Tech Satori

 Last year I published an article teaching how to pick a good PSU . While the main reason for that post was amount of people buying E and F tier PSUs, there's also a fair share of PC builds I see where people spend too much on higher wattage PSU which compromises their budget for other components. But, at the same time, there are some people who buy a PSU that isn't powerful enough.  Out of the aforementioned 2 types, people who buy higher wattage than needed are on safer side, but like I mentioned, it often cost them a large amount of their budget. Specially in India where average salary of people is often less than the cost of a decent budget gaming PC, it becomes a big problem.  So why do people make mistake of calculating their wattage wrong? There are two big reasons.  There aren't many definitive guides out there for wattage calculation. The online wattage calculator results are all over the place. Also there is one more reason that affects people choice: PSU e...

The Ryzen Zen4 APUs have been out for about a week now, and all major tech reviewers have released their reviews. You can watch or read the reviews from your favorite reviewers for exact performance data. Now, the question arises: why am I writing this article, stating that these APUs are important? If you're up to date with review data, you know that these APUs (or the iGPUs, to be more precise) are in the neighborhood of a dedicated GPU like the RX 6500 XT. In fact, the RX 6500 XT pulls ahead in most cases. And that raises a huge problem: the platform cost of Ryzen 8000G APUs is higher than that of a budget dedicated GPU build. Yes, the raw CPU power will be less in those budget dedicated GPU builds, but the overall gaming experience will be massively better. Don't believe me? Just look at the costs below. Ryzen 5 8600G core cost Budget gaming PC core cost Now, I know there are cheaper A620 motherboards and more affordable DDR5 RAM options. However, the same can be said for t...

 When last year GPU price hike started due to supply issues then tech experts predicted that it would be solved with new launch of graphics cards. But all new launches were affected by scalpers and miners worldwide. When the cryptocurrencies crashed a few months ago, gamers got some hope. But it soon turned into despair when cryptocurrencies boomed again.  Conditions are worse in India, even certified sellers are selling them for more than twice the normal price(for example, RTX 3090 is usually listed for ₹2-2.5lakh in India, which is roughly $3000). Even founder editions are more expensive than US listing on Nvidia website. A GTX 1660 Ti costs more than an average "middle-class" family's monthly income these days.  Which raises the question, are gaming laptops better deal than desktops in India? Before we answer that, let's address the elephant in the room. Whenever there is a debate of Laptop vs Desktop,...

 A lot of friends and relatives often ask me for laptop recommendations for themselves or for their friends/relatives. Since new year is coming, a lot of you guys might be interested in buying a laptop for yourself or as a Christmas/New year gift for family. So I decided to make a list of best options according to budget and usage. I will mention only 1 in each category unless something deserves an honorable mention. For those of you who don't care about the budget and just want the best of best, here are my ultimate picks Best all-rounder :  Asus ROG Zephyrus G14( Base Model ) ➕ Up-to 8 core 7nm Ryzen processors ➕ 100% sRGB 120Hz 14 inch display ➕ Dual M.2 slots ➕ Portable and lightweight(under 1.7kg) ➖ Not really "affordable" considering Indian market   Best Workstation/Editing Laptop : Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 ➕ Dual display for better productivity, primary display is available in both 1080p 300Hz and 4K 60Hz ➕ 32GB RAM Pre-installed in all available models ➕ Dual SSD ...

Note: Component prices and stocks are very unstable. Prices may change or components may go out of stock by the time you are reading this post. That's why I'm keeping the budget range this big. Build according to availability and selling prices. Processor AMD Build Ryzen 3 3100 - 4 core 8 thread Alternative*: Ryzen 5 3600 - 6 core 12 thread Intel Build i3-10100 - 4 core 8 thread(i3-10100F would be cheaper) Alternative*: i5-10400F - 6 core 12 thread * - 6 core processors are more useful in video editing like tasks. So if you can sacrifice some graphics settings(or some FPS) for sake of getting better productivity performance, then you can opt for a cheaper graphics card like 1650 Super or RX 580 8GB to save money for the CPU.   Motherboard AMD Build MSI A320M-A Pro MAX -  Ryzen 3rd gen ready. Gigabyte A520M DS3H ASRock B450M Steel Legend MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi B450 and B550 Motherboards will let you overclock the processor. But they also come with a price premium. So only...

