Replacing all my 30 year old particle board kitchen drawer boxes with new ones.

While I’m at it, should I consider upgrading to metal center mount drawer slides (Pic 1)? I currently have the wooden center track style (Pic 2). I can’t do left/right undermount glides without some major extra work to the rear of my cabinet (Pic 3).

New drawer boxes will fit either slides and I’ll have to cut a rear notch in the 1/2” reveal no matter what. Worth the upgrade or not?

Here is the situation.

All the builtin drawers in my house (Kitchen, bathroom vanities) are the same kind, these monorail center tracks with a bracket screwed to the back of the drawer, and a wheel that rides the track above. They are basically these at HD.

The house was built in 1965, so they are cranky and fussy and noisy and bent.

I know I can replace them with these newer versions at HD, but we were hoping for something smoother with that slow shutting feature all the cool kids have in their houses.

The cabinets themselves have a face frame, and I mention this because it means I have very little space between the side of the drawers and the face frame (like a quarter inch or less).

I have explored replacing them with different side mounted or undermount options. I would be willing to notch out the cabinet face a half inch on either side for the side mounts, BUT they are still a problem because the interior of the frame doesn't allow for a half inch of extra space for any side rails.

As far as undermounts, I did try replacing one of them with something like this, but they really don't take the weight very well.

I was considering these undermounts but they would still require some sort of notching on the bottom corners to clear the support rail, they seem to have very limited options for length (which would require a lot of finessing and adding support blocks, etc.), and at $34 a piece for 20 drawers, adds up pretty quick.

I'm ready to give up on the slow close dream and just replace them with newer versions of what they have now, but I was hoping someone here might have a brilliant suggestion.

Hope I described it all well enough. Many thanks.

I’m attempting to refresh my old cabinets, and I really like the idea of soft close drawers. The issue is that all of my drawers are center mount slides, and without extensive modification, it seems like the center rail is the only way I’ll be able to go.

Googling hasn’t really found me anything, but I’m also an idiot. Do they make center rail soft close drawer slides? Is there a “next best” option you guys could recommend? My slides work fine currently, I’d just like them to feel a bit smoother and premium, if that makes any sense. The current ones are pretty crude, so maybe something with ball bearing slides if possible.

Thanks in advance!