I took a break from mechanical keyboards because I had a keyboard I was happy with. Now I need another for a second desk and it seems like all the keyboards people recommend now are fully pre-built.
This doesn’t make sense to me, I really like the ability to chose my switches and keycaps (especially my keycaps). I don’t see why you would get a keyboard that already has these when the first thing your going to do is replace them.
You must log in or register to comment.
Big keyboard sales apocalypse happened and there no longer the volume of GB buys to make most of them profitable, took out a bunch of GB runners (as did exit scams) and a whole bunch of stores. Any gap filled in at the bottom and middle by better quality prebuilts.
Come to 40%s, we still have plenty of GBs, plenty of innovation with layouts and mounts.
I am very interested in 40s. I’ve been looking at the Epomaker th40 since group buy options still seam too expensive to me. I just so happen to like the keycaps and switches so I won’t feel the need to replace them as well, I’m especially glad about not having to replace the keycaps. I don’t understand how keycaps can be so much more expensive than switches despite being much simpler in design.
Epomaker th40
Yeah that’s one cheap board, rapidly entering the price point that it would be given away in a box of cereal. The detour I ordered last year was about three times that price without caps or switches and I consider than a bargain for a metal keyboard.
It seems to support Via, which you will find very useful to tweak the keymap to suit how you use a keyboard, using a 40 is all about getting the right map for your personal style.
Keycaps can be cheap, its like anything including the actual keyboard, you tend to get what you pay for, even if the increase in price is exponential. Signature Plastics keycaps typically cost me £200 ish for a full set to cover a 40 due to the non standard mod key and space bar sizes. I can buy a cheap set for like £20 on aliexpress, do I expect the same quality? Do I expect them to fit my boards that have unusual layouts? Absolutely not.
Thats the other thing with 40s, while boards exist that have full sized mod keys like the equinox, plenty do not. There are the compatibility three caps that tend to get added these days, that covers a lot of the more normal layouts. Having to get extra caps because you want to use less caps is irony at its finest.
I have never understood how switches can be so cheap full stop, especially ones with pre applied lube.