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For everybody in this thread who doesn't know what mx keys to buy, pick up the WASD Switch tested : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZQKCD4 and actually punch on the keys you're thinking about getting. It'll save you the trouble of returning the board because *reasons*.
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Mar 8, 2016 06:42
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| # ? May 17, 2024 12:03 |
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Headed to the Elite Keyboards showroom tomorrow to check out a Realforce 87U 55g. If I like it, I'll end up swapping the rubber between it and my Novatouch and lubing/silencing both. 
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Mar 8, 2016 08:03
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Since I already ordered the keyboard, it's of less immediate importance to me, but how good are those testers at giving you a feel for the switch-type? I would have thought you'd really need to try it out on an actual board to get a good idea of what it will actually be like to type on/use a keyboard with that switch type.
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Mar 8, 2016 14:59
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surc posted:Since I already ordered the keyboard, it's of less immediate importance to me, but how good are those testers at giving you a feel for the switch-type? I would have thought you'd really need to try it out on an actual board to get a good idea of what it will actually be like to type on/use a keyboard with that switch type. They are good for linear(the wrong switch) vs tactile, actuation force preference can't really be determined from a tester.
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Mar 8, 2016 17:30
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So I have a Logitech K400, which *should* meet my need of "keyboard and trackpad I can use on my couch" problem is that it's range seems to be something on the order of 2-3 feet with line-of-sight. I've even noticed it only likes certain angles, and even then, it seems like it's having trouble and moving the cursor can be choppy. Needless to say, this is not ideal. Is this just a case of a lovely receiver or am I getting interference by putting it in a USB 3 port? I'm not sure my case even has USB 2 ports if that's the problem. I assume this isn't normal for something they advertise as for TVs.
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Mar 9, 2016 00:52
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Endless Mike posted:So I have a Logitech K400, which *should* meet my need of "keyboard and trackpad I can use on my couch" problem is that it's range seems to be something on the order of 2-3 feet with line-of-sight. I've even noticed it only likes certain angles, and even then, it seems like it's having trouble and moving the cursor can be choppy. Needless to say, this is not ideal. Is this just a case of a lovely receiver or am I getting interference by putting it in a USB 3 port? I'm not sure my case even has USB 2 ports if that's the problem. I assume this isn't normal for something they advertise as for TVs. I just had this problem and it was solved by unplugging other usb3 devices (a thumb drive in my case) adjacent to the nano receiver. In my case I kept the nano on the front of the case and moved the thumb drive to the back
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Mar 9, 2016 01:14
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Is there something I'm missing about 'artisan' keycaps? I...don't see the appeal I guess... Edit: I should clarify i'm talking about things with characters or frogs or whatever. Like this: 
frogbs fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 02:00
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frogbs posted:Is there something I'm missing about 'artisan' keycaps? I...don't see the appeal I guess... Different colors or $499 frogs  ?Doubleshot caps are really nice and the text never wears down, and maybe someone really likes taupe or something. Crazy expensive novelty caps? No idea.
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Mar 9, 2016 02:04
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leper khan posted:Different colors or $499 frogs Definitely the frogs and faces, that kind of thing. I don't know why you'd buy a several hundred dollar keyboard and then put what looks like a clay fart on it. Ex:  But I guess people should do whatever makes them happy!
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Mar 9, 2016 02:10
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Apparently WASD are now doing CODE 60% keyboards, based on the Vortex Poker or something.
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Mar 9, 2016 02:20
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The Deadly Hume posted:Apparently WASD are now doing CODE 60% keyboards, based on the Vortex Poker or something. I really wish more places would make a 75% a la the Race, or Noppoo's Choc mini. It's my favorite form factor. I can live without the F keys, but I love my nav buttons. Hell, I'm thinking about the Matias 60 but I've got no experience with their switches.
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Mar 9, 2016 02:38
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Realforce 55g Topre is 100% my new jam. Definitely my favorite keyboard now (Filco Majestouch MX Blues, CM Storm Quickfire TKL MX Reds, Novatouch) . My original plan was to swap the 55g rubber into my Novatouch but the key caps and ability to swap control/capslock are just so amazingly nice.
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Mar 9, 2016 05:28
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The Deadly Hume posted:Apparently WASD are now doing CODE 60% keyboards, based on the Vortex Poker or something. Wow, just checked on their site. That is amazing. The wording on the site makes it sound like they are working in conjunction with Vortex.
