Price hikes! Get your price hikes here! Hot on the heels of Apple's upward push of dollar figures, ganging up with Framework, and harnessing the disillusion caused by the price of Valve's Steam Machine... It's now Microsoft's turn. The ailing division is enacting yet another increase to the price of the Xbox Series consoles, at $100 more for the 512 GB versions and $150 more for the 1 TB model. The pricing will come into effect in roughly a month and change, on August 1st.

The firm is also killing the 2 TB version of the Xbox Series X, in an echo of Apple slicing away the higher-RAM variants of its Mac Studio computers. If you were on the fence about buying one of those, it would be wise to rush, as at the current price of "only" around $799.99, stocks are unlikely to last. Here's the new pricing, in all its glory:

• Xbox Series S, 512 GB, Digital Edition: $499.99
• Xbox Series S, 1 TB, Digital Edition: $599.99
• Xbox Series X, 1 TB, Digital Edition: $749.99
• Xbox Series X, 1 TB: $799.99

Microsoft is also adding a few options for payment and alternative purchases. Buy Now, Pay Later for splitting purchases across short-term installments for consoles bought at the Microsoft store, confirming rumors of a partnership with well-known payment processor Klarna. If that's not quite your jam, there's also interest-free 12-month financing available at Amazon for Xbox hardware.

The company is expanding Xbox trade-ins, stating that it's "working with retail partners" to enable players to sell their consoles to stores for cash or store credit. This isn't a new thing in the gaming world, as GameStop and Amazon have historically had this feature, but Microsoft's wording makes it sound like the program will be expanded to more retailers. As always, you can buy a certified refurbished console from the Microsoft Store and a number of retailers.

The highly anticipated Steam Machine is being shot down by flak due to its high release price, but all of a sudden, the $1,349 on ask for the 2 TB version doesn't sound so absurd, considering the superior hardware, gigantic game library, and low prices for games. Following Microsoft's logic, the upswing for the now-dead 2 TB version of the Xbox Series X would be $300, putting it at a nice round $1,099.99. Are you not entertained, if not excited, to be living in such interesting times?

After Epic revealed its plan for Unreal Engine 6, CEO Tim Sweeney said in an interview that Valve should stop requiring developers from disclosing if they used AI in making their game. The Epic chief executive made the statement to PC Gamer as he was talking about the use of AI tools in game development. The upcoming version of Unreal Engine 6 will come with AI integrations, which will supposedly make it easier for programmers, developers, and everyone else working in the gaming industry to build games. However, the use of AI tools still carries a stigma among players to the point that titles with this disclosure get significantly fewer reviews and are often viewed less favorably.

He says that AI tools are useful for streamlining boring, repetitive, and menial labor, like reviewing code for over an hour to find an error or doing the rigging work required to make a 3D model move realistically. While it was unfortunate that some AI tech companies trained their models on stolen data, the Epic chief executive said that the AI industry has changed and is now moving towards better practices, especially when it comes to training data. He even pointed at Adobe, which he says is ensuring the provenance of the data it used for training its AI. However, PC Gamer pointed out that Epic uses Nano Banana and GPT Image, which do not claim stringent AI training data controls, and that the Unreal Engine’s AI integrations include models such as Gemini, which have been accused of copyright infringement.

“I think the main usage case that we've seen within Epic, and we're seeing developers actually find gainful, is using AI to reduce the drudge work. The software is still architected by software architects, and they're still writing the important parts of code, and artists are still coming up with a creative vision for characters, deciding between concepts,” Sweeney told the publication. He also added, “If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you've got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game. I think it's really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn't do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success.”

The Epic executive has a point here, as AI can indeed be a useful productivity tool if used correctly and ethically. But even if that was the case, Valve still requires developers to add the AI-generated content disclosure, which could have a negative impact on reviews and ratings. While the Steam platform does not require the disclosure of the use of AI-powered tools in the developers’ workflow, they’re required to note it if AI-generated assets appear in the game or in marketing material. This would presumably include assets that have been partially built using AI tools or were based on AI-generated content.

According to market research platform Game Oracle, titles that had the generative AI disclosure received 53% less reviews than the same type of game that did not have it. Furthermore, it’s more likely to get a negative review. However, it also conceded that several other factors could be at play here, like studios substituting creativity and the proper development process with AI tools, resulting in titles that are obviously AI slop.

Sweeney argues that AI is just a tool for productivity that could help game developers create unique content. The AI disclosure warning on Steam games, in theory, should not influence how games are perceived — after all, what should matter to gamers is the experience of playing the game. Unfortunately, the controversies surrounding AI are negatively affecting the reputation of titles that use these tools. When paired with studios that substitute AI for real creativity, it’s understandable why this AI warning has such a negative impact on game titles.

Scalpers are moving in on AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition. The new CPU, which is identical to the original but "re-engineered" for a new bonding process, is on sale officially today, June 29. We've been keeping track of inventory and haven't seen the chip available for more than a few minutes — and amid the flurry, scalpers are stepping in and asking for $600 or more for the chip on the secondhand market, sometimes doubling the CPU's $350 MSRP.

Over on eBay, most listings for the chip are above $600, with some asking for $750 or more. Worse, they've sold for that price. Looking at sold listings, at least two of the CPUs sold today, one for $540 and another for $585. Most of the listings just use the stock product photo, but some scalpers have an actual CPU in-hand.

Micro Center has the chip available for sale, though only as part of a bundle with a motherboard and RAM, and it's exclusively available in Micro Center stores. Presumably some scalpers went to buy a chip at Micro Center this morning to flip it on eBay in the afternoon.

Although it's easy to get caught up in the rush of a new release (or old release, in this case), we don't recommend giving into scalper prices. Rumors have circulated that the 10th Anniversary Edition is a limited-time run, but that's not the case. AMD says it plans on continuing to make the CPU, so we should see inventory stabilize eventually.

We have some placeholder listings available. Again, we've seen inconsistent inventory throughout the morning, so check back at these retailers regularly:

• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Newegg
• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at Best Buy
• 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition at B&H

We've been checking retailer listings all morning, and we've only briefly seen the chip in stock. Online, some buyers claim they've secured a CPU through Newegg, but we haven't been able to successfully move through the checkout process yet. We also haven't seen the chip go live on AMD's direct web store yet.

Because of that, it looks like retailers are doing something of a staggered rollout. There's a good chance we'll see more inventory released throughout the day, so make sure to check back at retailers.

We just re-reviewed the Ryzen 7 5800X3D to evaluate how the CPU stacks up to the current market at its new $350 suggested retail price. If you already have an AM4 motherboard and memory to go with the CPU, it's a good choice at $350. Otherwise, there are better options.

AMD's newer Ryzen 7 7600X3D is just as fast in applications, despite sporting fewer cores, and it's around 15% faster in games. Meanwhile, Intel's Core i7-14700K paired with DDR4 matches the 5800X3D in games and offers around twice the multithreaded performance. With DDR5, the Core i7-14700K wins across the board.

Prime Day 2026 is in full swing, and we’ve curated a list of SteelSeries products on sale during this window. There are some awesome deals on headsets and earbuds, keyboards, and mice. For example, the premium Arctis Nova Pro wireless gaming headset is now 34% off. I’ve owned these for a couple of years - they sound great, and I recommend them at the sub-$250 price point. Or there’s the more budget-conscious Active Nova 3X wireless headset, which is now only $76 (31% off). If you’re an earbud gamer, the wireless Arctic GameBuds are also on sale (24%).

• Check out Steelseries deals on Amazon

If you’re looking for a deal on keyboards, the Steelseries Apex Pro Mini, a 60% keyboard, is on sale for only $132.94, over $107 (45%) off retail and at an all-time low. If you need something a bit bigger with more functionality, the Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 is also on sale (27% and at its lowest price since mid-2025). Both of these wireless keyboards use Hall-effect magnetic switches (OmniPoint 3.0 from SteelSeries). I’ve always wanted a Hall-effect keyboard, and at this price, the Apex Pro TKL is hard for me to pass up, as I’ve been eyeing it for a while now.

Lastly, they have two versions of the Aerox 5 mouse (wired and wireless) on sale. The wired Aerox 5 is 36% off (now $64.11, down from $100), and the wireless version is down to $110 (35% off, $60 in savings). These aren’t at all-time lows, but they’re the best deals we’ve seen on the Aerox in a couple of months.

Check out all the SteelSeries deals below and upgrade your peripherals without putting a huge dent in your bank account.

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 Amazon Prime Day 2026 deals time, and the gaming monitor deals are coming in fast and furious. Whether you're looking for a gaming monitor with fast response times and high refresh rates or an expansive productivity offering with a webcam, there's something for everyone. Smaller sales and events are now popping up all over the place, and we're tracking all of those sales for you here.

We constantly comb through the best deals across multiple retailers, selecting the best based on in-depth knowledge gained from our thorough reviews, extensive benchmarks, and comprehensive historical price analysis, and keep an updated list below. If you want even more options, we also have our list of Best Gaming Monitors and our Prime Day Gaming Monitor Deals hub, but we're putting the hottest deals in this blog.

Black Friday is more pertinent than ever for PC builders, as an AI-driven memory shortage apocalypse sends prices skyrocketing. Indeed, we're seeing price increases of over 100% on the most popular RAM products, so the best option could be to upgrade your monitor to a higher resolution to squeeze more gaming quality out of your existing system. On that front, we've found plenty of deals to satisfy even the most demanding monitor aficionados, as you can see below.

Quick Links: Prime Day Monitor Deals

• Amazon: Up to $500 off Gaming Monitors
• Dell: The best monitor deals from Dell - up to $100 off

Hottest Amazon Prime Day Monitor Deals

Aside from price, the 37-inch size is probably this monitor's major selling point, as it's pretty rare and sits between typical 32-inch screens and the truly large 40 or 42-inch screens. If you're rocking a 27-inch or 32-inch monitor and are looking for a size upgrade without spending a lot, this is the best deal for productivity that I have seen.

Just note that this isn't great for more than basic, casual gaming. Aside from the locked 60 Hz refresh, its 5 ms (GtG) rated response time means you'll probably see motion blur and ghosting with fast motion.

If you're craving a big monitor and don't need high refresh for gaming, this 37-inch monster from Samsung, half off today at B&H, is by far the best value I have seen in months. The cheapest it's been on Amazon is around $350 late last year, so this seems to be its lowest-ever price. In fact, it's currently selling for above $400 at Best Buy and Amazon, so $249 is a steal.

Back in stock!

The Corsair Xeneon Edge is back in stock and discounted to $199. With 20% off, you'll save $50 on all three colors.

With 2560 x 720 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate the Xeneon Edge can be used as a touchscreen display for basically anything. Play videos or control media, manage your Discord comms or watch chat while streaming, or pair it with iCUE and monitor your PCs internal temperatures. This sold out earlier in the week so is likely to sell out fast. - Stephen Warwick

Get a great deal on the TUF Gaming monitor (VG27AQM5A) for only $199.99 on Prime Day - save $100 and upgrade your monitor to a QHD, 300Hz Fast IPS panel and take your gaming to the next level

If you’re in the market for a monitor upgrade, Prime Day 2026 has you covered. Jump up to the 27-inch Asus TUF QHD (2560x1440) 300Hz fast IPS monitor for only $199.00 (33% / $100 off). The VG27AQM5A sports a fast IPS panel, speakers, a swivel-and-tilt stand, and several features like Asus ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur Sync), which works with other variable refresh rate technologies it supports, like AMD Freesync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, to eliminate ghosting and screen tearing for sharp visuals in gaming.

Additional features include Gaming AI with a dynamic crosshair, dynamic shadow boost (enhances dark areas onscreen), as well as AI Visual that dynamically adjusts settings to provide the best default or use-preset monitor settings. Connectivity consists of a single DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, and a USB-C port, ensuring wide compatibility with a variety of input sources. While there are a lot of deals out there for Prime Day, this is the only 300Hz, QHD, Fast IPS panel under $200 we could find. Get it before it’s too late. — Matt Safford

Get a little portable OLED in your life for just $207 – Four-star 16-inch ViewSonic ColorPro VP16-OLED portable monitor drops to lowest-ever price

It's not a big-screen gaming monitor, but ViewSonic's ColorPro VP16-OLED is a color-accurate, 15.6-inch portable monitor with an excellent stand / hub that we liked a lot when we tested it back in 2024. And that was back when it was $399, not 48% off that price, as it is at Amazon right now for Prime Day. Apart from the excellent OLED panel, its main trick is a built-in dual-hinge kickstand that houses its ample inputs, as well as a 40-Watt charging hub.

The dual-hinge stand means you can adjust the tilt as well as height – a nice touch since portable monitors are often too low for ergonomic use long-term. Operating the OSD to adjust the display is easy, thanks to four large buttons on the front of the stand. And the left side houses micro-HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and two USB-C ports, with the power button on the right.

The only downside I see is that the stand adds extra permanent bulk, making the monitor heavy by portable standards, at 2.2 pounds. But if color and contrast are what you're after, this is a great monitor at an even better price, that beat out even other OLED portables in our testin

The Asus ROG Strix 27-inch OLED is down to its cheapest price ever for Prime Day

Asus makes some of the best OLED gaming monitors, and the XG27AQDMGR shows off that prowess. It comes from Asus’ lower XG range, which trims some of the premium features of monitors in the PG range for a cheaper price, but otherwise uses an identical panel. This monitor has benefited a lot for the rapid advancements in OLED panels, and you can score it now for just $449.

Although we’ve seen OLEDs push ahead to 480Hz at 1440p, the specs here are still excellent. You get a 240Hz, 1440p panel from LG Display. So it’s WOLED instead of QD-OLED. With this generation of panels, you can expect slightly worse color performance out of WOLED but superior brightness.

XG monitors may trim some premium features, but this display still offers a lot. It includes Asus’ Neo Proximity Sensor to automatically dim the display when you’re away, as well as DisplayPort 2.1 support. — Jake Roach

Blazing fast 380 Hz frame rates on the cheap for Prime Day

The Asus ROG Strix XG279CNS is a frequent pick on our deals blog with the 27-inch panel retailing for a mere $229, a 23% discount off its normal $299 price tag.

This monitor is designed for headshotters that focus on bleeding-edge frame rates for eSports, with its 1080p resolution firing at 380 Hz to give an advantage to those with the fastest of reflexes. Given that low resolution, you won't need a massive GPU to push this panel to the limits. The screen has a Fast IPS screen that still delivers good picture quality, and a 0.3ms gray-to-gray response time to combat ghosting. The firm's "Extreme Low Motion Blur Sync" (ELMB SYNC) also works to reduce ghosting and tearing.

The panel has HDMI 2,1 DisplayPort 1.4, and USB-C (DP Alt Mode) connectivity options. All of this comes wrapped in a great price tag. — Paul Alcorn

Save 36% on Samsung's speedy 32-inch 240 Hz 4K Odyssey gaming monitor

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (G80SD) is a premium 32-inch gaming monitor built around a 4K QD-OLED panel. Right now, Amazon is selling the monitor for $799.99, an incredible $36% off its normal list price.

The G80SD’s OLED panel features Quantum Dot enhancement, delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and wide color coverage. It offers a 240 Hz refresh rate and features an ultra-fast 0.03 ms gray-to-gray response time, making it ideal for competitive gaming on high-end PC setups. It is also compatible with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-Sync for smooth, tear-free gameplay.

You’ll also find HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort connectivity, while Samsung's OLED Glare-Free coating helps reduce reflections. To address OLED longevity concerns, Samsung incorporates its OLED Safeguard+ suite, which includes a dynamic cooling system, thermal modulation, and automatic brightness adjustments for static elements such as logos and taskbars to help minimize screen burn-in.

Beyond gaming, the monitor Samsung's Gaming Hub, allowing you to access cloud gaming services and connected consoles, while built-in Smart TV features allow streaming without a PC. — Brandon Hill

Big-screen gaming for $169: free Newegg gift card takes 32-inch, 180 Hz UltraGear 32GS60QC-B down to its lowest-ever price

There are plenty of appealing budget gaming monitor deals swirling around right now. But if you’re after something bigger than 27 inches, Newegg’s sale on the LG UltraGear 32GS60QC-B is the best I’ve seen today. Already down 36% from its $299 list price, the retailer throws in a $20 gift card, taking the price all the way down to $169. And that’s a shockingly affordable price for a 32-inch gaming screen with these specs.

Some will scoff at the VA panel used here, and to be fair it’s not the best panel tech for a monitor at this screen’s typical price. But it’s far more understandable under $200, and VA panels do have contrast advantages when you’re sitting directly in front of the screen. And since this is also a curved gaming monitor, there’s a better chance you will be sitting right in front of it while using it.

Connectivity is the typical two HDMIs and a DisplayPort. LG rates the panel at 300 nits of brightness, a step above the typical budget 250 range, and it ships with a one-year warranty. --Matt Safford

Asus delivers affordable WOLED gaming with the lowest-ever price on the 27-inch ROG Strix XG27AQDMGR – 240 Hz refresh, 1440p, and high brightness

If you’re after an OLED display that gets bright and won’t break the bank, Asus’ recently launched ROG Strix XG27AQDMGR is down to its lowest-ever price of $434 at Amazon for Prime Day. It’s a glossy 27-inch panel with 1440p resolution and 240 Hz refresh rate. But the biggest selling point might be its brightness. This is a next-gen LG WOLED panel that adds a white subpixel to the typical red, green, and blue, amping up the brightness to an impressive rating of 1300 nits – with the TrueBlack Glossy film and all that brightness, this panel will certainly make your games and other content pop.

Aside from its impressive panel, Asus outfits the XG27AQDMGR with a handy adjustable proximity sensor, so the panel turns off when you’re away, helping to keep burn-in to a minimum and extend panel life. You also get Asus’ ELMB panel strobing tech to reduce motion blur, VRR, and a two-port USB hub, alongside the typical video connectivity: Twk HDMI and a DisplayPort. Asus also offers a three-year warranty that covers burn-in, which is a year longer than that LG offers with its own OLED monitors. – Matt Safford

Lowest-ever price on Samsung's 49-inch OLED

This absolutely massive 49-inch OLED display from Samsung has fallen to its lowest-ever price of $854.99. You get 5120 x 1440 resolution, an OLED panel, and a 240 Hz refresh rate.

In our review, we loved this monitor's out-of-the-box calibration and features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even Apple AirPlay. Build quality is another bonus, and as you can see from our data, it has some of the best response times we've seen in OLED testing. - Stephen Warwick

Save $121 (37%) on Samsung 34-inch ViewFinity S50GC U-WHQD monitor - 21:9 widescreen maximizes screen real estate, seamless multitasking

We’ve seen a lot of monitor deals come and go on Prime Day 2026, with most focused on gamers searching for high-refresh-rate panels. And while this monitor will certainly play games without issue, the 34-inch Samsung ViewFinity S50GC Series is designed for office productivity, creative workflows, and multitasking. The S5 is the entry-to-mid-level series and supports 3440x1440 U-WQHD resolution, 100Hz refresh rate, FreeSync Premium, and HDR10 (300 nits), but it’s that increased real estate from the 21:9 aspect ratio and high resolution that allows you to get more done.

Connectivity on the S50GC consists of two HDMI (v2.2) and one DisplayPort (v1.2) inputs for video. A built-in ambient light sensor detects lighting in your room and automatically adjusts brightness, and it has an eyesaver mode to reduce blue light. One of its coolest features, to me, is that it can display two different inputs side by side, another feature that makes this monitor great for office work and productivity.

The Asus TUF VG27AQ offers a 1440p IPS at 180Hz for just $170 on Prime Day

The Asus TUF VG27AQ3A is a 27-inch, 1440p monitor with an IPS panel and 180Hz refresh rate. We've seen plenty of high refresh rate 1440p monitors below $200, but most of them use a VA panel, trading some color accuracy and motion clarity (at high overdrive settings) for better contrast and faster response times. This monitor, on the other hand, uses an IPS panel.

We've covered sales on this monitor several times before, normally at $200. For Prime Day, it's down to its lowest price ever at $170. At 27 inches, 1440p is the ideal resolution for pixel density, and although 240Hz refresh rates are slowly proliferating among high-end displays, 180Hz isn't as significantly different as it sounds. You're looking at a difference of about 1.5ms, assuming you're maxing-out the refresh rate.

In addition, the monitor comes with Asus' ELMB Sync, which offers backlight strobing while using variable refresh rate. On that front, the monitor supports FreeSync Premium and is G-Sync Compatible. Asus also went out of its way to obtain the broad AdaptiveSync verification from VESA. — Jake Roach

Samsung's Odyssey G30D is on an excellent sale for just $150, 35% off its list price

If you don't want to just get a grab bag 25-inch, 1080p monitor is on sale for $100, grab the Samsung Odyssey G30D. It's a 1080p monitor, but it's larger than most cheap 1080p displays at 27 inches, and it comes with a fully adjustable stand along with a 180Hz refresh rate.

We normally recommend a 1440p resolution for a 27-inch panel. That's ideal for pixel density, which is a bit low here with a 1080p resolution on a 27-inch display. If that will be a problem largely depends on your viewing distance and what you're coming from; the resolution shouldn't feel fuzzy if you're coming from another 1080p display.

Samsung uses a VA panel and claims a MPRT of just 1ms, which is generally more accurate than GtG response times. Just keep in mind that low response times on VA panels usually require overdrive, and you can get visual artifacts like black smearing at higher overdrive settings. — Jake Roach

AMD answered the demands of gamers and re-released the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, though not without compromise. Although the return of Zen 3 X3D has been a good idea for months, given the limited time we saw those chips on the market, this re-release comes with a surprisingly high price, considering the silicon and how it compares to the best CPUs for gaming.

Price is the biggest issue for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. AMD shaved $100 off the original MSRP for the 10th Anniversary Edition re-release, but that puts it in very competitive waters, even considering current RAM prices. The CPU is flanked on one side by the Core i7-14700K that also supports DDR4 memory, and on the other by the Ryzen 5 7600X3D, which offers superior gaming performance and a lower price to offset the cost of a DDR5 platform.

The chip mainly appeals to those who already have an AM4 motherboard and memory to go with it, and who were unfortunate enough to miss the small window when you could buy the Ryzen 7 5800X3D a few years ago. In that situation, just about any price is a deal compared to the competition.

Otherwise, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is about $70 to $100 too expensive, and even that lower price would be questionable if DDR5 prices weren’t out of control. Although the chip has earned its legendary status among gamers, revisiting it in 2026 shows clearly that it maxes out what DDR4 platforms are capable of in games, and it falls far too short of the DDR4 competition in applications.

The island of AM4 users stranded without a clear upgrade path will love the 5800X3D re-release. But the chip is not nearly as impressive as it once was if you have to buy a motherboard and/or RAM alongside your CPU, however.

Some notes on this re-review

We don’t normally re-review products here at Tom’s Hardware, much less update existing reviews outside of some extraordinary circumstance. We will follow up reviews with additional coverage as needed, but our reviews are as much buying advice at the time they’re written as they are historical context years down the road. Reviews exist in the context in which they’re written.

That’s important because, especially with PC hardware, some good products can become worse over time and bad products can become good over time. Even in this past generation, AMD had several stumbles with Zen 5, which it addressed post-launch through a combination of firmware updates and exposing additional settings in the BIOS. Intel had some major regressions in performance with Arrow Lake, which it partially addressed after release with Core 200S Boost.

These products are better now than they were at launch, but it’s still important to know that they had issues at launch. That’s the function of our reviews. They’re a snapshot of how a particular component performs and compares to the rest of the market at a certain point in time. Our list of the best CPUs for gaming and CPU benchmark hierarchy pagesare where you’ll find the consistent updates on which chips are best at any given time.

That preamble is to say that this re-review of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D does not replace our original review, which is why this is a separate piece of content and not merely an update. We’re re-reviewing the chip because AMD is re-releasing it, and we need to compare the chip to the current market it exists in.

That market includes high memory prices, which is a driving force behind the re-release of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in the first place. We’re paying especially close attention to memory in this review, both in terms of price and performance. However, we’ve also brought some price-competitive DDR5 chips into the mix, including some of AMD’s own CPUs.

Finally, we’re reviewing the original Ryzen 7 5800X3D here. AMD says that the new 10th Anniversary Edition should be identical to the original model, but it’s using a slightly different bonding process, which could have a minor impact on power and thermals, in particular. We’ll be getting a 10th Anniversary Edition into the lab in order to find out, but we don’t expect major performance differences between the original and re-release versions.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D specifications and pricing

It’s difficult to evaluate the specs of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D given the current market, so this is a refresher of what the processor offers and how it compares to some of the current options featured in our test suite. It’s an eight-core / 16-thread chip sporting AMD’s Zen 3 architecture, and it boosts up to 4.5 GHz, with a base clock of 3.4 GHz.

The chip is fabricated on TSMC’s 7nm FinFET process, with GlobalFoundries stepping in to fab the I/O die on its 12nm process. Of course, the main draw of the CPU is the 64MB chunk of SRAM that’s bonded to the compute die, giving the processor access to a total of 96MB of L3 cache.

