Mechanical Keyboard Autism Thread - Because Cherry MX switches get you laid.

[iMav]

You can actually buy new Model F keyboards here:
https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/

 

[Pascal's Wagie]

you're all severely autistic lmao

imagine spending over 50 bucks on a keyboard

membrane keyboards are just fine and last forever

I used to think that you save and save and save up for the new computer, and then use whatever garage or basement closet keyboards, mice, and monitors you can find. And that worked as a kid, but these are the devices that push your meat and the metal together to make stuff happen. I'm pretty sure I've spent an equal amount on peripherals as I have on my current tower, with no regerts. My meat and my machine are fully fused now, Foreverially Tiedup permanently and enjoying it.

My current keyboard is a stock Ducky One 3 TKL with Cherry MX Browns. It's pretty good, and haven't felt the need to mod it. Might get a Keychron to start modding on and give the Ducky to my sister.

 

[Archeops]

Does anyone here have any experiences with the 60% keyboards sold by Ghost Keyboards? I’ve been considering getting the Spongebob-themed bundle but finding reviews on their build quality is a pain in the ass.

And yes, I know I’m probably committing some unspeakable atrocity against computer keyboards by even suggesting this.

 

[herefortheactualthreads]

Does anyone here have any experiences with the 60% keyboards sold by Ghost Keyboards? I’ve been considering getting the Spongebob-themed bundle but finding reviews on their build quality is a pain in the ass.

And yes, I know I’m probably committing some unspeakable atrocity against computer keyboards by even suggesting this.

fuck the keyboard, the mouse is actually comitting all sorts of warcrimes.

 

[Archeops]

fuck the keyboard, the mouse is actually comitting all sorts of warcrimes.

View attachment 6117774

The mouse is following the trend of making “gaming” mice more lightweight by using honeycomb-cut plastic in its design, I know SteelSeries has a line of gaming mice that follows this style.

 

[Rock hard as a Flintstone]

The Model F has better switches, but in practice it doesn’t matter. The Model F will last like a thousand years in comparison to one hundred years with the Model M. The extra keys on the Model F are also not usable.

The model F I had at one stage had quite a few random keys where the springs had disintegrated from corrosion, but they're available as reproduction drop in replacements now so I guess you're right.

Honestly the nicest keyboard I've ever typed on was an early NEC pc98 one with the black linear oval switches, not fist of god like a model F (which I'd place a very close second) but just firm and nice. The sort of quality office appliance that you could happily write your memoirs on. They're still relatively cheap too if you're happy to divorce an old computer of its rightful keyboard and fuck around with something like TMK's USB converter to use it with a modern system.

 

[TETRABAX]

Some of mine are still works in progress but here's the ones I had on hand

 

[Liquid Ball Dough]

I knew there'd be an autistic keyboard thread on here. As a fellow keytard this is my latest creation & I'm incredibly happy with it. It's a 65% Mode Envoy with a Carbon Fiber Plate, Case & Plate Foam. I used Glorious Panda Switches & Durock V2 stabilizers. MT3 Profile keycaps, and it's tape modded. It sounds amazing too.

 

[Liquid Ball Dough]

Can someone here recommend me a good keyboard? Im mostly gunna use it for gaming and typing. consider this a chance to sperg about something you like.

If you want like a good quality board without waiting for group buys or having to build it yourself they have ready to use tofu boards which are really good. For like $200-$250 you can get an actually solid keyboard without having to sperg over the endless possible configs.

https://kbdfans.com/collections/tofu65-2-0

 

[Coldsteel the Hedgehog]

Anyone have experience with low profile boards? Been looking to get into mechs, but I have tiny ass hands so something with shorter travel distance would be ideal. Unfortunately they seem pretty unpopular, and all the reviews are either shit or infested with flavor of the month soy jacking about brand names.

I've heard good things about keychron's and the Nuphy air, but it's unreasonably hard to find information on switch/keycaps compatibility.

