What is so good about gaming keyboards?

[Orcvader]

Shouldn't that be "if you do a lot of typing, a mechanical board will NOT assist you"

I have 2 mech kb's an a Logitech dinovo edge witch beat's the mech hands down for typing.

My mech kb's Zalman ZM-K500 an a Ducky DK-9008 which are both great for gaming but really poor for typing.

It depends on the switches though. There are some switches such as black which I find too heavy for typing, and some which does make a good difference compared to rubber domes such as blue or brown. Red feels pretty nice for gaming on the other hand... it all depends on your typing preferences and gaming style.

 

[just Scott]

I have been thinking about just going for the

Qpad MK-85 Red LED Pro Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-001-QP

but it is a lot of money to justify for a keyboard.

If you want a cheaper mech, google "vendio esports". I can't link because it's technically a competitor, but the guy sells mech keyboards for £60 that are the same if not better quality than the CM Storm and Qpad stuff.

 

[Kalexuz]

I have been thinking about just going for the

Qpad MK-85 Red LED Pro Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-001-QP

but it is a lot of money to justify for a keyboard.

I've had this one for about 3-4 months now or something. I paid about £115 for it though so at £98 it is a good deal.

This was my first mechanical keyboard, and so far it's been a joy to use and has improved my gaming I think. The keyboard has some serious weight to it so it's hard to push it around. The Cherry Red keys feel good as well and I particularly like the 4 blank, orange textured replaceable keys for WASD (or ESDF if you're that way inclinced ) you get with it.

I can honestly say that it was a worth while purchase to me personally. I absolutely love it and hate my work keyboard which is not mechanical. However, in hindsight, was it worth £115? I'm not entirely convinced I'd have been disappointed with a similar mechanical keyboard at £60-70, but it's money spent now and I'm happy none the less.

 

[dan958]

I've had this one for about 3-4 months now or something. I paid about £115 for it though so at £98 it is a good deal.

This was my first mechanical keyboard, and so far it's been a joy to use and has improved my gaming I think. The keyboard has some serious weight to it so it's hard to push it around. The Cherry Red keys feel good as well and I particularly like the 4 blank, orange textured replaceable keys for WASD (or ESDF if you're that way inclinced ) you get with it.

I can honestly say that it was a worth while purchase to me personally. I absolutely love it and hate my work keyboard which is not mechanical. However, in hindsight, was it worth £115? I'm not entirely convinced I'd have been disappointed with a similar mechanical keyboard at £60-70, but it's money spent now and I'm happy none the less.

I just managed to pick one up for £80, so not too bad price. It hasn't arrived yet so i'll let you know how I get on.

Problem was, I needed a Kb that had an audio slot. My Pc Sits to the side of my desk, so my earphones don't reach. Luckily this kb has an extender, so I can just plug my earphones into my keyboard now which is good.

Went with cherry switches, as they seem a good 'all round' one.

 

[just Scott]

I just managed to pick one up for £80, so not too bad price. It hasn't arrived yet so i'll let you know how I get on.

Problem was, I needed a Kb that had an audio slot. My Pc Sits to the side of my desk, so my earphones don't reach. Luckily this kb has an extender, so I can just plug my earphones into my keyboard now which is good.

Went with cherry switches, as they seem a good 'all round' one.

Cherry is the "brand", the colour is what defines the switch types. What colour did you get? (I hope you got red, blue or brown )

 

[dan958]

Cherry is the "brand", the colour is what defines the switch types. What colour did you get? (I hope you got red, blue or brown )

Red, not that it means anything to me. Apparently red are a good one if you are gaming and lots of typing.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I have a fancy keyboard, choice of two mice and also a gaming keypad, all of which have loads of extra buttons, pretty lights, macros, profiles and all that.
I also use just about every single feature of all my peripherals.

However, such things do NOT make you a better gamer - You can have insanely high DPI and trick your setup to make you several seconds faster than me, yet I will kick your ass simply through better forward planning... mainly in space sims, heh heh.

Gaming peripherals are all about enhancing your own personal experience and having features that make your use of the rig more to your tastes. There's a secondary benefit in that most peripherals are designed for comfort, so can help reduce RSI once you've found ones that suit you.
But primarily - A mouse that fits your hand, a keypad that places keys where you want them, a keyboard with your preferred choice of backlight colour... Just like customising your keybinds, it's all about having something that is a pleasure to use, rather than tolerating the cheap £5 Tesco mouse with awkward edges and RSI-inducing angles.

 

[dan958]

I have a fancy keyboard, choice of two mice and also a gaming keypad, all of which have loads of extra buttons, pretty lights, macros, profiles and all that.
I also use just about every single feature of all my peripherals.

However, such things do NOT make you a better gamer - You can have insanely high DPI and trick your setup to make you several seconds faster than me, yet I will kick your ass simply through better forward planning... mainly in space sims, heh heh.

