Author Topic: How do you help choose your primary driver?  (Read 1748 times)

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Offline Fragil1ty

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How do you help choose your primary driver?
« on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:28:39 »
As the title implies, once you have a lot of keyboards at your disposal, how do you help determine which is the right keyboard for you to use on a daily basis?

I struggle with this as I have 3 primary keyboards that I like to use but 99% of the time, I just stick with the Choc mini, mainly because of the fact that I bought a new one recently and I don't want to feel like it was a waste of money.

How about you guys?

Home: Noppoo Choc Mini /w Reds
Work: Macbook Pro /w HHKB Pro 2 (It's only a small office and we have music playing for the most part, throughout the day, so they don't seem to mind, yaysies).

« Last Edit: Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:32:13 by Fragil1ty »
你搞砸了

Offline Bromono

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:35:50 »
I keep one exclusively for work, two for my home. One for typing and browsing the web then one for gaming

Offline Bromono

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:40:51 »
I keep one exclusively for work, two for my home. One for typing and browsing the web then one for gaming

At least this is what I tell my self to reason with having more then one.

Offline Snowdog993

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:43:47 »
They all are!

Offline SpAmRaY

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:45:15 »
I use the one I like the most and the one that fits what I'm doing at the time.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 20:14:31 »
Rotate it in until you get tired of it, then rotate it out.

The one that never gets rotated out is the favorite.
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Offline Sygaldry

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 20:19:23 »
Easy. HHKB for everything. (Occasional RF87 when I play games that make use of the function row)
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Offline user 18

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 20:21:17 »
I choose the board that I enjoy using the most. If there's a board that's more appropriate for a situation (e.g. carrying a smaller board to a lab or study session, or using a quiet board when people are around), I modify my choice appropriately.
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Offline hwood34

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 22:40:17 »
I use the one I like. Get bored? Use a different one
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Offline Touch_It

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 23:23:21 »
Buy a bunch of vintage keyboards for cheap.  Try different vintage switches.  Finally decide BS is the best ever and buy multiple ones to rotate through at will.


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Offline Snowdog993

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 07 January 2015, 23:50:41 »
Buy a bunch of vintage keyboards for cheap.  Try different vintage switches.  Finally decide BS is the best ever and buy multiple ones to rotate through at will.

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Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 08 January 2015, 00:34:45 »
For me it was easy... that time when everything just came together. 60%, reds, Cherry keycaps... then it never left my desk again. I have other board, but I only use them if on another PC, not ever to my main one.

Offline Hzza

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #12 on: Thu, 08 January 2015, 05:11:39 »
I rotate between Phantom and Filco at work depending on how I feel (clears or blacks essentially) and then whatever project board I'm working on at home. At the moment it's a FaceU because I got fed up trying to learn how to ErgoDox, but soon will be an Access-IS once I get the matrix mapped. Or the MX5000 once I figure out how to remap using Soarers converter. Or the Apple Standard once I get hasu's ADB converter wired up, etc etc.

Offline rowdy

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #13 on: Fri, 09 January 2015, 04:03:44 »
At work is QFS with MX greens and Nuclear Data Green SA keycaps.  I see no reason to change it in the foreseeable future (unless I can find a cheap SSK).

At home I rotate between HHKB, Model M, QFR with MX blacks, and Ducky Shine Yellow Edition also MX blacks.

Model M when I can get away with it, HHKB when I'm told my typing is too loud, QFR/Ducky between.
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Offline Polymer

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 09 January 2015, 11:12:51 »
I use whatever I feel like on that day but my general preferences end up being:

Work - Some sort of Topre

Game machine - Some sort of Cherry

Everything else like Alps stuff just tends to come in randomly...

Offline snoopy

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #15 on: Fri, 09 January 2015, 11:56:39 »
RF 87U at work... I first used a HHKB at work, but had too many cases where real arrow keys had been usefull and also missed the F-Keys sometimes.

At home I rotate between a SSK and a Kishsaver, cause these are the boards I love most (look and feel)


Offline Lunatique

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #16 on: Fri, 09 January 2015, 14:38:43 »
I ran into the problem with picking a daily driver previously with mice. I was looking for one that matched all my needs (plenty of macro keys and comfortable), and I ended up finding two products that matched my needs. They each had their own pros and cons and neither was clearly better, I decided to keep both and just rotate between them once a month, so I can enjoy the experience of using both of them (and in case you're wondering, they are the Mad Catz M.M.O. 7 and Logitech G600).

