Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of attempts by DIY modders and PC enthusiasts to shrink gaming PCs down to the size of traditional game consoles. This is often done with the goal of enjoying PC gaming on a large TV from the comfort of their couch. From custom small form factor builds to console-inspired enclosures, the idea of a living room-friendly PC isn’t exactly new. However, a modder on YouTube by the name of PhasedTech has taken this concept to a whole new level by cramming an entire desktop PC inside a svelte Xbox One S.

Now there have been similar projects in the past where modders have managed to install an entire PC inside the chassis of an old console. But, as pointed out in the video, most of them rely on an external power brick and / or integrated graphics. To make the project a bit more challenging, PhasedTech set out to use an internal power supply, a discrete graphics card, as well as an optical disc drive so the system could functionally mimic the original console. Additionally, the build avoids the use of glue, ensuring that all components are properly mounted and bolted in for a more professional finish. Lastly, only the rear and bottom of the chassis have been modified, with no changes allowed to the front, sides, or top panels.

Since the Xbox One S has a volume of approximately 4.4 liters, the parts chosen for the project had to be compact and consume relatively low power. For that reason, the hardware leans more towards a balanced console-like setup rather than a high-end gaming PC. The modder used a mini-ITX motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU cooled by a Noctua NH-L9i, along with 16GB of DDR4 ultra-low-profile memory. For storage, the system uses a standard NVMe SSD, a 250W flex PSU to provide power, and a low-profile single-slot Nvidia RTX 3050 to handle the graphics.

After separating the outer chassis from the core internals of the Xbox Series S, the modder began by laying out all the components to get a sense of where each part will go. They then shaved off some internal supports to make room for the hardware, followed by drilling a few holes to secure the power supply and motherboard using standoffs. Using a custom right-angle mount and screws, a USB Type-A extender cable is installed at the front of the console chassis.

For the optical disc drive, the modder soldered two wires to the drive’s eject switch, with the other ends connected to a micro switch. This micro switch is intended to be used with the original Xbox eject button, enabling the disc drive to be controlled using the console’s built-in button. After a quick test of the optical drive, all the power supply cables are installed, followed by preparation of the top half of the chassis.

By making use of two threaded mounting points and some plastic grooves inside the top chassis, the modder 3D-printed a two-part custom bracket to securely mount the disc drive, GPU riser cable, power button, and eject button in place. Notably a four-lane PCIe riser cable is used due to the limited internal space as opposed to a traditional 16-lane cable. Fortunately that does not impact the performance of the GPU used for the build. After installing the disc drive, power/eject buttons, GPU, and a bit of cabling, the top and bottom chassis are snapped back together, along with two custom 3D printed I/O shields for the rear.

The system boots into Windows without any issues, but due to the relatively low-end hardware, it is best suited for less resource-intensive and eSports titles. According to PhasedTech, games like Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 can push to 200 FPS at 1080p using medium settings, with temperatures reaching up to 80°C. While they haven’t offered any extended benchmark results, the project stands out for being able to balance performance, thermals, and functionality within the limited space of a console chassis, while preserving the original look and feel of the original Xbox One S.

Japanese company Lib Work has outlined its 3D house building technology, which relies on soil as its primary constituent. The company’s Lib Earth House Construction (machine translation) process uses a massive 3D printing assembly, rather like others we have seen used for building coffee shops, bus stops, and so on. However, instead of relying on cement to create concrete, Lib Earth dwelling utilize a patent pending mix of earth, slaked lime, and natural fibers.

The materials mix outlined above reminds us somewhat of wattle and daub, a building material and technique that has been around perhaps 6,000 years. Wattle and daub buildings have been known to remain serviceable for as long as 700 years. So there should be no real worries about living in a ‘mud’ house, as long as the construction has been finished correctly. Actually, Lib Work notes that its structures “have a strength equivalent to earthquake resistance grade 3, making it a safe home to live in even in Japan, a country prone to earthquakes.” Indeed, grade 3 is the highest rating for such architectural durability in Japan.

Another attraction of the 3D printed house is that it opens up the flexibility of free form design. Structures which would be a challenge to fabricate from traditional building sheet materials don’t phase 3D printers. Lib Work unveiled their first Lib Earth construction a year ago, but that was basically just a small hut. The Lib Earth model B, unveiled recently, with its cluster arrangement, is far more sophisticated and home-like, as you can see from the imagery.

A closer look at the materials and sustainability implications

Lib Work’s charts indicate that its 3D printing mix for homes is made from 65% soil and sand, the with the next largest chunk consisting of slaked lime binding material, finished off with a few percent of natural fibers and ‘other’ stuff.

The firm has done some CO2 emissions calculations / measurements. According to these figures, the new material’s reliance on “soil, lime, and natural fibers that are abundantly available on Earth,” and eschewing of cement, means far lower CO2 generated per residence.

The Lib Work figures show that building a typical house of this stature might cause about 45,000kg of CO2 emissions. This figure is reduced by more than half, to 22,434kg of CO2, when using the new 3D printing construction tech and sustainable materials. That’s even better than a ‘wooden house,’ it goes on to claim.

Lib Work Mars Project

If you think the above Lib Earth project is pretty ambitious, moving further down the linked page, you will find some eyebrow-raising information about the firm’s Mars Building Project.

Naturally, on Mars, the planned major component of buildings from Lib Work would be Martian dirt.

Soil balls

Builders often don't pay enough attention to the plethora of case options available. Or they push the decision off until the end of the component-choosing process. But if you care at all about cooling or how your system looks, I'd advise considering your case options early when planning your build.

The best PC case for you will dictate the system's size, shape, and looks, and what fits inside. The PC case is also a major factor in how quiet your system will be (or how noisy it can get) under load, thanks to any included fans, plus materials like metal mesh or glass panels. These aspects also hugely impact the cooling potential of your rig.

If you want a compact, space-saving PC, consider one of the best Mini-ITX cases to minimize your PC’s footprint on your desk. Or you can go big and get a chassis like Corsair's Obsidian 9000D or Be Quiet's Dark Base Pro 901, to house a massive workstation or gaming rig with acres of expansion possibilities. But really, you don't need a massive case these days to house the best high-end components.

Please check out our Computex 2026 coverage, where we met with several vendors with upcoming chassis, including Cooler Master, NZXT, Hyte, and others.

Prime Day Exceptional PC Case deal

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

We've also started fan testing at Tom's and have published our first Best PC Case Fans article covering several recent PC fans including some from Noctua, Arctic, Phanteks, and more. Find out which fans perform best for your needs, be it quiet operation, high-performance, or RGBs, we have you covered and expanding testing testing more fans as we speak.

Below, we’ve selected the best PC cases we've tested, from the dozens of models we've reviewed in recent years. So long as you check to make sure the parts you want to use will fit in it and you like how it looks, one of the cases below should keep you and your PC parts happy for years to come.

Best PC Cases

The Best PC Cases You Can Buy Today

Best-Looking PC Case

We aren't sure who asked for a PC case that mixed mid-century modern design (wooden slats and all) and high airflow, but we sure are glad that Fractal Design answered with the excellent North mid-tower. Available with either a mesh side (as we tested) or tempered glass, and in white with chrome accents on the IO and feet, or black with some seriously pretty brass, this is arguably the prettiest PC case ever produced, period.

And thanks to its pair of 140mm fans and an included side bracket (for the mesh model) that can hold another pair of 140mm fans (not included), the North has excellent thermals as well. Just note that it can get noisy when delivering those temps. The glass side panel may help a bit on the noise front, but likely at the cost of at least some thermal performance.

If you don't like the case's looks, then the company's Meshify 2 Compact (below), is probably a better option for you. But if you're after a case that matches the pretty furniture in your living room, has lots of room for storage, and won't break the bank at $130, nothing else comes close to the North. We hope Fractal's bold move inspires other case makers to try something different.

Read: Fractal Design North Review

Best Budget ATX Gaming Case

Lian Li's Lancool 207 ATX PC case delivers a lot, including some unique features, for just $80 – or $85 if you want the white model. It ships with four fans (two RGB and two uniquely blowing directly on your GPU) and a whole lot of mesh, so airflow shouldn't be a concern. There's also space for large graphics cards and a pair of SATA drives, which should be enough for most of us in this modern M.2 world. Cable routing is also well-designed, making building and cleaning up the interior easier.

The sideways-mounted power supply setup is a unique design choice that mostly works well, but does limit your ability to use large power supplies (160mm in length or less). Aside from that, the only thing I don't like about this case is it's one of the few new models we have tested in 2024 that doesn't support rear-connector motherboards. If that's a feature you need, check out the also-excellent Phanteks XT Pro Ultra.

Read: Hands-on with Lian Li's Lancool 207 PC case: Rethinking ATX on a budget

Best Budget Back-Connect ATX Case

Not long ago, a PC case with four 140mm RGB fans and a tempered glass side panel would have cost well north of $100. But Phanteks manages to deliver that, plus support for high-end components and emerging rear-connector motherboards, in a choice of black or white, for just $80. It's a great case for builders looking to put together a gaming rig with great cooling, who want to spend most of their money on core components like the graphics card and CPU.

The four included RGB fans deliver lots of airflow, and with some tweaking of settings in your BIOS or software, they can also run reasonably quietly. And when I installed an MSI Project Zero motherboard in the case, all the holes lined up perfectly and there was enough room for cable slack. SATA drive support is also good for a mainstream case, with a 3.5-inch drive cage and up to five 2.5-inch drives supported.

It's clear that Phanteks had to cut some corners to keep the costs down (there's a even a stepped-down XP Pro model with a single fan that has an MSRP of just $50). There are no grommets around the cable holes, and only two top USB ports (one USB-C and one USB-A). But for just $80, the Phanteks XT Pro Ultra delivers great airflow, lots of RGB, and support for modern features and high-end hardware. There are better cases out there if you're willing to spend significantly more than $100. But in its price range, Phanteks XT Pro Ultra is hands-down the best option for most gamers and system builders.

Read: Phanteks XT Pro Ultra PC case: Modern budget case delivers lots of airflow and RGB

Best PC Case With a Screen

Lian Li’s Lancool 207 already has a spot on this list for its sub-$100 base model, which features four fans for great thermal performance. But the Lancool 207 Digital adds a six-inch, 1,600 x 720 display up front that is nice and bright, without adding much to the cost of what was already a great case. So at around $105 at this writing, the 207 Digital is easy to recommend as the best PC case with a screen.

Our testing showed the 207 Digital delivers great thermal performance, even though it lacks an exhaust fan. The two fans on the bottom help cool your GPU while gaming, keeping its fans running at a lower RPM, which helps with overall system noise. An included anti-sag GPU bracket makes sure that your graphics card doesn’t put undue stress on your PCIe slot. We also found the screen to be bright, crisp, and versatile since it can display system stats via Lian Li’s software, or function as a secondary screen in your OS of choice, displaying literally whatever you like. If you’re after a case with a screen – especially if you still prioritize cooling performance and don’t want to pay more than typical mid-range case prices, the Lancool 207 Digital should be on your (very) short list.

Read: Lian Li Lancool 207 Digital review

Best Mainstream Airflow-Focused Case

With just two of the company's F120Q Airflow case fans behind a skeletal frame with a perforated front panel, the NZXT H7 Flow manages to deliver excellent temperature and noise level numbers in our testing, beating or competing well against pricier chassis with more fans and glass panels. It's also a pleasure to build in, with good cable management and a $130 MSRP that's quite reasonable in this era of seemingly ever-increasing prices.

The primary missing feature here, which will feel refreshing for many builders, is the lack of any RGB to light up your system. That, combined with the boxy look and perforated front means this case isn't the prettiest on our list, but it can certainly look good with some tasteful lighting delivered via your components, extra fans or a light strip. And if you don't like the look of the fully vented front and you aren't that concerned about keeping your temps a low as they can go, the non-Flow H7 model has a solid front, but with everything else we loved about the H7 Flow.

Read: NZXT H7 Flow review

Best Performance-Focused ATX Case

Lian Li's excellent Lancool 217 borrows from its Lancool 216 and Lancool 207, while adding some tasteful wood trim. It also sports five fans, with two massive 170 mm spinners up front and dedicated GPU intake fans above the PSU chamber to help chill today's best graphics cards. With all that airflow and a mesh front, the Lancool 217 is tough to beat in its $125 price range.

The 217 was also a pleasure to build in, thanks to a fused front-panel connector block, ample cable routing, and a GPU support bracket. Back-connector motherboards are also supported for an ultra-clean build, and depending on how you configure it, there's support for up to five SATA drives.

The only real negative about this case for me is that its front-panel ports are on the bottom of the case (on the side near the front), which doesn't seem convenient for a case that's likely to live on the floor (it's roughly 20 inches tall and deep).

Read: Lian Li Lancool 217 hands-on

Best Colorful PC Case

Hyte’s X50 is in an aesthetic realm all its own, with its rounded design and several striking colors: purple, pink (as tested), green, red, black, or white. The build quality of the X50 is second to none, with higher-quality construction than its competitors. At $159.99 in the United States, it’s also not super expensive, although keep in mind the case ships without any fans. If you want to add color-matched fans, Hyte sells a four-pack for $49.99, or $10 less for white or black fans. And there is no RGB here (although Hyte also sells magnetic light strips), should you want to add those as well.

While it isn’t cheap (and indeed it feels premium), for those looking for a softer case design, or just something more colorful than most builds, the X50 is easy to recommend. It’s not the best performer, but our testing didn’t kick up any red flags when it comes to cooling. If temps are a concern, you can add more than the four fans we used for testing (the case supports 10), which would likely help keep things running even cooler.

Read: Hyte X50 review

Best Case for Rear-Connector Motherboards

Corsair's 2500D airflow doesn't stand out much as a general Micro ATX case. But as a case specifically for rear-connector motherboards, it's the best I've tested so far. And if you're after a case for a full-size ATX build, the company also sells a 6500D Airflow for $199. These cases get the basics right, like cutout placement (although a PSU support strip right above the bottom cutout is annoying). But more importantly, due to their dual-chamber design, they provide enough room for the large amount of cable slack that results from plugging nearly everything in behind the motherboard, instead of up front. The other cases I've tested with these rear-connector boards don't have nearly enough space behind the motherboard. For even more room for cables on the 2500D, you can opt for a smaller SFX power supply. But of course, that generally costs extra.

I do find the basic presentation of the 2500D a bit drab, but adding the $69 wood accent panels morphs the 2500D from a plain bulky box to something I enjoy looing at. That's not going to be worth the extra expense for everyone, but because the panels are accessories, you don't have to decide whether you want them or not until after you own the case. And you are spoiled for choice, as the company offers panels in silver aluminum and four wood varieties. Other accessories include a vertical GPU mounting kit and a front panel to turn the 2500D into the 2500X.

Read: Hands-on with Corsair's 2500D Airflow case

Best Design-Focused Mini-ITX Case

The substantial size and substantial cooling needs of today's components – particularly graphics cards like Nvidia's RTX 4090 – have made several compact cases from the past few years effectively obsolete. But at just 10.4 liters of volume, the Mini-ITX Fractal Design Terra case has enough room for most big GPUs, while delivering attractively thanks to an aluminum exterior with some attractive wood on the front.

It doesn't have as wide of an appeal as its ATX North cousin, since you'll be far more limited in your component and airflow options with the Terra. But if you don't need to pack in the absolute most powerful CPU (cooling clearance is particularly cramped) and you don't need several storage drives, the Terra is compact, practical, and stunning – especially if you want a respite from PC gaming's typical RGB and aggressive designs. The Terra's flip-up doors and adjustable spine also make this case surprisingly easy to build considering it's so compact. Just know you'll need to bring a modular SFX PSU, because you'll need all the spare interanal space you can get with this case.

Read: Fractal Design Terra Hands On

Best Premium

The Cooler Master Cosmos Alpha stands out as a premium full-tower case, thanks to the refined, modern design, massive internal space, and the modularity of its design. You can move fan mounts and use fans of different sizes, and slide the motherboard tray to adjust layouts to fit high-end hardware. Supporting up to four radiators, 12 fans, and a wide variety of motherboard sizes, the Alpha has loads of cooling potential. It also has plenty of room for cable management and modern front-panel connectivity with multiple USB Type-A and Type-C ports (3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps). Premium touches such as the aluminum frame, signature handles, and a hinged smoked-glass panel round out its flagship aesthetic.

The case is heavy and requires a lot of space, plus the 2.5/3.5-inch drive capacity feels limited for the size. But these are minor complaints for a case that excels in flexibility, cooling, and long-term usability. The combination of thoughtful design, build quality, and extensive hardware support makes the Cosmos Alpha the best choice for enthusiasts seeking a high-end, long-lasting, premium tower for large motherboards and powerful hardware.

Read: Cooler Master Cosmos Alpha Hands-on

Best Large "Fish Tank" PC case

NZXT’s 2025 H9 Flow has a sleek design, without RGB bling. It's spacious inside, with lots of room to work with on both sides of the case. The main chamber supports the largest GPUs on the market and dual 420 mm radiators, while the back has extra space for cable storage.

Liquid cooling enthusiasts will be pleased to know the H9 Flow supports two 420mm radiators, along with its angled intake fans, for the best possible temperatures. And storage fans will appreciate the support for up to six SATA drives – the most we’ve seen on a mainstream case in quite a while. The H9 Flow brings a lot to the table in terms of features and support, and it doesn't lean too heavily on your bank account, selling for $169 when we wrote this.

Read: NZXT H9 Flow (2025)

Best Case for High-End Rigs and Workstations

Fractal's Meshify 2 is well-thought-out and versatile, delivering an enjoyable building experience. Whether you use this case as a system where you just want to deliver copious amounts of airflow and expansion space, a workstation with a cadre of hard drives, a server, or high-end custom liquid cooling, the Meshify 2 can accommodate your build. Its thermal and acoustic performance is also in line with what we'd expect from a mesh front. All this cobined earns this case a rare five-star rating.

The only thing to consider before hitting the buy button is whether you really need the space for storage or cooling parts, or should you buy a smaller chassis and save some money and sapce?

Read: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Review

Also tested

Not every case we test earns a spot on our best list. Whether it be for a lack of features, high price, poor performance, or something else, the cases below aren't the best we've tested. But the best PC case for you has to be something you like to look at. So the cases we've tested below may be worth considering, especially if you find them on sale.

Cougar Airface Eco:

Cougar’s oddly named Airface Eco case features a decent all-around design, support for large GPUs in vertical orientation, a modular IO panel, and a built-in GPU holder. It also sports a distinctive front face with large holes, but doesn't otherwise stand out in terms of features or price. You can read more in our full Cougar Airface Eco review.

Be Quiet Dark Base 701:

Be Quiet’s Dark Base 701 is a high-quality. customizable case that offers one-touch fan and lighting controls from the top panel, and it performed well in our tests. It supports vertical GPU mounting, ample SATA storage, and custom liquid cooling reservoirs.

Read: Be Quiet Dark Base 701 review

Montech Air 903 Max:

This case doesn't do anything new when it comes to design or features. But with large motherboard support, good airflow thanks to four include fans, and a $75 price, there isn’t a whole lot to complain about.

Read: Montech Air 903 Max review

APNX V1:

This case combines angled front fans and optional wood accents, delivering good thermal performance and a reasonable price. But its looks aren't for everyone, and its screwed-down panels feel a little dated.

Read: APNX review

Be Quiet Light Base 900 DX: This case's solid build quality and attractive aesthetics are paired with the somewhat unique feature of having three different layout options. Thermal performance is middle of the road, which is to say while it might not be the best, it will be good enough for 97% of users looking to build a PC for gaming or mixed use. While there are multiple fan hubs, you'll have to supply you own fans.

Read: Be Quiet Light Base 900 DX review

MSI MEG Prospect 700R:

At aropund $380, the MEG Prospect 700R from MSI delivers a lot of features, like a top-mounted touchscreen for supporting various functions. Hinged doors make getting inside the case easy, and it is one of a limited number of chassis that allow fancy PSUs to show their displays.

But the case would be much easier to recommend if it didn't cost so much. In particular, it should include a GPU support bracket for horizontal mounts and a PCIe riser cable for vertical mounting, considering its nearly $400 asking price.

Quick PC Case Shopping Tips

MORE: Best PC Cases

MORE: Best Mini-ITX Cases

If you want a computer that meets your exact needs and budget, you need to put it together yourself. When you build a gaming PC, you get total control over the parts, choosing the exact make and model of the motherboard, the case with the look you like, and even the layout of RGB (or non-RGB) fans. You could save time by purchasing one of the best pre-built gaming PCs, but you'll give up control (and sometimes spend more). To help you assemble the best PC build for gaming or productivity that you can get, we've created recommended parts lists for every budget: from an inexpensive $800 system ($500 just won’t cut it at today’s prices and we’ve dropped that price tier) to an affordable and more powerful $1,100 build, up to a $4,000+ (which ended up at $6,000+) dream machine for those with deep pockets. Prices for RAM and storage have risen significantly over the past several months, so we are forced to raise prices across our tiers to compensate or risk performance degradation. It’s pretty impossible these days to create a competent 1080p gaming machine for our typical $500 entry point.

That said, with pricing for RAM, storage, and most GPUs remaining prohibitively high, the best way to build it yourself right now is to check out our Best RAM combo deals page, which offers heavy discounts when bundled with other items (like CPUs, motherboards), and then build around that. Because this is, sadly, now the way, we’ve left out RAM pricing in the total as with some bundles, you can get the RAM for pre-apocalypse pricing or even better. The problem with adding those to these builds is that they tend to sell out quickly.

Picking and Pricing the Best PC Builds

Note that our best PC build recommendations are based on our component expertise, market research, and testing of the key components in each build — namely, the CPU, GPU, and SSD. You can find performance details for each of those in our CPU benchmarks, GPU benchmarks, and SSD benchmarks. Because we are trying to hit price points and frequently changing these lists to accommodate price changes, we have not tested all of the parts in each build. Some of the less performance-centric parts, such as the case, motherboard, and PSU, may not have been reviewed.

Intel recently launched its Core Ultra "Arrow Lake" refresh chips, and we found they offer as much, if not more, performance than the original Core Ultra series, especially in gaming. However, the new chips won’t find their way into these builds because this page is for gaming, and AMD still rules there, too. Some X3D chips aren't on discount, but we managed to include them where we could.

On the GPU front, we have some good news and bad news: The good news is that you can now purchase the latest Nvidia cards from reputable retailers like Newegg or Amazon. Now you can get these cards, including budget models (typically 8GB cards), close to their MSRP. The bad news is that most other cards are still much more expensive than the SEP, particularly those with more than 8GB of vRAM. It’s tough sledding out there.

While we have expansive options for building your own PC mapped out below, it's no secret that component pricing has skyrocketed. As such, some might take a now often-cheaper route and purchase a prebuilt PC instead. This is one example of a PC that generally costs less than the sum of its parts. For those of you interested in building a PC, our guide and reccomendations continue below

Prime Day Exceptional Prebuilt Gaming PC deal

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

Also note that we don't include the cost of an operating system, because you can get Windows 11 for free or cheap. Nor do we include the price of peripherals such as the best gaming monitors, best gaming keyboards, best gaming mouse, or gaming chair. And if you've never built a computer before, you should start with our guide on how to build a PC. In addition to the PC builds listed below, we also have example build logs you can peruse, like our recent Rising Phoenix build.

Best ~$800 PC Build for Gaming

To keep this build under $800, we updated the processor to the Intel Core i5-14400F (6P-cores, 4E-cores) instead of the unlocked i5-1400KF, which increased in price, pushing this build to nearly $900. While we did lose a few cores/threads, the 6P cores will do fine for a budget gaming build. To go with this Intel processor, we're sticking with the same Asus B760M-AYW Wifi D4 II motherboard as on our $500 build. It uses cheaper DDR4 memory, which saves money; however, with the price increases on outgoing DDR4, we chose to stick with 16GB to keep the final price as close to $800 as possible while keeping focus on a solid graphics card.

With our lowest-tier custom-built machine, you can still get solid 1080p gaming performance, even with a last-gen budget graphics card, and a system built using DDR4. Your lowest glass ceiling will be the 16GB of RAM, so you may need to close unnecessary applications when playing resource (RAM) intensive games. The i5-14400F isn't on this list, but it's close to the i5-14600KF that was previously there.

To go with this Intel processor, we're sticking with the same Asus B760M-AYW Wifi D4 II motherboard as on our $500 build. It uses cheaper DDR4 memory, which saves money; however, with the price increases on outgoing DDR4, we chose to stick with 16GB to keep the final price as close to $800 as possible while keeping focus on a solid graphics card.

Our graphics card at this price point is the AMD Radeon RX 7600, which is now around $290. The 7600 has solid performance at 1080p ultra settings, averaging well over that magic 60 FPS we’re after. It ranks just above the RX 6650 XT and below the RTX 4060 on our GPU benchmarks hierarchy.

For our storage, we're going with the 512GB Patriot P300. This budget-oriented PCIe 3.0 SSD can't beat top-of-the-line drives like the Samsung 990 Pro or WD Black SN850X, but it delivers better performance than any SATA-based storage options, with sequential read and write speeds of 1,700 and 1,200 MBps, respectively. Here again, we’re hit with ridiculous prices forcing us to a smaller drive to fit within the budget.

Power use with this system shouldn’t peak over 400-450W at worst so we’ve picked ASRock’s Challenger CL-650B. As the name implies, it’s a 650W Bronze-level power supply. Even though it’s a budget unit, it will easily handle the build's output, with some headroom, and is ATX 3.1-ready.

Our case for the $850 build is the DIYPC MicroATX chassis with wrap-around tempered glass panels. It fits MicroATX and Mini-ITX for a small footprint. It also includes three ARGB fans, including two reverse fans for the side. The chassis supports up to 330mm video cards, easily housing the ASRock graphics card we chose, and 170mm cooling height (SAMA CPU cooler is below that).

We have decided not to include RAM prices in our builds because there are so many combo deals at Newegg that could cut the cost in half or more, taking the sting out of these horrendous prices. The problem with entering them here is that the deals tend to not last long, so by the time you read this, it could have expired.

Best ~$1,000 PC Build for Gaming

If you can bump your budget a bit over the $1,000 mark, you can build a PC with the ability to play games really well at 1080p and competently at 1440p. The best GPU option in this price range right now is still the Nvidia RTX 5060, which goes for as little as $299 for the 8GB model. As shown in our RTX 5060 16GB vs RTX 5060 8GB faceoff, there is a compromise with going with less VRAM, so take that into consideration.

Our recommended CPU for this build is the AMD Ryzen 7 7600X3D. The 7600X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread CPU with 96MB of L3 cache, making it great for 1080p gaming. Although we went down in core count, the generational upgrades are well worth the change from AM4 and the 5000 series. It also gives you an upgrade path to the 9000 series processors and moves into DDR5. We didn’t personally test this CPU, but it’s well known that it beats out non-X3D CPUs and all Intel offerings in gaming.

To support our Ryzen 5 7600X3D, we're using an MSI Pro B650-S Wifi motherboard. It does hail from the budget side of the house, but it still fully supports the suggested processor and offers BIOS Flashback capability, which lets you update the BIOS before you install the CPU. This is helpful for the 9000 series and future-compatible processors that weren’t native to the chipset. There are enough USB ports, a basic audio solution, and capable VRMs to handle our processor. The Ryzen 7 7600X3D doesn't come with a stock cooler, so we're adding an inexpensive, mid-range 360mm AIO cooler to the mix.

With this $1,000 build, we're stepping up to DDR5. We only managed to sneak in 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200. While not the fastest kit around, it will do just fine. There's no real need to go faster or increase the capacity at this price point, as costs tend to increase quite a bit for small percentage gains.

Storage on this build is the 1TB Patriot P400. It’s a step up from the $800 build, moving to PCIe 4.0 x4. It delivers strong performance for the money, with sequential read and write speeds of 6,200 and 5,200 MBps, respectively, solid IOPS of 740k/800k reads/writes, and a massive 1,280 TBW endurance. If we’re weak here, it’s with capacity, but there isn’t much we can do about it without sacrificing performance in other areas.

We’ve also updated the case to the Montech Sky 3 mid-tower ($90), carrying that over from the $800 build. For under $90, it offers three ARGB fans, great video card cooling, and supports multiple radiators, up to 360mm (top). There’s plenty of room for large graphics cards and expansion, too, in this panoramic glass chassis.

