Need A New Keyboard

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glenwilson

glenwilson

NRU Heed
NRU Member
15 Mar 2012
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Falkirk, United Kingdom
My current keyboard has been fine but the F1 key has started to play up. Most of the time the key works and occasionally it will not. Some of the other keys are also showing some signs of wear. Hate to think how many times the WASD keys have been pressed in 2,000+ hours of BF4. Overall I have been happy with it I think it cost about £15. Must have had it for about 3 years now.

Amazon product ASIN B0091ESF4E
I was going to suggest a new keyboard as an idea for a Christmas prezzie but the choice is huge. There seems to be loads of cheap gaming keyboards out there and quite a few more expensive ones too. Apart from playing BF it would also, strangely, be used for typing! Just wondering if anyone has experience with anything that they would think be worth considering. Not fussed about backlights or macros but it wouldn't go against a keyboard.
 
Will have a look. I know that Cherry keys are supposed to be the best but as long as it is not wireless I'd be reasonably happy.
 
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After a lot of looking I went for this one.

Amazon product ASIN B00J2U3D7G
The reviews are generally good and for £16 you get a mouse thrown in too. Interested in the mouse to see what size it is, with large hands I have found few that are large enough to be comfortable. The adjustable ones are an awful lot more expensive than I want to pay.

This mouse looks as though it could be worth the money though even if it is a bit spendy.

The Z
 
Keyboard/mouse arrived but will have to wait until Christmas. Though that should be keyboards/mouses*. Yes received two of them. Only ordered one, I checked. Only been charged for one, also checked. The invoice only shows one. Now have the worry of should I let them and have the hassle or returning it or just ignore it?


* the plural of the rodent mouse is mice. The plural of the computer mouse is mouses!
 
Your probably correct about the keyboard cost and the cost of returning it. Still can't help but feel guilty though - that is just me. Would have preferred it to have been me ordering two by mistake.

I got a Nikon point and shoot camera a while back. It broke, sent it back for repair under guarantee and it was fixed and returned. They then sent me a new one too! Tried emailing and phoning but no response so had two cameras. On holiday, I tripped and shall we say one of them didn't exactly look the same ever again. The next day Isobel thought she had the strap around her wrist (it wasn't) and that one, a few seconds later quite dead. Prices everywhere. At least the prices of my one were all in my pocket. :)

IMG 2285
 
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Actually tried the keyboard and mouse today as Isobel needs a new keyboard for her work PC (all the letters have worn off but they don't think that is enough to warrant replacing it!) so she is going to have my old one.

The keyboard is actually OK. Obviously it is plasticky and quite light. It is a bit higher than my old one which felt a bit strange at first but soon didn't notice it. The cable is braided which I like. You can have illuminated keys in one of three colours at three brightness levels or off. You cannot customise any keys individually.

The key action does feel cheap but seems to work fine and was OK when playing BF4. If I did a lot of typing then I would pay extra and get something that feels nicer but for general stuff and games it is fine.

The mouse is OK too. It works but for me it feels too small and I end up with a clawed hand grip. Given the mouse is "free" I may have a go at adapting it. It too lights up but there is no control over that and even when the PC was off the lights were still on! In game it seemed to be fine though. Only criticism is that the lead is quite short so for a floor mounted PC it could do with being about 50cm longer.

For the money I am pleased with it.
 
Robinlemon said:
Cherry MX <3
Click to expand...

When I was first in IT at British Airways as a mainframe operator we had those infamous IBM keyboards which were solid bits of kit. Metal cases and keys built to last. They were in use 24/7/365 so needed to be strong and reliable and you couldn't just unplug them from the mainframe. Eventually we had remote terminals which were also built to last, no keys falling off or switches failing in those days!

We were running a couple of IBM 3084 systems running system 370. A couple of Amdahl systems and about 8 VM systems. The 3084 was basically two separate systems running as one. If a part needed maintenance you had to split the two whilst the system was running so you had to know and remember all the commands, response messages with no notes or manuals to reference. It took about an hour to do.

For systems maintenance (operating system stuff) you had an hour once a month to do it. As it too so long to do a controlled shut down we used to effectively turn it off, restart it and then shut it down again. It was a frantic hour after that to make sure it was back up and running in time.

These mainframes were used for crew scheduling, engineering stock control, and other systems that were used worldwide. There were also 10 mainframes used for reservations. There were 5 systems each with 2 mainframes running in parallel so there was redundancy.

As an operator you were monitoring performance of the system and allocating threads to programs - a bit like watching your PC performance and allocating a thread to a program to make it go faster. You had monitoring systems so you knew how things were going. All commands and system messages were logged so you could review things if they went wrong. All this was printed too just in case you lost system access.

You would just be operating one system. As the years went by you eventually had one person operating several systems as there was less hands on intervention required and just monitoring to watch for errors or potential problems.
 
glenwilson said:
When I was first in IT at British Airways as a mainframe operator we had those infamous IBM keyboards which were solid bits of kit. Metal cases and keys built to last. They were in use 24/7/365 so needed to be strong and reliable and you couldn't just unplug them from the mainframe. Eventually we had remote terminals which were also built to last, no keys falling off or switches failing in those days!

We were running a couple of IBM 3084 systems running system 370. A couple of Amdahl systems and about 8 VM systems. The 3084 was basically two separate systems running as one. If a part needed maintenance you had to split the two whilst the system was running so you had to know and remember all the commands, response messages with no notes or manuals to reference. It took about an hour to do.

For systems maintenance (operating system stuff) you had an hour once a month to do it. As it too so long to do a controlled shut down we used to effectively turn it off, restart it and then shut it down again. It was a frantic hour after that to make sure it was back up and running in time.

These mainframes were used for crew scheduling, engineering stock control, and other systems that were used worldwide. There were also 10 mainframes used for reservations. There were 5 systems each with 2 mainframes running in parallel so there was redundancy.

As an operator you were monitoring performance of the system and allocating threads to programs - a bit like watching your PC performance and allocating a thread to a program to make it go faster. You had monitoring systems so you knew how things were going. All commands and system messages were logged so you could review things if they went wrong. All this was printed too just in case you lost system access.

You would just be operating one system. As the years went by you eventually had one person operating several systems as there was less hands on intervention required and just monitoring to watch for errors or potential problems.
Click to expand...

Woah.

'When I was first in IT at British airways' - gonna be using this frequently =)
 
Robinlemon said:
Woah.

'When I was first in IT at British airways' - gonna be using this frequently =)
Click to expand...


BA was about 1983 working in Boadicea House at Heathrow (the b/w photos) and the colour photo was from the bridge in the insurance company I worked for. It took a while for flat screens to come in and as you can see some of those monitors were still green on black.

At BA we were still using punch cards(!) and hard disks were about 40cm across and were removable.

DCP00194

BA Ba2 Ba3 Ba4
 
glenwilson said:
Your probably correct about the keyboard cost and the cost of returning it. Still can't help but feel guilty though - that is just me. Would have preferred it to have been me ordering two by mistake.

I got a Nikon point and shoot camera a while back. It broke, sent it back for repair under guarantee and it was fixed and returned. They then sent me a new one too! Tried emailing and phoning but no response so had two cameras. On holiday, I tripped and shall we say one of them didn't exactly look the same ever again. The next day Isobel thought she had the strap around her wrist (it wasn't) and that one, a few seconds later quite dead. Prices everywhere. At least the prices of my one were all in my pocket. :)

View attachment 3540
Click to expand...


Ok, so after 18 months the keyboard started sticking and doing funny stuff and the mouse also started do weird scrolling stuff too. So the spare has now been put in to service. Probably would buy it again given the price.
 
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