NEW

P r e s e n t s

handbook
56 pages of guides

PC gaming
starts here
From graphics options to protecting
your tech: all the advice you need

56
PAGES OF
HARDWARE
REVIEWS
INSIDE!
Edition
Digital

build
an impressive
budget pc
SECOND
edition

Reviewed CPUs I keyboards I Graphics cards I Motherboards I SSDs I Monitors I mice I headsets
 Welcome to
P r e s e n t s

handbook
With the seemingly endless number of products to choose from, building and
upgrading a PC can seem like a daunting task. That’s why, on these pages, you’ll find all
the essential info you need to build and/or upgrade your own rig. Whether you’re
looking to switch out components to give yourself a performance boost ahead of the
next slew of AAA games, or you’re going to simply bite the bullet and put together a
whole new rig, we’ve got the lowdown on the latest high-end kit as well as budget and
mid-range offerings that won’t break the bank. If you’re completely new to the idea of
building a PC, we’ve included a jargon buster to teach you all of the terms used
throughout this book, and by retailers or manufacturers. If you want to know the best
products on the market today, we’ve got you covered with reviews and head to heads
covering components and peripherals, as well as a buyer’s guide for three different
price ranges. From processors, motherboards and graphics cards (and solutions to keep
them cool) to keyboards, mice, speakers and monitors, discover everything you need to
put together your dream machine.
 P r e s e n t s

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 Contents
50 74
68

Build section
10 Jargon buster
Explaining and demystifying
PC hardware terms
16 How to build a PC
Your essential guide to putting
a rig together
110
106
24 Back to the basics
build guide
An in-depth step-by-step
budget build guide
38 Build a $999 gaming PC
How close can we get to 1K and what
Hardware
kind of PC does it get you? REVIEWS
50 PC graphics All the hardware you
options explained need to supercharge
Understand what graphics options
mean and which to choose
your PC
60 Protect your tech
Protect your kit from theft and make
your own alarm system

Head to head
70 74 78 82 86
Gaming motherboARDs graphics gaming Fans
processors cards
At the heart of your PC sits the
most neglected component in
Check out a number of
monitors It’s an overlooked but
important part of your
Make the brain of your build computing: the motherboard. Let us show you just how PC. Cool your rig with the
Start your gaming build right by models from a variety of very best PC fans for
strong with the best CPUs a good gaming display will
choosing the best one for you price ranges gaming machines
for gaming go a long way

6
 86 102

98

112 94

82

90 94 98 102
solid state Gaming Gaming mice
drives headsets keyboards Consider exactly what
you will be using your
With so much choice out mouse for and choose
The best gaming Dominate the battlefield
there, we explore the right one to best
headsets deliver but avoid penury with the
supercharged storage for suit your needs
unrivalled audio best keyboard
your setup

7
 Contents

BUILD
here’s what you need
to build your own pc
from scratch

45

16

8
 BUILD
Contents

38
10 jargon buster
Explaining and demystifying
PC hardware terms
16 how to build a pc
Your essential guide to putting
a rig together
24 Back to the basics
build guide
An in-depth step-by-step budget
build guide
38 Build a $999
gaming PC
How close can we get to 1K and
what kind of PC does it get you?
50 pc graphics
options explained
Understand what graphics options
mean and which to choose
60 protect
your tech
Protect your kit from theft and
make your own alarm system

24

10
9
F E at u r e
Jargon buster

Jargon
Buster
James Norris explains and demystifies PC hardware terms

W
hether you are lost in a
labyrinthine tech support
forum and nothing’s making
sense, or you just want to
refresh your PC building and maintenance
knowledge, I’m here to help with a glossary
of the most common hardware terms and
their straightforward explanations.
If you’re looking for more back-to-basics
help with both hardware and games,
check out The Complete Guide to PC
Gaming at www.bit.ly/completepc.

10

0-9
32-bit – When referencing computer
architecture, the term 32-bit is used to
denote the number of bits that can be
processed simultaneously. Systems using
32-bit CPU and OS architectures generally
have lower performance potential and
RAM capacity when compared to their
newer, 64-bit brethren. This term is also
used to describe the colour range of a
monitor that provides 32-bit per pixel of
colour information, which means eight bits
per channel for red, green and blue, along
with an 8-bit transparency channel.
64-bit – Again referencing computer
architecture, 64-bit is used to indicate the
number of bits that can be processed at
the same time, in this case twice as much
as 32-bit, which provides processing and
memory advantages for systems
designed around this greater potential.
Most modern computer systems use
64-bit architecture.
802.11 – Wi-Fi data standard
specification family that runs on the
2.5GHz or 5GHz wireless bands.
A aspect ratio does not specify resolution
AMD Radeon – AMD’s brand name for
its series of graphics cards, DRAM
modules, SSDs and supporting software.
Usually refers to graphics cards or GPUs.
AMD Ryzen – AMD’s competitor to
Intel’s Core series processors, now in their
second generation. Ryzen processors,
based on the Zen architecture, offer
slightly lower single-core speeds than their
Intel counterparts but offer more cores
at similar or lower prices.
APU – Accelerated Processing Unit.
AMD’s definition for a CPU/GPU fusion
designed for budget and midrange
gaming-oriented systems
Aspect ratio – The size of a computer
screen’s width relative to its height. Back
during the CRT era, this was normally 4:3,
but with the advent of flat-screen displays,
16:9 has become the accepted standard.
Other common aspect ratios include 21:9
Blu-Ray
AMD Ryzen
for ultrawide monitors, and 16:10 for
productivity-based work. Note that
or the actual size, just the proportions of
the display.
Acer – Acer Inc. is a computer hardware
company, based in Taiwan, that’s known
for its Predator series of products and
competitive pricing.
ASUS – ASUSTek Computer Inc., based
in Taiwan, is a computer company
specialising in high-performance,
gamer-oriented hardware. ASUS owns the
popular Republic of Gamers brand.
ATX – Advanced Technology eXtended.
Midrange desktop PC size standard for
motherboards and cases.
B
Bandwidth – Refers to the maximum
rate of data transfer from one place to
another, measured in bits per second. This
applies to your internet connection, as well
as your PC’s hardware.
HOW TO BUILD A PC
Group Test Feature
BenQ – A Taiwanese hardware
manufacturer known for high-
performance gaming monitors and
a competitive pricing structure.
BIOS – Basic Input/Output System, also
Firmware, also UEFI. The BIOS is the
low-level operating system of a
component such as a motherboard
or graphics card, often made user-
accessible via a set of option screens that
are available for configuration when your
computer boots up.
Blu-ray – The high-density optical disc
format that replaced DVD.
Bluetooth – A low-bandwidth wireless
standard used for peripherals like mice,
keyboards and speakers. Produces
unacceptable lag for gaming on most
systems, with RF-style wireless or
corded devices preferred for high-
performance situations.
Bus – In this context, a hardware bus
is the architecture in a computer’s
subsystems that enables the various
components to communicate with each
other. This includes core areas such the
system memory and extends to
peripherals such as storage devices or
expansion card slots, each of which have
their own unique specifications.
C
Cable modem – The device used to
provide an internet signal to your router
from your ISP. Usually supplied by cable
companies and ISPs to end users and
often built into a small network router.
Cache – A small amount of very
high-speed memory that’s used to keep
frequently accessed data handy for the
CPU. A properly managed and sized cache
has an outsized effect on
system performance.
11
F E at u r e
Jargon Buster
Case – An enclosure that houses all the
parts of a PC.
CD-R – Recordable Compact Disc.
Chipset – The series of integrated
circuits that manages the functions
of a motherboard.
Clock speed – The rate at which a
computer performs calculation, usually
measured in megahertz (MHz) or
gigahertz (GHz).
Codec – Short for coder-decoder. A
codec is software or hardware that
encodes and decodes data streams.
Core – The computational centre of a
processor, usually one of a group of up to
six in a modern desktop CPU.
Corsair – Premium computer peripheral
supplier based in Fremont, California and
known for quality DRAM products,
keyboards, water-cooling systems and
high-fashion tower cases.
CPU – Central Processing Unit. The
computation centre of a computer,
comprised of one or more cores.
Crossover Ethernet Cable – A length
of RJ-45 networking cable with a special
wiring configuration that enables routers
to be daisy chained together via a specially
labelled or autosensing Ethernet port.
D conventions and size.
Das Keyboard – A boutique Austin,
Texas-based hardware company that
produces a range of well-received
high-quality mechanical keyboards.
DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol. An automatic IP addressing
system used on modern TCP/IP networks
12
and the internet that provides each
computer with an IP address without
requiring a manually entered or fixed-
number identification scheme. Widely
used by internet access hardware such as
network routers.
DDR – Double Data Rate memory.
Available in many speeds and sizes.
DisplayPort – DisplayPort is a high-
performance digital video connector
designed for speedy refresh rates and
high resolutions.
DMA – Direct Memory Access. Refers
to devices that can directly utilise
Case
CPUs
system memory without draining
processor resources.
DPI – Dots Per Inch. Used to determine
printing and screen resolution.
Drive bay – A place inside a computer
case provided to install a hard drive.
Comes in 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch sizes.
DRAM – Dynamic RAM. DRAM refreshes
constantly to hold data. It’s slower than
static RAM, but cheaper.
Driver – The specialised software that
controls the low-level functions of
hardware components, usually provided
by the component manufacturer or
occasionally by the OS vendor.
E
E-ATX – Extended ATX. Extra-large ATX
size used for deluxe motherboards and
computer cases.
F
FAT – File Allocation Table. A family of
robust but simple filing systems used by
many OS implementations, such as
MS-DOS, as well as standalone hardware
such as printers or IP cameras. FAT files
often have limitations on naming
Firewall – A software or hardware
network barrier that protects users from
outside attacks and surveillance.
Firmware – Low-level software built into
a device’s non-volatile memory (memory
which retains data even if the power is
switched off). It communicates with OS
drivers and other hardware.
 Jargon Buster
Feature

ITX
hard drive) – These legacy storage
devices utilise rotating magnetic disks to
store data and generally feature lower
costs and larger capacities than solid-state
drives (SSDs). While mechanical hard disk
systems are a mature and stable
technology, SSDs have recently begun to
supplant them. The faster the rotational
speed of the disk, the better the
performance and the higher the cost of
the drive. 5400RPM disks are considered
mainstream, while 7200RPM and
10000RPM speeds are reserved for
high-performance drives.
HBM – High Bandwidth Memory. A type
of stackable memory used in graphics
cards that provides high performance in a
IP address – Internet Protocol address.
The unique numeric address of a
networked device, displayed as a series of
numbers, for example 192.168.0.2 in the
commonly used version four of the IP
protocol. As demand for IP addresses has
grown, version six of the IP protocol is
being rolled out, which provides a much
larger addressing space to cover the rapid
growth of internet-connected devices.
IPS panel – In-Plane Switching. A type of
advanced LCD display that offers superior
colours and viewing angles.
ITX – Information Technology eXtended.
Tiny desktop PC size standard used for
tight spaces or boutique builds.

small form factor.
Hyperthreading – A CPU technology
that enables two threads to share a CPU
core, doubling the thread capabilities of a
processor. Especially useful for low-core-
count laptops.
J
JEDEC – A colloquial term referring to
the DRAM preconfigured memory setting
profiles derived from the Joint Electron
Device Engineering Council’s
specifications. Similar to XMP.

IIntel Core i9
FLOPS – Floating Point Operations Per – Intel’s newest consumer K
Second. A measure of computational CPU. The Core i9 series takes over from Kilohertz – 1000Hz; A unit of computing
performance that leans on complex the previous top-of-the-line i7 processors speed. Generally used to describe monitor
floating-point operations. GPUs are and introduces features formerly only refresh rates.
particularly robust at performing these, found on enterprise-grade hardware, KVM switch – Short for Keyboard,
outperforming even high-end CPUs by running from six to 18 cores and Video, Mouse. A type of switchbox that
several orders of magnitude. supporting hyperthreading. The i9- enables multiple computers to be
FreeSync – An AMD-created, but 9900K, with eight cores running at a peak attached to a single keyboard, monitor,
otherwise free and open, monitor variable of 5GHz, is a gaming beast. and mouse or other input device.
sync standard, compatible with VESA’s
Adaptive Sync protocol. Essentially, rather Hard disk drive
than the monitor refreshing at a steady
rate, its refresh rate changes with the
framerate of the game you’re playing.
FreeSync 2 updates the standard to
include lower minimum framerates, HDR,
HDMI support and integrated colour
space management.

G
Gigahertz – 1000MHz. A unit of internal
clock speed used by CPUs and other
components to specify device
performance. Adjusting the clock speed
higher provides better performance,
although doing so can impact stability and
power consumption.
G.Skill – A computer hardware
manufacturer, based in Taiwan, that’s
best known for its top-shelf, high-speed
DRAM products.
G-Sync – Similar to FreeSync, except
proprietary. This is a monitor adaptive
sync standard used by Nvidia to smooth
framerate transitions and eliminate display
tearing. Requires Nvidia graphics
hardware and a G-Sync-capable monitor.

H
Hard Boot – Resetting a computer from
a powered-off condition.
Hard disk drive (also mechanical

13
F E at u r e
Jargon buster
L about any kind of computing hardware
LAN/WLAN – Local Area Network /
Wireless Local Area Network. A private
local network of computers usually
connected via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
Logitech – A highly successful Swiss
computer peripherals company
specialising in mice, headsets, keyboards
and computer speakers.
M known for cases and components, such as
MAC address – A code built into every
network-capable port that uniquely
identifies each device connection. Usually
takes the form of six pairs of hexadecimal
digits separated by a comma or dash.
Mechanical keyboard – A type of
keyboard that uses microswitches
instead of the default rubber domes for
actuation. They tend to provide a form of
tactile and audio feedback that certain
users find satisfying.
Megahertz – 1000KHz. A unit of
computing speed. Generally used to
specify speeds on memory as well as
on older processors.
MLC – Multi Level Cell. Normally refers to
a NAND memory implementation.
Cheaper but less durable than SLC.
MSI – Micro-Star International, a
Taiwanese corporation that makes just
14
you can imagine.
Mechanical keyboard
Motherboard – The centrepiece of a PC
system and the place where all the other
components are installed.
N
NAND flash memory – The type
of memory used in SSDs.
NZXT – An American hardware company
liquid coolers.
Nvidia GTX – In Nvidia’s current
nomenclature, GTX refers to consumer
graphics cards based on its last- SSD
generation Pascal and previous Maxwell
architectures. The Pascal-based Nvidia
GTX 1080 and big brother 1080 Ti were
the first Nvidia cards able to provide 4K
gaming at reasonable framerates, while
the 1070 is designed to cover gaming
needs at 1080 and 1440 resolutions
and high detail.
Nvidia RTX – Featuring the new Turing
architecture, Nvidia’s RTX series of
graphics cards, including the RTX 2080
and higher-performance RTX 2080 Ti, are
the current top shelf when it comes to
performance in consumer graphics cards,
both in real-world and potential numbers. tracing and AI hardware, as well as jumps
With Turing, 50% higher efficiency per of over 20 frames per second are possible
core, faster memory and dedicated ray in many games.
Motherboard
O
OLED – Organic Light Emitting Diode. An
advanced screen technology that offers
low power, high performance and amazing
image quality. Increasingly found on
smartphones, such as the iPhone XS and
Samsung Galaxy S9, as well as on large
screen TVs.
Overclocking – Pushing a component
beyond its rated specifications to improve
its performance.
P
PCB – Printed Circuit Board. The
backboard on which components such as
sockets and Voltage Regulator Modules
(VRMs) are mounted.
PCIe (OR PCI-E) – Peripheral
Component Interconnect Express. A
high-speed slot design used in modern
computers for add-in cards.
Pixel – A single element or dot on a
computer screen.
PSU – Power Supply Unit. A box-like
component with cables that provides a
computer with power.
R
RAID – Redundant Array of Independent
Disks. A set of drives configured in an array
for improved performance and reliability.
RAM – Random Access Memory. The
computational workspace of a computer

Ultrawide Display
system. It’s volatile, meaning the data it
stores is lost when the system is reset or
turned off.
RAMDAC – Random Access Memory
Digital to Analogue Converter. Converts
image data into signals that can be
displayed on a monitor.
Razer – Razer Inc. is a gaming hardware
company with headquarters in San
Francisco and Singapore. Razer’s entire
product catalogue is gaming oriented.
Known especially for its gaming laptops.
RJ-11 – An old-style telephone
connector that looks like a narrow
Ethernet (RJ-45) connector. Also used
for analogue modems.
Roccat – A German peripheral
manufacturer that specialises in input
devices such as mechanical keyboards
and mice, as well as headphones.
ROM – Read-Only Memory. An area of
protected memory that contains
specialised instructions.
Router – A hub that manages wired and
wireless connections to a network.
S older style of LCD display that offers low
SATA – Serial ATA. A data transport
protocol used for storage devices.
Screen burn – The afterimage left on
certain types of displays, such as OLEDs,
after displaying static images for extended
periods of time. Can cause permanent
hardware damage.
SLC – Single-Level Cell NAND memory.
The quickest, priciest and most expensive
NAND implementation.
SO-DIMM – The type of DDR memory
module used in laptop systems. Uses a
smaller form factor than standard
memory sticks.
Solid state – Used to describe a device
with no moving parts.
SSD – Solid-State Drive. A storage drive
made of non-volatile memory cells instead
of a moving magnetic platter. Much faster
than hard disk drives.
SteelSeries – High-end Danish
gaming peripheral manufacturer
known for headsets, mice and
mechanical keyboards.
Stream processors – Limited
instruction processors used in GPUs to
perform specialised functions. Used for
high-performance applications.
T
TDP – Total Dissipated Power. The
maximum wattage a part will allow before
shutting down or throttling to avoid
damage or overheating. Can be used as a
rough indicator of in-generation
performance or efficiency.
TN panel – Twisted Nematic panel. An
price and very high speed, but is also
notable for washed-out colours and poor
viewing angles.
Touchpad – A small flat pad that
registers mouse-style pointer
movement when you slide a fingertip
across it. Used for laptops.
U
Ultrawide display – A computer
monitor that sports a cinema-like 21:9
aspect ratio. Available in 2560x1080 and
HOW TO BUILD A PC
Feature
3440x1440 resolutions.
UPS – Uninterruptable Power Supply. A
battery-backup power source that enables
a computer system to continue
functioning in the case of a power outage
or other problems.
USB – Universal Serial Bus. A small
hot-swappable data connector that’s
capable of high performance when using
the latest specifications.
V
VA panel – Vertical Alignment panel. A
type of LCD display that delivers high
contrast ratios, deeper black levels and
more accurate colours. VA panels are ideal
for gaming.
W
WAP – Wireless Access Point. The place
you log into a wireless network.
Watt – A measure of electrical power.
Webcam – A usually USB-based PC
camera that provides live video for use
with conferences, game streaming and
other media projects.
WPA2 – Wi-Fi Protected Access 2. The
most robust security protocol currently
provided for many Wi-Fi networks.
X
XMP – Extreme Memory Profile. An
Intel-derived DRAM settings standard that
provides several fail-safe memory
configurations beyond the default setting,
allowing easy configuration of high-speed
memory modules.
15
 F E at u r e
How to build a PC

16
 HOW TO BUILD A PC
Feature

How to
build a PC
Building a PC is a huge part of the joy of PC gaming. No one starts
off as an expert PC builder, though, and here James Davenport takes
you through the entire process step-by-step

17
 F E at u r e
How to build a PC
1 Prepare the chassis
Let’s build. First, take off both side panels on the case. You’ll
need access to both sides for inserting hardware, cable management,
and general ease of access. It can get crowded, quick.
Move any cables inside of the case out of the way. We’ll get to moving
those around in a while.
2 Motherboard prep
Your chassis should include motherboard standoff screws,
as pictured (sometimes they’re gold instead of black). These prevent your
motherboard from making direct contact with the back of the chassis,
which could short out the board. Reference the holes on your
motherboard to see where the standoffs need to be, since this can vary.
Screw them in tightly.
Take the I/O (input/output) shield and line it up with the frame from
inside the case. Make sure you have it facing in the right direction before
you pop it in. Again, make sure that you check your motherboard for
reference. Push it in, making sure not to press too hard on the centre (but
you might have to really press hard on those edges in order to make sure
that it’s in the right place). There should be a satisfying click from each
side once it’s aligned correctly and as it snaps into place. With this done,
we can move onto the motherboard itself.
18
3
Insert the motherboard
Once the chassis is prepped, it’s time for you to insert
the motherboard. This chassis has a convenient built-in
standoff that centres the motherboard for you. However,
not all cases will have one, so when you place it down –
make sure that you do so gently – there may be some
resistance up against the I/O shield. This is completely
normal and nothing to worry about. Just make sure that
no metal prongs accidentally get lodged into a USB port,
otherwise it’s game over! Once the motherboard is
aligned with the standoffs, screw down the centre – don’t
tighten it yet – and then do the opposite corners.
Screwing in opposite corners is a good rule of thumb for
installing anything in a PC, as it lowers the risk of
misaligning and potentially damaging your hardware.
Tighten the screws bit by bit until the motherboard is
firmly in place. Don’t overdo it. If it isn’t jostling around, it
should be secure.
Once it’s secure, tighten up the screws slowly and
gently, working from opposite corners, to make sure that
the motherboard stays seated correctly.
 HOW TO BUILD A PC
Feature

4
Seat the
processor
Good job. If you’re reading this and not
cursing or crying, you’ve successfully got a
motherboard in a PC case. Next up we
deal with the most important part of any
PC: the CPU. Treat the CPU like an
inexplicably living brain in a glass jar. Hold
it at the edges and avoid touching the
underside. Finger grease can mess with
the heat diffusion, which is not good on
one of the most expensive, vital, volatile
PC components. To install it, lift the lever
on the CPU socket on the motherboard,
remove the plastic placeholder, and locate
the golden arrow on your CPU. This, and
the notches on your CPU, will let you know
how to align the CPU above the slot. Make
sure everything is matched up, then
carefully lower the CPU straight down onto
the socket. It should fit in effortlessly, so
don’t put extra pressure on it. CPUs are
easily damaged.
Once the CPU is in place, lower the
socket shield and secure it by pulling and
locking the metal lever down. You’ll feel
resistance, and likely a few heart
palpitations, but try not to worry too much,
everything is (probably) okay.

19
 F E at u r e
How to build a PC

5 Put in the power supply 7

Now, for something much simpler… A PC isn’t powered by magic, so a
power supply (PSU) is necessary. Ours is a modular unit, meaning we can plug and pull
cables as needed. Some PSUs have cables built into the unit, making cable management Install the
a hassle, so if you can, go modular. Installing is simple. Just make sure the PSU fan is
either facing the chassis vent (or upwards if it works in with your airflow scheme) and cooler
then screw it in from outside the case. This step will vary depending on what
type of cooler is being installed, so be sure
to refer to the manufacturer’s instructions.
If you’re using a stock Intel cooler,

6 Ready the RAM installation is as simple as lining up the

small fan and pressing down each corner
With the PSU in, its time for another simple step: the memory. First, you’ll until the legs snap into the motherboard.
need to locate the DIMM slots. Any DIMM-wit could do it! Sorry, that wasn’t helpful. Most coolers require some kind of
They’re the four, thin, RAM-length slots next to the CPU. In order to take advantage of any backplate installation, which means you’ll
dual-channel functionality, you’ll need to install the RAM in alternating slots. Refer to your be coming from the underside of your
motherboard documents for details, but for us, the slots were labelled. motherboard. With an air cooler, you’ll
Placing the RAM is simple. Make sure the locks at the end of each slot are open, find probably thread mounting screws through
the notch in your RAM, line it up with the notch in the slot, insert it, and push until the lock the top of the motherboard and attach
clicks and the RAM is securely in place. Don’t be afraid to push down hard. them to the backplate with nuts. On the
top side, directly over the CPU, goes the
cooler itself. Make sure you align each
corner around the CPU.
Some PSUs have cables built into the unit, Plug the cooler’s power cable into the
making cable management a hassle, so if motherboard. The manual should illustrate
where the pins are in case they’re not
you can, go modular labelled on the motherboard itself. We
plugged into CPU_FAN and W_PUMP.

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8
Install THE SSD
Of course, every PC needs non-volatile
memory for storage, but nowadays,
there’s an allowance for plenty of variation.
What you see on these pages is a simple
build, so in this case we’re just sticking with
a single SSD.
Installing an SSD is easy in this Fractal
Design Define R5 case. You’ll find that
most cases are built with SSDs in mind
these days: just screw the drive into one of
the provided SSD trays, and then screw
the SSD plus tray into wherever the
chassis allows. Now is a good time to start
thinking about cable management, too.
The drive will need power and a way to
interface with the other PC components.
First, you’ll need to plug the SATA data and
power cables into the drive.
Be sure to arrange your cables with
some kind of logic in mind that prevents
them from trailing across the
motherboard, if possible. Most cases let
you snake cables through the base behind
the mobo by using conveniently placed
routing holes, but not all chassis are quite
so lucky.
Next, the SATA data cable plugs into the
motherboard. Some plugs have different
speeds or interfaces, so check your
motherboard manual for specifics about
which to use. Lastly, the power cable goes
to the PSU, as indicated either on the PSU
itself or in the manual.

9
Install the GPU
It’s time to seriously pump this PC up
with the graphics card. Fortunately,
installing this in your PC is extremely
simple. First, remove the PCI-E slot shields
near the rear of the case where your video
card will lay. You’ll find that most of today’s
graphics cards take up two slots.
Grab your graphics card, align
it with the PCI-E slot, and press
it down gently until you feel the card lock
into place. Secure the graphics card by
screwing it in with thumbscrews where the
slot shields used to be.
Graphics cards need extra power to
function, so find the power cables your
GPU requires and plug them in (they’re
typically labelled PCI-E or VGA). Don’t
worry since PSU cables only fit where
they’re meant to, thanks to an elaborate
set of square and hexagonal plug
components. Of course, if your PSU is
modular, make sure the cables are
plugged into the unit as well.

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10
Panel connectors
In order to get the lights and switches
on the front of your chassis to work, these
tiny cables need to plug into your
motherboard in very specific places. Refer
to the motherboard manual and on-board
labelling if necessary. There may be some
front panel USB cables too, but those are
much easier to deal with. Plug them in as
indicated here.
A motherboard needs power too. Find
the 24-pin power connector, orient it
correctly, and push it into the motherboard
until it’s firmly connected. Standard ATX
motherboards also require an additional
power connection close to the CPU,
usually four to six pins. Check for one, plug
it in, and then make sure all power cables
plug back into the PSU if it’s modular.
There should be fan connectors in
various locations on the motherboard.
Find the ones that best suit your cable
management and plug them in.
Wrap things up by doing any last minute
cable management. It’s not a bad idea to
double check your connections and make
sure all of your components are firmly
seated, too.

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11
And then, a PC!
Be sure to take a step back and drink it
all in. You’ve (probably) successfully
expressed yourself via expensive
hardware, sweat, tears and a healthy dose
of love. This is the beginning of a new era
for you, but it doesn’t have to end here.
Feel free to add components we didn’t
cover. If you’re a fan of antiquated tech,
then throw in a disc drive. Want to open up
your PC to more peripherals? Add a
bluetooth receiver. Not enough red LEDs in
your life? Well, then light that sucker up. It’s
your PC, make it your way. The platform is
open for a reason, after all.
HOW TO BUILD A PC
Feature
Troubleshooting
No power? Try reseating connections
between PSU and the motherboard.
Still nothing? Recheck the mobo’s
front panel cables.
If you’re getting power, but no
bootup, check the RAM. Maybe try the
other set of DIMM slots.
Check your video cable – it should be
connected to the graphics card, not to
the motherboard.
If nothing else works, most
manufacturers offer solid support.
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Back to the basics build guide

An in-depth step-by-step budget build guide

by Zak Storey

F
or the experienced, building a PC is an easy, often therapeutic
experience. Each part fits into its designated slot, each cable is
carefully woven around the frame, and each power-on is
successful. However, for a vast swath of folk, it’s nothing of the
sort. PC building can be a daunting task, especially if it’s your first time.
After all, you’re messing around with delicate parts that can cost upward
of half a month’s paycheck. One little slip, one jolt of static, one cable in
the wrong place, and boom – you’re out of pocket and out of luck.
So, why bother? You can pick up a pre-built PC for a similar amount of
cash as building your own – and let someone else worry about everything.
It’s convenient, easy, and saves a whole ton of time. Combine all that with
numerous tech sources and journalistic outlets (ourselves included)
focusing on the very extreme end of computing, and finding the info you
need to take you through the process of building a system right from the
start is challenging.
However, the fact is that, more than anything, building your own
system is actually a relatively easy and satisfying experience. It’s about
taking the exact hardware you want, and combining it all into something
that suits you perfectly. By building your own rig, you know exactly what
goes in it, where potential problems can arise, and what you can do to
improve it. On top of that, it’s yours. You built that, nobody else, not
another company – you.
This time around, we decided to pull out a bit of a double whammy.
Firstly, we’re talking a $500 hardware budget, and an attempt to build a
fairly respectable 1080p gaming machine, with all the gizmos you need,
including 620GB of storage, an SSD, 8GB of DDR4, and a fairly meaty
processor. Or, at least, enough to get by just fine with the latest titles.
We’re combining that with a super-granular, in-depth guide to take you
from the very beginning to the very end of your own budget build.

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INGREDIENTS
PART Price

Case Cooler Master

MasterBox Lite 3.1 $35

Prices were correct at time of printing: updated prices available at https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3YQfFt

Gigabyte B360M
Motherboard $76
D3H
CPU Intel Pentium Gold
G5600 $86
Memory 8GB (2x 4GB) Crucial
Ballistix Sport LT
@ 2,400MT/s $85
GPU Gigabyte GeForce
GTX 1050 2GB OC $135
PSU EVGA BT450
80+ Bronze $38
OS Drive 120GB Kingston
A400 2.5-inch SSD $27
Data Drive 500GB Western
Digital AV-GP
3.5-inch HDD $19

Cooling Stock $0

Operating
System Windows 10 64-bit $100

Total $601

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CPU
Intel Pentium Gold G5600
$86
Where would we be without the core wars between AMD
and Intel? Since Intel has had to up its game and push
more cores into its lineup, we’re finally seeing some of the
budget-oriented processors reach higher heights than
we’ve seen in the past. The Core i3s are now akin to Kaby
Lake i5s, and the Core i5s hold nearly the same multi-
processing grunt as the old i7s. So, where does that put
the Pentiums?
Well, this little beauty, coming in at $86, packs two
full-fat cores, plus Hyper-Threading, to give us a total of
four threads, all clocking in at a base frequency of 3.9GHz.
That’s not exactly a small figure there. Ultimately, all of
those stats come together to give us a fairly fast Coffee
Lake processor that’s more than capable of driving the
latest games with ease. It also comes with a cooler as
standard, so win-win.

Motherboard
Gigabyte B360M D3H
microATX $86
With a good processor, you need a good mobo. We’ve
sprung a little extra cash into this purchase, but in the long
run, it’s very much worth it. Gigabyte’s B360M D3H is a
microATX fun house of future connectivity. You’ve got
multiple SATA ports, support for onboard USB 3.0 and
2.0, four PWM fan headers, support for all of the Coffee
Lake series of processors (from our lowly Pentium all the
way up to the Intel Core i7-8086K), and, more importantly
for us, support for an M.2 PCIe SSD, which will be a
massive boon if you do fancy chunking out for some
beefier storage later down the line.
Unlike most systems out there, ours does have a fairly
accessible and easy upgrade path, for those looking to get
more out of their rig later down the line. It would be easy to
throw in a Core i5, a beefier GPU, and a more advanced
storage solution without breaking the bank. And on top of
that, your mobo won’t look out of place, either.

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memory
8GB (2x 4GB) Crucial Ballistix
Sport LT @ 2,400MT/s $85

We’ve seen in the past that Intel-based systems
don’t really benefit much from advanced
memory frequency speeds, outside of more
intensive workloads, particularly video editing.
And with the recent fall in memory prices,
picking up an 8GB kit of dual-channel memory
isn’t quite as daunting as it once was.
8GB is plenty for all your gaming needs,
especially at 1080p. It’s likely that within the next
four years, you may need to double that
capacity, but only for the highest of high-end
titles. Fortunately, the Gigabyte B360
motherboard supports four sticks of DDR4, so it
would simply be a case of buying a second set of
the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT featured above.

