Custom PC - December 2019

FIRST SPEECH THE SOUND BLASTER STORY
THE BE T SELLING
ELLING MAG
MA FOR PC HARDWARE, OVERCLOCKING, GAMIN & MODDING
ODDING / ISSUE 195
ACTUAL
SIZE
j FULL 8-PAGE
BUILD GUIDE
j MINI-ITX CASE
GROUP TEST
j X570 MINI
MOTHERBOARD
REVIEWS
DECEMBER 2019 / £5.99
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Available at:
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Welcome
Custom PC Issue 195
/ FROM THE EDITOR
Mini magic
I
t regularly baffles me that so many people still house
EDITORIAL DESIGN
their PCs in colossal tower cases with at least four criticalmedia.co.uk
unused expansion slots. There are legitimate reasons EDITOR
Ben Hardwidge HEAD OF DESIGN
for not going down the mini PC route,of course. You might Lee Allen
ben.hardwidge@raspberrypi.org
genuinely need more than one PCI-E expansion slot, you might DESIGNERS
want to install an elaborate cooling system,or you might just FEATURES EDITOR Ty Logan
Edward Chester
want the greater airflow and easier building that usually comes
edward.chester@raspberrypi.org COMMERCIAL
with a larger case. & ADVERTISING
On a personal level,I still use a discrete sound card, and like to MODDING EDITOR
ADVERTISING
Antony Leather
have room for my water-cooling gear,so I’m still quite happy Charlotte Milligan
with my Fractal Design Define R6. For anyone else, though, you GAMES EDITOR charlotte.milligan@raspberrypi.org
+44 (0)7725 368887
really have nothing to lose by building a mini PC these days. Rick Lane
As our motherboard reviews this month show,the latest CONTRIBUTORS DISTRIBUTION

Gareth Halfacree, James Gorbold, Seymour Distribution Ltd
mini motherboards don’t skimp on performance or features
Mike Jennings, Phil Hartup, Richard 2 East Poultry Ave,
compared with their ATX siblings – you just don’t waste space London EC1A 9PT
Swinburne, Tracy King
on superfluous expansion slots or extra DIMM slots. You can get +44 (0)207 429 4000
support for AMD’s latest 3rd-gen Ryzen CPUs,a 16x PCI-E 4 PRODUCTION EDITOR
Julie Birrell SUBSCRIPTIONS
graphics slot,two PCI-E 4 M.2 connectors,ALC1220 audio and Unit 6 The Enterprise Centre
dual-band Wi-Fi all on a board that measures just 170 x 170mm. PHOTOGRAPHY Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal,
Antony Leather, Brian O’Halloran, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9PE
There’s a great choice of cases with all sorts of interesting
Fiacre Muller, Gareth Halfacree Phone
designs too,as shown in our mini-ITX case Labs this month (see
01293 312182
p46). What’s more,Asus has pushed the boat out even further PUBLISHING Email
this month,with the launch of its first‘mini-DTX’motherboard PUBLISHING DIRECTOR custompc@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk
(see p22),which has an enormous feature set,but is only slightly Russell Barnes Website
bigger than a standard mini-ITX board. russell@raspberrypi.org custompc.co.uk/subscribe
We recently ran a social media survey on whether people use

PCI-E slots for any components that aren’t graphics cards. We had
ISSUE 195 This magazine is printed on paper sourced from
over 100 responses on both Facebook and Twitter,and while IRST SPEECH THE SOUND BLASTER STORY
sustainable forests. The printer operates an
plenty of people are still using their slots for sound cards, HDMI environmental management system which has been
assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.
capture cards and other devices,most people don’t use any more BUILD A TINY 12CORE Custom PC magazine is published by Raspberry Pi
GAMING PC WITHOUT
than the one slot for their graphics card. SACRIFICING SPEED ACTUAL
SIZE (Trading) Ltd., Maurice Wilkes Building, St. John’s
FULL 8 PAGE
Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS.
If this is you,I urge you to consider downsizing for your next BUILD GU DE
M NI ITX CASE
GROUP TEST
The publisher, editor, and contributors accept no
responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors
build – you’ll get a machine that hardly takes up any desk space, X570 MINI
MOTHERBOARD
REVIEWS
relating to goods, products or services referred to or
HOW YOUR SOLID STATE DRIVE WORKS
looks great and isn’t filled with expansion slots you simply won’t advertised. ISSN: 1740-7443.
use. If you’re feeling inspired to plunge into the world of mini
ISSUE 195
PCs,take a look at our build guide on p78 to see how it’s done. SUBSCRIBERS
EDITION DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME The information in
this magazine is given in good faith. Raspberry Pi
(Trading) Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for
EDITOR loss, disruption or damage to your data or your
THE BEST SELLING
G MAG FOR PC HARDWARE OVERCLOCKING GAMING & MODDING
computer that may occur as a result of following or

Ben Hardwidge attempting to follow advice given in the magazine.
If things do go wrong, take a break.
ben.hardwidge@raspberrypi.org
@isleofshark
3
C U STO M P C / ISSUE 195
Contents Welcome to Issue 195

Highlights
08 Very expensive chips

Richard Swinburne analyses the cost
of developing chips with smaller and
smaller transistors.
10 Secondhand downloads
Tracy King analyses the implications
COVER
of a French court’s rule that
consumers have a right to resell
STORY
Steam games. P78
22 Mini X570 boards
The first miniature motherboards for
AMD’s Z570 chipset turn up, and we
look at three of them, including two
mini-ITX boards and Asus’ new mini-
DTX Impact board. 72 Control 98 Water cooling Navi
Remedy Entertainment’s latest Antony Leather puts a waterblock
32 Thermaltake WaterRAM imaginative action thriller arrives, and on one of AMD’s latest GPUs to see
Thermaltake’s latest DDR4 memory Rick Lane loves it. how it affects temperatures and
kit not only includes RGB lighting, but boosting performance.
also has a waterblock attached to it. 78 Build a super-powered
mini monster 100 How to guides
46 Mini-ITX cases Mini PCs no longer have to involve We show you how to fit a waterblock
Complementing our mini-ITX build compromising on performance, but to an AMD Navi card, and take you
guide and motherboard reviews, we you do need to make sure you get the through the process of leak-testing
take a look at five of the latest mini- right gear. Antony Leather shows you a water-cooling loop with a
ITX cases. what you need to build a powerful pressure tester.
12-core gaming rig, and how to put it
55 Lightweight gaming mice all together. 105 The Sound Blaster story
The latest trend in gaming mice is We talk to founder and CEO of
lightweight models you can swing 86 How SSDs work Creative Technology, Sim Wong Hoo,
round without any resistance. We delve into the inner workings of about the history of the company’s
Edward Chester puts several ultra- SSDs, and explore if the latest super- iconic Sound Blaster cards.
light mice to the test. fast drives are worth the extra money
or not.
55 96 Hobby tech 24
Gareth Halfacree talks to Quarter
Arcades about their miniaturised
arcade machine clones, and also
tests the Seeed Studio Grove AI HAT
and Pimoroni Inky wHAT.
4
Reviewed
this month 35
PRODUCTS
Cover guide Regulars Reviews REVIEWED
PROCESSOR
3 From the editor
78 105 16 AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GRAPHICS CARD
8 Richard Swinburne 20 Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse
FIRST SPEECH T SOUND BLAS R STORY MOTHERBOARDS
10 Tracy King
22 Asus Crosshair VIII Impact
24 Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi
THE BEST SELLING MAG
A FOR PC HARDWARE, ERCLOCKING, GAMING
G & MODDING / ISSUE 195 12 Incoming 26 ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3
HEADSET
42 Custom kit 30 Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE
BUILD A TINY 12CORE MEMORY
GAMING PC WITHOUT 62 How we test
32 Thermaltake WaterRAM
SACRIFICING SPEED ACTUAL
SIZE 64 Elite products LAPTOP
34 Asus ROG Zephyrus G
FULL 8-PAGE 70 Inverse look PERIPHERALS

