I’ve been wanting to try out a mechanical keyboard for a while and I think I finally have the opportunity. The control keys on my old Alienware keyboard stopped working after I spilled some coffee on it, so I need a replacement. Also, I have an Amazon gift card. I see lots of mechanical keyboards on there with good reviews, but I was hoping to find some more guidance here. As far as what I’m looking for, I really just want something nicer to type with, but hopefully not too loud. A number pad and arrow keys would be nice, but maybe the smaller versions have some type of quick way to get that functionality when I need it. Any advice?

  • kukkurovaca@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    4·
    1 year ago

    You can certainly get a functional mechanical keyboard on Amazon. If you haven’t used a mechanical keyboard at all and you want to try one out, I think buying a cheap gamer keyboard on Amazon and treating it as semi-disposable is quite reasonable.

    If you want the ability to experiment with switches, look for one that has hotswap and cherry MX-style mechancial switches. If you want the ability to swap out for nicer keycaps, check and make sure the board uses a standard layout. Some consumer boards have unusually sized shift keys or space bars etc. that make them incompatible with many keycap sets.

    Re: loud, this is also relative. Linear switches (red for lightweight ones, black for medium weight ones) will usually not be ultra loud, and you can also get “silent” switches, which have some dampening components.

    It’s easy to find cheap fullsize boards with numpad and arrows. (It’s harder to find high end customs like this, though, as most enthusiasts prefer smaller boards.)

  • Riptide502English
    3·
    1 year ago

    Amazon Link

    This is the one I use. I’ve had it for a year and I’m happy with it. Colors & RGN effects look nice. Keys sound good too, and you have a variety of switch options too. I use brown switches.

  • scoredseqrica@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’ve only ever used one keyboard off Amazon, and it was a Durgod TKL board with cherry mx browns which was very nice. Still use it from time to time. They do have some full boards (with num pad) if that’s your thing.

    But to be honest the keyboard landscape has changed a lot since I bought that durgod board though and I think it’s now overpriced compared to the competition.

    My advice would be if you know what kind of switches you like (linear, tactile clicky etc) find a cheap ish keyboard you like the look of with those switches. As a beginner cherry switches are a good bet, they’re not the best, but they’re far from the worst and a good starting point and a lot of other switches and keycaps are compatible with them. It would be good idea if the keyboard is hot swap enabled so you can swap the switches out to try other types of switches or even convert the whole board in the future if you like without soldering. But most importantly start cheap, don’t buy something expensive when you’ve never tried mechanical keyboards before and don’t know what you do and don’t like.

  • Freeman@lemmy.pub
    2·
    1 year ago

    I bought a Logitech g613 on Amazon. I wanted a normal size keyboard but wireless. Prior to this I was married to my dell multimedia keyboards that have proven reliable for a long time.

    I don’t use those weird programmable keys on the left but they don’t bother me much anymore either.

    Overall I do really like it. Every now and the. It will freak out and start jsut repeating a key press but only happens on windows. It could be some driver wonk or something like msi afterburner/ruvatuner causing it, or the kvm I run through.

    As someone that has been hoarding those older black dell multimedia keyboards for years and using them exclusively, this is the first one that I haven’t ditched and gone back to.

  • thejevans@lemmy.ml
    2·
    1 year ago

    In addition to what others have suggested, Leopold keyboards are solid and are available on Amazon.