For anyone looking to buy a premium gaming laptop with an OLED display, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI is worth considering. The laptop is currently on sale at Best Buy for a limited time for $2,224.99, saving you $550 off its original price of $2,774.99. The discount also applies to the higher-end 32GB RAM model, available for $2,399.99, saving $800 off its original price of $3,199.99.

• Check out the 16GB model deal at Best Buy
• Check out the 32GB model deal at Best Buy

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI is a fairly thin gaming laptop with a maximum thickness of just 18.9 mm. The laptop features a 16-inch OLED panel with QHD+ (2560 x 1600) resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio, giving you more vertical screen space. It also offers a fast 240 Hz refresh rate, plus support for G-Sync, VESA True Black HDR500, and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage.

Despite its thin profile, the laptop is claimed to deliver desktop-class performance thanks to Intel’s top-of-the-line Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, which features 24 cores and boost clock speeds of up to 5.5 GHz.

Handling the graphics is Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti laptop GPU with 12GB of GDDR7 memory, offering the benefits of the Blackwell architecture, including DLSS 4 and the latest DLSS 5, multi-frame generation, and improved ray-tracing performance. Memory options include 16GB or 32GB of DDR5-6400 RAM, while a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD provides storage for all your games and other data.

For I/O, you get three USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Type-C port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a headphone jack, 2.5-gig Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, and a microSD card slot. For wireless connectivity, you get Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 6E. Other notable features include a 92 Wh battery, a quad-zone RGB backlit keyboard, and a 1080p IR webcam.

Overall, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI offers a promising combination of a high-refresh-rate OLED display, powerful hardware, and a relatively slim design. At $2,224.99 for the 16GB model or $2,399.99 for the 32GB variant, the current Best Buy deal makes it a great option for those looking at desktop-class performance in a portable package.

Proton AG, which provides privacy-focused services like Proton Mail and Proton VPN, has decided to host the Flock camera map that security researcher Joshua Michael built from leaked Flock data. While the original Flock Surveillance Map is still available online, its creator is facing legal threats from the company, especially after Flock sent the researcher a cease-and-desist letter. In addition, Michael’s website is accessible only from within the U.S., requiring users outside the country to use a VPN to access it.

By contrast, Proton’s Flock camera map is easily accessible worldwide. Its location in Switzerland also makes it a little more complicated for the surveillance company to take legal action. Its move to preserve Michael’s work also follows the company’s privacy ethos.

“You have a right to know who’s recording you when you leave home, especially when a private company controls the data and it’s unclear how law enforcement uses that information,” the company said. “This map lets you search by ZIP code to see where Flock’s license plate readers are located. Use it [to] make informed decisions about how you move through your own area and whether you need to reach out to your municipal leaders.”

Flock and other automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras are at the center of the privacy debate between law enforcement and citizens. While the former argues these machines help make communities safer, many of the latter worry about the technology's potential misuse. Their fears aren’t unfounded, either — there have already been multiple cases of police officers misusing Flock cameras to stalk romantic partners and even one case of mistaken identity due to a lapse in police procedure.

However, Proton’s map is based on data from November 2025. This makes it more of a snapshot of the company’s network at that time, rather than a live map of Flock’s ALPR cameras. For a more up-to-date map, consider downloading MapQuest, which recently released an update showing the locations of ALPR cameras from Flock and other companies. This could help you plan your trip if you have privacy concerns and want to avoid getting picked up by an ALPR camera.

Why settle for ordinary when you can spice up your gaming setup with a pair of unique-looking RGB-laden desktop PC speakers? Edifier’s Hecate G2000 Pro speakers instantly stand out in both looks and sound, with the small desktop 2.0 speakers outputting a much larger soundstage than their size would have you believe. These versatile speakers are enjoyable for both gaming and music listening, and offer good value with plenty of connectivity options.

Design of the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pro

The design of the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pro 2.0 system has a different speaker design that I haven't really seen before: A squished and elongated hexagonal shape, with a clear, see-through speaker enclosure and bright RGB lighting. They look unique and modern, maybe even a little futuristic — and while I’m not a fan of the overuse of RGB lighting in general, I like them. (You can also easily turn the lighting off, so you aren’t left stuck with distracting flashing lights 24/7.) Both speakers aim the sound toward your ears with a 10° tilted angle built into the shape of the speaker, so there's no need for any angled desktop speaker pads or stands.