BUILD GUIDE 36 Logitech MX Keys
37 Logitech MX Master 3
MINI-ITX
GROUP TEST
76 Reality check
PC SYSTEMS
X570 MINI 38 Overclockers UK Titan Katana
MOTHERBOARD 92 Hobby tech
RE IEWS 40 PC Specialist Magma RTX Super
DECEMBER 2019 / £5.99
HOW YOUR SOLID S E DRIVE WORKS 97 For the win Custom kit
98 Customised PC 42 Anker Powerport Wireless Charger
22 46 86 42
42
Speedlink Orios RGB Gaming Mouse Pad
Klearlook Cooling Station
100 How to guides
43 Creative Outlier Gold Earphones
43 Klearlook Headphone Holder
92 105 Retro tech
Mini-ITX case Labs
110 Readers’ drives
47 Lian Li PC-Q37WX
48 Metallic Gear Neo Mini
114 James Gorbold
49 Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air
50 Raijintek Ophion
20 52 SilverStone LD03
Lightweight gaming mice Labs
56 BenQ Zowie S2
57 Endgame Gear XM1
58 Glorious Model O
59 Logitech G Pro Wireless
60 Finalmouse Ultralight 2
61 Razer Viper
110 Games
105 71
72
Gears 5
Control
74 Remnant: From the Ashes
75 Hunt: Showdown
76 Red Matter
Hobby Tech
94 Seeed Studio Grove AI HAT
96 Pimoroni Inky wHAT
5
OPINION
RICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN
VERY EXPENSIVE CHIPS

As the move to smaller transistors continues, the cost of developing chips
is skyrocketing. Richard Swinburne analyses the future of PC chip making
C
hip engineers have been yapping on about ‘the end 08, covering the whole market from entry-level GPUs to the
of Moore’s Law’ for what seems like forever, but now Titan. This means that each chip needs to sell in huge volumes
that the end of scaling is in sight, as transistor gates in order to cover its cost, or it will have to overlap into different
reach a dozen atoms of silicon (at 0.11nm each), it looks like markets, such as server, supercomputer or industrial use.
the cost, not physics, will prevent us from getting the tiniest, Thankfully, the PC gaming market is large, but soon three
fastest chips. A recent article in Semiconductor Engineering companies will be vying for your graphics upgrade money as
claims that the cost of designing a single 3nm chip will be Intel enters the fray. It’s not a stretch to draw the dots and see
over a billion US dollars. It specifically cites ‘a complex GPU how we could end up with just two main GPU makers again
at Nvidia’ as costing $1.5 billion US to develop. Yowzers. within a couple of chip generations. With Nvidia reaping
In contrast, a typical 12/14/16nm-generation chip costs just 70-80 per cent of the GPU market, and Intel having huge sums
~$100 million US to develop, while the latest 7nm designs, of money at its disposal, it’s not a good outlook for AMD.
such as AMD’s Ryzen 3000-series CPUs or its It doesn’t look as though the various costs
Radeon RX 5700-series GPUs, triples the cost For CPUs, a single design of chipmaking could come down in time
to ~$300 million US. Development of next- either. Once we hit 3nm, we’ll need a change
generation 5nm chips, which are due at could be used for the of transistor design away from FinFET to
TSMC next year, push up that cost to $550 whole top-to-bottom more exotic styles, such as Gate All Around
million US. (GAAFET), nanowires, nanosheets or other
Bear in mind that this cost is for each chip of the product stack approaches that are under consideration.
design, so if a company needs multiple We may even have a situation where all
products for several markets, it will need to multiply that these approaches coexist with different performance
figure accordingly. For some markets, such as CPUs, a single characteristics for different applications needs, with options
design could be used for the whole top-to-bottom of the for low power, high density, high performance and so on. This
product stack, with core-binning and feature-chopping being added complexity will add to the cost, of course. Other issues,
used to create separate products. AMD’s chiplet approach is such as verifying that tens of billions of transistors are all
another way to keep down costs –its 7nm octa-core chip is working correctly, are also a part of the reason why every
applied across the range from entry-level to server products, stage of chipmaking is getting more expensive.
with varying designs of the cheaper 14nm I/O chip being used The PC hardware and gaming industries are large enough
to meet different market needs. for us to expect business as usual for the next three to five
GPUs, however, require three or four chip designs for each years, but beyond that time frame, the economics of building
generation. For example, Nvidia will have several chips based chips might completely transform the way our hardware
on its next GPU architecture, likely to be named 02, 04, 06 and is made.
Richard has worked in tech for over a decade, as a UK journalist, on Asus’ ROG team and now as an industry analyst based in Taiwan @ricswi
8
OPINION
T R ACY K I N G / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS
RESALE VALUE
A French court has ruled that consumers
have a right to resell their Steam games.
Tracy King analyses the implications
he news that a French court has ruled in favour of the thedifference,especiallywhen they’re being charged the same
T consumer right to resell games is likely to change the
way we buy and play games forever. Because I have,
price for boxed games as for digital? When downloading a
game in return for money, we expect the transaction to be
like all of us, historically enjoyed the legal right to resell things covered by our statutory consumer rights – for example, if the
I own, I’ve always only grudgingly accepted the new normal game’s advertising is misleading. Why shouldn’t our right to
of downloadable media. resell also apply?
When I buy a digital game (I mean non-physical,for anyone The French courts think it should, ruling against Valve and
about to remind me that game discs are digital), I’ll never in favour of gamers being able to resell digital downloads, as
recoup any money from it, but if I buy the same game boxed, I we do with discs. Valve is appealing the ruling, and it will be
can resell it for whatever the market is willing to pay, or pass huge news if it sticks.However, I’m not sure that it’s good news.
it on to a friend. I can’t do that with my Steam games. The industry simply won’t take the hit, making it likely to move
It’s this inconsistency that led to a French consumer rights away from selling games individually to using a subscription
group, UFC Quo Chosier, to challenge model that doesn’t run afoul of EU law.
Valve’s terms and conditions for Steam It’s easy to see why there’s a Subscription models – as we see with
users as being unlawful under EU film and TV platforms – are becoming
law. The law states that ‘all goods sold clash. Downloadable media increasingly competitive, with big media
within the EU must be able to be resold isn’t ‘goods’ in the same way companies such as Disney launching
without permission from the personwho their own subscription services rather
originally sold them’. as physical media than continuing to license their films and
It’s easy to see why there’s a clash. shows to Netflix and so on. In response,
Downloadable media isn’t ‘goods’ in the same way as physical Netflix is making or buying its own films and shows. Anyone
media. The latter degrades, eventually becoming unusable. who wants access to it all will have to buy multiple subscriptions.
It has a shelf life of usability, which partly dictates its resale That’s bad for consumers, who will have to pay through the nose
value. That’s also why publishers release ‘limited edition’ for the choice and diversity to which we’ve become accustomed.
boxed games, and collectors will happily pay for them along Imagine games going the same way. Apple Arcade just
with merchandise. You’re buying a product that others might launched, and while most of the games aren’t exclusives, once
want, but can’t get, unless you choose to resell it. the service is established as popular, that situation will likely
That isn’t true of digital downloads, which can be infinitely change, especially if the French ruling holds. Apple may just go
duplicated by the rights owner without the constraints of Arcade-only, rather than let consumers resell the games they
factory manufacturing, materials cost, distribution and ‘bought’ individually. Gaming consumers might be winning at
unsold stock issues. But does the consumer, the gamer, see the moment, but we may ultimately lose out in the long run.
Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stories surrounding tech and gaming @tkingdot
10
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 Generous space for high-end graphics cards and large coolers
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I N CO M I N G / NEWS
Incoming When’s the next issue?

