Introduction

Would you believe we are on build #10 already? It seems like it was only yesterday when I tried out a new way to introduce custom keyboard parts on TechPowerUp, but that was in fact over a year ago now. In the time since, we've looked at some interesting switches, colorful keycaps, and even hotly anticipated keyboard kits. I already knew what I wanted to do for the 10th iteration, and Akko's debut into the premium DIY keyboard space was part of the plan. Indeed, the CNC-machined aluminium gasket mount MOD 003 kit arrived even before the novel acrylic version we saw before, and it has been so popular that new batches almost instantly sell out whenever they pop up. Epomaker was kind enough to send one in the color I wanted, as well as a matching keycap set. But what about the switches?


Soon after my coverage of Kailh's recently released Master Series switches, as well as the impressively silent BOX Hush switch, Kailh reached out to see if I would be interested in covering its brand-new switch lineup replacing the Box V1 switch, which is in my opinion the gold standard for custom mechanical switches. The BOX switch design has been put to good use both by Kailh directly and modders and collaborations, and I was quite curious about what the all-new BOX V2 switches would bring to the market. This build article will cover all three new BOX V2 switches—Red, Brown, and White—and comparisons will be made to the same versions of the original BOX V1 series, too. There's a lot to unpack, literally, so let's thank Epomaker and Kailh for providing all the parts before we get on with it!