GMMK first thoughts:

I set up my new GMMK yesterday, along with adding some Aura caps. I’ve had most of the day to get a feel for it. I’m coming from a Logitech G Pro (blue switches). This is my first dive into true custom keyboards.

Let’s start with the positives:

  1. I love the RGB patterns. Much cooler options than any of my other RGB stuff (my workstation looks like a Christmas tree… I have rgb everywhere).
  2. I love the feel of these gateron brown switches. My Logitech was very loud and clicky. Being in a small bedroom I wasn’t in love with that. I know these browns are pretty “entry level”, but I don’t know how they could be much better, other than maybe a slightly stiffer spring.

And for my negatives:

  1. The space bar. First off, why no basic stabilizer bar from factory? I’ve never had a keyboard that didn’t have a stabilizer behind the space bar right out the box, even if it wasn’t a great one.
  2. Also the space bar: only the center has RGB. This wasn’t noticeable with the stock cap, but with the Aura cap it looks awful to my OCD.
  3. The software: it is nowhere near as easy to use as Logitech’s was. After a few minutes I was able to figure it out though. A huge part of my decision on keyboard was per key lighting, so software was very important to me. It is mildly annoying to have to go in and out of the software completely to change profiles for different games. Why not a right click menu for profiles on the task bar button? This would make things much much easier. Also the number of custom profiles you can have is limited.

Overall, I really like the keyboard. The feel of using it vs the Logitech is significantly better. Definitely better enough to warrant retiring the Logitech. One thing I am curious of: are any of these negatives addressed in the GMMK Pro? I had planned to pick up a pro barebones to use these caps and switches on… but I may look at something else if at minimal the space bar led issue is present on the Pro model.

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If you look here its a whole thread of everyone’s gmmk pro builds and you can see what the rgb looks like I think I’ve seen a decent amount of them that have pudding keycaps so it should give you a good idea of what it would look like.

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Looks like same situation in the pro. Sad, for the price you’d think they could give it the extra RGBs for each socket instead of only center. Even my $130 Logitech had this.

You can improve the look of the spacebar by using a translucent switch . Something like the Northpole or Aqua King would do nicely.

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As a tactile gang person myself you have no idea how much better it could be if you love tactility and care about sound of your keyboard you have a plethora of choices like where along the keystroke the tactile bump is, how strong it is. How the bump itself feels(rounded or sharp) and even how the upstroke and down stroke sounds. But I must warn you if you are happy with your browns stay there as like any hobby switches can be and expensive rabbit hole within this already niche hobby

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Also mechanically keyboards do have stabalizers but are very different from the stabalizers bars off membrane keyboards. That’s what the stems are on the side there is a bar that goes across underneath the plate on the gmmk pro the connects the 2 stems sadly the stabalizers that the gmmk has just inst very good and requires modding and lots of lube to fix

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Here is my space bar, on the Pro, using the Aura space bar, GLOW for the rest of the keycaps, Glorious Fox Switches, and polycarbonate top plate, (and this has the flex kit) I am using the white Glorious top G-Foam. I think the single RGB slaps but this is very specific to how I have it configured. A single RGB can suffice but one key difference is that you have North facing RGB on yours (I believe) and I have South facing on my Pro. This impacts the dynamic of the RGB. I have a TKL coming from Glorious and I am excited to see how it is against the Pro once I tweak it.

Hope this helps out some. :slight_smile:

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Have yet to get a mechanical. just admiring yours. Looks great!

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