The dark truth about mechanical keyboards and gaming

thank you

I don’t necessarily have a problem with the gaming hardware industry, i have quite a few gamer friends and everyone i know upgrades at reasonable time frames and usually its swapping one or two components rather than doing a total rebuild.

At the end of the day its a hobby and there’s no reason for giving people shit for doing things they love to do in their free time. I don’t give shit to people whose passion is to customize their cars, spend thousands on sports team merch, tickets, etc. Gaming doesn’t hurt anyone, and if some guy that has a ton of disposable income wants to overbuild and overspend that’s their money they are spending and doesn’t affect me.

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Some do make proprietary keys, i wouldn’t say its something you’d widely see but i do notice them on occasion when browsing peripherals for the lulz.

The one i linked to in my first post you can set the brightness real low through their software. You can also outright disable the lighting on keys that you really don’t need backlit, so on mine i have everything off except for the number keys and the letters. That said i do habitually turn off the lighting toward the end of the night because i don’t need it at that point.

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Another variety uses Hall effect sensors; the key moves a magnet which activates the sensor on the chassis. In this case, there’s no moving switch component. IBM also had a capacitive system in their beam spring and buckling spring keyboards (the latter including the beloved Model M).

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Yeah but the switches use standard cherry keycaps since they’re basically a copy of the cherry units, and have an identical post. The problem there is a non-standard bottom row layout. Which is an issue with plenty of boards (especially gaming boards) that don’t use proprietary switches. Bottom row sets seem available in Razor’s layout, if not commonly or cheaply. And Razor seems to sell/provide keycaps if its just about replacing damage.

The Logitech ones don’t seem to be compatible with common keycaps, and they don’t seem to sell replacements.

But that’s two manufacturers. When I was shopping for sweet van style cap sets there seemed to be plenty of access to alternate bottom rows or less common layouts for keyboards with some weird. Even if that boiled down to buying an additional, separate space bar and an extra key or two to fill out a standard set.

That’s just 2 manufacturers though. If there is a default “most” here its cherry compatible plus sign posts in standard layouts. And a few commonish alternates. Then problem with the Razors would seem to be more sourcing the right keys for the bottom row to match a custom key set if a razor specific set isn’t available. But the information seems to be out there. If its just repair you can pretty easily find the right size key in a bunch of colors.

The Logitech ones have an entirely different type of post and attachment point. Sets are out there though, just don’t seem to be from Logitech. And don’t seem to be as easy to track down.

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I do use Logitech keyboards but i definitely made sure to buy the ones that use standard posts vs something that’s proprietary since i was considering eventually doing a few custom keys down the line.

Depends on the switch kind. Cherry MX Browns and Reds are pretty quiet (and you can add o-rings to make them even quieter) while Blues are a cacophony. I use a Corsair gaming keyboard with Red switches and o-rings as my daily driver for coding and love it. It was reasonably priced and pretty quiet.

I replaced most of my keycaps with clear ones to scare off non-touch typists.

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This is literally what most keyboards are like on the inside: plungers pressing rubber membranes under the keys completing a circuit when pressed. Mechanical keyboards have completely different actuation often at the cost of expense and noise.

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I’m personally sick to death of hearing everyone else go thump thump thump over the discord voicechat while trying to fly

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That’s one of the reasons I opted to avoid them. The ability to fix these things, or customize them in ways simple or complex is a fair bit of the point. A fully proprietary switch basically removes that. And frankly it was Logitech’s membrane keyboards I was sick of replacing every few years to begin with.

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My biggest beef with Logitech has been their braided cables being too stiff and eventually causing the wire inside to break entirely on their own. Thankfully i was able to get the mice that failed on me replaced for free, but both times it was a big hassle.

Perhaps irrationally i still like Logitech. I do like their design aesthetics (I have a keyboard, mouse and speakers), and overall quality. I don’t think i’d be against going with other known brands in the future but that’ll be a while out for me.

I pretty much am a slut for logitech mice and headsets. Aside from that all my other equipment is businessware I stole from work.

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I have very specific things i look for in gaming mice and Logitech makes 100% exactly what i want or as close to perfect for me. I’ve seen ones from other brands that i really liked but never quite ticked all the boxes for me. The keyboard i have is pretty much perfect, the only thing i’d like if it had was a USB port on it for peripherals but i can easily live without it.

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Note that a buckling spring mechanism-- as shown in that blue animation may not be the best for gaming.

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The reason that mechanical keyboards cost so much more is that they include 100 mechanical switches. Membrane keyboards have four die-cut sheets of plastic film to do all that switching work. This price differential doesn’t have much to do with the size of the market.

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I’m a big fan of Logitech mice. I use a Logitech gaming mouse at work and love it. Even though I don’t use it for gaming, I love the weightiness, precision, and customizablity. I’ve got all the extra buttons mapped to various functions that make me much more efficient.

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Yep, anything by Logitech. My wife got me a K840 for Christmas, which is pretty much an entry level mechanical keyboard, and I absolutely love it. Perfect for my style of typing and I love the clicky clicky clicky.

That’s like 90% of what i use the mouse for, not so much gaming but overall daily use for browsing. I have the left/right wheel tilt mapped to refresh and cycle forward one tab on my browser, and i have 3 side buttons that i use for page forward/backward (the 3rd button i don’t think i have mapped but i do use it in games). I do often wish i could get the same mouse for work.

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Do keyboard gamers not use the 10-key pad?

I’m using a clicky-blue-Cherry switch keyboard, but I don’t game with it. I find a regular controller (like the WiiU pro) vastly superior for using with games (pairs immediately with Tully Monster on the rare occasion that I fire up a game on it).

Are the games gamers use mechanical keyboards for text adventures?

Highly depends on the kind of gaming you do. I had friends that played Warcraft that made use of as many keys as they could, personally i don’t think i’ve ever used the 10-key pad while gaming because it requires you to take your hand off the mouse, but i do use it often when browsing and i prefer keyboards with it included.

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