Tried Leopold FC660 Silent Red - can I go quieter?

[zakaluka]

Hi Everyone,

Just joined the forums and have been having fun reading here.  I've never been into keyboards, so am a total newbie.

A friend let me try their Leopold FC660 with Cherry MX Silent Red switches.  The keyboard felt really good, and I think everything was stock (as far as I know, they hadn't changed keycaps or done anything with the keyboard).  Before trying this, I had only ever used "regular" office keyboards (membrane?).

My question is - is it possible to buy a keyboard that is quieter than the FC660 with Silent Reds that I tried?  I'm not really ready to build my own or even mod an existing one (unless it's something really simple), and have a relatively low budget (USD 150 or less).

Thank you for any suggestions!

EDIT: I should add that I really liked the smaller layout (65%).  The same size of slightly smaller/bigger is fine, as long as the keyboard has dedicated arrow keys.

[iamtienng]

With less than 10$ you can lube the switch for a quieter experience. Or you can try MX Zilent which is a very expensive Frankenstein Silent Switch that will break your budget.
FC980M MX Silent Red without soldering lube method:

My lube method without soldering:

[zakaluka]

That's great!  I didn't realize switches could be lubed with taking them apart / desoldering.  Does this work with any cherry-compatible switches?

[Sup]

With less than 10$ you can lube the switch for a quieter experience. Or you can try MX Zilent which is a very expensive Frankenstein Silent Switch that will break your budget.
FC980M MX Silent Red without soldering lube method:

My lube method without soldering:

Tbh that lube method is BAD. You overlube it way to much. And the lube they are using said to get sticky after a while so yeah figure what happens with the key feel.

[Polymer]

Yeah..agreed..there is a reason why people take the switch apart rather than just shove it down the gap in the switch...

The goal is generally to use as little as possible to have as light a coat as possible...I think they probably used 10-20 times as much lube as you'd need for a single switch...granted some is soaked up but I just can't imagine this is a good thing...

Would be interesting to see a comparison though...actually do this on two switches (not on a keyboard) just do one w/ the traditional method and one with this one and see how much extra lube is in the switch itself and then how long it takes for it to gum up (if at all).

 

[noxdbx]

I suggest using this method to lube without desoldering.
More precise and decent.

[zakaluka]

Thank you for the video!  I will look into this a little more.  In any case, I don't even own the keyboard yet (it was my friend's), and I don't believe she is planning on lubing the switches anytime soon.