Hardvance Blog

PC Buying Guides, Fix Guides and Tech News

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.

Buying Guides

RTX 50 Super Is Coming

50% more memory on the 5080, 5070 Ti and 5070. Here is the release window, and whether to wait.

8 min read

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PC Building

How to Build a PC in 2026

Step by step, with the problems nobody warns you about.

18 min read

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Buying Guides

Best Gaming Laptop in 2026

The right pick at every budget, and the spec-sheet traps to avoid.

13 min read

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Tech Explained

What Is a Motherboard?

The whole PC plugs into it. A plain-English map of every slot and socket.

13 min read

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Buying Guides

The WiFi Router Guide 2026

What the labels mean, what to buy, and the five-minute fixes that solve most homes.

13 min read

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The full library

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Microsoft Surface Pro with a blue keyboard cover and kickstand, showing the Windows Start screen
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Surface Pro 4 Screen Ghosting, Flickering or Burn: The Free Test That Says It Is Hardware

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.
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Two white G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5 memory sticks, G.Skill's Intel XMP series, on a glass stand
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XMP vs EXPO on AMD: Why a PC Shuts Off Randomly on Intel XMP RAM (Kernel Power Event 41)

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.
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