I’m very picky about the parts of the computer that I have to touch like the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. A cheap monitor has pixels jammed on a particular color or is dim. A cheap mouse is too like or sensitive or insensitive and I like mine wired. A cheap keyboard can be extremely light, layed out wierd, too quiet, soft on the keys, etc.
Usually, gaming gear is a good bet on all these items. It can be extremely expensive, but is typically priced mid to high. But it’s almost a lock that it’s worth it; brand name, lots of reviews on the internet, “stylish”, and durable. The most recent purchase I made at Christmas and have been using for the past 3 weeks is my Eclipse II Lighted Gaming Keyboard. I use an Eclipse 1 at work and it’s good, lighted from underneath around the keys in blue. It has a good feel and light to fair weight. I’m one of those people who learned keyboarding on typewriters (Thank God) and the IBM 1 ton clicky keyboards were very common then. I still prefer both the weight and clickiness.
The Eclipse 2 is the next generation. Lighted around and through the keys. Easy to read in the almost dark I like at home. Its much heavier than the 1 and the keys feel better. Apparently, it’s difficult to etch a transparency through the keys that looks good. There aren’t many keyboards that do this. The keys are closer together which makes the lighting look better. And the new one has three colors; blue, red, and purple. Which is the blue and red lights turned on at the same time. FF, Reverse, Play/Pause, Stop, Mute, and volume controls are built in and very out of the way above the number pad. They are longish horizontal rocker buttons. A knob controls the light level, which is fairly dim. All these buttons worked without any software install. The keyboard autodetect when plugged. The 1 is $40 and worth it. The 2 is worth $50, but is typically $55-$60. At that price it’s a harder sell. So get it on sale.