I love
fohat.digs, but feel obligated to point out he's strongly M-oriented and seems to have a slight "thing" against F's. (Which is fine—whatever blows your skirt up, right?)
Does the key feel of the F really justify the price difference?
F's are naturally more expensive because there are much fewer of them. (They were produced before personal computing really went mainstream). They were also more expensive to make. (The Model M was actually a cost-reducing design.)
And yes—they feel, respond and sound significantly differently than Model M's. But there's no way to tell if you like them, or prefer one or the other, without trying them yourself.
My personal feeling is that M's and F's are equally charming, and I feel lucky to have some of each to alternate between them. As great as M's are, if I didn't also have an F, I'd need boards with several other types of switches to stay interested in typing. If you have an M
and an F, you'll never get tired of the buckling spring, IMHO.
I like the idea of a metal or overall [heavy]/sturdy case... I need to have a numpad... I would rather not do any mod work and just buy it done or as close to done as possible.
Then I suggest an F-122:
...whose layout is the most similar to the standard ANSI layout. Your number pad's there, too—and they're so big and sturdy, it'll redefine your ideas of how a "solid" board feels. :?)
If you're not into modding, you'll need a
Soarer's converter cable to connect it to your PC. They're about $40, but they work great. It'll also enable you to program any of the F's keys however you want—for example, using the extra keys (most of which don't do anything by default), or making the extra middle arrow key another "up" arrow. There's lots of info here on GH, and everyone's glad to help if you have questions.