GK64XS is it a popular choice?

[Panson555]

Hi all,

New to the keebs scene. Just committed to a GK64XS setup and waiting for it to arrive so pretty excited! However it seems it's not that popular of a board. Keen to fast track my knowledge and keen to get inputs what's popular and why??

Stay safe ya'll.

[suicidal_orange]

Hi, and welcome to geekhack

A quick look at one of these on Amazon shows it uses a smaller left shift, the alpha keys in that row are shifted 1/4 of a key left compared to a standard board and right shift is really small to make room for the up arrow.  Most people here like to swap keycaps and with this board you will have to check carefully and probably buy an extra kit to get it covered so it will never be as popular as a more standard layout.  It also uses proprietary firmware for mapping which probably makes it windows only, though once done it is stored on the board so can be used anywhere.

Contrary to common thought something being popular does not make it good though, such as carrying a google tracker in your pocket (also known as an android phone) so if these aren't problems for you and you really need arrows on a small board it could be perfect for you.

[Panson555]

Thanks for the quick reply, Suicidal_orange! (and my first reply too)

Yes those arrow keys was the deal breaker for the typical 60% layout. After talking to some of my friends who's been in the custom keyboard game for some time now, those arrows are quite important.
In the long term I'm also seeing if I could make a keyboard case for the 65% layout. The focus would be wood, doesn't seem like there's much out there for wooden keyboard cases in comparison to its aluminium and plastic cousins.

[suicidal_orange]

If you need to shift+ctrl+arrow dedicated keys help, also good to put page up/down and home/end on them on a layer if you need those keys one handed.  If you just need arrows to move around text it's easy enough to use a layer as your muscle memory will have to learn that they have moved from outside the main block to in it anyway and you have four fingers...

Looking forward to seeing your wooden creation, not enough proper DIY around here lately