deskthority

Congrats, also cool charging station. I miss the old times when in germany not all flea markets are crap.

Haven't found a suitable PSU for the charging station but the router is already running LEDE as my new AP and the KVM switch is functional and should come in handy at work.

I kinda wanna try that razer smartband thingie but that would mean installing razer software on my phone ...

Does it still count if I didn't buy it, but instead found it?

ClickyKlacky wrote: Does it still count if I didn't buy it, but instead found it?

Even if you stole it, shivved someone in the back for it or black mailed anyone for it, it still counts here on DT Central .

It doesn't matter how you acquired it, just as long as you use it and enjoy your NEW found keyboard.

Oh, I enjoy it. I love the smoothness of these switches. Though, I still need to get the converter box... I just hope it actually works....I mean, how often do keyboards actually...break? I know something is "junk" when the connector is no longer supported, but, do you think this terminal keyboard still works?

Allright, here it comes, my keyboard introduction.

Been using mech keyboards for ages but most were gaming keyboards from the well known gaming brands. Before those existed I had Cherrys and a Model M but that is 20 to 30 years ago. Never liked anything else than mechanical switches and always used ANSI though I live in an ISO country with a ridiculous AZERTY layout.

So about three months ago I started to get into the real stuff. Now I'm selling most of my gaming boards (though I still keep some and keep following those as well) and already sold 3 of my new keyboards due to being 60% without arrow keys. Can't get used to it.

But I managed to get quite a nice collection in the past few months, here's a list and some explanation. Tips and advice are welcome of course. No pics yet, will do that a bit further down the line. I warn you about my photography skills (or absolute lack of them) though.

What I have already:
- Topre Realforce RGB: the damn thing that started it all. I love the smoothness and light tactility of the Topres. Selling this one as soon as the TKL version comes out though.
- Input Club K-Type (Halo Clear): I really wanted a top quality MX TKL and I love the Halo Clears although I think I might like Trues better. Will try them out as soon as I can find them.
- Leopold FC660CW: what can I say ... Topre, classic looks and a small layout with cursors and delete. Who could want more?
- Vortex 3ACE (MX black): I think Vortex is of a nice quality, love the looks and layout with function keys. To be upgraded with my favorite switches when I have tested all I need to test.
- Logitech G Pro (Romer G): the best type of backlighting through key I ever saw, no bleeding, good for gaming.
- Logitech K830: well ... I need to be able to control some media players, consoles or occasionally my computer from the couch and this is wireless, illuminated and has a trackpad so it fullfills the task.
- Ducky Pocket RGB (MX red): really nice numpad, might upgrade the switches.

What I have on order:
- Corsair K63 Wireless SE (MX red) PBT: wireless from the couch but not for gaming, I have wired to the couch as well.
- Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (MX clear): a real specialty, love those modules, might upgrade the switches.
- Model F Labs F77 HHKB (Capacitive Buckling Spring): good old times! Love me a tank!
- Input Club WhiteFox True Fox (Hako True): another top quality board, small with arrows and delete, probably favorite switches.
- Varmilo VA68M Custom Edition (MX silent black): I think that Varmilo is top quality as well, above Vortex? Switches to be upgraded, maybe keycaps with some 7bit stuff.
- KBDfans GK64 (Zealio deeper violet 78g): bought for customizing with switches (maybe) and caps from 7bit.
- OLKB Planck (Zealio deeper violet 78g): looks really nice and small and has cursors. Might upgrade switches and comes with the standard Planck keycap set from Massdrop. Reminds me of HP calculators.

Regarding MX switches: I love both linear and smooth tactile, prefer heavy to soft.
Favorite clickys are Kaihl Box White, for linears Cherry MX Black and for tactiles it's Zealio 78g.
Overall favorites is between Zealio 78g and Halo Clear for the moment but I will need to compare them to Hako True. Nothing beats Topre in my book so far though.
I have a 64 switch tester board here and I'm filling it with any switch I can find. For the moment everything noteworthy from Cherry, Gateron, Kaihl Box, Zealio and Outemu is in it, 37 switches in total. just waiting for Hako Clear and True and I'll find out ...

