Das fur

I game a lot. 90% of the time it's on PC with a mouse and keyboard. So when it comes to keyboards and mice, I'm constantly looking for comfortable and nice feeling equipment. Plus I've noticed my wrists hurting just a bit after gaming sometimes. I take breaks but decided to upgrade my keyboard to a mechanical keyboard. I've read some articles that they can relieve the amount of stress on your hands by not having to push the keys all the way down in order to register a key press. Plus I love that click sound that they are known for. Reminds me of being in grade school and typing on the old Apple IIe's. So I decided to try two different ones out.

After reading this article (Five best mechanical keyboards according to Lifehacker readers) I picked a Das Keyboard to go after. Then I saw how expensive they were. So I waited. And waited. Finally woot! had a deal on a refurbished Das Keyboard 4C Professional for $90. Not bad. Now while I was waiting on this to ship I bought a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate for $118 just to try out. I bought it from Best Buy so I could return it within 14 days. I'll list the pros and cons of each one.

Das Keyboard

Pros:

• Compact. This is nice as it doesn't take up a whole lot of room on my desk. It's kinda weird getting use to not having a numpad on the side but I don't miss it.
• Cheaper. The Razer is $110-130 depending on where you buy it.
• MX Cherry Brown switches. So the whole point of mechanical keyboards (besides the sound) is that you don't have to press the keys all the way down in order to register a key press. There are different switches that have different actuation points and the amount of pressure needed to depress the keys. Here's a really nice article on MX Cherry switches. So I chose browns because they still have a slight click but are not obnoxiously loud. They were also already out of the blues by the time I bought one :( .
• It has a ruler for a stand because why not.

Cons:

• I like the brown switches but they feel slightly stiff on the Das Keyboard. I don't know if it's because it's a refurb or what. Still love typing on it though.
• While they have a slight click, I do wish they were a bit louder. I really like that sound.
• Not backlit. I didn't think I would mind this but I really do.

Razer

Pros:

• Green switches. Razer created their own switches for their Ultimate keyboards. They have green and orange. People say the green are like blues and orange are like browns. This one had greens while Razer's Ultimate Stealth has oranges (Get it? It's quieter so they called it Stealth). I would say this is very accurate. The greens had a very sexy click with each press. I fucking loved it.
• Backlit. The back lighting on this keyboard is so insane. It was adjustable from all the way off to eye melting bright and everywhere in between. Very cool. Each key had it's own light too. Awesome.
• Software. Razer has software for personalized keys launching specific applications to macros. It was pretty robust.

Cons:

• This thing was huge. I have a big mouse pad and this keyboard was intruding on top of it so the angle was just slightly off kilter.
• I feel like the key spacing was a little wide. Maybe it's just me.

So they we have it. If I could, I would return the Das Keyboard and pick up the Razer. Although, I have read some bad things about Razer's quality and their things breaking after a year or two so at least I feel good about the Das not breaking down. Oh well. You live and you learn. Another thing I have noticed about typing on a mechanical is that I make a lot fewer mistakes than I did on a normal one. My typing speed has also increased. I love typing and gaming on it and would highly recommend them to anyone.