Keyboard switch & compatibility guides
Plain-English references for buying, swapping and fixing switches — written against the same data as the switch database.
- What is a Hall Effect magnetic switch? — how magnets replace contacts; adjustable actuation, rapid trigger, socket rules.
- Gateron Magnetic Jade family compared — Jade vs Pro vs Silent vs Ultra vs Emerald vs Low Profile vs KS-20, with magnet polarity.
- TMR vs Hall Effect — what tunneling magnetoresistance changes and what it doesn't.
- Low-profile switches explained — Choc vs LP-MX mounts, keycap rules, LP Hall Effect.
- The quietest keyboard switches — silent linear vs silent tactile, dampener anatomy, the rest of the noise chain.
- Thocky, clacky, creamy, marbly — sound descriptors mapped to the materials that cause them.
- How to read switch specs — actuation, travel, force curves and the numbers that matter.
- Keycap compatibility rules — stem mounts, sculpted profiles, row kits.
- Hot-swap socket repair — loose sockets, dead keys, bent pins, pad repair.
Buying or swapping? Run the combination through the compatibility checker first — sockets, polarity and keycap tolerances, judged automatically.