Got all my additional purchases in now and finished my GMMK Pro off
Even although OCUK doesn't sell any of the above I won't link to the stores directly. The keycaps are by Keychron *hint hint*
I recommend everything apart from the spacebar foam. Even the thinnest still inteferes with an OEM profile keycap set and I fixed the noise off my spacebar with a holee mod rather than trying to use foam to dampen it. Using Durock V2s and even lubed the spacebar was still a little noisy. The joys of keyboard spacebar stabilisers!
The Boba U4s are lovely for anyone who wants quiet tactile and the limited edition all black switches look amazing. Just be aware they really reduce the keyboard backlight. They have an RGB cut out but a fully black switch, and well, it's obvious it's going to reduce light. A benefit of them though is the backlight bleed from the side lights into the front of the casing pretty much gets eliminated. The sidelight is all I use anyway.
I also find the KBDfans switch pads to be really nice. Adds a little "pop" feel and I think the noise profile is also a little lower still.
For the gaskets I removed the existing Glorious ones off the bottom piece completely and replaced only them. If you turn the top upside down you can see gasket pieces in it as well, I left them as default because the KBDFans gaskets are already thicker and I didn't want any issues closing the case properly.
Stabiliser foam was a simple replacement of the pads Glorious use. I removed them completely and stuck down the replacement foam.
Really happy with my build now, quiet and feels good to type on.
Oh, the only Boba U4 switch I lubed was the spacebar. Tactile feedback isn't removed from lubing, but it's ever so slightly quieter which is good on space. The rest I recommend just leaving as factory. They are ever so slightly spring dip lubed for sale and the effort to open them all up and lube them all just isn't needed when they are this quiet.
However, because the LEDS are at the bottom of the sockets (why?) and the key legends are of course at the tops of the keys, the GMMK Pro isn't really compatible with backlit keycaps.
South facing LEDs are used to increase compatibility with profiles like Cherry profile keycaps. Shorter keycaps can sometimes stick and just not work with north facing LEDs. You tend to find expensive keyboards in the mechanical keyboard scene all have south facing LEDs or some just no LEDs at all. It's one of the things you give up for builds like this.
Mainly because most of the people who will spend hundreds of £ on a mechanical keyboard are also the same kinds of people who will spend hundreds of £ on group buy keycaps and the likes. And with Cherry profile being very popular with many expensive keycap releases, Glorious putting out a board that doesn't support such keycaps would be DOA.
A 75% board is already entering speciality territory as well, because it's non-standard keycaps. You tend to see TKL boards still release with north facing LEDs as these have standard keycaps and the market has more backlit choice.
Try finding backlit keycaps that support the short shift key or some of the other smaller modifiers on a kit like this. It's nearly non-existent because the market buying into such modified keyboards tends to prefer compatibility and form factor over LEDs.
I upgraded from a Glorious TKL to this Pro and it's the one thing I knew I would be giving up. Even on the TKL I wanted PBT keycaps and the Corsair PBT Pro keycaps I was using struggled a bit to let a lot of light through. It was OK, but it tends to be ABS keycaps that are easier to make with translucent lettering. ABS is yuck though.
If Glorious refresh their TKL to bring out a TKL Pro it will be interesting to see what they do with LEDs.
. This was the ANSI version FYI, the ISO might be a little more expensive.
