A retro PC enthusiast has modified the VBIOS of a vintage graphics card to embed a version of Snake – the game everyone used to play on their dumb phones. This tiny dose of serpentum fun is playable whenever the system is booted, and once exited, the PC will continue to boot as normal. Bits und Bolts completed this S3 ViRGE DX mod by hacking the VBIOS and injecting Snake 512, a free version of the game condensed into just 512 bytes and written in x86 assembly.

Before the Snake 512 embed was wrangled, Bits und Bolts decided to mod the S3 ViRGE VBIOS by adding a dynamic (text) splash screen to show the actual GPU frequency. This effort is bolted on to prior work where the TechTuber injected a graphical splash screen, and the task takes up roughly the first half of the video.

From 10 minutes 43 seconds in, we get to see the vintage computing enthusiast inject Snake 512 into the video card BIOS. Snake 512 was designed to fit in the 512 bytes of a disk boot sector and run in x86 real mode. Bits und Bolts thought this OS-independent assembly code was thus a great fit for wedging into a VBIOS.

The intrepid vintage computer fan couldn’t just copy the GitHub code and paste it into the BIOS. So, Claude Code was consulted to prepare the commented GitHub code and turn it into hexadecimal code suitable for injecting into a VBIOS.

With this code ready to be pasted, Bits und Bolts opens up the S3 ViRGE VBIOS in Ghidra, a reverse engineering framework developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. This tool is now free, open source, and available on GitHub.

Next, an empty section of the target file was found, just after the splash screen, and the new code was pasted. The code block needed referencing / patching, so it would be triggered after the splash screen rather than just be ignored at boot. Then the checksum needed fixing.

The way Snake 512 in a VBIOS was implemented was as follows:

• Power up the system
• Embedded modded image splash screen displays
• Prompt offers option to play Snake (press N) or skip (Esc)
• The prompt also times out, so boot will continue if there is no user input.
• N – play Snake game
• Esc – system reads and shows actual GPU clock
• Booting continues

Please note that USB keyboards don’t work with this implementation of Snake 512. Also, there is no sound. However, with everything running as intended, Bits und Bolts moves on to some further customization - editing the Snake 512 game colors (in Ghidra again). The vintage computing enthusiast had previously bookmarked sections of the code where colors for the border, background, snake head, snake body, and others were defined. Now these were edited to other values from the VGA color palette using hex values for appropriate rows/columns. At the end of the video, with everything working and colored as intended, the TechTuber quips, “Who says the ViRGE can’t play games?”

The last time we wrote about the escapades of Bits und Bolts was when they modded the S3 ViRGE DX VBIOS to disable the ‘pedestal bit,’ which caused S3 graphics blacks to be rendered as a dark grey. We’ve also previously reported on a Doom port that was released as a Coreboot BIOS payload (of course, it is too big to actually go in the BIOS).

A retro hardware enthusiast has demonstrated a fix that eliminates the washed-out appearance people can have with 1990s graphics cards from S3. In a recent video, Bits und Bolts (BuB) worked on an S3 Virge DX 4MB graphics card (1985-6) to investigate and neuter the ‘pedestal bit.’ This feature of the card’s VBIOS makes the darkest blacks more like charcoal, a highly undesirable feature if used to drive a good-quality monitor.

Before we go on, here’s a refresher regarding the pedestal bit, which was a bug/feature of S3 cards such as the headlining Virge, Trio, and some early Savage family models.

In its wisdom, S3 decided to raise the black levels to a dark gray in VBIOS so imagery wouldn’t be too dark for old CRTs, particularly those that adhered to the NTSC standard. So, this raising of black to dark gray is the so-called pedestal. It was implemented in the era’s graphics cards in VBIOS, by setting full black to a higher value. As you will see later, TechTuber BuB notes the original bit was set as 3F, but the fixed version replaces that hexadecimal value with 1F at a certain point in the VBIOS code.

BuB explains that the pedestal bit is set in the BIOS when the system boots up. So, affected systems show blacks that are a bit too bright (bright black?) immediately starting from boot time.

The TechTuber breaks down this pedestal bit fix into a number of logical steps. Firstly, a debugger is used to poke around and find the address and code where the bit in question resides. Thanks to some prior experience with prior graphics cards and in some community discussions, BuB isn’t searching blind.

In the debugger, the TechTuber tracked down his first target address and checked what values were there using Windows Calculator’s hex-to-binary converter. This first shot at editing the code live in the debugger, changing the probed values to zero (black), resulted in nothing happening.

Second shot hits the target

A second shot, targeting debug at 3c4 address 1a hit the target. When the value at this address was set to zero, the background went darker immediately. To check, BuB reset it back to the old values, confirming that one of the eight bits edited was the pedestal bit. Another bit of elimination work was needed to determine which one of the eight was the actual pedestal bit, but NuB was lucky the first time.

So, the tricky investigation work had been completed; now it was time to dump the VBIOS to a file, make the tweaks that had been found to work, and write it back to the hardware.

A tool called NSSI was used for the dumping. BuB then opened the freshly dumped Virge VBIOS in Hiew (HEX view, or Hacker’s view?). But when searching for the code, he found two matches in the assembly. Again, using the HEX to binary converter in Calc, he found the original pedestal bit and edited it. He modified this single hexadecimal entry from 20 to 00.

With this pedestal bit-zapping work done, the VBOIS checksum needed changing to ensure it wasn’t rejected as being corrupt. This step was demonstrated in DOS and in a friendlier Windows tool. In short, the old checksum was 77 and the new one 97 (both hex numbers).

Now the successfully edited VBIOS was flashed to a chip. BuB swapped the existing VBIOS chip with the modified one. It booted with a glorious, deep black background the first time.

Returning to the debugger, not that he needed to, BuB checked the address, which was previously 3F, and indeed it was now 1F – pedestal bit elimination confirmed. The TechTuber indicates that the same procedure should be usable across any Virge DX model. A neat solution to a 30-year-old gray problem.

Would you like to face a gaming challenge every time you start up your computer? If you answered in the affirmative, then Alejandro Armas, AKA mycroftsnm on GitHub, has a treat for you. The Linux enthusiast has created a quintet of UEFI games with the premise of “Win -> Boot, Lose -> Shutdown.” Head on over to the UEFIGame repository on GitHub (h/t Hackaday) and you will find five games to provide a PC booting gaming challenge.

Armas appears to have been working on this compendium of UEFI games for approximately 10 months. The games offer a mix of challenges spanning quiz-style games, a Simon-like challenge, and even a vertical scroller to make sure your reaction times are up to speed before you access your computer.

1. User Evaluation for Ineptness challenges the user to add two random numbers from 0 to 99. “If your answer is incorrect, the system mocks you and shuts down,” says Armas.
2. Insult Sword Fighting is a Monkey Island-inspired diversion. Users are asked to choose the correct comeback to continue booting. You can manually edit insults.txt to expand the scope of this UEFI game.
3. Fall To Boot presents the user with a “vertical scrolling procedurally generated tunnel,” and Armas underlines that you will have to “reach the bottom, or you'll Fail to Boot.” Failure is caused in this game if your star-like cursor hits the tunnel walls during its rapid descent.
4. Age Verification is a Leisure Suit Larry-inspired 80s pop culture trivia quiz. Due to the subject matter, this kind of filters out those “too young” to use the computer, snarks the Linux enthusiast dev.
5. Lastly, there is the UEFI Says game, which is another graphical, rather than text-based title. UEFI says it is “a memory test... but not for the computer,” quips Armas. Again, you must succeed at this pattern-matching game to boot your computer.

You can see videos of some of these games in action if you head to GitHub and expand the Demo videos section.

UEFI games?

These games can run directly from a PCs Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) at boot. Many people still refer to the PC’s UEFI as the BIOS, as they basically do the same job of betting your system ready to boot into an operating system. UEFI is just the modern, modular, more secure and flexible successor to the BIOS.

Armas’ compendium of games aren’t the first UEFI gaming apps we’ve featured. They are kind of unique, though, as they offer a fun boot-time challenge. Back in October 2025 we wrote about the retro-licious Zaxxon recreation in UEFI, by Inkbox Software.

If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking at, motherboards—particularly high-end models—can look more like the Transformers’ home world of Cybertron than something you might plug your drives, CPU, and graphics card into. And with dozens of models available for most platforms, unless you’re up on all the lingo and the latest tech, it can be tough to know where to start.

Below, we’ll diagram most of the major ports, headers, and slots that are common on today’s motherboards, followed by some helpful basics about expansion slots, RAM, and motherboard form factors, so you’ll be better equipped to choose the best motherboard for you.

Motherboard Diagram

Let’s take a look at a typical higher-level motherboard for an example of connector and port types. We chose the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Master for its many modern motherboard features (some of which you may not need) and its contrasting color design, which makes it easier to see smaller board components.

Above, we’ve illustrated many of the common motherboard ports and connector types, split between the top and bottom halves of the board. Of course, not all boards feature all types, and things like fan headers, M.2 connectors, and the BIOS battery will be located in different spots on different boards.

Also note that the M.2 connector (#12 in our diagram above) may support up to four PCIe 5.0 or 4.0 lanes (old boards may top out at 3.0). Alternatively, an M.2 slot may support both NVMe/PCIe and SATA-based M.2 protocols (rarely SATA only these days). So be sure to check the board’s M.2 connectors' capabilities before buying a drive. For more about fast storage, be sure to check out our best SSDs page.

Expansion Slots

These days, most motherboards feature just two slot types: the long or ‘full-length’ PCIe x16 and the short PCIe x1 slot. You may occasionally see an x4, or even an x8 slot (which sits between those two in length, but they’re pretty rare. And since you can install an x4 or an x1 card into an x16 slot, x4 slots aren’t all that useful unless you’re holding on to an old expansion card (that somehow has modern drivers) and you want to use your x16 slots for graphics cards.

Note that some PCIe slots may be wired for fewer lanes than the slot length suggests, or have some lanes disabled depending on what other slots or fast drives are installed. Also, know that slot arrangement / spacing is key if installing more than one or two expansion cards. The board we used doesn’t suffer from this fate as it supports up to 3-wide graphics cards without covering the bottom two PCIe slots. Just be aware that some can, and if you use a second PCIe slot along with a large graphics card, it could get in the way.

Also, if you are planning on installing lots of expansion cards, you’ll want to opt for an ATX motherboard (if not an E-ATX model), as smaller form factors have less room for slots (as well as other features that take up lots of PCB space, like RAM slots). Even if a smaller board has all the slots and ports you need now, it’s good to have some left over for future upgrades.

Lastly, a note about reinforced PCIe slots: These are common across high-end and even mainstream boards these days. The idea is that they provide more support for large graphics cards to keep the plastic slot from cracking or outright breaking under the weight of heavy cards, and some state that it helps mitigate Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). We have seen slots break before — usually when large cards are installed in a system that’s been shipped across the country. But unless you are going to ship your system or plan to cart it to LAN parties, and you have a huge, heavy card, metal slots are more for show than a necessity—especially if you also use a GPU support bracket..

Memory

Mini-ITX motherboards typically have only two RAM slots due to space constraints. However, there are overclocking boards, like the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Apex, which have two as well (to achieve higher memory speeds due to routing), and some low-end chipsets are also limited to two slots, the latter because only one DIMM per channel is supported. If you need more, you’ll need to opt for a board with at least four DIMM slots.

That said, for basic tasks (including mainstream gaming), 16GB is generally good enough, but 32GB is what we’d consider today’s sweetspot. The availability of 64GB modules means you can install 128GB of RAM on even a tiny Mini-ITX board — though you will pay a premium for that extra density versus opting for a RAM kit that spreads the 128GB across four sticks. If you Very few users need more than 64GB, unless you are running very specific workstation-class tasks.

Rear Ports

One thing to know about USB ports is that the colors aren’t consistent. That being said, USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports are usually red, USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) blue, and USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) ports black. But again, that’s not always the case — especially when board makers add features like sleep-charge to some ports, or ASRock’s gaming-focused yellow Lightning ports.

Also note that if you plan to install a dedicated graphics card, you likely won’t use the onboard video ports (Type-C in the image above, but often HDMI or DisplayPort). If that’s your aim, look for a board with fewer (or no) video ports to make room for more USB or other ports.

Form Factor

If you’re overwhelmed by all the features and details above, you’ll be relieved to hear that, when it comes to motherboard size, your options are pretty simple. The vast majority of today’s consumer motherboards come in one of four sizes: E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX.

ATX is the de facto standard, and offers the second-most space for features and expansion. Mini-ITX allows for compact PCs that still have space for a single graphics card, while Micro-ATX falls between the two in size and expansion.

You may also encounter E-ATX motherboards, which are larger than ATX and are primarily used in high-end or workstation-class systems or flagship-class consumer boards. Other sizes are available, but chances are you’ll opt for one of the three sizes illustrated above.

Also worth mentioning are the new “PZ” or “BTF”-style motherboards, where the major connectors are all on the back side of the motherboard. Although they still use the standard dimensions mentioned above, connections such as EPS, ATX, USB, SATA, and more are on the back of the motherboard, allowing for a clean look and easier wire management. Just be sure your case supports the rear-facing motherboards.

Chipset/Socket

Another key board consideration is, of course, what CPU you need it to support. For all you need to know about choosing a processor, you can head to our CPU buying guide. But once you’ve settled on a CPU, you often still have chipset options which dictate things like how many high-speed components you can install, or how many super-fast USB ports are supported.

Since the chipset is arguably the main component that’s permanently attached to the motherboard (as opposed to removable CPU or RAM), we’ll list the primary features of each current-generation chipset below, to help you choose. But chipsets can be incredibly complex, enough so that a story could be written about each one. Along those lines, you can peruse the finer details of Intel’s latest mainstream H370 and B370 chipsets and boards in our Cheap Coffee Lake feature. For feature details and comparisons of those and other current chipsets, you can check the charts below.

AMD Chipsets

*STD = Standard/Integrated **OPT = Optional

Intel Chipsets

*STD = Standard/Integrated **OPT = Optional

One thing that’s important to note about chipset features: Just because the chipset supports something, it doesn’t mean the motherboard maker has implemented it on a given board. For example, Intel’s Z890 chipset supports up to 25 USB 3.2 (20/10/5 Gbps), but most boards ship with 8-10 USB ports on the back panel, with a few more available on the front. Intel offers 40 Gbps through Thunderbolt 4, while AMD offers the same throughput via USB 4. But don't expect to see those fast ports on lower-end boards. And even on pricier models, make sure you check to see what fast ports are available, because at least for Thunderbolt 4, you may also need to use an add-in card. Motherboard specifications vary widely, so be sure to check the box or specs page of a board you’re interested in to confirm it has the features you’re after.

MORE: Best Motherboards

MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: 8 Features You Probably Don't Need on a Motherboard

MORE: All Motherboard Content

A YouTuber and computer technician went on their channel to complain about Corsair’s pre-built, as his customer went back to his shop three times in the past year just to RMA the Intel Core i9-14900K on their $5,000 gaming PC. According to Matthew Wieland of Matt’s Computer Services, he is certain the processor on the gaming PC is suffering from instability after he ran several tests on both the motherboard and CPU. This should have been an easy fix, especially since Intel has released the 0x12F update that fixed the Vmin instability issue once and for all. Turns out, Corsair hasn't updated its custom BIOS to include the fix.

The Intel instability issue first exploded in early 2024, with the company blaming the custom BIOS installed by motherboard manufacturers that disables thermal and power protections. Eventually, the chip maker acknowledged that there was an issue with the processor, but it took Team Blue around five months from when the first reports surfaced for it to find the root cause and release a patch that fixed the problem. However, it wasn’t until May of this year that Intel released a final fix for the issue, which is deployed via a firmware update.

Unfortunately, six months after Intel dropped 0x12F, Corsair has yet to release a BIOS update with this fix for the motherboard in question. The gaming PC sports an Asus Prime Z790-P WIFI motherboard, and the latest BIOS on the Corsair website only has the 0x12B update. When Matthew downloaded the latest BIOS version from the Asus website and tried installing it on his customer’s gaming PC, it refused to recognize the file. He said that this is likely because most pre-built systems have a locked-in BIOS to prevent customers from tinkering under the hood. So, he needs a BIOS with the 0x12F fix directly from Corsair, but it’s not yet available.

Corsair’s customer service was pretty helpful, but their hands were tied because Corsair’s engineers have yet to release a new BIOS. Thankfully, Intel extended the warranty for all chips affected by the instability, allowing the tech to RMA the damaged CPU. However, going back three times in a year to get the issue fixed is mighty inconvenient, and unless Corsair comes up with a BIOS update by the time he gets the replacement processor, he has no choice but to recommend a motherboard replacement to avoid destroying the new CPU as well.

Colorful isn't a brand that shows up in headlines as much as Asus or Gigabyte, but the Chinese manufacturer's wares live up to their name and sometimes bring out-of-left-field features. Case in point: new motherboard BIOS updates with two settings for extra-tight memory latency timings that claim a +15% FPS boost in Battlefield 6, along with a +6 to 7% speed in the AIDA64 memory speed benchmarks. Oh, and a new "Moore" user interface.

That figure is more than a little eyebrow-raising, but not technically impossible with the right CPU and RAM. In its testing, Colorful used an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, presumably a cherry-picked one, and low-latency CL28 memory at 6000 MT/s. There's no further detail on the test conditions, but if we had to guess, Colorful used an RTX 5090 graphics card and tested the game in 1920x1080 resolution. The frame rate went from 146 to 172 FPS, a 15% boost.

Although we suspect that a more realistic scenario with 1440p or 4K resolution and a more sedate graphics card wouldn't result in quite the same gains, having performance on tap for only the cost of some of your time testing (which we all know you were going to do anyway) seems like a pretty good deal. In the synthetic AIDA64 benchmark, the tighter memory timings resulted in an 8.6% gain in reads and 6.9% in writes. The overall latency is down an impressive 12 nanoseconds, from 78.3 to 66.3 ns.

Colorful itself remarks that your mileage may vary, and that results are dependent on "the quality of your CPU and memory," and recommends you run stability tests after enabling the new features. As for instructions, here we go. (Machine translated)

Enabling Low-Latency Mode:

1. Enter the BIOS homepage and press F7 to switch to Advanced Mode
2. Click the Overclock tab at the top to access the Memory Settings page
3. Enable Memory Module Resources and select the memory’s built-in EXPO1 preset
4. Go to Latency Turbo and change from AUTO to Enabled.

Enabling High Efficiency Mode:

1. Below the "Low Latency Mode" section, locate "High Efficiency Mode" and enable it
2. Choose the appropriate "Timing Preset".
- Tightest – Highest performance; requires high hardware quality
- Tighter – Balanced between performance and stability
- Balanced – A solid, reliable option
- Relax – The most stable configuration

The updates are available (or should be soon) for Colorful's lineup of contemporary Ryzen motherboards with the X870, B850, and B650 chipsets. If you own one of these mobos, the company says to go to its website, find your model in the support pages, and look for the BIOS that reads "Updated New UI Interface."

China has worked for years to further separate its computing progress from the United States and its tech companies. Today heralds a major development to this end, as the Global Computing Consortium has announced the "UBIOS" global standard, a new replacement for UEFI and BIOS. Fast Technology reports that the GCC's new standard is a rebuilding of BIOS firmware from the ground up, bypassing UEFI development entirely.

UBIOS, or "Unified Basic Input/Output System", is a firmware standard to replace BIOS and UEFI, the first and most prolific motherboard firmware architectures, respectively, that bridge the gap between processors and operating systems. The UBIOS standard was drafted by 13 Chinese tech companies, including Huawei, CESI (China Electronics Standardization Institute), Byosoft, and Kunlun Tech. The standard is the first standardized and scalable Chinese domestic firmware, representing a major step forward for Chinese domestic tech development.

BIOS is the motherboard firmware that acts in between CPUs and operating systems like Windows or Linux. BIOS informs the operating system how much RAM the computer has, how many storage devices are installed, the speed of the CPU, and other essential, basic properties. UEFI, or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, has replaced the outdated BIOS in every modern consumer computer for the last several years, supported by a multi-company working group largely dominated by the American x86 CPU developers Intel and AMD.

China and the United States have been involved in a heated trade war over computing for the last several years, prompting China's government to push a major initiative encouraging its citizens and companies to move away from non-domestic computer hardware and software. The famous "Document 79" doctrine directs its people to abandon Western tech by 2027 — an incredibly ambitious goal. The development of the UBIOS standard is a major win for China as it seeks to reach this end.

The GCC and Chinese tech firms reportedly built UBIOS from the original BIOS spec, avoiding iterating on UEFI entirely. The working group claims it chose to avoid the UEFI spec due to the development bloat of UEFI and TianoCore EDK II, the Intel-made reference implementation of UEFI used almost universally among UEFI hardware and software developers.

UBIOS's unique features over UEFI include increased support for chiplets and other heterogeneous computing use-cases, such as multi-CPU motherboards with mismatching CPUs, something UEFI struggles with or does not support. It will also better support non-x86 CPU architectures such as ARM, RISC-V, and LoongArch, the first major Chinese operating system.

UBIOS will be further discussed and revealed by the Global Computing Consortium at the 2025 Global Computing Conference in Shenzhen this November. For a country looking to both bolster its own domestic computing ecosystem and step away from American systems that constrict non-standard hardware implementations, the development of UBIOS may prove to be a major win for China. However, whether UBIOS becomes widely adopted and championed like the open standard RISC-V, or widely abandoned like LoongArch, remains to be seen.

Inkbox Software has released a recreation of a beloved isometric arcade game that runs directly from a PC’s Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Moreover, they coded their version of Zaxxon (1982) in x86-64 Assembly language, and have generously released it as open source under the GPLv3 license. There have been prior UEFI games and apps, but they are often incomplete or limited demos, and run within the UEFI as payloads, rather than booting directly to the game.

In the above video, Inkbox explains the reason they decided to begin this classic arcade gaming UEFI coding quest. In brief, our assembly coding hero says that they were “so tired of operating systems holding me back,” and that they wanted their hardware to run a classic game as it was meant to be played. That means “Written in assembly, without an operating system,” asserts Inkbox. “This is total freedom from big tech. Reject OS, Return to metal.”

Of course, there are significant hurdles to creating a handsome and responsive Zaxxon port for a PC UEFI. You can learn how Inkbox navigated this difficult path in their extensive and in-depth, yet engrossing video.

Asus has acknowledged reports about an ongoing stuttering issue with some of its ROG gaming laptops that users claim has been negatively affecting performance and the user experience, according to TechPowerUp. The company stopped short of agreeing that an issue exists, but said that it was "actively investigating these cases," all the same.

"We've seen recent reports about performance interruptions on some ROG laptops, and we want you to know our team is actively investigating these cases," the Asus Statement reads. "We understand that smooth and reliable performance is crucial to high-performance machines like these, and we're dedicated to delivering that. Your feedback and detailed reports are invaluable, and we'll continue to provide updates and support through our official channels." It then thanked users for their patience.

The first reports of this problem started popping up earlier this week when GitHub user, Mohamed "Zephkek" Maatallah created a new repository collecting evidence about the problem. They claim it seems to be affecting a range of users on various Asus ROG gaming laptops, including Strix, Scar, and Zephyrus lines.

The issues include stuttering while watching YouTube videos, audio crackling and pops on Discord, and random mouse cursor freezes. After attempting a range of more generic fixes, Zephkek claims they narrowed the issue down to a problem with Asus' BIOS firmware.

Using the latency monitoring tool LatencyMon, Zephkek discovered that a single CPU core was being bottlenecked by interrupt requests, in some cases for as long as 90 seconds, hamstringing performance and making time-sensitive tasks stutter while core priority is juggled.

Deeper into their investigation, Zephkek also discovered strange power cycling of the dedicated GPU, turning it off and on again repeatedly every 15-30 seconds, even when it's supposed to be consistently active performing specific tasks.

Zephkek concluded that there are actually three problems affecting ROG laptops:

• Misunderstanding of interrupt context introducing unnecessary delays.
• Mishandling of interrupt requests that aren't properly cleared, leading to looping interrupts.
• GPU power cycling that doesn't check which GPU is currently in-use.

An unverified BIOS for the Asus ROG Astral 5090D has been leaked online, showing a board power limit of 2,001 watts —almost three and a half times higher than the standard 575-watt power limit on the vanilla RTX 5090. As spotted by UNIKO's Hardware, this is an unverified BIOS file, warning its users to “exercise caution when flashing it to your graphics card, and always have a backup.” Aside from that, you probably need custom power delivery that can handle that amount of power, as even the standard connectors that come with the RTX 5090 are prone to melting while running at the standard power level.

Pumping this amount of power into your GPU will likely overwhelm its stock cooling solution, so you likely need a custom water (or liquid nitrogen) loop to ensure that your GPU doesn't cook itself. Of course, you also need a power supply that can deliver that amount of juice. Additionally, since this is an unverified BIOS, you can expect your GPU’s warranty to be automatically voided the moment you install it.

This isn’t the first time that we’re seeing a kilowatt-level GPU, as Galax launched a dual 16-pin RTX 5090D extreme overclocking in China that can handle up to 2,000 watts. It has eventually landed on eBay for an eye-watering $5,500, allowing anyone with the cash to build an over-the-top gaming PC. This unverified BIOS will make it easier for anyone to try breaking records, though, because Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 GPUs are available globally (versus the China-only Galax HOF OC Lab XOC RTX 5090D). Although this leaked BIOS is designed for the RTX 5090D, VideoCardz notes that it is likely compatible with all Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 GPUs.

The 2,000-watt BIOS isn’t designed for the average gamer or even the seasoned professional. Instead, it’s more likely built for those who are looking to break overclocking records. So, if you have an Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 and you’re a little bit mad, you can go ahead and try breaking records with this BIOS at home (but seriously, don’t do it unless you’re a pro overclocker).

A 3D graphics professional has been having great difficulty with a pricey DIY PC build. Redditor joel_motion’s purportedly $20,000 PC includes potent performance components such as a $4,000 AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7975WX, twin ~$2,500 Zotac RTX 4090 graphics cards, and luxuriant amounts of RAM (512GB). However, after a BIOS update went wrong, the Redditor hasn’t been able to boot the system successfully, halting at Q-Code 92. Despite RMAing multiple suspected components, including the motherboard, this error persists.

Let’s first look at the timeline of events for some clues, which may shine a spotlight on the root cause of the issue. The system seems to have been initially assembled at the end of 2024. Joel_motion built the system sans-case for initial testing, which proved successful, and then built it into his Corsair 9000D Super Full-Tower case. This still worked fine.

The Redditor noticed they needed to update the Asus Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE motherboard to fix an incompatibility issue with one of the NVMe SSD drives in the system. According to the social media post, they used "the BIOS tool" to install the update, rather than the motherboard’s BIOS flashback feature. During the process, something bad happened. “After it hung on the BIOS update, I had to power it down,” notes the Redditor.

Q-Code 92

From here on in, we note that joel_motion faced an incurable case of Q-Code 92 errors. Naturally suspecting the motherboard – it was the only ‘change’ between error free computing and the current sticky situation – the Redditor was lucky enough to be inside the product RMA window. However, after receiving a “used/refurbished replacement” from Asus, and a subsequent rebuild, the exact same error popped up…

Joel_motion went through swapping one suspected component after the next. They moved through “motherboard #2, CPU #2, and GPU #2, and it's still not working.” Then they cajoled Asus into sending motherboard #3 (new this time, apparently). Then tried building afresh with new RAM and a new PSU. Error Q-Code 92 persisted.

“Along the way, I have experimented with countless tries of RAM placement, clearing the CMOS, Flashbacking the BIOS to different versions, and have made sure to not have any peripherals or Drives plugged in,” adds the Redditor, exasperated. So, at this point, they turned to the PCBuild subreddit to ask the community for help with their “$20k paperweight.”

Begin again, with the basics

Board partners are now rolling out freshly baked BIOS updates based on AMD's AGESA 1.2.0.3e firmware. The updates are designed to patch a security flaw that could allow hackers to read sensitive data stored within the TPM (Trusted Platform Module), via VideoCardz. At least for some manufacturers, this BIOS update is a one-way street; you cannot roll back to an older release once you install it.

Hackers can exploit this security flaw by triggering an out-of-bounds read beyond the TPM2.0 routine. By doing so, these unauthorized users can gain access to sensitive data or disrupt the TPM's functionality as a whole. This stems from a bug (CVE-2025-2884), ranked 6.6 (Medium) on the CVSS scale, in TPM2.0's Module Library, which refers to standardized code that TPM 2.0 chips use for various functions.

While the AGESA 1.2.0.3e firmware only targets AM5-based processors, the security bug it addresses impacts a much wider range of AMD CPUs. Hence, it's best to consult the official security bulletin to determine if a mitigation is available for your processor. What makes this particular bug concerning is its accessibility, since it can be exploited using standard user-mode privileges, meaning an attacker doesn't need kernel-level access. This is a significant difference from previous vulnerabilities, including one that could execute unsigned microcode but required kernel-level access.

Impacted processors include a wide range of Ryzen processors between Athlon 3000 "Dali" / Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" and Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" on desktop, and between Ryzen 3000 Mobile "Picasso", and Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" on mobile. Similarly, all workstation CPUs from Threadripper 3000 "Castle Peak" to Threadripper 7000 "Storm Peak" are also vulnerable to this bug. That being said, patches for most of these processors have been deployed across different timelines in the past few months. AM5-based CPUs are the most recent and are the latest to receive the update.

On many Linux systems the boot process sees the usual BIOS screen, followed by Grub. The Grand Unified Bootloader (Grub) takes over from our BIOS and offers the user a choice of OS options and kernel choices. Typically we just press Enter or wait for Grub to disappear. Grub is utilitarian, it does the job and doesn’t care how it looks. But what if we could add a little flair to our boot process?

