Posts in Category: guides

How to Choose the Right Storage for Your Gaming PC

Alex

M.2 SATA, M.2 NVME, SSD, HDD—if any of those abbreviations make your head spin faster than a hard drive platter, look no further. This article outlines the different storage options on the market today, highlighting the best use-cases for each and recommending the best product in every class.

Upgrading an older storage drive to an SSD is one of the surest (and cheapest) ways to give a boost to an older PC, but where should you begin? There are three main options on the market today: HDDs, SATA SSDs, and M.2 SSDs. Here’s a look at each.

Read More

Motherboard VRMs: What are Power Phases, and How Many Should I Have?

526christian

Motherboard VRM Power Phases Explanation

Often, motherboard product pages and online forum users mention a motherboard’s VRM and how many power phases it has. Being a somewhat technical topic, VRMs aren’t an easy topic to get into. So today, we will introduce the concept of the VRM and these so-called power phases as simple and straightforward as possible, so that you can easily discern what a motherboard product page is telling you (and when it matters).

Read More

Buying Used PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide

Jonathan Dantzler

Beginner's Guide to Used Hardware

If you’re close to the ‘Destitute’ level on our main chart—or even within spitting distance—new hardware prices can seem insurmountable. But what if you didn’t have to pinch pennies waiting for a sale? What if you could have a powerful—if slightly dated—system for a fraction of the cost?

Thankfully for you, there’s a surprisingly huge market for used hardware online! eBay is obvious, but forums like /r/hardwareswap are tight-knit, self-policing communities of enthusiasts eager to swap silicon. It’s also quite safe: PayPal is the most popular payment method, with their Goods and Services option offering buyer protection in the event of fraud.

That being said, not all used components age as gracefully as others. We’ve created this guide so you can shop wisely.

Read More

The Newbie’s Guide to PC Cooling Fans

Jonathan Dantzler

beginner's guide to PC case fans

So, you’re building a PC; with modern components running faster (and hotter) than ever, you’ll need at least one fan. Searches reveal thousands of models bragging about their CFM or noise levels or bearing type. How do you cut through the marketing jargon? This guide for beginners should demystify computer cooling!

Read More

Choosing the Right Monitor: Size, Resolution, Price – and Sitting Distance!

Jason Ogaard

monitor-size-resolution-sitting-distance

If you peruse sites like this, there’s a good chance you’ve come across the monitor discussion. “I’m buying a monitor, what size/resolution/refresh rate should I get?” Choosing the right monitor can be as important as (or, in some situations, even more important than) anything else in your build.

After all, your monitor is how you experience your build. The best graphics card and CPU don’t mean much if the monitor you’re using can’t show you the benefits of those parts.

Read More

4 Troubleshooting Tips for Overclocking Your PC

Alex

Often, PC enthusiasts will speak of overclocking the way car enthusiasts discuss high-performance engines, with megahertz and voltage taking the place of horsepower and torque. Overclocking is often a relatively simple way to squeeze out extra performance from computer components; however, problems sometimes do arise. Luckily, most problems faced with overclocking are easily fixed with some basic troubleshooting techniques.

For our purposes, we’ll look at issues affecting the components that are overclocked the most: the CPU and GPU.

Read More

Windows Workstation vs. iMac Pro

Chris Cunningham

windows workstation or imac pro

A lot of enthusiast workstation customers are eagerly awaiting the release of the $5,000 iMac Pro coming in December. Yet, with such a price tag, it had me wondering if it’s the best option for money. With the release of the brand new iMac, it comes as no surprise that avid Apple fans are looking to Sell My iMac to see how much money they could get if they were to sell it. The money can then be put towards buying the latest option. Everyone one has their own preference when it comes to Windows or Apple and that’s not a problem. So join me as we delve into workstation parts to find the answer!

Read More

The Best 4K Monitors, and How to Choose a 4K Monitor

fore1gn

(Note: If you want to skip to our recommended 4K monitors below, scroll down to “Our favorite 4K monitors.”)

For desktop PC users, 1080p (1920×1080) monitors are ubiquitous today, but that was not always the case. A little more than ten years ago, they were just starting to hit the market. Monitors with an aspect ratio of 16:10 (for instance, 1920×1200) first started appearing back in 2004, with 16:9 (1080p) monitors coming a year or two after.

Read More

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

Daniel Podgorski

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.

Read More