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| PC World - 18 Jan (PC World)Unless you’re a die-hard tinkerer, PC maintenance probably feels as much of a chore as servicing your car. Fortunately, maintaining your computer is a lot easier than that — and you don’t get dirty to boot.
Still, it can be a drag. Fortunately, if you want to take a lot of the complexity, monotony, and uncertainty out of PC maintenance, there are apps out there that can handle most of the hard work of giving your PC a physical, and they can alert you to things you might otherwise miss.
The best part? A lot of these apps are free! Here are some of the best apps for performing a PC health checkup without paying a cent.
Related: Is your PC slowing down? Here’s how to find out why
Microsoft PC Manager for a quick check
Microsoft
If you run only one PC health check app on your computer, Microsoft PC Manager might be the one to use. It’s far from the most in-depth app out there, and it has limited potential for fixing any problems it does find, but it’s super easy to run, it has a clean interface, and it’s readily available on the Microsoft Store.
Download it, run it, and you’ll find that it can help you clean up your storage for better SSD operation, manage larger files, and update your PC’s startup apps to improve system startup speed.
Intel XTU or AMD Ryzen Master to check CPU temps, clock speeds, and voltages
AMD
How do you check the health of your PC’s processor? Well, there isn’t a way, per se… but you can sort of estimate its health by pushing it to its limits and seeing how it handles the pressure. More specifically, you can run performance tests on your CPU and if it starts running too hot, throttling speed, or struggling with inadequate voltage, then there might be an issue. Otherwise, if none of that happens, it’s probably good.
You can keep an eye on this with the Intel XTU app (for Intel CPUs) or the AMD Ryzen Master app (for AMD CPUs). Both of these let you look at per-core temperatures, clocks, and voltages to see if anything is out of whack, underperforming, overheating, etc. Intel XTU even has a range of power-related warnings, which are particularly relevant if you’re using a very high-power-draw CPU, such as an Intel Core i9-14900K.
Both apps also have built-in stability tests for stress-testing your CPU. Both tools are built for overclocking, so if you want to play around with that (or underclocking to better preserve CPU health for longer), that’s readily available — but make sure to do your reading first.
CrystalDiskInfo to check the health of your SSDs and hard drives
Jon Martindale / IDG
Storage drive health is one aspect of your PC that you should very much keep an eye on. An old drive that dies unexpectedly can, at best, be expensive to recover. At worst? You lose your data forever.
Fortunately, you can freely check on the status of all of your storage drives using CrystalDiskInfo, a handy app that tells you everything you need to know about how your drives are doing.
Download the app and launch it to find all the information you could need on all your storage devices — not just your SSDs and HDDs but even your USB flash drives and SD cards. It can tell you how much data has been written to them, how long they’ve been running for, and how many times you’ve started them up. All of that is boiled down into a convenient percentage health status and an associated rating.
Windows Memory Diagnostic to check the health of your RAM
Windows 10 and 11 both have a built-in memory diagnostic tool you can use to check the health of your RAM sticks. To use it, search in the Start menu for “memory diagnostic” and launch Windows Memory Diagnostic. You’ll then be prompted to restart your PC, allowing the memory diagnostic test to run.
The test looks like an ancient blue screen, but don’t worry — your system hasn’t crashed. When the test is finished, you’ll boot back into Windows and you should see a pop-up summarizing the results. (If you don’t, you can find them in the Windows Event Viewer, located under Windows Logs > System > MemoryDiagnostics-Results.)
MemTest86 for more in-depth RAM tests
PassMark Software
MemTest86 has been the decades-long gold standard for RAM testing, so if there’s a problem with your RAM, you can rest assured that MemTest86 will suss it out and help you diagnose it. When the test is done, you’ll get a detailed report that marks your memory as either pass or fail. If it fails, it might be time to consider an upgrade.
You can also put MemTest86 on a USB drive and carry it around with you, allowing you to have a handy RAM test that you can run on any device. It works on all recent generations of memory, and on both traditional BIOS PCs and more-modern UEFI-based systems.
HWInfo for all the hardware stats you need
Jon Martindale / IDG
If you want an incredibly in-depth look at how all of your PC’s components are doing at a moment’s notice, HWInfo is the app to use.
HWInfo (short for “hardware info”) pulls data from just about every sensor in your PC, so it can tell you what the various voltages are in your CPU, how every single core is performing, from clock speed to temperature. It also has motherboard temperature readouts, GPU memory speed readings, and everything in between.
That said, one could argue that HWInfo is overkill for most users. If you find it overwhelming and want a simpler alternative, HWMonitor is excellent. And Core Temp is an even simpler alternative if all you want is a closer look at your CPU and its current temperature(s).
MSI Afterburner to check on GPU clocks, temperatures, and voltages
MSI
In the same way that Intel XTU and AMD Ryzen Master are great tools for tracking CPU health, MSI Afterburner offers a lot of similar benefits for your graphics card.
It’s technically an overclocking tool, but that’s why it serves up so much information about your graphics card: temperature, clock speed, fan speed, and voltages. If your GPU is running too hot, or isn’t operating at peak performance, or its voltages aren’t quite right for some reason, then this is where you’ll see it.
And if you also want to overclock your graphics card for added performance, or undervolt and underclock to reduce temperatures and noise levels, MSI Afterburner is a great tool for that, too.
