The World of Mechanical Keyboards: A Comprehensive Guide
Mechanical keyboards have become increasingly popular among gamers and typists alike, thanks to their unique switch types and customizable features. In this article, we'll delve into the world of mechanical keyboards and explore the different types of switches that make up the Cherry MX line.
Cherry MX Green Switch
The Cherry MX green switch is a relatively rare find, exclusive to Cooler Master's keyboard lineup. This switch has an 80g activation weight, which is significantly higher than the blue switch with its 50g actuation weight. As a result, it requires more force to activate, resulting in a distinct sound and feel. When pressed, the green switch produces a deeper sound compared to the blue switch, making it easy to distinguish between the two.
The sound difference between the Cherry MX green and blue switches is noticeable, even on audio playback. The green switch has a lower pitched sound, while the blue switch sounds higher-pitched. This subtle distinction may be hard to pick up on audio alone, but experienced typists will undoubtedly recognize the difference.
Cherry MX Clear Switch
The Cherry MX clear switch is essentially identical to the brown switch, with one key difference: it has a 55g actuation weight instead of the brown's 45g. This means that the clear switch requires more force to activate than its brown counterpart. Both switches feature a tactile bump, but unlike the blue and green switches, they do not produce an audible click.
When pressed, the clear switch produces a distinct hump due to its heavier actuation weight. The sound produced is similar to the brown switch, but with a slightly more pronounced bump. This tactile feedback makes it easier for typists to type quickly and accurately.
Cherry MX Black Switch
The Cherry MX black switch is another variation of the red switch, featuring an identical 45g actuation weight. Unlike the clear switch, however, the black switch has no audible hump or sound. Instead, it produces a smooth, linear motion with minimal resistance. This makes it ideal for gamers who prefer a fast and responsive typing experience.
The Cherry MX black switch is often used in high-end gaming keyboards due to its exceptional responsiveness and linearity. Its lack of tactile feedback and audible click also appeals to typists who prioritize speed and efficiency over tactile feedback.
A Keypad for Every Occasion
In addition to the various switches, Cooler Master has created a small keypad with an adjustable switch. This keypad features Cherry MX Green, Blue, Brown, Clear, and Black switches, allowing users to test and compare each switch type in one convenient package.
The best part? If you purchase this keypad along with a Cooler Master keyboard, you'll receive a $15 credit towards your purchase. This makes the entire keypad experience essentially free, as you can use the credit to upgrade or customize your keyboard of choice.
In conclusion, mechanical keyboards offer a world of customization and typing options for enthusiasts and professionals alike. By understanding the different types of switches that make up the Cherry MX line, users can make informed decisions about their next keyboard purchase. Whether it's the tactile bump of the blue switch, the smooth linearity of the black switch, or the distinct sound of the green switch, each type has its unique characteristics and benefits.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys you're watching J2 cense and today we're going to talk about something that you tend to handle and fondle and maybe get a little bit intimate with and sometimes gets downright dirty at your computer no we're talking about mechanical key switches get your mind out of the gutter you pervert so today's video has been brought to you by CM Storm which is cooler Master's gaming line of PC peripherals it's really cool stuff so you definitely want to give those guys a big thanks for supplying me the equipment and the touchpad that I'm about to show you to be able to educate you on exactly what all the different switches mean now when it comes to gaming keyboards there nothing as nice as finding that keyboard that perfectly matches you that one that feels just right it's got the right weight it's got the right sound and a lot of people seem to think that mechanical switches is something new when it comes to PC gaming and peripherals but I'm here to tell you that it's not gaming keyboards are not new when it comes to Mechanical switches in fact the mechanical switches have been around for decades when it comes to computer parts and computer components they've been around since the 80s and over time manufacturers found cheaper ways to cut costs and cut parts and really get cheap when it comes to keyboard generation and G uh keyboard manufacturing because for the most part people just use keyboards to input data but now as we've evolved into Gamers we've decided to bring back the mechanical switches to our keyboards and over the last couple years it's been getting very confusing on making keyboard purchases because there's so many options out there people get confused and they get a little bit overwhelmed because they don't know what all these different switches mean now what I've got in my hand right here is a little keypad with six different colors of Cherry MX switches now before we get into the different tactile feedback and the actuation points and all the other lingo and jargon that we can talk about when it comes to Cherry MX