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As the crowds in Taipei thin out and the crowds begin to disperse, our team on the ground at Computex 2026 ruminates on their experiences of the show itself and what it might mean for the industry at large. Day four will be our final entry into the Tom's Hardware Unfiltered series for Computex 2026, so we hope you've enjoyed peeking behind the curtain to gain an insider look at exactly what we've been up to this week.
Starting at the end is just wrong, so if you haven't yet caught up on all of the coverage coming out of Computex, be sure to check out the entire series of blogs.
Paul Alcorn: Editor-in-Chief
Day four was yet another hectic affair, with a string of meetings in the early morning continuing into the afternoon. This Computex has certainly had more attendees than I ever recall on the second day, and today was no different; there were a surprising number of people cramming all the aisles, and of course, jamming up the booths, which isn’t great if you’re trying to take pictures.
I also noticed that this Computex has far more business-to-business (B2B) focused companies in attendance. In the past, we typically saw strictly consumer products and the myriad of companies that feed into that ecosystem. This year was definitely an explosion of AI and data center technology, which is surprising. Also, the big showcases dedicated to data center hardware were absolutely packed, often just as busy as the ROG and ASRock booths of the world, if not busier. Others have noted that there really isn’t an Asia-based trade show for data center tech, and it seems that Computex has now become that destination at an incredibly fast rate.
Joe Shields: Staff Writer, Components
Day four is in the books. I managed to get about two to three hours of sleep last night, and it’s been a long day, even though I got all the meetings done early. Today’s journey began at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (Hyte), right next to the beautiful Taipei 101. Soaring over 1,600 feet in the air, the blend of traditional Asian aesthetics and modern engineering is a sight to behold.
Hyte showed off a few new items, including the Y50 case, a less expensive version of the popular Y50. We finally made it to the Gigabyte booth at the convention center and had a chance to see the X870E Infinity Next motherboard in person, and wow. It’s absolutely stunning with the 3D-printed metal heatinks and that lava-rock-like pattern. Be quiet! Showed off a few items, but I was impressed with the Light Base 803 chassis, and a new power supply (Dark Power Pro 14 IO) with software monitoring that even shows how much it costs to run your rig.
My last appointment was at Thermal Grizzly, who showed off new coatings for their waterblocks, new thermal pastes, and different versions of the WireView Pro for you RTX 5090 owners. By that point, I couldn’t tell if I was coming or going, and thankful all of my appointments were done. A little nap at the hotel and I am back to writing about Computex for the last night.
I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to come out to Computex. For me, it’s a completely different experience from CES in Las Vegas. Both have their positives and negatives. Tomorrow I’m excited to get a tour of Asus HQ, but really looking forward to starting the long, long trek back to the U.S. It was real, it was fun, but it wasn’t really fun. Ohio, here I come!
Jake Roach: Senior Analyst, CPUs
This was my last day in Taipei, and I tried making the most of it. The majority of my morning was spent running back and forth between the two halls of Nangang and talking with various companies, racking up some 20,000 steps in the process (the halls are literally across the street from each other). Some of the details of that tirade through the trade show I can’t talk about quite yet, but as the blisters slowly forming on my feet will tell you, I kept myself plenty busy.
My afternoon was spent at Asus HQ in the Beitou District (about an hour-long trek from Nangang on the MRT). I usually visit the Asus campus, and it is beautiful. There, I met up with several Asus reps and various other media to learn more about Asus’ announcements, as well as some products that are coming down the pike. But, as you might expect, I can’t talk about those quite yet.
Leading into Computex, the week always seems so long and grueling. And it is, make no mistake. But the irony is that right as I start to get adjusted to the 13-hour time difference and begin feeling like myself, I’m packing my bag to head home. It’s always too much time, but never enough. Oh well. I’m finishing my night with a nice plate of omurice, which I can not get at home, and trying to catch a few hours of sleep before spending 18 hours in a plane seat tomorrow.
Jeffrey Kampman: Senior Analyst, Graphics
After four intense days writing into the early hours, visiting vendor showcases, and criss-crossing the show floors at both TaiNEX halls, today was my last in Taiwan, so I once again headed over to Nangang before my departure to ferret out any last hidden hardware gems that we might have missed.
I walked through the massive Gigabyte booth with Joe, admired the company’s classy wood-trimmed Aero cases and Infinity graphics cards, and mused with Gigabyte staff about how the show and the industry have changed since I was last at Computex almost ten years ago.
DIY PC building is, for better or for worse, increasingly a guided, safe experience. The big component companies are now more than happy to serve you a full menu of coordinated parts that are practically guaranteed to come together into a coherent build. It’s getting harder and harder to find examples of earnest whimsy among booth after sprawling booth of Vera Rubin NVL72 racks and their supporting infrastructure. (Indeed, Vera Rubin NVL72 is so tightly standardized that racks from different server vendors are practically indistinguishable from one another!)
But my next stop was down the escalators to G.Skill’s booth, which maintains much of the freewheeling enthusiast spirit that I recall from my last visit to Computex so many years ago. If you want to see extreme overclockers chasing world records in real time through swirling clouds of liquid nitrogen, G.Skill’s booth is the place to be. And I got to go deep into the weeds with the company’s reps about DDR5 sub-timings, the resultant memory latencies, and their effect on modern CPU performance. After a week of parsing bold visions for the future of computing, it felt good to get back to the basics. Farewell, Computex, and I hope to be back in Taiwan soon.
English (US) ·