Your first custom keyboard, part by part

The case decides most of what comes after it: which layout or layouts it supports, its mounting style (tray, gasket, top mount and so on), and the mounting standard that decides which PCBs and plates will physically drop in. The KBDfans Tofu60 Redux Case is built around the open, community-designed GH60 standard^[1], which is why a long list of PCBs and plates from different brands fit it. Other cases use their own design, so only that brand's own PCBs and plates will fit, which is worth knowing before you fall for a case on looks alone.

The PCB decides your layout most strictly, whether it takes switches by socket or by solder, and its mounting standard has to match the case. The KBDfans Redux 60 RGB ANSI PCB fits the Tofu60 Redux case above because both share the GH60 standard. For the difference between hot-swap and soldered boards, and what that means for repairs and layout choice, see Hot-swap or soldered PCB.

The plate sits just above the PCB. Each switch clips into it, which holds the switch square while its pins go through to the PCB below (some solder builds skip the plate entirely). Material affects feel and sound a little: aluminium is stiffer and a touch more clacky, polycarbonate flexes more and reads softer, and other materials such as FR4 sit between the two. A plate has to match the PCB's standard and its stabiliser mounting, not just its layout: the KBDfans Tofu60 Redux Plate (Polycarbonate) takes both PCB-mount and plate-mount stabilisers, but its maker states it does not clear Durock screw-in stabiliser housings, so those two parts specifically do not go together even though both otherwise fit a GH60 board.

Stabilisers steady the wider keys (space bar, shifts, enter, backspace) so they do not tilt when pressed off-centre. Most current PCBs use PCB-mount screw-in stabilisers, which bolt straight to the board and are the easiest to remove for lubing. Cheaper or older PCBs sometimes use plate-mount or PCB-mount snap-in (clip-in) types instead, which need matching cutouts and will not simply bolt on if the board expects screws. The budget Cherry PCB Mount Screw-in Stabilisers and the pricier Durock V2 Screw-in Stabilisers are both PCB screw-in, and neither comes lubed from the factory, so plan on lubing and tuning them before they go anywhere near the board.

Switches decide feel (linear, tactile or clicky, covered in Switch types explained) and pin count (covered in Hot-swap or soldered PCB), but the part that is easy to miss is footprint. The MX-style footprint used by Gateron Milky Yellow Pro has become the de facto standard across the industry, to the point that most other brands' switches are built to drop into the same socket or plate cutout^[2]. Boards built around low-profile Choc switches or magnetic Hall-effect switches need switches made for them; none of these are interchangeable with MX.

For quantity, count the keys on your chosen layout and buy at least that many switches, in whatever pack size they are sold in (the Milky Yellow Pro above ships in packs of ten), plus a few spares to cover testing and the odd dud. Key counts vary a fair bit by size: a 75% board usually has somewhere between 80 and 84 keys, while a full-size board such as the Leopold FC900R PD has 104. Once you've picked a PCB, the builder works out how many packs you need.

Keycaps need to match the switch stem (almost everything on this site is MX stem) and to cover your layout in full: a set's coverage is listed by form factor, by ANSI or ISO, and by any layout extras it includes. The PBTfans WoB covers 60%, 65%, 75% and TKL boards, but only in ANSI: KBDfans sells ISO support for it as a separate add-on kit at extra cost, not as part of the base set. Sets built for ISO from the start are a more direct route if you know you need UK legends; see ANSI or ISO: a layout guide for UK buyers for why those sets, and ISO parts generally, are rarer and cost more.

Case foam fills the empty cavity under the plate to cut the hollow, high-pitched “ping” a bare metal or plastic case can produce, and plate foam sits closer to the switches to quieten bottom-out further^[4]. Foam is usually cut for a specific case and PCB pairing, as with the KBDfans Tofu60 Redux / Holy60 1mm Case Foam, so check it lists your case before buying rather than assuming any 60% foam will do.

The cable is the least fussy part: match the connector on the PCB (almost always USB-C now) to whatever your computer takes. A plain Mechboards USB-C Cable does the job; a coiled Keychron Coiled Aviator Cable is a cosmetic upgrade, not a functional one.

Pulling the above together, four things have to line up across a build. The mounting standard ties the case, PCB and plate to the same family, whether that is an open standard like GH60 or a single brand's proprietary line. The layout (ANSI, ISO or JIS, plus any layout extras such as a split backspace) has to be supported by the PCB, by the plate's cutouts, and by the keycap set's coverage all at once. The switch footprint and mechanism (MX, Choc or Hall-effect) ties the PCB to the switches and, through the stem, to the keycaps. Stabiliser mount ties the PCB or plate to the stabiliser set, as with the polycarbonate plate and Durock stabilisers earlier, two parts that fit the same PCB standard but not each other.

It is worth testing every switch before you close the case up, not after^[3]: a dead key found before assembly is a five-minute fix, not a teardown. If you would rather start from parts already known to work together, the builder can open pre-loaded with one such combination, or you can browse every category from scratch at Parts. Either way, the builder checks each of these four points as you add parts, and will tell you before you buy if something will not fit.