The Boulies OP300 is a simple office chair that aims to deliver great ergonomics and sensible styling without breaking the bank. Coming at £259.99 here in the UK, it’s certainly much more affordable than a lot of ergonomic chairs that are on the market. But does the low price mean low quality? We find out today.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start
00:31 Naming / Pricing / Warranty
01:39 Design and Materials
03:45 Comfort and Adjustability
06:58 Chair Dimensions
07:29 Real World Use – Mat’s Thoughts
09:46 Assembling the chair
10:16 Build Quality
11:15 Closing thoughts

Specifications

• Upholstery – Airy Mesh / Padded Mesh
• Frame – Reinforced plastic frame
• Five star foot base – Heavy Duty Engineering plastic Base
• Tilt mechanism – Multi tilt
• Casters – 6cm PU casters
• Hydraulics – Class 3 (Heavy Duty)
• Adjustability
  • 360° swivel
  • backrest recline (85°-113°)
  • Adjustable backrest Height
  • Seat rocking (9.5°)
  • Seat Tilt position Lock (-1.7°-7.8°)
  • Adjustable head support
  • Seat depth adjustment
  • Armrest 6 ways adjustable

You can buy the OP300 directly from Boulies for £259.99 (On sale from £289.99) HERE.

Pros:

• Mature design that will fit an office or gaming environment.
• Comfortable padding across the seat base, backrest and headrest.
• Seat depth adjustment is great to see at this price point.

Cons:

• Lacklustre build quality.
• No adjustable lumbar support.
• Plastic frame doesn’t feel very premium.
• Headrest too far back to be realistically useable.

KitGuru says: The OP300 (formerly known as the EP300) is comfortable where it matters, but has too many compromises in regards to build quality. The lack of adjustable lumbar support is disappointing for a chair aimed at ergonomics. 

The post Boulies OP300 Office Chair Review – best for lower back? first appeared on KitGuru.

Nvidia has dropped the first preview driver from its new 590 branch, and while it's officially aimed at developers, it contains a feature that gamers have been eagerly awaiting. Buried within this preview release is the first implementation of Smooth Motion, the company's answer to AMD's driver-level Fluid Motion Frames technology.

For those who may not be aware, Smooth Motion is essentially driver-level frame generation. Unlike DLSS Frame Generation, which requires integration into a game's engine to work, Smooth Motion is a simpler “one size fits all” solution. While this means the quality won't match a native DLSS implementation, it offers a considerable advantage: it can be enabled on virtually any game, bringing frame generation to titles that would otherwise never receive official support.

While the official toggle for Smooth Motion is not yet live in the Nvidia app, the community has already figured out a workaround. As discovered by user Macer (via Huang514613), the feature can be forced on for the RTX 40 series using Nvidia Inspector. The tool lists the feature as being for the RTX 50 series, but tests have confirmed it is functional on the RTX 40 series as well. These same tests also show the frame generation working as expected, doubling the FPS output on World of Warcraft.

Although the Smooth Motion was what caught our eye, the official purpose of this driver is to give developers a preview of the upcoming Shader Model 6.9. This new version includes advanced features like shader execution reordering for ray tracing and support for cooperative linear algebra operations, all of which are important for the future of game development, but not something end-users need to worry about. For those eager to experiment, the preview driver is available for download now directly from Nvidia's developer portal.

KitGuru says: Do you have an RTX 40 series card? Will you try out Smooth Motion with the preview driver?

The post Nvidia preview driver brings Smooth Motion frame-gen to RTX 40 GPUs first appeared on KitGuru.

Nintendo has never shied away from fighting piracy. Following on from the takedown of two popular Switch emulators last year, Nintendo has now turned its attention back towards ROM sites offering free downloads of Switch titles. According to the FBI, a couple of recently seized domains enabled as much as $170M worth of downloads.

While most of the tech-literate world knows that piracy often doesn't correlate to ‘lost revenue', the powers that be still like to use lost revenue figures when assessing the damage any one individual piracy site has caused. Following the FBI's seizure of the nsw2u domain, as well as a few other Nintendo Switch and PS4 ROM sites, it is claimed that as much as $170M was lost due to these websites.

