so you want a budget keyboard and you've been looking around you've seen the key crons and the
what have yous but there's always one problem those keyboards they they need mods howdy hey
I'm hippiotech and I'm no stranger to modding I put sand and keyboard and I love a good tape mod
but I'm here to ask a question what if budget keyboards didn't require modding what if you
could just get a keyboard and it would sound and feel good enough every once in a while a keyboard
pops up and does just that but they're always like 200 and that's really not budget-ish so today I'm
gonna be checking out the dust silver 75 which is a keyboard that starts at 80 bucks I'm also
gonna try to mod it to see if it actually makes any difference whatsoever also wait what's this
another even cheaper keyboard that we're gonna talk about that one later actually before we
get into the video though listen to this and tell me if you think this keyboard is modded or stock
leave a comment down below speaking of modded go ahead and mod that subscribe button because
I reckon 69 of you aren't subscribed and hey it's free also I make funny videos
now before we figure out exactly how good this keyboard is let me start by saying this video
is sponsored by dust silver however all of my thoughts are my own and they did not get the
chance to review this video however what they did do is give me a promo code that can save you seven
percent on this keyboard if you use code hippo at checkout with the link down below Bing Bong post
edit hippo here to say that their shipping is also free to the US which is 30 cheaper than kikron
Now dust silver makes a ton of different keyboards but this is their 75 model in my opinion 75 is the
best layout do not add me now this keyboard starts at 79.99 for the wired white LED version but today
we're going to be taking a look at the wireless version but just know that most of the stuff is
similar and honestly I'd recommend you get the wired version anyways as far as the accessories go
it comes with a cable which is fine and a switch and keycap puller which is great it also comes
with this weird like papery stuff kind of reminds me of something Nintendo gave me once like a like
a legal document M anyways as you can see this is the Lilac version of the 70 five percent keyboard
appearance wise you're probably gonna love it or hate it like for me these colors are really
really cute and I really love them uh also wait what's that keyword okay we're looking at that
later this is a spoiler there's somehow gonna be two keyboards in this one video uh spoiler time
also that one's like thirty dollars cheaper so maybe it's gonna be good anyways as I was saying
before we take this whole entire keyboard apart let's talk about what you actually get when you
buy it based on this little see-through view on the product page it doesn't actually look
like they put that much in it just some silicone and some foam but it does feel kind of Hefty the
boys construction is almost entirely plastic and it kind of has this like interesting Kitty view I
imagine the three percent of my audience that is into really really cutesy Aesthetics is gonna be
really really into this one and you're probably thinking hippo this is a plastic keyboard it's
made out of plastic there's no way a plastic keyboard can be good well it has a metal badge
now similar to a tech YouTuber being a rock climber looks can be deceiving
and actually plastic keyboards can sometimes sound better than their
metal counterparts looking at you the original line of kikron Q series
for those out of the loop they pinged harder than someone's internet in the wilderness there's also
this mysterious light strip at the bottom of the keyboard that I really hope lights up otherwise
it's just gonna look really awkward speaking of awkward it's kind of awkward how many options they
have when you're purchasing this thing I can't go over everything but I definitely recommend
you go with the wired white backlit and gather on red switch five-sided dyed keycaps or the
black switch if you want a heavier linear feel speaking of heavy if you go for a higher toll
on your wallet then this part of your keyboard will pull off and show a switch and stuff it
was really smooth until I forgot the word for uh switch this will allow you to use the board in a
wireless mode as we mentioned before and ooh mama that's some RGB hold on now the sport has full RGB
LEDs it's even got that really nice side glow and little logo glow which makes me very very happy
but there's an aspect to these LEDs that make me not very happy which we'll talk about soon now
if you're a big fan of customizing your keyboard with macros and stuff like that you'll find that
the software doesn't really stand up to something like via via's like what kicron offers and other
custom Brands and why do these side panels look like they can pull off like if I just for oh
God oh God I just pulled off the side panel I'm doomed why does this wait why does it look like
little butts or little pillars on the side of the keyboard I'm a bit confused here but I'm assuming
this is intentional kind of like a joy-con thing can I put a joy-con from a Nintendo switch on here
now remember the reason that we're here is that we want a keyboard that we don't need to mod so
I want to take this thing apart and kind of see what's making it tick so first let's start with
the keycaps now you're probably thinking I'm holding the key to the universe here but it's
actually a keycap a Dye sublimated keycap so if you see the double shot keycaps on the listing
it's not that out Nola please stop biting me Nola is biting me while I'm doing a voiceover now their
dice up keycaps are pretty clean I don't see a lot of softness in their Legends but their font choice
is kind of disgusting in my opinion in my opinion maybe this is like ketchup on a pickle or barbecue
sauce on a donut you know it's not for me the font is definitely a bit to gamery and a bit of a turn
off now the key night viewers among you might notice that this board is hot swap meaning you
can swap the switches without needing to solder which is great but you know what isn't great the
north facing LEDs that make it so if you swap the keycaps you might get some interference but
you know what turns me on don't take that out of context these gatteron red switches now if you've
looked at custom keyboards at all you see a gather on red switch and you're probably like wow that is
incredibly lackluster there's nothing going on of substance here however these are different
they are lubed from the factory and maybe they're like gather on Pro Reds they really don't say so
I'm kind of just assuming here but I've tried a lot of gather on reds in my days and these feel
