The summer's biggest PC shopping event is over. At midnight on July 16, the Amazon Prime Day deals ended, and all our wallets breathed a collective sigh of relief. If you wanted to pop some new components in your PC, and wanted to save yourself a few dollars, then you missed out. Not the end of the world, but it does mean that you're reliant on flash sales and 'deals of the day' to find the parts you need, until the inevitable behemoth of Black Friday stomps in this November. As an opportunity to bulk out your rig or upgrade your set-up, Amazon Prime Day is becoming a more established event and this year marks the biggest and longest sale from the retailer to date. There's an inevitability to its return in 2020, likely on July 13-14.

The Amazon Prime Day deals actually served PC owners well this year. While components like SSDs and some of the best gaming monitors are regulars in the discount pages on most retailers, they dropped especially low via Amazon. Laptops were the real winners, though, and the Razer Blade 15 was actually one of the biggest sellers among PCG's audience, along with the trusty Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD, which is fast becoming a PC essential.

Below is a list of the stuff you could've bought on Amazon Prime Day. Sure, it's now back up to full price, but it's still worth a scan to see what might have been. If nothing else, it'll give you a decent idea of what each item is worth and, if you're planning to buy anything on this list over the next few months, you'll be able to see whether or not you're actually getting a good deal. As a rule of thumb, if you see it cheaper than it was on Prime Day, it's probably worth a serious look.

Best deals you missed

Acer Nitro 27" 4K IPS gaming monitor | $640 (save $260)

This monitor has an IPS panel, but it's still great for gaming at high resolutions. and not only can it go up to a 4K resolution, but it's also G-Sync compatible and can overclock to a 144Hz refresh rate. View Deal

Crucial MX 500 2TB | SATA | SSD | $210 (save $20)

If you're looking for a big. reliable, fast SATA SSD, then your search is over. Grab this Crucial MX500 in 2TB capacity, safe in the knowledge that it's abut as good as a SATA SSD gets and cheaper than its ever been before. View Deal

HyperX Cloud Stinger gaming headset | $40 (save $10)

The Cloud Stinger is a lightweight, no-frills headset for gamers on a budget. It has 50mm stereo drivers and a swivel mic that automatically mutes when you fold it up. View Deal

Razer Nari Ultimate | $150 (save $50)

If you like your gaming experience to be as immersive as possible, then this headset's haptic technology is for you. It also features 5.1 and 7.1 channel surround sound, 2.4 GHz wireless audio, a retractable mic, and gel-infused earcups. View Deal

Acer Predator Helios 300 | $900 (save $401)

The smoking hot deal on the 2019 Helios 300 has sold out, but this 2018 model with a GTX 1060 6GB is still a decent grab.

HP Pavilion Gaming PC | $480 (save $290)

In the land of gaming PCs, this one is rather affordable. It has a Ryzen 5 2400G, Radeon RX 580, 8GB RAM, and 1TB HDD. Not mind-blowing, but pretty decent for a sub-$500 system. View Deal

Corsair Hydro H100i Pro RGB | $100 ($40 off)

This AIO 240mm liquid cooler goes with any all-black build, but comes with just a little RGB lighting on the pump if you want to brighten up your PC's goth look. View Deal

(Image credit: Future)

Amazon Prime Day - is it worth keeping Prime?

Anyone taking part in Prime Day needed to be signed up for Amazon Prime, and many people actually just subscribe to the free trial and then quit after the shopping event is over. But is it worth sticking around, or should you save your money? Well, depends how much you enjoy Prime Video, which is the main perk of being a Prime member.

There's a decent wedge of TV on there, with highlights being Good Omens, American Gods, and Black Sails. You get a fair selection of movies too, and you can often rent the latest releases much cheaper than the standard price. It isn't as good value as Netflix, in our opinion, but it's probably worth the cost if you're heavily into TV and movies.

The other perk of Amazon Prime is free delivery on most items. If you're buying larger PC components like cases, the delivery charges can stack up, so it may be worth holding on to that sub. If you're someone who only occasionally buys from Amazon, it probably isn't worth it.

(Image credit: Future)

Amazon Prime Day deals - when will they happen in 2020?

Let's face it, Prime Day is coming back in 2020. Unless there's some kind of miraculous turn-around, where Amazon suddenly decides to become a non-profit and give away all their earthly goods, we're going to be pouring money into the site in July 2020. The most likely date is July 13-14, which is the Monday and Tuesday closest to the middle of the month.

Next year, you'll likely see savings on largely the same kit as this year, only it'll be newer models. 20-series GPUs? Certainly. A stack of NVMe SSDs? Almost certainly. Even more IPS panels and 4K-ready monitors? Yes and yes. Better tech, but not quite the latest stuff.

Whatever happens, we'll be here to guide you through the madness, and give you a bit of perspective on what's worth buying, and what you should probably leave locked in Amazon's warehouses, gathering dust until the end of time. Or, y'know, Black Friday 2020.

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