“Between February 28, 2025, and May 28, 2025, records indicate a total of 3.2 million downloads occurred on these sites from the most used download service. These actions resulting in an estimated loss of $170 million.”

Naturally, this number will have been worked out using the full-priced retail cost of each game, multiplied by the number of unique downloads. To get a more accurate figure, you would have to rank each game based on the number of downloads, and then factor in the average selling price, rather than the MSRP, as games regularly get significant discounts within months of release.

KitGuru Says: As always, when one piracy site goes down, there will be another ready to take its place. 

The post FBI says recently seized ROM sites enabled $170M worth of piracy first appeared on KitGuru.

Google has had its operating system development split across two different systems for years – Android for mobile and ChromeOS for laptops. There has been an effort to unify these two systems in recent years, including Android emulation on ChromeOS. Google is looking to take things a step further though, according to a recent interview with Android president, Sameer Samat.

Speaking with TechRadar in a recent interview, Samat, the man in charge of the Android ecosystem at Google, stated that the company's goal is to unify ChromeOS and Android to enable a cross-device experience similar to the Apple ecosystem, where the MacBook, iPhone / iPad and Watch can all link together and share information and software.

“We’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android into a single platform, and I am very interested in how people are using their laptops these days and what they’re getting done”, Samat said in the interview.

The full scope of Google's plans here has not yet been revealed, but with this information now out, we would expect to learn more details at next year's Google I/O event.

KitGuru Says: Would you be more likely to buy a Chromebook if it had more Android DNA under the hood? 

The post Google to unify ChromeOS and Android into ‘single platform’ first appeared on KitGuru.

The Subnautica 2 drama continued over the weekend. Last month, two of the founders of Unkown Worlds, along with the CEO of the game studio, left the project behind, citing disagreements with the executives at Krafton, the publisher for Subnautica 2. The three former developers claimed that Krafton was intentionally holding the game back to avoid paying out a bonus, but a leaked document seems to indicate that numerous deadlines were indeed missed. 

Krafton is facing a lawsuit from the founders of Unknown Worlds, who claim that Subnautica 2 is ready to release in Early Access right now. As the game won't be releasing this year, Unknown Worlds will not hit a crucial financial target that would have unlocked a $250M bonus for the studio, a sum that was going to be split up amongst the development team.

While fans were quick to blame Krafton for the current issues, a new leak lends some validity to their argument. A document shared on Reddit shows the most recent ‘milestone review' for Subnautica 2. The document showed that milestones were missed repeatedly and details a number of pieces of cut content, including six hours worth of ‘narrative' content, multiple tools and vehicles, as well as an unnamed custom game mode.

In a statement sent to media outlets like IG, Krafton confirmed that this leaked document was legitimate but did not expand beyond that. As Unkown Worlds co-founders, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as former CEO, Tim Gill, are now suing Krafton, we'd expect public statements from both sides to slow down while the legal process plays out.

KitGuru Says: Assuming this lawsuit moves forward, more documents, like the one shown in the leak, will appear in court documents, so that is where the bulk of the information will be coming from moving forward. 

The post Krafton confirms cut content and missed milestones during Subnautica 2 development first appeared on KitGuru.

This year, Square Enix is releasing the Dragon Quest I + II HD-2D remake. As it turns out, there is more to come after that, as Square Enix is looking to invest more in growing the Dragon Quest IP.  

Dragon Quest is a classic RPG series, pre-dating the Final Fantasy series. While Final Fantasy ultimately ended up being Square Enix's flagship RPG series, the Dragon Quest franchise has maintained a strong fan base for decades. In particular, Dragon Quest 7 is widely regarded as a high point for the series by fans and it sounds like Square Enix is in agreement.

According to MP1st, Square Enix has begun work on a remake of Dragon Quest 7. The game first released for the PS1 back in 2000, and the remake is apparently being prepared for a 2026 release. This will be the first time that the game has been re-released since Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past for the 3DS. This version of the game first released in Japan in 2013 but didn't make its way to the west until 2016, the last year of the 3DS life cycle before the Nintendo Switch took over in 2017.