We’ve updated the power supply for this build to match the new graphics card's connector. The new PSU is ATX 3.1 and includes a native PCIe 5.1 cable (12V-2x6) for your GPU. ASRock backs the unit with a 5-year warranty. While not the 10 years some expect from high-end devices, it’s more than the 3-year warranty for some of its direct competitors, and certainly capable of driving this build without concern.

Best ~$1,500 PC Build for Gaming

With a $1,500 budget, we're moving up to a build that should be brilliant at 1080p gaming, really strong at 1440p gaming, and capable of running ray tracing games well. We recommend going with an Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB (avoid the 8GB model) at this price point.

The RTX 5060 Ti is more than capable of handling 2K gaming, delivering around 61-62 FPS at 1440p with Ultra settings across 14 games. It can even handle high-FPS/frequency gaming (read 144 FPS/Hz+) at 1080p. You can also look at the Radeon RX 9060 XT, which is as fast as the RTX 5060 Ti at 1080p, but it starts to fall behind at 1440p, and especially when you enable any ray tracing.

With ray tracing on at 2K and Ultra settings, those frame rates were a still-playable 51 frames per second. However, consider adding DLSS to further boost those frame rates, as it fell below 60 frames per second.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is an 8-core 12-thread processor with slightly higher clock speeds (4.7 GHz to 5 GHz). The additional cores and threads help with modern gaming, where a few titles can benefit from more than a 6C/12T configuration.

We're going with the MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk MAX Wifi, one of the best budget AMD motherboards we’ve tested. It has just about everything you need from the platform, including ample storage options, fast Wi-Fi, and more. Overclocking, PBO, or manual settings are not a concern with the 14+2+1-phase digital VRM design and comprehensive BIOS. It also features built-in Wi-Fi 7, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps), 5 GbE LAN, and BIOS flashback capability for next-generation AMD processors.

For RAM, we chose Patriot’s Viper Elite 5 32GB DDR5-6000 as it’s one of the least expensive around at a mind-numbing $380. Again, we didn’t include this cost as you can find RAM in bundle deals for a lot less.

To keep the total price down, we've opted for the Patriot P400 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drive with 1TB capacity. If we’re weak anywhere in this build, it’s storage capacity, but between the increase in RAM, GPUs, and storage, this is the area we can skimp a bit. Hopefully, we can resolve that for the $2,000 build. We’ve also updated the case to the Montech Sky 3 mid-tower ($90), carrying that over from the $1,000 build. For under $90, it offers three ARGB fans, great video card cooling, and supports multiple radiators, up to 360mm (top). There’s plenty of room for large graphics cards and expansion, too, in this panoramic glass chassis.

Last but not least, we chose ASRock’s Steel Legend SL 750-G power supply. It’s 80 Plus Gold (Cybenetics Platinum) and, like the previous ASRock power supply, uses the latest ATX 3.1/PCIe 5.1 standards and includes the native 12V-2x6 cable for the graphics card.

Best ~$2,000 PC Build for Gaming

At a current price of $1,965, our high-end gaming PC build should provide enough performance to dominate games at 1080p, run 1440p ultra settings with strong frame rates, and 4K ultra with playable frame rates. The system derives its GPU muscle from an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT (the RTX 5070 Ti increased price by over $150 since the beginning of the year), which is currently available at major retailers for around $740 (aftermarket cards are still more expensive), or at its MSRP. The card is powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D, featuring 8 cores, 16 threads, and a massive 96MB of cache to enhance gaming performance. In our tests, the 9070 XT averaged 97.5 FPS at 1440p on our 16-game rasterization test. It was also capable of 60 FPS at 4K.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D offers a superior experience thanks to its 96MB of 3D cache, along with its 8 cores, 16 threads, and 5.2-GHz boost clock. Yes, AMD makes the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which has 16 cores, but it costs significantly more.

On our suite of Windows 11 tests, running at 1080p with an RTX 4090 card, the 9800X3D averaged 195 FPS, leading the pack along with the much more expensive Ryzen 9 9950X3D and still way ahead of Intel. If you haven’t seen the trend by now, if gaming is your primary use, AMD’s X3D offerings dominate Intel in most tests.

To cool the CPU, we're using an ID-Cooling FX360 LCD 360 mm Cooler. When we tested the FX360, we were impressed by its low noise and excellent cooling performance. It has attractive RGB and a small screen, too; you get all of that for $90.

We again opted for the MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi, one of the top budget AMD motherboards. That may seem odd for a $2,000 build, but it has just about everything you need from the platform, including ample storage options, fast Wi-Fi, and more. So why pay more? If you want to overclock, you can do so with the 14+2+1-phase digital VRM design and a comprehensive BIOS. It also comes with built-in Wi-Fi 7, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps), 5 GbE LAN, and BIOS flashback capability for next-gen AMD processors.

For RAM, we chose the Patriot Viper Elite DDR5-6400 kit, as it’s one of the least expensive 32GB kits at the time of publication and falls within AMD's ‘sweet spot’ for memory speed and cost. You don’t need more than 32GB for gaming, so within this budget, there is little need to step up and pay more.

For the SSD, we're running with the 2TB Patriot Viper VP4300 Lite PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drive. You really can't do much better without spending a lot more money on a PCIe 5 drive or a larger capacity.

Best $4,000+ PC Build for Gaming

Two updates ago (late 2025), our $4,000 build cost $4,845. With the price increase in RAM (plus storage and video cards), that total has now jumped to a wallet-emptying $6,918, as configured. That’s an increase of ~43% total, a sad state of affairs for PC builders.

That said, our top-of-the-line build features Nvidia's top-of-the-line GPU, the RTX 5090. With the steep price increases over the last several months (thanks, AI!), the cheapest RTX 5090 available now is $3,800. When we last updated this article, the least expensive was $2,600. Oof. If you want the best, you're stuck with paying outlandish prices these days. In our tests, the RTX 5090 was fully capable of playing games at 4K with ultra settings and ray tracing enabled. On our 6-game test, it averaged 90.2 FPS, a full 20 FPS more than its predecessor, the RTX 4090.

Our CPU is AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, which offers increased cache on BOTH CCDs. It didn’t perform any better in our game tests, matching the 9800X3D in games, but did show an overall 4% increase in multi-threaded performance compared to the 9950X3D. In some select workloads, it did see double-digit increases. Speaking of cache, the CPU has a whopping 208MB of it, and it boasts 16 full-power cores and 32 threads, which is more regular cores than the 14900K's eight (to go with 16 E-Cores). In our tests, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 beat Intel's flagship, the Core Ultra 270K, by a full 40 FPS in our 1080p gaming suite and even more (53 FPS) against the 285K.

We're using an Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi, which comes with built-in Wi-Fi 7, four M.2 slots for storage, and USB4. You can go higher, but there isn’t much more to offer hardware-wise. To cool the CPU, we're using a Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux, which is relatively affordable at $157 and should do a solid job.

Because we're fattening our budget for this build, we're going with some DRAM that’s towards the end of the memory sweetspot of speed, price, and performance. Here we used Patriots’ 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Viper Venom. We haven't reviewed this kit, but Patriot is typically a solid brand, and there’s typically plenty of headroom if you want to push the limits.

We're going with a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro for storage, which has plenty of capacity and is the fastest PCIe 4.0 drive you can buy. Sure, we can go with a PCIe 5.0 drive, but we don't see enough performance gains to justify it, even in this high-end build right now.

We decided to go with a case that offers a unique, premium look: the Fractal Design North XL. With its wood-paneled front, this chassis looks more like a mid-century modern piece of furniture than a gaming PC, which is a nice touch. However, it also has a tempered glass side panel, which you can use to show off all of your RGB components (or you can buy it with a solid panel and no window). It also offers excellent thermal performance and plenty of room for additional drives and fans. The XL model can accommodate up to an E-ATX motherboard, giving you plenty of room for future upgrades.

With these high-end components, we don't want to skimp on the power supply, and it makes sense to invest in something that will work with future GPU upgrades. We're going with a full 1,000 watts of power and the choosing the Superflow Leadex XP Pro for it’s stable output, reasonable price, and ATX 3.1/PCIe 5.1 support. This power supply is Cybenetics Platinum certified and fully modular.

Building a PC: What to Look For in Each Component

• CPU: This is the brain of your computer and heavily affects 1080p gaming. Look for one with strong gaming benchmarks and, at the higher end, with lots of L3 cache.
• GPU: This is the most important component for gaming, but it's also the most expensive component. Get the best GPU available in your price band that's actually for sale. We’re finally seeing the market stabilize, so you should be able to find most GPUs around or even below their MSRP, and just as critical, in stock.
• RAM: We generally look for the best value in RAM as performance differences are slight. Ideally, you want at least 32GB of RAM. You can save money by going with DDR4 over DDR5 RAM. But you need to make sure your CPU and motherboard support the kind of RAM you're considering.
• Motherboard: Most importantly, ensure the board supports your CPU. If your CPU is newer than the motherboard's chipset, ensure you select a motherboard that supports firmware upgrades without requiring a processor on board (often referred to as BIOS Flashback). Built-in Wi-Fi is a big plus.
• SSD: You need at least 1TB for a solid experience, with 2TB preferable. Shoot for an M.2 PCIe 4.0 drive. PCIe 5 drives are a little faster, but not worth the extra money.
• Cooling: We save on cooling costs by purchasing CPUs with stock coolers included. Otherwise, a 360 or 240mm AIO (all-in-one) is good, but there's no need to spend a lot of money on one.
• Power Supply: On lower-end builds, wattage is more important than anything else. For higher-end builds, you not only need at least 750 or 850 watts, but you want one that includes all the modern connections, such as a native GPU 12V-2x6 connector.
• Case: First and foremost, you need a case that fits your motherboard. If you are buying an ATX motherboard, avoid cases that only support micro ATX motherboards. After that, look for multiple case fan placements, room for a 360mm AIO cooler, a tempered glass side panel, and both USB-C and USB Type-A ports on the front panel.

Finding Discounts on the Best PC Components

To find savings on components of all types, check out our lists of the best PC hardware deals, along with the latest Newegg promo codes, Corsair coupon codes, and Best Buy promo codes.

Ever since the U.S. government blacklisted Huawei, the Chinese tech giant has experienced difficulties procuring almost all kinds of chips, because they all use American technologies in one way or another. And so to avoid curbs imposed by the U.S., Huawei has been building a secret fab network in China that can meet its demand for commodity logic, memory, microcontrollers, and even power semiconductors, according to a presentation by SIA (reported by Bloomberg).

Right now, Huawei's network includes five fabs: Shenzhen Pensun Technology's (PST) 28nm/40nm-capable logic fab; former Fujian Jihnua's (aka Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., JHICC) memory fab that can make commodity DRAMs; SwaySure's fab, which is set to produce memory chips for automotive applications, consumer electronics, and wearables; Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co.'s (PXW) fab that specializes on image sensors and RF chips; and Qingdao Si'En's fab that produces microcontrollers (on 28nm – 180nm process technologies) and power electronics, such as MOSFETS, BCDs, and IGBTs.

This network is not a perfect substitute for TSMC and its leading edge process technologies — Huawei will not be able to produce advanced ASICs, processors, or SoCs for PCs, smartphones, and servers at these fabs — but it will make it easier for Huawei to procure commodity chips for a variety of applications without any restrictions from the U.S.

The SIA suggests that Huawei might be avoiding scrutiny and sanctions by creating and buying facilities under the names of other companies without disclosing its direct involvement.

To build its network, Huawei acquired fabrication facilities from JHICC and Qingdao Si’En and is assisting in the construction of fabs that belong to Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co. (PXW) and Shenzhen Pensun Technology Co. (PST), according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, SwaySure is a state-backed company that will supply to Huawei. 

It is noteworthy that entities like JHICC and PXW are already blacklisted by the U.S. government — they cannot sell their products to multinational corporations and have problems with procuring advanced wafer equipment. Meanwhile, Huawei is assisting construction of least three additional fabs in China.

China's ambition to become self-reliant in the semiconductor domain is evident in its hefty investments. Plans are underway for approximately 23 chip-making facilities, aiming for an investment surpassing $100 billion by the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg. By around 2030, China hopes to dominate over half of the world's production capacity for older-generation chips, which remain crucial for industries such as electric vehicles.

However, the real concern for the international community, especially the U.S., is the potential trajectory of Chinese firms such as Huawei, which is a huge conglomerate with plenty of resources. Such companies could eventually leapfrog into leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing, which will give China access to advanced AI and HPC processors and will render international sanctions obsolete. This developmental pathway mirrors the success stories of giants like TSMC and Samsung, which once lagged but now spearhead the industry. However, it will likely take decades for Chinese companies to get into leading-edge chip production nodes using domestic wafer fab equipment.

A new PC builder website has cropped up that supposedly helps gamers and professionals build a potent bang-for-buck system with the power of artificial intelligence. Known as pcbuilderai.com, the site aims to take the guesswork out of building an effective PC parts list and give users the best possible parts list with the best components for the price. But, despite the site's modern and simplistic UI, some of the parts it recommends are out of whack with today's market prices.

The creator of PC Builder AI is a company known as AE Studios. According to the company's Indeed page, the company has no venture capital, no outside shareholders, and is apparently focused on creating tech for the development of humanity. The company has already built several AI-based programs, including games, image generators, and text-based AI generators.

To test the effectiveness of the PC Builder AI parts list generator, we grabbed three of our Best PC Builds for Gaming parts lists, priced at $500, $1500, and $3600, respectively, and compared them to the three parts lists the AI-accelerated site generated with the same prices.

Starting at the $500 price class, the PC Builder AI site generated a moderately decent gaming machine featuring a Ryzen 3 3200G. Still, it's an old APU and nothing special, and some components are overpriced. The biggest offender is the memory, which is $40 more expensive than the kit we recommend, with the same capacity and speed. The storage configuration is also bizarre, consisting of a separate 1TB HDD and a tiny 120GB SATA 3 SSD reminiscent of pre-2020 era systems. With the Best SSDs priced at an all-time low right now, you can find 1TB M.2 drives for the same price as the SSD and the HDD combined. This would yield a far better gaming experience and significantly increase the storage speed overall.

The lack of a graphics card is also unfortunate for the AI generator. In our build, we could squeeze in a significantly faster Core i3 CPU and an Arc A310 discrete GPU, which will be more capable than what the 3200G can provide.

Sadly, the $500 system was the best machine the PC Builder AI website could generate. The $1500 price bracket reveals many pricing problems with the AI system, leading to terrible component choices.

The AI generator's most absurd component choice was the GPU, selecting a $600 RTX 3060 Ti. If you know anything about the GPU market today, you'll know that paying $600 for a previous-generation mid-range 60 series card is utterly ridiculous. You can get a current generation RTX 4070 for that price, which is substantially faster than the 3060 Ti. Alternatively, you can get an RX 6950 XT for that same price. It is AMD's flagship graphics card from the same generation as the 3060 Ti and one of the Best GPUs for gaming.

The CPU choice is also horrible. For some reason, the AI generator chose another previous generation product, a Ryzen 5 5600X, priced at $280. In today's market, that CPU is going for nearly half that price, and a modern Ryzen 5 7600 is still $40 cheaper. For $280, you can get a current generation i5-13600KF — one of the Best CPUs —that can run circles around the 5600X in gaming workloads and heavily multithreaded applications.

The rest of the system is also not great; the motherboard, memory, cooler, and storage options could be much better. Even though the CPU and GPUs are wildly overpriced, we could put in more storage capacity, memory capacity, a higher wattage PSU, and a better cooler in our $1500 build recommendation while spending the same amount of money on the CPU and GPU.

The same pricing errors also appear in the $3600 build, where the CPU and GPU are incredibly overpriced. The PC Builder AI generator opted for an $800 Ryzen 9 5950X and a $1200 RTX 3080 Ti in this price class. Right now, a 5950X is going for as little as $450, and the 3080 Ti has been easily eclipsed by the newer RTX 4080 at the same price — or again, you could get roughly similar performance for as little as $600 in the form of a Radeon RX 6950 XT. Another option would be the RTX 4070 Ti, which costs $800 and generally outperforms the 3080 Ti.

Thankfully, the rest of the components are not too bad for a $3600 build and have decent quality/performance for the money, but it's not perfect. The SSD choice, in particular, is very strange, with the AI opting for a PCIe 3.0 970 EVO Plus 1TB SSD. For just $10 more, you could get a 990 PRO that is PCIe 4.0 capable with 2TB of storage, or opt for a 1TB Crucial T700 with PCIe 5.0 support. The 64GB RAM option is appropriate for a $3600 build at least, though opting for a previous generation DDR4 platform at this level is strange.

Overall, the results AE Studio's PC Builder AI currently generates are very bizarre, and it's not a site we can recommend you use for sound guidance on PC part selection. The site never recommended a current-generation CPU or GPU and priced the graphics card options from the GPU shortage in 2021. We are unsure what AI system the site uses, but it possibly uses information that's from two or three years back, which would explain the bizarre component choices.

If you want good advice on good parts to choose for your next computer, check out our forums or our AI Chatbot, which will generate far better results.

After the U.S. government imposed crippling sanctions against select Chinese high-tech and supercomputer companies through 2019 and 2020, firms like Huawei had to halt chip development; it is impossible to build competitive processors without access to leading-edge nodes. But Jiangnan Computing Lab, which develops Sunway processors, and National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi kept building new supercomputers and recently even submitted results of their latest machine for the Association for Computing Machinery's Gordon Bell prize.

The new Sunway supercomputer built by the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi (an entity blacklisted in the U.S.) employs around feature approximately 19.2 million cores across 49,230 nodes, reports Supercomputing.org. To put the number into context, Frontier, the world's highest-performing supercomputer, uses 9472 nodes and consumes 21 MW of power. Meanwhile, the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi does not disclose power consumption of its latest system.

Interestingly, the new supercomputer seems to be based on the already known 390-core Sunway processor that derive from the Sunway SW26010 CPUs and have been around since 2021. Therefore, the new system increased the number of processors, but not their architectural efficiency, so its power consumption is likely to be gargantuan. Meanwhile, actual performance of the machine is unknown, since scaling out has its limits even in the supercomputer world.

The National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi has not disclosed performance numbers of its new supercomputer, and it is hard to make any estimations about its performance at this point. The reason why we called it ‘exascale’ is because its predecessor, the Sunway Oceanlite from 2021, was estimated to offer compute performance of around 1 ExaFLOPS.

Meanwhile, engineers revealed the workload that it used the machine for. Apparently, the the group created a new code for large whirlpool simulations to address compressible currents in turbomachinery. They applied it to NASA’s grand challenge problem using an advanced unstructured solver for a high-pressure turbine sequence with 1.69 billion mesh components and 865 billion degrees of freedom (variables).

Given how complex the simulation is, it is likely that the machine is indeed quite powerful. Meanwhile, there is no word whether the simulation was conducted with FP64 precision, or precision was sacrificed for the sake of performance.

If you need help planning a PC build and like the idea of using AI more than reading an article like our list of best PC builds, Newegg has an answer for you. The company has just released a new ChatGPT plugin you can access if you have a ChatGPT plus account.

The plugin lets you ask a conversational AI about what the best gaming build for your budget is and get back a recommended parts list. Every suggested hardware piece conveniently comes with a link straight to the corresponding Newegg product page, and you can even ask ChatGPT to give you a master build link so you only need to click two or three additional times before you're through the checkout process. 

But just how good is its advice? I just tested the Newegg plugin, and it was akin to entering Alice in Wonderland (the Tim Burton version): everything's interesting and somewhat faithful, but laid out in just the wrong way.

My first question was one that our Editor-in-Chief, Avram Piltch, already asked Newegg back in March this year (to then-mediocre results): I wanted the best gaming PC build under $1000. And for a $1000 dollars, this is what it suggested:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 - Ryzen 5 5000 Series Vermeer (Zen 3) 6-Core 3.5 GHz Socket AM4 65W None Integrated Graphics Desktop Processor - 100-100000927BOX - $144.99
• Motherboard: MSI PRO B550M PRO-VDH WIFI AM4 AMD B550 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $119.99
• Video Card: MSI Mech Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Video Card RX 6700 XT MECH 2X 12G - $558.99
• Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-16GVKB - $37.99
• SSD: Team Group MP33 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 with NVMe 1.3 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) TM8FP6001T0C101 - $37.99
• Case: Fractal Design Focus G Mini Black MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $29.99
• Power Supply: CORSAIR CX-M CX750M 750 W ATX 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Semi-Modular Power Supply - $111.16
• Cooling System: MSI MAG Series CORELIQUID P240 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler, 240mm Radiator, Dual 120mm PWM Fans LGA 1700 Ready / AM5 Compatible - $89.99

Everything looks ok at first glance. Well, scratch that. The way it looks depends on how knowledgeable you already are about the PC component market today.

If you're a newcomer to the PC hardware world, it looks okay: the only issue you can likely detect is that the total build price ended up slightly over budget, at $1123.09. You'll accept that the AI has provided the answer you need (what with its authoritative, knowledgeable tone), and use the convenient flow between the plugin and your Newegg account.

And you'll probably be satisfied enough with your system, to be fair. The Radeon RX 6700 XT isn't a bad card by any measure, there's a snappy-enough 1TB NVMe SSD, a six-core Zen 3 CPU and 16GB of (again, competent) RAM. And we must remember that DDR5 and AM5 motherboards, requisite pieces for a Ryzen 7000 series CPU, are generally more expensive and thus more difficult to accommodate within a $1000 budget. It's a competent gaming system relative to the budget, even if the individual component choices are debatable.

Except that the typical price for the RX 6700 XT hovers around the $330-$370 range so the $558.99 MSI card the bot recommends is overpriced by more than $230!  If you didn't know better or double-check the prices, you'd be throwing money down the drain. 

That's a problem.

If you're not a newcomer, you might know to ask for an alternative graphics card; or you might just really want to stick within the $1000 budget. Surely an AI can stay within a hard limit, right?

The next build delivered through the Newegg plugin for ChatGPT looked much better:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G - Ryzen 7 5000 G-Series Cezanne (Zen 3) 8-Core 3.8 GHz Socket AM4 65W AMD Radeon Graphics Desktop Processor - 100-100000263BOX - $177.10
• Motherboard: MSI PRO B550-A PRO AM4 AMD B550 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard - $139.99
• Video Card: MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 4060  8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 x8 ATX Video Card RTX 4060 GAMING X 8G - $309.99
• Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-32GVK - $61.99
• SSD: SAMSUNG 980 M.2 2280 1TB  PCI-Express 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 V-NAND MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V8V1T0B/AM - $49.99
• Case: Fractal Design Meshify C White  - White Steel / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower High-Airflow Compact Clear Tempered Glass Computer Case - $99.99
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G5, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular, Eco Mode with FDB Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Includes Power ON Self Tester, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply 220-G5-0750-X1 - $139.99
• Cooling System: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition CPU Air Cooler, Silencio FP120 Fan, Anodized Gun-Metal Black, Brushed Nickel Fins, 4 Copper Direct Contact Heat Pipes for AMD Ryzen/Intel LGA1700/1200/1151 - $54.99

The RTX 4060 is a much better buy at the listed price of $309.99 compared to the $558.99 RX 6700 XT from before. You also get a bump in the processor (now an 8-core CPU that's a balanced choice for the budget), an extra 16GB of RAM (now 32GB), a better SSD, and again, a relatively balanced system.

But if you'd ask our forum members, they'd point out multiple hardware choices that could be better fits for your build: more performant power supplies and the correct balance of motherboard features and price according to your use-case. And tech reviewers would have shown you the best-looking PC cases, and talked about difficulties you might experience with a specific model, or how it compares to competitors. The same is true for CPUs and SSDs and essentially every entry in the Newegg-provided shopping list.

ChatGPT might give you that, in a way: it will ask you several questions in order to optimize the build, such as "Do you have a budget for this build?" and "Do you have a preference for AMD or Intel CPU?". So it's doable, if you dedicate enough questions to that. But again depending on how knowledgeable you are on what you're looking for (which is opposite what you want this system to look like), you might find additional points of friction. 

For instance: why did ChatGPT suggest an RTX 4060 for the build, if its knowledge cut-off is set at September 2021?

Trust Issues

That's puzzling. Our first article on credible rumors about the RTX 4060 is dated December 2022. Obviously, ChatGPT is getting its product information directly from Newegg, a retailer with its own agenda. 

That just opens up a number of questions, and the possibilities vary depending, again, on trust. If these products are being supplied by Newegg, then how are they being ranked? How exactly is the GPT4 agent working with Newegg's plugin? Does it send a request for popular hardware within a pricing range? Or is everything - including budget - simply provided by Newegg's own hardware stock information? If Newegg wants to sell you a more expensive model that's not the best value, is it going to recommend that?

When it's a store rather than an objective expert dolling out the build advice, your interests may not come first. If you're the type of user who just wants a simple answer, you may not think to question the AI's output. And if you're an advanced user like me, you'd spend a lot of time fact-checking and price-checking Newegg's suggested build before you'd actually pull the trigger and buy something.

Large Language Problems

There's also an attrition process involved in choosing a build within the Newegg PC Builder plugin: ChatGPT doesn't immediately deliver me exactly what I want it to, as natural as its language processing is. For instance, my first prompt read "I want to build the best gaming system possible today. It should feature a consumer-level AMD or Intel CPU and a single graphics card."

When I write the above, I know exactly what I mean: that I want every component that's required for a gaming PC to be maximized. I want the best pick in every category (in this case, with the added constraints to pre-emptively keep it away from any quixotic dual-CPU or Multi-GPU "hallucination").

And yet the bot didn't deliver what I asked for. The best possible PC would clearly have a top-of-the-line, current-gen CPU from AMD or Intel (not a Ryzen 5 5600X which is a mid-range, older-gen chip) and it would have an RTX 4090 (not a 4080), which is the fastest graphics card around. 

Yes, I could keep modifying my prompt and asking for more expensive and fancier parts but that's because I already know what I want. If someone already knew what they wanted, they wouldn't need the bot. And if a knowledgeable person got this kind of answer, they'd leave.

Newegg's ChatGPT plugin is a nice technical achievement, but it's not helpful enough right now to replace advice from expert humans or save you the trouble of doing your own research. Perhaps a future version will give better quality results, but as long as the advice is coming from a single retailer, you'll have to be wary of bias in favor of inventory that the vendor wants to move.

The US has blacklisted both Huawei and Phytium, a China-based CPU maker, but business still continues apace. Huawei last week said that it had teamed up with the state-owned China Electronics Corporation (CEC) to build a unified hardware-software ecosystem over its own Kunpeng processors and the US-sanctioned Tianjin Phytium Technology's Phytium CPUs, reports HuaweiCentral. The joint ecosystem will be called Penteng and will enable CEC to use both Kunpeng and Phytium chips in its devices without making major changes. In addition, the companies plan to invite new partners to the project.

Contemporary Kunpeng and Phytium processors use an Armv8 instruction set architecture and are compatible with Chinese cryptography algorithms, so it should not be too tricky to ensure that both CPUs run the same programs just fine. On the hardware side of matters, things will get more challenging since modern chips use different process technologies and different packaging. Therefore, it remains to be seen how these differences will be addressed by engineers working on the Penteng project. 

Both Huawei's chip design arm HiSilicon and Tianjin Phytium Technology are blacklisted by the U.S. government and cannot access leading-edge production capacities. As a result, both companies have to find a way to make competitive chips domestically. Therefore, it is probable that the companies will unify the form factors and packages of their next-generation CPUs. While the partnership includes a focus on Phytium, purportedly a subsidiary of CEC, Phytium has not yet formally announced its participation in the Penteng project.

This collaboration not only incorporates the refinement of software as well as the unification of some hardware parts but also plans to enlarge the ecosystem by inviting more partners through a certification program. This joint work provides the opportunity to engineer a wide array of products that can accommodate all modern workloads, including cloud data centers, edge computing, and client PCs. Moreover, Huawei and CEC have committed to address emerging business opportunities with Penteng.

Building up an ecosystem encompassing hardware and software developed in China seems like quite a significant move as it will make the Chinese IT industry generally more competitive. Programs for x86 platforms running Windows or Linux work on appropriate PCs from all vendors. By contrast, this is not always the case with Chinese programs and PCs from different suppliers.

