Computer Systems

Microsoft has reportedly paused the rollout of its latest Windows Update on certain Dell PCs as a result of a driver conflict causing the affected Dell PCs to shut down unexpectedly. BleepingComputer reports that KB5101650, released this Tuesday for Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2, is causing a driver conflict that is responsible for the shutdown issue.

Microsoft states that affected Dell PCs will show a yellow exclamation point in Device Manager next to the Intel Innovation Platform Framework Processor Participant driver, making it easy for users to identify if their system is affected (and has the latest Windows Update installed). The issue is specifically caused by an alleged incompatibility between the aforementioned Intel driver and Windows 11's new Windows USB-C connection Manager interface that was introduced with KB5095093 last month. The new Type-C connection manager is part of Microsoft's Type-C connector system software interface (UCSI) driver that is responsible for handling Type-C and Thunderbolt ports on a machine.

Microsoft is planning to release a resolution that will reportedly arrive in the next several days. Again, affected users need not worry about the update as Microsoft has already halted KB5101650's rollout to affected users.

We have another Steam Machine rival in our midst, and this one is interesting. AOOSTAR quietly expanded global sales of the GODY mini PC this week, and based on the spec sheet alone, it makes Valve's console look a little slow.

The GODY Mini-PC packs a Ryzen 9 7940HX, a 16-core, 32-thread Zen 4 chip, alongside a dedicated Radeon RX 7600 XT with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. That's double the amount of VRAM found in Valve's box, plus Wi-Fi 7 and dual 2.5 GbE LAN ports for good measure. All of that lands at $849, a full $200 under the Steam Machine's $1,049 starting price. Looking at the listing, it looks too good to be true, and then you scroll down a bit.

Here's the catch. The $849 price is for a barebone unit only. AOOSTAR hands you the CPU, GPU, chassis, and cooling, then leaves you to buy and install your own DDR5 memory and M.2 SSD. Normally, that would just be a minor inconvenience for anyone who has spare parts lying around. However, right now it is a much bigger problem, because DRAM prices have gone completely sideways.

Shuttle has announced its new XPC Barebone SB860R8, which is a 14-liter aluminum cube built for Intel Core Ultra 200 desktop processors ("Arrow Lake-S"), modern graphics cards, up to 192 GB of DDR5 memory, three M.2 SSD slots with one supporting PCIe 5.0 storage, and an integrated 80 PLUS Gold-rated 500W power supply. And yes, the aluminum cube shape and all-black finish are reminiscent of Valve's Steam Machine.

That said, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB860R8 is much larger than the compact Steam Machine, with dimensions of 33.2 x 21.5 x 19.0cm. That's basically double the length of the 15.6 x 15.2 x 16.2cm dimensions of Valve's gaming box. Although the product page appears to focus on its capabilities as a compact PC for productivity and AI, with support for dual-slot GPUs and a 500W PSU power budget, there won't be any issue installing a card like MSI's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G VENTUS 2X, which would deliver much higher gaming performance than the Steam Machine's entry-level RDNA 3 GPU.

As a productivity machine with ample storage, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB860R8 supports up to four internal 3.5-inch SATA hard drives with RAID, so it can also double as a NAS or local server. As a bare-bones PC, you'll need to source an Intel Core Ultra 200 Series CPU, DDR5 memory, a GPU, and storage. And when you add all of that up, setting this up as a larger, more powerful Steam Machine will result in the overall cost exceeding Valve's controversial pricing.

Thanks to the AI boom, Valve has opted to ship the Steam Machine with a single 16GB DDR5 SO-DIMM to offset supply issues in the current memory market. Sadly, this configuration also causes performance regressions due to the Steam Machine's memory sub-system not running in a dual-channel configuration. Gamers Nexus on YouTube benchmarked the performance difference between the Steam Machine's out-of-the-box single-channel setup and its dual-channel configuration by filling both slots. They found performance improvements of up to 20% from the extra bandwidth afforded by the extra RAM stick.

