Guides

Moving into the warmer and more picturesque spring season, the weather isn't the only thing hotting up. The CPU market towards the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 has been topsy-turvy, to say the least, with many viable options available for users to build a new system. Depending on the task at hand, Intel and AMD have strong line-ups with multiple generations of its processors, with both the latest 13th Gen core series (Raptor Lake) and the Ryzen 7000 series (Zen 4/Rapael) leading the charge at the top of the performance charts. Since our previous guide, both Intel and AMD have launched two top-tier processors with exceptional gaming performance to the market, the Intel Core i9-13900KS and, more recently, AMD's gaming-centric Ryzen 9...

Analyzing Power Use: 80 Plus Bronze vs. Platinum

I’ve been toying around with updating my computer lately, and one of the topics I wanted to look at was the choice of power supply. For the most part...

79 by Jarred Walton on 10/30/2013

Analyzing the Price of Mobility: Desktops vs. Laptops

Computers have been getting faster over the years, and with the increased performance we eventually passed the point where most systems were “fast enough” and the various features and...

110 by Jarred Walton on 9/7/2013

Choosing a Gaming Laptop, Back-to-School 2013 Edition

We regularly get asked for opinions on what product is “best” for a certain use case. Naturally, what makes a product perfect for one user may not matter much...

61 by Jarred Walton on 8/23/2013

Choosing a Gaming CPU: Single + Multi-GPU at 1440p, April 2013

One question when building or upgrading a gaming system is of which CPU to choose - does it matter if I have a quad core from Intel, or a...

254 by Ian Cutress on 5/8/2013

Best Thin and Light Laptops, April 2013

My focus on laptop recommendations today is on the rather nebulous “thin and light” category. That can mean different things to different people, but with Ultrabooks encroaching on this...

82 by Jarred Walton on 4/19/2013

Best Motherboards for $100-$200, April 2013

A quick look at the motherboard market and there is plenty to choose from under the $200 mark from both Intel and AMD. For Intel this marks the...

25 by Ian Cutress on 4/18/2013

Best High End Z77 Motherboards, April 2013

As part of our ‘Best X’ range of pipeline posts, our focus turns on to the motherboard segment. At this point of the year, we really are between...

30 by Ian Cutress on 4/11/2013

Best Budget Laptops, April 2013

Last week we launched a new sort of buyer’s guide for AnandTech with our Best Budget Ultrabook recommendation. We’ll be fleshing out the “best XYZ” recommendations for other components...

39 by Jarred Walton on 4/5/2013

Best Budget Ultrabook, March 2013

We’re planning to start a regular revolving list of recommended products at AnandTech—sort of like a mini buyer’s guide focused on a single product or component. Anand has asked...

30 by Jarred Walton on 3/28/2013

Holiday 2012 Ultrabook and Ultraportable Guide

We’ve provided some buyer’s guides for system builders so far, but today we’re going to ditch the DIY sector and instead look at pre-built laptop options, with a focus...

78 by Jarred Walton on 12/12/2012

Holiday 2012 Workstation Buyer's Guide

Though mobile devices continue to consume more computing marketshare at the expense of traditional desktop PCs, phones and tablets, and to an extent even laptops, simply cannot compete with...

49 by Zach Throckmorton on 12/10/2012

Holiday 2012 Small Form Factor Buyer's Guide

There have been many interesting developments in the small form factor market segment since our last SFF buyer's guide. Specifically, current-generation Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs and AMD Trinity APUs...

74 by Zach Throckmorton on 12/5/2012

Holiday 2012 AMD Trinity Buyer's Guide

While AMD's second generation "Trinity" APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) have been available in pre-built desktops and laptops for many months now, the chips and accompanying motherboards themselves have only...

72 by Zach Throckmorton on 11/29/2012

Midrange System Buyer's Guide

Intel has dominated the midrange and high-end segments of the desktop processor market since the release of its Sandy Bridge architecture in early 2011. A few months ago we...

95 by Zach Throckmorton on 9/11/2012

Fall Budget System Buyer's Guide

Most of the systems I build for friends and clients are destined to spend their days performing basic computing tasks like checking email and Facebook accounts, shopping for shoes...

39 by Zach Throckmorton on 9/1/2012

AMD Llano HTPC Builders Guide

Home Theater PCs (HTPCs) are becoming more and more popular due to a number of reasons. The desire of consumers to watch and enjoy their media, be it Blu-rays/DVDs...

76 by Ganesh T S on 6/5/2012

Holiday 2011 Mainstream High-End Buyer's Guide

After covering the budget and midrange sectors of the DIY PC market, as well as pre-built desktops and laptops, today we have a guide outlining mainstream high-end builds. Saying...

52 by Zach Throckmorton on 12/9/2011

Holiday 2011 Midrange System Buyer's Guide

The latest edition of our Holiday 2011 guides focuses on midrange desktops. If you enjoy the prospect of building your own PC or you just prefer the ability to...

58 by Zach Throckmorton on 12/6/2011

Holiday 2011 Laptop Buyer’s Guide

We say it every year, but the trends continue so we’ll keep repeating it: laptops and mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular, often at the cost of desktop sales...

88 by Jarred Walton on 12/2/2011

Pre-Built Desktop Buyer's Guide: Holiday 2011 Edition

While we at AnandTech recognize that a good portion of our readership prefers to roll their own as far as desktops go, not everyone is that way. Sometimes there...

42 by Dustin Sklavos on 11/30/2011

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