I am a programmer and have reduced my system noise (plus I am working in a cpu duct to cut noise even more). We heavy typist need good keyboards and the very best are undoubtely noisy mechanical keyboards with nice tactile feedback. It is a fact that your brain requires a kind of confirmation to know wether if a key was actually pressed or not. That feedback comes from both your fingers and your ears.

So I am going to quiet my box and buy one of those g80 Cherry keyboards with clicky action. I have read the linear action ones are not that enjoyable. You people who live in the states might find it easier to get your hands on a venerable IBM model M.

By the moment I am surviving with a Logitech ultra flat X on which I could grow potatoes. I am tempted to scrap some of the crum on the keycaps and look at it under a microscope. Anyone tried a 100x close up of hand salsa?

I bought two G84 mini keyboards, one for home and one for work and I love them!... but not 100% since the letters faded on some keys on both keyboards and it is quite loud. Awesome feel to it though and I will put up with the noise because of that. It's even fun to use. I will look at the screen and try to see how fast I can type just because the key action is so excellent.

Does anyone here know if the fading of the letters is normal for Cherry keyboards? I did Google it but did not find anything but there does appear to be place(s) where you can get replacement keys.

DonQ, I know Cherry sells laser engraved and two color injection molding keycap keyboards. I don't know if there are other options like chemical/mechanical engraving. They are advertised as suitable for extended wear so they should last a lot.

Some keycaps in my ultra X flat show small signs of wear and its less than a year old so I hesitate to pop them and clean them with soapy water and alcohol.

I like this thing It's about as quiet as an UltraX but the sound is softer. The feedback is very good too. Also the wrist rest is the first one i actually find comfortable, usually they are just in the way and make my wrists hurt...

nici - is the palm rest removeable?

It is, easily, but doesn't fall away at any occassion either.

Yeah, the edge is slightly less than one inch without the palm thingie, according to my thumb. The keyboard comes with the palm rest separate, and once you find it (:lol: ) it just clicks in place. If you want i can take a picture of it tomorrow without the palm rest.

I think it's really hard to make a keyboard that is both near silent and still has good tactile feedback(i think it's called that).


I cant' say i would notice this IBM thing needing more pressure on the keys than the UltraX, not a lot anyway. And my typos seem to be reduced, but that also happened when i switched from something else ot the UltraX. Though i still seem to get the letters in the wrong order pretty easily.

Has anyone used the companion IBM mouse? Or the more-convenient wireless keyboard+mouse combo (granted, a bit overpriced)? For some weird reason, I have an obsession with matched input devices.

I haven't tried that one. I do, however, own an unusual IBM mouse with a trackpoint-like push thing in place of a scroll wheel (looks like this). Aside from the push thing, which feels wonderfully natural at times and doesn't work at all in others, I have to say the quality and the feel is no match to my Logitech LX-5.

But if I find the red-scroll-wheel version cheap enough, I may just test it out

Thanks. I expect it's just a run-of-the-mill optical mouse, so I won't get my hopes up. I might want to spring for a Logitech or MS mouse then.

hey limee, you posted a question i would love to have answered (as i used to play an old game, Worms Armageddon, which i have suffered horribly from the same issue). You may be interested that the problem you're describing is called 'ghosting'; Info about that here along with details about hacking a keyboard to fix it.

I've used one of these keyboards. Personally they feel too mushy and cheap to me.

I have been using an IBM Enhanced Performance keyboard for 3 weeks and I am quite impressed. It is very much quieter than the Cherry 6000 it replaced. The key movement is reasonably positive with optimum travel and with the included wrist rest it is comfortable during periods of prolonged use. As I use it primarily for Office applications and Photoshop, I cannot comment on its suitablility for gaming.

Interesting. I liked my IBM clicky keyboards before I realised they were no good for stealth computing. So now I have a Logitech S510 wireless one, which has sort of a laptoppy keyfeel. That IBM board looks too big to fit in the limited space on my desk.

I played SWAT4 and did not notice any problems. I also tried a game similar to Slicks n´ Slide, no problems. Though i only have two hands you know

I guess you guys are still talking about the Lenovo/IBM Enhanced keyboard.
I was not able to find the "Thinkplus" keyboard but I found an other one.

