PC Hardware News, Reviews & Buying Guides — Page 5 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.
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- Kingston A400 960GB vs Crucial BX500 1TB for a PS4 Pro SSD Upgrade — The Crucial BX500 1TB or the Kingston A400 960GB? The PS4 Pro caps both well below their rated speed, so capacity decides it. Full swap… Mike Perry · 2026-08-22 · 17 min read
- HyperX QuadCast 2 vs Blue Yeti: Best USB Mic for Game Streaming in 2026 — The HyperX QuadCast 2 beats the Blue Yeti for solo game streaming on mount and mute ergonomics. Specs, prices and the counter-case, tested… Mike Perry · 2026-08-21 · 15 min read
- Build a Raspberry Pi Bird-Song Logger with a USB Mic (2026) — Build an always-on Raspberry Pi bird-song detector: board choice, USB mic picks, SSD vs microSD, codec storage math, and the setup… Mike Perry · 2026-08-21 · 16 min read
- Ryzen 5 2600 vs Ryzen 7 5800X: Is the AM4 Upgrade Worth It? — Ryzen 5 2600 vs Ryzen 7 5800X on AM4: cited benchmark deltas, the B450 BIOS trap, the cooler you now have to buy, and when to skip the… Mike Perry · 2026-08-21 · 15 min read
- Kingston 2GB DDR Modules: Identifying and Buying RAM for a 2004-Era Retro PC — Decode Kingston KVR part numbers, dodge chip-density and rank limits, fix the Windows 98 cache ceiling, and know when DDR1 is the wrong… Mike Perry · 2026-08-20 · 13 min read
- ZOTAC RTX 3060 12GB vs Intel Arc B580 12GB for 1440p Gaming in 2026 — The Arc B580 wins on bandwidth and MSRP; the RTX 3060 12GB keeps CUDA, NVENC and old-DirectX maturity. Which 12GB card to buy for 1440p in… Mike Perry · 2026-08-20 · 13 min read
- Best PCI Serial and IDE Adapters for Retro PCs in 2026 — PCI serial cards, powered USB-to-IDE bridges and CompactFlash carriers compared for retro builds: picks, chipset rules, slot keying and… Mike Perry · 2026-08-20 · 15 min read
- USB-to-IDE Adapter vs CF-to-IDE for Imaging Retro PC Drives — Image the old IDE drive before it dies, then replace it. Powered USB-to-IDE docks, CF-to-IDE carriers and SATA bridges compared, with BIOS… Mike Perry · 2026-08-20 · 15 min read
- ZOTAC RTX 3060 Twin Edge vs MSI RTX 3060 Ventus 3X: Which 12GB Card? — Same GA106 silicon, two very different coolers. Case clearance, sustained boost, noise and street price compared — plus which 12GB card to… Mike Perry · 2026-08-20 · 22 min read
- Best CPU Cooler for a Ryzen 7 3700X: Air vs 240mm AIO in 2026 — The stock Wraith Prism is thermally fine on a 3700X, so the upgrade is about noise. NH-U12S vs ML240L vs Kraken M22, with the clearance… Mike Perry · 2026-08-19 · 15 min read
- Best SATA SSDs for Reviving an Old PC in 2026 — Five SATA SSD picks for reviving an old PC, plus the compatibility checks, cloning gotchas and IDE-era migration hardware that actually… Mike Perry · 2026-08-19 · 15 min read
- Arc B580 12GB vs Arc A770 16GB: Which Intel GPU Wins at 1440p in 2026? — The Arc B580 beats the A770 at 1440p on frames and watts, but the A770's 16GB still wins for local AI. Specs, benchmarks and the RTX 3060… Mike Perry · 2026-08-19 · 14 min read
- 8BitDo Pro 2 vs GameSir G7 SE vs DualSense: the best PC controller for retro emulation in 2026 — The 8BitDo Pro 2 wins for SNES/Genesis/arcade libraries on D-pad feel alone; GameSir G7 SE or DualSense is the right pick for… Mike Perry · 2026-08-18 · 13 min read
- Noctua NH-U12S vs Cooler Master ML240L RGB for a Ryzen 7 5800X gaming build: which cooler actually holds boost clocks? — For a gaming-only Ryzen 7 5800X in a well-ventilated case, the Noctua NH-U12S holds the boost window at lower noise than a Kraken M22 and… Mike Perry · 2026-08-18 · 12 min read
- Best Storage Upgrades for a Legacy or Retro PC in 2026 — The Kingston A400 960GB is the safest SATA-I/II/III SSD upgrade for a legacy PC in 2026; pre-2000 IDE builds want a Transcend 4GB… Mike Perry · 2026-08-18 · 14 min read
- Best Storage for a Raspberry Pi 4 Home Server: microSD vs SATA SSD vs NVMe — A Pi 4 home server writes microSD cards to death. Measure your daily write load first, then decide between a SATA SSD, NVMe, or staying on… Mike Perry · 2026-08-18 · 14 min read
