This budget-focused desktop gaming PC is on sale for a steal at Walmart. Right now, you can save a tidy $350 when you purchase the ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC for just $849. A superb deal when you consider the current pricing for PC hardware in general. The original list price of the Cyclone Aqua was $1,199.99, so you're saving just shy of 30% and getting a current-generation graphics card to bring all the latest games to life on your screen.

● Grab this deal at Walmart

This particular SKU of the Cyclone Aqua gaming PC from ABS includes an Intel Core 5 Processor 120 (6-core, 12-thread CPU), an Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card with 8GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. This is a DDR4 memory system, which does date the PC a little, but it also means that getting hold of any extra RAM is also much, much cheaper.

Because this system uses an RTX 5060 inside, you have access to Nvidia's latest DLSS upscaling and multi-frame generation software technology. This helps lower-end systems get a lot more grunt out of their combined parts. The ABS Cyclone Aqua will tear through games at 1080p, but if you want to step up to 1440p resolutions, you may need a little help to reach higher and more stable frame rates. See our GPU Hierarchy chart for where the RTX 5060 sits in comparison to the performance of other graphics cards at 1080p resolution.

The wallet-friendly price of the ABS Cyclone Aqua means you get to spend more money on games, helping to make the most of the PC. Even though this may be a budget-oriented PC, it still comes with all the valuable features you'd like from a modern PC. There's built-in WiFi for easy network connectivity, and plenty of USB ports for your peripherals on both the front and rear IO of the case.

HP’s HyperX Omen 35L is ambitious, and it’s hard not to be impressed by it in our maxed-out test guise with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Nvidia RTX 5080. From its monochrome design and extensive RGB lighting to its top-tier components, it checks the boxes enthusiasts are looking for.

But when a PC is $6,211 like our test configuration, it raises the question of whether the Omen 35L’s blend of style, performance, and premium features is enough to justify a purchase, even if that's what high-end PCs cost right now.

Design of the HyperX Omen 35L

The HyperX Omen 35L’s black and white case stands out, looking refreshingly modern, even though parent company HP has used similar designs before. At 8.27 by 16.06 by 16.14 inches, it’s firmly in mid-tower territory. The metal case feels reassuringly solid and makes extensive use of tempered glass. Bright RGB fans shine through the front while many RGB-lit components are visible through the side panel. It’s a classy system.

The contrast continues inside, where the black motherboard, graphics card, and power supply are easily visible against the white case. The white liquid cooling loops are especially attractive, as is the CPU cooler featuring its own LCD panel. The latter shows CPU and GPU temperatures.

HyperX Omen 35L Specifications

Ports and Upgradeability on the HyperX Omen 35L

HyperX’s top-mounted front ports include USB-C (10 Gbps), two USB-A (5 Gbps), and an audio combo jack. This location works well if the desktop is on the floor.

At the back, the tower offers a pair of USB-C ports (10 Gbps), two USB-A (5 Gbps), four USB 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4 output, Ethernet, and audio jacks. It’s disappointing to see a desktop this expensive offers neither USB4 nor Thunderbolt 4, though it does include Wi-iFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 from a Realtek 8922AE networking card. The wireless antennas are built into the chassis, eliminating the need for external protrusions. It’s also notable that HP offers a Clear CMOS button, a surprise on a mainstream tower.

The HyperX Omen 35L offers about as much upgradeability as expected from a mid-tower, without proprietary parts. Its side doors are secured with thumbscrews; the slide rearward and away. The mATX-style motherboard offers four DDR5 DIMM slots, populated in our review unit with two 32GB RGB HyperX modules running at 6,000 MHz.

The system also supports two M.2 2280 drives. The primary slot is covered in a substantial heatsink just above the RTX 5080. Accessing the other slot requires removing the RTX 5080. The card is secured with five screws, two of which hold it to the front support bracket. Deft fingers are required to reinstall the screws at the back of the card.

HP’s wiring work is tidy for a mainstream tower. Sleeved cables would have improved the refinement. On the plus side, HP includes a fully modular power supply, an uncommon feature in big box systems.

Gaming and Graphics on the HyperX Omen 35L

We tested the HyperX Omen 35L in a maxed-out configuration featuring a Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor, 64GB of RAM, and a GeForce RTX 5080.

I fired up 007 First Light to test out this system’s prowess. At a 3840 x 2160 resolution with high settings and post effects enabled, I saw up to 120 frames per second (fps) indoors and in the mid-90 fps range in more complex scenes without DLSS. The game never stuttered and remained supremely playable.

The systems we’re using for comparison include a pair of RTX 5090 towers, the Alienware Area-51 (Ryzen 9950X3D, $5,749.99 when tested, $8,899.99 as of this writing) and the Maingear MG-1 (Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, $7,067 when tested, $9,076 as of this writing), plus Corsair’s Vengeance a7500 powered by a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and an RTX 5070 Ti ($2,799.99 when tested, $3,299.99 as of this writing). With its RTX 5080, the HyperX desktop ought to slot in the middle of this group.

The HyperX desktop performed as expected given its RTX 5080. That said, the 1080p numbers show significant variance from system to system. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest detail preset), the HyperX produced 300 fps to outperform even the Alienware (248 fps), though it couldn’t catch the Maingear (355 fps). In other instances, even the RTX 5070-powered Corsair was able to pull ahead as seen in Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings), where it produced 197 fps against the HyperX’s 141 fps.

But these desktops are designed for 4K play. At that resolution, the HyperX’s RTX 5080 produced admirable numbers. Naturally, it wasn’t in the same league as the RTX 5090 systems; in Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings), the HyperX produced 83 fps against the Alienware’s 122 fps and the Maingear’s 121 fps, and in Borderlands 3 (Badass settings), the HyperX landed at 115 fps against Alienware’s 166 fps and Maingear’s 186 fps. The differences narrowed in Far Cry 6, with the HyperX producing 118 fps to Alienware’s 128 fps. The largest deltas were seen in Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra preset), where the HyperX produced 36 fps, well ahead of the Corsair’s 29 fps, but significantly behind the Alienware’s 55 fps. Overall, though, this HyperX desktop is well-suited to 4K play.

We stress-test gaming desktops running 15 loops of the Metro Exodus benchmark at RTX settings, simulating about half an hour of gameplay. During the test, the HyperX desktop averaged 172.21 fps across all runs with a sub-one fps variance, indicating stable performance. During the test, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D averaged 4.79 GHz and 48 degrees Celsius while the RTX 5080 ran at 2.74 GHz and 50 C.

Productivity Performance on the HyperX Omen 35L

Our HyperX test unit features a Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor, 64GB of RAM, and two 1TB PCIe 5.0 drives running separately, one hosting the OS andthe other for storage.

Featuring the same Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor, the HyperX and Alienware systems performed similarly across our CPU tests. In Geekbench 6, the HyperX system produced 19,923 points against Alienware’s 20,411 points, though it was handily outperformed by the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2-powered Maingear, at 23,741 points. With fewer cores, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D-powered Corsair finished last, at 18,124 points.

The HyperX desktop finished our Handbrake 4K-to-1080p video transcoding test in 1 minute and 47 seconds, tying the Alienware, though the Maingear edged ahead, at 1:32. The Corsair took nearly twice as long, at 3:02.

In our 25GB file transfer test, the HyperX’s average transfer speed of 3,197.42 MBps was excellent, just behind Alienware’s 3,414.29 MBps and ahead of the Corsair’s 2,659.94 MBps and Maingear’s 2,782.43 MBps.

Software and Warranty on the HyperX Omen 35L

HP includes several useful apps. Omen Gaming Hub app provides performance control, with per-fan RPM settings and, in Extreme mode, PPT and EDC settings for the Ryzen 9 CPU. The Advanced Performance Tuning section also provides PBO, CPU Boost, and voltage curve controls plus a benchmark to test your settings. For quick access, the app provides an overlay that shows your power profiles and system monitoring, including component temperatures and fan speeds.

Gaming Hub also provides customization of the LCD display on the liquid cooler. Many faces are available, from system monitoring to static images, GIFs, videos, and a clock. It seems simple, but it’s one of the most fun features of the system, allowing you to easily change up the look.

Lighting is managed through Omen Light Studio, which provides per-device RGB control. Fine control is possible – each of the five fans has 10 LEDs, which are individually selectable. Clicking and dragging selects multiple fans and LEDs at a time, to which you can apply preconfigured light recipes – Galaxy, Ocean, Jungle, Volcano, and Omen – and apply an effect, such as wave, static, ambient, breathing, color cycle, an audio visualizer, and radial. The speed and direction of the effect is also configurable. You can also create layered effects and save everything in profiles that you can export or import. HP covers the HyperX Omen 35L with a standard one-year warranty.

HyperX Omen 35L Configurations

We tested the HyperX Omen 35L with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor, 64GB of dual-channel DDR5-6000 RAM, GeForce RTX 5080 graphics, Windows 11 Pro, and two 1TB PCIe 5.0 solid-state drives. The system uses a 1,000W power supply and a 240 mm liquid CPU cooling with a built-in LCD display. This configuration represents the top of the stack, retailing for $6,210.98.

The entry-level is probably where the Omen 35L offers the least value – with standard liquid cooling and a modular power supply, this system is for premium builds. AMD-based starter configurations begin at $2,399.99 with a Ryzen 5 9600X or $2,589.99 with an Intel Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus. Standard components include a GeForce RTX 5060 Ti (8GB), 16GB of memory, and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 storage. Memory tops out at 128GB and two SSDs are supported up to 2TB each.

Bottom Line

Primarily, the HyperX Omen 35L gets one thing right: it feels genuinely premium. Its sharp black-and-white design, quality lighting, quiet operation, and enthusiast-grade components like a modular power supply give it the polish it needs to compete against boutique builders and aftermarket systems. Its performance in our test system with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D and an RTX 5080 match the expectations for this lofty price point.

That said, it’s clear that this desktop is aimed at the more premium side of the market, as prices of the entry-level configurations are difficult to justify given their level of hardware. But if you have deep enough pockets for a well-equipped configuration, the HyperX Omen 35L is a highly compelling gaming desktop well worth considering alongside anything the market has to offer.

You don't have to settle for huge price rises in the PC hardware market. Thanks to Newegg, there's a $1,250 discount right now on a 4K-capable Alienware Aurora DACT1250 gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for $2,599.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

This is Dell's premium brand for gamers and, as you can expect from a premium brand, the prices are usually towards the top end. The $1,250 discount here means you'll be saving a huge sum on a gaming PC with serious firepower for 4K gameplay, putting it at a much better price than you would get elsewhere. This DACT1250 model also comes with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285 CPU and a 1TB SSD for storage.

Front and center here is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This is one of Nvidia's newest Blackwell GPUs but, more importantly, it's the third most powerful consumer GPU of Nvidia's current-gen lineup. It has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a bigger 256-bit memory bus. This is a card that'll smash through 1080p with the highest frame rates, taking you up to 1440p and 4K with ease.

The VRAM boost to 16GB is important because it means your PC has the opportunity to switch up to 1440p or 4K and run games at high and even graphic presets at those resolutions. 4K, especially with ray tracing switched on, might require a few tweaks to your settings, or involve you falling back on Nvidia DLSS with multi-frame generation for an AI-helped uplift, adding extra frames into the mix for smoother gameplay. The Bench charts and our GPU benchmarks place the RTX 5070 Ti pretty highly compared to rival GPUs.

For the CPU, you're getting the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 here. It ships with 24 cores, eight of which are performance cores, which'll be good for high-performance gaming. You also get 16 efficient cores for multi-threaded tasks. Unlike the 285K, the 285 is locked, meaning you can't overclock it. You get clock speeds as high as 5.7 GHz with the performance cores in action here, though. This Arrow Lake CPU hasn't been a big hitter in the gaming world, admittedly, but the raw power of the RTX 5070 Ti is still formidable, and should help to compensate.

Elsewhere, though, you're getting 32GB of DDR5 memory, so you won't see a bottleneck as far as system RAM is concerned. There's also a 1TB SSD included here, giving you space for a few big games alongside a Windows installation on the same drive.

The $1,250 saving on this pre-built Alienware Aurora DACT1250 gaming PC is a serious bargain, and it means you'll only pay $2,599.99 compared to the original $3,849.99 list price. The RTX 5070 Ti in this build means you've got a GPU ready for 4K gaming, with specs that should keep you going for years to come.

If you ever wanted to own your own supercomputer or data center while earning eBay cashback, Core 4 Solutions has the perfect opportunity. The company is selling a 300-rack AI supercomputer on eBay for $59.7 million, complete with $50 overnight shipping, or free shipping if you're willing to go with FedEx Ground. The cluster packs 9,600 Nvidia A100 accelerators and 4,200 AMD EPYC Rome 64-core processors, enough to jump-start your own sovereign AI nation.

Nvidia and AMD have moved to newer architectures like Blackwell, Vera Rubin, and EPYC Turin. Nonetheless, A100 (codenamed Ampere) accelerators and EPYC Rome processors remain highly relevant for many computing tasks, including AI, machine learning, and scientific research. With the modern Blackwell and Vera Rubin racks from Nvidia, like the GB300 NVL72 and VR200 NVL72, costing up to $6.5 million and $7.8 million per unit, respectively, the A100 has turned into a legitimate budget alternative that can also circumvent the long waitlists and supply chain delays on Nvidia's newer AI hardware.

The cluster's sheer specifications are truly jaw-dropping. Each rack has four compute nodes and three management nodes. Each compute node has two AMD EPYC Rome 64-core processors, eight Nvidia A100 40GB SXM4 accelerators, and 1TB of DDR4-2933 memory. The management nodes are no less impressive. Each features two EPYC 64-core chips and 192GB of DDR4 memory.

When you sum it all up, the cluster comprises up to 9,600 A100 accelerators and 4,200 AMD EPYC Rome processors. With 64 Zen 2 execution cores per chip, the entire cluster boasts 268,800 cores. Memory capacity is equally impressive, with up to 1,401.6 TB or 1.4 petabytes for the entire cluster.

At first glance, $59.7 million sounds like a fortune, and it certainly is, but it seems like a reasonable valuation for the cluster. A rough estimate would be about $24 million for the A100S, $3 million for the EPYC Rome chips, and about $1.1 million for the DDR4 memory. That is about $28.1 million in crucial components, before factoring in other hardware like racks, cooling, power supplies, Nvidia Mellanox ConnectX-6 SmartNICs, etc.

Listing a 300-rack supercomputing cluster on eBay sounds absurd, but given today's AI-driven world, it is not as surprising as it may seem. After all, a broker once sold a 405-foot luxury Gigayacht for $168 million on eBay, so there is no reason why Core 4 Solutions cannot move a $59.7 million cluster. As AI farms and data centers expand, some enterprise clients out there will recognize the value and opportunity in the listing.

Shipping that many racks will be a logistics nightmare, and as funny as it sounds, Core 4 Solutions offers free local pickup or FedEx Ground delivery directly to your home. There is even an option to pay for a $25 two-day or $50 overnight delivery. Imagine FedEx casually dropping off 300 server racks at your front porch.

The cluster seems to have already drawn attention, with 11 people reportedly watching the eBay listing and one prospective buyer already letting it sit in their cart. I guess the real question is not whether it will sell, but whether the buyer will choose $50 overnight shipping.

AI has forced PC component prices up with no slowdown in sight over the last year. While building your own might be expensive, pre-built gaming PCs continue to offer the best value in many cases. With that in mind, you could secure a huge $1,070 discount on an Alienware Aurora gaming PC at Newegg right now, featuring an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 32GB DDR5 RAM for $2,199.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

Dell's premium Alienware gaming brand usually comes with a price premium compared to budget or no-brand models. With this $1,070 discount applied, you're getting a rig for 4K-capable gaming at a fairer price than you would get by buying from Dell directly. Alongside the RTX 5070, this ACT1250 model ships with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF processor and a 1TB SSD.

The GPU is often the big-selling feature in a gaming PC. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, you're getting one of Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs with 6,144 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a 192-bit memory bus. What that means for gaming is that you've got a card that will smash through high frame rates, even with the highest graphics presets, at 1080p.

At 1440p, you're also going to see good performance, although the most demanding games might need a drop down or two. You can also fall back to using Nvidia DLSS with multi-frame generation for an uplift, powered by AI to add extra frames into the mix for smoother gameplay, especially if you want to game at 4K. Our GPU benchmarks show that the RTX 5070 is a strong option compared to its rivals, offering slightly better performance than the RTX 4070 it replaces.

You're getting an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF CPU with this build. This is a 20-core Arrow Lake CPU with 20 cores, with eight good-for-gaming performance cores, along with 12 efficient cores for multi-threaded work. This is locked, meaning you can overclock it, and it ships with a max boost clock speed of 5.5 GHz.

