The Hardware Asylum Podcast

We get gaming PC questions quite often and decided to revisit the process of building a budget gaming pc for the most popular games of 2025. As of this Podcast we are still in the middle of a memory shortage which can alter prices considerably.

It is not uncommon for board games to become a video game, one famous example is Dungeons and Dragons where the tabletop experience and adventure were ported to the PC to extend the universe. As it would turn out, quite a few games have been ported to the Board Game genre including titles such as Doom, Pac Man and Slay the Spire.

Recently there have been changes to the import rules for routers due to prolific security issues that shouldn’t have been there to begin with. Of course, this issue is not new but there is finally a governmental regulation in place to minimize the risk.

Over the past several years we have watched as the motherboard audio solution slowly started to become less advanced in favor of a two-port analog USB solution that nobody uses. Creative stepped up with the Audigy Fx Pro sound card as a solution but, does anyone want it?

One of the constants in the enthusiast PC world is that builds change and in this episode the duo discuss the recent cooling upgrades made to the Podcast and Stream Machine used in the Hardware Asylum Labs followed by an introduction to a new keyboard project for the cyberdeck build.

While the Retro PC projects have slowed, we still get excited for when old hardware happens to show up. In this episode we do another blind unboxing of a Retro PC care package with some interesting hardware from motherboards to coolers.

One of the biggest challenges related to AI is finding something to use it for. The most popular option are chatbots but many find success with machine learning or system automation. In this episode the duo talk about building a local LLM voice assistant with a Raspberry Pi Zero and some open source software.

The enthusiast PC world is full of early innovation that shaped later products and even trends in the industry. In this episode we talk with Dewayne from Modders-Inc about computer cases along with the impact casemodding had on the pc industry and how those roads lead to QuakeCon.

In this episode the we talk about a very interesting question that was sent in related to the current PC component prices and if it makes sense to sell unused build parts for a profit or keep them and actually finish a new build.

As gaming enthusiasts, we have all bought games that never lived up to the hype. Sure, the reviews were good but once it was installed it turned out to be a huge dud. In this episode the duo explores the top 10 biggest disasters in gaming history and number one will surprise you.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the largest tech focused trade show in the US and happens right after New Years. While PC hardware is rather scarce at recent events there is still plenty of cutting-edge tech to see from autos to AI and robots.

In this episode we get and overview of some of the latest games that Darren has been playing, the challenges associated with them and how best to play them this holiday season. Titles include Battlefield 6 and Borderlands 4 either on the PC or Console.

It has been fifteen years since the first Ninjalane Podcast went live and while we have grown as content creators so has our equipment choices. In this episode we talk about recent upgrades while reflecting on how things have changed over the years.

Kickstarter is an interesting platform that allows designers and developers to obtain the funding they need to build the things they find of value. Some of them are total scams while others can give us amazing things like Zombie Survival games, 3d printed products and how high-quality modular audio hubs

In this Podcast Extra we bring on a special guest and former Hackfort director and local event organizer, Mike Taylor. Mike has been a friend of the website for many years and helped Hardware Asylum get featured during several Boise Hackfort events due in part to the passion that Dennis has for overclocking. Sit back as the two discuss tech events and then take a deep dive into the challenges of building a PC.

Motherboard form factors have been driving the PC market since the beginning with the IBM PC and everything after that has been based on this original design. So, what happens when a new form factor is released? Does everything reset or are there some standards that everyone still follows.

As gamers and hardware enthusiasts we often create attachments to certain gear in our arsenal. In this episode the duo discusses the pain and problems associated with replacing beloved gaming components when they are no longer available.

Hydroponic gardening has been around for quite some time and is really effective when done correctly. You can speed up the growing cycle and supercharge your plants to produce more when compared to traditional methods. As with overclocking a computer it just takes a little more effort to get the best results.

There is a trend in the retro pc community to highlight popular platforms and technologies. For instance things like DOScember would celebrate all things DOS while SEPTandy would focus on Tandy computers. These trends typically start as a marketing campaign to promote content and videos, the good ones stick around while others may get lost to time. Dennis is looking to take advantage starting with this entry into the Retro PC vault.

