State of play: SSD pricing one year into the AI component crisis — 220% price increases are crippling the DIY market
We look at the state of SSD pricing one year into the AI apocalypse.
Hardware
DRAM chip supply to module makers could drop by more than 70% year-on-year in 2027, says Apacer CEO — demand for HBM and server RAM continues to devour manufacturing capacity
Apacer warns DRAM allocations to module makers could fall below 30% of 2026 levels as AI demand tightens supply and pushes memory prices higher.
Save up to $700 on these iBuyPower gaming PCs, fitted with an RX 9070 XT for 4K gaming — liquid-cooled AMD rigs feature either a 9800X3D or 9900X CPU, along with 32GB DDR5 and a 1TB SSD, starting from $1,799
Two iBuyPower rigs are on offer at Walmart right now, both fitted with an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, in a deal that could save you up to $700 on a 4K-ready gaming PC.
China's Moonshot AI reportedly used Nvidia Blackwell chips for training Kimi K3 — company circumvented both U.S. export and Chinese import controls to acquire compute
Moonshot AI reportedly used Nvidia Blackwell chips for training Kimi K3 — potentially circumventing both U.S. export and Chinese import controls
Intel closes out RAMP-C production pilot that paid Nvidia and others to run test chips on 18A — program helped lay a path for secure domestic chip production on advanced processes
Intel Foundry says that it has completed RAMP-C, the U.S. defense program awarded to the company in 2021 to stand up a domestic leading-edge chip ecosystem on its 18A process.
Developer uses AI to bring a native version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to iOS — no emulation required to play one of gaming's all-time greats on an iPhone or iPad
A developer has used OpenAI's Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol to help port a native version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to iOS and iPadOS devices.
An affordable OLED laptop for just $699 — Acer's Swift Go 16 AI is the perfect back-to-school deal
Get ready to head back to school with this $300 saving on Acer's excellent Swift Go 16 AI laptop with an OLED screen.
Mystery reviewer 'finds' Nvidia RTX Spark prototype laptop and puts it through its paces — Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia N1X chip shows promise, though prototype warts are still quite visible
Techie "finds" Nvidia RTX Spark prototype laptop and puts it through its paces — Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia N1X chip shows promise, though prototype warts are still quite visible
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AI has entered the singularity — two weeks after OpenAI models cheated a benchmark by hacking Hugging Face
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently declared on the Relentless podcast that artificial intelligence has entered the technological singularity.
One year into the AI-induced RAM apocalypse — how much does memory actually cost, and is there hope for a more affordable future?
We look at the state of the DIY RAM market over the last 12 months.
Apple launches official program for leasing Macs as AI price crunch bites — 24- and 36-month leasing options provided by Klarna
Apple launched its Upgrade program in the US, a partnership with Klarna to lease Macs along with iPads, Watches, and iPhones.
The Neo Geo AES+ retro console is now available to pre-order starting from $249 — game cartridges cost $90 each; the Ultimate Edition with all games and accessories will run you $1,000
How far are you willing to go for physical media? That's the question the Neo Geo AES+ asks above anything else, given the $90 price tags of its game cartridges. Though, comparing it to its original prices from the 90s, especially when adjusted for inflation, makes it start to look like a bargain.
Acer ProDesigner PE320QXT professional monitor review: Touchscreen functionality with a 6K resolution
Acer takes a unique approach to professional displays with its ProDesigner PE320QXT. It’s a 6K 6016x3384 IPS panel with a touchscreen, webcam, tablet-style stand and a large color gamut for content creators, presenters and designers.
Motherboard VRM thermal testing – budget vs. high-end boards, does it really matter?
Not all motherboard VRMs are created equal. We break down the differences between budget and premium designs, how they can affect CPU performance, and whether paying more is actually worth it.
Testing old drives as external storage to avoid price hikes — hard drive, SATA SSD, and NVMe in enclosures up to 80 Gbps, tested
For as little as $10 (or less on sale), you can use an old drive as external storage, but will that dusty drive deliver the speed you need?
Save $1,000 on this RTX 5090 gaming PC from MSI, just 17% more than the GPU's standalone cost right now —score this 4K powerhouse with 64GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD for $4,899
Save $1,000 on this MSI Aegis R2 gaming PC, fitted with an RTX 5090, 64GB DDR5, and 2TB SSD for just $4,899.
16-hour Xbox outage even stopped physical games from working — company blames licensing issue for incident that prohibited gaming across three generations of console
Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet said that a licensing service sitting outside Xbox, which the platform depends on, began failing late on July 26 and took roughly 16 hours to clear.
Google goes cash flow negative for the first time as AI data center buildout increases capex to a staggering $44.9 billion in a single quarter — CFO warns that capex will increase in 2027 as company banks big on TPUs
On the same day, CFO Anat Ashkenazi raised full-year capex guidance to between $195 billion and $205 billion.
Creality's multicolor K2 3D printer hits an all-time low price of $499 — save $200 today, with the perfect printer for jumping into the hobby
Save $200 on the Creality K2 Combo 3D printer bundle in Creality's Mega Summer Sales event.
Leaked Radeon RX 9050 hints at the return of 4GB VRAM GPUs in 2026 — new budget RDNA 4 card also spotted in 8GB config with half the power of an RX 9060
ASRock has listed the long-rumored RX 9050 GPU on its website in both a 4GB and 8GB configuration, but has deleted those pages since.