Amazon Prime Day 2018: Best deals on laptops, desktops, and PC parts

Buried among the Amazon Prime Day deals on sheet sets and luxury skin cream are the deals the PCWorld staff cares about most: laptops, desktops, components, keyboards, mice, routers, and everything that completes the PC experience.

This year has a surprisingly well-rounded selection of bargains on offer. Of course, that has to do partially with Amazon’s ever-growing reach: The company’s AmazonBasics line keeps expanding, as does its roster of third-party partners and vendors.

Looking for more Amazon Prime Day bargains? Check out our full list of deals.

Latest updates:

7/17/18, 8:15 a.m.: Added more SSD deals to the component section, plus a fantastic basic desktop deal.

7/16/18, 11:17 p.m.: We’ve added a whole bunch of deals to the list. Check out the cases, keyboard, laptop, motherboard, routers/networking, and mice sections for fresh additions, plus our new gaming headset, printer/scanner, and speaker categories.

Accessories

$10.70 – AmazonBasics Metal Monitor Stand, Black

Sometimes you don’t need fancy products to get a job done. This ultra-simple monitor stand will serve in a pinch if you want to save money more than anything else.

Components

Cases

$110 – Corsair 460X RGB mid-tower case, Black
$140 – Corsair Crystal 570X RGB mid-tower case, Black

One of our favorite cases, the Corsair 570X, is at one of the lowest prices we’ve seen yet. (Technically, it’s been cheaper at Newegg, but you had to file a mail-in rebate.) Just behold the glory of that tempered glass, and you’ll know why we’re tempted to break our rule on buying things we don’t need.

If $140 is too rich for your blood, you can instead opt for a more modest 460X, but its $110 price tag isn’t quite the lowest we’ve seen. But if you have to have it now, it’s available at a modest discount.

CPUs

$225 – AMD Ryzen 7 2700 processor with Wraith Spire LED Cooler

This price is a substantial savings over previous deals. It’s enough of a drop that if you wanted to splurge on the Gigabyte X470 board that’s on sale right now, you’d still come out even with the 2700’s normal price and a much cheaper mobo.

Motherboards

$90 – Asus ROG Strix B350-F AM4 ATX Motherboard
$118 – ASUS Prime Z370-P LGA1151 motherboard
$150 – ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E LGA1151 RGB motherboard
$175 – GIGABYTE X470 AORUS Gaming 7 WIFI AM4 RGB motherboard

If you feel like splurging on a premium motherboard, now’s a good time to do it. We don’t see these models with RGB on sale as often as their less flashy counterparts.

Power Supplies

$25 – EVGA 500 W1 80+ WHITE 500W power supply

Storage

$60 – Seagate 3TB BarraCuda 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
$74 – Seagate 3TB IronWolf NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
$133 – Seagate 6TB IronWolf v11 NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
$158 – Seagate 6TB BarraCuda Pro 7200RPM 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
$161 – Seagate 6TB IronWolf Pro v11 7200RPM 3.5-Inch NAS Hard Disk Drive
$170 – Seagate 8TB Barracuda 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
$301 – Seagate 12TB IronWolf 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
$70 – Seagate 2TB FireCuda Gaming 3.5-inch Solid State Hybrid Drive
$50 – Crucial MX500 250GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD
$60 – Crucial MX500 250GB 3D NAND SATA M.2 Internal SSD
$105 – Crucial MX500 500GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD
$150 – SanDisk SSD PLUS 1TB solid state drive
$155 – Crucial MX500 1TB SSD
$160 – Samsung 960 EVO Series 500GB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD
$319 – Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD

Of the discounts on internal hard-disk drives, the best bargains are the 3TB NAS, 6TB, and 12TB drives from Seagate. (Particularly that massive 12TB one.) You’ll also score the lowest (or very-near lowest) prices on the SSDs, too.

Gaming headsets

$50 – Corsair Void Pro Surround Sound Wired Gaming Headset, White
$50 – Corsair Void Pro Surround Sound Wired Gaming Headset, Black
$50 – Corsair Void Pro Surround Sound Wired Gaming Headset, Red

We haven’t tested this particular model of the Void Pro, but we think it safe to say that for $50, these wired cans should satisfy most non-audiophiles.

Keyboards

$45 – Logitech MK710 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo
$48 – Logitech MK545 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo
$50 – HyperX Alloy FPS Pro mechanical keyboard, Cherry MX Red
$60 – Logitech G610 Orion Mechanical Keyboard, Cherry MX Brown switches
$70 – HyperX Alloy FPS Mechanical Keyboard, Cherry MX Red switches
$75 – Corsair STRAFE RGB mechanical keyboard, Cherry MX Brown switches
$80 – Corsair K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, Cherry MX Brown switches
$85 – Corsair K65 LUX RGB mechanical keyboard, Cherry MX Red switches
$88 – HyperX Alloy Elite Mechanical Keyboard, Cherry MX Red switches
$99 – Razer Orbweaver Chroma RGB mechanical gaming keypad
$100 – Corsair K70 LUX RGB mechanical keyboard, Cherry MX Red switches
$135 – Corsair K95 RGB Platinum mechanical keyboard, Cherry MX Speed switches

Prime Day brings a ton of discounts on popular mechanical keyboards this year, including the insanely popular Corsair K70 and HyperX’s affordable Alloy. The Alloy, Strafe, K70 RGB, and K95 RGB are at all-time lows.