switches is let's go ahead and talk about what the differences are between a mechanical switch and a membrane switch now membrane keyboards are very basic you've got your key cap and you've got a spring under there which makes it go up and down and when you push down on the key it pushes on a rubber Dome that will flatten out and it will make a connection or a bridge between a little circuit underneath that key that tells a piece of electronic to say hey the user is just pushed key y or KEYT or a or whatever it may be now mechanical switches on the other hand you have your key cap that moves up and down on a spring but you actually have a mechanical mechanism in there that moves back and forth to make a connection with that circuitry so instead of having the rubber Dome and all the feedback of the rubber and just dealing with the circuit board you have a mechanical switch actually clicking back and forth in there making that connection now one of the things that really sets mechanical switches apart from membrane switches is the activation point the activation point on a membrane switch is when the key is fully depressed because you're pushing that key down and you're flattening out that Dome and making the connection on the circuit board inside of the keyboard when it comes to Mechanical switches the connection is made inside the switch so not only do you most cases not have to push the key all the way down many cases the key doesn't even have to come all the way back up before you can make another key press and have it register inside your computer so what happens with new mechanical keyboard owners someone who's never owned or typed on a mechanical keyboard is they tend to push down on the key way too hard because they're used to having to push the key all the way down to flatten out that rubber Dome inside of a membrane keypad now with mechanical switches that's not the case you can actually push the key about halfway down and let it come about halfway up the actuation point is about in the middle of the whole total movement of the key so you don't have to sit there and push the key all the way down you can just kind of feather it and push it you know right around a sweet spot but where that sweet spot is on every single switch is a bit different so we've talked about membranes let's go ahead and talk about the mechanical keypad and what it is you need to know with a different color now there's a couple of things that you're going to want to familiarize yourself with really good really deep and intimate I mean we're talking really intimate when it comes to your mechanical keyboard you know what I'm saying the first thing you want to get to know is the weight of the switch or the actuation weight of the switch and that's always measured in grams but there's also the description of the actuation of the switch you've got smooth you've got audible click tactile bump and they all really describe the way the switch feels as well as the switch sounds now I'm going to do my best in this video to really describe to you what it is you get here with these different switches even though you can't feel it some of them you can hear some of them you cannot now I'm going to go through each one of these keys right now and I'm going to give you the description of these particular switches by color as are described in cm university. net which is cooler Master's awesome website giving you all sorts of information about different types of peripherals and arming you with knowledge just like I'm doing today so make sure you go and check out that website now the most common switch you'll find in mechanical keyboards is the Cherry MX Blue this is the same switch that you find in almost all razor keyboards you can find them in Corsair you can find them in uh CM Storm you can find them in U steel series they're very very common now the Cherry MX Blue has a 50 g switch and as you could hear it is described as an audible click with a tactile bump now what that means is you have the click and you have at the point of that click a bump so you physically feel the but but go over a hump of some sort it overcomes a little resistance and that's when you get the click so that's a Cherry MX Blue now the next switch on here is the Cherry MX Brown this is becoming a much more popular switch lately because it gives you the same tactile bump as the Cherry MX Blue but it does it without the audible click I'll go ahead and demonstrate that now the next key on the top here is the Cherry MX red and this is probably quickly becoming one of of the fastest growing switches and most widely used switches between mechanical keyboards because they offer you a nice feel but there's no tactile hump or bump and there's no audible click it's just one smooth motion back and forth now the way the Cherry MX red is described is 45 G actuation weight with a smooth linear motion I'll go ahead and demonstrate that now as you can see there is no hump and no noise now a lot of people tend to confuse the Cherry MX red as being a loud switch because they come from a membrane keyboard and as I mentioned earlier in this video membrane keyboards require typically a harder push and a full compression of the key which sounds like this so people will mistake that sound as being the switch but if you actually let the switch be the only motion this is what it sounds like which you're hearing is the switch bottoming out that's what most people tend to do with mechanical keyboard boards until they get used to them and start