There's a brilliant discount on a high-spec gaming PC right now that'll net you 4K-ready performance. Newegg has dropped the price on this ABS Stratos II Aqua gaming PC to $2,549.99 right now, netting you a PC with a 24-core Intel CPU and one of Nvidia's best GPUs, along with a $450 saving. This discount is covered by Newegg's Black Friday price protection, so if the price drops again in the big sale, you'll get a refund for the difference.

● Check out this gaming PC deal at Newegg

Newegg owns the ABS brand, so this isn't a knock-off you're getting. It has a good set of specs for a rig that'll handle 4K gaming, shipping with an Intel Core i9-14900KF processor, along with a current-gen Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory, and 2TB of SSD storage. Given the current market conditions, these are good specs to find at this price point.

With a machine like this, you're able to ditch 1080p completely. The RTX 5070 Ti is a graphics card that has more than enough performance for gaming at 1440p and 4K, especially if you're able to tweak your graphics settings for the most performing games. It's a good option for a mid-tier build, and it comes with 8,960 CUDA cores, along with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM.

As this Blackwell GPU is one of Nvidia's latest, you've got fully Nvidia DLSS support included. That includes multi-frame generation, which will give you an AI-generated frame rate boost in any really intensive games, especially at 4K, to make them playable.

As for the CPU, the Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU continues to be a popular choice for gaming PCs at this price point, and despite being a little older, it still packs a punch. You're getting 24 cores here, of which eight are performance cores that will give your machine the best gaming performance. The other 16 are efficiency cores, which are great for multi-threaded tasks. You'll be able to push this CPU's clock up to a massive 6 GHz, too.

Our CPU benchmarks still have a place for the i9-14900K, the same CPU but with an integrated GPU that the 14900KF here lacks. It continues to be one of the best-performing processors on sale for gamers if you're not going all-in with an AMD X3D build.

There are no compromises to be found elsewhere in this rig. 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo (2 x 16GB) DDR5-6000 memory is included here, letting you leave the slower speeds of DDR4 behind. A 2TB Team Group NV5000 SSD is also included in this ABS build, so you'll have space for a good collection of games, with the NV5000 offering Gen 4 speeds.

Prices continue to rise in the PC hardware market, but the $450 discount on this ABS Stratos II Aqua rig, down to $2,549.99, is a good one. You're also able to take advantage of Newegg's Black Friday price guarantee, so if this PC drops down in price over Black Friday, you'll be able to claim back the difference. If you need a new 4K gaming PC on a budget, you'll want to pick up a rig like this one.

This Halloween weekend is the perfect time to think about buying a new 3D printer at a brilliant discount. Spooky season is nearly over, but as we hurtle towards the holiday season, the big names in the 3D printer world have slashed prices, making it even more affordable to pick up a new printer before the year is out. There are options that'll suit any skill set and experience, from total beginner to complete pro. We've put together some of the best deals you'll find on 3D printers right now, and you'll see discounts on some of the best 3D printer models out there.

● Check out Creality's 3D printer deals

● Check out Elegoo's 3D printer deals

● Check out Bambu Lab's 3D printer deals

● Check out Prusa's 3D printer deals

You'll see the biggest and best models on sale right now. There are models from Elegoo, Creality, Anycubic, Bambu Lab, and Prusa on sale, with resin and filament discounts to match, along with accessories.

You'll see the Bambu Lab H2D dropping to just $1,399, for instance. At the other end of the market, there's the Bambu Lab A1 Mini, now just $199, or the Creality Ender 3 V3 for $239. Or, you could pick up the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2, down to only $319.

These big names are running sales throughout the next few weeks as we head towards the Black Friday sales period, but just because the sales are live doesn't mean the stock will be there. If you want a bargain on a new 3D printer right now, here are the deals you'll want to look for.

Best 3D Printer Deals for Halloween

Best 3D Printer Filament and Resin Deals for Halloween

More Tech Deals

If you're looking for further savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, or CPU Deals pages.

In a world where youth unemployment is growing as AI replaces more and more entry-level jobs, Cisco president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel is going for a different approach. According to a report by Fortune, he's given a 27-year-old ex-startup founder — brought into the company by an earlier acquisition, and previously languishing in a role five levels below — a new job to refactor 98% of the company's legacy code within 24 months.

The employee, Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, joined Cisco after it acquired EzDubs, a translation startup that Krishnamurthy helped build in 2023. While having executive experience, Patel found that "Paddy" was left "buried away in the organization doing something unstrategic."

According to the report, Patel spoke to Krishnamurthy in Cisco's office in San Francisco, where Krishnamurthy told him that he could rewrite Cisco's legacy code in a team of just two people, and that "even the most AI-forward people on [Patel's] own team weren't thinking that way."

As a result, he's now been tasked with rewriting 98% of Cisco's legacy code within 24 months, with four weeks as a proof of concept. "I've given him unlimited tokens because he's going to refactor code," according to Patel, telling him "you can go nuts."

AI coding has skyrocketed in recent months, with GitHub forced to deploy 4 million extra CPU cores and 160 petabytes of storage to cope. However, the practice is not without its pitfalls, with rogue AI agents notorious for taking unsolicited actions including deleting entire company databases, TV show edits, and production setups.

Patel hopes that there are more young hires in the Krishnamurthy mould that he can find, both in the company and externally to hire. He's looking for hires to "challenge the system and the status quo," to be "an energizer bunny that just goes and kind of revs everyone up."

Patel believes that current corporate structures work against this kind of thinking. "If you don't hire the early-in-career [workers], and you just let your workforce continue the way that they were, where do fresh ideas get injected? How do you challenge the status quo?"

He acknowledges that this will create friction, putting Gen Z employees among decades-old employees. "Tension is good.... I actually try to create tension in the teams because you want to have enough friction on the ideas. You don't want to have friction with the people and personalities."

