Search the Community

Hello everyone, I´m looking for the holy grail of keyboards. What does this mean? I´ll explain... I´m searching for a low-profile mechanical keyboard preferably a 100% layout hot-swap switch. I know there is stuff like the Keychron K5, but I´d like to mod my keyboard for dead silence in the office. So lubing is not the problem, but the o-rings which wouldn´t fit are. Low-profile and o-rings are not matching well, so I´d like to know if there is a really flat keyboard with full-size mx switches hot swap. I know there is the Roccat Vulcan ( I already have the tkl for private use modded) and this would be fine if those switches were hot-swappable. (I can tell you that soldering work was a pain) Does anyone have an idea what I could do or combine ? I thought about a TKL and separate numpad, but that's just the lack of opportunities. Thanks

Hi are Low-Profile Optical Reds just as quiet or quieter than Membranes? If louder then what if I put O-Rings on? I currently got my eyes on the Keychron K3 with their Optical Reds.

I enjoy mechanical keyboards but find myself typing faster and with less errors on cheap-and-cheerful low-profile membrane keyboards from the likes of Dell and A4Tech. Finally, a Short Circuit video made me aware of the existence of the NuPhy Air75 keyboard which is compact, low-profile, mechanical, wireless, RGB-backlit and, Apple users rejoice; Mac-compatible. What more could one ask for? Well, perhaps that's the problem, but we will get to that. First Impressions The packaging comes with a nicely designed and comprehensive list of the myriad of key shortcuts to change things like the connectivity mode, backlight and sidelight settings, sleep mode setting or to do a factory reset. While we are on the subject, no further information is provided on what "sleep mode" is but the keyboard will automatically power-off after 30 minutes of idling regardless of that setting so... your guess is as good as mine on that one. And on reverse of the aforementioned key shortcut list there is a picture of an anime-style waifu. And she's on the box art. And there are stickers with her included as well. For some a nice touch, for others a very tired "oh come on! does everything have to be gamer-y?", as when you take a look at the keyboard itself, it really doesn't look like a gamer-focused product, does it? Incessant need of marketing teams to please everyone notwithstanding, the board itself screams quality. The frame is aluminium. The caps are PBT and the design itself brings memories of the gray-and-white keyboards of old, but with a modern, designer twist. Connectivity You can connect the NuPhy to up to 5 devices at a time. 3 via bluetooth 5.0, 1 via the 2.4 Ghz wireless dongle and one through a USB C cable (included). I immediately opted for the 2.4 GHz connection as it allows for low-latency input for the occasional gaming session. The range is abysmal, though. If you get up from the desk and carry the keyboard around even a pretty small room you will experience missed keystrokes and delays. But all that could be forgiven. You're supposed to use keyboards at a desk, right? Well, if the dongle is any further than about 10 cm from the keyboard, the input becomes inconsistent. I kid you not. If you have a desktop PC that's sitting on the floor you might have to run an extension USB cable for the dongle. At that point, is it really wireless? You might as well plug in the included USB C cable. Battery Life The Air75 uses an internal battery that you can charge with the USB C cable. You can use the sidelight to view current battery status but it’s not particularly useful as it’s going to show green throughout almost the entire charge and will suddenly start blinking yellow if it’s running low, at which point you have maybe 2 minutes to plug it in before it’s dead. So, by all means you may get caught while playing an online match or doing time-sensitive work. For my typical use one charge is enough to last a week, and that’s more of the same of what I’ve read other users report online. They also report that after a few months of use the battery is only good for a day, so I guess I’ll get to find out eventually whether my wireless keyboard is even less wireless than 10 cm from a dongle. Typing Experience Upon plugging in my $110 keyboard eager to get full enjoyment from a more pleasant, better typing experience to cheap, low-profile membrane keyboards I’ve grown to tolerate I… immediately hated it. At least at first. The keycaps are shorter than on “standard” mechanical keyboards, yes. But