Got around to making a thread for what I am getting from Japan. See it here: keyboards-f2/blaise-s-japan-haul-2018-e ... 18309.html

I just scored one of the funkiest keyboards that I've seen in a long while. Some kind of Alps I am thinking.

Ortek MAK-105TB Trackball

JP! wrote: I just scored one of the funkiest keyboards that I've seen in a long while. Some kind of Alps I am thinking.

Ortek MAK-105TB Trackball

ortek1.jpg

ortek2.jpg

ortek3.jpg

Wow that is an interesting keyboard. I haven't seen many other keyboards with the apple style key caps. I wonder what kind of switches will be in there. My best guess would be blue montereys or white alps.

Brett MacK wrote:
Wow that is an interesting keyboard. I haven't seen many other keyboards with the apple style key caps. I wonder what kind of switches will be in there. My best guess would be blue montereys or white alps.

I'm guessing SKBM simplified white Alps as that is what my Ortek 142 has but I'll post an update once it arrives.

Got me a bunch of Hakos and they just shipped.
Really looking forward to try the Trues!

JP! wrote: I just scored one of the funkiest keyboards that I've seen in a long while. Some kind of Alps I am thinking.

Ortek MAK-105TB Trackball

ortek1.jpg

ortek2.jpg

ortek3.jpg

Will be white Alps with a Futaba lock switch on the FN key. I got a used one that I took apart to harvest the switches from a while back shame that it is using ADB protocol though I guess there are converters for that

Anakey wrote: Will be white Alps with a Futaba lock switch on the FN key. I got a used one that I took apart to harvest the switches from a while back shame that it is using ADB protocol though I guess there are converters for that

ADB is common enough that there are a multitude of converters out there for it. Belkin made one awhile ago and there are ATMEGA based converters floating around as well like Hasu's.

I just found a BNIB Topre Realforce 87U 10 Anniversary Edition 55g.
Pretty hard to find these days, no?

My ISO-DE Focus FK-555 which I got for cheap on kleinanzeigen arrived yesterday

Two used netapp ds4243
48 2TB disks
a used google search appliance
128GB of ram
Who knew a google search applliance could be so usefull, (in reality its a dell R710).

the only frustrating thing is netapp used QSFP+ on the ds4243 in place of mini sas so you have to use there own HBA or get super expensive QSFP+ to mini sas cables, netapp are cool tho, the only company who say , sorry we dont do windows drivers only linux and freebsd

The frustrating thing is that freenas does not work with the hotwap feature of this disk tray, it could be the funky HBA but i am not sure , i have a nromal LSI HBA and orderd some of the expensive cables to test if its the HBA.

andrewjoy wrote: Two used netapp ds4243
48 2TB disks
a used google search appliance
128GB of ram

IMG_20180219_124641.jpg

Who knew a google search applliance could be so usefull, (in reality its a dell R710).

the only frustrating thing is netapp used QSFP+ on the ds4243 in place of mini sas so you have to use there own HBA or get super expensive QSFP+ to mini sas cables, netapp are cool tho, the only company who say , sorry we dont do windows drivers only linux and freebsd

The frustrating thing is that freenas does not work with the hotwap feature of this disk tray, it could be the funky HBA but i am not sure , i have a nromal LSI HBA and orderd some of the expensive cables to test if its the HBA.

I know nothing about servers but that looks pretty damn cool

Just know that them disk shelvs are bloody heavy (110lb each)

I think its also time to return the SSK to its home , a 1U rack shelf

Nice! Fill that one up with 12TB drives ...

I managed to find me a BNIB Sennheiser HD580 Precision in Canada for those who are into headphones.
Hasn't been made for ages, just got it half an hour ago. Nearly completes my Sennheiser collection.

Nice set of cans , i got a set of DT 990 pros for my birthday and they are FANTASTIC!

I could put 12 TB drives in them but i would rarther spend the money on more disks not larger disks as i need perfromace

I would also have to take off all the SATA to SAS interposers and re mount the sata drives further up the trays. I may well do that at some point but i think 12TB is out of our price range, 4 TB ironwolf pros sounds good

Current layout is 6 x 8 drive RAIDZ2s striped into one pool for perfroamance. So i could upgrade a pool at a time ( one drive at a time ofc) and get more space.

