Switching to mechanical keyboard

[palladium]

SO my old membrane keyboard gave way after 8y of service. I thought it'll be a good excuse to upgrade to a mechanical keyboard. I spent a few hours reading up about the various Cherry MX switches, and I'm still not sure whether I should go for the Cherry MX Reds (eg Vengeance K90) or the Browns (eg Coolermaster Strom Trigger).

I use my PC for both gaming and typing (roughly 50-50 basis). I'm not a great typist by any stretch of imagination, 65-75wpm is about my average but I tend to have a fairly high error rate (~5%). I play mostly dota2 but occasionally do the odd RTS/turn base strategy eg Civ5/XCOM.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I prefer Reds. I use to use Blacks but gaming became tiring after an hour because of constant double tapping for dodging with UT3. The reds are lighter. Hence I bought 2 K60s (one unopened spare)

Corsair is coming out with it's revisions to the K models. I think there is a K70 coming out that is back-lit (comes in 2 different colors) , aluminum frame, and raised keys from board (easy for cleaning) this looks to be a kick-a** keyboard.

Yup. Found the link K70

 

[lehtv]

Thanks for that BTRY. I've been eyeing at mechanical boards for a while, the K70 is new to me. How do you find the K60's? Is the wrist rest good, and how's typing on it given that the wrist rest is only for the left hand?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

The Reds on the K60 are fantastic! Easy and smooth to type with. Even switching back n forth from the blacks (no KVM switch - 2 pcs) I can't give you a one keyboard dual-use opinion as I use the K60 on a 98% gaming to 2% typing ratio but in any-case the wrist rest will take getting use to. I was unsure at first, then I got use to it. (You don't have to use it either, it's not apart of the keyboard frame.) I have a wide desk. It's 72" wide and 39" deep. I sit with my arms fairly wide @ 32" apart while gaming, with the keyboard slightly curved away (right side forward) to comfort my left hand. I haven't gamed without the wrist rest in a long while but I think it helps. If anything my biggest problem is that I'll start to type without my hands resting in-place (left index finger on 'F' key, right index finger on 'J' key) which can be an issue when gaming in a dim or dark room. But IMO I don't think the price tag for the back-lit keyboards justify a split second of placing your hands in the proper place. Although this new K70 can be customized to illuminate specific keys in different brightness. Other than than there is a stuck key issue but for mine it's few and far in-between and not worth the time to send back. I think it's a problem with most keyboards. I've had it on my SteelSeries 6Gv2, and with this Corsair K60. I read firmware updates haven't solved the issue on the K60 yet. But like I said it's few and far in-between on mine and not worth the RMA time.

 

[Pia]

I have been recommending Brown to people who are unsure. Have not tried the Reds, but based on my experience with switches of similar activation weight, I don't think Reds would go over the line of being too light. So either switch should be fine.

Do you actually need the numeric pad? If you don't, buying a mech keyboard gives you the opportunity to achieve better mouse ergonomics by getting rid of the pad; many mech models are tenkeyless while virtually no cheap keyboards are.