Patel believes that a combination of experienced, scale operators at Cisco, alongside external hires and "entrepreneurial founders, CEOs and engineers who are AI-native" will bring results. "Either of these groups by themselves aren't nearly as potent as when all three work together. It's what creates magic."

Woot! has a brilliant deal right now on Nintendo's latest handheld gaming console. You can pick up the family-friendly Nintendo Switch 2, along with a free digital game code, for as low as $459 right now if you're a new Woot customer with the SAVETOBER coupon code. If you're not, you can still grab it for $479.

● Check out this deal at Woot

Woot! is Amazon's discount sister site, so you've got the full backing of the huge global retailer behind this deal. $459 is an awesome price for a Switch 2 and a free game, and the good news is, you get to choose the game. Options for you to choose include Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, or Pokémon Pokopia, which you'll need to download straight onto your Switch 2's storage.

This is a limited-time deal, with only four days left to run at the $519 sale price, but the coupon code is expected to run out tomorrow, November 1, at 11:59 pm ET, but don't expect it to be around even that long. This is a popular console, and as we approach the holiday season, this is the time that consoles like these become tricky to buy. With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launching in just a few days, expect to see a huge spike in demand for this console, too.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is Nintendo's second generation of its popular Switch console. It has a 7.9-inch 1080p touchscreen, designed for you to hold in your hands. That said, if you prefer the big-screen treatment, it also has a dock that'll let you play games on a TV for 4K gameplay at up to 120 fps. You're also getting Joy-Con 2 controllers, which you can use attached or detached, depending on if the console is docked or not.

There's 256GB of internal storage included here for games, but the Switch 2 does have support for microSD Express cards to boost this further. If you're planning to install a big game collection, a card upgrade might be a good option. Right now, for instance, you can pick up this 512GB Samsung P9 Express microSD card for $99 at Amazon, another limited-time deal that saves you 34% on its usual price.

As we've mentioned, you also get a free digital game with this Switch 2 deal. Buying Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, or Pokémon Pokopia separately would cost you between $69.99 and $79.99 at their usual prices, so with these discounts, you're getting a great deal.

The $459 sale price for this Woot! Nintendo Switch 2 bundle is a great option ahead of the holiday season. Don't expect to be able to wait for a better discount in a few weeks, as this is a popular console, and with a huge release like Ocarina of Time on the way, demand might outstrip supply. Just remember to use coupon code SAVETOBER before 11.59 am ET on November 1 at checkout to get the full $60 discount if you're a new customer, or $40 if you've used Woot! before.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, Nvidia's second-fastest GPU from its current generation, now costs as much as the RTX 5090 did, on paper, when it launched. Prices have reached $2,000 and higher, with most of the available stock online limited to third-party sellers. If you can find it in stock, it may end up costing you two to three times as much as it did when it launched.

The cheapest, in-stock RTX 5080 available to buy from a reputable seller online for delivery is this PNY RTX 5080 for $1,999 from Best Buy, the same price as the RTX 5090's on-paper MSRP. You might otherwise end up paying $2,299.99, at least, for this Asus ROG Astral mode at Newegg, or you could pay nearly $3000 for this Gigabyte RTX 5080 from MemoryC, now priced at $2,983.23.

Stock for the RTX 5080 is otherwise limited everywhere, with just one or two available for local pickup (in Best Buy's case), and limited options for delivery. You can also find similar in-store-only pricing at Micro Center, depending on location, which has a Gigabyte card for $1,979.99.

You'll also see a lot of the listings online from sketchy, third-party sellers.. For instance, you could pay at least $2,211.17 for this PNY RTX 5080 from a third-party Amazon seller. Empowered PC, the seller for this card, has had 81% positive ratings over the last 12 months, with 202 ratings in total.

Reputable seller or not, this price scale means you're paying significantly more than the $999 launch price for this GPU. As our GPU price tracking shows, though, this isn't an isolated case. RTX 5080 prices have, like the rest of the RTX 50-series, risen steadily since it launched. However, this is the first time that its price floor has been around the RTX 5090's launch price. That PNY RTX 5080, for instance, was being sold for around $1,500 on average back in August.

It's a bitter pill for gamers, though, that the RTX 5080 has now reached and breached the RTX 5090's launch pricing. That GPU has an MSRP of $1,999, although it'll now cost you thousands more. Prices for the RTX 5090 hit as high as $9,500 last month, but the situation is even worse today. What little stock that remains on sale online can be found for as high as $12,000.

The RTX 5080 uses Nvidia's GB203 GPU and comes with 10,752 CUDA cores, along with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. Unfortunately, it, like the rest of the consumer gaming GPU market, is being affected by AI. Demand for high-end GPUs hasn't stopped, but Nvidia's attention has shifted to the enterprise market. So, too, has the focus of memory manufacturers, meaning DRAM allocations and production lines that would otherwise produce memory chips for graphics cards have instead gone to feeding the demand for high-margin HBM for AI data centers.

You don't have to settle for huge price rises in the PC hardware market. Thanks to Newegg, there's a $1,250 discount right now on a 4K-capable Alienware Aurora DACT1250 gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for $2,599.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

This is Dell's premium brand for gamers and, as you can expect from a premium brand, the prices are usually towards the top end. The $1,250 discount here means you'll be saving a huge sum on a gaming PC with serious firepower for 4K gameplay, putting it at a much better price than you would get elsewhere. This DACT1250 model also comes with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285 CPU and a 1TB SSD for storage.

Front and center here is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This is one of Nvidia's newest Blackwell GPUs but, more importantly, it's the third most powerful consumer GPU of Nvidia's current-gen lineup. It has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a bigger 256-bit memory bus. This is a card that'll smash through 1080p with the highest frame rates, taking you up to 1440p and 4K with ease.

