PC Forever65 - Cherry MX Ergo Clears on Carbon Fiber
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Let's fucking go we got the DriftMechanics PC Forever65 in the house! Have had my eyes on this board for a while and was very happy with the opportunity to pick this one up locally for an excellent price.
Right off the rip, the Forever65 has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing boards I've laid my eyes on right next to the Kibou Fukuro. From the cherry lip, the top right blocker/badge, many sloping angles, and brass weight implementation for the back/side profile, its an absolute looker of a board. Only thing that could make it better is that it was wkl maybe even with the symmetrical Bauer style blockers, but I love how it looks nonetheless. GMK Norse looks so sick here on the smoked PC, I literally can't stop looking at this board.
This is the first non-budget full polycarbonate case keyboard I've had. Takes me back to my first custom being the TKC Portico that was also a smoked PC gasket mount 65%. Not a comparison between the two at all lol but just felt like a full circle moment.
Couple things of note here, sound wise, the alphas absolutely sing in the Forever but man the spacebar is not hitting for me in this build. Maybe its a skill issue where I've messed up in the build and something hasn't been properly, but the spacebar is just dull/flat sounding compared to the alphas. Before you think its my heavy handed lube job, I did try a stock Gateron X and very lightly lubed mx black and similar results were yielded with the spacebar just sounding flat to my ears. I've never been a fan of HMX but other Forever65 sound tests with them have sounded awesome, so this would be a really good use case for them or long pole switches in general. There's so many factors that could contribute to the spacebar sound here.
Leading theory is that the plate is mostly causing the issue. I only really like CF in top mount and o-ring but for a poron gasket mount, I'm not entirely liking how its sounding. My favorite sound tests with the Forever have used plastic plates, so the next order of business is probably picking up a nylon plate for this board from the homie Hype. I've really liked sound tests that have nylon or pom plates in the Forever. Please recommend some builds too with any switch and plate combos to try out.
I've talked about my experiences with millmax in other videos too, but I have seen first hand that it does indeed affect sound vs a hotswap or solder PCB. Probably pseudoscience, but my theory here is that because the switches are not fully flush to the PCB from the top lip of the millmax socket, it results in the sound of the board being a bit more muted. I did also notice that my spacebar keycap is sitting higher than the surrounding keycaps even though its fully seated, so maybe the assembly is bowing in the middle a bit? Not too sure.
Another thing regarding the build process, but goddamn its scary to try and unplug the JST cable here compared to other boards. In my experience, JST connectors usually have the two little prongs on the left and right side that you can grip with your finger nails to unplug from the socket, but here the whole connector goes inside of the socket on the PCB making it tricky to unplug the assembly. Probably me just getting skill checked but it is giving me a bit of difficulty.
I'm definitely not done with this board and want to keep running builds. I also have a solder PCB to solder in that one perfect build when I end up finding it. Just as I mentioned earlier, recommend me some other switch and plate combos to try out and maybe even other Forever65 owners can chime in here and give me some build tips, would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading this if you've gotten this far! :)
Keyboard Specs:
DriftMechanics Smoked PC Forever65
Stock 7u Carbon Fiber Full Plate
Millmaxed PCB
Cherry Mx Hyperglide Ergo Clears
Lubed w/ GHV4
Filmed w/ Deskeys
Stock Springs Lubed
Cherry Clip-ins
GMK Norse
Audio Setup:
Lewitt LCT 440 Pure XLR in Shock Mount (Positioned Head Level Above Keyboard)
Focusrite Scarlett Solo Audio Interface (Gain Dial at 3 O'clock)
+14 Gain Added in Audacity
Rode PSA1 Boom Arm Mounted to Desktop
Heya, another great trick for the spacebar is just to use a cherry burg, or bcp! I also recommend getting some of those geon stem spacers! I use them on even full travel switches sometimes on the spacebar and it makes it SIIINNGGG
appreciate all the tips homie thanks a lot! gonna try a bunch of stuff out to get that spacebar to hit even more when the new plates come in
i have all four gaskets removed on the spacebar on the alu one, i believe i added the bottom 2 to that build, defintiely something to play around with in that zone. the pc one does behave differently than the alu one. the jst connector on the pcb its easy to bend pins on it. but i have found pulling on the wire straight to remove generally works even though its obvs not best practice, congrats on the pickup. both forever's are goated really
thanks for all the great info man! excited to keep tinkering with this one and finding the config I like the most, gonna play around with the spacebar gaskets for sure
Sounds clecky and nutty
Now I don't remember which exactly, but you can take one of the gaskets on the spacebar off of the top or bottom case and it makes it sound better. And yeah plastic plates do better with forever65 in general.