typing a little bit lighter now the Cherry MX green is pretty much exclusive to The Cooler Master line of keyboards but we'll go ahead and demonstrate that for you now it is basically the exact same switch as the blue only it has an 80 g activation weight versus a 50 g actuation weight so it is quite a bit heavier of a switch so you have to push it a little bit harder and because of that you get a little bit different sound on the click this is Cherry MX green this is blue green blue I'm going go back and forth I want you to listen the green has a little bit deeper sound than the blue the blue is a little bit higher the green is a little bit lower might be hard to pick up on the mic but take my word for it's a little bit different sound and it is definitely a lot harder to press now the next key that we have here is the Cherry MX clear now the Cherry MX clear essentially is the same switch as the brown only it has a 55 G actuation weight versus a 45 G actuation weight of the brown so it's the same switch it just takes a little bit more Force to activate and just like the brown it has the tactile bump and it has no audible click as you can see right here you can hear the fact that it has that bump but it doesn't click like the blue or the green blue and green brown or clear and here's Brown so it's got a hump and you can actually hear the hump but it doesn't click like blue and green now the last key we have on here is the Cherry MX black and it's essentially the exact same switch as the red only it has a 60 G actuation weight versus a 45 G of the red and just like the red it's advertised as smooth linear no click no tactile hump check it out perfectly smooth no hump like the clear has a hump and the green has a click now this is a really cool tool that gives you a really good idea of what it is that mechanical keys are actually doing now of course I can only bring you so much experience to the power of a video here on YouTube but hopefully this video is shed some light on what Mechanicals key switches are how they work and how they're classified now the most common switches as I mentioned that you're going to find are going to be blue brown and red and on the bottom you've got the green which is going to be exclusive to Cooler Master clear and black more companies are starting to use black now because I think they just like the way it sounds maybe I'm not sure oh and last but not least if you want to own one of these you can go to cooler Master's website and you can buy this for $15 but here's the cool part about this you're going 15 bucks why do I want this little keypad for 15 bucks what am I going to do with it you're going to take it you're going to play with it the keypad guys the keypad Family Show family show stop giggling okay you're going to take this and you're going to determine which key it is you like you're then going to go over to Cooler Master if you buy a Cooler Master keyboard they're going to give you a $115 credit if you show them proof of purchase of this keypad so in the end you get the keyboard for the same price and you get to keep the little keypad and show all your friends and you get be get to be the cool guy that has the keypad that really doesn't do anything but I think it's totally worth it because the only way you can make an informed decision honestly is to try them all out guys I really hope this video has helped you understand mechanical keyboards because it can be definitely very hard to make that decision when it comes to Mechanical keyboards there's just six Keys is a lot because you you have to feel them all out and I wanted to bring you this video to give you the information and the education that you need to arm yourself with being a smart buyer especially with Christmas coming around and we've got so much stuff we're getting ready to review on the channel we've got The Cooler Master stealth mechanical keyboard we've got the ultimate the quickfire ultimate mechanical keyboard This is a brown switch this is a red switch I've also got the k70 video that I've already done and hopefully we'll be doing more keyboards in the future making you guys a smart holiday buyer this season so if you guys have enjoyed this video and you think this video will help anybody you know what to do with it you can hit that share button and if you stumbled across my channel check out some of my other videos and I certainly hope you stick around I'll see you guys next time and that's as always I'll see you in my next videowhat's up guys you're watching J2 cense and today we're going to talk about something that you tend to handle and fondle and maybe get a little bit intimate with and sometimes gets downright dirty at your computer no we're talking about mechanical key switches get your mind out of the gutter you pervert so today's video has been brought to you by CM Storm which is cooler Master's gaming line of PC peripherals it's really cool stuff so you definitely want to give those guys a big thanks for supplying me the equipment and the touchpad that I'm about to show you to be able to educate you on exactly what all the different switches mean now when it comes to gaming keyboards there nothing as nice as finding that keyboard that perfectly matches you that one that feels just right it's got the right weight it's got the right sound and a lot of people seem to think that mechanical switches is something new when it comes to PC gaming and peripherals but I'm here to tell you that it's not gaming keyboards are not new when it comes to