This isn't a CPU able to compete with top-spec AMD rivals, but it's a solid enough performer when you couple it with the RTX 5070's power. Elsewhere, though, you're getting 32GB of DDR5 memory, so no compromises there. There's also a 1TB SSD, leaving you enough storage for at least a few big AAA installs.

You'll be saving $1,070 with this pre-built Alienware Aurora ACT1250 gaming PC at this $2,199.99 Newegg sale price. With the RTX 5070 in this build, you've got a 4K-capable machine that'll let you play modern games for years into the future.

Pre-built gaming PCs continue to provide some of the best value for gamers, especially if they're discounted. With that in mind, you can pick up this ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC for $2,549.99 right now at Newegg. You'll be saving $450 on a machine fitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

ABS builds are all over Newegg, which is no surprise, as the tech retailer owns the brand. As specs go, this is a rig that'll sit pretty near the top as far as performance goes. That's due to the combination of the 9800X3D, still one of the best CPUs available for gaming right now, with the RTX 5070 Ti. That GPU is current-gen and high-end, giving you a machine that'll give you high frame rates in the best games for years to come.

You'll see from our 9800X3D review why this eight-core AMD X3D chip is a formidable option for any gamer. AMD's 3D V-cache sets the scene, as this game-changing tech boosts the available L3 cache capacity to 96MB. Doesn't sound like much, but it means that your CPU doesn't have to fall back to the slower system RAM as often. That reduces latency, giving you better, more stable frame rates while you game.

The 9800X3D isn't at the very top in our CPU benchmarks anymore, but it's damn close, and it's still the top recommendation for most gamers. There isn't an Intel alternative that can truly rival the performance of an X3D chip like the 9800X3D, either. If 4K gaming with high, stable frame rates is your goal, then the 9800X3D will give you that in spades.

Alongside the 9800X3D is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This Nvidia Blackwell GPU has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. This is a GPU that leaves 1080p in the dust, as this mid- to high-tier option is a 1440p and 4K powerhouse. It has the latest Nvidia tech baked in, too, including DLSS with multi-frame generation.

4K with ray tracing, supported by MFG if necessary, means you'll get high frame rates in current-gen games. Expect to use the best graphics presets, but you might need to tweak them for the most demanding games if you're playing at 4K. Luckily, 16GB of VRAM means you've got plenty of breathing room, especially compared to the lower-end RTX 5060 or RTX 5050 with 8GB of VRAM.

There aren't any compromises elsewhere in this build. You've got 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo RGB DDR5 memory, split across two 16GB modules, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s. There's also a 2TB Team Group NV5000 M.2 SSD included here, offering Gen 4 speeds, with enough space for several big game installations. There's also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity, along with Ethernet, and the CPU is liquid cooled with a Bitspower 240mm AIO liquid cooler.

This $2,549.99 ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC is a great deal in the current market, especially fitted with the formidable combination of the 9800X3D and RTX 5070 Ti. Buying it now means you're saving $450 on its list price, but it's also the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC you're able to buy on Newegg right now. Expect a deal this good to sell out fast.

Right now, the best way to pick up a gaming PC is to buy a pre-built, with hardware prices shooting through the roof. Luckily, the big tech retailers continue to throw out deals for gamers to take advantage of. For instance, you can pick up this ABS Cyclone Aqua machine with an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU, giving you 1440-capable performance for $1,499.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

If you took these specs and tried to build a matching PC yourself, you'd struggle to beat this price. Front and center here is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of VRAM: a formidable option for a budget-friendly gaming PC. You're also getting a 20-core Intel Core i7-14700F CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti at your disposal, you're getting one of Nvidia’s latest-generation mid-tier graphics cards. It has 4,608 CUDA cores and a boost clock speed of 2,527MHz. Unlike the more power-hungry top-end RTX 50-series cards, you only need one eight-pin PCIe connector to deliver power here, so you can banish those worries about burning GPU cables.

Our RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB review makes clear how good the performance is with this Blackwell GPU for gamers, especially at 1080p and 1440p. The charts you'll see below show that, especially with ray tracing in the mix, compared to rival cards at this level. Full DLSS support is included, too, so you can add multi-frame generation as a backstop. That'll give you a nice frame rate boost in the most resource-heavy games if you're pushing up to the highest resolutions.

You can also count on 16GB of GDD7 VRAM with this GPU. That makes it a much more appealing option than 8GB variants you might have to settle for in other rigs at this price point. 16GB gives you more headroom, as far as performance goes, for the most resource-heavy games at 1440p.

For the CPU, you're getting the Intel Core i7-14700F. This continues to be a popular CPU option for gaming, despite being a little older. This Raptor Lake Refresh CPU has 20 cores, with eight performance cores, which are the ones you'll want for gaming, along with 12 efficient cores for multi-threaded work. It also has a maximum turbo clock speed of 5.4 GHz, along with a 65W TDP. At 1080p or 1440p, you won't see much of a bottleneck with the 14700F at your disposal in modern games.

No risk of settling for slower DDR4 RAM here, either. You get fast DDR5 instead, with 16GB of G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5 memory included with speeds of 6,000 MT/s. You aren't getting 32GB, which is a compromise, but you do have room to upgrade later, and DDR5 ensures some extra longevity.

Storage-wise, you're also getting a 1TB Patriot P410 SSD. It has Gen 4 speeds, with that 1TB of storage ensuring you get space for a couple of the big AAA games alongside your Windows installation. This ABS build also comes with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity, along with gigabit Ethernet for a wired connection to your local network.

The $1,499.99 sale price for this ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC makes it an affordable option for gamers who want a 1440p-ready rig right now, especially with prices rising elsewhere. The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is the standout component, but there's no guarantee that this price will last for very long.

Right now, you can grab a budget-friendly, entry-level gaming PC at Best Buy for a very low price, especially given the current economic climate for anything gaming PC-related. On sale at Best Buy is the iBuypower Slate Gaming PC with Intel Arc B570 graphics for just $899. With $300 off its $1,199.99 list price, this is a superb deal for a 1080p gaming machine with DDR5 memory and 10GB of graphics VRAM.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

This iBuypower's Slate gaming PC comes with a 10-core, 10-thread Intel Core Ultra 5 225F processor, an Intel Arc B570 graphics card with 10GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a 1TB NVMe SSD for storage. You will be able to play games in 1440p also with this rig, but you will have to tune individual game settings to get the best frame rates and performance. Ideally, this configuration supports 1080p gaming on higher settings.

The graphics card used in this prebuilt iBuypower gaming PC is the Intel B570 graphics card, which comes with a generous amount of VRAM considering the card's price. 10GB of VRAM is fantastic for 1080p gaming; it is more than ample to handle the textures and shaders on high and ultra settings, offering a great gaming experience at this resolution.

At 1440p resolutions with higher settings, this GPU may begin to struggle when that 10GB of VRAM gets used up and starts to rely on the CPU to compensate. The B570 is a budget graphics card from Intel and has come a long way since its launch performance, thanks to driver optimizations and compatibility with more game titles.

In the chart below, the B570 sits in the middle of the pack, competing with the Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB. You can also check out our Intel Arc B570 review for more detailed information on this GPU's performance.

This prebuilt gaming PC deal from Best Buy is one of the easiest ways to currently jump into the world of desktop PC gaming. The prices of individual components are very high currently, and with that comes the stress and added risk of messing something up trying to build the rig yourself. If you're not confident or familiar with building your own PC, buying a prebuilt comes with the added bonus of an easier warranty situation. Should anything go wrong with your computer, the whole system is covered, and you don't have to troubleshoot individual parts and manufacturers for an RMA.

At the moment, the best value for money when you're thinking about a new gaming PC is to pick a pre-built, especially a discounted one. With that in mind, Newegg has slashed the price of this ABS Flux II Aqua gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 by $500, bringing it down to just $1,799.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

The core components in this build include the Intel Core I7-14700F, still a popular choice in pre-builts, along with that powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070. The RTX 5070 is a solid, mid- to high-tier option for gaming that'll ensure you'll be able to hit high frame rates at 1440p, with the potential for 4K, too. You're also getting 32GB of DDR5 RAM here, along with a 1TB SSD for storage.

Our RTX 5070 review makes clear what a good performer this mid-tier GPU is for gamers in this current generation. It's on our best GPU list as the best all-rounder option for gamers right now, too. This is a solid 1440p card, but with Nvidia DLSS features at your disposal, including multi-frame generation to boost your frame rates, you'll be helped to push it even further.

With the RTX 5070, you're getting 6,144 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, operating on a 192-bit memory bus. Performance-wise, you can expect the highest frame rates at 1080p, along with 1440p, even at Ultra. 4K will push it harder, and you might need to drop down a preset or two for stability, or make use of multi-frame gen to cover the gaps.

Coupled with the RTX 5070 is the Intel Core i7-14700F. This Raptor Lake Refresh CPU is getting older, but it's still popular and powerful, too. It has 20 cores, 12 of which are efficient cores for multi-threaded work, with the final eight performance cores giving you the power you'll need for gaming. With the RTX 5070 alongside it, there isn't much of a bottleneck here for gaming with the 14700F, and it'll handle 1440p with little trouble.

Elsewhere, you're getting 32GB of G.Skill Flare X5 RAM, split dual-channel across two 16GB modules, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s, leaving slower DDR4 memory far behind. You're also getting a 1TB Kingston SNV3S SSD here, offering Gen 4 speeds, with enough space for a couple of big AAA games alongside Windows.

The $1,799.99 sale price for this ABS Flux II Aqua gaming PC is a good one in the current market. ABS is Newegg's own brand, and the specs you're getting here are formidable for the price, especially for under $1,800.

Recent news and rumours have been flooding the tech space about the apparent discontinuation of Nvidia's flagship graphics card. With no new Nvidia 5090 GPU replacement anticipated before at least 2028, this could well be your last opportunity to get your hands on a very powerful GPU for gaming.

The RTX 5090 not only dominates benchmarking charts in performance, but it also dominates price charts, with the cost of purchasing a standalone RTX 5090 rising from its MSRP of $1,999 to currently over $7,500. The cheapest way to previously capture an RTX 5090 in the wild has been from either Micro Centre (who apparently is soon to be no longer stocking them), or picking one up in a prebuilt gaming PC build.

● Check out this RTX 5090 deal at Dell

● RTX 5090 Prebuilt PCs available at Newegg

We've highlighted many RTX 5090 prebuilt PC's over the last couple of years, with models from Dell, HP, MSI, Skytech, and others. And there are still some PCs out there that can be bought for around the same price as buying the graphics card alone. But with the available pool of RTX 5090s soon starting to dry up, prices will start to climb even higher, much like what happened when the previous generation RTX 4090 ceased production.

The RTX 5090 is the most powerful consumer GPU that you can buy. It sports 21,760 CUDA cores, over double the RTX 5080's 10,752 count, and provides a massive 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM. Using a 512-bit memory bus, with a memory bandwidth of up to 1,792 GB/s, the RTX 5090 is the top choice for any gaming PC. When you look at our benchmarking results in our review of the RTX 5090, it's easy to see that this super-powerful GPU dominates the competition in all performance metrics.

Dell is selling this powerful PC with an AMD 9950X3D processor for $7,499.99, around the same price as buying the GPU separately, so, ignoring the insane price of the GPU for a second, that makes the rest of this PC build, including the monstrous 16-core gaming processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD, free.

For an example of some of the RTX 5090 prebuilt PCs that you can still get your hands on, we have another discounted MSI Infinite ZS PC that's available from Best Buy, plus an example of a Skytech RTX 5090 gaming PC available at Newegg. I've also included a link to RTX 5090 gaming PCs that are in stock at Newegg, so you can get a further idea of pricing and what is available.

● RTX 5090 Prebuilt PCs available at Newegg

If you have the money and want the best GPU that said money can buy, then you need to think about pulling the trigger before it's too late and the GPU either disappears or the prices inevitably rise even higher.

As RAM and SSD price hikes and shortages continue to bite PC builders, a pre-built rig remains one of the best ways to avoid some of the very worst in price inflation. Prices are still higher than they were a few months back, but there are still deals to be found. Newegg has slashed $260 off this Cyberpower Gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and a Radeon RX 9070 XT, now just $2,299.

• Check out this deal on Newegg

This is the Holy Grail of gaming CPUs, combined with AMD's top graphics card, a 4K gaming combination that would cost you over $1,200 to buy the two parts separately if you were putting this build together yourself.

As mentioned, the beating heart of this build is the excellent 9800X3D CPU. This 8-core, 16-thread beast is not quite the fastest gaming CPU on the market (it was recently dethroned by the 9850X3D), but thanks to its much more modest power draw, it remains our top pick for the best CPU for gaming on the market. As you can see, it shines in our benchmark testing as one of the fastest chips on the market, perfect for any 4K title you can think of.

The standout feature of the 9800X3D is the 3D V-cache, the 96MB of which reduces how often your CPU has to fall back on your system's RAM, drastically improving frame rates.

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is AMD's flagship GPU, featuring 64 RDNA 4 compute units and a generous 16GB of VRAM, specs akin to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, with performance to match. As you can see in our 4K testing suite, the RX 9070 XT performs significantly better than the RX 9070 and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070, lagging behind the 5070 Ti and the 4080. While you won't get access to Nvidia's popular DLSS technologies, this is still a very capable and popular graphics card, currently worth $800 in the current market.

The supporting cast of this build is also quite generous in the circumstances. You get 32GB of DDR5 RAM worth at least $400-$450, and a 2TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD worth $250. To keep everything running, there's a 1000W power supply and ARGB liquid cooling to keep your processor nice and cool. The motherboard is a mid-range B850 model.

For your troubles, you'll also get a free copy of Onimusha to play on your new rig, a freebie with a list price value of $69.99 at Newegg.

There's no denying this PC would have been cheaper even just a few months ago, but this is a very respectable build in the current market.

A Chinese rival to the DGX Spark and the Ryzen AI Halo, at least on paper, has emerged with Sipeed’s announcement of the MaixStation. The system, built on Axera’s new AX8860P, is in the same memory class with 128GB of LPDDR5X on a 256-bit bus at 273 GB/s. Sipeed told Tom’s Hardware Premium it expects the 128GB model to cost around $3,999, with launch discounts on Kickstarter, putting it level with the 128GB Ryzen AI Halo and well under the DGX Spark’s current MSRP of $6,950. Sign-ups are open now on Sipeed’s MaixStation page ahead of a Kickstarter campaign at the end of the year, with units shipping within three months after it closes. The NPU toolchain is due by the end of this month.

The AX8860P is a 16-core Arm Cortex-A55 part with an in-house NPU rated at 256 TOPS at native FP4 with no sparsity. The chip is produced in the 6nm process, Axera says. Sipeed claims the system has 25% faster prefill and 30% faster decode than the DGX Spark when running Qwen 27B (the company did not disclose which specific model, but later details that it expects a single MaixStation to run Qwen 3.8-27B) from a single node.

In its email, though, the company put its MaixStation about 10% ahead on both prefill and decode when compared to DGX Spark, with FP4 on each machine, with speculative decoding off, and said newer runs with a wider lead aren’t official yet. It teased the new product on its X account, showing a photo from the AX8860P’s announcement at an industrial fair in Shanghai on Tuesday.

For comparison, the DGX Spark also comes in 128GB at 273 GB/s with another SKU at 64GB, the two models priced at $6,950 and from $4,999. The former has been on sale since October 2025, at its current price since Oct. 2, and the latter is expected through partners on Oct. 23. For AMD, its Ryzen AI Halo has a 192GB Max+ PRO 495 model at 273 GB/s, released earlier this week at $7,299.99 for the Linux version, and the 128GB Max+ 395 model with 256 GB/s at $3,999.99. In all cases, 256-bit LPDDR5X is used, so the salient differences are memory capacity, compute, and software.

Memory is also a big share of what these systems cost: the best U.S. price for a 128GB DDR5 kit was $3,399 in August, and TrendForce expects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise another 10–15% this quarter. As for its unit prices, Sipeed says it used current DRAM prices rather than stock bought last year. It also suggested buyers could supply their own SSD, which could cut the price further, clarifying that the MaixStation takes a standard M.2 2280 drive rather than the Spark’s less common 2242.

Software-wise, the Spark ships with DGX OS, which is Nvidia’s build of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, with CUDA and Nvidia’s AI software stack preinstalled. AMD validates ROCm, drivers, models, and frameworks together as a “Best-Known Configuration.” Neither the Spark nor the PRO 495 ships with Windows yet, though AMD says Windows versions are “coming soon,” and the Max+ 395 model already offers Windows 11 Pro. Sipeed, aside from its upcoming NPU toolchain, claims support for vLLM, SGLang, and PyTorch, with Axera adding ONNX, Hugging Face (HF) model formats, and an OpenAI-compatible API. MaixStation itself ships with Debian 13 and Linux 6.18, and Windows support for the PCIe card will depend on demand, Sipeed says.

