Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Cherry MX Blue $40.19 + s/h @ monoprice

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iOne has a generally poor reputation when it comes to mechanical keyboards, and the Scorpius M10 is one of those keyboards that gave its reputation.

It doesn't matter if the branding says iOne or Monoprice. At the end of the day, both of these keyboards were made by the same OEM (iONE), and are substantially the same product. You can speculate that the quality has changed within this product line over the years, but to argue that the products are different due to a price discrimination phenomenon isn't really relevant.

Personally, I think that people looking for a basic mechanical keyboard should keep an eye out for a Rosewill. They are Filco-made, and their only real problem (loose USB connector) has since been corrected. They have been as low as $55 shipped recently, which is quite comparable to the Monoprice, and go on sale in the ~$60 range nearly every single week.

EDIT: To provide more color, the Scorpius M10 was discontinued, likely due to horrendous reliability issues. Monoprice likely commissioned excess stock or excess manufacturing bandwidth to be branded under the Monoprice name. User experiences show that this is almost certainly the case, as part numbers from the Monoprice model correspond to the M10, and build/revision dates from recently purchased Monoprice units are from 2010.

EDIT 2: http://imgur.com/a/bL3qR The solder quality is horrendous, which coincidentally was the primary problem with the M10. Photos 4 and 5 look like a blind man did it by hand.

The USB connector issue was corrected on the 9000 series? I hadn't seen that. It was the reason I didn't grab one of the $60 deals. Almost bit on the $89 9100 w/ browns on BF.

But again, this one is $40, not $60 or more. Sure you can pay for higher quality but I'm not looking to flex my keyboard or use it to kill rats. Just type.

The "terrible" Razer BW Ultimate Mac I picked up for $60 years ago still works great and hasn't fallen apart either. Maybe it will in the next decade or so.

Don't get me wrong, I am not stating that this is the highest quality mechanical, it's not. I don't have any illusions regarding iOne's quality. They don't make a $100 keyboard (the new Das w/ media controls?) nor do I plan on taking it apart and making sure the solder joints are all high quality, but is it a $40~50 keyboard? I think so. It'll do great as a replacement for the Logitech made Dell keyboard I use at work.

Cool about the Rosewill. They had some good deals directly on Amazon. I avoided the 9000 w/ reds on NE for $50 because of that issue since I didn't know it was fixed.

Yes, that is a great job, isn't it The reality is that the keyboard will more likely to be returned because people won't like the noise or feel of it more than because of the quality of the solder job. I love mechanical keyboards but most people are used to the rubber done these days and the difference is something they need to get used to. The noise of the Blues is probably a bigger issue than the feel at that. I actually prefer the old Alps switches and would love to see a deal on the new Matias Quiet Pro for PC. until then I may just pick up some o-rings for the Razer.

MX Blues can get really loud imho, so if you don't want a noisy keyboard the Blues are a no-go.

That and to get N-Key rollover just use a USB to PS/2 adapter.

I doubt anyone needs to hit more than 6 keys at once though..

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Foxconn is a huge oem and has a tremendous range on its quality.
My understanding was that Rosewill used the same OEM as filco.

They are not so bad with o-ring.
The keyboard has to support the ps/2 connection, it is not automatic that a usb to ps/2 would work.

o-o I've never had any issue with any keyboard using a usb to ps/2 adapter.. maybe I'm just lucky.

Slight correction to my above post, Rosewills are Costar-made, same as Filco. Regardless, take a look at the album linked above. The soldering quality for the Monoprice model is absolutely tragic, and soldering quality has been widely attributed as the primary source of failure for M10s. No change here.

I wish Monoprice carried mechanical keyboards compatible with Mac.