Top 10 hardware sold on Amazon, what you bought

[Ivan Franco]

After the big wave of work-from-home tech shopping last year and the holiday discounts behind us, here's what TechSpot readers bought during the first month of 2021. We usually monitor for this kind of activity, and we thought it'd be interesting to share it with you as well, so we may start publishing this kind of lists every other month or so.

To be clear, this data comes from purchases made by TechSpot readers after you click on shopping links in our reviews, buying guides and Product Finder listings (for which we may receive a commission). Amazon collects anonymized information on all sales made through those links. If you have other ideas of how we can get creative (e.g. Intel vs. AMD purchases, or the most expensive items you're buying, or even non-tech items that get purchased through our links -- you'd be surprised), drop us a line below.

#1 SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card with Adapter

By far the most popular items were SanDisk Extreme microSD cards. According to stats, you bought over 60 microSD cards of 128GB ($23.99) and 256GB ($39.99) capacities. You can learn more about microSD classes, performance and what to buy in our microSD and SD Card Buying Guide.

#2 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-core/12-thread CPU

Our favorite value CPU of 2020 ($199) remains the one of the best selling processors on Amazon. Although the 5600X has made its appearance in the top 20 selling items, it's not as widely available and it's more expensive. The 5950X is selling particularly well, too, surprisingly.

#3 Asus RT-AX3000 (AX58U) Router

One of the latest and greatest Wi-Fi 6 routers is the Asus RT-AX3000, currently available for $168. As we found in our roundup, it's one of the fastest you can buy, too. This was the most popular router among TS readers both during the holiday season and during 2021 so far as well.

#4 Sabrent Rocket 4 PCIe 4.0 SSD

Sabrent is one of the SSD brands currently offering the best performance and bang for your buck in the storage department. With excellent speeds at noteworthy prices, you bought plenty of Rocket 4 ($169 for 1TB, $349 for 2TB) and the Rocket 4 Plus ($199 for 1TB) models in 2021 already.

#5 Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound Paste

Properly building that rig means getting high quality cooling and thermal paste, you have bought quite a few units of Arctic's MX-4 ($12.99).

#6 Noctua NF-A14 PWM "chromax.Black.swap" Quiet Fan

We were not surprised to find Noctua on this list, but instead of one of their hefty heatsinks, you seem to have favored their quiet fans which go for $25 each. The better the cooling, the better the performance and for enthusiasts and beginners alike, the NF-A14 PWM is quiet and easy to install.

#7 LG 27GL850-B 27" Ultragear QHD Nano IPS Monitor

One of our long-time favorite gaming monitors that offers great value, the LG 27GL850 has recently been topped by rivals, but it's still pretty great if you find at the right price.

The inexpensive Acer SB220Q ($93.99) was another monitor that has sold well among you recently. If you're wondering if it's any good for less than $100, read our review.

#8 Samsung 980 Pro PCIe NVMe Gen4

The latest generation of NVMe SSDs are selling well. Samsung's 980 Pro PCIe NVMe Gen4 is among the best SSDs in the market and you seem to agree with your wallet.

#9 Samsung EVO MicroSDXC Memory Cards

SanDisk sold the most SD cards but Samsung was also preferred selling over 40 cards between the EVO and EVO Plus lines which sell for as little as $10.99 for a 64GB card.

#10 MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS & MSI GL65 Leopard 10SFK Gaming laptops

The MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS and MSI GL65 Leopard 10SFK were at the top of laptop purchases, both gaming models equipped with RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 GPUs respectively, perhaps it's not ideal to buy them with Ampere RTX series now landing on laptops unless you can score a healthy discount.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88528-top-10-hardware-sold-amazon-what-you-bought.html

 

[brucek]

It's good to know readers are supporting TechSpot this way, and it makes for interesting reading.

Would it be worth making a single simple page/report where for each product category we could see TechSpot's ranked picks, each with affiliate link(s), and maybe a normalized volume number? I'd enjoy visiting that page just to read it and when time came to shop it'd be a useful resource that would up the likelihood of me using one of the affiliate links (which I'd like to do, but often when I shop I'm not coming straight from one of your articles.)

 

[psycros]

And this, folks, is why you block all online tracking.

 

[Superconductor]

The GS66 Stealth has a serious 1kHz pure tone issue emanating from the fan complex. Yeah I bought one, but then heard it while trying to create some content ... and promptly returned it. Yeah ... I bought one.

 

[veLa]

Out of that list, the only thing I've purchased is the MX-4 thermal paste.

