Pro

"Criminally?" I don't know. But the GMMK Pro can be had for a pretty cheap price these days, lacks their obnoxious branding, at least anywhere except the bottom, and it can be flashed to QMK/VIA. I think it's a pretty good looking hunk of aluminum. At $50 or less for barebones, not a bad board at al

No legal advice and sorry this happened to you but as someone with a ton of experience in the PC space, those $300 keyboards you’re referring to are all absolute garbage and do not scale with price. You would be better off with a prebuilt Keychron or GMMK Pro at that price range.

Personally have the Yunzii Al80 as my daily and it's really a great aluminum keyboard. Though in a snob and modded it to sound even better. I prefer more thonky, creamy, marbly sounding boards and the AL80 sounds AMAZING with Gateron milky yellow pros 3. I tried many switches on this board, and thes

The GMMK 3 Pro gets the most desk time. KeyGeek Y2, poly plate, and Susuwatari MT3 keycaps 😁 2nd though is the Chilkey ND104, with the Fox Dunes, with poly plate and MT3 Dancer keycaps 😁 I've got another GMMK 3 that's built so I can swap the whole pcb and switch plate over that's built with KeyGeek

Another option could be a barebones GMMK 3 Pro when they're on sale. This is mine with KeyGeek Y2 Linear switches, and MT3 Susuwatari keycaps

Hey if u don't care to match there are lots of pics. LOL - though gmmk pro + the gmmk pro numpad is a good combo, numpad is slightly narrow compared to gmmk pro but they match mostly, also there is the keychron q0(I think) numpad that is HE and matches a few of their boards, but they are hideously e

I've got a Q6 Max, standard build which I've been surprised by. But if I want bang-per-buck I'd go for the ND104 every time. My go-to is a Glorious GMMK 3 Pro with pc plate, KeyGeek Y2 switches and MT3 Susuwatari keycaps 👌

Metal by it's very nature is a harder, more reflective material. Sounds will travel very differently around a metal case. I've got both a Glorious GMMK 3 Pro (aluminium) and a GMMK 3. I love the Pro, but it's hard not to notice how thocky the plastic 3 sounds in comparison with a polycarbonate plate

Been down this exact rabbit hole mate - that budget and those requirements are pretty solid for what you're after. The Keychron K8 Pro might be your best bet, ticks most of your boxes with the hot swap, decent build quality and you can get it with ISO layout through their EU store Silent switches ar

There is a lot of budget options now. But I’d recommend a gmmk pro, you only need a switch and keycaps there to complete it. I’d also recommend a linear switch to get that thocc sound. There’s a lot of youtube vids on it. You might want to watch. Edit: There are switches that are pre-lubed that you