Thank you Mountain for sending us the Everest Max to review!

The Mountain Everest Max Gaming RGB Keyboard is Mountain’s first product, and was originally launched as a Kickstarter way back in March 2020. Thankfully, the Everest was not only funded, but fully delivered to backers by early 2021. The product has been available in retail for a few years now, and I have actually been following it casually since I heard about the Kickstarter several years ago. I'm glad I got the chance to review this after watching it so closely, even if it both exceeded and didn’t quite reach my expectations.

In the modern era of mechanical gaming keyboards, rarely is ‘just a keyboard’ good enough anymore. People want high response times, macro buttons, media keys, and more. The Everest Max includes modules designed to meet many of those needs depending on what you want to buy (or connect). While you can buy just the Everest Core without the additional modules, the modules are expensive and often not in stock, so if you’re interested in this board, I recommend budgeting for the full Max and using what you like, rather than starting with the Core and buying the modules you want. This is especially true since I’ve seen the Max on sale for around $149, and at that price you might as well get the full package.

The Max includes four main parts, as well as a bunch of accessories to round it all out. The main Core is the tenkeyless (TKL) keyboard, which is the main event, and you need that to operate anything else, as the brains are inside there. The next big piece is the Numpad/Macro pad, which is a standard numerical keypad along with four macro buttons which are clear with an LCD screen inside of each one. They honestly look really sharp, and those mini screens have surprisingly good viewing angles. They also have a satisfying click when you press them.

The Media Dock is pretty nice, with four media buttons Previous Track, Next Track, Play/Pause, and Mute. There is also a navigation button, and a large knob with an LCD screen inside. This slightly larger screen doesn’t have viewing angles quite as good as the macro buttons do, but it’s usable. The last major piece is an included magnetically attachable leather wrist rest. It’s quite nice, but I wish it was just a bit larger as the bottom doesn’t always quite reach my wrists but more like the bottom of my palms, which is unfortunate. For the smaller-pawed, it’s probably fine.

I have reviewed a lot of keyboards, and build quality is often at the top of what makes a keyboard truly shine and stand above the rest. For many years the pinnacle of all keyboards I’ve ever used has been the long discontinued Cherry MX Board 6.0 and that keyboard set the standard for me on keyboard build quality. (I beat it to death and it’s no longer in service.) This Mountain Everest is not made in quite the same way, but it’s the closest yet to dethroning the legendary keyboard in my personal best-built list.

When you first lay eyes on it, you can see the top is one solid sheet of aluminum, and not a thin piece either – it appears to be about 2mm thick. That alone would be impressive enough, but there is a translucent plastic strip, and then another 2mm thick slab of aluminum, all three of which are held together tightly. This aluminum and plastic sandwich leads to an amazingly sturdy keyboard construction. Frankly, it’s unreal, and it doesn’t end there. Around the top and the edges is a brushed aluminum finish, with brush lines which extend horizontally from left to right. The logo is also cut into the top center, interrupting the brush lines before continuing onto the other side.

What they did where the key switches themselves go is equally as amazing. Inside of the business part of the keyboard there is a small indent with rounded edges where the switches themselves sit. This area is milled down perhaps a millimeter, perhaps less. The holes for each key switch is cut into the solid aluminum. In that area, rather than polish or brush this section of the slab, they instead opted to leave the machine mill etching lines in place, so it looks like a bunch of tight concentric circles that follows each other around the plate which burs out the whole typing area. It looks and feels absolutely stunning. Frankly, I'm surprised no one else has thought of this, as it's simply brilliant.

On the front of the board are two USB-C ports just under three inches in, both on the front left and front right. These two ports look standard, but are not - they are for connecting the included Media Dock. Those ports cannot be used for anything else. Near the center is a USB-A port, which you can use to connect a mouse, though I found only some of my mice work in the port. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence, but wired mice seem to work, but not wireless ones, nor their wireless transmitters. In the center of the bottom there is the port for connecting your keyboard to your computer; this port is also USB-C. This is the only ‘standard’ USB-C port on this keyboard, as the rest just use the connector for the modular accessories.

The under side of the board is made of a solid plastic, and while perfectly serviceable, I feel like the build doesn’t quite live up to the high standards set by the top, since you can feel a small amount of vibration echo when knocking hard on the bottom plastic. Outside of that, it’s plenty sturdy enough. It also includes cable routing channels, rubber stoppers to keep it from sliding, and magnetic feet circles you can adjust the angle of the keyboard with for more ergonomic typing. I use a keyboard tray with an inverse angle on the advice or an ergonomic specialist I saw many years ago, so I don’t normally raise keyboards, but it can come in handy when using on a flat surface. They include eight of those magnetic height adjuster circles in the box, which I assume is meant to be used with up to two additional in each spot. You see, there are two spots on the keyboard and two on the Number/Macro pad. I suppose you could add more to the base if you keep the Numpad lower via the included extension cable if you prefer.

