Hi guys,

I've been a keyboard and mouse enthusiast (geek) for a while now and will help anyone looking to get something nice or mod your stuff. Into both higher end and the good bargains.

If you have any questions or you just want to talk about this sort of things, hit me up in this thread. Will try and post occasionally about topics of interest.

So, what sort of keyboard and mouse you folks use? Don't say black ones

good timing as i think im in the market for a new mouse soon!

using a razer ornata chroma and a logitech g400 atm, but the mouse3 is starting to stick infrequently. havent tried any of the crazy looking mice of new, dont need all the buttons or rgb, so fairly standard logitechs have always been my favorite. i had a single mx518 last me over a decade of VERY heavy gaming for most of its life. 2 deathadders and 2 g5s died and it was always the backup. 518 optics in a blue 510 shell would be perfect for me

this is a "hybrid" mechanical keyboard and i do like it. the lower profile keys are nice; not nearly as bad as a laptops, but using a normal height feels weird now. previous was the original saitek eclipse that also lasted extremely long.

if you're looking to fix mouse3, one frequent cause is gunk getting stuck in the spaces around the wheel inside the mouse.

Quick and easy fix is open the thing to clean it up with a toothpick and some cotton tips dipped in isopropyl alcohol. screws are usually behind the mouse feet, however you might have difficulty getting the feet back on properly, so you could be in for a new set of feet. Not a bad upgrade either, as after market feet are way nicer than stock feet on Logitechs.

If looking for a new mouse, tell me the size of your hand and the type of grip you use so I can recommend something really comfy. Trust me, shape makes all the difference in the world. Pics at the bottom to guide you. Judging by what you've previously owned, I'm pretty sure you're a palm grip type of guy.

I don't mind a bit of palm grip myself for comfort when just doing daily tasks or poker, tried all the models you mentioned and personally never felt comfortable with either. Deathadder seems a bit big and thick in the middle, even tho I've large 20x10 cm hands and MX518 shape is just poorly designed imo.

Most comfy palm mice I've tried followed the shape of Zowie EC series https://zowie.benq.eu/en-uk/product/mouse.html

EC series will range from suitability with mid to large hands, if you happen to have small hands, you will need something smaller and there are plenty of options there too. Zowies themselves are good quality but have some problems with the wheels. If you're interested, I can recommend these or alternatives.

I also think it's worth exploring symmetrical shapes, granted, not quite as comfy in day to day use but amazing for fps shooters and such. Zowie FK shapes are fantastic in this regard, but most of the higher end gaming mice released lately are symmetrical so there's loads to choose from. To add, it's really helps RSI to switch between differently shaped mice once every couple of weeks or so.

One more thing, if you've always had heavy mice, you owe it to yourself to one day try light ones, it's so much nicer to move around 70g than 120g. If you manage to nail down a really good shape with a light weight, it's almost going to feel like you've never used a mouse before in your life. That MX518 is literally going to feel like a brick.

Hand/grip guides

https://dmarket.com/blog/top-gaming-...75_lanczos.jpg

https://www.trackballmouse.org/wp-co...-measuring.png

Regarding your keyboard, glad you like it and that's what counts but when you get bored with that thing, hit me up, I got about 100 nicer options to suggest, you'l be in for a treat

the saitek eclipse is legendary for high quality and reliable rubber domes, never owned one myself but heard a ton of ppl praise it.

i misspoke, its mouse4, not 3. the 518 was laid to rest several years ago, replaced with the g400 which im pretty sure is the same shape but with a laser instead of optical tracking.

palm grip, yes. large hands. when i played fps more (cs1.6) it was a bit more of fingertip, but more favored toward palm. these days i dont play fps almost ever, comfort is a plus. i can notice my fingers being tired between work and gaming for a while after, so any help is good.

wrt keyboards, im always open to suggestions lol.. might not spend $1-200 replacing something that works, but i can be tempted fairly easily. i figured its not the best of any category, but is ok in them all. i was talking to a coworker about them a couple days ago, tried his with red switches and wasnt too impressed with it.

how about mousepads? ive been getting a new puretrak talent every year for black friday for quite some time now, think its a pretty awesome pad and a good price. not really a fan of hard pads, the old icemats were cool but kind of a gimmick it seemed.

