News My $863 Endgame Keyboard is Perfect…For Now

[Admin]

Building a truly custom endgame keyboard doesn’t come cheap, but the results are so, so good. The Rama Works U80-A is outstanding.

My $863 Endgame Keyboard is Perfect…For Now : Read more

 

[Geezer760]

The most outrageous and ridiculous price for a keyboard I have ever seen, who in their right mind would pay this price, OH!, I know a stupidly rich person that price means nothing. Is it made of GOLD?

 

[JeffreyP55]

Looks like a modded AT keyboard from the 90's. If it has a DIN connector I'm going to be worried. No way for any keyboard for $863.00.

 

[drivinfast247]

I have nothing nice to say.

 

[gamebynight]

The most outrageous and ridiculous price for a keyboard I have ever seen, who in their right mind would pay this price, OH!, I know a stupidly rich person that price means nothing. Is it made of GOLD?

The keyboard itself is $450 I have the price breakdown in there of how it gets to the total cost (it doesn't include switches or keycaps).

This is definitely an enthusiast product. Kind of like a nice set of golf clubs, but you would use this for daily work.

 

[gamebynight]

Looks like a modded AT keyboard from the 90's. If it has a DIN connector I'm going to be worried. No way for any keyboard for $863.00.

The retro look is definitely part of the package.

 

[dwd999]

You lost me at aluminum case. For those of us who live in low humidity dry climates (26 percent in the house today) where we can build up a static charge just walking around the house an aluminum case is a big no go. I already have one with my Cherry MX 10.0N and I have to remember to ground myself every time I sit down at my desk before touching the keyboard. Otherwise the static discharges into the keyboard usb connection to the computer and the leds blink as it does. So you would need to add a grounding strap and plug adapter to your mods.

 

[passivecool]

..."the keyboards are boutique and produced in limited qualities quantities

The project seems excesive, but look at what people spend to pimp their cars. Purest Typing Enjoyment is less destructive drive than summa yalls pickups.

 

[gamebynight]

You lost me at aluminum case. For those of us who live in low humidity dry climates (26 percent in the house today) where we can build up a static charge just walking around the house an aluminum case is a big no go. I already have one with my Cherry MX 10.0N and I have to remember to ground myself every time I sit down at my desk before touching the keyboard. Otherwise the static discharges into the keyboard usb connection to the computer and the leds blink as it does. So you would need to add a grounding strap and plug adapter to your mods.

Great point. On the plus side, building a plastic keyboard is much cheaper (usually) and can still be very good.

 

[gamebynight]

..."the keyboards are boutique and produced in limited qualities quantities

The project seems excesive, but look at what people spend to pimp their cars. Purest Typing Enjoyment is less destructive drive than summa yalls pickups.

It's a rabbit hole for sure. I think what happens with a lot of us is that we invest in a nice kit and then feel like we have to get components that match. Nice switches and keycaps can easily jump the price another $300.

 

[Plurality]

Building a truly custom endgame keyboard doesn’t come cheap, but the results are so, so good. The Rama Works U80-A is outstanding.

My $863 Endgame Keyboard is Perfect…For Now : Read more

There's not a mechanical keyboard in existence that sounds half as good as a $20 membrane keyboard.

 

[Geezer760]

The keyboard itself is $450 I have the price breakdown in there of how it gets to the total cost (it doesn't include switches or keycaps).

This is definitely an enthusiast product. Kind of like a nice set of golf clubs, but you would use this for daily work.

Ohhh, so what your saying is for $450 you get a useless frame of a keyboard without any keycaps or the key holders etc.., sooo you you gotta pay another $430 more for the keycaps etc.. That sounds like a stick it to you twice up the ying yang, plus golf is boring, lol. I have an old, old microsoft Sidewinder keyborad that I bought many moons ago and still working flawlessly today. and back in the day I bought my first car a 73 Mercury Cougar for $900, and I also bought a 1971 Dodge Charger for $1000 that I still have today, so no way I would pay $800 for a dang keyboard.

 

[gamebynight]

Ohhh, so what your saying is for $450 you get a useless frame of a keyboard without any keycaps or the key holders etc.., sooo you you gotta pay another $430 more for the keycaps etc.. That sounds like a stick it to you twice up the ying yang, plus golf is boring, lol.

That's how it goes with keyboard kits

So here's another thing to keep in mind (not justifying costs or anything, but explaining) -- a lot of times these kits are sold in small quantities. They might make 300, or 500, or 1000. A company like Logitech or Razer might make 50,000 on their first run of a new keyboard (just a guess, I have no idea). Since there are so few people, everyone shares the cost of manufacturing. So, they're more expensive because there is no big corporation with existing tooling to actually make it.

