Looking for my first mech-keyboard

[Incarnage]

Hello all,

As the title says, I'm currently looking to buy a new mech keyboard although money "isn't a problem"(according to the my lovely mum),but I am going to try keep my budget below 180 or 200 AUD (this includes shipping which tends to be expensive). I game quite alot (starcraft 2, dota and some random fps) and I am going to narrow it down to either brown or blue switches (not sure which one). It would be a big plus if I could have it back lit.

Several keyboards I've looked at(online) are the Ducky Shines, CM Storm Quickfire Pro, Filcos, Deck Legend(Don't like this one the font used is terrible), daskeyboard, KBT (Although I don't know the difference between the pure/race/poker, they all look the same to me, very pretty but no numpads) , noppo chocs and WASD.

I really like the CM Storm Pro (because of the font and colour of the lighted bits, I like red on black). Aside from that I'm still looking around, if the key's a red on black that's a plus too. Don't really know much about getting custom keycaps(Although I would really like to get my hands on them when I actually chose a keyboard), they seem pretty hard to come buy/expensive and if I were to get them I would want it to be coloured like the nyancat caps I saw somewhere around this forum.

Not sure if this is relevant but I have pretty small hands/short fingers and I need to Shift - F2/3/4/5 in game. I find it a tad difficult to do that on a Dell keyboard I snatched from uni (using my laptop keyboard most of the time, the Fkeys are right above the numbers without much space).

I am located in Australia.

Store's I've looked at are:
Aus Pc Mart
PC Case Gear

Thanks all!

[WRXChris]

Welcome to GH!

Your qualifier that stood out the most to me was that you have small hands and prefer your f-keys to be present and as close as possible to the l-shift.  Also, you prefer LED backlighting.  This immediately makes me think that the KBT Race is perfect for you.  The Race has f-keys and arrow keys, and delete, etc, while the pure and poker don't have those keys, they are layered and you have to access them with combined keypresses using a function key.  The Race and Pure are LED backlit, while the poker is not.  The backlighting colors are limited right now because they were just recently released, the only colors available to the general public so far have been green and white for the Race.

If you want a numberpad, you will have to look at a full-sized board and won't get the advantage of the close f-keys, and if you choose the CM board you were looking at, I'm sure you'll be happy with it.  Only hear good things about them around here.  Just in case you don't know, the CM Storm Quickfire Pro isn't fully backlit, only the keys around the WASD cluster, and the arrows, and a few other keys.  CM's only board that is fully backlit is the 'Trigger'.

In the end it all comes down to personal preference!  My first mech was a Filco with browns, since then I've branched out into most all of the MX switches, and I honestly enjoy all of them.  So I'm not going to recommend a specific switch.  It's best to try them first, but there aren't many stores that have demo units, so I ended up buying more keyboards to try the different switches, lol.  I'm sure you'll be more than happy with whatever switch you choose!

[Incarnage]

Thanks for the welcome and reply.

I see, about the KBT's. That makes sense. Thanks for explaining the differences to me. Apparently some of the keys are smaller but as long as the shift key isn't too small and the letter keys are normal sized it should be fine. Been typing on such a compact laptop keyboard it's making me think twice about buying a keyboard that's compact too.

I've looked around and some people said CM Storm Quickfire Pro's aren't as good as the rapids in terms of quality or something? I don't mind the fact that it has limited lighting, I would prefer it to be fully backlighted but the font cancels that out for me. I've checked out the Trigger and I really don't like how the board looks, quite tacky to me(no offense to whoever bought it though, everyone has their preferences). Thanks for pointing me to it though.

If I were to dump the backlighting aside. What's a good decent board that doesn't take too much space? As I would be putting it in front of a laptop.

[TopazPie]

If you don't go for backlighting, I highly recommend the cm storm quick fire rapid. I absolutely love it.

If you go for a backlit board, I would get the race. Seems to fit your wants almost perfectly. I'm going to pick one up soon. They look great.

Also, I agree with you on your opinion about the trigger from cm.

[czarek]

Model M or Unicomp. Iconic mechanical.

[dbdynsty25]

If you don't go for backlighting, I highly recommend the cm storm quick fire rapid. I absolutely love it.

I agree with Topaz...CM Quickfire Rapid (stay away from the PRO...NOT nearly the quality of the Rapid).

[funxion]

If you has the money, go for a Filco with browns. If you do but don't want to spend it, go for a CM Storm QuickFire Rapid.

I highly advise against blues for gaming, especially ones you have to double-tap in.

[dbdynsty25]

If you has the money, go for a Filco with browns. If you do but don't want to spend it, go for a CM Storm QuickFire Rapid.

I highly advise against blues for gaming, especially ones you have to double-tap in.

I've currently got a CM Storm Quickfire Rapid w/ REDS and a Filco TKL MJ2 w/ BLACKS and outside of the branding, I see zero reason for anyone to spend the extra money on the Filco.  The build quality is nearly identical and they both use costar stabilizers.  So the extra 40-50 is essentially a waste IMO.  Unless the tactile switches (Browns and Blues) have some huge advantage on Filcos that I don't know about then if backlighting can be ommitted from the OPs wish list, then the QF Rapids are the way to go.

