Best of Computex 2025: The most intriguing and innovative PC hardware

This year’s Computex – the premiere PC industry event of the year, where manufacturers reveal the hardware you’ll be able to buy during this year’s back to school and holiday shopping seasons – felt more muted than any in recent memory. It’s no surprise. US tariffs on Chinese goods have frozen the PC industry, and vendors are hesitant to announce (much less release) new hardware in such an unstable economic situation.

But still, the show went on – and it’s a good thing it did, because while we saw fewer PC announcements at Computex this year, we also saw some certified bangers. Which reveals got us deeply, personally excited? This is the best hardware of Computex 2025. Giddy up.

The best PC hardware of Computer 2025

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9000

AMD

In a Computex curiously devoid of chip announcements (well, aside from the new RTX 5060 that Nvidia tried to bury), leave it to AMD to whip out the big guns. The Ryzen Threadripper 9000 series focuses on the same overwhelming CPU power as its predecessors, but now come infused with key power and performance improvements within AMD’s new 5nm “Zen 5” architecture.

Threadripper Pro models top out at 96 (!!!) cores, but the standard Threadripper 9000 chips intended for high-end desktops stick to the usual 64, 32, and 24 cores. (How will we ever survive with just 64 cores??!!) Better yet, Threadripper 9000 bumps up maximum boost clock speeds, and memory speed support improves from DDR5-5200 up to 8-channel DDR5-6400. These monstrous chips are built for heavy work.

The only thing missing? We know Threadripper will ship in July, but AMD hasn’t revealed pricing. Sigh. Thanks tariffs. — Brad Chacos

Acer Swift Edge 14 AI

I’ve admired OLED displays for years: first as a generic replacement for a traditional 60Hz laptop display, then as potential gaming displays as refresh rates climbed. Now I’ve found something new to covet: a matte OLED display without the glare and reflections that trouble most laptops.

So far, I’ve only seen this on the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI, one of the stars of Computex. But there’s more: this 14-inch laptop weighs a feather-light 2.18 pounds while packing an Intel Core Ultra 200 (Lunar Lake) chip inside and offering MIL-STD 810H resilience. That’s a true on-the-go productivity machine, with 21 hours of battery life, to boot.

While I was also taken with the Swift X creator-class notebook, I’d still give the, um, edge, to the Edge. It feels like Acer is delivering something other notebooks do not. — Mark Hachman

InWin ChronoMancy

Turning 40 is cause for celebration—and boy, did InWin bring a party to Computex. In honor of its milestone anniversary, the company unveiled a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring bit of case design wizardry: the ChronoMancy.

You could glance at this three-foot tall (yes) chassis and think, “Who could ever want this?” Me. I want this. I don’t build E-ATX systems, sure. But look at that contrast between the transparent blue panel and the gleaming gray body. The way the light looks when shining through the top. The metal vibes when you slide the case open, gray aluminum curving around, and the components sit exposed.

Also, you can open it with the wave of a wand. (Or by pressing a button, but there’s no fun in that.)

It’s perfectly cyberpunk while simultaneously festive. I’ll never invest hours into games with that flavor, but I’m definitely tempted to sink money into this likely astronomically expensive case. — Alaina Yee

Asus ROG Falcata keyboard

Aside from some cool cases, the only thing I saw at Computex that really got my nerdy attention was the ROG Falcata, a split gaming keyboard from Asus. This is the sort of very niche, targeted keyboard that’s extremely rare from gaming manufacturers — in fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen a split gaming board from a big brand, never mind one that’s also wireless.

Little touches like the many different angle and tenting options and the removable wrist rest give me hope that this has been made with both gamers and ergonomic users in mind, and I appreciate that it doesn’t need a driver package installed to access its advanced adjustable features. Also, I really hope you can use the left side on its own…but that might just be me. I couldn’t get confirmation on that this far out from a late 2025 release date. — Michael Crider

SilverStone FLP-02

Look, man, I’m old. My beard hair is more white than black these days, I make weird little grunts when I stand up, all that jazz. But age comes with a perk: SilverStone’s new retro-style FLP-02 case is pure catnip for an old dude like me whose first computer was an Intel 486 system in, yes, a beige box.

SilverStone’s case may look old-school – it even has an honest-to-goodness-actually-working-Turbo-button on its custom control panel – but inside, it’s built for modern PC demands. It’s a fully standard ATX case even if it looks like it fell out of a time machine, and it’s the first one I’ve seen in a long time that has real 5.25-inch drive bays. Now get off my lawn. — Brad Chacos

MSI Prestige 14 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition

I usually don’t get excited about laptop designs–they’re all just gray rectangles to me. But the MSI Prestige 14 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition stopped me in my tracks. Is that Hokusai’s iconic Great Wave Off Kanagawa painting on the lid? Yes. Yes, it is. The handcrafted rendition of the famous painting was achieved by applying multiple layers of translucent ink and lacquer by hand. It’s designed to inspire a sense of calm, but it just leaves me feeling awestruck.

While the artwork is definitely the star of the show here, the MSI Prestige 14 AI+ is no slouch in the performance department. It’s got up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED display. The internals are impressive, sure, but with only a limited run of 1,000 units… you’ll be lucky to snag one for yourself. — Ash Biancuzzo

G.Skill’s sparkly new Trident Z5 NeoX RGB RAM

I won’t lie, I’ve been a fan of G.Skill RAM for a long time—and not because their DIMMs perform well. (That’s just table stakes.)

No, they understand perfectly what my inner crow loves. They first had me with their now perennial-favorite Trident Z RGB line, then captured me with the ultra shiny Trident Z Royal in gold and silver.

And this week at Computex 2025, I got my true heart’s desire—almost. G.Skill’s display of its new Trident Z5 NeoX RGB lineup, which I first spotted in