Chinese solutions already exist on AMD silicon, such as GMKtec’s 192GB Evo-X5 Pro at $6,799 to $7,099. There’s also Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max-P495. What’s new with the MaixStation is the Chinese silicon underneath.

The Axera AX8860P, as recently launched, has, in addition to the above specs, PCIe 5.0 support, 64-channel video decode with 16-channel encode, and support for multiple form factors, including a single-slot, four-chip PCIe card capable of running up to 512GB of memory, with mini and pocket PC products planned. Like the eight-core AX8850 in Radxa’s and M5Stack’s M.2 accelerator cards, it pairs Arm Cortex-A55 cores with Axera’s NPU, now with twice the cores and up to 128GB of memory instead of 8GB. Two- and four-chip cascades reach a theoretical 512 and 1,024 TOPS, respectively, at a claimed scaling efficiency of about 80%. The CPU, against the Spark’s Cortex-X925 and Halo’s Zen 5, is small and in-order. It’s sufficient for the NPU but potentially more limited for other tasks.

The box itself measures about 11 × 11 × 3 cm and draws about 40W in typical use, powered over USB-C, according to Sipeed. Its ports include 10G SFP+, USB-C, an M.2 2280 slot for a PCIe 5.0 SSD, and an MCIO 8i connector for linking a second unit.

Sipeed says the MaixStation supports all configurations, that’s single, dual, and quad node, plus any “PCIe card mode for any card count you want.” The interconnect in use is a 256 Gbps C2C connection (up to 384 Gbps) “without [an] extra switch needed, and [up to] 8-node.”

The contrast is with the Spark’s QSFP ports, and Nvidia’s datasheet says linking four Sparks “requires [an] external switch.” The math, at 32 Gbps per lane, works out to 256 Gbps with the default eight lanes and 384 Gbps with the maximum of twelve. Remote-access test units and a few review units will follow during the Kickstarter campaign, the company told us.

Sipeed also commented on the openness of the platform, saying, “Yes, bsp sdk is open, you can use AI to port any distribution on it!” Sipeed has previously sold Axera boards, with products dating back to 2022 using the AX620A, AX650N, and AX630C.

The claims of the MaixStation being faster in some workloads are coupled with Sipeed saying “In fact you need [to] ask why DGX is so slow…” with potential financial implications, as Nvidia “just [wants to make] more money from users.” When an X user argued that Sipeed must be using extreme quantization at that bandwidth, the company suggested that the Spark’s specs may be overstated.

By our math, the decode claim is plausible with a 4-bit 27B model, which sits at about 13.5GB. Performance on comparable machines tops out near 20 tokens per second, which means around 270 GB/s. Prefill, which is compute-bound, is a harder sell, but Sipeed stated that “DGX Spark 1000TOPS is fake ‘sparse.’” That 1 PFLOP figure does rely on sparsity, but the DGX Spark’s dense rate of about 500 TFLOPS is still around double the AX8860P’s 256 TOPS.

Axera’s current stack has Pulsar2 as the NPU compiler and toolchain, with version 8.0 on HuggingFace last week, and the V7.0 docs already list the chip as the AX8860. There’s no operator support list for the chip yet, and the docs’ LLM chapter for older chips lists weights down to 4-bit integers but no FP4. Neither the ax-llm runtime nor AXCL, the host-side PCIe driver and runtime for Axera’s cards, lists the chip yet. Sipeed says the end-of-month release is AXDSL, a kernel-programming language, plus the Pulsar2 source code, and that SGLang and vLLM run on a custom backend built on it, so Hugging Face models run without a conversion step.

Enthusiasts are already eager to know the final specifications and pricing for the different models. On paper, as far as local LLM machines go, the MaixStation matches the Spark on memory size and claimed bandwidth, and the Max+ PRO 495 Halo on bandwidth alone. Testing performance claims will also have to wait for the toolchain and sample machines land, hopefully before the end of the year.

The rising costs of components have led to a crisis in the consumer PC market. Prices on standard kits of DDR5 are through the roof, NVMe SSD prices are higher than ever, and worst of all, GPUs are also affected by the AI-driven onslaught. But when shopping around for reasonable prices, there might be a better solution than Newegg, Amazon, and Best Buy if you’re lucky enough to live near (or are willing to drive to) one of Micro Center’s 30 U.S. locations.

In the current climate, choice has been severely limited when it comes to upgrading or building a new PC. You can’t just pick the best components to build a high-powered gaming rig, as many components are out of stock or at eye-watering prices. The same goes for trying to construct a budget PC build, as there just aren’t any cheap components anymore, apart from certain parts like AM4 CPUs, which are tied to limited upgrade paths. Just take a look at the price and availability of Nvidia’s RTX 5090, for example; at the time of writing, the cheapest RTX 5090 gaming GPU available online is $6,549.99, and that’s from a third-party seller on Amazon, not directly from a large first-party retailer or manufacturer. There are even reports that the RTX 5090 has been effectively discontinued in favor of making AI GPUs, which means pricing will only get worse over the coming months.

If you’re anything like me, when I’m even remotely considering spending that kind of money, I’m not willing to risk buying from a suspicious retailer or a seller that can’t refund or replace the product should there be a fault, or if it gets damaged in transit. The original MSRP for the RTX 5090 at launch was just $1999.99. I remember balking at that price; now I wish I’d made the leap, as the next generation of GPUs is likely not coming before 2028, discounting pricing and availability.

So, where does that leave us, in a climate that feels actively hostile to enthusiasts? There is one place that seems to be a small bastion of defiance amongst the doom and gloom of the price-rising apocalypse, and that’s Micro Center. Should you be lucky enough to live near a store, or at least within driving distance, then you have another option open to you for finding PC components at prices that are often much cheaper than both Amazon and Newegg. Unfortunately, apart from a small marketplace storefront on Amazon, Micro Center does not do business online.

Having a quick look at some in-store offerings at one particular store location, I can find several RTX 5090s: the Asus GeForce RTX 5090 ROG Astral and MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Suprim, both priced at $5,029.99, over $1,500 cheaper than the cheapest available RTX 5090 found online at Amazon. That’s a considerable difference, but again, these prices are only available to those willing to make the trek to their local Micro Center store, and that’s a major caveat for the majority of Americans.

It’s not just the RTX 5090 either. I check for the best prices and deals on tech products daily, often finding some of the best value in component bundles from Newegg, where the high prices of RAM and SSD storage can be offset against the savings you typically make from bundling a bunch of deals together. Micro Center often undercuts these bundles with similar offerings at a significantly reduced price, but the issue is the ability to take advantage of the deal. The reason I don’t just highlight Micro Center deals more often is the limited availability to the majority of our readers.

Bundle breakdown

Let’s break down an example of one of Micro Center’s DDR5 component bundles. This gaming-oriented bundle features an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, an MSI B850 Gaming Pro WiFi6E AM5 motherboard, and 32GB of G.Skill Flare X5 Series DDR5-6000 memory. The total for these three components in a bundle is $899.99, with the cheapest price listed on PC Part Picker for the 9800X3D at $449, the MSI B850 Gaming Pro WiFi6E listed as $189, and the 32GB of G.Skill RAM costing $479 for a combined total of $1,117.

How much is a similar component bundle from Newegg? Well, the closest comparable combo bundle on offer features the same 9800X3D processor, a slightly better Asus TUF Gaming X870E-Plus WIFI7 motherboard, and the same amount of memory with very similar speeds from Corsair. The total for this bundle is $1,109.

Comparing the two bundles directly, even with a slight difference in components, there is a large $200 price difference. Some of that is tied up in the higher-tier motherboard, but even taking that into account, Micro Center's price is still lower. So it’s definitely worth exploring the idea of heading to a brick-and-mortar store over simply buying online. Just remember to factor in the price of the gas, and your time, on your way there.

Micro Center

Newegg

Even with Micro Center managing to offer consumers another choice in the PC component landscape and undercutting the pricing of the bigger retailers, the underlying problem of PC component prices skyrocketing remains. Memory and NAND prices continue to rise with no end in sight; major component manufacturers like Micron, which owns the Crucial brand, have pulled out of the consumer market, meaning even less choice in stores and ending any ongoing support for consumers who have purchased products previously. Stock is running low or has expired on the best-value products, and consumer choice is being strangled.

If you currently own a DDR4 system, the cost of upgrading to DDR5 is astronomical; the same goes for upgrading your graphics card to the latest Nvidia 50-series GPUs. Nothing is available anywhere near the original MSRP launch prices, and the more affordable budget-to mid-range card SKUs only offer 8GB of VRAM, which is not great for modern gaming, as resolutions over 1080p can easily demand more. So, if you’re near a Micro Center location and you want an upgrade, they are more than likely going to offer you the best value for money in the current market. For the rest of us who don’t live near a Micro Center, keep checking our coverage for the best possible prices on PC components.

Redditor u/cal93 had the used PC they bought for $650 from an unnamed seller suddenly blocked from working by a remote trigger. According to their post, they bought the computer a few months ago on OfferUp, but downloading a Windows update last month led to the situation. Fragile, which is NZXT’s partner that runs the Flex subscription program, commented on the thread, saying that the PC they bought was a rental and that the seller had no right to sell it. We spoke with the Redditor, and documents reviewed by Tom's Hardware confirm that they were sent an entirely new PC by Fragile, free of charge, to replace the stolen PC they originally purchased, with the requirement that the stolen PC be turned in to the police.

“We’re sorry you’ve been put in this situation. The PC you purchased was being rented through NZXT Flex, and the person who sold it to you did not own it or have the right to sell it. We understand you paid for what you believed was a legitimate purchase, and we want to help,” the company said. “Please email us or call/text with a link to this thread so we can connect with you directly. You can also DM us here on reddit. In situations like this, we typically work with the buyer and local law enforcement to help pursue the seller. Please keep any messages, the original listing, and proof of payment.”

This response was great news for u/cal93, who said that they were using the computer for school. They added to the thread that they were happy with the proposal and would provide more details once the company gave them the green light. u/cal93_’s latest Reddit update gave us more details about the transaction. They said that the seller sold the PC to them, which appears to be an NZXT Flex One unit worth around $1,500, for $650. When Fragile saw the post and reached out, the company asked for proof — receipts, chats, and seller information — after which it agreed to replace the “bricked” PC. The Redditor is just waiting for the shipping label and instructions to drop off the device at FedEx and then hopefully get their replacement soon after.

NZXT’s PC rental program started back in 2024 and is one solution for a person who needs a computer right now but can’t afford the upfront spend requirement of buying one. However, the program faced issues a little over a year in, resulting in a RICO lawsuit in California. This ended with the company paying a settlement earlier this year, totaling $3.45 million, to affected customers. Because of this, some commenters call this move a “rare” win for the user, while also earning NZXT and Fragile some positive feedback.

Whatever the case, the Redditor said that they got the best possible scenario, as they will get a new PC to replace the one they were scammed on. Fragile also said that it will pursue the person who sold the rental NZXT PC, so they’re not getting away scot-free either.

While Amazon's big sale has finished, Walmart and Best Buy are delivering the goods with huge deals on two different gaming PCs. Right now, you can pick up the ABS Cyclone M Aqua with an RTX 5060 for $999 at Walmart, or go for a CyberPowerPC rig with an RX 9060 for $999.99 at Best Buy instead.

● Grab the ABS machine at Walmart here

● Grab the CyberPowerPC machine at Best Buy here

These are budget-focused machines, and while some compromises do have to be made, the specs are pretty formidable for their price point. The ABS machine is fitted with an Intel Core i5-14400F, still a popular choice in lower-end machines like this one, along with 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, a 1TB SSD, and most importantly, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB.

The RTX 5060 means you're getting high frame rates at 1080p, even with the highest graphics presets. DLSS support, meanwhile, gives you full access to Nvidia's bag of tricks, including multi-frame generation, which'll prove useful if you decide to go for 1440p or need an AI-generated push.

You also get an additional 2TB SSD with this deal, a Verbatim 2TB Vi7000 offering Gen 4 speeds. It's unclear whether or not this comes pre-installed, but installing an M.2 drive is an easy process, even for a beginner.

On the flip side, you could go for the CyberPowerPC machine at Best Buy instead. It'll cost you 99c more, but instead you get a rig that includes the AMD Ryzen 7 8700F. This is an AM5 CPU, so you are better future-proofed here than the LGA 1700 socket used for the 14400F should you decide to upgrade the CPU later. It's also a newer, faster CPU, running with a 4.1 GHz base clock speed, boosting up to 5 GHz.

You also get the AMD Radeon RX 9060 here, also with 8GB VRAM. The RTX 5060 is faster, but this GPU isn't far off it in terms of raw power, and it'll still work well at the 1080p range you'll be focusing on with these specs. You're also getting faster DDR5 RAM here, also 16GB, with a 1TB SSD for Windows and any games.

These are both good machines for 1080p gaming, with a price that puts them below $1,000. Given the current market, finding any rig priced this low with modern components is a struggle. The ABS Cyclone M Aqua for $999 is a good option with the RTX 5060, with DLSS support giving you an additional edge in-game, along with that extra 2TB SSD.

That said, the CyberPowerPC rig for $999.99 is a solid alternative, with newer components and better options for upgrades into the future. Either one will suit you fine for modern gaming, but these prices aren't likely to stick around for very long.

Building a PC is a great experience. We sit there with a spreadsheet and multiple browser tabs, pouring over the best CPUs, the best GPUs, PC cases, motherboards, RAM deals, and many more components.

The package arrives, and we are excitedly tearing into the boxes, putting the parts on the table, and we are ready to build! We reach into the toolkit and dig out the rusty old screwdriver we used to open a paint can back in 2014. We then spill standoffs and screws over the floor, ready for an unsuspecting foot at 2am!

But wait, it doesn't have to be like this! We've all done this, made the mistakes, and now we share my knowledge and that of the Tom's Hardware staff so you don't have to hunt for the Amazon Prime Big Deals.

So tool up, and let battle commence!

• Check out all the PC tool deals on Amazon

Precision Kits

All the gear, and lots of ideas?

You need to start somewhere, and these kits have pretty much every tool that you could need to maintain a PC, all in a handy case. In my office/workshop, I have a general set of screwdrivers for general tasks, and a set of Hoto screwdrivers and bits for servicing my PC and any other parts I review, like motherboards, cases, fans, and more.

Whether you call them Hex or Allen wrenches, this part of our toolbox is often overlooked. Why? Because we get one in every set of flat-pack, DIY furniture that's why! You can get cheap sets of Hex wrenches, but they are ultimately made from a material softer than Play-Doh, or they have the power to strip a head. You need a good set of Hex wrenches, and this set from Wera is awesome.

German-made precision, strength, and a ball head to enable access to awkward screws. Grab this set now, and thank yourself later!

Everyone should own these great electric screwdrivers!

At least five Tom's Hardware editors own a Hoto screwdriver. I am one of them. It should be difficult to extol an electric screwdriver. After all, it is really just a motor that spins and screws / unscrews. But Hoto's new Pixel Drive is easy to glorify!

The main screwdriver chassis is chunky and features a rubberized finish to prevent it from slipping from your hands. The twist power ring offers three levels of torque, and the simple push-button forward/reverse is a joy to use. Throw in a bonus LED light ring, and you are ready to build and maintain PCs and have plenty of power to put up those shelves in the living room. All of the details are displayed on the LED display, so you know how much power you are putting down, and how much the screwdriver has left!

Screw Kits

Don't screw up your next PC build!

Let's be honest. We've all scoured around for a spare standoff or screw to secure a motherboard to a chassis. We've cannibalized other components to ensure that our main rig has everything it needs to keep the motherboard in place and the GPU firmly attached to the case. But what if we just spent less than $10 for over 500 screws?

That's right, for less than $10, we can have 500 screws, stand-offs, and insulation rings to secure every part of our PC.

In the kit, there are:

• Hard drive screws
• Motherboard screws
• Chassis fan screws
• SSD mounting screws
• Insulation gaskets
• High-strength chassis screws (think GPUs)
• M.2 screws
• Flat Phillips screws
• Chassis hand twist screws

I bought myself a similar pack years ago since I deal with motherboards and system components on the daily, and it has proven its worth on more than a few occasions. For less than $10, just throw it into your basket without thinking and have all the screws and bits you need to work on your PC.

Flashlights

Save money on this 'illuminating' flashlight deal

A good flashlight is one of the most rewarding tools that we can own. It lights up the dark, helps us see obstacles and what we are working on, and could be used to signal planes, should you be trapped on the island from Lost.

Air dusters and cleaners

Clean the filth from your PC!

Air blowers/dusters are a popular choice for quickly blowing out fans and filters to remove any collected dust and fluff. They can also blow out the crumbs that linger under your keyboard. Air blowers are a great alternative to single-use compressed air cans.

