Memory has become one of the most expensive components when it comes to building a PC. With the ongoing global DRAM shortage, one of the best ways to dodge obnoxious price tags is to either get a combo bundle or scour the used marketplace for a solid deal. However, if you are looking for a brand new pair of RAM sticks for a desktop PC, the PNY Performance 32GB DDR5 kit has just dropped from its listed price of $449.99 down to $379.99 over at Amazon, offering savings of $70. That makes it one of the cheapest 32GB DDR5 kits that you can purchase today.

• Check out this deal on Amazon

The kit includes two 16GB DDR5 modules capable of running at 5600 MT/s at CL46 latency, which is noticeably looser than the sub-CL40 timings found on higher-end DDR5 memory. The difference in performance is generally small, particularly gaming at higher resolutions where GPU is the primary bottleneck. However, gamers chasing every last frame or anyone building a high-performance workstation may want to invest in faster memory.

The modules are fairly barebones in terms of design as this particular kit does not include any heatspreaders or RGB lighting. The only saving grace is that the PCB has a black finish, which should blend easily with a dark motherboard.

If your priority is maximizing capacity while keeping costs down rather than squeezing out every ounce of performance, this kit can be a good solid choice at its discounted price. It should be well-suited for budget gaming PCs, home office machines, and productivity builds where 32GB of memory capacity matters more than the lowest latency and aesthetics.

Overall, this isn't the fastest or flashiest DDR5 kit on the market, but at its competitive price of $379.99 it offers solid value for budget-conscious buyers. More choices start to arrive if your budget can be pushed up to $399, where you'll find the TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-6000 32GB (2x16GB) CL38 kit, for example.

If you are on the lookout for the best memory for your desktop build, make sure that you head over to our RAM price tracking list to find the lowest price on DDR5 and DDR4 memory of all capacities.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Hardware enthusiasts, server administrators, and all regular readers of this site will be well aware of the ongoing "RAMpocalypse," the memory and storage shortage affecting nearly every market and raising prices across the board in the tech sector. If you were hoping for relief, don't hold your breath; at the International Supercomputing Conference this past week, Lenovo reportedly said "it will never be like it was last year." Underlining the point, one of Lenovo's presentation slides was titled "The 5 Step RAMaggeddon Survival Guide."

That comes to us by way of our German friends over at ComputerBase, who note that "never" was said with a smirk, thus implying that it wasn't meant to be taken literally. Instead, the message from Lenovo is that memory prices were unusually low in early 2025, and it will be a long time before we see comparatively low prices on RAM, flash memory, and other components, as the #1 worldwide PC OEM expects AI demand to continue growing.

According to ComputerBase's report from ISC 2026, Lenovo's broader message is that the economics of the memory industry have fundamentally changed. The company reportedly argued that even as significant new manufacturing capacity comes online beginning around 2028, demand from AI infrastructure is expected to absorb much of that additional output, preventing DRAM and NAND prices from returning to the lows seen over the past two years.

The report points to SK hynix's recently announced plans to triple its memory production capacity by 2034 as supporting evidence. Lenovo's reasoning is straightforward: the notoriously profit-hungry memory manufacturers would be unlikely to invest so heavily in expanding production if they expected a return to the razor-thin margins and oversupply that characterized parts of the market in early 2025.

In case you needed extra evidence for its argument, Lenovo also suggested that memory capacity itself is becoming an increasingly important consideration when designing and purchasing servers. While vendors have traditionally advertised the maximum supported memory capacity of new platforms, actually populating those DIMM slots has become far more expensive. New dual-socket servers are on the way next year with 16 memory channels per processor, meaning that even a relatively modest configuration can require around 1 TB of installed memory to fully utilize the available bandwidth.

Lenovo is far from the only company predicting a prolonged memory crunch, although the industry's incentives are worth keeping in mind. Micron recently told investors it expects supply to remain constrained through at least 2027, with only gradual improvement beginning in 2028, while SK hynix has warned the shortage could persist until around 2030 as AI infrastructure continues absorbing wafer capacity. Those forecasts are backed by multi-year supply agreements worth roughly $100 billion that Micron has already signed with customers, underscoring how seriously hyperscalers are treating long-term memory availability.

Even companies that traditionally wield enormous purchasing power are feeling the squeeze. Apple reportedly has sought permission from the U.S. government to source DRAM from Chinese memory maker CXMT, a Pentagon-blacklisted company, illustrating just how valuable additional memory supply has become as prices continue to climb. At the same time, memory vendors are enjoying some of the strongest pricing power (and profit margins) they've seen in years, giving them little incentive to accelerate a return to the boom-and-bust pricing cycles that once defined the DRAM market.

Ironically, one consequence of the ongoing memory shortage is that HBM is becoming more economically attractive relative to conventional system memory. DRAM manufacturers have redirected significant production capacity toward higher-margin HBM for AI accelerators, reducing the supply of commodity DDR5 and LPDDR5 while demand for both remains elevated. As a result, the premium for HBM-backed computing has narrowed, not because HBM has become inexpensive, but because traditional system memory has become dramatically more expensive. Hyperscalers were going to buy the GPUs anyway, so maximizing their utilization to reduce DDR5 requirements suddenly becomes an attractive proposition.

That shift helps explain Lenovo's suggestion that GPU-accelerated computing may now make more financial sense for some workloads. If an application can keep much of its working set in GPU-attached HBM, it may require significantly less DDR5 installed in the host system. With system DRAM now representing a much larger share of overall server cost than it did just a year ago, reducing memory capacity requirements can materially lower the price of deploying large-scale infrastructure.

Obviously, we don't know whether Lenovo's long-term outlook will prove accurate, but memory pricing has historically been cyclical, with periods of oversupply often followed by sharp corrections. With hyperscalers continuing to pour billions into AI infrastructure and memory vendors increasingly prioritizing high-margin enterprise products, the company believes the unusually inexpensive DRAM and NAND prices of 2024 and early 2025 may prove to have been an anomaly.

With widespread disappointment regarding the availability and pricing of Valve’s Steam Machine, influencers and creators have been mixing up ‘alternatives’ of various shapes and sizes. However, we think the Terk Box v1.1 looks like the closest alternative yet in design and spirit. The work, as spotted by Hackaday, appears to be a collaboration between Jacob Terkelsen, an ex-Tom's Hardware contributor currently working for AMD, and a 3D printing and SFF PCs enthusiast who goes by the handle of 3DCatt.

If you are a 3D printer owner, you can grab the source files for the Terk Box v1.1 direct from Printables.com. There you will find a parts list, which details the various screws, riser cables, and numerous other parts you will need. The .STL source files are all there, too, of course, under a Creative Commons license.

Specific component brands don’t seem to be suggested by the makers, which is probably due to the set of standards embraced by the various PC parts makers. However, we do note in the user comments some people may have had a hard time fitting their GPU. 3DCatt says the max length that will fit is “about 180mm long.” That isn’t all, though, as the recommended PCIe riser cable wasn’t long enough for some, depending on the GPU model. AMD’s Terkelsen chipped in that the build was suitable for his RTX 5060 LP graphics card, but he requested more room for a front 140mm case fan, among a few other tweaks.

The current revision of the Terk Box measures 167 x 168 x 225mm. That may be close enough to the official machine (152 x 162 x 156mm) to justify the extra effort of doing this instead of finding an off-the-peg compact Mini ITX case. Some of the compromises with the Terk Box v1.1 appear to be the fussiness with GPU choice we mentioned above, and the less-than-ideal positioning of the CPU socket in relation to the PSU. However, both 3DCatt and Terkelsen have hinted at refinements on the way to v1.2.

Since they have already strayed from the cubic confines of Valve’s actual Steam Machine, I feel they shouldn’t feel too shackled to the design they currently have. I’ll be watching further developments with interest.

In summary, this is a design much closer in stature and spirit to the original Valve effort, but it is definitely a work in progress. With the various component constraints, the DIY price for this won’t be the most compelling, either. Readers who are 3D printing and PC DIY aficionados, and we must have a few of those, might be able to contribute to the project with suggestions, tweaks, and remixes.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the seizure of nearly 400 domains that were illegally streaming live matches from the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Running under “Operation Offsides,” the effort is being led by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center alongside Homeland Security Investigations, with a seizure warrant filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. The total number of domains taken down to date is roughly five times the amount taken down during the 2022 Qatar tournament, and HSI has warned that the streams can expose viewers to malware and connections capable of stealing financial data.

The 2026 tournament is being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, giving U.S. authorities firmer jurisdiction than they held when the event was held in Qatar. Investigators traced the streaming infrastructure to servers in Peru and Bulgaria, with supporting takedowns in Croatia, Romania, Poland, and Colombia. FIFA identified the offending domains, and beIN Media Group, NBCUniversal, the Motion Picture Association's Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, UFC, and Warner Bros. all helped supply further information.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said the seizures reflected the country's duty “as a host nation to protect the FIFA World Cup from criminals.” Domain seizures are a limited tool against operations that rotate addresses and fall back to redundant copies, hence why enforcement bodies suddenly pounce on hundreds of domains at once rather than one at a time.

Authorities have increasingly gone after the people running the streams and, in some cases, their customers. U.S. courts have separately tested the limits of piracy liability, with the Supreme Court ruling that ISPs aren’t liable for their subscribers’ infringement in March. Meanwhile, a Greek court jailed a torrent-site operator for five years last year, and an Irish court ordered Revolut to unmask more than 300 subscribers of a pirate IPTV service in March.

A 2021 Webroot analysis of illegal sports-streaming sites found that 92% carried some form of malicious content, typically delivered through the ad networks that fund the operations. Following the 2024 World Cup, Microsoft Threat Intelligence traced a December 2024 maladvertising campaign that reached nearly 1 million devices back to illegal streaming sites, where redirectors embedded in video frames funneled users through several hops to information stealers such as Lumma and Doenerium hosted on GitHub. Microsoft found the campaign hit both consumer and enterprise machines.

Infections like these often need nothing more than a simple click on a play or unmute button to start the redirect chain, with no download prompt and no need to enter any credentials. Operation Offsides remains active, and the Justice Department said it will continue to pursue the operators behind the seized sites.

Loongson Technology has announced the Loongson 3C3000, a new 16-core server processor aimed at low-cost general-purpose server systems. Unveiled on June 26, 2026, via a public corporate release, the chip is based on Loongson’s in-house architecture and is designed for small- and medium-sized business workloads, including file, database, web, and business process servers. Loongson says the 3C3000’s general-purpose computing performance matches that of the company’s earlier 3C5000 server processor.

The Loongson 3C3000 — which is based on a 64-bit architecture and supports the LoongArch instruction set — uses the company’s LA364E processor core design and comes in an FCBGA1371 package measuring 37.5mm by 37.5mm. The chip is pin-compatible with the Loongson 3B6000 processor, which should make it easier for system builders to reuse existing platform designs.

The processor features 16 physical cores and 16 threads, with clock speeds ranging from 1.5 GHz to 1.8 GHz. Each core supports 128-bit vector instructions and three-issue out-of-order execution. Loongson says each core integrates two fixed-point units, one vector unit, and two memory access units.

Cache and memory support are modest by modern server standards, but in line with the chip’s low-cost positioning. Each core includes 64KB of private L1 instruction cache and 64KB of private L1 data cache, while all 16 cores share 16MB of L2 cache. The integrated memory controller supports two 72-bit DDR4-2400 memory channels with ECC support, giving the processor server-class error correction for business and infrastructure workloads.

For expansion, the 3C3000 provides two PCIe x16 interfaces, totaling 32 PCIe lanes. These can be split into up to four x4 or x8 interfaces, depending on platform requirements. The chip also includes another PCIe x16 interface that can be configured as LCL (Loongson Coherent Link) for dual-processor interconnection. Other interfaces include SPI, UART, three I2C interfaces, AVS, and 16 GPIOs.

Loongson lists a typical power consumption of 40W when running at 1.5 GHz. The processor supports dynamic shutdown of the main module clock and dynamic frequency adjustment of the main clock domain, helping reduce power consumption under lighter workloads. It also integrates a Loongson-developed security and trust module that supports Chinese national cryptographic algorithms for encryption and decryption.

Unlike the 36C000, which Loongson says matches Intel’s Xeon, the company is positioning the 3C3000 as a low-cost, high-performance server CPU for customers that need general-purpose compute rather than high-end acceleration or AI performance, slotting it below the higher-core-count 3C6000 server lineup the company launched a year earlier. Support for China’s local software and hardware ecosystem also appears to be a selling point. The company has not publicly disclosed pricing, a common move for server processors, which are often sold through system builders and negotiated enterprise deals rather than as boxed retail chips.

"Think out of the box" is painted onto millions of motivation posters across the world, a shooting message for middle managers and eliciting eyerolls from most everyone else. And yet that's exactly what the researchers at Mozilla's 0din did, by tricking Claude into running malware in a roundabout yet deceptively simple way, by merely asking it to initialize a project from a pretty clean-looking GitHub repository.

An attacker would then have control over the developer's own account, accessing all their secrets, API keys, code, documents, browser sessions, and passwords. They could even install additional malware to maintain permanent access. Suffice to say, almost every bot agent is susceptible to this type of attack, though Claude is the default choice for programming tasks.

Here's how it works. All a victim developer has to do is tell Claude to initialize a project from a malicious GitHub repository (or tell it to configure it after cloning it themselves). Said repo looks pretty clean, with just a handful of scaffolding files, and most importantly, nothing that will trigger security tools, whether remote, local, or even Claude's own checks.

Claude will clone the repo. The first file it will process will be a "readme" or Markdown file describing how to initialize a Python environment with the Axiom package, a commonly used monitoring tool. So far, this appears completely legitimate. However, there's a fake Axiom startup script that will simply error out the first time it's run. This is the first step that tricks the box, because in order to be helpful and solve the problem, it'll run another innocuous-looking command to initialize Axiom: "python3 -m axiom init".

This then triggers a shell script that downloads a bit of software to run, another standard operation that won't raise an eyebrow. But the second trick is that instead of downloading from a malicious URL that could be scanned, the script reads the DNS text records of a specific domain — in this case, the domain "_axiom-config.m100.cloud". This too looks kosher enough, as for example, e-mail and by extension its configuration tools extensively rely on TXT records.

The said TXT record contains an encoded (base64) string that just opens a reverse shell, meaning it'll open a shell on the user's machine, but redirected to the attacker's server for input. At this point, the malfeasants can fish out everything that the user has access to and proceed to run software as the user. Meanwhile, all that Claude and the victim see is an "Environment ready" message or similar.

If you've been counting, this is three steps of indirection, none of which in isolation look like anything much out of the ordinary. Very few (if any) security scanning tools would even flag the repository, and none of the activity, save for the actual opening of a remote shell, even looks particularly odd. An enterprise environment with very tightly controlled network access could catch it, but that's not where the vast majority of developers operate in. It's also worth stressing that this particular implementation is just one example of a concept that can be applied to even more indirect and elaborate methods.

The 0din team concludes its report by stating the reasonably obvious: that developers should never blindly trust an unknown project as trusted code, and naturally, not trust the AI tool itself for security analysis purposes. As for the agents themselves, 0din states they need to inspect what actually will run and how, instead of simply following steps.

Sony has unceremoniously informed its PlayStation customers in the United Kingdom that 551 movies from StudioCanal will be removed from their accounts on September 1, 2026. If you bought any of the films included in this list, you'll no longer be able to access them. There is no workaround, no method to offload them to another device; just absolute, emotionless deletion that doesn't even offer refunds.

The lineup includes some truly legendary movies such as Terminator 2, Apocalypse Now, Mulholland Drive, Moonlight, and Dawn Till Dusk — essentially every film that StudioCanal distributed in the UK. Sony cites licensing agreements between it and the French company as the reason behind the sudden removal. The announcement doesn't include any other details beyond the list of the affected films.

Sony began selling movies and shows on the PlayStation Store in 2008. During the PS3 era, you could actually transfer the content to view on other devices, but that feature was removed on the PS4. In 2021, after the PS5 had launched, Sony stopped selling films and TV series entirely on PSN, which meant that it likely wouldn't renew contractual agreements with studios and distributors going forward.

The only exception to this rule was in 2023, when Sony began a similar deletion spree of Discovery Network shows but signed a new licensing deal to keep them on the platform. It remains to be seen whether public backlash can usher in a similar response for StudioCanal movies this time. You might not have heard its name before, but the studio is responsible for bringing countless popular movies to the UK.

For now, this is yet another distressing reminder of the digital precedent corporations have set for us. You no longer truly own any digital content you purchase; rather, it's just being licensed to you indefinitely. And you agree to this precedent "willingly" when you accept all those terms and conditions that veil ownership rights under fine print.

The moment the provider decides it's not viable to maintain said content, you're at risk of losing access to something you already paid for. It's like a subscription service with extra steps — as if people aren't growing wary enough of those already — except it was never advertised like that.

Leading Japanese capsule toy maker Tarlin International has announced an official collaboration with “the four major manufacturers” of the PC components industry. The teased result means that gachapon fans will be able to get their hands on tiny models of ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, and Intel parts (plus fans, PSUs, and cases), accurate enough “that you can assemble and play with.” In 2026, PC building has become so expensive that perhaps Tarlin’s latest wares will fill an emotional vacuum in the market.

In the image above, you can see Tarlin has inked some kind of official licensing deal with ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, and Intel. There’s already been four series of networking equipment gachapon launched by Tarlin, for some context.

As far as we can see from the social media posting, the new Tarlin gachapon series includes three branded miniature motherboards: the ASRock Z890 Steel Legend WiFi, the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Plus, and the MSI MEG Z890 Ace. Premium stuff. Intel’s Core Ultra 7 270K Plus seems to be the only CPU choice. There are also case fans, a PSU, and a tower case for your minuscule components PC build.

Tarlin’s eccentric gachapon pedigree

Compared with gachapon rivals like Bandai and Takara Tomy, Tarlin has carved a niche, eccentric furrow in the industry. It has a reputation for turning everyday, mundane, or highly technical objects into accurate scale miniatures.

Examples of other incredibly niche Tarlin-produced capsules include its Temporary Toilet Series, a realistic Articulated Crayfish, and its series of Cisco rackmount network gear toys. In this context, it's “serious spec” PC component capsule toys, which are made to such exacting precision that they can be assembled to make tiny tower PCs, aren’t so unusual.

In 2024, we spotted a Japanese capsule toy machine filled with Intel CPUs. One gacha chancer acquired an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU after inserting 500 Yen (around $3.25) and twisting the customary knob.

With ongoing inflation in PC component prices, investing in a gaming laptop can be a wise choice to avoid the rising cost of building a desktop PC from scratch. Additionally, it is portable, allowing you to game, work, or study anywhere without sacrificing much on performance. A standout laptop deal we've spotted is the Gigabyte Aero X16, now available for its lowest-ever price of $1,099.99 at Best Buy. The laptop is originally priced at $1,399.99, so you save $300.

• Check out this deal on Best Buy

The Gigabyte Aero X16 features an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, an 8-core, 16-thread processor that can boost up to 5 GHz, paired with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD for storage. One can upgrade the RAM up to 64GB, and there is a secondary M.2 slot to add more storage. For graphics, the laptop comes with an Nvidia RTX 5060 with 8GB of VRAM. The laptop sports a 16-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, offering 100% sRGB color gamut coverage and up to 400 nits of brightness. It also supports refresh rates of up to 165 Hz and a 3 ms response time for a fast, responsive visual experience.

The laptop also comes with a single-zone RGB-backlit keyboard, a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support, and built-in Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. I/O options include two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports, a USB 4.0 Type-C port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone and mic combo jack, and an Ethernet port. There’s also built-in Wi-Fi 6E along with Bluetooth 5.2. The battery has a capacity of 76 Wh, and the charging brick is rated at 150W.

Overall, the Gigabyte Aero X16 is a well-rounded gaming laptop that balances performance, modern features, and upgrade potential, making it a compelling choice at its current discounted price of $1,099.99. Do note that the deal is only valid until June 29, so you'd better hurry before stocks run out.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

As the ongoing component crisis worsens, even the biggest companies are no longer shielded. Apple, in a historic first, raised prices on a fleet of its products yesterday, saying it could no longer protect its customers from the soaring memory and storage costs. Now, the Financial Times is reporting that Apple is trying to lobby the U.S. government to secure official clearance to buy (cheaper) memory from China's CXMT.

CXMT is not outright banned by the White House, as it's not on the Defense Department's "Entity List," which prohibits Chinese companies entirely on national security grounds. Instead, it's listed in the 1260H list, which still designates it as a Chinese military company, and doing business with it would cause major reputational damage to an American company.

Apple has apparently been reaching out to its allies in Washington to persuade the government to allow it to purchase RAM from CXMT. Unlike Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix — the coalition controlling 90% of the world's DRAM — CXMT has no real incentive to chase AI buildouts. It can therefore provide RAM at much more reasonable prices without compromising performance.

Recently, Corsair Vengeance DDR5 sticks from China were found to use CXMT modules underneath, signaling the company's entry into the mainstream. That was a 6,000 MT/s CL30 kit, so it seems CXMT certainly has the ability to produce modern silicon at a scale sufficient for a major PC vendor like Corsair. OEMs such as Dell and HP are also adopting Chinese-made RAM for those region-bound systems.

Before that, CXMT has already demonstrated its capabilities for cutting-edge DRAM manufacturing; late last year, it showed off production-ready DDR5-8000 and LPDDR5X-10667 modules. Volume is another issue entirely, but Beijing has certainly figured out how to make performant RAM. If a buyer like Apple were to enter the picture now, even just for the Chinese market, it would completely shift the paradigm.

Of course, such a precedent is subject to approval, and high-ranking officials seem adamant against it. John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House China committee, has warned that Apple partnering "with a Chinese military company would be a grave mistake." He told Financial Times that it's imperative for America not to rely on foreign supply chains for something as critical as DRAM.

Apple is in a dire situation itself, having lost $265 billion off its market cap the day it announced price hikes on MacBooks and iPads. In an uncharacteristic move, Tim Cook even admitted he'd never seen anything like this in his 40+ year stint. The Cupertino giant has always enjoyed comfortable margins on memory and storage upgrades, but it can no longer dam the "hundred-year flood."

"Trump can show the courage to keep American memory alive for our security and our competitiveness or pour it down the drain so Tim Cook can squeeze out a few more points of margin," remarked an ex-official. Another security expert said it wouldn't make sense for the administration to fiercely protect critical earths and rare minerals, while suddenly conceding in the AI race (which is the reason behind the RAMpocalypse).

Whether Apple's efforts in Washington succeed or not is also predicated on the changing of the guard, since Tim Cook will hand over the baton to John Ternus come September — a logistics wizard leaving at perhaps the most decisive moment he was needed. The AI boom is here to stay, and so is the component crisis for now, so it remains to be seen how the company navigates the oncoming challenges.

Despite Valve’s efforts to prevent scalpers from taking advantage of the Steam Machine’s limited supply, there are still a few opportunists out there who are taking the risk of selling the pre-order slot that they have won. A quick search for “Steam Machine” on eBay would pull up results for pre-order slots sold at a significant premium above Valve’s own $1,049 retail price.

