In this live Hardware AMA, I break down the latest Intel news around the 250K and 270K launch (and yeah, the whole “where’s the 290K?” conversation). I talk release timing, what kind of uplift I’m expecting (don’t expect miracles—think roughly up to ~15% from what I’m seeing), and why I’m still excited to test these chips in a real build. I also preview my upcoming Project AORUS build: Z890 AORUS Master + 5070 Ti + 270K, and I’ll be doing the Micro Center run live because I’m trying to lock the CPU in. We also get into the stuff that actually impacts your build decisions right now: RAM pricing refusing to chill (but at least it’s not completely insane), picking solid AM5 boards for gaming, and what to watch with X3D CPUs. I explain why you need to keep an eye on SOC voltage (I don’t want it over 1.2V) and why a simple BIOS update/BIOS Flashback can save you headaches. Then we pivot into Linux gaming—Proton is the big win, anti-cheat is the big problem—and I give my take on Microsoft’s “Xbox mode” coming to Windows (more features… or more bloat, depending on how you look at it).