Month: November 2024

Max Verstappen delivered a stunning qualifying session Saturday night at the Qatar Grand Prix, stealing pole position from favorites such as George Russell and Lando Norris. That performance ended a lengthy drought for Verstappen — who last started on pole in a Grand Prix in Austria back in July — and was a shocking turnaround from his performance in the F1 Sprint Race earlier in the day, where he finished eighth.
Whether Verstappen starts on pole, however, remains in question.
Race officials summoned Verstappen for an investigation into a potential impending incident that occurred during Q3 involving George Russell. As the Mercedes driver was beginning a push lap near the end of the session, Verstappen was right on the racing line in front of him.
You can see the incident in question here:

As noted, Russell flagged that in real time, calling it “super dangerous” from the Red Bull driver.
The summons noted that Verstappen may have been “driving unnecessarily slowly” during the qualifying session:

The standard penalty for impeding during a qualifying session is a three-place grid drop, and depending on what the race officials hear from Verstappen, the Red Bull driver might be starting a little further back on the grid when the lights go out Sunday night in Qatar. […]

Before Cyber Monday, the Phillips Evnia 34M2C8600 has gone on sale for 29% off, costing just $569.99 instead of its original $799.99 MSRP. This monitor, released mid-2023, is a 34-inch 175 Hz OLED 21:9 Ultrawide monitor with support for DisplayHDR True Black 400, a curved screen, and a resolution of 3440 x 1440 (WQHD). This is a genuinely feature-rich monitor, and our original review rated it 4.5/5 stars, even at its original pricing.Beyond the OLED crash course, our original review praised this monitor in nearly every facet. Of course, there is still some room for improvement. For example, this OLED display is rated for just 450 nits brightness, which allows it to achieve the DisplayHDR grade of True Black 400. However, compared to the substandard DisplayHDR grade of just “400”, which isn’t HDR, True Black 400 can leverage OLED’s infinite per-pixel contrast and turn around a stunning image at a much much lower brightness than IPS HDR monitors, which generally aren’t considered good until you reach the maximum HDR grade of “1000” for 1000 nits.For those who may not know, the core appeal of OLEDs is always found in their near-infinite contrast. Barring a rare few entry-level OLEDs that somehow manage to fumble this, nearly every OLED on the market will have perfect, inky black levels thanks to the fundamental nature of the display panel type. OLEDs, like VA panels, are capable of full per-pixel dimming, which can completely power off a pixel in dark scenes…but unlike VA panels, they are also far more vibrant and responsive. OLED panels are even more vibrant and responsive than high-end IPS panels, with some boasting near-instant response time comparable to classic CRT displays. This makes them ideal for gamers in a way other modern panel types are not.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)Regarding genuinely unique features, we highlight the Phillips Evnia “Ambiglow” feature in our original review. Ambiglow takes industry-standard RGB lighting behind the monitor and matches it to the content onscreen, adding an extra, subtle immersion factor for your peripheral view, especially in a dark room.We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you’re looking for other products, check out our  Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized  SSD and Storage Deals Live blog,  Monitor Deals Live,  Graphics Card Deals, or  CPU Deals pages.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

If you’re looking for the most affordable mechanical hard drive with large storage capacity, Amazon sells a Seagate BarraCuda 8TB for a meager price of $109.99. This would be perfect for those who want an internal hard drive for cold storage- given that games, files, and media take up a lot of space, and hence, keeping a backup is useful. This drive is offered at 19% off its price, and Amazon mentions that it is its #1 best seller.Expectations must be set as this is the least expensive 8TB you can get. It has a two-year warranty and a low workload rate limit of 55TB per year. The tradeoffs are expected for such a large capacity drive at a low cost—the Seagate BarraCuda uses SMR technology and a 5400-RPM spindle. As our review of this hard drive mentioned, the BarraCuda is best for writing large files and reading the data. The drive is made for large storage capacity and lower pricing above performance, which you’ll be looking at a different series like the 7200-RPM-based FireCuda series for better performance.But you want something cheap and can hold a large amount of data. As long as the performance expectations are grounded, this will likely be one of the choices. Despite being a Black Friday deal, the BarraCuda 8TB has been at this price point multiple times, with one exception last year, when it briefly sold for under $100. If you compare this with the competing WD Blue 8TB drive, it is cheaper, even with the $5 coupon that’s included with it. Many who have purchased this drive have mentioned that they are satisfied with the Seagate BarraCuda 8TB because it is lighter on the wallet and has a large capacity. Not everyone requires a secondary drive to have much quicker performance, either sequential or random read or write speeds with lower access time—and that’s something the user’s reviews on Amazon reflect.We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you’re looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages. […]