Grub Customizer, by Daniel Richter, is a GUI based application for easy configuration of Grub. Rather than manually editing text files we can easily edit and preview our changes before committing them to the system.

In this how to, we shall create a custom Grub background image using Grub Customizer and a PNG / JPEG image.

Making any changes to your Grub configuration is dangerous, and could result in a non-booting system. Before attempting these steps, ensure that your system is backed up.

For this project you will need

• A computer running Ubuntu

Installing Grub Customizer 

1. Open a terminal and add the Grub Customizer PPA to your list of repositories. A Personal Package Archive (PPA) is a software repository created for Ubuntu users to share pre-release software. Most PPAs are trustworthy. If in any doubt do not install, and read the source code before moving forwards.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

2. Update your list of repositories. This is always best practice before installing new software.

sudo apt update

3. Install Grub Customizer using the apt packaging tool.

sudo apt install grub-customizer

Using Grub Customizer

1. Click on Show Applications (3 x 3 grid of squares) to open the main menu.

2. Click on Grub Optimizer. You will be prompted to enter your sudo password, this is required as we are making changes that will be applied system-wide.

3. Click on Appearance settings. Under List configuration, we can alter the list of available OS choices presented on boot. Change their names, create sub-menus etc. General settings provides options to automatically select an OS, pass kernel parameters and delays to the boot. Only alter these settings if you know what you are doing.

4. Click on Background image.

5. Click on + Other Locations and navigate to the directory with your images. Because we opened Grub Customizer using sudo / root powers, our “home” folder is that of the root user. A PNG or JPEG image at your monitor's default resolution is preferred.

6. With the background image now set, click on Save to write the changes.

7. Click on Advanced Settings. This will open a menu containing extra Grub configuration steps.

8. Set GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE to “menu”, and set GRUB_TIMEOUT to “10”, click Close and then Save the changes. This ensures that the Grub menu is displayed, and if we do not touch the keyboard, the system will default boot in 10 seconds.

9. Reboot your computer, wait for the Grub menu to appear and then check that your background image loads correctly. If the image fails to load, repeat the previous steps and check the image file format.

More Linux Tutorials

• How to Use Nohup to Run Linux Scripts Unattended
• How To Find Large Files on Linux
• How to Use SSH to Connect to Remote Computers Using Windows, Linux or macOS

A PC enthusiast has used ChatGPT to circumvent the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) features of a used tablet. Thanks to OpenAI’s chatbot (and BIOS programmer hardware), XDA forums member Deskmodder then managed to update the obsolete Android 6.0-powered Panasonic ToughPad FZ-A2 tablet’s UEFI BIOS and install Windows 10 and Linux Mint. It is good to see barriers to the re-use of serviceable old hardware being eradicated.

FRP protection sidestepped

Above, we mentioned that the ruggedized Panasonic tablet was saddled with a rather old version of Android. However, this device was in some ways tamper-proof due to it being locked with Factory Reset Protection (FRP).

FRP is most commonly used in securing Android devices, and means that the original credentials need to be input to reset it. It works as a basic security measure to restrict significant changes to administrators and prevent stolen devices being easily wiped and resold. Second hand devices should be reset by the previous owner/administrator before being passed on, but obviously this doesn’t always happen.

Deskmodder seems to have been aware of the device’s FRP lock, but explains “seeing that it has an Intel CPU (Atom X5 8550) and a traditional x86 UEFI BIOS, I thought I'd try to hack it to run something else.” That’s the spirit.

With ChatGPT and a CH341A flash programmer at hand, the intrepid modder went through the following process:

1. The CH341A was used to dump the Panasonic’s BIOS.
2. The dumped bios was uploaded to ChatGPT with instructions to completely disable SecureBoot and its proprietary keys.
3. The GPT-modified BIOS was flashed back to the device.
4. Fingers were crossed... and it worked!
5. OS wrangling ensues, various compatibility wrinkles are being ironed out.

The system tinkering enthusiast has also shared their original ChatGPT conversation for the BIOS hacking, if you are interested enough in the process.

We note that Deskmodder has moved onto new milestone since their original post where Linux Mint was successfully shoehorned onto the ToughPad. Specifically, they have managed to get “Windows 10 up and running.” Sadly, at the time of writing they are still reporting a handful of driver issues.

Wider implications

There have been several reports of AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs refusing to boot on ASRock motherboards. The two companies have been aware of them since February 2025, with ASRock immediately releasing a beta BIOS update to address the problem. After a few weeks of investigation, the cause of the issue has finally been identified as a memory compatibility problem, but it has already been resolved with the latest BIOS release.

“We are aware of a limited number of user reports involving ASRock AM5 motherboards failing to complete POST. Following a joint investigation, AMD and ASRock identified a memory capability issue present in earlier BIOS versions, which has been rectified in the latest BIOS,” AMD told Tom’s Hardware. “ASRock has already issued guidance on this behavior and addressed a singular report of a damaged CPU.”

Even though more than a hundred motherboards failing to post with a 9800X3D chip have been documented, that is still a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands, if not millions, of motherboards and CPUs out there in countless variations. “It’s worth noting that a failure to POST can be caused by a range of factors and does not necessarily indicate a non-functional CPU,” added AMD. “We recommend that users start by updating their BIOS to the latest version available for their specific motherboard model.”

Still, if you have a problem even after updating your BIOS, the company says you should contact customer support. AMD adds, “If the issue persists, we encourage users to contact our customer support team for further assistance and diagnostics.” If the company can’t fix the problem on-site, it will probably tell you to RMA the CPU, which, in most cases, fixes the boot problem.

As for the February report of a burnt-out 9800X3D, AMD said that the motherboard did not have burn marks and that it was just debris that needed some cleaning. Sure enough, the motherboard successfully booted after this procedure and even passed some long-term testing.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the best gaming CPUs you can buy today, so both AMD and its motherboard partners are likely vigilant on any problems that might appear on these components. Thankfully, it seems that the issues that do occur are minor and can be easily resolved. However, we're following up with AMD for more details. Stay tuned.

The Redditor who had thousands of PC-DIY enthusiasts on tenterhooks with posts charting their extraordinarily long BIOS update odyssey (100 hours+) had some sad news to share today. GoatWithAGun posted a defeated “Welp, we’re done here,” and shared a picture of their famous-for-15-minutes PC, which was described as “completely unresponsive” after the monitor seemingly lost signal from the machine.

Welp, we’re done here from r/pcmasterrace

In the above post, which serves as both an obituary and epitaph for the deceased PC, GoatWithAGun sensitively told those gathered around this virtual deathbed “As of 2:14 PM Philippine Standard Time, my monitor lost signal from the PC and I returned to it completely unresponsive to any troubleshooting.” The Redditor graciously thanked those who had followed their fight to resuscitate the PC, and those who had donated.

Our previous coverage saw the efforts to update the BIOS of this PC’s BioStar A320MH motherboard extend past the 24-hour mark (flashing 66% complete). Actually, follow-up posts saw the Redditor start new threads at 48-hours+, and 100-hours+ before quiet darkness descended today.

It may be unfortunate what has happened to this PC, which the Redditor said they decided to BIOS-flash due to the lure of BioStar stability fixes. However, it shouldn’t be the end of the system, with replacement motherboards readily available. Other components of this system like the AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU, 4GB of DDR4-2400 Kingston HyperX memory, an Asus GTX 1660 GPU, a 128GB Transcend SATA SSD, and a 480GB Crucial SATA SSD are all likely unconcerned with the motherboard’s sticky end.

Before signing off, GoatWithAGun seemed to hint that they may soon have a new way to reanimate the dead BioStar A320MH motherboard. The Redditor said that a BIOS programmer is on the way (with a spare BIOS chip, we would hope). Thus, there may be a chance that this bricked single-BIOS device could rise again – if the BIOS contents are the only hurdle to it being able to boot.

GoatWithAGun will probably announce the result of the BIOS programmer tinkering off of Reddit, due to a segment of the platform the Redditors says have “grown tired of me.” It’s a shame those folks couldn’t just go and read and comment on something else.

Tom’s Hardware has tested dozens of processors to find the best CPU for gaming. Our list of 2026 CPU gaming benchmarks currently comprises 17 of the most demanding titles available on the market, which we run each gaming processor through to see the chips that come out on top. We select our picks based on the data in our CPU benchmark hierarchy, so all of the CPUs below are backed by hundreds of hours of real-world, hands-on testing where we gather extensive data on how a CPU performs and behaves while gaming. If you want a broader look at the CPU market, our AMD vs. Intel article shows you where the current CPU duopoly stands, while our CPU buying guide can help you narrow down the best processor for you.

Now in the back half of the year, we don’t expect major new releases from AMD or Intel. AMD has been on a tear with refreshes, particularly among X3D CPUs. We recently reviewed the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, AMD’s first CPU with 3D V-Cache on both CCDs, and it’s the most powerful chip from Team Red currently available. It’s earned a spot on this list, though the (much cheaper) Ryzen 9 9950X3D isn’t far behind in overall performance.

We’ve also seen the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which is technically the fastest gaming processor on the market, as you can see in our Ryzen 7 9850X3D review. However, we’ve kept the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D as our top recommendation for the best CPU for gaming due to its price. It’s only marginally behind the refreshed model (about 3% on average), and much cheaper. For most gamers, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D makes more sense.

Intel has seen a recent boost in gaming performance with Arrow Lake Refresh, and both the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus have earned spots on our list. AMD dominates in gaming at the moment, however. Our sights are set on Intel’s next-gen Nova Lake chips for a big gaming boost from Team Blue, as well as the rumored ‘Raptor Lake Next’ lineup that’s supposedly arriving early next year.

For the rest of the year, we have the Ryzen 7 7700X3D and Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition to look forward to, which are arriving in July and June, respectively. We don’t anticipate they’ll make a major impact on our rankings here, but we plan on reviewing both CPUs as soon as they’re available.

In addition to the fastest CPUs from AMD and Intel, we’ve included a few DDR4 options on this list. The price of DRAM and NAND flash has made building even a budget PC prohibitively expensive, so DDR4 platforms are a great way to save money. Vendors are signaling a shift back toward DDR4 platforms at the moment, so we may reconsider some older CPUs for our rankings as pricing and availability allows.

Here are the gaming CPUs we recommend buying. We have a shortlist of the top options and some alternatives below, but you can click the ‘More’ links to read our thoughts about a particular CPU and where it stands in the current market.

Prime Day Exceptional CPU deals

Here are our standout CPU deals from the Prime Day event, which is currently taking place. See our best overall picks below.

Best CPU for Gaming in 2026 at a glance (more info below):

The list below is for the best CPUs for gaming, while the best budget CPUs can help you find a cheap chip. Processors benefit from the best thermal paste, so check out our guide if you're shopping for a new processor. But if you're after the best CPU for gaming, you're in the right place.

Best CPU for Gaming Benchmarks

We rank all the Intel and AMD processors based on our in-depth CPU benchmarks hierarchy. You can see some of those numbers in the charts above, including CPU overclock performance results (marked as PBO for AMD processors). We're currently retesting all of these processors with the Nvidia RTX 5090, but only the first four slides have that testing. The remainder are historical testing results with the RTX 4090, which we'll remove once we have fully retested all of the gaming CPUs with the RTX 5090 for our benchmarks. This group of results comprises only the chips that have passed through our newest test suite. Additionally, the tables in our CPU benchmark hierarchy include rankings based on past CPU benchmarks and breakdowns of single- and multi-threaded performance in productivity applications across a broad spate of processors. Finally, be aware that the pricing in the charts above can fluctuate.

Quick Shopping Tips

When choosing the best CPU for gaming in 2026, consider the following:

• You can't lose with AMD or Intel: As noted in our AMD vs. Intel feature, AMD tends to make the best all-around CPU for gaming for mainstream PCs lately, but both offer compelling performance options at any given price point.
• Eight cores is sufficient for gaming: If you’re looking at a pricey flagship, you’re likely wasting some money if gaming is your primary focus. You can game on as little as a quad-core CPU, but performance scaling really falls off past eight cores.
• Budget platform costs: You never want to pair a strong CPU with a weak GPU, RAM, and storage. Right now, it’s especially important to consider platform costs, however. DDR5 prices are peaking, and you’ll need to factor in the cost of DDR5 and a new motherboard if you’re coming from an older socket like AM4.
• Overclocking isn’t for everyone, but if you follow our How to Overclock a CPU guide, you can scrape out extra performance gains.

Best CPU for Gaming 2026 - $300 to $400

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D technically isn’t the fastest gaming chip on the market any more. That title goes to the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D, though the victory is marginal. As you can read in our Ryzen 7 9850X3D review, AMD’s latest X3D offering pushes ahead by 3.3% on average. Despite a minor uplift, we’re still recommending the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. With prices as they currently are, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is only 3.3% faster despite costing around 6% more than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

This chip really has no peer in the market outside of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D — the Ryzen 7 9800X3D delivers outstanding gaming performance, beating Intel's fastest gaming chip, the $469 Core i9-14900K, by 30% in our test suite. The 9800X3D is also almost unbelievably 35% faster than the current-gen Intel flagship, the $560 Core Ultra 9 285K. The stock Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 1% low frame rates (a good smoothness indicator) also deliver an exceptionally smooth gaming experience, benefiting gamers even in GPU-limited scenarios.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has eight cores and 16 threads that operate at a 4.7 GHz base and 5.2 GHz boost clock rate. The chip employs AMD's 3D V-Cache tech with a new spin, which places a 3D-stacked SRAM chiplet underneath the die to deliver an incredible 96MB of L3 cache to great effect. AMD moved the L3 cache chiplet from the top to the bottom of the compute die this generation. That gives the integrated heat spreader (IHS) direct access to the compute die, allowing for more thermal headroom, and in turn, higher clock speeds. The end result is a comparatively low-power chip that delivers incredible gaming performance and comparable productivity performance to other eight-core models on the market.

3D V-Cache previously came with trade-offs in the productivity department, but that’s not the case with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Still, 3D V-Cache doesn’t provide a performance benefit in every game, and the performance benefit is less pronounced as your display resolution climbs.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has much lower power consumption than the Intel competition, making it a far cooler processor that won't require as expensive accommodations, like a beefy cooler, motherboard, and power supply. It also takes particularly well to undervolting, which is easy to accomplish with AMD’s Curve Optimizer. That means the 9800X3D delivers top-notch gaming performance and a cooler, quieter, and less expensive system than you'll get with an Ultra 9 or Core i9.

Read: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review

The $305 Ryzen 7 9700X had a rough initial product launch, but AMD's targeted firmware and operating system improvements have changed the picture tremendously, allowing the chip to place much higher on our CPU benchmark hierarchy (head there for the most up-to-date gaming benchmarks). Combined with lower-than-launch pricing, the Ryzen 7 9700X is a strong contender, tying Intel's Core i9-14900K in gaming and beating the Core i7-14700K. That's not to mention that it beats Intel's entire lineup of Arrow Lake processors as well. Now, all of those processors offer faster performance in heavily-threaded productivity applications than the 9700X, but when it comes to a pure gaming experience, the 9700X either ties or beats all current Intel competitors.

The Ryzen 7 9700X has eight Zen 5 cores with 16 threads that operate at a 3.8 GHz base and 5.5 GHz boost clock. The chip has a 65W TDP, though AMD retroactively added a 105W TDP option you can select in the BIOS that helps boost performance in productivity applications. It's covered by the warranty, as well. With either setting, the 9700X has comparatively tame power consumption, so it is an easy chip to cool. You'll have to buy your own cooler for the processor, though.

The Ryzen 7 9700X drops into socket AM5 motherboards, and B-series motherboards make the most sense for this class of chip. B850 and B840 motherboards get AMD's latest chipset with features like mandatory PCIe 5.0 support on the top M.2 slot and better availability for features like Wi-Fi 7. However, the Ryzen 7 9700X will still work with the older B650 chipset if you can find a board on sale.

Read: Ryzen 5 9700X Review

The $350 Core Ultra 7 270K Plus performs like a flagship CPU, but it costs about half as much. In games, it narrowly outclasses the Core i7-14700K and offers a 2.4% boost over the competing Ryzen 7 9700X. AMD’s last-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D still offers around a 10% boost over the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, but it’s also around $50 to $80 more expensive depending on sales.

It’s a solid gaming CPU, and certainly a better recommendation than the Core i7-14700K given prices right now. Compared to the Ryzen 7 9700X, things are tighter. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus gains an edge with productivity performance. Short of the 9950X, it’s at the top of our multithreaded performance rankings, more than doubling the performance of the Ryzen 7 9700X.

On the gaming front, it supports Intel’s new Binary Optimization Tool, which offers an average of an 8% improvement in gaming performance based on our testing. It’s only available in a limited number of games at the moment, but Intel says it plans to support the feature with updates in the future.

For specs, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is close to the 285K. It comes with 24 cores and threads, split across eight Lion Cove P-cores and 16 Darkmont E-cores. The P-cores boost up to 5.4 GHz and the E-cores can climb to 4.7 GHz. Across the CPU, you get a total of 76 MB of combined L2 and L3 cache. It comes with a 125W TDP and 250W MTP. Critically, the Core Ultra 270K Plus also comes with a 900 MHz boost in die-to-die frequency and 400 MHz boost in fabric frequency compared to stock Arrow Lake chips.

The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus slots into existing 800-series motherboards with the LGA 1851 socket. This is an unlocked chip, so if you want to get the full benefits of overclocking, you’ll need a Z890 board. However, it’ll still work with H- and B-series motherboards, just without CPU overclocking support.

Read: Core Ultra 7 270K Plus Review

Mid-Range Best CPU for Gaming - $200 to $300

Intel has returned to gaming prominence with its Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs, and nowhere is that clearer than with the $220 Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. It’s priced like a budget CPU at $220, but it can perform as well (and sometimes even better) than chips that cost twice as much. It doesn’t dominate the gaming charts in the same way as AMD’s X3D offerings, but at this price, it doesn’t need to. It offers marginally better performance than AMD’s competing six-core Ryzen 5 9600X in games while running the tables with application performance.

On average, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is 1% faster than the Ryzen 5 9600X at 1080p, and 9% faster than the 245K. It’s functionally identical, but Intel’s new iBOT feature allows the chip to hold some solid leads in certain titles. For instance, it’s 10% ahead of the 9600X in Cyberpunk 2077. Even in a non-iBOT title like Doom: The Dark Ages, the 250K Plus leads by 12%. There are still some games that struggle with the unique Arrow Lake architecture like F1 2024, but the losses are less pronounced with the souped-up Arrow Lake Refresh chips compared to the stock offerings.

The application performance is what really stands out with the 250K Plus, however. With 18 cores, it outpaces the Core i7-13700K, nearly matches the Core i7-14700K, and more than doubles the performance of the Ryzen 5 9600X in multithreaded applications. In single-threaded applications, it beats the Ryzen 5 9600X by 6%.

Although you get 18 cores, they’re split between six Lion Cove performance cores and 12 Darkmont efficient cores. The P-cores climb up to 5.3 GHz, while the E-cores top out at 4.6 GHz. The CPU comes with a combined 60 MB of L2 and L3 cache, along with a TDP of 125W and a MTP of 159W. Like all Arrow Lake chips, it doesn’t support Hyper-Threading, so you get 18 total threads.

The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus slots into existing motherboards with the LGA 1851 socket. It’s unlocked for overclocking, so a Z-series motherboard is an ideal pairing. However, Intel increased the die-to-die frequency and the fabric frequency out of the box, and you’ll see those improvements in action on B- and H-series motherboards, as well. It’s locked to DDR5 memory, unlike Raptor Lake and Alder Lake platforms, and it officially supports speeds up to 7200MT/s.

Read: Core Ultra 5 250K Plus Review

The $230 Ryzen 5 7600X3D is currently the best value gaming CPU you can get right now, though it trades performance in other areas to reach that status. It's just 4.5% slower than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D based on our testing, giving you most of the performance of AMD's coveted 3D V-Cache in games without the extra cost.

In games, it outclasses more expensive CPUs with ease, including the Ryzen 7 9700X, and averaged just 65W of power draw during our gaming tests. Outside of games, however, the Ryzen 5 7600 X3D struggles. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is more than twice as fast in multithreaded performance, and in single-threaded performance, even the base Ryzen 5 7600X is around 13% faster.

The lagging productivity performance makes sense. The Ryzen 5 7600X3D is a six-core / 12-thread chip, so it has limited multithreaded potential, and it only clocks up to 4.7 GHz. The limited specs give AMD room to cram 102 MB of combined L2/L3 cache on the die, however, which comes with a sizeable boost in gaming performance. Compared to the base Ryzen 5 7600X, the X3D version is 22% faster despite coming in at lower peak clocks and power draw.

You can slot the Ryzen 5 7600X3D into socket AM5, which is available on 600- and 800-series motherboards, though the latter may require a BIOS update. Memory and CPU overclocking is available on both B- and X-series chipsets; however, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D has a locked multiplier, so the only overclocking you can access is through AMD's Precision Boost Overdrive, or PBO.

Read: Ryzen 5 7600X3D review

Highest Performance Best CPU for Gaming - $400+

How do you improve upon a CPU that already claims a dominating position in gaming and productivity workloads? You add more cache, of course. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is powerful, expensive, and hungry for wattage, but it’s the best of the best if you want top-shelf gaming and application performance. It throws value out the window, and it’s only marginally better than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, but it is still better.

Based on our testing, it’s about 3.9% ahead of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D in multithreaded applications, and in lockstep in gaming at 1080p. Compared to Intel’s Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is 9% ahead in multithreaded performance and 23% ahead in average gaming performance. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D delivers a better value on the gaming front, and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a monster productivity chip at a third of the price of the 9950X3D2. But the magic trick of this chip is that it can do both without breaking a sweat.

Under the hood, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is similar to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. It’s a 16-core / 32-thread chip packing AMD’s Zen 5 architecture, and it tops out with a 5.6 GHz boost clock; just 100MHz behind the 9950X3D. As the name suggests, this processor is unique because it uses AMD’s 3D V-Cache on both CCDs. Both eight-core CCDs have 32 MB of onboard cache, plus an additional 64 MB chunk placed under the cores, giving you a total of 192 MB of L3 cache.

The extra cache slightly accelerates multithreaded performance overall, though only by around 4%. There are specific workloads where the advantage is more present, with some data science workloads showing performance gains in the realm of 26% over the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Those specific workstation-class workloads are where the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 earns its stripes.

Otherwise, it’s the chip to buy because you simply want the best, no matter what the cost or how marginal the improvements are. It slots into existing AM5 motherboards, and it’s best suited for newer 800-series chipsets. AMD officially supports memory speeds up to DDR5-5600, though we find that DDR5-6000 is the sweet spot for Zen 5 CPUs.

Prices have dropped since release, though the 9950X3D2 is still expensive. It launched at $1,000, but you can find the chip for around $900 now.

Read: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Review

The prior-gen $469 Core i9-14900K is now selling for all-time low pricing, primarily because the newer $560 Core Ultra 9 285K has arrived to take its place. However, the Core Ultra 9 285K is actually slower than the 14900K in gaming, so it isn't a suitable replacement. The new Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is marginally slower based on our testing, as well. Even in the face of Intel’s 200S Boost update, which was meant improve gaming performance, the competitive landscape remains unchanged. In our testing, the Core Ultra 9 285K gained an average of 7% from the update, which means it’s still slower than the Core i9-14900K.

You should be aware that the much more economically-priced 14700K (listed above) is only 2% slower than the 14900K in gaming but costs over $100 less. The Ryzen 7 9700X, also listed above, is also less expensive and effectively ties the 14900K in gaming.

However, there are Intel fans willing to pay extra for the absolute most gaming performance they can get from an Intel platform. Also, the 14900K does offer more multi-threaded horsepower than the 14700K and 9700X, which could be useful if you game, stream, and record simultaneously or do other heavy multi-tasking while gaming. Just make sure that your use case justifies the extra cost.

The 14900K sports leading-edge connectivity, supporting DDR4-3200 or up to DDR5-5600 memory, along with 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 and an additional four lanes of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 SSDs.

The chip comes with eight P-cores that support Hyper-Threading and 16 single-threaded E-cores for a total of 32 threads. The P-cores have a 3.2 GHz base, and peak frequencies reach an amazing 6.0 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0 (this feature is only active on P-cores). Meanwhile, the E-cores have a 2.4 GHz base and stretch up to 4.4 GHz via the standard Turbo Boost 2.0 algorithms. The chip also has 36MB of L3 cache and 32MB of L2.

This 14900K has a 125W PBP (base) and 253W MTP (peak) power rating, but we recorded considerably lower power consumption than its prior-gen counterpart. You'll need to buy a capable cooler for the chip, and you'll also need either a 700-series or 600-series motherboard. Like other Raptor Lake Refresh chips, you can find DDR4 and DDR5 motherboards, though you’ll need to go with a DDR5 board for the highest performance.

The lower price of DDR4 might entice some gamers, but you'll lose anywhere from 5-8% of gaming performance with higher-end Intel chips. You can step up to the much more expensive DDR5 if you need access to more memory throughput and, thus, every bit of performance possible.

Beyond specs, the Core i9-14900K was at the center of a years-long controversy concerning instability. An error in the microcode (CPU firmware) meant the Core i9-14900K would degrade faster than expected, starting with instability in games. Intel has rectified the issue with microcode 0x12F, so make sure you update your BIOS immediately if you pick up Intel’s last-gen flagship

Read: Intel Core i9-14900K Review

Best Budget CPU Pick - $100 to $150

The $164 Ryzen 5 7600X is an attractive budget CPU at its new price, forced down by Intel's new Arrow Lake Refresh chips. It’s marginally slower than the Ryzen 5 9600X, but also marginally cheaper – the Ryzen 5 7600X offers about 90% of the performance of the Ryzen 5 9600X for 94% of the price. It’s a slightly worse value, but it’s still a good option to keep in mind, especially if you find it on sale. The Ryzen 5 7600, sans X, is available at around the same price. We’ve yet to see it drop below the Ryzen 5 7600X, however.

With the 7600X, you get six cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, clocked at 4.7GHz with boost speeds up to 5.3GHz. Unlike the Ryzen 5 9600X, the Zen 4-based version comes with a TDP of 105W. Cooling it shouldn’t be an issue, and you’re free to run in AMD’s 65W Eco mode through the Ryzen Master software.

The Ryzen 5 7600X slots into AM5 motherboards, including 600- and 800-series chipsets, and it supports PCIe 5.0. DDR5 is required, which is a tough pill to swallow at this bang-for-your-buck price point, but it’s hard to avoid soaring RAM prices.

Read: Ryzen 5 7600X review

The $135 AMD Ryzen 5 5600 delivers a solid blend of performance in both gaming and productivity applications, bringing a new level of value to the Zen 3 lineup. If you're fine sticking with a previous-gen AM4 motherboard, the Ryzen 5 5600 makes a great base for a budget build. The primary trade-off for the AM4 platform is that you're limited to DDR4, and you don't have access to PCIe 5.0. You also have a limited runway for upgrades, as the fastest gaming CPUs on AM4 – the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and Ryzen 7 5800X3D – have reached end of life.

The Ryzen 5 5600 also makes an absolutely unbeatable budget chip if you're updating a first-gen Ryzen system. The 5600 unseats the Ryzen 5 5600X, a long-time favorite. The 5600X is only a mostly imperceptible ~1% faster in gaming and multi-threaded PC work than the non-X model, but provides a 4% advantage in single-threaded work.

Our testing shows that the Ryzen 5 5600 generally matches the gaming performance of its more expensive sibling, the ~$230 Ryzen 7 5800X. That makes the 5600 an incredibly well-rounded chip that can handle gaming well, from competitive-class performance with high refresh rate monitors to multi-tasking gaming workloads like streaming, while also serving up more than enough performance for day-to-day productivity apps. As with all AMD CPUs for gaming, you can fully overclock the chip.

The Ryzen 5 5600 has a 3.7 GHz base and 4.6 GHz boost clock. The chip also has a 65W TDP rating, so it runs cool and quiet. Existing AMD owners with a 500-series motherboard will be happy, as the 5600X drops right into existing 500-, 400-, and 300-series motherboards. If you need a new motherboard to support the chip, AMD's AM4 motherboards are plentiful and relatively affordable, with the B-series lineup offering the best overall value for this class of chip.

Prices for the Ryzen 5 5600 have drifted upward as stock depletes, but that’s offset by platform costs. In addition to low prices on AM4 motherboards, the Ryzen 5 5600 is limited to DDR4. High DDR5 prices are a significant roadblock to opting for a newer chip, as prices continue to surge. So it’s hard to recommend a newer budget CPU, even if it’ll net you higher performance. In the event you already have a kit of DDR5, the $189 Ryzen 5 7600 is a compelling option, and it includes AMD’s Wraith Stealth cooler.

Read: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Review

Entry-Level Best CPU for Gaming - For gaming on integrated GPUs

The $268 Ryzen 7 8700G, AMD's flagship desktop APU, delivers the fastest socketed performance on the market from integrated graphics, bringing passable 1080p gaming to the desktop PC without a discrete graphics card, but its high price point relegates it to a niche audience.

In contrast, the $191 Ryzen 5 8600G delivers 90% of the 8700G's performance but for ~$80 less, making it a solid alternative for gaming systems that don't use a discrete GPU.

Naturally, you'll have to accept lower fidelity settings and be realistic about which titles can play at 1080p resolution. Still, AMD's Hyper-RX suite of features, which includes in-driver Radeon Super Resolution upscaling tech, frame generation with AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF), Anti-Lag+, and Radeon Boost, helps boost performance at a slight cost to image quality. This new feature set, a first for AMD's iGPUs, is a boon for budget gamers.

