All content archive

February 2026

Filter

Year
Month

239 articles

February 14
- Budget RGB Fan Roundup: Are cheap PC fans always this bad?
- First PCIe 6.0 SSD enters mass production with 28GB/s speeds, 5.5 million IOPS, and liquid cooling — Micron 9650 Series SSDs support air and liquid cooling
- In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud — 'The mud should sound perfectly awful, but it doesn't,' notes the experiment creator
- iFixIt calls BMW’s new anti-consumer security screws 'a logo-shaped middle finger to right to repair,' Adafruit 3D prints a solution — BMW's connector reverse engineered using patent filing as a design blueprint
- AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D vs Ryzen 7 9800X3D faceoff — an extra $30 buys you very little performance
- ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose digital computer, turns 80 years old today — legendary hulking machine was 1,000x faster than its nearest rival
- Newegg is about to drop 64GB of DDR5 for $499, 9850X3D for $399, and more — ridiculous Doorbuster deals are back for Presidents' Day, but you'll only have seconds to buy one
- Save up to $1,250 off an Alienware gaming computer in the President's Day weekend sale — laptop and desktop gaming PCs show massive discounts
- Get a 4K upgrade for $200 with MSI's 144Hz gaming monitor — save $80 on dual-mode display in Newegg's Valentine's Day sale
February 13
- Save up to $1,635 on Lenovo's laptops, desktops, and monitors in the President's Day weekend sale
- The Steam Deck is sold out, but the SteamOS-powered Legion Go S is still available for $50 off — get Lenovo's handheld for $599
- Rapidus targets mass 2nm chip production in 2027, quadruples capacity ramp up — company plans to scale to 25,000 wafer starts per month in just one year
- Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB defies the AI crunch and drops back to $299 MSRP — Navi 44 throws a lifeline for budget gamers
- Wi-Fi 7 promises made, but not kept — the mysteries of MLO and AFC, and looking toward Wi-Fi 8
- U.S., Taiwan ink trade deal after months of talks — agreement cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% in exchange for direct investments on U.S. tech sector, semiconductors still excluded
- Steam to add hardware specs to reviews — optional feature could help you dodge poorly optimized games
- Framework's latest update brings more bad news about memory and storage pricing crisis — RAM costs increased to $12 to $16 per GB, recommends purchasing some models elsewhere for Framework Laptop DIY Edition customers
- Google reports that state hackers from China, Russia and Iran are using Gemini in 'all stages' of attacks — phishing lures, coding and vulnerability testing get AI underpinnings from hostile actors
- Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero Motherboard Review
- Twitch streamer uses electrodes to manipulate balance using electricity — can be used to control a real-life human being with an Xbox controller or joystick, simulate racing game G-force
- WD Green SN3000 1TB SSD Review: A diamond in the rough
- The best Presidents’ Day 2026 gaming PC, laptops, and component deals
- Save $438 on a Ryzen 7 9850X3D, Asus X870, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM — Newegg strikes with another blistering sub-$800 AM5 bundles
- Get 32GB of DDR5-6400 RAM for $150 when you buy the new AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, thanks to this Newegg combo deal
- OpenAI launches GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark on Cerebras chips — marks AI giants first production deployment away from Nvidia
- Tachyum forced to shutter R&D office due to unpaid rent, wages, and taxes — firm still claims forthcoming Prodigy chip will have a 21x performance leap on Nvidia Rubin Ultra
February 12
- Applied Materials to pay $252 million penalty for selling chipmaking tools to banned Chinese firm — settles over alleged 56 tool exports to chipmaker SMIC following Entity List designation
- Nvidia DGX Spark update cuts idle power by 32% or more — hot-plug detection on ConnectX NIC makes for a more efficient AI workstation
- Get up to $470 off in Dell's weekend sale — President's Day prices on popular laptop and desktop PCs
- Corsair fights back against RAM scammers and thieves with packaging shift — ditches iconic yellow boxes for transparent plastic and anti-tampering labels
- Get $139 off Secretlab's gaming chairs and desks this weekend — Presidents' Day sale now live
- Samsung's brand-new QD-OLED tech can double the panel's lifespan — durable 'Penta Tandem' displays can reach up to 1,300 nits of peak brightness
- MyMiniFactory acquires Thingiverse to save 3D printing file sharing from AI — Thingverse has eight million users and 2.5 million 'things'
- MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z review: RTX 5090 Ti, anyone?
