First things first, I'm new here, as you can see I'm a Dapper Dan Man (that means I don't want FOP, goddammit!), and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably haven't watched the Coen Brothers' greatest movie yet.
Anyway, I'm a keyboard noob, and I just thought I'd let you guys know about this deal I found on the net - A used Cherry G80-1800 for 3€ + shipping of about 7€. Now before you click the report button please note that I'm not advertising - the deal is not as perfect as I had thought in the beginning. Although it seems fishy being my first post and all, I'm posting simply to let you know about this deal and my initial experience as a complete noob to mechanical keyboards.
This deal should be particularly interesting for all the German users in this board as the dealer is located in Germany.
http://bit.ly/mn3ABK
It's a bit weird because they actually sell cash registers, I'm guessing the G80-1800s were used in grocery stores or similar because it's a rather compact keyboard.
I do advise you not to order with Paypal, though. The link to make the payment through their website isn't working, so I had to call the store and have them mail me their adress to manually make the payment. Very unprofessional.
Also unprofessional is the fact that on the website they claim that these used keyboards have been "cleaned and tested in our workshop". While it does function just fine, it didn't arrive exactly in what you would call clean condition. It didn't look like a dirty piece of shit either, but once I removed the keycaps it became obvious that their cleaning routine wasn't very thorough. The circuit board looked like dust bunny heaven, but a few minutes with a vacuum cleaner and some Q-Tips made it shine again. I put the keys and frame in the dishwasher for about 30 minutes, and, what can I say, it looks almost good as new now. The cord was in really good condition as well, plus it didn't come with the ugly ass spiral cord that is shown on the website but with a standard straight PS2 cord.
The only thing that doesn't shine is the frame. While the keys are a clean greyish white now, the frame has a yellowish tint, slightly nicotine colored.
Also on the frame in the top left corner are the remains of some company logo that some goon half-assedly attempted to remove with sand paper.
Other than the cleaning, though, I am really happy with my purchase.
I was about to turn my back on mechanicals due to the prospect of having to spend 60+ on a real mechanical keyboard.......WHEN SUDDENLY and to my great delight I found that, hidden underneath the keycaps of this cheap used 3€ purchase, were real Cherry MX Black switches, (with the exception of the space bar which features a grey switch) all for a mere ten bucks.
I am still getting used to the layout, as the layout of the 1800 is non-standard, but I am really happy with the results so far.
I typed this thread on my new keyboard and it feels much better already. All the keys have the same force now, awesome!
This keyboard doesn't feature NKRO but I only have five fingers on each hand so yeah... I haven't really run into trouble yet. The area which I use in games ( E, S, D, F, W, A, Z, Space, etc) allows for between 3 and 5 keys pressed simultaneously, so that seems like plenty of commands to do at once.
The keycaps aren't double-shot, but I believe that they are laser-etched as I cannot feel any print and the printing looks good as new.
Now I hope this was useful to some of you, if so I would appreciate if you could help me with some of the questions I have:
1. The frame is whiter now where the company logo was sanded down/scratched off. Do you think it makes sense to give the whole frame a sand paper treatment to make it whiter? Should I try bleach instead?
2. Has anyone in these forums had success with using textile dyes to dye the keyboard and keys? I'm thinking German brands like Simplicol and the like? Or does spray paint do the trick?
3. Is it normal that after each keypress the sound of the spring expanding lingers on? It sounds very metallic, like the reverb of hitting a metal pipe and can be between slightly and very annoying....
4. The only thing I miss about my old keyboard are the media keys. Now I've experimented with assigning the numpad to media keys, but soon found that I still need the numpad occasionally. Is there any way to assign the keys so that when numlock is on, it functions as a numpad, and when off it functions as media keys?
How do YOU cope with a lack of media keys? Any suggestions are welcome
EDIT:
Thanks for clearing that up, I was actually starting to get slightly confused, as the store says G80, but on the label of the keyboard it says "GDDG81-1800" and "G80-1851LPMDE/02"Peter wrote:it's actually a G80-1800, not a G81-xxxx, those have MY-switches,
best described as a 'mechanical-rubber-dome hybrid' ..
