Congratulaions! You finally finished choosing parts for your PC and the only thing remaining is the case (also called chassis). Fortunately this task is no big deal compared to the previous ones, you just need to pay attention so stay with us until the end.
Quick Shopping Tips
Case size is important, case form factor determines the size of the motherboard and the dimensions of the case tell you if components like the CPU cooler will fit in it or not.
Air flow is also crucial to ensure your case doesn’t get too hot so make sure to get a case with good air flow.
If you don’t want to worry about cable management, skip cases with side windows.
Price
Have in mind the budget that you have for your case and based on it select a range of cases that you will choose from. It’s also important to include everything related to the case in its budget when making comparisons.
For instance, if you saw two cases that are almost identical but one of them is cheaper and it comes with fewer fans. If the fans of the cheaper case are enough to provide good air flow, go ahead and buy it. If not then you need to add the cost of more fans to the cost of the case and then see if it is still cheap.
Case Size
When it comes to case size there are two things that you should consider, form factor and clearance.
There are several form factors for PC cases, each one of them is made for a certain motherboard form factor here is a list of the most common ones:
Full tower for extended ATX motherboards
Mid tower for ATX motherboards
Micro-ATX for micro-ATX motherboards
Mini-ITX for mini-ITX motherboards
Let’s say that you have an ATX motherboard and you chose a mid tower, should you buy it? No, not yet. You have to check the dimensions of the case to make sure that your components will fit in. If you have a CPU air cooler you have to check if the cooler is too tall for the case. If you have an AIO cooler then you need to make sure that there is enough space for the radiator. Also, check if the length of your GPU is supported by your case.
All of that can be done in two different ways. You can browse through spec sheets for all of your components to see what things are compatibile with each other. Or, you can use PCPartPicker to know if these parts can be used together.
Disclaimer: we expect pcpartpicker to be correct most of the time but we don’t gurantee that it will be right 100% of the time.
Air Flow
Another important thing is air flow. Without good air flow your case is likely to be hotter which doesn’t only limit the performance that you get but also can harm some of your components in the future.
All PC cases come with vents for the fans to be mounted. Try to avoid cases with ventilation on only 1 side, 2 sides is fine but 3 is ideal for most people. You may also find cases with vents on 4 sides which is very beneficial if your components generate a lot of heat.
Another thing that impacts air flow is the presence of anything that allows air flow (typically a grilled panel or a mesh front panel) which makes the case cooler compared to a fully closed case.
Case Build Quality
One of the main reasons why your components are kept inside the case is to be protected. Which means that a case built with bad materials won’t be very good at this task.
Before buying the case there aren’t many ways to judge its build quality. You can try to avoid cheap cases from unkown brands but the best way to be sure about what you are buying is to check reviews.
Other Deciding Factors
If you got the most important stuff that we mentioned above out of the way, you will still see a variety of options and features in PC cases. We will go over them in this section.
Drive bays provide a convenient way to store drives like HDDs and SSDs inside the PC case. Modern bays have three main widths (in inches) which are listed below.
5.25″ bays: they are used for optical drives like DVDs and Blu-rays.
3.5″ bays: commonly used for HDDs
2.5″ bays: mainly used for SSDs
If you are planning on getting any of the above you have to make sure that its respective bay is present in the case. If you already have a case but it doesn’t have the bay you want you can always use a drive externally and connect it to your case via a USB port.
Cable management is an important topic if you want your case that has a side window to look nice or simply want to keep everything tidy and in order.
Ideally, cases with really good cable management will have holes placed in startegic places these holes might even have their edges covered by rubber to protect your cables. Moreover, you are going to find points were you can tie your cables or even channels for the cables to go through which gives you a lot of control about how you want to organise them.
Some other cool features are extra space behind the motherboard tray, the ability to remove a drive cage if you aren’t using it and a PSU shroud that hides your PSU along with its cables.
Conclusion
Decide your budget.
Select a form factor based on your motherboard (full tower, mid tower, micro-ATX or mini-ITX).
Use PCPartPicker or spec sheets to make sure that all of your components can fit inside the case.
Doing that will narrow down your options, now all you have to do is compare based on price, air flow, build quality, cable management, drive bays, RGB and any other feature that you might want.
Now it’s time to read reviews about the case that you want to buy.
Cooling is an important thing to consider in any PC build. For people building a PC for the first time, this topic can seem a bit complicated (like most other topics regarding PCs). In this post we are going to dive into everything you need to know in order to buy a CPU cooler.
Quick Tips For Buying a CPU Cooler
Decide your budget and needs.
Before buying a cooler check for TDP and check whether it fits properly in your case or not.
Buy an air cooler if you want to save money and you don’t need the cooling performance of AIOs.
A lot of CPUs already come with coolers which are called stock coolers. The quality of stock coolers varies from one CPU to another, so it’s best to do some research and read reviews to know if a certain CPU comes with a cooler and if it is actually a good cooler.
Now, if a CPU doesn’t come with a cooler or the stock cooler isn’t good enough for you then you will need something called an aftermarket cooler which is bought seperately from the CPU.
So, if you find out that the stock cooler is good enough then you are good to go. However if you plan to buy an aftermarket one then you are gonna need to stay with us in this post for a while.
Air Coolers
There are three types of CPU coolers, air coolers, closed-loop liquid coolers and custom loop liquid coolers (also known as open-loop). Air coolers are known for being inexpensive and having a better price to performance ratio in addition to a longer lifespan but this comes at the cost of more noise and lower cooling ability when compared to closed-loop coolers. They are ideal for most users though, especially these days, not everyone needs a closed-loop cooler.
Liquid Coolers (Closed-Loop)
On the other hand we have closed loop coolers also known as AIO coolers. They are the complete oppsite to air coolers. Their cooling ability and quietness make them an excellent option for people that have high-end builds. However they have some problems, their price to performance ratio isn’t that great, they are more expensive compared to air coolers and there is also a tiny chance for the liquid to leak causing damage to your components. The lifespan of closed-loop coolers is generally good but it isn’t nearly as long as the lifespan of an air cooler.
Air Coolers Vs Closed-Loop Coolers
Air Cooling
Closed-Loop Cooling
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
Inexpensive
Lower cooling ability
Higher cooling ability
More expensive
Longer lifespan
Can be noisy
Quiet
Shorter lifespan
No chance for leak
–
–
Tiny chance for the liquid to leak causing damage to your components
Summary
If you are low on budget choose an air cooler. Not only to save money but also because cheap AIOs have higher failure rates than high end AIOs. Also if you want to set up your system and then forget about it, then air coolers are a solid option; they have a longer lifespan and they don’t really require maintenance as much as an AIO does. Lastly, if your system will not be constantly hot and it’s more likely to experience sudden rises in temperature then an air cooler is enough to get the job done.
Your other option is an AIO cooler (closed-loop cooler) which is extremely useful if your system will need to be cooled constantly, quietly and more properly, something that can’t be achieved with a lot of air coolers.
At the end of the day, it’s not about which is better because each one is made for a different purpose. Your choice should ultimately depend on your budget and your needs.
Liquid Coolers (Open-Loop)
Open-loop, custom-loop and DIY are all names that describe a type of coolers that is both amazing and complicated. Up until now, we were talking about AIO and air cooling but we never mentioned custom cooling; and the reason is that we don’t recommend it for someone reading this guide. As the name suggests, custom coolers can be fully customized, you choose the parts and the components you want to use and you put these parts and components together to make your own custom loop.
