Question

[loxon76]

I’m trying to get a new keyboard and I was going to look for linear switches. Are alpacas still a good pick? What is a good switch for beginners that can sound nice either unlubed or lubed as I might lube.

Mod Edit: Removed spam link; leaving post and response out of respect to the responder (it's good info)

[Rhienfo]

Alpacas are fine, but they do need to be lubed to be pretty smooth. I don't know about newer versions of the alpacas but older ones really benefited from filming them, so if you are gonna film them, then use a thin film for them. They sound very high pitched so if you want a higher pitch sound then they are quite fine. I personally think they are kinda overpriced if you are specifically looking for what the alpacas bring to the table, then you can justify the price.

For beginners I do recommend pre lubed switches. Gat pros are a great budget option about 25-30c a switch depending on where you buy them, they are pretty good for pre-lubed switches and you can pop them in and use them stock and it should be fine for a first build.

If you want to lube yourself (which would probably be a lot better in terms of switch feel, but not as much as you might think) then another option could like gat yellows are good (which are cheaper than pros but if you buy all of the materials needed to lube will be more expensive). You might want to look into filming them, I know people did film their gat yellows but I don't know how effective it is. If you do want gat pros/yellows I would suggest the ones that have a "milky top" and a black bottom on the switch (the switch number on the gateron official website is KS-3X47 if your confused by that description) as I think they sound the best, but I don't think there is a major feel difference between the variants.

These are just examples that I would recommend, there are tons of great options now, so you should look more into it, I just think that gateron pros/yellows are a good starting point.

Hope this helps in some way.