First up, it’s a bit too hot and smokey outside with all the fires going on, so I
won’t be filming in the garage for this video.
And I don’t have a proper setup here, and no overhead camera, so apologies, but look
at the sun.
What even is that?
Anyway, if you’re just getting into building mechanical keyboards, then for sure you would
have come across KBDfans.
Probably the most accessible place to get mech parts, because most of their stuff is
readily available, so no long waits.
Prices are solid, and they’re in China so shipping is cheap.
The KBD75 is one of their custom keyboards that they stock, and the one we have today
is the v2.
I agree with this piece of paper, test the PCB with tweezers to make sure it’s all
good before you build.
Here’s the PCB which supports MX style keyswitches of course.
It uses a USB type C connector.
And on the bottom we have SMD RGB LEDs for that sideglow.
And then in the main box, we went with a brass plate which costs extra, and the default is
just aluminium.
Really impressed with this actually.
It’s the standard 1.5mm thick, but the finish is so buttery smooth, so satisfying to touch,
even though it has that hairline finish.
Brass is heavier than alu, so there’s that.
And may change the typing characteristics slightly, especially in regards to the bottom
out.
And then we have our rubber feet, and screws.
It does come with stabilisers, but we did buy other ones.
I didn’t actually try them, but they tend to be pretty rattly and scratchy.
And while it only makes for a fraction of the whole keyboard, how the stabilised keys
feel, in particular the spacebar, makes a world of difference.
The case comes assembled, and as always before you build, chuck on the rubber feet.
All the screws are Phillips head.
And it’s a pretty interesting design.
Normally we would associate this extra piece as a weight.
But it’s just the same aluminium, in the exact same finish.
So yeh…
Don’t really know what to make of that.
They don’t have the brass option in the keyboard listing, but is in a separate listing
for an additional 29 bucks.
And for sure most people wouldn’t notice that.
Really should be default in my opinion.
Annoyingly, the screws towards the top were difficult to reach, because the holes were
just too small for my screwdrivers.
Precision sets, like the thin ones will work, but I don’t know where I put mine.
But I found this tiny thing which worked just fine.
As said before, this is the v2 of this board.
And I did build the v1 quite a while back.
It’s quite similar in that we have the base, and then acrylic mid piece, with the top alu
above that.
This time however, the acrylic goes way deeper towards the middle of the case.
And remember from the before, the underglow LEDs are towards the edges, so they’ll actually
shine onto the acrylic, and we’ll see how that looks later.
Plus it’s frosted this time, rather than clear.
And yeh, the lighting on the v1 was pretty poor.
As with most entry level customs, this is a tray mount design.
So we have our screw mounts on the base of the case.
And this can create a bit of an uneven typing experience, as the harder spots would be on
and around the screw mounts.
And can be perceived as a bit harder, and somewhat harsher in bottom out.
Anyway, let’s build this thing.
I used the KBDfans gold plated stabilisers, lubed them up nicely with dielectric grease,
and also did the bandaid mod to soften the bottom out.
First time building with Gateron Ink Silent Blacks.
The Gateron Inks are still trendy, and for good reason.
Especially the silent variant, which I also lubed up, which I highly recommend with linears.
It’s a medium to heavish weight linear, and has the dampeners on the stem which cushions
the bottom and top out sound and feel.
You’ve already seen me do this a heap of times, so I won’t talk about it.
But how do you feel about hotswappable keyboards?
There’s a lot of new customs offering a solderable PCB and a hotswap PCB.
The good thing about solderable is that we have the flexibility with layout, in particular
the bottom row, which you just can’t do with hotswap sockets.
And of course soldering is part of the building experience.
But hotswap is super convenient in a lot of ways.
And makes keyboards more accessible to people.
There’s bunch of other pros and cons, but that’s the basis of it all.
But yeh, let me know what you think.
Putting it back together is also super similar.
And I actually messed up, because the plate has to go in before the top.
It’s been a good while since I’ve built a tray mount, and definitely the worst part
of building these are having non magnetic screws, and trying to somehow get those screws
into those holes.
So frustrating everytime.
