I’ve been wanting to try out a mechanical keyboard for a while and I think I finally have the opportunity. The control keys on my old Alienware keyboard stopped working after I spilled some coffee on it, so I need a replacement. Also, I have an Amazon gift card. I see lots of mechanical keyboards on there with good reviews, but I was hoping to find some more guidance here. As far as what I’m looking for, I really just want something nicer to type with, but hopefully not too loud. A number pad and arrow keys would be nice, but maybe the smaller versions have some type of quick way to get that functionality when I need it. Any advice?
I’ve only ever used one keyboard off Amazon, and it was a Durgod TKL board with cherry mx browns which was very nice. Still use it from time to time. They do have some full boards (with num pad) if that’s your thing.
But to be honest the keyboard landscape has changed a lot since I bought that durgod board though and I think it’s now overpriced compared to the competition.
My advice would be if you know what kind of switches you like (linear, tactile clicky etc) find a cheap ish keyboard you like the look of with those switches. As a beginner cherry switches are a good bet, they’re not the best, but they’re far from the worst and a good starting point and a lot of other switches and keycaps are compatible with them. It would be good idea if the keyboard is hot swap enabled so you can swap the switches out to try other types of switches or even convert the whole board in the future if you like without soldering. But most importantly start cheap, don’t buy something expensive when you’ve never tried mechanical keyboards before and don’t know what you do and don’t like.