The right speaker contains all the tech, with controls on the top of the speaker — four rubberized silicone buttons — and power and connectivity options on the rear. The two speakers are connected by a hardwired 1.5-meter braided cord, which is plenty of length for most desk sizes. Large rubber feet on the bottom of the speakers soothe vibrations and stop the speakers from slipping around the space. The speakers are solidly built and feel very sturdy and weighty when you hold them.

On the rear of the speakers is the opening for the bass reflex port, a clear port that you can see inside the transparent speaker enclosure, and complete with a little mesh dust filter midway along the port to keep the inside of the enclosure clean.

Performance of the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pro

I put the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pro speakers through their paces, testing them while gaming and listening to lossless audio via my PC and via Bluetooth on my phone.

In gaming, the sound is clear and positional audio cues are easy to detect. The 7.1 virtual surround sound is enabled via the Xear software and does some heavy lifting in games that have good positional audio composition; however, in games that have more of a stereo soundscape, the 7.1 just seems to add echo and reverb to the mix, and doesn’t sound good at all. While playing Battlefield 6, I was impressed with the volume and gravitas of the cinematic explosions and sound of crumbling infrastructure, with individual sounds of gunfire and footsteps easily identifiable in the chaos. My set of Logitech speakers that I usually use on my gaming PC includes a subwoofer, so the bass rumble of explosions is far greater — with the desk and room vibrating when the volume is high. You won’t get that with the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pro, but the rumble is still impressive for a small 2.0 speaker setup, and the clarity and depth of the soundstage are impressive.

There is no port for a subwoofer on the G2000 Pro, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for what are essentially a pair of bedroom PC speakers. Being able to watch a movie or play games without waking up the whole house or even your neighbours gives these speakers a valuable niche, but they still have enough power with 32W total output power to turn up the volume and blast some tunes when the timing is right. You can add some dynamic bass boost via the Xear software, but I found that sound from the speakers without the added bass was far superior, with the default flat EQ offering the best experience.

Inside the Hecate G2000 Pro is a single 3-inch speaker driver. It does a great job for just one driver, but not having any separate tweeters or high-frequency speakers means it’s trying to accomplish quite a bit. The overall soundscape suffers slightly because of this, with some muddying at lower volumes — but only slightly. The overall sound is superb for a pair of small mid-range desktop gaming speakers, with an excellent soundstage and big sound not relative to the size of the G2000 Pro. Obviously, they aren’t as bottom-heavy as a 2.1 system with the lack of a dedicated subwoofer, but the bass is still impressive for such small speakers.

Specs

Features and Software of the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pro

One of the best aspects of the Hecate G2000 Pro is the number of connectivity options you have for your audio sources. There’s an AUX port that I used to connect to my sound mixer, a USB-C port for connecting directly to the PC (included USB-C to USB-A cable plus a USB-A to USB-C adapter) via USB-C or USB-A, and also a Bluetooth connection. Although the speakers work flawlessly when connecting via Bluetooth, I did find the source audio wasn’t as clear as it was via the AUX or USB connection. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack located on the rear if you want to connect a pair of headphones — and you can enable 7.1 surround for the headphones in the Xear software options.

The downloadable audio software for the G2000 Pro is very basic. Right-click on the speaker icon for interactive actions, and you can enable/disable the EQ, Dynamic Bass, Audio Brilliant, Smart Volume, and Voice Clarity; there’s also a separate 7.1 surround option for use with headphones through a connection on the speaker. You can also change the lighting without having to use the buttons on the speakers themselves. A volume slider is included, but it's completely unnecessary with the physical buttons on the speakers and various Windows OS volume controls. Most of all, the small selectable UI elements make for a terrible experience; the radial buttons are tiny and an annoyance.

I also found that making any changes to the lighting managed to disrupt any music that was playing on Spotify, so there are some software conflicts there. To be honest, you do not need this software at all to use these speakers on a Windows PC, and I could not notice any discernible improvement in sound quality when listening to music. The 7.1 audio in games is okay if the game supports it, but leave it off in a game that doesn’t; the sounds you hear can be pretty terrible.