 

[Liquid Ball Dough]

Anyone have experience with low profile boards? Been looking to get into mechs, but I have tiny ass hands so something with shorter travel distance would be ideal. Unfortunately they seem pretty unpopular, and all the reviews are either shit or infested with flavor of the month soy jacking about brand names.

I've heard good things about keychron's and the Nuphy air, but it's unreasonably hard to find information on switch/keycaps compatibility.

Keychron is really good, but i think anything other than there Q series is a bit too plasticky for me and even then, without modding the Q series board with better foam/tape they're really just decent. You get what you pay for, they're not bad boards at all. I think they're pretty customizable, several companies sell low profile switches. The selection isn't going to be as large as normal boards and some boards might have proprietary shit. I'm not sure tiny hands really require a low profile board though. If you're looking to get into custom mechanical boards i don't think there is really any genuinely good low-profile board. The keychron k3 pro looks decent & the nuphy air too. Other than maybe the LoFree Edge(which doesn't sound amazing either) they all sound pretty bad to me. If your reasoning is the sound, custom look & feel I'm not sure low profile is the way to go.

 

[Coldsteel the Hedgehog]

Keychron is really good, but i think anything other than there Q series is a bit too plasticky for me and even then, without modding the Q series board with better foam/tape they're really just decent. You get what you pay for, they're not bad boards at all. I think they're pretty customizable, several companies sell low profile switches. The selection isn't going to be as large as normal boards and some boards might have proprietary shit. I'm not sure tiny hands really require a low profile board though. If you're looking to get into custom mechanical boards i don't think there is really any genuinely good low-profile board. The keychron k3 pro looks decent & the nuphy air too. Other than maybe the LoFree Edge(which doesn't sound amazing either) they all sound pretty bad to me. If your reasoning is the sound, custom look & feel I'm not sure low profile is the way to go.

I have small hands and short fingers (I wear children's gloves IRL) on top of suffering from an RSI; the taller/deeper keys force me to move my fingers and wrists in ways that become uncomfortable considering my job makes me use a keyboard for 6+ hours a day. I currently use a membrane that's better in that regard, but the activation isn't great on my joints, so I figured low profile would be a decent in-between.

I've looked into building one myself, but (apparently) low profile switches have different pin layouts which means you can only use them in PCB designed for them unless you soulder it yourself. I've also heard you can just use o-rings to reduce travel distance, but that it also makes the board sound and feel like shit, at which point it seems kind of useless.

That being said though, I appreciate the input. I've currently just been checking around second hand to see if I can get my hands on a cheaper board to mod the hell out of it, but I'll take a double take on normal profiles too and see if there isn't a way I can make them tolerable.

 

[Rock hard as a Flintstone]

Didn't Cherry make low profile mechanical switches for keyboards used on POS terminals and the like? Good luck finding something like that at a reasonable price on the used market though.

 

[Liquid Ball Dough]

I have small hands and short fingers (I wear children's gloves IRL) on top of suffering from an RSI; the taller/deeper keys force me to move my fingers and wrists in ways that become uncomfortable considering my job makes me use a keyboard for 6+ hours a day. I currently use a membrane that's better in that regard, but the activation isn't great on my joints, so I figured low profile would be a decent in-between.

I've looked into building one myself, but (apparently) low profile switches have different pin layouts which means you can only use them in PCB designed for them unless you soulder it yourself. I've also heard you can just use o-rings to reduce travel distance, but that it also makes the board sound and feel like shit, at which point it seems kind of useless.

That being said though, I appreciate the input. I've currently just been checking around second hand to see if I can get my hands on a cheaper board to mod the hell out of it, but I'll take a double take on normal profiles too and see if there isn't a way I can make them tolerable.

