Black Friday Tech Deals Live: Latest PC hardware, CPU, GPU, SSD, and laptop sales still available today

The budget gaming champion Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU falls to $290 for Cyber Monday

AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D is now selling for $290 at Amazon for Cyber Monday, which is an incredible deal on this fantastic budget gaming chip. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the hands-down best upgrade for AM4 builders that are focused on gaming, but it is still a worthy contender for new builds if you’re looking for a more value-focused chip with incredible gaming performance.

The 5800X3D drops into existing socket AM4 motherboards dating all the way back to the 300-series that debuted in 2017, but its still-effective Zen 3 architecture paired with AMD’s innovative cache-stacking tech makes it exceptionally powerful in gaming. It also sips power, so most older motherboards can more than handle its miserly power consumption. 

AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech represents an innovative engineering effort that yields the first desktop PC chip with 3D-stacked SRAM, creating a chip with an incredible 96MB of L3 cache, and to great effect: The end result is a comparatively low-power chip that delivers incredible gaming performance.

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has much lower power consumption than the Intel competition, making it a far cooler processor that won’t require as expensive accommodations, like a beefy cooler, motherboard, and power supply. That means the 5800X3D delivers top-notch gaming performance along with a cooler, quieter, and less expensive system than you’ll get with a Core i9.

This chip has only sold for less ($270) twice in its history, each time lasting only a few days from one retailer. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this deal end quickly. 

— Paul Alcorn

Intel’s Arc Graphics Cards Offer the Best Black Friday GPU Deals You Can Still Get

This has been a disappointing Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals season for GPU savings. Many of the most desirable cards have been holding steady at previous prices. However, the clear exception to that are the Intel Arc GPUs, which are all seeing double-digit percentage discounts compared to earlier this month. 

Intel’s fastest A770 16GB is at an all-time low of $249, $100 below its launch price. The A750 is all the way down to $179, another all-time low, and the newest addition Arc A580 has dropped $20 to $159.

If you’re curious about how Intel’s GPUs stack up, the answer is that they’re reasonably competitive, have great media encoding capabilities, and the driver issues have mostly been ironed out. 

Intel has released about 30 different driver updates in the past year, some with significant improvements. AI performance is another strong point, where Arc GPUs are at least competitive with Nvidia’s alternatives in Stable Diffusion image generation.

Don’t expect record-setting performance from Intel’s GPUs. Frankly, the best they can hope is to compete with the mainstream Nvidia RTX 4060 and AMD RX 7600. But they do cost quite a bit less than those parts, even if they also generally use more power.

Intel also took a page out of Nvidia’s playbook and went whole-hog on all the latest features. It’s ray tracing hardware generally keeps pace with Nvidia (outside of full path tracing in stuff like Alan Wake 2), and it has dedicated tensor cores called XMX cores that are great for AI workloads — including the DLSS-alternative XeSS. For mainstream hardware at budget prices, Intel Arc provides a good alternative to the AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

WD’s 18TB external hard drive is on sale for an incredible $199, and it’s shuckable

If you’re looking for a massive storage volume and aren’t concerned about the fastest performance, or if you’re willing to take a bit of a risk and shuck the drive, this WD Easystore 18TB hard drive deal is for you — Best Buy has the 18TB drive on sale for a mere $199, which is half the normal pricing and works out to a mere penny for each gigabyte of storage. It’s even $10 less than the smaller 16TB model, making this a fantastic deal. 

This drive is particularly popular for those who “shuck” their drive. This process involves popping the case apart to remove the underlying 18TB HDD and then installing it in a PC or NAS, just like a normal drive. This tactic leverages the lower pricing of external HDDs — which are often significantly less expensive than drives designed for PCs and NAS. However, if you aren’t familiar with the practice, you probably shouldn’t do it, as it voids your warranty. Regardless, this is a popular use case for this specific model. 

For those looking for the more traditional use case of employing this drive for backup or archival data, this external HDD attaches to your system via a USB 3.0 interface with a Micro-USB Type B connector, so you should keep your performance expectations in check — WD doesn’t list a performance rating because you’ll be limited by the speed of the 5Gb/s USB cable. The enclosure comes with an AC adaptor to power the enclosure. 

Popping the drive out of its enclosure will void the two-year warranty that comes standard with the device. These drives are known to come in both 5,400- and 7,200-RPM flavors, which is only important if you shuck the device, but there is a bit of lottery involved to get the faster variant. 

— Paul Alcorn

Black Friday Savings Continue on Saturday

So, if you’ve checked the calendar, you’ll notice that it’s Saturday. So how can we still be blogging about Black Friday deals? The answer is that Black Friday sales, now also called “Cyber Monday” sales are continuing and most of our favorite savings from yesterday and still very much in place today.

That’s why we’ll be continuing to update this blog with all the savings. Here are some of the best deals from Friday that you can still get right now and why we think they matter.

• Dell S3222DGM Monitor for $239: This 32-inch, curved 2K monitor runs at 165 Hz and has topped our list of best gaming monitors for more than a year thanks to its awesome 3,700:1 contrast ratio, great build quality, fantastic color and smooth gaming.

• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU for $290: This is the best deal you’re going to see on a CPU this holiday season. Yes, it’s a last-gen product, but for less than $300, you’re getting 96MB of L3 cache, which makes the 5800X3D one of the best for gaming of any generation. Plus, because it’s on the older, AM4 platform, you can either upgrade an existing Ryzen system you might have or buy a relatively-inexpensive motherboard that takes DDR4 RAM. 

• Samsung 990 Pro (4TB) for $249: This is the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD that money can buy and now it’s at an epic low price. In fact, this deal sold out at Newegg, Amazon and Best Buy but Samsung.com still has it. If you want both speed and high-capacity, you can’t beat the 990 Pro. However, if you want to save $20, the WD Black SN850X, which is on sale, is very close in performance and is going for $229.

Stop crawling under your desk to plug peripherals in with Lionwei’s $37 powered 10 Port, 10Gbps USB hub

Because I’m constantly plugging and unplugging USB devices, many of which now use USB-C, I picked up this aluminum-shelled USB hub from Lionwei last year during Black Friday, and it’s worked perfectly ever since. It gives me two extra easy-to-reach 10Gbps USB-C ports, a 10 Gbps USB-A port, and four 5Gbps USB-A ports. There are also three USB-A charging ports (rated up to 12W) but I haven’t really used those. Nicely, nine of the ports have buttons to turn them off, and indicator lights (which are tiny and not overly bright) that let you know which ports are enabled.

Lionwei’s specs specifically state that the hub doesn’t support video output (presumably that means DisplayPort Alt Mode doesn’t work over USB-C), but that’s never been an issue for me. I primarily use the hub for testing peripherals and using external storage, like the best portable SSDs. This handy hub has meant that I always have the USB ports I need within easy reach, so I haven’t had to crawl under my desk and behind my PC to plug something in for the past year. That’s easily worth $37 in my book.

Get a new webcam so you can wow your coworkers

Most of us don’t need (or want) 4K webcams. And most of us definitely don’t need gimbal-mounted, AI-powered, face- and movement-tracking 4K webcams like the Insta360 Link. But if you’re looking for the best of the best, this tiny, ridiculously powerful webcam is definitely it — and it’s on sale right now for $254 at Amazon (was $299). 

The Insta360 Link is probably the most impressive webcam we’ve tested, in terms of out-of-the-box picture quality. Not only is its 4K resolution perfect (too perfect), it offers some of the best auto-white balance and auto-color correction we’ve ever seen in a webcam. It’s also shockingly small, considering how powerful it is — it measures just 2.71 x 1.61 x 1.77 inches, and most of that is the stand. The camera itself is mounted on a 3-axis gimbal that swivels and turns to keep you in focus when the AI-powered face-tracking is turned on (you can also manually adjust the angle using the Link Controller app). 

