I am making this post for those who are constrained by time, and based in the UK, and everyone else who finds it useful. I have been looking for as silent/ quiet as possible linear switches before, and I was having difficulties findings threads that compared these switches or even finding YouTube videos.
It made it even harder that 2 of the switches had to be imported to the UK, so I didn’t want to waste too much time. I bought:
DucKey Outemu Honey Peach Switch V2 – from Amazon £34 (pack of 110)
Durock Dolphin Silent Linear Switch (Islet Linear) – from mechbox.co.uk around £55 (pack of 100)
Kailh Deep Sea Silent Pro Box Switch V2 – from Amazon £60 (pack of 110)
I am not super bothered about the feel of the switches as long as they are silent. Honey Peach is a bit mushy, the rest felt natural and not scratchy. Actuation force-wise, I chose the highest where I could, as the rest seemed quite light.
The switches are on a NZXT TKL keyboard. The switches that came with the keyboard (I think Gateron red) were an absolute pain to pull out. The Kailh is somewhat better in this aspect, Honey Peach and Durock Dolphin are much smoother and easier to insert and pull out.
There is 1 pic and 3 videos.
On the pic and the videos, from left to right: DucKey Outemu Honey Peach Switch V2 (LEFT ARROW), Durock Dolphin Silent Linear Switch (Islet Linear) (DOWN ARROW), Kailh Deep Sea Silent Pro Box Switch V2 (RIGHT ARROW). Sorry about pic quality, quite out of focus, didn’t have time to make another, but should be just fine for this purpose.
The 1st vid shows the switches and sounds without key caps. The 2nd vid with keycaps on. The 3rd video with keycaps that have rubber o rings.
I changed only 3 switches (as again, didn’t have time, sorry), but should be enough to hear the differences based on these videos.
You might have to turn up the volume. This was recorded using a Samsung S10.
Using a decibel meter:
The background noise was 36-37dB
DucKey Outemu Honey Peach Switch V2: 48–50 dB
Durock Dolphin Silent Linear Switch (Islet Linear): 51–53dB
Kailh Deep Sea Silent Pro Box Switch V2: 55–56 dB
To me, the DucKey Outemu Honey Peach Switch V2 is the quietest. 2nd and very close is Durock Dolphin Silent Linear Switch (Islet Linear), and 3rd by quite far is the Kailh Deep Sea Silent Pro Box Switch V2.
I am using the Durock Dolphin Silent Linear Switch (Islet Linear), as it has full transparent housing for RGB. If you want to use side shine through keycaps, the DucKey Outemu Honey Peach Switch V2 would not let through enough light for this.
TL;DR: DucKey Outemu Honey Peach Switch V2 is the quietest and cheapest, a bit mushy, which to me added to its silence.
This is pretty cool, thanks for the detailed post.
I bought the honey peaches recently and lubed them. They’re nice, but mushy.
I wish it was possible to get Haimu Heartbeat / other silent Haimu switches in the EU, but I can’t find a vendor. Even sent a message to Haimu support, but got redirected to a general vendor list WHERE THERE’S NO EU VENDORS AAAA
This is pretty cool, thanks for the detailed post.
I bought the honey peaches recently and lubed them. They’re nice, but mushy.
I wish it was possible to get Haimu Heartbeat / other silent Haimu switches in the EU, but I can’t find a vendor. Even sent a message to Haimu support, but got redirected to a general vendor list WHERE THERE’S NO EU VENDORS AAAA