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Image of a PlayStation 5 tear-down completed, with the motherboard separated from the heatsink and backplate showing exposed components. — PS5 Tear-down completed, time to re-paste & rebuild!

The Definitive PS5 Teardown & Deep Clean: Diagnosing Thermal Failure, Liquid Metal & Fan Problems

Does your PS5 shut off while playing games? Follow this hands-on teardown guide to deep clean the heatsink and safely replace the APU's liquid metal.

Various PC parts in boxes, Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite WiFi 7 ICE, Samsung 990 NVME, T-Force Vulcan DDR5 and a Ryzen 9800X3D. — Brand new gear, always an exciting time!

First Things to Do After Building a Gaming PC: Essential Software & Drivers (2026)

Every piece of software to install after building a gaming PC: OS and licensing, drivers, launchers, monitoring tools, security, and backups, in the order it actually matters.

PC Gaming Build Guide (2026): Budget to High-End

A tiered PC gaming build guide for 2026: CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, and PSU picks for budget, mid-range, and high-end builds, plus what changes if the box also runs a homelab workload.

How Much RAM Do You Actually Need for Gaming in 2026?

DDR5 prices have tripled thanks to AI datacenters eating the world's DRAM supply, but 16GB is still a completely viable amount of RAM for gaming in 2026. Here's the benchmark data, where 16GB actually breaks, and how to make it work on Windows 11 or Linux.

Kinguin is a trusted resource for Core Lab!

Is Kinguin Legit and Safe in 2026? A Trust Breakdown for Gamers

Is Kinguin legit? Yes. Here is the trust and verification model behind Kinguin's marketplace, in plain numbers: 13 years in operation, over 12,000 identity verified sellers, and a 4.6/5 Trustpilot score.

Screenshot of my CachyOS desktop KDE Plasma showing "CachyOS" and icon in the centre of a green nebular, with various gaming icons on the top portion of the screen. — KDE Plasma Desktop, looking beautiful and primed for gaming.

🎮 Gaming on CachyOS (2026): Performance Tweaks & Hydra Launcher Guide

Maximize your frame times. Discover why CachyOS is the ultimate Linux gaming distro, how to configure the Hydra launcher with Debrid, and fix stubborn HDR & audio bugs.

KDiskMark benchmark comparison on Linux showing Samsung 990 EVO Plus vs Sabrent Rocket 4.0 NVMe SSDs. — Side-by-side KDiskMark results on CachyOS: The Samsung 990 EVO Plus (Right) showing a significant lead in sequential read speeds over the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 (Left).

The Hybrid Gen 5 Experiment: High-Speed Linux Storage Without the Gen 5 Heat

Can a "Hybrid" SSD outperform the flagship Gen 5 screamers? I test the Samsung 990 EVO Plus on CachyOS to see how it handles BTRFS, thermals, and 2.5GbE NAS transfers in my newest workstation.

Side view of white Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL PC with black Fractal Celsius S36 AIO, MSI 3070 Ti, glowing white fans, and a TIE fighter model inside the glass panel. — The heart of "Dirty Snow": High-contrast black components against the white Lian Li chassis, guarded by the TIE Fighter.

The 2026 Hybrid Workstation: Building "Dirty Snow" (Ryzen 9800X3D + Linux)

I built "Dirty Snow," a Ryzen 9800X3D workstation running CachyOS. See how this hybrid beast crushes gaming and virtualization with surprising thermals.

Installing & Gaming on Pop!_OS (Steam, Lutris & Heroic, ProtonGE) — Pop!_OS Download page

Installing & Gaming on Pop!_OS (Steam, Lutris & Heroic, ProtonGE)

Switch to Linux the right way. A complete, step-by-step guide to installing Pop!_OS, setting up for gaming with NVIDIA drivers & optimization.

So many choices for gaming via Linux now, PopOS, SteamOS, Nobara, Lakka, Garuda, Nobara and CachyOS! — So many choices for gaming via Linux now!

State of Gaming on Linux in 2026

Proton, ProtonDB, and the best gaming distros compared. Everything you need to know about ditching Windows for Linux gaming in 2026.

Core Lab's own Linux & Docker Gaming server, featuring a Ryzen 5 3700X & RTX3060 12GB.

The Ultimate 2026 Guide to Self-Hosting Game Servers: Docker, LinuxGSM & Security Hardening

Master the 2026 gaming stack with Docker and LinuxGSM. Learn to host Palworld, CS2, and Satisfactory servers on high-performance Mini PCs with veteran security tactics.