other than that, no immediately obvious consideration was put into adjusting the shape to the form factor. The surfaces of keys ended up becoming larger, but they are still right next to each other as they would on a standard board. That results in your fingers catching on neighboring keys as you type, which then results in accidental keystrokes. That, I believe could be alleviated if the surfaces of the keycaps were slightly smaller, so that they would taper towards the top a bit more, or if their overall sizes were a little smaller thus creating small gaps between keys. But here we are with a shape that could be described like this: imagine a standard height keycap and slice it in half horizontally. Overall, now that I spent a few weeks accustoming myself to the quirky shape of the keycaps I’m feeling rather satisfied with the experience, though I wouldn’t call the NuPhy Air75 the best keyboard to type on. As for the switches, you get a selection of red, brown or blue mechanical Gaterons. I’ve opted for the browns and they feel perhaps somewhat more linear than some other brown switches I’ve experienced before, though I would still describe them as perfectly fine. The switches are hot swappable, made even easier by the included keycap and switch removal tool, so that’s neat, I guess. 3 additional switches are included but only one can go bad before you need to spend money on replacements, though, as they are 1 of each kind, not all three of the variant you selected upon purchase. Bells and Whistles You also get individual RGB lighting with a variety of modes you can select through proper keyboard shortcuts. That’s fine, but the keycaps don’t have shine-through characters so the light doesn’t actually light them up. And while during the day you may taste the RGB rainbow just fine, at night it won’t actually do anything to help you see the keys. All in all, the RGB lighting on this keyboard has the distinct stink of an afterthought. On top of that you get two sidelights that also feature a few switchable lighting modes, but can be turned off in which case the left one serves as a caps lock indicator and the right one can be a battery indicator if you so desire. Function keys serve also as media controls and buttons for basic operations such as changing the brightness of your screen or, rather annoyingly, bringing up Teams. That last one will minimize whatever full-screen application you may be running so that’s not exactly well thought-through. My understanding is the optional software you can download from NuPhy’s website should allow you to modify the behavior of function keys but I haven’t been able to try it out because the software would not detect the keyboard. At least I think that’s what was going on. Clicking on the tray icon did absolutely nothing. Windows would even warn me upon running the installer for it that it’s unrecognized software. So, I guess it’s not ready, to put it kindly. If you don’t want your keyboard to lay completely flat you might enjoy the nice magnetic snap-on rubber feet that raise the back a bit for improved typing comfort, if that’s how you like it. If you’re willing to pay extra $19 you will receive a carrying case, but note that it doesn’t include a space for the aforementioned rubber feet or the 2.4 GHz dongle. All Things to All People? That’s probably what the marketing team wanted and probably not what the engineers wanted. It’s a serious, high-quality product. It’s compatible with Macs. It’s gray and white or gray and other different gray, depending on your choice at purchase. But there’s an anime girl on the packaging, on the manual leaflet and there are anime girl stickers in the box. It’s a product for professionals, but there’s RGB lighting. It’s wireless but instead of doing one type of connection properly (and if they were to fully go ahead with the “it’s for gamers and has waifus and RGB” rhetoric that should probably be the low-latency 2.4 GHz connection) they did multiple ones poorly. It’s an expensive product for people with expensive tastes but includes a cheap-toy-tier battery, an even worse status indicator and software that doesn’t work properly months after release of the product. But put the identity problem aside, is it worth recommending? Honestly, knowing what I know now I would have gone with something different for that money. But then, what would that be? If you need it to be a 75% compact, low profile, mechanical and low-latency wireless this, I believe, is your only option, as others only support a Bluetooth connection or are bigger.