(Read our full Insta360 Link review here.)

The Insta360 Link is a great tool for streamers and content creators, as well as anyone giving lectures or presentations — it even comes with special whiteboard corner stickers that you can place on the corners of your presentation so the camera knows where to focus. 

Of course, if you’re mostly chatting with coworkers, family members, and friends, you don’t need an Insta360 Link (though you’d look damn good if you had one) — most video chat services don’t even support over 1080p resolution. Luckily, there’s also a great 1080p webcam on sale: Razer’s Kiyo Pro, which is now just $59 at Amazon (was $199). 

The Kiyo Pro is Razer’s last-gen webcam (it gets confusing because the new Kiyo Pro Ultra looks almost identical and has practically the same name) — and it records video in 1080p/60fps, which makes it perfect for video chats. 

(Read our full Razer Kiyo Pro review here.)

Its picture doesn’t look quite as good out-of-the-box, but it looks great once you make a few tweaks in Synapse 3 (assuming you can get Synapse 3 to work, of course, but I digress). The Kiyo Pro particularly impressed us with its low-light performance and adjustable field of view, and it’s one of few webcams that has a decent built-in microphone (though you should still use a headset or a standalone microphone, if you can).

— Sarah
(It takes more than a fantastic webcam to make you look good on Black Friday, however.)

The best PC games you can get on sale (OR FOR FREE)

Now that you’ve got a killer GPU, CPU, and gaming monitor, you’re gonna need something to play. (A lot of something to play, if you grabbed that 4TB Samsung 990 Pro that keeps selling out.)

Good news! There are plenty of awesome PC games on sale, including some of the biggest titles that launched this year. Black Friday sales are going strong at Steam, Epic, GOG.com, and Humble Bundle, so you should be able to fill up a few terabytes in no time. Here are some of the best game deals we’ve seen so far: 

I’m sure I could list fantastic game deals all night long, but this is supposed to be a live blog. Also, there’s no better deal than free — you can still pick up Deliver Us Mars from Epic for free (was $29) through Nov. 30 and play Diablo IV for free on Steam through Nov. 29.

— Sarah
(It’s just us gamers here, now.)

This Epic 4TB Samsung SSD Deal Keeps Selling Out (But You Can Still Get It)

There have been quite a few good SSD deals this Black Friday deals season, but our favorite is the Samsung 990 Pro (4TB) going for $249. That’s an all-time low on the best PCIe 4.0 SSD you can get. But can you actually still get it?

First the Samsung 990 Pro (4TB) was at Amazon, where it sold out. Then we found it on Newegg at the same price, where it is now available only on backorder. But good news: as of this writing, the Samsung 990 Pro (4TB) is still available at Samsung.com for the same $249.

You can also still get the 2TB capacity for $119, both at Samsung and at Best Buy.

So why is this drive the best PCIe 4 SSD you can get? It has a fantastic combination of  high transfer rates, high IOPS and great power efficiency. On most tests, it beats its closest competitors like WD Black SN850X by a wide margin. Here are the specs for both the 2TB and 4TB capacities.

Get this excellent $99 OLED portable monitor now before it’s too late

If you’re looking for a cheap portable monitor to augment your laptop when traveling, the InnoCN 13A1F is a no-brainer choice. While we’re used to seeing portable OLED monitors priced closer to $200, the 13A1F only costs $99 after an instant coupon is applied at checkout over at Amazon.

The 13A1F has a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, 60Hz OLED panel, and is rated for 400 nits brightness. OLED panels are known for their vibrant colors and ink blacks; the 13A1F is no exception. As we saw with its larger 15A1F sibling, you should expect everything from games to movies to look great on this panel. However, remember that this monitor has a glossy coating, which could result in some unsightly reflections on the screen if positioned near a window or close to overhead lighting.

The 13A1F also includes built-in speakers, which is a nice bonus, but you won’t find a 3.5mm headphone jack. It also has a magnetic kickstand that attaches to the back of the monitor, which is a fair alternative to the combo case/stand that comes with some portable monitors.

One thing that you might also want to consider with the 13A1F is it looks so good that you might wish you could upgrade the panel on your laptop when sitting the two side-by-side (the vast majority of today’s laptops feature IPS panels).

– Brandon Hill

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (Gen 8) is an all-around gaming laptop bargain at $1,149

We recently saw the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i fall to a new low at B&H Photo, and now it’s the Legion Pro 5i’s (16IRX8) turn. This is an excellent mid-range gaming laptop running the current generation hardware from Intel and Nvidia, and carries a typical asking price of around $1,500. However, B&H Photo is currently selling the Legion Pro 5i for $1,199, which is $50 below even Amazon’s Black Friday price.

An Intel Core i7-13700HX processor with 16GB of DDR5 memory and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 discrete GPU power the Legion Pro 5i. The GPU pushes pixels to a 16-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600) IPS panel with a 165Hz refresh rate. Other features include a 512GB SSD, 1080p webcam with an electronic privacy shutter, Wi-Fi 6E/Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, and a Thunderbolt 4 port.

We reviewed the Legion Pro 5i in this exact configuration earlier this year. We were impressed with its overall gaming performance, which was among the top performers in this segment. In our Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, we hit 107 fps at 1080p and 62 fps at 1600p. It also achieved 94 fps at 1080p in Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) and 88 fps at 1600p. Productivity performance was also strong, and the Legion Pro 5i even took top honors in our 25GB file transfer test at 1,792.63 Mbps.

No laptop is perfect, and our two biggest gripes with the Legion 5i Pro were the drone of the fans while gaming and the so-so battery life compared to its peers. However, with a price tag of $1,149, those faults can be easily overlooked.

–Brandon Hill

Grab a lightweight wireless gaming mouse for under $50

It always feels a little wild paying a ton for a gaming mouse that’s been stripped of practically everything in the name of weighing as little as possible. But Black Friday is a great time to grab wireless ultralightweight gaming mice at a discount, and there are several excellent picks that are on sale for over 50% off this year.

Glorious’ Model D- wireless mouse is currently on sale for $40 at Amazon (was $79). If you have larger hands, the Model D wireless is also on sale for the same price at Best Buy. The Model D- wireless weighs 67g and sports Glorious’ 19,000 DPI BAMF optical sensor, and has the same pseudo-symmetrical shape as the wired Model D-. It measures 4.72 x 2.4 x 1.3 inches, which is a little shorter and lower than the Model D (5.04 x 2.4 x 1.65 inches), so it’s perfect for travel and/or smaller hands. 

The Roccat Kone Pro Air, which is the wireless version of the Roccat Kone Pro, is also on sale for just $29 at Amazon (was $79). The Kone Pro Air features the same ergonomic shape as its wired counterpart, and has a lightweight plastic chassis with Roccat’s “AIMO” organic lighting in the buttons. It sports Roccat’s 19,000 DPI Owl-Eye optical sensor, which can handle up to 50 G’s of acceleration, and Roccat’s own Titan Switch optical switches, which are rated for 100 million clicks. The Kone Pro Air connects via both 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth, and gets about 75 hours of battery life over 2.4GHz wireless and over 100 hours over Bluetooth. 

