“Hey, Rufus, show me some gaming laptop deals… no, gaming laptops.”
This is my first experience using Rufus, the Amazon AI built to offer sage advice to shoppers. Mostly shoppers that have money burning a hole in their pocket but no idea what to spend it on. Since we’re in the midst of the October Prime Day, aka Big Deal Days, aka Let’s Turn on the Money Hose 2.0, I felt it an appropriate time to ask Rufus for a little guidance.
After all, we’re sacks of flesh and bones spending our precious time on Earth browsing Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy and other retailers to deliver up steaming hot deals on a silver platter for PC gamers. Why not offload this job to a purpose-built AI? AI will, after all, make everything better—one way or another.
Asking Rufus for gaming PC deal recommendations
First, I asked Rufus for gaming PC deals. It spat out five, which was nice. These are:
- a Skytech Azure gaming PC with a Core i7 13700F, RTX 4060 Ti, 1 TB SSD, 16 GB DDR5 RAM and a chunky 360 mm liquid cooler | was $1,599.99, now $1,234.99
- a iBuyPower Trace Mesh gaming PC with a Core i7 14700F, RTX 4060 Ti, 1 TB SSD, 32 GB of DDR5, and a less fancy air cooler | was $1,349.99, now $1,099.99
- a iBuyPower Slate Mesh gaming PC with a Ryzen 5 7600, RTX 4060, 500 GB SSD, 16 GB of DDR5, and a standard air cooler | was $999.99, now $799.99
- a iBuyPower Trace Mesh gaming PC with a Ryzen 5 4500, GTX 1650, 1 TB SSD, 16 GB of RAM, and a standard air cooler | was $699.99, now $594.99
- a iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 5700, RTX 3050, a 1 TB SSD, 16 GB of RAM, and a chunky air cooler | was $799.99, now $679.99
This AI has a thing for iBuyPower, clearly. Don’t worry, it gets a little more varied with other product categories—there are just a lot of iBuyPower PCs on sale right now on Amazon. Like the one we caught with our human eyeballs earlier, which I’ll drop below for comparison.
The PCs picked out by Rufus don’t sing to me. The best ones are just fine, and the rest are best avoided.
The two cheaper options come with last-gen graphics cards. That’s a no-no. The GTX 1650 is not worth considering anymore, and, while it’s not a bad card in 2024, neither is the RTX 3050. You can get current-gen for more or less the same money these days, so why settle for less?
The RTX 4060/Ti PCs are more our speed, though. They’re a little on the expensive side next to some we’ve seen if you’re talking just about getting the graphics card, but you can definitely make a case for an RTX 4060 Ti/Core i7 14700F combo for that sorta cash. Still, I’d rather an RTX 4070 Super gaming PC for $1,100.
I’ll drop some of those we’ve spotted below, if you’re interested.
Asking Rufus for gaming laptop deal recommendations
Then, I asked for advice on the best gaming laptop deals for Prime Day. It proceeded to spit out five office laptops with nary a GPU in sight, which was less than helpful.
I asked again, this time being extremely clear that I wanted to see gaming laptops.
Out pops just one: an Alienware M18 R2 with an RTX 4080, Core i9 14900HX, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, 165 Hz QHD+ screen and a 1 TB SSD. All for $2,300.
Again, it’s not that it’s a bad machine, but it’s not a great price compared to what else is out there. I get that Rufus only has eyes for Amazon and recommending something from another retailer is somewhat unfair, but you can score a mostly comparable machine for around $1,840 over at Best Buy. The CPU and RAM aren’t quite as good on that particular model, however, but there are plenty others out there.
It feels a bit like Rufus plays roulette with the Prime Day deals on offer—lands on one and fires it out. Admittedly when it comes to ‘Prime Day’ gaming laptop deals, as in those for Prime users only, it was a bit limited for options to choose from. But it does make me wonder what sort of data it has access to, and whether it could be tweaked and tinkered with to be of actual use in the near future?
What Rufus did that was actually useful
It might appear as though I’m being mean to Rufus, Amazon’s dear deal-sniffing bot, but I’m actually already seeing the upsides. If you’re prepared to dig a little deeper into the deals it delivers, it’s a starting point. More so if you’re completely bewildered by tech or out of ideas for a gift for someone.
I suck at gifts. I wish I was one of those people who could naturally pick the perfect item, something thoughtful and useful, for every friend or family member. But I’m not. I like to think I do a good job but the whole process stresses me out.
So, I asked Rufus to help me find a gift for a PC gamer in my life. And you know what? It was decent help.
First, I asked, “What’s the best gift I can buy a PC gamer in the Prime Day sales?”
It responded with, “I can help you find an awesome gaming gift. Can you share a bit about their gaming preferences or favorite games? Are they into PC gaming accessories or hardware upgrades? For example, “They are really into first-person shooters and have a high-end gaming rig.”
It churned out some generic gift ideas with this answer, before I could respond. These included a pink Razer Blackwidow V3 gaming keyboard, a Logitech G502 Hero mouse, and a SteelSeries Arctis 7 headset. All pretty decent picks for any PC gamer.
The person I’m buying for deserves something a little more special, however. So I elaborate:
“They’re a big fan of MMO games and love World of Warcraft,” I tell Rufus.
It spits out a few products for me to check out. I’ll include the blurb that Rufus has noted for each one.
- Razer Naga Trinity Gaming Mouse: This mouse has 19 programmable buttons perfectly suited for MMO games like WoW, allowing easy access to abilities and macros. The interchangeable side plates provide flexibility.
- Corsair K95 RGB Platinum: This keyboard has 6 programmable macro keys and per-key RGB lighting you can customize for your WoW character and abilities. The Cherry MX Speed switches provide tactile responsiveness.
- Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro: This device lets them easily record and stream their WoW gameplay in 1080p60 quality. The HD60 Pro captures directly to their PC without lag.
The first pick, the Razer Naga mouse, was exactly what I was thinking of when I told Rufus of my made-up PC player’s preference for MMO games.
The Corsair keyboard felt like an odd pick, but when you factor in the macro keys and how it could connect to World of Warcraft, it makes a lot more sense.
The Elgato feels like the odd one out to me. It’s sorta interesting for the recording gameplay angle, but it doesn’t feel like it has much to do with MMO gamers specifically. So I’d probably ditch this one.
Still, two out of three ain’t bad.
Except it’s more like zero out of three. Sorry Rufus, but these recommendations actually kinda stink. The reason being that actually they’re all old models, replaced by newer designs. The Naga Trinity has been replaced by the Pro, V2, and V2 Pro. The Corsair K95 by the K100. And the HD60 Pro by the 4K Pro.
Amazon doesn’t even sell the K95 or Naga Trinity anymore. Where Rufus is pulling this data from, I have absolutely no idea.
So, no, I’m not too worried about Rufus trampling on PC Gamer’s deal recommendation patch. Rufus is still in beta and it’s not ready for Prime-time just yet. Maybe some day—but will Amazon’s bot ever give you the whole picture, including potentially better deals at competing retailers? I think probably not.
If you want some picks for Prime Day, anyways, you can check out our October Prime Day PC gaming deals page for plenty made by 100% real humans.
