Brad Chacos

Is your computer’s CPU too hot? If your PC starts spontaneously shutting down, locking up, or acting sluggish during intense tasks, overheating could be the issue, especially when the intense summer heat is scorching. Keeping tabs on your CPU temperatures is crucial when you’re overclocking your PC’s processor, too—you don’t want to accidentally push the performance pedal too far to the metal when you’re supercharging your pricey 6.2GHz Intel Core i9-14900KS or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, after all. Me…

The Raspberry Pi single-board computer and all its variants have captured the imaginations of DIY enthusiasts and budding hobbyists alike. With the latest model, the Raspberry Pi 5, the mini-PC is more capable than ever, with an upgraded four-core 2.4GHz system-on-chip (SoC) that’s up to three times faster than previous models. Much of the coverage you’ll see around the web focuses on the more fantastical projects—magic mirrors, portable gaming handhelds, intelligent drones, and so forth. Those…

A mere week after unveiling the GeForce RTX 4070 Super (and its siblings, the RTX 4070 Ti Super and 4080 Super) at CES 2024, Nvidia’s $599 graphics card is already primed to launch. Review embargoes lifted for Nvidia’s new 1440p champion this morning ahead of a full release tomorrow morning. I’ve got the Founders Edition version of the card in hand but a severe case of the infamous post-CES plague prevented me from evaluating it fully. Fortunately, a host of other independent reviewers have don…

To the surprise of exactly nobody who has been following the PC industry the last six months, “AI PCs” were everywhere at CES 2024, powered by new chips like Intel’s Core Ultra and AMD’s Ryzen 8000 with dedicated “Neural Processor Units” (NPUs). These help accelerate AI tasks locally, rather than reaching out to cloud servers (like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot). But what does that actually mean for you, an everyday computer user? That’s the question I hoped to answer as I wandered the show flo…

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since we first witnessed Frore System’s radical solid-state AirJet Mini cooling technology at CES 2023. Promising a revolution in laptop cooling performance, it has since arrived in stores via the Zotac Zbox PI430AJ mini-PC, and Frore Systems isn’t stopping there. At CES 2024, it was showing off a demonstration that proves the AirJet Mini could deliver huge performance leaps for SSDs, too. Solid-state drives are notoriously temperature-sensitive; the m…

“Hear everything with your eyes.” That’s the tagline for Audio Radar, an inspiring new gaming product that knocked my socks off at CES 2024. It helps hearing impaired gamers compete in games where sound location is crucial, such as Call of Duty and PUBG. Created by a company called AirDrop, Audio Radar is a plug-and-play hardware system that works with consoles and the PC alike. It consists of six customizable RGBW lightbars that connect all around your monitor or television, then tie into a ce…

Sure, all the new tech being introduced at CES 2024 in Las Vegas is cool and all... but you know what’s even cooler? Picking the brains of all the smart people who help make that new tech happen. Enter Intel Fellow and graphics guru Tom Petersen. Handheld gaming PC diehard slash PCWorld video lead Adam Patrick Murray and I caught up with the ever-eloquent Petersen at the show, ostensibly to talk about the MSI Claw. This freshly revealed Steam Deck rival is the first device in its class to run o…

That awesome DIMM Detection LED on Intel Z790 motherboards wasn’t the only ultra-smart iterative tweak Asus had to show at CES 2024, nor was that powerful ROG NUC the only improvement Asus unveiled after assuming control of Intel’s NUC business last year. The company also showed off a seemingly small upgrade for traditional NUCs with mammoth implications. Faisal Habib, a former NUC enthusiast segment director at Intel who made the transition to Asus, was showing off a new form factor for the ul…

I’ll be honest: While I understand the appeal of portable monitors (especially as I type this from a Vegas bar during CES 2024), they don’t usually get me very excited. But then I saw the Asus ZenScreen Fold OLED MQ17QH and my heart started a-thumpin’. It’s beautiful, y’all. Like gorgeous. This tiny 9.7mm, 1.17kg all-metal monitor folds out (hence the name) into a humongous 17.3-inch, 2560x1920 display that’s not only powered by a luscious OLED panel, but also supports 100% of the DCI-P3 color…

MSI could’ve left well alone with the MEG 321URX QD-OLED monitor (try saying that three times fast!). I mean, it’s impressive as hell just off pure specs alone: This 32-inch, 4K, 240Hz OLED monitor with DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification and 99 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color spectrum is already better than everyone owns except the 0.01 percent of PC enthusiasts while the integration of OLED Care 2.0 (which automatically dims the black line between two open windows as well as shortcut…