Amazingly, the 6.7 × 6.7-inch Mini-ITX motherboard form factor, which debuted in 2001, has been around for nearly a quarter century. But while lots of other tech has continued to shrink in the last couple of decades, many builders and enthusiasts are still building PCs in big towers with full-size ATX motherboards. But that really isn’t necessary for most builders today, even if you're assembling a cutting-edge high-performance rig with a huge, heat-generating RTX 5090 or a Radeon RX 9070 XT).

For years, opting for Mini-ITX meant trading performance for a smaller PC, requiring short, compact graphics cards and low-profile coolers. Choosing a small-form-factor (SFF) SFX power supply is still often a requirement in the smallest cases, but most ITX cases released in the last few years also support full-length two- or three-slot graphics cards. And Nvidia is at least making a small effort to keep compact, high-performance card options around with its SFF-ready guidelines.

Still, GPUs have on gotten larger in the past few years, and the 5090 Founders Edition notwithstanding, third-party SKUs of 50-series cards are at least as large as their previous-gen counterparts. So be sure to check clearances before buying a case to fit your GPU (or a GPU to fit your case).

Prime Day Exceptional Mini-ITX PC Case deals

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

And, obviously, don't neglect cooling. Shoving high-end parts into a compact case without ample ventilation and fans will lead to throttling at best, and perhaps a shorter lifespan for your parts. Along those lines, we've also started fan testing at Tom's and have published our first Best PC Case Fans article covering several recent PC fans including some from Noctua, Arctic, Phanteks, and more. Find out which fans perform best for your needs, be it quiet operation, high-performance, or RGBs, we have you covered and expanding testing testing more fans as we speak.

The Best Mini-ITX Cases You Can Buy Today

Best Design-Focused Mini-ITX Case

The smallest PC cases from before the likes of the RTX 4090 and modern high-end CPUs are now basically obsolete because they can't handle huge graphics cards and the demanding thermals of modern components. But the Mini-ITX Fractal Design Terra case has (just) enough room for (most) big graphics cards, and is prettier than other cases thanks to an aluminum outer shell and some striking wood trim up front. Like the larger Fractal North tower, this case is a welcome departure from the aggressive lines and RGB of most gaming-focused cases.

The Terra's flip-up doors and adjustable spine also make this case fairly easy to build in considering its tiny size. Just make sure o pick up a modular SFX power supply. You'll need all the extra space you can get in this case.

Read: Fractal Design Terra Hands-On

Best Mini-ITX Case For Lan-Parties

When iBuyPower said that it would be opening the Revolt 3’s chassis for purchase as a standalone chassis, we were excited. And now that it’s here, we’re quite impressed. The Hyte Revolt 3 is a compact ITX case that doesn’t cost much at $129, but offers a wonderfully practical design with plenty of mesh, two click-away headphone holders and a carrying handle that sits flush into the top when you don’t need it. Of course, the build quality isn’t quite top-notch at this price. It’s all just painted steel, but the paint finish is nice and with its sleek, tidy looks, will fit in well in almost any gaming setup.

Internally, the Revolt 3 can also house almost any Mini-ITX system you throw at it, with room for large GPUs, up to a 280mm AIO, two 2.5-inch SSDs and one 3.5-inch drive. Better yet, its layout meanst it doesn't need a PCI-e riser cable, so you won’t have to worry about reduced bandwidth on an RTX 3000 or RX 6000 series graphics card.

The only real catch to this chassis is that it relies entirely on the AIO for airflow. But in testing, we found that this setup is perfectly adequate, even when we threw our high-TDP i5-11600K and RTX 3080 Ti graphics card at it.

Read: Hyte Revolt 3 Review

Best Looking Mini-ITX Case

The Evolv Shift 2 stands out at first glance for its towering, small footprint design and beautiful anodized aluminum panels. Priced at $100 for the mesh version and $110 for the variant with TG and an addressable-RGB fan, it easily earns a spot on our Best Mini-ITX PC Cases list.

With a small footprint and beautiful finish in both the tempered-glass and mesh variants, the Evolv Shift 2 is perfect as an SFF PC for use in the living room, or moving around the house wherever you need it. The easily accessible top IO makes plugging devices in a breeze too. Building in it was tight, and came with the typical frustrations associated with Mini-ITX systems, but I still managed a build within about 3 hours, and the end result was well worth the effort. The overall size is a bit bigger than most Mini-ITX cases would be, but the tempered glass side panels do wonders for creating systems to show off, though keep in mind that its single-fan radiator support may be too thermally limiting for some systems.

Read: Evolv Shift 2 Review

Best Mini-ITX Case for Novice Builders

Cooler Master’s NR200P Max is an excellent, ready-to-go chassis that comes from the factory with a powerful 850w power supply and 280mm liquid cooler. Top that with the inclusion of both mesh and glass side panels, a PCIe 4.0 riser cable, PSU cables and AIO tubes that are fit to length and pre-routed, and the NR200P Max is extremely simple to build in and an easy recommendation for those looking for simple setup.

All you need to bring is a motherboard, CPU, graphics card, memory, and a boot drive, letting you focus on the important things. The only real catch to this case is that its paint and finish are a bit boring. But with the glass panel showing off your fancy internals, we doubt you’ll mind. And if you do, paint it!

Read: Cooler Master NR200P Max Review

Best Premium Mini-ITX Case

It’s been a common complaint that Mini-ITX cases are expensive. And if there’s one chassis that makes this statement true, it is the Louqe Raw S1. But this is a Mini-ITX case to gawk at. From its elegant design to its thick, one-piece aluminum outer shell, the Louqe Raw S1 is more of a work of art than a case.

However, you can fit a PC in here. There’s no AIO support, nor air filtration. So yes, there are sacrifices, but it offers among the easiest build processes – chances are you’ll be done building within the hour and have a very tidy end result. It will also happily fit huge triple-slot graphics cards, despite its ultra-compact 12-litter frame, and with a fancy ‘Cobalt’ PCIe 4.0 riser cable, there’s hardly a thing about this case that isn’t ultra-premium. It even has a carrying handle.

Just keep in mind the case’s $330 price point and limited availability.

Read: Louqe Raw S1 Review

Quick Mini-ITX Case Shopping Tips 

Other Mini-ITX Cases Tested

NZXT H3 Flow

Fresh from its debut at Computex 2025, I spent a morning building a system in NZXT's latest Micro ATX / Mini-ITX chassis, the H3 Flow. The case continues the brand's boxy, mesh-focused design that we saw with the H5 Flow last year, with a curved mesh bottom chamber and an appealing $79 price (and was already selling for $69 at some stores when I wrote this).

I like the case's size (15.75 x 8.86 x 15.31 inches), which leaves plenty of room for large GPUs (up to 14.84 inches and four slots). Back-connector motherboards are supported, along with up to a 280 mm radiator up front and a 240 mm radiator up top. The steel case also has a solid, premium feel and supports up to seven fans.

But only one 120 exhaust fan is included, so you'll want to add more if installing high-end hardware. And there's no included PWM hub, which can be a problem given that many small motherboards lack more than two or three fan headers. And while the front panel connectors are fused nicely in a block, that cable isn't long enough to work with all motherboards, and there's no audio jack on the case (just a USB-A, USB-C, and the power button).

The bottom of the case is also solid metal and sits nearly flush with your desk or floor, save for the curved mesh on the bottom side, below the glass panel. This means you'll need to mount the ATX power supply upside down, where its fan will likely be drawing at least some of its air from inside the case, directly below the heat-spewing graphics card.

Also, during my building in the case, I ran into some pain points – literally. The top of the case is permanently attached, with only a removable magnetic dust filter. That's fine for installing radiators, but it made plugging in the PCIe power connector for the CPU, right up against the top of the case, difficult in a way that reminded me of compact PC building from a decade or more ago – and not in a good way.

Plus, the cable routing, while adequate for a small case, basically consists of some tie-down points for the included plastic zip ties. And there's not a single rubber grommet to be found around the many cable pass-through holes.

That's not to say the NZXT H3 Flow is a bad case for those looking to build a PC that's moderately compact. Its build quality feels better than the similarly priced Lian Li A3-mATX (which doesn't come with any fans, but is smaller and, in my experience, more enjoyable to build in). Just know that you'll probably want to add your own fans and either a fan hub or some splitter cables to the H2 Flow, which effectively makes the case significantly more expensive, unless you can carry those parts over from a previous build.

Lian Li A3-mATX

We recently took a look at Lian Li's A3-mATX, a compact and affordable case that starts at just $69 (or $84 for the model with a wood front panel). It supports both Micro ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, so it's not as small as most of the cases on this list designed solely for ITX boards. But it's well worth considering if you don't quite need the smallest case possible and you are installing a large graphics card -- basically any card should fit in this case, as it has 16.34 inches of of GPU clearance. It also can support a 360mm radiator / AIO up top and full-size power supplies. That said, you might have to go with an SFX model if you are installing a very long graphics card.

Also note that the standard model with the plastic front has no front airflow, while the A3-mATX-WD model has ventilation between its wood slats, backed by a mesh dust filter.

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When you're having a problem with your Windows PC, the nuclear option to fix it is often reinstalling the operating system entirely. Sure, this might do the job, but it also means you'll have to ensure you have a backup (which, to be fair, you should have) and spend time getting all your programs and files back in place.

But in a new Canary version (Build 25905) of the Windows Insider Program, Microsoft is testing a solution — using Windows Update to repair problems, installing a "repair version" of Windows 11 without removing any of your files, settings or programs. Microsoft announced this feature yesterday in an update to the original launch of the build on July 12.

In theory, this should lead to a version of Windows with everything the way you had it, minus any software or OS glitches that showed up along the way. Windows Insider boss Amanda Langowski and senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc wrote in a blog post that "repair content is displayed on the Windows Update Settings page with the title appended with '(repair version).' This capability can be useful in many instances but is intended to be used for keeping the device secure and up to date."

Those on the Canary builds who want to test the new repair settings can go to Settings > System > Recovery. The option is labeled "Fix problems using Windows Update" and features a reinstall now button.

If it works, this will save frustrated Windows users from getting a bootable USB drive and replacing all their data with copies. But remember, the Canary builds are designed to be "hot off the presses" with limited documentation and may be unstable. So if you're on the primary machine you rely on for work, consider waiting for this to percolate to the beta build or eventually out to a release version.

Other features in Build 25905 include emoji with a 3D appearance, adding the AI hub to the Microsoft Store, and, surprisingly, getting Zune drivers to install correctly on Windows 11.

ASRock’s Z790 Steel Legend is a full-size ATX motherboard supporting Intel’s 12th and 13th-generation processors. With a current (at the time of this writing) price of $229.99, it’s an affordable option in the Z790 space. You get an attractive black-with-silver highlights appearance and integrated RGB lighting. Specs-wise, there are plenty of storage options, including five total M.2 sockets and eight SATA ports, fast networking and integrated Wi-Fi 6E, DDR5 support up to DDR5-7200+(OC), the unique eDP port (for internal displays), and a dated budget audio codec. In all, it’s a solid choice in the budget Z790 space.

Specifications-wise, the Steel Legend compares well against the competition regarding hardware. Starting with power delivery, you get 16 phases dedicated to Vcore along SPS-type MOSFETs that easily handle the additional stress of overclocking, copious amounts of storage including five M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0), plenty of USB ports on the rear IO, a PCIe 5.0 slot, and a 20 Gbps Type-C port for the front panel. On the performance front, the Steel Legend was around average, depending on the test, though none of the results were worrisome or out of line.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see if the Steel Legend has what it takes to find its way onto our Best Motherboards list – but ppoiler: it’s a good one! Before we get into our testing and board details, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock. 

Specifications: ASRock Z790 Steel Legend

Inside the Box of the ASRock Z790 Steel Legend

Inside the retail box is a small handful of accessories. ASRock includes the basics as expected from a budget motherboard, but not much more.

• User Manual
• Two SATA cables
• ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz antenna
• Four Screws for M.2 Sockets
• Graphics Card Holder

Design of the Steel Legend 

The Z790 Steel Legend sits on a matte-black, 6-layer PCB with several reinforced slots, silver heatsinks, and black, white, and gray digital camouflage highlights in several areas. Overall, it looks good, but it gives off a budget vibe as there is a lot of PCB showing (not online other similarly priced models). If you’re interested in integrated RGB lighting, the Steel Legend has plenty of them in two spots: the IO area and under the M.2, and chipset heatsinks along the bottom. Control over the lighting is handled through the BIOS or ASRock’s Polychrome Sync Application. The RGB lighting on this board is bright and saturated and will surely bring attention to your system. Again, we like the look, and it looks good in many themed builds, but the design doesn’t scream high-end.

Starting in the upper-left corner, the first thing we see among the heatsinks are the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. The silver VRM heatsinks surrounding them stand much taller and have plenty of mass and surface area to keep the power bits below running within spec. The cover over the IO bits has ASRock branding and the Steel Series “S” illuminated from below by RGB LEDs.

Moving past the socket area and to the left of the DRAM slots are the first two (of seven) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices ranging from 1A/12W (CPU_FAN1) to 2A/24W (remainder), so you have enough power to support several devices. Just be sure not to overload them. Control over these headers is handled through the BIOS or the A-Tune application.

To the right of the socket are four reinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-7200+(OC), but your mileage may vary. We had no issues with our three kits, including our fastest, the Teamgroup DDR5-7200 set, which isn’t on the QVL list. ASRock, in general, has done a good job with memory compatibility on this platform, and it doesn’t change with the Steel Legend.

Past the DRAM slots are two more 4-pin fan headers and the first RGB headers, two 3-pin ARGB. Two additional headers are found at the bottom of the board. You get another 3-pin ARGB (three total) below, plus the only 4-pin RGB header. Remember: You control these through the BIOS or the Polychrome Sync app. Continuing down the right edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C port, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) port, and another 4-pin fan header.

ASRock lists Power delivery on the Steel Legend at 18 total phases, with 16 dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the 8-pin EPS connector and heads down to the Renesas RAA229131 PWM controller. Next are the 16 60A Intersil ISL99360 SPS MOSFETs dedicated to Vcore, using a Teamed configuration. The 960A available isn’t ground-breaking, but it still handled our Intel Core i9-13900K during testing at stock and while overclocked. Your cooling will get in the way before the power delivery across most boards, so you’re all set.

On the bottom half of the board are three full-length PCIe slots and a whopping five M.2 sockets. Starting on the left edge is a fully exposed audio section with the budget Realtek ALC897 codec visible and four audio capacitors. The codec certainly isn’t the best, but seeing it at this price is common. Another neat add-on in this area (above the audio and M.2 Wi-Fi Key-E socket) is the eDP connector that sits above the audio area. This port you to add displays that support the connector to extend your desktop to a screen inside your case. The ASRock 13.3” side panel kit is a natural fit.

In the middle of the board, we’ll start with the PCIe slots, of which there are three total. The top two slots use reinforcement to mitigate the shearing potential of heavy video cards and said to be effective against  EMI mitigation. The top slot (PCIE1) connects through the CPU and is your primary graphics slot running at PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds. The second slot (PCIE2) connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. Lastly, the bottom unreinforced slot (PCIE3) also connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 3.0 x2 speeds.

Wedged in, around, and between these slots are five M.2 sockets. You can only use four concurrently due to their physical orientation (and wiring). It’s one or the other. M2_1 is the PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) capable socket, while the second runs PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). The other three sockets connect through the chipset and run up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). These all hold up to 80mm modules and support RAID0/1/5 modes for NVMe storage devices. With M2_2 occupied, PCIE1 drops to x8 mode, so you lose a little bandwidth on the primary graphics port, but nothing to worry about unless you’re trying to break overclocking records.

Moving right, we go past the chipset area to the edge that houses four of the eight SATA ports. You can populate all of these ports simultaneously, and all work. The other four ports are found on the bottom edge and mounted vertically. If you want to RAID your SATA drives, the board supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right. 

• Front panel audio
• 3-pin ARGB header
• 4-pin RGB header
• Thunderbolt AIC header
• Clear CMOS jumper
• (2) System Fan headers
• USB 2.0 header
• TPM header
• (4) SATA3 6 Gbps ports
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the Z790 Steel Legend comes preinstalled on the motherboard, which is still a nice touch at this price (though increasingly common these days). The Steel Legend theme continues here, with a black-and-white background with black labels on the ports. There are 10 USB ports scattered across the rear IO. You get one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C port, a Type-A 10 Gbps port, and eight other USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports. For video, the Steel Legend sports HDMI and DisplayPorts for those who want to use the integrated graphics on the processor. Last up is the 2.5 GbE port, Wi-Fi connections, and the 5-plug analog plus SPDIF output for the audio stack.

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Firmware

ASRock’s firmware for the Steel Legend is the same as its other Z790 boards. It sports the black, white, and light blue scheme we’re familiar with from other Steel Legend SKUs. Like the other boards, you start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the A-Tune application that overclocks your system (if applicable), control fans, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

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. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. 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. 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 stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

In our synthetic results, the Steel Legend proved to be average or slightly below average depending on the test. Results were on the slow side of average in 7-Zip, POV-Ray, Blender, and, surprisingly, in the Procyon Office tests. No results were low enough to cause a problem, they were generally in the bottom half.

Timed Applications

Our timed tests showed similar results, with the LAME and Corona results slightly slower than our average. In contrast, the Handbrake results were spot on average.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform, we’ve updated F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset. 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 falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Games and 3DMark results were solid, with our Z790 Steel Legend showing off in 3DMark Timespy, posting the highest score we’ve seen. Far Cry: 6’s frames per second was average, while F1 22 was slightly above average. It’s a competent gamer too! 

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 on the Steel Legend was as straightforward as most. We settled around 1.32V (less than stock, note) and still had some throttling, but we completed the 30-minute stress test. On the memory side, all three of our kits, including our Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit, worked by enabling XMP without additional tweaks. I’m impressed the board handles the 7200 kit, as it’s not on the QVL. To ensure compatibility on your system, stick to the QVL!

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. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption using the 360/480mm AIO setting in the BIOS yields 65W (an average result), while the load peaked at 395W (slightly on the higher side). Between them both, power use is right around average. Nothing to see here.

VRM temperatures on this board get a bit warm, with the hottest set (on the left of the socket) peaking around 66 degrees Celsius. While this is warmer than some others we’ve tested, it’s still well within the operating parameters of the Intersil SPS MOSFETs. As usual with this platform, the power delivery won’t get in the way of overclocking. CPU temperatures will.

Bottom Line

The Z790 Steel Legend is a good motherboard for the budget-minded user who wants all of the flexibility of the overclockable platform but doesn’t want to spend a ton of money to get there. Along with its neutral black-on-silver appearance and bright RGB lighting, you get all the platform offers, including a PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket (five total on the latter), 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. 

There is some stiff competition around this price point, however. We have Gigabyte’s Z790 Gaming X AX ($229.99), an Asus Prime Z790-P Wi-Fi ($235.99), and the MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk Wi-Fi ($289.99). If you’re looking for a superior audio solution, the MSI has you taken care of using the latest-gen codec; otherwise, they all run on the budget ALC897 codec. Outside of that, the most significant difference between these boards is that the Steel Legend is the only one that comes with a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 socket and eight SATA ports. If you need a lot of storage, the Steel Legend is it, even if you can only run four out of five M.2 slots concurrently.

Around the $230 price, the Steel Legend is one of the most feature-packed Intel Z790 options. Not only do you get a decent neutral appearance with RGBs, but you also get PCIe 5.0 where needed (a slot and an M.2 socket), 10 USB ports on the rear IO, and a 20 Gbps front panel Type-C port, capable power delivery, the unique eDP port, and more. You aren’t going to find another board like this one without spending more, making the Z790 Steel Legend easy to recommend for budget-conscious Z790 shoppers.

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Phoronix reports that Intel engineers are already building SoundWire Linux driver support for its upcoming Lunar Lake CPU architecture. Specifically, this update brings with it initial SoundWire Intel ACE2.x support, which will be part of Lunar Lake's future audio capabilities. Intel is developing this new driver well ahead of schedule, with Lunar Lake expected to arrive in 2024.

According to Phoronix, Linux 6.5 will support SoundWire's new ACE2.x generation IP block, which is probably why Intel's engineers are building the new audio drivers right now. Not to mention the fact that Lunar Lake is just around the corner, and is slated to arrive as early as 2024. We don't know much about this new SoundWire revision, but as with all new audio technologies, expect better audio processing and audio quality compared to current SoundWire revisions.

SoundWire is an interface that was ratified in 2015 to transport audio data to integrated audio devices. Basically, it is an "audio operating system" that governs how data is transported to audio devices inside speakers, phones, laptops, automobiles, and other supported audio sources. According to Phoronix, Intel has supported SoundWire for a long time, which explains its early adoption of the latest SoundWire IP blocks.

This is also not the first Linux audio driver Intel has published for Lunar Lake either. Intel has also been busy adding two more audio drivers to Linux supporting Lunar Lake CPUs, including Sound Open Firmware 2.6 and MIDI 2.0 support.

Lunar Lake will be the successor to Meteor Lake, reportedly bringing back the performance per watt crown to Intel. Lunar Lake will share the same multi-tiled technology as Meteor Lake, sporting a CPU tile, graphics tile, SoC tile, and I/O tile, but will be upgraded to Intel's 18A manufacturing process that will offer 10% better efficiency over Meteor Lake's 20A node.

Originally, Lunar Lake was supposed to launch in 2025, but development has gone so well with the 18A process that Intel accelerated its timetable by a full year to 2024.

Inflection AI, a new startup found by the former head of deep mind and backed by Microsoft and Nvidia, last week raised $1.3 billion from industry heavyweights in cash and cloud credit. It appears the company will use the money to build a supercomputer cluster powered by as many as 22,000 of Nvidia's H100 compute GPUs, which will have peak theoretical compute power performance that is comparable to that of the Frontier supercomputer.

"We will be building a cluster of around 22,000 H100s," said Mustafa Suleyman, the founder of DeepMind and a co-founder of Inflection AI, reports Reuters. "This is approximately three times more compute than what was used to train all of GPT-4. Speed and scale are what's going to really enable us to build a differentiated product."

A cluster powered by 22,000 Nvidia H100 compute GPUs is theoretically capable of 1.474 exaflops of FP64 performance — that's using the Tensor cores. With general FP64 code running on the CUDA cores, the peak throughput is only half as high: 0.737 FP64 exaflops. Meanwhile, the world's fastest supercomputer, Frontier, has peak compute performance of 1.813 FP64 exaflops (double that to 3.626 exaflops for matrix operations). That puts the planned new computer at second place for now, though it may drop to fourth after El Capitan and Aurora come fully online.

While FP64 performance is important for many scientific workloads, this system will likely be much faster for AI-oriented tasks. The peak FP16/BF16 throughput is 43.5 exaflops, and double that to 87.1 exaflops for FP8 throughput. The Frontier supercomputer powered by 37,888 of AMD's Instinct MI250X has peak BF16/FP16 throughput of 14.5 exaflops.

The cost of the cluster is unknown, but keeping in mind that Nvidia's H100 compute GPUs retail for over $30,000 per unit, we expect the GPUs for the cluster to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Add in all the rack servers and other hardware and that would account for most of the $1.3 billion in funding.

Inflection AI is currently valuated at around $4 billion, about one year after its foundation. Its only current product is a generational AI chatbot called Pi, short for personal intelligence. Pi is designed to serve as an AI-powered personal assistant with generative AI technology akin to ChatGPT that will support planning, scheduling, and information gathering. This allows Pi to communicate with users via dialogue, making it possible for people to ask queries and offer feedback. Among other things, Inflection AI has outlined specific user experience objectives for Pi, such as offering emotional support.

At present, Inflection AI operates a cluster based on 3,584 Nvidia H100 compute GPUs in Microsoft Azure cloud. The proposed supercomputing cluster would offer roughly six times the performance of the current cloud-based solution.

Microsoft is officially rolling out its new AI assistant Windows Copilot to Windows 11 Insiders today with Dev Channel Build 23493. The new assistant was just announced last month and will now be available for the most hardcore Windows users to try out. According to Microsoft, Windows Copilot will be a controlled feature rollout, and will require the use of Windows 11 build 23493 and Edge version 115.0.1901.150 for a chance to play with the new feature.

Copilot is a new AI assistant that in many ways will succeed the ChatGPT-powered Bing Chat assistant built into Microsoft Edge right now. Essentially what Microsoft is doing with Windows Copilot is taking its browser-based assistant and turning it into a proper desktop application, with full integration inside the Windows 11 desktop. Though, based on the Edge browser requirements, Copilot appears to be an Edge-powered service that is not fully baked into Windows 11 (yet).

Once enabled, Windows Copilot can be activated by pressing WIN + C or by clicking the new Copilot icon on the taskbar. From there the AI assistant will pop up from a side window allowing you to interact with the application without disturbing any of your open windows. Like Bing Chat, Windows Copilot allows you to ask it any question you want, about any subject or topic, and it will try its best to give you a satisfactory answer.

In the future, Microsoft will be expanding Copilot to be much more than just a search box. Eventually, it will receive support for Bing Chat plugins, a new feature called Hybrid AI loop for AI development, a new home productivity environment for developers — called Dev Home, and more.

Other Features Added To This Latest Dev Channel Build

Windows Copilot is just one of many features being added to this latest Windows 11 dev build. Another major addition is a new home page in the Settings app that will isolate all of your most commonly used settings in one area. The new home page includes settings for Bluetooth devices, Xbox services, Microsoft 365, personalization, account recovery, and cloud storage. There will also be a recommended settings card that will show you your most used settings.

Another update is added native support for open-source archive file formats including, .rar, .7z, .tar, and more. With native support for these formats, you can open these file types natively in File Explorer without installing third party file browsers such as 7-Zip or WinRAR.

A few other additions include new options for Snap Layouts, an enhanced volume mixer in Quick Settings, better app restoration, and more. For more details be sure to check out the the full patch notes here.

Microsoft yesterday announced its very own roadmap towards building a quantum supercomputer, crystallizing its path along the company's years-long research into topological qubits. Just last year, Microsoft had the breakthrough it "bet" would pay-off out of its research into topological qubits, an (even more) exotic qubit type than usual. Now, the company is saying it can get from the research breakthrough towards a functional quantum supercomputer in less than a decade.

That's according to Microsoft's VP of advanced quantum development, Krysta Svore, who in an interview with TechCrunch said that at Microsoft, "We think about our roadmap and the time to the quantum supercomputer in terms of years rather than decades”.

Now, that's. quite an aggressive "roadmap". Of course, Microsoft has been on the road it has publicly committed to for a while now - the company has advanced its research into quantum computing in numerous other areas, even with the lack of a single, coherent, topological qubit being shown until last year. There are many areas of quantum computing that could be worked on while Microsoft waited for its topological qubits to come to pass - such as control mechanisms, noise reduction, deployment, and others. Areas where the company's research was already aligned with the certainty that they'd actually be able to produce, entangle, and keep them coherent. 

"Today, we’re really at this foundational implementation level,” Svore told TechCrunch. "We have noisy intermediate-scale quantum machines. They’re built around physical qubits and they’re not yet reliable enough to do something practical and advantageous in terms of something useful. For science or for the commercial industry. The next level we need to get to as an industry is the resilient level. We need to be able to operate not just with physical qubits but we need to take those physical qubits and put them into an error-correcting code and use them as a unit to serve as a logical qubit.”

Essentially, Microsoft has to do the same work that other companies have been doing on their own qubits: Microsoft has to scale the number of qubits it can deploy; it has to make sure those qubits are resilient (stable) so they can be used for complex calculations; and it has to find ways to reduce the error rate. Microsoft expects it will achieve its quantum supercomputer once it can reach a rate of one million quantum operations per second, with a failure rate of one per trillion operations.

It's currently unclear how many qubits will be required for that in Microsoft's topological qubit architecture, but nowadays, a rate of around two error-correcting qubits is required for each working qubit (the value changes with the tech, as does the qubits' reliability, ease of manufacture, and many other factors).

Microsoft is essentially saying that they're as much of a contender in building the world's first quantum supercomputer as other quantum powerhouses. And it's not been an easy road: one of the sub-headings on Microsoft's blog post relating to the announcement reads A high-risk, high-reward approach. And the company is undoubtedly home to some of the most talented quantum researchers the world has seen - that Microsoft reached its breakthrough on topological qubits is testament enough to that. But to be fair, so is IBM; so is Quantinuum, which has (interestingly) also dabbled in topological qubits to supercharge error correction on its trapped-ion qubits; so is Intel, who is also making great strides on designing, manufacturing, and delivering its QPUs (Quantum Processing Units) and so are other quantum-computing-focused companies.

