I Wish I Had Known This Before I Bought My First Custom Mechanical Keyboard | Beginners Guide

hmm i hope i'm not going to piss off too many people with this one [Music] it's been almost a year and a half since i bought my first custom keyboard which has yet to arrive but in the meantime i have bought or been given the opportunity to try out many more boards along with them switches keycaps and a bunch of accessories which are great but sometimes also pointless in this video i thought of documenting my findings which might help out one or two souls who could be struggling with picking a path or part now a little disclosure here nothing i say is law it's merely what i would tell myself if i could jump back in time and help my past version in making a decision one that would hopefully end up saving me some money so in this video i'm gonna try to break it down between keyboards keycaps and switches as well as some smaller accessories too but i won't be making any specific recommendation it's more about things to keep an eye out for so stick around if this picked your interest yeah as the title suggests your first keyboard is probably not going to be your end game that can have a myriad of reasons but for me it was the fact that i simply didn't know better even though i thought i did i watched a ton of videos on boards trying to learn all the lingo and get references right but without trying them i knew close to nothing for example if somebody said this board feels like x y but a bit firmer clackier that might sound good or bad but the problem is i didn't know what the board xy felt like i didn't have it i had no board the same goes for switches and everything else without any reference point none of the comparisons made any sense to me add to that sound test which really only tell a partial story near lucid a really great channel by the way has a fantastic video on why sound tests aren't as factual as some might think i don't want to spoil too much as you should go ahead and watch it but part of it is about how everyone's setup is different from room acoustics to the microphones used and so on causing variations that can end up showing you something that might be impossible to recreate in your own environment adding insult to injury i didn't even know what sound i actually liked i just generally enjoyed everything i heard and simply thought i want one of those but god did i not know what the heck i was listening to i'd like to compare this to the time when i first started playing guitar i didn't know the difference between single coils soapboards and humbuckers heck i couldn't even tell the difference between the neck and the bridge pickup that's how bad my hearing was or how untrained it was everything just sounds like guitar probably not the best analogy for people who aren't six string wheelers but what i'm trying to say is that your tastes will require time to develop so whatever you're hunting for at the beginning might not be what you end up like so don't stress it just try it i know it's a very expensive hobby which is why i urge everyone that asked me about custom boards to start with the cheapest one that they can get just to get the ball rolling think of it as your training wheels into the custom world nowadays there are also a lot more wallet friendly entries some are easier to get than others but you can get pretty close to high end without having to spend an exuberant amount of money i know it's a bit unsettling thinking of having to buy something just in order to figure out what to buy next but spending a large sum on your first board just to find out that this whole thing wasn't really for you could be worse if you've been lurking around on the interwebs for long enough you'll eventually come across the fate of gmk if you haven't here's a quick rundown gmk is most often regarded as the top gun of custom keycap manufacturing i don't know if they've been around the longest but it sure feels like they've been there at the inception they've also got a number of facts backing that up for example they use thick abs construction which accounts for their great sound they have razor sharp double shot lettering and depending on who you ask they have the holy grail of profiles that is the original cherry now if none of those things rang any bell with you well then those things may not really matter all that much yet the only value those buzzy words will give you right now is ammunition for those pesky schoolyard arguments i think before jumping into luxurious territory that's gmk it's worth checking out what else is out there and oh boy has it ever changed since last year when i built my first custom keyboard i tried to do so with only in stock parts back then it was very hard to come buy something that you could buy and also looked as good as some of those beautiful gmk sets but these days there are quite a lot of choices beginning with drop for the longest time they've built a reputation for being the place to get empty three-star caps that's those really tall ones offering various sets including collaborations with big brands like lord of the rings or even marvel heck they even have a knock to a set but this year they entered a new profile into the playing fields the mt2 i mean dcx first offering a white on black what i got here black on white set but since then have also steadily rolled out more and more color options if you ask me they look really nice and if more color themes are added at the current pace you're going to have a lot of choices in the near future similarly kpd fans have started to create their own sets under the pbd fans brand with the main difference being that pbd fans use well dbt and dcx is using abs like gfk however as drop will have you know it is a different composition of abs that should withstand the dreaded shine that standard gmk sets will develop now if those material choices don't mean anything to you again i wouldn't stress about it too much at this time it's like trying to deconstruct the ingredients of a five course michelin star menu whilst you've spent most of your life eating take out cheeseburgers