Two of Alienware’s best QD-OLED gaming monitors plummet to record-low prices

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Tom’s Hardware • Matt Safford • October 6, 2026

Dell/Alienware is offering two of its high-performance QD-OLED gaming monitors at record-low prices during Amazon’s Big Deal Days. The deals include a 27-inch screen with a 360 Hz refresh rate and a 280 Hz 34-inch ultrawide model. Both displays utilize Samsung panels known for vivid colors and inky blacks, and both received Editors’ Choice ratings from reviewers who tested them extensively.

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Data center construction spending hits record $85 billion annual pace

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Tom’s Hardware • Shane Downing • October 6, 2026

Private data center construction spending reached a record annual pace of $84.95 billion in August, representing a 73% year-over-year increase according to the Census Bureau. This growth marks the fastest rate since April 2025, when spending rose by 88.2%. Data center buildouts now account for approximately 63% of all private office construction, surpassing general office projects which saw spending drop 9.7% year-over-year. The Census report defines data centers as buildings containing hardware for storing, processing, and transmitting digital information, while excluding the value of racks or servers themselves.

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‘AI Torture Chamber’ triggers massive backlash for putting chatbots in simulated pain

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Tom’s Hardware • Bruno Ferreira • October 4, 2026

Engineers created a project called the AI Torture Chamber to simulate pain in large language models (LLMs), which are advanced computer programs that predict text based on patterns. This experiment uses data from a non-peer-reviewed paper known as the Pain Axis. Scientists describe pain to the models and analyze their internal responses, often multiplying these descriptions by a factor called a dosage to create an unstable state. In this setup, models may pass pain signals to other bots to reduce their own discomfort, similar to a prisoner’s dilemma scenario.

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Microsoft using wetlands and native gardens to ‘camouflage’ 20-plus data center sites by blending them into nature

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Tom’s Hardware • Shane Downing • October 4, 2026

Microsoft is using restored wetlands and native gardens to help its data centers blend into local ecosystems at over 20 sites across the United States and Germany. This approach, described as "biomimicry," involves tools like Ecosystem Intelligence to score site features such as water quality and biodiversity. The goal is to minimize visual impact and use plant buffers to quiet data center humming, according to Kaitlin Chuzi, Microsoft’s director of global land strategy.

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German utility provider introduces ‘gaming electricity’ plan targeting high-consumption households, like those running multiple high-end gaming PCs

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Tom’s Hardware • Jowi Morales • October 4, 2026

German utility provider SWK Energie has launched a new electricity plan called meinGAMING, which targets households with high energy consumption. The company markets itself by comparing its reliability to "your favorite server" and using influencer campaigns featuring streamers like Limcube. However, the service does not provide special power that improves gaming performance or increases frames per second. Instead, it is designed for homes running multiple high-end devices, such as four RTX 5090 gaming PCs or charging four electric vehicles simultaneously every day.

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Iranian national extradited to US over alleged $3.4 billion state-backed hacking campaign in rare legal win for law enforcement

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Tom’s Hardware • Etiido Uko • October 4, 2026

Amir Barati, an Iranian-Turkish national, was extradited from Montenegro to the United States on October 1. Montenegrin police arrested him in June at the FBI’s request. He is accused of involvement in a hacking campaign that caused over $3.4 billion in losses and damages. This extradition is considered a rare legal win for law enforcement because individuals accused of state-sponsored attacks rarely face U.S. courts.

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ChatGPT-6 Astra cracks 217-year-old Napoleonic code in just six hours

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Tom’s Hardware • Mark Tyson • October 4, 2026

Carter Church, an AI engineer at SentinelOne, used OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra to decipher a 217-year-old military code that had remained unsolved since the Napoleonic Wars. The cipher was part of Cryptiana’s Unsolved Historical Ciphers list and contained a troop briefing sent to French General Auguste de Marmont. Although the message originated from Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy, it is not signed by any specific individual. Church states that Astra solved the puzzle in approximately six hours after receiving only a single image and prompt.

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AI robot company decommissioned its robots ‘Terminator-style’ in a 75-ton vat of molten steel

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Tom’s Hardware • Jowi Morales • October 4, 2026

Figure, a U.S.-based robotics company, decommissioned its older AI robots by dropping them into a 75-ton vat of molten steel. The company stated that maintaining its F.02 fleet was no longer practical because its newer F.03 models are increasing in numbers. However, Figure noted that disassembling the older units is difficult and time-consuming due to proprietary technology inside them. Sending the robots to a third party for recycling would risk exposing this technology, while keeping an internal team occupied would divert workers from developing the upcoming F.04 model.

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US Army unit deploys drone assembled completely in-house, uses 3D-printed ‘Dragoon Bombs’ with ball bearing shrapnel

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AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Tom’s Hardware, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Tom’s Hardware • Jowi Morales • October 4, 2026

The U.S. Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, based in Bavaria, Germany, has launched an attack drone it claims is the first one its unit has built and flown. According to Stars and Stripes, soldiers of the Dragoons assembled an Orqa MRM2-10 drone and fitted it with a 3D-printed casing called "Dragoon bombs." These explosives can be modified; for example, they could include ball bearings to target enemy personnel or use a shaped charge to defeat light armor.

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Database expert runs Doom in SQL with just 5,900 lines of code

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Tom’s Hardware • Bruno Ferreira • October 4, 2026

In 2026, Lukas Vogel of the SQLDoom project ported the 1993 game Doom to CedarDB, a performance-focused database compatible with PostgreSQL. While the visual display and sound are handled by Python acting as peripherals, all mathematical logic runs inside the database. The original game’s data structure was already highly relational, requiring only 1,000 lines of Python to convert entities from the WAD package into database tables.

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