Cherry MX Mechanical Keyboard Switches Compared

crookedvulture writes "Keyboards with mechanical key switches are enjoying a renaissance of sorts. They're prized by gamers, coders, and writers alike, and Cherry's MX switches are the most popular on newer models. There are MX blue, brown, black, and red switches, each with a different tactile feel and audible note. This comparison of four otherwise identical Rosewill keyboards details how each switch type feels and sounds, complete with audio recordings of the various colors in action. Recommended reading for anyone considering a mechanical keyboard or one of the Rosewills, which cost about $100. Looks like the removable USB cord on these particular models is prone to breakage."

Comments

Define "mechanical keyboard".

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't any keyboard with moving parts, i.e., anything that's not touch sensitive a "mechanical keyboard"?

Why do nerds reserve this term for I'm-an-annoying-asshole-who-likes-everyone-to-know-how-fast-and-frantic-I-can-type style noisy keyboards?

I like mechanical keyboards, as in ones that move, but I don't like noisy ones.

Re:Define "mechanical keyboard".

[Dr_Barnowl]

The mechanical keyswitches are better to type on.

Anecdotal : my dear grey-haired mother used to be a legal secretary, so she would type most of the day for all of her professional career. When I saw that she was getting arthritis in her finger joints, as any good son would, I replaced the shitty generic standard-issue membrane keyboard that came with her office computer with a decent Cherry. Her arthritis improved significantly within weeks. (Both keyboards were non-ergonomic standard layout). When she retired, she took the keyboard with her and continues to use it even today.

The main problem with a membrane keyboard is a lack of positive feedback. You have to wait until a character appears on screen and your brain has processed this event to know whether you have successfully hit the key. For a fast typist, this is way to slow, so instead, they start to mash the keys harder than necessary in order to be sure of positive contact. Hence the finger joint arthritis.

With a mechanical keyswitch, there are two forms of positive feedback that you have successfully hit the key. First, there is the characteristic "click" sound. Secondly, there is the moment in the keystroke when the key switch "gives". This means that your finger can sense precisely how much effort is required to achieve positive contact, which means you only expend as much effort as necessary. In my humble opinion, ergonomic keyboards are a really stupid response to most typing RSI issues, and it's probably a better idea to get a keyboard with proper keyswitches - all the ergonomic boards I've touched still have the same shitty membrane switches.

The thing that got to me the most was her IT departments disgruntled response about having to install a new keyboard - "Why do you need a special keyboard?" (she shut them up by informing them her son was both a doctor and a computer professional). A professional typist (whether you're typing code, or legal papers) should use a professional keyboard. IBM understood this when they developed the Model M. It's a shame that we've lost that in the quest for cost savings..

Re:You need one of these

[Dr_Barnowl]

Not so. You're thinking of the little green USB -> PS2 adapters like the ones that used to come with the MS Intellimouse, which were purely electrical because the PS/2 circuitry was in the mouse.

Why would any keyboard with a PS/2 plug on it (and without it's own USB plug) be able to output USB signals?

These little dongles contain a USB HID device for both mouse and keyboard and bridge the input from the PS/2 devices, as you describe. There are some concerns with a genuine old Model M because they draw a lot of current, and some of these adapters can't cope with it, but I've been lucky so far (my Model M is a '96, so it's a relatively late model, I suspect the keyboard controller is not as hungry).

I've got both a Cherry G80-3000 and a Model M hooked up to these adapters and both seem to be fine. The only downside is that you lose the N-key roll-over, and who uses that?

The Cherry is showing signs of age - some of the switches are getting a little unreliable. The Model M is still going strong, and looks like new after you strip it down and wash the casing and keycaps. I'd still buy another Cherry in a heartbeat - the Model M is just too loud to take into an open-plan office.

Re:Bluetooth?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a software (bios) issue. Many older motherboards kept the keyboard port active regardless of if one was plugged in on boot (although almost all of them disable the ps/2 mouse port if a mouse isn't detected on startup. Especially annoying with 'passive' vga/ps2 kvm switches, where you have to switch over and wait for bootup on any system you reboot/power on or else find out you need to reboot when you switch over later and the mouse isn't working). But if the ports are 'always on' in the bios, you can swap around with impunity.

Sadly the only way you're likely to get this is running an intentionally hacked bios, or a copy of coreboot, since I've never in 20+ years seen a PC that allows it (most assumed if a PS2 mouse wasn't hooked up that you'd manually configure a com-port based one, and thus disabled the PS2 mouse port so it wouldn't interfere, if I'm remembering correctly.) Not really an issue for modern systems, but like so much cruft in the bios it's still there because nobody got off their ass and fixed it.

Re:I bought one

[spauldo]

None of those things are true if you buy a used Model M.

I'm sure it's not an official policy, but I was missing a few keycaps off a Model M (a 1980s model) and shot off an email to Unicomp to ask them if I could buy just a few caps from them. I made it clear that I was expecting to pay for them.

The guy emailed me back, asking what keycaps I was missing. I answered, and then didn't hear from him again. A week or so later, I get a small box in the mail with my keycaps.

I had never given Unicomp a dime of my money - this was an old IBM product I wanted parts for. Since then, I've bought three of their keyboards, and they're the only keyboard I'll buy.