The first thing that I need to comment on is the CM Quickfire Rapid keyboard itself. I am not a regular user of small boards, by any means (my daily drivers are battleships, if not aircraft carriers), and have never owned a board in this form factor. I was constantly reaching for the number pad, and more importantly, the Enter key on the numpad, the one I use all the time, in preference to the proper one.
The board itself feels very solid and well-made. I am quite impressed with its quality, knowing that it is a low-price keyboard. Its small sturdy footprint and lack of ornamentation might make it my first choice in buying an item of this type, provided that I came with the switches I wanted. Having said that, the F4 is dead and the backspace feels bad, way too stiff and not smooth either. Cooler Master's QC problem, or something else after the fact?
The first time through Aqua Key Test, all keys registered properly, except F4.
After writing that, this:
ARRRRRRGGGHH! About 2/3 of the way through typing this summary, working in Word 2010, and I pressed Control-S to save my work and I was bounced out and logged off of Windows 7! WTF! Both mice were completely dead, too. Later, after a couple of reboots and hot-plugs, I have decided to give up. Subsequent tests such as Aqua Key hinted at a problem centered around the area at the top center ("U" - "7" - "F5" etc) but I couldn't really pinpoint it by pressing keys. I can’t abide not knowing when I will get an unexpected shutdown, it is scary!
I left it on the shelf for 48 hours and hot-plugged it back in. All seemed to be fine, for now. This will be my last entry typed on this board. Although I really like it, my paranoia is too great. I trust that all future testers will report on similar activity, so that we can know whether this was just a random “me” event, or whether there is a gremlin in the works. Update, after working for about 5-10 minutes – crash!
Now, about the switches. I wish that I still had Hashbaz’s tester, to feel these “jailhouse blues” alongside some of their cousins, most notably the browns, clears, and ergo-clears. With the click removed, these are proper tactile switches. I am particularly eager to understand the similarities and differences in comparison between these and clears. Do any of you have both? And could you describe them against each other?
Surprisingly, they do not feel particularly light, I was expecting a feather touch. They are not overly heavy, but more resistant than I was expecting. The only Cherry MX board that I currently own is the G80-11900 with linear blacks, and the touch of these is lighter than them, but the difference in the stroke makes it hard to quantify.
Surely, the nicest thing about them is how high the activation point is. That may account for part of the heavier feel, since the activation is concentrated in a smaller distance than usual and/or there is not that momentum-building “dead zone” at the top of the stroke before activation.
These switches will take some getting used to, but, afterwards, I am sure that a touch typist could really gain some benefit from the short throw.
These are switches that are almost "difficult" to bottom out, since they travel so far after activation. I just had to try it putting pads or O-rings on a couple of keys. The O-ring did not make much difference, but a soft landing pad was nice. I prefer landing pads with blues, anyway. If you are typing efficiently, you will probably seldom go all the way down.
Summary: I really like these switches. I have had a blue board and sold it because the sound was too annoying, but this seems to remove the bad attributes and improve the action with the higher activation point. When I do get around to buying another Cherry board, I was looking at clears, but this might be the better option. And since I have other projects in line, this might be one to farm out, if someone would do it at a low price.
Great idea, great solution, great community service by circulating this tester. Thanks !
