1+ week, 3+ day ago (347+ words) MoboMaps could be a game changer. The web-based tool, MoboMaps by Robin Wilde, does what I think most people who have been in the gaming PC building bizz for a while will recognise as a giant service to humanity. It shows you visually and interactively exactly where different motherboards have different PCIe lanes routed. Apart from how many VRMs it has and how many I/O ports it has, probably the most important thing to consider with a motherboard is how many PCIe lanes it has routed to different areas. This is particularly important when you expect to use multiple storage devices or expansion cards. PCIe lanes are what your different components use to communicate with each other'they're physical, embedded routes that run through your motherboard. Each lane has one upstream and one downstream wire, and can either connect directly…...

23+ min ago (272+ words) If you're on a budget, Best Buy and Newegg have some great options. Gaming PCs have, perhaps surprisingly, seen some of the best deals come their way this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But even so, many of these discounts still have the PCs pushing $1,500, $2,000, or even $3,000 and above. And not everyone has that amount of money to drop on what is, let's face it, a non-essential item. That's why I've been keeping a keen eye out for gaming PCs under $1,000 this sales season, and thankfully, I haven't been disappointed. We've seen a bunch of great rigs all the way from $400 up to $1,000, so whether you're looking to enter into PC gaming for as cheap as possible, or upgrade an ageing build for just shy of $1,000, there's something for you. I've managed to narrow it down to just four rigs…...

20+ hour, 26+ min ago (339+ words) I can personally vouch for some of these, and the rest are calling my name. There might be better esports-oriented PC gaming gear than what I've highlighted here, if you're on an unlimited budget. But I've tried to put together a list that will have something to offer most gamers. This is the absolute best lightweight gaming mouse on the market right now. It's incredibly light at just 36 g, and somehow it's achieved this with nary a hole in sight. Apart from this, it's pretty barebones, but a good sensor and light weight is all that's needed for some seriously competitive FPS gameplay, and this mouse delivers on both fronts. Key specs: 33K sensor | wireless | 36 g weight | 70-hr battery Key specs: OmniPoint 3.0 HyperMagnetic Switches | Wired | Rapid trigger Key specs: Asymmetric thumbsticks | Hall effect thumbsticks | 260 g Don't expect much popping HDR or…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (254+ words) The GameSir G7 Pro tops the list of our favourite controllers for PC, and for good reason. Earlier this year I reviewed the GameSir G7 Pro controller and came away mightily impressed. For AU$159 you get a 2.4 Ghz wireless controller with all the usual "pro" trimmings'paddle buttons, a modular d-pad and face button microswitches'as well as other features that help it trounce the competition, especially at this price point. Anyway, Amazon's Black Friday sale just kicked off and you can currently get the GameSir G7 Pro for AU$135: a neat 15% discount. It's not the steepest cut'and apparently only the white model is available'but if you're going to get one, now's the time to bite. A tidy saving on this brilliant PC gamepad (which also works with Xbox consoles, albeit only wired). It features an astonishing 1000 Hz polling rate for higher precision, TMR analog…...

5+ day, 20+ hour ago (357+ words) Going Pro for less. Our current pick for the best PC controller right now, the GameSir G7 Pro, is only slightly pricier than a standard Xbox controller but feels and looks nearly identical, and comes with TMR sticks, tactile switches, and a charging dock to keep it topped up and looking pretty on a shelf. This is the lowest we've seen this controller at, and it was already reasonably priced at MSRP. Key specs: TMR joysticks | 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth, Wired | Asymmetric | 272 g It's not every day the best of the best can be enjoyed at a cut price'but then again, not every day is Black Friday. For the moment, I'll set aside my grumblings about how it just feels like the week-long sales events go on forever, and instead tell you about a cracking deal on the best PC controller. GameSir…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (334+ words) Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format'full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he's back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck. Building your first gaming PC can be an intimidating task. There are a ton of different components you need to jam into a chassis, in the correct order and orientation, before…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (513+ words) And you thought Intel's meltygate was all done and dusted. It was only when they delved into the motherboard's BIOS that the penny finally dropped. The pre-built in question is using an Asus Prime Z790-P motherboard, updated to Corsair's most recent BIOS for it (version 9046). The video highlights the fact that this firmware is using Intel's 0x12B microcode, which it released in September 2024, to prevent elevated core voltage issues. However, Intel issued a further microcode update (0x12F) in January 2025, to supplement 0x12B, in an attempt to capture the last remaining scenarios that would cause Core 13th/14th Gen chips to use too much voltage and permanently damage themselves. If you're a reasonably experienced PC enthusiast, you're probably already thinking, 'Well, just go to the Asus website, download the latest BIOS, and it'll all be fine.' That's what the video host says they did, but discovered…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (297+ words) Sweet dreams, Steam Deck. Valve has just checked off a long-requested wishlist item for the Steam Deck: Downloading games even when the screen is turned off. The feature, available now in the Steam Deck's beta client, is enabled by default when the Steam Deck is plugged in. The handheld will automatically complete all downloads in the queue with the display off, then enter sleep mode. Display-off low power downloads can also be enabled when the system is running off the battery. After updating to the latest beta client, you can find the option under Settings > Power and scrolling down. You can also disable the feature altogether there, if you'd rather the Steam Deck's display stay on whenever you're slurping down some game updates. "While in this mode, if you press a button or move Steam Deck, a new status screen…...

2+ day, 20+ hour ago (415+ words) I can personally vouch for some of these, and the rest are calling my name. There might be better esports-oriented PC gaming gear than what I've highlighted here, if you're on an unlimited budget. But I've tried to put together a list that will have something to offer most gamers. This is the absolute best lightweight gaming mouse on the market right now. It's incredibly light at just 36 g, and somehow it's achieved this with nary a hole in sight. Apart from this, it's pretty barebones, but a good sensor and light weight is all that's needed for some seriously competitive FPS gameplay, and this mouse delivers on both fronts. Key specs: 33K sensor | wireless | 36 g weight | 70-hr battery This is a mouse pad, and there's little else to say about it other than that it's high-quality in every way and…...

4+ day, 20+ hour ago (412+ words) Ergonomic and responsive, this wired controller offers many of the same features as its wireless sibling but often goes for half the price. Be warned though that the colourful interchangeable faceplates are sold separately and tend to go for between $25-$30. Key specs: Asymmetric thumbsticks | Hall effect thumbsticks | 260 g I really wanted to like the wireless version of the Scuf Valor Pro, but its significant price increase over its wired counterpart kept me at arm's length. Setting aside the fact that, yes, that is the optimal operating distance for most PC controllers, I was left feeling like you'd be better off saving your pennies for something else. The wired version of the Scuf Valor Pro may well be that 'something else'. It's our top pick for the best wired PC controller for many good reasons, not least of all its very…...