Sorry this is so long-winded. I had posted some of this elsewhere this weekend, but the posts disappeared (along with my account) due to the database rollback.
I've been using Model M and Unicomp keyboards for almost 20 years. My daily driver at work is a "blue label" that I bought new in 1994 from the newly-opened Best Buy near my home. I paid $100 for that sucker, but I loved the feel of the old terminal keyboards at college so much that I felt it was worth it. It has certainly lasted! I had it at work for a while until co-workers arrived at my cube with pitch forks and torches (or left anonymous notes) complaining about my clickity-clacking. I switched to a "Microsoft Natural" keyboard and a Trackman there and at home to keep the natives happy and to try to address some wrist pain issues I was having. I wore two of those keyboards out and eventually realized that switching to a trackball and fixing my posture was what helped my wrists the most. Eventually I experimented with "grease modding" the Model M and found a method that quiets the board enough to avoid being tarred and feathered while still maintaining most of the keyboard's feel and speed that I love. At home I have various keyboards, but even a greased Unicomp does not have enough WAF to permit its use in our upstairs office. So I've been using a Saitek Eclipse II for the past few years. It was the best feeling rubber dome keyboard I could find in the stores around me and has a backlight feature that is useful sometimes. I was using some cheapo AT keyboard before that, but it actually felt quite nice. It had a longer stroke and lighter feel than any other dome keyboard I've tried since. It wore out after a few years, though.
Lately, I've been having some stiffness in my hands that I attribute to my keyboard at home. It got better after I brought one of the Unicomps up from the basement, so I ditched the Saitek. I started looking if there were any other options besides the Model M for mechanical keyboards. Something that my wife might be willing to tolerate. Last week I found this forum and my head exploded with information. I know more than I ever wanted to know about Cherry switches, Topre, etc...LOL.
I decided that browns were the safest bet for transitioning from a Modem M, so I ordered a Rosewill RK9000BR. It seemed to be the cheapest way to give these Cherry keys a fair shot on a quality board. If they proved too loud, I figured I could add o-rings. It arrived this morning (thanks, NewEgg). I've been using it at work all day and also brought it back home. The word that best describes my first impression of the browns is "scratchy". I'm surprised how rough the key movement is. Some keys are worse than others. I suspected that might be the case after watching YouTube videos of keyboards all weekend (my wife thought I was nuts). Does this tend to improve at all with time?
Aside from that and the somewhat smallish control keys, I am fairly happy with the keyboard. It feels very sturdy and solid while typing, unlike the squishy, bouncy Saitek. The scratchiness of the keys is less noticeable when typing at speed, but the Model M is like a well oiled machine by comparison. The key feel is lighter than my lesser-used Unicomp boards, but less so when compared to my high-mileage Model M. The lighter keys do seem to allow me to achieve greater speed when typing text (such as this post), once I stop hitting them so hard. The scratchiness comes through when doing more deliberate things, like debugging and navigating through code.
I played a bit of Minecraft earlier this evening and didn't like it at all. The rough movement is particularly distracting. Part of it seems to come from the tactile bump, but the key has an overall rough feel throughout the entire movement. I'll probably have some time to play some Skyrim tonight, so we'll see how that goes.
I really felt like the tactile feel was going to be important for me coming from a Model M, but not I am not so sure. Doing some searches about the rough feel of Cherry MXs, it seems to be a common issue for all types. I was tossing around the idea of trying out some reds, but I have a feeling they will not be all that different (minus the bump). I want to get a 2nd board for home and leave this one at work. Maybe something Tenkeyless. The backlight was nice sometimes, but it's not strictly necessary. I was looking at the Leopold at EliteKeyboards. Then there are those Realforce boards, but holy cow! I didn't balk at the ~$100 for the Rosewill...I spent about that much as a poor college student back in 1994 ($150 in today's dollars). But $300? Even more for fewer keys on the Tenkeyless? I dunno.
