 The Everest Max Keyboard from Mountain, the sponsor of this video, aims to be the ultimate solution for your typing and macro needs. It features an all aluminum design, full programmability, hot-swappable switches, and built-in keys with displays, kind of like an Elgato Stream Deck or that famous Optimus Concept Keyboard from 2005. Really for gamers though, the more apt comparison is the classic Microsoft Sidewinder X6, and given that those are still going for anywhere from 80 to 90 Canadian dollars on eBay, and that's with worn out membrane keys, there is clearly still demand for this type of modular board. So why don't we take a closer look at it? The Everest Max comes in a compartmentalized box that Mountain intends for you to reuse as a useful storage container to help reduce waste. Inside it, you will find the Everest Core, and this is the base 10 keyless keyboard without any of the accessories. It's built from CNC milled aluminum in either gunmetal gray or midnight black, and has this kind of two level edge that combined with the diffused RGB strip down the center gives it a very distinctive look. It's got a total of five female USB-C ports on it, each of which serves a different purpose. The one embedded in the underside of the board handles data and power for both the board and its accessories with these handy channels that allow you to cable manage your desk however you see fit, and the other four are for the modular accessories. Now, a recurring theme in the reviews on Mountain's web shop is that they found an excellent balance between build quality and heft. And honestly speaking, I agree. The magnetic PU leather wrist rest is lightweight and comfortable, and there's almost no flex to the board deck itself, yet it's not so heavy that it could double as a weapon. I mean, I think you could conceivably carry the Everest Core around in your backpack at school without ruining your spine. The branding is subtle, so just a small logo top center, and then another logo on the escape key. And while the key switches included with our board are not my personal favorite, Cherry MX Silent Reds, you can order it configured with a variety of other Cherry switches or opt for the core bare bones and install whatever you want. Mountain includes this handy key cap and key switch puller. Let's take a look at how it works. If you wanna pull off a key cap, you just kinda pop this on and whoop, hello, there you go. Pull it off a little something like that. And if you decide, you know what, hey, MX speed, not really my thing, you pop this on here, right, there's your key switch. Hot swappable. We don't even have to power down, ladies and gentlemen. Just make sure I'm putting this on the right one. And cherry MX Browns might be a controversial choice these days, but whatever, take this haters. Look, I like what I'm used to, all right? And since we're up this close, this is a perfect chance to get a close look at finishing touches like the individually RGB backlit ABS key caps and the machining marks on the plate. Now, many manufacturers would remove these marks before painting or anodizing, but personally, I absolutely love the look. It's also a good opportunity to show the care and attention that goes into each board. The stabilizers, which are found on larger keys like shift and enter, are hand lubed, and they have additional foam padding for noise dampening, and the space bar stabilizer is clipped to all but eliminate reverb or chatter. If you've ever performed this modification yourself, you'll know that it can be time consuming and a bit of a pain in the butt. The board either lies flat on the desk, or it can be elevated with the included magnetic riser feet, which brings us perfectly into the juicy stuff. The detachable numpad clips onto either side with a type C USB port and magnetic guides that make it super easy to both pull off and to install. One really nice touch is this slider on the underside, which not only moves the connector from left to right, but also locks in the center if you wanna just chuck it in your bag and protect the plug while you're transporting it, or if you wanna use an extension cable to position the numpad somewhere else on your desk. On that note, Mountain warns against using standard USB-C extension cables for this kind of functionality, and does not support plugging the numpad into your computer stand alone. The good news is that they only charge eight US dollars for their own compatible USB extension, so they're not holding you hostage with an extremely high priced accessory. And I guess it kind of makes sense that the interface here would be proprietary because the hardware to drive the built-in displays is probably in the core keyboard rather than in the numpad itself. So let's take a closer look at those. Mountain has developed their own in-house Basecamp software that handles configuring macros, RGB lighting, the control dial, and of course, both the functionality and the icons on the display keys. Every key on the board is reprogrammable, so if you wanna add specific profiles for different setups, like maybe a streaming profile that you use with OBS, including the ability to change scenes, insert transitions, start or stop streaming, et cetera, a gaming setup that might have a few macros, or an office setup that lets you execute common programs or functions, that is totally up to you. Macros are easy to create, you simply record the key presses involved and that's it. Or if you need any custom delays, then you just add them like this. Now, I'm just going to change the icon on this display key, one moment. Change our image to this. Done. It should type it, right? Oh, now it does. Oh, I didn't put enter in. Okay, bad macro, but the point is, look how quickly I can check out our new and improved spout lids on our water bottles. These are just $5 if you've ever bought a water bottle on lttstore.com. Now, in terms of RGB, you've got four options for speed and brightness of the various effects, as well as changing direction when applicable. A nice little touch is that when you physically type on the keyboard, a key press animation plays in the software as well, and it supports Razer Chroma RGB. Up next is the dock. The media buttons function about like you'd expect though. Of course, like the rest of the keyboard, they are fully reprogrammable if you want them to do something else. And the dial clicks. Can you hear that? For each setting change, and the screen can be used to configure keyboard parameters like macro profiles and RGB lighting to show the time or display system information like CPU memory and network usage, and you can even get it to show APM if you're a MOBA or OSU nerd. And yes, you can change the color of the menus and the screensaver image. Compared to the display keys, the display on the dial is noticeably more vibrant and retains color fidelity much better when viewed off axis. I would strongly recommend high contrast icons and backgrounds for the display keys because they're quite a bit easier to see from a normal typing position. Also included on the dock are LED indicators for caps lock, num lock, et cetera. And this is notable because in its Everest core form, the keyboard doesn't actually have this functionality at all. So as configured with the num pad and the dock, ours is an Everest Max. And for you keyboard nerds, by the way, it sounds a little something like this. Thank you again, Mountain, for sponsoring this video and sending over some of these boards to show to you guys. They also carry peripherals and accessories for the Everest series like O-rings, lube, cables, additional riser feet that you can stack up if you prefer a steeper incline and stuff like that. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out our keyboard key switch comparison where we took a whole bunch of different key switches for a test drive and decided which ones in a blind test we actually like best.