The windx65 is one of my favorite sounding builds on this channel.
And here we have the windx98, following the footsteps of the original windx, and the x65.
Is it as great as I found the windx65 to be?
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The windx 98 is, as you guessed it, exploded 98%.
Its gasket mounted, but the group buy version will also have top mounting capability.
We’ve got hotswap and soldered PCBs, and also, this is new, a bluetooth hotswap PCB.
All of them have daughterboards, and for layout options we have 7U bottom row, stepped caps,
split left shift, and ISO enter.
However, you will have to replace the sockets on your own if you want to use these, because
only the holes are provided.
We’ve also got a whole bunch of foams, including a thin case foam, thick case foam, bottom
hotswap PCB foam, IXPE sheet, and plate foam.
For the in stock sale, there will only be polycarbonate plates, but the group buy will
also have aluminum, brass, carbon fiber, and FR4.
And after negative feedback from discord members, more conventional color choices have been
added, including white and yellow, black and grey, silver and purple, grey and blue, and
black and orange, the wind lab theme colors.
The original blue and red, grey and chocolate, and white and pink remain.
Lubed gateron ink stabs are included, and the board will come fully assembled, so technically
all you have to do is add switches and keycaps.
Stock gateron switches will be available as addons, so really this is a custom keyboard
being sold in a prebuilt style.
Finally the board will run you $320, with the bluetooth config being $350.
Like the tenet, we have 2 separate PCBs for the numpad area and everything else.
I’m going to break off the excess bits.
Here already are the included gateron ink stabs lubed with 205g0 and XHT-BDZ.
the stabilizers included with the prototype weren’t installed, so I lubed these myself.
I’m gonna add on the plate foam since this is a lot of cuts, polycarbonate plate, and
stock gateron CJs.
Something new for the x98 is the use of gasket socks, instead of traditional sticky poron
gaskets.
This is just like the QK65.
we’re gonna slide these onto the ends of the plate tabs.
Next I’ll put in some case foam, and you can see here that even if you don’t get
the bluetooth PCB, your case will still have the battery pit.
We’re going to install the inner assembly.
On top goes PBTfans neon, because I only have so many keycap sets that have numberpad support.
Before you listen to the config we just built, I’ll show you the best I could get the board
to sound without tape.
That is just an amazing pitch, and we’ll talk about it in a bit, but here’s the initial
config I built.
My first thought was to tape the PCB up because it’s very quiet.
I thought it might have been the CJ’s fault, so I swapped them out for green jackets.
Just for fun let’s take another listen to that super deep config.
It's gonna take a bit to make this board sound alive, because of how much cuts are in the
plate and PCB.
If you do end up going with polycarbonate, chances are you will be depending on the plenty
of foams included.
Only changing CJs to green jacket linears did quite a bit, so I guess CJs just weren’t
a strong sounding switch to begin with.
But what really surprised me was how deep this board got just from another foam.
It didn’t even need tape mod, even though that would have made it louder.
I think the sheer size of this board has a lot to do with this, just like how larger
size correlates with lower pitch in musical instruments.
Your best bet is probably going for a deeper sounding build.
Although I am really intrigued as to how the other plates and top mounting fare in this
board.
With just the thick case foam and plate foam, the board is very bouncy and flexy.
This is because, well, the PCB is like half air.
And of course, this also significantly deadens the sound, so I really wish they would have
kept the more minimal cuts that the windx65 PCB had.
But on the bright side, you do get a ton of foams to mess around with to configure your
sound and feel.
With the bottom PCB foam, there is significantly less bounce, but I think this is a worthy
trade for the sound improvement.
The top looks the same as the WindX, with the small brass accent above the arrows.
The only difference here is the addition of the multicolored stainless steel PVD X accent
to the right of the escape.
To me, this only really works with the monochrome board colors, and kinda looks out of place
on the rest, especially on mine with the brown bottom.
It takes away the class that this colorway would otherwise have, by adding just a little
too much flair.
Personally, for this gray and brown colorway at least, I would have liked for this X to
be brass, like the top and bottom accent.
Besides this, the case design has no new additions or changes, unless you count the battery pit
thing.
It’s the same small fileted edges, same triple piece assembly, same triangular feet,
same bottom accent, and same text with the board name on the right side.
So somehow, I got the short end of the stick on everything new with the Windx98.
The sound wasn’t great to begin with and the new accent doesn’t look the best with
this color scheme.
In the end, these are still both heavily preferential changes, and whether they do you any good
or not boils down to your choices for the aesthetic and feel of your new board.
Windx boards have always been pretty cost effective, and this is no different.
With how little 1800 layout custom boards there are out there, it’s great to see a
new one in a familiar design.
Overall, if you can get past these minor gripes, I think the wind x98 is a great, option for
anyone wanting a 98% with just a little bit of extra flair.