Help choosing gaming keyboard

[mellohello]

Hi, I get the feeling I may be tutted at for wanting "gaming" hardware but that's the way it is

I live in the UK with a budget of around £60. The CM Storm Quickfire Rapid Blue seemed to be a good choice (tenkeyless, no nonsense, heavy, blue switches) but the UK only sells the black switch version. And from what I gather, black switches are poor for typing, which I'm also keen to improve. The 6gv2 is also nice but unfortunately only comes in black as well. The Razer Blackwidow seems to garner really bad reviews all round. In other words, I can't find any Cherry MX Blue gaming keyboards in the UK. All I really require is full NKRO over ps/2 or the theoretical advantage of the 1000hz polling rate over USB (I can definitely tell the difference between 125hz and 1000hz on my mouse, though it hasn't necessarily made me any less terrible at gaming lol). Backlighting, macro keys, disabled windows keys, tenkeyless, rubberized keys, laser etched keys, etc. are a nice bonus. Can anyone think of alternative boards to the above mentioned, or even non-gaming keyboards? As long as it has blue switches and has either PS/2 NKRO (and thus theoretically no input lag) or 1ms USB lag, and isn't too far from £60 (unless it's dirt cheap!).

Thanks

[dorkvader]

Hi, I get the feeling I may be tutted at for wanting "gaming" hardware but that's the way it is

Nah, lots of us GH'ers do gaming. Welcome to GH!

Okay: First off, The QF rapid is an excellent keyboard. I have one in reds I use daily, and one in blues (that doesn't see that much use). Second, you could totally use cherry blacks for typing. I don't use my black keyboards (WYSE PCE and access-IS) that much, but they're still more than acceptable. The only issue is that it does take some force to press them, and it feels heavier, since the switch is linear. You don't get any of that sweet tactile bump, either.

Still, blacks aren't bad at all. I just like extra-tactile switches, so it's cool.

Also, you can probably get a CMstorm QF Rapid in blue shipped from china (PChome or TaoBao), though I don't know if it'd be still in your budget or not. I know mail forwarding one to Europe would cost a bit, but that still might be your best bet (especially considering how often they go on sale here in the US and Canada.

Anyway, just a quick thing. I hope I've helped Maybe a UK member can help with more specifics.

[mellohello]

Thank you for the warm welcome, and the detailed answer

The blacks were my first choice for gaming in the beginning, but I'm really set on blues now. I really like that clicky "mini typewriter" sound, and I can imagine what it feels like too (no real pc shops in my area to try anything). I've now heard from you and from elsewhere on these forums that the QF is very well built; it would have gone very nicely with my similarly no-nonsense CM Storm Spawn . But I can't afford the shipped ones since they're around double the price.

Actually I'm considering the Razer Blackwidow again because it seems to be the only choice in the UK for an affordable blue switch gaming keyboard. The only thing putting me off is the supposedly poor build quality, including bad stabilising (I assume that means the keys wobble a bit?). Anyway I'll see what UK guys have to say, and I'll ask CM Storm as well if they plan on releasing blues here in future.

Thanks for the help

[tobr1an]

Maybe try qtan keycool. From what I heard the quality is similar to a leopold.

[Onomonom]

Or you could try a Noppoo Choc Mini, which comes in a variety of switches, and its compact, has WinLock function, and has media keys located within the QWEASD key cluster,
and i brought my Noppoo from Intellegent-Pro on ebay for £65 and delivered within the week, would recommend

[The_Beast]

Blues aren't bad for gaming, but it does take some time to "learn" to use then when in game


IMO I'd rather use browns or reds for gaming

[mellohello]

Blues aren't bad for gaming, but it does take some time to "learn" to use then when in game


IMO I'd rather use browns or reds for gaming

Ok evidently I've been barking up the wrong tree. Browns seem to have the click of the blues without the noise, and are better for gaming as you say. Great! But apparently browns for this pricepoint and feature set are even rarer in the UK than other switches. Haa... sorry, but... any recommendations? ^^"

p.s Thanks for the Qtan and Noppoo recommendations but I've had too many bad dealings with Chinese transactions, and in this case I'd be worried about warranty hassles and returns.