PC World – Misleading consumers to shill

2 zed_dev 2 5/14/2025, 3:35:41 AM pcworld.com ↗

Comments (2)

gnabgib · 11h ago
Article title: I spent $27 to future-proof my home network forever

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

zed_dev · 11h ago
I got a little mad when I read this article. Apparently, all I needed was a $27 cable to upgrade my home network to 40GbE. Forget the Mellanox cards, transceivers, and expensive switches I’ve bought. According to PCWorld, I was doing it all wrong. All I really needed was a $27 cable!

Seriously, this is infuriating. The article is extremely misleading, clearly written to push an affiliate link. They imply that users can "upgrade" their home networks by buying a CAT8 cable, which is complete nonsense in this context.

Let’s be clear:

* There is no consumer 40GbE — and likely never will be.

* Consumer hardware is just starting to adopt 2.5GbE (NBASE-T).

* There is no transceiver, NIC, switch, or device that supports 40GbE over twisted-pair RJ45 CAT8.

* Even CAT5e can handle 10GbE just fine over short distances.

This so-called “no-brainer” upgrade will do absolutely nothing for the average user. At best, they’re buying an overpriced cable that changes nothing. This article is not just ignorant — it’s deceptive.

PCWorld should take it down.