In recent years, we’ve seen both AMD and Intel increase cache sizes broadly, not just on X3D CPUs. For instance, the Ryzen 7 9700X has the same 32MB of on-board L3 that we can see all the way back to Zen 3, but it has double the L2 cache. Intel has traditionally split L2 and L3 more evenly, and we’ve seen an increase in both with Arrow Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh.

Still, the huge boost in L3 helps a lot here. It comes with some thermal trade-offs, however. Although the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a very efficient CPU, it also has careful power management. The SRAM sits on top of the compute die, insulating the cores from the IHS. This thermal design means the Ryzen 7 5800X3D has relatively low peak clock speeds out of the box, and it doesn’t officially support AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive.

AMD has addressed that issue in newer X3D chips, riding the efficiency of Zen 4 with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and moving to a new bonding process that situates the SRAM below the compute die with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

• MORE: Best CPU for gaming
• MORE: CPU Benchmark Hierarchy
• MORE: Intel vs AMD
• MORE: How to Overclock a CPU

Although the Ryzen 7 5800X3D was a revelation when it first released, it’s important to remember that it wasn’t leagues faster than Intel’s competing Alder Lake chips, at least not on the level of the 30%+ delta we see today with Arrow Lake and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The pedigree that 3D V-Cache has built comes in part from the newer X3D chips, and that’s clear when looking back at the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

Even more clear is the split between DDR4 and DDR5. Now that we have Raptor Lake (and Refresh) as a comparison point, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D positions itself as the peak of what DDR4 platforms are capable of in games. It’s marginally faster than the Core i7-13700K and Core i7-14700K with DDR4 memory, 17% ahead of the Core i7-12700K with DDR4, and even 4.5% ahead of the Core i7-12700K with DDR5.

This wall that you can see, around 145 fps in our geomean, directly translates into a handful of the games we tested. Especially among the newer titles in our suite, simply moving to DDR5 memory results in more than a 31% increase in performance on the same CPU. That led to a handful of situations where both Raptor Lake CPUs perform worse than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with DDR4, but offer double-digit improvements with DDR5.

Based on our RAM price tracker, a 32GB kit of DDR5-6000 runs between $400 and $450 currently, while a 32GB kit of DDR4-3200 will run you between $200 and $250. There are plenty of exceptions, for better and worse, but we’re going to call the price difference between DDR4 and DDR5, right now, about $200.

Establishing that number is important because of one CPU: AMD’s own Ryzen 5 7600X3D. It’s on the AM5 platform and requires DDR5, but it’s also $230, $120 less than what AMD is re-releasing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D at. Assuming our lowest RAM prices, that means the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is around 14% more expensive than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D when memory is brought into the price. But the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is also 18% more performant.

That’s the biggest hurdle standing in the way of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Even if you already have DDR4 memory, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D and 16GB of DDR5-6000 is only around $80 more expensive, and much more performant. Plus, it gets you on an AM5 platform, setting up cheaper future upgrades (AMD says AM5 will receive support through at least 2029).

In Intel’s camp, the two Raptor Lake chips with DDR4 run up against a similar wall as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, but offer around a 15% jump with DDR5. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D still makes sense if you already have an AM4 board. However, if you have to buy a motherboard, the Raptor Lake chips offer similar gaming performance with DDR4 and much better application performance, which we’ll get to next.

Elsewhere, there aren’t a lot of surprises. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is as efficient as ever, drawing just 77.5W on average in our testing. AMD has pushed efficiency even further now, but it’s remarkable to see the Ryzen 7 5800X3D offering similar performance as the Core i7-14700K with DDR4, while consuming half the power.

We also have our value geomean here, which is deceptive. Obviously the price of memory is a huge influence here, not only on total platform cost, but also on performance. The value geomean here just represents a true CPU-to-CPU comparison of value, devoid of RAM context.

007 First Light Benchmarks

The first game in our suite is the newest, which is 007 First Light. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D surprisingly struggles in this title, which is strange given how well IO Interactive’s previous title, Hitman 3, took to 3D V-Cache CPUs. Still, the Raptor Lake chips are ahead here, even with DDR4, and they claim top slots with DDR5.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Benchmarks

Baldur’s Gate 3 favors X3D chips, which is clear based on the fact that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is just a touch behind the much newer Ryzen 7 9700X. The 5800X3D is also around 11% faster than the Raptor Lake chips with DDR4 memory. However, the Raptor Lake chips with DDR5 are about 20% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, while the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is around 35% faster.

Crimson Desert Benchmarks

In Crimson Desert, the 5800X3D outpaces the Raptor Lake competition by a few frames, but this game clearly favors faster memory. It also scales oddly well on Raptor Lake chips, as evidenced by the fact that the Core i7-14700K outclasses the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.

Counter-Strike 2 Benchmarks

Counter-Strike 2 is more competitive, with only the Ryzen 7 7800X3D offering a clear lead above the rest of the pack. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is marginally ahead of the Raptor Lake chips with DDR4 here, and even moving to DDR5 doesn’t offer a significant improvement.

Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077 is another clear example of the memory divide that’s growing between DDR4 and DDR5. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D tops the DDR4 rankings by a few frames, but moving to DDR5 on Raptor Lake offers roughly a 15% performance jump.

Doom: The Dark Ages Benchmarks

When we brought up a 31% gap in DDR4 and DDR5 performance earlier, we were referring to Doom: The Dark Ages. This is a fairly recent game that’s clearly designed with DDR5 in mind. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D does surprisingly well, though, offering a 10.8% jump over the Raptor Lake competition with DDR4.

F1 24 Benchmarks

F1 2024 slants heavily toward AMD processors, and it’s a game that scales well with 3D V-Cache. Here, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is around 5% faster than the Core i7-14700K with DDR5, and 13% faster with DDR4. The Ryzen 5 7600X3D spoils the fun a bit, though, offering a solid 10% jump over the 5800X3D.

Far Cry 6 Benchmarks

Final Fantasy XIV Benchmarks

Final Fantasy XIV scales well with X3D chips, with the three 3D V-Cache CPUs in our test pool topping the rankings. The 5800X3D takes a clear backseat to the DDR5 CPUs, but it still manages a solid 6.6% improvement over the Core i7-14700K with DDR5 and a 16% jump with DDR4.

Flight Simulator 2024 Benchmarks

Flight Simulator 24 leans back toward Intel, with the 5800X3D only managing to outclass the Core i7-12700K with DDR4. In this game, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is around 18% faster, while the Core i7-14700K is 11% faster, even with DDR4.

Hogwarts Legacy Benchmarks

We can see a similar situation in Hogwarts Legacy, with the Core i7-14700K paired with DDR4 outpacing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D by about 12%. The Ryzen 5 7600X3D, meanwhile, is more than 20% ahead, while the Core i7-14700K with DDR5 marks a 25% lead.

Marvel Rivals Benchmarks

Marvel Rivals is an Unreal Engine 5 game, and it’s mostly bound by the GPU, which explains the stair-step pattern you can see in our data. We can see a clear divide between DDR4 and DDR5 platforms here, with even the Ryzen 5 7600X offering superior performance.

Minecraft RTX Benchmarks

Intel struggles in Minecraft, while X3D chips run away with performance. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D ends up in the middle of the pack, offering a clear buff of around 18% over the Raptor Lake competition but falling short of even AMD’s weaker DDR5 options.

Spider-Man 2 Benchmarks

Starfield Benchmarks

The Last of Us Part One Benchmarks

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The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was a weak CPU for productivity when it was released, and it hasn’t aged particularly well since then on that front. The clock speed is limited compared to non-X3D Zen 3 chips. Add to that the limitations of DDR4 platforms more broadly in non-gaming applications, and it's clear the 5800X3D was never destined for high marks here.

Even compared to the Ryzen 5 7600X3D, the 5800X3D is only 4.6% faster, which is bad considering the latter CPU has access to 33% more threads. Intel’s hybrid architecture boosts core counts, allowing Team Blue to dominate the top of our multithreaded performance rankings.

The CPU to call out here is the Core i7-14700K, particularly paired with DDR4 memory. It’s more than twice as fast as the 5800X3D in our multithreaded geomean, while offering similar gaming performance. Again, we can see this dilemma for the 5800X3D, where the 14700K is a better all-around CPU with DDR4, while the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is a superior DDR5 CPU for not much more money (even considering the price of DDR5).

Turning to single-threaded performance, the playing field levels out, short of the 5800X3D, which even loses out to the Ryzen 7 5700X due to its limited clock speed (the 5700X boosts 100 MHz higher).

Rendering Benchmarks

Rendering apps factor heavily in our overall multithreaded geomean, so the individual results here largely mirror what you can see in the geomean above. In Cinebench 2024, the Core i7-14700K with DDR4 still offers more than double the performance of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and it pushes higher with DDR5. We can see a similar situation in the newer Cinebench 2026.

Single-core results are especially weak considering the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s limited boost potential. DDR5 isn’t much of a factor here. Although we can see some scaling on the Raptor Lake platforms when moving to DDR5, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is limited in rendering apps, even by DDR4 standards.

Blender shows similar disparities, with the six-core Ryzen 5 7600X3D largely matching the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, despite sporting a 33% reduction in thread count.

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a gaming CPU, pure and simple, so we never expected any miracles here. However, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is offering comparable performance on a DDR5 platform for less money, while shooting ahead in games. And the Core i7-14700K offers much better productivity performance and comparable gaming performance, even when paired with DDR4.

Encoding Benchmarks

Encoding is similarly a major factor in our geomean, though with a more even split between lightly- and heavily-threaded workloads. Starting with the latter, Handbrake is an all-out workload for any consumer CPU that leans on high core counts, power limits, and clock speeds. With an x265 10-bit encode, even the Core i7-12700K with DDR4 is 39% ahead of the 5800X3D, while the Core i7-14700K with DDR4 shoots ahead, scoring 82% lead. AV1 and X264 show similar gaps.

The LAME audio encoder provides a closer look at single-threaded encoding workloads, and once again, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D struggles. It was the worst performer in the test pool running a standard LAME encode, and the gap between it and the more performant options in our test pool only grows in the extended run.

Creator App Benchmarks

Perhaps the biggest area of crosstalk with gaming is creator applications. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a bit more impressive here compared to our rendering and encoding workloads, often matching the Core i7-12700K with DDR4 memory. Still, it ends up at the bottom of our rankings, with newer Raptor Lake and DDR5 CPUs offering better performance.

Photoshop is an app that leans toward AMD chips, though that’s mainly with newer Zen 5 chips. For the 5800X3D, the Core i7-14700K offers a 10% performance jump with DDR4. Things are a bit more competitive in Premiere Pro, with the limitation of DDR4 platforms becoming abundantly clear in our data.

Outside of the Adobe suite, we have DaVinci Resolve, which isn’t as lopsided as Photoshop with recent AMD CPUs. Here, even DDR4 Raptor Lake options are near the top of the chart. The 5800X3D secures a minor win over the 7600X3D and 5700X, but not by a meaningful margin.

Finally, After Effects offers a look at VFX performance. AMD’s 5800X3D especially struggles here, with the Core i7-12700K with DDR4 offering a 13% boost in overall performance. With DDR5, that lead jumps to 22.9%.

Web and Office Benchmarks

In lighter web and office workloads, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D still struggles. Most basic productivity and web applications are lightly-threaded, so it makes sense to see the 5800X3D would fall below the marks we can see in creator apps. Across all of the workloads here, the 5800X3D is either at the bottom of the pile or just narrowly outclasses the 5700X.

That doesn’t mean you’ll run into major performance issues. The workloads here are relatively light, and they’re suitable for far weaker CPUs than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. We’re mainly looking at general application performance for browsers and lightly-threaded apps here, which is an area where the 5800X3D struggles.

Chess Engines, Compilation, Compression, AVX, and Other Benchmarks

Finally, we have a range of benchmarks examining code compilation, chess engines, database workloads, and far more. The 5800X3D is a gaming CPU, and these workloads are highly targeted at specific applications. There are some workloads where the 5800X3D shines, such as the ebizzy web server test, SQLite database test, and Linpack. However, it mostly lands at the bottom of the pile when looking at workloads more broadly.

We’ve certainly seen a benefit from a larger L3 cache for specialized workloads (see our Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 review for more), but that’s not the draw here. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is weak in most productivity apps, so unless you plan on running a server and somehow gaming on the same machine, I wouldn’t weigh these results too heavily.

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AMD’s X3D CPUs are known for their efficiency, and although those efficiency gains mainly show up with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the 5800X3D is no slouch. Power is carefully limited on the chip, with it peaking at just 119W in our y-cruncher test. In the same test, the Core i7-14700K drew 335W.

Y-cruncher leverages AVX instructions, pushing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D to consume more power compared to the 7800X3D. In an all-out, non-AVX workload like Cinebench 2024, the two CPUs are in lockstep. Again, we can see the Raptor Lake competition dancing with 300W across configurations.

Blender and Handbrake tell a similar story, but efficiency is what’s important here, given how broad the performance window is for the chips in our test pool (particularly in applications). The 5800X3D is much more efficient than the 13700K and 14700K. The margins are also narrower than raw power consumption.

The efficiency picture is clearer with a scatterplot, where we can see a clear separation between the AMD and Intel chips in our test pool. Short of the Core Ultra 270K Plus, there’s a compromise. AMD’s options are much less performant but consume far less power, while Intel's options are generally the opposite.

One upside of the 5800X3D, in particular, is its low idle power consumption. With Zen 4 and Zen 5, we saw a massive increase in power consumption in both idle and active idle (YouTube playback) scenarios. With both the Zen 3 chips in our test pool, we can see a return to single-digit power draw under idle circumstances.

Test Setup

We try to minimize the differences between our test platforms to keep our results consistent, which is especially important here given that we used so many different platforms. Even with big differences, we used the same OS image that’s specifically tailored for testing and frozen to avoid updates skewing our results as we test.

In addition to standardising our OS, we standardise our BIOS settings. We test with XMP/EXPO enabled on memory kits that we’ve validated for stability on the platforms we use. We also disable VBS in the BIOS and turn on ReBAR.

Modern AMD and Intel CPUs come with sophisticated boosting algorithms, but they aren’t always covered by warranty. AMD doesn’t cover PBO, for instance, and Intel doesn’t warranty the “Extreme” power profile that’s common on motherboards. Because of the lack of warranty coverage, we test with PBO disabled and Intel’s power profile set at its default settings.

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At $350, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D really only makes sense if you already have an AM4 motherboard and DDR4 memory to go along with it. That’s not a small audience, especially considering the relatively short time the original Ryzen 7 5800X3D was available on the market. But if you need to buy a motherboard and/or memory for your upgrade, there are better options at this price.

The 5800X3D re-release is a victim of poor pricing. The chip taps out DDR4 platforms in gaming performance, but we’re closing in on half a decade with mainstream DDR5 platforms, and we’ve seen much more powerful CPUs in that time. And yet, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s price hasn’t moved significantly away from its original $450 MSRP.

If RAM prices weren’t out of control, a $350 price tag on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D would look insane given the current options around that price. As I’m writing this, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is on sale for less than $350. And even considering current RAM prices, the Core i7-14700K and Ryzen 5 7600X3D are compelling alternatives.

On the productivity front, the Core i7-14700K is a clear winner, even with DDR4 memory. There are some titles where the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is faster than the Core i7-14700K is when paired with DDR4. But overall, they offer similar gaming performance. Especially now that AMD has turned its attention to AM5, the Core i7-14700K is a better all-around option if you don’t already have an AM4 motherboard.

Although AMD almost always comes out on top with platform longevity, Intel is surprisingly ahead in that regard in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D versus Core i7-14700K matchup. Intel is reportedly set to launch Raptor Lake Next on the LGA 1700 socket next year, though I suspect any performance benefits that come along with it will require an upgrade to DDR5.

On the gaming front, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D does a lot of work. It requires DDR5, but that’s partially offset by the fact that it’s $120 cheaper than the 5800X3D. Factoring in RAM or not, spending a bit more on the Ryzen 5 7600X3D not only nets you much higher performance in games, it also gives you an AM5 platform that you can easily upgrade in the future.

That doesn’t discredit the island that AM4 users are currently on. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D left the market fairly quickly, and given the popularity of AM4, it stands to reason that there’s a large group of people for whom the 5800X3D is a significant upgrade. For that group, it’s the CPU of legend you’ve heard so much about. But if you’re planning on buying a motherboard and/or RAM with your new CPU, shop around a bit more.

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B&H is getting in on the bundle action. We've seen a big uptick in bundle deals over the last several months, as it's becoming the ideal way to build a PC during the RAMpocalypse. The retailer is offering around 80 bundles at the time of writing, some much better than others. We've found a handful of options on DDR5 platforms that get the memory down to around $250.

• Check out PC component combos at B&H

Typically, with a bundle deal, you'll get a small discount on a bundle of components available at MSRP — maybe $20 to $30 for a small bundle, or upwards of $50 or $100 for a large one. These bundles are a bit different. RAM pricing is a major factor in building a new PC, so we're evaluating the bundles at B&H in a slightly different way.

B&H doesn't list the prices of individual components in a bundle, so we've shopped around to find the going price on each of the components individually, and then evaluated the RAM pricing in that context. We'll walk through what we found as we cover the bundles below.

First up is a bundle including the fastest CPU for gaming currently on the market, AMD's Ryzen 7 9850X3D. B&H has the CPU paired with the Asus ProArt X870E-Creator motherboard and 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 memory. If you bought the components on their own with current sales prices, you'd spend about $1,415 (just slightly off the $1,409.99 MSRP B&H quotes). With the bundle, you get everything for $1,259.99.

Taking into account the cost of the other components, the memory here is about $260. That's the most expensive of the lot we have here, but it's a downright bargain compared to buying the memory on its own. Right now, you'll spend about $410 to $420 on this kit of memory, depending on where you buy it.

As for performance, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the fastest gaming CPU currently on the market. The base Ryzen 7 9800X3D isn't far behind (about 3% to 4%), but if you want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your gaming rig, the 9850X3D is what you're after.

The bundle here comes with Corsair's standard Vengeance DDR5-6000 without lighting. If you want RGB, B&H is offering the same bundle with RGB RAM for for $14 more.

For something a bit more reasonably priced, B&H has a bundle around the Ryzen 7 7700X for $589.99. This bundle opts for the much cheaper Asus B650E Max Gaming motherboard, vastly reducing the price of the overall bundle (the ProArt board is north of $450). This bundle comes with just 16GB of DDR5-6000 memory, but it's also about half the price of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D bundles.

To buy all of these components right now, you'll spend about $650. Keep in mind that price is account for current sales as well. As you can see from our roundup of the best Prime Day CPU deals, the Ryzen 7 7700X is on a deep discount right now. With regular pricing, this bundle of components would easily reach into the $750 range. With current pricing, the memory clocks in at $210, but again, the discount is far greater if you look at the typical street price for the other components.

The Ryzen 7 7700X doesn't have the gaming prowess of AMD's more expensive X3D CPUs, but it's still a solid all-around option, especially at this price.

As you can see from our benchmarks above, the chip offers gaming performance that's competitive with Intel's Core i5-13600K, falling just short of the newer Ryzen 5 9600X and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Critically, however, this bundle unlocks an AM5 platform, giving you access to a future Ryzen 7 9800X3D upgrade in the future.

Again, we're opting for the lowest price here, which is a bundle with stock Corsair Vengeance memory. If you want the RGB version, B&H has it available at a $5 upcharge.

Meeting in the middle of the other two bundles is a combo deal with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Although the newer Ryzen 7 9800X3D is more powerful, last-gen's 7800X3D still beats just about every other gaming CPU on the market.

Using the lowest current sales on all of these items, you'll spend about $1,113 on them individually. That includes a discount on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D that's taken it down below $350, as well. The chip normally sells for around $380 to $400. Even with the sales prices, the kit of memory here costs around $170 assuming you bought the other components at their current sales price.

The motherboard here and in the 9850X3D bundle above accounts for a large portion of the cost; the ProArt X870E Creator is about $500. That's not a price gouge. The ProArt X870E Creator is just a flagship board, and it comes with a price to match. It includes two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots, along with dual LAN, sporting a 2.5Gb and 10Gb port. We gave the previous version high marks in our Asus ProArt X670E Creator review.

These are the best bundle deals we found at B&H, but you can shop the whole collection now. Currently, the sales are set to expire on June 27.

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Riot Games has announced that it plans to let players stop its Vanguard anti-cheat from loading at Windows start-up, the company has announced, ending the boot-time behavior the kernel driver has had since 2020. The new mode, Vanguard On-Demand, loads the driver only when a Riot game launches and unloads it on exit, made possible by a Windows 11 25H2 feature that records driver activity even while Vanguard is dormant. It works only on PCs that also have UEFI Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, Virtualization-Based Security (VBS), Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI), and IOMMU switched on. Riot anti-cheat lead Phillip Koskinas said roughly 35% of players already clear that bar, while about 3% are running incompatible hardware.

Riot calls the qualifying checklist Vanguard Pre-Check, and many prebuilt PCs and laptops sold in the past couple of years ship with the features on by default, and Koskinas estimates the share of fully secured machines at 34.33% and rising one to two percentage points a month. Everyone else will need to enable the settings manually, and most are UEFI options that Vanguard can’t change, meaning a trip into BIOS for those who want to do so.

The feature leans on Microsoft's Runtime Driver Attestation Report, built with the company's Xbox OS Security team and new to Windows 11 25H2. It records every driver loaded since boot as a running, append-only hash kept in the TPM, which is the same measured-boot method the Windows Boot Manager already uses for boot-start drivers. Vanguard can then confirm at launch that no vulnerable driver slipped in while it sat idle, closing the gap that forced the always-on design before. Older Windows releases lack that reporting hook, however, so 25H2 is a baseline requirement.

Riot Games has spent years pushing the same security stack as a barrier to play, having begun enforcing TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot on Windows 11 in 2020. The company drew backlash when it brought it to League of Legends in 2024, and in December, flagged a pre-boot motherboard flaw across Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock boards. Last month, a Vanguard update bricked DMA cheat hardware in a move that was likely tied to stricter IOMMU enforcement.

VBS and HVCI are likely to become sticking points for users who are most likely to want the option to toggle Vanguard’s anti-cheat. Both run parts of the kernel inside a hardware-isolated enclave, and benchmarks have long since shown a small but noticeable degradation to frame rate, which is why many gamers leave them off. Turning VBS on also activates Microsoft's vulnerable driver blocklist, which can disable older peripheral drivers.

Alternatively, payers can leave Vanguard as-is, with Riot saying it’s not “making anyone change anything” and is willing to wait until the ecosystem matures.

Apple has just announced that it has hiked prices for its line-up of MacBooks and iPads. MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models are expected to see prices rise by up to $400 in some cases, while the budget-friendly MacBook Neo is expected to see its MSRP rise by $100, from $599 to $699.

Luckily, we're in Amazon Prime Day sales week, and discounts are live on Amazon for several Apple MacBooks from 2026 and 2025. Now really might be your last chance to secure a decent deal on a new MacBook before Apple's new pricing structure filters down, as we'll be expecting tech retailers (including Amazon) to raise prices to match Apple's own soon enough.

● Check out these Apple deals at Amazon

These deals won't be around for long, either. With price rises now confirmed, those thinking about purchasing one of these Apple laptops will be rushing to hit the purchase button before paying extra. Stock shortages, especially on the cheapest models, could become a real possibility by the end of this sales week.

If you're interested, here are some of the best MacBook deals on sale right now, because you'll want to jump on them while you can.

Prime Day Deals on Apple MacBooks

MacBook Pro, Air, and Neo models from 2025 and 2026 are all on sale right now at Amazon for Prime Day. Amazon hasn't put all models on sale, however, but here are some of the deals we've spotted so far.

One thing to point out, however, is the MacBook Neo. Apple has just raised its MSRP to $699, meaning that Amazon's $589.99 price is $110 cheaper. This will not last long, so make sure to grab it at this price.

Other MacBook models, including the MacBook Air 2026 with a 512GB SSD, are seeing $200 price rises. The MacBook Pro, meanwhile, is getting a price rise of up to $400. This isn't reflected in these Amazon deal prices yet, which have knocked up to $150 off Apple's original prices, so you're guaranteed an even bigger bargain today if you can get your order in quickly enough.

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The era of AI tokenmaxxing may be well and truly over. Alongside stories of Amazon cutting its AI leaderboard and an unknown company blowing through $500 million worth of tokens in one month, leaked audio has emerged from consulting firm Accenture as it tries to figure out how to rein in rampant token spend at client companies, 404Media reports.

In leaked audio, Accenture acknowledges that certain trivial tasks being offloaded to AI are causing massive token overspend, especially when agentic AI is part of the mix. The staff in the meeting clearly recognizes that not only is AI spend growing out of control at companies heavily adopting the technology, but that there is very little way to predict how much any tasks would cost, or whether there is real value in using AI to complete them.

Accenture has previously been incredibly bullish on AI, even encouraging employees to use it so much that if they didn't, they risked missing out on promotions. But that seems like a policy destined for the AI history books, as Accenture is now clearly aware that it's overspending on AI, and many of its clients are too.