In this post, I'll answer some of the common questions that most people ask when they're buying a desktop PC. Note that, I'll emphasize on the most ideal or sensible choice but your budget might restrict you from doing so. Therefore you must ask yourself that where can I make compromises without risking the overall quality of your build. AMD or Intel? One of the the biggest question since AMD introduced their Ryzen lineup. As I already mentioned in one of my previous posts, it depends on your budget and your requirements. But to summarize, Intel is more suitable for the people willing to spend extra to get better single core performance(example, hardcore gamers). AMD, on the other hand, offers value for money. If multi-core multi-threaded workloads are more of your thing(example, video editing) then AMD provides much better performance than a similarly priced Intel processor. Stock vs Aftermarket cooler? If yo...

In one of my previous posts, I wrote about PC components but didn't share PC builds. This post will be one of those where I just share the PC builds.  Cheapest Home/Office use PC Processor Athlon 200GE 2 cores 4 threads 3.2GHz  Vega 3 integrated graphics Default TDP: 35W Average price: ₹3600-3900(if someone is asking more than that consider different sellers or different builds) This little guy is often underestimated. In countries like US and UK, you can find some really powerful used processors at the same price, so they(US based tech youtubers, who have huge following in India too) highly recommend those processors over this. But here in India, things are different, used markets are not for everyone. Try searching Ryzen 5 1600 on OLX. If you remove location(ie nationwide search), even then you'll find hardly 5-10 listings at approximately same price as buying new(new costs around ₹9000-10000). And on top of that, the listing would be from a different city, or even different...

What is a Gaming PC? Due to recent pandemic, people have found new hobbies or revisiting their old ones and gaming is one of them. It is quite evident that you need a gaming PC for gaming. But what really is a gaming PC? The answer is exactly what you're thinking, "any PC that can play games is a gaming PC". But then you'll be thinking, why do sellers advertise some specific PC as 'gaming PC'? That's because that PC is capable of running all the popular games that you've heard of. So technically a PC can be labelled as a Gaming PC if it can play any game while giving the user a smooth gaming experience. That leads to next question Do I need a gaming PC? Well, the answer depends on you actually. There are different types of gamers.  Some are just casual gamer but loyal to certain games. For example, they only play Minecraft or Counter Strike or Dota or Rocket League, etc.  The other type of casual gamers who don't take gaming too seriously but like ...

Hi there, I have permanently deleted some important files by mistake, is there any way to recover it? Other than recommendation questions, this is one of the most frequently asked question I have encountered. So I'll be covering that topic this time. This is not a recovery guide, it's more of a tips and tricks for keeping your important files safe, because as they say, "prevention is better than a cure". But don't worry, I'll also address some methods to recover lost data.  How to keep your data safe? There's no foolproof way of keeping your data safe. So the next best option is: make backups. If the file is important to you, then you should make multiple copies. You can keep the copies on following places. Your internal storage : Cheapest method. Most of us have multiple drives or multiple partitions on a single disk. Keep one copy in each drive. Preferably in zip folders or iso files. So that they're safe from viruses also. Most common viruses don...

Time get a new smartphone, but which one?  First, I'd like to thank all of you who took some time to read my previous blog and gave some feedback. This time I'll be covering another device that is purchased 3-5 times more than laptop(I don't know the correct statistics but seeing my friends and relatives, they're still using their first or second laptop but they're currently on their 5th or 6th smartphone). This blog can be longer than previous one because buying a smartphone is not as straightforward as buying a laptop. Again I'll try to simplify as much as I can for those of you don't understand the "spec-sheet" of a smartphone. So let's begin. Once again you can use the 3 step methodology I used for laptop shopping but few things here and there would be different.  Step 1: Identifying your needs Keyword is "needs", not workload. Smartphone hardware still follow the workload rule but user requirements are more complex when it comes ...