Logitech UltraX - Nice silent keyboard

The forum for non-component-related silent pc discussions.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Talz
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Post by Talz » Sun Feb 29, 2004 7:47 pm

Centimeters are part of the metric system, and I'd use either cm or mm for keyboard dimensions. Might as well use mm if you going to be precise enough to add a decimal point.

hitman47
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Post by hitman47 » Sun Feb 29, 2004 10:54 pm

cheers lads :)

EDIT: 15.8cm depth seems fine, but 35.9cm width? My Compaq keyboard is standard keys and it is 45cm width - perhaps this is what you mean?

Thanks again

Seal
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Post by Seal » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:12 am

sorry, yeah i ment 45.9cm width... i measured it with a 30cm ruler but forgot to add the extra 10 on...

NeilBlanchard
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Where can you buy them?

Post by NeilBlanchard » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:14 am

Hello:

I have been looking for this keyboard, and I have not been able to: CompUSA, New Egg, Best Buy. Staples -- none of them have it...

mond
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Post by mond » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:12 am

just brought one home. as far as silence goes it's not very impressive i think, compared to an oldschool click-keyboard sure, but many laptops have keys that have a much more soft touch to them and come closer to beeing silent. anyway doesn't matter, compared to my old cheap-ass chicony i can type much faster on this one, the keys feel pleasant, my hands are in a comfortable position because it's flat and it's looks pretty damn keewl :-) also, even though the keys click, it's a comfortable noise, very pro-sounding hehehe ;-)

Ralf Hutter
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Re: Where can you buy them?

Post by Ralf Hutter » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:51 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello:

I have been looking for this keyboard, and I have not been able to: CompUSA, New Egg, Best Buy. Staples -- none of them have it...
You probably won't find them in any B&M store, they're an OEM keyboard and aren't designed to be sold retail. Newegg has then off and on, keep checking back with them. There's some other links in the "quiet keyboard and mouse" thread, but they may all be EU/UK links.

sthayashi
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Post by sthayashi » Mon Mar 01, 2004 7:36 am

Pricewatch, Pricegrabber, and Reseller Ratings are your friends.

Using them, I found that Excaliber PC had them for a good price, and they appear to be a reputable company.

Ralf Hutter
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Mon Mar 01, 2004 11:06 am

sthayashi wrote:Using them, I found that Excaliber PC had them for a good price, and they appear to be a reputable company.
I'd jump on that Excaliber deal while they've got 'em. $27 is about $7-8 less than I paid for mine from Newegg, and Excaliber is a great place to do business with.

Harpocrates
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Post by Harpocrates » Thu Mar 11, 2004 5:10 pm

I ordered one earlier this week for $34. Today I received a box that seemed a little too large for a keyboard. Apparently they sent me an "UltraX Desktop Enterprise Edition 5-Pack" that also includes optical mice.:roll:

I guess I will be on the phone with my CC company tomorrow to see if these clowns charged me $$$.

Seal
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Post by Seal » Thu Mar 11, 2004 6:05 pm

nice!!!

Sam Williams
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Post by Sam Williams » Fri Mar 12, 2004 12:22 pm

Hahaha! Beautiful.

Here's a thought... If they haven't charged you extra, how about donating one to MikeC so he can sample the quality for himself? The UltraX should be the first keyboard in a new Recommended Peripherals section ;)

sthayashi
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Post by sthayashi » Fri Mar 12, 2004 12:35 pm

Hey, I wouldn't mind a recommended Peripherals/Misc section. The CD/DVD drives keep coming up as a question as do floppies drives. And searching the forums provides mixed results (Though anything that Ralf suggests, I will generally belief without question).

Seal
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Post by Seal » Fri Mar 12, 2004 3:06 pm

sthayashi wrote: (Though anything that Ralf suggests, I will generally belief without question).
me too!

shathal
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Post by shathal » Sun Apr 18, 2004 2:51 pm

The answer is "sort of".

You need to have "LEGACY USB" enabled.

What *is* Legacy USB I hear you ask?

Well, that's your USB Keyboard / USB mouse translated into meaningful stuff when you're running around in DOS.

BEWARE though, USB-keyboards in (effectively) DOS-emulation mode are slow as a *DOG*. Brrrr.

*must get one too now...*

Many thanks for the listings in the UK. I shall indeed intend to get one :D.

replay0
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Post by replay0 » Sun Apr 18, 2004 6:48 pm

Excaliber PC is a good company to order from. I ordered my Shuttle, P2.8C, and 1GB Corsair memory from them. I *thought* had problems with the memory, and they dealt with the issue quickly. They personally verify each order by calling the person ordering and the CC company. I live 3 hours north of them. I ordered my stuff Tuesday, got it Thursday.

shathal
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Post by shathal » Sun Apr 18, 2004 11:02 pm

Hrmmm - the two places which had been listed in the UK don't seem to have them anymore. Or if they have them, they're hidden somewhat in labyrinthine pages.

