Buying First Mechanical Keyboard

Hi Guys, I'm in the market for a Mechanical Keyboard.

After getting stung with a dodgy refurb K90 (one of the keys wasn't working) I've decided to stop cutting corners and buy brand new.

Obviously that experience left a sour taste in my moouth in regards to corsair as it was an official factory.

A few questions:

Which switches are gonna be best for general typing AND gaming? I like to idea of blue's but I don't think my missus would appreciate the noise. I am thinking brows as the tactile feedback seems to be a good thing.

I'm looking at the Ducky Zero Shine, the Ducky 3 and the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate. Prices ranging from 98 - £130 odd.

Is the Ducky 3 essentially the same as Ducky Zero Shine but with a fancier array of LED features? Is the BlackWidow really as overpriced as people say?

Any input greatly appreciated.

I went with the QPAD. Spent a little more than I probably needed because i wanted backlit keys and USB, Mic and headphone ports.

The keys are cherry which are a great all-round switch. They key press noise is about the same as my generic Dell keyboard that I had, so not bad. And they feel great.

Would personally recommend a Logitech G710+. Had mine for about 2 months now and love it. It has cherry browns and while they were initially a bit "clacky" I barely notice them now.

Just had notification that my K710+ is on its way

Would really recommend the Logitech G710+ too, and from what you said browns would be perfect for you.

I've just bought a Ducky Shine 3 to replace a K70 that fizzed and died. The light show you speak of is something to behold I have to say it feels just as good as the K70 but some how more sturdy and my experience with the K70 made me wanna try something different. Although I have only had this a few days I would defo recommend even with the price tag.

Decided to give the Logitech G710+ a go. Seems like the quitest of the bunch, and Logitech have a good rep for customer support.

Will post back with impressions

Well I got the board today. It's a nifty little board for sure.

That said, I noticed a few keys (particularly J, and O) seem to have a horrible metal "ping" which I assume is the spring. If I push the key down and quickly release, it makes a fairly noticeable ping noise.

If every key did it I would just assume that's a trait of mech keyboards, but the fact some keys are really noticeable while others don't seem to have it at all has me thinking something ain't right.

I looked into it and it seems fairly common with MX browns something to do with how they are assembled and seated, only fix is to desolder and tinker around in the switch (no thanks).

Replacement coming Monday, hopefully a less pingy one!

Mine should be here on monday Can't wait, my G15 will finally be retiring!
Was a really nice Xmas gift from the missus was replaced by logitech for a v2 and it's still going strong, just time for a change.

crystalface said:

Well I got the board today. It's a nifty little board for sure.

That said, I noticed a few keys (particularly J, and O) seem to have a horrible metal "ping" which I assume is the spring. If I push the key down and quickly release, it makes a fairly noticeable ping noise.

If every key did it I would just assume that's a trait of mech keyboards, but the fact some keys are really noticeable while others don't seem to have it at all has me thinking something ain't right.

I looked into it and it seems fairly common with MX browns something to do with how they are assembled and seated, only fix is to desolder and tinker around in the switch (no thanks).

Replacement coming Monday, hopefully a less pingy one!

Click to expand...

Well that's unlucky! But, wish I hadn't read that post as now realise that my spacebar has the metallic pinging I had just put the extra noise down to it being a bigger key with more support under it. However, won't hear it through my headphones so I'll live with it

Mine has arrived, went thru tapping all the keys for the pinging your talking about dont seem to have any.

Really nice to type on and the noise really isnt as loud as I thought it would be

The wrist rest seems a tad short for my liking.
Really like the built in volume up/down roller.
Whilst the LED backlight is fantastically white (each key has its own LED under it) its a shame these dont seem to be easily replaceable.

IT's a fair bit weightier than I thought it would be and my god the USB cable is almost as thick as the power cable for my PSU.

The USB port on the keyboard does appear to be full USB3 too

Now wondering about getting some metal keycaps for my commonly used keys and the spacebar, are they available die cut yet for backlight?

I'm also into looking for my first mechanical keyboard since the last one I used was an IBM Model M back in the 90's. I've been using this Logitech G19 for a year now (replaced my dead G15 r1) and while I love it to bits I always have a problem with it's heavy actuation force required for a single keystroke, this means that I often miss letters as I'm a very soft typist!

There are a few I've been looking at like the Corsair K95, the Corsair K70, and the Roccat Ryos MK Pro. The K70 I'm not sure about simply because I tend to use a lot of macro keys for software (not much so for gaming, that's what my G13 is for). I'm also up for any ideas, I'm willing to spend up to about £140 for a keyboard that'll last me a lifetime.

Any ideas?

This 710+ doesn't seem to need a lot of force to activate a key unless I'm just bashing the keyboard lol

I came from a cherry multimedia > G15 v1 > G15 v2> K710+

The G710 looks horrible, plus it only has 6 macro keys, I'm already using at least 30 macros so I'll need a minimum of 12 macro keys or more. I like a nice sleek look with all keys having the same colour, that keyboard has about 6 different colours on it, eww. >_<

Look at some "real life" photos of the G710, in the promotional pics it looks quite bad but it looks great in reality.

I think this is the nicest looking mech currently available.

I've seen the G710 in person and I really don't like it.

I use a Ducky Shine III 9008, this was my first mechanical and I went with Brown switches because they are a nice middle ground for typing which feels nice and clicky and for gaming they are super comfortable. Oh yeah and not to mention the sexy lighting effects.
Made in Taiwan, also they are now doing a compact version without numpad which is great if you have limited desk space.

I know it's incredibly late but I would've looked into SteelSeries myself. A friend of mine has one that is a few years old and he refuses to replace it because he says it's the best board he's ever had

I can't really recommend the Steelseries 6Gv2 or 7G.

Although the build quality feels excellent, the keycaps are poorly printed and they're only available with Cherry MX Blacks. I got a refurb K90 at a great price and the MX reds are much nicer.

So the replacement G710+ came, and it had more pingy keys than the first! xD

So I decided to keep the first G710+ as this really is an amazing keyboard.

Very solid, keys FEEL great. The backlight is very classy, doesn't feel cheap or boy racerish.

All in all I'm chuffed with the purchase and I got a bit of discount for the pingy keys too. Can't grumble at that!

Would recommend this keyboard 100%