PC Hardware News, Reviews & Buying Guides — Page 3 of 61
Daily news digests, benchmark roundups, and long-form buying guides on GPUs, CPUs, home AI workstations, local LLM runtimes, retro PC builds, and the tools real builders use in 2026.
Showing articles 101–150 of 3046.
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- PCI vs ISA Serial Cards on Windows 98 and DOS: Which Chipsets Actually Work — PCI serial cards work in Windows 98 SE with the right chipset, but real-mode DOS needs a jumper-set ISA card at 3F8h. Here is how to pick… Mike Perry · 2026-09-10 · 17 min read
- Best Parts for a Gaming PC That Also Runs Local LLMs in 2026 — Five parts for a PC that games and hosts a local LLM in 2026, starting with the 12 GB VRAM floor that decides which models you can run at… Mike Perry · 2026-09-10 · 15 min read
- Radeon Pro W7900 48GB vs RTX A6000 48GB for Local 70B Inference (2026) — The Radeon Pro W7900 has more bandwidth, yet the RTX A6000 runs 70B Q4 inference about 29% faster (14.60 vs 11.35 tok/s). One clear verdict. Mike Perry · 2026-09-10 · 15 min read
- RTX 3060 12GB vs RX 6700 XT 12GB for Phi-4 14B (2026) — Both 12 GB cards hold Phi-4 14B at Q4. llmrun.dev measures 24.6 tok/s on the RTX 3060; LocalScore's matched 14B test: 26.4 vs the RX 6700… Mike Perry · 2026-09-10 · 16 min read
- Best Parts for an Always-On Local LLM Server in 2026 — Five parts for a 24/7 local LLM box, with wall-measured tokens per watt, idle-power costs, GPU power limits and PSU sizing for a machine… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 27 min read
- RTX 5080 vs RTX 4080 for LLM Inference: Same 16GB, Different Answer (2026) — Same 16GB either way. Sourced benchmarks show +28% generation and +3% prefill from GDDR7 — and why street price, not silicon, decides this… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 18 min read
- RX 7900 XTX 24GB vs RTX 4080 16GB for Local LLM Inference (2026) — RX 7900 XTX vs RTX 4080 for local LLMs: the XTX's 24GB holds a 32B Q4 model at 26 tok/s (Local AI Master); the 16GB 4080 spills it. Pick… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 19 min read
- Stream Deck MK.2 vs 12-Button MMO Mouse vs Macro Keys: Which Shortcut Buttons Are Worth It — Stream Deck MK.2, Stream Deck XL, a 12-button MMO mouse and macro keys, compared on cost per trigger, labeling and the workflow each one… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 17 min read
- Ryzen 7 5800X vs i7-9700K: Better Home Workstation in 2026? — Sixteen threads vs eight decides this one. We compare the Ryzen 7 5800X and Core i7-9700K on render, compile and VM work, with cooling and… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 19 min read
- Best Hardware for Running MoE LLMs Locally in 2026 — Sparse MoE models reordered the local-inference buying list: memory first, cores last. Five ranked picks for a 2026 desktop MoE rig, with… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 16 min read
- DeepSeek V3 VRAM Requirements: What 671B Really Needs — DeepSeek V3 is 671B parameters with 37B active, and only one of those sizes your hardware. The full VRAM, quantization and CPU-offload math. Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 15 min read
- RTX 5070 Ti vs RTX 5090 for Local LLMs: 16GB vs 32GB — 5070 Ti for 8–20B, 5090 (32 GB) for 27–32B at Q4. Pooled 8B Q4 medians: 122.8 vs 224.8 tok/s. MSRP $749 vs $1,999. Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 17 min read
- Best GPU for Qwen3 30B-A3B: What the 3B Active Path Really Needs — Qwen3 30B-A3B needs 18.6GB at Q4_K_M, so 12GB cards offload and 16GB still misses. Here is the quantization math and the real GPU tier to… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 14 min read
- Best Parts for a Dual RTX 3060 24GB Local-LLM Build in 2026 — Best parts: two RTX 3060 12GB cards (ZOTAC Twin Edge, MSI Ventus 2X), a Ryzen 7 5800X, an ML240L V2 AIO and a Crucial BX500 1TB SSD, plus… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 15 min read
- Budget Ollama Build Under $500: What Actually Runs in 2026 — What a sub-$500 Ollama box actually runs in 2026: 12GB VRAM ceilings, quantization file sizes, KV-cache math, and when to save for a… Mike Perry · 2026-09-09 · 16 min read
- Best First Upgrades for a Prebuilt Gaming PC in 2026 — Storage first, cooling second. Five picks, a three-check diagnostic, and the clearance measurement that prevents the most common return. Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 14 min read