The VRAM boost to 16GB is important because it means your PC has the opportunity to switch up to 1440p or 4K and run games at high and even graphic presets at those resolutions. 4K, especially with ray tracing switched on, might require a few tweaks to your settings, or involve you falling back on Nvidia DLSS with multi-frame generation for an AI-helped uplift, adding extra frames into the mix for smoother gameplay. The Bench charts and our GPU benchmarks place the RTX 5070 Ti pretty highly compared to rival GPUs.

For the CPU, you're getting the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 here. It ships with 24 cores, eight of which are performance cores, which'll be good for high-performance gaming. You also get 16 efficient cores for multi-threaded tasks. Unlike the 285K, the 285 is locked, meaning you can't overclock it. You get clock speeds as high as 5.7 GHz with the performance cores in action here, though. This Arrow Lake CPU hasn't been a big hitter in the gaming world, admittedly, but the raw power of the RTX 5070 Ti is still formidable, and should help to compensate.

Elsewhere, though, you're getting 32GB of DDR5 memory, so you won't see a bottleneck as far as system RAM is concerned. There's also a 1TB SSD included here, giving you space for a few big games alongside a Windows installation on the same drive.

The $1,250 saving on this pre-built Alienware Aurora DACT1250 gaming PC is a serious bargain, and it means you'll only pay $2,599.99 compared to the original $3,849.99 list price. The RTX 5070 Ti in this build means you've got a GPU ready for 4K gaming, with specs that should keep you going for years to come.

A team of around four dozen U.S. Marines is joining a NATO-led operation in the Baltic Sea to help protect undersea internet cables and gas pipelines in the area. In a press release, the U.S. Marine Corps shared its plans to deploy a "specialized team" to support NATO's Enhanced Vigilance Activity Baltic Sentry operation. The move comes amid a backdrop of growing undersea cable interest, movements of Russia's shadow fleet, and fears of sabotage.

The U.S. Marines are being sent from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to provide "advanced expeditionary surveillance and tactical reconnaissance capabilities" to the region in support of Finnish and other NATO allies. Marines from 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, and the II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group are joining the mission.

Capt. Johan Tillander, Chief of Operations for the Finnish Navy, explained that the "experience, skills, and systems of the U.S. Marine Corps are perfectly suited" for the operation, including "monitoring of the Baltic Sea."

While the press release stresses that the Marines are serving in a "supportive, enabling capacity," with European nations taking the lead, the Marines are there to provide "highly specialized, agile force multipliers."

Maj. Gen. Daniel Shipley, Commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa, shared that its participation shows its ability to "rapidly project specialized capabilities where they are most effective," and as a result, "ensuring we can operate seamlessly as a cohesive, lethal team to deter hybrid threats" in the area.

The U.S. deployment means that the operation will be able to "leverage... unique capabilities of Reconnaissance Marines, including small Unmanned Aerial Systems and littoral sensors, to feed vital data directly" to NATO.

The Baltic Sea is the frontline in potential assaults against European undersea infrastructure. Several attempts have been made to sabotage cables in the area, and two cables were cut between Finland, Sweden and Europe back in 2024. Meanwhile, Finland's own concerns about shadow fleet operations led it to set up a dedicated maritime surveillance center earlier this year to monitor activity in the Baltic Sea.

Russia isn't mentioned in the U.S. press release, but the authoritarian nation is one of Europe's biggest threats in the region, and has had worsening relations with European nations for several years, particularly since it went to war with Ukraine in 2022. Over 500 incidents of Russian fishing boats loitering near undersea cables in Europe have been seen in the last four and a half years, showing a persistence in mapping and identifying, if not directly interfering, with global data links in the area.

If you want to start building a new gaming PC without paying huge prices, you'll want to look at this Newegg combo deal. Right now, you can pick up the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, along with an MSI motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for $1,094.99, saving you $248.99 in total.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the best CPUs you can buy for gaming, thanks to AMD's impressive 3D V-cache tech. Alongside the powerhouse 9800X3D is the budget-friendly MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Wifi and the 32GB of G.Skill Trident X5 NeoX RAM, and you're also getting an MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO liquid cooler thrown in for free.

As deals go, this kit will get you part of the way towards building a 4K-capable gaming PC, although you'll need to source a GPU, SSD, case, power supply, and peripherals, not to mention a monitor. Still, the $248.99 saving isn't one to dismiss, given how expensive PC components have become in the last year, and you can put those savings towards the pricier components left to buy on your shopping list.

There are very few processors able to compete with the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This processor, as our CPU benchmark data will show, delivers seriously good performance for gamers. AMD'S 3D V-cache technology can take much of the glory here, boosting the L3 cache capacity to 96MB. That boost means that the chip doesn't have to drop back to the slower system RAM, giving higher, more stable frame rates for longer in-game.

Specs-wise, you're getting a Zen 5 CPU with eight cores. All eight of them use the full 96MB L3 cache, with clock speeds of 4.7 GHz that can boost to 5.2 GHz. As the Bench data below confirms, at 1080p and better, the 9800X3D is a CPU that sits very, very close to the top, far ahead of Intel rivals.

You need a motherboard with an AMD AM5 socket to run this CPU, which Newegg is providing with the MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Wifi. This is a budget-friendly board with EZ DIY features for gamers, along with three USB-C ports offering speeds of 40 Gbps. This is a gaming board with four M.2 drive slots, two offering Gen 5 speeds, along with four SATA ports. It has fast networking, with support for Wi-Fi 7 and 6Gb Ethernet. It's black, too, so it won't look out of place in a typical gaming PC build.

Coupled with the Tomahawk is 32GB of memory from G.Skill. This G.Skill Trident Z5 NeoX DDR5 RAM ships with two 16GB modules, in black but with configurable RGB lighting at the top, and offering speeds of 6,000 MT/s. It has CAS and memory timings of 36-36-36-76. Don't forget the MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO cooler worth $72.49 that you're getting, totally free, with this bundle to help keep your CPU nice and cool.