From tokenmaxxing, to token hoarding

For much of the past year, many companies have charged full speed into an AI-heavy business strategy. Amazon had an AI leaderboard, and Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang said he'd be alarmed if engineers weren't spending at least 50% of their annual salary on AI tokens.

Anecdotally, I know a number of software developers and data engineers who have been encouraged to use AI as much as they can. They have token limits, but they have been encouraged to use all of them and find new ways to do it, too.

This is leading to runaway token spending, something Accenture is seeing in its client data. Accenture’s agentic AI strategy lead, Justive Kwak, was quoted in the audio saying: "What we’re seeing right now is just rapid escalation in AI token spend [...] as companies start to scale AI, moving from like simple chatbots into use cases that feature agentic workflows and automation and then enterprise-wide deployment of some of these tools like Copilot, Claude Code, and Codex."

This isn't something that will be contained to just a few firms, either, he said. “It’s really not a niche problem. It is a problem that every enterprise will face if they are bullish on AI, if they haven’t already,” he said, adding that token spend was increasing, “exponentially, as more and more people are starting to use AI.”

But that may be starting to change. Amazon canned its AI leaderboard - it's rumored to be the mystery company with a half-billion dollar AI spend in one month - Uber is capping AI use to cut costs, and Axios reported at the end of May that a number of CEOs and companies were switching to more affordable models, and more closely monitoring employee usage.

Some software developers I know have been using the "caveman" trick to reduce token spend. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he was aware token costs were becoming a huge concern for people.

This all comes in the aftermath of the move by many of the major AI providers to token-based billing. Where previously subscriptions offered very favorable rates for AI use, suddenly companies were having to pay for the tokens they input, and the tokens the AI output - even when it was verbose, or made mistakes, or required follow-up correction.

As the Accenture call shows, it's making even some of the most AI-bullish organizations question their usage, because measuring the spend and the return on that investment is proving all but impossible.

As Kwak said in the leaked audio, "Leadership, especially at the CFO, COO, and CIO level, are still asking the question of whether they’re getting value from what we’re spending on in the context of AI.”

How do you measure return on investment?

Although large language models are proving to be extremely useful in niche cases, their effectiveness at a broader range of tasks is more nebulous. Especially when it comes to financing it. When managers and executives look at AI budgeting and a return on that investment, it's hard to square away the numbers.

When you can't know how many tokens a task will take to complete, or whether the task will be completed effectively on the first, second, or third attempt; when you can't completely control the length of the output, or know whether that output will be wrong, or a lie, or just a random hallucination, how do you measure return on the investment in that tool?

"We’re hitting this inflection point where AI is becoming material to the cost structure; spend is becoming very unpredictable," Accenture's Kwak said during the meeting. Although the overall bill of AI costs is visible, he suggested, finding the specific value attributed to that token spend was not.

This seems to have created a culture of task hierarchy within Accenture, where some tasks are deemed more worthy of AI token use than others. When Kwak positioned himself to show some slides during the meeting, Accenture's client group lead, Stuary Henderson, joked that he hoped Kwak didn't use AI to convert a PDF into images and then markdown files.

“I’m learning that’s one of the big token chewers," he said. “Turning PDFs into markdown: is that right?”

Kwak agreed that Accenture data did show some tasks being completed using AI that didn't really need it, and were using unnecessary tokens because of it. Much of that problem, he suggested, was down to non-technical staff overusing it.

“We’re seeing from some of the data internally at least that it’s actually not our engineers that are driving the token consumption. It’s a lot of the non-engineers that are doing some of those behaviors."

Now that Accenture has encouraged heavy AI adoption among its clients, it finds itself in the bizarre position of having to discourage it or at least encourage more studious use of it. It now sees its next opportunity as a way to advise clients on how to "think about token economics."

It's working on a tool called "Token IQ" to help advise clients, according to the call, but hasn't made any announcement so far.

What's clear from the Accenture leak and actions of some of the major tech companies, which have previously been so bullish on AI use, is that the finances of mass AI adoption at the per-token scale don't line up. Without a clear way to measure the return on AI investment, we may find even the most tokenmaxxing companies look to restrict access and spend through the rest of 2026 as they re-address AI strategy.

ASUS has started rolling out beta BIOS updates that restore Transparent Secure Memory Encryption (TSME) support to several AM5 motherboards, making it one of the first board vendors to implement AMD’s promised fix after the company was criticized for quietly removing the feature from non-Pro Ryzen CPUs.

According to VideoCardz, the beta BIOS files — which cover several ROG Crosshair, ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, and ProArt boards based on AMD’s X870, B850, and X670 chipsets — were reportedly shared through the ASUS ROG forum by overclocker SAFEDISK and include support for “GNR Transparent Secure Memory Encryption,” with GNR referring to Granite Ridge, AMD’s Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU family.

The BIOS updates are based on AGESA ComboAM5 PI 1.3.0.1b Patch A and appear to restore TSME support for non-Pro Ryzen 9000 processors earlier than AMD’s previously stated July timeline. X870 boards mostly move to BIOS 2401; B850 boards move to BIOS 1686; and X670 boards move to BIOS 3901 or 3886, depending on the model.

AMD officially confirmed to Tom's Hardware last week that it will reinstate memory encryption on Ryzen 9000 CPUs via a BIOS update, following “valuable community feedback.” AMD users had strongly expressed disapproval after the company silently removed TSME support from Non-Pro CPUs. TSME is a security feature that protects CPUs against physical exploits by encrypting the data stored in memory, making it unusable to physical attackers.

A user discovered that the feature was no longer available on his Ryzen 7 9700X system, even though it was enabled in the BIOS. Further testing involving MSI showed that consumer Ryzen chips could report TSME support under older firmware, but not after a newer AGESA update, while Ryzen Pro processors continued to support it. After countless reactions, AMD moved to fix the issue, setting July as the timeline for reinstating the feature via a BIOS update.

The ASUS update now suggests the fix is beginning to arrive earlier than AMD’s July timeline, positioning the company as one of the first board makers to package the reinstatement into actual motherboard firmware. However, this is not yet the broad, stable rollout most users will be waiting for. The files are beta BIOS releases shared through the ASUS ROG forum, so users who specifically need TSME may want to track them closely, while anyone running a production or stability-critical system should probably wait for final BIOS builds.

It's common knowledge that it's a bad time to buy a graphics card right now, since prices have surged and are likely to continue rising. However, Newegg's FantasTech Sale has one custom GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card that is currently the most affordable. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF 16G is up to 20% off the regular price, with a nice $220 in savings if you click the Discount Available section of the listing to claim your discount.

• Check out the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF 16G deal on Newegg

The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF 16G comes equipped with the WindForce cooler, Gigabyte's triple-fan cooling solution for lower temperatures and noise levels. The graphics card also employs Hawk-branded fans with an eagle-wing-inspired blade design to improve airflow. It also uses server-grade thermally conductive gel to enhance heat dissipation.

The graphics card features a boost clock speed of 2,497 MHz, a 4% factory overclock above Nvidia's reference GeForce RTX 5070 Ti specifications. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF 16G has the dual BIOS functionality that lets you toggle between performance and silent profiles with a physical button on the graphics card.

The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the top choice if you want an exceptional gaming experience at 1440p (2560x1440) resolution. You can enjoy the latest games with remarkable image quality and high frame rates. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is also capable of handling 4K (3840x2160) gaming, but you'll need to keep your expectations in check in some of the more graphics-demanding games.

If you're set on a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF 16G from Newegg will save you over $200. It's not a bad deal, considering the current graphics card market and the fact that it'll likely worsen over time.

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, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

As much as I love high-priced tech like my RTX 4090-equipped gaming rig or the LG OLED TV I use as my monitor, most of us can't spend several hundred dollars on a tech purchase or gift all the time. But you can still improve your tech life (or the lives of your friends and family) while spending a comparatively small amount of money.

I own all of the affordable devices listed below, and all are on sale for under $50. Many are even under $25! All of these products have made my tech-saturated world a little nicer in their own way. If you're looking for a small tech splurge for yourself during this deals season, or an affordable gift for that tech-savvy friend or family member, one of these $50-or-under options might be a good fit and a great deal.

My favorite sub-$50 deals

• Rosewill M.2 SSD Cloner: was $59, now $39
• Hoto Electric Screwdriver Kit: was $49, now $28
• 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse with Charging Dock: was $49, now $31

Become an IT hero with Rosewill's M.2 SSD Cloner

Last year, a family member asked me for help with an older PC, which was trying to run Windows 10 and several programs on a cramped 110 GB SSD. At first, I figured I could clone the boot drive onto a more spacious drive so the OS and programs had more space to stretch out.

But the thought of using multiple USB enclosures or shuffling drives in and out of my desktop filled me with dread as I pictured being there for hours getting everything done and the system back up and running. So I looked into getting an M.2 SSD cloner, and was surprised to see they can be found for less than $50.

While I don't love the glossy plastic shell of Rosewill's model, it's one of the more affordable options. And it supports both NVMe M.2 drives and older AHCI models (Sorry, SATA). Using the cloner is pretty straightforward. You plug in the included USB-C power adapter, put your source drive in the left slot, the destination drive in the right slot, press the power button on the back, and a few logos light up, letting you know you're ready to go. Press the clone button on the top, and drive cloning will commence (provided your destination is the same size or larger than your source).

That's assuming you want to do an offline clone. But because I wanted to also resize the partition between the old 110 GB and the newer Team Group 512 GB SSD, I used the second included USB-C cable to connect the Rosewill cloner to my laptop and powered up the device. Within seconds, both drives were recognized in Windows, so I fired up the excellent free DiskGenius software, cloned the old partition to a new Team Group drive with a few clicks, and then used the software to drag the boot partition to the full size of the new drive. The whole process took just a few minutes, since the Rosewill cloner supports 20 Gbps USB, and I wasn't exactly copying a huge partition.

When the cloning process was finished and the partition inflated, it was hard to believe it was all that easy. I had expected to be at the task for hours, but I was done in less than 30 minutes. Sure, unless you're in IT, a drive cloner might not be something you use regularly, but it's sure handy to have around. You could also use it to save some money by buying a laptop with a cramped SSD and swapping in something much roomier – provided, of course, the laptop's storage isn't soldered to the motherboard.

The Rosewill cloner is also handy for just checking the contents of old M.2 drives you may have lying around. But if that's all you need, you can buy an NVMe enclosure or a single-drive dock. I also own a version of this model from Suitok, which costs $17.

This tiny, cheap, magnetic, USB-charging flashlight is great for PC building and other everyday tasks

I picked up the OLIGHT IMINI 2 mini flashlight last year on impulse, because it looked well-designed and cost around $20, but now it's down to just below $12. Its simple design and built-in USB-A plug for charging make it fun to use – just pull the back off and it turns on. And the magnet at the back lets you easily mount it anywhere you need a little extra light. I've used it inside a steel PC case while fiddling with RGB wires.

The OLIGHT IMINI 2 is also small enough for your keychain, is designed to live with your keys, and includes two silicone covers for the USB port and a little carabiner clip. But the flashlight portion is only held to the charging port via a magnet, and I feel like (for me, at least) it would fall off and get lost before too long.

I've used the HOTO 3.6V Screwdriver Set to build dozens of PCs

I build a lot of PCs, though not as many lately thanks to the RAMpocalypse, and I also do a fair bit of home improvement work around my apartment. So a cordless screwdriver is a nice thing to have. I also own a much slimmer Wowstick, but have found HOTO's NEX O1 Pro to be more useful thanks to its extra (and variable) torque. It's great for loosening those factory-installed screws on PC cases that just don't want to let go, and also good for assembling furniture.

The HOTO won't replace my DeWalt impact driver or drill for bigger, tougher jobs. But for everyday tasks, it's powerful enough, easy to charge over USB-C, and even looks good on my workbench.

This travel-friendly 2K webcam is all most of us need for work calls and family chats

After using a few bulky and clunky 4K webcams during the pandemic, I picked up this 2K model from Anker in 2022 and haven't used anything else since. It's small, has a detachable cable, which makes it easier to toss in a bag, and most importantly, the 2K resolution sensor does a great job in both bright and low-light conditions. And while I don't often use the built-in mics because I prefer my headset, they have worked for me in a pinch more than a few times.

You could spend less and get something serviceable with a rose sensor and fewer features, or way more and get a 4K webcam that tracks you around the room. But for most people, myself included, the PowerConf C200 is a great middle ground, especially now that it's on sale for under $50. I use this webcam every day, and like it so much that I have two of them: one for my treadmill desk and one for the desk in front of the TV in my living room that I use as a monitor.

Cheap USB media control box puts volume and track control a touch away

For those of us who grew up in the 1900s, few things beat a chunky tactile volume knob and physical buttons for controlling media, and Vaydeer's USB device provides that and then some. I own the previous version of this device and love it for controlling and muting music at my treadmill desk while I work.

I use the buttons on it to play / pause audio and video and move forward to the next track or backward to the previous one. It's totally plug and play, as no drivers are needed.

8Bitdo SN30 Pro Wireless Bluetooth Controller

What's not to love about a SNES-inspired wireless gaming controller that's compatible with Windows, Mac, Android and the Nintendo Switch? Not much, but I own the original Pro model and not one of these newer models with translucent plastic shells. That's peak late-90s nostalgia and I really don't want to love it as much as I do.

As you might expect given this controller's small size and many more buttons than the SNES controller it was based on, its Rumble motors aren't the strongest, and the layout can feel kind of cramped for some modern games. But for any kind of retro game and especially platformers (I'm looking at you, Super Mario Bros. Wonder), this is my go-to controller. At this price, maybe I should pick up another one.

Go retro with modern specs with this NES-themed mouse from 8BitDo

There are so many gaming mouse options, most with specs that go well above and beyond my abilities. So I chose something with style that caught my eye, 8BitDo's Retro R8 Mouse with Charging Dock. This NES-inspired mouse is designed for nostalgia, with its black, gray, and red color scheme and round red side buttons. But 8BitDo went the extra mile (or two) by designing a weighted charging dock (with its own NES-like touches), and a spot for the 2.4 GHz dongle. This is the kind of extra feature that's more common in mice that cost twice as much.

Under the hood, you get a decent 26,000 DPI sensor and 4K polling (plenty for us older, non-esports gamers), and an ambidextrous design with two side buttons on either side, and a clicky, rubberized scroll wheel. The side buttons, which are concave, took a little getting used to for me. But they are also so distinctive that now I miss them while using other mice.

If the NES theme isn't your thing, the company also sells a translucent-green XBox version, as well as a champagne-hued C64 Edition.

Never run out of USB ports with this powered 11-port hub

If you're like me, you never have access to enough USB ports. I solved this problem by picking up this Ikai hub, with 60W of power for your drives and peripherals and a premium metal shell. It sports three speedy 10 Gbps ports (two USB-C), along with seven 5 GBps USB-A ports. The final USB-C on the end of the hub is for charging your phone or other devices, and delivers 20W.

The other nice feature, is that all the data ports have a button on the side so you can toggle them on and off. Aside from saving a bit of power, I also find this handy for swapping between wireless mice and keyboards, while keeping the tiny dongles plugged in so I don't lose them.

The sole thing to keep in mind about this (and basically any) hub, is that it has a single 10 Gbps input. So don't expect to plug in multiple high-data devices (like SSDs) and have them run simultaneously at full speed. If that's what you need, you'll need to get a Thunderbolt or USB4 hub (and spend significantly more).

Add recessed power and USB ports to your desk for just $16

OK, this one's only for the DIY-inclined, because it involves cutting a hole in your desk (or anywhere else you might want some flush-mount power ports, like a nightstand). Jgstkcity's recessed power strip lets you drop a couple of AC outlets and two USB charging ports (one 30W USB-C) anywhere you need them – again, once you've cut a hole for it.

While it's always smart to be wary of no-name power strips, I've owned the older non-PD version of this strip for over two years and it's been functioning just fine. I have it installed in the narrow stand I built right behind my couch. It's a super-convenient place for power outlets, especially when friends or family stop by. I just warn people not to put drinks there. Thankfully, the coffee table is even more convenient for that and it's right in front of the couch.

Stay charged and save space while traveling abroad with Anker's slim Nano Travel Adapter

When you're traveling to another country for more than a few days, every small bit of space you can save helps. But you also usually need a travel adapter to plug your devices into the outlets of other countries. Anker's Nano Travel adapter serves both needs well, as it's roughly half the thickness of other adapters and is designed to work in over 200 countries.

The Nano Travel Adapter also has four USB ports for charging, which I've found super convenient for keeping my phone, ereader, and earbuds juiced up without needing a separate charger. There are two USB-A ports on the bottom and two USB-C on the side, with the latter delivering up to 20W. It also comes in black or white/silver. I opted for the white one, which makes it easier to find after months in a drawer when I'm not traveling.

The major downside over other travel chargers is that the Nano Travel Adapter doesn't support plugging in devices with three-prong (grounded) plugs. But I haven't found this an issue since I typically plug things like my Baseus flat laptop charger in while traveling, rather than high-power devices like a desktop PC or hair dryer.

Powerowl's rechargeable batteries are good and surprisingly cheap 

When I first started using rechargeable batteries with my Walkman in the early 90s, they were kind of awful (but still better than spending all my money feeding my music addiction). They couldn't hold a charge and didn't last nearly as long as name-brand disposable batteries. But here in the mid-2020s, rechargeables are surprisingly good.

Panasonic's Eneloops arguably ushered in the rechargeable AA and AAA renaissance, but PowerOwl's batteries are a lot more affordable and I haven't had a single one fail in over three years of using them in my various remotes, smart door locks, and other devices.

If there's one thing everyone with modern tech could probably use at this point, it's an extra high-speed and compact charger. The Baseus 65W Flat Wall Charger is my favorite. It's especially great for travel, because it outputs 45W over USB-C for my laptop and up to 20W over USB-A for my phone or other devices, all while folding to a slim 0.66 inches thick. It's smaller than a deck of cards and easily fits in pretty much any bag pocket.

Its slim shape should also help keep the device fully inserted in loose hotel room power sockets, and while the outer shell is plastic, the build quality feels solid, and it includes a 3.3-foot USB-C charging cable for those of us who aren't already drowning in cables from other devices. You'll have to provide your own USB-A cable to charge a second device, but at its current sale price, there's hardly a reason to complain about that. And who doesn't have an extra USB-A charging cable at this point?

TP-Link's AX1800 WiFi 6 USB Adapter delivers Wi-Fi 6 to older devices over USB

Have you upgraded your router to Wi-Fi 6 or later, but your desktop or laptop doesn't have the requisite hardware to take advantage of your recent network tech? TP-Link's AX1800 WiFi 6 USB Adapter is here to solve that problem for you. It's quite large by USB Wi-Fi dongle standards, but I've found it works quite well with the Wi-Fi 6 router I bought in 2020.

I have the router running downstairs from my office. And it instantly fixed an issue I was having with very poor reception from the SFF PC I built in the Fractal Terra case.

Orico USB 3.0 Clamp Hub is easy to mount on many desks

This is a four-port, 5Gbps USB-A hub that's designed to clamp onto your monitor or desk and give you extra convenient connectivity.

It comes in black or silver and has a nice, sturdy metal frame. Just note that its clamp section is pretty shallow and its adjustable screw can only open between 10 and 32 mm, so it won't fit on all monitors or desks.

Clean up the cables under your desk with a tray

If you to get a handle on the PC cables in your home or office, some cheap cable management trays will do the job. This two-pack comes with tape, though heavier loads will ultimately require some screws.

Besides the trays, this kit also comes with cable ties and a few cable clips you can place along the bottom or sides of your desk. One of these has been holding up the PC cable clutter in my living room for the past year. But I had to screw it into my desk because it's holding one of the above Anker power strips, plus the large external power brick from my LG OLED TV/Monitor.

Keep a fast charging cable with your keys

You may, like me, be swimming in a world of USB cables. But that doesn't mean you always have one when you need it away from home. This short 240W USB4 charging cable from EndlesShine solves that by being small enough to attach to your keys. It's not always convenient, at just over 5 inches long, but it will do in a pinch, and has come in handy more than once, particularly on trips when I'm traveling light.

If you're the type who is rough with your keys, the plastic cap may wear out over time, so you might want to just keep the cable in a pocket or your bag. It even comes in white and yellow if you don't like basic black.

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Apple has made the unprecedented decision to hike the prices of all its current computers and tablets. iPhone prices remain as they were, for now. Bloomberg indicates that the rather steep price rises have been precipitated by increased costs of memory and storage. One of the most impactful hikes we see is the entry-level MacBook Pro going from $1,699 to $1,999. However, even the recently released but resource-starved MacBook Neo has had another $100 piled onto its price, so now it starts at $699 before tax.

In addition to Gurman’s highlighted price increases, we spotted that the cheapest Mac Studio M4 Max (mini PC desktop) has had its price increased to $2,499 from $1,999. There’s a lot to take in, so check out our at-a-glance before and after table for quick reference.

Bloomberg’s resident Apple expert, Mark Gurman, quoted an apologetic company rep. “We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions,” a spokesperson from Apple told the reporter. Other interesting assertions from that conversation were that Apple had never seen component prices rise so high, so quickly. Moreover, its representative claimed that the firm did all it could to shield customers from any knock-on device price rises, stating the company had "shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products including today’s increases for iPad and Mac."

While newsrooms might be agog at these price rises being implemented today, the writing has been on the wall of the RAMpocalypse for several months. Back in April, Tim Cook publicly forecast that the component shortages and price rises didn’t appear to be going anywhere soon. That statement came in the wake of the withdrawal of the entry-level $599 configuration of the Mac Mini, and Apple softening the blow of higher prices of its latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models by upgrading memory and other tech specs.

Until now, it seemed like Apple’s massive buying power and vertical integration had managed to help it hold off computer and tablet price increases. Today, the brakes came off, pretty dramatically.

Anthropic, the American AI lab that created one of the most advanced large language models available today, has said in a letter to the U.S. Senate that Chinese AI tech giant Alibaba has illicitly used Claude to train its own models. According to Reuters, the company sent the letter to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the chair of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the said committee, before a scheduled hearing set to tackle AI issues.

This isn’t the first time that Anthropic has accused Chinese AI labs of “stealing” the capabilities of its AI model to train their own. Earlier this year, the company claimed that DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax used 24,000 fraudulent accounts and made 16 million exchanges collectively to train their own AI LLMs on Claude’s output. This method of training AI using the output of a more advanced model is called distillation, and while there are legitimate uses of this technique, such as when a frontier AI model is distilled to create a lighter, cheaper version of itself, it argues that competing labs can also use the same technique to build their own models at “a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.”

The American AI lab says that it traced the distillation campaign back to operators that had connections with Alibaba, one of the largest Chinese tech companies often compared to Amazon, and Alibaba Qwen, its AI lab. Anthropic warns that distillation may help China create a frontier AI model that could match Mythos Preview’s capabilities — something many American lawmakers are afraid of.

While U.S. tech companies still enjoy an advantage when it comes to the latest AI models, Chinese tech companies are quickly catching up. In fact, Elon Musk estimated that a Chinese AI lab would have achieved a Fable 5-class AI model by the first quarter of next year, but the CEO and founder of Chinese AI lab Z.ai confidently replied, “won’t take that long.” Aside from that, many enterprise users are slowly switching to more affordable open-source Chinese LLMs for their agents as token costs spiral out of control, reserving the most powerful (and expensive) American models only for the most complicated tasks.

Both the U.S. and China are pushing hard to achieve AI supremacy, with the two rivals taking steps to reduce the advantage of the other. For example, Washington has been using export controls to limit Chinese access to advanced hardware needed to build the most advanced chips and for training AI, while Beijing countered this with its own controls on rare earth materials, some of which serve as key ingredients in chip making.

If you're craving a big monitor mostly for productivity purposes, this 37-inch monster from Samsung is half off today at B&H, or just $249. That's over $100 less than its lowest-ever price at Amazon and $150 more than its current price at Best Buy, making this this perhaps the best monitor deal so far this year.

• Check out this deal at B&H

Just note this is very much not a gaming monitor, as evidenced by its locked 60 Hz refresh rate and 5 ms response time. You certainly could game on it, but it lacks pretty much every modern gaming screen feature, save for its high resolution.

Aside from price, the 37-inch size is this monitor's major selling point, as it's pretty rare, sitting between typical 32-inch screens the truly large 40-42-inch monitors. If you're rocking a 27-inch or 32-inch monitor and looking for a size upgrade without spending a lot, this is a no-brainer so long as there's room for it on your desk.

As someone who has used TVs as monitors for over a decade, I can vouch for the value of a larger screen for work tasks. And I can't think of a time when I've seen a better combination of low price, large size, and high (3840 x 2160) resolution. If I didn't already have a spare 4K monitor in a closet (plus two 4K TVs I use as monitors), I would have ordered one of these already. I'd consider buying one anyway, but this is too big to fit in my closet.