We see various listings for the 512GB version selling between $1,363.70 to $2,800 — a 30% to 167% premium. Scalper prices for the 2TB version are far more egregious, with listings priced between $2,399 and $2,899, making it 93% to 140% more expensive than buying it directly from the Steam Store.

Valve has already anticipated this event, especially given the massive interest in the Steam Machine and limited supply. This has happened multiple times before, especially with the arrival of the PlayStation 5 and every Nvidia GPU launch since the 30 series. To avoid frustration among legitimate gamers who couldn’t score a console during the first run of pre-orders but see several listings from third-party sellers with excruciatingly tall markups, Valve set up a randomized reservation system to make buying the Steam Machine as fair as possible.

“A launch that starts at a specific day and time tends to reward bots, people with fast internet connections, talented gaming fingers for quick F5/refresh reactions, and those who can schedule their life around that moment. By accepting reservation signups over the course of a few days, without any incentive to be first, we're hoping to take away some of that friction,” the company said on the Steam Machine FAQ section. “The longer timeframe also allows us to do some extra validation on the signups to make sure they're real accounts, with only one per household.”

There are some stringent requirements before a Steam account can be considered for the privilege of buying a Steam Machine. This includes: a Steam account in good standing, a Steam purchase on or before April 27, 2026, and only one Steam Machine per household. These criteria will make it quite difficult for professional scalpers to scoop up multiple Steam Machine units and sell them at a premium on the used market. Despite that, it seems a few people are willing to trade their slot for cash and have put their reservations up for sale on eBay.

If you weren’t lucky enough to secure a Steam Machine reservation, you might get tempted to pick one up from these scalpers. However, we strongly advise against that, as you’re taking several risks. For one, there is no guarantee that the seller you’re talking to is legitimate. Even though they may have 100% rating, it’s quite easy to game the system to achieve this. You might end up getting scammed out of your hard-earned cash, especially if they ask for payment first before shipping the item.

While being among the first to get a Steam Machine might bring a good feeling, you shouldn’t let FOMO dictate your spending decisions. In fact, it might even be better to wait a little longer because the first batch of Steam Machines will only have one 16GB stick of RAM, meaning it won’t have the advantages of dual-channel memory. While there’s no guarantee that future releases will use two 8GB sticks instead, Valve said this may change.

Intel is expected to push the boundaries on power draw with its upcoming Nova Lake series processors, which will rival the best CPUs. According to newly leaked information, the flagship 52-core desktop variant is expected to feature a dual-compute tile architecture with a massive PL2 limit of 474W. The information was shared by LC Tech Leaks and confirmed by Jaykihn, who has a pretty solid track record with Intel hardware.

PL2, or Power Limit 2, represents the maximum power a CPU can draw during short boost periods. That said, a PL2 target of 474W remains quite demanding, although a previous rumor suggests Intel may also have a PL4 emergency power limit over 700W. It is important to note that these power limits may only apply to the top-end models with the dual-tile architecture.

Additionally, the leak also sheds light on the upcoming platform, including the previously rumored LGA1954 socket. We already know that Nova Lake-S will require a new generation of motherboards. Motherboard vendors are expected to classify their boards by sustained PL1 power levels, with configurations for 35W, 65W, 125W, and 175W CPUs. Enthusiast-grade motherboards, likely the Z990 series, are also rumored to feature three EPS 8-pin CPU power connectors instead of the traditional two. While vendors will have the option to include a third connector, its primary purpose would be to support extreme overclocking and would not affect the CPU's rated performance profile.

The upcoming Nova Lake-S lineup is expected to carry the ‘Core Ultra 400S’ moniker and will be Intel's biggest desktop CPU overhaul in years. We’ve previously reported leaked specifications indicating configurations ranging from 6 to 52 cores, with support for DDR5-8000 memory. The flagship 52-core model is expected to feature 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores, and a new Big Last Level Cache (bLLC) design to take on AMD's 3D V-Cache gaming dominance. The company is also rumored to introduce integrated Xe3 graphics, Thunderbolt 5, PCIe 5.0 connectivity, and an upgraded NPU for AI workloads.

While these specifications are unconfirmed, it is clear that Intel is targeting substantial gains in gaming, multi-threaded performance, and overall platform capabilities with its next-gen processors.

Friday marks the final official day of the Amazon Prime Day sales, and your last chance to score some of the biggest and best savings on PC hardware, components, peripherals, and more.

With PC prices tougher than ever, finding a good deal can be very hard, but also more rewarding. Our expert team is curating deals 24/7 to find you savings on all manner of tech, including SSDs, CPUs, GPUs, RAM, gaming laptops, and more.

We use price tracking to ensure that deals are actually worthwhile, and you can find all of our deals below. Remember, you'll need an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of those deals, but we're also sharing other deals from retailers like Newegg and Best Buy.

Quick Links: Amazon Prime Day deals

• Amazon: All Prime Day deals
• Amazon: 62% off computers and accessories deals
• Amazon: All Gaming GPU Deals
• Amazon: Up to $500 off Gaming Monitors
• Amazon: Desktop and gaming PCs

Quick Links: Deals under $13

• UGreen AX900 Wi-Fi 6 Adapter
• UGreen 100W Nexode USB-C to USB-C Retractable Cable 3.3FT
• Wytudte HDMI Adapter Kit
• Arctic M2 Pro heatsink cooler
• TP-Link five-port Gigabit Ethernet switch
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• Litewave 5 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Hottest Prime Day Tech Deals

Quick Links: Deals under $40

• Anker Nano Travel Adapter, 5-Port Power Adapter 
• Rosewill NVMe SSD Cloner, M.2 Duplicator Dual Bay NVMe
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Quick Links: Deals under $50

• TP-Link 8-port unmanaged 2.5G switch

Good morning and welcome to day four of the Amazon Prime Day sales!

Get Logitech's G Pro X Superlight 2 for a super light price of $99

Logitech's award-winning ultra-light pseudo-ambidextrous wireless gaming mouse weighs just 2.12 ounces (60g) and sports the brand's Hero 2 optical sensor. And it's currently on sale for the lowest price we've seen it at: $99 at Woot. (was $179.99).

The G Pro X Superlight 2 has a maximum sensitivity of 32,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 500 IPS and can handle up to 40 G's of force. It has a lightweight plastic shell with a smooth, soft-touch finish, and five programmable buttons. The primary buttons feature Logitech's Lightforce hybrid mechanical/optical switches, which are tactile and clicky (and somewhat loud). You can read my full review of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 here. — Sarah

Get a free 990 Pro SSD 1TB in this Newegg bundle

We love a good PC component bundle at Tom's Hardware, and this one is a banger. Right now, you can get an AM5 bundle that combines a B850 motherboard, Ryzen 5 9600X CPU, and a 1TB 990 Pro SSD for just $429. Now, at Newegg's listed prices, that makes the 990 Pro free, because the motherboard and CPU are worth more than the overall cost of the bundle. In reality, you can buy them separately for $337. However, that still makes the 1TB 990 Pro around $100 in this bundle, which is the best price you'll find on it anywhere.

As you can see from our testing data the 9600X performs on par with Intel's Core i5-12600K in multi-threaded performance, but beats the Core Ultra 9 285K in 1080p gaming. To that end, this is a pretty capable gaming CPU that would make the solid foundation for a budget or mid-range PC build. You could even upgrade it in future to a more potent AM5 CPU. - Stephen Warwick

Grab this 24-inch IPS Dell monitor for its lowest price ever

Not every monitor has to be 4K (according to my GPU) — sometimes you just want a solid 1080p monitor for under $100. Which Dell's SE2426H normally is, as it retails for $99.99, but right now you can get it for even cheaper as it's currently on sale for $75.99 at Amazon — the lowest we've ever seen it go.

This 23.8-inch monitor sports a full HD IPS display with a wide 178-degree viewing angle. It's not quite a gaming monitor, but it does support AMD FreeSync and it has a fairly speedy 144Hz refresh rate. The screen, which features a matte finish, gets up to 300 nits of brightness and has a 1000:1 contrast ratio. It features two HDMI ports on the back, as well as a security lock slot. The slim bezel means it will look sleek on your desk and give you plenty of screen real estate. And, well, it's $75.99 — at that price, you might as well get four! — Sarah

Keep it clean

Getting an air duster is a great way to keep your entire PC setup clean. You can use it to blow dust from your fans, components, and your case. You can also use one to clean up your keyboard and mouse, and even blast crumbs straight from your desk. There are a ton of great rechargeable models in the Prime Day sale right now, we've rounded up some of the best discounts below! — Ben Stockton

AMD's new 10th Anniversary Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU is now in stock, but you'll need to act fast

AMD's new 10th-anniversary Ryzen 7 5800X3D is now available for purchase at B&H Photo at MSRP, a welcome relief for those who have been searching for the chip only to find it being scalped at twice the MSRP after yesterday's launch. Given the intense demand, this stock will probably not last long.

• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at B&H

If B&H runs out of stock quickly, you can also try Newegg and Best Buy, but they have had only spotty availability.

• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Newegg
• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Best Buy

We re-reviewed this chip for the launch, and while it is functionally similar to the original 5800X3D, AMD did have to make changes to the innovative 3D V-Cache to bring this processor back into production. This is the fastest gaming you can get on an AMD AM4 platform, so it's a no-brainer upgrade for enthusiasts on older platforms. — Paul Alcorn

Give your desk a quick clean with this mini vacuum cleaner for under $10

Prime Day is nearly over, and you might have already purchased all of the big essentials. What you (probably) haven't bought yet are the real essentials, like this Odistar desktop vacuum cleaner for less than $10.

This is a battery-powered, hand-operated vacuum for your desk. Had a messy lunch, filled with all kinds of detritus? Pull the Odistar out of your desk and let its powerful 9,000 RPM motor, delivering 1000 Pa worth of suction, do the rest. It has two modes, high and low, to choose between, so you can go max power when you're dealing with the seriously dirty crevices.

You'll need a pair of AA batteries to use it, and the batteries will last for up to 2.5 hours. The $9.98 price tag is here for Prime Day only, so if you want to keep your setup clean for under $10, now is your chance to splurge. — Joe Shields

Save up to 43% on Anker portable Bluetooth speakers - big savings on the Soundcore Select 4 Go shower speaker, and Soundcore 2 portable speaker

If you’re anything like me, you like to listen to music on the go, or even in the shower, where you can sing your heart out without worry. The Soundcore Select 4 Go ($19.99, 43% off) is a small, waterproof/dustproof (IP67) ultra-portable speaker. Measuring just 3.2 x 4.7 x 1.8 inches and weighing just 9.3 ounces, and according to our managing editor who owns one, “it’s a good combination of affordability, sound quality, and weight.” Now priced under $20 on the last Amazon Prime Day 2026, it’s a steal for anyone who needs a waterproof, portable speaker.

The Anker Soundcore 2 portable Bluetooth speaker is on sale now for under $29 (37% off - matching its all-time low price). While portable, it is a bit larger than the Select 4 go, measuring 1.8 x 6.5 x 2.1 inches. It’s IPX7-certified, so it’s waterproof as well, but it hasn't been tested for dust and dirt like the Select 4 Go. Anker says to expect 24 hours of music with the 5,200mAh battery for a full day of tunes through the 12W dual-driver system. If you don’t like the black, there are six other colors available, though they are a couple of dollars more.

Upgrade your portable speaker game now and start belting out tunes wherever you are without breaking the bank. — Matt Safford

Save 13% on Cable Matters braided USB-C cable - Just $16 buys a high-quality 6.6-foot cable certified for 80 Gbps data and 240W power

Using the right cable may not seem like a big deal, and for many, that holds true. But some users need a cable that can not only transfer a lot of power but also transfer data quickly. Whether it’s for charging purposes or transferring data from a speed external device, picking the right one is important. To that end, Cable Matters' premium braided 6.6-foot USB-C-to-USB-C cable is on sale now for only $19.99 (13% off) on the last day of Prime Day 2026.

This rugged USB4 cable delivers up to 80Gbps of bandwidth and is fully compliant with the USB4 v2.0 specification and compatible with Thunderbolt 5. It also supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode for video up to 8K@120Hz or 4K@480Hz on high-refresh-rate displays. It supports up to 240W of charging and USB PD 3.1 (EPR). In all, it does everything you’d need a cable to do, and it’s on sale. — Matt Safford

The Team Group G50 is the cheapest 4TB NVMe SSD we’ve seen this Prime Day, on sale for $400

A $400 PCIe 4.0 SSD with 4TB of storage is a downright deal in the current climate. It’s the lowest price we’ve seen on the SSD on all year, and considering the going price for 4TB SSDs is north of $500 now, we didn’t expect to see a drive drop to $400. Newegg has the drive discounted by $70, and you can save an additional $50 with code FTTF462 at checkout.

This is a solid entry-level PCIe 4.0 drive. It leverages a SLC cache and is slower than popular Gen4 drives like the WD Black SN850X and Samsung 990 Pro, with sequential read and write speed ratings of 5,000 MB/s. This is the standard version of the G50. The Pro version features a DRAM cache.

Although it’s not the fastest Gen4 drive, this is a great deal for a lot of storage considering the current pricing climate. — Jake Roach

Meta Quest 3S Gorilla Tag Cardboard Monkenaut bundle discounted by $50

When it comes to virtual reality headsets, the Meta Quest 3S is one of the more affordable entries on the market. It’s a cost-reduced version of the Meta Quest 3, and it’s currently on sale at Amazon for $296.79 with Gorilla Tag Cardboard Monkenaut bundle.

The quest features dual LCD panels, providing a resolution of 1832 x 1920 per eye, and can refresh at up to 120 Hz. It’s powered by a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 SoC with 8GB of RAM. This particular SKU comes with 128GB of internal storage. The internal battery lasts up to 2.5 hours of playtime (although YMMV).

The Gorilla Tag Cardboard Monkenaut bundle gives you exclusive items like the Gorilla Space Program Suit and Helmet, along with a couple of thousand rocks for the VR social game. — Brandon Hill

Quick! The Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition is back in stock

AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition launched yesterday, but it sold out almost immediately as listings went live. Although there are some solid 5800X3D alternatives on sale, AMD's re-released CPU is back in stock at several retailers for its MSRP of $350.

We just re-reviewed the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and found that it maxes out the potential of DDR4 gaming platforms. It's a great upgrade if you already have an AM4 motherboards. Otherwise, however, you might want to browse our list of the best CPU deals. — Jake Roach

Gigabyte’s Aero X16 offers tremendous value, a high-resolution 16-inch display, and an RTX 5060 for $1,100

Despite rising RAM and storage costs, there are deals on value-focused gaming laptops. Best Buy is currently offering the Gigabyte Aero X16 for $1,099.99, down from its $1,399.99 MSRP.

The Aero X16 features an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor with Zen 5 architecture (up to 5 GHz boost). It includes 32GB of DDR5 RAM—double the typical budget amount—and a 1TB SSD, with support for upgrades up to 64GB and 4TB, respectively.

For performance, it utilizes a GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, capable of driving its 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 IPS display. The screen offers a 165 Hz refresh rate, 3 ms response time, 400 nits brightness, and 100% sRGB coverage.

The 4.19-pound device houses a 76 Whr battery providing up to 12 hours of life. — Brandon Hill

Save big on Govee’s RGBIC Floor Lamp - take 40% off the best-selling RGB floor lamp and customize the lighting in your room for under $60

Govee’s RGBIC floor lamp is on sale at Amazon for $59.99 (40% off, $40 off). Unleash your creativity with this 16M-color RGB floor lamp for a fantastic lighting experience. This slender pole-on-a-stick lamp measures 8-inches around at the base and 53-inches tall and fits perfectly in your living room, bedroom, or office.

Download the Govee app to access over 85 dynamic scene modes or create your own custom lighting experience. The 1,000lm (Lumen) RGBIC floor lamp connects via 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and you can manage the device through Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings. - Joe Shields

This Lenovo Legion 5i gaming laptop RTX 5070 and OLED display is discounted to just $1,599

This excellent Lenovo Legion laptop is $500 off at B&H Photo right now. For just $1,599, you get an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX 24-core processor, RTX 5070, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That's a lot of kit at this price point, making this laptop an easy add for you "must buy" list.

Perhaps the best feature of this laptop is its OLED display, a 2560 x 1600 panel with 165 Hz refresh, which will look great paired with the pixel-pushing power of the RTX 5070. The 24-core processor is excellent for both gaming and productivity, and the RTX 5070 delivers good frame rates at this resolution. You'll also get Wi-Fi 7 for connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3. For ports, there's Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, and USB-A. — Brandon Hill

Get an RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop for less with this excellent Acer Predator Helios Neo 18

One of the most popular gaming laptops among Tom’s Hardware readers this year is the Acer Predator Helios Neo 18, and for good reason. It packs a Core Ultra 9 275HX, RTX 5070 Ti, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD, all of which are great specs considering the $2,000 sale price.

A lot of gaming laptops either fall into the budget range below $1,500 or the high-end range, scaling above $3,000. The Predator Helios Neo 18 is a rare compromise with high-end specs for a (relatively) affordable price. If the 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage aren’t enough for you, Amazon has the same laptop for $300 more with double on both fronts. — Jake Roach

Be ready for anything that needs Wi-Fi with this $10 USB Wi-Fi 6 adapter

A compact USB Wi-Fi adapter is an incredibly handy thing to have in your PC toolkit, whether it's for joining a Wi-Fi-less system to your network or getting around Windows installation issues with unrecognized devices. Or maybe you need to get an older system onto a more modern Wi-Fi standard. Whatever your Wi-Fi needs, you can get a tiny Ugreen AX600 Wi-Fi 6 adapter for just $10 right now on Amazon.

This tiny dongle is only a bit bigger than its USB Type-A connector, and comes with Windows drivers onboard, so it's a truly plug-and-play affair if Windows itself can't recognize it. It's not the fastest Wi-Fi 6 adapter around, but it's there in a pinch, and again, it's just $10. Grab one for your older PC or toolkit now and be prepared for anything. -- Jeff Kampman

Score a 1TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD for free in this affordable 3-item Newegg deal - $250 combo savings nets a 1TB Samsung 990 Pro, AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, and Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi7 Ice motherboard

With the RAMpocolypse still in full swing, one of our only options for a ‘good’ deal is a multi-item combo. This three-item, $429.99 combo from Newegg (36% off, $249.98) pairs a speedy Samsung 1TB 990 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD, the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X (6-core, 12-thread), and the Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi7 Ice motherboard. A good start on a white AM5-based system.

When I reviewed the black version of the B850 Aorus Elite Wifi7 in 2025, it earned four stars for solid performance, price point, DIY features, and Wi-Fi 7. But the star of this combo has to be the ‘free’ storage and the discounted processor with the leftover savings. In these tough times, combo deals are where it's at, and this one is perfect for a white budget AM5 build. Here’s a list of some of the best RAM deals we’ve found to ease that pain. - Joe Shields

This TP-Link 8-port unmanaged 2.5G switch is just $49.99 for a limited time

The TP-Link TL-SG108S-M2 is an 8-port 2.5 GbE unmanaged switch ideal for home or small office networks. While its MSRP is $79.99, an Amazon Prime Day deal reduces it to $49.99.

It supports 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 2.5 Gbps via Cat5e cabling and features a 40 Gbps switching capacity. It connects PCs, NAS devices, printers, or access points with ease. In addition, it’s a compact (6.22 x 3.98 x 1 inches), wall-mountable metal unit that is passively cooled for silent operation.

I bought a UGREEN 6-port 2.5 GbE unmanaged switch back in October for $59.97, and here we have an 8-port unmanaged switch for $10 less. I’m seriously tempted to pick one to add to my downstairs satellite on my Wi-Fi 7 mesh network — Brandon Hill

This Anker Soundcore Boom 2 portable Bluetooth speaker is just $70 and perfect for camping and charging your devices

If you’re looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker with some real gusto, Anker’s SoundCore Boom 2 is currently on sale at Woot.com for $69.99. That’s a $15 discount compared to its typical asking price on Amazon, and 46% off its $129.99 MSRP.

The Boom 2 is larger than your typical portable speaker, and measures 11.65 x 3.98 x 7.28 inches (L x W x H). The 80-watt speaker comprises two 15-watt tweeters and a 50-watt subwoofer, delivering 2.1-channel sound. It also uses Anker’s Bass Up 2.0 technology to further enhance the low-end response for extra punch.

Other features include IPX7 waterproofing, an integrated carrying handle, RGB lights with 8 effects, and customizable colors (it can also be used as a traditional flashlight). The Boom 2 can last up to 24 hours per charge and also doubles as a power bank for your portable devices via its integrated USB-C port. And if you decide to use the Boom 2 poolside, you’ll be glad to know that it floats in water. — Brandon Hill

Get your headset out of the way with this $5 headset holder

Where do you put your headset when it's not on your head? If it's just lying on your desk or hooked over your monitor, maybe it's time to get some dedicated storage. This aluminum alloy JAKO headphone holder is sturdy and easy to use — it just clamps onto your desk — and it's currently on sale for just $5.04 at Amazon — down 15% from its normal retail price of $5.94.

The JAKO holder features a silicone rubber-lined clamp to keep your desk protected, and fits desks up to 1.929 inches thick. It has a moderately wide hook designed to hold headsets with headbands up to 1.378 inches thick, and it supports up to 110 pounds (hopefully you won't get anywhere near that weight limit, but still). Because it's a clamp, and not a screw-in or adhesive, it's easy to install and uninstall. And it will get your headset — and/or cables, or anything else you need to hang on your desk, out of the way. — Sarah

This handy $10 power bank has a USB-C connector built in, so it's ready anytime, anywhere

If you've ever had to charge a device from a power bank on the go, you know how awkward it is to have a cable running from a pocket or backpack to the phone in your hand. I find myself wishing I had Anker's Nano Power Bank for those times. This battery pack supports both cabled charging and nestles up next to a phone's power port with a folding USB Type-C plug, all for just $10 at Best Buy. $10!

This pocketable battery charges connected phones at up to 20W speeds, and its built-in USB-C plug means that you can always hook it up to a phone even if you forget to bring a cable along. And for as little as it costs, you can buy a couple and leave them in bags or wherever you might need an emergency top-up. -- Jeff Kampman

Upgrade your networking for $8

I bought a TP-Link Litewave Switch recently, and it has changed my life. I used to run a cable to my PC and suffered Wi-FI over Xbox, because I didn't want the hassle of two cables coming from my router in the hallway through to my office. With a TP-Link Litewave 5, I now have a single high-quality cable serving the switch and two cables serving my PC and Xbox. It means I always get the fastest speed possible over a wired connection without ever having to move cables or change anything, and latency is much better as a result. Game changer.

Add some touchscreen to your setup

Over the weekend, this discount on the Corsair Xeneon Edge has been extremely popular. This 14.5-inch display is a desktop extension you can add to a PC case or anywhere on your desk. You can show apps like Spotify or YouTube, or pair it with iCUE to show off internal monitoring metrics like CPU and GPU temps.