[funxion]

I've currently got a CM Storm Quickfire Rapid w/ REDS and a Filco TKL MJ2 w/ BLACKS and outside of the branding, I see zero reason for anyone to spend the extra money on the Filco.  The build quality is nearly identical and they both use costar stabilizers.  So the extra 40-50 is essentially a waste IMO.  Unless the tactile switches (Browns and Blues) have some huge advantage on Filcos that I don't know about then if backlighting can be ommitted from the OPs wish list, then the QF Rapids are the way to go.

Haven't used one myself, but I have friends that I game with that do and say it's a great keyboard. And yeah, back-lighting should be a non-factor if you're looking for a quality keyboard. It's already been established that there really isn't a "good" quality back-lit mechanical keyboard.

[minifridge]

I've currently got a CM Storm Quickfire Rapid w/ REDS and a Filco TKL MJ2 w/ BLACKS and outside of the branding, I see zero reason for anyone to spend the extra money on the Filco.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823201040

Rebranded Filco. I've never used a Filco, but from what I learned here and from reading various posts on this site, it is pretty must indistinguishable from a Filco.

So, if want a Filco for pretty much half the price, I'd recommend a Rosewill. Just got mine and really loving it.

[Incarnage]

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll probably go for one of the 3(Race,Rapids,Filco) suggested here and dropping the storm pro. Just need to find a good place to buy them at a decent price. I'll just do more research on switch types, not too sure if the games I play have "double tapping" needed. I have a feeling I might splurge on more than one keyboard(just to try more things) if I'm not careful.

Although that said, if I do go for a Filco, I'll be looking for the one with the blue board(because it looks so pretty) which seems to be impossible to find. Also I cannot in my life find a CM Storm Quickfire Rapids in brown anywhere in the aussie stores I've looked at. Are they unavailable in browns over here?

[dbdynsty25]

Mechanicalkeyboards.com ship internationally and I am pretty sure they have all of the switches in the cm rapid. FYI.

[urbanus]

If I were to dump the backlighting aside. What's a good decent board that doesn't take too much space? As I would be putting it in front of a laptop.

Leopold FC700R from PC Case Gear.

It's a superb quality keyboard (AU$120 for a board that comes with lasered PBT keycaps as standard), tenkeyless, and since you're in AU you'll be saving a lot on postage compared with some of the other suggestions in this thread.

[urbanus]

I'll just do more research on switch types, not too sure if the games I play have "double tapping" needed.

If you play first-person shooters where you move around with the WASD keys, a linear switch like MX red or black will give you a very fluid experience, and allow you to "ride" the actuation point to press keys rapidly.  

The downside of linears is that you sometimes miss a keystroke because there's no tactility -- you can't feel each actuation.  In that case you might prefer a tactile switch like MX blue or brown.  They would be good choices for games where you're pecking various random keys around the board and you don't want to accidentally miss a key.  The downside (particularly with blue) is that you need to bring the key up before pressing it down again.  Brown is considered a decent middle-ground switch: light tactility so you can feel each stroke, while still allowing fairly rapid repeat strokes.

[Incarnage]

Mechanicalkeyboards.com ship internationally and I am pretty sure they have all of the switches in the cm rapid. FYI.

The price for shipping the keyboard from that website cost too much to me. Last I checked it was about 50 something. Also the brown switches are out of stock haha.

It's a superb quality keyboard (AU$120 for a board that comes with lasered PBT keycaps as standard), tenkeyless, and since you're in AU you'll be saving a lot on postage compared with some of the other suggestions in this thread.

Thanks for the reco-ing this board. It looks very good and worth the money. You have made choosing a keyboard even more difficult for me. Haha. Too many choices.

The downside of linears is that you sometimes miss a keystroke because there's no tactility -- you can't feel each actuation.

When you say this, does you mean that there isn't a "bounce back" so to speak? Because the only switches I have tried are the blues and when I press them down I notice they seem to start coming back up really soon. I wasn't able to try it long enough so I don't really know if it was halfway or anything. Or is this bounce back in every mech switch. I stare at the fancy gifs on several mech switch guides online and reading the descriptions not knowing what they really feel like. I guess I'm more of a person who needs to try them to know instead of being told what it does and how it'll affect me. Oh well.

[urbanus]

When you say this, does you mean that there isn't a "bounce back" so to speak?

Tactile switches provide some resistance before the actuation point.  The switch may actuate with a sharp snap or click, or the effect might be more subtle (like a drop in resistance before actuation).  With tactile switches, it's as though you're pushing the switch over a hump to make it work.

Linear switches, generally speaking, are straight up and down.  The key slides down, and somewhere around half way the switch actuates, but you don't feel any difference at that point.  So with linears you need to either familiarise yourself with the switch -- get a feel for how hard you need to press it -- or bottom out (i.e. press it all the way down) every time.

[PixelVandalism]

I would definitely get the leopold fc700r.
It wins because of the PBT keycaps, saves you money in the long run.  
I'd either get red or brown switches, I don't like reds all that much, although quite a few of my friends own keyboards with reds, and they all seem to like them.