Author Topic: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?  (Read 5621 times)

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Offline Obakemono

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Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« on: Fri, 16 August 2013, 17:21:00 »
Hi!

I decided to buy my first mechanical keyboard, and i was looking for Cherry MX Blue + Layout QWERTY SPANISH + Backlit so i ordered the only one i thought was available with that characteristics, the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013, knowing some people says it's not very well built.

But, just today found that the KBT PURE PRO 60% is available in SPANISH layout so now i don't know if i should return the blackwidow and order a KBT, also i can keep the blackwidow and buy the KBT for chrismas and use both.

It's going to be used to write/code + gaming, about 60% write/40% gaming or so, and i'm looking for advice about the build quality of the KBT compared to the Razer  ;D

Thanks!

Offline BlueBär

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 06:09:05 »
The Pure Pro has a better build quality and is overall a solid board. Be aware though that it will be hard to find different keycaps for both boards as they use non standard keycap sizes. Also the Pure Pro has 1x1 shift and backspace keys which many people don't like.

Offline mauri

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 06:15:38 »
Pure pros have a weird bottom row nahmsayin
« Last Edit: Sat, 17 August 2013, 06:29:53 by mauri »
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Offline TheSoulhunter

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #3 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 08:16:16 »
Perhaps adapt to ANSI layout? Did the same long time ago.
Will make buying keyboards and keycaps much easier...

Offline mauri

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 08:40:46 »
Perhaps adapt to ANSI layout? Did the same long time ago.
Will make buying keyboards and keycaps much easier...

It's pretty confusing having a certain key do a different character than reads on the key cap, not to talk about the inconviniency of relocating crucial alphabets. There are reasons why ISO has 2 more 1x1s
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Offline Obakemono

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 09:04:02 »
Thank you for your help.

I think i'm gonna keep the blackwidow for now as full keyboard for my desktop, and i'm gonna try something ANSI in the near future.
Maybe a Happy Hacking, i found they are not that expensive in amazon japan.

(In case someone interested)
http://www.amazon.co.jp/PFU-Keyboard-Professional2-Nキーロールオーバー-PD-KB400B/dp/B000EXZ0VC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376748061&sr=8-2&keywords=happy+hacking

Offline TheSoulhunter

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 09:47:51 »
Perhaps adapt to ANSI layout? Did the same long time ago.
Will make buying keyboards and keycaps much easier...

It's pretty confusing having a certain key do a different character than reads on the key cap, not to talk about the inconviniency of relocating crucial alphabets. There are reasons why ISO has 2 more 1x1s

You have letters on your keys? ;)
But yeah, it definitely takes time getting used to key remappings.

Offline TheSoulhunter

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #7 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 09:57:26 »
Thank you for your help.

I think i'm gonna keep the blackwidow for now as full keyboard for my desktop, and i'm gonna try something ANSI in the near future.
Maybe a Happy Hacking, i found they are not that expensive in amazon japan.

(In case someone interested)
http://www.amazon.co.jp/PFU-Keyboard-Professional2-Nキーロールオーバー-PD-KB400B/dp/B000EXZ0VC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376748061&sr=8-2&keywords=happy+hacking

Good choice :)
Actually I'm typing on a HHKB right now, it's my second most favorite board for typing (really like the control/backspace/delete mapping).
Just be aware that it's much harder to get custom keycaps for it as most 3rd party caps sold around here are for Cherry MX switches...

Offline mauri

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #8 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 09:58:49 »
Perhaps adapt to ANSI layout? Did the same long time ago.
Will make buying keyboards and keycaps much easier...

It's pretty confusing having a certain key do a different character than reads on the key cap, not to talk about the inconviniency of relocating crucial alphabets. There are reasons why ISO has 2 more 1x1s

You have letters on your keys? ;)
But yeah, it definitely takes time getting used to key remappings.

It wouldn't require getting used to key remappings, it would require a key remapping.
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Offline TheSoulhunter

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #9 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 10:49:55 »
Perhaps adapt to ANSI layout? Did the same long time ago.
Will make buying keyboards and keycaps much easier...

It's pretty confusing having a certain key do a different character than reads on the key cap, not to talk about the inconviniency of relocating crucial alphabets. There are reasons why ISO has 2 more 1x1s

You have letters on your keys? ;)
But yeah, it definitely takes time getting used to key remappings.

It wouldn't require getting used to key remappings, it would require a key remapping.

That's easy...
I myself remapped all umlauts to the appropriate alpha keys (ctrl+a-> ä, ctrl+o -> ö, ctrl+u -> ü, etc.)
For Windows there is even a tool from Miscrosoft to do this and create custom layouts, there is 3rd party sowftware as well.

Offline Del

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #10 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 11:57:16 »
There's very little remapping to be done if you're Finnish and don't write Swedish (or Swedish names) all that often. For my ANSI keyboard I keep ä and ö in their normal places, put apostrophe next to P ('*), shift the normal right-of-P key one unit to the right (¨^~) and finally move <>| to the extra key above enter. Å can be alt-A or alt-Ä.

