Prime Day October Live: Latest GPU, CPU, SSD and PC Deals
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As Prime Day October Winds Down, These Deals Are Still Available
Amazon’s Prime Early Access, aka Prime Day October, sale is almost over and competitors’ sales may end soon too. But, at the moment, here are our favorite deals that you can still get.
For a more comprehensive list of deals, be sure to check out our dedicated pages on the best tech and PC hardware deals, best graphics card deals, best CPU deals, best SSD deals, best gaming laptop deals, best 3D printer deals and best laptop and PC deals.
Crucial’s Speedy P5 Plus SSD is Just $161 for 2TB
These days, 2TB is really the storage drive sweet spot for price, performance and capacity. If you want a high-performance, PCIe 4.0 SSD though, you usually have to spend around $200 or more for 2TB. Crucial’s P5 Plus SSD is now on a really great sale, costing just $161 for 2TB (opens in new tab).
The Crucial P5 Plus promises sequential read and write speeds of 6,600 MBps and 5,000 MBps, along with random read and write IOPS of 720,000 and 700,000.
When we reviewed the Crucial P5 Plus, we complimented its strong performance for the price, hardware-based encryption and strong software package. The drive comes with Crucial Storage Executive, a great utility for updating the firmware and monitoring the health of the drive, and Acronis True Image for Crucial, which helps you clone your old drive to this one (or you could see our article on how to clone an SSD).
In our testing, we found that the Crucial P5 Plus actually loaded game levels at about the same speed or faster than more expensive drives such as the Kingston KC3000, WD Black SN850 and Samsung 980 Pro.
So, even though drives like the Kingston KC3000 offer slightly-higher transfer rates, the P5 Plus delivers in the daily user experiences where it really counts.
Sub-$400 pricing for a Radeon RX 6750 XT graphics card!
Are you looking for a value-conscious graphics card to handle your 1440p gaming needs? Well, take a serious look at the XFX Speedster MERC319 Radeon RX 6750XT Core, which is currently on sale at Newegg. The card usually retails for $469.99 but is currently on sale for the low price of $399.99.
As its name implies, the RX 6750 XT features higher core clocks and faster memory than RX 6700 XT graphics cards. In our testing, we found that, on average, the RX 6750 XT offers 6 percent better performance than the RX 6700 XT and trades blows with the GeForce RTX 3070. If ray tracing isn’t that big a factor in your day-to-day gaming, the sub-$400 pricing of the RX 6750 XT could tip the scales in its favor versus the pricier RTX 3070.
With any over $100 price advantage compared to the RTX 3070, this XFX card looks like a winner in our books. That is until Nvidia releases its inevitable RTX 4070 based on Ada architecture in the near future.
The Lowest Price on Every Current Nvidia and AMD GPU (Except 4090)
With so many sales on graphics cards, it may be difficult to choose a GPU and then find the best price on the one you pick. To help you out, we’ve constructed two tables below, listing all the major Nvidia and AMD GPUs and the lowest price we found for each today, based on searching the sales on Amazon and Newegg. We’re excluding the brand new RTX 4090 because it is not on sale and mostly out of stock.
For each card below, we’ve also listed its 1080p gaming score, based on our testing. All of the test results are listed in detail on our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, but the score columns below can give you a sense of how much better one card is than another.
As you can see, the top Nvidia card by performance is the $999 RTX 3090 Ti (opens in new tab), but the best price for a high-performance card is clearly on the $719 RTX 3080 (12GB). (opens in new tab) It’s also worth noting that the last-gen RTX 2060 card is a really good deal at just $237 (opens in new tab) and scores higher than the RTX 3050.
If you prefer AMD or are open to AMD, then you can find much better prices for the performance on the high end with a Radeon card.
The RX 6950, which is the king of 1080p gaming (at least pre-RTX 4090), goes for just $799 (opens in new tab) while the RX 6900, which delivers better frame rates than the RTX 3090 goes for just $649 (opens in new tab). Note that, with ray tracing on, Nvidia cards fared better than similar AMD ones.
On the low end, the RX 6600 might be the best value overall at $229 (opens in new tab). And if you’re building a really inexpensive system, the RX 6500 is a good price at $169 (opens in new tab).
Still confused? Check out dedicated page of best graphics card deals.
It’s a Great Time to Banish The Hard Drive From Your PC Forever
I decided four years ago that I was never buying another hard drive again and haven’t looked back. But if you’re looking to oust that slow, spinning rust from your current or upcoming system, there’s never been a better time to do so. M.2 slots are ever-more prevalent on current-gen motherboards, while SATA seems to be sticking around, even if some recent boards have dropped down to “just” four ports. So with most boards these days, you have the ability to install at least six drives without adding some sort of PCIe card. That might not be enough for the NAS die-hards or those running servers in their homes, but it’s more than enough storage expansion options for the rest of us to forego opting for a hard drive.
