Weekend Hardware Sales - $195 IPS Panel, $70 Mechanical Keyboard
Posted on August 10, 2014
Scott's taking a break this weekend for vacation, so I'll be filling-in for the regularly-scheduled hardware sales round-up. This weekend, we spotted an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board marked down to $130, 27" Acer IPS panel for $195, and Tt eSports Poseidon Z keyboard for $70.
ASRock Z97 Extreme4 Motherboard ($130): For those building a mid-range Intel gaming PC with intentions to socket a Devil's Canyon or Haswell Refresh chip on the board, we generally recommend spending in the $100-$150 range on a board to get started. ASRock's Extreme4 offers some entry-level overclocking functionality and is outfitted with generally high-quality components, making for an ideal mid-range board for a new system.
Tt eSports Poseidon Z Keyboard ($70): We recently reviewed Thermaltake's new Poseidon Z mechanical keyboard. It was priced at $80 at the time of review, but with a new price of $70, the Poseidon Z has become one of the most affordable full-featured mechanical keyboards on the market. The Poseidon Z ships with Kailh Blue switches -- almost indiscernible from Cherry MX Blue -- and a full tenkey pad.
Corsair Carbide Spec 03 ($60): Corsair's Spec-03 mid-tower enclosure snuck up on us. The new-ish enclosure offers a relatively spacious and modifiable interior, a clear side panel window, and cooling essentials for a mid-range or budget build. Additional cooling compatibility gives room to grow.
Pick of the Week
Acer 27" IPS Panel ($195): Use code "EMCPBPE46" at checkout for an additional $15 off of this display. IPS panels offer greater color depth and clarity, but often suffer in gaming environments; we almost always recommend IPS panels to artists who require precision with colors. Acer's 27" IPS panel is marked at a 5ms GTG response time -- not as slow as some of the earlier rev panels, but still a couple milliseconds slower than the average LCD. If you're looking for high-quality colors and don't do much in the way of fast-paced or competitive gaming, this is an excellent price.
- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.