GPU
Gigabyte GeForce GTX
1050 2GB OC $135
Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 2GB isn’t going to wow your
friends, but there’s no arguing with how impressive it is
regarding value for money. We’ve come a long way
graphically in the last few years, with Nvidia’s tenth-gen
series of cards revolutionizing what you can expect
across the range. To give some clarity to that, in our
testing, the GTX 980 performs almost identically to a GTX
1060. The 1050 is a somewhat slower card than its bigger
brother, but it still packs just enough punch to tackle most
1080p titles.
Basically, you need to be smart with your settings. You
can’t just throw everything to Ultra and leave it there if you
want an acceptable frame rate. Most mainstream esports
titles, Overwatch, MMOs, MOBAs, and the like will play
well into the 100fps mark, but for any other graphically
intensive title, you should drop the quality of the textures
and lower antialiasing where you can to reduce the overall
load on the GPU.

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os drive
120GB Kingston A400
2.5-inch SSD $27
What would any modern system be without a solid, quick,
and dependable hard drive behind its OS? Nothing, that’s
what. Sure, those old spinning platters may be far
cheaper than their flash-based rivals, but nothing
compares to having the instantaneous response of an
SSD. It’s one of the biggest leaps you can make as a PC
enthusiast, swapping from a hard drive to an SSD, and we
certainly wouldn’t build a system nowadays without one.
Whether it’s 2.5-inch or M.2, there’s an SSD for everyone,
at any budget.
Because we’re on a tight budget, we’ve gone for a
120GB model for our build. It’s not the flashiest of drives,
but it does pack impressive 500MB/s read and 450MB/s
write speeds into its incredibly affordable frame.

Data drive
500GB Western Digital
AV-GP 3.5-inch HDD $19
It’s scary just how little you can pick one of these beasts
up for nowadays. OK, 500GB isn’t exactly an average-
sized hard drive – ideally, you want something around
double that size – but if you’re on a budget, and don’t
mind being a little more scrupulous with your games and
content, in this age of digital streaming at least, running
with a 500GB HDD for your backup drive isn’t exactly too
much of a stretch.
Western Digital is one of the better hard drive brands
out there. And although the AV-GP isn’t one of its
mainstream drive ranges, we’ve no doubt this $19 box of
joy will serve you well. There is one caveat here: It does
only support SATA 3.0 Gb/s, but that’s still the equivalent
of sequential read and writes nearing 375MB/s, and you
won’t find any spinning platters capable of driving those
kinda numbers sub-$300.

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psu
450W EVGA BT450 80+
Bronze ATX $38
We’ve stressed plenty of times in the past just how
important buying a decent PSU is, and we’ll stress it again:
Regardless of price, always go with a named brand,
because if things go boom, you want a company you can
talk to, not some Amazon non-branded reseller. EVGA’s
BT450 is by far our favourite budget power supply. It
packs plenty of juice for any modern-day system (twice as
much as what is needed here under load), and also comes
with an impressive three-year warranty. Of course, it’s not
the most efficient of power supplies, it’s non-modular, and
that warranty isn’t as good as the 10-year titans EVGA
also sells, but for the price, it’s arguably one of the best
choices you can make.

case
Cooler Master
MasterBox Lite 3.1
microATX $35
Where would we be without a case? To be
fair, if you were on a ridiculously tight
budget, you could forsake the case and
run the rig off the motherboard box
(something we do for testing), but
long-term, you’ll want to get yourself
something solid.
Cooler Master’s MasterBox has been a
solid favourite of ours for a while, and this
microATX offering is no different. Although
stripped down in comparison to some of
the other MasterBoxes, the 3.1 still keeps
some of the basic design elements,
alongside a few nifty cost-cutting
measures. Take the windowed side panel
– it may look like tempered glass, but it’s
actually acrylic. There’s not a huge amount
of room for cable management, but the
size of the rear side panel has been
increased to compensate for your cable
bulge. It still features a full-fledged front
I/O, and, rather incredibly, white and black
accents if you want to change out the red
ones on the front panel.

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The
Budget-Busting
1080p Build
With just $500, is it possible to build a PC capable of gaming on today’s 1080p planet?

B
ack to basics – how on earth did we come
up with this one? Well, as graphics card
prices have fallen, and the cost of
memory is more reasonable than it has
been of late, we thought it was time to see what you
could do with an absolutely minimal budget. We
limited our hardware budget at $500. You’ll notice
we keep referring to a ‘hardware budget’ in particular
– that’s because the operating system cost is one of
the biggest variables.
In reality, this system is designed with Windows 10
in mind. You could game on Linux for free (or by
paying a donation of your choosing), though, for now,
Microsoft very much holds the keys to the kingdom.
If you have a license already, it makes this build
ridiculously affordable. Those not so lucky have two
options: Either you can chunk out for a full license,
bound to an email address, which will set you back
around $100 at least; or you can see whether you
can buy yourself an OEM one-time Windows 10 code
online. These are typically available from less
reputable sellers, and usually, if you can purchase a
legitimate key, you’ll find that it’s a one-hit wonder.
Pop that motherboard out, and whammo – you’ll
need a new key. We always recommend you pick up
a legitimate Windows license from Microsoft, and
anchor it to a secure email account. If you do,
activating any new machine is a piece of pie. Simply
log in with your Microsoft account, and you’re good
to go.

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Feature

Price Versus Performance

prices were correct at time of printing: updated prices available at https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3YQfFt

INGREDIENTS
So, where do you begin with a build like this? Well, for us it all started with the
PART Price
processor. Knowing Coffee Lake to be the beast it is – and in a lot of ways, we
have AMD to thank for this – means that we know those single cores can Cooler Master MasterBox Lite
hammer out some seriously strong IPC. What that translates to is plentiful Case $35
3.1
frame rates in game, and a smooth desktop outside of it. Thanks to the Coffee
Lake core count bump, the Pentiums of today easily match the Core i3s of Motherboard Gigabyte B360M D3H $76
2016 and earlier. In the process, they’ve become an ideal part for some
low-end gaming. CPU Intel Pentium Gold G5600 $86
Now, you could technically do something similar with an AMD build, but Memory 8GB (2x 4GB) Crucial Ballistix
you’d be laying down a lot more cash in the process. Yep, we never thought Sport LT @ 2,400MT/s $85
we’d say this, but Intel’s budget offerings are actually pretty incredible right
now, and AMD currently can’t match them on price. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050
GPU $135
Next on the list was the notion that prior to working for this mag, this journo 2GB OC
was only using a GTX 660 2GB to game on back in 2015. All in all, it was a PSU EVGA BT450 80+ Bronze $38
pretty comfortable experience, especially at 1080p. Games have come a fair
way since then, but the reality is that game developers always cater to the OS Drive 120GB Kingston A400
largest portion of the community, meaning they need their title to look 2.5-inch SSD $27
awesome on the high-end settings, but be accessible at the mid-range, too. Data Drive 500GB Western Digital AV-GP
The GTX 1050 2GB is the perfect fit, then. It’s the successor to the GTX 950, 3.5-inch HDD $19
which, in turn, supplanted the GTX 760 and the GTX 670. So it must, by
default, be a capable gaming GPU. Cooling Stock $0
Combine that with 8GB of DDR4 and a decent-sized SSD for your OS
install, and you’re looking at a very appealing platform for anyone who’s Operating
System Windows 10 64-bit $100
looking at getting into PC gaming or building their kid a system to go back to
school with, or simply someone who wants a good all-around machine.
Total $601

1 2
Pre-Build Prep
So, the hardware’s turned up, you’ve got a solid work area to build your rig in,
and you’re good to go. What’s first? Well, after taking your woolly socks off
and touching something metal to get that zappy goodness out of your
fingertips, you’re going to want to unbox your chassis. This is where you’ll
encounter a few issues. Firstly, with polystyrene and a plastic bag sliding out
of a cardboard box it means that every case will almost always zap you with
static electricity. So, de-charge yourself again immediately after you remove
the case, polystyrene, and plastic bag from the box. Then place both the
polystyrene packaging and bag back in the box for later.
Chassis Stripdown
Next you’ll want to empty out the chassis as best you can. There’s almost
always some form of accessory bag included, with the relevant screws, cable
ties, and other helpful things (in this case, a box with the black and white
accents). Remove as many panels as you can, either by removing the
thumbscrews, or by popping the plastic pegs out. Then place the panels back
into the cardboard box for later. It’s also worth getting a bowl of some
description, in which to place the screws you’ll be using, because it stops
them from rolling around all over the place. Some of the thumbscrews can be
overtightened from the factory, so it might be helpful to use a screwdriver to
give you a little extra leverage on the tricky ones. Also, leave the front I/O
cables tucked somewhere inside the case for later.

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3 4
Motherboard I/O
The number of times we’ve forgotten this little plate. Now you’ve got
everything out the way, you can install the backbone of your system: the
motherboard. First, open the box and find the rear I/O plate, located below
the board with the accessories. It’s a rectangle that goes in the back of the
case to protect your I/O from damage. Look at your motherboard, see which
side the holes need to be for each portion of I/O (audio is almost always
closest to the GPU slots), then push the I/O bracket into place, from the inside
of the chassis. It should click into place quite easily. Some of the more padded
brackets can take some extra force to get to sit correctly, and some premium
mobos have I/O shields pre-attached, so you don’t have to worry about those.
5 6
Processor Installation
Now your motherboard is securely in place, it’s time to install the big bad. And
by that, we mean the processor. It’s a scary business installing Intel
processors, not least because if you bend one of those pins in the socket, it’ll
mean a quick RMA, and a halt on your build. For an Intel system, you’re going
to want to note the location of the triangle etched in the bottom-left corner of
the silver CPU bracket. Push down and lift up the retention arm you can see
us holding here. Then, noting the golden triangle on the corner of your CPU,
gently place it into the socket. No wiggling, no forcing, just so the triangles are
in alignment, and everything fits comfortably. You can leave the black plastic
cover in place. Carefully secure the bracket back down under the screw, then
push the retention arm back down and under to secure the CPU. The black
plastic cover will pop off. If it doesn’t, gently pull it.
32
Stand-offs & Screws
Depending on your chassis, you might need to install the stand-offs yourself.
These are tiny screws with a thread on the top that give your motherboard a
raised platform to stand on. In our case, Cooler Master includes these inside
the screw bag, with a neat Phillips head stand-off screw installer. Look at the
chassis, and note the ‘M’ on the pre-drilled threads in the case. This is where
you need to install the stand-offs for your microATX motherboard. Check
where the stand-offs are going against the screw holes on your motherboard.
You may find some aren’t on the motherboard, or the motherboard doesn’t
cover all the stand-offs – this is fine. Once you’ve got the stand-offs in, place
the motherboard on top of them, wedge it up against the rear I/O plate, and
screw it into place.
Thermal Cooling
Processors get hot, which means you need to cool them. We’re using the
stock fan Intel provides with its non-unlocked processors. It’s more than
enough to keep our build happy. Usually, we’d apply a small dot (half a pea
size) of thermal paste in the middle of the processor before attaching a cooler
of some description. However, in this build, the stock Intel cooler has thermal
paste pre-applied to the bottom. Simply remove the plastic cover on the
heatsink, line up the four pegs on each corner of the fan with the holes in the
motherboard surrounding the CPU socket, and push them into place. Once
there, rotate the pegs counterclockwise to lock it in place. Then run the CPU
fan cable to a PWM fan header on the motherboard. These look like four pins,
and are usually labeled. We recommend you install this into the CPU one.
There’s a notch on the cable to stop you plugging it in the wrong way, and you
may need to remove the cable from the clips holding it on to the CPU fan to
reach around the other way, as we have here.

7 8
Memory Matters
Now you’ve got your CPU fan installed and plugged in, it’s time to install the
memory. You should have bought a dual-channel kit for your build. To install
this, notice the notch on the bottom of each stick, where the connectors are.
You need to line these up with the notches in the memory slots. Lift up the
latches on both sides of each memory slot, then lining up the memory stick,
carefully slot it into place, until both latches on either side click down securely.
Additionally, unless you’re installing four sticks, make sure you use the colour
co-ordinated memory slots, to enable dual-channel memory speeds. Under
no circumstances should you be using a single slot of memory for your build,
because this limits overall memory bandwidth by half, regardless of how
much memory it gives you.
9 10
Power Supply Installation
When it comes to installing the power supply, you have two choices: fan down,
or fan up. In a liquid-cooled build or one with an AIO, we recommend you
install it with the fan facing down. If any water leaks from the cooling block,
there’s minimal chance that gravity will drag it into the fan and fry the system.
With the fan up, it draws warm air down and out of the chassis. It also affects
how much play you have in the cables when you’re installing them. Once the
PSU is in place, simply use thumbscrews to secure three or four of the
threads through the back of the chassis, then run the cables out through the
back of the case, next to the motherboard.
back to the basics build guide
Feature
Hard drives for Days
We have both a 2.5-inch SSD and a 3.5-inch HDD. The SSD is for our
operating system, because it has limited storage, but is incredibly fast, and
the 500GB HDD is for everything else. To install the 3.5-inch hard drive, slide
it into the caddy, as pictured here, with the ports facing out toward the back of
the case. Then, simply use one of the included thumbscrews to secure it in
place. The SSD slots into the top, and is secured by two small screws at the
front. We decided to angle the ports, so they were facing the motherboard, to
make it easier to run the cables later. You can also install the SATA data
transfer cables now. You’ll find these in your motherboard box; they have
L-shaped connectors. Connect one to each hard drive, then run it through the
back of the case, and into one of the L-shaped ports on the motherboard.
Front Panel Fun
So, you’ve got the PSU installed, and all the cables out of the back, so now it’s
time to plug in all the front panel connectors. Usually on the bottom-right of
the motherboard, you’ll find a selection of pin-outs to which you can attach
the connectors. Your motherboard manual will tell you which connector
needs to go where, but usually on the mid-range options and above, those
details are actually written on the motherboard itself as well. With the
MasterBox, the front panel connectors come bunched up on a group of wires,
all attached together – you can pull these apart and separate them slightly to
give you some leverage to plug them into the correct position. It’s also a good
time to plug the audio pass-through (located bottom-left), the USB 2.0 header
(check the pin slots on each plug, so you don’t get confused with the audio
pass-through), and the USB 3.0 header into the motherboard.
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11
ATX Power Installation
Now the PSU is in, the front panel cables are all connected, and your USBs
are firing, it’s time to add some power to your system’s main hardware. First
up on the list is the 24-pin ATX power. You’ll recognise this cable simply by its
sheer size. Most power supplies come with a 24-pin that splits up into two
segments: a 20-pin and a 4-pin. This is to support older motherboards that
don’t require the full 24-pin power. However, our system very much does.
Simply clip the additional 4-pin power into place on to the side of the 20-pin
cable, note the latch on the cable, line it up with the notch on the
motherboard, and push it into place. Job done – first cable all sorted.
13
Graphics Card Time
Now you’re all powered up, it’s time to fit your GPU. To do this, you’ll first want
to remove two of the PCIe covers located at the back of your rig. Find the two
that are closest to the topmost PCIe slot. Use a screwdriver to remove them,
and set them to one side. Then, take your GPU and carefully slot it into place,
with the rear I/O pointing out toward the back of the case, from where you
removed those PCIe covers earlier. Once that’s done, push it into place until it
clicks into the slot. Finally, secure it down with the two screws you removed
from the PCIe bracket covers earlier, and that’s all there is to it.
34
12
CPU Power Installation
Your mobo’s got juice, so let’s sort out the CPU. Your EPS power cable looks
like a PCIe power cable, although it usually has EPS or CPU written on the
plug. Its pins are also different shapes, so there’s no way you can plug a PCIe
power connector into a CPU connector. On a bigger chassis with better cable
management, you’d run it up the back of the motherboard and into the
eight-pin socket. In our case, there are no cut-outs to do that. There’s also not
enough cable to run it from the side. We could run it straight up from the
power supply, but that’s messy. Instead, we’ll unscrew some of the screws
holding the mobo in place, near the socket, then thread the CPU power
through the CPU socket cut-out on the mobo tray, then up into the power
supply slot, letting the mobo stand-offs act as cable management space,
before securing the mobo back down.
14
GPU Power
Some GPUs need additional power, because although they draw directly from
the PCIe slot they’re placed into, the higher-end cards demand more juice to
run correctly. Don’t worry if you forget, and you power on the system without
it, because you’ll receive a message on boot telling you to power down the
machine and plug in the additional cables. PCIe power cables are usually
labeled, and come as a daisy-chained plug making them easy to identify. In
our build, however, our card doesn’t need any additional power. So, for us, it’s
simply a matter of tying the cables up, and putting them somewhere out of
the way in the bottom of the chassis. Once this is done, you simply reattach all
the panels you removed in step one, which are safely stored in your chassis
box, and you’re good to go.

Set Up Your Software
From BIOS to boot, follow our guide to
installing your operating system, device
drivers, and a selection of essential apps,
one simple step at a time
Y
ou’ve made it. You’ve got a brand new rig, and you’re ready to kick
some serious ass in those 1080p games. But how do you get there?
How do you install an operating system on your new machine? You
haven’t installed an optical disc drive in your chassis, and you don’t
seem to have one laying around either, so where do you go from here? No
need to worry – we’ve got your back. The last time we used one of those DVD
readers was way back in 2016.
Anyway, you’re here to install your OS of choice. For us, that’s Windows 10.
You could game on Linux, if you want, but we chose to go with Microsoft so
that is what this tutorial will cover (apologies to any Linux enthusiasts
reading this).
1 2
Bootable Media Stick
First thing you need to do is grab an 8GB USB stick, preferably 3.0, if you’ve
got one. But, as this is mostly a one-time deal, it doesn’t hugely matter. Then,
on another system, with Windows already installed, you need to go to http://
bit.ly/Win10MediaKit and hit the ‘Download tool now’ button. This gives you
an EXE file that you can then use to download and create a bootable USB
stick. On MacOS or any Linux distro, you’re given an ISO instead of this, so you
have to use a third-party program, such as Etcher, to mount the ISO on the
USB stick.
back to the basics build guide
Feature
First-Time Boot & BIOS
Now you’ve got a bootable OS USB stick, you need to plug it into your new
machine, add a keyboard and mouse, connect a screen to the GPU’s rear I/O,
and power the machine on. Hammer the Delete key as soon as you hit the
power button, and keep hitting it until you enter the BIOS.
To install Windows, we need to tell the BIOS to boot from the USB stick.
Although the location of the boot order varies from mobo to mobo, the
procedure is very much the same. In our build, head to the BIOS menu on the
top, go down to ‘Boot Option Priorities’, click ‘Boot Option #1’ and select the
disk that’s labelled ‘UEFI: Your USB Drive, Partition 1’. Hit F10, and select ‘Save
Configuration and Exit’. The machine reboots into the USB stick.
You enter Windows Setup at this point. Choose your language, time, and
keyboard layout, then hit ‘Next’. Windows then asks for a Windows Activation
key – you can either enter this here, or do it later by hitting the ‘I don’t have a
product key’ button at the bottom. Next, you need to choose the version of
Windows you want to install; for us, that’s ‘Windows 10 Home x64’. Accept the
license agreement and hit ‘Next’. Then, when prompted, hit ‘Custom Install’
and choose your SSD as your primary drive. There are no names here, but
each disk does specify its total size, enabling you to select the appropriate
drive. Hit ‘Next’. If it throws up an error, or there’s a partition already there,
delete the partition, and try again. Windows now installs. Once the system
restarts, quickly pull out the USB stick, and let Windows finish the install. Now
you can select the privacy options right for you, and either log in using your
Microsoft profile, or create a localised account.
Some gpus need additional power,
because although they draw
directly from the pcie slot [...] the
higher-end cards need more juice
35
f e at u r e
Back to the basics build guide

3 4
Of Desktops & Chipsets
You’ve made it to the desktop,
so what’s next? That depends on
a few factors. Some
motherboards support Ethernet
connections automatically, while
others require a driver to be
installed before even connecting
to any network. In our case, it’s
the latter. So, again on another
system (or even on your Android
phone, if you’re in a pinch), head
to your motherboard model’s
web page (Google your
motherboard model – ‘Gigabyte
B360M D3H’, in our case – and choose the manufacturer’s URL). Then click
the ‘Support’ or ‘Download’ tabs, find the ‘LAN’ subsection, and download the
relevant driver. Finally, install that on your desktop, and it gives you access to
the Internet.
Once this is done, you’re going to want to install the remaining drivers. First
up is the chipset. From the same website, download the latest version of the
chipset, along with any other software, and install it directly on your new
system. We recommend that you install the chipset first where possible,
before anything else, such as RGB or utility applications provided by the
manufacturer, to stop any incompatibilities from occurring.
Install your apps
Now you’ll want some regular
apps on your rig. A quick starting
point is that long-time industry
favourite Ninite. Head to https://
ninite.com and pick the apps
you’d like to install. A few we
recommend off the bat are:
Chrome, LibreOffice, Notepad++,
and 7Zip. You can also install
things such as Skype and Steam
if need be, but if you’re a stickler
for having all your Steam in a
single location, it’s better to hold
off on that one until later.
If you watch a lot of media, K-Lite Codecs is a good choice. It installs Media
Player Classic, which can decode and play MKV video files, among other
things. You also need GPU drivers. In our case, Google ‘Nvidia GeForce
Drivers’, and click the topmost link. In ‘Manual Driver Search’, select your
GPU and OS, hit ‘Start Search’ then download and install the driver.
You can opt out of installing GeForce Experience, but then you will need
to do this every few months, which is a bit of a pain; GeForce Experience
auto-downloads driver updates, but you need to make an account,
and then give Nvidia some juicy advertising details (yeah, we’re not fans of
this either).

5 6
Update the BIOS Performance tweaks
Now it’s time to update your There are just a few
BIOS, and get everything performance options
ticking along smoothly. left to tweak in the
Depending on how long your BIOS. One of these
motherboard has been sitting steps can be ignored,
in a warehouse, you might not but if you are
have the latest BIOS installed. a perfectionist, getting
BIOS updates typically these last two things
improve stability, weed out done will set your mind
bugs, such as Spectre and at ease, and ensure
Meltdown, and can, in some everything is running
cases, improve performance. as it should be. Head
Head back to your mobo’s web back into the BIOS by
page, and into ‘Support’. repeatedly pressing
Download the most recent BIOS update, and place it on your desktop. the Delete key on
For a BIOS to read an update off storage, the BIOS update file needs to be restart/startup. First,
placed on a memory stick or storage device that has been formatted to the we’ll enable the XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) settings, a pre-set list of
FAT32 file system. Fortunately, your Windows 10 install stick we used earlier specifications that your memory can and will run at, that are typically higher
already has been. than the JEDEC standard. This means you can transfer more data to and from
Plug your Windows install stick into your system, create a new folder inside your memory faster for better performance in memory-intensive
it called something like ‘BIOS Updates’, take the BIOS update you applications, such as archiving/zipping, and any photography or editing work
downloaded, and extract it into this folder. Restart your machine and mash you may do. For our Gigabyte board, enter the ‘Advanced Frequency Settings’
the Delete key to get back into the BIOS. This next step varies, depending on option in the main menu, then go down to the ‘Extreme Memory Profile’
the motherboard (check your mobo manual). In our case, move the mouse to menu, press Enter, and choose ‘Profile 1’. This enables the correct timings and
the bottom-right, and a pop-up menu appears. Select ‘Q Flash’ then ‘Update frequency for your memory.
BIOS’, after which you need to find the BIOS folder you made earlier on your You might also want to take a look at fan curves while you’re here. You can
memory stick. Select the BIOS file in that folder, and hit the arrow to the right. control these with in-desktop apps, but we always find that BIOS
Your system now starts updating the BIOS. It’s imperative at this point that configuration works best, and works from startup. For our motherboard,
you do not reset or switch off your machine, or you could brick the entire those settings are found at the bottom of the main BIOS menu. Have a tinker,
board. Let it do what it has to; it may restart a few times. Once done, head and find a setup that works for you. That’s all there is to it. Then hit F10, save,
back into the BIOS (we still have work to do). and exit, and there you have it – one fully working, ready-to-go system.

36
 back to the basics build guide
Feature

Hiding any excess cables

1
under the hard drive caddy
here is ideal for keeping things
3 neat and tidy, as long as you don’t
have more than one 3.5-inch
drive, of course.

There are no intake fans

2
with this build – adding two
120mms in the front would keep
2 temperatures down, especially
during the hot summer months.

If you’re going to upgrade

4 3
your processor at a later
date, remember to get a beefier
cooler; this slimline stock one
won’t cut it.

We love a GPU that draws

4
power solely from the PCIe
bus, although admittedly, it won’t

1 be as fast as some of its higher-

spec buddies.

Half a grand of gaming goodness

T
here you have it: your very own budget experience, we know that when gaming, there are setting that renders each individual strand of hair on
1080p gaming machine. It’s versatile, two effects that take up the majority of your Lara’s head; although it looks breathtaking, during
compact, easy to build, and looks darn processing power: antialiasing and shadows. Now, in the middle of a game, it’s not something we
good, given the limited funds. We could our scenario, you’d be gaming on a 1080p 24-inch particularly notice.
have whacked in an Intel Core i3 quad-core part or panel, so turning off AA in its entirety is a bad idea; Perhaps the biggest difference was in Ghost
a GTX 1060 to bolster performance – two very reducing it, however, is less so. But let’s give you Recon. A demanding game at the best of times,
smart moves – but that would mean a bigger some metrics here. dropping the graphical profile down from Ultra to
budget, and not everyone has that kind of cash In our Ultra preset benchmark test for High, and again adjusting the shadow quality (not
lying about. Warhammer II, we managed 27fps. With a few minor disabling it entirely), bumped up frame rates from 5
We managed to stick to our $500 hardware tweaks, shadows reduced to minimal, a slight all the way up to 40fps. That’s a 700 percent
budget fairly well. In fact, if you’re interested in decrease from Ultra to Medium in various textures, increase just by tweaking a profile. OK, it’s a bit more
checking out where we sourced the parts for this and a reduction in foliage/tree quality, we managed messing about before playing, but even at the high
build, head to https://pcpartpicker.com/ 38fps, with minimal impact on overall texture quality. end, with GTX 1080 Tis and Titans, you still go
list/3YQfFt for a full breakdown. Don’t worry, there Take that same logic across to Rise of the Tomb through the same process anyway, so what’s so
are no affiliates links or codes there, at least not from Raider, and we managed 52fps. Amazingly, there’s a different down here at the $500 budget?
us. You can see what we chose, at what price, and
where we’d pick it up from.
But enough of that – was this build a success? benchmarks
Yes. It was never going to compete with our zero-
point
zero-point – that’s a $1,100 machine
Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 1,152 412 (-64%)
packing a six-core processor, 16GB of DDR4, a
PCIe SSD, and an Nvidia GTX 1060, after all – but CrystalDisk QD32
3,400 494 (-85%)
Sequential Read (MB/s)
for the price, it actually held its ratings fairly well,
and despite the lacklustre computational CrystalDisk QD32
1,720 476 (-72%)
Sequential Write (MB/s)
performance, the effect on real-world feel and use
is slim to minimal. Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 60 35 (-42%)
In game, it’s rather different, of course, with most Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 46 27 (-41%)
of our tests being almost unplayable in certain
circumstances, but this is where we need to get a Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (Avg fps) 39 5 (-87%)
little granular and explain the whole purpose of our
build. With a system like this, you need to be a 3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 11,101 5,880 (-47%)
tweaker. Not necessarily of hardware or 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
overclocking, but of graphical settings. From past

37
F e at u r e
Build a $999 gaming PC

$999
How close can we get to that 1K sweet spot, and what
kind of PC does it get you? Zak Storey finds out…

O
ne of the most common questions we get
asked by folks is how much they should be
spending on their next rig. It’s a tricky one
to answer. The value of the dollar changes
depending on the total available budget for a system,
but there’s also a secondary factor you need
to consider, and that’s one of price to performance.
Once you get past a certain price point, the amount
of performance you get for the money you spend
inevitably begins to drop – in some cases,
rather dramatically.
Take AMD’s Threadripper 2970WX, for example. At
stock, it scores a fairly heady 4,407 points in Cinebench
R15. Compare that to a Ryzen 5 2600’s 1,274 points,
and that’s a 246 percent increase in performance.
However, each dollar you put into the 2970WX
effectively gains you 3.39 points, against the 2600’s
6.71 points per dollar, which is an increase in value of
near enough 98 percent.
So, this is our ‘sweet spot’ build. The rig of choice for
those trying to get the most bang for their buck today.
It’s not the most value-oriented system out there, nor
does it cater toward the high end, but if you’re trying to
make every single dollar count, this is a really good
place to start.

38
 Build a $999 gaming PC
Feature

INGREDIENTS
PART Price

AMD Ryzen 5
CPU $160
2600

XFX Radeon
GPU RX 590 8GB $280
Fatboy OC+

MSI B450M
Mobo $95
Mortar

16GB (2x 8GB)

Memory HyperX Predator $157
@ 3,200MT/s

480GB Adata
SSD $58
SU630 2.5-inch

Stock (AMD
Cooler $0
Wraith Stealth)

500W Cooler
PSU Master $50
MasterWatt Lite

prices correct at time of printing.

Thermaltake
Case $99
Level 20 VT

Windows 10
OS $100
Home (64-bit)

Total $999

39
f e at u r e
Build a $999 gaming PC

Processor
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
$160
What AMD has done to the CPU market is nothing short of
incredible. The value proposition Ryzen represents is
staggering, and nowhere is this more apparent than with
the Ryzen 5 2600. Six cores and 12 threads for $160 is
simply amazing. Couple that with it being the best
value-for-money processor in our testing, plus the fact it’s
unlocked for some serious overclocking, and you’re
quickly on to a winner.
In-game performance has increased by leaps and
bounds since first-generation Ryzen as well. This is mostly
down to memory latency improvements and added game
support for the new architecture.

Graphics Card
XFX Radeon RX 590 8GB
FATBOY OC+ $280
We may have given the RX 590 a hard time over the 590 8GB Fatboy, is a clean-looking piece of hardware.
previous few issues, but that’s only because it’s a refresh Perhaps a bit garish, with its faux carbon fibre and bright
of a refresh, and like a disappointed parent, we just want red fan stickers, but of the two 590 options we have (this
AMD to do better. If you’re building a brand new rig, and the baby blue monstrosity from Sapphire), this is our
however, it’s hard to argue with Team Red’s pricing on preferred choice.
this GPU. In fact, it’s the best bang-for-the-buck GPU
we’ve found. XFX’s iteration, the Radeon RX

40
 Build a $999 gaming PC
Feature

Memory
16GB (2x 8GB) HyperX Predator
@ 3,200MT/s $157
Ryzen thrives on high-frequency memory, and for now,
the sweet spot seems to be the 3,200MT/s mark.
Although, admittedly, this isn’t quite the cheapest kit
out there, we feel that 16GB – at least for now – is the
perfect amount for any 1080p and 1440p gaming
machines. It’s also enough for any multitude of
programs, enabling you to run Chrome tabs, Discord,
and a game all at the same time, without too much
trouble. It’s also ideal for non-3D Photoshop work, and to
get your head into the world of Premiere Pro, too –
although After Effects would, of course, benefit from
more memory.

Ryzen thrives on high-

frequency memory, and for
now the sweet spot seems to
be the 3,200MT/s mark

Motherboard
MSI B450M
Mortar $95
Spending hard cash on motherboards when you’re on a
budget is almost always a challenging thing to convince
yourself to do. A lot of the time, to hit that $100 mark,
you’re left with a sour taste in your mouth, because most
mobos look ugly and sparse. There’s little in the way of
personality at that price.
MSI’s B450M Mortar is a fine example of a
manufacturer bucking that trend. From the stylised
heatsinks to the reinforced PCIe bracket and plethora of
connectivity options, it’s a nice all-rounder to pair with our
case and Ryzen 5 processor. On top of that, MSI has the
second-best BIOS UI we’ve encountered to date, and for
$95, that’s not to be sniffed at.

