am looking at with shipping and tax is around $150. And what do you mean by non custom all I see on wasd website is semi-custom or full on custom.

[KuhnTang]

Hi everyone I need a new keyboard and it seems mechanical are the way to go. For switch types I think I am going with either browns or blues, I want clear but only a few keyboards come with them.
My budget is around $125 and I live in Canada, right now I am looking at the ducky zero, quickfire trigger, quickfire xt (once it comes out), are there any other good suggestions?

Thanks, and forgot to mention but I do not want to go tkl.

I'm going to give you some advice that you should seriously think about.  Get out of the keyboard market while you still can.  Once you buy one and satisfy your curiosity on how one of them feels you're going to want to find out how the others feel.  I also started out on my quest for the perfect keyboard looking at browns and blues.  From the discription they sounded the most like what I would want.  Several keyboards, keycap sets and a lot of $$$ later I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a RealForce keyboard, 55g.  They're $250 right now, which is cheap for a RF.  Long story short.  I could have saved myself soo much trouble, time and effort if I would have just bought this from the start, but I didn't because I was affraid of spending that much on a keyboard.  I'ts worth it.  Best keyboard..... EVER.  I suppose the other side of that coin is, if you start out with a RF, you may still have the itch to scratch with MX switches.  See where this goes?  The search is never over.  Although I must admit I'm pretty content now.

[flare4000]

I know where you are coming from but I just want to scratch the surface with mechanical keyboards, if I want a better keyboard in the future I will just give the mechanical keyboard that I will buy to one of my family members. Just want a good keyboard to replace my membrane Sony keyboard back from 2000. Btw how are the ducky zeros? I haven't seen to many reviews on it.

[Rule16]

Hi everyone I need a new keyboard and it seems mechanical are the way to go. For switch types I think I am going with either browns or blues, I want clear but only a few keyboards come with them.
My budget is around $125 and I live in Canada, right now I am looking at the ducky zero, quickfire trigger, quickfire xt (once it comes out), are there any other good suggestions?

Thanks, and forgot to mention but I do not want to go tkl.

Everything from cooler master but the Quickfire Rapid has considerably worse build quality, from what I've heard.

I know where you are coming from but I just want to scratch the surface with mechanical keyboards, if I want a better keyboard in the future I will just give the mechanical keyboard that I will buy to one of my family members. Just want a good keyboard to replace my membrane Sony keyboard back from 2000. Btw how are the ducky zeros? I haven't seen to many reviews on it.

You kept a membrane keyboard for that long? Oh god why...

[Sai]

that seems to be untrue. Everyone here is loving QFR from what i've heard.

[Rule16]

that seems to be untrue. Everyone here is loving QFR from what i've heard.

That's why I said

Everything from cooler master but the Quickfire Rapid has considerably worse build quality, from what I've heard.

Sorry the wording is a bit bad there, but what I meant to say is that everything from cooler master besides the QFR is poor quality compared to the QFR

[KuhnTang]

I happen to have a QFR with ninja keycaps for sale in the classifieds here:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=42706.0

[Sai]

Sorry the wording is a bit bad there, but what I meant to say is that everything from cooler master besides the QFR is poor quality compared to the QFR

its ok. Probably my sleepy eyes cant read lines clearly either.
Yes. QFR is the way to go, OP. you wouldn't regret it.

[flare4000]

I would get the QFR but I prefer to have the num pad. So Cooler Master isn't that good of a keyboard brand?

[inteli722]

I would get the QFR but I prefer to have the num pad. So Cooler Master isn't that good of a keyboard brand?

Depends on the board. Different OEMs. IIRC, the Trigger's made by Costar, so that should be good, as is the XT when it comes. The Quickfire TK is made by a different OEM, so it's not quite as highly recommended, but apparently it's build well.

[KuhnTang]

I would get the QFR but I prefer to have the num pad. So Cooler Master isn't that good of a keyboard brand?

I wouldn't waste my money on one.  But I'm probably looking for different things in a keyboard than you.

[flare4000]

I would get the QFR but I prefer to have the num pad. So Cooler Master isn't that good of a keyboard brand?

Depends on the board. Different OEMs. IIRC, the Trigger's made by Costar, so that should be good, as is the XT when it comes. The Quickfire TK is made by a different OEM, so it's not quite as highly recommended, but apparently it's build well.

So the trigger is a good keyboard? The trigger with blue will only cost me a grand total of $88 after the mail in rebate, so that looks mighty tempting.

[inteli722]

I would get the QFR but I prefer to have the num pad. So Cooler Master isn't that good of a keyboard brand?

Depends on the board. Different OEMs. IIRC, the Trigger's made by Costar, so that should be good, as is the XT when it comes. The Quickfire TK is made by a different OEM, so it's not quite as highly recommended, but apparently it's build well.

So the trigger is a good keyboard? The trigger with blue will only cost me a grand total of $88 after the mail in rebate, so that looks mighty tempting.

IIRC, the Trigger is made by Costar, which is well regarded here. It should be just fine.

[Bencze]

when I factor in shipping and Ontario's crazy 13% tax

I know I'm being off-topic, but when I bought my QFR it costed 75$, with shipping and 27% tax became 130.
I know 13 is also quite a lot, but if it is any consolation it's still not very bad, considering

Good luck, anyway...

[birthdaymonkey]

I'm going to give you some advice that you should seriously think about.  Get out of the keyboard market while you still can.  Once you buy one and satisfy your curiosity on how one of them feels you're going to want to find out how the others feel.  I also started out on my quest for the perfect keyboard looking at browns and blues.  From the discription they sounded the most like what I would want.  Several keyboards, keycap sets and a lot of $$$ later I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a RealForce keyboard, 55g.  They're $250 right now, which is cheap for a RF.  Long story short.  I could have saved myself soo much trouble, time and effort if I would have just bought this from the start, but I didn't because I was affraid of spending that much on a keyboard.  I'ts worth it.  Best keyboard..... EVER.  I suppose the other side of that coin is, if you start out with a RF, you may still have the itch to scratch with MX switches.  See where this goes?  The search is never over.  Although I must admit I'm pretty content now.

QFT. My story is virtually identical to yours -- although I've *only* bought a total of five keyboards (Das, WASD, RF 45g, QFR, RF 55g) before arriving at the 55g Topre.

Of the lot, I think the QuickFire Rapid is the best value and would recommend it for a first timer.

I do have a couple of friends who managed to just get one and stop. So it is *possible*.