- Best Amazon Workstation Parts for a Quiet Home Office in 2026 — Our 2026 picks for a quiet home-office workstation: CPU, cooler, ultrawide, storage and input, with honest notes on dead sockets and real… Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 15 min read
- USB Wi-Fi 6 vs PCIe Wi-Fi 6E: Which Actually Fixes Gaming Lag? — USB Wi-Fi 6 stick or PCIe Wi-Fi 6E card for a gaming PC? Throughput, jitter and cost per megabit compared, plus the free fix most people… Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 15 min read
- Skytech Prism 4 vs MSI Codex Z2: Which Prebuilt Wins at 1440p? — Skytech Prism 4 vs MSI Codex Z2 at 1440p: real GPU tiers, dollars per frame, and why the cheapest trim is actually the worst value of the… Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 15 min read
- Streamer PC Specs Decoded: The 2026 Parts That Match — Creator spec sheets are sponsorship artifacts. Here is the 2026 streaming build order - mic, light, display, cooling, CPU - and what each… Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 13 min read
- Best Workstation PC Parts on Amazon in 2026 — Five workstation parts worth buying in 2026 - an 8-core CPU, a 34-inch ultrawide, tiered storage and quiet cooling - ranked by the… Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 13 min read
- RTX 3090 24GB vs RTX 4060 Ti 8GB in 2026: Used VRAM or New Efficiency? — 24GB of used Ampere or 8GB of new Ada? Spec deltas, a quantization fit matrix, 1440p VRAM limits and worked cost-per-token math. Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 17 min read
- What Handheld Console Should I Buy in 2026? A Decision Framework — Four handheld classes, one diagnostic. Work out which library you own first, then read the battery, storage and accessory costs that follow. Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 13 min read
- What PC Specs Do Big YouTubers Actually Run in 2026? — Creator rigs are 8-core CPUs, 32GB RAM and a hardware encoder — not workstations. Here is where the money actually goes, with cited specs. Mike Perry · 2026-09-08 · 16 min read
- One Monitor, Two PCs: Monitor KVM vs Dual-Input for a Gaming Rig and AI Box — Built-in KVM, dual inputs, or a standalone switch box? We break down what actually moves your keyboard and mouse between a gaming PC and… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 13 min read
- Noctua NH-U12S vs Corsair H150i vs Kraken M22 on a 24/7 Ryzen 7 5800X Host — Air, 240mm, 360mm or a 120mm AIO on a Ryzen 7 5800X that never sleeps? Duty cycle, pump wear and 3 AM noise decide this one, not peak… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 14 min read
- Best Wired Gear for Tournament-Legal LAN Play in 2026 — A five-item, $223 wired kit that clears the wireless bans still standard at BYOC LANs and local brackets — controller, pad, stick and two… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 13 min read
- Best Gear for Online D&D and Virtual Tabletop Nights in 2026 — Audio first, then lighting, then the camera: the C922x, a $28 headset, a ring light and a 34-inch ultrawide, matched to what a four-hour… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 17 min read
- Self-Hosting Foundry VTT: Raspberry Pi 4 vs an Old i7-9700K Box — An 8GB Pi 4 on a USB 3.0 SSD hosts a normal Foundry table fine. Where the old i7-9700K wins instead, why storage beats CPU, and the yearly… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 15 min read
- One Desk, Two Sims: Swapping a G29 Wheel and an Extreme 3D Pro Stick — A wheel clamps at the desk edge, a stick sits on the surface — they never compete. What to measure first, where the TH8A goes, and the… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 14 min read
- Best Retro Gaming Gifts in 2026: 5 Picks for Console and PC Collectors — Five retro gifts matched to the recipient: plug-and-play consoles, an arcade stick, a Raspberry Pi build, and the drive adapter PC… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 14 min read
- Best GPU for Gemma 3 27B in 2026: Where 12 GB Stops Being Enough — Gemma 3 27B needs a 24GB GPU: ~54GB at bf16, 14.1GB at int4 (per Google). VRAM by quant, dual RTX 3060, CPU offload, and when 14B is… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 14 min read
- gpt-oss 20B vs Phi-4 14B on a 12 GB GPU: Which One Actually Fits? — gpt-oss 20B ships MXFP4-native and targets 16GB; Phi-4 14B at Q4_K_M stays resident on 12GB. VRAM tables, the quant ladder, and the… Mike Perry · 2026-09-04 · 15 min read
