Cherry MX Board Silent Review

When it comes to companies that in general do nothing but make exceptional products, Cherry, known mostly for their mechanical key switches, resides permanently towards the top of that list. While they have made full keyboards since 1967 their prowess has been in the manufacture of the world’s best mechanical switches. Recent times have seen the company make a push to inject themselves back into the complete keyboard market, mostly targeting business professionals. While normally ThinkComputers is all about gaming and computer hardware we couldn’t help ourselves when we saw the board that we will be taking a look at today. That deck is the MX Board Silent (G80-3000). It’s an entirely modern mechanical keyboard internally and a completely oldschool IBM esque deck on the outside. And that’s not all, while the board is fully mechanical it also claims to be fully silent thanks to Cherry’s brand new MX Silent switches. Follow along as we find out if this board can bring you back that Commodore 64 feeling while still crushing along at 75 words per minute.

Special Thanks to Cherry for providing the MX Board Silent for review!

Features:
– Mechanical Black or Red stem MX Silent keyswitches are rated at 50 million actuations to withstand harsh environments and ensure long product lifetime
– Patented noise reduction using an integrated 2-component stem minimizes noise at top and bottom-out
– N-Key rollover: Simultaneous operations of up to 14 keys without any ghosting effects
– Self-cleaning contacts, dust and dirt resistant
– Full QWERTY key layout in full-size 18.5″ form factor
– USB 2.0 Interface or PS/2 with adapter
– 104 Keys
– PC & MAC compatible over USB Main Applications
– Airlines
– Banking
– Education/School
– Manufacturing
– Medical Equipment
– Office/Home
– Gaming
– Kiosk Applications
– POS/POT
– Transport
– White Box PCs

Packaging
This board will arrive on your doorstep in a black box just a bit larger than the keyboard itself. The design is fairly austere with the Cherry logo in red in the middle of the top, the board name in the lower right, and a small “Made in Germany” logo on the lower left. Flip the box over and you’ll find the black gloss background continues. On top of the background we find a photo of the black version of the keyboard, features, specs, and compatibility notes on the left side. On the right there are a couple of boxes highlighting the MX silent keys and that’s about it. Around the rest of the box you will find some more logos and a sticker with the actual contents listed (i.e. white keyboard with red switches).

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Flipping the top of the box open we find the keyboard itself wrapped entirely in plastic and wedged securely in cardboard. Overall it seems like the packaging is good enough to protect your new plastic from the typical drops and shakes associated with shipping. Of course most retailers would package the box in an additional box with some padding to further protecting the board.

Cherry MX Board Silent