Comparison
Cloud vs Local Backup for a Gaming PC
Local restores fast and burns in the same house fire. Cloud survives the room and restores slowly. The honest answer is which one you do first, not which one wins.
4 min read
Power & Protection
Keeping the machine alive when the supply isn't.
Start here
PC Diagnostic Tools That Stop the Guesswork
Five cheap instruments that answer a question before a component gets replaced. Each one turns an expensive guess into a measurement.
Guide
Battery Backup for a NAS
A NAS needs a UPS more than a desktop does, and for a different reason — the risk is not lost work but an interrupted write to an array nobody is watching.
4 min read
Guide
PSU Efficiency Ratings and What They Change
The badge certifies efficiency at three load points and nothing else. What it does not tell you is the part that decides whether a supply is any good.
4 min read
Guide
What a PC Left On All Day Actually Costs
Idle draw is far lower than people assume and the arithmetic is easy. What leaving it on genuinely costs, and the appliance that costs more in an hour.
4 min read
Guide
A Drive That Has Started Clicking
Power it off now and decide before you plug it back in. Every spin-up spends recovery odds you cannot get back, and the common first responses are the damaging ones.
5 min read
Guide
RAID Is Not a Backup
A mirrored array faithfully mirrors a deletion. What redundancy actually protects against, what it does not, and the one rule that separates the two.
5 min read
Guide
Sizing a Power Supply Without Guessing
Online calculators over-specify and the number on the box is a ceiling, not a target. What transient spikes change, and why the biggest PSU is not the safest.
4 min read
Collection
PC Diagnostic Tools That Stop the Guesswork
Five cheap instruments that answer a question before a component gets replaced. Each one turns an expensive guess into a measurement.
3 min read
Comparison
UPS vs Surge Protector: What Each One Protects
One stores energy for when the supply fails, the other clamps spikes when there is too much. They are sold together and solve opposite problems.
3 min read
Guide
Backing Up More Than Game Saves
Games re-download. Screenshots, configs, mods and recordings do not. What is actually worth backing up on a gaming PC, and the cheapest way to do it.
3 min read
Guide
Does a Gaming PC Need a UPS?
The answer depends on the wall socket, not the machine. How to tell whether your supply is the kind that causes unclean shutdowns, before spending anything.
3 min read
Guide
How Much Power Does a Gaming PC Actually Use?
PSU wattage is a ceiling, not a consumption figure. Measuring at the wall is cheap, and it changes what you buy when sizing a battery backup.
3 min read
Guide
When to Replace a UPS Battery, Not the Whole Unit
A backup unit that beeps and cuts out after seconds is usually a dead battery in working electronics. Replacing the cell costs a fraction of the unit.
3 min read
Guide
Why Your USB Devices Charge So Slowly
A charger, a cable and a device negotiate what they can deliver, and the slowest link decides. A USB meter shows which one is capping it.
3 min read
Review
APC Back-UPS Pro BX1500M Review: Read the Waveform
A line-interactive 1500 VA battery backup with AVR and ten outlets. The specification that decides whether it suits your PC is the output waveform.
4 min read
Fix 8 · Ugly 5
Review
Klein RT210 Review: The Cheapest Diagnosis You Own
Three lights and a trip button that rule out the wall before you replace a power supply. It costs almost nothing and answers a question nothing else asks.
4 min read
Fix 8 · Ugly 5
Other things that might be annoying you
- Warning lightThe light is on and nobody can tell me why.
- A long drive coming upSix hours in the car and I have not thought about any of it.
- Wi-Fi that keeps droppingThe PC is upstairs and the router is by the front door.
- The desk is set up wrongThe screen is too low, the chair is too high, and I have never changed either.
- A screen that is hard to look atGlare across it, or text I keep leaning in to read.
- Stuck at the roadsideSomething failed away from home and I had nothing useful with me.
- Taking a handheld awayCharging it, filling it, and getting it there in one piece.
- A PC that will not startIt was fine yesterday and now nothing happens at all.
- A car that barely movesIt sits far more than it drives, and that is its own problem.
- Nobody can hear me properlyHum, echo, or a microphone that picks up every keystroke.
- Losing work to a power cutA flickering supply, a failing drive, and no backup worth the name.
- Dead batteryThe car sat for a month and now it won't turn over.
- No garage spaceThe car fits, but only just, and nothing else does.
- Car clutterEverything I own is loose in the trunk and rattling.
- Dirty interiorThe interior has grit in places a vacuum cannot reach.
- Bad lightingI cannot see what I am doing under the hood or under the car.
- Lost toolsI own three 10 mm sockets and can find none of them.
- Loud PCIt sounds like a hairdryer the moment a game loads.
- PC runs hotFrame rate drops after twenty minutes and never recovers.
- Cable messBehind the desk is one knot I refuse to look at.
- Cannot drillI rent, so nothing can leave a hole or a mark.
- Nowhere to put itThe flat is full and there is nowhere left to put anything.
- Bag will not closeIt all went in last time and now the case will not shut.
- Everything needs chargingFour devices, one socket, and a flight in the morning.