- Best Parts for a DIY Home Arcade Cabinet in 2026 — The stick, board, panel, storage and lighting for a home arcade cabinet in 2026 — with the one decision that determines every other… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 18 min read
- Mac Mini M4 vs RTX 3060 12GB for Local LLMs: Which Actually Wins? — Under 12 GB at Q4 (8B–14B) the RTX 3060 wins: 360 GB/s vs the base M4's 120 GB/s (TechPowerUp, Apple). Past 12 GB, only a 24 GB+ M4 keeps… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 15 min read
- Ring Light vs LED Strips: What Actually Fixes a Grainy Webcam — Diagnose the three problems that look identical, try the free settings fixes, then put the right 55W of light in front of you. Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 14 min read
- Best Hardware for a Home Game Server in 2026 — Five picks for a quiet 24/7 home game server, with sourced PassMark and power-draw figures, plus the backup and port-forward steps… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 19 min read
- Mistral 7B vs Mistral Small 24B: GPU Requirements Compared — Mistral 7B is about 4.4GB of weights at q4_K_M; Mistral Small 24B is about 14.3GB. Sourced VRAM, KV-cache and tok/s data on which card… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 19 min read
- Best GPU for a NAS or Homelab Running Local LLMs (2026) — Best GPU for a NAS or homelab running local LLMs: the RTX 3060 12GB, ~64.5 tok/s on Llama 3.1 8B Q4 per TyoLab. Plus chassis, PSU and… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 21 min read
- RTX 3090 vs RTX 4090 for LLM Inference: Same 24GB (2026) — Same 24GB, same models: the RTX 4090 generates 1.4x the RTX 3090's tok/s at 14B (78.0 vs 55.8, LocalScore). Buy the RTX 3090 when it costs… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 9 min read
- RTX 3060 12GB vs RTX 3090 for Local LLMs (2026) — VRAM decides: the 12GB RTX 3060 covers 7–14B models at Q4, while the 24GB RTX 3090 runs 32B models fully in VRAM (95.7 vs 52.2 tok/s on… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 9 min read
- Best Travel Gaming Kit in 2026: 5 Picks for Hotels and Flights — Five picks for hotels, flights and family trips: crush protection, wired audio and a controller that works on any hotel TV, for about $171… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 12 min read
- Jellyfin NVENC Transcodes + a Local LLM on One RTX 3060 12GB — NVIDIA rates the RTX 3060 at 12 concurrent NVENC sessions, but its 12GB of GDDR6 is the real ceiling. The VRAM budget math for a shared… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 13 min read
- BENGOO G9000 vs Turtle Beach Recon 50: Best Sub-$40 Wired Headset — The Recon 50 ships a removable omni mic and 20Hz-20kHz 40mm drivers; the G9000 bundles a PC splitter. Which sub-$40 wired headset should… Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 11 min read
- RTX 3060 12GB Local LLM Guide: Which Models Actually Fit (2026) — 12GB fits models up to ~14B at Q4. Community-measured tok/s for each model size, the VRAM cost of context, and what spills to RAM above 14B. Mike Perry · 2026-09-03 · 10 min read
- Best Apartment Sim Racing Wheel Setup: Quiet and Clamp-On (2026) — A quiet, clamp-on, stowable sim rig for renters: Logitech G29 vs HORI Overdrive, why the pedals are louder than the wheel, and the $30… Mike Perry · 2026-09-02 · 20 min read
- MAYFLASH F300 vs DualSense for PC Rhythm Games (2026) — MAYFLASH F300 vs DualSense for PC rhythm games in 2026: which wired path is tighter, why the audio stack usually matters more, and how to… Mike Perry · 2026-09-02 · 16 min read
- Best Adaptive and One-Handed Gaming Controllers in 2026 — Five adaptive and one-handed gaming controllers for PC in 2026, matched to real access needs: single-hand reach, grip strength, tremor… Mike Perry · 2026-09-02 · 17 min read
- Best PC Gaming Gear for Console Players Making the Switch in 2026 — Controller, wired backup, mouse pad, dual-input monitor and a 3.5mm headset — the five things a console player needs to switch to PC… Mike Perry · 2026-08-30 · 13 min read
- Best Streaming Setup for Sim Racing in 2026: Cam, Mic, Light — A camera, mic and light kit built for a force-feedback rig, with the cardioid distance and rig-mount rules that make a sim-racing stream… Mike Perry · 2026-08-30 · 13 min read