Now that I’m living in a gaming house environment (at least until I go insane enough to want to move out and live off on my own), it’s important to actually consider the amount of passive noise that I’m making. Although I’m generally just a quiet person overall, some of the stuff that I do, such as typing, can be pretty bothersome to people around me, especially because I use the Razer Blackwidow with Cherry MX blue switches.

Some of the sound comes from the actual activation of the blue switch, but a lot of the sound also comes from the keys bottoming out. When you press the key a little bit too hard, the plastic bottom of the key will strike the plastic frame of the keyboard, making a clacking noise. Rubber o-rings prevent the sound from being too disruptive by dampening the sound of impact, making the keyboard overall much quieter.

The o-rings that I purchased and installed were the “Rosewill Rubber O-Ring Sound Dampeners for Cherry MX Key Switch (135 pieces).” After browsing around and looking at a bunch of different o-rings, these seemed to be the best ones that I could find. I’m no o-ring expert so I don’t have experience comparing different brands of o-rings, but these ones that I got seem to work well.

I don’t own a key cap remover, so to get it started, I dug in along the edge of the keys next to the bezel with a knife and popped one out, then proceeded to yank the rest out with my fingers. I have relatively long nails on my right hand because I play the guitar and I use the nails on my right hand essentially as guitar picks when playing the classical guitar, so shoving the o-rings into the key was easy. Push the keys right back into place, and you have much quieter keys.

These were pretty cheap (at least to my standards) – I got mine for only US$9.99 for a bag with enough o-rings for me to insert them on all the keys of my keyboard and still have a handful of backup ones remaining. If you regularly use a mechanical keyboard in an area where others are around you, I’d highly recommend installing some o-rings, just to be considerate.

(No, this blog post is not sponsored; I’m just impressed at just how much the o-rings help in terms of reducing sound. I’ve heard that using a soft desk mat, or even placing a cloth/towel under your keyboard, also helps reduce sound output.)