Most enthusiasts know that a PC’s CPU will throttle down to prevent overheating. GPUs and even most PCIe 50. SSDs ship with huge heat sinks and blowers. But the latest casualty of thermal throttling might be the PCI Express bus itself — which is being programmed to reduce the link speed or even shut off some of its lanes. That’s the eyebrow-raising scenario that a new driver from Intel suggests. Phoronix, which has been monitoring Intel’s development of a PCI Express driver for Linux, noted that the latest revision allows limiting the PCI Express link speed in case of thermal pressure. The ke ..read more

When the Eurovision finals kick off on Saturday, software nerds will have something to look forward to: a Finnish guy named “Windows95man” decked out in Microsoft gear, belting out a song titled “No Rules.” If you’re a typical American, Eurovision seems like a fever dream. It’s a bunch of largely European countries sending singers and artists to compete in a sort of Euro World Cup of odd, artsy performances. Will Farrell’s Netflix hit Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga nailed the vibe, and Windows95man’s No Rules feels very much in the spirit of it — the guy emerges from a giant ..read more

I live in an itty-bitty, creaky old house, so there are never enough wall outlets. The builders of the 1980s could never predict that someday a work-from-home nerd with a desk that looks like something out of NASA Mission Control would live here. So anything that can boost my plug-in power is welcome. For example, this mini surge protector with extra USB power, under ten bucks today at Amazon. This isn’t the kind of thing that can power my main desk on its own, but it’s great for adding some extra power in a small space, like behind my TV. In addition to six standard AC outlets, you get two U ..read more

At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros High-quality switches Hot-swap sockets Colorful style Sound dampening VIA programming Cons Cramped number pad layout That’s it, it’s a darn good keyboard Our Verdict Nuphy’s Air96 V2 keyboard brings tons of high-end features from conventional mechanical keyboards into a low-profile format, including custom switches, hot-swap sockets, and easy programming with VIA. It’s the best low-profile board around. Price When Reviewed $139.95 Best Prices Today: Nuphy Air96 V2 keyboard Retailer Price Nuphy $129.95 View Deal $159.99 View Deal Price compari ..read more

You can’t get a lot of laptop for three hundred bucks, unless you’re looking for a Chromebook or a twelve-year-old refurbished Mac off Woot. But today, you might be able to get juuuust enough, at least if you’re hunting for a budget model. The Acer Aspire 3, which has been PCWorld’s favorite budget laptop for the last year or so, is down to just $299.99 on Amazon. In his review (which is the exact same configuration, hey neat), Robert Strohmeyer praised the Aspire 3’s long battery life, decent performance, and surprisingly good webcam, while noting that you’re not gonna get tons of gaming don ..read more

The default pasting behavior of Microsoft Word is a nightmare, and has been forever. If you want to add a text or image using the standard option, you can easily mess up the entire formatting in the text if a completely different font suddenly appears. The horror! After many years of complaints, Microsoft is finally listening to user feedback and changing the default behavior when pasting in Word. From now on, the source’s formatting will no longer be automatically retained. Instead, “Merge formatting” will be the new default for everyone, as Microsoft explained in a blog post this week. This ..read more

In the ongoing battle against cybercrime, we are constantly coming across new methods that fraudsters use to try and obtain our sensitive data. While vishing is already a well-known threat, quishing is an even newer and more sophisticated method. Read on to find out what these terms mean and how you can protect yourself. Further reading: The best antivirus software for Windows What is vishing? Vishing is a combination of the words “voice” and “phishing” and refers to fraudulent activities in telecommunications. The perpetrators pretend to be trustworthy persons or organizations in order to ..read more

At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Compact (18-liter) Optional glass side panel ships inside Mouse, keyboard Cons Cable management could be better A lack of configurability Lack of dust filters Our Verdict Acer’s Predator Orion 3000 gaming PC offers an attractively compact form factor, power, and price — with some extras thrown in. Best Prices Today: Acer Predator Orion 3000 (PO3-650-UR17) Retailer Price $1408.99 View Deal $1,462.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Acer Predator Orion 3000 is ..read more

Got a good deal on a refurbished PC or laptop? Congratulations. Now it’s time to give that blank slate the tools that every home office needs. Through May 12th only, new users will be able to get a Microsoft package that includes both Windows 11 Pro and Office Professional 2021 for $70. If you haven’t worked on Windows 11 yet, you can expect the clean interface that Windows is known for, augmented by a time-saving AI assistant (Windows Copilot) and new security features like biometric login. And of course, Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows includes includes Word, Access, Excel, P ..read more

Discovering that a file has been corrupted can be a huge pain. Like many physical items, digital files can become broken, too. Fortunately, there’s a way to fix them, and it’s called EaseUS Fixo. Trusted by IT experts, EaseUS Fixo has earned a 4.7/5-star rating on Trustpilot, and Macworld’s Chris Wiles writes, “EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard… is packed with features and very configurable, though, and well worth having around just in case of accidents.” EaseUS Fixo is an all-in-one file repair toolkit that mends videos, photos, and files with a very high success rate. You can fix media from all k ..read more