On the left and right side of the board is a USB-C port along with some peg holes and a slot, both of which are used to attach that Number/Macro pad. It can be attached on either the left or right side, or you can use the included though rather short USB-C extension cord to connect the Numpad a short distance away from the keyboard. Sadly this doesn’t seem to work with more common extension cables, nor can you connect the Numpad to your computer directly; only through the keyboard itself. This is a shame since I have my keyboard on a keyboard tray, which really limits where I can place the Numpad.

Thankfully, the Number/Macro pad does look and feel really good. On the bottom are rubber stoppers and the magnetic feet disks similar to the main keyboard. The top is also made of the same amazing aluminum plastic sandwich design of the main board, and it’s insanely sturdy. There is a standard numerical keypad like you would find on most keyboards, and the four Macro buttons with LCD screens on them above that. On the under side there is a slider where you can choose to connect the pad to the left or right side of the keyboard, or of course keep it disconnected. I keep it connected most of the time, though it does sadly dim the RGB LEDs on my main board when it’s connected.

Surprisingly, the RGB LEDs on my sample did not perfectly match between the base keyboard and the Number/Macro pad. I usually stick with the default blue, and in that case, it looks mostly the same. But for other colors, they don’t quite match. If you like white backlighting, it's perhaps the worst of the bunch, as the Numpad looks white, while the main keyboard looks like a shade of pink. I ran into the same issue with yellow; one looked yellow, with the other a strong orange. This color balance mismatch between the main board and the Numpad is a real shame, though if you stick to solid blue, red, or green you’re likely to be alright. The Number/Macro pad uses the same type of key switch out of the box as the main board, and otherwise feels the same in use.

Being a fully modular keyboard, all of the key switches themselves are removable (except for the Macro buttons); this is one of the key advantages of a board designed like this. While more and more mechanical keyboards are including swappable switches, it’s by no means universal. Cherry MX-style mechanical switches all have similar PCB requirements with each other, compared to the newer optical or magnetic-style switches which operate differently. It’s great to see most switch manufacturers have largely decided to use a similar interface, making hot-swappable keyboards like this one possible. This has lead to our current market where dozens (hundreds?) of switch types can be purchased third-party, and swapped out. The Everest includes both a keycap puller and a switch puller, which you use to swap switches.

My review sample board includes Cherry MX Red switches, which I have used in the past for several years on that Cherry-branded board I mentioned earlier. They aren’t bad, but I’ve gotten spoiled by other smoother, lighter switches. The Cherry MX Red is pretty good, with nice linear travel and great action and a good feel of bounce back. What I don’t like about them is they feel a bit chalky, like the switch rubs against something while moving. It’s this ‘chalkiness’ that makes the Cherry MX Red much less popular these days than in times past. They are not terrible switches, but certainly no longer my favorite.

While the Everest is not the first keyboard I’ve reviewed with swappable switches, it's the first one where I really wanted to swap them out. So I went on Amazon, and found a set of switches that seem good to me with good reviews, and settled on the Leobog Graywood V3 switch. While I don’t have a lot of other options to compare these against, I really do like how they feel, but the sound is unexpectedly good. They are super smooth compared to the Cherry, and have a pleasant ‘thock’ when they bottom out. This isn’t going to be a thorough review of these switches, but you may be happy to know this board works wonderfully with these and likely many other third-party switches.

This Everest board is compatible with any 3-pin mechanical switches, and 5-pin ones can be used if you trim off the extra plastic feet, since the PCB lacks the two extra holes that 5-pin switches need. This uses 3-pin hot-swappable key switch sockets, along with pull tabs, making it trivial to change them. First, you pull off the keycaps. Then, you use the included key switch puller to grab the top and bottom of the switch, then push in the tabs on both sides, and just pull up. It helps that the switch puller seems to be made reasonably well, with a plastic and metal construction. That said, I prefer my standalone keycap puller since it has longer arms, but the switch puller is pretty good, though the metal arms can bend easily. Thankfully, in part because of the tool, it was a very easy job to do, and took me around an hour to swap out the eighty-four keys on the main TKL section of the keyboard. Sadly the kit I bought is a 100-pack, which is just a few switches short of the 104 needed to swap them all on the main and Numpad section. So, I just left the Cherry Reds on my numerical keypad, making it a convenient reminder of how it used to feel.

Speaking of keycaps, the included ones are pretty good if you like ABS plastic caps, as they have a good sound and are pretty sturdy, but if you prefer PBT, these are no substitute. They have some kind of chalky coating that feels okay, but rubs off pretty quickly, at least on the space bar for me. At least they are shine-through, which is good since the board has north-facing RGB LED lights. I will probably swap the caps out for PBT at some point, though I’m not in a rush just yet. They feel plenty sturdy and look nice enough.

