BearHugs Guide to mechanical Keyboards


So you are curious as to what the differences between switches brands and OEMs are?

I GOT YOUR BACK!

Mechanical keyboards are a good investment for anybody who types a lot or even just for gaming.
It will make even the most boring work more fun to do.

Firstly im gonna list the different common switches

Cherry MX switches:

Blue: Clicky tactile loud as fuck but pretty nice to type and play rts like games on. (50 grams of force required to activate) These are the loudest of cherry mx switches and you either love it or hate it, I get annoyed my self by the sound when i am typing on them.


Brown: Non-clicky tactile switch, good for all around use i would say. My personal favourite cherry switch. (45 grams of force needed to actuate) Among the more quiet cherry switches


Clear: Tactile switch that is like the brown but requires more force to actuate (55grams)


Green: Same as blue but with way more force needed to actuate. This is for people who loves finger fatigue. Loud as fuck.

Red: Linear switch with an actuation force of 45g. These are great for both typing and gaming and is definitely the switch you want if you are big into fps gaming.


Black: Like reds but they require 60grams of force.. I have a board with blacks and my fingers hate me for it.


Buckling spring switches.


These are fairly special and proper old school.
It is a tactile and clicky mech switch that is incredibly loud.
It requires about 65 to 70 grams of force. These are primarily used in the old IBM model M keyboards which i cant really recommend for gaming at all because of their 2 key rollover.


TOPRE SWITCHES:
The most amazing switch of them all if you type a lot. It is a capacitive tactile switch.
These are also quiter than cherry mx switches thanks to being a hybrid between rubber domes and mechanical (kinda)


So what boards to buy? THERE ARE SO MANY!!!

A good starter board for anybody is the cm storm quickfire rapid. It is made in the same factory as Filco boards which are kinda top notch in the cherry segment. The QFR is also available in many switch types.

For topre boards you cant really go wrong with any since there are only 3 brands making them under topres licensing.

Everything comes down to taste with mech boards so if you can buy several and test them out.
Then send back your least favorites!

Brands to avoid: Razer Qpad and everything that is made by iOne.

And this is why.
-Build quality
-Low quality keycaps
-Low Quality Printing


Quality-wise their boards looks like they could have been soldered by me.


Guess which one is the iOne made board?


I will add on to this guide as i get time. And just ask me if there is something else you want to know about!

I'm confused.. is this for creating your own keyboard?

No he is comparing differences between important parts of Mechanical keyboards. He compared different models of the Cherry-MX switches, then moved on to talking about TOPRE switches which are higher quality.

The two images on the bottom are comparisons of components from the two different manufacturing plants I believe?

IDK, I just took his advice, bought a keyboard, it's nice, and will last me years (I hope), so all of this junk is irrelevant now

Yep! The two bottom ones are just a comparison between a good OEM like Costar(that makes filco boards) and shitty controllers made by iOne( Razer Qpad etc)

Well, my shitty board equipped Razer Blackwidow seems to work just fine.

For now!

We're into year 3.. so I'm feeling pretty good about it.

How much stock do you have in these companies? ;-)

my hhkb will probably outlive me

So your spawn will sell it at a rummage sale for $5 dollars (shitty unbacklit keyboard fucking dad was such a nub) and buy himself a nice rubber-domer.

Indeed it will... indeed it will.

We need to buy fallenelf86 this one when he gets back from Japan:

No need to purchase. My patriotism colors my keyboards like this upon opening them.

bearhug, get on IRC i need your keyboard expertise.

EDIT: Never mind, your usefulness has passed. Thank you Vodka and Alverez, clearly the coolest guys in the IRC.

What did you buy?