Whether you’re after one of the best SSDs running at PCIe 4.0 speeds, or a slower SATA or PCIe 3.0 SSD, solid-state storage has never been cheaper. On this October Prime Day, there are several 2TB SSDs selling for way less than $200, many at all-time low prices. And even some cavernous 4TB SSDs have fallen to their lowest prices ever, getting close to $300.
Great Time to Start 3D Printing as Industry-Leading Model Starts at $199
One of the biggest changes to my tech life over the last year is my decision to take up 3D printing. It’s just so rewarding to find 3D designs online and then output them as physical models.
And my family gets it on the fun. I print toys for my three year old and Nintendo Switch card cases for my 10 year old. I even print gifts for my friends and coworkers.
If you’re not into 3D printing already, you might be surprised to learn that it’s not a very expensive hobby to get into. You can find decent 3D printers for less than $200 or even better ones for under $250. Today, Amazon has a sale on a models that’s great for beginners.
The Anycubic Kobra Go, our pick for best budget 3D printer, is just $199 (opens in new tab). This printer comes with everything you need to get started, including a 25-point auto leveling, a magnetic build platform and the ability to resume printing after a power outage. We are also tracking other deals on our best 3D printer deals page.
When we reviewed the Kobra Go, we were particularly impressed with its ease of set up and use. You do have to assemble it, but the process is easy and took us about an hour.
The 25-point auto leveling is really the key feature as you normally don’t get auto leveling in a printer that costs less than $200. The most annoying thing about 3D printing is having to use manual knobs to level the build plate on a regular basis. You can easily make a mistake and end up with failed prints.
Speaking of prints, the quality on the Kobra Go is excellent. The Clockspring Illusionist vase looked amazing when we printed it. And awe were even able to print in flexible TPU filament.
You Can Get An Alienware Laptop for Under $1,500 Today
Just as there are some people who will only consider buying an iPhone or driving a BMW, there are gamers who just want the excellent build quality and extra-terrestrial aesthetics of an Alienware laptop. Normally, you pay a bit more for Alienware than you would for, say, a comparably-specked laptop from HP, Lenovo, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI or Dell’s G series brand.
Without a sale, you cannot find an Alienware laptop for less than $1,500. However, today, Dell has an RTX 3060-powered Alienware m15 for just $1,449 (opens in new tab) or an Alienware m17 with 3060 for $1,399 (opens in new tab).
The Alienware m15 R7 comes in the company’s Dark Side of the Moon colorway and has several AlienFX programmable lighting zones, including one zone on the keyboard. In addition to its RTX 3060 graphics, it packs an 8-core Ryzen 7 6800H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512 GB NVMe SSD. Its 1920 x 1080 screen can refresh at 165 Hz.
The 17-inch, Alienware m17 R5 has identical specs but a larger display.
WD Black SN850X, Super-Fast PCIe 4.0 SSD, Now Just $199 for 2TB
This Prime Day October deals holiday is turning out to be a great time for SSD deals in particular. Our top-rated SSD overall, the SK hynix Platinum P41 is now $207 for 2TB, but it’s not the only game in town. WD’s super-fast Black SN850X is now just $199 for 2TB and it is quite powerful. You can also get it for $209 (opens in new tab) with a heatsink that allows it work in a PS5.
When we reviewed the WD Black SN850X, we praised its excellent performance and software support. On 3DMark, a synthetic storage test, we found it was only a few points behind the more-expensive SK hynix Platinum P41.
For less than $200, you can dramatically improve your storage game.
Prime Day Day 2 Begins: Deals You Might Have Missed
Prime Early Access, otherwise known as Prime Day October, is now in its second day. We’re excited to see what new deals will pop up on Amazon and competitors such as Newegg, Best Buy and Dell today.
However, most of yesterday’s great deals remain in place. We have a complete list of all the best Prime Day October deals on a separate page, along with dedicated lists for the best CPU deals, best SSD deals, best gaming laptop deals, best graphics card deals, best 3D printer deals and best monitor deals.
Just in case you missed them, here’s some of the hottest Prime Day October tech deals we covered yesterday that you can still get.
This price has dropped like a stone!
This 14TB hard drive has dropped from $529 to $209 and at first we didn’t believe it. The original price of $529 was instantly discounted to $389 as we put it in our basket. Then we noticed the promo code FTSBXAZ386 and tried it out, this took a massive $180 off the already discounted price. Leaving us with a 14TB hard drive, for just over $200!
We took a screenshot just to prove it!
Hard drives may have been usurped by speedy SSDs, but there are times when you need a lot of storage in a small package and this drive offers just that.
Seagate’s IronWolf 14TB hard drive spins at 7,200 RPM and has 256MB of cache. The 3.5 inch drive uses a SATA interface and is optimized for NAS duties, but it could be easily used to store your growing games library.
$600 off this AMD 5900HX RTX 3080 powered laptop!