Saturday night under the lights at the Lusail International Circuit offered perhaps the most critical qualifying session of the 2024 Formula 1 season. With McLaren inching closer to clinching the 2024 Constructors’ Championship, and both Ferrari and Red Bull hoping to stay alive in that fight, every position on the grid matters.
George Russell threw down the early benchmark early in Q3, putting his W15 on provisional pole by over three-tenths over Charles Leclerc. McLaren’s Lando Norris pulled out of his first push lap after a snap at Turn 4 saw his MCL38 veer off the racing line. He also bailed out of his second attempt at a push lap, after a slow first sector had him trailing the effort from Russell. That left Norris with one shot at snatching pole position.
Norris fell short, but Max Verstappen did not, securing his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix back in July, 12 races ago.
Verstappen denied Russell his second-straight pole position, as the Mercedes driver started up front at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. But Russell will start alongside Verstappen on the front row Sunday.
McLaren, who inched closer to clinching the Constructors’ Championship with a one-two finish from Oscar Piastri and Norris in the F1 Sprint Race earlier in the day, locked out the second row with Norris qualifying third, and Piastri fourth.
“Not the position we were hoping for after yesterday and then today, but the maximum we could do for sure,” said Norris trackside to Jolyon Palmer after qualifying.
Still, with the McLaren duo starting ahead of the Ferraris, McLaren is in good shape heading into the main event on Sunday. But Norris admitted that the field is incredibly tight. “Not a lot in it between all of us which gives us hope that we can still go forward, but there are some really quick cars behind at the same time.”
“These have been three really great races for us,” said Russell to Palmer after qualifying. “It’s nice to be in the mix at the front once again.”
But the story was Verstappen, who delivered a stunning turnaround after finishing eighth in the F1 Sprint Race earlier in the evening, where he started sixth.
“Crazy,” said Verstappen when asked about the turnaround by Palmer. “I also didn’t expect that, but well done to the team, to give me a car that feels well connected.
“We did change a bit on the car, but I never thought it would make such a swing in performance,” added Verstappen. “Very happy to be on pole, it’s been a while.”
Verstappen outlined that Sunday’s main event will be “tough” on the teams and drivers.
“It’s gonna be a tough race I think physically, but I think also mainly on the tires. Making sure that you’re good on them, the front left around here gets eaten up quite a lot, so it’s all about managing that tomorrow,” added Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly’s tremendous run of qualifying since the United States Grand Prix ended at the Lusail International Circuit, as the Alpine driver narrowly missed out on advancing to Q3 by just 0.012 and is slated to start the Qatar Grand Prix in P11. The other four drivers eliminated in Q2 were the Sauber pair of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda, and Lance Stroll.`
Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, and the Williams pair of Franco Colapinto and Alexander Albon were the five drivers eliminated in Q1.
Here are the full qualifying results from the Qatar Grand Prix: […]

Cyber Monday deals are the best way to get storage drives for cheap—be it internal or external drives. Hard Drives for Network-Attached Storage are no different. While the WD Red Pro is marketed as a NAS drive, it is also designed to offer top-tier performance in desktop PCs so that you can use this drive confidently on your PC. Newegg has an incredible deal on the Seagate Ironwolf Pro 12TB. The deal gives you 44% off the original price of $359.99, bringing it as cheap as $199.99—that’s about $16.67 per TB.The model that’s on retail is the ST12000VN0008. We did review the 007 model version of the Ironwolf 12TB. Both models are helium-filled hard drives rated for NAS between 1 and 8 bays. At least on the spec sheet, the two models have minuscule differences in power consumption and operating/ non-operating shock. It’s also likely they’re using different firmware, but apart from that, Seagate does not provide any additional information. All the more reason to buy the drives of the same model in bulk should you require it for your NAS.NAS hard drives like these are perfect for home/ office NAS, personal cloud, workstations, and even a home media server. This specific storage drive offers a much better deal, as the 10TB version is available for $207. All Ironwolf NAS HDDs have a three-year warranty and a 180TB/ Year workload rating.Also, Seagate has included three years of Rescue Data Recovery Services, which ensures in-house data recovery with a 95% success rate. This is important for many as data recovery is costly if or when the situation requires it. While having your private cloud has certain benefits, data recovery in unforeseen situations is crucial.So, if you’re looking for an array of hard drives for your personal or work NAS but need a good deal, it is unlikely to get something better than this during the Black Friday sale. There are options available from other hard drive makers, but if you’re reading this, you need something reliable enough for a good deal. The offer stands for a limited time- or depending on stocks while it lasts- whichever comes first.We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you’re looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages. […]

