I use that keyboard at work and think it's a sexy board but in no way would I use it for gaming. The keys have a low profile similar to a membrane board and, for cherry black switches, it has a "mushy" feel. The "mushy" feel is present on both boards that I use but may or may not be applicable to all boards of this model. The track pad is serviceable for work and light internet usage but I'd still be more inclined to reach for my mouse than the track pad.
That's good to know. I hate that mushy feeling when I type or game. As for the track pad, I noticed that a lot of people here don't like using one xD Does anyone here use a trackpad with their laptop? I haven't owned a laptop since the early 00s but I used the trackpad once in a while.
Ah the good ol' days. Sometimes I wish I was old enough to start a PC business back in the 80s or followed through with my plans in the early 00's when I was in HS. With the low desktop sales in the previous years, I'm worried I'm 10 years too late 
Good luck with the biz, man. It's going to take a lot of work and you will need to bring something to the table that consumers can't get elsewhere. I started a custom PC business geared towards gamers and power users (with cool custom cases and lighting...the whole 9 yards) in 2002 and by 2005 we had almost completely moved to PC service and on-site support. By 2007-2009 we moved into mainly commercial support/hosting/ISP. Making a living building PCs is not easy.
I haven't seen anyone create anything like what I'm thinking of. I'm currently building a prototype and yes it takes a LOT of work esp if you don't have the right tools or even a place to work it on. My work bench is a tv tray in my bedroom haha but it gets the job done for now.
How did the custom PC business go? Did you have to switch because the lack of customers? Are you still doing commercial business still? It sounds like quite an adventure you were having
I'm starting a similar venture marketed towards gamers. What I am planning to do is start out with a unique product ( I think keyboard enthusiasts would especially like it, so I would start with them) and then build off the success of that unique product. Then, my plan is to offer some more common products to upsell. I think having that unique product lineup is key to any eCommerce business these days.
The problem is the closer I get to launching, the crazier I think I am for taking this risk. "Why can you just be happy with a normal job?" I sometimes ask myself. I wish you luck with your venture, OP. Keep pressing forward. It is very tough to try and do this type of thing. I believe in my heart though that if you truly offer something special, people will respond positively to it.
Yeah having a unique product will draw attention and potential buyers unless if it looks way too funky like some of Alienware stuffs I've seen in the past.
I have the same thought haha and then I look at my current job. Hmm working for a self storage company, getting paid less than new hires even though I've been with the company for almost 10 years, loosing hair from stress because of angry customers or the occasional break-ins... yeah I'm going to take a risk and start my own business lol At least I'll be doing something that I enjoy finally. Thanks for wishing me luck! I'll definitely have something special that people want
The biggest thing with a business like this is being in a location with constant population turnover, read college town.
Luckily I live in San Diego near a university. I'll have to sneak into that campus and post my advertisements around >.>
You can very easily start a business of this type without having to quit your "day" job. The hard part is coming up with a unique product that will sell; and if it does sell will there continue to be a market for it and is there enough of a margin for it to be profitable? The tech business is constantly changing (very quickly quite often) and you need to be able to see and adapt to changes in the industry as quickly as they occur...
Absolutely go for it and good luck to both of you! Start small, test the waters, and see what happens.
Seeing if there's going to be a market for it and making a profit is one of the things I'm most worried about. The worst thing to do is close the business a few months after starting lol
I'm going to start small and order a dozen of the cases and see how it goes. I would hate it if I start big and order thousands them only to find out that my mom and a friend is the only customer (mom buys out of pity of course) xD
Just a note most gamers want a 104-key layout in the younger crowd. They feel like they will need the extra keys and stuff. Your also going to compete against $70 razer blackwidows which some of my friends love they wanted a "gamer keyboard". Just my opinion...
Darn younger crowds thinking they need a number pad for everything *waves fists at them* D:< It's not the keyboard that I'm designing but the case. I'd love to have a good quality major brand keyboard with my case. From what I heard about blackwidows, people buy it for the name and the quality isn't as well as the CM QFR. The QFR a sexy design imo >.>
The biggest thing with a business like this is being in a location with constant population turnover, read college town.