The Wolfbox MegaFlow 100 (MF100) may sound like a 1990s Euro Rock tribute act, but it has 150,000 RPM of power to blow dust out of your PC at 45 meters per second!

This convenient blower is battery-powered and supports USB Type-C charging. The MF100 fully charges in 2.5 hours and provides up to 100 minutes of runtime on the first setting. The MF100 is small and compact, weighing only 0.66lb, so it can be easily stored when not in use. The MF100 is also supported by a 24-month guarantee and 24/7 customer service.

Not everyone wants to buy an $60 air duster. There are plenty that cost less that still move a ton of air and come with several attachments that are plenty useful for cleaning out your PC.

I clean out my desktop PC once or twice a year and the blower did a great job, but there were times when the amassed collection of dead skin cells, dog and cat hair, and other fluff was too much for my much weaker air duster. So I bought some cans of compressed air, and not the dollar store stuff either! I don't use them often, but they are handy when you need a little more power in a precise point.

Sometimes compressed air or turbo-force USB-powered jet fans aren't enough, and so you must get your hands dirty to get parts of your PC truly clean. Cleaning any electronic components should be done with care. Components aren't as static sensitive as their predecessors but we should take care not to trash our rig.

These nylon anti-static brushes come in a range of sizes and shapes to clean dust from components and inside drive bays, and to keep caked-on dust from your fan blades. It also includes a keycap puller and tweezers to deep clean the harrowing scene that lurks under your keyboard.

The final cleaning product that you need for building and maintaining PCs is Isopropyl Alcohol, IPA. Yes, 99% is overkill; heck, it's medical grade for first aid use, but if you really want to eke it out, get some distilled water and water down your mix to 70%. I don’t because it works well as it is.

My top tip, though, is not to spray it when the components are hot. There is very little risk of fire, but it will evaporate rather quickly. That said, in the electronics hobbyist world, rapidly evaporating IPA is used to identify super-hot chips, typically those that have shorted.

Thermal pastes

Thermal paste etiquette — pea-sized blob, an X, or a smooth layer like peanut butter?

Let's all agree that, however you apply thermal paste, that is the right way, ok? Thermal paste / TIM or thermal pads bridge the hot side of a component to a heatsink or heatpipe, which wicks away heat, keeping the component cool.

Thermal material is essential to keep your system cool, and I asked the team what they use. Our Editor-in-Chief, Paul Alcorn, said that MX-6 is his go-to thermal paste. So I looked around and found this handy kit that contains 4G of thermal paste and six handy wipes. The wipes are essentially isopropyl alcohol on a cloth, and they are used to prepare the surface for the new paste. They will wipe off the old paste, dust, dead skin (ewww) and leave the surface ready for pasting!

If you spot something better, or want to tell me I am wrong, hit the comments!

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Nvidia's RTX 5090 now costs $7,000. Or so near to it that it makes no difference. So if you were hoping to buy one in the quest to build a PC, you're out of luck. You're much better off just grabbing a pre-built PC with one inside. Alienware normally commands a massive premium over other desktops because of its brand name, but the PC market is so out of whack right now that this is actually a much better value option than some alternatives. Right now, you can get an RTX 5090 PC with AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D for $7,499.

● Check out this deal at Dell

That's obviously a lot more than you'd have paid for this rig even a month ago, but prices are only moving in one direction, and that is up. This PC altogether costs less than the standalone cost of buying an RTX 5090 and AMD's $690 CPU alone, a much better option than trying to build one yourself.

The RTX 5090 is the headline of the build here for obvious reasons. It's the best consumer GPU on the market thanks to its massive 32GB VRAM pool, which will chew through any title in 4K.

The CPU from AMD is an absolute juggernaut, dominating our testing benchmarks for multi-threaded performance while excelling at gaming. Paired with the aforementioned RTX 5090, it beats even the 9800X3D in our testing.

To complement the potent GPU and CPU combo, you get 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB SSD. That's less RAM than you'd like at this price, but you can get 64GB in the higher-spec config, also on sale. Other specs include a 1500W power supply and Wi-Fi 7, as well as liquid cooling for the hefty CPU, making this a well-rounded and potent gaming rig.

The PC gaming industry has been decimated by AI. This is a great example of a product that has drastically increased in price in just a few short months, but prices continue to rise, and the window to buy a gaming rig is closing fast.

Geekom has a ton of Amazon Prime Day deals with an array of mini PCs on sale for up to 28% off. Both Intel and AMD options are on sale, and Geekom hasn't restricted the sale to its older mini PCs; even newer Gorgon Point machines are on sale.

• Check out this deal on Amazon

Geekom has 13 mini PCs on sale as part of Amazon's Big Deal Days event, and we're going to run over five of the best deals. As is the case with any PC right now, prices are elevated due to the cost of memory and storage. So, although the discounts aren't massive, saving any money on a PC right now is a win.

Headlining the sale is a 15% discount on Geekom's latest A9 Max Top AI, packing an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX470 'Gorgon Point' chip. We found that chip surprisingly capable considering the 0.9-liter chassis in our Geekom A9 Max 2026 review. This machine comes with a single 32GB DDR5 SODIMM with space for a second, along with two 2280 NVMe M.2 slots, one of which is occupied by a PCIe 4x4 2TB drive.

Unfortunately, the iGPU performance isn't great out of the box, with the single SODIMM hampering iGPU performance. If you end up picking up this PC, you'll probably want to occupy the other SODIMM slot at some point for a true dual-channel configuration.

If you prefer Intel, the Geekom IT15 is 15% off, as well, dropping its $1,199 list price down to $1,019. This machine comes with a Core Ultra 9 285H chip, which has 16 cores (6 + 12), a boost clock of 5.4 GHz, and an integrated Arc 140T GPU with 8 Xe cores.

Out of the box, the machine includes 32GB of DDR5 SODIMM memory with support for up to 128GB, along with a PCIe 4 1TB SSD. This machine doesn't have two 2280 slots. Instead, it has an extra 2242 slot, along with a 2.5-inch bay for SATA drives. Of course, you're free to upgrade the drive and memory down the line if you choose.

Digging deeper into the pile, the Geekom A5 is on sale for 15% off, as well, bringing its price down to $407. With a low-power Ryzen 7 7730U CPU and 16GB of DDR4 memory, the Geekom A5 is tailored toward lightweight web browsing or general-purpose office workloads. Of course, you can also ditch the stock Windows 11 install and use it as a low-power home server, as well.

This machine is limited to 256GB of storage and 16GB of memory, but both are upgradable. Like the Arrow Lake machine above, you get an M.2 2242 slot and a 2.5-inch drive bay alongside the main M.2 2280 slot (though speeds are limited to PCIe Gen 3 here). For memory, Geekom once again uses SODIMM.

The machine is built for low-power applications, with the 7730U clocking in at just a 15W TDP. However, you still get eight cores, 16 threads, and Vega 8 graphics, so you can expand into some other applications (such as lightweight gaming).

At the bottom of the pile, we have the Geekom Air12 for just $284, 28% off its list price of $395.10. This is as budget as mini PCs come, with just 8GB of DDR4 memory and a 256GB NVMe SSD. As with other Geekom mini PCs, however, you can upgrade the memory and storage. There aren't extra storage slots in this PC, however.

The machine is powered by Intel's Pentium Gold 7505, which is a dual-core chip with a TDP of 15W and a base clock of 2GHz. It'll handle light web browsing and office tasks, but not much else for a dedicated desktop. However, as a host system for a local file or media server, the CPU is plenty.

Geekom has more mini PCs on sale on its website, as well. The A5 Pro 2026 edition with a Ryzen 5 7530U, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD is on sale for $569, down from $749.

The best deal that Geekom has running right now, by far, is the IT13 Max. Both configurations are on sale for around 50% off, with an additional $100 of with code IT13M130 (pre-applied with our link). That brings the $1,399 list price down to as low as $669 depending on your configuration.

Geekom offers two versions of the IT13 Max. The cheaper version at $669 comes with a 500GB SSD and 24GB of LPDDR5 memory. The other version comes with a 1TB SSD and 16GB of DDR5 memory, which is user-replaceable and upgradable up to 96GB with SODIMM. That configuration is $769 right now.

Regardless of the version you choose, the machine is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 8 185H, a 16-core chip with a generous 45W TDP. Geekom supports up to 6TB of storage total across the 2280 and 2242 slots.

Although we've pulled out the highlights, Geekom has half a dozen other mini PCs on sale over on Amazon. You can also save for the next few days directly on Geekom's website with its 20th anniversary celebration.

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

We've seen some sweet deals on entry-level and high-end prebuilts during this Prime Day event, but a great midrange system has been a little harder to find. We've uncovered some treasure, though, in the form of Skytech Gaming's Harpy prebuilt. This PC pairs a Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU with a powerful GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card and 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, all for just $1799 right now.

• Check out the Skytech Harpy gaming PC for $1799 at Walmart

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn't AMD's latest and greatest gaming champ any longer, but its 3D V-Cache still lets it land in fifth place in our demanding CPU hierarchy game testing.

You'll want that cutting-edge tech at hand because the RTX 5070 has enough juice to power enviable high-refresh-rate gaming experiences at 1080p and 1440p even before you start dialing in DLSS 4.5 upscaling and Multi Frame Generation. It's ready to deliver great performance in demanding RT and path-traced titles like Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant.

This system only includes a 1TB SSD, but given its otherwise excellent specs for the price, we think it's worth having to live with the possibility that you might have to shuffle games around occasionally. And if you have an older drive from another build, you can probably find space to bring it over without much trouble.

Skytech rounds out this system with a 360mm liquid cooler, an 850W 80 Plus Gold PSU, and a fancy case with a wraparound tempered glass panel to show off the components inside.

Our GPU hierarchy testing proves that whether you're gaming at 1080p or 1440p, the RTX 5070 in this PC stands ready to deliver a great experience across both raster and RT titles. Check it out:

GPU Benchmarks — 1080p

GPU Benchmarks — 1440p

And if you run into a game that's too tough for the RTX 5070 to conquer at native resolution, you have superior DLSS 4.5 upscaling and frame generation at your disposal with this system to get the optimal experience. The 12GB frame buffer gives you plenty of room for Multi Frame Generation, as well.

If you're looking for a midrange AMD X3D-powered gaming upgrade for a surprisingly low price in today's wild and crazy PC market, get on this deal quick, because it surely won't last long with these specs.

Anything with memory or a GPU is tough to find at a good price right now, even on Prime Day. But over at HP, there's a desktop deal that's at a surprisingly good price given the components inside.

The Omen 35L with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB of memory, and 2TB of storage is $2,799.99, down from an MSRP of $4,999.99.

• Check out the HP Omen 35L at HP

Given that the RTX 5080 on its own is typically going for anywhere between $1,600 and $2,000, this is a significant deal if you're willing to buy a PC rather than build one.

The system also comes equipped with a 1,000-watt, fully modular, 80-Plus Gold power supply; Wi-Fi 7; and a 240 mm AIO cooler for the CPU. The 35-liter chassis should be small enough for many desks, but will still be fine on the floor.

We haven't reviewed this model, but HP typically uses standardized parts, allowing for easy upgrades down the line.

Whether you're gaming at high refresh rates at 1440p or chasing the highest image quality possible at 4K, this system is, at least on paper, built for the job. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the fastest gaming CPUs available today, and the RTX 5080 is the fastest gaming graphics card around short of an RTX 5090.

Prices on these high-end components are only going to keep going up, especially the storage and RAM, so if you're looking for an awesome upgrade for yourself or a loved one, grab this deal before it's gone.

German utility provider and energy retailer SWK Energie just launched a new marketing strategy targeting gamers. According to ComputerBase [machine translated], meinGAMING has a lot of gamer-focused marketing, like comparing its reliability to “your favorite server” and influencer marketing by game streamers like Limcube. However, this doesn’t mean that the company infused its power grid with some magic gaming juice to let gamers squeeze extra FPS from the outlets. Instead, it offers an electricity plan designed for high-consumption households, whether you’re running four RTX 5090 gaming PCs or charging four EVs simultaneously every day.

The company says this in its FAQ section — the plan is worthwhile for households with a consumption of over 2,500 kWh annually, either “through gaming, streaming, or simply because many devices are running.” Even though it claims to be cheaper than the competition, meinGAMING has a higher base price, so it does not recommend the service if you do not hit the minimum recommended power use. But even if you’re a Germany-based gamer who uses a lot of electricity, that doesn’t mean that you should switch to this service right now. Instead, you should compare your current rates with what the company is offering, as the tariff may vary depending on your location.

Many companies have been targeting gamers in their marketing material, from computer components, peripherals, and furniture to food and beverages, promising to improve their performance and reaction times to gain an edge over their opponents. While some of these gamer-branded things do offer an item or service that’s a little better compared to the average consumer item, a lot more are unfortunately snake oil with RGB slapped on and prices afflicted by “gamer tax.” Still, many buy them because gamer branding and marketing are quite eye-catching.

Even government agencies have dived onto the gamer marketing bandwagon — the U.S. Army has targeted gamers in its recruitment drives while the FAA’s last hiring campaign focused on gamers and hit 94% of its hiring goal. Even the Royal Navy has recognized gaming as one of the hobbies of its sailors, with its latest ship hosting eight high-end gaming PCs for LAN parties on the high seas.

While meinGAMING won’t make you a better gamer, it could potentially help you save on electricity costs if you consume a relatively high amount of electricity. As an additional bonus, the company says that its power is 100% sourced from renewable energy, reducing the load on your wallet and conscience as you spend hours in front of your gaming PC. However, how it ensures the power used actually comes from renewable sources remains an open question.

When a PC gamer's GPU with a 12VHPWR or 12V-2x6 power connector melts, it's often in a computer they built by hand, and they typically only have one chance at recourse — hoping their GPU is under warranty and making a claim.

But it ends up that when someone else built your PC, it could open up a can of worms that has two companies pointing the blame at each other while a customer sits with a burned-up RTX 5090, power supply, and power cords.

That's what happened to Tom's Hardware reader Anthony DeMarco, whose father purchased a Digital Storm Corsa for him ahead of his first job after graduating from college. DeMarco says he suggested his father purchase the system before RAM prices went up. The system was delivered in May of 2025. DeMarco says he tested the system, then packed it up for when he got a job. That jealousy-inducing system included an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, 2TB Crucial T700 Pro SSD, 64GB of Kingston Fury RGB RAM, and, crucially, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 from PNY. The computer cost $5,245.00 before tax.

DeMarco says he got the computer from his father in August 2026, upon starting his job. He says the problems started two weeks later.

"I noticed a strange burning smell from near my computer," he recalled to Tom's Hardware, wondering if it was an issue with dust from another PC he owned. "The next day I noticed my monitor screen kept flickering. I then used Claude to try to figure out the issue and it pointed to the GPU, and then I checked the wires and noticed them very melted and burned. I immediately powered off my computer so hopefully my GPU is still functional."

But that's hard for him to tell. The cable was "fused" into the connector, and while he managed to separate the pieces, some of the connectors are still stuck together.

The damage went beyond the GPU, with the "most severe" damage at the power supply, a 1,000-watt semi-modular model from Digital Storm with an 80-Plus Gold rating. This is the cheapest, default option you get when you pick an RTX 5090 on the Corsa configurator, though his PSU cables are an upgrade with custom blue sleeving. "The cable into the power supply is completely melted and the cable head is completely fused into the power supply with bare wires exposed at both ends of the cable," he said.

DeMarco claims that he checked that all the cabling was in place after his father formally gave him the PC.

Pictures of the damage

The photos that DeMarco sent us are brutal. Perhaps the worst are the photos of the ends of the power cable, which are wrecked on both ends. But there's burns on the cable itself, too. The part going into the GPU appears to have some sort of bend, though we don't have many photos to judge perspective.

Who do you go to for help?

DeMarco had two options to go to for help. Digital Storm, which built the PC, and PNY which made the GPU.

This is where buying the system early bit DeMarco. Digital Storm offers a one-year warranty on parts and three years on its labor, and that one-year warranty on parts was up. But the components are separately supported by manufacturers, and PNY warranties its GeForce RTX gaming GPUs for three years.

He went first to Digital Storm, raising a support ticket under his father's name on Aug. 26, according to records Tom's Hardware reviewed. He later uploaded photos. That ticket was closed on Aug. 31 following a phone call, a summary of which explains that while there is a "faulty 12VHPWR cable that melted" that DeMarco would attempt to RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) with PNY, the GPU vendor, due to being "Due to being far out of warranty." DeMarco also claimed on the call that he could get the GPU fixed at a repair center to replace the power connector on the GPU.

On Sept. 8, DeMarco had a back and forth email chain with PNY, requesting an RMA of the GPU and highlighting the 3-year warranty. He also inquired if PNY offered a repair service for his existing GPU. Following supplying the receipt and photos of the damage, a PNY service representative said there was an issue with the fact that Digital Storm had used its own cables.

