it's just a habit. a bad habit actually； but i'm used to it lol

--

for fun i went get another va87m with red. for those who still think china brands suck in general, try this one.

it's below myr400; it comes with nice package, a dust cover, a key cap puller, and a set of varmilo thick 87 key caps, free.

lol not yet i still have a long way to go. i haven't started my custom board journey le

maybe later; still have some cheapo ones in storeroom haha

wow nice now we have sifus talking about mods

please do share with us noobs about all sorts of mods. hopefully i can learn a thing or two along the way. many have shared very good and practical advice to me all the while, and thanks to them i have learned some important essentials.

of course you can. there are plenty of choices out there, however there are things that need more research to be sure, and to make up your choices for each component. (e.g. pcb, especially its quality and features, case selections, plate-mounted switches or not, and other stuff that makes me feel confused most of the times)

if it matters to you, it's good to go through all the options first. if not, just grab one kit and get on with it hehe

it's better to wait for some sifus to share their insights for board selections.

i'm noob to this so i still need to read and digest a lot of things. my initial plan was simple: make some custom tkl or 75% boards with holtite, and be done with it lol; then buy switches play play play. after reading more, it's not that simple, because not all boards support holtites or features like nkro nicely.

of course if you're ok with soldering, you can actually start anytime. still, i think it's better to have plans first based on options that we can find online.

.. and i don't think we can find even most common mkb parts at lyp.

most people only look for pre-built boards, and only a very very tiny fraction of people, like you, are determined to spend hours, days or weeks to make their own boards.

edit: the only place that i think relatively more relevant locally is storeuni.com. the rest, not so much tbh.

This post has been edited by horns: Aug 12 2017, 11:50 PM

i took a look at that board before. it's too bulky to my liking; and i think it's very hard to find replacement parts.

for now, i prefer cherry-mx style switches and clones more, because of the vast variety of choices (from inside out). topre on the other hand is very nice to type on, with its unique deep sounds, and its accuracy is top-notch. for those who type a lot daily, i think it's a very good option to get one. they have options for customization, but not as many as cherry's.

actually both are similar. for choices of good pre-built boards, ultimate.zone and storeuni.com. additionally for certain custom parts like gat switches, storeuni.com.

yes ultimate.zone is worth to visit. i just hope they can get in poker race3 and mf87, also restock leopold tkl lol (maybe it's too much to ask haha)

edit: one question - what do you guys use to lube parts of the board?

This post has been edited by horns: Aug 13 2017, 04:50 AM

this type of key caps are entry-level, thin double-shot pbt. you can get them for like myr20.00, https://world.taobao.com/item/527270115323.htm (this one is just i cincai looked up only; not the cheapest)

it's meant for those who have very tight budget, and wish to replace stock backlit abs caps with pbt options. (nice to type on; no key-shine effects; but thin).

it's better to get thick ones.

uh? yes like our friend said, it's more like 10 days only. most of the times before i realized it the goods were here already lol

no this one is side-printed (the same page has other options also), it's not for backlit. i think this one is what you're looking for, https://world.taobao.com/item/547068663324.htm

you can try aliexpress.com if you cannot read chinese.

local custom mkb user base is actually ridiculously small from my observation. to sustain and groom the business might take more than mkb customization service and passion.

uh? don't be so pessimistic lol

things change with time. recent influx and popularity of cheap mkbs is one of the good signs. it told us about something: a lot of people actually know what mkb is, but they didn't get one before that because price tags are too high for them. for mkb, listen to cerita dongeng is one thing, first-hand experience is always another. to me it's a good start, at least most of us don't need to break a bank to get a mkb these days. the rest can come later.

this is somewhat similar to ssd. i can tell you that there is a relatively obvious performance gap between budget, mainstream, and enthusiast ssds. however it's pointless for me to recommend a normal person to get enthusiast ssds right away, because he doesn't even know the actual pro's and con's of budget ones.

er that's the cheapest that i can find. it has the option to get everything for corsair k70. if you get key cap set separately (full set of 104 keys + key cap set for corsair's custom bottom row) it usually costs more.

you're welcome.

remember to choose the correct options when you buy it. (first the color selection, then select 套餐四 for k70 compatibility)

yeah that's corsair in chinese hehe

yes you can try storeuni.com

hm maybe not so much about customization. yeah there are sites that i know that offer customized mkbs, like kbdfans.myshopify.com and winkeyless.kr (if you like acrylic case)

yes.

i think it's better to describe what exactly you're looking for in terms of size, want backlit or bling bling or not, etc. with budget if possible.

filco boards are one of the better options that you can get locally. since you're looking for bluetooth boards, options aren't many.

sorry i know nothing about bt boards. i use only wired.

it's a full-sized, with backlit. with a budget of 200, your options can be what you have already named, and maybe 1st player firerose mk3. (i suspect all these affordable mkbs are from the same oem manufacturer; they all look the same to me, except for logos) if you want you can start with those brands with full size layout. you might also wanna look at tkl (tenkeyless, i.e. models without numpad)

as for the quality, actually no one can tell you the truth. what everyone is telling you now is about when these boards are new (they are still new in market; mostly marketing to me). no one can tell you what can happen to it after say 3 to 5 years.

btw it's ok to get stuff within budget. when you have extras, you get to choose from more options. we only suggest what we think better based on our limited experience, e.g. filco boards are with us for more than 3 years already (regular usage), and they are still going strong, like new lol

edit: note that filco boards doesn't have back light if it's important to you.

This post has been edited by horns: Aug 15 2017, 01:40 PM