The Ryzen 5 8600G has six Zen 4 CPU cores and the RDNA 3 GPU engine with eight CUs. The Ryzen 5 8600G drops into the AM5 platform, with value-focused B650 and A620 motherboards being the obvious best combination. These systems offer a new level of connectivity for AMD's APU processors, which were previously on the aging AM4 platform but require DDR5 memory. That adds some cost, so do a value analysis before selecting this processor. If you're looking for the lowest entry price possible with an APU, the Ryzen 5 5600G listed below slots in as the value alternative.

The Ryzen 7 8600G only supports 16 usable lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, while other processors on the AM5 platform support PCIe 5.0. However, we don't feel this will impact this class of system.

More: AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G Review

The Ryzen 5 5600G steps into the arena as the value champ for APUs, which are chips with strong enough integrated graphics that they don't require a discrete GPU for light gaming—just be sure you're willing to accept lowered quality settings.

The Ryzen 5 5600G gives you 96% of the gaming performance on integrated graphics than its more expensive sibling, the Ryzen 7 5700G, but for 25% less cash. Our testing shows that its level of performance makes it the best value APU on the market. As long as you're willing to sacrifice fidelity and resolution and keep your expectations in check, the Ryzen 5 5600G's Vega graphics have surprisingly good performance in gaming.

The 5600G's Vega graphics served up comparatively great 1280x720 gaming across numerous titles in our tests, but options become more restricted at 1080p. Of course, you can get away with 1080p gaming, but you'll need to severely limit the fidelity settings with most titles.

With eight cores and 16 threads that operate at a 3.9 GHz base and boost up to 4.4 GHz, the Ryzen 5 5600G also offers solid performance for its price point in standard desktop PC applications. The chip also comes with a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler, sweetening the value prop, and drops into existing 500-series and some 400-series motherboards, though support on the latter will vary by vendor.

The Ryzen 5 5600G is nearly five years old, and as a result, it’s hard to find it in stock at a reasonable price. AMD updated this model with the Ryzen 5 5600GT in early 2024, which features identical silicon and a slight boost to clock speed, and you’ll generally find it for less at around $150.

If your budget is tight and you're looking to build a system for modest gaming, you should check out our Best Cheap CPU feature. Some of those chips can deliver passable gaming performance without a graphics card, and their prices start at just $55 (£40).

Read: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Review

• MORE: CPU Benchmark Hierarchy
• MORE: AMD vs Intel
• MORE: Best Cheap CPUs
• MORE: Best CPUs for Workstations

ASRock has issued a BIOS update for its AM5 Motherboards, aiming to resolve "CPU boot issues" with systems using the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor. ASRock's 3.20 beta BIOS has been issued to resolve a "minority proportion" of affected boards. The company also warned that "misinformation is spreading" about the reported failures.

In a news release shared by ASRock, the manufacturer states that the new beta BIOS update was issued in response to "reports on Reddit from users experiencing unexpected boot issues and error codes when using ASRock AM5 motherboards paired with minority proportion of AMD Ryzen™ 9000 series processors".

The statement issued by ASRock only specifies error codes and boot issues, not wholesale CPU failures.

Problems surfaced yesterday when a megathread on the ASRock subreddit revealed that users were faced with seemingly dead 9800X3D CPUs when placed in AM5-based ASRock motherboards. The thread detailed over 40 reports of the CPU seemingly giving up the ghost, with 32 reports stating that failures occurred on ASRock motherboards.

One fix that users found was to roll back to an older ASRock BIOS if they were experiencing issues. Reports claimed that some chips were failing during boot, or after several weeks of functioning normally.

Other users RMA'd non-functional CPUs, and put them back into an affected ASRock motherboard, and the system booted successfully, indicating that there may be something deeper going on.

ASRock Japan disclosed further details in in a post on X, claiming the CPUs themselves were not failing, but that they were tied to memory issues.

An excerpt from the Japanese language social media post (translated via DeepL) reads: "I will issue an official release with more details later, but I would like to say a few words since misinformation is spreading! As it turns out, it is not broken. It is an issue of some CPUs not booting due to memory compatibility issues."

The BIOS revision that ASRock was using may have caused issues with specific memory configurations. This could be why we did not see all users reporting issues with ASRock motherboards.

It is possible that the 3.20 beta BIOS update could potentially resolve these issues on the ASRock motherboards. However, it remains to be seen just how the new beta BIOS update will impact 9800X3D users.

Tom's Hardware has reached out to ASRock for further comment.

Widespread reports from users on Chinese forums and Reddit suggest that initial instabilities observed with Nvidia's RTX 50 GPUs could extend beyond simple PCIe 5.0 compatibility problems. The diverse nature of the reports makes it hard to identify a single root cause; with users experiencing initialization failures, GPU-bricking drivers, PCIe 5.0 instability, and the list goes on. A cursory "RTX 5090/5080 failure reddit" Google search yields multiple accounts of users facing issues with these GPUs. Nvidia has yet to comment on this matter and thus it is difficult to deduce whether these teething problems stem from incomplete software, broken hardware, or something else.

Yesterday, we covered an instance where two melted 16-pin cables were mistakenly attributed to the RTX 5090. With the number of precautionary measures Nvidia and AIBs are taking, it is unlikely we'll run into any meltdowns, at least that's what we hope. Several reviewers suggested a potential flaw in Nvidia's FE-model design that leads to PCIe signal integrity degradation. Thus, a number of those lucky enough to get their hands on an RTX 50-series card have reported their GPU failing to boot in PCIe 5.0 mode. However, these new reports expand beyond Founders Edition models and also affect custom variants from AIBs, including the China-exclusive RTX 5090D.

From the screenshots attached below, several users report GPU initialization failures and black screens after installing the latest drivers from Nvidia. In one instance, the RTX 5080 only works in PCIe 2.0 mode. A driver rollback reportedly solves most of these problems, however, a subset of users report their GPU is no longer recognized by their motherboard or Windows, making it impossible to rollback drivers. A user speculates that the latest drivers can potentially burn an IC (Integrated Circuit) on the GPU, rendering it unusable.

It is tough to say what's causing these problems. A majority of incidents suggest immature Blackwell architecture drivers from Nvidia. As it stands, these users have no other option than to RMA their GPUs. There is no word on when they'll receive a replacement as retailers may take weeks to replenish RTX 50 inventory.

A report alleges that AIBs had little to no time to test these GPUs ahead of launch. This lack of time likely didn't allow vendors to polish the VBIOS sufficiently, or push appropriate BIOS updates on their motherboards to enable full RTX 50 series compatibility, but that's just a guess.

The motherboard is like the nervous system of every PC build. Nearly everything in your system either plugs into your motherboard or something else that plugs into your motherboard. The motherboard's form factor (typically E-ATX, ATX, Micro ATX, or Mini-ITX) also dictates the size of the PC case you'll need. And, just as importantly, the motherboard's socket and chipset determine which processors you can install in your new system.

Our motherboard picks below start with gaming motherboards for AMD Ryzen 9000, 7000 (socket AM5) CPUs. If you're after an older AMD AM4 board with more reasonably priced DDR4 (yet still much more expensive a few months ago), we've added a couple of those too, since DDR5 RAM prices are out of control due to AI demands.

Just note that stock of those boards is becoming harder to find, and we won't be updating those pages because companies aren't launching new boards for a legacy (though still lingering) platform.

You’ll find our tested picks for Intel Z890 motherboards below our AMD picks (X870, B850, and B650 chipsets). After the AMD options, you'll find the best gaming motherboards designed for Intel's 15th-gen (Arrow Lake) CPUs for the enthusiast Z890 platform. We've recently added a B860 motherboard as well. So if you're looking for a motherboard for a recent-generation CPU, one of our picks below should suit your needs well.

Prime Day Exceptional Motherboard deals

Here are two of the standout deals from the Prime Day event, which is currently taking place. Our list of best overall picks continues below.

Sadly, we can’t test every single motherboard, and we can only go by what we’ve had in our labs and on the test bench (although we consider others in the same segment, but don’t have that hands-on experience). That said, unless you need a specific feature or port count/speed, most any motherboard will be satisfactory for a wide variety of needs. But still, some stand out among the rest for one reason or another. We’ve captured several across a variety of modern AMD and Intel chipsets. One of these should fit in with your wants and needs.

Quick List

AMD GAMING MOTHERBOARDS

INTEL GAMING MOTHERBOARDS

Best Motherboards You Can Buy Today

The Best AMD Gaming Motherboards

AMD's current flagship X870/X870E chipset brings continued support for PCIe 5.0, although no current-gen graphics cards benefit from this doubling of bandwidth over PCIe 4.0. PCIe 5.0. PCIe 5.0-based SSDs are now saturating the market and are a mainstay on modern motherboards.

One way to save money is to opt for a B850 (or B650) motherboard, which has fewer PCIe 5.0 lanes, generally only enough for one or two fast SSDs and a graphics card. However, keep an eye on price as many higher-end B850 boards approach or exceed the cost of some X870 alternatives. So shop carefully based on the features you need or are likely to use in the future. Also note that B650 has been discontinued, so stock on those more affordable options will soon become scarce. We've also added some DDR4 boards from X570 that could save you some money upgrading by using your existing RAM instead of upgrading to the super expensive DDR5.

Motherboard prices on Intel and AMD's latest platforms have improved since launch, which is typical for the product category. For AMD, we’re in the middle of the current platform’s lifecycle, and board partners are starting to release mid-cycle motherboards, which we’ll cover over the coming months. Intel is in the same boat, and we expect to see some updated processors in 2026. So far, we haven’t seen any notably updated Z890/B860 boards. Stay tuned for more reviews and perhaps some updates to this best list.

If you’re unsure which chipset you’re after or have more basic questions, you can visit our motherboard basics story to help narrow your shopping options.

Best X870E High-End Motherboard

The Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial stands at the top of the X870E stack, offering one of the most complete feature sets on the platform. With seven M.2 slots (including bundled expansion cards), dual 10 GbE networking, Wi-Fi 7, and dual USB4 ports, it delivers elite storage flexibility, ultra-fast networking, helpful ‘AI’ and EZ features, and cutting-edge connectivity in a single board. Few competitors match this level of expansion and bandwidth simultaneously, making it a clear choice for power users and high-end builders who refuse to compromise.

Beyond raw specs, its icy-white aesthetic and integrated 5-inch LCD elevate it into true flagship territory, especially for premium showcase builds. At $1,199.99, it’s built for enthusiasts who want the absolute best—maximum features, top-tier performance, and standout design—all in one uncompromising AM5 motherboard.

More: Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial Review

Best ATX X870/X870E Motherboard

ASRock’s Taichi motherboards have impressed in recent years as top values for those looking for near-flagship features, like fast ports, robust power delivery, and a premium appearance and a lower price than the competition. And the latest iteration, the ASRock X870E Taichi, receives an updated design, more powerful VRMs, USB 4.0 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports again (now a standard for the platform), updated networking to 5GbE and Wi-Fi 7, and more. And its launch price manages to be less than the previous-gen X670E Taichi. That makes it easy to recommend for those looking to build a system around an AMD Ryzen 9000 CPU.

With the jump up to X870/X870E, you get native support for Zen 5-based C{Us, USB 4.0, Wi-Fi 7, and PCIe 5.0 for both NVMe storage and graphics. The latest Taichi gets an updated look, extra DIY features, and more. Its performance in our testing was one of the fastest we've tested on the platform so far, if only by meager margins.

Priced $50 less than its direct Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI competitors, ASRock again is the best option for X870E of the boards we've tested so far. Just note that its large E-ATX form factor means it won't fit in many ATX cases.

More: ASRock X870E Taichi Review

Best $500 X870E Motherboard

The Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Wood immediately sets itself apart with genuine wood accents on the VRM heatsink and audio shroud, complemented by leather tabs on the M.2 heatsinks and a crisp white/silver PCB. The result is a premium, design-forward motherboard that feels truly distinctive—especially for white PC builds—while still maintaining a clean, high-end aesthetic that’s sure to spark conversation inside any system.

Beyond its unique appearance, it backs up the looks with substance: four M.2 slots, dual 5 GbE LAN and Wi-Fi 7, dual USB4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports, and strong overall performance in testing. Competitive with similarly priced flagship boards, it delivers both standout style and capability, making it an easy recommendation for buyers who want top-tier features wrapped in a uniquely refined white design with wood accents.

More: Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Wood Review

Best ATX B850 Motherboard

The MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Wifi II is a solid refresh of an already capable motherboard. While the changes were mostly incremental, MSI cleaned up the look by ditching most of the polarizing bright yellow-green accents, added an OC Engine chip for BCLK overclocking, and upgraded to a 64MB BIOS for expanded features and long-term CPU compatibility. These additions make a more complete package for enthusiasts.

On top of the new features, the Tomahawk Max Wifi II has a comprehensive set of specifications and features that’s sure to appeal to budget-conscious buyers. There are ample USB ports on the rear IO, nine total, including three Type-C ports (though it does lack 40 Gbps ports), fast networking, including 5 GbE and Wi-Fi 7, and four M.2 sockets (though one is limited to PCIe 4.0 x2), a quality audio solution, and three full-length PCIe expansion slots are available in case you need additional functionality. All in all, if you’re building an AM5 system on a budget, the $229.99 Tomahawk MAX Wifi II is our pick for the best B850 boards available.

Read: MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Wifi II Review

Best Mini-ITX B850 Motherboard

ASRock’s B850I Lightning is an excellent value in the Mini-ITX space. For just over $200, it offers full support for AM5-based processors, including flagship-class options. Key features include capable power delivery, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, PCIe 5.0 for the M.2 and GPU slot, a solid audio solution, and outstanding out-of-the-box performance. The generally neutral design features a black PCB with Phantom Gaming purple and highlights, fitting most build themes. Given the price, there is very little to criticize.

In terms of competition, competing boards have some more premium features, like Wi-Fi 7 and faster USB, but they tend to cost a lot more, while MSI does not offer a B850 Mini-ITX board. So if you want those higher-end features and are willing to pay an extra $100 or more, boards from Asus and Gigabyte are certainly worth considering.

But for users who don't need those specific upgrades and care more about general performance and a lower price, the ASRock B850I Lighting is the clear choice for an affordable, modern, small-form-factor AMD build.

MORE: ASRock B850I Lightning Review

Best ATX B650E Motherboard

The Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX is a solid mid-range motherboard on the AM5 platform. It supports a wide variety of CPUs, including the 7000 and 9000-series desktop processors, including the latest 9850X3D and 9950X3D2 that were recently released (update your BIOS to the latest version), as well as 8000-series APUs. In our review, we loved the icy-white appearance, ample USB ports, and solid performance across our benchmarking suite. A penny under $150 gets you started on your AM5 build and includes 12 USB ports (one 20 Gbps Type-C), fast networking with 2.5 GbE and integrated Wi-Fi 6E, three M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0 x4) and four SATA ports, and VRMs capable of handling any compatible processor, even with overclocking.

The only noteworthy drawbacks are that it lacks a PCIe 5.0-capable slot (negligible impact compared to PCIe 5.0) and uses a budget audio codec. Outside of that, it’s one of the best motherboards still available for the B650 platform, and its current price of $149.99 takes some of the sting out of buying other, more expensive parts like RAM, video cards, and storage.

MORE: Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX Ice Review

Best DDR4 Motherboard

The Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi delivers a strong mix of features and performance for the B550 platform. It offers PCIe 4.0 support for graphics, dual M.2 slots, solid connectivity, and a robust power delivery that handled a Ryzen 9 3900X and overclocking without issue. While it lacks some higher-end extras like a third M.2 slot or 20 Gbps USB, most users won’t miss them.

Performance matched that of competing boards, and the 14-phase power design proved capable, even if VRM temperatures ran slightly warmer than those of some rivals. With premium audio, 2.5 GbE LAN, and Wi-Fi 6, the B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi stands out as a well-rounded, dependable choice and a solid foundation for a B550-based system, and it helps you save money by using your existing DDR4 in the middle of this RAM apocalypse.

Read: Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wifi review

Best Rear-Connect Motherboard

Gigabyte’s X870 Aorus Stealth lives up to its name with a clean, all-black design and a rear-connect layout that keeps cables hidden from view, making for a clean-looking, wire-free build. Aside from the appearance, 13 USB ports (including two 40 Gbps ports) reside on the rear IO, along with Wi-Fi 7 and 5 GbE networking. It has a middling audio solution, capable power delivery, and more, all for around $299.99.

Competition in this space is fairly limited compared to non rear-connect boards, and the Aorus Stealth is our current choice over Asus’ more affordable TUF Gaming B850 BTF Wifi ($270.99) cuts back on storage count, USB connectivity and networking, while MSI’s X870E Tomahawk Max Wifi PZ ($319.99) costs more, is similarly equipped (aside from a PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket running at x2 speeds), but the Stealth’s appearance pushes it over the Tomahawk.

If you’re in the market for an AM5-based rear-connect motherboard, the X870 Aorus Stealth is where you need to start looking. Go get your BTF motherboard and start hiding those wires!

Read: Gigabyte X870 Aorus Stealth Review

The Best Intel Gaming Motherboards

Below are our tested picks for Intel Z890, Z790, and B760 motherboards.

Best Z890 High-End Motherboard

The MSI Godlike stands out as a flagship E-ATX motherboard, offering the most extensive and fastest features currently available for Intel’s latest platform. It includes 10 GbE, Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 5, and an impressive eight M.2 sockets (four of which are 5.0 with the expansion card). Beyond its top-tier hardware, it provides user-friendly EZ and AI features. Aesthetically, the board is high-end, featuring a clean design, sophisticated RGB lighting, and the unique Dynamic Dashboard III, all of which support its core functionality. While the hardware specifications appear flawless, its primary (and perhaps only) drawback is its steep price of $1,329.

The Godlike’s launch price was significantly higher than that of competitors like the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Xtreme AI TOP and the Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme. Currently, it shares price points with the Asus Z890 Extreme, both at $999.99, while the Gigabyte board can be found for just under $880. These competing boards share many high-end features with the Godlike, such as 10 GbE, Thunderbolt 5 (via included AIC), and overbuilt power delivery. Despite the cost disparity (which again has reduced since launch), the Godlike remains one of the most capable motherboards available on any consumer platform, sharing the top tier with no other board for those seeking the absolute best for their Intel processor.

Read: MSI Z890 Godlike Review

Best ATX Z890 Motherboard

The ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite is a well-performing motherboard that strikes a good balance of high-end hardware and price, at its $399.99 MSRP. It offers the same top-tier hardware as the more expensive Z890 Taichi, but cuts costs by swapping out the actively cooled, RGB-enabled VRM heatsink for a simpler design, and replacing the fancier M.2 plate heatsink on the bottom with a standard one. This results in a less luxurious, more average look, a worthwhile trade for those prioritizing performance and a lower price over aesthetics.

Ultimately, the Z890 Taichi Lite is a solid offering. Even though the inclusion of Thunderbolt/USB 4 is no longer a unique selling point, it still delivers value with its generous six M.2 slots, flagship-quality audio, and dual Ethernet ports. If you are willing to forgo premium aesthetics and a few user-friendly features to save money, the Taichi Lite, with its simple, RGB-free, mid-range appearance, is one of the best options around the $350-$400 price point.

More: ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite Review

Best Z790 High-End Motherboard

All the flagship-class Z790 motherboards offer the best of the best in terms of features and specifications, but the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Extreme presents the best value among these top-end board. You’ll lose a couple M.2 sockets over the more-expensive flagship boards, but this bird otherwise has everything else you could ask for and more, while costing between $200 and $400 less than the competition.

The Z790 Aorus Extreme delivers 10 Gb Ethernet, 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports, flagship-class audio, PCIe 5.0 GPU and M.2 support, overkill power delivery, and that high-end appearance you expect from a high-end board. MSI's Z790 Godlike offers up a few more features (like seven M.2 sockets), but costs $400 more, and it's also physically bigger, making it hard to recommend to most people unless money is no object.

The Z790 Aorus Extreme also performed well in our gaming, productivity, and overlocking tests, as you would expect from a flagship board. Just remember that this is an E-ATX model, so you'll need a case with a bit more room than standard ATX options. But you could certainly buy a bigger case with the money you'll save by opting for this board over other Z790 flagship options.

Read: Z790 Aorus Xtreme review

Best ATX Z790 Motherboard

The cost of motherboards, like so many other things, has steeply increased in recent years, so it’s nice to see ASRock offering something a bit less expensive than the flagship motherboards, but that’s still very well equipped. Priced around $350, the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite gets you nearly everything the more expensive Taichi offers, like extremely robust power delivery, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, lots of storage options, including a PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket and eight SATA ports, premium audio, and more. What's missing here compared to pricier options is manly the high-end appearance. Taichi boards are typically adorned with 3D cogs, but here they give way to simpler heatsinks, a more visible PCB, and stenciled adornments. But this board is still recognizable as a Taichi.

There’s lots of competition in the sub-$400 space, but none of the other boards available around that price come close to the specs and features here. If you want some of the best hardware the Z790 platform offers at a more reasonable price, and your build doesn’t cry out for flagship-class looks, the Taichi Lite is a well-appointed option at a price lower than most.

Read: ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite review

Best Budget Z790 Motherboard

The Z790 Steel Legend is a great choice for users on a budget who want the flexibility of Intel's overclockable platform, but who don’t want to spend several hundred dollars to get there. Along with its black-on-silver looks and bright RGB lighting, you get all the platform offers, including a PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket (and five total M.2), eight SATA ports, front-panel 20 Gbps USB Type-C, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, a basic audio codec, the eDP port for an additional monitor, and power delivery capable of handling our flagship-class processor at stock or while overclocked.

Around its $270 price, ASRock's Steel Legend is one of the most feature-packed Intel Z790 options on the market. The only real tradeoff here is the basic audio codec, which will still be fine for many users. If not, you can always opt for one of the best PC speakers that feature a built-in DACand avoid the board's internal audio entirely.
Read: ASRock Z790 Steel Legend review

Best B860 Motherboard

Intel’s B860 chipset is designed for the budget-conscious consumer who doesn’t need all the ports, connectivity, and aesthetic bits that cost a lot more money. It offers a capable platform at a more reasonable price without all the bells and whistles. If you don’t need what Z890 offers and want to save some money, B860 is here to help you spend less – or spend more where it matters to you.

At $229.99, MSI’s B860 Tomahawk is a well-rounded, well-performing solution that offers the best of the budget platform, from PCIe 5.0 slots and an M.2 socket to Wi-Fi 7 and 5GbE. You get your money’s worth, but slightly less expensive models are available with similar configurations from the competition. However, none stand out as heads above the rest. If you’re in the market for an ATX-sized B860 board, the B860 Tomahawk Wi-Fi deserves a close look.

Read: MSI MAG B860 Tomahawk Wifi review

Best B760M Micro-ATX Motherboard

If you’re after an inexpensive Micro ATX-size motherboard and won’t overclock your processor, the B760 chipset -- and the B760M Steel Legend board specifically -- is where it’s at. It's well equipped, with three M.2 sockets, at around $160, and arguably as good-looking as most of its peers. If you like bling, the bright RGBs will light up any chassis, and the eDP port is there for those who’d like to add ASRock’s 13.3-inch Side Panel Kit to make things more visually interesting in their case. Power delivery isn’t that impressive on paper, but it handled our Intel i9-13900K, even with the power limits raised.

The B760M Steel Legend's performance out of the box matches other boards that follow Intel specifications (read: slower than unlocked boards in multi-threaded and long-running benchmarks), but it is a solid gamer. Once you unlock it, you’re limited only by the CPU cooling.

Looking at the competition, the Asus Prime B760M-A AX ($168.99) is the most expensive option, but it offers nothing in terms of features over our Steel Legend. Gigabyte’s B760M Aorus Elite AX ($159.99) doesn't have the M.2 storage count (two compared to three), but it makes up for it with a more attractive appearance. MSI’s Pro B760M-A Wi-Fi ($154.99) is also worth consider, but it doesn’t cut it in the looks department and is also short on M.2 storage count. For roughly $160, ASRock’s B760M Steel Legend Wi-Fi is one of the best Micro ATX boards available for 12th-14th-generation Intel processors.

Read: ASRock B760M Steel Legend Wi-Fi review

Best B760 Motherboard

MSI’s MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi is great inexpensive option that supports even the flagship-class 12th and 13th-generation Intel processors. For around $190, you get a PCIe 5.0 slot for graphics, two M.2 sockets (both PCIe 4.0), a budget audio solution, and even a fast USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C port at the back of the board. It also looks good for this price and has most of what users want in the budget space. Its performance in our testing was fine in gaming and lightly threaded work. Just note that out of the box with a high-end CPU like the Core i9-13900K we used for testing, it will thermally throttle under heavy workloads at default settings.

The MSI MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi is the best option among its similarly priced competition. It’s the only option in this range with a PCIe 5.0 slot and a 20 Gbps USB Type-C port around back. Its power delivery can also handle our flagship processor. But if you plan on installing a flagship CPU and pushing every core and thread for uses other than gaming, you’ll want to lower the voltage and/or use top-notch cooling to get the most out of the board.

Less expensive options are available, but opting for one of those would mean losing some important features. If you’re in the market for an inexpensive motherboard for the latest and greatest Intel has to offer and want 20 Gbps ports and a PCIe 5.0 slot, the B650M Mortar is the best choice we've tested in the sub-$200 market. The fact that it often sells for $180 makes it easy to recommend.

Read: MSI MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi review

Quick Best Motherboard Shopping Tips

When choosing a motherboard, consider the following:

Savings on the Best Motherboards

Whether you're buying one of the best motherboards or a different model, you may find some savings by checking our list of coupon codes, especially our list of Newegg promo codes and Micro Center coupons.

We've saved you the trouble and brought the pot of gold you've been looking for—a treasure trove of awesome Raspberry Pi projects. These are some of our favorite creations we've had the pleasure of featuring over the last month, and we're delighted to share them with you again. These makers use everything from the first Raspberry Pi 1 to the latest Raspberry Pi 5 to make their ideas a reality.

Whenever possible, we share all of the links to the source code so you can make them for yourself at home or just dig into how they're put together. You can expect to find the best Raspberry Pi accessories, HATs, modules and more among the parts list that turn a simple Raspberry Pi into a masterpiece of creation.

Raspberry Pi-Powered Luxury Automated Smart House for Cats

This project is made for cat lovers with a fervor for Pi. What do you know? We fit the bill. Created by a maker known as Visible_Turnover3952 over at Reddit, this smart house has tons of cool automated features that keep his outdoor cats living in absolute luxury. The floors are heated and it has tons of sensors to help monitor the environment for total optimization.

Why we love it:

Not only does this project benefit our fuzzy companions, but it's also a great showcase of how much the Raspberry Pi can handle when it comes to flexibility and DIY smart features. There's a lot going on in this cat house and we're all for it.

Read: Raspberry Pi-powered Luxury Automated Smart House for Cats

Raspberry Pi Creeper Robot

A creeper is one of the last things you want to see sneaking up on you, but that didn't stop maker Efren Lopez from making his own from scratch. This Raspberry Pi creeper robot locomotes using four wheels and has camera modules that let it see the world around it. It's also spruced up with AI so it can interpret the surrounding environment and react accordingly.

Why we love it:

Minecraft is just as cool today as it was over a decade ago. This robot would be neat enough even if it wasn't Minecraft-themed, but it is—so here we are. The creeper robot looks great and is a wonderful example of the Raspberry Pi's potential as an AI-driven controller.

Read: Raspberry Pi Creeper Robot

Raspberry Pi 5 Wood Finished Cyberdeck with Custom Milled Keypad

The Raspberry Pi is to cyberdecks as peanut butter is to jelly. This beautiful handheld cyberdeck has the kind of professional finish most makers can only dream about. It has gorgeous wood casing and the keypad has been completely custom milled just for this project. Maker Nicholas LaBonte truly went above and beyond for this creation.

Why we love it:

This cyberdeck is really cool. It's the kind of hardware you wouldn't mind someone seeing you play around with in public. In fact, you want someone to ask about it just for the chance to splurge about all the hard work that went into making it look so fine.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 Wood Finished Cyberdeck with Custom Milled Keypad

Raspberry Pi Glass Dome Display

What's that sitting in the corner? It might not look like it at first glance, but that glass dome is actually a transparent screen for a Raspberry Pi. Using the "Pepper's Ghost" effect, this project projects images onto a clear film creating a really cool invisible screen. The code has also been made open source so you can recreate it for yourself at home.

Why we love it:

This project is way cooler than your typical LCD panel or eInk display. In fact, it's one of the most rare screen types you'll come across when it comes to Raspberry Pi projects. This screen is more than a novelty, it's a highlight of skill and just as impressive today as it was when the "Pepper's Ghost" effect was created over 100 years ago.

Read: Raspberry Pi Glass Dome Display

Dual Raspberry Pi Pico Portable Mini PC

We've seen Raspberry Pi handhelds that incorporate a Pico into them as an extra controller but this is one of the few we've ever come across that runs entirely on a Pico. This handheld uses two Picos—one to operate as the main processor and another one to operate as a graphics card.

Why we love it:

This is a beautiful example of the Raspberry Pi Pico's potential and the end results are fantastic. The handheld has a professional design and is finished with a look that's classy and function that's got lots of room for customization.

Read: Dual Raspberry Pi Pico Portable Mini PC

Raspberry Pi AI Pizza Clock

This project takes everything we love about telling time and pizza, merging the two using the power of AI. This AI pizza clock creates an image of pizza to represent the current time. You can use any other round image you like. In the examples given by maker Likeablob, we see a demo of a sunflower that accomplishes the same thing.

Why we love it:

You have to wonder how makers come up with ideas like this, but in the end we just don't care. It's a really fun idea and it's so well executed. Even if you don't want one for yourself, reading into how the project is pulled off is fascinating in itself.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Pizza Clock

Raspberry Pi Pico 'WOPR' Server Rack Upgrade

If you're familiar with the 1980's movie War Games, you're sure to recognize this project. Maker Aforsberg has created an upgrade for his server rack that replicates the 'WOPR' computer using our favorite microcontroller—the Raspberry Pi Pico—along with some daisy-chained matrices and custom code.