so mouse 4 is one of the side buttons, what do you mean it gets stuck? like doesn't always return when you tap it? again probably gunk stuck in there, hopefully can scrape it off from the outside with a needle. if it's not registering clicks, that requires de-soldering the microswitch responsible and soldering a new one back on.

ok so for ergonomic right handed mice, I'l put together a list of models to look at. you do the googling and tell me which one you like, I'l just leave some impressions next to them

Zowie EC 2 & EC 1 - feels overpriced at 70$, rubber cable not great, wheel not great, OG shape that everybody copied. heavier than the competition. EC 1 is the very slightly larger version, both feel great in hand, Ec2 feels a bit snappier

Glorious Model D - good value for 50$, very light, super flexible cord, feels like wireless, there's almost 0 friction with your pad or desk, even when not in a bungee. There's a matte coated and a glossy version, glossy one looks nicer , gets dirty easy, but also easier to clean. also cable picks up dust.

Xtrfy M4 - similar to Glorious but smaller, really depends on more exact hand measurements as to which one is going to fit you better. light, same style of cable and feet. this one is 60$ I think. lots of funky colors to choose from.

Razer Deathadder V2 - I haven't tried this one, it's new-ish, supposedly better shape and a bit smaller than the og. 70$. they say good cable and feet, optical switches instead, witch supposedly fixes double click issues. Didn't use to trust Razer but lately they've been stepping up their game and listening to feedback on reddit. wireless version is 130$.

Steelseries Rival 310 - nice coating and comfy, feels better built but lacks in all features compared to others and I think not as good of a deal at 70$

Razer Basilisk V2 - super comfy with the thumb rest, similar to Logitech G604 but better shape. 80$. same features as the Death Adder V2. also a wireless version but it's expensive.

I think if you just get a deskpad instead of a normal pad, you won't look back. You know, the really big ones that fit your keyboard too and room to spare. Few questions here, do you like super fast pads, fast but with some stopping power or slow?

Regarding the keeb, if you really really like rubber domes (Ornata is rubber domes as well), the closest mechanical boards in feel to domes are going to be ones with silent dampened switches, these have the bottom ends rubberized and so the bottoming out is a bit mushier. It's just a significantly nicer feel than rubber domes tho imo. There are some high quality pre-builts with Cherry Silent Reds in the 120$+ region. I recommend Leopold or Varmilo. These wipe the floor with anything Corsair, Razer, Logitech etc. ever made.

Or if you really want to splurge, Topre and Topre clones are friggin fantastic. Topre boards are stupidly expensive at 250$+ new, but there are some funky clones from China and Korea which start at 150$. I had one and loved it dearly. Check out https://www.nizkeyboard.com/. So Topre style switches do involve high quality rubber domes but don't really depend on bottoming out to actuate the switch, just like mechanical contact based variants. Some people call them the most expensive rubber domes on the planet, but the reality is the feel when typing is not comparable, these feel like typing on marshmellows, it's fantastic. Different weights are available, ranging from light to heavy. Also make a super cool sound, like deep, bassy rain drops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yqhuOqBtV0

i actually do have a full desk pad, just usually i'd have a mousepad on top on the side too. now that i dont game competitively or play fps for that matter, its not as important, just used to it. wrt speed, i dont really know. i always liked as smooth a cloth surface as possible, definitely noticed the initial wear, so i guess pretty fast? idk, the thickness of the talent (kinda like a qck heavy) was nice. the last one i had was some razer with the rgb outline, kinda gimmicky, surface ended up peeling away from the plastic edge in places, but it was a gift so w.e.. wouldnt buy another.

i'll look through those mice more, the glorious looks pretty nice, i see the rival for as low as $24 on newegg, i dont really need features outside of standard 5 buttons. i dont ever use the sensitivity change or hyperscrolling.

m4 button, yes, idk why i thought 3. the more i think about it im not sure whats wrong with it. sometimes recently in diablo i notice it spamming itself, over a period of .5-2s, but the physical button isnt stuck and still clickable, like the connection underneath is being kept in contact. but i never notice it browsing or anything where its the back button. if it gets worse its definitely getting replaced.

