Newbie advice

[jshamoon]

Hello all, just getting into this magical world and need some advice from you pros.  I need a keyboard for work, I don't game but I appreciate quality.  I have tried the main types of mech switches: linear, tactile and clicky.  I prefer something tactile but firm. 

I ended up purchasing a Rosewill Cherry MX Brown KB, which is so so.  The keycaps seem really cheap to me. 

What board would you recommend for someone like me who will be using it for traditional typing at work, prefers tactility, full keyset and is on a tight budget?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

-john

[frosty]

Full keyboards:
I'd go for filco or ducky keyboards. The CM Storm Quickfire XT is a cheaper alternative but maybe be a tad bit lacking in terms of build quality when compared to a ducky/filco.
Along with your rosewill board, the filco and cm storm qf xt comes with ABS keycaps. However the ducky keyboards mostly come with PBT keycaps. These are of higher quality plastic and won't feel as "cheap" to you. They tend to not shine as fast as ABS caps.

Tenkeyless:
The CM Storm Quickfire Rapid is a highly recommended board by GHers here. I personally would go for a filco tkl because it's available in beige and has a nice logo, but the quickfire is definitely the cheaper option. Both has ABS keycaps.

60%: POKER 2 THEY ARE VERY GOOD (and i am very biased). They come with PBT keycaps which are thick and nice. A good bang for your buck if you are into 60%.   

Goodluck!
frosty

[inanis]

If you like the stronger switches you could try Clears, which are stiffer browns, with a more pronounced bump. WASDKeyboards makes the V2 with Clears, which is very well built, and comes in full size and TKL. As previously mentioned the CM Storm QF series are also a good bang for your buck option. But for keycaps you are looking at stock ABS on both options. The good thing is that you can replace the caps at a future point in time if you would like. Or you could pay a little more up front and get better PBT caps straight away (like the Ducky).

I typed on browns for a while, mostly because they are well regarded as a "quiet" switch, good for office settings. But I didn't like them all that much. It could be that some of the dislike you have for the caps, could actually be because of the switches themselves. In the tactile-but-not-clicky category Clears are much more enjoyable in my opinion. If you can do clicky, than you may also find blues to your liking. Greens too, but they tend to be more expensive and harder to find.

[Oobly]

I'd recommend a WASD Code or V2 with MX Clears. They're the only full size boards I know of with Clears. If you are okay with a TKL, then I recommend the KUL ES-87 with Clears. All 3 have ABS keycaps, though, so I also recommend finding a nice set of keycaps to replace the stock ones.

The Ducky Premier comes in full size with thick PBT keycaps, but I don't think they sell a version with Clears.

Clears are nicer than Browns for typing, the bigger tactile bump makes all the difference.

[Badwrench]

I would try a replacement set of caps first to make sure they are ruled out.  Most boards (other than some of the Duckys) still come with the basic thin ABS caps.  I would try to find something in a Cherry or DCS profile in either Thick ABS (stock cherry or GMK), or PBT (Vortex or SP).  You can still find the original Vortex PBTs around for pretty cheap and I think they would give you a bit more tactility with the browns.  DADGH has a set in his classifieds for $5, but the thread may be dead as there has not been any activity for a while.  Other than that, this set from SP:  http://keyshop.pimpmykeyboard.com/products/full-keysets/standard-dcs-double-shot-abs-sets might be a good buy.  I personally like the SP DCS profile in ABS as it is lower than the OEM profile and has a nice light feel to it but you feel more of the switch compared to OEM.