Zak Killian
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
The mental image that appears when you think of a 'desktop PC' is probably a big black box—or beige and horizontal, if you're of a certain age. Certainly there's still a massive market for DIY PCs in tower cases, but the majority of folks buying desktops these days could probably be best served by a mini-PC. For...
Read more...
Right now, AMD's mobile processors range from the lowly Ryzen 7020 series, codenamed Mendocino, all the way up to the powerful (and power-thirsty) Ryzen 7045 series, known as Dragon Range. Nestled in between, you have the Ryzen 7035 series, Rembrandt, serving mainstream customers, and then the Ryzen 7040 and 8040...
Read more...
We've thought for a while about doing a post rounding up all the current leaks and rumors about AMD's upcoming Zen 5 processors, because there's quite a bit of information out there. Well, we don't have to compile the information ourselves anymore, it turns out, because YouTuber High Yield has already done the work...
Read more...
Back in 2021 during the major worldwide silicon shortage, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced a $3.5-billion dollar investment into its facilities in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. That expansion, resulting in the reopening of the "cutting-edge factory" known as Fab 9, is now complete. In a statement to the media, Intel's EVP...
Read more...
When leakers first revealed the existence of AMD's upcoming Strix Halo processor, many people sneered at the idea. After all, it's a completely new concept, at least for consumer PCs. AMD has been making similar processors for many years, but they've always been relegated to locked-down hardware like game consoles...
Read more...
When Intel started selling hybrid processors with two disparate types of cores, its beloved-by-enthusiasts ARK database was updated with the ability to display the core counts separately, and the clock rates of each core type. Given the company's emphasis on high efficiency, Intel's "E-cores" naturally don't clock as...
Read more...
It's easy to dismiss Palworld after many outlets—us included—unfairly described it as a knock-off of Pokémon, just with guns. In reality it's a lot more than that, as it includes a massive open world for co-op players to explore and build in, not unlike ARK: Survival Evolved. On top of that, there's considerable...
Read more...
We're now 2/3rds of the way through January (and over 5% through 2024 already), so the holidays are well and truly over, and everyone's back to work. That doesn't mean that there are no more tech deals to be had, though! Indeed, if you're a tech industry worker or just someone who has to deal with endless Zoom...
Read more...
It might not be nice, but it might just be fair to call anyone who uses Google Chrome's Incognito Mode and then expects real privacy a "rube," given that Google is a company that makes an incredible amount of money on selling other people's information. We're not saying that, though, and the reason is simply because...
Read more...
We've reported on handheld gaming systems quite a bit recently thanks to the boom in the market spurred by the success of the Steam Deck. Products from pre-existing vendors like Ayaneo, GPD, and OneNotebook have been battling with newer machines from larger OEMs like Asus, Lenovo, and most recently, MSI. Today's...
Read more...
There are a lot of ways to stream gameplay to an internet audience these days. PC gamers can use hardware encoders built into their PC's processors to stream right from the same PC they're gaming on, while consoles have their own streaming features. Folks serious about streaming will want a whole dedicated streaming...
Read more...
AMD's next desktop processor release will be based on the Hawk Point silicon originally intended for mobile machines including laptops, tablets, and handheld gaming consoles. The Ryzen 8000G family, despite the incremented model number, is still based on the Zen 4 CPU architecture, just with the addition of RDNA3...
Read more...
We've just posted up a review of the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01. The vendor's first mini-PC is a cute little machine that's part of Ayaneo's Remake collection, and sports an aesthetic inspired by the original Macintosh. It's focused on affordability, and offers a slightly older SoC in a compact and nostalgic package at...
Read more...
AYANEO Retro Mini PC AM01: Starting at $149 Ayaneo's first-ever mini-PCs sport a cute retro aesthetic and good-enough performance for desktop use or casual and retro gaming. Cute Macintosh Throwback Aesthetics Efficient & Nearly Silent Operation Capable Desktop Performance Accessible Pricing Power-Limited...
Read more...
Did you check out our coverage of CES 2024? There was a lot to sift through, but among those posts was NVIDIA's official announcement of the GeForce RTX 4000 SUPER GPUs. There's three of them: the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (yes, really), and the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The two higher-end models...
Read more...
It's Friday, and that means CES week is over. It's been a wild ride, as the market has finally fully shed the lethargy that came with the pandemic and is back into full swing. There have been tons of interesting and innovative products at this year's show, but few companies brought as wide a range of new gear as...
Read more...
As gamers, we've all had that experience of interacting with a game NPC and wishing that you weren't limited to just the conversation options provided by the developer. Now that generative AI is real and finding its way into nearly every industry, we can solve this problem forever, right? That's certainly the goal of...
Read more...
We met up with Tom "TAP" Petersen at CES 2024, but schedules didn't line up and we didn't have time to sit down with him for a chat. However, PC World did, and the man delivered on some pretty interesting interview topics. Chief among them was the new MSI Claw handheld, of course, but he had more interesting comments...
Read more...
We've covered "back-connect" motherboards multiple times, most recently yesterday when Maingear was showing off its Maingear Zero lineup of systems with cleaner cable cable management than you'll find in just about any other system. That's because they're built on MSI's Project Zero motherboards, produced in...
Read more...
Of course, Intel wouldn't be left out of the CES 2024 launch party. Just like last year, the company has a whole plethora of new processors to show off at the Las Vegas expo. The list includes new 14th-gen "non-K" desktop CPUs in both 35W and 65W flavors, the first series of "non-Ultra" Core processors, and Intel's...
Read more...
Did you love the GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti? Well, too bad, because they're going away forever. Don't fret, though. In their place, NVIDIA's just announced two faster GPUs along with a card to slot in between the GeForce RTX 4070 and the new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. That's right: the GeForce RTX 4070...
Read more...
Today's Consumer Electronics Show marks the first time in three years that AMD hasn't brought a whole new lineup of mobile CPUs to Las Vegas. That's not because AMD doesn't have new mobile CPUs, rather the company already launched them just last month. The Hawk Point mobile processors, which are essentially Phoenix...
Read more...