WizTree to visualize your PC storage data
Jon Martindale / IDG
If you’re trying to free up space on an SSD or hard drive that’s getting far too full, it can be tricky to know what to delete to have the biggest impact, and even trickier if you have stray files hidden throughout the file system that don’t get picked up by Windows.
One of the best ways around that headache is to use a disk space analyzer tool, like WizTree. This free app fully scans all of your drives, gives you a visualization of how all your data is organized, and highlights the largest apps, files, and folders for your convenience.
It works for hard drives and SSDs, it’s fast and effective at analyzing drives of any size, and it can help you prioritize the deletion of games, apps, and folders that take up the most room — and freeing up space on your SSD can help it to run faster and more efficiently.
AIDA64 Extreme as a premium honorable mention for auditing PC health
FinalWire
All of the apps on this list so far are free. This last one might just be the best of all, but it isn’t free… so consider it an honorable mention.
AIDA64 Extreme is a popular memory and storage benchmarking tool that’s also great for checking up on general PC health. It includes benchmarks for a range of components as well as access to hundreds of sensors in your PC, allowing you to keep an eye on various parts.
On top of that, AIDA64 Extreme can audit your software, diagnose hardware errors, stress-test components, all with a customizable sensor panel that gives you all the PC hardware information you need at a glance. This one-stop-shop tool can replace several of the above apps, but it comes at a price. For many, the price is worth it.
Further reading: Free ways to make an old PC run faster Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 17 Jan (PC World)More than a year has passed since Asus’ acquisition of the NUC brand from Intel, which marked the first major change the brand had seen since Intel launched it back in 2013.
After more than a decade of continuity — including last year’s transition year where Intel still had a say on design — this will be the real first year in which Asus has done most of the groundwork, fronting up with its own designs and innovations. So how is the NUC different now in this new era? I spoke to Kuo Wei Chao, general manager of Asus IoT business unit, to find out.
The new Asus NUC models and 2025 focus
The Asus NUC lineup announced at CES 2025 in Las Vegas included the NUC 14 AI and the more premium NUC 14 Pro AI+ with 48 TOPS NPU AI power and a dedicated Copilot+ button for quick access to the AI assistant. They were on display alongside two new powerful mini-PCs for everyday use featuring the latest Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chips: the NUC 15 and NUC 15 Pro+.
A fourth model, the NUC 14 Essential is the efficiency workhorse, designed to provide maximum performance while sipping tiny amounts of power. Last but certainly not least, Asus’ ROG NUC makes a comeback with the most powerful CPU and GPU combination we’ve seen to date.
Chao said Asus’ focus for its second year of NUC is threefold. Like other PCs at CES 2025, the addition of AI hardware is a big change allowing users a high degree of AI task mobility. Asus is also keen to communicate its commitment to “improving performance while keeping NUC sizes as small as possible.”
The third focus reeks of Asus’ company ethos and is arguably the reason why it has been so successful with product lines like the Asus ROG gaming laptops. Chao said there has been a concerted effort to “incorporate a lot of user feedback in the NUC range.” In other words, it has added features and design elements that specifically tailor the NUC experience to what consumers want.
But what does all that product talk actually mean? I picked one model, the 2025 ROG NUC to find out!
The Asus NUC 14 Essential
Asus
The 2025 Asus ROG NUC leads the charge
The Asus ROG NUC is perhaps the most impressive of the 2025 NUCs, and the best example of those Asus changes to the NUC brand in action.
Here Asus has not only increased the performance power on offer by bumping the ROG NUC’s CPU and GPU up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 mobile CPU and mobile Blackwell variant of the Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU, respectively — both titans of Intel and Nvidia’s 2025 performance offerings — but it has also made cooling, upgradability, and connectivity priorities in 2025.
Asus didn’t reveal what model of the Intel Core Ultra 9 (Series 2) chip it has used in the 2025 ROG NUC at CES, but based on the turbo clock speed of 5.5GHz in the specs sheet, I surmise that it can only be Intel’s flagship Arrow Lake mobile CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX.
No other mini gaming PC announced at CES is as stacked for performance, upgradable, overclockable, and yet so portable.
The 2025 Asus ROG NUC.
Asus
It goes without saying that’s one heck of a chip. It puts 24 cores of raw processing power at your disposal, including 36 TOPS of AI power to capitalize on innovations in AI.
Personally, I’m not sure what 5.5GHz looks like in a game, let alone the kind of performance I’d get when that’s paired with 16GB of fast DDR5-6400 memory and the 7,680 CUDA cores in the RTX 5080. But I’m really excited to find out.
The RTX 5080 GPU in particular is a great choice in hardware. It means the 2025 ROG NUC’s GPU will be fully compatible with Nvidia’s new DLSS 4 AI technology so it can access a full suite of features including Nvidia’s Multi Frame Generation, which older Nvidia RTX GPUs cannot.
More changes including overclocking
Another cherry on top of the cake with this year’s ROG NUC is, wait for it… overclocking! Yep, the bump up from an Intel H series chip in 2024 to an Intel mobile HX Series Arrow Lake chip in 2025 gives gamers more control over their NUC’s maximum CPU speed, for the first time.
Overclocking is accomplished in Asus’ Armory Crate software, where gamers can also control their fan speed settings.
Among the other cascade of changes is a “more comprehensive cooling system,” Chao explained. “It comprises an integrated triple-fan design with twin vapor chambers that not only provides enhanced cooling but also makes the 2025 ROG quieter than its 2024 counterpart,” he said. It works in conjunction with a perforated chassis that provides more airflow than before, too.