Bottom Line

For a mid-range set of speakers at $249 MSRP, the Edifier Hecate G2000 Pros are pretty good. They are an improvement over the Edifier G2000 speakers ($109 MSRP) in power output, driver size, and pretty lighting, but do lack the ability to connect a subwoofer. The sound quality, clarity, and loudness are impressive for the speakers' size, and these speakers sound great even without the added PC software. They are loud enough for any bedroom gaming setup and will appeal to anyone who loves to add a little RGB illumination to their gaming space. The transparent speaker enclosure is novel and looks great, and definitely offers something unique to any battlestation.

We're back with another weekly roundup, containing everything that we've published on Tom's Hardware Premium this past week. From a brand-new type of SSD to reasons why buying that expensive audiophile-grade headset might not be the wisest idea for gaming, and much more. To read any of the articles featured in this roundup, be sure to subscribe to unlock access.

TP-Link’s alleged ties to China have drawn scrutiny from regulators, even though the company says it split from its Chinese parent company back in 2024. With the FCC’s ban on foreign-made consumer routers in place, it has pledged nearly $1 billion in U.S. R&D and manufacturing, and has also signed a letter of intent with Key Tronic to assemble its Wi-Fi 8 routers in Mississippi, hoping to win approval. We chronicle the saga of keeping those routers off U.S. shelves, and how TP-Link hopes that Key Tronic will once again unlock the U.S. market for the networking firm.

• TP-Link proposes $1 billion US Wi-Fi router manufacturing alliance with Key Tronic — potential deal seeks to end ongoing saga blocking its Wi-Fi 8 products from American homes

Last week saw the release of Nvidia's RTX Spark platform, with a brand-new high-end Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra in tow. However, despite the device's focus on running local AI workloads and inference, it can be a capable gaming machine. There's just one thing getting in its way: a 3:2, 3270x2180 display that demands a lot out of the relatively humble Blackwell-based GPU within. We tested the ideal custom-resolution cocktails to bolster gaming performance on the Surface Laptop Ultra, with benchmarks on how it performs in Control Resonant, and how to get a better gaming experience out of Nvidia's pricey slab of silicon.

• One easy change makes Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark a better gaming system — custom resolutions make DLSS easier on the device

Gaming PCs and setups aren't merely about getting the best performance possible; it's also about immersion, comfort, and ease-of-use. All of those elements are heavily informed by your choice of gaming headset. With the market saturated up and down, ' audiophile'-grade headsets are sitting on storefronts with some of the heftiest price tags. So, is pure audio fidelity really the be-all and end-all for gaming headsets? We argue that other elements, like microphone quality and additional quality-of-life features, can make a bigger difference.

• Why you don't need an audiophile headset for gaming — comfort, convenience, and a good mic win over pure audio fidelity

Tape storage is far from obsolete. As the AI boom produces and demands massive datasets that don't always need to remain on expensive SSDs or HDDs, tape shipments jumped by 57% year-on-year in Q1 2026. But where does the technology go next? We explore how companies like IBM, HPE, and Quantum are building new standards beyond LTO-10 with new standards and upcoming cartridges with up to 365TB native capacity, balancing time-tested reliability, performance and cost.

• LTO roadmap extends to 365 TB per cartridge as tape storage refuses to die —25-year-old format sees 400x capacity increase without changing form factor

China's domestic chipmaking technologies have lagged behind Western counterparts due to a lack of access to advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. However, despite this setback, the country continues to rely on older DUV machines instead. We talked to experts to find out how much further DUV can go.

• China can make advanced chips without EUV, but the bill keeps growing — DUV multiple patterning means bigger dies, lower yields, and longer manufacturing times

SSD controller designer FADU announced its File-Semantic SSD (FS-SSD) and detailed the technology in a white paper. The FS-SSD puts the filesystem directly onto the SSD's flash to bypass host CPUs, enabling GPUs, DPUs, and NICs to open and read files directly. The company also presented initial tests, with results that still need to be qualified by real silicon. The FS-SSD builds upon existing frameworks and a Gen6 controller, and the company claims that partner samples should be shipping by Q3 2027.

• FADU puts the filesystem inside the SSD's flash to bypass host CPUs — File-Semantic PCIe 6.0 SSD delivers 460,000 ops/s to GPUs and DPUs, samples due by Q3 2027

On the AI front, Deepseek released its latest AI model. Named Deepseek V4-Flash-1017, the model scores well across intelligence and agentic workloads broadly. However, further analysis of the open-weight model shows that it is more prone to hallucination than Western closed-source counterparts, which is important as the model sits directly between GPT 5.6-Sol and Claude Opus 5, but at a much lower cost-per-task ratio than either of the two, potentially making it an attractive option for those looking to run tasks with verifiable outputs like programming or OCR functions.