Why we love it:

This is a really cool shoutout to the classic movie and is so well done that we couldn't help but feature it again in our list here today. The Pico is responsible for controlling the matrix panels and coming up with a randomized light display to mimic the computer from the movie.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico 'WOPR' Server Rack Upgrade

Raspberry Pi Pico Spacewar Controller

Tominator2000 uses a Raspberry Pi Pico to make a custom controller to emulate the game Spacewar more accurately. It's got a couple of joysticks and runs entirely on the Pico as its main controller. The idea was to create a couple of controllers to demo the game emulation at a convention.

Why we love it:

We love retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi, and this is just another flavor to add to our menu. The project is very well done and is so unique that we thought it deserved a little extra attention. You can see a demo video of it in action in the original project thread.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Spacewar Controller

Raspberry Pi Map of Manhattan

This Raspberry Pi-powered map of Manhattan shows you where subway trains are in real-time. It has a 3D-printed body and uses fiber optics to show train locations connected to matrix panels controlled by the Raspberry Pi. The colors are determined by the matrix panels, not the subway lines, so you can tell when trains run on different tracks than usual.

Why we love it:

Words can hardly express how unique and impressive this project is. Everything from the concept to the finished design oozes creativity, and we're all for it. The only way to get something this cool is to make it yourself, and Bicapitate deserves all the praise in the world for its construction.

Read: Raspberry Pi Map of Manhattan

Raspberry Pi Dune Weaver Table

This Raspberry Pi-powered decor is at the top of most makers' wishlist. Using our favorite SBC, this 'Dune Weaver' table draws images automatically in sand using magnets. It has a smartphone interface that you can use to select images or just let it rotate through a playlist of them for some automated variety.

Why we love it:

We fell in love with this project as soon as we laid eyes on it. It's a beautiful work of art and engineering that's worthy of all the extra attention we can give it. The idea is cool enough on its own but to see it in action is on a different level entirely.

Read: Raspberry Pi Dune Weaver Table

Tom's Hardware Projects

It's hard to look at so many awesome projects and not expect a little inspiration and creativity to rub off on us. Here are a few Pi projects put together by the staff here at Tom's Hardware over the last month, complete with all the steps you need to recreate it for yourself at home.

Create your own Raspberry Pi powered home VOIP service with Mumble

You don't even need the latest Raspberry Pi to do this project. We successfully pulled it off using the original Raspberry Pi 1. This guide shows us how to make a home VOIP service using Mumble.

Read: Create your own Raspberry Pi-powered home VOIP service with Mumble

How to Run DeepSeek R1 on your Raspberry Pi 5

Want to check out DeepSeek R1? You're not the only one. This guide demonstrates how to set it up on the latest Raspberry Pi 5. It might not be the fastest way to use DeepSeek R1, but it can operate offline.

Read: How to Run DeepSeek R1 on your Raspberry Pi 5

When the moon hits your eye like a Raspberry Pi—that's amore and we've got more Pi projects than you can handle this month. These are some of the best Raspberry Pi projects we've covered over the last month and we're excited to give them some extra attention. These makers use everything from the Raspberry Pi Pico to the latest Raspberry Pi 5 to bring their ideas to life.

We share all of the details when they're made available and, thankfully, most of these projects are open source so you can follow along to recreate them at home. When possible, we'll link you to the hardware you need which includes some of the best Raspberry Pi accessories, HATs and more.

'The Matrix' Raspberry Pi Case

If you're not ready to unplug from the Matrix just yet, you might as well have some fun with the cool Raspberry Pi accessories programmed into our simulation. This custom Raspberry Pi 5 case is themed to the sci-fi movie The Matrix. It's complete with green LEDs and an LCD screen that replicates the falling text effect.

Why we love it:

We love Pi projects that incorporate our favorite franchises like this one. This case looks gorgeous, and it's really useful for a Pi that runs hot, like the Raspberry Pi 5. This project was a cool idea and it's been very well executed.

Read: 'The Matrix' Raspberry Pi Case

Raspberry Pi Wireless USB Flash Drive

Maker and developer The Feral Engineer has made the USB port on their embroidery machine into a wireless USB flash drive using our favorite SBC. Instead of unplugging the flash drive to transfer files over from a PC, now they just have to connect to the wireless network device to drag and drop files over.

Why we love it:

This is a ridiculously handy project not just for embroidery machines but other devices that use USB flash drives to load files. It could easily be recreated and used for a 3D printer which is probably what most of us here would use it for. This is a clever idea and very well executed.

Read: Raspberry Pi Wireless USB Flash Drive

Raspberry Pi Nintendo Switch-Themed Handheld Emulator

This Raspberry Pi handheld system might look like a Nintendo Switch but it's far from it. Inside is our favorite SBC powering a system of emulators. The case is 3D printed and has working controls built into the sides, just like you'd find with the Joy-Con controllers. Instead of playing Switch games, however, you can play everything from NES to GameCube.

Why we love it:

We love retro gaming projects on the Raspberry P,i and this design is just another great excuse to make another cool Pi-powered handheld. This project is a really fun idea and the end results are clearly worth all the effort.

Read: Raspberry Pi Nintendo Switch-Themed Handheld Emulator

Raspberry Pi Pico Game Boy Pokémon-Themed Alarm Clock

Of all the fun things to do with an old Game Boy, this is one of the most creative ideas we've seen. Maker and developer Mod Room My made a Game Boy alarm clock featuring an eInk display and a cool Pokémon theme for the UI. It operates on batteries or can be plugged into power with a cable.

Why we love it:

The idea is awesome and the final product is a useful gadget that most of us need throughout the week on a regular basis. This is clearly the alarm clock of dreams that we didn't know we were missing. It's just icing on the cake that our favorite SBC is inside.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Game Boy Pokémon-Themed Alarm Clock

Raspberry Pi Jukebox

If you're looking for a fun project you can jam to, you should check out this Raspberry Pi jukebox put together by maker and developer Siuengr. It has a user interface thar's operated with custom buttons and a snazzy RGB LED strip along the bottom for added flair. The case features some custom artwork and houses everything from the Pi to the display screen.

Why we love it:

This project just goes to show how you can have fancy hardware of your own with a Raspberry Pi and a little ingenuity. Not everyone can say they own their own jukebox, let alone a custom one filled with your favorite music.

Read: Raspberry Pi Jukebox

Raspberry Pi Pico Game Boy Printer Emulator

This Game Boy project emulates the classic Game Boy printer. It connects to Game Boys that were compatible with the printer and is recognized by them as the original device. Instead of printing the pictures, however, it stores a copy of them onto a microSD card.

Why we love it:

This is a super niche project and is very well executed. It's a cool way to play around with games that relied on the Game Boy printer without the need for thermal paper. If you're looking for a way to play around with Game Boy printer games or just create digital copies of printable files from your Game Boy, this is the project for you.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Game Boy Printer Emulator

Raspberry Pi Pico Secure Delivery Box

Protecting packages from porch thieves could be its own industry. If you don't feel like blasting package stealing ne'er do wells with flour as Ryder Damen did with his Pi project, you can always create a cool Pico secure delivery box like maker and developer Woodycal has done.

Why we love it:

This is a well-engineered solution for a modern problem and we're just delighted that Woodycal opted to use our favorite microcontroller as the main driver. You can operate the box settings remotely including the locking mechanism which is really useful when you're not at home.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Secure Delivery Box

Toshiba T1000 Raspberry Pi 4 Upgrade

If you're a fan of T1000 old school PCs, you're going to love this awesome Raspberry Pi 4 upgrade put together by maker and developer Nilseuropa. This build has the classic form factor and physical experience you would expect with a T1000 but with the added power and performance of a Raspberry Pi 4 inside.

Why we love it:

No working T1000 PCs were harmed in the making of this project. Nilseuropa has spent the last few years fixing up these PCs and had some components leftover leading to the development of this cool Pi-powered edition.

Read: Toshiba T1000 Raspberry Pi 4 Upgrade

Raspberry Pi 5 CNC Machined Aluminum Case

If you've used a Raspberry Pi 5 before, you know these bad boys can run a bit hot. Ideatracker decided to take matters into his own hands by creating a CNC machined aluminum case for the Pi. It acts as a beautiful giant heatsink with handy port access on the side. It's one thing to buy a high quality case like this from a third party, it's another to make one yourself from scratch.

Why we love it:

This case is awesome for both how it's designed and how functional it is as a heatsink. This project is hands down one of the most useful accessories you could have around for your Raspberry Pi 5. It's very impressive to see someone make something like this from the ground up.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 CNC Machined Aluminum Case

3D-printed Raspberry Pi All-in-One Portable Gaming Rig

All-in-one Raspberry Pi rigs are always exciting to see, but this one created by Arnov Sharma is absolutely beautiful. The Pi Box has everything you need for general Pi use from a gorgeous 3D printed shell to a handle for portability. Whether you're looking to tinker around with Python or game on the go, the Pi Box will get the job done and turn heads in the process.

Why we love it:

This Pi project is too cool for school. Actually, it would be really cool to see something like this in school. The case is well-designed and adds so much personality to what's already a handy setup.

Read: 3D-printed Raspberry Pi All-in-One Portable Gaming Rig

The new year is here and we've got an awesome list of Raspberry Pi projects put together from the last month that are sure to kickstart your year with some inspiration. These projects use all sorts of Raspberry Pi models, including the Raspberry Pi 5 and all of its beloved predecessors. Whether you're an experienced maker or interested amateur, we've got tons of cool ideas that you can recreate at home or use as a springboard to make something similar.

These makers use the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs around to bring their ideas to fruition and we'll be sure to link you to the build guides whenever possible. Most of these projects are open source so there's plenty of meat to dig into.

Custom Raspberry Pi 5 Case with Liquid Cooling

It's no secret that the Raspberry Pi 5 runs a bit hot—they even released an official fan for cooling. Maker Michael Klements decided to take matters into his own hands with his custom Pi 5 case. This little unit has liquid cooling and manages to keep the Pi at optimal performance temperatures.

Why we love it:

Liquid cooling your Pi is already a super useful and fun idea but to do it with this much style is just taking the project to a whole new level. The case was designed from scratch and required knowledge in both 3D printing and laser cutting to pull off. It's always a delight to see so many different maker fields come together in one project.

Read: Custom Raspberry Pi 5 Case with Liquid Cooling

Raspberry Pi Smart Cane for Visually Impaired

This smart cane uses our favorite SBC to add some safety features for visually impaired persons. Not only does it help the user with real-time alerts using its integrated speaker but it also has the ability to send out notifications in the event of emergencies. The cane uses a few extra modules including one that adds GPS support.

Why we love it:

We really appreciate the potential this project has for helping visually impaired individuals gain more independence. Anything that makes travel safer and adds peace of mind for caregivers is a huge plus.

Read: Raspberry Pi Smart Cane

Raspberry Pi 'Portal' Sentry Turret

This project is truly a triumph. Reckless_commenter has recreated the sentry turret from the 'Portal' franchise. It has a built-in speaker and plays creepy soundbites from the game that are sure to terrify any intruders or unsuspecting passersby. The body is 3D printed and houses a Raspberry Pi inside and the additional hardware.

Why we love it:

We're always excited to see Pi projects crossover with sci-fi franchises like this. The project is cool on its own but there's a lot of room for upgrading and modifying the turret with additional features that make for a cool end product.

Read: Raspberry Pi 'Portal' Sentry Turret

Raspberry Pi eInk AI-Generated Flower Paintings Frame

It can get old looking at the same pictures all of the time. Why not create never-before-seen paintings to spruce things up a bit? That's what maker Dylan has done with this AI-generated eInk display frame project. It uses a Raspberry Pi to create flower paintings using AI and outputs them onto a low-power eInk panel.

Why we love it:

Merging AI and art for a decoration like this is really cool but the fact that it's running on a Pi is just icing on the cake. The image generation is handled locally on the Pi instead of parsing requests across the internet which is even more exciting.

Read: Raspberry Pi eInk AI-Generated Flower Paintings Frame

Raspberry Pi Playstation 4 Controller Console

Restoring old hardware is always admirable but transforming it into something new can be exciting! Maker ConsciousFish6170 has turned an old PlayStation 4 controller into a retro gaming console using none other than our favorite SBC as the main board powering the system.

Why we love it:

It can be hard to find a good case for your Pi so we're tickled to see this one made from a PS4 controller. It looks like an input device but it's actually the whole console. We're probably a little biased but can you blame us? It was a great choice to put a Raspberry Pi inside.

Read: Raspberry Pi Playstation 4 Controller Console

Raspberry Pi Matrix Mask

You can't be too careful when it comes to protecting your identity, so why not don this crazy cool LED matrix mask put together by maker and developer Sean Hodgins? This Pi-powered mask lets you display images and even videos across hundreds of LEDs. A slit in the front lets you peer out and see through the matrix panels.

Why we love it:

This is a fun idea on its own but to see it implemented so well is just a delight. We're not surprised as Hodgins has a history of putting together some really cool projects already. This one is very well executed and we wish we could try it on for ourselves.

Read: Raspberry Pi Matrix Mask

Raspberry Pi 500 Keyboard with M.2 Slot Mod

The Raspberry Pi 500 was definitely a highly-desired product but makers were upset to find the NVMe M.2 slot missing. Thankfully, modders have already stepped up to modify the keyboard so that you can install an SSD. It takes a fair bit of work to pull off but the results can be worth the effort.

Why we love it:

This is a really cool mod that makes it possible to get everything you want out of the latest Pi 500. We really appreciate that it didn't take much time before the community figured out how to upgrade the board with the missing slot.

Read: Raspberry Pi 500 Keyboard with M.2 Slot Mod

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 WalkPi

Finally, you can make the Walkman of your dreams using the latest Raspberry Pi Pico 2. This custom music player features a custom PCB and a beautiful design that we loved too much to ignore. The project is dubbed WalkPi and lets you play MP3s on the go—surely to impress your friends.

Why we love it:

This is a cool idea for makers who want something fun to make and show off. The custom PCB looks fantastic and the end result is something we would carry around with us on a regular basis.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico 2 WalkPi

It's hard to believe that it's already November, but we're incredibly thankful for all the great Raspberry Pi projects we've come across this year. Today, we're looking at ten of the best Pi projects we've featured over the last month. These makers use different Raspberry Pi models to bring their creations to life, including the latest Raspberry Pi 5 and more.

When possible, we share all the details we have on how to recreate these projects or at least get a better idea of how they go together. The projects on this list were made using the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs for some seriously impressive end results. If you're looking for something fun to make this fall, there's definitely some inspiring work to indulge in below!

Raspberry Pi Pelican Cyberdeck

Jake Simek took things to the extreme when it came to putting together a case for his Raspberry Pi. This cyberdeck is housed inside of a Pelican case and comes with all the bells and whistles you could ask for when it comes to computing on the go and maybe a little hacking on the side.

Why we love it:

The quality of this cyberdeck build is top-notch and gorgeous to look at. The extra features are well thought out and definitely what you'd want to have in a portable PC. Whether you're looking for something you can hack with or just want a cool gaming rig to take with you, this is one build that's sure to inspire.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pelican Cyberdeck

 Raspberry Pi Streaming Rig 

When it comes to DIY entertainment, you can't go wrong with a Raspberry Pi media center. But what about for road trips? That's where ImJustWhelmed's project comes in handy! This Raspberry Pi streaming rig is made to help you bring your media with you when traveling. You can queue up your favorite shows with a smartphone, laptop or anything with a browser.

Why we love it:

We don't need an excuse to take a Pi with us on a road trip but we'll happily take one. There's so much more to do than just gaming on the go and this is a great example of what you can do with a little bit of effort. If you're looking for something to make your next road trip more enjoyable, you definitely should take a close look at this setup.

Read: Raspberry Pi Streaming Rig

 Raspberry Pi Proxmox ProxTag 

This little project was put together by Joseph Cauble and makes managing virtual machines with Proxmox Manager easier than ever. It features a tiny e-Ink display with a potentiometer that lets you monitor your machines and adjust a few settings. Cauble dubs his creation the Proxmox ProxTag.

Why we love it:

This project is really unique and very well-executed. It's definitely a bit niche but if you're into microelectronics projects and playing around with virtual environments, it's a match made in heaven.

Read: Raspberry Pi Proxmox ProxTag

 Raspberry Pi Pico W Brings 1986 Mac Online 

This is one of those projects that you do because you can not because you necessarily should. Hunter Irving is using a Raspberry Pi to connect an original 1986 Macintosh to the internet. Generally it's a bad idea to connect old hardware to the internet for security reasons but there's also a great deal of compatibility issues. Thankfully, he delves into both of these concerns and does it anyway!

Why we love it:

This is a really cool idea and the fact that it works as well as it does is super exciting. Not every website will work with a setup like this but it looks fun enough to tinker around with the ones that do.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico W Brings 1986 Mac Online

 Raspberry Pi Pico Simon Game 

We've heard of retrogaming on the Raspberry Pi but haven't quite seen it done like this! Instead of emulating an old game, FlorinCProjects has programmed a working version of Simon from scratch using one of our favorite SBCs—the Raspberry Pi Pico! It plays just like the original game and is just as fun to build as it is to play with.

Why we love it:

This project is designed to not only be fun to play but also look the part. The case is made from a recycled access point case and it works really well here. The arcade buttons are a nice touch as is the seven segment display in the middle.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Simon Game

 Raspberry Pi RP2350 PyDOS 

If you miss the Blackberry PDA form factor, you're going to love this RP2350-powered handheld put together by Anne Barela. This creation is dubbed PyDOS and it looks fantastic. Not only does it take advantage of the latest processor to come from Raspberry Pi, it's a super handy device capable of recreating the old school DOS experience we knew and love.

Why we love it:

We don't need a PyDOS, we just really want one. It's such a cool idea and the final product is absolutely gorgeous! The Blackberry keyboard is also icing on the cake—or should we say Pi? This project is definitely one worth checking out.

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2350 PyDOS

 Raspberry Pi FlexPi Flexible Pico 

We came across this Kickstarter project from TOP Gadgets and knew we had to feature it. The team has put together a totally flexible Raspberry Pi Pico replica known as FlexPi. This build also comes with a few upgrades like a USB Type-C port and a programmable RGB LED. It's important for us to note that supporting this Kickstarter project is more like an investment and not a guarantee you will receive the final product.

Why we love it:

If you're wondering what a board like this is useful for, you're not alone. It's essentially just a Raspberry Pi Pico. That said, the flexible PCB is super thin and can find inside tighter cases or devices that have a slight bend to them.

Read: Raspberry Pi FlexPi Flexible Pico

 Raspberry Pi Trackpad 

We've always had a lot of respect for the community when it comes to building something from scratch that they could otherwise buy. This project was put together by a team known as Ploopy. This trackpad is Raspberry Pi-powered and offers a great deal of flexibility thanks to its open source design. You can make it yourself, modify it or even buy a kit to assemble at home.

Why we love it:

It's always exciting to see the Pi used in an open source project like this. With a little extra work, you can take the design and modify it to suit your personal needs and end up with a useful input device that doubles as a cool talking point.

Read: Raspberry Pi Trackpad

 Raspberry Pi NEC TurboExpress 

There's nothing like breathing life into old hardware and that's exactly what Dawilson 246 has done with this old NEC Turbo Express. Not only does it fit a Raspberry Pi inside, much of the original hardware still works including the buttons on the front. Don't worry—no working NEC Turbo Express handhelds were harmed during the making of this project.

Why we love it:

We love old school hardware, we love gaming handhelds and we're absolutely nuts about the Raspberry Pi! It should come as no surprise that we jumped with excitement when we saw this cool creation.

Read: Raspberry Pi NEC TurboExpress

 Raspberry Pi Pico Macintosh 128K 

This is one of those projects that's really awesome in what it can do and what it represents. Action Retro has recreated a Macintosh 128K that runs entirely on a Raspberry Pi Pico. All you need is a special kit and you can recreate the old school computing experience for less than $20 bucks.

Why we love it:

When you consider how much the Macintosh 128K sold for when it first debuted—we're talking thousands of dollars—it's absolutely insane to realize you can make one now for $14. This project is really cool and a great learning tool for newcomers that want to learn about both microelectronics and retro computing.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Macintosh 128K

Tom's Hardware Projects

It's impossible to look at all of these amazing creations and not be inspired to make a few Raspberry Pi projects ourselves. Here's a look at what the team here at Tom's Hardware has been up to over the last month along with tutorials you can follow along with at home.

 How to install and use the new Raspberry Pi boot menu 

Interested in the new Raspberry Pi boot menu? So were we! In this guide, Les tells us what the fuss is all about and how you can set it up for yourself. All you need is a Raspberry Pi 5 and multiple sources to boot from.

Read: How to install and use the new Raspberry Pi boot menu

How to build Raspberry Pi Pico projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

If you're familiar with MS Visual Studio, you're going to love this guide on how you can use it to program your Raspberry Pi Pico projects! Sometimes it's easier to get into new things with a tool you're already used to using. Les goes over everything you need to get started.

Read: How to build Raspberry Pi Pico projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

If you're in the mood for a cool Raspberry Pi project to keep you busy this fall, you're in luck. We've put together a list of some of the best Raspberry Pi projects we've had the honor of featuring over the last month and firmly believe they deserve a little extra attention.

These makers use everything from the latest Raspberry Pi 5 to early boards that helped pave the way for this beloved line of hardware. They also implement some of the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs to bring their creative ideas to life. So we'll be sure to link you to all of the hardware they used so you can see exactly how they work and maybe even recreate them for yourself at home.

Raspberry Pi Pico Paw Patrol Toy Arcade Controller

Sure, you might hav played Sega's Super Hang-On before, but we'd bet cash money you haven't played it with a Paw Patrol toy as a controller—unless you're Dr. Tom Tilley. Using one of our favorite SBCs, he's transformed this kids toy into a working input device that lets you play the game using it like a steering wheel.

Why we love it:

This is a hilarious and inventive way to recyle old hardware and breathe new life into an otherwise obsolete toy. It also makes for a head turning headline that we couldn't help but share again with our readers who love microelectronics as much as we do.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Paw Patrol Toy Arcade Controller

Raspberry Pi Pico Model Train Level Crossing Lights

You can get seriously creative with model trains when throwing a Raspberry Pi into the mix and this project showcases that idea incredibly well. Using a Raspberry Pi Pico, Brendan McGrath has created working level crossing lights that work like real world ones do but on a much smaller scale.

Why we love it:

This is far from the first Pi-powered model train project we've seen but it's one of the latest and one we'll definitely keep in mind when working on tiny transportation projects of our own. It's one thing to make an LED flash, it's another to make it responsive to how hardware works in the real world.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Model Train Level Crossing Lights

Raspberry Pi 5 'Nostalgia Machine'

Anyone can make a Raspberry Pi streaming platform but maker and developer Shan Mason took the idea and ran with it—all the way back to 1980 to recreate a more classic TV viewing experience. You don't pick and choose what you watch and when as this Raspberry Pi retro TV plays media on a schedule, taking into account the time, day of the week and even holidays.

Why we love it:

This is a really cool idea and it's great to see it implemented so well. It's just icing on the cake (or should we say Pi) that it uses not one but two Raspberry Pi boards to pull off. The hardware is tucked neatly inside a cigar box that sits next to the old CRT TV which really just adds to the vintage setting.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 'Nostalgia Machine'

Raspberry Pi AI EYE Camera

If you like projects with AI, you're going to love this convoluted AI-powered creation from maker Oscar Wilmerdingh. Using a Raspberry Pi, this camera (dubbed the AI EYE camera) captures an image, uses AI to create a text-based description of the image and then recreates it using another AI app based on the text that was generated.

Why we love it:

This project has no business in any practical situation but it's such a fun idea and works great. A lot of work went into its design included the beautiful 3D printed shell it's housed in. We appreciate all of the effort that went into its creation and firmly believe it deserves extra attention from our readers.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI EYE Camera

Raspberry Pi 'Bumpin Sticker'

Guy Dupont's creative juices must be flowing from a neverending fountain because he's at it again with what he calls his 'Bumpin' Sticker' project. This Pi-powered bumper sticker automatically updates to reflect whatever song he's currently streaming so driver know exactly what he's grooving to in real-time.

Why we love it:

This is one of those projects that really sticks out—no pun intended. It's a fun idea that's incredibly well-executed. If it were a commercial product, no doubt people would line up at the chance to buy one for themselves. Until then, however, you'll just have to follow his lead and make it yourself from scratch.

Read: Raspberry Pi 'Bumpin Sticker'

Tom's Hardware Projects

It's seriously impossible for us to look at Raspberry Pi projects all day long and not create some of our own. We love the chance to tinker and share our work in form of tutorials so you can follow along at home, as well. Here's what the staff of Tom's Hardware has been up to lately as well as links to the guides we put together for you to check out.

How to install MicroPython for RISC-V on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2

Have you been interested in tinkering with RISC-V on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2? Us, too! Thankfully, Les has done all of the brunt work for us and put together this amazing tutorial showcasing how you can set up MicroPython for RISC-V on the newest Pico 2 microcontroller.

Read: How to install MicroPython for RISC-V on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2

Cytron Motion 2350 Pro Review: The RP2350 Robot Platform

There's a reason Cytron has become an industry standard in the Pi community for tinkering with robotics. In this review, Les shows us all the ins and outs of the newest Cytron Motion 2350. If you're not pumped yet, you will be! This board is awesome and definitely worth taking a close look at.

Read: Cytron Motion 2350 Pro Review: The RP2350 Robot Platform

Fall is quickly approaching for makers in the northern hemisphere and we've got some cool Raspberry Pi to share so warm up your soldering irons. We've got all kinds of great creations using the newest Raspberry Pi 5, Pico 2 and everything else in between. Whether you're an amateur or professional microelectronics enthusiast, there's something here to get your gears turning guaranteed.

As always, these makers integrate their projects with the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs around to bring their ideas to fruition. Whenever possible, we share all of the details and links you need to make these projects for yourself at home. Be sure to stick around to the end to check out some tutorials put together by the staff here at Tom's Hardware.

Raspberry Pi-enhanced Kids’ Electric Car

Not all of us are lucky enough to grow up with makers as parents but Jon Skagmo's kids are. Skagmo spruced up his kids' electric car with a Raspberry Pi adding in tons of cool features including things like a touchscreen and onboard music—effectively turning it into a miniature smart car.

Why we love it:

There's no reason you can't indoctrinate your kids early into the world of microelectronics. This is a great project that both shows the potential of the Raspberry Pi and how a little bit of creativity can bring your vision into reality.

Read: Raspberry Pi-enhanced Kids’ Electric Car

Raspberry Pi Keyholder Backs Up Flash Drive Data

For those that carry a flash drive with them every day, this project is a must have! Thinkdolearn has created a keychain holder that will backup your flash drive when connecting it via USB. The backups take place overnight so you don't have to worry about anything but undocking it in the morning.

Why we love it:

This keychain holder is very handy to have around and you can easily customize it. The project is very practical and the execution is well done. We just appreciate that Thinklearndo took the time to share all their work with us so we don't have to start from scratch.

Read: Raspberry Pi Keyholder Backs Up Flash Drive Data

Raspberry Pi Pico Watch

Some Raspberry Pi projects are just made for the runway and this is one of them. This Raspberry Pi Pico watch is peak haute couture—or should we say hack couture? It uses a ring of colored LEDs to indicate the hour, minute and second.

Why we love it:

We're huge fans of the Raspberry Pi, of course we'd jump at the opportunity to wear one all of the time. We covered this project before but this latest upgrade is just so sleek. The wristband and metal housing are absolutely gorgeous and make for a professional finish.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Watch

Raspberry Pi RC Tank Shoots Bubbles

This Raspberry Pi tank project isn't as dangerous as it looks. The exact Raspberry Pi model used isn't clear but it's driving a tank alongside an Arduino Nano. This tank doesn't shoot hard projectiles but rather bubbles. It has four wheels instead of tank treads but the top moves around like a real tank.

Why we love it:

If you've been looking for a project to chase your cats around with, this is the one. It's chaotic enough to be fun but harmless enough to be safe. The worst you have to worry about is getting bubble solution in your eye or making the floor slick.

Read: Raspberry Pi RC Tank Shoots Bubbles

Raspberry Pi CatBot Monitors for Stray Cats

Speaking of cats, this Raspberry Pi cat monitor project is perfect for anyone with too many strays outside. It monitors for stray cats and snaps a picture of them. These pictures can be collected later or texted immediately so you can see which kitty is on your porch.

Why we love it:

We like cats and we like Pi projects that take pictures of cats. This is a wonderful intersection of two passions. The setup also can detect birds and startle them away by tapping at the window so they don't consume the cat food which can be harmful. We're awarding bonus points here for saving the birds.

Read: Raspberry Pi CatBot Monitors for Stray Cats

Raspberry Pi Hands-Free Drone Controller

Learning how negative numbers work in various equations can be a serious headache but teaching someone else to understand them is another challenge entirely. Thankfully, we've got makers like Russell Eveleigh out there who've made the process easier thanks to this Zero Pairs display.

Why we love it:

Education has always been at the core of what the Raspberry Pi is all about so it's cool to see a Pi used in a project like this. The concept is unique and the design is very well done. We like the visual 3D-printed accompaniment to the GUI. It's an awesome tool to have on hand for anyone working with a visual learner.

Read: Raspberry Pi Zero Pairs Display

Raspberry Pi Hands-Free Drone Controller

This controller uses a Raspberry Pi to help make the world of drone flying more accessible. The board is called AeroCommand and it enables you to operate a drone completely hands free. You can use things like facial expressions and voice commands to indicate where you want the drone to go.

Why we love it:

Flying a drone is really hard to do no matter how coordinated you are with your thumbs. Anything that makes the process easier and opens the world of flying to more people is a winning move in our book.