 

[Axiarus]

And this, folks, is why you block all online tracking.

How would that work for purchases on Amazon? This is an Amazon list. If you buy something on Amazon...they are going to have the metrics for it.

 

[toooooot]

I eyed tha tNVME ssd for a while. But couldnt force myself to spend money on it. I have too many over 100gb games. I gave up putting them on fast storage. Atlas and Ark alone probably take near 300 gigabytes, and I have many more.

 

[duckofdeath]

And this, folks, is why you block all online tracking.

The only way to block the big four from tracking you on the internet is by not using the internet. Use a VPN and they'll track you better.

 

[AnilD]

And this, folks, is why you block all online tracking.

 

[Danny101]

The only way to block the big four from tracking you on the internet is by not using the internet. Use a VPN and they'll track you better.

So you're saying that VPN's are nothing but honeypots?
I've kind of wonder this all along...

 

[brucek]

The only way to block the big four from tracking you on the internet is by not using the internet.

That may be, but you can avoid being counted in this particular report by simply not using TechSpot's affiliate link. Amazon will appreciate the few bucks you're saving them.

The thing is, there are certain kinds of reports I like to be correct in the aggregate. It would creep me out if TechSpot knew exactly what I purchased (I don't think they do), but I like that in the aggregate there is data showing that TechSpot has an audience that buys tech. This is one way manufacturers know for example to work with blogs for reviews and publicity vs. say the old days where'd they probably try to get it on Good Morning America cause all they had to work with were very rough estimates of audience size covering a relative handful of mainstream media.

 

[Danny101]

That may be, but you can avoid being counted in this particular report by simply not using TechSpot's affiliate link. Amazon will appreciate the few bucks you're saving them.

The thing is, there are certain kinds of reports I like to be correct in the aggregate. It would creep me out if TechSpot knew exactly what I purchased (I don't think they do), but I like that in the aggregate there is data showing that TechSpot has an audience that buys tech. This is one way manufacturers know for example to work with blogs for reviews and publicity vs. say the old days where'd they probably try to get it on Good Morning America cause all they had to work with were very rough estimates of audience size covering a relative handful of mainstream media.

It's kind of like this. I don't have a problem with TechSpot knowing what I bought on Amazon through their affiliate link. But I would have issue with anything else, which would be creepy. Google is creepy. Facebook is creepy. Microsoft is creepy. They all use tracking to build social credit. They're political. No better than socialist governments. Certain aspects of personal life, 'never shall the twain meet'. None of their damn business. Maybe these companies should have their offices and employees homes mounted with cameras so the 'consumers' can watch them.
The government should be included in this as well.
Not that I would truly want to, but there's the point.

 

[Julio Franco]

To be clear, we have no idea who buys what (we'll never intend to do that kind of profiling). All data is aggregate across all sections. Every month or so we check out the Amazon reports to see what you're buying and sometimes it can be obvious that some products are on top if they're new and well reviewed (e.g. Ryzen 5000 if it were on stock), or if we've posted a really good deal.

Other times it's less obvious, like the kind of laptops you end up buying with or without our recommendation (we may review the CPU/GPU powering those laptops though), or when somebody buys 8 beach chairs... we're equally grateful

 

[Avro Arrow]

Well, I can honestly say that I have nothing from that list.

1. I don't use SD(HC/XC) cards enough to need an adapter for them.
2. My R5-3600 has an X.
3. My router is a TP-Link modem/router combo (just bought it last month).
4. My NVMe drive is a Western Digital.
5. My thermal paste is Arctic Silver, but it's not MX-4, it's Ceramique.
6. My case fans are 120mm Cooler Master SickleFlow.
7. My monitor is my 55" 2160p TV.
8. See #4
9. See #1
10. My craptops are Acer and ASUS.

I guess that makes me a rebel of some kind. I hate Amazon though so I don't really mind that.

EDIT: I must confess however that I did buy my RX 5700 XT from Amazon but that was more of an isolated incident because it was at least $90 less expensive than I could find it elsewhere. My go-to for computer parts is Canada Computers and I used to also frequent NCIX (back when they existed).

 

[duckofdeath]

So you're saying that VPN's are nothing but honeypots?
I've kind of wonder this all along...

Honeypots is probably the wrong word. The reason they sell subscriptions so relatively cheap these days is because that data is as useful to sell as your Facebook clicks. Things like Tor and custom encrypted phones are probably more likely to be honeypots.

 

[wizardB]

Quit buying from Amazon long ago the little bald turd has way too much money.