"We want to clarify an important part of the warranty regarding the power connection to the GPU. All PNY GPUs that require a 16-pin (12VHPWR / 12V-2x6) input include a PNY-approved power cable or adapter in the box. This cable is the only configuration covered under warranty," the PNY support rep wrote. "If a third-party power cable, adapter, or PSU cable is used and damage occurs — including melting, burning, overheating, or deformation of the connector — PNY cannot accept the product under warranty. Damage caused by non-PNY cables falls under the responsibility of the manufacturer of that cable or power supply."

"We are always happy to help with any PNY-related issues," they added, "but in cases where the damage was caused by unsupported cabling, we are unable to process an RMA."

DeMarco responded with a series of questions. Does PNY publish a list of approved cables? Is the bundled adapter the only supported configuration, and not an ATX cable included with a PSU? Are system builders covered when they use PNY's cables?

The answers to the first two (no, and not automatically) don't change much. On the third, PNY's rep wrote that machines from authorized system builders are covered, it doesn't mean their cabling is.

Without knowing what else to do, on Sept. 16, DeMarco filed a report on the Consumer Product Safety Commission SaferProducts.gov database.

"PNY stands behind its GeForce RTX graphics cards, including those sold through our authorized system builder partners," the company wrote in a statement to Tom's Hardware when asked about its policies. "We are presently reviewing this case and will be engaging the customer directly. PNY’s ongoing commitment to its customers includes providing clear terms, policies and processes, and making adjustments where appropriate."

Digital Storm did not respond to requests for comment.

DeMarco then asked if PNY has a repair service he could pay for out of pocket (they do not), and then came to Tom's Hardware with his plight. He had seen another story of PNY rejecting an RMA for using a cable that came with their power supply — an ASRock rated for 1,600 watts.

In Digital Storm's warranty, it says that "After the first year, Digital Storm will help replace any defective parts for the customer as long as those parts are still under warranty with the manufacture [sic]." DeMarco says Digital Storm said that because PNY had denied him, there was no use getting involved, but there is no corroborating record of this.

What does he want? What should he get?

If it were up to DeMarco, he wouldn't get another GPU. He'd get a refund for the component:

"In an ideal situation I would get a refund for my PNY RTX 5090 instead of [having] it replaced because I do not feel safe leaving my computer to run anymore without me if it has a PNY RTX 5090 in it."

In his email, DeMarco writes that there is a "a known problem with the PNY RTX 5090 power connector melting that is happening to many people."

In this area, he's incorrect, at least when it comes to PNY. There have been plenty of reports over the years of GPUs with a 12VHPWR connector that have melted across both RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 graphics cards, and many of those are other brands. This is a widely known issue with the connector, which is standardized by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group, or PCI-SIG. In 2022, PCI-SIG sent a notice to members about the connector, ensuring they test for safety and help avoid user error.

If DeMarco were to get a refund and turn around and buy an RTX 5090 from another manufacturer, it's possible he could see the same fate. Digital Storm doesn't guarantee a PNY RTX 5090. "Digital Storm will use a top brand name graphics card from the likes of ASUS, PNY, MSI, etc... An example would be the ASUS TURBO series," the website reads.

One could say that either company could step up and help DeMarco out as a way of engendering goodwill. PNY's warranty isn't specific about which power cable you can use, though reviewing other GPU vendors' policies leads to an equally mixed bag. MSI's is more specific, stating that the warranty can be voided based on "any breakdown or damage caused by the use of parts or software not authorized or recommended by MSI[.]" Asus' warranty has similar vague language to PNY's. PC building is often a hobby where parts from various manufacturers are used.

In most cases, going to Digital Storm would be the obvious answer. But DeMarco and his father let the expensive system sit in a box for over a year. While he was right to test it out of the box to make sure it worked, a gesture of goodwill buying in advance ultimately backfired when it ran out the clock on the warranty, and the system builder doesn't seem to have any further obligation here.

What should you do if you buy prebuilt?

When you build your own PC, it's up to you which power cables you use. When you buy one elsewhere, that's on them.

Reviewing the warranty for every single component in a system (if you even know it — DeMarco didn't know which GPU he was getting here) is onerous. But reviewing the single warranty from any system builder could give you an understanding of how much support you might get in the future.

Alternatively, if you're really worried, you could buy a system from the company that makes the GPU and PSU, like Asus or MSI sometimes do. It's hard to blame the cabling when they chose it.

If you're buying a gift, buying it in time for the recipient to get most of the warranty is the best idea, especially on an expensive purchase where parts can fail. Or, at the very least, you may want to purchase extended coverage.

DeMarco says he checked all the connections. That's a good idea. You shouldn't have to do it, but better safe than sorry. While you're at it, you can also make sure the RAM and GPU are properly seated.

What if I'm building my own PC?

If you're building your own PC, you're handling each warranty individually. In theory, if you want to be extremely conservative, you could be sure to only use the PSU adapter that comes with most RTX 4090 and 5090 graphics cards: a 16-pin power connector that connects to four standard 8-pin PCIe power connectors, from the power supply.

But that also eliminates a lot of cables that come from perfectly good power supplies that might eschew the need for adapters, making for cleaner, simpler builds.

While DeMarco is out of warranty with Digital Storm, PNY's policies could be more representative of what PC building is really like. And so can Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and anyone else who makes a GPU, including Nvidia itself. Perhaps, with the most expensive GPUs, it's time for companies to be putting both adapters and full on 16-pin ATX cables in the box.

PC building is all about customization. And it seems the more custom you get, the less likely companies selling the most expensive GPUs are going to be flexible about helping to replace those parts if there's a problem, even, if, like the 16-pin connector, it's a possibility that could strike almost anyone.

Embedded and industrial computing specialist Aaeon has launched a fanless mini PC featuring up to an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor. The PC, dubbed the Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air, utilizes Frore’s AirJet ultrasonic membrane technology for active cooling.

The use of this cooling tech means that the Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air is virtually silent, operating at less than 21 dBA. Moreover, Aaeon boasts that it has allowed its mini PC designers to make this device “35% thinner and 43% lighter” than a traditional heatsink and fan-cooled model.

The Aaeon Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air doesn’t look very much like a regular consumer mini PC. That’s because it is designed for the embedded and industrial market. Aaeon mentions that this model might be purchased “for integration in space-constrained applications such as ultra-thin kiosk setups, low-clearance AMR housing, and compact mobile healthcare units.” Besides being virtually silent, thin, and light for those use cases, Aaeon touts the appeal of “its elimination of fan-induced vibration” in those target markets as well as robotic controllers, actuators, sensors, and cameras.

The I/O makes it clear this isn't a consumer-grade system. In addition to the commonly seen USB-A and USB-C ports, LAN, audio, and various video outputs, the Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air packs in a pair of COM ports for RS-232/422/485, and a 40-pin GPIO. This mini PC can be connected to up to four displays simultaneously.

Three Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air can be specced with an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H, Ultra 7 356H, or Ultra 5 325 processor. The X7 model features the potent Intel Arc B390 iGPU with 12 Xe-cores. Inside you can fit two DDR5 SODIMMs up to 128GB total and speeds of 7,200 MT/s. Two M.2 2280 SSDs can be fitted, and an M.2 2230 slot is earmarked for the wireless card.

We see a couple of sacrifices made to go slim, light, and quiet with the AirJet cooler. Specifically, Aaeon says that there is “a 6% increase in power consumption and a narrower operating temperature range of -10°C to 45°C” with this design.

As is typical for this kind of business-facing announcement, we don’t get any clear pricing. Normally, businesses will contact the likes of Aaeon directly with pricing inquiries based on how many units and so on. If you do manage to get a hold of one of these UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air mini PCs, you can run Windows IoT Enterprise or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on it, according to the spec sheets.

The only other mini PC we've seen cooled using AirJet cooling is Zotac's ZBox PI430AJ mini PC, which was built around Intel's low-end N300 Atom CPU with a TDP of 7W.

American custom and prebuilt computer seller Maingear has launched a new instant trade-in program in partnership with SELLIT9. The new collab gives customers instant credit on any new Maingear desktop or laptop PC. A broad range of used tech can swiftly be exchanged for Maingear gift cards, including laptops, phones, tablets, smartwatches, headphones, cameras, lenses, and microphones. Instant trade-ins are live today, and until October 14, all those taking advantage of this low-friction old-for-new plan can earn an extra 5% on their traded-in products using the code EXTRA5.

In a press release sent to Tom’s Hardware, Maingear says that it knows that “Memory prices are up. Component prices are up. Meanwhile, perfectly good tech is collecting dust in drawers across the country.” This old and neglected tech can help you get your next hand-built gaming rig, suggests the company.

Naturally, Maingear sings the praises of its collab with SELLIT9’s recycling and refurbishment business. The New Jersey-based PC firm says the quotes its customers can get through SELLIT9 are truly instant. For example, it says that you will get a quote in minutes, and a Maingear gift card on the spot. That means you won’t have to wait for a shipping carton for your used gear to arrive, then make its way to SELLIT9, and subsequently pass inspections. However, we note some wording indicates that there’s “a temporary hold on the shopper’s card” until any traded-in gear “checks out.”

We have no experience of Maingear’s chosen partner SELLIT9, but its 4.6/5 score on TrustPilot looks pretty good for such a service, which can easily attract ire. SELLIT9 is a Canadian business that recently raised $4.1 million to expand across North America. Perhaps this Maingear partnership is its first foray into the U.S. We’ll have to see what else happens on Oct 1.

I checked some CAD prices for various used tech stuff on SELLIT9 and converted them to USD, suggesting you could get the following sums for used tech in the U.S.:

• Ryzen 7 9800X3D – up to $141
• Core i7-14700K – up to $120
• RTX 4080 Super – up to $530
• GTX 1080 Ti – up to $71
• 32GB desktop DDR4 RAM – up to $42
• iPhone 14 Pro 128GB – up to $278
• PS5 Slim (Digital Edition) – up to $160

We aren’t sure if these prices are directly translatable to the U.S. market, but they should give you a rough idea. Maingear also highlights that using its new trade-in service offers minimal friction for customers. That means “no listings, no lowball offers, and no meeting strangers in parking lots.”

When this article goes live, the new instant trade-in service goes live. Make sure to nose around the offers and let us know what you think.

The $1,999 iBuyPower Slate arrives with a formula that's hard to argue with: an RTX 5070, a Ryzen 7 7700X3D, a 360mm liquid cooler, and a tempered-glass chassis with plenty of RGB lighting. It even goes beyond expectations by including gaming peripherals that don't feel like afterthoughts.

But in an increasingly competitive mid-range desktop market, attractive extras and gaming prowess alone aren't always enough. The question is whether the Slate's gaming-first focus justifies its price when rivals offer stronger all-around performance for similar money.

Design of the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop

There’s no mistaking the Slate for anything but a gaming machine. It’s designed to be seen inside and out, with a full-view tempered glass side panel. The front panel’s triangle glass partially shows off a trio of 120 mm RGB fans. The tower sits firmly in mid-tower territory, at 8.7 x 19.3 x 19.5 inches.

The mesh covering the rest of the front and top permits airflow and should do a decent job of blocking dust, though the case’s only removable air filter is under the bottom-mounted power supply.

Inside, the Slate’s blacked-out interior offers an RGB light strip running along the power supply compartment and up the front panel. Additional lighting comes from the two memory DIMMs. The GPU, an Asus Dual RTX 5070 in our review unit, lacks illumination. The lighting can be controlled via the Hyte Nexus app, though not on a per-component basis. (See the Software section later in this review.)

iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop Specifications

Ports and Upgradeability on the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop

Mid-tower desktops tend to include lots of ports, and iBuyPower’s Slate doesn’t disappoint. The top-mounted front connectivity includes one USB-C and two USB-A (all 5 Gbps) plus separate headphone and microphone jacks. The positioning of these ports works best if the desktop is placed on the floor; it’s less ideal on a desk.

Rear connectivity on the ASRock B650M-CX motherboard includes one USB-C 3.2 (10 Gbps), one USB-A 3.2 (10 Gbps), two USB-A 3.2 (5 Gbps), four USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, and audio jacks. Though there are no truly high-speed ports, they aren’t expected outside of high-end towers with pricier motherboards. The desktop also includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth – the antennas must be connected as shown here for meaningful range.

The side panels come off with a tug at the top rear, hinging outward and away. Seven 120 mm fans – three front, three on the top-mounted 360 mm CPU cooling radiator, and one rear – provide plentiful airflow. Cabling is reasonably tidy, though the bundle of unused cables from the non-modular 750-watt power supply is a bit of a mess.

The CPU cooler is more than a basic model, with an LED screen showing CPU temperature, frequency, and load. The display can’t be customized, though it can be toggled off in the Hyte Nexus app.

The Slate’s expansion options include one open PCIe x16 slot and four DIMM slots, two of which are unpopulated. The motherboard offers two M.2 2280 drive slots. There are two 2.5-inch drive sleds behind the motherboard, but no room for a 3.5-inch drive.

Gaming and Graphics on the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop

We are testing the iBuyPower Slate with a Ryzen 7 7700X3D processor, GeForce RTX 5070 GPU, and 32GB of RAM.

Playing 007 First Light, at 3840 x 2160 with High settings and DLSS enabled, I observed between 60 and 70 frames per second (FPS) in outdoor scenes and closer to 80 FPS indoors. Using DLSS was required for smooth gameplay, as I saw roughly half the FPS without it.

Our comparison desktops include the Asus ROG G700 (Core Ultra 7 265KF, RTX 5070, $2,029.99 when reviewed) and the CyberPowerPC Gaming Desktop GXi3800BSTV2 (Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, RTX 5070, $2,309.99), both mid-tower systems with the same GPU but Intel processors.

At 1080p, iBuyPower’s Slate proved competitive overall, matching the Asus and CyberPowerPC in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest settings), Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra), and Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic). However, its Ryzen 7 7700X3D paid dividends in Far Cry 6 (Ultra), where its 185 FPS was well ahead of the Asus (110 FPS) and CyberPowerPC (141 FPS). It led by a similar amount in Red Dead Redemption 2, with 145 FPS against the Asus’ 120 FPS and the CyberPowerPC’s 126 FPS.

The Slate generally didn’t differentiate itself from the other desktops at the 4K resolution, an expected result since that resolution is almost always GPU-limited and these systems all rely on an RTX 5070. The exception was Far Cry 6, where the Slate’s 97 FPS greatly outperformed the 80 and 81 FPS produced by the Asus and CyberPowerPC, respectively.

Overall, despite its Ryzen 7 7700X3D not being nearly as powerful for general use as the Core Ultra 7 265K and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus featured in our competing systems, it can outperform both chips in games.

We stress-test gaming desktops running 15 loops of the Metro: Exodus benchmark at RTX settings. The iBuyPower desktop posted highly stable performance, averaging 145.7 FPS across all runs with less than a one frame variance across all runs. The Ryzen 7 7700X3D’s average temperature was 43 degrees Celsius and its average clock was 4.29 GHz. The RTX 5070 ran at 64 C and had an average core clock of 2.64 GHz.

I noticed a decent amount of fan noise from the Slate particularly when the CPU was stressed, causing the triple-fan CPU cooler to quickly ramp up to high speed. The fan noise was hardly noticeable for daily use and was relatively low while gaming as well.

Productivity Performance on the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop

We tested the iBuyPower Slate gaming desktop featuring a Ryzen 7 7700X3D processor, 32GB of dual-channel DDR5-5200 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive (a Patriot P410 as tested).

Productivity performance isn’t a strong point for this Slate configuration. Though its Ryzen 7 7700X3D remains potent for gaming, its previous generation eight-core architecture is outmuscled by the Core Ultra 7 K-class chips in both the Asus and CyberPowerPC systems, particularly the latter with its refreshed Core Ultra 7 270K Plus. The delta was significant: iBuyPower's system scored 14,222 in Geekbench multi-core versus 22,485 for CyberPowerPC, and took 3:35 to complete our 4K to 1080p Handbrake transcoding test versus just 2:03 for the Asus and 1:45 for the CyberPowerPC. The iBuyPower system does, however, include a decent storage drive, proving competitive in our 25GB file transfer test.

Despite the Slate’s performance delta versus the Core Ultra 7 systems, this PC is still highly capable for daily productivity and moderate content creation, such as video editing. Only those squeezing every last drop of performance out of their CPU will find it compelling to go with a more powerful chip than the Ryzen 7 7700X3D.

Keyboard and Mouse with the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop

The Slate includes much better than average peripherals. The mechanical keyboard is the standout. Though not stated in the specs, it feels like it uses linear switches favored by gamers for their predictability. It felt rock solid in my testing and wasn’t overly loud. The keyboard supports RGB backlighting, though not per-key – the lighting can be set in the included Hyte Nexus app for various colors and patterns. You can also control the lighting through keyboard shortcuts – Fn+Ctrl cycles colors, Fn+Left/Right arrows alter brightness, Fn+Space Bar disables lighting, and Fn+Alt cycles through 16 backlighting patterns, such as breathing, pulsing, and steady. It’s also nice to see that the keyboard uses a detachable USB-C cable.

