Best Mechanical Keyboard for £100 (or less)

Adiman423

Adiman423

Adiman423

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Hello everyone,

My name is Adi and this is my first post here on the Overclockers forum!

I am in the market for a mechanical keyboard. I am going to use it for both work and gaming.

I have a strict budget of £100(so it can be anything under but not a penny over).

I've been doing a bit of reading and I think that I would want a keyboard with either a Cherry MX Red switch or a Cherry MX Brown switch). With that said I've been doing some reading and apparently the Cherry MX Blue switches can be loud/noisy

I know that Corsair, Razer, Steelseries and even Cherry do those keyboards so I am trying to stick to the more reputable brands (like the aforementioned ones).

So far I have as follows:
Corsair K70 Lux Blue
SteelSeries Apex M500
Corsair Strafe MX Red
Corsair Strafe MX Brown
HyperX Alloy FPS
ASUS Strix Tactic Pro Gaming Keyboard
Logitech G610 Orion

With that being said, what keyboards do you like out of this list/could add to this list that would fit my requirements?

Please reply soon.

Adi
 
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It's all down to personal choice isn't it!

Why don't you look at review sites and see which keyboards are reviewed best. Then eliminate the ones which you don't like the sound of?

At the end of the day, you're going to be using it. Try to think about what you think you want from a keyboard. If the switches are all the same, go for a keyboard which you like the look of.

I bought the K70 which I love but it was personal choice.
 
monster_munch - In terms of what I want, I want something that will last me a long time (so durable). Additionally, I need something with tactile feedback (so I know that I have pressed the key). From what I have read in various sources the Cherry red switches are linear and I need at least some form of feedback to know that I have pressed the key. So based on that I am thinking that a keyboard with the Cherry MX Brown switch is going to be the way to go for me.
 
I have a Corsair K95 and a Coolermaster Quickfire TK, I also have an old £29 keyboard on my old rig, for me there is no difference between the keyboards for gaming, mechanical keyboards offer nothing other than feel of keys for me. Next time I buy a keyboard I won't buy mechanical.
 
AdamScott85 - I cannot find any reviews of the Cooler Master quickfire TK. I can find the CM storm Quickfire TK reviews (8.5 out of 10) but not the regular Cooler Master quickfire TK.
 
Ahh yeah its the storm mate, Says under the keyboard Quickfire TK and then on the other side of the label CM Storm. Anyway they are all the same, just go for the cheapest or whichever one you like the look of. The Corsair K95 is good, but offers nothing a normal keyboard doesn't offer, no benefit for gaming.
 
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Don't make a switch choice based on the assumption that you are going to need tactile feedback, because from my experience the amount of feedback you get from browns is not a reason to choose them over any other switch.

If you're spending that much then you owe it to yourself to get out and test some switches before making a purchase. I started with Browns (Ducky DS3) because i thought i would need that feedback, then i got a board with Blacks (Keycool hero 84) which was nice enough, but then i bought a board with Reds (Leopold FC660M) and these are by far my favourites.

Furthermore, it's not just about the switch, but about how the switch is mounted in the board which is going to affect the feel of the switch, although not entirely it will make a difference trying the same switch over the different types of mounting manufacturers use.
 
I am back once again with another update.

I have narrowed down my list to the following three:

Cooler Master Master Keys Pro L
Logitech G610 orion brown
Corsair Strafe

All of them have similar dimensions and the reviews are good on all of them (at least from what I have seen).

There are two differentiators here:
1 of 2: The G610 has dedicated multimedia buttons.
2 of 2: The corsair strafe has the most key rollover out of the 3
 
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The best mechanical keyboard you can get in my opinion is the Filco Majetouch 2 with Cherry MX Blue switches. It'll last you for years and years it is so well built. You could knock someone out with it if you hit them on the head with it it is so well built and best of all it is a proper full size keyboard. It doesn't have any pointless extras and just concentrates on being one of the best keyboards on the market.

Cherry MX Blue switches are great for typing. I've found the number of words I can type per minute has gone up using these switches since switching from an old cheapo keyboard.

