Thermaltake to Make Metal Keycaps, Custom Water Cooling

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Thermaltake is making some metal keycaps, along with a bunch of new water cooling stuff.

Thermaltake was demonstrating a number of things at its booth at Computex 2014, among which we found two new products that the company hasn’t shown before. The first lineup of products are custom water cooling products, and the second is a set of metallic keycaps for mechanical keyboards.

We weren’t able to get a hands-on of the water cooling products, though we did manage to snatch a few good pictures to get an idea of what the new lineup of products consists of. Included in the lineup are radiators, reservoirs, a pump, fittings, tubing, and coolant.

The other product that the company was showcasing were keycaps for mechanical keyboards made from a metallic alloy. We weren’t told much about them, but they seemed to type alright on the company’s own gaming grade mechanical switches, and did feel cold to the touch when we started typing. The concept certainly seems to have promise, though we’d need more hands-on time to really get a feeling for it.

Pricing for the metallic keycaps was expected to sit at about $80, though that was only if the caps were to reach the market in the first place.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Durandul
    Would be willing to pay $80+ for some gold colored zinc caps to go with my MX greens :)
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    Very interested in those keycaps! I would absolutely buy a set, with three caveats:

    1) The caps have to be metal, not just have a plating that's going to wear off. If you're going to spend $80 for an accessory for your $120 keyboard, it better last for a very long time.

    2) Something that gets overlooked a lot in products is the smell. These absolutely can't leave that smell of metal on your hands after using them; that would be hideous.

    3) Please, for the love of tech nerds, just leave the windows key blank instead of engraving a windows logo, or even worse, a Tt logo.
    Reply
  • BranFlake5
    Metal+Sweat=Rust Doesn't it?

    A company made a metal mouse surface but it became rusty due to the moisture of palm sweat.
    Reply
  • falchard
    I'm a bit excited about the updated water cooling line. Recently there has been a slew of closed loop water cooling systems, but none for the custom loop systems. So having some updated hardware will be nice.
    Like others, I am also excited about metal caps. I have something I would be slightly more excited about. Frosted Glass caps. If the glass is reasonably thick with a coarse surface texture it would look pretty sweet on illuminated keyboards.
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    13438435 said:
    Like others, I am also excited about metal caps. I have something I would be slightly more excited about. Frosted Glass caps. If the glass is reasonably thick with a coarse surface texture it would look pretty sweet on illuminated keyboards.

    ...I want these now. Those would be freaking gorgeous.(They'd also get extremely dirty and oily very quickly, but it might be worth it..)

    Reply
  • WithoutWeakness
    Metal+Sweat=Rust Doesn't it?

    A company made a metal mouse surface but it became rusty due to the moisture of palm sweat.
    Iron rusts due to oxidation. Steel rusts because it has iron in it. Aluminum, zinc, nickel, and plenty of other metals do not rust and corrode in the same manner as iron and are perfectly suitable for key caps. Apple has been making all-metal laptop computers for the past decade and they do not rust because they use aluminum for the chassis.
    Reply
  • BranFlake5
    13442360 said:
    Metal+Sweat=Rust Doesn't it?

    A company made a metal mouse surface but it became rusty due to the moisture of palm sweat.
    Iron rusts due to oxidation. Steel rusts because it has iron in it. Aluminum, zinc, nickel, and plenty of other metals do not rust and corrode in the same manner as iron and are perfectly suitable for key caps. Apple has been making all-metal laptop computers for the past decade and they do not rust because they use aluminum for the chassis.

    Thanks for the answer. I didn't think about the options they could use for metal. Sorry for not thinking that out.
    Reply