BlogHide Resteemshwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 days agoHave 'Budget-Friendly' and 'Ryzen Motherboards' Become Oxymorons? Not Yet!Building or upgrading a budget PC can be a challenging task, especially with rising component prices. One of the key components, the motherboard, has seen significant price hikes recently. AM4…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 14 days agoRadeon RX 5600 XT at the dawn of 2025 - the €115 hero we neededNew graphics cards suitable for gaming in the current year, priced below €100, are sadly a thing of the past. Fortunately, there are some choices in the €115 range. If we consider these to be…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 months agoYour grandma's old 5.5" smartphone is larger than a modern 6" smartphoneSmartphone screens are indeed getting larger and larger. It feels like not too long ago when the Samsung Galaxy S2 Mini had a tiny 3.3" display. Still, 5-5.5" phones became a standard very…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 5 months agoYour old DESKTOP is more than enough for Internet browning and basic office tasksDespite what Steve Jobs told you (or your parents) back in 2005, processors in laptops are not the same as processors in desktops. Even if they come with the same sticker such as Core 2 Duo, or Core…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 7 months ago3 tricks to extend the lifespan of your old AMD graphics card (Forcing FSR, Installing Community Drivers, Switching to SteamOS)Trick 1 – force FSR Rendering games in higher resolutions gets exponentially more demanding. 4K (3840x2160) has over 8.3 million pixels, compared to Full HD (1920x1080) which has just over 2…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 7 months agoThe biggest winners in the history of „futureproofing” – buyers of older Radeon Graphics Cards on Terrascale architecture„Future-proofing” is a controversial subject. I would argue that there are more losers than winners, when shopping for “potential future performance”, rather than current measurable performance.…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 9 months agoReally cheap new computers (with RGB) - not just for Children's Day (~250€ for the whole set with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Wi-Fi)Let me start by stating the obvious - in pretty much every case used components offer the best value for money. That is unless you are scammed, or they fail on their own one day after the…hwtrendsetter (36)in hive-157625 • 10 months agoLooking for a tablet for taking notes or drawing? Make sure it's not missing any of those featuresNaturally, you can draw and take notes on any tablet (or smartphone), with a passive stylus that looks like this: And costs close to nothing (1.50€ on AliExpress) However, for the best…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 11 months agoRX 400 and 500 series graphics cards are on their last legs and there are no sucessors.Even in 2024 many graphics cards on Polaris architecture, such as RX 580 2048 SP look great on paper . It's not too old (released in 2018 - the same year as RTX 2080). Its numerical computing…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • last yearShopping tips for 'ultra-low budget' (around 50-60€) smartphones from ChinaIntroduction Buying a new smartphone for €50-60 is quite difficult. Many will say that absolutely all of them are electronic waste. But this is only partially true. Because there is a huge…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • last yearWhat does it mean that a video game 'runs well'? (all that "144 FPS ultra low in 768p on IGPU" gibberish explained)Some people enjoy Witcher 3 on 50€ computers, while others complain that it stutters on their 5000€ gaming beast. So clearly those 2 machines are not running exactly the same workload. Hence how…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoBy complicating its naming convention Intel will finally teach people to look at the benchmarksIntel is known for its Core i series of processors, which have been the mainstay of laptops and desktops for over a decade. But that is about to change, as Intel has announced a new naming scheme…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoOld Chromebooks are usually a bad ideaSo, you need a used laptop - as cheap as possible. You go on any website of any second-hand computer store, sort by price and you see an old Chromebook. For example, the one that is the most popular…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoThe best Free-to-Play games from every genre finally organized in one place (updated for mid-2023)Below you can find Free-to-Play games recommendations for every genre (with a brief description of the genre). Real Time Strategy (RTS) In real-time strategy games, every player starts with a…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoThe state of Free-to-Play games on PC - is there any hope?Back in 2020, I wrote an article complaining about things such as: prices at around 50€ for cut-down "standard" editions and 100€ for "complete" editions of newly released games. FIFA demo…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoDesktops consume more power for a reason (elaboration on the article about 4K video editing on a tight budget)The components I'm recommending for 4K video editing on a tight budget are as follows: (links to Polish electronic stores and AliExpress. But you should be able to get similar prices throughout…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years ago4K video editing (and other content creation) on a tight budget (about 1400 PLN / 300€)Articles advising on choosing a computer for content creation focus on the notion that 'your time is so valuable' you shouldn't waste time on penny-pinching - just get a Macbook Pro. Or - in case…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoThe last of 1000 PLN / 200€ gaming desktopsYou can still get a somewhat decent gaming desktop built from new components, for just 1000 PLN / 200€ this season (of late spring festivals/International Children's Day/First Communion/end of the…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoThe era of 1000 PLN / 200€ desktops built from new components is coming to an end (again)It's hard to believe how quickly time has passed since the cryptocurrency crash of 2022. It feels like just yesterday when Ethereum was hitting record highs, and graphics cards were sold at 4 times…hwtrendsetter (36)in hardware • 2 years agoCan you get a decent new laptop below 209€ (~1000 PLN)?There are many ultra-budget laptops below 209€ (~1000 PLN). And they are extremely slow. And I will try to justify below that the use of the word extremely is appropriate here. You can walk into…
