Vortex race II

[Carnage]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

[exitfire401]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

[thesupergeek]

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

[Carnage]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

[exitfire401]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

The caps are covered with a thick UV coating and the legends are lasered, so they are going to be prone to chipping as time goes on. I have a small chip on one of my caps already. As for replacing, they're not 100% easy to replace as you need multiple sets of modifiers for the arrow cluster and surrounding keys due to the size.

[Carnage]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

The caps are covered with a thick UV coating and the legends are lasered, so they are going to be prone to chipping as time goes on. I have a small chip on one of my caps already. As for replacing, they're not 100% easy to replace as you need multiple sets of modifiers for the arrow cluster and surrounding keys due to the size.

I see I didn't know that. One of the thing's that pushed me away from the noppoo choc mini was the sizes for some keys ((Like the space bar)) was really unique to that specific board and most of the other 75% didn't use that size and where more standard. Would the race II be able to use any keys from a basic 75% board (( like keycools)) or would I need to dig deeper to find more of custom ones of the race II exactly ?

[exitfire401]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

The caps are covered with a thick UV coating and the legends are lasered, so they are going to be prone to chipping as time goes on. I have a small chip on one of my caps already. As for replacing, they're not 100% easy to replace as you need multiple sets of modifiers for the arrow cluster and surrounding keys due to the size.

I see I didn't know that. One of the thing's that pushed me away from the noppoo choc mini was the sizes for some keys ((Like the space bar)) was really unique to that specific board and most of the other 75% didn't use that size and where more standard. Would the race II be able to use any keys from a basic 75% board (( like keycools)) or would I need to dig deeper to find more of custom ones of the race II exactly ?

It would depend on what you were looking for. Keycool sets wouldn't have enough keys out of the box that are the proper size. Also, the top row is a completely different profile than normal, so they would normally sit a little higher. I've tested it, and normal top row keys don't feel bad, but there are still size discrepancies.

[Carnage]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

The caps are covered with a thick UV coating and the legends are lasered, so they are going to be prone to chipping as time goes on. I have a small chip on one of my caps already. As for replacing, they're not 100% easy to replace as you need multiple sets of modifiers for the arrow cluster and surrounding keys due to the size.

I see I didn't know that. One of the thing's that pushed me away from the noppoo choc mini was the sizes for some keys ((Like the space bar)) was really unique to that specific board and most of the other 75% didn't use that size and where more standard. Would the race II be able to use any keys from a basic 75% board (( like keycools)) or would I need to dig deeper to find more of custom ones of the race II exactly ?

It would depend on what you were looking for. Keycool sets wouldn't have enough keys out of the box that are the proper size. Also, the top row is a completely different profile than normal, so they would normally sit a little higher. I've tested it, and normal top row keys don't feel bad, but there are still size discrepancies.

Do you know if vortex sells caps specifically for the race 2 or no? I've always liked replacing keycaps on my board's which is why I have like 4 different complete set's for my unicomp. Since I've also never owned a back light keyboard before like the race 2 I was not exactly sure what kind of caps I would need. So I was thinking of just trying to find a nice transparent pair to put on there since it seemed like the easier way to go and I could also enjoy the nice back lighting then.

I would just buy a extra set from vortex encase mine started chipping but knowing I will most likely have to replace some keys sort of sound's like a huge drag. On my unicomp atm I'm just using blank keycaps which I really enjoy.

[exitfire401]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

The caps are covered with a thick UV coating and the legends are lasered, so they are going to be prone to chipping as time goes on. I have a small chip on one of my caps already. As for replacing, they're not 100% easy to replace as you need multiple sets of modifiers for the arrow cluster and surrounding keys due to the size.

I see I didn't know that. One of the thing's that pushed me away from the noppoo choc mini was the sizes for some keys ((Like the space bar)) was really unique to that specific board and most of the other 75% didn't use that size and where more standard. Would the race II be able to use any keys from a basic 75% board (( like keycools)) or would I need to dig deeper to find more of custom ones of the race II exactly ?

It would depend on what you were looking for. Keycool sets wouldn't have enough keys out of the box that are the proper size. Also, the top row is a completely different profile than normal, so they would normally sit a little higher. I've tested it, and normal top row keys don't feel bad, but there are still size discrepancies.

Do you know if vortex sells caps specifically for the race 2 or no? I've always liked replacing keycaps on my board's which is why I have like 4 different complete set's for my unicomp. Since I've also never owned a back light keyboard before like the race 2 I was not exactly sure what kind of caps I would need. So I was thinking of just trying to find a nice transparent pair to put on there since it seemed like the easier way to go and I could also enjoy the nice back lighting then.

I would just buy a extra set from vortex encase mine started chipping but knowing I will most likely have to replace some keys sort of sound's like a huge drag. On my unicomp atm I'm just using blank keycaps which I really enjoy.