As a result of this flexibility in the design and the components of the cooler, custom loop coolers have more room for creativity meaning you can get something that looks better and performs better than any AIO or air cooler. The problem is, this comes at a really expensive price. Moreover, it isn’t easy at all to properly set up a custom loop cooler and even after that it requires a lot of maintenance. Therefore, if someone isn’t experienced enough and isn’t willing to put in the effort and take the risk the outcome won’t be very pleasant.
Factors to Consider When Buying a CPU Cooler
CPU Cooler Compatibility
Each CPU cooler is designed to fit one or more CPU sockets. Thus, it’s important to check if your cooler fits the CPU socket on your motherboard. It’s also worth mentioning that the dimentions of the CPU cooler determine whether you will be able to fit it in your case or not and they also limit the height of the RAM that you can use.
An easy way of checking if your cooler is compatible with your build or not is by using PCPartPicker.
CPU Cooler TDP
TDP is useful for determining the cooling ability of the cooler. When choosing a CPU cooler, you need to look at the TDP of the CPU and the CPU cooler to know if a certain cooler is able to cool a certain CPU.
Tower Air Coolers
Air coolers have two main designs, top-flow (also called downdraft) and tower. The most common Tower designs are U-type (single-tower) and D-type (dual-tower)
The ones that have pipes shaped like a “U” are U-type CPU coolers which have only one tower.
The ones with two towers (as shown in the image above) are called D-type, they typically perform better than single tower ones but they are also bigger. So, before buying one check the dimensions and make sure that it won’t get in the way of other components like RAM or components installed into the top PCIe slot.
Top-Flow Air Coolers
The one shown above is called a large top-flow cooler or C-type. Top-flow coolers blow the air towards the motherboard instead of across the case like tower coolers. There are also low profile coolers which are top-flow coolers that work similarly to C-type coolers while saving up some space.
Top-Flow Vs Tower CPU Coolers
When making a comparison between these two we can notice that top-flow coolers are better for slim cases since most tower coolers won’t fit properly in there. Additionally, they are better than tower coolers at cooling VRMs under special conditions, but in most cases the difference in temperature isn’t that great and VRMs these days would still be fine without it.
Tower coolers on the other hand provide more cooling power compared to top-flow ones, and they are good for almost any build if you have space for them.
U-type, C-type and D-type are names that noctua uses for their coolers. We used them here since a lot of people use them even to describe non noctua coolers, so you might find a lot of people using them instead of single-tower, dual-tower and top-flow.
Conclusion
With your budget and needs in mind you need to know whether you will buy an aftermarket cooler (like most people) or not and then make a choice between air cooling and closed-loop cooling. After that, what remains is checking for compatibility and TDP, and finally looking at reviews. Alternatively, a lot of people go for reviews right away to get recommendations which is great but you still have to check TDP and compatibility.
Buying a power supply unit is something that definitely can’t be overlooked simply because a wrong choice might have devastating consequences on your system or even worse cause a fire. Since choosing a PSU depends on your system; you will need to have your CPU, GPU and other components of your system decided first.
Wattage
“How many watts do I need?” This is probably the first question to pop up in anyone’s mind when buying a PSU. Well, the answer is pretty simple, use a PSU Wattage Calculator this is much easier and more reliable than trying to figure out how many watts you need on your own. After getting a number from the calculator, it’s recommended to multiply it by 1.5x so that if you upgrade your CPU or GPU your power supply unit will be able to handle it. Also, it’s quite useful to have some extra watts to deal with GPU spikes.
A lot of people think that getting a PSU with a higher wattage than what your system needs means your PC will consume more electricity at all times. This is a common misconception. The truth is, getting a power supply unit that has a higher wattage means that it will provide your PC with the power it needs and if your PC demands more power it will be able to give it that unlike a PSU that matches exactly the figure given by the PSU wattage calculator.
Also, it’s important to know the difference between continuous wattage and peak wattage. Continuous wattage is the amount of power that your PSU can deliver constantly. Peak wattage is the highest amount of power your PSU can provide for a short duration before dropping down.
tldr: After getting a number from a PSU wattage calculator and multiplying it by 1.5x make sure that the continuous wattage of the power supply unit matches the wattage you are aiming to get.
Safety And Protection
In order for a PSU to be considered safe to use it must have various types of protection to protect it along with the components of your PC in case something goes wrong. Some examples are: Over Voltage Protection (OVP): Protects components that are connected to the PSU by shutting it down if the voltage reaches a specific limit. Over Current Protection (OCP): Protects the components of your PC and your PSU by shutting it down if the current becomes too high.
In addition to the types above, other types of protection include: Over Temperature Protection (OTP), Over Power Protection (OPP), Under Voltage Protection (UVP), Short Circuit Protection (SCP)
Power Supply Unit Form Factor (Size)
You have to make sure that your power supply fits in your chassis and doesn’t take up too much space so it might be worth doing a little research to know the dimensions of the power supply you are going to get. Power supplies come in many different form factors including the big and famous ATX and ATX12V and their smaller counterparts the SFX and TFX.
An easy way of checking for compatibility is by using PCPartPicker.
Power Supply UnitEfficiency
Different 80 PLUS grades
Considering efficiency is very important when you get a power supply. When your PSU pulls power from the wall some of it gets wasted in the form of heat. For example, an 80% efficient PSU is going to draw 1000W from the wall in order to deliver 800W to your PC at the same time an 85% efficient PSU will only pull about 941W to deliver the same 800W to your PC. In short, more efficiency means lower cost for electricity and less heat generated by the PSU which results in a longer lifespan.
80 PLUS
A good way to measure efficiency is by using the 80 PLUS certification. Below is a table of different grades of 80 PLUS and the efficiency of each of them.
At 230V input:
10% of the maximum load
20% of the maximum load
50% of the maximum load
100% of the maximum load
80 PLUS Standard
–
82%
85%
82%
80 PLUS Bronze
–
85%
88%
85%
80 PLUS Silver
–
87%
90%
87%
80 PLUS Gold
–
90%
92%
89%
80 PLUS Platinum
–
92%
94%
90%
80 PLUS Titanium
90%
94%
96%
94%
At 115V input:
10% of the maximum load
20% of the maximum load
50% of the maximum load
100% of the maximum load
80 PLUS Standard
–
80%
80%
80%
80 PLUS Bronze
–
82%
85%
82%
80 PLUS Silver
–
85%
88%
85%
80 PLUS Gold
–
87%
90%
87%
80 PLUS Platinum
–
90%
92%
89%
80 PLUS Titanium
90%
92%
94%
90%
As seen in the tables above the efficiency of the PSU is the highest when it’s running on 50% of its maximum load. So, an 800W PSU will be most efficient when it’s only delivering 400W which is another reason to buy a PSU that is a bit over what your system needs. Because that way the power that your system will use will be close to 50% instead of being close to 100%.
Problems regarding 80 PLUS
The recommended efficiency to aim for is 80 PLUS gold, its efficiency is good and it can be found at a decent price. However, there are a few mistakes to avoid regarding this topic:
Only use 80 PLUS as a metric for efficiency: some people use it as an indicator of how good a PSU is and this is completely wrong since 80 PLUS only tests for effeciency, it doesn’t test for protection and all other metrics regarding PSUs.
Don’t fall for scams: Fake 80 plus badges exist so make sure that you are looking at a legitimate badge not one that looks like it, also 90 PLUS doesn’t exist it’s just another scam. Choosing a well-known brand and reading reviews helps here.
Power Supply UnitCabling And Connectors
An 8 pin CPU connector
PSUs come with all the necessary cables ,aka connectors, still it’s good to know them.
Motherboard connector: used to connect your power supply to your motherboard.
CPU connector: used to connect to your CPU.
