** The Official OcUK Mechanical Keyboard Thread **

Eatchipz said:
I have had a Ducky Shine 2 Keyboard for the past week and it's easily the best keyboard I have ever used! I got it with Red Cherry Switches and also Red LEDS!

Would highly recommend the Ducky Keyboards to anyone and they have fantastic build quality!

10dbcs2.jpg
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how much was that? Looks amazing :D

I thought I read on geekhack or maybe I was dreaming that Ducky are bringing out oled mechanical keyboards with backlight. :eek:
 
I paid £105.98 that's with Delivery...

A lot of money I know and even I didn't think I would ever spend that much on a keyboard but in my opinion after using it for a week it is well worth it.
 
One of the annoyances with these keyboards is the ability to find one that has the following:

1: Backlit
2: No silly additional buttons (macro/function buttons) down the left hand side extending the width of the keyboard.
3: Dedicated media buttons including play/pause, fwd, rwd, fwdskip, bckskip, mute, volup, voldown, without having to press a function button giving up normal keys.
4: Cherry MX red or brown switches
5: Numpad (tenkey) included so full width
6: Normal UK ISO standard with no silly additions and nothing left out. Normal enter/return key and a backslash key next to Z button.
7: Preferably under £100

The only ones I have seen with proper media keys are the Corsair K60 and K90.

The K90 has a hideous additional set of macro/function keys down the left side making it too wide, plus they are annoying and get in the way. These are fixed and part of the housing and cannot be removed.

The K60 is not backlit but otherwise looks perfect.

Neither are full mechanical as I think the function keys and escape keys (obviously media keys too) and possibly num pad, are not mechanical.


There are some rumours that Corsair are due to bring out a "K65" or "K70" to fill the gap between the K60 and K90 which would hopefully be full mechanical, but I doubt it. The key thing, is that it would be backlit and NOT have the macro/function keys down the left. The media keys work really well on the K60 and K90. There are some pictures of prototypes on the web as they were demoing it at CES apparently.
Corsair also has the K95 listed on its site, which is FULL mechanical.



EDIT: Scrap the K60/K90. I've read that even the backspace is not mechanical. May the hunt continue...
EDIT2: Been looking at the QPADs but I dislike the fact the function key lights up uber bright when it is on (which would be 90% of the time for me to have media keys active). It's a bit distracting.
 
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I'd guess at getting 5/7 of those on a keyboard, as I can honestly not think of all of those on one keyboard. Only keyboards I can think of [off the top of my head] are Ducky, Corsair or QPad for coming under the budget with most of those.

But as said, you are going to have to compromise on something there unfortunately.
 
Ducky DK2108 Zero Mechanical Keyboard (DK2108-BUKLLA)

Not posted on this forum for a long time but given this thread is a good resource for anyone wanting a mechanical keyboard in the UK I thought I would add my review.

I am a typist only (not gamer). After looking for a new home keyboard I became interested in mechanical keyboards. I want to improve my touch typing skills and I am sure a mechanical keyboard will help.

My criteria was
a) a standard keyboard layout
b) no fancy keys needed
c) not expensive
d) Cherry MX brown switches as I didn't want the noisier blues

After much searching I purchased a Ducky DK2108 Zero Mechanical Keyboard (DK2108-BUKLLA).

I paid £70. There are not many suppliers of this keyboard in the UK. Infact I only found 2.

The keyboard arrived today and I have only had it out of the box and been using it for a few minutes but the quality is amazing compared to my old Microsoft 600 keyboard. Its like an advancement in technology yet its like a step back 10 years.

General points

- its pretty heavy - probably 3 or 4 times the weight of my old cheap MS keyboard.

- it feels solid

- it is USB

- you get coloured WASD keys and a key remover

- all keys are full size

- has some basic media keys. The only one I ever use is calculator (but it lacks play/pause for media players)

- the clicking / noise is OK - not sure if it will get annoying over time.


- the caps/scroll lock/num lock have their own green led light (like a thin strip)

Good points

- very high quality feel

- the difference compared to my old MS keyboard is amazing. The key presses are very distinct when compared to the more slim/low profile keyboards you get nowadays

- I like that caps lock key has the light on it

- one of the problems I have with the cheaper MS keyboard is that I make a lot of mistakes because the buttons don't feel distinct enough. On the Ducky every button press feels crisp and I am sure my typing will improve.

- I like keyboards that have the feet to raise them up at the top. This keyboard has a nice incline with the feet up (shown in the last 2 pictures - one is with the feet down and one is with the feet up).

Bad points:
- not a fan of all the extra 'non standard' printing on the keys which are not needed for a typist (but can live with it).

- not sure why there is an @ sign on the Q key.

- would have liked more edging around the keyboard itself like you used to get in the olden days as space is not an issue for me.


