Cooler Master MK730 Tenkeyless Gaming Mechanical Keyboard with Blue Switches, Cherry MX, RGB Per-Key Lighting and…

Cooler Master mechanical keyboards seem to be underrated, more than likely due to the popularity of companies like Corsair and Razer. But in the end, Cooler Master’s keyboards have most of the same features, for a better price.The MK750 is Cooler Master’s current “flagship” keyboard, also the first Cooler Master mechanical keyboard to come with a wrist rest, media keys and an open board design. So I’m going to go over the main features, as well as some of the noteworthy bonuses.The design is your typical CM mechanical keyboard. No large footprint for anything unnecessary, all of Cooler Master’s keyboards get straight to the point. On paper this looks very similar to keyboards such as the Corsair K70 or the Razer Blackwidow X.The build quality is amazing. It feels like plastic, but a very high quality plastic, and it has some weight to it so there might be some steel as well. It doesn’t feel flimsy, it doesn’t go sliding around on your desk, it truly feels like a premium product. If anything its on par with Corsair build quality.For the MK750 you have 3 options for switches: Red, Brown or Blue. Cherry MX switches of course. I opted for the MX Red version and I have to say, Cooler Master implements these switches very well. This keyboard has Cherry stabilizers for the larger keys, and I can confirm they do NOT feel mushy like on Corsair keyboards. These are buttery smooth with no surprises! So you shouldn’t be limited by switch options, even though you won’t find MX Blacks or MX Greens on this board.This keyboard is very feature packed. You get a wrist rest that is magnetic so it can be adjusted to your liking, you get anti ghosting, N-Key rollover, dedicated media keys but for some reason there’s no dedicated volume keys.. you get a key cap puller and an extra set of purple keycaps for the WASD, arrow and ESC keys. But that’s not all, you get much more too!The software is kind of a pain in the rear end, but CM has said they are trying to improve on it. The software allows you to take control of stuff such as lighting and macros, and a bit more but over time it should improve. The best part is the software is completely OPTIONAL!The lighting is not as great as the competitors. The rainbow wave for example is not a true rainbow wave, its more like a red, green and purplish-pink. But the colors are very accurate, even the static white is actually white.So despite the not so great lighting and software, this is currently my #1 recommendation for a mechanical keyboard. The build quality, switch implementation and feature set are just amazing. Go for it!

Love the keyboard so far. Full size board, but doesn’t have all the extra plastic around the edges, so it feels compact and doesn’t take up a lot of space on my desk. Cherry MX Blue switches, I love the feel and sound of Blue switches! RGB back-lighting that can be configured without installing software. Comes with a handy guide on all the different lighting modes and which key-combos triggers each one. I found I like a single color on all the keys that slowly cycles through all the different colors. Detachable USB cable is a nice touch, usually only see that on the more boutique keyboards, not from companies like CM. The included cable is a nice braided one, feels high quality, nice to see CM didn’t skimp on that and give us a crappy flimsy cable. USB-C type connector for the keyboard. I did test it with a new Macbook Pro and a straight USB-C to USB-C cable works just fine. I personally love the floating key design, but I understand it’s not for everyone. I have replaced all the key caps, as the included ones are ABS plastic and I really wanted some PBT caps, I just like the feel of PBT better. The included wrist rest is nice and comfy. It’s lightly magnetic so it just holds onto the bottom edge of the keyboard and doesn’t move around, but you can remove it easily if you want. Would definitely recommend this keyboard to others looking for a new one. I believe it also comes in Browns and Reds if you are not a fan of the clicky Blues.

First off, even though I’m giving this 5 stars, I don’t necessarily love it. BUT it’s not the products fault. I didn’t do enough research and testing before buying this. That said, it’s a fantastic keyboard and many people will be very happy with this.Why I don’t love it: I got my start with mechanical keyboards with Cherry Blues as many others have. I hate Blues so much. They’re light and clicky and loud and UGH. Absolutely hate em. So after owning 3 boards with Blues (why 3 I have no idea..) I decided to take the plunge on another switch and went to Cherry Blacks. More actuation force required but they’re linear so no bump or click. I love Black switches. My first board with Blacks lasted me several years and then I bought another which I’ve now been using for about 5 years. Lately I’ve been wanting to make the jump to tactile switches for some games. There are times when I hit a Black switch and it doesn’t register because I tapped too lightly but due to the linear nature of the switch, there’s no way of knowing how close I was to the actuation point. So I looked into switches and figured I’d go with Browns. I wanted a switch similar to my Blacks but with a little tactile bump in them. Unfortunately, I don’t feel the bump in the Browns. If I go really slow I can feel it, but with my normal typing style, I blow right past the bump as if it wasn’t there. It’s almost like I’m still using Blacks which defeated the main purpose of me buying this board. Now I’m building my own board with Zealios to hopefully rectify my problem.Why you’ll probably love this board (possibly with different switches): It’s a great looking board, no doubt about that. The RGB LEDs look good and almost all of the customization options are built into the board so you can use them regardless of what OS you’re on. If you’re on Windows you can customize each key individually with Cooler Masters software (one of my main reasons for getting this was to set colored sections for different games). The PBT caps feel great and have a nice sound to them. Definitely sounds more solid than my Ducky with ABS caps. Dedicated media keys are a nice addition to the board. I can’t comment on the wrist rest as I never used it (and you probably won’t either if you type properly :p) Braided USB Type-C cable is great. Cable routing under the board is a little weak. The spacing was ever so slightly too big and doesn’t really hold the cable well which made setting it up a little annoying, but once the keyboard is in place it typically stays in one spot so it’s probably not a big deal for most people. Overall it’s a great gaming keyboard that many will enjoy having as part of their battlestation. Just be sure to do your research on switches before you jump in. If you’re new to mechanical switches, you could be very happy with these switches. If you’ve used heavier switches and you want tactile feedback, Browns are probably not for you (and you probably knew that already!)

