Keyboards Redux: Rosewill, Ducky, Thermaltake, and More

Marco C — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:05:00 GMT

It has been a long while since I last wrote about my favorite PC peripheral—the mechanical keyboard. Too long, in fact. Since my last blog post on the subject, there have been a number of developments in the mechanical keyboard scene, with a handful of major players now in the game, like Razer and Rosewill. Keyboards with less-common switches like the Cherry MX Reds (which are linear, and non-click, and require less force to depress than Cherry MX Blacks) are now somewhat easier to obtain in the U.S. as well.

With all of the developments in the space, I thought it would be a good time to shoot a few of my more recent acquisitions on video and to compare and contrast them with a few rubber-dome boards I’ve been testing out as well.

In the video below, I’ll quickly show you the Gigabyte Aivia K8100, Microsoft Sidewinder X4, Thermaltake’s Tt eSports Challenger and MEKA G1 keyboards, Wireless Computing’s Long-Range RF-600 wireless mechanical keyboard with AES encryption, the Ducky DK 9008G2 Tiger Year Edition, and the Rosewill RK-9000.

[viddler id=ed711040&w=600&h=370]

Of these boards, the Ducky DK 9008G2 Tiger Year Edition is my favorite, but it was a limited edition product and is almost impossible to find right now with clicky switches—versions with linear, non-clicky Cherry MX Black switches are still floating around, however.

The real star of the show though, has to be the Rosewill RK-9000. Rosewill just recently introduced four mechanical keyboards based on Cherry MX Blue (clicky / tactile), Black (linear / non-clicky), Red (linear / non-clicky / light touch), and Brown (tactile / non-clicky) keyswtiches. All of the Rosewill boards look exactly the same and differ only in the type of keyswitches used. Rosewill prices the boards from $99 (black, blue) to $129 (reds). And anyone that’s shopped for quality mechanical boards with these keyswitches knows those are fairly good prices, especially for the Cherry MX Red version. I have been typing exclusively on the Rosewill RK-9000 since getting my hands on one and can say that it is a quality product all around. My only gripes with the board are the looks of the logo—which I’m not very fond of—and the fact that the cable end protrudes out of the back on the board, rather being recessed like the Ducky product.

You can find out more information on all of the keyboards seen here at:

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Keyboards Redux: Rosewill, Ducky, Thermaltake, and More