Asus’ NUC mini-PC lineup. The Asus ROG NUC is shown top left.
Asus
A new chassis size measuring 11.1 x 7.4 x 2.2 inches does make this year’s model slightly larger (3 liters versus 2.5 liters in volume), but the larger size provides users with “more capacity to upgrade,” Chao promised.
“We upgraded the CPU to support a higher TDP and reserved some buffers because we know that many gamers want to overclock and increase performance. So, gamers who want to upgrade, it will be easier to do that,” he said.
In regard to that upgradability, the 16GB starter RAM can be expanded to a whopping 96GB. Swapping out RAM is also made easier by a new single-screw design that allows gamers to access the internal components in seconds.
Connectivity options galore
The ROG NUC also hits the right note with connectivity. In fact, the I/O lists off like a fine wine menu, including no less than 6x USB-A 3.2 ports, 2x HDMI 2.1 FRL ports, and 2x DisplayPort 2.1 ports. It also has a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen2 port, a 3.5mm combo jack, and a 2.5Gb Ethernet port. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 make up the wireless connectivity.
The choice of Thunderbolt 4 port instead of the newer Thunderbolt 5 is an interesting choice considering that Asus’ own 2025 XG Mobile eGPU uses the latter this year. On that point Chao said:
“We listened and had many discussions with gamers. I think that Thunderbolt 5 would be very important in the long term. But I think right now, from an ecosystem perspective, it’s not so complete and in its infancy. So, we focused on what the majority want and the best choice for gamers in 2025 — that’s Thunderbolt 4.”
On top of all that, Asus’ ROG branding brings the device in line with Asus’ ROG portfolio aesthetically.
If you’re thinking Asus just won over a whole lot of gamers this year, you may be right. No other mini gaming PC announced at CES is as upgradable, overclockable, stacked for performance, and yet so portable. Let’s hope it lives up to expectations. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 17 Jan (PC World)There’s a lot of stuff happening right now. Here in the US, it seems kind of inescapable. And it surely doesn’t help that a lot of people might be without their short-form social video fix very soon. TikTok, for all its many, many faults, is something millions of people use in the US. That said, a TikTok ban seems increasingly likely.
But there is another. There are a lot of others, actually, all initially trying to ape TikTok’s success, now poised to try and fully replace it. My personal poison (only slightly joking) is YouTube Shorts, perhaps because it happens to be built into the thing I already use. I have a lot of beef with YouTube as a platform, but that doesn’t take away from the many talented creators that are on it.
YouTube Shorts is filled with a lot of the same garbage littering TikTok. Clips blatantly stolen from movies and TV shows, reactions that add nothing to the original video, AI-generated slop that the uploader didn’t even bother to check. But there’s some genuinely entertaining, interesting, and instructional stuff too. Here are 25 of my favorites to get you started.
I’m so sorry, puppets. We’ve all failed you.
Food I don’t know how to cook
SJohnsonVoiceOvers, AKA SnackDaddy: Stefan Johnson is a professional voice actor, but lately he’s been diving into his love of food, in both the snack/junk and home-cooked varieties. He’ll do earnest and often hilarious reviews of fast food and restaurant products, try out trending recipes, and generally give you some great ideas. It doesn’t hurt that his takes and advice are easy to follow even for amateur cooks like me.
Turkuaz Kitchen: Betel Tunc is a cook who loves using traditional methods, ingredients, and tools to make amazing meals. Frankly she’s way beyond me in all of these areas, but I love watching her intense focus in short, bite-sized videos that leave my mouth watering from whatever she ends up with, all set to some chill music with no narration. Check out her full YouTube channel (and cookbook!) if you want more detailed instructions.
Jose.elcook: As a recovering Texan, I almost hate this guy, if only because it’s really hard to find good Mexican food in rural Pennsylvania. Jose’s passion for Mexican and other recipes from Latin America shines through in his simple and straightforward delivery, though he’s not at all limited to that niche. Inject that salsa verde straight into my veins, please. Longer recipes and equipment reviews are on his main YouTube channel.
CookShowTrevor: This idiot makes pizzas that should not exist, and I say that in full confidence that he would agree with me. Trevor, or at least the caricature that he plays for YouTube, puts pretty much everything on lovingly handmade pizza just to see what happens. Frequently it burns, occasionally it explodes, every once in a while it’s a legitimately good result. I give it the highest honor I can bestow: a seven out of ten.
Crafts I don’t know how to do
JonPaulsBalls: Get your hand off that HR report, this is a guy named Jon-Paul Wheatley who makes soccer balls. That’s footballs, if you live somewhere civilized. Watching Jon-Paul’s design process from start to finish for balls I never would have imagined is hypnotizing, as is his soothing narration. Watch as he combines modern and old-fashioned methods and materials to create the best balls of them all, and give it a try yourself if you want with his personal website.
SaraMicsPottery: Sarah Luepker mixes the usual crafting instruction videos with a bit of personal insight and vlogging. I appreciate that she includes her pottery screw-ups in her videos — it makes me feel better about spending six hours on a PC build that won’t boot. Sara’s shorts are less about full instruction than the satisfying tactile process and a lot of commentary, but there are plenty of of things to learn if you dive deep.