41
f e at u r e
Build a $999 gaming PC
Power Supply
500W Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite
$50
From the wall, our system should be
drawing around 315W when under
maximum load. So, this time around, we’ve
gone with a named-brand, non-modular
500W power supply, which gives us around
37 percent headroom for any future
upgrades, and plenty of leeway if we want to
42
Solid State Drive
480GB Adata SU630
2.5-inch SSD $58
For this build, we’ve decided to go with a single solid-state drive to
power everything: Adata’s SU630 480GB SSD. It represents a huge
value proposition right now, as it comes in at just $58. Yeah, you’re
going to have to be a little sparing with your apps and media, but
overall it’s hard to pass up the opportunity, even if the performance
mostly comes from the SLC cache buried within it.
In an ideal world, we’d recommend you go with something like an
860 Evo 250GB instead, then pull an HDD from an older machine for
everything else, if you’re on a budget. But if you absolutely must have
a sizeable and affordable SSD, the SU630 is the way to go.
overclock our Ryzen 5 2600. It’s always
advisable to stick with a branded PSU,
because if it dies, and takes your system
with it, you’ll need a decent warranty to
rely on to recoup your losses – something
you might not get with cheaper, lesser-
known brands.
 Build a $999 gaming PC
Feature

Cooler
AMD Wraith Stealth $0
Nothing says value quite like ‘free’, does it? Or rather, ‘included’, because this cooler
comes with the Ryzen 5 2600 and is part of the overall cost. AMD’s Wraith Stealth is
a nicely designed, low-profile air-cooled heatsink for your Ryzen 5 2600, and it packs
more than enough thermal performance to help alleviate the heat output of your
six-core processor.
You can now buy a few different variants of this from after-market sellers, and for
our build, we’ve gone for the Spire model of the Stealth (because we really wanted
that red LED ring, OK?), but generally they all perform exceptionally well straight out
of the box, and even come with thermal paste pre-applied.

It’s always advisable to stick with

a branded PSU, because if it dies,
and takes your system with it,
you’ll need a decent warranty

Case
Thermaltake Level 20 VT
MicroATX $99
Last but not least, we’ve gone for something of an
unorthodox chassis for this system. Thermaltake’s Level
20 VT reminds us a lot of the BitFenix Prodigy. Its
horizontal motherboard mounting system, the massive
200mm front intake fan, and the huge amount of
modularity embedded within it make it a prime candidate
for our microATX ambitions.
Its looks are certainly open to interpretation, that’s
for sure, but on the whole, it’s not too bad. There’s plenty
of glass here to enjoy, and although it’s a funky case to
build in, there are some creature comforts to keep things
in check.

43
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Smashing Through a
Thermaltake Chassis
Length of time: 1–2 hours
Originally, this build was based on a $799 budget,
and although that’s certainly possible, it didn’t
meet that perfect price-to-performance ratio we
wanted to achieve, so after a hell of a lot of tweaking
and nagging, we managed to bump that figure up
to $999.
Actually, it came to a bit more than that initially,
with the final price tag above our target, but
checking prices just before going to press saw it
slip back down to our initial goal. Spot on it in fact.
You can probably build for less anyway, especially if
you already have some form of Windows license,
and if you’re upgrading or migrating a system,
simply entering the key upon installation, or
logging in to your account and authorising the
edition of Windows, will happily authenticate the
system, and give you full access to all of those
Windows features we love. So, the total hardware
cost is just $899.
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: medium
We could have saved a bit of cash here and
there, particularly with the storage, but on the
whole, we’re pretty happy with how the whole
thing turned out. It’ll be pretty nifty at 1080p
gaming, and our processor of choice, the Ryzen 5
2600, is actually the best value processor we’ve
seen to date.
Decisions, decisions
From the outset, we knew that we wanted to roll
with a Ryzen 5 2600, and either a Vega 56
(surprisingly affordable nowadays) or an RX 590.
Reason being that both cards represent a
pretty strong value proposition these days, and as
we hadn’t had a good look at Vega 56 for some
time, we thought it might have been worth a
second try.
After much debate, we finally settled on the RX
590, because it pulled us below our budget, and
Build a $999 gaming PC
Feature
still provided us with solid frame rates at 1080p.
16GB of RAM seemed like a sensible decision, too –
8GB setups seem to have gone the way of the dodo,
and with ever expansive Chrome footprints and a
myriad other apps sucking up memory nowadays,
having more capacity should make the world of
difference. Pairing that capacity with a high
frequency should also help keep our Ryzen sample
running at full tilt.
The last things we had to consider were the case
and the SSD. We would have liked to have featured
Fractal Design’s Meshify C Compact for this build,
but couldn’t get it in time, unfortunately, so we
chose the Thermaltake Level 20 VT instead.
Although visually striking, it is a bit of an anomaly,
thanks to its layout. If we were to redo this build,
either Fractal’s Meshify C Compact or our favourite
mATX case from NZXT (the H400i) would be our
preferred choice.
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F e at u r e
Build a $999 gaming PC

1 2
Chassis Strip-down Mobo Install
The first thing we do with any case is strip it down as far as possible. That Because our build is relatively straightforward, and the cooling isn’t
means removing as many panels as we can, along with any internal mounting exceptionally complex to fit, it’s OK to install your motherboard first here.
hardware that we don’t need, and making sure the fans are in the right Grab your rear I/O shield and fit that first, pressing it in from the inside,
position, too. We’ve left the front 200mm fan in this build, simply because we making sure to orient the ports and cutouts correctly. Then slide your
have nothing to replace it with. Always keep your tempered glass panels safe, motherboard into position, over the motherboard stand-offs, and secure
ideally wedged between the sheets of polystyrene in your case box, if down with the correct screws. If you have a more advanced cooling solution,
possible. It’s also handy to have a magnetic bowl or tub around for you to put we advise holding off on this step, unless the CPU cutout is substantial, and
all your screws in, first install the mounting hardware for your cooler, before installing the
so you don’t lose motherboard into the chassis.
them. As a final
preparation, make
sure you’re working
in a static-free, safe
environment (don’t
worry about a static
strap; just earth
yourself every now
and then on
something big and
metal), and you’re
good to go.

3 4
Ryzen Ready
Installing Ryzen processors is genuinely one of the least daunting parts of
building a PC nowadays. Especially in contrast to Intel’s LGA setup, where if
you bend even one pin out of alignment, it could mean the death of your
mobo. In Ryzen’s case, lift the retention arm up, locate the gold triangles on
the corners of your processor and the CPU socket, line them up, gently slot
the CPU in, then secure the retention arm back down again. Simple.
Cooler Craftsmanship
Now you’re ready to chill your processor. If you’re installing an aftermarket
cooler, you should follow the instructions in the manual. With our Wraith
Stealth, however, it’s a little more straightforward. You need to unscrew both
of the mounting brackets AMD includes as standard, to the north and south
of the processor. Then, with the backplate still in place (preferably held up by
your hand), gently place your new Wraith on top, and secure the screws down,
a little bit at a time, in a diagonal or star shape pattern. Screw in the top-left
one, then the bottom-right, then top-right, then bottom-left, until it’s secure. If
it’s a second-hand cooler, an aftermarket heatsink, or one you’ve used before,
remember to make sure you place some thermal paste on the processor
before you install the cooler. Oh, and don’t forget to connect your fan cable to
the CPU fan header.

46

5 6
Making Memories
Installing your DDR4 is a fairly simple process. Make sure you line up the
notch on the bottom of each memory stick with the notch on the DIMM slot,
lift the retention clips up on each end, then slowly place each stick straight
down, until it clicks into place and the clips latch back down. Typically, you
have to make sure you use the colour-coded slots to ensure you’re getting
your dual-channel operation; however, some motherboards might prioritise
one pair of slots over the others. Check the manual or, in our case with the
Mortar, the motherboard itself, because it tells you which two channels it
wants you to plug memory into first.
7 8
Cable Magic
Next, you’re going to want to start plugging in your cables where you can, and
try to sort out that tangled mess. Begin by pre-routing your cables where you
want them to go: the 24-pin, the PCIe power pin, and the eight-pin CPU power.
Keep an eye on any Molex or SATA devices you want to install, then go ahead
and do your best to fold up and secure the rest of the cables with cable ties.
This helps keep them out of the way, and improves airflow, too. We’ve also
plugged our front fan into an onboard system fan header, and rerouted our
front I/O cables to the other side of the case, to allow better access to the
front panel headers on the motherboard.
Build a $999 gaming PC
Feature
Bizarre Power Installations
It took us a while to get to grips with how you actually install this power supply.
Most cases allow you to install your PSU either from the rear of the case or
the side. With the Level 20, however, this isn’t possible. To get your power
supply installed, you have to remove the two thumb screws located at the
bottom of the floor panel, then lift the entire chassis frame out of its base.
Then, with the frame out (and hardware still attached), you can either place
the PSU in the bottom plate and drop the frame back down, or secure it to the
frame before securing the frame to the base once more. It’s a little unintuitive,
but not too challenging. Also, remember to make sure your fan is facing
downward, because there’s nowhere for the power supply to draw air in from
directly upward.
Graphical Tomfoolery
Now it’s time to get your GPU in. To do this, remove the two screws holding
down the rear PCIe covers, and lift them out of the case. Then you need to
carefully line up your graphics card with the uppermost slot on your
motherboard ours is reinforced with steel, and bright silver, (in contrast to the
other slot, which is black). Then line up the GPU with the rear I/O and the PCIe
slot, and firmly push the GPU into place. Once that’s done, you can take that
PCIe cable you routed earlier and plug it into the PCIe power at the top. We’ve
actually tucked our cable down into the GPU itself, because the shroud
extends further than the PCB of the card.
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Build a $999 gaming PC
9 10
SSD Mounts?
Now, you may be thinking: Those look like SSD mounts to the left and right.
And the answer should just be: Yep, they are. However, they suck. Seriously
suck. The only way you can install an SSD is with the label facing away from
you, and even if you decide to do that, you can’t have the ports facing down –
what you’re left with is an SSD in a caddy, with a label facing backward, and
the ports on top. Yup. Design oversight, thy name is Thermaltake. We’re
actually using them as a form of cable management here, trapping the CPU
cable down against the PSU, and then keeping the SSD loose in the chassis.
Because it’s not a spinning disk, our SU630 doesn’t mind which way you
orient it, so tucking it out the way underneath the motherboard tray is a solid
bet. We could have fitted it in one of the 3.5-inch hard drive caddies
underneath the GPU, but that would mess with our cable management
bundle, and as airflow is only provided by that 200mm fan, the more we have
of that, the better.
11
Panel Time
Once that’s done, it’s time to fit all the panels back on the chassis. First,
though, plug your system into the wall, power on the PSU, and hit that power
button up top. If it boots, you can switch it off again, and begin re-assembling
your case. Remember to make sure there are no fingerprints on the underside
of each panel as you secure it back down, especially when you’re working with
tempered glass. The last thing you want is to finish fitting all those shiny new
panels, then have to take them off again to get at the smudges. Once you’ve
reached this step, voila – you’re done. The building part of this rig is all
wrapped up, so now we can move on to software.
48
Is that a manual?
Yes, it is. MSI is one of a handful of manufacturers that drive you up the wall
when it comes to front panel connectors. Most manufacturers – Gigabyte,
Asus, EVGA – include written instructions on the motherboard as to where
each pin needs to be installed. MSI doesn’t. JFP1 signifies where the front
panel headers are, but unless you’ve got a keen memory, or work with MSI
motherboards every day, you’re going to have no choice but to dig out the
motherboard manual so you can plug each connector into its required slot.
Remember, for HDD and power LEDs to operate correctly, the + and – need to
be correctly oriented on the pins. We’ve also installed the USB 3.0 header,
USB 2.0 header, and the front panel HD audio connector while doing this bit of
the build.
12
Windows Install
Last but not least, you need to crack out a Windows install USB. To do that, on
a separate Windows 10 PC, head to http://bit.ly/Win10MediaKit, click the big
‘Download tool now’ button, then double-click the EXE file that downloads.
You need an 8GB USB stick installed beforehand, but this runs you through
the USB boot tool creation wizard. Once done, you need to plug the USB stick
into your new machine, power it on, then mash the Delete key to get into the
BIOS, change the boot order, so your USB is first, hit F10, save, exit, then go
through the install process.
 Build a $999 gaming PC
Feature

A top-down look this time

4 1
around, but you can see
why this style of design often
leads to a mess when it comes to
interior cable management. It’s
difficult to route things when the
2 mobo is flat.

We’ve gone with AMD’s

2
Wraith Spire on our build,
because we wanted to add a little
3 pizzazz to the affair.

We’ve removed the radiator

3
brackets at the top of the
1 chassis to help us maintain a
clean top-down aesthetic.

A good upgrade for this

4
would be to drop in a 250GB
Samsung 960 Evo M.2 drive here,
for some OS grunt.

Case study
O
ur $999 build is complete, and what a Other than those pesky case chassis happy with it at launch, but that doesn’t stop it from
journey it’s been. The Thermaltake conundrums, though, the overall spec of this rig being a solid card at this resolution, beating even the
Level 20 VT was not the chassis we – 16GB of RAM, an RX 590, a fairly sizable HDD, and GTX 1060 when it comes to value for performance.
wanted to use – it’s interesting, don’t get a six-core, 12-thread processor – is incredibly sound The weakness of this rig lies with the SSD,
us wrong, but it’s not what we’d call a conventional and gives it some serious grunt for any task you however. Unfortunately, Adata’s QLC-based SU630
case to work in. Alas, print deadlines stop for no throw its way. is incredibly underwhelming. From the lackluster
man, and we had little choice but to forsake our That 16GB of DDR4 @ 3,200, paired with our cache to the poor long-term sequential performance,
delayed Fractal case and instead opt for the glass Ryzen 5 2600, makes it a true pro at any and all coupled with some serious doubts about endurance,
confines of this giant cube. multithreaded tasks you throw its way, and as more it simply doesn’t make sense as a drive. The fact that
Was it a challenge? Yes and no. Less challenging, games are leaning toward a ‘more threads the you can now pick up a 500GB Samsung 860 Evo for
more confusing. Once all the glass panes were better’ standpoint, it won’t let you down in the future only a bit more cash (current price is $78) means
removed, the first issue was the roof bars in the top. there, either. The RX 590 is also an incredibly that there’s just not enough to convince us of QLC’s
These aren’t screwed down; rather, there’s a thin cost-effective card for 1080p. Yeah, we weren’t value right now.
slice of metal securing each bar in place that you
have to bend up to get the bar out. Then there was
the power supply installation. There’s no obvious or benchmarks
easy way to install a PSU into this chassis. You can’t zero-
point
do it sideways, you can’t do it from the rear. As
Cinebench R15 Multi-Thread 1,152 1,242 (8%)
mentioned, we had to unsecure the base, lift up
the remainder of the chassis, then drop the PSU into CrystalDisk QD32
3,400 558 (-84% )
Sequential Read (MB/s)
place, before carefully repositioning the chassis back
down, and securing it and the power supply. It’s a CrystalDisk QD32
1,720 521 (-70%)
Sequential Write (MB/s)
clumsy solution, but it works.
Then there’s the SSD caddies. What a nightmare. Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 60 70 (17%)
Only one set of mounting screw locations, which Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 46 47 (2%)
forces your label the other way around, and no way
to make the connectors face the bottom. We’d also Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (Avg fps) 39 42 (8%)
have liked to see an easier way of mounting those
traditional 3.5-inch hard drives, preferably from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 11,101 13,441 (21%)
rear, in a more hot-swappable manner. The notion of 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
hot-swap hard drives may be pushing up daisies right
now, but reaching around inside to pull the sleds out Our zero-point consists of an AMD Ryzen 5 1600, 16GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport LT @ 2,666, an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, and a
feels unintuitive. 250GB Samsung 960 Evo M.2 PCIe SSD. All tests were performed at 1080p at the highest graphical profile.

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PC graphics options explained

GUIDE

PC GRAPHICS
OPTIONS
EXPLAINED
Tyler Wilde helps us
to understand what
graphics options mean,
and which to choose

50

N
vdia and AMD both offer tools
to select the optimal graphics
settings for the games you own,
and both do a fine job balancing
quality and performance. They really work
pretty well, but I just like doing things
myself. It’s the PC gamer way, right? We
tinker on our own terms.
If you’re new to graphics tuning, this
guide will explain the major settings you
need to know about, and without getting
too technical, what they’re doing.
Understanding how it all works can help
with troubleshooting, setting up the most
gorgeous screenshots possible, or playing
with tools like Durante’s GeDoSaTo.
P C g r a p h ic s o p t i o n s e x p l a i n ed
Feature
We start with the fundamental
concepts over the page. For the sections
on anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and
post-processing that follow, I consulted
with Nicholas Vining, Gaslamp Games’
technical director and lead programmer,
as well as Cryptic Sea designer/
programmer Alex Austin. I received input
from Nvidia regarding my explanation of
texture filtering. Keep in mind that
graphics rendering is much more complex
than presented here. I’m a technology
enthusiast translating these systems into
simple analogies, not an engineer writing
a technical paper, so I’m leaving out major
details of actual implementation.
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PC graphics options explained

Frames per second

If you think of a game as a series of animation cells
– still images representing single moments in time
– the FPS is the number of images generated each
second. It’s not the same as the refresh rate, which
is the number of times your display updates per

THE BASICS
second, and is measured in hertz (Hz). 1 Hz is one
cycle per second, so the two measurements are
easy to compare: a 60 Hz monitor updates 60
times per second, and a game running at 60 FPS
should feed it new frames at the same rate.
The more work you make your graphics card do to

Resolution and FPS
A pixel is the most basic unit of a digital image – a
tiny dot of colour – and resolution is the number of
pixel columns and pixel rows in an image or on your
display. The most common display resolutions are:
1280x720 (720p), 1920x1080 (1080p), 2560x1440
(1440p), and 3840 x 2160 (4K or ‘ultra-HD’). Those
are 16x9 resolutions – if you have a display with a
16x10 aspect ratio, they’re slightly different:
1920×1200, 2560x1600, and so on, while ultrawide
displays can be 2560x1080, 3440x1440, etc.
render bigger, prettier frames, the lower your FPS
will be. If the framerate is too low, frames will be
repeated and it will become uncomfortable to view
– an ugly, stuttering world. Competitive players
seek out high framerates in an effort to reduce
input lag, but at the expense of screen tearing (see
right), while high-resolution early adopters may be
satisfied with lower framerates at 1440p or 4K.

pscaling and 1440p

Native resolution
5120x2880
Downscaled to 1440p

downsampling
Some games offer a ‘rendering resolution’ setting.
This setting lets you keep the display resolution the
same (your display’s native 1080p or 1440p, for
instance) while adjusting the resolution the game is
being rendered at (but not the UI). If the rendering
resolution is lower than your display resolution, it
will be upscaled to fit your display resolution – and,
as expected, look like garbage, because the image
is being blown up.
If you render the game at a higher resolution than
your display resolution, which is an option in
Shadow of Mordor, the image will be downsampled
(or ‘downscaled’) and will look much better at a high
cost to performance.
720p 1440p 5120x2880
Upscaled to 1440p Native resolution Downscaled to 1440p

52
 P C g r a p h ic s o p t i o n s e x p l a i n ed
Feature

When a display’s refresh cycle is out of sync with the settings, and it prevents the game from messing
game’s rendering cycle, the screen can refresh with the display until it completes its refresh cycle, so
during a swap between finished frames. The effect is that the frame swap doesn’t occur in the middle of
a ‘break’ called screen tearing, where we’re seeing the display updating its pixels. It’s not a perfect

Vertical sync and portions of two or more frames at the same time. It
is also our number one enemy after low framerate.
solution as, unfortunately, vsync causes its own
problems, one being that it contributes to input lag

screen tearing One solution to screen tearing is vertical sync

(vsync). It’s usually an option in the graphics
when the game is running at a higher framerate than
the display’s refresh rate.

Adaptive Vertical G-sync and FreeSync

Synchronization
The other big problem with vsync happens when the framerate
drops below the refresh rate. If the framerate exceeds the refresh
rate, vsync locks it to the refresh rate: 60FPS on a 60Hz display.
That’s fine, but if the framerate drops below the refresh rate,
vsync forces it to jump to another synchronized value: 30 FPS, for
instance. If the framerate fluctuates above and below the refresh
rate often, it causes stuttering. We’d much rather allow the
framerate to sit at 59 than punch it down to 30.
New technology is starting to solve this big mess. The problems
stem from one thing: displays have a fixed refresh rate. But if the
display’s refresh rate could change with the framerate, we could
eliminate screen tearing and eliminate the stuttering and input lag
problems of vsync at the same time. Of course, you need a
compatible video card and display for this to work, and there are
two technologies that do that: Nvidia has branded its technology
G-sync, while AMD’s efforts are called Project FreeSync.
Initially, Nvidia cards only supported G-sync monitors, but
GeForce cards will now work with some FreeSync monitors.

PERFORMANCE Shadow of Mordor resolution benchmarks

(2x Nvidia GTX Titan SLI)

Because it determines the number of
pixels your GPU needs to render,
resolution has the greatest effect on
performance. This is why console games
which run at 1080p often upscale from a
lower rendering resolution – that way,
they can handle fancy graphics effects
while maintaining a smooth framerate. Avg. FPS Max FPS Min FPS
I benchmarked the Shadow of Mordor
resolutions to the left (all settings on 1980x720 (1/2 resolution) 102 338 30
maximum) on the Large Pixel Collider
2560x1440 (native resolution) 51 189 23
with two of its four GTX Titans active,
to show how much resolution
5120x2880 (2x resolution) 16 26 10
affects performance.

53
f e at u r e
PC graphics options explained
Anti-aliasing
I
f you draw a diagonal line with square
pixels, their hard edges create a jagged
‘staircase’ effect. This ugliness
(among other artefacts) is called
aliasing. If resolutions were much higher, it
wouldn’t be a problem, but until display
technology advances, we have to
compensate with anti-aliasing.
There are many techniques for anti-
aliasing, but supersampling (SSAA) is
useful to explain the process. It works by
rendering frames at a higher resolution
than the display resolution, then squeezing
them back down to size. On the previous
page, you can see the anti-aliasing effect of
downsampling SoM from 5120x2880
to 1440p.
Consider a pixel on a tile roof. It’s orange,
and next to it is a pixel representing a
cloudy sky, which is light and blueish. Next
to each other, they create a hard, jagged
transition from roof to sky. But if you render
the scene at four times the resolution, that
one orange roof pixel becomes four pixels.
Some of those pixels are sky-coloured and
some are roof-coloured. If we take the
average of all four values, we get something
in between. Do that to the whole scene and
the transitions become softer.
That’s the gist, at least, and while it looks
very good, supersampling is
computationally expensive.
No AA
54
Multisampling (MSAA)
More efficient than supersampling, but still
demanding. This is the standard, baseline
option in older games
Coverage Sampling (CSAA)
Nvidia’s more efficient version of MSAA.
Custom-filter (CFAA)
AMD’s more efficient version of MSAA.
Fast Approximate (FXAA)
Rather than analysing the 3D models (ie
MSAA, which looks at pixels on the edges of
polygons), FXAA is a post-processing filter,
meaning it applies to the whole scene after
it has been rendered, and it’s very efficient.
It also catches edges inside textures that
MSAA misses. This is the default in many
modern games because it has very
little overhead.
Morphological (MLAA)
Available with AMD cards, MLAA also skips
the rendering stage and processes the
frame, seeking out aliasing and smoothing
it. As Nicholas Vining explains,
“Morphological anti-aliasing looks at the
morphology of the jaggies on the edges. For
each set of jaggies, it computes a way of
removing the aliasing which is pleasing to
the eye. It does this by breaking down
32xCSAA
W h at d o t h e n u m b er s mean ?
Anti-aliasing settings almost
always include a series of values:
2x, 4x, 8x, and so on. The
numbers refer to the number of
colour samples being taken, and
in general, the higher the number,
the more accurate (and
computationally expensive) the
anti-aliasing will be.
Then there’s the special case of
the ‘Q’. CSAA attempts to achieve
edges and jaggies into little sets of
morphological operators, like Tetris blocks,
and then uses a special type of blending for
each Tetris block.”
Enhanced Subpixel
Morphological (SMAA)
Another post-processing method,
described as combining MLAA with MSAA
and SSAA strategies. You can apply it with
SweetFX, and many modern games
natively support this.
Temporal (TAA or TXAA)
TXAA was initially supported on Nvidia’s
Kepler and later GPUs, but more general
forms of temporal anti-aliasing are now
available and are typically just labelled TAA.
TAA compares the previous frame with the
current frame to look for edges and help
remove jaggies. This is done through a
variety of filters and can help reduce the
‘crawling’ motion on edges, which looks a
bit like marching ants. It cannot, however,
remove actual ants from inside your display.
If that happens, you should probably just
throw that display out.
Multi-Frame (MFAA)
Introduced with Nvidia’s Maxwell GPUs.
Whereas MSAA samples in set patterns,
Multi-Frame allows for programmable
sample patterns.
Deep Learning Super-
Sampling (DLSS)
Nvidia’s latest, available on certain games
using new GeForce RTX cards. According
to Nvidia, “DLSS leverages a deep neural
network to extract multidimensional
features of the rendered scene and
intelligently combine details from multiple
frames to construct a high-quality final
image. DLSS uses fewer input samples
than traditional techniques such as TAA,
while avoiding the algorithmic difficulties
such techniques face with transparency
and other elements.” In other words, it’s
better and more efficient at doing the
things Temporal AA does, or at least it’s
supposed to look better once it has been
properly trained for a specific game.
a quality better than or equal to
MSAA with fewer colour samples,
so 8xCSAA actually only takes
four colour samples. The other
four are coverage samples.
8QxCSAA, however, bumps the
number of colour samples back
up to eight for increased
accuracy. You’ll rarely encounter
CSAA these days, so let’s call that
a fun fact.
 P C g r a p h ic s o p t i o n s e x p l a i n ed
Feature

Which AA should I use? It depends on your GPU, your preference, and what kind of
performance you’re after. If framerate is an issue, however, the
choice is usually obvious – FXAA is very efficient. If you’ve got an
RTX card, and the game you’re playing supports it, give DLSS a try
– you paid for it, and it’s top of the line. In older games, you’ll
probably have to do a bit of testing to get the combination of look
and performance you want. If you have the hardware to do it, you
can also try supersampling instead of using the built-in options,
which usually works. Overriding settings in other ways, however,
isn’t a sure thing.
No AA 8xMSAA FXAA

Overriding anti- No AA

aliasing settings
Theoretically, in-game graphics options shouldn’t matter. You can
just open up the Nvidia or AMD control panel and override their
settings. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case. While you can set
overrides for any game, I’ve had little success getting them to work.
“Very often when overrides don’t work it’s due to deferred
rendering,” says Vining, “which just breaks a lot of common
anti-aliasing techniques.” Alex Austin also notes that some of his
techniques don’t work with override settings. So, it’s just a matter of
testing. Turn off all AA in the in-game options, set the override in
your control panel, and hop back in: it should be apparent whether
or not it took effect.
I’ve found that AMD’s MLAA works the most when enabled in the
control panel. It’s important to note, however, that it’s a post- MLAA
processing filter and applies to everything in the scene. That means
it can take care of hard edges within textures, which can be good,
but comes with the side-effect that it may also go after desirable
edges, such as in text. Notice how it slightly smooths the text in the
BioShock Infinite menu, and even goes so far as to smooth my
FRAPS FPS overlay.
Supersampling using Nvidia’s DSR or AMD’s Virtual Super
Resolution, however, is more reliable. In the AMD settings, you
simply have to turn Virtual Super Resolution on in the Display tab. If
you have an Nvidia card, head to the ‘Manage 3D settings’ section of
the Nvidia Control Panel, where you can select DSR factors up to 4x.
Do one of those things, and in your games’ options you should be
able to select resolutions higher than your display resolution.
Do so, and the game will run at the selected resolution and be
downsampled to your display resolution – very taxing, but the end
result looks nice.

PERFORMANCE Batman: Arkham City AA benchmarks

(2x Nvidia GTX Titan SLI)
I used Batman: Arkham City’s benchmarking tool to
test a few older anti-aliasing methods: MSAA, FXAA, Avg. FPS Max FPS Min FPS
and TXAA. The results show, as expected, that FXAA
is the least resource intensive, while MSAA and TXAA No AA 161 224 57
cause a significant drop in average framerate over no
anti-aliasing. MSAA 8x 84 166 44
Some more modern games don’t give you much of
a choice. Battlefield 5, for example, offers me two TAA FXAA (high) 154 204 60
quality options. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey offers low,
TXAA (high) 98 118 67
medium, high, and adaptive options.

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PC graphics options explained

TEXTURE
FILTERING
Bilinear and trilinear filtering
Texture filtering deals with how a texture – a 2D image (and other
we don’t data) – is displayed on a 3D model. A pixel on a 3D model won’t
correspond directly to one pixel on its texture (called a ‘texel’ for
want to see clarity), because you can view the model at any distance and
where one angle. So, when we want to know the colour of a pixel, we find the
point on the texture it corresponds to, take samples from nearby
mipmap ends texels, and average them. The simplest method of this is bilinear
and filtering, and that’s all it does: when a pixel falls between texels, it
samples the four nearest texels to find its colour.
another Introduce mipmapping, and you have a new problem. Say the
begins ground you’re standing on is made of cracked concrete. If you
look straight down, you’re seeing a big, detailed concrete texture.
But when you look way off into the distance, where this road
recedes toward the horizon, it wouldn’t make sense to sample
from a high-resolution texture when we’re only seeing a few pixels
of road. To improve performance (and prevent aliasing, Austin
notes) without losing much or any quality, the game uses a
lower-resolution texture – called a mipmap – for distant objects.
When looking down this concrete road, we don’t want to see
where one mipmap ends and another begins, because there
would be a clear jump in quality. Bilinear filtering doesn’t
interpolate between mipmaps, so the jump is visible. This is
solved with trilinear filtering, which smooths the transition
between mipmaps by taking samples from both.

56

Trilinear filtering
Anisotropic filtering
Trilinear filtering helps, but the ground still looks all blurry. This is
why we use anisotropic filtering, which improves texture quality
at oblique angles. To understand why, visualise a square window
– a pixel of a 3D model – with a brick wall directly behind it as
our texture.
Light is shining through the window, creating a square shape on
the wall. That’s our sample area for this pixel, and it’s equal in all
directions. With bilinear and trilinear filtering, this is how textures
are always sampled. If the model is also directly in front of us,
perpendicular to our view, that’s fine, but what if it’s tilted away
from us?
Bilinear filtering
P erformance
Anisotropic filtering it’s not nearly as much of a hit as
anti-aliasing, which is why it rarely appears in menus
these days – it’s just on, no matter what. Using the
BioShock Infinite benchmarking tool, I only saw
P C g r a p h ic s o p t i o n s e x p l a i n ed
Feature
Anistropic filtering
If we’re still sampling a square, we’re doing it wrong, and
everything looks blurry. Imagine now that the brick wall texture
has tilted away from the window. The beam of light transforms
into a long, skinny trapezoid covering much more vertical space
on the texture than horizontal. That’s the area we should be
sampling for this pixel, and in the form of a rough analogy, this is
what anisotropic filtering takes into account. It scales the
mipmaps in one direction (like how we tilted our wall) according to
the angle we’re viewing the 3D object.
This is a difficult concept to grasp, and we have to admit that
our analogy does little to explain the actual implementation of it.
W h at d o t h e
n u m b er s mean ?
Anisotropic filtering isn’t common in
modern settings menus anymore,
but where it does appear, it
generally comes in 2x, 4x, 8x, and
16x flavours. Nvidia describes these
sample rates as referring to the
steepness of the angle the filtering
will be applied to, “AF can function
with anisotropy levels between 1 (no
scaling) and 16, defining the
maximum degree which a mipmap
can be scaled by, but AF is offered
to the user in powers of two: 2x, 4x,
8x, and 16x. The difference between
these settings is the maximum
angle that AF will filter the texture
16x Anistropic filtering by. For example: 4x will filter
textures at angles twice as steep as
2x, but will still apply standard 2x
filtering to textures within the 2x
range to optimise performance.
average FPS drop by six between bilinear filtering There are diminishing returns with
and 16x anisotropic filtering. That’s not much of a the use of higher AF settings
difference considering the huge quality increase. because the angles at which they
High texture quality is pointless with poor filtering. are applied become rarer.”
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PC graphics options explained

QUALITY BioShock Infinite texture quality benchmarks

(2x Nvidia GTX Titan SLI)

SETTINGS & Very low

Avg. FPS

103
Max FPS

295
Min FPS

30

POST-PROCESSING Normal

Ultra
101

92
180

178
20

15

Quality settings
What quality settings actually do will vary depending
on what game you’re playing. In general, they raise
and lower the complexity of the game’s assets and
effects, but going from ‘low’ to ‘high’ can change a
bunch of variables. Increasing the shadow quality,
for instance, might increase the shadow resolution,
enable soft shadows as well as hard shadows,
increase the distance at which shadows are
visible, and so on. It can have a significant effect
on performance.
Texture quality, which lowers and raises the
resolution of textures, tends to affect performance
and visual quality a lot. We benchmarked BioShock
Infinite with all settings set to high, changing only the
texture quality, to get a sense of how expensive it is.
That’s an average FPS jump of 11 between ‘very low’
and ‘ultra.’ Not too bad, but the amount of slow-
down will vary system-to-system. There’s no quick
method for determining the best quality settings for
your system – it’s a case where they just need to be
tested, and we recommend starting with Nvidia
or AMD’s suggestions, then raising the quality on
textures, lighting, and shadows and finally checking
out your framerate.

