XDA Developers

"Is AM5 worth a platform jump from AM4?" That is a question that has been asked and answered quite a few times over the last two years. The answer, however, seems to remain the same, but the reasons change depending on when the question is asked. To be fair, that's usually what happens when the industry itself is in a highly volatile phase.

For years, Plex has been my media server of choice. It looks polished, works on pretty much every single device I own, and handles most things without me ever having to think about them. However, over the years, it's been tough not to grow frustrated with the price increases, especially when I've attempted to help my friends set up their own servers.

With the ongoing memory crisis raging and showing no signs of slowing, the rampocalypse feels like it's hit all aspects of the tech industry at this point. Most recently, Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S went up by $150, and Apple products have been slapped with price increases, including the MacBook Pro, iPad Air, iPad Pro, and more. There are also high price tags attached to Microsoft's new Surface devices, which led the tech giant to release 8GB of RAM versions of the Surface Pro 12 and Surface La

LLMs being able to spit out entire programs that once took teams days or months of hard work to create is frightening. That's simply something you can't argue about, and frankly, it's a little unsettling to watch. However, I don't think there's anything good that comes from writing off these tools and refusing to use them. They're here, and they are only going to get significantly better at what they already do. Something I've been talking about for quite a while now is that one of the biggest b

While wireless tends to dominate the way we interact with the internet, wired is the way to go if you want the more reliable connection. A wired connection can also be more useful in certain scenarios, while also providing faster transfer speeds for all connected devices. You don't need to have a home lab either to reap the benefits.

My smart home is covered in dashboards, whether they're displaying the smart devices inside or helping manage the home lab infrastructure that my automation software runs on. That's handled by Home Assistant for the most part, but I still have to pay attention to what's going on there.

The MSI Raider has long been one of the more interesting options in the high-end gaming laptop market, and not just because of its raw specs. Much of the appeal comes from how it approaches the balancing act between power and portability. The latest Raider 16 Max HX pushes those priorities further than ever, pairing Intel Core Ultra 200HX Plus processors with up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics, a revised cooling architecture, and a chassis that's actually become smaller despite delivering mo

If you've upgraded your PC or laptop lately, you might have an extra SSD left over. It's a fairly common practice to sling it into a drawer for storage. After all, it's not going to get hurt by moving around, and you have time to figure out what to use it for. But if it's left unplugged from power for an extended time, any data you have stored on it might be at risk.

I love immutable Linux distros. I made the jump from Windows to Linux about a year ago, and since then, I have settled and made a new home in Fedora Atomic's KDE spin, Kinoite. The immutable design is something you just don't get with Windows, and Kinoite made it really easy for my then-beginner self (okay, I'm still a beginner, but I was more of one back then) to get started with the tech.

Sometimes, all you need to get yourself organized is a productivity gadget on your desktop. These days, you can buy (or even build) a small yet powerful work-enhancing companion that keeps you on top of your emails, gives you a quick digest for important information, and acts as a timer for short bursts of work.

Ollama has become the default answer when someone asks how to run a local LLM, and for good reason. It's easy, it works across platforms, and it hides enough of the ugly parts that you can go from nothing to a working model in minutes. llama.cpp sits underneath a huge amount of the local AI world too, especially if you're using GGUF models, so neither one is going away.

A NAS starts out as a big project, but once your storage pools are configured and all services are running smoothly, it's just a box that sits quietly in the corner doing its job. Mine had begun to blend in with the furniture, and the only time I thought about it was when I wanted to host a new service or a hard drive failed.

Whenever someone starts dabbling in vibe-coding and vibe-designing, they'll most likely come across big names like Replit, Lovable, Figma Make, and probably also Claude Design lately. These tools are more than fine, this is not about dragging them, but when you end up settling for something just because it's popular, you might be missing out on a world of options. Naturally, I went digging for some underrated tools in the vibe-designing space, and actually found a bunch that probably never would

As I sit and inventory my tech and other electronic equipment around my home, I'm surprised by how many of my devices still require batteries to run. I'm not talking about devices with internal batteries like phones, modern remotes, or flashlights that you can plug in and charge. I am looking at products that need AA, AAA, or 9V batteries. Those types of devices are less common but still around enough that having a decent supply is important, even though the cost adds up. Luckily, Amazon has a s

AI coding tools have become one of the biggest topics in software development. Every week, there's a new demo showing how AI can generate features, automate workflows, and dramatically boost developer productivity. Cursor is often part of that conversation, and for good reason; it's a powerful tool with some genuinely impressive capabilities.

I don't think I remember the last time I used a walkie-talkie, and with the introduction of smartphones, I'm not sure when I'll ever need one. However, that doesn't make them useless by any means. If you want to make your own pair of walkie-talkies using an ESP32, this project may just be what you're looking for, and best of all, it manages to avoid the need for radio licensing using a smart trick.

If I had a nickel for every time I've reported on a cute aquarium app designed to run entirely off an ESP32 CYD, I'd have two nickels. It's not a lot, but unlike how the meme goes, I don't think it's weird that it happened twice; in fact, I love it.

As operating systems move forward as a whole, the system requirements for running them only get bigger and bigger. Windows 11's NPU 2.0 requirement caused quite a stir when it first came to light, and even Ubuntu is asking for better hardware these days.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve started looking into ways I can repurpose old hardware. PC rigs are the easiest to revitalize, as Proxmox is all they need to turn into functioning LXC (and sometimes, even VM) hosting workstations. Meanwhile, individual components like graphics cards, RAM sticks, and storage drives serve as decent additions to my existing home lab nodes.

Modern PC builders spend countless hours researching CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, and memory kits, but many overlook one of the most important performance settings hidden inside their motherboard's BIOS. I used to assume that if my hardware was physically installed correctly, it would automatically run at its maximum speed. After all, PCIe standards are designed to negotiate the fastest supported connection between devices and the motherboard.