Mechanical switches in fact the mechanical switches have been around for decades when it comes to computer parts and computer components they've been around since the 80s and over time manufacturers found cheaper ways to cut costs and cut parts and really get cheap when it comes to keyboard generation and G uh keyboard manufacturing because for the most part people just use keyboards to input data but now as we've evolved into Gamers we've decided to bring back the mechanical switches to our keyboards and over the last couple years it's been getting very confusing on making keyboard purchases because there's so many options out there people get confused and they get a little bit overwhelmed because they don't know what all these different switches mean now what I've got in my hand right here is a little keypad with six different colors of Cherry MX switches now before we get into the different tactile feedback and the actuation points and all the other lingo and jargon that we can talk about when it comes to Cherry MX switches is let's go ahead and talk about what the differences are between a mechanical switch and a membrane switch now membrane keyboards are very basic you've got your key cap and you've got a spring under there which makes it go up and down and when you push down on the key it pushes on a rubber Dome that will flatten out and it will make a connection or a bridge between a little circuit underneath that key that tells a piece of electronic to say hey the user is just pushed key y or KEYT or a or whatever it may be now mechanical switches on the other hand you have your key cap that moves up and down on a spring but you actually have a mechanical mechanism in there that moves back and forth to make a connection with that circuitry so instead of having the rubber Dome and all the feedback of the rubber and just dealing with the circuit board you have a mechanical switch actually clicking back and forth in there making that connection now one of the things that really sets mechanical switches apart from membrane switches is the activation point the activation point on a membrane switch is when the key is fully depressed because you're pushing that key down and you're flattening out that Dome and making the connection on the circuit board inside of the keyboard when it comes to Mechanical switches the connection is made inside the switch so not only do you most cases not have to push the key all the way down many cases the key doesn't even have to come all the way back up before you can make another key press and have it register inside your computer so what happens with new mechanical keyboard owners someone who's never owned or typed on a mechanical keyboard is they tend to push down on the key way too hard because they're used to having to push the key all the way down to flatten out that rubber Dome inside of a membrane keypad now with mechanical switches that's not the case you can actually push the key about halfway down and let it come about halfway up the actuation point is about in the middle of the whole total movement of the key so you don't have to sit there and push the key all the way down you can just kind of feather it and push it you know right around a sweet spot but where that sweet spot is on every single switch is a bit different so we've talked about membranes let's go ahead and talk about the mechanical keypad and what it is you need to know with a different color now there's a couple of things that you're going to want to familiarize yourself with really good really deep and intimate I mean we're talking really intimate when it comes to your mechanical keyboard you know what I'm saying the first thing you want to get to know is the weight of the switch or the actuation weight of the switch and that's always measured in grams but there's also the description of the actuation of the switch you've got smooth you've got audible click tactile bump and they all really describe the way the switch feels as well as the switch sounds now I'm going to do my best in this video to really describe to you what it is you get here with these different switches even though you can't feel it some of them you can hear some of them you cannot now I'm going to go through each one of these keys right now and I'm going to give you the description of these particular switches by color as are described in cm university. net which is cooler Master's awesome website giving you all sorts of information about different types of peripherals and arming you with knowledge just like I'm doing today so make sure you go and check out that website now the most common switch you'll find in mechanical keyboards is the Cherry MX Blue this is the same switch that you find in almost all razor keyboards you can find them in Corsair you can find them in uh CM Storm you can find them in U steel series they're very very common now the Cherry MX Blue has a 50 g switch and as you could hear it is described as an audible click with a tactile bump now what that means is you have the click and you have at the point of that click a bump so you physically feel the but but go over a hump of some sort it overcomes a little resistance and that's when you get the click so that's a Cherry MX Blue now the next switch on here is the Cherry MX Brown this is becoming a much more popular switch lately because it gives you the same tactile bump as the Cherry MX Blue but it does it without the audible click I'll go ahead and demonstrate that now the next key on the top here is