need advice 4 cheap white-alps donor

[wellington1869]

Can someone verify for me if any of the below have white alps? (as opposed to something else, or as opposed to strongmans).
(all the below seem available on ebay for $30 or less)

-macally ikey. Supposed to be white alps?
-micro connectors USB Keyboard SMK-8112JU - no idea what it has, but it gets compared to the kensington studioboard, if that means anything. Would like confirmation that it has white alps?
-mk-96 ("MK-96-22") -- white alps or strongmans?

also if you know any of these boards, which would you recommend as a donor? or does it make any difference? Googling for reviews, apparently the micro connector board is the quietest (and is the most like the kensington studioboard). The mk-96 has a lot of fans on geekhack, though I dont know how its tone compares to the other two. The ikey has one review by XS but I didnt see any confirmation that it had white alp switches...

[Chloe]

The Macally iKey has rubber dome:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=758

The SMK-8112JU looks like it could be Strong Man OEM with ALPS, perhaps an earlier model without the media keys above the numpad:
http://64.176.254.221/index_products.htm

By the way, I noticed that DSI relisted the SMK-85 on Ebay and it doesn't mention whether the switches click, so I'm not sure what I'll get. Did they say to you they would exchange it for one that clicked based on it not clicking?

[wellington1869]

The Macally iKey has rubber dome:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=758

The SMK-8112JU looks like it could be Strong Man OEM with ALPS, perhaps an earlier model without the media keys above the numpad:
http://64.176.254.221/index_products.htm

thanks for the deets

By the way, I noticed that DSI relisted the SMK-85 on Ebay and it doesn't mention whether the switches click, so I'm not sure what I'll get. Did they say to you they would exchange it for one that clicked based on it not clicking?

I originally called them up on the phone and asked if the smk85 being sold on ebay is white alps, and he said yes it was. (clearly he was twice wrong - they were strongmans, and gray!).
Once I got it, I thought I was going to exchange it, and I emailed them about 3 times over 2 days (as I was asking them questions) and I got absolutely NO response (I still havent gotten any response of any kind). I think the best way to deal with DSI is on the phone. (Let me know if you need a number, I think its listed in the ebay ad itself though).

In the end I decided to keep this board, so I just emailed them and informed them to ignore my previous emails  (which it appears they did anyway

For the record, sf-applet who had a similar experience with DSI and the smk85, did get his money back (and/or exchanged it) successfully. So I think once you get hold of them, they do try to make it right.

[wellington1869]

The SMK-8112JU looks like it could be Strong Man OEM with ALPS, perhaps an earlier model without the media keys above the numpad:
http://64.176.254.221/index_products.htm

This line in the description puzzles me:

Original ALPSŪ key switches used for every single key. ( No-cost membrane technology )

[wellington1869]

has anyone ever used the micro connectors keyboard?

[cchan]

This line in the description puzzles me:

I read that as that there's a no-cost downgrade to membranes.