G'afternoon, folks. Christmas is approaching fast, and meanwhile I'm having trouble believing we're into December already, sheesh. This year was a bit of a blur, probably owing to the large number of CPU and graphics card releases. No matter now, you and I should be considering offering sweet hardware to our friends and loved ones, right? Here are today's top picks for that purpose.
- Here's a shocking surprise: a deal on an SSD! Joking aside, our top deal today is the Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB solid-state drive. This is probably fastest consumer SATA drive around, or close to that. It outpaced every drive in its category back when we reviewed it. This model can push 550 MB/s on sequential reads and 520 MB/s on writes, but random I/O is its strongest characteristic at 98K IOPS on reads and 90K IOPS while writing. Newegg's running a sweet deal on this SSD, and you can get it for $74.99 with the cart code EMCXEREX2.
- Everyone wants more and better power, perhaps in the form of the Seasonic Focus Plus 850W power supply. This unit is rated 80 Plus Gold for efficiency and has fully modular cabling for keeping a build tidy. The 140-mm fan spins down when it's not needed (most of the time, we'd wager) and Seasonic offers a 10-year warranty. The asking price is $89.99 at Newegg, and an available $20 rebate card can bring the final tally down to just $69.99.
- We all drool at the prospect of high-refresh-rate displays around here, but oftentimes what you need is just a reliable workhorse monitor like the Acer CB271HU. This 27" pixel grid uses a 10-bit IPS panel with a resolution of 2560×1440 and brightness around 350 cd/m². There's a pair of built-in speakers, and the included stand is height-adjustable, to boot. You get one each of every relevant input: DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. Newegg will hand you this display for $219.99 with the cart code EMCEREX47.
- 4K movies and raw footage for your gerbils videos takes up quite a bit of space. You'd be well-advised to take a look at the Seagate Expansion 8-TB drive for mass storage purposes. This unassuming black slab uses a USB 3.0 interface and goes for just $129.99 at Newegg. That works out to $16.25 a terabyte.
- To wrap up today's proceedings, we have two magnificent mobile machines. The first one is the Acer Aspire 5 15.6" laptop (A515-51G-87PK). It's not the sleekest model around, but it's positively loaded with goodies. An Intel Core i7-8550U CPU is flanked by 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce MX150 graphics card, while byte storage is provided by a combo storage setup with a 128-GB SSD and a 1-TB hard drive. The display's resolution is 1920×1080, and as an added bonus, the laptop's RAM sticks and hard drive are easily accessible for upgrades. $599.99 is all you'll need to take this machine home from Newegg with the cart code EMCEREX23.
- While the laptop above is probably good enough for 90% of people, serious gaming on the go requires a bit more displacement. Enter the Acer Predator Helios 300 15.6" gaming notebook. This beast makes good use of an Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB graphics card. Your games and applications can go into a 256 GB-SSD and a 1-TB hard drive. The 1920×1080 display should cover 100% of the sRGB color space, and the refresh rate is a whopping 144 Hz. Additional bonuses include a backlit keyboard and a USB Type-C port. You'd think this machine would be a $1500 job, but Newegg will hand it to you for just $1199.99 if you insert the cart code EMCEREX26. You also get a free bundle with a sweet Acer Cestus 300 mouse and an Intel software pack that includes Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
That's all for today, folks! There's a chance you're looking for something we haven't covered. If that's the case, you can help The Tech Report by using the following referral links when you're out shopping: not only do we have a partnership with Newegg and Amazon, but we also work with Best Buy, Adorama, Rakuten, Walmart, and Sam's Club. For more specific needs, you can also shop with our links at Das Keyboard's shop.