- Cadence embeds AI 'super agent' to assist engineers when designing EDA tools — company aims for ‘over a trillion transistors’ by 2030, with AI helping to debug and verify complex projects
- Epic Games brings Secure Boot and TPM to competitive Fortnite — most players unaffected by new measures
- AMD rockets past 35% market share in desktop PC market as Intel's share loss accelerates — AMD also hits 25% in laptops and nears 30% in crucial server market
- Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG 27-inch 5K gaming monitor review: Performance that raises the bar
- Anthropic promises to pay for electricity price increases due to it's AI data centers — firm to pay 100% of its grid infrastructure costs, produce new power sources as sector predicted to hit 50 GW in coming years
- Linux Mint team considers longer gaps between releases in attempt to accelerate development efforts — current six-month cycle means ‘we spend more time testing, fixing, and releasing than developing’
- Montage's strong IPO highlights Chinese investment rush into AI and data center ecosystems — push for self-sufficiency demands immense amounts of capital
- Not all cables are born equal, so test your USB cables with these cheap USB testers — these budget-priced tools help you protect your expensive gear from faulty or bad-quality leads
- This discounted gaming desktop comes with an RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of DDR5, and 2TB of storage for just $2,199 — AMD Ryzen 7 9700X Gigabyte Aorus build now $300 off
- Get 32GB of Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 RAM for $170 when you also purchase the Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor in this Newegg combo deal
- Using AI actually increases burnout despite productivity improvements, study shows — data illustrates how AI made workers take on tasks they would have otherwise avoided or outsourced
- Memory hoarding and skyrocketing prices hit entry-level electronics demand, foundry orders — China's top chipmaker points to supply chain pressures squeezing out consumers
- Unofficial 7-zip.com website served up malware-laden downloads for over a week — infected PCs forced into a proxy botnet
- Enthusiast fries 14TB HDD due to SATA power slipup — bemoans lack of SATA power safety and modular PSU cable standardization
- U.S. lawmakers demand sales ban on chipmaking tools to China — bipartisan group targets ASML's Dutch exports of lithography machines used to create advanced chips
February 11
- Steam Deck availability goes up in smoke — suddenly goes out of stock in US, Asia stores
- President’s Day blowout brings incredible savings on elite gaming PCs — up to $250 discounts on Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 5080 rigs
- Microsoft confirms Windows 11 26H1 will be for Arm devices only at launch — Snapdragon X2-powered devices officially shipping with 26H1
- Best RAM combo deals 2026 – make PC builds and upgrades more affordable with the best RAM bundle deals available
- Intel Nova Lake die sizes leak, signaling higher cost — smaller compute tile still demands higher price on TSMC N2
- MSI Afterburner adds 16-pin power connector warning for its MPG AI PSUs — new update could save your expensive GPU from melting
- Adding AI to sinus surgery system saw malfunctions rocket from eight to 100 incidents, according to new investigation — skull-puncturing errors are the stuff of nightmares
- Our testing shows the Ryzen 7 9800X3D can match the pricier Ryzen 7 9850X3D with simple PBO settings — AMD's latest CPU can't leverage extra clock speed in games
- U.S. government plans tariff exemptions for TSMC, if it follows through on American investment — $165 billion already pledged to increase production capacity, but details of the deal are still murky
- Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Wood Motherboard Review: Wood and leather make it better
- Samsung and SK hynix shorten memory contracts as pricing power shifts back to suppliers — both companies now at 40-50% operating margins
- China's top chipmaker warns that rushed AI data center capacity could remain idle — SMIC chief says utilizing ballooning capacity 'has not been fully thought through'
- Huge $400 saving on Alienware's Aurora gaming PC with 32GB of RAM and an 8GB RTX 5060 Ti — get a capable gaming PC for just $1,399
- Sony will ship its final Blu-ray recorders this month — exit from Japanese market the end of an era for the segment
- Save $458 on this AMD 9850X3D, X870 motherboard and 32GB of RAM bundle at Newegg — start your AM5 PC build for less than $800
- RTX 5090 kicks off the Chinese New Year early with fireworks — $3,299 dream GPU upgrade becomes a fiery nightmare
- A monitor light bar is the most underrated upgrade you can make to your setup — but not all of them are born equal, so here’s how to choose one that fits you
- Microsoft turns to superconductors for distributing power to its AI data centers — zero-resistance cables could reduce power losses and produce zero heat
