Hello from Germany

[BullRage]

Hi community,

My name is BullRage and I was falling deep in the custom keyboard rabbit hole a few weeks ago.
So, what better place to join than geekhack?!

I'm currently picking parts and waiting for them to arrive, to build my first custom keyboard.
I figured, that my favorite profiles are the non-sculptured ones like DSA, XDA, KAM, NP and maybe SA Row 3.

I don't have a preferred switch (haven't tested much besides cherries), but for my gaming keyboard I'll use a mixture of linears and tactiles. For my second build (just typing, no gaming) I'm still waiting on a switch tester to arrive to decide between tactiles (probably HP or Zealios V2) or Clickies (probably NK x Box Kailh Jade or Navy).

My favorite keyboard format is a 75% (I know, there is not a lot out there for it) and second full-size 100%.

Other than that I'm trying to learn a bit of blender and hopefully will run an IC or even a GP in the future, inspired by my PC, SP SA 1976 and Noctua fans.

Thank you for your attention and looking forward to good conversations and a lot of lurking.

[Maledicted]

Hi BullRage. Welcome to Geekhack.

Geekhack would be the place for custom boards, that's for sure.

You must have done some research if you've come to all of these conclusions without trying anything other than Cherry. Linears are usually a pretty good bet for gaming if you ask me, but maybe that's just because I've used MX reds for that purpose since I dumped rubber domes years ago.

I'm no fan of MX (or clone) tactiles myself, but if you like clickies at all, you'll love both jades and navies. The navies are pretty stiff though, especially for someone used to the lighter MX switches like brown, red, and blue. Even jades are going to be a little jarring by comparison. Jades are wonderfully bassy for a clicky switch though. If either of those seem too heavy, at least to start, box pinks are a great compromise too.

I think 75% is a great compromise layout. I don't think I really need anything that big myself, but I couldn't go any smaller than a 60% with dedicated arrow keys either, and seem to use full-sized boards more than anything else anyway.

Personally, I wish Noctua made some more fans that weren't different shades of brown or cream myself. I'm sure they fit some builds great, but I find myself trying to hide them, if I bother to get them at all. I stuffed some in some version 1.0 original Xbox consoles for a cooling upgrades, since they're hiding under the optical drive anyway. That IC sounds interesting though, although I don't have a huge interest in caps myself. I wish you luck in your endeavour.

[BullRage]

Hi BullRage. Welcome to Geekhack.

Geekhack would be the place for custom boards, that's for sure.

You must have done some research if you've come to all of these conclusions without trying anything other than Cherry. Linears are usually a pretty good bet for gaming if you ask me, but maybe that's just because I've used MX reds for that purpose since I dumped rubber domes years ago.

I'm no fan of MX (or clone) tactiles myself, but if you like clickies at all, you'll love both jades and navies. The navies are pretty stiff though, especially for someone used to the lighter MX switches like brown, red, and blue. Even jades are going to be a little jarring by comparison. Jades are wonderfully bassy for a clicky switch though. If either of those seem too heavy, at least to start, box pinks are a great compromise too.

I think 75% is a great compromise layout. I don't think I really need anything that big myself, but I couldn't go any smaller than a 60% with dedicated arrow keys either, and seem to use full-sized boards more than anything else anyway.

Personally, I wish Noctua made some more fans that weren't different shades of brown or cream myself. I'm sure they fit some builds great, but I find myself trying to hide them, if I bother to get them at all. I stuffed some in some version 1.0 original Xbox consoles for a cooling upgrades, since they're hiding under the optical drive anyway. That IC sounds interesting though, although I don't have a huge interest in caps myself. I wish you luck in your endeavour.

Hey Maledicted,

Thanks for the advice on the switches.
I did a lot of research and the Tealios and Zealios already arrived and I'm more than happy with the decision, even before lubing.
A little bit further explanation:
I am still full into PC building and did a lot of builds for myself and almost all my friends. The last or currently build I am doing, is build completely around the Noctua colors and super graphics. It should be done in the next few weeks. Only the clear coating is missing on the case and than the big case swap will happen.
So I came up with this crazy idea of a matching keyboard and suddenly I needed to know everything about mechanical keyboards. I even changed my layout from ISO to ANSI, because there were much more options available. Then I realised I need a lot of keys for work and complex games (and PUBG), so I'm stuck again with less options (75%, 100% or maybe 65%). That's life...