Molex connector: A bit of an old connector that’s not really useful these days.
SATA connector: used to connect to HDDs and 2.5-inch SSDs.
PCIe connector: Used to connect to components like the GPU that don’t recieve enough power from PCIe slots.
Connectors come in many variations. For example, CPU connectors have many types including 8 pins and 4 pins so it’s important to know how many pins your components support and make sure that your PSU’s cables match them.
Power supplies can either be Modular which means all cables can be removed/plugged as desired.
When it comes to building a PC, buying a storage drive is a really important task. But, what factors should you consider when buying a storage drive? Should you buy an SSD or an HDD? In this article I will tell you everything you need to know before choosing your drive.
Quick Shopping Tips
Size: Most people would be ok with 256GB. 512GB is ideal especially if you are planning to download a few games and 1 TB is essential for people who want to download a lot of games or generally need more storage.
Compatibility: Get an SSD that is compatible with your PC. This means that you must make sure that your SSD is supported by your motherboard, we will talk about this later. (See: differences between SSDs below)
SSD Vs HDD
So we have two types of storage, SSD and HDD, which one should you go for? SSDs are your best option, they almost beat HDD in every aspect whether it’s speed or lifespan. Only consider an HDD if:
You need lots of storage: If you need 1TB or more you will need to take your budget and needs into consideration before making a decision.
Can’t afford an SSD: Since SSDs are more expensive than HDDs you might be better off with an HDD drive if you can’t afford 256GB or 512GB SSDs
It’s worth mentioning that if you want to archive data both SSDs and HDDs aren’t great options. In that case you should opt for a CD, DVD or a Blu-ray Disc.
Differences Between SSDs
In order to buy an SSD you need to know what kind of SSDs does your motherboard support. The things you need to keep in mind are:
SSD Protocols
When people speak about SSDs they mostly split them into two main categories NVMe and SATA. To sum up the differences between them, NVMe is the newer, faster protocol and it uses a PCIe bus as an interface. But, it’s more expensive than SATA. SATA on the other hand is slower than NVMe and uses a SATA bus as an interface. But, it’s available at a better cost.
Don’t get the wrong idea here though, maybe SATA is slower than NVMe but in most situations the difference isn’t really noticeable. You may notice the difference when you are dealing with large files. So if you are planning to upgrade from an HDD and you are kinda on a short budget SATA will give you a huge boost in performance despite being slower than NVMe.
SSD Ports
The way your SSD is connected to the motherboard. Some NVMe based SSDs can be connected via a PCIe slot (also known as an expansion slot) while others can be connected using an M.2 slot. There are two types of SATA SSDs as well (based on what ports they use), ones that can be connected to the motherboard using a SATA port and ones that can be connected using an M.2 slot.
Note that there is a difference between a PCIe slot (port) and a PCIe bus (interface). A PCIe slot is a port where you can plug a graphics card, an SSD, etc. A PCIe bus is a way of connecting components on the motherboard with the CPU.
SSD Form Factor
The size and shape of your SSD is determined by its form factor, this is important since not all form factors might be supported by your motherboard. The most common ones are 2.5-inch, M.2 and PCIe add-in cards.
Summary
There are two types of Protocols used by SSDs, NVMe (faster) and SATA.
NVMe uses PCIe bus while SATA uses SATA bus.
There are three types of ports on the motherboard where you can place an SSD, PCIe slots (only for NVMe), M.2 slots (some of them are for NVMe and some of them are for SATA) and SATA ports.
SSDs are produced in a lot of shapes, the most common ones are 2.5-inch, M.2 and PCIe add-in cards.
Check For Compatibility
After knowing all of that about SSDs how can you know what SSDs do your motherboard support?
We have this motherboard as an example, I just went to the manufacturer’s official website and here we have these specs. As we can see this motherboard supports 4 M.2 slots and 4 SATA ports. All M.2 slots are key M, three of them support PCIe mode (this means they are compatible with NVMe) and one of them can be used with PCIe or SATA.
Notice that we don’t have PCIe slots listed here because manufactureres list expansion slots in a category all by theirselves not in the storage category.
An easier way of doing this is heading to PCPartPicker which is one of the easiest ways to check for compatibility.
Extra
Things mentioned below aren’t of much importance to most people. But, I wrote this section because knowing these things will help you when reading reviews.
Type Of Memory
Data in SSDs is stored in cells, the most common types of cells are Single-Level Cell (SLC), Multi-Level Cell (MLC), Triple-Level Cell (TLC) and Quad-Level Cell (QLC). These names represent the number of bits stored in each cell, so SLC SSDs can store one bit per cell, MLC can store two bits per cell and so on.
If we would summarise the differences between these types we would say: speed, durability and price. SLC is the best when it comes to speed and durability but that is in exchange for price. As a result SLC based SSDs are used for industrial and commercial applications where high speed, the ability to not wear out quickly are highly important.
So the rule is SSDs that store less bits per cell (like SLC) offer better performance and have higher prices. On the other hand SSDs that store more bits per cell aren’t as good in terms of performance but they are much more affordable.
3D NAND SSDs
3D NAND in simple terms is stacking memory chips (also known as NAND chips) on top of each other which helps to lower the cost of making SSDs.
SSDs Lifespan
SSDs have a lifespan. After using them for long enough they will start to wear out and lose some data too. Fortunately, the lifespan of SSDs these days is long enough that most people don’t need to worry about it.
But, let’s say that you are planning to use your drive to archive data or you will be using it heavily for some other productive workload, you have to do a bit of digging to find out what storage drive suits you. You will need to check for TBW (terabytes written) or DWPD (drive writes per day).
TBW indicates the total amount of data that you can write into your SSD over its life while DWPD tells you the number of times you can fully overwrite per day over a given period of time, usually 5 years. For example, if you buy a 512GB SSD that is rated at 100 TBW you can overwrite your whole drive 200 times since (200*512GB = 100TB).
On the specs page, you may not find TBW and instead find DWPD which serves the same purpose, telling you how much this drive will last. Say you are looking at a 250GB SSD that is rated at 1 DWPD and it has a 5 year warranty. This means that you can overwrite your whole SSD (250GB) 1 time each day for 5 years before it starts to get damaged.
RAM, a component that is involved in every operation in your computer which makes it an important part of your PC build. In this article, I will tell you everything you need to know before buying a RAM.
Must Knows
When buying a RAM for you PC, there is stuff that simply can’t be overlooked. Below are the must-knows for buying a RAM.
How much RAM do you need?
You can be just fine with 8 GB of RAM. However, if possible, 16 GB is highly recommended; it’s what most people use. Just make sure that you don’t buy RAM below 8 GB; it won’t be very pleasant. There is also 32 GB, an option that is becoming more popular these days, especially for streamers, content creators, and people who work on multiple complex tasks simultaneously, a good CPU will be extremely beneficial in this case. Some people need even more than that, if you are planning to get more than 32 like 64 GB or 128 GB, just make sure that your system supports it. And that takes us to our next point:
Compatibility
Compatibility, this is perhaps the most important thing when you are buying hardware; you don’t want to spend money on something you can’t use. You need to know whether your RAM is compaitable with both your CPU and motherboard or not.
You need to make sure that your RAM generation is supported. For example, if you were to buy a DDR 4 RAM then your motherboard must support DDR 4. Also, make sure that all RAM specifications including speed, capacity, size, etc., are supported by your system, PCPartPicker might be helpful. When it comes to size there are 2 main form factors for RAM, DIMM which can be found in desktops and SO-DIMM which is mostly used in laptops.
Do you need a fast RAM?
