Looking for a nice aluminum Keyboard any advice

[EiSFX]

hello everybody i have been with my coolermaster Aluminum keyboard for about 5 years now but its time to retire this thing and was wanting another aluminum keyboard and was looking at the RAZER Everglide™ DKTBoard Aluminium Wired Slim Keyboard http://www.razerzone.com/powered-by-razer/everglide-dktboard-keyboard/ and waswondering if anybody has any better ones they could link me too or a place that actully sells the black version of that board cuz i can't find it anywhere plz if anybody cal help me it would be awesome thxs

 

[EiSFX]

anybody have any pointers or links that can show me where i could find the black version of that keyboard

 

[zithe]

I've been trying to look, myself. I saw this thread and was immediately amazed by that keyboard.

 

[Melvis]

I never knew they made Aluminium Keyboards But i like it.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

Me too, if they had those in stock I would just have made an impulse buy. I can't find the black anywhere.

 

[EiSFX]

Just to let you all know the KB is actully made by everglide

 

[lemonadesoda]

I use the Apple Alu keyboard on all our PCs. It takes about a week to "convert" to the slightly different layout, and the pebble keys, and flat, low-height design. When you FIRST try it, you will go "eww, weird". After a week, you will find 5 things:

1./ You have retrained and it is just as easy as your old kb
2./ Your typing actually gets faster and more accurate
3./ There is zero wrist/hand strain
4./ You will not go back
5./ You wonder why it has taken so long for pebble keys to "come back" to the PC world. The first computer with pebble keys was the Oric Atmos in 1981 or ZX Spectrum 1982 (I think).

Remember that the long-throw clickety-click keyboards we know from PCs were actually designed for secretaries who were moving from old style typewriters to computer terminals. It has taken us a long time to evolve the kb to what we have now... and that evolution has been slowed down by people resisting change.

Depending on your country set-up you might need a keyboard driver to put the "@" in the appropriate place. I have it set up so that I get a @ in the PC position as well as the apple position.

 

[vbx]

The silver one goes for $30 shipped after rebate.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10011591&prodlist=celebros

That's about $20 cheaper than my Logitech Illuminated keyboard.

 

[qubit]

USB keyboards add lag to your games and this is a USB keyboard.

You'd get better performance (if not looks) from a cheap PS/2 keyboard.

 

[Frick]

USB keyboards add lag to your games and this is a USB keyboard.

Wait what? Why?

 

[lemonadesoda]

USB keyboards add lag to your games and this is a USB keyboard.

You'd get better performance (if not looks) from a cheap PS/2 keyboard.

That is the biggest load of BULLSHARKS I have ever read.

1./ PS/2 has a default polling rate of 80Hz
2./ USB has a default polling rate of 125Hz

defacto, USB is better than PS/2 unless you are doing some kind of funky OS/hardware hacks.

FACT
3./ The "jerky" videos you sometimes see in games that "magically smooth" themselves when you hack the USB polling rate on the mouse has nothing to do with lag on the mouse. It is a simple mathematical phenomenon that the screen update at 60Hz/70Hz/72Hz and a mouse update at 125Hz is out-of-sync. What happens is that every few frames the mouse movement is "lost" and seems to jump. There is no lag. It is just what is displayed. The game engine is still working with your inputs at 125Hz. By increasing the USB polling rate, you reduce the size and frequency of the inevitable syncing problems.

FACT
4./ No matter how 1337 you think you are, there is no way you are going to hammer that keyboard more than 125 times per second. If you can shoot more than 125 bullets per second (manual, not automatic) I will eat my shorts

FACT
5./ If you really want to hack your OS/hardware, the PS/2 can be overclocked to 200Hz. The USB can be hacked to 250Hz, 500Hz and 1000Hz. USB wins again.

WARNING
6./ If you really want to hack your USB polling rate, many people recommend OC to 250Hz and not more due to the OS overhead and possible USB stack issues with HARDWARE OTHER THAN A MOUSE. You milage may vary.

 

[qubit]

I read about USB adding lag somewhere and it was a respectable site, too.

I don't know which one it was now, but I think it may have been a gaming site and it wasn't a forum post, either. So heck, I'm only quoting from somewhere that allegedly knows better and I'm inclined to agree with them until I prove it myself one way or the other.

Also, as I write this, I remember they also explained how PS/2 keyboards give you n-key rollover, while USB ones are only 2 or 3 key rollover. That's a pretty significant difference to me.

