Redragon K552

My all time favorite was the Wang 724 keyboard. http://blog.komar.be/wang-724-teardown/ Since then, it does not really matter which keyboard I use. Now I have a reddragon keyboard (Redragon K552 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, 87-Key Compact). I picked that up a while ago because it does not use much space on the table/desk I have.

I used a K552 for a while. Definitely a decent keyboard for the price. Just be warned that, like going from membrane to mechanical, once you upgrade there's no going back. I upgraded to a TKL GMMK with Kailh BOX White switches, and now the K552 feels terrible because my standards have been raised so much higher.

My Redragon K552 has the ESC key at the upper left in line with the dedicated Fn keys. This males it easier to hit when using vi. Beside "1" is backquote and tilde. Seems to work well. I should get around to remapping Ctrl and CapsLock one of these days... BTW the K552 has been able to take a lot of abuse over the years and is still working well for me, and it is not expensive. Cheaper keyboards often don't last a year with me (I learned on a manual typewriter). I think I paid $40 at MicroCenter like 2 or 3 years ago.