PC hardware guides

What DDR5 RAM is, how it differs from DDR4, JEDEC speeds from DDR5-4800 to DDR5-8800, on-die ECC, PMIC, and how to pick a DDR5 kit for AM5 or LGA1851.

DDR4 vs DDR5 compared: voltage, speeds, bandwidth, latency in nanoseconds, capacity, platform support and whether upgrading makes sense.

What Intel XMP and AMD EXPO memory profiles do, the difference between them, cross-platform compatibility, and how to enable them safely in BIOS.

What CAS latency means, how to convert CL to nanoseconds, how to read RAM timings like 30-38-38-96, and why speed and latency must be considered together.

Everything about AMD's AM5 (LGA1718) desktop platform: supported Ryzen CPUs, DDR5-only memory, PCIe 5.0 lanes, chipsets, cooler compatibility and longevity.

Intel's LGA1851 desktop platform explained: Core Ultra 200S processors, DDR5-6400 and CUDIMM support, PCIe 5.0 lanes, Z890/B860/H810 chipsets and cooler compatibility.

LGA1700 explained: Intel 12th, 13th and 14th gen Core processors, 600 and 700 series chipsets, DDR4 versus DDR5 boards, PCIe 5.0 lanes and BIOS updates.

Compare AMD AM5 chipsets X870E, X870, X670E, B850, B650E, B650 and A620: PCIe 5.0 graphics and NVMe, USB4, overclocking and which board class to buy.

Compare Intel Z890, B860 and H810 chipsets for LGA1851: overclocking, PCIe and USB connectivity, memory support and which motherboard class fits your build.

What TDP really means, how AMD PPT and Intel base and maximum turbo power relate to real power draw, and how to size a CPU cooler correctly.

What a neural processing unit (NPU) is, how TOPS ratings work, the 40 TOPS Copilot+ PC requirement, and how NPUs compare with GPUs for local AI.

GDDR7 graphics memory explained: JEDEC JESD239, PAM3 signaling, 28–32 Gbps launch speeds, bandwidth calculation and how it compares with GDDR6 and GDDR6X.

How much graphics memory you need for 1080p, 1440p and 4K gaming, ray tracing, frame generation and running local AI models, with practical VRAM guidelines.

What to look for in a 1440p graphics card: VRAM, memory bus and bandwidth, upscaling support, power and PSU requirements, plus high-ranked 1440p cards in our index.

What a 4K gaming GPU needs: 16 GB+ VRAM, high memory bandwidth, upscaling, DisplayPort 2.1 or HDMI 2.1, power connector and PSU sizing, with top-ranked cards in our index.

What Resizable BAR is, how it lets the CPU access all GPU memory, BIOS requirements (UEFI, CSM off, Above 4G Decoding) and when it improves performance.

How NVMe SSDs work, PCIe 3.0 vs 4.0 vs 5.0 speeds, TLC vs QLC NAND, DRAM vs HMB cache, endurance and what actually matters when choosing a drive.

M.2 form factors explained: what 2230, 2242, 2280 and 22110 mean, M-key vs B-key vs E-key, single vs double-sided drives and which size fits laptops and handhelds.

What TBW and DWPD mean for SSD lifespan, how to convert between them, typical endurance for TLC and QLC drives, and how to check SSD wear in SMART.

How SSD DRAM caches and Host Memory Buffer (HMB) work, where DRAM-less NVMe drives fall short, and when a DRAM SSD is worth paying for.

Conventional (CMR) vs shingled (SMR) magnetic recording explained: write performance, RAID rebuilds, ZFS resilvering and why NAS drives should be CMR.

Compare RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and ZFS RAIDZ for home and small-office NAS: usable capacity, fault tolerance, rebuild risk and why RAID is not a backup.

PCI Express 5.0 explained: 32 GT/s per lane, ~63 GB/s at x16, what benefits today (NVMe SSDs), what does not (most GPUs), platform support and what comes next.

PCIe 4.0 vs PCIe 5.0 compared for SSDs, graphics cards and motherboards: bandwidth per lane, real-world gains, heat and cost, and when Gen5 is worth it.

How PCIe lanes are distributed between the CPU and chipset on AM5, LGA1851 and LGA1700, what x16/x8/x4 mean, slot sharing, and how bifurcation works.

Wi-Fi 7 explained: IEEE 802.11be features including 320 MHz channels, 4096-QAM, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), real-world speeds, router speed classes and what you need to use it.

Wi-Fi 6E explained: how the 6 GHz band adds up to 1200 MHz of spectrum, 160 MHz channels, WPA3 requirements, range trade-offs and regional availability.

Side-by-side comparison of Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7: bands, channel width, modulation, MLO, maximum speeds, client speeds and which router to buy.

Multi-gig Ethernet explained: 2.5GBASE-T, 5GBASE-T and 10GBASE-T cable requirements, SFP+ vs RJ45, real transfer speeds, NAS use and PCIe lane needs.

Thunderbolt 5 explained: 80 Gbps bidirectional, 120 Gbps Bandwidth Boost, PAM3 signaling, PCIe tunneling, displays, charging up to 240 W and compatibility with USB4 and Thunderbolt 4.

USB4 explained: USB4 v1 (20/40 Gbps) and USB4 v2 (80/120 Gbps), tunneling of PCIe and DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3/4 compatibility, cable lengths and naming.

ATX 3.0 and ATX 3.1 explained: 12VHPWR vs 12V-2x6, 600 W GPU power, power excursion handling, sense pins, and how to connect high-power graphics cards safely.

80 PLUS Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium efficiency requirements at 20/50/100% load, Cybenetics ratings, and how much a more efficient PSU really saves.

AIO liquid coolers vs air coolers compared: cooling performance, noise, reliability, radiator sizes and placement, case and RAM clearance, and which suits your CPU.

OLED gaming monitors explained: QD-OLED vs WOLED panels, response time, contrast, HDR certification, brightness limits, text clarity and burn-in protection.

High refresh rate monitors explained: frame time at 144 to 480 Hz, response time and overdrive, variable refresh rate, and the DisplayPort or HDMI bandwidth you need.