- Best Budget Gaming Peripherals Under $100 in 2026 — Five gaming peripherals worth buying under $100 in 2026: a cloth pad, a wireless combo, two headsets and bias lighting, with the tradeoffs… Mike Perry · 2026-08-18 · 17 min read
- Best Low-Power CPU for a Jellyfin Home Server: 5600G vs i7-9700K — Picking a Jellyfin or Plex server CPU is an idle-watts and video-engine question, not a core-count one. The Ryzen 5 5600G and Core… Mike Perry · 2026-08-18 · 18 min read
- Best Raspberry Pi for a Retro Console Build in 2026: Pi 4 8GB vs Pi Zero 2 W — The Pi 4 Model B 8GB handles NES through PS1 and reaches N64 and Dreamcast; the Zero 2 W is a 16-bit specialist. How to pick the board and… Mike Perry · 2026-08-14 · 15 min read
- Arc B580 12GB vs RTX 3060 12GB: Which 12GB Card for 1440p in 2026? — Intel's Arc B580 12GB is 15-20% faster than the RTX 3060 12GB in modern raster at 1440p and undercuts it on MSRP, but the 3060 still wins… Mike Perry · 2026-08-09 · 12 min read
- Cooling a 24/7 Local LLM Rig: Air vs 120mm AIO vs 240mm AIO — Local LLM boxes running around the clock face a sustained thermal load, not a burst load. Air coolers usually win — here's when a 120mm or… Mike Perry · 2026-08-09 · 14 min read
- NVMe vs SATA SSD for Local LLM Model Libraries in 2026 — NVMe cold-loads a 20 GB local-LLM model in ~7 seconds; SATA takes ~40. Once weights are resident, storage is out of the loop. Here's the… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 15 min read
- Can an RTX 3060 12GB Drive a 27-Inch 4K Monitor in 2026? — Native 4K in modern AAA sits at 30-45 fps on an RTX 3060 12GB; DLSS Quality pushes most titles back to 55-90 fps. Here's when the pairing… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 15 min read
- Local LLM Setup in 2026: AMD GPU Guide by Model Size — A synthesis of AMD GPU options for running local LLMs in 2026 — VRAM needs by model size, RX 7900 XTX vs Instinct MI210/MI300X, and the… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Why Privacy-Preserving AI Demand Is Rising in the LLM Era — Enterprise adoption of large language models is reshaping demand for privacy-preserving AI infrastructure, from encrypted memory to local… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Old RAM Identification: Decode Part Numbers & Specs — A synthesis guide to identifying vintage RAM modules by part number, form factor, and voltage marking for Amiga, PS/2, and retro PC builds. Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- AOOSTAR MACO 6850H as a Proxmox 9 Home Server — The AOOSTAR MACO 6850H pairs a Ryzen 7 6850H APU with Proxmox VE 9. Here's what the documented specs, not marketing claims, say about home… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Best GPU for a Homelab in 2026: AI, VMs & Budget Picks — A synthesis guide to picking a GPU for a homelab in 2026 — AI inference, GPU passthrough for VMs, AMD vs NVIDIA, and budget picks under… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Best Budget SSDs for Homelab and Proxmox Boot Drives in 2026 — A synthesis of public endurance data and cluster-workload write patterns on the four budget SSDs and one migration adapter homelab… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 18 min read
- Core i7-9700K vs Ryzen 7 5800X for 1440p Gaming in 2026 — A synthesis of public 1440p benchmark data and platform economics on whether the Intel-to-AM4 jump is worth it for existing i7-9700K… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 14 min read
- Ollama vs vLLM vs llama.cpp on a 12GB GPU: Which Wins for One User? — A synthesis of runtime documentation, community benchmarks and 12GB-card VRAM math on when the Ollama-to-vLLM migration is worth it and… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 16 min read
