Monoprice Cherry MX boards

[DamienG]

Just spotted that Monoprice have three mechanical keyboards available and a search here didn't reveal any mention of them. They are all full-size ANSI boards:

Cherry MX blue basic $57.42
Cherry MX black with USB hub + audio ports $94.50
Cherry MX redwith USB hub + audio ports + backlight $126.85

[)amien

[vun]

Just another rebrand of the Xarmor board or whatever it's called. You're better off getting the QPad rebrand as they have supposedly made some improvements, although I'm not sure if that would transfer to all rebrands such as this one.

[rootwyrm]

These are, shall we say, of the 'highest quality.' By which we mean: every single corner has been cut that can be, including those that can't be. Manufactured by iOne to their exacting standards of "it looks vaguely like a keyboard, ship it."

[tp4tissue]

These are, shall we say, of the 'highest quality.' By which we mean: every single corner has been cut that can be, including those that can't be. Manufactured by iOne to their exacting standards of "it looks vaguely like a keyboard, ship it."

Yea, but there's a better than 50/50 chance you'll get one that's "good enough" and will last for years and years.

but, why anyone would do that when they can go "costar" and get a $54 quickfire rapid in mx blue....  )

[Hyde]

These are, shall we say, of the 'highest quality.' By which we mean: every single corner has been cut that can be, including those that can't be. Manufactured by iOne to their exacting standards of "it looks vaguely like a keyboard, ship it."

LOL this made my day.

[r3dx]

I bought a few of the blues back in December, when they were $40, to use as work keyboards. I really don't have any complaints about them and all of them came in working order. Not sure how long they will last but I don't care all that much since they were dirt cheap.

[tp4tissue]

Great for Switch harvesting if you're into that stuff.. but it's only good for BLUEs, otherwise the cost is ridiculous for the POS-es...

[DamienG]

The $90 model at Monoprice http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=114&cp_id=11401&cs_id=1140102&p_id=9181&seq=1&format=2 looks exactly like the $144 Nighthawk X9 at http://www.maxkeyboard.com/max-keyboard-nighthawk-x9-red-backlit-mechanical-keyboard.html

[)amien

[BucklingSpring]

If you want dirt cheap Mechanical - Go the TVS God way and order PBT keycaps for it.

[tp4tissue]

If you want dirt cheap Mechanical - Go the TVS God way and order PBT keycaps for it.

where the f do people buy these mythical tvs god boards...

[BucklingSpring]

If you want dirt cheap Mechanical - Go the TVS God way and order PBT keycaps for it.

where the f do people buy these mythical tvs god boards...

With gazillion people in India + 6 degrees of separation = You sure know someone who can ship you one.

[tp4tissue]

If you want dirt cheap Mechanical - Go the TVS God way and order PBT keycaps for it.

where the f do people buy these mythical tvs god boards...

With gazillion people in India + 6 degrees of separation = You sure know someone who can ship you one.

would you happen to like samosas?

[IvanIvanovich]

We should arrange a huge drop shipment of TVS Gold, like order 100 or something. They retail for like $35, so I can't imagine how cheap they would be with volume discount.

[BucklingSpring]

TVS Electronics store

 Toll Free:
 Sales enquiry : 1800 200 5123
 Service            : 1800 425 4566

[IvanIvanovich]

Hehe, so how about 100 TVS-E BHARAT GOLD BILINGUAL with reds in assortment of Bengali | Devanagari | Gujarati | Kannada | Malayalam | Punjabi | Tamil | Telugu | Oriya?

[tp4tissue]

TVS Electronics store

 Toll Free:
 Sales enquiry : 1800 200 5123
 Service            : 1800 425 4566

Cool cooll... just called... ah... "enter the pin number follow by the pound key"...

does anyone know the pin number? i tried a couple of randoms, all invalid.

[BucklingSpring]

would you happen to like samosas?

I do - But I no longer have Infosys consultants from India working on my floor.
When I had - I just had to say... Hey man I heard so many good things about the TVS Gold keyboard, do you think I can try one without having to fly to Bangalore?

Couple of weeks later - He handed me a TVS Gold NIB. The box was so light, I almost hit myself on the forehead with it.

[DamienG]

Never heard of that keyboard until now... Looks like you can get a fully-sized with MX blues for $30... with over 100 keys thats 0.30 a switch.. half the price of group buys.

I'm guessing at that price though it has to be PCB mounted?  At this rate I'll be harvesting my blues from my DAS Ultimate.

[)amien

[uzoc]

If you want dirt cheap Mechanical - Go the TVS God way and order PBT keycaps for it.

where the f do people buy these mythical tvs god boards...

No tenkeyless or mini, sucks!: http://www.tvs-e.in/Product-Category.aspx?pcid=5

[BucklingSpring]

Never heard of that keyboard until now... Looks like you can get a fully-sized with MX blues for $30... with over 100 keys thats 0.30 a switch.. half the price of group buys.

I'm guessing at that price though it has to be PCB mounted?

Except for the stabilizer - this thing can pass undetected in a metal detector.
I'm going to break the QC seal and take off the TVS Gold cover and show you some pictures of the beast.

[BucklingSpring]

OMG sorry for the crumbs 

Naked TVS GOLD with dirty underwear
If you want pictures from other angles let me know now... Otherwise I will seal this bstrd and put it back to quarantine.

[FoxWolf1]

OMG sorry for the crumbs 

Naked TVS GOLD with dirty underwear
If you want pictures from other angles let me know now... Otherwise I will seal this bstrd and put it back in quarantine.
(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

So, not PCB-mounted, but a plastic plate, then? That seems to be a fairly popular move by the cheapest of the cheap.

[sirylj]

I don't know how much experience everyone else has with Monoprice, but they have awesome customer service,
so don't worry too much about getting a cheap keyboard (and their headphones are pretty good too).

I'll definitely be getting one of those three keyboards.

[BucklingSpring]

Oh and the keycaps on the TVS are the worst I ever saw. Tupperware Grade
So soft, you can probably wipe your nose with them without irritation.

[tp4tissue]

Oh and the keycaps on the TVS are the worst I ever saw. Tupperware Grade
So soft, you can probably wipe your nose with them without irritation.

hell that could be marketed as a "feature..."

Do you have a F3ar of sharp plastic edges... Try our comfort soft keycaps...

Now you can beat your kids with your keyboard without kill them.

[Hak Foo]

I'd think many of these "faults" are actually features for a GH audience.  A plastic "plate mount" might allow switch modification more than a metal one.  Crappy keycaps?  Who cares, Group Buy 5064 is on its way!

The layout, though... I won't buy a new board without a big backsapce.

[BucklingSpring]

The layout, though... I won't buy a new board without a big backsapce.

And what do you think of the fat ENTER? Not an easy find in PBT.

[Hak Foo]

The two usually go together.  I can begrudge boards with a big enter but a 2x backspace (i. e. Focus 2001, but the single-backspace kills me

[IvanIvanovich]

Depends how does the enter mount again, like ANSI or like ISO?

[DamienG]

The one in the picture is large L reversed so that's ANSI.

ISO enter keys are double height with a slight extension out on the top left.

[)amien

[IvanIvanovich]

No, some of bigass have ANSI oriented switch and stab horizontal, some have ISO position with vertical. The ANSI ones are a lot harder to find nice replacement for, since Cherry used the ISO way. But on the other hand, you can just use a regular ANSI enter and deal with the gap above in a few ways.