If you really want to learn about mechanical keyboards, geekhack.org
is the place to do it. Cherry switches are cheap, compared to other
switches in the mechanical keyboard world (Topre switches are triple
the price of Cherry switches). I've had an IBM Model M, a Unicomp
Endurapro, a Das Silent, and a Noppoo Mini, before settling on a
Leopold Tenkeyless with Cherry browns.
As for "gaming keyboards", they are really just your typical mushy
membrane keyboards with bells and whistles attached. It's like
customizing a Fiat 500 with multiple lcd monitors, an upgraded the
stereo system, reupholstered seats, lowered springs, big tires, and a
custom paint job; all the bling does not change the fact that it's
still a 100 hp Fiat 500.
Spring-loaded underneath a rubber dome capacitative switch, Topre goes
under its own name, or as a Fujitsu customized Happy Hacking
Keyboard. IBM Model M's used an expired patent coil spring tension
for a pivotal "buckle" collapse in deriving auditory and tactile
feedback;- electrical contact then is at membrane sheet common among
modern dome switch keyboards. Das Silent seems to have improved on
that latter aspect with gold key switches. Quite an array of Cherry
switches -- runs like gamut like a Johnny Walker scotches from red,
black, blue, and gold -- with the Cherry browns striking a middle
ground, more important than typing to gaming, at where feedback occurs
already for a depressed key, upon release. Topre is using a
combination of the rubber dome and underlying spring for precisely
changing an underlying sensor's capacitance;- nothing much to
reinforce the mechanical aspect of your Browns, though a point to that
overall smoothness is one well regarded. Browns, which Nippo also
uses, and, last, Enduropro's bucklers.
Then those N-Key functions, though common enough, in brief appear as
flavors of a musician's better keyboard, at which point the range
narrows into only a few "true" functionality (associated with PS/2
adapters and such).
That filter at Newegg originally started not for tactile, but
mechanical, which was intended for convenience to eliminate any of the
various thicknesses and on emphasized layers of rubber boots, spring
combinations, for perhaps an array of better options consistent with
pricings over $100US.
Hey - did I fail to mention, thanks. . . .hope it was as good for you
as me. Enjoyed the quick overview. Offhand, I'd have to say the
Topre line could, as well, prove most intriguing over four available
provisions;- though they appear somewhat delicate with an added factor
of slivers of contorted metal contacts riding and reinforced by
underlying springs. The confirmed best being Topre, which apart for
precision milling and variable capacitance switching, I couldn't say
wouldn't be something of a curious take on an evolutionary schism
preferable for, hm . . . mushboarding.
