Why you should buy a Mechanical Keyboard

Back in September, I stumbled across this YouTuber named Taeha Types. I remember looking through his channel and seeing him build custom keyboards and to be quite honest I never really cared for them. I just used my laptop keyboard the majority of the time and did not fully appreciate an actual mechanical keyboard (ok let's be honest, I am extremely new to this so I prob still barely know anything). Hopefully, after reading this you will also get addicted to the life of the THOCC. Btw, all of my friends are now addicted and buying $500 custom keyboards to build so for the sake of your wallet you better hope I don’t convince you.

Also for this read, you will need to know some cool keyboard lingo:

• Switches — Basically the source of happiness and sound of the keyboard. It is also what registers each keystroke
• PCB — The circuit board that makes all the magic happen
• Keycaps — The plastic cover over the key switches that in my opinion are the easiest way to customize your keybaord

and honestly, all you need after this is a case to put your parts in, and BAM, you have a keyboard.

Why I got pulled into this niche hobby

The one thing that first captured my attention was the THOCC. Oh my gosh, there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a lubed krytox 205g0 switches with 4 mm film. This changed my life. Ok to all the beginners the THOCC is the sound a keyboard switch makes and it sounds exactly as you would expect, but if you want an eargasm watch this video of NK creams on a keyboard that Taeha Types made for no other than Fortnite Pro player TIFU.

A keyboard that I will never be able to afford:((((

I then started to really enjoy the process of making keyboards (although I never actually made my own yet). Here’s a little knowledge for you if you think you want to create a custom keyboard off the bat.

There are two types of custom keyboards in my opinion

1. The fully custom, where you find all the parts in a group buy and solder on the switches manually
2. The hot-swappable, instead of having to solder directly onto the PCB board, you can just pop in and out your favorite type of switches

I would definitely recommend getting a hot-swappable keyboard just because you can try out different switches and don’t have to solder and desolder to find what you like.

But in the end, building the endgame may require you to solder, but we will get to that later.

Why get into keyboards?

My friends all thought I was crazy to be this obsessed with keyboards and it is definitely crazy to spend $100+ on multiple keyboards when you can only use one at a time (or can you use more hmmm). But after I battered them with Taeha Type videos and typing sound tests they were hooked. One of my friends even bought a $500 custom keyboard for himself to make.

Now I know this article is all over the place, but if you take one thing away is that anyone who is building keyboards is just looking for their endgame. Endgame is basically, for lack of words, the dream keyboard. The beauty of mechanical keyboards is that it is all preference. Everyone has different tastes and this is one of the reasons the community is so interesting. Although some people think the endgame is never achievable, I think you should at least strive for it. The smoothness and relaxation you get from using a keyboard you love really makes working at your computer that much nicer and I will never look back. At least try a prebuilt mechanical keyboard and see how you like it but I guarantee that you will not look back.

What am I rocking at the moment?

Currently, I have two keyboards which are both optical switches. Since I am new to the scene, I just wanted to buy prebuilt keyboards to just kind of understand my style and what I like. I am actually building a hot-swappable keyboard in the coming month so keep on the lookout for a “Building a Mechanical Keyboard for Dummies” article.

Here is my Keychron K3 which I just received and is the keyboard I backed back in September. It is low-profile with optical red switches.

Here was my first keyboard the SK61 with optical gateron black switches (honestly pretty thoccy and so really cute with the pandas)