EoinReardon: I’m even more useless at carpentry than I am at most crafts, and that’s amazing, because my first job was at a sawmill. Eoin Reardon gives me a glimpse into the life I might have had, if I hadn’t quit after six weeks and six stomachfuls of sawdust. Though he’s all about traditional techniques and results, his practical and straightforward techniques could be applied to household jobs. I assume they could, anyway. I fix computers.
Tanner.Leathertein: Less about the actual craft of leatherworking and more about educating yourself on leather goods and the designer fashion industry, Tanner’s channel literally dissects handbags, wallets, and other goods to… well, show you the goods. In addition to the cathartic thrill of seeing fashionista items destroyed, he breaks down the value of the components and materials, helping you spot a good deal versus an unconscionable markup (or a plain old fake).
GirlWithTheDogs: As a life-long dog owner, I can appreciate that washing and grooming one is not a task for the faint of heart. Vanessa De Prohetis is positively unflappable as she cleans dogs and cats of all stripes (and spots, and stippling… you get the picture). You might find some great tips for DIY pet grooming, but I’m more impressed by how she handles the toughest cases — no dog is too big, no cat is too crazy.
Animals I don’t own
HaydenKristialandandCo: My grandparents raised racehorses and my parents still raise miniature horses. So I’ve spent decades taking care of them, which is why I really don’t like them. But pro standup comedian Hayden Kristal does, and shares the best and worst of keeping a bunch of horses and donkeys on a Colorado ranch. Her hilarious insights and off-the-cuff takes almost make me want to go back to Texas. Almost.
Cleolonglegs: Good grief these Borzoi dogs are goofy.
DustyMDouglas: Okay, this is one of the most prolific and popular shorts makers out there. I am basic. But come on, you can’t deny that the voiceovers done in the style of America’s Funniest Home Videos (I am also old), cliché and pun-filled as they are, are often freakin’ hilarious.
Other stuff I watch
UFDTech: I’d be doing a real disservice if I didn’t acknowledge the work of Brett Stelmaszek and his team, who put out some fantastic and punchy short-form consumer tech videos. UFD Tech covers PCs, phones, video games… pretty much all the stuff that I’m interested in. And yeah, their pointed, no-frills style is definitely an influence around here. Check out their full channel for more long-form videos on topics that don’t fit into 50 seconds.
PunkeyDoodles8: Audio from popular videos, with cartoon illustrations and a bit of animation. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work. Who am I kidding, it’s a lot more than I can do.
Miniminuteman773: Pro archeologist Milo Rossi has made it his life’s mission to take apart the kind of conspiracy theory bullshit you see thrown around Facebook by amateurs and Ancient Aliens by actual, paid adults. Rossi’s short-form videos are quick and dirty debunks (in both the literal and figurative senses). But if you really want to dig into the ridiculousness of the topic (or alternately, look at some real archeology), check out his full channel.
MakeSomeNoiseDO: Dropout.TV is great. It’s the best five bucks I spend every month. And while the all-improv quasi-game show Make Some Noise is often hilarious, a little bit goes a long way — I often struggle to get through the half-hour episodes. I think the skits tend to work better in short form, which is fortunate, because a lot more people can enjoy them for free.
ProZD: SungWon Cho got his comedy start in ye olden days of Vine, basically doing TikTok before TikTok was a thing. He’s now a full-time voice actor (you can hear his flexible pipes in everything from the latest Batman and Pokémon cartoons to games like Yakuza), his older geeky YouTube skits make great shorts. Check out his full channel for longer compilations.
Jill Bearup: I fell into a deep hole of Jill Bearup’s longer-form content, breaking down movie swordfights from a theatrical perspective using her expertise in stage combat. But her shorts are great too, generally eviscerating fantasy and romance tropes. Her series of back-and-forths between a heroine and the author writer her has been adapted into a full novel, Just Stab Me Now.
Jerry Wayne Live: Fellow Texan Jerry Wayne is a standup comedian who’s kind of like Larry the Cable Guy, if that character was actually a genuine person instead of a city slicker’s idiotic impression. His series of “Truck Astrology” videos demonstrates real and loving knowledge of what pickup trucks and SUVs are supposed to be, and for that, I am grateful. I’d ask Jerry to review my ’03 Ranger Edge if it hadn’t blown its transmission long ago.
OceanX: I was that kid in elementary school who was obsessed with Robert Ballard and the Titanic, before the movie came out. So there’s no small amount of envy in my recommendation for this channel, which chronicles the work of a team of oceanographers on a research vessel complete with submersibles and ROVs. They also have general education videos on a variety of topics.
Oh yeah, follow PCWorld please
Did you know that PCWorld is on TikTok? At least at the time of writing. Including me, Michael, the guy writing this. I record short little summaries of some of the articles that I and my coworkers write, and the video team over in California posts it with neato backgrounds and links. And they do it on YouTube Shorts, too.
The PCWorld YouTube channel also has longer dives into all the latest PC news and hands-on coverage of the newest parts, laptops, handhelds, and anything else that strikes our fancy. Subscribe to TheFullNerd while you’re at it — that’s our sister channel for the weekly podcast (live every Tuesday and for most major PC-related events). Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | BBCWorld - 16 Jan (BBCWorld)Trump`s pick for US attorney general was pressed on claims of election fraud and pardons for January 6 rioters. Read...Newslink ©2025 to BBCWorld |  |
|  | | PC World - 14 Jan (PC World)I’ve been trying hard to resist the urge to upgrade my monitors to OLED for a while now, reserving said money for silly inconsequential things like food and gasoline. But it looks like a lot of other PC gamers have made the switch already. According to a statement attributed to LG, more than a fifth of gaming monitors are now using upgraded OLED panels.
