It'll reduce distance travelled before bottoming out, not distance traveled before actuation.

I assume you wanna reduce the former?

buy Buy BUY!

But not for me.

For tactile switches, let's just talk about MX series only. Topre surely out of your range and Matias doesn't have that many keycaps available.

MX Browns are considered scratchy MX Reds. After using them for a long time, I have to say that although this assessment is correct, but I would call it unfair because I actually enjoyed using these scratchy reds as they give me a little feedback on actuation of switches.

Next would be the hallowed MX Clears. Clears have a more significant bump, which also translated to a more pronounced tactile experience. HOWEVER, it's actuation force is actually quite high, and most users who jumped from Browns to Clears suffer from significant fatigue.

Personally, I felt a lot fatigue even moving 5g upwards due to my typing habits (just floating above the keys, and trying my very best not to bottom out).

Having said all that, I now introduce to you the REAL poison of the MKB world: custom switches.

Easiest to be done are the MX Ergo Clears (shortened to eClears from now on). eClears have the advantage of accepting any actuation force from 50g to 62g. Anything lower won't bounce back up, while anything tougher makes no sense as you can just use stock clears. Chief among the so-called poison is the need to lube the switches, as well as almost insane amount of consistency tuning needed to make the switches feel and react the same way. A well tuned eClear is the closest feel I get to Topre.

One of my favourites, and also the biggest time-sink and expertise required will be Jailhouse Blues (JHB). JHB involves locking up the slider on MX Blues with either copper/steel wire or thin o-rings (also known as the insanitarium). This in effect shortens the travel time, reduces the loudness (esp for the insanitarium build) and turns the Blues from clicky to tactile. The closest feel I can describe it with is something akin to MX Clears.

So, in the end, what switches you end up with is up to you, but I suggest that you do a LOT more homework on the world of tactile MX switches (sans exotic types) before committing to one.

You can't really select a switch based on that. Sometimes bottoming out is a good thing because you get a totally different feel from the keys.

As for o-rings, you can ask around and nobody will tell you it feels nice. To reduce noise, use a different kind of switch instead, or use a Korean backplate on an Alu block case.

IIRC, Armageddon uses clone switches. Not too shabby, but they try to sell at Cherry prices, which kinda defeats the purpose. I'd still recommend the Ducky Zero series unless you need backlight for entry models.

Yup. Get Korean/US ones. They're expensive, but worth it.

Some additional information is warranted at this point.

Note that the following is purely speculation, as I don't have the resources to fully and exhaustively test the information I'm about to present, but I believe it to be accurate unless proven otherwise.

The taobao stabs usually rely on cheap core steel and paint the steel with an anti-rust agent that is silver in colour. Hence the flaking and all.

Korean ones usually use full SUS (I'm not sure of the grade, unfortunately). SUS, if you are familiar with industrial materials, is stainless steel.

So the difference is in the material being used, as stainless steel is about 4 times more expensive than cheap steel that I suspect is being used in the taobao stabs.

Of course, I'm no material engineer, just an accountant with access to a lot of information, but I have used both in building my boards and I highly recommend Korean stabs whenever possible. If you are doing customs, there is no point on going cheap.

Yeah, Vintage blacks are the only "custom" linear worth mentioning.

Mr 016 recently organized a GB for Gaterons. From the reviews at GH, I heard they are amazing to type on. Personally, I wouldn't know because I like my tactiles and therefore linear is just not my thing (just like how some guys like blonds but I'm a brunette kinda guy). However, I did commit to 120 switches at 35g, so we'll see about that.



As an aside for both of you, I'm planning a run for a 60% custom board, so do drop me a PM if you're interested. No assembly from me as I'm currently working "outstation".

Linear is Red
Clicky is Blue
Many more choices
For you to choose

Fvck daydream LED covers. 'Nuff said.

Plate mounted. Only very few brands have PCB mounted. Most commercial plate-mounts can't swap easily.

Octagon. Nice. But looks too square for me, hence my holding back from buying. Still prefer Leopold-like structure for my 60+ MKB.

Finally some good news for today.

Gateron linears is apparently as good as vintage blacks. So...

Trying out 35g linears. See how first.

Buy Hakko. No ragrats

I thought we GB last time RM28 nia?

Making my first foray into 60%. Much excite. Please PM me if you have cash to spare and interested.

Ducky Zero Shine or the CM QFR-i are the only ones we would recommend if you NEED bling. Other options also available, but you'll need to assemble (and not cheap either)

Purchases from outside Malaysia is Exempt Supply, which is not liable for GST.

Any more GST questions can ask me.

Also, mr Quavodis (spelling might be wrong) is doing a taobao run today. Might wanna join in

You can ask them to put USD 20 on the tax invoice, dummy.

edit: I meant dummy in the most endearing way, like how I talk to my nephew.

This post has been edited by dadudeneverabides: Mar 18 2015, 03:59 PM

Ducky Zero gets my vote. TKL if you don't need numpad (trust me, unless you're doing data entry for numbers you don't).

Cheap thing no good, good thing no cheap.

I love how Malaysian/Chinese culture encourages the forced humility of reporting something false.

This is my current situation while at client place.

[CODE]
Pretty good IMO. Might be able to get RM10 cheaper, but I think that's the RRP from Ducky themselves.

Wanna play Topre, but still waiting for what we discussed privately :3

I really wish there is an option for custom Topres...

Imagine with me, boys and girls, about the fabled realm of:

1. Novatouch TKL
2. Full alu TKL case
3. GMK/BSP/SA-profile keycaps.

#NSFW #hnghh