 

[qubit]

Also, on fact 3, I know what you mean about mis-synced frame rates - very annoying.

Doom 3 suffered this a lot. I'd turn on vsync and the sodding movement would jump a bit at approx half second intervals. Nothing I could do would fix it and I really googled for this one.

The effect was still there even if I put in a low end graphics card that couldn't keep up a steady 60Hz frame rate. Apparently, it was all down to the game engine's internal tick rate not syncing to the video frame rate, unlike every other normal game out there. :shadedshu

Not surprisingly, I didn't play this game for long and I eventually sold it. The game play wasn't all that anyway.

 

[lemonadesoda]

qubit... I'm not getting a you mate. I'm sorry if the 'you's sounded like they were directed at you personally, they werent; they were directed at the royal reader, or 'one'. I'm criticising the quality of journalism and spin-marketing that so many people have been scammed into paying oodles of dosh for high polling mice, when actually, the whole problem comes from a poor specification of USB. They should have chosen USB to be 120Hz, a simple multiple of the vsyncing frequency 60Hz. Ah, but then we would suffer from clock-drift since the vsync and the USB clocks would be different circuits... leading inevitably to the same problem. So maybe 125Hz isnt so bad after all.

HOWEVER, given this known fact, game engine developers could easily put a "smoothing" algorithm into pointer values so that the position is always registered as 50% between the current reading and the last value used. That would solve the jerkiness completely but would indeed introduce a bit of lag. In fact, the mouse driver could do this, no need for the game engine to do the work. At a driver level you could just turn the option on or off and there you go... Basically, what you have is a maximum movement speed of the mouse. If it is great that that... the driver takes two steps to get there, the interim value being the smoothed point. At 125Hz, you would require an "extra" 1/125 of a second. However, since half of the move would be recorded in the smoothed movement, on average you arrive 1/250 sec late. That is a tiny tiny microscopic lag. Remember, it isnt lag that is a problem, it is the mis-syncing which means that you visibly see 30Hz frames on your 60Hz vsync. Not really lag at all, just jerky.

 

[qubit]

Thanks, I know you're not getting at me. Having "spin journalism" misinform the general public is something that tends to naturally encourage rants against it and can get me going too, so I quite understand.

I'm quite happy to accept your explanation; you really seem to know your stuff. The technical details indeed all sound quite reasonable and it explains why rotating the first person view with the mouse is always a jerky affair. Unreal Tournament had a mouse smoothing option, but that adds unacceptable lag and it all fits with those unsynced sampling and frame rates. Certainly a 120Hz USB sampling frequency (and lockable to vsync) would have made more sense here. Smoothing the way you describe it would work very well, with little perceptible lag.

I tell you, I haven't seen proper smooth mouse pointer movement since the Acorn Archimedes in the late 80's (oh crap, I've just pegged my age! ). These machines used a proprietary mouse interface and a hardware (yes, hardware picture!) to display the pointer. Result? 100% smooth movement and was so much nicer on the eyes. Wasn't even expensive to implement. The interesting thing was when the machine locked up solid, the pointer would carry on working...

 

[EiSFX]

god damn is that black keyboard like non exisitent or what i can't find it anywhere

 

[zithe]

I haven't either. It was love at first sight and I never saw her again. :\

I've found them for 35 dollars in the silver form which is an amazing deal but I can't even find the black one at a ridiculous price.
http://www.gogamer.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=87329923&extid=Froogle

TPU has a review here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Everglide/DKT_Board_Gaming_Keyboard

 

[EiSFX]

damn man do they even make the black one what the hell

 

[EiSFX]

well that is a damn nice KB but i found something better that i plan on getting the Saitek Eclipse III Backlit Multimedia Keyboard since i coulden't find the black version of that other Keyboard i will get this one ensted http://www.xoxide.com/saitek-eclipse3-backlit-keyboard.html

if anybody has this KB or has tried it could you tell me what yuo all think

 

[zithe]

I haven't tried them, but enermax has some pretty cool looking aluminum keyboards.

this one looks nice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823219001&Tpk=enermax caesar

 

[EiSFX]

well i broke down and did get the silver version of the DKTBoard from everglide/razar

 

[phanbuey]

I use an enermax aurora aluminum... i like the mini... but Enermax makes some nice alum keyboards.