They sent me a GMMK Pro at one point for some reason or another along with the flex kit, and I built it with the entire thought process being that I would give it to a friend or family member…and I ended up actually really liking how it sounded and was a little annoyed about that.
Ended up keeping it, throwing the Glorious Pandas I had into it and topping it with MT3 Cyber. It sits as a decoration piece on my work desk these days, was never able to end up bringing myself to get rid of it. Has been a conversation a few times and I’ve managed to get at least one more co-worker into custom boards, even as I’ve exited the hobby (waiting for the Supermassive killed any interest I had left in this hobby with the wait time).
I’ve felt for a while now that a lot of the clicky hate stems from the fact that most people first experience cheap clickies in cheap plastic boards. I think even the humble clickjacket can really shine, but oddly enough, only when you have a solid, quiet case to support them.
It’s kind of like how you can put expensive, high quality speakers in a car but not upgrade the sound insulation and the entire vehicle sounds like it’s rattling apart.
This board in PC seems like a bit of a unicorn, figured what better way to celebrate it than shine it up a little and put some 1984 on it.
The Retro R’s match so well in color but are loud. If anyone has any recommendations for a quieter switch, maybe some scratch or even tactile, in similar colorway, let me know!
TypePlus x Alexotos Granites would match pretty nicely with 1984 & the PC Hello IMO. TypePlus x NK Classic Blues would be an alright fit for it too as the housings are all milky iirc. Although the blue stem might be a little out of place with the Classic Blues in this build.
Thanks!
The Retro Rs are really just your standard HMX switch. Buttery smooth scratchless travel, crisp bottom out, and poppy springs. No modding required. The stem is on the thicker end of HMX stems but nowhere near that of Gaterons or Cherrys which I usually need to trim. Sound is also fuller and on the mid-deep spectrum of HMX switches. Other than that they’re just very good switches as expected of HMX but nothing characteristically unique IMO.
Yeah I picked this up on MM quite a while ago, and I’ve not seen another anywhere else since. Definitely bit of a unicorn it seems, or maybe it just wasn’t too popular I don’t know. The PC was a little dusty and had the frosty finish of a budget acrylic case. I had to put in some elbow grease to give it a little shine and translucency to bring out the PC. lol I did run out of steam at the end, though, but I think the bit of frost/haze leftover lends to the semi-retro look.
So… a thing happened today. We had a meetup in Dallas with some giveaways. I idly threw my name in the hopper hoping for maybe a bag of switches or a stand. Instead, I got this:
GDK Lab DK1-TKL. I think it’s the Darkgold? I actually got there a little late so I don’t know the exact condition, but other than those five switches, I see pretty much no evidence it’s been used. Pretty darn sweet, except that I now have to find caps and switches, lol. Also, the sheer number of giveaways at this little meetup speaks so very well of the community.
Jokes aside that’s amazing haha I got a dark gold one from the NA GB, ETA unknown. What caps/switches do you have planned?
Dallas meetup sounds awesome. Got meetup pics?
So, piecing everything together, which I tend to do rather than simply asking people questions they could easily answer, I think this is one is a tri-mode they gave to Captain Sterling for photos. Right now it has Box Navy (Staying. I yam what I yam.) and SA Unicorn barf from my recent grab bag (not staying, although it feels great). I have MT3 Jukebox in-house, which would look awesome I think, and some SA Laser on the way. This could also be a good one for Hagaromo SA Oblivion. I get sad for unused numpad caps, though, LOL. So far my only issue is that I can’t seem to get VIA to recognize it, and I’d really like to get a Win/Super key mapped to RCtrl and get some stuff onto a layer. (EDIT: By using the VIA clone I used with my Yushakobo board, I learned that the JSON vendor and product IDs in the DK1’s JSON didn’t match what was being reported by the board. Editing the JSON fixed it!)
The meetup was a lot of fun. Good folks around here, and I got to try both PBS caps and Gateron Melodics, among tons of other cool stuff. I brought in a couple of my DIY builds, as well as a Model M and my re-wired Focus battlecruiser.
Replying to myself here, but I think it’ll be okay.
Mechmarket PBS MV Classic and KAM Superuser arrived. I sort of half-assedly laid a few caps of each on top of the unicorn-barf on the DK1-TKL, and I think the MV Classic popped almost a bit too much against the top case. I also get a little feeling of being wasteful (which I do not want to unpack, given this is my hobby) when I leave numpad caps in the box, and the KAM helpfully did not come with a numpad kit. So… off to the kitchen island for the quickie photoshoot…
Not sure if I keep the knob or change it again, otherwise I’m very pleased with the build. Due to the case sounding very hollow (waiting for my print with 40% infill) I chose Gateron Melodics in favor to the Akko. Also fits the theme perfectly with clicky switches imho.
Not that we couldn’t tell, but that did come out great. The light olive compliments the susu very well. I recently tried Melodics, and they were very cool, eerily similar to a clean set of Alps White (for the obvious technical reasons). Fortunately for my wallet, for me they didn’t immediately outshine my beloved Box Navies, but for the right build I totally get it.
Just another boring cursed layout build. I think I finally found the caps for the Moonrock Solaris–ePBT 6085. At last my 6085 have a home.
The Solaris is rather hollow sounding so I cut some neoprene plate foam and padded the case with polyfil. Also I could not keep the pcb/plate assembly in place with gummy oring mount, so I top mounted but kept the gummy oring on. That somehow fixed all the issues I had with the case initially and now it sounds and feels amazing.
I also went through almost every keycap and filed the gate marks and poorly formed edges, and warmed up 2u and longer keys in boiled water and flattened them out on my kitchen counter. ePBT quality is pretty bad.
Using L+F Lilac Tactiles. Finally a home for these switches too.
Pieced together a new baby last night. Had a Rev 7 with a green case, but I love the mid case. Also wanted to try Zealios. So I bought the Rev 6 with Zealios and mid case. Swapped the case to my Rev 7 and finished that one off with Box Royals and WOB MT3. Have to try the Zealios with an MT3 which is my favorite, but I’m still not sure I get the Zealio hype. Maybe I just like the big bump like Silent Shrimps and Durock Ice Kings, but the Zealio feel kind of underwhelming. The bump is OK, but they have a lot of chatter compared to my other non silent switches.
