Arrow Lake’s Parting Shot: Better Late Than Never, Intel

Ultra 5 260K Plus, Ultra 7 270K Plus

In the beginning, the article was without sources, and void. But the sun rose upon the sleeping Intel fans, and hope stirred once more within their souls. The editor’s mouse shifted, links were copied and pasted, as shown below:

Indeed, after years and years of disappointment and ridicule, including the horrible Arrow Lake launch, Intel is getting back to form with the Arrow Lake Refresh. This refresh is made from 2 CPUs:

  1. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus  (6P / 12E for $200)
  2. Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus  (8P / 16E for $300)

And how do they fare?

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The Slow and Steady PC Building Apocalypse

Student fire fighters extinquishing dumpster fire

(Fire fighters working to extinguish the dumpster containing the global computer hardware market)

In one form or another, the Logical Increments PC Buying Guide has existed for approximately 17 years now, which is quite a span. During this time, we have maintained a policy of never venturing outside the very strict scope of the guide: Consumer PC hardware. The only times that this rule was broken was when there was simply no alternative. PC hardware exists in real life, and real life sometimes throws the world into situations where PC hardware is affected, and we must acknowledge these situations.

We discussed the cryptocurrency hurricanes when they were the biggest determinant of GPU prices, and we acknowledged the *cough* global situation *cough* in 2020-2021 when it affected shipping and availability of all PC hardware.

As we head into the second quarter of 2026, we face some unavoidable and uneasy realities once more. There are two issues that are pointing towards dire times ahead:

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The Pre-Black Friday Update

RTX 5090

Yes! Yes! Black Friday is almost here, the day every PC builder waits for all year round.

This year’s Black Friday should bring us some relief from the very topsy-turvy prices we have been seeing, since Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) sales are typically the best prices you see all year round.

We have not had many serious updates to the chart this year. The hardware releases have been slow, the international scene has been volatile enough to ensure most of the PC hardware conversations centred on tariffs/prices and not releases, and some of us on the Logical Increments team have been going through some unforeseen consequences circumstances that an apple-a-day could not cure.

I am very grateful to still have you, dear reader, even though it has been a quiet year update-wise. Now then:
 

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Mid-tier Graphics Card Woes (Big Oof, Large Yikes)

RTX 5050, RTX 5060, RTX 5060 Ti, RX 9060 XT

That is a lot of new cards launched recently! The RTX 5050, the RTX 5060, two versions of the RTX 5060 Ti, and two versions of the RX 9060 XT!

Instead of checking each one out separately, let us take a look at them all in one fell swoop, with an eye toward deciding where/if they belong in our main build chart. I am somewhat unsure of what a swoop is, and why it needs to be of the fell variety, but here are the cards:

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New HSFs Replace the Legendary Noctua NH-D15

NH-D15 & Dark Rock Pro 5For the last 14 years, a high-end Noctua CPU cooler has always crowned the list of air coolers in our list. The NH-D14 and NH-D15 were both excellent, and each was the best air cooler when it was launched.

Yes, the unfathomable colour combination of chocolate and “beige” (closer to light pink-brown off-white) made them an interesting* and unique choice from an aesthetic perspective, but there was no denying that the performance was the best.

Noctua offered a serious package deal: Best-in-class performance, fantastic build quality, excellent noise levels, and great customer service. It was no wonder that Noctua products found a home in the PC case and in the heart of many, many gamers…

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AMD’s Niche CPUs: Excellent Gaming and Productivity Performance, But at a Price

Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D

A few weeks ago, AMD launched two new processors, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D. How do they fare, and will we recommend them in our PC build chart? Let us find out.

The R9 9950X3D is a $700 16-core CPU, with the “3D” denoting extra cache. The R9 9900X3D is a $600 12-core, with the same “3D” extra cache.

AMD’s goal with these 3D CPUs is the same as it was for previous 3D CPUs: Provide best-in-class gaming performance, without compromising productivity. Did they succeed?

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