Tools
Calculators
Seven tools for the questions that come up while planning a build, each showing its reasoning rather than just a number.
Power supply calculator
Enter the power draw of your CPU and graphics card. The result includes the headroom a supply actually needs.
Use the peak figure: AMD PPT, or Intel PL2
Board, memory, drives and fans
Printed on the box; anything bought since 2023 is usually ATX 3.x
Will it fit
Case specifications list card length and cooler height separately, so parts that each fit can still fail together.
From the case specification
From the case specification
A radiator and its fans take about 55 mm
Running cost
What a machine costs to run over a year, with idle and load counted separately.
A typical desktop idles at 50–80 W
Check your bill; the Polish average is around 1 zł
The meter reads what enters the supply, not what leaves it
Fan noise
What several fans actually add up to. The answer is not what most people expect.
From the datasheet; typically 20–35 dBA
Leave at zero for an air-cooled build
Fan speed and noise
The largest single lever for a quiet machine, and it is counter-intuitive.
What your fan curve actually runs at
Roughly the total power draw of the build
Monitor size and sharpness
Pixel density, physical dimensions and the distance at which pixels stop being visible.
Display cable
Whether your cable carries the mode your monitor advertises.
HDR needs 10-bit and about 25 per cent more bandwidth
Memory latency
What a CAS number actually means in nanoseconds, and why a higher one is not automatically slower.
MT/s, not MHz — DDR transfers on both clock edges
Two modules populate both channels
Drive capacity
What fits, where the missing capacity went, and how long the drive lasts.
The figure on the box
Modern titles routinely exceed 100 GB
From the specification; typically 300–1200 TBW
Temperature under load
What the processor will sit at, split into what the case adds and what the cooler adds.
Use the peak figure: AMD PPT or Intel PL2
Frames and refresh rate
What your monitor can actually show, and what happens to the rest.
M.2 slot speed
Whether the slot you put a drive in limits it — an invisible mistake, since nothing warns you.
Is an upgrade worth it
How much performance a change buys, and whether the difference is one you would actually notice.
Balance check
Which component limits a pairing — as a direction, not a false precision.