HyperX’s original Pulsefire Haste wireless weighs just under 59g thanks to its hole-filled lightweight plastic shell, and is now just $42 at HyperX when you use the code HXFLASH to knock an extra 15% off the sale price of $49 (was $79). This mouse has a symmetrical form identical to that of its wired counterpart, and sports a Pixart PAW3335 optical sensor with a maximum resolution of 16,000 DPI, a maximum speed of 450 IPS, and can handle up to 40 G’s of acceleration. It features 2.4GHz wireless connectivity and gets up to 100 hours of battery life on a single charge (with lighting disabled). It also comes with HyperX’s HyperFlex charging cable, which is one of the better paracord-style flexible cables I’ve used. 

— Sarah
(My mouse weighs more than twice what these weigh, because I play RPGs and Photoshop.)

The Best RTX 4090 Desktop Deal You’ll See This Year is an Alienware

There’s been a run lately on RTX 4090 graphics cards and, as of now, the cheapest one we could find in stock costs more than $2,100 when just days ago you could find one floating around the $1,600 mark. 

It’s not clear to us why the stock is so low. Is it because there’s a run on them for the holidays or are companies buying them as a cheap way to do AI development (as opposed to getting Nvidia’s pricey AI-focused cards). So right now, the most cost-efficient way to get your hands on an RTX 4090 is to buy a desktop with one inside. The overall cost of the components you’d need to build a PC around a 4090 is much higher.

Fortunately, you don’t need to compromise and buy a low-quality gaming PC, just to get an RTX 4090. In fact, the best Black Friday deal on an RTX 4090-powered desktop is a $3,099 Alienware Aurora R15 Desktop. 

Usually priced several hundred dollars higher ($3,899 list), this configuration of the Aurora R15 comes with a Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD and  a 1,350W PSU. The Aurora R15 comes in the company’s sleek and unique-looking chassis and has Alienware’s Cryo-tech liquid cooling system which has a 240mm AIO.

We reviewed a slightly-different config of the Aurora R15, equipped with an RTX 4090 card but an Intel Core i9-13900KF CPU. However, we’d expect the frame rates to be fairly similar to the AMD-powered config on offer.

As you can see in the charts below, frame rates were impressive, often topping 250 fps at 1080p resolution at 120 fps at 4K.

Image 1 of 5

Normally, it’s cheaper to build a PC than to buy a prebuilt, particularly an Alienware. However, in this case, I estimate that, if you paid $2,150 for the graphics card and used the same CPU, amount of RAM, SSD, power supply and a fairly-upscale case, you’d be spending at least $3,400. 

— Avram Piltch

Massive 4TB WD Black SN850X SSD is only five cents per GB for Black Friday 

WD’s excellent 4TB SN850X SSD is now only $229 at Amazon for Black Friday 2023, a savings of $60 over the normal pricing (it debuted at $699). This speedy SSD is optimized for the PS5 but is just as adept in a leading-edge gaming rig. Regardless of which type of machine you slot it into, it provides enough capacity to hold even massive game libraries. 

The drive peaks at 7,300 / 6,600 MB/s of sequential read/write throughput dishes out an incredible 1.2 / 1.1 million random read/write IOPS, so you won’t be left wanting on the performance front, either. It’s no surprise, then, that this is one of the leaders on the list of Best SSDs for PS5 and our list of Best SSDs for PCs. WD also covers the drive with a five-year warranty.

If you don’t need quite the capacious 4TB model, WD also has the SN850X in 1 and 2TB capacities for a solid $79 and $114, respectively. Both of these drives deliver nearly the same level of performance as their larger counterpart, but make sure to check our full WD Black SN850X review for the particulars.

— Paul Alcorn

Asus 27-inch 1440p 300Hz gaming monitor for $499

The Asus XG27AQMR was announced and launched earlier this year, with an initial price of $649 that later dropped to $599. Now it’s at its lowest-ever price of $499 for Black Friday. You can find it at the price on both Amazon and Newegg. (Hat tip to our forum member bit_user for letting us know about this one.)

This display will easily compete with the best gaming monitors. It’s a 27-inch 2560×1440 monitor, with a 300Hz refresh rate. That’s great for esports games, and when you’re not able to reach 300 fps in more demanding games, it’s also FreeSync Premium and G-Sync Compatible. Other features include an IPS panel, 600 nits HDR support, a 1ms response time, and extreme low motion blur support.

If you haven’t experienced gaming on an ultra high refresh rate display, you’ve been missing out. There’s a reason esports professionals prefer this type of monitor. The extremely low motion blur feature can help you track and see enemies in fast-paced games, giving you an edge in battle.

Even when you’re not playing games, the high Windows desktop refresh rate is noticeable. Going from a 300Hz monitor to a 60Hz display can feel painful — enough to make you wonder if there’s something wrong with your setup.

There aren’t too many 1440p 300Hz displays around, at least not yet, and Asus is well-known for making quality products. This one will work with both AMD and Nvidia GPUs while still enabling variable refresh rate, and should keep you happily gaming for many years to come.

Discounts on everything Xbox

If you’re an Xbox gamer who hasn’t yet moved to the current generation of consoles (or if you need certain accessories), there are some Black Friday deals that might entice you to move to the latest and greatest.

Both Amazon and Best Buy have the Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s flagship console, for 10% off, or $449.99. This is the most powerful Xbox out there (we’ll get to the other one), with a custom AMD Zen 2 APU featuring 52 RDNA compute units, along with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD.

The less powerful console, the Xbox Series S, is also on sale at Amazon and Best Buy, falling down to $299 for the 512GB model. (The more recent, blacked out 1TB option is still full price at $350). This one won’t play games above 1080p, but it’s hard to deny the price to get into newer games. Helpfully, either store will toss in 3 months of Xbox Game Pass to let you download some games digitally, which is good because this system doesn’t have a disc drive.

If you need a new controller, now’s a good time to buy. You should almost never pay full price for one of these, but the latest controllers in basic colors are matching all-time lows as of this writing. These are also some of the best controllers for PCs — an added bonus.

And if the storage that comes with your Xbox isn’t enough, expansion cards from Seagate and WD are both on sale in 1TB capacities. Considering how large some game downloads get, that can help, especially if you’re a big Game Pass user.

— Andrew E. Freedman

The $349, 64GB Steam Deck is still around

Not every holiday deal is explicitly tied to Black Friday. This is your public service announcement that the 64GB Valve Steam Deck is still on sale on Steam, the cheapest you can possibly get it. Once it runs out, Valve won’t make any more, with the 256GB LCD Steam Deck taking its place in the lineup.

The 64GB mode (an LCD version, not the newer Steam Deck OLED)  was always a bit of an odd duck. While it had the same display and AMD APU as the regular Steam Deck, the 64GB of eMMC storage was both slower than the NVMe SSDs in the more expensive options and, of course, not enough to hold a ton of games.

But it’s still a deal. $350 is very little for a gaming PC, and it should save a bit in your budget to open the Steam Deck up and replace the drive with a roomier, faster drive. Check out our list of the best SSDs for Steam Decks.

Luckily, our top SSD for the Steam Deck also happens to be on sale. The Corsair MP600 Mini 1TB is a speedy TLC drive that’s reasonably priced, making today’s discount even sweeter.

Additionally, you can consider expanding storage with an SD card, though that won’t be quite as fast.

We’ve been appreciating the Steam Deck OLED here at Tom’s Hardware, but if you balked at the original Steam Deck’s price originally, this 64GB option combined with a better SSD and a bit of elbow grease is definitely worth a look.

— Andrew E. Freedman 

2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs that don’t suck, for under $100

Black Friday SSD deals have been abundant, and these might be the lowest prices we’ll see in some time. But right now, there are still some excellent options. There are a lot of unknown brands out there, but we have tested several “alternative” brands that are trying to become “established” brands. Silicon Power, Addlink, Lexar, and Netac all fall into that category, though certainly Silicon Power has been around for a while now. (Lexar used to be a Micron subsidiary but was sold off a few years back.)

