Hi folks. I have decided to get a nice mechanical keyboard, and have
set my eyes in a gold contact G80-3000 from Cherry. Unfortunately, I
live in a very isolated area and something so simple as to go to a
shop and try it myself is not an option. I would have to order that
thing via a reseller and pay in advance.

Now the problem is there are three variations, depending on the kind
of microswitch you want under the keys: soft contact, linear contact
and keyclick. Can anyone tell me the difference? I think one of them
is quiet action ala rubber keys (soft contact). Is the linear contact
clickey but not so loud as the keyclick variant or is it quiet as
well? is it more a kind of chick, chick chick instead of click click
clik when you type on them? Any experiences? How are the actions
compared to the venerable IBM model M (with which I have had some
experience)?

Thank you in advance.

Previously eduardoegr (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:
Very good keyboard! Keeps forever and has very good keys, wheter you
get the variant with hard-click, soft-click or no click. I have two.
Very sturdy. I use one for gaming as well and no noticeable increased
wear on the movement keys (wasd).

The hard-click is probably petty close to the IBM model, but not quite
a match. I use the hard-click at home, becuase it is relatively loud.
In the office (shared with one other guy) I have the soft-click
variant. It is signtificantly more quiet. I think the linear variant
will actually be comparable with the soft-click variant regarding
noise. Personally I find both hard and soft click to work very well
and I have no trouble switching. There is one small issue with the
hard-click variant: The click is not quite exactly matched to the
contact point. Usually no problem, but I noticed this and very rarely
I mistype. The click is also not quite as crisp as the one the IBM
keyboard had.

Advice: Go for the soft-click one. It is probably the most versatile
variant. Personally I don't like keyboards without any type of click.
All variants are superiour in quality and are worth paying a lot more
for than other keyboards.

Arno

On 23 abr, 23:55, Arno Wagner <m... (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote:

......

Thank you Arno. What do you mean by hard click, soft click and no
click? Do you mean hard click = "keyclick", soft click = "linear
action" and no click = "soft action"?.

5 years ago I tried a Cherry for a couple of seconds and I was very
impressed with its tact. If I remember well, the key action sound was
kind of "shick shick" rather than the "click click" of an IBM model M.
More like metal surfaces rapidly sliding on each other than hitting
each other (sorry about this vague explanation). Key action was light
and the actuation point was not that distinguishable in the key travel
(more a little bump along the way than a resistance). Could you tell
me, by this crappy description I just made, what kind of key action
was this keyboard?

Previously eduardoegr (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:
Ah, no. Hard-click = Keyclick, softclick = soft action and
no click = linear. Sorry, translated that from the german datasheet.
The datasheet from their website used to have travel vs. force diagrams
for all three characteristics. Now you have to look into the
datasheet of the switches used. The english one can be found here:

http://www.cherry.de/english/switche...dule-mx-en.pdf

The first disgramm is linear, the second the soft click or
soft action, the third one is not used in their keyboards and the
fourth one is for the keyclick (hard click).

I would suppose this was the median solution, i.e. the soft click or
soft action. I never tried the linear one myself. The hard click
one has a real click generated by a small metal pice and the
click-point is can be felt clearly, if not as clearly as the IBM
one.

Arno