Posts in Category: pc hardware

PC Hardware Supply vs. Demand in 2021 and Beyond

Let’s be fair: it would be more than a little presumptuous if we expected or even demanded improvements to the current hardware shortages. Even after a monumental vaccine rollout procedure in many countries, the pandemic is still having a huge global effect, and we as builders need to have patience.

At this point, we are now deep into the knock-on impact of slowdowns at the lowest and earliest stages of manufacturing affecting every aspect of the assembly and distribution pipeline.

But even after all these caveats and disclaimers, people remain curious: which parts are being affected the most, what are the ongoing problems, and when might things get back to normal? Well, those are the exact topics we intend to cover in this post, part by part!

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Guide to Alternative Mechanical Keyboard Switches

The world of mechanical keyboard switches isn’t only made of Cherry Blues and Browns! While Cherry’s popular MX lineup of switches hold the lion’s share of the market, there’s (Many, many… many!) different switches you can find in avaialable mechanical keyboards.

In this article, we’ll look at a handful of lesser-known Cherry switches, an array of switches from Cherry’s competitor Kailh, and some proprietary switches you’ll commonly find in Razer and Logitech branded mechanical keyboards.

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Everything You Wanted to Know about Cryptocurrency and PC Hardware in 2021 But Were Too Afraid to Ask

Ever wondered what the cryptocurrency fuss is all about? Why are some PC enthusiasts so upset about cryptocurrency? And why are some other PC enthusiasts so happy with cryptocurrency?

Let us take a thorough look at this tantalizing love/hate relationship, then consider what companies are doing to address the situation, and finally present a ‘new and improved’TM prediction about when the graphics card market will improve.

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AMD 5nm vs. Intel 7nm: Whose CPUs Will Win?

 

Time traveling is always a risk. When you go to the past, there’s the usual dangers like making sure you don’t talk to your past self, not stepping on any bugs so you don’t trigger the butterfly effect, etc… and when you go to the future, there is the danger that your expectations could be a million miles off of what actually happens.

Well, that second type of time travel is what we’re risking today: we’re gonna take a speculative leap forward in time, to discuss AMD and Intel’s CPUs of the future!

We’ll do our best to base our speculations on available evidence, in the hopes that they won’t be a million miles off of reality (maybe only a thousand miles). So, let’s take a look at some future manufacturing tech, and see who might come out on top in the next era of the ongoing battle between red and blue.

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Guide to Airflow in PC Cases and PC Cooling Fans

Low temperatures in PC parts are something that almost everyone wants. But not everyone has them, and not everyone knows how to have a properly cooled PC.

In this article, I am going to guide you through using case fans and selecting a good case to improve the cooling of your computer.

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An Overview of SSD Specifications

SSDs have been widely available to the public for many years now, and having an SSD within your computer has become a must-have for all but the most extreme data-hoarding budget builders. But when you go online, looking to buy an SSD, you are bombarded with intricate specifications: M.2? DRAM? NAND? What is all of that?

In this article, we are looking to answer those questions, and give some buying advice at the end.

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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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Top 5 Budget Curved Gaming Monitors for 2021

There’s more than a few curved gaming monitors out there with outrageous specs and equally outrageous price tags—displays that test the limit of what the human eye can perceive! Enormous panels that cost more than a new car! Huge ultrawide multi-monitor setups!

You, uh, aren’t going to find those in this article.

Instead, this list aims to stretch your dollar to its breaking point, focusing on curved monitors that provide a premium experience with a sub-premium price tag of less than $400. None of them are powered by nuclear fission or display 600 frames per second, but they’ll be enough to satisfy the average consumer without the need for a second mortgage.

Let’s begin!

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Previous-gen Graphics Card Showdown: RX 5500 XT vs. GTX 1650 Super

Things are not looking ideal for anyone planning to build a PC. The world is in a global pandemic, and supply deficiencies are mixed with high demand. One of the categories that is affected the most is the GPU market: even the cheapest graphics cards from the latest generation are inflated in price to over 500 bucks, across both AMD and Nvidia options.

Because of this, many people are buying graphics cards from the previous generation: Those cards offer a good bang for the buck, and excellent performance. With a budget of 200 bucks, you can get a pretty solid card. Both AMD and Nvidia offer good options, in the form of the RX 5500 XT (4 GB) and the GTX 1650 Super, respectively. Today we are opposing these two cards against each other. Which one should you pick?

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