• Deepseek's latest AI model is smarter than ever, but its low running costs come at a price — uses only one-quarter of the HBM and one-eighth of SSD storage but still battles hallucinations in agentic workloads

Vast swathes of modern tech infrastructure rest on open source software, yet many of the projects used by billions of people are either underfunded or understaffed. We explore a sobering report wherein 11 out of 23 critical pieces of open source infrastructure only have one or two maintainers. We look back at major vulnerabilities like Shellshock and Log4Shell to show what neglect can truly cost, and why the people maintaining these critical pieces of online infrastructure deserve more support.

• Nearly half of critical open-source software relies on just one or two low-paid maintainers, opening the door to potential threats — report details critically underfunded projects that remain understaffed or unfunded

To read any of the articles we mention above, as well as unlock Bench, you'll need to purchase a Tom's Hardware Premium subscription. Your support goes a long way in helping us to publish deeper, more insightful articles that might not otherwise be covered.

A Steam Frame user asked for the ability to use an external optical drive with their headset, and Valve added the feature a day after one of its developers saw the post. Aiodensghost wrote the post in the Steam Frame General Discussions forum, saying that they wanted to watch a movie on the road and install abandonware from 2006 on their device, with Valve developer gaberowe responding a day after.

“I wanted to use my Steam Frame to be able to watch a movie on the road and thought it was no big deal to use the detachable disc drive I had on my computer,” Aiodensghost said on Oct. 18. “Turns out that the Frame cannot power the player and even if it could, it lacks the drivers to read a disc. Valve, this not only killed my ability to watch a movie, [but it also] killed my ability to install my abandonware from 2006. You don’t sell NFS Carbon anymore, and while I have the disc, the Frame isn’t able to read it.” Just a day later, gaberowe responded with, “We will look into this. Thanks for alerting us.”

The Valve developer then proceeded to add the feature in under 10 minutes, pushing commit b68e4a1 to the deckard-linux-no-oopsies GitHub repository, which is described as “the Linux kernel sources used in SteamOS ARM for the Steam Frame.” While this does not automatically mean that the Steam Frame will get optical drive support in the next update, this development shows that Valve developers take gamers’ requests seriously.

More enterprising users who can’t wait for the feature could also build and install the modified kernel themselves instead of waiting for the official software update. Adding CD-ROM drive support to the Steam Frame is a relatively simple exercise, though, as the commit only enabled a pre-existing Linux kernel feature instead of building an entirely new feature from scratch.

While the Steam Frame is primarily designed as a streaming device, it can also be used for standalone gaming. So, by enabling external CD-ROM drive support, users could let their headset directly read their CDs instead of needing another device to stream the contents of the disc from. It might look awkward, though, if you don’t have a long-enough cable, and you’ll have to hold your external optical drive on your head.

It's been over 20 years since the first Guitar Hero arrived on the gaming scene in 2005 and catapulted music rhythm games to the top of the charts. This was followed by multiple Guitar Hero iterations and competition from rival rhythm games such as Rock Band, and even Clone Hero on the PC. Now, in 2026, band-based rhythm games are due to make a return with the imminent release of Stage Tour from developer RedOctane Games. This brings new opportunities for brand-new music peripherals, and one interesting entry with a unique spin is the InfinaKore Fender Telecaster guitar controller from manufacturer Drakong, which will retail for an MSRP of $129.99 / €129.99 / £119.99. This new controller has a modular design to let creative users fully customize the guitar to their own look and feel, and even 3D-Print their own parts.

• Preorder the InfinaKore Guitar Controller at Amazon

The premise of open-source and customizable peripherals isn't a new one, but it certainly does make this new guitar controller from Californian-based peripheral maker Drakong (Part of HyperKin) interesting. Being able to take the core of this guitar controller and modify the shape, size, and color of the body and head by 3D printing your ideas or community designs will allow you to instantly transform this controller into something else.

Apart from the customization aspects of the InfinaKore controller, the guitar peripheral hosts the latest tech, with the top frets using low-profile Kailh Choc switches (these are hot-swappable) and the bottom frets using membrane switches, with the strum-bar and whammy-bar using hall-effect switches for less wear and tear.

The fret bar has some of the frets styled like a D-pad for some interesting strumming possibilities, plus the controller can be easily stored away thanks to a foldable neck, allowing convenient storage and transportation.