- South Korean exchange's $40B Bitcoin mistake casts pall over country's fledgling crypto legislation — staffer fat-fingered 620,000 BTC instead of Korean Won
February 10
- AMD's future 'Medusa Halo' APUs could use LPDDR6 RAM — new leak suggests Ryzen AI MAX 500 series could have 80% more memory bandwidth
- Memory makers are set to earn $551 billion from the AI boom, twice as much as contract chip manufacturers — forecasts suggest that 2026 revenue will skyrocket thanks to data center demand
- Ayaneo Next 2 Windows handheld goes official with Ryzen AI Max+ 395 — also features massive 116 Whr battery, and a starting price of $1,799
- White House mulling tariff exemptions for Big Tech — Amazon, Google, Microsoft, other AI hyperscalers to be spared worst of import duties with U.S.-Taiwan deal
- Intel's top-end Nova Lake desktop CPU said to devour up to 700W in PL4 — claimed power draw close to double Arrow Lake
- Microsoft is refreshing Secure Boot certificates to plug security holes before they happen — if you bought a PC last year, you should be set
- Alphabet is doubling its capital expenditure to a staggering $180 billion in 2026 — earnings suggest that the company's AI investments may be paying off
- Oakley Meta HSTN glasses for as little as $339.15 for a limited-time only
- Harvard researchers develop novel 3D printing method for soft robotics — rotational multi-material method creates muscle-like structures that can be programmed to twist, lift, or bend
- TSMC's board approves $45 billion spending package on new fabs — record sign off signals aggressive expansion to grow capacity
- Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial Motherboard Review: Carving out a new top-notch flagship for Asus
- G.Skill settles with plaintiffs following $2.4 million class action lawsuit over advertised memory speeds, denies all wrongdoing — company will have to change its packaging and be clearer about overclocking and BIOS adjustments if approved
- Corsair's Scimitar Elite SE wireless gaming mouse hits a low of $79 — built for MMO gaming and Stream Deck integration
- AMD's open-source openSIL firmware is being ported to Zen 5 motherboard early — replacement for AGESA shows up ahead of Zen 6
- This $899.99 Acer Nitro gaming laptop with Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU is a budget 1080p powerhouse — 16-inch rig boasts huge 32GB DDR5 RAM, fast 180Hz refresh rate, and a 512GB SSD
- Life support build: Breaking all the rules to build a productivity PC beast
- Logitech's Pro X2 Superstrike gaming mouse introduces electromagnetic induction tech, cutting down on latency and adding new features — $179 mouse adds 'Haptic Inductive Trigger' system that allows users to pick actuation levels
February 9
- John Carmack muses using a long fiber line as an L2 cache for streaming AI data — programmer imagines fiber as alternative to DRAM
- Load-balancing Ampinel adapter can save an Nvidia connector meltdown — new adapter is finally on sale after three-month delay
- Intel's new platform for Nova Lake chips leaked, up to 48 PCIe lanes and all-new chipset — 900-series motherboards with LGA1954 socket arrive in late 2026
- Ultra Ethernet: The data-center interconnection of tomorrow detailed
- Torvalds confirms Linux Kernel 7.0 is almost ready for release, bringing many performance improvements with it — desktop use and gaming may see boost, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS hopes to use as default Kernel
- Claimed 1,100% increase in AI-driven layoffs in 2025 might be misleading — firms accused of exaggerating AI performance to downplay poor business performance
- Don't miss this amazing XFX Mercury RX 9070XT GPU deal for just $649.99 — the cheapest AMD Radeon GPU in its class by $69
- AI.com's $85 million Super Bowl ad campaign falls foul as traffic crashes servers — the campaign allegedly cost $15 million for the ads, $70 million for the domain name
- US Air Force bans use of smart glasses among its troops — earphones and other Bluetooth devices also limited to official duties while in uniform
- Taiwan rejects possibility of transferring 40% of the island's semiconductor capacity to U.S. — production on Taiwan expected to increase in lockstep with increases in U.S.-based production
- Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus makes its Geekbench debut with 5.3 GHz boost clocks — Arrow Lake refresh SKU benchmarked in single- and multi-core tests
- Nvidia now produces three times as much code as before AI — specialized version of Cursor is being used by over 30,000 Nvidia engineers internally
- MSI Roamii BE Pro Wi-Fi 7 mesh router review: Attractive pricing and strong tri-band performance
- Grab this fast dual-mode 27-inch Asus gaming monitor for less than $340 — new record-low price for IPS panel capable of refresh rates up to 160Hz at 4K and 320Hz at 1080p
- 8BitDo's Retro 87 Mecha Break: Panther edition hits an all-time low of $59 at Amazon — with Kailh Glaze Jellyfish Pro linear switches for smooth gaming
- Can desktop recycling fix the 3D Printer waste problem?