Laptops & desktops

Windows 10 laptops

$179 – ASUS VivoBook E203MA Windows 10 S laptop (4GB RAM, 64GB storage)
$330 – Acer Aspire E 15 (i3-8130U, 6GB RAM, 1TB storage)
$570 – MSI GL62M 7RD 1407 15.6-inch gaming laptop (i5-7300HQ, GTX 1050)
$700 – Asus VivoBook S 14-inch Thin & Light laptop (i7-8550U, 256GB SSD, GeForce MX150)
$729 – ASUS FX503VD 15.6-inch gaming laptop(i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050)
$799 – MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US 15.6-inch gaming laptop (i7-7700HQ, GeForce GTX 1050Ti)
$899 – Acer Predator Helios 300 15.6-inch gaming laptop (i7-7700HQ, GTX 1060 6GB)

If you absolutely must have a cheap and portable Windows 10 laptop, the VivoBook isn’t a bad option—especially because you can upgrade Windows 10 S to full Windows 10 for free. It will, of course, perform like an extreme-budget laptop; that’s to be expected given the specs and price.

Instead, we recommend the Aspire E 15 if you don’t mind some bulk. It’s a basic Windows 10 laptop that’ll offer the full Win10 experience out of the box and good performance in the future. It’s already a value-buy at its normal price, so it’s almost a steal at sale price of $330.

If you want to go even more premium, the $700 Asus VivoBook S is a great deal. You get a 256GB SSD and discrete graphics in a system that’s just 3.2 pounds.

As for the gaming laptops, we’ve seen cheaper deals during Black Friday, but these are very respectable prices for what you get. If you can’t wait another four months, these are worth a look.

Chromebooks

$140 – Acer Chromebook 11 (4GB RAM, 16GB storage)
$200 – Acer Chromebook 14 (4GB RAM, 32GB storage)
$200 – Acer Chromebook R 11 convertible (4GB RAM, 32GB storage)
$229 – Asus Chromebook Flip C101PA-DB02 (4GB RAM, 16GB storage)
$250 – Asus Chromebook Flip C213SA-YS02 (4GB RAM, 32GB storage)
$315 – Acer Chromebook R 13 Convertible (4GB RAM, 32GB storage)
$399 – Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA-DHM4 (4GB RAM, 64GB storage)

Need a Chromebook? Amazon’s got you covered. The models with the steepest discounts are the Acer Chromebook 11 and Acer Chromebook R 11 convertible, but all of these models offer solid savings.

Desktops

$380 – Acer Aspire Desktop TC-780-ACKI5 (i5-7400, 12GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB HDD)
$1,199 – iBUYPOWER RGB gaming desktop PC (Liquid-cooled i7-8700K, GTX 1070 Ti, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD+1TB HD)

Just one desktop deal is worth mentioning this Prime Day. While the difference between DIY and pre-built has shrunk now that component prices aren’t so crazy, this particular build offers about $200 savings versus DIY. Of course, if you’re careful about shopping on sales, it’s possible to match these specs, but for those who don’t need the satisfaction of rolling their own PC, this is a solid choice.

The iBuyPower system may have sold out, but budget gamers are in luck: You can snag a solid pre-built system for just $380 right now. Even though 7th-gen i5-7400 is “only” a 4-core part, it should still hold up well, and the amount of storage and RAM is generous. Just pair it with a good graphics card and you’re all set.

Mice

$14.25 – Logitech M510 Wireless Mouse, Black
$14.25 – Logitech M510 Wireless Mouse, Blue
$14.25 – Logitech Wireless Mouse M510, Red
$30 – HyperX Pulsefire FPS Gaming Mouse & HyperX FURY S Medium Mouse Pad combo
$35 – Corsair M65 Pro RGB gaming mouse, Black
$45 – Corsair GLAIVE RGB gaming mouse
$47 – Razer DeathAdder Elite RGB Gaming Mouse
$48 – Razer Lancehead RGB Gaming Mouse
$28 – Asus ROG Sheath Gaming Mouse Pad, XL
$38 – Corsair MM800 Polaris RGB mouse pad
$45 – CORSAIR MM800C Polaris Mouse Cloth mouse mat

The collection of mice discounts has expanded to include non-gaming mice, too. If you need something in expensive to pair with a laptop, the M510’s worth a look. On the gaming side of things, the M65 Pro is at its lowest price ever.

Monitors

$126 – HP Pavilion 25xw 25-in IPS LED-backlit monitor
$385 – LG 34UC79G-B 34-Inch 144Hz UltraWide IPS gaming monitor
$525 – ViewSonic VX4380-4K 43-inch 4K IPS Frameless LED IPS Monitor

The discounts on these monitors are some of the deepest we’ve seen—and the selection covers both everyday users and gamers alike. (That ultrawide is particularly tempting, though.)

Printers and scanners

It’s no longer 1998, but sometimes you still have to print a form and mail it—or the reverse, scan a form and email it. When it comes to the latter, it can pay to buy a more expensive scanner to churn through stacks of old paperwork quickly—and while $360 isn’t exactly cheap, the price is good for this level of equipment.

Routers and networking

We’ve moved this to our central list of Amazon Prime Day deals, so that Mac-loving folk don’t miss out on these discounts.

Speakers

$50 – Logitech Z523 Speaker System with Subwoofer
$200 – Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System

While we know that computer speakers are a polarizing topic (either you find merit in them or you don’t), these two systems are popular enough—and cheap enough right now—to get a mention.

Streaming

$100 – Elgato Stream Deck

The Stream Deck is an excellent piece of hardware that makes makes streaming (or even recording game video) much easier. Even though it had some software issues during our review, at 33% off MSRP, it’s worth a look—we liked it enough to still call it a valuable tool in a streaming kit.