Hello. For 2-3 years I am using the corsair k95 platinum. It is a very cool and easy to use keyboard. The only thing I don’t like, is the sound. Although I am using rubber rings, its extremely loud, and people in voice chats immediately get annoyed. So, I searched for low profile ones. After some days I found the keychron k1. It’s perfect. Literally. There is nothing better. The problem: I am German and there is no German layout available. I watched a few videos and heard that the very similar cooler master sk650 are terrible to write with. Is it possible to just swap the z and y keys, on the k1, to match my layout? A more elegant use would be just buying a German layout keyboard. What I am looking for, is low-profile, numpad, RGB, silent, compact (no need for media keys, sk650 like). I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me out. Have a nice day.

I'm planning to overclock my Ryzen5 1500X and will be using the set-up mainly for gaming. Is there any good budget low-profile coolers out there? Or can I actually just stick to the stock cooler? Thanks very much!

So im looking for a laptop but i'm kind of stuck with reviews and specs and stuff. My budget is $880 dollars including tax but might be able to flex it a little bit. I'm looking for a low profile gaming laptop that i can use for school work but also some casual gaming here and there.I would prefer to have a 1050+ and a 1tb hdd is a must but an extra bit of ssd space would be amazing. If you want games that I would probably play on it then I play rocket league, csgo, and maybe some pubg. and i want it around median settings. I have been looking myself but I'm always mixed between a few like some acer laptops like the aspire 7's and the nitro 5 spin. I have seen a few with some pretty good specs but they are laptops that just spell out gaming if you know what i mean. Any help would be appreciated as I do not understand laptops as much as PCs. List of what i want/prefer shortened~~~~ 1.1tb hdd is a must but extra ssd space would be very nice 2.prefer a 1050 gpu or equivalent but would really only go higher 3. a decent battery life so I can focus on the student side of the laptop 4.low profile, nothing that screams out gaming and that i can bring to class or a nice place to do homework or something 5.a touchscreen would be nice but the only laptop I have found close to what i want with a touchscreen is the nitro 5 spin 6.good cooling and don't have to worry about it exploding from the heat 7.generally good reviews because i have seen some nice laptops but the reviews change my mind 8.($700-$900 with tax included) I don't expect the "perfect laptop" within my price range, but as long as it has the basic idea of what i want then i should be good. also if you need anymore information just let me know in the comments.

Hi all! I'm at this moment in life when I really need to change my current keyboard to feel superior because my Logitech k750 is slowly dying I could simply buy new one as I'm quite happy with overall quality of it but then again that would mean stagnation instead of adventure! I decided to go with mechanical this time (because why not!). Like always I did huge research and ended up with The List. But before I'll show you what I found first, I'd like to mention that I had Logitech G613 for brief period of time but I wasn't happy with too many things: the price vs premium quality feel, noise and dimensions - especially height. I know that noise is quite normal in this kind of keyboards so I can assume that I'd adapt...but the impression is what it is. My List is based on some criteria that is very hard to meet: mechanical, low profile, can't be clicky, has to have multimedia keys, full size. As a bonus it would be great to have: wireless (not bluetooth because you know, gaming) with long batter life, tactile switches (like brown), ISO layout (double enter with big backspace). Unfortunately I couldn't find anything for bonuses other then Logitech G613. I did bought a few key switches to get the idea how each of them work. The one I like the most are Kailh red and brown. It's couldn't find brown in low-profile keyboards so the red will have to do. Ok, so let's get back to The List: Dareu EK820. Tesoro GRAM XS. Gamdias Hermes P3. Ducky (Air) Blade. Cooler Master CK640. Anidess Full Size. HAVIT HV-KB395L. And now let's go through whole list with the things I already know about them. This is also section with questions I have hoping you could address them: Ad 1. I can't find any good info about that one. I like the look of it and the price is interesting. I found it through Deskthority's wiki (or maybe it was Havit...can't remember). Has anyone have some experience with this keyboard? Or at least with the company? Ad 2. I really like the design both in terms of ascetics and technical point of view. But it's hard to get, it's pricey and all the reviews I've seen pointed to the wobbling keycaps - any experience in that matter? They've also stated that it was quite noisy. Ad 3. I really can't find ANY info about it. Nothing at all. So anything you have would be more then appreciated! Ad 4. It's still in the works This would be my personal favourite if it would be available. Do you happen to know when they will release it? Ad 5. Same as above. With the small difference that it should be available at the end of the year or beginning of the next one. Way too long for me to wait. Ad 6. They said it should be available between end of the June and middle of the July. Apart from that I don't anything about both keyboard and the company itself. Ad 7. Is that true it's only blue switch? If you know any other keyboard that would meet my requirements feel free to mention it! All the help in the Quest to Find The One Keyboard will be really appreciated! Thanks!