This laptop blurs the line between desktop and laptop. You want the power of a modern desktop, but want the portability of a laptop. Well this Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 is for you.
Powered by AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900HX, an eight core, 16 thread CPU with a base clock of 3.3 GHz and max clock of 4.6 GHz. With a default TDP of 45W but configurable to 54W, this laptop has the grunt to get your work done. With 16GB of DDR4 and Nvidia’s RTX 3080 you have the horsepower to get your game on, something that Newegg is supporting by offering Spider-Man Remastered as a free gift.
The 15.6 inch 1080p IPS screen is driven at 300 Hz, giving you the edge in competitive gaming. The 1TB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 round off an impressive set of specs.
Lose some weight
Ultra-lightweight mice aren’t for everyone — but for certain types of gamers, they’re game-changers. There’s nothing quite like the effortless glide and speedy swipes of a sub-70g mouse when you’re trying to stay one step ahead in a team-based shooter like Overwatch or Valorant.
SteelSeries’ holey (not holy) Aerox 3 is currently on sale — you can pick up the black wired version for $29 (white is $38), down from $59; or you can grab the wireless version in black or white for $49, down from $99. The wired Aerox 3 weighs just 57g (without its cable) and boasts an IP54-certified plastic chassis, which means it’s relatively dust-proof despite its open-air structure.
The Aerox 3 Wireless is slightly heavier at 68g — but it’s also wireless, with both low-latency 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.0, and up to 200 hours of battery life. Both versions of the Aerox 3 have six programmable buttons and three RGB zones.
Also on sale is HyperX’s Pulsefire Haste, which has a similar hole-filled design (although the Pulsefire Haste’s holes are hex-shaped and less organic-looking — and therefore less trypophobic). The HyperX Pulsefire Haste comes in both wired and wireless versions; the wired version is currently on sale for $29, down from $49, while the wireless version is $59, down from $79.
The HyperX Pulsefire Haste weighs 60g (the wireless version weighs 62g), has six programmable buttons, and one RGB lighting zone (in the scroll wheel). It features a sensor with a max sensitivity of 16,000 DPI and 40g acceleration, and its chassis is IP55-certified to withstand dust, splashes, and sweat. The wireless version has low-latency 2.4GHz connectivity but no Bluetooth, and gets up to 100 hours of battery life.
A mouse doesn’t need to be full of holes to be lightweight. Razer’s Viper Ultimate is also on sale for Prime Day October — you can grab just the mouse for $59, down from $129, or pick up the mouse with a handy RGB charging dock for $79, down from $149.
The Razer Viper Ultimate is solid-bodied and hole-free, and still manages to weigh just 74g. Of course, this mouse is a little smaller than other mice, at 1.49 inches (37.8mm) tall — it might be a little too small for gamers with larger hands. The Razer Viper Ultimate has eight programmable buttons, an ambidextrous form factor, and features low-latency 2.4GHz wireless connectivity.
It’s a great time to buy a gaming keyboard
Upgrading your keyboard is one of the quickest ways to dramatically improve your PC experience — after all, your keyboard is the one thing you touch constantly. If you’ve been lusting after one of the best gaming keyboards, good news — several of them are on sale for Prime Day October.
One of our all-time favorite keyboards — and our current pick for best mainstream gaming keyboard, the HyperX Alloy Origins, is currently on sale for just $49 (with coupon), down from $109, on Amazon. The HyperX Alloy Origins is a full-size, wired mechanical gaming keyboard with a sleek aluminum shell; bright, attractive RGB lighting; and your choice of switches: linear, tactile, or clicky. (The $49 sale price is for the iteration featuring HyperX’s tactile Aqua switches; the linear and clicky variations are currently on sale for $69.)
It’s not the most luxurious gaming keyboard; you won’t find dedicated media keys, USB pass-through, a hot-swap PCB, or unnecessarily detailed software. But if you don’t mind the lack of extras, the HyperX Alloy Origins is an attractive, well-built keyboard — and it’s over 50% off.
If you don’t need a numpad but you would like dedicated media keys (and a volume roller), the Corsair K70 RGB TKL is also on sale today for $108, down from $139. The wired Corsair K70 RGB TKL is a little hefty (at 2.1lbs/953g) for a TKL, but with that weight you get five dedicated hotkeys and a textured aluminum volume roller — impressive for a TKL layout. The iteration on sale features Cherry MX Speed Silver switches, but the keyboard also comes with Cherry MX Reds or Silent Reds.
The Corsair K70 RGB TKL is definitely ready to play: it’s got an 8,000 Hz polling rate, onboard storage for up to 50 profiles, and a dedicated “tournament switch” that switches you into a dedicated (customizable) game mode — it’s a speedy, durable powerhouse.
