quiet keyboards, do you know of any?

dddp · Post by **dddp** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 12:24 am

as the subject says
atm i have a labtec keyboard, which works no problem, but is a little on the noisy side ie the key strokes

can anyone suggest a quiet keyboard, not something like you'd see in a court room, just a main-stream manufacturer that makes a low noise type keyboard

preferably with multi media control, intenet etc

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 4:25 am

the quieter the keyboard, the crappier it feels imho... there are lots of choices though, one of those flat membrane keyboards (like speak and spells used to have, but obviously better), or roll/fold-up keyboards, or those accessories for PDAs that project an image of a keyboard onto the desk and then monitor your hands will all be silent. I just use MS Internet keyboards since they're like $15 = buy another instead of spending 3 hours cleaning it, and they work/feel pretty good, but aren't particularly quiet. Keyboards that use double scissor mechanisms (like laptop keyboards, pop a key cap off and look) will always be quiet unless they're broken too.
er, why not just go see how they sound when you go to buy one? heh

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 5:21 am

There's been at least one, and maybe two, giant threads about quiet keyboards here at SPCR over the past year or so. Use the "search" function and you'll be overwhelmed with information.

dddp · Post by **dddp** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 5:07 pm

yep, i tried search, tried keyboard and got to 4th page without finding much, tried quiet keyboard got to the 5th page found your link ralf to the quiet keyboard thread

looks like it might be a bit limiting as we in australia don't have the same product range as you guys in the us/uk, but still i'll trawl thru and see what might be useful, thankyou

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 3:01 am

I've had some good experiences with sharkoon luminous keyboards; I have the small one and it is very quiet (and convenient for LAN parties due to size & illumination, but that's another matter). The keys on the keyboards in this series are more like notebook keys than regular ones though, so you'll have to be willing to live with that.

sensei · Post by **sensei** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 6:31 am

The Logitech Ultrax is pretty damn near perfection... It uses laptop style "shallow" keys, and is pretty damn sexy, in a restrained classy kind of way. And to top it off, it uses a completely standard keyboard layout. No whacky configurations here...

It's OEM only, but you *can* usually dig it up online...

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 7:09 am

The best keyboard I've ever seen was Logitech diNovo Bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo. This is proabably the most stylish, the best made, the best feel and touch I've ever seen and ever see. The keyboard combine the best qualities of regular full sized PC keyboards and the laptop ones. The keys themselves are laptoplike low-profile ones, so they are both very very quiet and soft and easy to press. Despite that the keyboard has a very distinctive click, so you'll always know that you pressed the button. There are only three problems with it - the keyboard is non-natural, you gotta buy a bluetooth USB adapter for your PC (about $25) and it MSRPs at $249.99. Given the fact that only a select number of resellers carry this board, all of them charge full price for it so, as much as I like it, I just can't justify spending $250 for a mere keyboard and a mouse.

Aside from diNovo I don't know of any quiet keyboard. All microsoft and Logitech keyboard that I've tried are noisy. Logitech on top of that have a really crappy keys. The best bet is to try to find some laptop-like keyboards which generally tend to have quieter click like the one from coolermaster, which I bought and which incidentally is a total crap, but there are other keyboards to try.

Hm... Anyone tried that Logitech UltraX keyboard? If it's anything like diNovo I'd be first to buy it...

monkiman · Post by **monkiman** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 7:18 am

sensei wrote:It's OEM only, but you *can* usually dig it up online...

Both Mwave and TigerDirect have it (@$25 at TD)

I though it looked suspiciously just like the HP branded one I'm using now at work - then I saw it for sale through the HP site

It's not silent - but I like the feel and it's fairly quiet.

fanerman91 · Post by **fanerman91** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 11:50 pm

I'm using a viewsonic ku-201 from newegg for about $30. It has laptop style keys. I like it. It's also sort of "mini". It has a numpad but the arrows are scrunched like ther are on a laptop. I like this because I want the mouse to be closer to the home rows than on the standard keyboard (people I've talked to recommend it for repetitive stress injuries).

I also looked at the logitech ultrax because it has laptop style keys too, but decided the thinner viewsonic was more of what I wanted.

dddp · Post by **dddp** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 5:47 am

checked the local pc shop today, tried the aopen multi-media-internet k/b, i was pretty impressed it's very quiet, and not the least affordable ... i think i might get this

ist.martin · Post by **ist.martin** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:01 am

I think the keyboard sold by greenlaptop.com is the one that got a lot of positive vibes on the quiet keyboard threads from last year:

http://store.greenlaptop.com/psusbulslkew.html

Anyone still happy with the silence of theirs?

Continuing along this vein, I'm curious if anyone has tried one of the mouse-replacement 'gesture' based touchpads: http://www.fingerworks.com/igesture.html

At 6:00 am, the the noize from my mouse is incredibly loud and annoying.

sPECtre · Post by **sPECtre** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:43 pm

I'm wondering if the cherry KB are as good as they were in the past... not very silent, but sturdy!

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:37 pm

Since I'm bored tonight waiting for my colleague to respond from a continent away, here are the threads:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=2500

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8944

I have a UltraX. Using it right now. Looks sleek. Laptop style keys. I still find it noisy like heck. To my noise meter (Human Ear Mark 1) it sounds slightly quieter than my Microsoft Natural Elite something or other.

I also have a Compaq KB-6000. Comes with a lot more function keys. Doesn't look anywhere near as sleek. Lighter as well. Says "quiet" on the box. The clicks are lower in frequency, and perhaps slightly quieter. The keypress don't feel as good (although the travel is longer - it has regular desktop keyboard type keys).

I still think fondly of the old heavy metallic IBM keyboards that they ship with the original IBM PC and PC/XT. By God, they're noisy! But the tactile feedback is unmatched.

quiet keyboards, do you know of any?

quiet keyboards, do you know of any?

PSK-5000 at greenlaptop