It is unclear if this new version of Dragon Quest 7 will use the HD-2D art style but for the sake of cohesion between this and the remakes of Dragon Quest 1, 2 and 3, I would hope they are.

KitGuru Says: I became a Dragon Quest fan through Dragon Quest 11, so I am very interested in revisiting the classics that I missed out on back then. However, none of this is as exciting as Dragon Quest 12, which has been M.I.A since its announcement several years ago. 

The post Dragon Quest 7 Remake in the works for 2026 first appeared on KitGuru.

The next major desktop platform in Intel's client CPU portfolio, “Nova Lake-S”, has reportedly taken a significant step towards reality. According to a new report, a compute tile for the next-generation desktop processor has successfully “taped out” at TSMC's facilities in Taiwan.

Based on the new report from SemiAccurate (via HardwareLuxx), it seems Intel is pursuing a dual-foundry strategy for Nova Lake. The rumour mill has long suggested that the architecture would be a showcase for Intel's 18A process, but this tape-out on TSMC's cutting-edge N2 node suggests a hybrid approach is on the cards. This could be a strategic decision to mitigate risk and ensure a stable supply chain, or simply a way to guarantee enough volume to meet potential demand.

If previous architectural leaks hold true, Nova Lake-S is shaping up to be an absolute monster. The flagship desktop CPUs are expected to feature a highly complex, tiled architecture with a total of 52 cores. This is rumoured to be a breakdown of 16x P-Cores, 32x E-Cores, and an additional 4x low-power E-Cores located on the SoC tile to handle background tasks. This is all expected to be paired with a memory controller supporting speeds of up to 8,800 MT/s.

The graphics solution is equally ambitious, featuring a disaggregated design. The rumour suggests the main graphics rendering will be handled by the upcoming Xe3 “Celestial” architecture, while the media and display engines will be powered by the even newer Xe4 “Druid” architecture.

A successful tape-out is the first major step in a long journey to retail shelves. The freshly manufactured compute tiles will now undergo weeks, or even months, of “power on” validation and testing in Intel's labs. Once cleared, high-volume manufacturing can begin, which itself takes several months. All told, this timeline points towards a launch in H2 2026.

KitGuru says: Can Intel Nova Lake-S help Intel recover its position in the desktop consumer market?

The post Intel may use TSMC N2 tech for Nova Lake-S CPUs first appeared on KitGuru.

The blueprint for AMD's next generation of CPUs is beginning to take shape, with a new leak providing a detailed look at the process nodes that will work as the foundation for the upcoming Zen 6 architecture.

According to Kepler_L2 (via 3DCenter), AMD has shared its process node plans with partners, revealing a strategy that leans heavily on TSMC's advanced N2P node for high-performance parts, while utilising N3P for more mainstream and mobile products. Starting with the server segment, both the standard EPYC “Venice Classic” and the high-density “Venice Dense” processors are slated to use TSMC's N2P node. This aligns with previous rumours that AMD is looking to increase core counts, with the 2nm-class node providing the necessary transistor budget for the rumoured 12-core “Classic” and even 32-core “Dense” Zen 6 chiplets.

Desktop gamers and high-end chips will also probably be based on the same node as their server counterparts. The next-generation Ryzen platform, codenamed “Olympic Ridge”, is also set to have its core chiplets built on the N2P node. This will extend to high-end laptops, with the “Gator Range” platform also leveraging N2P for higher-tier mobile solutions.

Things get more mixed in the mainstream laptop segment with the “Medusa Point”, the successors to the current “Strix Point” family. Here, AMD will reportedly employ a mixed approach. For the top-tier Medusa Point SKUs, the processor will be a chiplet design, combining an N2P-based CCD with an I/O die (IOD) manufactured on the N3P node. Further down the stack, the lower-end Medusa Point SKUs are expected to be monolithic chips built entirely on the N3P process.

While this latest leak provides a great deal of clarity on the CPU side, other codenames like the high-end mobile “Medusa Halo” and low-end “Bumblebee” are also being mentioned, though details are scarce. As for the next-generation RDNA5 graphics architecture, sometimes referred to as UDNA, its process node remains unconfirmed.