We wrote up some excellent deals on 4TB SSDs for under $200, which are capacious enough to hold at least a decent portion of your Steam library — or 16 separate copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. But nearly $200 might be more than a lot of people want to spend. If you’re hoping to keep things under $100, for yourself or someone else, those same drives are worth a look and can deliver impressive performance for the price. We’ll give you our best pick for each capacity.

Both these SSDs have something in common: They use the Maxio MAP1602A controller with 232-layer YMTC TLC NAND. (The Addlink A93 uses the same combination, but it costs a bit more than the Lexar drive.) This has proven to be a potent combination, even if it’s a DRAM-less controller. That helps cut down on price as well as power, however, and the YMTC NAND still sustains very respectable throughput. These drives are also single-sided designs, and the Lexar even has a heatsink included, which makes them a great fit for a PlayStation 5 or a laptop (you’d need to remove the heatsink for laptop use, which is easy enough).

Like most modern SSDs, these drives implement pSLC (pseudo-SLC) caches, which means they’ll have excellent throughput until the cache is filled up. That’s usually more than enough space to keep up with any game downloads, though performance can start to trail off as the drives are filled to capacity. The US75 and NM790 still maintained solid sustained write performance in our testing, however, which is a good indication of how they’ll run as you stuff them like a Thanksgiving turkey with all of your games.

Note that the US75 clearly falls behind in our write saturation testing, which pelts the drive with continuous writes for over 30 minutes. That’s because it has half the number of NAND dies available, and the 4TB models clearly take a lead in this “worst-case” testing. But 850 MB/s is hardly something to scoff at. Less strenuous workloads showed significantly better performance, if you’re wondering.

Asus ROG Ally price drops at Best Buy

The Asus ROG Ally, one of the primary Windows competitors to the Steam Deck, is seeing a deal over at Best Buy for Black Friday. The AMD Z1 Extreme model that we reviewed has fallen $80 to $619.99, while the base Ryzen Z1 version has fallen $150 to $449.99.

Both of these gaming handhelds boast 512GB of storage, as well as the same, 7-inch, 1280 x 800 display.

The Z1 Extreme can pull off performance slightly better than the chip in the Steam Deck. We haven’t had the opportunity to test the regular Z1, but it’s unlikely to be able to use the 1080p screen to the fullest. Some testers have said that the regular Z1, with fewer AMD RDNA compute units, offers better battery life as a trade off. 

In our review of the Asus ROG Ally with Z1 Extreme, we appreciated how much lighter the Ally is than the Steam Deck, and we found that the display was bright and vivid. If you have a big collection of games across many launchers, you’ll be able to play almost all of them, as the Ally runs Windows 11.

Unlike the Steam Deck, the Z1 processors offer better performance when plugged in to the wall, but you can still get solid performance on the go if you use the right settings.

— Andrew E. Freedman 

Shhh… I bought this GaN charger as a gift.

Don’t tell my wife, but I bought her this Anker Prime 67W GaN Charger as a small gift for the holidays. I first saw it after we published our list of 15 Black Friday tech deals under $50, and it’s going to fill a need. While this charger usually goes for $60, it’s now just $38 on Amazon.

Recently, she’s been talking about all of the chargers she has to carry around when we go anywhere: USB-C for her phone and watch, and a USB-A to Lightning cable for her iPad. With this, she’ll only need to carry one brick around. It will also work great with the laptop she’s considering buying herself (and desperately needs — her current one has 4GB of RAM! But I digress).

With two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port, this charger can work with newer gadgets and an older one. The Anker Prime can reach 67W with a single device, and up to 65W with two of them. That’s plenty for a basic laptop, but it also allows for some flexibility.

I think it will lighten the load in her bag and just be convenient overall. Heck, maybe I should get one for myself.

And to my wife: if you happen to see this blog post, please act surprised when you get this gift!

— Andrew E. Freedman

Black Friday? Mac Friday.

There are a slew of Macs on sale for Black Friday, at or near their lowest prices. Some of these are older M1 and M2 devices, but even some of the latest M3 MacBook Pros are at a discount for Black Friday.

For the popular 13-inch MacBook Air and newer 15-inch MacBook Air, the best prices are over at Best Buy, where the 13-inch MacBook Air for $150 off in several configurations, while the 15-inch version is $250 off.

If you want Pro power, several M3 and M3 Pro laptops are already $150 off. M3 Max versions have a $200 discount.

We found the M3 Max to be extremely powerful in our review of the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Notably, Best Buy seems to be hiding some of the Mac pricing today, instead making you click through an offer to get Microsoft Office. If you decline that, you should see these prices. (Alternatively, you can send these straight to your cart by scrolling below all of the spec options.)

If you want the lowest pricing on the new rainbow of M3 iMacs, head over to either Amazon or Best Buy, where they’re going for a playful $1,234.05 for the base configuration featuring an M3 chip, 8-core GPU and 256GB of storage. That’s 5% off.

— Andrew E. Freedman

The best CPU air coolers we’ve tested are on sale for less than $40

Thermalright has earned a reputation in recent years for excellent cooling and outstanding value. And our testing has repeatedly proven that to be true, earning the company spots on our best coolers list.  

The Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 and Peerless Assassin 120 SE are big air coolers that stand toe-to-teo with (and sometimes beat) the best on offer from more premium brands like Noctua and Be Quiet. And both those coolers are currently on sale for Black Friday. Just don’t expect massive discounts, as these coolers are insanely cheap for their performance, regularly selling at or below $40.

If you’re worried about compatibility, the Phantom Spirit 120 supports Intel’s LGA 1700, 115x, 1200, 2011, and 2066 sockets, as well as AMD’s AM5/AM4. And the Peerless Assassin 120 SE sticks to just Intel 115X, 1200, and 1700, as well as AMD’s AM4 and AM5.

As you can see in the chart below from our review of the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120, it dissipated more heat than any other air cooler we tested recently, save for DeeCool’s Assassin IV, which is also on sale for $88. But that’s still well over twice as much as Thermalright’s cooler.

The Peerless Assassin 12 SE also performed well enough for us to give it 5 stars and an Editor’s Choice. But it’s a better choice for CPUs that are a step down from the flagship chips, or for builders and upgraders who don’t plan on overclocking. It’s an amazing cooler at its current $34 asking price.

Dell’s Black Friday Gaming Monitor Deals Are Truly Eye-Popping

It’s no secret that Dell makes some of the best gaming monitors around and, when they are on sale, they are also fantastic values. Right now, we’re seeing quite a few Dell monitor deals that are hard to resist.

The Dell S3222DGM, a 32-inch, 165 Hz screen that sits atop our list of the best gaming monitors, is now going for $239, reduced from $349. When we tested the Dell S3222DGM, we noted that it reproduced 111 percent of the sRGB color gamut while providing an impressive 3,700:1 contrast ratio.

That really makes the colors pop at the screen’s native 2560 x 1440 resolution. 

If you can spend quite a bit more, the Alienware AW3423DWF has a brilliant QD-OLED panel and runs at 3440 x 1440 resolution and 165 Hz. When we tested the AW3423DWF, we were blown away by its color reproduction, which hit a full 107 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut.

If you need to spend a bit less, Dell’s S2722DGM is a good deal at just $199 today. The 27-inch, 2K display delivered a bright 350 nits and a colorful 111 percent of the sRGB gamut in our tests.