If you are using integrated graphics then you will benefit from higher RAM speeds. If you aren’t then you will need to know if the programs you use actually make use of faster RAM or not. A lot of software won’t benefit heavily from faster RAM.
Don’t mix RAM
Mixing different RAM modules or kits usually results in unwanted behaviour. If you want to upgrade your system, it’s better to replace your older RAM with a newer one (don’t forget about compatibility too). However, if you want to add more RAM modules without removing existing ones, then you need to do some research on your system and the RAM that you already have. There is a chance for this to work, it’s just not that high.
XMP
XMP is short for Extreme Memory Profile (and yes I know that Extreme starts with an E but Intel thinks X is cooler). It’s a technology developed by Intel in order to make it easier for you to overclock your RAM. First of all, we need to understand what is RAM overclocking.
When you buy a 3200MHz DDR4 RAM module you expect it to run at that speed, but that’s not what will happen. Your RAM will run at its default standard speed (2133MHz in this case) and in order to get it to run at the speed stated by the manufacturer you need to overclock it. We know that it’s weird, we say overclocking when we make a CPU or a GPU run over spec. But with RAM you need to overclock to make it run at the speed you see on the packaging.
As I mentioned earlier, XMP is a form of overclocking. By using an XMP profile, you can make your RAM run at the speed stated by the manufacturer instead of the standard one. Some RAM chips support more than one XMP profile which gives you more freedom in selecting the speed that suits you.
JEDEC is an organization that sets standard for memory speeds, all RAM modules will run at it until they are overclocked. For DDR4 RAM the default standard speed is 2133MHz, and for DDR5 it’s 4800MHz.
Is It Safe To Use XMP?
The short answer is yes if your CPU is compaitable.
Overclocking or enabling an XMP profile won’t damage your RAM, however it can damage the CPU if your RAM’s speed exceeds the speed your CPU supports. Why? Because CPU and RAM communicate via the CPU’s built in memory controller and that’s the part that gets damaged.
Also, you need to know that if your CPU is damaged because you enabled XMP, Intel and AMD void your CPU warranty. Even though XMP is an Intel-made technology and even though Intel constantly advertises it, it voids your warranty, how ironic.
XMP voids your warranty and damages your CPU so its better to leave it disabled, right? No, as we said earlier your CPU won’t get damaged if you run your RAM at a supported speed, and your warranty will still be valid as long as XMP didn’t damage your CPU.
Keywords
While you are reading reviews or scrolling Amazon you will encounter a lot of stuff that might confuse you if you don’t know anything about them. No worries though, we got you covered with the most important ones.
Timings: Timings are a group of numbers (usually four) that indicate delay between operations which means lower is better. Combining timings and memory speed will give you an idea about the performance you should expect. In some cases, a memory with lower timings and lower speed can be faster than a memory with higher timings and higher speed.
Specs shown on a RAM stick.
SRAM: It’s a type of RAM that is much faster, much expensive than the RAM we know. Most people don’t call them RAM, they know them as cache which is the memory that is built in the CPU itself.
SDRAM: This is the RAM that we all know and the one that we are talking about in this post, it’s actually a type of DRAM.
Bandwidth: It refers to how much data can be transfered from or to the memory at any given time. Combined with timings and speed, bandwidth gives you an idea about the performance of your RAM. Think of it as a water pipe, the wider the pipe (bandwidth) the more water you can get through it together, the speed of that water is RAM speed.
The motherboard is one of the most important things in your PC. And since it’s so important you don’t want to mess it up and that’s why I am going to go through how to buy a motherboard in this post.
Basics
Before getting into the post there are three main things that you should consider when getting motherboard. First of all, the CPU socket. The CPU socket is what connects the CPU to the motherboard so you have to make sure that the motherboard you are buying comes with a CPU socket that suits your CPU. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use your CPU.
Next is the chipset you are getting. If I were to explain it simply, chipsets give you an idea about the features that you should expect your motherboard to have. Things like overclocking support, the PCIe generation that the motherboard uses, the number of PCIe lanes and RAM slots are mostly decided by the chipset. When you are choosing a chipset choose one that is compatible with your CPU and has the features you are looking for.
Lastly the version that you like. Let’s say that you chose AMD’s X670 chipset that uses the AM5 CPU socket. The CPU socket and the chipset are made by AMD but the motherboard itself isn’t. So, you will find a lot of third party versions of motherboards that use the X670 chipset, made by big names like Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. You will need to compare them in terms of the features they offer and their prices to decide what’s best for you.
Chipset Naming Scheme
Intel
Our example here will be the Z690 chipset.
This list doesn’t include Xeon, Threadripper or mobile chipsets, and it doesn’t apply to older chipsets.
letter: Intel uses one of four letters at the beginning of the name: W, Z, Q, B, H.
W: Almost the same as Z CPUs except that it is aimed at workstations and that all W-series chipsets before the W680 don’t support overclocking.
Z: Overclocking support, more connectivity (lots of PCIe lanes, more and/or faster USB ports).
Q: No overclocking, remote management, enhanced security (business).
B and H: budget option for home users.
Generation indicator: Tells you the genration of the chipset and the CPUs that it would work with. Newer chipsets work with newer CPUs. Raptor Lake and Alder Lake (12th, 13th, 14th gens): 700 Alder Lake CPUs (12th gen): 600 Rocket Lake CPUs (11th gen): 500 Comet Lake CPUs (10th gen): 400
So in our example (Z690) it will be able to work with a 12th generation CPU.
SKU: (2 numbers) Last number is always a zero
If the first number is 1: No RAM overclocking, 2 RAM slots, less USB and SATA, no raid or optane support.
High (6, 7 or 9 for ex): RAM overclocking, 4 RAM slots, more USB and SATA, raid and optane support.
AMD
Our example here will be the X670 chipset.
letter: X, B or A
X: overclocking support, the most and fastest USB and SATA ports, CrossFire and SLI support
B: overclocking support, number and speed of USB and SATA ports is less than X-series chipsets, CrossFire support only
A: no overclocking support, the least when it comes to number and speed of USB and SATA ports, no CrossFire or SLI support
SKU: consists of 3 numbers, only the first one matters
The first number is a generation indicator and it tells you which architecture supports the chipset, Zen 1 supports 300, 400 / Zen 2 supports 400, 500 / Zen 3 supports 500 / Zen 4 supports 600
The other 2 numbers dont have a meaning, X ends in 70, B ends in 50, A ends in 20.
Motherboard Size
Other than the 3 sizes mentioned below, there are also other types of motherboards like EATX but they aren’t really common.
It’s important to know the size of your motherboard. If you buy a motherboard that is too big for your PC case you won’t be able to install it. On the other hand buying a motherboard that is too small means you are getting less features than people with bigger boards. Motherboards come in three main sizes:
ATX Motherboards
They are the biggest out of the three, which means more expansion slots, more storage drives, more add-in cards and the possibility to add more than one graphics card to the motherboard. In addition to that, they support the best and most advanced cooling options which becomes really beneficial if you want to overclock you RAM and CPU. In short, they are the full option size and your perfect choice if you are into overclocking, using dual graphics cards or you want to get the most out of your PC build.
There are some disadvantages to having an ATX motherboard though. Of course, if you are buying a big motherboard you are going to buy an ATX case which isn’t light nor small and might not fit everywhere. Moreover, if you don’t need all the extra space that comes with an ATX motherboard and you won’t need it, buying one will be a waste of money since smaller sizes like the Micro-ATX will save you more money and space.
Micro-ATX Motherboards
They are a smaller version of ATX motherboards. Giving you the benefits of reduced size and cost while still being able to get a decent PC build.
