http://rabbitwebfactory.com/pages/kbt_race is probably the best mechanical keyboard i've ever seen. too bad it costs so much and the only way to buy it is by contacting the manufacturer through email.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/14/2635476/status-symbols-happy-hacking-keyboard

i have a backlit, because my keyboard is in a slide drawer thing under desk, and its dark in my room, and i like seeing my keys, even though i don't need to see them to type, its a personal preference

harbleu wrote:

http://rabbitwebfactory.com/pages/kbt_race is probably the best mechanical keyboard i've ever seen. too bad it costs so much and the only way to buy it is by contacting the manufacturer through email.

Pretty sure that keyboard uses pcb mounted switches. I have two keyboards with red switches, one PCB mounted and the other is a plate mounted Filco. The pcb mounted switches don't feel as good and you can feel the board flex while using it. For overall quality I'd definitely look for something different.

Here's a really good option for people who want a tenkeyless and don't lights.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Noppoo-Choc-Mini-NKRO-Mechanical-Keyboard-Cherry-MX-Red-/250888280157?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item3a6a1b585d#ht_6173wt_1163

And for a good quality ultra small keyboard:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Poker-Black-Switch-KBC-40-Mechanical-Gaming-keyboard-With-ABS-keycaps-New-/150693235598?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item2316044b8e#ht_1570wt_1163

CombatToast wrote:

Why do you need backlighting? You blind son? Honestly if you use your computer often you shouldn't even need printed keys.

I'm constantly guessing for keys in non-fps games to open menues or use skills on my skillbar or something.

kne wrote:

go reds

you cant feel the bump for browns anyway unless you put no force into typing

http://www.cmstorm.com/en/products/keyboards/quickfirerapidred/

Really? I was under the impression that there's a distinct difference between reds and browns. I mean looking at the actuation in the switch there's a clear tactile bump.

Browns:SPOILER

The difference between reds and browns is very noticeable.

Thanks for all the info guys, it will make my decision a lot easier. I just have to weigh my options and think about what I absolutely need and what I can compromise on.

4 things

1) dont buy a razer
2) dont buy a corsair
3) buy a ducky
4) dont buy a razer

Truthfully you'll probably be relatively satisfied with the razer. You probably won't have any problems for at least 6 months. The 6KRO might work perfectly. It'll take 6-12 months of meager use for the keycaps to start to chip noticeably. The keycaps are made in such a way that the lettering is essentially the unpainted portion of the cap which means over time, the material will flake off leaving the lettering either ugly or unreadable. This will result in the backlighting bleeding through more of the keycap than just the lettering. As someone else mentioned, they use proprietary keycaps and razer doesn't sell keycaps so when your keycaps become so worn that you can't stand them, you'll be forced to buy a new keyboard altogether. I haven't personally used the version with browns, but the quality of the blackwidow ultimate is complete trash which is on par with every other razer product I've used since the boomslang.

The ducky is by far a better product although it's tough to find sometimes. Tankguys usually has them in stock but as I'm writing this, their website (tankguys.com) is inaccessible for some reason.

Good luck.

The Ducky Shine has these useless keys at the top right which I feel is a waste of space.
SPOILER

It also lacks audio or USB passthrough, and requires you to flip a hairpin dipswitch on the back to utilize a windows key lock (aka Gaming Mode on the Razer, turned on with an Fn shortcut), and has no rebinding support.

I think I'm going to end up going with the Razer Stealth edition, simply because all reviews are saying that it's an enormous upgrade from the original Ultimate.

I expect a lot of razer hate, but try and find me a bad review of this keyboard, because I couldn't find one.

It has a 1 year warrantee, so I'm not worried about defects (not that any review has even mentioned defects)

don't waste ur money on that razer stealth. buy the ducky shine or a leopold.

Please don't connect your headphones to your keyboard.

I just haven't seen any reasonable argument as to why the black widow stealth is a bad decision besides "Razer sucks because their other products suck", every review is saying its amazing and a huge step up from the original. Every side-by-side comparison has it equal or better than the counterpart.

atmo wrote:

Please don't connect your headphones to your keyboard.

