A real enthusiast. Literally anyone can build a high end keeb.. but this guy makes non-overpriced boards sound great with his mods! only real passion can produce content like this. GOAT!
+1. Plus it is more satisfying transforming a cheap or budget friendly board into a good or even great keeb than making something good slightly better.
Thank you so much for the supportive words! I really appreciate that! It's difficult balancing all this, but as long as it's helpful, I will keep it up!
The 1800 layout is really underappreciated! I'm looking for the perfect board for the wife: exploded 1800, ISO white hotswap board and could not find a single board that matches those criteria ...
Not just for bean counters :) A lot of digital painters, CG animators/artists, video editors, etc... need a numpad for hotkeys and number input as well
This is awesome, I hope they make this same gasket design for smaller layouts! Also, this is genuinely the first custom keyboard that I can actually see someone taking to an office. Understated, quiet, still an incredible typing experience.
Akko is super underrated IMO. Thanks for this review. Been considering this keyboard for a while. BTW yeah the Spongebob and Patrick colours aren't coincidence. They do have some Spongebob Squarepants Mousepad and Keycap set.
yes a mod-003 video, just got mine earlier this week and its pretty solid. nice video - looking forward to modding it as you did here thanks for the help
Awesome stuff and much love! I feel more inspired knowing that this hobby isn't at all about pouring money into a super expensive board, but rather making the best with what you have and being creative with it ^^;
I feel like southpaw keebs would be great for office work, theoretically you don't need more space, because there's nothing on your left side (unless a lot of papers etc) and you can use numpad + mouse more naturally. Would be great to have some budget options in this category
Still relatively new to the custom MK world. This layout is definitely the best for me personally and I wish it was more readily available. It's definitely going to be my work keyboard. You content bis 10/10 definitely subbing
Damn for the price this board is actually pretty decent! Shame they went with north facing switch orientation & no QMK, but for the price that is almost something I am willing to overlook.
North vs South is so overrated and I'd be disappointed if Akko moved to SF only because of "enthusiast" pressure. Some people actually want shine through and RGB to work. Where is the interference everyone claims there is?
Dang, this looks great! Really wish they’d make a 75%! I work in actuarial science, so I use the function keys, arrow keys, and page up/down, ins/delete in Excel, but do very little data entry, so 75% is ideal for space/function, but there seems to be very few full 75% boards (most are missing at least some of the page up/down type keys on the right). I’d prefer the kbd75 layout, but gasket mounted. Maybe akko can get something out there to compete!
There’ll be 2 75% that they’ll release, the first is the Mod 007 (Exploded 75% with knob just like the GMMK Pro) and ACR75 (Compact 75%) which is a stacked acrylic board and probably also gasked-mounted.
When I saw plate mounted stabs, north facing sockets and no daughterboard, I was fully expecting it to be awful. I braced myself for a noisy, rattly spacebar and an omega hollow case, and then my mind was blown; it sounds really good! Guess these meta enthusiast features are a little overrated. I did n’t love the sound after modding though, the mods made it a bit too muted, and I think there’s a sweet middle ground somewhere in between. Even if I didn’t want a numpad, I think this is still a winner over the keychron Q1 and GMMK pro. Hope it gets the attention it deserves and that they use a south facing PCB and maybe a daughterboard for future models - those would make it exceptional.
Similar sentiment! I went into it thinking... How good can this really be? But then I was surprised! I think a good middle ground might be not doing the tape mod. Probably wasn't really necessary for this case since with the gat cap v2 switches, it was thoccy and poppy already! And novelkeys plate mount stabs... They're fantastic
Something like this in iso layout would be an instant cop up. Hard to find aluminum cases in fullsize, 96 key or something similar with a numpad and a few extra keys for volume control, print screen and such.
Great video, I'm impressed with this board (dang almost wrote bored lol). Again you went over all the points I would've asked for the video, so thanks for that!!
Love it. I was mulling getting this mech since I already have the Mod 001. Your sound test in the latter sealed it for me. When my Harimau switches get here, Ima pop those in a blue Mod 003 and finish it with Akko Macaw keycaps. Thanks for the review. Your channel is one of my favs.
@@Keybored yeah.. in my keyboard group of sellers & buyers (a whatsapp group of like 12 ppl), 4 of them already have the Mod003 and one of them was selling. Your vid nudged me in that direction since I do a lot of spreadsheets for my business as well. Thanks man. Keep making great vids. Also... that Keychron Q1 intro was lit.
