deskthority

I have not seen many reviews of this particular keyboard, so here goes. I purchased a AT101W from Trent today for US$31. $25 for the board and $6 for the train to get there and back. Great guy btw. I must say I am completely blown away. For the past few weeks my daily driver has been an ISO AEKII (dampned cream). The Dell has a very pronounced tactile bump, much more so than the AEKII. And despite being marketed as a tactile only switch, I would say is almost as loud as MX Blues. It is surprisingly lightweight, but feels pretty solidly built. The key profile is exactly the same as the NeXT 192.00 and the double shots from it look great on the 101W considering the original keycaps have significant yellowing. Overall, I am very happy with this keyboard. I generally see them in the $20-40 price range, which is theft. I would suggest this keyboard to anybody, not necessarily as a daily driver ( Trent said he hated the switches ) but certainly as a trusty backup unit while bolt modding etc... a beloved keyboard, as it has a modern ANSI layout, which makes it easy to lay down and type. I immediately typed at my regular speed after plugging it in despite preferring ISO. In general it's not a bad way to spend $31.

The AT101W

I especially like the shortcuts on ZXCV ( difficult to see in this photo )

and the NeXT board with dell caps lol

The AT101's are well built and fun to modify with lots of options.
I'm still impressed by this mod on one.
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:9542

tipo33 wrote: And despite being marketed as a tactile only switch, I would say is almost as loud as MX Blues.

The loudness is you "bottoming out". Black Alps are silent unless someone has modded the leaf on it.

I always have a number of these around in one form or another. The AT101W is my choice when a full size keyboard is in order, but I found the black ALPS to be less of a switch compared to the alternatives that exist in the ALPS world.

tipo33 wrote:I purchased a AT101W from Trent today for US$31. $25 for the board and $6 for the train to get there and back.
I generally see them in the $20-40 price range, which is theft.

Since thread got dug up anyhow, you might wanna explain yourself on that one...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hardly-Used-Del ... 1597wt_929
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-AT101-PS-2 ... 500wt_1178
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-AT101-PS-2 ... 500wt_1178
You just have to search around. The classifieds at GH were good as well, but you know...

Not a particularly popular keyboard. Not much love for the Black Alps switches, although some seem to like them. Plenty of talk about them on the old days of GH, but alas, we seem to have lost GH, at least for now.

Both tactility and noise are due to the bottoming out. Internally, they are identical to the Cream Alps, except for lack of dampeners. If you press the switch slowly so that they don't bottom out hard, you'll note that they have as much tactility as a rubber dome keyboard.

off wrote:

tipo33 wrote:I purchased from Trent for $25
$20-40 price range .. is theft.

retry; you might wanna explain yourself on that one...

Makes more sense?
To me it doesn't, hence the clarification that might be in order on that remark.

Sadly, geographical location greatly affects keyboard price.