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Hardware advice from a UK retailer’s bench: what to buy at every budget, step-by-step fixes, and early coverage of upcoming CPU and GPU launches.
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Buying Guides
RTX 40 Super in 2026: Why We Stopped Selling Them
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Best Mouse for Work: Two Cost Under £20
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What Is a Motherboard? The Full Map
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Best Noise Cancelling Headphones in 2026
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Best Webcams in 2026, For Every Budget
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Blue Screen of Death: The Complete Fix Guide
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All articles
You Don’t Need a Pro for GTA 6: PS5 vs PS5 Pro, the £220 Difference and the Likely 30fps
The PS5 Pro costs £789.99 in the UK, £220 more than a PS5, and was sold out on Sony’s own store on 8 October. What the Pro really adds, what is confirmed for GTA 6 on PS5 Pro, the 60fps question, and who should upgrade.
History Says 2027 or Later: GTA 6 PC Release Date, Requirements and Xbox Cloud, Explained
GTA 6 is not coming to PC at launch, and Xbox has ruled out playing it on PC through the cloud. Every main GTA since GTA III, plus Red Dead Redemption 2, reached PC 6 to 19 months after the consoles.
The Battery Catch: Xbox Elite Series 3 Release Date, Drift-Free Sticks and the Leaks So Far
The Xbox Elite Controller Series 3 has leaked four times. Hall effect or TMR sticks, haptics, a screen, Cloud Mode, and a removable battery about 25% smaller than the Series 2.
From £2,599: Nvidia RTX Spark Laptops and Surface Laptop Ultra, UK Price and Release Dates
The Surface Laptop Ultra costs from £2,599 in the UK and ships on 16 October. Every configuration, every RTX Spark laptop price so far, and what Microsoft announced on 7 October.
The Business Label Trap: The Best Laptop for Work in 2026, Picks by Budget and What Pro Adds
The best laptop for work in 2026, by situation: ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 for most people, E14 Gen 8 on a budget, X13 Gen 6 for commuting, E16 Gen 4 for home working and MacBook Air M5 on a Mac. What a business laptop really adds, from our own spec-sheet count.
No GTX Cards: Gears of War E-Day PC Requirements, the RTX 2060 Minimum and What Laptops Need
Gears of War: E-Day needs a graphics card with hardware ray tracing, 12GB of RAM and 115GB free on an SSD. Why GTX cards cannot start it, what gaming laptops need, how it runs on Steam Deck, and the Steam, Game Pass, crossplay and early access details.
Thunderbolt Yes, USB4 Maybe, M-Series Macs Never: eGPU for Laptop and Which Ports Can Run One
Can your laptop run an external GPU? Thunderbolt 3, 4 or 5 on Windows works, USB4 usually does, Apple silicon Macs cannot and Snapdragon needs an unofficial driver. How much speed each cable costs, the enclosures and docks, and whether an eGPU is worth it.
Don’t Blame the Panel Yet: Half of Screen Is Black on a Monitor or Laptop, and the Menu Test
Half of the screen black on a monitor or laptop? Open the monitor's own menu and shine a torch at the dark half: in two minutes you know whether it is Picture by Picture, the refresh rate, the cable, a failed backlight or the panel. Step-by-step fixes for monitors, laptops and MacBooks.
Games to AMD, Work to Intel: AMD vs Intel in 2026, With the Socket as the Tie-Breaker
AMD vs Intel in 2026, answered by use. Ryzen X3D chips lead in games by 15 to 20%, Intel's Core Ultra Plus chips lead in work apps for the money, and budget chips are level. TechPowerUp's benchmarks, chip-by-chip equivalents, power, reliability and why AM5 outlasts LGA 1851.
Run One Free Test First: Surface Pro Screen Flickering, Ghosting or Burn, Hardware or Not
Surface Pro screen flickering, ghosting or burn? Microsoft's free UEFI test shows whether the fault is hardware or Windows. The fixes Microsoft lists, what the Surface Pro 4 scramble programme covered, the difference between OLED burn-in and yellow marks, and Microsoft's UK out-of-warranty repair prices model by model.
Our PC Kept Switching Off: XMP vs EXPO on AMD, and What Turning XMP Off Really Costs
Intel XMP RAM works on AMD boards, but the profile is an overclock that G.Skill tested only on Intel boards. On our X870 AORUS ELITE build it made the PC switch off with no blue screen, and turning XMP off fixed it. How to read your kit's part number, what Kernel-Power 41 really tells you, and what XMP off costs on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
No iPhone Dropped: iOS 27 Supported Devices, Features and What Each iPhone Actually Gets
iOS 27 came out on 14 September and runs on every iPhone from the iPhone 11, but Siri AI needs an iPhone 15 Pro or newer and some extras need 12GB of RAM. The full device list, a model-by-model feature table, how much storage Apple Intelligence takes, and why there is no way back to iOS 26.