Hardware Sales – i5-6400 for $180, RAM Back to $38 for 8GB, & $170 GTX 960

The sales have slowed down substantially this weekend, likely in the face of America's most worshipped holiday: Black Friday. Even with the innovative holiday-forging that wrought “Black November,” sales are still dry – but there's still a few things worth a look.

Intel i5-6400 Skylake Quad-Core 2.7 GHz LGA 1151 ($180 with code EMCKKAV25): With Intel pretty much in control of the mid-to-high range CPU market, really impressive sales don't happen often, but $20 off is certainly worth a look. Intel's Skylake i5-6400 includes Intel's integrated graphics, just in case there's anyone who wants to build a computer with a $200 CPU and no graphics card.

G.SKILL Ripjaws 2x4GB DDR3 1600 Memory ($33 with code 1108FDDDM6): For once, the RAM I've been using for the past four years costs less than what I paid for it. The promo code is good for $6, but is only active through 11/8. Keep in mind, 1600MHz isn't anywhere near cutting edge anymore—this memory is pretty ancient—but it's ample for gaming.

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB ($170): Thanks to a Newegg price match guarantee on this card, it's down from its usual price of $210 to a respectable $170. EVGA's 4GB card fared well in our April GTX 960 round-up, but the additional 2GB of memory adds $70, with no price drop since our article was published. The "free Heroes of the Storm kaijo bundle" deal is still going on, too.

Check back soon for Fallout 4 content. The final Black Ops article, a graphics optimization drill-down, goes live a few minutes after this post.

- Patrick Lathan.