We've seen these Newegg combo deals sell out or get pulled quickly. If you want to take advantage of the $1,094.99 sale price for this 9800X3D bundle with an MSI motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, then you'll need to be quick. The parts will suit a high-end build for 4K gaming, and the savings you make here can be put towards a new GPU to match.

Independent 3D modeling community Open3DLab has publicly warned that a web crawler, linked to the gaming platform Roblox, mapped "almost every project" on its website, along with sister sites SFMLab and SmutBase, downloading 145.5GB of data in the process. In a blog post, Open3DLab reports that "complete copies" of 1,027 files from 712 projects were sourced in the process, which it believes were taken for "AI training purposes."

The blog post goes into the specifics of the incident, along with some changes that Open3DLab has made since to try and avoid a repeat. According to the post, Open3DLab's staff noticed a crawler "making a large number of requests to our sites and download infrastructure" on October 18. The crawler used trellis2-data-sourcing/1.0 (3D foundation model research; [redacted]@roblox.com) as its user agent, with the data coming from a single Amazon AWS address. The crawler didn't respect the site's robots.txt file or Terms of Service, which explicitly forbid scraping. It also, according to the report, ignored creator licenses for the projects, which prohibit non-commercial use.

The crawler read "practically [its] entire catalogue" of 18,926 projects in a span of 34 hours over a total of 26,429 requests. Once it was done, the crawler downloaded 1,027 files from 712 projects before it "suspended operations." Files downloaded include 364 files, or 54.8GB worth, from 224 projects hosted on SmutBase, OpenLab's sister site focused on adult content. A further 345 projects of adult-marked SFMLab projects, or 62.6GB worth, were also taken.

According to Open3DLab, the crawler's "main limiting factor" was its use of free download servers that capped speed and concurrent downloads. The scraping was detected on the same day, and blocked by the following morning. Further download attempts were detected on October 19, "neatly within office hours, only briefly pausing for an hour around lunchtime," and despite being blocked, "did not reduce its download attempts."

A final attempt on October 20, with requests tapering, "likely in an effort to test... rate limiting," was made, with requests stopping completely later that day. Open3DLab made another request at this point for comment, although without reply.

The Roblox user agent mentions "3D foundation model research." As Open3DLab's blog post notes, Roblox has been building such a model since March 2025, when it introduced Roblox Cube, its "core generative AI system" for 3D modeling for character rigging, with characters and avatars listed as future goals. Further AI tech that could build in-game models using natural language prompts, called "4D generation," was beta launched in February 2026. The email address listed in the user agent matches one of the researchers listed on the Roblox Cube research paper, according to Open3DLab, although it redacted the name here.

Noting Roblox's "track record," Open3DLab's "most likely explanation" is that the crawler was collecting "training or evaluation data" for its 3D foundation model, although it notes that it can't prove it.

Roblox is a gaming platform and game creation system with over 33 million users and billions of "game experiences" for its player base, 40% of whom are reportedly aged under 12 years old. Open3DLab is clear to state that it "doesn't think Roblox set out to collect adult content" but that "as far as [its] logs show, nobody checked," which, it believes, is "not a good position" for Roblox to be in.

Rather than spending $450 on 32GB of DDR5 all by itself, you can save a ton of money when you pick up RAM as part of Newegg's PC component bundles, $350 in this case. In this bundle, you can pick up four parts you need for $1,180.99 in a set that includes the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with 32GB DDR5, a Gigabyte X870E motherboard, and 2TB of SSD storage.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

The discount knocks $358.99 off the combined price for this kit, meaning you're picking up RAM for the equivalent price of just $151.01. That's a massive discount compared to the current price for 32GB of DDR5 RAM, let alone this particular kit, which would cost you $509.99 if you bought it separately.

The price is even better when you include the freebies. A year's worth of McAfee isn't much to write home about, but a free MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO cooler worth $72.49 certainly is. That'll help you keep the 9800X3D cool, and it's totally free with this kit, too.

This is a significant haul for the price in the current market, giving you several of the components you'd need to kickstart a new 4K gaming PC build. Whether it's $358.99 you're saving, or over $431 if you include the free AIO, you're saving several hundred dollars that you can put towards a case, peripherals, power supply, or that all-important GPU purchase.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the fastest gaming CPUs on the market right now, as you'll see in our CPU benchmark data, and it's still the top option in our best CPU guide. Other chips, like the 9950X3D2, have nudged ahead on performance, but with significantly higher power demands.

AMD dominates the market with its 3D V-cache chips: there just isn't a matching alternative from Intel. The extra L3 cache it provides, with a total of 96MB in the 9800X3D, means that your CPU doesn't have to revert to the slower system RAM. The result is better, more stable frame rates, and overall better gaming performance.

As specs go, you're getting a modern Zen 5 CPU with eight cores. All eight have access to the increased 96MB L3 cache, too. You get a clock speed of 4.7 GHz, which boosts up to 5.2 GHz, and a TDP of 120W. This is a CPU that won't struggle with the demands of 4K gaming with ray tracing, as long as you have a GPU able to match it.

This AM5 CPU needs a motherboard to match, and with this bundle, you're getting the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7. This is a mid-tier board for gamers from Gigabyte, and it comes with a set of features designed with gamers in mind. You get 12 USB ports at the back here, with two USB-C ports that give speeds of up to 40 Gbps.

You can install a whole set of M.2 SSDs here, and with the 9800X3D installed, three of them are rated for PCIe 5.0 speeds. 2.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7 support is included, and the board also includes support for up to 256GB of DDR5 RAM for speeds up to 8,200 MT/s.

