Ethan Walker

I tested nine wired earbuds for gaming over the past three months, running everything from ranked Valorant matches to single-player RPG marathons. What I found changed how I think about competitive audio gear — wired earbuds deliver zero-latency positional imaging that wireless options still struggle to match in . Most gamers I know default to … Read more

I pulled out Genshin Impact during a 90-minute flight last summer, and my phone turned into a hand warmer. The screen dimmed, the framerate tanked to single digits, and I rage-quit after 20 minutes. That frustrating moment is exactly why I started testing phone cooling fans for gaming. After 60 hours of testing across 8 … Read more

I have been running gaming setups long enough to know that motherboards never give you enough ports. RGB keyboards, charging mice, PS5 controllers, headsets, capture cards, and stream lights all compete for the same few USB slots. After weeks of testing on my battlestation, I can tell you that a quality powered hub changes everything. … Read more

I tested eight of the best portable monitors under $200 over six weeks, running them as a second screen on a MacBook Air, a Steam Deck, and a Switch on a kitchen-table work setup. Sub-$200 used to mean “tinny panel with a flimsy stand” – but the 2026 class of budget portable monitors has closed … Read more

If you want a second screen that fits in your laptop bag without emptying your wallet, our pick for the best portable monitor under $150 is the cocopar 15.6 inch 1080P portable monitor. After spending weeks testing ten sub-$150 panels side by side, we found that you no longer have to choose between portability and … Read more

I lost a ranked match last summer because my WiFi dropped for two seconds during a team fight. That was the day I started running ethernet cables to every gaming setup in my house, and I haven’t looked back. After six months of testing cables across three gaming PCs, two PS5s, and an Xbox Series … Read more

If you’ve ever built a gaming PC only to realize you have a keyboard, mouse, headset, controller, and RGB strip fighting over three USB ports, you already know why the best USB hubs for gaming PC setups matter. We spent the past two months testing eight powered and unpowered hubs with a real gaming setup, … Read more

I spent the last three months running eight DisplayPort cables through real gaming workloads on a Ryzen 7 7800X3D rig, an RTX 4090, and three different monitors, including a 4K 240Hz OLED. The differences between cheap and quality cables showed up in places I did not expect: a 15-foot run that dropped frames, a “DP80” … Read more

Picking the right thermal paste for your gaming PC is one of those small decisions that pays off for years. We have spent the last few months stress-testing eight popular thermal interface materials (TIMs) on real gaming rigs, comparing idle and load temperatures, ease of application, and how each paste holds up after thermal cycling. … Read more

I tested 8 of the most popular docking stations with my Razer Blade 16 and ASUS ROG Strix over 60 days. Some kept my gaming laptop fully charged while pushing dual 4K monitors at 144Hz. Others dropped ports to USB 2.0 speeds the moment I plugged in a second display. After logging bandwidth, thermals, and … Read more