The Full Nerd: Dead Ryzen CPUs, SteamOS rising, & scented thermal paste
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus interesting PC hardware news from across the web.
This week, we’re sleepy and jetlagged post-Computex, but full of hot takes about what was on the show floor. (Plus sidetrack into a mini-rant or two.)
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In this episode of The Full Nerd…
In this episode of The Full Nerd, our usual crew of Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith wrap up the big news from Computex and the best from the show, ponder the release of SteamOS, and answer viewers’ burning questions!
Alex Esteves / Foundry
You could say Computex was sleepy, but not a snoozefest. For chip news, the biggest reveal was Intel’s next-gen Panther Lake, which Adam got to see in demos. You can expect to see it in 2026—though not in desktop PCs. For socketed parts, carrying on the mantle falls to Nova Lake, which also is expected to be a 2026 release (and likely a fall one at that). Still, AMD threw enthusiasts a bone. FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 upscaling tech is getting updates on June 5m alongside the release of the Radeon RX 9060 XT. More substantial feature improvements will come in the second half of the year as well, in the form of FSR Redstone—and it looks set to challenge Nvidia’s lead in ray tracing performance. Oh, and there’s also a new 96-core, 192-thread Threadripper Zen 5 chip coming.??Meanwhile, Nvidia leaned hard into AI talk, after a quick acknowledgment from Jensen that the company would be where it is without gamers. Ouch. For our crew, disappointment reigned with no talk of new Arm chips (sorry Will, no new Nvidia Shield TV yet for you), though we’re curious where agentic AI may lead.As for Qualcomm—in Brad’s own words, the company said it would announce something in September “for an hour and a half.”
Speaking of talks that take an hour and a half, our chat about Computex stretched that long thanks to a recap of our Computex highlights. I’ll spoil this right now and say that Adam hasn’t changed his opinion since last week—it’s still scented thermal paste. The major development since then, though? He brought back samples. Will was not nearly as impressed. I’ve yet to experience the madness, but I’ll be sure to report my findings.Brad’s standout is less controversial—Zotac’s mini-PC that stuffs a desktop 16GB RTX 5060 Ti into a 2.5 liter chassis is phenomenal, as Brad points out. Also near and dear to SFF builders’ hearts should be compact RTX 5060 models and a half-height, dual-slot 4060 Ti. Brad (and everyone else) also thinks the Asus ROG Falcata — the first split ergonomic gaming keyboard from a major keyboard maker — looks sick as hell.We also may have gotten into some arguments because I said I didn’t like that beige SilverStone case. Also that I like the Hyte X50 case. The rest of the crew took exception with the first statement, while Adam said “Fite me” on the second one. You can’t be a family without some arguments, I suppose.
Bringing the team back together as a unit was talk about SteamOS’s wider launch. If you consider being able to install it yourself (with documentation available!) on the Lenovo Legion Go S the official milestone. Adam doesn’t think so, and for good reason—you can run into some wonkiness still around TDP limits and not being able to take full advantage of more powerful chips. But while this isn’t the full release we were hoping for, where you can install it on just about anything, I think a soft launch isn’t a bad approach. (Meanwhile, Will is just amused that a Windows install is the hardcore route on a handheld.)
And of course, we dive into a few reader questions after all the back and forth—though not quite as many this week, as Adam got hungry. The dangers of podcasting right through lunch time on the west coast.
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This week’s fresh nerd news
A quiet week is a welcome week for tired tech journalists, but we still got some fun goodies to look forward to. Plenty of cool stuff for us geeks and nerds alike.
Alaina Yee / Foundry
Micro Center’s newest location is finally open: When you read this, Adam, Will, and I will likely be on our way to tour the new Santa Clara store. What’s so great about Micro Center? Stay tuned for our on-site videos. CPU bundles, let’s go.
Fixing the unfixable 12VHPWR Connector: This chat between techtubers Steve Burke of GamersNexus and Roman Hartung (aka Der8auer) dives deep into this sensitive topic. A choice quote: “We’re getting closer to figuring out why [the connector] sucks so much.”
Nvidia’s new GeForce Now app turns the Steam Deck into a no-compromises gaming PC, Brad says—making unplayable games playable and extending battery life to unheard-of levels. He’s never turning back.
ASRock confirms its BIOS settings are killing Ryzen CPUs: ASRock’s motherboards have been causing Ryzen 9000 CPU failures, but the company has taken responsibility and is promising to aid customers with remediation.
Firmware updates may not save your Asus router from joining a botnet: This vulnerability is nasty, if technically fascinating—if you have an Asus router that’s been compromised, you can’t rescue it from the attacker’s clutches. Your best hope is that you patch before you’re sucked in.
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT is up to 31% faster than 7600 XT: Early compute benchmarks won’t represent what gamers will see, so hold this info in your head with a huge grain of salt. Still, this news could be promising.
Valve’s Gabe Newell is working on a brain chip, and it’s almost here: Sure, it’s not a complete implant solution, but science is so cool.
Speaking of Gaben, Lenovo’s Legion Go S runs better with SteamOS than Windows. The SteamOS version of Lenovo’s gaming handheld has better performance, better battery life, and a better price.
That’s all for this week—be sure to catch us next week for all our Micro Center opening stories!
-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. 
© 2025 PC World 0:15am  
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