Not all gamers have ample desk space — or a static setup. Gaming on the go doesn’t mean sacrificing quality if you pick up an ultra-compact gaming keyboard such as the Asus ROG Falchion Wireless 65% mechanical gaming keyboard. This keyboard is tiny (but not too tiny — its 65 percent layout means it still has arrow keys and a handful of navigation keys) and travel-ready — it even comes with its own protective cover — and built to last. It features a low-latency 2.4GHz wireless connection for lag-free gaming, and has premium touches such as double-shot PBT keycaps and a side touch panel that can hold up to five gesture-based actions.
Like many of the best gaming keyboards, the Asus ROG Falchion Wireless 65% comes with your choice of switches: clicky, tactile, or linear. The clicky (Cherry MX Blue) iteration is on sale for $89; tactile (Cherry MX Brown) and linear (Cherry MX Red) versions are currently on sale for $99. Asus also offers its own NX switches in the Asus ROG Falchion NX, which is our current pick for best 65% keyboard. We loved the smooth NX switches, but the Cherry MX version will still feel comfortable and familiar to many gamers — so it’s worth a look.
AMD’s Radeon RX 6900 XT, Faster Than RTX 3090, Now Just $649
Though AMD only owns about 24 percent of the graphics card market, it still makes some of the fastest cards, often overtaking more expensive Nvidia cards. Thanks to its speedy 2,250 MHz CPU, 16GB of GDDR6 memory and 5,120 shaders, the Radeon RX 6900 XT delivers higher frame rates at 1080p than high-end Nvidia cards such as the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 (12GB).
On our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, which ranks all GPUs by performance on our test suite at 1080p Ultra settings, the RX 6900 XT is behind only the RTX 3090 Ti and RX 6950 XT. With a sale today, you can now get XFX’s RX 6900 XT card for only $649 at Amazon (opens in new tab). That’s the lowest price we’ve ever seen for an RX 6900 XT card.
When running our 8-game test suite, the RX 6900 XT provided 129.7 fps at 1080p ultra settings, 105.5 fps at 1440 ultra settings and 63.1 fps at 4K ultra. The RTX 3090, which costs more than $850, came in slightly behind at 1080p ultra and a few fps ahead at 2K and 4K ultra.
With DXR ray tracing enabled, AMD’s card falls behind the RTX 3070 Ti, providing a still-strong 74.5 fps at 1080p ultra, but dropping to a barely-playable 31.6 fps at 2K ultra and an unplayable 15.1 fps at 4K ultra. However, if you don’t plan to use ray tracing at 4K or 2K — something few gamers need — this is absolutely the best value for your money.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Fastest Gaming CPU, Now at Its Cheapest
Even though AMD just came out with its 7000 series CPUs, including the powerful, 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X, the fastest gaming processor in the market is still a last-gen processor, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Thanks to its 3D V-Cache, which uses a stacking technology to give the chip 96MB of L3 cache, the 5800X3D dominates more expensive competitors in our CPU benchmark hierarchy.
Normally, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D goes for $449, but during this week of sales, we’ve seen it hovering around $400. Now, Antonline via its eBay store, has the chip for just $359 (opens in new tab), an all-time low price.
When we tested the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and compared it to even the top-of-the-line, Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel Core i9-12900K, it delivered noticeably higher frame rates at 1080p resolution.
At 1440p resolution, the 5800X3D still outranked the 12900K and 7950X, but an overclocked 12900K beat it. Still, this is an incredible chip for gaming.
When it comes to non-gaming workloads, this 8-core, 16-thread chip is no joke. However, CPUs with higher thread counts, higher clock rates and the ability to use DDR5 RAM will beat it on productivity workloads. On the bright side, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D can work with a sub-$100 AMD B550 motherboard and cheap DDR4 RAM while the Ryzen 7000 series chips require motherboards that cost at least $289 and pricey DDR5 RAM.
The Best ThinkPad X1 Carbon Config is Now $1,359
My daily driver laptop is a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 6) that I bought a few years ago. I have long enjoyed using the X1 Carbon because of its best-in-class keyboard, great build quality, light weight and accurate pointing stick.
This year’s Gen 10 ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a lot of improvements over older models like mine, including a sharp 1080p webcam and a generous 1920 x 1200 screen. However, there’s one drawback to most of the new X1 Carbon configurations Lenovo sells right now: they use power-gulping Intel P-series processors that harm battery life in the name of ever-so-slightly better performance.
Now, Lenovo is offering a configuration of the X1 Carbon (Gen 10) with a power-sipping, Core i5-1235U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 1920 x 1200, non-touch display for just $1,359 (opens in new tab) if you use coupon code THINK30ANNI at checkout.
When we reviewed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 10), we complimented its excellent keyboard, bright display and fantastic build quality. Weighing just 2.48 pounds and 0.6 inches thick, the device still packs in two USB Type-A ports, along with two Thunderbolt 4 connections and full-size HDMI out.
