IBM Model M Buckling Spring vs IBM Model F Buckling Spring
The IBM Model M Buckling Spring and the IBM Model F Buckling Spring sit in different price brackets, which across the 70-odd switches a board needs is a bigger difference than most of the spec sheet. Our switch library already points each of these at the other. Hear them back to back below with the trims matched before you read a single number.
Hear them back to back
simulated from real specssound loads on your first tapShortcuts: press A or B anywhere outside a text box to fire that burst. Use the volume trims to loudness-match the pair before judging which sounds better.
Spec by spec
| Spec | IBM Model M Buckling Spring | IBM Model F Buckling Spring |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Clicky | Clicky |
| Brand rates force at | actuation | actuation |
| Actuation force | 67 g | 62 g |
| Bottom-out force | not published | not published |
| Pre-travel | 2.3 mm | 2.3 mm |
| Total travel | 3.7 mm | 3.8 mm |
| Silent (dampened) | No | No |
| Factory lubed | No | No |
| MX-compatible stem | No | No |
| Price tier | Mid-range | Premium |
| Street price | varies | varies |
Both of these are rated at actuation, which is the one case where the advertised numbers compare directly. Every other force row still has to be matched basis to basis.
Verdict
Stroke character is a tie. Two clickies feel alike under a finger, which pushes the decision onto the rows below the type row. Price splits them too: the IBM Model M Buckling Spring is the mid priced option while the IBM Model F Buckling Spring sits in the premium priced bracket, which adds up across a 70 switch board. Their springs sit close together, just 5 g apart at actuation, with the IBM Model M Buckling Spring the marginally firmer press. Split by use: the IBM Model F Buckling Spring for gaming, the IBM Model M Buckling Spring for typing and a shared office. Read that office call as relative: the IBM Model M Buckling Spring clicks too, just less insistently.
- Gaming pick
- IBM Model F Buckling Spring
- Typing pick
- IBM Model M Buckling Spring
- Office pick
- IBM Model M Buckling Spring
Force curves
IBM Model M Buckling Spring
IBM publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the dashed end of the curve is an estimate, not a spec. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers.
IBM Model F Buckling Spring
IBM publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the dashed end of the curve is an estimate, not a spec. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers.
IBM Model M Buckling Spring or IBM Model F Buckling Spring: the long answer
Money separates these two more cleanly than any spec does. The IBM Model M Buckling Spring is mid priced, while the IBM Model F Buckling Spring is premium priced. Lube is on you with both of these, which is a real cost in time whichever one you order. Worth knowing before you order: neither of these uses an MX style stem, so neither will drop into a standard hot-swap board or accept ordinary MX keycaps, and they do not share a mount with each other either.
The specs are the smaller half of this pair, but they are not nothing. At actuation they sit 5 g apart, 67 g against 62 g, close enough that lube and housing will decide the feel before the spring does. The stroke itself is shared: each announces actuation to your finger and to the room at once. They register at the same 2.3 mm, then part company on depth: 3.8 mm on the IBM Model F Buckling Spring against 3.7 mm on the IBM Model M Buckling Spring. None of these gaps is large. Stack them up and they still point somewhere, but gently.
Now the part spec sheets cannot carry: the voice. Two different voices: loud full clack-click with steel-chassis ring on the IBM Model M Buckling Spring, higher-pitched ringing ping-click off a metal backplate on the IBM Model F Buckling Spring. Either way, both of these are heard by everyone in the room, so the choice between them is a choice of tone and not of volume. Both packs are synthesized rather than recorded, so read the comparison as a faithful sketch of each voice and not as a measurement of it.
The picks split by use. Take the IBM Model F Buckling Spring if games come first, because the honest answer is that either would do, and it wins on a margin too small to feel. Take the IBM Model M Buckling Spring if the board is mostly a writing tool, since the click turns a long writing session into a rhythm, if your room allows it. Take the IBM Model M Buckling Spring if other people have to sit near it, as neither of these belongs in a quiet shared room, and this is only the less punishing of the two clicks. Before you order either, match the volume trims above and hear them back to back.
Want the full story on either switch? Read the dedicated IBM Model M Buckling Spring page and the IBM Model F Buckling Spring page. If you are here to check the board you already own, use our free keyboard tester.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better for gaming, the IBM Model M Buckling Spring or the IBM Model F Buckling Spring?
We pick the IBM Model F Buckling Spring for gaming. Honestly either is fine here. It takes the nod once the scoring is added up, and only just.
IBM Model M Buckling Spring or IBM Model F Buckling Spring: which one is quieter?
Neither is quiet. Two click mechanisms means two switches that broadcast every press, and picking between them will not save your colleagues. If noise decides this, look at a silent tactile instead.
Is the IBM Model M Buckling Spring heavier than the IBM Model F Buckling Spring?
The IBM Model M Buckling Spring is heavier: 67 g against 62 g, both measured at actuation, so this is a fair like-for-like comparison.
Which is cheaper to fill a board with, the IBM Model M Buckling Spring or the IBM Model F Buckling Spring?
The IBM Model M Buckling Spring sits in the mid priced bracket and the IBM Model F Buckling Spring in the premium priced one. We do not hold a reliable per-switch price for both, so the bracket is the honest answer rather than a total.
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