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Qualcomm has announced that it will bring all four of its Dragonfly data center product lines to China, including custom AI accelerators engineered to stay below U.S. export thresholds, CEO Cristiano Amon told Nikkei Asia on the sidelines of the company's investor day in New York on Wednesday. China supplied 46% of Qualcomm's revenue in 2025, almost all of it from smartphone silicon, and Amon’s data center plan could revive the same export-compliant strategy that cut Nvidia's China accelerator sales to almost zero.

Dragonfly covers AI accelerators, data center CPUs, custom silicon, and connectivity chips, and Amon said versions of every line will ship into China within the export rules. “We have versions of all of our products that comply with those guidelines,” he told Nikkei Asia, adding that Qualcomm is “engaged in conversations,” presumably with Chinese customers. The first accelerator, the AI250, is due next year and uses the company's HBC near-memory design instead of the HBM stacks that Nvidia and AMD racks rely on, a packaging choice that could pay off in a market where HBM is and will remain tight for the foreseeable future.

Qualcomm told investors that the data center unit is expected to generate $300 million this fiscal year and $5 billion in fiscal year 2027, figures the company designates as the early ramp of a total addressable market it projects will exceed $1 trillion by 2029. The push into China relies on Amon's argument that Qualcomm's existing relationships with Chinese phone makers and automakers extend to the data center, the same customer base behind its AI200 and AI250 inference accelerators announced last October.

China, however, isn’t a neutral buyer for Qualcomm at the moment: The country’s market regulator opened an antitrust investigation into its Autotalks acquisition in October, and has pressed domestic data center operators to source at least 50% of their chips locally while steering Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent toward Huawei and Cambricon parts.

Those dynamics have already gutted the export-compliant model that Qualcomm is looking to emulate. Nvidia’s H20, for example — the part it built specifically for China — had generated only about $50 million by late last year, and CEO Jensen Huang has said Nvidia has “zero” China market share left. Qualcomm is entering that lane voluntarily with hardware that won’t reach customers until at least fiscal year 2027, by which point Huawei's Ascend line and Cambricon's accelerators are scheduled to scale production well past current volumes.

Qualcomm has at least one confirmed buyer outside China, with Saudi Arabia's Humain already taking delivery of AI100 systems and committing to 200MW of Qualcomm racks. Inside China, the company still has to convince customers that Beijing is pushing away from foreign silicon.

Everyone wants the freedom of a great wireless gaming headset, but it's hard to find one that's budget-friendly without compromising on... well, a lot. HyperX's new Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a budget-friendly (ish) wireless headset that doesn't compromise on much — it's got large, 50mm dynamic drivers with a frequency response range of 10 - 50,000 Hz, an ultra lightweight, comfortable frame with reinforced metal yokes for durability, and it gets up to 80 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is a number we usually only see in much pricier products. The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless comes in at just under $100, which isn't nothing, but is significantly cheaper than the $200 - $300 price range of headsets with similar specs.

Design and Comfort of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is an over-ear (circumaural) wireless gaming headset with a lightweight plastic frame and a non-detachable flip-to-mute boom mic. It's mostly made of plastic, with a matte black finish and some machined texturing around the outer edges of the large, oval earcups, but it does have stainless steel sliders in the headband for durability. The earcups are independently height-adjustable, and they also tilt and swivel 90 degrees for flat storage (though the headset doesn't come with a travel bag or case). The earpads and the underside of the headband are padded with soft, leatherette-covered memory foam, which does an excellent job of passive noise cancellation.

It looks like a gaming headset, mostly because it has a non-detachable boom mic. HyperX's HX logo is glossily debossed on both earcups, while the HyperX text logo adorns the top of the headband. It's not unattractive, but it does look a little cheap — I blame the matte black plastic; it's hard to have this particular finish without looking like you're cutting corners at least somewhat. It feels relatively sturdy for its weight, and the flexible frame makes me think it would hold up decently well if you take care of it. The leatherette-covered memory foam padding feels more premium than the rest of the headset, so that's a nice touch.

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is expectedly lightweight, weighing in at just 10.1 ounces (286.5g). It's almost two ounces lighter than the extremely comfortable HyperX Cloud III S Wireless (12.05oz / 341.5g), and it's half an ounce lighter than the Turtle Beach Atlas Air (10.61oz / 301g), which is one of the lightest wireless headsets we've tested. It's still heavier than wired lightweight headsets, however, such as the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 (8.3oz / 235g).

Weight isn't the only factor when it comes to comfort, but it certainly helps — and the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a very comfortable and adjustable headset. The headband measures around nine inches (228.6mm) with the earcups fully retracted, and each earcup can be extended around 1.5 inches (38mm) for a total headband length of just under 12 inches (304.8mm). While it wasn't so comfortable that I forgot I was wearing it, I had no problems wearing the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless for hours at a time.

It's a wireless headset, so it's got several on-ear controls. On the left earcup, from back to front, there's a power button and a USB-C charging port. On the right earcup, from back to front, there's a multi-function button, a volume wheel, and a mode switch for switching between 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth.

In the box, the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless comes with a short, 1.6-foot (0.5m) USB-C to USB-C charging cable, a 2.4GHz wireless USB-C dongle, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Audio Performance of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless has large 50mm dynamic drivers with a listed frequency response range of 10 - 50,000 Hz, which is pretty far outside the normal range of 20 - 20,000 Hz (though we often see headsets outside this range these days).

Music on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless sounded good — a fairly neutral profile with no immediately noticeable distortion at either end of the spectrum. The bass in songs such as Kaskade's POW POW POW was powerful-feeling without being muddy, and I could hear the full reign of the kick drum at the beginning of Lorde's Royals. It wasn't the absolute clearest bass I've heard, but I was impressed with the balance between power and restraint. The mid- and high-range also sounded good, though perhaps a little too neutral for my taste. The high strings in Britney Spears' Toxic were well-curbed, but the dynamics in songs such as Farruko's Pepas and David Guetta's Titanium (ft. Sia) felt a little... lacking in excitement.

Games also sounded good on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless. While it doesn't have a particularly wide soundstage, the headset did a good job of picking up detail in dense, layered audio environments such as the cities of Baldur's Gate 3 and Where Winds Meet, or the jungle of Uncharted 4. In noisy environments these details did tend to blend together in a way that was more cacophonous than artistically rendered (but I suppose that's pretty realistic to how audio works in the real world, too). Directional sound was accurate, if not as finely-tuned as it is in premium, performance-oriented headsets such as the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro.

The headset features dual-wireless connectivity, though not simultaneous — a switch on the right earcup lets you quickly switch between the headset's 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 2 connections. Audio sounded a little compressed over the headset's Bluetooth connection, but it was fine for taking calls or scrolling through TikTok.

Specs

Microphone of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless has a non-detachable flip-to-mute boom microphone that sits on the end of a 3.5-inch (89mm) flexible gooseneck arm. The mic is a 6mm back electret condenser microphone with a unidirectional polar pattern, and it does a decent job of keeping background noise at bay, even without any software-based noise cancellation active.

As for quality, the mic isn't anything to write home about — it's a pretty typical headset mic that picks up vocals loud and clear, but won't make you sound like you're a professional podcaster (or anywhere near that level). My voice sounded decently full over both voice chat and in recordings, but it still had the thin, slightly fuzzy quality that easily gave away the fact that this was a headset mic and not a standalone USB gaming mic. But as long as you're not creating content, this mic is perfectly capable for communicating with coworkers, friends, and teammates.

Features and Software of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is supposed to be configurable via HyperX's Ngenuity software, but I downloaded both the new Ngenuity (Ngenuity 3?) and the legacy version of Ngenuity, and neither was able to recognize the headset when it was connected to my PC (wired or wireless).

Luckily, the Cloud Stinger 3 works pretty flawlessly out of the box, so you shouldn't need the software (HyperX's Ngenuity software generally tends to be lacking on features, anyway) to use the headset. The headset comes configured by default with voice prompts that tell you when you're switching between connections and when your mic is muted/unmuted (though this is fairly obvious given that it's a flip-to-mute mic), and tapping the power button once gives you the headset's current remaining battery life. There aren't any settings I desperately wanted to change, though I did want to see if tweaking the EQ could pull out footstep details, and HyperX does boast about its software-based spatial audio on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless' product page.

Battery Life of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

HyperX rates the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless' battery life at "up to 80 hours" over 2.4GHz wireless, which is pretty impressive given how light the headset is. The BlackShark V3 Pro, which weighs 12.96 ounces (367g), gets up to 70 hours of battery life, while the 1.23-pound (560g) Audeze Maxwell 2 gets over 80 hours. Of course, HyperX's other headsets also have battery life that far outclasses their peers — the HyperX Cloud III S Wireless, which weighs 12.05 ounces (341.5g) and retails for $180 gets up to 120 hours over its 2.4GHz wireless connection.

Bottom Line

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a lightweight, comfortable wireless gaming headset that offers impressive performance and battery life for its $99.99 retail price. It has large dynamic drivers with a wide frequency response range and a fairly neutral (if a little boring) sound profile and up to 80 hours of battery life. It's extremely lightweight and comfortable, though it does look and feel a little cheap overall, and its flip-to-mute boom mic is perfectly adequate for most typical gaming situations. At $100, it's not quite what I'd call budget-friendly (more like the low end of mid-range), but it's definitely worth the price. My only real complaint is that it's a little boring (in both sound profile and looks) — for something a little more fun, I'd still recommend the $120 Corsair Void Wireless v2.

In a world where memory is no longer a commodity but a strategically valuable asset, customers are eager to sign long-term supply agreements (LTAs) with their suppliers to ensure a steady supply of 3D NAND and/or DRAM. Micron this week announced that it had signed 16 strategic customer agreements (SCAs), 14 of which are worth around $100 billion. Furthermore, the company expects to receive cash deposits and other commitments worth $22 billion, but has warned there is no foreseeable end in sight to the RAM crisis driving up PC component prices.

“14 of the 16 SCAs that we have signed have a cumulative revenue at minimum price per our contracts of approximately $100 billion over the remaining agreement term,” a statement by Micron reads. “Under the SCAs we have signed so far, we project to receive cash deposits and related financial commitments of $22 billion.”

Based on Micron’s claims, the company has about $100 billion of guaranteed baseline revenue already locked in under 14 of those 16 strategic customer agreements, assuming customers only buy the minimum committed volumes and only pay the minimum contract price. In reality, Micron can earn more if customers buy higher volumes or pay higher prices. Furthermore, Micron expects customers who signed these long-term SCAs to put up real money up front — or make equivalent binding financial commitments — as part of reserving future memory supply.

Micron claims it has signed strategic customer agreements with four 'very large customers' and three 'medium-sized customers,' which means that the contracts were inked with clients that previously did not commit to LTAs. The contracts are signed with a five-year term (except the automotive LTAs, which have a term of three years), from calendar 2026 to calendar 2030.

Micron claims that memory supply will be insufficient in 2027 and may improve gradually only in 2028. To that end, it is not surprising that its clients are willing to sign LTAs for 3D NAND and DRAM to ensure that they have enough memory for their products.

"With respect to supply, our customers are recognizing that supply shortages in memory and storage will take considerable time to improve," said Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron, in prepared remarks. "Even as we expect industry supply to improve gradually in 2028, we currently do not have line of sight as to when memory supply will be able to catch up with increasing demand."

Normally, Micron and other memory producers inked LTAs with select clients only (read: with Apple, Nvidia). 16 LTAs is a lot for this kind of arrangement, and this looks like a business model shift for the company. It is noteworthy that the 16 signed contracts represent roughly 20% of Micron's DRAM volume and 33% of the company's NAND volume over the period through 2030. That said, Micron may sign more LTAs with more companies.

Valve has confirmed that the first batch of Steam Machines will only come with a single stick of 16GB RAM, limiting the device to single-channel memory. The company confirmed this in a correction to Gamers Nexus (GN), after its engineers initially said that Steam Machines could either come with a single 16GB stick or two 8GB sticks. “We misspoke here,” Valve wrote in its email to the media channel. “All units will actually have one 16GB stick of RAM.”

Tests have shown that using single-channel memory can reduce performance by about 9% to 13% compared to dual-channel memory, meaning gamers will feel the difference, especially in 1% lows. This is especially hard on the Steam Machine, which uses already aging hardware — a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 graphics with only 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Note that AMD launched Zen 5 in 2024, while the RDNA4 GPUs dropped in early 2025. We also already have details for Zen 6 CPUs and have heard rumors that RDNA5 GPUs will arrive next year.

However, the company probably made this decision to keep the costs for the Steam Machine as low as possible. The device’s $1,049 base price is already steeper than what many are willing to pay for — an estimated $300+ price increase from the $700 to $750 target price that Valve presumably targeted. While its engineers did not confirm these numbers, they also said that the Steam Machine would have gotten a “probably similar” price hike to the one the Steam Deck experienced recently. Nevertheless, there is hope that later batches will have dual-channel memory, with Valve telling GN that there is a chance of this happening in the future.

This is another blow to the much-awaited living room PC console that is supposed to finally give PC gamers a chance to enjoy their Steam library with a console-like experience. Valve originally announced the Steam Machine and the Steam Controller in November last year, which was also around the same time that memory chips have started to be in short supply due to the massive demand from AI hyperscalers. The device was originally slated to launch in the first quarter of 2026, but the ongoing memory crisis forced Valve to hold off until it finally released the console this summer.

Although having only a single stick of RAM is a disadvantage to any system, more optimistic gamers can consider this a boon as they could easily upgrade the console to 32GB if they have an extra matching 16GB DDR5-5600 SODIMM stick lying around at home (or are willing to spend extra to buy one). Upgrading the console’s RAM is a rather involved affair, though, requiring you to remove a lot of components and sub-boards just to reach the RAM slots. But if you’re the adventurous kind and could score a good deal on laptop RAM, this might be a viable solution to getting more performance out of your Steam Machine.

The so-called memory wall is a major performance limiter for many AI workloads, and high bandwidth memory (HBM) is not always a panacea since compute capability is growing faster than memory bandwidth. Qualcomm on Wednesday introduced its HBC near-memory compute architecture called high-bandwidth compute (HBC) that is designed to break the memory wall and enable the performance of certain AI workloads to scale linearly.

Qualcomm's approach to near-memory compute is pretty much straightforward: the company disaggregates the AI accelerator from the system-on-chip (SoC) and puts it under the LPDDR DRAM stack. The HBC accelerator connects to the LPDDR stack using through-silicon vias to provide maximum bandwidth and capacity without using expensive HBM memory and advanced packaging. Qualcomm does not disclose the actual bandwidth HBC provides, though the company claims that it offers 6X higher bandwidth-per-watt compared to HBM and over 200X capacity compared to on-chip SRAM.

"We have separated the AI accelerator from the XPU and placed the XPU directly beneath a DRAM stack," said Tony Pialis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Data Center Business at Qualcomm. "This is very important because it gives us the performance advantages of SRAM with the density and capacity of stacked memory. In effect, the congestion associated with HBM is gone. The value to the industry is lower power consumption, less heat, and the elimination of the costly silicon interposer used by HBM solutions. We can also deploy multiple HBC stacks within a single compute device using standard packaging, which delivers a significant performance-per-cost advantage."

Putting DRAM on logic or next to logic is nothing new. All DRAM makers have experimented with near-memory compute architectures, but have failed to make them popular. More recently, GUC, a fabless ASIC design service company, proposed its DRAM-on-Logic (DoL) technology that places one to four DRAM layers on top of logic to get around 5 TB/s of memory bandwidth and offer higher performance than some HBM3E memory subsystems without using expensive advanced packaging and HBM3E stacks.

Since Qualcomm does not disclose actual performance numbers, it is hard to compare its HBC to GUC's offering. However, the biggest caveat about HBC is that Qualcomm does not tell us what the HBC accelerator actually does. In theory, it could be everything: a transformer-specific near-memory engine, a more general array of tensor cores, or some kind of preprocessing logic for AI inference or training.

Along with its HBC technology, Qualcomm also disclosed its HBC roadmap. While the company's AI200 accelerator, due later this year, will rely on LPDDR5X and offer 43 TB of RAM per rack, its successor AI250 will rely on the 1^st Generation HBC that will offer 18X bandwidth of AI200. The AI300 will use 2^nd Generation HBC that will provide 54X bandwidth of AI300.

Earlier this week, readers went ballistic for the Corsair Xeneon Edge LCD touchscreen discount, to the point that we actually sold out the device over at Corsair. Now, it's back in stock with a discount on all three models of 20%, saving you $50 on the list price of $199.

• Check out this deal on the Corsair website.

Corsair's little touchscreen can be used either as a standalone display on your desk, mounted to any metal surface with magnets, or integrated directly into the side panel of select Corsair cases as a unique PC display.

The Xeneon Edge display has a 2560 x 720 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. At this size, that's more than enough for a diminutive display. Connectivity is provided by either HDMI or USB-C DP Alt Mode. There's also a separate mounting arm you can buy.

You can use the Xeneon Edge for a variety of different things. It can be used as a media control center, voice communication screen for Discord, or as a screen for comments and chat while you're streaming.

The AHVA panel should ensure a wide viewing angle, which is especially handy if you want to use it as a PC monitoring tool. With iCue integration, you can use it to monitor all of your PC's vital signs, including temperatures for your GPU and CPU. You can even 3D print your own accessories for the Edge to customize it.

A few people might argue that you should just get one of the best budget 4K monitors or best portable monitors if you’re really intent on getting more screen real estate. But if tabletop space is at a premium for your desktop PC, this might just give you the best of both worlds. It’s also a great accessory for those who simply want to build the best battle station, and you can get the Xeneon Edge straight from Corsair at just $199.99.

More Prime Day Tech Deals

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We're now over halfway through Amazon Prime Day, but the deals continue! There is still plenty of time to grab some of your favorite PC hardware, and we're tracking a range of deals on components like GPUs, SSDs, CPUs, and more.

Of course, the PC component landscape is pretty bleak right now, but that makes the discounts you can find all the more valuable. We're tracking prices 24/7 and curating them here, using our hands-on experience to bring you recommendations. We also track prices extensively

So, whether you're in the market for a new pair of headphones, a gaming keyboard, a monitor, or a cheap impulse buy, check out the deals below. Remember, you'll need an Amazon Prime Day membership for Prime Day deals, but plenty of the discounts on offer come from other retailers like Newegg and Best Buy.

Quick Links: Amazon Prime Day deals

• Amazon: All Prime Day deals
• Amazon: 62% off computers and accessories deals
• Amazon: All Gaming GPU Deals
• Amazon: Up to $500 off Gaming Monitors
• Amazon: Desktop and gaming PCs

Quick Links: Deals under $13

• UGreen AX900 Wi-Fi 6 Adapter
• UGreen 100W Nexode USB-C to USB-C Retractable Cable 3.3FT
• Wytudte HDMI Adapter Kit
• Arctic M2 Pro heatsink cooler
• TP-Link five-port Gigabit Ethernet switch
• USB-C to USB-C Short Cable 13cm Keychain Type PD 240W

Hottest Prime Day Tech Deals

Quick Links: Deals under $40

• Anker Nano Travel Adapter, 5-Port Power Adapter 
• Rosewill NVMe SSD Cloner, M.2 Duplicator Dual Bay NVMe
• Powered 11-Port ikuai Hybrid USB 3.2 / USB-C Hub with PD Charging Port and 60W Power Adapter
• 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse with Charging Dock

Day 3!

Good morning an welcome to day 3 of Amazon Prime Day, stay tuned for all the very best deals on PC hardware from Amazon, and beyond!

Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 5 docking station falls to under $200 for Prime Day

If you have a Thunderbolt 5 Windows PC or Mac, investing in a good docking station is critical to supporting a large variety of accessories and monitors. This is especially true for ultrabooks, which often have only two external ports that must be shared between charging and connectivity. With this in mind, Wavlink's WL-UTD58 Thunderbolt 5 docking station is a perfect solution for adding I/O ports and is on sale for $195 (versus a list price of $299.99).

First of all, it is pretty well stacked with ports:

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

I tested the WL-UTD58-M version of this dock, which is identical, save for the inclusion of an internal M.2 slot for a PCIe 4.0 SSD. It offers solid performance, has good build quality, and has easily accessible ports. My only gripe is that the Thunderbolt 5 port for connecting to the host machine is on the front of the unit instead of the back, but that’s a relatively minor issue. — Brandon Hill

Get a 5070 laptop for just $1,249

If you're in the market for a gaming laptop, the Asus V16 gets you an RTX 5070 for just $1,249. That's one of the better laptops we've seen over this week, and this discount is new for the early hours of Thursday, the lowest price we've ever seen on this model.

Gaming laptops are often very big and clunky, and while this isn't as light as a MacBook Air, it is definitely one of the lower-profile models on the market, making it a bit more portable.

The 10-core Intel CPU has four efficiency cores and six performance cores, with max boost clocks of up to 5.2 GHz. There's 8GB of VRAM in the RTX 5070, which should be plenty for good frames at the 1920 x 1200 resolution. While this is an LED display, rather than OLED, you're still getting a good 144Hz refresh rate. Couple that with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, and this is a pretty excellent gaming laptop. - Stephen Warwick

UK monitor madness

Just scouring some UK deals, and I've come across this frankly ridiculous monitor deal. You can get a 27-inch Lenovo gaming monitor with 2560 x 1440p resolution and a 200Hz refresh rate for just £99, fully 50% off the usual price.

This would be a fantastic monitor to pair with a gaming PC, or for use with an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, and at just £99, it's one of the best-value monitors in the UK right now. - Stephen Warwick

It’s Grand Theft Auto VI preorder day, and here are all the links to get the Standard or Ultimate editions

Grand Theft Auto VI is by far the most highly anticipated new game release of 2026, and perhaps, ever. Preorders opened this morning at midnight ET, but the game won’t actually be available to play until November 19, 2026.

If you’re feeling eager to hand money to Rockstar and Take Two Interactive early, the Standard Edition is available for $79.99. It includes the base game, the Vintage Vice City Pack with retro-themed cosmetics, and the '55 Vapid Stanier vehicle. Stepping up to the Ultimate Edition for $99.99 gets you extra side missions and activities, more vehicles, guns, and a closet full of outfits and cosmetic flourishes for the two protagonists: Jason and Lucia.

Here are all the current retailers that are offering preorders for Grand Theft Auto VI:

Amazon

• Standard Edition (Xbox)
• Standard Edition (PS5)

Walmart

• Standard Edition (Xbox)
• Standard Edition (PS5)

Best Buy

• Standard Edition (Xbox)
• Standard Edition (PS5)

Target

• Standard Edition (Xbox)
• Standard Edition (PS5)

Microsoft Store

• Standard Edition
• Ultimate Edition

PlayStation Store

• Standard Edition
• Ultimate Edition

At under 9 cents per gigabyte, this 4TB SanDisk Desk Drive SSD is about as good as it gets these days

Storage prices have skyrocketed in the past several months, thanks to AI-driven demand. But at $349 for 4TB, this SanDisk Creator Series Desk Drive deal at B&H gives us a taste of what it was like in the before times.

At under 9 cents per gigabyte, it's one of the best prices we've seen in recent months for a solid-state drive. Granted, it's an external drive that requires its own power adapter, but if you need desktop storage that's faster than a hard drive, it'll get the job done. Plus, it's blue, unlike the previous-gen version, which we tested in 2024.

SanDisk's Desk Drive line is a little unique in that it's meant for permanent, desk-bound use, because it needs both a USB connection for data and a barrel connector for power. That makes it good for backup and local storage, but it's not the typical tiny external SSD you can toss in a bag with one cable and take wherever you need it. Think of this as the solid-state equivalent of a desktop external hard drive.

It is much smaller than a 3.5-inch drive, but it's not very portable. When we tested the previous version of this drive, we saw real-world read speeds under 800 MBps, and writes under 550 MBps. That's not bad, but not near the fastest 10 Gbps drives we've tested. Hopefully, SanDisk has improved performance for this updated generation, but for backup and most mainstream use, this drive should be fine, and is much faster than an external hard drive. And since it's solid-state storage, it should be hold up much better to the occasional bump or drop. --Matt Safford

One of the best budget gaming keyboards we've tested hits its lowest-ever Amazon price of just $43 — RK R65 packs lubed switches, metallic knob, and gasket mount for excellent sound and feel

Royal Kludge's RK R65 is one of our picks for best budget mechanical keyboards, thanks to a and-out feature set for the price, plus excellent sound and feel. It normally sells for between $50 and $60, but today at Amazon, you can pick up this compact 60% clacker for just $42.74.

The R65's feature set reads like something priced closer to $100. The keyboard boasts RGB backlighting, factory-lubed switches (RK Cream in this variant), a gasket mount, two silicone pads to absorb stound, and (somewhat) metal volume knob. The result is the best-sounding budget keyboard I've ever used — so much so that I've been using it as my daily driver in the office for over a year, despite the lack of a Function row and other handy keys.

The 60% layout is best-suited to gaming, and it works quite well for that. But with its dedicated arrow keys, I get by using it for productivity. And if you don't like the bronze-and-brown color scheme of this model, there are four other color and switch options that are currently priced between $45 . -- Matt Safford

Apple’s 13.6-inch M5 MacBook Air gets a huge $350 discount — 16GB/1TB drops to $949.99

Although a lot of the deals during Prime Day have been PC-centric, Amazon is also showing some love to people of the Apple persuasion. The MacBook Air is Apple’s perennial bestseller, and the current-generation 13.6-inch model with the M5 chip, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD is now priced at $949.99, which is a steep 27% discount from its $1,299.99 MSRP.