The sourcing on this one is a little circuitous, to be honest. The statement comes from popular YouTube channel HDTVTest, which has a sponsored video covering LG’s new OLED monitors at CES (spotted by PCGamer). Presumably LG gave the channel the statistic: “It’s only been two years since LG introduced its first UltraGear OLED gaming monitor, but OLED is already sitting at 22 percent of the total gaming monitor market share.”
That’s even more impressive if you also take LG’s estimation of the television OLED market share, 18 percent, into account. And according to the wording, that’s monitors currently in use, not monitors shipping to retailers…though it wouldn’t surprise me if the latter is the actual statistic in play. HDTVTest attributes both of these figures to a virtual briefing held before CES.
It’s an interesting number to be sure, but pay close attention to those qualifiers. LG cites the 22 percent penetration figure for “gaming monitors,” while 18 percent is for the much wider television market as a whole. It follows that PC gamers, especially those who use desktops (and are thus more predisposed to buy separate monitors), would be more interested in upgrading to the latest and greatest screens than PC users as a whole. Whereas the general TV-buying public is much more inclined to go for bigger and/or cheaper screens, and OLED TVs mostly appeal to those who want to build a high-end living room setup.
So yes, we’re seeing a lot more OLED monitors out there, and thankfully they’re becoming much more attainable — a few models hit below the $500 mark during Black Friday late last year. But more affordable, conventional monitors aren’t going anywhere, even if gaming monitors seem poised to switch to OLED panels very quickly.
Now come on, Samsung, give me that 57-inch, double 4K ultrawide OLED already. I don’t need to eat that much food.
Further reading: The best monitors we’ve tested Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | RadioNZ - 12 Jan (RadioNZ) It comes amid a legal fight to stop Attorney General Merrick Garland from releasing the special counsel`s report of his investigations into then-President Donald Trump. Read...Newslink ©2025 to RadioNZ |  |
|  | | PC World - 10 Jan (PC World)AMD’s world-beating 9800X3D chips destroyed the competition and promptly sold out. Why?
David McAfee, AMD’s corporate vice president and general manager of its Client Channel Business, and Frank Azor, the chief architect of gaming solutions and gaming marketing at AMD, sat down with reporters to give their answer: Intel’s competing Arrow Lake chip simply stunk.
In PCWorld’s review of the 9800X3D, we said that the chip obliterated Intel’s best. At the same time, supplies of the part — a single chip, mind you — promptly sold out. And now AMD has added the 9950X3D, an even more powerful chip, to the lineup.
For more details, including why AMD’s new GPUs weren’t included in the company’s CES 2025 keynote, the future of AI-rendered pixels, and how the new AMD AI Max chip shapes up to traditional gaming notebooks, see our Q&A with AMD’s executives.
Put simply, AMD simply didn’t anticipate the disparity between its own product and Intel’s. “Put it this way,” AMD’s Azor said. “We knew we built a great part. We didn’t know the competitor had built such a horrible one. So the demand has been a little bit higher than we had originally forecasted.”
McAfee went even further: “What I can say is that we have been ramping our manufacturing capacity — the monthly, quarterly output of X3D parts. That’s 7000X3D as well as 9000X3D. It’s crazy how much we have increased over what we were planning. I will say that the demand that we have seen from 9800X3D and 7800X3D has been unprecedented.”
Chips take about twelve weeks to go from the start of the wafer manufacturing process to end product, he explained, so even increasing the number of wafers (and eventually chips) takes a long time.
“And so it’s longer than a quarter to really ramp, you know, the output of those products, and so we’re working very, very hard to catch up with demand,” McAfee said. “I think as we go through the first half of this year, you’ll see us continue to increase output of X3D. You know there’s no secret, X3D has become a far more important part of our CPU portfolio than I think we, any of us, would have predicted a year ago. And I think that trend will continue into the future, and we are ramping capacity to ensure we catch up with that demand as long as consumers want those X3D parts.” Although the HX3D uses AMD’s stacked cache, the cache isn’t itself a gating factor, according to McAfee.
Meanwhile, AMD launched its “Fire Range” processors, which take the HX3D architecture and bring it to gaming notebooks. The Ryzen 9955HX3D has yet to ship, however. AMD also launched two new faster HX3D parts for the desktop.
McAfee said that the 7800X3D, the “affordable” option, was the one that consumers turned to — not the high-end, niche parts. “If I look historically at our 7000X3D products, the 7800X3D was dramatically the highest volume part in that product stack. I think that those 12- and 16-core parts, there are certain types of customers that buy those.”
He also added, “My belief is, in the 9000 series, those higher core count products, there’ll be some demand there, but it’ll still be ten-to-one or more on the eight-core X3D parts because they’re just such a great gaming part. For a pure gamer, there’s nothing else like it.” Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 10 Jan (PC World)AMD’s world-beating 9800X3D chips destroyed the competition and promptly sold out. Why?
David McAfee, AMD’s corporate vice president and general manager of its Client Channel Business, and Frank Azor, the chief architect of gaming solutions and gaming marketing at AMD, sat down with reporters to give their answer: Intel’s competing Arrow Lake chip simply stunk.