Shall investigate the situation a little more in the evening / during work. It's a darn nice keyboard, if I can say that much :D.

johnjv
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Post by johnjv » Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:37 am

I agree with sthayashi, this keyboard deserves to be stickied somewhere as a recomended component. Thanks to Seal for the pics, they show the ultrax better than any site I found it on. This thing is half the size of my hand-me-down msft office keyboard. Plug n play hotkeys are nice too. The lower noise of these keys is a big plus of course, but the smaller size with a full sized space bar and regular key layout is what led me to buy it. By the way, I've surfed this site for a couple months now. Learned about sorbothane and where to get it, acoustipack too. I love what both of those products did to quiet my pc. This impressive $32 keyboard that I plugged in a half hour ago is was what prompted me to register :mrgreen: so I could put my two cents in! Great forum ya'll are running here.

Seal
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Post by Seal » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:31 pm

Welcome to the forums johnjv!

Yeah i like those pix too, they make my setup look sexie :D.

These forums are great!

LH
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Post by LH » Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:42 pm

I'm a bit confused about what the "Enter" key on the UltraX looks like. The US and UK Logitech websites (and most pictures of the UltraX I can find) show an "Enter" key that looks standard, but Seal's pictures show an "Enter" key that looks rather strange (to me).

I'm worried that if I order an UltraX, I'll end up with one that has that weird "Enter" key... :(

zoob
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Post by zoob » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:05 am

Image

Got mine from a local store in Markham, Ontario (Canada) :)

LH
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Post by LH » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:22 am

zoob, thanks for the close-up pic! I think I'll go and order mine now. :D

niels007
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Post by niels007 » Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:01 pm

For more than a year now, Coolermaster also ships a notebook style (and fairly stylish) keyboard thats pretty good as well:


http://www.coolermaster.com/show_pic.ph ... 8bf907.jpg

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:02 pm

niels007 wrote:For more than a year now, Coolermaster also ships a notebook style (and fairly stylish) keyboard thats pretty good as well:


http://www.coolermaster.com/show_pic.ph ... 8bf907.jpg
Had it, still have it, trying to sell right now (I can sell it to you if you are in US :wink: ). IMO sooooo not worth the money coolermaster is asking for it.

Seal
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Post by Seal » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:20 am

yeah saw that ages ago, its really ugly imo because of the huge border bits, also its not standard keyboard layout because of the arrow keys and home keys, its like a botched notebook keyboard with a numpad stuck on the side.

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Wed Dec 15, 2004 7:30 am

Newegg has UltraX in stock again, just ordered one. $36 bastards... :evil:

yeah saw that ages ago, its really ugly imo because of the huge border bits, also its not standard keyboard layout because of the arrow keys and home keys, its like a botched notebook keyboard with a numpad stuck on the side.
No, I like the design, it's the key action that I hate, they wiggle and every time I hit a key there is a dull "thud"....

Farnsworth
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Post by Farnsworth » Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:30 pm

Can you pop the keys off for cleaning?

nici
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Post by nici » Sun Jan 02, 2005 3:00 am

I ve had this board fot a few months :) No its not silent but the noise isnt disturbing either. I pais 27€ for this.

MassMan
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Post by MassMan » Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:12 pm

I have had an ultrax for about a year now and I'm completely satisfied with it. Unfortunately a new, narrower computer table means I lack the space for a full-size keyboard. I've been looking at Zippy's 610/620 keyboards, but I've been unable to find a retailer near me, nor have a been able to find any reviews. I'm looking for a ~30cm wide keyboard with the same "notebook-short-key-travel-feel" as ultrax, but without the numeric keyboard, so basically a notebook-style keyboard :)
Can anyone recommend such a keyboard?


On a sidenote: I would prefer a keyboard with Danish layout (æøå) but since many manufacturers can't be bothered making keyboards for such a small market as Denmark I was wondering if the difference between English keyboards and Danish is purely cosmetic and that the inner workings are identical? I presume it's possible just to chose Danish input and the keyboard will be able to make æøå? Of course the letters on the keys themselves will be wrong but that doesn't matter as I hardly look at the keyboard anyway.
Choosing English input makes my æøå keys give ;'[ and I would be grateful if someone with an English keyboard would try changing input to Danish and press ;'[ which then should give æøå (dk layout).

bigred
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Post by bigred » Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:42 am

Yes in windows XP it is possible to change the mapped layout of the keyboard so that it will output in any of the supported languages. But like you said the actual keyboard markings would be wrong.

You could get an english keyboard and then use something like this.
http://www.datacal.com/dce/danish-overlays.htm
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/D ... /Page1.htm

But on the topic of slim-style keyboards. There is a slim backlit keyboard that I am lusting after... If it wasn't for the $350 price-tag I'd be set...
Link
Apparently the company iKey ownes the patent to backlit keyboards, the reason theirs are so expensive is because they are NEMA 4 and 4X rated... Eluminx got a patent to make keybaords where the entire key is lit, but IMO they aren't as sexy as ones where just the letter is lit.
Too bad iKey doesn't put out a KB thats the standard style and drop the price to around $100... They would sell like hot-cakes, just like the Eluminx boards.

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