3 years ago, I set out to replace my Logitech G910, with close to the best thing available.

The G910 was a dead specimen gifted by a friend for repair. Full Layout with numpad, macro switches, per switch rgb lighting. For me this was pretty much all I would ever need, or so I thought.

Old Build

Pretty much the only barebone I had considered was the Drop CTRL. It has QMK support, RGB, and is very heavy! I went with Kailh BOX Heavy Burnt Orange Switches, they are tactile and heavier at 60g. I bought the cheapest keycap set that was available at the time: White Pudding Keycaps.

Don’t roast me, I just really like them.
After all, the entire hobby revolves around customizing your keyboard to your liking.

• Drop CTRL Barebone - $150
• Kailh BOX Heavy Burnt Orange Switches 90pcs - $27
• PBT White Pudding Keycaps - $22

New Shiny Build

Looking at the Keyboard market 3 years ago, and now, a lot has changed! Lots of non-english layouts are now supported by a lot of barebones. And those got cheaper and more feature complete. Some coming with all the foam one might need.

If I were to buy another barebone and build it myself, I would probably go for one from Keychron or Akko.

Since I didn’t want to replace my barebone, I just went with new switches and keycaps. I got Gateron Milky Yellow Pro Switches, and took a gamble on some budget PBT Dye-Sub Keycaps.

The Gateron Milky Yellow Pro are factory lubed Linear Switches, which come in at 50g actuation force. They are considered great budget out-of-the-box Linears, especially for $27 for 110pcs.

I ended up replacing almost all legends with art-keys.

The GKs XDAv2 Happy Planet PBT Keycaps turned out great!
I can highly recommend them to anyone on a tight budget. They are available both on Drop and AliExpress and for ~$35 they are well worth it.

Here it is, finally assembled.

Additional Mods

Here are some stencils for laser cutting case & plate foam. I cut 3mm thick foam with adhesive backing, on a 5W diode laser at 95% power, 600mm/s, 2 passes. It was a nightmare to glue to the frame, but it worked out. It sounds a lot less hollow, and more muted in the higher frequencies.

Here is a list of all mods:

• Case and Plate foam
• lubed and clipped stabs (stock plate mount stabs)
• small piece of Painters Tape on PCB directly under stabilizers
• 1x Outemu Silent Forest Switch for ESC Key
• Zomoplus Kitty Paw on ESC Key

Conclusion

It does it all. It sounds great. Typing feels awesome. And compliments about the looks keep coming.

I highly recommend building your own Keyboard. It’s very rewarding and it doesn’t have to be a money sink.

Notes

I urge everyone to do daily typing exercises.
monkeytype is a great website for that.

I have been doing this for a while now, and I am slowly getting better and better. Its probably not a function of the keyboard on its own, but a function of me and doing a little every day.
Before, anything close to 70wpm was unthinkable.