for keyboards... i really dont know.. these 2 have covered literally the last 12 years outside of a couple laptops. never tried out a few at once or anything either. backlit is an absolute must which it seems like most these days are. that vid did sound pretty nice tho haha

thanks a lot for the info, definitely will be back and hopefully some other people chime in too

https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog...se-pads/mp510/

this one is fast but you have control
doesn't get swampy sections (slower) when dirty, sweat just evaporates off cordura fabric if you lift your sweaty wrist for a couple of seconds, when you set it back down you can feel it dry and cold again
feels like it's going to last a good year w/o having to clean, whereas normal fabric gets dirty and disgusting in 3-4 months and you really feel the slow down with wear.

there are a few others with Cordura, tried an Asus ROG one but build quality was terrible, couldn't even get it to sit straight, the MP510 is well known in the community for durability. Some say the rougher texture irritates the skin on their wrists, I've never had a problem.

if you want top of the range, Artisans are considered best in the business, but you have to import from Japan and they're constantly sold out
https://www.artisan-jp.com/nj_index_eng.html/

Rival is def worth it at that price
oh and I forgot about the G-Wolves Skoll, 60$, similar to Glorious and Xtrfy, high quality, funky designs

if you want to try symmetrical, Endgame XM1 is overall the best mouse I've ever used. Every single thing you touch on it is basically perfect. It's like a little Ferrari ,fingertip tho. Not uncomfy but not at the level of the ergos. That one should be about 60$ as well.

You'd think backlighting is common on high end keyboards, but it's really rare actually, money is otherwise spent on sound dampened chassis, quality factory lubed stabilizers, thick keycaps that sound a lot better and last you forever. Ultimately, you're paying for craftsmanship instead of marketing.

nice, shipped one of those mousepads.

it seemed like all the nizkeys were backlit, but yeah ive seen a lot that arent as well, didnt know if they started to be. not like i look at the keys to type, but when you reset your hands its nice to have a quick glance and actually see, i sit in the dark a lot working on that monitor tan

nice, hope you like the pad

ye the leds on Niz's are there, at least on some models, but the keycaps they give you are not shine through, so the lights are just for esthetic reasons. idk feels like they just wanted to tick the box but didn't care about backlighting at all, same as pretty much all else in higher end pre-assembled keyboards. caps are so thick that if you sit in a pitch black room and turn the rgb on, you don't see light bleeding through.

you could get your own set of shine through caps tho, unlike Topre boards, Niz stems are Cherry MX compatible so basically anything you can find in shops fits. Custom keycaps are a big part of the keyboard community.

All the time I see 150-200$ sets that sell out in minutes upon group buys announcements. People have tens of thousands $ invested in their inventory, this hobby can get really nuts. At least mice are pretty cheap, but in the custom keyboard game, if you deck out a nice board with the best of the best, often you're looking at 1k$+ a pop, with some exotic options going for 3-4k$. There are budget options too ofc, but overall expensive compared to collecting mice.

You know what, I just found a cheap Niz on Aliexpress and put up an order for one.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...archweb201603_
really digging the ninja side printed keycaps on this one, not a huge fan of the layout (no dedicated arrow keys), but at least you can program them on by default as 1 of the layers and I'm a left shift kind of guy anyway. actually never seen one of these new for 100$ before, this must be an older model.

btw, I know you said you liked shorter height keycaps and I just wanted to say there are tons of profiles to choose from



and there are 6-7 other more obscure ones on top of these, uniform or various degrees of sculpted

also different layouts for space saving reasons, like if you really need the numpad on a full size, this is a nice poker themed one that's not much longer than a tenkeyless

guess theres not much interest here..

been using the mousepad for a few days now, its definitely a "strange" feel. its smooth in movement, but sometimes sort of catches or scratches on lift/landing i guess, sort of hard to describe. i can see the fabric holding up better with the stitch pattern but it seems like it would be more difficult to clean when it actually needs it. definitely worth the try for the price, $15 for the medium, couldnt find the bigger ones in stock anywhere.