NOV
Issue 196 7
on sale on Thursday, 7 November
Cooler Master launches

massive air cooler
Cooler Master has launched a new including Intel LGA115x, LGA2011/v3,
premium air cooler, with a chunky design LGA2066, AM4, AM3+, FM2+ and AM2+.
and RGB lighting. The Master Air MA620M Measuring 165 x 135 x 125mm, the
features a dual tower design using blacked- MA620M will make up a significant part
out aluminium for the heatsinks, with six of your motherboard topography, and
heatpipes routing heat away from the Cooler Master has jazzed up its classy
CPU. A variable-speed 120mm SF120R appearance further by equipping it with an
fan sits between the two towers, and addressable RGB LED array. The MA620M
speeds up as required. The MA620M is available to pre-order now from
is also very versatile, being compatible overclockers.co.uk for £90 inc VAT.
with a huge number of CPU sockets, PHIL HARTUP
AOC launches budget

IPS gaming monitors
Monitor maker AOC has just launched its with a DisplayPort input
new G2 line-up of gaming monitors, all with and a VGA connection.
1080p IPS panels. The 27G2U and 27G2U5 They also all include 2W
both have a 27in diagonal, while the 24G2U built-in speakers, and a
and 24G2U5 have a 23.8in diagonal. All the four-port USB hub for
monitors support AMD FreeSync, and have keyboards. The big news,
a quoted 1ms MPRT response time. The however, is the price. The recommended
27G2U and the 24G2U are the more speed- retail prices for the monitors start at just
focused models of the group. They offer £149 inc VAT for the 24G2U5, with the other
a refresh rate of 144Hz, while the cheaper models priced at £179 for the 24G2U, £189
27G2U5 and 24G2U5 only run at 75Hz. for the 27G2U5 and £229 for
Connection options are the same across the 27G2U (all prices inc VAT).
all models, with two HDMI inputs, along PHIL HARTUP
12
Roccat unveils Kain gaming mice
Roccat is launching a new series of gaming DPI stepper button. They also share the R8 8500DPI sensor, and its casing
mice called the Kain series. At the heart same general shape and design. This includes side grips for better control.
of the Kain series is Roccat’s Titan Click design includes AIMO RGB lighting, with The Kain 120 features a beefier
technology, which aims to provide a smooth, backlighting and LED effects that you can 16000DPI Roccat Owl-Eye sensor, as
distinct mouse click, while also reacting coordinate with other Roccat products (or well as a dirt-resistant, grippy coating
faster than other mice, due to the location of theoretically other companies’ products to the outside of the mouse, instead of
the sensor and the ability of the mouse to if you’re good at syncing up their assorted individual grips. The Kain 200 then adds
process the signal. Both the main buttons lighting control suites). All three of the Kain a wireless connection to the mix.
on the Kain series use this technology. mice are available in either black or white. The recommended retail prices are
All the mice share the same button The differences between the £40 for the Kain 100, £60 for the Kain 120
layout, with two main buttons, two thumb models are down to their specifications. and £90 for the Kain 200 (all inc VAT).
buttons for right-handed users and a The Kain 100 features a Pro-Optic PHIL HARTUP
Fractal Design releases new

tempered glass case
Fractal Design has gone heavy on the extent that the rooftop glass panel can be
tempered glass with its newest case. swapped out for a plain ventilated panel.
The Vector RS is a midi-tower sporting Up to nine 120mm fans can be
tempered glass panels on the side, installed – three in the front, one in the
top and front, providing a giant viewing back, three in the top and two in the
window on the PC within it. The exterior floor. These fan installation points also
is angular and shaped, highlighted by a double as radiator mounts, allowing for
narrow ARGB stripe along the line where 360mm radiators in the top and front,
the glass panels meet the metal chassis. and a 240mm one in the floor. Three
The glass panels themselves have fans are supplied, one in the rear and two
no bolts, and the case uses a push-to- in the front. To use fans or a radiator in
lock latching mechanism on the side, so the roof of the case, you have to use the
there are hardly any protruding screws or cooling vent rather than the glass panel.
other disruptions to the shape. It’s not all TheFractal DesignVectorRSisavailable
about looks though – the Vector RS has tobuynowfrom scan.co.uk for £170 inc VAT.
performance build chops too, even to the PHIL HARTUP
13
I N CO M I N G / NEWS
WORTH
£230
Rumour control
PHIL HARTUP’S ROUNDUP OF THE LATEST UNCONFIRMED
TECH GOSSIP. TAKE THESE STORIES WITH THE APPROPRIATE
PINCH OF SALT
AMD RADEON RX 5300 XT SPOTTED

