PC Hardware News, Reviews & Buying Guides — Page 34 of 62
Daily news digests, deep-dive reviews, and long-form buying guides on GPUs, CPUs, home AI workstations, local LLM runtimes, retro PC builds, and the tools real builders use in 2026.
Showing articles 1651–1700 of 3058.
Browse 28 Categories
- Microsoft's SkillOpt Boosts Models With Just a Markdown File — What It Means for Your Local RTX 3060 Rig — Microsoft's SkillOpt boosts models with a curated markdown file in the prompt. On a 12GB RTX 3060 the technique adds essentially no VRAM… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- AI Coding Agents Find the Right File but Miss the Lines — What Local Code Models on a 12GB GPU Get Wrong — A new study shows AI coding agents find the right file but miss exact lines. Here is what local 7B code models on an RTX 3060 12GB get… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- Gemini-SQL2 Tops Text-to-SQL — Can a 12GB RTX 3060 Run Local SQL Models Instead? — Yes a 12GB RTX 3060 can host a 7B text-to-SQL model at q4 with full schemas and interactive speeds. We compare cost and capability vs… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 11 min read
- Asus ROG Harpe II Extreme Lands With a 65K-DPI Sensor — The ROG Harpe II Extreme lands with a 65K-DPI sensor and a 54 g weight, but the headline number is marketing. Here's what actually matters… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- AVX-512 Lifts Linux RAID Up to 41% on AMD Ryzen Chips — Linux 6.10 adds AVX-512-accelerated RAID 6 parity math, and AVX-512-capable Ryzen chips see 28-41% throughput gains on parity arrays. Free… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- Best Budget Gaming CPU: Ryzen 5 5600G vs 5700X vs i7-9700K — Ryzen 5 5600G, Ryzen 7 5700X, or Intel i7-9700K: the three budget gaming chips that still matter in 2026. Real-world FPS, platform cost… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 11 min read
- Best Controller for Raspberry Pi Retro Emulation in 2026 — The 8BitDo Pro 2, Sony DualSense, GameSir G7 SE, and 8BitDo SN30 Pro — four controllers that work cleanly on RetroPie and Batocera, ranked… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- Best SSD for PS4 Pro: SATA Upgrades That Actually Help — PS4 Pro storage upgrades: which 2.5" SATA SSD actually cuts load times, why NVMe won't fit, and the cheapest swap that returns the console… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- CompactFlash as a Hard Drive: The Win98 Retro Storage Guide — Build a silent, reliable, period-correct Win98 SE machine with a 4-8 GB CompactFlash card and a $5 passive adapter. Step-by-step from… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- Homelab Month One: Raspberry Pi 4 or a Ryzen 5 Mini-PC? — Picking your first homelab node in 2026: when the $90 Raspberry Pi 4 wins, when the $400 Ryzen 5 5600G build is the right answer, and what… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 11 min read
- Kimi K2.7 Code Is 12x Cheaper Than GPT-5.5 — Run It Local? — Kimi K2.7 Code is 12x cheaper than GPT-5.5 — but the cloud math still beats local for most developers. Here's the VRAM footprint and where… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- Which GPU for Which LLM in 2026: A Per-Model Hardware Guide — Match your local LLM to the right GPU with a per-model VRAM budget, tok/s benchmarks on the RTX 3060 12GB, and the honest limits above 34B. Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 10 min read
- vLLM vs llama.cpp on a 12GB RTX 3060: Which Wins in 2026? — vLLM and llama.cpp both run great on a 12 GB RTX 3060 — but they win at different things. Here's the single-user vs multi-user split that… Mike Perry · 2026-06-15 · 11 min read
- 1440p High-Refresh vs 4K for Gaming in 2026: ASUS TUF 27" QHD vs SANSUI/KOORUI 4K — For gaming in 2026, 1440p high-refresh wins with a mid-range GPU like the RTX 3060; 4K needs 4070-class horsepower to be worth it — and… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- Best Budget GPU for 1080p Gaming in 2026: Is the RTX 3060 12GB Still the Pick? — For 1080p gaming on a budget in 2026, the RTX 3060 12GB still delivers best-in-class perf-per-dollar — the 12GB buffer beats 8GB cards in… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Best Controller for Fighting Games on PC in 2026: HORI HORIPAD vs 8BitDo Pro 2 vs DualSense — The 8BitDo Pro 2's rolling d-pad is the best PC fighting-game controller in 2026; HORIPAD Pro for six-button SF, GameSir G7 SE for wired… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- Best Streaming and Podcasting Gear for 2026: 5 Picks for Mic, Light, and Monitoring — A complete 2026 streaming and podcasting kit for under $400 — QuadCast 2 S overall, Blue Yeti value, NEEWER ring light, Recon 50… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Count Anything Runs Locally on a 12GB GPU: Object-Counting AI on the RTX 3060 — The RTX 3060 12GB runs class-agnostic counting models at 1080p tile inference with batch headroom and is ~25-40x faster than CPU-only. Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 12 min read