meaning you're probably not gonna notice a difference better save it for when your palate is actually able to appreciate it more interesting if you ask me is the fact that drop and ppd fans are both aiming directly at gmk but at much lower price and they're not the only ones trying to do that monokai which is best known for their high end custom boards at least up until recently have just showcased their first pre-build which is aimed at the more casual consumer along with that board they also released their first white on black set called the series 1. it's another great entry into the cap space and one that i personally really liked which is why i got it but it's not perfect the iso enter key for example looks a bit too squiggly if you ask me oh squiggly line in my eye fluid i see you there lurking on the periphery of my vision but when i try to look at you you scurry away continuing the list of custom board brands entering the custom cab space we have mode which also just announced their first set now this hasn't come out yet but from the looks of it is another promising first entry with some great color options there are two things all of these companies have in common first all of them are undercutting gmk and pricing sometimes starting as low as 79 compared to around 150 for gmk most of them will also come with more extras in their base kit whereas gmk will set you back around 200 or even more when you want all the fun bits the second similarity is that they all got themselves well-known keycap designers to create their first entries and you can tell that there are some really nice looking sets out there compared to just a year ago before we close the book on caps there are a few more entries i would like to mention one of them is osumi keys a company focused exclusively on caps if you don't encounter one board collaboration now these are probably the cutest caps you're gonna find out there i mean just look at these novelties here there's a ghost sleeping in a cloud one opening a window although i'd like to think that it's actually a fridge and i mean just look at this box perfection there are other smaller brands going the same direction sometimes making an in-stock debut for a limited time such was the case with the qppd terminal set both of these are dye supplemented too meaning the legends are printed on instead of being separated by two pieces molded together the benefit of this is that the design can be a bit more daring the drawback is inconsistent leveling lettering and the fear of them wearing out quicker than their double shot or triple shot counterparts there's one more combine that has also entered the keycap space but this one is going in a different direction than the rest whereas drop kbd monokai or assume and all the others are trying to mimic the cherry profile undercutting gmk and pricing and hopefully catching trigger happy customers by having sets readily stocked we've also got rava works they're doing what they're best at entering the market at a higher price than anyone else with a profile that nobody has had any experience with as well as a waiting time that's well unconfirmed at best but who knows maybe those will become the new top guns i for one have two sets in order which i'll be making a video about during my 10 year youtube anniversary celebration so see you then when it comes to switches i still feel very inexperienced even though all of them can be broken down into one of three basic types the number of variations materials and configurations is so vast that sometimes i can't help but think i have no idea what this feels like there are also so so many of them out there there's too many of them so the best advice i would give to my 2021 self is well you probably guessed it try them this is again a moment where a board would come in very handy there are switch testers out there but i feel like those don't really convey a true typing experience because you're not really typing on them you're just hitting individual switches and with only one finger the same goes if you're just buying individual ones to try out which i did too at first that method will give you an initial impression but it is really hard to judge whether or not you're gonna like it spread across an entire board what i think might be a good way to approach this is to try to find something that has a reasonably good reputation like gatron black inks nk creams bobas or even drops holy panda getting a really popular switch will have a number of advantages first it should at worst be at least a decent switch i mean it has to be popular for a reason secondly even if you don't like them if they are popular chances are people will use them as a comparison to other switches giving you a good point of reference for future buys i'd also advise to stick into the switches for at least a couple of days even if you don't like them at first they sometimes take a while to break in and you'll notice either them or your preference is changing so don't dismiss them too fast maybe it just takes a couple of days to get used to lastly there's a topic of lubing this will change the feel and sound of a switch drastically and although there are quite a few factory loop switches out there i found that those don't tend to be as well or consistently treated as when doing it by yourself however as much as i would encourage everyone to at least once lube an entire set i can understand that the time slot of four to six hours is a difficult luxury to acquire another way to get there is through money there are sites like loop switches which specialize in well as the name suggests loot switches and they also sell broken in switches meaning ones that feel like as if they've been at work for a while kbd fans alike has a selection too i actually bought this set once and was pleasantly surprised by it it wasn't perfect though not everything was as well looped but i wouldn't have managed to do it better by myself either given the results i think it's a valid choice even if it isn't as satisfying a fair warning though if you do choose to go to hard path of moving everything