The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers a comprehensive analysis of today's best desktop PC hardware spanning five well differentiated budgets. Starting at ~$400 for an affordable PC, followed by two well-balanced enthusiast-oriented machines, a premium high-end build, and finally a dream machine packing the baddest hardware available, period.

With the venerable GeForce GTX 980 having celebrated its third birthday, in the world of GPUs that puts it squarely over the hill. Even the GTX 1080 is over a year old already, however the performance bump in this last generation was very significant. From the GTX 480 to the GTX 1080, how much faster are today's GPUs?

How bad is bottlenecking these days? Well, that all depends on how bad you are at pairing hardware. Any experienced system builder will tell you it's important to build a balanced system, especially if you want the best bang for your buck.

Many hardcore computer users might consider themselves above learning new tricks, but there are always new ways to sharpen your skills on the PC and we bet that you will find at least one useful thing here that you didn't know before.

Apple has confirmed that more than a tech icon, it's become a cultural phenomenon. But with such potential for truth bending, we've put together a short list of our thoughts about the company's new iPhone X, not in their words but ours.

Before the emergence of online stores, if you wanted to play old video games and they weren't available locally, there was simply no way to buy them. But you could download them, and one of the biggest and most important sites around was Home of the Underdogs.

I'm the father of a very curious 9-year-old. As such, it's a headache trying to make sure she doesn't accidentally Google something that's a little too mature for her eyes. She currently uses an iPad Air 2 as her primary device, allow me to share what I've learned.

Apple for the longest time made it unnecessarily difficult to mass delete messages in its Mail app. With iOS 9, Apple finally saw the light and baked in a "delete all" feature... only to backtrack and remove the option a year later with iOS 10. Here's a workaround.

Making use of standard commands that can otherwise be performed with regular touch input may seem like an inconvenience for some, but there are some hidden tricks buried within Siri for you to discover that are not accessible from any other apps.

I have tried several different ringtone apps for the iPhone. While they are mostly easy to use, I have yet to find one that gives me the same precision as using iTunes, so why not just make them from scratch? It is a straightforward process, and after you make a couple of tones, the method becomes a cake walk.

Scientists have made plenty of battery breakthroughs in the lab in recent years yet we're still waiting for that revolutionary, game-changing advancement to trickle down to the consumer space. Stretching a phone's charge to the absolute limit is a top priority and today, we're going to share some tips to help you get the most mileage out of your iOS device.

Battery life is one of the key features that most consumers want to see upgraded in their new phone. But what's great and what's not in today's market? We'll be looking at 500+ hours of battery life testing across 12 tests, to ensure we have the best possible picture of how current generation phones perform.

If you've played video games, you've encountered a handgun. In the right game, a handgun can be an object of menace or empowerment. But video games often treat them as a starter weapon to be replaced as soon as possible. What makes for a great video game handgun?

I've started to develop a strange pleasure for taking pictures of PCBs and I wanted to share my experience. Sure, you can take pictures of PCBs with your smartphone and get nice results. However, if you want repeatable quality and acceptable color, you don't need to break the bank but you will need a bit more gear.

Although Microsoft concluded its free Windows 10 upgrade program over a year ago, the company has yet to close some loopholes that were opened for folks running Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. If you thought about taking advantage of the promotion but never got around to it, there's nothing stopping you from downloading a free copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft's servers.

Adaptive sync display technologies from Nvidia and AMD have been on the market for a few years now, however it's just recently that it's become more mainstream with gamers taking the plunge thanks to generous selection, a wide variety of options, and monitor budgets. As both technologies have matured, it's a good time to revisit them to see where the differences lie in mid 2017.

This is an excerpt from Jason Schreier's upcoming book, "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels," which comes out on September 5 and tells the stories behind 10 different games including Diablo III, Uncharted 4, and Star Wars 1313.

The idea of getting work done from a Chromebook seemed unlikely when my editor first asked me about reviewing one. Much to my surprise, a browser-based operating system isn't as boxed in as I thought it would be, while $200 worth of hardware isn't as underwhelming as I expected for everyday performance.

Technology may shape the world we live in today, but there are many tech lovers who still consider themselves a bit awkward. But it isn't just the fans that can be bit "socially uneasy" - plenty of moments within the industry have made us cringe over the years. Here are some of the most toe-curling.

Integrated graphics in most ultraportables are not as useless as they once were. It is actually possible to game on an ultrabook, it's just a matter of choosing the game and its settings carefully. We've tested 34 games on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon to give you an idea of what games are actually playable on modern ultraportables.

There is one type of monitor that ticks nearly every box for high quality PC gaming. One that provides a good mix of resolution and high refresh rate, while still being realistically usable on today's most popular gaming hardware. I'm talking about the latest 27-inch 1440p IPS monitors that hit a whopping 165 Hz with support for adaptive sync.

I had toyed with the idea of using a TV as a monitor on a couple of different occasions in the past decade with no success, but with the advent of affordable 4K sets using a TV as a desktop monitor is finally feasible. Here's my experience during the past few months.

Today we're going to take a quick look at how current-gen GPUs perform when put to the task of Ethereum mining. It seems just about everyone wants in on the action these days, and we're often asked what the best GPUs to mine with are. We didn't have an exact answer, so we decided to find out.

It's no secret that MMORPGs are some of the most popular PC games on the planet. Since the early days of Ultima Online all the way to more recent offerings like Black Desert Online, MMOs have filled a gap in many gamers' lives that other genres - no matter how good they might be - just haven't yet. Here are what I believe are the 10 best MMOs out there right now.

Although solid state drives have steadily increased in capacity, so too have the size of game installs. Today's triple-A titles commonly occupy upwards of 20GB with many approaching or exceeding 60GB, especially after accounting for downloadable content. Ironically, it's often these large releases that benefit the most from the improved load times.

The future is scary and, according to these 15 dystopias in video games, it's going to get a lot stranger before things get better.

If you've ever tried getting into cryptocurrencies, you were probably met with a barrage of technical terms and buzzwords. I heard I can make easy money by mining on my home computer; how does that work? Why are there so many types of coins? How do I get started buying and selling cryptocurrencies? In this article we'll focus on the state of mining, exploring the practical side of it, as we hopefully demystify some of the world of digital currencies.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds pre-release build has been available since March, and by the first month it had sold well over a million copies. So the game is popular, but it's also known for not being greatly optimized. I've been messing around with a few CPU and GPU combinations over the past week, seeing which hardware deliver the most value.

As this year's E3 unfolds, so do new trailers for upcoming games. Expect regular updates to this article over the coming week as more are released. Most of the trailers belong to titles due later in 2017 or 2018, while a few have launched in the last week or so -- all of them are on PC.

2012 was an important year for Valve. The company introduced Big Picture Mode - a Steam interface for the living room holy trinity of big TVs, joypads, and couches - it was also the year Gabe Newell's behemoth revealed the development of a video game console. A year later, Steam Machines were unveiled as "a powerful new category of living room hardware."