Articles by Aaron Klotz, Contributing Writer

Aaron began building computers back when he was 8 years old in the mid-2000s, and it’s been a hobby of his ever since then. With a focus on computer hardware, he became an avid member of the Tom’s Hardware forums several years later, helping people solve issues with their PCs. He is now a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware, writing about computer hardware news and more. When not busy playing or writing about computer hardware, he spends his free time playing video games like Star Citizen or Apex Legends.

Articles by: Aaron Klotz

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 26H1 will be for Arm devices only at launch — Snapdragon X2-powered devices officially shipping with 26H1

By Aaron Klotz published 11 February 26

It's 24H2 all over again, but with the caveat that 26H1 will only support specific hardware for its entire lifecycle. Devices running 26H1 will not be able to upgrade to 26H2.

AMD's open-source openSIL firmware is being ported to Zen 5 motherboard early — replacement for AGESA shows up ahead of Zen 6

By Aaron Klotz published 10 February 26

AMD's upcoming openSIL firmware iis being ported early to an MSI B850 motherboard, making it the first AM5 motherboard to have a firmware option that does not feature AMD AGESA microcode.

Thermalright's LCD software for Windows ported to Linux — enthsuiast's full-fledged port supports a ton of models and enables RGB and LCD customization

By Aaron Klotz last updated 7 February 26

A Linux enthusiast has ported the Windows version of Thermalright's AIO cooler control center software to Linux. Linux users can now control their AIO cooler screens directly from Linux.

Report claims Nvidia will not be releasing any new RTX gaming GPUs in 2026, RTX 60 series likely debuting in 2028

By Aaron Klotz published 5 February 26

Nvidia's RTX 50 series Super refresh supposedly is design complete, but the GPU maker won't be releasing any new RTX GPUs in 2026, according to a report in The Information.

DLSS Ray Reconstruction might be living on borrowed time, DLSS 4.5 can reconstruct ray-traced reflections almost perfectly without any denoisers

By Aaron Klotz published 5 February 26

Digital Foundry discovered that DLSS 4.5's upscaler alone can resolve noise generated by ray tracing effects without the help of in-game denoisers or DLSS Ray Reconstruction.

China-made Loongson 12-core chip is approximately three times slower than six-core Ryzen 5 9600X — 3B6000 hampered by low clock speeds in Linux benchmarks

By Aaron Klotz published 3 February 26

One of Loongson's 12-core CPUs has been benchmarked by Phoronix. The Linux outlet discovered the chip is three times slower on average than AMD's latest six-core CPU the Ryzen 5 9600X.

Binning results from 13 Ryzen 7 9850X3Ds prove that the CPU is purely an overclocked 9800X3D from the factory — 9850X3D looks similar to 9800X3D, just with higher voltages

By Aaron Klotz published 2 February 26

Binning data from 13 Ryzen 7 9850X3D samples was published online, showing the average required voltage the 9850X3D needs to achieve its peak single-core clock speed.

Leaker claims AMD Zen 6 will feature 48MB of L3 cache — keeping L3 cache-to-core ratio the same as Zen 5 with Zen 6's 12-core CCD

By Aaron Klotz published 30 January 26

A new rumor suggests that AMD will be upgrading Zen 6 to 48MB of L3 cache to compensate for the four additional cores that will be introduced to Zen 6's CCD.

Microsoft is reportedly working to fix Windows 11's most annoying flaws — wants to restore the operating system's reputation

By Aaron Klotz published 30 January 26

Complaints about Windows 11 bugs and glitches from the Windows community have apparently reached a tipping point. Microsoft is reportedly using all of 2026 to fix Windows 11's core issues.

GeForce Now launches on Linux with a Flatpak build — native app brings 5K and 360FPS support to Linux gamers

By Aaron Klotz published 30 January 26

Linux gamers can enjoy all the benefits the GeForce Now native app has over the web browser version.

AI-assisted cybersecurity team discovers 12 OpenSSL vulnerabilities, claims humans are the limiting factor — some vulnerabilities have been around for decades

By Aaron Klotz published 29 January 26

OpenSSL is a security standard that protects most of the internet, and cybersecurity researchers have recently discovered vulnerabilities in the standard that have been lying undetected for decades.