- Intel quietly kills controversial 'pay as you go' chip licensing initiative — Software Defined Silicon GitHub repository was archived in November 2025, allegedly signaling the end of active development
February 8
- 3D printing with one of the world’s hardest Tungsten-based materials is now possible — material’s incredible hardness made it difficult to additively manufacture
- Distinctive Hyte X50 mid-tower case drops to a $129.99 all-time low on Amazon — premium, curved-glass, chassis with top-tier airflow goes on sale
- This Xbox One S mod hides a full Windows gaming PC within the original shell — sleek design retains a working optical drive
- Nvidia says it didn't use pirated books to train its AI models — company asking for Anna's Archive suit to be dismissed
- Key to ultra-dense next-gen data storage could be a new magnetic state found in twisted 2D materials — German researchers reveal 'super‑moiré' magnetic milestone
- Retro Apple Mac mod implements thermal printer floppy swap — machine also benefits from a Mac Mini brain transplant
- G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 2x64GB Review: The Sweet Spot For 128GB
- Developer creates real-time 3D shader demo for the Game Boy Color — you can download the ROM or interact with the 3D teapot online
- Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo studio Blizzard Entertainment hits 35 years old — marks its first milestone under Microsoft Gaming
February 7
- OLED gaming monitor shows only light burn-in after 3,000-hour torture test — 500 hours of Overwatch gameplay leaves a faint scar on the premium panel
- Microsoft purges Windows 11 printer drivers, putting millions of devices on borrowed time — legacy printers face extinction as Microsoft stops distributing V3 and V4 drivers
- Intel XeSS 3 MFG mod triples Arc A380 triples performance in Cyberpunk 2077 — supercharged 6GB GPU pumps out 140 FPS at 1080p on low preset
- Snag this premium WD Black SN850 2TB for a mere $199 while it lasts — 2TB SSD hits lowest price in months
- Intel's Arrow Lake Refresh judgment day is reportedly on March 23 — missing Core Ultra 9 290K Plus from U.S. retailer listings spurs cancellation rumor
- 3D printing legend Josef Prusa takes emergency command of Printed Solid after CEO exit — Prusa holds the fort as successor hunt begins
- MSI's RTX 5090 Lightning storms in at a thunderous $5,200 — limited edition GPU shatters everything from world records to your bank account
- Builder's dream PC case vanished from stores, so they 3D printed a masterpiece and shared the design — SFF case benchmarked, recreated to fit new GeForce RTX 50-series GPU
- 20-gigawatt Chinese microwave weapon touted as ‘Starlink’s worst nightmare’ by country's media — portable 5-ton device can deliver full-minute destructive bursts
- Crypto disaster sends $44 billion in bitcoins to random users — exchange accidentally makes funds vanish thanks to a typo
- Minisforum MS-02 Ultra mini workstation hands-on — can it replace my hulking desktop PC that is 11 times larger?