TP-Link’s Deco BE63 Wi-Fi 7 mesh router is a great bargain at $249.99

When it comes to affordable Wi-Fi 7 mesh routers, it doesn’t get much better than the TP-Link Deco BE63. Not only does it offer tri-band coverage (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz), but it also offers plenty of performance for typical household needs. Amazon currently has the Deco BE63 two-pack on sale for $280.99, a 20 percent discount compared to its MSRP.

Each wireless node features four 2.5 GbE ports, any of which can be used for connecting to your cable, fiber, or 5G modem. I personally used this very same Deco BE63 two-pack in my home for the past year. I have one node downstairs in my living room connected to my T-Fiber home, and the second node upstairs in my home office. The two nodes use a wired backhaul, connected via CAT6 cabling that runs up my home’s exterior wall, then snakes across the attic.

With my setup, I can take full advantage of my 2 Gbps fiber connection with my wired connections and get extremely close using my wireless clients. In addition, since I have a home full of TP-Link/Tap smart switches, plugs, and cameras, the Deco router app also serves as a central control hub for the devices without needing to install an additional app. — Brandon Hill

Get 65W of power in a portable GaN charger for just $26 with this lightning deal

It’s remarkable how cheap GaN chargers have gotten over the past few years. UGreen is selling its 4-in-1 65W GaN charger for just $29. That’s 25% off list price and a few dollars cheaper than competing chargers we’ve featured in our Prime Day USB charger hub.

The charger comes with four ports total, including three USB-C connections and a single USB-A port. Two of the USB-C ports support the full 65W output, but only one of them at a time. The third USB-C port can supply up to 30W, meanwhile, and the USB-A port tops out at 22.5W.

You can still use multiple devices at the same time, however. If you plug, for example, the Steam Deck into one of the USB-C ports, you can still distribute 20W across the other ports.

Razer's last-gen BlackShark V2 Pro is a great deal at just $130

There's a reason that the BlackShark V2 Pro (Gen-2) is still at the top of our list of best gaming headsets, and it's because it still has the best microphone we've ever heard on a headset (and one of the best we've heard not on a headset, too). And it can be yours for just $129.99 at Amazon — that's $70 off the retail price of $199.99.

This dual-wireless headset doesn't have simultaneous dual-wireless audio, but it does let you switch quickly between its low-latency 2.4GHz wireless connection and its Bluetooth connection (you won't even miss the lack of wired connection, trust me). Its 50mm "Triforce" titanium dynamic drivers sound especially good when gaming, and it comes with several built-in game-ready EQ presets for getting a leg up on the competition in first-person shooters (and it also sounds great in games with immersive, layered audio, thanks to the built-in THX Spatial Audio). And it has a microphone so good, my colleague Andrew said I sounded better over the BlackShark V2 Pro than I did in real life.

Read our review of the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro here. — Sarah

Get this tri-band Asus Wi-Fi 7 router for just under $200

For those of you in the market for a new wireless router, there are plenty of options. TP-Link seems to be the go-to due to its attractive pricing, but Asus is no slouch in this area either. In fact, the company’s RT-BE92U is currently listed on Amazon at $197.99, which is 21 percent off its MSRP.

The RT-BE92U is a tri-band router (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz) supporting the full Wi-Fi 7 featureset, including Multi-Link Operation (MLO). Additionally, it supports the proprietary Asus AiMesh standard, allowing you to combine multiple compatible devices into a functional mesh network.

Asus hasn’t forgotten about your wired connections, as the RT-BE92U offers four 2.5 GbE LAN ports (one of which can be used for WAN) and a single 10 GbE LAN/WAN port. It also features a single USB 3.0 port, which can be used for storage or to connect a cellular device for WAN.

Router software is just as important as its hardware, and the RT-BE92U delivers here as well. Not only do you get a full-featured smartphone app, but the traditional desktop-based webGUI is also feature-rich. There are many customizations available, and plenty of tweaks to get the most out of your network. — Brandon Hill

Corsair’s fabric TC100 racing chair is only $190 for Prime Day, the cheapest it’s been all year

The Corsair TC100 is a fairly affordable chair to begin with, but with a 30% discount for Prime Day, it’s practically pennies (or nickels now, I guess). It’s an all-fabric chair with a high back for a racing-style design, and it comes fitted with a lumbar support pillow and removable memory foam neck rest. Corsair makes the TC100 with a leatherette finished, but the fabric version is what’s on sale for Prime Day.

The chair should fit most people, with a maximum height of 6’2” and a maximum weight of 264 pounds (120 kg). For adjustments, the back reclines back to a 160 degree angle, and the gas lift gives you 3.9 inches of height adjustment. Corsair says the armrests have “2D” adjustments, which mean they move up and down, and side to side.

The TC100 has dropped down to $160 on a flash sale before, but otherwise, this is the cheapest we’ve seen the chair since that flash sale over a year ago. — Jake Roach

Anycubic's award-winning Kobra X 3D printer gets its price slashed to just $299 at in this Amazon Prime Day discount

A stunning deal at Amazon on Anycubic’s Kobra X 3D printer. This Prime Day deal has absolutely slashed the cost of this Tom’s Hardware Editor’s Choice award-winning printer by a massive $60 (17%), making the Anycubic Kobra X just $299. This is $50 less than the cost of the identical printer direct from Anycubic in their own sale.

The Anycubic Kobra X may look a little like the Bambu Lab A1, with a similar brushed aluminum frame, but that’s where the comparisons end. The Kobra X uses the ACE Gen 2 multi-color system, which is built directly into the toolhead, and doesn’t use an extra external box for the filament. The filament feeds straight in from stationary top-mounted spools, but you can add extra optional hubs, with the ability to connect up to four ACE 2 Pro units for as many as 19 colors in your print creations.

Check out our in-depth review of the Anycubic Kobra X for more information on this superb multi-color 3D printer. — Stewart Bendle

Save 43% and upgrade your gaming monitor to a 27-inch 1440p Acer Nitro for only $170 - 240Hz Fast IPS panel is a wallet saving $130 off for Prime Day

Even though we’re seeing a lot of great gaming monitor deals for Prime Day 2026, not everyone can afford fancy high-refresh OLED monitors. Acer’s Nitro VG27U (W2BMIIPX) bridges that gap at $169.99 (43% / $130 off), offering a fast IPS panel with a 240Hz refresh rate that’s great for games and productivity alike. The Nitro supports AMD Freesync Premium technology to minimize screen tearing, while the 0.5ms response time (GTG) defeats ghosting. It is also VESA DisplayHDR 400-certified (400-nit brightness).

The VG27U sports ‘frameless’ bezels on three sides, has two integrated speakers (2W), and connects through two HDMI (v2.0) ports or one DisplayPort (v1.4). It does not come with any USB ports but does have a 3.5mm audio output. The current $170 price point is an awesome deal on a budget gaming monitor. In fact, my son may have just been upgraded. - Joe Shields

Corsair's T3 Rush gaming chair gets a steep 46% price cut to just $189.99

The Corsair T3 Rush is a gaming chair that not only looks good, but it also won’t break the bank. The chair is on sale for $189.99 at Best Buy, a healthy $160 discount off its normal asking price.

This particular version of the T3 Rush is covered in breathable, charcoal-colored fabric and has a sleek, racing-seat-inspired design (complete with loops where you’d run seat belts in a track car). It has a padded neck cushion and memory foam-backed lumbar support. Other features include 65 mm dual-wheel casters, 4D armrests, and a seatback that adjusts from 90 degrees to 170 degrees. — Brandon Hill

This ABS Cyclone Aqua prebuilt is on sale for $1,049 with an RTX 5060, Core i5-14400F, and 32GB of memory

One of the cheapest prebuilt deals we’ve seen so far on Prime Day, the ABS Cyclone Aqua comes with a Core i5-1440F, RTX 5060, 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. We’ve seen some prebuilts with this configuration for around $900, but only with 16GB of memory. This is the cheapest we’ve seen with a 32GB configuration.

ABS is Newegg’s house brand for custom-built PCs, so the specific components are actually listed. In this case, the RTX 5060 is Zotac’s Twin Edge OC model, while the memory is a kit from G.Skill’s Ripjaws V line. The SSD, meanwhile, is a Kingston SNV3S 1TB drive. The machine also sports an ASRock B760M-C/D4 motherboard and 650W 80 Plus Gold power supply.

Based on our most recent testing, there’s a growing gap in performance between DDR4 and DDR5 platforms, though that mostly applies to the higher-end of CPUs. The Core i5-14400F will see lower performance with DDR5 in most games, with older titles seeing little to no performance loss and newer titles dropping by upwards of 15%. — Jake Roach

Save 36% on Samsung's speedy 32-inch 240 Hz 4K Odyssey gaming monitor

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (G80SD) is a premium 32-inch gaming monitor built around a 4K QD-OLED panel. Right now, Amazon is selling the monitor for $799.99, an incredible $36% off its normal list price.

The G80SD’s OLED panel features Quantum Dot enhancement, delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and wide color coverage. It offers a 240 Hz refresh rate and features an ultra-fast 0.03 ms gray-to-gray response time, making it ideal for competitive gaming on high-end PC setups. It is also compatible with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-Sync for smooth, tear-free gameplay.

You’ll also find HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort connectivity, while Samsung's OLED Glare-Free coating helps reduce reflections. To address OLED longevity concerns, Samsung incorporates its OLED Safeguard+ suite, which includes a dynamic cooling system, thermal modulation, and automatic brightness adjustments for static elements such as logos and taskbars to help minimize screen burn-in.

Beyond gaming, the monitor Samsung's Gaming Hub, allowing you to access cloud gaming services and connected consoles, while built-in Smart TV features allow streaming without a PC. — Brandon Hill

Samsung's Odyssey G30D is on an excellent sale for just $150, 35% off its list price

If you don't want to just get a grab bag 25-inch, 1080p monitor is on sale for $100, grab the Samsung Odyssey G30D. It's a 1080p monitor, but it's larger than most cheap 1080p displays at 27 inches, and it comes with a fully adjustable stand along with a 180Hz refresh rate.

Razer's full-size macro-friendly gaming keyboard is $100 off

Sometimes you just need a full-size gaming keyboard with all the bells and whistles — such as Razer's wired BlackWidow V4 Pro, which is a full-size gaming keyboard with dedicated media controls and plenty of customizable macro keys. And it's currently on sale — in its white variant — for just $149.99 at Best Buy ($100 off its normal retail price of $249.99).

The BlackWidow V4 Pro is a full-size wired mechanical keyboard with Razer's clicky green switches (my favorite) and tons of bright RGB lighting... everywhere. It not only has per-key RGB, it also has underglow — which extends to the included wristrest. It also has a volume roller, four dedicated media keys, and eight dedicated macro keys — five keys and three buttons on the left side — plus a tactile multi-function "command dial." It's definitely a large keyboard, so it's not for those with limited desk space, but it's a solid performer and super versatile if you've got the space to spare. You can read my full review of the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro here. — Sarah

Grab an Asus ZenWiFi BT8 tri-band Wi-Fi 7 mesh router for $374

If you're looking for a high-quality Wi-Fi 7 mesh router that offers a ton of functionality and seemingly limitless configuration settings in its webGUI, it's hard to argue against Asus routers. And if you're looking for something that punches above its weight class in performance, now's a great time to grab a ZenWiFi BT8 2-pack for just $389 from Amazon.

This home mesh system delivers cumulative wireless speeds of 14 Gbps and covers 5,900 square feet. You also get 2.5 GbE WAN, 2.5 GbE LAN, two GbE LAN ports, and a USB 3.0 port. It also supports wired backhaul if you want to eke out every bit of performance from your mesh network. — Brandon Hill

This Ryzen 7 9800X3D-powered prebuilt is the cheapest we've seen this week

Want to get into cutting-edge gaming on the cheap? Walmart has you covered with iBuyPower's Y40 prebuilt gaming PC. This system features the killer combo of a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which needs no introduction as one of the finest gaming CPUs around, and the Radeon RX 9070 XT, the most potent RDNA 4 card for gaming all the way out to 4K. This killer system is on sale for just $1749.99 at Walmart, making it the most affordable 9800X3D system we've seen this week.

iBuyPower rounds out this build with a 1TB SSD and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. We'd love to see more storage here, but it's likely you have an SSD from a prior build that you can swap in for extra space. A massive 360mm liquid cooler and plenty of fans stand at the ready to keep all the parts inside cool while gaming. A quality 850W 80 Plus Gold PSU powers all those components. Get into 9800X3D-powered gaming for shockingly little dosh while this deal lasts. -- Jeff Kampman

Get 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 for $210 in this blowout B&H bundle

Following in the footsteps of Micro Center and Newegg, B&H is now offering bundles on PC components, mainly focused on CPUs, motherboards, and of course, RAM. The retailer has a bundle going now that brings together the Ryzen 7 7700X, an Asus B650E Max Gaming Wi-Fi motherboard, and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 memory for $590.

That's a significant discount. Even taking into account current sales, this bundle is about $60 less than buying the components individually. That's with the Ryzen 7 7700X at an all-time low of $200, as well. At normal street prices, this bundle of components individually would reach up around $750.

As for the memory, it's currently selling for $270, so even in the most generous reading of prices, you're saving $60. Compared to going prices, the discount is well over $100. — Jake Roach

If you want to learn more about these machines, be sure to check the linked reviews on each model. — Paul Alcorn

Prime Day always brings hot deals on 3D Printers, and this year is no exception. These 3D printers listed below are all on sale, own a spot on our list of Best 3D Printers, and also happen to be the most-purchased deals on the website over the last three days.

These are the hottest 3D printer deals on Tom's Hardware this week

The big 9100 Pro SSD price drop is still holding

The Samsung 9100 Pro SSD has provided us with probably the single-best SSD deals of this Prime season, and surprisingly, these drives haven't sold out at their lowest pricing since February. Specifically, the 1TB model is now $206.99, while the 2TB is $349. That's a lot more than you would have paid last year, but these are top-tier flagships from Samsung, so this is as good as it gets for a PCIe 5.0 SSD on Amazon right now — or for the last five months.

This SSD challenges or beats nearly every drive on the market in performance testing, and barely lags behind the very fastest drives we've tested. If you want a great SSD for gaming or professional workloads that will deliver snappy load times, this is the drive for you. It's amazing they are still in stock, but once this deal ends it is surely going to be over for perhaps ever.

32GB of DDR5 and 2TB of SSD capacity now feels like a luxury... (this is the worst timeline)

It wasn't that long ago that 32GB of DDR5 memory and 2TB of SSD capacity wasn't thought of as a luxury, but the ongoing memory and storage pricing crisis has completely changed the calculus. Due to pricing increases, finding what was once considered table stakes at a decent price point is wonderful, as we see with this prebuilt gaming machine from CyberPowerPC that comes armed with that magical 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB SSD.

This rig has plenty of power under the hood, too, with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D running the show and an Nvidia RTX 5070 pumping out the visuals.

This powerful combo can handle 1440p gaming with aplomb, and allow you to reach up to 4K for some titles, especially if you're leveraging DLSS and the other bells and whistles that come with Nvidia GPUs. — Paul Alcorn

Upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 with these Prime Day deals on Netgear wireless routers

Plenty of the laptops and motherboards we've highlighted now come with cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 support, so you may be thinking about a router upgrade to match. Some of our favorite Netgear Wi-Fi 7 routers are on sale this Prime Day, so if your old router is holding your new devices back, now is a good time to make the jump.

For larger homes, the Netgear Orbi 770 Mesh 2-Pack is on sale for just $444.99. This mesh system delivered solid performance in our tests on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and it offers 2.5GbE ports and fast wireless backhaul options for versatile mesh network configurations.

Our only beef with this system was its price tag, and Amazon's Prime Day deal helps make it more accessible for those who need broad coverage along with their Wi-Fi 7 performance.

If you don't need the broad coverage of a mesh system or the high performance potential of the 6GHz band, but still want the other advantages of Wi-Fi 7, the Nighthawk Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router (RS180) still provides plenty of range and performance for just $142.99 on sale.

This hexagonal Wi-Fi 7 obelisk delivers aggregate speeds of up to 5.5 Gbps over areas as large as 2500 square feet, and it has a 2.5 GbE WAN port plus another 2.5 GbE LAN port and three GbE ports for connected devices. It also offers a USB 3.0 port for network-accessible storage. For simple networks, this could be your Wi-Fi 7 upgrade ticket. -- Jeff Kampman

Get most of a DDR5 build with $634 with this Ryzen 5 9600X bundle at Newegg

One of the best ways to get started with a DDR5 platform right now is with a bundle deal, and this Ryzen 5 9600X bundle has just about everything you need to get started in these deep, dark days of RAM shortages. It includes 16GB of Teamgroup DDR5-6000 RGB memory, an MSI Pro B850-S Wi-Fi motherboard, the CPU, and a Patriot P410 1TB NVMe SSD.

With current prices, you can expect to spend between $350 and $400 on the RAM and SSD alone, and that's using the current lowest prices on both components. As for what you can expect, the components here are midrange across the board. The Ryzen 5 9600X is a solid gaming CPU that struggles in heavily-threaded applications due to only using six cores, but is suitable for gaming and run-of-the-mill desktop apps, while the Patriot P410 is also sufficient but offers middle-of-the-road PCIe 4.0 speeds, falling short of higher-end drives like the Samsung 990 Pro.

Still, at this low pricing, these are acceptable trade-offs, and this bundle gives you a solid DDR5 foundation and plenty of room to grow. — Jake Roach

For ease of setup, the RS90 can be configured quickly using the Netgear Nighthawk smartphone app, or, if you prefer, via the desktop-based webGUI. The RS90 also comes with a 30-day trial of Netgear Armor, which provides network intrusion protection and malware detection for your connected devices. - Brandon Hill

The Nighthawk RS90 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router, meaning it supports the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless bands but lacks the higher-performing (at shorter ranges) 6 GHz radio. However, that omission means that dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers can be much cheaper. In this instance, the RS90 is $87.39, down from $129.

The RS90 includes four GbE ports, one 2.5 GbE WAN port, and supports up to 2,000 square feet. It features a tall, black, monolith-like design and can support up to 50 devices simultaneously.

Netgear Nighthawk RS90 delivers value-priced dual-band Wi-Fi 7 coverage for under $90

Bambu Lab has finally updated its popular A1 bedslinger with an increased build volume, a few technical tweaks, and additional capabilities. The A2L has all the room of a more expensive H2 Series, but at a fraction of the cost, at $569 for a four-color combo. Its open frame design makes this primarily a machine for PLA, PETG and TPU, which happen to be the most popular filaments for its target audience: family enthusiasts.

Bambu Lab has categorized this machine as a family-friendly craft center. When combined with its gold standard AMS Lite and the H2 Series blade cutter attachment, the A2L can whip up practical prints, toys, and vinyl iron-ons for apparel. The launch coincided with Bambu’s new PLA Pure, a new non-toxic PLA formula with low VOCs, and a pastel matte finish that hides layer lines.

Its one flaw is the insane vibrations generated by the A2L at speed. Normally, larger machines will be slowed down to avoid this, but Bambu Lab decided to toss granulated vibration-absorbing pellets in the frame and throw caution out the door. This makes the machine nearly as fast as the original A1 while still printing error-free. It also makes it a bit of a table snob, as most cheap tables can not hold it. I put the A2L on an IKEA Lack coffee table, a pretty standard surface for budget-minded makers, and the AMS Lite vibrated right onto the floor after 45 minutes of printing. If the table had been any higher (like a card table or wobbly kitchen table), it would have taken the whole printer onto the floor with it. Bambu has included a “steady” printing profile that quells the shaking at the expense of speed. A “high-quality” profile also runs at a less frantic pace.

The A2L retails at $469 for the standalone printer, $569 for a combo, with an additional $69 for a cutting upgrade kit. The printer is also compatible out of the box with the AMS2 Pro ($269), which would give you the ability to dry filament without needing additional equipment. Bambu Lab has really perfected its formula for quality, speed, and ease of use, making this one of the best 3D printers we’ve seen this year.

Specifications: Bambu Lab A2L

Included in the box: Bambu Lab A2L

Our A2L unit came with an AMS Lite and an optional blade cutter/pen plotter attachment. A cardboard toolbox holds all the tools needed to assemble and maintain the printer, plus a blade for making your own scraper. There was also a small coil for running a test print (enough to make that scraper).

Assembling the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L requires a small amount of assembly. First you need to attach the heatbed to the Y-carriage, then place the base into the gantry frame, which is a pretty beefy triangular unit. There’s a handful of screws to hold everything together, and a few wires to plug in. The instructions are very easy to follow.

Do apply lubricant to the Y-Axis while you have it exposed. It does not come pre-greased, and our test unit immediately requested grease after only a few prints.

The AMS unit snaps together quickly before being secured onto its stand.

Leveling the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L completely auto-levels itself during initial calibration, then can recheck the level before each print. It uses the nozzle as the probe, so it can also set the z height for you. I had no problems with the settings and no need to make adjustments.

Though calibration errors are rare, Bambu Lab has a section in its Wiki to guide you through troubleshooting advice.

Loading Filament in the Bambu Lab A2L

Like the Bambu Lab A1, the A2L can work from a single spool holder mounted to the gantry, or from four spools on the Lite AMS unit. In addition, the A2L is also out of the box compatible with the box style AMS and AMS 2 Pro.

For a single spool you must push filament through the Bowden tube to the toolhead, then tap “load filament” on the main menu. The machine will take over from there and display a checklist on the screen so you can follow along.

For the AMS Lite, simply push spools onto the motorized spindles and poke the filament into the intake. The machine will detect the filament and draw it in.

The AMS has an RFID reader, which allows it to read tags on Bambu Lab branded filament. These tags will tell the machine what type and color of filament is on each spindle. If you’re using untagged filament, or the single spool holder, you’ll need to enter this information manually.

Design of the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L is a plus sized Cartesian, or as we call them, bed slinger. The A-Series sleek white and brushed aluminum style has been copied by most of the competition, so Bambu Lab seems to be onto something.

The printer is extremely easy to use with a touch screen interface that contains guides to show you how to run the machine. It has the same build size as the H2 Series, but does not come with an option for an enclosure.

It has metal rails, linear bearings, and dual Z rods, all tucked inside a smooth frame and base that makes it look much more polished than other printers. To make up for its large size, it has a pair of hidden “granular dampers” designed to absorb vibration and stabilize the frame. You can’t see them, but you can hear them if you give the printer a bit of a shake.

The A2L has a new feature called “adaptive vibration compensation,” which uses a real-time algorithm to retune calibration as your print gets taller. This is to eliminate vibrations that can affect printers the taller – or heavier – they get.

When equipped with an AMS unit, the A2L takes up noticeably more space. Bambu Lab offered a clip that I could print myself that would attach the AMS to the X gantry, but I’m still not convinced that is the best place for it.

The extruder motor has been upgraded to a PMSM closed-loop servo to actively detect filament grinding in the gears, clogs and air printing. Combined with the new nozzle clumping detector on the purge sweep, the A2L should be able stop a lot of annoying small problems before they become huge spaghetti monsters.

One odd thing is the A2L uses the same quick swap steel nozzles as the A1 and A1 Mini. These are not the upgraded nozzles used on the H2 Series, but H-style nozzles are backward compatible with the A-Series. These nozzles have made a huge impact on the industry, with the competition scrambling to copy them as well. There’s no screws, wiring or messy thermal paste involved here.