Gamers Nexus tested the Steam Machine with the two aforementioned memory configurations in a variety of benchmarks, including some non-gaming-related tests. 7-Zip file compression showed the strengths of the dual-channel DDR5 configuration the most, with a 19% performance improvement with two sticks compared to a single stick. This behavior was reversed, however, with file decompression, where the two configurations were essentially tied.

In Baldur's Gate 3, the dual-stick configuration was 15% faster, achieving 69.4 FPS vs 60.2 FPS. In Resident Evil 4, the dual-stick configuration was 10% faster, achieving 129.9 FPS vs 118.1 FPS. In Black Myth: Wukong, Stellaris, and Final Fantasy XIV, performance was essentially tied between the two memory configurations. In The Outer Worlds 2, the dual-stick configuration was 14% faster, and in Starfield, the two-stick configuration was 3% faster.

MetaPCs is launching a new prebuilt gaming PC with SteamOS installed, making it one of, if not the first, pre-built manufacturers to ship a product with the same operating system powering the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. Dubbed the "Steamroller", the SteamOS-powered pre-built starts at $1,299 and comes in a Micro-ATX form factor.

The Steamroller is geared towards Steam Machine buyers as an alternative solution featuring fully upgradable parts. The system features standard PC components including a Ryzen 5 9600X, RX 7600, 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, B650M/B850M motherboard with onboard WiFi, 240mm AIO liquid cooler, 1TB NVMe SSD and 650W PSU. MetaPCs is also providing the system with an optional warranty costing $180 for two years or $240 for three years.

Pricing of MetaPC's Steam Machine competitor is in the same price range as the Steam Machine (the 2TB variant costs $1,349 at the time of writing), but comes with noticeably faster hardware. The Ryzen 9600X in the Steamroller features six standard Zen 4 cores with a clock speed of up to 5.4 GHz and a 65W TDP. By contrast, the Steam Machine's Zen 4 CPU comes with a mixture of Zen 4 and Zen 4C cores, a turbo boost frequency of up to 4.8GHz and a 30W TDP. GPU performance is more similar between the two systems; regardless, the RX 7600 in the Steamroller is beefier than the Steam Deck's GPU with more compute units, higher clock speed, and much higher TDP. The RX 7600 features 32 CUs, a 2.65 GHz boost clock, and a 165W TDP. The custom GPU in the Steam Machine features 28 CUs, 2.45GHz sustained clock speed, and 110W TDP.

GEEKOM Mini PCs pair high-performance hardware with compact, robust, and versatile builds for everyday productivity, creativity, and more. With Prime Day Sales kicking off, if you've been eyeing a Mini PC, now's the perfect time because you can save up to 30% off the entire GEEKOM lineup, from everyday solutions through to high-performance rigs that can handle complex AI and gaming workloads. And all of these deals are available via Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Best Buy.

For those looking for an everyday workhorse, there's the GEEKOM A5 Mini PC, powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U processor with 16GB of expandable memory and 512GB of fast M.2 NVMe SSD storage. With multiple USB Type-C and Type-A ports, support for up to four displays, and wired and wireless networking, the GEEKOM A5 Mini PC is on sale for $371 USD after 15% off. And for those wanting a bit more power, the GEEKOM A5 Pro is also discounted and down to $584, featuring a more capable AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor, 16GB of expandable memory, and 1TB of fast SSD storage.

Despite their compact size, GEEKOM Mini PCs are built to last and ship with robust cooling, including large fans, all-copper heat sinks, and copper tubes. They're also built for expansion, with memory and storage that can evolve alongside your needs. And with that, there's the added peace of mind that comes with each device's 3-year limited warranty. As these Prime Day deals cover the entire GEEKOM Mini PC lineup, you can also save big on high-performance, compact, and powerful devices like the GEEKOM A8 and GEEKOM A9 MAX Mini PCs.