In PCWorld’s review of the 9800X3D, we said that the chip obliterated Intel’s best. At the same time, supplies of the part — a single chip, mind you — promptly sold out. And now AMD has added the 9950X3D, an even more powerful chip, to the lineup.
For more details, including why AMD’s new GPUs weren’t included in the company’s CES 2025 keynote, the future of AI-rendered pixels, and how the new AMD AI Max chip shapes up to traditional gaming notebooks, see our Q&A with AMD’s executives.
Put simply, AMD simply didn’t anticipate the disparity between its own product and Intel’s. “Put it this way,” AMD’s Azor said. “We knew we built a great part. We didn’t know the competitor had built such a horrible one. So the demand has been a little bit higher than we had originally forecasted.”
McAfee went even further: “What I can say is that we have been ramping our manufacturing capacity — the monthly, quarterly output of X3D parts. That’s 7000X3D as well as 9000X3D. It’s crazy how much we have increased over what we were planning. I will say that the demand that we have seen from 9800X3D and 7800X3D has been unprecedented.”
Chips take about twelve weeks to go from the start of the wafer manufacturing process to end product, so even increasing the number of wafers (and eventually chips) takes time.
“And so it’s longer than a quarter to really ramp, you know, the output of those products, and so we’re working very, very hard to catch up with demand,” McAfee said. “I think as we go through the first half of this year, you’ll see us continue to increase output of X3D. You know there’s no secret, X3D has become a far more important part of our CPU portfolio than I think we, any of us, would have predicted a year ago. And I think that trend will continue into the future, and we are ramping capacity to ensure we catch up with that demand as long as consumers want those X3D parts.” Although the HX3D uses AMD’s stacked cache, the cache isn’t itself a gating factor, according to McAfee.
Meanwhile, AMD launched its “Fire Range” processors, which take the HX3D architecture and bring it to gaming notebooks. The Ryzen 9955HX3D has yet to ship, however. AMD also launched two new faster HX3D parts for the desktop.
McAfee said that the 7800X3D, the “affordable” option, was the one that consumers turned to — not the high-end, niche parts. “If I look historically at our 7000X3D products, the 7800X3D was dramatically the highest volume part in that product stack. I think that those 12- and 16-core parts, there are certain types of customers that buy those.”
He also added, “My belief is, in the 9000 series, those higher core count products, there’ll be some demand there, but it’ll still be ten-to-one or more on the eight-core X3D parts because they’re just such a great gaming part. For a pure gamer, there’s nothing else like it.” Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 10 Jan (PC World)You never know what you’re going to get with CES. Of course, we knew we’d hear a lot about AI — check — and that there’d be announcements of new CPUs and GPUs — also check. But you just never know how the all the pomp and hoo-ha of this annual mega tech event is going to pay off in the real-world, for regular consumers. Does the average PC user have something to be excited about now that the veil has come off of this year’s product launches?
If the PCWorld staff is any indication, the answer is yes! We found plenty of cool products, innovations, and advances at this year’s show that are currently available or promise exciting things ahead. Our picks don’t stop at PC hardware, either. What’s CES without an array of goods for the tech-loving lifestyle? We note a few of our favorite home-tech products, too.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
overclock3d
I’ve never witnessed a PC product as hotly anticipated as the GeForce RTX 5090, unveiled by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during this year’s CES flagship keynote. And this monstrous graphics card lived up to the hype, at least on paper.
The RTX 4090 is still the fastest GPU on the planet and the RTX 5090 blows it out of the water in all key areas. It has an astounding 21,760 CUDA cores — 33 percent more than the 4090, and more than three times as many as the new RTX 5070. Nvidia graced the card with an ample 32GB of memory (the most ever for a GeForce GPU) and a humongous 512-but memory bus, a high-octane combo for no-compromises 4K gaming and AI workloads alike. And Nvidia’s overhauled DLSS 4 will tap dedicated AI cores to send performance soaring even higher in supported games.
If gamers even get a chance to buy it — even at $1,999, the RTX 5090 will be a screaming deal for AI researchers with all that memory. Everyone is going to want one. -Brad Chacos
Alienware Area-51
shaunlucas.com
Dell
I’m not usually one for gaming laptops, but the newly resurrected Area-51 machine from Alienware might be the one that converts me. Not only is it filled to the brim with the latest and greatest hardware, but the Liquid Teal finish gives the chassis a unique iridescent sheen and it’s to die for. I love the departure from the cliched gamer look (i.e., black exterior with hot red accents), as unnecessarily flashy designs make me wince. I much prefer understated beauty. The underside of the laptop also has a clear window, which allows you to see all of the hardware inside — this is a nice touch.
This laptop doesn’t shove its gamer identity down your throat. Instead, it stands tall in a quiet yet confident manner. -Ashleigh Biancuzzo
Lenovo Legion Go S, powered by SteamOS
Valve opening SteamOS up for other PC makers is a deeply exciting development for the industry, and as the very first SteamOS-powered handheld beyond the Steam Deck, Lenovo’s Legion Go S would’ve earned its spot here for that alone. But I’m buzzing about more than the software on this.