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Mar 9, 2016 05:54
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frogbs posted:Definitely the frogs and faces, that kind of thing. I was wondering the same thing the other day, as I continue trying to stay calm despite now knowing there are so many amazing keyboard choices out there. "Why? Why any of this?" Ultimately I decided that a single novelty keycap on some specific key makes perfect sense. Like, go ahead and get that skull-and-crossbones or nuclear-fallout-warning symbol keycap for your ESC key; why not? Makes sense, kind of! Or you can put a goat on the key for playing ESCAPE GOAT
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Mar 9, 2016 06:07
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frogbs posted:I don't know why you'd buy a several hundred dollar keyboard All luxury items are dumb unless you want the luxury item 
surc fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 06:57
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niss posted:Wow, just checked on their site. That is amazing. The wording on the site makes it sound like they are working in conjunction with Vortex. It's literally a pok3r that costs more money.
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Mar 9, 2016 08:34
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And doesn't have the great PBT Pok3r caps.
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Mar 9, 2016 10:02
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Horizontal Tree posted:And doesn't have the great PBT Pok3r caps. The ink wore off a bunch of keys within a few weeks on both my Pok3rs, I wouldn't really call the caps great.
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Mar 9, 2016 19:58
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Day two: Tons of typing on the 55g Realforce. Night and day experience compared to the Novatouch and definitely the best of all Topres I've tried (Novatouch, HHKB, Realforce ergo, 45g uniform, and 55g uniform, and all board variants with silencing mods). I have a Novatouch (45g Topre) with Vortex doubleshot PBT keycaps so I have a lot of AB comparisons between this and the 55g Realforce 87U Some observations. I know this poo poo is basically describing color to a blind person, but I'll try my best. Best to find a local distributor or meetup and see the differences for yourself. -Novatouch is similar in key press and actuation to the Realforce 45g with PBT keycaps. I wouldn't recommend the Novatouch without PBT caps, personally. -Novatouch and Realforce 45g are comparable on a full bottoming out -Novatouch is far louder, more plasticky sounding than the Realforce 45g on upstroke -Novatouch could most definitely do with a silencing mod, while the Realforce 45g and 55g are most definitely quiet out of the box. In fact, I would recommend silencing a Novatouch from day 1, whereas the Realforce's upclack sounds perfect. -Novatouch has a weird rubberized coating that I hope they discontinue in future models -Novatouch has the advantage of having MX compatible stems, meaning you can use a PBT spacebar. Realforce uses a smaller ABS spacebar so even with an MX slider stem swap you won't be able to find a wide variety of compatible spacebars -Realforce's PBT keycaps are, by far, the best keycaps I've ever felt on any keyboard. The only disadvantage is the black text on black key, which can prove difficult late at night if you're not a power typist -Realforce's chassis is a very nice plastic, although not my favorite aesthetic. I'm a fan of the Novatouch's TKL chassis design (not counting the coating). -Realforce's 55g is far more tactile and offers far more satisfying feedback on bottom/upstrokes than the Realforce 45g/Novatouch -Realforce's 55g and 45g allow switching of control/capslock buttons, which is a huge advantage ergonomically and since capslock is pretty much useless for my work -Realforce has the ability to use right half of the keyboard as a numpad, although I don't find this very useful in the grand scheme of things, haha Overall, the 55g's snappiness makes it feel like a real mechanical keyboard. I was hesitant to take the plunge on the 55g at first, but the extra weight isn't fatiguing at all if you're already familiar with 45g topre and really makes Topre shine. That said, the Novatouch is still an excellent board, but in order to really make it up to par with the Realforce, it absolutely needs a landing pad silencing mod and thick PBT caps. Keyboard rankings based on feeling (because  )Restored Buckling Spring Model M 55g Topre Cherry MX Blue (Filco Majestouch-2) <-> Matias Click (very tactile, although very inconsistent) 45g Topre Realforce <-> Silenced PBT Novatouch Kul MX Brown (Never thought I'd like browns) MX Reds Everything else
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Mar 10, 2016 00:24
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Armchair Calvinist posted:Day two: Tons of typing on the 55g Realforce. Night and day experience compared to the Novatouch and definitely the best of all Topres I've tried (Novatouch, HHKB, Realforce ergo, 45g uniform, and 55g uniform, and all board variants with silencing mods). I have a Novatouch (45g Topre) with Vortex doubleshot PBT keycaps so I have a lot of AB comparisons between this and the 55g Realforce 87U 1: don't bottom out 2: tell me more about how the type of plastic affects key customization when I stop using that key. Explain why I can't custom mold jolly rancher space bars for my topre stems because one keyboard ships PBT or ABS. C: does the HHKB have full size topre keys? uTron caps are a little smaller than standard, so they're hard to replace.
