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Author Topic: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800  (Read 6472 times)

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Offline enrique.aliaga

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Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« on: Wed, 04 April 2018, 08:44:39 »
Apart from customs, I think the only currently manufactured keyboards that sport the “1800” layout are:

Anyone here owns (or has owned) both and can draw some comparison between the two?

I am especially curious about build quality. I know the Leopold has a metal plate. Does the Cherry have a plate, too? Or is it PCB-only? If so, does that make it too flimsy in comparison with the Leopold? What about the sturdiness of the case?

Also curious about sound and feel. Price difference is not relevant.

Thanks everybody! 
« Last Edit: Wed, 04 April 2018, 15:29:01 by enrique.aliaga »
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Offline SpAmRaY

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 04 April 2018, 08:48:13 »
FC980M all day.


If you have to have the 1800 there's also this
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94381.0

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« Last Edit: Wed, 04 April 2018, 15:16:54 by SpAmRaY »
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Offline enrique.aliaga

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 04 April 2018, 15:14:27 »
Bump’d.


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Offline shadowrealmwarez

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 04 April 2018, 15:22:54 »
I really love my 980M (MX Blacks), use it as my daily driver for work, but I also don't need the keys that the G80-1800 has....so that might be the deciding factor.
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Offline hking0036

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 04 April 2018, 15:42:47 »
AFAIK all G80s will not have plates, so the board will have a lot of flex. I haven't used a mechanical leopold board but the 660c is supremely well built, thing is super heavy.
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Offline Puddsy

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 04 April 2018, 17:51:08 »
980M is just a smaller 1800. Seems like a win to me.
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Offline davkol

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 05 April 2018, 04:00:31 »
Those are very different keyboards in a way.

Leopold is sturdy, steel-plate-mount with some damping, NKRO or whatever… Great stock keycaps.
Meanwhile, most modern G80s are quite flimsy with screw-less cases, PCB-mounted switches, no diodes (only 2KRO, but there were gaming versions such as Raptor Gaming K1 too) etc. And not so great stock keycaps in case of thin hellgrau PBT (POM or old ABS doubleshots… or winkeyless PBT dyesubs are very nice though).

The lack of a plate is not necessarily a downside, though. You can open the switches without any soldering and there's more room for modifications overall.

So, I'd say
  • Leopold if you want something great out of the box,
  • Cherry if you want to find a nice vintage/special-edition model or if you want to mod a cheap one.
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Offline losing_ctrl

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #7 on: Thu, 05 April 2018, 08:32:06 »
I have a Compaq version of the G80-1800, and I've owned an FC980M, both with MX Browns.

193142-0

193144-1

The layout of the G80-1800 is my favorite, however the Leopold had way better build quality and a better key feel. I just didn't click with the FC980M's layout, while the quite flimsey, PCB mounted G80-1800 has those extra keys that make it more usable for me. Plus I love that my model is WKL.  Think about those extra keys and their location and decide if that is a value to you or not.
« Last Edit: Thu, 05 April 2018, 08:41:10 by losing_ctrl »
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Offline enrique.aliaga

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #8 on: Thu, 05 April 2018, 14:44:36 »
Thank you all for all your valuable insight!

I think I’ll go with the Leopold, then. I’m not really fond of flimsy keyboards. :)


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Offline davkol

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #9 on: Thu, 05 April 2018, 15:42:05 »
Well, that depends whether you want to simply order something from a store, or you're willing to put some effort into it.

My Raptor K1, for example, isn't flimsy per se (esp. compared to a new stock G80-3000, which is wider and thus allows more PCB flex, unless modded), but it's not as solid as a keyboard with a steel plate. It doesn't really matter as long as you're typing and not raging or smashing people's faces with the keyboard, but it does influence things like sound a bit, and personally, I find the sound of the cherry preferable.

I don't think you can just get the raptor brand new from any store, though, it's more of a "great finds" subforum subject.
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Offline Entropia

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 06 April 2018, 02:45:22 »
Leopold! I own two FC980M and I love them. The layout is great, as well as the keycaps, the performance, the sound, the finishes, the building quality...
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Offline Urbi

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Re: Leopold FC980M vs. Cherry G80-1800
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 03 May 2018, 07:06:06 »
Quote from: davkol on Thu, 05 April 2018, 15:42:05
Well, that depends whether you want to simply order something from a store, or you're willing to put some effort into it.

My Raptor K1, for example, isn't flimsy per se (esp. compared to a new stock G80-3000, which is wider and thus allows more PCB flex, unless modded), but it's not as solid as a keyboard with a steel plate. It doesn't really matter as long as you're typing and not raging or smashing people's faces with the keyboard, but it does influence things like sound a bit, and personally, I find the sound of the cherry preferable.

I don't think you can just get the raptor brand new from any store, though, it's more of a "great finds" subforum subject.

The K1 can take a beating. I think it is partitially due to the case having this USB-Hub. It is a bit more stable than an ordinary G80-1800 case and that by itself is already a bit more stable than a G80-3000 case.

However, I used my Raptor K1 from Summer 2006 to December 2017. I took it to LANs, moved with it several times, played with it for more than 15k hours and used it to write all my papers  for university from the first to the final. I have to admit that I sometimes even punched it. Still works great.

My new Cherry MX Board 6 (that has a full aluminum case and a thick plate) didn't even last half a year. I have chattering on numerous keys and will have to RMA it.
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