Read: Raspberry Pi Hands-Free Drone Controller

Raspberry Pi AI Glasses Helps Visually Impaired People

We love Pi projects that dabble in making the world more accessible and this is one impressive attempt at doing just that. Md. Khairul Alamhas has created a pair of glasses for visually impaired persons with a camera module positioned in the front. It's connected to a Pi that uses AI to help the wearer better understand their environment using text to speech and a pair of earbuds.

Why we love it:

This is a truly unique way to help people with visual impairment navigate the world independently. The project has quite a few elements that bring the final build together from machine learning to text-to-speech. It's a fun idea and it's neat to see something so potentially useful get attention.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Glasses Helps Visually Impaired People

Raspberry Pi Card-playing Robot

If you've ever been short a guy when playing cards, Dominic LeBoeuf has you covered with his awesome Raspberry Pi-powered card playing robot. The robot is programmed to play just one game by itself but the idea is really cool and it works so well.

Why we love it:

There are a few ways to pull off a project like this and it's neat to see what LeBoeuf ultimately landed on. Cards are lifted using suction and identified with NFC tags. There was also a good deal of 3D printing involved to build the robotic arm and card trays.

Read: Raspberry Pi Card-playing Robot

Raspberry Pi 5 Modular Pocket PC

Image credit: Soulcircuit

This is one of the coolest Raspberry Pi 5 mini PCs we've seen yet. It's modular with all sorts of things you can add on like a keyboard for input. The unit is also completely portable which makes it a great pocket PC option.

Why we love it:

We haven't seen too many Pi 5 pocket PCs, let alone a neat modular one like this. The design is absolutely gorgeous with a sleek white shell and bright orange accents. There's a lot of versatility to be had in a design like this as well as room for customization.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 Modular Pocket PC

Tom's Hardware Projects

It's seriously impossible to look at awesome Raspberry Pi projects like these all the time and not be inspired to make something of our own. Here's what the staff of Tom's Hardware has been up to lately along with tutorials you can follow along with at home.

How to Control your Raspberry Pi Camera using a web UI

In this updated guide, Les shows us how you can operate a Raspberry Pi camera module over the internet using a web based interface. We go over everything you need as well as what to do in order to get the software setup so you can better integrate cameras into your next Raspberry Pi project.

Read: How to Control your Raspberry Pi Camera using a web UI

The summer is winding down as we sneak into August (for those in the northern hemisphere anyway) and it's time again to take a look at some of the coolest Raspberry Pi projects that we've featured over the last month. We've got a little bit of everything to inspire your inner maker using anything Pi—from the smallest RP2040 to the beefiest Raspberry Pi 5.

Many of these projects are open source, so we'll provide links to the source code when we can. The makers behind these projects use some of the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs available on the market to bring their ideas to life. Whether you're an expert microelectronics master or new to a soldering iron, there's something here for you.

Mini Fractal Design North Raspberry Pi Case

If you missed it, Fractal Design had a really cool Raspberry Pi case to show off at Computex 2024. They took their North desktop case design and miniaturized it for the Pi. However, this cool tiny case was just for show. Thankfully, some fans have recreated it for anyone that wants one of their own at home.

Why we love it:

That tiny North case was super cool but it was such a bummer to learn it was a one off design. It's always a treat to see the community step in like this to make things more accessible. Thanks to their work, you can print this case for yourself.

Read: Mini Fractal Design North Raspberry Pi Case

Zerowriter Ink Typewriter

As the name would suggest, this Raspberry Pi project was made with writers in mind. It's actually an upgrade from an existing project but with a bigger screen and sleeker end design. If you're interested in a portable Pi-power typewriter, you should check out the Zerowriter Ink Typewriter from Zerowriter.

Why we love it:

We covered this project previously so it was exciting to see it get an update. The original idea is awesome and it's cool to know the maker is still honing in the design to make it exactly what they want.

Read: Zerowriter Ink Typewriter

Raspberry Pi DinkyDash Family Dashboard

Schedules can be hectic things to manage, especially when you've got a big family. That may be—but maker and developer Caspar von Wrede decided to do something about it with his DinkyDash family dashboard project. This is a simple dashboard that compiles important family events in one place.

Why we love it:

This could be adapted for a wide variety of use cases. It's amazing how a simple idea can be complex both in itself and in what it accomplishes. The DinkyDash is a great idea and is executed very well.

Read: Raspberry Pi DinkyDash Family Dashboard

Cyberdore 2064 Cyberdeck

You've heard of the Commodore 64 but you probably haven't heard of the Pi-powered handheld cyberdeck, Cyberdore 2064. This slick little handheld features a full keyboard, screen, and a few other add ons that make it a truly one of a kind build.

Why we love it:

We're just gonna lay it out—this thing looks cool as all get out. The design is on point and the fact that it uses our favorite SBC is just icing on the Pi. It's also open source, so you can make one for yourself, too.

Read: Cyberdore 2064 Cyberdeck

Raspberry Pi 1000 with Raspberry Pi 5

The Raspberry Pi 5 has been out for a while and we've been ready for its version of the Raspberry Pi 400 since the day it launched. If you're familiar with the maker community in any capacity, though, you know someone's probably tried making their own and that's exactly what Arnov Sharma has done with his Raspberry Pi 1000 project.

Why we love it:

Sharma makes tons of cool things, like a giant Game Boy, and this is no exception. It might not be the first Raspberry Pi 5-based version of the Raspberry Pi 400 we've seen, but it's certainly a unique contender worthy of attention.

Read: Raspberry Pi 1000 with Raspberry Pi 5

Raspberry Pi Pico YouTube Subscriber Counter

How many subscribers do you have again? Don't bother opening YouTube. Just throw together this cool YouTube Subscriber Counter designed by Yakroo108! It uses our favorite microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi Pico as the main board. The main screen is an LED matrix but it also has an LCD display for showing extra stats.

Why we love it:

There are a lot of elements that go into this project that we appreciate. It's the little details like the LCD showing the IP address that makes the project go from neat to neater.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico YouTube Subscriber Counter

Raspberry Pi CM4 MultiPi Console

Gaming on the Raspberry Pi is like butter on a biscuit—it just makes sense. That's probably why this MultiPi console is so awesome. That or the fact that it's powered by a CM4, sports a sleek case, and even has cartridge slots like an old school console. There are plans to release expansions to the system using the cartridges to add things like an analogue A/V card.

Why we love it:

We were intrigued by the MultiPi the moment we saw it. It's cool design, CM4 support and expansion cartridges are just too great to overlook. You can tell a lot of work went into this project design and was well worth the effort.

Read: Raspberry Pi CM4 MultiPi Console

Raspberry Pi TRS-80 Project

This project pays homage to the classic TRS-80 machines. It's powered by a Raspberry Pi, of course, and features a slew of components that make it stand out as a unique experience. It most resembles the TRS-80 Model 4 but it is not an exact replica. This Raspberry Pi TRS-80 features a touchpad, keyboard, and is housed in a beautiful 3D printed case.

Why we love it:

We're suckers for old school hardware so of course we lept at the opportunity to show off this cool build. It's obvious that a lot of thought and work went into its design. It's awesome to see makers build something complex like this from the ground up.

Read: Raspberry Pi TRS-80 Project

Raspberry Pi Flip Display

This Raspberry Pi project is flippin' awesome. It uses little flip discs, which are essentially circles with different colors on each side that rotate using a servo. With beaucoups of these laid out in a matrix, Kelly and Kathy have managed to create a full on flip disc display panel. They even spruced it up by throwing in a camera to make it interactive.

Why we love it:

We've never seen a display quite like this and were thrilled to learn a Raspberry Pi was thrown into the mix. It's a really fun idea but to see it in action actually working is just insanely cool. There's just something alluring about a digital display that seems so analogue.

Read: Raspberry Pi Flip Display

Raspberry Pi 5 Overclocked to 3.4GHz

One of the most exciting developments we've come across lately, however, is Jeff Geerling and his impressive quest to overclock the newest Raspberry Pi 5 all the way up to 3.4 GHz. So far, this is the highest anyone has ever overclocked the Pi 5.

Why we love it:

I don't think we owe anyone an explanation for this one. We have a guide here at Tom's Hardware explaining how to overclock the Raspberry Pi 5. It's a no-brainer that we should be consumed with delight at Geerling's latest development.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 Overclocked to 3.4GHz

How to write code for your Raspberry Pi Pico in your web browser with ViperIDE

You can code for the Pico from a browser? You betcha! Les shows us how it's done using ViperIDE. In this guide, he'll go over everything you need to do this yourself including links to pertinent materials along the way.

Read: How to write code for your Raspberry Pi Pico in your web browser with ViperIDE

How to make a connected badge that shows the latest news headlines

Before you head out to that cool tech con you were thinking about, you should consider putting together a cool name badge like this. It uses a Raspberry Pi Pico and displays anything you want on a small, eInk screen. In this guide, Les breaks down the full build process.

Read: How to make a connected badge that shows the latest news headlines

The Raspberry Pi is one of our favorite SBCs, and it's no wonder why. The Pi community is full of incredibly inventive makers who constantly create exciting, awe-inspiring creations using everything from the latest Raspberry Pi 5 to custom PCBs with an RP2040 microcontroller. We feature Raspberry Pi projects all week, and once a month, we gather a list of 10 of our favorites that we think are worth highlighting again.

These makers use the best Raspberry Pi accessories to bring their ideas to life. If they can make something for themselves, they usually will. But you'll also find cool HATs, cases, and modules of all sorts. Whenever possible, we'll share links to the source code so you can dig into the projects for yourself and see how they work.

Raspberry Pi Pico Sorts Candies by Color

Sorting your candies has never been so lovely and overly engineered, thanks to Techtronic3D's Raspberry Pi-powered candy sorter. Just load up your candy and let the Pi work its magic. It takes a little bit of time as the machine has to process each candy one at a time. Once a candy's color is identified, it's dropped into a 3D-printed bin that matches the color.

Why we love it:

This is a fun idea that isn't very useful, but it absolutely works as intended. It's well-designed, and the 3D-printed components add an excellent finish to its overall function. Plus, it's hard to complain about a project with an end product you can eat.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Sorts Candies by Color

Raspberry Pi Portable Arcade Cabinets

Kian Ryan put together a really cool set of arcade cabinets that use Raspberry Pis for one of his clients. They needed something to take to conventions so much of the work was in making the units easy to set up, break down and transport. The end result is this cool set of cabinets that run custom homebrew and emulate old school consoles.

Why we love it:

We love Raspberry Pi-powered arcades. Why wouldn't we get excited about a fleet of them that travels to various events? The cabinets look fantastic and we're just glad Ryan decided to put a Raspberry Pi inside all of them.

Read: Raspberry Pi Portable Arcade Cabinets

Battery-Powered Raspberry Pi PC

If you want a simple desktop with a small footprint, it makes perfect sense to create one yourself using a Raspberry Pi and that's exactly what maker and developer Arnov Sharma did. This custom desktop is known as the Power Pi Version 2 and it's not just tiny, it's portable. It also sports some fancy RGB LEDs so it has a little extra gamer flair.

Why we love it:

This PC is super cute and very well-designed. We like everything from the shape of the case to the RGB LEDs underneath. Sharma is no stranger to Pi projects so we weren't surprised to see how much work he put into this one. It's always a delight to see so much effort come together for a cool end product.

Read: Battery-Powered Raspberry Pi PC

Raspberry Pi Chat GPT Rover Bot

Some Raspberry Pi projects are made to roam and Floyd the rover bot is one of them. This Pi-powered robot was created by Larry's Workbench and it does much more than just locomote. Larry has spruced up Floyd with a dose of AI thanks to the integration of Chat GPT allowing him to talk with a good amount of sass.

Why we love it:

This is probably the closest we're going to get to creating a real life R2D2. Who doesn't love a talking robot with too much attitude? Apart from the Chat GPT features, it also has a cool rover design with omnidirectional wheels.

Read: Raspberry Pi Chat GPT Rover Bot

Raspberry Pi Zero 2W Pocket Z

Pocket PCs aren't what they used to be—nor should they! Technology has come a long way but a few makers want to take things back (just a little) like Icepat over at Hackaday. Using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, they've created a beautiful handheld PC called the Pocket Z. It features a custom PCB designed to work with the Raspberry Pi.

Why we love it:

This is a really cool example of how amazingly over the top some makers are with their creations. It's not enough to emulate an old system, they want to build one of their own and they'll design a PCB from scratch to make it happen.

Read: Raspberry Pi Zero 2W Pocket Z

Raspberry Pi Pico MicroMac

The cool thing about emulating old systems is you don't need expensive hardware. In fact, maker and developer Matt Evans is using a Raspberry Pi Pico to run this Macintosh 128K emulator. Evans demonstrated the Picos ability to run both MacDraw and MacWrite with a good deal of success.

Why we love it:

We like old technology. We like the Raspberry Pi. We really like seeing people emulate old technology on the Raspberry Pi—especially one of the smaller models like the Pico. It's a really fun project idea and we're glad to see it work so well in practice.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico MicroMac

Baby Raspberry Pi Macintosh Quadra 700

Take everything you know about the Macintosh Quadra 700—now miniaturize it and make it Linux powered. That's exactly what Brachus Creations has done with this Pi-powered Macintosh Quadra 700 project. The original was released in 1991 and was much larger. That said, this is a fun desktop replica that works just as well.

Why we love it:

You really need a good case for the modern Raspberry Pi models so why not go all out in style? This project doesn't just look the part, it walks the walk thanks to the Basilisk emulator which lets you run actual Mac software from that era.

Read: Baby Raspberry Pi Macintosh Quadra 700

Use a Raspberry Pi to Detect Naruto Hand Seals

If you're a fan of Naruto, you probably don't need this project because you likely know all of the hand seals by heart but it's still really cool. Lucas Fernando is using AI to recognize the twelve hand seals from the Naruto franchise. He isn't using a Pi but assures the project can be replicated on a Pi 5 or Pi 4.

Why we love it:

This is one of those projects that isn't particularly useful, it's just really fun to see a proof of concept in action. It's also a neat way to play around with training an AI model with something interesting you enjoy.

Read: Use a Raspberry Pi to Detect Naruto Hand Seals

Raspberry Pi Bee Counting Beehive Monitor

Every now and then, we'll come across a Raspberry Pi project that aims to help the environment like this cool Pi-powered bee counting hive monitor. It uses AI to help monitor the population of a given beehive which is very useful for apiarists around the world. This particular project is running off of a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.

Why we love it:

We love bees! It's good to know some makers out there are putting the Pi to good use and helping us keep them around. The project works just as it was designed and serves as an excellent use case of AI.

Read: Raspberry Pi Bee Counting Beehive Monitor

Raspberry Pi Pico 26-Pin Capacitive Touch Sensor PCB

Anything can be an instrument with this cool capacitive touch sensor PCB put together by maker and developer Tom Fox. This board turns all 26 GPIO pins on the Pico into a touch sensor input. To demonstrate its potential, he created a touch sensitive instrument that doubles as an art piece.

Why we love it:

This PCB is an amazing demonstration of how a simple idea can be made into a fun, open source tool. Fox's PCB design is well done and can easily be incorporated into loads of cool projects.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico 26-Pin Capacitive Touch Sensor PCB

Tom's Hardware Projects

We look at Raspberry Pi projects every day all week long, so it should come as no surprise that we like to tinker as well. Over the last month, we've had the opportunity to review some new Raspberry Pi hardware and wanted to share our findings with the Pi community.

Sunfounder Pironman 5 Review

The Pironman 5 case is like a tiny tabletop desktop for your Raspberry Pi 5. It has RGB LEDs and acrylic side panels so you can see all the hardware inside. There's a power button on the front along with an OLED screen. In this review, Les takes a look at how well it works and whether or not it's worth your time.

Read: Sunfounder Pironman 5 Review

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S

Looking for more Pi to get excited about? We just dropped our Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S review. It's one of the latest boards in a long line of Pi products that we're more than excited to sink our teeth into.

Read: Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S

The Raspberry Pi community - in the northern hemisphere, at least - is ready for summer with tons of cool projects and guides to go along with them. These makers are using all sorts of Pis ranging from the smallest Raspberry Pi RP2040 microprocessor all the way up to the latest Raspberry Pi 5. We've got all sorts of cool project ideas to inspire makers from all walks of life including amateurs, students and even expert engineers.

The creators behind these projects are using the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs around to bring their ideas to life. Whenever possible, we share all of the links we can that show how these projects are made and what you need to create them for yourself at home.

Raspberry Pi 400 'Fallout' Home Automation Terminal

Once you step foot on the surface of the wastelands, you can't go back, so you might as well bring a little piece of the apocalypse into your house. That's exactly what maker and developer Rick has done with this Raspberry Pi Fallout-themed terminal that works as a hub for home automation systems.

Why we love it:

Creating a Pi-powered hub for your home automation setup is already really cool but throwing in this cool Fallout design is just icing on the cake. The work that Rick put into developing both the technical side of the project and artistic skills to make it look as nice as it does is well worth the extra attention. The interface resembles the CLI from the game and accurately captures the look and feel of the hardware it's trying to emulate.

Read: Raspberry Pi 400 'Fallout' Home Automation Terminal

Raspberry PI AI Talking Tomato Plant

Those in the gardening community without a green thumb have likely wondered from time to time exactly what their plants need. This project from Redpepper solves that problem by using a Raspberry Pi with AI. It uses a variety of sensors to make sense of its environment and can tell you when the plant needs water, sunlight or a little extra love.

Why we love it:

This project takes all of the guesswork out of gardening and keeps things strictly logical with oodles of data to take advantage of. It's a fun use of the Raspberry Pi and a great example of how you can implement AI into your projects. The Pi also has a big pair of googly eyes on the front which only does favors to the overall design.

Read: Raspberry PI AI Talking Tomato Plant

Raspberry Pi AI Fably Storyteller

Coming up with a fresh idea for a bedtime story every night can be taxing. Thankfully, maker and developer Stefano Mazzocchi has created a Pi-powered solution to do the work for you in a project he dubs Fably. This project uses the power of AI to generate stories then reads them out loud using text-to-speech software and a speaker.

Why we love it:

We appreciate the versatility of this project as there's a lot of room to customize it as you go. You can add pre-recorded audio books, operate it using voice commands and get really creative by making cool housing for the hardware. Overall it's a fun idea with plenty to build on with its open source design.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Fably Storyteller

Raspberry Pi Sony Tape Deck Wireless Media Streaming Platform

Why buy what you can make yourself? That seems to be the motto of maker Unchecked_arrogance who's using a Raspberry Pi to power this custom Sony tape deck media streaming platform project. This is a double tape deck so while one side works as a Pi-powered media center, the other plays cassettes.

Why we love it:

This is a really fun way to revitalize old hardware while still maintaining its original functionality. You can easily go back and forth between playing old tapes and streaming your favorite podcasts. The execution is also worthy of extra praise. Unchecked_arrogance is using a touchscreen interface and it looks absolutely slick in place of the original tape player.

Read: Raspberry Pi Sony Tape Deck Wireless Media Streaming Platform

Raspberry Pi 5 ChatGPT Bender Personal Assistant

Personal assistants are easier to customize than ever thanks to microelectronics like the Raspberry Pi. Maker and developer Manuel Ahumada has made one from scratch that looks and acts just like Bender from the animated series 'Futurama'. He's powered by a Raspberry Pi 5 and is housed inside a custom, 3D-printed head.

Why we love it:

This project goes above and beyond. The head looks spot on while the software blends seamlessly to create a body-less Bender experience. In fact, we're pretty sure we've seen this in an episode before. It just goes to show how once again the Pi community is really adept at bringing Sci Fi to the real world.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 ChatGPT Bender Personal Assistant

Raspberry Pi 5 Game Boy XL

If you thought the original Game Boy was big, you haven't seen its giant counterpart—the Game Boy XL—created by Arnov Sharma. This Game Boy is massive, upgrading not only its size but also its capability thanks to the Raspberry Pi 5 inside. It features an LCD screen with working buttons on the front but it's intended to be displayed on a tabletop standing upright with a Bluetooth controller for input.

Why we love it:

We love the Raspberry Pi, we love the Game Boy and we get excited at giant versions of the things we love. Featuring this project was a no-brainer. Sharma's giant Game Boy XL is very well designed and looks like it would be a fantastic addition to any retro gaming fan's hardware collection.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 Game Boy XL

Raspberry Pi Picos Dual Clock

Raspberry Pi clocks can be really cool. We've seen quilted Pi-powered clocks and even clocks that use marbles. However, this is the first dual clock we've come across. One clock uses a seven-segment display while the one underneath is output to a matrix panel. This panel can be used to display a variety of information outside of the time making it a dynamic counterpart to the seven-segment clock on top.

Why we love it:

The Pico 2040 clock has a very sleek end design. It looks professional thanks to little details like the logo in the corner. Makers don't have to go the extra step to make a project like this functional but it does make a difference when it comes to presentation. It showcases how makers can transform their ideas into well-made finished products.

Read: Raspberry Pi Picos Dual Clock

Raspberry Pi AI Stethoscope

Stethoscopes are an essential part of modern medicine. This project takes the tool and adds a twist using our favorite SBC. Instead of relying solely on the doctor to listen for what's going on inside, now you can let this Raspberry Pi AI stethoscope evaluate the data and scan for things like heart disease that would be nearly impossible for us to detect by sound alone.

Why we love it:

This is an amazing demonstration of how Raspberry Pi technology can be applied to help save lives. It's a simple idea that when trained with enough data, can help aid those in the medical field hone in on health concerns before they manifest further.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Stethoscope

Raspberry Pi RP2040 Hackbat

Every hacker needs a tool and the Raspberry Pi RP2040 HackBat isn't one to scoff at. This handheld PCB features tons of cool tools that make it something like a Swiss Army knife of hacking gadgets. If you're looking for something to use professionally or just want to tinker, this little board is definitely worth a close look.

Why we love it:

It takes a lot of work to design a PCB from scratch—especially one decked out with so many cool components and modules. It's got a screen for output, buttons for input, an RF antenna and so much more to play around with. At the end of the day, maker and developer Trujillo knocked the ball out of the park with this project.

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2040 Hackbat

Raspberry Pi AI Clock Listens and Smells the Time

This is by far one of the strangest and most fascinating Raspberry Pi clocks we've ever seen. These clocks use smell and sound to estimate the time using AI. As time goes on, the clocks collect data which will hopefully make them more accurate at telling the time based on something so strange and seemingly arbitrary.

Why we love it:

Some of the best Raspberry Pi projects are made because the maker could do something, not because they needed to. This idea is hilarious and the fact that Max Björverud actually took the time to put these together and show them off is fantastic. We love everything about this project from its conception to the final build.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Clock Listens and Smells the Time

With May in full swing, it's time to take a look at some really cool Raspberry Pi projects for a little summertime tinkering inspiration. These makers have created some seriously unique projects using all sorts of Pi models like the itty bitty RP2040 microprocessor all the way up to the latest Raspberry Pi 5.

We're sure to share all of the juicy details along the way so you know exactly what Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs made the final design possible in these projects. We're huge fans of open source technology and love any opportunity to share what we learn along the way—so plug in your soldering iron and get out the protoboards, these are the best Raspberry Pi projects we've had the honor of featuring over the past month.

Raspberry Pi RP2040 Wireless LED Scoreboard

All sorts of games require score keeping and if you've got games to keep tally of, this Raspberry Pi RP2040 wireless LED scoreboard is just the project for the job. It uses an RP2040 microprocessor and features a custom made control panel along with a wireless remote for an input device.

Why we love it:

This maker went above and beyond to take something that you could probably do by hand with a pen and paper but with the added fun of building a microelectronics project. This scoreboard project looks just as fun to build as it is to use.

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2040 Wireless LED Scoreboard

Raspberry Pi AI Robots Motivate Runners by Shouting Messages

Finding the motivation to work out is hard but what if you had a little robot that would cheer you on? That's exactly what maker and developer Sir Walter Richardson has done with this AI-powered motivation robot.

Why we love it:

It's awesome to have a little extra encouragement while you're pushing through a tough challenge. However, in a hilarious twist, this project will also sling demotivational shade to anyone who passes by with a bit too much confidence.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Robots Motivate Runners by Shouting Message

Raspberry Pi 4 Knight Rider ChatGPT KITT

Recreating scifi props might as well be its own category of microelectronics projects. Makers sure know how to take it to the next level when it comes to bringing scifi tech to life like the masterminds over at Knight Rider Historians who built their own talking KITT. This prop was built using a Raspberry Pi and ChatGPT.

Why we love it:

This project is really cool whether you're a fan of Knight Rider or not. The animated LEDs and interactive ChatGPT features make for an exciting experience. This project is one engine away from becoming a full-sized KITT replica.

Read: Raspberry Pi 4 Knight Rider ChatGPT KITT

Raspberry Pi Pico Dicemaster 2000

Every now and then, we come across projects that help make life a little bit easier. In this project, developer Hiro has created a dice roller for his visually impaired friend called the Dicemaster 2000. It's designed with controls that are easy to feel and uses audio output for feedback.

Why we love it:

Pi-powered dice rollers are really cool, but this one takes it a step further by adding a level of accessibility for Hiro's friend. It's a thoughtful project with end results that look great and fun to play with during late night tabletop sessions.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Dicemaster 2000

Raspberry Pi RP2040 LED Wristwatch

This RP2040-powered wristwatch was created by Kim Paulsson. Like any other watch, it tells the time but Paulsson decided to forgo your traditional hands or modern digital screen and opted for a more…microelectronics enthusiast approach. It features a ring of LEDs that are used to represent the current hour, minute and second.

Why we love it:

This watch is really cool! We haven't seen anything like it before and throwing in our favorite microprocessor is just icing on the Pi. The exposed PCB looks great—especially with the black finish and white text.

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2040 LED Wristwatch

Raspberry Pi Brings GitHub's Octocat to Life

Anyone familiar with GitHub has no doubt come across their wiggly mascot Octocat. Infineon decided to take it upon themselves to bring Octocat to life with wiggling tentacles that use a Raspberry Pi-powered hydraulic system.

Why we love it:

It's amazing how much engineering goes into such a fun and silly project. The tentacle molds were 3D-printed, silicone makes them wiggle and the head is finished with a nice 3D-printed design.

Read: Raspberry Pi Brings GitHub's Octocat to Life

Raspberry Pi Pico Gundam LED Light Show

If you're a fan of Gundam, you've got to check out this awesome LED light show project put together by a maker known as Rob. Sure, sprucing up your favorite Gundam with LEDs is cool and all but what if you could control them? That's exactly what this Pico-powered panel does, bringing the figure to life in a dazzling display.

Why we love it:

It's cool to see someone take a fun idea to such an extreme. Controlling the LEDs with light effects is awesome enough but the design of the panel used to operate the system looks fantastic and deserves the praise it gets.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Gundam LED Light Show

Raspberry Pi Etch A Sketch Bot

Drawing on an Etch A Sketch is hard and it would be much easier to use Micah Tilton's Raspberry Pi-powered Etch A Sketch bot. This project takes existing images and converts them into files that the Pi can use to recreate on an Etch A Sketch using the original controls with the help of a couple of servo motors.

Why we love it:

Is it even up for debate that using an Etch A Sketch is hard? You've got to figure out how to not only create your image with one line but also using two knobs. Now take that concept and make a robot do it for you—that's why we're impressed.

Read: Raspberry Pi Etch A Sketch Bot

Raspberry Pi Sign Language Translator Glasses 

Bridging communication gaps is what the Raspberry Pi does best. Whether you're using an adapter to help two modules talk to each other or in this case, Nekhil has created a pair of sign language translation glasses and turn the signs into speech using AI.

Why we love it:

This project is a really fun idea that can help make it easier to interact with people who experience hearing impairment or otherwise know ASL. At the moment, the glasses only translate letters but enough time building the right model would allow you to introduce words and phrases, as well.

Read: Raspberry Pi Sign Language Translator Glasses

Raspberry Pi AI Storybook

Thomas Valadez has created a truly unique project with an air of beauty about it that we just haven't seen before. This Pi-powered storybook uses AI to generate both the story and the images to go along with it based on whatever text it generated in the story.

Why we love it:

You never know what you're going to get when it comes to AI so it's safe to say some of the stories and images will be a bit odd. However, it's still incredible to see the potential of modern AI put on full display in a cool project like this.

Read: Raspberry Pi AI Storybook

How to Manage Applications on Your Raspberry Pi With Pi-Apps

Managing apps on your Raspberry Pi just got easier thanks to Pi-Apps! In this guide, Les shows us how to set it up and use it so you can make the most out of your experience when using the official Raspberry Pi OS.

Read: How to Manage Applications on Your Raspberry Pi With Pi-Apps

With spring in full swing, it's time to take a look at some of the coolest Raspberry Pi projects that have bloomed over the last month. As usual, we've got an assortment of creations ranging from RP2040-based projects to ones that use the latest board, the Raspberry Pi 5. There's plenty to inspire makers of all walks whether you're an amateur or a well-seasoned microelectronics expert.

These makers and developers pull out the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs around to make their ideas possible. When they share all the juicy details about what components they're using and what libraries they've installed, we'll be sure to relay it to you with links to the source material. We've also got some guides put together by the staff here at Tom's Hardware so you can easily follow along with us at home.

Raspberry Pi 5 Cat TV

Nothing beats the chance to unwind and relax in front of the TV after a long day. No one knows that better than maker and developer Becky Stern who decided to share the experience with her beloved cats by creating a Raspberry Pi cat TV. This TV uses the latest Pi model, the Raspberry Pi 5.

Why we love it:

This might not be an overly complex project but the use case is what shines here. The TV automatically loads up cat videos from YouTube that show footage of things like birds and squirrels. It's a very generous project that makes for some seriously spoiled cats and we love that.

