Matthew Connatser

Matthew has been writing about PC hardware and semiconductors since 2018, just three years after he built his first PC, which used one of AMD's A8-7650K APUs and no graphics card at all. He started to want to know more about how computers worked after putting a second stick of RAM in his PC and seeing how much better Skyrim started to run.

Although Matthew originally went to the University of Tennessee to get a computer engineering degree, he pivoted to history and linguistics, which he enjoyed studying more and helped to improve his writing quality and ability to research. His articles have appeared in several publications, such as Hot Hardware, Digital Trends, Tom's Hardware, and The Register.

Across his years-long career, Matthew has covered just about everything: processors for PCs and datacenters, how the rise of AI impacts energy use and carbon emissions, the US-China trade war, upstart CPU architecture RISC-V, and more.

In 2024, he staked out on his own and founded Silicon Insights, where he tests and reviews components like CPUs, motherboards, and SSDs. He freelances on the side at sites like TechRadar, where he contributes SSD reviews.