Overall - highly recommend. This is what keyboards should be like and it is only when you think we always have keyboards like this do you realise how far we have regressed with most people buying substandard keyboard nowadays. The price is very steep IMO but hopefully it will be worth it in improvement in comfort and quality of typing. I am sure it is much much more durable in button bashing than my old MS keyboard too.

Some pictures:













 
Suarez7 said:
Anybody got the Gigabyte Osmium? Ordered it earlier for a Saturday delivery.
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Got great reviews on amazon UK. Poor reviewson amazon.com.

The main complaint being that a lot of people have experienced a fault with this keyboard where the keyboard spams a random key. "Key bouncing". The key is not physically stuck but acts like it is. You have to hit the same key again to "unstick" it. I wonder if UK people get this problem much? One reviewer says a guy in Germany reported the same problem.
Also some people on there report it has died on them completely and/or the LED has stopped working.

Hmm. It does look good though and has 5 x macro keys out of the way up top left which presumably I could make be my media keys. Not sure if it is fully mechanical yet. Going off to google it now and then might take a punt.

I went down to a big popular PC store today to try out some keyboards to feel what red/brown felt like. Did they have any mechanical keyboards out at all dispite selling them? Course not.

:(
 
I got the keyboard today and it's fantastic, haven't experienced any of those problems yet (touch wood). I thought it was all hype but it really is much more satisfying to type and game on mech keys.
 
I am a complete noob when it comes to mech keyboards but it is something I have been looking into, it seems the market is almost flooded with these things and there is so many factors to take into account.

Cherry red seems to be the ideal combo between gaming and typing, that I have established.
Backlit would be nice as my current Saitek II is and think I would miss it
Numpad is essential really as I use it quite a lot for work.
I don't use the media keys all that often on my current keyboard.

What would people recommend or at least help me narrow it down? I liked the look of some of the Corsair ones, I have heard of those duckys and the Osmium posted ^ there looks nice as well.
 
jaybee said:
Got great reviews on amazon UK. Poor reviewson amazon.com.

The main complaint being that a lot of people have experienced a fault with this keyboard where the keyboard spams a random key. "Key bouncing". The key is not physically stuck but acts like it is. You have to hit the same key again to "unstick" it. I wonder if UK people get this problem much? One reviewer says a guy in Germany reported the same problem.
Also some people on there report it has died on them completely and/or the LED has stopped working.

Hmm. It does look good though and has 5 x macro keys out of the way up top left which presumably I could make be my media keys. Not sure if it is fully mechanical yet. Going off to google it now and then might take a punt.

I went down to a big popular PC store today to try out some keyboards to feel what red/brown felt like. Did they have any mechanical keyboards out at all dispite selling them? Course not.

:(
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Never had any issues of that kind with mine.
 
FeFiDoh said:
I am a complete noob when it comes to mech keyboards but it is something I have been looking into, it seems the market is almost flooded with these things and there is so many factors to take into account.

Cherry red seems to be the ideal combo between gaming and typing, that I have established.
Backlit would be nice as my current Saitek II is and think I would miss it
Numpad is essential really as I use it quite a lot for work.
I don't use the media keys all that often on my current keyboard.

What would people recommend or at least help me narrow it down? I liked the look of some of the Corsair ones, I have heard of those duckys and the Osmium posted ^ there looks nice as well.
Click to expand...

The Osmium ticks all your boxes, honestly the quality of the thing is unbelievable I couldn't quite believe how heavy it is, impossible to flex it. The backlit keys can be controlled via scroll wheel from very bright right down to off (can also be clicked to switch on/off instantly), also has a volume scroll which can be very handy in game without alt tabbing out (can also be clicked to mute/turn on instantly. The wrist rest is also very good, just the right size.
 
I've also got a Ducky Shine 2, White LED with Brown Switches.

IMG_1220_zps46e0f8bd.jpg




Pros:
Very high build quality - on par with my old Filco
Only Option for back lit TKL with UK layout at the moment
Reactive LED mode is cool.

Cons:
Cherry stabalisers (personally prefer costar/bar)
The Ducky icon as windows key
I don't like how the shift characters are flipped, but it is your standard for back lit keycaps.

OcUK should consider stocking these, there is only 1 UK retailer at the moment
 
FeFiDoh said:
Cherry red seems to be the ideal combo between gaming and typing, that I have established.
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:eek: :p

Some say if you like Linear keys that push straight down with the same feel to the bottom, then Red's are better than Blacks for all round use. Personally, for all round use, the MX Brown switches are best. But for the pick between them, its whether you want tactile or not.

Plus, it seems to have really taken off now with MX Red's. They're being put on everything!
 
I have heard of Cherry MX Blacks, Reds, Blues and Browns. I think I have also heard of a clear type?
Now there seems to be talk of a new type GREEN switch. Does anyone know anything about them?
 
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