However, depending on how you think of it, reduced size might be a problem. Your cooling options will be limited since big coolers won’t fit in the motherboard. As a result, you won’t be able to overclock, you can still get high end CPUs and GPUs but you won’t be able to cool them properly compared to an ATX build with a better cooler. Also, less space means less expansion slots and less USB and SATA ports.
Mini-ITX Motherboards
Saves money, light, and doesn’t take much space. Those are the words that properly describe motherboards of this size. But as we mentioned above reduced size might be a problem which means that this size isn’t recommended especially if you are going to buy a high end CPU or GPU.
Learn More About Your Motherboard
PCIe
PCIe is a method the motherboard uses to connect high speed components on the motherboard like the CPU and GPU, etc. It has several generations with PCIe 5.0 being the latest and the best generation. With that said, you will need to know what generation your motherboard, CPU, RAM and other components support to know what you are getting.
Most, Components on the motherboard use expansion slots also known as PCIe slots to connect to the motherboard. These slots come in 5 sizes: x1, x2, x4, x8 and x16 with x4 and x16 being the most commonly used in motherboards.
Internal Ports
If it’s your first time building a PC you need to get yourself familiar with these ports and the role each of them has.
PCIe slots: The ones we mentioned earlier, also called expansion slots. Used to connect GPUs as well as other things.
DIMM/RAM slots: These slots are used to place the RAM on the motherboard.
SATA ports: Used to connect SATA storage drives like SSDs, HDDs and CDs.
M.2 ports: Used to connect different types of components, usually SSDs. It’s worth mentioning that each M.2 port has a different key which means you can only connect a component and a M.2 port if both of them have the same key.
ATX power connector: Provides the motherboard with power.
CPU power connector: provides the CPU with power.
Fan headers: They control fans and provide them with power, they come in 2 types: 3 pin headers and 4 pin headers (also called PWM headers). The main difference between them is that 4 pin headers have better control over fan speed which means less noise and longer life expectancy, compared to 3 pin headers.
USB headers: They are used to connect the USB ports found on your PC case.
Audio ports/headers: Allows you to connect audio jacks on your case where you connect your mic, headphones, etc., to the motherboard.
Front panel connectors: Used to connect things on your chassis like the power button, reset button, LED indicators and a beep code speaker (the speaker is mainly used to detect errors).
CMOS battery: It powers something called the CMOS chip which was mainly used for storing BIOS settings. However, some recent motherboards chose to store BIOS settings in a more effective way. This means CMOS is no longer responsible for storing BIOS settings on these boards but it’s still important since it keeps the PC’s date and time accurate.
Overclocking
Want to push your RAM and/or CPU past its limits? Well, you need to check if the motherboard that you will buy has overclocking support. And if you are wondering is having a K-series Intel CPU is enough for overclocking, the answer is no. You need a CPU that can be overclocked, K for example, and a motherboard that supports overclocking. However, if you are only going to overclock your GPU then the motherboard won’t affect you, since GPU overclocking depends on your cooling and PSU.
If you are on a tight budget investing in a CPU that comes with high clock speeds saves more than overclocking a CPU that comes with less clock speeds.
Raid and Optane
We mentioned Raid and Optane when we discussed how Intel names its chipsets above. So, what are they and what do they do? Both of them are supposed to boost the performance of storage devices. Raid, also called Intel Rapid Storage Technology, provides improved performance and lower power consumption for SATA devices. Optane on the other hand isn’t only a technology like Raid. Intel produces its own storage devices under the name Intel® Optane™, these devices are notably faster than non-optane devices.
GPU
In order to use features like SLI, NVLink and CrossFire your motherboard must support it. For those who don’t know, these technologies are developed by AMD (CrossFire) and Nvidia (SLI and NVLink with the latter being the more recent one) to allow you to use more than one GPU. Knowing whether your motherboard supports these features or not is quite easy with AMD chipsets as we mentioned above in AMD chipsets naming scheme, remember you can always just google it too. As for NVLink, the only requirement on the motherboard side is just 2 PCIe x16 slots (found on most ATX and micro-ATX).
It’s worth mentioning that in 2017 AMD decided to put CrossFire to rest.
Should you invest in one of these technologies? We don’t recommend that, take gaming as an example, most games don’t really benefit from having more than one card. And even for the few ones that do benefit from them, is the small boost in performance – compared to a single high end GPU – worth the price of two GPUs? That is up to you to answer.
Extra
You can’t use every slot on the motherboard at the same time. This is due to the limited number of PCIe lanes and HSIO (High Speed input/output) lanes. Which means if you plan on installing lots of cards and drives consider buying a high end motherboard.
Also when it comes to audio, you will be just fine with the audio codec (aka the audio processing chip) that comes with the motherboard. You can, of course, still opt for a dedicated sound card, or USB speakers.
Motherboard Price Ranges
As for prices, motherboards can be as low as 80$ and as high as 1500$. Of course, you can opt for a budget motherboard and your PC will work just fine, but you will get less PCIe slots, slower USB and probably sacrifice some advanced technology. An exact price range won’t be very accurate since prices do change a lot and your needs might be different from what we think they are. But, for those who want to get a general idea, from 130$ to 180$ is the average for mid range motherboards. High end motherboards are found in the 200$ to 250$ range, some high end motherboards are even beyond 250$.
With all of these numbers it’s important to have a budget and a list of features you need in a motherboard, to prevent paying too much for a motherboard or ending up with one that doesn’t meet your expectations.
Steps For Buying a Motherboard
Have the CPU you bought or going to buy in mind.
Have a budget in mind, and remember that you will spend on other important things like the CPU, GPU, etc.
Know what features you aim to have, (for example: overclocking, number of RAM slots, Raid and Optane support).
Choose a compatiblesocket and narrow down your chipset options to only compatibleones,PCPartPicker will help you in knowing what is compatible and what is not.
Choose a chipset (or narrow down your options to a range of chipsets) that fulfills your needs.
Choose a motherboard that matches your chosen chipset and meets your needs and budget.
This might be really overwhelming especially if it is your first time buying a motherboard. But, don’t worry you can just pick a catergory like gaming, budget, workstation, etc., and search for sites reviewing top gaming motherboards, you will find some great recommendations!
When it comes to computers and hardware, knowing the naming scheme is extremely important since it provides you with a lot of information at a glance. If you want to know how to buy a GPU, you need to be knowledgeable about the naming scheme to effectively search for a GPU that suits you.
In this post I am going to explain the naming scheme for Nvidia and AMD. Apple does make GPUsbut since the naming scheme is pretty simple we don’t need to get to it.
I also don’t have enough confirmed data about the naming scheme that Intel uses for Arc GPUs to make a pattern for people to follow. So I prefer not to discuss it now rather than sharing misinformation.
NVidia
We’re going to take the RTX 3090 Ti as an example
Brand/Platform Name
All consumer grade NVidia GPUs are under the brand called GeForce. As a quick note, the reason why we didn’t say GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is because usually GeForce isn’t included in the name. There are two types of GeForce GPUs the first one is GTX and the second one is RTX.
RTX GPUs allow more performance and a better visual experience when compared to GTX. Also, RTX features more in terms of technology than GTX. An example is Ray Tracing and DLSS, both of them are features that aren’t available for the GTX series. Generally, GTX GPUs are ideal for playing at low to mid settings and playing FPS games. Whereas, RTX GPUs offer a variety of options from budget gaming to 4k gaming.
In the past GPUs without a prefix or with other prefixes existed like G, GT or GTS. However starting from the 10th series these GPUs no longer exist.