This bundle isn't quite that good, but you do get 32GB here. Two 16GB modules of Team Group T-Force Delta RGB RAM are included, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s, with CAS and memory timings of 38-38-38-78. Good RAM for gaming, especially with customizable RGB lighting, but it's the price that beats it all. As we mentioned, the discounts applied here mean you're getting this $500+ RAM set for the equivalent of just $151.01.

Oh, and 2TB of SSD storage is included, which'll give you plenty of space for big AAA games alongside a Windows installation. The Team Group NV5000 SSD here is an M.2 NVMe SSD with Gen 4 speeds, and it'll be a good start option in a market where, like RAM, SSDs are becoming very expensive.

This $1,180.99 Newegg combo deal for the 9800X3D, 32GB DDR5, a 2TB SSD, and a Gigabyte AM5 gaming motherboard is a real steal in the market, and one that'll save you $358.99. You won't find 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM for anything close to the equivalent $151.01 cost you're getting it here. This is a good, core set of parts that'll help you build a new, or upgrade an existing, 4K gaming PC, with that freebie AIO from MSI to help keep it cool.

China is spending more time loitering near undersea cables in the Pacific Ocean than any other nation, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S.-based think tank in Washington, DC. The analysis compared the behavior of 200 research vessels from 47 different nations, including the U.S. and Russia, and found that Chinese vessels spent a "statistically significant larger share of time" near critical infrastructure.

The analysis, reported by Indo-Pacific Defense Forum, notes that Chinese activity was particularly suspicious in this regard. It notes that the "persistent and disproportionate activity" means that China "may be leveraging its research fleet for underwater data collection that may aid... analysis of terrain for sabotage or submarine operations."

Civilian research vessels provide a unique cover for states looking for "plausible deniability" for their research gathering activities. The report mentions the activity of a ship from the Xiang Yang Hong research fleet which, between July and October 2024, spent time near three undersea cables that connected the U.S. with Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Guam and others.

The ships move in a "lawnmower" pattern which, it notes, is associated with surveying to create accurate seafloor maps. While the ships themselves aren't part of the PRC's navy, the data they collect could be used to serve China in future conflicts.

These "gray zone research activities" continue in an era of Chinese conflict with its neighbors as it asserts territorial claims in the South China Sea against states like the Philippines and Vietnam, not to mention its claims over Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.

It also follows a pattern of authoritarian states looking to dominate undersea infrastructure. Last week, a report in The Telegraph found 500 incidents of Russian monitoring near undersea cables over the last five years. Meanwhile, Iran has threatened to attack undersea cables in the Strait of Hormuz in the event of further assaults by the United States if conflict erupts again.

AI has forced PC component prices up with no slowdown in sight over the last year. While building your own might be expensive, pre-built gaming PCs continue to offer the best value in many cases. With that in mind, you could secure a huge $1,070 discount on an Alienware Aurora gaming PC at Newegg right now, featuring an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 32GB DDR5 RAM for $2,199.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

Dell's premium Alienware gaming brand usually comes with a price premium compared to budget or no-brand models. With this $1,070 discount applied, you're getting a rig for 4K-capable gaming at a fairer price than you would get by buying from Dell directly. Alongside the RTX 5070, this ACT1250 model ships with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF processor and a 1TB SSD.

The GPU is often the big-selling feature in a gaming PC. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, you're getting one of Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs with 6,144 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a 192-bit memory bus. What that means for gaming is that you've got a card that will smash through high frame rates, even with the highest graphics presets, at 1080p.

At 1440p, you're also going to see good performance, although the most demanding games might need a drop down or two. You can also fall back to using Nvidia DLSS with multi-frame generation for an uplift, powered by AI to add extra frames into the mix for smoother gameplay, especially if you want to game at 4K. Our GPU benchmarks show that the RTX 5070 is a strong option compared to its rivals, offering slightly better performance than the RTX 4070 it replaces.

You're getting an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF CPU with this build. This is a 20-core Arrow Lake CPU with 20 cores, with eight good-for-gaming performance cores, along with 12 efficient cores for multi-threaded work. This is locked, meaning you can overclock it, and it ships with a max boost clock speed of 5.5 GHz.

This isn't a CPU able to compete with top-spec AMD rivals, but it's a solid enough performer when you couple it with the RTX 5070's power. Elsewhere, though, you're getting 32GB of DDR5 memory, so no compromises there. There's also a 1TB SSD, leaving you enough storage for at least a few big AAA installs.

You'll be saving $1,070 with this pre-built Alienware Aurora ACT1250 gaming PC at this $2,199.99 Newegg sale price. With the RTX 5070 in this build, you've got a 4K-capable machine that'll let you play modern games for years into the future.

The UK government has outlined a set of plans for new powers and penalties to help it protect UK undersea cables during national security emergencies, the BBC reports. It follows reports that Russia is using commercial fishing trawlers to map undersea cables, with 500 incidents of Russian boats loitering above cables in the last four and a half years.

In a policy paper shared this week, the British government noted that the UK is "highly dependent" on undersea infrastructure owned by private sector companies. While the report notes that connectivity is "resilient," with "faults rarely causing noticeable disruption to data or energy availability," it's still "vulnerable to damage from accidents and potential sabotage."

As a result, the UK is consulting on changes to legislation to try and address these risks, especially as the "threats to the homeland from state actors are increasing" and "critical national infrastructure, including undersea cables and pipelines... continue to be a target."

The changes proposed include new criminal offenses. These include causing a security compromise to critical undersea infrastructure, capturing both physical and non-physical interference, including remote electronic interference, cyber activity and certain preparatory conduct directed at compromising infrastructure. There would also be further offenses linked to obstructing repairs and failing to preserve evidence, when requested.

With these new offenses, the UK government is threatening penalties on a three-tier scale. Up to 14 years' imprisonment is proposed for intentional conduct, 10 years for reckless conduct, and two years for grossly negligent conduct, along with potentially unlimited fines. It's also considering an even higher maximum penalty for more serious cases, and whether it'll apply solely within the UK's national waters or further afield.