The mouse is also better than average, though it’s only for right handers. The standard buttons offer a solid feel, with two side buttons and a notched scroll wheel. The DPI button behind the scroll wheel switches between 1,200, 2,400, 3,500, 5,500, and 7,200 DPI, which are visually indicated by the DPI button illuminating in red, blue, green, purple, and yellow, respectively. The mouse fits my medium-size hand well. It’s internally backlit in RGB color, which can be configured in Hyte Nexus or toggled through 10 modes pressing the button on the underside. Patterns include color streaming, steady, and breathing, to name a few.

Software and Warranty on the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop

Besides the usual preinstalled Windows 11 apps, iBuyPower only preloads one app – Hyte Nexus. It provides basic component temperature and frequency monitoring, but its real focus is RGB lighting control.

The menu is confusing – there are tiles for different components, such as the case, but these have no effect since the particular case used in the Slate isn’t recognized. Instead, all the action happens in the Lighting section. Many preset lighting recipes are included, such as Rainbow, Aurora, Ice, Fireplace, and Forest, which even apply to the keyboard and mouse. There are also options for screen mirroring, audio visualization, and static colors. You can save your settings in profiles.

That said, there’s no way to control lighting on a per-component basis – colors and patterns apply to all components at once since they are all connected to ARGB header 1. Confusingly, the app lets you change settings for the other headers, but this has no effect since nothing is connected to them. If the app indicated that those headers aren’t connected, this would have been more straightforward. The Slate nonetheless allows a decent amount of lighting customization despite lacking an advanced lighting controller, which would have increased the cost.

iBuyPower covers the Slate with a one-year parts and labor warranty.

iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop Configurations

We tested the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop with a Ryzen 7 7700X3D processor, GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card, 32GB (2x 16GB) of DDR5-5200 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. A mechanical backlit gaming keyboard and mouse are included in the box.

Best Buy offers several other variations of the Slate. A $1,679.99 starter model included a Core i7-14700F and RTX 5060 while a $1,799.99 model stepped up to a Core Ultra 7 265F and RTX 5060 Ti. Above our test model, a $2,299.99 variant included a Ryzen 9 9900X3D, while a range-topping $2,999.99 model offered a Ryzen 9 7900X, an RTX 5080, and a 2TB SSD.

Bottom Line

iBuyPower’s Slate gets the mid-tier gaming desktop formula almost exactly right. Visually, its RGB lighting is attractive and reasonably configurable even if it lacks per-component control, and its RTX 5070 and Ryzen 7 7700X3D comfortably power through today’s games at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K possible using dialed-down visual quality or DLSS. iBuyPower goes above expectations by including a liquid CPU cooler with a built-in screen and by including a mechanical RGB keyboard and gaming mouse.

Where the Slate stumbles, as least in our reviewed configuration, is processing power. Though the Ryzen 7 7700X3D remains potent for gaming, it’s outclassed by Core Ultra 7 K-class chips for general use, which can be had in systems costing similar money. But for pure gamers, this Slate is a standup performer.

GMKtec has launched the Evo-X5 Pro, its latest agentic AI mini-PC, featuring AMD's flagship Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 processor and 192GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory. The model with a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD retails at $6,799, while the 4TB model will set consumers back $7,099.

The Evo-X5 Pro launches today to go head-to-head with rivals, such as Acemagic’s F9A and Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max-P495, which use similar recipes: AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495. The processor is the most performant SKU from the Ryzen AI Max+ 400 (codenamed Gorgon Halo) family. Unlike the regular Ryzen AI 400 (codenamed Gorgon Point) series, which uses a hybrid Zen 5 and Zen 5c setup, Gorgon Halo keeps only the full-size Zen 5 cores and drops the space-efficient Zen 5c cores.

Armed with 16 Zen 5 cores and 32 threads, the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 stands out as a powerhouse in the mobile segment. It boasts a 3.1 GHz base clock, 5.2 GHz boost clock, and 64MB of L3 cache. The 16-core, 55W chip is essentially the mobile version of the renowned Ryzen 9 9950X (though with a far lower power budget). With abundant processing power, it is easy to see why the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 is the elected candidate for these agentic AI mini-PCs.

The Evo-X5 Pro supports three performance profiles for the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495. The silent and balanced modes keep the chip at 54W and 85W, respectively, while performance mode allows up to 120W sustained and 160W peak. The mini-PC features a vapor chamber cooling system to keep the hardware cool, along with one 80 x 80 x 15mm system fan and two other 80 x 80 x 30mm cooling fans.

GMKtec Evo-X5 Pro Specifications and Pricing

The Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 supports up to 192GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, pushing past the 128GB available on Nvidia's GB10 chip and AMD's previous Strix Halo chips. Eight 24GB chips are soldered to the motherboard in close proximity to the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495. Gorgon Halo pairs the 192GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory with a 256-bit interface to maximize memory bandwidth for local AI. This configuration delivers up to about 273 GB/s of bandwidth. Meanwhile, the Evo-X5 Pro enables allocations of up to 160GB to serve as VRAM for large AI LLM models.

GMKtec sells the Evo-X5 Pro with a 2TB or 4TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. The price difference is $300. It is a shame the company doesn't offer a bare-bones version of the Evo-X5 Pro, since some enthusiasts could reuse their existing drives or buy a new SSD at a lower price. The mini-PC has three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots for PCIe-based drives, so users can have up to 24TB of fast storage. However, only two M.2 slots run at x4, while the third is limited to x1.

Super early bird and early bird customers are eligible for 6% and 3% off, respectively. Consumers can get the 4TB and 2TB versions for as low as $6,699 and $6,399, respectively. To further incentivize early adopters, only the first 30 units of the Evo-X5 Pro are eligible for super early-bird pricing. GMKtec includes a complimentary three-month subscription to the Z.ai coding plan and a 1.5X return in GMKtec Points.

Existing owners of the Evo-X2 and Evo-X3 models are eligible for an exclusive $50 discount on the Evo-X5 Pro when they use the X5P39550 EDM code at checkout.

In addition to its early-bird and upgrade offers, GMKtec is trying to seduce buyers with bulk-purchase discounts for the Evo-X5 Pro. However, these "offers" sound like a joke. Buying two, three, or five units nets consumers $10, $20, and $40 in discounts, respectively. If you are spending $32,995 on hardware, you would expect more than a meaningless 0.12% discount, but apparently GMKtec does not see it that way.

There's a real advantage right now to buying a pre-built gaming PC. The RAMpocalypse has made it difficult, from a budget point of view, to build new gaming PCs. Instead, the real value is to buy a rig with the specs that'll allow you to game for the next few years. This ABS Cyclone Aqua machine with an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU is the perfect example, giving you 1440-capable performance for just $1,399.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

You're getting a spec sheet that would be tricky to put together if you were building a rig yourself. The RTX 5060 Ti is the star of this particular show, but the rest of the build includes 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 20-core Intel Core i7-14700F processor. We're still seeing the 14700F in pre-builts as an affordable option that can still deliver great gaming performance.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti means you're getting one of Nvidia’s latest-generation cards, with this GPU sitting in the mid-tier. You're getting 4,608 CUDA cores and a boost clock speed of 2,527MHz here. You only need a single eight-pin PCIe connector to deliver power, unlike the RTX 5090, so you don't need to worry about this PC requiring huge amounts of power to run.

As our RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB review explains, you're getting an impressive set of performance with this Blackwell GPU for 1080p and 1440p gaming. The charts below show how great it is for ray tracing for its price, especially compared to rival cards. You're also getting full Nvidia DLSS support here, giving you the full set of Nvidia's software capabilities for improving performance in-game, including multi-frame generation. MFG will give your games a frame rate boost, inserting AI-generated frames to help deliver performance in the most resource-heavy games at higher resolutions.

16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, meanwhile, makes this GPU a far better option than the 8GB variants you could pick up at this price. That gives you far more headroom, performance-wise, in games that are resource-heavy, especially for 1440p gaming.

Meanwhile, the Intel Core i7-14700F is still a good, if older, CPU option for gaming. This Raptor Lake Refresh CPU comes with 20 cores, split across eight performance cores, which are the good ones for gaming, along with 12 efficient cores for multi-threaded work. You also get a max turbo clock speed of 5.4 GHz and a 65W TDP. At 1080p or 1440p, you aren't going to see the 14700F as a bottleneck in modern gaming.

Some builds at this price are sticking with older specs, including DDR4 RAM, but luckily, you're getting faster DDR5 here. 16GB of G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5 RAM is included, rated for speeds of 6,000 MT/s. Given how pricey RAM is becoming, it's a compromise that it isn't a higher capacity like 32GB, but it could be worse. DDR5 does add to the longevity of this build, however, and you do have scope to upgrade at a later date.

You also get a 1TB Patriot P410 SSD here. It offers Gen 4 speeds, along with space for a couple of the biggest AAA games alongside Windows. There's also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity included here, along with gigabit Ethernet for a wired connection to your local network.

The $1,399.99 sale price for this ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC is a good option in the current market. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB ensures you've got a rig for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but given how fast prices are rising across the PC hardware market, there's no guarantee that it'll be around for long.

A chrysophile has ordered a special edition mini PC with a pure 24-carat gold passive chassis reports Fanless Tech. It’s a premium custom version of the ~5-inch (120 x 120 x 120mm) Kubb Fanless PC, but costing around $1.7 million with its opulent gold chassis. As well as its choice of materials pumping up price, this mini PC’s weight has increased from its default 4.6 to 28.7 pounds (2.1kg to 13kg). But as a bonus, which probably still doesn’t make it worth it for most folks, gold has significantly better thermal conductivity than aluminum.

In its social media post, Fanless Tech calls the Kubb Fanless in gold a “cooling marvel.” Its news post on the topic elaborates on this claim, explaining that the thermal conductivity of gold is “about 30% to 50% faster than aluminum.” That might help its Core Ultra chip perform a bit better, all else being equal. However the sacrifice to portability, as this compact gold PC is over 6x heavier, could be a major drawback. As well as the price.

We looked up the thermal conductivity of aluminum and gold, as well as some other common materials. The chart below could be useful for your own passive computing projects.

In contrast to its gilded construction, this mini PC's specs are very modest. Standard configurations of the Kubb Fanless are as follows:

• Intel Core Ultra 5 225H, or Intel Core Ultra X7 358H, or AMD Ryzen AI 5 340
• 16GB DDR5, up to 128GB
• 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, optional second M.2 SSD
• Intel: 1x USB 3.2 (Type A), 1x USB 3.2 (Type-C, DP1.4a), 1x USB4/Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C, DP 2.1), Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• AMD: 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type A), 2x USB4 (Type-C, DP 1.4a), Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3
• Side ports: 2x Port RJ45, 2x HDMI 2.1 TMDS, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type A)
• 19V DC, 6.32A, 120W power adapter (100–240V AC)
• Windows 11 Pro
• 3 years guarantee

Kubb Fanless mini PCs are usually made from aluminum, and finished in graphite, blue, or bronze. With an Intel Core Ultra 5 225H at their heart, all those colors are all listed at €1,595 ($1,822) at Kubb.eu, but there is no stock. At that kind of price, the Arctic Senza AI 370 we tested earlier in the year looks like it would be a knockout passive computing competitor. We aren’t sure if Arctic would accept the 24 carat gold chassis special order, and the Senza is designed for discrete under-desk-mounted silence.

We previously reported on the fanless Kubb Mini range of 3 x 3 x 3-inch mini PCs which packed Intel Twin Lake chips, came in cute/bright color finishes, and were priced around $500 (€430).

Developers of SharpEmu — an experimental, open-source PS5 emulator — have successfully run PS5 games at a playable 60 FPS on the emulator. According to an X post on September 25, the developers reached this milestone for six of 55 titles tested, with 12 — including the six playable — reaching gameplay. According to the developer, the six games are yet to be tested from start to finish; the “playable” designation means the games currently run without issues, although minor graphical or audio issues may persist in some.

The six 60 FPS titles are Dreaming Sarah, Void Terrarium, New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja, Tetris Forever, Hoa, and Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered. The breakthrough was achieved with SharpEmu v0.0.4-release.2, the emulator’s latest public build released on September 25. According to developers, the build includes upgrades such as improved SPIR-V shader translation and updated Vulkan API support.

Developed in C#, the SharpEmu PS5 emulator supports Windows, Linux, and macOS and uses Vulkan and MoltenVK for graphics API calls. PlayStation 5 relies on an AMD Zen 2 x86-64 CPU architecture; therefore, SharpEmu can execute the console's CPU instructions natively on a standard PC rather than translating them from an unfamiliar instruction set. The emulator focuses on loading a game's eboot.bin executable and required system modules, partially handling kernel functions, and processing the game's shader, resource, and AGC graphics submissions.

For now, SharpEmu is still far from handling demanding 3D titles, with only 12 of 55 tested titles reaching a game ready state. Of those 12, only six performed cleanly enough to be designated as “playable” at a full 60 FPS. The developers stress that SharpEmu is still in its early stages, noting that “SharpEmu is an experimental emulator intended for research and educational purposes. This project does not contain any copyrighted system firmware, game data, or proprietary PlayStation assets.” Meanwhile, another emulator, KytyPS5, recently ran the PS5 version of GTA V at roughly 40 to 60 FPS on a high-end Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Radeon RX 7900 XT system, crashing after the game's opening mission.

There's a brilliant price right now on a top-end gaming PC, thanks to Walmart. You can pick up this HP Omen 35L rig with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, Intel Core i7-14700F CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD for $1,899.99. That's an unbelievable price for a rig with this spec in the current market, one that makes it hundreds of dollars cheaper than many of its rivals. If you bought the same machine on HP's website with the same configuration, it would set you back $3,639.99, over $1,700 more than you'd pay here.

● Check out this deal at Walmart

This version of the HP Omen 35L is a recent refresh, with a modern set of specs that'll keep you gaming for years into the future. It ships with a 35-liter case, so it's a more manageable option for your desk compared to the HP Omen Max 45L. It's a fairly understated design, though, with a minimal black colorway, although some RGB lighting is available through the cooling fans.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the focal point in this PC. You're getting one of Nvidia's current-gen mid- to high-tier powerhouses here, featuring the best of Nvidia's latest tech, including DLSS with multi-frame generation at your disposal.

Specs-wise, it has 8,960 CUDA cores, along with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM on a 256-bit memory bus, as our RTX 5070 Ti review explains. The boost in VRAM compared to the cheaper 8GB GPUs on sale is important here if you want to hit the highest frame rates at 1440p and 4K. For 4K, you'll probably need to tweak your graphics settings a little, especially in the most graphically-intensive games. Luckily, multi-frame generation will give you an AI-generated frame rate boost if you run into any difficulties.

1440p will be much more solid, though. As the GPU benchmarks from our review show, you'll manage 1440p above 60fps on average pretty consistently with the highest ultra graphics settings.

You're also getting the Intel Core i7-14700F in this HP build. This Raptor Lake Refresh CPU is a little old now, but it's still a popular choice in pre-built systems, and it still delivers good performance for gaming. You're getting 20 cores with the 14700F, eight of which are performance cores for gaming, along with 12 efficient cores which will prove useful for multi-threaded work.

Other specs include support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity. You're also getting a 1TB NVMe SSD with Gen 4 speeds here, so you'll manage to install at least a few of the newest and biggest games. 32GB of DDR5 RAM means you're not forced to compromise on memory, even at this price, insulating you from the RAMpocalypse affecting industry pricing at the moment.

The $1,899.99 price for this HP Omen 35L gaming PC isn't being listed as a deal on Walmart's website, but don't be fooled. This kind of spec is usually priced well above $2,000 in the current market, so we'd expect the price to jump up soon or stock to run out. If you want a 4K-capable RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC for less than $1,900 from a trusted brand, you'll want to grab this one while you can.

With RAMageddon, the storage apocalypse, GPU stagnation, and GPU price increases all happening more or less simultaneously, this is the worst time to build a PC that I can remember — and I built my first PC in the previous century (powered by an AMD K6-2). If you have a rig that meets your needs at the moment (even if just barely), current prices probably make you more interested in keeping it running than in considering major upgrades or, even more daunting, starting over from scratch with a new build.

But fret as we might about the future of our much-beloved component-swapping hobby, a few articles and experiences in recent weeks have given me glimpses of the PC-building future, and I don’t think it’s all bad — at least so long as you have time to research and tinker, you can live without the highest-end components, or you have enough of a build budget that price doesn’t matter much.