I just backed the Ghost S1 on Kickstarter. I've been putting together some parts and and trying to decide between air or liquid cooling. The biggest air cooler I've found that I know will have decent cooling is this Noctua NH-L9x65. However, the case however thin supports liquid cooling. If you had the choice between air cooling with 2x 120mm exhaust fans or a 240mm AIO which would you pick. Mini-ITX Motherboard i7-8700K CPU

Hey guys, I am looking for a low profile LGA 2011-3 Narrow cooler. Didn't come up with anything. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!

Indeed, it is exactly how it says on the title. However- The entire card- cooler included- should be single-slot, and by low-profile I mean half-height, as there's no room in the case I'm considering for any more. The MSI 750 TI low-profile may have a bracket for this, but there's no way to fit the cooler without Frankensteining a slim cooler from another card. I'm willing to consider workstation-grade hardware if it means more power to gaming. Your suggestions are most appreciated. The build is going to be used primarily for gaming, although it may involve a little light video-editing. Regards, Aereldor.

Hey LTT I am building a tester for the new 100Gb/s nics by Mellanox. I have decided on a 4790k and a maximus vii impact (best Z97 ITX motherboard out there, want to go with it). If you want the full planned specs, it's in my signature. Anyways, the current 40Gb/s tester is running in a 1U rackmount case, and I want to reuse that case for the 100Gb/s build. The only issue is that I need the fastest RAM possible for my testing (not gaming on the thing) and I need 30mm ram, because that is the only stuff that will fit in the case. What is the fastest RAM (DDR3) that I can get (preferably 2400MHZ) that is only 30mm in height? The only stuff I've found that is 30mm is corsair value select or whatever it's called and kingston value ram, which are only 1600MHZ. Recapping, I need the fastest possible RAM in a 30mm form factor. Thanks, Ben

Hello everyone here on LTT. I have decided to do a scratch build for making my desktop more portable than it is. I go to friends' houses a lot and play a lot of games over LAN, but every time I have to completely dismantle my setup on my desk and cram it all into a backpack of some sort, which is very heavy on my back. It usually takes me about a half hour to disassemble it and then another 20 just to figure out how to fit it all into my backpack. Therefore, I have decided it would be a great idea to put my computer into a suitcase. The "D" in the name stands for desktop, in case you haven't figured that out. *Large Picture Warning!* Day 1 Day 2 Update 3! :http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/96082-dyls-d-series-laptop/?p=1356157 Update 4! :http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/96082-dyls-d-series-laptop/?p=1385572 Update 5! :http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/96082-dyls-d-series-laptop/?p=1393597 More to come each day as I get more done! This is my first "mod". I've never actually done any case mods before hand as I've never had the time or money to do so. This is going to take some time, but it's going to be really nice when its finished, at least I hope. Imgur Album link: http://imgur.com/a/byVIF

I have an HP Compaq dc7600 small form factor desktop PC, that, just for fun, I'd like to try and install a dedicated GPU into it. Because of its case size and form factor, it won't fit just any card. Though, according to the HP website and actual internal inspection, this machine does have a PCI-e x16 slot, which most GPUs fit in today anyways, so my choice of cards isn't seriously limited. I know pretty much any new card won't fit, but I don't know what cards will, so that's why I'm asking. What do you think would be the best low-profile card that would fit in this machine? Any suggestions?