At this size and weight, the X1 Carbon begs to be carried and balanced on one’s lap. However, because our review unit had the a Core i7-1260P CPU, which has a 28-watt TDP but was configured down to 20-watt TDP, it only lasted 8 hours and 50 minutes on our battery test. By comparison, last year’s ThinkPad with its 15-watt, U-series processor lasted more than 15 and a half hours and the HP Elite Dragonfly G3, which has a Core i5-1235U CPU, endured for 14 hours and 20 minutes. The P-series CPU doesn’t even do much for performance as our review unit had a similar single-core Geekbench score to and slower video transcoding than the Dragonfly.
Given that the X1 Carbon (Gen 10) on sale has a Core i5-1235U CPU, I expect it would have far superior battery life to the unit we tested. Meanwhile, it has all the other trappings you’d expect from a top-of-the-line productivity laptop. When I tested the X1 Carbon (Gen 10), my fingers flew on the keyboard and using the TrackPoint allowed me to navigate without ever lifting my hands off of the home row. The 1920 x 1200 display allowed me to fit more text on the screen without scrolling and I really appreciated being able to plug a USB Flash drive into the Type-A ports.
So, if I were buying a productivity laptop during Prime Day October, I’d go for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon with the Core i5-1235U CPU. If you’re not planning to play games or do video editing — which you don’t do on an Ultrabook like this — 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD will do fine.
Crucial MX500: 2TB of Secondary SSD Storage on the Cheap
Once you’ve already gotten a 1TB or, better yet, 2TB fast SSD as your boot drive, you may still need more storage for media files, databases, system backups or even some lower-priority games. While you want decent read and write speeds for a secondary drive, cost is key.
The cheapest type of SSD storage you can get is a 2.5-inch SATA drive. The SATA interface is limited to around 550 – 560 MBps but that’s plenty for most use cases. Crucial’s MX500 is the best SATA SSD around thanks to its reputation for reliability and its solid speeds. Now, you can get an MX500 of 2TB capacity for just $106 (opens in new tab) on Amazon, an all-time low price.
The MX500 is not a new model, but there’s no need for new models in the SATA space where there’s no more room for innovation. When we reviewed the MX500 (opens in new tab)back in 2019, we praised its long endurance rating, strong performance and 5-year warranty.
On our tests, the MX500 was neck and neck with the pricier Samsung 850 PRO in the all-important 4K random read benchmarks, which simulate everyday activity.
The drive also had decent power consumption numbers. So, if you are looking to upgrade an older laptop that needs a 2.5-inch SATA drive, this is also a great choice.
The Fastest SSD, SK hynix Platinum P41, At Its Lowest Price Ever
They’re a lot of great Prime Day October SSD deals going on right now, but this one is likely the best. The SK hynix Platinum P41, which tops our list of best SSDs, is now available at an all-time low price of $207 for the 2TB model (opens in new tab). The 1TB model is also at an all-time low, now selling for $119 (opens in new tab).
When we reviewed the SK hynix Platinum P41, we praised the PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive’s blazing fast speeds, leading power efficiency and competitive pricing. Now that pricing is more competitive than ever.
The SK hynix Platinum P41 is rated for 7,000 MBps sequential reads and 6,500 MBps sequential writes with up to 1.4 million random read IOPS and 1.3 million random write IOPS.
When we ran 3DMark’s SSD benchmark on the Platinum P41 2TB model, it achieved a significantly higher score than any of its competitors , including the powerful Kingston KC3000, the WD Black SN850 and the Samsung 980 PRO.
Another important aspect of performance is sustained write speed. As you start to fill up the cache on any given drive, its speeds slow down so more cache and better cache management means faster transfers. According to our tests, the Platinum P41 was able to write at 6.6 GBps for nearly 50 seconds, giving it a total cache size somewhere around 325GB.
If you’re considering an SSD upgrade for your laptop, the SK hynix Platinum P41 also fits the bill as it has the highest efficiency, in terms of MBps per watt, of any PCIe 4.0 SSD we’ve tested. It’s even more efficient than some PCIe 3.0 drives like the SK hynix Gold P31.
There are cheaper 2TB SSDs on the market, but if you want the best SSD at the best possible price, you won’t find a better deal than the SK hynix P41 Platinum right now.
12-Core Ryzen 9 5900X Hits All-Time Low of $334.99
Although the Ryzen 7000 series is the “new hotness” from AMD, the company’s previous generation Ryzen 5000 processors are still potent performers. Such is the case with the Ryzen 9 5900X, which is now available for just $334.99 at Amazon — its lowest price ever at the online retailer.
The Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core/24-thread Zen 3 processor with a 3.7GHz base clock and a 4.8GHz boost clock while operating within a 105-watt TDP. The chip also comes equipped with 64MB of L3 cache.
Priced at under $400, the Ryzen 9 5900X offers a lot of bang for the buck, delivering solid 1080p gaming performance across the board along with excellent performance in single- and multi-threaded benchmarks in our review. Also, remember that many affordable motherboards will happily accept the Ryzen 5900X if you’re trying to keep costs down to a minimum. For example, you can grab a Gigabyte B550M DS3H motherboard for $89.99.