Generation Indicator
Next is two numbers (RTX 3090 Ti) that tell you the generation number. A bigger number means a newer generation and newer generations are always better than previous ones.
The most recent GTX generations are GTX 10 series and GTX 16 series. Older generations are listed below however they don’t exactly follow every aspect of the naming scheme we are talking about. Also, in their names only the first number indicates the GPU’s generation.
GTX 200 series Example: GTX 295
GTX 400 series Example: GTX 480
GTX 500 series Example: GTX 590
GTX 600 series Example: GTX 690
GTX 700 series Example: GTX 780
GTX 800 series (mobile only) Example: GTX 880M
GTX 900 series Example: GTX 980
When it comes to RTX, currently we have the 20, 30 and 40 series.
Performance
The last two numbers (RTX 3090 Ti) indicate the GPUs performance. These numbers range from 50 which has the lowest performance among GPUs from the same generation and 90 which has the best performance compared to them. It’s important to not use these numbers in comparing GPUs from different generations like comparing the RTX 2070 to the RTX 3060.
Suffix
When there is a suffix, it’s either Ti or Super. In terms of performance, usually the suffix version stands in the midddle between the standard version and the higher performance GPU. For example, the RTX 3080 Ti’s performance is higher than the RTX 3080 and lower than the RTX 3090. Also, when we compare suffixes to each other Ti is better than super. So, 2080 Ti > 2080 Super > 2080.
AMD
We will take the Radeon RX 7700 XT as an example.
Brand/Platform Name
In most recent mainstream GPUs, the naming scheme starts with Radeon RX (most people call it RX). However, not so long ago you could find names that start with RX Vega and R5/R7/R9.
Generation Indicator
The first number (Radeon RX 7700 XT) indicates the generation of the GPU. And as we said about NVidia’s naming scheme, the same applies here, the higher the number the better.
Performance
The next two numbers (Radeon RX 7700 XT) are used to compare GPUs from the same generation to each other in terms of performance. The first number (7 in this case) is usually from 3 to 9 with 3 being the budget option and 9 being the premium one.
Now for the second number, it’s either a 0 or 5. The 0 is the base version and it comes out first. The 5 version is an improvement from the 0 with higher performance and higher price.
Suffix
The XT suffix means an upgraded version from the original card, just like Ti and Super. However, unlike NVidia if an AMD GPU has a suffix it doesn’t mean that the standard version is available. That means, if someone tells you that the RTX 3090 Ti exists then there must be a RTX 3090. An example is the RX 6900 XT which doesn’t have a RX 6900 non-XT variant.
Buying a GPU is one of the most important steps of building your PC, especially for gamers. Your GPU affects things like your FPS, the resolution you can play with and your settings (low/medium/high) which is important if you want to enjoy your gaming experience. Gamers aren’t the only people who need a good GPU though. Tasks like video editing and 3D graphics rendering require a high end GPU if you plan on making high quality productions, not to mention that GPUs are extremely important for mining too.
With that said, buying a gaming GPU is different from buying a GPU for another purpose and in this article we are going to cover how to buy a gaming GPU.
Learn More About Your GPU
Specs
Below are some GPU specs. Some of them will be useful in comparing different graphics cards while others are important in order to understand reviews when you read them.
Memory size: The amount of memory your GPU has also called VRAM is crucial for gaming. The least you should aim for is 6 GB. If you can afford it, going for 8GBs or more will get you a smoother experience.
TDP/TBP/TGP: Measured in watts, TDP is short for Thermal Design Power, it gives you an idea about how much heat the GPU generates. However, most manufacturers use TBP (Typical/Total Board Power) or TGP (Total Graphics Power), they are more accurate terms to use in GPUs.
Power Consumption: How much power the card draws. It’s crucial to know this in order to buy a PSU (Power Supply Unit) or checking if your current PSU will work with your new card. However, it’s better to look at the PSU recommendation on the official website. Most high end cards require 800 W and above.
Memory Bandwidth: Used to measure the speed of delivering data from/to the VRAM in GB/s. Memory Bandwidth is one of the factors that determine how fast is the GPU, so the higher the memory bandwidth the faster the GPU.
Clock Speed: Clock Speed is the number of cycles/clocks a GPU can process in a second measured in MHz (1 MHz = 1 million clocks per second). With that said, the higher the clock speed the faster the GPU.
Cores: Cores are where operations happen in the GPU, it’s a similar concept to CPU cores too. Think of them as offices in a big company, if you have more offices more tasks will get done at the same time. So, the more cores you have the more data your GPU will process simultaneously. In PC hardware, namings end up confusing people, in most cases each company chooses a different name for the same thing. The most common types of GPU cores: CUDA cores (NVidia)/Stream Processors (AMD) they handle most operations and GPUs rely on them heavily. RTX cores (NVidia)/Ray Accelerators (AMD) they handle ray tracing a technology that we will talk about later in this article. Tensor cores (NVidia) they handle AI and machine learning related tasks. In gaming, they are extremely useful for DLSS a feature that we will talk about later too.
Display Ports
In order to connect your GPU to your monitor your graphics card’s ports should support the same type of connection that you monitor supports. DisplayPort and HDMI connections are what most GPUs and monitors use these days. If your monitor is old, it might be still using DVI though. There are graphics cards that support a USB-C port which is really useful for VR headsets.
GPU Form Factor
We hear a lot the term 2-slot cards or triple slot cards. For example do we need 3 PCIe lanes to connect a triple slot card to the motherboard? This is a common misconception among a lot of people and the answer is no. A 3-slot card is a card that when mounted covers 3 PCIe lanes even though it is only connected to 1 lane while the other 2 lanes are blocked because the card is so wide that it’s covering them. So before buying a card take a look at your motherboard and make sure you have enough space for it.
Another thing to consider is the dimension of the card. Some cards can be as long as an ATX motherboard, so it’s important to check the length and width of the card to make sure you have enough space for it.
Ray Tracing And DLSS
Ray Tracing
Ray tracing is a technology that applies changes to lightning, shadows and reflections which results in a really realistic image, something that will take your gaming experience to the next level. As for the GPUs that support ray tracing, all of NVidia’s RTX cards support it as well as AMD’s RX 6000 series and above.
But, how critical is RT support for a GPU? Not much, don’t get the wrong idea, we believe that ray tracing makes a huge difference in games that support it and know how to use it properly like Minecraft and Cyberpunk however there aren’t a lot of games that support ray tracing and even among the ones that do support it, not all of them use it properly and not all of them are able to fully utilize it, mainly because it is a relatively new technology in the gaming world.
With that said, ray tracing is just an option for now. Want to fully enjoy games that support it and games that will support it? Get a GPU that features RT. Don’t want an RT GPU? It’s fine, ray tracing isn’t a deal breaker (for now).
Upscaling (DLSS and FSR)
Upscaling, is a technology that allows you to get a higher resolution without experiencing a drop in your frame rate. It doesn’t feel good when you switch from medium resolution to high resolution then your FPS just drops drastically. The goal of upscaling is to prevent that. How so? Basically, it renders the image at a lower resolution, then it uses an AI to upscale and fill any missing pixels giving you the quality of the higher resolution and the FPS of the lower one that’s how DLSS works.
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), is NVidia’s upscaling technology that is only supported by its RTX series GPUs. Wondering about its AMD equivalent? AMD calls it FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and unlike DLSS, FSR works on both AMD and NVidia graphics cards. Cool isn’t it? But, how about performance? In terms of performance NVidia’s DLSS is more advanced than FSR and its upscaling performance is better.
