May I present to you: the mechanical cheeseboard
Don't game too much before bed or you'll have nightmares.
This mechanical keyboard isn't really called the cheeseboard but I couldn't resist the pun. It's called the 'Ajazz AC067 Cheese Gasket RGB Mechanical Keyboard', which actually might be even better solely for the phrase 'Cheese Gasket'.
This 65% keyboard is made by Ajazz, a Chinese gaming peripheral company, and for its cheesy exterior is still as much a mechanical gaming keyboard as any other. It comes with Kailh Box Yellow switches, specially designed alongside the well-known key switch manufacturer, which offer a smooth linear keystroke. That's a good choice for gaming, but you're not locked in with these if you want something different. The PCB is actually hot-swappable, which is a growing trend with mech boards today and a welcome one at that. It means you can pull these switches out and swap them out for others of your liking, if you prefer. Or just swap out a dead switch in the rare instance one breaks.
This board comes topped by a mix of yellow and white keys, including a handful of cheese-themed special designs for the Esc, Spacebar, and Enter keys.
The whole design is inspired by Tom and Jerry, which has made a wedge of Swiss cheese the de facto cheesiest cheese. No doubt that cartoon did wonders for the Swiss cheese market. Take that, Edam.
I've not tried any Ajazz keyboards so I cannot attest for the quality of the board itself. With a decent hot-swappable PCB you'd hope it would be able to stand the test of time like most mechanical keyboards. The included PBT keycaps should help with that—PBT is usually a stronger plastic than the more common ABS plastic found on many sets.
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The cheesy exterior is also made using CNC machining from aluminium alloy, and isn't plastic as I had expected. That more durable material makes sense, though: this keyboard retails for $219, which puts it right up there in terms of cost for a board of its size.
A small price to pay for a Gouda setup? It's the price you pay to make endless cheese puns, at least, along with losing all of your friends.
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If you want something similar to the cheeseboard but one that is not so directly dairy, it's highly reminiscent of the Ducky One3 in Yellow Ducky. Granted, that keyboard is more duckbill orange, but you get the idea. They're both sure to make a vibrant centrepiece to your gaming desktop, that's for sure.
Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.