Hi all! I live in Queen Creek AZ but work in Chandler AZ. I got interested in mechanical keyboards about 2 months ago. I actually grew up using a Commodore 64, followed by early IBM computers that had buckling spring keyboards, then later, other mechanical keyboards that were clicky, but I'm not sure what switches they used. I wish I had saved some of those old keyboards!
As time went on, I eventually replaced my old AT DIN keyboard with a PS2 keyboard, and somewhere along the line I noticed that my keyboard wasn't clicky any more. That was probably my intruduction to rubber dome keyboards. I didn't like them as well, but didn't think much about it. From then on, all I had was cheap rubber dome keyboards for 20+ years.
A couple months ago I noticed my work keyboard, an MS Natural Keyboard 4000, was getting very worn. Many of the legends had worn off and some keys were starting to bind or feel harder to press. I started looking for a keyboard with LED backlights, mainly to dress up my desk for Christmas. I found mention of "mechanical keyboard" and was excited to get back to something more like what I grew up with. After some very brief research, I decided I needed brown switches so that the keyboard wouldn't be too loud for my work environment (I work in a cubicle). I bought this Rottay full-size keyboard with rainbow LED backlights (not RGB) and JWS brown switches:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0747D3YWR/It has been fun to use. I added orings to it, which made it slightly quieter, but I actually liked the feel of it better without the orings. I've been hanging around r/mk and picking up info, drooling over keyboards, etc.
After using it a while and trying out other switches, I am not very happy with the brown switches. I also am not very happy with the flimsy lightweight keycaps that came with this keyboard. I also am longing for a smaller keyboard, one that doesn't push my mouse off to the side so far.
I purchased a GMMK TKL barebones (no switches or keycaps) which is sitting in a box. I removed the stabilizers and clipped them, and I'm waiting on some Krytox lube from Zeal PC to lube them up. I pre-ordered enough R9 Zilent switches to fill the TKL. Unfortunately, I won't get them until mid-February at the earliest. I do have my keycaps: One set of Vortex doubleshot PBT shine-through caps, and one set of doubleshot PBT "pudding caps" which have a white translucent ring around the outside to let more of the backlight show through. I plan on using the Vortex caps for most of the keys, and the Pudding Caps for accents. I think it should look pretty cool along with a backlight color scheme that uses different colors for the pudding cap keys.
Meanwhile, since I am a little bit OCD, I decided that I wanted at least 3 keyboard:
One for work where the priorities would be silence, tactility, and ease of use (hence the TKL choice)
One for home where the priorities would be retro aesthetics, tactility, and overall enjoyment of use
One for gaming where the priorities would be flashy looks, linear switches, and portability
So, for my home KB I ordered a kbdfans custom GK64 from KBDFans with a wooden case. I'm going to throw on some Maxkeys SA Dolch keycaps with orange legends that I picked up on r/mechmarket. The switches I will be using are the new Kailh + Novelkeys "Thick Clicks" box jades. The wooden frame, with the carbon fiber plate and the Thick Click switches, should sound very loud and unusual!
For gaming, I have ordered a 60% called an igk62 from a group buy on pc-100.com. I couldn't find much info or reviews about these guys but their keyboards look interesting and cool. This one has a 62 key layout, RGB backlight, and Gateron red linear optical switches. I think the optical switches sound very interesting, I will have to see if they feel different. Meanwhile, I also purchased some Gateron silent reds, and some Cherry silent reds. I am guessing that unless the optical switches are much nicer in some way, which I doubt, I will probably put silent reds in there. For whatever reason I really like the idea of silenced switches.
I also, for some reason, ordered a Contra 40% that I will be building. Not sure yet what switches I will use, possibly Kailh box whites, Cherry silent reds, I dunno yet. I need to figure out what this keyboard will be used for, other than just a fun project! I got PBT DSA keycaps for this one from AliExpress.
All of the above stuff either is pre-ordered and won't ship out until February, or else it's just waiting for slow shipping from China (kbdfans or aliexpress). To try and keep myself happy until then, I ordered some PBT DSA dolch keycaps to put on my cheap Rottay keyboard at work. That might be fun for a while.
This hobby is turning out to be addictive and expensive! It's funny, I made all these purchases but the only completely assembled keyboard I have is the first one I bought, the Rottay cheapo I got on Amazon. Come late February I'm suddenly going to go from having 1 keyboard to having 5 in my collection
)
