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I been researching for good amount of time about 60%. Idk which one is good (Linear, Fast, Looks Well-built, White in colour) Budget around $130

IK its too much to ask but i would realy apreciate it if you guys could help me find one

Drop Carina 60% Build A Fun & Easy Build with RGB Flair! Intro: Right now this is a really popular market segment, 60% layouts are all the rage and the Carina seems to tick all the right boxes. What’s the deal with 60% layouts? 60% layouts have risen in popularity mostly due to the growth in the custom keyboard space. They are a great choice as you can enter the world of customs for a fraction of the price compared to other larger layouts, and for most users you do not lose too much functionality. This keeps things simple and minimalistic (everyone's favorite word). Why would you want this? For a basic typist, or gamer who wants to build a custom, 60% layouts are great. Question where or not you need some additional keys like arrows or an additional column of function keys, if so look at 65%, layouts, otherwise this is the layout for you! The Carina offers many desirable ‘wants’ as well, you get hot-swap switches with all the flashy RGB you could ever want! Why I bought this: I knew this was not my ideal layout, as a 65% is already limiting for myself, however adding a simple 60% to the collection is something I wanted. And the frosted acrylic body caught my eye. The board itself is a good value option and in a competitive market segment, If anything it would be enjoyable to build and review. Parts (USD): This is another buy where the bulk of parts came from Drop. At $120 the Drop Carina feels like good value, depending on what your definition of value is (more on this in the conclusion). And the Drop Skylight series keycaps are a nice touch for a reasonable price as well. I added a white coiled cable to another order but the Carina comes with a plain white cable, so purchasing one is not required. My switch of choice was something linear, and heavy. Kailh Box Heavy Dark Yellows it is! These switches are also phenomenal value, and are RGB friendly. My thoughts on the Drop Carina: The Carina has been in my hands for a few months now. I took delivery on January 7th 2021, and I had it assembled and ready the next day! The key features for me being: Hot swap sockets for both 3 & 5-pin switches RGB to the max, per key lighting and tasteful under glow Well designed and made acrylic casing USB-C with dual ports on both left and right, plus included white cable Easy assembly and instructions The PCB brings in the entire aesthetic feel with a gloss white finish, and while this goes mostly unseen, a nice touch, especially if you happen to be staring at the under glow RGB. Speaking of under glow, there is good spacing between LEDs, you get a nice full color spectrum, and great light coverage. The acrylic holds up, this has been well designed and the lighting does an excellent job shining evenly throughout the entire case. For the price I am pleased as I think for many, this would be one of the main features to pick this over other options. It has solid large rubber feet and a nice angled design. The included stabs are boring old clip-ins, I was expecting this, but it would be easy enough to implement a superior screw in design, ultimately for this price range not a deal breaker by any means. I went for the default Aluminum backplate, you can opt for Brass or Copper, but these come at an additional cost of $30 & $40 respectively, making the overall price less competitive. Pictures: As this is a hot swap board and a more compact layout it was a quick assembly process. For more thorough details on assembly check out my past review of the OLKB Preonic and upcoming KBD67Lite. Mildly triggered that there is no blue 'Forward Slash' keycap included in the Drop Skylight keycap set... Oh well. This is where the white PCB is noticeable as it blends in, any other color would be very noticeable. Type Test: My switch of choice was the Kailh Box Heavy Dark Yellow (linear), un-lubed, stabs lubed with TriboSys 3204. Drop Carina - Box Heavy Dark Yellows Unlubed.mp4 * Amplified audio by 10db * (Audio recorded with a Blue Snowball Mic, at approximately 15cm from the keyboard) Worth mentioning, box switches, f#cking amazing, the stability these add to the feeling of the keys is massively noticeable. One of those things that you won’t notice until you try and have hands on experience, so this is something that I highly recommend everyone tries. Which has me thinking, stem switch on Zealios? Conclusion: Overall I like the board and the features, it delivers on all fronts and other than some nitpicking on the choice of stabs, hence I have no real complaints. At least none that prevent me from recommending it. For those looking at a budget custom mechanical 60% hot-swap boards, this would likely top that list. However, this segment is growing, and there is stiff competition, at the time of this review I think the biggest competitor is the KBD67Lite, a 65% layout (more keys) for $10 less, at $110usd (shipping not included), it comes in and out of stock with a wireless version also available. For that price the KBD67Lite has very similar features, per key RGB, an ABS case with a polycarbonate back plate, hot-swap sockets, it even address my complaints with the Carina, screw in stabs included, additionally a nice carry case. Case and backplate construction is somewhat sacrificed vs the Carina, but you get a few other features in a better layout, so when looking to buy these are options to weigh. When I ordered the Carina the 67Lite was not an option, but now it is, and I have since purchased one. Another big competitor is the new GMMK Pro, mine has just arrived 2 days ago and I am in the process of assembly and testing, it comes in at a slightly higher price of $170usd, but the extra $50 is going to good use. You get a much more solid construction, per key RGB and 5-pin hot swap sockets remain, with the addition of a better 75% layout, and a highly coveted rotary knob. My review of that is coming soon as well, but my initial impressions are very good. It is hard not to justify the extra $50 for a more usable layout that lacks no features. So while the Carina is an aesthetically pleasing board, I find that my mind now goes to other options. Within the time frame of ordering the Carina, to receiving it, a lot of new competition is now purchasable. Personally this is not my daily use board, as said earlier I have a hard time scraping by with anything less than a 65% layout. But otherwise, I have no reason not to recommend this board, if you have weighed your alternative options. Drop has done a great job here, but now faces more competition than ever before. Reviews on the KBD67Lite and GMMK Pro are soon to follow.

