I'm thinking about purchasing a new keyboard (my $6 keyboard from amazon has been far from desirable). I'm not entirely sure on what switches I want, as the only mechanical keyboard I've had is a Razer Blackwidow with blue switches. I've been looking at the key switch sampler from cooler master to figure out which switches I want. However, if I were to buy that, I'd almost certainly want to get a cooler master keyboard. How is the quality on them? I'm not looking for anything flashy that has LEDs, just something sort of plain yet aesthetically pleasing with a good feel.
I have 2 current cooler master keyboards and I love them. Have had no problems with them. I have the Quickfire XT with Brown Switches and the Quickfire Rapid with Red Switches. Love both of them.
My cooler master keyboard has never skipped a beat. As far as I can tell they are well made and well priced considering their quality. I like the design scheme, its almost militaristic, it matches well with my antek 1100.
I'd reccomend blues for anyone who doesn't play online games with voice chat. Yes they are noisy but I found I quickly forgot about them, seeing as they are not significantly louder than bottoming out my old Logitech membrane board.
Really good, I have the TK with greens and i'm loving it, when it comes to using VOIP with greens or blues I personally have only really had 1 person complain about them when using skype, other people dont notice or care. and I bottom mine out quite alot. And I like the clicky noise :3
the only complaint i would have on cm storm keyboards is that i've had key lettering fade. My understanding is that using high quality plastic keys would eliminate that, but virtually no keyboards come with those keys and you almost always have to buy and install them separately. Very good keyboards otherwise.
I have the Quickfire Rapid with MX blues and it's rock solid. The Rapid is highly rated and is always suggested on keyboard forums as one of the best budget options for a mechanical keyboard.
The XT is simply a full-size Rapid.
The Pro and TK and Ultimate have a decent reputation, but not AS good as the Rapid/XT since it's made from a different manufacturer ( The Rapid and XT are made by a highly regarded manufacturer (Costar))
Well I was looking at the Quickfire XT, as it has minimalistic aesthetic, has a number pad, and didn't seem to be too expensive.
I assume it's therefore not worth it to spend the extra cash on one of the more expensive models?
The only reason to get the TK/ ultimate is the backlighting ( or if you like the funky layout of the TK), but the XT would have the better build quality and be cheaper.
The XT is generally considered better than the Pro (The only upside of the pro is (partial) backlighting).
I would go for the XT if I were you.
So I'm set on the XT, and I think I've decided to go with the MX browns since I'll be going off to college and don't want to annoy my roommate (too) much with the clickiness. Also the Green switches end up costing around $130 and I don't want to spend quite that much.
Is it worth buying o-rings to further reduce the amount of noise the keyboard produces?
My quickfire pro with brown switches have kept me happy. If you buy the o-rings, give us a review. I've been curious as to how much that helps.