[eigma] had a difficult problem. After pulling a TV out of the trash and bringing it home, it turned out it was suffering from a troubling boot loop issue that basically made it useless. As so many of us do, they decided to fix it…which ended up being a far bigger task than initially expected.
The TV in question was a Samsung UN40H5003AF. Powering it up would net a red standby light which would stay on for about eight seconds. Then it would flicker off, come back on, and repeat the cycle. So far, so bad. Investigation began with the usual—checking the power supplies and investigating the basics. No easy wins were found. A debug UART provided precious little information, and schematics proved hard to come by.
Eventually, though, investigation dialed in on a 4 MB SPI flash chip on the board. Dumping the chip revealed the firmware onboard was damaged and corrupt. Upon further tinkering, [eigma] figured that most of the dump looked valid. On a hunch, suspecting that maybe just a single bit was wrong, they came up with a crazy plan: use a script to brute-force flipping every single bit until the firmware’s CRC check came back valid. It took eighteen hours, but the script found a valid solution. Lo and behold, burning the fixed firmware to the TV brought it back to life.
It feels weird for a single bit flip to kill an entire TV, but this kind of failure isn’t unheard of. We’ve seen other dedicated hackers perform similar restorations previously. If you’re out there valiantly rescuing e-waste with these techniques, do tell us your story, won’t you? […]

Folks, it is official! Intel has confirmed an upcoming event centered around its Arc GPUs – likely Team Blue’s Battlemage desktop lineup – for December 3rd on X (formerly Twitter). On that note, a never-before-seen Arc B570 has been spotted in the wild at a French wholesale dealer, 1foTrade, thanks to user josefk972 on X. This GPU will likely be announced alongside the extensively leaked Arc B580 next week.AIBs such as Gunnir have already started to confirm Battlemage’s arrival in early December, which aligns with previous rumors. From what we’ve managed to gather based on leaks, the Arc B580 packs 20 Xe Cores (2,560 ALUs), a large 12GB VRAM, and boost clocks hitting 2.85 GHz – with initial LE (Limited Edition) variant listings priced at $250. In addition, leaks allege that the Arc B580, the new Arc B570 – the topic of our story – and AMD’s upcoming Navi 44-based budget cards can reportedly outpace Nvidia’s RTX 4060 Ti in specific benchmarks.1foTrade – the wholesaler in question – is a major hardware distributor in France and is associated with many AIBs. It appears that listings for the ASRock Arc B570 Challenger have accidentally gone live before the embargo, giving us a closer look at the specifications. The Arc B570 should be based on the BMG-G21 die and features 10GB of GDDR6 memory running at 19 Gbps speeds. The maximum clock speeds are 2.6 GHz – a 250 MHz drop compared to the B580. Sadly, the Xe core count remains undisclosed, so we’ll have to wait until the official reveal.(Image credit: 1foTrade)We expect the pricing to be around $200—slightly lower than the B580. With a few discounts, this might be the first 10GB GPU in the sub-$200 category—but that’s speculation.Based on the aforementioned performance rumor, the Arc B570 and Arc B580 might not be that far apart if both reportedly surpass the RTX 4060 Ti. But hold your horses as real-world performance heavily depends on drivers and can only be gauged by independent reviews once these GPUs hit shelves.Please mark your calendars for December 3 as Intel unveils its Battlemage lineup of desktop GPUs. However, we anticipate the initial supply being pushed back to accommodate the holiday season.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

Ultra-wide gaming monitors could change how you work and game on your computer. So, if you’re looking to upgrade your workstation or gaming rig, you’re in luck because the Samsung Odyssey G5 Ultra-Wide Gaming Monitor is on sale for $219 on Amazon. This is a massive drop from its original list price of $549, giving you a 60% discount (or over $330 in savings) on the 1000R curved display.Samsung makes some of the best gaming monitors, with another Odyssey model getting picked as the overall best monitor for 2024. The Odyssey G5 Ultra-Wide Gaming Monitor is an excellent choice for gamers looking for a 1440p display that could hit 165Hz. While it may not have the ultrasharp screen of 4K displays or the ultrahigh refresh rates that competitive gamers demand, the G5 Ultra-Wide offers an excellent compromise that gives you the best of both worlds without requiring an expensive, high-end GPU.The 1000R curve on the G5 Ultra-Wide makes gaming much more immersive, especially with its 21:9 aspect ratio. The display is equipped with AMD FreeSync Premium for the smoothest gameplay possible. At the same time, its 1ms response time reduces motion blur, allowing for crisp images, even during the most hectic of battles. The Odyssey G5 won’t let you down when watching movies, too, with HDR10, giving you the deepest blacks and brightest whites while delivering true-to-life colors.The monitor supports input via DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.0, making it convenient to switch devices. It also has a 3.5mm port for your headphones, allowing you to enjoy the full volume of your games without disturbing anyone else in your home.So, if you think it’s time to level up your battle station with an ultra-wide display but don’t want to break the bank, the Samsung Odyssey G5 Ultra-Wide gaming monitor is what you need.We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you’re looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages. […]

