The Keyboard Speed Thread

Rage9

Rage9

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Jan 7, 2008
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OK so here's the deal. Last week or so dchuk posted a thread about getting a mechanical keyboard:

http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/158041-just-got-my-first-true-mechanical-keyboard.html

I promptly told him your keyboard will probably not have much, if any, effect on how well you type. I think I even called the myth that you'll type that much better "the diet pill of keyboards".

Anyways, today I received my own mechanical keyboard to put to the test.

Newegg.com - Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger SGK-6000-GKCM1-US Black USB Gaming Cherry MX Brown Keyboard (no aff)

I can say this about mechanical keyboards (at least ones with Cherry MX Brown switches) they are wonderful to type on. Unlike my old Microsoft Ergo 4000 the keys don't feel mushy, and you don't have to mash the keys. Very cool. But after a few hours of programming work I felt comfortable enough with it to put it through some speed typing tests.

These results are just the first round of tests and frankly it would be helpful if others posted their results as well, think about it as Myth Busting!

I have 3 keyboards in this shootout, and each are very different from one another:

  1. An older but lightly used Dell L20U [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Sleek-Multi-Media-Keyboard-L20U/dp/B00345T79S"]Dell L20U[/ame]. It's slim and the keys and key travel are pretty low. I find it sort of small and uncomfortable. I would never type with this keyboard unless I had to. Standard layout keyboard. ~$15 on Amazon.
  2. The CM Storm Trigger Mechanical Keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. Standard layout keyboard. ~$120 on Newegg.
  3. My Microsoft Ergo 4000 [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Natural-Ergonomic-Keyboard-4000/dp/B000A6PPOK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1338599408&sr=1-1"]Microsoft Ergo 4000[/ame], ol trusty. Split hand ergo keyboard. Since I use this one the most it would be the control. ~$36 on Amazon
The test, flat out 3 minute throw down at TypingTest.com - Free Typing Test & Typing Games Online (not my site). This round consisted of the first 3:

  1. Aesop's fables (the easiest)
  2. Rules of Baseball (slightly harder)
  3. Space cowboys (the hardest of the 3)
Each keyboard does each one, and then redo the lowest of the 3 once to see if you could improve on it.


My results:

5b8j88.png



As you can see from my results there is not that much of a difference between the three keyboards, no more than a couple % between each keyboard in any stat. And I believe that the numbers fall within the realm of statistical error.

I was sort of shocked I was fastest on the Dell, I really went gang buster on the first one I did.

Anyways these are early results and I'm hoping some of you guys with multiple keyboards laying around will be willing to take a half hour and run through similar tests and post your results.
 
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Hmm, interesting. I prefer a mechanical keyboard because they feel nicer to type on, though I certainly feel like I can type faster on them as well.

I don't have a non-mechanical keyboard at the moment so I can't compare speeds, but for what it's worth I can type 120+ WPM on a mechanical one.
 
I have the Trigger too. About the same (embarrassing) typing speed as well :thumbsup:
 
Staccs said:
I have the Trigger too. About the same (embarrassing) typing speed as well :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I don't find it embarrassing at all, I mean 60 wpm is still not slow by any means. And you guys that can hit 100+, well hot damn!

But this is really about if a keyboard can really make you that much faster or accurate. It would be nice to see some the results of those guys hitting really high speed.
 
It's more the ghost keys on a regular keyboard. When you're focused on typing, they don't tend to happen. When you're relaxed and grinding away, regular keyboards seem to entirely stop recognizing input every 30th key or so.
 
my best ever was like 157 wpm, im curious to see if i could type faster consistently on a mechanical keyboard but im not going to buy one

all that everquest in middle school really paid off!
 
cardine if you did that on 3 minutes thats pretty impressive, i can usually do that on one minute in the typing instructions
 
Qwerty is inferior, but I don't see many people changing who all ready have used qwerty their whole lives.
 
I'm gonna call bullshit on that 133wpm.

You can change the fucking values direct in the URL.

testdone.jsp?acc=97&nwpm=67&gwpm=68&ncpm=335&gcpm=344&dur=180&time=180&chksum=32508&unit=wpm&kh=50&td=&err=5&hits=1038
 
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