Read: Raspberry Pi 5 Cat TV

Raspberry Pi Hat Camera

Some Raspberry Pi projects aren't just portable, they're wearable, like this Raspberry Pi hat camera put together by Jacob David C Cunningham. This device has everything it needs to operate on the go including a battery and clip that makes it easy to attach to the brim of your hat.

Why we love it:

Making Raspberry Pi projects portable is always tricky. It can be difficult to figure out how much power you need and how heavy the battery can be depending on the use case. This is a great example of a finished product that's as fun to build as it is useful.

Read: Raspberry Pi Hat Camera

Raspberry Pi Pico StoRPer Modular DIY Robot Rover

If there's one thing the Raspberry Pi Pico is good for, it's tiny RC cars. This one, created by maker and developer Jo Hinchliffe, is known as StoRPer. It's designed to be modular and has omnidirectional wheels for easy steering.

Why we love it:

We love seeing the Pico used with custom PCBs so it should come as no surprise that we enjoyed seeing it here. The StoRPer is a neat little car and the omnidirectional wheels are just icing on the cake.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico StoRPer Modular DIY Robot Rover

Vela AI Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Smart Bikes

After thriving in the tech market over the last decade, it's not uncommon to find a Pi used in a commercial product now and then. In this case, Velo AI has unveiled their line of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 smart bikes.

Why we love it:

The bikes use AI to help the driver anticipate traffic from behind which can ideally make a safer experience for the rider. While it's plenty impressive to see proof of concepts for Raspberry Pi AI projects, it's just as cool to see the technology implemented in a buyable product.

Read: Vela AI Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Smart Bikes

Raspberry Pi Pico W Atari 2600 Bluetooth Controller Support

Sometimes the best way to get a good retro gaming experience is to use the right controller. Instead of trying to use a retro controller on an emulator, make Reogen is switching things up by creating a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered adapter for the Atari 2600 that enables bluetooth controller support.

Why we love it:

This is one of those projects we never really considered until we saw it for ourselves. It's an extremely niche use case but a beautiful example of how the Pico can serve as a bridge for modern and classic hardware.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico W Atari 2600 Bluetooth Controller Support

Raspberry Pi Pico 'Back to the Future' Time Circuits Replica

Fans can go to some serious extremes to create realistic props from their favorite movies. Maker and developer Traveling_fred is on that list as he shows off his 'Back to the Future' time circuits replica kit, powered by our favorite microcontroller—the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Why we love it:

This is a really unique kit that pays homage to the classic 'Back to the Future' sci fi franchise. The final build is really neat in itself but the kit also looks really fun to put together. What you would do with the end product and when is up to you.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico 'Back to the Future' Time Circuits Replica

Raspberry Pi Precision Movement Stage

Some projects are driven by some really specific needs. In this case, YouTuber and maker Robert Elder needed a way to smoothly rotate microchips while filming close up shots for his channel. The end result is this cool Pi-powered precision movement stage.

Why we love it:

This project shows how you don't need to buy expensive tools when a bit of ingenuity and effort will do just as good. According to Elder, this is still a work in progress but we're excited about it even still in its current state.

Read: Raspberry Pi Precision Movement Stage

DIY Raspberry Pi All Sky Camera

Got your eyes on the sky? So does maker Frank Prins with this custom Raspberry Pi all sky camera. It's aimed at the sky way up north within the Arctic Circle and captures images of the northern lights.

Why we love it:

Spotting a Pi in a professional setting is one thing but seeing one use in the name of science is another. We love the unique opportunity Prins has to not only capture images of the northern lights with a Pi but also share them with us.

Read: DIY Raspberry Pi All Sky Camera

Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 Inside Custom Virtual Pinball Machine

You don't need quarters to play this machine. Dewijngaert created this virtual pinball machine and while a Pi isn't being used as the main board, you will find an RP2040 microcontroller handling the button input.

Why we love it:

This is a project not just for fans of retro gaming in general but serious pinball enthusiasts. It's clear Dewijngaert went all out with this design to make sure the playing experience was top notch and true to classic, full-sized pinball machines.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 Inside Custom Virtual Pinball Machine

Raspberry Pi Pico Turned Into a Working GPU

Graphics cards can be expensive and hard to get ahold of, wouldn't it be easier if you could make your own with a $4 Raspberry Pi Pico? That's exactly what the team did over at Element14. Sure, it can't hold a candle for your latest RTX 4000 series GPU but it's not supposed to. This Pico graphics card is intended to work with small SBCs.

Why we love it:

This project is just crazy awesome from head to toe. We love everything from the concept to the final design. Is it practical? Sort of. Is it cool? Extremely. It's projects like these that raise the bar and make you say, "Why not?"

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Turned Into a Working GPU

Tom's Hardware Projects

As always, it's hard not to feel inspired after covering all sorts of Pi projects all month long. We also like to tinker on the Pi and document the process as we go so you can follow along at home with a detailed guide.

How to Overclock the Raspberry Pi 5 Beyond 3 GHz

In this guide, Les shows us how you can take the Pi 5 to new limits by overclocking it past 3GHz. If you aren't sure how to go about overclocking, this is a great place to start as Les covers everything you need each step of the way.

Read: How to Overclock the Raspberry Pi 5 Beyond 3 GHz

At the end of a rainbow, surely the pot of gold is actually just a pot full of Raspberry Pis. Or rather, that's what we'd like to find. It's not a secret that we here at Tom's Hardware are huge fans of the Pi and all of the amazing projects put together by the community. We feature Pi projects all week long and today we're taking a look at some of the best projects we've featured over the past month.

These makers use some of the latest boards, like the Raspberry Pi 5, as well as the best Raspberry Pi accessories and the best Raspberry Pi HATs to bring their ideas to fruition. We've got tons of cool projects to share that will inspire your inner maker and even a few guides we put together so you can follow along at home.

Raspberry Pi Smart Fridge

Building a smart home is as easy as Pi! Just take a look at this cool Raspberry Pi smart fridge put together by Mimobeano. Using a Pi as the main controller, this device takes pictures of the refrigerator contents and uses AI to see what's in stock. Mimobeano can not only see what's in the fridge by sending a message to a custom Telegram bot but also request recipes based on what's available.

Why we love it:

We love any excuse to whip up a DIY project and this one provides a neat way to interact with your kitchen. Putting the project together looks just as fun as having one more smart home device.

Read: Raspberry Pi Smart Fridge

3D Printed Raspberry Pi 5 NAS

An NAS setup can be really useful for a variety of applications—especially those looking to stream their own media at home. This 3D printed Raspberry Pi 5 NAS put together by 3D Printz provides support for the Raspberry Pi 5 as well as a few other Pi models. With all of the hardware together in the final build, it has convenient port access on the side and an OLED screen for displaying stats.

Why we love it:

We don't need to sell you on why it's useful to have an NAS on hand, but we will encourage you to consider making your own. It's awesome enough to see support for the Raspberry Pi 5, in this case, but it was really kind of 3D Printz to share files for other Pi models, as well.

Read: 3D printed Raspberry Pi 5 NAS

Raspberry Pi RP2040 in Super Tiny Unofficial Game Boy

Big things sometimes come in small packages and this project is a great example of just that. We spotted our favorite microprocessor, the RP20040 on the PCB used in this Super Tiny Unofficial Game Boy. Elliot Coll found it over at AliExpress and showed it off over at YouTube.

Why we love it:

We're absolute suckers for retro gaming stuff and this super small Game Boy was cool enough on its own. But once we saw the Raspberry Pi inside, we knew we had to share it. Although this was a one off product run and we can't find more, it's a wonderful build and we hope to see RP2040s integrated into more devices.

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2040 in Super Tiny Unofficial Game Boy

Raspberry Pi Voice Driven AI Art Generator

It's easier than ever to play with generative AI tools. There are so many options at your fingertips that you can use to implement open source AI systems into your projects. A great example comes from maker and developer DevMiser who's using one to drive this AI Art Generator TV project. Just say the prompt you want to create out loud and it will use speed to text to process the request and generate a picture for you.

Why we love it:

It's cool to see more AI-based projects and this one is really neat. It's a fun proof of concept but you could set something like this up in your living room to entertain guests. It's a good idea and well executed project.

Read: Raspberry Pi Voice Driven AI Art Generator

Raspberry Pi VHS Composite Video Player

This project, created by Alan Boris, takes the beauty of vintage tech and showcases it in a useful end product. This is a Raspberry Pi Composite Video Player and it's housed inside of an old VHS tape.

Why we love it:

Boris went above and beyond with this project design. Not only is it housed inside of an old VHS tape, he threw in a servo to rotate like the original tape reel used to while playing a tape. The other side has a handy display for menu functions. It's an incredible idea and the end result is top notch.

Read: Raspberry Pi VHS Composite Video Player

Raspberry Pi Bluetooth Jammer

We've all been there before. You're comfortable, it's a cozy atmosphere, and suddenly your neighbors interrupt with some noisy audio. In this case, maker and developer Roni Bandini was dealing with excessive music and decided to jam any nearby bluetooth speakers by using a Pi to listen for it using AI. The end result is this legally questionable Raspberry Pi Bluetooth Jammer.

Why we love it:

This project definitely isn't for everyone but you don't have to make it yourself to appreciate the ingenuity behind its design. Some of the most interesting projects are born out of necessity—or in this case, neighborly warfare.

Read: Raspberry Pi Bluetooth Jammer

Raspberry Pi Volumetric Display

We guarantee you've never seen a project quite like this one before. This Raspberry Pi Volumetric Display uses a Pi to drive a motor that spins a couple of matrix panels around. The end result is a 3D object you can look at from different angles.

Why we love it:

This is an amazing idea and the final design, especially with the glass covering, looks incredible. We've never seen a project quite like this one before and it's neat to see not just one but two great examples of it in action.

Read: Raspberry Pi Volumetric Display

Tom's Hardware Projects

It's hard not to get inspired after combing through so many amazing creations from the maker community. Here are a few Raspberry Pi tutorials put together by the staff here at Tom's Hardware that you can follow along with at home.

How to Control your Raspberry Pi Camera using a web UI

If you've ever wanted to use a web-based UI to operate a camera using a Raspberry Pi, now's your chance to see exactly how it's done. You could incorporate this into a multitude of projects, so think of it more like a building block you can use for a bigger project design. Les walks us through everything we need to do to put this setup together.

Read: How to Control your Raspberry Pi Camera using a web UI

How to turbo-charge your Raspberry Pi 5 with an NVMe boot drive

Your Raspberry Pi 5 has PCIe support, so why not take full advantage of that? In this guide, Les walks us through what you need to do to turbo-charge your Pi 5 using an NVMe boot drive. Some extra hardware will be needed to use an SSD with the Pi 5.

Read: How to turbo-charge your Raspberry Pi 5 with an NVMe boot drive

Raspberries are red, some PCBs are blue, Raspberry Pi is our favorite and Arduino is cool, too. February has snuck up on us and it's time again for us to share some really cool Pi projects that we absolutely love. We've got everything from the latest board, the Raspberry Pi 5, to custom boards that use the RP2040 microprocessor.

These makers use some of the best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs around to bring their projects to life. We'll be sure to share all of the details as we go along, just follow the link to check out the original article for a closer look at each project.

Raspberry Pi Pico Digital Audio Looper

The Raspberry Pi is a great choice for musicians looking to create a digital instrument of their own, or in this case, college students completing a project for the semester final. This Raspberry Pi Pico digital audio looper lets you record audio and play it back with special effects or in a loop for real-time concerts.

Why we love it:

This project is super useful for musicians and makers alike that are itching for a fun project to recreate at home. It shows that a little ingenuity not only nets you a cool final product but also can help you get a passing grade in school.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Digital Audio Looper

Raspberry Pi Tiny Retro TV

It's amazing what makers can cram a Raspberry Pi into. As the boards get smaller, so do the design concepts like this Raspberry Pi tiny retro TV put together by Fantasticmrdavid. It resembles an old Toshiba TV and lets you watch videos and emulate any retro console you like thanks to RetroPie.

Why we love it:

We've always had a soft spot for retro gaming with a Pi but we know that having hardware look the part really completes the nostalgic experience. It took a lot of work to design and print this case. Plus, it was really cool of Fantasticmrdavid to share it with everyone else online.

Read: Raspberry Pi Tiny Retro TV

Raspberry Pi Mini Desktop DOS PC

Like we said before, tiny projects are cool! And it just so happens that this one is also designed by Fantasticmrdavid. Instead of resembling an old TV, this Pi fits inside of a mini desktop DOS PC. It looks like an old school desktop complete with a monitor and everything.

Why we love it:

There are multiple bases available to print for different Pi models and you also have the option of using the floppy drive port as a microSD card slot. The design for this is just off the charts cool and open to so many makers to modify and play with at home.

Read: Raspberry Pi Mini Desktop DOS PC

Raspberry Pi Dual Monitor Mini PC

Tiny retro PCs are cool and all but this Raspberry Pi dual monitor mini PC is a bit more modern. It sports flashy RGB LEDs and shows off the hardware inside the case with clear side panels. If that weren't enough, it has two separate monitors to use for dual monitor action!

Why we love it:

This little PC looks great and the dual monitor support puts it over the top! If you're looking to make a small usable desktop of your own, you might as well go all out in style and this is definitely the way to do it.

Read: Raspberry Pi Dual Monitor Mini PC

Maker Gives Raspberry Pi Pico Ethernet over USB Support

Some makers really like to push boards to their limits and this project is a shining example of just that. This maker has managed to get Ethernet over USB support on the Pico. It requires a custom cable that Alan put together just to pull off this project that splits the USB port into Ethernet and USB.

Why we love it:

If you don't have a specialized board on hand, this project shows that you can just make your own. It's already super impressive as an idea but it's even more awesome to see it work successfully.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Ethernet over USB Support

Raspberry Pi RP2040 Magnetic Macropad

We're definitely suckers for Pi-powered macropads and couldn't help but share this Raspberry Pi RP2040 magnetic macropad when we came across it. Made by maker Salim Benbouziyane, it features magnetic add ons that you can snap into place and remove as needed.

Why we love it:

This project is the epitome of customization! It looks gorgeous and makes for a very exciting user experience, even if it is a bit delicate. There are so many options when it comes to adding your own modules that it makes this project stand out in both concept and execution.

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2040 Magnetic Macropad

Raspberry Pi ReBoi Game Boy Color Drop-in Kit

We've covered a few cool Pi-powered drop-in kits for a variety of handhelds over the years and knew immediately that this one was too cool to not to share. Dubbed the Raspberry Pi ReBoi, this PCB is designed to fit inside of an original (or reproduction) Game Boy Color.

Why we love it:

You don't need to modify any original hardware to use this kit. If you'd rather leave your Game Boy Color untouched, you can easily buy aftermarket parts to complete the custom build. This project also includes a backlit LCD screen that replaces the original.

Read: Raspberry Pi ReBoi Game Boy Color Drop-in Kit

Raspberry Pi Pico Marble Clock

The idea to create a Pi-powered clock isn't exactly new, but maker and developer C Forde definitely put a new spin on the concept by creating this awesome Raspberry Pi Pico marble clock. Marbles are rotated up the spires to indicate the current time and held in place with a few magnets.

Why we love it:

This is one of the most unique clocks we've ever seen, hands down. It encompasses quite a few areas of technology ranging from 3D printing to programming microelectronics. The end result looks fascinating and works like a charm.

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Marble Clock

Raspberry Pi Pico Smartwatch

Wearable Pi-powered tech is always fashionable in our book. This Raspberry Pi Pico smartwatch is RP2040-powered and features a custom-made open source interface. It connects to nearby devices using Bluetooth and can manage things like calls, notifications, media and more.

Why we love it:

It's cool to see the Pico used in something that's not only useful but can be easily taken on the go. The round LCD and 3D-printed housing is icing on the cake. It's portable, functional, and open source. What's not to love?

Read: Raspberry Pi Pico Smartwatch

Raspberry Pi RP2040 ThinkPad Nubbin Light Dimmer

ThinkPad owners are known to be passionate about the Track Point but this is the first time we've seen one used as a light switch dimmer. This Raspberry Pi RP2040 ThinkPad nubbin light switch dimmer works by touch input or via web browser from a smartphone.

Why we love it:

This is one of the most hilarious implementations of a Track Point we've ever seen. We're just glad it had a Raspberry Pi working behind the scenes so we could feature it in our list. This project makes us wonder what other use cases could be improved with a ThinkPad Track Point for input…

Read: Raspberry Pi RP2040 ThinkPad Nubbin Light Dimmer

Intel motherboard partners have started to roll out the first batch of microcode updates to address the issue known as Vmin Shift Instability. The iconic PC chipmaker blogged about this issue earlier this week, revealing the root cause, the four circumstances in which it occurs, and its 0x12B update to finally fix it. Hopefully, the release of BIOS files by Intel partners is going to draw a line under this long running saga which has caused instability, defects, and failures of 13th and 14th Generation Core 'Raptor Lake' processors.

It is now well established that motherboards fed Intel’s newest CPUs elevated voltage levels beyond safe limits. Microcode 0x12B is claimed to address all the circumstances which lead to Vmin Shift Instability. Thankfully motherboard making brands like Asus, ASRock, and MSI have already started to release BIOS updates for systems currently in service. It has taken just a few days for these updates to start trickling through, though Intel warned users the process “may take several weeks.” Let’s have a closer look at what has been made available, so far.

Asus Vmin Shift Instability Updates

We checked several Asus Z790 motherboards and they all seemed to have been “Updated with Intel microcode 0x12B to address elevated voltage requests during idle or light activity, further mitigating Vmin Shift instability issues.” However, these BIOS downloads still have a ‘beta’ flag.

Other Asus boards we checked, like those LGA1700 boards using the B760 or Z690 chipsets only seem to be up to Intel microcode 0x129 – the previous fix for instability, dated August 2024. It is understandable and common practice that the top enthusiasts boards get these kinds of updates first.

ASRock Vmin Shift Instability Updates

Like Asus, ASRock has released Intel microcode 0x12B updates for its Z790 boards first – covering the Taichi, Riptide, Steel Legend families and more. Again we didn’t see these newest updates for LGA1700 boards with the B760 or Z690 chipsets. No surprise there – for the reasons mentioned above.

MSI Vmin Shift Instability Updates

Hunting through MSI’s BIOS updates revealed that some but not all of its Z790 boards had new (beta) BIOS files including the comment “Update CPU Microcode 0x12B.” Again no B760 updates to this microcode were found, and searching through Intel 600 series motherboard BIOS downloads drew a blank.

We haven’t mentioned Gigabyte / Aorus above, as searching through its BIOS updates was fruitless, concerning microcode 0x12B updates – even the most high-end Z790 boards don’t have a beta yet. The same applies to Biostar.

The good news is this ‘root cause’ fix is definitely on its way to Intel users, with updates now rolling out, and hopefully a lot more to come in the coming days and weeks.

Whether you need to access your BIOS/UEFI, reset your PC, boot from an alternate drive, restore a system image or perform other boot-related tasks, Windows Advanced Startup menu is the place to go. It’s particularly handy when fixing BSODs or other Windows errors. There are two ways to get to this vital capability, one for Windows 10 (see next screenshot) another for Windows 11 (see screenshot after that):

• Windows 10: Start > Settings > Update &Security > Recovery

• Windows 11: Start > System > Recovery

⚠ Save Your Work First ⚠ : Restart Follows 

Don’t click the Windows 10 “Restart now” button until you’re good and ready to restart your PC. Why? Because as soon as you click that button, there’s no going back. Your PC will restart immediately thereafter. Windows 11, OTOH, provides a warning that includes a “Close” option so you can change your mind. But it’s good practice to save all work and close important apps before electing this option in either OS. Once the restart occurs, the next thing you’ll see is the “Choose an option” on-screen menu shown here:

Of the options listed, two are dead simple to explain. Continue proceeds with a normal Windows boot, as if you hadn’t clicked the “Restart now” button before the reboot. Turn off your PC shuts the PC down, and turns off its power supply. Indeed, these two options are available even if you don’t use the Advanced Startup menu in Windows.

Now, let’s discuss the other two options which are of greater interest to those seeking to work on or repair a Windows installation:

• Use a device: Shows all potentially bootable devices on the PC, from which you can pick a boot target. If you want to boot from a USB device, you should connect that up while the PC is rebooting after electing the “Restart now” option. Note also that it’s a good idea to disconnect all other devices except monitor, mouse and keyboard and whatever external drive you’d like to boot from (usually a flash drive, or some other form of USB-attached media: either a properly-formatted, bootable SSD or HDD.
• Troubleshoot: This option leads to two choices. The first one Reset this PC reinstalls Windows, but allows youo to keep or remove your personal files. It’s like the option of the same name that appears in the Recovery menus for Windows 10 and 11 in earlier screenshots above. The second one is Advanced options: it’s home to the real action when it comes to Windows recovery and repair. Here’s a screencap of that menu, followed by explanations for the items listed thereupon:

🛠 Startup Repair

Automatically reboots the PC and runs a canned sequence of startup repair diagnostics (and fixes, if those diagnostics find anything they can deal with). Also logs its activities to C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt, where srt stands for startup repair tools. Occasionally, these tools can help. My own experience has been that the startup repair from Macrium Reflect is more capable (and more likely to fix real-world problems) than these tools.

🛠 Startup Settings

This provides access to the same kinds of startup options that appear in the msconfig.exe tool while Windows is running. The options on my test machine’s screen read:

1. Enable low-resolution video mode (msconfig.boot.base video)
2. Enable debugging mode (turns the OS-level debugger on, seldom used except by developers)
3. Enable boot logging (msconfig.boot.boot log) tracks all actions during Windows boot-up and writes them to C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt
4. Enable Safe Mode (msconfig.boot.boot options.safe boot) boots a variety of reduced runtime environments for Windows to block out third party apps and startup items
5. Disable driver signature enforcement: stops Windows from blocking unsigned drivers, and allows them to run (good option when troubleshooting wonky drivers)
6. Disable early-launch malware protection: stops anti-malware software from interfering with the Windows boot and startup processes
7. Disable automatic restart on system failure: causes Windows to pause when a BSOD or system crash occurs. Normally, Windows will restart as soon as the post-crash data collection activities complete. This option lets you keep the BSOD message on screen as long as you like.

🛠 Command prompt

Opens a Command Prompt window from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) that lets you do anything and everything you might want to at the command line to the Windows installation on your normal boot/system drive (C: on most systems). I use this all the time to manage and delete otherwise inaccessible OS files, and to run offline image management on troubled, misbehaving or damaged Windows images. You can tell this is different from a normal command prompt because WinRE runs from the X: drive (a RAM disk it sets up) and the prompt reads “X:\windows\system32” as a result.

🛠 Uninstall updates

If your PC has been updated recently, and the previous Windows installation has aged out, you’ll get this option instead. It will let you uninstall the latest quality update or feature update (if available). You’ll be prompted for a password for a valid login account before this option is allowed to proceed.

🛠 UEFI Firmware Settings

This option appears on systems with UEFI boot environments (most PCs purchased after 2010 will include this option). This gets you into the modern equivalent of the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) known as the Unified Extensive Firmware Interface (UEFI) that defines your PC’s basic startup and runtime behavior.

Use it to enable or disable devices, turn boot security on or off, and manage your PC’s startup behavior, boot disk selection and order, and much, much more. On my Lenovo PCs, if I strike “Enter” before the Windows boot-up balls start spinning, it also takes me into UEFI settings. Methods vary from maker to maker, but there’s almost always a way to do this during the first moments of boot-up on a Windows PC. This specific menu option is handy (and I use it frequently) because this option puts me directly into UEFI without having to get the timing right. On especially fast PCs, this can otherwise be tricky to impossible.

🛠 System Restore

This option runs the Window’s built-in System Restore utility and lets you pick a restore point to which you’d like to return your PC. As I write this story, my test machine gives me the option of picking restore points that are between 1 and 7 days old. I don’t recommend this option except in dire cases, because restore points are neither as reliable or robust as a good image backup from a third-party tool like Macrium Reflect, EaseUS ToDo Backup or AIOMEI Backupper. On many/most Windows PC you may be required to enter a recovery key to decrypt a Bitlocker-encrypted drive as part of this process.

🛠 System Image Recovery

If you click the “See more recovery options” at the bottom of the Advanced options menu, you will see an additional entry. Labeled System Image Recovery, it lets you point to an image recovery file if a readable one may be found on an external drive. Here again, I’d rather use a third-party image recovery file from one of the applications mentioned in the preceding bullet (or something like them).

Advanced Startup Lets You Use Important Tools

This boot option in Windows (10 and 11) is incredibly useful. It offers access to a wide range of repair and recovery tools – including bootable repair environments for the Windows Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (aka DaRT, which works for both Windows 10 and 11). This environment is worth getting to know, and playing with, so you better understand how it works and what it can (and can’t) do. With that knowledge in mind, should Windows get weird, you’ll be able to put it to work without having to climb a learning curve at the same time you’re trying to solve real-world problems.

More Windows Tutorials

• How to Fix a Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
• How to Fix a DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE Error in Windows
• How to Fix CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED Errors in Windows
• How to Fix Windows with a Repair Install
• How to Make Windows 11 Look and Feel Like Windows 10
• How to Make a Bootable Windows USB Install / Recovery Drive
• How to Get Windows 11 for Free (or Under $15)

Several Intel motherboard partners have announced BIOS updates to patch the microcode and "mitigate the instability" of Core 13th and 14th Gen CPUs. Two motherboard makers — ASRock and MSI — have already made official announcements at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Asus ROG forum user and famed overclocker Safedisk posted links to Google Drive folders that purportedly contain BIOS updates for affected Asus motherboards.

Several Intel 13th and 14th Gen chips have been affected by instability issues, which Intel said has been caused by an error in the processor's microcode that led to increased voltages. Over time crashes and BSODs, especially during high workloads, have resulted, and the company said that it will release a patch to fix the issue in mid-August.

Unfortunately, this update will not help users who already have dead or dying Intel processors. Instead, those affected will need to go through Intel's RMA process to have the damaged chips replaced. The company recently added two years to the warranty of 22 affected Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh SKUs, giving them a five-year guarantee to assuage consumers' fears that their processors will fail after the warranty has lapsed. Despite the extended assurance, one user reportedly had to deal with some RMA drama with Intel when trying to replace two affected Intel Core i9-14900K processors.

However, if your Intel system is still running stably, you should download and install the new BIOS updates as soon as possible to mitigate any potential issues. MSI said that these are the first batch of motherboards that will receive the update:

·      MEG Z790 GODLIKE MAX

·      MEG Z790 ACE MAX

·      MPG Z790 CARBON MAX WIFI II

·      MPG Z790 CARBON WIFI

·      MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI

·      Z790M POWER

ASRock released BIOS updates for the H610M-HDV and H610M-HVS motherboards. You can also find BIOS updates for Asus ROG and ProArt motherboards on the Asus ROG forum, although they're only Beta builds. We still recommend holding off on downloading these updates until Asus releases the final builds, though, to ensure that you're getting a stable patch.

Tom's Hardware has already reached out to Intel about the new BIOS updates to confirm if these updates will make it safe to run the affected chips at regular power levels. We are also testing the available BIOS updates to see how they affect system performance, so be sure to check back with us to stay up to date.  

6/11/2024 update: After reaching out to HP about this issue, we've received an official response from the company, included below. The original article continues after the brief statement from HP.

HP is aware of a potential issue with a recently released BIOS update that could impact the HP ProBook x360 435 G7, HP ProBook 445 G7, HP ProBook 455 G7, HP EliteBook 835 G7, HP EliteBook 845 G7, and HP EliteBook 855 G7. We’re continuing to investigate the issue and work closely with impacted customers. Customers who may have experienced this issue should contact HP Support.

On May 26, a user on HP's support forums reported that a forced, automatic BIOS update had bricked their HP ProBook 455 G7 into an unusable state. Subsequently, other users have joined the thread to sound off about experiencing the same issue.

If you've ever updated the BIOS manually on a PC, you may recall that there are usually warnings against making such updates while not charged, not powered on, or running background tasks that may interfere with updating system files. The BIOS is generally understood to be one of the most sensitive components of your system, with unexpected issues likely to result in crashes or even bricked systems like our main example.

This common knowledge regarding BIOS software would, then, seem to make automatic, forced BIOS updates a real issue, even if it weren't breaking anything. Allowing the user to manually install and prepare their systems for a BIOS update is key to preventing issues like this. Some users are pointing out that these auto-updates are so overzealous that they'll even start on a laptop that has just booted with minimal battery power reserves. This seems to be one of the more common causes of upset, as well.

At the time of writing, HP has made no official comment on the matter — and since this battery update was forced on laptops originally released in 2020, this issue has also bricked hardware outside of the warranty window, when previously users could simply send in the laptop for a free repair. Forum users reporting on the issue claim that no help from HP seems to work, only specialist ROM programming hardware seems to have the potential to fix the issue, so far.

Overall, this isn't a very good look for HP, particularly its BIOS update practices. The fragility of BIOS software should have tipped off the powers at be at HP about the lack of foresight in this release model, and now we're seeing it in full force with forced, bugged BIOS updates that kill laptops. A few users also seem to be reporting similar issues with some HP desktops, but HP ProBook 455 G7 laptops seem to be by far the most impacted.

Hopefully, HP will take action to right their wrongs here, soon. Your paying customers deserve better than to get forced updates that break the hardware they paid you for, 2020 laptop or not. This kind of practice certainly won't bring them back to you whenever they decide it's time to buy a new Ultrabook or pro laptop, particularly considering the professional branding and focus.

Retro tech enthusiast Bob Pony recently shared an image of an old Toshiba Satellite laptop’s parallel port. However, it wasn’t the port’s rust and detritus which caught our eye. Rather, the parallel port was visually shocking as it was packed with a tangle of contorted paperclips. There is a method behind the madness, though. The paper clips are arranged to zap the device’s BIOS password on startup.

