Cherry MX Board Silent Review

Cherry MX Board Silent Overview
If you’re anything like us your initial impression of the board after you’ve opened the box should be nothing but nostalgia. The off white “beige box” look with that standard layout instantly reminds of the early days of pc gaming and really gets you off on the right foot. It’s obvious from the get go that there will be not extra frills with this deck. It’s going to look the exact part that you want and tirelessly do it’s job with no complaints. There will be no cell phone holder, macro keys, or superfluous volume knob embedded anywhere on this keyboard. And to be honest, what a relief. While we love our deluxe decks as much as the next WSAD spamming nerd, sometimes slowing down and stripping things back to their roots is really great as well.

Cherry MX Board Silent

There is only one cord to show and that’s the USB connector complete with purple PS2 adapter. Aside from the board and adapter the only things you’ll find in the box are a manual and hazardous materials card. Nothing extra to pointlessly drive up the cost. While a manual hardly seems necessary, it does at least present multiple languages and instructions to get you started and keep your new board functioning for years. The board itself has a nice solid feel and a good heft. We’ll see later that there are rubber feet, but the weight of the board should assist quite a bit in anchoring the board to your desktop.

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As we said you will find nothing but a standard keyboard with the MX Board Silent. It is simply a beige deck with a numpad on the right. Above the numpad are your indicators for Num, Caps, and Scroll locks. Each is equipped with a nice bright blue led below to indicate activity.

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Those that remember fondly the shape of old school keyboards will easily find comfort in the generous wedge shape. Even without the legs extended you have a good 1.5-2” of height at the back. While this is certainly great for the life of your wrists, some might find it a bit archaic to not have a the ability to flatten the board more to personal preference.

Cherry MX Board Silent

Flip the G80-3000 over and you’ll find small screw holes and inlaid feet. The cord exits the back of the board so no cord mounting channels are required. If we flip the feet up we find that each has a nice anti slip rubber coating on the end. They really aren’t very long and lift the back of the board only a half inch or so.

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Where this board really gets interesting is the internals. As we said at the start, the MX Board Silent is an old school skin wrapped around the hardcore heart of modern hardware. In the case of our test sample, we have MX Silent Red switches. This means we have the longstanding and wildly popular MX Red key switch modified to reduce key chatter. This is achieved by replacing the slide inside the key with a TPE elastomer part that still allows for the original feel of the key while at the same time eliminating both bottom and top end noise. The effect is truly uncanny. The keys have the same stroke, activation point, and feel of a red switch while maintaining a volume similar to that of a dome switch.

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