Corsair Launches K70 CORE SE Gaming Keyboard with MLX Red Linear Switches and White/Silver/Yellow Color Scheme

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Corsair has announced that the new K70 CORE SE gaming keyboard will be available for purchase from the Corsair webstore and its worldwide network of authorized online retailers and distributors.

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I'm having a hard time finding keyboards I like these days.

There was a brief moment there when mechanical keyboards were new they made what I like, but now they have moved on from that.

I like the kind where the switches are recessed into the board, not flat with them sticking up above it like this one.

I don't care for RGB, but I do want mild backlighting so I can see the keys at night. Importantly I want to maximize the amount of backlighting that shines THROUGH the doubleshot keycaps and minimize any underglow. Ideally there would be no underglow at all. While I would prefer single color white backlights., I could live with RGB and just set them to a white-ish color.

Most importantly, I want HEAVY switches. Clicky Cherry MX Greens for typing at home. Tactile (non-clickly) Cherry MX Clears for the office where I might bother others.

I should have stocked up on my OG Ducky One's with Green and Clear switches while they still made them :/ I consider them to be pretty much the perfect keyboard.

1699557551685.png

I have toyed with the idea of doing a hot-swappable Ducky One 3, and while it would work, and I can get both Green and Clear switches to pop in there, the LED's are down in the board underneath the switches now, which would give me WAY too much under-glow, and WAY too little through shine.

On the OG duckies, the LED's were mounted on top of the switches, so they pretty much only shine through the keycaps, the way I like it:

1699557722514.png

The problem seems to be that I like professional looking designs, but most enterprise buyers don't care about the typing experience. They will just buy the cheapest OEM junk to stay within budget and not get in trouble. Gamers care, but they want flashy RGB lights, crazy designs and light linear switches, things which I don't either care about or actively do not want.

The lesson learned here is, when you find an accessory you like, buy MULTIPLES. They will wear out, and when they do what is "trendy" will likely have moved on, and you won't be able to get them again :'(

This is why I have 5 Logitech MX518's in my closet I picked up when they went on sale. I wish I had thought of this back when the OG Ducky One's were being discontinued.
 
I did some more searching, and found a keyboard I think I like. It's called "Code"


They have the LED's on top of the switches like I like, come in basic black, with simple backlighting, and have green switches.

I might buy one. Or five.


Of course the one I want is like $200....

....and is out of stock.


I wonder if it is yet another one of those "permanently out of stock" keyboards, like all the green switch ones on mechanicalkeyboards.com
 
Try beeing an Azerty user :p

You can always go full DIY, it's probably going to be expensive, but it should be servicable if switches break and would allows you to have it ook and feel like you want.
 
Zarathustra said:
I'm having a hard time finding keyboards I like these days.

There was a brief moment there when mechanical keyboards were new they made what I like, but now they have moved on from that.

I like the kind where the switches are recessed into the board, not flat with them sticking up above it like this one.

I don't care for RGB, but I do want mild backlighting so I can see the keys at night. Importantly I want to maximize the amount of backlighting that shines THROUGH the doubleshot keycaps and minimize any underglow. Ideally there would be no underglow at all. While I would prefer single color white backlights., I could live with RGB and just set them to a white-ish color.

Most importantly, I want HEAVY switches. Clicky Cherry MX Greens for typing at home. Tactile (non-clickly) Cherry MX Clears for the office where I might bother others.

I should have stocked up on my OG Ducky One's with Green and Clear switches while they still made them :/ I consider them to be pretty much the perfect keyboard.

View attachment 2774

I have toyed with the idea of doing a hot-swappable Ducky One 3, and while it would work, and I can get both Green and Clear switches to pop in there, the LED's are down in the board underneath the switches now, which would give me WAY too much under-glow, and WAY too little through shine.

On the OG duckies, the LED's were mounted on top of the switches, so they pretty much only shine through the keycaps, the way I like it:

View attachment 2775

The problem seems to be that I like professional looking designs, but most enterprise buyers don't care about the typing experience. They will just buy the cheapest OEM junk to stay within budget and not get in trouble. Gamers care, but they want flashy RGB lights, crazy designs and light linear switches, things which I don't either care about or actively do not want.

The lesson learned here is, when you find an accessory you like, buy MULTIPLES. They will wear out, and when they do what is "trendy" will likely have moved on, and you won't be able to get them again :'(

This is why I have 5 Logitech MX518's in my closet I picked up when they went on sale. I wish I had thought of this back when the OG Ducky One's were being discontinued.
Click to expand...
That's what I like. Clean and elegant.
 
Denpepe said:
Try beeing an Azerty user
Click to expand...

Can't you just get any ISO layout keyboard you want and swap the keycaps?

Of course, that presumes you can find the right keycaps, but for something as common as MX style switches, that ought to be easy enough?

Of course, I say this knowing that I have failed in finding a set of Brazilian Portuguese keycaps now for several years straight. My better half does translation work on the side, and having the right keyboard would be awesome for her.

I've been told it is because being a (sortof) developing country, not many people have money to spend on optional things like fancy mechanical keyboards when basic keyboards work. Especially if they are imported, as the exchange rate and impoort duties have been really unfavorable for a long time. This means there is a very small market for such things.

