So thanks to melrose and some unrelated friends, I had been motivated to ditch my Logitech G512 Carbon (with Cherry MX blue clicky switches) and move onto Epsilon Linears on a Keychron Q2. A friend recently expressed interest after she had typed on my keyboard.

I'm planning to gift something as a belated birthday present and was looking at AKKO keyboard. I'm open to suggestions and would like to explore options within the aforementioned budget. From what I understand, she would prefer the marbly sound over the clikcy, but would like the tactile bump so not linear. Any recommendations on switches and cases/frames?

I am still looking for support.

For keyboard, just get the rk61 as it's a hot swap keyboard and is pretty cheap. As for switches, I've only tried a few being the akko jelly blacks, the NK creams, and the glorious pandas. Out of those three, the only tactile ones are the glorious pandas, but they can be pretty expensive. For the NK creams it's also pretty expensive and you have to burn them in. The akko jelly blacks is relatively cheap, but seeing that your friend wants tactile switches, I'm not sure if it's the one her.

I'd suggest just buying a small number of a few swithces and figuring out what she might like.

I wasn't even aware burning switches are a thing. The RK ones seem a little too cheap for me, I was looking at the AKKO 3068B's barebone. Which I'd put Cream Blue V3s in, but now that you say jelly black.

Really makes me think...

Are you also trying to get custom keys and do some modding to the keyboard?

Yeah, picked up some entry level skillset from a friend. So I aim to get them barebone and then slap on some switches and keycaps.
Adding a foam and tape mod (though I'm guessing ping should not be an issue since it's not metal)?

Update
I ended up getting the AKKO 3068B with Jelly Purple Tactiles.
Perfect choice, its great.

i have the gmmk pro with feker x creamy matcha switches and the keychron pixel universe keycaps and i could not ask for a better board, its creamy and poppy, if i decided to lube each individual switch it would be a very deep creamy with a slot pop of a typing experience... i might do it..