Hello geekhack,
I've been lurking and reading the forum the past few weeks and thought a thank you and hello was in order
If it weren't for you guys I would have never realised that the IBM Model M I found in a dumpster (don't judge me, I was only 11 and the clickiness of the keys felt great I just had to take it home
) was a mechanical keyboard. After using the Model M for a couple of years I eventually had to go for something new and shiny and companies like Microsoft & Logitech with their marketing can easily convince naive individuals like myself that membrane, ergonomic, keyboards are better. The horror! I'm not embarrassed to admit I only realised what a treasure I used to own when the Razer Blackwidow was released (had to look up what mechanical keyboards are)
...And here we are
I purchased the Black Widow Ultimate about three weeks ago because I couldn't find any other decent and available mechanical keyboard on the market (located in Toronto, Canada atm) and tbh I wasn't very eager to wait up for elitekeyboards for the Leopolds. Nerds will be nerds, I just needed my gadget-fix
I'll have to admit my experience with the Cherry MX blues wasn't that pleasant. I don't know if it was Razer or just the switches. The board seemed too fragile, every key trembled upon every touch and especially the spacebar felt like it was about to come off every time I clicked it
I didn't enjoy the tactile feedback either but I've got to say that the clicky sound of each key was an eargasm. The font is just too trendy for my taste and the backlit keys even though they looked great for a picture I just don't care for them, I find them too distracting.
A side note here, I'm not hating Razer, on the contrary products like The Naga, the Carcharias and the Mamba have served me great for all purposes I just think keyboards aren't their forte.
A week later I returned the keyboard and exchanged it for the Steelseries 6GV2. Oh man, I can't describe how much I'm liking the Cherry MX Black switch so far. They feel so sturdy, so elegant to touch and even though I read about a lot of people expressing their hate and frustration on how tiresome it is to write on Blacks I can't help but disagree
Black switches are also great for newbies like myself to help learn how not to bottom out the keys. In my case the transition from scissor switches to the blacks boosted my wpm from ~75 to 85-90.
Apart from the switch what I like about the 6GV2 is that it feels sturdy but definitely has its flaws. So far I'm not liking the layout which eventually I will get used to but the weird placement of the "/ ? " key makes no sense and is a source for a lot of mistakes. Not a huge fan of the bigass enter either. The left Shift even though being as responsive as the other keys the tactile feedback is different in a non pleasant way (not sure if this is intentional) and the spacebar is jiggly on the left but tight on the right (I wish it was the other way or at least equally tight on both sides)
As you can probably imagine I'm definitely researching for my next purchase. I think I will stick to the black switch which I'm loving so far. Any suggestions? Full-size or tenkeyless is not an issue, I'd prefer a board without backlit keys (or at least an option to turn the lights off), something really sturdy that will endure an attack like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7FZnV-joeA&feature=player_detailpage#t=153s and have a solid all around feel... I will be using it mostly for WOW and some typing. Am I asking for too much?
Whoa this started as a hello and thank you post and turned into one long boring rant, sorry about this.
