Posts in Category: guides

Hall Effect Game Controllers – The Next Level Up?

New titles, new games, new(ish) consoles, and yet we still use the same technology in our game controllers. Sure, the PlayStation 5 controller has some advanced features such as adaptive triggers, but after many months of gaming, you may notice something odd about your Xbox, Switch, or PlayStation controller. Perhaps, your characters walk without input, or the camera moves around slowly. Maybe you wiggle the analog sticks and it’s fine … but only for a moment. One of the sticks has begun to drift on its own.

Enter the Hall Effect game controller. They promise to address the annoying issues that often plague traditional controllers, such as stick drift and similar wear over time. But what exactly are they, and how do they measure up against the standard Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo controllers?

Let’s delve into the magnetic world of Hall Effect game controllers to unravel their magic and see what they are, whether they’re worth preferring, and how some specific models compare.

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What Logical Increments Tier is Required to Run 8 MORE of the Most Popular Steam Games?

8 more top games

(Information on Steam’s top games were gathered for this article from Steam Charts)

A couple of weeks ago I went through eight of the most popular Steam games at the time, and linked which Logical Increments PC build tier is needed to play that game at a specific performance level. Well, that proved to be a popular article, so I’m here to round out the list with more of Steam’s most successful titles (and maybe a couple trending ones)!

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What Logical Increments Tier is Required to Run the Most Popular Steam Games?

Top Games Header

(Information on Steam’s top games were gathered for this article from Steam Charts)

Back in January 2020, I crafted a neat little piece discussing the Logical Increments tier needed to enjoy each of the top games on Steam at the time. Fast forward to now, and oh, how the scene has shifted! Back around that period, we were seeing trade tariffs causing a good bump in prices for PC hardware​. As we ventured into late 2020, high demand meant the cost of PC parts kept climbing, and 2021 brought even higher prices—especially for graphics cards due to a cryptocurrency boom. Oh, and let’s not forget, the world was just getting acquainted with Covid-19, adding a whole new level of complexity to tech market dynamics through supply chain issues.

Now, at the tail end of 2023, with prices and availability having normalized in some (though not all) component categories, and just a week left until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s about time we take a fresh look at what Logical Increments PC building tier you’d need to dive into the most popular Steam games today. Let’s see what changed in the last few years, and whether that ol’ system still has some life in it, or whether it might be worth a little upgrade. Stick around as we unpack the current gaming demands and discuss today’s tech landscape.

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The Best Monitors for Professional Content Creators

4K Monitor Content Creators

Navigating the world of content creation requires more than just a keen eye and creativity; it demands the right tools. Among these tools, a top-notch monitor stands out as a cornerstone for professionals. Whether you’re meticulously editing a photo, crafting a video, or rendering a 3D design, your monitor plays a pivotal role in bringing your vision to life.

In this guide, we’ll delve into the essential aspects of a monitor that every content creator should be aware of. From color accuracy to resolution and beyond, we’ll break down what truly matters. Then we’ll finish things off with a group of strong monitor options for content creators to consider choosing.

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PC Cleaning and Dusting Guide

To keep your PC running like a well-oiled machine, you must, well… not oil it… but dust it!

Cleaning your PC can seem like a time-consuming and daunting task considering the sheer number of nooks and crannies nestled inside your case. But after reading through this simple guide, you’ll know exactly how to keep your PC pristine inside and out without breaking a sweat! We’ll also give some tips for dust prevention further down.

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Air vs. Liquid CPU Cooling: Which is Right for Me?

Air cooling versus liquid cooling is a debate as old as time. Indeed, even the dinosaurs tens of millions of years ago often argued deep in the forests of Pangaea whether air or liquid is the superior form of CPU cooling. With their methods of record-keeping lost to time, sadly we may never know the conclusions they reached…

But we can give you a pretty good idea of which cooling method suits your needs the best here in 2022.

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Building a PC for Adobe Photoshop

Between the addition of cameras to smartphones and the rise of image-centric social media sites like Instagram, photography has only become more and more popular over the past couple decades. This has also meant a lot more interest in image editing and adjusting. When it comes to software for image editing, it’s Adobe Photoshop that dominates both professional and enthusiast work.

However, serious users may find that Photoshop can sometimes be a demanding program. In this article, I’ll briefly discuss the importance of each PC component when it comes to having a good experience with Photoshop.

This post will not be an example build, but rather advice on what to prioritize and what to be aware of. (If you’re looking for something more specific, with recommendations of exact parts to get for different budgets—you should check out the first section our primary guide on building a PC for image editing and graphic design.)

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Should You Buy a Gaming Laptop or Build a Gaming Desktop?

 

The prices for building a gaming desktop PC have improved over the past few months, but they might still be too high for you. In fact, they even be so high that you consider purchasing a gaming laptop instead. As the name suggests, a gaming laptop is a laptop made with gaming in mind; big companies like Razer, Dell, and MSI make lots of these nowadays. These laptops can be attractive options for more on-the-move, lower-budget, and/or younger players as they tend to be a little cheaper and a lot more portable than desktop alternatives.

In this article, I will explore if this is a viable alternative to building your own desktop. I’ll be covering a selection of important topics, starting with those that favor the laptops and transitioning toward those that favor the desktops.

This comparison will be mainly aimed at people wanting to play games on their system. You could also use this comparison for picking a system for similar workloads like video editing or 3D rendering, but the article is written with gaming in mind. Now, let’s get to it!

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The 7 Best Controllers or Gamepads for PC Gaming in 2022

When you think of gaming on a PC, you probably think of a mouse and keyboard. Controllers have long taken the back seat in PC gaming history but, believe it or not, there’s a handful of games out there that play better with a controller than mouse and keyboard. Yeah, I said it, and I’m not taking it back.

There’s a lot of controllers out in the wild, but which ones are the best? Out of the thousands of controllers, how can you possibly choose? Where do you even begin!?

Well, right here is a pretty good place to start, because this article is all about the 7 best options for PC gamepads you can get in 2022. Let’s begin!

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The Best Operating System for Your Gaming PC

windows-vs-linux-vs-steamox-operating-system-os

You just finished your brand-new gaming PC build and saw it POST. Now is the time to install an operating system. But which one should you pick? What is best for you?

There is a large variety of operating systems you can pick from, yet only a few are really suitable for gaming. The three that I consider most suitable and that I am going to compare here are Windows 10, Linux (in the form of Ubuntu), and SteamOS.

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