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Comment by geocrasher | Hacker News Reader

You can buy a Herman Miller refurb on Amazon for $500. It's a great deal. You also need a second monitor, mechanical keyboard, webcam, headset. $1k is plenty for all of that

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The great thing about Herman Miller refurbs or used is that you can get parts. Sure, you can get a cheap office chair from target or so, but they'll last you a couple of years before the padding is compressed to nothing, parts are breaking, and it's time to throw it out. The Aerons are incredibly durable, and if something fails or I damage something, I can get replacement parts easily. I've gotten new wheels for different floors, replaced a small pad that deteriorated, and replaced the original hydraulic. I've had mine about 10 years now; who knows how long the previous owner had theirs. It's an investment for sure, but one I think holds it's value well.

(My wife has a Steelcase Leap, which I can say similar things about.)

People with mechanical keyboards in conference calls can jump in a lake. haha

I do this and honestly, it's not that bad if you don't have the mic near the keyboard. The headset mic I have seems to drop audio dramatically just a few inches away from my mouth, which is a feature, not a bug, if you're using a mechanical keyboard.

Using the internal keyboard AND internal microphone of a laptop is usually worse.

Just do the conference in a text group chat. I can type fast on that mechanical keyboard, you know :)

At home I have a cheap keyboard to swap to -)

The real problem is cheap headsets with poor mics and people not knowing how to turn the fracking gain down.

Though at home id just swap out my laptop and stick my works one in and plugin my Claret Pre 2 for the mic and the Shitt Audio stack I use for heaphones.

Not at all the most important thing, but mechanical keyboards are going to be sold out so fast. There are tons of people who want them, but just don’t want to bug people in their office. WFH will change that. And it’s mostly small suppliers who won’t scale that fast. I imagine they use some Chinese parts, too.

Cherry MX browns might be an option, they are supposed to be quiet.

Still very clacky if you bottom them out which 99% of people do. Mechanical keyboards, unfortunately, do not have a place in the office space.

Half our open plan office with 15-ish people in it uses browns, never been an issue. There's almost never complete silence anyway (people talking quietly etc.), the keyboards are subjectively below the threshold of registering as noisy.

I started the mechanical revolution in our ~30p open plan office, now a dozen or so of us use them. I'm using MX Clears, others are using Browns, there's even a red in there, the noise isn't really an issue, just don't hammer the life out if it.

Also higher quality boards with nice heavy plates lower the pitch of the sound so it's less intrusive (in my experience).

You’ve got a couple replies saying “not a problem at my office [where I happen to enjoy the use of such a keyboard]” already, so I’ll back you up here:

I have neighbors with mechanicals that bother me so bad I’ve had to pack up and go home for the day. This is over music on noise canceling headphones.

Different people actually have different amounts of trouble with this, with some having lots of problems. Just lucky I guess?

I think the whole noise issue with mechanical keyboards is way overblown. I have two mech keyboards (with Cherry MX Brown and Black switches), and nobody at the office or at home has ever complained. The Apple butterfly keyboards that some of my coworkers use are subjectively just as loud as mine, if not louder (depending on typing style/force obviously – one of my colleagues seems to really hate his Macbook :) ). Furthermore, rubber dome keyboards actually require you to bottom out on every keystroke, while with mechanical keyboards, there is at least the possibility to avoid that.

You can add soft rubber rings to dampen that sound almost completely: https://www.wasdkeyboards.com/cherry-mx-rubber-o-ring-switch...

No they don't. I have 40A-Rs on my MX Browns at home and while they do make a significant difference (especially under a large mousepad), they are still louder than butterfly switches by a wide margin.

Put spacers on your keys. They're cheap, and in addition to muting most of the bottom-out thud, they eat up a lot of the force and spare your knuckles, too.

To install them, find the cheapest kind of ballpoint and pull out the tip and ink tube. The body tube is just the right size to press the spacers onto the key stems. It's miles easier than anything else I've ever tried.

Before spacers, the helpdesk complained about my keyboard noise. The helpdesk! After, no one did.

Just get browns, they're not so bad that they will bother anyone but the most fussy coworker. They're louder than laptop keyboards but as loud as some regular non-mech keyboards.

I'm using browns with O rings at work. Feel great and are no louder than anyone else's keyboard.

Depends on if you have a partner and kids. I’ve had to retire my mechanical keyboard at home for just this reason.

You must have a really small place if that's a problem WFH you really need to be able to shut the door.

Sadly the monitors I have at work are 1k each =(

Why are you wasting money? You can get 5 27" monitors for the price of one of those and 3 or 4 43" 4ks for the price of both.

What? How about some specifics. My requirements for a monitor is high resolution for plenty of desktop space (minimum 4k) and IPS panels for viewing angle, besides, I think IPS is the least straining panel to look at. When you combine these two requirements you are likely at 700+ for a single monitor.

But hey, I see 80 col Vim developers, too, so everyone’s needs are different.

>plenty of desktop space (minimum 4k)

Are you running your 4K monitor in 1:1 mode?

As in no scaling? Yes.

Dell 24" IPS 4k is $350: https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2415Q-24-Inch-LED-Lit/d...

Not bad, but I think 24” is too small for 4k, I would have to use scaling which detracts from desktop real estate.

Because LG 5ks are literally the only choice of external display my employer provides. On the plus side, they may be cheaper in bulk.

That seems incredibly overpriced unless you need absolute color reproduction or some other specialty.

My home one is more than that. It's a 5k ultrawide. Screen real estate is everything for me.

It isn’t about color, it’s about resolution. My LG ultra fine 5k monitor is amazing. Will never go back to cheap monitors again. It pairs perfectly with the 5k iMac Pro.

I can buy two 27-inch 2560x1440 Lenovo monitors for 580-680 euro. So you can definitely get resolution (not necessarily pixel density) for pretty cheap.

Dell 24" 4k resolution monitor is $350. You can get 3 of those.

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2415Q-24-Inch-LED-Lit/d...

24" at 4k is difficult to read. Larger screen real estate really helps those of us who have already spent too much of our lives staring at screens.

That's a different shape and size than a single 30" panel.

You can get a 50 inch 4k TV for a few hundred bucks.

If it's for work, see if you can get your company to order if through whoever they get their office furniture from. I know my previous company paid around $650 each for the Herman Miller Embody

Highly recommend it. I got mine on ebay for a little cheaper. I'd expect costs might go up though given the increased demand.

Real or counterfeit?

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