Ambient
occlusion
Ambient lighting exposes every object in a scene to a
uniform light – think of a sunny day, where even in the
shadows, a certain amount of light is scattered about. It’s
paired with directional light to create depth, but on its
AO off
own it looks flat.
Ambient occlusion attempts to improve the effect by
determining which parts of the scene shouldn’t be
exposed to as much ambient lighting as others. It doesn’t
cast hard shadows like a directional light source, rather, it
darkens interiors and crevices, adding soft shading.
Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) is an
approximation of ambient occlusion used in real-time
rendering, and has become commonplace in games in
the past few years – it was first used in Crysis.
Sometimes, it looks really dumb, like everything has
a dark ‘anti-glow’ around it. Other times, it’s effective
in adding depth to a scene. All major engines support
it, and its success will vary depending on the game
and implementation.
Improvements on SSAO include HBAO+ and HDAO. 
AO on

58
 P C g r a p h ic s o p t i o n s e x p l a i n ed
Feature

High dynamic range rendering (HDRR)

High dynamic range was all the rage in HDR No HDR
photography a few years ago. The range
it refers to is the range of luminosity in an
image – that is, how dark and bright it
can be. The goal is for the darkest areas
to be as detailed as the brightest areas. A
low-dynamic-range image may show lots
of detail in the light part of a room, but
lose it all in the shadows, or vice versa.
In the past, the range of dark to
light in games was limited to 8 bits
(only 256 values), but as of DirectX
10 128-bit HDRR is possible. HDR is
still limited by the contrast ratio of
displays, though. There’s no standard
method for measuring this, but LED
displays generally advertise a contrast
ratio of 1000:1.

Depth of field (DOF)
In photography, depth of field refers to
the distance between the closest and
furthest points which appear in focus. If
I’m taking a portrait with a small DOF, for
instance, my subject’s face might be
sharp while the back of her hair begins to
blur, and everything behind her is very
blurred. In a high DOF photo, on the other
hand, her nose might be as sharp as the
buildings behind her.
In games, DOF generally just refers to
the effect of blurring things in the
background. Like motion blur, it pretends
our ‘eyes’ in the game are cameras, and
creates a film-like quality. It can also
affect performance significantly
depending on how it’s implemented. On
the LPC, the difference was negligible,
but on the more modest PC at my desk
(Core i7 @ 3.47 GHz, 12GB RAM, Radeon
HD 5970) my average framerate in
BioShock Infinite dropped by 21 when
going from regular depth of field to
Infinite’s DX11 ‘Diffusion Depth of Field.’
Motion blur
Motion blur is pretty self-explanatory: it’s
a post-processing filter which simulates
the film effect caused when motion
occurs while a frame is being captured.
Many gamers I’ve seen in forums or
spoken to prefer to turn it off. Not only
because it affects performance, but
because it just isn’t desirable. I’ve seen
motion blur used effectively in some Bloom
racing games, but I’m also in the camp
that usually turns it off. It doesn’t add
enough for me to bother with any
The famously overused bloom effect
attempts to simulate the way bright light
performance decrease. can appear to spill over edges, a visual
cue that makes light sources seem
brighter than they are (your display can
only get so bright). It can work, but too
often it’s applied with a thick brush,
making distant oil lamps look like nuclear
detonations. Most games offer the option
to turn it off. The screenshot above is
from Syndicate, which probably includes
the most hilarious overuse of the effect.
C O N C L US I O N
How these settings affect visual quality more taxing than others. Whenever a
will vary from game to game, and how graphics intensive game releases,
they affect performance will vary from especially if it’s on a new engine or
system to system. These benchmarks uses new tech, you can bet we’re
are anecdotal, but they can give us an working on a performance and
idea of which processes are generally settings guide for PCGamer.com.

59
 F E at u r e
Protect your tech

protect
your

TECH Having your laptop, tablet or

phone stolen is depressingly
common. As Mike Bedford
explains here, there’s a lot you
can do to keep your IT
equipment safe

60

AT A GLANCE
H o w t o f i n d w h at y o u ’ r e l o o k i n g f o r
• Anti-theft products, p62
Anti-theft products range from devices to
provide physical security, through alarms that
will let you know if your equipment is tampered
with, to products to mark your gear uniquely
and indelibly. We look at the pros and cons of
each, and identify some suitable products.
W
e have good news and bad news.
The good news is that the crime
rate has been falling in the UK,
from a peak in 1995. Similar
trends apply in many other countries. The bad
news is that, despite a reduction in household
burglary, property theft overall – and theft
from the person in particular – has remained
high or risen over the same period, with
computer-related equipment being targeted.
Mobile phones are particularly sought after,
but we’re guessing most would-be thieves
wouldn’t turn their nose up at a top-of-the-
range laptop or tablet either.
It’s a depressing irony, then, that although
convenience while you’re out and about is
the whole reason for using portable
electronic devices, once your equipment is
taken out of the home or office it becomes
much more likely to attract the attention of
criminals. What’s more, the consequences
could be serious. Certainly, the cost of
replacement of the hardware has to be
considered – and even if it’s insured, you
won’t necessarily be fully reimbursed for the
loss – but this is just a start. The possibility
of theft makes data backup even more
important on a laptop or tablet than it is on a
desktop but, unless you use a cloud backup
or an external disk kept separately from the
laptop, your data will only be secured once
you get back home. Potentially, therefore,
you stand to lose a day or more of work and
information which – in the case of notes
made at a meeting, for example – might be
difficult to replace.
We also have to consider the fact that
sensitive data could fall into the wrong
hands. Finally, getting a replacement for a
stolen item, setting it up, re-installing all your
software and restoring your data will take
some time. Unless you have a spare,
therefore, you could be without a laptop or
tablet for quite a few days and this could
have a serious impact on your productivity.
• Behavioural changes, p63
Even if you don’t want to buy any anti-theft
products – although we certainly suggest you do
– you could probably make your kit
a lot more secure just by altering the way you
behave. It’s all too easy to let your guard down,
so here are some common-sense precautions.
It’s common to believe that these
problems always happen to someone else
and are probably due to carelessness.
However, one in 10 laptops is stolen during
its lifetime and half a million people in the
UK had a phone stolen in 2016. If these
statistics have convinced you that this is a
subject that can affect us all, do read on
because, as you’ll see, a small change in your
behaviour and a modest investment in
anti-theft products could make your
equipment a whole lot more secure. We’re
going to be looking mainly about prevention
of laptop theft here but some of the
products, and most of our advice, applies
equally to tablets, smartphones, cameras or
just about any other electronic equipment
you might want to use on the move.
Get the right product
Just as there are several ways of protecting
your home or car from theft, the same
applies to your laptop. The choice is even
more diverse, however, so a bit of guidance is
called for. Anti-theft products that are
suitable for high-tech gear fall into three
main categories.
First are products that make it physically
difficult for a thief to get away with your
gear – we can think of these as the
equivalent of the lock on a door. Second are
those devices which will draw attention to a
thief should they attempt to steal your
equipment; this is the equivalent of a
household burglar alarm. And third are
products for marking your kit to improve the
likelihood of it being returned if it is stolen
while, at the same time, making it less
attractive to a would-be thief. Again, very
similar products are available for household
items. Here we’ll look at each category in
turn, examining their pros and cons and
highlighting some actual products. First we
need to make an important point, though: no
single type of product is better than the
Protect your tech
Feature
• DIY solutions, p64
Creating your own anti-theft products could
provide you with extra functionality while being
an interesting exercise and perhaps providing
a cost saving. We recommend a couple of DIY
solutions: a software-only laptop alarm, and a
proximity tag with app.
others and each offers benefits in certain
circumstances. So, just as it’s common to
have locks on your house doors and a
burglar alarm, it would be wise to consider
protecting your portable gear with at least
two, if not all three, types of products.
Physical anti-theft kit
Most laptops have a so-called Kensington
lock slot which is used to secure it using a
security cable from Kensington (www.
kensington.com) or other manufacturers.
The cable is wrapped around some
immovable object such as the legs of a desk,
then the end is threaded through a loop in
the cable before being inserted into the
Kensington slot. The laptop is now secured
against casual theft, although it won’t deter
a thief equipped with a pair of bolt cutters or
who is prepared to damage the laptop to
release the security cable. The laptop can be
removed by its rightful owner using either a
key or a combination lock, depending on the
specific product. Prices vary significantly,
from as little as £3 to over £35.
Tablets rarely, if ever, have Kensington
lock slots and smartphones are never
equipped in this way. Realistically, it’s
probably easier to just make sure that
phones are always kept in a secure place,
and any adaptor would be quite intrusive on
such small devices. Nevertheless, if you’re
willing to accept a bulge on the back cover,
cable anchors that glue onto the back of
smartphones are available from various
sources and these can also be used on
tablets. However, a better solution for
tablets is the Blade Universal Lock Slot
Adaptor provided by Maclocks
(www.maclocks.co.uk). This is a low-profile
hinged bracket that can be attached to the
base of tablets using high-strength adhesive,
which allows a security cable to be attached,
and that folds away when not in use. It costs
from £38.
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 F E at u r e
Protect your tech
Alarms
The first type of alarm we’ll look at, the
Lock Alarm Mini (www.lockalarm.com) at
£25, serves a dual purpose in also
providing physical protection. Like security
cables, this product also incorporates a
steel wire that is fitted to any type of
product that has some sort of loop
through which it could be threaded. For a
laptop, you also need an adaptor which
allows it to be fitted into a Kensington lock
slot. The wire is much thinner than
Kensington-type security cables but it
probably won’t succumb to small
wire-cutters and, in addition, its small
diameter allows it to be retracted into the
body of the unit when not in use. Where it
differs from a plain security cable is that a
100dB alarm will sound if the cable is cut.
A movement sensor can also be activated.
The next type of alarm, and one that is
becoming increasingly popular, is the
proximity alarm. These generally take the
form of a Bluetooth-enabled tag that is
attached to the equipment being
protected and is paired with a
smartphone. There are lots on the market,
each with slightly different features, and
although this isn’t a comparative review,
we will indicate what to look for and
approximately how much you can expect
to pay. First, it’s important to recognise
that the tags tend to be in the region of
35mm across and cannot easily be
attached to a laptop. They’re frequently
shown hanging from keyrings but they
could readily be attached to a laptop case
or hidden in one of its pockets. To truly be
called a proximity alarm, an audible alarm
Most laptops have a so-called
Kensington lock slot that is used
to secure them with a cable
62
should sound if the phone and the tag
are separated by more than some
preset distance. Not all tags offer this
useful feature, perhaps because it’s
tricky to gauge distance from Bluetooth
signal strength.
What they do all offer, however, is a
means of manually triggering an alarm on
the tag from the paired phone if the tag is
still within Bluetooth range – up to several
tens of metres, depending on the device
and whether there are walls between the
tag and the phone. This helps you to track
down the tag and might cause a thief to
abandon it if it truly has been stolen. Many
also have a crowd-finding facility which,
even without people’s active participation,
employs the user community to help find
a device if it’s out of Bluetooth range. In
reality, this isn’t going to be much use
unless you’re in a densely populated area
and you’ve chosen one of the most
popular brands.
These products are equally effective
against accidental loss as against theft,
and to help you here, most associated
apps will allow you to see, on a map, where
your tag was last detected. Tags cost from
about £20, but some have batteries that
cannot be recharged or replaced so you
have to buy a new tag – often at a reduced
price, fortunately – after the year or so it
takes for the battery to run down. The
product family that is probably the market
leader is Tile (www.thetileapp.com)
although, as yet, it doesn’t feature a true
proximity alarm. The PebbleBee Honey
(www.pebblebee.com) is one that does
offer a proximity alarm, also known as
geofence, functionality.
Quick guide
P r e y: t r a c k i n g
s o f t wa r e
Prey doesn’t stop your mobile device being
stolen, but makes it more likely you’ll be able
to get it back if it’s taken from you. It takes
the form of software that you install that runs
in the background. If your device is stolen,
you report it as stolen on the Prey website
and, from then on, whenever it’s switched on
you’ll receive reports containing an IP address
and a location based on nearby Wi-Fi signals.
If the device has a camera you’ll get photos of
whoever’s using it, and receive screenshots –
which might be useful as they could show, for
example, the culprit’s Facebook page. Armed
with this, you could approach the police, who
might be able to recover your device. The Pro
version allows you to remotely delete files.
Prey is open source and the standard version
is free. It is available for most operating
systems from www.preyproject.com.
The other main type of alarm that’s
relevant to laptops is the purely software
version. These are really only effective
against opportunistic theft and will sound
if, for example, the mains power supply or
a mouse is unplugged from an unattended
laptop. Unfortunately, pretty much all of
these alarms only work on Windows and,
while a few free packages are still available
for download, most commercial products
have been discontinued. However, for
those proficient in coding, a DIY solution
Below: Prey could be a possibility.
provides you
with reports,
including Marking products
information Products for marking equipment serve
about the
location of
two quite distinct purposes. First, they
missing
devices
improve the likelihood of your equipment
being returned to you if it’s stolen and
subsequently recovered by the police.
Second, because possession of marked
equipment could be discriminating, it
makes your laptop or other equipment a
much less attractive target to a potential
thief. Two categories of product achieve
these two important functions.
The first category allows you to mark a
product in a way that is highly visible and
difficult to remove. One type comprises
stencils, prepared with either your address
or a unique serial number, that are
supplied with an applicator and special
ink. The ink etches into the surface of your
laptop or other equipment, thereby
making its removal almost impossible. The
other main type involves specially
prepared tamper-resistant labels, again
showing your address or an ID, which are
supplied with an adhesive for attaching
them to your equipment. Again, removal is
 Protect your tech
Feature

It’s provided with warning labels that

you can attach to marked equipment,
thereby providing that all-important
deterrent value. SmartWater is sold in the
UK; prices range from £25-35 for products
in the Home Security range and these can
products
be purchased from https://shop.
smartwater.com. In the US, up to ten Anti-theft device types
items can be protected for as little as $5
per month – see https://shop.
to consider
smartwatercsi.com.

Top: SmartWater is almost impossible to remove
and uniquely identifies the owner Above: Tags
from Tile use Bluetooth to help you track down
missing devices
difficult and, at best, will leave tell-tale
signs. When a serial number is used as
opposed to an address, this product is
sold with registration to a database –
accessible by the police – that associates
the owner with the equipment. The
advantage this offers is that equipment
can be re-registered if you sell it.
Retainagroup (www.retainagroup.com)
offers this type of product in the UK, and
STOP (www.stoptheft.com) offers it in
the US.
At first sight, the second category of
products – those that mark your products
invisibly – seems a strange concept. Some
companies sell invisible ink pens that
you’d use to write your postcode or ZIP
code on your equipment, which becomes
visible if you shine an ultraviolet light on it.
We don’t recommend this solution since it
offers no deterrent value and is also
potentially removable with a solvent if the
thief discovers the marking. Where things
get more interesting is when we consider
those products such as SmartWater,
Behavioural changes
Physical protection, alarms and marking
1 LocTote
FlakSack
Sport
products are important anti-theft It’s difficult to
measures and should be seriously provide physical
considered by anyone who regularly protection for
takes valuable equipment outside the individual small
home or office. However, your behaviour items, as you can
is also important and changes here could easily do with a
prove to be equally as effective in laptop. However, the
preventing loss. LocTote FlakSack
Our first piece of advice is to not Sport (http://loctote.com, £75) keeps
advertise the fact that you’re carrying several small pieces of equipment secure.
valuable equipment when you’re not using It takes the form of a slash-resistant bag
it. When you’re walking down the street, with a nylon and steel locking strap and
keep small items such as phones in your combination lock with which you can attach
pocket or handbag rather than in your it to an immovable object.
hand, where they can be easily seen and
could readily be snatched from your grasp.
Needless to say, this isn’t feasible with
larger items such as tablets and laptops.
2 Lock
Alarm
Mini
However, it’s not necessary to carry them The Lock Alarm Mini
in a conventional laptop case, which does (www.lockalarm.
little to disguise the expensive equipment com, £25) offers
it contains. A police Crime Prevention both physical
Officer we spoke to said that he always protection and an
carries his laptop in a scruffy supermarket alarm. The physical
bag because nobody would guess it protection is
contained anything more valuable than a provided by a strong
few cans of beans. steel cable to secure
If you want something a bit smarter, or your laptop or other
that provides more protection from kit. This is difficult to cut with hand tools
knocks, you could consider a backpack. and, if a thief does try to cut through it, an
You could use an ordinary backpack of the alarm will sound.
sort you might take on a hike, but a special
laptop backpack might be more
appropriate, because they’re designed to
hold a laptop of a particular size and have
plenty of compartments for accessories

Stencils, prepared with either your address

or a unique serial number, are supplied with
an applicator and special ink
which is an invisible ink, prepared with a
formulation unique to each customer, that
you apply to the equipment and is almost
impossible to remove completely. It can be
detected with an ultraviolet light, leading
the police to forward recovered equipment
to SmartWater for analysis to reveal the
registered owner.
and documents. You can easily pay over
£100 for such a backpack, but we
recommend opting for a much cheaper
one so it’s not as conspicuous. These
are widely available from several
suppliers. With laptop backpacks now
fairly common, their stealth value is not
as great as it once was, but a thief will
3
SmartWater
SmartWater provides the benefits
of both visible and invisible
marking. Warning labels act as a deterrent,
while the invisible paint is very difficult to
remove and the smallest trace is enough
to identify you as the owner. You can mark
up to 50 items for £35 from https://shop.
smartwater.com.

63
 F E at u r e
Protect your tech
still find it harder to take a backpack from
your back than a case from your hand.
Next, think about the situation when
you’re using your equipment, most
notably your laptop, in a public place such
as an airport lounge, railway station, coffee
shop or university library. It would be rare
for a laptop to be stolen while you’re
actually using it, although you should be
careful about leaving a phone in view. After
it’s important to recognise that Your
insurance company might not reimburse
you if you leave your laptop unattended
all, it only takes a momentary lapse in
your attention for someone to walk off
with any such small items. The main risk
to your laptop, however, is if you need to
take a break, perhaps to buy a coffee. It’s
important to recognise that your
insurance company might not reimburse
you if leave your laptop unattended – and
if it belongs to your employer, you might
find yourself having to answer some very
difficult questions from your boss.
Of course, the safest piece of advice
that we can give is to never leave your
laptop unattended, even if you only intend
to be away for a very short time. That’s
not always possible though, even if you
just need a short trip to the loo, and in any
case you might not want to appear
neurotic (Looking neurotic is better than
losing your laptop, but we have to be
realistic). This
64
being the case, how about carrying out a
risk assessment to come up with your
own set of rules?
You might decide, for example, that you
will never leave your laptop unattended in
an airport, on a train, or in a coffee shop or
bar (and that really is the only sensible
option in these places). If you’re in the
university library, you might decide that
you’d be prepared to ask someone to
watch it for you, as long as you’re not
going to be away for more than two
minutes. This is also an instance in which
you might decide to use a software alarm,
bearing in mind that it’ll only provide a
minimal degree of protection.
DIY solutions
If you’re a developer as opposed to a user,
you might want to consider
creating your own anti-theft utilities
and devices. We’ve already seen that
software-only laptop alarms are few and
far between and most of those that do
exist only operate under Windows. Still,
there’s some benefit in having an extra
layer of protection, even if it’s not 100
per cent effective. So how about writing
your own alarm? Since this will cost you
nothing at all except your time, it’s
worth considering.
The advantage in writing your
Quick guide
E n c r y p t s e n s i t i v e d ata
Losing a laptop could deny you access to
important data, at least until you can access
a backup, but if sensitive data falls into the
wrong hands it could be even more costly. An
obvious precaution is not to store sensitive
information on your portable devices unless
you really need to access it when you’re away
from home. If it is necessary to store that
data when you are on the move, though, it
would be wise to encrypt it. Choosing an ideal
solution is a major topic in its own right.
own alarm is that you can decide exactly
how you’d like it to operate. Be prepared to
Below be innovative. Some features, such as
Security
sounding if the power supply is unplugged,
cables, like
this one from are surely essential, but there are other
Kensington, useful things you might choose to add. For
are ideal example, you might find that certain
for deterring
casual
patterns of Wi-Fi signal strength are
laptop theft indicative of the laptop being moved, as
opposed to someone just walking between
it and the access point. If so, this might
provide a means of detecting theft of your
laptop, even if it wasn’t connected to
mains power.
An alternative is to detect motion
directly. While nearly all smartphones
contain the accelerometers that would
permit this, they are not nearly as
ubiquitous in laptops. Some products,
most notably Lenovo ThinkPads, have
accelerometers as part of the Hard Drive
Active Protection System (HDAPS) which
parks the disk drive heads to prevent
damage to platter if the laptop is dropped.
Another example are convertible laptop/
tablets that often include an
accelerometer so that screen rotation can
be detected. Finally, don’t forget that an
alarm could be disabled just by turning off
the laptop or closing its lid, so do be sure
to disable both the power and the lid
switch whenever the alarm is active.
Another DIY project you might want to
attempt is a proximity alarm based on a
small single board computer with an
associated Android or iOS app. The
Particle Photon (www.particle.io) would
be a contender due to its small size and,

Visibly
marking your
gear provides
a deterrent to
potential
thieves
The advantage in writing your own alarm
is that you can decide exactly how you’d
like it to operate
while it isn’t much cheaper than an
off-the-shelf Bluetooth tag, it does offer
some benefits. First and foremost is the
fact that you can add whatever features
you want, rather than being constrained
by what’s on offer in commercial products.
In fact this additional functionality needn’t
be restricted to theft prevention. These
tiny SBCs are often targeted at Internet of
Things applications, so you could use it to
experiment with real-world monitoring too.
On the downside, many of the smaller
SBCs – the Particle Photon included
– have Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth. For a
tag that has to operate on internal
batteries for perhaps a year or more, this
would be a serious disadvantage as Wi-Fi
is much more power-hungry than
Bluetooth. If you’re going to run your tag
from an external battery and are prepared
Protect your tech
Feature
Quick guide
Insurance
Insurance is important for valuable
equipment but do make sure your equipment
is adequately covered. Details differ between
countries, insurance companies and policies,
but there are two things you should check:
Does your household policy provide adequate
cover for equipment that you take out of the
house? And is equipment covered if you use
it for business? If the cover provided by your
general policy doesn’t meet your needs, look
for dedicated insurance for your tech gear.
to recharge it periodically, however, this is
no longer a disadvantage, and has the
extra benefit of a greater range.
Another platform that’s designed
specifically as a tag, is the open source
RuuviTag (https://tag.ruuvi.com). This
takes the form of a compact circular
board powered from an onboard button
cell, housed in a round waterproof case,
fitted with various sensors including an
accelerometer, and including Bluetooth. It
costs €69 excluding VAT for three units
(that works out to roughly £76 including
24% EU VAT at the time of going to press).
You’ll never find a solution that allows Right: It’s
much harder
you to keep your laptop completely secure to steal a
all of the time – accidents can happen – laptop if you
but you can do your best to minimise the carry it in
a backpack
risk of theft.
65
 F E at u r e
Protect your tech
HOW TO
M a k e a DIY b a c k pa c k t r a c k e r w i t h R u u v i Ta g
1 Backpack beacon
This project is a simple way
to make your own tracking
device that you can tuck away in your
backpack. Essentially, what you are
doing is turning the RuuviTag into a
proximity beacon and for this we’re
using Eddystone, the open beacon
format from Google. Make sure
you’re running the latest version of
Eddystone by flashing the firmware.
The RuuviTag is set up for Over the Air
(OTA) updating, so it’s easy to flash.
You’ll need a phone: we used the Moto
G4 Android smartphone for the job, so
we needed to download nRF Connect
(http://bit.ly/nRFConnect) from the
Play Store.
2
Enter the
bootloader
Now you need to head on over
to https://lab.ruuvi.com/
dfu on your phone, scroll to the ‘Ruuvi
Firmware’ link and download it. To
flash RuuviTag, we first need to enter
its bootloader, so prise it open and
pop it out of its enclosure using the
attached metal clip. On the RuuviTag,
you’ll notice two tiny buttons. Press
the one marked R while keeping B
pressed to enter the bootloader. If
you’re successful you’ll get a red light.
Next, open nRF Connect and swipe
down to refresh. ‘Ruuviboot’ should
pop up as a found device so press
‘Connect’. At this point the light on
the board will turn green.
66
3
Prepare to flash
In the top right-hand corner
of the app’s GUI there’s a
tiny DFU icon which you now need to
tap. This enables you to select the
file type you want to use. The default
‘Distribution package (ZIP)’ is correct,
so Click ‘OK’ and select the Ruuvi
Firmware. This will start the upload to
your RuvviTag. (Note: It’s confusing
but the firmware file is actually called
weather_station_1.0.1.zip.) Once
complete, it will display ‘Application
has been sent’ and disconnect
from Ruuviboot. Now you’ve got to
configure your tag as a beacon.
4
Get Eddy ready
Head back to https://
lab.ruuvi.com/dfu/ and
download the second link called
‘Eddystone’. Go back to Step 3 and
follow the same process, but choose
eddystone_dfu_1.0.0.zip to upload.
5 Configure your
beacon
Now to the configuration
proper. First, download nRF
Beacon for Eddystone (http://bit.
ly/nRFBeaconforEddy), but this
time press B to get a red light and
enter config mode. Launch the
nRF Beacon for Eddystone, click
the ‘Update’ tab, click the RuvviTag
Device from available devices and
you’ll connect. This will bring up an
‘Unlock Beacon’ box that needs a 16
byte default unlock code. This will be:
0x00112233445566778899aabbccdd
eeff. Configure the beacon by
typing a dummy address into ‘Slot
0’, such as https://my-backpack.
The transmission interval needs to
be set to 300 milliseconds, so edit
‘Adv. interval’. The recommended
transmission power is -4 decibel-
milliwatts (dBm), so alter that in the
‘Radio Tx Power’ option. Now click
‘Disconnect’. You’re all set!
6
Test your backpack
beacon
We stuck the tag inside a
backpack, at the top. This shouldn’t
affect the signal too much, but you
could put it on the outside – the
RuuviTag is waterproof. To track your
tag, you can use any beacon scanner.
We’ve just used Beacon Toy (http://
bit.ly/BeaconToy). Open the side
menu and click on ‘Beacons around
me’ and your Ruuvitag will pop up.
The tag has a range of 50 metres (150
feet), but you’ll get a distance from
your backpack in metres to track it.
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 Contents

Head to head
discover the best
kit on the market in
our head-to-head
group tests

98
keyboards
We test dozens of decks,
both old and new

102 86

68
 H EAD TO H EAD
Contents

70 Gaming processors
Make the brain of your build strong
with the best CPUs for gaming
74 motherboards
Start your gaming build right with the
best gaming motherboards
78 graphics cards
Check out a number of models from a
variety of price ranges
82 gaming monitors
See how a good gaming display will
go a long way
86 Fans
Cool your rig with the very best PC
fans for gaming machines
90 solid state drives
Explore supercharged storage
for your setup
94 Gaming headsets
The best gaming headsets deliver
unrivalled audio
98 Gaming keyboards
Dominate the battlefield but avoid
penury with the best keyboard
102 mice
Consider what you’ll be using your
mouse for and choose the right one

82

70

69
group test
Gaming processors

GAMING T
hese days, if you’re looking to build a great rig,
finding the best CPU for gaming is arguably
the most important thing you can do. You see,
your processor serves as the brain of your

PROCESSORS
gaming PC, sending and interpreting instructions to and
from every piece of hardware in your system. And, for
PC gamers, finding the best CPU for gaming can make a
world of difference for performance.

Jarred Walton picks the best CPUs

for gaming, to make the brain
of your build strong for
slightly less cash

the Core i9-9900K

reigns as the overall
king of performance
1

70
 G A M I N G PRO C ESSORS
Group Test

2 HOW WE TEST
For our testing, we standardised on Nvidia’s
GTX 1080 Ti FE as our graphics card. At
1080p, this shows the largest difference in
gaming performance you’re likely to see
with current generation GPUs. For memory,
we’ve used high-end G.Skill Trident Z and
Flare X DDR4-3200 CL14 memory on all
modern platforms, in either 2x8GB or
4x8GB configurations.
The motherboards used in testing
include the MSI Z390 MEG Godlike and
Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 for Coffee Lake,
MSI Z270X Gaming M7 for Kaby Lake/
Skylake, Asus X299-A Prime for LGA2066,
and MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon for
LGA2011-3 on the Intel side of things. For
AMD platforms, we used the Gigabyte X470
Aorus Gaming 7 Wifi for Ryzen, and the
Asus Zenith Extreme for Threadripper.
Liquid cooling was used on all CPUs.

P e r f o r m a n c e Res u lts
Thanks to the Meltdown and Spectre
exploits, and the patches to Windows
intended to remedy those exploits, I had to
retest every single processor.
Gaming performance is tested in ten
games, representing a variety of genres and
game engines, all using the GTX 1080 Ti FE.
The games are running at 1080p Ultra
settings, with 4xMSAA where applicable
and FXAA/SMAA otherwise.

