Acer's new Nitro N50-640 pre-built gaming PC has been announced: packing the Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU and some mid-range GPU offerings, one of which includes the Intel Arc A380 graphics card.

French retailer Boulanger has been the first in Europe to list the Acer Nitro N50-640 pre-built gaming PC, and while we've got this listing in early-August, we won't see the Acer Nitro N50-640 gaming PC not shipping until at least October 8... two months from now.

Inside, the Acer Nitro PC packs an Intel Core i5-12400F processor, 16GB of DDR4 memory, and 500GB of SSD storage... in total we're looking at a rather high $950+ price tag. You can get the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card inside of the Acer Nitro N50-640 system, for a bigger $1500 price (but you'll get the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity here, too.

EVGA has just slashed a huge $1000 from its enthusiast-ready GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 graphics card, which cost $2149 just a week ago... and now it's down to $1149.

The custom EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 graphics card was introduced at $2149, with it being the cheapest of the three SKUs that EVGA has in its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti arsenal. As it stands, EVGA is selling its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 graphics cards for between $1150 and $1400.

EVGA is discounting $1000 from its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 ULTRA graphics card as well, down from $2199 to $1199 while the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 BLACK is $600 discounted, down from $1999 to $1399. EVGA is still selling its higher-end GeForce RTX 3090 Ti HYDRO Copper and GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN Hybrid graphics cards for $1500 and $2000, respectively.

Well, we now know that MSI isn't the AIB partner that pulled out of making custom Intel Arc graphics cards, as the company has just announced its new gaming PC that features the MSI Intel Arc A380 6G graphics card.

MSI's upcoming Intel Arc A380 6G graphics card is a little different to the ASRock and GUNNIR Intel Arc A380 graphics cards, where MSI is using Intel's own reference design: no factory overclocking, and a conservative 75W TDP. GPU clocks on the MSI Intel Arc A380 6G are at 2000MHz, with 6GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 15.5Gbps.

You won't be able to buy MSI's new Intel Arc A380 6G graphics card anywhere yet, as it's only available inside of the MSI pre-built PC that is sold exclusively through Chinese etailer JD.com. Inside of said MSI system you'll find an H510M or H610M Bomber motherboard, with the cheaper model featuring the Intel Core i3-10105F while the slightly higher-end Core i5-10400F and Core i5-12400F processors are used. You'll be looking at $532 up to $650 for the pre-built MSI gaming PC.

Intel is dropping the premium packaging of two of its high-end flagship Core i9 processors, the Core i9-12900K and Core i9-10980XE.

The news is coming directly from Intel, with the company posting a Product Change Notification (PCN) for the Core i9-12900K and Core i9-10980XE processors. Starting from September 4, these two processors will not come in their fancy packaging, but rather a regular, same-sized box.

It's no surprise for the Cascade Lake-based Core i9-10980XE processor, but the Core i9-12900K is still being sold right now... while the "Raptor Lake" and the Core i9-13900K aren't too far away now. Hopefully, Intel keeps the fancy packaging for the higher-end Raptor Lake-based Core i9-13900K, and doesn't start cutting corners from here on out.

Netac's new 2.5-inch SATA SSD is here with capacities for everyone: between 120GB and 1TB, and speeds of up to 530MB/sec reads.

The new Netac SA500 SSD comes in 120GB, 128GB, 240GB, 256GB, 480GB, 960GB, and 1TB capacities... so everyone, absolutely everyone, is covered. Netac is using the SATA 6Gbps standard, but it's backwards compatible, weighs just 46g, and has a 3-year warranty.

Netac is using 3D NAND flash and an "advanced controller" on the SA500 SSD, which the company says is "designed to improve the response speed of notebooks and desktops". There's up to 530MB/sec reads on the 960GB and 1TB models, while the 240/256GB and 480/512GB models have up to 520MB/sec, and the 120/128GB with up to 500MB/sec reads.

We've been hearing all sorts of bad news about Intel's new Arc GPUs where I've been reporting on news that Intel would outright cancel their Arc GPUs altogether over how bad it has gotten, and now Intel has reportedly lost their first AIB.

The first AIB to stop production of custom Intel Arc GPUs has reportedly made history, becoming the first AIB to pull out of Intel's new Arc GPUs before they even really began. The news is coming from Igor Wallossek at Igor's Lab, who reports that the first of the big board partners have "stopped the production of Intel cards completely" which his sources say are "due to quality concerns".

Igor reports: "At least one of the big board partners has even stopped the production of Intel cards completely ("due to quality concerns"), as I could find out yesterday and today. [...] Other board partners have at least already completely capped their marketing activities, and it does not currently look as if there will be any real launch offensives from the board partners in the time window I mentioned between August 5, 2022 and September 29, 2022. What will really arrive on the market (as retail) will be seen in the next few weeks. From the customer's point of view, I can only hope for the best, I alone lack faith".

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A recent rocket launch by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has seen debris come crashing back to Earth.

The nation launched a Long March 5B to deliver the second module of its in-progress space station, Tiangong, to orbit on July 24th, 2022. The 25-ton rocket was then expected to make an uncontrolled descent back to Earth on July 31st, contrasting with the standard practice of a controlled re-entry to land in the Pacific Ocean. Instead, the falling rocket booster slowly lost altitude as it fell through Earth's atmosphere and broke up over Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

"There's a picture of the big piece at the end of the fuel tank sitting on a field that's very convincing. It's the right diameter. It looks like a piece that sort of survived reentry - and is right on the path of the reentry," Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and avid tracker of objects in Earth's orbit, told Business Insider.

China's Tiangong space station has been expanded with a new module, including a new robotic arm.

The space station is continually expanding as it is still under construction following its launch in April 2021, with the new Wentian module launching on July 24th, 2022, to join the assembly. The new module brings the station's total module count to two. It includes additional astronaut sleeping quarters, as well as a robotic arm on its exterior that spans about six meters (19.6 feet).

The arm completed an array of tests after the module docked with the space station on July 25th. These included inspecting itself, deploying single joints, and confirming the arm's crawling ability. The distal end of the arm can dock with adapters across the surface of the space station, after which its base can detach, allowing it to "walk" around on the surface of the space station. The Wentian module's arm can work independently or combine with the existing 10-meter (33 feet) long robotic arm that launched with Tiangong's core module, Tianhe.

A new video by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) highlights what the Curiosity Mars rover has learned in the last ten years.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover landed on the Red Planet inside the Gale Crater on August 6th, 2012, and was lowered to the surface by a jetpack after launching from Earth on November 26th, 2011. The rover has since driven almost 18 miles (29 kilometers) and ascended 2,050 feet (625 meters) while exploring the crater. Work by the engineering team managing the rover to minimize wear and tear has allowed the rover's mission to be extended by another three years.

One of Curiosity's most notable achievements is determining that liquid water and many other chemicals necessary for supporting life were present on Mars for tens of millions of years. The Gale Crater once stored a lake and is home to Mount Sharp, a 5.5-kilometer (3.4 miles) high mountain, which Curiosity has been ascending, with each layer Curiosity climbs revealing a more recent history of Mars. Curiosity is currently heading to a new region thought to bear sulfates, salty minerals left behind after water has dried out.