Guides in this drawer
- CPU and motherboard – sockets, chipsets and what fits together
How to tell whether a processor fits a motherboard. The AM4, AM5, LGA1700 and LGA1851 sockets, chipsets, memory type, and why the board maker's CPU support list has the final say.
Checked · 7 notes - RAM – DDR4 vs DDR5, capacity, channels and speed
The difference between DDR4 and DDR5, why they are not interchangeable, what MT/s means, dual-channel mode, and why four modules can run slower than two.
Checked · 5 notes - SSDs and HDDs – NVMe vs SATA, M.2 and PCIe generations
The difference between SATA and NVMe drives, what M.2 means, PCIe 4.0 and 5.0, the theoretical maximums of each interface, and why an M.2 slot does not automatically mean NVMe.
Checked · 4 notes - PC power supply – wattage, headroom and connectors
How to work out what wattage of power supply you need, what TDP and TGP mean, why graphics card makers recommend a higher wattage, and what the 12V-2×6 connector is.
Checked · 6 notes - Graphics cards – size, slots, power and outputs
How to check that a graphics card will fit your case, how many slots it takes up, what power it needs, and what the DisplayPort and HDMI outputs on the card mean.
Checked · 5 notes
Not on the bench yet
We are working on these. They go up when every figure has a source, not before.
- Cases and motherboard form factors (ATX, microATX, Mini-ITX) – dimensions and their sources
- CPU coolers – air vs liquid, mounting kits
- Integrated graphics – when it is enough