Please help me choose the right switch tester kit.

I was trying to decide between Cherry Blues and Browns (if I go mechanical ducks tomatoes), and after reading up stuff on the wiki and watching a bunch of youtube videos, it became clear that I had to test the Browns for myself. I've had the opportunity to mess around with a blue keyboard a bit, so I have some idea of what that's like. Blues are a bit noisy, but I can deal with it. Further reading at this point only confirmed that buying a switch tester was a good idea. The wiki was a big help, and I was immediately able to find the following (in stock):

4-Key Testers with Cherry Blue, Brown, Red and Black:

  1. http://www.mechkb.com/deck-cherry-mx-sampler

  2. http://www.maxkeyboard.com/max-keyboard-keycap-cherry-mx-switch-o-ring-sampler-kit.html

8-Key Testers with Greens, Greys, Whites and Clears added:

  1. http://www.maxkeyboard.com/max-keyboard-keycap-cherry-mx-switch-o-ring-pro-sampler-tester-kit.html

  2. http://www.qwer.io/shop/switch-testers/qwer8-v2-mx-switch-testing-kit/

Given that each key is its own thing, I'm tempted to go for the eight key versions, however, it is impractical considering that these cost around $28 and my total budget is capped at about $70. Plus, once I've seen the most popular types I can more or less figure out the others, right? (Inner voice: You keep telling yourself that. Why, you might even come to believe it. It's NOT true.)

The next issue I face is the PCB mounting. The Deck is PCB mounted and has LEDs, but I can't really use it to type and test for actuation points, hysteresis etc. and see if it will matter to me while gaming.

Here's some extra background from my keyboard decision making post to the sticky thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/2g3a5y/rmechanicalkeyboards_what_keyboard_switches_andor/ckfkfvn

Please help me answer:

  1. Will the four-key testers be enough for my purposes?

  2. Is the Deck PCB mounting capable of sending keystrokes to a device driver. I'd be honestly surprised if it could, but that would be ace.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I've decided on the eight-switch tester, indulged myself a bit. There's about $10 worth of difference, so I convinced myself. :/

Posted Sep 11, 2014, 8:05 PM UTC · edited

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