First post - lurked for a month or two - joined today

[Zlaw]

Hi everyone ! or just the people who see this ...

Always had a love for computers and recently have been watching custom builds on YouTube and want to get involved. Currently writing this as I am 12 hours into this coding session and I need to take my mind off things. Where do I even start? I know it’s only a few parts and pieces but sheesh.

I want to order a piece/part a week and hopefully have it finished to start the new year.

Budget can be $500-$1000

I see a a lot of these GB and those look cool and all but is there a way for me to just order pieces here and there from people on here ?

Also If anyone has a finished product they want to sell , I’m all ears. I think it would be good to have a finished one on hand when I build mine.

Zlaw

[shadowku]

Welcome!

How familiar are you with keyboard switches? Have you ever used MX-Cherry switches, Gateron, Zealios, etc?
If you're not too familiar, it'll be hard to know what kind of switches you'll end up really liking. Not sure if there are any local keyboard meetings in your city, but that would be a good place to try some keyboards.

As for building, I'd start with something simple like https://kbdfans.com/
They sell full kits and separate parts, but you'll have to do your research to see which pieces are compatible with one another.
This will likely be only your first keyboard of more to come, so no need to try to build the perfect keyboard on your first shot.
 

[cheetodust]

Hey OP, I'm still pretty new to the hobby myself so I'll tell you what really helped me get oriented at first.  Like you, I started with youtube videos of build streams and keyboard reviews.  This is how I got familiar with some of the different layouts, switches, and aesthetics that are popular in the community. 

Next I started focusing on layout - what blend of size and functionality would work best for me?  I decided on 65% personally, and then started looking at online shops like kbdfans.com (good recommendation above) to get an idea for what kits were out there if I wanted to do my own build.