The Arc B390 is Intel's latest and fastest iGPU to date; however, one quirk of the GPU is that it requires high-speed LPDDR5X to reach its advertised performance. YouTuber ETA Prime tested the Arc B390 with slower DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM memory to see what the performance repercussions were and saw noteworthy performance losses compared to running the same iGPU with much speedier LPDDR5X memory.

The system ETA Prime used to test was an ASRock NUC BOX-358H featuring a Core Ultra X7 358H with 16 cores and an Arc B390 iGPU. The small form factor PC features two SO-DIMM DDR5 slots rather than embedded LPDDR5X, with support for up to 128GB of memory at up to 7200MT/s. But for testing, the YouTuber opted to put in two 16GB DDR5 sticks running at 5600MT/s. The YouTuber put the system through several benchmarks but only compared the Panther Lake system to an identical system running LPDDR5X memory in one benchmark, 3DMark Time Spy.

In 3DMark Time Spy, the Core Ultra X7 358H with DDR5-5600 memory achieved 6,221 points; by contrast, the same CPU with speedier 8335MT/s memory achieved 7,345 points, representing an 18% advantage in performance. In Forza Horizon 6, the NUC achieved roughly 73 FPS average at 1080p high settings, around 65 FPS average in Spider-Man 2, at 1080p medium settings using XeSS in balanced mode. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p high settings, the game hit around 85 FPS average using XeSS frame gen set to a 3x multiplier.

GEEKOM has once again partnered with TweakTown, this time to offer an incredible deal on its impressive GEEKOM A8 Mini PC as the company kicks off its massive Summer Sale. With its Ryzen 7 8745HS processor with integrated Radeon 780M graphics, 16GB of fast DDR5 memory, and 1TB of SSD storage, you can get 20% off this sleek ultra-compact PC at checkout when you use the special promo code found below.

Even with Prime Day deals around the corner, this GEEKOM A8 Mini PC deal can't be beat. With 20% off, it can be picked up for $519 USD, ￡503, or $735 CAD. And it's a compact PC built to handle any task you can throw at it, from creative to productivity and even gaming in 4K. The tiny 0.47-liter chassis features a reinforced metal frame and a premium thermal design with a high-performance fan and dual copper heat pipes. The modular design also supports upgrades and includes a stacked I/O configuration, so the GEEKOM A8 Mini PC can become a part of any setup for the long haul.

The deals don't stop there, as GEEKOM is also offering TweakTown readers an impressive 16% off the GEEKOM A7 MAX Mini PC for US customers and 20% off for those in the UK when you use the special promo code below. This brings the price down to $587 USD and ￡551 respectively, with US customers also getting a free mouse pad. This one sports the impressive AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor with integrated Radeon 780M graphics, housed in an enterprise-grade full-metal shell with dual 40 Gbps USB4 ports, dual 2.5G LAN ports, and 8 high-speed USB ports for seamless expansion.

AMD's Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform has gone on sale in the US through Micro Center for $3,999. First unveiled at CES 2026, the compact AI mini PC is available in two variants that are identical in hardware but ship with different operating systems, one with Windows 11 Pro and one with Linux, both at the same price.

Micro Center is listing the system as in-store pickup only, with local availability expected by July 10, 2026. Online shipping is not currently available. A follow-up variant using the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495, which supports up to 192GB of memory and 300-billion-parameter models, is expected in Q3 2026, with pricing not yet confirmed.

The Ryzen AI Halo is built around the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, AMD's flagship Strix Halo SoC. That means 16 Zen 5 cores and 32 threads, a 3GHz base clock and 5.1GHz max boost, 16MB of L2 cache and 64MB of L3 cache, onboard Radeon 8060S integrated graphics with 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, and a dedicated XDNA 2 NPU rated at 50 TOPS. It comes with 128GB LPDDR5X-8000 memory, 2TB PCIe 4 SSD, 10GbE LAN, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, four USB-C ports, HDMI 2.1b, and an aluminum chassis measuring 149 x 149 x 43mm.