There's also tri-mode connectivity, a 4-mode slider switch, tilt functionality for entering the power-up mode, or just use the new dedicated power-up button. Even better, the buttons are mappable.

There's plenty of rhythm music gaming to look forward to when Stage Tour drops later on in the year, and this could be a great controller to complement the game.

Texas has suspended the construction permits of 17 data center projects and disabled a web portal that automated filing for new permits after it was discovered that they were still being issued a month after calls for the process to be paused. Governor Greg Abbott asked for new permits to be halted in September 2026, but watchdog groups FracTracker Alliance and Public Citizen both published reports detailing more than two dozen permits issued to Texas data center projects, reports 404 Media.

Now, the portal that previously automatically authorized permits is unavailable. “TCEQ’s electronic filing application used for automatic authorizations has been temporarily shut down to ensure all applications are reviewed by agency staff to determine if they are related to data centers," a message on the website reads.

The portal, called STEERS, is used to rubber-stamp construction approvals. But despite Governor Abbott's call for no new permits to be approved, it seems that nobody thought to take STEERS offline. Sam Law, a researcher at FracTracker, says that it's been happily approving new projects, including those for OpenAI and Amazon that went through the system earlier this week. All 17 of the suspended permits are for stormwater construction, a process that sees construction companies raise and level the ground. It's also a process that is a vital part of the approval process for all construction projects in Texas.

Governor Abbot put the brakes on 1,800 data center projects while work was done to audit them. Concerns were raised about their power use and generation, how much water they would consume, and the impact that they would have on their communities. “Our top priority is to protect Texans’ safety and quality of life,” Abbott wrote in a statement provided at the time. “Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid. Simply put, Texans must come first.”

The situation in Texas follows New York's year-long ban on data center projects larger than 50 megawatts that came into force earlier this year. The Responsible Data Center Development Act was signed into law as Senate Bill S10642 by New York Governor Kathy Hochul in July. It was another instance of a change in stance on data centers that is gathering momentum in the United States. While President Trump announced an "AI Action Plan" to accelerate adoption of AI tools and infrastructure rollout in July 2025, he announced a mandate forcing AI data centers to pay dividends to communities in October 2026. In Northern Virginia, Amazon bowed to a community backlash to plans to build four new data centers — going so far as to offer its land up for housing instead.

While the continued focus on AI tools helps drive demand for more capacity and more data centers, communities and local officials are increasingly concerned about the impacts they have on their surroundings. Water shortages and deforestation have become key issues affecting the communities in which data centers are being placed, as has the increase in the cost of energy.

If you are wondering why the GeForce RTX 5090, despite being one of the best graphics cards, has evaporated from retail shelves, the answer lies in China’s industrial conversion factories. A newly surfaced video reveals the staggering scale of the country’s grey-market AI operations, showing industrial workshops dismantling brand-new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards to repurpose them for the AI boom.

So, what exactly is a GeForce RTX 5090 doing in China when the graphics card is not even officially available there? The answer is simple. They are there to be transformed into AI workhorses. The recently leaked footage offers a glimpse inside these Chinese workshops, where skilled technicians meticulously desolder the pricey flagship’s GB202 silicon and GDDR7 memory chips. They then transplant the components into a dual-slot blower design tailored for server use.

The GeForce RTX 5090 blower graphics cards will ultimately end up in high-density server racks where they will become the backbone of massive AI compute clusters. The scale and efficiency of these operations are impressive, with production lines converting shipments of brand-new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards, from Nvidia's custom partner models to the chipmaker's highly coveted Founders Edition. After testing and validation, workers would repackage these modified GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards and ship them to clients, likely data centers or AI labs.

Many of these Chinese factories are scattered throughout the country. The conversion process is massive in scale, and probably thousands of GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards are being repurposed every day. Middlemen in these grey-market supply chains are constantly hunting for GeForce RTX 5090 stock to fuel these operations.

Nvidia has reportedly halted production of the GeForce RTX 5090 and is, in all likelihood, redirecting the valuable silicon to higher-margin professional GPUs like the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell. At the same time, a vast network of Chinese conversion factories continues to operate at full speed. Redirected supply and aggressive grey-market recycling have nearly wiped out GeForce RTX 5090 stock from U.S. retailers.