The proposals also include new powers for government ministers. In a national emergency, UK ministers would gain powers that would allow them to order telecom companies to remove or disable services. Ministers would also be able to compel telecom companies to grant officials access to sensitive sites, including cable landing stations.

These proposals form a White Paper, the name for an official UK government policy paper for new legislation, with interested parties able to respond by online questionnaire until January 14, 2027.

UK relations with Russia, like much of the western world, have deteriorated since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, although other incidents, such as the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018, have formed the backdrop of steadily worsening relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Russia has made several efforts to map and plan attacks against undersea cables in Europe. In September, reports suggested that NATO allies had foiled a Russian training exercise using a "secret weapon" against undersea cables in Norway. Meanwhile, back in January, Royal Navy attack helicopters were deployed to chase off a Russian ship loitering less than a mile from five undersea cables in UK waters, just one of the 500 incidents reported this week that have included Russian ships.

Pre-built gaming PCs continue to provide some of the best value for gamers, especially if they're discounted. With that in mind, you can pick up this ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC for $2,549.99 right now at Newegg. You'll be saving $450 on a machine fitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

ABS builds are all over Newegg, which is no surprise, as the tech retailer owns the brand. As specs go, this is a rig that'll sit pretty near the top as far as performance goes. That's due to the combination of the 9800X3D, still one of the best CPUs available for gaming right now, with the RTX 5070 Ti. That GPU is current-gen and high-end, giving you a machine that'll give you high frame rates in the best games for years to come.

You'll see from our 9800X3D review why this eight-core AMD X3D chip is a formidable option for any gamer. AMD's 3D V-cache sets the scene, as this game-changing tech boosts the available L3 cache capacity to 96MB. Doesn't sound like much, but it means that your CPU doesn't have to fall back to the slower system RAM as often. That reduces latency, giving you better, more stable frame rates while you game.

The 9800X3D isn't at the very top in our CPU benchmarks anymore, but it's damn close, and it's still the top recommendation for most gamers. There isn't an Intel alternative that can truly rival the performance of an X3D chip like the 9800X3D, either. If 4K gaming with high, stable frame rates is your goal, then the 9800X3D will give you that in spades.

Alongside the 9800X3D is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This Nvidia Blackwell GPU has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. This is a GPU that leaves 1080p in the dust, as this mid- to high-tier option is a 1440p and 4K powerhouse. It has the latest Nvidia tech baked in, too, including DLSS with multi-frame generation.

4K with ray tracing, supported by MFG if necessary, means you'll get high frame rates in current-gen games. Expect to use the best graphics presets, but you might need to tweak them for the most demanding games if you're playing at 4K. Luckily, 16GB of VRAM means you've got plenty of breathing room, especially compared to the lower-end RTX 5060 or RTX 5050 with 8GB of VRAM.

There aren't any compromises elsewhere in this build. You've got 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo RGB DDR5 memory, split across two 16GB modules, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s. There's also a 2TB Team Group NV5000 M.2 SSD included here, offering Gen 4 speeds, with enough space for several big game installations. There's also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity, along with Ethernet, and the CPU is liquid cooled with a Bitspower 240mm AIO liquid cooler.

This $2,549.99 ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC is a great deal in the current market, especially fitted with the formidable combination of the 9800X3D and RTX 5070 Ti. Buying it now means you're saving $450 on its list price, but it's also the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC you're able to buy on Newegg right now. Expect a deal this good to sell out fast.

A rare, prototype copy of Pokémon Red for the Nintendo Game Boy, originally released back in 1998, is on sale at auction, with a single bid of $25,000 currently registered so far. This prototype, spotted by Retro Dodo, is "incredibly rare" and features 32KB of readable data. According to the Goldin auction page, the cartridge has been authenticated by specialists at PSA, who examined the card. According to them, while a "complete data read" wasn't possible, the first 32KB of data was, a "technically unique" result. The PSA notes, however, that the game data is otherwise "completely identical" to the U.S. release version of the game, with PSA "expressing confidence" that the rest of the data, if it were readable, would match.

The PSA report does note two changes to the ROM's header data that don't affect the game data. According to PSA, "the difference is at offset 0x014C, which denotes the Mask ROM version and is incorrectly set to 55 when it should be 00. This has the effect of changing offset 0x014D, which is a calculated header checksum, to CB instead of 20."

This prototype development cartridge has a sticker reading DMB-MBC-16M-FLASH, with a part number DMG-(F)KGDB-01. DMB likely refers to Dot Matrix Game, the original internal codename for the Game Boy, while MBC likely means Memory Bank Controller, a custom chip that allowed games to use more than the Game Boy's 32KB ROM limit. 16M likely refers to a 16 megabit limit of flash-writable memory. Retro Dodo notes that the cartridge is longer than a standard Game Boy cartridge, too.

The auction notes that this uses a "previously undocumented" development board, although the DMG-(F)KGDB-01 part number has been seen before. The Rare Gaming Dump wiki, for instance, lists the same part number for a development cartridge from 2000. It, too, had a 16 megabit Sharp flash chip, with U1 FLASH MEMORY printed on the board. Close-up views from the Goldin auction page show an almost identical design, although the wiki entry shows a slightly different DMG-MBC3-16M-FLASH cartridge sticker.

Pokémon Red is a gaming classic that helped kickstart the global Pokémon franchise in the 1990s, along with Green and Blue. Combined with Blue, Pokémon Red is reported to have sold more than 31 million copies. There are several days left to go on this auction, so while the single bidder may secure this piece of gaming history for $25,000, it may sell for an even higher price before the auction process ends.

