Sexy Mechanical Keyboard Thread

[tabascosauz]

Finished building my first custom board today, a B.face X2. Essentially a quick and dirty introduction to the world of custom boards.

MX Reds, blue plate from UKKeycaps (terrible btw, was bent, half the screw holes too small for Tex case screws, and right Alt messed up due to the excessive space for a 7u spacebar stab in the same spot), tried and true layout with stepped capslock and split right shift, and Hyperfuse alphas with Purple and RGBY mods.

The B.face has fantastic RGB underlighting on the underside; I don't intend to use it though as none of my cases are acrylic. I did test it and it works, looks great.

Will take better photos once the venerable FMJ case gets here.

 

[tabascosauz]

As promised.

 

[tabascosauz]

Got another build for y'all, this time with a GH60revC PCB and Gateron Yellows. Opted for a winkeyless (1.5+1+1.5+7+1.5+1+1.5) bottom row.

The case is a bit special though. I bought it off of Taobao at the recommendation of another Geekhack user. It was only $50 (+ proxy fees), but is supposedly CNC'd out of a higher quality alloy (7075-T6) and the anodization is superb. Just wish I had bought a silver case instead, because there are some minor scuffs that would show less on silver. Has nice aluminium feet and a cool attachable aluminium weight. All in all a good deal since I paid $119 for my Tex 6061 case a while back.

 

[cdawall]

This is what I use at work. I picked it purely for the sheer amount of noise the kale blue switches make. Lol

 

[xvi]

I picked it purely for the sheer amount of noise the kale blue switches make. Lol

Me too!
Had to switch to a keyboard with greens because I really needed a 10key, but now everyone nearby knows I'm not asleep. Also nice for when I'm on the phone. Customers think I'm writing a novel for them.

Edit: I bottom out my keyboards almost all the time, so I put o-rings on it, not that it made much difference.

 

[cdawall]

Me too!
Had to switch to a keyboard with greens because I really needed a 10key, but now everyone nearby knows I'm not asleep. Also nice for when I'm on the phone. Customers think I'm writing a novel for them.

Edit: I bottom out my keyboards almost all the time, so I put o-rings on it, not that it made much difference.

I would have gone with greens, but we do not carry any at the store. I actually grabbed the 10 key less version of this for my home PC. It isn't bad at all. I like it better than a couple of the ducky's I have used, but those also had poop switches in them IMO. One day I might care enough to build a keyboard with all greens, but eh.

 

[R-T-B]

I would have gone with greens, but we do not carry any at the store. I actually grabbed the 10 key less version of this for my home PC. It isn't bad at all. I like it better than a couple of the ducky's I have used, but those also had poop switches in them IMO. One day I might care enough to build a keyboard with all greens, but eh.

Green's are hard as hell to get in a premade. What he has is a modded RTB-special, IIRC. The board has been hacked on by me so many times but it still looks pretty decent. Just don't open it up to look at my soldering on the back... it's... globby. But on the bright side it isn't going anywhere.

 

[cdawall]

Green's are hard as hell to get in a premade. What he has is a modded RTB-special, IIRC. The board has been hacked on by me so many times but it still looks pretty decent. Just don't open it up to look at my soldering on the back... it's... globby. But on the bright side it isn't going anywhere.

Cooper Master has some, but I only paid $8 for the Thermaltake with kale blues. I'm not exactly complaining.

 

[xvi]

Green's are hard as hell to get in a premade. What he has is a modded RTB-special, IIRC. The board has been hacked on by me so many times but it still looks pretty decent. Just don't open it up to look at my soldering on the back... it's... globby. But on the bright side it isn't going anywhere.

I found your post from way back on this keyboard. Still worth it though. I didn't know the greens were custom too!

 

[tabascosauz]

Green's are hard as hell to get in a premade. What he has is a modded RTB-special, IIRC. The board has been hacked on by me so many times but it still looks pretty decent. Just don't open it up to look at my soldering on the back... it's... globby. But on the bright side it isn't going anywhere.

How did you mod your greens? Curious as I'd like to start taking the tops off my B.face soon and start switch modding too.