Why not? I did that with my lycosa.

Agh, this is just like people I know offline that ask for advice and then buy an iPhone.

You seem to have made up your mind before posting this topic.

Every review I've found basically says the only changes for the stealth ultimate are the switches, and the matte finish. Which ones are you reading?

I guess the extra ducky keys are a waste of space if you REALLY like to have 3 led's taking up that area as on other boards.

斗笠菇 wrote:

You seem to have made up your mind before posting this topic.

Yes I've spent the last ten hours searching for and comparing keyboards because I've made up my mind already. /sarcasm

Weighing all the pros and cons of each board, the Stealth comes out on top, that's what I've determined from all of this. I was hoping someone could show me a board that's better, but nobody could.

The reviews I've found of the stealth say that the changes are brown switches, the matte finish, the 6KRO fix, the rubberized keycap upgrade.

I've yet to meet or read about a person who's owned a leopold/ducky/filco who thinks a razer keyboard is equal or better. It just doesn't happen. Razer is a tolerable first step into mechanicals, but their products lack the longevity and reliability of other companies.

He said plugging your headphones into your keyboard are a bad idea because it will lower the quality of audio that actually gets to your ears. Not a huge deal if you have crappy headphones and/or a crappy sound card, but certainly abhorrent if you have high quality audio components.

It sounds like you're dead-set on getting a razer. There's no point in continuing this thread. People have given you reasons why razer is a bad investment, but you refuse to accept them. That's your choice. Buy a razer. It sounds like you're inexperienced with high quality components and you'll likely be perfectly satisfied with your razer for a year or two until it breaks.

smakers wrote:

People have given you reasons why razer is a bad investment, but you refuse to accept them. That's your choice. Buy a razer. It sounds like you're inexperienced with high quality components and you'll likely be perfectly satisfied with your razer for a year or two until it breaks.

Could you name for me those reasons, and prove them with some kind of review or video?

All I hear is "Razer sucks, dont buy razer anything" with no reason attached other than "Ducky has higher quality components".

What are those components? What's higher quality? Can you prove it?

Can you prove that plugging your headphones into the keyboard lowers audio quality? Show me some credible sources, or it's just hearsay.

Do you own a Ducky or a Stealth?

Please enlighten me instead of insulting me.

Somebody give me some credible information to work with here.

BluE- wrote:

don't waste ur money on that razer stealth. buy the ducky shine or a leopold.

Why? What makes the razer a waste of money, and what's better about the ducky shine or leopold?

shock- wrote:

Can you prove that plugging your headphones into the keyboard lowers audio quality? Show me some credible sources, or it's just hearsay.

In layman's terms, the signal you get from your headphones is not exactly what left your sound card because the components that connect them have impedance (the wires are not perfect and use some of the signal to produce heat, etc.).

If you add more components between your headphones and sound card, the signal degrades more.

More connections, and cable are bad for sound quality. ALWAYS. Same shit happens in fiber optic cable.

If you're happy with a boombox, or a gaming headset to listen to music, you probably won't notice or care. Nothing's wrong with that. You'll die richer.

gr1m wrote:

In layman's terms, the signal you get from your headphones is not exactly what left your sound card because the components that connect them have impedance (the wires are not perfect and use some of the signal to produce heat, etc.).

If you add more components between your headphones and sound card, the signal degrades more.

Oafmeal wrote:

More connections, and cable are bad for sound quality. ALWAYS. Same shit happens in fiber optic cable.

If you're happy with a boombox, or a gaming headset to listen to music, you probably won't notice or care. Nothing's wrong with that. You'll die richer.

Thank you for responding with something of substance. This is what I need to know in order to make my decision, because if the quality drop really is noticable, then going without the mic/audio passthrough might not be a big loss, although inconvenient.

shock- wrote:

smakers wrote:

People have given you reasons why razer is a bad investment, but you refuse to accept them. That's your choice. Buy a razer. It sounds like you're inexperienced with high quality components and you'll likely be perfectly satisfied with your razer for a year or two until it breaks.