- Asus ProArt PA32KCX 32-inch 8K professional monitor review: A reference for color, pixel density, and brightness
- Legendary Windows dev codes demos and games for ancient ‘War Games’ monitor — interfaces with the HP1345a vector display using an ESP32 microcontroller
- Dutch authorities allegedly seize VPN server without a warrant — company claims that law enforcement will return it after analyzing the device fully
- Nitrogen ransomware programmers lock themselves out of a payment — key management bug encrypts victims' data forever
- Security researcher says AMD auto-updater downloads software insecurely, enabling remote code execution — company rep reportedly said man-in-the-middle attacks are "out of scope," ignored bug
- Sandisk's rebranded Optimus SSDs now available at eye-watering $999 for 2TB, $1,799 for 4TB — Optimus brings a 5% MSRP over previous models, but WD Black predecessors can still be found for less
- Intel Panther Lake handheld chips reportedly delayed until Q2 2026 — alleged 'Core G3' series might launch alongside new Arc B360 and Arc B380 iGPUs
- I stuck with the same PC controller brand for four years – here's what to look for in your next gamepad
- Thermalright's LCD software for Windows ported to Linux — enthsuiast's full-fledged port supports a ton of models and enables RGB and LCD customization
February 6
- Semiconductor industry on track to hit $1 trillion in sales in 2026, SIA predicts — bumper forecast follows $791.7 billion haul for 2025
- China broadens its crackdown on cryptocurrencies — expands ban to include real-world asset tokenization, crypto ads, and providing network traffic for crypto activities
- Big Tech stocks take a $1 trillion tumble as projected AI spending continues to outweigh revenue — investors are antsy about long-term planning becoming never-ending spending
- Amazon's European data centers challenged by grid delays — up to seven year waits for new connections
- CPU scaling with DLSS — investigating CPU performance in the age of upscaling
- Infineon allegedly hikes prices of power switches and ICs amid AI boom — knock-on pricing could impact virtually all electronic devices
- Lucky scavenger finds $1,300 worth of SSDs for just $210 in Walmart's clearance aisle — haul includes two 2TB WD SN770, a 2TB Samsung T5 Evo, and a 1 TB PNY CS2241
- TSMC is on track to have more employees than Intel for the first time in history — TSMC's explosive growth stands in contrast to Intel's rapid contraction
- Intel, AMD server CPUs reportedly suffering from supply shortages in China, leading to increased prices — sources say orders could be delayed by as much as 6 months
- MSI MEG X870E Ace Max Motherboard Review: A second Ace up MSI’s AM5 sleeve?
- The high-speed Bambu Lab P1S is back in stock at its record-low $399 price — save $300 on enclosed Core XY 3D printer with quick assembly for beginners
- Noctua celebrates sending out its 500,000th CPU cooler mounting upgrade kit — milestone marks two decades of the free program
- PNY CS2342 2TB SSD Review: High-Capacity TLC Performance In M.2 2230
- AMD's 96-core beast with watercooling engraved into CPU joins car and industrial parts in a 2,000W direct die cooling setup — $12,000 CPU runs at 5.3 GHz, devours 1,300W, and still runs cooler than your gaming PC
- One-third of consumers reject AI on their devices, with most saying they simply don’t need it — latest report highlights privacy fears and potential costs among other real-world concerns
- Russian 'Inspector' spacecraft intercepted communications from a dozen European satellites, report claims — fears Moscow could even manipulate trajectories or crash satellites
- Get up to 72% off Razer gaming keyboards, 67% off headsets at Woot — save big thanks to this PC accessories blowout
- Extend the life of your favorite gaming headset for less than $25 — replace those crusty earpads, and maybe get a headband cover
- Adafruit pushes back against NY state’s sweeping ban on 3D printing guns — suggests amendments to ‘preserve the public safety goal without breaking education, open hardware, or small manufacturers’
February 5
- Razer Boomslang 20th anniversary edition is as l33t a mouse as they come, for a princely $1,337 — legacy lives on two decades onwards
- Report claims Nvidia will not be releasing any new RTX gaming GPUs in 2026, RTX 60 series likely debuting in 2028
- Yet another Windows update is wreaking havoc on gaming rigs worldwide — Nvidia recommends uninstalling Windows 11 KB5074109 January update to prevent framerate drops and artifacting
