News from Tom's Hardware

China-made Loongson 12-core chip is approximately three times slower than six-core Ryzen 5 9600X — 3B6000 hampered by low clock speeds in Linux benchmarks

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 12:12 EDT

One of Loongson's 12-core CPUs has been benchmarked by Phoronix. The Linux outlet discovered the chip is three times slower on average than AMD's latest six-core CPU the Ryzen 5 9600X. Read more ›

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DDR5 RAM begins to stabilize in Germany, January saw only a 0.1% increase in pricing across the month — some kits even saw price cuts as volatility begins to plateau

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 09:52 EDT

German retailers' inventory saw DDR5 memory prices stabilizing for the first time in months, with some kits even miraculously seeing price cuts compared to the start of January. This doesn't indicate that the crisis is over, or even that there will be no more price hikes, but rather that the unpredictability is finally starting to wither. Read more ›

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Western Digital doubles the performance of hard drives with dual-actuator High-Bandwidth, with path to 8X performance increase — Power-Optimized HDDs will reduce power by 20 percent

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 09:36 EDT

Western Digital reveals hard disk drives tailored for higher performance and lower power consumption, targeting QLC NAND-based solid-state storage. Read more ›

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Western Digital unveils massive 40TB HDD that records data using lasers — plans 100TB HAMR hard drives by 2029

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 09:32 EDT

Western Digital announces HDD roadmap till 2029 at its Innovation Day. Read more ›

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Intel is co-developing new Z-Angle Memory to compete with HBM used in AI data centers — vertically-stacked memory touts 2 to 3x more capacity, greater bandwidth, and half the power consumption

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 09:04 EDT

Intel and SoftBank subsidiary, Saimemory, have signed a new collaborative agreement to advance the development and manufacture of a new type of vertical-stacked memory known as Z-Angle Memory, or ZAM. Read more ›

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MSI MAG Pro X870E-P Wifi Motherboard review: Designed for productivity, but not a standout

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 09:00 EDT

The MSI MAG Pro X870E-P WiFi is a sub-$300 X870E motherboard with PCIe 5.0, fast networking, and EZ DIY features, built for productivity-focused users. Read more ›

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Snag this 4K-capable gaming PC with an RTX 5070 Ti and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for less than $2,000 — a 26% saving on a powerhouse of a rig equipped with Intel's 24-core CPU and a 2TB SSD

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 08:12 EDT

Take advantage of this Newegg deal on an ABS Kaze II Aqua gaming PC, down to just $1994.99 with discount code DEAL5ABS. This 26% saving nets you a PC with a 24-core Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, a 2TB SSD, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. Read more ›

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Snap up 32GB of Crucial Pro Overclocking RAM for $325.99 — the cheapest available DDR5-6000 kit for hitting AMD's sweetspot

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 08:11 EDT

Crucial's 32GB Pro Overclocking DDR5-6000 kit is now the cheapest 32GB kit in its class. Read more ›

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AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPUs begin to appear in the Steam Hardware Survey at last — RX 9070 arrives with paltry 0.16% market share, less than the GeForce GT 730

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 07:59 EDT

The latest Steam Hardware Survey is out, and a single AMD RDNA4 architecture GPU has charted in the PC Video Card Usage tables. Read more ›

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SpaceX acquires xAI in a bid to make orbiting data centers a reality — Musk plans to launch a million tons of satellites annually, targets 1TW/year of space-based compute capacity

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 07:54 EDT

Elon Musk merges SpaceX and xAI to help achieve his dreams of putting AI data centers in orbit, with a goal of hitting 100 gigawatts of compute in space. Read more ›

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ZX Spectrum flies simulated spacecraft using BASIC, Python, and serial — Kerbal Space Program Lunar lander powered by 1980s hardware

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 07:52 EDT

Controlling a lunar lander using a 1980s home computer is not for the faint of heart, and this project shows how one intrepid developer linked the world of BASIC to the simulated world of Kerbal Space Program using Python and Serial. Read more ›

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Still using or redeploying an older PC during today’s RAM crisis? A new power supply could save you from an insane repair bill

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 07:40 EDT

The power supply unit touches every part of your PC, and that means an older PSU poses a unique risk to your precious components if it fails. If you’re trying to get more life out of an old PC or pulling an older computer off the shelf during today’s RAMpocalypse, consider a proactive PSU replacement as cheap insurance. Read more ›

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Photonics and high-speed data movement is the next big AI bottleneck — following copper, power, DRAM, and NAND

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 06:24 EDT

Generative AI is pushing demand in all areas of the industry, and data interconnects, such as Silicon Photonics, may well be the next big bottleneck that hyperscalers need to be paying attention to. Read more ›

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Notepad++ update server hijacked in targeted attacks — outfit claims Chinese state-sponsored hackers may be to blame

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 06:14 EDT

The Notepad++ project yesterday disclosed that its update server was covertly hijacked in a targeted supply chain attack that began in June 2025, Read more ›

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Frankenstein RTX 5070 Ti with an RTX 2080 Ti PCB breaks world record with extreme modding — card was damaged, salvaged with AMD donor parts and lots of soldered wires and tape

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Tom's Hardware · 02/03/2026 06:00 EDT

A Brazilian modding team has improved its resurrected RTX 5070 Ti with a hole in it by recycling parts from an RTX 2080 Ti and an AMD RX 580 to break a benchmark world record. Read more ›

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Intel returns to boxed workstation CPUs with Xeon 600 — Granite Rapids WS delivers up to 86 cores, 4TB of memory, and 128 PCIe 5 lanes

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Tom's Hardware · 02/02/2026 16:30 EDT

Intel is returning to desktop workstations with Xeon 600. Granite Rapids WS CPUs deliver up to 61% better multi-threaded performance, according to Intel, sporting up to 86 cores and 4TB of memory. Read more ›

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Apple concedes it is constrained by TSMC's supply of advanced chips; storage and memory are also in short supply — firm isn't projecting supply conditions beyond the second quarter

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Tom's Hardware · 02/02/2026 15:50 EDT

As Nvidia is ramping up production of the Rubin platform, other 3nm-class process suffer Read more ›

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Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron team up to block memory hoarding — prices might rise faster, but it could help encourage increased supply long term

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Tom's Hardware · 02/02/2026 15:27 EDT

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are teaming up to block memory hoarding. Read more ›

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Trump administration plans $12bn critical minerals stockpile to offset China supply risk — initiative to create 60-day reserve of materials for electronics manufacturing

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Tom's Hardware · 02/02/2026 14:09 EDT

The Trump administration will soon launch a $12 billion critical minerals stockpile designed to insulate U.S. manufacturing from supply disruptions tied to China’s dominance of mining and refining. Read more ›

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Fake Samsung 990 Pro passes basic checks but runs slower than a USB 2.0 drive — counterfeit SSDs proliferate as NAND shortage creates the perfect storm for bogus deals

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Tom's Hardware · 02/02/2026 13:46 EDT

A Redditor recounts his experience with a Samsung 990 Pro clone that looks like the real deal. Read more ›

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