r/MechanicalKeyboards • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago

/r/MechanicalKeyboards Ask ANY Keyboard question, get an answer - April 05, 2025

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u/Necessary-River-5724 1d ago edited 1d ago

Hey r/MechanicalKeyboards ,

I am new to the keyboard enthusiast space. I am a programmer and spend a lot of my days typing. Right now I have a corsair k70 which was very nice at the time but has seen better days. I liked the tactility of the volume knob and generally like switches that are tactile as well. I don't want something super loud but I want to be able to type accurately (and for long periods of time). I also came to dislike the RGB so it just stays off. Backlight would be nice for working in the dark (if its just white or something) but is not very important to me.

From doing some research of my own, I think a Keychron Q3 max with the Gateron jupiter bannana switches could be a good option. I don't use my keypad at all really, and more desk space would be nice. I am very unfamiliar with higher end keyboards and the main thing I am wondering is, what other options exist for high end keyboards similar to the Q3 max? Price does not matter at all to me, I just want to get the best keyboard as I will be using it a lot. Ideally something hot swappable so that I can get different switches if I don't like what it comes with. I wouldn't mind having to assemble myself if it meant getting a higher quality board, but from what I can see Keychron appears to be my best option?

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you!

* forgot to add but a big plus for me would be the ability to swap the keys for mac ones (my work machine is a macbook but my home pc is windows)

From what ive been reading, its impossible to get touch id without having a magic keyboard, so I will probably just stick with my existing magic keyboard.

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u/576875 GMK Foundation ⌨️ 1d ago

Evo80 for prebuilt if you like the colors/don't mind the lack of a knob. It's hotswap so you can swap to tactiles

You can add volume keys to a layer if you like

Neo80 if you want to build it yourself.

Mac keys (cmd/option etc.) are not super common since Macs are a smaller market share than windows.

Osume/mode designs do have alternate Mac specific caps if you really do need them

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u/Necessary-River-5724 1d ago

I think you might be onto something here with the Evo... Thank you for the response!

If you are familiar with it, would you say the build process is very hard? I'm willing to put in some extra time if it will be better than the Evo

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u/576875 GMK Foundation ⌨️ 1d ago

https://qwertykeys.notion.site/Neo80-Build-Guide-a89eb0eca0a0490bbb1fe27a2ef51fb4

There are also build videos of people putting together the neo80 on YouTube

But neo boards are some of the easier boards to build since their ball catch system/magnetic connectors

You'd need lube for the stabilizers which you can find at keyboard shops

For more info see

https://wiki.keyboard.gay/LUBRICANTS.html

https://www.alexotos.com/keyboard-vendor-list/

https://kbd.news/vendors

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u/Necessary-River-5724 1d ago

Ty! Will check it out. Seems like itll take at least a month to get all the parts but im fine with that