Zak Killian
Recent posts
It used to be pretty commonplace, once upon a time; we could flash a different or modified firmware to our graphics cards in search of higher performance than was possible with the stock code. GPU companies started encrypting their...
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Nintendo's Switch 2 and its surprising $449 US price point have a lot of people wondering out loud if they shouldn't simply spend that same money on a Steam Deck or similar handheld. The gaming handheld market is in a radically different...
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One of the key complaints that PC gaming enthusiasts have leveled against Dell's Alienware gaming machines in recent years is their continued use of proprietary components. Things have improved in that regard with the latest generation of...
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Nintendo's Switch console is based on a now-aged NVIDIA Tegra X1 SoC, and it has been rumored for more than a year that the Switch 2 would make use of an updated NVIDIA chip, likely based on the Tegra processor code-named "Orin". We still...
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HP Elite t660 Thin Client: Pricing TBA HP's Elite t660 offers solid performance, plenty of connectivity, and an array of accessories, blurring the lines between a traditional thin client and small form factor edge PC. Impressive...
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Nintendo fully unveiled the Switch 2 today, and if you haven't read our coverage of the system's announcement you should go ahead and do so, as this post assumes you already know about some of those things. If you're in a hurry, the short...
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We all love mini-PCs, don't we? The ability to slap down a little box that fits in the palm of your hand and enjoy modern desktop (or at least laptop) performance is quite compelling, after all. They have their limitations, though, first...
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Back when AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors first came out, enthusiasts theorized that the extra-thick heatspreader used on Socket AM5 CPUs—required to maintain AMD heatsink compatibility that extends all the way back to Socket AM2—would harm...
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When we reviewed the Intel Arc B580, we remarked at that time that we were hopeful Intel would launch a bigger version of that product. The Arc B580 has solid performance (at least, as long as you pair it with a fast CPU) and reasonable...
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What's a 'budget' PC case to you, dear reader? If you're like us, you probably fondly recall a time when you could buy a crappy sheet metal PC case for $35, and it would even come with a really questionable power supply. These days, it's...
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Ever since at least the Ryzen 3000 series, AMD's release schedule for its Ryzen desktop processors has been to launch the enthusiast-focused "X" processors first, followed by the very-slightly neutered "non-X" versions after. The standard...
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The launch of Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be a huge event for the games industry, and even perhaps culture at large. Hype levels are stratospheric, and there's no question that the release of Rockstar's magnum opus will be a "canon...
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If you're of a certain age, you might remember those Maxell cassette tape ads that featured a man in sunglasses in a recliner being literally blown away by the sound coming out of his hi-fi speakers. That's a bit like how we feel as we...
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A fresh leak from familiar self-described "PC Tech Fan" 포시포시 (better known as @harukaze5719 on Xwitter) has revealed details about AMD’s upcoming Gorgon Point mobile APUs. The information comes from a Naver.com article covering an LG Gram × Ryzen launch event, where slides detailing AMD’s...
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If you, faithful Edge, Safari, or Firefox user that you are, have finally decided to give up your futile resistance and be assimilated into the all-consuming swarm of Google Chrome users today, you may have been met with this message on...
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Laptops are one of the most egregious product categories with regards to e-waste. Most laptops are made of almost completely proprietary components that are exclusive to that device, and the chips are generally BGA, meaning it's...
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Did you read our explainer on display technologies? If so, you'll already be well aware of the concept of PPI, or "pixels per inch," which is a more informative measure of "display resolution" than a static value like 1024×768. Typical PC...
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When you read that headline, it probably sounds like former Intel CTO and CEO Gelsinger's got a case of sour grapes. Of course, the man's far more mature and experienced than that. His comments came while speaking to the Acquired podcast...
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It's been six months (yes, really) since we were first introduced to the Zen 5 CPU architecture with the Ryzen 9000 series desktop CPUs, and it's been nearly a year and a half since AMD unveiled the Threadripper Pro 7000 series processors...
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AMD's just launched its Strix Halo high-end mobile APUs, but progress marches ever forward, and so it goes that we are now looking at leaks concerning the Strix successor, supposedly known as Medusa Point. Based on the Zen 6 "Morpheus" CPU...
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Imagine, for a moment, that you had a brand-new M.2 SSD rated for sequential transfers of over 15 GB/second. Obviously, it's the latest design, using four lanes of PCI Express 5.0 to achieve this immense throughput. Alternatively, it could...
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Building out the datacenters—or as NVIDIA calls them, "AI factories"—required for training and operating state-of-the-art AI models is extremely expensive. So much so that even hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft are going to have to...
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