Section31

I am using duhuk bitter v2 (buy from unikeys). Ordered in kkb cherries from same site. Really good site in terms of pricing and shipping. It functions like intl taobao store front with drop shipping from china. Pricing is China RMB to your currency.

Its an werk technica werkone. One of the designed in Germany boards. Very expensive brand. 650USD for base models and goes up to 1200-1300USD for Copper Bottom. Neo75 is really interesting one. zFrontier 装备前线 WWW.ZFRONTIER.COM zFrontier 装备前线 - 机械键盘、键帽、HiFi、摄影装备发烧友聚集地。用更强的装备，探索更大的世界。 Keycap is mixture of KKB C.O.L and GMK Jamon R2

I finally got this beauty in after two years wait. Old technology for keyboards (no magnetic connector, ball latch, fancy metal spring mounts, etc). The typing experience is second to my Geon F1-8X-722 (which wins because of its plateless).

Pretty much. Just read the benchmarks and see if its big enough performance jump for you to upgrade. Ignore the rest of the comments.

The actual new trend on almost all budget board (under 100usd) is super easy to build and super quick to dissemble boards. So the whole connection is done through magnetic connection point now and the there are ball latch mechanism to remove/install the lids. Gotten almost way too easy to do now. The longest part is just any stabs and any switch lubing at this point. You can probably just skip switch lubing by buying pre-lubed cheap HMX Switches. I can see more prebuilt within the next year having these features. Getting quite boring to build at this point.

Asus has an 500USD one now too. Though that one is really an custom keyboard (still probably cheaper than building one through NEO + Keycap + Switches + Etc assuming Brand New Stuff). I am just waiting for more stuff to come in and have some new target keycaps i am watching for. So hopefully sometime in early 2025 will have one big dump of excess. This set might actually interest you if your into Anime. One of the nice ones to be honest and will be instock sale. 80-100USD Shipped. Since your in Europe, going through Keykobo.com will result in you saving taxes. Contact of mine bought from Keykobo.com based in Europe and they reported that they paid little to no taxes on the goods. Likely 2025 Release. There is full kitting including optional Numpad, Novelty, Space Bar.

They have new Mx2a version of all there traditional cherry switches now too. Haven't tried them but most people go really cheap on switches now. Heavy push towards HMX Brand. I am experimenting with the wooting switches (hall effect switches) myself now. They still are not same as traditional linear. It is nice to no longer having to buy another board just to use wooting switches, just need an hall effect pcb.

Hopefully it is. I have the upgrade itch on both laptops/desktop side just need right worthwhile hardware to release

Looks interesting but budget priority means probably i will get upcoming GPU (5090 probably) and New PSU first. CPU/Mobo/Ram year after. Then caselabs replacement year after - gives plenty of time for caselabs revival to sort out its situation.

@neurotix You just need to keep it simple as i said. Just aim to pickup hand me downs/freebie keyboards. There is lot less risk of damage due to customs checking stuff if international shipping involved. Not the first time somebody keyboard got destroyed because customs sent an drill bit through it during inspection. When you are getting the said freebie item you will still have to do what your diagram shows (most people will leave foam/pcb separate and daughterboard from the board) and you just have to follow the instructions on configuration you want and install the hotswap switches. I am always foamless and go plateless if its an option now. The actual way of sourcing the stuff is like PC parts sourcing nowadays. It's kind of global sourcing with multiple options to save and lot of air freight/sea freight involved maybe. All in the name of getting things faster and cheaper. I wouldn't do for warranty reasons/heavy weight and watercooling parts are better off just paying shipping versus having your luggage space occupied by waterparts.

Actually there may be one but it's pretty far out lol. It's currently on loan to my friend while he wait for the Geon F1-8X-V2 GB to arrive (its 10-12months) so probably anywhere from Q1 to Q2 2025 to be fulfilled. By then i may have found something else to replace it. It's an Grey Studio Aero75 in Coffee Brown Ano. Though you are better off just buying something like : TKD Cycle 8: 150USD Mark [IC] TKD Cycle8 - A new chapter GEEKHACK.ORG [IC] TKD Cycle8 - A new chapter and Geon F1-8X-FE instead (plastic version of Geon F1-8X): 100USD F1-8X GEON.WORKS The first product to be officially sold to consumers.Plates and O-ring gasket mounts designed with frequency simulations are applied.Since June, 2020, it has been sold only in Korea, and a total of 2900 units...

All that matters is the word hand me downs/freebies lol.

Its an fun project just try to get as many freebies/hand me downs as possible from the watercooling community to reduce your overall costs.

@GanjaSMK Honestly in the current market wait for watercooling enuthiast to upgrade and pick up there hand me downs for cheap to free even. While my project got delayed and am still working out final budgets, I should have large amounts of waterparts plus pc parts to give away over next 2-3years. Including the caselabs s8 case. I just committed to giving away my watercool cpu iv intel block when i swap over to optimus intel sig v3. I might have an aquacomputer ultitube d5 (no pump) too depending on how the situation with planned singularity computer compact dual d5 distro plate goes. Brand doesn’t really matter now just what fits your budget though solution the market kind of changed. Even the world of fans have changed lot of cheap good 120 and soon next gen 140mm that are on par with phantek t30. Even the china brands have really closed up the gap including price wise that you can’t go wrong with them.

At the current rate, too many switches released on daily basis (with the current trend being magnetic hall effect switches). Same situation with keycaps and more vendors carrying less and less. Also running more and more sales to offload inventory. You can find GMK sets now for bargain basement prices. There's almost no point to buying the amazon keycaps to be honest. That and too many people entered the hobby and now have too much excess and they are leaving completely and downsizing at minimum. So many bargain available now. I literally gave away for free an Matrix 8xv 3.0 (Mcflurry), Promise Bespoke (Red) and Neo70 (Blue) just recently as part of my own downsizing effort to make room for new stuff. The bottom has been reached for custom with Neo and it various competitors releasing aluminum chassis with nice colors/quality control and multiple mounting options (plateless/o-ring/gasket) and foam/no-foam. All layout being covered too - eventually Neo full size is coming in near future too. All around 100-150USD Range. Then there's the upcoming Geon F1-8X-FE which will be under 100usd but have the sound/feel of the alumiunum/brass internal weight F1-8X TKL