OCAU Mechanical Keyboard Thread (No selling here, please use the Trading Forums)

Welcome to the rabbit hole my friend.

If you want to buy a mainstream brand with all the bells and whistles then I recommend the Cooler master Pro Series. http://www.coolermaster.com/peripheral/keyboards/masterkeys-pro-l/
Which can be had for anywhere between $110-180 depending on sales going. Ebay regularly has a 15/20% tech sale and given its a popular brand picking one up for a bargain is easy.
They come in all the standard MX switches. Just youtube examples of each switch, ie. Blue, brown, Red and black.

Now if you really wanna go deep then. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/?count=25&after=t3_7gd6of

There are many many many great keebs out there. It gets expensive quick. But can also be cheap. If you want custom keycaps Ali Express is a good place to get them cheap, the custom ones youll see on reddit run $100's of dollars (for the life of me dont know why lol).

I think the most important thing is to choose your layout. Full, TKL, 75%, 60% or 40%. Im big on 75% boards atm. Keep in mind the weird layouts may have weird keycap configs and might require special keys to make the set.

 

FM

FML this is going to do my head in lol, I just don't want to get a board and it has some weird keycaps that I can not find replacments for or get custom one done for myself.

 

Based on what you are after, I'd seriously consider a Ducky. Pretty much ticks all your boxes, and as far as I am aware they use standard keycaps for everything (although the stock caps are pretty good).

I recently picked up a Ducky One for about $150 shipped from PCCG. Really happy with the board- features and build quality are great, keycaps are dyesub PBT (pretty much the best you can get, similar to IBM Model M ones) and the price is pretty good too. For me, I don't like backlit boards but Ducky has you covered there as well, if that is what you are after.

 

well im 50/50 on backlit, if anything I want the ability for individual key colouring that I can turn off or on?

 

I'm not sure on it's 'individual key colouring' capabilities (not something that I'm in to so I've never researched it), but I suspect that something like this would suit:

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/40411/ducky-one-pbt-ds-rgb-led-mechanical-keyboard-cherry-black

(That's the cherry black version, they stock the others at the same price)

 

If you want to modify individual keys via different keycaps you'll also want to make sure they're the same profile as the other keys you're leaving on the board: http://i.imgur.com/kFxqOm8.jpg most will be cherry or OEM I'd think. Otherwise there should be some boards with fully programmable RGB backlighting that will let you colour them individually.

I'm running a Ducky One grey/white PBT dye-sub and it's pretty much my perfect keyboard. Their keycaps feel way nicer than anything else I've tried.

 

That's exactly what I got (cherry blues). Have been meaning to try a Ducky for a while, and I'm impressed. I prefer it to the Leopolds I've had in the past.

 

Ducky is a great option for sure. Its in the grey area between mainstream stuff like cooler master or logitech. But not niche enough for the hardcore guys.

You will pay a premium for one though and IMO for the money you can get a board that's the same quality and the keycaps you like. Which is why I recommended the cooler master. If you want keycaps a ducky is gonna eat your budget. However the duckys come with really nice caps as they are, they are just black double shots though.

I am typing on a ducky TKL with custom caps right now for work. And its pretty nice, old now though and I bought it second hand. My home board is a drevo Gramr with caps from Ali express which I bought from a member on here for $40. Next board I get I'll be going all out.

 

How do you find the Drevo Gramr?

Been looking at this and the Drevo Tyrfing as a cheap way just to try out a smaller form factor.

Edit: Just saw they have the Tyrfing V2 on their site but not available to purchase yet. Looks really nice with a more standard font on the keycap.

 

what do you think of the Cooler Master Masterkeys MK750 RGB Mech Keyboard or the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Rapidfire Mech Keyboard

 

Drevo is pretty good. But its also cheap, so with expectations curb'd its a nice little board. Space bar stabilisers are shit house which is probably my main complaint. Needs to be lubed.

I'd happily recommend them to people buying their first board.

Seems nice enough, its got Cherry switches. So you're all good there.

 

I like the look of the corsairs but the space and win keys are non-standard size.

 

Ended up ordering a Cougar Puri TKL Cherry Red from umart for $89, seems to have good reviews from the few I've seen and looks like a nice cheapish board available locally.

 

My first mechanical is a Corsair K70 Rapidfire. Bloody brilliant bit of kit.

 

https://cougargaming.com/products/keyboards/puri_tkl/

Mate looks like a nice little board. Has everything buy RBG, (im more of straight white led guy myself) thats a great price for a cherry equipped board. Even has an Aluminium face plate. Good pick for your first board bro.

Now todo something about those keycaps >

 

Not my first mechanical, but is my first tkl.

Currently using a Corsair K70 with cherry reds and red backlighting. Its got the normal font not the ugly gamer font of the newer boards and I never really have backlighting turned on anyway.

Had a K95 with white backlighting before that, so progressively going down in size, haha.

Thought the cougar board looked pretty decent so thought I'd give it a crack. Liked the look of the aluminium face plate and the included cover which will help keep dust out when not in use too.

 

Ok, so after a bit of time with the Cougar Puri TKL (Cherry Red), I have to say this is a fantastic little board.
Feels a bit different from the Corsair K70 I'm coming from (also cherry reds), but not in a bad way. Suspect it's possibly just due to different keycaps/construction and also sounds a bit more hollow or something due to the enclosed construction compared to the open key design on the K70. Only think I kind of miss from the K70 is the dedicated roller for volume, although it's not really that big of a deal as volume can be controlled with function buttons on the new board, and I'm also getting use to the TKL format.

Only has white LED's which are fine with me, and is very solidly built.

If you are looking for a reasonably low priced/big brand keyboard available locally I can highly recommend it!

 

Ducky is now my new favourite 'modern' mech-keyboard brand. Got the Ducky One (black case, white / grey keycaps) with cherry blues, it's awesome. Build quality seems good, dyesub PBT keycaps are fantastic (closest I've seen to a Model M on a cherry board), keycaps font is non-hideous (unlike a lot of the boards out of Asia), no obnoxious branding, standard keycaps in case you ever want something different (not sure why you would though). Removable USB cord too, which is nice.

9/10 from me

 

Got a cheapy Motospeed K87S coming to tide me over till I go over to Japan later on in April where I'm hoping to snag a Realforce 87u 55g.

As of this moment though I'm typing on a really cheap compact board which I'll retire as my backup when the K87S arrives (then that becomes a backup again later on haha)
Velocifire TKL78, not a bad board but I just can't get used to the tiny right shift key. The rest of the board seems fine and for $35 it really is a solid piece of equipment.
Keycaps are obviously shite but I was expecting that for the price but the Outemu brown switches are actually pretty decent.

 

Interesting board. Its good to start on some cheap boards until your switch taste starts to develop.

The its funny I actually never use the right hand modifiers. Like ever. My typing position has my pinky resting on the left shift. Probably due to years and years of adobe and cad programs using shift, crtl and alts almost constantly. And in which case my hand is not even on that side of the board alot of the time. Sub optimal typing style but I still average 50+ words/min.

Just ordered this keyset.

https://pimpmykeyboard.com/dsa-hc-granite-25-off/

More expensive than both my boards put together