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Mar 10, 2016 01:10
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leper khan posted:1: don't bottom out 1. I like bottoming out! 2. I don't quite understand the questions here. Can you clarify a bit more? For the latter, what I meant was Realforce uses a shorter style spacebar mount (~90mm stabilizer-to-stabilizer vs 100mm of MX boards, I believe), so if you were to swap sliders from a Novatouch to the 87U, you would be limited in your spacebar options since 95% of MX-compatible PBT spacebars are meant for a standard 100mm MX keyboard layout and thus won't fit on the Realforce. See this pic:  3. The HHKB has mostly full size keys to my knowledge. I found a post here explaining that all the keys are interchangeable except for backslash and right shift; most of the alphanumeric keys swap otherwise. Knot My President! fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Mar 10, 2016 |
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Mar 10, 2016 01:36
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Armchair Calvinist posted:1. I like bottoming out! Thanks, that's very informative. My point was that the spacing had nothing to do with the type of plastic used by the boards.
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Mar 10, 2016 02:06
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leper khan posted:Thanks, that's very informative. My point was that the spacing had nothing to do with the type of plastic used by the boards. Ah, yeah, sorry for the lack of clarification. I meant to say that for aftermarket keycaps, ABS plastic is much more easily/readily produced for MX style boards and PBT is still a relatively expensive and niche even with the rising popularity of mechanical keyboards and PBT. These factors mean options for aftermarket PBT Topre keyboards are fewer, and since there are only two boards I know of using MX compatible stems for Topre (Kludge and Novatouch), of which have 100mm slider spacing, it means finding an mx-compatible-for-topre 90mm-spaced PBT spacebar is basically impossible without starting a grassroots group buy. Luckily, there's enough 90mm PBT Topre spacebars available now that there's no need to even consider swapping to MX compatible spacebar sliders.
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Mar 10, 2016 02:18
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So these 60% keyboards, are they just tkl keyboards but without the function row and everything right of the the enter button chopped off? So like a laptop sized keyboard kind of (looking down at my MBP keyboard)? Are the buttons physically shrunken or the spacing modified to be close to each other or anything or would it feel completely natural to type on one until I try to hit the ~ key with my pinky? What do people mean when they talk about programming their poker keyboards?
Boris Galerkin fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Mar 10, 2016 |
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Mar 10, 2016 09:09
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The keycap sizes and key spacing is normal. Some modifier keys may be shorter depending on the model of 60% board and individual layouts. By programming they mean function layouts and even the primary keyboard layer. You can fully tweak most boards.
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Mar 10, 2016 10:29
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So my Apple wireless keyboard died and while I don't mind the chiclet keys on my laptop I've decided to recapture my youth and get a mechanical keyboard, but I'm limited on budget. A local store has this keyboard on sale for $69.00 Canadian which seems like a good deal? Box is labelled Cherry MX Brown switches. Anyone familiar with it? E: well I bought it, they only had one left and its discontinued, the company has moved to using non cherry switches. It's crazy heavy, like 2.4 lbs. typing on clicky mechanical keys after years of chiclet keyboards is going to take some getting used to but I'm digging it. It's not too garish although still a "gamer" keyboard but w/e. Well that's my story. squirrelzipper fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Mar 13, 2016 |
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Mar 13, 2016 01:34
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squirrelzipper posted:So my Apple wireless keyboard died and while I don't mind the chiclet keys on my laptop I've decided to recapture my youth and get a mechanical keyboard, but I'm limited on budget. A local store has this keyboard on sale for $69.00 Canadian which seems like a good deal? Box is labelled Cherry MX Brown switches. Anyone familiar with it? Yeah thats not a bad price and those keyboards are alright. Your Cherry MX Browns should certainly not be clicking though (that would be MX Blues), so Im assuming you're referring to the tactile bump
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Mar 13, 2016 14:45
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Bottoming out is clacky more than clicky so it's not like typing on browns is inherently a whole lot quieter than blues
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Mar 13, 2016 19:15
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squirrelzipper posted:So my Apple wireless keyboard died and while I don't mind the chiclet keys on my laptop I've decided to recapture my youth and get a mechanical keyboard, but I'm limited on budget. A local store has this keyboard on sale for $69.00 Canadian which seems like a good deal? Box is labelled Cherry MX Brown switches. Anyone familiar with it? slowly press the key, if it makes an audible click before it reaches the bottom thats a blue.