In this case, the discount only applies to the “Starlight” colorway, which is a mix of silver and light gold. The 13.6-inch IPS display carries a 2560 x 1665 resolution, while a 12MP Center Stage camera is nestled in a notch at the top of the display. The laptop only features two Thunderbolt 4 ports for connectivity, but you at least get a dedicated MagSafe 3 port for charging (so you don’t have to “waste” one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports).

The 2.7-pound laptop comes with a 53.8 WHr battery, which lasted over 15 hours in our endurance testing. The MacBook Air isn’t the fastest laptop on the market, and it doesn’t offer a fancy OLED display, but at this price, it is absolutely one of the best values. — Brandon Hill

This multi-device wireless gaming headset is $100 off for Prime Day

If you're looking for a headset that can connect to your PC, your PlayStation, and your Xbox at the same time, look no further than the Astro A50 X Lightspeed. This premium wireless gaming headset is lightweight and versatile, though it requires its base station to work — and it's currently on sale for $299.98 at Logitech — that's $100 off its regular retail price of $399.99 (yeah, it's a pretty expensive headset to begin with).

The Astro A50 X Lightspeed is a wireless over-ear gaming headset that comes with a powered base station that acts as both a wireless charging dock and a transmitter. The base station can connect to your PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox at the same time, though it does need to connect to each device via cable. Then, you can switch between three connections — four, if you also connect to Bluetooth — with the press of a button. One caveat, though — all connections use the base station, including the Bluetooth connection. So you won't be able to take this headset on the road (or, well, even too far from your PC) with you.

The A50 X features Logitech's 40mm Pro-G Graphene dynamic drivers, which have a frequency response range of 20 - 20,000 Hz. The headset has a non-detachable omnidirectional boom mic and a lightweight plastic frame with felt-covered padded earcups. It's a fairly comfortable headset with a slightly bass-heavy sound profile that can be tweaked using Logitech G Hub. You can read my full review of the Astro A50 X here. — Sarah

My favorite faux-leather desk mat is just $11

My favorite faux-leather desk mat is yet again on sale for just $11.30 at Amazon — 19% off its normal retail price of 13.99. Assuming you're not looking for a performance-oriented gaming mouse pad, this desk mat is a great option for protecting your desk and making it look great.

It comes in a variety of colors (I personally like the navy blue, but it also comes in a variety of dark and light colors, all of which are on sale) and sizes. I've been using the dark blue 31.5 x 15.7-inch desk pad as my primary backdrop for photos (you probably recognize it), but I also have it in light blue, light grey, and lavender. It has a soft, matte faux leather top and a suede-like non-slip backing with unfinished edges. It's super easy to clean and also comes with a one-year warranty. And it's only $11, so, why not? — Sarah

Netgear Nighthawk RS90 delivers value-priced dual-band Wi-Fi 7 coverage for under $90

The Nighthawk RS90 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router, meaning it supports the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless bands but lacks the higher-performing (at shorter ranges) 6 GHz radio. However, that omission means that dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers can be much cheaper. In this instance, the RS90 is $87.39, down from $129.

The RS90 includes four GbE ports, one 2.5 GbE WAN port, and supports up to 2,000 square feet. It features a tall, black, monolith-like design and can support up to 50 devices simultaneously.

For ease of setup, the RS90 can be configured quickly using the Netgear Nighthawk smartphone app, or, if you prefer, via the desktop-based webGUI. The RS90 also comes with a 30-day trial of Netgear Armor, which provides network intrusion protection and malware detection for your connected devices. - Brandon Hill

LG’s massive 45-inch 45GX950A-B dual-mode OLED gaming monitor gets a $600 discount

Ultra-wide monitors are a great productivity enhancer, giving you more horizontal workspace. That’s especially true of the LG Ultragear 45GX950A-B, a 45-inch gaming monitor currently priced at $1,337.90, down from a high of $1,999.99.

The 45GX950A-B features a 21:9 aspect ratio, 5,120 x 2,160 resolution, and, most importantly, a WOLED panel. Not only do you get the brilliant colors inherent to OLEDs, but the underlying WOLED panel technology also skews toward higher brightness (1,300-nit peak in this case).

Regarding performance, the 45GX950A-B can operate at up to 165 Hz at its native resolution, but jumps to 330 Hz at WFHD (2560 x 1080). It offers a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio and 98.5 percent DCI-P3 coverage, while being DisplayHDR True Black 400-certified. On the connectivity front, the monitor offers two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 2.1 port, and a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode support.

Get almost $100 off on AMD Ryzen 7 9700X - Just $259 (28% off) starts your upgrade journey into the AM5 platform

Prime Day 2026 has seen many discounts come and go. One of the better deals we’ve seen on AMD processors is the Ryzen 7 9700X, which is on sale for only $259.23. While it’s not at an all-time low, this is the best price since late 2025. The 9700X is based on the Zen 5 architecture and is an 8-core, 16-thread processor that fits AM5 motherboards (think X870, B850, X670, B650). We reviewed this CPU when it launched, and while it’s not an X3D chip, we loved its gaming performance for the price, low power consumption, and ease of cooling.

The chip has a base clock of 3.8 GHz and boosts up to 5.5 GHz. The low TDP (65W) and PPT (88W) make it easier to cool, and you can potentially have a quieter system since you aren’t cooling over 200W like their flagship-class processors. If this isn’t a drop-in upgrade from the 7000-series, check out our best motherboards and best motherboard deals articles for help finding one on discount.

Save 72% on this brilliant Razer mechanical gaming keyboard

The Razer Huntsman V2 Analog has been a popular choice for a few years, and while it is aging, it's still a great board to own. Luckily, you can pick one up for nearly 2/3rd's of its original price, with Woot dropping the cost to just $69.99.

That's $35 less than you'll find on Amazon right now, and $15 less than Amazon's best-ever price for it.

This is a great board for gaming. It comes with analog optical switches, which you can customize to suit your preferences. It has rapid trigger mode, letting you repeatedly press keys at a faster rate in any fast-paced games you play. It features doubleshot PBT keycaps for durability, and includes RGB lighting across each key.

You also get an ergonomic, magnetic wrist rest for maximum comfort. This is Razer at its best, and with a 72% discount, it's one epic bargain that you won't want to ignore. - Stephen Warwick

This fun $28 SSD enclosure is practical nostalgia for storing your files

This Hagibis SSD enclosure for $27.99, shaped like an old floppy disk, is the perfect no-need-to-think upgrade for your storage setup. It's cheap, easy to use, and practical, but it's also fun.

After all, everyone has a boring old black box for their storage. This floppy disk SSD enclosure lets you indulge in some nostalgia (if you're old enough to remember using these, that is). It works by placing an internal SSD inside the drive and using it as portable storage. This will save you big money on the cost of an external SSD, especially if you're a techie with any old drives going spare.

You're not just buying a useless box here. Any internal M.2 NVMe SSD will work inside this enclosure, letting you hook it up to your PC or laptop using a USB-C cable. It offers USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds of up to 10 Gbps, so the enclosure should, theoretically, offer a maximum read and write speed of around 1,000 to 1,2000 MB/s. That's a big increase over a microSD card or flash drive, for instance.

If you've got a spare drive, pop one in this SSD enclosure. If you don't, you can couple it with one of the few Prime Day SSD deals that are around at the moment. — Ben Stockton

This excellent pre-built PC is still an incredible $700 off

Expensive RAM and SSDs have sent pricing skyward, making pre-built gaming PCs often the best pathway to getting a new system at a reasonable price. This MSI Codex R2 gaming PC is a perfect example, with its $710 discount putting pricing well ahead of what you would pay for the components separately. If you want a PC that comes ready to play out of the box and don't want to negotiate tricky RAM and SSD prices, this is a great option.

While the CPU is an older generation model, that's a great way to save in the current crisis and is competent to push the RTX 5070, which provides plenty of grunt for most 1440p gaming. As per our testing data, the 5070 is excellent in the mid-range category, and gives out average frame rates of over 100 FPS at 1080p, or 75 FPS at 1440p. 4K gaming is definitely a stretch on this one, but at just $1,589, that's to be expected. - Stephen

Hoto’s handheld vacuum cleaner also functions as an air duster, and is a great desk-side companion for keeping things tidy

While it’s arguably a compact cordless vacuum first, Hoto calls this handy desk-side gadget a Compressed Air Canister, and that’s more apt, because it functions both as an air duster and a vacuum, making it a handy rechargeable device that I’ve kept near my desk for the past year or so. And right now, it’s 25% off for Amazon for Prime Day.

I’ve used the Hoto’s vacuum feature dozens of times, mostly to clean up small messes like dropped bits of salad around my desk. Its dirt canister is pretty small, so don’t expect it to be super useful for larger tasks like cleaning out a car or collecting larger piles of debris, but it’s helpful for keeping your desk space tidy.

Likewise, if you remove the vacuum attachments, spin it around, and add one of the nozzles on the other end, it’s great at blowing dust and debris out of keyboards, the insides of PC cases, or other tasks you might typically use canned air to tackle. Whichever way you use it, this device from Hoto delivers a useful amount of air movement. It’s not as compact as some dedicated rechargeable blowers, but it’s still compact, about the size of a tall drink can, with a slimmer circumference.

It is, of course, taller with its attachments, and my main complaint is that Hoto doesn’t give you anything to keep track of the attachments, so I often have to spend time hunting them down when I need something that isn’t already connected to the device. But if you have a 3D printer, you can solve that problem yourself with one of these handy designs. — Matt Safford

Grab one of the most comfortable wired gaming headsets for just $56

If you're looking for a budget-friendly headset, one of our favorite wired headsets is now 41% off. The HyperX Cloud III wired gaming headset is a comfy wired headset with a detachable boom mic, and you can snag the white version now at Amazon for just $56.04 — 44% off its normal retail price of $99.99.

As long as you don't need a wireless headset, the Cloud III is a fantastic — and very budget-friendly — option. It has a solid, well-built frame with curved metal yokes and a headband and earpads with leatherette-covered memory foam padding. It's pretty lightweight, at just 10.86 ounces (308g) including the cord but minus the detachable boom mic, but — more importantly — it's super comfortable. It's probably the most comfortable headset we've tested to date — no exaggeration.

It has 53mm dynamic drivers that are angled for a better audio experience, and it sounds pretty good — not as good as an audiophile headset, but it has a fantastic bass response and a balanced overall sound profile. It's a solid pick for both music listening and gaming. It comes with a detachable boom mic that has a red mute indicator light at the end, so you always know when people can and can't hear you. You can read my full review of the HyperX Cloud III here. — Sarah

Get most of a DDR5 build with $634 with this Ryzen 5 9600X bundle at Newegg

One of the best ways to get started with a DDR5 platform right now is with a bundle deal, and this Ryzen 5 9600X bundle has just about everything you need to get started in these deep, dark days of RAM shortages. It includes 16GB of Teamgroup DDR5-6000 RGB memory, an MSI Pro B850-S Wi-Fi motherboard, the CPU, and a Patriot P410 1TB NVMe SSD.

With current prices, you can expect to spend between $350 and $400 on the RAM and SSD alone, and that's using the current lowest prices on both components. As for what you can expect, the components here are midrange across the board. The Ryzen 5 9600X is a solid gaming CPU that struggles in heavily-threaded applications due to only using six cores, but is suitable for gaming and run-of-the-mill desktop apps, while the Patriot P410 is also sufficient but offers middle-of-the-road PCIe 4.0 speeds, falling short of higher-end drives like the Samsung 990 Pro.

Still, at this low pricing, these are acceptable trade-offs, and this bundle gives you a solid DDR5 foundation and plenty of room to grow. — Jake Roach

Save up to 45% on SteelSeries headsets, keyboards, and mice

Steelseries has launched several awesome deals on headsets and earbuds, keyboards, and mice, with discounts hitting up to 45%. For example, the premium Arctis Nova Pro wireless gaming headset is now 34% off. I’ve owned these for a couple of years - they sound great, and I recommend them at the sub-$250 price point. Or there’s the more budget-conscious Active Nova 3X wireless headset, which is now only $76 (31% off). If you’re an earbud gamer, the wireless Arctic GameBuds are also on sale (24%).

If you’re looking for a deal on keyboards, the Steelseries Apex Pro Mini, a 60% keyboard, is on sale for only $132.94, over $107 (45%) off retail and at an all-time low. If you need something a bit bigger with more functionality, the Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 is also on sale (27% and at its lowest price since mid-2025). Both of these wireless keyboards use Hall-effect magnetic switches (OmniPoint 3.0 from SteelSeries). I’ve always wanted a Hall-effect keyboard, and at this price, the Apex Pro TKL is hard for me to pass up, as I’ve been eyeing it for a while now.

Lastly, they have two versions of the Aerox 5 mouse (wired and wireless) on sale. The wired Aerox 5 is 36% off (now $64.11, down from $100), and the wireless version is down to $110 (35% off, $60 in savings). These aren’t at all-time lows, but they’re the best deals we’ve seen on the Aerox in a couple of months.

Steelseries has even more deals on offer than these, which you can see by clicking the link below. — Joe Shields

Check out all Steelseries deals on Amazon

Upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 with these Prime Day deals on Netgear wireless routers

Plenty of the laptops and motherboards we've highlighted now come with cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 support, so you may be thinking about a router upgrade to match. Some of our favorite Netgear Wi-Fi 7 routers are on sale this Prime Day, so if your old router is holding your new devices back, now is a good time to make the jump.

For larger homes, the Netgear Orbi 770 Mesh 2-Pack is on sale for just $424.99. This mesh system delivered solid performance in our tests on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and it offers 2.5GbE ports and fast wireless backhaul options for versatile mesh network configurations.

Our only beef with this system was its price tag, and Amazon's Prime Day deal helps make it more accessible for those who need broad coverage along with their Wi-Fi 7 performance.

If you don't need the broad coverage of a mesh system or the high performance potential of the 6GHz band, but still want the other advantages of Wi-Fi 7, the Nighthawk Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router (RS180) still provides plenty of range and performance for just $142.99 on sale.

This hexagonal Wi-Fi 7 obelisk delivers aggregate speeds of up to 5.5 Gbps over areas as large as 2500 square feet, and it has a 2.5 GbE WAN port plus another 2.5 GbE LAN port and three GbE ports for connected devices. It also offers a USB 3.0 port for network-accessible storage. For simple networks, this could be your Wi-Fi 7 upgrade ticket. -- Jeff Kampman

Call me crazy, but this deal on an 8TB SSD isn't entirely nuts

Today's SSD pricing has gone absolutely crazy due to AI datacenter-driven shortages, but there have been a few rare glimpses of moderately acceptable pricing during Prime Day 2026, and surprisingly, this beefy 8TB WD Black SN850X SSD for $1,199 (25% off) is at least tenable if you break it down to per-GB pricing. This drive weighs in at 15 cents per gigabyte, which is right at the same level as we've seen with some of the best SSD deals this Prime season.

For instance, this 2TB Samsung 9100 for $349 has been one of the hottest deals around, but it weighs in at 17 cents per gigabyte, highlighting the deal to be had with this 8TB monster if you're willing to drop a lot of cash for a monster drive.

Naturally, part of this drive's lower cost is built on the fact that it is a PCIe 4.0 model compared to the speedier PCIe 5.0 found on the blazing-fast Samsung 9100 Pro. However, the SN850X's speed is more than sufficient for most users, earning it four out of five stars and an Editor's Choice award in our full review. Despite its hefty price point, I don't think this deal will be around for long. — Paul Alcorn

32GB of DDR5 and 2TB of SSD capacity now feels like a luxury... (this is the worst timeline)

It wasn't that long ago that 32GB of DDR5 memory and 2TB of SSD capacity wasn't thought of as a luxury, but the ongoing memory and storage pricing crisis has completely changed the calculus. Due to pricing increases, finding what was once considered table stakes at a decent price point is wonderful, as we see with this prebuilt gaming machine from CyberPowerPC that comes armed with that magical 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB SSD.

This rig has plenty of power under the hood, too, with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D running the show and an Nvidia RTX 5070 pumping out the visuals.

This powerful combo can handle 1440p gaming with aplomb, and allow you to reach up to 4K for some titles, especially if you're leveraging DLSS and the other bells and whistles that come with Nvidia GPUs. — Paul Alcorn

The big 9100 Pro SSD price drop is still holding

The Samsung 9100 Pro SSD has provided us with probably the single-best SSD deals of this Prime season, and surprisingly, these drives haven't sold out at their lowest pricing since February. Specifically, the 1TB model is now $206.99, while the 2TB is $349. That's a lot more than you would have paid last year, but these are top-tier flagships from Samsung, so this is as good as it gets for a PCIe 5.0 SSD on Amazon right now — or for the last five months.

This SSD challenges or beats nearly every drive on the market in performance testing, and barely lags behind the very fastest drives we've tested. If you want a great SSD for gaming or professional workloads that will deliver snappy load times, this is the drive for you. It's amazing they are still in stock, but once Prime ends this deal is surely going to be over for perhaps ever.

Anker’s 140W GaN USB-C charger is on sale for 33% off, bringing its price down to just $59.99

Anker’s last-gen 140W GaN USB-C charger is down to its previous low price of $59.99 for Prime Day. The charger comes with four inputs, split across three USB-C ports and one USB-A port, and comes with a total of 140W of output. You can deliver that much power over two of the USB-C ports when they’re used alone, but multi-port setups get a bit more complicated.

With all four ports occupied, the USB-A and one of the USB-C ports top out at 12W, while one of the other USB-C ports delivers 45W and the remaining one delivers 45W. Thankfully, you can track this in real-time. Anker includes a display that not only shows you the total wattage you’re using, but also wattage for each port.

As is usually the case with 100W+ GaN chargers, you should expect some throttling if you’re pumping the full 140W through the charger. The biggest issue with Anker charger is usually price, but with this Prime Day deal, you no longer have that problem. — Jake Roach

Geekom mini-PC deals takes up to 34% off with our exclusive promo code for Intel and AMD models

Mini PC specialist Geekom has a ton of Amazon Prime Day deals with a multitude of diminutive computers with discounts as deep as 34% off. For those who insist on the latest silicon, Geekom has put its A9 MAX 2026 Edition on sale at 30% off. That means this fresh Ryzen flagship, which has been upgraded to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, is reduced from $1,699 to $1,189. Remember, this has 32GB DDR5 RAM, and with a 2TB pre-installed SSD, it offers double the storage capacity of its predecessor

The PC is on sale for just $371, which is shocking considering it still comes with an all-metal frame. In addition, it comes with an extra M.2 2242 slot to expand your storage, along with a 2.5-inch SATA bay.

For a bit more power, the Geekom AX8 comes with a newer Ryzen 7 8745HS processor, along with 16GB of DDR5 and a 1TB SSD (plus a sleek blue finish on the metal chassis). — Mark Tyson

These are the hottest 3D printer deals on Tom's Hardware this week

Prime Day always brings hot deals on 3D Printers, and this year is no exception. These 3D printers listed below are all on sale, own a spot on our list of Best 3D Printers, and also happen to be the most-purchased deals on the website over the last three days.

If you want to learn more about these machines, be sure to check the linked reviews on each model. — Paul Alcorn

Nifty $11 power button gadget lets you start your PC from your desk

This power button gadget is super useful if you want to start your PC right from your desk, and while there are many variants of this doo-dad on the market, this model uses real RGB-lit Cherry-MX mechanical keys, setting it apart from other options. Right now, this is on sale for $11.05, down 21% from its usual $13.99 price point.

Based on our internal analytics, this model proved to be extremely popular among our readership during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Given the uptake, I personally bought one just for kicks, and it is easy to setup and use. Just be aware that even brushing against these brijghtly-lit keys will restart your PC without hestitation. My only ask is that they make a version with a molly guard! That bit aside, this is a nifty gadget that's worth the relatively cheap price. — Paul Alcorn

Get a Stream Deck for less than $50 with a new all-time low price on the Stream Deck Mini

Elgato’s Stream Deck Mini is on sale for an all-time low price on Amazon of $46.54, knocking 22% off its list price and bringing the device below $50 for the first time. This is a smaller version of the Stream Deck MK.2 (which is also on a Prime Day sale), featuring just six buttons as opposed to the normal 15.

A Stream Deck really doesn’t look all that useful until you start integrating it into your day-to-day workflow. It’s just a pretty way to trigger macros, sure, but the Elgato marketplace is awash with free templates designed around different applications, and usually with custom icons. There are templates for specific games, triggers for game masters in TTRPGs, productivity profiles for the Microsoft Office suite, Discord, and Windows 11 broadly, and much more. And, of course, you’re free to set up your own triggers, as well.

A Stream Deck can be a hub for game actions, a soundboard to troll your friends in Discord, and a Swiss Army Knife of productivity, and if you’re crafting with your buttons, it can be multiple of those things at the same time. — Jake Roach

The preorder pages for GTA will drop at midnight local time in the US tonight, and you can buy both the Standard and Ultimate editions at the links below. Digital preorders of either variant get a month of GTA+ subscription as a preorder bonus.

Hype is cyclic. Once upon a time, there was Daikatana, the game that would have John Romero making us his female canine, but flunked hard. Then there was Half-Life 2, a game that still begs for a third installment today. Spore showed us how excellent ideas still need equal execution. In modern times, No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 both had massive hype and massive flops, turned around with many years' labor. And yet to this day, there's nothing quite like the buzz surrounding Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI, or as it'll be forever known, GTA 6.

The Standard edition goes for $79.99 and has the base game, the Vintage Vice City Pack with retro-themed cosmetics, and the '55 Vapid Stanier vehicle. The Ultimate Edition goes for a cool $99.99 and contains extra side missions and activities, additional vehicles, guns, and a truckload of outfits and other cosmetics for Jason and Lucia both.

These preorders at retailers mean you purchase a physical box that has a slip of paper inside with a download code, but not physical media. As such, this is for collector's item purposes. Without further ado, click away to your favorite e-tailer.

• Amazon
  • Standard Edition
  • Ultimate Edition
• Walmart
  • Standard Edition
  • Ultimate Edition
• Best Buy:
  • Standard Edition
  • Ultimate Edition

We won't bother rehashing details about the impending sequel to Rockstar's massively successful and still giant money printer Grand Theft Auto V. Suffice to say that the November 19 release is so hotly anticipated that employees are calling sick already, and there are reports of entire workplaces planning to shut down for the day. Many publishers and studios are reshuffling their release calendars so as not to get drowned in what is guaranteed to be the talk of the Internet for at least a few weeks, too.

Meanwhile, PC gamers will have to wait a year to see the game running natively on their systems and will have to drown their sorrows in one of the literal thousands of games that never make it to consoles. Regardless, Take Two Interactive's revenue is probably going to rival that of some AI companies — but in real dollars.

We’ve got our sights set on Amazon Prime Day, which is running from June 23-26, 2026, and the bargains for some of the best 3D printers are hot! But Amazon is not the only place to snag a great deal. Manufacturers are holding fantastic sales on their own websites, and most are offering free shipping along with can’t-miss filament bundles.

Even if you’re not in the market for a new 3D printer, Prime Day brings out the best sales on filament and accessories. Not to be left out, Bambu Lab is celebrating its 4th anniversary, Creality is honoring Father’s Day until the end of June, and Elegoo is running sales on its already budget-friendly 3D printers.

Anycubic Kobra X

The Anycubic Kobra X is one of the best, most affordable 3D printers you can buy, and it’s currently on sale for $299.99 on Amazon for Prime members. We love its space-saving design with top-mounted spools and a compact multimaterial handler packed right in the tool head. It also has a quick swap nozzle and a roomy 260 x 260 mm build plate.

By keeping the material mere centimeters from the nozzle at all times, the Kobra X has a competitive speed advantage. During our testing, it could swap colors in about 35 seconds from cut to purge, while the Bambu A1 took as long as 90 seconds to swap. Those seconds can really stack up over hundreds of layers of multicolor printing.

Because it only needs to retract filament a very short distance, the Kobra X is one of the few machines that can mix standard TPU and PLA in one print.

Bambu Lab A1 and A1 Mini

Bambu Lab only offers three of its older model 3D printers on Amazon: the A1, A1 Mini, and P1S. It’s not surprising, as these are also its most popular, budget, and beginner-friendly machines.

The A1 Mini is our favorite recommendation for kids starting a 3D printing hobby. Its compact size, ease of use, and full access to Bambu Lab’s ecosystem make it a machine that can grow with you as you level up your skills. It’s currently $349 with a four-color AMS Lite, or $234 as a single-color machine on Amazon.

The A1, with its standard-sized 256x256mm build plate, is a no-brainer for beginners who want to start with a full-size machine. This machine is currently the most cloned 3D printer, but its print quality, speed, and simple interface are hard to beat. Bambu’s full-service ecosystem isn’t quite a walled garden, but it’s certainly a cozy place to stay for beginners learning the ropes. Amazon currently has the A1 Combo for $394, but you can get a better price, along with discounted filaments, at Bambu’s own website. The A1 Combo is $379 with a build-your-own filament bundle that lists spools at 45% off.