Southpaw75 Review A Budget Build w/ Full Assembly This build was both budget focused, and experimental as I was looking for an option that required full assembly and soldering, I went with the Southpaw75, a 60% layout with a left hand (southpaw) numpad. Parts (USD): For $50CAD this is cheap for a custom keeb (cheap but good, making this a rare find), and while you will require more parts, this remains good value for what it is. Why I bought this: My initial reason for wanting this was to try the left-hand Numpad, I had seen some comments about it on Reddit, and after finding the site I was bummed to see that it was sold out. However, after mentioning so on this very thread I was elated to learn that our very own @kelvinhall05 is the seller! I messaged him and was lucky enough to be able to purchase two. Purchase and shipping was easy and straight forward, I was provided with email updates and the process was uneventful. My second reason for wanting a budget option like this was due to the fact that I have not soldered in many years. So on the off chance that I was going to f#ck up, this was the board to do it on. If I made an irreversible mistake it would not feel as significant of a loss as it would be if I messed up and ruined the PCB for my upcoming Tofu96 build. But to be clear, I was not intending on throwing this away, but you get the idea, I wanted a board to ‘practice’ on. In my opinion, the Southpaw75 is not for a first-time mechanical keyboard purchaser, it requires full assembly and soldering, so unless you have that equipment this is likely not the first option for you. I see this more for a custom keyboard enthusiast looking for a unique layout without breaking the bank. And for that I highly recommend it. My thoughts on the Southpaw75: While I do like this layout in the ideal world I would have this as a 65% layout. The lack of arrows and 'delete' in particular are very hard for me to adjust to not having. The benefit is you can add layers via QMK so I have done so, but again, these are keys I use very often so it has been an adjustment process. As for the southpaw numpad, again this is also an adjustment process, I often reach for the right-hand side, however, a left side numpad seems almost more logical in my opinion. I feel as though a right side numpad is there for your mouse hand to use, but when I am working I rarely touch my mouse and the left numpad feels.... well, natural in a sense, despite me being right-handed. Hard to explain this is, one of those things where you just have to experience it for yourself. Now the material quality, the FR4 composite construction and PCB actually seem really solid. I will not pretend like I know a lot about custom keeb PCB's, but compared to what I have had hands-on experience with this seems like no lesser of quality, while a fraction of the price. Once assembled there is minimal / almost no deck flex, well within an acceptable tolerance level. There are clear cost-saving measures like the requirement to solder in the diodes (included) and the pro micro or elite C (not included), but this is all clearly stated when purchasing so there were no surprises. Another "nice to have" for this build would be a fully enclosed case, but again, for the price, this is not so much a complaint of mine, more of an "ideal". I am more than aware that doing so would significantly raise the cost of the keyboard, so while I am okay with this because it was only $50, it is something to keep in mind. I personally would not use this as my one weapon keyboard just because of the eventual dust build-up to the back of the PCB. But as low-cost option in this special form factor, it is a great option for any keeb collection. That said the casing could be an interesting 3D print project for me.... FR4 PCB pics: Assembly process: Luckily all went well with the assembly! As it was my first time soldering in a very long time I double