Paul Lilly
Paul is a seasoned geek who was first seduced into the world of computers and technology by the Commodore 64, and through the years he’s courted a number of OSes and platforms from DOS on up to the latest version of Windows. Having joined the HotHardware team in 2011, Paul is now a mainstay of the site covering the news beat and reviews, and resident wiseguy who keeps the mood light. He’s also an experienced freelance technology writer whose work has appeared in a number of online and print publications.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
If you're still rocking Windows 10, don't panic, fee-based security updates are not imminent. However, they are coming once Windows 10 officially reaches End of Life (EOL) status, which barring any reprieves will happen on October 14, 2025. If by chance you're still running what will then be considered a legacy OS...
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What exactly makes a graphics card a GeForce RTX 3050? Simply put, it's the name on the box. From there, NVIDIA can dictate what specs constitute the model name, and those specs can be revised over time (a concept that's not unique to NVIDIA, by the way). We bring this up because NVIDIA is reportedly preparing some...
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By the year 2026, there will be nearly 5 billion graphics chips sitting pretty in PC systems, a figure that includes integrated graphics as found on many AMD and Intel processors. As for discrete GPUs, including add-in boards that gamers jam into their PCI Express slots, market penetration in the PC is expected to...
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NVIDIA rolled out a new 'Game Ready' GPU driver for GeForce owners this week, version 546.29 WHQL, which brings optimizations to Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (not to be confused with the 2.1 update) and some bug fixes. Since then, however, NVIDIA has made available an optional GPU hotfix—version 546.31—to squash a...
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Rockstar Games wasn't planning to unveil its highly anticipated first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, the next major installment in one of the most popular game franchises of all time, until Tuesday, December 5. Rather than wait, however, Rockstar has released the trailer a day early in response to a now-banned X...
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The threat of rising PC memory prices has been looming for several months now and, despite a recent surge in supply-side revenue, is still something to be on the lookout for as we head into 2024. That's according to TrendForce and its recent investigations into the state of DRAM, which found a "significant leap in the...
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NVIDIA has reached a fairly impressive milestone with its RTX technologies—there are now over 500 games and applications that support RTX in some form or another. The achievement arrives five years after the introduction of the very first GeForce RTX graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 20 series based on Turing, which...
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In case it bears repeating, the end of the year is when retailers aggressively push out bargains and discounts, which by no coincidence lines up with the holiday shopping season. Did you miss out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? No worries—Best Buy is hosting a "20 Days of Deals" event that runs through December 17...
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Capcom announced on the the social media network formerly known as Twitter, and now called X, that its "Outfit 3" DLC for all 18 launch characters in Street Fighter 6 is now available. Unfortunately for Capcom, the announcement did not go over so well, resulting in players calling out the publisher for its "dreadful...
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Remember when finding an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 console in stock from a first-party seller was like stumbling upon the Holy Grail? Well holy-moly, how times have changed. Graphics cards for PC gaming are plentiful again, and game console are not only routinely in stock, they’re also discounted with some sweet...
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After a surge in desktop and laptop shipments during the pandemic when working from home became the norm, it's been a bit of a tough landscape for the PC industry as things settled down. However, a rebound is in sight. According to the fortune tellers at Canalys, "worldwide PC shipments are on the verge of a recovery"...
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You don't actually need to a spend a fortune on cables, whether it's an Ethernet cord or an HDMI cable for your television or PC monitor. However, you are well-advised to be on the lookout for counterfeit products. Driving this point home, police officials in Taiwan recently seized thousands of counterfeit HDMI cables...
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As one might expect, ASUS's ROG Ally gaming handheld is improving over time with continued updates and support. It was already a solid handheld when it launched, as we noted in our ROG Ally review, but it could also benefit from key improvements. Some of those are included in a new update that is rolling out today...
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If you're using a Chrome browser—and chances are high that you are, simply based on Chrome's dominant market share—stop what you're doing and initiate an update to the latest version. Yes, you should be receiving Chrome updates on an automatic basis, but the newest build patches a bunch of alarming security...
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Don't kick yourself if you missed out on the barrage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, because let's face it, singular day events are a mirage. We're in the middle of an entire holiday season of sales. To prove it, one of the best gaming desktop PC deals around is a suddenly affordable MSI machine that's the...
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Ugly holiday sweaters have become a clothing trend over the past decade, and Microsoft has been getting into the oddball holiday spirit for the last several years with its own funky line of themed-attired. Its past ugly sweater offerings have included designs based on the Windows logo, MS Paint, Clippy, Minesweeper...
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Is a sluggish internet connection slowing you down and putting you in a bad mood for the holiday? If you've gone through the usual troubleshooting steps and determined that your crusty-old wireless router is to blame, then cheer up because there are a bunch of deals on fast models to turn that 'Bah humbug!' into Buddy...
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The holiday season is upon us, which means a barrage of sales on services and products as people find themselves in the gift-giving mood. It's also a time for feasting, and not just on turkey and ham—like nasty little cockroaches and termites, scammers come out of the woodwork during the holiday season in hopes of...
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If you're an avid reader, you should strongly consider investing in an e-reader. I know, I know—we all love the feel (and sometimes smell) of a physical book, and up until I bought a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition last year, I was firmly in the dead tree camp too. Not anymore. Among other benefits, e-readers make...
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We live in a world where streaming rules the day, but if you like the comfort of owning a movie or TV show on physical media, than Blu-ray is still the way to go. Now is a great time to flesh out your collection (or start one) too, because Cyber Monday discounts abound on a plethora of Blu-ray flicks and shows...
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Well, what's officially known as Black Friday has come and gone but let's be real, we're in the midst of an entire holiday season of deals. That said, retailers have pivoted to pushing Cyber Monday discounts. You don't have to wait until Monday, though, as they're already in effect. As such, we've rounded up a bunch...
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Hey, have you gotten the memo—Black Friday deals are live! Of course you have because you can't hardly visit a website without being hammered over the head with Black Friday bargains. That includes us (hey, we gotta eat too!). But before you mentally check out of the sales festivities, do yourself a solid and check...
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