About

There’s a drawer in my office in Austin that I call the “keyboard graveyard” — dead prototypes, busted PCBs, half-finished mods, a Topre board I murdered trying to silence the stabilizers. I’m proud of every dead board in there. They all taught me something I couldn’t have learned from a spec sheet.

I’m Marcus Reed, and I’ve been reviewing keyboards for about 14 years. Started on a personal blog when the original Cherry MX boards were the hot new thing. Did a long stint as the keyboards editor at a mid-size tech review site. Now I run Gaming Keyboards — the site you’re reading right now — as an independent reviewer who answers to readers, not to brands.

Who We Are

Gaming Keyboards is a US-based review site focused on one thing: helping you pick a keyboard you’ll actually love using. Mechanical, membrane, low-profile, gaming, ergonomic — I write about all of it. I’ve typed on, torn down, lubed, and rebuilt several hundred boards over the years. Some were great. Some were forgettable. A few I genuinely wanted to launch into the sun. You’ll find honest write-ups of all of them here.

This isn’t a 50-person content farm. It’s a small operation built on hands-on testing, and it’s going to stay that way.

Our Mission

Help you buy the right gaming keyboard the first time.

Not the most expensive one. Not the loudest-marketed one. The one that fits how you type, how you game, and what your wrists will thank you for two years from now.

The mechanical keyboard market in the US has exploded — hundreds of boards under $200 alone, dozens of switch options, and a lot of YouTube hype around boards almost no one has actually used long-term. Most “best of” lists are written by folks who barely touched the products. I’ve been on the inside long enough to know how that sausage gets made. This site exists to do the opposite of that.

What We Do

Three things, mostly:

In-Depth Reviews

I buy or borrow the board, use it as a daily driver for at least two weeks, and write what I actually found. Switch feel. Stabilizer rattle. Keycap quality. Software. Gaming performance. Whether the sound matches the hype. No 500-word fluff pieces written off a press release.

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Keychron K8 vs. Q1. Razer Huntsman v3 vs. Wooting 60HE. SteelSeries Apex Pro vs. the Logitech G Pro X. The questions people are actually typing into Google before they buy. I put the boards next to each other on the desk — not just on a spec sheet.

Buying Guides

Best gaming keyboard under $100. Best for office typing. Best for competitive FPS. Best ergonomic split. Best wireless option that doesn’t suck on latency. The picks change as the market changes, and I update the guides when they need updating.

I also publish the occasional mod tutorial — band-aid mods, tape mods, lubing stabs with 205g0, fixing rattly spacebars — because half the fun of this hobby is making a $90 board feel like a $300 one.

Why You Can Trust This Site

A few promises I take seriously:

  • I’ve actually used what I write about. If I haven’t, I say so plainly. Specs are easy to copy. Typing on a board for three weeks and noticing the spacebar rattle creep in during week two is not.
  • I’ll tell you to skip stuff. Plenty of popular boards on this site get a “don’t bother” verdict. If every review on a site is glowing, that site isn’t reviewing — it’s selling.
  • No pay-for-play. Brands don’t approve drafts, don’t see scores in advance, and don’t pay for placement. Some send review units. That changes nothing about the verdict, and I disclose it on every review.
  • Affiliate links don’t change my picks. I’ve recommended $79 boards over their $200 cousins more times than I can count.

You don’t have to take my word for any of this. Read a few reviews back to back. You’ll see the criticism is real, the praise is specific, and nothing reads like a press release.

How a Review Actually Gets Made

This is the part most affiliate sites skip, so here’s the full process:

  1. Sourcing. I buy with my own money when I can. When a brand sends a sample, I say so up top. The unit either goes back or stays for long-term testing — it’s never resold.
  2. First-impressions test. Out-of-box build quality, weight, factory stabilizer rattle, keycap feel before any mods.
  3. Daily driver phase. Two to four weeks of actual use — writing articles, answering email, gaming after hours. This is where the small annoyances surface that 24-hour reviews miss.
  4. Tear-down, when warranted. Hot-swap socket quality, plate material, foam layers, PCB layout. Documented with photos.
  5. Direct comparisons. I line up two or three competitors at the same price and type-test them side by side.
  6. Verdict. Buy it, skip it, or “buy it only if you specifically want X.” Never a wishy-washy “it depends.”

Reviews get updated when firmware changes, when a brand swaps stabilizers in a new production run, or when long-term durability issues show up months down the line. A review isn’t a one-and-done thing here.

Who This Site Is For

US gamers, typists, and keyboard enthusiasts who are tired of reading the same recycled advice. Whether you’re:

  • A first-time buyer who doesn’t know a tactile switch from a linear one,
  • A competitive FPS player obsessing over rapid trigger and Hall effect switches,
  • A heavy typist whose wrists are starting to complain after 8-hour workdays,
  • Or a fellow enthusiast hunting for your next mod project or custom build,

This site talks to you in plain English. No gatekeeping. No assuming you already know what “thocc” means before you’ve earned it.

Affiliate Disclosure (The Short Version)

Some links on Gaming Keyboards are affiliate links. If you click one and buy a board, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. That money helps keep the lights on and lets me buy more keyboards to test — and break.

What it doesn’t do: change my opinion. The day affiliate revenue starts shaping verdicts is the day this site loses every reader I’ve spent years earning. The full disclosure lives on its own page and you’re welcome to read it any time.

Quality and Transparency, in Practice

Every review on this site gets:

  • A real testing period — no same-day reviews
  • Specific, repeatable observations, not vibes
  • Clear pros, cons, and at least one honest caveat
  • A direct, unambiguous verdict
  • Updates when the product or my opinion changes

If I get something wrong, I correct it on the page and leave a note about the edit. If a product changes between batches, the review says which batch I tested. Trust isn’t built in one article. It’s built when readers come back two years later and find the advice still held up.

Where This Is Headed

The keyboard market keeps getting more interesting. Hall effect and analog switches are finally affordable. Wireless boards no longer have to apologize for their latency. Split ergonomic designs are creeping into the mainstream. There’s more genuinely good gear than there’s ever been — and more bad gear dressed up to look good.

Over the next few years, Gaming Keyboards is leaning into deeper testing, more long-term followups, more video alongside the written reviews, and a sharper focus on the boards that actually matter. Less hype-chasing. More boards I’d put on my own desk.

Get In Touch

Tips, corrections, product suggestions, mod questions, or just a good keyboard story — I read every email that comes in.

Email: contact@gamingkeyboards.net
Website: https://www.gamingkeyboards.net

If you found a board through this site and it worked out, drop a note. If it didn’t, drop a louder one. Either way, I want to hear it.

That drawer in Austin keeps getting fuller. As long as it does, this site keeps publishing — one honest review at a time.

Effective May 20, 2026Share