Hi All,
I'm looking for a new mechanical keyboard. Hoping for some advice. I used to have a Corsair K70 Pro, but unfortunately that no longer functions. I've been using a crappy dell keyboard from work and have finally been annoyed enough by it to buy a new keyboard.
I've considered going with another K70, but corsair doesn't give a shit about linux and I'm kicking windows outta my house. While I could emulate or build a vm, I'd rather just get a keyboard that doesn't make linux an afterthought if thought of at all. What I like about the K70 is that the keys aren't shrouded making it super easy to
Wants are:
- 100% full keyboard
- Ideally no shrouding around the switches, minor shrouding would be okay.
- A passthrough USB port on the keyboard for a mouse, to minimize wires and simpliy cable management.
- Hotswap switches
- Full Linux support
- Backlit (ideally RGB, but I"m not doing any fancy profiles, just a solid color)
- Media keys nice, but I can live without them.
- Ideally not much more than $200
I'd prefer prebuilt, but at most minimal soldering would be acceptable, as long as it's nothing too small, my soldering skills are an embarrassment.
I've looked at the following already.
Ducky All models I saw shrouded the switches. seem shrouded.
System76 Cost seems excessive and I don't really want a 96% keyboard.
DasKeyboard & Keychron The models pretty much all shroud the switches too much, or they're low form factor.
The DasKeyboard 5QS comes close, and I might just go with it if I don't have a better option, but it's got more shrouding around the switches than I like. It also doesn't seem to have a secondary USB port.
I just saw this as well. I really like the bigger one on the left, would just need to be a full keyboard, maybe an additional USB port on the back as well. https://lemmy.ml/post/10016605
I've used HyperX's Alloy Elite for a few years now and it's still going strong: https://hyperx.com/collections/keyboards-mice/products/hyperx-alloy-elite-2-mechanical-gaming-keyboard?variant=41031691468957.
Has most of the features you're looking for. One thing is Linux - I'm not sure if it has "Linux" support like you're looking for, but it does work like a normal keyboard on Linux. I've never used macros or any customizing features for it on Windows, and thus don't use anything like that on Linux either. Media controls work perfectly fine on Linux.
The other concern is hot swapping switches - I've never done that either, I have stuck with my brown switches since I got it. Only real customizing I've done is to change the keycaps to pudding style.
I took a quick look at their website and from what I can tell, their NGENUITY config tool is Windows only, which makes it a pretty hard no for me.