In addition to computer hardware the hosts of the Hardware Asylum Podcast are also rather passionate gamers and with the exciting launch of Battlefield 6 the duo couldn’t help but talk about some of the new features and graphical updates. Later in the show Dennis dives into a new feature on the website targeted at giving something back to our loyal readers and

People are always looking for ways to save money and while the practice of buying used computer parts to save money has largely fallen out of favor it can sometimes be the deciding factor between building mid-range system over a high-end one. In this episode the duo discuss the option of buying used computer parts and what to consider before spending a single cent.

There is nothing worse than sitting down at your desk only to find that your PC has stopped working. What you do next will not only define you as a true computer hardware enthusiast but can help get you answers quickly if you have to “phone a friend”. In this episode Dennis talks about the troubleshooting process he went through to figure out what went wrong with his latest PC build.

There are few motherboards that hold the mantle of trendsetter as most simply improve on what was done before or what could be easily copied from competitors or stolen though industrial espionage. However, there is one motherboard to rise above them all, the MSI X99 Godlike. This board set the trend for onboard RGB lights and yet the series lives on with the latest Z890 Godlike

In this episode we continue our coverage of Computex 2025 and discuss more vendors and their contributions to AI and furthering the modern PC usage and development. There were a few vendors experimenting with bringing back some nostalgia by reviving old product lines or creating something truly retro.

In this episode the duo takes a whiskey fueled look back to Computex 2010 which was the same year Kavalan distilled the spirit consumed during this recording. There is also some talk about current computer hardware but, who wants to listen to that?

In this episode the duo talks about using open-source AI models on the new Ninjalane server and discuss some of the ways you can easily customize them for different uses from building out tailored documents to planning your D&D campaign. While hosting your own private AI sounds complicated the overall process is actually rather straightforward, provided you have the correct hardware to run them.

For media people attending tradeshows is often a necessary part of the business. It not only allows you to see some of the latest tech but also talk with industry professionals about new things due to be released. It also has a side benefit that, sometimes, you can buy expensive hardware at bargain prices if, you are comfortable with a little cloak and dagger.

It is no surprise to know that games have gotten bigger over the years. What might have fit on a single disk now can take days to download and will likely get updated in less than a week. Technology has paved the way to do more with our digital entertainment and some experts are saying that we have already gone past the tipping point between what gamers what and gamers get.

It would seem that 2025 is the year of the upgrade, first new Podcast machine for recording the show and other lab related activities. Some personal builds and now a replacement server to host Hardwareasylum.com and Ninjalane.com. The question is, how is a datacenter hosted server different from a desktop PC?

During CES 2025 we were introduced to the Endorfy line of products and two of them have made it into the Hardware Asylum Labs. These products are now being sold through ModMyMods and are looking to having exceptional value for the money. This virtual unboxing is then followed up with the Corne V3 GLP mechanical keyboard project and quick discussion on what it takes to build your own keyboard.

One of the challenges of being a hardware reviewer and overclocker is having a stable system that you can use on a daily basis. Some enthusiasts take the budget route with a nice laptop while others pour the same passion and dedication into their personal builds that they do on the bench. The same holds true in the Hardware Asylum Labs but, there are times when more important things force personal builds to the side.

In this episode the duo discusses some of the new builds that will be taking place over the next couple months including a major upgrade to the computer that records the Hardware Asylum Podcast and handles all of the Twitch and YouTube live streams.

CES 2025 is one of the most popular tradeshows for tech enthusiasts and does a great job at setting the stage for future technology and many of the things we will see in the immediate future. The highlight of CES 2025 was the launch of the RTX 50 Series Blackwell GPUs along with some major shifts in the hardware world.

With 2024 quickly coming to an end we decided to reflect on some of the hardware highlights of 2024 to recall some of our favorite products and projects from fancy motherboards to the popular dual subwoofer build. We also end the year with one last system build that may not completely break the bank.

Dennis has this an unhealthy obsession with retro pc hardware from repairing old motherboards to assembling unicorn builds that max out the platform in ways that could not have been imagined when they were relevant. Well, it would seem that others have noticed and started sending in some mysteries of their own.

It has been a while since we featured an AMD motherboard on Hardware Asylum or the Podcast and in celebration of this achievement the duo offer an in-depth look at the new flagship motherboard from ASUS including Nitropath and how a SS Phase doesn’t faze the Ryzen 9 9950x.