A listing for AMD Radeon RX 5300 XT graphics cards has appeared in the specs list
for HP desktop PCs at German retailer alternate.de. Spotted by the folks at
computerbase.de, the listing doesn’t provide any details about the GPU, but says that
the cards come with 4GB of GDDR4 memory. However, the nomenclature suggests
that these GPUs will sit in the entry-level slot in AMD’s GPU line-up. The PCs listed
WIN!
with RX 5300 XTs in the specification had been slated for pre-order and due to arrive
on 8 October, suggesting that the next wave of AMD GPUs is imminent.
NEW GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARD DETAILS LEAKED

Twitter user @momomo_us has spotted a number of Gigabyte motherboards based
A be quiet! on forthcoming chipsets listed in the Eurasian Economic Commission’s (EEC)
DARK BASE PRO database. The listing includes several boards based on Intel’s
(currently unreleased) Z490 chipset, with the following names:
900 CASE! Z490 Aorus Pro, Z490 Designare, Z490 Aorus Xtreme, Z490
Aorus Xtreme Waterforce, Z490I Aorus Ultra and Z490
Aorus Ultra.
A number of new Intel high-end desktop (HEDT)
motherboards are also listed, with the following names:
X299 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce, X299 Aorus Master,
X299X Designare EX-10G and X299X
Designare EX. A number of boards based
on the H470, B460 and H410
chipsets are also listed.
What’s that? 16-core Ryzen and

Our pals at be quiet! are offering a Dark Base Pro
900 Rev. 2 Silver case to one Custom PC reader.
The image above is a distorted close-up of a piece of new Threadrippers
in November
hardware featured in this issue. If you identify it,
email the name and page number of the product to
competition@custompcmag.org.uk, with ‘What’s
that? 195’ in the Subject field.
The arrival of AMD’s new 16-core
Previous winners Ryzen 9 3950X CPU has been delayed
The winner from our Issue 192 competition was Ian until November, after originally being
Yates, who correctly identified the Gigabyte Aorus scheduled for a September release.
NVMe Gen4 SSD 2TB from p20. The winner from The company says the delay is because
our Issue 193 competition was Lee Hemenway, AMD is trying to get on top of the strong
who correctly identified the ASRock X570 Taichi demand for its existing 3rd-gen Ryzen
motherboard from p43. Congratulations Ian and CPUs. AMD has also confirmed that
Lee! We’ll be in touch shortly to get your prizes 3rd-gen Threadripper CPUs will be
sorted out. released at the same time as the Ryzen 9
Terms & conditions 3950X, starting with a 24-core version.
Competition closes on Friday, 8 November. Please see p97 for our competition
terms and conditions. PHIL HARTUP
14
R E V I E WS / PROCESSOR
Reviews
tom P
us
C
SOCKET AM4 PROCESSOR
E
PRE
AMD RYZEN 5 3600/£191
AD
inc VAT
M
IUM GR
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
Y
ou really have to pay attention to the clock Accordingly, AMD only includes the smaller Wraith Stealth
frequencies when picking an AMD 3rd-gen Ryzen cooler as opposed to the meatier Wraith Spire in the box. If
CPU, as the company’s pairs of 6-core and 8-core you’re planning on using the Ryzen 5 3600 in a small case, the
models are mostly identical in other areas. It’s a very different Wraith Stealth is only 54mm tall compared to 71mm for the
situation from Intel’s line-up, where the Core i5-9600K, Core Wraith Spire, so it will fit into a greater number of slim PC cases.
i7-9700K and Core i9-9900K couldn’t be more different, In terms of frequencies, there’s 200MHz between them
with a mix of Hyper-Threading support, number of cores and in both the base frequency and maximum boost frequency,
the amount of cache making each chip a unique choice. with the latter sitting at 4.2GHz compared to 4.4GHz for
As a case in point, AMD’s 6-core Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600X the Ryzen 5 3600X. If you’re primarily concerned with
both sport six cores and 12 threads, thanks to Simultaneous content creation and multi-threaded workloads, the Ryzen
Multithreading (SMT) support. Also, because these CPUs 5 3600 hit a stock speed all-core boost of 3.974GHz in
have two cores disabled over their two Core Complexes, our Prime95 and Cinebench tests. That’s 126MHz lower
which sport four cores apiece, both these 7nm CPUs have than the X-edition CPU, which managed to boost to
1MB less L2 cache than their 8-core counterparts, as each 4.1GHz across all cores in multi-threaded workloads.
core is equipped with 512KB of L2 cache. However, they They might be slightly lower frequencies than the Ryzen
have the same 32MB L3 cache as the 8-core chips, so you 5 3600X, which costs around £40 more, but they’re
have parity in this regard as it’s shared across all cores. significantly higher numbers than AMD’s Ryzen 5 2600,
There’s another key spec difference between the Ryzen which uses the older 12nm Zen+ architecture. This chip
5 3600 and its X-series sibling, though, which is a claimed could only boost to 3.9GHz, giving the new CPU a sizeable
TDP of just 65W, compared to 95W for the Ryzen 5 3600X. 300MHz advantage, in addition to the larger cache and
16
Meanwhile, Cinebench’s scores represent raw multi- PLANET ZEN
threaded and single-threaded performance and the + Superb value
Ryzen 5 3600 performed well here too. It beat the Core + Significantly
i5-9600K’s single-threaded score, albeit by just eight faster than its
predecessor
points, but the higher boost frequency of the Ryzen 5
3600X did help the latter to get just over 500 points + Excellent
all-rounder
compared to 471 for the Ryzen 5 3600. The multi-threaded
test once again showed AMD’s dominance too, thanks to PLANET XEN
SMT, with the 3600 posting a score of 3,473 compared to - Slower than
the Core i5-9600K’s 2,559 – a 36 per cent advantage. overclocked
Intel CPUs in
In Far Cry 5, the Intel CPU had a lead of 3fps on the some games
minimum frame rate and 18fps on the average frame
- Ryzen 5
rate, but as this was at over 100fps, the percentage 2600 costs
difference is far smaller than with the Ryzen 5 2600, significantly less
The Ryzen 5 3600 comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler in the box,
which only managed a minimum and average of 66fps - Little overclocking
headroom
rather than the larger Wraith Spire and 86fps respectively.
We’ve also found that the Core i5-9600K and Core
increased instructions per clock from the new architecture. i5-9700K benefit from not offering Hyper-Threading here
Incredibly, though, the hugely popular Ryzen 5 2600 is too, with Far Cry preferring them over CPUs with twice as
now available for under £130 inc VAT, so while the Ryzen many threads as cores. Bear in mind that this Far Cry test
5 3600 remains a good deal, you can still get a cracking is also unusually CPU-limited – other games point to only
6-core CPU on a tight budget if you go for the older chip. modest gains for Intel over AMD, or similar performance.
Overclocking proved to be very fruitful for the 3600 too,
Performance with our usual 1.425V vcore offering a maximum all-core
While the Ryzen 5 3600’s performance is some way overclock of 4.25GHz. This is the same figure we achieved
behind that of the 3600X, its clock speed boost helped it with the Ryzen 5 3600X, meaning the Ryzen 5 3600
to add nearly 12,000 points to the image editing score of offers far better value if you’re up for some overclocking.
the Ryzen 5 2600, offering 25 per cent more performance. More importantly, this all-core overclock frequency is
It even beat the Core i5-9600K by a comfortable margin 50MHz higher than the CPU’s maximum boost clock, and
in this test, which has historically favoured Intel chips. over 200MHz faster than the all-core boost we saw at
Meanwhile, our heavily multithreaded Handbrake video stock speed, so the Ryzen 5 3600 benefits in all areas after
encoding test enabled the six SMT-enabled cores to overclocking, and likely more than it would from dabbling
stretch their legs and carve out a huge lead over the Core with Precision Boost Overdrive too. This overclock saw the
i5-9600K, with a 27 per cent performance advantage. system score rise from 185,659 to 207,899 and the average
With every score in our RealBench suite seeing big frame rate in Far Cry 5 increase from 104fps to 110fps, with
improvements over the 2600, it wasn’t a surprise to see 300 points added to the Cinebench R20 multi-threaded
the Ryzen 5 3600’s system score sitting 14 per cent higher score and the single-threaded score rising from 471 to 490.
than the older chip’s result, and the overall gap was even
bigger between the 3600 and the Core i5-9600K too. Conclusion
While the Ryzen 5 3600X is still a fantastic CPU, the Ryzen
SPEC 5 3600 is much cheaper, not significantly slower at stock
Base frequency 3.6GHz speed and can overclock to similar frequencies – at least if
Max boost frequency 4.2GHz
our sample is an example of a regular chip. It offers excellent PERFORMANCE
Core Zen 2
all-round performance, leaving the Core i5-9600K in the
dust, never mind Intel’s less potent CPUs, and while Far
40/50
Manufacturing process 7nm
Cry 5 gave Intel an advantage, this is by no means the case FEATURES
Number of cores 6 x physical (12 threads)
IGP None
in every game. If you’re looking for an overclockable all-
rounder, the Ryzen 5 3600 is the new kid on the block, and
15/15
Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) Yes it represents a decent upgrade from the Ryzen 5 2600 too. VALUE
Memory controller Dual-channel DDR4, up to 3200MHz ANTONY LEATHER 34/35
Packaging AMD Socket AM4
Thermal design power (TDP) 65W OVERALL SCORE
89%
Features Precision Boost 2, Precision Boost Overdrive, FMA3,
F16C, SHA, BMI / BMI1 + BMI2, AVX2, AVX, AES, SSE4a, SSE4, VERDICT
SSE3, SSE2, SSE A huge amount faster than its predecessor, and the
new benchmark for a sub-£200 all-rounder.
17
R E V I E WS / PROCESSOR
AMD RYZEN 5 3600 RESULTS
GIMP IMAGE EDITING SYSTEM SCORE