Building a new gaming PC, especially one fit for 4K gameplay, isn't cheap at the moment. PC hardware prices have shot up over the last year, with RAM, SSDs, and new graphics cards all becoming extremely expensive. Still, if you're thinking about building a new rig or upgrading your existing one, you'll want to consider this Newegg combo deal that combines the formidable AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with 32GB DDR5 and a Gigabyte X870E motherboard for just $1,029.99 right now.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

This kit means you'll save $238.99 by buying these components together compared to picking them up separately. That doesn't include the freebies you get with this deal, either, with a Cooler Master Elite Liquid Cooler 240 CPU AIO included for free, worth $79.99, along with a copy of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, worth $69.99.

This kit gives you the bare bones you'll need for your next 4K gaming PC. The extra savings, whether it's the $238.99 on the three parts here, or the full $388.97 if you include the freebies, will give you spare cash that you can put towards other parts for your build, whether that's a GPU, case, or any peripherals you need.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the real showstopper in this bundle. This is one of our favorite gaming CPUs, and one of the fastest, as our CPU benchmark data will confirm. You won't find better options for gaming than an X3D chip from AMD; the tech has allowed AMD to dominate the market in recent years, with the extra 3D V-Cache giving the total L3 cache a boost to 96MB. That'll have a noticeable impact on gaming performance, with your PC needing to drop down and rely on the slower system RAM less.

This is a Zen 5 CPU with eight cores, and all eight are able to take full advantage of that increased 96MB L3 cache. It has a standard clock speed of 4.7 GHz, which can boost up to 5.2 GHz. As the benchmarks show, the end result for gamers is higher, more stable frame rates compared to any non-X3D rivals.

The 9800X3D needs an AM5 motherboard to power it, which is what you're getting with the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice. This is a mid-tier offering from Gigabyte, with Ice referring to its fully white colorway, that comes with a range of gaming-friendly features. It has no less than 12 USB ports at the back, including two USB-C ports that are rated for speeds of 40 Gbps.

You also get four M.2 sockets for a whole set of SSDs, with three of them rated for PCIe 5.0 speeds over four lanes with this 9800X3D installed. One further slot is rated for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, too. Fast networking is included here, with 2.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7 support as standard. You also get the ability to install a whopping 256GB of DDR5 RAM over four DIMM slots, with speeds of up to 8,200 MT/s.

While this deal doesn’t quite stretch to 256GB (sky-high RAM prices make that impossible at the moment), you’re still getting a fast set of 32GB memory from G.Skill. This G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 RAM is white to match the motherboard, with two 16GB modules offering speeds of 6,000 MT/s. It's RGB, too, which you can configure at the top. It has CAS and memory timings of 36-36-36-76.

Newegg combo deals come and go, but the $1,029.99 sale price for this 9800X3D bundle with a Gigabyte motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 RAM makes it one you'll want to pick up while you can. You've got a core set of parts here to start building out a 4K rig, especially with the Cooler Master AIO for free on top, as long as you get a GPU to match. Expect to see a deal like this sell out quickly.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has described several undersea fiber cables that run through the Strait of Hormuz as "legitimate new targets." The area has become a hotbed of conflict since the start of military action by the United States, Israel and others in February. General Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, referred to the cables in comments at an event this week, The Telegraph reports.

"Seven large cables pass beneath the Strait of Hormuz, and all internet and commercial data pass through them," according to Mohebbi. He went on to describe the cables as "legitimate new targets" for future assaults. Meanwhile, another IRGC General, Yadollah Javani, who serves as the IRGC's political deputy, has since suggested that if Iranian infrastructure is attacked, Iran will respond by attacking the cables, according to comments reported by Iran International.

The conflict between the United States and Iran has cooled, but it isn't quite over yet. Mohebbi suggested that a "third phase" in the war would reveal a "new geography" that would include "new targets and new weapons." One particular cable referenced by the IRGC appears to match the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 cable, a cable stretching 15,050 miles from Asia to Europe, traveling through Oman, the UAE and Qatar. Both the UAE and Qatar share direct maritime borders with Iran.

Experts believe the threat is credible. Professor Alesso Patalano, a war and strategy professor at King's College London, told The Telegraph that "not only is it possible, but it's been a rather clear possibility for a long time," adding that divers could "go down to the seabed... and cut them or destroy them." Such attacks aren't "unheard of," going on to reference the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline attack near Denmark in 2022, supposedly by Ukrainian agents, as an example.

Meanwhile, further comments, made to The Telegraph, suggest that Iran had considered cutting the cables several times since the war began. However, up until now, Tehran had avoided doing so, as it would mean "declaring war on the whole world and building new enemies," according to another unnamed Iranian spokesman, although stating that it would continue to be "an option if Trump escalates."

Iran isn't the only country that has taken a special interest in undersea infrastructure. A Russian ship, for instance, was chased from British waters by a Royal Navy attack helicopter earlier this year as it loitered for 14 hours less than a mile from five undersea cables that connect the UK with Spain, Portugal, Canada, and the U.S.

Right now, the best way to pick up a gaming PC is to buy a pre-built, with hardware prices shooting through the roof. Luckily, the big tech retailers continue to throw out deals for gamers to take advantage of. For instance, you can pick up this ABS Cyclone Aqua machine with an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU, giving you 1440-capable performance for $1,499.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

If you took these specs and tried to build a matching PC yourself, you'd struggle to beat this price. Front and center here is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of VRAM: a formidable option for a budget-friendly gaming PC. You're also getting a 20-core Intel Core i7-14700F CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti at your disposal, you're getting one of Nvidia’s latest-generation mid-tier graphics cards. It has 4,608 CUDA cores and a boost clock speed of 2,527MHz. Unlike the more power-hungry top-end RTX 50-series cards, you only need one eight-pin PCIe connector to deliver power here, so you can banish those worries about burning GPU cables.