Could you name for me those reasons, and prove them with some kind of review or video?

All I hear is "Razer sucks, dont buy razer anything" with no reason attached other than "Ducky has higher quality components".

What are those components? What's higher quality? Can you prove it?

Can you prove that plugging your headphones into the keyboard lowers audio quality? Show me some credible sources, or it's just hearsay.

Do you own a Ducky or a Stealth?

Please enlighten me instead of insulting me.

Somebody give me some credible information to work with here.

BluE- wrote:

don't waste ur money on that razer stealth. buy the ducky shine or a leopold.

Why? What makes the razer a waste of money, and what's better about the ducky shine or leopold?

I don't see any point in giving you more 'substance' because you seem to ignore it. Several people have made valid points against razer--myself included. All these are met with is your response of "i never saw that in a review. enlighten me instead of insulting me.'

I never insulted you. I never had any intention of insulting you. I gave you common complaints about razer mechanicals. See post 38 again. I told you the quality of audio is degraded when passing it through your keyboard. If that's not good enough for you, I'm sorry, but it's certainly not an insult. I couldn't have possibly been more honest or unbiased in my previous posts.

Just buy what you want and be done with it.

I own a blackwidow and there is 0 chance my next mech keyboard will be a razor. Shitty overall quality compared to the other, similarly priced, keyboards I have used.

Literally just gave everyone else the cue to start ignoring this thread as well

shock- wrote:

smakers wrote:

If that's not good enough for you, I'm sorry.

Thanks for the apology, you can start ignoring this thread now because you seem like the kind of guy who would get into an argument in youtube comments. You gave your advice in my thread, I don't need your condescension when I don't accept it.

smaka knows more about keyboards than all other reviewers combined

don't be such an ignorant prick when YOU asked for help

Who is this clown?

He comes here asking for advice. He proceeds to ignore any and all advice while expecting us to do ALL the work researching things we've ALREADY researched over the years. Then he turns into a complete douchebag with smaka.

From now on do us all a favor and don't post here asking for help. Apparently you're too stubborn to accept advice from people who can help you. Doesn't bode well for your TF2 career tbh.

I think you should consider a tenkeyless keyboard, it's hard to comfortably fit a 45 cm mouse pad and a keyboard in front of you as it is. I've been very pleased with my Filco Majestouch 2 MX Black keyboard of that format so far, but I don't have much to compare with. Still, it's a nice, sturdy no-nonsense keyboard and it has n-key rollover. http://www.diatec.co.jp/en/FKBN88MUKB/FKBN88MUKB01.jpg

ell wrote:

I think you should consider a tenkeyless keyboard, it's hard to comfortably fit a 45 cm mouse pad and a keyboard in front of you as it is. I've been very pleased with my Filco Majestouch 2 MX Black keyboard of that format so far, but I don't have much to compare with. Still, it's a nice, sturdy no-nonsense keyboard and it has n-key rollover. http://www.diatec.co.jp/en/FKBN88MUKB/FKBN88MUKB01.jpg

javla ANSI layout, so jealous of your ISO (but not the price)

Zakirll wrote:

Who is this clown?

He comes here asking for advice. He proceeds to ignore any and all advice while expecting us to do ALL the work researching things we've ALREADY researched over the years. Then he turns into a complete douchebag with smaka.

From now on do us all a favor and don't post here asking for help. Apparently you're too stubborn to accept advice from people who can help you. Doesn't bode well for your TF2 career tbh.

I haven't ignored anything actually, I've taken everything into account. I've been writing down the pros and cons that everybody has said, and saving every link posted.

This has absolutely nothing to do with TF2 hence being in the "random" category, why even bring it up? You're so quick to label me a douchebag when I haven't done anything wrong.

I'll make threads if I want to, who the fuck are you to try and shun me from the community?

Honestly, you shouldn't go around telling people to never post here again even if you think they're douchebags.