— Avram Piltch

This variable torque electric screwdriver builds PCs and improves my home

I build a lot of PCs and also do a fair bit of home improvement work around my apartment. So a cordless screwdriver is a nice thing to have. I also own a much slimmer Wowstick, but have found HOTO’s NEX O1 Pro to be handier thanks to its extra (and variable) torque. It’s great for loosening those factory-installed screws on PC cases that just don’t want to let go, and also good for assembling small pieces of furniture. 

The HOTO won’t replace my DeWalt impact driver or drill for bigger, tougher jobs, but for everyday tasks, it’s powerful enough, easy to charge over USB-C, and even looks good on my workbench. I just wish it came with and stored more than 12 bits.

-Matt Safford

Acer Predator XB273U 27-inch 165Hz QHD gaming monitor hits a new low price for Black Friday

Monitor deals abound on Black Friday, and that’s definitely the case for the Acer Predator XB273U (GSbmiiprzx). The Predator XB273U retails for around $450, but Newegg is currently running a Black Friday sale, which sees that price drop to just $199.99. That’s a great price point for a feature-packed gaming monitor.

For starters, the Predator XB273U has a 27-inch IPS panel with a QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution. You’ll also receive a low 1ms gray-to-gray response time (0.05 in overdrive mode) and a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. Keep in mind that the 165Hz refresh rate is only achievable over a DisplayPort connection; using HDMI limits you to 144Hz. In addition, the XB273U is G-Sync compatible for pairing with your modern Nvidia graphics card. The Predator XB273U also boasts 95 percent DCI-P3 coverage and is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified (400 nits maximum brightness).

Regarding port selection, Acer outfitted the Predator XB273U with two HDMI 2.0 ports and one DisplayPort connection. Although it isn’t a requirement for most gamers, the monitor does feature built-in speakers (2x 2 watts) and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The stand is adjustable for tilt, pivot, and height, while the monitor also supports wall mounting (VESA 100 pattern).

Acer is known for its robust support of its Predator series, and that remains the case with the XB273U. Acer provides a 3-year parts and labor warranty, which is comparable to other popular brands like Dell.

Newegg’s current sale price of $199 on the Acer Predator XB273U only lasts for another 20 hours, so get moving fast if you want to add this gaming monitor to your hot gaming rig.

 Save money and print fast with the Creality K1 Core XY 3D printer 

When we think of Creality we often think of Ender or CR and typically a “bedslinger”. But the Creality K1 is a different beast, a Core XY printer. Instead of the bed moving around, the printhead moves along the X and Y axes and the bed is lowered along the Z axis. This allows for a significant speed boost, which means faster prints.

With a 220 x 220 x 250 build volume (the same as the Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro, which is on offer for $199) the K1 doesn’t benefit from a larger print area. Speed is the key selling point for this printer. With a direct drive extruder, we can print PLA, PETG, TPU and ABS. The enclosure makes it easier to print ABS which will unstick from an open print bed.

To print at the claimed 600mm/s you need speedy filament and Creality provides a sample of “Hyper PLA”. Our reviewer managed to print a “benchy” in 25 minutes using this PLA. 

 The firmware for this printer is called Klipper and this is another speed benefit over older Marlin based machines. With Klipper on the K1 we have automatic input shaping, which uses sensors to cancel out vibrations for higher speed prints. We also have automatic bed leveling, so you won’t need a piece of paper to level your bed.

The Creality K1 is an excellent printer for makers who favor speed and ease of use, but still want to watch their bottom line. It’s another step away from Creality’s reputation as a budget manufacturer, while still being friendly to both beginners and expert makers. 

You can find more 3D printer deals on our best Black Friday 3D printer deals and for general tech products, drop by our page full of best Black Friday tech deals. 

Save big money on this Elegoo Mars 3 resin 3D printer and make your own plastic figures 

 Resin 3D printing (SLA, Stereolithography) pulls a model from a vat of resin using UV light. As the model is pulled from the resin, the light will cure a layer, slowly building up to a model. With SLA printers such as the Elegoo Mars 3 we can produce extremely high detail prints, but we sacrifice overall size. 

The Mars 3 has a high resolution 4K display, this means that your print details will be sharp. In our review we found that the resolution was great and each layer cured in 2.5 seconds. Leveling the build platform is simple and the included software means you can get up and running in no time. 

 Resin 3D printers are perfect for producing small parts. Model makers commonly use them to fabricate figures or specialist model parts. I’ve seen retro computing hobbyists use them to make gears in order to fix old CD drives.

You can find more 3D printer deals on our best Black Friday 3D printer deals and for general tech products, drop by our page full of best Black Friday tech deals. 

–Les Pounder

SSD enclosures on sale: every PC builder should have one

A few months ago, I was upgrading my PC’s boot drive (something you may want to do given all the great Black Friday SSD Deals) because I got a faster, higher-capacity disk. Before I even opened my PC to install the new drive, I wanted to make sure that I had cloned my old disk to the new one. So I whipped out my Sabrent EC-SNVE SSD enclosure, popped the new drive into it, connected it to a USB-C port on my computer and used a free tool called Clonezilla to copy every last bit of data over.

Whether you need to create an external backup drive using an old SSD or clone your entire OS and programs onto a new one, you really need to have one of the best SSD enclosures on-hand. Our favorite enclosure for the money, the Sabrent EC-SNVE is on sale right now for just $23, reduced from $29.

There are a lot of SSD enclosures on the market and each has its virtues, but the Sabrent EC-SNVE is our favorite overall because it combines a sleek, aluminum design with a tool-free drive insertion process.

Most enclosures require you to unscrew their covers to get the drive in and out, which is ok if you plan to keep your M.2 drive in there forever. But if you are using the enclosure temporarily, having the ability to easily open and close it is key. Also, most M.2 enclosures don’t support both SATA and NVMe drives, but the EC-SNVE does.

You never know when you’ll need to read or write from an SSD. For example, a few months ago, my wife’s laptop completely died — as in, it wouldn’t turn on. However, I was able to remove the SSD from it and use an enclosure to rescue her data. 

What if you want higher speeds than 10 Gbps? There are enclosures that do 20 Gbps (aka USB 3.2 Gen 2×2), but few computers support this standard. Your best bet is to get an enclosure that uses Thunderbolt 3 or 4, which are the same as USB4. But you’ll need a Thunderbolt port on  your computer to take advantage of the speed.

On the bright side, our favorite Thunderbolt enclosure, the Orico M2V0-C4 has hit an all-time low price of $89 this Black Friday. It doesn’t have a tool free design (you need a screw driver to open and close it), but it’s plenty fast.

— Avram Piltch

These wireless headsets just work

It’s always an exciting scramble during our Tom’s Hardware morning meeting when I turn on my PC, put on my headset, and I hear… nothing. And after triple-checking my sound settings, re-plugging in all 752 USB dongles, restarting my PC six times, and waiting for Razer Synapse to update for the 14th time that week… still nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great wireless gaming headsets out there. And I’ve probably had problems with all of them. But there are three wireless headsets I keep around for the sole reason that I know they will always work. I may have other gripes with them, but the wireless technology in these headsets is some sort of witchcraft that other headsets need to emulate, stat.

They are: Logitech’s G735 wireless headset (yes, the white one from the “inclusive” white-and-pastel-pink-and-blue Aurora line), Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX, and HyperX’s Cloud III. And they’re all on sale for Black Friday! 

I was perhaps a little harsh in my review of the Logitech G735, though I stand by my conclusion that it is not the first white headset and the retail price ($230) was simply too steep for the headset’s audio quality. But, as it turns out, I’ll take mediocre audio quality in a headset that works over stellar audio quality in one that… doesn’t. Shocking, I know. 