- Leading PC manufacturers considering using Chinese memory chips, report claims — HP and Dell qualifying CXMT DRAM, Acer and Asus asking Chinese partners to source locally-made memory chips
- Anycubic Kobra X Review: Hidden AMS
- Jim Keller's Tenstorrent is downgrading Blackhole p150 cards from 140 to 120 tensor cores via firmware update — will ship cards with 120 tensor cores going forward, company claims existing users should expect 1-2% performance drop
- ASRock issues statement concerning yet another round of Ryzen 9000 CPU failures — motherboard vendor says it is 'working in seamless coordination' with AMD to investigate
- Fractal Design's new North and North XL Momentum Edition cases sport stealthy black wood slats, promise quieter fans – XL model also supports back-connector motherboards
- Secure a snappy gaming PC with an RTX 5060 and 16GB of DDR5 RAM for just $959 — MSI Codex R2 rig handles 1080p gameplay with a 10-core Intel CPU and 1TB of storage
- Tesla's robotics ambitions rest on the knife-edge of US-China trade relations due to its supply chain — the majority of critical materials and suppliers are located in China
- Asus RT-BE58 Go Wi-Fi 7 travel router review: A versatile, dual-band Wi-Fi 7 travel companion
- Intel clawed back CPU market share from AMD in the Steam Hardware survey for the first time in months — PC component crisis could be pushing builders to value-for-money builds
- Grab this 360Hz 27-inch Samsung Odyssey OLED gaming monitor for its lowest ever price of just $564.99 — save a massive $335 off the retail price of the G60SD in this limited time Woot sale
- Epic knows its launcher 'sucks' and is fully rebuilding it — faster, more stable client is on the way with player profiles and extended social features
- DLSS Ray Reconstruction might be living on borrowed time, DLSS 4.5 can reconstruct ray-traced reflections almost perfectly without any denoisers
- Western Digital details 14-platter 3.5-inch HAMR HDD designs with 140 TB and beyond
- Valve delays Steam Machine and says it is reconsidering pricing — critical component shortage and costs behind the move
- Modern NVMe SSD meets vintage PCI slot in quirky experiment — M.2 drive shows storage speeds worth dying for back in the '90s
- How to store your headsets and keyboards
- $40 million worth of crypto stolen from Step Finance — hackers compromise executives’ devices to gain illicit access
- Meta promo codes for Feb 2026 | Exclusive 5% OFF
February 4
- Save nearly 50% off on this thin-and-light laptop on Best Buy — Snapdragon X-powered Asus Vivobook 14 now on sale for just $379.99
- PC vendor warns of upcoming price hikes due to SSD and memory volatility — PowerGPU to pass costs to customers once existing inventory depletes
- The new Valve Steam Machine is 'on track' to begin shipping early this year, says AMD — CEO suggests new 4K mini gaming PC, powered by semi-custom Zen 4 CPU, to launch soon
- ‘Most of you steal your software’ — Bill Gates complained about software piracy 50 years ago, and was openly irked by community's Altair BASIC ‘theft’
- Cornell research shows that underwater 3D printing can be used to build or repair ocean structures in place — DARPA-funded project aims to make underwater construction faster, cheaper, and safer
- GMKtec Evo X2 AI Mini PC review: Compact Strix Halo Powerhouse
- China’s CXMT and YMTC to increase memory output — two new fabs could close the gap with the ‘big three’
- Grab this 27-inch Acer Nitro gaming monitor for a record-low $199.99 — save $100 on IPS display with an ultra-fast 300Hz refresh rate
- Apple's latest 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 with 24GB of RAM is only $1499 — the lowest price we've seen and $300 cheaper than buying direct from Apple
- Gamer scores Nvidia’s $999 powerhouse RTX 5080 for a jaw-dropping $562 — the Walmart clearance aisle is the secret weapon to beat the AI-driven GPU shortage (Updated)
- These two outstanding Thunderbolt 4 Docks add versatility to my laptop and desktop PC
- HetCCL makes clustered Nvidia and AMD AI accelerators play nice with each other via RDMA — vendor-agnostic collective communications library removes an obstacle to heterogeneous AI data centers
- Western Digital reveals new software platform to manage hundreds of petabytes of storage — as-yet-unnamed tool gives users powerful management capabilities at the price of lock-in
- Corsair Galleon 100 SD Review: A gaming keyboard and Stream Deck collide; combo is good, but is it necessary?