Gaming peripherals are all about enhancing your own personal experience and having features that make your use of the rig more to your tastes. There's a secondary benefit in that most peripherals are designed for comfort, so can help reduce RSI once you've found ones that suit you.
But primarily - A mouse that fits your hand, a keypad that places keys where you want them, a keyboard with your preferred choice of backlight colour... Just like customising your keybinds, it's all about having something that is a pleasure to use, rather than tolerating the cheap £5 Tesco mouse with awkward edges and RSI-inducing angles.

I disagree. I had a generic Dell mouse and I had quite a bit of trouble aiming on FPS games. I then bought a cheapy gaming mouse, one with a high DPI and I must say that it was so much easier to use - I could actually aim! (I also like using the two side buttons on the mouse for crouch and prone)

I'm looking forward to getting the new keyboard - usb ports and audio will make my life easier. LED's so I could play in the dark if I choose too.
It was orange LED's as i would have hoped to go with my build - but my mouse is red anyway so doesn't make a difference.

 

[just Scott]

Red, not that it means anything to me. Apparently red are a good one if you are gaming and lots of typing.

Red is a great choice. Here are the differences very quickly:

Red - linear and non-clicky. They require a very small amount of force (40g I believe?) and the key presses straight down (linearly) without any tactile feedback

Brown - non-linear and non-clicky. They require a small amount of force too, the same as red I believe but they are non-linear so they have a small bump half way down the button press to indicate when the key actually registers.

Blue - non-linear and clicky. Same as brown except slightly (5g I think) more force needed to press, and has a loud mechanical click when the key registers at the bump.

Black - same as red except much more force required to press down the keys. I don't like these at all.

 

[regulus]

Don't speak for everyone. You may not mind the mushy horrible feeling of a rubber dome keyboard but that doesn't mean everyone else does. It's not marketing hype or trying to justify costs. My mechanical keyboard cost £60 brand new which isn't much at all. And your last sentence just shows your ignorance on the subject. Mouse mats are not for moving your mouse faster. How the sensor interacts with the surface actually changes drastically depending on what surface it is. Again, just because you don't care you shouldn't write it off as meaningless.

So you're not really saying anything to indicate that it's actually better. Just 'horrible feeling'. Ok, so it's worth the money to get a better 'feeling'. It's not actually better.

 

[dan958]

It should be here tomorrow, i'll let you know how I get on.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I disagree. I had a generic Dell mouse and I had quite a bit of trouble aiming on FPS games. I then bought a cheapy gaming mouse, one with a high DPI and I must say that it was so much easier to use - I could actually aim! (I also like using the two side buttons on the mouse for crouch and prone)

Perhaps I should have said these things do not *neccesarily* make you a better gamer.
I'm a big one for feature-laden peripherals, but the fundamentals of how I play are usually equally applicable to the very basic peripherals too. There are those players I can thrash with just the basics and there are those with basics who still thrash me with all my extra gubbins.

But the basic premise was that it's all about finding something that works for you and your specific play style. I favour around 2-3000 DPI, for example and cannot imagine anyone playing on 8000... yet I have a mouse that can do this!

 

[Wizzfizz]

There is nothing fancy about them. I've been gaming on an old logitech Corded Deluxe for the past 10 years, it's done it's job and hasn't given me any problems.

 

[Kosmiche]

I used gaming keyboards until I realised how ugly they look.

Some of the new mechanical ones look nice, but anything with pointy edges or ridiculous macro key arrangements looks retarded.

I use a microsoft wireless keyboard

 

[dan958]

Okay, I've been using the QPAD for a while now.

Mech keys are pretty awesome. I'm trying to learn to type on them without pushing them all the way down - as you dont need too! Pretty quiet, compared to my generic DELL keyboard

Audio port i love, now i can use my earphones as they were too short to reach my PC and i didnt want an extender flapping around when i didnt need it.

No pointless Macro keys taking up room, you can set any key to be a macro if you want with the software

Backlights are pretty bright, can definitely see what i'm typing in the dark (probably bad for my eyes!)

All in all, I like it!

 

[Kalexuz]

Good to know you like it. At £80 it's a steal! You can turn the brightness down, hold the fn key down and press number pad 8 and 2 to adjust. You also have fn + f1, f2, f3 etc.

I also like very much that it looks basic with no useless side keys whilst also feeling very good quality imo.

 

[Montegue]

As for Mechanical kkeyboards, stay clear of Razer blackwidow ones, I'm on my 2nd one now and still the same thing happens with this. (btw previous one Blackkwidow ultimate 2012 & now Blackwidow ultimate 2013) One press of a key or a few different keys now and it spams same letter about 3 times. Last keyboard it spammed M, this one now it's K (mainly)

Don't kknow if it happens to all Mech keyboards or if it's just shoddy razer.