Bambu Lab P1S

A fan favorite workhorse since the day it was launched in 2023, the P1S is Bambu Lab’s bargain, no frills, fully enclosed 3D printer. It’s currently on sale for $499 on Amazon as a four-color combo unit that includes the original AMS.

The P1S has all the print quality you’d expect from a Bambu Lab machine, but has a few old-school quirks. Swapping the nozzle involves minor surgery with a screwdriver, thermal paste, and a steady hand. It has an extremely basic “dumb screen” interface on the printer, which can be easily avoided if you use either the Bambu Handy mobile app or simply operate from your PC, as I do.

Elegoo Centauri Carbon

Elegoo’s single color, fully enclosed, Centauri Carbon is holding steady as a value leader with a $299.98 price tag on Amazon. You can also get it on the Elegoo website, but you’ll have to pay extra for shipping.

The Centauri Carbon is a bare-bones enclosed 3D printer that handles a wide variety of filaments, from PLA, PETG, and ASA to TPU, quite well, without the need for a heated chamber. It has a standard bed size of 256 x 256mm, which means 3rd party build plate upgrades are easy to find. Our only complaint was the dim light, which, when combined with a smoked glass door, makes watching your prints difficult.

Though Elegoo did recently come out with a $55 four-color CANVAS upgrade for the Centauri Carbon, if you really want a four-color machine, I’d recommend the Centauri Carbon 2, only available on the Elegoo website, for $449 at the time of this writing. The upgrade kit is a nice gesture for CC1 owners, but it requires about 2 to 3 hours to mod your printer.

Creality SparkX i7

If you're looking for an affordable entry into multi-color printing, the Creality SPARKX i7 Color Combo is a fantastic pick. What really seals the deal is the CFS Lite spool manager, a low-maintenance, incredibly adaptable “magic box” that handles every size and type of spool I could throw at it, including quarter-sized mini spools and spoolless coils, during testing.

The SPARKX i7 Combo is currently $369 on Amazon. It has a 260 x 260 x 255mm build volume, which is a bit bigger than Creality’s old Ender 3s without moving into Plus size territory. The Creality Cloud mobile app is a worthy addition for new users who want to pick fun models from their phone, run them through an easy slicer, and send them directly to their printer without needing to log onto a PC.

Flashforge AD5X and Creator 5

The single-nozzle/multicolor Flashforge AD5X is a solid entry to four-color, Core XY printing on a budget. The machine is currently on Amazon for $322 as an open-frame machine. The enclosure seen on our review unit was a DIY kit sold for $50 that includes panes of acrylic and a bag of screws: you print the rest yourself.

The AD5X does a great job with standard filaments, soft TPU, and can handle ASA when enclosed. The simple material handler is similar to Elegoo’s CC2, which keeps each filament a few inches from the top of the toolhead and doesn’t need to retract back onto the spool. Sometimes keeping it simple really is the best.

Unfortunately, the Creator 5 tool changer is not on Amazon for Prime Day, but it is currently on sale for $699 on Flashforge’s own website. We recently finished testing the Creator 5 and found it to be one of the best 3D printers of the year, which we hope is filled with even more toolchangers to come.

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OpenAI and Broadcom have introduced Jalapeño, a custom-built inference processor designed specifically for modern large language models and future agentic AI workloads, which is designed to deliver performance per watt they claim is higher than today's leading-edge hardware. OpenAI considers its hardware project a strategic one and envisions Jalapeño to be the first generation of its inference hardware.

Not another AI accelerator

OpenAI stresses that Jalapeño is a purpose-built inference ASIC and not a repurposed training accelerator or a general-purpose AI processor. OpenAI says the architecture of Jalapeño was designed based on its understanding of LLM behavior and is meant to address practical bottlenecks that matter for inference at scale, including costly data movement, balance between compute and memory resources, networking efficiency, and overall behavior. OpenAI also states that the design of the processor is meant to wed high throughput with low latency (which is why it uses a huge compute chiplet and HBM memory and not cheaper types of DRAM like many other inference accelerators), which will be particularly handy for reasoning and agentic workloads.

In addition, OpenAI and Broadcom claim the processor is built to deliver higher effective utilization than conventional AI accelerators and deliver performance that is close to the theoretical maximum, which means very high efficiency both in terms of costs and in terms of power. Meanwhile, the companies did not disclose performance targets for their Jalapeño ASIC, so these claims should be taken with a grain of salt.

Engineering samples are already operating in the lab at target clock speed and power (though Broadcom and OpenAI do not disclose details about this, either), and OpenAI says it is running machine learning workloads, such as GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark.

The two companies also claim that early internal testing indicates that Jalapeño's performance-per-watt is substantially better than 'current state-of-the-art hardware,' although no hard numbers, benchmarks, memory configuration, or other details are disclosed, so again, we will have to take the claims with a grain of salt. In addition, one must bear in mind that while Jalapeño can purportedly beat existing AMD's Instinct MI350-series and Nvidia's Blackwell-based accelerators, it remains to be seen how competitive it will be against AMD's Instinct MI400-series and Nvidia's Rubin-based offerings.

"Jalapeño was designed from the ground up for LLM inference using detailed insights from our close collaboration with OpenAI researchers," said Richard Ho, who leads OpenAI's hardware program. "We optimized the architecture around the kernels, memory movement, networking, and serving patterns that matter most for frontier AI models. Based on early testing, Jalapeño will efficiently execute our most important workloads close to the hardware’s theoretical limits."

A massive chip with six HBM modules

While Broadcom and OpenAI did not disclose specifications of Jalapeño, they did show its wafer and packaging, so we can do a brief analysis. The package appears to contain one large compute chiplet surrounded by six HBM modules and another chiplet that likely packs input/output interfaces and is surrounded by two structural dummy dies.

The wafer image does look like a Broadcom-style systolic-array-heavy accelerator, in the sense that it shows a very regular, repeated, columnar floorplan with what looks like replicated compute regions and fixed infrastructure macros. Yet, keep in mind that we are speculating, and the image is not clean enough to say that this is definitely Broadcom's standard TPU-like systolic array template with some perks from OpenAI,

From the image alone, it is impossible to tell whether Jalapeño uses a true 2D systolic array, a set of 1D/2D matrix engines, a collection of vector or tensor tiles, or some other inference datapath. All we can say is that the die has a highly repetitive floorplan consistent with several kinds of tiled AI accelerator architectures.

What we can tell from the image is the approximate die size of Jalapeño's compute chiplet based on the size of HBM3/4 packages (10.975 mm × 10.975 mm) that surround it. From what we can tell, the chiplet measures 25.46 mm (width) × 33 mm (height), which means that its die size is around 840 mm², which is very close to the reticle size of EUV lithography systems (858 mm²). Given that the quality of the shot is poor, the die size we estimate cannot be 100% accurate, but we suspect it is close enough.

The die size of Jalapeño's compute chiplet implies that it packs quite a lot of compute oomph, though, of course, we cannot make performance estimates based on this metric. Yet, it is safe to say that Jalapeño's compute die is considerably bigger than compute dies of other inference accelerators on the market and more resembles processors for AI training. Speaking of processors for AI training, we increasingly see multi-chiplet designs for these workloads as companies like AMD and Nvidia want to pack as much performance as possible. Meanwhile, the fact that OpenAI and Broadcom chose to go with a large compute chiplet possibly indicates that they wanted to reduce latencies by as much as possible.

Designed in nine months

The companies say the chip reached tape-out in just nine months and is slated for deployment beginning in late 2026, which represents an extremely fast turnaround time in ASIC design. It is unclear whether Broadcom and OpenAI extensively used artificial intelligence to define and then develop Jalapeño, though the companies admitted that they used OpenAI's models to speed up parts of the chip's design and optimization work. Typically, it takes 1.5 – 2 years to design an ASIC from scratch, so AI can shrink the development cycle. Another means to accelerate the design cycle is Broadcom's extensive reuse of its logic across different custom designs to deliver new chips faster than other companies.

It is noteworthy that, according to the announcement, Jalapeño is designed to support not only OpenAI's own workloads but also present and future LLMs across the industry, which potentially lets OpenAI sell its hardware to third parties, assuming that it can get enough supply from Broadcom and TSMC. Meanwhile, the chief executive of Broadcom indicates that Jalapeño will be deployed at gigawatt-scale data centers with Microsoft and other partners starting this year, though it is unclear whether the processor will be used exclusively for OpenAI workloads or will be available for other tenants as well.

"Our collaboration with OpenAI represents a fundamental commitment to scaling the physical infrastructure required for the next decade of AI," said Hock Tan, President and CEO, Broadcom. "This is just the beginning of a multi-generation roadmap. By co-developing our industry-leading silicon directly with OpenAI, we are enabling the deployment of gigawatt-scale data centers with Microsoft and other partners beginning in 2026."

PC building during the RAMpocalypse and NANDpocalypse is challenging, to be sure, but you can still put together a great and relatively affordable box that will last during Prime Day thanks to abundant deals on core components. Yes, memory and SSDs are pricey, but we can dull some of the pain with deep discounts elsewhere.

For a $1000 budget, we've put together a great 1080p gaming PC with a 10-core Core i5-12600KF CPU and an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB graphics card for the best 1080p bang-for-the-buck you can find (and an RX 9060 XT 16GB alternative for $100 more if 8GB is a bridge too far).

Yes, the Core i5-12600KF is getting up there in years, and its P-cores lack the extra L2 of 13th and 14th Gen CPUs, but it boasts higher clocks and a higher TDP than non-K 13th and 14th-gen parts for better multi-threaded performance. For this low price, we'll deal.

$1,000 Prime Day gaming PC: Quick list

• Intel Core i5-12600K 10-Core Processor: $179.97 at Newegg
• Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE CPU cooler: $17.89 at Amazon
• ASUS B760M-AYW WIFI D4 II Intel B760 (LGA 1700) mATX motherboard: $89 at Newegg
• Silicon Power 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 kit: $198 at Newegg
• Silicon Power UD90 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen4x4 M.2: $144.99 at Silicon Power
• MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB: $309 at Newegg with promos
• (Upgrade) XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: $419 at Woot
• Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L Micro-ATX PC Case: $32.99 at Amazon
• ASRock PRO Series PRO-750G 750 W PSU: $54.99 at Newegg

Crucially, this PC still features 32GB of RAM for no-worries gaming with the latest titles and 1TB of storage for adequate room for files and games. Cheaper prebuilts might include just 16GB of RAM and a claustrophobia-inducing 512GB SSD. This is a PC that will last, and that matters in today's tight market.

The RTX 5060 Ti 8GB is selling for less than the slower RTX 5060 8GB right now, so you may as well take the free performance boost if you were only going with an 8GB card to begin with. The 5060 Ti gives you access to leading DLSS 4.5 upscaling across a huge swath of games, as well as MFG in titles that don't overrun its VRAM.

On top of the 5060 Ti 8GB's much higher baseline performance than the Steam Machine's GPU, DLSS 4.5 is a secret weapon for this build, thanks to its far superior image quality versus FSR on top of its AI-powered performance boost.

A quality Cooler Master case and 80 Plus Gold power supply make this a 1080p gaming build you (or a lucky kid or family member) can depend on for a long time to come.

$1,000 Prime Day gaming PC

All those parts should add up to about $1029.76. If you're seeing higher totals in your cart, make sure to apply every available promo code and redeem every mail-in rebate you see to get the lowest possible prices during these Prime Day sales. Happy building!

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With the cost of building a PC continuing to go up, you start to look elsewhere for ways to upgrade your setup. One of the best ways you can do that is with a high-quality pair of the best PC speakers, and some of our favorite options are on sale with deep discounts for Prime Day.

Regardless of whether you want to finally stop using your monitor's junky built-in speakers or an open-space alternative to headphones, a solid pair of speakers can elevate your setup, for games, movies, and of course, music. We have a handful of options here that are on sale for Prime Day, ranging from budget 2.0 setups to 7.1 surround sound systems.

• Check out all the PC speaker deals on Amazon

Starting on the budget end, the Creative Pebble V2 speakers are just $26 for Prime Day. We've looked at the higher-powered Pebble Pro set, which also features some modern trimmings like Bluetooth at a much higher price of $60. The Pebble V2 speakers feature an older driver, but they're the same size.

Sound quality isn't the best, but it's far better than what you get out of monitor speakers, which is the most you can ask for out of a $26 pair of speakers.

Stepping up in price and quality, we have the Edifier G2000 speakers, which currently rank as our best 2.0 speaker set for gaming. You get just the two satellite speakers, but they include a connection for a subwoofer to fill out the low-end down the line.

The speakers are mainly tuned for gaming, emphasizing the lows and deprioritizing the mids, so they aren't the best for listening to music. Still, Edifier offers a lot to like with the G2000, especially below $100, including 3.5mm and Bluetooth connections, along with a generous 32W peak power rating.

Edifier's M60 speakers turn everything up compared to the G2000, sporting a larger 3-inch driver along with a 1-inch tweeter to round out the high-end. Combined with a higher 66W power rating, the M60s are a more well-rounded set of speakers, with tuning that works better for movies and music.

The speakers also feature 3.5mm and Bluetooth connectivity, along with USB-C. We've linked the white color above, but the black and oak finishes are on sale for Prime Day, as well.

For a slightly higher-end sound all around, you can go with the Onkyo GX-30ARC speakers, which feature larger 4-inch woofers. We gave the speakers high marks in our Onkyo GX-30ARC review on the back of excellent sound quality for the price, not to mention plentiful connection options.

In addition to USB-C, Bluetooth, and 3.5mm analog connections, the speakers support optical, RCA, and even HDMI connection with ARC. Onkyo includes some plastic stands in the box, as well, angling the speakers up toward your ears for the most direct sound.

The edifier M60s are a clone of the Audioengine A2+ speakers. If you want the real thing, you're in luck because the white color is on sale for $223, while the red version is down to just $209.

Audioengine comes out ahead with more premium build quality, including real wood cabinets and a 24-bit DAC (digital-to-analog converter) built into the speakers. You get plenty of connection options, as well, including Bluetooth, RCA, 3.5mm, and USB-C, along with a subwoofer expansion port.

If you want to go all-out, you can save on the SteelSeries Area 9 surround kit. The set currently ranks as our best 5.1 surround speakers, combining a center channel with four satellite speakers and a 6.5-inch down-firing subwoofer. The subwoofer helps fill out the sound a lot, especially compared to the cheaper options above.

This is a true surround sound system, so it naturally pairs best with true surround sound sources. A lot of games only feature stereo sound, but thankfully, the Arena 9s can convert stereo audio into faux surround sound.

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Despite disagreements over trade policies with China, the U.S. and the Netherlands have signed the European nation to the Pax Silica initiative of countries looking to reduce reliance on China for key raw materials and manufacturing expertise in the AI industry, as reported by Reuters. With the Netherlands playing host to the key supply chain company, ASML, Europe's largest tech company, and the most advanced manufacturing of cutting-edge photolithography machines for semiconductor fabrication, this is a big strategic win for the U.S.-led initiative.

Dutch ​Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma travelled to Washington this week to sign the deal, meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and fellow lawmakers as part of ongoing negotiations around trade in high-tech chips and hardware, particularly with China.

Speaking with reporters, he said that the U.S. and the Netherlands have shared goals in preventing sensitive technology from ending up in dangerous hands - the Netherlands famously seized key Dutch chip manufacturer Nexperia from its Chinese parent company, Wingtech, in 2025. However, he also raised concerns over American legislation that would make it difficult for companies like ASML to even service machines and tools already delivered to countries like China.

That could affect the Netherlands' national security and market position of key Dutch companies, he said.

Pax Silica - Speremus ut diu duret

The Pax Silica, or "Silicon Peace" initiative, was set up in December 2025 by the U.S. Department of State as a direct plan to reduce reliance on China and to build more robust, Western-aligned supply chains for key elements in the semiconductor, AI, and rare-earth element industries. At its outset, Pax Silica secured non-binding signatures from seven countries, including Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They were joined in the months that followed by Greece, Qatar, the UAE, India, Sweden, Finland, the Philippines, and Norway.

Canada and Taiwan have both been invited to join and are said to be participating in summit sessions, but haven't officially signed just yet. The Netherlands did effectively join in December 2025, but was described as a "non-signing partner" in the initiative.

There are ongoing disputes between the U.S. and the Netherlands over whether ASML should be allowed to service and sell less advanced chip fabrication machines to China, while still restricting access to the latest tools.

Those discussions are reportedly still ongoing and were brought up in the meeting between Lutnick and Sjoerdsma this week. The Dutch official has been quite frank in his public statements on the Match Act bipartisan bill that would place restrictions on companies supplying to China.

“The Netherlands’ starting point is that every country is responsible for its own laws,” Sjoerdsma said in May, via Reuters.

Under the silicon thumb

A key story in the global race to adopt and supply AI through infrastructure building and rapid development has been access to the raw materials, tools, machines, and expertise required to create it. That's mainly had the United States and China at loggerheads with one another, with the former restricting access to cutting-edge Nvidia GPUs and other semiconductor products, and China rowing back access to its manufacturing and raw material industries.

But while that's acted as a tit-for-tat backdrop to U.S. and Chinese trade relations and particularly the mercurial needs and demands of President Trump, the divestment of global supply chains from traditional Chinese sources has spread globally. Nexperia was one key Dutch entity that was brought back in-house from Chinese owners, and in June 2025, Taiwanese firm Pegatron announced new production facilities in Mexico and the U.S. to move away from reliance on China.

The U.S. has also been trying to restrict China's access to high-tech hardware for a number of years. President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act in 2019, which effectively banned Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE from being used in any U.S. government agencies. Both companies were later designated as threats to national security in 2020. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. implemented a new series of export controls in 2022 to constrain China's ability to accelerate its high-technology and chip manufacturing industries.

This led to a boom in domestic Chinese chip production, as well as a rapidly expanding black market smuggling industry that ultimately saw officials in U.S. firms jailed, and even Nvidia potentially implicated.

But in 2026, even as the U.S. has approved the sale of some high-end Nvidia chips to China, its new Pax Silica Initiative and MATCH Act are putting more pressure on China than ever before, and global partners aren't entirely happy about it.

Under the bill, foreign-owned companies like ASML that don't comply with the restrictions on business dealings with China could find themselves losing access to U.S. components, software, or customers. Although the world still needs ASML - it's one of the tightest bottlenecks in the global chip supply chain - becoming part of the Pax Silica initiative could prove paramount for advanced economies wanting to make the most of advances in AI and chip fabrication.

Although Dutch officials still clearly have reservations about the MATCH Act, it's not clear how much leverage they can have over it, or whether it's possible to ignore its claimed mandates.

Unsteady ground

The Netherlands and other strategically aligned economies with a foothold in the AI supply chain face a tricky situation in 2026. Initiatives like Pax Silica raise the prospect of greater autonomy in the global supply chain, with less reliance on China for key materials, tools, and manufacturing expertise. But that may simply replace one dependency with another, trading exposure to Beijing for greater oversight from Washington, and even coercion if certain controls aren’t adhered to.

For the Dutch, ASML isn’t just a key company. It is one of the world’s most important technology pillars and helps the Netherlands punch well above its weight in global supply-chain politics. Without ASML, manufacturers like Samsung, Micron, and TSMC, and component designers like Nvidia, would not be able to build the cutting-edge hardware they can today. That gives the Netherlands real muscle when pursuing its own interests.

But it also makes ASML a target for legislation that could limit Dutch autonomy and force tighter integration with larger players like the United States, without whose components, software, and market access ASML would struggle.

That tension is unlikely to disappear. Even if the U.S. midterms later this year help leash some of the more turbulent aspects of the Trump administration, they won’t end American ambitions to pull control of the global chip and AI supply chains away from China, and tuck it into Washington’s own catalogue of control.

China's LineShine supercomputer has taken the top spot on the 67th-edition TOP500 list, posting 2.198 exaflops on the High Performance Linpack benchmark and pushing the AMD-powered El Capitan into second place by more than 20%. The system, installed at the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen (NSCS) and built by the Shenzhen Cloud Computing Center, used no GPUs or accelerators of any kind, and reached the figure with 13,789,440 cores of domestically designed silicon, the first machine on the list to clear two exaflops of double-precision performance on CPUs alone. It’s also the first China-based system to lead the TOP500 since Sunway TaihuLight in 2017.

The fact that a sanctioned country has managed to build an exascale flagship without a single Western accelerator is one thing, but what’s more telling is that China has decided to put it on the list. For years, its fastest machines have stayed off the rankings entirely, and the decision to submit a chart-topper now is a deliberate change of posture.

A domestic stack from core to OS

LineShine is built on what NSCS calls the LingKun platform. Each of its 20,480 compute nodes carries two LX2 processors, Armv9-based parts with 304 cores running at 1.55 GHz, organized as eight clusters of 38 cores. Every core includes Arm's Scalable Vector Extension and Scalable Matrix Extension units covering FP64, FP32, BF16, FP16, and INT8.

Each of those LX2s pairs 32 GB of on-package HBM rated at up to 4 TB/s with as much as 256 GB of off-package DDR5, an arrangement that’s closer to Fujitsu's A64FX in Japan's Fugaku than to a conventional server CPU. Nodes are tied together by the proprietary LingQi interconnect, and the machine runs the homegrown Kylin OS.

It’s not known who designs the LX2 — NSCS names no vendor — but Jon Peddie Research has attributed the chip to Huawei, and the project's pilot phase reportedly ran on Huawei Kunpeng servers. The fabrication node and foundry are likewise unconfirmed. SMIC's 7nm-class process is the obvious domestic candidate by elimination, given that EUV tooling and TSMC capacity are both off the table, but nobody has documented the part to date.

Not an AI crown

LineShine also took first on HPCG, the test that rewards memory- and communication-bound workloads closer to real scientific code, at 22.00 petaflops. But on HPL-MxP, the mixed-precision benchmark that approximates AI training math, it came in only fourth at 7.92 exaflops, a 3.6 times uplift over its FP64 score.

In other words, the accelerator-based machines it beat on Linpack pull far ahead the moment precision drops. Per the TOP500 announcement, El Capitan posts 16.7 exaflops on HPL-MxP, a 9.2 times jump over its standard result, with Aurora and Frontier showing similar multipliers. Reduced-precision throughput is exactly where GPUs and APUs separate from CPUs, and LineShine has nowhere to hide it.

We can see similar issues cropping up in terms of power. LineShine draws 42,220 kW and returns 52.07 gigaflops per watt on its Linpack run. That beats Intel’s Aurora comfortably but trails El Capitan's 60.94 gigaflops per watt, so LineShine produces more total FP64 output than the Livermore system while burning roughly 42% more power to do it.

It’s worth holding onto this distinction because the TOP500 ranking is decided on FP64 Linpack, the one regime where a wide, HBM-fed CPU can still go toe-to-toe with accelerators. LineShine is a genuine double-precision champion, but it’s not a world-leading AI training machine, and its fourth-place HPL-MxP result says so.

So, why did China submit it?

China stopped submitting its fastest systems to the TOP500 around 2021, after a run of entity-list additions hit Sunway's Wuxi center and Sugon. The community has long believed that the country operated exascale hardware well before this entry: the Sunway successor OceanLight and the NUDT-built Tianhe-3 both appeared via Gordon Bell Prize science papers without ever appearing on the list. TOP500 co-founder Jack Dongarra has said for years that Chinese researchers told him they weren’t permitted to submit, and that omissions were about avoiding U.S. attention rather than any lack of capability.

Last June's list, which AMD topped while Chinese HPC remained absent, was especially conspicuous, but putting LineShine forward now reverses that. It has been reported that the system was developed without public funding, which lowers the political exposure of disclosing it, and the all-domestic design means there’s no dependency on Western parts for Washington to choke off after the fact.

Addison Snell, chief executive of HPC analyst firm Intersect360 Research, told Reuters he wasn’t surprised by the performance but by the disclosure itself, noting the surprise was that China submitted the result and wanted recognition for it. Ultimately, submitting a number-one system that runs entirely on indigenous parts is a statement that the sanctions regime hasn’t closed the gap China cares about.

AMD still dominates

The top of the list might have changed hands, but the bulk of it hasn’t. The U.S. still dominates with three of the top five in El Capitan (1.809 exaflops), Frontier (1.353 exaflops), and Aurora (1.012 exaflops), and Germany's JUPITER Booster remains the first and only European exascale system at an even 1.000 exaflops.

AMD’s silicon underpins most of the accelerated field with the company, per its own blog, now powering 191 systems on the list, up 11% year over year, and 41% of this edition's new entries. It holds three top-10 slots — El Capitan, Frontier, and the newly deployed HPC7 at Italian energy firm Eni — and contributes more than 40% of combined top-10 Linpack performance. On efficiency, it powers 56% of the top 50 Green500 systems, and its first Instinct MI355X deployments, two Cambridge Zenith systems in the UK, entered at positions 67 and 68.

