Affiliate Disclosure

Last updated: June 13, 2026

Affiliate disclosure (FTC § 16 CFR Part 255)

TechFuel HQ participates in affiliate marketing programs. When an article links to a product page, that link may be an affiliate link. If a reader clicks the link and makes a purchase, TechFuel HQ may earn a small commission at no extra cost to the reader.

These commissions help fund the cost of running the site (domain, email forwarder, occasional hardware for testing). They do not influence which products get recommended. If a product is not worth recommending, it does not get recommended — affiliate link or not.

Specific programs that may be in use:

  • Amazon Associates — As an Amazon Associate TechFuel HQ may earn from qualifying purchases
  • Newegg, Best Buy, B&H, and other retailer affiliate programs — where applicable
  • Vendor-direct affiliate programs (Synology, Western Digital, Crucial, Backblaze, Tailscale, Proton, etc.) — where applicable

Every article that contains affiliate links also contains a clear disclosure block near the top of the article.

Source standards

  • Vendor specs are cited with links to the vendor’s official documentation page
  • Benchmarks are cited with links to the original test source (publication, repository, or vendor)
  • News and licensing changes are cited with links to the originating announcement

If a claim cannot be cited to a real, resolvable source, it is omitted.

Real-artifact policy

Where a 2024–2025 article references a physical measurement, photo, or receipt — a Kill A Watt reading, an iperf3 result, or a parts receipt — that artifact was captured on the author’s own gear during the 2024–2025 testing period. Most of that gear was sold or retired in early 2026 (see Colophon).

Articles published from June 2026 onward source benchmarks from named third-party publications, cited inline at each claim, with one exception: hands-on observations and original first-party measurements from the gear the author still owns and uses daily. That current rig is a Ryzen 7 7800X3D / ASUS ROG STRIX B650-A / 64GB DDR5-6000 / ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC / NZXT Kraken 360 / EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 GT / Samsung 970 EVO Plus / Gigabyte AORUS FO48U — the published ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC bench dataset (captured 2026-06-08–2026-06-09) is the most data-heavy example. Where a hardware claim cannot be backed by either a real third-party citation or first-hand use of gear the author owns, it is omitted; figures that are vendor-spec or third-party are labeled as such, separately from anything measured first-hand.

Updates

Articles are revised when the underlying facts change (a new release, a price shift, a vendor policy change). The “Last updated” date in the article reflects the most recent revision.

Errors and corrections

Spotted an error or want to challenge a recommendation? Email hello@techfuelhq.com with the article URL and the specific section. Material corrections are made in-place with an updated “Last updated” date.

Contact

Publisher: Lowell K. Wood IV Email: hello@techfuelhq.com Location: St. Louis County, Missouri, United States