deskthority

So my first mechanical keyboard I've owned since a couple months ago has been a CM Storm QuickFire XT (MX Red). It's great, compact and sturdy. The only thing I dislike is the font of the printing and the lack of a Menu key. As for the red switches, they are light but smooth and a pleasure to type with.

In preparation for the PBT Round 3 group, I ordered a Cherry G80-3000 which just arrived. Considering both keyboard cost roughly the same, the Cherry keyboard seems of lower quality. The larger chassis is somewhat light and hollow feeling. Also, the way the keys are mounted off the <S>backplate</S> pcb makes them move more under lateral pressure.

Most of the typing action on the 1-unit keys is not bad; but I think I will prefer the Red switches to Blue in the end. The bottom-ing out 'clack' seems softer with the G80 compared to the QuickFire, probaby because of the difference in mounting and general looseness in the board. My only other comparison for 'clicky' feel is from typing on Model Ms (more than a decade ago) and my memory of that was quite different; eventually I will be looking for an EnduraPro to try a buckling spring.

I'm not sure why yet, but some of the larger peripheral keys like the backspace and enter keys feel 'soft' rather than 'clacky' when bottoming out. I think maybe it's the extra 'leveling' mechanism adding additional force or at least changing the feel of the key. I have the key-puller that came with the CM Storm, but i haven't been able to remove the enter or backspace keys with it. I tried on the enter key but it didn't seem to give and the lower edge is a bit roughened from where the puller slipped over the edge a couple times. I will try removing some of the keys around these keys to see if I can get more leverage without damaging anything.

The keys fit very tightly over the mounts (compared to the CM Storm where the keys easily 'snap on', the keys on the G80 have to be pressed down all the way). To pull the longer keys with leveling mechanism, I was able to use a metal 'puller' I found in a toolset. It does seem like the leveling mechanism itself is what causes the softer feel of those keys; it looks like the stabilizing 'stem' goes down further than the mount and makes contact with the board on the inside.

I also just found if you press 8 keys at once on any 1 row, it activates CapsLk (may have something to do with having swapped Ctrl and CapsLk)

That sounds like rollover to me, and won't have anything to do with your key swap.

The levelling mechanism is a stabiliser. They come in two varieties: Cherry and Costar. You're probably used to the latter. Here's a naked board with Cherry stabs:



More about them here:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Stabiliser

Having tried both, I prefer Cherry's stabs actually. (On that yellow keyboard above: not a Cherry but a Ducky.) They're quieter and easier when swapping caps (as Costar stabs require inserts in the caps themselves, which you also transfer). But Cherry's stabs are higher resistance when pressing the key.

I wouldn't blame MX blues for what you're feeling. Isn't that keyboard PCB mount? As you're finding with stabs: there's a lot more to the feel of a keyboard than just the switches by themselves.

Yes the blue switches themselves are fine, still getting used to them. I noticed they can be re-actuated without completely releasing the key and having to re-'click'.

Looks like a lot of G80s were sacrificed to create that second keyboard

Now that I've tried both Blue and Red which are close to the same weight I'd be interested in trying something with higher force.

The greens are new, from 7bit:

http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/ ... t2760.html

Very different to reds and blues! I like them all, though.