Choose your weapon

Due to some percussive maintenance of head by keyboard, I'm in the position of needing to find a replacement keyboard for my primary machine.  My old keyboard had been a trusty Cherry heavy-duty clicky version.  Now I need to replace it, I thought something with a little style would be nice. 

... And yes, I've seen the Optimus keyboard, and I'm afraid (though this might make me a heretic) I don't like it.  Style looks fine, but the usage of movable keycaps and static sceens would drive me to distraction - so that's out.  Not that I mind paying a little over the odds for the right device.

What do 9'ers recommend, what's your prefered keyboard?

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro 4000

For me it would have to be an IBM Model M, simply due to the strength, durability, and great feedback.

Angus Higgins

The model M keyboard is actually pretty close to the keyboard I'm replacing.

... and I'm just not sold on ergo keyboards, although I've never used one for long enough, if I'm honest, to really hold a solid opinion.  Perhaps I'm just being a bit of a luddite?

Maybe I'll wish I hadn't been when carpal tunnel finally kicks in

what about a logitech dinovo? if you get used to it you can type much faster (keypresses are faster since the keys are very thin and light).

MS Natural Keyboard 4000

Best keyboard I ever owned. The little riser thing that comes with it is a bit odd at first, but I can type on that all day because it keeps my wrists totally strait.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/Microsoft-Natural-Ergonomic-Keyboard-4000

Apple's new keyboards. Heaps of keys n the wired version, also comes in a cool wireless version if you can live without a numeric keypad, but if you want something stylish than you won't find a slicker looking keyboard.

Razer Tarantula

I considered the DiNovo, but I'm concerned about the placement of the trackpad and volume slide.

The Razor I hadn't seen, and it looks like a real contender - now if only they hadn't messed up the PageUp/PageDown key cluster!

The new Apple keyboard looks nice, but I've yet to try one out.  Actually it looks a bit like the Enermax keyboard - has anyone tried that?

Logitech G15.

But I broke one of the buttons on the damned thing so I'm without it for a while - boo hoo. It even has a screen, on the fly programmable macros and is available for £55 (I did some research, this is cheapest) from Lambda-Tek.

The Logitech G11 is very similar but without the screen, and is much cheaper. I still like the G15 better

Logitech recently (released?) made the Logitech G15 mark-2 but with only 18 buttons (6 hard, 3 different shift-states) and a non-tilt-able screen.

If you can stand the clicking, get the Das Keyboard II:

http://www.daskeyboard.com/

I stick with the old reliable Microsoft keyboards, the ones with the split down the middle for ergonomics.  They're perfect.  I managed to spill scotch in it once, so I learned how to repair keyboards that day.

Flashbak wrote:

I considered the DiNovo, but I'm concerned about the placement of the trackpad and volume slide.

The Razor I hadn't seen, and it looks like a real contender - now if only they hadn't messed up the PageUp/PageDown key cluster!

The new Apple keyboard looks nice, but I've yet to try one out.  Actually it looks a bit like the Enermax keyboard - has anyone tried that?

what about the MS ultimate keyboard 7000? the only annoying defect it has is that it's curved (and maybe also that it uses bluetooth that means lower battery life and that you can't use it for example to install an OS) however it's still a great keyboard.

YearOfTheLinuxDesktop wrote:


what about the MS ultimate keyboard 7000? the only annoying defect it has is that it's curved (and maybe also that it uses bluetooth that means lower battery life and that you can't use it for example to install an OS) however it's still a great keyboard.

I'm thinking of grabbing that one for either my new gaming pc or my media center. I'd prefer it to have the split down the middle, but still. Are these things available separately or do you have to buy them as a keyboard/mouse combo?

For word processing/programming/other typing tasks, I have the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I wish I could find the natural ergonomic 7000 version (which is, as far as I can tell, the same, only wireless), but I'm not sure if it's even for sale anywhere.

For my current gaming PC, I still have the ancient Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro. PS/2 connector and old-skool Windows 95 style Windows keys and everything.