IMO, stock realforce is fine but not all realforce enthusiasts make it out to be. Drawbacks for me include, build quality/weight, tactility and smoothness. As far as tactility, I actually prefer BTC boards. In order to make it great I had to mod mine.
This is one distinct advantage custom MX style builds have, you can get extremely well build boards.
So in order to get the most out of my topre boards I lube the sliders and stabs, I swap in BKE redux domes, and I put stick-on tire balance wights in the case. I know it sounds silly but the added wight makes it feel better, makes it not slide around the desk and yes, even helps with the sound. Plus, heavy = psychological placebo good feels
Now that I've done all that, I consider my realfoce to be among my very best boards. I'll show you a pic purely for vanity sake
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Huh, I have a stock 87u and am perfectly happy with it. I like having a board which I didn't need to change anything on for it to be great (okay, I did change the spacebar to PBT which I'd forgotten about until reading this thread).
The only two minor flaws I can identify on it are that the case creaks a little if I pick it up and squeeze it, and the left control key is a little wobbly. I don't pick up the case, and I don't use left control, so neither are problems for me.
My Royal Kludge electro capacitive has smoother key travel, but at the expense of heavily reduced tactility. And of course had to have the original caps replaced. My BTC is stiffer and feels slightly grittier.
I've thought of replacing the caps on the 87U, but it's just so satisfying having a stock board that was so usable right out of the box.
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Edit: Dammit, I shouldn't have come into this thread, now I've started thinking about the keyboard too much, and noticed that spacebar is a bit loud, and want to figure out how to reduce the sound.