Old parts get a new life, with some patient tweaking

First off, we recently tested AMD’s BC-250, a 2021-era APU that started off as defective or cut-down PS5 silicon, repurposed as a cryptomining card. But more recently, a community-developed BIOS and drivers have turned this custom hardware into a Linux-based competitor to Valve’s much-hyped Steam Machine, while costing roughly half the price of a similarly configured system, once you source the power supply and other necessary parts. It even comes with 16GB of shared GDDR6, sidestepping the current RAM pricing issue altogether.

Now, this is more of a project than a PC. You have to source the card (from places like AliExpress, eBay, or Etsy), then research and figure out how to flash the board so that it will even boot, followed by getting Linux and the requisite drivers installed, before you can even think about playing games. But depending on your sample, you might also be able to unlock extra CPU cores and compute units for even better performance.

It’s far from a simple setup. But this kind of community-led hardware repurposing and enhancement reminds me of two distinct hardware eras: The very early days of PC kits (which I wasn’t really around for), and the early 2000s, when you could unlock AMD Athlon and Duron multipliers with a pencil (or later, conductive silver lacquer). Unlocking higher clocks and extra performance without paying for a much pricier chip is exactly the kind of achievable dream that the PC enthusiast hobby was founded on, and it’s good to see it making a comeback – even if it’s with this one very specific piece of hardware.

But as AI hardware development continues — and especially if (or when) specific areas of the hardware bubble pop or deflate – I expect to see more situations where communities of tinkerers figure out how to get discarded hardware to run games and other compute tasks, giving budget buyers hope for acceptable performance at reasonable prices. Ironically, AI tools like Claude Code will almost certainly make breakthroughs in hardware repurposing much easier.

To boldly go (to price brackets) where no PC has gone before

On the other end of the PC price spectrum, I recently assembled a PC using parts from Asus’ ROG Edition 20 line. The anniversary hardware, which debuted earlier this year at Computex, ignores affordability concerns entirely. Asus instead opted to celebrate two decades of its Republic of Gamers sub-brand by taking several of its already expensive parts and peripherals, adding a few (mostly aesthetic) features and some gold accents, and charging even more for them.

How much more? The finished PC, with about $2,000 worth of peripherals, a $3,300 motherboard and cooler combo, and a $6,000 RTX 5090, costs roughly $15,000 – and that’s with a modest 2TB SSD and 32GB of RAM. If you opt for a more fitting 128GB kit with tight timings and 8TB of solid-state storage, you could easily spend $20,000 on a build like this.

As tough as it is for many of us to swallow, there’s likely a large enough customer base of gamers and PC enthusiasts who can and will pay whatever it takes to own high-end, high-performance PCs to keep options like this afloat. Because while the cost of individual parts has certainly increased, the luxury PC market has existed for decades. I know because in the years before I joined Tom’s Hardware, I reviewed several PCs with custom cooling loops and multiple graphics cards (up to quad-SLI) from the likes of Digital Storm and Maingear. That market isn’t going away; it’s just getting more expensive.

The murky future of mainstream desktop gaming PCs

So what about the mainstream PC gaming market? Things are tougher there, and I suspect that space will continue to shrink due to, well, everything I linked to up top. Those looking for gaming options in the sub-$2,000 range that “just work” without much tinkering are more likely to make do with consoles (which are, of course, also getting more expensive), gaming laptops or handhelds, or console-like PCs like Valve’s Steam Machine.

Intel and AMD are reviving or extending the lifespan of chips and platforms that support last-gen DDR4, but older memory isn’t getting any cheaper either. And our own testing has shown that DDR4 is increasingly holding back gaming performance.

There was a brief hope that Chinese memory makers like CXMT might help bring down DDR5 prices. But U.S. approval for that seems unlikely, especially as the FCC is busy banning humanoid robots and robot vacuum cleaners built overseas. And, of course, companies like CXMT aren’t looking to be PC saviors. They want to sell their RAM to AI hyperscalers for the same high prices as SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung. And even if DDR5 somehow suddenly became more affordable, GPU prices are also continuing to climb, and storage (SSDs and hard drives) faces similar pricing issues.

Can software save the day?

Like it or not, we’ll certainly see further advancements in AI upscaling and other VRAM tweaks and tricks that make modern gaming possible on older and current-gen cards with 8GB or even 4GB of VRAM before the price of RAM, storage, and GPUs drop significantly.

Will it be enough to keep PC gaming enticing and affordable enough to prop up the mainstream PC gaming market? That’s tough to say with any certainty at this point, but if being a PC enthusiast since the 1990s (and a PC gamer since the late 1980s) has taught me one thing, it’s that this hobby is resilient. Some will pay what they need to pay for high-end hardware. Some will find suitable solutions by tinkering with repurposed silicon. And others will forge a middle ground that works for them.

I transitioned from a PC enthusiast to a full-time professional covering the PC and related hardware space in 2008. Even back then, people were telling me that the desktop was dead or dying. Instead, it has evolved and survived for nearly 20 years, through the smartphone revolution, past soldered-on laptop components, through two cycles of Steam Machines, and the death of physical game media. Meanwhile, game stores like Steam rake in record profits, indicating that the demand for PC gaming remains high. All this tells me that PC building and PC gaming will need to continue to evolve, but it’s not quite on the endangered hardware list yet.

GMKtec already has an AMD Strix Halo mini PC in its stables, in the form of the Evo-X2. Now, just six months later, we have another AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor-packing mini PC from GMKtec in the labs. The obvious difference is that the Evo-X3 has a brand new chassis and cooling design, it also comes with 128GB of LPDDR5X-8000 as standard. Those are welcome changes. Half a year later, though, the price has basically doubled as seemingly every electronics product with RAM and NAND chips inside has been affected by the ongoing component shortage.

The result is a desirable computer that will offer strong appeal to enthusiasts who want machines with a large pool of fast, unified RAM, in a competently revamped case. But you will have to have quite a compelling reason to part with the $3,799.99 our 128GB/2TB configuration costs in mid-2026.

Design of the GMKtec Evo-X3 AI Mini PC

GMKtec has thoroughly revamped its Evo-X family with the new X3. Gone is the short-but-stout design, where we saw a plastic inner case sandwiched by some brushed aluminum. Now GMKtec has gone almost entirely metal, with the exception of a textured and vented soft-touch green plastic cap. This towering new design, which is over 14-inches tall with the base attached, features a metal CNC chassis. That body feels very strong, the panels seem thick, and the base is made from a matching material. Where the mini PC meets the desk, there’s a pair of broad padded rubberized feet that you stick on after unpacking and fixing the metal base on the device.

While still in mini PC territory, the Evo-T3 is pushing it a bit at roughly 2.7 liters. Its flat base is about 4-inches wide, which helps it stay very stable on the desk. There are no side feet, which makes running it on its side inadvisible. Users will also have to hide away the large power brick if they are after the cleanest minimal workspace.

GMKtec Evo-X3 specifications

Ports and Upgradeability

GMKtec keeps the front of its mini PC simple with just three ports and the power button. In the top third of the tower’s facade, there’s a central green power button with a white LED ring lit when it is powered up. The middle third of the front is left plain, but the lower third has one USB 3.2 Gen 1, one USB 2.0, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack. I wish there was a Type-C port on the front, preferably USB4 or better.

Around the back it has a good variety of ports, but I wouldn’t describe them as numerous. You will find a USB‑A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a USB4 Type‑C (PD 3.0 / DP-alt) port, an HDMI 2.1 port, an OCuLink PCIe Gen 4 ×4 port, an RJ‑45 2.5G LAN port, and a DC‑IN barrel jack. Ideally, I’d like to have a full size DP port, as well as a second USB4 port, plus more USB-A ports. If I were to use this as a daily driver I think I’d need to connect a fast USB docking solution for the oodles of peripherals I like to have ready and connected.

Wireless connectivity seems adequate enough, with an M.2 2230 card inside providing Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. I had no problems with either during the test period.

Access to the components inside the GMKtec Evo-X3 is straightforward, but takes time as there are eight Torx-6 screws securing the side panel in place. Once they were all unscrewed I needed to use a guitar pick and a bit of gravity to tilt the heavy panel off. Removing of the panel allowed access to the two M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots, one of which was already populated with a Crucial P310 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD fitted with a slim heatsink. In the opposite corner of the chassis I saw an M.2 2230 socketed MediaTek wireless card. There are no other internal user upgrade or repair options as the 128GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM is soldered to the motherboard.

Test System Setup

Productivity Performance on the GMKtec Evo-X3

GMKtec describes the Evo-X3 as a machine that targets AI workloads, but first we ran through our standard mini PC benchmark comparison suite, which targets more general computing usage.

A brief glimpse at the tech specs of the X3 reveals that it has lots of modern fast CPU cores, supported by one of the best iGPUs, and plenty of RAM and storage. It should make light work of our productivity benchmarks, and indeed its 16C/32 core AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 CPU left its mini PC rivals eating dust, most strikingly in multi-threaded tests.

As we expected, the single core tests show the GMKtec Evo-X3 is a competent performer in the context of the competition in our charts. It isn’t the only Zen 5 machine in this race, so it doesn’t get a chance to dazzle yet.

Moving onto the multi-core tests is where the Ryzen AI Max+ 395’s 32 threads show their potential for real-world data crunching performance. For example, in Y-cruncher it completed its Pi compute in around 60 seconds. That’s twice as fast as its nearest competitor in our mini PC charts, the Beelink SER10 Max.

Rendering in Cinebench is also strong. In Cinebench 2026, the X3 scored roughly 7,300 points in multi-core. That’s over 40% faster than its nearest competitor, the Arctic Senza AI 370. Video transcoding performance is also in a new class, with the Evo-X3 crushing the competition, achieving around 24 frames per second.

For some added AI benchmarking stats, we did a few tests in Geekbench AI and LM Studio Bionic to weigh the GMKtec Evo-X3 against the Evo-T2. These are both machines with large unified memory pools by default and which the makers claim to be local LLM champs.

Using Geekbench AI with the ONNX framework and DirectML backend the Evo-X3 achieved a half precision score of ~37,100. On the Evo-T2 using the same options, a score of ~23,060 was achieved.

However, machines like the GMKtec Evo-X3 and T2 might be picked up by consumers to work with local LLMs considerably larger than most consumer GPUs can load. With this in mind, I ran LM Studio Bionic chat sessions powered by the new Qwen3.8 27B Q4_K_M model on both machines. To use this 27 billion parameter model as intended, a machine needs around 20GB of ‘VRAM’ of shared memory to avoid undesirable side effects like out-of-memory errors and slowdowns.

I prompted the same tasks on both machines then analyzed the logs and found prompt processing was pretty similar between the platforms, ranging either side of 200 tok/s. However, the AMD Strix Halo Evo-X3 far outpaced the Panther Lake Evo-T2 by generating responses at up to 28 tok/s, compared with around 8 tok/s at best, respectively. It would be possible to tune these LLM speeds for each machine, but I didn’t tweak settings for the comparison tests. With 128GB of unified memory in the Evo-X3, allowing up to 96GB to be dedicated to the GPU, even larger models can be utilized for the most capable local AI chatbots, agents, generation workloads.

During our demanding tests, the GMKtec Evo-X3 stayed admirably cool and quiet. All our tests were done with the default 85W balanced profile, as the system shipped. Owners can also choose to run this system in Silent Mode (54W) or push it to Performance Mode (peak 140W).

Gaming and Graphics on the GMKtec Evo-X3

The GMKtec Evo-X3 is pretty good at gaming, thanks to its powerful CPU and iGPU with lots of fast memory onboard. Remember, the Ryzen AI Max 395+ has 16 Zen 5 CPU cores with 32 threads, and its Radeon RX 8060S iGPU features 40 CUs and 2,560 shader cores – more CUs than a vanilla PlayStation 5. The capacious LPDDR5X-8000 memory pool has a 256-bit interface.

Before moving onto our standard synthetic and AAA PC gaming tests, I decided to run around in Star Wars Outlaws. I chose the High preset, at 1440p, and kind of enjoyed this game, experiencing a performance level of mostly between 60 and 90 frames per second. The graphics weren't anything special, but I noticed the game was using about 9GB of VRAM which could have meant dips and stutters on systems packing 8GB GPUs and using the same graphics settings. While the CPU usage was mostly under 20%, the iGPU was nearer to 90%.

Next up, our benchmarks include a trio of 3DMark synthetics and two iconic PC gaming standards. In the 3DMark Solar Bay test, which seems most appropriate to the mini PCs we have tested in 2026, the Evo-X3 left the competitors in the dust with over 50,000 points. It was almost twice as fast as the Panther Lake B390 iGPU, and about three times as fast as the Radeon 890M machines that came with fast dual-channel RAM (like the aforementioned Arctic and Beelink mini PCs).

In 3DMark Steel Nomad we got a respectable score of 2,132, and the frame rate reached 21 FPS. It was a similar story in 3DMark Speed Way, where the Evo-X3 managed a score of 2,046. For some context this Speed Way result still lags behind my Asus Zephyrus G16 laptop with RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, which scored up to 2,425.

Moving on to real AAA games, let’s check the data provided by the multi-scene benchmarks built into Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077. The former scales well with processor resources and can still often look and run great on humble iGPUs. As for Cyberpunk 2077, it can really push even the strongest modern GPUs, so here we've used two settings to show how the GMKtec Evo-X3 can perform. I thought both these titles looked better than Star Wars Outlaws, too.

The Shadow of the Tomb Raider High 1080p test resulted in an impeccably smooth 138 FPS on average, with the low of 126 FPS, on the Evo-X3. That’s a great score for a mini PC without a discrete graphics card. I was inspired to re-test at 1440p High, and the X3 still achieved an average 96 FPS / low 86 FPS.

In Cyberpunk 2077 the Evo-X3 managed to achieve 96 FPS using the 1080p High preset, with 1% lows at 78 FPS. This is certainly another candidate for moving up to 1440p and/or higher quality presets. CD Projekt Red also provides lots of upscaling tech (DLSS, FSR, XeSS) settings to adjust in this futuristic RPG, to try and get your sweet spot performance / resolution / quality setting dialed in.

Power, Heat, and Noise when using the GMKtec Evo-X3

When I left the GMKtec Evo-X3 to idle, my power meter measured wattages around 16W from the wall for the whole system. When the PC was pushed with simultaneous CPU and GPU benchmarks running, power draw seemed to peak at a little under 150W. GMKtec shipped this device with ‘Balanced Mode’ set in the BIOS, allowing the processor to consume up to 85W. The supplied 230W power brick had plenty in reserve, and it might need it in ‘Performance Mode’ where GMKtec says that the processor alone will demand up to 120W with peak power spikes to 140W.

System tools showed that during light activities like browsing the web, and typing reports like this one, the CPU temperature stuck around 42 degrees Celsius (in a 22 C room). Playing games for 30 or 40 minutes, the reported CPU temperature seemed to stay between 75 C and 82 C most of the time. The peak CPU temperature I saw was 85 C.

GMKtec’s powerful mini PC was a quiet operator at idle and under load. My measurements from about half a foot in front of the device show noise levels under 30 dBA at idle, which is very quiet and under the measurement threshold of my meter. Stressing the system with multiple CPU and GPU loads I managed to get nearly 37 dBA out of the system. This seemed an exceptional result during my testing, as most of the time the max noise level during benchmarks was nearer 33 dBA.

Software and Warranty on the GMKtec Evo-X3

The GMKtec Evo-X3 ships with Windows 11 Pro installed. Unlike its Evo-T2 brother, I found no pre-installed AI apps and tools on the X3. However, I note that the product page mentions GMKtec Claw and Wrangler as features. I installed LM Studio Bionic and Comfy UI for some AI testing, though.

GMKtec sells the Evo-X3 with a one-year warranty.

GMKtec Evo-X3 configurations

GMKtec sells only two Evo-X3 configurations in the U.S. Both machines feature the same processor and generous amounts of RAM. The only configuration choice is between a 2TB SSD (our model) and a 4TB SSD equipped model.

At the time of writing our 2TB configuration is listed at $3,799 but the product page says the price is normally $4,100. The 4TB model is currently $3,999, discounted from $4,349. We don’t know when the prices might get adjusted. Pricing for computers and devices with lots of RAM and storage is volatile right now.

Bottom Line

I was impressed by many aspects of the GMKtec Evo-X3 mini PC. Computing on a machine with so much RAM felt quite liberating. Especially when so much of it can be allocated to the system's iGPU. Moreover, the CPU and iGPU components of the SoC are plenty powerful for the compact form factor. I was also impressed by the X3's sleek design, solid build quality, and quiet operation.

No machine is perfect, though. For example, despite having a variety of ports available including USB4 and OCuLink, I felt there were not enough ports in total. To use this as my daily driver I’d feel pinched by the Evo-X3’s design offering just a single USB4 port, and one HDMI out.