Edit: Just realised you said for less than £100. Well that rules out the Filco which is a shame. Maybe you could pick one up second hand?
 
Hi Cromulent,

I do need a full size mechanical keyboard. As you just stated the Filco keyboard looks kinda good but it's above £100. Unfortunately it has to be new I'm afraid
 
I have the QPAD MK85 PapaLazaru linked, it's very nice to type on, as would be anything with cherry switches I suppose. the reds actuate at around half travel, but are fairly soft so when typing, they will usually bottom out, giving all the tactile feedback you need

The stand out features which made me choose that one were:
- it's the ONLY mech keyboard I could find at the time with full NKRO over USB
- every key can be programmed (not that I've ever used this that much)

it also has a built in USB hub, as well as headphone/mic passthrough, if you're in to that sort of thing, although the mic channel is a bit noisy due to the LED controller!

as I said, all mech keyboards will feel about the same, which is to say you'll miss 'em every time you have to type on a cheapo board again
 
Trojan85: Having the USB hub is something that is not really a need as I already have a nice powered 7 port USB hub here. Better still my speakers have a built-in headphone port so that's those two things already taken care of. However, why should I choose the QPAD that you mentioned over the three models that I mentioned?

And what about the 3 Keyboards that I have mentioned? The reason I wrote that reply was because I am struggling to pick out an option between those three. All seem to have similar feature sets additionally the reviews are good. With that being said I cannot find anything between them that makes me say "I want to go with this keyboard".

I know that ultimately it has to be my decision but I am genuinely struggling to pick out of the three of them.
 
bscott: Yup, but rules are rules. It would be silly for me to first say £100 and then come back saying that I have upped my limit to £110 (which has not happened).

Just as an update to the rest of you. The Cooler Master masterkeys Pro L is a good keyboard (from what I have read). Whilst it can switch between 6 key rollover to N Key rollover automatically, that's something that I don't want to have to worry about. As such, I am considering eliminating it from my candidate list. Would that be a good decision?

If that is the case that would leave two candidates:
Logitech G610 Orion Brown and the Corsair Strafe

To anyone reading this, which one of these two would you pick?

Edit: PapaLazaru - I am sorry, but I should have mentioned that it has to be £100 including delivery!
 
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The search is over. After much deliberation, I ended up going with the Logitech G610 Orion Brown. The Corsair Strafe was a good keyboard and had nice red backlighting but the keys seemed to jut out a little more than the Logitech one.

Additionally I know that Logitech make good keyboards so I can relax knowing that Logitech is brand that I can trust.

If anyone is interested I will write back with my opinion in terms of what my experience was like using it.

Edit: I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for their suggestions
 
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Adiman423 said:
The search is over. After much deliberation, I ended up going with the Logitech G610 Orion Brown. The Corsair Strafe was a good keyboard and had nice red backlighting but the keys seemed to jut out a little more than the Logitech one.

Additionally I know that Logitech make good keyboards so I can relax knowing that Logitech is brand that I can trust.

If anyone is interested I will write back with my opinion in terms of what my experience was like using it.
Click to expand...

Awesome :). I hope you enjoy your keyboard.

One thing is sure though once you go the mechanical keyboard route you'll never go back to a normal cheap keyboard. Mechanical keyboards really are that good.
 
Adiman423 said:
bscott: Yup, but rules are rules. It would be silly for me to first say £100 and then come back saying that I have upped my limit to £110 (which has not happened).

Just as an update to the rest of you. The Cooler Master masterkeys Pro L is a good keyboard (from what I have read). Whilst it can switch between 6 key rollover to N Key rollover automatically, that's something that I don't want to have to worry about. As such, I am considering eliminating it from my candidate list. Would that be a good decision?

If that is the case that would leave two candidates:
Logitech G610 Orion Brown and the Corsair Strafe

To anyone reading this, which one of these two would you pick?

Edit: PapaLazaru - I am sorry, but I should have mentioned that it has to be £100 including delivery!
Click to expand...

I admire your will power and enjoy your new keyboard.
 
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