When I first upgraded to my RX 9070 XT last year, I wasn't necessarily underwhelmed by the performance uplift, but I did want just a little bit more from my card. Coming from an RTX 3080, I saw a pretty significant increase, but once I applied an undervolt to my new card, it finally felt like a true generational leap. Temperatures were lower, frametimes were more consistent, and everything was pretty much just as stable as it was before.

I never thought an AI tool would help me understand my own week better, but this setup felt like having a personal editor. NotebookLM, Google's experimental AI note-taking tool, isn't marketed as a newsletter generator, but that's exactly what I've turned it into.

There are times when my single research session turns into a 50-tab monster, my laptop fan kicks in, and Chrome’s tab strip shrinks so small I can’t even see the favicons anymore. I had accepted this tab situation as the price of productivity. But then I found Zen browser.

Times are changing fast, and Linux and Windows 11 are competing neck and neck to be your desktop operating system in capabilities and performance. Both are powerful, flexible, and more than capable depending on how you use your PC.

Tailscale is one of the best-known overlay networks, a type of software-defined networking solution that runs over existing infrastructure. When you add devices to your network, or tailnet as they're known, the software encrypts and routes data between those devices as if they were connected to the same physical network, wherever in the world they might be.

For the longest time, Synology NAS has been the go-to NAS. One would suggest it to everyone, from entry-level beginners to experts and enterprise users. It has always lived up to its promise of offering a friendly interface that is powerful too, and meets the needs of everyone. That is how a NAS should be: one that you can trust without having to tinker with it all that often.

Whenever my RTX 4090 used to run hot, I assumed I needed to improve my airflow. From cleaning dust off my front panel to adding more fans, I tried everything I could to ensure my case moved air efficiently. It made sense to me because when you have a GPU as power-hungry as the RTX 4090, there's very little room for suboptimal airflow if you want to keep its temps in check. Although the changes I made to improve airflow helped GPU temps ever so slightly, they weren't enough to make a meaningful difference.

Windows Server carries with it a very specific reputation. It's typically thought of as an enterprise OS first, belonging to data centers and dismissed in enthusiast circles. That's rather unfortunate, because Windows Server has a legitimate case for being the OS of your home lab.

For years, external SSDs were the necessary evil of computing. They were the cheapest way to expand your storage capacity but often came capped at 100 MB/s thanks to USB 3.2 gen 2, or we're completely inaccessible if damaged.

Microsoft Loop does a lot right, and is one of the only near-perfect note apps that I’ve consistently reached for throughout my work and note-taking processes. It’s super minimal, sleek, fast, and has everything I need for frictionless writing and project planning. That said, it’s tied to a big corp, partially paywalled, and is also not open-source, which many prefer for privacy and customization.

My existing gaming PC has the iconic RTX 3080 still chugging along, over 5 years after its launch in late 2020. I was fortunate enough to get one at MSRP during the infamous GPU crisis that lasted well into 2023. When it stopped feeling like a high-end GPU, I dreamed of upgrading to the RTX 5080, but for numerous reasons, I decided to wait for something better. Well, it turns out that nothing else is coming, at least for a few years. The ongoing PC hardware crisis has led to reduced supply and skyrocketing prices across the board. Buying a new graphics card in this market would be insane, so I decided to overclock my existing GPU to see how far I can take it. There's little else that PC gamers can do in the current market.

Running your home network can be as simple as a router and a few wireless clients or as complex as a multi-node configuration with VLANs, switches, access points, and a custom router and firewall. Regardless of how you manage your local area network (LAN), it's important to consider some free tools that can transform how you interact with everything connected to the router. From IoT gadgets to home servers, growing your network can introduce unwanted complexity that makes such tools almost a necessity.