You’ll line it up, and then the screw falls in, and you gotta shake it around.
Yeh.
Cannot handle.
Looks really cool in this state.
The black and brass, is so good.
This is a build for someone, and they chose GMK Cyan 2D, which was inspired by the Dave
2D tech channel.
So it’s just like GMK Cyan, but instead of Cyan legends, we have dark grey.
And done.
Simple and clean is what I get from the KBD75v2.
They’ve just cleaned up the design, which you may or may not like.
So it’s less angular, with sides that just go straight down, with no tapering or anything,
which does give it a more blocky look.
Although it does make it a little harder to pick up off the desk, but at the same time,
it’s not really a heavy keyboard, as the top piece weighs hardly anything, and the
base isn’t that thick because of the tray mount design.
The bezels are pretty thin still, with the header being a bit thicker.
We have filletted edges, and rounded corners to take the edge off a bit.
But for sure one of the biggest improvements is the acrylic piece, and also the better
lighting.
Much better looking this time round.
Much brighter, so it’s actually putting out a lot of light which spills onto the surface.
The diffusion is more even, and that’s just to do with more surface area on the acrylic,
and being frosted as well.
The screw mounts do still show, but overall, it does look pretty sweet.
And on the bottom we have this interesting lined wave pattern that goes 2mm deep.
And the weight, which isn’t really a weight, because it’s just aluminium.
I wish it just came with the brass by default, but yeh, that’s an additional 29 bucks if
you want that.
This is available in a few colours.
The anodised finish is clean, and it looks even to me, with the two halves matching nicely.
There is a slight texture to it, but the black does look nice.
The acrylic isn’t flush, and as we saw before, it doesn’t really screw in, it’s just
sandwiched.
But you can only really tell by touching it.
Now to
the typing experience.
Gateron Silent Blacks are great fun.
They give that quiet, and dampened experience.
So the bottom out is softer feeling and sounding.
So we don’t get the traditional sharp sound and feel of a linear.
The board isn’t the quietest.
It’s still kinda loudish, it’s just that we don’t have those high pitched sounds.
Again, I did lube these, so it is slightly quieter, smoother, and softer feeling compared
to stock.
Definitely recommend lubing these, as silents do tend to feel that bit more scratchy compared
to normal linears.
And when lubed, these feel amazing.
I don’t have Healio’s on me, so those are the Zeal silent linears, so I can’t
really compare.
But the general consensus is that the Inks may not be as smooth, but are very close.
And the main thing is that they are way way cheaper than the Healio’s.
Guess I better touch up on the form factor.
It’s a 75% as the name suggests.
I used 84 keys for this, but there are slight variances.
So pretty much has the primary functionality of a tenkeyless keyboard, but in a smaller
package.
Super easy to adapt to, whereas a 60% may be tough for some people.
So we keep our arrow keys, the function row on top, and a few nav keys on the right hand
side.
Some aren’t really a fan of the packed layout, as it does give off a cramped kind of feel,
and the function and number rows are lined up.
But that’s just a personal thing.
Overall, I can’t really say it’s a huge improvement over the first version.
I think the v1 aesthetic was different and had character, whereas this one cleans that
up.
The build and quality is pretty much the same, and how it goes together is again essentially
the same process.
What it does improve on, which really impacts on how it looks is the side glow.
The frosted acrylic layer is way better, and the lighting is dispersed really quite nicely.
And I guess the optional brass weight is a nice option to have, but it would have been
better to have it there by default, or at least have it on the product page.
And this is what KBDfans bring.
This starts at 159USD, which doesn’t include the keycaps or switches.
And while that may sound expensive, which it is.
In the custom world, this is at the low end.
And with that, comes the tray mount design, and not as premium feeling fit and finish.
But you get what you pay for, and it’s solid value if you want a 75% custom.
And for reference, my Singa V3, which looks similar, but is different in a lot of ways,
is like double the price, or more.
I can’t remember.
But it’s a solid board in the KBDfans budget line up.
Another reminder about the Sydney Mechanical Keyboard Meetup 2019.
November 30, super close now, might have gone past already.
It’s gonna be awesome, so check out the link in the description for that.