Need some holiday string lights? How about permanent outdoor lights? And maybe some festive indoor curtain lights? You can get them all in Govee’s Christmas holiday bundle, and it’s selling for 25 percent off—unless you’re in the BOGO know, that is.  Here’s the hidden detail about Govee’s Christmas Lights Set that you may have missed: it’s a two-for-one deal for Black Friday, meaning if you buy the first kit for $299.99–a 25 percent savings–you get the second bundle for free, good for a total savings of 50 percent off.  Just add two of the Govee lights kids to your Amazon cart and you’ll see the savings upon checkout.  The Govee Christmas Lights Set includes a 96-foot string of Govee’s Outdoor String Lights 2, a 100-foot set of Permanent Outdoor Lights 2, and a set of Curtain Lights 2 measuring 4.9 x 6.6 feet. Of course, that’s just what you get in a single Govee bundle. If you take advantage of the buy-one-get-one deal, you’ll double your take.  All of those holiday lights are smart, meaning they’ll work with Alexa and Google Home, and you’ll be able to use the Govee app to create animated lights shows both inside and outside your abode.   The lights will also sync with nearby music sources, and if you’re worrying about incoming winter storms, relax. The Govee lights all have IP65 ratings, meaning they should be able to weather rain, sleet, and snow.  Get one Govee holiday light kit for $299.99, get the second one freeView Deal Read...

