Buyer Wiki & Hardware User Manual
Master The Comparator UI: learn how to calculate PC upgrades, quickly find the best deals, pin your current GPU, add custom used listings (eBay, Facebook Marketplace), compare products, and customize weight presets.
PC Hardware Buyer Wiki & Interface Manual
Welcome to the Buyer Wiki. This encyclopedia provides step-by-step user guides explaining how to use every feature and UI mechanic of The Comparator calculator.
🗺️ Visual Interface & UI Element Reference
🗺️ Interactive Interface & Element Reference Guide
A complete visual reference detailing every UI element: Preset Buttons, Value Score Badges, VRAM & Price Sliders, Upgrade Calculator Island, Custom Card Modal, Compare Matrix, and Store Offer CTA Buttons.
📖 Practical Use-Case & Scenario Guides
🔄 1. How to Calculate PC Upgrades (Out-of-Pocket & Perf Uplift)
Learn how the Upgrade Calculator calculates net out-of-pocket costs (New Price minus Resale Value), filters candidates by the +20% performance uplift floor, and ranks upgrades by scenario capability (1440p gaming, AI/LLM).
🔍 2. How to Quickly Find the Best Deals
Learn how to use budget sliders, VRAM floors, Value Score sorting, and condition toggles (New, Refurbished, Used) to find top deals in seconds.
📌 3. Pinning Cards & Adding Custom Listings
Step-by-step guide to Pinning your existing graphics card (📌 icon) at the top of the table and adding Custom Listings (eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist) to evaluate second-hand deals against new store prices.
⚖️ 4. Comparing Products Head-to-Head
How to select multiple products to launch the side-by-side Compare Matrix (/compare/) or explore pre-compiled Versus Matchup Pages (/versus/).
⚙️ 5. Presets & Custom Weight Sliders
Detailed breakdown of what each of the 8 weight sliders affects (price, perf, rt, ai, vram, tdp, warranty, year) and how workload presets (1080p, 1440p, 4K, AI/LLM, 3D Rendering) work.
🧮 6. How the Value Engine Works
High-level overview of how the Value Engine compares performance and specifications against total retail price and TCO electricity costs.
🧠 7. Specs That Actually Matter
Cut through marketing fluff: VRAM capacity, memory bus bandwidth, Tensor TFLOPS, and 3D V-Cache impact on gaming frame times.
🕵️ 8. GPU Deal Hunting Guide
Strategies for spotting genuine discounts, checking price trend histories, and using target price matrices.
🛠️ Direct Tools
- 🎮 GPU Calculator: Filter and rank graphics cards live.
- 🧠 CPU Calculator: Rank processors for gaming & productivity.
- 💾 SSD Calculator: Compare storage speeds and endurance.
- 🧬 RAM Calculator: Compare DDR4 vs DDR5 transfer speeds.