- Why a Game Boy Clone Ran Too Fast — and the DIY Fix Makers Are Building — A Game Boy clone runs fast when its timing crystal or emulator doesn't match the original 4.19 MHz. The serious fix: build a Pi handheld… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- Meta's AI Bill Hits Billions: The Case for Local Inference on a $300 GPU — When Meta's AI bill hits billions, the same cost math says a $300 RTX 3060 12GB local rig pays back per-token cloud spend in 4-7 months at… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- Microsoft Mirage and Persistent-Memory Video Gen: How Much VRAM You Actually Need — Mirage and persistent-memory video models add a constant-cost memory tensor — 12GB is the floor, 16-24GB the comfort zone for local video… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Self-Host Immich Photo Backup on a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB in 2026 — Self-host Immich on a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB with NVMe over USB and a Samsung 870 EVO backup — a $200, 6-8W Google Photos replacement for… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Period-Correct Sound for a Modern Retro PC: The Sound Blaster G6 and the EAX Legacy — The Sound BlasterX G6 is a clean modern external DAC for retro PC builds; pair it with DSOAL/ALchemy wrappers and IDE-to-USB adapters for… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- Open WebUI vs LM Studio: Best Local Chat Front-End for a 12GB GPU — Open WebUI or LM Studio for a local chat front-end on an RTX 3060 12GB? One is a server stack, the other is a desktop app. Here's the call… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Build a Real-Time Flight Tracker (ADS-B) on a Raspberry Pi 4 in 2026 — Build a Raspberry Pi 4 ADS-B receiver in a weekend — hardware list, software stack, antenna placement, and what the FlightAware feeder… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Host a Quake 3 + UT99 LAN Server on a Raspberry Pi 4 in 2026 — A Raspberry Pi 4 8GB hosts Quake 3 Arena and UT99 dedicated servers for 16-player LAN parties with under 12% CPU load and sub-2ms LAN… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Best Plug-and-Play Retro Gaming Consoles to Buy in 2026 — The SNES Classic, Sega Genesis Mini, NES Classic, GameCube, and PS4 Pro are the five plug-and-play retro consoles worth buying in 2026… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Best Mouse and Mousepad for FPS in 2026: G502 Hero + SteelSeries QcK — The Logitech G502 Hero plus a SteelSeries QcK XXL remain the cheap-and-correct FPS setup in 2026 — but 60g wireless mice now define the… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Best Controller for Steam Deck and PC in 2026: 8BitDo vs GameSir vs DualSense — The 8BitDo Pro 2 is the best all-around controller for Steam Deck and PC in 2026, with the GameSir G7 SE the value pick and DualSense the… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Blue Yeti vs HyperX QuadCast 2 S: Best Streaming Mic Under $200 — The Blue Yeti is still fine for $90 in 2026, but the HyperX QuadCast 2 S edges it on plosives, gain control, and USB-C — and stays under… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Best CPU Cooler for the Ryzen 7 5800X in 2026 — A 5800X runs hot for its 105W rating. Noctua NH-U12S, DeepCool AK620, and Cooler Master ML240L V2 all hold it under 80C in 2026 — at very… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- US Forces Anthropic to Disable Claude Fable 5: Local Fallbacks — With Claude Fable 5 disabled for US enterprise, here are the real open-weights coding replacements and the consumer GPUs that actually run… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ Hits 26 TOPS for On-Device Inference — The Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ at 26 TOPS doubles inference throughput for object detection and edge ML on Pi 5 — but still cannot run LLMs. Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Run Text-to-SQL Locally on a 12GB GPU After Gemini-SQL2 — A 12GB RTX 3060 runs 7B and 13B text-to-SQL specialists locally at 25-80 tok/s, with privacy and break-even cost vs Gemini-SQL2. Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Ryzen 5 5600G for Local LLMs: iGPU + CPU Inference in 2026 — The Ryzen 5 5600G is the cheapest legit 24/7 local-LLM host in 2026 — 8B Q4 at 8-14 tok/s on DDR4-3200, with iGPU for headless builds. Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- ComfyUI on an RTX 3060 12GB: SDXL Throughput and VRAM Tuning — ComfyUI on an RTX 3060 12GB handles SDXL, FLUX fp8, and small LoRA stacks just fine — if you tune VRAM offload right. Here's the… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Building a Silent Pentium III Windows 98 Gaming Rig in 2026 — Build a silent Pentium III Windows 98 gaming rig in 2026 with a CompactFlash card for storage, a Voodoo-class GPU, and a sub-25 dBA… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Self-Host Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB: Setup and Real Limits — Home Assistant on a Pi 4 8GB is still the canonical self-hosted setup in 2026 — but only with the right storage. Here's setup, real… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Build a Pi Zero W Retro Handheld in 2026: Full Parts List and Setup — Build a real Pi Zero W retro handheld in 2026 with this full BoM, screen options, battery math, and the emulation ceiling you can actually… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 12 min read
- Best Budget 4K Monitor in 2026: SANSUI vs KOORUI vs ASUS TUF — Budget 4K monitors finally hit competitive specs in 2026. Here's how SANSUI, KOORUI, and the ASUS TUF VG27AQ compare on panel quality… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Best Budget NVMe SSD for a Big Steam Library: WD Blue SN550 vs SATA — Modern AAA titles run 80-150 GB and DirectStorage favors NVMe. Here's why a Gen3 NVMe like the WD Blue SN550 beats a SATA SSD for a budget… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 12 min read
- Best Budget GPU for Stable Diffusion: Why the RTX 3060 12GB Still Wins — The RTX 3060 12GB outlasted three GPU generations as the budget Stable Diffusion king. Here's why VRAM still wins over raw speed for SD… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 11 min read
- Hacker Loads Sega Genesis Games Off a Vinyl Record — A hacker just booted Sega Genesis games off the audio groove of a vinyl record. Here is how the encoding works, what it proves about retro… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Linux Gaming Keeps Getting Faster: Windows APIs Land in the Kernel — Linux gaming has quietly closed the gap with Windows on many AAA titles in 2026, partly because Windows-style sync APIs now live in the… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- Which GPU Does Each Popular LLM Actually Need in 2026? — Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, Mistral, Gemma, Phi — each model has a real VRAM floor that quantization can bend but not break. Here's the actual… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 15 min read
- AA-AgentPerf: What the New Agentic Benchmark Means for Local Coding Rigs — Artificial Analysis just launched AA-AgentPerf, the first benchmark for multi-turn agentic loops. Here's what it measures and the hardware… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 14 min read
- Kimi K2.7 Code: 12x Cheaper Than GPT-5.5, But Can You Run It Locally? — Kimi K2.7 Code undercuts GPT-5.5 on price per token, but the full model is too large for one 12GB GPU. Here's what to run locally instead… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 12 min read
- Building a Budget Sim Racing Setup: Logitech G920 vs Thrustmaster TH8A Shifter — The default beginner sim-racing kit in 2026 is the Logitech G920 with bundled pedals; the HORI Overdrive is the budget alternative, and… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 9 min read
- vLLM vs llama.cpp for Single-User Chat on an RTX 3060 12GB (2026) — vLLM dominates multi-tenant LLM serving, but at batch size 1 on an RTX 3060 12GB, llama.cpp's GGUF quant and tiny footprint usually win. Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 10 min read
- AVX-512 Speeds Linux Software RAID Up to 41% — What It Means for Your Homelab NAS — AVX-512 accelerates Linux software RAID parity by 30-45% in synthetic benchmarks. In a 60-day SATA-tier homelab trial the real-world gain… Mike Perry · 2026-06-14 · 14 min read