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3 weeks ago | 
extremetech.com | Joel Hruska |Joshua Gulick |Jon Martindale
Credit: Molly Flores/PCMag Here at ExtremeTech, we've often discussed the difference between different types of NAND structures—vertical NAND versus planar, or multi-level cell (MLC) versus triple-level cells (TLC) and quad-level cells (QLC). Now, let's talk about the more basic, relevant question: How do SSDs work in the first place, and how do they compare with newer technologies? To understand how and why SSDs are different from spinning discs, we need to discuss hard drives.
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1 month ago | 
extremetech.com | Devesh Beri |Joel Hruska
Credit: Microsoft Microsoft is making changes to the familiar "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD) in Windows 11 version 24H2, replacing it with a "Black Screen of Death." The new design has a black background instead of the traditional blue, which has been used since the feature's introduction in Windows 3.0 in 1990, as reported by Windows Report.
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1 month ago | 
extremetech.com | Josh Gulick |Jon Martindale |Joel Hruska
When it comes to tricking out your PC, the CPU cooler is prime real estate. It faces directly out your ATX case window, and it has a decent amount of surface area that’s just begging for customization. That’s especially true for liquid coolers, although air coolers shouldn’t be counted out. We’ve always liked the transparent panels that let you see liquid in the channels of your CPU water block and we don’t mind LEDs, either, but a display panel right on the cooler is far more exciting.
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1 month ago | 
extremetech.com | Jon Martindale |Joel Hruska
Credit: AMD Another day and another AMD Ryzen 9000 X3D CPU has died in an ASRock motherboard. But this time, it wasn't the 9800X3D, which has quite a few instances of this issue occurring, but the brand new 9950X3D. The new chip failed after nine days of operation, which should discount ASRock's recent claims that the problems were caused by socket debris. The user was running the latest BIOS, though, so they should have a clear path to a refund or replacement.
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2 months ago | 
yahoo.com | Joel Hruska
This is the kind of topic we prefer not to revisit. But unfortunately, GPU prices have been terrible (again), leaving a lot of folks high and dry when it comes to sourcing a new GPU. While the coronavirus is responsible for driving up prices early last year, the back half of 2020 kicked off a semiconductor shortage across a range of markets, including consoles, PCs, and the automotive industry. Ampere launched a year ago now, and the situation has only improved modestly.
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Feb 4, 2025 | 
extremetech.com | Josh Gulick |Joel Hruska
Credit: AMD The wait for AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs to make an official appearance might be over by the end of the month. AMD announced the Radeon RX 9070 XT and 9070 GPUs at CES in January but offered little detail and suggested that we’d learn more about them by the end of the quarter, which would be the last day of March. AMD also hinted that the RX 9060 would be coming down the road, but kept the details close to its vest there, too.
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Feb 3, 2025 | 
extremetech.com | Josh Gulick |Joel Hruska
OpenAI has released o3-mini, providing a more powerful model to face off against the dark horse DeepSeek in what is shaping up to be an epic power struggle. The reasoning model is designed to be much more competent in coding, math, and science. OpenAI also launched Deep Research, which is meant to handle complex, multi-step research and which will undoubtedly become a favorite of research-averse students. The new model is available in ChatGPT for the web, as well as via the API.
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Feb 2, 2025 | 
yahoo.com | Joel Hruska
Here at ExtremeTech, we've often discussed the difference between different types of NAND structures -- vertical NAND versus planar, or multi-level cell (MLC) versus triple-level cells (TLC) and quad-level cells (QLC). Now, let's talk about the more basic relevant question: How do SSDs work in the first place, and how do they compare with newer technologies, like Intel's non-volatile storage technology, Optane? In the Beginning...
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
extremetech.com | Josh Norem |Joel Hruska
Credit: Charles Jefferies When we first began giving advice on tweaking your graphics card performance, it was a rough time for PC gamers. The rise of cryptocurrency collided with the pandemic, making it almost impossible to buy PC hardware at reasonable prices. AMD and Nvidia were selling every single card they made to bot farms, which scalpers sold at ridiculous prices, like $1,700 for an RTX 3080. It made sense to stay put with what you had.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
extremetech.com | Ryan Whitwam |Devesh Beri |Josh Norem |Joel Hruska
Credit: Raspberry PiRaspberry Pi's single-board computers come with everything you need to start your next DIY project, but the devices also support a range of accessories that can make them more capable. The company has just announced a new add-on—an SSD kit that lets you add NVMe storage to your Raspberry Pi 5 in just a few steps. While it was possible to attach an SSD before, this kit bundles the drive and the necessary expansion board.