Get a Top-Notch Gaming Monitor and an OLED or QLED TV for Just $600
Gigabyte’s big OLED monitors are also great TVs, and both are at their lowest prices ever.
It turns out Prime Day is, once again, a great time to buy a gaming monitor–and a TV. We’ve tested and reviewed Aorus’ 43-inch FV43U QLED gaming monitor, as well as the massive 48-inch FO48U OLED, and judged them among the best gaming monitors and best 4K gaming monitors. Both sport class-leading contrast, as well as excellent HDR and out-of-the-box accuracy. And now both big screens are on sale at their lowest prices ever, just $599 after rebate or code at Newegg. Just know that if you opt for the bigger F048U, you’ll have to pay $799 up front and wait for a mail-in rebate to get the $200 back.
Both these displays also feature HDMI 2.1 support, making them a great pairing for current-gen consoles, and feature a built-in KVM for peripheral sharing. These displays can also serve as solid TV replacements (and at this price undercut all comparable TVs on price). Just know that there are no internal TV tuners here, so you’ll want to use your own streaming or cable box. And, more important for film purists, there is now native 24p support. So content filmed and presented in that format will automatically get converted to 60p/60Hz. Expect some occasional juttering/stuttering, often in scenes as the display adds frames to compensate. There is also no Dolby Vision support here. These are most definitely gaming and console monitors first and foremost. But for most casual TV watchers, they should suffice as good viewing screens as well, with excellent image performance.
In case you’re wondering about issues of desk space and neck strain with monitors this big, I can address that with lots of personal experience. First off, the smaller FV43U should fit on most desks. Its stand has a 25.1-inch footprint and the monitor is about 10 inches deep. The large 48-inch FO48U is probably better suited to wall mounting (it has 300mm VESA mounts at the back) or on a large desk.
I’ve been using TVs as monitors for more than a decade, and am typing this on a 55-inch LG OLED TV that I use as my main monitor (which I upgraded to from a 49-inch Sony TV). That’s obviously bigger than the 48-inch F048U, and sitting about 30 inches from my LG TV for hours a day, with it wall-mounted with the center just above eye level, I don’t have any issues with neck pain. So long as you keep these screens on your desk (or just above if wall mounting), and don’t try and game with the screen inches from our face, I don’t suspect you’ll have issues there, either. Although these things do tend to vary between people and setups.
Obviously, 43- and 48-inch monitors aren’t going to work for everyone – although the 43-inch FV43U should be manageable on most desks. But given how well both these screens performed in our testing, and their all-time low prices right now, it’s hard to argue against their value as gaming screens, with both currently selling for about $600 after rebates and codes. If you’re in the market for a TV as well, I’d argue they’re an absolute steal – if you can live with the lack of native 24p support.
Get Your Game On: MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 for $376
Nvidia’s RTX 40 series are right around the corner, but there is still plenty of life in the previous generation of cards. The MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 comes with 12GB of 192-Bit GDDR6 and has a boost clock of 1837 MHz. The 3060 and 3060 Ti are made for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but you can get away with 4K gaming at medium settings.
For $376 from Newegg you get plenty of power for a mid-range gaming PC
In our review of the EVGA variant we found that the 12GB of GDDR6 was more than ample for 1080p gaming. At 1080p ultra settings the card managed an average of 98.5 FPS so lock the card to 60 and you can happily play all your favorite games without breaking the bank.
6-Cores for $129 as Ryzen 5 5600 Hits All-Time Low Price
As of just a few weeks ago, AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs are now last-gen products. Though there are now four Ryzen 7000 chips on the market, there’s still a lot of life left in the 5000s, which are now at some of their lowest prices ever. Also, keep in mind that Ryzen 7000 processors require expensive motherboards that cost at least $289. Ouch!
With the Ryzen 5 5600, you get 6 cores, 12 threads and a 4.4-GHz boost clock, before you do any overclocking. The chip comes with a competent air cooler in the box so you don’t have to buy one and now, it’s at an all-time low price of just $129 at Newegg (opens in new tab).
When we reviewed the Ryzen 5 5600, we lauded its value, solid gaming performance and overclockability. If you already have a Ryzen 1000, 2000 or 3000 system, this chip could be a drop-in replacement that offers you a substantial performance boost. Remember that, all of the Ryzen chips from the 1,000 series to 5,000 series use the same AM4 socket.
Because the Ryzen 5 5600 can work with a wide variety of inexpensive motherboards, it could be the centerpiece of a really good budget build. Throw in an $89 motherboard like the Gigabyte B550 DS3H (opens in new tab) and spend more of your budget on a graphics card.