None of that is dented by LineShine, not least because the two aren’t competing for the same workload. AMD’s MI300A and MI355X parts are built for mixed-precision AI arithmetic, where LineShine places fourth, and the rest of the Western labs are optimizing for that, not FP64 leaderboard positions.

El Capitan, Frontier, and Aurora all post HPL-MxP scores several times their Linpack results, enabled by hardware that LineShine doesn’t have. So, while it’s true the TOP500 crown moved to Shenzen, it did so on a benchmark that Western labs are no longer chasing with their fastest machines.

These days, good Wi-Fi signal is a basic human necessity, sitting fairly low on Maslow's pyramid of needs, just above food, water, and shelter. Routers provided by your internet service provider tend to be made by the cheapest contractor, and frequently don't throw Wi-Fi beyond its immediate vicinity, and choke and sputter with more than a couple connected devices. That's why today's deal on the TP-Link Archer BE550 Wi-Fi 7 router is so darn appetizing for just $149.99, thanks to this Amazon Prime Deal, 40% off its regular price, and an all-time low.

• TP-Link Archer BE550 router at Amazon for $149.99

This box o' antennas counts a total of six signal emitters, enough to cover most U.S. households. TP-Link says the array should provide Wi-Fi signals over four bedrooms, but we figure that's a conservative estimate for wooden constructions. The speeds can go up to a combined 9.3 Gbps, split between 5.8 Gbps over the 6 GHz band (Wi-Fi 7), 2.9 Gbps on 5 GHz, and 574 Mbps on good ol' 2.4 GHz. It's worth noting that on recent phones and tablets, the router's Multi-Link Operation will let a device use both 6 GHz and 5 GHz bands simultaneously.

The goodies don't stop there, either. While most modern routers have just the one higher-speed Ethernet wired port, the Archer BE550 comes with a full complement of 2.5 Gbps connectors — one for the Internet connection, and four for LAN devices. Since most PC motherboards in the past few years have 2.5 Gbps or 5 Gbps ports, this router lets you take full advantage of them. More than a few techies buy their own switches for this purpose, and this router obviates that expense and annoyance.

Additional niceties include most you'd expect in a modern Wi-Fi 7 router: support for multiple types of VPN servers, a USB port for sharing a hard drive on the network, mesh network capabilities, per-device QoS (ex, for prioritizing gaming devices), tagged VLANs, and many others. Get the TP-Link Archer BE550 for just $149.99 at Amazon.

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While you can't buy Secretlab's gaming chairs or desks on Amazon, you can buy them in the company's July 4 sales event, which kicked off this week and promises to gatecrash Amazon Prime Week.

Right now, you can score up to $129 off Secretlab's Titan Evo chair and Magnus gaming desk range. These are some of the most popular gaming chairs on the market.

● Check out all of the deals at Secretlab

Secretlab's gaming range is designed with comfort and gamer aesthetic in mind. All of their products have a pretty striking aesthetic and premium build quality. Naturally, they're also normally very expensive, which is why a sales event like this is not to be missed.

Secretlab Gaming Chair Deals

I've been using Secretlab chairs since 2019, and I have to say they're some of the most comfortable and durable chairs I've ever sat on. They're all really easy to build and put together, and they all exude a bombproof build quality.

Secretlab Memorial Day Sale Gaming Desk Deals

Secretlab's gaming desks all come with a unique integrated control unit that you can use to set the height of the desk. The intervals are precise, and there are profiles so you can save a number of different adjustments. They also have a unique magnetic ecosystem, the desks are entirely magnetic so you can use lots of different magnetic cable tidies, headphone mounts, and desk accessories, as sold by Secretlab, you can see some below.

Secretlab Memorial Day Sale Desk Accessories

Secretlab Memorial Day Sale Skins Deals

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Mini PC specialist Geekom has a ton of Amazon Prime Day deals with a multitude of diminutive computers with discounts as deep as 34% off. Among the plethora of discounts, we're pleased to also have a special stacking discount code for last year's flagship Geekom A9 Max with AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, slicing a further 8% off this already discounted, sturdy, premium aluminum build mini PC.

• Check out this deal on Amazon
• Don't forget our extra 8% off code: THA9MAX26

This A9 Max (2025) 'Strix Point' model features a Zen 5 architecture CPU with 12C/24T, plus Radeon 890M graphics on board. The system comes complete with 32GB DDR5, a 1TB SSD, and Windows 11 Pro. Originally priced at $1,399.00, the Prime Day sale reduces it to $1,189.15, and our exclusive Tom's Hardware discount code (8% off code: THA9MAX26) slices another 8% off, resulting in a checkout price of $1,094.

For those who insist on the latest silicon, Geekom has also put its A9 MAX 2026 Edition on sale at 21% off. That means this fresh Ryzen flagship, which has been upgraded to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, is reduced from $1,699 to $1,349. Remember, this has 32GB DDR5 RAM and with a 2TB pre-installed SSD it offers double the storage capacity of its predecessor in the deal above. We have one of these 'Gorgon Point' mini PCs in the labs now, and hope to be able to share the review with your shortly.

Both of those machines are above $1,000, but Geekom has cheaper mini PCs on sale for Prime Day, as well. For a barebones systems, the Geekom A5 with the Ryzen 5 7430U, 16GB of user-upgradable memory, and a 512GB NVMe SSD.

Digging deeper in the Prime Day bargain bin, we also spotted the Geekom A5, which promises to do everything from "business, home server, creative work & casual gaming." It is listed at 14% off for Prime day cutting its price from $439 to a far more attractive $371. In tech specs terms, so you can judge use-case claims for yourself, this 200kg pressure-rated NUC-a-like mini PC packs an AMD Ryzen 5 7430U APU which features Zen 3 cores in a 6C/12T config plus Radeon Vega 7 graphics. It also comes with 16GB DDR4 RAM installed (expandable to 64GB), and a 512GB NVMe SSD (expandable with an extra M.2 2242 slot and room for a 2.5-inch SATA drive).

The PC is on sale for just $371, which is shocking considering it still comes with an all-metal frame. In addition, it comes with an extra M.2 2242 slot to expand your storage, along with a 2.5-inch SATA bay.

For a bit more power, the Geekom AX8 comes with a newer Ryzen 7 8745HS processor, along with 16GB of DDR5 and a 1TB SSD (plus a sleek blue finish on the metal chassis).

We also remember when mini PCs used to be a great niche for finding real bargains, and hunters of such rarities can still get perfectly serviceable mini PCs from Geekom under $600 during the ongoing RAMpocalypse if they aren't averse to older silicon.

For example, the Geekom A8 Mini PC with AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS processor, 16GB DDR5 RAM (upgradable), 1TB NVMe SSD, and Windows 11 Pro is currently 15% off at $585.65 via that Amazon Prime Day link. Though slightly older, the AMD APU in this still offers Zen 4 CPU cores in a 8C/16T configuration, and Radeon 780M graphics. Most buyers won't miss the absence of an NPU.

As with the A5, you can upgrade your RAM and storage with the AX8.

Above are our five picks from the spectrum of mini PCs that Geekom has put on sale for Prime Day. However, we didn't even mention any of the firm's Intel models, like the passive Geekom iX 12, on sale for 15% off at $296, which is designed to bring mini PC power to home lab VPN, firewall, virtualization, and edge computing applications.

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.

If you ever travel with your laptop, want to game on a console in places where you don't have access to a TV, or just want a second (or third) screen for your desk, a portable monitor is a must-have. And with many screens at all-time lows, veering into impulse-buy territory (this 15-inch model is incredibly $39), there's never been a better time to pick one up.

But how do you know what to buy when there are dozens of brands (especially on the low end) that you've probably never heard of (I haven't, and I've covered tech for 20 years)? Below are a few quick portable monitor shopping tips, followed by four of our favorite current deals.

• LCD, IPS, or OLED? OLED is the best in terms of color saturation and deep blacks, but it costs much more. IPS has better viewing angles than lesser screen technologies, and is becoming the standard even on budget screens. So you should stick to IPS or OLED at this point.
• Get a monitor with a kickstand. Most portable monitors still have floppy folding covers that double as stands. I've had a screen with one for years and it's awful. A rigid kickstand that's attached to the back and swings out will make you want to use your monitor more often and in more places. All of our deal picks below have kickstands.
• Pay attention to brightness. This spec is often buried on product pages, but it matters a lot, especially if you use the monitor in bright spaces. If using it with your laptop, try and get something that is close to the brightness of that screen. You don't want a washed-out second display.
• Get a cover or sleeve. Since these screens have a kickstand, they likely don't come with a protective cover. But you'll certainly one something to at least protect the screen while traveling. So budget in some extra money to protect your second-screen investment.

Productivity pick: Veout VE-1 16-inch portable monitor

The VE-1 isn't the cheapest deal of this bunch, but I'd argue it's the biggest bargain. It's a little larger than most, thanks to its 16:10 display, which also gives it more pixels for getting work done. It's also rated to 300 nits of brightness and is slim and light for travel. It also comes in different colors for a few dollars more. I like this deal so much that I bought one in late 2024 to replace my aging portable monitor from 2018.

Better for movies and games: Arzopa A1 15.6-inch portable monitor

This glossy FHD model is better for movie watching and games, as it's 16:9 and has a glossy screen. I couldn't find a brightness spec for the A1, but most of the over 1,100 reviews on Amazon seem to be happy with its brightness. It's also light at just 1.6 pounds.

The sub-$40 budget king: WGK W156F1

This screen has a few things going for it, other than its shockingly low price. It has a kickstand and VESA mounts so you can attach it to an arm. It also sports a matte screen, which is better for work and for use under bright lights. Don't believe the spurious claims of HDR and surround sound from the tiny speakers. But for the price, this portable screen is a steal.

The OLED champ: Innocn 15A1F

Yes, the Innocn 15K1F is more than $100 more expensive than some other deals here. But it's also OLED, for deep blacks and vibrant colors, with a rated 400-nits of brightness that puts it ahead of most portable monitor competition.

If you're a photo or video editor on the go or you just want a screen that will look good next to your laptop's OLED display, which also doesn't cost a lot, this is one of the best options we've seen so far this Prime Day. The main downside seems to be that this model lacks a kickstand, so you'll have to use the included wrap-around sleeve as a stand, and those tend to be fiddly or flimsy (and sometimes both).

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microSD Express cards are quite expensive, but they’re the only solution if you want to expand the storage on your Nintendo Switch 2. So, if you’re looking to play more games on your console, now is your chance to score a 512GB Samsung P9 microSD Express for $80 off at B&H. This is a massive 40% discount from the card’s original $199.99 price, meaning you can get it for just $119.99. However, you must act fast as this is a limited-time deal valid only for today. If you miss out on the B&H deal or don’t need that much extra storage, the 256GB version of the Samsung P9 is also on sale at Amazon. You’ll get an even bigger 50% discount, slashing the price of the microSD Express card from $79.99 to just $39.99 — that’s a savings of $40 if you get it today.

• Check out the 512GB Samsung P9 microSD Express deal on B&H
• Check out the 256GB Samsung P9 microSD Express deal on Amazon

The Switch 2 is Nintendo’s next-generation handheld console, and while it received upgraded hardware that delivered better performance, its on-board storage is a measly 256GB. So, if you want to play several AAA titles, you really need to install external storage. Unfortunately, it requires microSD Express cards if you want to play games directly from the storage expansion slot, and they’re quite pricey. This is especially true since we’re in the middle of the worst memory and storage chip crisis in history, which is now affecting even memory cards and flash drives. So, if you’re in the market for a storage upgrade on your handheld console but the prices seem out of reach, you should take this limited opportunity to get a microSD Express card at a steep discount.

The Samsung P9 might not be the best of the best microSD express cards for the Nintendo Switch 2 you can get today, but it still ranked as the best 256GB budget card in our testing. And now that it’s on sale, its value proposition just went way up for those who don’t mind waiting a few extra seconds when transferring files and games between their console and storage medium. It even comes with a three-year warranty, which is longer than the usual one-year warranty that other brands give.

These microSD Express cards would go well with these other Switch 2 accessories that are on sale to help you save money while leveling up your handheld console gaming experience. However, note that these are available for a limited time only, so if you’ve decided on getting a 512GB microSD Express card for your Switch 2, head on over to B&H and snag one while it’s available. Alternatively, you can also get the 256GB version at a much more affordable price on Amazon.

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TSMC has reportedly told customers to prepare for price increases across its advanced chipmaking portfolio, extending the hikes beyond the newer 3nm process to include 7nm and even legacy products. According to a June 23rd Culpium report, the increases would affect the bulk of TSMC’s wafer revenue and could raise costs for major chip designers, including Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and MediaTek.

The exact size of the increases remains unclear, as figures would reportedly vary by customer, node, and product category, but generally appear to fall in the 5% to 10% range. TSMC price increases have reportedly already started rolling out in some cases, while other customers have been told to build the higher cost structure into future purchase orders.

The company declined to discuss specific pricing with Culpium. “TSMC does not comment on pricing. Our pricing strategy is strategic, not opportunistic,” the company said in a statement to the publication. “We will continue to work closely with customers and sell our value to them.” Although the company had earlier said it would refrain from raising prices.

Earlier reports from Taiwanese media had mainly pointed to increases at TSMC’s 3nm node, one of its most advanced processes currently used for premium smartphones, PC, and AI chips, with price pressure also expected at the newest 2nm-class production. However, Culpium reports that TSMC has informed clients that “all advanced nodes” will become more expensive, meaning the hikes would extend beyond 3nm and 2nm to include older but still advanced processes such as 5nm and 7nm.

3nm alone accounted for 25% of TSMC’s wafer revenue in the first quarter of 2026, while the company’s full advanced-node portfolio — defined by TSMC as 7nm and more advanced technologies — accounted for 74% of wafer revenue. Therefore, the hikes would span nearly three-quarters of the company’s wafer business.

The inclusion of 7nm is especially notable because the node is no longer TSMC’s flagship technology. However, it's not exactly surprising as 7nm remains heavily used across processors, accelerators, networking silicon, and other high-performance chips. Many products remain on older, more advanced nodes because they offer better cost, yield, and maturity than the newest processes, especially when a design does not require the density or efficiency gains of 3nm or 2nm.

The client notices follow weeks of public comments from TSMC executives suggesting that higher prices were at least under consideration. At the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu on June 4, CEO C.C. Wei said customers remained positive on the AI demand outlook, while also acknowledging cost pressures and the widening gap between chip demand and available manufacturing capacity. CFO Wendell Huang also said earlier that TSMC did not rule out price increases as inflation, overseas expansion, and advanced manufacturing costs continue to rise.

The timing of the price increases reflects TSMC’s strong negotiating position. The company remains the dominant manufacturer of leading-edge logic chips, and its most advanced capacity is in high demand among AI accelerator vendors, smartphone chip designers, and custom ASIC developers. With customers competing for access to the same manufacturing lines, TSMC has more room to pass on rising costs than it would in a weaker cycle.

The move also comes as TSMC benefits from a surge in AI-related demand. In its first-quarter results, the company reported $35.9 billion in revenue and a 66.2% gross margin, both supported by strong demand for high-performance computing and advanced-node production. TSMC has also raised its 2026 revenue growth target to more than 30%, with capital spending expected to remain elevated as the company expands capacity in Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, and Germany. The company’s Arizona manufacturing capacity has been sold out through 2027 since early 2025.

The reported increases are still far smaller than the recent price spikes seen in the memory market, where AI-driven demand for HBM and other high-end memory products has allowed suppliers to push through much steeper increases. Conversely, TSMC does not need memory-style pricing to meaningfully improve its margins. Because advanced nodes account for most of its wafer revenue, even a mid-single-digit increase across that base could add billions of dollars in annual revenue if demand remains strong.

For chip designers, the immediate impact is a higher manufacturing bill. For consumers, the effect is less direct but still important. A 5% to 10% wafer price increase does not automatically translate into a 5% to 10% increase in the price of a GPU, CPU, smartphone, or laptop, since the wafer is only one part of the final product cost. However, when combined with higher memory prices, packaging constraints, AI demand, and rising manufacturing costs, it creates another reason for device makers and component vendors to raise prices or protect margins by cutting costs elsewhere.

Prime Day 2026 is in full swing with discounts on almost every PC part you can think of. To that end, Logitech wasn’t missing out on the fun and has several of its gaming mice on sale. In fact, there are eight, and many of them with a significant 40% (or more) discount. And the best part, these aren’t affected by the AI boom and memory shortage, so it’s not like the pricing is coming down from unreasonable levels, either.

• Check out these deals on Amazon

You’ll see budget favorites like the basic G203 wired gaming mouse, which is available for under $19, and others like the high-end G Pro 2 can now be found for $85 (from $150) with several in between, including the popular G502 Lightspeed wireless gaming mouse ($72 - from $120) that I used myself. While these aren't their newest mice, they are all plenty capable, no matter what genre you play.

In short, there's something for almost every gamer in this pile of stellar discounts. Whether you use a claw grip or a palm grip, play FPS, RTS, or other game genres, Logitech has you covered. We've listed all of the Prime Day deals below. If these great deals don’t tickle your fancy, you can look at our Best Amazon Prime Day PC peripherals deals 2026 article for even more options in multiple categories.

If you're in the market for a new mouse, these Logitech deals are some of the best we've seen across all major brands. From a $18 budget ditty to a $114 high-end mouse, there's a mouse for you in these deals. You can also check out our Best Amazon Prime Day PC peripherals deals 2026 article for even more options in multiple categories, like mice, keyboards, headset, and more.

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SK hynix filed a securities registration statement with South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service and the U.S. SEC on Wednesday to raise up to 45.45 trillion won ($29.43 billion) through an American depositary receipt listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market scheduled for July 10th — and the company said the whole lot would go toward investments in factories and equipment.

The offering covers 17.79 million newly issued common shares and would rank among the largest ADR sales ever completed. SK hynix earmarked the proceeds for its first fab in the Yongin cluster, an advanced packaging plant in Cheongju, and chipmaking equipment that includes EUV scanners.

None of the funded projects will produce memory in time to ease the shortage that’s still driving up prices. SK hynix holds about 57% of the HBM market and 32% of global DRAM, and chairman Chey Tae-won has said repeatedly that AI demand will keep supply tight until 2030.

The filing names three target projects that SK has already committed to and is now financing via public markets. The first fab in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, designated Y1, carries a 31 trillion won ($21.5 billion) commitment for its initial phase and is due for completion around February 2027, with equipment installation to follow in the second quarter. The Cheongju P&T7 advanced packaging plant, a 19 trillion won ($12.9 billion) site dedicated to HBM assembly and testing, broke ground in April and should be completed at the end of 2027. EUV lithography is needed in both, and SK hynix placed a record $7.9 billion order with ASML in March covering roughly 30 scanners through 2027.

10 ADRs will represent one common share, with the final per-ADR price to be set through bookbuilding shortly before the July 10th debut, and SK hynix said the total raise could change from the 45.45 trillion won ceiling. BofA Securities, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan are managing the sale, and the regulatory review is expected to conclude by July 3rd, with the new shares registering on the Korea Exchange on July 29th.

Both the Yongin fab and the Cheongju packaging plant reach volume output in 2027, near the back end of that window. The company confirmed the ADR plan in early June alongside a pledge to double wafer capacity within five years, a timeline Chey acknowledged would do little to shorten the squeeze. DRAM contract prices have run higher through 2026 as the three memory makers tilt wafer capacity toward HBM, which consumes around three times the silicon per gigabyte of standard DDR5.

Just two days ago, SK hynix passed Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable listed company, ending a 26-year run at the top. Its Korea-listed shares rose 5.5% in after-hours trading following the disclosure.

The AI boom has already been responsible for soaring demand and subsequent shortages in the areas of GPUs, computer memory, storage (both spinning and solid-state), electrical power, water, and networking equipment. The latest bottleneck may be the people needed to build the data centers themselves.

Asked by Bloomberg TV whether demand for data center construction was slowing, construction industry CEO Benoit Bazin said activity remains strong, but then identified labor as one of the industry's key bottlenecks. The executive, whose company Saint-Gobain supplies construction materials and building products used in hundreds of such projects, argued that labor shortages are already affecting projects in North America and are beginning to emerge in Europe as well.

Bazin mentioned the issue only in passing during his Bloomberg appearance, but his comments point toward what is becoming an increasingly important challenge for the AI infrastructure boom. The global race to build new computing infrastructure has hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Oracle collectively committing hundreds of billions of dollars toward new facilities, but constructing a modern AI data center requires far more than just money.

As we've reported many times before, power availability is the primary constraint facing new projects. Electrical substations, transformers, transmission infrastructure, utility connections, and even generation capacity itself are already struggling to keep pace with demand. However, a growing number of executives and analysts now argue, like Bazin, that skilled labor may be emerging as a significant secondary bottleneck.

You see, unlike conventional commercial construction projects, data centers require large numbers of specialized workers. You can't simply rely on standard commercial construction crews for this stuff; you need highly specialized tradesmen, like electricians, high-voltage technicians, fiber-optic installers, HVAC specialists, controls engineers, and commissioning teams, among many others. Huge swaths of these jobs require years of training and experience, making it difficult for the labor pool to expand as quickly as AI investment has ballooned.

The problem has become serious enough that some technology companies have begun funding workforce development efforts directly. Earlier this year, Meta partnered with CBRE on a training initiative intended to help expand the pipeline of workers qualified for data center construction and operations, reflecting concerns that labor shortages could eventually slow deployment schedules.

The effects may already be spilling into other sectors. We recently highlighted how demand from large data center projects has increased competition for electricians in Texas, contributing to delays in some residential housing developments as contractors struggle to compete with the wages and budgets offered by hyperscaler-backed projects. While housing obviously won't be displaced entirely, that story is an example of how AI infrastructure spending is increasingly competing for the same pool of skilled tradespeople needed elsewhere in the economy.

Also, labor is only one of several non-technical challenges facing new projects. Public opposition has become increasingly visible in some communities, particularly as residents raise concerns about electricity consumption, water usage, noise, and the broader impact of large-scale data center developments. Looking again to Texas, where numerous projects have been proposed or announced, opposition to new facilities has become a recurring topic of debate. Concerns that once focused primarily on industrial facilities and energy projects are increasingly being directed toward data centers as well.

Demand for new facilities remains strong, and few observers actually expect overall construction activity to slow significantly in the near term, but building the infrastructure required to support the next generation of AI systems means solving a growing list of problems, from power generation and grid capacity to permitting, community opposition, and now, increasingly, workforce shortages. The industry has largely solved the problem of attracting capital. It can order more GPUs, buy more land, and sign larger power contracts. Producing thousands of experienced electricians and technicians, however, takes years. As the global data center boom continues, that shortage may prove to be one of the industry's most stubborn constraints.

Bambu Lab is running a big sale all through the Amazon Prime Day week, meaning you can grab big discounts on its popular line of 3D printers at Amazon for the next few days.

It's also running its big anniversary sale event on its website/. Savings of up to 52% are possible on the best Bambu Lab 3D printers right now, both at its own store and from Amazon. That's important to mention, because we're seeing varied discounts across both sites, thanks to these deals running concurrently.

We're expecting the Prime Day deals to finish by the end of the week, but Bambu Lab's anniversary sale is set to run until July 15, 2026. That doesn't mean it's worth waiting around, however. These are popular printers, and past experience tells us that the best discounts will sell out well before that happens.

If you need or want a new Bambu Lab 3D printer, now is the perfect time. There are record-low prices to take advantage of across the entire Bambu Lab printer family, including deals on the Bambu Lab P1S, P2S, A1, and H2D.

● Check out Bambu Lab's Prime Day deals at Amazon

● See all Bambu Lab sale deals

Struggling to decide? Here are the best Bambu Lab Prime Day deals that you can pick up right now. This comes with direct advice on the best 3D printer models, with links to the Bambu Lab printers that we've previously reviewed, where you can read about our full and thorough testing of each printer's performance, which will help you to choose between them.

Bambu Lab Prime Day Deals on 3D Printers

Automatic Material Systems Attachment Deals

AMS addons (Automatic Material Systems) for Bambu Lab printers unlock the ability to print with multiple different colors in the same price, as well as help with filament drying and storage.

Depending on the 3D printer combination and compatibility, you can link multiple units together, too.

Bambu Lab Filament Deals

Filament is a must-buy when you're buying a 3D printer (unless it's a resin printer), as you're going to need the actual material to start printing with. Bambu Lab have discounts on its own range of filament spools right now, with some great bundles on sale for beginners to pick up below.

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

A prebuilt gaming PC is one of the easiest ways to get a fully assembled system without the hassles of compatibility and the higher cost of sourcing individual components. If you are on the lookout for a fully assembled gaming PC, the iBuyPower Y40 is selling at a phenomenal value of $1,749 over at Walmart. Originally priced at $2,499.99, this limited-period offer saves you $750.99 if you purchase the prebuilt PC online.

