Gaze ye upon the latest edition of our best Anti-Prime Day deals guide: RPS’ annual attempt to make Amazon Prime Day a little less, uhhh, Amazony, while keeping to the theme of highlighting choice savings on PC gaming hardware. Fancy a bargain SSD, gaming monitor or graphics card, but are steadfast in your refusal to pay for Jeffy B’s third yacht? You’re in the right place.
If it sounds unlikely, trying to compete on price with the economies-of-scale juggernaut that is Amazon, it’s actually a reliable trend for rival retailers to launch their own sales during Prime Day. This year’s event, which runs across the 11th and 12th of July, is set to be no exception, and there are even thousands of early deals that match or beat Amazon’s own early deals on the same kit.
Not only are these free of the Prime membership requirement that all the best on-the-day Amazon Prime deals will have, they also – obviously – don’t involve any interaction with Amazon at all. The only catch? A lot of the early Anti-Prime Day sales I’ve seen have been slightly garbo, but I’ve sifted them down to only the finest discounts, all on PC gaming gubbins that are genuinely worth owning. You’ll find all of these below.
(We’ve also got dedicated guides to the early Prime Day graphics card deals and the early Prime Day Steam Deck accessories deals, but these are from Amazon. Look, I am but a lowly section ed, my hands are tied.)
Scroll on for the full list, or hit these shortcuts to jump to each section.
Fair play to those non-Amazon retailers, their SSD deals are generally both as numerous and as generous as Amazon’s. A whole bunch of RPS favourites are here, from the best-in-class WD Black SN850X to the fast yet affordable Crucial P3. The Samsung Pro Plus, our current top pick of the best microSD cards for the Steam Deck, is also on sale in the UK and US alike.
UK deals:
US deals:
As these deals demonstrate, Prime Day is a good time to make big savings on normally-spenny display types like ultrawides and 4K monitors. That Asus TUF Gaming VG289Q1A offer makes it especially cheap by 4K standards, though it does only manage a 60Hz refresh rate.
UK deals:
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LG 27GQ50F – £130 from Ebuyer (was £210)27in, 1920×1080, 165Hz, VA panel, AMD Freesync Premium |
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Acer Nitro XZ322QUP – £280 from Ebuyer (was £360)31.5in, 2560×1440, 165Hz, VA panel, AMD Freesync |
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Asus TUF Gaming VG289Q1A – £299 from Ebuyer (was £360)28in, 3840×2160, 60Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync |
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Asus ROG Strix XG27UQR – £629 from Ebuyer (was £716)27in, 3840×2160, 144Hz, IPS panel, Nvidia G-Sync |
US deals:
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Acer KC242Y Abi – $100 from Best Buy (was $130)24in, 1920×1080, 100Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync |
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Gigabyte G27Q – $220 from Newegg (was $250)27in, 2560×1440, 144Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync Premium |
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Samsung Odyssey G5 (ultrawide) – $400 from Best Buy (was $550)34in, 3440×1440, 165Hz, VA panel, AMD Freesync Premium |
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Sony Inzone M9 – $798 from B&H Photo Video (was $898)27in, 3840×2160, 144Hz, IPS panel, Nvidia G-Sync |
Several of these gaming mouse discounts price-match Amazon, and for some pedigree rodents too. The Logitech G502 Hero is particularly beloved by current and former RPS hardware editors, as well as you lot.
UK deals:
US deals:
Another gaggle of great, Amazon-free peripherals. Special mention to the Razer Huntsman V2, which I’ve previously used as my everyday desk partner, and the Logitech G915 TKL Lightspeed Wireless: a more compact version of the classic G915, which has been parked on our best gaming keyboards roundup for so long that the local oiks have begun graffitiing it.
UK deals:
US deals:
For now, all the best-value gaming headset offers are basically the usual suspects. The Logitech G432, HyperX Cloud II, and HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless are all brilliant in their own ways, and while this isn’t the first Prime Day for any of them, they’re still all deserving of your attention.
UK deals:
US deals:
lIKE Amazon’s deals, these are mainly dominated by Nvidia’s RTX 30 and 40 series – perfect for taking advantage of DLSS. The occasional AMD Radeon GPU may have snuck in, though, which is fine as the latest RX 7900 family comprises some respectable 4K-ready cards.
UK deals:
US deals:
Deals on older gaming CPUs are available, but I’d stick to the latest stuff: that being Intel’s 12th and 13th gen chips, and AMD’s Ryzen 5000 and 7000 series. The Ryzen 5 7600X, in particular, seems to be dropping quite aggressively in these early sales.
UK deals:
US deals:
Tragically, I haven’t found any DDR5 RAM deals that rival Amazon’s best efforts. Still, both DDR5 and older DDR4 kits (don’t worry, the performance difference is minimal) are going for less right now, so one of these dual-channel sets could make an ideal accompaniment to your next CPU and/or motherboard upgrade.
UK deals:
US deals:
Gaming laptops aren’t going to be as powerful with a desktop with similar-seeming parts, but they’re plenty capable of running most games at a decent clip. Especially if you go for one of the higher-end models, like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Besides their innate portability, gaming laptops also save a lot more space than a tower PC and monitor setup, so can work at home if you’ve only got a teensy desk.
UK deals:
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Lenovo Legion 5 Ryzen – £800 from Ebuyer (was £1051)17.3in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, RTX 3060, 512GB SSD |
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MSI Katana 15 – £1200 from Ebuyer (was £1051)15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i7-12650H, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD |
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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – £2694 from Ebuyer (was £3088)14in, 2560×1600, 165Hz, IPS display, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, RTX 4080, 1TB SSD |
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Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 – £3000 from Ebuyer (was £3259)16in, 2560×1600, 240Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i9-13980HX, RTX 4080, 2TB SSD |
US deals:
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Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 – $600 from Best Buy(was $900)15.6in, 1920×1080, 120Hz, IPS display, AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, RTX 3050 Ti, 256GB SSD |
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Asus ROG Strix G16 – $1100 from Newegg (was $1200)16in, 1920×1200, 165Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i5-13450HX, RTX 4050, 1TB SSD |
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Asus ROG Zephyrus 14 – $1600 from Best Buy (was $1850)14in, 2560×1600, 240Hz, IPS display, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD |
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Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 – $2500 from Newegg (was $3300)15.6in, 2560×1440, 240Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i9-12900H, RTX 3080 Ti, 1TB SSD |