When it comes to support, more games are starting to support DLSS, most RTX enabled games come with DLSS support and there are games that don’t support RTX but they do support DLSS. On the other side, FSR support is also increasing but it’s still not as popular as DLSS for the main time.
After Picking Your GPU, Choose The Right Card
A very simplified look inside graphics cards.
After choosing a GPU (or a couple of GPUs) that suit(s) your needs you need to decide what graphics card you are getting. You might ask aren’t they the same thing? The answer is no, there are a couple of differences between them.
A GPU is a part of the graphics card, it is the main part of the card but there are other components like memory, power connectors and display ports.
Manufacturing: GPUs are manufactured by NVidia and AMD (Intel is joining the competition too) but graphics cards are split into two types when it comes to manufacturing. The Founders Edition/reference cards and third-party designs. Reference cards are made by the same company that made the GPU (NVidia or AMD) and the components of the motherboard are chosen by it. Third-party designs use the same GPU provided by NVidia or AMD but they change other components of the graphics card, usually offering better cooling, higher clock speeds and a unique design which results in a higher price.
Narrowing down your GPU options to a couple of GPUs that suit you requires some effort but choosing a graphics card is a much more difficult mission. Say you chose the RTX 3080 Ti, you still have to choose between the reference card and dozens of third party designs with a lot of details involved. If you aren’t a tech-savvy, experienced reviewers (like the ones in Tom’s Hardware) will help you in that decision.
What About Integrated Graphics Cards
A lot of what we talked about earlier from ray tracing to the importance of knowing your card’s size only applies to dedicated graphics cards. What is the other type of cards? They are called integrated graphics cards.
For anyone who doesn’t know or needs a reminder, dedicated (also called discrete) graphics cards have their own memory, their own processing unit which is the GPU and they can be bought seperately from the motherboard and placed on it using PCIe slots. Integrated graphics cards are the oppsite, they don’t have their own memory aka a VRAM so they use the system’s RAM, they don’t have a seperate processing unit so they use the CPU and they can’t be bought seperately from the motherboard.
Who should buy an integrated graphics card? If you need it for work, you don’t play heavy games and you watch some movies then integrated graphics is more than enough for these tasks while allowing you to save some money. If you want a greater visual experience and do advanced tasks that require a lot of graphics power then dedicated graphics is a must.
External Cards
We know that the graphics card is mounted on the motherboard. However, this isn’t the only way of connecting a GPU to your system. External graphics cards allow you to use a GPU that is placed outside of your PC and connect it using things like USB-C instead of having it on your motherboard. They can be used in desktops but they are typically used in laptops to boost their performance, allowing people who have laptops with weak GPUs to get much better results when they are playing games or using apps that rely heavily on GPUs, sounds great right?
Unfortunately this solution isn’t really cheap if you are on a tight budget. Additionally, the power draw of your laptop will increase a lot so bear that in mind too.
Steps For Buying a GPU
These steps summarise everything:
Make a list of your needs, keep the programs you use or the games you play in mind and aim to get something that gives you decent performance. Decide what is a must-have and what is a nice to have for you.
Pick a graphics card, You can browse amazon until you find something you like or again check reviews.
Check compatibility, before buying make sure you don’t have any issues regarding compatibility like not having enough space. For people who need some assistance PCPartPicker is a solid choice.
AMD recently changed the naming scheme that they use for mobile CPUs which left many people confused. I am not surprised that the naming scheme changed since everything in the PC hardware industry is always changing. However, what came as a surprise was the fact that they only made it worse not better. In this post I am going to explain what changed in AMD’s naming scheme as well as say why that wasn’t a very good decision.
Side note: mobile CPUs is a term used to describe CPUs that can be used with laptops, chromebooks, etc. It doesn’t refer to mobile phones.
AMD’s Old Naming Scheme
I already explained everything about AMD’s old naming scheme and even Intel’s naming scheme in separate posts. I will not get into too much detail here, I will just mention the main points:
Brand: Like Ryzen™ or Athlon™.
Family: Each brand has different families and each family provides a different level of performance.
Generation indicator: It tells us the generation of the chip, newer generations are generally better.
Performance level: A number that represents the performance level of the CPU. The higher the better.
Model number: When AMD makes a new improved version of an already existing CPU it gives it a higher model number.
Suffix: Provides additional information about the CPU.
AMD’s New Naming Scheme
There are differences and similarities between the old and the new naming scheme. The new naming scheme used by AMD consists of:
An example of the new naming scheme.
Brand: Like Ryzen™ or Athlon™.
Family: Each brand has different families and each family provides a different level of performance.
Portfolio model year: Basically the year in which the CPU was made.
Market segment: Each number refers to one of the families we mentioned earlier.
Architecture: Indicates the architecture, in other words the design of the CPU.
Feature isolation: Differentiates between lower end and higher end models within a particular segment.
Form factor/TDP: Or simply, a suffix.
Brand
AMD has many brands that produce CPUs. As for mobile devices, there is Athlon which is more budget oriented and Ryzen which produces mainstream processors.
Family
Within each brand there are several families. First of all, Athlon which has 2 families. Athlon Gold typically represents higher-end or more powerful processors and Athlon Silver represents more budget-friendly options.
Also, there is Ryzen which has 4 families. Ryzen 3 is ideal for those on a tight budget but still want good performance. Ryzen 5 is the mainstream, it is a balance between cost and performance. Finally, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 are for people who use more demanding programs or play some heavy games.
Portfolio Model Year
A number that corresponds to the year when the CPU was created. You might be wondering why did they start with 7 for 2023 instead of 1 or 3 for example. The reason is that the previous series was called the 6000-series, and since the new naming scheme was confusing enough they decided to not make it more complicated which is why we have the 7000-series for 2023.
Market Segment
A number representing the family of the CPU. 1 for Athlon Silver, 2 for Athlon Gold. Now, for some reason we have not 1 but 2 numbers that refer to Ryzen 3 which are 3 and 4. Additionally, Ryzen 5 also has 2 numbers, 5 and 6. 7 refers to Ryzen 7, 8 refers to Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9. Finally, 9 refers to Ryzen 9.
Wow AMD what an upgrade to the naming scheme! Anyway…
Architecture
If you’re not familiar with what the term architecture means in CPUs, it basically means the design of the CPU. Whenever AMD comes up with a new and better design they give it a higher number. So, Zen 4 is newer than Zen 3 and so on.
Feature Isolation
Remember the market segments we mentioned earlier? Lower models within these segments will be given the number 0 and higher models will be given a 5.
Form Factor/TDP
A suffix at the end of the name to tell you more about the CPU. All of them are included in this list:
Suffix
TDP
Description
HX
55W+
Max Performance
HS
~35W+
Thin Gaming/Creator
U
15-28W
Premium Ultrathin
C
15-28W
Chromebook
e
9W
Fanless variant of “U”
Why Isn’t The New Naming Scheme Good?
What was good about the older naming scheme is that it was pretty straightforward, the first number tells you the generation, the rest represents performance and then there is a suffix. Now it isn’t as simple, especially when you consider that the majority of people who use computers and want to know how to buy a CPU aren’t tech enthusiasts.
Moreover, the Portfolio Model Year thing can be a little deceptive. Let’s say AMD releases a CPU called Ryzen 5 8640U, most people will think that it’s the newer generation of the Ryzen 5 7640U and that isn’t true. The thing is, a new generation means a new architecture. In this imaginary case, both of them use the Zen 4 architecture as we can see from the name (Ryzen 5 8640U). The only thing that changed is the year of production and probably some minor improvements.
If you are new to CPUs you probably know how complicated CPU names are. Here we are going to help you understand Intel’s naming scheme to be able to spot a good CPU just from its name. In case you are wondering, we got a detailed guide on AMD’s naming scheme too.