the Cherry MX red and this is probably quickly becoming one of of the fastest growing switches and most widely used switches between mechanical keyboards because they offer you a nice feel but there's no tactile hump or bump and there's no audible click it's just one smooth motion back and forth now the way the Cherry MX red is described is 45 G actuation weight with a smooth linear motion I'll go ahead and demonstrate that now as you can see there is no hump and no noise now a lot of people tend to confuse the Cherry MX red as being a loud switch because they come from a membrane keyboard and as I mentioned earlier in this video membrane keyboards require typically a harder push and a full compression of the key which sounds like this so people will mistake that sound as being the switch but if you actually let the switch be the only motion this is what it sounds like which you're hearing is the switch bottoming out that's what most people tend to do with mechanical keyboard boards until they get used to them and start typing a little bit lighter now the Cherry MX green is pretty much exclusive to The Cooler Master line of keyboards but we'll go ahead and demonstrate that for you now it is basically the exact same switch as the blue only it has an 80 g activation weight versus a 50 g actuation weight so it is quite a bit heavier of a switch so you have to push it a little bit harder and because of that you get a little bit different sound on the click this is Cherry MX green this is blue green blue I'm going go back and forth I want you to listen the green has a little bit deeper sound than the blue the blue is a little bit higher the green is a little bit lower might be hard to pick up on the mic but take my word for it's a little bit different sound and it is definitely a lot harder to press now the next key that we have here is the Cherry MX clear now the Cherry MX clear essentially is the same switch as the brown only it has a 55 G actuation weight versus a 45 G actuation weight of the brown so it's the same switch it just takes a little bit more Force to activate and just like the brown it has the tactile bump and it has no audible click as you can see right here you can hear the fact that it has that bump but it doesn't click like the blue or the green blue and green brown or clear and here's Brown so it's got a hump and you can actually hear the hump but it doesn't click like blue and green now the last key we have on here is the Cherry MX black and it's essentially the exact same switch as the red only it has a 60 G actuation weight versus a 45 G of the red and just like the red it's advertised as smooth linear no click no tactile hump check it out perfectly smooth no hump like the clear has a hump and the green has a click now this is a really cool tool that gives you a really good idea of what it is that mechanical keys are actually doing now of course I can only bring you so much experience to the power of a video here on YouTube but hopefully this video is shed some light on what Mechanicals key switches are how they work and how they're classified now the most common switches as I mentioned that you're going to find are going to be blue brown and red and on the bottom you've got the green which is going to be exclusive to Cooler Master clear and black more companies are starting to use black now because I think they just like the way it sounds maybe I'm not sure oh and last but not least if you want to own one of these you can go to cooler Master's website and you can buy this for $15 but here's the cool part about this you're going 15 bucks why do I want this little keypad for 15 bucks what am I going to do with it you're going to take it you're going to play with it the keypad guys the keypad Family Show family show stop giggling okay you're going to take this and you're going to determine which key it is you like you're then going to go over to Cooler Master if you buy a Cooler Master keyboard they're going to give you a $115 credit if you show them proof of purchase of this keypad so in the end you get the keyboard for the same price and you get to keep the little keypad and show all your friends and you get be get to be the cool guy that has the keypad that really doesn't do anything but I think it's totally worth it because the only way you can make an informed decision honestly is to try them all out guys I really hope this video has helped you understand mechanical keyboards because it can be definitely very hard to make that decision when it comes to Mechanical keyboards there's just six Keys is a lot because you you have to feel them all out and I wanted to bring you this video to give you the information and the education that you need to arm yourself with being a smart buyer especially with Christmas coming around and we've got so much stuff we're getting ready to review on the channel we've got The Cooler Master stealth mechanical keyboard we've got the ultimate the quickfire ultimate mechanical keyboard This is a brown switch this is a red switch I've also got the k70 video that I've already done and hopefully we'll be doing more keyboards in the future making you guys a smart holiday buyer this season so if you guys have enjoyed this video and you think this video will help anybody you know what to do with it you can hit that share button and if you stumbled across my channel check out some of my other videos and I certainly hope you stick around I'll see you guys next time and that's as always I'll see you in my next video\n"