Custom GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards now start at an eye-watering $8,500. However, a new workaround has emerged to sidestep the stock shortage and inflated prices: prebuilt gaming systems. Sometimes these GeForce RTX 5090 prebuilts cost less than a standalone GeForce RTX 5090, while offering a fully assembled system with a manufacturer's warranty.

If you had told me a few months ago that buying an entire gaming system would be cheaper than a single high-end graphics card, I would have called you insane. Yet here we are. In today’s chaotic market, prebuilt systems often offer better value than standalone graphics cards.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR released details of a new 3D-printed Russian cruise missile that was first deployed around September and October of this year. The missile is faster than traditional weapons, hitting speeds of 500mph, and has a range of over 700 miles. According to Business Insider, these cruise missiles, called “Filin,” are more affordable than the traditional Kh-101 cruise missile that costs more than $2,000,000 per launch. This is why some fear that these weapons would be used by the Russian military in “missile spam” tactics against Kyiv to overwhelm its air defenses.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was originally planned to last just a few weeks, has turned into a multi-year war of attrition. This has made the frontlines a costly effort for both man and machine, which is why both sides are looking for more cost-efficient ways to conduct warfare. While drones have seen widespread use in this conflict, they’re relatively slow and are easier to shoot down. The Geran-5, which has been known to disintegrate in flight, could only hit a maximum speed of 270 mph, while the Filin can reportedly hit speeds of 500 mph and has a range of 745 miles. While this still isn’t as fast as modern fighter jets like the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the increased top speed could make it that much harder for Ukrainian air defenses to deal with the threat.

The GUR said that the Filin has a carbon and fiberglass fuselage, while also featuring some 3D-printed parts. It also said that Moscow was able to keep costs on the cruise missile low by relying on commercially available parts from both domestic and foreign companies. It used Russian-made engines instead of the Chinese turbojets found in many Shahed drones, while many electronic components, such as the flight controller, inertial navigation systems, equipment controllers, and counter-jamming hardware, are said to come from Western nations and their allies. The Ukrainian intelligence agency listed the following sources: 35 components come from the U.S., 22 from China, and 13 from Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the Netherlands.

While 3D-printing isn’t necessarily cheaper than traditional manufacturing methods, it’s sometimes more cost-efficient for producing items that require unique geometries, such as solid rocket fuel or jet-engine turbine blades. It has even allowed a tech hobbyist to build a DIY MANPADS for under $100. While the Filin will likely cost way more than a home-made 3D-printed missile, the fact that it’s significantly more affordable than traditional cruise missiles could allow Russia to launch more of them, spelling trouble for the Ukrainian defenders.

These days, it's exceedingly difficult not to be jaded and weary about the tech market. Memory, graphics cards, and now storage are becoming impossible to obtain; there's basically no new consumer hardware being released; and there's AI everywhere. Technology YouTuber TrashBench (TB), too, is tired and was harkening back to the halcyon days when everything was fresh and straightforward — so he went back in time with a retro build.

More specifically, he recreated a facsimile of the first machine his parents bought him in 1996 when he was a wee lad, to play The Need for Speed: Special Edition — a PC-improved version of the first ever game in the series. According to the man, it was thanks to this machine that he fell in love with computers in general.

TB kicked things off with an Intel Pentium MMX 200 MHz CPU sitting atop an Epox Pronix EP-P55-BT motherboard, boasting what was at the time a new, fresh, convenient ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket. This motherboard popped up during the RAM transition from SIMM to DIMM, which is why you'll see two slots of each on the top. 32 MB of RAM went right in, a generous amount for the year.

Funnily enough, the CPU barely needed cooling, which is why a simple 40-mm fan suffices, although anyone who's lived through this era will tell you that those were guaranteed to start whining after just a few months of heavy usage. There is no case cooling, as it's just not needed.

However, he did need to correctly set the motherboard's jumpers, as such luxuries like automatically detecting CPU speed and voltage were just becoming normal. Yes, this meant that you could burn out a CPU if you played the jumper game wrong.

For graphics card duty, he enlisted an S3 Trio32 card, which was pretty, ahem, modest even in the era, and had no 3D rendering capabilities whatsoever. In this era, the now-ubiquitous 3D accelerator cards were just coming into fashion, and he eventually replaced the S3 with a Matrox Mystique 3D, another offering of dubious quality. Yet those were happy days, as any form of 3D acceleration was far better than none.

