Keyboard Components

Likely the first part of a keyboard you'll notice, the keycaps are the pieces of plastic that sit on top of the switches. Together with the switches, these form the recognizable keys on your keyboard. Keycaps come in a variety of styles, and often have legends printed on them. Legends are generally informative--like, your six key has a 6 on it--or decorative.

The plate is a piece of material that sits between the PCB and the surface of the keyboard, protecting the PCB and helping to determine the keyboard’s layout. Plates come in a variety of materials, each affecting the feel, sound, and price of the final build. In many contemporary mechanical keyboard designs, the switches slot into the plate before being attached to the PCB.

Using a keyboard, you might notice that some keys, like your space bar, enter key, and backspace key, are larger than others. Stabilizers support these larger keys in order to keep them from wobbling or coming out of place during use. Stabilizers come in a variety of forms, and are generally categorized by whether they attach to the plate or the PCB itself. Poorly maintained stabilizers can cause a lot of noise, and modding them with lubrication and other aftermarket mods is one of the most reliable ways to make a keyboard feel and sound better.

Short for "printed circuit board," the PCB is the piece of machinery that makes the whole thing work. Every other component either attaches to or supports this one. If a switch is the heart of a keyboard, the PCB is the brain. Your choice of PCB defines what kind of keyboard you have and what it'll be able to do.

The case is the piece or pieces of material that the PCB is slotted into. It holds and protects the rest of the keyboard. Typically, they're made out of either metal or some kind of plastic, though materials and designs can vary. Cases go a long way toward shaping the aesthetic of your keyboard, and range from clean and minimal to outlandish and stylized.

Cables connect your keyboard to your computer. Due to firmware limitations, most custom builds are wired as opposed to wireless, though this is slowly changing. In the meantime, cables are a great place to customize the way your keyboard will look on your desk. A lot of creators in the mechanical keyboard community make stylish custom cables.