Personally I'm not so sure if that's a good idea for custom built computers. Everyone I know at my college that owns gaming PC built it themselves or bought a laptop.
Exactly, and the other g4m3rz just buy alienware razer combo.
I'm a gamer (Guild Wars 2 ftw!) and I do love that gamers are compassionate when it comes to building their rigs. If customers only want a barebones case, and if the demand for it is high enough, I'll be able to do that for sure.
Alienware/razer combo... that is so stereotypical XD
Just start small and see what happens. Be flexible. Don't be afraid to take chances or be afraid to change.
I live in the 4th largest city in the US surrounded by several universities and I don't sell hardware anymore for a reason...but hey I've only been in business for 13 years...
Oh god.. I know for sure I'll be flexible since it's my first time jumping into the PC market. Change is something I'll definitely need to learn. I have two printers and the newest one was built in 1996 >.> Hell the blender we have in the kitchen was built in the 70s XD Anywho, change is something I'll have to do. What I don't want to change is the idea of building a quality product that will last for years. I don't like planned obsolescence crap that a lot of business use.
It can work sure.. but the thing with competiting against "established" larger firms that has identical products, is you need to create a niche..
For example.. You do Peltier sub-zero cooling..
Or you do Higher Overclocks.. with a service guarantee.. (Shipping logistics) is going to be the biggest issue with high-overclocks, if you need the machines to come back for retuning.
Otherwise, your labor overhead can't compete with that of the bigger guys. There's nothing for you to attack with if you do not innovate, because they have all the basic strategies covered.
It'll be hard competing against the big PC companies. Luckily I'll be running around like a tiny mouse in a large wheat field. They won't know I'm there so I can plan some good ideas without them spying on me.
Peltier cooling.. I was actually thinking about that a while back but haven't done any work on it. I'll probably check on that when I start my business. It probably wont be sub zero but it'll be much cooler than air or water (pun intended).
Overclocking is something a bit sketchy. I know none of the CPU/GPU companies will refund if the cause of damage was overclocking. I don't exactly know if the big PC companies will do a refund or exchange if it does happen. I'll take a look into this subject and see if it would be something profitable.
The big PC companies have a lot covered, but sometimes they ignore some ideas/strategies because it doesn't look profitable enough. Since I'm starting my business, anything that looks profitable for me but not enough for the big PC companies, I'll take a chance at. Small mouse in a big wheat field
Alrighty I tried to see if I can order the innards by itself and a lot of companies say that it'll void the warranty so I'm going on a different route on that.
So far I was able to talk to someone at Cherry Corp. by phone and they said they'll be able to do OEM services and needed me to choose one of their keyboards for it. I was thinking about this keyboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823333052
but haven't seen too many reviews on it.
What are your thoughts on that keyboard and would that be the keyboard you want to buy and use for gaming? Sorry for these questions lol I'd rather ask as much questions and pick the right keyboard than ordering 1000 of them and finding out that it was a bad choice XD
This is the first time I'm seeing this thread, but I just wanted to chime in on the 11900 board that you were maybe thinking of using.
I have one and can say that the trackpad on it is more or less useless on a 1080p screen, it might have been nice when screens were still 800x600, but not so much now. The right shift key is a pain since it's 2x in size and finding a replacement is a pain. By default it uses MX Black switches that I don't think most gamers will want.
I think that something like the 1800 would be better for your project
Ugh alrighty. Trackpad is out of the design lol My prototype has a cherry ML keyboard with a trackball but it's because I found it at a good price of $14 xD
I was hoping that Cherry can switch those MX Blacks with either browns or blues but it'll probably be more costly on my end.
I saw the 1800 before but at the time, I wanted a trackpad because of convenience. I'll add the 1800 on my list of potential keyboards.
i hope you know what you're getting yourself into,
would be very cool if you succeeded, though :-)
best of luck with your business
Thanks! I know there will be a lot of hurdles on the road to success. Best way to finish is plow straight through them
Oh also, Costar contacted me on their TKL. It looks like if I decided on their keyboards, I'll probably buy CM TKLs from a distributor since the price gap for MOQ per keyboard isn't too much of a difference. I'll make a list of potential keyboards and post them here once I'm done. Thanks guys you are the best!