watched some tutorials and because of this, I was slow, especially with my first few. Ultimately it's like riding a bike, if you have done it in the past, it is easy to pick up the skill again. Definitely not as daunting of a task as some make it out to be. I ended up soldering 3 diodes incorrectly, and forgetting to solder in the two diodes beneath my Pro Micro. But this was my fault as I did not fully read through the VERY clear instructions for the diode soldering step. Luckily this was an easy fix as I had the correct equipment and otherwise, everything went perfectly. As long as you follow the instructions there should be no issues. Mounting the diodes in, once done you solder, then snip them. Diodes soldered in. Stabs lubed and mounted to the PCB. Placing my first few switches and aligning the faceplate. MX Blacks in. Switches soldered in! This was my first time in many moons, I think I went a little light on the solder for some sockets but all switches are firmly held in. Some cheap caps from KBD fans, although seemingly good quality. I have been very happy with these, especially considering the price of $29.00 How she sits. As you can see the casing is open, and the back of the PCB is fully exposed to open air. Build DONE! Switch of choice?: In an interesting turn I went with Cherry MX Blacks, testing out the Gat Blacks I got with my GMMK has completely revised my opinion on linear switches. I feel as though MX Reds really soured my taste for linear switches many years ago. I get why they make sense for gaming (quick actuation with little force required), but for someone who primarily uses keyboards for typing they are a terrible switch for my use case. While I still prefer tactile switches, in my opinion, a heavy linear compensates for the lack of the tactile bump. So the switch (pun intended) to a heavy linear was not a difficult or unsatisfactory adjustment to make. For this build I decided on MX Blacks because the 5-pin version was very well priced and I do not own a set of MX Blacks, so I wanted to give them a go! Conclusion: So here I am typing on my new Southpaw75, I am extremely happy with the end product. For those looking to add to your existing keyboard collection I feel like this is a unique, and relatively inexpensive piece to spruce up the collection. I would definitely recommend this to someone who is looking for a different layout! These are now sold out but @kelvinhall05 has similar budget FR4 DIY keeb kits in the pipeline, so if interested reach out to him! Not to mention the building process was very rewarding and I really enjoyed it, I am excited to move ahead with my Tofu96 build as I now have the soldering confidence to tackle Mount Everest! (Or whatever skill equivalent soldering allows me to do)

Hey LTT Forums, I recently got a used Lenovo ThinkPad X280 laptop chosen for it's lightweight small size, allowing it to take minimal space in a bag. However, as much as I love the ThinkPad TrackPoint keyboard, I would much prefer a small 60% or 65% Mechanical Keyboard to throw in my bag and get a better typing experience when I have the space. I've been looking at something like the Corsair K65 RGB MINI, but I know this forum has a lot of passionate mechanical keyboard fans, and wanted to see if anyone had feedback as to what they would personally recommend! Wireless is obviously a perk when looking for portability but like, it's not something I'm picky about lol. I had considered putting this on the Mechanical Keyboards thread with 300 something pages but I have had bad experiences with those types of threads on other forums where every post is essentially buried and lost to time. Thanks, hope I get some good advice aha. - Madison

So I Was Searching for a 60% Mechanical Keyboard That is RGB on my local online Store And i Found a 60% Board called VortexSeries VX5 For Only 20$, they use outemu Switches and i want feedback of this.