Disassembly

Despite the plastic case construction, disassembly of the i-Rocks K71M is on the easier side of average. This has a lot to do with the plastic light bar in the middle necessitating the use of screws to hold the sandwich together. As such, we have three screws on the bottom, hidden under the rubber pads, and the rest on top are accessible after removing specific keycaps as seen above. All are flat Phillips head screws, with 15 on the front and four on the back to remove. Once done, you can separate the top plastic case panel with the plate/PCB piece from the bottom case panel.


There is an internal USB cable to dislodge to completely separate the two, and we see the diffusing light bar held in place with guides in the bottom case panel. It goes all around, and there is a daughter PCB on the bottom panel to accept the Type-C cable and transfer the signal to the primary PCB. Also notable is the inclusion of foam pads to dampen keyboard noise with downstrokes that would otherwise cause reverberations in such a hollow plastic case, as we saw with the CORSAIR K65 RGB MINI. Good on i-Rocks for this oft neglected step, and we will see soon if it helps the keyboard sound profile in use.


There is no need to further separate the other pieces since we get full access to the PCB for further study. We also see that the PCB and steel plate are both rectangular, with an optical illusion potentially making you believe otherwise owing to the case design. The PCB is black, and solder quality is adequate and shows clear signs of less subtle manufacturing here. Powering the keyboard are what appear to be a combination of a USB microcontroller and hardware LED driver, both of which were not readily identifiable. The switches are soldered through the aforementioned steel plate and onto the PCB, with the plate adding structural integrity while also being white to further upward light reflection. We also see a plethora of RGB LEDs all around the sides of the PCB contribute to the side lighting with the light bar. All the components, including the switches, 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.