KitGuru says: What are your expectations for the next generation of Zen-based processors?

The post AMD Zen 6 CPUs will reportedly be built using TSMC N2P and N3P first appeared on KitGuru.

This month, we learned that Microsoft had shut down several studios and cancelled a number of major projects. One of the studios hit the hardest was Turn 10, Microsoft's first-party studio responsible for the Forza Motorsport series of racing games. Forza Motorsport has apparently been cancelled for the foreseeable future, in favour of the much better performing Forza Horizon series. 

According to one former Turn 10 employee writing on LinkedIn, Forza Horizon 5 sold two million copies in one month when it launched on PS5 earlier this year. The sales success of the Forza Horizon series appears to have overtaken the classic Forza Motorport series, which focused more on realistic track racing, while Forza Horizon offers a large open-world playground with street races, track races, rally races and more.

While Steam player counts aren't always a great indicator as to how well a game sold, Forza Motorsport, achieved just 4,700 peak concurrent players at launch. Meanwhile, Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Horizon 5 peaked at 75K concurrent players and 82K concurrent players respectively. The Forza Horizon games have just been far more popular than Turn 10's more traditional Forza games.

Moving forward, Turn 10 is reportedly going to be a support studio for the Forza Horizon games, with Playground Games taking charge. Playground Games has grown into a multi-project studio since being acquired by Microsoft in 2018 and now works on both Forza Horizon and Microsoft's cult-classic RPG series, Fable.

KitGuru Says: Racing games are a niche genre, but Forza Horizon is built to attract more casual gamers, while Forza Motorsport was primarily made for the hardcore racing crowd. Considering how poorly Forza Motorport did, it is not surprising to see Horizon being prioritised moving forward. 

The post Forza Horizon 5 eclipsed Forza Motorsport sales first appeared on KitGuru.

It has been just over a month since the ROG Xbox Ally handheld was announced. This is a collaboration between Xbox and Asus to produce a new handheld with an updated ‘gaming UI' for Windows 11 that enables easy switching of apps and quick access to the Xbox app, Battle Net, Steam and other launchers. While we still don't have a solid launch date for the handheld, a recent leak has given us an early look at pricing. 

There will be two versions of the Xbox Ally system. A base version featuring a Ryzen Z2A APU, and a more powerful version with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme.

The Ryzen Z2A features four Zen 2 CPU cores with eight threads and an 8-CU RDNA 2 iGPU. The Z2 Extreme bumps this up to eight Zen 5 CPU cores and a bigger RDNA 3.5 iGPU, making it ideal for running more graphically intensive titles.

Two weeks after the ROG Xbox Ally announcement, one leaker claimed that pricing would start at €599 for the base version, going up to €899 for the more powerful Ryzen Z2 Extreme version. Now, a screenshot taken from the Asus website by 3DJuegos confirms these price points for both the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X.

Pre-orders for the ROG Xbox Ally are expected to open in August, around the same time as Gamescom, Europe's largest gaming expo. The first units are expected to ship out in October. Next year, the new ‘gaming UI' for Windows 11 is expected to become available to more devices, including competing handhelds.

KitGuru Says: The price tag is high, going well above the cost of an Xbox console. However, it will also have access to far more games than an Xbox console, thanks to access to apps like Steam, the Epic Games Store, Battle.net and more. 

The post ROG Xbox Ally pricing confirmed in new leak first appeared on KitGuru.

Compared to the base RTX 5060 that we initially tested, the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC offers a very quiet cooling system, excellent temperatures, a metal backplate, RGB lighting, and idle fan-stop, adding a touch of premium polish. But is that enough to stand out in this crowded market segment?

As a studio, Playdead do not have the biggest repertoire of titles under their belt. That said, the team’s two games – LIMBO and INSIDE – are both certified indie classics which received universal critical acclaim upon their respective releases. If you have yet to try either title, you might want to get on it, as both games are set to be delisted from GOG later this week.

