Used enterprise workstations are the home lab upgrade everyone overlooks
…Sign in to your XDA account Home lab upgrades come in many different forms, and it's easy to justify buying new hardware. In the case of jumping to a new motherboard…
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Is there a silver lining?
Right now, we are in a structural shortage that probably won't see relief for a good couple of years. As a result, so much consumer hardware feels like it's vanishing. With budget gaming PCs disappearing, Nvidia's Super Series potentially in jeopardy, and the Steam Machine currently in limbo too. The silver lining of all of this is that this crisis might force a software revolution where developers have to finally stop being lazy with RAM optimization. For now, the hardware we want is sitting on a shelf in a designer's drawer, waiting for the prices to drop to make it accessible for the averag
DRAM prices have tripled, and three products are paying the priceWhat's great about the AMD Ryzen 5 5500?
It's going to be all about the price right now. When a budget CPU falls to an even lower price, it's harder to ignore. This model features 6 cores, 12 threads, and a max boost that takes it up to 4.2GHz. It's built on AMD's AM4 platform, which means you can use DDR4 RAM and PCIe 3.0 SSDs. So, it's not the latest in terms of hardware and support, but it still provides enough power to do all the things you need to for everyday use. With that said, the upgrade path here is going to be a little more limited in the long run, but if this is the starting point, you still have a ton of CPU options to
This AMD Ryzen 5 chip proves you don't need to spend big for a solid budget buildTop stories
A used Lenovo M720q destroys the Raspberry Pi 5 in every way that matters
…It becomes a concern if you plan to run a box 24/7 on a tight electricity budget. For hardware experimentation and low-power requirements, the Pi is still the right tool…
Your old phone is still better than half the smart displays people keep buying
…All specs that dwarf the hardware inside a brand new Echo Show or Google Nest Hub. Dedicated smart displays are budget tablets in speakers' clothing. Your old phone is a high-performance…
We normalized terrible gaming performance — and it's impossible to go back
…We've also made our peace with the erosion of the budget segment , assuming that graphical progress means leaving a large section of gamers behind. With the way PC hardware prices are…
I built a 4K Jellyfin server with Intel Quick Sync for under $200, and it's enough to replace my old GPU setup
Ayush Pande May 20, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with…
An RTX 3070 is living proof that software now matters more than hardware
…Related Nvidia's 6x frame generation proves that we've reached the hardware ceiling for GPUs There's only so much VRAM to go around. I tested an RTX 3070 at 1440p…
I ignored these PC components for years — and it cost me way more than I thought
…As I said before, budgets were tight, so the cheapest entry-level motherboard was usually my go-to option. These boards were usually sufficient for a budget gaming build, but expecting anything…
Nvidia's new VRAM trick sounds great, until you realize your RTX card can't even use it
…That said, it shouldn't give manufacturers a free pass to keep handicapping the hardware on consumer GPUs. Nvidia and other companies have already made it clear that consumer hardware is no…
No one wants GPUs with 8GB of VRAM, but here's why they're not going anywhere
…An MBA in Marketing and the owner of a PC building business, he writes on PC hardware, technology, and Windows. When not scouring the web for ideas, he can be found building…
I stopped carrying a laptop after trying Android's desktop mode
…08 / 8 Hardware What is the primary reason a high-end Android flagship in desktop mode can still feel faster than a budget laptop for everyday tasks? A Android apps are coded…