The price is high, even considering the spec, but that's unfortunately common during this component shortage.

GMKtec sells its new Evo-X3 direct at the offer price of $3,799, as mentioned and linked above. At the time of writing we note that our GMKtec Evo-X3 128GB/2TB configuration is also available from Amazon U.S. at the same price, if you prefer.

If you like what you’ve seen of the Evo-X3, the nearest competitors that we have experience of are the Evo-X2, also from GMKtec, and AMD’s first-party, turn-key Strix Halo mini-PC. However, we know there are several next-gen Ryzen AI Max 495+ machines coming to retail soon. Depending on market pricing, configurations, design, and port selections of these refreshed ‘Gorgon Halo’ models, they might be worth waiting for. We saw Minisforum, Lenovo, GMKtec, Chuwi, and AceMagic with AI Max 495+ designs at IFA 2026 earlier this month.

Bundle deals are often the best way to sidestep today's inflated pricing of memory, SSDs, and GPUs. However, a well-configured prebuilt can be even more compelling, offering compatible components and the convenience of a fully assembled system out-of-the-box. One such prebuilt is the ABS Cyclone Aqua that is currently listed on Newegg for $1,299.99, down from its original price of $1,699.99, resulting in savings of $400. Customers can get an additional $100 discount using the promo code SSF73826 during checkout, bringing the final cost down to $1,199.99 for the Cyclone Aqua and an overall saving of $500.

• Check out this deal on Newegg

The ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC features hardware suitable for modern AAA gaming at 1080p. It is powered by an Intel Core i7-14700F, which is a solid 20-core (8 P-cores + 12 E-cores) processor with 28 threads and boost clock speeds of up to 5.4 GHz. The CPU is paired with an ASRock B760M-C/D4 motherboard with 32GB (2 x 16GB) of DDR4 3200 MT/s memory from G.Skill (Ripjaws V). The motherboard also comes with onboard Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth. For storage, the system includes a 1TB Patriot P410 M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD offering read speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 4,500 MB/s.

Graphics duties are handled by the Zotac Gaming RTX 5060 Solo with 8GB VRAM, which is essentially Nvidia’s latest entry-level 1080p card. While it may not be ideal for high-end AAA gaming, it's good enough for less demanding titles, especially if you are into competitive FPS shooters. The rest of the features include a Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU air cooler, a 650W 80+ Gold power supply unit, and a decent ABS Cyclone Micro ATX mid-tower case with a glass side panel, as well as two 120mm ARGB fans at the front and one at the rear.

If you've been holding off on a new gaming PC due to high component prices, this deal at $1,199.99 is definitely worth your attention. Considering that sourcing comparable components individually would likely push the total cost beyond $1,500, this prebuilt offers excellent value for the money.

Powered by a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and a GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition, the $2,299 CyberPowerPC SLC8500WST is one of the best gaming prebuilt deals on the market right now. A custom GeForce RTX 5080, which starts at $1,579, and the $449 Ryzen 7 9800X3D already add up to $2,028. In today’s market, there is no way you will find 32GB of DDR5 memory and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for $271, much less put together an entire system.

• Check out the CyberPowerPC gaming PC deals at Walmart

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D needs no introduction. The octa-core Zen 5 chip with 96MB of L3 cache has been on the market for two years now and still reigns as the best CPU for gaming. Although Intel and AMD have released many processors, nothing comes close to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in terms of performance and gaming value that the Zen 5 processor offers.

Meanwhile, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition, one of the best graphics cards, joins the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in the SLC8500WST to deliver strong 4K (3840x2160) performance and exceptional frame rates at lower resolutions. It is worth noting that it is the Founders Edition, a coveted model that is rarely available on the market anymore, even if you are willing to overpay for it. It comes with DLSS 5 support, as well, and we've found solid DLSS 5 performance on the RTX 5080 in our testing.

Sometimes prebuilt systems are a mixed bag, pairing high-end hardware with weaker components to cut corners. However, the SLC8500WST makes no compromises. The gaming system comes equipped with 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory to ensure seamless gaming and future-proofing of your system.

While the Walmart page does not list the exact specifications of the kit used in the SLC8500WST, it is worth noting that the most affordable 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 C30 memory kit on the market currently sells for $429.

On the storage side, the SLC8500WST has a spacious 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. It provides ample room for your games and loads them instantly. The capacity is a good starting point given current storage prices due to the AI-induced shortage. Again, we do not know the SSD model. However, a budget 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD typically starts at $149 nowadays.

You do not see offers like the CyberPowerPC SLC8500WST every day, especially at the $2,299 price point. If you have been holding off on upgrading your gaming system or buying a new one, this SLC8500WST deal is definitely one you should consider.

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

It’s been nearly two years since Apple updated the Mac mini. And for better or worse, things have changed a lot during that time. The last Mac mini with an M4 processor went on sale in early November 2024, with a starting price of $599. The latest Mac mini that we’re testing today starts at $899, which we can directly blame on the rising costs of components due to the voracious demand for everything related to artificial intelligence (AI).

A $300 price hike in less than two years is unprecedented, but it’s a sign of the times, and we have to factor those realities when evaluating any product today. So with that context in mind, we’ll take a look at Apple’s newest Mac mini, which looks very familiar on the outside, but has undergone some internal hardware upgrades, to deliver some significant performance improvements over its predecessor.

Design of the Apple Mac mini (M6)

The Mac mini hasn’t changed on the design front, and that’s mostly a good thing. I’m always impressed with not only the minimalist style of this small form-factor computer, but also its tiny size. It has a 5-inch x 5-inch footprint, while standing just 2 inches tall. My only gripe is the power button, which remains stubbornly on the bottom of the system (back left corner). You’ll need to lift the system any time you want to turn it on (or force it to shut down in the event of a crash), and you’ll need to double-tap the power button when setting up Touch ID with an Apple Magic Keyboard for the first time. However, this is just a minor annoyance, as interacting with the power button on a modern Mac is a rarity.

Despite its trim dimensions, you do get a fairly decent number of ports on the exterior of the Mac mini. However, let’s get this out of the way first: Apple doesn’t give you any USB-A ports on the Mac mini, so keep that in mind before purchasing. So, if you have USB-A devices around, you’ll either need to keep some cheap USB-A to USB-C adapters on hand, or invest in a USB-C or Thunderbolt dock for connecting legacy devices.

Instead, our Mac mini review unit features two USB-C ports (10 Gbps) and a 3.5 mm headphone jack up front, along with three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the rear (M5 Pro systems swap the Thunderbolt 4 ports for Thunderbolt 5). You’ll also find a 2.5 GbE port (up from 1 GbE), an HDMI port, and the power port on the back. We should note that while our review unit was specced with the 2.5 GbE LAN, you can individually option a 10 GbE port for $100 extra. A 10 GbE USB-C adapter would set you back around $100, so Apple’s upgrade is surprisingly reasonably priced, and you don’t lose a port in the process.

When it comes to wireless connectivity, the Mac mini uses Apple’s new in-house N1 wireless chip instead of relying on a third-party design. It provides tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support, which is an upgrade from the Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 on the previous generation.

One thing to keep in mind with the Mac mini is that what you see is what you get when you purchase one. There are no internal upgrades available for the system once you’ve purchased it, so choose wisely before you click the buy button. Base systems come with an M6 chip (12-core CPU, 12-core GPU), 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Our review unit features the M6 chip, 24GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. If you want to add storage post-purchase, we’d suggest taking a look at one of the best external SSDs.

Apple Mac mini (M6) Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Apple Mac mini (M6)

Although the Mac mini is available with a more potent M5 Pro processor, our review unit came with the base M6 processor (12 CPU cores, 12 GPU cores). It also incorporates 24GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 512GB SSD.

This is the first system we’ve tested with the new 2-nanometer M6 processor. So, we were eager to see how it would perform against not only the M4 Pro in the previous Mac mini, but also the M5, which can be found in the current-generation MacBook Air and base MacBook Pro.

The M6 chip in the Mac mini had no trouble dispatching the M4, M4 Pro, and M5-equipped systems in the Geekbench synthetic CPU benchmark. In fact, it was 21 percent faster than the last M4 Pro Mac Mini in the single-core test. It also completely obliterated the M4 (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU) version of the Mac mini. The advantage versus the M5 system was lessened, but it was still a clear victory for the M6. The M6 actually slightly trailed the M4 Pro Mac mini (21,045 versus 22,661) in the multi-core test, which wasn’t too surprising given that the 12-core M6 was going up against a 16-core M4 Pro. But it was still a strong showing for the M6, given the architectural improvements that allowed it to get that close.

We had some trouble obtaining consistent performance from our usual 25GB file transfer test, so we fell back to the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test for benchmarking the 512GB SSD. Needless to say, it presented a marked improvement over the preceding M4 Mac mini.

Storage performance was comparable to the M5 MacBook Pro on sequential writes, but slightly behind for sequential reads. It also slightly outperformed the M4 Pro Mac mini in writes, but was over 1,000 MBps ahead in reads. However, the M6 Mac Mini nearly doubled the write performance and more than doubled the read performance of the M4 Mac mini.

The similar multi-core performance in Geekbench was mirrored in our HandBrake test, during which we transcoded a 4K video file to 1080p. The M6 Mac mini completed the task in 2 minutes and 46 seconds, while the M4 Pro version was just one second behind. The M6 Mac mini was nearly 2 minutes faster than its M4 counterpart.

We ran Cinebench 2026 through 10 runs with the Mac mini, keeping track of its scores along the way. The Mac mini started off with a score of 5403, which rose to 5557 for the second run. For the remaining eight runs, the Mac mini was highly consistent, hovering between 5530 and 5554.

The M6 used in the Mac mini isn't yet fully supported by TG Pro, so we could only use the average of the available temperature sensors (power management sensors, power supply, and SSD). At idle, the fan spun at just around 1,000 revolutions per minute (RPM), with an average system temperature of 44 degrees Celsius. However, when running Cinebench 2026, the average system temperature rose to 64 degrees C, while the fan settled at around 2615 RPM.

Gaming and Graphics on the Apple Mac mini (M6)

Gaming shouldn’t be the primary goal with the Mac mini, but it can do some light lifting. I played Cyberpunk 2077 for a bit and benchmarked it. Although I was provided an Apple Studio Display (5K resolution) to test with the Mac mini, I ran benchmarks at 2560 x 1440 and 1920 x 1080, because the native 5K is a bridge too far for this game, given the hardware.

Using the "For this Mac" global setting, the Mac mini achieved 37.33 frames per second (fps) at 1440p and 58.11 fps at 1080p. With frame generation turned on, those numbers jumped to 62.61 fps and 96.24 fps, respectively.

If you don't mind turning the detail settings down a bit, you can achieve playable frame rates with the Mac mini. However, moving the detail slider to Ray Tracing (Medium) dropped frame rates into the 20 fps range even with frame generation turned on at 1440p.

macOS Golden Gate and Apple Intelligence

The Mac mini ships with macOS 27 Golden Gate, which was first made available to the public last week. macOS 27 is not a complete rethink of the desktop operating system formula for Apple, but it does provide a number of quality-of-life improvements for users.

One of the headlining features is new and improved Siri AI. While Siri was one of the first digital assistants to debut on a smartphone, it hasn't exactly been "smart," at least compared to its contemporaries. Siri AI now digs its fingers deeper into the operating system, allowing it to glean contextual data from your photos, mail, messages, and documents. You can access Siri AI from Spotlight (search) or using the dedicated Siri AI app. Siri AI is also vastly more useful, as it will more consistently answer general questions asked, rather than throw up its digital hands and say "Here's what I found on the web."

Apple's Shortcuts app is an incredibly powerful tool that has been available for years across the Mac, iPhone, and iPad product families. However, the granular control and seemingly limitless options can make creating a new shortcut daunting for newbies. So with macOS 27, you can now create a new Shortcut using natural language. For example, you could input, "Create a shortcut that sets the AC to 74 degrees when I leave work, and let my wife know what time I'll arrive at home," and it will take care of the rest.

Liquid Glass was one of the more controversial additions to macOS 26, with some people not liking the translucent makeover. MacOS 27 gives users more control over Liquid Glass, with sliders to adjust the intensity of the transparency effect.

Apple has also introduced plenty of system-level optimizations to improve performance across the board. For example, Apple says that AirDrop is up to 80 percent faster in macOS 27 than macOS 26, and a lot more reliable. Apps also open faster – any lagginess or stuttering that was perceptible in macOS 26 has been eliminated with this newest release. The best comparison I can make for the macOS 26 to macOS 27 upgrade is the fine-tuning that Apple did going from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. There weren’t any major feature additions with that latter release, but there were a plethora of under-the-hood optimizations that made it much faster and more stable.

In addition, macOS 27 doesn’t install the Rosetta x86 translation software by default; you’ll need to download it when you first run a legacy x86 app. However, starting next year with macOS 28, you won’t be able to run apps that aren’t Apple Silicon-native, so Rosetta will be completely off the table.

Apple Mac mini (M6) Configurations and Warranty

The base Mac Mini comes with an M6 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $899. Before Apple's June 2026 price increases, the base Mac mini with M4, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD cost $599. After the price increases, that $599 jumped to $799. Now, we're looking at another $100 increase for the base Mac Mini. There’s one standalone upgrade option: $100 extra gets you a 10 GbE port instead of the standard 2.5 GbE.

Apple also allows you to upgrade to 24GB or 32GB of RAM, along with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB SSD options. A fully-loaded M6 Mac mini with 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, and 10 GbE costs $2,399.

For people who require a bit more processing power, perhaps for AI tasks (as Apple seems so inclined to believe), the base M5 Pro Mac Mini (15-core CPU, 16-core GPU), with 24GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, costs $1,699. However, you can go bonkers with the options, topping out with an M5 Pro (18-core CPU, 20-core GPU), 64GB of RAM, an 8TB SSD, and a 10 GbE adapter for a whopping $6,599. At that price, it’s probably worth looking at the Mac Studio.

All Mac minis come with a 1-year manufacturer warranty.

Bottom Line

The base M6 chip provides better single-core performance and nearly matches the multi-core performance of the optional M4 Pro in the previous-generation Mac mini. Compared ot the standard M4 Mac mini, the new M6 version blows it away in CPU and SSD performance.

These are the kinds of generational improvements we’ve come to expect with Apple Silicon, which seems to be firing on all cylinders these days. The new Mac mini also gets other, less-highlighted improvements, like faster standard wired networking (2.5 GbE versus 1 GbE) and Wi-Fi 7/Bluetooth 6.0 instead of Wi-Fi 6E/Bluetooth 5.4.

However, the elephant in the room is pricing for the Mac mini. Earlier this year, you could grab a base Mac mini for $599 – although availability was spotty after Q1, thanks to OpenClaw and anticipated price hikes. More importantly, over the years, going from one Mac mini generation to the next typically yielded performance benefits with no (or minimal) price increase. The AI revolution has rewritten the hardware rulebook, so we’re now faced with a new generation that is $300 more expensive than the previous model ($200 June price increase + another $100 increase for this new generation).

So in a matter of months, what was for years a screaming bargain for anyone looking for a cheap entry point into the Mac desktop ecosystem has gotten a lot more expensive. 16GB of memory and a 256GB hard drive are easier to justify at $599, but it’s a tougher pill to swallow at $899, and especially so with our review unit’s as-tested price of $1,399.

Earlier this year, Apple discontinued the Mac Pro, leaving the Mac Studio as its top-end desktop. With the new M5 Ultra chip, Apple's relatively diminutive system is more than ready to take on the mantle.

While you might not have a ton of PCIe connections and both RAM and storage are set, the Studio offers a ton of ports for accessories, monitors, and peripherals, memory options up to 256GB (with 512GB coming later), and a clean, quiet design.

Starting with an M5 Max at $2,499, the Mac Studio could be poised as a creator system for video editors, photographers, or game designers. At $12,299 as tested with the top-end M5 Ultra, 256GB of unified memory, and 4TB of storage, it effectively becomes an enterprise device, possibly a remote server, that could handle any task with aplomb, including local AI.

Design of the Mac Studio (2026)

Apple hasn't made any changes to the Mac Studio's design. It's a silver, squared-off block that's 7.7 x 7.7 inches on your desk that stands 3.7 inches tall. The aluminum chassis has a shiny Apple logo on the top. The M5 Ultra version we tested weighs 8 pounds, a 2-pound increase over the M5 Max variant. This is largely because the M5 Max version uses a cooler with a thin aluminum stack and a copper heat pipe, while the M5 Ultra uses a heavier copper fin stack and a copper vapor chamber.

The back of the system is also home to the power button, as well as a bunch of air holes for exhausting heat.

The air comes in through more holes in a small stand built into the bottom of the system. (There's also a Kensington lock slot, though its placement on the bottom necessitates a special adapter.)

Mac Studio (2026) Specifications