I could then move to multiple 3 drive mirrors but that would slow write speed to a crawl..... ahhh the ZFS rabit hole could give the alps rabit hole a run for its money.

Ether way this should come close to saturating 10 gig ethernet. I would get a new controller first as the dell R710 only has PCIe gen 2 and i want to get a 900p to speed up the L2ARC and SLOG over SATA drives ( nice enterprise grade ones but still sata )

the end goal of this is for our editors to be able to work off the pool as if it was a local NVMe SSD and then have enough space left over for the rest of our storage needs.

I was joking about the 12TB drives by the way, that would indeed cost as small fortune ...
Very nice find though, must be a real impressive device!

andrewjoy wrote: Nice set of cans , i got a set of DT 990 pros for my birthday and they are FANTASTIC!

The two headphones I primarily use are the Phillips Fidelio X2's(laid back listening) and the Monolith M560's(accurate planar magnetic). I can't do planar magnetic 100% of the time, gives me ear fatigue from the extra detailed high end. In spite of having headphones far more expensive, the Fidelio X2's are on my head 90% of the time. Extremely comfortable and a wonderful signature, but in no way accurate, or kind to the high end.

I have a ton of other headphones, but those are my favorites.

I know the Fidelios. quite good, nice price. I'm not a fan of planars though, tried a bunch but they just aren't my thing.

I had a bunch of headphones, quite a few considered "high-end" although I noticed that title was often more price than SQ related. Way too much hype for these things.
I sold them all and kept only my Sennheisers. Most I have I bought between 100 and 450 new. All the most interesting ones from the new 5 series, old 5 series, the whole 6 series and the 700 which I found for 450 new.
The only expensive one I still have is the HD800S.
I must say I never enjoyed headphones so much until I made that turnaround.
I do have an AKG K7XX though, low priced but oh so right and unforgiving.

Luna wrote: I know the Fidelios. quite good, nice price. I'm not a fan of planars though, tried a bunch but they just aren't my thing.

I had a bunch of headphones, quite a few considered "high-end" although I noticed that title was often more price than SQ related. Way too much hype for these things.
I sold them all and kept only my Sennheisers. Most I have I bought between 100 and 450 new. All the most interesting ones from the new 5 series, old 5 series, the whole 6 series and the 700 which I found for 450 new.
The only expensive one I still have is the HD800S.
I must say I never enjoyed headphones so much until I made that turnaround.
I do have an AKG K7XX though, low priced but oh so right and unforgiving.

I like planar magnetic in small doses. After a while they actually start becoming painful. However, dynamic drivers can do this as well if they have extended frequency response, but I have never had that same level of ear fatigue before. I do hear the HD-800 isn't as fatiguing as some other sennheiser headphones, maybe i will give them a shot one day, but pretty happy where I am at. Headphones are more of a money pit than keyboards are xD

rich1051414 wrote: Headphones are more of a money pit than keyboards are xD

Hear, hear!
These things can be so damn overpriced these days it's getting silly and they hardly bring something more to the table than a HD600/650 does. The 800 isn't necessarily better as well though. Different, yes, very good but so are quite a few other modestly priced phones. But nowadays some brands are breaking the 4k barrier ...

I made a big order from KBDfans:
New springs 62g (I hope they are a tad heavier than my gateron reds)
Gateron yellows to finish one of my keyboards
Edrug mix keycaps (I will make a little review when I have them)
Topre to mx sliders
Jade boxswitches

On the subject of headphones: Sennheiser HD 598s at home, and a pair of KOSS Porta Pros for my daily commute. Solid quality without breaking the bank. I’m all about value for money unless it’s keyboards, then I’m all about telling people to SU&TMM!

And since it’s the “Stuff You Just Bought” thread: Logitech MX Anywhere 2S and a Realforce 87u 55g, both in light gray, for the office. Best perk ever

Sennheiser CX300II reporting in. One of the best 29eur I've ever spent

Got this awesome Palm Vx for $6 at the flea market ! Only problem is that it's german.

Nice!
That remembers me of my time with the HP Jornada.