Here's the Cyber Monday monitor deal I would be buying, if I wasn't an inveterate MMO player and had already spent over $142 on access to catboys and Xal'atath this year
Somebody help me budget this, my setup is dying.
Price watch: ➖
ASRock Phantom PG27Q15R2A | 27-inch | 1440p | 165 Hz | VA | $239.99 $142.77 at Newegg (save $97.22)
ASRock's gaming monitors are always so darned cheap—we love them for that. This 1440p panel offers resolution and a rapid refresh rate for a potent PC gaming combo, though the built-in Wi-Fi antenna helps it stand out from the crowd. That's hardly essential, but could come in use for some.
Dear reader, I'm not about to mince words—I'm kind of skint this month. There are a lot of things I could blame this on, absolutely. The UK's been having a cost of living crisis forever, my winter electricity bill is massive, and I need to buy Christmas presents. Also, I'm a relatively new staff writer for a videogames website, which is not the most lucrative position.
But I'm also not unwise to my spending habits. I am cursed with the burden of enjoying MMORPGs, which means I've spent all year subscribed to Final Fantasy 14, and the past few months subscribed to World of Warcraft. I'm overdue for a monitor replacement, and I've realised (with some dread) that I'd have the room in my budget to buy this monitor had I not done that.
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The ASRock Phantom is a step above my current, crappy 1920 x 1080 setup—it's 2560 x 1440, and it's got a refresh rate that shoves my 60 Hz, 8-bit trash slab into a locker and steals its lunch money. It's also eminently reasonably priced right now for Cyber Monday, being $142, discounted a whopping $97.
That's about £112 for me. A Final Fantasy 14 subscription is around £7.70 a month, and I've been subscribed to WoW for about four months this year (about £10 monthly). That means I'll have spent £117 (around $142) on my chronic desire for catboys and my knife wife Xal'atath in 2024. So much so that (not including delivery costs), I'd have £5 left over, which is enough for a meal deal at your average UK supermarket.
I weep for the lost opportunity.
In case you're the kind of rich moneybags able to play an MMORPG and have disposable income, this thing's honestly 27 inches of steal right now. It was even good enough value to be shouted out by our own Jacob Fox during Amazon Prime day in July. And now it's a few dollars cheaper than it was, back when I'd still reasonably have had the spare cash to snag it.
Anyway, I'll continue plodding along on my stone age setup—alternatively, I'll see about selling a liver or two. After all, who needs functioning organs when you have G'raha Tia in 1440p? Not me.
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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.