Unless your product is vaporware or some modern rendition of snake oil, there's no way you are working in the quantum computing field without having some of the most impressive brains of our generations (the same is true for other fields of science, of course).

Yet some of Microsoft's competitors have already established their relative footholds in the industry. They've delivered, Quantum Processing Units (QPUs), software-based solutions, or pure cloud-based access to quantum computing hardware. And IBM's own roadmap also leaves space for it to reach its own quantum supercomputer around the same time as Microsoft, even if the company hasn't been as razor-sharp in stating it would come within the decade as Microsoft was just yesterday.

All of these companies have been working with their qubits of choice for longer than Microsoft has - they're all bound to have found hurdles and unforeseen difficulties in bringing their quantum computing vision to the life it already has. Microsoft is sure to hit comparable roadblocks, even if its technology is different from others'. As any engineer will tell you, and as years of being hardware enthusiasts have taught us extensively, on-paper (or on-research) specifications don't always translate into the real world.

But then, that's where Microsoft being a two-trillion-dollar company comes into play. There's nothing like huge amounts of funding to iron out the wrinkles, is there?

Svore finished saying that Microsoft is well on its way to building its reliable qubits. The company expects these to be around 10 nm in size each, which while small, isn't as small as the silicon qubits Intel has already got spinning and working for research within its Tunnel Falls QPU. But to be fair, the world of quantum doesn't work in quite the same way as transistors would; some qubits being smaller doesn't automatically mean it's easier to simply mash more of them together on the road to a million qubits.

Interestingly, Microsoft also offered a new metric for measuring a quantum computer's performance - it seems that IBM's proposed CLOPS standard didn't align with Microsoft's view. Microsoft thinks its proposed rQOPS acronym (short for reliable Quantum Operations Per Second), which measures how many reliable operations can be executed in one second, is a better fit.

No-one ever believed that Microsoft was sleeping in the shade of hopeful, topological qubits while other companies raced ahead with other, more well-understood qubit types. The company was simply coiling itself around its chosen technology. It now promises it'll deliver a quantum supercomputer - the ones that will wreak havoc on any standard, non-quantum cryptography - in under a decade. The company now hopes to race ahead of its competitors despite its slower start. But Microsoft now has a much clearer view of the road ahead; and the starting shot on quantum computing still hasn't stopped ringing in the industry's ears.

The PC ecosystem is as diverse as the billions of people who use computers for work and play. For some folks, a sub-$500 laptop that sits in a corner most of the time fits their lifestyle. Others need a top-notch rig that takes up a ton of desk space so they can play the latest AAA games, while still others need a mix of portability and performance. 

Thankfully, not only is there a PC for every need, but we have the amazing ability to build our own desktops from the ground up, with just the right components to suit our personalities and budgets. Some users need laptops, which aren’t available to build from scratch (excepting Frameworks’ kit), and for them we maintain a list of the best gaming laptops and best ultraportable laptops. Still others prefer the convenience and manufacturer support that comes with one of the best prebuilt desktops. However, if you can build your own PC, you should.

On, Sunday, our sister site Tom’s Guide (which is a different publication targeted at less-tech-savvy readers), published an op-ed from writer Dave Meikleham claiming that building PCs is "a mistake" and that everyone should just buy gaming laptops instead. The author claims to have been building PCs for 20 years. But now that he has run into a technical problem on a recent build, he thinks that putting together your own system is a waste of time. Well, that’s one way to relate to your technology.

In too many areas of our 21st century lives, the power is being taken out of our hands. Whether it’s an AI that wants to do all of our writing, research and artwork for us (while plagiarizing from actual humans) or a sealed smartphone you can’t open to repair, we’re becoming a world of passive tech consumers, who are dependent on technology that we can’t control or even understand. 

There’s no practical way to build most of the gadgets in your day-to-day tech life, at least not at the quality level you would expect (Raspberry Pi can be excellent for DIY smart home stuff though). Try slapping together your own OLED TV or ultra-slim Android handset. PCs are one of the few areas where you can choose all the parts and build an end product that’s better than anything you’d find on the shelves at Best Buy or Walmart.

You can take the tack that your computer, like your TV, is a sealed box that should just turn on, or you can take control by building it yourself. Depending on your build, you can save hundreds of dollars by building your own PC. You’ll get it made exactly the way you want, and you’ll be better able to fix and upgrade it in the future. And there’s no doubt that you’ll feel the pride that comes from being a creator, not just a consumer of technology.

By the way, it’s not difficult to put together your first PC (we have a tutorial on how to build a PC). There’s no soldering or heavy machinery involved, just plugging in some wires, mounting the motherboard, and installing and tightening some screws. You can usually be done within two hours, barring any problems.

Saving Money by Building Your Own PC

Let’s price out what it costs to build a gaming desktop versus buying a similarly-configured prebuilt PC or gaming laptop. We could do this around any price point, but we’ll go with a $2,099 PC at Best Buy, America’s largest and most well-known big-box electronics store. For this price, you get a desktop from CyberPowerPC with a mid-range, RTX 4070 graphics card, a high-end Core i9-13900KF CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, and an 800-watt power supply.

By pricing out the parts, we can create an identically-configured DIY PC for just $1,834 (yes, with no OS, but we’ll touch on that soon), perhaps less. Best Buy doesn’t list out the makes and models of most of its parts, including the PSU, RAM, SSD, case, cooler and motherboard.

For our build, we went with a rather cheap SSD and an inexpensive but still Gold-rated power supply. However, our DeepCool LT720 AIO is one of the best CPU coolers you can buy. More importantly, since we control the build, we can make more specific choices. Instead of any old 2TB SSD, we could pay more for a blazing fast one like the $159 Samsung 990 Pro.

Perhaps more importantly, we could rebalance our budget to focus more on the graphics card and less on the CPU. If gaming is our priority, we’d sooner save a few dollars on the CPU and put that cash into the graphics card, going for an RTX 4070 Ti GPU ($799) and a Core i5-13600KF ($290).

Like all of our best PC builds, this one has a couple of caveats: First, our cost doesn’t include the price of a Windows license, though you can get Windows 11 for free or cheap (usually less than $30). And we assume you’re going to buy your own keyboard and mouse, rather than using the cheap ones that come in the box with most prebuilt PCs.

By the way, Best Buy’s CyberPowerPC for $2,099 is an amazing deal compared to what a similarly-configured PC from a bigger-name brand might cost. Alienware charges $2399 for an RTX 4070 desktop that has a slower Core i7-13700F CPU, just 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. You do get the company’s stylish alien-themed chassis, sleek software and strong build quality, but it comes at a very high premium.

If you want a laptop with RTX 4070 inside, Best Buy has that too, like this MSI Raider GE68 for $2,699. Granted, with the gaming laptop, you are getting portability and a built-in screen. However, its mobile RTX 4070 will be much slower than its desktop counterpart, just as its mobile Core i9 CPU won’t match the desktop one. With the money you save by building your own desktop, you could easily buy one of the best gaming monitors. Our top choice, the Dell S3222DGM goes for just $349 these days.

A Sense of Ownership and Control

So we’ve shown that building a PC is, almost always, cheaper than buying a prebuilt one. But it’s not just about the price. With a DIY PC, you are the boss, which means that you decide exactly what parts you use. When you’re buying a prebuilt you usually don’t get a choice of the following parts.

• Graphics card: If you go the prebuilt route, you will know what the GPU is (ex: RTX 4070) but often not which make and model of card it is. When you build it yourself, you can choose an overclocked, third-party card.
  
• Storage: Most vendors will tell you the size and type of SSD and, if you’re lucky, they will let you know if it uses PCIe 3.0, PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0. Best Buy’s listing for the CyberPowerPC doesn’t say. But can you pick your favorite drive from among the best SSDs? 
  
• Case: There are hundreds of cases on the market. And if you build your own PC, you can choose one that suits your situation, whether it’s a tiny mini-ITX case, an E-ATX behemoth, or a chassis with wood slats like the Fractal Design North.
  
• RAM: You’ll know the amount of RAM and the interface (DDR4 or DDR5) with a prebuilt that’s sitting on the shelf, but you may not even know the speed and, if you do, you won’t know the timings or whether it includes RGB.
  
• CPU Cooling: You can choose a 240mm, 280mm, or 360mm AIO cooler to get the most out of a high-performance CPU, or stick with a low-profile air cooler for lower-wattage processors. A better cooler would allow you to push your processor to higher speeds.
  
• Case fans: You can decide how to configure the airflow in your PC and what types of fans you want to get you there. You can get fans that are austere and quiet or ones with built-in screens.
  
• Motherboard: If you plan to overclock, you need a motherboard that supports fine voltage control and, if you want to back up to fast external storage, you can choose one with Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4. You can even get a Sonic-themed motherboard.
  
• Power Supply: The least glamorous part of your PC is one of its most important. Many PC vendors give you a cheap, underpowered PSU. However, when you make the choices, you can give yourself more future flexibility by getting a higher capacity than you need today. For example, if you need 650 watts today, you might go for an 850-watt unit in case you decide to upgrade your graphics card in the future.

Some smaller companies like iBuyPower and CyberPowerPC will give you some options, but there's not an unlimited number of choices of components when you pay for a build-to-order PC. However, you’ll pay a bit extra and build-to-order systems can take a while to ship.

Your PC can be a simple, utilitarian affair with messy wires and no window, an RGB bling showpiece, or a refined piece of furniture that matches your surroundings. You don’t need to be a professional case modder to add touches of flair such as RGB power cables or a screen that sits on top of your RAM.

Should You Build a PC or Buy One?

We’ve covered this topic in detail before, but the answer depends a lot on the person. To summarize:

Buy a laptop If:

• You need portability, even within the home.
• Desk space is very limited.
• You can afford the premium
• You don’t need the highest possible levels of performance.

 Buy a prebuilt gaming desktop if: 

• You don’t want to spend the time building a PC.
• The prebuilt has some special features or branding (ex: Alienware’s Aurora case)
• You want one source of warranty and tech support.
• You’re not confident in your PC-building ability.

Build a desktop if:

• You want full control over the end product.
• You want to save money, and usually get better parts.
• You need top-notch performance and value.

Bottom Line

No matter what direction you choose for your PC build, you’ll have the responsibility of putting it together and fixing it if there’s a problem. However, the individual parts will have their own warranties and, if you know that one piece in particular broke, you can send it in for service or buy a new one. Once the warranty is over on your prebuilt PC, you may not be able to fix it, particularly if the case or motherboard is built in a proprietary way.

Also, when you build a PC, it’s easier to upgrade the computer as your needs change. If you need to add a second SSD, double your RAM, or replace your graphics card, the power is in your hands. With a prebuilt PC, you may or may not get parts that leave room for future expansion.

Our colleague at Tom’s Guide said that “putting together your own PC can end in disaster” based on the fact that he attempted to install a Core i9-13900K into a motherboard that didn’t support it without a BIOS update. But that's the kind of problem one can avoid or solve for with research, such as checking the CPU compatibility and BIOS update notes on the motherboard vendor's website. 

And every failure is a learning opportunity, with workarounds that are usually free (like putting the old CPU back in and running a BIOS update) or cheap. I won’t get into the time that I learned an important lesson about not building a PC on a carpet while wearing socks.

Anything worth having is worth working for. Building a PC is not for everyone, but it’s easy and rewarding enough that more people should do it, not fewer. The savings, customization, and fun more than make up for any issues you are likely to encounter along the way.

Intel is set to invest over €30 billion ($33 billion) in Magdeburg, Germany reports Reuters. The deal also involves an agreement of €10 billion ($10.91 billion) in government subsidies to build a fab. The deal was formally signed on Monday. In addition to build a new chip fab in Germany, Intel will also build a new fab in Israel, according to Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu via another Reuters report.

Intel's site near Magdeburg, Germany, is expected to encompass at least two fabs that will cost over €30 billion, though the total investment in the campus is yet to be determined. The initial fabs will be used to build chips "at a more advanced technology than originally planned," a statement by Intel reads. Meanwhile the company does not disclose which node it is talking about, though it notes that that the technology will belong to the Angstrom era, which means 18A, 20A or other sophisticated processes.

Intel purchased the land required for its new project in November 2022. Following the European Commission's sanction of the incentive package, it is anticipated that the initial facility will commence operations within a timeframe of four to five years. Given the timing, expect the new fab to start operations in the second half of this decade. 

In addition to building an all-new site in Germany, Intel will also expand its fab in Kiryat Gat, Israel. The company intends to invest $25 billion in constructing its new factory in Israel, according to the country's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This investment is the largest ever international financial commitment to the country.  

The Kiryat Gat fab is anticipated to commence operations in 2027 and continue at least until 2035, and the Israel Finance Ministry expects it will generate thousands of jobs. As part of the agreement, Intel's tax rate will be raised to 7.5% from the current 5%.  

"Our intention to expand manufacturing capacity in Israel is driven by our commitment to meeting future manufacturing needs and we appreciate the continued support of the Israeli government," a statement by Intel issued to Reuters reads.

Air quality is a big concern. We take the air that we breathe for granted, and sometimes that air is full of pollution. Forest fires in Canada and hill fires in the United Kingdom are all recent examples of fire polluting our air, so how can we check that it is safe to go out?

In this how to we’ll build a project that uses air quality data from the OpenWeather API to give us an indication of air quality before we leave home. The data is visualized using a Raspberry Pi Pico W, a $6 microcontroller that can go online, get the data and then display the data using a strip of NeoPixel RGB LEDs.

Building the Circuit

The circuit is made up of two sections. The input and the output. The input is a simple push button connected to GPIO14 and to the 3V3 pin of the Pico W. The normal state of GPIO14 is pulled down to Ground, essentially 0V. When we press the button we connect the 3V3 pin to GPIO14, causing it to pull the pin high (to 3.3V). This change of state is what our code looks for. The output is a NeoPixel strip connected to 3V3, GND and GPIO16. GPIO16 is used to send data to the NeoPixels, changing their color as required.

The GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi Pico W and the NeoPixel stick will need to be soldered and using one of the best soldering irons or soldering stations will make the job a breeze.

For This Project You Will Need

• Raspberry Pi Pico W
• NeoPixel Stick
• Half Breadboard
• 5 x Male to male jumper wires
• Push button

Writing the Code

The code for this project is broken down into what is necessary to make a connection to the Internet and download data from an API, code to wait for user input, and finally code to interpret the data via RGB LEDs.

1. Follow these steps to download the latest version of MicroPython for the Raspberry Pi Pico W. The most important steps are to download and install the UF2 firmware image and to set up Thonny. The rest are optional.

2. Open Thonny and click on the Stop button to refresh the connection. This ensures that the Python Shell is open and working correctly.

3. Create a new file and paste the contents of this link. Save the file as neopixel.py to the root of the Raspberry Pi Pico W.

4. Create a new file for the project code.

5. Import a series of modules essential to the project. Network enables the Pico W to connect to Wi-Fi, time is used to control the timings of the project code, urequests is used to fetch data from the API. Machine contains “Pin” which is used to get and set the status of a GPIO pin, NeoPixel enables control of a NeoPixel RGB LED strip.

import networkimport timeimport urequestsfrom machine import Pinfrom neopixel import Neopixel

6. Create an object, button, and create a connection to GPIO14, and using the internal resistor for that pin, pull the pin down (to GND).

button = Pin(14, Pin.IN, Pin.PULL_DOWN)

7. Create an object, pixels, which makes a connection between the code and the eight NeoPixels connected to GPIO16. Note that the pixels are in GRB (Green, Red, Blue) order for our module. If yours differ change this to RGB.

pixels = Neopixel(8, 0, 16, "GRB")

8. Create an object, wlan, and use it to make a connection to your Wi-Fi access point. Change SSID and PASSWORD to match your AP. Add a short pause to allow the connection to be made and stable.

wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)wlan.active(True)wlan.connect("SSID", "PASSWORD")time.sleep(5)

9. Print the connection status to the Python shell.

print(wlan.isconnected())

10. Using a conditional statement, set the NeoPixels to blink green 10 times to signify that the connection has been successful.

if wlan.isconnected() == True:   for i in range(10):       pixels.fill((0, 64, 0))       pixels.show()       time.sleep(0.1)       pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))       pixels.show()       time.sleep(0.1)

11. If unsuccessful, use a for loop to blink the NeoPixels red 10 times.

else:       for i in range(10):           pixels.fill((64, 0, 0))           pixels.show()           time.sleep(0.1)           pixels.fill((0, 0 , 0))           pixels.show()           time.sleep(0.1)

12. Create an infinite loop, and check the status of the button. If unpressed, the code will stop here. Once pressed, the indented will run.

while True:   if button.value():

13. Create an object, aq, and store the latest air quality data. Pressing the button triggers the code to download the latest air pollution data from OpenWeather using a free API key. Note that you will have to sign up for a free account, then click on your username and select My API Keys. Generate a new API key called AirPollution. Copy the API key and replace it in the URL below. Also change the lat (latitude) and lon (longitude) to match your location. This can be found via Google Maps, ours is set to New York City.

       aq = urequests.get("http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/air_pollution/forecast?lat=40.714272&lon=-74.005966&appid=YOUR API KEY HERE").json()

14. From the returned data, slice out the Air Quality Index and save it to the object, air_quality_index. The returned data is in JSON format, which is almost identical to Python’s dictionary data storage objects. This means we can read the exact data using a specific sequence of keys. These are documented in the OpenWeather API reference.

       air_quality_index = aq['list'][0]['main']['aqi']

15. Print the air quality index value to the Python shell as a sentence. This is for debug purposes. The value can be between 1 and 5. Where 1 = Good, 2 = Fair, 3 = Moderate, 4 = Poor, 5 = Very Poor.

       print("The Air Quality index is: ",str(air_quality_index))

16. If the air quality is 1, Good. Set the LEDs to flash green 10 times with a half second delay.

       if air_quality_index == 1:           for i in range(10):               pixels.fill((0, 64, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)               pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)

17. If the air quality is 2, Fair. Set the LEDs to flash blue 10 times with a half second delay.

       elif air_quality_index == 2:           for i in range(10):               pixels.fill((51,255,255))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)               pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)

18. If the air quality is 3, Moderate. Set the LEDs to flash purple 10 times with a half second delay.

       elif air_quality_index == 3:           for i in range(10):               pixels.fill((153, 51, 255))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)               pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)

19. If the air quality is 4, Poor. Set the LEDs to flash orange 10 times with a half second delay.

       elif air_quality_index == 4:           for i in range(10):               pixels.fill((255,153,51))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)               pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)

20. If the air quality is 5, Very Poor. Set the LEDs to flash red 10 times with a half second delay.

       elif air_quality_index == 5:           for i in range(10):               pixels.fill((255, 0, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)               pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))               pixels.show()               time.sleep(0.5)

21. Finally set the else condition, activated if there is no returned air quality data, to pass, enabling the loop to go back and wait for user input.

       else:           pass

22. Save the code as main.py to the Raspberry Pi Pico W. In MicroPython, the main.py file is run each time the Pico boots.

23. Click on Run to start the code. The NeoPixels should flash green to confirm a Wi-Fi connection. If not, then check your SSID and password are correct.

24. Press the button to trigger the Pico W to go online and download the latest air pollution data. The NeoPixels will show the data via the five colors and the Python shell will show the exact air quality value.

Complete Code Listing

import networkimport timeimport urequestsfrom machine import Pinfrom neopixel import Neopixelbutton = Pin(14, Pin.IN, Pin.PULL_DOWN)pixels = Neopixel(8, 0, 16, "GRB")wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)wlan.active(True)wlan.connect("SSID", "PASSWORD")time.sleep(5)print(wlan.isconnected())if wlan.isconnected() == True:    for i in range(10):        pixels.fill((0, 64, 0))        pixels.show()        time.sleep(0.1)        pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))        pixels.show()        time.sleep(0.1)else:        for i in range(10):            pixels.fill((64, 0, 0))            pixels.show()            time.sleep(0.1)            pixels.fill((0, 0 , 0))            pixels.show()            time.sleep(0.1)while True:    if button.value():        aq = urequests.get("http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/air_pollution/forecast?lat=40.714272&lon=-74.005966&appid=YOUR API KEY HERE").json()        air_quality_index = aq['list'][0]['main']['aqi']        print("The Air Quality index is: ",str(air_quality_index))        if air_quality_index == 1:            for i in range(10):                pixels.fill((0, 64, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)                pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)        elif air_quality_index == 2:            for i in range(10):                pixels.fill((51,255,255))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)                pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)        elif air_quality_index == 3:            for i in range(10):                pixels.fill((153, 51, 255))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)                pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)        elif air_quality_index == 4:            for i in range(10):                pixels.fill((255,153,51))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)                pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)        elif air_quality_index == 5:            for i in range(10):                pixels.fill((255, 0, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)                pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))                pixels.show()                time.sleep(0.5)        else:            pass

Python How Tos

• How To Install Python on Windows 10 and 11
• How to use For Loops in Python
• How to Enumerate in Python
• How to Create Executable Applications in Python
• How To Remove Backgrounds From Images With Python
• How to Create Web Apps with Python, HTML and Thonny
• How To Use Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 with Python Code

At Computex, Streacom showcased a new take on power supply design for small form factor (SFF) builds. Its new ZS800 Hybrid SFX PSU (800 W) tackles traditional SFF PSU design from a number of angles, and its experts at Computex have been revealing the reasoning behind its decisions.

The Streacom engineers seemed to have a wish list for modifying SFF PSUs before they started, and one of the first things they wished to improve was cabling. The issue of the bulky 24 pin ATX cable was considered first. Streacom says that its experience with DC to DC ATX converters meant that it could deliver multiple voltages from a single 12V supply. When Intel introduced its single-rail ATX12VO (12V only) specification, Streacom designed a hybrid solution that is both ATX3.0 and ATX12VO compatible.

You can see the 24-pin ATX conversion cable is attached, and an official close-up shot of the DC to DC converter board is embedded below. Streacom mentions that the board is designed specifically for its PSUs, so owners of other brand ATX12VO supplies shouldn't think about acquiring one to supply lines with different voltages. Lastly, on the topic of this aspect of the design, Streacom says that users of its ZS800 Hybrid SFX PSU will hopefully be able to discard this adaptor, when / if ATX12VO is adopted by more motherboard vendors.

Another new aspect of the ZS800 Hybrid SFX from Streacom is its physical form factor. The firm mentions that the SFX standard specifies a PSU size of 125 x 63.5 x 100 mm - but once a user starts adding cable a lot of extra depth is needed for cable wrangling (probably about 20 to 30mm). You can see in our images that the recessed design of the ZS800 angles the connectors at 90 degrees, helping a lot in the most compact systems. We reckon cables attached to this PSU would need little more than the cable thickness for successful routing.

Apparently the cabling change also allowed Streacom to design-in a removable fan. The company claims that the ZS800 "is the first SFX PSU that allows the user to replace the fan with one of their choosing to create a perfectly matched system." We have images of the unit with and without a 120mm fan installed for your perusal. Streacom seems to have gone for a Noctua fan, but users could easily choose any standard 120 x 15 mm fan from their preferred brand - and go RGB if they wish.

If you are more than just interested in the Streacom ZS800 Hybrid SFX, please check out the official specs. Among the specs, you will note it comes with a 12VHPWR connector which is popular with modern Nvidia GPUs.

Yesterday we wrote about the Streacom SG10 fanless gaming case and the Streacom VU1 dynamic analogue dials in our coverage from the halls of Computex 2023.

Corsair has introduced a new "smart component ecosystem" to make it easier for the DIY crowd to build a new gaming rig. However, even the most seasoned PC-building veterans could use a helping hand regarding cable management and reducing clutter. The company is taking this intervention to the next level with iCue Link, which was announced this week at Computex 2023.

iCue Link uses a new reversible, single-cable system to simplify component hookups and help to reduce the rat's nest of cables that can quickly take over a gaming rig. Each iCue Link-enabled device features an integrated microcontroller that allows bi-directional communications with the System Hub and provides power. This technology will enable fans to have their own temperature sensors that report back, and RGB lighting can be strobed at specific frequencies to make it look like the fans are spinning extremely slowly or in reverse. You can even dial-in individual fan response curves to find that perfect balance between performance and acceptable noise levels.

While the single-cable hookup for individual components is excellent, there's another benefit: devices can be daisy-chained instead of each plugging in individually into the System Hub. As a result, you could connect a case fan to an AIO cooler, with only the latter plugging directly into the System Hub.

The first iCue Link devices, including the QX120 and QX140 RGB fans, will arrive in June. They both feature Magnetic Dome bearings, quad RGB light loops and a digital temperature sensor. The iCue Link family will eventually grow to include an AIO cooler, fans, CPU blocks, GPU blocks and pump/reservoir combos. These products are expected to hit the market during Q3 2023. Going forward, Corsair will further flesh out the iCue Link with additional products into 2024 and beyond. 

While the whole iCue Link ecosystem seems to dramatically simplify the building of PCs overrun with fans and RGB, it also adds to the cost. Even more important — and something that Corsair is keenly aware of — is that it locks you into Corsair's ecosystem.  

On the other hand, Corsair has also announced new fans that don't tie into iCue Link, so they aren't forcing enthusiasts down this path... yet.

Microsoft's Build developer conference is all about AI. The 2023 show, which is taking place both online and in person, is being headlined by AI, Bing Chat, and new tools for developers using Windows, GitHub, and the Windows Terminal. Every change, big or small, is being touched by artificial intelligence.

There's plenty of developments for the cloud, like AI in Azure, as well as a new analytics system that Microsoft is calling Fabric. But here are the AI announcements Microsoft is making at Build that you're most likely to see coming to tools you use soon:

AI Plugins

At Build, Microsoft said that it will use the same plugin standard as its partners at OpenAI use for ChatGPT. This should allow developers to make plugins that are interoperable between ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Dynamics 365 Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Microsoft is also announcing support for new plugins for Bing Chat. Newly announced add-ons include those for Instacart, Kayak, Redfin, Zillow, Klarna, and many others, alongside OpenTable and WolframAlpha. Communications head Frank Shaw told the press that as part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, there will be more than 50 plugins announced at Build, including from Atlassian, Adobe, Thomas Reuters and Mural, with "thousands" of plugins by time Copilot it hits general availability.

Copilot coming to Edge, Windows 11

Microsoft is bringing some of its Copilot features (which are currently in a private preview in MIcrosoft 365) to the Edge browser.

Microsoft 365 Copilot already uses large language models to answer requests from Microsoft 365 apps such as Excel, Word, Teams, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Now, the Copilot will also work with Edge, so people will be able to use the AI in conjunction with their web browser. Perhaps they'll get a PDF that opens in the browser, and users can ask Edge to summarize it.

Windows 11 will use Bing Chat along with third-party plugins and Microsoft's own. Windows Copilot will let people change settings, open apps or perform other actions with AI, while also mixing in Bing Chat to answer questions from the web. It will be able to be parked aside in a panel for easy access.

Media Provenance

At Google I/O, Google discussed features that would secretly mark images and videos made by AI so they could be identified as such. At Build, Microsoft is following suit with "media provenance" abilities being added to Bing Image Creator and Microsoft Designer.

Microsoft's tech will use cryptographic techniques to "mark and sign AI-generated content with metadata about its origin." The company says that this signifier will be in accordance with  standards set by the Coalition for content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), of which Microsoft is a co-founder. Microsoft says it will start by supporting "major images and video formats" when the initiative ramps up in the "coming months."

Microsoft Store Gets an AI Hub

The Microsoft Store will be filled to the brim with AI. The Microsoft Store will get a section specifically for AI apps and experiences. Developers can submit their AI-focused apps to be featured.

 AI is also coming to review summaries. Reviews in the app store will be scanned by AI, which will compile them and recapitulate. Additionally, developers will be able to fill their listings with AI-generated keyword suggestions to improve search engine optimization.

Dev Home

Beyond its AI tools, Microsoft also doubled down on Windows as a tool for developers with a new feature called Dev Home. Available in preview, it lets users set up a machine, connect to GitHub and build dashboards and other extensions, as well as use GitHub widgets and track CPU and GPU performance.