GMKtec has revealed the EVO-X3, the follow-up to its well-received EVO-X2 Mini PC, and the company has also confirmed that a more powerful variant with AMD's upcoming Ryzen AI MAX+ PRO 495 processor is coming later this year.

The EVO-X3 launches with the same AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 chip as the EVO-X2, targeting users with similar performance needs. GMKtec is already preparing a more advanced variant featuring the Ryzen AI MAX+ PRO 495 version, which includes 192GB of LPDDR5X memory. That expanded memory pool would enable up to 160GB of configurable VRAM, allowing it to run significantly larger AI models locally.

Beyond the chip, the EVO-X3's most important IO upgrade over its predecessor is a native OCuLink port for external graphics card support. This port provides far greater bandwidth than the USB4 ports on the previous model.

ASUS is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an entirely new line of 20th anniversary-themed hardware, and among the selection of new products unveiled at Computex 2026 is the ROG NUC 16 Edition 20, the world's first NUC (mini-PC) to feature a GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU.

ASUS ROG is no stranger to pushing boundaries of what is possible when it comes to gaming hardware, and Computex 2026 is no different for the company as it has unveiled the ROG NUC 16 Edition 20, a mini-PC that has been specifically designed to be capable of playing AAA titles with ease, breeze through video editing, and all within a sleek 3-liter chassis. The ROG NUC 16 was incredibly impressive in person, and to give an idea of its size, I could easily fit the entire system into my backpack.

Additionally, the ROG NUC 16 Edition 20 form factor enables the system to be placed upright using its provided stand, or lying flat in a horizontal orientation by removing the stand entirely. One can imagine this system in its horizontal orientation and then placed underneath a TV, similar to a traditional gaming console. Unlike gaming consoles, the ROG NUC 16 can be upgraded without tools, as users can access the chassis via the thumbscrews on the front panel, enabling quick access to memory and storage.

Mini or compact Mini-ITX builds are becoming increasingly popular as gaming options, not only because CPU and GPU performance has improved but also because they require less desk real estate. In addition, these compact builds also make great options for a lounge room, placed underneath a big-screen TV to deliver that comfortable couch or console gaming experience in PC form.

As part of COLORFUL's impressive showcase at Computex 2026, we got to see the company's new iGame MINI PC set up in exactly that style, in front of a TV, with large beanbags so you can chill with a controller in hand while playing games. First off, the all-white look of the iGame MINI PC is stylish, with a mesh front panel for cooling and a minimal design that definitely feels modern.

The top of the case also features a tempered glass panel that lets you see the PC's single-fan, tiny COLORFUL iGAME GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Mini 8GB graphics card. In fact, all of the main internal components are on-brand, including the B850I GAMING Mini-ITX motherboard, 1TB of COLORFUL CN700 PRO SSD storage, and even 32GB of iGame Ultra II DDR5-6000 memory.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite has been making its way into laptops for a while now, but the mini PC space has been largely absent from that story. That changes with the ASUS Ascent QN10, announced at Computex 2026 and Microsoft Build in partnership with Qualcomm, making it the first mini PC to run the Snapdragon X2 Elite platform.

The Ascent QN10 is built around the Snapdragon X2 Elite, which brings 18 Oryon CPU cores clocked up to 4.7GHz, Adreno X2-90 integrated graphics, 53MB of cache, and a dedicated Hexagon NPU rated at 80 TOPS for on-device AI workloads. The system supports up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory running at 9,600 MHz and up to 4 TB of SSD storage across two M.2 2280 slots.

The Ascent QN10 is aimed at developers, professionals, and small businesses who want to run AI tools and workflows locally rather than relying on the cloud. During Microsoft Build, Qualcomm demonstrated the system running tools like Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot, LLMWare, and AnythingLLM, highlighting fully on-device AI-assisted development workflows. Developers also get access to the Qualcomm AI Hub, a repository of select AI models and sample applications for building and fine-tuning custom tools, with support for running frameworks like OpenClaw natively on the CPU.