I haven't seen a set from Vortex yet, but they usually do put out sets compatible with their boards. As far as what you can use with backlighting, I've used PBT with backlights before and that looks very good. It's really just up to what you want to use.

[Carnage]

Anybody have or try one of these boards? or any of the board by the company vortex?

I have never heard of vortex until the past two weeks and have been reading other post's around about them and everything seems solid but I'd feel a bit better about purchasing ones If I had some recent first hand opinions. I'm slightly worried about there return policy or faulty switches / wiring. I recently seen a pic on here of a vortex poker where the board had a big burn mark and was fried out by the persons macbook which sort of worries me.

While I will be using a PC seeing that does raise some concern's. So any first hand experience / input with this board / company's build quality and customer service would be great~

I've had the Race II since release. It's a wonderful board, the only thing I didn't like about it was the plastic case. It feels a bit cheap, and I highly prefer the feeling of aluminum cases, but they're hard to find for the Race (I got lucky and got one from another user from an old group buy). I highly recommend the board as the layout is not hard to learn (basic qwerty and the side keys are easy enough to memorize) and the toggle on the programming layer is an amazingly wonderful feature that I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't started using.

Thanks for the input I will defiantly be looking to replace the case eventually then. Yeah i love the layout and good to know the programming layer is easy to use and learn. On a side note how are the keycaps will they need to be replaced with more solid double shots or are the stock ones nice?

Vortex makes the Poker2's, and I love mine. They are super great. I dont know about the Race's though...

Yeah the poker 2 is the one I think I seen the pic of the board being fried by a macbook that sort of worries me nice to hear you have had no such issues with your's though!

The caps are covered with a thick UV coating and the legends are lasered, so they are going to be prone to chipping as time goes on. I have a small chip on one of my caps already. As for replacing, they're not 100% easy to replace as you need multiple sets of modifiers for the arrow cluster and surrounding keys due to the size.

I see I didn't know that. One of the thing's that pushed me away from the noppoo choc mini was the sizes for some keys ((Like the space bar)) was really unique to that specific board and most of the other 75% didn't use that size and where more standard. Would the race II be able to use any keys from a basic 75% board (( like keycools)) or would I need to dig deeper to find more of custom ones of the race II exactly ?

It would depend on what you were looking for. Keycool sets wouldn't have enough keys out of the box that are the proper size. Also, the top row is a completely different profile than normal, so they would normally sit a little higher. I've tested it, and normal top row keys don't feel bad, but there are still size discrepancies.

Do you know if vortex sells caps specifically for the race 2 or no? I've always liked replacing keycaps on my board's which is why I have like 4 different complete set's for my unicomp. Since I've also never owned a back light keyboard before like the race 2 I was not exactly sure what kind of caps I would need. So I was thinking of just trying to find a nice transparent pair to put on there since it seemed like the easier way to go and I could also enjoy the nice back lighting then.

I would just buy a extra set from vortex encase mine started chipping but knowing I will most likely have to replace some keys sort of sound's like a huge drag. On my unicomp atm I'm just using blank keycaps which I really enjoy.

I haven't seen a set from Vortex yet, but they usually do put out sets compatible with their boards. As far as what you can use with backlighting, I've used PBT with backlights before and that looks very good. It's really just up to what you want to use.

I see are you still using the stock caps on your board? also if it's not to blunt for me to ask could I maybe see a pic of your's with the custom case and what not I would like to see how it looks.

[exitfire401]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

[Carnage]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

Wow that thing is gorgeous you did an amazing job. That LED cable was a beautiful finishing touch. I think I'm hooked now I just have to get one!

[exitfire401]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

Wow that thing is gorgeous you did an amazing job. That LED cable was a beautiful finishing touch. I think I'm hooked now I just have to get one!

  Glad to hear!

[Carnage]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

Wow that thing is gorgeous you did an amazing job. That LED cable was a beautiful finishing touch. I think I'm hooked now I just have to get one!

  Glad to hear!

Going to order mine right now from mechanicalkeyboards.com Thanks for the help and convincing me!

[exitfire401]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

Wow that thing is gorgeous you did an amazing job. That LED cable was a beautiful finishing touch. I think I'm hooked now I just have to get one!

  Glad to hear!

Going to order mine right now from mechanicalkeyboards.com Thanks for the help and convincing me!

Not a problem! If you need any help with the board, let me know.

[awong]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

Where do you buy case?

[exitfire401]

Sure, here it is:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57612.msg1310392#msg1310392

Where do you buy case?

It's from an old group buy and is not available anymore.

[sdiearly]

I haven't seen a set from Vortex yet, but they usually do put out sets compatible with their boards. As far as what you can use with backlighting, I've used PBT with backlights before and that looks very good. It's really just up to what you want to use.

There were three kinds of compatible key caps set that vortex released for KBtalKing Race1.
http://imgur.com/a/4w8hJ
All of them are compatible with Race2.