Disassembly

Most metal frame/case keyboards are easier to disassemble than plastic case variants, but CORSAIR tries their best to discourage user from taking the K70 RGB MK.2 apart. Indeed, there is a sneaky hidden screw underneath a plastic cover next to the volume scroll wheel, and then you need to take off several keycaps as seen above to access the screws holding the keyboard together. There are 23 screws to be removed, all of which are the same countersunk Phillips head in type, and a precision screwdriver comes in handy here. After this, start poking at plastic tab on the top edge where the keyboard cable and other dedicated keys are to carefully separate the pieces.


There are still two cables connecting the bottom plastic panel piece to the PCB that need to be removed before full separation, and you have to be careful in that there are three grounding cables screwed in place to prevent shorting from the metal frame touching the PCB. Dislodge both internal cables and unscrew the three wires to finally separate and remove the bottom plastic panel. It is made out of ABS plastic and has the keyboard cable screwed into place as well. The PCB itself is green in color, and the switches are soldered through the aluminium frame and into the PCB, which makes them hard to remove.


There are daughter PCBs in use here, especially for the dedicated profile and media buttons, as well as to allow backlighting of the CORSAIR logo in the middle of the top as seen from the front. We have examined these before in previous CORSAIR keyboards, and it is effectively the same here with a combination of scroll wheels and membrane switches alike. The USB pass-through port is also soldered in and has to be accounted for when disassembling and re-assembling the keyboard since there is a cutout in the bottom plastic panel to fit it through. General soldering quality is very good.


Powering the Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 SE (or non-SE) is an NXP LPC11U68JBD100 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+/M0 Cores-based USB microcontroller with 256 KB on-board flash memory and 36 KB SRAM. There is also a Macronix MX25L6433 8 MB flash memory module to store all the pre-programmed functions alongside some 100µF polymer capacitors. All the components, including the switches, LEDs, and capacitors, are soldered to a multi-layered PCB.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.