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 58,580 63,302 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 185,659 207,899
66,297 AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 234,491 251,918
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 65,533
63,194 AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 202,642 205,913
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 63,142
Intel Core i5-9600K 56,112 65,458 Intel Core i5-9600K 159,009 177,750
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 51,016 51,352 AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 173,016 178,496
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING CINEBENCH R20 SINGLETHREADED

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 445,716 490,336 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 471 490
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 589,496 645,418 511
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 500
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 484,128 488,907 501
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 492
Intel Core i5-9600K 352,153 402,470 Intel Core i5-9600K 463 516
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 424,790 435,531 AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 425 432
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 390,031 436,069 AMD Ryzen 5 2600 393 428
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 0 200 400 600 800
HEAVY MULTITASKING CINEBENCH R20 MULTITHREADED

Intel Core i5-9600K 203,830 219,130 Intel Core i5-9600K 2,559 2,909
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 0 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000
Stock Speed Overclocked Stock Speed Overclocked
TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION FAR CRY 5

Idle 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 103W 104W AMD Ryzen 5 3600 88fps 104fps
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 95W 99W 89fps 110fps
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 103W 105W AMD Ryzen 3700X 91fps 122fps
Intel Core i5-9600K 95W 96W 95fps 123fps
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 110W 115W AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 91fps 117fps
89fps 110fps
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 107W 108W
Intel Core i5-9600K 91fps 122fps
0 50 100 150 200
99fps 133fps
Load AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 69fps 92fps
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 181W 204W 74fps 95fps
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 185W 225W AMD Ryzen 5 2600 66fps 86fps
73fps 95fps
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 190W 203W
Intel Core i5-9600K 203W 242W 0 50 100 150 200
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 241W 266W Stock speed min Stock speed avg
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 193W 256W Overclocked min Overclocked avg
0 100 200 300 400
Stock Speed Overclocked
18
R E V I E WS / GRAPHICS CARD
GRAPHICS CARD
SAPPHIRE RADEON RX
5700 XT PULSE / £399 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
T
here are thankfully now several ways to avoid Other bonuses of Sapphire’s Pulse card include a dual
AMD’s noisy blower cooler on the firm’s new 7nm BIOS system, plus the glowing Sapphire logo and visible
Navi GPUs. You could add your own waterblock to heatpipes on the top look great. The card isn’t particularly
a reference card (see p102) or, if you want an easier life, you long at 254mm, but it’s wide, taking up 2.5 expansion slots –
could buy a card with a third-party cooler. Sapphire’s Radeon you won’t want to put it in a vertical PCI-E riser slot.
RX 5700 XT Pulse is one such card, pairing AMD’s top-end In addition to the improved cooling setup, there are some
Navi chip with a custom cooler. clock speed improvements over AMD’s reference design.
It features two 95mm dual-ball- The base clock is up from 1605MHz to 1670MHz, and the all-
SPEC bearing fans on top of a heatpipe- important game clock has been pushed up by 60MHz to
Graphics processor equipped stack of heatsink fins, with 1815MHz. The max boost clock is only 20MHz higher than the
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, 1670MHz base a chunky aluminium backplate on reference clock, however. Meanwhile, the memory is set to
clock, 1815MHz game clock, 1925MHz max the back. Sapphire claims that it’s run at the same 875MHz (14GHz effective) clock rate.
boost clock
improved the design of its fan blades
Pipeline
40 compute units, 2,560 stream
to make them up to 10 per cent Performance
processors, 64 ROPS quieter than the company’s previous Those extra clock speeds give the Sapphire a healthy
Memory fans. The fans are also digitally performance boost over the reference design, adding 2-3fps
8GB GDDR6, 14GHz effective controlled by a PWM chip, which the to the Total War: Warhammer II and Shadow of the Tomb
Memory interface company claims makes the rotational Raider frame rates. Battlefield V has had a big update since
256-bit speed consistent and accurate. we tested the reference cards, which negatively affects GPU
Bandwidth The one downside of the heatsink performance slightly, but the 5700 XT remains very fast in
448GB/sec
design is that the open front of this game in DirectX 11 mode, even outperforming the
Interface the card means the fans push GeForce RTX 2070 Super. The downside of the Radeon RX
16x PCI-E 4
hot air back into your case, rather 5700 XT in this game, of course, is that you can’t enable the
Outputs/inputs
3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2b
than out the back. This is the usual real-time ray-tracing features – you’ll need an Nvidia RTX
situation with third-party graphics card for that.
Cooler
Two fans, 2.5-slot cards, but the Pulse does put out The noise from the cooler is also a big improvement over
Power connections a lot of heat – you can really feel AMD’s reference blower design. It’s not silent – you can
1 x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin the warm air coming out the front clearly hear the fans spinning up when you run a game, but
Card width if you put your hand in front of it. the noise is a low-frequency rumble, rather than a high-
254mm You’ll want a good front-to-back pitched hiss. There’s also some room for overclocking
airflow system for this card. further. The Sapphire Pulse card let us improve the memory
20
B E N C H M A R K R E S U LTS
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II
1,920 x 1,080, Highest settings, TAA, GPU test 1,920 x 1,080, Very High settings, DX12
Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 95fps 123fps Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 85fps 114fps
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 92fps 120fps AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 85fps 113fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 97fps 126fps
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 81fps 106fps
0 50 100 150 200
0 50 100 150 200
2,560 x 1,440, Highest settings, TAA, GPU test
2,560 x 1,440, Very High settings, DX12
Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 63fps 81fps
66fps 83fps Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 65fps 79fps
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 62fps 79fps AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 64fps 77fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 68fps 86fps Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 63fps 75fps
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 56fps 70fps Zotac RTX 2060 Super 52fps 62fps