Core i9-9900K Core i7-9700K

INTEL £500 INTEL £380

The best processor can Put it in a good enthusiast Intel’s Core i7-9700K is which generally translates directly
1 mean a lot of things. For
pure gaming, the Core
motherboard and you’re likely to
see all-core ‘stock’ clocks of
2 an interesting step
down from the
into multithreaded performance.
Hyper-Threading typically only
i9-9900K is overkill, unless you’re 4.7GHz, with lighter workloads i9-9900K. It sports the same improves performance by 10-15
planning on an extreme build with hitting 5.0GHz out of the box. number of CPU cores, and per cent, so it’s a net win. The lack
a top-tier graphics card. For those You’ll need to bring your own clockspeeds are similar as well, of Hyper-Threading also means
that do more than just playing cooling, which is Intel’s approach with most Z390 boards running the i7-9700K doesn’t get nearly
games, however, the Core to all its K-series and X-series the chip with all-core turbo as hot as the Core i9, so you can
i9-9900K reigns as the overall processors, and definitely don’t speeds of 4.6-4.7GHz. get by with a good air cooler.
king of performance. It’s the skimp. The i9-9900K can draw a In games, it’s effectively tied If you’re livestreaming, doing
fastest mainstream CPU for the lot of power and tends to run with the more expensive Core i9 video editing, or any other serious
LGA1151 platform, period. hotter than the previous gen, but costs around £120 less. content creation work, stepping
The Core i9-9900K doesn’t thanks to the extra cores. That’s because for the first time, up to the 9900K makes sense.
have the core counts found of Intel has shipped a Core i7
chips like the i9-7980XE or v e r d ic t without Hyper-Threading. v e r d ic t
Threadripper 2990WX, but it Fastest CPU for gaming It’s a balancing act between Excellent gaming performance
boasts the highest clockspeed of Plenty of cores for other tasks price, performance, and features. Eight high-speed cores
any current processor, with Marginal overclocking headroom Compared to the Core i7-8700K, No Hyper-Threading
excellent per-core performance. Requires aftermarket cooler it has 33 per cent more cores, Limited overclocking

SPECS Cores: 8 / Threads: 16 / Base Clock: 3.6GHz / Turbo Clock: 5.0GHz / Overclocking: Yes, 4.9-5.0GHz SPECS Cores: 8 / Threads: 8 / Base Clock: 3.6GHz / Turbo Clock: 4.9GHz / Overclocking: Yes, 4.9-5.1GHz
typical / L3 Cache: 16MB / TDP: 95W / PCIe 3.0 lanes: 16 typical / L3 Cache: 12MB / TDP: 95W / PCIe 3.0 lanes: 16

71
group test
Gaming processors
Core i5-8400
INTEL £170
Intel’s 8th gen Coffee
3 Lake processors have
pushed the desktop
Core i5 from 4-core to 6-core
territory, and the result is that the
Core i5-8400 is an awesome CPU
for gaming and other tasks. It has
higher clockspeeds than the
previous generation, and
generally matches the previous
generation i7-7700K in
performance. As a bonus, you get
an appropriate cooler in the box,
something I’d like to see as an
option with every CPU.
The only 9th Gen Core i5 for
the time being is the i5-9600K,
which is in most respects the
same as the i5-8600K. It clocks
SPECS Cores: 6 / Threads: 6 / Base Clock: 3.8GHz / Turbo Clock: 4.0GHz / Overclocking: No / L3 Cache:
9MB / TDP: 65W / PCIe 3.0 lanes: 16
72
higher and has an unlocked
multiplier, but doesn’t include a
cooler. Given the price of the
i5-8400, it’s a fair compromise to
skip overclocking and get
everything you need in one
inexpensive box.
In testing, even with a GTX
1080 Ti, the i9-9900K is only
about six per cent faster in games
at 1080p. The i5-8400 is also still
faster than every Ryzen
processor for gaming purposes.
v e r d ic t
Fast enough for single GPU
No aftermarket cooler required
No overclocking
Minor bottleneck for RTX 2080 Ti
3
3
Ryzen 5 2600X
AMD £180
If you’re after good during testing between the two. If
4 gaming performance
with an eye toward
you want to run stock, I
recommend the 2600X and its
streaming and other multi- higher clocks, but for
threaded uses, but you’re working overclocking the 2600 is the
within a budget, AMD’s Ryzen 5 better value.
2600X is an excellent choice. It I’ve found that the Spectre
delivers nearly the same gaming and Meltdown patches have
performance as the more reduced random IO SSD
expensive 2700X, thanks to performance quite a bit on Intel
similar stock clocks. platforms, and AMD is largely
As with the Ryzen 7 2700 to unaffected. If you’re looking at a
the right, consider this a fast M.2 drive keep that in mind.
recommendation for either the
Ryzen 5 2600X or the Ryzen 5 v e r d ic t
2600. Both are very similar, Awesome price for 6-core/12-thread
especially when overclocked – I Nearly as fast in games as 2700X
measured only a small 50MHz Still slower than Intel in games
difference in maximum stable OC Modest overclocking potential
SPECS Cores: 6 / Threads: 12 / Base Clock: 3.6GHz / Turbo Clock: 4.2GHz / Overclocking: Yes, 4.1GHz
typical / L3 Cache: 16MB / TDP: 65W / PCIe 3.0 lanes: 20
 Gamin g p r o c e s s o r s
Group Test

Ryzen 7 2700 Ryzen Threadripper

AMD £227 2990WX AMD £1,500
The best AMD CPU for AMD’s other Ryzen processors. If you’re a professional As an alternative to Intel’s
5 overclockers is the
Ryzen 7 2700. At stock,
At stock, there’s a 65W power
limit in effect, which means in
6 looking for the absolute
fastest multithreaded
Core i9 products, AMD’s
Threadripper 2990WX wins out
it’s a bit slower than the 2700X heavier workloads the clockspeed performance possible in a single in many professional applications,
and even the previous generation can drop to around 3.5GHz. socket, look no further than especially in terms of value.
1800X, and it’s also slower than Overclocking can get you back up AMD’s Threadripper 2990WX. Currently selling for £1,500, for
the i7-8700K. Add in a better to around 4.05-4.1GHz with Thirty-two cores at 3.0- multi-threaded workloads it’s up
cooler and overclock and you can 1.425V in my testing, which is only 4.2GHz is unstoppable in the to 33 per cent faster than the
erase those deficits. If you don’t 100MHz behind the more right workloads, like scientific i9-7900X. The problem is that in
care to overclock, the Ryzen 7 expensive 2700X. calculations and 3D rendering. gaming workloads, it’s often
2700X gets you better stock For non-gaming use, it’s But there are also weaknesses slower than even 6-core Ryzen 5
performance for an increase in basically as fast as any of Intel’s in the many tasks that simply parts (unless you enable Game
price, and has a better cooler. mainstream CPUs. don’t scale to that many cores Mode to disable half the cores).
Consider this a recommendation and threads. Gaming is one of
for either CPU, depending on v e r d ic t the weaknesses, not because v e r d ic t
which way you lean. Excellent performance you can’t game but because you 32 cores at Intel’s 18-core price
The reason the 2700 is such a Great price for 8-core end up with a platform that More PCIe lanes
great CPU for overclocking is that Slower than Intel in most games generally loses to the Ryzen 7 Gaming performance is mediocre
it’s still fully unlocked, just like Wraith Spire limits OC potential desktop processors. Expensive platform and memory

SPECS Cores: 8 / Threads: 16 / Base Clock: 3.2GHz / Turbo Clock: 4.1GHz / Overclocking: Yes, 4.1GHz SPECS Cores: 32 / Threads: 64 / Base Clock: 3.0GHz / Turbo Clock: 4.2GHz / Overclocking: Yes, 4.0GHz at
typical / L3 Cache: 16MB / TDP: 65W / PCIe 3.0 lanes: 20 500W / L3 Cache: 64MB / TDP: 250W / PCIe 3.0 lanes: 64

73
g ro u p test
Motherboards

MOTHERBOARDS
James Norris looks at the best gaming
motherboards to help you start your
gaming build right
A
t the heart of your
PC sits the most
neglected
component in
computing – the lonely
motherboard. The best
gaming motherboards
provide much more than just a
physical place to plug in all the
parts – the chipsets they are
built around govern the speed
of the sockets and slots for
each piece of added hardware
along with determining
crucial features like
overclocking ability, port count,
SSD support, DDR
compatibility, networking
capability and high-end
graphics card performance.
Add in the inherent style
differences between models
and you have a component
that affects every aspect of
your gaming PC build, so it
pays to pick carefully.
If you’re looking for
tweet-length general guidance
the TL;DR is that a Z390-
based motherboard with Intel’s
newest Coffee Lake CPU in the
saddle is still the fastest horse
in town. Looking to create a
budget PC build? Go with
AMD’s Ryzen 2nd Gen
processor paired with an
X470 mainboard.
Starting to sound
complicated? Don’t worry,
we’ve got your back. Here
you’ll find our latest picks for
every gaming motherboard
style and price point, from
ITX to mighty X299
megaboards, all tested and
PC Gamer approved.

74
 M otherboards
Group Test

2 HOW WE TEST
The motherboards recommended in this
group test all received extensive research
and evaluation, including enclosure
installation, performance benchmarking,
stability testing, as well as a follow-up
period of real-world break-in usage that
focuses on gaming, entertainment, and
media software.
When possible, all tests are
performed with the same components
installed to remove any variables except
the motherboard itself. We also research
the entire field of Z370, X470, X299, and
older motherboards and narrow the list
down to the best, most competitive
boards currently on the market.
Benchmarks include AIDA 64
Extreme, PCMark 8/10, Cinebench 15,
CrystalDiskMark, 3DMark FireStrike,
DPC Latency Checker, and others. The
real-world break-in period encompasses
office and creative work, media
streaming, and gaming with a variety of
demanding titles like Grand Theft Auto V,
Total War: Warhammer II, DiRT Rally, Rise
of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, Hitman
and others.
Gaming tests are run at 1080p at
medium to high settings to remove any
bottlenecks caused by graphics card
performance. When relevant, both single-
and dual-graphics card configurations
are tested to ensure motherboard
stability in SLI and Crossfire situations.

X470 Aorus Gaming 5 Wi-Fi Z390 Aorus Ultra

Gigabyte £174 Gigabyte £230
There are more alongside 3200MHz memory Gigabyte isn’t as flashy Intel Wi-Fi Wave2 and Ethernet, a
1 expensive X470
motherboards out
modules. Dual BIOS, dual PCIe
Gen3 x4 M.2 slots, and a healthy
2 as the other top tier
motherboard makers,
full RGB treatment with multiple
headers, and ALC1220 audio.
there, including the excellent stack of both internal and but it has managed to You’d have to climb to the top of
Asus ROG Crosshair VII, but external USB ports are plenty for accumulate plenty of the product stack to get the same
forking over the extra cash for most gaming builds. Combined recommendations of late. from MSI and ASUS, both of
higher-end hardware won’t with a top-tier audio codec and Combined with a consistently whom offer more polish but also
necessarily provide a better great networking hardware, the lower cost, that makes Gigabyte’s charge plenty for the privilege.
building or gaming experience X470 Aorus Gaming 5 is my best Z390 Aorus Ultra a bit of a winner. This is great value.
than Gigabyte’s X470 Aorus overall pick for Ryzen 7 builds. If, We’ve liked the Aorus branded The only real downside for me
Gaming 5 Wi-Fi. This board however, you’re looking for more motherboards starting with is that this mobo is perhaps a bit
serves up a full plate of features advanced features and the ability Skylake in 2016, and its Ryzen too flashy, and may not suit more
along with a side of RGB style, all to do serious overclocking, this boards have been excellent restrained gaming builds. It’s a
for around £75 less than one won’t satisfy like the all-around picks, but this is the small criticism of an otherwise
comparable hardware. Crosshair VII. best I’ve tested. excellent board.
Ryzen CPUs aren’t overclock- The Gigabyte Z390 Aorus
happy, particularly the X-models, v erd i c t Ultra competes with the MSI v erd i c t
but the X470 Aorus Gaming 5’s Speedy Intel Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon AC and No-compromise features including
8+3 phase VRM reliably allows Other boards overclock better and the Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero triple M.2 slots
chips like the 2700X to run all run faster memory (Wi-Fi), with a better price and Intel CPU compatible
cores at full boost speeds Few advanced hardware options features. It has triple M.2 slots, Potentially too much bling

SPECS Chipset: X470 / Memory: (4) DIMM, 64GB, DDR4-3200 / PCIe slots: x16, x16 (x8), x16 (x4), (2) x1 / Video SPECS Chipset: Z390 / Memory: (4) DIMM, 64GB, DDR4-4266 / PCIe slots: x16, x16 (x8), x16 (x4), (3) x1 / Video
ports: HDMI / USB ports: (10) rear IO, (9) internal / Storage: (2) M.2, (6) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 1.73Gbps ports: HDMI / USB ports: (10) rear IO, (7) internal / Storage: (3) M.2, (6) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 1733Mbps

75
 3

ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming Aorus AX370 Gaming 5

ASUS £200
With the price dropping
3 and the previous
Z370-based model
starting to disappear from
vendors, ASUS’ Strix Z390-I
Gaming moves into the top spot
for the boutique ITX segment.
Despite its diminutive size and
paucity of upgrade options, the
ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming
provides excellent performance
and value. Boasting stable 5GHz
overclocks using several memory
speeds, including 3600MHz with
tweaking, its single PCIe x16 slot
pushed top-shelf graphics cards
to speeds that matched or
exceeded most Z390 ATX boards
during testing.
The smallest Strix has a
lengthy features list, with no
shortcomings despite the tiny
form factor, including dual PCIe
Gen3 x4 M.2 slots, Intel v219
Ethernet, upgraded Intel 9560
2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and an
ALC1220A audio codec
supported by isolated circuitry
and headphone amps. Despite
the dense set of features, the
Strix Z390-I’s clean design makes
for quick system assembly and
configuration, although the
previous generation sported a
less bulky design – an important
consideration for ITX rig building.
v erd i c t
Dual M.2 slot
One M.2 slot is under the
motherboard
New I/O port shield is bulky
Gigabyte £114
Gigabyte’s Aorus the 1700X’s higher IPC and eight
4 AX370 Gaming 5 got
the nod early on for
cores pull comfortably away from
Intel’s more expensive 6-core
showing up on time and being counterparts. If you’re on a
stable from Ryzen’s start, and it budget and don’t mind using an
remains an impressive midrange older platform, the AX370
AM4 effort. While others have Gaming 5 is more than sufficient
largely caught up now, Gigabyte for most AM4 gaming builds.
sorted out the platform ahead of It does lack some of the
the competition, delivering a features, like WiFi and Bluetooth
motherboard that proves an easy compatibility, so you should
partner during the build process decide whether or not the saving
and providing a slick experience you make on your mobo would be
comparable to assembling a Z170 lost adding in connectivity with
or Z270 system. separate components.
Overclocking isn’t a top
priority for Aorus gaming v erd i c t
motherboards, or Ryzen in Stable BIOS and memory support
general. The Ryzen 7 1700X used 32 Gb/s M.2 and U.2 connectors
in testing could only manage No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
around 4GHz, but at stock clocks Single M.2 slot

SPECS Chipset: Z390 / Memory: (2) DIMM, 32GB, DDR4-4500 / PCIe slots: (1) x16 / Video ports: HDMI 2.0 / USB SPECS Chipset: X370 / Memory: (4) DIMM, 64GB, DDR4-3200 / PCIe slots: x16, x16 (x8), x16 (x4), (2) x1 / Video
ports: (7) rear IO, (1) front IO, (4) internal / Storage: (2) M.2, (4) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 866Mbps 802.11ac ports: HDMI / USB ports: (10) rear IO, (9) internal / Storage: (2) M.2, (6) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 1.73Gbps

76

4 are dwindling, but if you can get a look at a
5 6
TUF H370-Pro Gaming
Wi-Fi ASUS £117
If you’re in the market
5 for a budget board that
still offers excellent
Wi-Fi, ASUS has you covered with
the TUF H370 Pro Gaming Wi-Fi.
It sports a bare-it-all retro look
that back-to-basics rig builders
will love, with a simple black and
silver aesthetic and just a touch of
RGB lighting. It looks sharp and
supports almost any colour
combination you toss at it. If
you’re looking for something that
won’t make your rig look like a
disco, this is a good option.
Under the hood, the TUF Pro
Gaming packs dual M.2 slots,
10Gbs Gen2 USB 3.1, Intel v219
Ethernet, and a robust 2x2 Intel
9560 802.11ac adaptor that
supports MU-MIMO and 160MHz
SPECS Chipset: H370 / Memory: (4) DIMM, 64GB, DDR4-2666 / PCIe slots: x16, x16 (x4), (4) x1 / Video ports:
D-Sub, HDMI / USB ports: (7) rear IO, (6) internal / Storage: (2) M.2, (6) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 1.73Gbps
channels, shaming the
competition in a price segment
where Wi-Fi is rarely found. Audio
is less impressive, opting for the
older ALC887 codec, but you can
make up some of this deficit with
a decent gaming headset.
Overclocking and higher memory
speeds aren’t supported with the
H370 chipset, but that doesn’t
hold the TUF Pro Gaming back in
real testing. Put your money into
a faster GPU if you care about
gaming, and don’t worry as much
about the RAM speed.
v erd i c t
Great Wi-Fi implementation
Excellent real-world performance
Limited memory speeds
Weak audio
motherboards
Group Test
HOW WE TEST
Xxxx. The first is by playing games on it.
Subjectively testing gaming performance
isn’t going to give you the lowdown on the
specifics of a screen, but it will let you test
the aspect ratio, native resolution and any
games-centric technologies they have.
Side-by-side testing is also good for keying
into the differences between each panel.
Objective testing can be great, but is
also more difficult. To do it properly, you
need hardware for testing latency,
xxxxxcolour accuracy, and other metrics.
Most gamers don’t have access to any of
this. The days of retail space for such things
screen before buying it, plug in your laptop
and check out the monitor testing pages at
www.lagom.nl.
X299 Gaming Pro Carbon
AC MSI £309
What if you want more good, running quad-channel
6 cores for serious work
or streaming, plus dual
configurations at speeds up to
3600. Dual x4 M.2 slots and a
graphics cards without CPU U.2 connector deliver high-speed
bottlenecks, and overclocking drive access, along with eight
potential as a bonus? If that’s SATA 6Gbps ports for more
what you’re after, look to Intel’s traditional storage media.
HEDT (High-End Desktop) X299 Intel’s v219 Ethernet and
platform and the Core i9 AC-8265 Wi-Fi handle networking
processors. The MSI X299 with typical aplomb (with the
Gaming Pro Carbon AC is a utility latter in the third M.2 Key-E slot),
infielder that offers every feature and the rear panel offers four
you’d expect along with Gen1 USB 3.1 ports and a pair of
impressive performance and Gen2 ports, including one with a
style at a reasonable price, a Type-C connector.
rarity for the HEDT platform.
Performance is strong, and a v erd i c t
solid overclocking experience Reasonable HEDT price
tops off at 4.6 GHz on a Core Great features and overclocking
i9-7900X (a few ticks shy of the Not the fastest X299 board
top boards). Memory support is No exotic extras
SPECS Chipset: X299 / Memory: (8) DIMM, 128GB, DDR4-4000 / PCIe slots: (2) x16, x16 (x8), x16 (x4), (2) x1 / USB
ports: (9) rear IO, (9) internal / Storage: (2) M.2, (1) U.2, (1) M.2 Key-E, (8) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 867Mbps
77
group test

graphics cards
The focal point of any gaming PC,
Alan Bradley has selected a number of
models from a variety of price ranges

F
orget mobos, the best CPUs for gaming, or RAM
– the best graphics card will always be the star
of any gaming PC build. Investing in a high-
performance GPU is the most important step to
ensuring the silky smooth frame rates you crave, at the
highest resolution possible.

Don’t be fooled into

thinking VRAM capacity
is more important
than the GPU

Do you need a new

graphics card?
Even with the fastest graphics card
around, running at a resolution that puts
more of the burden on your CPU (1080p
ultra), there’s often only a minor
improvement in gaming performance.
What happens if you use a graphics card
that’s 20-30 percent slower than an RTX
2080? Your CPU becomes even less of a
factor. If you have at least 8GB of system
memory and a Core i7-4770K or better
CPU, you should be fine with everything
up to about the GTX 1070 Ti / RX Vega
56 level of performance. Don’t be fooled
into thinking VRAM capacity is more
important than the GPU, either. It can be
a factor, but slower GPUs with 4GB
VRAM usually can’t handle settings that
actually need 4GB VRAM, and games
that need 8GB will also tend to favour
GPUs closer to the RTX 2080 than the
RX 580.
1

78
 graphics cards
Group Test

HOW WE T ES T
Our graphics card recommendations are
based on our own extensive benchmarks
and testing, and then factoring in the
price. Graphics performance isn’t the
only consideration. The quality of game
drivers and other features supported by
the card are important. The card’s noise
level, power draw, and temperature
matter, too. Thankfully, nearly all modern
cards are fairly quiet, even under load,
and temperatures are within the
acceptable range as well, though Nvidia
still has an advantage when it comes to
power. We test each card on a high-end
PC at 1080p medium, 1080p ultra,
1440p ultra, and 4K with ultra/high
settings. We take the results from fifteen
games, mostly newer releases, using the
‘best’ API for each GPU on each game.
That means low-level APIs are used for
AMD cards if they’re available, while
DX12/Vulkan are only used in certain
games for Nvidia cards.

Nvidia GeForce Nvidia GeForce

RTX 2080 Ti £1099
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX
1 2080 Ti is the latest and
most potent GPU
around, and it’s also one of the
largest consumer GPUs ever
produced. The Turing TU102 is 60
percent larger than the Pascal
GP102 in the 1080 Ti, with 55
percent more transistors. Those
extra transistors went into more
CUDA cores, but Nvidia didn’t
stop there, adding in Tensor cores
to help accelerate deep learning
algorithms like DLSS, plus RT
cores to accelerate ray tracing. If
you’re looking for the best value,
forget about the new RTX cards.
On the other hand, if you’re
eyeing a 4k 144Hz HDR G-Sync
display and you want the absolute
fastest graphics card around, this
is the card for you. You could even
try adding a second card and
using an NVLink connector,
assuming you just won the
lottery. The biggest issue with
DXR and RTX hardware right now
is that lack of games.
verdict
Fastest Graphics card around
Ray tracing and deep learning tech
Titan pricing on GeForce
No ray traced games yet
RTX 2080 £700
Sure, the RTX 2080 Ti is
2 the fastest graphics
card and has all sorts of
cool and potentially useful
features, but at the current prices
it’s a tough pill to swallow.
Dropping down to the RTX 2080
will get you still excellent
performance and save over
£300. And you still get the same
ray tracing and deep learning (eg,
DLSS) features, albeit not quite
as many of each core type.
The one major caveat right now is
the same as before, we’re still
waiting for more games that
enable ray tracing effects and
DLSS. We’ve got Battlefield 5,
Metro Exodus, and most recently
Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The
RTX 2080 can run all of those
games with ray tracing, but not at
maximum quality and certainly
not at 4K and 60fps. Even with a
£700 GPU, 1440p typically works
best at slightly reduced ray
tracing quality mode and with
DLSS enabled.
verdict
Ray tracing and deep learning
Potential to become even faster
1440p ray tracing needs DLSS
More expensive than the 1080ti

SPECS GPU Cores: 4,352 /  Base Clock: 1,350MHz / Boost Clock: 1,545MHz /  GFLOPS: 13,448 / Memory: 11GB SPECS GPU Cores: 2,944 /  Base Clock: 1,515MHz / Boost Clock: 1,710MHz /  GFLOPS: 10,068 / Memory: 8GB GDDR6
GDDR6 / Memory Clock: 14 GT/s / Memory Bandwidth: 616GB/s / Memory Clock: 14 GT/s / Memory Bandwidth: 448GB/s

79
group test
Graphics cards

Nvidia GeForce Nvidia GeForce

RTX 2070 £480 GTX 1660 6GB £114
The ray tracing future over where the GTX 1080 left off. The arrival of Nvidia’s The loss of 2GB VRAM relative
3 may sound great, but It offers slightly better 4 GeForce GTX to the RX 590/580 isn’t really a
what if you can’t afford performance for the same price, 1660 basically ended concern in most games,
£700 or more on a graphics and like the other RTX cards it the era of the GTX 1060 as the especially at 1080p, which is
card? That’s where Nvidia’s RTX features the new Tensor and RT most popular mainstream where these cards do best.
2070 enters the picture, the third cores. Considering the RTX 2070 gaming solution. Or at least, the 1440p is possible, but only at
Turing GPU and the most is a trimmed down version of the 1060 cards are no longer in sometimes significantly lower
affordable of the bunch. More RTX 2080, it should come as no contention, as they’ve been quality settings.
importantly, it’s relatively surprise that 1440p and 4K are discontinued, though tens of But while Nvidia wins on
affordable, with cards even mostly too demanding with ray millions were sold. For roughly the efficiency, the RX 580 and 570
falling below the base tracing games. 1440p with DLSS same price as the outgoing 1060 remain exceptional values for
recommended price of £500. is often viable, but 1080p is a 6GB, the 1660 boosts budget-minded gamers.
That’s still a lot of money for a more likely goal. performance by about 10-15
graphics card, and the 2070 is percent. That puts it ahead of the verdict
actually slower than the previous verdict RX 580 and tied with the RX 590, Good price and performance
generation 1080Ti, at least in Good performance and it’s a more efficient card as Efficient and quiet
games that don’t support Better pricing than other models well. You’ll typically only need a Needs lower settings in some games
DLSS—which is still most games. Not much faster than 1080 single 6-pin connection to power Not a massive improvement
The RTX 2070 effectively takes Also waiting for DLSS/ DXR games the GTX 1660. over the 1060

SPECS GPU Cores: 2,304 /  Base Clock: 1,410MHz / Boost Clock: 1,620MHz /  GFLOPS: 7,465 / Memory: 8GB GDDR6 SPECS Chipset: X370 / Memory: (4) DIMM, 64GB, DDR4-3200 / PCIe slots: x16, x16 (x8), x16 (x4), (2) x1 / Video
/ Memory Clock: 14 GT/s / Memory Bandwidth: 448GB/s ports: HDMI / USB ports: (10) rear IO, (9) internal / Storage: (2) M.2, (6) SATA / Network: Ethernet, 1.73Gbps

80

4 screen before buying it, plug in your laptop
5 6
AMD Radeon
RX 590 £220
Originally a £280
5 graphics card, the RX
590 now routinely sells
for £220. That makes a world of
difference in value, and
performance is still good. The
GTX 1660 is roughly tied with the
RX 590, at the same price, and it’s
a more efficient card. However,
there are games where the 6GB
on the Nvidia card can be a bit
limiting. We rate the RX 590 just
ahead of the 1660 for
performance, though that’s
splitting hairs. Compared to the
older RX 580 8GB, the new
revision has higher clockspeeds
that boost performance by 15
percent. That’s thanks to a refined
SPECS GPU Cores: 2,304 /  Base Clock: 1,469MHz / Boost Clock: 1,545MHz /  GFLOPS: 7,120 / Memory: 8GB GDDR5
/ Memory Clock: 8 GT/s / Memory Bandwidth: 256GB/s
‘12nm’ process, as otherwise the
architecture remains effectively
the same. The price is also about
20 percent higher, but if you’re
looking at total system cost, and
not just the graphics card, we
recommend faster GPUs even if
they cost more. Ensure you have
a PSU with the necessary 8-pin
and 6-pin power connections that
most 590 cards use.
verdict

Good value and performance
for 1080p
8GB of VRAM
Uses more power than GTX 1660
Same old Polaris architecture
Weak audio
graphics cards
Group Test
HOW WE T ES T
Xxxx. The first is by playing games on it.
Subjectively testing gaming performance
isn’t going to give you the lowdown on the
specifics of a screen, but it will let you test
the aspect ratio, native resolution and any
games-centric technologies they have.
Side-by-side testing is also good for keying
into the differences between each panel.
Objective testing can be great, but is
also more difficult. To do it properly, you
need hardware for testing latency,
xxxxxcolour accuracy, and other metrics.
Most gamers don’t have access to any of
this. The days of retail space for such things
are dwindling, but if you can get a look at a
and check out the monitor testing pages at
www.lagom.nl.
AMD Radeon
RX 570 4GB £140
AMD’s Polaris Most desktops are more than
6 architecture has been capable of running this 150W
around a while, and card without any difficulty,
while we’ll get an updated though you’ll need at least a 6-pin
architecture sometime this power connector, or possibly an
summer (Navi, aka Radeon RX 8-pin connector.
3000), we don’t know exactly Sales routinely drop the price
what to expect yet. In the of the RX 570 4GB cards to
meantime, the RX 570 4GB has £120-£130, so as long as your
now dropped well below its PSU is up to snuff, the RX 570
original £169 target, and if you’re pretty much kills off the market
looking for a 1080p card you for anything lower.
really won’t find a better bargain.
Overall, the RX 570 4GB typically verdict
comes out slightly ahead of the Good for 1080p gaming
GTX 1060 3GB, and while it does Budget pricing
use a bit more power, it costs less Uses more power than
than Nvidia’s substantially slower GTX 1660/1060
GTX 1050 Ti. Only 4GB VRAM
SPECS GPU Cores: 2,048 /  Base Clock: 1,168MHz / Boost Clock: 1,244MHz /  GFLOPS: 5,095 / Memory: 4GB
GDDR5 / Memory Clock: 7 GT/s / Memory Bandwidth: 224GB/s
81
gro u p t e st
Gaming monitors

GAMING T
he best gaming monitor The great thing about
is the Asus ROG Swift displays is that, unlike graphics
PG279Q. It combines cards where their lifespan is
1440p with 144Hz usually only a few years, a good

MONITORS
refresh rate, overclockable to
165Hz, and has G-Sync to keep
your gameplay smooth.
Asus and Acer have
launched 27-inch 4K HDR 144Hz
display can keep you going for
the better part of a decade. With
such a long lifespan, it pays to
get something you’ll be happy
with for years to come. I’ll

Likely to outlast your PC by several G-Sync monitors – essentially

4K HDR versions of my top pick
highlight the technologies and
features that make for a good

upgrade generations, Jarred here. Those monitors are

fantastic, but they also cost
gaming display and why they
matter. I have several options for

Walton proves that a good gaming around £2,000. So unless you’ve

won the lottery, I stand by my
a variety of price points. Right
now, these are the best monitors

display will go a long way

Asus PG279Q recommendation. you can buy for PC gaming.

82

XR382CQK
ACER £1,200
If your mantra for
1 displays is to go big or
go home, Acer hears
you. Its XR382CQK is a massive
38-inch curved screen that looks
stunning. It features a QHD
ultrawide (UW) panel with a
3840x1600 resolution, and an
aspect ratio of 24:10 that’s slightly
wider than the ‘standard’ 21:9 AR
seen on other UW displays.
Not content to end there, the
display also features FreeSync
with up to 75Hz variable refresh
rates. If you’re looking for
something to turn heads, this is
the best ultrawide gaming display.
For games that properly
support ultrawide resolutions, the
surround effect of the XR382CQK
is incredibly immersive – sitting
SPECS Screen size: 37.5-inch / Panel type: IPS / Aspect ratio: 24:10 / Resolution: 3840x1600 /
Response time: 5ms / Refresh rate: 75Hz / Weight: 10.7kg
at your desk, the 38-inch panel
completely fills your field of view.
The cost for the best ultrawide
display is steep, but at least you
won’t need to upgrade again for
many years. £1,200 for the
XR382CQK may be a bitter pill to
swallow, but the beauty of this
screen will wash away the nasty
taste in your mouth the instant
you boot up your favourite games
in 24:10 glory. And barring total
hardware failure, this display
should keep you gaming happily
for years to come.
verdict
Immersive extra-wide curved screen
75Hz FreeSync enabled
3840x1600 display needs beefy GPU
Expensive
Predator X27
ACER £2,170
Until recently, gamers
2 had to choose between
high resolution and high
refresh rates. That’s until the Acer
Predator X27 and Asus PG27UQ
launched. Both monitors are
fantastic, with 4K resolution,
HDR, G-Sync, and a high refresh
rate. They’re also pricey at around
£2,200 apiece.
Marrying an IPS panel to a
refresh rate of up to 144Hz when
overclocked, the X27 is a sight for
sore (or sensitive) eyes. Its
integration of VisionCare
technology, Acer says, will help
prevent eye strain and tiredness
during long sessions. G-Sync
allows the monitor to refresh at a
variable rate instead of being
locked to its max (in this case,
SPECS Screen size: 27-inch / Panel type: IPS / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Resolution: 3840x2160 /
Response time: 4ms / Refresh rate: 120Hz (overclocks to 144Hz) / Weight: 12.3kg
gaming monitors
Group Test
144Hz). It syncs the monitor’s
refresh rate to your framerate
in-game, eliminating microstutter
or screen tearing when your
framerate doesn’t match up
perfectly to that 144Hz demand.
Despite the high asking price,
both the X27 and the PG27UQ are
worth considering, but I’m giving
the nod here to the Acer X27. The
two monitors are nearly identical,
but I like the stand on the X27
more. That said, if either monitor
is on sale, go for the one with the
lower price tag.
verdict
Capable of crisp 4K HDR graphics
Overclockable high refresh rate
Ludicrously expensive
Not the fastest response time
83
gro u p t e st
Gaming monitors
G R O UP T E S T
ROG Swift PG279Q
ASUS £670
The PG279Q is a
3 27-inch monitor with a
2560x1440 resolution,
which I consider the sweet spot
for high-end gaming. It offers
more pixels than 1080p without
being as demanding as a 4K
panel, meaning games look sharp
at 27 inches but won’t bring a
GPU to its knees. Plus, you can
still get higher-than-60Hz refresh
rates, which isn’t possible on
most 4K displays.
Like its competitor, the Acer
Predator XB271HU, the PG279Q
is an IPS panel with a refresh rate
that can be overclocked up to
165Hz. Inputs include DisplayPort
1.2a as well as HDMI 1.4. Both
displays also feature Nvidia’s
G-Sync technology for variable
SPECS Screen size: 27-inch / Panel type: IPS / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Resolution: 2560x1440 /
Response time: 4ms / Refresh rate: 144Hz (overclocks to 165Hz) / Weight: 6.99KG
84
refresh rates, assuming you’re
using an Nvidia GPU. If you’re an
AMD user, you should consider a
FreeSync monitor instead.
The biggest drawback is its
£670 price tag. Having said that, I
consider a monitor to be an
investment – don’t buy a cheap
one you’ll want to replace in two
years; buy a great one that will
last you five. You can buy similar
IPS displays with FreeSync
instead of G-Sync, but the Asus
ROG Swift PG279Q is the best
choice and worth every penny.
verdict
1440p with 144Hz refresh rate
Low input lag for an IPS screen
G-Sync requires Nvidia graphics
Expensive
VG248QE
ASUS £200
For displays, one of the
4 biggest compromises is
often giving up features
to save money. You don’t have to
lose out on everything in pursuit
of lower prices, however, as the
VG248QE still supports up to
144Hz refresh rates, all on a
24-inch 1080p TN display.
Finding a great budget gaming
display is difficult. Features like an
IPS panel and Nvidia’s G-Sync
carry a price premium. The Asus
VG248QE keeps prices low by
opting to not include Nvidia’s
pricey G-Sync, and its TN panel
gives washed-out colours
compared to the IPS panels I’ve
selected elsewhere. But the
inclusion of 144Hz refresh rates
makes this a better choice for
SPECS Screen size: 24-inch / Panel type: TN / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Resolution: 1920x1080 /
Response time: 1ms / Refresh rate: 144Hz / Weight: 5.5kg
3
gaming than most 60Hz 1080p
displays, and pairs perfectly with
budget builds that use an AMD
graphics card.
If you want to save even more
money, the 23-inch Viewsonic
VX2370Smh includes an IPS
panel and is only £150 online,
though it’s not without drawbacks
and is harder to find in the UK. It’s
still an IPS bargain, which means
there are none of the washed out
colours you get with a TN panel.
Going that route, though, means
you lose out on a fast refresh rate.
verdict
Good specs for an affordable price
Supports 144Hz
Ideal for budget builds
Uses a TN panel
 gaming monitors
Group Test

HOW WE TEST
There are two main ways to test out a
screen. The first is by playing games on it.
Subjectively testing gaming performance
isn’t going to give you the lowdown on the
specifics of a screen, but it will let you test
the aspect ratio, native resolution and any
games-centric technologies they have.
Side-by-side testing is also good for keying
into the differences between each panel.
Objective testing can be great, but is
also more difficult. To do it properly, you
need hardware for testing latency, colour
accuracy, and other metrics. Most gamers
don’t have access to any of this. The days of
retail space for such things are dwindling,
but if you can get a look at a screen before
4 buying it, plug in your laptop and check out
the monitor testing pages at www.lagom.nl.