The A2L is compatible with a cutting and plotting attachment, which is available as a separate purchase. The add-on is easy to install: simply remove the front cover and the spinner, then snap on the cutting attachment and plug a cable into the toolhead. It is advised to remove the bowden tubes for the filament, but there’s little need to do so. The hotend remains in place and is kept off by the machine.

The attachment can hold either a Bambu Lab made drag knife or any standard size pen or marker. I was able to use a normal ball point pen in mine by adding a few wraps of tape to thicken the pen body.

This is the same attachment you can get on the H2 Series and uses Bambu Suite, a companion app, to “slice” files. There is no laser add-on, since the A2L is open frame. The A2L also lacks a top down camera for positioning, so you will need to use the cutting function with the help of a phone camera equipped with Bambu Handy. This system is a bit janky, but it works, especially if you take care lining up the photos.

Bambu Lab Automatic Material System (AMS) Lite

We received the A2L Combo, which includes an AMS Lite module. The AMS Lite is made specifically for the A-Series and is not compatible with the Core XY machines. It’s not as clean looking as the boxy AMS, with four Bowden tubes stretching from each spool to the tool head. However, this simplified version is much easier to unjam should brittle filament break in the tube.

Each spool is mounted on a spring-loaded spindle, which provides the necessary retraction. Since each color has its own Bowden tube, the A2L only needs to pull the filament a few inches until it's clear of the tool head, not all the way back to the AMS Unit, which makes it a bit faster during color swaps than the original system. Each spool also gets a motor to push filament to the tool head. This new system solves the problem of cardboard spools with crushed edges, spools that are too wide or too tall, and spools that are too light.

There are notable drawbacks to using either of Bambu Lab’s AMS systems. The printer wastes an amazing amount of material when it cleans out the nozzle between colors. The waste can be reduced with tuning, but takes time and patience. The slicer will tell you exactly how much it will use before you start a print.

The second drawback is loss of speed. The printer needs to pause between layers to purge filament, then do a nozzle wipe on the purge tower. The Flexi Factory Panda takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to print in one color using default settings, and 6 hours and 46 minutes to print in three colors.

Preparing Files / Software

Bambu Lab has its own custom slicer, Bambu Studio, which is a fork of PrusaSlicer. The slicer is also the primary means of transferring files via Cloud service or local LAN to the printer. You can also control and monitor your printer remotely with Bambu Handy, a mobile app.

Bambu Studio is also the “paint” program you need to assign color to your prints. The device tab allows you to talk directly to the printer to define the filaments in the AMS, heat up the printer and control the speed.

It has a wide range of presets for filament from both Bambu Lab and other manufacturers. I’ve found these presets to be incredibly helpful and accurate.

You also use Bambu Studio to access MakerWorld, a one stop shop for the Bambu Ecosystem. Here you’ll find free files for your printer, MakerLab with AI powered design tools and Maker’s Supply, a store front will model kits, hardware, tools, LED lights and CyberBricks so you can level up your 3D printing hobby.

Printing on the Bambu Lab A2L

The printer arrived with several prints preloaded. You’ll definitely want to shop for filament before bringing this machine home, especially if you plan on doing a lot of AMS printing. We have a guide with our favorite filaments for 3D printing here.

To show what the Bambu Lab A1 can do under normal conditions, I printed three Ice Cream Narwhales using default settings of 200-300mm/s and a .2mm layer height, taking 10 hours and 44 minutes to print. The models came pre-painted by the designer.

It turned out beautifully smooth with no visible layer lines or ringing. There was a little color bleed from the gold cone to the top of the narwhale’s head. This was printed in a sparkle blue from an unmarked PLA spool I picked up from SMRRF a couple years ago, and now deeply regret not labeling it better, plus a basic PLA Pink and Black from Bambu Lab and gold from Polymaker’s Panchroma Dual Silk Sunset.

For a PETG test, I attempted to print a wind spinner for the garden, which I created in Tinkercad. The print ultimately failed due to the skinny base, but it got about 95% there, which is still impressive. When it fell over, it looped the rest of the layers around the print like a coil. If you look closely at the coil, you can see little bubbles caused by moisture. The print still looks fantastic and I’ll give it another shot later after I make the base wider. This is printed in Bambu Lab PETG Translucent 6 hours and 31 minutes using a .2 layer height and default settings. This print is smooth, without stringing or noticeable layer lines. The two flat bases printed separately – without supports– then snapped together.

For TPU testing, I printed a prototype phone bag that I created in Tinkercad, using CookieCad Pale Blue Elixir. This is a regular 95A TPU, so I needed to use the single spool holder on top and drop it directly into the extruder. The A2L did a great job, with smooth layers and only a couple stray bits from retraction errors at the very top. The print took 7 hours and 9 minutes using the printer’s defaults.

Reminder – the AMS can print special “TPU for AMS” which is a stiffer formula available from Bambu Lab.

I tested out the A2L’s cutting module by making a few branded price tags for items I sell at a local boutique. For this I used a simple shape I whipped up in Canva and my jpg logo. I dropped both into Bambu Suite, the “slicer” software that runs Bambu’s 2D cutter attachment and also the laser module for a H2 Series machine. (No, there’s not a laser for the A2L.)

I swapped the normal build plate for a purpose built sticky plate and very easily snapped the cutter module onto the tool head, then plugged it in. Because the A2L doesn’t have an overhead “birdeye” camera like an H2 Series, I had to take an overhead photo of the build plate with the Bambu Handy app. It’s surprisingly difficult to get the entire A2L bed into an overhead shot when you’re only 5’2” without getting a ladder. This might be why the registration is a little bit off and the inked logos are a little bit lower than they should be.

This required two passes. First the ink layer, which used a normal ball point pen that I wrapped tape around to fit in the pen holder. Then I swapped the pen for the cutting blade and finished it.

The cutter can also handle vinyl, and with the A2L bed size, you could really get a nice sized shirt made. Bambu didn’t send any vinyl to try out, but they do sell it on their website. Because this is a manual cutter and not a laser melting material, you are free to use any material that is under .5mm thick.

Bottom Line

The Bambu Lab A2L is the supersized evolution of the A1 bedslinger that does double duty as a family craft hub. It’s budget-friendly with an easy-to-use interface that lets beginners have a little extra room to play without having to move up to a price H2 Series.

Like the first A1, this is much easier to use and maintain than Bambu’s larger machines, as the AMS Lite isn’t prone to jamming, and the new nozzle clumping detector sweeps printer purge safely away.

At $569 for the combo and $469 for a single color machine, the A2L is a great choice for makers who want Bambu quality and access to the ecosystem without the price of a Core XY machine.

If you’re interested in a larger color bedslinger, the Anycubic Kobra 3 Max has a 420x420x500mm build volume and is currently on sale for $601.60. The Bambu Lab H2S has the same build size in a Core XY enclosed unit for $1349.

An aerospace worker and programmer created a GitHub-hosted program that lets your Steam Controller automatically walk back towards its charging puck as soon as you place it down on your desk. The web app, called the Auto-Charge Vision Tracker, uses a camera and computer vision to determine where your controller is, then it uses its powerful built-in motors to make it creep towards its docking station to top itself up when you’re not using it. The great thing about this web app is that you don’t need to install anything on your PC to use it. Just go to the website, connect your Steam Controller, ensure your camera is directly overhead your desk, click the puck, the front, and the back of your controller, and you should be good to go.

This is an interesting use case for the Steam Controller’s haptic motors, which are primarily designed to give feedback to gamers. Although this app, which you can run in the background on your browser, is designed to make recharging your controller more comfortable, you do need a flat surface without any obstructions to ensure that the Steam Controller can reach the charging puck. Aside from that, the vibration and movement on the desk tends to cause abrasion on the controller’s surface, meaning you’ll soon find flat spots appearing on the surface that contact your desk. Ray Foss, the maker of the GitHub repo, said that adding rubber feet should help prevent this and might also give the controller better acceleration and handling.

Another programmer has created something similar before — a web app that uses the controller’s rumble motor to let it slip and slide on your desk. But what makes this project different is that instead of manually “driving” your Steam Controller, it uses computer vision to automatically guide the controller back towards the charging puck, making it look like a robot vacuum.

These apps have limited usability — after all, the Steam Controller would still be unable to hop from the coffee desk in your living room to the TV console where your charging puck and Steam Machine are likely sitting. Nevertheless, it shows Valve’s commitment to making it easy for gamers to use their devices the way they want to. The company even released the CAD files for the Steam Controller and Puck back in May 2026, just a few days after the controller became widely available. But if you want to give this curiosity a try, you can easily do so by going to the Auto-Charge Vision Tracker website. The program’s files are also readily available on GitHub if you want to play around with the program and make your own version.

Commodore has slashed the starting price of its Callback 8020 flip phone to $399, down from $499, by switching to recycled “post-consumer” memory chips and making the previously bundled earphones optional. The company announced the tiered pricing just six days before pre-orders open on June 30th, and attributed the original $499 figure in part to the global memory shortage that has pushed DRAM prices to record highs. Buyers who want factory-fresh memory can still pay to upgrade, but four of the five colorways now qualify for the $399 price, with the gold Founders Edition holding at its original cost.

When pre-orders open, the Callback will default to "post consumer" memory that Commodore describes as rigorously stress-tested and covered by the same one-year warranty as new chips, with premium memory available as a paid upgrade at checkout. The custom FiiO in-ear monitors that were previously set to be included in every box will now be sold as a separate add-on.

BASIC Beige, ProtoPET White, and SX Silver drop to $399 from $499, and the translucent Starlight Edition drops to $399 from $549, a $150 cut. The 24-karat-gold Founders Edition keeps its price, which Commodore tied to the gold plating and extra bundled items. Registering for a launch-day code takes an additional $50 off on June 30th only, bringing most models to $349 that day.

The Callback 8020 carries 4 GB of memory paired with a MediaTek Helio G81, a modest configuration by smartphone standards, but mobile memory hasn’t escaped the price surge gripping the wider market. Memory contract prices rose by 90% to 95% in the first quarter of 2026, after Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron shifted production toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, leaving less capacity for consumer parts.

That squeeze has already pushed vendors to restart DDR4 lines and prompted IDC to forecast PC price rises of up to 8% this year, while the price of DDR2, of all things, has risen by 60%. Memory can account for 15% to 20% of a mid-range phone's bill of materials, and budget Android makers lack the long-term supply contracts that shield the likes of Apple and Samsung from the worst of the increases.

Pre-orders open June 30th on Commodore's site, with buyers charged upfront to fund manufacturing. Commodore says shipping starts this winter and that pre-orders will be delivered within six months. However, it notes delivery is contingent on the device passing FCC equipment authorization, which it hasn’t yet completed.

The RAMpocalypse is hitting enthusiasts hard. We recently reported on the crisis seeping down to affect supplies of the decades-old DDR2 gen RAM. So it comes as no huge surprise that a well-known tech tinkerer has been inspired to look at the viability of Windows 11 on an even more ancient DDR1 platform. Step forward Omores, who demonstrates Microsoft’s newest OS running on a Core 2 Quad Q6600, using a DDR1 motherboard, supported by an ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP graphics card. “The best part,” says our hacky hero. “It’s completely stable.”

Windows 11 on a DDR1 motherboard, with AGP support enabled from r/windows

DDR1 first became available to PC builders and DIYers at the turn of the century, replacing the aging SDR SDRAM. The DDR1 rollout began with data rates like DDR-200 and DDR-266, being the preferred choice over older platforms featuring PC100 or PC133 SDRAM. We don’t know the rated speed of the DDR1 sticks Omores used, as it isn’t shown, but DDR-400 was the best official non-overclocked standard (a couple of years later). It would make sense to use the best memory on a cherry-picked older system like this.

Other key components of this age-defying Windows 11 PC build include an ASRock ConRoe 865PE motherboard. This is regarded as something of a legendary board as it bridged generations and allowed folks to use the latest Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad chips from Intel while keeping their DDR1 RAM and AGP graphics cards. It isn’t only today that PC DIYers have cared deeply about component longevity.

The last significant component in this DDR1 system that we were told about was the ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP graphics card. This seems to have required the most wrangling to make it work with Windows 11 / modern software. However, Omores reveals that “With some 'hacking' ... AGP 8X is fully functional and H.264 hardware decoding is active.” The key was finding, then crowbarring, ATI’s Windows 7 64-bit drivers from 2012 onto the system.

Once some details of the setup were confirmed in the video using tools like CPU-Z and GPU-Z, Omores showed the ‘fresh’ Windows 11 DDR1 system running modern browsers, with embedded video and hardware decoding. A handful of games and 3D benchmarks were also shown running without glitches. Last but not least, the system did indeed run Crysis.

In a later comment on the Reddit post, Omores elaborates on how to install the ATi driver on Windows 11 and shares a more detailed video link. “I like that Windows 11 is rock stable on these older systems with no UEFI whatsoever and only ACPI 1.1,” adds the adventurer in older PC tech. “A lesser-known fact is that Windows 11 actually officially supports BIOS systems via Windows 11 IoT, so it's kind of expected to run smoothly.”

Try to build a PC for less than $1,750 right now, and we guarantee it'll have worse specs than this iBuyPower prebuilt that's currently on sale. This desktop retails for $2,500, but it's on sale at Walmart for a remarkable $750.99 off, bringing the price down to just $1,749.

• Check out this deal on Walmart

We actually put a rig together with identical specs, using the cheapest components we could find, particularly for the memory and storage. And even then, buying the parts individually clocked in over $2,000, and that's accounting for current sales. Even compared to that standard, this prebuilt is a deal.

The core specs here are excellent. On the CPU front, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D remains the best CPU for gaming, only outclassed by the overclocked Ryzen 7 9850X3D. And you can make up that difference with a moderate overclock on the base CPU.

Overclocking is possible too thanks to the included 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler. On the GPU front, the RX 9070 XT is the most powerful graphics card AMD currently offers, and it's able to hang at 4K without too many problems.

In raster performance, the RX 9070 XT performs about as well as an RTX 4080 at 4K, and it outclasses the RTX 5070 Ti at 1440p. AMD still struggles in the ray tracing department, but the RX 9070 XT has native performance slightly below the RTX 4070 Ti at 4K. However, the GPU supports AMD's FSR 4 tech, giving you access to AI-assisted upscaling and frame generation.

Otherwise, this machine comes with 32GB of DDR5-5200 memory and a 1TB SSD (presumably a midrange PCIe Gen4 drive). The memory speed is low, but that's not a problem with X3D processors. Due to the large and speedy L3 cache, you don't see much of a performance benefit with higher RAM speeds.

This prebuilt deal is 55% claimed on Walmart at the time of writing, so make sure to secure your machine now if you're interested.

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

The TP-Link TL-SG108S-M2 is an unmanaged 8-port 2.5 GbE switch, which would make an excellent addition for your home network or small office. The TL-SG108S-M2 carries an MSRP of $79.99, but there’s a Prime Day sale at Amazon that drops the price to just $49.99.

The sub-$50 price tag is definitely eye-catching, and it caught my attention. I bought a UGREEN 6-port 2.5 GbE unmanaged switch back in October for $59.97, and here we have an 8-port unmanaged switch for $10 less.

The TL-SG108S-M2 offers 40 Gbps of switching capacity and supports devices at 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, or 2.5 Gbps speeds. In other words, it’ll be well-suited to handle just about any of your networking needs, from plugging in a wired desktop PC to connecting a NAS, to wiring up a workgroup printer, to even extending your network wirelessly with an access point. And you can do all of this using Cat5e cabling.

You won’t have to worry about the switch taking up a lot of space, as it only measures 6.22 x 3.98 x 1 inches. So you should easily be able to tuck it away behind your monitor on a desk, or banish it to a corner under your desk. Or, if you prefer, it has mounting points on the bottom for attaching it to the wall. The casing is all-metal and passively cooled, so you don’t have to worry about introducing any additional noise into your tranquil home office.

Amazon’s $49.99 sale price on the TL-SG108S-M2 likely won’t last long, so get it w

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Given the spikes in RAM and storage prices, finding the best deals on systems can be somewhat challenging. Luckily, there are still deals to be found for those looking for a value-priced gaming laptop, and the best ones aren’t always from Amazon. Best Buy is currently running a promotion on the Gigabyte Aero X16, with the price dropping from its MSRP of $1,399.99 to $1,099.99.

So what exactly do you get for your just under $1,100 outlay? Well, the Aero X16 is powered by a Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, which is based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture. It has four Zen 5 cores and four Zen 5c cores, with a max boost of 5 GHz (3.5 GHz for the Zen 5c cores). Although it’s common to see 16GB of DDR5 memory in budget laptops, the Aero X16 doubles that figure to 32GB. On the storage front, you’ll find a 1TB SSD. I should note that the laptop supports up to 64GB of memory and up to a 4TB SSD – that is, if you’re made of money when it comes to future upgrades.

Gaming is likely front and center on your mind, and the Aero X6 makes use of a GeForce RTX 5060 discrete GPU. This is towards the lower end of Nvidia’s mobile GeForce GPU lineup, but you can expect pretty good frame rates at 1080p or the laptop’s native resolution, which is 2560 x 1600. Speaking of the display, it’s a 16-inch IPS panel with a 165 Hz refresh rate, 3 ms response time, and 100% sRGB color space coverage. You can also expect 400 nits of brightness in typical situations.

As for physical ports, the laptop features three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a USB-C port (USB4), an HDMI 2.1 port, a GbE port, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. For wireless connectivity, there’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Finally, Aero X16 packs a 76 Whr battery into its 4.19-pound frame, which Gigabyte says can last for up to 12 hours per charge.

This Best Buy promotion is only available for a limited time, so the $1,099 price for the Aero X16 could disappear at any moment.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

In a year with sky-high storage and RAM prices, effectively no new GPUs, and the resultingly tepid interest in PC building (especially when you can buy a prebuilt PC for significantly less), we were curious to see what our readers were clicking on the most. And much of it was not what we could have possibly predicted.

While we were working night and day (literally) searching for and sharing deals in live blogs, standalone posts, deal hubs, and Discord, you were clicking away on all sorts of things. The couple of reasonable SSD deals from WD and Samsung, of course, did well. And people were checking for GPU deals that were mostly non-existent, as well as general PC and accessory links.

But the undisputed click leaders were Corsair’s Xeneon Edge portable touchscreen monitor (even though it was out of stock for more than a day), DVD burners, and the Nintendo Switch 2. Despite dealing with its own price hike, between the $1,049 starting price of the Steam Machine, the high cost of gaming PCs, and pricier consoles, if you can get $100 off a Switch 2, it’s no surprise that Nintendo’s latest console looks good to cash-strapped gamers.

You can see a list of our most-clicked products and deals (for those that are still available) below, in descending order. Note that not all deals are still valid forever, as prices are changing quickly. We also have blocks with more info for each product, and finally, a list of our 25 deals hubs that we've been maintaining for a week now.

More Prime Day Tech Deals

If you're looking for even more, head to either our main Prime Day 2026 Live Blog, or our Gaming Monitor Live Blog. If even that isn't enough, here's the wide selection of different category-specific deals hubs for you to peruse. If it's on sale on Amazon, it's listed in these:

Best Tech and PC deals | Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM combo deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals | Best GPU deals | Best SSD deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best CPU deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best PC building tool deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best filament and resin deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best USB charger deals | Best gaming and productivity laptop deals under $1,000 | Best laptop PC deals

Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

We have yet another combo deal that could help you save a significant amount on your next PC build. Newegg is currently offering the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X processor bundled with a compatible B850 motherboard and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD for just $429.99. The cost of all the parts when purchased separately comes down to $679.97, meaning this bundle saves you $249.98, which is a discount of 36% and equates to getting the SSD for free.

• Check out this deal on Newegg

The Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi7 Ice is feature packed motherboard with a white finish, making it suitable if you prefer an all-white build. It supports DDR5 memory with overclocking support of up to 8200 MT/s. It also supports various DIY-friendly features such as a tool-less heatsink cover for the M.2 drives, a quick-release button for the GPU, and a simple solution to plug the Wi-Fi antenna. It also comes with the X3D Turbo Mode, a BIOS-level feature that offers optimization for Ryzen 9000 X3D and non-X3D processors to gain a slight boost in gaming performance. Other notable features include PCIe Gen 5 support, 14+2+2 twin digital VRM design, three M.2 SSD slots, Wi-Fi 7, 2.5 gigabit Ethernet, and an array of USB ports.

The Ryzen 5 9600X is a value-for-money Zen 5 processor based on AMD’s AM5 platform. It features 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock speed of 5.4 GHz. It also comes with a low TDP of 65W, which makes it power efficient, allowing it to run relatively cooler. It offers excellent performance for the asking price and holds a solid place in our 13-game FPS performance geomean.

Lastly, we have the Samsung 990 Pro, which is currently one of the best Gen 4.0 SSD that you can buy. It delivers maximum sequential read speeds of 7,450 MB/s and sequential write speeds of 6,900 MB/s. It uses a 176-layer V-NAND TLC flash chip and comes with a rated endurance of 600 TBW. In our testing, the Samsung 990 Pro proved to be one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs, offering excellent performance and solid efficiency with consistently low operating temperatures.

If you're planning an AM5 build, this is one of the better bundle deals we've seen in a while. For $429.99, you're getting a capable Zen 5 processor, a feature-rich B850 motherboard, and one of the fastest PCIe Gen 4 SSDs on the market, all while saving nearly $250.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Heads up, music lovers and frequent travelers/commuters. If you haven't yet purchased a nice noise-canceling headset, then you're definitely missing out on what's almost a basic necessity. There's nothing quite like putting on a pair of cans on your head and making distracting noises go away, whether at home or in public. Amazon's Prime Day sales bring you one of the best pieces of kit around for that task: the mighty Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless over-ear noise-canceling headset, currently selling for just $198, an all-time low price. Our own Jake Roach uses this daily, while I have the previous-gen XM4, and we both have nothing but good things to say about either model.

• Check out this deal on Amazon: Sony WH-1000XM5 active noise-cancelling headset

While you might chortle and say that nearly two Benjamins isn't exactly pocket change, be assured that it's an excellent deal for what's of the top-grade pair of cans. The noise canceling on these uses input from eight microphones and processes it through two dedicated DSP chips. In practical terms, this puts them nearly at the top of the market, outclassed only by the pricier WH-1000XM6 and roughly matching Apple's silly-expensive AirPods Max 2.

They're also lighter than the corresponding AirPods at just 250g (8.8 oz) versus a whopping 384g, and the battery lasts much longer; 30 hours versus about 20. When it comes to sound quality, the XM5s also shine bright. While the default sound profile just barely trails that of the AirPods Max 2, it's also customizable via the onboard hardware EQ, which saves settings to the headphones so you can keep them sounding great no matter what you have them connected to. Compared with the AirPods Max 2, you're beholden to messy, suboptimal device-side EQ that isn't saved to the hardware.