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
Stock speed min Stock speed avg

BATTLEFIELD V
Overclocked min Overclocked avg
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra detail, DX11, TAA
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 129fps 155fps TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION

Unigine Superposition Benchmark, 4K Optimized, DirectX
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 96fps 120fps Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 321W 331W
0 50 100 150 200 AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 295W
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 323W

2,560 x 1,440, Ultra detail, DX11, TAA
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 248W
0 150 300 450
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 100fps 116fps
Stock speed Overclocked Lower is better
0 50 100 150 200

frequency to 940MHz (15040MHz effective), and we could PULSE
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II
add another 76MHz to the GPU clock too. These settings + Cooler noise
improved performance by a further 2-3fps in our tests, and isn’t irritating
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings, FXAA, DX11
Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 79fps 92fps the cooler noise was still fine at its automatic setting. + Great frame rates
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 76fps 89fps
+ Factory overclock
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 81fps 100fps Conclusion
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 73fps 87fps Sapphire’s Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse is a big improvement FLATLINE
over AMD’s reference design, offering slightly more -
0 50 100 150 200
Noraytracing
performance and quieter operation. What’s more, its current
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra settings, FXAA, DX11
- Expensive
price means you also only pay an extra £20 or so for the
privilege. Even so, £399 inc VAT is a lot of money to pay for a - Exhausts hot air
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 55fps 62fps into case
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 60fps 72fps graphics card that doesn’t have the real-time ray-tracing
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 52fps 62fps features of Nvidia’s RTX GPUs.
0 50 100 150 200 Of course, ray tracing is still only supported in a handful of
games, but it does look amazing in those games, and there
will be more of them in the future. If we were spending PERFORMANCE
around £400 on a card, we’d recommend the RTX 2060
Super for that reason. However, if frame rates are more
35/40
important to you, the Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse is FEATURES
faster than the 2060 Super and, unlike AMD’s reference
cards, it doesn’t make a horrible noise either.
14/20
BEN HARDWIDGE VALUE
36/40
OVERALL SCORE
VERDICT
Superb performance and a quieter cooler than AMD’s
reference design, although the lack of ray-tracing support
hurts it at this price.
85%
21
R E V I E WS /MOTHERBOARD
stom P
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A
EXT
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RE L
ME U
X 5 7 0 M I N I DT X M OT H E R B OA R D
ASUS CROSSHAIR
VIII IMPACT / £375 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
A
sus’ fantastic Maximus and Rampage ge Gene a board that
that’ss limited by its size is a tough ask.
ask However,
However the
micro-ATX boards were sadly canned a few fact that AMD is releasing its Ryzen 9 3950X soon means
years ago, meaning the company had no the Crosshair VIII Impact will appeal not just to mainstream
presence at all below the ATX form factor on Intel’s HEDT users, but also to high-end content creators looking to build
sockets, and its fabulous Maximus Impact mini-ITX range small but powerful PCs.
ended on the Z170 chipset too, meaning there were no Thankfully, Asus has also gone to town on the power
all-out Asus enthusiast sub-ATX offerings. The Strix circuitry and cooling to make sure it can handle the 16-core
range filled some of the gaps, but these CPU. The huge I/O shroud is one big heatsink that cools a
SPEC boards were far more restrained than the 10-phase power delivery, as well as the X570 chipset that’s
Chipset original Impact designs. Now the Impact is located next to the VRMs, and is equipped with two tiny
AMD X570 back, though, and this time it’s equipped 30mm fans to aid cooling. These fans push air over small
CPU socket with Socket AM4. finned heatsinks, which are attached to the larger shroud
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2) The Crosshair VIII Impact is part of an and sit above the VRMs and chipset, with small exhaust
Memory support onslaught of super-premium and very vents on either side.
2 slots: max 64GB DDR4 (up to
4800MHz)
expensive X570 boards that have landed There’s also a backplate that uses a heatpipe to cool
since July’s 3rd-gen Ryzen launch. this area from the underside. It’s a jaw-dropping cooling
Expansion slots
One 16x PCI-E 4 Intriguingly, the Crosshair VIII Impact isn’t arrangement, and one that thankfully proved quiet and
Sound
a mini-ITX board either. Instead, Asus has very effective, keeping the VRMs below 50°C under load.
8-channel ROG SupremeFX S1220 decided to go all out with features and add The board uses a vertical SODIMM.2 module – a mini
Networking 33mm of real estate to the end of the version of the DIMM.2 module used on larger ROG boards.
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, Intel 802.11ac PCB, making the board mini-DTX rather It offers two M.2 ports, each of which is cooled using a large
Wi-Fi than mini-ITX. heatsink. They support SATA 6Gbps M.2 SSDs as well as
Overclocking Asus claims the board will still fit in PCI-E 4 NVMe models, and the module also has two extra
Base clock 96-118MHz, CPU
multiplier 22-64x; max voltages, most mini-ITX cases, but there are some 4-pin fan headers and a 3-pin RGB header, with five fan
CPU 1.7V, RAM 2.47V chassis where the Impact’s size will be headers available in total, including with up to 36W of
Ports problematic, whether it’s down to pure power for water-cooling pumps.
4 x SATA 6Gbps 2 x M.2 PCI-E 4.0, 3 size, interference with PCI-E riser cables The heatsink saw our M.2 SSD peak at just 45°C under
x USB 3 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 3, 1 x LAN, 3 x surround
or restricting cooling options, with many load, the lowest temperature we’ve seen so far. There are
audio out cases using the space below the also coolant flow and temperature sensors, plus a huge
Dimensions (mm) motherboard to house fans and radiators. range of overclocking and testing tools, with power and
203 x 170 The other issue is price, which is an reset buttons, a clear-CMOS button, USB BIOS Flashback
issue for many X570 boards, but £375 for as well as extreme overclocking features.
22
GIMP IMAGE EDITING TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION
Idle
66,237
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 65,176 101W
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 101W
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 67,140 67,555
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 99W 100W
0 20k 40k 60k 80k
0 100W 200W 300W
HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING Load
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 788,321 855,064 Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 249W 300W
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 835,226 848,107 Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 262W 296W
0 250k 500k 750k 1 mil 0 100W 200W 300W

