Last step to silence: mouse and keyboard

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Wed May 05, 2004 6:24 am

ok,

my computer is airflow-modded, undervolted, overvolted, overclocked, watercooled, acoustically damped and partially isolated in wood. i've come a long way

now what bugs me the most - my mouse and keyboard! the mouse clicks are too loud and the keyboard is just plain noisy. i am using the logitech cordless mx duo kb/mouse.

btw this is not a whinge - i am seriously annoyed by this noise. having to pitter-patter my hands across the keyboard at this late hour (12:23 AM) trying not to hit the keys too hard so as to wake up my parents is getting bothersome. and that clicking... *argh*!

so what is the quietest keyboard and mouse out there? for the keyboard, i would prefer something with short-travel keys like a notebook, on which i can type heaps faster. finding a mouse would be even harder - i use all 8 buttons on my logitech mx700 regularly

any help is of course greatly appreciated!

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Wed May 05, 2004 6:36 am

There was talk on this forum of the UltraX as being a silent keyboard. Heck if I know where you'll be able to find it in Australia.

And I sure as heck don't know what to tell you about the mouse. Would you be willing to use a mouse-alternative?

Shad0 · Post by **Shad0** » Wed May 05, 2004 6:41 am

I'm planning to buy the Logitehc di novo in a month or so partly because a friend told me "it feels like a notebook keyboard"...and the mx900 isn't too different from your mx700 I think...
the main prob is it's price

a little over 200 € here

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Wed May 05, 2004 8:51 am

On the mouse front, I've stripped both mine and put in as much of the insulation type stuff from a padded lumber jack shirt/body warmer as I could stuff in there.
Made a huge difference particulaly when I prissed the buttons off and laid it between the buttons and main shell (Body ?:twisted: )
Though getting the right amount took a couple of attempts, Far too much... too much... etc.

Haven't tried it yet on my keyboard as I keep forgetting when I can be bothered to do things like that... but I reckon a 'sheet' of the same stuff between the keys and membrane should help... providing you can get the right thickness.

It doesn't stop the noise completely but makes it much more acceptable.

Pete

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed May 05, 2004 9:12 am

Hello:

Shad0 wrote:I'm planning to buy the Logitehc di novo in a month or so partly because a friend told me "it feels like a notebook keyboard"...and the mx900 isn't too different from your mx700 I think...
the main prob is it's price a little over 200 € here

It is expensive! $205 at NewEgg.com:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 138&depa=1

The MX900 mouse is essentially an MX700 with Bluetooth rather than RF, and it is sold seperately here in the States...

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed May 05, 2004 9:32 am

There's a huge "silent mouse and keyboard" thread floating around in the General Discussion forums. THere's also the Ultra-X thread which is sort of a continuation of the original big thread. General consensus on keyboards is the OEM Logitec Xltra-X and it's USB cousin, the PSK5000. There's links to both of these in the two threads I referred to.

replay0 · Post by **replay0** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:10 am

Look into the Viewsonic Viewmate KU201 keyboard. It's a slim USB keyboard with notebook type keys. It's very quiet, and it feels great to type on, like typing on the keys of a good notebook. It looks very clean also - metallic and black.

I moved over to this keyboard from a Microsoft Natural Elite and Microsoft Natural Multimedia keyboard, so I can tell the noise differences immediately. I do wish there were more split keyboards similar to MS's Elite tho. I can feel the differences in my wrist after long periods of typing.

shathal · Post by **shathal** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:24 am

replay0 wrote:I moved over to this keyboard from a Microsoft Natural Elite and Microsoft Natural Multimedia keyboard, so I can tell the noise differences immediately. I do wish there were more split keyboards similar to MS's Elite tho. I can feel the differences in my wrist after long periods of typing.

Really?

I found them quite annoying, not being able to get used to them. Maybe I'm just used to the "normal" stuff, and just use wristrests - that seems to do the trick for me. And I've done a fair few sessions of 10-12 hr typing straight

.

A simple wristrest for a few bucks seems to do a real difference, I find

.

replay0 · Post by **replay0** » Wed May 05, 2004 3:00 pm

I don't like wrist rests, although they felt nice when I did use them. I've personally talked to too many people with Carpal Tunnel, ones who've gotten it operated on, and woke up too many mornings with my wrist/fingers/forearms feeling sore/dead/etc. to want to take many chances any more. I spend too many hours a day on the computer to not want to use ergonomic stuff. So, I did away with the wrist rest because it puts pressure on your wrists, went to ergo keyboards because it didn't leave my wrists in an awkward angle, bought an argo chair and a desk with the keyboard drawer situated so that I can get a 90 degree angle for typing.

I found that this new 'silent'/notebook-type keyboard is great for typing because it requires a lot less pressure over time to press keys. I just have to get used to the non-ergo and semi-compact keyboard setup again.

vortex222 · Post by **vortex222** » Wed May 05, 2004 5:44 pm

i agree, i have an old ergo i bought probibly 8 years ago, a noname brand that isnt to bad to type on as far as noise is conserned, it has an old at style plug so i need an adapter, and its had pop dumped in it 5 times, but i still keep ressurecting it! i dont fancy the new ergos as much, they seem cheap and flimsy to me

replay0 · Post by **replay0** » Wed May 05, 2004 8:10 pm

Heh, the reason I had to dump my <1 year old, $60 MS Natural Multimedia Keyboard is because I dumped Orange Juice in it. I washed it out and let it dry for a few days, but it wouldn't respond any more. That's my only gripe with all the Microsoft keyboards I've owned. I've killed either 3 or 4 of them because of liquid spills on the keyboard.

You should've seen all the nasty gunk that was inside the keyboard when I took it apart for cleaning. Blyeeck!

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Wed May 05, 2004 8:24 pm

interesting

when i took apart my microsoft internet keyboard it had all sorts of disgusting, smelly gunk in it too. but that's beside the point.

so the logitech ultrax is a quiet keyboard - i like it. unfortunately it isn't listed on the logitech website anymore?

seems to have been replaced by the rather expen$ive dinovo.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu May 06, 2004 6:20 am

chylld wrote: so the logitech ultrax is a quiet keyboard - i like it. unfortunately it isn't listed on the logitech website anymore?

That's because it's an OEM keyboard and is not meant to be sold in the normal retail chain. It may be on their site somewhere but you'd have to search for it.

Read this 3 page Ultra-X thread for tons of info about that keyboard.

Here's the other giant "Silent Keyboard and Mouse" thread that I referred to in my previous post.

There's tons of good, current info in both of those threads.

Last step to silence: mouse and keyboard

Last step to silence: mouse and keyboard

It *is* expensive!

It is expensive!