CM Storm Trigger macro keys ruin this keyboard for me

[Chocobo]

I am a very satisfied owner of a CM Storm Quickfire Rapid with blue switches, it's the best keyboard I've ever used by far. I recently saw a sale on Amazon for the Storm Trigger (brown) for $80 after rebate and I decided to give it a shot.

The keyboard looks and feels great, it's a pleasure to type on, the brown switch keys are surprisingly quiet even without an o-ring mod, and I absolutely love the backlit keys. Backlit keys are approximately 5.8 times as awesome as I thought they would be.

But those M1 M2 M3 macro keys on the left are killing me. I use alt-tab to switch between programs all the time... I'm constantly hitting Windows + M2 on this keyboard. Any time I take my left hand off the keyboard, I find my place by touching the leftmost keys first and assuming those are tab/capslock/shift and I just can't do that on the Storm Trigger.

Has anyone else had a problem like this with the Trigger or have any ideas on how to deal with it? I think I might have to return it and go back to my Quickfire Rapid, it's just so hard getting used to this layout.

My perfect keyboard would be a simple standard keyboard layout with a numpad and fully backlit keys... and the numpad isn't even a necessity. Instead, there are so many combinations of partially backlit, or fully backlit with a nonstandard layout. And next up for Cooler Master is the Quickfire TK, another atypical layout.

[FoxWolf1]

Might just be an issue of practice...if it doesn't go away, another option would be to add some keycaps with a different texture, to help you keep your hand position.

I for one like the idea that manufacturers are willing to experiment with new layouts, especially alternatives to the normal "TKL" for a semi-compact keyboard. Between Ducky, Keycool, Deck, and the various variations of iOne (like Xarmor, Max Keyboard, Monoprice, etc.), there are already a whole bunch of fairly "normal" backlit keyboards.

[wetto]

Well, could've been worse....




I hear the same complains from a guy who JUST bought one. He hopes he'll get used to it... I don't doubt he will, but you may not even have the patience or time to do so.

Seriously, gaming keyboards are competing amongst themselves to see who makes the keyboard with the most buttons.

Anyway, what do you think about one of the following:

Déck Legend (although expensive, it's great)
Ducky Shine
Gigabyte Aivia Osmium
Mionix Zibal 60

Though there are lots of others too...

[Chocobo]

Haha wetto... that keyboard is my worst nightmare.

I'm trying to get used to it but I don't know if it's happening. I really never noticed how much I use the left edge of the keyboard before.

I for one like the idea that manufacturers are willing to experiment with new layouts, especially alternatives to the normal "TKL" for a semi-compact keyboard. Between Ducky, Keycool, Deck, and the various variations of iOne (like Xarmor, Max Keyboard, Monoprice, etc.), there are already a whole bunch of fairly "normal" backlit keyboards.

It's definitely great that they're trying out all kinds of different keyboard options, I just found it odd that the standard keyboard layout is perhaps being overlooked a little. Maybe I haven't found all of the standard + backlit options out there yet... the only one I found that was fully backlit is the Ducky Shine, which has limited availability and costs almost twice as much. I hadn't heard of some of the ones you listed, I'll check those out, thanks.

[akuJIWA]

I have been owning people with my Ducky 9008g2.  )

[strafe]

I think it's just something you get used to.  I was trying to hit the numpad enter key with my right thumb for a while after i got my tenkeyless.

[bounce]

its totally a matter of getting used to.
i used a logitech g15 before my steelseries7g which has macro keys too and getting used to the ss took a little due to no macro keys
aswell as getting used to the g15 again when i took my ss off for some cleaning.

[Hyde]

Yeah I refuse to buy any keyboard with macro keys.  I bought blackwidow before and I keep hitting the macro key instead of ctrl.  So after 1 week I returned it and got myself a das silent.

Like others said I could potentially get used to it, but I'd rather not bothered with it because other keyboards I'll use will most likely not have macro keys.  For me the macro keys creates more problems than solving problems.

[swagpiratex]

Haha if you do a little reading on this forum you'll realize that the concept of the trigger was conceived through Cooler Master asking what people were looking for in a keyboard.

One of the designers clearly stated that he would have liked the board without macro keys or  backlit keys, but that is what their market research indicated would sell.