In a surprising post published to the store’s forums, the GOG team officially announced that both LIMBO and INSIDE are set to be delisted, writing:

“Hi everyone, I'm sorry to inform you that Limbo and Inside will be removed from our store on July 17th, 2025, 3 PM CEST. We don't have any information on discounts yet. Wish I could have better news for you, but grab it while it's still here!”

No reason was given for the delisting, but fans have speculated that it is to do with the ongoing lawsuit between Playdead co-founders Dino Patti and Arnt Jensen.

Regardless of the reason, both LIMBO and INSIDE are excellent, unique and highly atmospheric puzzle platformers and so you should grab them while they remain available to purchase.

No such delisting has been announced for any other platforms, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the game being removed from other storefronts shortly. Hopefully both titles are brought back at some point – but in case they don’t you might want to pick up both games as soon as possible.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Playdead’s output? Are you looking forward to their mysterious 3rd game? Why do you think both titles are being delisted? Let us know down below.

The post Indie classics LIMBO and INSIDE are being removed from GOG first appeared on KitGuru.

A couple months ago, a rumour popped up claiming that Rockstar Games were gearing up to release a remaster of the 2008 7th-gen classic Grand Theft Auto IV. While we’ve yet to hear anything official on the matter, an update to Rockstar’s support page now lends credence to the notion that GTA IV is coming to more modern systems.

As discovered by Reddit user ‘deVonY7’ Rockstar recently updated their support page for GTA IV, listing PlayStation 4 as one of the game’s available platforms.

Of course, Grand Theft Auto IV released back in 2008 and so remains locked to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on consoles.

Thanks to Microsoft’s backwards compatibility efforts however, GTA IV is playable on current Xbox systems. For PlayStation however, the PS3 library remains inaccessible without a PS4/5 re-release of sorts.

Regardless, GTA IV remains one of the most requested Rockstar games to be ported to current-gen platforms – especially as the likes of Red Dead Redemption 1 have now been remastered.

Following the reports of this ‘leak’ Rockstar subsequently updated the page to remove all mention of the PS4. Whether this adds to the evidence of a remaster or counters it, we will have to wait and see.

That said, with Grand Theft Auto VI no longer slated to launch this year, Rockstar has an excellent opportunity to keep fans satiated in the meantime. We will have to wait and see whether the GTA IV remaster pans out or not.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Would you welcome a remaster of GTA IV? What improvements would you want to see made? What do you expect from this remaster? Let us know down below.

The post Rockstar accidentally leaks Grand Theft Auto IV Remastered for modern systems first appeared on KitGuru.

Back in 2022, EA officially announced that it would no longer be licensing out the FIFA name for its annual football titles, saving between $150-300 million a year and instead opting for the name EA Sports FC. Despite the lack of the FIFA branding, EA’s football titles continue to thrive – with FC 25 reportedly selling almost 20 million copies on PlayStation alone.

As reported by Alinea Analytics, EA’s Sports FC continues to make the publisher unfathomable amounts of money despite the lack of any official FIFA branding.

While we’ve not gotten a full breakdown of the game’s sales success, the analysts have shared that EA Sports FC 25 (released back in September 2024) sold 905,000 copies on PlayStation during the month of June.

While in and of itself impressive given the relative age of the game, what is perhaps more surprising is the fact that since its release in September of last year, EA Sports FC 25 has sold a staggering 19.2 million copies – on PlayStation alone.

It is worth noting that EA’s football titles have historically been the biggest on PlayStation, and so the total figure across all platforms may not be that much higher.

Regardless, it is surprising to see just how big EA’s football titles are, with or without the FIFA name.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you a fan of EA’s annual football titles? Do you care about the lack of the FIFA name? How many of these 20 million players do you think partake in Ultimate Team? Let us know down below.

The post EA Sports FC 25 has sold almost 20 million copies on PlayStation alone first appeared on KitGuru.

DRM is the bane of many PC players, with Denuvo being the most famous (or infamous). While almost all games with DRM eventually get cracked by fans, developers have begun taking it into their own hands, patching the DRM out after launch. Finally, almost exactly one year on from its release, Denuvo has been removed from Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.

As discovered by ResetEra user ‘nsilvias’ Capcom recently updated Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess to remove Denuvo’s anti-tamper DRM.

