Sameer' Post

The State of VR Hardware in 2022

VR hardware

Consumer VR has only been around for a few years, but that hasn’t stopped it from improving (and sometimes failing) at breakneck speeds. We’ve come a long way from the early days of 2016 VR being limited to expensive, tethered-only HMD’s and room-placed trackers as the only option.

Now more than ever, we’re witnessing a generational leap—everything from the amazing market penetration of standalone HMD’s such Meta’s Quest 2 (It’s still an Oculus Quest in my heart) to proposed new tech in PlayStation’s VR 2 and Valve’s patent sprees. Not to mention the idea of a “Metaverse” becoming an actual possibility that is actively being worked on by big names in the industry.

There’s a whole lot to cover—which is exactly what I’m hoping to do in this piece: give the reader some summarized insight into what is happening in the world of VR, and then some recommendations on the best headsets currently available!

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Top 5 CES 2022 Gadgets and Peripherals to Look Forward To

CES 2022

CES 2022 has come and gone. And with it being the first in-person CES after an online-only hiatus (with a new Covid-19 strain, at that), it is not surprising to say that CES had a rocky year, presentation-wise. Lots of issues cropped up, including everything from big tech companies canceling their attendance to the entire event being forced to run a day shorter due to health concerns.

But regardless of the doom and gloom, CES has not failed to deliver another exciting year filled with the latest, greatest, and wackiest that tech has to offer. Here’s our top 5 choices of discrete devices, cutting-edge peripherals, and other new tech to look out for in 2022 and beyond.

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Steam Deck Specifications – Comparing Valve’s Deck to PC Gaming Hardware

Steam Deck Performance

Valve has released the Steam Deck specifications, and they have spawned a storm of excitement. Essentially, the Steam Deck is a handheld gaming PC built around SteamOS. The Steam Deck is poised to be a fairly unique product, looking like a hybrid of a handheld console like the Switch and a conventional desktop PC (like the ones found in our main chart). Indeed, Valve’s Deck is being marketed as a “Gaming PC” with the intention of providing all the features that framing entails, for everyone from tech enthusiasts to gamers.

It’ll have a native SteamOS interface with (mostly) complete support for your pre-existing Steam library (limited to games that have either been ported to Linux or which can be run with Proton and Steam Play), and it’ll also have the ability to replace SteamOS with another option, such as Windows, in order to run just about any other title you can think of.

The Steam Deck specifications and features allow you to run anything and everything on it—and its the combination of that openness; controls including a touchscreen, capacitive pads, and back-grip buttons; the ability to ‘dock’ it to play on a TV or monitor; and a priority placed on ergonomics that (altogether) makes the device more interesting than something like a Nintendo Switch or a GPD Win3. There are just so many features all at once!

As for the hardware itself, Valve has released a very comprehensive spec sheet on the Steam Deck website. We’ll know exactly how this hardware will perform in games once the first units make it into the hands of reviewers, but until then we can take a close look at the provided specs and discuss how they stack up against current desktop hardware!

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Beginner’s Guide to CPU Coolers

Summer might be close to ending, but the heat lives on in our gaming PCs. Whether you’re looking to overclock, get an aesthetically pleasing water-cooled setup, or just give your CPU some more space to breathe, there is a myriad of different CPU Coolers that are up to the job. (For anyone used to a different name: CPU Coolers are also known as HSFs, or Heat Sinks & Fans.)

But unless you’re buying one of Intel’s unlocked CPUs, chances are you already got one in the box. Do you really need to upgrade to an aftermarket cooler? And if so, what do you look for when choosing the replacement? Well, have no fear; this article will help you answer those questions!

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The 5 Best Gaming Laptops in 2021

After the past year, it really is a different world out there. So it should come as no surprise that the old, time-tested PC Shopping Wisdom doesn’t really apply today like it did even a few years ago. Gaming laptops? A good deal? Arguably, yes, they are now. Lack of component availability due to chip shortages, scalping, cryptocurrency mining, and more has made building a capable desktop PC for a reasonable price (or at all) close-to-impossible.

There are also, however, the inherent benefits of laptops: portability, peripherals being included with the part purchase, smaller form factor, and the device coming fully pre-assembled. These are just a handful of the most prominent areas where laptops have always come out on top.

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A Quick Rundown on Starlink: Is it Ready for PC Gaming?

Imagine for a moment: High-speed, low-ping internet costing the same or less than the lowest-tier options provided by your current ISP, regardless of your location. Sounds like an impossible dream, doesn’t it? Must we forever be stuck with a ping of 400 ms? Must the frugal among us always face download speeds that require waiting days before being able to play a newly bought game?

Well, that dream may become a reality in the not-too-distant future, as high speeds, low ping, and reasonable costs are the attributes promised by the upcoming ‘alternative’ internet service Starlink. But what exactly is promised, and does it seem likely that it can live up to its own hype?

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A Comprehensive HDD Specification Guide

If you are looking to store your digital goodies with the most bang for the buck, then hard disk drives are undoubtedly the way to go. Whether it’s for a NAS, a secondary drive for some less-played games, or any other use where capacity is a priority over speed—there’s no beating the ‘price per gigabyte’ of HDDs. But how do you pick the perfect drive for your use case?

Although almost any modern drive should fit and work fine if there is a free compatible motherboard slot and power connection present (usually SATA, although older systems might have other connectors), there are a few different things to consider when looking to get the perfect drive. In this guide, I will be going over the what and the how of picking out your new drive (or drives!). But first, let’s take a closer look at what HDDs can offer us that an SSD or some other technology can’t, and what drawbacks there might be.

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