Disclosure

Last updated: August 17, 2026

Some retailer links in articles are affiliate links and may earn a commission; others are plain reference links that earn nothing. Anything cited as a source — a spec sheet, a review, a pricing article — is always a plain link, never an affiliate link, because evidence should never carry a commission. No retailer relationship influences which products get recommended. If a product is not worth recommending, it does not get recommended.

TechFuel HQ participates in affiliate programs — the Amazon Associates Program, Commission Junction (CJ), and Rakuten Advertising (which powers our Newegg links) — and may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to the reader. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Some links to retailers in articles are affiliate links; others are plain reference links that earn nothing. Every affiliate link sits in a labelled buy panel with its disclosure line attached directly to it, so the commission notice is always visible alongside the link itself — you know a link can earn a commission at the moment you see it.

A commission never changes which product gets recommended — if a product is not worth recommending, it does not get recommended, affiliate link or not. Links used as evidence are held to a stricter rule than that: a source citation is never an affiliate link, so nothing this site cites as proof can ever pay it.

Advertising

No display advertising is being served on TechFuel HQ. No ad units render. The Google AdSense account tag and ad loader were removed on August 17, 2026, after the application was declined.

Google Analytics 4 remains the site’s only Google measurement script. If display advertising is introduced later, this disclosure and the Privacy Policy will be updated before the advertising code goes live.

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