- Running Qwen3.5/3.6 with NextN MTP on an RTX 3090 Ti — How NextN multi-token prediction speculative decoding works in llama.cpp, and what a single RTX 3090 Ti can realistically run locally with… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Ryzen 9800X3D vs 7800X3D: Best CPU for an RTX 5070 Build — A synthesis of public specs and reviewer consensus on pairing the Ryzen 7 9800X3D or 7800X3D with an RTX 5070 for 1440p gaming builds. Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Steam Deck Gyro Aiming for FPS Games: A Setup Guide — Struggling with gyro aim on Steam Deck? A synthesis of Valve's Steam Input documentation and community consensus on dead zones… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- The Greatest GPU Awards: A Decade of Standout Cards — A synthesis of publicly documented specs and reviews traces which GPUs earned the industry's top honors, from the GTX 980 to the RTX… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Is the RTX 5050 Really as Bad as Everyone Says? — Nvidia's cheapest Blackwell GPU has fewer CUDA cores than its predecessor and leans on DLSS 4 frame generation — here's what the specs… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Upgrading From an RTX 3080 in 2026: What to Buy — Weighing an RTX 3080 GPU upgrade in 2026? This synthesis covers when it's worth it, current-gen options, and what else to check first. Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Best Streaming Gear for Game Streamers in 2026: 5 Picks — Building a game-streaming setup in 2026? Fix audio and lighting before you touch the camera. Five picks covering the best USB mic, ring… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 15 min read
- Best Budget GPU for Local LLMs in 2026: RTX 3060 12GB Still Wins — The RTX 3060 12GB stays the best budget GPU for local LLMs in 2026 — 12 GB of VRAM fits 8B and 14B models at q4 with room for context, on… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08 · 17 min read
- Upgrading a Ryzen 7 5800X + RTX 4080 Build in 2026 — A synthesis of public specs and reviewer consensus on whether to upgrade RAM, CPU, or motherboard first when pairing a Ryzen 7 5800X with… Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Which Ryzen CPU Is Better? 2026 Buying Guide — This synthesis of public specs and benchmark data compares Ryzen 5, 7, and 9 desktop CPUs by gaming, productivity, and budget fit in 2026. Mike Perry · 2026-08-08
- Optimizing LTX-2.3 Inference Speed on an RTX 3080 Ti — How TensorRT, FP16 precision, and smarter batching cut LTX-2.3 video-diffusion inference time on a 12GB RTX 3080 Ti — with sourced caveats… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- Local LLM Autocomplete + Agentic Coding on 16GB VRAM — A synthesis of public documentation and community reports on running local LLM autocomplete and agentic coding on a single 16GB GPU with… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- NVMe vs SATA for a Steam Library: 970 EVO Plus vs BX500 — NVMe shaves a few seconds off most game loads versus SATA, but the transformative jump is HDD to SSD. Here is when the interface upgrade… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07 · 14 min read
- Open Source AI Code Reviewers You Can Self-Host in 2025 — Real open-source AI code reviewers you can self-host today: PR-Agent (Qodo Merge), Aider, and Continue, plus the hardware they actually… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- Should You Overprovision vCPU Per VM in a Homelab? — Overprovisioning vCPUs past a host's physical core count is routine in homelabs; this guide covers when a 32-core, 80-vCPU setup holds up… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- Playing Pokémon on Steam Deck: The Real 2026 Guide — Pokémon has never launched on Steam — here's what playing Pokémon on Steam Deck really means, the legal gray areas, and better native… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- RX 9060 XT vs RX 9070 XT: OLED 1440p or 4K IPS? — RX 9060 XT on a 1440p OLED or RX 9070 XT on a 4K IPS panel — a synthesis of power draw, contrast, and pricing to help pick the right… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- Qwen-Image vs ERNIE vs FLUX.2 Dev: RTX 5090 Style Test — A synthesis of public model cards and community tests comparing Qwen-Image, ERNIE, and FLUX.2 Dev across eight art styles on a single RTX… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07
- Anker's Thus Chip Claims 150x AI Boost: No Benchmarks Yet — Anker claims its new Thus chip delivers 150x more AI compute for earbuds via compute-in-memory design, but independent benchmarks are… Mike Perry · 2026-08-07