- Researchers use agentic AI to monitor and correct 3D prints — system catches errors in real time, uses modular design to work on different makes and models
February 3
- AMD CEO downplays PC memory crunch, saying 'our focus areas are enterprise' — company wants to focus on growing 'higher-end of the market'
- AMD reveals next-gen Xbox could launch in 2027 — CEO says semi-custom SoC ready to 'support launch in 2027'
- Purported Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs might bring extra performance with no price premium — early retailer listings show practically no price hike for some Core Ultra 200K Plus chips
- China-made Loongson 12-core chip is approximately three times slower than six-core Ryzen 5 9600X — 3B6000 hampered by low clock speeds in Linux benchmarks
- DDR5 RAM pricing begins to stabilize in Germany, January saw only a 0.1% increase — Some kits even saw price cuts as volatility begins to plateau
- Western Digital doubles the performance of hard drives with dual-actuator High-Bandwidth, with path to 8X performance increase — Power-Optimized HDDs will reduce power by 20 percent
- Western Digital unveils massive 40TB HDD with energy-assisted recording tech — plans 100TB HAMR hard drives by 2029
- Intel is co-developing new Z-Angle Memory to compete with HBM used in AI data centers — vertically-stacked memory touts 2 to 3x more capacity, greater bandwidth, and half the power consumption
- MSI MAG Pro X870E-P Wifi Motherboard review: Designed for productivity, but not a standout
- Snag this 4K-capable gaming PC with an RTX 5070 Ti and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for less than $2,000 — a 26% saving on a powerhouse of a rig equipped with Intel's 24-core CPU and a 2TB SSD
- Snap up 32GB of Crucial Pro Overclocking RAM for $325.99 — the cheapest available DDR5-6000 kit for hitting AMD's sweetspot
- AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPUs begin to appear in the Steam Hardware Survey at last — RX 9070 arrives with paltry 0.16% market share, less than the GeForce GT 730
- SpaceX acquires xAI in a bid to make orbiting data centers a reality — Musk plans to launch a million tons of satellites annually, targets 1TW/year of space-based compute capacity
- ZX Spectrum flies simulated spacecraft using BASIC, Python, and serial — Kerbal Space Program Lunar lander powered by 1980s hardware
- Still using or redeploying an older PC during today’s RAM crisis? A new power supply could save you from an insane repair bill
- Photonics and high-speed data movement is the next big AI bottleneck — following copper, power, DRAM, and NAND
- Notepad++ update server hijacked in targeted attacks — outfit claims Chinese state-sponsored hackers may be to blame
- Frankenstein RTX 5070 Ti with an RTX 2080 Ti PCB breaks world record with extreme modding — card was damaged, salvaged with AMD donor parts and lots of soldered wires and tape
February 2
- Intel returns to boxed workstation CPUs with Xeon 600 — Granite Rapids WS delivers up to 86 cores, 4TB of memory, and 128 PCIe 5 lanes
- Apple concedes it is constrained by TSMC's supply of advanced chips; storage and memory are also in short supply — firm isn't projecting supply conditions beyond the second quarter
- Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron work to block memory hoarding — prices might rise faster, but it could help encourage increased supply long term
- Trump administration plans $12bn critical minerals stockpile to offset China supply risk — initiative to create 60-day reserve of rare earths for electronics manufacturing
- Fake Samsung 990 Pro passes basic checks but runs slower than a USB 2.0 drive — counterfeit SSDs proliferate as NAND shortage creates the perfect storm for bogus deals
- Intel mandates at least 7,467 MT/s RAM speed for Panther Lake — Slower memory will relabel the Arc B370 & B390 iGPUs as generic "Intel Graphics" in Task Manager
- Binning results from 13 Ryzen 7 9850X3Ds prove that the CPU is purely an overclocked 9800X3D from the factory — 9850X3D looks similar to 9800X3D, just with higher voltages