Because I had that prior experience with the mice, when it was time for me to find my daily driver keyboard, I was already used to the idea that I might end up with more than one and will be rotating between them, which is what's happening right now (I rotate about once a week). My lineup is like this:

Daily drivers (for desktop computer, where I spend most of my time--about 14 hours a day):
Matias Mini Quiet Pro - This one is quiet enough to be around the same level of noise as typical rubber dome, which is perfectly fine. It is very tactile, though it's not a sharp snap and more like a grinding bump, and that's fine too. I'm more concerned about having an obvious tactile feedback and not as concerned about if it's snappy or grinding or whatever. The layout is pretty good--not perfect, but doesn't really get in my way. Aesthetically it's about as boring as they come, but that's fine too, since my keyboard needs are mainly utilitarian and not aesthetic.

RealForce 87U Type-S - When I need really quiet keys that are very soft, such as when I'm not feeling well (very tired, weak, headache, etc).

RealForce 87U 55g - Great keyboard that I have nothing bad to say about, so it's in my rotation. Mine is the black version, and since I do a lot of audio/visual work besides writing novels, I need to identify certain keys with more immediate visual feedback, so I have glow-in-the-dark paint on double-sided tape that I've cut into little strips that I've stuck to the front of certain important hotkeys that I use the most in content-creation software. I also just bought some key legend stickers and will be experimenting with them. I actually was going to get the white/gray version but since my Type-S is already in that color, I thought I'd get a different color to differentiate between them. I kind of regret it now, since I'm modding the black one to make it more legible, which makes getting the black one kind of pointless in the first place.

Bed-time/Mobile typing:
Leopold FC660C - It's small, have an intuitive Fn layer on the arrow keys, and since I only use it with my Galaxy Note 3 via an OTG adapter, I don't care that there's no F-keys row, or that Ctrl+Shift+Esc bug. This is my favorite keyboard so far because of how good it feels and the quality of the construction. This is the only keyboard I have as my dedicated bed-time typing keyboard, and I don't think I'll be adding another to this rotation, unless I find one that's just a must-have (such as the MiniGuru, when it does get released).

Keyboards that will come in and out of rotation soon:
I currently have a Razer BlackWidow Chroma that's very similar in feel to blue Cherry MX, but I can't stand how bright the back-plate is lit up and obscures the legends (which goes against my reason of having back-lit keys), and I'm never going to use a full-sized keyboard ever again. I'll be replacing it with a WASD V2 Custom, since I need to have at least one blue Cherry MX keyboard in my rotation. That's the switch that got me into mechanical keyboards in the first place and remains one of my favorites (tactile and clicky).

I also have a Corsair K65 RGB right now, and it's got that annoying lit up back-plate too. I got it because linear switches are great for FPS games, but I'm finding that even with O-Rings, the sound is a little loud for me, since you can't dampen the upstroke. Also, I realized that while the red Cherry switch is the smoothest for FPS gaming, the other non-clicky switches aren't that bad either--especially the Topre switches. So maybe I don't need a dedicated gaming keyboard like the K65? For now, I think I'll be returning it. I guess if someone releases a RGB red Cherry without the damn lit-up back-plate, I'll still get one.

I returned an Unicomp EnduraPro recently because the TrackPoint on it was disappointing, and I really can't deal with full-sized keyboards anymore. But I'm waiting for the SSK version to come out (sometime later in 2015), and when it is released, it'll definitely be added to the rotation, since it's one of the most tactile switches available, even if it's loud enough to raise the dead. :D

Offline sethk_

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #17 on: Fri, 09 January 2015, 14:46:31 »
I choose by what is in my backpack, and if I feel like taking it out. When my HHKB is in my backpack, I use my ErgoDox, if I need to play a game with a lot of binds, then I always use my ErgoDox, if I don't want topre, or split hand, I use my Poker.

Offline inanis

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Re: How do you help choose your primary driver?
« Reply #18 on: Fri, 09 January 2015, 14:57:07 »
At home I use my SSK. I love it, and I don't want to bring it to the office. At the office I use mainly my Poker II. I keep buying other boards thinking I'll like them better, but thus far I keep going back to it. I do on occasion use my Ducky Mini at work when I feel like mixing things up. On my secondary work machine I use my CODE 104. I'm getting a Matias QC V60 soon, I'll try to rotate out the Poker again - it is loud and I don't want to disturb my co-workers, but I just love it so much, I keep going back.

So, I guess I choose based on emotion - my favoritest favorite is my SSK, and that gets lots of love at home where I can baby it forever. My second favorite is my Poker which probably gets more use, but that is good because I love everything about it.
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