Hazards of the job: Spend long enough sorting through Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals, and you're probably going to find a thing or two you want to buy yourself. Such is the risk we take on this time ever year, and every year at least a few of our deals warriors will fall to temptation—or just score a sweet deal on something we already wanted.
Here's what we dropped our own money on this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Two 16TB Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS hard drives
The damage: $434.48 (saved $200)
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: Welp. On Friday I was so unimpressed by this year's Black Friday deals that I was sure nothing could convince me to drop $434.48 on a complete whim. I even said that out loud to anyone who'd listen: "No way I'm spending $434.48 this year!" And then on Sunday, B&H put these 16TB hard drives on sale for $100 off. In a moment of pure storage lust, I got two.
My home server has been working great since I built it in 2020, but I don't exactly have the best backup etiquette and the cheap drives I shucked from external Western Digital enclosures aren't gonna last forever; it's about time I gave myself some redundancy. These new NAS drives are built to run 24/7 and have five year warranties. By keeping my data safer, what I'm really buying is a better night's sleep.
Bosch 7.0-amp jig saw
The damage: $109.00 (saved $70)
Tyler Wilde, Executive Editor: I am a hopeless over-hobbier. On top of PC gaming, amateur boxing, and oil painting, I've now taken up woodworking, because how else am I going to build custom frames for my collection of moth specimens? Hence my Cyber Monday purchase of this well-reviewed jig saw, which I noticed was genuinely $70 cheaper than usual. I've currently got my PC attached to an open test bench chassis, so maybe my next project should be a handmade cottagecore case.
Silicon Power XS70 2TB M.2 SSD
The damage: $99.21 (Saved $26)
Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: I thought I was getting cramped in the three terabytes of storage space on my rig, but some of my coworkers here, man, they need to do some spring cleaning. C:, D:, and E: drives all in the red, full to bursting. It's like they're doing one of those RPG builds where you're at low health all the time to do extra damage, the Red Tearstone Ring school of PC storage.
I never want it to get that bad. I was contemplating grabbing four terabytes worth of new NVMe storage, but being able to squeak just under a hundred clams for this PowerX drive (that Chris loved in our review) let me mentally categorize it as "not a big purchase." I can fit so many old-ass RPGs on five terabytes, and there's always room for even more expansion down the line.
Samsung T7 4TB portable SSD
The damage: $179.99 (saved $60)
Tyler Colp, Associate Editor: I finally got my forever drive. This external SSD will be my backup buddy because I live in paranoia that all the clips and screenshots I have on my PC might disappear one day. Maybe I should've gone for a smaller size, but I have a lot of videos and I don't feel like doing math.
I need to point out that this was also my first ever TikTok shop purchase. I read about rotating coupons there and got a slightly bigger discount than you can find elsewhere online. The risk, of course, is that I have no idea what any of the return policies on TikTok are and if they're even legitimate. I figured a portable SSD wouldn't be as much of a nightmare to fix if something were to go compared to an actual PC component. TikTok please don't fail me, I just need a 4TB filing cabinet to shove full of the stuff I refuse to delete.
Bluetooth Sleep Headphones
The damage: $15.99 (saved $5)
Chris Livingston, Staff Writer: Bedtime is the eternal enemy, and I can't fall asleep unless I'm listening to something or my brain will torture me for hours with thoughts. In the old days I'd just leave the TV on, but now I use these bluetooth sleep headphones and put on a podcast or something. I had to buy these because I accidentally left my last [[link]] set at an Airbnb, and they work pretty well. Ask for them by their full name: Joseche Sleep Headphones Bluetooth Sleep Headband Adjustable Sports Headphones Headband Wireless Earbuds for Side Sleeper, Workout Running Insomnia Travel Yoga Cool Tech Gadgets Unique Gift.
Warhammer miniatures
The damage: ???
Robin Valentine, Senior Editor: Robin told everyone in our global meeting that he bought some Warhammer miniatures this weekend, but then quietly disappeared when we began assembling this list. Was it just the end of the [[link]] work day, or was Robin ashamed to admit how much money he'd just dropped on Warhammer figures? I think we can all draw our own conclusions here.