The Full Nerd ep. 184: Valve Steam Deck, Intel Alder Lake rumors, DirectStorage on Windows 10

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Gordon Ung, Brad Chacos, and Adam Patrick Murray are back in the saddle, broadcasting live from our studio for the first time in a long time. And we had a heaping helping of delectably geeky topics for our big return.

First, we kick things off with a recent round of “Alder Lake” rumors about Intel’s radical upcoming 12-gen Core chips, which will be built using a combination of big cores and little cores working together to optimize performance when you need it and power when you don’t.

After that, we dive deep into Valve’s just-announced Steam Deck handheld, which is like a Nintendo Switch built by (and for) PC nerds. Beyond the specs and performance speculation, we also wade into who the Steam Deck is for, whether it would work with an eGPU, why it has a much better chance of success than Steam Machines ever did, and how Valve’s decade-long investments in Linux gaming and bespoke hardware are finally paying off.

Finally, yes, there will be a cloud version of Windows soon. But only business types should care about it. PC enthusiasts should care more about Microsoft bringing its next-gen DirectStorage tech to Windows 10 rather than locking it down to Windows 11. Props, Redmond. We recap what DirectStorage does and why the Windows 10 support really matters right now.

You can witness it all in the video embedded above. You can also watch The Full Nerd episode 184 on YouTube (subscribe to the channel while you’re there!) or listen to it on Megaphone.fm if you prefer the audio alone. 

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Have a PC- or gaming-related question? Email thefullnerd@pcworld.com and we’ll try to answer it in the next episode. You can also join the PC-related discussions and ask us questions on The Full Nerd’s Discord server. Finally, be sure to follow PCWorld on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to watch future episodes live and pick our brains in real time!