In our tests, the Ryzen 5 5600 offered strong 1080p gaming performance. Across our test suite, AMD’s chip averaged 152 fps at stock and 155 fps when overclocked. That’s well above Intel’s Core i3-12100 or the last-gen Ryzen 5 3600X and Ryzen 5 3600.
If you’re spending just $220 between the CPU and motherboard, you can easily afford to throw another $179 at a Radeon 6500 XT graphics card (opens in new tab) and still complete your PC build for less than $550.
Samsung Odyssey G7, a 240 Hz, 32-inch Stunner, Now $579
These days, it’s not difficult to find a large-screen gaming monitor with 120, 144 or 165 Hz refresh rates. But, if you’re a competitive eSports gamer or just want to have less input lag and a more immersive experience, you need to go to the next level.
Samsung’s 32-inch, Odyssey G7 does more than just provide a speedy, 240 Hz refresh rate. It stuns with a brilliant, 2K VA panel that’s fully color-accurate out of the box and a tight, 1000R curve. Normally, priced around $799, the Odyssey G7 is now just $579 at Amazon (opens in new tab).
When we reviewed the Samsung Odyssey G7, we gave it 5 out of 5 stars and our coveted Editor’s Choice award, because of its accurate color, strong HDR performance and beautiful curves. Our tests showed that, unlike so many other monitors, the Odyssey G7 didn’t need calibration.
According to our colorimeter, the G7 can reproduce 115 percent of the sRGB color gamut and 85 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut, both excellent numbers when compared to the competition.
In HDR, the Odyssey G7 also had an impressive contrast ratio of 17,115:1 with an HDR black level of 0.0361. With those numbers, dark colors will look really dark, making vibrant colors pop all the more.
Speaking of bright colors, the Odyssey G7 was significantly brighter than its competition, delivering a full 618 nits of brightness when in HDR mode.
The Odyssey G7 is a gaming monitor so all the pretty colors and high contrast won’t matter, but if it’s not fast. And, according to our tests, the display had a total input lag time of 20 ms, from the time you click to the time it shows the results on the screen. That’s incredibly fast.
Add Some Unique RGB Bling to Your PC with Lian Li’s $59 Stimer
To make your PC look as good as it performs, you can add RGB lighting to so many components, from your case fans to your cooler, your graphics card, your RAM and even your motherboard. But why shouldn’t the cables get in on the fun?
Lian Li’s Strimer series of addressable RGB cables allows you to add vibrant lights to your 24-pin ATX power cable and your 8-pin GPU cable. Normally, the Lian Li Strimer Plus V2 24-pin cable goes for $69, but right now, Newegg has it for just $59 (opens in new tab) after a $10 coupon code (FTSBXAZ53).
While you can still get earlier versions of this cable such as the Strimer Plus (V1), we recommend going with the Strimer Plus V2, because it is a more flexible cable with brighter and more colorful RGB lights.
The 24-pin cable acts as an extension cable, attaching to your power supply’s existing ATX cable and then going into the ATX connector on your motherboard. It gets power and commands from the included hub, which gets its own power via a SATA connector and attaches to a 5V ARGB header on your motherboard.
When we reviewed the Lian Li Strimer Plus V2, we praised its powerful software, easy installation and good flexibility. I also built a PC with the Strimer Plus V2 and was really pleased with how well it bends. Many PSU extension cables can be really stiff, but the Strimer bent a full 180 degrees for me, allowing me to loop it back from behind the motherboard and completely hide the PSU’s native cable.
If you can spend an extra $40 or so, we recommend getting the Lian Li Strimer Plus V2 with both the 24-pin and 8-pin cables together, a kit which is $103 at Amazon.
Intel’s Capable 670p SSD Matches All-Time Low of $64 for 1TB
When you’re looking for a budget SSD these days, you’re faced with a wide array of choices, but not all of them are good. If you want to keep your budget below $70, you often have to settle for either a 500GB capacity (less than ideal in 2022), take your chances with a less-than-reputable brand or go for a slow-moving SATA drive.
Today, one of the most popular low-cost drives, the Intel 670p (1TB), is on sale for $64.99 at Newegg, (opens in new tab) matching its all-time low price. This NVMe PCIe 3.0 drive promises read and write speeds of up to 3,500 and 2,500 MBps respectively, along with random reads and writes of up to 222,000 and 330,000 IOPS.
When we reviewed the Intel 670p, in its 2TB capacity, last year, we praised its solid performance, lengthy 5-year warranty and large, dynamic SLC cache. The drive SLC cache is really key for sustained performance. Most SSDs perform their best when they don’t have a lot of data on them. That’s when the cache, made of faster memory (often SLC NAND), is available to do most of the work.
However, when SSDs start filling up with data, the cache starts getting used and you’re reliant on the native speeds of the much slower TLC or, in this case, QLC NAND. What impressed us most about the Intel 670p is that it has a pretty large cache, up to 140GB on the 1TB model.
