hardwarehead

[hardwarehead]

Gaming Laptops

While the last couple of posts have been in regards to acquiring PC parts, what do you do when there's no deals to be had? Lets say you've used this blog to help scour the internet for any potential parts and you’ve still come up empty handed. While disappointing, its understandable, parts are still hard to come by and often times it boils down to luck more than anything else. So what options does that leave you? Well as taboo as it is to say, gaming laptops have actually gotten fairly good these past few years. While laptops of yesteryear have certain come at a cost be it in size, performance, or cost (see below)...

With the advent of max-q technology by NVIDIA, gaming laptops have become thinner and lighter than ever before. Even if your more a team-red kinda person, AMD has optimized their laptop lineup to be more power/size efficient for the modern day consumer. While their are certainly some drawbacks, notably the slightly slower gpu/cpu clock speeds, you can often get the full desktop experience on the go. More importantly however, you can actually find laptops in stock unlike some of their stationary counterparts.

So where do you start looking for a laptop? Well if you already had the parts that you wanted in a desktop in mind, you can fairly often find the equivalent in a laptop. Even if you were looking to build an absolute beast with a 3080 and a top of the line i9 processor you can easily find laptops like this on websites like newegg.

But wait a second, what if you don’t really know what you want quite yet? Well a good question to ask yourself is which of these three things you can do without (large battery, high performance, and price). Once you’ve selected your combo you can begin to look for a laptop. If you’re looking for something cheaper, the best place to look is in the business class laptops, these kinds of laptops are typically made with cheaper materials, but generally speaking have many of the same features as their higher end counterparts. If performance is what you’re after, you can easily find top of the line options just about any storefront that we’ve discussed before. Finally, if you’re looking for battery life, make sure to sort by max-q technology, which is NVIDIA’s proprietary battery efficiency module.

[hardwarehead]

Are you getting scammed?

Picture this, you’re new to the PC building scene and you were able to beat the odds and get a new rig for a great price. All the parts you purchased were well reviewed, and you’re excited to reap the benefits of a new rig. But when you plug it all in you notice that your drive is performing 10% slower than it really should be. Quickly, you scour the internet for clues only to find that ADATA, your SSD manufacturer, has been implicated in a scummy bait & switch. Instead of making your shiny new SSD with brand spanking new 96 layer NAND, theyre using the older 64 layer NAND setup. This was actually pointed out a few months back by reddit user svartchimpans and you can check out his full discussion here.

So whats going on here? Does this really matter? Well before we answer those questions we first need to understand how an SSD actually works. In the simplest terms, an SSD (usually) has three components. A DRAM Controller (not always in cheaper drives), NAND flash, and a PCIE connection. The part were most interested in today is the NAND flash, which is essentially a small 3D grid that allows for the controller to store data in bits. In cheaper drives like this one, there's typically 3 bits to a grid spot, and 32-96 layers in each piece of NAND. What ADATA did was swap, the 96 layer NANDs for a 64 layer one. This could be from a number of things, but more than likely it was due to supply rather than some nefarious purpose.

But wait!

Despite how it sounds, this isn't really a huge deal. All this means is that you're going to need a little bit more NAND on the actual SSD to compensate for the density loss. So what does this mean for you? Well, thats a little complicated. On paper, this could easily look like the performance loss described in the reddit post. But the reality is a little bit less clear. Tests like PCmark are artificial by nature and dont always match real world performance. For example, PCmark may rely on continuous read/write speeds for performance. This wouldnt allow the SSD to properly reconfigure its bits after a long read write. In real world applications however, this would be the case. My point in saying all this is that you don’t need to worry about it as much as you’d think you might. Happy Shopping!

[hardwarehead]

Shortage Upgrades

One of the great things about PC hardware is the opportunity to upgrade specific components. Unlike other gaming systems like Xbox or Playstation you can directly access the components themselves and change them out as you see fit. This is great if you want to upgrade your system without having to buy an entirely new setup, however it can be a bit of a problem when you want to upgrade just one component during a shortage. Like we saw in the previous post, you can certainly find pre-builts that contain the part your looking for, but it doesn't quite make sense to buy an entirely new system when you only need one part. This post will walk you through some of the ways you can find products in stock at a (mostly) reasonable price.

