Mik's Picks: Weekend Hardware Sales - $200 27" Monitor, $60 400R

Welcome to another edition of Mik's picks. The new school year is fast approaching -- as we noted in our recent budget gaming PC build -- so we've now begun our yearly ritual of back-to-school hardware sales round-ups. Even if you're not a school-goer yourself, you can still take advantage of the annual purge by hardware retailers.

Toshiba 1TB HDD ($65): In the past month or so, Western Digital seemed to be the only company to offer a 1TB hard drive for cheap -- Toshiba decided to join-in on the fun. This HDD not only has a hefty TB of storage space, it's fast enough for primary use at 7200RPM. For $65, you get a great option for either your primary or archival storage device.

Cooler Master eXtreme 500W PSU ($20): This is another one of those deals that I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't an illusion or typo. Cooler Master is offering a 500W power supply for only $20 after rebate, and to make things better, the PSU has a capital "X" in it, which means... something.  It is listed as 70% efficient at typical loads, which is pretty dismal for anything more expensive than a "cheap bastard's" build, but at $20, it's really not a bad choice for an ultra-budget PC.

27'' Hanns-G LED Monitor ($200): This is one huge (that's a technical term) LED monitor that offers 27" of viewing area and nearly every available interface type (VGA, VDI, HDMI) and even some cheap built-in speakers. It also boasts up to 75Hz refresh rate, 2ms GTG response time, and 1920 x 1080 resolution at a $200 price-point.

Time for another dual Pick of the Week!

Corsair Carbide 400R case ($60): The first of the dual deals showcases a mid-range gaming enclosure at budget-range pricing: The Corsair 400R comes with 3x120mm fans (and room for up to 10x120mm fans) and comes with plenty extras, like tool-less installation, dust filters, and a spacious interior for cable management. Not bad for $60 after rebate.

EVGA 650Ti Boost ($155): EVGA sometimes feels like NVidia's favored son, making use of PrecisionX for most OC/OV and Adaptive Fan Speed Control tooling in press demos. This variant of the 650 Ti Boost comes superclocked out-of-the-box, so you get card with a slight overclock (~5-8%), which equates to better performance. The 650Ti boost holds its own with an 1172MHz core clock and 2GB of GDDR5 RAM on a 192-bit interface, not to mention its 768 CUDA cores. NVidia is still offering their Free-to-Play promo deal with its cards, currently in the form of $75 for PlanetSide 2, Hawken, or World of Tanks.

Well, that's all for this week. There are many more deals out there to find, so until next time.

- Michael "Mikagmann2" Mann.