5 6

MG279Q Predator XB321HK

ASUS £520
Right now there’s really
5 no competition for the
Asus MG279Q: this is
the best monitor for AMD users
who want a FreeSync display. It’s
a 1440p IPS screen that can
refresh up to 144Hz, but since it
uses FreeSync instead of G-Sync,
it doesn’t cost as much (although
the price gap has narrowed).
Thanks to that IPS screen,
colours look great even from
off-angles. The base is sturdy and
the bezel is fairly thin, which is
nice for a 27-inch monitor. It also
has a light anti-gloss coating,
which I like; some older IPS
displays went too heavy on the
coating and affected image
quality, but the MG279Q doesn’t
have that problem.
The contrast ratio is also
great, and the ability to support
multiple inputs makes this screen
better for people who might want
to connect a second system, like
a console. This is thanks to the
presence of the internal scaler,
one of the main differences you’ll
find between G-Sync and
FreeSync offerings. With no other
IPS FreeSync displays that can
match the MG279Q on specs,
this is a great monitor and an
easy choice for anyone with an
AMD graphics card.
verdict
IPS, 144Hz, 2560x1440
Good picture quality out of the box
Adaptive refresh range is 35Hz-90Hz
No blur reduction mode
ACER £800
Gaming at 4K is a
6 premium endeavour.
You need a colossal
amount of rendering power to
game at decent framerates and
such high resolution. And if you’re
rocking a top-shelf graphics card,
like the new RTX 2080, it’s only
fitting to use an exquisite display,
but is a G-Sync 4K one worth it?
The Acer Predator XB321HK
answers that question with a
resounding yes. At 32 inches, it
gives you enough screen to put
its 3840x2160 4K UHD resolution
to good use. It’s also an IPS
display, so colours are vibrant,
regardless of your viewing angle.
Overall, the XB321HK is an
beast of a monitor. The price is a
big hurdle to overcome, but this is
a luxury monitor with luxury
features. It’s built for those of us
that want the best, and if you’ve
shelled out on a pair of RTX 2080
or 2080 Ti cards, it’s a fitting
match. For us mere mortals, until
our graphics hardware gets to the
point where you can run a 4K
display from a modestly priced
single GPU, we’d suggest sticking
with a lower resolution screen.
That way you get great
framerates and can take
advantage of the 144Hz and
G-Sync/FreeSync technology.
verdict
Vibrant colours, wide viewing angles
Large enough for 4K resolution
G-Sync requires Nvidia graphics
4K gaming needs a lot of GPU power

SPECS Screen size: 27-inch / Panel type: IPS / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Resolution: 2560x1440 / SPECS Screen size: 32-inch / Panel type: IPS / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Resolution: 3840x2160 /
Response time: 4ms / Refresh rate: 144Hz / Weight: 7.3kg Response time: 4ms / Refresh rate: 60Hz / Weight: 11.3kg

85
GROUP TEST
Fans

FANS
Hayden Dingman shows you how
to cool your rig with the best PC
fans for gaming machines
T
here’s a good chance you didn’t
consider the best PC fans during
your last build. Everyone’s done
it at one point or another. You
start assembling a new PC build, put all
the parts in your cart, look at the total, cry
a little bit, and then start cutting corners.
Case fans are usually the first victim. How
different can they be, anyway? Do you
really need the best PC fan?
Well no, you don’t need it, but the
premium fan is probably premium for a
reason. You want to strike a balance
between noise and airflow, and generally
the higher-end fans are better in that
regard. They also tend to last longer
thanks to tech like Noctua’s ‘Self-
Stabilising Oil Pressure Bearings’, and
that longevity is important! Every fan’s
going to break down eventually, but a
more reliable model is the difference
between replacing your fans in five years
or swapping one or two whining fans out
every year. Suddenly getting the best PC
fans for your gaming rig doesn’t sound
too crazy.
Point being it’s very easy to neglect
case fans and go for the cheapest
four-pack of budget blowers, but you do
so at your peril. If you want the rest of
your components kept cool and efficient,
it starts here.

86

2 HOW WE TEST
Kaze Flex 120 PWM
Scythe £10
Scythe doesn’t make a
1 great first impression,
granted. The Kaze Flex
120 PWM arrives in a cheap
plastic package, looking more like
it came from an auto shop than a
modern PC retailer. Side-by-side
with Noctua’s Redux packaging,
or Corsair’s weighty boxes,
Scythe feels every part the
budget fan solution.
And to some extent that’s
true. Chances are if you were
planning to skimp on fans, Scythe
would come up in some of your
searches. Scythe makes a ton of
fans, and some are much better
than others in my experience.
The Kaze Flex 120 PWM I
tested is one of the company’s
better models though. At 1200
SPECS Bearing type: Fluid Dynamic Bearing / RPM range: 300 - 1200 / Listed CFM: 51.2 / Listed dBA: 24.9 /
RGB: No / 140mm model no.: N/A
RPMs the Kaze Flex 120 moved
more air in my test rig than some
of the competition (Corsair, for
instance) did at 1400 or even
1600 RPMs, presumably a result
of having eleven blades where
most fans have only nine. Lots of
air goes hand-in-hand with noise
though, and indeed the Kaze Flex
120 PWM is also noisier than the
competition at any given speed
setting – though since it tops out
at 1200 RPMs, the noise is never
as bad as models that spin up to
higher speeds.
v er d i c t
Cable is durable
Fairly inexpensive
Feels inexpensive
Relatively noisy
MF120R A-RGB
COOLER MASTER £16
I tested a few
2 (reasonably) budget-
friendly RGB options
and I’m recommending Cooler
Master’s MF120R A-RGB kit.
Cooler Master’s RGB design is
a bit less high-tech than the
LL120s, featuring only fan-blade
lighting instead of the second ring
around the outside. It’s still a
pretty attractive fan though, fairly
bright and with smooth
transitions. And while the triple
pack kit lists for £70, you can
usually find it on sale for much
cheaper. Add in the fact that
additional fans only cost £16
each, and you’re set to save a
whole lot of money on your
cooling setup. So what’s the
catch? They’re loud. Like, really
SPECS Bearing type: Rifle Bearing / RPM range: 650 - 2000 / Listed CFM: 59.0 | Listed dBA: 31.0 /
RGB: Yes, either through motherboard or Cooler Master’s controller / 140mm model no.: N/A
F ans
Group Test
There are a lot of case fans out
there, so we had to set a few
guidelines. First, we limited our
tests to 120mm fans. It’s not
because we hate 140mm, but
120mm is still the ‘default’ case
fan, and it’s hard to compare
different fan lines when you’re
also comparing different sizes, so
we stuck to 120mm versions.
That in mind, we contacted a
number of the most popular case
fan manufacturers and had them
send over both their best-selling
and their personal favourite
120mm models. Then we hacked
together a miniature wind tunnel
with an anemometer inside, a
device that measures airflow and
then used a decibel meter to
measure relative loudness. We
took our decibel readings from
five inches, which is closer to
these fans than you’d ever be, but
helped clarify what are otherwise
minute differences in noise level.
We then also maxed out the
RPMs on each fan to test a
theoretical airflow limit, and the
accompanying noise. Chances
are you’d never run most of these
fans at 100 percent – that’s why
they’re PWM fans! As for RGB
lighting? Well, we used our eyes.
loud. Even Cooler Master admits
it, listing the MF120R at 31 dBA. In
my own tests the MF120R kit was
reasonably quiet at 1200 RPM
but completely unusable at its
maximum 2000 RPM speed.
Granted, the MF120Rs move a
lot of air at top speed, tying the
Noctua NF-A12x25 for the
highest airflow. There’s no way
you’d want to run them at that
speed though. Still, you get a full
RGB lighting setup and some
pretty strong fans for a fraction of
the cost of Corsair’s kit.
v er d i c t
Affordable RGB lighting
Lots of airflow potential
Louder than the competition
Less advanced RGB lighting
87
group test
Fans
NZXT limits the
Aer RGB 2’s LEDs
to the outer ring
GROUP TEST
Aer RGB 2 120mm
NZXT £27
The NZXT Aer RGB 2
3 won’t win any prizes for
its performance in my
tests. At its top speed of 1500
RPMs the Aer RGB 2 moves a
surprising amount of air, but it’s
also louder than nearly every
other fan I tested. Even in my
low-speed tests, the Aer RGB 2
proved a hair noisier than the rest.
Look at it, though. It’s really a
sight to behold, especially in
person. Unlike Corsair, NZXT
limits the Aer RGB 2’s LEDs to the
outer ring, casting a slight glow on
the spinning fan blades without
directly illuminating them – and
shining a lot of light outwards into
the case. It’s a really clean look,
objectively as gaudy as any other
RGB setup but seeming a bit
SPECS Bearing type: Fluid Dynamic Bearing / RPM range: 500 - 1500 / Listed CFM: 52.4 | Listed dBA: 22.0 /
RGB: Yes, with NZXT Hue 2 / 140mm model no.: Aer RGB 2 140mm
88
more sleek and refined somehow.
The Hue 2 controller is also more
attractive than any of the other
boxes we looked at, meaning you
won’t mind having to include it
alongside the fans in your
all-glass case.
Like Corsair, NZXT struggles
with price though. A three-pack of
120mm fans plus controller lists
for £120, even more than
Corsair’s LL120 starter kit, and
additional fans list for £27, making
them among the most expensive
in this test.
v er d i c t
Just really pretty
Plenty of accessories included
Expensive
Louder than average
NF-S12B redux-1200
NOCTUA £13
If you care at all about
4 case fans, chances are
you know Noctua. It’s a
trusted favourite among many
DIY builders, and for good reason.
Noctua builds fans that last a long
time, move a lot of air, and do it
quietly. The problem – until
recently, buying Noctua fans
meant committing yourself to an
ugly khaki-and-mud colour
scheme straight out of the 1970s.
Noctua was the definition of
function-over-form, an
engineering wonder that would
impress any enthusiast who
looked at your PC but disgust
everyone else.
Noctua’s recent redux line
finally rectifies this issue though,
recasting time-tested designs in a
SPECS Bearing type: Self-Stabilising Oil Pressure Bearing / RPM range: 400 - 1200 / Listed CFM: 59.2 /
Listed dBA: 18.1 / RGB: No / 140mm model no.: NF-P14s Redux – 1200 PWM
3
modern gray-and-black look that
won’t detract from the rest of
your PC build. And of the two
redux models Noctua sent over,
the NF-S12B became a quick
favourite. It’s not as quiet nor as
efficient as another blacked out
Noctua model, the NF-S12A, but
it is cheap. Time was, Noctua fans
meant shelling out a lot of money
on your build, but the NF-S12B
redux balances great
performance with a budget-
friendly price tag, and looks great
in the process.
v er d i c t
Inexpensive but performs great
Less ugly than the old Noctua models
No RGB
Less powerful than other models

NF-A12x25 PWM
NOCTUA £27
Here’s some good ol’
5 Noctua khaki-and-mud
for the diehards. The
Noctua SF-12B is a fantastic fan,
but if you’re looking for a top-tier
120mm model that can move a
lot of air, the somewhat
awkwardly named NF-A12x25
blows away the competition. Of
all the fans I tested, this is the
model that pumped the most air
through my test rig.
Of course, it was able to do
that because it maxes out at a
zippy 2000 RPMs. And moving
that much air comes at a cost,
namely noise. Noctua’s own stats
put the NF-A12x25 in the middle
of the pack for noise, but my tests
say otherwise – at least, at top
speed. Spinning along at its full
SPECS Bearing type: Self-Stabilising Oil Pressure Bearing – Second Generation / RPM range: 450 - 2000 /
Listed CFM: 60.1 / Listed dBA: 22.6 / RGB: No / 140mm model no.: NF-A14 PWM
2000 RPM glory the NF-A12x25
was the second-loudest fan I
tested, surpassed only by another
2000 RPM Cooler Master fan.
But the NF-A12x25 was also the
quietest fan I tested when
running at lower RPMs. My
numbers have it putting out less
noise at 1200 RPMs than some
fans running even 300 RPMs
slower. Since those speeds are
more likely to come up in
day-to-day use, that makes the
NF-A12x25 an excellent choice for
your gaming PC.
v er d i c t
Highest airflow of any fan we tested
Lots of accessories included
Old Noctua colour scheme
Expensive for a fan with no LEDs
LL120 RGB
CORSAIR £20
If you’re chasing that
6 cyberpunk aesthetic
then Corsair’s LL120
Pro RGB fans are the best you
can buy. The LL120s are packed
full of RGB LEDs. Each has a
complement of LEDs shining out
from the rotor, diffusing light
down the length of the blades.
Then there’s a separate ring of
light embedded around the
housing’s outer edge. As a result
the LL120s are the brightest and
showiest fans I tested, and a
perfect fit for any RGB addict.
They’re not just for show,
though. The LL120s are also
pretty solid fans, lighting or no. At
mid-range speeds they tend to be
slightly louder than the
competition, but at load they’re
SPECS Bearing type: Hydraulic Bearing / RPM range: 600 - 1500 / Listed CFM: 43.3 / Listed dBA: 24.8 /
RGB: Yes, with Corsair Lighting Node Pro / 140mm model no.: LL140 RGB
F ans
Group Test
quieter than just about any
non-Noctua fan I tested – and
that’s only because most of the
Noctua fans top out at 1200 RPM,
versus 1500 RPM for the LL120.
The problem? They’re expensive.
Incredibly expensive.
To use LL120s you need to
commit to purchasing a
three-pack of fans with an
included Corsair Lighting Node
Pro, a package that lists for £83.
Additional fans will run you £20
each. That’s a chunk of cash,
even if the results are stellar.
v er d i c t
Top-tier RGB lighting
Surprisingly quiet at full-speed
Expensive
Slightly louder than the competition
89
group test
Solid state drives
SOLID STATE
DRIVES
Ed Chester explores supercharged
storage for your setup
T
he era of hard drives is
nearly over, for anything but
storing massive video
collections. With 500GB
SSDs readily available for well under
90
£100, there’s very little need to even
consider an HDD for a gaming rig.
But, there’s still plenty of choice to
be had, so we’ve grabbed five of the
top SSDs to see what they offer.
Q&A
How fast?
The latest high-end SSDs
provide astonishing
performance but for most
users, a far more modest
SSD will suffice. Any drive
that can consistently
provide close to 500MB/s
read and write speeds will
likely suit your needs.
What form factor?
SSDs come in a variety of
form factors but the two
main choices these days are
2.5-inch SATA drives or M.2
drives. The former are larger
but cheaper and come in
higher capacities. The latter
are tiny and can provide the
highest performance.
SATA or NVMe?
M.2 SSDs can run in one of
two modes: NVMe or SATA.
SATA versions are limited to
the same ~550MB/s speed
limit as 2.5-inch SATA drives.
NVMe versions can go much,
much faster.
Dictionary
Sequential speed: When
data is read or written in one
continuous stream. It’s
measured in megabytes per
second (MB/s).
Random speed: When data
is read or written in many
small chunks/files. It’s
generally measured in
input/output operations per
second (IOPS).
NAND: The memory cells
used to store data in an SSD.
NAND degrades each time
data is written to it. The
terabytes written (TBW)
figure indicates the drive’s
write endurance – the total
amount of data that can be
written before it starts to
lose capacity.
MLC/TLC: NAND can store
one (SLC), two (MLC) or
three (TLC) bits of data in
each cell. The lower the
number, the faster and
longer lasting the drive.

Samsung 860 Evo 500GB
www.samsung.com £90
The 850 Evo was the SATA SSD of choice for those that
wanted a balance of performance and price. It’s this
market that Samsung has aimed for again with the 860
Evo, but the competition is now much hotter.
In particular, the Crucial MX500 has muscled into
1 this space, leaving very little wiggle room. The
860 Evo demands a higher price than Crucial’s
offering and yet only just creeps ahead in my
sequential read and write tests. Meanwhile, it falls
behind in random read and write tests.
However, there is one potentially critical area
where this drive pulls ahead of the competition,
which is write endurance. This drive boasts a
whopping 300TBW with a five-year warranty.
You can also get this drive in both M.2 and SATA,
as well as mSATA, form factors, with the SATA
version topping out at a huge 4TB – a snip at £850.
Samsung uses its own 3D TLC NAND and MJX
controller in these drives and it has proved to be
very capable. The device also offers 256-bit AES
hardware encryption.
The Samsung 860 Evo is still a great choice for
those seeking a slightly more premium,
longer-lasting SATA SSD, but for most,
the Crucial MX500 will do the job. 80%
s o lid s t a t e d r iv e s
Group Test
Crucial MX500 500GB
www.crucial.com £80
Crucial’s MX500 series is available in M.2 and 2.5-inch
SATA form factors but only runs using the slower SATA
protocol. That means sequential performance is limited
to around 550MB/s regardless of which drive you buy.
Opt for the M.2 version and you’re limited to 1TB
2 capacity, but the 2.5-inch version goes up to 2TB.
Whichever version you go for, though, they all offer
good value. Costing just £80 for a 500GB version,
you can hardly buy a cheaper 500GB SSD.
It’s all the more surprising, then, that this drive
performs well. The company’s previous generation
drive, the MX300, offered great value, too, but it
struggled for speed. Here, though, the MX500
trades blows with other SATA drives for top spot,
leading in random read and write performance.
A slightly lower write endurance than the WB
Blue 3D is notable, but not really a concern – all
these drives should still last many, many years.
The drive itself is finished in a fetching metal
case while you also get hardware AES encryption
for secure data storage. Under the hood is Micron’s
3D NAND and an SMI SM2258 controller.
Excellent performance, for a SATA
drive, and a rock-bottom price make
this the best SATA SSD. 90%
91
group test
Solid state drives
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB
www.samsung.com £140
Samsung’s 900 series M.2 SSDs have ruled the roost
for the last several years thanks to blistering
performance and competitive pricing. The latest 970
models continue that trend.
The 970 Evo is the cheaper, more consumer-centric
3 option, though it still comes with a relatively high
price compared to SATA SSDs.
But, while you’re paying 50% more than the likes
of the Crucial MX500, you’re getting 700% more
speed. This drive tops out at 3554MB/s sequential
read and 2461MB/s sequential write, which is
frankly more than anyone needs. But it is nice to
have. You also get a huge 233688IOPS random
read and 218890IOPS random write. Oh, and
there’s the impressive 300TBW write endurance.
Samsung’s own 3D NAND is under the hood and
it’s run by the Samsung Phoenix controller that also
includes hardware AES encryption. These are
high-end drives and they deliver in every way,
except one. These drives, like the others in this test
except the Samsung 970 Pro, use TLC NAND. That
results in slower performance and much lower write
endurance than the 970 Pro drive, so if
you really want the absolute pinnacle of
performance, you know where to go. 90%
92
Samsung 970 Pro 512GB
www.samsung.com £195
The Samsung 970 Evo is such a fast drive that for
many the 970 Pro seems almost pointless. However, if
you’re after the ultimate in performance and longevity,
it’s the drive to get.
Its use of MLC NAND means you don’t get any drop
4 in write performance like you do with TLC drives –
they rely on a cache of faster NAND to create a
write buffer. If you continuously write more data to
the drive than the size of the buffer, write
performance drops. Here, however, the drive just
keeps chugging along.
That MLC NAND also results in a far longer life
for the drive. You get double the write endurance
with the 970 Pro compared to the 970 Evo, which is
already much higher than most value SSDs.
Then of course there’s performance. You’re not
actually getting that much faster a drive here than
the 970 Evo, especially in sequential performance,
but there is still an advantage top be had.
Unfortunately, that advantage is just too small
for this drive to make sense for most of us. For
gaming it’s overkill of the highest proportion. You
will only need this level of performance
and longevity for very specialist
tasks, and bragging rights. 80%
 S o lid s t a t e d r iv e s
Group Test

STACKED UP
PRICE (£) SEQUENTIAL SPEED RANDOM SPEED
(MB/s) (IOPS)
Write speed Write speed
EnDURANCE (TBW) Read speed Read speed
Higher is better Higher is better Higher is better

1
Samsung 860 Evo 500GB
90

537 564
4 83,953 94,196

300

2
5
Crucial MX500 500GB
80

535 563

88,354 99,117

180

3
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB
140

2,461 3,554

218,727 233,688

300
4

Samsung 970 Pro 512GB

WD Blue 3D M.2 500GB 2,593

195

3,559
www.wdc.com £80 233,890 277,276

600
Another value SSD contender, the WD Blue 3D is,
like the Crucial MX500, available in both M.2 and
5

2.5-inch SATA form factors, with both limited to the

same slower SATA interface. WD Blue 3D M.2 500GB
Unlike the MX500, the WD Blue 3D is available in 80

5 capacities up to 2TB in both form factors.

Elsewhere the drive offers nothing particularly
533 562

83,984 95,423

outstanding. M.2 drives don’t have the opportunity 200

to stand out with fancy designs so there’s nothing to

mention here other than a blue PCB.
Meanwhile, on the inside you’ve got the Marvell
88SS1074 controller keeping things ticking over
while SanDisk’s third-generation 3D TLC NAND is
ESSENTIALS
used to store all your data. Capacity Form factor Protocol
Notably, WD hasn’t enabled the hardware AES
encryption that’s available on this controller, so 500GB SATA SATA
1

those that like to keep their data secure will have to

rely on a software-based solution. 500GB SATA SATA
2

The end result is a drive that performs a little

better than expected. It keeps toe-to-toe with the 500GB M.2 NMVe
3

Crucial MX500 and Samsung 860 Evo. Add in the

decent 200TBW write endurance and impressively
512GB M.2 NMVe
4

low price and you have a drive that comes

very close to toppling the Crucial
MX500, though it does just fall short. 85% 500GB M.2 SATA
5

93
g r o u p test

GAMING
HEADSETS
If you’re looking for great sound, the best
gaming headsets deliver unrivalled audio,
as Phil Iwaniuk shows us

W
hat makes for the best
gaming headset? Well,
the obvious answer is
sound quality. Sure, you
can make a pair of cans as feature-
packed as possible, but if you don’t
have rumbling bass, pinpoint surround
sound and decent noise-cancelling
then you’re never going to be the best.
I put all the following gaming
headsets through their paces, with a
wide variety of games, but also with
music, videos and movies. If you’re
spending decent money on the best
cans you can, you want to know they’ll
be good for more than just gaming
(even if that’s their primary role).

94
 gaming headsets
Group Test

2 HOW WE TEST
We recently put more than 60 headset
units through a $50,000 testing setup to
produce empirical data we could use to
quantify our picks. We’ll endeavour to make
use of that setup again in future, but we
haven’t given up on testing by ear.
Each headset that we test we use daily
for at least a week. We record a sample of
our voice in Audacity and compare it to
previous recordings from other models,
then head to Discord to get some feedback
from our friends on how we’re sounding.
During that week, we aim to test each
headset in a number of different game
genres – shooters, battle royales and racing
games make for good scenarios, since the
former tends to test the low-end and reveal
muddiness and distortion, while PUBG et al
are great for positional audio tracking.
Finally, good racing sims feature a very
particular mix designed to help you hear
brake lock-up and tyres losing traction.
It’s not just about gaming, though: we
wear the headsets while we work, listen to
music, watch distracting videos and
everything else that crops up while we’re at
our desk. Finally, we compare a few lossless
music tracks by listening through our
BeyerDynamic DT770s and then the test
sample. The 770s have a really flat EQ that
makes them great for music production
and critical listening applications – hearing
another headset immediately after them
really brings EQ peaks and dips into focus.

Arctis 7 Nari Ultimate

STEELSERIES £97
What I like best about
1 the Arctis 7 is that you
can easily forget it’s a
wireless model while you’re using
it. There’s none of the muddiness
or audio artefacts that have
historically ruined the party for
wireless headsets – it sounds just
as good as the best wired models
I’ve tested at this same £100
price point. The extraordinary
battery life clocks in at over 20
hours out of the box, and after
almost a year of heavy use that
figure’s hardly dropped off. You
can keep playing while you
charge, too, simply by connecting
the headset to your PC with a
USB cable.
The Arctis range’s distinctive
ski goggle headband is effective
at keeping the weight of the
headset away from your head,
and even after playing for hours
I’ve never felt it digging in.
After a year of daily usage, the
headband does slacken, which
makes for a looser and slightly
less comfortable fit, but the
bands themselves are
replaceable and sold for under
£15 on the SteelSeries online
store. A functional but slightly
quiet and muffled mic is the
only dent in its otherwise
formidable armour.
v e r di c t
Great battery life
Comfortable ‘ski goggle’ headband
Headband can slacken over time
Average mic
RAZER £150
No matter where you
2 stand on the polarising
debate of haptic
feedback in games, I have to
applaud its first proper
execution in a gaming headset
with the Razer Nari Ultimate.
Showcasing the company’s new
HyperSense technology, this
headset – which feels like you’re
wearing a pair of subwoofers on
your head – is best experienced
for yourself. Sure, there’s an
expensive point of entry, but it
really is worth the money.
Since it features a wide gamut
of haptic frequencies rather than
just one static mode of vibration,
the Nari Ultimate exhibits one of
the most true-to-life rumble
sensations I’ve ever experienced.
And because support for it isn’t
programmed at the software
level, every game is compatible.
But it’s more than just haptics. In
fact, the sound quality on the Nari
Ultimate is a considerable
improvement from Razer’s
phonic endeavours of the past.
Unlike the bass-heavy Kraken
series cans, this one adds a
healthy balance of highs and mids
to the mix as well. The wireless
connection is a rock-solid one,
and the overall comfort of the
headset is excellent.
v e r di c t
Haptic feedback works in its favour
Balanced sound quality
Limited wireless compatibility
No support for noise-cancelling

SPECS Wireless: Yes / Drivers: 40mm neodymium drivers / Connectivity: Wireless via USB, 3.5mm wired / SPECS Wireless: Yes / Drivers: 50mm neodymium / Connectivity: USB wireless, 3.5mm analogue /
Frequency: 20Hz-20,000Hz / Features: Retractable noise cancelling mic, DTS Headphone:X, 7.1 surround Frequency: 20Hz-20,000Hz / Features: unidirectional mic, Lofelt L5 haptic drivers, THX Spatial Audio

95
g r o u p test
Gaming headsets
HyperX Cloud Alpha
KINGSTON £70
Bearing the fruits of
3 HyperX Cloud’s long
legacy of excellence, the
newest Cloud Alpha presents
excellent sound and build quality
with the essential features done
well, and no feature-flab inflating
the price. The stereo soundscape
in this closed-back design is
punchier in the low end than I’d
usually go for, but the extra bass
doesn’t interfere with overall
clarity – and frankly, in games and
music environments, it sounds
great. Each 50mm driver’s dual
chamber design is intended to
give low, medium and high
frequencies space to resonate
without interfering with each
other, and you do get a sense of
that while listening to them.
SPECS Wireless: No / Drivers: 50mm dual chamber neodymium / Connectivity: 3.5mm analogue /
Frequency: 13Hz-27,000Hz / Features: Detachable noise-cancelling mic, in-line cable controls
96
Elsewhere it’s the usual
impressive build quality, generous
padding, clear mic and high
comfort levels over longer play
sessions that the Cloud design
has always offered. The in-line
controls are the only exception to
that rule – they feel flimsy in
comparison to the rest of the
package. I recommend the Alpha
over the Cloud II (only just)
because of the better frequency
response range, although
there’s very little separating the
two models.
v e r di c t
Powerful but clear sound
Bombproof build quality
No detachable cable
Flimsy in-line controls
Arctis Pro Wireless
STEELSERIES £300
Essentially this is a
4 fusion of two great
SteelSeries models, old
and new. The Arctis Pro Wireless
combines the wireless capability
and digital control box of the old
Siberia 800 model with the
comfort and sound performance
of the newer Arctis range.
Positioned right at the top end of
the roster, the Arctis Pro Wireless
is all about luxury. You need to
pay for that luxury for sure, but
what you get is definitely worth
the money.
As with the old Siberia 800, I
love the ability to change
batteries quickly, plugging the
depleted one into the base station
to charge, and popping the
charged one out so that you
SPECS Wireless: Yes / Drivers: 40mm neodymium / Connectivity: USB wireless, optical, 3.5mm analogue /
Frequency: 10Hz-40,000Hz / Features: noise-cancelling mic, rechargeable batteries w/ base station
never need to plug the headset in,
or worse, take a break from
gaming while you wait for it to
charge. I love the controls housed
in that base station’s digital
display too: chat mix, virtual
surround, EQ presets and more
can all be adjusted with a few
taps. The icing on the cake is
Bluetooth: it teams up with the
2.4G wireless connectivity for
lossless sound, and means you
can use it with mobile devices in
addition to your PC. This headset
is an excellent all-rounder.
v e r di c t
Control everything on one box
Smart battery switching design
Menus sometimes confusing
Expensive

Arctis Pro + GameDAC
STEELSERIES £230
High-res audio is on the
5 up thanks to lossless
streaming from Tidal et
al, and games such as
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
offering full support. The Arctis
Pro GameDAC makes full use of
that crystalline high-resolution
sound with a 5Hz-40KHz
frequency response range – a
spec that also makes the drivers
sound great for everyday
compressed audio usage. So, if
you’re planning to use a gaming
headset for watching videos, TV,
or listening to music on your PC,
this is a great choice.
The GameDAC itself is a
combination of a digital-to-
analogue converter that takes the
strain away from your CPU, a
SPECS Wireless: No / Drivers: 40mm neodymium / Connectivity: USB, optical, 3.5mm analogue /
Frequency: 10Hz-40,000Hz / Features: noise-cancelling mic, DTS Headphone:X 2.0, RGB
preamp and a control centre.
With a press of its button and a
roll of the dial, DTS Headphone-X
surround can be enabled or
disabled, chat/game mix
tweaked, and EQ settings
perfected. The subtle ring around
each earcup on these cans ticks
the RGB box without ruining the
overall aesthetic. My only
reservations with the GameDAC
model are that it requires an
adapter for smartphone usage,
and that its cables feel cheaper
than a £230 headset should.
v e r di c t
Tasteful RGB lighting
Handy GameDAC controls
Cables feel fragile
Slightly overpriced
G Pro
LOGITECH £80
Logitech designed
6 these cans with the help
of esports athletes, with
a view to stripping away all the
unneccesary cruft that passes for
a gaming headset feature list. The
aim is to offer a lean and
reasonably priced package that
focuses in on offering high-
performance essentials.
Generally speaking, the G Pro
delivers on that goal: there’s not a
flame decal or RBG lighting strip
in sight, and that functional
aesthetic is matched by a
barebones feature set. Looking to
complete your RGB hellscape?
You don’t get that here.
The design is so barebones, in
fact, that it might take some by
surprise. As well as foregoing the
SPECS Wireless: No / Drivers: ‘Hybrid mesh Pro-G’ neodymium / Connectivity: 3.5mm analogue /
Frequency: 20Hz-20,000Hz / Features: Detachable mic
gaming headsets
Group Test
adolescent aesthetic, the G Pro
also skips features like virtual
surround, and provides only a mic
mute and volume scroll wheel by
way of controls. I like the overall
sound produced by the drivers,
even if it’s a bit more pronounced
towards the low end than I’d
normally choose. If you can live
with that, you get an otherwise
attractive package with no extra
flab all for under £100. It’s comfy
to wear and, despite the basic
build, feels sturdy and likely to last
you for years.
v e r di c t
Clean, no-fuss design
Breathable, comfy earcups
A bit bass-heavy
Basic build materials
97
 group test
Gaming keyboards
GAMING KEYBOARDS
Alan Bradley finds the best gaming keyboard that will
let you dominate the battlefield but avoid penury
P
C peripherals have
become a hot market in
the last decade or so,
and nowhere is that
more obvious that in the gaming
sub-sector, which means anyone
shopping for the best gaming
keyboard has a massive number
of options at their fingertips.
We’re seeing an incredible
array of products across all sorts
of switches and feature sets,
from keyboards that act more
like gamepads than traditional
decks to boards that flash a
Christmas in Rockefeller Plaza
level of coloured lighting
spectacle. While this means that
98
there’s a range of choices at the
both the top and bargain tier, it
can also breed a level of
marketplace confusion, so we’ve
tested dozens of decks both new
and old to help you.
The first step to finding the
best gaming keyboard to fit your
needs is educating yourself. First,
you need to figure out whether
you want the durability and
responsiveness of a mechanical
keyboard or the plush softness of
a membrane deck (or some
option in between, like Razer’s
mecha-membrane offering). If
you do opt for a mechanical
board, you then need to figure
out which switches you prefer.
Want to type stealthily away in
your office without alerting/
annoying your co-workers? Try a
Razer Yellow, or Cherry Red or
Silent Red. Or, if you want to
replicate the feeling (and noise)
of a traditional typewriter,
something like the Razer Orange
or Cherry Blue switch will get you
the closest. Outside of those core
families, there are also options
like Razer’s opto-mechanical
switch which ‘actuate at the
speed of light’ and can only be
found in their Huntsman line, or
alternative manufacturers like
Kailh or Logitech.

