Posts in Category: pc hardware

$2,185 Multitasking Monster PC Build with the Ryzen 7 1800X

Chris Cunningham

R7 1800X

The Ryzen 7 1800X is AMD’s flagship CPU in the new Ryzen lineup. We have put together an example PC build  that should get the most out of this monster 8-core CPU!

With blistering multi-core benchmarks, including reports of crazy 8-core overclocking records, this PC should give you an impressive editing workstation or a gaming beast. Below are parts recommendations, along with budget options or more powerful alternatives. The standard build totals $2,185.

[Note: As we were preparing to publish this article, we saw that many of these parts are now temporarily out of stock. Ryzen fever has hit, and we hope that parts are available again soon.]

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$1,535 Gaming Powerhouse with the Ryzen 7 1700X

Chris Cunningham

R7 1700X

The Ryzen 7 1700X is a personal favorite “sweet spot” CPU of ours in the new Ryzen range. We have put together an example PC build that should get the most out of this powerful 8-core CPU.

With impressive multi-core performance, this PC should give you an impressive gaming PC or a powerhouse workstation for editing. Below are parts recommendations, along with budget options or more powerful alternatives. The standard build totals $1,535.

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$1,150 Workstation/Gaming PC with the Ryzen 7 1700

Chris Cunningham

R7 1700

To celebrate the release of the Ryzen 7 1700, we’ve put together an example PC build that will get the most out of AMD’s new CPU. With an insanely low TDP of 65W for an 8-core CPU, this should be an interesting one!

This PC is excellent for many workstation applications, such as video editing, and it’s even a very good gaming PC. Below are parts recommendations, along with budget options or more powerful alternatives. The standard build totals $1,150.

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AMD Ryzen 7 vs. Intel

Chris Cunningham
AMD Ryzen Logo

AMD have a new player in the game…

With the AMD Press Event details now available to the world, with videos and articles confirming the many (oh so many!) performance and price leaks to be correct, we take a look at the first big leap forward from AMD in five years with the shiny new Ryzen 7 series. On March 2, the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700 will challenge Intel’s 6- and 8-core CPU lineup at very competitive price points. Now we wonder: Is Intel worried?

[Edit: Since writing this article, Intel has announced price drops of their CPUs in response to Ryzen. So, in short: Yes, they are worried! Now read on to understand why.]

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G-Sync vs. FreeSync: Which is Better?

fore1gn

Samsung’s CFG70 monitor with Quantum Dot technology

For a new PC builder or a person out of the hardware loop for a few years, choosing a new monitor may prove to be fairly difficult. These days, dynamic refresh rate technology, which syncs your monitor’s refresh rate to your graphics card’s output, plays a big role in choosing a monitor.

The two big contenders in dynamic refresh rate technology are AMD’s FreeSync and NVIDIA’s G-Sync. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, which we’ll try to address in detail in this article.

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Four Practical Alternative Uses for Empty 5.25” Drive Bays

Icy Dock Expresscage - 4 practical alternative uses for 5.25" drive bays

Icy Dock’s Expresscage Tool-less Hot-swappable 2.5″ Drive Enclosure

While there are a great number of options these days for good-looking PC cases that entirely lack 5.25” drive bays, the majority of cases still offer at least one of these spaces. And efficient builders won’t want that space being used for nothing.

Don’t get me wrong: Many builders still do want to use those spaces to house intended utilities, including disc drives, card readers, extra USB ports, and even floppy drives. But that doesn’t mean there won’t still be an unoccupied bay sitting around at the end of the day. (I personally have a Pioneer Blu-Ray/DVD/CD player in my tower, and for the time being, it sits above an unused 5.25” bay.)

So, here are a few ideas for what to do with those bays instead of leaving them as cavities in your build:

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Types of VRAM Explained: HBM vs. GDDR5 vs. GDDR5X

Video RAM: What’s the difference between the types available today?

SEC VRAM - Different Kinds of VRAM Explained—HBM vs. GDDR5 vs. GDDR5X

Some Samsung VRAM

All graphics cards need both a GPU and VRAM to function properly. While the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) does the actual processing of data to output images on your monitor, the data it is processing and providing is stored and accessed from the chips of VRAM (Video Random Access Memory) surrounding it.

Outputting high-resolution graphics at a quick rate requires both a beefy GPU and a large quantity of high-bandwidth VRAM working in tandem. For most of the past decade, VRAM design was fairly stagnant, and focused on using more power to achieve greater VRAM clock speeds.

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Building a PC to Beat the PS4 Pro

Chris Cunningham
Build a PC to Beat the PS4 Pro

Build a PC or buy a console? The debate rages on…

With the release of the PlayStation 4 Pro over the holidays, the debate over the performance needed for 4K gaming on PC has been fierce. With games like Last of Us Remastered running in the PlayStation 4 Pro’s 4K 60 FPS mode, it is a testament to the level of optimization that can be achieved when working to a single specification. Yet what sort of performance can a PC builder get for the same $400?

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