Closer Examination

As we saw before, the Thermaltake ARGENT K5 keyboard comes in a thin foam wrap to keep it pristine and free of dust out of the box. Removing it, we get our first good look at the keyboard, and it is larger than average even for full-size keyboards. This is mostly because of all the extra keys, the volume knob, and a generally larger frame with bezels all around. The design is certainly more aggressive than the W1 Wireless and to be fair, Thermaltake does not shy away from marketing this as a gaming keyboard. Previous such keyboards from the company did something similar past the alphanumeric section, such as the Level 20 RGB with the LED strip and cutout in the frame. So what we get here is a silver finish to the aluminium frame on the left, which thins down past a step to allow for a black layer up top. The silver frame extends past this point at the end to host the volume knob, and when viewed from the side, the curved section is similar to the NVIDIA RTX 3080 FE heatsink design.

That volume knob is designed to mimic a rotary knob in cars, with rotation changing the volume and a button on the side muting or unmuting your system. Alongside are more buttons, not mechanical, to host a few other keyboard-specific functions, including media playback. The indicator LEDs are above the Print Screen-Pause/Break keys, and we otherwise see 104 keys on this US ANSI layout. Secondary legends are underneath the primary ones, and both sets are in the middle. Single-legend placement is in the top center as well, which points towards north-facing LEDs, such that those lower on the keycaps may not be backlit as much. Note also that some modifiers have symbols and names on the keycaps, usually with the symbol above the name except in some cases, as with the Shift key. This lack of consistency irks me, as does Enter not following this trend and the gap between the symbol and name not being uniform either. The font is generally on the smaller side too, and the typeface is more rounded.


Flipping the keyboard around, we have the usual certification sticker with the company logo and product name, just in case you forgot what you bought. Four rectangular rubber pads on the corners keep the keyboard from sliding around on the desk, and two sets of feet at the top open up to optionally elevate the keyboard; these feet also have rubber pads to ensure they don't scratch easily. The smaller feet are smaller than I would like, especially considering the bulk of the keyboard. The larger feet are adequately sized here, and if using any, I recommend using these.


Remember that notch on the back of the wrist rest? You use it to flip that section around, which reveals more rubber padding on the side touching the desk, and magnets inside that align with more magnets on the bottom of the case. At this point, just place the keyboard on top of this extension of the wrist rest until the two naturally meet up to allow for a comfortable, but not that ergonomic typing solution.


The side facing away from the user is where the fixed USB cable extrudes, and substantial casing on either side protects the connectors. The cable itself is relatively thick and sleeved black; it is this thick because it splits into three separate connectors. The ARGENT K5 has a USB pass-through and audio pass-through alongside the cable exit, so the cable goes to two USB Type-A ports as well as a combo headphone/microphone jack if you want to use it. The pass-through port is USB 2.0, so you can use a mouse and headset directly over the keyboard. The connectors are also gold-plated for added oxidation resistance.


Taking a look from the side, we see the tried and tested OEM profile consisting of the usual slanted rows and concave surfaces on top for compatibility with a large number of aftermarket keycaps/sets. The included puller works well enough, but the floating nature of the keycaps makes it fairly easy to remove and install these by hand. The stock keycaps are similar to the replacement ones, again composed of thin ABS plastic (average wall thickness 0.92 mm) with laser etched legends for backlighting compatibility as seen above, but these will also wear out sooner than PBT plastic keycaps with doubleshot injected legends, for example.


At this time, there are two Cherry MX switch options with the ARGENT K5 in the form of the Cherry MX Blue and MX Speed (Silver). Both are RGB versions to make use of the per-key RGB backlighting on offer here. This means we have a transparent switch housing and an RGB LED underneath each switch. I have the Cherry MX Blue version here, which is a tactile and clicky switch with the characteristic blue slider. The larger keycaps adopt a Cherry-style stabilizer, and the space bar in particular was mushier than I would have liked, and also fairly rattly in use.


Here is a look at the keyboard with the replacement keycaps on the QWER/ASDF keys. You end up with three colors now, and I can't say I am a fan of the red accents. I suppose they are quite catchy, which is the whole point.

Thermaltake got me twice in a row now when it comes to the disassembly. I removed all the screws I could find, including the four underneath the rubber pads on the back. However, it appears there are a few more on the top under the multimedia keys, which I am not sure how to access in a non-destructive manner. As such, we skip the disassembly section and move on to the software options!