The PC tech apocalypse may be nigh. But I’m still grateful

Welp. A dark time for tech enthusiasts is indeed inbound. As reported by my colleague Mark Hachman, it’s not just that Black Friday 2025 may be the last chance for us to get cheap PC deals.

Nope, the market is chaotic overall, as analyst Jon Peddie notes. GPU shipments have slowed. Prominent pre-built PC vendor CyberPower has confirmed it will raise prices after Black Friday. Laptop maker Framework delisted standalone RAM modules from its store, to prevent scalping. Retailer Central Computer removed prices from memory kits for sale, citing rapidly changing costs.

As my colleague Mike Crider quipped, we now have to buy PC memory like we order lobster at a restaurant—and I only wrote about anticipating a tech availability apocalypse a week ago. Normally the time around one of the biggest U.S. holidays is quiet, but not this year.

Still, on theme with Thanksgiving, I am feeling pretty grateful.

I feel very lucky that we’ve had so much innovation in hardware, for starters. For many people, PCs and PC components released in the last 8 to 10 years will hold up a bit longer—even for those who are enthusiasts. (You’re likely to have bought more recently!)

A decade ago, I would have felt more pressured to advise folks to upgrade now. A 2005 to 2007 era laptop just didn’t have the same legs. Same for CPU/GPU combos dating even to 2010 or 2009. The advent of Ryzen made a huge impact on performance. Competition from Radeon and Intel has given gamers wider choice, too.

I’m also glad that we have exciting new releases to look forward to. With more to be revealed about FSR Redstone in early December, and the coming of the new Steam Machine in early 2026, we could see unexpected (if not huge) ripple effects from these releases. That delays my fears just a bit longer about stagnation as a side effect of these wild times.

And of course, I’m thankful that whatever comes, I’ll have excellent company as we weather the storm together. Not only do I work alongside incredibly sharp and thoughtful colleagues, I have the pleasure of regularly hearing smart takes from readers and Full Nerd fans. I learn from you all everyday.

I hope each and every one of you reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving—and if you’re not in the U.S., a week full of good meals and cozy gatherings. I appreciate you all so much.

In this episode of The Full Nerd

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith chat about Adam & Willis’s recent trip to Intel’s performance testing lab, Black Friday deals and buying advice for PC parts, and how generative AI has seeped into game development.

I learned Intel’s benchmarking can stretch as long as nine whole months before a chip launch. Adam learned that Will and I have strong feelings about the use of AI in game development. Brad learned that he could not make a stealthy exit.

And Will learned he is very quotable, as pointed out by our friend Steve Burke of Gamers Nexus. Steve, who surprised us with an appearance in our stream chat this week, definitely has a winning idea about making a “Like heroin? –Will Smith” TFN shirt.

Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time!

Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now!

And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. 

This week’s light nerd news

With the short week, news is scarce on the ground—at least, outside the apocalyptic doom variety. (By the way, those memory shortages could possibly affect smartphones, too.) Also I’m pretty sure at least a solid half of you still are in a food coma right now.

So accordingly, I’m keeping things easy. A few things to amuse. A few deals that, if you can catch them, I think are genuinely great buys for us in the tech trenches. Oh and a link to our deals live blog. (Yes, after many years of requests, I’ll finally be live blogging deals this year.)

• I bought Microsoft’s Windows XP Crocs, and I have opinions: This is the sandal review I never thought I’d write. Least of all for a tech site.
• Microsoft just made classic Zork games open-source: If you like playing with source code, now you can poke around the guts of these venerable titles.
• Yay, I CAN have the Steam Machine Companion Cube of my dreams: Nothing’s set in stone of course, but looks like I can have someone else transform a Steam Machine into a Companion Cube for me, and Will can get his e-ink display.
• Don’t get scammed about Amazon Prime refunds: The refunds are real, but only for Prime members who meet specific criteria—and they’ll only come from Amazon.
• A visual history of Microsoft Windows: In honor of the 40th anniversary (yeesh, what is time), our colleagues at PCWelt pieced together this retrospective. Gosh, I feel old.

Deals deals deals

All of the PCWorld staff has been busy this week finding awesome Black Friday deals on laptops, Chromebooks, Thunderbolt docks, SSDs, and so much more—if you’d like to see our picks, have a look at our full Best Black Friday deals coverage.

• PCWorld Black Friday deals live blog: Much deals. Very savings.

• MSI Shadow RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, $369: This deal has come in and out this week, so there’s no guarantee it’ll be back when you read this. But it’s worth checking!

• Ubiquiti Dream Router 7, $229: This is the router I’d buy to replace my existing setup, if it were to die right now. Such a great sweet spot between a simple, easy interface and advanced settings.

• Seagate 24TB Desktop External HDD, $240: At $10 per TB, this is a fantastic deal. Also, I did a brief peek around for all you data hoarders. Yes, this seems easily shuckable. No, it’s not clear if the drive inside is a true Barracuda or rebadged Exos.

Catch you all next week, when I’ll still be nursing my food baby. Also, remembering in a panic that our annual Predictions show is coming. I am uncertain of how many push-ups await me. 

(Cue dramatic music.)

~Alaina

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.