A big part of why the Steam Deck rocks is because it’s so affordable. Most of its competitors try to carve out niches with premium hardware and features — at much higher prices. But Lenovo partnered with AMD for an exclusive license to a more affordable version of AMD’s new game-changing Ryzen Z2 chip, appropriately dubbed “Ryzen Z2 Go.” By using older CPU and GPU cores, Lenovo is able to offer the entry-level Legion Go S for just $499 — giving gamers on a budget a much-needed Steam Deck alternative. -Brad Chacos
Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini x with Snapdragon
Mark Hachman / IDG
Lenovo announced that it’s bringing Snapdragon to mini desktop PCs. Now you can finally enjoy Copilot Plus with your desktop. While both the IdeaCentre Mini x and the ThinkCentre neo 50q are set for the upgrades, it’s the Mini x model that has me most excited.
With the option for either Snapdragon X or Snapdragon X Plus chips, up to 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, you can totally trick this thing out if you want. It also comes with Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and an incredible five total USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, plus an HDMI, DisplayPort, and ethernet port. I’m not quite sure what engineering wizardry they were able to conjure up over there at Lenovo, but whatever it is, it has me excited to get a new mini desktop PC this year. -Sam Singleton
Second opinion
I’m a mini PC convert. Late last year, I ditched a massive desktop for a mini PC running an Intel “Tiger Lake” Core i7. But now I wish I had waited a few more months to purchase the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini x instead.
The Intel mini PC runs unbearably loud at anything but the most modest power settings, whereas the IdeaCentre Mini x, complete with a super-efficient Snapdragon X processor, should run much quieter, just like its laptop counterparts.
But even more importantly, I now want a desktop with an NPU for AI workloads. During a one-hour demo with Qualcomm, they showed off a bunch of content-creation apps that directly hook into Snapdragon NPUs. My mind started conjuring how the IdeaCentre Mini x could be a gateway into a whole new world of useful AI – starting with video and image editing (which I already do) but also running on-device LLMs.
Bottom line: I’m not sure how I’ll be using hardware-supported AI in 2025, because this whole AI thing is just taking off. But I know I want the option to do so, and having that hardware in a powerful, compact mini PC is just what I’m looking for. -Jon Phillips
Asus ROG XG Mobile eGPU
Asus
When it comes to the best of CES, my vote is for the 2025 Asus ROG XG Mobile eGPU and its awesome power and versatility. As if it wasn’t enough that it harnesses the power of up to Nvidia’s top-tier RTX 5090 chip with up to 150W power, the external GPU also supports Thunderbolt 5 connectivity for exceptionally high bandwidth. That means it benefits from Thunderbolt 5’s up-to-80Gbps bidirectional data transfer speeds.
Asus claims the eGPU can hit at least 64Gbps, which surpasses USB 4 and rivals OCuLink. I’m also chuffed by XG Mobile’s other port offerings, which include HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1, 5Gbps Ethernet, and an SD card reader. It also sports better cooling than last year’s model and its design weighs just 2.2 pounds. -Dominic Bayley
AMD Ryzen AI Max and HP’s Z2 Mini G1a
HP
AMD’s Ryzen AI Max, previously codenamed Strix Halo, has been causing a furor in the PC leaks community for months now, and it’s easy to see why: It has a lot in common with AMD’s vaunted Threadripper chips. Threadripper debuted as a wild “jam this thing with all the cutting-edge tech we can” enthusiast project and Ryzen AI Max lives up to that legacy. Strix Halo pairs abundant Zen 5 cores and AMD’s powerful 50 TOPS NPU with more integrated Radeon CPU cores than any chip ever seen before, with support for up to 128GB of unified memory and 96GB just for the GPU. Wild!
That insane GPU + 128GB memory configuration will make this an absolute beast for AI workloads, which demand gobs of memory and fast graphics performance. “This is something very, very special,” said Rahul Tikoo, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s client computing business, in a recorded briefing for reporters – and he’s absolutely right.
Ryzen AI Max mostly targets laptops, but the most interesting launch partner instead crams this monster chip inside of a desktop mini PC. HP’s Z2 Mini G1a comes with loads of ports, the flagship 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395, 128GB of memory, and up to 4TB of SSD storage (you can add another 4TB yourself via an empty M.2 slot) — literally the maxed-out version of AMD Ryzen AI Max. AI professionals and students are going to go nuts for this wonderfully weird machine. -Brad Chacos
Asus Zenbook A14
Michael Crider/Foundry
The Asus Zenbook A14 is the company’s first laptop to use its unique ceraluminum finish, which bonds a ceramic exterior to an aluminum interior, across a laptop’s entire chassis (instead of just the display lid). It’s also built from magnesium-aluminum alloy, a common and lightweight material.
The result is a slim, portable laptop with a look and feel unlike anything else on the market. Picking up the machine reminded me of handling a premium notebook or a slim hardcover book. The Zenbook A14 weighs about 2.1 pounds and measures about six-tenths of an inch thick, with a claimed battery life of 32 hours (!!) thanks to the Snapdragon X chip inside.
The Zenbook A14 is my favorite laptop of all of CES 2025. It’s attractive, portable and, perhaps best of all, affordable at a starting price of $899. — Matt Smith
SteamOS
Asus/Valve
Brad has already highlighted the Legion Go S, Lenovo’s portable sequel that uses an official build of SteamOS right from Valve. And that’s exciting on its own as a consumer product. But I’m more interested in SteamOS itself. While these are early days, I think it’s entirely possible that SteamOS could become a successful gaming-focused platform all on its own…which would spell big trouble for Microsoft. Windows 11 isn’t exactly winning people over, and they might be ready to look for an alternative at last. Imagine the very real possibility of a gaming laptop running the Linux-based SteamOS, sold directly to consumers. Wild. -Michael Crider
Razer’s Project Arielle
Razer
These days, I care less about how powerful my tech is and more about how comfortable I am while using what I have. It sucks to freeze in my chair while I’m trying to game in the winter, and it’s equally miserable in the summer with sweaty back stuck to my chair. Comfort is performance, if you ask me.
