keyboard Mechanical keyboard vs silence and peace.

[Arcca]

Backstory - I bought a relatively cheap entry level mechanical keyboard - non-RGB Motospeed K81 a long time ago, been using it for years. Now that I live with my GF, and since we have both of our setups in the same room, I need to do something about the loudness of that keyboard. I just yesterday tried adding O rings to the board, but as it turns out - they didn't do much, since the keys themselves are clicky, and bottoming out still sounds loud to me. I even added 2x O rings to each switch...

 

I'm considering 2 options - buying a brand new keyboard with silent switches that has "silence" as its selling point, not sure which one would that be though. Or buying silent replacement switches and re-solder them to my existing board (soldering is not an issue). However a question arises, if that is a good approach at all, since I didn't notice much of a difference when bottoming out with O rings on.

 

Can you guys give advice on what to do in this situation? Maybe your own experiences on trying to make your board a bit more silent?

[ZeouLs]

Cherry MX Brown or Reds, they arent clicky but more linear, especially the reds

[Arcca]

I understand that MX Reds should be best switches in my situation, but the main point is whether the board itself affects the loudness on bottoming out, which is why the question of re-soldering vs brand new with silent as selling point.

 

[Cereal5]

9 minutes ago, ZeouLs said:

Cherry MX Brown or Reds, they arent clicky but more linear, especially the reds

Browns are not linear, they are tactile. Blacks are linear, and slightly heavier then reds. Browns, while not clicky, are still relatively loud. I believe it's Cherry MX clears that are the last bunch in the tactile family, and are quieter then browns. If you are purchasing a keyboard with linear keys: buyer beware. In my opinion, linear feels like typing on poop. So if you do a lot of typing, probably not. But it seems like you already know that

 

3 minutes ago, Arcca said:

I understand that MX Reds should be best switches in my situation, but the main point is whether the board itself affects the loudness on bottoming out, which is why the question of re-soldering vs brand new with silent as selling point.

 

The bottoming out is the keycap hitting the board, or alternatively the inside of the keycap hitting the top of the switch so... No not really. Get lighter fingers? lol

[seon123]

There are dampened switches, which have dampeners for both the downstroke and upstroke, on the stem. 

Spoiler

https://kbdfans.cn/collections/switches/products/pre-orderaliaz-silent-switch-tactile

Those are tactile switches. Gateron has both tactile and linear ones. 

https://kbdfans.cn/collections/switches/products/pre-orderkbdfans-exclusive-gateron-silent-switch-red-brown-blak

And more fancy tactile Zilents, which are quite a bit more expensive. 

https://zealpc.net/collections/switches/products/zealio-switches

If you're getting a new keyboard, Matias has the Quietpro. 

[geo3]

5 hours ago, seon123 said:

There are dampened switches, which have dampeners for both the downstroke and upstroke, on the stem. 

  Reveal hidden contents

https://kbdfans.cn/collections/switches/products/pre-orderaliaz-silent-switch-tactile

Those are tactile switches. Gateron has both tactile and linear ones. 

https://kbdfans.cn/collections/switches/products/pre-orderkbdfans-exclusive-gateron-silent-switch-red-brown-blak

And more fancy tactile Zilents, which are quite a bit more expensive. 

https://zealpc.net/collections/switches/products/zealio-switches

If you're getting a new keyboard, Matias has the Quietpro. 

My current board has Zilents and it's actually quieter than the majority membrane keyboards out there.

[Skar78]

Honestly, while probably getting some heat for this, a membrane keyboard is potentially still more silent than a Cherry MX Red Silent switch mechanical keyboard.

 

Especially for the space bar and other keys using stabilizers. Dont know about the Zilents mentioned from geo3,

 

However a mx red silent might be "silent enough" for you, probably cheaper and less difficult to buy.

[Arcca]

Yeah, I understand it would be the best IF silence was the only one of my required bullet points. I'm not ready to give up a membrane board just for the silence factor. I have switch tester board coming in soon, will see if mx reds have a significant impact. If it doesn't... Then I might indeed bite the bullet and settle for a membrane. Until then I still have to try switches out, I've heard of a trick to keep a towel, or something similar and soft under the board.. Will see.

 

[geo3]

1 hour ago, Arcca said:

Yeah, I understand it would be the best IF silence was the only one of my required bullet points. I'm not ready to give up a membrane board just for the silence factor. I have switch tester board coming in soon, will see if mx reds have a significant impact. If it doesn't... Then I might indeed bite the bullet and settle for a membrane. Until then I still have to try switches out, I've heard of a trick to keep a towel, or something similar and soft under the board.. Will see.

 

Towel or deskmat/large mouser pad under the keyboard works to some degree.A better option is to put dampening inside the keyboard. Foam or silicon pads placed in the case under the PCB help to dampen internal reverberations. A good place to get the foam is to cut an old mouse pad to fit with a razor or scissors.  Lubing switches also makes them quieter. But none of this will be much help with inherently clickly switches. It's not the bottom out sound that you are hearing but something called a click jacket. This is part of the switch stem and not really possible to silence. Getting non clicky switches, they don't even have to be silent switches, is really the only way to get rid of the click.