Microsoft is also adding WinGet configuration to the Windows Package Manager, taking care of setup and, according to Microsoft, dropping setup time from days to just hours. WinGet's configuration file will ensure you get the right version of software packages and frameworks.

There's also a new storage volume, Dev Drive, which Mifcrosoft says is based on the Resilient File System (ReFS) and offers a 30% improvement in build times, partially due to a "performance mode" in Windows Defender. Microsoft hasn't said much about this new mode, other than that  this "new performance mode is more secure for developer workloads than folder or process exclusions, providing a solution that balances security with performance.  

But of course, dev tools are also getting the AI treatment. Windows Terminal is gaining support for GitHub Copilot X, and will be able to use an "experimental chat experience" to use language both inline and in chat to learn more about errors, get recommendations and to perform actions throughout Terminal. Microsoft says it also wants to add GitHub Copilot-style AI in other developer tools, such as WinDBG.

We'll likely learn more about all of these features during the Microsoft Build keynotes. CEO Satya Nadella will start the show today at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET. 

Intel on Wednesday unveiled its Balanced Builds initiative, under which the company plans to sell its CPU and GPU bundles aimed at mainstream gamers and enable PC makers to offer Balanced Builds systems with an optimal CPU and GPU configuration. One of the company's first bundles is its Core i5-12600K processor and an Arc A750 graphics card for $423. 

Although Intel's high-enc Core i9 CPUs are among the best processors for gaming and are usually chosen by enthusiasts, Intel's current Arc A700-series graphics cards can offer an attractive balance between performance and price (which is why they are among the best graphics cards money can buy). However, they aren't a choice for high-end enthusiasts' builds. To that end, they do not have to be combined with Intel's premium Core i9 CPUs, as their performance potential will be fully demonstrated with more reasonably priced CPUs. 

To prove this point, Intel compared the performance of its range-topping Core i9-13900K to several 12th and 13th Generation Core i5 and i7 processors across over 50 games. With more than 15,000 test runs, the company obtained plenty of data to find optimal GPU and CPU configurations for gaming. The results showed that GPU performance could be limited by a CPU up to a certain point, and the Intel Arc A750 and A770 GPUs usually reach peak performance when paired with a Core i5 or i7 CPU from the Alder Lake or Raptor Lake generations.

Interestingly, DirectX 12, which tends to be 'closer' to GPU silicon than its predecessors, showed minimal CPU sensitivity when tested with the Intel Arc A750 graphics card. Even a relatively inexpensive Core i5-12400F processor yielded similar results to higher-end CPUs. 

The data also revealed that the sweet spot for entry-level graphics boards like the Intel Arc A380 lies with Core i3 chips. Mid-range GPUs like the Intel Arc A750 pair optimally with Core i5 and i7 processors, while a Core i9 CPU only makes a significant difference for ultra-high performance GPUs like Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4080/4090 or CPU-intensive non-gaming workloads. 

To address gamers looking for an optimal balance of price and performance (and now armed with Intel's GPU test results), Intel teamed up with dozens of retailers worldwide to offer reasonably priced CPU and GPU bundles as well as relatively inexpensive gaming PCs. For example, the most affordable gaming CPU bundle is priced at $423, whereas the cheapest PC can be obtained for $899. In the U.S., the systems can be obtained from Amazon, Newegg, MicroCenter, Best Buy, Costco, CyberPower, MAINGEAR, and NZXT.

It is noteworthy that Intel has been offering its CPUs with optional discrete GPUs for a while in the notebook space, enabling partners to deliver higher graphics performance and continue to use Intel's drivers without rigorous configuration testing. The company has taken a different approach with desktops and never advertised combinations of its CPUs and GPUs.

Perhaps that happened because Intel's Arc graphics cards suffered from various teething problems. As a result, Intel likely wanted to fix its drivers and maximize the performance of its GPUs first and only then kick off marketing initiatives designed to increase sales volumes of its graphics cards, which is the right thing to do. The CPU giant claims that since launching the Intel Arc A750 and A770 graphics cards several months ago, Intel has introduced numerous performance updates, including a 43% increase in FPS for games like CS:GO and support for 42 new games. Perhaps, this is why the company is now confident that it is the right time to start a marketing initiative to sell as many desktop Arc graphics cards as possible. 

It's easy to build your own desktop PC but, if you want a phone, you usually have to settle for a sealed box that's made by one of a handful of large corporations. Maker Evan Robison wants to change all that as he posted instructions for an open-source, Raspberry Pi-powered called OURPhone with the acronym OURS standing for Open-source, Upgradable, Repairable Smartphone. 

According to Robinson, the idea was to create a smartphone alternative for people looking to control their privacy. He also wanted to make a smartphone that could be easily modified and repaired, so an open-source solution was the perfect fit. The OURphone project has quite a few specs that you’ll find on many smartphones including 4G LTE internet support, GPS support, Bluetooth and WiFi capability, as well as basic phone operations like the ability to call, text and save contacts in an address book.

However, instead of running on Android or iOS, the phone uses Raspberry Pi OS, the Linux-based native operating system for Raspberry Pis. This means that you have very fine control over what software you run on it, but the UI (as pictured) is not particularly touch or phone friendly. You can find all of the code used in the project (as well as detailed instructions) at GitHub.

In his build guide, Robinson is using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ but there’s no reason you couldn’t upgrade it to a Pi 4. It’s accompanied by a 4G HAT with GSM and GPS antennas. It has a Waveshare touchscreen for video output and user input. A camera can be attached but it isn’t necessary for the build. A pair of headphones with a built-in microphone is used for call support. To keep the unit mobile, it operates off of a couple of 18650 batteries. 

The housing, ade out of 3mm MDF board, is a bit bulky but necessary to contain all of the hardware. It’s laser cut with port access made available all around the edges.

There are already plans in the works to add more features like a Pi upgrade, a capacitive touch screen, and a monitoring system to check the battery level. Robinson asks that anyone interested feel free to improve upon the design and share any changes they implement. He’s also made himself available at LinkedIn for anyone that has questions along the way.

If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, check out the official project page over at GitHub and be sure to follow Evan Robinson for future projects as well as any updates on this one.

A PC enthusiast in China has built a custom PC case specifically to fit the substantial Noctua NH-P1 passive cooler — with room for little else. With a self-imposed design constraint of using a Mini-ITX platform, ChipHell’s FreshCool created a custom case measuring just 30 x 20 x 20 cm (LWH), or roughly 12 x 8 x 8–inches. The result, spotted by FanlessTech, is a pleasingly compact passive system. Moreover, it looks much like a modern manufactured case, featuring contemporary design trappings such as a side window, a generous amount of venting, and a vertically barred front. Perhaps it was Fractal North inspired.

What kind of thermal load will this passive PC system have to cope with? The system’s main heat source will be the Intel Core i7-12700, which of course has the Noctua NH-P1 attached. FreshCool says that if the CPU is limited to 65W, in testing it never strayed beyond the 50 degrees Celsius range. A 100W limit meant that the processor would run at temperatures in the mid-70s. Finally, the translation isn’t great but it seems like if the power limit is completely unlocked (140W), the 12700 will start to throttle under load after 90 seconds. We don’t have any info about what tests were run, ambient temperatures, etc.

On the quest for a truly fanless system, FreshCool chose to install a Seasonic PX450. This is a fully modular 450W PSU, and it offers 80 Plus Platinum efficiency with an attractive 12-year warranty. Other key components of the build include a Maxsun H610 ITX motherboard, 32GB of RAM (Kingston 2x16GB), and a WD Blue SN570 M.2 SSD.

In some further comments and replies on the ChipHell forums, FreshCool joked with other users about the case looking like a cooking appliance. The PC DIYer also revealed that they had previously considered using a SilverStone Sugo 16, with a comparable size but designed for active cooling. FreshCool didn’t use the Sugo after determining that "its ventilation efficiency is not good" for creating a passive system. However, for builders wanting a discrete GPU the Sugo has room for cards up to 275mm long and 147mm wide.

This custom case obviously won't win any gaming performance awards, since it lacks anything better than the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 770. That's enough for streaming video or perhaps playing Minecraft, but it falls well short of even the slowest dedicated solutions that we've tested in our GPU benchmarks. Of course, few graphics cards offer fanless solutions these days, which would defeat the point of this build.

Microsoft is working on its own artificial intelligence chip, internally called "Athena," and has been working on the project since 2019, according to a report from The Information. The initial version of the chip is planned to use Taiwan Semiconductor's (TSMC) 5-nanometer process, though there will likely be multiple generations of chips as part of the project.

The Information suggests that Microsoft's goal is at least partly to save money on buying chips from suppliers like Nvidia.

Microsoft has poured billions into OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, to advance in a fast-growing race to make products using artificial intelligence and large-language models (LLMs). The Athena chips are reportedly designed to train LLMs and similar software, including inferring from data the models acquire in training.

The chips, according to The Information's sources, are currently being used among a small subset of employees at Microsoft and OpenAI. Microsoft could potentially make the chips more widely available "as early as next year," but it's unclear whether the chip will be opened up to Azure customers.

Many who are training LLMs, whether locally or in the cloud, have defaulted to Nvidia's offerings, including powerful graphics cards that have proven to be the go-to for any company without its own chips. Dylan Patel of the resarch firm SemiAnalysis told The Information that "Athena, if competitive, could reduce the cost per chip by a third when compared with Nvidia’s offerings." If Microsoft is going to add AI capabilities beyond Bing Chat to its Office products and GitHub, it could save a ton.

Microsoft isn't the first to make its own chips, of course. Google, Amazon and Meta are already among the tech behemoths that have invested in in-house silicon.

That's not to say Microsoft sees Athena as replacing Nvidia entirely. In March, the two companies partnered on Nvidia's DGX Cloud specifically for AI supercomputing and the Nvidia Omniverse cloud, both using Azure and support for Microsoft 365. Though the report suggests Athena could be a "touchy subject," Microsoft reportedly doesn't see its chip as a "broad replacement for Nvidia's products."

If Microsoft more widely produces the Athena chips next year, it will no longer be on TSMC's cutting-edge nodes. But it's no surprise to see that Microsoft, with its multi-billion investment in OpenAI and early (occasionally reckless) entry into chat bots in Bing Search and beyond, is looking for ways to further development.

Fanless graphics cards are not commonly seen these days as most GPUs tend to get quite hot and require active coolers with two or three fans. Even relatively energy-efficient mainstream. However, an enthusiast took matters into their own hands and built a passively cooled graphics board with a contemporary GPU powered by Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, but cooled by a 15-year old Arctic cooler. They shared the experience at SFF.Network.

In a bid to build his passively cooled graphics card, RevocCases took Nvidia's professional-grade RTX A2000 graphics card based on the GA106 GPU with 3,328 CUDA cores (at up to 1.20 GHz) and a 192-bit memory interface. The card comes with 6GB of memory and is rated for a 70W power consumption, meaning that it does not need an auxiliary PCIe power connector. 70W is of course not much, so the board can indeed be cooled passively with a proper cooler.

That 'proper' cooler is Arctic's Accelero S1 Rev. 2 that was designed for AMD's Radeon HD 3850/3870 and Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT/8800 GTS from 2008 – 2009. The product can be bought from specialists like CoolerGuys or from Ebay and it is not that expensive. The passive cooler seems to be compatible with Nvidia's RTX A2000 graphics card, though the modder decided to attach a copper plate to the cooler to cool down GDDR6 memory too. 

Nvidia's GeForce RTX A2000 graphics card is designed for compact workstations, so this one is not exactly cheap at all. It can be obtained for $356 at Amazon, though it is possible to get it cheaper at Ebay. 

It should be noted that Nvidia's RTX A2000 board offers performance akin to that of the GeForce RTX 3060, which is not exactly what demanding gamers might want. Meanwhile, Nvidia recently launched its RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation board which offers GeForce RTX 3070 (one of the best graphics cards) level performance and carries 24GB of memory. the RTX 4000 SFF consumes only 70W of power and can also be cooled passively, but it has an MSRP of $1,250, which is not cheap. 

Unfortunately, to build a passively-cooled graphics card these days, one will need a professional board or to downclock a consumer one. But while it is technically possible to reduce GPU and memory clocks, compatibility with the Accelero S1 Rev. 2 cooling system is not guaranteed as graphics cards are architected for different coolers. That said, it looks like professional graphics cards for compact workstations may be viable options for building fanless graphics cards.

Intel has confirmed the company’s plan to pull the plug on another non-core business: servers. The chipmaker is quitting the server-building business and will sell it off to MiTAC, a leading Taiwanese electronics manufacturer and parent company of Tyan.

Dell, HP, and Inspur are the juggernauts of the server market, while Intel is one of the smaller fish in the pond. The chipmaker has multiple facets, and one of them is — or rather, was — building server products. Intel has killed off a fair share of non-core businesses since CEO Pat Gelsinger took the reigns in 2021. Some of the more notable exits include Intel’s Optane business, SSD business, networking switch business, and the company’s more recent departure from 5G modems. Intel has a strong server product portfolio, but the chipmaker’s strongest suit is obviously selling silicon.

“In line with Intel’s continued efforts to prioritize investments in its IDM 2.0 strategy, we have made the difficult decision to exit our Data Center Solutions Group (DSG). As part of this plan, MiTAC, an edge-to-cloud IT solutions provider and longstanding ODM partner of DSG, will have the right to manufacture and sell products based on our designs. We are focused on ensuring the DSG team and its stakeholders are supported during this transition,” one Intel spokesperson told ServeTheHome.

Intel has sold very few server units over the years — DSG hardly brought in significant revenue numbers for the company. So it doesn’t really come as a shock that the server-building business is the next head on the chopping block. Intel posted a net loss of $644 million in the Q4 FY2022, so this latest withdrawal from server-building is unlikely to be the last cost-cutting measure the company takes.

Intel recently launched the highly-anticipated 4th Generation Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors and some Sapphire Rapids-based servers. But now it looks like those may be the last Intel-built servers on the market — or perhaps the chipmaker is just white-boxing them for its partnering OEMs to rebadge. At any rate, Intel has transferred its server designs over to MiTAC. Tyan, a subsidiary of MiTAC, will definitely put those designs to good use.

Given that the Raspberry Pi Pico and the RP2040 chip which powers it are meant to be microcontrollers, it's amazing how much computing power developers have been able to squeeze out of them. The RP2040 chip, which runs at 133 MHz and comes with 256K of SRAM has been used for everything from a handheld game console to a web server and plant monitoring system. And, of course, you can play Doom on it.

Now, UK-based Developer Derek Woodroffe, who runs a site and Twitter account called Extreme Electronics, has built a way to combine nine different Raspberry Pi Picos into a distributed computing cluster. On Twitter, he posted a video of the cluster performing a Mandelbrot calculation and outputting it as a fractal image to  a 240 x 320 display (an ili9341) using an I2C connection.

Woodroffe has posted his code and instructions for reproducing the project, which he calls PicoCray, on his github page. He writes that, to pair the Picos together, you must connect GPIO 10, 11, 12, 13 and GND from one board to another. Each Pico must be powered on its own via USB or over the 3.3-volt pin. He also says that you will need to put 4.7K Ohm resistors on GPIO 10 and 11 on the last processor in the group.

The code is identical on all of the nodes in the cluster and, if you want to use one as the controller you must connect a wire from GPIO 22 to ground. There are more details on the github page.

Woodroffe notes that, at present, this is more of a proof of concept than a powerful, multi-processor system. He writes that "for many uses, it actually runs slower than running on a single Pico." However, the idea is a solid one and we expect to see more developers take advantage of it.

To be fair, this isn't the first instance of someone using multiple RP2040 chips together for more computing power. Recently, Pimoroni announced that is working on a new DV stick that will have one RP2040 for video and another for other tasks. And, when it comes to regular Raspberry Pi computers, there are a ton of cluster options. One mega cluster even contained 100 Pis.

A new Sony PlayStation-branded handheld gaming devices is in development, according to an exclusive from Insider Gaming. Sony's purported portable device won't be a true successor to the PlayStation Portable or the PlayStation Vita, however, as this 8-inch device will require a constant network connection to your PlayStation 5. In other words, it's less of a PSP Go and more of a PSP No if you don't have a PS5 — or if you're somewhere with no internet connection.

To be clear: the new device, codenamed "Q Lite," is not a cloud gaming device like Logitech’s Android powered G Cloud. Instead, its network connection exists solely for streaming the games library on your PS5. This feature is called Remote Play on the PS5, but other consoles and PC gaming portals have similar services. The rumors suggest that Q Lite owners will be able to enjoy portable PS5 gaming with adaptive streaming at up to 1080p and 60fps (frames per second). 

But, again, Remote Play already exists, and can be used on both PCs and Macs, as well as tablets, smartphones, and even (unofficially) Raspberry Pi. So... a dedicated handheld device for the service isn't all that compelling.

Of course, you'll need a DualSense controller (or a DualShock 4) for an authentic PlayStation experience if you're playing on a PC/Mac/tablet/phone, while the Q Lite will allegedly come with controller sections flanking its 8-inch touchscreen. The controller sections seem to borrow a lot of design / style from the newest PS5 controller, and Insider Gaming says the newest adaptive triggers with haptic feedback are present. 

Cold Reception

Gamers have reacted to the rumors with mixed feelings. While most were initially pleased to hear a portable was in the works, many were disappointed when they saw the phrases "always connected" and "requires the PlayStation 5." Nobody likes restricted gaming devices. 

Pricing seems like it will also be an issue, if the rumors are accurate. To be part of the PlayStation ecosystem, the Q Lite will have to be well-built, with a high-quality screen, but it can't be priced too high or it will have to compete with more flexible devices, such as the Logitech G Cloud ($349), the Razer Edge ($399), or even the Valve Steam Deck (from $399).

The rumored Q Lite is expected to be part of Sony's next PlayStation Showcase event — which will be a particularly big one according to industry insider Jeff Grubb. Sony allegedly plans to announce wireless earbuds, a wireless headset (similar to the Inzone H7 or H9, perhaps), and a PS5 with a detachable disc drive. 

Printing a Voron is a dream project for many makers, requiring skill, time and a good chunk of change. Unlike regular 3D printers, Vorons are built by the user following Open Source blueprints provided free of charge by the volunteer Voron Design Team. These precision machines are meant to be fast, fun, quiet, and most importantly, reliable. They can be fully enclosed in order to print temperamental materials like ABS and Nylon.

Because Vorons are a community project rather than a for-profit product, they are infinitely customizable and unbeholden to the whims of a corporate bottom line. The Voron Design Team’s mission is to make affordable precision 3D printers with no compromises for quality. The end user gets to shop around for parts, and can choose where they want to skimp or splurge. 

The printer we’re reviewing is the Voron 0.1, a small Core XY machine that is portable and fits on any desktop. Although you can source your own parts from a list found on the Voron Design website, our machine was built using the LDO Motors kit and provided by Matterhackers. This is a premium package with stainless steel rails and wires that are pre-cut and pre-assembled. The kit included an all metal Phaetus Dragonfly BMO Hotend.

Vorons are undoubtedly a project for advanced makers. In order to build one you need to have a 3D printer that can produce quality ABS or ASA parts. You also need to be handy with a soldering iron and have a basic understanding of electronics. Once it’s assembled, you have to install Klipper and tune the printer following directions online.

While it’s possible to purchase pre-printed parts – or even a whole machine – that’s not in the spirit of the Voron project. We took several weeks to print and build this machine before putting it to the test. Despite the small size it was able to print precision parts for two RC vehicles we’ll be racing at this year’s RepRap Festivals. 

The LDO Voron 0.1 kit is $629 from Matterhackers. This price does not include a Raspberry Pi or the filament you need for parts. Matterhackers provided two rolls Pro Series ABS for this build and we scrounged around the workshop for a spare Raspberry Pi. We also added an optional display screen, which we purchased from Printed Solid. The complete price of this printer as shown is $805, assuming a retail price of the $45 for a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.

Specifications: LDO Voron 0.1

LDO Voron 0.1: Included in the Box

The LDO Voron 0.1 is a printer kit that arrives completely unassembled. This project is for advanced makers and only comes with a few basic tools for printer maintenance, such as hex keys and a wrench. It does include a soldering tip for brass heat set inserts.

You get all the non-printed parts for making a 3D printer, like metal rails, stepper motors, screws, springs, fans, all electronics (minus the Raspberry Pi), wiring, and a Dragon Fly BMO hotend. You will need to provide your own Raspberry Pi (any Pi 3 or 4) and all the printed parts. Parts should be printed in ABS or ASA for heat resistance and will take around 2 spools of filament.  

Build instructions are online at VoronDesign.com.

Design of the LDO Voron 0.1

Vorons are unlike any other FDM printers we’ve reviewed. These machines are made of 3D printed parts, off the shelf components and good ol’ sweat equity. You don’t “buy” a Voron; you make one. You choose what color and material your printer will be made from, as well as what hotend it will get and which build plate material you will use. Because Voron Design is an Open Source project, you can also choose to customize your printed parts with your own logo, design tweaks and upgrades.

The Voron 0 is the smallest printer from the design team, created as a tiny parts factory. Its lower price, when compared to the rest of the Voron family, also makes it an “entry level” machine for people who want to build the printer more for bragging rights than practical printing.

This is a belt driven Core XY machine, which promises extra speed and precision. Like the Bambu Lab P1P, the bed moves along the Z axis while the tool head zips around the X and Y at the top of the frame. More familiar Cartesian style printers, like the Ender 3 S1 Pro, have a tool head that moves on the X and Z axis and a bed that moves on Y. 

We were able to run the Voron 0.1 without tuning at 150mm/s while achieving superior prints.

The printer is very bare bones. There’s no auto leveling, no buttons beyond a power switch, no SD card slot, no USB slot and no screen. It has a direct drive with an all metal hotend, a reverse Bowden to get filament from the rear mounted spool holder, through the back of the machine and into the enclosed space.

The Voron 0.1’s lack of a display, control buttons and file access is quite maddening. The machine is using a Raspberry Pi to run Klipper, which is tucked away inside the machine and is not accessible. The only way to get files to the printer and control any of its functions is through Mainsail, a web based interface. While this is fine in a home or workshop, it makes the printer difficult to use away from home base.

Also, trying to use Mainsail to load filament, level the bed or even stop a print in a hurry is impossible unless the machine is sitting right next to a computer. You could use Mainsail on a smart device, but it’s not really optimized for small screens. 

We solved part of the problem by purchasing an optional LDO Motors Voron Display from Printed Solid. We found directions on how to print a case, install and configure the screen on Greg’s Maker Corner.

We chose black and red for our color scheme and opted for a Mini After Sherpa tool head, rather than the traditional Mini Afterburner. This is a more open design that’s easier to service and was a little easier to print. It still used the direct drive Phaetus Dragonfly BMO that came with the kit.

The kit came with precut acrylic panels to form two sides, a removable “top hat” and a door that snaps shut with a magnet. The back is a black acrylic panel to hide the electronics. The enclosure retains heat and prevents drafts, making ABS and Nylon easier to print.

The acrylic can be difficult to keep clean, especially while you’re setting the printer up and moving it around a lot. The top hat is removable to provide air flow while printing PLA, which doesn’t do well in a heated chamber. There is no heater or air filter inside the chamber.

The tiny 120x120 mm print bed is not the smallest we’ve worked with; those honors go to the ToyBox, but it’s surprisingly useful. We printed a lot of small parts for RC cars, as well as some toys and models. The kit came with two PEI coated flexible beds – a powder coated surface that gripped PLA well and a smooth PEI surface that was very good with ABS and Nylon.

Assembling the LDO Voron 0.1

Unlike other printers on the market, Vorons are a DIY project built from scratch. You can source your parts from a Bill of Materials provided by the designers or buy a kit from several different manufacturers. Our test printer came from Matterhackers, who sells a premium LDO Motors Kit. LDO is considered a superior kit for its high quality parts from LDO Motors, Bondtech and other well known brands. This kit also includes stainless steel rails, a Meanwell power supply, and a PCB wire duct.

All the wires are pre-crimped and marked, which is something you won’t find in cheaper kits. This can save you hours, if not days, of work. It also comes with T Nuts for the linear rails which don’t require printed spacers, another massive time and frustration saver.

Building Voron 0.1 is a project that can take days of printing and assembly time, especially if you’re taking your time to make good-looking, functional parts. ABS or ASA is recommended for much of this build as PLA or even PETG will melt under the high temperatures of a Voron in action. Some of the parts further from the hotend and heated bed can be printed in PLA. Since we only had one enclosure – the Ender 3 S1 Pro camped out in a Creality tent for this build – we could speed up the print time by letting other printers work on more decorative parts. The Bambu Lab P1P printed the skirts, and the Anycubic Kobra Max printed the top hat in one piece.

It's also recommended to make each part very solid, with four walls and 40% infill at a minimum.

Complete assembly instructions are beyond the scope of this review. Directions for building this machine are available from VoronDesign.com. We relied heavily on tutorials from YouTuber Modbot and Klipper advice from Youtuber Nero 3D, who is a member of the Voron Design team.

Tuning the LDO Voron 0.1

Unlike other printers you’ll need to tune your Voron after it is built to get the best performance. Since the LDO Voron 0.1 is running Klipper, you can access your printer’s functions through the Mainsail interface on your PC. There are a number of tests you can run which are all outlined in the Klipper Manual.

One of the advantages of Klipper is being able to use Input Shaping and Pressure Advance tuning. Input Shaping compensates for the mechanical vibrations behind ringing and ghosting, while Pressure Advance tweaks the flow of filament during acceleration and deceleration movements. Directions for tuning your machine are included in the Klipper Manual but if you need easier to understand directions, check out Ellis’ Print Tuning Guide.

Leveling the LDO Voron 0.1

The Voron 0.1 doesn’t have auto bed leveling, but the surface area is so small that it’s not much of a problem. It has three adjustment screws under the build plate. If you haven’t installed a Klipper Screen, you’ll need to type a series of commands into Mainsail to move the tool head around the build plate.

The command is: Bed-Screws-Adjust to move the nozzle to hover over a bed screw. Then you slide a piece of paper under the nozzle and adjust the screw until you start to feel friction. Tap Adjusted to move the nozzle to the point and complete at least two passes around the bed. When you are happy with the position, tap Accept for each point.

Bed leveling is made simpler when a screen is installed as there is no need to type commands.

Loading Filament on the LDO Voron 0.1

Loading and unloading filament with Mainsail controls is a little complicated. You’ll need to warm up the extruder from the Temperatures menu – there are presets, but you’ll need to set them up yourself from the Interface Settings. 

Push the filament into the Bowden tube until it reaches the hotend. Take the lid off, push the lever on the extruder to release tension, then push filament into the hotend.

Once the Extruder is over 180, you can click “load filament” in the Macros section, which will pull filament into the hotend. Put the Bowden tube back into the extruder, put the lid on and you’re done.

If you install the display screen you will have ordinary temperature and advance filament controls at your fingertips.

Preparing Files / Software for LDO Voron 0.1

The Voron 0.1 doesn’t come with slicing software of its own, but there are plenty of free options that you can download from the internet. Cura, PrusaSlicer and Bambu Lab all have profiles for the Voron 0.1.

Files are sliced in the normal manner, saved, then loaded into Klipper’s Mainsail interface to upload to the printer. There’s a handy Klipper app called Moonraker that you can install on your Raspberry Pi that sends files directly from Cura to Mainsail, along with a thumbnail image.

Printing on the LDO Voron 0.1

After weeks of printing, reprinting, building, wiring and tuning, the Voron 0.1 was ready for its first test print. The kit doesn’t come with any filament, so you’ll definitely want to check our guide to the very best filaments here to stock up.

It’s tradition to start with the Voron Design Cube, which can be found on GitHub with the rest of the Voron files. The cube shows how well your printer is calibrated. The cube should measure 30x30x30mm and the upper hole can fit a standard 625 2rs bearing (if you have one). There’s bridging in the middle of the cube, overhangs in the lettering and of course you can check for ringing or ghosting in the print. 

Our cube was printed in Matterhackers Pro Build Red ABS and turned out pretty dang nice without any tuning.

We printed a lot of practical parts on the Voron for an RC drag racer we’re taking to the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival. These were printed in Overture Easy Nylon, using a .2mm layer height, with a beefy 4 walls and 20% infill. The parts are strong and light, and only took 1 hour and 9 minutes to print at 150mm/s.

