Mech Keyboard or Mech Orbweaver

[Jixr]

Hi, new guy here.

Hey everyone, I've recently picked up a Quickfire rapid with blues, fell in love, ordered custom keycaps, painted the frame, the whole 9 yards.

Now at my office, I've recently replaced my 1080p monitor with my extra korean 1440 I had laying around. but Still am stuck with the office issued dell scissor switch board.

I'm a drafter, so all day i'm punching in numbers and commands, and while back I picked up a razer nostromo, which i love and had made my work TONS easier, faster, and more productive.

So I've been looking at getting the orbweaver ( with browns as blues would be way too loud in an office, though i'm considering going with them anyway because I use blues at home ) But the cost of the device put me off ( $100+ ) since you can get a fully mech keyboard for that price, I ended up going with the corsair k95 ( mx reds ) since it has 18 macro keys that I thought would help replace the usefullness of the nostromo. at $150 it was only $20 more than the MSRP of the orbweaver, and I found it local so I can always take it back without having to deal with shipping cost.

After using it for a few days at work, i can tell the corsair board is not as good as a drafting tool, but I love the all mech board ( though i'm not the biggest fan of mx reds ) But I feel like it has a better bang for the buck, since getting the orbweaver and a cheaper mech board would run me around $200.

Basically, with the nostromo, I never have to take my hands off it and my mouse, which means speed, and speed=money.

Any suggestions on what to do? note this is my own personal money that i'm using to upgrade my office space, so i'm stuck thinking either keep the k95, return it for an orbweaver, and get a mech key later on, or just return the k95, use what I got, and keep $150 in my pocket.

Suggestions, Ideas, etc?

[MOZ]

Build half an ergodox.

[oTurtlez]

Hi, new guy here.

Hey everyone, I've recently picked up a Quickfire rapid with blues, fell in love, ordered custom keycaps, painted the frame, the whole 9 yards.

Now at my office, I've recently replaced my 1080p monitor with my extra korean 1440 I had laying around. but Still am stuck with the office issued dell scissor switch board.

I'm a drafter, so all day i'm punching in numbers and commands, and while back I picked up a razer nostromo, which i love and had made my work TONS easier, faster, and more productive.

So I've been looking at getting the orbweaver ( with browns as blues would be way too loud in an office, though i'm considering going with them anyway because I use blues at home ) But the cost of the device put me off ( $100+ ) since you can get a fully mech keyboard for that price, I ended up going with the corsair k95 ( mx reds ) since it has 18 macro keys that I thought would help replace the usefullness of the nostromo. at $150 it was only $20 more than the MSRP of the orbweaver, and I found it local so I can always take it back without having to deal with shipping cost.

After using it for a few days at work, i can tell the corsair board is not as good as a drafting tool, but I love the all mech board ( though i'm not the biggest fan of mx reds ) But I feel like it has a better bang for the buck, since getting the orbweaver and a cheaper mech board would run me around $200.

Basically, with the nostromo, I never have to take my hands off it and my mouse, which means speed, and speed=money.

Any suggestions on what to do? note this is my own personal money that i'm using to upgrade my office space, so i'm stuck thinking either keep the k95, return it for an orbweaver, and get a mech key later on, or just return the k95, use what I got, and keep $150 in my pocket.

Suggestions, Ideas, etc?

FTFY

I'd say whatever you feel is going to be more productive and comfortable. The orbweaver is a great product if you want to just have a one handed device backed by a warranty with Cherry MX switches. HOWEVER. You COULD always buy one Ergo-Dox PCB and assemble that as a one handed ergo-pad and this gives you the option of infinite modability and uniquity, while also being cheaper than the orbweaver. Only downside is you'd have to build / have that one built for you. Ultimately, the best choice is the one you feel you'll be the happiest living with.

[CommunistWitchDr]

Build half an ergodox.

*Build a full ergodox

Full mechanical keyboard and macro pad.

[Jixr]

Egro-drox?

Tell me more.

Basically, with my nostromo, I really use the heck out of the thing, I have a 'standard' set of macros, and use the thumb joystick to toggle between the other profiles, and I really do have every profile full and loaded with macros and keys and I probably use at least 50 of the macros and set keystrokes every day. So any replacement keypad would need to keep up with that.

For example, instead of typing "L" for line then going to the number pad to type in "10" back to the main part of the keyboard for ( '- ) then another number "6" just to type " 10'-6 " where on the nostromo I hit my button for line, flick the thumb joystick up and it goes into my 'number pad mode' i made for it, and done, hand always in the same spot.

I know I would love the orbweaver, but It doesnt seem like the best value, and I much prefer buying things local since I can test them out, vs having to deal with back and fourth shipping if I don't like it.

Also, I figure I could try to sell my nostromo for $20 or so to basically pay for shipping for the orbweaver.

Though I've never used browns, Just reds, blues and blacks. I would love the blues, but they are just too loud for the office, my reds seem loud enough, and would expect browns to be about the same volume.

[MOZ]

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=22780.0

[Jixr]

yeah, that ergo-dox doesn't look like its the thing for me.

If i were gonna build something, I would just buy a few switches and mod my current nostromo to be mechanical. seeing as its about $1 a switch plus shipping, that would only cost me about $20 vs building something else that won't give me all the fucntionality.

[MKULTRA]

Buy a keyboard.

[CPTBadAss]

I do some drafting at work as well. I use a full size Filco, an Abyssus, and a Logitech Space Pilot at work. Never needed an Orbweaver or anything. I'm getting a controller for my Filco so I can reprogram it to have custom commands for work.

Isn't the K95 the old version of the Corsair boards that had rubber domes in the Function Row? I really didn't like that.

There was just a sale for an Orbweaver where they were like $65. Maybe wait for another sale like that?

[Jixr]

the k95 is the full mechanical version of the k90, where in the k90 only the 'standard' keys were mech, the mod keys, number pad, and fucntion keys were all domed. The k95 has only been out about a month or so.

Overall, its a nice board, I don't think any purist would like it though, as you can't replace the spacebar, shift, enter keys, etc. the keycaps are kinda crappy, feel cheaper than the stock ones on my quickfire rapid did, but overall, its good, and I could see it being a good choice for non-keyboard entusaist gamers. ( i'm not a big fan of typing on the reds, but thats just me )

[Thimplum]

WOW! Is the Orbweaver really the only mechanical gamepad out there?!?!

[CPTBadAss]

Pretty sure that is it Thimplum.

[Thimplum]

That's quite a shame. It costs as much as the BWU...

[Jixr]

Yeah, unfortunately it is, and if your the only one making such a device, you can charge whatever you like ( while skimping on things such as non-braded cable, no custom backlight options, etc )

I do suppose I'll just return the k95 and wait to see if I can get the orbweaver on sale sometime, though it seems the mx blue version you can find for right under $100, the brown version seems to be stuck at the msrp of $130 everywhere i've looked.

[RabRhee]

There were a couple of cheap deals of $67 Orbweavers from Newegg recently. Dead now but they might resurface

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=45145.msg941286#msg941286

[Thimplum]

Hmm... I sense a G[H]amePad!