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Mar 13, 2016 19:28
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ColHannibal posted:slowly press the key, if it makes an audible click before it reaches the bottom thats a blue. Or.. Pull off a cap and look at the stem.
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Mar 13, 2016 19:48
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Yeah clicky is probably the wrong description, just a that there's the noticeable bump or press that's new. Liking it a lot though, now I can see how collecting keys etc could be habit forming.
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Mar 13, 2016 20:35
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So I just did the silencing mod on this Realforce. I didn't realize how disorienting the upclack was when typing, as satisfying as it was. Now the keyboard has a lot more synchronous feedback and my room is a LOT quieter. Total time to disassemble, hair straightener the pads, trim excess, and install was approximately three hours. Not really too bad if you get into a groove of things. A+ would recommend! http://imgur.com/a/JUwMi This is the guide I followed https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/2w1dj5/realforce_silencing_mod_87u_55g_and_104ub_hipro/ here's some additional notes that helped as well. The simplest way to reassemble depends on which cups are stuck to the board and which ones aren't. Only three of my rubber cups were loose, so I installed them into the board upside-down and carefully placed the PCB on top of the sliders/housings using my wrist rest propping up the side of the PCB/case to keep the sliders from pressing on the desk. If it proves to be a nightmare, your best bet is to do the same approach but for every spring and cup. See this for a better idea of what I'm talking about : http://imgur.com/a/iJg0b
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Mar 16, 2016 23:50
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http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g610-orion-brown-keyboard logitech g610 with 104 cherry switches, media keys, volume roller, no fugly lights or anything. $120
emdash fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Mar 17, 2016 |
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Mar 17, 2016 16:54
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TheQat posted:http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g610-orion-brown-keyboard logitech g610 with 104 cherry switches, media keys, volume roller, no fugly lights or anything. $120 Looks like non standard keycaps again in the Logitech way.
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Mar 18, 2016 00:07
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Those look like perfectly normal caps to me. Its about time they release a board that's a more standard design than the super rocket G910, will probably sell a LOT of those.
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Mar 18, 2016 00:50
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Djarum posted:Looks like non standard keycaps again in the Logitech way. Yeah it might be. The profile shot looks different from most and some of the keys might be a different size
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Mar 18, 2016 01:10
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looks like a standard layout? The side view is the numpad size, the larger three keys are -, +, enter, 1:1:2 vertically and closer to the camera than pause/break, the first apparent r4 key.
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Mar 18, 2016 02:01
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TheQat posted:Yeah it might be. The profile shot looks different from most and some of the keys might be a different size Still, it's a nice and clean design and probably something I would've had a serious look at when I was first shopping for mech keyboards about a year back. But I can't help reading the name as Onion Brown.
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Mar 18, 2016 02:03
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I dont know, I just think the Coolermaster Max keyboard line are worth the extra cash over the Logitech. RGB lighting, cleaner design, RGB lighting and, an aluminum switch plate.
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Mar 18, 2016 04:03
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| # ? May 17, 2024 12:03 |
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I'm looking to get my first mechanical (got a key tester in the mail) and I figure my budget is up to $150, but more like $100 would be preferable. Some kind of volume control on the keyboard is essential but I don't need play/pause/skip buttons (wouldn't mind them though). I don't like utterly  poo poo. I don't feel like I need backlighting. I'm currently using a Microsoft Sidewinder X4, but I never used the macro functions or any of that stuff and I keep its backlighting on the lowest setting (turning it off makes the keys look weird to me). Sometimes I use the numpad and I've been thinking I absolutely need it, but really I could get used to not having one. Could go either way on that.With all that in mind, I've been considering the new Logitech boards, but I've also been looking into Coolermaster and Ducky. Ducky's got a non-backlit version of the One that looks good to me (a little unsure about orange legends but the color seems pretty subdued). Any others I should be looking at? Something that might fly under the radar for a first-timer? I guess I'm worried about the quality of, say a Rosewill compared to Logitech, but with Cherry making the switches, does that even matter? Help me, goons.
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Mar 20, 2016 17:21
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