Many people buy old PCs and laptops on used goods marketplaces like eBay. On these platforms, sellers usually offer BIOS-locked devices at the best bargain bin prices. If you can find a working hack to reset the BIOS password you can therefore save quite a bit of money on what is otherwise an old jewel.

We don’t know how Bob acquired his Toshiba Satellite A15-S129 laptop, but at the end of last month, he appealed to his Twitter/X followers for a BIOS unlocking solution for this device. A day later he revealed he had successfully applied the parallel port wraparound method to remove the BIOS password.

Another tech enthusiast shared a diagram that provided a very clear wraparound connector wiring diagram, upon which Bob’s paperclip meisterwork was based. It doesn’t have to be messy... This same social media user, Luke Weston, described the wiring diagram as “a Toshiba backdoor technique for resetting the bios password when the parallel port data bus is looped back onto certain parallel port control lines.”

The above is just one of many ingenious BIOS password bypass and removal techniques that exist. A quick web search will probably reveal if there is one for your device, but success rates seem to be better (security is more vulnerable) on older devices.

Paperclips have been an essential component of many tech tinkerers' toolboxes for decades. We remember them being useful in the pre-optical drive era for forcibly ejecting troublesome Mac floppies, then they became a similar essential for stuck CDs and DVDs. Few invested in the proper tool - a blunted bradawl - made safe to carry courtesy of a discarded champagne cork.

More recently smart devices with SIM card options have also required partially unfurled paperclips, or an officially bundled poky pin, to switch cellular connectivity – when changing contract provider, region, or country. With the industry moving steadily to eSIM, perhaps the partially unfurled paperclip will at last become a redundant tool, like Microsoft’s Clippy.

MSI has been quick to release an updated BIOS for its new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X graphics card, and the rest of the new family. An issue with the new Ventus 3X meant that it lost around 5% performance when compared to the reference spec RTX 4070 Ti Super cards in gaming tests.

Today, MSI apologized for its less-than-optimal launch BIOS and took the opportunity to provide fresh BIOS downloads for its full range of RTX 4070 Ti Super cards. “This update will boost your graphics card performance,” pledged MSI. And, users should subsequently find that their cards “meet and exceed the expected benchmarks.”

The Ventus 3X model “does not deliver its full potential,” admitted MSI in its news release today announcing the availability of the new BIOS downloads. The new BIOS comes with version number 95.03.45.40.F0 and has been “freshly fine-tuned by our team,” assured MSI.

While Tom’s Hardware reviewed an Asus TUF Gaming model on release day, several other sites including PC Gamer had MSI’s Ventus 3X cards in their labs. Sadly for some, the Ventus 3X model performed as much as 5% slower than expected. This issue was quickly evident to outlets that reviewed multiple cards (including the Ventus 3X model) on day one, others were told about the issue by MSI but often too late to fully re-test and re-write their day one reviews.

Graphics card BIOS updates aren’t as common / usual as those for PC motherboards, and users might be rightly concerned about something going wrong during the update process to affect their new $800+ purchase. Hopefully, MSI service will have your back, as it “encourages users to apply the updates accordingly for the optimal experience.”

We checked the BIOS download page for the headlining MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X graphics card, and the 6.75MB download came with simple and clear instructions to get updated.

Gigabyte has released a raft of new BIOS updates for its AMD AM5 motherboards. The firm says that with a new BIOS applied, its X670, B650, and A620 motherboards will support AMD’s forthcoming next-generation AM5 APUs. Moreover, the next-gen desktop APUs, probably dubbed the AMD Ryzen 8000G series processors, “will be launched at the end of January 2024,” says the firm.

Inviting its AM5 motherboard owners to “Gear Up for the AM5 Next Gen. APU,” Gigabyte’s updated BIOS files are available with immediate effect. We downloaded some to check (a new BIOS for the 670E Aorus Pro X, and one for the Gigabyte B650I AX), but poking around the files found in the downloads didn’t reveal any further tasty information.

Reports currently suggest that there will be four socket AM5 APUs within the initial lineup. These parts are expected to fuze the charms of the Zen 4 CPU architecture plus RDNA 3 graphics architecture – much like Phoenix mobile APUs. Earlier in the week we reported on the configuration of this introductory quartet: the Ryzen 3 8300G, Ryzen 5 8500G, Ryzen 5 8600G, and Ryzen 7 8700G. This information should be quite reliable if it comes from the AGESA Combo AM5 PI 1.1.0.0 firmware, as claimed.

Above you can see that the launch lineup for Phoenix/2 on desktop provides some interesting options for PC builders and DIYers. There is what should be a cheap and cheerful Ryzen 3 8300G at the low end, with 4C/8T mixing Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores, plus Radeon 740M graphics. However, the most desirable new part is tipped to be the new Ryzen 7 8700G with 8C/16T Zen 4 cores, plus its Radeon 780M with 12 CUs (768 SPs).

Our previous report cited insiders saying AMD had yet to finalize its release schedule, but just days later major PCs and components maker Gigabyte has provided a pleasingly narrow launch window (end of January 2024). The timings line up with a reveal event at around CES 2024 time (Jan. 9-12, in Las Vegas), followed by availability a week or two later.

Developer Sergey Kiselev has released version 1.0.0 of his open source BIOS code for Intel 8088 devices (h/t Liliputing). After a dozen years in development the code is now available on GitHub in a milestone release, and has confirmed support for a number of interesting devices.

Intel 8088-based computers have traditionally shipped with proprietary BIOS firmware, so this open source BIOS might be a great resource for retro-modern makers and tinkerers. The list of hardware explicitly supported by this release of the BIOS includes the Micro 8088, Xi 8088, Sergey’s XT, the IBM XT, and the Book 8088.

The Book 8088 made news back in May as it was released on AliExpress alongside the Hand 386. These portables come in mini form factors and deliver retro computing on the go. The clamshell Book 8088 could be used for handheld Intel 8088-powered activities, but it is sad to hear that it was launched with a pirated copy of Kiselev’s 8088 BIOS installed. Though this BIOS has always been open source, the Book 8088 makers apparently violated the license by stripping mentions of Kiselev and GPL.

If you acquired a Book 8088 with the pirate BIOS, the latest genuine GPL-compliant v1.0.0 release might hold some appeal. A replacement plug-and-play BIOS chip is thus being sold by Kiselev’s Tindie store and it is pretty accessible at just $10. These ROMs are reprogrammable and ready for future upgrades if you have access to the necessary tools (EPROM programmer).

In addition to offering official support for the Book 8088, Kiselev’s 8088 BIOS v1.0.0 features a handful of bug fixes. Check the GitHub changelog to find out what’s new and see the fixes delivered over the history of the development – there are quite a lot.

The v1.0.0 release of the BIOS was obviously a milestone, but there are still some major works and wrinkles to iron out on the official ‘to do’ list. It looks like the biggest task for the dev is to work up some technical documentation. After that, there are a handful of bugs to tackle, addressing things like input peripherals, sound, and a few more things.

Valve announced SteamOS 3.5.1 Preview Update earlier this week and, as well as a handful of software fixes and changes, it delivered a new firmware with baked-in undervolting controls for the Steam Deck. Firmware 118 adds a trio of controls to the BIOS settings menu. For the first time it facilitates easily accessible voltage offset adjustments for the: CPU, GPU, and SoC.

As this is a Preview Update for the Steam Deck, you will only get it if you are in the Steam Deck Preview Channel for updates. Once updated, and with the new v118 firmware applied, you will be able to adjust the voltage offset of your CPU, GPU, and SoC. There is a limited range of between 0 and -50 mV within which you can adjust.

Above: Someone is happy with their undervolting results

Another important part of the update, not mentioned in the release notes, means that if you undervolt too far it is a cinch to get your system back up and running with default settings. SteamDeckHQ notes that the new firmware allows a simple CMOS reset of BIOS user-adjustable parameters including undervolt settings. All a user needs to do to reset CMOS with firmware 118 is to hold down the Volume Down button, the Three-dot button, and Power button at the same time. Later, re-enter the BIOS upon boot by holding down the Volume Down button to make some less drastic undervolt settings.

Some Steam Deck enthusiasts note that upgrading from firmware 116 to 118 removes access to overclocking via AMD PBS / CBS settings. While some say that undervolting is the new overclocking, on a device like the Steam Deck (which doesn’t have lots of performance to spare in demanding PC games) this may not be the case.

SteamOS 3.5.1 Preview Update Software Fixes

With the undervolting firmware news out of the way, it is worth highlighting some of the SteamOS 3.5.1 Preview Update’s software fixes. If you are having issues with external displays and HDR there are quite a few fixes delivered in 3.5.1, which you can read through in the top-linked release notes. A couple of desktop mode fixes have also been delivered.

Lastly, under the general fixes heading, Valve says that it has made changes to fix some issues with SD cards, performance overlay presets, and internal display rotation reporting.

Features trialed and tested in these preview updates will often filter through to general users in due course.

It has been almost two weeks since Windows update KB5029351 clashed with MSI's newest BIOS updates, causing "unsupported processor" BSODs on affected systems.   MSI today released BIOS updates for the affected motherboards that fix the problem. 

MSI was admirably quick to come out with official workarounds for the BSOD issue affecting users of its Intel 700 and 600 series motherboards. However, the officially-sanctioned workarounds were merely a stopgap, echoing workarounds already devised by social media users affected by the BSODs.

In some ways MSI was a victim of its own success in preparing new BIOS files ahead of the expected Intel release of a new series of desktop Core processors. (In its PR, MSI refers to the upcoming Intel chips as "newer ones," even though the Intel 14th Gen Core Raptor Lake Refresh processor family is no longer a secret.) Sadly, for MSI and its fans, the initial flurry of revised BIOS files had an issue with Microsoft's newly-released Windows update, resulting in BSOD crashes.

Now we can see the specific OS-motherboard configurations that were having issues. It wasn't just Windows 11 22H2 users with update KB5029351, but also Windows 11 22H1 users applying KB5029332 and Windows 10 22H2 users applying KB5029331.

MSI says that its work with Intel found that the issue was due to a "firmware setting of Intel Hybrid Architecture." It also said that all genuine reports of the BSOD issue were limited to users of Intel’s 13th Gen Core i9 CPUs.

BIOS files with a new microcode are now ready:

MSI's outpouring of BIOS updates to mitigate the BSODs issue isn't limited to the above; it says it will follow up with BIOS updates for "all Intel 700 and 600 Series models this week," and all BIOS updates should be ready by the end of the month.

Intel is expected to take the wraps off its 14th Gen Core ‘Raptor Lake Refresh’ processors in a few weeks at its Intel Innovation event, which will run Sept. 19 - 20. 

MSI has released an official statement in the wake of reports that its motherboards were at the center of a Windows 11 BSOD issue. The company also confirmed temporary workarounds, which we highlighted as potential solutions yesterday, have the official stamp of approval.

The latest news on this situation is that both Microsoft and MSI are aware of the blue screens precipitated by the combination of Windows 11 Update KB5029351 and the newest 600 and 700 series MSI motherboard BIOS updates.

MSI intended its BIOS updates to provide day-one support for next-gen Intel processors, which will likely be known as the 14th-Gen Core Raptor Lake-S Refresh processors. Meanwhile, Microsoft's software update was ostensibly for ironing out a handful of Windows 11 wrinkles and delivering several "quality improvements." It looks like everyone involved, including end-users, are the victim of unforeseen circumstances.

In its news blog post, MSI says that it recommends "all users temporarily refrain from installing the KB5029351 Preview update in Windows." Thankfully, it promises an update on this advice in due course.

MSI's official temporary workaround notes that your BSOD-afflicted PC might auto-uninstall KB5029351; thus, things will be "normal" for now. Whether your system has regurgitated the update or not applied it yet, MSI still recommends "reverting your BIOS to the previous version." MSI even has a video guide for flashing BIOS files on its motherboards if it makes you nervous.

What remains a mystery is the reason(s) behind these “unsupported processor” BSODs. Taking the new MSI press release at face value, both companies are investigating what happened. However, yesterday we pondered over something in Microsoft's latest update accidentally tripping a minimum system requirements check. We have seen some rumors that Microsoft is tightening its enforcement of minimum specs for Windows 11. It also updates the official supported processor list occasionally, and it doesn't have any Raptor Lake Refresh chips on it yet.

We shall repeat our advice to owners of other Intel 600 / 700 series motherboards who are watching from the sidelines. If there is a new BIOS for your Asus, Gigabyte (etc.) board that adds support for next-gen Intel processors, it might be a good idea to hold back for now. The new LGA1700 CPUs aren't expected until mid-October, so there's no need to rush.

The latest Windows 11 update is causing blue screens of death with a stop code of “unsupported processor” on some MSI motherboard-based PC systems. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, noted the Verge, and stopped pushing KB5029351 updates to systems which would be adversely affected. MSI has yet to respond.

We have a pretty good idea about why some MSI motherboards are affected by this Microsoft OS update thanks to the experience of Tom Warren of The Verge and various redditors who have posted about their issues.

The “unsupported processor” BSOD only seems to appear on systems with MSI boards that have applied the latest BIOS updates. These BIOS files have been released for MSI Z690 and Z790 motherboards, in preparation for the arrival of Intel’s upcoming 14th Gen Core ‘Raptor Lake-S Refresh’ processors. They explicitly support “next-gen CPUs,” and appear to have caught Microsoft newest OS off guard.

Microsoft’s Windows 11 notoriously excludes what should be capable processors (like first gen Ryzen CPUs) from its compatibility list. Users of such systems have to fiddle with bypass techniques to get Microsoft’s latest OS to play nicely on their otherwise competent machines. It could well be the case that MSI’s BIOS tweak extending CPU support has triggered something in Microsoft’s CPU exclusion code.

“We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft,” reads an update on the Windows Help Center. “We will provide an update when more information is available.”

So, what should MSI Z690 and Z790 motherboard users do now? If you haven’t already installed the Windows KB5029351 update, then put it off. If it is already installed and you get this BSOD, reports suggest that it is possible to recover Windows and rollback the patch. Coming at the problem from a different angle, you could avoid or roll-back the MSI BIOS update.

PC users with other motherboard brands might be wise to wait and see how MSI users get over this issue before seeking out similar 14th Gen Core CPU BIOS updates.

A decade or so ago, Nvidia introduced vBIOS signature checks, effectively shutting the door on enthusiast vBIOS modding. Today, TechPowerUp reported that two of its forum members have independently introduced new software tools which re-open modding possibilities like: flashing a BIOS from a premium to a reference card, adjusting power limits, controlling voltages and fan-curves, and more.

When Nvidia launched the Maxwell GPU architecture (GeForce 900 series), it introduced an on-die security processor, dubbed Falcon. This would be a strike against counterfeiters, as it added vBIOS signature checks and vendor / device checks. However, the move closed the granular control of Nvidia GPUs that modders had previously enjoyed via vBIOS modding techniques.

TechPowerUp claims to have "hand-inspected the binary code" of both of the new tools, OMGVflash by Veii and NVflashk by Kefi, and asserts that they "are free of any viruses or Trojans." So, without further ado, let us look a bit closer at the two tools and their features.

OMGVflash

Veii provides extensive background and instructions on using OMGVflash in the linked dedicated forum post. This tool currently works on Turing architecture (RTX20, GTX16) cards and older, and claims to provide full crossflash ability.

The modding tool developer adds that OMGVflash allows users to "Basically flash what you desire [FE / VendorCert / XOC Cert / MasterCert etc], as long as EEPROM size can take it." Usefully  (but we hope you don't need it) Veii also provides instructions on how to repair a bricked card.

NVflashk

Kefi's forum thread on NVflashk is just as extensive, with the release and documentation available on GitHub. It is explained that this is a reversed-engineered / patched version of nvflash. Moreover, it was inspired by the developer's desire to flash their Asus GeForce RTX 4090 TUF OC edition to the 1000W XOC BIOS. This previously wasn't possible as re-flashing was blocked by a 'Board ID mismatch' error message. Using NVflashk, the RTX 4090's voltage could be pumped up from 1.07v to 1.1v as desired

Potential users are warned that NVflashk is a very powerful tool. But with this power comes great danger, as it will "attempt to flash anything to anything." However, the developer doesn't believe that uncertified/modified BIOSes are flashable as things stand. Some humorous warnings, confirmations and messages have been implemented into the software.

Be Careful

Remember, modding your graphics card's vBIOS will almost certianly void any warranty, and carries an inherent risk. If you are tempted to tinker with your vBIOS, back it up first, and make sure you have a way to run recovery tools (an iGPU or spare GPU) and proceed with extreme caution.

The creator of the Linux OS, Linus Torvalds, vented his frustration with AMD's fTPM implementation (h/t Phoronix). Tersely characterizing the AMD fTPM as "crud," the outspoken Finnish developer appeared to suggest the best thing to do with this motherboard flash-based TPM solution would be to disable it, at least as far as using it for hardware random number generation is concerned. Torvalds noted that the CPU RDRAND instruction for the same task doesn't cause stuttering, so it could be used instead.

We have previously covered news of AMD's fTPM (firmware trusted platform module) implementation causing stuttering in Windows apps and games, and the official purported fix/workaround. Please carefully heed AMD's warning about the workaround of switching an active system from fTPM to dTPM. However, it seems like AMD's BIOS patches haven't managed to iron out all the fTPM stuttering behavior on Windows or Linux.

We wrote our last article about AMD fTPM-induced stuttering on Windows in March 2022. However, subsequently launched AMD CPUs and platforms appear to have inherited the same or similar issues. People with the newest AM5 systems in 2023 are still complaining about stuttering, though without further investigation, we can't be sure whether there is some other root cause. System stuttering can be a huge problem when working with media files since it can interrupt video conferencing and infuriate gamers (among other things).

Circling back to the Linux creator's diatribe concerning AMD's fTPM, he began with his conclusion: "Let's just disable the stupid fTPM HWRND thing," was his opening assertion. Various reasons were put forward to this end, but the crux of the issue seems to be that the fixes we have seen and reported upon "apparently didn't turn out to be true."

In a further lengthy comment on the state of the AMD fTPM, Torvalds appeared to throw shade at motherboard BIOS coders before putting forward a key observation about the CPU-based RDRAND vs. the fTPM-based HWRND. "So RDRAND (and RDSEED in particular) can be rather slow, but I think we're talking hundreds of CPU cycles (maybe low thousands)," wrote Torvalds. "Nothing like the stuttering reports we've seen from fTPM."

It would be interesting to hear from readers with AMD CPU-based systems about whether the official fixes or workarounds helped or the extent of any stuttering issues still present (Windows & Linux users).

If your PC has Gigabyte components, you may be able to use a specialized version of HWInfo to monitor your components. The hardware and software companies announced a collaboration today that adds special skins and features to HWInfo on PCs with Gigabyte's motherboards.

One of the results of this partnership is that people will be able to check out the more advanced memory sub-timings to see how their RAM is performing, and there's also what appears to be a new breakout box specifically for monitoring those values. "This empowers users to make informed decisions when optimizing their memory configurations, ultimately enhancing system performance and stability," Gigabyte wrote in a press release.

There's also a new exclusive feature to see settings from your Gigabyte Aorus BIOS. While it doesn't appear that you'll be able to change BIOS settings from the app (that would be pretty wild!), you can check which settings you have enabled.

The new skins are pretty simple, with options for light mode and dark mode featuring orange highlights and an Aorus logo.

Both Intel and AMD motherboards will be supported. Here's the BIOS you'll need to get started on each one, per Gigabyte's release:

• Intel Z790/B760/Z690/B660/H610 motherboard, release BIOS date Jul 28, 2023.
• AMD X670/B650/A620 motherboards, beta BIOS date Jul 21, 2023.

The company suggests that more features will gain support in "the future," but hasn't laid out a timetable.

It's unclear how long these features will be exclusive to Gigabyte motherboards, and when or if HWInfo may bring them to PCs with boards from other companies.

This would hardly be the first piece of diagnostic software with hardware partners on board. CPU-Z, another popular diagnostic utility, has versions in partnership with Cooler Master, Asus ROG, MSI, ASRock and for both Gigabyte and Aorus.

HWInfo is a free download for all Windows PCs and is free for non-commercial use. (HWInfo 32-bit is freeware for everyone. HWInfo 64 v 7.00 and later requires a license if you're a commercial operator).

Just days after AMD released its new memory-enhancing AGESA 1.0.0.7b update, HiCookie, one of the world's best-known overclockers, has managed to hit over 9000 MHz on one of his DDR5 memory kits operating on a Ryzen 7 7800X3D system. 

This is one of the fastest DDR5 overclocks we've seen to date on any DDR5-supported platform, demonstrating that AM5 has a lot more DDR5 overclocking potential than initially expected. At this rate, we could see 10,000 MHz overclocks in no time — and we might even see Ryzen 7000 systems actively beating Intel's best Alder Lake/Raptor Lake CPUs in memory overclocking for the first time ever.

The overclock was achieved with Gigabyte DDR5-8400 modules on a B650E Aorus Tacyon motherboard with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU. The DDR5 modules were overclocked to 9058 MHz with slightly tighter 54-56-56-126 timings compared to the module's default XMP configuration.

The new AGESA 1.0.0.7b update is arguably the most impactful AMD microcode update we've seen on the AM5 platform to date. The new patch substantially increases memory support (and memory stability, by the looks of it), allowing most Ryzen 7000 CPUs to hit 7000 - 8000 MHz regularly and 6400 MHz in a 1:1 UCLK:MEMCLK ratio, which is optimal for gaming and other latency-sensitive tasks. This is a substantial change from previous patches, where 6000 MHz was the peak most Ryzen 7000 chips could hit stably. Anything beyond 6000 MHz was completely unpredictable.

The new update has a lot of new features that enhance memory stability and boost frequency support, but the primary change that improves higher-frequency DDR5 functionality is a new set of previously-hidden timing parameters that control the Ryzen 7000 memory controller. These settings were hidden from the user in the past — and possibly motherboard manufacturers as well — but now they have opened them up to users and BIOS developers to alleviate any bottlenecks the memory controller might be responsible for.

If overclockers continue to push memory overclocks like this with AMD's new AGESA microcode update, this may be the first real competition we've seen from AMD regarding memory overclocking. Past AMD Ryzen architectures have always had inferior memory overclocking performance, due to the hardware limitations of their memory controllers, compared to Intel. But now it seems like the tables may be turning, and AMD may even have the better-performing memory controller. We'll know this soon enough if memory overclockers start breaking DDR5 frequency world records on AMD hardware.

Today, Asus has released a BIOS update for the ROG Alloy gaming handheld. However, among the blurb there is no specific mention of last week's hot topic - MicroSD cards getting so cooked they become unusable.

In Asus ROG Ally BIOS update v323, only a quartet of UX improvements are highlighted by Asus:

• UX improvement: Added 30W support when plugging in 65W or higher wattage PD adapters or Type-C hub. 
• UX improvement: Modified minimum panel backlight value from 25nits to 10nits to improve usability in dark environments.
• UX improvement: On future BIOS updates, the "Memory Assigned to GPU" setting won’t be reset to default; it will now keep its previous value.
• UX improvement: Optimized performance in Performance mode when plugged in.

The Asus community post also provides some explanatory information which talks about issues with third party USB Type-C docks, power draw, and Turbo mode. The discussion of power might give some hope that BIOS update v323 will address MicroSD card malfunctioning issues. At the time of writing Asus hasn't responded to users on forums or social media who have raised this burning question. Was it too optimistic to hope for a fix a week after the admission of this issue?

Asus admitted its MicroSD card overheating issue last week after simmering voices of complaint about ruined memory cards reached boiling point. To recap that news, an Asus rep wrote on the ROG Ally's Discord channel that "under certain thermal stress conditions the SD card reader may malfunction." The conditions didn't seem extraordinary, with complaints about toasted memory cards quite common.

Also last week, Asus pledged to push out an update to its ROG Ally customers which would tweak the device's fan curves. Enthusiasts had actually shown tuning the fans was a potential fix for MicroSD card frying issues several weeks earlier.

Until Asus comes out and officially says it has delivered an update to address potential MicroSD card overheating we therefore advise caution. Users might want to either tweak with their own fan curve settings to make sure the APU and VRM areas located near the card slot don't get too toasty. Or alternatively, try and simply avoid using the supplementary storage for a little while longer.

If your built-in storage is cramped, you might also consider an internal SSD upgrade. We recently looked at the best Steam Deck and ROG Ally SSD upgrade options, with prices starting at 11 cents per GB.

According to several Reddit, Twitter, and TechPowerUp reports, AMD has massively improved DDR5 memory support on the AM5 platform with a new microcode update known as AGESA 1.0.0.7b. The update allows some boards to push DDR5 frequencies as high as 8000MHz without issue and boosts the optimal 1:1 (UCLK:MEMCLK) ratio to 6400MHz. Gigabyte and ASRock have already published stability runs with the new BIOS update, showing off 8000MHz and 7200MHz working perfectly on the Aorus X670E Master and X670E Taichi.

Only a few AM5 motherboards have the new microcode update for now. Still, we suspect the update will become more readily available over the next couple of weeks, depending on the launch schedule of each motherboard manufacturer.

ASRock X670E taichi new bios has support for 7200 xmp/expo memory link inside... from r/Amd

An ASRock engineer on Reddit shared many of the changes AMD has made to the 1.0.0.7b microcode update that significantly increases memory support. One of the biggest is a new setting called DDR5 nitro mode that alters some of the timing parameters inside the memory controller of Ryzen 7000 CPUs to enable higher frequencies. Memory training has also received some significant changes, allowing users to run the initial memory training algorithm for much longer if needed, which can improve the likely hood of a problematic DDR5 memory kit working on an AM5 motherboard.

According to the engineer, the new update will now allow most Ryzen 7000 CPUs to run at 6400MHz comfortably in a 1:1 ratio without failing and allow some motherboards and CPUs to hit 7600-7800MHz depending on silicon lottery when running at a higher ratio. This is a large change from the past, where anything past 6000MHz was unpredictable from a reliability standpoint.

Of course, these changes come from an ASRock engineer specifically, so we can't be sure if some of these changes are board specific or if all these changes come from the AGESA microcode update itself. Regardless, the new update appears to fix a lot of the memory problems AMD's new AM5 platform has been dealing with since the very beginning, as well as improving support for ultra-fast memory kits in the 7000-8000MHz range (whether stock or manually overclocked).

Game Boy is one of the most iconic handheld gaming consoles of all time. Almost 35 years later, enthusiasts and gamers still find new mods and hacks for the retro device and its accompanying add-ons, such as the Super Game Boy.

The Super Game Boy is essentially a cartridge that bridges the gap between the Game Boy and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), allowing the latter to play cartridges from the handheld console. The Game Boy and Super NES are two different devices with little in common. As a result, the Super Game Boy leverages the same hardware as the Game Boy to emulate the latter's game on the Super NES.

The Game Boy features a custom Sharp LR35902 processor based on the Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 chips. The 8-bit processor features a clock speed of 4.19 MHz. However, the Super Game Boy's clock speed is 4.295 MHz, resulting in the accessory running Game Boy games at a 2.4% faster pace. The audio is sped up, and there wasn't a link port on the Super Game Boy since the difference in clock speed would cause it and a normal Game Boy to desynchronize. It's why Nintendo exclusively launched the Super Game Boy 2 in Japan, an upgraded variant incorporating a custom crystal oscillator to mirror the Game Boy's clock speed alongside a link port for two-player gameplay.

As Nicole Express spotted, user nensondubois recently released a ROM hack for World Heroes 2 Jet to further overclock the Super Game Boy. The hack enables a "turbo mode" per se to run the device at 5.35 MHz. The website provided a few audio samples to show the overlock and a small video of the overclocked device. The biggest drawback is the graphical glitches, a product of the hardware limitation.

Obviously, Nintendo didn't want users to be fiddling with the Super Game Boy's turbo mode. According to Nicole Express, the code isn't available through the Super Game Boy BIOS on the Game Boy side. Instead, you can only access it through the Super NES end.

It's cool that the Game Boy scene is still alive after all these years, and we're still seeing new mods. Game Boy was part of many childhoods, so there's always a special place for the handheld gaming console in our hearts.

AMD has launched the company's Zen 4 lineup, offering us some of the best CPUs on the market. That doesn't mean that motherboard vendors have brushed off older processors. ASRock will launch the company's first all-white motherboard as the B550M Pro SE for Zen 3 and prior chips.

The B550M Pro SE isn't ASRock's first white motherboard. The company has distinctive models from the Aqua, Taichi Carrara, and Steel Legend series. However, those are typically black motherboards with white armor, whereas the upcoming B550M Pro SE is a true white motherboard from the PCB up. Interestingly, ASRock would rather launch the brand's first white motherboard with an older chipset instead of one of the newer AMD 600-series chipsets. If we had to make an educated guess, ASRock probably just refreshed one of its existing B550 motherboards along the lines of the B550M Pro4 or something to give it a new white theme.

The B550M Pro SE is a micro-ATX motherboard carrying the AM4 socket and B550 chipset. Although the AMD 500-series chipset supports Zen 3 and older processors, it won't handle all of them due to the capacity limitation of the BIOS chip. Nonetheless, we expect the B550M Pro SE to support at least the Ryzen 3000 (Matisse) and Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) series from AMD's mainstream desktop lineup and the Ryzen 3000G (Picasso), Ryzen 4000G (Renoir), and Ryzen 5000G (Cezanne) series from the APU side.

According to the B550M Pro SE renders (via Hoang Anh Phu), the motherboard seems to feature an eight-phase power delivery subsystem. The motherboard receives power from a standard 24-pin power connector and an 8-pin EPS connector. Four DDR4 memory slots support up to 128GB of memory. The data rate will depend on which Ryzen processor you pair the motherboard with, but it should do over DDR4-4733 with the right chip.