• Check out this deal on Walmart

According to iBuyPower, the prebuilt PC is suitable for anyone looking to upgrade their desktop PC for gaming, streaming, and video editing. It is an all-AMD system including the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is currently our pick as the best gaming CPU on the market, featuring 8 cores, 16 threads, a base clock of 4.7 GHz, and boost speeds of up to 5.2 GHz. It comes with AMD's second-generation 3D V-Cache technology, providing a massive 96MB of L3 cache to improve gaming performance. The Radeon RX 9070XT handles graphics duties, which is currently AMD's most well-rounded graphics card offering performance that is almost similar to the RTX 5070 Ti for far less money.

The rest of the components include 32GB of DDR5 5200 MT/s memory, a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, a B650 motherboard with onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and an 850W 80 Plus Gold power supply unit. All of the parts are housed inside the Hyte Y40, which is a fishtank-style case with three 120mm ARGB fans and an iBuyPower AW4 360mm AIO liquid cooler. Included with the prebuilt gaming PC is the iBuyPower Chimera KM7 RGB bundle, which is an entry-level keyboard and mouse combo.

As you can see from our testing, the 9800X3D excels in gaming titles and will serve you well for years to come as the solid foundation of a gaming PC, even paving the way for upgrading the GPU in a few years without bottlenecking it.

Considering all the parts, the iBuyPower Y40 should offer excellent value for anyone looking to jump straight into high-end PC gaming, especially at its discounted price of $1,749. The combination of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Radeon RX 9070 XT makes it particularly appealing for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming and even 4K gaming in certain modern titles. If you've been waiting for a powerful prebuilt gaming PC without spending well over $2,000, this Walmart deal is definitely worth considering.

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.

The Steam Machine was finally released on Monday, and many gamers were disappointed with its $1,049 starting price, which doesn’t include a Steam Controller (you have to pay an extra $79 to bundle one). Unfortunately, Valve’s hands were tied in this due to the current RAMpocalypse, where even the cheapest RAM kits now cost four times as much as before. While engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat said that they cannot give a hard number for the console’s original price point, they told IGN in an interview that it would have experienced a “probably similar” price increase to the one the Steam Deck got in May 2026.

Given that the Steam Deck 512GB and 1TB experienced a price increase of around 45%, it stands to reason that the Steam Machine would have received the same hike if it were already in the market. So, if we extrapolate the numbers, the Steam Machine would’ve been originally priced at around $729.91. The 1TB Steam Deck’s price jumped by 46.22%, but we can’t just apply that increase to the higher-tier Steam Machine because it has double the storage capacity. But if we check our SSD price tracker, the price difference between the cheapest 1TB and 2TB SSDs was just at $28 when they were at their lowest. If we add this to the 1TB "version" of the living room PC console, then we can safely estimate that Valve’s target price for the 2TB Steam Machine is around $950-$1,000.

The Steam Machine is still more expensive than the PlayStation 5 Pro, even at its original prices, because Valve refuses to subsidize its hardware sales with the sales on the Steam store. After all, the Steam Machine has an open hardware philosophy, allowing buyers to do what they want with the console. You can install Windows 11 on it and just stick with PC Game Pass to play your games on the console, meaning Valve will make zero dollars on game purchases from you.

This stark price difference could make the Steam Machine unpalatable to console gamers who are interested in switching to PC gaming through the living room PC console. After all, several tests reveal that the PlayStation outperforms the Steam Machine in several titles (although the Valve hardware still performed well enough). But the advantage that gamers are paying for in the Steam Machine is the abilities of a desktop PC (you can pretty much install anything you want on it without going through the Steam store and you don’t have to subscribe for online play), combined with the convenience of a living room console (like HDMI-CEC and the ability to switch the console on or off from the controller). Interested gamers will also likely have a library of titles ready to play.

Hopefully, the Steam Machine’s price will come down once the memory supply finally stabilizes, but it will probably be years before this happens, if at all. Valve’s new gaming console is quite a niche product — it’s built for PC gamers with an extensive Steam library who want to play games on their living room couch or while lying in bed without going through the hassle of building an SFF PC. But if you prefer playing games on your desk or already have a substantial game library on your PlayStation, you’re probably better off sticking with your current hardware.

Since Prime Day is an Amazon thing, Lenovo is responding by launching its own sale over at its official online store. Dubbed the Black Friday in June sale, the event brings some of the year's biggest discounts on Lenovo products. Whether you're looking for a laptop, such as the ThinkPad E14 Gen 6, a capable gaming handheld like the Legion Go S, or a high-performance gaming system like the Legion Tower 5i Gen 10, everyone is bound to find something at Lenovo's sale.

• Check out the ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 AMD deal on Lenovo
• Check out the Legion Go S deal on Lenovo
• Check out the Legion Tower 5i Gen 10 deal on Lenovo

The ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 is among the most performant and durable laptops for business users. The device pairs a Ryzen 5 7535U, a power-efficient chip with six cores and 12 threads, with 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory to handle office workloads. The 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD guarantees quick load times and better multitasking.

The laptop features a 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS screen with a 60 Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 300 nits for sharp, vivid images. It also comes with a 1080p webcam, a microphone, and a privacy shutter for high-quality meetings with your team. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity ensures a stable, fast connection to the Internet.

The Legion Go S taps AMD's Z1 Extreme processor and 32GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory to offer an excellent gaming performance in a handheld. It also comes with a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD to house your gaming library.

Lenovo outfits the Legion Go S with an 8-inch WUXGA IPS panel that flaunts a 1920 x 1200 resolution. That combined with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 500 nits make the Legion Go S a very top-tier gaming handheld. To put the cherry on top, the Legion Go S, unlike other gaming handhelds, comes with Valve's SteamOS.

A Core Ultra 9 275HX powers the Legion Tower 5i Gen 10. It may be a mobile chip, but it's a very powerful one. With 24 cores consisting of eight P-cores and 16 E-cores, the chip features a boost clock up to 5.4 GHz so that it won't bottleneck the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti that it's paired with. To round out the specifications are 32GB (2x16GB) of DDR5-5600 memory and a nice 1 TB PCIe 5.0 SSD.

The gaming system cools the Core Ultra 9 275HX with a 240mm AIO liquid cooler rated for up to 200W. There's also Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, plenty of high-speed USB ports, and a free three-month subscription to Microsoft's Xbox PC Game Pass so you can start gaming right away.

Given the timing, there are plenty of exceptional computer hardware deals from various U.S. retailers. The ThinkPad E14 Gen 6, Legion Go S, and Legion Tower 5i Gen 10 are just some of the attractive deals on offer from Lenovo. If you're in the market for a different product, don't forget to drop by the company's online store.

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, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

OLED panels are quickly becoming a must-have item for desktop PCs. Most of us were introduced to the panel technology in smartphones, and it’s become increasingly popular on laptops. For desktop gamers seeking an immediate visual upgrade, OLED is the way to go, and fortunately, Prime Day is proving to be a great time to take the plunge. From massive DQHD panels on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 (G93SC) to dual-mode offerings like the LG 27GX790B-B, we have you covered.

Here are the best OLED gaming monitors that we’ve come across so far:

• Check out all the best monitor deals for Prime Day

34-inch Ultrawide OLED Gaming Monitors

The Alienware 34 QD-OLED was the first mainstream QD-OLED monitor, and the updated version, sporting a newer QD-OLED panel and a faster 240Hz refresh rate, is on sale at its lowest price ever on Prime Day. It can now be had for $629.99, or 21% off its list price of $799.99.

We reviewed this model, the AW3425DW, last year and gave it immense praise. It excelled with incredibly accurate color, incredible black levels, and class-leading input lag. It also boasted a color error of only 1.33 based on our testing.

Alienware’s take on this panel has a few unique goodies, as well. It comes with a three-year warranty that covers burn-in, as well as built-in panel-saving features like pixel shifting. This model uses a newer QD-OLED panel that addresses some of the color fringing issues on earlier QD-OLED panels.

32-inch 4K OLED Gaming Monitors

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (G80SD) hits the sweet spot for gaming monitors: it has a 32-inch screen, which is ideal for its 4K resolution (granted, while you'll find 4K in smaller 27-inch panels, 32-inch models are more popular).

You, of course, get a brilliant Samsung QD-OLED panel, which is known more for its rich colors and deep blacks than for extreme brightness. However, the G80SD does stick out like a sore thumb compared to most OLED gaming monitors because it has a matte, anti-glare coating on the panel instead of a glossy finish.

With that said, the G80SD offers a 240 Hz refresh rate at native resolution, is Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro-certified, and has a 0.03 ms response time. It includes two 10-watt speakers, Bluetooth audio support, DisplayPort 1.4, and HDMI 2.1 ports. You can even turn the G80SD into a multimedia hub thanks to its Smart TV integration with streaming apps and the Samsung Gaming Hub.

Right now, the G80SD is available for $657.77, 47% discount off its list price.

27-inch OLED Gaming Monitors

LG is a leading OLED panel supplier among high-refresh-rate gaming monitors (including some of its primary competitors in the monitor space). They’ve incorporated these panels into their gaming monitor lineup, including the 27GX790B-B. Originally priced at $999, it’s now available for $300 off for Amazon Prime Day, making it a great deal at just $684.99.

The LG 27GX790B-B features an RGB Tandem OLED panel, a 2560 x 1440 (QHD) resolution, and a native refresh rate of 540 Hz. However, if you’re an eSports enthusiast and willing to compromise on resolution to 720p, you can increase the refresh rate to an astonishing 720 Hz. This monitor is designed for gamers with powerful graphics cards capable of delivering over 700 FPS and who are comfortable with 720p resolution.

Asus is also a big player in the gaming monitor market, and it makes that point very clear with the XG27AQDMGR. Being that this is an "XG" monitor, it does away with some of the frills of its more premium siblings to reach a lower price point while still sporting a QD-OLED panel. You can now grab one for just $449 during Amazon Prime Day.

That price gets you a 27-inch 1440p panel with a 240 Hz refresh rate. And who makes that panel, you might ask? Well, LG, of course. The monitor still offers DisplayPort 2.1 despite its lower standing in Asus' monitor rankings, and includes the company's Neo Proximity Sensor to dim the display when you're not sitting in front of it (which goes a long way toward extending panel longevity).

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Chinese companies are paying as much as 600,000 Chinese Yuan ($82,000) for servers built around Nvidia's five-year-old A100 accelerator and modifying gaming GPUs to run AI workloads, as a U.S. smuggling crackdown and a Chinese customs freeze on legally approved chips choke off every other supply route at once, according to the Financial Times. The price of an A100 server has roughly tripled since late last year, while Nvidia's flagship DGX B300 system has doubled to more than 8 million ($1.1 million) on the black market over the past six months.

Servers built on the A100, a data-center GPU Nvidia launched in 2020, have climbed from about 200,000 Chinese Yuan ($22,300) to as much as 600,000 ($67,000) since late last year, the FT reported, citing chip traders. Demand has also pulled in gaming processors that can be modified to run inference.

Nvidia's restricted Blackwell hardware sits at the top of the same market: the RTX 6000 Pro workstation card has risen from roughly 50,000 Chinese Yuan ($5,580) at the start of the year to as much as 130,000 ($14,500), and the DGX B300, which retails in the U.S. for nearly $400,000, now trades above $1.1 million. Renting is no cheaper, with an FT survey finding that GPU rates inside China now match or exceed U.S. prices, reversing the discount that the abundant smuggled supply once provided.

Washington tightened enforcement at the end of last year, and in March, a Supermicro co-founder was charged over an alleged $2.5 billion scheme to route Nvidia AI servers to Chinese buyers. Authorities in Taiwan and Malaysia subsequently opened their own smuggling investigations, drying up the re-export routes traders had relied on. Building data centers from smuggled chips is a "dead-end," Nvidia told the outlet, adding that it provides no support or repairs for restricted products.

Beijing itself closed legal channels from the other side. After the Trump administration approved H200 exports to China, Chinese customs were instructed to block the chips at the border, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later confirmed that Nvidia hadn't sold a single H200 to a Chinese company months later. Both moves push buyers toward the same destination: Huawei, which has positioned its Ascend 950PR, launched in March, as the inference chip of choice for domestic firms.

It’s understood that the 950PR is currently undergoing testing at large data center clients in China, but output is still limited, and its native CANN software stack substantially trails Nvidia’s CUDA, so domestic supply can’t yet absorb the demand the import freeze has redirected.

Rising memory prices are only compounding all this, with one trader saying that moving away from Nvidia hardware had become harder as component costs climbed, a knock-on from the DRAM and HBM shortage now working through every tier of the AI hardware stack. Until Huawei scales the 950PR, which will take some time, or Beijing greenlights H200 imports, which is highly unlikely, prices for the remaining A100 inventory in China will continue to rise.

Yesterday, we brought you some poppin' deals on TP-Link Wi-Fi networking gear, and today, we're back in action with the latest sales from Netgear. Netgear has a wide assortment of Wi-Fi 7 hardware, ranging from entry-level dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers to premium tri- and quad-band Orbi mesh routers.

Today, you’ll find deals on everything from EXS25 plug-in range extender to the Orbi 770 tri-band mesh system.

• Orbi 770 Series Tri-Band WiFi 7 Mesh 2-Pack
• Nighthawk Dual-Band WiFi 7 Router
• Nighthawk Dual-Band WiFi 7 Router
• Nighthawk Dual-Band WiFi 7 Router
• Netgear WiFi 7 Range Extender

The Netgear Orbi 770, currently on sale, is a mid-range Wi-Fi 7 mesh system that includes two wireless nodes. The system carries a regular asking price of $549.99, but is currently available with a $125 discount, taking the price to $424.99.

The main node (router) features three 2.5 GbE LAN ports and a dedicated 2.5 GbE WAN. The second node (satellite) only features two 2.5 GbE ports. Interestingly, neither node includes a USB 3.x port, which is increasingly common at this price point.

Regarding wireless connectivity, the Orbi 770 supports 2.4 GHz at up to 688 Mbps, 5 GHz at up to 4,320 Mbps, and 6 GHz at up to 5,760 Mbps. It also covers up to 5,550 square feet, which should be more than adequate for the average American home (around 2,220 square feet). Managing the Orbi 770 can be done using Netgear's web GUI or the Orbi smartphone app.

We reviewed the three-node variant of the Orbi 770 and praise its easy of use and plentiful ports, but knocked it for the high price. This Amazon Prime Day sale addresses our primary concern.

The Nighthawk RS90, RS140, and RS180 are all dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers, meaning that they don't include the higher-performance 6 GHz radio. While that means that short-range performance suffers compared to a tri-band router (when using a compatible Wi-Fi 7 or Wi-Fi 6E client), it allows them to be offered at much lower prices. The RS90 is priced at just $87.89 (33% off). The RS90 includes four GbE ports, one 2.5 GbE WAN port, and supports up to 2,000 square feet.

The RS140, on sale for $121.46, is a slight step up, offering faster cumulative speeds across the two bands (5 Gbps versus 3.6 Gbps) while increasing coverage to 2,250 square feet. It also comes with three GbE LAN ports and one 2.5 GbE WAN port.

The RS180 is faster still, offering up to 5.5 Gbps speeds while boosting coverage to 2,500 square feet. It also brings upgraded hardware with three GbE LAN ports, one 2.5 GbE LAN port, a 2.5 GbE WAN port, and a single USB 3.0 port for network storage. It’s currently priced at $142.99, representing a 28% discount.

The EXS25 is a slightly different beast, as it's a Wi-FI 7 range extender. It's on sale for $99, a 33% discount off its regular price. The EXS25 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 extender that plugs directly into a free wall outlet.

Once set up, it adds an additional 1,500 square feet of coverage to your wireless network while supporting up to 4.5 Gbps speeds. The EXS25 can work with any wireless router, not just Netgear-branded ones. In addition, thanks to its 2.5 GbE port, you can use it to add wireless functionality to a device that only supports a wired network connection.

According to Netgear, are only good through June 26, so you had better act fast if you want to want to upgrade or expand your home wireless network.

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, Best Wi-Fi Routers, or CPU Deals pages.

The best deal on gaming RAM we've seen so far on Prime Day isn't even on Amazon. You can pick up 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM for the equivalent of just $215 right now, thanks to this Newegg combo bundle, which combines 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 memory with a Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi 7 Ice motherboard for $479.99.

That's a good mid-tier board for an all-white AM5 build, but let's be honest, it's the RAM you care about. If you want an Intel alternative, though, you can spend a dollar less and pick up the same RAM, in black, for the equivalent of just $214. Alongside the same spec Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5 kit, you're getting a Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Master Ultra Core board instead for $563.98.

● Check out this AMD combo deal with RAM for $215 on Newegg ($479.99 total)

● Check out this Intel combo deal with RAM for $214 on Newegg ($563.98 total)

An AMD gaming PC build is the clear favorite among gamers at the moment, so let's focus on that kit deal first.

You're getting a Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 motherboard to start off your build or upgrade. This is a solid, mid-tier motherboard with a feast of gaming-friendly features to sink your teeth into. It's AM5, so this will fit all the latest AMD CPUs, and comes with a total of 12 USBs at the rear, including two USB-C ports rated at 40 Gbps. Four M.2 sockets are included for a collection of SSDs (if you've got them), with three rated for PCIe 5.0 over four lanes when you're using a CPU like the 9800X3D. One further slot is rated for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, too. It comes with fast networking capabilities, including 2.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7. You can also install up to 256GB of DDR5 RAM over four DIMM slots, with speeds of up to 8,200 MT/s, although this bundle only ships with 32GB.

The board itself is white, so while it isn't a must-have, it'll go well with an all-white build, including the case. You're getting a fast set of 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM, in a kit of 2 x 16GB, supporting speeds of 6,000 MT/s. Corsair is a popular and trusted brand for RAM, and while it performs well, it also looks great, with ten-zone configurable lighting on top of a matching all-white body.

The total cost of the bundle is $479.99, with the motherboard costing $224.99 individually. That makes the RAM just $215, which is around $135 less than the cheapest equivalent kit on sale, anywhere else.

Intel fans can choose this deal instead, however. 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 RAM, this time in black, with a Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Master Ultra Core motherboard, which scored well in our review. As we said then, this is a good choice that gives you everything you'd want from a mid-tier gaming motherboard.

It ships with a good selection of USB ports, with 14 in total on the rear I/O. Ultra-fast 10G Ethernet is included here, along with WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity. You get five M.2 sockets, as well as two that support Gen 5 SSDs. It's a build-friendly board for novice PC builders, too, supporting a number of Gigabyte's 'EZ' DIY-friendly features to help put a PC together more quickly. This'll support Intel CPUs with the LGA 1851 socket type, including the latest Arrow Lake CPUs like the new Intel Core Ultra 270K Plus.

RAM is the big one, though. Again, 32GB DDR5 Corsair Vengeance, split over two 16GB modules, with RGB lighting. Two modules mean this is dual-channel memory, so your PC will have double the available bandwidth between the RAM and CPU. The end result is a boost in frame rates and significantly better load times when both modules are installed. The RAM cost here is equivalent to just $214, a $1 cheaper than the AMD bundle, but the cost overall is higher.

Variety is the spice of life, and you've got two solid RAM bundles from Newegg to choose from here that will save you $135 or more compared to buying any rival RAM with the same specs separately. The AMD bundle for $479.99, which brings the RAM cost down to $215, is almost unbeatable, but the Intel bundle for $563.98, making the RAM $214, is unstoppable, too. Pick either of them fast, though, because these prices are too good to last, and they will sell out quickly.

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, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

If you want a massive OLED gaming monitor for work and play, this MSI 49-inch ultrawide behemoth is now just $699 in Newegg's Prime Day rival sale.

Usually priced at $849, this $150 saving gets you a massive 49-inch panel with HDR 400, 144Hz refresh rate, and more.

• Grab this deal at Newegg

While there are Prime Day monitor sales aplenty, Amazon can't match this Newegg price on the 491CQP. This monitor would be ideal for someone who wants an expansive display for productivity as well as gaming, and it's the perfect alternative to a setup with lots of different monitors scattered all over your desk.

This is a great display solution for someone who wants to just buy one monitor and never think about display real estate for years. While it doesn't have 4K resolution, the 5120 x 1440 resolution is the equivalent of having two 1440p monitors side-by-side.

The quantum dot OLED panel offers 1.07 billion colors, DisplayHDR True Black 400, and a 144Hz refresh rate. Thanks to OLED tech, you also get a 0.03ms GTG response time.

This monitor also includes USB-C with 90W power delivery, so you can plug a laptop into it and use the monitor like a giant OLED dock. KVM support means you can control multiple devices using one keyboard and mouse. Other ports include two HDMI 2.1 ports, and DisplayPort 1.4a.

MSI's monitor comes with a 3-year OLED warranty to protect against burn-in should the need arise.

More Prime Day Tech Deals

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Meta has suspended an internal AI training program after an internal data leak exposed sensitive employee information company-wide, according to a Business Insider report on June 22. The program, introduced in April, was designed to help Meta train AI systems on real employee workflows by gathering data, but has now triggered internal backlash over privacy and data security.

Screenshots obtained by Business Insider showed that data collected through the program was more broadly accessible within Meta than intended. The exposed information reportedly included private employee conversations, performance-related data, transcriptions, and activity records. Meta classified the incident as a SEV 2, on an internal scale of 0 to 5, where SEV 0 is the most severe.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company has paused the program while it investigates the incident. "We have carefully designed this program with privacy safeguards, and while we have no indication at this time that any data was improperly accessed by Meta employees, we're pausing it while we investigate," the spokesperson told Business Insider. The incident does not appear to be an external hack but rather an internal data mismanagement.

Meta introduced the program, called the Model Capability Initiative, to monitor employee behavior for use in improving its AI models. The program, which the company reportedly made mandatory for most staff, collected data on employees’ work activities, including keystrokes, mouse movements, conversations, transcripts, and performance-related information.

Employees were reportedly uncomfortable with the idea of their keystrokes and mouse movements being recorded for AI training. Now they're finding out the data may not have been properly protected, and was widely accessible across the company rather than restricted to intended viewers.

Screenshots reviewed by Business Insider reportedly showed employees criticizing the failure to lock down the data from the start. “I am incensed,” one employee wrote in an internal group, according to the report. Another said there was no evidence of malicious access, but called the lack of promised restrictions “super frustrating.”

The episode is the latest in a frustrating stretch for Meta's workforce. The company has cut thousands of jobs in part to fund AI infrastructure behind more powerful AI systems; the same class of systems that Meta and other companies are deploying to replace workers. Building these models also requires vast amounts of training data, and Meta turned to its own employees to supply it, a move most employees were reportedly against. Now these employees have learned that the data they were compelled to hand over was not adequately secured, leaving it exposed to much of the company.

The Prime Day sales give us the opportunity to take a look at gadgets and tools that we probably wouldn't immediately think of or wouldn't necessarily spring to mind, but you absolutely know you'd want to buy them when you see them. This "SinLoon" external power button, on sale and priced at just $11.19, fits into this exact category.

Unlike a CPU or a GPU, there isn't a long list of specs to share for an item like this: it's an external power button for your PC. It comes with a two-meter header cable to connect to your PC's front panel, a splitter to make it work with your existing case cables, and a pair of mechanical keyboard keys for powering down or restarting.

● Check out this deal at Amazon

That's not to understate how much detail has gone into making this. The inclusion of mechanical keyboard keys, made to look like they're straight from a top-spec gaming keyboard, with RGB lighting to boot, is a bit of a showstopper. Unbelievably, SinLoon reckons that these keys are good for over 5 million keystrokes: that's a lot of PC shutdowns and restarts in your future.

Setting it up is easy enough, too, depending on the access to your PC's front panel headers. If you've built a PC, you'll have dealt with this already, connecting your motherboard up so that the power button works. Same process with this, and along with cables for shutting your PC, you've also got connectors for the power and disk access LEDs.

The keys sit neatly in a smooth, black plastic case. The wiring, also black and mostly sheathed in glossy plastic, extends from the back. The wire does eventually split into various colored cables, with easy labels to help you figure out where to plug them in.

One neat addition, if you've wondered how this actually worked, is a 1-to-2 splitter. This lets you connect these cables and your PC's power and reset buttons together, so you don't lose the functionality on your case. This is a physical adapter, so even if the pinout isn't quite as expected, you can move the header cables around to match until it works. That said, if you want to totally bypass your PC's power button, you just need to connect the cables directly to your motherboard instead.

For just over $11, this is the flag bearer for impulse buying. You've never thought about a desktop power button before, but you're intrigued. It looks cool. But that doesn't mean it's just a trinket, a pointless item on your desk. This has practical use. There are plenty of people who'll want a power button setup like this. If your PC is in a difficult-to-reach place, or if you're finding it tricky to press a floor-bound power button.

If you're a maker or builder, you'll find use for it, too. If you're testing components, as we do at Tom's Hardware, you might find yourself with nothing more than a set of components built onto a motherboard: no case, no power button. Having a SinLoon button handy on your desk, to easily plug into your motherboard's headers, certainly makes the process a lot easier.

The $11.19 sale price for this SinLoon external power button is a great price. This won't change your life, but it might make turning your PC on or off a little easier. It looks cool, it's built well, and it'll match the peripherals on your desk if you've got a mechanical gaming keyboard. For yourself or as a gift, grab this cool little desk feature while you can before the stock runs out.

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.

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