as far as keyboards, im really more of a noob than i thought i guess. shape of keys has never been a thought for me. i definitely would not want a shrunken size board. i rarely use the number pad, but the cut down versions just seem strange to me.

the chroma features are fairly gimmicky but the ingame mode is pretty cool. i only play diablo, but it has some nice lighting features tied into the game that can actually be helpful. ie, whole glow is different color for each class when its main buff skill is ON, or red when its off, actually saves some effort checking often (altho the timing is pretty built into playstyle after a while) also does an orange/green wave for legendary/set item drops, and a different one for paragon leveling up. not helpful but its a nice touch.

i guess for my use its pretty hard to justify a few hundred atm. im trying really hard to not just buy stuff to buy stuff haha

if it catches, it's the mouse feet that do that, either the edges are square and not rounded off, or more likely the mouse you use has little cutouts where the teflon strips are placed and the feet have worn off and are so the cutouts stick out a bit. it's going to catch on smooth cloth too, just not that noticeable because of the texture. new set of decent aftermarket feet or a new mouse and you won't have this problem.

I just clean the mp510 with a moist napkin, one swipe and all the cat hair and dust are gone. also think this would survive the washing machine no prob if it comes to that. worth mentioning there's no slippery coating on it, a lot of fast pads actually have a pre-applied coating on it that feels great for 6 months and then there's no turning back once it wears off.

ye if it's anything I like about Razer boards, it's the software. I actually use an older Blackwidow as my secondary keeb just for macros and the ability to open files on binds. can do this with AHK scripts too on any 5$ membrane but too lazy to write the scripts myself.

sure, it's hard to stomach a few hundred bucks on a keyboard and if you enjoy using your current one, by all means, do it until you wear holes through the keycaps, but when you're ready to get a new one, hit me up and I'l tip you on best bang for buck on your budget. so many options these days if you know where to look that you just don't have to make any compromises.

I've not bought a new keyboard or mouse for a while. Guess I'm happy enough what I have and it's mostly work these days.

I mainly use a Filco Ninja Majestouch-2:



Details here.

Work mouse is an Evoluent VerticalMouse 4. Never found anything better for wrist comfort.

Also use... a G402. Does everything I need these days for causal PC / poker / gaming.

yeah i was pretty sure its the feet also, never bothered with buying new feet.

ahh a fellow cat person, explains a lot =p

side printed keycaps, a man of culture
also Filco uses lasered etched legends that wear out quickly, so double good job

I also enjoy using vertical mice from time to time, esp when my wrist starts acting up, trackballs too.

cat people ftw

DT-35, five quid Logitech mouse, perfect combination

if that's the Qsen DT-35 you're talking about, I remember it being kind of a big deal back in the day, Korean pro Starcraft players used them, before the days of teams getting sponsorships from Razer and such

on a side note, I wonder why Cherry MX Browns are so popular overall
they're seen as one of the nut worst switches in the enthusiast community

actually the only Cherry MX type switches that are sought after are vintage blacks and people go through the trouble of finding old boards with blacks (like from the 90s) and de-soldering them to re-use in their modern builds

Yes, that's exactly why I bought one just to see what the big deal was. It's a solid keyboard

if it's made in Korea, I bet it is..
but in all honesty, I picked up a generic Dell from a box of discounted 5$ keyboards prob 15 years ago for my parents and it works just fine to this day.

Was going to write an everything you need to know mechanical keyboard buying guide for us European folks but going to postpone it til Black Friday/Cyber Monday for the sweet deals.

If you're in the market for a better bang/buck mech, make sure you check this thread at the end of November. Going to cover budget and midrange segments, both pre-builts and custom/diy kits.

well the outside corner of the back foot has gotten to the point i cant take it anymore, ordered a glorious model d off amazon last night, should be here tuesday. even with prime it came to $82 but w.e.. glossy version was $60 on their site, but shipping made it almost as much anyway.

solid mouse, you'l see how refreshingly light it feels and the shape is miles better than the G400.
Logitech has been very meh for the last couple of years, fallen way behind what they used to be in mice, keyboards and headsets all alike. Overpriced mediocrity. So much stuff released lately that wipes the floor hard with their entire lineup.