Now I got a question, is this the same as mentioned in your posts and by the thread opener?

http://geizhals.at/eu/a111057.html

Thanks in advance

From the picture it looks the same indeed.

I see, thanks.

So there is no technical difference between the "Business" and "ThinkPlus" line?

I guess I'll just give it a try.

Check out point of sale suppliers for cherry keyboards in the US. You're probably looking for the G80-3000, G80-1800, and G84-4100. The G81 line is rubber dome.

Yesterday i saved a 20y old IBM keyboard from certain death and it makes every other keyboard i've used feel squishy and unprecise. Even the IBM discussed in this thread is crap compared to this, though i have to say the new one looks a lot better.

This thing is bloody loud though. It doesn't bother me when im typing but i would imagine it bothers anyone else close enough to hear it.

Am i just getting old, or was everything really better in the past?

Hey qviri, nici, and vahagn, thanks for your input on the ghosting issue, I guess i'll just have to change my key positions.

Hey nici, reminds me, I still had one of those old ibm keyboards sitting around in a closet almost untouched and pulled it out. It was one of my favourites in the past; I liked how you could pull off the key caps and switch them around, too. The only thing is that I do miss the windows button after using it so much over the years and that it requires abit more pressing force than current keyboards. But yeah, it's built like a tank...could probably take a bullet and still work...though, it's also as loud as one. Typing fast on one sounds like spilling a box of legos from a few feet in the air onto the floor . Actually, when I was on voice chat while playing some video games on the net with it, my teammate was complaining about the noise and had to switch it .

They don't make these anymore either...

Sorry for intruding but can you name a keyboard with laptop-like keys; how is the Logitech Ultra-Flat ???
Thanks in advance !

Are you in Austria? I went to hayem dot info, since they seemed to have a good rating, but from their website constraints, the product is only shipped [from them] to the rest of Austria, not Germany. (US'rs note: Austria and Germany share the same language, and keyboard). I notice they use DP also, and DPD (and EMS). Generally, do you know are post rates usually the same for shipping items to/from Austria as the rest of Germany?

(thanks for the price-matching site, btw, is there one you know of for Germany?)

I looked on Cancom dot de (Maybe it's Ingram Micro in Germany). Search for the model 73P2632, and it comes up. I think the price is 5€ more, but otoh Cancom doesn't charge [now] for cash-on-delivery, just shipping. They do have some customer service people who speak fluent english, also, handy if their on-line system messes up.

(can't post web links yet; forum limitation, first post)

Regards

Geizhals dot at is also good for Germany: geizhals dot at slash de
Or for the whole European Union: geizhals dot at slash eu

They are among the few price comparison pages which are mostly, if not fully unbiased. I can highly recommend them.

I realize this is an old thread but I want to respond.

I need a quiet keyboard because I end up working alot while others are sleeping and my workstation is in a cubby hole that vibrates the sound from the loudest microsoft keyboard every made the Microsoft Wireless Desktop Elite. Its like a machine gun going off even right now while I type and I am using all of my enegery to just graze the keys while I type. So I am definitely in the market for a cheap quiet ergonomic keyboard with some media keys. Looks like my options are slim and I have to stick with Microsoft to get something "cheap"....

Some keyboards definitely make a lot of noise... if you don't think so then you have a quiet keyboard. The sad thing is any new dell keyboard is wayyyyy quieter then this one I have here.

Plus wireless is retarded. Sometimes I type too fast for it and keystrokes get lost.

It's not the one with the scroll-pad thingy on the right.


It's every-bit as nice as the higher-priced model, but not as wide, just the keyboard, and the mechanics are the same.

Maybe not *super quiet* but IMHO just a nice keyboard all-around.

Very seldom have a problem with dropped keys, and that could be the chained USB cable going to the hub the keyboard stick is plugged into.

The Apple slimline keyboard is very quiet:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110 ... TA4Mzc4ODA

Also, the famous Das keyboard has just come out with a new silent version:
http://www.daskeyboard.com/daskeyboard_ ... silent.php

The ad copy on their own website doesn't make me too optomistic about this one:

I know it's nitpicking but I have certain demands

I tend to miss return if it's not the size of 2 keys