Hi! I just wanted to ask for help regarding the gasket foam you used. Aside from adding foam on the bottom and top gasket slots, did you leave the sandwich foam included on the aluminum plate? Or did you remove them? Hope you can help out!
Do you know of any keycaps that let the rgb lights shine though the keycaps for the MOD004? The kits like gskill, hyperx don't have the right sizes for all the keys
All of the people in the comments saying "ugh, if only it had south facing sockets I'd totally want this!", stop just watching keyboard RU-vidrs for your keyboard opinions. Please.
Can confirm the stabiliser are freaking tight as fk and other stabilisers doesn't really fit. As i yanked the stock ones out, i even scratched my glasses :(
Your review of this & the modding made me order an Ocean Blue one, i've been looking for a new cheap alumn board to replace the keychron k4 I've been using for while as I don't like to take & leave my really nice boards there at the office. My only gripes are the plate mount stabs & I wanted to have a Solder option but this checked off boxes (especially price) so I can wait to build and mod it.
@@Keybored from what i heard i beleive you, once it ships (still waiting on the status to update, hopefully soon) I plan on ordering some to tune. Also found some cheap dampening padding on amazon that’s the same material. Now I need kinetic labs to restock the whale caps so i can use them on this board haha
Hi! I Don't know if you gonna read this, because this video have almost a year old, but here we go! Here in Brazil is a bit hard to get my hands on good custom keyboards, but recently I've seen the Akko MOD005, wich looks like really the same as the 003 but no numpad. Do you recommend it? My build would be gateron oil kings or akko lavander purples and the akko 005 with double shot PBT Red Samurai Keycaps from gmky, what do you think?
Did you have trouble with the plate being too tight when switching the stabs? I’ve heard mixed reviews about this board, but there seem to be a reassuring number of positives from RU-vid reviewers. Been wanting it since it first released.
Do you have any recommendations on how one should mod the MOD4 tray mount version of these boards? I'd like to get one for a friend, but all of the gasket mount versions are now out of stock.
Hi Xemnas, I haven't had a chance to see how the tray mount versions are laid out, but I assume it's similar to how my AR87 was. For those, I would recommend a small o-ring placed between the lower stand-off and the plate/pcb assembly. Should help out with sound!
do they have plans to change the pcb to south facing? do other switches not show any interference with cherry profile keycaps? and do they also plan to restock the other colors and add more colors in the future? (most of the colors are sold out in their website) awesome video btw! gonna consider picking this up since i really want a numpad
In 2:50 you mentioned something about north-facing switches and you'll discuss it further in the video. I finished the video and there was no mention of it? Or was mentioned in 10:30?
Depends what sort of engineering I suppose. I'm in software engineering and 60% is perfectly fine for me. I don't really ever use the numpad. Num row all the way. Caught myself audibly saying: "ooh" when I heard the modded sound. Holy heck, how does it sound this good.
Yup! It's helpful for those using a lot of spreadsheets or number inputs I guess. But yeah... This thing was surprising because I half expected this to be poorly executed with no daughter board and all... But I think all that odd case milling and chambers they created helped this thing actually sound good and have enough space for flex!
Liked the video! Might consider this for the office, while I wait for KBD Odin to ship You said semi-programmable? Are you able to remap keys and create macros?
Hi Oreo! Yup this is actually a really good office keyboard! I'm sure that kbd Odin will be a beast tho. Yeah the pcb is programmable and you can map keys and macros. However, you can only map keys that are already on the keyboard vs. Pulling from a list of all available... So it's a bit limited in that way. But it allows you to do something interesting, which is program a single key to press multiple at once very easily (like win+shift+s for crop) so it made up for its limitation!
Hmm... it doesn't need full sized gaskets, so you can take one and cut it into like 3 perhaps. But you might want to get 2 packs of that if you can, just in case!
They're interesting... The feel is different because of the box top. Sound wise, I feel these are higher pitched than the cs... But I'll have to lube them all and look at it in more detail!
If I told my friends I just bought an 1800 keyboard, they would look at me funny. What does 1800 mean, and where did the term come from? Those mods sound great.
Do you know whether a 80 mil Kilmat will fit instead of the 50 mil? I was able to find a single sheet Kilmat available on Ebay, but it only comes in 80 mil thickness. Thanks!
