A lot has changed in the PC market over the past few decades, but one question remains timeless: “Can I squeeze more performance out of the system I’ve got now, or do I have to build or buy something else?” Here, we’ll break down the issues in play and discuss how to make this decision in a way that gives you the best chance of maximizing your performance per dollar. We’ll focus on the question of upgrading an existing system versus buying a new one. In this context, buying a new rig could mean acquiring new parts and doing the assembly yourself or buying an OEM or boutique system.
There’s never been a better time to break into the increasingly lucrative field of game design. Thanks to a series of affordable and powerful development platforms, avid gamers and programmers are able to build best-selling games in the comfort of their own home, and the technology is only growing more powerful by the day. The will give you the skills and tools you need to join their ranks, and it’s available for over 95 percent off at just $25. Featuring six courses and over 100 lessons, this in-depth bundle will walk you through everything you need to know in order to start building pro-level games from scratch.
When AMD launched its 7nm Ryzen CPUs in July, it promised that there was another high-end chip still to come — the Ryzen 9 3950X, a 16-core processor with a 3.5GHz base clock and a 4.7GHz boost. In the intervening months, however, it’s become clear that the company was quite supply-constrained. We’ve been watching the overall supply situation with Ryzen 7nm CPUs, and while it’s improving, it hasn’t yet been all that good. The 3900X, in particular, has been difficult to find. AMD has now notified us that it will be delaying the launch of both third-generation Threadripper and the 3950X while it continues to improve yields and part availability.
Today’s best deal is a high-end productivity monitor from Dell that features a 4K resolution and 10-bit color support with a 37 percent discount. Dell’s UltraSharp U3818DW features a large curved 38-inch IPS panel with 10-bit color support and an ultrawide resolution of 3,840×1,600. This makes the display exceptionally well suited for professional image editing and office work. Right now you can get one from Dell marked down from $1,499.99 to $955.49 with promo code MONITOR9. Apple’s iMac AiO desktop is remarkably thin measuring just 5mm thick. The system’s built-in display features a resolution of 5,1290×2,880 and can recreate a billion individual colors with a max brightness of 500 nits.
When Samsung pulled the Galaxy Fold from launch this year, it rescued itself from the brink of a self-inflicted disaster. It was clear that the phone had too many defects to launch, including a hinge design that allowed foreign objects and material to penetrate behind the display. Samsung has spent months repairing its hardware — and the final result may still be a trainwreck. YouTuber Zack Nelson, of JerryRigEverything, has posted a video evaluation of the new Samsung Galaxy Fold. His findings do not inspire confidence. When evaluating the hardness of an object, scientists use the Mohs scale.
IBM plans to make a 53-qubit quantum computer available to clients of its IBM Q Network next month. The new system, which should go online by the middle of October, will be the largest universal quantum computer that’s available for general commercial use. Google announced a 72-qubit quantum computer in 2018, but IBM’s machine will be available for use by commercial clients. Google continues to explore quantum computing as a testbed and hasn’t commercialized the offering. The new 53-bit quantum computer will join the array of devices available through IBM’s Quantum Computation Center, which currently offers 10 quantum computers — five 20-qubit systems, one 14-qubit system, and four 5-qubit systems.
(Photo: Cody Berg/Pexels.com) Speeding up a slow PC can be a challenge, particularly when dealing with older hardware that may be on the cusp of needing an upgrade or replacement anyway. Sometimes, a system simply needs a fresh OS install or driver update to perform significantly better. In other cases, upgrade or wholesale replacement are necessary. This article is designed to help you troubleshoot a slow machine. Specifically, it walks through the process of determining whether your problem is more likely to be caused by software, hardware, or simply the age of the machine. Initial Questions Whether you are doing this for someone else or for yourself, here are a few “big picture” questions to consider:Has the system’s performance changed recently? If the answer to this is “Yes,” did it change when you installed a specific application or OS update?Has the entire PC slowed down, or just specific applications? If the problem is isolated to one app or a specific group of apps, have those applications been recently updated or modified?Does the machine feel sluggish and slow to respond to feedback like typing? Does it have this problem in all cases, or only when certain programs are running? Does it have the same lag if booted in Safe Mode?Does the system begin to run slowly after a few minutes of work or gaming, or is it slow from boot?Is the system just slow, or is it also unstable? If it crashes, is there a specific application or application(s) that makes this happen reliably?The answers to these questions will help you understand where the problem is likely to be.
It’s no secret that learning how to develop websites and apps is one of the best things you can do if you want to enjoy a lucrative career in tech. But most people don’t realize that you don’t need to invest an exorbitant amount of cash into a traditional computer science education in order to go down this path. The can get you to where you need to be, and it’s available for over 95% off at just $35. With six courses and over 120 hours of content led by famed coding guru Rob Percival, this bundle will teach you how to build pro-level apps and websites from scratch.
Samsung has announced new PCIe 4.0 SSDs, with a trio of new, baked-in technologies that could represent a significant improvement for drive features and reliability. The company is debuting 19 models based on the PM1733 and PM1735, with transfer speeds of up to 8,000MB/s. According to Samsung, both of these drive controllers include new fail-in-place (FIP) technology. The company claims this is a true milestone in storage technology “by ensuring that SSDs maintain normal operation even when errors occur at the chip level, enabling a never-dying SSD for the first time in the industry.” SSDs outfitted with FIP software can detect faulty chips before they fail, scan for any data in the damaged sectors, and relocate that data into other chips.