Switches and keycaps aren't included, as weird as it may seem, because a lot of enthusiasts want to choose their own. If they were included, the cost of the kit would be even higher!

With that in mind, you can totally find custom kits for $100-200. I reviewed one here that actually does have switches and keycaps for $169, IIRC. RAMA Works keyboards are pretty swank, so they're quite a bit more expensive.

 

[coromonadalix]

Ridiculous price, the sky is the limit pfff like th F.T.W video card we saw a few days ago with an integrated lcd

just find an old ibm keyboard and do some paint job .....

I want an nvidia serie 4000 vdo card who consumes 1 kilowatts with 128 gigs of ram should be sold 5 K$$$ loll

 

[Alabalcho]

And I once thought that Art Lebedev' keyboard (where every keycap was a LCD screen) was expensive...

 

[cats_Paw]

Nice ad.

 

[Sleepy_Hollowed]

This is an obscene keyboard, but if it has all you like and it's good quality to each his own.

I prefer much more economical Groove T from AEON (not sure if they're in business anymore, they're nice as it is), which is a lubed, tenkeyless, dampened base that's quite quiet, and has cherry mx brown and the mythical greens if you so desire, with double-shot PBT caps (it can be used on macos, but with option/command only on the left side, and makes the entire keyboard be non-standard pre-boot).

I know they can get really expensive if you want things like stabilizers and things like RGB or open-source firmware that can be used with open source software.... and it can get close to that, around 450 is about how much I've seen those, with the exception of those with very special, custom caps that can add +125 or so.

I guess I'm more surprised at people spending this kind of money being really into tactile switches and not clicky, it's almost like the most niche crowd is the clicky one.

 

[Neilbob]

It's a shame that, even for such an amount of money, a number pad couldn't be tacked on too. But whatever, I guess

 

[Geezer760]

Imagine, the greatest writers of our time used Ink & Quill.

 

[pixelpusher220]

I will refrain from commenting on what I'd pay for a fully functional Gateway 2000 AnyKey ...

 

[7baja7]

It is just pure stupidity and lack of logicality to pay $863 for a PC keyboard. What's next $2546 headphone stand, $5632 PC case, $726 mouse bungee cable holder? $699 case wheels, $999 monitor stand? Oh wait...
Performance and looks do not correspond to its price at all. Personally this keyboard is at most ugly, not very practical and could cost $50 I would not buy it anyway and by the looks of it I am not alone here. No number pad? Probably the reason is that you need to pay $632 to get this massive upgrade.

 

[cryoburner]

— a custom keyboard so perfectly attuned to my exact needs that it should be the last keyboard I ever need to buy.

Where's the volume wheel? : 3

And I once thought that Art Lebedev' keyboard (where every keycap was a LCD screen) was expensive...

Well, the price of that keyboard ended up around $1600, around double what this cost. And from what I heard, it didn't feel particularly great to type on either. But I guess having an OLED screen on every key looks nice, so who cares how functional it was? : D

 

[Deleted member 14196]

It is just pure stupidity and lack of logicality to pay $863 for a PC keyboard. What's next $2546 headphone stand, $5632 PC case, $726 mouse bungee cable holder? $699 case wheels, $999 monitor stand? Oh wait...
Performance and looks do not correspond to its price at all. Personally this keyboard is at most ugly, not very practical and could cost $50 I would not buy it anyway and by the looks of it I am not alone here. No number pad? Probably the reason is that you need to pay $632 to get this massive upgrade.

Dude you need the audio cables that cost $2000 a piece

 

[Deleted member 14196]

That's how it goes with keyboard kits

So here's another thing to keep in mind (not justifying costs or anything, but explaining) -- a lot of times these kits are sold in small quantities. They might make 300, or 500, or 1000. A company like Logitech or Razer might make 50,000 on their first run of a new keyboard (just a guess, I have no idea). Since there are so few people, everyone shares the cost of manufacturing. So, they're more expensive because there is no big corporation with existing tooling to actually make it.

Switches and keycaps aren't included, as weird as it may seem, because a lot of enthusiasts want to choose their own. If they were included, the cost of the kit would be even higher!

With that in mind, you can totally find custom kits for $100-200. I reviewed one here that actually does have switches and keycaps for $169, IIRC. RAMA Works keyboards are pretty swank, so they're quite a bit more expensive.

And none of that matters because this is absolute absurdity and lunacy. I think anybody who buys one is <Redacted by Moderator> and doesn’t understand the concept of value

 

[7baja7]

Dude you need the audio cables that cost $2000 a piece

Already have one. Paid $4872 and now can truly enjoy 64kbps mp3 on my Logitech Z150 2.0 speakers.