GoKawiilUnless you have several extra hundred dollars to burn, it’s virtually impossible to build a PC right now, even as Prime Day deals start rolling out. You’ll spend more than twice as much (sometimes three times as much) on a kit of DDR5 memory as you would just a year ago, and SSD prices have shot up so much that a decent NVMe drive can rival the price of a graphics card. The key to skirting the worst part of these price hikes is to shop for bundles.
If you regularly browse Tom’s Hardware, you’ve probably seen us cover bundle deals before. We’ve seen a massive increase in their availability and discount rate over the past few months, specifically when a CPU and motherboard are bundled with RAM and/or an SSD. That isn’t an accident. It’s a concentrated effort by retailers, motherboard vendors, and CPU brands to move product in a time when RAM prices have hamstrung the consumer market.
Those bundles are starting to proliferate online. Originally starting at Newegg online and Micro Center in-store, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of bundles available just about everywhere. Some of these bundles will unlock a reasonable price for building a rig. Others offer little more than some pocket change for the trouble of shelling out money at inflated prices. We’re going to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.
We’re going to run down a few bundle deals that are live for Prime Day to kickstart your next build, as well as provide a bit of context on why we’re seeing so many bundles and why the discounts on them are so high. Our focus here is DDR5, as that’s the biggest hurdle you need to overcome when building a new PC right now. DDR4 bundles are available, as well, though much of the focus is on newer platforms.
Bundle deals typically sell out quickly. We will try to keep this list updated with new bundles as we go throughout Prime Day, so check back throughout the week for fresh deals.
A midrange DDR5 bundle with the Ryzen 5 9600X and 1TB of storage for $635
If you want to get started on a DDR5 build, this bundle from Newegg has everything you need. It includes the Ryzen 5 9600X at the heart of the machine with six Zen 5 cores and 12 threads, alongside a 16GB kit of Team Group memory clocked at DDR5-6000 and a 1TB Patriot P410 SSD. The motherboard is a MSI Pro B850-S, which is decent considering the entry-level design.
The motherboard is a full ATX design, so it should fit in most PC cases outside of small form factor options. I/O is fairly limited, but you still get an internal USB-C header, along with two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, four USB 3.0 ports, and 2.5Gb Ethernet. The board also has two M.2 slots attached, along with a block of four SATA 6 Gb connectors for additional storage.
As for the Ryzen 5 9600X and Teamgroupe memory, it’s all you need to get started with a modern gaming rig. 32GB of memory is ideal, but the 16GB kit included in this bundle only occupies two of the four DIMM slots on our motherboard, so sizing up down the line is always an option. The Patriot P410 is a PCIe 4.0 SSD and it comes with 1TB of storage, giving you plenty of room to install your OS and apps.
For a kicker, Newegg includes a free $80 Cooler Master Elite Liquid 240 all-in-one liquid cooler with the bundle. Although the discount may not seem like much, this bundle essentially cuts the DDR5 price down to normal levels while maintaining the list price of the Ryzen 5 9600X and Gigabyte motherboard.
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