Stock speed Overclocked Lower is better
HEAVY MULTITASKING
301,591
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 290,449 FAR CRY 5
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 301,228 306,477 1,920 x 1,080, High settings
0 100k 200k 300k 400k Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 92fps 120fps
95fps 120fps
SYSTEM SCORE
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 91fps 122fps
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 295,023 308,658 96fps 121fps
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 306,884 315,214 0 40 80 120 160
0 100k 200k 300k 400k Stock speed min Stock speed avg
Stock speed Overclocked Overclocked min Overclocked avg
The added PCB length is partly down to those features, We managed to hit 4.35GHz across all cores with our CROSSHAIR
but also because the new SupremeFX S1220 audio circuitry Ryzen 9 3900X, a result that only one other board has + Excellent
is mounted on its side under a metal fascia at the end of the managed, making the Crosshair VIII Impact a superb overclocker
board. There are only three audio ports on the rear of the overclocker. This tweak saw the system score rise 5 per + Exceptional
cooling
I/O panel though. Meanwhile, the I/O panel features an cent to 308,658, despite the image editing and multi-
integrated shield, which is great news for your fingers during tasking scores taking a small hit due to the core frequencies + Loads of features
installation, and is well equipped with USB ports. There are being lower than the peak boost frequency. The audio
five USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a pair of USB 3 ports plus a USB performance was also excellent, with a dynamic range of CROSS HARE
3.1 Type-C port. There’s on-board Wi-Fi too, courtesy of an 112.7dBA, and we recorded peak read and write speeds of - May not fit in
some cases
Intel AX200 802.11ax controller. 4982MB/sec and 4242MB/sec respectively using our
PCI-E 4 SSD. - Very expensive
Performance
Apart from a small hiccup in our Handbrake video encoding Conclusion
test at stock speed, the Impacts’ performance was similar to The Crosshair VIII Impact’s price and size mean it’s even
other X570 boards we’ve tested. Its total system power more of a niche product than its predecessors, but if you
consumption was also exceptionally low under load at just can afford and accommodate it, the Impact is a stunning
249W, and was even more impressive once overclocked, motherboard with some of the best innovative design we’ve
m PERFORMANCE
drawing just 300W despite
other ar .
p a 50MHz va t
vantage over many seen. It doesn’t shy away from overclocking, it keeps its
hotspots incredibly cool and, despite its small size, it has a
33/35
vasst array of features. It’s overkill for most people, but if you FEATURES
havve your heart set on the Ryzen 9 3950X and have plenty
of cash to spend on a mini PC, you won’t be disappointed.
33/35
ANTO
ONY LEATHER VALUE
21/30
OVERALL SCORE
VERDICT
87
A glorious return to form for Asus in the sub-ATX
enthusiast arena, but the Impact’s price and size
make it a niche product.
23
R E V I E WS / MOTHERBOARD
X 5 7 0 M I N I I T X M OT H E R B OA R D
GIGABYTE
X570I AORUS
PRO WIFI / £227 inc VAT
stom P
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SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk
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ROV E D
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G
igabyte’s X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi is the more Flashback, which allows you to update the BIOS without a
affordable of the two mini-ITX boards we’re CPU installed, although that’s only likely to be useful if you
looking at this month. At less £227 inc VAT, it’s buy it when 4th-gen Ryzen CPUs land next year.
noticeably cheaper than the ASRock X570 Phantom Meanwhile, there are four SATA 6Gbps ports, which is
Gaming-ITX/TB3 and considerably more so than the Asus standard for a mini-ITX board and, unlike the ASRock board,
ROG Crosshair VIII Impact. It also has a very different feature you get two M.2 ports – one on the top and the other
set and design. sandwiched in the middle of the backplate on the underside.
There are downsides with Gigabyte’s effort, though, the Both of them support PCI-E 4 and SATA M.2 SSDs, and the
most concerning of which is a lack of fan headers. There are top port is equipped with a large heatsink and fan that also
just two available, one of which is for the cool the chipset.
CPU, giving you just one for your case fans. However, the top section, which you remove to install the
SPEC You could solve this problem with a fan hub heatsink, isn’t attached using thermal paste or pads. Also, the
Chipset or splitter cable, but we expect a minimum of tiny fan didn’t seem to add much cooling power, with our
AMD X570
two system fan headers on a modern mini- PCI-E 4 SSD sitting at similar temperatures when using its
CPU socket
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)
ITX motherboard. stock heatsink with no active cooler.
Gigabyte has also left a large portion of Similarly, there’s a large heatsink cooling the eight-phase
Memory support
2 slots: max 64GB DDR4 (up to the rear I/O panel unused, and what is on power delivery on the side of the board, but there’s no nifty
4400MHz) the back is rather cramped. There are five
Expansion slots Type-A USB ports, one of which is USB 3.1,
One 16x PCI-E 4 which is fine, and an improvement over the
Sound ASRock board’s paltry four ports.
8-channel Realtek ALC1220-VB
However, you only get three audio jacks
Networking tied to the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec,
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, Intel 802.11ac
Wi-Fi meaning 8-channel speaker systems need
Overclocking
to use the front audio header to provide an
Base clock 100-119MHz, CPU extra port.
multiplier 8-64x; max voltages: This is partly down to Gigabyte including
CPU 1.8V, RAM 2V
three video outputs, but they’re only useful
Ports with an APU – anyone else would find extra
4 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x M.2 PCI-E 4, 1 x
USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, USB ports or a full set of audio jacks much
2 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 2 x surround more useful. On the plus side, the rear I/O
audio out
panel sports an integrated shield, while
Dimensions (mm) offering a USB 3.1 Type-C port and
170 x 170
Gigabyte’s equivalent of USB BIOS
24
Idle
65,285
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 65,173
63,012 Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 97W 102W
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3
62,302
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 96W 109W
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000
0 100 200 300 400
Load
HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 242W 316W
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 797,074 854,332
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 810,876 821,320
0 250,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 0 100 200 300 400
Stock speed Overclocked
HEAVY MULTITASKING
304,606
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 301,581
FAR CRY 5
1,920 x 1,080, High settings
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 92fps 118fps
93fps 120fps
SYSTEM SCORE
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 94fps 120fps
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 297,727 311,257 99fps 120fps
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 303,361 307,207 0 40 80 120 160

