Whether you are building a computer or buying a new desktop, you may ask yourself the question, “Do I Need a Sound Card?“. Generally, pretty much all motherboards these days have an on-board sound card. The on-board sound cards are usually pretty decent. So, you may wonder why anyone would purchase a separate sound card. Well, there are a number of reasons why you may want a stand alone sound card.

Sound Quality is Much Better With a Sound Card

The most obvious reason is that a good, stand-alone sound card will provide much better quality than a built-in sound card. If you play any type of games on your PC, a good sound card will make the experience much better. You will really notice a difference when it comes to directional sounds as dedicated sound cards do a great job with these. Also, if you watch high quality video, a sound card is worth having. One other situation in which you may want a better sound card is if compose or even listen to a lot of music. If you are an audiophile, then a dedicated sound card is a must have. read more

Mechanical keyboards are increasingly more popular these days, and if you’re on the fence between the Razer Blackwidow and the Razer Ornata – chances are we don’t need to explain to you the benefits of this technology.

Suffice to say, mechanical keyboards are extremely satisfying to use, and indeed they can make for a more comfortable typing experience compared to membrane keyboards. Not only are they especially durable and deliciously clicky, mechanical keyboards can also be great to improve your gaming performance; and they will also come in handy when it comes to office work related productivity, as well.  read more

Buying a gaming laptop can be overwhelming. This is not your typical “Top 5 laptops under $1000” article. 

What we’re aiming for is to provide people who know next to nothing about laptops with a general guide they can use to pick a really good machine that delivers bang per buck. We’re keeping this simple to understand and as clear as possible, since we realize it can get confusing to sort through laptop specs when you’re unfamiliar with this industry.  

We’re going to finish the article with our 5 top recommendations available right now at Amazon. Any of the laptops in that list will handle any game or app you throw its way reasonably well. read more

Your gaming hardware will have a significant impact on your overall performance, so it’s worthwhile taking the time to ensure that you have the right keyboard, mouse, and headset that will allow you to reach your full gaming potential. 

Of course, finding the right headset can be a challenge, especially with so many options available. A good place to start is by looking at the biggest brands in the game, such as Logitech and HyperX. Two of those brands’ finest offerings are the Logitech G Pro and HyperX Cloud II headsets, both of which offer more or less everything that a gamer would look for in a headset. read more

If you’re looking to build your first gaming PC, then you’ve probably been looking all over the internet learning about PC building, researching components to deliver the best bang for your PC gaming buck.

There are numerous reasons you might want to build your own PC. Maybe you’ve entered some gaming Tournaments and need to make sure you have the best framerate and visuals. Perhaps you’ve just got an interest in computer parts and how they work. Sometimes people just want a PC that’s more exciting than the ones that are offered on the market. Whatever your reasoning, I’m sure you haven’t been able to find any good deals on GPUs or RAM. In fact, you’ve probably noticed prices are pretty high.

Unfortunately it’s true: a $500 gaming PC build isn’t what it used to be. Even building a gaming PC under 1000 is pretty hard these days.

A year or so back, cryptocurrency mining drove the price of GPUs way higher than they should be. In addition, it was super difficult to find a solid GPU. While prices have stabilized a bit, they still haven’t gone back down to prices before the price surge caused by crypto-mining.

Second-hand GPUs are not a bad investment so long as you find a GPU that was well taken care of for a good price. Make sure to ask the seller if it has been overclocked though as that can significantly reduce the lifespan of a GPU.

Other CPU parts have gotten more expensive as well due to shortages and overall inflation.

The Good News

Generally speaking, parts aren’t too difficult to find at this point in time like they were a year or so back. Also, building your own gaming PC is still the best way to get the most bang for your buck when compared to buying a pre-built gaming PC.

There’s also something special about saving for, researching, building, and playing games with your custom built rig. Sure, you can buy a computer at Best Buy and bring it home, but I can guarantee you won’t have the same sense of satisfaction.

You may also be considering just going with a Console. This is definitely a good option. However, PC gaming, with the right hardware, offers better graphics, frame rates, resolutions, awesome PC exclusives, and arguably a better overall gaming experience. There are many perks of PC gaming. You also know exactly what’s in your PC and you can put together a machine tailored to you.

Is it Worth it?

So, to answer the question, in our opinion, it is definitely worth it to build your own custom gaming PC. To re-iterate a few of the points above, here are the benefits of building your own gaming PC.

Building a PC is a great learning experience as you can learn what the components look like and how they work together. You may also need to troubleshoot your build which will give you the ability to troubleshoot any problems you may have in the future.

You are getting the best bang for your buck. If you buy a pre-built gaming PC, the company that puts it together needs to not only build it, but test it out. This costs money which gets passed onto you as the buyer.

You can tailor the PC exactly to your needs. If you buy a pre-built, you are stuck with the options they offer. For example, if you also plan to use your PC for CPU intensive tasks, you can opt for a higher end CPU while opting for less RAM.

Another huge benefit to building your own PC is that it will be super easy to upgrade your rig in the future.

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