Bang-for-buck mechanical keyboard!

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Emospence

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Aug 11, 2013
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Was pretty much set on Rosewill RK-9000, but the browns switches are clean out of stock locally and the distro is only replenishing blue and red switches atm..

Boxes I need ticked:
-Bang-for-buck
-No frills, no bling
-Brown switch
-Full size
-ANSI

Looking at these 3 keyboards right now: Tesoro G1N, Ducky Zero, Filco MJ2.

Does the quality and feel of the Filco warrant the price premium? (the Tesoro is 109 SGD vs 119 for Ducky & 179 for Filco)

Which out of these (or otherwise) would you guys recommend?

On a side note, does having NKRO over USB have cons as opposed to PS/2?
 
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dannyboy2233
Filco and Ducky are both going to be the best choices, especially since Ducky has (finally) released a backlit Zero. The Filco is going to have better build quality, but it also lacks LEDs, and therefore isn't worth the price premium IMO.
As for the NKRO question; this intrigues me as well. I was under the impression that 6+4 KRO was the maximum that was possible through USB due to the limitations of USB itself, not the choices of the company. However, I have seen a few companies now that advertise NKRO through USB.
If I were you, I would just stick with PS/2; it's been the enthusiast's choice for years. Also, from what I've read, you can turn your keyboard on from shutdown (as opposed to just from Sleep) which I guess is a cool...
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dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

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May 24, 2013
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Filco and Ducky are both going to be the best choices, especially since Ducky has (finally) released a backlit Zero. The Filco is going to have better build quality, but it also lacks LEDs, and therefore isn't worth the price premium IMO.
As for the NKRO question; this intrigues me as well. I was under the impression that 6+4 KRO was the maximum that was possible through USB due to the limitations of USB itself, not the choices of the company. However, I have seen a few companies now that advertise NKRO through USB.
If I were you, I would just stick with PS/2; it's been the enthusiast's choice for years. Also, from what I've read, you can turn your keyboard on from shutdown (as opposed to just from Sleep) which I guess is a cool little gimmick :p
However, by now that keyboard may already be in stock again, in which case my answer is proven irrelevant. Ah, well. Hope you find what you want!
 
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Emospence

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Aug 11, 2013
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I've since got a Filco brown switch for home and Rosewill blue switch for work. *sigh*
 
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dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

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May 24, 2013
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Honestly, those are great choices. For me (personally) the Filcos aren't great, since a fair amount of what I do is in the evening/at night. However, I've heard great things about both of those keyboards, and I hope that you're happy with them! :)
 
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dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

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However, as you said yourself, that doesn't meet his third criteria, which is "Brown Switch".
 
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ssddx

ssddx

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May 27, 2009
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while completely true dannyboy, its still a valid suggestion. i did make it pointedly clear that it didnt fit one of the ops requirements but given that i've seen the bad side of cherry mx keyboards i supplied it as another option for the op to at least realize exists.

as for the bad side.. how the cherry mx keyswitches are mounted is a bad design which makes them not so durable when it comes to either dust or specifically any minor liquid spills. the design on the unicomp boards uses a drip tray which isolates the mechanisms from the spills and even dust.

---

if the op specifically needs brown switches and doesnt take my suggestion then i would have to say that wasd is a reputable company to deal with.

they do have brown switches and i did try out one of their products which was a mx blue. not a bad keyboard for being abs plastic like generally most other keyboard you can find are. fairly good customer service too.

---

as far as quality is concerned there is a difference and some are a bit more reliable than others but most are made out of abs plastic should feel about the same. personally i dont think that when you pay $100+ for a keyboard it should be abs plastic but this is the route most companies go. the keys will wear and you will get shiny spots on the keyboard within a month.

unicomp doesnt use abs but some other plastic compound which is very hard and doesnt really wear as easily. the keys are also not printed but dye sublimated which makes them very hardy. generally the best types of keys as far as wear are 2 piece plastic molded, laser etched and dye sublimated. keep in mind that the plastic used matters also.

as far as NKRO over usb is concerned... i've heard it mentioned by some companies that its possible but as far as i know 6kro is the limit over usb. if you want nkro you will want to use a usb to ps/2 adapter and even a few companies like wasd tell you this is how to get nkro on their usb keyboards. unless you're a programmer or you use many hotkeys at once you likely will never come close to the maximum key rollovers.

just a few thoughts..
 
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dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

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May 24, 2013
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Oh, no, I was perfectly fine with the (very good, I might add) recommendation; I was simply reminding the OP that it doesn't have brown switches; we don't want anybody to make mistakes.
As for the NKRO issue; I was wondering the same thing. I recently ordered a Ducky keyboard which claims NKRO through USB, but I thought that that was impossible... Oh well.
Great recommendation, and sorry for the misunderstanding.
 
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Emospence

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Aug 11, 2013
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I'm enjoying both my keyboards thoroughly, thanks :)

I was actually quite interested in Unicomp's Ultra Classic for office use, but the actuation force seems to be a little high for my liking and I think it'll be even noisier than my current blues.

As for WASD, the shipping here (Singapore) is quite insane
 
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