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RAM crisis has made everything more expensive. Sadly, we can't go back in time and stop it from happening. But we can try to punish the companies who made it this way through the power of litigation. I'm James schreib. This is TechLinked and that's exactly what three small PC retailers and 17 individuals are doing by filing a new class action lawsuit against Samsung, SK, Hynix and Micron. The the lawsuit alleges these three companies coordinated to tighten the supply of consumer focused DDR memory, which helped trigger the ongoing rampocalypse. Wielding the law against those you feel have wronged you feels amazing. Is this what Nintendo feels like every damn day I'm gonna sue some mother Meanwhile, after raising the prices of their products, Apple is reportedly seeking US Approval to buy memory from cxmt, a blacklisted Chinese chip maker. Apple was, quote unquote, forced to raise the MacBook Neo price from 600 to $700. And by golly, the they're gonna try to get that back down cause they care about the little guy, even if that means taking some big political and reputational risks. Fun fact. The traditional Chinese Apple, the Jujube belongs to the Buckthorn family. Well, a new Chinese Apple chip deal could be a real butt thorn for the US government, so they better watch out for that. We spent all those seconds setting that up. The Steam machine's price has disappointed PC gamers more than I disappoint loved ones, wife included. But there's some wonderful news. System integrator Meta PC announced the first pre built to ship with SteamOS and well, it's not exactly cheaper. Wait, hear me out. Although the Steamroller comes with a Ryzen 5 9600X RX 7616 gigs of DDR5 memory and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. Its price starts at 1299 US right in between the 1049512 gigabyte base steam machine and the 13492 TB model. But it'll be interesting to eventually see some performance comparisons. What is cheaper is a suspicious looking Steam Machine clone from China for just 688. It runs SteamOS on a Ryzen 5 5500, an RX6750 gre which on paper sounds like solid specs for nearly half the price of a steam machine. However, GamesRadar points out the specs have some red flags and even call the PCA make believe product. You can still have fun with those. What's not make believe is that we're going to be seeing more gaming PCs running SteamOS now that Valve has made it pretty easy to install, which is pretty neat and so are you. That one's for free Intel's next gen Nova Lake desktop lineup could be led by a chip that draws a frankly absurd 474 watts at full tilt. According to leaker LC Tech Leaks, that's nearly double Intel's current flagship. In fact, it's about the same power draw as a small space heater and and space is huge. The chip also has 52 cores, more than double the 24 cores that the Core Ultra 7 270K plus has. Doubling the power draw and core count makes sense here though, because what intel apparently did is fuse two compute tiles into one mega tile. This Nova Lake flagship is basically two chips in a trench coat. Based on previous leaks, the new lineup will need a new socket, a beefy power supply and even crazier cooling. And some boards may even pack a third eight pin power connector, which means anyone moving to the platform will be in for a full rig rebuild. But don't sell your PC just yet cause none of this is official and running the damn thing won't be cheap, so you might as well save on games with our sponsor Green Man Gaming and their summer sale which is now here with up to 75% off over 5000 games from big names like Capcom, Square Enix, 2K, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, PlayStation Studios can I take a guess here and say you've probably, probably played a game where one of those logos came up on the screen at some point in your Life. We're talking 30% off Resident Evil Requiem, 40% off Kronos the New dawn and 46% off Borderlands 4. These are good games guys. They're worthy games and now they're cheaper. Is it hitting home yet? Are you getting this? Plus you're not buying some game key from a sketchy website. Green Man Gaming works directly with over 1300 publishers and developers, so you're saving money and supporting the people who make the game. You can do Both you can. We can do this together. So do it. Save big today with Greenland Gaming Summer Sale at the link below. Each of these five quick bits is a perfectly formed little nugget of news. Deep fried, bite sized and gone the second you stop paying attention. So look alive. AMD has officially released its new FSR 4.1 upscaler for older Radeon RX7000 graphics cards. Upscaling is supposed to boost your frame rate by rendering the game at a lower resolution, but on these cards, the new version runs up to 40% slower than the FSR 3.1 version it replaces because they lack the newer ar hardware. So RX7000 owners get a shiny upgrade with one killer feature, a button that turns your frame rate down. Sony does not intend to sell the PlayStation 6 at a significant loss, according to recent comments from company executives. Meanwhile, fairly reliable leaker Kepler L2 has delivered the shocking news that the hardware component costs in the PlayStation 6 have shot up. If we activate detective mode in our brains for a second, this all adds up to By God, this thing could be pretty damn expensive. On the bright side, Sony hints there could be a portable version of the console, which means worse graphics for everybody. Just joking. I don't know that. I don't know that. With Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hidaki Nishino not saying that again, saying the system could support play styles beyond the living room, you could play in the in the kitchen, dBrand built a 6D machine case shaped like Portal's companion cube. Everybody loves that. It became the second fastest selling product ever for dBrand. But then they realized they never asked Valve's permission to build this thing. And Valve owns Portal. So the lawyers came knocking. They did their lawyer thing and now DBRAND is refunding everybody. But we don't want our money back. We want the Cube. It's fitting really. The Companion Cube ended up exactly where it does in the game. The Incinerator. Netflix now makes every adult profile on your account use its own email and login, which with kids exempt. So instead of everyone piggybacking on your password, each person gets their own sign in codes and settings. Sure, it's also Netflix collecting a fresh email from every freeloader you share with. But the bright side's real. Your password finally stops being community property and Japanese capsule toy maker Tarlin is releasing tiny buildable replicas of real PC parts from ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI and Intel. They're detailed enough to assemble to a real looking mini tower down to the motherboard, CPU and even the fans, and with real parts costing a fortune, this may be the only build you can actually afford and fit into your tiny home that you rent. Finally, a computer to go with my officially licensed toy Cisco Network Switch. Just like I'll be officially happy if you come back on Friday with more bugs. Tech news. That's right, because we're in Canada and Wednesday is a holiday. Till then, I'll be in the drive thru arguing that a tater tot is just a spherical fry and therefore should come with the fries. Spherical? What kind of tater tot? It's a cylindrical prism. What? No.
TechLinked – June 30, 2026
Host: James Schreib, Linus Media Group
Episode Theme:
Covering the latest developments in tech and gaming, this episode dives into a major class action lawsuit over RAM price-fixing, new SteamOS-powered prebuilt PCs, the rumor mill around a power-hungry Intel CPU, and quick-fire stories about upscalers, PlayStation 6 pricing, dBrand’s legal blunder, Netflix login changes, and collectible mini PC parts.
[04:01] Each quick bit is a “perfectly formed little nugget of news. Deep-fried, bite-sized and gone the second you stop paying attention.”*
The host’s delivery is sharp, irreverent, and witty—mixing dry tech facts with punchy jokes and geek-culture references. The show is brisk and loaded with sly humor, but the key developments and controversies in the tech world get clear coverage.
This episode of TechLinked encapsulates the turbulent world of PC hardware lawsuits, eye-popping product rumors, and the inevitable overlap of gaming, business, and tech culture—all before wrapping up with lighter news and signature quips. Perfect for staying both entertained and informed in under 9 minutes.
Next episode drops Friday (with Canadian holiday banter). See you then!