The G735 has a lot going for it — it’s incredibly comfortable, it has a detachable boom mic and it folds flat for storage, and it features simultaneous 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity (and both connections work, consistently). The “soft zonal lighting” is… fine — as I noted in my review, it does have visible demarcation between zones, so it’s not as refined as it could be. Of course, it’s on your head so you never see it, and if you turn it off the battery life jumps from 16 hours to 56 hours (so maybe just turn it off).  

It’s a great headset, but $230 is too much (and feels like a “pink tax,” even if Logitech has other headsets priced in that range). The G735 is now down to its lowest price ever — $159 over at Amazon — and it’s definitely worth it at that price. 

I’m a big fan of the navy-and-copper colorway Turtle Beach used for the Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max headset — it’s always nice to see an alternate colorway that isn’t… pink. (And this looks particularly premium, in my opinion.) The Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max has thick, cooling gel-infused ear pads and a very sturdy frame — maybe a little too sturdy, as this headset does get a little uncomfortable if I wear it for long periods of time. Like the G735, it features simultaneous 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity with audio mixing — so you can listen to your work meeting on your phone and play video games on your PC at the same time. Not that I ever do that, of course.

The Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max also has a built-in boom mic with flip-to-mute functionality — how is Turtle Beach somehow the only gaming peripherals company still utilizing this incredibly useful and convenient feature?! Not only does the Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max’s mic fit neatly into a slot on the earcup so it basically disappears when it’s stowed, it also mutes automatically — something the retractable mics in the SteelSeries headsets do not do.

This is an older headset now, but it still works fantastically, and connects instantly whenever I pull it out. It’s currently on sale for $119 at Best Buy, which is a solid $60 off its retail price of $179.

HyperX’s Cloud III Wireless headset just launched this year, with a retail price of $169 — more affordable than many brand-new wireless headsets, but still quite a bit pricier than its wired counterpart (which launched at just $99). The Cloud III Wireless is an excellent successor to the Cloud II Wireless, with a more refined, premium overall look and the same incredible comfort and usability (read: working wireless connectivity) that we expect from HyperX’s headsets.

The main drawback of the Cloud III Wireless is that it only offers 2.4GHz wireless connectivity — no Bluetooth, simultaneous or not. While I admit I’m spoiled now with all these simultaneous 2.4GHz wireless/Bluetooth headsets, even non-simultaneous Bluetooth connectivity would make the Cloud III Wireless’ price a little more justifiable. After all, most people aren’t looking for single-device headsets — and the Cloud III Wireless doesn’t even offer a wired connection; it’s 2.4GHz wireless or nothing.

But if you do happen to be looking for a single-device headset, the Cloud III Wireless is fantastic, and it’s one of the only headsets I can wear for hours and hours at a time. It’s currently on sale for $129 at HyperX — plus you can use the discount code HXFLASH for an extra 15% off, which brings the price down to $110.

— Sarah
(I’ve got 99 problems and somehow wireless headsets are ALL OF THEM.)

GPU prices got you down? Get a console!

Nvidia RTX 4090 prices have been slowly creeping up — thanks a lot, AI. While there are still plenty of deals to be had on GPUs, CPUs, and gaming laptops, maybe the easier (/more affordable) route right now is a solid gaming monitor and a console.

You can grab the Xbox Series X Diablo IV bundle at Target for just $449 — $50 off the list price of the console alone, and $110 off the bundle price. Plus, you’ll get a $75 Target gift card! If you’re not a big Target shopper, you can also grab the same bundle at Walmart for $10 less — $439 — but without the gift card. And if you don’t need Microsoft’s flagship console, you can also pick up the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle at Target for $239 (was $299). 

Deals on Sony’s PlayStation 5 aren’t quite as good, but you can still pick up the new slimmer version of the console bundled with either Spider-Man 2 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III for $499 at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Amazon. This is for the version with the disc drive. 

And if you’ve already got your PC decked out and you don’t want a console at all, Diablo IV is free-to-play for the next few days (through Nov. 28) on Steam.

— Sarah
(Now back to gaming.)

Laptops with 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSDs Are a Bad Deal

It’s Black Friday time so the market is flooded with laptop sales. We’re covering the top ones on our best Black Friday laptop deals page, but if you’re out there browsing the virtual shelves on your own, you might be tempted by some deals that look good if you don’t glance too closely at the specs.

For example, Best Buy has a MacBook Air with M1 chip for just $749, which seems good (if you’re into Macs) because you rarely see a new MacBook for less than $999. And, this $599 Dell XPS 13 might be tempting, because Dell’s laptop is one of lightest and most usable ultraportables around.

But here’s the thing: whether your budget is $500 or $5,000, you should not buy a computer that has just 8GB of RAM. With just a couple of dozen tabs open on my Windows 10 PC, I use nearly 16GB of RAM and that’s without running any memory-intensive games or apps.

In short, if you get a computer with only 8GB of RAM, there’s a very good chance that you’ll be using more memory than you have installed just when you’re browsing the web.  And if you exceed your physical memory, your PC slows down a great deal as it has to read and write from a paging file on your disk to make up for the shortage.

You might be thinking “I’ll just buy this cheap laptop with 8GB of RAM and upgrade it right after I take it out of the box.” That’s possible on some gaming laptops but most thin and light laptops have the RAM soldered in with no upgrade slot — so, if it comes with 8GB, you’re stuck with 8GB forever.

The same laptops that have just 8GB of RAM often come with just a 256GB SSD. While that’s adequate for a Chromebook, you’ll find yourself using up most of the 256GB just from having Windows and a couple of productivity apps like Microsoft Office or Photoshop Elements. In 2023, the minimum storage size should be 512GB.

On the bright side, on many laptops — but not a MacBook —  you can upgrade the SSD after you buy. And with high-end, 1TB SSDs costing as little as $54 these days, buying your drive on the aftermarket isn’t a terrible idea.

However, if you want a computer that works decently out of the box, you need to go for at least 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. What’s particularly shameful about companies offering models with 8GB and 256GB is that the models which have the right specs don’t cost much more and sometimes they are even less. 

So what do we recommend that’s an affordable laptop with 16GB and 512GB or more? I really like this Dell XPS 13 with 16GB and 512GB for $799.

— Avram Piltch

Grab that (slightly older) full-size flagship gaming keyboard for $100+ off

It seems like gaming keyboards are getting smaller and smaller these days — TKL has been the standard size for a while, but we’ve been seeing 75-, 65-, and even 60-percent boards pop up frequently from gaming peripherals companies. Are our desks getting smaller or more crowded? (Maybe we don’t have desks, and it’s all about gaming-on-the-go, I don’t know.) 

Well, whatever it is, it’s good news for those of us who embrace the 10-key numpad and 40 extra macro keys like I do. Because it means there are plenty of full-size keyboards on sale — often for even cheaper than TKL and 75-percent layouts. (60-percent layouts are still pretty cheap — they don’t have arrow keys, after all.) 

Razer’s newest keyboards, like the BlackWidow V4 Pro pictured above, aren’t quite dirt-cheap yet, but you can pick up some older models at a significant discount. The Razer Huntsman V2 Analog, for example, is currently 40% off — just $149.99 at Amazon (was $249.99). 

The Huntsman V2 Analog features Razer’s analog optical mechanical switches, which offer adjustable actuation (between 1.5 – 3.6mm in 0.1mm increments). The switches are linear and actuate with 54 – 74g of force, with a total travel of 4mm. This is a premium keyboard, with durable, shine-resistant doubleshot PBT keycaps, dedicated media keys and a tactile volume knob, and a plush, leatherette wrist rest that reflects the keyboard’s customizable Chroma RGB (similar to, but not quite as flashy as, the wrist rest that comes with the BlackWidow V4 Pro).

