Introduction

The last i-Rocks review here on TechPowerUp was over a decade ago, which says a lot by itself. For one, we can gather that the company is not new and indeed with a long lineage as first an OEM in Taiwan for different companies and then a standalone brand. Secondly, they were not doing much of interest to the DIY PC enthusiast, at least in the West, with their focus on providing IT-related peripherals for the everyday user where OEM peripherals and perhaps Logitech peripherals next up in the ladder reigned supreme. In their own words, the rise of eSports and competitive gaming has now led to a change wherein they "truly believe that E-sports is only in its infant stages and needs every form of support that it can". Their products now include gaming equipment first and foremost, and something tells me you will want to read on and not immediately dismiss this as another cookie-cutter gaming keyboard maker either. Thanks again to i-Rocks for providing a review sample for us to examine here.


The K70E keyboard name is not original by any means, and I dare say even inspired heavily to sound like the CORSAIR K70. However, there is very little in common otherwise. The full name of the keyboard strongly hints at the biggest change here in that the i-Rocks K70E is a capacitive switch keyboard. Think Topre, but instead of being an homage to Topre switches similar to how Kailh, Gateron, etc., started making clones of Cherry MX switches and now have their own switches with individual identities, Topre switches are notoriously hard to get right and also very expensive as a result to where only Cooler Master once tried to get them to the mainstream market with their Novatouch TKL keyboard, which unfortunately was perhaps too early for its time and priced right out of the market. Other companies decided to go another way and make clones of Topre switches, adding in RGB lighting for some flair. i-Rocks has gotten into this act now, but has also added in a rare feature that has not been seen in many keyboards yet - an adjustable actuation point. Ironically, it happened to be another Topre keyboard where I first saw it outside of optical analog switches, so the comparison will continue to be made throughout the article regardless of whether i-Rocks wants it to be made or not. So let us begin with a look at the specifications below.

Specifications