I'm curious to hear from anyone who may have typed a little on both the G105 and one of the Raptor K30 or K40 keyboards. Any notable difference in resistance, face size of the caps or other pure typing factor that came to your mind?
After having used and largely loved typing on mechanical keyboards for about a year, last night sitting down already with a headache I just could not stand the bright clattering noises anymore. So I'm giving rubber domes a serious chance again, today having picked up a Logitech G105 becuase that's what was immediately available. The keys are perhaps a bit stiffer than I would like, but that's also my main initial objection towards it.
The Corsair design looks easier to clean and the row of macro keys seem to be just slightly further to the left of the CTRL -to- ESC row, which I might want. IF the Corsair rubber domes might be slightly softer then I'd have to jump on ordering one, but otherwise I could probably get used to this G105 for the near future.
It's so nice to type on a relatively speaking very quiet keyboard, even if I'm missing a key here and there and already feel a wee bit of strain in a finger or two. Mechanicals have great typing feel but even with red switches the noise of merely hitting the surface of a cap is just too much for me in a quiet room with an inaudible computer. Maybe in the future there is some other material for the springs or caps that could be a game changer, but I see no sign of that today.
well i dont have experiance with those K30/40´s, but i got a G105, and honnestly i dont have the best experiance with it.
the keys are fine, except the spacebar, my spacebar is half dead, after i took it off for some cleaning, im not able to get it back on properly, this results in a hanging spacebar.
On my quest for a decent rubber dome / membrane keyboard I'm now fairly happy with a Mad Catz Cyborg V5, a five year old design that is still around. The keys are a little bit softer than the Logitech G105 and the feel is not too bad for an inexpensive keboard. I'm certainly typing better than on the G105 for some reason, and I noticed now that the G105 has some keys a couple of millimeters off compared to both this Cyborg V5 and two mechanicals, for whatever the reason.
Looking to get my hands on a Corsair K30 and might even end up ordering one together with something else, but for now I'm quite okay with the Cyborg V5. It's one weak side is a flimsy and hollow sounding space bar. Might eventually try padding its inside with something.
Maybe Topre keys can start to be spread around like Cherry MX one day. With its rubber dome sitting on top of the spring I have a glimmer of hope that those could be made reasonably quiet. I sure still miss the mechanical feel, but there just is no way to make the existing Cherry MX spring design quiet.
And to conclude, I've now been using a Corsair K30 keyboard for a couple of weeks. On overall for me it's the better of the three, having about the same softness as the Cyborg V5 but with a more consistent feel. Pretty darn good for being relatively inexpensive. The design also deserves a plus for being easier to clean than most. The space bar might be a little dull and mushy, but better that than feeling flimsy and clattering like on my Cyborg V5.
It shares the problem with the row of six programmable keys as on the Logitech (and many others). They are so close to the regular keys and have the same height and feel, that when going by feel you can easily press them accidentally over keys like ESC or CTRL. The solution for me is the same, simply rip them out and tape over the holes. Consequently I haven't really tried the macro part of these keyboards.
I also stumbled upon a Lenovo stock/bundle rubber dome model that I had read about and considered ordering. It seemed like a pretty nice and sturdy rubber dome keyboard, but the keys were more stiff than I would like to have them.