Best mechanical keyboard

[robthatguyx]

i have a black widow not looking to upgrade any time soon,but i do want to know the best ones out there incase i find some good deals

 

[HEXiT]

there isnt much to tell them apart. if they use cherry keys then they will all be pretty similar in quality. buckle spring keyboards are again slightly different but just as good depending on what you use em for... for gaming cherry black and cherry red seem to be the 2 popular choices as 1 gives a tactile feel while the other gives a smooth but firm feel... really its just down to preference. typists prefer the tactile while most gamers prefer the smooth. the other cherry keys give a mixed response when pressed some click, some smooth and click, while others are tactile but dont click.(or at least there quieter)... but again just a preference. when it comes down to it you really do have to nit pick to find the best. things like anti ghosting, buffer size, poll rate or interrupt driven. but none of these features are make or break...
das and cherry company make some of the better known keyboards but there are a good dozen companies that make em, and most of em aint well known to gamers.

the good thing lately is the resurgence of mechanical keyboards by gaming peripherals manufacturers like cyborg, corsair, razer and so on... but many of these are taking a half assed aproach... the corsair for instance has mechanical main keys and dome keys for the macro keys. razer offer a nice product in there black widow but its very much over sized and the poor design of the feet means it can slide around on a polished desk... in other words we seem to be in a feeling out stage, where the makers are coming out with different ideas until they hit upon 1 that people like at a reasonable price...

for gaming grade i would recommend the corsair or razer if you can find them cheap enough but i wouldn't recommend them at there rrp.

i saw a black widow the other day for 66 pounds which is pretty damn good for that keyboard considering its rrp can be 30 quid higher.

 

[casualcolors]

there isnt much to tell them apart. if they use cherry keys then they will all be pretty similar in quality. buckle spring keyboards are again slightly different but just as good depending on what you use em for... for gaming cherry black and cherry red seem to be the 2 popular choices as 1 gives a tactile feel while the other gives a smooth but firm feel... really its just down to preference. typists prefer the tactile while most gamers prefer the smooth. the other cherry keys give a mixed response when pressed some click, some smooth and click, while others are tactile but dont click.(or at least there quieter)... but again just a preference. when it comes down to it you really do have to nit pick to find the best. things like anti ghosting, buffer size, poll rate or interrupt driven. but none of these features are make or break...
das and cherry company make some of the better known keyboards but there are a good dozen companies that make em, and most of em aint well known to gamers.

the good thing lately is the resurgence of mechanical keyboards by gaming peripherals manufacturers like cyborg, corsair, razer and so on... but many of these are taking a half assed aproach... the corsair for instance has mechanical main keys and dome keys for the macro keys. razer offer a nice product in there black widow but its very much over sized and the poor design of the feet means it can slide around on a polished desk... in other words we seem to be in a feeling out stage, where the makers are coming out with different ideas until they hit upon 1 that people like at a reasonable price...

for gaming grade i would recommend the corsair or razer if you can find them cheap enough but i wouldn't recommend them at there rrp.

i saw a black widow the other day for 66 pounds which is pretty damn good for that keyboard considering its rrp can be 30 quid higher.

Blacks and Reds are both non-tactile linear. Blues and Browns are tactile*. The razer mechanical is pretty much a disaster-piece but the Corsair albeit not entirely mechanical (f1-f12, macro keys are not mechanical) seems to have good quality control and a lot of positive reviews.

As far as the best quality mechanical keyboard, in and so far as actual quality of the construction the Das Keyboard, Filcos, Ducky KB's, WASD, Leopold and Deck are all top notch in build quality and quality control. All of these keyboards start at and go well up from the 120 dollar mark though. Best overall value for someone who isn't a mechanical enthusiast but wants a good quality build in their keyboard, is the Corsair K60. The price is right, it's got cherry red switches which are widely renowned for gaming and even though I don't personally use them I do accept them as a great gaming switch type. Just avoid Razer and to a lesser extent Steelseries. Their keyboards have a lot more manufacturing flaws and in the case of the Razer, it only has 2KRO.

 

[HEXiT]

it does tell you 1 thing when gaming keyboards are cheaper than none gaming it means the none gaming manufacturers are seriously over charging for there supposed quality enhancments but very few have anti ghosing or other gaming features that stop key buffering and keyblocking....

 

[robthatguyx]

well like i said i have a razer black widow,its near brand new its part of my first gaming build.i like the mechanical i upgraded over a saitek eclipse 2 ALOT better then that one while the eclipse is good this is just better in every aspect other than it doesnt have backlit leds, witch the ultimate does ive been looking at thermaltake and corsair stuff latley

 

[casualcolors]

it does tell you 1 thing when gaming keyboards are cheaper than none gaming it means the none gaming manufacturers are seriously over charging for there supposed quality enhancments but very few have anti ghosing or other gaming features that stop key buffering and keyblocking....

A gaming mechanical, the Blackwidow, has a whole 2KRO. Almost every non-gaming mechanical has full NKRO. And the keypresses on the blackwidow in particular are not uniform across the board. Larger buttons don't depress evenly as they do on better-made mechanicals, and just keyboards in general. In fact the gaming mechanicals don't offer anything uniquely valuable to gaming outside of in some cases macro keys, which many gamers don't actually use.

And the K90 and thermaltake mechanical which are both pretty nice keyboards retail around the same price as other mechanical keyboards. The only ones with really outlandish prices that I can think of are Deck keyboards because they hold the market on quality mechanicals with full LED backlighting, since the razer mechanical is so awfully bad.

In short the gaming mechanicals on the market suffer from:
Blackwidow: poor QC, only 2KRO, poor button quality
Corsair K60/K90: not fully mechanical
Steelseries: poor QC, recurring issues with space bar on nordic models
Thermaltake: no issues that I am aware of

So with the exception of the Thermaltake keyboard, I would suppose that people are paying a premium to not spend money on something with the shortcomings of the corsair/razer/steelseries kb's.

 

[watchmen2012]

I honestly think you should take a look at the Ducky II mechanical keyboard as well as the sturdier one from Thermaltake. Those are some of the good ones available in 2012. I personally prefer the red or black switch but I know that a lot of people like blue. Here's a helpful post as well:

http://www.squidoo.com/best-mechanical-keyboard