Carter and I had a fantastic talk the other week, and he brought along one of the new QFXTs. Apparently, this was a gift to me, and since I'm poor, I took it. I'm writing a review in thanks, but also because I'm a horrible liar, and so I figure someone might be able to benefit from my thoughts of this board.
That said, I'm also super lazy, so instead of writing something new, I'm just going to quote myself from the email I sent to Carter regarding the board:
just fyi and neither here nor there, but huge props on this XT. I
finally got around to using it for a few minutes and it feels
genuinely fantastic. hope it's a huge seller.
on a more relevant note, apologies to your contractors but
the keycaps are quite deficient, and don't do the board justice at
all. they're workable, but this board would really really shine with
some high quality keycaps. plate and case rigidity is fantastic out of
the box -- you made exactly the right compromises as far as the case
moldings and plate were concerned. i'm really, really impressed.
The major differences between the XT and the current CM Storm line is that it is lower profile (I don't have measurements, sorry.). It uses what seems to be a more rigid black powdercoated stainless steel plate in all models (previously I believe only the red switched model was painted and I don't remember my QFR green plate being as rigid), and it uses a full USB A (not mini or micro) PCB mount connector. There may be other new features, but if there are, you'll have to refer to the marketing text, because I can't for the life of me remember any of them.
What the XT is is a very very solid inexpensive Cherry board with a nice low profile and excellent rigidity. It feels fantastic, and it should be much less expensive than anything else with this level of quality on the market. I also vaguely remember Carter saying something about the rapid being revised, but I have a terrible memory (in addition to not be capable of lying, among other things, so who knows!).
I think he said something about the rubber on the board he gave me being preproduction, so i won't say anything about it except that it's excellent, and that I hope the production versions are as excellent if not more.
Anyway, it's quite early and I can't think of anything else to say. This is almost certainly the best of the full-sized Cherry boards. Many a detail was sweated, and all the right compromises were made to make an excellent base board to support your huge 2-shot and clack collection
). Certainly don't bother with the Rosewill or Monoprice boards anymore -- my understanding is that this unit will reach about the same ballpark price, and it is far superior.
Alright then! That's all I can think of. Please feel free to quiz me or call me dirty names or whatever it is you'd like to do in response.
eta: Oh wait! I've remembered something! Apparently, the rubberized coating on the top case of this board is thicker than previous boards. The top case has an excellent feel, so that sounds about right.