K95 RGB Platinum
Corsair £170
The best gaming keyboard
When you want to go
1 the extra mile and
upgrade to the absolute
best of the best, it’s hard to find a
better option than the Corsair
K95 Platinum. The K95 Platinum
is a big keyboard: its enormous
footprint still requires some desk
cleaning before it can be nested
comfortably. But feature wise, the
K95 Platinum has got it all.
Dedicated media controls and a
USB pass-through, a metal
volume wheel, RGB lighting. It
even comes with an extra set of
textured keycaps for the WASD
keys. While it’s expensive, you do
know what you’re getting for your
money here.
SPECS Switch: Cherry MX Speed, Brown / Size: Full Size / Backlights: RGB / Passthroughs: USB /
Media Controls: Dedicated / Wristrest: Detachable
I also love its detachable wrist
rest, which makes things super
comfortable for long gaming
sessions (and this keyboard is
particularly great for both
strategy games and MMOs). The
rubberized wristpad attaches
magnetically and has two
contrasting textures: one smooth
side and one rough side.
Switching sides is as easy as
flipping it over, and the added
comfort it brings is exceptional.
v e r di c t
Huge range of switches
Durable, high grade keycaps
No backlighting
No wristrest
Alloy Elite
HYPERX £133
The best simple gaming keyboard
The HyperX Alloy Elite
2 sports a simple
aesthetic while still
packing most of the features we
expect out of a quality gaming
keyboard. It comes in your choice
of Cherry MX Brown, Blue and
Red. What it lacks in a dedicated
macro column, it makes up for
with an affordable price point and
quality design.
The HyperX Alloy Elite leaves
no box unchecked in features.
It’s equipped with dedicated
media controls, USB
passthrough, a detachable
wristrest, and red backlighting.
To up its aesthetics, it also
includes an extra set of silver
SPECS Switch: Cherry MX Blue, Brown, Red / Size: Full size / Backlights: RGB / Passthroughs: USB /
Media Controls: Dedicated / Wristrest: Detachable
g amin g k e yb o a r d s
keycaps for WASD and the first
four number keys.
The board supports full N-key
rollover, so you’ll never worry
about key presses not registering.
The RGB model of the Alloy
Elite will cost you around £130.
Previously, I’ve recommended the
cheaper variant that replaced
RGB with red backlighting. But
that model is now unavailable in
most stores, and is no longer
advertised on HyperX’s website.
v e r di c t
Great feature set
Relatively affordable
Red backlit varient now hard to get
RGB lighting costs more
99
 group test
Gaming keyboards

packed with the

additional features
that elevate a
gaming keyboard 3

MK850 Cynosa Chroma

COOLER MASTER £187 RAZER £58

The best keyboard to replace a gamepad
Cooler Master may not
3 be the first name that
springs to mind when
you think of gaming keyboards,
but the MK850 may very well
change your mind. The headline
feature of their latest peripheral
offering is the aimpad technology
built into a subset of the deck’s
keys, which transform them with
the push of a button into analog
inputs not unlike the analog stick
on a gamepad. This means that
you can push a key part of the
way down and it’ll register the
input differently than pushing it all
the way to the floor. It’s a useful
feature, particularly in stealth or
racing games.
It’s not just the aimpad that
makes the MK850 a great board,
though. It’s packed with the
additional features that elevate a
gaming keyboard, stuff like a row
of dedicated macro keys and
media controls, USB
passthroughs, and Cherry MX
Red switches. And it’s an
attractive deck, with raised
keycaps and a supportive
magnetic wrist rest and anodized
aluminium backplate.
v e r di c t
Unique, analog aimpad technology
Full media controls
High resistance
Slightly awkward macro positioning
The best membrane keyboard for gaming
If even mecha-
4 membrane keys don’t
suit you and you
demand a fully membrane
typing/gaming experience, the
Cynosa is the deck for you. It has
some of the best feeling, low
profile membrane keys I’ve ever
tested, and at a retail price of
under £60 is one of the most
affordable gaming keyboards
out there (past a certain
threshold of quality). While it may
lack some of the features a
number of gaming boards pack in
these days, stuff like a dedicated
wrist rest or media controls, it
does boast Razer’s extensive
RGB lighting, which can be
programmed on a per key basis
or applied by zones.
It’s a solid, no frills, nice
looking keyboard that’s the best
membrane option of a huge
range I’ve tested. There’s a
step-up version of the Cynosa,
but for slightly more the only real
addition is underglow RGB, so
unless that kind of ‘ground
effects’ package is appealing to
you, save your cash and invest in
the base model.
v e r di c t
Best feeling membrane keys
Affordable
Per key RGB lighting
Lacks extra features

SPECS Switch: Cherry MX Red / Size: Full size / Backlights: Full RGB / Passthroughs: USB / SPECS Interface: Wired USB / Keyboard backlighting: Per-key RGB / Programmable keys: All /
Media Controls: Dedicated / Wristrest: Yes Features: Per key RGB lighting, supports Windows 7+ and OSX 10.8+

100

5 3
Strix Scope
ROG £149
The best compact keyboard for shooter enthusiasts
Asus’ ROG Strix Scope
5 is a keyboard made for
function over form.
While it’s festooned with the
typical array of RGB lighting, the
brushed aluminium offers an
understated, industrial design. It’s
a welcome aesthetic in an era
where flash and spectacle too
often take precedence.
The Scope is a solid, durable,
reliable keyboard that works
exactly as advertised without
being weighed down by
unnecessary gimmicks or
unwelcome bloat. And with a wide
range of Cherry’s RGB switches,
you can find the Scope in
practically any flavour you’d like.
SPECS Switch: Cherry MX RGB Blue, Brown, Red, Black, Silent Red, Speed Silver / Size: Full size /
Backlights: RGB / Passthroughs: No / Media Controls: No / Wristrest: No
It also has a few quality of life
features to appeal to shooter
fans. Full macro customisation is
available, and the left Ctrl key has
been broadened to make it easy
to hit without accidentally
actuating other keys.
The more compact form of
the Scope also means that it (and
all the other bottom row keys so
often critical in FPSes) is really
easy to reach down and smack
when you need it.
v e r di c t
Understated focus on functionality
Wide Ctrl button
No wrist rest
No passthroughs or macros
4 5
Huntsman Elite
RAZER £200
The best keyboard for incredible performance
The Huntsman family of
6 Razer keyboards is the
only place in the world
to find their opto-mechanical
switch, and it’s one of the best
switches on the market. The opto-
mechanical build eschews
traditional metal contacts, and
instead actuates by a beam of
light that fires through the switch
when the key is depressed,
meaning actuation is almost
instantaneous. The other major
advantage of removing all the
relatively frail, slender metal
contact pieces from the switch is
that they’re rated as twice as
durable as standard mechanical
switches, up to 100 million
SPECS Switch: Razer Opto-mechanical / Size: Full size / Backlights: 16.8 million color RGB /
Passthroughs: No / Media Controls: Dedicated / Wristrest: Detachable magnetic
g amin g k e yb o a r d s
Group Test
keystrokes. They’re tactile
switches that actuate at 1.5 mm
and 45g of force, meaning they’re
ridiculously easy to spam but still
provide tactile feedback.
The rest of the Elite is well
designed too, with a comfy
detachable magnetic wrist rest, a
full suite of dedicated media
controls, and a multi-function dial
that can be used for anything
from altering your PC’s volume to
scrolling through lighting suites.
v e r di c t
Excellent opto-mechanical keys
Fully lit, durable full sized board
No passthroughs
Steep price point
101
group test
Mice

MICE
Wes Fenlon and Terrence Mai
take a look at some of the
W
hat is the best it’s MOBAs or MMOs you love,
mouse for you? customisation options are
While the feel is crucial. All of the mice we
important, recommend have been tested
choosing the best mouse relies with gaming in mind, so
on what you’ll be using it for. If
you’re an FPS player, you’re
whichever you choose, you’ll get
a mouse that performs to a
looking for accurate tracking. If good standard.

best gaming mice out there

102
 Mice
Group Test

HOW WE TEST
We’ve used enough mice to
have a good feel for build
quality, button placement and
shape. Our opinions on those

Deathadder Elite
RAZER £60
The Razer Deathadder
1 has an all-round
fantastic shape for all
sorts of grips and hand sizes, and
we have spent hundreds of hours
playing games, using Photoshop
and browsing the internet with it.
Despite years of iterations, Razer
never messes with the
Deathadder’s shape. There’s no
reason to.
The Deathadder Elite uses a
16,000DPI optical sensor, but big
numbers don’t necessarily mean
quality. Here’s the important bit:
for the Elite, Razer chose a sensor
based on the PMW-3366
developed by sensor company
Pixart in collaboration with
Logitech, which we have called
the best mouse sensor available
SPECS DPI: 16000 / Sensor: Optical / Interface: USB / Buttons: 6 / Ergonomic: Right-handed /
Weight: 105 g
since it debuted back in 2014.
Razer’s implementation should
deliver flawless tracking, even if
you move the mouse as fast as
you can.
For the majority of games and
gamers, the Deathadder Elite is
the best mouse. It’s simple where
it should be, with two perfectly
placed, generously sized thumb
buttons, a great optical mouse
sensor that will work on both hard
and cloth pads and the ultimate
body shape for a claw or hybrid
claw/palm grip.
v e r d ic t
Rivals the best gaming mouse sensor
Ideal shape for palm or claw grips
and a variety of hand sizes
Driver software requires a sign-in
aspects of mouse design are,
naturally, subjective, but they’re
also well-informed. The tricky
part of testing mice is analysing
the other part of the equation:
tracking performance, jitter,
angle snapping, acceleration
and perfect control speed.
What do all those terms
mean? If you’re interested in the
intricacies of gaming mice, here
are some basic definitions that
will help you understand why
each of these terms are
important issues.
Grip How you hold the mouse.
The most common are palm,
claw and fingertip.
CPI/DPI Counts/dots per
inch, or how many times the
mouse sensor will read its
tracking surface for every inch
it’s moved.
Jitter An inaccuracy in a
sensor reading the surface it’s
tracking. Often occurs at higher
mouse movement speeds.

Angle snapping Takes data

from a sensor and modifies the
output with the goal of creating

G903 smoother movements. This is

bad for games as it means your
cursor movements won’t match
LOGITECH £100 your hand’s movements.

Razer never The only wireless acceleration or cursor jitter. The Acceleration When a mouse
2 mouse on this list is G903’s ambidextrous design sensor exhibits acceleration it
messes with the here for a reason: not includes removable thumb means your cursor will move

Deathadder’s
only is it the best wireless gaming buttons for either side, and it fits faster the quicker you move the
mouse, it’s the best gaming a medium-large hand perfectly. mouse. This is often considered

shape. There’s mouse you can buy if you’re

willing to get spendy. The
no reason to Logitech G903 Lightspeed is
expensive, but it’s the only mouse
around £100 that we think is
worth the price. It can easily be
used in wired mode by plugging in
the included micro USB cable,
making it a fantastic wired
mouse, too.
Why is it so great? The G903
Lightspeed is wonderfully light at
107 grams and uses Logitech’s
PMW-3366 sensor, which is
extremely reliable at low and high
DPI settings, with no issues of
SPECS DPI: 12000 / Sensor: Optical / Interface: USB / 2.4GHz wireless / Buttons: 11 /
Ergonomic: Ambidextrous / Weight: 110g
The G903 also has a
one-of-a-kind pivot bar click
mechanism which feels better
than any mouse we’ve ever used.
Seriously, it’s the best click ever.
At a lower price, this mouse would
be our recommendation to
everyone, but as it stands, the
G903 is the best high-end mouse
you can gift to your hand.
v e r d ic t
Uses an accurate, reliable sensor
The best click feel of any mouse we
have used
Expensive
bad, because it means moving
the mouse slowly six inches
across a surface will move the
cursor a different distance than
moving the mouse rapidly the
same distance.
Perfect control speed
The speed at which the mouse
can be moved while still
tracking accurately.
Lift-off distance The height a
mouse has to be raised before
the sensor stops tracking its
surface. Some gamers prefer a
mouse with a low lift-off
distance because they play at a
very low sensitivity.

103
group test
Mice
Naga Trinity
RAZER £90
The form and function
3 of Razer’s Naga mouse
has come a long way
over the years. Its latest version,
the Naga Trinity, is the best yet: a
small, comfortable mouse with a
high-quality sensor and three
interchangeable thumb grips with
button arrays ideal for MOBAs,
MMOs or general use. The MOBA
array is the best, offering seven
buttons in a circle around your
thumb. There are enough buttons
to map multiple abilities, but not
so many that they become an
overwhelming samey blob. The
12-button array, designed for
MMOs, has that problem, but
anyone who wants a whole
number pad under their thumb
will appreciate the option.
SPECS DPI: 16000 / Sensor: Optical / Interface: USB / Buttons: 19, 14 or 9 / Ergonomic: Right handed /
Weight: 120g
104
The Naga Trinity’s side panels
snap into place with magnets and
don’t wiggle a bit when gaming.
Otherwise, the Naga Trinity is the
same as the Naga Hex before it,
with a comfortable palm grip
shape that includes a small pinky
rest. The Naga Hex is a bit on the
small side for larger hands, with
more of a squat shape than some
gaming mice. It’s comfortable in
the relaxed grip suited to MMOs,
but will still do the job if you play
MOBAs, shooters or any other
active games.
v e r d ic t
Customisable thumb grip
Buttons feel nice and clicky despite
being removable
Design is a bit squat for larger hands
Sensei 310
STEELSERIES £35
The updated version of
4 this SteelSeries
mainstay, the Sensei
310, subtly reinvented a classic
mouse. And it needed it. Almost
everything is new except the
Sensei’s ambidextrous shape,
and that’s exactly how it should
be. Thanks to a new plastic, the
Sensei is grippier and can shrug
off a sweaty palm. And
SteelSeries is using its own
version of one of the best sensors
around, ensuring the Sensei 310
won’t suffer from tracking issues.
The Sensei 310 fits in your
hand just like the old Sensei, and
is a great shape for either left or
right-handed gamers looking for a
midsized ambidextrous mouse.
That means it has a pair of thumb
SPECS DPI: 12000 / Sensor: Optical / Interface: USB / Buttons: 8 / Ergonomic: Ambidextrous /
Weight: 92.1g
buttons on the left and the right.
An issue for ambidextrous mice is
that it can be too easy to
accidentally click the wrong side’s
buttons. In our hours of testing
the Sensei 310, that hasn’t
happened once. The size and
shape of the thumb buttons have
been tweaked, making it easy to
rock your thumb upwards to
press them but keeping them out
of the way of accidental pinky
clicks. Anyone looking for a light,
ambidextrous mouse: this should
be your first stop.
v e r d ic t
Very light at 92 grams
Great shape with improved grips
A touch too small and light for users
with larger hands

4 5
G203 Prodigy
LOGITECH £20
You can find a lot of
5 decent, no-name brand
gaming mice on
Amazon for less than £20, but it’s
worth spending just a little more
for the Logitech G203 Prodigy
(also called the G102 in some
regions). With this mouse you get
Logitech’s fantastic, reliable build
quality, good gaming driver
software and a tried-and-true
mouse shape. Since its popular
G100s years ago, Logitech has
released several mice with a
nearly identical small, almost-
ambidextrous body, and it
remains a comfortable mouse for
FPS or MOBA players. And the
G203 is damn cheap.
The G203 Prodigy doesn’t use
Logitech’s top-end sensor, but
SPECS DPI: 8000 / Sensor: Optical / Interface: USB / Buttons: 6 / Ergonomic: Right-handed /
Weight: 85g
testing has shown that the
Mercury sensor (developed by
Logitech) in this mouse is so
good, you won’t notice the
difference. It supports up to
8,000DPI and has no issue with
jitter or acceleration. Unless you
need insanely high DPI settings,
the G203 is a killer mouse for a
budget price. And if you decide
you really like the shape and can
spend a bit more, consider a step
up to the Logitech Pro, which
does include that top-of-the-line
mouse sensor.
v e r d ic t
Good build quality in a cheap mouse
Great shape for those who like
smaller mice
Not the best sensor
G502
LOGITECH £40
The Logitech G502
6 Proteus Spectrum is a
121g monster (that’s
with its weights removed and not
counting the cable), and slightly
longer than the Deathadder. It’s
an update of Logitech’s classic
MX 518 and G500 mice, with a
fantastic 12,000DPI sensor. It’s a
cozy palm grip shape that’s stood
the test of time and it has some
premium build touches, like its
weighted metal scroll wheel,
which has a super satisfying
notched scroll and an option to
switch to a free-spinning mode.
Due to the design and button
placement, the G502 isn’t as
great an all-rounder as the
Deathadder. A couple of buttons
by the left-click are awkwardly
SPECS DPI: 12,000 / Sensor: Optical / Interface: USB / Buttons: 11 / Ergonomic: Right handed /
Weight: 121g
Mice
Group Test
placed and prone to misclicks.
But for gamers who love a heavy
mouse, the Logitech G502
Proteus Spectrum is the one to
get. It’s great value, and continues
to be a popular model for
Logitech. So much so that the
company has updated the G502
with its new top-end Hero sensor
in a new model, the G502 Hero.
Get that if you want the top-of-
the-line in mice sensors – but
you’re likely not going to notice
the difference, so the Proteus
Spectrum is still a good option.
v e r d ic t
Most accurate gaming mouse sensor
on the market
Adjustable weight
Some buttons can be hard to press
105
 Contents

KIT REVIEWS
121

111

113

106
 BUYER’S
GUIDE
Don’t want to put your own rig
together? We round up the
best prebuilt PCs on the
market today.
Turn to page 124

117

123

107
 REVIEWS
Hardware

Digital Storm Bolt X

www.digitalstorm.com From £1282 (approx) depending on chipset
What makes a small form factor system? Surely massive, hulking machines don’t qualify, but is
pc shaving only an inch or two off a standard mid-tower desktop enough? That’s the question asked by the
Bolt X, the latest iteration of Digital Storm’s “slim and powerful” small form factor design.

Measuring 15.5 x 6 x 20 inches, and weighing up to
30lb, the Bolt X is only an inch or two smaller than
many mid-tower cases, and massive compared to
super-compact systems, such as the Corsair One.
We wouldn’t call it small judging solely from the
exterior, but things are different once you look
inside. The most impressive achievement of the
Bolt X’s size is its slimness – at only six inches wide,
some finesse is required to fit all the components
soundly. That includes a vertical alignment of the
graphics card, connected to the mobo by a long
ribbon cable.
Speaking of that GPU, it sure is a doozy. The Bolt
X is one helluva gaming machine, rocking a single
GTX 1080 Ti for pixel-pushing power. It doesn’t pack
the same punch as crazy high-end dual-GPU builds,
but there’s also no SLI to worry about. The single
GTX 1080 Ti is a powerhouse on its own, pairing
nicely with Intel’s i7-8700K Coffee Lake CPU. Both
are slotted (the GPU remotely, as we mentioned)
into an Asus ROG Strix Z370-I motherboard that
also sports 32 gigs of DDR4-3000 RAM.
The first thing we noticed when firing up the Bolt
X: Wow, this thing is loud. The CPU fan, a Corsair
H115i 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler, was whirring
loudly at idle, kicking up to a roar at even the
slightest hint of load. The problem was quickly
sorted, though, with a tweak to the fan control
profile in Corsair Link. Without much ado, the Bolt X
was purring along quietly.
So, what kind of power does this compact system
pack? Quite a bit. The GTX 1080 Ti crushed our
1080p gaming benchmarks, averaging 167fps
in Rise of the Tomb Raider, 104fps in Total
War: Warhammer II, and 74fps in the
super-demanding Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Those are largely overkill numbers, though, and we
wager most users won’t be saddling a £2k system
(yep, the Bolt X is pricey) with a 1080p screen.
1440p is a much more logical companion, and the
1080 Ti performs admirably in that slot.
Rise of the Tomb Raider’s three-part benchmark
served no issue, with the Bolt X scoring 145fps in
the Mountain Pass, 110fps in Syria, and 106fps in
the Geothermal Valley—an average of 121fps;
perfect for a high refresh rate 1440p monitor such
as the Asus ROG Swift PG279Q or the Acer
Predator XB271HU. Total War: Warhammer II’s
Battle benchmark proved a bit more demanding,
but with a score of 74fps, the Bolt X still survived
unscathed. The only benchmark to dip below the
coveted 60fps line was Ghost Recon: Wildlands –
but just barely. A score of 59fps there is nothing to
scoff at, as that game’s Ultra graphics preset brings
even the most impressive systems to their knees.
Small or not, the Bolt X brings the might of a
full-size gaming powerhouse. And while pricey, it’s
not nearly as extravagant as some of the pre-builts
that we could mention. Throw in Digital Storm’s
top-notch build quality, metallic paint finish, custom
cable-sleeving, and did we mention the built-in
software-controlled RGB lightshow? It’s clear to see
that X marks the spot.
Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 3.7GHz / Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX
1080 Ti 11GB / RAM: 32GB Digital Storm Performance Series DDR4-3000 /
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming / Primary Storage: 500GB WD
Blue M.2 / Additional Storage: 3TB Seagate/Toshiba / Cooling: Corsair
H115i 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler / PSU: 750W Lian-Li PE-750 / Case:
CDigital Storm Bolt X with Storm Blue Exotic paint / Warranty:
90% Lifetime Expert Care with three-year limited warranty
(three-year labour and one-year part replacement)

benchmarks
Zero-
Point

Cinebench R15 (Index) 959 1,644 (71%)

CrystalDisk QD32
1,721 559 (-68%)
Sequential Read (MB/s)
CrystalDisk QD32
1,473 529 (-64%)
Sequential Write (MB/s)
Rise of the Tomb Raider
93 121 (30%)
(Avg fps)
Total War: Warhammer II
55 74 (35%)
(Avg fps)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
48 59 (23%)
Wildlands (Avg fps)

3DMark Fire Strike (Index) 9,128 12,863 (41%)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Our desktop zero-point consists of an Intel Core i5-8400, 16GB of DDR4 at 2,666MT/s, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, and a
500GB Samsung 960 Evo PCIe SSD. All games tested at 1440p using highest available preset.

108
H a r dw a r e
Reviews

109
 REV I EWS
Hardware

1 Power Dr aw
Combine the
i3-8100 with a GTX 1080,
and 16GB of DDR4, and
you’ll be fine with a
550W PSU running it.

Intel Core i3-8100

2 wot No
Overclock?
Some mobos may let you www.intel.com £105
overclock this, but Intel
doesn’t let you bump up
its budget parts. With Intel’s first foray into its Coffee Lake architecture, we saw one major difference from
C PU its seventh series processors: core count. Each part received two extra cores.

3 4K
S t r e a mi n g
Thanks to support for
The Core i3-8100 is the cream of the crop from that
redesign. It goes up from last gen’s two-core,
166 and 598. In games, we saw similar
performance, with 76fps in Far Cry Primal at 1440p
HDCP 2.2 you’ll finally be four-thread design to a flat four cores and no with a GTX 1080 versus the Core i7-8700K’s 77fps,
able to have access to
those 4K streams hyperthreading. It’s a £105 Core i5 from last gen, and 42fps in Total War: Attila against the 8700K’s
with a 3.6GHz clock count and integrated graphics, 43fps. If gaming is your focus, the Core i3-8100 is a

4
making it versatile both for gaming and for those great option. The only downside compared to those
AMD looking to build a cheap and cheerful HTPC too. older Core i5s? No overclocking capability, and no
competition In CineBench, we saw scores of 156 on the turbo. Honestly, that’s a small price to pay.
The closest red rival for single core, and just shy of 600 on the Base Clock: 3.6GHz / Cores/Threads: 4/4 / Lithography: 14nm /
single core performance
is AMD’s Ryzen 5 1500X,
multithreaded scenario. To put that into
context, a Sky Lake Core i5-6600K, scores
90% Cache: 6MB / Memory Support: 64GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz /
Max PCIe Lanes: 16

110
 hardware
Reviews

ROUND-UP

Steelseries Arctis 3
www.steelseries.com £90
The tried-and-true Steelseries
Arctis brand is one we trust for
HEADSET
providing solidly built,
comfortable headsets.
Cooler Master
The Arctis 3 Bluetooth edition is a bit Cosmos C700P
of an odd one, though, as it lacks the www.coolermaster.com £260
USB connectivity and RGB lighting of
the Arctis 5, yet costs more than it A premium case with a legendary
too. The headset is designed for a heritage. The C700P is a fantastic
very specific scenario, and that is for combination of aluminium, RGB and
the mobile gamer. design merged into a XL Tower. With
You can, of course, plug it directly an array of great features, it’s
into your rig via the analogue cables, perhaps one of the best
but the battery is reserved for chassis out there at this
Bluetooth use only. The soundscape price point.
85 %
is good, great even – well balanced
with no emphasis on either end. But
paying an additional £35 for
Bluetooth seems a bit steep.
Driver Technology: Dynamic / Frequency Response:
20 Hz - 22 KHz / Impedance: 32 Ohms /

78% Connectivity: Analogue, four & three pole

split / Battery Life: 28 Hours

Phanteks Enthoo
Evolv Flow
www.phanteks.com £200

Sennheiser GSP 600 This is an upgrade to the ATX

variant, and thanks to its honeycomb
cutouts, enables superior internal
www.bit.ly/sennheisergsp600 £220 airflow to its predecessor,
making it ideal for anyone
This headset is damn good. looking to craft a
Whether it’s the build quality, liquid-cooled system.
88 %
HEADSET
the fit and feel of the cups, the
sound stage or the materials
used, it’s just awesome.

Admittedly, the price is steep, but you

get a lot for your money. The fit and
feel is tight – not too constricting, but
secure. Noise isolation has
been paramount in the
design of the GSP 600,
and you can tell. The
likelihood of hearing much Fractal Design Meshify C
outside of your game is slim. www.fractal-design.com £80
On top of that, the soundscape is
incredible. It’s not a reference The Meshify may be at the more
soundstage, that’s for sure – the bass budget end of the spectrum, but it still
is intense, enveloping, but unlike most touts an arsenal of features. Whether
headsets, the treble doesn’t suffer that’s the support for up to a 360mm
from it. It’s clear and an absolute joy radiator, tempered glass side
to listen to. panel, or great cable
management support, it’s
Driver: Dynamic / Frequency Response: 10 Hz - 30
91 %
92% KHz / Impedance: 28 Ohms /
Connectivity: Analogue, four & three pole split
a case that can do it all.

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 RE V I E W S
Hardware

1 D - P ad S w ap
Although on the
cheaper side of life, MSI
also includes a more
circular d-pad cover,
giving the GC30 a bit
more versatility.

2 U S B + W i r e l e ss
You can connect it
to your rig via a tiny 2.4 MSI Force GC30 Gaming Controller
GHz USB Wireless
dongle. There’s a
2m-long USB cable, too.
www.msi.com £37
This is the first time that we’ve placed a controller in the main spot. That alone should tell

3 B att e r y L i f e ?
By default, the
GC30 offers up eight
CONTROL
PAD
you just how impressed we are with MSI’s Force GC30. In a world where PC gaming is
becoming ever more well-stocked with console-style titles, is now the time to pick up a pad?
hours of use, and this is
our only criticism. We’d We say the answer is yes. After all, for the games controllers. The materials are good, and although
have happily taken a bit that need them (here’s looking at you Dragon Ball not weighty, it’s not light enough to feel tacky.
of extra weight for FighterZ), using a controller over a mouse and Not to overstate it, but the value factor here is
double that. keyboard makes life so more enjoyable. If the high superb. To find such build quality in a wireless
price of wireless pads has previously put you off, the controller at this price point is ridiculous. This isn’t

4 No
B lu e toot h ?
There’s no Bluetooth, but
MSI GC30 is the pad for you.
It’s a fantastically well-bundled bit of kit, with an
awesome finish, a typical Xbox controller layout,
the route we expected MSI to go down, but if this is
any sign of how its peripherals are going to develop
going forward, consider us excited.
we wouldn’t say no to a
premium £50 version vibration and, more importantly, wireless (or Compatible OS: Windows 10/8.1/7, Android 4.1 and above / Battery: 600
with it. Hint hint, nudge,
nudge, MSI.
wired) connectivity, all for £37. Everything
feels solid, which is a rarity for cheaper
95% mAh battery (8 hours use) / Accessories: Additional D-Pad Cover /
Cables: 2M USB Cable + 30cm Cable for Android / Weight: 280g

112
 hardware
Reviews

ROUND-UP

Masterpulse
www.coolermaster.com £60

Corsair K95 Platinum The MasterPulse headphones are

an intriguing new design from CM,
featuring both an open and closed
www.corsair.com £200 back design, depending on how bassy
a sound you want. The overall rigid
£200 for a keyboard. But this isn’t a keyboard designed for those on a design, and strong comfortable
K EY B O A R D budget. The K95 Platinum takes all of the best from Corsair’s vast lineup of K headband ensures they’ll last
series keyboards and packs it into a svelte aluminium chassis. the test of time, and the
sound quality is solid, too.
With your choice of either Cherry MX Corsair’s traditional clean crisp black Highly commended.
84 %
Brown or Speed switches, the K95 design, while the silver platinum of the
also comes with dedicated macro and media scroll wheel is stark against the
media keys, an exceptionally black aluminium backdrop.
premium-looking wrist rest, and, of
course, that plethora of RGB lighting. Switch Type: Cherry MX Speed / Brown / Key Durability:
That’s not to say it isn’t flawed. 50 Million Key Operations / Fully Programmable
The coloured grey keycaps, and Keys: Yes / Dedicated Macro Keys: 6 pt /
the garish overly gamer font
face are a step away from
81% RGB Lighting: 6 pt / N-KEY Rollover: Full /
Passthrough: USB

Noblechairs Epic Series

Black/Red
www.noblechairs.com £300

Next up is Noblechairs’ Epic Series.