For this Podcast Extra, the duo will be diving into what might have been one of the most anticipated movies of 2015 that was quickly rushed out in 2024 to become one of the many box office flops of the season. From a poor script to completely irrelevant casting choices it makes you wonder if anyone will ever make a good movie based on a video game.

We talked quite a bit about how messed up the RTX 4070 launch was from the initial release to a highly public recall to the final version, which was pretty good. Well, seems NVIDIA is at it again with a silent nerf of memory performance. However, all is not lost given the current RTX 50 Series rumors proving that the Blackwell generation could be really good.

By now most of you have heard of ChatGPT and its significance in bringing AI principles into the mainstream. There are quite a few different types of AI from generative ai to create assets and language models which can create chatbots and digital assistants. Most of these systems will run in the cloud as a service but, you could run your own AI with some rather simple tools.

In this episode the duo dive back into the topic of sound quality and if sound bars are really all that good or just cleaver marking combined with the placebo effect. There is some truth to each side and after some in-depth real-world testing they are here with a verdict.

Based on what Dennis saw during Computex 2024 there is a very good chance that the era of the DIY personal computer is finally coming to an end. Of course, there will always be ways to build a computer however, we noticed that then hardware makers gave up on competitive overclocking it killed an entire niche from the enthusiast PC sector and now it is happing on the gaming side. In this episode the duo discusses the writing on the wall and paint some pictures on what the future could be.

This is part 3 of our Computex 2024 coverage. A common theme for Computex 2024 was AI and sadly the absence of Gaming and/or Overclocking hardware. Despite this there were a few interesting and overkill motherboards followed by purely custom power supplies and retro matrix displays on coolers.

This is part 2 of our Computex 2024 coverage. As mentioned in the previous episode, there wasn’t much in the way of gaming hardware on the show floor but there was plenty of AI accessories and hardware available along with example of the new CAMM2 memory modules designed for ultra-portable computers.

It has been a while since Hardware Asylum was at Computex and the 2024 edition of this global technology show did not disappoint. NVIDIA had their keynote the day before Computex opened followed by an AMD keynote to kick the show off. After that Dennis visited with Gigabyte, Corsair, beQuiet during the first hours of the event.

Have you ever wondered how your build stacks up against EVERYONE else playing Steam games? Well, the Steam Hardware Survey can give you that data and the results are shocking, to say the least. In this episode we use the April 2024 Steam Hardware Survey to build the ultimate gaming PC according to gamers from around the world.

In this episode we explore some of the things that makes NVIDIA a company to watch from their dedication to gaming using NVIDIA GTX and RTX graphics cards to game related technologies such as Ray Tracing and DLSS. Their GPUs are fueling the AI revolution with datacenter construction and hardware designed specifically for AI processing. All of this collectively impacts their publicly traded stock which is embedded into thousands of mutual funds and the S&P 500 market index.

It is not uncommon for people to establish a home office either for their day job, their night job or even a side hustle. While you only need a computer there are certain accessories that make the entire process more enjoyable and vastly more productive. In this episode we explore a number of essential components including the Yeyian Gaming Flexcam.

Dennis recently had an old review motherboard come back to the Hardware Asylum Labs and was a completely unexpected sight. The board in question is the Soltek SL-75DRV4 and was a board he first reviewed back in 2001 on Ninjalane (the Parent site). The board had leaking capacitors and was a common failure that claimed the lives of so many motherboards before their time. Later in the show the duo talk about lost Memories, not from getting old but rather losing your data due to storing SSDs for too long.

With the pending launch of Fallout on Amazon and Borderlands in the theater we decided to revisit some great video game movies including a dream casting discussion we had over 10 years ago centered on the Borderlands movie and how badly a movie could be perceived when it starts to stray to far from the source material. However, the new Fallout series on Amazon might just be the crown jewel to save the summer.

Recently Jensen Huang the CEO of NVIDIA attended the World Governments Summit and talked about the current state of AI and made some amazing claims from Sovern AI to regulations to howe everyone in a company could be a coder. This raised some eyebrows, including those belonging to John Carmack who mentioned that learning how to code is not about programs but the process of learning how to solve problems. In this episode we talk about different implementations of AI and the hardware used to run it.