ZOTAC's new MAGNUS One Ultra (EU275080C), which was also on display with a special 20th anniversary finish at Computex 2026, immediately caught our attention. Not because it was a mini PC smaller than a PlayStation 5 console, but because the compact, sturdy build housed a desktop GeForce RTX 5080.

Yes, while other compact PCs opt for more efficient, smaller desktop GPUs like the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti or laptop variants of enthusiast-class cards, ZOTAC chose one of the most powerful 4K gaming GPUs currently available. As you can see, the GeForce RTX 5080 powering this new MAGNUS One Ultra is one of ZOTAC's impressive Solid models, and when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 20-core, 20-thread processor, it's a formidable combination.

Small, compact mini-PCs built for gaming and local AI workloads are becoming increasingly popular because they take up less physical space and are small enough to slot under a big-screen TV for a more immersive gaming experience. And it was the latter that hit our "we want one" switch, as this is a mini PC that could easily run Resident Evil Requiem and Forza Horizon 6 in 4L at 100+ FPS with full ray tracing and DLSS 4.5 rendering.

Ahead of Computex 2026, NVIDIA teased that a "new era of PC" was coming, and with the formal announcement of RTX Spark, the company's first superchip built for Windows PCs and laptops, it's certainly a game-changer. The RTX Spark is NVIDIA's long-rumored Windows on Arm CPU and GPU combo, featuring a high-performance Arm-based 20-core Grace CPU paired with an NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 CUDA Cores and fifth-generation Tensor Cores.

NVIDIA collaborated with MediaTek to develop the chip, built on TSMC's 3nm process node, which the company says delivers "best-in-class power efficiency, performance, and connectivity." RTX Spark delivers NVIDIA's full AI and graphics technology stack to ultra-thin laptops and portable mini PCs, including all of the GeForce RTX technologies that Windows users have had access to for years, including powerful ray-tracing and the latest DLSS 4.5 neural rendering technologies.

RTX Spark laptops are coming from companies like ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and even Microsoft - with a special Microsoft Surface Ultra on the way. With powerful performance, these RTX Spark laptops can render 90GB 3D scenes with OptiX and DLSS, edit 12K 4:2:2 video with the NVIDIA Blackwell decoder, and run 120-billion-parameter large language models with 1-million-token context. And, yes, as Windows on Arm devices, you're also looking at impressive gaming performance for an integrated GPU.

Gaming desktops have been getting faster, cooler, and more RGB-laden every year. MSI is now taking things a step further by bringing AI out of chat and image generation and into PCs themselves. The MEG Vision X2 AI+ is MSI's new flagship gaming desktop, and its most talked-about feature has nothing to do with its processor or GPU.

The desktop's headline feature is the AI Holostage, a cylindrical display built directly into the chassis that gives digital companions, desktop pets, and custom third-party AI avatars a visible physical presence on your desk. Out of the box, the system includes MSI's own AI companion, LuckyClaw.

According to MSI, LuckyClaw will respond to natural voice commands, allowing users to control performance profiles, display settings, and RGB lighting hands-free. MSI also says more features will be added through future software updates. In simple terms, LuckyClaw is designed to make system tweaking and tuning easier, with an AI agent ready to assist whenever needed.

COLORFUL, the gaming PC brand known for its various GPUs, motherboards, laptops, audio, and other hardware, is set to hit Computex 2026 next week in style. The company is prepping an off-site showroom at the Marriott Hotel in Taipei, which will feature four "uniquely themed zones" designed to showcase its ecosystem of gaming, lifestyle, and creator-focused hardware.