Still following that bucket seat fashion,
its faux leather composition is a
delight to sit in. Not so great in
warm weather, but the
range of adjustability on it
is staggering.
83 %

Asus ROG Claymore

www.asus.com £200
Asus is another brand yearning for £200 of your hard earned cash for its
K EY B O A R D
latest keyboard. Well into its development cycle it’s a keyboard designed to be Noblechairs Icon Top
as versatile as it is crazy to look at, but do we like the cut of its jib? Grain Leather
The Claymore’s biggest feature is a www.noblechairs.com £520
detachable numpad. Leave it on for version instead. The Claymore is a
your daily Excel spreadsheet tasks, well rounded bit of kit, but for £200, £520 is a good GTX 1080’s worth
but once you start gaming, pull it off you decide whether it’s worth it. of cash to splash. Happily, the Icon is
and place it to one side, enabling you a premium product. Its leather fabric
some nice wide arcs for your low DPI Switch Type: Cherry MX Black / Brown / Blue / Red / finish makes it right at home in any
skill shot settings, and the better Key Durability: 50 Million Key Operations / Fully office, and is perfect for
ergonomics that come with it. Programmable Keys: Yes / Dedicated Macro Keys: Yes anyone with more refined
Don’t care for our numpad / RGB Lighting: Yes / N-KEY Rollover: Full / taste than the typical
84 %
friend and want to save yourself
£60? Then get yourself a Core
83% Passthrough: No bucket seat style.

113
 RE V IE W S
Hardware

1 Fan control?
Fan Xpert 4 lets
users select a balance of
fan cooling and noise
levels for each fan on
their build.

2 Asus design
As with the
majority of Asus’
products, the Maximus
IX doesn’t just work well,
it looks cool too.
Asus Maximus IX Apex
www.asus.com £285
3 Lighting
e ff e c t s
Asus’ Aura Sync mobo
It’s nice to see AIB manufacturers do something crazy for once, and the Apex is a marvel of
mechanical engineering and an overclocking masterpiece.
software lets you apply
lighting effects using the
mobo’s LEDs.
Two memory slots allow for dual-channel DDR4 for have a bit of dazzle, the mobo has a number of LEDs
a total of 32GB of up to 4133 MT/s memory. around the board that can be programmed to
The others are replaced by a DIMM.2 slot, usable breathe, cycle or pulse to music.
4 USB - C ?
The board has two
USB 3.1 ports: one
with Asus’ add-in card, allowing you to run two M.2
PCIe x4 NVMe SSDs via the DRAM bus, enabling Chipset/Socket: Z270 / LGA1151 / Form Factor: ATX / Memory Support: 64GB

Type-A and a Type-C.
These are twice as fast
as USB 3.0.
zero bottlenecks outside of thermal throttling.
It’s expensive but it’s still more affordable than
a Formula or Code. If you like your build to
87%
DDR4 @ 4133 MT/s M.2 / U.2 Support: 2x M.2 / SATA Support: 4x SATA 6Gb/s
/ Rear I/O: 6x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.1 Type A, 1x USB 3.1 Type C, Intel Gigabit
Ethernet, 5.1 audio, Optical Out, HDMI, Display Port, 2x PS/2 Ports.

114
 h a r d wa r e
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ROUND-UP
Medion Erazer X7851
www.medion.com £1,150
It’s great to see Medion really push into the gaming sector. The
Erazer brand promises fantastic value for your money, but does it
actually hit the mark?

To be short, yes, it does. Our sample

unit here is the slightly aged X7851, GAMING Asus RT-AC86U
LA P TO P
packing a Core i7-7700HQ, 16GB of www.asus.com £180
DDR4, a 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD and a
GTX 1060 6GB graphics card at its There’s nothing quite like having a
heart. It’s actually a fairly accurate decent home router. Asus’s RT-
representation of a mid-range rig at AC86U is perfect for anyone looking
the moment. Combine those innards for that additional customisation.
with the 17-inch IPS screen and a From smart bandwidth management
£1,150 price tag, and well, it speaks to VPN setup, your own personal AI
for itself. Cloud, 5 GHz dual bands and more,
The build quality of the Erazer the RT-AC86U makes the
X7851 is good. It’s not whole affair as easy and
exemplary, but the painless as possible. 84 %
soft-touch finish is a
nice addition to its design.
The one thing we wish it had
was a more slimline design, however,
especially when it comes to its
distracting bezel.
Screen Size: 17-inch / Native Resolution:
1920x1080 / GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB /
Memory: 16GB DDR4 / Storage: 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD
86% Razer BlackWidow TE
Chroma V2 Yellow Switch
www.razerzone.com £160

Man, this keyboard is good.

Razer’s yellow switch lacks the
clack of its standard switch in
favour of a more subtle Cherry
Red-like linear click instead.
Combine that with the stunning
RGB lighting and a
fantastically comfortable
wrist rest and there’s little
to fault here.
93%

Viewsonic XG
Gaming XG2530
www.viewsonic.com £420
First-person shooters are fast-paced dens of destruction. Split-
second reactions can mean the difference between life and death.
MONITOR
We tend to advocate higher refresh
rate screens for the enjoyment factor.
However, once you get above 165Hz
it becomes less about enjoyment,
and more about response. The
XG2530 is an FPS-targeted
monitor, packed with tech and
designed to reduce latency and
offer perfect smoothness.
91%
Does it work? Well, there’s no
delay, and the colour reproduction is
impressive, even for a TN panel. If you
live and breathe shooters, the XG2530
is perfect for you.
Screen Size: 25” / Panel Tech: TN /
Native Res: 1920x1080 / Refresh Rate: 240Hz /
Response Rate: 1ms GTG /
Connections: 1x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI (2.0 & 1.4)
Kraken X52
www.nzxt.com £130
With an infinity mirror, 240mm
AIO, braided cable, and solid
performance, it’s hard to imagine that
there’s a nicer looking liquid cooler
out there. The LED ring, fully
customisable through NZXT’s CAM
software, provides those perfect
finishing touches to any aesthetically
minded system builder. A
clear-panelled case is a
must with this bad boy. 92 %

115
 R E V IE W S
Hardware

1 ryzen 5
Expect to see Ryzen
5 drop later this year,
with better single core,
a stunning price,
and hopefully solid
1080p performance.

2 s upp o r t
Ryzen has support
for up to 20 PCIe lanes
Ryzen 7 1800X
– 16 dedicated to the www.amd.com £330
GPUs, and four isolated
for PCIe SSDs.
With Ryzen it looks like AMD is finally back with its A game. The plucky processor manufacturing
underdog has brought to the table a 14nm eight-core, 16-thread rendering powerhouse at an astonishing

3
CPU
temper ature price, but is it the right fit for you?
Temperatures are
a mixed bag, with the top
end chip and a decent
The 1800X is nothing short of incredible value. If The big doozy, however, is game performance.
AIO cooler idling at your main hobby is video editing, or game At 1440p or higher Ryzen’s 7 series shines with
50-60 degrees, yet only streaming from a single system, this thing is a most titles, matching Intel within 1-2fps on average,
reaching 70-75 degrees dream. The Intel equivalent, the Core i7-6900K, (39 vs 41fps in Total War: Attila, and 75 vs 77 in Far
under heavy load. would set you back almost £950 in comparison. Cry Primal). But at 1080p things do get a bit ropey,
Generally speaking, it’s a high-end-desktop part, with reports of frame rates dropping by 10-15fps.

4 Overclocking
Overclocking also
seems nonexistent, but
we’ve seen overclocks
up at 4.1GHz, which gives
Intel’s Core i7-6950X a
run for its money.
priced at an almost mainstream level. Its single core
performance, although lacking in contrast to Intel’s
Core i7-7700K, is still at the same level as
That said, if you want to get into video editing/game
streaming the R7 1800X is the perfect choice.
Haswell’s Core i7-4790K, and at an almost
93%
Base/Turbo Clock: 3.7GHz / 4.0GHz / Cores/Threads: 8/16 /
identical level to Intel’s current generation Lithography: 14nm / Cache: 20MB / Memory Support: 64GB DDR4
of Broadwell-E parts too. @ 2666MHz / Max PCIe Lanes: 20

116
 hardware
Reviews

ROUND-UP

Logitech Brio
www.logitech.com £180

4K and HDR in a webcam? Yep, it’s

finally happened. No more messing

MSI GeForce around with overly pricey DSLRs and

the like. Logitech has done the

GTX 1050 Ti 4GT LP seemingly impossible and finally

www.msi.com £150
MSI’s GTX 1050 Ti might not make a lot of sense at first glance,
but it’s one of the more interesting cards we’ve reviewed this year.
GRA P H I C S
C AR D
Why is that, you ask? Low profile, no
PCIe power, and fairly impressive
performance. For those looking to
upgrade, it’s a viable budget option.
For high-to-ultra 1080p gaming you
can easily hit around 40-50fps in
most AAA titles, as long as the
game doesn’t bottleneck
83%
the CPU.
integrated all those high-end features
into a camera worth its salt. Yeah,
it’s a little pricey, but for a
plug-and-play USB
webcam at this calibre, it’s
hard to argue with.
85 %
And if that isn’t your jam, put up
£120 for the 1050 2GB version and
you’ve got yourself a gnarly HTPC as
well. It is louder than we’d like to
admit, but for the money, it’s not a
bad investment.
GPU: Pascal / Lithography: 16nm FinFET /
M.2 / Cores: 768 / Memory: 4GB GDDR /
Memory bus: 128 bit Pulsefire FPS
www.hyperxgaming.com £50

Another £50 mouse, this time from

HyperX. Being its first venture into the
mouse ecosystem, the Pulsefire is
inspired by other competing brands,
with an overall look not too dissimilar
from Razer’s DeathAdder. Don’t let
that put you off, however, it’s a
crisp palm-gripping tool,
locked and loaded ready
for any FPS gamer.
83 %

Asus MX34VQ
www.asus.com £717
If you’re after the most premium experience you can get, 21:9,
MONITOR
1440p and 100Hz is definitely the place to be.
It’s not cheap, not by any measure.
The MX34VQ is the perfect
combination of super wide aspect
ratio, high refresh and pixel density,
perfect for those looking to have it all.
The 21:9 aspect ratio makes it
perfect for enjoying media,
maintaining productivity and
enjoying any and all games out
88%
there. It’s not got super low response
times or crazy refresh rates, and it
does take up a fair chunk of desk
space, but experiences in story-driven
games are unparalleled.
Screen Size: 34 inch / Panel Tech: VA /
Native Resolution: 3440x1440 /
Refresh Rate: 100 Hz / Response Rate: 4ms GTG /
Connections: 1x DisplayPort, 3x HDMI
Qck Prism Mousepad
www.steelseries.com £65
It’s hard to stomach paying £65 for
a mousemat. That said, the Prism
expands on the likes of Corsair’s
Polaris MM800 and Razer’s Firefly by
smoothing out the USB hub and
making sure the RGB LEDs are visible.
Swapping out from a smooth to
a more textured surface is
also a pretty neat and
71 %
intriguing feature.

117
 REVIE W S
Hardware

1 Chat Mix
Use the dial on the
right-hand side of the
headset to find your
ideal balance of
gameplay sound and
voice chat.

2 c omfortable ?
The headband is
made from an elastic
material along with an
adjustable velcro strip
for the best fit.

3 Bat tery life

There’s no point in
owning a wireless
Arctis 7
headset if you need to
constantly plug it in for www.steelseries.com £160
charging. The Arctis 7
gets 24 hours of life from Wireless headsets with a ski band for a headrest;
a single charge. what’s not to love about the Arctis 7?
Headset

4 Replacement
parts?
Steelseries sells
It’s comfortable, clean-looking and generally a
well-rounded headset. The headphone drivers could
use some love, widening that soundscape and
driver: 40mm Neodymium / Frequency Response: 20 HZ - 20 KHZ / impedance:
32 Ohm / connectivity: USB, Analogue, Wireless Lossless / Battery life:
24 hours /
replacement ear pads,
headbands and more on
whacking up the bass, but otherwise they’re a
its website if you want or
need to replace a part.
78%
solid pair of cans for the price. Worth a listen.

118

Glaive Black
www.corsair.com £70
It may not be Corsair’s best-looking mouse but it’s still a solid
gaming mouse designed for performance.
M Ou s e
We had our reservations when we
first saw the Glaive, being big fans of
the M65. The design is lacklustre,
and the professional flair Corsair
once touted seems to have
77%
dried up in favour of a gaming-
AMD Radeon
RX Vega 56
www.msi.com £500
AMD’s GPU offerings have been a little lacklustre, to say the least.
GPU
Even with all the hype in the world, they fell far flat of what we hoped.
Priced out of the stratosphere due to
cryptocurrency mining, and coupled
with nasty power draw and little room
for extra performance, Vega 64 was
nothing more than a disappointment.
The 56, on the other hand,
somewhat redeems the series.
Priced at a reasonable £450, it
fortunately provides some very
64%
centric style. That said, it’s a
comfortable, precise, solid palm
grip mouse that is well worth
your consideration.
sensor: optical / max dpi: 16,000 / cable
length: 1.8m / buttons: 6 / weight: 122 grams
competitive performance with the
GTX 1070. However, right now, you’re
still forking out an extra £80 for it, and
with no aftermarket cards scheduled
for team red, it’s not looking good at
all for Radeon going forward.
GPU: Vega / Lithography: 14nm FinFET /
Cores: 3584 / Memory: 8GB HBM 2.0 /
Memory Bus: 2048-bit
h a r d wa r e
Reviews
ROUND-UP
Steelseries Rival 310
www.steelseries.com £60
We’ve long been fans of the Rival
series from SteelSeries, and the 310
doesn’t disappoint. It’s a lightweight,
FPS-oriented, intuitive gaming
mouse, with pixel-perfect 1:1 tracking,
thanks to its Pixart TrueMove3
optical sensor. It’s comfortable,
sleek, effective and
highly recommended.
92 %
Logitech G613 Wireless
www.gaming.logitech.com £130
Why, oh why, has it taken this long
for us to get a wireless mechanical
keyboard? Logitech’s G613 has finally
arrived to fill that gap. Offering an
impressive 18 months of battery life,
it’s powered by only two AA batteries.
Sure, It may not feature any of the
fancy LEDs that we’re used to,
but the inclusion of that
wireless switch is enough
for us.
91 %
Razer Tiamat 2.2 v2
www.razerzone.com £125
Razer’s Tiamat 2.2 V2, is an
impressively designed, dual-driver-
per-earcup headset. The latter is what
drew our attention to them. The
headset sounds crisp, with no
muddiness in the treble or upper end,
making it actually fairly well
balanced. Still a touch pricy,
but not bad.
84 %
119
 RE V IE W S
Hardware

1 I/O
Connectivity
This houses 64 PCIe
lanes, meaning you can
run up to four GPUs at
x16 without degradation
or throttling.

2 Single-Core
Performance
This behemoth is still a
AMD Threadripper 1950X
Ryzen part, and you can www.amd.com £900
expect performance
similar to an i5-6600K.
Let’s get this out of the way right now: this is not a gaming part, but that doesn’t stop it
from being an incredible piece of engineering. AMD’s Threadripper series is aimed solely at
3
CPU
Gaming? the professionals, the folk who make money out of rendering content on a day-to-day basis.
By default, AMD
includes a gaming mode
to ensure single-core
And, my God, is it awesome? Packing a total of 16 coming in at the same price of this part, only
performance doesn’t cores and 32 threads, this kills the competition, manages 2,184 points at stock. That’s just an
hold back titles that tend when it comes to price and performance in more astronomical performance increase.
to favour higher clocks. computational-oriented tasks. We saw scores of The biggy is overclocking. By default, it performs
over 3,000 points in CineBench at stock, a identically to its Ryzen cousins, making it easy to

4 O v e r c l oc k i n g
h e a d r oo m
You can clock this up to
around 4 GHz across all
the cores, adding an
extra 160 points in
Cinebench tests.
benchmark of software traditionally used in the
industry for CGI and rendering cinematic content.
To put that into perspective, a Core i5-7600K
overclock it to 4 GHz on all cores; increasing single
and multi-core performance by 15%. If you profit
from computational work, this part is a no-brainer.
scores around 663 points, a Core i7-7700K Base/Turbo Clock: 3.4 GHz / 4.0 GHz / Cores/Threads: 16/32 /
970 points, a Ryzen 7 1800X 1,612, and even
Intel’s top dog right now, the Core i9-7900X,
90% Lithography: 14nm / Cache: 40MB /
Memory Support: 128GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz / Max PCIe Lanes: 64

120

Optane Memory 16GB
www.intel.com £30
SSDs can be fast but you could achieve a similar response time
using Optane Memory along with an HDD.
Memory
It’ll cost you a mere £30 to speed up
an old hard drive to SSD speeds, but
only if you’re running a Z270 and the
latest Kaby Lake platform. It’s a new
form of caching technology,
similar to RST, but lacks
58%
substance. Save the cash you’d
Razer Lancehead
www.razerzone.com £140
£140 for a mouse? You’ve got to be kidding right? Well maybe not,
MOUSE Razer’s newest mouse more than makes up for the hefty tag.
Mice are one of, if not the, most
subjective peripheral you’ll ever find
– we all hold mice in different ways.
That said, the Lancehead is nothing if
not spectacular. Its svelte design,
combining a gunmetal matte finish,
smooth curves, rubber grips and
subtle RGB lighting, makes it a
standout product.
95%
Ha r dwa r e
Reviews
ROUND-UP
Gigabyte AX370 Gaming K7
www.gigabyte.com £200
This is, by far, Gigabyte’s best
offering when it comes to Ryzen
mobos, featuring a sleek satin black
design, classy RGB LED lighting, and
impressive memory support (We’ve
got it running 64GB of 3200 MT/s
right now), it’s a solid contender
for any high-end Ryzen
system. If only the BIOS
were a little stronger.
90 %
spend on this and go out there and
buy yourself a 120GB SSD for your
OS instead.
Form Factor: m.2 / Max read: 1900 MB/s / max
write: 145 mb/s / power consumption: 3.5w /
height: 1.5mm / EKWB A240G Liquid
Cooling Kit
www.ekwb.com €240
Ever fancied your own custom
loop? EK’s latest aluminium liquid
cooling kits are super cheap, easy to
setup, and can cool your GPU and
CPU off a single dual radiator unit.
Performance is incredible, and after
testing these extensively we
can’t recommend them
enough to anyone
dabbling in liquid cooling.
95 %
Asus ROG Strix
X370-F Gaming
www.asus.com £120
Here’s another contender for your
Ryzen build. This has incredible
Combine that with an easy memory support, solid performance
plug-and-play setup and a 24-hour and comes in at an affordable price.
battery life and we’re well on to a So what’s the downside? Well, the
winner. We hope Razer makes one of RGB strip isn’t the prettiest, backed
those continually charging pads that into the Rear I/O cover, and it
Logitech has for this bad boy. could do with a bit of extra
spice in overclocking
Sensor: 5G Laser Sensor / Max DPI: 16,000 /
88 %
Cable Length: 2M / Lighting: 16.8 Million
Colours / Buttons: 9 / Weight: 111 grams
performance.
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 R E V IE W S
Hardware

1 X370 Chipset
Combine the 1300X
with a solid X370 board,
such as the Asus Prime
X370-A, and you’d be well
on the way to a
well-equipped machine.

2 Single-Core
Performance
Ryzen 3 1300X
Unfortunately, this is still
a little bit lax – at least,
www.amd.com £125
until AMD refines that
core architecture. This CPU U has got one of the more price-conscientious processor parts. Don’t be fooled
CPU
by the naming scheme, this is a fully-fledged four-core, four-thread part, more akin to a Core

3
Integr ated
Graphics?
We’re still missing this,
and it could be a while
until we see Vega GPUs
baked into these as well.
i5 than anything else, but at half the price.
We’re seeing a war occur between the two major
processing powerhouses. With AMD and Intel
gearing up to pit ever-more powerful models of their
ranges head-to-head, it’s looking like a exciting time
to be a CPU enthusiast.
In CineBench R15 the 1300X managed 562, with
154 points for single-core performance, putting it in
line with a Core i5-4670K. In-game, the 1300X
performed well, scoring 70 fps in Far Cry Primal.
Ultimately, the Ryzen 3 1300X, is a sound

4 O v e r c l oc k i n g
h e a d r oo m
Like most Ryzens, you
can clock this up to
around 4 GHz across all
the cores, adding an extra
160 points in Cinebench.
It’s the low end that interests us, though, and the
1300X hits the nail right on the head. It’s a four-core
processor, with 8MB of cache, and 3.7 GHz turbo.
quad-core part. We would’ve liked to have seen
higher clock speeds for better single-core
performance, but aside from that, it’s a solid chip.
It doesn’t have the multithreading of the 5 Base/Turbo Clock: 3.5 GHz / 3.7 GHz / Cores/Threads: 4/4 /
series, but it comes with a decent cooler and
uses 65W of power.
94% Lithography: 14nm / Cache: 8MB /
Memory Support: 64GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz / Max PCIe Lanes: 16

122

Asus TUF
X299 MARK 1
www.asus.com £285
It’s weird to think that this is one of the most affordable X299
motherboards out there right now. TUF hasn’t ever let us down in the
MOBO
past, and, as a brand, it’s one of the few we go to without question.
If the brash styling of Asus’s ROG We managed to reach an
Strix line doesn’t cut it for you, impressive 4.4 GHz on my Core
perhaps TUF’s armour-based X299 i9-7900X with relative ease. Asus’s
boards can sway you instead. The BIOS is also one of the easier to work
integrated PCB/M.2 cooling, with if you’re new to overclocking.
memory support and clean RGB Chipset/Socket: X299 / LGA 2066 / Form Factor: ATX /
lighting makes this a solid choice Memory Support: 128GB DDR4 @ 4133 MT/s /
for anyone looking to build a
crisp-looking setup.
91% M.2 / U.2 Support: 2x M.2 /
SATA Support: 8x SATA 6Gb/s
Corsair Void Pro Wireless
www.corsair.com £100
It’s been a while since we first took a look at Corsair’s Void series of
headsets. We’ve always had a penchant for wireless headsets, and so
HEADSET
when Corsair announced a V2 of its Voids, we had to get a pair.
So what’s new for the headset? Well,
the audio drivers have been tweaked
to provide a more resonant sound,
the microphone has been
redeveloped from the ground up for
greater sensitivity, and, more
importantly, the ear cups have
been changed out for memory
foam additions.
That last bit is a big deal.
Previously, the ear cups on the Voids
always felt like they were leaking
sound out of the bottom of the
circumaural cups, but with the
memory foam in place, this seems
there’s a tighter fit – isolating more
noise, whilst also being far more
comfortable than its counterparts.
Driver Technology: 50mm Dynamic / Frequency
90% Response: 20 Hz - 20 KHz / Impedance: 32 Ohms /
Connectivity: USB / Wireless
hardware
Reviews
ROUND-UP
Asus Radeon RX 580 4GB
www.asus.com £380
The RX 580 might not be anything
other than an overclocked RX 480,
but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good
card. Although the price of these is
through the roof, once they come
back down to that £220 sweet spot
(goddammit, cryptocurrency),
it’ll definitely be the card to
get, especially if you game
at 1080p.
84 %
Bitfenix Portal
www.bitfenix.com £120
Bitfenix has always designed some
bonkers cases, whether it’s the
Prodigy or the Shinobi, it has always
been at the forefront of pushing those
case design boundaries further. The
Portal is no exception. Its crazy
cylindrical ITX design is impressive,
the materials used
exceptional and the
cooling acceptable. 88 %
Sound BlasterX
Siege M04
www.us.creative.com £70
Creative’s first foray into the world of
pointer peripherals, this mouse
features PixArt’s tried and true
PMW3360 optical sensor, on top of the
usual barrage of extra buttons, RGB
lighting and multiple polling ratings. It
has a comfortable grip too, although
the finish could use a little
work, along with the quite
77 %
frankly eye-watering price.
123
h a r d w a re
Buyer’s Guide

YOUR NEXT PC

BUYER’S GUIDE
Build the best PC for your budget

ADVANCED

MID-RANGE

BUDGET

KEY

Budget build Mid-range build Advanced build

PC gaming is for everyone. Pick the parts you want to You want to run every new game at 1080p 60fps. This You’re looking for the best PC on the market and
build a new, well-rounded PC for a good price. recommended build will see you through. superior components. But you still want to spend smart.

124
 buyer ’ s gui d e
Hardware

B360M-DS3H

Motherboard
Gigabyte £67

BUDGET
It lacks overclocking options, but the new
B360 chipset is far cheaper than the Z370
and is perfect for this budget build.

BUILD
Core i3-8100

PROCESSOR
Intel £117
A great processor for out-of-the-box gaming
performance. Opt for the AMD Ryzen 1300X
if you’d like to overclock.

Enjoy 1080p gaming without GeForce RTX 2060 Twin Fan

GRAPHICS CARD
Zotac £331
breaking the bank The 2060 is marginally pricier but noticeably
better than our old 1060, making it the go-to
budget GPU of the moment.

Hyper 212 Evo

COOLER
CoolerMaster £28
Even a budget build can benefit from a good
CPU cooler, letting you enjoy a quieter,
cooler system.

Vengeance LPX 8GB

MEMORY
(2x4GB) @2400MHz
Corsair £41
DDR4 prices are still high, however this
Corsair pair is a good value option.

CX-M Series CX550M

POWER SUPPLY Corsair £59
A UK price spike in our previous EVGA
500W pick opens the door for this quiet
Corsair option.

MX500 250GB
SSD

Crucial £45
Crucial’s SSD range is fantastic value and
offers good performance, too. A 250GB drive
can hold your OS and essential programs.

WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM

HDD

Western Digital £38

One terabyte of old-fashioned hard storage
is the perfect home for all of your media,
backups and storage-hungry games.

Neos
CASE

Bitfenix £34
The Neos provides decent airflow, good
support for 3.5-inch hard drives, and a fairly
painless build experience.

G2460PF
DISPLAY

AOC £199
This is the cheapest 144Hz gaming monitor
you can buy, yet it still offers decent image
quality, great performance and Freesync.

K55
KEYBOARD

Corsair £55
This keyboard may lack mechanical
keyswitches but it offers decent typing, plus

T O TA L
it has RGB and extra gaming keys.

Rival 110
MOUSE

SteelSeries £30

£ 1 , 0 74 A great sensor, simple design and

impressively low price make this a great
entry-level gaming mouse.

Cloud Stinger
HEADSET

HyperX £30
We love the HyperX Cloud, but at £70 it’s too
much for an entry-level system. The Cloud
Stinger is the next best thing.

125
h a r d w a re
Buyer’s Guide

Prime Z370 A II

Motherboard
Aus £146

MID-RANGE
Great shielding, full of features, and
featuring that – ahem – all important RGB
lighting, this is a fine Asus board.

BUILD
Core i5-8600K

PROCESSOR
Intel £245
Six cores, six threads, good out-of-the-box
clock speeds – and it’s overclockable. No
performance bottlenecks with this installed.

Our recommended build for playing GeForce RTX 2060 Twin Fan

GRAPHICS CARD
Zotac £331
the latest games Serious power from the ‘just about
affordable’ end of Nvidia’s new GPU fleet,
and it’s ray tracing-ready too.

Hydro Series H55 Quiet Edition

COOLER
Corsair £55
Tidy and quiet, the H55 will unlock our CPU’s
overclocking potential and look good
through your case window while it does so.

Vengeance LPX 16GB

MEMORY
(2x8GB) @2666
Corsair £83
16GB is the minimum amount of RAM we’d
recommend for a system of this calibre.

CX 650W
POWER SUPPLY Corsair £67
It may not feature fancy modular design, but
Corsair’s reliable CX 650 is cheap enough to
accommodate for our other part picks.

MX500 250GB
SSD

Crucial £45
This is still our SSD of choice. We’ve kept the
capacity the same as our cheaper build, but
upgrading to 500GB would be ideal.

WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM

HDD

Western Digital £38

SSDs are great, but they’re still far from
cheap. This 1TB HDD will hold as many
games as you will need.

Eclipse P400S TG
CASE

Phanteks £72
The clean lines, intuitive build features and
fantastic price cements the Eclipse as our
mid-range case of choice.

Optix MAG271CR
DISPLAY

MSI £290
Curved, stylish, and offering 144Hz refresh
rates, our MSI monitor pick suits pros and
would-be pros alike.

One
EN NEW
KEYBOARD

Y
TR

Ducky £90
A lesser known keyboard brand with a great
rep among mechanical switch nerds. Ducky

T O TA L
delivers the goods with the one.

AW958 Elite
MOUSE

Alienware £46

£1,575 Suitable for any grip thanks to its add-ons,

and there’s just something about those
massive metallic buttons.

HyperX Cloud
HEADSET

Kingston £67
Despite the budget price, we recommend
this headset. There’s simply nothing better
for the money.

126
 buyer ’ s gui d e
Hardware

Strix X470-F Gaming

Motherboard
Asus £185

ADVANCED
Get the most from the new AMD Ryzen
2700X with this matching X470
motherboard that’s packed with features.

BUILD
Ryzen 7 2700X

PROCESSOR
AMD £285
Easy to overclock and with huge
performance out of the box, AMD’s new
flagship CPU is the one to go for.

Go above and beyond with a PC GeForce RTX 2080Ti Black Edition

GRAPHICS CARD
EVGA £1,073
powerful enough to end worlds EVGA’s custom design is considerably
cheaper than Nvidia’s reference card, and
with great cooling.

Kraken X62

COOLER
NZXT £120
The Kraken is the culmination of three of our
favourite things: an infinity mirror, a 280mm
radiator and slick braided cooling.

Vengeance LED RGB 32GB @3200

MEMORY
Corsair £217
Ryzen is the one processor that does benefit
hugely from higher-frequency memory. This
kit is perfect for any would-be video expert.

HX750i 80 Plus Platinum

POWER SUPPLY Corsair £149
Modular, custom cable kits, and a platinum
efficiency rating. What’s not to love about
this Corsair PSU? Nothing, that’s what.

970 Evo 500GB M.2 PCIe SSD

SSD

Samsung £108
Samsung’s newest NVMe SSDs push
performance to new heights and cost the
same as the previous 960 range.

WD Blue 4TB
HDD

Western Digital £92

With a large boot SSD, there’s little need for
a large, cheap SSD. Instead we’ve opted for a
huge 4TB hard drive for all your bulk data.

Enthoo Evolv ATX TG

CASE

Phanteks £135
The 5mm thick aluminium panels resonate
with svelte professionalism, and the interior
makes building inside this a dream.

AW3418DW
EN NEW
DISPLAY

Y
TR

Alienware £998
34 inches of curved, beautifully presented
120Hz display with the added benefits of
G-Sync. One for aesthetes and athletes alike.

K70 LUX RGB

KEYBOARD

Corsair £115
Even when money is no object it’s hard to
argue against Corsair’s latest K70. A no-fuss,

T O TA L
solid piece of aluminium craftsmanship.

Mamba Elite
MOUSE

Razer £90

£3,827 A beautiful design, comfortable shape and

outstanding performance make this a
brilliant high-end gaming mouse.

Arctis Pro Wireless

EN NEW
HEADSET

Y
TR

SteelSeries £260
The top range model in SteelSeries’ Arctis
range offers it all – swappable batteries,
killer tone, handy controls and much more.

127
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