Intel Core Naming Scheme (Up to 10th Generation)
We will take the Core i9 13900K as an example.
Brand
The Intel naming scheme begins with the product line (Core i9 13900K). Notable brands include Intel® Xeon® for workstation tasks and Intel® Core™, which offers a wide range of processors from budget-friendly options to high-end CPUs. Additionally, there are Intel® Pentium® and Intel® Celeron® processors, which are ideal for those seeking budget-friendly options. However, if you have a bit more to invest, we highly recommend choosing a Pentium CPU over a Celeron.
Other brands, such as Intel Atom®, Intel® Itanium®, and Intel® Quark™, exist; however, they are not covered in this guide. The Xeon brand is also not included in this guide for now.
Brand Modifier (Core Brand Only)
Brand modifiers (Core i9 13900K), such as i3, i5, i7, and i9, are exclusive to the Core brand. Higher numbers signify enhanced performance, additional features, and advanced technology. For example, i3 processors are suitable for basic tasks, i5 processors excel in everyday use and gaming, while i7 and i9 processors are designed for content creation and demanding tasks. Other Intel brands like Xeon or Pentium do not use brand modifiers.
GenerationIndicator
Following the brand and its modifier, you will encounter a generation indicator (Core i9 13900K), indicating when the chip was manufactured. Each generation has its own unique name for example the 11th generation of Core processors is named Tiger Lake and the 12th is named Alder Lake.
Occasionally, CPUs from the same generation may have two different ‘lake’ names. This differentiation helps distinguish CPUs within the same generation. For example Comet Lake and Ice Lake are both branded as 10th generation CPUs, however Ice Lake uses a new architecture that Intel has developed while Comet Lake is still using the older one.
In general, new generations offer improved performance compared to older ones. However, in certain cases, sticking to the previous generation may be wise, especially if the new generation’s price does not justify the improvements made by Intel.
SKU
The SKU number is the last three digits in a processor’s name (Core i9 13900K). When you compare between CPUs from the same generation and the same brand the SKU might be useful. We don’t recommend using SKU numbers for comparing CPUs from different generations or brands.
Suffix
Intel uses a suffix as a way of sorting its processors into categories (Core i9 13900K). Below is a list of these suffixes.
The processor can be utilized in embedded systems (not suitable for most consumers).
F
The processor doesn’t have integrated graphics and it requires a discrete graphics card.
G
Has a powerful built-in graphics processor.
H
High performance mobile processors.
HK
High performance mobile processors, can be overclocked (unlocked).
HQ
High performance mobile processors, quad core.
K
Can be overclocked (unlocked).
S
Lower power in exchange for little lower performance.
T
Power-optimized lifestyle
U
Mobile power efficient
Y
Mobile extremely low power
X/XE
Unlocked, High End (scientific tasks and workstation muscle)
B
Ball Grid Array (BGA)
What changed after 10th generation?
After the 10th generation of Core processors, intel decided to change things a little bit. They came up with a new architecture exclusively for mobile CPUs that has improved graphics, but unfortunately follows a new naming scheme. And now 10th gen mobile CPUs have two architectures and two naming schemes; so we are going to explain the differences between both of these naming schemes to better understand them.
SKU (3 digits): Higher SKU means better performance.
Suffix: All the suffixes above (except for G1-G7).
The New Naming Scheme
We will take the Core i7 1165G7 as an example.
Brand Name: Core
Brand Modifier: i3, i5, i7, i9
GenerationIndicator (10+): CPUs that use the new graphics technology are either 10th gen or newer.
SKU (2 digits): In the previous naming scheme, the general rule was that higher numbers indicated better performance. However, it’s not as straightforward here. Only the first digit (Core i7 1165G7) ,which can be found after the generation number, signifies performance. On the other hand, the second digit (Core i7 1165G7) classifies the CPU as U-series (power-efficient) which offers better performance than the Y-series (extremely low power), with 5 and 0 representing the U and Y series respectively.
Suffix (G1-G7): In this naming scheme, the suffix consists of ‘G’ followed by a number ranging from 1 to 7. The number after the “G” tells you the level of the graphics that you are getting which means that a G7 CPU has better graphics than a G1 CPU.
As we can see, the fastest way to spot one of these CPUs is to look at the suffix, if it has a ‘G’ followed by a number then it uses the architecture with improved graphics that we just mentioned.
Intel Pentium Naming Scheme
We will take the Pentium Gold G7400T as an example
Brand Name: Pentium followed by Gold or Silver.
A letter: Gold G or Silver J for desktops and Gold (without a litter) or Silver N for mobile.
GenerationIndicator: The first number in the name refers to its generation.
SKU (3 digits): Higher SKU means better performance.
Suffix: Intel uses suffixes in its Pentium brand that are different from the suffixes they use in their Core brand. We won’t make a suffix list since the suffixes in the Pentium brand mess up the pattern sometimes, so its best not to include them here.
This naming scheme doesn’t apply to older Pentium generations, as they follow different patterns. Latest Pentium CPUs can be found in this list.
Intel Pentium Gold G
They offer high levels of performance compared to other budget CPUs; some desktop Gold CPUs even have clock speeds higher than 4 GHz. Another interesting thing about them, is that they feature hyper-threading which makes these dual core processors even more useful for tasks like gaming and video editing. However, it’s important to keep in mind that they fall into the budget category, so you shouldn’t expect too much from them.
While Gold G is used in desktops, there is a mobile version called Gold (without a G).
Intel Pentium Silver J
Silver CPUs prioritize using less power over achieving peak performance. So, you will usually find that Silver processors have lower clock speeds than Gold processors. However, Silver CPUs aren’t entirely subpar. As mentioned earlier, they are energy-efficient quad-core CPUs, and all Silver CPUs include a feature called burst frequency, unlike most Gold CPUs.
While Silver J is used in desktops, there is a mobile version called Silver N.
Intel Celeron Naming Scheme
We will take the Celeron G6900T as an example.
Brand Name: Celeron.
A letter: G, J, N for desktops, and N for mobile.
GenerationIndicator: The first number in the name refers to its generation.
SKU (3 digits): Higher SKU means better performance.
Suffix: Intel uses suffixes in its Celeron brand that are different from the suffixes they use in their Core brand. We won’t make a suffix list since the suffixes in the Celeron brand mess up the pattern sometimes, so its best not to include them here.
This naming scheme doesn’t apply to older Celeron generations, as they follow different patterns. Latest Celeron CPUs can be found in this list.
Intel Celeron G
G series CPUs, used in desktops, share the same architecture as Intel Core CPUs, making them a budget-friendly alternative to the renowned Core brand. As a result, G series CPUs are known for having the highest performance, compared to J and N Celeron CPUs. That said, the Intel Celeron G series is an excellent choice for individuals seeking optimal performance from a budget CPU. However, they may not be the best option for extended battery life.
Intel Celeron J
Used in desktops (with a few exceptions), J series CPUs utilize the same architecture found in Intel Atom CPUs, making them an improved iteration of Atom CPUs. As a result, J series CPUs are recognized for their relatively lower performance compared to the G series. However, they excel in terms of battery life and generating less heat. Therefore, if high performance isn’t a top priority and you seek better battery life, consider opting for a Celeron J CPU.
Intel Celeron N
Used in mobile devices (except for the Intel Celeron N5095, designed for desktop use). N series CPUs utilize the same architecture as Intel Atom CPUs, making them akin to the laptop version of the J series. N CPUs are suitable for basic tasks, as they offer the lowest performance compared to Celeron J or Celeron G.