I enjoy hunting for deals during Black Friday. I specifically like poking around for solid PC parts that I can combine for high-quality-but-affordable gaming PCs. I love it so much that I’ve sat down every year since 2016 to write up my findings—and over the last nine years, I combo-chained well enough to help others save hundreds on their 1080p and 1440p builds. Y’all. This year is grim. Sky-high RAM prices (which continue to climb) are obviously a major factor. But the effects of this year’s US tariffs also show clearly in the thin spread of discounts. You can still find good deals—but getting them to coalesce into a single computer will be extremely hard. For select gamers, hope still is out there for now. I think these results paint a clear picture of where we’re at and what we can expect for 2026. This article is part of a series about the cheapest Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) gaming PC you can build. For fun, you can compare this year’s results to 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016. We’ve now reached 10 rounds of this annual tradition! The $570 Black Friday starter gaming PC build (aka “Ouch”) In recent years, I’ve been putting the bare-minimum gaming PC build at the ends of these articles. It served to illustrate both performance and cost if you cut that deep. This year, I’m starting with this APU build to set the scene. On Black Friday 2024, you could build this system for $485—and that was with 32GB of memory. This year, you’re facing a 17 percent price increase and a downgrade to just 16GB RAM. PartNamePriceCPURyzen 5 8600G$189MotherboardGigabyte B650M GAMING PLUS Wi-Fi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard$110RAMTeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-6000 16GB (2x8GB)$130Graphics CardIntegrated AMD Radeon 760M graphics (8 RDNA3 cores)—StorageTeamGroup T-Force G50 512GB[1]$40PSUThermaltake Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold Non-Modular 600W[2]$50CaseGAMDIAS Aura GC1 ATXIncludes 4x 120mm ARGB fans$40OSWindows 11 Pro OEM$10Total$569 Build notes: Storage is anticipated to rise in cost through 2026. As a hedge, you may want to consider upgrading to this $80 1TB Crucial P310 SSD. If you anticipate upgrading this system to a more power-hungry graphics card, you can opt instead for the MSI A750GLS 750W Gold+, which is a fully modular supply. It costs $60 after $10 mail-in rebate and signing in to an MSI account for a $60 discount. Boy, RAM prices have shot through the roof. Last year, I listed a 32GB memory kit because it cost only $74 for Black Friday and wasn’t much more than a 16GB kit. Not so this year. Would I still recommend actually building this PC? Yes, in limited cases, like parents seeking a starter gaming PC for a kid or people on ultra-tight budgets. This computer is set up for simple expansion down the road whenever a discrete graphics card becomes necessary or affordable, all without limiting options by relying on older parts. Normally I’d say wait, but with climbing memory prices (which could have knock-on effects industry-wide), if you think you’ll need to spin up a new PC in the next 6 to 8 months, this is a decent hedge. The $900 Micro Center 1080p Black Friday gaming PC build Next, for illustrative purposes, is a Micro Center build—and that alone limits its feasibility. (In other words, it’s buildable if you live near one, but there aren’t many locations nationwide.) Micro Center is legendary among PC builders for its in-store deals. I now live near one (yoooo), so I’ve extra-avidly tracked the best possible PC I could scrape together between its combo-bundle-deal madness and the other random gems you can find online. This build looks a little different than I would have approached it in previous years, and that’s absolutely due to the oncoming hardware apocalypse that keeps getting forecasted in the news. PartNamePriceCPUAMD Ryzen 5 7600X$220CPU CoolerThermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE $35MotherboardASUS B650E Max Gaming WiFi AM5Bundled with CPU–RAMTeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-6000 16GB (2x8GB)$130Graphics CardMSI Shadow GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB[1]$369StorageTeamGroup T-Force G50 512GB[2]$40PSUThermaltake Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold Non-Modular 600W[3]$50CaseGAMDIAS Aura GC1 ATXIncludes 4x 120mm ARGB fans$40OSWindows 11 Pro OEM$10Total$894 Build notes This deal has come in and gone out of stock over the past week. Its return seems uncertain, but it’s worth checking at this price. Otherwise, if you don’t mind less performance to save money, you can swap in this $260 ASRock Intel B580 12GB card instead. Use coupon code BFEFE234. Storage is anticipated to rise in cost through 2026. As a hedge, you may want to consider upgrading to this $80 1TB Crucial P310 SSD. This power supply is just around the minimum recommended wattage for the RTX 5060 Ti. For a larger cushion, opt instead for the MSI A750GLS 750W Gold+, which is a fully modular supply. You’ll pay $60 after $10 mail-in rebate and a $60 discount for having a free MSI account. Typically when I write this article, I look to keep costs down while still picking high-quality parts… so sometimes I’ve ended up with more modest hardware. This year, the pickings were slim and memory prices were high, resulting in $600 to $700 PCs that felt like scraping the barrel. (A particularly sad sign during Black Friday.) So instead—with a dire future predicted for next year regarding memory, storage, and GPU prices—I chose to build out a PC that could weather at least 3 to 4 years of use. May as well invest a little extra to sail through the storm comfortably! But even then, you’re starting with a CPU that released three years ago. The $830 sold-out 1080p Black Friday gaming PC build You could have built an excellent and decently-priced mid-range gaming PC during Black Friday this year without Micro Center’s help. But you had to have been ready to shop starting a couple of weeks ago—plus been quick on the draw. PartNamePriceCPUAMD Ryzen 5 9600X$324CPU CoolerBe quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3Bundled with CPU–MotherboardASUS B650E MAX GAMING WIFIBundled with CPU–RAMTeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-6000 16GB (2x8GB)–Graphics CardMSI Shadow GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB[1]$369StorageTeamGroup T-Force G50 512GB[2]$40PSUThermaltake Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold Non-Modular 600W[3]$50CaseGAMDIAS Aura GC1 ATXIncludes 4x 120mm ARGB fans$40OSWindows 11 Pro OEM$10Total$833 Build notes: This bundle was available almost three weeks ago, during the second week of November. This deal has come in and gone out of stock over the past week. Its return seems uncertain, but it’s worth checking at this price. Otherwise, if you don’t mind less performance to save money, you can swap in this $260 ASRock Intel B580 12GB card instead. Use coupon code BFEFE234. Storage is anticipated to rise in cost through 2026. As a hedge, you may want to consider upgrading to this $80 1TB Crucial P310 SSD. This power supply is just around the minimum recommended wattage for the RTX 5060 Ti. For a larger cushion, opt instead for the MSI A750GLS 750W Gold+, which is a fully modular supply. You’ll pay $60 after $10 mail-in rebate and a $60 discount for having a free MSI account. I wish I had precognition. I would have told everyone looking to build a new mid-range PC this fall to buy that 9600X bundle from Newegg when it was still available. You’d have AMD’s latest generation of CPUs as the backbone of your machine. Plus, who the heck can get a cooler, motherboard, and precious, precious RAM for that price now, only two sad weeks later? This deal, along with the one for that MSI RTX 5060 Ti 16GB graphics card, came and went pretty fast. But had you been quick on the draw, you would have scored a pretty sweet 1080p build. Yet even last year the same amount of cash would have put you in 1440p territory. : ( Read...

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. Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the latest topics on our YouTube show or hot news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!  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 know I can rescue my friends’ older laptops with ChromeOS Flex and Linux, if I need to—and I’m glad I have that option.PCWorld 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. Adam really likes trackpads. And um. Now we all know how much.Willis Lai / Foundry 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.) Yes, those are AMD socks being worn with Microsoft Windows XP Crocs.Willis Lai / Foundry 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 Ubiquiti 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. Read...

A front moving over the North Island on Friday is forecast to clear by early Sunday, opening the door to a brief spell of settled weather before the next system rolls in. Read...

Parts of the UK could see a month`s worth of rainfall in just one day. Read...

Nicknamed the Bom, the country`s weather agency has been heavily criticised over a recent redesign. Read...

Parts of the South Island may hit 30 degrees on Wednesday, while other parts are under a heavy rain watch, MetService says. Read...

While there was wet weather in parts of the country on Friday, forecasters say things should clear up for most at the weekend. Read...

A wind storm on 23 October cut power to tens of thousands of homes, tore off roofs and downed trees and fences. Read...

As temperatures fall across much of the UK, the best ways to keep people and pets warm and dry. Read...