I dabble a bit in streaming and content creation. I understand the appeal of an Elgato Stream Deck. For such a simple device, it offers a lot of functionality. Being able to switch easily between scenes while you’re streaming or record a clip of your gameplay without pausing what you’re doing can be a huge time saver.
Plus, Elgato devices are usually quite expensive and tend not to go on sale very much. As one of the leading brands covering streaming gear, it can afford that luxury. Unfortunately the rest of us can’t afford the stuff. So when you see something like the Elgato Stream Deck going on sale for $99.99 for Prime Day (opens in new tab), it might pique your interest. It’s a good deal considering it normally sells for $130 or more, and the newer version sells almost exclusively at $150. I wouldn’t fault you for grabbing it, but I do have another possibility for you to consider.
Find other ways to do Stream Deck things
Did you know that Corsair, another company that makes some pretty good PC accessories, owns Elgato? It has for a few years now, and over time has designed some of its keyboards with dedicated macro keys to work with Elgato’s Stream Deck software. That means instead of buying a keyboard and a Stream Deck and filling up your workspace with clutter, you could just buy one nice, durable mechanical keyboard from Corsair and get the functionality of the Stream Deck built right in.
Not only that, but several Corsair keyboards are on sale for Prime Day, too. For example, the Corsair K55 RGB Pro XT keyboard has dropped to $54.99 for the sales event (opens in new tab). That’s a $15 price drop, and this keyboard includes six G-keys for custom macros that have Elgato Stream Deck integration. You get six Stream Deck keys and a keyboard with dedicated media controls and RGB lighting all for $45 less than the cost of the Stream Deck itself. Heck, at this price it’s even less than the Stream Deck Mini, which goes for around $80 and only has six keys itself.
You can also go with the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XT mechanical keyboard. It’s on sale for $164.99 thanks to Prime Day (opens in new tab) compared to a street price around $190 (and often up to $200). Not a bad deal for a fully-featured keyboard that includes Cherry MX Brown mechanical switches in addition to many other features. This one also has those six G-keys you can use to set up Elgato’s Stream Deck. While obviously more expensive than the Stream Deck by itself, this is a great option if you’re looking for a keyboard, too, or you want to step up to a durable, mechanical keyboard with a lot of functionality.
I personally use a variation of the Corsair K95 and I use the Elgato Stream Deck integration. It’s just as easy to setup as the regular Stream Deck since you use the exact same software. The only difference with the keyboard is that you also need Corsair’s iCue software running, which is where you do all the customizations for the keyboard anyway.
Going this route you do only get six keys instead of the regular Stream Deck’s 15 keys, but that has not been a problem for me. Since you can layer actions with folders, you can do a whole lot with a little using the software.
We’ve been following a lot of Prime Day deals, and you can keep track of all the best ones with our Prime Day live blog that continues throughout the day.
