I am working in decently small budget, with around 200 dollars to work with, It can be hot-swap or fully custom, my favorite layout is 75% but I am fine with 65% or TKL, and I want my switches to be as silent as possible. What would you guys recommend me following these guidelines?
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Hello and welcome to Keebtalk!
For 65%, the KBD67 lite is my go-to; it’s $110 bare-bones. I think the latest group buy closed a couple weeks ago but I’d be really surprised if they don’t run it again pretty soon.
For TKL, there are more options, but I’m less informed about those. There’s one day left on this buy on Drop:
It looks pretty decent and doesn’t cost much. It ships with non-silent switches but is hot-swap, so that’s easy to fix.
I honestly know nothing about what’s out there in terms of 75% boards, though there are more and more as time goes on.
As for switches: for “silent as possible” Gazzew Bobagums are an easy recommendation - especially lubed. I really can’t think of a more quiet MX-compatible switch.
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That looks absolutely amazing!
I do like the keyboard look, I do absolutely love the Gazzew Bobagums.
There is a small problem though, I can’t seem to find a keycap set that I like, even on the ones that are showcased in the KBD website, do you know any other place I can find keycaps that are compatible with the KBD67 lite?
65 and 75% boards can be tricky to shop for when it comes to keysets, especially on a budget. Just about any given GMK set will have support, but those basically start at $110 just for the keys. Pretty much the same deal with MT3 (a tall profile).
You might take a look at the Glorious GPBT keycap sets they sell to go with their new 75% - they’re not insanely expensive, and they will fit both popular types of 65% and 75% layouts (that is, with either two or three keys between the spacebar and arrow keys.)
If you’re into RGB, “pudding” caps tend to be inexpensive, and ones sold as “V2” or “2.0” tend to have support for 65/75% boards. Lots of companies make them, but here’s one example.
If you’re alright with a uniform profile - that is, all the keys the same height, it gets a lot easier to find compatible sets - then the only thing you really need to keep an eye out for is a 1.75u right Shift key. DSA, XDA, and KAM are all uniform profiles - though KAM is still pretty new and I don’t think any budget manufacturers are producing in it yet.
Another profile that tends to have support for 65% and 75% is SA (or close approximations of it like GSA) - these can be really pricy or quite cheap depending on who makes them. These GSA sets from Gliging are compatible and are plenty durable, but I find the profile hard to type on in general and these in particular are a little weird in terms of shape.
I think I found keycaps that I love, and found a build of a guy that went for everything but the same switches as me. Very excited. Though, I have seen people complain about Bobagums being too silent and sometimes mushy, would that be true?
Bobagums are very quiet, and they accomplish this with soft silencing pads - so they do sacrifice the crispness of a standard switch.
Box Silents make a bit more noise, but enjoy a more crisp bottom-out in comparison to many other silents because of the large, flat pads. As a bonus, they don’t interfere with any keycaps (like GMK) if the LED slot is facing the top of the board.
Silent Inks are in-between; more smooth and quiet than a Box Silent and more crisp than a Bobagum, but they aren’t immune to occasional ticking sounds.