 

[R-T-B]

I found your post from way back on this keyboard. Still worth it though. I didn't know the greens were custom too!

Oh, I didn't solder the greens on. Board came like that (was still hard to get!). I just added status indicators. I see how I wrote it was kinda misleading... lol.

I fixed the bad enter key before you got it, by the way... And by fixed, I mean "fixed properly"

 

[silentbogo]

So, my patience finally ran out.
My ZM-K500 gets an emergency surgery TODAY.

All those red pieces of poop will be replaced with gateron browns. Dampers are already on the way.


BTW, what would you suggest for Caps Lock/Scroll Lock LEDs?
Right now it has blue ones, but they look really out of place.
Somewhere in the box of spare parts I have tons of other colors (red, yellow, white, green etc. ... even some infrared and UV ones).

 

[okidna]

My newest daily driver :

Spoiler: keyboards

KBParadise V60 (Gateron Yellow, top) and Leopold FC980M (MX Brown, bottom)

KBParadise V60 (Gateron Yellow, pictured top) and Leopold FC980M (MX Brown, bottom)

FC980M, great build quality with thick PBT keycaps :

KBP V60, I love Gateron Yellow switch, it's very comfortable for typing and coding usage :

 

[tabascosauz]

@okidna Nice boards! A pair of V60s had the honour of being my last boards before moving onto customs, I loved them dearly. The 980M is a great board too. Currently 100% smitten with clear top Gat Yellows.

 

[okidna]

@okidna Nice boards! A pair of V60s had the honour of being my last boards before moving onto customs, I loved them dearly. The 980M is a great board too. Currently 100% smitten with clear top Gat Yellows.

Thank you!

It's the cheapest V60 and this is the first time I try Gateron switch. I found Gateron Yellow to be similar with MX Red, a tad heavier but a lot smoother which is perfect for me. They also seems to be less wobbly compared to MX switches.

And I just saw your keycaps collection in this thread..... those Sky Dolch and Hyperfuse , just beautiful.

 

[silentbogo]

Finally managed to quiet down my Garteron Browns. I still get a full switch retraction noise, but the downward click is almost gone.
Perfect for late night gaming.

 

[tabascosauz]

Thank you!

It's the cheapest V60 and this is the first time I try Gateron switch. I found Gateron Yellow to be similar with MX Red, a tad heavier but a lot smoother which is perfect for me. They also seems to be less wobbly compared to MX switches.

And I just saw your keycaps collection in this thread..... those Sky Dolch and Hyperfuse , just beautiful.

Yes, I came from MX Red to Gat Yellow as well, and found it smoother with a stronger upstroke, although I find it a bit more wobbly.

Funny enough, I eat my words I moved onto beige with OG Cherry doubleshots and GMK Classic Retro, about to sell Sky Dolch and get in on kekkon's new Dolch buy, and planning to get rid of Hyperfuse. Not enough contrast out of both those sets.

@silentbogo there are also Zealencios you could try; they reduce noise without making the keyfeel mushy and keytravel shorter like o-rings

 

[okidna]

No need to worry when the screen says "Press ANY KEY to continue..."

 

[micropage7]

just miami color on sades with blue switch

 

[R-T-B]

My black body WASD CODE Mechanical with white PBT, blue legend keycaps qualify?

Taken midcleaning, so maybe only 50% there... :

 

[Jetster]

 

[SamirD]

I love looking at keyboard pics.

 

[Frick]

Steelseries Apex M750 for €60, good deal or no? I have a Cherry Something with red switches now and I actually kinda like it. I really don't game much these days and when I do it's not keyheavy games, but backlight would be cool...

 

[Zyll Goliat]

2 years ago I get myself FUNC KB-460.....so far so good.....

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

Been using this super cheap "Ajazz AK33" board for about half a year now and still loving it...had a full size limited edition OCN Ducky for awhile, it eventually traded it for some Sega Genesis games...I regretted trading it until I got this board for $40 Canadian. Uses a rip-off cherry blue switch and has blue backlight on white case and caps, though also comes in RGB, and black case and caps. Probably going to order a cheap keycap set for it over the next week or two...and then maybe if I remember I'll share some pics of my "budget mech" setup.