For the uninitiated, major video game releases are typically front loaded sales-wise, with a large portion of the game’s revenue being amassed from pre-orders and day-one sales. Furthermore, the Denuvo DRM software has historically been the cause of many issues, both performance and graphics related and its removal only serves to benefit the gaming experience overall.

Unfortunately, the removal of Denuvo came alongside the addition of another DRM – Capcom’s own Enigma software. That said, this move is still being celebrated as Enigma is said to be far less impactful than Denuvo.

Research has suggested that Denuvo is effective only up until the first 3 months on the market – at which point its costs are no longer worth it. As such, it is curious to see Kunitsu-Gami having had its DRM enabled for a whole year.

It will be interesting to see whether this change has any impact on the game’s sales moving forward.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Denuvo? What about DRM in general? Have you checked out Kunitsu-Gami? Let us know down below.

The post Capcom has removed Denuvo DRM from Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess first appeared on KitGuru.

Following the release of Mario Kart World alongside the launch of the Switch 2, the next major first-party title coming to Nintendo’s sequel system is Donkey Kong Bananza. Set to arrive in under a week’s time, the team at Nintendo have offered a surprisingly candid response to comments regarding the upcoming title’s somewhat inconsistent framerate.

Nintendo titles are typically rather solid performance-wise, with most first-party offerings running at a smooth 60fps. With the Switch generation in particular however, we saw Nintendo push the hardware as far as it could – leading to some games operating far below their target frame rates.

Despite this, the console maker remained silent on these aforementioned performance issues. As such, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Nintendo has now directly addressed the performance of the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza, with the game’s director Kazuya Takahashi telling the publication ‘Lavanguardia’ (as translated by NintendoEverything):

“There are several factors to consider. First, we intentionally used effects like hit-stop and slow motion to emphasize impacts. Second, because we use voxel technology, there are times when there are major changes and destruction in the environment. We’re aware that performance may drop slightly at these times. However, as you say, overall the game is smooth, and at points where large-scale changes occur, we prioritized fun and playability.”

For the uninitiated, Donkey Kong Bananza’s main mechanic is in its destruction, with much of the game’s platforming and puzzles requiring the player to break various parts of the environment.

Though typically a 60fps experience, early analysis has identified various points in which Bananza’s frame rate is impacted. Fortunately, it appears so far as though the biggest drops occur during non-gameplay moments – meaning it shouldn’t be too much of a noticeable issue.

As mentioned, it is interesting to see Nintendo directly discussing the framerate and performance of a first-party title, especially given how silent they’ve been on the matter in the past.

That said, with the Switch 2 being Nintendo’s latest and greatest system, perhaps the console maker is simply trying to justify why their brand new device is already suffering from some performance issues. It will be interesting to see how other first-party Nintendo games perform as and when they arrive on Switch 2.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the statement? Are you bothered by the framedrops? Do you notice performance issues more when playing or watching a game? Let us know down below.

The post Nintendo addresses Donkey Kong Bananza’s inconsistent frame rate first appeared on KitGuru.

The KitGuru Reader Awards return for 2025. This is where we ask you to tell us which brands you think are doing the best job in the tech space and as a thank you for entering, we are also running a giveaway, with the winner getting their choice of an RTX 5070 Ti or an RX 9070 XT graphics card! 

Voting is now open for the KitGuru Reader Awards 2025, and it takes just a few minutes to have your say.

Whether you're loyal to a specific chassis manufacturer, think a certain monitor brand deserves more love or have been blown away by your latest motherboard purchase, now is the time to make your opinion count.

Why vote?

Not only will your votes shape the KitGuru Reader Awards, but they’ll also feed directly into the European Hardware Association Reader Awards, which will be revealed in Cologne on Monday 19th August – the evening before Gamescom opens. With nine leading tech publications involved across Europe, this is your chance to help decide the biggest pan-European technology community awards of the year.

What’s up for grabs?

To thank you for taking part, we’re giving one lucky voter the chance to win a high-end graphics card worth £850. You’ll be able to choose your prize – for example, between a brand-new RTX 5070 Ti or a Radeon RX 9070 XT – depending on your platform preference.