For PETG, I printed Aria’s Dragon, which was actually too tall at 100%. This version is shrunk down to 88%, making it the full 115mm build height. There’s a couple little zits on the neck and very little stringing. The detail in the claws look great. This took two hours and 28 minutes with a .2 layer line and a conservative 65 mm/s and uses MicroCenter’s Inland Green PETG.

For a PLA print, I picked my favorite bounty hunter, Mando. This is a support free print that can look a little rough if the cooling isn’t perfect. This is a very good print that’s only 4 inch tall with crisp details, and few droops. The camera really picks up the layer lines, which is a shame, because it looks much smoother in person. It printed in 3 hours and 9 minutes with a .16mm layer height and 120mm/s. This used MicroCenter’s Inland Silver PLA.

TPU didn’t work out on this printer. Its direct drive should have worked, but I wasn’t able to get it to feed. This may be a problem with the build, and a hazard of hand building your own extruders.

Bottom Line

The Voron 0.1 is a great little machine once you’ve gotten over the trials and tribulations of building it. As our first Voron build – and first project using kilos of ABS – it was quite the challenge. It was a great teaching experience and now I know a bit more about practical prints, electronics and Klipper. The prints are fantastic and I can keep it loaded up with ABS to print strong practical prints while my Ender sticks to silly dragons.

The LDO Motors Voron 0.1 Kit brings the goods when it comes to quality, but really lacks in quality of life features, like a display screen and place to plug in your stl files. We were able to fix the screen by purchasing one from another source, but we’re still left without a way to load new files when we take it on the road to festivals.

If you’re not building this printer for the knowledge and bragging rights, a Voron is no longer the most affordable option for a quality machine. With a retail price of $629 ($805 with filament for parts, a screen and a cheap Raspberry Pi) you might want look at the pre-built Bambu Lab P1P for $699. Another option for a similar price would be adding a Creality Sonic Pad to an Ender 3 S1 Pro, one of the best 3D printers.

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The most important part of building your own PC is picking out the right components, which most people do according with both a budget and a use case in mind. To help our readers, we maintain a list of the best PC builds which provides suggested parts lists for gaming-focused computers at prices ranging from $500 to $3,000 or more. 

Now, Newegg is using AI to let you create a parts list for your next build. The company says that its AI PC building assistant is based on ChatGPT and is in beta. Based on our testing, it definitely needs some refinement, as its suggestions are not very good in its current state. 

Newegg has had a PC builder for some time, where you could select all the components you need by category and come up with a custom parts list. What's new is that there's a free text "Build with AI" box where you can enter a single prompt such as "build me a PC for gaming with an RTX 3060" and it will give you up to three suggested builds.

However, the builder doesn't seem to follow directions very well or offer reliable advice. I asked it for "best gaming PC for less than $1000," and it recommended three builds that cost more than $1,000, with the cheapest being $1,165.

And Newegg's suggested $1,000 builds stick to older hardware.  The most expensive of the three builds had a slow RTX 3050 GPU and all three used last-generation AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs. I would prefer to also have some seen options with the latest silicon.

Part of the problem is that all of the builds recommend things that you don't actually need. For example, all of the CPUs the bot recommended -- two Ryzen 5 5600Xes, and a Ryzen 7 5800X3D -- come with competent air coolers in the box, but these cost-conscious build lists recommend third-party coolers that cost between $29.99 and $139.99. The parts list with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, for example, recommends a cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo V2 air cooler, but one of the 5600X-powered builds advises you to use a $139 AIO cooler, which is overkill.

The parts lists also spend way too much on their power supplies, motherboards and cases. If you're shooting for a $1,000 budget, you don't need an 850W power supply that's 80+ Gold certified and costs $149 when you can get a decent 600W one for less than $70. You also should probably go for a sub-$100 or, at least, sub $125 motherboard and a 1TB rather than a 2TB SSD. Most people would recommend putting more of your money toward the graphics card and CPU.

I also asked Newegg's AI PC builder to make me a "budget PC that can play games with ray tracing at 1080p" and got a single result that would sort-of get the job done, but was oddly configured. It showed me a $1,221 system with a Core i7-12700K CPU and an RTX 3050 card. 

Most people know that the RTX 3050 is one of the lowest-level cards that can do ray tracing (see our GPU hierarchy) and it's pretty weak. Meanwhile, the 12700K is not only a generation old CPU, but also unnecessary for the goal of ray tracing. You'd be much better off spending less on a Core i5 and a better graphics card.

We should note that the results you get are also pretty random. If you hit the Build with AI button over and over again with the same prompt, you'll get wildly different recommended builds. 

You also may get recommended builds that come with a monitor, but most do not. Most people asking for a recommended PC build would expect a components list without peripherals. 

And then you may also end up with a key component missing. Managing Editor Matt Safford asked for a compact PC and was given a parts list with no case.

It's worth continuing to consult experts and use your own judgment when building a parts list. Like many instances of companies adding AI, it's far from perfect, though it may get better in the future. 

Intel has quietly canceled its hybrid Thunder Bay system-on-chip (SoC) that integrates general-purpose CPU cores and computer vision-oriented Movidius hardware. The chipmaker does not disclose the reasons behind its decisions, but it looks like Intel's CPUs and vision processing units (VPUs) will remain separated for now. 

"Remove Thunder Bay specific code as the product got canceled and there are no end customers or users," a Linux patch discovered by Phoronix reads.

Intel kept details about its Thunder Bay SoC under wraps. Based on Linux patches uncovered by Phoronix, the Thunder Bay SoC was meant to be a low-power design packing Arm Cortex-A53 CPU cores and Movidius VPU hardware (which Intel acquired by taking over Movidius in 2016). Still, the exact configuration of the product remained unknown. 

Intel's Thunder Bay SoC was intended for commercial and Internet-of-Things applications requiring computer vision acceleration and general-purpose processing capabilities. Such edge-computing applications are expected to get increasingly common in smart cities. 

Meanwhile, it looks like users of applications that need CPUs and VPUs are perhaps satisfied with their edge servers running Xeon and Movidius silicon, such as the Keem Bay accelerator card introduced in 2019.

Furthermore, as machine learning acceleration gets ubiquitous, many applications may adopt different hardware, including Intel's own Habana Gaudi, Nvidia's GPUs or Jetson SoCs (with integrated GPU cores). As a result, it remains to be seen whether Intel decides to offer a Thunder Bay-like SoC in the future and how this potential product will be configured.

While Movidius VPUs are not mentioned regularly, they have their benefits. The Movidius vision processing unit packs general-purpose MIPS cores with programmable 128-bit vector processing (called SHAVE cores), various hardware accelerators, and image signal processing capabilities. Therefore, VPUs are somewhat more tailored for edge-computing applications from power consumption and footprint points of view than high-performance AI/ML accelerators.

For the last 16 months, Argentina-based coder and maker Roberto Alsina has been prototyping his own computer. Inspired by the Tandy Model 100, Alsina has created what can only be described as an oddity in a world of clamshell laptops and tablets with keyboards. But the process is just as fascinating as the result.

Alsina had to come up with a way to run the computer, design a case, utilize a power source, install a keyboard and source a screen with a 5:1 aspect ratio.

The computer, which Alsina hasn't named, is running on a Radxa Zero, partially because when he was looking to buy a single-board computer to run his project, it was tough to find a Raspberry Pi in stock or at a reasonable price.

But that Radxa Zero didn't have all of the ports that Alsina wanted, so he plugged a USB hub into its USB 3.0 port, allowing it to power the display, the keyboard and a USB sound card, with jacks exposed through the side of the case (although an issue charging the display required re-working, so now he has an extra USB port).

The keyboard, which  Alsina gutted to fit into his case, was a cheap 65% board (he didn't want to give up the arrow keys and I can't blame him) that he found for less than $20.

"It's ab­so­lute garbage," he wrote of the keyboard. "The sta­bi­liz­ers are hor­ri­ble, the switch­es are scratchy and in­con­sis­tent­ly clicky yet loud, and it was per­fect for the job be­cause all key­boards in 80s com­put­ers were pret­ty crap."

Alsina's display is a 1920 x 480 screen without touch, because his intention is for this whole thing to be controlled by the keyboard. It ends up that this rare type of screen doesn't necessarily work with all operating systems, and Alsina had to build a custom kernel from Github for it. Getting the screen to connect over HDMi internally required ordering odd cables that took three months to ship. So if you're looking to follow Alsina's instructions, prepare early.

Using a battery pack didn't work for Alsina's design, so he got a "Raspberry Pi UPS" that mounts some 18650 batteries in a case mounted to a circuit board. He had some issues: like the power button didn't turn off all of the power outputs, but it otherwise seems to work.

All of this needed to fit into a case, but Alsina wrote he has no knowledge of 3D design software. Instead, he used CadQuery to develop the models he eventually 3D printed. He put most of the scripts to generate these pieces on his code server.

The "laptop" runs Ubuntu Focal, which requires a custom kernel and a fixed-up dynamic window manager. He's using it with the Alacritty terminal and Falkon web browser. He's used te device to watch a YouTube video, run a "lightweight graphical desktop," write code and text and run apps in the terminal. He says he's getting three to five hours on a charge depending on what he uses it for.

"Did I suc­ceed?" Alsina writes. "Hell no. This is janky as hell be­cause it's a hand­made pro­to­type, but it shows the seeds of pos­si­bil­i­ty, of it­er­a­tion that may make it ... possible."

He also has some issues to keep working on. For instance, there's no airflow, so the system overheats, which causes several problems. The keyboard is too high to be uncomfortable, it can slip on a table, and he would like an integrated trackball or a nub for a pointer that doesn't require a mouse.

For far more engineering details, photos of messy wires and specifics on the building process, as well as a surprising amount of humor, check out Roberto Aisna's blog post on his build.

Out of the box, Windows 11 is a resource-hungry operating system that gulps up tons of RAM and CPU cycles, leaving older or underpowered systems unable to run it. The official system requirements demand not only TPM security and secure boot, but also at least 4GB of RAM, a dual-core processor and a 64GB SSD.  But, with the release of Tiny11 Builder, you can make a lightweight Windows 11 install that gets around these requirements and runs well on PCs with limited memory and processing power. 

Tiny11, a custom image of Windows 11 from Twitter user NTDEV solves these issues by removing unnecessary libraries, apps and services so that the system can run with just 2GB of RAM, take up a mere 12GB of disk space and not check for any of the system requirements. However, up until now, to use Tiny11, you had to download the entire operating system from NTDEV's cloud storage drive, which meant you didn't have a choice of Windows 11 version and it was awkward downloading the whole OS from someone other than Microsoft.

Now, NTDEV has released Tiny11 Builder, a free tool that lets you turn the latest Windows 11 ISO (installer file) into one which installs a light version of the OS. In just a few simple steps, you can grab Windows 11 Home, Pro, Education, Enterprise and then use Tiny11 Builder to remove the cruft from it, before you even install. NTDEV says that, right now, only the latest builds 22621.1265 and 22621.525 are officially supported. However, this may remove some extraneous stuff from pre-release builds. 

I used Tiny11 Builder to create a stripped-down build of Windows 11 Home that I installed on both a Virtual Machine and a decade-old, sluggish ThinkPad X131e. The VM was blazing fast and the ThinkPad, which was so slow under Windows 10 that letters would appear seconds after I typed them, was actually usable. 

Below, I'll show you how to create your own lightweight Windows 11 ISO using Tiny11 Builder. If you have a Raspberry Pi, also see our tutorial on how to install Tiny11 on your Raspberry Pi.

How to Make a Lightweight Windows 11 Image with Tiny11

1. Download Tiny11 Builder from Github and unzip it to its own folder.

2. Download a Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft (or using UUP Dump). For now, only builds 22621.525 and 22621.1265 are officially supported. When I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft and when I created it using the media creation tool, my build number was 22621.525. For more details on getting an ISO, see our article on how to download a Windows 11 ISO.

3.  Mount the ISO. You can do this by right clicking on it and selecting Mount. 

File Explorer should open, showing you what drive letter now represents the ISO, which will act as if it were a physical drive.

4. Find your ISO's Windows build number (if you don't know for sure). You can do this by launching an elevated command prompt and entering dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile: [DRIVELETTER]:\sources\install.wim /index:1 where [DRIVELETTER] is replaced with the drive letter of your mounted ISO. If that doesn't work, dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:[DRIVELETTER]:\sources\install.esd /index:1. For example, if your ISO is mounted as drive letter F, the two commands to try would be these.

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.wim /index:1dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.esd /index:1

The reason you might have to try both is that the information is stored either in a file called install.wim or install.esd. In my case, install.wim worked with an ISO I had downloaded directly from Microsoft while install.esd worked when I used the Media Creation Tool to build my ISO.

When the command is successful, it will output a list of information about the ISO which includes the build number. Look for it under "version" and "ServicePack Build"

5. Launch tiny11 creator.bat or tiny11 creator 22621.525.bat as an administrator, depending on which build your ISO is.You can do this by right clicking on the icon and selecting “Run as administrator.”

6. Click “More info” and Run anyway if Windows Smart screen warns you about running the program.

Also, click Yes if warned by Windows User Account Control. A command prompt window appears.

7. Enter the drive letter the ISO is mounted to and hit Enter.  In our case, it was D. 

Depending on whether your ISO file contains just one version of Windows 11 or many, you may see a list of different Windows “images,” including Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Pro Education. 

8. Enter the image number for the Windows version you want and hit Enter. In our case, we hit “1” for Windows 11 Home. If there are no images listed, choose 1 for the default.

You’ll have to wait a few minutes while the software writes your ISO file. 

When the process is complete, you will have a file called tiny11.iso in the same folder as the Tiny11 Creator.

You can now “burn” this ISO file to a USB Flash drive so you can install Tiny 11 on a PC. Or you can use it to install Windows 11 on a virtual machine. If you don't know how to make a boot disk from an ISO file, see our story on how to do a clean install of Windows 11.

This Tiny11 version of Windows should install on any PC and will not hold you to any of the system requirements, including the TPM requirement, secure boot requirement and RAM requirement. More importantly, it will only use about 2GB of RAM out of the box. Obviously, as you add your own software, the system will use more resources.

Based on my experience, I can say that, while Tiny11 will run on a system with just 2GB of RAM, it does better on one that has at least 4GB. You'll want that headroom for any apps you're running within the OS.

Installing a Browser in Tiny11

It's important to note that Edge is not installed, though you may see a blank Edge icon on the desktop. So, if you want to install a web browser, you will need to either copy the installer from another PC, use Microsoft Store or use the winget command at the command line.  Entering winget install -e --id Google.Chrome will download and install Chrome.

What's Removed from Windows 11 in Tiny11?

According to NTDEV, the following apps and features are removed from Windows 11 in Tiny11. You can, of course, always add them back using the Windows Store or the Turn Windows Features On and Off menu in Control Panel.

• Clipchamp
• News
• Weather
• Xbox (Xbox identity provider is still there)
• GetHelp
• GetStarted
• Office Hub
• Solitaire
• PeopleApp
• PowerAutomate
• ToDo
• Alarms
• Mail and Calendar
• Feedback Hub
• Maps
• Sound Recorder
• Your Phone
• Media Player
• QuickAssist
• Internet Explorer
• LA57 support
• OCR for en-us
• Speech support
• TTS for en-us
• Media Player Legacy
• Tablet PC Math
• Wallpapers
• Edge
• OneDrive

Unfortunately Teams is not removed, but you can go into the Apps menu and uninstall it yourself.

One of the worst aspects of Windows 11 is how it replaces the fully-functional search box from Windows 10 with a search button that forces you to type your query into a pop-up menu. Making you do your search in another window is jarring, annoying and reminds me of the Windows 8 experience where you had to leave the desktop screen in order to view the Start menu or search bar. 

Finally, more than a year after Windows 11 launched, Microsoft is about to bring the search box back to the taskbar where it belongs. The company has been experimenting with an in-taskbar search box since September in Dev and Beta builds, but today it has come to the latest Release Preview build, which is build number 22621.1343. 

Enabled by default, the new search box shows the text from your query as you type it while displaying the results in pop-up menu. You can then click on the result you want to launch. For example, when I searched for ""solitaire," the menu showed me the icon for "Solitaire Collection," and it also showed me the text for "Collection" as a suggestion in the search box itself.

When I searched for content that didn't have a match on the computer itself, I got results from the web. For example, when I entered "McDonald's" in the search box, I got a list of local restaurants from that franchise. This is typical Windows search behavior, but it's nice to have the query text appear right in the taskbar.

As you could before, you can also initiate a search from the Start menu itself. However, you'll have to enter the query into a text box that appears at the top of the Start menu and, once you click on the box, you'll be switched from the Start menu to the Search pop-up menu, but your query won't end up in the taskbar search box.

If you don't like the search box in your taskbar, you can turn it back into a label or an icon by right clicking on the taskbar, selecting Taskbar settings and then choosing an option from the Search select menu. 

If you're a Windows Insider in the Release Preview Channel, you will be getting this build as an update right now. If you are not an insider, you will probably be getting the new search experience very soon in an update to the release build.  

More New Features of Windows 11 Build 22621.1343

The search box isn't the only new feature you'll get in Build 22621.1343. Others include:

• Link to Quick Assist support app added to bottom of Settings > System > Troubleshooters
• Energy recommendations provided in the Settings > System > Power & Battery > Energy Recommendations
• Improved System Tray experience with rounded focus and hover treatment
• Touch optimized taskbar for 2-in-1 devices
• Improved support for braille devices
• Better voice access

As we reported a few days ago, Microsoft is also looking to add a new Gallery and File Explorer to future versions of Windows. You can test that hidden Gallery out right now in the Dev built of Windows 11. 

A future version of Windows 11 could have a new gallery feature built into a whole new File Explorer. Hidden in the latest dev build of Windows 11 (build 25300), the gallery shows your images in an attractive format, lets you browse them by date and search them using a built-in search box. Windows Hacker Albacore discovered the gallery ,which they say is based on XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language), by enabling the new WASDK (Windows App SDK) based File Explorer.

Both the WASDK File Explorer and its gallery feature are disabled by default in Windows 11 Build 25300, but with some registry edits and enabling of optional hidden features, I was able to turn them on. 

The WASDK File Explorer looks identical to the default File Explorer with the same exact icons, colors and layout. The only way I could tell that I was running it is that there's an icon of a slice of pizza in the toolbar, which says "You are previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer" when you hover over it.

The gallery icon appears below the Home icon in the left pane. When I clicked it, it showed me a series of thumbnails for images that were in my Pictures library, sorted by the file date. When I hovered over the right side of the window, a list of years appeared. Clicking on a particular year, 2012 for example, scrolled me down to that part of the gallery.

There's also a gallery search box in the upper right corner of the window. When I typed "cats" into the box, it pulled up one JPG file that I had named "cats.jpg," but didn't even show a thumbnail preview of the pictures. 

It looks like the search can only identify pictures by filename, which isn't very helpful when you're dumping images off of your phone. It would be nice if somehow this feature could use image recognition to search the content of your pictures.

By default, the gallery only grabbed pictures from my OneDrive Pictures library, but I was able to add additional folders to it by clicking on the Locations button that appears in the toolbar when the gallery is open. After I clicked Locations, I clicked Add in the subsequent dialog box and added the Documents library to the gallery.

Overall, this gallery feature seems nice, but not ready for primetime. Albacore warned in their Twitter thread that the WASDK File Explorer is not stable and, during my testing, crashed a couple of times. However, it does indicate that Microsoft is working on a new File Explorer and gallery experience, which we will likely see in a future production build of Windows 11.

How to Enable the Windows 11 XAML Gallery

If you want to try the Windows 11 XAML Gallery and WASDK File Explorer like I did, here's what you need to do. Keep in mind that these steps involve using a Dev build of Windows 11 which could be unstable or incompatible with your hardware. I installed the build into a virtual machine on my desktop so I didn't have to take any risks with my production environment. I recommend that you do the same.

1. Install Windows Insider Build 25300 if you don't have it already. You can download an ISO of it directly from Microsoft. 

2. Change this Registry Value from 0 to 1: HKLM \ SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion\ Shell\ Update\ Packages\ MicrosoftWindows.Client.40729001_cw5n1h2txyewy \Compatible.

Note that this Registry Value was locked for me and I could not modify it until I set ownership of the Registry Key to Administrators. You may need to do the same.

3. Download ViVeTool from github and unzip it in a folder (ex: C:\vivetool). 

4. Launch a command prompt as admin and navigate to that folder by typing cd C:\vivetool or whatever the path is.

5. Enter the following commands, each followed by Enter.

ViveTool.exe /enable /id:40729001ViveTool.exe /enable /id:40731912ViveTool.exe /enable /id:41969252ViveTool.exe /enable /id:42922424ViveTool.exe /enable /id:41040327ViveTool.exe /enable /id:42295138ViveTool.exe /enable /id:42105254

Each of these IDs is an optional feature or dependency that's not available from the control panel or elsewhere. ViVetool allows you to enable these functions by their IDs. Similarly, you can disable them by substituting /disable for /enable.

6. Reboot.

After that, when you launch the File Explorer, you should see the pizza slice icon, which indicates that you are using the WASDK File Explorer. The gallery icon should also be in the left pane.

To counter the recent Borg incursion into PC building, YouTuber TimeTravelingTech (aka James) has designed and built his own Starfleet themed rig. We're not sure how well matched one shuttle is against a Borg cube though. That said, the build is beautiful. So lets take it for a test flight.

James is no stranger, having created a series of 3D printable cases for the Raspberry Pi. These include a rather useful print-in-place, folding Raspberry Pi case. Also, a Raspberry Pi case modelled on the Ghostbusters fire station. For James' latest project, timed to coincide with the release of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 we see him build a shuttle PC. Not the Shuttle brand, a Star Trek shuttle.

The case itself is modelled on a Type 6 shuttlecraft, commonly used from season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 5, episode 2 "Darmok" and also reused in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). But this isn't an off-the-shelf case, James spent considerable time designing the case in AutoDesk Fusion 360, then printing the many pieces on one of the best 3D printers, a Prusa MK3S+. Looking at a screengrab from the video, we can see that James favored PETG over PLA, we just hope that he used the Best 3D filament. The choice is simple. PETG is a much stronger material than PLA and it will last for a long time. That said, PETG is harder to print, requiring the hot end to be at around 240 degrees Celsius, and the bed at approximately 90°C.

Enough geeking out at Star Trek and 3D printing. Inside the shuttle is a PC with a spec from 2014. At the heart is an i5 4460, 16GB of DDR3, 512GB SSD and an Nvidia GT650 GPU. As James says in the video, this is just a test. If it all goes well a much higher spec machine will take its place. The PC is housed on a 3D printed tray, enabling the entire unit to be slid in and out of the case. If you need access to USB ports, there are some hidden in the warp engines (in the Bussard Collector's at the front of the nacelle). Keeping the PC cool is a plethora of Noctua fans. We spotted an NF-A8 (80mm PWM fan) and two NF-A4x10 (40 x 10mm FLX fan). Airflow for the fans is via cleverly 3D printed cockpit windows and intakes on the side of the shuttle, they look perfectly "in-universe". Just behind the cockpit are two grey greebles which hide the power and reset buttons.

The nacelles house a strip of high density ("there are FOUR LIGHTS" per inch) NeoPixels, which are controlled via an Wemos D1 Mini (an ESP8266 based board) and via some clever software, James is able to control the LEDs via an old Windows tablet. We've used the Wemos D1 Mini and NeoPixels with WLED to create light shows during the holiday season.

James then completes the build with an LCARS themed keyboard, a 1990s phaser mouse, Galaxy class Master Systems Display and a System 47 screensaver.

The build process and final product are superb and a credit to James' Star Trek fandom and maker ethic.

There are a plethora of pre-built gaming PCs to choose from, but for many the satisfaction of using one that you assembled yourself just can't be beat. While assembling a PC isn’t all that difficult, it can certainly be intimidating the first time you do it. If you're embarking on your first build, or perhaps your first build in years, and you're worried that your skills might be rusty, we’ve assembled this step-by-step guide to building a PC.

Before we get going, know that this guide is solely dedicated to assembly. So you’ll need to pick out your parts first. Our list of tested and approved cases, CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, SSDs, power supplies, and RAM can help you choose key components. Or you could check out our monthly-updated Best PC Builds page if you're looking to put together a system around a specific price point.

Also, keep in mind that no two build processes are identical. The order we’re going in is based partly on preference and on the needs of our specific build. For instance, if you have a large aftermarket air cooler that overhangs the RAM slots, you may need to install your memory first. Or if you're installing an AIO liquid cooler radiator at the top of your case, you'll usually want to plug in any RGB or fan cables up there before the cooler blocks access to the ports and headers.

Likewise, if you have a particularly small or cramped case and / or a huge graphics card (that's most of them these days), you may need to install things in a slightly different order, since the graphics card will block easy access to many ports, slots, and connectors.

In other words, don't be surprised if you have to backtrack and pull out a part or two to deal with the quirks of your particular build. And don't get frustrated, as complications like this are common, even for people like me who have been regularly building PCs for decades.

Be Prepared

Before you start building a PC, you need to get your workspace ready. Make sure that you have all of your parts and tools at hand. At the very least, you’ll want:

• Phillips head screwdrivers (#1 and #2 should do the trick)
• Your motherboard manual (if no paper manual was included, grab the PDF)
• Zip ties and / or twist ties for cable management
• A flashlight (you will drop screws)
• Thermal paste (although many coolers now have this pre-applied)
• Something to hold your screws (a cup or a magnetic tray will work)
• Installation media for your operating system of choice
• Band-aids (just in case)

Some builders swear by anti-static mats or wrist straps. But as long as you don’t live in a particularly dry environment, you aren't building on a metal or all-plastic surface, and you aren't rubbing your socks on a carpet while building, you'll likely be able to avoid shorting out your PC or parts. I've built dozens of PCs at home and in the office over the years here in the Northeastern US without suffering any static issues. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with playing things safe. So if you’re worried about static, take the appropriate precautions and tether yourself to an anti-static strap.

Connect Components to the Motherboard

Some people prefer to mount the motherboard in the case before they do anything else, but it’s generally easier with most builds to connect key components like the CPU, M.2 storage and RAM without leaning over the side of the case.

The CPU

Whether you’re going with an Intel- or AMD-based build, the first step is to remove the plastic cover protecting the socket, then release the tension lever on the CPU and (with the most recent AMD and Intel platforms) lift up the metal retaining bracket, so you can drop the processor into the CPU socket.

Note that all recent Intel motherboards, as well as AMD's latest AM5 platform, have the CPU-connecting pins built into the socket, while AMD’s AM4 and earlier platforms mount the pins on the bottom of the CPU. For this guide, this is important mostly because it's a lot easier to damage an older AMD CPU by bending its pins. So if you're installing an AM4 (Ryzen 5000 or older) CPU, be extra careful about how you handle and install it.

And of course, with AM5 or recent Intel sockets, be sure to keep that are of the motherboard covered with its plastic protector until you're installing your CPU. Pins in the socket are also easy to damage by dropping something as small as a screw onto them while building.

Regardless of which platform you're building around, there will be an arrow or triangle on one corner of the top of the CPU. This needs to line up with the triangle on the socket or socket cover.

Don’t attempt to install a CPU with the arrow facing the wrong direction, or you could damage your chip, your board, or both! Once your CPU and socket are properly aligned, you can (gently) drop the chip in place, and it will settle into the socket under its own weight. If it doesn't, pick up the CPU and reseat it. Don't force the processor into the socket or you'll almost certainly damage something.

Once you've got the CPU settled correctly in the socket (check to see that it sits evenly, so that it isn't sticking up on any one side), drop the retaining bracket down over the edges of the processor, then press the tension lever back down.

Note that on Intel 12th and 13th Gen boards in particular, this may require a surprising amount of force, to the point that socket bending is a known issue, for those who often remove and reinstall processors in their motherboards. Newer Arrow Lake / Core Ultra 200S motherboards can also suffer from this issue, though it seems less widespread.

This shouldn't be a concern for a regular build where you install the CPU once or perhaps twice. Just know that you'll have to push the retention lever down pretty hard to get it to slip under its retention tab for Intel CPUs. So long as you've double-checked that your CPU is correctly seated before this, there's no cause for concern.