Grab one of the best air coolers on the market for $33 — Thermalright's Peerless Assassin 120 SE is 15% off on Amazon

By Aaron Klotz published 28 January 26

Deals Thermalright's Peerless Assassin 120 SE is on sale for $33. Get one of the best air coolers on the market right now for even cheaper.

UK activist hits Valve with a $903 million lawsuit — claims Steam is abusing its market dominance and forcing UK consumers to pay too much for Steam games

By Aaron Klotz published 27 January 26

UK activist hits Valve with a lawsuit for charging gamers too much commission on the games they buy from the Steam store.

Get AMD's 16GB RX 9060 XT for the MSRP price of an 8GB RTX 5060 Ti — Newegg discount code unlocks $20 saving on double the VRAM

By Aaron Klotz published 26 January 26

Deals PowerColor's RX 9060 XT 16GB is on a $20 discount on Newegg with promo code, making the card as cheap as the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB with double the VRAM capacity.

RTX 2080 Ti Hall of Fame with Titan RTX and memory swap

Modder turns RTX 2080 Ti Hall of Fame into a supercharged 900W Titan RTX with transplanted core and memory — fully unlocked TU102 die with a 900W power limit hits 18k on 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

By Aaron Klotz published 25 January 26

The modder also unlocked the full bus width of the core, upgrading the GPU from 11GB of GDDR6 to 24GB.

Our favorite gaming headset gets a 50% price cut for a limited time — Razer's BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) drops to $100

By Aaron Klotz published 23 January 26

Deals TKTK

SSDs now cost 16x more than HDDs due to AI supply chain crisis — hybrid SSD + HDD datacenter deployments are now significantly cheaper to deploy than SSD-only equivalents

By Aaron Klotz last updated 22 January 26

A new report reveals that enterprise SSDs now cost a whopping 16x more than hard drives.

Elon Musk restarts Dojo3 'space' supercomputer project as AI5 chip design gets in 'good shape' — will be first Tesla-built supercomputer to feature all-in-house hardware, with no help from Nvidia

By Aaron Klotz published 20 January 26

Elon Musk confirms the restart of the Dojo3 supercomputer project. Success in AI5 chip design has enabled Tesla to start porting resources over to Musk's next-gen supercomputer aimed at "space AI".

Benchmarks of Performance-core only Bartlett Lake CPU emerge, 10-core offers 26% faster multithreaded performance than 14-core i5-14400 — 12-core version launch could be imminent

By Aaron Klotz published 17 January 26

10 P-cores beat six P-cores and four E-cores.

Intrepid PC builder fights RAM crunch by building DDR3 system that runs Cyberpunk 2077 at 60 FPS — Core i7-4790K, RTX 2060 Super, and 32GB of DDR3 would cost just $300

By Aaron Klotz published 17 January 26

32GB of used DDR3 can be had for as little as $50-$80 on eBay

Troublesome 16-pin connector sidelines $30,000 H200 Hopper GPU — repair technician saves the data center day by fixing power port

By Aaron Klotz published 15 January 26

Technician repairs 16-pin power connector on a $30,000 H200 PCIe Hopper graphics card. Connector's sense pins were damaged and had to be fixed by soldering new pins to the card.

Report estimates $17 billion worth of bitcoin was stolen in 2025 alone —massive haul arises from impersonation tactics and the use of AI for scams

By Aaron Klotz published 14 January 26

2025 saw the largest revenue generated through crypto scams to date with an estimated $17 billion stolen from victims worldwide.

Jensen Huang claims that 'god AI' is a myth — Nvidia chief says 'doomer narrative' is 'extremely hurtful'

By Aaron Klotz published 12 January 26

Nvidia's Jensen Huang says negative narratives around AI are "extremely hurtful," and that science fiction speculation isn't connected to reality.

Asus adds 64MB ROM to Strix Neo AM5 motherboards, following Gigabyte — capacity large enough to fit pre-installed Wi-Fi drivers

By Aaron Klotz published 10 January 26

But the added capacity is designed primarily for upcoming CPU releases, similar to AM4.

AMD claims Panther Lake has 'too much baggage' for handheld PC use — fights back after Intel jabs AMD for using 'ancient silicon' in its Z2 series APUs

By Aaron Klotz published 8 January 26

AMD jabs Intel for calling its Z2 chips "ancient". Claims its Panther Lake mobile chips carry too much "baggage" for handheld gaming use.

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