Oldschool rubber dome gamer looking to switch

[PostalWorker]

As bad as the pun in the title is, this is a fairly serious post for me, as well as my first.  I've lurked on these forums for a few days now, gleaning as much as I could from articles, searches, and general browsing.  To say that I've learned a lot in just the past few days would be an understatement, but to say that I've learned only a fraction of what most people here know would be very much true.  Which is why I humbly submit this thread for your responses and help!  Enough jibber jabber, on to the meat and potatoes of the thread:

I have at my disposal an old NMB RT2257TW, circa 1996 (as noted on the inner plastic die when taken apart for routine cleaning).  It is your atypical rubber dome keyboard given three facts - 1) it has outlasted a dozen computers, 2) it has outlasted 6 operating systems, and 3) it has survived 10's of millions of key presses with no degradation in quality.  That last fact I can attest to because I have an identical, spare NMB stashed away in case this one ever bites it, and they have the same response and feeling.

Ideally, I'd love to continue using my NMB for serious gaming, but I need a USB compliant keyboard (PS/2 to USB won't cut it).  I'm not worried about NKRO due to USB, as I can't even imagine pressing more then 4 keys at any given time (forward + strafe + crouch + switch weapon/grenade).  What I'm more worried about is the response of the switches.  After 15 years of FPS gaming on this one keyboard, I have become extremely used to a rubber dome keyboards characteristics -- bottoming out for key activation, quiet operation, and fairly even pressure required on the keystroke.

Also, I'm not very inclined to purchase a newer rubber dome keyboard as the quality just isn't there anymore.  So I turned to the only other truly viable option -- mechanical switches.

To get a better understanding of the current actuation point of my keyboard, I ran the RipOmeter test and came up with a perfectly repeatable 60 grams.  I initially thought that the cherry mx brown switches would be a great choice, but they're only rated at 45cN.  The cherry mx clears are rated another 10cN above the browns, which seem like a better choice.   I imagine it's not as simple as just comparing 2 numbers and saying "yup, this will work."  So my question really boils down to this -- how well would a 45cN or 55cN mechanical switch compare to a 60 gram rubber dome in terms of response and feel?

[Shuki]

Sounds like you are after a topre 55g version, only thing that would put you off is the large price tag.

[kill will]

try a dell quiet key ... you may love it.   a topre is definitely too extreme for a first good keyboard.

[kill will]

i play fps games about 3 days a year lol ... i prefer rubber dome for them.

[quadibloc]

I know that in general, mechanical keyboards with linear switches are preferred for computer games. That part makes sense to me.

However, I don't have the personal experience to be familiar with why such a mechanical keyboard is to be preferred over a rubber dome keyboard. This is unlike the case with tactile response keyboards, where mechanical switches can provide a clearly superior feel to rubber dome keyboards, even though a rubber dome keyboard can be tactile to some extent.

There is the benefit of longer keyboard life, but a cheaper keyboard with a shorter life might be better when keyboards are vulnerable to accidents. So I'm sure there's more to it than that.

[gore]

How about my, and many other people's favourite rubber dome board - A Gateway Anykey, you can find one on ebay for relatively cheap, plus you get MX compatible double shots, loads of extra keys, hardware macro's and the remap feature!

[microsoft windows]

I'd recommend a Keytronic keyboard. They make good, long-lasting rubber domes and I'm sure you can find one in USB.

[keyboardlover]

So my question really boils down to this -- how well would a 45cN or 55cN mechanical switch compare to a 60 gram rubber dome in terms of response and feel?

It completely depends on the switch...there's more to "keyboard feel" and switching from a rubber dome to a mechanical keyboard than just weighting. If you asked me which switch is most like an excellent rubber dome keyboard, I'd say Topre. If you asked me which cherry switches are most like Topre I'd say reds on the lighter end and clears on the heavier end. I think the G80 POS board in my sig with clears is worth a look for you. $50-$60 shipped on ebay.

[PostalWorker]

Thanks for all the replies!  After another full day of deliberation I finally decided on the SteelSeries 6Gv2 which uses the Cherry MX Black switches.  I kept swaying back and forth between a red and a brown -- I really liked the instant reset of the browns on the upstroke as far as non-linear switches go, but the linearity of the red seemed like the perfect gaming switch.  I didn't care much for any of the brown keyboard designs, and the reds were too rare to get in any sort of decent time frame.

