Advice for new keyboard please

[keyjay]

I've read "tons" in the forum on this site over months (could have bought ten keyboards with the money I could have brought in during that time), yet I still have a few questions, please.

I'm using an ALPS Avant Stellar from Creative Vision Technologies which does pretty well for me, but I want to find something that's as near to silent as I can find and that hopefully takes my typing speed and accuracy to yet another level. I'm pretty darn good now, and my work demands require it.

I'm also really not sure about going to a tenkeyless. I don't do "lots" of numerical entry, but I do enough to where it concerns me to have to go to a separate numeric keypad. Heck, I'm already unhappily resigned to getting a small external programmable keypad for the left side of my keyboard to replace the extra row of programmable keys on the Avant Stellar.

I use the numeric keypad to enter credit-card numbers and passcodes, and my WinSplit Revolution window-management utility (the second most important productivity-enhancing tool there is, next to a larger monitor, IMHO and according to a big study by Microsoft), uses key combinations that use the NumPad.

I don't mind paying more at this point if I get more productive from it.

I'm willing to forget about silent or near-silent if it just isn't realistic, but to talk on the phone with a headset while typing stealthily has value to me.

And I'm willing to try an external NumPad if it really is likely I'll get used to it and be just as productive. (Maybe it will go well with the programmable keypad I'll inevitably have to be putting to my left.)

I can't say if the Avant Stellar I've been using has black ALPS or white ALPS, but I'm guessing white since they're pretty darned loud.

I don't know if softer keys will be an improvement for me. I do know I tried the Unicomp and did not like it at all. Besides the lousy workmanship (don't get me started – though by contrast I love the workmanship and very solid feel of the Avant Stellar), I found the key resistance way too strong for my preference. (I'm totally confused by posters who say "I have the Unicomp and love it, and am now looking forward to getting a RealForce".)

Brian at EK advised me away from a RealForce because of the dark lettering on the black keys (I'm only putting a black or dark gray keyboard on my desk). I certainly do touch-type, but I'm not to the level of knowing all the keys at both levels. Maybe I'd memorize it really quickly if I had to... I guess. Or maybe he’s exaggerating and I can see the lettering in the office lighting at least well enough to keep working.

Lots of input, I know. Thanks for taking the time to help. Productivity rules!

Thanks!

[Shuki]

If you have decent lighting I would go with the topre. Pretty ideal for environments where lower noise is a plus.

If noise isn't that much of an issue and you want white legends then you can't really go wrong with a cherry brown or cherry red board.

Personally my favourite board at the moment is my 55g topre 87u. The construction is really solid and the key caps are really good quality (they have a nice texture and never get oily).

The switch itself has a high tactility right at the top of the key press so overcoming this pretty much causes you to bottom out the switch. The landing however is very soft and makes quite a pleasant noise. The board suits me very well as I bottom out on pretty much any board I use and with this one it provides very digital feedback, i.e. the switch is either fully compressed or not compress (the opposite of my cherry red filco).

[keyjay]

Can you please say if you actually have a preference of 55g over the 3-level weights?