Hello from Manchester, England

[nicstreet]

Morning All

Well... what started as a simple process of procuring a new keyboard(s) to improve the ergonomics of my home office quickly spiraled out of control and culminated in my developing what is known as "onlinus forumitus". As you'll all know too well, online forums are great for meeting like minded individuals and technical inspiration but quickly lead to wallet draining, time consuming addiction and I am now left in a more confused state than before.

In summary all I wanted was a keyboard(s) that I could share across my three main machines providing a consistent "feel". I'm pretty much decided on a TKL or 75% footprint keyboard but the options seem to increase the more I lurk on the forum. I'm a techie by day and don't do any PC based gaming.

I'll be getting some sample cherry switches which will hopefully assist but does anyone have any insight as to what might constitute a good "starter" keyboard?

Options I've looked at so far include Filco MJ2, WASD V2, Ducky Shine 3 and KBT Pure Pro. This isn't exhaustive but they seem to be some of the more 'popular' choices.

I understand this is quite subjective but appreciate anyone's thoughts/comments or guidance.

Nic 

[EvillePanda]

My understanding is Filco is top of the line when it comes to Cherry Switches, followed by Ducky, then Cherry themselves.  I haven't used any of them, but I keep hearing/seeing good things about them.  Good luck on your search and welcome.  I'm new around here as well.

[ideus]

A lil late but be very welcome to GH, both of you. 

[hudson0804]

Hallo Nicstreet.

Brother, I was in the same boat as you not two weeks ago.

What board, why, what switches. who.. where am I... - I digress.

from my very (read that slowly .. VEEEERY) limited knowledge of things keyboard, I came to one conclusion.

I love my Ducky shine 3.  I love it with its clacky brown switches and its bright LED, I love the weight of it, the genuine feel that if the zombie apocalypse started in my home town.. my ducky would see me through a few craniums.

I don't want to say go buy a ducky because I have one, but what I am saying if you did get a ducky.  You wouldn't regret it.

welcome to the forums..

H

PS - dont look at the input device forum... I have three new mice now...

[katushkin]

Hey man, welcome to GH

Firstly, I spend a lot of time up in Manchester, mainly in Longsight (shudder) but yeah, it's mostly a nice place.

I would reccommend the WASD. I have just got one, and the build quality is good, however the caps aren't great, and I'm already thinking of getting a thicker set of caps for it. All of your options you have listed are pretty good, although I haven't heard a lot about the Pure Pro. The Duckys mostly have backlights so that may put you off, it may not, but my firend loves his TKL Ducky. And I have only heard good things about Filcos.

If you are looking at switches, I loooooooove the feel of clears, but if you are typing a lot, I can understand that they can be very tiresome. I think browns are nice for typing on, but I don't do it that much, and some people lean more towards blacks or reds, or even blues if you don't mind the noise.

[hudson0804]

Hey man, welcome to GH

Firstly, I spend a lot of time up in Manchester, mainly in Longsight (shudder) but yeah, it's mostly a nice place.

I would reccommend the WASD. I have just got one, and the build quality is good, however the caps aren't great, and I'm already thinking of getting a thicker set of caps for it. All of your options you have listed are pretty good, although I haven't heard a lot about the Pure Pro. The Duckys mostly have backlights so that may put you off, it may not, but my firend loves his TKL Ducky. And I have only heard good things about Filcos.

If you are looking at switches, I loooooooove the feel of clears, but if you are typing a lot, I can understand that they can be very tiresome. I think browns are nice for typing on, but I don't do it that much, and some people lean more towards blacks or reds, or even blues if you don't mind the noise.

Ha not to hijack the thread but I'm just in Wolverhampton .

Its nice to see a fellow midlander on here.

I wonder what resources do you use local and online for purchasing and ordering keycaps/boards/accessories 

H

[nicstreet]

Cheers guys, a week on and I'm still undecided Have ruled out out the smaller boards on the basis that I use dedicated cursor pgup/pgdn/home/end far too much and having to use an fn key combo to achieve the same appears to be a slightly backwards step.

I think choice of board now probably isn't as important as choice of switch... so have a switch testing unit on order and will see which of the four I prefer.

@Katushkin, if you dont mind me asking, what was the all in price (board/shipping/customs) for the WASD keyboard? Ages since I ordered anything from the states but from past experience I used to get bent-over by customs for import duty.

@H, Price difference is negligible between the boards and both have great reviews everywhere. I think the Keyboard lighting can be switched off on the Ducky so it's not an issue really, although I may find the lighting useful. I'll heed the advice and try to stay well clear of the other forum sections, but it's like the button with "dont touch" on.... curiosity will get the better of me and my wallet will suffer.

still... got some kids and half-decent bodily organs I can flog on e-bay

 

[katushkin]

Pfff. Well I bought the board and caps seperately because of money, the board was like $105, the caps were $50, and the shipping was about $40 and $15 respectively. I then had to pay the wonderful people at HMRC about £20 (twice because of a **** up) and £15 respectively to bring them onto our great island.

Then I bought two sets of clear switches, because the first got lost but eventually got to me. 2x $53.90, plus about $15 shipping and £10 customs each. Then the modding cost me 4x £11 postage because of a **** up on my end, and £25 for the modding itself.

Soooooo, about £335. Hah.

But this was because there was a screw up with the board and watnot, so it would cost a lot less. I would reccommend margo on the Control Alt Store for modding in the UK as well.

[Belfong]

If you are in UK, there are UK vendors that sells mechanical keyboards, aren't there? Like mechanicalkeyboards.com  .. in that case, maybe Filco is your best bet. I think paying for shipping and taxes are highway robbery!

[Pacifist]

If you are in UK, there are UK vendors that sells mechanical keyboards, aren't there? Like mechanicalkeyboards.com  .. in that case, maybe Filco is your best bet. I think paying for shipping and taxes are highway robbery!

mk.com is based in tennessee
keyboardco is in uk