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 I got the tenkeyless cherry MX brown version of this keyboard. I love the tactile bump of the keys, and I love the RGB lighting. While you don’t need the software to reprogram the keyboard lights/keys/macros, I find the software to very easy and intuitive to use when compared to setting the lighting and macros on the keyboard, and it’s a very light program free of any and all bloatware. There’s many different options for creating RGB lighting effects, and the pictures and video I sent demonstrate my favorite RGB pattern: the cycle, where the color spectrum sort of revolves around the center of the keyboard.I’m not using the magnetic wrist rest that comes with the keyboard. I already had another wrist rest from another setup. I think the glorious PC gaming master race wrist pad is better then the wrist pad that was included here, because it’s more comfortable, raises your wrists higher to the point where they are level with the keys (which helps reduce the chances of getting carpal tunnel), is bigger, and also doesn’t cover up the really cool front facing LED on the keyboard.Now, you’ll notice that the keycaps I’m using are also different. I think if you’re really into the RGB colors of mechanical keyboards, you should consider replacing the ABS keycaps that come with this keyboard with acrylic double shot ABS keycaps. Those keys look super nice on a keyboard with cherry MX RGB lighting, as you can see in the pictures and video. The keycaps I’m using are red dragon A105 acrylic keycaps, which typically cost $10 to $15. Totally worth it for the aesthetics, and I personally like the super sleek and smooth feeling of those keycaps. It complements this keyboard really well.Initially, my only complaint was that they replaced the right click button on the right side of the keyboard with a 2nd windows button. This was annoying because I actually liked the right click key, and the button remapping software doesn’t have the ability to reassign the 2nd windows button to a right click key: you can only assign it keys that already exist on the keyboard. However, shift + f10 is another way that you can right click with keyboards in general. So I used the software for this keyboard to assign the 2nd windows key to a macro: shift + f10. And I got my right click key back! ^_^

This is my 3rd mechanical keyboard.My first was the Logitech Orion G 810 – an RGB backlit “gaming” keyboard that uses proprietary Romer-G switches.My second–which I’m typing on now (at work, don’t tell my bosses!)–is a Cooler Master MasterKeys S, a TKL using Cherry MX Silver switches and no backlighting at all.This product, the MasterKeys MK750 with Cherry MX Brown switches, is my favorite keyboard so far because, as it turns out, I really like having that number pad on the right side and I really like having backlighting on my keys. And, very importantly, it doesn’t look like a Cylon and a typewriter had a baby. It’s a very simple design unburnended by copious branding, gimmicks, and other garbage that adds to the price but detracts from the experience.Those first two factors were the most crucial in deciding to switch over from the MasterKeys S to the MasterKeys MK750. But also very important to me were:1.) Native USB Type-C connectivity – There are so many mechanical keyboards out there using the old mini and micro USB connectors which, at this point, are not necessarily obsolete but those old connectors are certainly outdated and, no matter the manufacturer, the cable connectors themselves are just garbage and prone to breaking. And that says nothing of the fact that mini/micro USB is not reversible like USB Type-C. This was just a little bit of future-proofing or protection in my opinion.2.) Customization software – I straight up do not want to program keyboard functions (macros and key reassignment) or lighting through the keyboard itself. So I had to pick a product from a company with the means to develop and maintain a piece of software. It helps that the Cooler Master application is simple and applies your settings to the device’s firmware so that the application doesnt’t then have to run in the background all the time like the Logitech solution does just to keep your custom lighting settings active.I will note, though, that you absolutely can program your keyboard’s macros, functions, and lighting from the keyboard itself without a GUI using the Fn key and combinations of other keys. So if you are the type of person that prefers to do all of that on the keyboard itself, this has you covered!Things I don’t necessarily like:1.) The lighting around the edge of the keyboard isn’t very bright or necessary and when using the included wrist rest it’s all covered up anyway. Maybe CM could’ve excluded this feature and shaved a few bucks off the price. Also, this means more plastic when I really want more metal.2.) The included wrist rest is convenient, it’s well built, and has the right amount of firmness for me but it’s magnetic connection to the keyboard chassis is not strong at all which means that the wrist rest always detaches when I want to scoot my keyboard around my desk surface. It’s not a huge deal but I would’ve appreciated a physical connection or just stronger magnets to keep these pieces together all the time.3.) The media control keys are superfluous. IDK about anybody else but those play/pause, fast forward, and rewind dedicated buttons a for the birds. They are rarely so useful as to warrant including them as dedicated buttons on a keyboard. But the worst part is that there are no dedicated volume control buttons grouped with these media controls. Volume control is Fn+Pg UP or Fn+Pg DN. I would very gladly trade all of the media control buttons for a volume wheel and/or programmable macro buttons. Instead, I’m just kinda stuck with these buttons that I’ll never use that are way out of the way of home position.4.) The beveled edges of the chassis are polished plastic which makes picking up the keyboard itself a little tough since the rest of the chassis is built of aluminum. This isn’t a huge gripe and it dovetails with issue #2 up there in that the weight of the keyboard, combined with the slickness of the sides of the chassis makes moving the keyboard even a few centimeters kind of a hassle.Despite those issues, I love the keyboard. It is, again, very simple in its visual design. The lighting and functions are easy to program either directly via the keyboard or in the accompanying software. The switches and overall build quality are in line with my expectations at this pricepoint. And the inclusion of USB Type-C is a great, forward thinking, inclusion.