by yourself avoid it on your first board if the pcb requires soldering even though every tutorial on lubing will remind you countless times that you should be very conservative with the amount you're applying everyone will most likely overdo it on their first set but even if you do not all is lost switches can be desoldered removed cleaned and reapplied but it'll be a very long and treacherous process so keep this in mind once again training wheels i know everyone wants to get to the finish line as fast as possible and i myself probably wouldn't have listened to this advice but in retrospect my first attempt ended up ruining a build i've got a lot less to say about stabilizers mostly because i've settled on using the old steps for pretty much every build these days now i've also tried the fable to work v2s as well as these everglide v2s but the reason why i settled on the old steps is for the number of extras you get as well as the straightness out of the box for example they all come with tapes for the band-aid mod washers and these little pe foam wire cushions now you can achieve all of this with other stabs too but as i am insanely lazy i for one welcome the extras the old steps are advertised as liquid metal which is supposed to retain its straightness even going so far as to bend back automatically in case there was force put on the wires during shipping or a similar event from the limited amount of stabs that i've had a chance of trying the old steps have been the straightest one out of the box the durox endeavouric lights were about the same not bad either but there were definitely one or two that needed adjustment one last thing regarding lubing even you just do it once i can't help but stress that a switch opener like this cat thing here will most likely save you from going crazy the 10 to 15 dollars you're gonna spend on one of these will be well worth it i really didn't think i needed one at first but after getting it it's just so much easier and less of a strain when you've got like 60 to 80 switches to go through the kb defense loop kit is also pretty good at only 5 bucks especially the stem holder which makes it a lot easier to loop without having to touch it and potentially getting grease all over your fingers loop stations trays and other items seem to be more cosmetic to me you can achieve all that with regular kitchen items as well but of course you might have a lot more fun with dedicated equipment another item you'll come across is a switch or keycap holder now the worst switch pullers ever are these little metal things here they're incredibly uncomfortable and if you're planning on changing switches more than once i'd recommend getting something else i've got where i got this silicon wrapped one here but this one has been my favorite likewise when it comes to keycap pullers there are these small plastic ones they're essentially the keycap equivalent of those terrible metal things the opening is very tight which will be worn to scratch your beloved keycaps so i would really try to avoid using these at all costs the most efficient ones are these antenna looking things here even better is a combo like this one they usually show up with a pre-build then there's this much more expensive and elaborate looking gage run puller it is definitely the fastest way to remove switches but it does so at a price if you got a delicate plate surface the gaterone can potentially or will definitely scratch up that surface so be careful when you get this and don't use it on an expensive board with a brass or metal plate in general and i hope this came across throughout the video i think one of the most important things to keep in mind is that you shouldn't overthink it when you first start out like with many new things you get accustomed to you learn along the way and with that increased experience your taste will develop and change so whatever you think you like right now might not be the same in 6 or 12 months it doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy your first experiments but do so maybe a little restraint going out guns blazing at first might hinder your excitement in future builds for example i thought gmk was the be all and end all but when i finally got my first set i was a little disappointed to be honest at first i didn't even want to look at pbt which was really stupid because by now i much prefer it it doesn't shine it's cheaper and the choices keep getting better and better i also enjoy the more elaborate designs that aren't available in a double shot construction but this like everything else is a matter of preferences we've all got our favorites and we all like to stick to our guts but really i hope this video was helpful and i hope you don't feel too stressed about trying to build the most perfect board on your first try there are enough things out there to be worried about these days and this shouldn't be one of them this should be fun so i hope that's what this was fun [Music] hey thanks so much for watching i hope there was at least something positive that you could take away from this video i was actually planning on doing something completely different but i've got several projects which are stuck in the shipping level so i hope that i can return to the regular programming in the next few videos anyway if i missed something or said something wrong let me know and until next time i bet you farewell and see you around bye [Music]

Channel: Cheese Turbulence

Views: 521,564

Keywords: custom keyboard, mechanical keyboard beginners guide, keyboard, work, office, set up, desk, mechanical, cherry mx, switches, engineer, software, review, asmr, typing, sound, comparison, cute, wireless, work from home, setup, sounds, tutorial, mouse, kailh, mac, membrane, apple, IOS, windows, android, unboxing, tech, first, coding, software engineer, gateron, guide, why, mechanical keyboard begginers guide, custom keyboard guide, keyboard guide, mechanical keyboard, gmk, osume, epbt, pbtfans, qpbt, mode designs, keycaps

Id: 9P74eCU19d0

Length: 15min 34sec (934 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 17 2022