oh that's interesting I know that people would take the top gaskets off of boards like the Iron165 but never knew it was a thing on the Forever65 too. 100% agree on the plastic plates sounding better in this board, the type tests that use them sound killer I'm excited to try out a nylon plate for the board
@@chenyz i found i liked the cf plate over the pom plate when the r2 alu ones dropped, but grabbing a alu plate from tom, really helped it. sunset gleams on alu was my previous fav build on the alu forever. i have now since switched it to mx2a blacks on alu.
I use to own this keyboard. The spacebar was the worst thing about it. Like Trevor said below, remove the gaskets above the spacebar. It sounds at its best with a POM plate.
appreciate the info! yeah the sound tests of this board that were my favorite were using either the nylon or pom plate and I haven't tried nylon before so probably gonna give that a shot. everything else about this board is pretty much perfect if I can just get a spacebar sound I'm happy with we're set haha
@@chenyz You might also want to try a BCP for the spacebar
was thinking of this as well good call
@@erikgrossmanthat’s what I did but only because my stabs were ticking 🥹
👀👍!
this config makes the board sound pretty dry, def cuz of the cf plate and cherry scratch lul. Maybe running the forever65 with nylon plate and ergo clears?
big agree here, CF just has a dry sound its kind of a hit or miss plate material for me tbh not my favorite application of it in this build. when I get my hands on a nylon plate for the board ill probably run it back with the clears or some gat x which I haven't used yet
rgb pcb's are available from DB if u need for this guy
I was actually planning to pick up an rgb pcb but the drift mechanics store looks like its closed right now unfortunately bad timing cause it was right after I picked the board up :(
@ dm db, he hook u up directly
@ he was oos sadge
hard agree on millmax vs solder, i have found nearly no point in millmaxxing a board vs solder other than if u need a spare pcb to pre-test switch configs before committing
yeah you pretty much nailed the only reason why I millmax lol just to find the config I like the most before soldering it in and just to share configs. other than that, I'm really not that huge on millmax
from the sound tests that I've seen on youtube, it seems like nylon plates tend to dull or dampen spacebars, so that might not be the goal that you are going for. Board looks super good with that set though, didnt realize that Norse would look good on smoked PC.
shiettttt you think so? I might still pick one up just to try but maybe I'll grab a PP plate just to be safe too cause that plastic is usually guaranteed nice sounding mods
@@chenyz my bad, I have found a counterpoint to my stance in this video: ua-cam.com/video/sb98wUT6GR0/v-deo.htmlsi=2c2poodiQBdai8Pz
It's in the description. TLDR: Nylon has softer alphas and stronger spacebar than PP from their testing.
you're good homie I've seen that vid too haha I still might grab both to do a comparison myself to see what the differences between the two are
@@chenyz ive heard that nylon plate seems to tone down the alphas a bit, and makes the spacebar a bit louder in comparison to pp plates, which usually have louder alphas and quieter spacebar. But i don't actually know for sure. 🤷
@@oakerface95 lowkey louder spacebar and quieter alphas wouldn't be that bad in this board but I'll do some testing and we'll have a definitive answer when I get the new plates in