French is spoken and used more in more affluent nations though, so I might imagine it would be a little easier.
 
Well, you could go to CES and wander through the keyboard area of the hall to find a supplier... then buy a container full of what you like :-D.
 
Zarathustra said:
Can't you just get any ISO layout keyboard you want and swap the keycaps?
Click to expand...

Some of the bigger brands like Corsair, logitech and steelseries have azerty ones so it's not like a huge problem but you have a lot less brands/models to choose from (Also I'm from Belgium which has a slighly different layout then the French one, but I have used french ones in the past, it's doable)
 
Zarathustra said:
The lesson learned here is, when you find an accessory you like, buy MULTIPLES. They will wear out, and when they do what is "trendy" will likely have moved on, and you won't be able to get them again :'(

This is why I have 5 Logitech MX518's in my closet I picked up when they went on sale.
Click to expand...
D4mn straight man.

Many years ago, my younger brother used a keyboard similar to this:
1.) https://www.ebay.com/itm/283024582901
2.) https://www.ebay.com/itm/186151824899
3.) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/DasKeyboardV1.jpg
I remember something about the keys being divided into different weight zones, with different actuation pressures. This was long before the current age of mechanical keyboards or keyboards with backlighting. I recall the keyboard being completely unlabeled was a conversation starter. My brother had no issues using an unlabeled keyboard, and he liked blacked-out design. He was very upset when he spilled a drink on it and killed it. I don't recall the details, as this was many years ago, I think back when I was in college, and he in high school, and CRTs were still the primary type of display for PCs. Neither of us know where that keyboard is, or what happened to it. My brother loved the f*ck outta that keyboard though. Of course back then, we didn't live at night/in the dark. There is no way we are ever buying a keyboard without backlighting today (or a laptop without keyboard backlighting). That sh1t is especially important for laptops, which have cramped and weird non-standard (to me at least) keyboard layouts.
 
You guys might want to check out the post I'll be getting out in a bit.
 
I see Corsair keyboards as the go-to brand for those using iCue - and the reverse for those that rather wouldn't.

I do have a rather ancient K70 (I think) with MX Browns that I need to clean up and give another go though. Perhaps some modding is in order, and maybe a burner VM for iCue to set it up again...
 
LazyGamer said:
I see Corsair keyboards as the go-to brand for those using iCue
Click to expand...

I prefer logitech software over icue which is very unintuitive and since they released their new version pretty annoying, 50% of the time I resume from sleep I have to close icue and restart it as otherwise it no longer recognises my hardware and everything defaults to rainbow puke.
 
I love my Logitech G710 and G710+ with mx blues and browns, I really need to get another keyboard, so it’s time to start shopping again.
 
LazyGamer said:
@Peter_Brosdahl, @Zarathustra an example of a 'quiet' keyboard:

Click to expand...

Wow. He made me wait until the very end of the video to hear it.

Sounds pretty quiet, but it also sounds like he is going very easy on the keypresses in order for that to happen.

I can't compare it to anything I have at home, as they are all pretty loud, but I did try to make a quiet-ish mechanical keyboard for work, but right now I can't remember what it sounds like.

For me, most of the noise from my typing comes from me bottoming out the keys, hard. I am a very heavy typist. I slam every single keypress into submission. So for a quieter experience at work, - as opposed to the clicky green switches I use at home, I decided to go with clear tactile bump switches, and then I applied o-rings under all of them. That made it pretty quiet, though I can't speak to if it is as quiet as the one in the video. I'll have to listen more closely next time I am in the office.

Just typing on my Ducky One with undampened clicky greens right now, I am not hearing any noise from the switches other than the intentional clicks, but that might be because the bottoming out is so much louder that it completely drowns anything else out.

I hear no pings from this keyboard, with only one exception. The backspace key does ping a little bit. Not quite sure why it is different from every other key, but it is.

And all that said, I absolutely hate to reward Chinese knock-offs, so for me it is Cherry switches or bust. If they design their own thing rather than just copy someone else's design, maybe I'll consider it.
 
Zarathustra said:
And all that said, I absolutely hate to reward Chinese knock-offs, so for me it is Cherry switches or bust. If they design their own thing rather than just copy someone else's design, maybe I'll consider it.
Click to expand...
Thing is, they're "Cherry-compatible" switches. Cherry continues to innovate on their end, where other companies also try different things, some successful, some not so much. You'll see such switches in keyboards from the big names too, on occasion, many times because they offer something that Cherry doesn't (hence the innovation).

And if you've lubed switches before, well, you'd appreciate something that is properly lubed from the factory ?
 
LazyGamer said:
And if you've lubed switches before, well, you'd appreciate something that is properly lubed from the factory ?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see where that takes some time. I'm always postponing my semi-annual keyboard cleaning because taking all the keys out, cleaning and putting them back in takes a ****load of time. I remember it being frustrating when I installed all the little O-rings in my office keyboard as well.

Luckily, I've never been bothered by the switches as is, so I have never felt the need to lube them.

I think my heavy typing style means I put so much force into the keys that I feel nothing of the movement of the switches anyway.
 
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