And that’s why the Project Arielle gaming chair speaks to me. It has a built-in bladeless fan system for cool airflow when it’s hot and an integrated heater for warmth when it’s cold, and it’s all conveniently managed via a control panel on the chair. Say goodbye to personal ACs and space heaters. Will Project Arielle ever go mainstream? Eh, probably not. But I’m quite smitten with the concept — assuming Razer keeps the price reasonable. -Joel Lee
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable
Mark Hachman / IDG
There are so many solutions for adding extra screen space for working on the road, from extra displays to foldables and more. Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is a special machine, hiding what is essentially a second virtual monitor behind the screen, which can be unrolled when needed.
That seems to be extremely handy as well as structurally sound, at least based on my limited hands-on time. As a guy who totes external displays or even extra notebooks to serve as extra screens, this ThinkBook is one to watch. -Mark Hachman
Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3
Lenovo
As a certified Android fan, I lament that Android tablets have long been unable (and often even unwilling) to compete with the iPad Mini. A small, high-quality tablet is a nut that Google and its partners just can’t crack. That’s why I’m happy to see the Legion Tab Gen 3, an 8.8-inch Android “gaming” tablet. A smaller tablet makes sense for gaming (unlike Acer’s crazy 11-inch Steam Deck-style handheld), and that focus means a more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, roomy 12GB of RAM, and an upgraded screen and cooling system. Shame about the outdated Android 14 OS (don’t hold out for timely updates from Lenovo, either), but at least someone is giving this form factor a shot. -Michael Crider
Secondary screens
Corsair
I love tons of monitors around me, enabling multitasking work and feeding me tons of information and video all the time. That might not be great for my mental health, to be honest…but I’m still excited to double down on it. Corsair has a newer take on its dedicated desktop widget touchscreen with the 14.5-inch Xeneon Edge. This is essentially a mini-monitor, complete with USB-C and HDMI support. But if you want something a little less functional and more flashy, Govee has animated pixel displays that can live on your wall or desktop. The Gaming Pixel Light (which looks kind of like an upgraded Light Bright toy) can also double as an animated clock, weather widget, or sports ticker. -Michael Crider
Pawport Smart Pet Door
Pawport
Give your favorite four-legged friend the freedom to come and go as they choose while keeping your home safe with the Pawport Smart Pet Door, a retrofit-style device that slides in front of an existing pet door.
With help from an included Bluetooth tag, the steel-and-aluminum Smart Pet Door ($499) senses when your pet approaches, opening its doors automatically, while a sensitivity gauge keeps the doors from accidentally closing on your furry friend. You can also control the door remotely with the Pawport app, while pet “curfews” can keep your pet inside during designated hours. -Ben Patterson
Stern Pinball: Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye
I love pinball. PCWorld does not cover pinball tables. That’s not usually a problem. This year, it is.
Stern’s latest table is rad. You do not play pinball; you pick a character and then level that character up as you play pinball, amassing treasure and loot and exploring dungeons and then eventually fighting beholders and gelatinous cubes and an animatronic dragon voiced by Michael Dorn. There are ramps, hidden trap doors, the works. Nerd bliss, all for $7,000.
I played for a half hour and didn’t want to stop. Stern even offered to send us one to try out. If you see a video on our YouTube channel, you’ll know my dreams have been answered. -Mark Hachman
LIFX Luna Lamp
LIFX
With its first ever smart lamp, LIFX drew inspiration from an early product: its own SuperColor Ceiling light, an eye-catching, multi-zone fixture that won our Editors’ Choice award last year. Packing in 26 discretely addressable color zones, the Luna Lamp can be mounted on a wall or placed on a flat surface, like a countertop or a bedside table.
The Matter-enabled Luna Lamp also boasts a quartet of programmable buttons that can control either the lamp’s own settings or other nearby Matter devices — even without an internet connection, thanks to Matter’s device-to-device binding functionality. It’ll be available in February for $69.99. -Ben Patterson
Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden
Plantaform
Not everyone has the outdoor space for a garden, and even those who do might be limited by poor weather conditions during parts of the year. The Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden offers a cool and convenient alternative for growing produce at home, while also making for a captivating indoor showpiece!
A combination of fog and plant nutrients, cleverly dubbed “fogponics,” feeds up to 15 plants at a time in the windowed chamber. An accompanying app helps you monitor your plants’ progress, reminds you to fill water reservoirs, lets you change the lighting schedule, and notifies you when it’s time to harvest. The windows are all removable for easy access to your bounty.
Sure, at $500, plus $29.99 for Plantaform’s various plant pod packs, it’s not exactly the money-saving proposition you might associate with growing your own food. But you can’t beat the prospect of having a fresh-produce garden year round, requiring minimal work, that also looks so futuristically awesome, can you? -Katherine Stevenson Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | RadioNZ - 9 Jan (RadioNZ) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says more than 600 New Zealanders are in the city as massive blazes rage. Read...Newslink ©2025 to RadioNZ |  |
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