Keyboards, and what may be a ghosting question

[mikeymikec]

A nephew wants this keyboard:
http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/corsair-gaming-k95-rgb-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-cherry-mx-red

The price makes me think it ought to be encrusted with gold and diamonds or something, but there is one feature that is something that's had me worried about replacing my trusty 1999 PS/2 keyboard that originally cost about £3 UKP.

When I play old Tomb Raider games, I frequently use keyboard combinations like numpad 0 + shift + arrow keys and/or extra numeric pad keys (maybe four at once in total, not sure). On the occasion that I've attempted to play the game with another keyboard, the computer evidently didn't like it when I tried to use that many keys at once (temporary pause in action and a bleep). As my current keyboard is still holding on strong and only needs a clean from time for hygiene/aesthetic reasons, this isn't urgent, but if I did want to replace this keyboard at some point in the future, is it a pure lottery among cheaper keyboards to get the feature I'm looking for (which I think is anti-ghosting), or paying a huge price like for the keyboard I originally mentioned?

 

[Elixer]

I think the term you are looking for is n-key rollover.
If a keyboard has that, then you can press basically any key in any combo with any other combo, and it should recognize all keystrokes.

I am not really a fan of the machine gun sounding (mechanical, cherry reds) keyboards, way, way too loud IMO.

 

[giantpandaman2]

I think the term you are looking for is n-key rollover.
If a keyboard has that, then you can press basically any key in any combo with any other combo, and it should recognize all keystrokes.

I am not really a fan of the machine gun sounding (mechanical, cherry reds) keyboards, way, way too loud IMO.

You're right on the n-key rollover. I'm also not a fan of the cherry reds. I have the browns (often favored by touch typists) on my keyboard and that's almost too loud. I've heard good things about Topre, but I just don't like throwing away good keyboards.

Back to the OP. Your nephew wants the bling to show off. For actual gaming, however, a mechanical keyboard with n-key rollover is all he needs. I'd actually recommend a much smaller Tenkeyless mechanical that are about 100 Euros cheaper. Sure, he might not be able to show off the pretty lights (who uses those for games anyway???) but he'll frag his buddies better. The extra/more ergonomic mousing space made by shortening the keyboard will save his wrist and elbow too.

 

[Nova Web]

So far, I've used for gaming only Logitech (relatively cheap) keyboards and... 0 problems. I mean even the wireless ones provide decent input to kick many other players using dedicated keyboards.
And the Logitech keyboards are the only cheap ones which work well with different combos 3 keys or so. You can use macros with 3rd party software.

I bought a Razer keyboard and it's a drag just to type on it, mechanical etc. but it behaves just like a a cheap Logitech.

 

[bononos]

.......
When I play old Tomb Raider games, I frequently use keyboard combinations like numpad 0 + shift + arrow keys and/or extra numeric pad keys (maybe four at once in total, not sure). On the occasion that I've attempted to play the game with another keyboard, the computer evidently didn't like it when I tried to use that many keys at once (temporary pause in action and a bleep). As my current keyboard is still holding on strong and only needs a clean from time for hygiene/aesthetic reasons, this isn't urgent, but if I did want to replace this keyboard at some point in the future, is it a pure lottery among cheaper keyboards to get the feature I'm looking for (which I think is anti-ghosting), or paying a huge price like for the keyboard I originally mentioned?

Generally mechanical keyboards (apart from the unicomp) are 6kro/full-kro. Typically cheaper membrane gaming keyboards like the G105 will also have 6-kro capability since that is what gamers need, at least in the WASD section. But some cheap ordinary keyboards don't have trouble with ghosting as well.

In your case its the numpad section that anti-ghosting is needed so you might want to confirm with the manufacturer if its not specified where the anti-ghosting key combinations are available.