Suggestions for true ANSI TKL, 5-pin hot swap, wired only keybaord?

Learning and discussion
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With Drop being sold to Corsair my Drop Ctrl v2 breaking right after they closed shop I am in the market for a solid true TKL, 5-pin hot swap, wired only keyboard (don’t want the extra weight an bulkiness of a battery pack when I never use my keyboard wirelessly).

I am having hard time finding something that is in stock and meets the above criteria. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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The first one’s I’d suggest seem to be out of stock for now; the Tiger Lite Gaming, Transition Lite, or Keychron V3; all great no-nonsense TKLs. I’m assuming you’ll want to avoid metal cases for bulk and weight.

If you don’t mind North-facing sockets, the Keychron C3 or Ducky One V3 might fit.

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The Classic TKL from NovelKeys might be a good choice, too. The base models that are left are on clearance, with some good bundle deals too.

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I’m assuming you’ll want to avoid metal cases for bulk and weight

I don’t mind a light aluminium case like drop ctrl, but yeah, nothing too heavy and bulky. No-nonsense TKL as you said

Thanks a lot @Deadeye and @wjrii. They all look good. I don’t know how they escaped my searches. I was looking at zoom, kbdfans and qwertykeys. Your suggestions look like they are (mostly) in stock and much better priced!

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Having just assembled a Drop CTRL based build, and having removed several batteries from other boards, I wouldn’t worry too much about the extra weight. The CTRL is not a copper-weighted monster, but it’s a substantial board and the LiPo pouches that go into these keyboards are not very heavy by comparison.

That said, the plastic-cased budget custom category is in a very healthy place right now, with much more thought put into the designs than into the gamer boards of years’ past.

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Having just assembled a Drop CTRL based build

Looks :fire:

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I’ll second the recommendation for the Classic TKL, it’s a great keyboard (I have two!) - the only thing about it you might want to keep in mind is that it has what’s called a Tsangan bottom row, meaning the Ctrl, Alt, Win, Menu / FN, and Space Bar keys are all a different size than the more common modern standard.

Tsangan kit support is very popular in custom keysets these days (you can definitely expect it from any modern GMK or Signature Plastics set, for example) - but budget sets are less likely to support it.

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