Diy articles

Why Building a Gaming PC Right Now is a Good Idea: Good Timing, Great Hardware, Right Prices

What a difference a year makes. It was about this time last year that we discussed why building a gaming PC was a bad idea, but thankfully a lot has changed since. You may recall, DDR4 memory and graphics card prices were through the roof a year ago. GPU availability was quite poor and on top of all that, we were at the end of a few product cycles. Fast forward a year, what's changed?

TechSpot PC Buying Guide: Five price points, five killer builds

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.

* Decent performance * For everyday computing * Gaming with add-on GPU
* Good performance * Fast for everyday computing * Casual gaming
* Excellent performance * Great Multitasker * Perfect for gaming
* High-end performance * Heavy multitasking * Hardcore gaming
* Workstation-like performance * Extreme multitasking * Extreme gaming

Why Building a Gaming PC Right Now Is a Bad Idea, Part 1: Expensive DDR4 Memory

There was plenty to be excited about PC hardware in 2017, but there's a lot to be upset about as well. Part one of this series will be dedicated discuss DDR4 memory pricing and why it's so high. RAM pricing is currently a big issue plaguing those wanting to build a new computer or update an old one, more than doubling in price in less than two years.

TechSpot PC Buying Guide: A quick CPU/platform update for late 2017

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.

* Decent performance * For everyday computing * Gaming with add-on GPU
* Good performance * Fast for everyday computing * Casual gaming
* Excellent performance * Great Multitasker * Perfect for gaming
* High-end performance * Heavy multitasking * Hardcore gaming
* Workstation-like performance * Extreme multitasking * Extreme gaming

TechSpot PC Buying Guide: 2016 Update

The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers an in-depth list of today's best desktop PC hardware spanning five budgets that go from affordable to well-balanced to outright extreme machine . Whether you're a first time builder seeking guidance or a seasoned enthusiast, we have you covered.

* Decent performance * Good for everyday computing * Gaming with add-on GPU
* Good performance * Fast for everyday computing * Casual gaming
* Excellent performance * Great Multitasker * Perfect for gaming
* High-end performance * Heavy multitasking * High-quality gaming
* Workstation-like performance * Extreme multitasking * Extreme gaming

TechSpot PC Buying Guide: Holidays 2015 Update

The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers an in-depth list of today's best desktop PC hardware, spanning five unique budgets. Whether you're a first time builder seeking guidance or a seasoned enthusiast, we have you covered.

* Decent performance * Good for everyday computing * Gaming with add-on GPU
* Good performance * Fast for everyday computing * Casual gaming
* Excellent performance * Great Multitasker * Perfect for gaming
* High-end performance * Heavy multitasking * High-quality gaming
* Workstation-like performance * Extreme multitasking * Extreme gaming

Silverstone Raven RVZ02 Review: The best Mini-ITX case for gaming rigs

With some 16 months having passed since our first look at the RVZ01, Silverstone has returned with another compact gaming chassis. The Raven RVZ02 is 15% smaller than the original while promising to support graphics cards up to 13" long. Silverstone believes that the RVZ02 is one of the easiest compact Mini-ITX cases to build a gaming system in and we'll be putting together multiple hardware configurations to test this claim.