Additional niceties include support for the LDAC hi-res audio codec, fast charging with a three-minute charge giving you three hours of playback, the ability to connect to two devices simultaneously via Bluetooth, and a collapsible design. The touchpad on the side lets you control playback and voice calls, as well as bring up Alexa or Siri voice assistants. Sony's mobile app for configuring the headphones has a lot of actually useful options, too. Get the Sony WH-1000XM5 active noise-canceling headphones for just $198 at Amazon.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

The memory chip shortage has caused the prices of consumer electronics to shoot up, meaning everything, from cheap phones to VR headsets, is more expensive now. But if you’re on the market for a Meta Quest 3S, now is your chance as it’s currently 15% off on Amazon. This $53.20 discount means that its price drops to just $296.79, making it close to the original $300 price point it launched at prior to the RAMpocalypse. However, this is a limited-time deal, so if you’re intent on getting that headset, you better get it right now.

• Check out the Meta Quest 3S on Amazon

This VR headset is a more affordable version of the top-of-the-line Meta Quest 3, which was launched about a year earlier, and is originally $250 cheaper. But even though Meta had to make some compromises, like lower-resolution displays and a shallower field-of-view, the Meta Quest 3S is still quite a capable device. It also feels as premium as the more expensive device, although the base version is limited to only 128 GB. If you want more storage, you can get the 256GB version, which is also discounted at 15% on Amazon, cutting its price from $449.99 to just $382.49. A copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow is also bundled with this purchase, making it a great deal for those who want to play a new game on their VR headset.

The Meta Quest 3S is a completely wireless affair, meaning you don’t have to worry about getting tangled when using it. Despite having a smaller battery compared to the Meta Quest 3, this VR headset could still last for a good 2.5 hours of continuous use. The included controllers are also powered by a single alkaline AA battery each, although we recommended in our review that you have at least four rechargeable lithium-ion batteries on hand so that you’ll always have a fresh set of batteries ready when the controllers run out of power.

If you’re looking for a great standalone VR device but want to save as much as you can, the Meta Quest 3S deal is exactly what you’re looking for. But you have to act quick as the discount that brings it down to pre-memory chip shortage pricing is only available today.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Logitech’s G29 racing wheel and pedal set is on a deep sale of 40% for Prime Day, bringing the price down to $180. This is the PlayStation version, but the Xbox version is on sale for $190, as well. Both models work on PC and Mac; the differences otherwise are the symbols on the buttons and the logo on the wheel.

• Check out this deal on Amazon

This isn't an all-time low for the G29, but it's close. We've seen it once, over five years ago, drop to $170. Since then, however, it's exclusively sold north of $200, so this is the cheapest we've seen the wheel in years.

The G29 has been the go-to entry-level racing wheel for over a decade, and for good reason. You can spend well over $1,000 on a direct drive wheel, and that’s just for the wheel alone. For $180, Logitech offers real force feedback, a comfortable and ergonomic wheel, and a set of three pedals to get you started in any racing sim.

On the wheel, you’ll find back paddles on the right and left that you can trigger with your fingers, and the wheel features 900 degrees of rotation, allowing you to turn it around two and a half times fully like an F1 car. The mount allows you to attach the wheel to a stand or to the edge of your desk.

If you want to get started with your racing sim setup, you can buy the Logitech G29 on Amazon now. If you want the full setup, the Logitech-branded Playseat Trophy cockpit is on sale, as well.

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

Gaming laptops have become more enticing during the AI boom due to their tendency to sometimes offer better value than DIY desktop systems, especially toward the high-end segment. We've found a deal that proves that in spades: Asus' ROG Zephyrus G16 (2025) is on sale for just 1,574.99 at Best Buy right now. Matching its previous record-low pricing, you're saving almost $600 on one of the best gaming laptops in this class.

• Check out this deal on Best Buy

This Zephyrus G16 comes with an RTX 5070 and Intel's Core Ultra 9 285H processor, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. The GPU is more than powerful enough to play any game you throw at it, especially with DLSS on your side. The CPU comes from Intel's Arrow Lake mobile lineup and features 16 cores. It boosts up to 5.4 GHz and runs at up to 95W, while scaling down to 45W for better endurance.

We haven't reviewed this exact CPU + GPU combo before, but we'll attach a few benchmarks from our Framework Laptop 16 review that also had an RTX 5070. Note that the Zephyrs G16 features a much stronger CPU and better cooling, so you should see higher FPS across all games. At 1080p, you can even expect to fully saturate the refresh rate of that 240Hz OLED display in lightweight titles or competitive esports games.

Speaking of which, the highlight for this machine has to be that stunning 16-inch OLED screen carrying a 2560 x 1600 resolution and, of course, a 240Hz refresh rate. It can reach up to 500 nits of maximum brightness and features G-Sync. We've seen plenty of RTX 5070 laptops that are considerably cheaper, but none feature an OLED display; even if you find a cheap OLED laptop, it won't be as performant as this one.

The Zephyrus G16 is built extremely well for a gaming laptop and doesn't compromise on fundamentals like the keyboard, trackpad and speakers. You're getting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity, along with several fast USB-C and USB-A ports on either side (that can also be used for charging). Asus has also added a headphone jack, HDMI 2.1 for display out and even a full-sized SD card reader.

The battery life is outstanding as well thanks to the 90Wh cell onboard, especially if you utilize the MUX switch and disable the discrete GPU entirely when it's not needed. Third-party reviews say the laptop lasts up to 8 hours in 'Whisper mode' at 50% brightness watching 4K HDR content on Netflix. During this period, the laptop doesn't get too loud or hot either, and it already weighs less than 2 kilograms so it should be easy to travel with.

We haven't even mentioned that you get 2 months of Xbox Game Pass for free with your purchase, or that the top lid has customizable accent lighting. That's just how feature-rich this laptop really is, not to mention the Asus ROG brand name that helps with resale value as well. At $1,575 on Best Buy right now, you'd be hard pressed to find anything better, so grab the discount before the AI boom snatches it away, too!

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Onsemi and Synaptics late on Thursday announced that they had entered into an agreement under which the former will acquire the latter in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $7 billion. The takeover will transform Onsemi from a maker of sensor and power management semiconductors into a company with a rich portfolio of products for AI infrastructure, automotive, client, industrial, robotics, and AR/VR applications. To some degree, this will strengthen Onsemi's position as an integrated device manufacturer.

Onsemi's acquisition of Synaptics is highly strategic. Synaptics has a highly diversified product portfolio that spans from compute and processing solutions to touch and biometric sensors and from display solutions to wireless connectivity. By contrast, Onsemi is mostly focused on power management devices and sensors. While the company has other businesses too, they are by far not as significant as power and sensors. The two companies say that by merging their product portfolios, they will have key building blocks — power, sense, connectivity, compute, and control — to address the physical AI market.

In fact, with its Edge AI platform, which combines dedicated AI processors, neural processing units (NPUs), wireless connectivity technologies including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, as well as an open-source software stack, Synaptics arguably has a much more comprehensive product portfolio to address Physical AI than Onsemi does. Yet, Synaptics has been bleeding money in 2025 – 2026 as its revenue dropped sharply from the levels demonstrated in 2022. By contrast, while Onsemi's sales have been declining since 2022 and did not show any signs of rebound, the company remained profitable. This is perhaps why Synaptics agreed to be acquired in an all-stock transaction.

"Together with onsemi, we will combine Synaptics' strengths in AI-native compute, connectivity, and human-machine interface with onsemi’s leadership in intelligent power and sensing to offer customers integrated solutions and development platforms across every layer of the Edge AI stack, deepening customer engagement and expanding across a greater total addressable market," said Rahul Patel, chief executive of Synaptics.

Developing a comprehensive platform for robotics, or physical AI, applications may make the combined Onsemi + Synaptics company bigger than the sum of all parts. Today, many developers in automotive, industrial, and robotics prefer integrated platforms that combine compute, connectivity, sensing, power management, and software from a single supplier. Given how fast technologies are evolving these days, many developers simply do not have time to build their own platform from building blocks obtained from various suppliers, so the combined company may have better chances with an integrated platform than vendors without one. Back in the day, AMD acquired ATI to get chipsets and graphics, while Qualcomm acquired a dozen companies expanding its product portfolio and building all-new solutions.

"The next phase of [AI] innovation will depend on systems that can sense, decide, act and adapt in real time," said Hassane El-Khoury, chief executive of Onsemi. "This shift towards Physical AI will require Power, Sense, Connected Compute and Control to work together seamlessly. The addition of Synaptics helps position onsemi at the intersection of these four pillars, enabling us to capture a significantly larger AI opportunity that extends beyond AI data center and into edge applications. This transaction would add immediate connected compute capabilities, expand our software and ecosystem reach and position Onsemi to deliver greater value as customers increasingly seek intelligent systems."

Synaptics could benefit from onsemi's manufacturing capabilities, particularly for automotive and industrial products that use mature process technologies. However, given that these products have a very long lifecycle and customers in these industries do not like changes, we would not expect a rapid migration of Synaptics' portfolio to onsemi fabs. At least, not for these applications. Meanwhile, for client devices and for emerging applications, Synaptics will likely use Onsemi's semiconductor production capacity.

The acquisition has received unanimous approval from the boards of directors of both companies. Under the agreement, each Synaptics shareholder will receive 1.35 shares of Onsemi common stock for every Synaptics share they own, so Synaptics investors will hold approximately 12% of the combined company after the transaction closes. Based on the companies' average volume-weighted share prices over the previous ten trading days, the offer represents a premium of approximately 19%, which is less than stockholders tend to get when the company they own is taken over. One member of Synaptics' board is also expected to join Onsemi's board of directors. The deal is expected to be completed in mid-2027 after it is approved by Synaptics shareholders and various regulators.

AMD's re-released Ryzen 7 5800X3D sold out almost immediately when it launched, and since then, we've seen scalpers circle the chip and demand double the MSRP (or more). Hopefully, we'll get more in stock, but if you're tired of waiting, you can easily upgrade to a DDR5 platform with these Prime Day CPUs deals, all of which are cheaper than the 5800X3D's recommended $350 MSRP.

• Check out CPU deals on Amazon

The idea is that if you can save money on your CPU, you'll have more money to spend on DDR5. And although the total platform cost rises above that $350 mark, you also make out with a much better processor, as well as DDR5 memory that you can use for future upgrades.

Based on our daily RAM price tracking, you can expect to spend around $150 to $200 on a 16GB kit of DDR5 memory right now, while 32GB kits sit around $400. We recommend 32GB for most systems, but 16GB will get you by in the meantime. With some of these CPUs, the discount completely eliminates the cost of buying DDR5, in fact.

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is currently in stock on Amazon for MSRP. However, it's on back order, with estimated ship times in the second half of July. Given that time frame, that's when we expect a larger restock of the chip across retailers.

This sale on the Ryzen 7 7700X completely eliminates the cost of 16GB of DDR5 memory. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is $350, the Ryzen 7 7700X is only $200 right now, so you can make out with a newer eight-core CPU on AMD's Zen 4 architecture and 16GB of DDR5 for around the same price. You might spend around $50 more depending on the RAM kit you find, but you'll also make out with a more powerful CPU.

The Ryzen 7 7700X may not sport AMD's 3D V-Cache, but it roundly beats the 5800X3D in games and applications. As you can read in our recent re-review of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, it's clear the CPU maxes out DDR4's gaming potential, and pushing beyond the performance it offers requires a swap to DDR5.

You'll need an AM5 motherboard for the Ryzen 7 7700X, along with DDR5 memory. Unlike Intel, you can overclock AMD's chips on B-series chipsets, saving you some additional money compared to the competition.

If you want a great all-around CPU, you can't miss this deal on the Intel Core Ultra7 270K Plus. The CPU has an MSRP of $300, but we've seen it sold exclusively for $350 since it was released earlier this year. It's on a true sale for the first time this Prime Day, and a deep one at that, bringing the price down to $265.

Intel's latest Arrow Lake Refresh CPU handily beats the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. In games, you get a solid 13.7% jump in average performance, and in multithreaded applications, the 270K Plus is more than twice as fast. The 270K Plus is only beaten by AMD's crop of Ryzen 9 9950X variations, in fact, so you can get flagship productivity performance for just $265. That's incredible.

Although Arrow Lake has caught a lot of flack for its poor performance, the 270K Plus from Arrow Lake Refresh is genuinely impressive at list price, and even more so on a deep discount.

Finally, we have the successor to the 5800X3D, AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Hilariously, it's cheaper than the 5800X3D right now by $2. And, as you can see in our benchmarks above, it's much faster in both games and applications.

Of course, the actual price is higher as you need to buy a kit of DDR5 memory to pair with the 7800X3D. This deep of a discount eases that burden, though. We've seen the 7800X3D as low as $320, but only on limited-time lightning sales. It's still a great deal at $348.

These are the CPUs we recommend if you finally want to upgrade to DDR5, especially with their Prime Day discounts. However, you can shop all the CPU deals on Amazon if you want more options.

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a staff Q&A meeting that its latest model, GPT-5.6, is available in limited preview to only a small group of customers handpicked by the U.S. government. According to The Information, the federal government, specifically the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, asked the AI tech company to stagger the release of its latest model. While Altman did not mention how long the delay for the general release of GPT-5.6 will be, he said in a memo that he hoped it would happen in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, the U.S. government is granting access to the latest model on a case-by-case basis only.

Despite OpenAI’s agreement to the delay, sources say that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called Altman to warn him against releasing GPT-5.6 to the public without prior approval from government agencies. “We’ve made clear to the U.S. government that this is not our preferred long-term model and will work with them and others in industry to achieve a more sustainable approach for future releases,” the OpenAI chief said in the Thursday memo.

This wasn’t the first time that an American AI lab has delayed the release of its frontier model due to security concerns. Back in early April, Anthropic released Claude Mythos Preview to select key institutions first, allowing them to prepare for the general release of the powerful AI model. It eventually built Fable 5, a watered-down version of Mythos with built-in safeguards to prevent misuse, and released it in June 2026. However, the U.S. government disagreed with the company’s belief that it was a safer model and put both Fable 5 and Mythos on an export control list just three days after it dropped. This meant that foreign nationals, even those who work for Anthropic, are banned from accessing the model. Since the company cannot enforce compliance, it just decided to pull the model completely from the market.

The increasing advancement of AI models has the White House scrambling to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. This is especially true as it continues to compete with rival China for supremacy. Although the U.S. has taken steps like export controls to slow Beijing’s progress, many industry leaders believe that it’s only a matter of time before the East Asian country catches up. So, even though the Trump administration initially promised that it would reduce regulations to help AI advance much more quickly in the country, President Donald Trump has changed his tune and signed an executive order earlier this month that asks U.S. AI labs to give the government access to their latest models 30 days before it gets a general release.

However, this move has got some industry experts concerned. “…this escalation of government intervention is nothing to celebrate. It is horrible for the broader AI ecosystem,” Head of AI Policy and think tank Abundance Institute and former FTC Chief Technologist Neil Chilson said in their blog. “Continued arbitrary, unexplained deployment of export control authority will make companies slow-walk new models, depriving the public of powerful new tools. Every AI model, like all software before it, will have vulnerabilities that require patching. The US government should not hang a Sword of Damocles over every lab’s head, with no indication when it might drop or why.”

The Amazon Eero Max 7 was one of the very first Wi-Fi 7 routers that arrived on our test bench way back in November 2023. At the time, Wi-Fi 7 was still a relatively new standard, and chipset production hadn’t kicked into full gear. As a result, those early systems were incredibly expensive, with the MSRP of the Eero Max 7 3-pack we reviewed at a staggering $1,699. What a difference two and a half years makes — Amazon is now selling the Eero Max 7 4-pack for just $1,149.99, representing a dramatic 50 percent price cut.

It’s not often that we see a 50 percent reduction on a current-generation wireless router, let alone the flagship model. With that said, you do get a lot for your outlay, which we admit is still quite high despite the price cut. The Eero Max 7 is a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 mesh router with a 2x2 2.4 GHz band (688 Mbps), a 4x4 5 GHz band (8,647 Mbps), and a 4x4 6 GHz band (11,530 Mbps). The four satellites communicate via a wireless backhaul, though you can use a wired one for improved performance.

Each node is decently equipped with respect to ports, with two 2.5 GbE ports and two 10 GbE ports, any of which can be used for WAN. However, do note that you won’t find a USB port on either node for adding storage.

To make things as simple as possible for consumers, the Eero family of routers (including the Eero Max 7) features an app-only approach for setup and management. That means you can’t manage the network from a desktop computer and must rely on your smartphone for tinkering with settings. Perhaps that’s for the best, because you also don’t have nearly as many settings to manage as with other wireless routers. For example, the Eero Max 7 only supports Smart Connect and doesn’t let you create custom SSIDs or separate the bands. You also have limited control over Guest accounts.

But for someone who wants to get a network up and running in a few minutes and not have to worry about it again for the next three or four years, the Eero Max 7 is about as “hands off” as you can get with a modern wireless router.

The Eero Max 7 is currently available as an Amazon Prime-exclusive Lightning Deal with 16% units claimed as of this writing.

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In an act of defiance, Framework, the modular manufacturer behind laptops and desktops, has actually reduced prices on one of its products. The DIY edition of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro will now come with cheaper PCIe 5.0 SSDs. If you already placed a pre-order with the 500GB drive, it will be upgraded to the new 1TB option automatically, while a new 2TB option is also available in the configurator now.

• Configure your Framework Laptop 13 Pro

In the more comprehensive update posted on its website, Framework outlined that it has switched specifically to Adata's Mars 970 Plus SSDs that cost substantially less than what the company used previously — that model was never revealed publicly. The Mars 970 Plus is a proper Gen5 drive with read speeds up to 11,000 MB/s, and it's powered by the excellent Silicon Motion SM2508 controller that we've praised before.

Despite being cheaper to source, Framework says the Mars 970 Plus offers "better performance, efficiency, and long-term reliability." PCIe 5.0 drives are generally avoided in even high-end laptops today because they can be incredibly thermally demanding and require more power. Therefore, manufacturers simply opt for cutting-edge PCIe 4.0 drives instead, which are also available in a much wider variety of sizes.

A 500GB PCIe 5.0 drive sounds like it should be cheaper than a 1TB option, but because of interleaving, having an SSD with fewer channels actually means the controller isn't fully saturated to perform at its top speed. So, OEMs don't produce 500GB PCIe 5.0 drives at scale; almost every option you'll see on the market starts at 1TB. That's likely why Framework was paying more for that compared to its new 1TB inventory.

Unfortunately, we're in the middle of the component crisis, so we have to take the good with the bad. And the bad news is that Framework thinks another CPU price hike is on the horizon. It's not confirmed just yet, but when a vendor says it's receiving "signals," it's more than likely to come to fruition. The company is suggesting placing pre-orders now since it will have to update the overall prices of the Laptop 13 Pro once changes come into effect.

The Laptop 13 Pro was originally supposed to start shipping this month, but because of the unprecedented situation we're in, it was delayed to July. All orders for this laptop are, therefore, pre-orders, and that's how the company is able to easily upgrade customers from 500GB drives to 1TB on the DIY edition. The prebuilt edition of the laptop still features PCIe 4.0 drives from Western Digital / SanDisk, and storage can't be manually configured for these.

Hoto is a brand that several Tom's Hardware writers and editors have come to appreciate over the last few years. I personally own and regularly use the Hoto electric screwdriver, and it's become an essential part of my toolkit as I renovate my home.

For those who haven't been inducted into the Hoto fan club yet, you're in luck. The Amazon Prime Day sales have brought the cost of these popular, powerful, and well-built tools, slashing them back to previous or new record lows in many cases. That includes the two Hoto electric drivers, as well as a vacuum/air blower, flashlight, precision screwdriver kit, and more.

● Check out these Hoto deals at Amazon

The Prime Day sales are nearly over, however, so this is your last chance to pick up one of these brilliant Hoto tools at a bargain price. We'll be expecting the prices for all of these items to shoot up over the weekend, so if you're looking to jump in with a purchase, check out the recommendations below.

Prime Day Deals on Hoto Tools

Every sale event brings further Hoto tools onto the market. We're focusing on the kit that techies, hobbyists, PC builders, and DIY-ers will love.

That includes the trusty electric driver kits, as well as the precision drivers. We've also got flashlights, vacuum cleaners, rotary tools, and more, all listed below.

More Prime Day Tech Deals

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

Apple will release a base M6 chip for entry-level Macs this year but skip the Pro and Max versions of that generation, jumping instead to an accelerated M7 family built around on-device AI, according to a report from Bloomberg. It’s the first time since the M1 that a generation would arrive without higher-end variants, and it pulls the M7 forward by as much as six months, with Pro and Max parts now due in late 2027 and an Ultra in 2028.

The M6, codenamed Komodo, is set for entry-level machines, including a refreshed 14-inch MacBook Pro, which has seen unprecedented price rises to $1,999. According to the report, which quotes individuals who asked not to be named, it reaches around 200 GB/s of memory bandwidth against 153 GB/s on the M5, with a redesigned GPU carrying up to 12 cores, up from 10. Every family from the M1 through the M5 paired its base silicon with Pro and Max derivatives, and three of them also gained an Ultra.

The base M7, codenamed Delos, targets roughly 240 GB/s and could come in the first half of 2027, with the Pro, Max, and Ultra parts grouped internally under the Andros codename. Apple is fast-tracking the line to meet demand for on-device AI and heavier graphics work. Apple has declined to comment, and none of the specifications or dates have been confirmed by the company.

Memory bandwidth dictates how fast a chip can move the large data blocks, the main bottleneck for AI inference, and the climb from 153 GB/s to 200 GB/s to a planned 240 GB/s is a roughly 56% bandwidth increase from M5 to base M7. Those are figures for the base parts. The current M3 Ultra already delivers up to 819 GB/s by fusing two Max dies, which is why the high-end tiers, not the base chips, carry the heaviest local-AI workloads. The M6 also reportedly pairs an upgraded Neural Engine with faster GPU and CPU cores.

Apple is still planning to release an M5 Ultra this year, codenamed Sotra, with around 36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores, and tested support for up to 768GB of unified memory. It would refresh a Mac Studio that currently runs the M3 Ultra, after Apple skipped an M4 Ultra altogether.

That 768 GB ceiling sits against a current M3 Ultra Mac Studio capped at 96 GB, after Apple pulled its 512 GB tier and raised the 96 GB-to-256 GB upgrade to $2,000, then dropped the 128GB option as well. Whether the highest M5 Ultra memory tiers reach buyers depends on supply constraints; those haven’t eased and are unlikely to in the near future.

Apple raised prices across its Mac and iPad lines on Thursday, part of a crunch that outgoing CEO Tim Cook called a “hundred-year flood” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, blaming AI server demand for pulling high-bandwidth memory away from consumer hardware.

Solidigm is arguably one of the most mysterious storage companies in the industry today. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SK hynix, yet unlike its parent company, which produces charge-trap flash memory, it uses floating-gate 3D NAND memory that it develops and manufactures internally at a dedicated fab in Dalian, China.

Solidigm originates from Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), the company's NAND and SSD business unit, which used to have a unique technology strategy that differed from that of other flash and drive producers. To that end, it is not surprising that Solidigm also has a unique positioning as it only offers data center drives, most of which are based on floating-gate memory and proprietary in-house designed controllers. Furthermore, Solidigm is a fully vertically integrated company.

