Questions about Keyboard switches

[Bsmooth]

I ordered a Tesoro Phantom, and its a hot swappable keyboard. I've been reading about switches and its all a bit confusing to say the least. At some point I would like to go to a silent switch as the PC is in my living room. I'm pretty sur I need a 3 pin as thats whats in it now. 5pins from what I've read are PC mount, but you can cut 2 of the legs off and plate mount them.
Switches can get almost as expensive as the keyboard itself.
So do you guys know of some good Keyboard modding forums? Most important is where can you buy switches for a reasonable price? Most places don't even seem to have any silent switches. I have to admit keyboards can be pretty cool, never knew there was so much to the switches. Also heard Cherry MX silent reds are a good option, but I'm not sure If I can put them in my Tesoro.

 

[mnewsham]

It's super easy to cut off the extra 2 pins from 5 pin switches if that's what you need to do, takes maybe 10-20 seconds per switch, just get a pair of flush cutters or nail clippers.

Also, first you should determine if you want tactile or linear switches, both variants can come in silent versions.

I personally use Boba U4T switches, which are tactile, but they have a silent tactile version known as the Boba U4. They're expensive switches but on the lower-end of expensive (~$0.60-0.70 per switch).


As for forums, the mechanicalkeyboards subreddit isn't horrible, though geekhack forums are probably the best place to go.

 

[Topweasel]

Sorry bit late but don't come into this part of the forum often.

Couple of things. A good Silent switch would be either Gateron Red silent (decently cheap and moddable), or Kaihl box silent pink (cheaper, not as smooth, can't be modded). Both are well sub of $.50 a switch. Their is a Kaihl silent box brown as well as a cheap silent tactile solution.

Second. What kind of hot swap. At this price I doubt its using Kaihl or Gateron hotswap sockets. Chances are these are rebranded Outemu switches, which mean Outemu hotswap sockets. They are just small circular inserts that get soldered on, lots cheaper to implement than the ones listed above. Problem is they only work with Hotswap ready Outemu switches, basically the legs on anything else are too big to fit into the sockets. Which means to use them you have much weaker selection of switches. For example even though the Boba U4T switches mentioned above are actually manufactured by Outemu, they don't have the thin legs, same thing with some of their other enthusiast focused switches. Even switches matching the configuration of the ones used on normal HS Outemu based boards, can have normal legs. If you want an example check the reviews of the Brown switch Outemu switch on mechanicalkeyboards website. They were purchased to use in a Red Dragon (uses Outemu Hotswap sockets) and wouldn't fit.

If you want to try hotswaping switches I would recommend looking into other boards like a GK61X or another low cost Kaihl/Gateron hotswap socket board.