Storage comes by way of a Western Digital Caviar 22100 hard drive with a whopping two gigabytes of storage and the uncanny ability to emulate the dulcet tones of a jackhammer. TB eventually swapped it later for a roomier 80 GB unit. Again, due to the idiosyncrasies and constant transitions of the era — hardware doubled in speed and capacity nearly every year — he had to set a jumper to clip it to the likely amounts of either 8.4 GB or 33.4 GB, as the addressing space of BIOSes and disk controllers of the time were limited.

The build wraps up with an OG Sound Blaster 16 sound card and a CD-ROM drive. After test-driving the machine with Need for Speed, he moved on to Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, which necessitated a joystick. Naturally, he got the much-beloved Quickshot QS-123, a staple in many home PCs, and one that needed replacement in about six months, as its build quality matched its price.

A video purported to be “authentic, original 360p footage captured inside a CompUSA retail store in New York City” has been shared on YouTube, allowing retro computing fans to step back in time to November 2000. This was the Windows Me, Pentium III, and Athlon era, dominated by computers constructed using a lot of translucent plastics and beige boxes already a distant memory. However, computer stores like this bulged with displays and fast-selling stock before internet shopping would start to eat many of these businesses away.

The video reveals a nostalgic CompUSA, greeted by a wall of CRT monitors. The store looks crowded and almost chaotic with peripherals, PCs, and devices - and boxes filling a lot of space in the aisles.

The first item is a noteworthy trio of laptops. It looks like three stylish Sony VAIO machines in a line. In the center of this display is probably the most interesting device from the time, which we believe to be a Sony VAIO C1 Series ‘PictureBook’ PCG-C1VN subnotebook. Searches indicate this device was powered by the Transmeta Crusoe TM5600 processor running at 600 MHz, supported by 128MB of SDRAM, and a 12GB HDD. The tiny form factor, weighing in at around 2.2 pounds (1kg), was built around an 8.9-inch TFT display of 1024 x 480 pixels. It also had a dGPU, an ATI Rage Mobility with 8MB dedicated VRAM.

Above this trio of laptops, there's a spec card for one of the larger laptops available in store. Squinting at the 360p video, it appears the unnamed portable has an Intel Pentium III 700 MHz CPU, S3 graphics, 128GB of RAM, and a 20GB HDD.

Next up, the video shows some New Yorkers (or tourists) browsing desktop machines including Compaq Presario PCs, with characteristic translucent accent faceplates – clearly inspired by the iMac. Again, we would expect these came with Celeron/Pentium III processors, or AMD Athlon/Duron chips from that era. Graphics cards in these would typically be Nvidia RIVA TNT2 or GeForce2 MX cards.

Later on, the video shows a significant amount of store space stacked with boxes for perhaps 100 Compaq Presario desktops. On one box you can see the model number ‘5WV294.’ According to our searches, that model would come with an AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz, 128MB RAM, 30-40GB HDD, an optical drive, and Nvidia GeForce2 MX or S3 Savage4 / ProSavage 3D graphics.

The video also shows Apple Mac desktops powered up next to matching monitors. Even with Apple’s serious professional desktops, by 2000 the beige era was long gone. A spec card shows that one of the Apple desktops on display is the Power Macintosh G4 Dual 500. Yes, it had twin 500 MHz G4 processors, as well as 256MB memory, a 40GB HDD, a DVD RAM drive, and a 16MB video card, costing an eye-watering $3,500. We previously mentioned the ‘iMac era’ and indeed, an in-store wall of perhaps 50 boxed iMac computers is shown later in the video.

A 21-inch ViewSonic A110 monitor displaying a demo reel with Apple monitors and Apple Macs is also featured. It is a high-end model, priced at $750. Printers appear in the video too, with various HP models boxed up. The video also shows a shelf of unboxed printers and MFPs on display, and you can see someone pondering over one. Mice, mouse mats, and a Windows Me ‘Take Me Home’ promotional in-store display also catch the cameraman’s eye.

The video ends with a scene at the checkout, and folks buying sundries and peripherals. The last customer appears to be inquiring about a mail-in rebate for an HP printer. Some things never change.

CompUSA collapsed due to competition from big box stores, the ascent of online retailers, and various managerial missteps. The store brand saw mass closures and liquidation in 2007/8, with a handful of stores kept alive by Systemax/TigerDirect. The CompUSA retail identity was finally retired in 2012.