At Computex 2026, we sat down with Avi Shetty, who is vice president of AI ecosystem, Solutions & Market Enablement at Solidigm. Before his current position at Solidigm, he spent 14.5 years at Intel's storage division, so he has deep knowledge both about technology and the market. During our conversation, we discussed how Solidigm keeps evolving, including floating-gate NAND memory, advanced packaging technologies, next-generation SSDs, liquid-cooled SSDs, and more.

Anton Shilov: Could you introduce yourself to our readers and describe what do you do at Solidigm?

Avi Shetty: My name is Avi Shetty. I work at Solidigm, where I help lead AI solutions and ecosystem initiatives. My team works with global platform providers, software ISVs, and ODMs to ensure Solidigm solutions are validated, benchmarked, and included in reference designs at both the device and cluster levels, enabling customers to fully utilize our products.

A part of SK hynix that acts independently

Anton Shilov: You were previously a part of Intel. How is the integration going? Are you now fully integrated part of SK hynix, or do you operate independently?

Avi Shetty: Let me provide some background. While Solidigm was established in December 2021, our history goes back decades. Many of us came from Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), which developed Intel’s NAND SSDs for both client and data center markets.

In 2021, SK hynix acquired Intel’s NAND and SSD business and established Solidigm. Since December 2021, we have operated as a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of SK hynix, headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California.

Anton Shilov: So, you are part of SK hynix, but still maintain a degree of independence?

Avi Shetty: Absolutely. We operate as an independent subsidiary of SK hynix. Our strategy is focused entirely on enterprise SSDs. Every bit of [floating gate] NAND [at our fab in Dalian, China] we produce goes into enterprise storage solutions.

This is one of the ways we differentiate ourselves from competitors such as Samsung and Micron, which also serve mobile and client markets. We made a deliberate decision to focus exclusively on enterprise storage and AI.

We are also fully vertically integrated. We manufacture our own NAND, develop our own controllers, write our own firmware, and design our own SSDs. While we work with manufacturing partners to build products, we control the entire technology stack.

I also believe we are the only company with access to two different NAND architectures. Through SK hynix we have access to charge trap flash (CTF) technology, and we continue to develop floating gate NAND technology for our high-density QLC SSD products.

Anton Shilov: What is Solidigm's current share of the enterprise SSD market?

Avi Shetty: Approximately 24%. That is enterprise SSDs only. We do not participate in any other NAND markets. As of the first quarter of 2025, plus or minus a few percentage points, our measured enterprise SSD market share is approximately 24%. We evaluate market-share data quarterly and semiannually, and that is the latest figure we’ve publicly discussed.

Anton Shilov: How much of your business today is concentrated in high-capacity SSDs versus higher-performance products?

Avi Shetty: High-density SSDs now represent a significant portion of our business. Because Solidigm is privately held, we do not publicly disclose that breakdown. We report our financial metrics through our parent company, SK hynix.

What I can tell you is that both our 61TB-class and 122TB-class products became customer favorites almost immediately after launch. Demand for high-density storage has been extremely strong.

Anton Shilov: I assume you also work directly with hyperscalers?

Avi Shetty: We work with a broad range of customers globally. That includes U.S. cloud service providers, Chinese cloud service providers, OEMs around the world, NeoCloud providers, software ISVs, and channel partners. We maintain customer support, engineering, and sales organizations globally. Our business spans the Americas, EMEA, China, and the rest of Asia-Pacific.

Anton Shilov: Which customer segment represents the largest opportunity for growth right now? Traditional cloud providers or something else?

Avi Shetty: We intentionally maintain a diversified customer base.

What is interesting is how quickly new segments emerge. For example, the NeoCloud market has existed for some time, but AI-focused infrastructure providers such as CoreWeave, Lambda, Crusoe, and Nebius have become much more important over the last two years.

Before the AI boom, these companies represented only a small portion of demand. Today, they are becoming a meaningful part of the market.

As AI infrastructure continues to expand, Solidigm is adapting both its customer strategy and product portfolio to support these emerging deployments while continuing to serve our traditional customers.

Floating gate NAND in 2026

CTF NAND used by major memory makers has approached 276 - 286 active layers, whereas Solidigm's floating gate flash is still at 192 layers, meaning that the company is somewhat behind some of its rivals in terms of active layers as of mid-2026. It is set to catch up with its next generation that will have over 200 layers, but only in the second half of this year. However, floating gate NAND memory still has a number of advantages over CTF, particularly for applications that Solidigm targets.

Floating gate uses a conductive polysilicon island to store charge, which provides excellent cell isolation — charge stays well-contained and is less likely to spread to or interfere with neighboring cells — and this is particularly important for 3D QLC NAND with very high layer counts. In addition, Solidigm claims that floating gate gives a strong voltage threshold window and better cell isolation, which enables the company to keep scaling QLC more while maintaining good reliability.

Anton Shilov: Are you still producing floating gate NAND, and do you intend to continue?

Avi Shetty: Absolutely. We introduced our first QLC foating gate NAND product in 2018, and today we are on our fourth generation of QLC NAND.

Our flagship high-capacity product currently ships with 192-layer floating gate NAND technology and powers our 122TB SSD.

Anton Shilov: Haven't you also announced a larger drive?

Avi Shetty: We have announced a higher-capacity product and expect it to become available later this year.

Anton Shilov: The 256TB-class drive?

Avi Shetty: Correct. Approximately 245TB usable capacity.

Anton Shilov: So you are going to have a roughly 245TB SSD available this year?

Avi Shetty: Correct.

Anton Shilov: What advantages does Floating-Gate NAND provide?

Avi Shetty: Floating gate NAND gives us scalability. We have consistently been first in the industry to push storage density in standard form factors. We were the first to introduce a 30TB SSD, then a 60TB SSD, and later a 122TB SSD.

We have been shipping the 122TB drive for nearly five quarters. We launched it in the fourth quarter of 2024, and it has since become our flagship product. It is probably our most popular product of 2025.

The reason customers like the 122TB drive is efficiency. When you look at AI data centers, customers want low power consumption, scalability, and performance. While this particular product is a PCIe Gen4 solution, our roadmap continues to increase both density and bandwidth. You will see future products based on PCIe Gen5 and PCIe Gen6.

The real attraction of the 122TB SSD is scale. In a 1U server, you can install 24 of these drives and get nearly 3PB of storage in a single rack unit.

If you look at the AI data pipeline — from training to archiving — the first and last stages require massive datasets. That is where these high-capacity SSDs are being deployed today.

Now we are also seeing growing demand from inference deployments. Inference can run in core data centers or in edge and back-office environments. Those deployments require storage that can efficiently feed GPUs and support workloads such as context storage and KV cache management. High-density SSDs help provide the capacity required for those applications.

Next-generation SSDs: PCIe Gen6 drives with liquid cooling

Anton Shilov: You mentioned PCIe Gen5 and Gen6 [next-generation drives]. I assume you are referring both to next PCIe generations and future NAND generations?

Avi Shetty: Both.

We maintain separate technology and product roadmaps. Earlier, I mentioned that our current QLC NAND is our 4^th Generation technology based on 192 layers. We will continue investing in future NAND generations as well.

On the product side, we are talking about PCIe generations. We currently ship both PCIe Gen4 and PCIe Gen5 SSDs. All of our TLC products are PCIe Gen5 today, while our QLC lineup currently remains PCIe Gen4.

Future QLC products will move to PCIe Gen5, and eventually, we will introduce PCIe Gen6 SSDs as platform vendors such as AMD, Intel, and Nvidia adopt PCIe Gen6 in their systems.

Anton Shilov: You mentioned PCIe Gen6 SSDs. You have not shipped one yet, correct?

Avi Shetty: Correct. PCIe Gen6 products are part of our future roadmap.

Anton Shilov: How close are they?

Avi Shetty: We are not making product announcements at Computex, but you will hear more from us soon.

Anton Shilov: At the moment there is really only one platform that can take advantage of them anyway. Well, two, if you consider Nvidia Vera.

Avi Shetty: That is part of the equation. When we evaluate our roadmap, we consider demand, platform readiness, and overall value to customers.

For example, we have what we call a refresh philosophy. We may introduce a PCIe Gen4 refresh or a PCIe Gen5 refresh that lowers cost or improves efficiency rather than immediately moving to a new PCIe generation.

The question is whether customers gain more value from Gen6 today or from a more mature, lower-cost Gen5 product. Those are the kinds of decisions our planning teams evaluate.

What I can say is that Solidigm maintains a full roadmap covering PCIe Gen4, Gen5, and future Gen6 SSDs across all major form factors, including U.2, E1.S, E3.S, and other EDSFF variants. Our portfolio spans capacities from 2TB all the way to 122TB.

Anton Shilov: Launching an all-new product early still gives you time to validate products with platform vendors.

Avi Shetty: Absolutely. We already work closely with platform providers to validate prototypes long before products are launched. Our engineering teams participate in interoperability events and PCI-SIG workshops to ensure products are ready when platforms become available.

Anton Shilov: That is actually interesting because PCIe Gen6 interoperability workshops have been delayed multiple times. Back in 2024, people expected the ecosystem to move much faster and interoperability workshops to start in 2024, with the list of compatible products emerging in 2025.

Avi Shetty: That is true. A lot depends on platform readiness and ecosystem scaling. PCIe Gen6 by itself is not enough. This is my personal opinion, but to fully benefit from Gen6 storage performance, the industry must also address cooling. That is one reason we invested heavily in liquid-cooled storage.

Last year, we introduced what we believe was the world's first liquid-cooled storage solution for Nvidia environments. It used E1.S PCIe Gen5 SSDs with direct liquid cooling. Historically, liquid cooling was focused on CPUs and GPUs. We extended it to storage by allowing coolant to flow through a cold plate attached to the SSD. The cold plate removes heat directly from the drive. To fully exploit PCIe Gen6 performance, the ecosystem must develop those kinds of technologies as well.

Anton Shilov: So you believe PCIe Gen6 SSDs will require liquid cooling?

Avi Shetty: At least in high-performance AI environments, particularly Nvidia-based deployments, we believe liquid cooling will be necessary.

Next-generation SSDs: PLC NAND

Anton Shilov: Will future NAND generations include both TLC and QLC? And what about PLC?

Avi Shetty: Never say never. We demonstrated PLC technology using floating gate NAND at the Flash Memory Summit several years ago. However, this business requires factory optimization and maintaining a manageable number of SKUs to maximize utilization and profitability.

That said, there absolutely will be opportunities for PLC. We have not announced any specific products or timelines, but there is active PLC development underway inside Solidigm.

Anton Shilov: That is interesting. However, PLC by itself only increases capacity by about 20% compared to QLC and at the same time requires significantly more sophisticated controllers and error correction.

Avi Shetty: That is true. However, those same concerns existed during every previous transition: from SLC to MLC, MLC to TLC, and TLC to QLC.

We were the first company to commercialize QLC NAND. Initially, many competitors questioned its value. Today, the industry increasingly recognizes the total-cost-of-ownership advantages that QLC provides, and multiple vendors now offer QLC products. I think the same process will occur with PLC.

It is also important to consider the broader market. Roughly 80% of storage capacity worldwide is still deployed on hard drives. PLC does not necessarily need to replace QLC on a one-to-one basis. Instead, it can create new opportunities where the advantages of solid-state storage — lower power consumption, higher density, smaller physical footprint, and lower total cost of ownership — become compelling.

You will likely see future solution development involving software partners that help address some of the limitations you are describing.

Anton Shilov: Do you expect retention characteristics to become a major challenge with PLC NAND?

Avi Shetty: Of course. PLC is a new technology, and retention characteristics will differ from what we see with QLC today.

The same is true across all NAND types. SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC, and eventually PLC all have different retention characteristics based on the underlying technology. The existence of those challenges does not mean we stop exploring future solutions. We will continue investing in that area.

Advanced packaging for NAND

Anton Shilov: As I mentioned, PLC only increases capacity by about 20%. Advanced packaging may ultimately have a much larger impact on SSD capacity. Could you discuss where packaging technology stands today and where it is headed?

Avi Shetty: Absolutely. Let me use our current products as an example. The 122TB SSD represents a significant packaging achievement. It is a U.2 drive with 48 NAND packages. Each package contains a 22-die stack. Each die is a 1.33Tb QLC device. Those 22-die stacks are what enable us to reach 122TB in a standard form factor.

Packaging technology remains one of our core investments. We continue developing technologies that allow us to place more dies into each package and deliver higher capacities to customers.

Anton Shilov: What about increasing the number of dies per package?

Avi Shetty: That is one of the primary ways to increase density. You can either increase die capacity or increase the number of dies per package. We intend to pursue both approaches.

Anton Shilov: How many dies per package do you think remain practical?

Avi Shetty: Today we are at 22. Future products will go beyond that, although I cannot discuss specific numbers.

Anton Shilov: What did previous generations use?

Avi Shetty: Depending on capacity requirements, previous products used 4-, 8-, or 16-die stacks. Of course, we are talking about a single NAND package in each case.

Storage-Class Memory, Optane, and Nvidia's Storage Next

Anton Shilov: What about storage-class memory?

Avi Shetty: Like Optane?

Anton Shilov: Not necessarily Optane itself, but something similar — something faster than NAND flash, yet capable of offering significantly higher density than DRAM at a lower cost.

Avi Shetty: Understood. Let me frame it from the perspective of the problem we are trying to solve. If you are asking whether Solidigm is developing a storage-class memory technology similar to Optane, then the answer today is no.

What we are focused on is addressing the requirements emerging from Nvidia's Storage Next initiative. The fundamental challenge is bandwidth. HBM is extremely fast, but it is also expensive and difficult to scale economically. As AI systems continue to grow, the industry needs additional memory and storage tiers that provide greater capacity at lower cost. That creates demand for NAND-based solutions that remain non-volatile while delivering improved latency and bandwidth characteristics.

We have not made any public announcements regarding storage-class memory technologies, but we continuously evaluate future technologies and architectural approaches.

Anton Shilov: So you are exploring concepts that could potentially bridge the gap between traditional NAND and memory?

Avi Shetty: We are evaluating a wide range of technologies that could help us continue delivering leadership products to our customers. When and if we have something to announce, we will do so publicly. At this point, however, we have nothing to disclose.

Anton Shilov: So storage-class memory is not currently a product category that Solidigm is actively pursuing?

Avi Shetty: If you are specifically referring to something similar to Optane, then no.

Optane was based on a fundamentally different technology. It was not NAND. It relied on a phase-change-memory-derived architecture and represented a completely different storage medium. We are not pursuing that type of technology today. What we are investing in is future NAND technology.

Anton Shilov: You think that future NAND technologies could eventually move closer to that space?

Avi Shetty: Exactly. Future NAND innovations could help narrow the gap between HBM, DRAM, and the next storage tier. That’s certainly one of the directions the industry is evaluating as AI systems continue to demand larger memory pools and greater bandwidth.

AMD has brought back its gaming champion from four years ago. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has been revived in 2026 to breathe new life into the AM4 platform. The Zen 3-based CPU was the best CPU for gaming of its time, thanks to the first-generation 3D V-Cache technology. Since then, however, the competition in our CPU benchmark hierarchy has become more fierce.

Today's competition is Intel’s Core i7-14700K, based on the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture. At the time the Ryzen 7 5800X3D released, Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs were its main competition. Here, we revisit the comparison with Intel’s newer Core i7-14700K, which is available around the same price of $350.

The focus of this faceoff is to determine which CPU is the superior all-around chip. We will put the two CPUs through a series of tests spanning different categories to ultimately determine which CPU you should buy for your system.

This faceoff breaks down how two CPUs compare to each other in a head-to-head battle. If you'd like to read more about either processor, as well as see our full suite of tests, make sure to read our AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D re-review and Core i7-14700K faceoff.

Features and Specifications: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was first launched in April 2022 as a part of the Vermeer desktop CPU family. It is based on the Zen 3 architecture and built on TSMC’s 7nm production process. The CPU features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a TDP of 105W and a PPT of 142W. It has a base clock of 3.4 GHz and can boost up to 4.5 GHz.

The 5800X3D only supports DDR4 memory at a rated speed of 3200 MT/s over a dual-channel interface. It is compatible with the AM4 socket, with support for 300-series, 400-series, and 500-series AMD chipsets (though check support with your specific motherboard). It also supports 20 lanes of PCIe Gen 4. However, the 5800X3D does not have integrated graphics.

On a more positive note, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D was the first CPU to employ the new 3D V-Cache technology. As a result of stacking the cache vertically on the die, the 5800X3D has a total L3 cache of 96 MB. Of this pool, 64 MB is part of the 3D V-Cache stack. Core overclocking is disabled on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D due to its 3D V-Cache layout; DRAM overclocking still remains available.

Its competitor, Intel’s Core i7-14700K, uses a vastly different layout. It features the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture, which is a refined version of the 13th-generation Raptor Lake base architecture. The Core i7-14700K was launched in October 2023 and was built on a 10nm production process (Intel 7).

Intel’s 14th-generation CPUs use a hybrid core layout with performance-focused “P-cores” and more efficient “E-cores.” The 14700K also follows this structure, featuring 8 P-cores and 12 E-cores, for a total of 20 cores. In the 14700K, Hyper-Threading is only available on the P-cores, so the CPU has a total of 28 threads. The chip can boost the P-cores up to 5.6 GHz, while the E-core boost clock is 4.3 GHz.

Interestingly, the Core i7-14700K supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory at 3200 MT/s and 5600 MT/s, respectively. The CPU is compatible with the LGA 1700 socket featured in the 600-series and 700-series Intel motherboards. There is also support for 16 PCIe Gen 5 lanes and 4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes.

The Core i7-14700K has a TDP of 125W, with a higher PL2 limit of 253W. Integrated graphics are also offered in the 14700K in the form of UHD Graphics 770. There is 33MB of shared L3 cache on the chip. Perhaps more importantly, the Core i7-14700K is fully unlocked for overclocking, which is a big advantage over its competitor for today, though that requires a Z-series motherboard.

Zooming out a bit, it is clear that the Core i7-14700K is vastly superior to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D on paper. It is a newer CPU, so it has a better feature set, including PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 support. It offers more cores, a higher boost clock, integrated graphics, and an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

⭐Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

Nothing is decided on paper alone, but the Core i7-14700K offers much better specs, newer features, and even has overclocking support. It takes this round quite easily.

Gaming Benchmarks and Performance: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

AMD claims to have “re-engineered” the Ryzen 7 5800X3D for its 2026 re-release, so we have tested it again, along with a whole bunch of worthy competitors, including the 14700K. We chose the 1080p resolution for our 16-game test suite in order to maximize the performance differences between the various CPUs. The graphics card used was the GeForce RTX 5090 to keep potential GPU bottlenecks to a minimum. Let’s get into the results.

Starting off with our 16-game FPS geomean at 1080p, the Core i7-14700K dominates the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with an average result of 166.7 FPS across our tested games, compared to the 145.6 FPS result of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. That is a 14.5% difference in favor of the 14700K in our performance geomean. In 1% lows, the 14700K leads the Ryzen 7 5800X3D by 20% on average, putting out 114 FPS against the Ryzen’s 95.

However, there is another side to this benchmark table. The Core i7-14700K supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, so we tested it in both configurations. With DDR4-3200 memory, the 14700K’s advantage vanishes, and instead the Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads by 1.04%, or just 1.5 FPS. The 1% lows are in favor of 14700K by only 3 FPS (3.15%), which is astonishingly close.

When the Intel CPU is paired with DDR5 memory, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s cache advantage seems to be struggling against the Core i7-14700K’s raw core count and higher boost clock (along with far faster memory speeds). Looking at individual titles, we see a similar pattern with the Core i7-14700K holding a consistent lead over the 5800X3D.

In 007 First Light, the 14700K paired with DDR5 memory has a 25.7% lead on average over the 5800X3D. That lead shrinks to 21.5% in Crimson Desert, and the difference is 13.7% in favor of the 14700K in Cyberpunk 2077. Interestingly, the Core i7-14700K leads the entire pack in Flight Simulator 24, establishing a 26.6% lead over the 5800X3D in this title. The DDR5-equipped 14700K also leads the 5800X3D in Spider-Man 2, Starfield, The Last of Us Part One, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Counter-Strike 2.

However, when the Core i7-14700K is paired with DDR4-3200 memory, the picture changes completely. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads the i7-14700K with DDR4 memory in Baldur’s Gate 3 by 11.7%. In Crimson Desert, the lead is 3.2% for the 5800X3D, and 2.6% in Cyberpunk 2077. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D sits between the DDR5 and DDR4 versions of the 14700K in a few other titles, including Counter-Strike 2 and DOOM: The Dark Ages.

There are also some titles in which the Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads both the DDR4 and DDR5-equipped versions of the Core i7-14700K. In F1 2024, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads the DDR5 14700K by 5.6%, and the DDR4 14700K by 13.7% on average. The same pattern can be seen in Final Fantasy XIV, with a 6.6% lead over the 14700K using DDR5 memory, and in Minecraft RT, with a 18.5% lead over the 14700K using DDR4 memory.

It is certainly all over the place when you put both configurations of the 14700K into the mix, but the two behave more like separate CPUs. The long and short of it is that the 14700K with DDR5 memory provides the best gaming performance on average, followed by the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The DDR4-equipped 14700K is ever-so-slightly slower than the 5800X3D, but it really just depends on the game you’re playing.

During our testing, the Core i7-14700K averaged 4.93 GHz with DDR5 memory and 4.88 GHz with DDR4 memory. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D could only manage 4.34 GHz, but it sipped only 77.5 watts during our gaming tests. The 14700K DDR5 averaged 132.4 watts, while the DDR4-equipped 14700K averaged a whopping 155.1 watts during gaming. This is why the 14700K with DDR4 reached an average temperature of 80 °C, compared to 62 °C for the 14700K with DDR5 and 59 °C for the 5800X3D.

In addition to running the coolest, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is also the most efficient CPU of the bunch. The 5800X3D had an FPS-per-watt output of 1.88, compared to 1.26 for the Core i7-14700K with DDR5 memory, and just 0.93 for the DDR4 version. It is amazing how much the Core i7-14700K suffers when paired with DDR4 memory.

Lower overall performance also hurts the value proposition of the DDR4-equipped 14700K, as it puts out just 0.39 FPS-per-dollar, compared to the 0.45 of the DDR5-equipped 14700K. Astonishingly, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D falls between the two 14700K versions, delivering 0.42 FPS per dollar. This makes the Core i7-14700K the value king, but only if you pair it with DDR5 memory. I suspect that will be tricky in the current market.

⭐Winner: Tie

While the Ryzen 7 5800X3D does slightly pull away from the DDR4-equipped 14700K, both of these setups get demolished by the 14700K when it is paired with DDR5 memory. We're calling this round a tie considering the massive price disparity between DDR4 and DDR5 memory right now.

Productivity Benchmarks and Performance: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

Productivity performance spans single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, so we tested the CPUs across a range of benchmarks covering both categories. Just like in our gaming tests, we tested the 14700K with both DDR5 and DDR4 memory, since it does impact the performance significantly.

