Welcome to Pricefall, where I look to make you save your money by spending it. Today I’ve got a few sales for you: A warning of a future sale, cheap GPUs, cheap power supplies, and maybe one of the last looks to the Xbox 360. Let’s start:
Target
Technically this isn’t a deal yet but it’s big enough to know in advance: Target will be holding a Buy 2 get 1 free (B2G1F) sale from October 30th to November 5th.
The ad scan was leaked early to The Couponing Couple and the B2G1F offer is good for ALL video games and all board games. As if to dispel any concern over “all” meaning “all,” Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is seen on Page 4. There’s three ways to play these sales:
- Participate as you normally would, buying the games during the sales week.
- Buy your games early, don’t open them, and return/rebuy them in a week.
- Wait.
The third option is the trickiest. With Black Friday sales coming up, many of the games released since August will be $25-40. Even October releases aren’t exempt to this rule: In 2015, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate released October 23rd and was $35 on Amazon and Best Buy ($27.99 post-GCU) November 27th. Nobody knows what the prices will be so it’s a risk. Speaking of Best Buy, their B2G1F sale is traditionally not far off from Target’s, so it’s entirely possible that GCU members soon get a cheaper variation of the same deal. You’ve got a week to think about it and if any sales like these pop up related to Best Buy, Toys’R’Us, or GameStop like this, I’ll let you know.
Newegg Sales
Graphics Card (GPU):
Still haven’t used the Masterpass offering at Newegg? How about a GPU upgrade to MSI’s GTX 1060 (3GB) or RX 480 (4GB) for $165 net?
MSI GTX 1060 GAMING X 3G – $209.99 (w/$20 rebate)
The rebate for the 1060 (3GB) is for purchases made between 10/21/16-10/27/16.
MSI RX 480 GAMING X 4G – $209.99 (w/$20 rebate)
The rebate for the RX 480 (4GB) is for purchases done between 10/1/16-10/31/16.
As each card is over $200 with no promo codes, they qualify for MPGAMER16, the code for Masterpass checkout. This brings it down to $184.99 and this stacks with the $20 rebate, bringing each card’s net down to $164.99. Either of these cards is excellent if you’re looking to do 1080p or 1440p gaming (don’t bother trying 4K) and they’re VR capable. That said, if VR is what you want then I’d highly recommend getting options with more RAM, such as the GTX 1060 (6GB), RX 480 (8GB), GTX 1070, or GTX 1080. Finally, neither of these are the reference cards and that’s a godsend for both: MSI’s iteration has seen to being much cooler, quieter, and more stable.
In terms of which to get, it’s mostly preference. Some games run better on NVIDIA (e.g., Overwatch) though anything playable at 60 FPS or better on one should be on the other with minor tweaks and on DX12 the two trade blows. If you like playing games with very high textures, the RX 480 wins. The extra 1GB of VRAM already shows its value with games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and the gap will only grow. Vulkan performance is also superior on AMD and if you play DOOM a lot, that’s a consideration. The 3GB version of the GTX 1060 is also a different card than the 6GB one, losing 10-11% of its cores on top of halving the VRAM. Test after test has shown the difference at 6-8% for most games and some major ones at 10-15%, whereas the 4GB RX 480 performs similarly to the 8GB model at 1080p and 1440p, not including VRAM hungry settings as both collapse under that. All that said, you can’t go wrong with either card, this is just so you know what you’re looking at. Performance for either lands between a GTX 970 and a GTX 980 and is a steal for $165. By every metric two are competitive, they’re both MSI, and they’re the same size, so pick whichever you like the best/performs best in the game you want.
Want one of the modern cards but an 11″ GPU is too long for your case? First time shoppers on Jet get the cheapest option for this one:
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 ACX 2.0 – $209.99 w/promo code TRIPLE15
Though it’s $45 more (not including tax), this is the true GTX 1060 with 6GB RAM. What’s unique is the size: it’s 6.8″ long. While that means it only has one fan and isn’t clocked as highly as others, it should fit in almost any case. The two MSI above are almost 11″ long and that can be a problem to some smaller mini or mid towers. Jet does have tax in more places than Newegg so take that into consideration. For what it’s worth, the card is $239.99 on Newegg and works with Masterpass, so $214.99 overall if you haven’t used it yet. This is still a reasonably good price but does leave me wondering if will it’ll be further discounted with a rebate in the near future. We’ve got until October 31st to see.
