Switch recommendation?

aisle9 · October 16, 2023

(x-posted from reddit)

Just bought a Newmen GM610 60% board because…I don’t know, because it was $15. I have a 96% Newmen board that cleaned right up with Gateron yellows and electrical tape, but that board supports 5-pin switches. The GM610 does not, and I’ve read that the 3-pin Gateron switches don’t work in it.

So I need some help here. I’m looking for something different but familiar. Ideally either a linear similar to the yellow, but maybe with more force required at the end to keep from bottoming out, or a quiet tactile switch? I know about Akko switches and I’m very open to them, but have also heard good things about Ajazz and GK, and I know there are others out there. Budget is ideally $30 for the 61-ish switches needed. Know of any that seem like a good fit?

saintlouisbagels · October 18, 2023

FYI that keyboard is generally only compatible with Outemu switches due to the hot-swappable sockets only accepting thinner pins. If you have a lot of time on your hands I think you could thin out switches from other brands, but don't quote me on that.

Sounds like you want Black switches since the force for Linears generally goes Red<Yellow<Black, but check out specs instead of following general recommendations since the keyboard market is filled with hundreds of color variations that don't follow a specific color theme.

aisle9 · October 20, 2023

On 10/18/2023 at 11:05 AM, saintlouisbagels said:

FYI that keyboard is generally only compatible with Outemu switches due to the hot-swappable sockets only accepting thinner pins. If you have a lot of time on your hands I think you could thin out switches from other brands, but don't quote me on that.

Sounds like you want Black switches since the force for Linears generally goes Red<Yellow<Black, but check out specs instead of following general recommendations since the keyboard market is filled with hundreds of color variations that don't follow a specific color theme.

Hey, just saw this. I've had one GM610 fail on me previously when various keys just stopped responding after a couple of weeks. I had one GM1000 brick on me when I flashed new firmware (which Newmen says to do). I had the replacement GM1000 die yesterday, seemingly out of the blue. I turned it on, and it wouldn't respond at all. No LEDs, no keystrokes, no connection to the computers it was connected to via Bluetooth. I decided that I didn't feel like having another Newmen board die on me, so I just sent it back to Amazon. If nothing else, I got 105 Gateron G-Pro browns (2.0, probably) heavily pre-lubed out of it, and those alone are worth quite a bit more than the $20 I spent on the board.