We can observe that the B550M Pro SE has two M.2 slots. Billed as the "Hyper M.2" by ASRock, that slot adheres to the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and supports up to 80mm long M.2 drives. The secondary M.2 slot, below the chipset, should also support SSDs of the same length but limited to slower speeds. It probably sticks to PCIe 3.0 x2 like many of ASRock's other budget B550 motherboards. As for standard SATA III ports, there are four of them on the B550M Pro SE.

Like other microATX motherboards, the B550M Pro SE only supplies three expansion slots. The primary expansion slot, which features reinforced steel, operates at PCIe 4.0 x16, whereas the secondary expansion slot is limited to PCIe 3.0 x4. Logically, PCIe 4.0 support is only available on Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 5000 processors, while the supported Ryzen APUs are still on PCIe 3.0. The motherboard also offers a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for less bandwidth-hungry devices.

Display outputs on the B550M Pro SE include one HDMI 2.1 port and one DisplayPort 1.4 output. You'll need a Ryzen APU to use these ports since pre-Zen 4 chips didn't have integrated graphics. For connectivity, we spot a PS/2 combo port and six USB ports. The angle of the render doesn't reveal the color coding for the USB ports, so we can't say for certain the speed. However, we can see the single Ethernet port and three 3.5mm audio jacks that probably leverage a Realtek audio codec.

ASRock has already registered the B550M Pro SE with the Korea Radio Research Agency (RRA), so it shouldn't be long before we get a comprehensive specification sheet and information on pricing and availability.

Phoronix recently benchmarked AMD's most sophisticated Ryzen mobile architecture, the 7040 mobile series, in AVX-512 workloads to see how performant it is compared to Intel's last two generations of AVX-512-supported CPUs in the mobile space. Turns out, AMD's Phoenix series CPUs are incredibly effective AVX-512 chips, easily beating out the competition in power efficiency and performance.

The CPUs Phoronix tested included a Ryzen 7 7840U, as well as Intel's older i7-1165G7, and i7-1065G7 — which were the last mobile CPUs to support AVX-512. The AMD chip blew past the older Intel CPUs outperforming the 1165G7 by 46% and outperformed the older 1065G7 by a whopping 63%. The Ryzen 7 chip also saw the highest performance gain when enabling AVX-512, with a 54% performance margin when enabling or disabling AVX-512. The Intel chips weren't even close, with a performance margin of 35%.

AMD's performance gains with AVX-512 are impressive, especially given that Zen 4 — the CPU architecture the 7840U utilizes — is the very first architecture from team red to adopt the new instruction set. Intel, conversely, has had years of experience developing AVX-512-capable architectures but has failed to pull off the same performance margins as AMD. Intel also had to deal with other architectural oddities found in Rocket Lake and Alder Lake regarding AVX-512 performance and capability, that AMD's Zen 4 architecture does not have.

AVX-512 is a relatively new instruction set that was first developed by Intel in the mid-2010s. The instruction set offers more efficient data processing compared to other AVX standards and is capable of boosting highly complex computation workloads, such as scientific simulation, 3D modeling, analytics, data compression, deep learning, and more.

The instruction set was first seen in desktop consumer chips in 2017, starting with Intel's Skylake-X CPU lineup of HEDT processors. Since then, the instruction set has made its way to desktop and mobile consumer chips, including Rocket Lake, Tiger Lake, and Ice Lake.

But, unexpectedly, Intel dropped AVX-512 support altogether when Alder Lake launched, even though the architecture featured improved AVX-512 capabilities over Rocket Lake. The problem was that Intel couldn't get AVX-512 to work in conjunction with its E-cores, which did not support AVX-512 at all. Though oddly, AVX-512 was actually functional on the P cores for a little while, as long as you disabled the E-cores from the BIOS.

The ironic part is that AMD was busy integrating AVX-512 into its Zen 4 CPU architecture when Alder Lake dropped, making 2022 one of the worst years to drop AVX-512 support on the consumer side for Intel.

So, not only do AMD's Zen 4 mobile CPUs feature AVX-512 support, but they are also the only players in the space until Intel decides to reintroduce it in its consumer mobile chips in the future. This will give AMD-powered notebooks a huge performance advantage for users that can take advantage of AVX-512's faster processing capabilities.

A seasoned Twitter-based hardware leaker has shared a screenshot which seems to show the results of an Intel Core i7-14700K put through a trio of benchmarks. WXnod shared a screenshot a few hours ago, without comment, and in it you can see that the supposed Raptor Lake Refresh chip has been tested in AIDA64, Cinebench, and CPU-Z. Compared to its predecessor, the Core i7 13700K, the new chip appears to be as much as 20% faster in multi-threaded workloads.

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a expected to be a particularly interesting member of Raptor Lake Refresh as, according to the latest information, it is unique in delivering a reconfigured core spec. To explain that, while its predecessor offered an 8P + 8E core configuration, the refreshed model is rumored to come with 8P + 12E. WXnod's leak has all core configuration details blurred out, for some reason. However, fellow Twitter hardware tipster Harukaze5719 has ridden to our rescue, augmenting this leak with a Baidu-sourced screenshot complete with core configuration data. See below.

Working through the on-screen data, we can see that the chip which is under is identified by the software as a Raptor Lake-S model, for the LGA 1700 socket, fabricated using 10 nm lithography (Intel 7), which boosts up to 5.5 GHz in this example, and has a TDP of 125W.

The screenshot purportedly shows that the Intel Core i7-14700K offers a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a core configuration detected as offering 20C / 28T. This fits with 8P + 12E cores (16 + 12 threads).

Circling back to the original info spill from WXnod, we have to assume that the benchmarks are genuine, accurate and representative (but taken with a pinch of salt), and create a comparison table. Data for the Core i7-13700K comes from our review (linked) and online databases. 

From the memory test results (AIDA64) we can see an alleged and significant uplift in bandwidth, but this could be helped by a system with a newer motherboard and different RAM module choices. Moving onto Cinebench, and while single-core tests aren't much different, the expected extra cores / threads in this Raptor Lake Refresh CPU show their worth. The same can be said for CPU-Z 1T and nT processor testing. At best, the processor multithread tests show that the i7-14700K is 20.6% faster in CPU-Z, and up to 17.5% faster in Cinebench, compared to the previous gen CPU.

If you are running an Intel socket LGA 1700 system and could be tempted to upgrade to a Raptor Lake Refresh chip, you shouldn't have to wait a very long time, as the 'K' chips are tipped to arrive in mid-to-late October. However, there are indications that the Core i7-14700K (in particular) might need users to apply a BIOS update, to get it working correctly.

A credible source has indicated that Intel will launch the first Raptor Lake Refresh chips for desktop PCs during week 42 this year. A quick Google reveals that this timeframe spans from October 16 to 22, 2023. Unsurprisingly, the first batch of Intel 14th Gen Core processors for desktops which are claimed to be in line for launch will be the unlocked 'K' suffixed parts. China's ECSM_Official adds that he expects the mainstream non-K chips to launch in the first week of 2024, probably timed for exposure at the CES in Las Vegas.

Regular readers might know ECSM_Official by his longer, and more humorous, tech vlog moniker of the Enthusiastic Citizen. He has a good track record for Intel leaks in recent years, bringing us some of the first Core i5-13600K benchmarks, and exposing the original Raptor Lake launch and retail dates around this time last year. Actually, his RPL availability forecast last year was just two or three days stray - perhaps that's why he has given a date range this time.

Circling back to the leak du jour, the Enthusiastic Citizen is really spoiling us with details not just about launch timings, but specific SKUs, motherboards, and BIOS information. In the intro we mention the dates of October 16 to 22, 2023 for 'K' processor availability, and the first week of 2024 for mainstream multiplier locked desktop processors. Additionally, Enthusiastic Citizen notes that the Core i7 14700K will present one of the biggest changes seen in the refresh. It is likely this desktop chip will offer a brand new configuration of 8P+12E, he says. That's eight performance cores plus 12 efficiency cores. This contrasts to the Core i7 13700K with 8P+8E.

Due to the more dramatic change represented by the Core i7 14700K, Enthusiastic Citizen says that buyers of this chip will very likely need a BIOS update to prepare any existing socket LGA1700 PC system. For the rest of the Raptor Lake Refresh, ho9wever, he suggests existing BIOS files will probably work without update.

Some other leaky news nuggets shared by ECSM include:

• Intel is preparing Z890, B860, and H810 chipset motherboards for Arrow Lake CPUs - but not any H870 boards.
• AMD's Storm Peak Threadripper processors are due in Q4 this year with two new chipsets
• AMD is unlikely to launch any CPUs based on the Zen 5 architecture this year

As with any leaked news and non-official source, please add a sprinkle of salt to the above product details and launch timing projections. The latest official Raptor Lake Refresh news came somewhat obliquely from an Intel presentation in China, shared on the firm's official Bilibili account. Intel is making coverage of the next generation chips quite messy with new naming / branding schemes, and mixing of different architectures on desktop, mobile, and between mobile SKUs…

Renowned overclocker Allen 'Splave' Golibersuch has managed to overclock Nvidia's AD102 GPU on Asus's upcoming ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card to nearly 4.0 GHz — 3,945 MHz to be more exact — without modifying the card. With liquid nitrogen cooling, the board could pass the GPUPi 32B 3.3 test and even set the world's record in this benchmark.  

By using liquid nitrogen cooler on the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 card (which has all chances to lead the best graphics cards list) that has been architected for overclocking, Splave managed to push the AD102 graphics processor to an unprecedented 3,945 MHz. He did not modify the card, just replaced the stock all-on-one liquid cooling system with the Kingpin Cooling TEK-9 Icon Extreme GPU pot for LN2 and attached three heaters and three ElmorLabs HOT300 heater controllers. All the tweaking and overclocking were then performed using BIOS settings and OC software. 

The GPU running at 3,945 MHz calculated Pi to 32,000,000,000 digits in 46.077 seconds, which is a world record, according to Splave. GPUPi is certainly not a graphics workload, so it remains to be seen how high the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 can push the GPU in actual games, but getting very close to the 4.0 GHz GPU clock milestone is important. To date, 3,825 MHz is AD102's record for 3D workloads. 

This is not the first time Nvidia's AD102 GPU has been overclocked significantly higher than its recommended 2,520 MHz boost clock, without voltmodding the card itself. Perhaps the Asus ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card is a device that does not need voltmodding? It uses a highly-custom printed circuit board (PCB) with a meticulously designed voltage regulating module (VRM) that can deliver up to 600W of very clean power (the maximum one can get from one 12VHPWR connector) to the GPU and memory, which is vital for a successful overclock. 

Asus itself positions the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 as a crème-de-la-crème graphics card with the industry's highest GPU boost clock for those who want absolutely the best PC hardware and have pockets that are deep enough to afford it. Apparently, the graphics board can impress even before it hits the market.

Finally on our test bench is a motherboard that doesn’t from one of the four major board partners. Specifically, we’re looking at the Biostar Z790 Valkyrie. This flagship-class SKU offers users the full complement of features from the Z790 platform, including PCIe 5.0 slots, M.2 sockets, and support for Intel’s 12th and 13th Gen processors. Currently found online for over $600, it comes with last-gen flagship-class audio, plenty of storage options and USB ports, and robust power delivery to support the high-end Intel processors. However, it is missing integrated Wi-Fi. Its looks are also basic for the price, but you won’t need to hide it in your chassis.

Biostar’s product stack has just two motherboards for Z790, the Valkyrie we’re reviewing here and the much lower-priced Z790A-Silver. You won’t find any Micro ATX or Mini-ITX boards or other SKUs here. Biostar’s options are simple and straightforward, but not also limited compared to the competition.

Regarding performance, the Z790 was below average with our Intel i9-13900K. Like most other Z790 boards, the Valkyrie lets the processor run free within Intel specifications, but gets hindered by thermal throttling. We saw above-average results in Handbrake, but surprisingly lower results in the Procyon Office tests. For those concerned about gaming, performance was average all around there. If you need more performance, there are options within the BIOS to run with raised limits. Just be sure you have the cooling to support it (and perhaps run a negative offset for Vcore).

This board doesn’t earn a spot on our best motherboards list, but it does present users with another option in the crowded Z790 market. Before we get into our testing and board specifics, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from Biostar’s website.

Specifications: Biostar Z790 Valkyrie

Inside the Box of the Biostar Z790 Valkyrie

Inside the box, along with the motherboard, is a simple accessory stack designed to get you started without an additional trip to the store. Below is a complete list of the included accessories:

• (4) SATA cables
• Driver disk
• User Manual
• Smart connector

Design of the Z790 Valkyrie

The Z790 Valkyrie sits on a matte-black 8-layer PCB, sporting black heatsinks and shrouds with gold accents, plus a brushed aluminum finish covering the unsightly parts of the board. The left VRM bank and chipset heatsinks include the Valkyrie branding, backlit with RGB LEDs. The board doesn’t look bad, but its similarly priced competition does look better and more premium.

Focusing on the top half of the board, we get a better look at the large heatpipe-connected VRM heatsinks and the Valkyrie branding on the IO cover. Like the AMD-based X670E Valkyrie, the VRM heatsinks are loaded with wide-mitered cutouts to increase surface area and performance, and they do a more-than-adequate job keeping the MOSFETs running well within specification. Above the VRM heatsinks are two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the Intel processor.

Moving past the socket, we hit the four reinforced DDR5 DRAM slots, with locking mechanisms on both sides. Biostar lists support up to DDR5-7200, which is low compared to similarly priced options. We didn’t have any trouble with our DDR5-5600 or DD5-6000 kits, but the fastest we had (DDR5-7200) didn’t want to play nice here. However, the sticks are not on the QVL list, and are at the very top of listed support, so I can’t say we expected that to work anyway.

Next to the DRAM slots are the first two (of six) 4-pin fan headers. You can adjust the PWM and DC-controlled devices in the BIOS or through the Aurora software. Biostar documentation doesn’t appear to list the output of these headers on the specs page or in the manual. You can safely assume the headers all have 1A/12W available to them without fear (more would be concerning). Overloading these headers can cause permanent damage to your motherboard.

Past the DRAM slots along the right edge, we find a slew of headers, including all three RGB headers (2x 3-pin ARGB and 1x 4-pin RGB) nicely tucked in this location which helps with cable management. Down the right edge are the power and reset buttons, another 4-pin fan header, and the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board. Below is a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector and a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C connector.

The VRMs on the Z790 Valkyrie are some of the more capable we’ll see on the Z790 platform. For Vcore, there are a total of 20 phases. Power comes from the 8-pin EPS connector(s) onto the Renesas RAA229131 controller. Power then moves to 20x 105A Renesas RAA22010540 SPS MOSFETs. The mind-blowing 2,100A available for Vcore is one of the highest we’ve seen and more than enough to handle the flagship Intel i9-13900K at stock and while overclocked, even when using sub-ambient cooling methods.

On the bottom of the board, starting with the left side, we find a mostly hidden audio area. The only thing visible is four yellow capacitors dedicated to audio use. Hiding under the shroud is the last-generation flagship Realtek ALC1220 codec. While most users are satisfied with this codec, I want to see the latest and greatest on a flagship-class motherboard.

In the middle of the board are three reinforced full-length PCIe slots, poking out between five M.2 sockets, all of which hidden under heatsinks. Starting with the PCIe slots, the top two slots connect through the CPU and run at PCIe 5.0 speeds. The top slot supports up to x16 while the second slot supports a maximum of PCIe 5.0 8x speeds. With both in use, the top slot breaks down to x8 speeds to share the bandwidth with the second slot. The bottom full-length socket connects through the chipset and supports PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth. There are plenty of slots and sockets to go around, but there is some lane sharing (more on this below) you need to consider.

Mixed in among slots are five total M.2 sockets. There’s one PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) socket and four PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) sockets, with one of those able to run SATA- and NVMe-based modules. There’s also a Key-E socket available for CNVi-based Wi-Fi cards. Byt don’t let the antenna connections on the back fool you, there’s no Wi-Fi included in the box. 

Again, some lane sharing is inevitable with these sockets, slots, and SATA ports. If you’re using a PCIe-based module on M2M_CPU1 (top socket), the second PCIe slot is disabled, and the primary slot (top) drops to x8, so there’s enough bandwidth to go around. Additionally, if you’re running a SATA-based SSD in M2M_SB3, you’ll lose one SATA port (SATA8). In short, you can run all five M.2 sockets and all eight SATA ports concurrently if you aren’t running a SATA-based M.2 module.

Next, we spy a CLR CMOS button along the right edge to reset the active BIOS. Next to it are eight SATA ports, the BIOS selector switch, and another 4-pin fan header. Across the bottom of the are several exposed headers. You’ll find the typical fare here with USB, audio, and fan headers. Below is a complete list from left to right:

• Front panel audio
• (2) 4-pin System Fan headers
• Thunderbolt AIC header
• COM port
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• Front Panel
• Debug LED
• 4-pin fan header
• TPM header

The rear IO on the Z790 Valkyrie comes pre-installed and attached to the motherboard. It sports a black background with white labeling on the ports, which makes things easy to read. There are eight USB ports total: two Type-C (10 and 20 Gbps ports) and six USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports. On the left are two video outputs (DisplayPort and HDMI), as well as a Smart BIOS update button. Above the USB ports is the Wi-Fi antenna connections, but note the board does not come with Wi-Fi! You must purchase and install your own in the available Key-E slot. On the right is the five-plug analog plus SPDIF audio stack, and laslyt, the 2.5 GbE port.

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Firmware

Biostar’s firmware on the Z790 boards, like the others, doesn’t receive a significant facelift outside of some options exclusive to Intelt’s latest CPU platform. There’s an EZ Mode and your more standard advanced mode with the different sections spanning the top. While it has many of the basics, the overclocking options are limited with regard to memory. If you’re into tweaking every little thing to extract every ounce of performance from your sticks, this isn’t the board that will do it. If you’re more of a set-EXPO/XMP-and-forget-it memory person, this isn’t a concern (assuming your memory is on the QVL list). Overall, we like the BIOS, but in terms of appearance and features, it just isn’t up to the level of its competition.

Software

For software, Biostar has the Aurora suite that combines various functionality in one application. You’ll find audio functionality (volume control - Smart Ear), RGB (Vivid LED DJ), fan control (AI Fan), a hardware monitor, and overclocking functions in the OC/OV section. Everything worked as described. But, overclocking is limited to BCLK adjustment and voltage (no CPU multiplier adjustments). Overall, we like the Aorura application and hope for additional features/functionality to be added in new revisions.

Test System / Comparison Products 

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows: 

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings 

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for either stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

In our synthetic tests, our Z790 Valkyrie was average to below average, depending on the test. In all, it sits between the intel spec and other high-end boards where (at least) the PL1 limit is increased to maintain clocks. Like most boards, ours is plagued with thermal throttling in some tests, affecting the scores. The difference isn’t too significant, but it’s not one of the higher-performing boards we’ve tested.

 Timed Applications 

When looking at our timed applications, the LAME and Corona results were both slower than average. Meanwhile, both Handbrake tests were some of the fastest we’ve seen.

 3D Games and 3DMark 

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21, to the latest version, F1 22. We're keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920 x 1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most differences falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, as this affects your gameplay and immersion experience.

Starting with the UL’s 3DMark tests, our board mixed right in with the rest. In games, it was average in F1 2022, and just slightly below average in Far Cry: 6. That said, you wouldn’t notice a difference between this and the fastest results unless you had a frame counter on the screen anyway. It’s a perfectly competent gamer.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same.

Power consumption on the Z790 Valkyrie was just below average, using a bit more power than most of our boards. It averaged 72 Watts at idle and peaked at 402W during the stress-test load before it thermally throttled and used less power (from around 253 to 230W on the CPU itself).

VRM temperatures on the Valkyrie was also well within specification. At stock, temperatures, according to our sensors (the board doesn’t have an internal VRM sensor), were well within the operating parameters of the premium 105A SPS MOSFETs at stock settings and while overclocked. At idle, they sat close to 40 degrees Celsius, while it peaked around 54 degrees Celsius under load. There’s nothing to be concerned with regarding the power delivery or its cooling, as your CPU temperatures limit you before the VRMs get in the way.

Overclocking

When overclocking, we aim to increase the power and add stress to the VRMs. We do so by increasing the clock speed and voltage until we’re at the thermal threshold for the processor during stress testing. However, where these CPUs are allowed to run with ‘boost’ speeds, those speeds are closer to the limit than ever before.

With our Core i9-13900K, the approach was a bit different. We had to lower the voltage from what was recorded during stress tests to overclock our chip. We increased the clock speeds of the “P” and “E” cores by 100 and 200 MHz, respectively, over the turbo boost and limited by our cooling. We ended up with 5.6 GHz P-core and 4.5 GHz E-core clocks using about 1.34V (from DMM). Temperatures peak at or just under the throttling point with this configuration. And as we’ve noted elsewhere, this is the intended performance for Intel’s flagship CPU.

Overclocking our processor proved as easy as most other Z790 boards. We set the Vcore to Override input 1.35V with LLC on Auto, and off we went. There wasn’t any appreciable vdroop, and testing went well. The VRMs stayed well within spec, and we were stable throughout our 30-minute test.

Regarding memory, our 5600 and 6000 kits worked out of the box without issue. Compared to the X670E we looked at a few months ago, this is great news but also expected since this review is several months past the release date, so the platform and BIOS has had time to mature. Overall, we didn’t run into any concerns when overclocking. Still, again, if you aim to run the fastest memory and/or tweak secondary and tertiary memory timings, there are better-equipped options.

Bottom Line

The Biostar Z790 Valkyrie is a well-equipped board in the premium mid-range segment. While it doesn’t include 40 Gbps ports, it’s got everything else the platform offers, including PCIe 5.0 slots and a PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket. Outside of that, it comes with one of the more robust VRMs we’ve seen, even when compared to halo-type boards. You’re limited by cooling far before the power delivery hinders overclocking. Performance was underwhelming across most tests, running slightly slower than average in most, but the board proved to be a capable gaming machine.

Biostar’s MSRP for our board is somewhere around $450. However, you’ll find it online in the US for well over $600, which pushes it into even tougher territory. Around the $500 price point, each partner has an option. There’s the MSI’s MPG Z790 Carbon Wi-Fi ($449.99), Asus’ ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming Wi-Fi ($489.99), Gigabyte has its Z790 Aorus Master ($489.99), and the ASRock Z790 Taichi is $499.99. All of these boards offer robust power delivery, fast memory support, up to five M.2 sockets, and a premium appearance. If you need 40 Gbps ports, the Taichi is the only one of the group with that native functionality. All of the compeitng BIOSes are more refined than Biostar’s as well.

Assuming you can find the Z790 Valkyrie around the $450 MSRP, it’s a valid option in this space. But if it costs more than $500, it’s not worth it. We’ve seen some improvements over time with Biostar, but in order to compete with the major motherboard players and justify a high price, some things need to change. A more modern BIOS layout and better physical appearance (read: one that looks as good versus its direct competitors) are key, as we’re good with the specifications. As it stands, there are better-equipped and arguably more attractive options available at lower prices than what this board is selling for in the US.

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Intel has shared a new poster on Bilibili that officially confirms the existence of a Raptor Lake refresh. The new CPU lineup will take on Intel’s existing Intel Core i series nomenclature and arrive as 14th Generation products. The new refresh will consist of two CPU platforms, one for desktop and one for mobile, including S series and HX/U series parts for high performance and ultrabook laptops.

We first heard about Raptor Lake Refresh all the way back in 2022 when an Intel roadmap was leaked online. The leaked roadmap revealed consumer and workstation desktop CPU lineups with 35W - 125W TDPs, however the roadmap was leaked so there was a chance it was faced. However, several months later the leak was compounded by motherboard BIOS updates featuring support for “next generation” Intel CPUs, which effectively confirmed its existence. The BIOS updates proved this because Intel’s next generation CPU architecture, Meteor Lake, will use a brand new socket, making current motherboard compatibility impossible.

The one thing leaks and rumors did not account for was a Raptor Lake refresh for mobile CPUs as well as desktop. Intel’s new poster now confirms that the new refresh will be arriving to both platforms, specifically featuring high performance HX-series mobile parts and low-power U-series parts. But strangely, the U-series parts will come with an entirely different nomenclature and be named “Intel Core 1st generation processor” instead of 14th gen. According to a Q&A answer, Intel is doing this because the U-series parts will be coming out at a later date, it doesn’t explain why Intel is not switching to its newly announced Core Ultra nomenclature instead.

Intel still has not published performance benchmarks or CPU specs for its Raptor Lake refreshed parts, but if it's like any traditional Intel refresh, we can expect these CPUs to feature modest bumps in clock speed and some additional changes that will boost speed, and functionality. For example, Intel might boost clock speeds on all the parts, and change around the core count for some models to make them stand out from previous generation Raptor Lake (vanilla) and Alder Lake chips.

We still don’t have a official release date, but previous leaks estimate that the first wave of K series chips will arrive as early as 2023.  Intel has not confirm this, but we can expect these chips to launch this soon since BIOS updates are already going live to current 700 series motherboards supporting Intel’s new processors.

48GB and 24GB DDR5 SODIMM listings have been spotted on a popular online marketplace in China. ITHome reported that the SK hynix produced laptop memory modules are now listed on Taobao. Prices for the 48GB and 24GB modules are 1,180 and 600 Chinese Yuan, or roughly $165 and $84, respectively. (Be aware that the standard VAT rate on Chinese retail goods is 13%.)

Non-binary DDR5 memory modules were announced some time back and have started to become quite widely available for desktop PCs, but laptop owners haven't had such luck. Last month we saw some in the Mushkin Memory online store, but at the time of writing that stock seems to have evaporated. Thus it is good to see a big player like SK hynix marketing 48 GB and 24 GB DDR5 SODIMMs, even if it is just in China, for now.

Laptops are usually limited to two SODIMM slots for memory upgrades or expansion, though there is an unfortunate trend towards one module being soldered. The larger 48GB SODIMM will be attractive to those who want to max-out RAM on laptops and mini-PC computers that support non-binary SODIMMs. For example, a machine that used to be able to support a maximum of 64GB with both slots populated would be able to reach the lofty heights of 96GB of DDR5 onboard. Remember to watch out for explicit support for non-binary memory modules in your device (or a multitude of tech forum user testimonials) before making a purchase - some laptops can be very fussy about memory support.

From the product sticker visible on the Chinese-sourced 48GB DDR5 SODIMMs, we can see these particular modules are rated at DDR5-5600 speeds. The ITHome source article says that the 24GB modules are similarly rated.

The Chinese pricing of the 48 and 24GB SODIMMs will probably not bear much relation to the eventual US prices, due to a multitude of variables. Meanwhile, we will continue to monitor US availability, pricing, and any BIOS updates from laptop makers arriving to add support for non-binary memory.

If you believe Dell and JEDEC, the days of SODIMMs are numbered, with the standard set to be replaced by the new CAMM Common Spec. Dell has started this particular ball rolling, but we have only seen limited enthusiasm from other players.

New Zealand-based cyber security experts at CyberCX have detailed and demonstrated an alarmingly simple way to consistently access older BIOS-locked laptops. In the linked blog post, and video demo, an exec at the firm detailed how to short some EEPROM chip pins with a simple screwdriver to access a fully-unlocked BIOS. Then all it took was a quick poke around the BIOS settings screen to disable any BIOS password altogether.

Before we go further, it is worth pointing out that CyberCX's BIOS password bypass demonstration was done on several Lenovo laptops that it had retired from service. The blog shows that the easily reproducible bypass is viable on the Lenovo ThinkPad L440 (launched Q4 2013) and the Lenovo ThinkPad X230 (launched Q3 2012). Other laptop and desktop models and brands that have a separate EEPROM chip where passwords are stored may be similarly vulnerable.

Some of you will know that there are quite a lot of good used laptops sold for spares as they are practically disabled from re-use due to a BIOS lock in place. Individual owners or organizations may have neglected to document these passwords, forgotten them, or whatever - but the systems, which are also usually stripped of their best hard drive and/or SSDs, aren't as valuable on the used market as they could be. CyberCX pondered over its old IT equipment that had been password locked and wondered about trying to gain full access to the hardware again to use it as spares or testing machines.

From reading various documentation and research articles, CyberCX knew that it needed to follow the following process on its BIOS-locked Lenovo laptops:

• Locate the correct EEPROM chip.
• Locate the SCL and SDA pins.
• Short the SCL and SDA pins at the right time.

Checking likely looking chips on the mainboard and looking up series numbers eventually lead to being able to target the correct EEPROM. In the case of the ThinkPad L440, the chip is marked L08-1 X (this may not always be the case).

An embedded video in the CyberCX blog post shows just how easy this 'hack' is to do. Shorting the L08-1 X chip pins requires something as simple as a screwdriver tip being held between two of the chip legs. Then, once you enter the BIOS, you should find that all configuration options are open to be changed. There is said to be some timing needed, but the timing isn't so tight, so there is some latitude. You can watch the video for a bit of 'technique.'

CyberCX includes some quite in-depth analysis of how its BIOS hack works and explains that you can't just short the EEPROM chips straight away as you turn the machine on (hence the need for timing).

Some readers may be wondering about their own laptops or BIOS-locked machines they have seen on eBay and so on. CyberCX says that some modern machines with the BIOS and EEPROM packages in one Surface Mount Device (SMD) would be more difficult to hack in this way, requiring an "off-chip attack." The cyber security firm also says that some motherboard and system makers do indeed already use an integrated SMD. Those particularly worried about their data, rather than their system, should implement "full disk encryption [to] prevent an attacker from obtaining data from the laptop’s drive," says the security outfit.

CyberCX hints it will continue the above research. Perhaps it will look into being able to read the BIOS password in plaintext from the EEPROM, or check the viability of its screwdriver hack across more machines.