I never payed much attention to the mechs besides the usual gaming keyboards like Corsair and Razr, but even though my first build isn't even finished yet, I can't imagine going back.

Thank you again for the advices and especially for the warm welcome.

Edit: typo

[Maledicted]

Hi BullRage. Welcome to Geekhack.

Geekhack would be the place for custom boards, that's for sure.

You must have done some research if you've come to all of these conclusions without trying anything other than Cherry. Linears are usually a pretty good bet for gaming if you ask me, but maybe that's just because I've used MX reds for that purpose since I dumped rubber domes years ago.

I'm no fan of MX (or clone) tactiles myself, but if you like clickies at all, you'll love both jades and navies. The navies are pretty stiff though, especially for someone used to the lighter MX switches like brown, red, and blue. Even jades are going to be a little jarring by comparison. Jades are wonderfully bassy for a clicky switch though. If either of those seem too heavy, at least to start, box pinks are a great compromise too.

I think 75% is a great compromise layout. I don't think I really need anything that big myself, but I couldn't go any smaller than a 60% with dedicated arrow keys either, and seem to use full-sized boards more than anything else anyway.

Personally, I wish Noctua made some more fans that weren't different shades of brown or cream myself. I'm sure they fit some builds great, but I find myself trying to hide them, if I bother to get them at all. I stuffed some in some version 1.0 original Xbox consoles for a cooling upgrades, since they're hiding under the optical drive anyway. That IC sounds interesting though, although I don't have a huge interest in caps myself. I wish you luck in your endeavour.

Hey Maledicted,

Thanks for the advice on the switches.
I did a lot of research and the Tealios and Zealios already arrived and I'm more than happy with the decision, even before lubing.

That's good to hear. I have never tried any fancy boutique MX clones myself. I wouldn't turn down the offer to do so if meets ever become a thing again after the apocalypse, but I'm in no hurry either. I don't see much besides praise for most things Zeal puts out.

A little bit further explanation:
I am still full into PC building and did a lot of builds for myself and almost all my friends. The last or currently build I am doing, is build completely around the Noctua colors and super graphics. It should be done in the next few weeks.

You managed to find graphics cards? What kind of shady back alley deal with the mob did you do?

Only the clear coating is missing on the case and than the big case swap will happen.

Well, that's awesome. I would love to see it, although I'm not sure where it should be posted besides in this thread. Maybe in the Other Geeky Stuff section. I plastidipped certain parts of a case for someone once, no painting otherwise. it was only available in black and green and they wanted that case specifically but with blue instead of green.

So I came up with this crazy idea of a matching keyboard and suddenly I needed to know everything about mechanical keyboards. I even changed my layout from ISO to ANSI, because there were much more options available. Then I realised I need a lot of keys for work and complex games (and PUBG), so I'm stuck again with less options (75%, 100% or maybe 65%). That's life...

How's the transition to ANSI been? I think 40% and 60% are way more popular than they should be. It makes me wonder how many people actually use a keyboard as a tool instead of just browsing forums and social media.

I never payed much attention to the mechs besides the usual gaming keyboards like Corsair and Razr, but even though my first build isn't even finished yet, I can't imagine going back.

The board still connected to my gaming rig is an old Corsair K70 with MX reds. lol

I think gaming boards can work as a nice gateway into greater interest into mechanicals. I don't think most people today would have ever heard of them otherwise unless they used Model Ms in the 80s or something. I was perfectly happy with MX blue and MX red myself for years until I tried the capacitive buckling spring switches in an F XT board I bought to work with an old XT clone computer.

Thank you again for the advices and especially for the warm welcome.

You're welcome. Good luck with the Noctua theme.