So how did I end up with cherry blacks?  Thanks to keyboardlover I looked into the G80 that he mentioned, and saw that they can come in brown and clear switches.  I was just about sold on the G80 until I saw the EU 'enter' key, and immediately that one went out the window.  But the idea of one keyboard coming in two different switch types got me thinking -- could I mix and match to get what I wanted?  After some (read: a lot) more reading and browsing, I came across 'ghetto reds' -- black switches with blue or brown springs.  "Perfect!" I thought, and my search for a black or brown keyboard took off, which eventually lead me to the 6Gv2.

The SteelSeries board has the correct 'enter' and 'backspace' key, and was just the right price.  I'm going to give the blacks a shot, and if I find they're too stiff I'll buy a G80 brown donor board and snag the springs out of it to make ghetto reds, or is there a cheaper option then that?  I also like the idea of being able to try the browns in place of the black switches, variety is the spice of life!

The only negative I've heard about the 6Gv2 is that the key quality is pretty poor, what sort of options do I have for replacements?  I'm not too worried about replacing them right away or in any sort of a quick time frame, unlike this keyboard which was an absolute requirement by this weekend (hence why it's being shipped overnight from Newegg).

Again, I'd like to thank those who replied and gave me ideas, and I'll post back here once I get the 6Gv2 in my hands to try out!  :biggrin:

[keyboardlover]

You're welcome and happy to help. I'm thinking the G80 brown donor board would probably be your cheapest bet to do a spring swap...

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

You will be happy with the Cherry MX Blacks so long as you don't intend to use then for any large amount of typing.

[keyb_gr]

Incidentally, we have a wiki on USB to PS/2 adapters here. The good ones will run most any old AT or MF keyboard without issue.

[PostalWorker]

I really wanted to make this post yesterday, but several different issues piled on top of themselves and kept me from doing so.

I got my SteelSeries 6Gv2 yesterday, and wasn't too enthused about the way Newegg packaged it (first time for that).  But my qualms with the packaging were firmly squashed once I got the thing out of the box, they could've probably just stuck a shipping label on the keyboard and shipped it all by itself.

It weighs a bit under 3 pounds, and just has this great heft to it.  The build quality looked spot on, and a quick initial press of the keys confirmed my immediate like for the cherry mx black switches.  After plugging it in and tossing the driver cd across the room into the garbage bin, I fired up my computer.  Windows 7 immediately detected and installed the device drivers, and I brought up notepad.  Several hundred keystrokes later and I'm hooked, it just has a great feel and I can totally see myself learning to type even quicker using this keyboard (sat right around 120 wpm on my old one).  The weight of the black switches feels surprisingly lighter then what I was expecting, and nothing like what everybody else was building it up to be.  To me, I could type for hours on this keyboard and feel absolutely comfortable . . . but how about gaming?

After closing down notepad, I loaded up my current drug of choice -- Bad Company 2.  I hopped into a squad deathmatch game, and wow, the response time and weight of the springs makes absolutely all the difference.  Having the movements onscreen correlate with half the normal stroke length that I'm used to made everything feel much quicker in terms of response.  After 6 straight hours of destruction, I finally peeled myself away from BC2 to give World of Warcraft a shot, and started leveling my mage.  Two things became very apparent to me -- 1) this keyboard is awesome for FPS games, and 2) this keyboard is not awesome for MMO's.

In FPS's, I generally don't deal with a wider selection of key presses then WASD, 1-4, ctrl, and shift.  Even then, it's not generally more then 1-2 of those at the same time.  In WoW, I have dozens of keys bound to all different things, including modifier + keys.  At any given point I have 3-4 keys being pressed down, and all in rapid succession.  The weight of the black switches became too much at this point, and I actually ended up fatiguing my wrist after just an hour.  I called it at that point, and passed out for the night (or at least what was left of the morning).

Due to the issues with these switches and WoW, it looks like the conversion over to ghetto reds is going to be a requirement.  The only thing that's giving me pause in doing so is just how awesome this keyboard is for FPS games (played Counter Strike Source, Day of Defeat Source, and Team Fortress 2 today and had the same solid feeling and gameplay as BC2).  I think I might save up my pennies and invest in a separate cherry red keyboard, and just switch between my steelseries and nmb for the time being.

Other then the issues with WoW, I've noticed a few other things -- after just a single day of use the WASD keys lettering have turned off-white.  Some hard scrubbing with a damp cloth brought them back to their initial white, but I have a feeling that's going to become tedious after awhile.  I've also found that the lettering on each key differs slightly in height, as my 'L' key is pronounced enough to almost feel like the bump on the 'F' and 'J' keys.  Even with these issues, I'm still loving the purchase!

[FireSlash]

I came off domes on a first gen G15, and I'm loving blues for everything. Typing is fantastic, and both FPS and RTS games play great on it.