When we tested the 2TB capacity, we noticed that we still got a boost from the cache with up to 85 percent of the drive full. We didn’t get to verify that it’s the same percentage with the 1TB 670p, but rest assured that this drive will maintain strong performance even after it’s a lot more than half full.
Intel Core i3-12100F: $95 CPU Could be the Heart of a Great PC Build
If you’re looking to build a solid gaming PC on a tight budget, Intel’s Core i3-12100F CPU is your best choice. The quad-core, 60W “Alder Lake” CPU features 4 performance cores and 8 threads with a boost clock of 4.3-GHz. This processor has more than enough oomph for good 1080p and 2K gaming, provided you have a decent graphics card.
Like many Intel processors, this one is available in two versions: the Core i3-12100, which has an integrated GPU, and the Core i3-12100F, which doesn’t have an iGPU and costs around $50 less. If you’re planning to use a graphics card, obviously the 12100F is the CPU to buy and here’s at an all-time low price of just $95 (opens in new tab) at Newegg, when you use coupon code FTSBXAZ49 at checkout.
When we reviewed the Intel Core i3-12100 — functionally the same as 12100F — we were blown away by the fantastic single-threaded and gaming performance. For example, in 1080p gaming, the chip simply crushed AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600G, which costs quite a bit more and came within a few fps of the now-$200 Ryzen 5 5600X. There’s no other CPU within $50 of this one that can provide these kinds of results.
The Core i3-12100F also comes with a solid, Laminar RM1 cooler in the box, eliminating the need for you to buy one on the aftermarket. You can use the chip with either DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, depending on the motherboard you choose. However, given that you’re probably buying this for a budget build, we recommend going with at least 16GB of DDR4 RAM.
On our best PC builds page, we list a parts list for a sub-$500 gaming PC that’s powered by the Core i3-12100F. To get below $500, we pair it with a a modest AMD Radeon RX 6400 GPU (opens in new tab) that costs $149 and a $46 SATA SSD. However, if you can up your budget to $550 or $600, we recommend pairing the Core i3-12100F with a Radeon RX 6500 XT, which goes for just $179 and provides really solid 1080p gaming.
Our Favorite 4K, 120 Hz OLED Monitor is on a Huge Sale
If you were designing the ultimate gaming monitor from scratch, you’d ask for incredible color, high resolution, a fast refresh rate and a large panel. Gigabyte’s Aorus FO48U ticks all of these boxes and does it with great aplomb.
The 48-inch display uses a vibrant OLED panel, outputs at 4K resolution and operates at up to 120 Hz. Normally, for a monitor with these qualities, you’re paying over $1,000 and, indeed, the FO48U launched at $1,500, but right now, you can get it for just $599 (opens in new tab) after a rebate at Newegg. That’s an all-time low price on one of the best 4K gaming monitors you can buy at any price.
When we reviewed the Aorus FO48U, we were blown away by its deep contrast and vibrant colors. On our tests, Gigabyte’s monitor impressed by reproducing a full 107 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That’s more DCI-P3 than most of its competitors, including Alienware’s $3,000 AW5520QF.
The FO48U is also extremely color accurate, making it ideal not only for gaming but for professional-grade video and photo editing. According to our benchmarks, it had a mere 1.02 DeltaE 2000 (lower is better) color error rate, far better than any of its competitors.
The only real downside to the Gigabyte Aorus FO48U is that, at 48 inches, it may not fit on everyone’s desk. Also, if you are interested in higher refresh rates and don’t plan to play at 4K, you can grab a 2K, high-refresh rate monitor for even less. Still, if you can afford it, this is quite a deal.
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Hits All-Time Low Price of $199
With AMD having just released its new 7000 Series CPUs, both the company and retailers are heavily discounting the last-gen 5000 series processors. Case in point: Newegg now has a Ryzen 7 5700X for just $199 (opens in new tab) after you apply coupon code FTSBXAZ44.
When we reviewed the Ryzen 7 5700X, we found it to be a very solid chip, paticularly for multitasking. It also performed well when gaming in 1080p or 2K. It’s not at the very top of the pack, but, for the money, it gives you a great mix of productivity and gaming prowess.
You may be wondering: should I buy a Ryzen 5000 series CPU right now when the 7000 series has just launched? While the Ryzen 7 7700X, the successor to the 5700X, will undoubtedly be faster, the reality is that the new Ryzens are way too expensive, particularly when you take the cost of their motherboards into account.
The Ryzen 7 7700X, for example, costs $399, double the price of the 5700X for the same 8-core and 16 threads, along with a better max boost clock of 5.4 GHz. But the $200 difference in price for the chips themselves is just the beginning.
The Ryzen 7000 series chips require a motherboard with the new AM5 socket. Right now, the only AM5 motherboards are pricey, X670 boards that cost at least $289. By contrast, you can get a B550 or B450 motherboard for the Ryzen 7 5700X for less than $100.
