# Hardware

> Windows-first hardware guides — buying, CPU, memory, storage, graphics, displays, laptops, builds, homelab servers and diagnostics, plus vendor hubs.

Hardware decisions and hardware evidence for Windows: what to buy, what Windows actually does with it, and how to prove a part is failing. No paper benchmarks, no logo walls.

55 guides · 10 topics · 2 vendor hubs · E1 documentation + E2 lab observations

Browse by topic

Where do you want to start?

Buying decisions, part-by-part references, and the diagnosis path when something is already broken.

[5 guides Buying Budget tiers, prebuilt vs DIY, a used-PC checklist, judging a discount, requirements by Windows version. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/buy/budget-tiers/)
[5 guides CPU & platform P/E cores and the scheduler, CPU support and microcode, cores vs clock, virtualisation flags, chipset lanes. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/cpu/hybrid-cores/)
[6 guides Memory Sizing, XMP/EXPO stability, ECC and WHEA, compression and page file, channels, fault finding. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/ram/)
[6 guides Storage SSD classes, NVMe generations, CMR vs SMR, Storage Spaces, BitLocker, SMART health. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/ssd/)
[6 guides Graphics & drivers NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, WDDM/HAGS/MPO, driver rollback, GPUs in virtual machines. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/nvidia/)
[5 guides Displays & peripherals HDR chain, high-DPI scaling, monitor choice and VRR, input polling, USB4 docks. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/display/hdr-chain/)
[5 guides Laptops & power Modern Standby drain, battery report, thermal vs power limits, eGPUs, power plans. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/laptop/modern-standby/)
[5 guides Build & firmware PSU sizing, first boot, UEFI settings, case airflow, and when a firmware update is worth the risk. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/build/first-boot/)
[5 guides Homelab & servers Mini PC PVE hosts, measured host memory cost, used servers, server hardware, networking. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/homelab/mini-pc-host/)
[5 guides Diagnostics WHEA evidence chain, 0x124-class bugchecks, repair vs replace, retiring and wiping drives, measurement discipline. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/diag/whea-bugcheck/)

Start with the boundary

Two vendor hubs, two support tiers

Tier is about official support and hardware availability, not brand preference. No performance claim without the hardware on the bench.

[Vendor matrix Tier A — NVIDIA, AMD, Intel Full driver-stack pages, control panels, known issues and measurement entries where hardware exists. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/overview/)
[Vendor matrix Tier B — Hygon, Moore Threads Official support boundaries, driver entry points and compatibility notes. No invented benchmark scores. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/hygon-moore-threads/)
[Reference Open the matrix Compare vendor, driver source, Windows builds and evidence level in one table. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/overview/)
[Vendor page NVIDIA The first full vendor page: driver branch, NVIDIA App, known issues and the Windows builds checked. →](https://windows.homes/en/hardware/nvidia/)

Why a vendor page

The driver is the platform

Windows does not ship the GPU driver; the vendor does. A “Windows tweak” that ignores the driver version is measuring the wrong thing.

01

Driver branch

Record the exact branch and package, not “latest”.

02

Control panel

Know which app owns the settings before changing them.

03

Known issues

Separate vendor bugs from Windows bugs.

04

Build checks

Record the Windows build and evidence level for each claim.

01
No logo wall

Vendor names are used for identification; no logo implies endorsement.

02
No paper benchmarks

No FPS number without the card, driver and test method.

03
Tier is explicit

Tier B is not “bad”; it is a different support and evidence boundary.

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Source: https://windows.homes/en/hardware/