whats a good gaming keyboard?

[ZPIGS!]

i got a zboard already, not bad, nice to even out the wear by flipping a 2nd keyboard in, but i know nothing of any competition?

are there better keyboards out there?

 

[darkewaffle]

I picked up a Razer Tarantula second-hand but still nearly new, I'm pretty happy with it. Haven't buggered with the customization very much yet, but I was more drawn to the (nearly) full nKRO and the somewhat laptoppy feel to the keys (I think they're slightly shorter than is typical). It is pretty wide though, which is a slight issue with my small desk and big mousepad ><

 

[Ben90]

For a keyboard, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I would consider a Filco using Cherry Blacks and the ps/2 port the best gaming keyboard.
For normal typing you can't get me off Cherry Blue switches, too bad I can't bring this keyboard with me to my work because its loud as fuck. Gotta love mechanical switches, I will never go back to a rubber dome.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

There are two new keyboards coming out soon that have caught my attention.

One is from Razer using mechanical switches called BlackWidow.

Two versions:
the standard edition for $79.99
and the ultimate edition for $129.99

the only differences I can tell is that the $50 extra gets you key back-lighting and USB and headphone/mic pass-through


The other is the SteelSeries 6Gv2 @ $99 which is a less expensive version of the 7G ($149), both of which are also mechanical.


That being said, I think the $80 BlackWidow is going to be my next new keyboard, the price and features seem hard to beat, and i can live without backlights and USB/audio passthrough. Although Razer's TRON themed keyboard looks amazing purely for the aesthetics.

 

[Scotteq]

Plus 1,000 to the "Mechanical Switches 4 The Win" sentiment.

**dreaming of an updated version of Cherry's old MX 5000 Ergo Plus**

 

[QueBert]

I'm buying the Razer Tron, looks like pure win. Razer makes awesome keyboards, well my Tarantula was sweet any ways.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

My Razer Arctosa has issues with win 7 64bit. Randomly lose the escape key. Restarting fixes the problem. If you have win7 64bit don't bother with this one.

 

[nerp]

Model M.

 

[Throckmorton]

You know what I don't understand? Why no mini gaming keyboards? Why the hell should a gaming keyboard have the useless arrows and numpad that force you to space out your hands unnaturally?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I don't understand why you have your hand on that side of the keyboard?

 

[QuantumPion]

I used a unicomp model-M clone for a while but it got really annoying for games after a few months. The action made my fingers tired and the noise was cute at first but irritating after a short period. Now I use a saitek eclipse 2 - nice quiet soft keys, looks nice aesthetically without being garish, and not too expensive.

 

[Throckmorton]

I don't understand why you have your hand on that side of the keyboard?

Left hand on WASD, right hand on mouse. With a normal keyboard your arms are splayed out in a V shape, because the keyboard is so wide due to the useless numpad and arrows. With a mini keyboard your arms can be parallel, going straight forward.

 

[QuantumPion]

Left hand on WASD, right hand on mouse. With a normal keyboard your arms are splayed out in a V shape, because the keyboard is so wide due to the useless numpad and arrows. With a mini keyboard your arms can be parallel, going straight forward.

I think that would only be an issue if you were < 12 years old.

 

[konakona]

For a keyboard, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I would consider a Filco using Cherry Blacks and the ps/2 port the best gaming keyboard.
For normal typing you can't get me off Cherry Blue switches, too bad I can't bring this keyboard with me to my work because its loud as fuck. Gotta love mechanical switches, I will never go back to a rubber dome.

make that cherry brown and we are in complete agreement
I never use numpads, but my arrow keys get a good bit of use, more so than the wsad (e.g. fighting games). Also I hate keyboard layout that tries to cram the insert/home/pageup-down/delete/end block into one combined clump of clusterfvck. Unless it is a strictly gaming device, you will need those keys somewhere. It's nice to have some separation there between that block and the rest of the keys. Same goes for the function keys uptop, I find keyboards that fuze that line with the rest of the keys very annoying.

What do you get as the result? Enter filco tenkeyless: http://www.google.com/images?q=filc...de_link&ct=mode&ved=0CAsQ_AU&biw=1600&bih=765

Perfect layout as far as I am concerned, no more no less. That extra space on the right for mouse maneuver is a nice touch, makes the keyboard somewhat more luggable as well

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Left hand on WASD, right hand on mouse. With a normal keyboard your arms are splayed out in a V shape, because the keyboard is so wide due to the useless numpad and arrows. With a mini keyboard your arms can be parallel, going straight forward.

Sit in your chair with your arms straight forward and tell me if it's comfortable.

 

[makwy2]

Call me crazy but one of my fave gaming keyboards is the Microsoft Sidewinder X6. Very handy, versatile, and durable. Really amazing product I gotta say.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Why don't we have ergonomic gaming keyboards? I love my MS natural keyboard.

 

[Mwing]

Call me crazy but one of my fave gaming keyboards is the Microsoft Sidewinder X6. Very handy, versatile, and durable. Really amazing product I gotta say.

Yup, im using one too, and u can remove the useless numpad so no need to spread arms wide

 

[ripster55]

One of the things you might feel important in gaming is Nkey Rollover (the ability to recognize multiple keystrokes at once).

For a full list of keyboards that support NKRO/6KRO/2KRO (probably the one you are using right now) check out the Geekhack.org Wiki here.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=NKey+Rollover+-+Overview+Testing+Methodology+and+Results

 

[Throckmorton]

BTW one thing that pisses me off about keyboards is that they still have the stupid staggered key rows. The Darwin Smartboard did away with that and was really ergonomic, but is discontinued. Now the only real option is the TypeMatrix.

How is this relevant to gaming? Because WASD arranged in an aligned T shape is better than staggered! Also, on the current 2030 model, the ALT key is right next to the spacebar, where the useless windows key usually is.