What were your first mechanical keyboards?

First was a ThermalTake Poseidon Z with Kailh blues. Heavy and LOUD. Couldn’t use it at home due to the fact that after everyone went to bed, even a single keypress on the damn thing would wake everyone up. Took it to work instead. People marvelled at how heavy it was. Then I started typing on it. Before the day was out, one of the guys in my area came up to me and told me that if I didn’t retire the keyboard that very day he would use that “fucking thing” to “beat the living shit” out of me. That was the last time I used it properly. I’ve busted it out for show and tell a couple of times, still have it - but for the most part it’s just gathering dust.

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My first was the venerable Corsair K65. That thing died when a can of coke was emptied into it’s innards. I still have all of the SMD Cherry switches because I promised myself that one day I would desolder them all (I haven’t) and that I would either fix them with lube or chuck some silent stems in (also haven’t).

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Ducky mini with Cherry Greens.

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Max Keyboard Blackbird Tenkeyless (TKL) w/ Cherry MX Blues

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Truly Ergonomic’s TEK 229 with Dvorak layout & brown switches.

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First was probably the beam-spring beauty on the IBM 5100 at my dad’s office. Also spent some time on various IBM 3270 variants.

Then some time on some VT52 clone (don’t remember the manufacturer); not sure what kind of switches they were but they were certainly mech.

Later on we had a 1981 IBM PC with the Model F…

Damn I’m old.

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Oh man, memories! My parents bought one of these in the early 80’s. I learned to program in BASIC on it, learned how to save programs out to tape (audio cassette), played games… It’s what started my interest in computers.

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  1. teleprinter (forget the brand but it shook so much that it had to be bolted down to keep it in place)
  2. Apple II
  3. IBM Model M
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hey, that was one of my firsts too!

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My first mechanical keyboard was an EasternTimes Tech I-500 - a cheap but surprisingly not crap Chinese clone board sold under many names. (Mine was labelled “TOMOKO Water Resistant Mechanical Gaming Keyboard” or somesuch on Amazon, but had the ETT / VicTsing badging on the board itself.)

It’s a TKL with blue clone switches - my example had SwitchMasters and god-awful thin ABS pad printed caps, but I’ve seen subsequent versions that have Outemu “dust-proof” blues and thicker, fairly decent double-shot ABS caps. It has a thick aluminum top shell that also serves as a mounting plate, making it surprisingly solid for a keeb that sells between $26 and $35 depending on the winds. Good lord is it loud - a fair bit more-so than any of my other clicky switch boards.

I got it on some YouTuber’s recommendation after buying a dome board at Wal-Mart that was so bad I didn’t want to put up with it another minute. I thought, hey - might as well see what this mechanical keyboard business is all about, because it has to be better than this thing. Turns out, it was the best keyboard I ever remember using up to that point - and being on the very cheapest end of the spectrum, I knew it had to get better from there - so I was hooked.

Of my whole collection, it’s still probably the most bang-for-buck, because it’s a genuinely decent keeb for less than fifty bucks new. I’d recommend one to anyone on the fence about the hobby, wanting to see what it’s about without immolating their wallet just yet. :upside_down_face:

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I started with Filco Majestouch full-sized keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches and side-printed legends on the keycaps. Currently still in my possession since year 2007 :).
Keycaps mostly have shines across the WASD alphas, but all in all still in a good shape except the plastic keyboard cover that came with the packaging already worn out.

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My first mech was a Das 3 with MX blues that I got back in 2012. Didn’t really get into the hobby until 2015 when I bought a Noppoo Lolita from massdrop and replaced the switches/caps on it. I’ve been easing my way into full customs ever since.

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I think it was probably a rubber dome, but the first keyboard of my very own was the one with my Panasonic W1525 word processor. Many a paper typed on that one. I still have the some floppy disks laying around with some terribly embarrassing fantasy fiction on them

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I picked up a Magicforce when I was just sort of “mech curious” but I returned it pretty quickly because I could tell that I was going to like mechs and wanted to get something better. Then I got a Vortex Race 3, and it’s been downhill since then. :smiley:

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My first was the AEK II. It is still one of my all time favorites.

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The first board that I ever tried was a Rosewill with Cherry Blues which led me to my first purchase; the glorious Corsair K70 with Cherry Blues and red gamer lighting!

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First boards: IBM Model M at University while using a QPAD MK-50 with Cherry MX Blues at home.

Shortly after that I went down the rabbit hole: Das Keyboard, Magicforce, Poker, Anne Pro, Planck, Gherkin, RK61, KBD75, b.fake and probably more that I have forgotten.

My first mechanical keyboard was a WASD V2 with MX Browns that I bought back in the beginning of 2014.

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Ahah same for me, a good start :slight_smile: