Hardware Canucks

Armory Crate

negative

“And while I do appreciate Asus's shift towards web-based driver software, with Gearlink, I still had to update something inside Armory Crate software.”

MacBook Pro (M5 Max)

$4,999.00

“The MacBook Pro M5 might not be the fastest MacBook Pro in 2026 but what you get for the price is better than any Windows laptop I could find at the time.”

RTX 5080 TUF

cited in 2 videos

“So that, you know, everything you're seeing now is with identical hardware and I'm not interpolating RTX 5080 temperatures from the previous Orus card.”

MX-6 thermal paste

strongly positive

“All my benchmarking is done with the MX6. Not sponsored. This is just really good thermal paste.”

Fractal Design Define One

positive

“For my Define one enclosure, I requested a solid side panel just to understand where we're coming from in terms of both acoustic performance and airflow.”

Phanteks EX5 Plus

Mixed — said both good and bad

“My regular EX5 is all good and is completely stable.”

Ryzen 7 9800X3D

“So in a CPU heavy benchmark like Blender, I was surprised to see our 9800 X3D in the EX5 to be way hotter versus the Frame 4000.”

Corsair Frame 4000

“So, I had to redo all my tests so that things are complete both with a half 500 Mark II and the frame 4,000 from Corsair.”

Summit

$2,899.99 · Mixed — said both good and bad

“Temperatures on the Summit, for example, are fantastic, but I prefer the functionality and the refinement features on the Define one.”