New Here With a Few Questions

[OnTheBrink]

Hey all, Brink here. Just going to start off by saying I love the info I've found on this forum and want to jump in as I have become a keyboard enthusiast myself. Although, I am quite newb, I share the same enthusiasm.

Now for my questions. I am in the market for a new board and after trying Razer's mechanical line (hold the flame I know they suck) I will never go back to anything besides mechanical.

I wanted to get a custom board so started to do some research. I know I want Cherry MX red switches with PTB key caps (willing to obviously spend) I am looking to black out the letters with the rest black with engraved letters leaving the escape key and WSAD red keys.

I read that WASD currently gives a slight advantage in quality over the Filco leaving it the best in terms if quality. Is this true? If so, I am going to wait until V2 Tenkeyless since the chassis is much nicer.

If this is not true, what board is best quality as a Tenkeyless? I like least amount of branding.

Also, where can I buy custom PTB key caps? Thick or thin?

[daerid]

I read that WASD currently gives a slight advantage in quality over the Filco leaving it the best in terms if quality. Is this true? If so, I am going to wait until V2 Tenkeyless since the chassis is much nicer.

If this is not true, what board is best quality as a Tenkeyless? I like least amount of branding.

Also, where can I buy custom PTB key caps? Thick or thin?

Where did you read that? I've never heard that. I've never owned a WASD, but I have owned a Filco, and if Cherry MX is what you're going for, as far as I'm concerned they're the top of the line.

As far as custom PBT caps, check the Group Buys forum or Classifieds forum for imsto's caps (he also has a vendor forum here as well).

[link_tree]

Hey all, Brink here. Just going to start off by saying I love the info I've found on this forum and want to jump in as I have become a keyboard enthusiast myself. Although, I am quite newb, I share the same enthusiasm.

Now for my questions. I am in the market for a new board and after trying Razer's mechanical line (hold the flame I know they suck) I will never go back to anything besides mechanical.

I wanted to get a custom board so started to do some research. I know I want Cherry MX red switches with PTB key caps (willing to obviously spend) I am looking to black out the letters with the rest black with engraved letters leaving the escape key and WSAD red keys.

I read that WASD currently gives a slight advantage in quality over the Filco leaving it the best in terms if quality. Is this true? If so, I am going to wait until V2 Tenkeyless since the chassis is much nicer.

If this is not true, what board is best quality as a Tenkeyless? I like least amount of branding.

Also, where can I buy custom PTB key caps? Thick or thin?

first of all welcome to geekhack!
I didn't understand exactly what you mean by "black out the letters". I hope you are not considering going with a black marker over the letters. 
there are already made PBT(Polybutylene terephthalate) keycaps that are made either blank, engraved or with black letters.

I don't know where you heard that WASD has better quality then Filco but in my opinion it isn't correct. the only thing though that the WASD V2 will have over Filco would be the DIP switches on the bottom of the keyboard that will allow you to switch the keyboard layout(changing the position of each letter to a different one)
this function could be useful for some but for the majority of people, not so much.
I can assure you that the Filco keyboards has top notch quality.
there are quite a few places from which you can get PBT keycaps many of them can be found on ebay.
what do you mean by custom keycaps? if you are looking for a special color combination or a specific drawing on there theres a factory named Signature Plastics and you can google them.

[vun]

Aren't WASD Costar-made? Not sure if they're made to the same specs as a Filco, but if they're Costar then the difference in quality can't be all that massive.

[OnTheBrink]

I read that WASD currently gives a slight advantage in quality over the Filco leaving it the best in terms if quality. Is this true? If so, I am going to wait until V2 Tenkeyless since the chassis is much nicer.

If this is not true, what board is best quality as a Tenkeyless? I like least amount of branding.

Also, where can I buy custom PTB key caps? Thick or thin?

Where did you read that? I've never heard that. I've never owned a WASD, but I have owned a Filco, and if Cherry MX is what you're going for, as far as I'm concerned they're the top of the line.

As far as custom PBT caps, check the Group Buys forum or Classifieds forum for imsto's caps (he also has a vendor forum here as well).

Just google WASD vs Filco and pretty much everyone who OWNS both states WASD uses the same parts as Filco but the chassis feels a bit more sturdy.

As for PTB key caps, has anyone used these guys?

http://keycapsdirect.com/index.php

They seem to make custom PTB caps.

Aren't WASD Costar-made? Not sure if they're made to the same specs as a Filco, but if they're Costar then the difference in quality can't be all that massive.

Which is why I said "slight" in the OP.

[daerid]

...if they're Costar then the difference in quality can't be all that massive.

Not true at all. Costar manufactures to the specifications given to them. Those specs could have quite a bit of variation to them

[vun]

...if they're Costar then the difference in quality can't be all that massive.

Not true at all. Costar manufactures to the specifications given to them. Those specs could have quite a bit of variation to them

Which is why I said that they might not be made to the same specs as something like Filco, but it seems like Costar generally does more solid work than other OEMs. This could be because everyone who goes "make this as cheap as humanly possible" would rather go to a cheaper OEM like iOne.

[OnTheBrink]

...if they're Costar then the difference in quality can't be all that massive.

Not true at all. Costar manufactures to the specifications given to them. Those specs could have quite a bit of variation to them

Which is why I said that they might not be made to the same specs as something like Filco, but it seems like Costar generally does more solid work than other OEMs. This could be because everyone who goes "make this as cheap as humanly possible" would rather go to a cheaper OEM like iOne.

You sir, suffer from selective reading.

[vun]

...if they're Costar then the difference in quality can't be all that massive.

Not true at all. Costar manufactures to the specifications given to them. Those specs could have quite a bit of variation to them

Which is why I said that they might not be made to the same specs as something like Filco, but it seems like Costar generally does more solid work than other OEMs. This could be because everyone who goes "make this as cheap as humanly possible" would rather go to a cheaper OEM like iOne.

You sir, suffer from selective reading.

Ah, sorry, I missed your post somehow. Oddly enough I blame the lack of avatar, the fact that daerid has an avatar must've caught my eye and then I focused on replying to him. My apologies.

[tp4tissue]

Doesn't matter which OEM, buying a keyboard is a crapshoot. the best of the best has lemons.

IMO, you can buy Ione, as long as you get it from a place like AMAZON.com where they allow easy exchanges for DOA// defective.

[OnTheBrink]

I think I am going to get two boards. One with Red and one with Blue switches from WASDKeyboards. Although, I am going to wait for the Tenkeyless V2. Look how sexy this is:

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/blog

No logos is a major selling point for me.

Definitely getting a set of PTB key caps though. I love that matte feel and finish. Anyone have any recommendations on what to look for when picking up the key caps?