InWin, known for its limited-edition artistic showcase PC chassis, just put its latest 11th-generation signature case, “Infinite.” InWin says this case uses a 180-degree curved glass, the first ever used on a desktop computer, that wraps around your components to deliver a unique viewing experience for your PC’s parts.Aside from being a unique artistic expression, twisting the glass in opposite directions is a massive feat of engineering and craftsmanship. It required the company to go through multiple iterations, allowing InWin to go from a 75% failure rate to a 75% success rate when building a single piece of curved glass.The curved glass is supported by a similarly curved gold and black aluminum shell. This anodized aluminum piece is sandblasted to deliver a brushed finish, with the I/O icons laser engraved directly on it, ensuring they will never fade. All these pieces stand on a sand-casted piece and hand-forged aluminum base, all connected to a motor that lets the case transform and reveal its internals.

Infinite – A Significant Stride in the Computing Arts | 11th Signature Product | InWin – YouTube

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Even though the case emphasizes form, it hasn’t forgotten its function. Its semi-open design and three large intake fans make cooling easier. The case can even accommodate 360 mm water cooling radiation up to 65mm thick. The case supports up to 25kg of parts, allowing you to install the heaviest, most powerful PC components with no issues.Of course, given that the Infinite is a luxury case that comes at a premium, InWin made sure that it supports the latest technologies, like BTF motherboards with connections located at the back. It also has a magnetically attached back cover, making it easy to access its interior cables without having to fumble with tiny screws.Image […]

An upcoming Intel laptop processor has surfaced on Geekbench, revealing intriguing details about its performance and specifications. The Core 7 240H will potentially be part of Intel’s rumored Core 200H lineup, boasting ten cores (6-Performance + 4-Efficient cores) and 16 threads. Notably, the Geekbench listing (via Benchleaks) suggests the codename as ‘Raptor Lake,’ which could also mean that it will be more or less a Raptor Lake refresh.The Geekbench listing was part of an Acer Nitro ANV15-52 gaming laptop with a discrete RTX 4050 laptop GPU. The Core 7 240H operates with a base frequency of 2.5 GHz, up to 5 GHz boost clock, and 24MB of L3 cache. The Core 7 240H configuration suggests continuing Intel’s hybrid core architecture, which debuted with the Alder Lake series.The approach combines high-performance and energy-efficient cores for optimal multitasking and power efficiency. This chip includes DDR5 memory support and advanced connectivity options that meet modern laptop requirements.Swipe to scroll horizontallyProcessorGeekbench 6 single-coreGeekbench 6 multi-coreIntel Core 7 240H2,68913,330Intel Core i7-13620H2,57113,373In terms of performance, the Core 7 240H was benchmarked more than once, achieving a maximum score of 2,689 points in single-core and 13,330 points in multi-core benchmarks on Geekbench 6. These scores are quite competitive, considering their segment.For comparison, the Acer Nitro V 15 with an Intel Core i7-13620H delivered 2,571 points in single-core and 13,373 points in multi-core benchmarks on Geekbench 6 in our testing. Notably, the Core i7-13620H offers a similar 10-core architecture as the Core 7 240H, with slightly different boost and base clock speeds.Coming to the iGPU of the leaked Core 7 240H is based on Intel’s Xe architecture, equipped with 64 Compute Units, equivalent to 8 Xe Cores, and operates at a maximum clock speed of 1.5GHz. The OpenCL benchmark delivered scores of 13,362 and 13,478 across two tests, demonstrating decent performance for integrated graphics.Of course, it will not be able to compete with GPUs like the Nvidia RTX 4050 mobile, which has an average score of over 80,000 points. This gap highlights the iGPU’s focus on efficiency and general-purpose tasks rather than high-end gaming, for which dedicated GPUs are more suited.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.While Intel has not officially announced the Core 7 240H, these leaks provide a glimpse into what consumers can expect from the company’s upcoming mobile CPU lineup. The official Core 200H announcement is rumored to be scheduled for next year, probably around CES. […]