Basically looking for a keyboard that would fit a buddy’s criteria and haven’t been able to find anything and would love some help from the community!
I’ve recently got into the keyboard hobby and have been sharing it with some of my buddies. I have one friend who’s gained some interest in getting a new keyboard as I’ve shared a lot of the cool customs out there in the community with him, but he’s VERY particular about what he likes and wants. He’s interested in getting a 75% layout with rgb per-key and a case that has floating keys and the kind of “bezel-less” look similar to the planck. Maybe something similar to the kbd75 but without the strip on material on the case that runs along the outside.
I’ve been looking to see if I can find anything like that but no luck… So I thought I’d reach out and see if anyone knew of anything that could fits the description?
I had a Race 3 for a while and here’s my thoughts:
I loved the 75% “compact” layout, floating key/bezel-free design especially. Coming with stock DSA PBT keycaps is a huge plus, too. And it’s mildly re-programmable, though quite confusing to do so.
I found it to be a very noisy case, and the spacebar rattled a lot, but overall not a terrible board. Note that it doesn’t have per-key RGB, just status indicator lights under caps lock and spacebar (it has a profile selector).
Thanks for the review. I had thought that the race 3 was per-key. Seems like that’s a feature that’s not to common on boards? the race 3 is also not usb-c right?
Yeah, if your friend wants a true 75% layout (where all the keys are close together, unlike a TKL), I’m not sure there’s any options for per-key RGB?
Per-key RGB seems to be most common on gaming keyboards anyway. Same with the “floating keys” low-pro case design. But gaming keyboards usually only come in TKL or 100% sizes.
If 75% form factor is a must, the Race 3 is honestly the only prebuilt option that comes to mind for me. But no RGB.
If they’re ok with TKL size and want to prioritize the no bezel design, I’d say just figure out which “gaming” keyboard is best and get that.
I can’t speak to the keyboard myself, but the HyperX Alloy Origins Core looks pretty nice. It says HyperX has their own line of switches. I wonder who manufactures them. They claim to be smoother than Cherry MX. Also, it’s got a standard bottom row, so your poor poor friend can get sucked into buying aftermarket keycaps haha.
Only $90 seems like a pretty good deal for a TKL these days.