Intel’s hybrid architecture has historically been quite strong at multi-threaded workloads due to E-cores, and that pattern appears here too. In our multi-threaded performance ranking geomean, the Core i7-14700K scores 492 points, a massive lead of 116.7% over the Ryzen 7 5800X3D that could only manage 227 points on average. Even when the Core i7-14700K is paired with DDR4 memory, it has a 105% higher average score than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

The superior core count of the 14700K is proving to be the difference maker in this category. In the Cinebench 2024 multi-core test, the 14700K with DDR5 memory is a whopping 126.6% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Even the DDR4-equipped 14700K secures a 107% lead over the 5800X3D in Cinebench. The lead for the 14700K is about 137% in POV-Ray, and it shrinks to 135% when using DDR4 memory.

Blender tests were also favorable for the 14700K, but we didn’t see a big difference between DDR4 and DDR5 systems in these benchmarks. In Junkshop, the DDR5-equipped 14700K leads the 5800X3D by 116.4%; in Monster, by 116.6%; and in Classroom, by 118.3%. The DDR4 variant follows closely behind, by 1 or 2 percentage points.

The memory generation again comes into play when we look at HandBrake x265 10-bit encoding, with the DDR5-14700K leading the 5800X3D by 90.5%, while the DDR4-14700K manages a 82% lead. The gap is even larger in x264 encoding, with the DDR5 variant gaining a 105% lead over the 5800X3D, while the DDR4 variant can only manage a 63% lead.

That still makes the Core i7-14700K far better than the 5800X3D in productivity workloads, regardless of the memory generation. However, we still have single-threaded results to look at. Our single-threaded performance ranking geomean puts the Core i7-14700K 36.6% faster on average than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Interestingly, there is no difference in single-threaded performance between the DDR5 and DDR4 variants of the 14700K.

The same trend is seen in individual benchmarks as well. The 14700K is about 25% faster than the 5800X3D in Lame’s audio encoding test, and the DDR4 variant is in the same ballpark as well. Curiously, the DDR4-equipped 14700K is slightly faster than the DDR5-14700K in Cinebench 2024 and also outperforms the 5800X3D by 36.6%. Safe to say, the RAM difference doesn’t really come into play in these tests.

Overall, though, the winner is quite clear. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a gaming-oriented chip with only 8 cores and 16 threads, so it is no match for the 20-core 14700K in productivity workloads. Whether you go for DDR4 or DDR5 is your decision, but the productivity champion of this faceoff is the Core i7-14700K.

⭐Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

With an average lead of 116% over the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in multi-threaded tasks, the Core i7-14700K sweeps the productivity round quite easily.

Overclocking: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

Overclocking has never been a strong suit of AMD Ryzen processors; however, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D doesn’t support core overclocking at all. AMD cited the 3D V-Cache technology as the reason the 5800X3D can’t be overclocked, and they were right to assume so.

Due to the vertically-stacked cache, heat transfer from the CPU die to the heatspreader was a real issue. An overclocked 5800X3D would have sipped more power and produced more heat. Therefore, an efficient heat-transfer system was needed but could not be developed in time for the first-generation V-Cache product.

AMD has since reinstated overclocking support for Ryzen 9000 series X3D CPUs by flipping the cache layout, so it no longer hinders heat transfer. However, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s core multiplier still remains locked, but you can still tune the DRAM and Infinity Fabric clocks.

The Core i7-14700K, on the other hand, is tailor-made for overclocking. Being a K-series SKU, the 14700K comes with an unlocked multiplier and all the Intel bells and whistles for overclocking. It can reach 6.1 - 6.2 GHz on individual cores with proper cooling, and users can expect a 5.6 - 5.8 GHz all-core overclock on most setups.

Its overclocking toolkit features traditional multiplier adjustments, voltage controls, and established BIOS interfaces that most enthusiasts are already familiar with. The Core i7-14700K also has a significant amount of power headroom to play with, although temperatures become a concern as soon as the power consumption ramps up.

By all overclocking metrics, the Core i7-14700K is the superior CPU for tinkerers. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D can’t be manually tuned, at least not in the traditional sense, and therefore doesn’t really stand a chance in this round.

⭐Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

The 14700K is the real deal when it comes to overclocking support. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is locked and therefore can’t be overclocked, so Intel sweeps this round.

Power Consumption and Efficiency: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has a base TDP of 105W and a PPT of 142W. Intel’s is much higher, with the 14700K clocking in at 125W TDP and a PL2 limit of 253 watts. However, TDP numbers don’t give us a good idea of real-world power consumption, so we ran our own detailed tests.

First, at idle, the 5800X3D consumed only 5 watts, while the 14700K consumed 27 watts. In an active-idle situation, such as YouTube playback, the Core i7-14700K consumed 28 watts with DDR5 memory and a concerning 39 watts with DDR4 memory. The 5800X3D, on the other hand, sipped only 9 watts, making it anywhere from 67% - 76% more efficient than the 14700K.

Moving on to all-core workloads, in our y-cruncher multi-threaded AVX power test, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D consumes 119 watts, while the Core i7-14700K clocks in at a staggering 335 watts, a 181.5% higher figure. Even the Core i7-14700K with DDR4 memory consumed 307 watts, which is still a 158% increase over the 5800X3D’s power consumption.

In Linpack, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is again more reserved, with the 14700K consuming 168.6% more power than the Ryzen. The DDR4 setup was not much better, with a 137.2% higher power consumption than the 5800X3D in this test. The gap widens even more in Cinebench 2024’s multi-core render and our Blender tests, which show the 14700K consuming anywhere from 250% to 285% higher power than the 5800X3D.

In our encoding tests, the situation remains pretty much the same. In Handbrake x264, the DDR5-14700K consumed 242% more power than the 5800X3D, while the DDR4-14700K consumed nearly 200% more. Similar numbers were seen in Handbrake x265 and SVT_AV1 encoding, with the 5800X3D being the clear winner.

We even looked at single-threaded workloads to determine the power consumption of those tasks. In y-cruncher’s single-threaded AVX power test, we saw the 14700K consume 157% more power when paired with DDR5 memory, and 132% more when using DDR4 memory. Safe to say, the Intel CPU does not fare any better in these workloads either.

To determine the efficiency, we calculated the watts-per-FPS number in Handbrake x265. The 5800X3D was 43.4% more efficient than the 14700K with DDR5 RAM, and about 41% more efficient in this task than the 14700K with DDR4 memory. The pattern can again be seen in Cinebench 2024’s efficiency test, where we look at points-per-watt. The 5700X3D is anywhere from 62% to 68% more efficient than the 14700K in this task.

We can also visualize the efficiency differences using our handy scatter plots. In the Linkpack power efficiency plot, the 5800X3D is towards the bottom left of the chart, while the 14700K is more towards the top. This means that the 14700K uses substantially more energy to deliver marginally higher performance than the 5800X3D. Ideally, you want to be towards the bottom right of this graph.

So, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D consumes much less power in both single-threaded and multi-threaded productivity workloads, and as we saw in our gaming tests, it runs cooler as well. The Core i7-14700K has a distinct performance advantage in all-core workloads, but the power consumption ramps up quickly once it gets going. Still, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the clear winner in this round.

⭐Winner: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D consumes between 150% and 300% less power than the Core i7-14700K in all-core workloads, making it the definitive winner in this round.

Pricing: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

The pricing situation is a bit of a wildcard in this comparison, since these are not exactly “new” CPUs. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was recently re-released at $350, which is $100 lower than its 2022 price tag. The Core i7-14700K is currently priced at $370 at the time of writing, which makes the 5800X3D $20 cheaper in a direct comparison.

However, comparing the two CPUs is more than just comparing their sticker price. We must also look at the platform costs of the two CPUs. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D uses the fan-favorite AM4 socket, which has a whole heap of chipsets in all price brackets. You can pair the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with a mid-range B550 or a high-end X570 motherboard, but older 400-series motherboards are also compatible, depending on the board.

As far as the price goes, B550 motherboards can be purchased for $80 - $180, while higher-end X570 motherboards range from $150 - $300. Some premium models can even go beyond $400, but those are not really needed for our CPU since it doesn’t support overclocking. A nice mid-tier B550 or X570 motherboard will be more than enough for our needs.

Memory is where the price difference really grows. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D only supports DDR4 memory, so it is relatively safe from the ongoing DRAM crisis. A nice 32GB DDR4-3200 kit can run you about $140 - $160, which is definitely higher than DDR4 prices of the past, but nothing compared to current DDR5 rates. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D also needs an aftermarket cooler since it doesn’t come with one, and that can cost you about $100 - $150 too.

For the Core i7-14700K, you have the option of either a DDR4 or a DDR5 motherboard. Even then, you still have to choose between a 600-series or a 700-series chipset. For the sake of this comparison, let’s go with a Z790 motherboard since the 14700K is unlocked and we want those overclocking capabilities. A basic Z790 motherboard can be found around the $150 mark, but we would want to go with something that has decent VRMs. That can cost around $200-$250 at current prices.

Of course, as evidenced in our benchmarks, DDR5 memory is the best way to maximize the 14700K's performance. Due to the RAMpocalypse, DDR5 memory is ridiculously expensive, and a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit can cost between $390 - $550 at the time of writing. Going with DDR4 would require a motherboard swap, but it would save you between $300 and $350 on the system based on these two components alone.

For cooling, the 14700K requires special consideration, as we have the option to overclock. Even a stock 14700K sips more power and produces more heat than a 5800X3D, but if you plan to overclock, the thermals can get out of hand pretty quick. You’ll ideally use a solid 360mm AiO liquid cooler for the 14700K, which can add about $100 - $150 to the cost of your build.

Another factor to consider when determining the value of a CPU is the longevity of its platform. AMD’s AM4 platform has been going strong for a decade, and AMD has continued to support it through updates and releases such as the 5800X3D. However, it would be hard to see AMD releasing more CPUs for the AM4 platform going forward.

On the other hand, Intel’s LGA 1700 socket was already semi-retired, but new reports suggest that Intel will bring this platform back in early 2027. New “Raptor Lake Next” CPUs will reportedly be available on the same socket and the same motherboards, so there is certainly a better upgrade path on Intel’s side.

When we put everything together, the Core i7-14700K is a bit hard to recommend from a value perspective. The motherboards for the 14700K are more expensive on average, and if you want to maximize its performance, you will have to take a massive hit to your wallet with DDR5 memory. Moreover, it is more expensive to cool, too. Its platform looks more future-proof in light of recent rumors, but that can’t guarantee it a win in this round.

⭐Winner: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

The 5800X3D is cheaper to get up and running, since you only need an affordable B550 motherboard and some DDR4 memory to get started. The 14700K can be cheap, but that requires you to leave serious performance on the table and go with a DDR4 setup.

Bottom Line: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

After a grueling 6-round back-and-forth, we finally have our winner. The Intel Core i7-14700K is the superior CPU of the two. Now, it is not as black-and-white as the 4-3 score might suggest, but the 14700K is still the winner of this faceoff.

The Core i7-14700K delivers better gaming performance on average than the 5800X3D. Sure, there are some titles that favor AMD’s 3D V-Cache, but those wins were not as frequent. However, AMD’s 5800X3D has a better chance if the 14700K is limited by DDR4 memory.

Intel’s 14700K is also vastly superior in productivity and has support for manual overclocking. AMD’s main selling point for the 5800X3D in 2026 is its low price, both upfront and in terms of platform costs. It is also an easier CPU to maintain since it runs cooler and consumes less power.

Interestingly, the choice also depends heavily on your memory generation of choice. It is better to save a few bucks and go with a 5800X3D if you plan to stay on DDR4 for now. However, if you are willing to make the (difficult) jump to DDR5, the 14700K is the clear choice.

Potential buyers who want to stick to gaming should still prioritize a Ryzen 7 5800X3D over a Core i7-14700K with DDR5 memory. On the other hand, if you regularly run any type of productivity workload, the 14700K blows the Ryzen out of the water.

⭐ Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

Nonetheless, the overall winner of our faceoff is Intel’s Core i7-14700K.

Check Out More CPU Faceoffs

• Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus vs AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
• AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D vs AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• Intel Core i7-14700K vs Intel Core Ultra 7 265K
• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 vs Ryzen 9 9950X3D

AMD's new 10th-anniversary Ryzen 7 5800X3D is now available for purchase at Amazon at MSRP, a welcome relief for those who have been searching for the chip, only to find it being scalped at twice the MSRP after yesterday's launch. Given the intense demand, this stock will probably not last long.

• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Amazon
• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Best Buy

If these retailers run out of stock quickly, you can also try your luck scoring the new chip at B&H or Newegg, but they've had only spotty availability in the wake of the launch.

• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at B&H
• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Newegg

The new 5800X3D was brought back into production to help enthusiasts upgrade DDR4-based platforms during the ongoing shortages of DDR5. We re-reviewed this chip for the launch, using the newest games, drivers, firmwares, and GPU, and while it is functionally similar to the original 5800X3D, AMD did have to make changes to the innovative 3D V-Cache to bring this processor back into production.

Our re-test found that this chip remains the gold standard for AM4 motherboards, squeezing out the most performance possible with DDR4. The $350 asking price is high relative to competing chips if you are building a new system, making other options preferable, but it is hands-down the best upgrade for those on an AM4 system. In fact, one of its greatest attributes is that it will deliver a competitive gaming experience while not breaking the bank to buy insanely-priced DDR5.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Microsoft has extended its free consumer Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program by a year, pushing the cutoff for critical security patches to October 14th, 2027. The change came without any actual announcement, appearing instead in an edit to Microsoft's Windows 10 ESU support page. Devices already enrolled roll over to the new date automatically, with no action required from users. The program was originally set to expire on October 12th, 2026, one year after Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14th, 2025. With the extension, however, users who can’t or won’t move to Windows 11 now have a second free year of patches.

Speaking to BleepingComputer, Microsoft said that the change reflects “our ongoing commitment to helping customers stay secure during the transition,” adding that the extra year gives users “more time and flexibility to find the best PC for their needs while keeping them protected.”

In terms of enrollment, nothing has changed: users can enroll for free by syncing their PC settings to a Microsoft account through Windows Backup, by redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or with a one-time payment of $30. Users in Europe can enroll at no cost simply by signing in with a Microsoft account, a concession Microsoft made after pushback from consumer advocacy groups over its original requirements. A single ESU license covers up to 10 devices tied to the same account.

Microsoft's consumer program is limited to personal devices, however. Systems joined to an Active Directory domain or to Microsoft Entra, or managed through Mobile Device Management, are corporate-controlled and therefore not eligible. Personally owned machines that are only Entra-registered — e.g., a work account added to a personal device, rather than the device itself being organization-owned — still qualify.

Windows 11 has surged to roughly 73% of desktop share against Windows 10’s 26%, so it’s clear that the broader migration is working. Those users still on Windows 10 are increasingly the difficult edge cases, with around 400 million active PCs unable to officially upgrade to Windows 11 because their hardware fails its TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, or supported-processor requirements.

Users of those machines face a choice of remaining on unsupported Windows 10 or upgrading their hardware outright. But thanks to the AI-driven memory shortage, doing so has never been more expensive: DRAM contract prices have roughly doubled since early last year (and are expected to double again) as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron divert wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators.

IDC expects PCs, tablets, and smartphone prices to rise 10% to 20% through the end of 2026, with memory now accounting for a far larger share of a system's bill of materials than it did two years ago.

For users unwilling to buy new hardware at current prices, some third-party options remain. The security firm 0patch has pledged to provide unofficial Windows 10 micropatches through 2030, and Linux migration efforts such as the End of 10 initiative continue to court holdouts whose machines can’t run Windows 11.

With the majority of today's entertainment media available on demand or via streaming services, physical media has taken a back seat, with many traditional DVD and Blu-Ray manufacturers packing up shop. However, there's also been a resurgence in people wanting to actually own the content they purchase, rather than relying on streaming services that may remove their favorite content on a whim.

While they are less common now, you can still get plenty of DVD and Blu-Ray writing drives at the moment. Lots of cheaper external drives available from unfamiliar brands are plastered all over Amazon, but if you want a drive with a bit of pedigree, then take a look at these Asus external drives for either DVD or Blu-ray. The Asus Lite Portable USB 2.0 Slim 8X DVD/Burner/Rewriter is now just $27.99 in the Prime Day sales, with Asus' External Blu-Ray 6X Writer marked down to just $149.90.

● Grab this External Blu-Ray Writer deal at Amazon

With most laptops and PCs not having a physical disk drive nowadays, an external USB drive is the next best thing for easily picking up and playing your old DVD/Blu-Ray collection (if you still have one). I know I still have a bunch lying around, and actually prefer the visual quality to streaming, plus the added benefit of still having entertainment to hand in a power outage or if my internet service goes down.

These drives are both portable and practical if you still want to own physical media. So if you happen to come across a stack of movies or an old PC game at a yard sale, these drives could be your answer to accessing a bunch of new entertainment. And why not make the most of the Prime Day sales event and save a few bucks?

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

IBM on Thursday said it has produced the first test chip using its 0.7nm-class (7 angstroms) fabrication technology, the industry's first sub-1nm manufacturing process. The concept process technology relies on the so-called nanostack transistors and promises rather dramatic power, performance, and area (PPA) gains compared to IBM's 2nm-class node. To produce nanostack transistors, IBM uses two wafers instead of one, along with ultra-thin dielectric bonding, an arrangement that has never been used before.

IBM's 7A-class (or 0.7nm-class) fabrication process based on nanostack transistors is said to offer up to 50% higher performance and 70% higher energy efficiency compared to IBM's 2nm-class node based on nanosheet gate-all-around transistors the company introduced in 2021. Perhaps more importantly, IBM's nanosheet architecture provides a 40% higher SRAM density and even higher density improvements for logic transistors, gains that are extremely hard to achieve these days.

Such massive gains have been enabled by numerous innovations, but the key enabler is IBM's nanostack transistor architecture, which conceptually resembles CFETs and stems from GAA nanosheet transistors.

Two wafers instead of one

In modern process technologies, all logic transistors live in one active device tier, and NFETs and PFETs sit side by side laterally in the standard-cell layout. Nanosheet GAA transistors feature a more advanced internal geometry, but they still reside in this single-transistor tier, which gets harder to shrink with every generation.

IBM's nanostack concept seems to separate complementary n-type and p-type transistors into vertically bonded tiers instead of placing them side by side in a single transistor layer. The payoff is a major reduction in the lateral footprint of a CMOS pair, as the architecture effectively turns one NFET+PFET structure from a 2D layout into a 3D stacked layout, which is why IBM can claim roughly double transistor density versus its 2nm research node without relying on conventional planar shrink.

While conceptually IBM's nanostack transistors resemble CFETs, the way IBM builds its nanostacks is fundamentally different compared to monolithic CFETs proposed by various chipmakers and organizations. N-type and p-type transistors are fundamentally the same kind of transistor used as complementary partners in CMOS logic, but they differ in carrier type (electrons for n-type and electron holes for p-type), switching polarity, and electrical behavior, which is why advanced process technologies tend to optimize them separately. However, these n-type and p-type transistors are made on the same wafer using essentially the same materials, so the level of their optimization is limited today.

Instead of building n-type and p-type transistors on the same wafer using the same materials, IBM builds them separately on different wafers and integrates them together using ultra-thin dielectric bonding in CMOS integration. This enables the company to optimize n and p-type channels independently, as each tier now can use different process conditions, different channel materials, different strain engineering, or even different geometries (though images from IBM indicate that the geometry of different transistors is the same).

As we see with all new process nodes, the nanometer-scale measurement doesn't coorelate to the physical dimensions of the device, but this remains a tremendous achievement.

Numerous caveats

Using two wafers for active transistor tiers instead of one could let IBM stack NFETs and PFETs vertically and optimize them independently, but such a method comes with a number of caveats that do not exist today with single-tier logic nodes.

The biggest issues are alignment and bonding yield, because two advanced logic wafers must line up with extreme precision, and any defect at the bond interface can kill the stack. Secondly, routing and power delivery could get more complex with two active device tiers. Thirdly, cooling gets harder now that one active tier sits farther from the heat sink. Last but not least are the costs. IBM has to pay for two advanced FEOL wafers, additional bonding and thinning steps, and manage higher process complexity and likely lower yields. As a result, the whole concept only makes sense if the density, SRAM, and performance-per-watt gains are large enough to offset manufacturing difficulties and cost penalty. IBM says nothing about costs and manufacturability, and the test chip it has completed is the size of a fingernail,' so not hard to make by today's standards. Meanwhile, it is highly likely that the approach only makes sense for heavy-duty data center AI solutions (which are near reticle size) and not for mainstream processors for client applications. For others, monolithic CFETs can do the job.

On the bright side, IBM's 7A-class fabrication process does not rely on High-NA EUV lithography, as there are simply no such tools at the semiconductor research facility in Albany, New York, where IBM develops its technologies. Usage of proven Low-NA EUV systems makes it easier to get high yields now. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how IBM's dual wafer approach works with High-NA EUV scanners that have half the exposure field compared to Low-NA EUV machines and therefore require field stitching, which does not really help yields. IBM implies that its next-generation nodes will use High-NA EUV lithography, so the company probably has ideas how to wed these new tools with its approaches to transistor designs.

In production in the next five years

When dealing with IBM's manufacturing technologies, one has to keep in mind that these are not fabrication processes that can be licensed and rapidly deployed at a high-volume fab, but are essentially a set of pre-competitive IPs, patents, and some R&D know-how that can be used to design an actual production node. For example, Rapidus licensed IBM's 2nm-class process, though it has yet to prove that it can create a competitive high-volume node.

IBM believes nanostack could make sense for sub-1nm generations and potentially enter mass production within the next five years.

If the ridiculous pricing of hardware got you down, or you're simply too lazy to build a PC yourself, Corsair has two very good options for you. The Vengeance a7500 and Vengeance i7600 have just gone on sale with discounts up to $300. You can add up to two or more eligible Corsair peripherals (anything from a mouse or keyboard to a mousepad) to unlock major savings and complete your gaming loadout.

• Check out the Vengeance a7500 deal on Corsair
• Check out the Vengeance i7600 deal on Corsair

The Vengeance a7500 is a great gaming system if you're on a tight budget or just dipping your toes into PC gaming. The Ryzen 5 9600X and GeForce RTX 5060 do all the heavy lifting for the Vengeance a7500. The dynamic duo has what it takes to deliver a very enjoyable gaming experience at 1080p (1920x1080). It can also hold its own at 1440p (2560x1440) if you're willing to compromise a bit on the image quality.

Despite the memory and storage shortages, the Vengeance a7500 comes with 16GB (2x8GB) of Vengeance DDR5-5200 memory and a Corsair 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD. A Nautilus 240mm AIO liquid cooler cools the processor, while the Corsair 3500X provides a cozy home for all the components.

The Vengeance i7600 definitely has the necessary firepower to take your gaming to the next level. The combination of a Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti excels at 1440p (2560x1440) and even 4K (3840x2160) as long as the image fidelity is kept within reasonable limits.

Competing in a higher-end tier, the gaming system features 32GB (2x16GB) of Vengeance DDR5 memory while retaining the Corsair 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, Nautilus 240mm AIO liquid cooler, and Corsair 3500X mid-tower case.

