Disassembly

Given the hot-swappable nature of the switches and this being my first time being able to take apart the CORSAIR MLX Red switches, it only made sense to start this page doing exactly that. This is a linear switch with a pre-lubed stem and spring, and well lubed to where I don't expect to gain much from taking these apart for cleaning and re-lubing. The switch design is otherwise similar to other such Cherry MX-style crosspoint switches in that the stem pushes the copper contacts in the bottom housing together to initiate switch actuation that is read by the microcontroller on the keyboard.


Disassembly of the keyboard is quite simple and actually even discussed by CORSAIR itself. There are eight Phillips-head screws accessible on the back, and then you need to use a thin, flat object to pry apart interlocking plastic tabs keeping the top and bottom case panels together. It's simple enough to do so and now we see the K65 Plus Wireless is using a top mount design—another first for CORSAIR as far as I know and another move down the enthusiast keyboard rabbit hole. There are two internal cables to dislodge—one appears to be an antenna cable for the 2.4 GHz RF connection—and now the bottom panel can be examined on its own. Here we see a thick, shaped silicone sheet placed between the PCB and the case to dampen keystrokes and minimize any reverberations from occurring in the otherwise empty case. There is also a 4200 mAh Li-ion battery placed here to power the keyboard in either of the two wireless modes. This battery capacity is above average for 75% form factor keyboards and should make for a fairly long battery life.


At this point you can choose to remove all keycaps and switches to further separate the plate from the primary PCB itself, and this would allow you to also potentially replace and re-lube the stabilizers too. The PCB itself is the usual black in color, as are the Gateron hot-swap switch sockets used. For some reason, CORSAIR has decided to make it hard to identify the primary microcontroller used on this keyboard, which it never had an issue with before. I did recognize the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52810 Bluetooth 5.4/LE/2.4 GHz SoC though. All the components, including the switch sockets, SMD LEDs, and capacitors, are soldered to a multi-layered PCB.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.