Keyboard for 16:9 monitor

[bonheur]

I recently got this keyboard:



It works great, but the number pad on the right makes the use of the mouse a bit uncomfortable since I have to stretch my arm to the right. I'd preffer to have the mouse close to 12 o'clock instead of near 2 o'clock.

Thus, I'm trying to find an affordable, yet reasonably good quality, keyboard with similar looks and multimedia features as the above keyboard, but with this layout:



Does anyone among you know of a keyboard that could suit me? Please, note that I don't like "laptop keyboards" as their keys feel too cramped up to me. An USB port on the keyboard could be useful to attatch a wired number pad--which I'd use seldom.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Karstein]

Any good?

 

[ramj70]

No number pad on this one, from Microsoft

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109237

This one is a little more expensive, from Microsoft also and comes with a removeable number pad http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109063

 

[bonheur]

I was discussing compact keyboards on this post.


This post had too many pictures, so I deleted them in favor of readability and speed of loading.


I hope this is within the rules of this forum.

 

[bonheur]

This keyboard could be an option if it wasn't so expensive:

http://www.fentek-ind.com/modular.htm

It doesn't have any multimedia keys and I have no experience using the cursor keys and number pad on the left side, so I don't know whether I'd get used to it. At $99 it is not a risk I can afford.

 

[bonheur]

I was discussing compact keyboards on this post.


This post had too many pictures, so I deleted them in favor of readability and speed of loading.


I hope this is within the rules of this forum.

 

[bonheur]

I was discussing compact keyboards on this post.

This post had too many pictures, so I deleted them in favor of readability and speed of loading.

I hope this is within the rules of this forum.

 

[Starcrosser]

Mechanical keyboards are pretty cool. They aren't soft and indistinct like the most of them.

 

[bonheur]

I tend to think that those old keyboards have better thought out layouts than many more modern designs.

 

[bonheur]

After reading this:

General Layout Issues
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/kb/layout/gen.htm

And this:

Notebook Keyboards
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/kb/layout/nonNote-c.html

I preffer to avoid compact keyboards for general use computers.

On the other hand, I'm still considering a full size keyboard with a detachable number pad.

Let's say a full-size keyboard like this:

With a separate number pad a bit like it can be seen here below:

I pretend to get the number pad out of the mouse's way with a setup like this. Maybe someone among you have experience with something like this?

 

[supremor]

As one of the above posters suggested, you should take a look at the MS SideWinder X6. It's a little flashy yea but you can turn off the LED backlight on the keys if you want, it's got a completely detachable numpad and its extremely easy to remove/add and it mounts both ways so you can either get rid of it or simply mount it on the left. It's also got multimedia keys, macro keys and half sized function keys which in my opinion are not too small. I have been using one for about 2 years now and I love it, one thing to note though is the key arrangement on in it is slightly to the left if I recall correctly when compared to most keyboards so you might need a small adjustment period during which you will probably mistype somewhat often.
All in all I love this keyboard and its 70 bucks on newegg so its not that expensive and I won't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

 

[kamikazekyle]

Well, I can't view your pictures here at work, so I dunno what you've looked at. But you're going to want tenkeyless keyboards. That's the term for keyboards without a number pad. Compact keyboards are another story alltogether, which involve smaller-than-standard key sizes and spacing.

Anywho, there's a good number of tenkeyless boards out there. Many tend to favor the mechanical switch vice rubber dome (you're going to want to ignore scissor switch if you don't like laptop key action).

If you want more info than you can ever hope for, head over to geekhack.org. They favor mechanical boards over there, but you'll still get plenty of help trying to find the right keyboard for your needs.

Edit: For reference, I massively favor tenkeyless boards. I'm using a Realforce 86U right now, and have a Filco Blue Cherry Otaku tenkeyless at home.

 

[bonheur]

Thank you for your answers, they're very useful to me!

The idea of a detachable number pad that can be mounted on both sides of the keyboard is great and I like to have some basic multimedia keys (calculator, play/pause, e-mail, etc.). But this MS SideWinder X6 seems gamer oriented instead of office oriented. So I would preffer to look for similar designs before commiting to order one of them. Also, what are those macro keys about?

I preffer rubber dome keyboards--like on my current keyboard ( [URL="http://www.logitech.com/en-za/for-business/products/keyboards/devices/585 )--as"]http://www.logitech.com/en-za/for-business/products/keyboards/devices/585 )--as[/URL] they're almost silent. I had a mechanical switch keyboard a long time ago, but the noise was too much for me.

I found this IBM M4 keyboard (which also was available with a "stick mouse") to have a nice layout, but I'm afraid this is a laptop kind of keyboard instead of a desktop keyboard:

I'm not entirely sure that they keys are full size or whether they keys are "full height" or not. But this keyboard can have a separated number pad attached. They're [or were] available from these links:

Mighty Mouse w/ pointing stick
http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/migmousblac.html
Mighty Mouse w/o pointing stick
http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/mightymouse1.html
Number pad
http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/migmouswitnu.html

But the price is high compared to easily available commercial keyboards for office and home use. Also, there's no multimedia keys at all.

A picture comparing side by side the dimensions of this IBM M4 keyboard to a Filco mechanical switch keyboard:

A picture comparing the IBM Space Saver 1 keyboard to the IBM M4 keyboard:

A picture showing the length of the IBM M4 keyboard:

The pictures above come from the Geekhack.org forum.

I've found this blog where the author claims this IBM SpaceSaver II keyboard was the best keyboard once available for sale: http://davidbau.com/archives/2005/05/21/worlds_best_computer_keyboard.html A blog about this keyboard can be read on here: http://blog.roodo.com/rocksaying/archives/15256683.html

I'm well aware that these are vintage keyboards that may still be bought second hand or new in the case of the Unicomp keyboards, but I'd preffer to go for a modern tenkeyless unit. I can be wrong, but I seldom turn Num Block on and I still believe in having the mouse as close as possible to the alphabet keys.