Ever since I built my first gaming desktop I've had very little interest in delving too deep into custom boards, mice, etc. I just wanted a board that had backlights and was mechanical and a mouse that didn't suck. In terms of mice, I still feel this way, though I have gone through a few different ones in the last year or so as more and more came out and I felt the desire to try them out.
Originally, I was a Razer user through and through and lived by their Naga, no matter what. Eventually, I decided to buy their Deathadder, which served me well but admittedly didn't actually get that much use before I swapped to the G502 Proteus Spectrum from Logitech. This mouse was fantastic for me with the adjustable weight that I could control, and I really did love this mouse.
And then came Glorious and their Model O. I had been following the trend of lightweight mice ever since I became aware of Finalmouse, but I was not interested in spending hundreds of dollars for a mouse, no matter the weight. But Glorious came in and released their version for half the price and I jumped to try it. Same story, I loved it. Used it daily until I swapped to the Model O Wireless that just came out.
But none of this has anything to do with the headline, which is the newly developed trait of being hooked on keyboards. From watching too many videos on YouTube to reading of people dropping thousands on custom boards, I had to know. Admittedly, I'm still a long way from being a true custom keyboard user (I have never soldered, nor do I have the current desire to learn - yet) but I started collecting boards as I grew out of love with whatever switch I was using.
My first board was a Rosewill with Cherry Blues (I know, a sin, but I'm a programmer at heart and that click was beautiful (and I never used it around people)). I eventually swapped to another Rosewill using Browns, which I used for a long time. And from there it changed to wanting a backlit board which in turn meant I went Razer. Hated the board, and almost immediately swapped again back to the Rosewill. I eventually bought a $40 board called the Tecware Phantom, which I loved. It was a simple TKL layout, simple RGB, and I liked the weight and feel.
After awhile, in typical fashion, I spent too much time online and found out about the Ergodox, so I bought one (I have an article about that somewhere). This board used MX Browns, which I still liked at the time, and I quickly adapted and learned to be proficient using the split design that I even put blank keycaps on it.
When work from home started, I realized that I wanted another board for gaming while still using the Ergodox for work. So I bought a full size HyperX board as I wanted the numpad back for certain games - and this board served me very well; however, Glorious strikes again.
They released their own version of the Holy Panda switch, and I jumped on the first release so I could get a box with the original branding (Glorious Holy Panda); however, I liked the feel of the switch so I bought another box and the GMMK Compact board and was off.
Now, my journey continues as I continue delving deeper into the world of custom boards to the point where I want to build my own in the future, doing everything myself, and not use a hotswappable board (which is perfect for me right now as I look into different switches).
So now I have three boards at the ready, two of which are awaiting new switches. I bought a set of Holy switches for the Ergodox and a new set of Outemu Blacks for the TecWare, and I cannot wait to try both.