Android Pay
Maybe spending $200 this month is just too much or maybe you’re PC building bit by bit. Well, Newegg’s got another checkout sale until 10/31: If you use promo code “ANDROID6” and pay with Android Pay they’ll take off $15 of any $100 order or more. The restrictions can be seen here. The terms are similar to the Masterpass deal, meaning no other promo codes must be involved. Rebates are still valid, so you can keep using the sales trio of discounted price, rebate, and checkout.
Power Supplies
For those new to PC building, your power supply (PSU) is the heart of your machine. It pumps power into every part and a high level efficiency means it’ll do so at a consistent, stable pace. If it dies, expect it to take at least one other piece of your machine with it. This is not the piece you want to skimp on quality for and there’s a few companies with consistently strong performance, such as SeaSonic, Corsair, and EVGA. Of those only SeaSonic actually makes the core unit, the other two buy from various makers and do some adjustments. These makers generally range from those at the top of the list (e.g., SeaSonic, Super Flower) to those a tier lower (e.g., Fortron Source Power) for affordability. Here’s two sales that expire Monday:
EVGA 650 GQ – $79.99 ($51.99 after rebate and promo code 1018EYRPAS05)
- Semi Modular
- 80+ GOLD Certified
- 5 year warranty
- $20 rebate (Newegg exclusive)
The maker for this would be Fortron Source Power (FSP) and an in depth review can be read here singing its praise. For $52 it’s hard to go wrong a highly efficient 650W PSU as that’s enough to run almost any PC with a single GPU this gen, even a Titan X. Last gen’s GPUs were power-hungry monsters so unless you’re running one of those and something like an AMD FX-95XX CPU, you’re probably fine. If you’re still concerned, have an older GPU, want more overhead, or want an even better power supply, I’ve got the one just for you:
SeaSonic X Series X-850 -$99.99 ($69.99 after rebate and promo code EMCFEFM67)
- Fully Modular
- 80 PLUS GOLD Certified
- 7 year warranty
- $20 rebate (Newegg exclusive)
It’s an 850W SeaSonic X for $70. It meets the top-class expectations attached to SeaSonic’s name. If you want to future proof yourself a bit better, or feel you may do multiple card setups then the extra $12 is well worth it. Technically you can actually make this cheaper if you forego the promo code and use Android Pay: at $99.99 it’s a penny off, so with some cheap filler you could get it for $3-4 less.
Lastly, Newegg’s got their usual gift card sale: buy a $25 Newegg gift card and get a $5 digital gift card for free. This card is available within 4 days of invoice and if you’re a Premier member shipping is free. If not, shipping is $1.99 and it’s $27 for $30. Though not much, it’s an easy way to save yourself an extra $3-5 later. If you’re a gambler you could actually use for the GPU sales that expire in a few days: should it ship fast enough and the GPUs remain in stock, you could apply both the physical and digital gift cards to that.
Xbox 360
The last deal today is no doubt a surprise for those catching up on their last gen backlog or want to:
500GB Media Hard Drive for Xbox 360 – $29.99
If you were looking to download some 360 games, there you go, no more looking for cheap official hard drives or working around a Western Digital. Coupled with the basic 4GB model it’s a cheap way to catch up or get into its library, which still has exclusives like Ace Combat 6 and Lost Odyssey. Don’t have one? Pre-owned and refurbished models are between $50 and 80 on GameStop and should be even cheaper next month based on the past two years. Just buy the HDD for now and put it to the side, the sale won’t last until then. If you’d rather buy new your options are more limited, though I did see a 4GB Peggle 2 bundle for $130 after shipping on Amazon.
That’s it for Pricefall today! Got any questions, comments, or requests, sound off and I’ll keep track.
(Full Disclosure: the links in the Xbox 360 section are affiliate links, meaning we get a fraction of money spent on your purchase, which is used to pay our server fees.)
