Best Keyboard for Gaming

Depends on what you like. The blue switches have great haptic feedback, but they're also loud and take the most amount of force to hit. Do you have a budget on the keyboard or are you just looking for the very best?

I use the Microsoft SideWinder 4. Not actually sure if it's mechanical , but I feel that it oozes quality. I also use a Perixx MX-2000 gaming mouse which is a complete beauty!

They are very cheap too!

I use this
http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,fullsize&pid=fc500rtab

Feels very solid and for gaming + essay typing
but if you want a keyboard just for gaming buy one with Cherry MX blue keys, they give a audible click and a tactile feedback when you press on it.

If you play sc2 at a competitive level id suggest a Steelseries 6Gv2, or anything else with black/brown switches.
Red switchs make it FAR too easy to missclick your hotkeys and mess up your macro (i know since i play Broodwar competitivly where its actually harder to macro).

For CoD or Bf3, i dont see much difference from one mechanical to another (except maybe blue, wich are too loud in general).
Those games wont get any advantyge from one keybaord to another, you probably will have to focus more on the mice in here.

I personally have Corsair K90 (red switches) and Steelseries 6Gv2, also a Logitech G11 (non-mechanical), and the black switches are my favorite. Also the size of the keys is adequate for me.

The blue switches produces a very loud click each press, so it might be annoying to some people. They are considered the best for gaming because they give a tactile feedback, so you would know if u pressed a key or not, perfect for SC2. If you have to type essays or documents often then dont buy a keyboard with blue switches, unless you either dont mind the constant clicking or you're wearing headphones.

I simply could not stand blue. All mechanical are louder than regular keyboards, but blue is just extremly loud in my book.
I havent tested any blue switches keyboard except the Blackwidow (wich is considered by programers as a bad keyboard, especially in terms of durability... thou there is no guarantee that any model is fail proof), so i did not feel like giving my opinion on those switches.

I know that Progamers try to get a FILCO (i wanted one myself, but could not find one in Poland), and then choose switches from there. Black are stiff. Normally id say too stiff for playing, but i actually like them due to how the feeling is regarding feedback whenether you did press a key or not.

(Note that the steelseries 6Gv2 is PS/2 compatible, so you can use it if you feel like it, just test it well before you decide: I have to use both mice and keyboard in PS/2 or USB, if i mix them, my keystrokes are too fast for my mice to register correctly, and i end up producing from 1 building only instead of 5).

If you dont want a stiff keyboard, you should aim for browns.

Reds are mostly for 1st person shooters.

This is becouse the weight of your fingers is enought to keep the key pressed (not joking here) so you wont get tired from 8+ hours of holding the "W" key or the shift key with your little finger.

However, in sc2 or broodwar, that means you will more likely press more than 1 key with your fingers, so its a no go.

There is a secondary issue and that is keybaord size.

You should try to get a keybaord that is not to big (so your hand does not have to travel to far from one keystroke to another), and that has relativly big spaces between keys (to avoid multiple keystrokes).

From the keybaords that i could buy in Poland so far only steelseries 6Gv2 fits all the criteria.

But i probably would rather have a DAS or a FILCO keyboard, its just i dont have a easy way to get them (or a hard way also).

Also, try to be carefull with mechanical keyboards: Few of them are actuall liquid spill resistant (hail to my G11 that has survivied multiple beer and cola spliss and never even flinched).

If you have to relay on the sound from blue switches to tell if you pressed a key or not, you are probably going to have very poor execution speed in sc2.

Normally it helps at start, but is very bothering later on.
Watch streams from all sc2 progamers that actually stream and you will notice none of them use blue switches.
To be competitive in sc2 you need to sink into that game hours of gaming and that sound is probably going to be irritating after only 10 minutes, not to mention long training sesions.

However for writing i belive they are actually quite good as typing does require some sound to keep you concentrated.

I know ragnarok but i would not consider him a "pro".
Id consider MC, Life, Teaja, Jaedong, Flash, Innovation, Stephano, Lucifron, SoS, Cj_hero, and a loooong list of other names before ragnarok.

If you are looking for streams of progamers:
http://www.teamliquid.net/
At the right there is a column that has the streams listed by name of the players.
Mostly non-korean streams, but there are some koreans that do stream from time to time.

If Id be getting a brown keybaord id probably try the new rosewill or go straight for a FILCO.

I dont know any other brown switches (at least any taht i have seen beeing recommended) so in general im unable to help you with brown switches much. Sorry.

True, black require msot force (but I got the fingers of a woman and i have np with that, even 5-10 hours of gameplay in broodwar.

Try to give it at least 2 weeks.
Mechanicals are a death trap at first, your hands and brain need to adequate to it (took me 3 weeks to fully use my 6Gv2 at a decent level, first week my performance was actually lower).

That beeing said, i went from a 190 APM to about 148 in first week and ended up with a 250 nowdays when i play concentrated. But the real diference is in Effective APM, where i had about 68 before and now i got over 130 every single game.

But to tell you the truth i still feel like i need to get to know this keyboard perfectly and its been a bit over a month now.

I dont play sc2 anymore (found it too boring/easy), i Play Sc1/Broodwar, and my main Race is protoss, thou i play all 3 races.

SC2 when i used to play i played 90% of the time random, my highest win ratio was with terran and when i played against semi-profesional players i played Protoss.

Master in all formats, but i rearly played 1v1, so i droped to diamond very soon after reaching master.

I never wanted to go PRO or even Semi-Pro in that game due to the fact i lost interest on it after 2-3 games each day.
I do however enjoy the first starcraft inmensly so i decided to stick with that one.

For $100 you'll get bottom end mechanical

Do you want lighting?

What about macros?

What about pass-through for headphones and mic?

If you're OK with no mechanical, maybe a Logitech G110?

Have a look around. eg look through what PC Case Gear have got. Look at features and price. Work out whether you really want to stick to your budget. Choose a few and google reviews. You'll get there.