Ah dude. My wife is not gonna be happy! Lol playing around. But definitely this is going to be my next pickup after I wait a bit lol. Best content around!!!
Yeah not a lot of reviews in the US! Akko told me this was the first review sample they're sending out to a US keyboard reviewer. Hope it wasn't disappointing!
All depends on what that keyboard needs. Perhaps it might actually do well without any of those things. Sometimes some kits just come with a lot of stuff, but you realize it's actually best without any of it
@@Keybored well I'm putting on Akka match greens for now, but in the future when im not broke I plan to upgrade to the oil kings, so what would u say would be the best mods to compliment those switches
Since the mic is dynamic, I haven't had to do anything haha. So much better than my old condenser mic that would pick up everything and I had to use noise reduction
Did you have any clearance issues with the NK stabs? I tried durock plate mount and the tolerances are so tight, the spacebar wouldn't return. Going to pick up some NK stabs based on your video but wondering if you saw the same at all.
@@Keybored I actually just diagnosed it. It was the retention clip causing interference in the durocks. Visually, I couldn't see a difference but it must have been a hair longer and pressed them into the slider. Was able to get them to work by snapping that off, but they don't feel as nice. Fingers cross the NKs are easier :-)
I hate the numpad. I learned to type at age 9 with the top row (I'm 52 now for reference). I can type the top row numbers and symbols at 80-90+ wpm. Who needs a numpad? :P
finally someone who's giving some recognition to the akko mod series!! I tried the tkl version (mod001) and it's not bad!! hope they improve the mounting style of that one so that it could be close to perfect budget tkl!
@@Keybored gasket mounted 65%(mod 005) and 75%(mod 007, with rotary encoder) is coming from akko this 11.11..both are alu housing, but still plate mounted stab and north facing
Dude, all of your videos always make me excited to try out these mods. You have really made the keyboard hobby really fun and enjoyable for me. Thank you for all of the ideas and content you create! :)
In my personal use case scenario as a graphic design bachelor, a self taught audio engineer, and also taking care of the accounting of my own coffee shop while also still play some games weekly, personally I would prefer a combination of 75% or TKL keyboard with separate mechanical numpad because of three main reasons; #1. I can place my mouse in between the main keyboard and the numpad, #2. I can freely palce my numpad to either side of my desk depending on my needs, and #3. I can set it aside for a few centimeters away when I don't really have any need for it, not that far but still on standby ready for use. Additional niche reason is I can turn it into a macropad when I use my Wacom drawing tablet. I can save some space with that method since I'm a left handed, and my wacom tablet is medium sized (Wacom Intuos Pro, around 22 cm by 33.5 cm). My current mechanical numpad is Discipad.
I don’t know if anyone knows this (or even realized this)…. But this video is where the “Force Break Mod” was born! At least.. this is where I first saw Scott mention it. So… yeah!
TBH, I like its sound better than the Odin, but I kind of like the Odin v2's looks.... But the Odin has no RGB, sooooooo I think this one is a better option
Looks like a great keyboard, this video is only a couple of years old, and it's out of stock everywhere. Actually, it seems as though Akko has discontinued it completely such a shame .
Hey! The Gateron Cap v2 do NOT have any interference with Cherry Profile keycaps. I'm using my akko mod 003 with Gat Cap yellow v2 with GMK Bellafonte and no interference at all! These switches truly are amazing for the price. The only other switches that don't have any interference are my Holy Pandas and Boba LT.
Hi! I was wondering about the interference thing with the Akko switches and their keycaps. I've seen on Akko's product pages that they claim Akko CS switches have no interference in north facing configuration with their cherry profile keycaps, but I was wondering if that was true for all cherry profile sets. For example, I've seen some people on reddit order some Akko Ocean Blues and say that they had no north facing interference with their GMK sets, and I was wondering if you could test that with different manufacturers since I do not own GMK and instead own a HK Gaming set of WOB and a knockoff of another set that was discontinued in 2018. If you can find this out that'd be greatly appreciated!
I think for most Akko switches and their own cherry caps, there is no issues. The Akko upper housing was made to be better in clearing the cherry profile even in north facing. Not sure if it works with all of them, but I believe it works with GMK as well. Also Long stem pole switches are clear cherry profile in north facing also!
