GK64 Keyboard Review.

I recently purchased the GK64 through PC-100.com’s September group buy and I want to share what I can because it’s new, needs more information out there about it and I wanted to practice writing. It’s not without flaws but in short, if you’re looking for a 60% keyboard, (with dedicated arrows keys … ‘65%’) with multi-mode RGB back lighting, your choice of switches and a USB C connection then this is your keyboard. Those features come together in no other 60% that I have come across so it’s unique enough to get if you’re into collecting or if you’re looking for something for the long term. I intend to highlight some areas with room for improvements but overall the gist of this review is that I think the GK64 sits at a great price vs. performance level and you really should give it some serious thought.

Price & Buying;

I purchased the GK64 Kit#4 through the September group buy from PC-100.com for AUD$200 delivered (with the most express mail they offered). There was/is a number of kits and bundles to chose from, it really was quite extensive … I won’t go into them all but see Network_Operations’ graph for the simplest version or checkout the actual product page and ready that scroll wheel!

My kit included a PCB, Silver CNC Aluminium Case, Gateron Browns, Keycaps and a 1.5M black sleeved gold-plated USB C cable. I also told them to give me an extra plastic case, which they did for an extra couple of dollars.

All kits are ready to go out of the box which is great. I’m so thankful they pre-solder these PCBs because I really wouldn’t want to be doing it for this board. This PCB cuts a fantastically fiddly figure for four foremost points; a bountiful collection of mystifyingly small diodes, an unfathomably large number of resistors, 64 beautifully placed 4-pin SMD LEDs and a quite few controllers which would be both time consuming and incredibly confusing to get right, and that’s without troubleshooting. Praise be the person who assembles these bad boys.

Before I hit ‘BUY!’ I had a few questions and they were answered within a day or two from a polite but direct admin lady. I followed up with this same lady during the shipping process when I inquired on the package’s location only to find out the Singapore shipping depot was suffering a a week long typhoon and yet the package was only a day late. I hope no one was injured in the shipping of my keyboard. I can’t help but imagine the polite lady yelling at an assistant “I don’t care what it’s like out there! You go NOW, Mr. Thomas wants his keyboard ASAP”. Overall I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend buying from PC-100 and any hesitance I had for ordering through a Chinese manufacture middleman have been put to bed. The site looks dodgy, the service was spot on.

Features;

Speaking of the potential for people to be severely injured, this CNC aluminum case is beyond HEFTY and therefor offers a glorious typing experience with no perceivable audible echo underneath the keys, just a solid satisfying thunk on each press. It offers what I can only describe as a greatly powerful feeling typing experience, something which I’ve not felt before. When paired with some Gateron Browns and some 40-A o-rings underneath the keycaps it’s a beautiful experience. I have since replaced the Gaterons with R8 67g Zealios fitted with Zealencios and I’m a very, very happy boy.

Full RGB backlighting is one of it’s standout features, the colours are bright and strong, some colours are brighter then others but that’s the nature of RGB lighting I guess? I can’t say the onscreen colours are always represented accurately physically but they get close. You can punch in the actual Hex or RGB codes if you’d like, else there is a series of sliders you can play with to get your desired colour. The GK64 features great levels of RGB customisation from individual keys through to whole keyboard flowing waves and emanating pulses on key presses, truly overkill and awesome. You can customise the RGB waves and add your own lighting effects but that appears to be un a frame by frame format and something I’m not inclined to do becuase I’m happy enough with the factory options. I haven’t had an RGB board before but I can’t think of other modes it might be missing, there seems to be an extensive collection.

You’re able to reassign any key to anywhere through the software. This is how the media keys must be setup and it’s a great solution as it means I don’t have remove my shoe, granting access to a 3rd appendage and an 11th digit to hold down that bizarrely placed Fn key/s all the while holding right mouse and pressing volume up bottom with my right toe. I’m all about individual optimisation so I love this feature. Some people can’t get onboard the 60% for gaming but things like escape can be remapped to ‘O’ (options) unlocking an extra local key. It might take you a little brain power to overcome an obstacle like this but life is learning … why not keep your brain nimble?