(You can read our full Huntsman V2 Analog review here.)

If you’re looking for something full-size and low-profile, Logitech’s G915 Lightspeed wireless keyboard is also on sale, and slightly cheaper: $144 at Amazon with a coupon (was $249).

The G915 Lightspeed is another older premium flagship keyboard that’s absolutely still worth it at $100+ off. The G915 Lightspeed comes with low-profile clicky, tactile, or linear switches (though only the clicky and tactile switch versions are currently on sale for this price), which have an actuation distance of 1.5mm, a total travel distance of 2.7mm, and an actuation force of 50g. 

(You can read our full Logitech G915 Lightspeed review here.)

The G915 Lightspeed offers both 2.4GHz “Lightspeed” wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. It has a sexy brushed aluminum backplate in gunmetal gray, dedicated media keys, macro buttons, and five extra macro keys, and it offers excellent battery life — you should be able to make it through almost two weeks of gaming before you need to recharge. (Of course, if you really don’t need that numpad, the TKL version is also on sale for $129 — tactile version, only.)

— Sarah
(Note all the em dashes, which you can easily input with a numpad. Thanks, full-size keyboard!)

Samsung 990 Pro SSD on Epic Sale: $119 for 2TB, $249 for 4TB

Samsung’s 990 Pro SSD sits at the top of our list of best SSDs and for good reason. This is the fastest PCIe 4.0 drive we’ve tested, besting the likes of the WD Black SN850X and the SK hynix Platinum P41, both excellent SSDs in their own right. 

Thanks to Samsung’s V7 TLC NAND flash and Pascal controller, the 990 Pro achieves great transfer rates, random reads / writes and power efficiency at the same time. To top it all off, the drive uses Samsung’s excellent Magician drive utility.

In what’s likely the best pair of Black Friday SSD deals we’ll see this year, Amazon has the 990 Pro in 2TB capacity for just $119 and 4TB capacity for a mere $249.

When we tested the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, we found that it lead the field in 3D Mark, easily crushing the WD Black SN850X at regular power mode. There’s also a “full power mode,” which added another 138 points to the score.

You’ll note that the Samsung 990 Pro is not quite at the top of SSD benchmark hierarchy, because that ranking is based on QD1 random IOPS. However, when you add together its sequential reads and writes, its power efficiency and its performance on various other benchmarks, the 990 Pro can’t be beaten, except by a much more expensive PCIe 5 drive.

20TB of Hard Drive Storage at an Epic Low Price

Black Friday is always a great time to score capacious storage on the cheap, and this stellar deal on the 20TB Seagate Exos is a perfect example — at its discounted $269 price point, you get a capacious slab of storage for pictures, media, and archival purposes. You can even use this drive to store games that you don’t frequently play and then move them back to your SSD when the time is right.  

This drive, a staple on our list of Best HDDs, comes with a 7,200-RPM spindle speed and uses the tried and true conventional magnetic recording (CMR) tech, not the slower SMR tech that you find in ‘value’ drives of lesser quality. The drive also has 156MB of cache and a sustained transfer rate of 285 MB/s, putting it near the top of our HDD benchmark charts. You can read our full Seagate Exos X20 review here.

This pricing works out to $13.50 per TB of storage, or $0.013 per GB, a price that SSD storage simply can’t match. Yes, you should use an SSD as your primary boot drive, but bulking up your overall storage capacity with an HDD sidekick is a no-brainer.

— Paul Alcorn

Ryzen 9 5900X: 12 Core, 24 Threads for $289

AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X might be a last-gen chip, but its 12 cores and 24 threads still deliver potent performance in a range of workloads, particularly in productivity applications, and its new 50% discount for Black Friday makes it even more appealing, bringing this competent chip down to $289.

The Ryzen 9 5900X is a great upgrade for an AM4 system, providing a huge jump over many of the prior-gen Ryzen 1000, 2000, and 3000 models. Sure, this chip isn’t as fast in gaming as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D model, but it has four more cores for the same price as the X3D model and offers a more balanced profile — the X3D chips offer elite-class gaming performance but suffer from lower performance in productivity work.

— Paul Alcorn

This $17 headphone hanger integrates a 20W USB PD charger

Do-it-all devices that pull together disparate features often turn out to be junk. But it’s hard to discount a $17 (48% off) device that combines an under-the-desk headset hanger / cable holder, and a PD / QC USB charger with two Type-A ports and a Type-C (20W max). Cozoo’s device ships with both 3M tape and screws for mounting under your desk.

Given the price (and the fact that we only know this brand for various versions of this headphone holder), we wouldn’t expect top-notch power circuitry. But the device does have over 4,000 reviews, most of which are positive. Similar headphone hangers alone usually cost more than $12. So even if you only use the USB charger as an occasional backup, it’s worth the extra few buck if you’re shopping for an under-desk headphone holder anyway.

— Matt Safford

Expand the Power of your Laptop, Dock Around the Clock

If you are looking for a way to connect to more devices to your laptop then you need a reliable docking station that’s compatible with your system. If have a MacBook Air, which is port-challenged, adding a dock can add a wide breadth of connectivity options, including USB-A ports, card readers, and even Ethernet. Throw in support for HDMI and DisplayPort on some docks, and you have all you need for a “one cable solution” for the ultimate docking station.

One of the most feature-filled docking stations on the market is the CalDigit TS4. As the successor to the Thunderbolt 3-based TS3 Plus, the TS4 adds support for Thunderbolt 4. The TS4 Plus features 18 ports, including DisplayPort 1.4, a 2.5 GbE port, a UHS-II card reader, audio ports, and a host of USB-A and USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. It also can deliver 98 watts of power to charge a laptop via a single cable. 

It can support a single 8K monitor or two 6K monitors at a 60Hz refresh rate. Needless to say, the dock can handle just about anything you can throw at it and is compatible with both Windows and macOS devices.

The CalDigit TS4 has an MSRP of $449.95 but is currently priced at just $319.99, which is a 29 percent savings.

For those looking for a name-brand solution, look no further than the Anker 332. This 5-in-1 USB-C hub supports 5 Gbps data delivery and 85-watt Power Delivery to a laptop using an external power adapter. It features a 5 Gbps USB-C data port, two USB-A ports, and a 4K HDMI port. However, due to limited bandwidth, 4K support via HDMI is limited to just 30Hz, so keep that in mind.

The Anker 332 has an MSRP of $34.99, but exclusive Prime Day pricing takes it to just $17.99.

For a more affordable option, there’s the Anker 575 USB-C docking station (10 Gbps). It can send 85 watts of power to your laptop for charging and includes two HDMI ports, three USB-A ports, two USB-C ports (one of which supports 18-watt Power Delivery), an Ethernet port, and an SD/microSD slot. It also has a 3.5mm aux port for hooking up speakers or a headset.

It should be noted that the Anker 575 supports up to three 1080p monitors at 60Hz, dual 1440p monitors at 60Hz, or a single 4K monitor at 60Hz.

The Anker 575 typically retails for $249.99 but is currently on sale for $139.

— Avram Piltch

Save $20 on this ‘red hot’ soldering iron deal

This is the soldering station that I have on my desk and it has proven to be a dependable workhorse when I need to get lots of soldering done. For quick jobs I’ll grab a Miniware TS-101 smart soldering iron, or the Fnirsi HS-01 but when I need to do a lot of soldering, you can’t beat this soldering station. 

We have a selection of soldering tips, all easily replaceable and replacements can be sourced for very little cash. The soldering iron is separate to the station, accommodating left or right handed use.