Note that the above instructions pertain to the mainstream platforms for AMD and Intel. Enthusiast platforms like Intel’s Xeon (or older Core X) and AMD’s Threadripper have different / more complex CPU installations, with the Intel chips involving two levers and Threadripper requiring Torx screws and a slide-in plastic bracket. Given the cost and added complexity, we would not recommend either of these for your first PC build.

The Cooler

Many processors come with coolers in the box. If you’re not doing any heavy overclocking, those may be good enough, though lots of builders also like to buy more powerful (and often quieter) aftermarket coolers, which may also be more visually appealing.

If you decide to use the stock cooler, you'll find that it already has thermal paste applied, as do many AIOs and aftermarket coolers.

Regardless of whether there is pre-applied paste on your cooler or not, don't forget to peel the protective film off the cold plate / paste area before installing the cooler. If you skip this step, you'll have to tear half of your system apart later when you realize your CPU temperatures are abnormally high.

While pre-applied thermal paste is increasingly common, you’ll still often need to apply your own thermal paste atop the CPU. The tube that comes with your cooler will work well enough, but if you want even lower temperatures, consider checking out our list of the best thermal paste we've tested.

You don’t need to apply much thermal paste – a pea-sized amount (about 3 mm) applied to the center of the CPU is recommended for AMD's most recent chips. And a pattern of five smaller dollops is recommended for recent Intel CPUs, which are longer and have their heat-generating components less centrally placed under the heat spreader. Serious overclockers and veteran builders may have their own techniques. Just make sure you don't add too much paste; you don't want it squirting out the sides onto the socket and surrounding PCB. For much more detail on this subject, see our guide on how to apply thermal paste.

Stock coolers for Intel processors use push pins that go through holes in the motherboard. We recommend pushing opposite corners in to evenly spread the thermal paste and to keep from putting uneven pressure on one side of the CPU (just as you should do when screwing down any cooler). AMD stock coolers have metal arms that snap into notches on a plastic bracket on either side of the socket. To mount aftermarket coolers on AMD motherboards, these plastic brackets often need to be removed.

Aftermarket coolers mount in various, often much more complicated ways. So be sure to consult the instruction manual for your cooler.

You may need to install a large backplate that has to be mounted behind the motherboard, which you should do before installing it in your case. Many cases have cut-out sections behind the motherboard area to allow for adding a CPU mounting plate after the motherboard is installed. But the cutout doesn't always line up with the CPU socket area. And holding a metal plate in place behind the motherboard while you add mounting hardware inside the case requires a lot of dexterity and patience.

Also note that if you are installing a large air cooler that will hang over your RAM slots (like the DeepCool AK620 we used in the build for many of these photos), it's a good idea to do our next step (installing the memory) before installing the cooler. You are reading this before and not while you're building your PC, right?

Once the cooler is installed, plug the CPU fan connector into its header on the motherboard. This is usually somewhere close to the CPU socket and labeled something like "CPU_FAN." If you have a larger cooler with two fans, you'll also need to plug in the second fan (usually on a nearby header labeled "CPU_AUX." And if you're installing a liquid AIO cooler, the pump also needs to get plugged in, with many boards offering a "CPU_PUMP" header connector as well.

The Memory

Installing RAM is a snap—literally, whether your board uses newer DDR5 or older, DDR4. First, if you’re installing two RAM sticks in a board that has four slots, check the motherboard manual to make sure you’re installing your DIMMs in the right slots. If you put them in the wrong slots, you may not get the best performance possible, or one of the sticks may not be recognized by the motherboard or operating system.

Once you know which RAM slots you're going to populate, make sure that the latches for each memory slot are open. Some boards have latches on both sides of a RAM slot, while many now have a latch on just one side, with the other end fixed in place.

Push your latches open, then look at each DIMM and position it over the slot such that the small divot on the bottom of the RAM stick is aligned with the matching bump on the board. If the divot doesn't line up, flip your RAM stick around. Insert the stick into the slot and push down on the DIMM on each edge until it snaps into place, causing the latches to close on their own.

The process requires a bit of force, but if you’re having trouble, make sure that you’re not attempting to put the module in backward, or that one of the ends isn't out of alignment with the slot. Note that sometimes the latches won't quite close all the way on their own. After you're sure your sticks are fully inserted in their slots, you can nudge any latches the rest of the way closed.

The M.2 SDD

If you’re using an M.2 SSD, now is as good a time as any to install it, because later on other parts may get in the way. You could also do this step earlier in the process, as an M.2 drive is small and lives flat against the board, so it won't get in the way of anything else.

If your board has more than one M.2 slot, as most do these days, you'll first want to figure out which slot to install it in. Depending on the type of drive (SATA or PCIe / NVME) and the compatibility of the slots, some M.2 drives won't work or won't fit in some M.2 slots. You'll also want to make sure if you have a fast PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 SSD, that it goes into the fastest slot on your board. Consult your manual, which will tell you what types of drives your board's M.2 slots support. But as a general rule, if your boot drive is PCIe, you should install it in the M.2 slot closest to the CPU.

Once you've located the slot you want to use, you may also have to remove a heatsink / cover to actually get to the M.2 slot and install your drive. This usually involves removing one or two small screws(or possibly just pressing a lever on some high-end boards), taking the heatsink off, and then your M.2 slot will be ready to receive your SSD.

If it’s already installed, remove the screw located across from the M.2 slot and slide the SSD into the M.2 slot at an angle. Make sure the notch lines up with the slot, similar to RAM installation. If the notch doesn’t line up, your drive may not be compatible with that slot (again, check your manual for details).

Slowly lay the SSD flat and secure the mounting screw. This tiny screw is easy to drop, which is another reason to install M.2 drives before putting your motherboard into the case. Some high-end boards will have a small plastic tab you can just push to the side when installing a drive, and then slide back to hold the drive down.

Once your drive is installed and secured by a screw or tab, put the heatsink back where it was on top of your drive, unless your drive has a heatsink of its own. Just be sure if you're putting the motherboard heatsink back above your drive, to remove the protective plastic sheet over the thermal pad (just like on the CPU cooler), which should be on the inside surface of the heatsink.

Putting the Motherboard in the Case

Now that we’ve built the core platform (minus the graphics card, which we’ll do later), we’re going to install the CPU, RAM and SSD-equipped motherboard into the case. If you haven’t yet, remove the side panels on your chassis. Most cases have thumb screws holding their panels in place, which makes it easy to remove them.

Standoffs

First, gather the standoffs that came with your case (likely in their own bag) and find the proper place to install them. The holes in the board mounting area inside your case should be marked based on the size of the motherboard you chose.

Many cases have standoffs preinstalled, so you may be able to skip this step. If standoffs are preinstalled in the wrong spot for your motherboard, you can use needle nose pliers to get them out and screw them into the correct holes for your board.

Many cases will also include a special standoff or post that lines up with the center mounting hole of the motherboard (provided it's ATX). This is very helpful in lining up the board inside the case. Once the board is inserted in the case with the post sticking through this hole, most of the rest of the screw holes should line up (or nearly line up) with the motherboard's standoffs.

Don't install and screw the board down yet though – especially if your IO shield isn't pre-installed on your motherboard.

IO Shield

The IO (input / output) shield, which covers the area around your rear ports, comes with your motherboard. You’ll need to fit the shield into the chassis before you install the motherboard itself, making sure it's the right way up, so that your motherboard's external ports will fit through the holes once both are installed. You’ll have to use some force to snap all four corners into place. Be careful of sharp edges (that’s why you have the band-aids) as well as metal bits that can block the ports--especially if you have a budget motherboard.

Note also that if you have a mid-range to high-end board made in the last few years, the IO plate may come pre-attached to the motherboard, saving this step. Look at the area where the USB and audio ports are on your motherboard. If the ports look bare, with no cover labeling them and hiding port housings, then you'll have to install the plate yourself. If you just see the open ends of the ports surrounded by labels that tell you which port is which, your plate is pre-installed.

Installing the Motherboard

Now it’s finally time to put the motherboard in your case. Make sure the holes on the motherboard line up with the standoffs you installed and that the ports line up with the cutouts on the IO shield.

Once the board is in, put the screws through the holes on the motherboard and into standoffs, then screw them down to anchor the motherboard in place.

Once this is done, it's a good time to stand the case up, as much of the rest of the build process is easier in this orientation.

Adding the Power Supply and Traditional/SATA Storage

Now for a few parts that mount to your case rather than your motherboard.

Power Supply

The power supply, or PSU, is usually mounted to the back of the case. Sometimes you’ll find it at the top, but it’s usually mounted at the bottom, where it can pull in cool air from under the chassis.

If you're using a modular power supply, you may want to plug all the cables you'll need into the back of the front of the power supply before inserting and installing it. Otherwise, you'll have to plug them in later from inside the case where it's hard to see the cable labels on the PSU. If your power supply doesn't have removable cables, this obviously isn't an issue.

Once you put the power supply in the case, it’s generally as simple as screwing it into place with four screws at the back of the case. Or with some cases, you'll need to re-install a bracket (see above, right) that you'll first need to remove in order to slide the power supply in, then screw the four mounting screws into that. Once the PSU is installed, route the 24-pin power connector and supplemental/CPU power connector through your case and plug them into the motherboard. The 24-pin connector is usually somewhere near the center-right of the motherboard, while the PSU power connector plugs in at the top left corner.

Don't forget this last step, because the supplemental CPU power connector is one of the harder cables to install, jammed as it is near the top of the case. And it only gets harder to plug in once you start adding other cables and components, making it progressively difficult to do later on. And if you forget to plug it in altogether, your system won't boot.

SATA Storage

We added M.2 storage earlier, so now it’s time for SATA drives, which could be a 2.5-inch SSD or hard drive, or a traditional 3.5-inch hard drive. Connect the SATA data cable to the motherboard and your drive or drives, then connect the SATA power connector from the PSU to your drive(s). Mount the hard drive or SSD in the appropriate bracket and screw or snap it into place. Note that bracket/drive mounting methods and placement vary by chassis model.

Installing the Graphics Card

First off, if you're going to be installing a very large card, like an RTX 4090 / 4080 or an RX 7900 (or a somewhat smaller card that you're installing in a more cramped case), you'll want to do this a bit later, after you've plugged in all the rest of your cables and done whatever cable routing / cleanup you plan on doing; a bulky card will block easy access to headers and connectors on the motherboard.

Installing a graphics card is also an optional step. If you’re using an Intel or AMD CPU with integrated graphics and don’t plan on doing serious gaming, you may not need or want a discrete graphics card. But many AMD CPUs, as well as high-end Intel models, don’t have onboard graphics and will require a graphics card in order to connect and output to your monitor.

Connect the GPU into the PCIe X16 slot on the motherboard (it’s the long one, and you’ll want to use the topmost one if there’s more than one on your motherboard). If necessary, plug the PCIe power connectors from the power supply into the card. (You may not need to do this on lower-end cards).

To install the GPU, you'll likely have to remove some slot covers on the back of the case so that the DisplayPort, HDMI and any other graphics card ports show through, letting you connect your monitor(s) later. It's a good idea to first try lining up your card in the case alongside its slot before installing it, if you want to save yourself the hassle of removing the wrong brackets and having to re-install them later. Usually, the top expansion bracket will not have to be removed. That slot is a holdover from days when a PCIe x1 slot lived atop the first graphics card slot.

Push your graphics card into the PCIe X16 slot on the motherboard (it’s the long one closest to the center / top of the board). If your graphics card has PCIe power connectors on its front edge (which all but the lowest-end cards do these days), you'll also need to connect those from the power supply to the card.

Note that for high-end cards, you'll need to connect two or even three PCIe power connectors, sometimes with an adapter that comes with your card.

If you are installing a recent high-end, particularly from Nvidia, you should also invest in an ATX 3.0 or 3.1 power supply, which will have a 12VHPWR (or the newer 12V-2x6) connector for your GPU, so you only have to plug in a single cable.

Add a Wi-Fi Card (if necessary)

Most motherboards come with an Ethernet port on them and many also have Wi-Fi built-in. However, if you need wireless access and your computer doesn’t come with a Wi-Fi card, you’ll need to install one in one of the PCIe slots, a short M.2 slot, or attach a USB Wi-Fi dongle. Check out our list of the best Wi-Fi 6, 6E, and Wi-Fi 7 cards we've tested if you need help choosing one. Still, if playing competitive games online, an Ethernet connection is still your best bet for reliable connectivity.

The Last of the Cable Connections

OK, just a few more cables to go until we try turning the PC on. Make sure the connectors for any fans are plugged into the motherboard fan headers. Then, attach the front-panel audio cable, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and 3.1/3.2 case connectors to those headers.

You’ll want to consult your motherboard manual for this, because their location and number varies by motherboard model.

Lastly, there are the tiny front-panel connectors, typically power switch, power LED, reset, and sometimes HDD activity light. These need to go to the appropriate pins on the motherboard (usually in the bottom-right corner if your motherboard is mounted in the traditional orientation).

Thankfully, as consumer motherboards have largely standardized the pin layouts, fused front-panel connector blocks are becoming increasingly common on cases we've tested in 2024 and 2025. That makes the installation of these connectors much easier, as they can only be installed one way.

But if your case has individual connectors for your front-panel connections, you’ll definitely need to consult your motherboard manual to see where each should go. . Some cases will also have fewer of these connectors, as things like reset switches and hard drive activity lights are becoming far less common. Additionally, some motherboards include a block to plug the connectors into, which you can then, in turn, plug into the motherboard all at once.

Double-check that you’re using the right headers. These things are small (and so are their labels), so it’s easy to mess them up if you’re not paying close attention. These connectors are also easy to accidentally yank out when you're cleaning up your cables or moving things around inside the case after they've been plugged in. So exercise some caution around those cables after you've got them installed.

If you have a large graphics card or a moderate-sized card and a compact case, now is the best time to install it, and any supplemental PCIe power cables, as discussed above.

Turn the Computer On

Turn the Computer On

Once all that's done, it's a good idea to double-check to make sure there are no extra fan headers or power cables still waiting to be routed to the right connector. Then plug the PC in, plug in and connect your monitor (to one of the ports on the graphics card, if you've installed on), as well as your keyboard and mouse.

Hit the power button on your monitor, turn the power supply switch on (on the back of the power supply), and then press your PC's power button. If everything is working, the PC should turn on and run its POST (power-on self-test). Since your operating system isn’t installed yet, you may get an error message about a missing boot drive, or you may get sent straight to the UEFI/BIOS.

Cable Management

This is where you make the interior of your case pretty and tidy, and ensure that cables aren't obstructing airflow to your CPU or GPU. We’re doing this after we know that the system boots properly, because we’d hate to tear apart all of the careful wiring and cut a bunch of zip ties just to have to re-seat a component or reroute a cable. You could, of course, install your operating system before this step.

Clean cable routing is somewhat less important if you don’t have a case with a glass side panel or window. But it's good to keep cables out of the way of airflow, and we like things neat and pretty, so it’s time to shut the system down, unplug the power cable and clean things up.

Routing some cables through the back of the case during the build process is a good first step toward a clean build. But this is where you'll also shove any extra cable slack through the back panel, break out the zip ties to neaten things up and, then, put the side panels back on. You could spend hours making your cable routing as perfect as possible. But just spending 15 minutes making an effort to clean up your cables after your system boots for the first time can make a huge visual difference in how your final build looks.

Install an Operating System, Drivers and Updates

Install an Operating System, Drivers and Updates

You'll want to make a USB install drive for Windows 11, or your operating system of choice. For Windows 10 or Windows 11, simply navigate to Microsoft’s Download page and click the “Download Tool Now” button. You’ll want to download and run the Media Creation tool, which will turn any 8GB or larger USB drive into a Windows install disk. If you don’t already have a Windows 10 or 11 key, you can get Windows 11 for cheap or for free. If you have a problem with the OS, you can try to reset Windows to factory settings.

Plug the USB drive with your operating system installer into your new computer, then power on and you should boot into your OS installer, which will step you through the process. If the system doesn’t access your installation drive, you may need to navigate to the BIOS and make sure your USB drive is visible as a boot device and that it's placed in the boot order before any internal drive or drives.

Once you've installed your operating system, when you first connect to the internet, Windows 10 and Windows 11 are pretty good these days at getting device drivers. However, you should still go to the manufacturers’ product pages for your parts to make sure you have or get the latest updates.

Finally, when your OS and drivers are all updated, it’s time to start using your PC! The one that you built. Install some games, stream some movies, edit some photos or video, chat on Discord — whatever it is you like to do with your PC. And remember: Whenever you’re ready to add more features or performance, you can always upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Tiny11 is an OS that lives up to its name by shrinking a standard Windows 11 install down from 20GB+ on disk to approximately 8GB and “runs great” on a system with just 2GB of RAM. In addition, the installation ISO, available now, is just 3GB. However, there are some things you must consider before setting up a Tiny11 system.

Developer NTDev explains that Tiny11 can be shrunk further by applying drive compression. The “bare minimum” of apps includes the standard payload of accessibility tools intact, and long-established Windows staples like Calc, Notepad, Paint, and so on remain. Moreover, the Microsoft Store is still there, so you can install various Windows apps and tools you miss.

Some moderately important things are missing, though. This OS install “is not serviceable,” notes NTDev. “.NET, drivers and security definition updates can still be installed from Windows Update,” so this isn’t an install which you can set and forget. Moreover, removing the Windows Component Store (WinSxS), which is responsible for a fair degree of Tiny11’s compactness, means that installing new features or languages isn’t possible. If you install and enjoy Tiny11, we guess you will have to look out for ISO updates as major feature revisions of Windows 11 arrive.

Breaking down the headlining 8GB install figure, NTDev reveals that the actual OS files take up 6.34GB of space, while the apps that survived the chopping block take up 1.59GB.

Tiny11 also includes some low-level changes made popular by tools like Rufus. For example, by default, Tiny11 uses a local account, though the option of setting up an online account remains. However, please note that features like Widgets in Windows 11 still require a Microsoft Account to work.

Another under-the-hood change that may appeal to PC tinkerers, particularly those on lower-end and older hardware, is the removal of various hardware restrictions. In testing, NTDev said that Tiny11 could “run great” on a system with just 2GB of RAM. Moreover, those blocked from upgrading their Windows 10 installations due to processor generation or TPM hurdles will be able to use the Tiny11 ISO to get onboard with Microsoft’s newest OS.

Tiny11 is available to download now from https://archive.org/details/tiny-11_202302. The ISO is available to download directly or via the BitTorrent protocol. Whichever you choose, the resulting downloaded ISO will be approximately 3GB.

Microsoft Edge started out as a relatively barebones and resource-efficient rival to Google Chrome and as a replacement for the unloved Internet Explorer browser. As it has, it's gained new features that have been most useful but occasionally infuriating (we’re looking at you, Discover). However, Microsoft’s latest Canary Channel build of Edge enables a Split Screen option that could be useful to many people. It was first noticed by Leopeva64-2 on Reddit.   

While every modern browser includes tabs that make it easier to switch from one website to another, simultaneously viewing information from two websites isn’t possible without opening a new browser window. Microsoft Edge’s new Split Screen option allows you to combine two tabs into one and view them side-by-side. Split Screen is an experimental feature only available in the latest Edge Canary release (Build 111.0.1639.0), which you can access with the following steps:

1. Download and install the latest build from the Microsoft Edge Canary Channel for Windows 10/11.

2. Type “edge://flags” in the Edge address bar. This will bring up a list of all experimental features accessible in the latest Edge Canary build.

3. Type “split” in the Search flags box to bring up the Split Screen feature.

4. Click the arrow on the drop-down menu and select Enabled. You will be asked to restart Edge to make the changes stick. Click Restart.

5. Once Edge restarts, you should see a new Split Window icon to the right of the address bar. Click it.

6. If you have more than one tab open, you’ll see your current active tab on the left window and your other available tabs on the right window.

7. Click on the second tab that you want active. It will now display in the right window.

Now you can view two pages side-by-side and independently scroll through each. You can also have multiple Split Window sessions spread across multiple tabs or group them. It’s a great way to enhance your workflow, and we’re happy to see Microsoft putting valuable, differentiating features into Edge. 

Currently, the new Microsoft Edge Split Screen feature is only available in the latest Canary Channel build for Windows 10/11. It is not available on the Dev or Beta Channels. Unfortunately, macOS users are also out of luck, as the most recent Canary Channel build (111.0.1633.0) does not support the feature.

It is unknown at this time when Split Screen will find its way into more stable Dev or Beta Channels or when it will eventually land in the stable release.

Can an AI help you learn how to perform important tech tasks such as building a PC? With all the hype around generative AI – using artificial intelligence to create new written or visual content – I wanted to find out. The results were eye-opening – and pin-bending.

With the launch of ChatGPT, a free chatbot that uses OpenAI’s impressive GPT-3 language model, anyone can request and, in seconds, get a computer-written article on just about any topic. The main limitation is that GPT-3 is only trained on data going back to 2021, so it won’t be able to write about current events. Oh, and it can also be horribly and dangerously wrong, introducing factual errors that aren’t obvious to someone who isn’t familiar with the topic at hand. 

Last week, we found out that a couple of sites, CNET and Bankrate, have been publishing AI-generated personal finance articles, though it’s unclear whether they are using GPT-3 or a different model to perform the task. These early attempts have been a mixed bag at best for readers; CNET had to issue some corrections after readers discovered some embarrassing factual errors. 

We have no plans to use AI to write our articles on Tom’s Hardware, because we have way too much respect for both our audience and ourselves to turn the keys over to a bot. However, for science, I wanted to see just how close the technology is to mimicking a competent tech writer. So I asked ChatGPT to “write an article on how to build a PC.” 

Here’s what I got back, word-for-word:

Building a PC can seem daunting, but with the right tools and knowledge it can be a fun and rewarding experience. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you build your own PC.

1. Gather your tools and components. You will need a screwdriver, thermal paste, and any other necessary tools that may come with your components. You will also need to purchase all the components for your PC, including the CPU, motherboard, RAM, storage, power supply, and case.

2. Assemble the CPU and cooler. Start by installing the CPU into the socket on the motherboard. Make sure it is properly aligned and gently press down until it clicks into place. Next, apply a small amount of thermal paste to the top of the CPU. Carefully place the cooler onto the CPU, making sure it is properly aligned, and secure it into place with the mounting bracket.

3. Install the RAM. Locate the RAM slots on the motherboard and press down on the tabs on either side of the slot to open it. Carefully insert the RAM into the slot, making sure it is properly aligned, and press down firmly until the tabs click back into place.

4. Install the motherboard into the case. Place the motherboard into the case and align it with the standoffs. Carefully screw the motherboard into place using the screws provided.

5. Install the power supply. Locate the power supply mount in the case and slide the power supply into place. Secure it with the screws provided.

6. Install storage and any additional components. This includes hard drives, SSDs, and any additional components you may have.

7. Connect the power supply cables. Connect the 24-pin ATX main power cable and 4/8-pin ATX 12V power cable to the motherboard. Connect the power cables for any additional components such as hard drives and SSDs.

8. Connect all the peripherals. Connect your keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the appropriate ports on the motherboard.

9. Power on the PC and test it. Press the power button and make sure the PC boots up and all components are functioning properly.

Building a PC can be a fun and rewarding experience, and it allows you to customize and upgrade your computer to your specific needs. With this guide and a little bit of patience, you'll be able to build your very own PC in no time!

At first blush, this copy doesn’t look that bad. It’s grammatically correct, formatted in a scannable way and looks like a human could have written it. But if you followed this advice, you’d end up with a non-working computer, because it’s missing key details that you really need in order to build a PC without breaking any parts.

 Devil in the Details

The instructions on how to place the CPU into the motherboard illustrate everything that is wrong here. 

“Start by installing the CPU into the socket on the motherboard. Make sure it is properly aligned and gently press down until it clicks into place.”

There’s some critical information missing here. As anyone who has built a PC in the past several years knows, CPU sockets have retaining arms that you must lift before placing the processor. If you attempt to “gently press down” without lifting that arm, you’ll bend the pins (if your processor has pins). Most motherboards come with a piece of protective plastic covering the socket that you need to take out. And most processors have a triangle symbol in one corner that you must match up with a triangle on the socket to make sure the chip is positioned correctly.

When installing AMD chips or Intel chips, the socket could look slightly different, but ChatGPT doesn’t mention either vendor. Similarly, some chips such as the Ryzen 7000 series have contact pads instead of pins on the bottom (with the pins in the socket), but the pins or lack thereof aren’t mentioned.

If we want to give ChatGPT’s text a very generous reading, we can interpret “make sure it is properly aligned” as implying that you should lift the retention arm, remove any slot covers and align the arrow on the chip with the board. But actual readers wouldn’t assume any of those things.

Most importantly, if you attempt to “press down” on a CPU until it clicks, you could very easily break it or the socket. An experienced PC builder would know all of these details, but a newbie — the target audience for a story like this — would not. If they followed this step to the letter, they could destroy their chip or their board (or both).

The CPU installation step is just the most egregious example of the AI assuming that the reader already knows what it's talking about and doesn’t need the fine details. It also assumes that the reader knows how to open and close the chassis, how to distinguish among and attach various cables and that they need to install an OS.

 No Acknowledgement of Variations

Perhaps, the most glaring problem with ChatGPT’s PC building instructions is the lack of any step that involves installing a graphics card. To be fair to the bot, it’s always possible that the person building the PC is going with an integrated GPU. 

However, it’s quite likely that a PC builder would want discrete graphics and the instructions don’t even acknowledge this possibility. Step 6 says to “install storage and any additional components,” but I doubt most readers would get what they need from assuming that a GPU is one of the unnamed “additional components.” In our Tom’s Hardware tutorial on how to build a PC, we have an optional step on inserting a graphics card.

The step on installing RAM also makes a key assumption. “Locate the RAM slots on the motherboard and press down on the tabs on either side of the slot to open it,” the AI writes. However, many motherboards now just have a tab on one side rather than two. And readers might be helped if they knew that RAM modules have a notch on the bottom that aligns with a hump in the slot so you can’t put them in backwards.

The step on installing a cooler also doesn’t acknowledge that the steps will vary greatly depending on whether you are using an air cooler, an AIO or something else. It just says “carefully place the cooler onto the CPU, making sure it is properly aligned, and secure it into place with the mounting bracket.” Not all coolers have the same way of mounting. 

It’s fair to say that, if you ask ChatGPT or another AI for a more specific PC build story, you’ll get instructions that are a little more targeted. My colleagues asked ChatGPT how to build a computer with a Core i9-11900K, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD and an RTX 2070 GPU and the result had a step which said, “Install the graphics card (Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070) into an available slot on the motherboard.” That's better, except you should use the top PCIe slot, not just any available slot.

The new text doesn’t tell you to push your CPU down until it clicks, but it still lacks key details you’d need about installing the processor, RAM and even the graphics card. 

More importantly, if we wanted to use an AI to write an article that answers a relatively broad question like “how do I build a PC,” we need it to write about the fact that you might have an AMD or Intel CPU, you might have discrete graphics (or not), and you might be using a 2.5-inch SATA drive or an M.2 NVMe SSD. The details matter a lot.

 What’s Missing: Human Experience and Empathy

The biggest problem with ChatGPT’s advice is that the AI does not have the ability to put itself in the readers’ shoes and imagine itself going through the steps it prescribes. Every time I write an article — particularly a how-to — I start by asking myself, “Who is this for and what should I assume that they know before reading this?” 

In the case of a PC building tutorial, I would assume that my target audience is made up of folks who have used computers and are familiar with what the main parts are (if they don’t know what a CPU is, then this task is too advanced for them). But I would not assume that they have ever opened up a computer and installed its components.

Then, I’d think about not only what task you need to accomplish for each step, but the tips and tricks I use to accomplish that task when I perform it. For example, I like to plug in my motherboard and CPU ATX power cables before I install my cooler or case fans, because I have found that the fans make it hard for me to access the power connectors with my thick fingers. An AI wouldn’t know that.

Perhaps more importantly, if you charge a human editor with editing / fact-checking an AI’s article, the human editor is going to miss these omissions, unless they are experts themselves. If I handed the article above to an editor who had never built a PC, they might think it was fine and approve it for publishing. And if the human editor is an expert and they have to do a ton of rewriting to make the AI’s article passable, what is the point of having an AI write an article in the first place?

