A total of 2 reviews of this product on Reddit.
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I just got my first mech about two weeks ago — Keychron C2 Full Size Wired Mechanical Keyboard $65 on Amazon.
It’s ‘hot swappable’ meaning you can replace all the switches as needed — no soldering needed. You can buy it with browns or reds… and then swap in other switches to test them out — can have everything brown and put blues on the number pad, that sort of thing.
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If you’re not picky about the key caps, that’s definitely doable. A good choice imo would be the Keychron C2; it’s 65 USD on Amazon and 60 on the Keychron website. It comes with Gateron blue/brown/red switches, but it’s hot swappable, like you’re looking for. I’m not too familiar with Romer-G switches, but from what I know they’re silent-ish tactile switches with a shorter travel. I don’t know of any silent, short-travel tactile switch, but kailh speed coppers are short-travel tactiles if you’d like to keep the feel of the board (shorter actuation/travel). I’ve read bad reviews about them, but I like them a lot, actually. If it’s the sound that concerns you more, I’ve heard kailh silent box browns are pretty good silent switches that still have a decent amount of tactility to them.
According to my (possibly faulty) calculations, this sums up to 135 USD plus shipping with the silent box browns, and 105 USD plus shipping with the speed coppers. Your mileage may vary depending on shipping/local sellers. You might even be able to squeeze in a cheap keycap set if you don’t like the included Keychron one (tho imo that one isn’t bad.) Banggood/AliExpress may also offer cheaper options, but I didn’t check there.
Here are some of the links I used:
Keychron C2: Amazon, Keychron
Kailh Speed Coppers: Amazon, NovelKeys
Kailh Silent Box Browns: Amazon, NovelKeys
TL;DR: Keychron C2 with either kailh speed coppers (tactile, louder, I like them but apparently that’s a hot take) or silent box browns (longer travel distance, quiet, I’ve heard good things about them).