starkly different they feel incredibly smooth to type on and I also don't notice any spring ping
which I might be noticing with a keyboard in the future I imagine the experience is probably pretty
similar with the gatteron blacks but I can't speak on those because I didn't personally try them so
I will give my recommendation on The Gather on reds just to compare I'm gonna put it up against
the stock keycron red switches which might be made by gather on but I'm honestly not sure that came
in my kikron V1 the kikron V1 is a similarly priced budget keyboard that I've recommended
a lot in the past however what we might see here is that we might have a new Contender let me just
do a quick side-by-side sound test after putting down my Springtime desk map from kineticlabs.com
linked down below also this desk map matches this keyboard so stinking well what the sound
tests aren't super conclusive of anything but I feel like it's an interesting comparison
okay wait wait wait wait wait wait wait I'm saving the rest for later but did you
hear that that is the comparison of a similarly stocked kikron V1
to this thing and I'm already decently impressed to me it sounds a lot deeper
and feels quite a lot smoother but like my therapist always says it's time to open up
the keyboard the keyboard hippo open up the keyboard why do you always have so much trouble
opening up keyboards apio maybe your YouTube channel would be doing better if you didn't
have trouble opening keyboards maybe you'd have a million subscribers if you could just use your
strong little rock climber hands to open that keyboard so uh at this point I hit a roadblock I
had virtually no idea how to open this thing there wasn't like a guide or anything so I'm just kind
of going in blind here I thought at first that you just needed to pry the sides open and then I was
like no I see screws maybe I need to unscrew these maybe they're screwed into standoffs or something
like that and then I was like no it's definitely that I need to pry this thing open it's definitely
gonna work copium copium so after hurting my hands a lot I realized they were clips and I just needed
to undo the clips so if you ever do decide to open this thing you have to undo the screws and then
undo the clips but it's very violent and very not modable so essentially if you do end up needing to
mod this keyboard which we'll find out later don't it it actually really sucks to mod it sucks to
take apart sucks to put back together but anyways what we see here is potentially foam which we'll
check out in a second and wait why is the board so empty if it sounds so decent I'm actually really
confused here like are you guys seeing what I'm seeing I don't see any case foam and this board
didn't sound hollow to me maybe I've completely gaslit myself or something like that but
maybe it's the silicone layer or this bottom foam layer or something like that now the bottom foam
layer is actually glued to the bottom of the PCB which could be seen as a pro or a con I was
gonna try tape modding this thing but I feel like this kind of already acts as a bit of a tape mod
because it's got a solid seal on it tape mod more tape mod and looking at this thing parted out it
looks like they've actually got a decent amount of stuff in here but as I said at the beginning
of the video our goal here is to figure out whether or not you need to mod this keyboard you
know maybe you might not need to mod it but maybe it'll sound better if you do that's the type of
thing I like to go for so because I was working with a board with a battery I didn't feel like
using anything that would be too flammable so I decided to go with my favorite mod the kill mat uh
if you're Matt watching this video I don't want to kill you I'm sorry Matt I did not mean it I love
you Matt I'm not trying to kill you Matt but I'm trying to use the kill mat to fill my keyboard is
that are those bars did I just do bars was that a wrap okay so I went to go get a breakfast sandwich
and I kind of forgot what was happening in this voiceover but we're gonna figure out what was
happening to this keyboard in just a minute my initial thoughts would be because I filled the
keyboard with more material it might sound deeper and less Hollow but here's the problem it already
sounded deep and not very Hollow as I mentioned before I thought about the tape mod but the glued
on foam kind of prevents that there's already foam in between the plate and PCB like technically the
only modding you could really do to this board is taking stuff out shout out to the video in
the top right where I talk about keyboards that can sound good without foam foam isn't the only
way to make a keyboard sound good although it does make it sound deeper usually so keep all this in
mind and remember back to that first sound test I showed you was that the modded version or the not
mod version who can tell so based off face value with this thing at around 80 which is the lowest
price you can configure it I definitely recommend it at 140 ish which is the highest price you can
configure it to that's a bit of a harder bargain but what is a super bargain is the dust silver k61
that segue was smoother than me if I ever get a manscape sponsorship but you know what isn't
smooth so I asked for this keyboard as well as the 75 seemed incredibly appealing and I thought this
would be a similar deal however what I quickly learned is the looks can be deceiving remember we
talked about that earlier we've come full circle now ignore the sweat that's on the keycap the dust
silver k61 looks absolutely stunning it's got the same lilac and pink the keycaps look less gamery
which is really cool and at first glance it kind of just looks like a nicely customized gk61 but oh
God what does that feel the feel is not so Stellar so the first keyboard might be so good that we
don't need to mod it but with this one there's something else underneath the hood it's also a
hot swap keyboard but the core difference here is the switches these are otemu Reds
unfortunately otemu reds don't have lubed Springs so this keyboard ends up sounding like a bit of a
war crime so here I was thinking we could get an even better budget Contender at 53 dollars
but ultimately the k61 isn't really one I can recommend but what I can confidently recommend
is the 75. now remember that first sound test if you guessed that the keyboard was stock then
you were correct now I'll leave you with a sound test of before and after but as you'll be able to
notice there is no difference in modding this keyboard heck even the stabilizers felt great
stock I didn't have to do anything to them so you know what you don't need to mod this keyboard