Offline BlueBär

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 17:18:01 »
That's easy...
I myself remapped all umlauts to the appropriate alpha keys (ctrl+a-> ä, ctrl+o -> ö, ctrl+u -> ü, etc.)
For Windows there is even a tool from Miscrosoft to do this and create custom layouts, there is 3rd party sowftware as well.

I did something similar with that Windows tool, trying to get a layout that would work well with my Pure. Creating the new layout was very easy and all, but sometimes it switches randomly to US ANSI (in games like Arma 3, which extremly messes up mission scripting) and in Opera or Steam to German ISO, I really can't find a pattern when or why it does that. So I can't really recommend that method.

Offline TheQsanity

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 17:19:37 »
If you like F keys theres the race :D
SmallFry! <3

Offline TheSoulhunter

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 18:19:54 »
That's easy...
I myself remapped all umlauts to the appropriate alpha keys (ctrl+a-> ä, ctrl+o -> ö, ctrl+u -> ü, etc.)
For Windows there is even a tool from Miscrosoft to do this and create custom layouts, there is 3rd party sowftware as well.

I did something similar with that Windows tool, trying to get a layout that would work well with my Pure. Creating the new layout was very easy and all, but sometimes it switches randomly to US ANSI (in games like Arma 3, which extremly messes up mission scripting) and in Opera or Steam to German ISO, I really can't find a pattern when or why it does that. So I can't really recommend that method.

Humm, never had such problems...
Perhaps disable the hotkey combo for switching the input language and/or remove the other layouts listed.

Offline spiceBar

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Re: Should i get the KBT PURE PRO 60%?
« Reply #14 on: Sat, 17 August 2013, 18:24:55 »
Hi!

I decided to buy my first mechanical keyboard, and i was looking for Cherry MX Blue + Layout QWERTY SPANISH + Backlit so i ordered the only one i thought was available with that characteristics, the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013, knowing some people says it's not very well built.

But, just today found that the KBT PURE PRO 60% is available in SPANISH layout so now i don't know if i should return the blackwidow and order a KBT, also i can keep the blackwidow and buy the KBT for chrismas and use both.

It's going to be used to write/code + gaming, about 60% write/40% gaming or so, and i'm looking for advice about the build quality of the KBT compared to the Razer  ;D

Thanks!


I own 2 KBT Pure Pro in AZERTY layout so I can comment on them a little.

I find that they are very well built. I have found no fault on them.

They are 60% and plate-mounted, which means there is no flex. They have Cherry MX switches, so what could possibly be wrong here?

Some people will argue that some of the keycaps are not standard, which is true, but does it matter if you are not going to change them anyway?

I use the boards mainly for programming and I really appreciate that they are compact, so my hands travel less, particularly between the board and the mouse.

The fact that the keyboard is programmable (you can assign a macro to any [Key] or [Fn]-[Key]) is especially great, because on the ISO layouts some characters we use all the time in programming are very badly located. On AZERTY for example the brackets, curly brackets, antislash, tilde and number (hash) symbols often require two hands to type (AltGr and another key). I have remapped most of them near the right Fn key on the Pure Pro, so I can type them very easily with just one hand.

The fact that you can assign macros to keys has allowed me to assign the string "[]" to [Fn]-[ O ] (the letter O). Not only this combination types the two brackets for me, but it also types a left arrow at the end so the cursor goes back between the brackets, and I'm ready to type what goes inside these brackets.

For programming, I use the arrow keys all the time, and the Pure Pro has dedicated arrow keys. I can't see myself spending all my day with my right pinky on an HHKB's Fn key frankly. Also, when I program I have noticed that I use Home and End much more often than PgUp and PgDn. These 4 keys are available with an [Fn]-arrow combination, but I have found that putting Home on the righ-Shift and End on the right-Ctrl was working really well. And you can do that on the Pure Pro.

Just a note: you cannot assign macros to [Shift]-[Key] or [Ctrl]-[Key] or [Alt]-[Key]. You need to know this before planning your remapped layout.

True, the bottom letter row has a non-standard staggering. It's shifted 1/4 of a key to the left. I have never had any issue with this. You will not even notice it.

For the pure pro, I would recommend O-rings to silence the keys a little bit, and some grease for the switches. But that's something that it generally recommended for any board with Cherry MX switches anyway. So if you need the Pure Pro to be silent, it is possible. Even blue Cherry MX switches benefit from this, IMO.

Here is a picture of my Pure Pro with browns. This one is very silent (there are landing pads below the keys and the switches have been lubed). A keystroke makes less noise than a mouse-click! I have modded it a little bit:

32210-0


My other Pure Pro is almost identical in look, except it has reds, O-rings, and has not been lubed (yet).
« Last Edit: Sat, 17 August 2013, 18:42:43 by spiceBar »