Peripherals Mechanical Keyboards

I found a pastime for while I wait! Make gooey keycaps!

I'm making a zoidberg one right now!

 

Let me know how it goes, my want a custom one done if it looks sweet

 

Ooo, cheers longweight that would be great if you could please look it up

I tried to type any 'a's in this message with my pinky but failed miserably!

 

It's a very first try in my spare time and may not look great. I don't plan on making them, but we'll see.

 

It takes a few weeks and can be very frustrating as you have to type so slowly!

 

Halfway through the Zoidberg! Just got to put the clear coat on!

 

As promised...

After reading through magazine and online articles there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted the Osmium. It has everything I want and more, but the supposed £132+ put me off. After a few days of looking at different mech keyboards, I decided to take a cheeky look on Amazon, expecting it to be around the £135 price mark (which had been confirmed in reviews as recent as August). When I saw it at £106 I was shocked, the price had been cut by over 20% in the space of a month, and as far as I know it'd only been released in June so it's likely that Gigabyte took note of the negative comments regarding the price and lowered it accordingly.

It's brilliant. Better than I expected, and I expected a lot for my £108, as I've never spent even half this much on a keyboard. The packaging is substantial and well insulated, opening it up made Summer feel like Christmas! Included were four really cool looking custom key caps which look great over the blue backlight. The build quality is superb, it's clearly better in every way than my previous membrane keyboard, and of all of my peripherals I'm sure this will last the longest. The keys all have a sort of rubber coating making them feel very well made, and each have an individual LED backlight. The 2 metre cotton braided cable is very thick and well made, containing the USB 3.0, 2.0, audio and mic jacks.

The dedicated wheels for volume and backlight control look and feel great, and can even be toggled on/off by clicking them. The Aivia logo at the top right of the board can be pressed to toggle between the five different macro modes, which are colour coordinated. I also love the way the Caps lock, Num lock and Scroll lock text lights up when you turn them on. There are 5 macro keys at the top of the board (reducing unnecessary width to the board) meaning 25 different possible macros are available. I currently have one mode dedicated to my different e-mail addresses and another to media keys. The software which you must use to allocate macros is a little cumbersome but does its job well.

I love the Red switches, I knew I would like them the most out of the four main switch types, despite having never tried a mechanical keyboard before. I now understand what all of the hype is about! I don't understand how people can complain about the low force required to actuate, if you keep actuating other keys by mistake it's likely that you're touching the wrong keys .

I literally can't rate this keyboard enough, it oozes quality, from the 18 carat gold plated connectors to the feel of the individually backlit keys. Unfortunately I can't do any direct comparisons as this is the only mechanical keyboard I've used before but if other reviews are to go by it's arguably one of the best in terms of features and build quality. If I had to pick at it I would say that for some people 5 macro keys aren't enough, and there are no dedicated pause/play, skip media keys in which case the Corsair K90 would be the alternative. Personally I think 5 macros are plenty and I find dedicated media keys make keyboards look ugly.

tl;dr: If you're looking for a well built, feature rich, future proofed mech keyboard with Red switches I can't recommend the Osmium more. If you need a full set of dedicated media keys and lots of macro buttons, the Corsair K90 is a good alternative. Also before buying, checkout this unboxing

I wasn't going to write such a long review (though I could go on for ages about how great this keyboard is), but it's the first sizeable block of text I've typed with it and it's been a pleasure

 

I totally agree about media keys, it's so simple to set up hotkeys why wouldn't you, rather than adding extra bulk and complexity for no real benefit?

I started touch-typing when I was about 7, my mother was a business studies teacher so it's fairly unsurprising. We had a piece of software by Mavis Beacon which was really good - a quick google and it's still out there. Was very impressive at the time, but then I was only seven... My typing has slipped since then (I think I peeked at about 10) and I have no idea what sort of speed I type at now, but it used to be crazy fast.

 

Well I have just been on this website messing around for 15mins or so for a laugh;

http://play.typeracer.com/

Apparetly, a WPM of 55 makes me a pro I think not. Time to take some online typing lessons i think.

 

Zoidberg cap is done!

 

I made a Zoidberg...

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35348.0

 

My mum is a jeweler - so I have given her a key to make a mold from, and hopefully in the next few weeks I will have a solid silver cast esc key

 

In a follow up to this post http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=3157237&postcount=6358 I have sold the K60 Reds and now cannot decide between blacks or browns. I have looked at longweight's thread but he I think is put a personal spin on blacks and browns, anyone else got any thoughts.

I quite like the look of the Cooler Master QuickFire Rapid and hamza_tm paints a glowing picture and its around a price I can afford. So black or brown guys?

 

I personally prefer blacks I think, although I enjoyed browns when I had some.

Blacks have the same feel as reds, just with more oomph, so the same smooth action.
If you'd rather a little tactile feel, then go for the browns, although I didn't find them much heavier than the reds (since they use the same spring)

 

Of course I have put a personal spin on it, it is an entirely personal choice.

 

Oh dear, can I reassure your fragile ego it was not a criticism just an observation as I am looking for other opinions.

 

I am leaning more towards the blacks so thanks for your view.

 

I mentioned to Kronos that Blacks or Browns will solve his problem because:
blacks are stiffer so less likely to accidentally mispress
browns have the tactile bump providing protection against mispresses as you need to overcome it

 

You really either need to just say it or stop making snide little remarks, I have no ego about this but please stop being petty.

 

kettle and black.