Hello, I am new. What have I gotten myself into?

[thurst0n]

Hello   
I just purchased the ttesports Meka G1 Prime edition.

It is my understanding this is Costar's "Reference" design. I think its basically exactly the same as the WASD, and Rosewill and Coolermaster and Filco majestouch and some others.

I am enjoying the brown switches very much. I'm probably going to get a capslock key with a step Because I play a lot of Starcraft and need to be able to 1-A Without issue ;-) And who can turn down those Mario/Luigi keycaps?

I am also thinking about trying some dampeners too depending on what people think? Not something I need just something I want to try out.

If someone had time or knows I'm wondering what printing is used on these keys, they don't seem to be any of the common ones but what do I know. I'll post pics when I'm home.

Does this board mount switches with a plate or straight to PCB? I'm going to do my own research and do a full write up, because I hate how all the info is pieced together from various sources.
Oh so much to learn.

[F u r u y á]

Hi and welcome!

And I didn't know about that Costar webpage, thanks for the link

Regarding your question, if it's made by Costar then it uses a plate (I've never heard of PCB mounted Costar keyboards, but you never know). In this thread your keyboard is listed in the Costar section, so your understanding is correct!

[Flying4Pandas]

Welcome!!! I too am interested in knowing more about the dampeners. I'm sure if you ask around, someone here has some experience with them!

PS: Super cool keyboard man, how much did that set you back?

EDIT: Check out this link for a dampener review: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=40227.0

[Lunartuna]

I had a Mionix Zibal 60(same Costar board). It really is a great board. Almost too good of a board to start with because the build quality is so high, when you buy non-Costar boards for features that Costar doesn't have like different coloured LEDs or 60% and 75% size, you will notice the lower quality. One thing I noticed about mine compared to my Ducky and Choc Mini is the switch placement is absolutely perfect. They all line up perfectly with the casing and themselves. My Ducky and Choc Mini both have flaws in this aspect.

[Lunartuna]

OH YEAH DAMPENERS.

They work great for dampening the sound of bottoming out a switch. You will still hear the sound of the switch returning to the top of its actuation.

They all change the feel of bottoming out.

[thurst0n]

Thanks All! 

@Furuya - Yeah it was weird, I was basically looking for an official costart page like that during my entire search and during all of my research. And then I found it when I wasn't really even looking anymore, just on a whim. Notice if you go to the top menu of their site you can click to see all their models. Das is pretty obvious haha.

@Flying4Pandas - It was $140 on Newegg. I don't think i'll get the $30 rebate that was going. Day before I bought it it was 9.99 off and last day of the $30 rebate. The day after I bought it was the first day of the new $30 rebate and no longer on sale.

@Lunartuna - First of all, great name. I can tell this is a pretty solid piece of handiwork. I've never had a mechanical keyboard before but I can just tell this is a relatively solid keyboard even with nothing to compare it to. I haven't gone underneath too much just yet, took off a few keycaps. No matter what new toy I get I like to play with it in "Box-Mode" aka Stock for at least 2 weeks so that I have a baseline. I may end up doing some serious modding down the road so I'm very interested to see different qualities. Good to know some perspective so I don't spoil myself ;-).
Re: Dampeners.. yeah I'll try it out, they're not too expensive, seems like you can re-use them on a different board no problem, and also it's obviously extremely low risk. I still bottom out more than I should, but I've had the board for less than a week and I'm still getting used to where the actuation point really is. Gotta fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee with this bad boy :-)