Naturally, this will be the place where it debuts its latest COLORFIRE MEOW gear, COLORFUL laptops, mechanical keyboards, custom PC concepts, and the latest in its iGame and Battle-Ax series hardware. COLORFUL always goes above and beyond at the show when it comes to its PC concepts and general booth design, so we're pretty keen to check out this custom showroom when we're in Taipei next week.

For PC gamers, COLORFUL will unveil its new Ultra Zero PC hardware set, as shown above. This is all about delivering a full "Zero Cable" look for a compact gaming PC, and in all-white, it definitely looks impressive. And for enthusiasts, there's the new iGame Ultra Series PC designed for the latest high-end GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, in a sleek design that offers panoramic views.

We all love a good GIF, but one person has taken their love for GIFs to the extreme by building a gaming PC with nothing but GIFs displayed all over the PC's side panel. Several-Bar-6512 on the PCMR subreddit, posted a video of their creation displaying dozens of GIFs inside of an O11 Dynamic Evo XL across nine screens facing the chassis' tempered glass panels.

The system is quite literally a work of art and chaos at the same time. The hardware displaying the GIFs consists of nine separate displays featuring various sizes and resolutions, powered by three Raspberry Pis. The inclusion of the Raspberry Pis keeps all of the GIF rendering separate from the main machine. 3D printed mounts are responsible for holding all of the monitors in place inside the PC. The PC itself is equipped with top-of-the-line components featuring a Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU, MSI X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard, MSI Ventus 3X RTX 5090 OC Edition graphics card, 96GB of DDR5 RAM, a 9100 Pro 4TB NVMe SSD, and the aforementioned O11 Dynamic Evo XL case paired with a mixture of 15 Noctua 120mm/140mm fans.

The Redditor revealed they worked "over many weekends and evenings" getting the "GIF PC" created and spent an exorbitant amount of time finding and downloading all the GIFs necessary for the project. The total amount of GIFs displayed on the system amounts to over a whopping 15,000 after filtering through over 17,000 GIFs online. It was not just a matter of getting the right GIFs downloaded; the Redditor wanted every single tile to have a purpose, so they also spent "roughly 200 hours" categorizing, trimming, looping, adjusting the aspect ratio, and setting the right animation speed for each GIF.

AMD unveiled its in-house AI development platform, the "Halo Box," at AI Dev Day yesterday, rivaling NVIDIA's DGX Spark. AMD initially presented the platform at CES and plans to release it in June. The system features the powerful Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 chip and an extensive 128GB of soldered RAM.

While the Strix Halo family debuted at CES 2025 to much fanfare, the following year, third-party systems saw higher prices due to rising memory costs. Likewise, NVIDIA launched its first-party DGX Spark mini-PC to deploy local AI models. In response, AMD introduced the Halo Box reference system at CES this year.

The first-party nature of the Halo Box should offer seamless operation on both Windows and Linux, preloaded models, quality control, and possibly subsidized pricing. The Halo Box can be portable enough to be carried by hand, as evidenced by the executives holding it on stage with little effort. It features an LED strip that can be controlled via software (even on Linux, according to some early patches).

The Alienware Area-51 Gaming Desktop is Dell's flagship all-in-one desktop gaming PC, and based on the updated product page, it looks to be one of the first pre-built machines to offer AMD's new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 CPU. This new "Dual Edition Processor" is for developers, creators, and gamers and is the first to include dual AMD 3D V-Cache technology, providing 208MB of total cache.

With a TDP rating of 800W and a price tag of $899 USD, it's definitely up there as a premium option for those looking for the very best. And even though it's an expensive CPU, adding it to the Alienware Area-51 Gaming Desktop also requires choosing the 360mm AIO cooler option. And when you pair it with GeForce RTX 5090 and 64GB of memory, this top-tier configuration is available for $6,149.99 USD.

Naturally, this configuration is good news for those who have been eyeing the Alienware Area-51 Gaming Desktop, and the company's claims that it delivers its best and most effective thermal solution to date. With a 200W CPU and 600W GPU, you'd definitely need exactly that - effective cooling.