Project K9 Part 1: Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale where we will be taking at a new keyboard in the studio today. Introducing the latest addition to the Modding My series and the latest keyboard project in my roster, the Gigabyte Aorus K9 or as I have dubbed it, Project K9. This particular keyboard you see before belongs to a good friend of mine and is in fact, his birthday present which will be summarily sent over once I have completed work on it.

The keyboard itself is of the mechanical variant and is made by the gaming arm of Gigabyte, which some of you may be familiar with, Aorus with the designation K9. The K-series designation is one that Gigabyte's gaming keyboards have had making this the 9th iteration of a gaming keyboard from the long-time computer parts manufacturer and the first ever in their roster featuring an optical switch. Aside from Razer and, at one time, Cooler Master, there are not many mainstream brands out there which offer optical switches in their keyboards which do actually make these keyboards a bit of a rarity. This particular K9 is equipped with a red linear optical switch and it is also offered in a clicky blue variant.

When compared to traditional mechanical switches, optical switches host a number of benefits due to their inherent internal structural difference. For one, the lack of a contact spring means there is absolutely no metallic pinging associated with even all traditional mechanical switches. Aside from that, optical switches are also rated at with a lifespan of 100 million key strokes which is twice that of traditional mechanical switches. Although that can be considered a little bit of a moot point as even the life span of 50 million key strokes is well in excess of what most keyboards will be put through on average. Instead what interested me the most about the K9 over every other pre-built mechanical keyboard out in the market today, is that it is splash proof. Because optical switches rely on prisms and to determine key stroke actuation points, they are not susceptible to water or being shorted out. And this is a very important factor considering the to-be owner of the keyboard has the tendency to spill beverages all over his keyboard. 

Moving on then, let us take a look at the keyboard itself which is housed in a thick black cardboard box. I am usually not a stickler for packaging but, I really have to give extra points to Aorus on their packaging here. It almost felt like I was unboxing an expensive graphics card! Keyboard aside, you will also find several included accessories and extras such as a handy plastic dust cover, dual purpose key cap and switch puller, some manuals and, arguably the best bonus, nine additional switches (of the opposing variant) and keycaps. 

Since this K9 comes equipped with Flaretech Red switches, the additional switches are off the clicky blue variant. On top of that, Gigabyte has also included nine additional double shot orange PBT key caps. Upon initial impressions, these extra key caps are certainly a big step up over the ABS ones found on the rest of the keyboard which only made me wish Aorus would have gone ahead and made the rest of the board in PBT as well. As they are double shot, the legends will never fade nor will the surface become greasy and shiny owing to its material (PBT). The orange used by Aorus is bright and punch as these nine keys will certainly be incorporated in the final build. 

As with any other gaming mechanical keyboard in the market, the Aorus K9 comes equipped with per-key RGB lighting which can be controlled either with or without software. Having used a fair bit of RGB enabled keyboards in the past, I can certainly say that the K9 has one of the better thought out key combinations for customizing the RGB effects without using software. 

The actual RGB effects on the K9 has a more mature and subdued approach compared to the other gaming keyboards on in the market at present. The spill through from the RGB lighting onto the aluminum plate is kept to a minimum while each legend is located on the north side of the key cap and is very well illuminated largely in part to the light being channeled directly towards the key cap. Both the Aorus and eagle logo are also illuminated with the eagle logo being full 16.8 million color RGB. While I may prefer RGB lighting with a little more colour spill, I can certainly agree that the subdued RGB look certainly works wonders to complement the sleek design of the K9. It goes to show that RGB is not a one trick pony and can be utilized in many different ways.

Speaking of cool tricks, the K9 also has one final trick up its sleeve, it is hot swappable. This means that the optical switches themselves can be removed and swapped with another compatible optical switch. Hot swappable switches may be a growing trend in the keyboard world but, even today, there are very few gaming mechanical keyboards which have this capability much less enthusiast ones (which are pre-built e.g. Ducky, Varmilo). Here we can take a closer look at the linear optical switch manufactured by Flaretech that is used in the K9. It may be designated as a red switch but, the stem is actually clear with the color designation most likely serving as a reference to Cherry Reds which are also linear switches and has been a tradition upheld by its clones (Gateron, Kailh, Outemu) ever since. 

Because of the K9's hot swapping ability, these are where these clicky "blue" switches come into the play. Users of the K9 are given the choice to place these more tactile keys in whichever spot on the board that they wish. A good example would be placing them on the WASD and spacebar keys for a more tactile feedback upon actuation. Just like the linear Flaretech switch, the clicky one also comes with the same opaque black housing and clear stem. The only way to tell it is the clicky variant without pressing on the key is via the orange click jacket that can be seen surrounding the clear stem. If you were to have gone with the clicky variant then, the nine additional keys would have been off the linear variant.

After some discussion and experience with my old Razer Black Widow with Cherry MX Blues, I made the decision to go with linear switches for the board. While I was initially worried that I may have made the wrong choice, all semblance of the immediately dissolved when I begun typing on it. The switches were unfathomably smooth and, while I knew optical reds had a reputation of being extremely smooth, nothing quite prepared me for the experience. In fact within the first five minutes of typing on the K9, I had logged a new personal best typing speed of 94 words per minute!

Here is a quick demonstration of the typing sound on the K9. While it may not be the worst sounding board out there, there is certainly a lot of room for improvement. While there is no audible switch ping, the reverberation from the aluminum plate is audible with each time the keys are bottomed out. Also, the stabilizers have an obvious rattle especially when it comes to the space bar. Lastly, the key caps themselves give off a rather high pitched sound and I reckon that has something to do with the thin ABS key caps. All of these issues are what I plan to address prior to shipping this board off before the my best mate's actual birthday arrives. 

So there you have it, an introduction to the Aorus K9 which will henceforth be subject to rigorous modification as part of Project K9. In part 2 of this series, we will be taking a look at filling the chassis with foam and lubricating the stabilizers. Make sure you stay tuned to that and, in the meantime, if you have any questions do not hesitate to leave them in the comments section below. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!