As I mentioned before, the Mountain Everest is all about that modularity, and the build quality is really fantastic. However, this keyboard is not without downsides. One small miss is the way the Number/Macro pad attaches to the keyboard is not as secure as I would like, so it flexes a bit where they connect. This is exasperated by my desk setup; my keyboard tray has an uneven surface because of anti-slip foam, which messes with how the Numpad attaches. Outside of that, the included USB-C cable is of a very high quality but very thick. Sadly, some of the shorter, thinner cables I use with other keyboards that I connect to my USB extension cord doesn’t seem to work with this keyboard. It’s more annoying than critical, but I need to spend some time and/or money finding a shorter USB-A to USB-C cable that works, because otherwise there's that thick cable all bunched up on my keyboard tray. The other imperfect bit of hardware is the wrist rest being a bit small, as I mentioned earlier.

While the hardware overall is quite nice, the software is a real mixed bag. For one thing, quite a few features are only available in Microsoft Windows, and requires their customization software Base Camp. The Media Dock has quite a few features built in, like a clock, profile selection, lighting modes, volume selection, brightness, and a few more. Activating those settings requires pressing the menu button, and strangely, it doesn't remember what your last action was. So, you may have used the Volume control a few minutes ago, but some timeout passed, so now if you move the wheel, you just get to pick your function, rather than activate the volume control once more. A strange default behavior for sure. Tweaking other settings, or using for example the PC Info feature, requires Base Camp. If you want to setup macros, change your RGB lighting’s static color, setup the Macro keys, also Base Camp. The thing is, while it seems like it can do a lot, it kind of can’t.

For example, the keyboard has a few hidden functions hidden behind the Fn key layer. For example, Fn + Pause enables and disables Game Mode. Fn + the Ins/Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn and arrow keys cluster replaces some of the Media Dock functions, like Play/Pause, Next/Previous Track, and changing lighting modes. But the only way I found to discover these settings was through mashing buttons, or via an obscure FAQ in their website. Base Camp does not show them, nor does it allow you to map or remap them. Not being able to do anything at all with the Fn+ layer, or really any chord layer on this keyboard is a huge oversight in my opinion.

You can remap keys, but only what they do, not what they do in combination. You can save macros to profiles, and the profiles do save onto the keyboard, but accessing profiles is either through the Media Dock wheel menu which is clunky, or a hidden Fn+1-5 key combination which is also only visible on that FAQ page on their website. Some keyboards will highlight available functions when you hold down Fn so you can see what functions are available, while others have embosses on the stock keycaps so you know what hidden functions there are. This has none of those.

I tried Base Camp on two different computers, and the profiles made on one were not available on the other, sort of. The software detected some of the settings, but not all, and if you make any changes anything local was lost as it uploaded a fresh start to the keyboard. Another odd behavior is Base Camp often thinks the language is wrong, and is set to Hebrew. (I feel like there's a Mel Brooks joke hidden in here!) When correcting it to English, it forces all settings on the keyboard to be reset, so I stopped fixing the language so my settings could be retained. Very strange behavior.

Thankfully, it seems like many of the problems over the years are largely solved, as I read stories about the keyboard just going dead in the middle of working, and all kinds of fun things. Fortunately for me, I have had no problems with the stability of the keyboard itself, outside of it taking a couple of seconds to 'boot' when turning on the PC or when the keyboard is reset when booting the OS or getting unplugged.

The Media keys can have be set to custom icons, and have custom functions set on them. Some only work on Windows, while some work with any OS. For some reason, I could not find an 'Open Web Browser' function, though 'Open Calculator', 'Open File Browser' and 'Open Task Manager' all exist and work just fine. I set the button I wanted to be 'Open Web Browser' to the action of opening the default browser and going to perhaps the best website on the internet, http://www.christcenteredgamer.com. This works in Windows. The other three are recognized by Windows or Linux on KDE Plasma, but going to a URL only works in Windows.

The Mountain Everest Max is no doubt a very good keyboard. You could even argue it's an incredible one. It's sadly marred by a few strange choices and at best acceptable software. If you want the fanciest-looking keyboard anywhere, then the Everest Max is perhaps a good choice, because those Macro pad buttons are pretty attention-drawing. If you want to macro to your heart's content with tons of Fn+ chord keys, look elsewhere unless you are happy programming via Custom Mode and/or profiles. If you want an incredible-feeling keyboard built like a tank and can be customized to your heart's content, then the Everest Max may well be the keyboard for you. While I found the included Cherry MX Red switches to be fine but not extraordinary, once they're swapped out, this thing really sings. If you are looking for a base that can house your ultimate mechanical keyboard masterpiece, this may well be an excellent canvas. Recommended, if it's right for you.