Tanveer Singh

Bangalore

Tech Journalist at XDA Developers

Writes on PC hardware and gaming | Seen on XDA Developers and Make Tech Easier

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Articles

The best $22 I’ve ever spent on my gaming PC

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

When you think about cheap accessories or devices for your PC setup, you're probably thinking about headphone stands, cable management trays, wireless chargers, desk pads, or wristrests. The cheapest addition that I ever made to my desk setup, however, was a budget soundbar from Redragon that cost me only $22. I switched from PC speakers to a soundbar around a year ago, and never looked back.
6 everyday habits that are ruining your mechanical keyboard

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

Mechanical keyboards have become increasingly common, thanks to falling prices combined with a surge in choices and an ever-improving typing experience. Compared to membrane keyboards, mechanical keyboards have a lot more going on underneath — discrete switches, extra layers of foam, plates, gaskets, stabilizers, and more. Despite many mechanical keyboards being fairly robust, you can still damage your keyboard if you tend to be careless at your desk.
3 reasons gold-plated HDMI cables are a scam

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

You've probably come across meaningless branding terms in the PC hardware space. Manufacturers do their best to sell common features as game-changing innovations to unsuspecting users. A similar scam is the gold-plated HDMI cable, marketed as being somehow superior to regular cables in terms of performance and durability. While gold does have anti-tarnish properties, even that doesn't matter to most users in indoor situations.
4 ways TRIM boosts your SSD performance and longevity

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

Hard drives need defragmentation to ensure pieces of data are stored in contiguous cells, preventing longer seek times. SSDs, on the other hand, store data a bit differently than HDDs. Flash storage consists of "blocks" and "pages" within them, with write operations occurring at the page level, but deletion happening at the block level. This property of SSDs requires some useful maintenance techniques in the background to ensure peak performance and longevity for your SSD.
Consider these 5 alternatives before repasting your aging GPU for better temps

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

When you're dealing with a GPU that's nearing 5 years of regular use, it might be time to replace the thermal paste. While some GPUs might benefit from more frequent repasting, depending on what they went through, most people can stick to the 4 or 5-year cadence. If you've been experiencing elevated temps on your GPU for a while, and have made up your mind about a repasting job, it might be prudent to consider some alternatives first.
3 problems with Intel Arrow Lake CPUs that have nothing to do with performance

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

By now, almost everyone has seen some kind of coverage about the disappointing Arrow Lake launch, and how Intel took one step forward, two steps back. What was supposed to be Intel's comeback after the disastrous instability saga of its Raptor Lake chips became just another cautionary tale for gamers. The Core Ultra CPUs were slower than the 14th Gen CPUs in gaming, but that's not the only reason you should avoid them.
I've wasted my high-end PC's potential, and I don't know how I feel about it

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

Do you sometimes feel you bought something just for the sake of it, and never really used it to the fullest? Well, that's how I feel about my current gaming PC — the only difference being that I never paid for it. It might be a prize for a PC building competition, but I still feel I've wasted its potential, letting three years go to waste without ever tapping into all the power it had.
I'm never using these 5 PC components again

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

When buying PC components, it's always important to have a balanced build — both overspending and cheaping out on certain parts can hurt your build. And I'm not talking about the CPU or GPU alone; even the storage and CPU cooler demand equal attention. After building several gaming PCs and making some mistakes along the way, I've decided not to use certain PC components ever again.
An old Xeon CPU might be the cheapest start to your gaming PC

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

There are budget PCs, and then there are budget PCs. If you're on a mission to grab the cheapest gaming PC possible, you might want to look at old Xeon workstations. Intel's Xeon CPUs might not be relevant in the enterprise space anymore, but they're quite popular with hobbyists and home lab users.
I switched to a low-profile mechanical keyboard and never looked back

3 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Tanveer Singh

I've been a fan of mechanical keyboards for over four years now. Ever since I moved from a Cooler Master membrane keyboard to a cheap mechanical keyboard, I knew I was never going back. A single keyboard turned into over a dozen, but there was one type of keyboard I ignored for a long time — low-profile keyboards. I loved the distinctive sound and feel of mechanical keyboards, and didn't want to sacrifice them by going low-profile.