Shit I don't want to take you deeper into the keyboard rabbit hole but have you ever considered an Alice layout Ergo style keyboard, or just any ergonomic keyboard. But i'm also sure any of the above mentioned low profile keyboards will do. There's a whole universe of tiny boards that I haven't even dared to tread into, yet.. at least. Or even an ortholinear. XDA and DSA profile keycaps are supposed to be the best option for people with trump hands. There's a whole community of people that swear by 40% ortholinear keyboards. It's an interesting problem I'd be curious to know how it goes. Tiny boards might look unusable but everything is remappable in layers and you learn it pretty quickly. I stumbled upon this I recall hearing about this board people were printing themselves called the Lilly58 but this place sells them in kits. It's an example of how exotic boards can be. https://www.boardsource.xyz/products/lily58 Maybe checkout https://www.littlekeyboards.com/ I haven't ordered from these places but im pretty sure they're legit. They have tons of kits too, pretty neat. I need to build one now, you've convinced me. Switch & Click is great too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysdt5p5Bd3M&ab_channel=SwitchandClick This board looks really clean too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqKH0KHjWM4&t=17s&ab_channel=CGBuild

 

[Kalsarikännit]

Anyone have experience with low profile boards? Been looking to get into mechs, but I have tiny ass hands so something with shorter travel distance would be ideal. Unfortunately they seem pretty unpopular, and all the reviews are either shit or infested with flavor of the month soy jacking about brand names.

I've heard good things about keychron's and the Nuphy air, but it's unreasonably hard to find information on switch/keycaps compatibility.

I have the Nuphy and I like it. I'm a big fan of low-profile keyboards, especially vintage ones like the ADB Keyboard:

 

[Coldsteel the Hedgehog]

Shit I don't want to take you deeper into the keyboard rabbit hole but have you ever considered an Alice layout Ergo style keyboard, or just any ergonomic keyboard.

Those things look like they belong in some kind of retro-futuristic space ship situation. Weird as hell, but I dig it. Honestly, a split keyboard probably wouldn't be a bad idea to keep my arms from bowing, I just don't have the space on my desk right now.

I have the Nuphy and I like it. I'm a big fan of low-profile keyboards, especially vintage ones like the ADB Keyboard:

I've heard good things about it! Honestly, the biggest plusses to me beyond being low profile are the insane battery life and the solid case design. Sounds kind of petty, but those floating key style boards give me the heebie jeebies because I can't get it out of my head that I'm going to somehow get stuck on the edges of the keycaps or pinch my finger or something.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

Sounds kind of petty, but those floating key style boards give me the heebie jeebies because I can't get it out of my head that I'm going to somehow get stuck on the edges of the keycaps or pinch my finger or something.

that is really weird because I've never had that happen ever.

 

[Coldsteel the Hedgehog]

that is really weird because I've never had that happen ever.

Haha, it's definitely not reasonable — reminds me of an old gent I knew growing up who was convinced he'd skin his fingers on a matchbook, so he only used lighters. Sometimes people just latch on to weird things, I guess that ones mine.

 

[Demonslayer1776]

I recently swapped to a split ergo keyboard since I was getting some cramps. It definitely takes some getting used to, and I didn't have proper form before, so it took me a bit of extra time to adjust to the new layout.

I will say that it's much more convenient with some workflows than others. The more keyboard centric it is, the smoother it works. Programming and working in the cli is buttery smooth and it feels super comfortable. If I need to swap to the mouse, like if I'm dragging cells in a spreadsheet, it's alot less natural. It makes me wonder if it would be a good idea to make an ergo board with an integrated trackball or ThinkPad nipple.

If you're interested I'd definitely say it's worth giving a try, but make sure you have a solid return window. Youll have to spend some time to figure out if its for you, and they're very expensive

 

[Barry McKockner]

People give Razer a lot of shit, but my Blackwidow Ultimate has been running strong since 2014. My wife recently got a "mechanical" keyboard off of amazon, and it feels so mushy. Also, the keyboards best buy puts on display for you to try also all feel like mush. Gives me anxiety thinking about replacing mine.