The layout of this keyboard is slightly different but in my experience it there’s no adjustment when it comes to the alpha characters. The left 2U shift key shifts the entire bottom row to the left 0.25 of-a-key freeing up the space for the individual arrow keys on the bottom right of the keyboard. Around the arrow cluster lies the reasonably ergonomically situated delete, shift, right control and the keyboard’s only Fn key. I actually love the bottom row shifted to the left because my inner OCD now loves that the Tab, CapsLock and Shift keys look like a little staircase with their perfectly staggered overhangs.

Aces;

I really, really enjoy the staggered yet consistently grid like look the 2U left shift brings to the alphas. If I’m honest it’s how things should have been and should be going forward on all keyboards and I won’t be buying one without the option for a 2U left shift, perhaps an OLKB Preonic is needed next to cure my grid like dreams. Update: if you can, get yourself a Preonic, even more wonderful than the GK64.

I think the individual key lighting is excellently done and super handy. For instance it allows me to highlight the right keys for whichever game is being played, I have different profiles setup for PUBG, Destiny 2 and COD WWII showing the gun selections light up as RED, grenades as ORANGE, health options as GREEN etc. This is especially great for me because I’m one of the few who use ESDF and when a mate comes round to trial the odd game he can now look at the pretty colours instead of berating me for being the progressive legend that I am.

65% is an incredible size.

Improvements;

If my life has taught me one thing up to this point it is that nothing is ever perfect, I’m a realist after all, so here’s some of the things I think could be improved;

Software - There’s a lot of functionality currently but some aesthetic simplification would be ideal and create a better environment to understand what’s actually possible. Buttons need to be made to appear more like buttons, Titles/Sub Titles should be consistent etc. I’m sure that it will come..? The worst part is trying to create your own moving RGB effects frame by frame, this is buggy and needs work and/or a better translation.

Layering - This needs to happen. As it currently stands media keys, macros, program shortcuts, all that sort of thing can be customised to whichever key you would like however they are put their on their own layer which you must ENABLE and then DISABLE. Being able to press FN+Play/Pause or FN+Chrome is really a whole lot more efficient than FN+Layer 2 > Play/Pause > FN+Layer 1.
IngeniousMonkey of Reddit has insinuated this is quite a difficult thing to do and that the manufacturer is working on it and allowing you to move the Fn key to wherever you like. However, I’ve no idea on the time frame for this. At least you can hit Fn with your thumb, since it rests to the direct right of the space bar.
Update: This has been addressed and you can now layer properly and assign it to any key you desire. It changed the keyboard’s experience greatly!

Plate - The plate needs to be more rigid. When taking apart the PCB for a look it felt a little too bendy for just how difficult it is to remove the PCB from the metal case. I’m not sure which I got but I think I got the aluminium plate. PC-100.com lists two options available but I wasn’t given the option to switch between the two so I’m guessing it’s the aluminium based on the fact that it looks like the same finish as the case aluminium case.

Tight as hell tolerances for the plate mean that I wasn’t able to easily fit the ZealPC clear PCB stabs. I was able to strong arm them into their allotted cut out but this caused the plate to bow ever so slightly … and actually stopped the spacebar from springing back up. So you have to stick with the default stabs in my experience.

Fails;

You cannot use PCB mounted stabilisers all the way around, but you can in some places..? I only found this out the other day after receiving my ZealPC clear PCB mount stab set. There is receptacles on the PCB underneath the Backspace and Enter however he plate sizing forced me out of this and you can’t use the Spacebar one as someone has incorrectly oriented the holes for the PCB stabs, meaning the stabiliser goes towards the north of the PCB when mounted which then literally goes through the center of one of the screws holding the PCB to the plate. Maybe this is standard, I haven’t taken apart enough keyboards to know so just wanted to highlight it.

I’ve actually damaged my board trying to get it out of the metal case. I’ve had to order a replacement PCB because I’ve now go the left side of the keyboard on FULL RED mode because of the lack of support from the plate when removing. I can’t tell if that is because of such tight tolerances or such bad tolerances that holes etc only just match up and require some level of force to get it in and out. I can’t see any solder breaks or cracked resistors etc but it was only after the PCB surgery that this began.

Comparisons still to come.