So what options do you have? You may be surprised to learn that you actually have quite a few. While it may not be ideal for every case, one of the ways you can find hardware in stock is through bundles. These are small combinations of relevant products that are “bundled” and sold through computer outlets. A common example would be a GPU and a Monitor, but they can include anything from RAM sticks to CPUs. These aren’t an amazing deal if your just looking to upgrade one specific thing, but they offer a pretty straightforward way to upgrade without paying for it with a scalper.

Another strategy you can utilize is finding part raffles. These are virtual raffles that are designed to allow common users (ie not scalpers) to buy highly sought after components. To be clear, this is not a giveaway, you still need to pay for the products, and its still not a guarantee that you get a chance to buy one, but it is better than nothing.

One final strategy you can utilize is finding local deals. While online retailers such as Ebay, Newegg, etc are often flooded by bots as soon as stock goes live, local brick and mortar stores often get shipments of these hard to find components as well. They often do not publish their stock online (to prevent everyone from showing up) you might get lucky at your local Best Buy.

[hardwarehead]

Pre-Built PCs

If you’ve ever spent some time in online PC gaming communities you’ve probably noticed that there is a pretty big stigma surrounding pre-built computers. If you weren’t already aware, the term “pre-built” refers to computers that are are assembled en-masse by big name manufacturers like Dell & HP and don't require any additional assembly by the customer. While there is undoubtedly some “real gamer” elitism thrown in the mix, the stigma surrounding these machines primarily stems from the price. Compared to building it yourself, pre-builts often have a $2-300 markup placed on them by the manufacturer. To make matters worse, these machines often contain cheaper OEM components that don't offer the same amount of features as their name brand alternatives.

To illustrate what I mean, check out this pre-built offered by Alienware. It offers  fairly modest specifications for a whopping $2400. Which is insanely over-priced given the actual MSRP of the components in the machine.

Using pcpartpicker.com, I have created a system with similar specs and as you can see, the price is almost $800 dollars lower. While this is certainly an extreme example, it illustrates the problem with buying a pre-built from these kinds companies.

With all that said, this comparison isn’t quite fair in 2021. As many of you may know, supply chain disruptions have caused an extreme semi-conductor shortage that has made it quite difficult to obtain many of these components at their MSRP. While you could turn to the second hand market, the problem is only compounded by scalpers who sell these goods at double the price of retail.

While the situation is certainly grim, it has actually made certain types of pre-builds a fairly good deal. Because many of these big name assemblers have deals with manufacturers, they’re able to source these products directly and side step scalpers entirely. While you will still need to pay the manufacturers base markup, in most circumstances will be far less than what you’d have to pay on the second-hand market. 

However, it does still take some time to find a good deal, so what I'd recommend is searching through online stores like Newegg. These types of marketplaces have hundreds of manufacturers so chances are good you can find one that suits your needs without going too far out of your budget. Ive listed some good examples below!

Happy Hunting!

https://www.newegg.com/abs-ala244/p/N82E16883360148

https://www.newegg.com/skytech-st-chronosb-0250-ne/p/N82E16883289134

[hardwarehead]

The Problem

Since the beginning of 2020 there has been a worldwide semi-conductor shortage that has crippled a variety of industries ranging from smartphones to automobiles. While the pandemic may be subsiding, these shortages are widespread and could potentially last over two years.

One of the industries hit the worst by this shortage is the enthusiast PC hardware scene. GPUs, CPUs, even Monitors have faced extreme supply chain issues that have given way to a huge scalping market. Its far from uncommon to see the RTX 3070 (MSRP $500) to go for over $1,100 on the second hand market. This has made it difficult, if not impossible, for PC hardware enthusiasts to purchase components at a reasonable price.

While the situation may look rather grim, this blog is designed to help you make informed purchasing decisions throughout these next few months. Periodically, I plan to provide strategies and opportunities that you can utilize to get the most bang for your buck.