I have no doubt that an AI like ChatGPT could eventually get better at anticipating a reader’s needs and writing articles to target those needs. I also have no doubt that machine learning can be used effectively today for other tasks, such as research. However, we have a long way to go before we can trust an AI to offer advice that is as helpful as what you’d get from a human who has lived experience, judgment and empathy.

Note: As with all of our op-eds, the opinions expressed here belong to the writer alone and not Tom's Hardware as a team. 

All of the radio waves and signals bouncing around you can be boiled down to a single thing: energy. Sure, they may carry Wi-Fi or sound, they may connect our cell phones or bring us the latest Harry Styles tunes, but they’re all essentially energy. And as such, they should be able to provide not just entertainment but electricity, right? 

That’s the promise of Ossia and other wireless technology companies, and unfortunately, it’s always been more promise than practice. Tom’s Hardware first introduced you to Cota wireless power in 2015, and the technology has yet to explode. But at CES 2023, Ossia is doing all it can to make it easy to develop actual products that deliver on that promise, with the new Cota 5.8-GHz Real Wireless Power developer kit. 

At the show, Tom’s Hardware sat down with Hatam Zeine, the inventor of the technology, to discuss when and where we’ll see the technology. Spoiler: It’ll probably show up in businesses before you can get one for yourself. But later this year or maybe early next year, we’ll see at least some devices that use the technology. 

Zeine described to us double-A shaped devices that can replace batteries in, say, your smoke detector or remote control and use the company’s wireless power. Or better yet, a Qi charger that is itself wirelessly charged, so you can simply drop it on the bedside table and charge your phone. “This is coming soon,” we asked?

“That’s coming! This is coming now!” Zeine said, though he quickly noted that he was unable to speak for which 3rd party would be supplying it. Or those charging pads. But they’re coming! And at Mobile World Congress, the company will be taking pre-orders for a new universal base that can be retrofitted into other devices and the new Archos camera that supports the tech.(At last, some people might say!)

The new developer kit will let curious manufacturers try out wireless power for themselves, to see how Ossia’s tech can fit into their devices. And with the array of wireless cameras, doorbells, smart lightbulbs, and other such gadgets growing by the day, the potential for wireless power to keep them all fully charged, all the time is immense.

To be clear the technology works. Ossia’s breakthrough relies upon a principle in physics known as retrodirectivity. Using this technology, a tiny chip embedded in a device sends a signal to a base station, a flat, thin panel that resembles a notepad on a stand. It uses either a 2.4-GHz signal or a 5.8-GHz frequency to transmit energy wirelessly back to the receiver chips, which can be built into anything: smartphone cases, laptops, lamps, you name it. There’s no line of sight required, and zero interference with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals, the company promises.

“Our technology is basically utilizing a large array of antennas that can focus their energy into a specific device in the environment,” Zeine explained. 

But getting manufacturers to integrate the receiver chips into their devices has been the real hurdle for Ossia. Not to mention safety certification from the FCC. In 2020, CEO Mario Obeidat pointed Tom’s Hardware to FCC certification that the Cota transmitter and receiver acquired in June for working at 2.4 GHz at a distance of up 1m. The Cota was certified for almost 1W, Obeidat said, but the transmitter could go up to 2-3W. In March, the FCC lifted that distance limit: Beam your signals as far as you’d like, the agency essentially said. It’s safe. But 5.8 GHz signals, which can charge much more rapidly albeit over shorter distances, remain an elusive target. 

5.8 GHz isn’t necessary for Ossia, Zeine told Tom’s Hardware. But it means the company won’t have to dance around the Wi-Fi signals that clutter the 2.4 GHz bandwidth, opening up possibilities and bringing higher power charging. Wireless power may just be the future after all. 

When Apple introduced its first M1 system-on-chip for PCs in mid-2020, it said that it would transition all of its Macs to its Apple Silicon SoCs in about two years. By now, the company should have introduced its Mac Pro workstation featuring its own processor. But that hasn't happened, and it is actually unclear when this desktop will emerge, according to a Bloomberg report. 

At first, Apple planned to build its new Mac Pro around its M1 Ultra dual-chip processor, but that device ended up in the most powerful Mac Studio desktop, and the company scrapped plans to produce a Mac Pro on its M1 generation. Eventually, the company decided to use its dual-chip M2 Ultra and quad-chip M2 Extreme processors for its top-of-the-range workstation.  

The M2 Ultra is said to feature 24 general-purpose cores and 76 graphics clusters, whereas the M2 Extreme is projected to feature 48 general-purpose CPU cores as well as 152 graphics clusters. Furthermore, the M2 Ultra is reportedly designed to support at least 192 GB of memory, so expect the M2 Extreme version to support up to 384 GB of DRAM. 

But it looks like Apple has scrapped plans to produce M2 Extreme processor because of complexity and costs. A Mac Pro based on the alleged M2 Extreme processor would cost around $10,000 and would be an extremely niche product that may not be worth development costs, engineering resources, and production bandwidth, Bloomberg says. 

Yet, the Mac Pro is supposed to be an extremely capable workstation for a relatively small niche market. A key thing that should be kept in mind about Apple's Mac Pro is its audience. While the Bloomberg report vaguely mentions demanding users like "photographers, editors, and programmers," Mac Pro is much more than a powerful PC. Mac Pro systems are often used for cinema and video production, and such workloads are getting more demanding as resolutions and color depths increase. And such systems not only need performance, but the also versatility and flexibility of a desktop PC, as they need to install a variety of add-in-cards, accelerators, advanced storage devices, and so on. To add these boards, a new Mac Pro would need advanced I/O, which is somewhat of a departure from Apple's SoC ideology that entails a very high level of integration.  

One of the features that Apple's Mac Pro has — and something that the company's other systems lack — is upgradeability. A user of previous Mac Pros would often buy the tower, then install a new graphics card, add more memory, or Apple's Afterburner accelerator. It is unclear whether an Apple Silicon-based desktop would be upgradeable, but from what we see with the Apple Studio machine, the company is reluctant to offer such capability even to its professional customers.  

It is noteworthy that in addition to switching its Mac Pro to its own Apple Silicon processors the company is mulling transferring its production and final assembly from China and the U.S. to Vietnam. This will somewhat lower its costs, though given the price of Mac Pro, this will hardly have any difference for end users. 

One of the things that the Bloomberg report does not touch upon is when the new Mac Pro is set to hit the market. So far, Apple has only introduced its M2 SoC, and it yet has to roll out its M2 Pro and M2 Max SoCs. Meanwhile, multi-chip M2 Ultra and potential M2 Extreme are typically introduced months after single-chip SoCs, which means these processors probably won't arrive until mid-2023 at the earliest.

Apple of course does not comment on its future plans, though it is about time for the company to offer an upgraded version of its Mac Pro, as the current-generation machine was launched in 2019.

Arduino was there before the Raspberry Pi and it democratized access to electronics and hardware hacking long before everybody’s favorite SBC. The Arduino Uno, the most famous board in the range is now over a decade old. In that time it has powered countless projects, but we have never officially been able to make our own. Until now.

Arduino’s $58 Make Your Uno kit is much more than an Arduino Uno in a box of components. Rather, we have to construct our own Uno from the included parts. This means that we need to use one of the best soldering irons to solder the components into place. But this kit doesn’t just give us the parts to make an Arduino microcontroller; we also construct our own shield (a similar concept to Raspberry Pi’s HAT add-ons) and an Audio Synth which we can use to make music / beeps / boops.

A great learning tool and an all-around good time to build, the Arduino Make Your Uno kit is a fantastic gift for kids, established makers or for yourself. However, if all you want is a working microcontroller board, there are much cheaper options. A regular Arduino Uno (without audio synth and shield) costs $28, a fully-functional clone goes for $18 and a more powerful alternative like the Raspberry Pi Pico W can be had for just $6.

Arduino Make Your Uno Kit Specifications

Assembling the Kit

Straight off the bat, this is a lovely kit to build. The PCB is of a high quality, something we have experienced with Arduino boards in the past. As this kit is aimed at those new to soldering, the first task is to solder a debug circuit. This is essentially an LED with an inline 1 Kilo Ohm resistor. Two wires from the circuit are used to check that each of the Uno’s GPIO pins are working correctly. This is a nice touch. It enables us to get building without worrying about making mistakes. With that built, we move on to the star of the show, the Arduino Uno.

Building the Uno is relatively straightforward. The included components are all through hole, making for easier soldering. The only component to feature surface mount components is a USB-C to Serial board. This board is pre-assembled and drops straight into the main Uno PCB. Just a few legs to solder and the USB-C and Uno are joined. 

Online instructions guide us through the soldering process. Typically soldering lower components before moving on to taller. These instructions are not just mere diagrams and text. Rather, they are interactive 3D models which show the components being placed into the boards. This is a nice touch for those new to soldering. We can visualize how the parts are inserted, spin the board around for a better angle and zoom in to spot exactly where we need to be. Coming as someone who has followed countless circuit diagrams, this is a refreshing and most welcome change.

It should take a beginner about an hour to solder the kit. More experienced makers will undoubtedly shave minutes from that time. But no matter your experience, you will have fun soldering this kit. Our one criticism of the white PCB is that it shows all the flux from our solder. That’s nothing a quick clean with isopropyl alcohol can’t fix.

Once the Arduino is built, it is a thing of beauty. The components on the board may differ to the surface mount soldered versions on a typical Arduino Uno, but the pin layout and form factor is unmistakable. We moved forward and soldered up the Audio Synth shield. This shield is a collection of six potentiometers which are connected to the six analog input pins of the Arduino. The audio is routed to an LM386N power amplifier and then played via a speaker on the PCB. The Audio Synth shield fits atop the Arduino Uno and we then reuse the packaging to create a simple instrument. But how do we program it? For that we need an IDE.

Programming the Make Your Uno Kit Audio Synth

As this is an Arduino, we need to use the Arduino IDE and we tested it with the latest Arduino IDE 2.0 release and an older 1.8 series IDE. It worked flawlessly with both, a testament to the longevity of the Uno range which has worked with many iterations of the IDE. We connected the Arduino Uno to our Windows PC and the device was detected as an Arduno Make Your Uno Kit, a nice touch that sets it apart from typical Unos.

The Audio Synth has a basic sketch (Arduino parlance for a project’s code) that will play beeps and boops, but there is an advanced sketch which turns the kit into a synth instrument, of sorts. Sounding like a prop from a 1980s sci-fi movie, the Audio Synth shield is great fun.

Can we use other shields with the Make Your Uno? Why yes we can. We tested an official, but elderly Ethernet shield and ran a quick web server example sketch. It just worked, with no drama or issues. An Uno, soldered just hours before, was now serving content to devices on our network.

Who is the Make Your Uno Kit Aimed at, and Why?

Squarely, the kit is aimed at newcomers to the Arduno and maker community. The simplicity of the kit, the wonderful instructions and the lessons learned by building from raw components makes this a syllabus rather than a lesson.

We learn so much by doing, and after all the work we are left with a device which we can use to build even more wondrous things. That said, in the age of IoT, it would’ve been nice to have a model with Wi-Fi baked into the board.

Bottom Line

If you are new to the Arduino or soldering then this is a fun kit to make. You could just buy a $6 Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontroller, which uses a more powerful RP2040 CPU and has built-in Wi-Fi, but you would be missing out on the learning that this kit provides.

At the end of all your hard work you have an Arduino Uno, ready to go further and become much more than just a collection of components. It seems that Arduino has once again helped us to rediscover our love of making.

Cyber Monday is a great time to buy components for an affordable gaming PC build. Normally, if you want to put together a desktop that can play games at 1080p very high or Ultra settings and smooth (60+ fps) frame rates, you'd spend a nice chunk of change. And, if you want to kick the resolution up to 1440p, you might expect to spend closer to $1,000 or even more. 

But right now, with Cyber Monday sales on PC parts bringing CPUs, graphics cards, SSDs and even cases and power supplies down in price, you can build a very serviceable 1080p gaming rig for $600 and a 1440p-capable one for under $750. And whichever you build, you'll likely save hundreds of dollars off of the price of a prebuilt desktop with similar capabilities. 

Below, we've put together parts lists for both a sub-$600 Cyber Monday 1080p PC build and a sub-$750, 1440p gaming PC build. These prices are based on Cyber Monday sales that are current at publication time so your mileage may vary slightly depending on when you read this. Also note that we do not include the price of the OS (you can get Windows for free or cheap) nor any peripherals. 

Cyber Monday Sub-$600, 1080 Gaming PC Build

Admittedly, sales on Black Friday were a bit better and more items were in stock so we had to cut a few corners to get to a $600 price point and still deliver smooth 1080p play. Here are all the parts we chose and the rationale for each.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 ($94 at  B&H) - The Ryzen 5 5500 is not one of the fastest CPUs around, but it does give you 6 cores, 12 threads and a 4.2-GHz boost clock for less than $100.  On the chart below, you'll see that the 5500 delivered a solid 129 fps on our 1080p gaming, Windows 11 gaming suite.  We benchmark the CPUs with a top-of-the-line graphics card so that the GPU is not a bottleneck; you obviously can expect lower numbers with the GPU in this build.
  
  However, you can see that the 5500 can deliver solid frame rates that put it well ahead of AMD's prior-generation processors such as the Ryzen 5 3600X. There's no question that the Ryzen 5 5600, which costs about $40 more right now, is a lot quicker and we recommend going with the 5600 instead if you can afford it. 

• GPU:  XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Radeon RX 6600 ($229 at Amazon) - At one point this Cyber Monday deals season, you could get an RX 6600 card for as little as $189, but as of this writing, this was the cheapest that we could find.  The card features 8GB of GDDR6 RAM and a boost clock of 2,491 MHz.
  
  As you can see on the chart below, the RX 6600 averaged 72.3 fps running a suite of 8 games at 1080p Ultra settings. While that puts the GPU below more expensive competitors such as the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT, it's still a very playable frame rate and a fantastic value. 

• Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 ($99 at Newegg, was $109). In theory any motherboard with a B550 or X570 chipset would be fine. However, many AMD boards require a BIOS update (see how to enter your BIOS) before they will recognize a Ryzen 5000 chip and you can't tell what BIOS version your motherboard will ship with.
  
  If you have an old BIOS that won't recognize your new CPU, you need to upgrade the firmware before you boot with the new CPU, but what if you don't have an older CPU to use for the update? The Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 has a feature called Q Flash Plus (on other boards known as BIOS Flashback) which allows you to update the firmware without a CPU as you just plug in a USB Flash drive with the update and hold down a button on the motherboard.
  
  If you don't mind waiting a few weeks for delivery, consider getting the Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC, which is $99 at Amazon and is the same board but with built-in Wi-Fi 5. However, it doesn't ship for about two weeks.

• RAM: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 ($42 at Newegg, was $47). You need no less than 16GB of RAM and you want a dual-channel kit with two 8GB sticks of DDR4 that run at up to 3200 Mhz. This is the least expensive set we could find and comes from a reputable brand.

• SSD: Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD ($59 at Newegg) - To keep our cost around $600, saving every dollar counts and that's why we're going with the cheapest 1TB NVMe SSD we could find that comes from a reputable brand.  Haven't heard of Solidigm? It's the company that bought Intel's SSD division so those are pretty good bonifides.
  
  This drive uses the modern PCIe 4.0 interface so is automatically a step up from most PCIe 3.0 SSDs. It's rated for sequential read and write speeds of 4,125 MBps and 2,950 MBps. We reviewed the Solidigm P41 and found it to have modest, but acceptable performance. As you can see, it scored quite a few points below more powerful drives such as the WD Black SN770 and SK hynix Platinum P41 on the 3DMark SSD gaming test, but those competitors cost more. It is definitely faster than most PCIe 3.0 SSDs. 

• Case: Gamdias Argus M1 ($39 at Newegg, was $48):  This case has a lot going for it for less than $40. It's very attractive considering its budget status, with a tempered glass side panel, an RGB light strip on the front  and three illuminated USB ports on the front panel. There's an RGB rear fan included and room for up to a 280mm radiator (two 140mm fans or two 120mm fans) on the top or in front.

• PSU: Enermax Cyberbron 500W, 80+ Bronze ($34 at Amazon) - To keep our costs low, we need a reliable, but very inexpensive CPU. Enermax is a well-known brand and this 500W capacity will be more than sufficient to power the components in this build.  We even get 80+ Bronze power efficiency, something not every cheap PSU offers.
  
  The only real downside is that the PSU isn't even partially modular. However, there's no great harm in having all the cables built-in to the power supply. You'll never lose them that way.

Cyber Monday Sub-$750, 1440p Gaming PC Build

So let's talk about why we chose the parts we did and what you can expect from each. 

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 ($137 at Newegg) -  As we've said elsewhere, the price of AMD Ryzen 5000 series chips is incredibly low right now, because the new 7000 series, which is way too expensive, recently came out. The Ryzen 5 5600 has 6 cores, 12 threads and a maximum boost clock of 4.4 GHz, which is more than adequate for gaming at 2K, particularly when you have a strong graphics card to pair it with. It comes with a cooler in the box so no need to buy one. Note that Newegg has this part backordered but it is currently due to ship by December 2nd.
  
  When we reviewed the Ryzen 5 5600, it returned an average frame rate of 156 fps on our suite of 1440p games and that number jumped to 159 fps when we enabled precision boost overdrive (which is like overclocking).  To see what the CPU is capable of we tested with a high-end GPU in the form of an RTX 3090 so you won't get those frame rates with our suggested graphics card for this build, but you can rest assured that the Ryzen 5 5600 won't be the bottleneck holding you back.

• GPU: XFX Speedster Radeon RX 6700 ($319 at  Amazon, was $349) - In this price band, AMD's Radeon RX 6700 offers more performance for your money than Nvidia's RTX 3060 which costs more than $350 and usually closer to $400.
  
  On our GPU benchmark hierarchy, the RX 6700 is actually 8 places ahead of the RTX 3060, delivering an average  frame rate of 87.7 fps on our 1080p Ultra settings, test suite compared to 70.2 fps for Nvidia's card. At 1440p Ultra settings, the RX 6700 delivers an average 63.5 fps, which is very smooth, and compares favorably to the 3060's mark of 52.6 fps.

• Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 ($99 at Newegg, was $109). We're sticking with the Gigabyte B550M from our $600, 1080p Cyber Monday gaming PC build, because there's nothing wrong with it.  We'd probably wait the extra two weeks of shipping delay to get the version with Wi-Fi 5 built-in, which is $99 at Amazon.

• RAM: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 ($42 at Newegg, was $47). We're sticking with the RAM from the $600 build here as there's no need to get faster than DDR4-3200 speed and we can't reasonably afford to go up to 32GB and keep our price in range.

• SSD: Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD ($59 at Newegg) - If we want to keep our costs below $750, we have to economize on the SSD and stick with the Solidigm P41 from our 1080p build. However, if you're willing to spend just $17 more (which would take us just slightly over the $750 mark in total cost), get the WD Black SN770 for $79 at Amazon.
  
  The WD Black SN770 promises sequential read and write speeds of 5,000 and 4,000 MBps respectively. It also had much lower gaming latency on our tests.
  

• Case: Cooler Master MasterBox MB511 ($39 at Newegg, after rebate) - This case doesn't have the built-in RGB bling of the case we chose for our 1080p gaming rig build, but it has better cooling potential with a mesh front panel. It has room up to three 120mm fans in front (or a 360mm radiator) and two 120mm fans (or a 240mm radiator) at the top. There's a tempered glass side panel so you can see everything inside.

• PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600W 80 Plus Gold ($38 at Newegg, was $69). A name-brand, 600-watt gold-rated power supply for under $40? What's not to love? Thermaltake's PSU is non-modular, but it features a 120mm quiet fan and can deliver 90% or higher efficiency.

As you can see, we made just a few compromises to get a 1080p gaming rig for $600 and a 1440p gaming rig for less than $750. If you want to step things up and spend more, you can go for a pricier CPU, GPU and SSD, but hopefully this list of parts gives you some ideas. We have a more complete set of parts lists on our best PC builds page.

AMD no longer ships its Ryzen Threadripper CPUs for high-end desktops and positions its Ryzen Threadripper Pro for workstations. But now that single-socket motherboards for AMD's 4th Generation EPYC 'Genoa' processors are available, you may no longer want to settle with 64-core Threadripper Pro but opt for a monstrous system with 96 cores and up to 12 channels of DDR5 memory.

Recently ASRock Rack introduced several single-socket SP5 motherboards for AMD's EPYC 9004-series processors (via HardwareLuxx.de), including the Deep Micro-ATX GenoaD8UD-2T/X550 and GenoaD24QM3-2L2T/BCM motherboards that are formally aimed at servers, but which can be used to build an ultimate battle station with a 96-core CPU and loads of memory assuming that you can afford the CPU and find an appropriate chassis.

Since the ASRock GenoaD8UD-2T/X550 and the GenoaD24QM3-2L2T/BCM are indeed server motherboards, they support everything one comes to expect from a server, including eight or 24 slots for DDR5 memory modules, four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots with CXL 1.1 on top, two M.2-2280 slots for SSDs with a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, multiple MCIO connectors supporting PCIe 5.0 or SATA connectivity, two or four 10GbE ports (controlled by the Intel X550 or the Broadcom BCM57416 chip), one GbE connector for management, and the Aspeed AST2600 BMC.

Meanwhile, the motherboards do not have common desktops and workstation features, including high-speed USB4 or Thunderbolt 3/4 ports, audio connectors (and appropriate controllers), and conventional SATA connectors on the motherboard.

Building a workstation featuring the GenoaD8UD-2T/X550 will be pretty tricky as a performance-demanding enthusiast will need to procure an M.2-to-PCIe x16 adapter card to take advantage of the latest SSDs featuring a PCIe 5.0 interface, a proper cooling system for AMD's EPYC processor in LGA 6096 packaging, and so forth. Also, remember that EPYCs do not overclock (96-core monsters also do not feature high clocks), and they are supposed to work with DDR5-4800 memory, which may not be a massive problem as the platforms have eight or 12 memory channels that provide plenty of bandwidth.

Building a powerful workstation based on AMD's 96-core EPYC is expensive and peculiar. However, the reward is, of course, loads of cores and memory, and if you need to run workloads that can scale to 96 cores, it might be worth the money and trouble.

Vivian Lien has announced that she has joined Intel’s Visual Compute Group. Lien was most recently a VP of Alienware and Dell Gaming, but became a name at the forefront of PC industry marketing during her lengthy spell at Asus. In her new position, Lien aims to build the fortunes of the Intel Arc discrete graphics business, and she looks like a good choice for this role. Incidentally, this high profile appointment looks like another nail in the coffin to the rumors suggesting the demise or running down of the Intel Arc discrete graphics business.

Lien built her name and reputation at Asus, leading the PC and components giant’s marketing efforts for years. The PC industry partnerships built during her rise through Asus (ending up as Global Head of Marketing, Gaming), will have been instrumental in becoming a VP at Alienware and Dell Gaming. PC industry watchers will note that Lien’s appointment at Alienware and Dell was to fill the significant void precipitated by Frank Azor’s move to AMD gaming.

Now it looks like Intel has need of Lien’s experience and extensive partnerships in the gaming PC business. If Intel truly wants to succeed in commercializing discrete graphics cards, selling into pre-built machines is as vitally important as selling to PC DIYers, enthusiasts and gamers.

In her LinkedIn post about her new role at Intel, Lien said that at the time of the announcement she has already enjoyed her first week with the Intel graphics team. “I can't wait to build the Intel Arc graphics business,” she wrote, before promising “much more to come.” So, it looks like Lien will be important to promoting and the success of Intel Arc Battlemage discrete graphics cards, as well as getting Intel PC building partners to pre-install these products. Of course, Battlemage needs to be a worthwhile step above Alchemist, and competitive with AMD and Nvidia products, too.

Sign of Confidence in the Intel Arc Graphics Cards Business

Lien’s high profile Intel appointment is important for another reason. During the summer, rumors swelled regarding the winding down of the Intel Arc discrete graphics business. Intel execs were reasonably fast to deny any impending closure or scaling back of Arc development, but their denials and rebuttals weren’t believed by everyone.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is looking to secure its supply chain and build up capacities that produce high-purity neon gas locally. The company faced massive turmoil on the market of noble gases after Ukrainian companies ceased to supply them after Russia's war in the country destroyed noble gas production capacities. 

TSMC is negotiating with numerous gas suppliers to investigate possibilities of producing high-purity neon gas in Taiwan in three to five years, said J.K. Lin, senior vice president of information technology, materials management and risk management, in an interview with Nikkei. 

As the world's largest contract maker of chips, TSMC requires steady and high-volume supply of materials (e.g., chemicals, wafer subtrates, etc.) to meet customer. The company faced major challenges dealing with the global chip shortage in 2020 – 2022, which increased its costs and required it to hike prices for its customers. 

But in a bid to make its supply chain more resilient, TSMC is now looking forward to localizing a part of its supply chain, notably production of high-purity gases like neon. This is not particularly easy as neon is a byproduct of steel manufacturing. 

"We have a concrete plan to work with suppliers to localize some neon gas supplies and are currently in the process of buying equipment," Lin told Nikkei. "The idea is to have more sources to increase the level of supply chain safety. However, our plan is not to build all the supplies locally. That is not realistic and very costly." 

Earlier this year TSMC faced major turmoil after Russia destroyed Cryoin and Ingas, two major producers of high-purity neon, in Odessa and Mariupol in the first days of war. These two companies shipped 360,000 m^3 of high-purity Grade 5.0 neon last year and 75% of their output went to chipmakers. They controlled around 50% of semiconductor-grade neon in 2021, it was revealed earlier this year. 

The semiconductor business is a major global industry, and it is impossible to localize the whole supply chain in one country. The company sources production equipment from the Netherlands and the U.S.; buys raw materials from Europe and Japan and then uses local companies to build fabs. 

ArF immersion lasers used to make sophisticated chips that require deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography use a mixture of neon, fluorine, and argon gases. Neon accounts for over 95% of the blend; meanwhile, modern production tools feature neon recycle systems that reduce actual consumption by over 90%. But while each ArF/DUV scanner does not consume a lot of gases, there are tens of thousands of such scanners in use worldwide and all of them need neon, fluorine, and argon gases, so demand for these noble gases is strong. 

While demand for chips is slowing right now, TSMC's revenue continue to increase. The company posted October revenue of NT$210.3 billion ($6.673 billion), which is up a whopping 56.3% from NT$134.5 billion ($4.267 billion) in October '21, reports Bloomberg. TSMC will likely be among the last chip companies to report revenue drop due to demand slump, but will be the first chipmaker to benefit from demand rebound in 2023 ~ 2024. So it makes a great sense for the foundry to invest in its supply chain now.

Students at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, have created a ‘baby supercomputer’ by joining together 16 Nvidia Jetson Nano modules, along with a network switch, some power supplies and cooling fans. The resulting cluster, revealed on the Nvdia blog, is small enough to sit on a desk, and will be used as an educational tool.

After receiving a small grant to create the Jetson cluster, it was built from scratch in four months by two students, who also created the acrylic casing, more than 60 of the interconnecting cables, and the power supplies by hand, learning about wire stripping, networking, and laser cutters along the way. (Only one small fire was started.) The computer began life as a collection of Jetson Nano modules spread across a desk, using cardboard boxes as "heatsinks," but was upgraded into the current neat acrylic casing using 3D vector files fed into the laser cutter at the university’s makerspace.

“We started this project to demonstrate the nuts and bolts of what goes into a computer cluster,” said Eric Godat, team lead for research and data science in the internal IT organization at SMU. "Our Nvidia DGX SuperPOD just opened up on campus, so we don’t really need this baby supercomputer to be an actual compute environment,” Godat continued. “But the mini cluster is an effective teaching tool for how all this stuff really works — it lets students experiment with stripping the wires, managing a parallel file system, reimaging cards and deploying cluster software.”

The Raspberry Pi of AI, the Jetson Nano features a 64-bit quad-core Arm CPU and a 128-core Nvidia Maxwell GPU, along with 4GB of RAM and USB, Ethernet, HDMI and M.2 sockets. It has a 40-pin GPIO array too, and usually runs a version of Ubuntu that's specially tailored to its hardware. The software environment for the cluster is still a work in progress, being built using Nvidia Jetpack, and will be used for small-scale machine learning tasks. 

The Jetson cluster will be on display at the SC22 supercomputing conference in Dallas, which runs from November 13-18 this year.