Entering the draw is easy and you can choose to answer/skip as many categories as you like. If you want a chance to win – please fill in the email box at the end of the survey. Everyone who enters has an equal chance.

Important dates:

• Voting opens: Now

• Voting closes: Midnight, Saturday 20th July

• Prize winner announced: Tuesday 23rd July

• KitGuru Award Results published: Monday 12th August

• EHA Reader Awards announced live in Cologne: Monday 19th August

How to vote

Click to go to our Reader Awards 2025 voting form. Remember: You don’t need to vote in every category – so just skip any that don’t apply to you.

KitGuru Says: Whether you're a regular commenter or a quiet observer, this is your moment to shape the narrative. Tell us which brands have earned your trust and admiration in 2025 — and maybe win yourself a serious GPU upgrade while you're at it. Good luck – and thank you for being part of the KitGuru community over the last 16 years!

The post KitGuru Reader Awards 2025 – Vote and win an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT! first appeared on KitGuru.

Regular mid-towers are a thing of the past. Most PC case manufacturers are now experimenting with unusual designs, stuff that most people would never even think of. Surely, PC cases do not hold as big of a status in our minds as a CPU or GPU, but they can indirectly influence the performance of a computer. Case manufacturers are becoming more creative when it comes to airflow and we have seen so many of them that it feels like there is no limit to unique designs. Once such a design is seen on the OmnyX mid-tower chassis by COUGAR, which […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/cougar-omnyx-case-review/

Intel entered the discrete graphics card market two years ago with its Alchemist architecture. The launch was highly anticipated, as the company entered a market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD for decades. But not everything went as planned. Intel's Arc A-series "Alchemist" graphics cards launched after much delay & even a delayed launch couldn't help the blue team's case as it was plagued with severe driver issues, software problems, and general gaming issues. This left a sour note in the minds of folks who had been waiting to see what Intel had to offer. Following the launch, there were several […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/maxsun-intel-arc-b580-icraft-12-gb-graphics-card-review/

FSP is strengthening its standing in the premium case market with its new U691 full tower, a chassis designed for builders who want to showcase components while also having plenty of room for cooling and today's extra-large graphics cards. By combining expansive glass panelling with mesh and a versatile cooling layout, the U691 aims to deliver on both form and function.

The U691 makes a bold first impression with the front, top, and left sides adorned with 4mm tempered glass panels, all mounted to a sturdy 0.8mm SPCC steel frame. This “fish tank” style offers an uninterrupted view of the system inside, and to ensure hardware can breathe, the bottom and right-side panels are constructed from steel mesh fitted with dust filters.

Measuring 451 × 258 × 568mm, the U691 offers an expansive interior. It supports ATX, mATX, and Mini-ITX motherboards, with ample room for today's massive components. That includes CPU coolers up to 180mm tall and graphics cards up to 420mm long. For storage, the case provides a flexible arrangement of drive bays located behind the motherboard tray and on a removable bracket, keeping the main chamber clutter-free.

The cooling potential is where the U691 truly stands out. While a single 120mm ARGB PWM fan is pre-installed at the rear, the enthusiast-level support is found elsewhere. The right-side panel can be kitted out with up to four 120mm fans or three 140mm fans, or even a massive 480mm radiator. An additional three 120mm fans can be mounted on the bottom panel for direct GPU cooling. To complete the look, a subtle ARGB light strip runs along the rear interior.

FSP has included several user-friendly features to simplify the building process, including a motherboard tray that can be removed for easy component installation outside the chassis. Moreover, the exterior panels are secured with thumbscrews, and rubber grommets line the cable routing channels to help achieve a clean final build. Lastly, the front I/O, located on the front-right foot of the case, includes two USB-A ports and a USB-C port. The FSP U691 is coming to market for €129.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Do you think it's a fair price for the FSP U691, considering its specs and looks?