Not only do we get a soldering iron, but we also get a hot air rework station too! Using the included hot air wand we can reflow solder, or solder SMD components using hot air. It heats up quickly and you have full control over the air speed. The hot air turns off when the wand is returned to the holster. Honestly, the hot air rework is extremely useful for soldering and other maker tasks (removing glue, bending plastic and removing heatsinks from cold Raspberry Pi 5.

— Les Pounder

Save 20% and add M.2 SSDs to your Raspberry Pi 4

There are many Raspberry Pi 4 cases on the market, but this one from GeeekPi is a little different. The GeeekPi DeskPi Lite case has space for an M.2 SATA SSD which attaches to the Pi 4 via a carrier board and uses the USB 3 interface to attain high speed transfer. But that’s not all! Another board breaks out full size HDMI ports, additional USB ports and a power button (to officially get that you need a Raspberry Pi 5!)

Keeping everything cool is a large heatsink, covering the SoC, PCIe and RAM, and a fan to draw heat from the heatsink. Next to that we have a GPIO breakout which rotates the pins 90 degrees. This means that an external breakout is needed to use HATs. 

The unit is wrapped in a plastic case which keeps everything neat and tidy, including ports which are now routed to the rear.

This is a fun and useful case that will keep your Raspberry Pi 4, cool and protected. More importantly it will offer fast and cheap M.2 SATA SSD storage. 

–Les Pounder

 Crucial’s PS5-Friendly P5 Plus 2TB SSD Drops to All-Time Low of $88 

 Back when we reviewed Crucial’s P5 Plus, we said it was “engineered for those seeking performance and value.” And that’s never been more true than today, when you can pick up this PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD for a new low price of just $87.99. This is for the model with a built-in heatsink that’s compatible with Sony’s PS5 console.  

 In our testing of the best SSDs for PS5, we gave Crucial’s newer T500 the nod as best cheap drive for the PS5, but showed that the P5 Plus performed similarly, and may be a bit cheaper. And at the moment, the T500 costs $37 more so it’s not worth stepping up to. At this price, the 2TB Crucial P5 Plus is the best cheap SSD for the PS5. And it’s a great drive for creatives and enthusiasts looking for a speedy and affordable PCIe 4.0 drive as well. 

-Matt Safford

The fastest budget 3D printer we have reviewed, Sovol SV07 now has 25% off for Black Friday 

 FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3D printing is the entry point for many enthusiasts and with low cost printers such as the Sovol SV07, who can blame them? The SV07 is fast, cost effective and easy to build and use.The printer also provides auto bed leveling, so no need to adjust the bed leveling springs with a piece of paper! 

The speed element is thanks to Klipper. A firmware that enables greater speed and precision than older Marlin-based printers (we’re still rocking an Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro which is an awesome printer). With Klipper and input shaping, which cancels out vibrations in the print we can print faster and retain quality. A “benchy” boat takes 22 minutes on the Sovol SV07, on our Neptune 3 Pro it takes an hour!

The all-metal Volcano style hotend, with a grippy planetary-geared extruder which provides faster flow with plenty of control. In other words we can squirt a lot of plastic out quickly and precisely.

 If you are new to the world of 3D printing, then this little printer will provide a great and speedy entry to the hobby.

You can find more 3D printer deals on our best Black Friday 3D printer deals and for general tech products, drop by our page full of best Black Friday tech deals.

–Les Pounder

 AMD’s flagship RX 7900 XTX GPU returns to its all-time low price 

We aren’t expecting to see graphics card prices slashed this Black Friday. In fact, the price of Nvidia’s RTX 4090 has been going up in recent days, thanks in part due to export restrictions to China. Given that the Radeon RX 7900XTX is AMD’s top-end consumer competitor to the 4090, and Dell has reportedly limited its export as well, you might expect AMD’s top gaming card to be going up in price as well. But instead, at least for today, it’s back down to its lowest price ever of $889 Amazon for the Sapphire Pules RX 7900 XTX.

One nice thing is that AMD’s flagship ships with 24GB of GDDR6 VRAM, more than enough for modern games and some reassuring future-proofing for the continuing rise in VRAM usage of future AAA games. And the further it pulls away in price from Nvidia’s RTX 4080 (starting around $1,129), the more appealing AMD’s alternative card is.

— Matt Safford

50% off LG’s 34-inch, 3440 x 1440 ultrawide gaming monitor
 

Opting for an ultra-wide monitor for gaming and / or productivity used to be a very expensive endeavor – especially if you also wanted a high refresh rate and high resolution. And it still can be if you opt for one of Samsung’s massive Odyssey models. 

But LG has come this Black Friday to tell you you get into the utlrawide game with few compromises for just $199, 50% off its $399 list price! We haven’t had the chance to review the 34WP60C, but its specs seem pretty solid. 

The 34-inch, 21:9 VA panel sports a 3440 x 1440 resolution, AMD FreeSync premium, and a max 160 Hz refresh rate and 1ms motion blur reduction. HDR 10 is also listed, though with a rating of 400 nits, don’t expect the best HDR experience. Still, for $199 there seems to be little or nothing to complain about here.

Connectivity on the LG 34WP60C is provided via two HDMIs and a single DisplayPort. The stand only offers tilt adjustment (no height or swivel here) so you may want a monitor stand. And there are no included speakers, so you’ll want to pick up one of the best PC speakers to pair with this screen.  

— Matt Safford

A Chance to Upgrade Your Life

It’s Thanksgiving morning here in New York, but rather than sleeping in or watching the Macy’s Day Parade, I am here scouring the web for Black Friday tech deals. Each of my four monitors has a purpose (group chat, CMS work, hunting new deals, checking our site), I’ve got my caffeinated beverages at the ready and my Black Friday 2023 playlist going on Spotify playing “Eye of the Tiger.”  I’m genuinely excited to be doing this, because it gives our readers a fresh opportunity to upgrade both their computers and their lives. And that’s what keeps me going every day.

I think about my own tech life and how, even small tech upgrades, have made a giant difference in my day-to-day experience. Last Black Friday, I beefed up my monitor game and now I’m able to get more done with four different 4K displays, three of which have wide color gamuts that make viewing images on them a pleasure. On that day, my sister-in-law looked at my wish list and ordered me an awesome set of Drop Dasher keycaps which are so comfortable that I’m able to type faster for longer. 

Perhaps your tech life upgrade will be a small one such as a USB hub, a mouse or a new laptop charger. But it could be a major PC component like an SSD, all the parts for a PC build or an entire laptop.  And it’s not just your life that you can upgrade. With the right gift, you can really change the game for a friend or family member. Giving your mom a comfy wrist rest  that costs less than $15 might be a life-saver for her. 

For 27 years at Tom’s Hardware, we’ve lived for the thrill of helping you find and use tech products which can make your days better. This Black Friday, we’re going to make sure you can find that tech at the best prices possible. 

So what kinds of Black Friday tech deals are most exciting this year? As always, there’s some particularly great opportunities to upgrade your storage and your monitor. 

We’re tracking all of the best Black Friday SSD deals and Black Friday monitor deals on separate pages. However, our favorites are the Samsung 990 Pro, the leading PCIe 4.0 SSD, available in 2TB and 4TB capacities for just $119 and $249 respectively, both all-time lows. 

On the monitor front, our overall favorite gaming monitor, the Dell S3222DGM has fallen to $239, its lowest price ever. This curved, 32-inch display outputs at 2560 x 1440 resolution at 165 Hz. Best of all, its VA panel provides amazing contrast levels (nearly 4000:1 in our tests). 

— Avram Piltch