Our RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB review makes clear how good the performance is with this Blackwell GPU for gamers, especially at 1080p and 1440p. The charts you'll see below show that, especially with ray tracing in the mix, compared to rival cards at this level. Full DLSS support is included, too, so you can add multi-frame generation as a backstop. That'll give you a nice frame rate boost in the most resource-heavy games if you're pushing up to the highest resolutions.

You can also count on 16GB of GDD7 VRAM with this GPU. That makes it a much more appealing option than 8GB variants you might have to settle for in other rigs at this price point. 16GB gives you more headroom, as far as performance goes, for the most resource-heavy games at 1440p.

For the CPU, you're getting the Intel Core i7-14700F. This continues to be a popular CPU option for gaming, despite being a little older. This Raptor Lake Refresh CPU has 20 cores, with eight performance cores, which are the ones you'll want for gaming, along with 12 efficient cores for multi-threaded work. It also has a maximum turbo clock speed of 5.4 GHz, along with a 65W TDP. At 1080p or 1440p, you won't see much of a bottleneck with the 14700F at your disposal in modern games.

No risk of settling for slower DDR4 RAM here, either. You get fast DDR5 instead, with 16GB of G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5 memory included with speeds of 6,000 MT/s. You aren't getting 32GB, which is a compromise, but you do have room to upgrade later, and DDR5 ensures some extra longevity.

Storage-wise, you're also getting a 1TB Patriot P410 SSD. It has Gen 4 speeds, with that 1TB of storage ensuring you get space for a couple of the big AAA games alongside your Windows installation. This ABS build also comes with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity, along with gigabit Ethernet for a wired connection to your local network.

The $1,499.99 sale price for this ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC makes it an affordable option for gamers who want a 1440p-ready rig right now, especially with prices rising elsewhere. The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is the standout component, but there's no guarantee that this price will last for very long.

Chinese technology giants ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have reportedly spent over $35 billion on orders for more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 workstation GPUs. The huge order for the RTX Pro 5500, fully compliant with U.S. restrictions on exports of AI-capable GPUs to China, is reportedly far beyond Nvidia's planned production for this card. As a result, Nvidia has, according to sources who spoke to Reuters, told its customers that it isn't in a position to fill the orders as it far outstrips its planned production for this GPU.

The RTX Pro 5500 is a workstation GPU with the same number of CUDA cores as its flagship RTX 5090 GPU, but with 84GB of GDDR7 memory attached, making it a good option for AI applications. The RTX Pro 5500 is a popular choice at the moment for Chinese buyers as exporting it isn't currently restricted by the U.S. government. It's less powerful than the H200 and B300, Nvidia's AI-focused GPUs for the enterprise market, but those GPUs remain either banned or heavily restricted. As China competes with the U.S. in the race to produce newer, better AI models, GPUs like the RTX Pro 5500 continue to be indispensable.

The report reveals some interesting data about the Chinese tech firms orders. Two of its sources revealed that the cards are priced at around $11,400 each, reaching a total order value of $35 billion. Meanwhile, another source suggested that Nvidia has informed its partners that it may only be able to deliver enough cards to meet between 5% and 10% of the demand. Meanwhile, Nvidia is reportedly in a position to only produce 3 million RTX Pro 5500 cards globally in 2027.

Neither Nvidia nor the three Chinese companies have confirmed any of this on the record. However, an Nvidia spokesman told Reuters that demand from the Chinese market for these chips has faced "unprecedented growth since 2022" since export restrictions were introduced. "U.S. firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated U.S. export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago, and China's own limits on U.S. imports."

While trade hostility between the U.S. and China shows no sign of abating, demand for Nvidia's GPUs hasn't slowed down, despite U.S. attempts to restrict Nvidia's ability to export to China. Meanwhile, export-restricted Nvidia AI chips continue to reach China despite the restrictions, bypassing the Trump administration's efforts in the process.

There's no point upgrading your internet connection if you've got a bad Wi-Fi router slowing you down. If the ISP-provided router isn't up to the task, and you're ready to banish the lag, you'll want to pick up this TP-Link router, on sale for a limited time only. The TP-Link Archer BE9700, also known as the BE600, is down to $189.98 right now, giving you a 24% saving on its list price.

● Check out this TP-Link router deal on Amazon

With the BE9700, you're getting a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router with six external antennas, enough to give you coverage for up to 2,600 sq. ft. with up to 120 different devices connecting to it. TP-Link reckons you can expect to see speeds of up to 5,765 Mbps on the fastest 6 GHz band, with 2,882 Mbps at 5 GHz, and 1,032 Mbps at 2.4 GHz. MLO, or Multi-Link Operation, support means you're able to connect using these different bands at the same time, giving you even faster speeds and better protection against congestion.

Our TP-Link BE9700 review shows this is a serious option for your network. This is a good value router with solid Wi-Fi 7 support, with speeds that make it a competitive option, especially at this price point. Our review shows that it comes with class-leading 6 GHz performance, with decent enough speeds at 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. It's the top choice in our best Wi-Fi router shortlist, too.

While Wi-Fi 7 support is the big deal here, the wired connections aren't bad, either. You get a 10Gb WAN port to hook this router up to your super-fast modem, giving you max speeds. You also get four 2.5Gb Ethernet ports for your home devices, including your PC, laptop, NAS drives, game consoles, and more.

Aside from the speeds, you get a USB 3.0 port on the side, which you could use to hook up a printer or external hard drive as a basic NAS. EasyMesh support, meanwhile, means you can use this as a wireless node in a mesh network. It also has Quality of Service controls to help you prioritize traffic for your core devices, such as your gaming PC, so you don't lose out when you're gaming.

The $189.98 sale price for this TP-Link Archer BE9700 router is a good one, even if it has yo-yo'd in price over recent months. That said, this is a solid discount off the $249.99 list price that it was at a few weeks ago, and one that'll give you an ultra-fast upgrade to your local network.