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Just when you were getting used to PCIe 5.0 speeds, the next generation of storage performance is already knocking on the door. According to a leaked presentation slide, Silicon Motion is set to officially unveil the MonTitan SM8466 SSD controller at the Flash Memory Summit next month, and the numbers are staggering. The new enterprise-focused controller is built to leverage the PCIe 6.0 x4 interface, with sequential read speeds of up to 28GB/s.

These figures, which first appeared in a leak from ITHome (via Guru3D), align with the expectations many had for the next-gen PCIe drives (twice as fast as flagship PCIe 5.0 controllers). The SM8466 controller is a powerhouse, featuring 16 NAND channels designed to support all upcoming forms of 3D NAND memory. This architecture will enable SSDs to scale up to a whopping 512TB on a single drive. To achieve this level of performance and density, SMI is reportedly turning to TSMC's N4 process node.

Image via: ITHome

Don't expect to slot one of these into your gaming rig anytime soon, however. The SM8466 is squarely aimed at data centre usage. It's expected to be compliant with the OCP NVMe SSD Spec 2.5 and NVMe 2.0+ specifications, making it ideal for cloud and hyperscale deployments. The feature set includes enterprise tools like SR-IOV for virtualisation, end-to-end data path protection, and robust security measures, including Secure Boot, TCG Opal compliance, and AES-256 encryption.

The performance of SM8466-based drives is set to blow past not only the best client SSDs but almost all current-gen enterprise storage solutions. The first SM8466-powered SSDs are still some ways off and may not arrive until early 2027. This timeline means it should be available alongside other next-generation server hardware aimed at the growing AI market, like Nvidia's ‘Rubin' GPU.

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KitGuru says: When do you think we'll have our hands on the first consumer-oriented PCIe 6.0 SSDs?

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While AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GRE was officially launched back in May as a China-exclusive card, we've been left wondering how this cut-down GPU performs. Now, thanks to the team at ComputerBase, who managed to import a Sapphire Pulse model, we have our answer. The verdict? It's a sound 1440p gaming card that carves out an interesting spot in the market.

Under the hood, the RX 9070 GRE is built on the same 4nm “Navi 48” silicon that powers the rest of the RX 9070 series. However, AMD has made some significant cuts to create this SKU. The compute unit count is reduced to 48, giving it 3,072 stream processors. Moreover, the memory configuration has been trimmed to 12GB of GDDR6 running across a 192-bit bus, with the Infinity Cache also reduced to 48MB. Despite these reductions, the card maintains the same 220W Total Board Power as the RX 9070.

Image credit: ComputerBase

In a suite of 13 game tests at 1440p resolution run by Computer Base, the RX 9070 GRE proves to be a potent performer. On average, it delivers a 28.4% performance uplift over AMD's own RX 9060 XT 16GB and comfortably beats out Nvidia's RTX 5060 Ti 16GB by 22%. It even manages to pull ahead of the last-gen RX 7800 XT by 11% and the RTX 4070 by 5%. However, it doesn't quite catch its more powerful siblings. The standard RX 9070 remains 14% faster, while the flagship RX 9070 XT is a further 29% ahead. Nvidia's RTX 5070 also holds a 9% lead over the new GRE card.

This performance places the RX 9070 GRE in a unique position, slotting perfectly into the performance gap between the market's key mid-range players. Unfortunately, it still isn't available in other regions besides China. Whether we will ever see this card officially released worldwide remains to be seen, but for now, it stands as a strong and compelling mid-range option for the region it serves.

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KitGuru says: Would like to see the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE available in your region?

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AMD's high-performance CPU journey continues on the desktop platform with the arrival of the Zen 5 core architecture. The new architecture has several fundamental changes that allow huge performance uplifts in single-core and multi-core applications. These can be attributed to the 16 percent IPC improvement that the new architecture has on offer. Replacing the AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs, the Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" CPUs do not change the core configurations but enhance them in certain ways. The architectural upgrades allow Zen 5 chips to run cooler, consume lower power, and support the latest features on existing and upcoming […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d-3d-v-cache-cpu-review-ultimate-multi-threading-gaming-combo/

There is one thing that immediately looks different about the Corsair Frame 5000D RS, the motherboard tray looks like a peg board!  It is attached by four screws so you can easily…