My girlfriend liked her clicky Z20 keyboard so much that she decided she wanted to use a Z20 at work now that she is goin back from working at home. The keyboards they use are mostly just basic cheap ones that come with the systems with some basic Microsoft ergonomic options for those who want them. She got the ok from IT to bring her own and I got her the liner model of the Z20 and then ordered the O-Rings and removed all the keys to put an O-Ring on the bottom of it.
My first thought was the normal liner keyboard is pretty good for limiting noise on its own compared to the clicky. So first off I would start off with seeing how that works for you. I would say that you really don’t notice the sound of the key bottoming out nearly as much though and it seems perfectly reasonable for office use without worrying coworkers. It still makes noise if I really try but it’s pretty quiet if I am just typing on it. The real other thing I noticed is the key cap no longer is a firm hard stop but has some bounce as the silicone cushions the bottoming out of the keycap and acts like a shock absorber. The final thing I noticed was the key didn’t travel as far down to bottom out because the silicon ring on the key cap changed how far down the key can travel.
Overall the price of O-Rings wasn’t that much and the biggest thing was pulling the keys off to install them. After that I liked the modification but it really was something I went in to thinking it was mostly for noise reduction. Now I am kind of thinking I might get some for my Z20 clicky keyboards since I did enjoy the feeling of having them at the bottom of a key press and the reduction in depth of the press would be nice while gaming.