- AI infrastructure surge begins squeezing Apple’s component costs — company considering supplier other than TSMC for lower-end chips, report claims
- Intel's upcoming Core Ultra 9 290K Plus appears on Geekbench with chart-topping scores — Arrow Lake refresh beats the 285K by ~10% across single- and multithreaded tests
- AMD adopts FRED together with Intel for Zen 6 architecture — replacement for decades-old IDT can improve performance and stability
- Raspberry Pi 5 price increases drastically as AI shortage bites, 16GB version now $205 — second price increase in three months, over 70% more expensive than original MSRP
- Modder more than doubles Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's memory with massive 64GB RAM upgrade — advanced soldering and BIOS modification unlock more capacity
- Get a 43-inch Samsung 4K Smart UHD display for $299.99 — at $200 off, the M7 M70F is at its lowest price ever
- Developer creates 'conversational AI' that can run in 64kb of RAM on 1976 Zilog Z80 CPU-powered system — features a tiny chatbot and a 20-question guessing game
- Lexar Play SE 4TB SSD Review: The oddball of the bunch
- Walmart slices $200 off the price of MSI's RTX 5070-powered Katana 15 HX — get crisp visuals and a 165Hz QHD display for just $1299
- RayNeo Air 3s Pro AR glasses review: A meaningful usability upgrade for already stellar glasses
- Jensen Huang warns TSMC needs to 'work very hard' to meet AI demand — Nvidia CEO says its demand alone may force doubling its capacity over the next decade
- Grab a speedy 256GB Samsung USB-C flash drive for just $24.99 — save 52% on tiny waterproof storage for your important files and photos with speeds of up to 400 MB/s
- Homebrew developer runs real-time ray tracing test on 1994 Sega Saturn — ancient hardware's untapped power revealed, more refinements to come
- Smart ways to help your PC survive through the PC component pricing apocalypse — check temps, replace old AIOs and PSUs, keep an eye on your boot drive's TBW, and more
February 1
- Former Google engineer convicted of stealing GPU and TPU trade secrets for 'Chinese interests' — tried to raise funding for his own start-up
- Chinese researchers discover new salty cooling solution that can drop temperatures by more than 50 degrees Celsius in seconds — depressurizing saturated fluid triggers massive amounts of heat transfer
- Save 47% on Samsung's 32-inch 1440p 180Hz gaming monitor as it drops to its cheapest price ever — Get your hands on the Odyssey G5 G50D for just $229 on Amazon
- SpaceX formalizes plan to build 1 million satellite Orbital Data Center System — FCC filing sketches out plans, but over-packed orbits could be limiting factor
- Asus ROG Strix GS-BE18000 Wi-Fi 7 gaming router review: Good overall performance and a wealth of LAN ports
- Researcher builds bizarre 128-byte USB drive the size of a dinner plate using ancient pre-semiconductor magnetic core memory technology — data disappears once it is read, requiring special handling
- Starlink uses emergency fix to block Russian drones using its devices to bomb Ukraine — company looking for permanent solutions to stop unauthorized use of its service
- Open source IDE-ATAPI drive emulator launches for vintage computers — drop-in 3.5-inch bay solution can save oodles of optical and HDD images to a microSD
- Shanghai scientists create computer chip in fiber thinner than a human hair, yet can withstand crushing force of 15.6 tons — fiber packs 100,000 transistors per centimeter
- Intel ties AMD for most reliable CPUs in 2025 system builder report — Nvidia's Founders Edition GPUs dominate with the lowest failure rates
- Malicious OpenClaw ‘skill’ targets crypto users on ClawHub — 14 malicious skills were uploaded to ClawHub last month
- The Intel 286 CPU was introduced on this day in 1982 — 16-bit x86 chip introduced protected mode memory, and would power the IBM PC/AT and a tidal wave of clones
- Japanese art museum intros $15 bookmarks made from PCBs — the PCB traces form a miniature Tokyo Metro map
- US Marine Corps develops first 3D printed drone with no China-sourced parts, dubbed HANX — modular design makes it quick to adapt from reconnaissance to one-way attack, and other duties