We spend a lot of time thinking and writing about monitors on this site. Along with core components like the GPU and the CPU, a monitor is one of the single most impactful pieces of technology for how you interact with your PC and your gaming experience. No matter how powerful the parts or expensive […]
Best Custom PC Builder Websites for 2021 – Compared
With the current focus on pre-built or custom-built PCs, including here at PremiumBuilds where we’ve written about the reasons to build yourself or to buy a prebuilt rig, many buyers are asking the first question when choosing a pre-built PC: who should I have build it? Part of the reason you are letting a professional […]
Prebuilt vs Custom Gaming PC: Which is Best for You?
All hobbies have their major sticking points. Sometimes it’s about brand loyalty, sometimes it’s about styling (spaces vs tabs!), and sometimes it comes down to the purists fighting the rest of the world on ‘best practice’. Like any hobby that has more than one person doing it, the PC gaming world has their own debate: […]
5 Best External GPUs (eGPUs) for 2021
As mobile technology has continued to progress, laptops have caught up in many areas to their desktop counterparts. SSDs have shrunk in size, CPUs have become more power efficient, and batteries have improved capacity and efficiency. But there remains one major component that simply cannot perform as well within the thermally and space-constraints of a […]
How to Build a Mechanical Keyboard (Part 1): Choosing Your Components
While building a PC is by far the most popular ‘DIY’ activity for gaming, there is another crafty adventure that is becoming more and more popular: keyboard building. Mechanical keyboards have been around for decades, in fact mechanical keyboards (or keyboards with a PCB and individual ‘switches’ to create electrical contacts to be read by […]
Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs under $800
While $500 might get you into the world of PC gaming, pickings are slim and you are likely not able to find the most recent components. Those PC’s will still provide an experience that rivals or beats most consoles (or at least last-gen consoles), but won’t get you the performance you read about online. But […]
Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs under $500
Today we are going to look at gaming on a budget, and by budget, we mean a budget. Not everyone is in a position or comfortable to go for a flashy gaming build, but still want to get into the world of gaming or at least dip a toe into the gaming world before diving […]
6 Best 240mm AIO Liquid Coolers for 2021
Choosing a 240mm AIO is becoming harder and harder, but that’s because of how many great options have been produced in recent years. As liquid cooling has become popular due to the aesthetics of a small block on the CPU vs the big air coolers, more and more companies are putting strong options into the […]
8 Best 120mm Case Fans for 2021 Builds
For many PC builders, a large part of the conversation on components centers around cooling solutions. Whether it is CPU Coolers, GPU Coolers, custom water loops, thermal paste or airflow-focused PC cases, enthusiasts want to get the most out of their components. And to get the most out of your components, you need to keep […]
Best RX 5600 XT Aftermarket Cards: 14 AIB Cards Compared
The Radeon RX 5600XT has been officially announced, and while the RX 5500 was not well received as the previous latest Navi GPU due to its less compelling price-performance value, the 5600XT is looking to be a potentially much more interesting option for high-value, low-budget gaming. So far, we know the main aspects of the […]
8 Best Graphics Cards for Ryzen 9 3900X & 3950X Builds
So if you’ve decided on a beastly high-end CPU from AMD, either the 3900X or 3950X, and are excited about that massive core/thread count and putting it to use. Now the question is, which GPU should you pair it with? And the answer depends completely on you, your needs, and what you are planning on […]
5 Best Budget B450 Motherboards for Ryzen Zen 2
Despite the inclusion of features like PCIe 4.0 with the latest X570 chipsets for the AM4 socket, many builders are still choosing astonishingly strong value motherboards based on the B450 chipset. X570 is great for those looking for the newest tech, but even the least expensive X570 is difficult to call a ‘budget’ board as […]
Intel Core i5 vs i7: Which is better for gaming in 2021?
One of the most common questions when buying a CPU is whether or not stepping up one level in the stack will give appreciable returns. Especially for Intel, where the emphasis is on single-core speed rather than high core/thread counts, buyers are often unsure if upgrading from an i5 to an i7 for the extra […]
4 Best Gaming Monitors under $200
No matter which components you have, or how powerful they might be, the end result will be displayed on your monitor, making it one of the most important parts of your gaming experience. In the past, fast response times for gaming were extremely expensive, meaning a high-end monitor would cost as much as the GPU […]
5 Best Thermal Pastes for CPU & GPUs in 2021
Thermal paste is a hot topic in building communities, and is an important piece of the entire apparatus that is the cooling solution for the CPU and GPU. Thermal paste is necessary in both cases as the intermediary between the heatsink of our cooler and the die of our CPU/GPU because while metal on metal […]
Best Motherboard Brands Compared – ASRock vs Asus, MSI, Gigabyte
In this guide, we’re going to continue with our high-level reviews like we did with five major GPU manufacturers and talk generally about the major motherboard manufacturers putting products into the market today. We won’t cover every single one, such as BIOSTAR that still produces a few motherboards, but the market is overwhelmingly controlled by […]
5 Best Pre-built Gaming PCs under $1000
At PremiumBuilds, we often focus on individual components for those looking to build a PC themselves. And while the building community is strong and growing, many users do not want to have to deal with individual components and prefer buying a fully built machine. Or, for those looking to gift a new rig to a […]
Graphics Card Manufacturer Comparison: Which Brand is Best?
In this guide, we’re going to take a step back from specific components and talk generally about some of the major GPU manufacturers putting products into the market today. We won’t cover every single one, especially as some are pretty regionally specific (like GALAX), but we will look at some of the pros and cons […]
Best Motherboards for Ryzen 9 3950X Builds
The 3950x has landed from AMD, and it takes Ryzen Zen2 to its peak. With a massive 16 core / 32 thread design and advertised boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, the 3950x is a beast of a mainstream processor that challenges HEDT processors in terms of pure core count and computing performance. Early tests show […]
Best CPU Coolers for Ryzen 9 3950X
The flagship Ryzen 3000 processor has finally been released, and boy is it a beast. The Ryzen 9 3950x, the top of the line Zen2 processor that was promised as the peak of the 7nm AMD implementation but released months after the rest of the lineup, has finally hit shelves. And it is making waves! […]