If you want to save even more money on a Corsair gaming system, the refurbished and revival series offers discounts of up to 30% or more. The former is like new and includes original parts and accessories, whereas the latter may have minor cosmetic imperfections and may not include non-essential parts or accessories. Corsair professionals restore and test these systems so they're ready to go. The refurbished and revival systems are always available.

The promotion on the Vengeance a7500 and Vengeance i7600 will be available to all U.S. buyers until July 19. The gaming systems come with a free copy of Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which has a value of $69.99, and a two-year limited warranty.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

An air blower, or air duster, is an often-forgotten part of any PC maintenance toolkit. Sure, you can buy cans of compressed air, but they run out, and then you have to buy more.

You don't need to do that anymore. Thanks to Amazon Prime Day, there are some serious bargains to be had on portable, hand-held air blowers that you can use to keep your desk clean and your fans clear. I've used an air blower for years to do just that, to clean underneath the keys in my keyboard and to clear out the dust from hard-to-reach places, especially in my PC case.

● Check out these air blower deals at Amazon

We're in the last stretch of the Prime Day week sales, however. These discounts on air dusters won't be around for much longer, and you might miss out on a bargain if you're not quick about it.

To help you, we've put together a list of some of the best (and cheapest) air dusters on the market right now. Pick one up, blast that grime, and get your desk ready for a summer of gaming.

Prime Day Deals on Air Dusters

No two air blowers are quite the same. You can expect to see variations in size, power (based on RPM, or revolutions per minute), battery life, charging ability, and more.

Prices can vary, and so can brands. Here is a good selection of options to choose from.

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Last fall, a family member asked me for help with an older PC, which was trying to run Windows 10 and several programs on a cramped 110 GB SSD. At first, I figured I could clone the boot drive onto a more spacious drive so the OS and programs had more space to stretch out.

But the thought of juggling USB enclosures or shuffling drives in and out of my desktop filled me with dread as I pictured sitting there for hours, getting the system back up and running. So I looked into getting an M.2 SSD cloner, and was surprised to see they can be found for less than $50. And Rosewill’s upgraded Rosewill M.2 NVMe Cloner + Eraser, which just dropped down to its lowest-ever price of $47, is even more handy than a basic cloner, also offering four one-touch offline erase modes, or all your data deletion needs.

• Check out this deal at Amazon

I don't love the plastic shell of Rosewill's cloner and eraser, but it's one of the more affordable options with these capabilities. I own the stepped-down model that doesn’t have the erase function (also on sale for $39, and using it is pretty straightforward. You plug in the included USB-C power adapter, put your source drive in the left slot, the destination drive in the right slot, press the power button on the back, and a few logos light up, letting you know you're ready to go. Press the clone button on the top, and drive cloning will commence (provided your destination is the same size or larger than your source).

That's assuming you want to do an offline clone. But because I needed resize the partition between the old 110 GB and the newer Team Group 512 GB SSD, I used the second included USB-C cable and connected my Rosewill cloner to my laptop and powered up the device. Both drives were recognized in Windows within seconds, so I fired up the excellent free DiskGenius software, cloned the old partition to a new drive with a few clicks, and then used the software to drag the boot partition to the full size of the new drive. The whole process took just a few minutes, since the Rosewill cloner supports 20 Gbps USB, and I wasn't exactly copying a huge partition.

The Rosewill cloner is also handy for just checking the contents of old M.2 drives you may have lying around. But if that's all you need, you can buy an NVMe enclosure or a single-drive dock. I also own a version of this model from Suitok, which costs $21.

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At this point in any big sales event, you've probably exhausted the obvious: SSDs, gaming PCs, RAM upgrades. Instead, what you really want is something fun and practical to spice up your desk. Luckily, this 3.5-inch Hagibis mini screen is exactly what you need. It acts as both a retro desk ornament and a fully-functional LCD display, featuring a built-in SD card reader and USB hub, and it's back to a record low price of just $79.99 for Prime Day.

● Check out this deal on Amazon

This monitor was previously on sale for as high as $109.99, making this $79.99 sale price a much more competitive one for late Prime Day shoppers. Look, it isn't going to be rivalling a 4K OLED, but that really isn't the point here. This is a cool desk gadget with a functional use-case, with a 1980s-style, CRT-like design that is a lovely nostalgic throwback for techies of a certain vintage. It's also packed with a set of seriously useful features that make it a great addition to your setup.

This is a real monitor, shipping with a 3.5-inch IPS panel and a 178° viewing angle. The size means you're not going to be using this for your main display, but it does feature resolutions stretching from 800 x 600 to 2,560 x 1,600. 1600p might be a little small, however, on a display like this, versus the screen's recommended resolution of 960 x 640 for the sharpest images. Your mileage could vary, and the options do mean you can cycle through what works best for you, especially if you want to end up reading from the screen.

You get a decent set of connectivity with this Hagibis monitor, thanks to its built-in hub. It comes with SD and TF card slots, along with a USB-C port and two additional USB-A ports on the front, offering Gen 3.1 speeds. At the back, you get a 5V USB-C power connector, as well as an HDMI port and 3.5mm audio connector for speakers or headphones. There's also a USB-C port with a 'host' label, which you'll need to use to connect it to your USB to use it as a functional USB hub.

There's a big set of use cases for a display like this one: it's not just a gimmick. It looks great, so you can make your work or home office setup a bit more exciting to be around. It's also a good second display for notifications or small tasks you're working on.

For instance, it's a good option for using as an alarm clock or timer screen, or for keeping an eye on a Discord chat. You can also use it as a photo album or to keep an eye on your PC's health with usage and temperature stats. It's also big enough to stream videos from, keeping your main screen free for more important tasks. It has built-in widgets you can use if you run out of ideas, too, including ones that display a digital clock and ambient temperature.

This $79.99 Hagibis mini display is a brilliantly retro upgrade for your PC or laptop setup. The Amazon Black Friday sales are nearly over, however, and this price won't be around for long, so make sure to order it while you can.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

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Prime Day is a great time to pick up new tech — but instead of dropping a ton on a RAM bundle, why not buy something a little more wallet-friendly, such as a new gaming mouse? This is a great time to pick up a new gaming mouse, as a lot of companies released new versions that were more like updates last year. You can now find several great gaming mice on sale — they may not be the absolute newest versions on the market, but they'll still get you that extra edge.

Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro

Razer recently launched its DeathAdder V4 Pro, which has the same shape and size as the DeathAdder V3 Pro, because the shape and size of the DeathAdder V3 Pro were basically perfect. This lightweight wireless gaming mouse weighs just 2.22 ounces (63g) and features five programmable buttons and up to 90 hours of battery life over 2.4GHz wireless (with a 1,000 Hz polling rate).

It sports Razer's Focus Pro 30K optical sensor and works with Razer's HyperPolling Wireless Dongle (sold separately) to achieve a wireless polling rate of up to 8,000 Hz (at the expense of battery life, of course). The DeathAdder V4 Pro is also excellent, but the V3 Pro is still one of our favorites — and it's currently on sale for just $66.49 at Walmart, which is $83.50 off its MSRP of $149.99 and the lowest we've seen it at yet.

Read our full review of the DeathAdder V3 Pro here.

Razer Basilisk V3 Pro

Another one of our favorite Razer gaming mice is also on sale: the Basilisk V3 Pro, which is part of Razer's flagship Basilisk lineup. The Basilisk V3 Pro isn't as performance-focused as the DeathAdder V3 Pro — this ergonomically-contoured wireless gaming mouse also features Razer's Focus Pro 30K optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 30,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 750 IPS, and can handle up to 70G's of force. It has 11 programmable buttons and 13 zones of bright, customizable RGB lighting, and it weighs 3.95 ounces (112g).

Like the DeathAdder V3 Pro, this mouse also works with Razer's HyperPolling Wireless Dongle (sold separately) to get up to an 8,000 Hz wireless polling rate; it's also compatible with Razer's Mouse Dock Pro (sold separately), which integrates the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle and also allows for wireless charging (and also features 8 zones of customizable RGB lighting, because why not).

Read our full review of the Basilisk V3 Pro here.

And if you want the stripped-down version of the Basilisk V3 Pro, Razer's Basilisk V3 X HyperSpeed wireless gaming mouse is also on sale at Best Buy for $37.99 — $32 off its retail price of $69.99.

Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2

If you're looking for something ultra-light, well, it's in the name: the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 is a pseudo-ambidextrous ultra-lightweight mouse weighing just 2.12 ounces (60g) and designed for those who need speed above all else. It comes in three colors: black, white, and Logitech's bright magenta rose color (that I happen to love).

The Pro X Superlight 2 has Logitech's Hero 2 optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 32,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 500 IPS, and can handle up to 40G's of force. It has five programmable buttons; its primary buttons feature Logitech's Lightforce hybrid optical/mechanical switches, which can actuate optically (for the lowest latency) and mechanically (for saving power).

Read our full review of the Pro X Superlight 2 here.

Corsair Scimitar Elite SE Wireless

Maybe ultralight and stripped-down gaming mice aren't your thing. If you're looking for a mouse with all the buttons, Corsair's newest Scimitar Elite SE Wireless is a good option, and it's currently on sale for 50% off at Best Buy — you can pick it up for just $69.99, which is 50% off its original MSRP of $139.99. That's $5 cheaper than it was last Black Friday, too.

The Scimitar Elite SE Wireless features 16 programmable buttons, 12 of which are on its movable side panel — you can move the side panel forward or backward, depending on your hand size and what's most comfortable for you. It sports Corsair's Marksman S 33K optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 33,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 750 IPS, and can handle up to 50G's of force. It weighs 4.02 ounces (114g), but let's face it — if you're looking for a mouse with 16 programmable buttons, weight is not your top priority. The Scimitar Elite SE Wireless also features a pretty solid battery life of 150 hours over its 2.4GHz wireless connection, which means you'll only have to charge it every couple of weeks (and that's if you're a serious gamer).

Read our full review of the Scimitar Elite SE Wireless here.

HyperX Pulsefire Saga Pro

If you're looking for something modular, HyperX's Pulsefire Saga Pro is a wireless gaming mouse with just a couple of modular options (plus the ability to print your own pieces, coming soon). This lightweight gaming mouse also features five programmable buttons and up to a 4,000 Hz wireless polling rate, and it's currently on sale at HyperX for 79.99 — $40 off its MSRP of $119.99.

The Pulsefire Saga Pro sports HyperX's 26K sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 26,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 650 IPS, and can handle up to 50G's of force. This is the same sensor we've seen in HyperX's mice for a couple of years now — it's a solid sensor in terms of speed and accuracy, but it might not be for you if you're looking for the latest and greatest.

However, if you're just looking for lightweight modularity, the Pulsefire Saga Pro is where it's at: this mouse comes with two mouse humps, two sets of primary mouse buttons, and two sets of side buttons, and it implements its modularity well — everything fits together nicely and feels sturdy, and we had no issues with creaking or parts moving around in our testing. All configurations will give you a weight of 2.54 ounces (72g) — lightweight, but not quite as light as the Pathfinder.

Read our full review of the Pulsefire Saga Pro here.

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During this week’s Amazon Prime Day 2026 festivities, several router manufacturers have offered deep discounts on their products, including Netgear and TP-Link. Not to be left out, Asus is getting in on the action with its ZenWiFi BT and BQ family of Wi-Fi 7 mesh routers. For example, the ZenWiFi BT6 2-pack is priced at $297, which is a 20% discount off its MSRP. You can also look at our Best Amazon Prime Day Wi-Fi router deals 2026 for more deals on Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, and mesh routers.

• Check out all the deals in Amazon's Prime Day Sale

The ZenWiFi BT6 is the entry point for Asus’ tri-band Wi-Fi 7 routers, with the 2-pack covering up to 5,800 square feet. The mesh system supports up to 9.4 Gbps (688 Mbps at 2.4 GHz, 2,882 Mbps at 5 GHz, and 5,762 Mbps at 6 GHz). Each wireless node includes a single 2.5 GbE WAN port, three GbE LAN ports, and a single USB 3.0 port.

The next step up is the ZenWiFi BT8, with the 2-pack currently on sale for $374 (36% off). This home mesh system increases cumulative speed from 9.4 Gbps to 14 Gbps and gives you an extra 100 square feet of coverage. The boost in speed comes from a 3x3 5 GHz radio (4,323 Mbps) and a 3x3 6 GHz radio (8,643 Mbps). You also get enhancements to the onboard ports: while the 2.5 GbE WAN remains, you also get a 2.5 GbE LAN alongside two GbE LAN ports and a USB 3.0 port.

Going even further up the Asus Wi-Fi 7 mesh ladder brings you to the ZenWiFi BT10, priced at $579.99 (16% off) for the 2-pack, which steps up cumulative speeds to 18 Gbps and brings total coverage to 6,000 feet . This time around, the 5 GHz and 6 GHz radios jump to a 4x4 arrangement, delivering up to 5,764 Mbps and 11,529 Mbps, respectively. The number of onboard ports has declined, though you do get a 10 GbE WAN, 10 GbE LAN, a single GbE LAN, and a USB 3.0 port.

Finally, for those needing the ultimate in speed and flexibility, there’s the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro. It’s available with a 16% discount, bringing the 2-pack down to $928.99 instead of $1,099. This mesh system has all the bells and whistles, including enough power to cover up to 8,000 square feet. It’s also a quad-band system (it has two 6 GHz bands), with all radios operating at 4x4, supporting up to 30 Gbps. This means that the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz-1, and 6 GHz-2 max out at 1,376 Mbps, 5,764 Mbps, 11,529 Mbps, and 11,529 Mbps, respectively.

Asus also didn’t skimp on the ports, as you’ll find a 10 GbE WAN/LAN, 10 GbE LAN, GbE WAN/LAN, two GbE LAN, and a USB 3.0 port.

All of the ZenWiFi routers run Asus’ excellent AsusWRT software, which is highly configurable and includes built-in malware protection and device management (something that Netgear and TP-Link charge you extra for). The routers can also use their USB ports for storage or to connect to a cellular internet connection via a USB 4G/5G dongle or a smartphone.

These deals aren’t likely to last long, so strike while the iron is hot.

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SOLD OUT: As expected, this deal was extremely popular and has now sold out. Keep an eye on our live blog to stay informed when hot deals like this one arise.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has seen several price increases in recent months. Right now, however, you can score a brand new console for just $399 if you're a new customer at the Amazon outlet website Woot with code CHEAPSWITCH2.

If you're a returning Woot customer, you can still save $30 off MSRP with the same code, bringing the price to just $419.

• Check out this deal at Woot

As noted, Woot is Amazon's outlet website, so you'll sometimes see used, open box, or factory reconditioned items. However, this item is brand new and sealed. As you can imagine, there's a limit of one per customer, and we expect this deal to sell out extremely quickly.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is Nintendo's ultra-popular handheld gaming system. The console comes with a 7.9-inch 1080p screen, and it can be docked with a TV for 4K gaming at up to 120 fps. The Joy-Con 2 controllers (included in the purchase) can be used attached or detached for flexibility.

The console comes with 256GB of internal storage and supports expansion through microSD Express cards. Obviously, if you stack up a few titles, you might want to think about buying some extra microSD Express storage.

The best deal right now is this Samsung P9, which is down to just $40 right now. Again, act fast, as there's no guarantee how long this deal will last.

As noted, this is an amazingly good deal on the Switch 2, even if you just use the code for returning customers to score one for $419. If you're new to Woot or Amazon and get one for $399, however, it's an absolute bargain.

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"Entry-midrange" 16GB graphics cards have gotten expensive this year as prices for the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB have both risen far above their MSRPs. That sucks, since more and more games are demanding more than 8GB of VRAM for the best performance, especially at 1440p.

But if you want an attainable 16GB card at a reasonable price for great 1080p and 1440p gaming in demanding AAA titles, you can pick from four RX 9060 XT 16GB cards for $399.99 at Newegg right now after grabbing some on-page promo codes.

That's 14% above AMD's $349 MSRP, but way less than the $450-$460 these cards have been demanding of late, and it's the lowest price we've seen for 16GB graphics cards in a long time.

• Gigabyte Gaming RX 9060 XT 16GB: $399.99 at Newegg (with code)
• Asus Dual 9060 XT 16GB: $399.99 at Newegg (with code)
• ASRock Challenger RX 9060 XT 16GB: $399.99 at Newegg (with code)
• Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT 16GB: $399.99 at Newegg (with code)

As a baseline, the RX 9060 XT 16GB turns in nearly 100 FPS on average at 1080p in our raster gaming test suite and a comfortable 67.3 FPS at 1440p. And it grants you access to AMD's AI-powered FSR 4 upscaler and ML Frame Generation technology for an easy performance boost in supported titles.

And most critically, with 16GB of VRAM at its disposal, you won't fall off a performance cliff at higher resolutions or quality settings like you would with an 8GB card.

Here are the four affordable options you can choose from at Newegg right now. Make sure you grab the on-page promo code and apply it in your cart to get the lowest price.

In our most recent round of performance retesting, the RX 9060 XT 16GB goes neck-and-neck with the much more expensive RTX 5060 Ti 16GB at 1080p and 1440p in raster gaming. It falls behind the Blackwell card in RT.

But with RTX 5060 Ti 16GB cards selling for around $550 right now, even during Prime Day season, there's no real alternative to an RX 9060 XT 16GB if you're trying to get a relatively affordable 16GB GPU upgrade. If you've been sitting on the sidelines waiting for an affordable upgrade that will last longer than an 8GB GPU, now is the time to act.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

All SSDs are expensive right now due to the AI-driven NANDpocalypse, but the biggest, densest drives are where you'll find the wildest prices. If you need a big drive at a reasonable cost under present conditions, you can get one for less at Woot. The WD Black SN850X, one of the fastest PCIe Gen4 drives around, is just $1199.99 right now, or about 15c/GB, which is a solid price in 2026.

• WD Black SN850X 8TB Gen4x4 SSD at Woot for $1199.99

This particular SN850X comes with a heatsink included, and you can either run it as-is or remove it for use with motherboards that have their own integrated SSD cooling solutions.

In our performance testing of the SN850X 8TB, it proved itself as one of the fastest Gen4 SSDs around, only getting consistently outclassed by PCIe Gen5 drives. And its large capacity didn't result in a performance falloff, as could sometimes happen with contemporary 8TB drives.

If you absolutely need 8TB of speedy NVMe storage on one M.2 2280 stick, as you might in order to fit as much space into one M.2 slot or external enclosure as you possibly can, this SN850X 8TB deal lets you get there for a relatively reasonable price even in today's crazy market. Don't sleep on it, as SSDs are among the most volatile and inflated PC components out there right now.

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Price hikes! Get your price hikes here! Hot on the heels of Apple's upward push of dollar figures, ganging up with Framework, and harnessing the disillusion caused by the price of Valve's Steam Machine... It's now Microsoft's turn. The ailing division is enacting yet another increase to the price of the Xbox Series consoles, at $100 more for the 512 GB versions and $150 more for the 1 TB model. The pricing will come into effect in roughly a month and change, on August 1st.

The firm is also killing the 2 TB version of the Xbox Series X, in an echo of Apple slicing away the higher-RAM variants of its Mac Studio computers. If you were on the fence about buying one of those, it would be wise to rush, as at the current price of "only" around $799.99, stocks are unlikely to last. Here's the new pricing, in all its glory:

• Xbox Series S, 512 GB, Digital Edition: $499.99
• Xbox Series S, 1 TB, Digital Edition: $599.99
• Xbox Series X, 1 TB, Digital Edition: $749.99
• Xbox Series X, 1 TB: $799.99

Microsoft is also adding a few options for payment and alternative purchases. Buy Now, Pay Later for splitting purchases across short-term installments for consoles bought at the Microsoft store, confirming rumors of a partnership with well-known payment processor Klarna. If that's not quite your jam, there's also interest-free 12-month financing available at Amazon for Xbox hardware.

The company is expanding Xbox trade-ins, stating that it's "working with retail partners" to enable players to sell their consoles to stores for cash or store credit. This isn't a new thing in the gaming world, as GameStop and Amazon have historically had this feature, but Microsoft's wording makes it sound like the program will be expanded to more retailers. As always, you can buy a certified refurbished console from the Microsoft Store and a number of retailers.

The highly anticipated Steam Machine is being shot down by flak due to its high release price, but all of a sudden, the $1,349 on ask for the 2 TB version doesn't sound so absurd, considering the superior hardware, gigantic game library, and low prices for games. Following Microsoft's logic, the upswing for the now-dead 2 TB version of the Xbox Series X would be $300, putting it at a nice round $1,099.99. Are you not entertained, if not excited, to be living in such interesting times?

After Epic revealed its plan for Unreal Engine 6, CEO Tim Sweeney said in an interview that Valve should stop requiring developers from disclosing if they used AI in making their game. The Epic chief executive made the statement to PC Gamer as he was talking about the use of AI tools in game development. The upcoming version of Unreal Engine 6 will come with AI integrations, which will supposedly make it easier for programmers, developers, and everyone else working in the gaming industry to build games. However, the use of AI tools still carries a stigma among players to the point that titles with this disclosure get significantly fewer reviews and are often viewed less favorably.

He says that AI tools are useful for streamlining boring, repetitive, and menial labor, like reviewing code for over an hour to find an error or doing the rigging work required to make a 3D model move realistically. While it was unfortunate that some AI tech companies trained their models on stolen data, the Epic chief executive said that the AI industry has changed and is now moving towards better practices, especially when it comes to training data. He even pointed at Adobe, which he says is ensuring the provenance of the data it used for training its AI. However, PC Gamer pointed out that Epic uses Nano Banana and GPT Image, which do not claim stringent AI training data controls, and that the Unreal Engine’s AI integrations include models such as Gemini, which have been accused of copyright infringement.

“I think the main usage case that we've seen within Epic, and we're seeing developers actually find gainful, is using AI to reduce the drudge work. The software is still architected by software architects, and they're still writing the important parts of code, and artists are still coming up with a creative vision for characters, deciding between concepts,” Sweeney told the publication. He also added, “If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you've got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game. I think it's really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn't do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success.”

The Epic executive has a point here, as AI can indeed be a useful productivity tool if used correctly and ethically. But even if that was the case, Valve still requires developers to add the AI-generated content disclosure, which could have a negative impact on reviews and ratings. While the Steam platform does not require the disclosure of the use of AI-powered tools in the developers’ workflow, they’re required to note it if AI-generated assets appear in the game or in marketing material. This would presumably include assets that have been partially built using AI tools or were based on AI-generated content.

According to market research platform Game Oracle, titles that had the generative AI disclosure received 53% less reviews than the same type of game that did not have it. Furthermore, it’s more likely to get a negative review. However, it also conceded that several other factors could be at play here, like studios substituting creativity and the proper development process with AI tools, resulting in titles that are obviously AI slop.

Sweeney argues that AI is just a tool for productivity that could help game developers create unique content. The AI disclosure warning on Steam games, in theory, should not influence how games are perceived — after all, what should matter to gamers is the experience of playing the game. Unfortunately, the controversies surrounding AI are negatively affecting the reputation of titles that use these tools. When paired with studios that substitute AI for real creativity, it’s understandable why this AI warning has such a negative impact on game titles.