Hello, fine gerbils. It's with great pleasure that about three years on, I can finally enable FreeSync on my Acer XF270HU. Back when I bought this display, I kind of bet that Nvidia would support the technology, because, hey, why not? Alas, that didn't pan out, and I was left fuming for a good long while. A couple weeks ago, I was literally thinking of selling this monitor to a friend and grabbing a G-Sync monitor instead. Lo and behold, Nvidia announces the "G-Sync compatible" mode, and I'm now a happy camper. Today's deals are a little late because I, uh, had some testing to do. Here they are.
- We're leading today with a pixel pusher: the Asrock RX 570 Phantom Gaming X 8 GB. This unit packs a beefy heatsink sitting underneath a two-fan cooler. The whole contraption is about as long as the card's name, and the Radeon chip onboard should be able to hit 1331 MHz in OC mode, while the memory ought to go up to 7280 MT/s. There's no onboard RGB lighting or other frivolities, but we figure that's fine since the price tag is just $149.99 at Newegg Flash. Get one while stock lasts.
- You're doing yourself a disservice if you're still typing on an awful $10 membrane keyboard. Take a look at the Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Low Profile Rapidfire keyboard instead. Although the retailer page says this clacker uses Cherry's MX Speed switches, our resident keyboard nerd Seth Colaner points out they're actually MX Low Profile Speed switches exclusive to Corsair, and that they have a high actuation point and short travel. The keyboard makes great use of per-key RGB LED lighting. There are dedicated media control keys and a volume roller, along with a USB pass-through port. You can read our full review here. Best Buy will hand you one of these for just $89.99.
- While we're on the topic of "things you shouldn't skimp on," let's turn our attention to power supplies. Remove your no-name unit that'll cause you grief, and instead put in something like the EVGA Supernova 650 G1+ PSU. This pack o' juice has fully modular cabling, semi-passive cooling with a 135-mm fan, and an 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating. Inside, you'll find Japanese capacitors, while outside there's a 10-year warranty. You can have this unit for a mere $64.99 from Newegg if you input the cart code EMCTUUA33.
- Gonna build up a Ryzen system? You'll want to take a look at the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming motherboard. This circuit slab has metal-clad main PCIe slots, two M.2 sockets, a Realtek ALC1220-VB audio codec, and Intel-powered Ethernet connectivity. It's as fine a home as any for contemporary Ryzen CPUs, and at $119.99 at Newegg, it's definitely worth a look.
- We have a lot of components in this deals post, and it's time for RAM. The G.Skill Aegis 16-GB dual-channel kit with 3000 MT/s DIMMs is compact, speedy, and will run you only $92.99 at Newegg. 'Nuff said.
- The final piece today is a mighty one. If you're bored with underpowered laptops that will cough, hack, and sputter the moment they need to run anything heavier than Minesweeper, then check out the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501. For starters, this 15.6" machine uses a 1920×1080 AHVA display with a whopping 144-Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support. That's only the start, though. Inside, there's an Intel Core i7-8750H processor fed by 16 GB of RAM and dancing along with a GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q graphics card. Dang, son. A roomy 512-GB PCIe SSD rounds out the main specs. Additional niceties include a keyboard with RGB LED lighting, as well as 2×2 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi. All you'll need to take this machine home from Newegg is $1899.99, and you get a code for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for your trouble.
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.