$200 Keycaps Vs Cheap Keycaps - Why

it's true a set of key caps can cost up to $200 or even more in some cases however there are actual reasons behind this as it seems almost impossible to spend so much money on pieces of plastic today we're looking to one of the reasons why a hobby of building mechanical keyboards in costs so much money in Waikiki caps can be almost as expensive as some mid-range GPUs and CPUs hey everyone my name is JD and welcome back to the channel where we discuss gaming PC setups and mechanical keyboards put things bluntly these are the reasons why this key cap set cost me $197 after-tax and these other key caps that come standard on most keyboards you find under $100 are not that great number one you're paying for the manufacturing quality number two richness in color and exclusive colorways number 3 limited availability and number for compatibility now let's dive deeper into those topics they're planning key cap manufacturers from EPB t JT k ducky GM k matrix and so on this may sound like random names and letters to anyone who hasn't died into custom mechanical keyboards before but it's important to know that there are lots of options of different manufacturers there are two different primary types of plastics commonly associated with making key caps and it's ABS plastic and PBT plastic ABS is generally considered lower quality due to the fact that they shine easily over time and most cheap keyboards with cheap key caps on them are made out of ABS plastic however some of the most expensive key caps are actually made out of ABS for a couple of reasons companies like GM K use abs but develop thick key caps that use a double shot process with two different colored plastics to create rigid key caps and crisp legends i beared the test of time on the flip side there is PBT plastic which is stronger than ABS but it's harder to manufacture without warping on key caps longer than the caps lock key and can't hold the same richness in color and is much harder to have a shine through key cap with crisp legend since itching the legend would break easily due to PB T's brittle properties that's mostly summary of ABS vs. PB t and it can go much more in-depth but for the sake of the video we need to understand why some key caps are so expensive and others just come standard on a keyboard number one manufacturing quality iron key caps are usually thicker than most standard keyboards with thier key caps that you would find on Amazon with a few exceptions of course one key cap is from a standard keyboard I have lying around the other one is made by gmk you're gonna hear gmk alliance regarded as one of the highest quality manufacturers for keycaps literally one key cap is thicker than the other this fact alone will show that the stem is reinforced and the walls of the key cap as well which is made to last much longer time and through excessive typing another thing to note is warping on a space bar there is usually some form of warping on the space bar but on a cheaper key caps especially if it's made out of PBT can be much more noticeable another thing is the lattice like structure inside the key cap itself more grid-like structure inside the key cap the more of that hollow sound goes away when typing also it increases rigidity this is mostly apparent on the space bar the sound is being broken up on the plastic grid like lines rather than bouncing around inside the key cap to make that hollow sound the space bar from a VAR mellow keyboard that I have is an exceptional example that for milho also makes their own key caps with excellent key cap quality in my opinion another thing to notice is the straightness on the edges of the key cap which also relates to the warping aspect brought up earlier and a higher end key caps the edges are mostly straight to the naked eye while compared to the cheaper ones also another thing to note is that there's a lot less defects on these higher end key caps that there are on these lower end ones the last thing on the manufacturing process is a double shot process on abs key caps and the dye sublimation process on PBT key caps bowls processes double shot and dye sublimation will last a life the key cap at least mostly you may hear double shot on a lot of marketing material for a lot of keyboards but the key cap is usually very thin when in comparison to something like this GM kakie can dye sublimation is dying the key cap and staining that key caps plastic all the way through which will also last lifetime in the key cap or supposedly this is mostly popular and PBT key caps the last thing for manufacturing quality is the legends aka the lettering and symbols on cheaper key caps they can be fuzzy or blurry looking sometimes uneven or have weird gaps in between parts of the legend and for the backlit key caps some of those legends do not evenly shine the light throughout the legend and it can have dark spots in it number 2 richness and color and exclusive colorways ABS key caps usually can hold a higher saturation of color over PBT but PBT can also have a decent saturation in color as well depending on the manufacturer most key caps on standard mechanical keyboards are either white or black manufacturing what colors is expensive where it is done cheaply this goes back to the point of dye sublimation in double Schottky caps the point is is that it's more expensive to adding colors you'll see a lot of key cap sets with the Alpha keys one color and the modifier key caps a different color this also points out an extra expense and making one solid color all the way through is definitely cheaper the other reason is exclusive colorways this is what can make gmk key caps especially expensive the color choices of the key cap is exclusive and sold for a limited time only with the exception of some key cap sets going into a second round of purchasing not to mention that key caps that follows a very specific theme for example gmk laser gene K Nautilus G and K Apollo and more which leads me to my next point number three limited availability all those exclusive themes are only made available for purchase for a limited time and it's all purchase through a group by a group by is where there is a set time period where you can place an order or pre-purchase for an item and once that time period is ended and the group buys clothes all of those orders are placed and then sent out and manufacturer to be made this process can take up to a year just a weight on a set of key caps and requires a lot of patience actually this whole entire hobby requires a lot of patience sometimes some extra key cap sets are made but usually get bought up very fast once made available these custom themed key caps are designed by someone or a collaboration to key cap set designers and then the orders are placed and then sent over and made by the manufacturing plant of GMK or similar key cap manufacturers as long and custom processes also factor on how some key cap sets can get so expensive especially when on the resale market lastly number for compatibility a lot of these custom key cap sets can include options to purchase key cap sizes to fit multiple different layouts and preferences for all shapes and sizes of keyboards compatibility for 40% or organ ama keyboard or a split keyboard in different languages and dialects can be difficult to come by so there's also premium for that as well not all is doom gloom and incredibly expensive though double shot abs key cap sets can be half around 80 to a hundred dollars and still maintain a high level manufacturing quality there will most likely be less color variety and custom icon Kika but there are elements there to make it high-quality and have unique colorways at the same time good quality key caps can be had for around fifty dollars in those high quality key caps for around a hundred to two hundred dollars depending on the circumstances and preferences of you and with the buyer I recommend doing some research on what kind of keyboard you're building or what you have that you will be adding key caps to and figure out what colors you want to match with and that should be a good place to start bottom line is don't dismiss expensive key caps for cheap pieces of plastic but don't buy them just because they're expensive know the differences and see what works best for you and your budget hope this helps and over again my custom investment has dropped this week and it's available in the link in the description below don't forget to subscribe and keep watching more videos if you want to see more content like this I'll catch you all in the next one [Music] [Music]

Channel: JDTechGear

Views: 229,775

Rating: 4.9191709 out of 5

Keywords: gmk keycaps, gmk, abs vs pbt keycaps, jtk, matrix, sa, keycaps, keeb, mechanical keyboard, epbt, dsa, cherry, kbdfans, novelkeys, group buy keycaps, group buy

Id: Q7YkKRUKl4I

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020