0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
heatpipe linking it to the chipset fan, which might explain why many cheaperboards.Despite averagetemperatures,ourM.2 AURORA
BOREALIS
its VRMs reached a peak software-reported temperature of SSD also still hit closeto its 5,000MB/secread speed, with the
73°C and 63°C using our IR probe. Both these temperatures writespeed of 4,261MB/secalso ona parwithother boards. + Excellent
overclocker
are significantly warmer than those from the fan-assisted Meanwhile, itsstock speed RealBench systemscoreof
ASRock board. 297,727 was slowerthan other boards,butstillalittle quicker
+ Reasonableprice
However, Gigabyte does include a full-sized backplate that thanthe Asus ROG CrosshairVIII Impact,whileits Far Cry + Decentfeature set
attaches to the underside of the VRMs to aid cooling, and resultswere onthe money.Onceoverclocked, thesystem
LIGHT
these temperatures are far from troublesome. The rear M.2 scoreroseto 311,257, which was amid-tableresult,although POLLUTION
port doesn’t have a heatsink, but includes a thick thermal pad the ASRock boardofferednoticeablyhigher numbersin Far - Lacksfan headers
that’s designed to touch your case’s motherboard tray, using Cry,despitesittingatthesamefrequency.Powerconsumption andI/O ports
it as a heatsink instead. However, whether this cooling works was impressivelylow,though, withtheboarddrawing over - M.2cooling not
particularly
properly will greatly depend on your case, as CPU area cut- 20W lessunder load thanthe mostpower-hungryboard effective
outs will render it useless. we’vetested, andoursystem onlydrew 316Wonceit was
Meanwhile, there are two RGB LED headers covering both overclocked too. - VRMscould
becooler
3-pin and 4-pin connection, and a strip of RGB LEDs runs
down the right underside of the board too, jazzing up the Conclusion
otherwise black colour scheme. Thereare someniggleswith the GigabyteX570-I AorusPro PERFORMANCE
Unlike ASRock, Gigabyte also retains its excellent fan
control section in the EFI, but its use is limited given the small
WiFi,butit’smuch cheaper thanthecompetition, andthe
pricierASRockX570PhantomGaming-ITX/TB3alsohas
32/35
number of fan headers. The rest of the EFI feels a little dated, somesignificant niggles.A lackof fanheaders andotherminor FEATURES
but it’s easy to navigate and we had no problems getting our
Ryzen 9 3900X to 4.3GHz with a 1.425V vcore. We had to
issuesaside,Gigabyte currentlyhasthebestoptionwhen it
comestoX570 mini-ITXmotherboards, althoughwe’re
27/35
apply the extreme loadline calibration setting to get into keenlyawaiting Asus’Strixmodel toseeif it can dobetter. VALUE
Windows at this frequency, but it was then perfectly stable. ANTONY LEATHER
24/30
Performance OVERALL SCORE
83%
The Gigabyte’s audio performance was typical for Realtek
ALC1220 sound, with a dynamic range of 102.6dBA, noise level VERDICT
of -102.5dBA and a very low THD of 0.0019 per cent, which Decent features, good overclocking and a fair price,
are all much better figures than the ALC897 codec found on although there are some niggles.
25
R E V I E WS / MOTHERBOARD
X 5 7 0 M I N I I T X M OT H E R B OA R D
ASROCK X570
PHANTOM
GAMINGITX/TB3
/ £240 inc VAT
N
ope, we didn’t
accidentally include a
picture of ASRock’s Z390 mini-
ITX board here – the X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/
TB3 does indeed have Intel LGA115x-sized cooler
mounting holes, rather than Socket AM4 mounts. The
reasoning here, ASRock explained to us at Computex
this year, is that the usual elongated Socket AM4 mount
conflicted with ASRock’s chosen design for the board’s
10-phase power circuitry.
SwitchingtothesquarerIntel design enabled ASRock to
add asecondheatsink atthe top ofthe board. Ofcourse,ifyou modern PC enthusiasts with USB mice, keyboards, external
ownanAMD-onlywaterblockorcoolerthen that mightpose a storage and so on. It’s enough for a bare minimum of
bitofa problem,butotherwise it’someadmirableout-of-the- peripherals, but we expect better from a £240 motherboard.
boxthinkingfromASRock. The ASRock also only includes a single M.2 port, and while
Thecooling arrangementisjust as many users will only need one, mini-ITX systems benefit
impressiveattheotherendof theboardtoo, from the reduced cable clutter of using M.2 drives. Having
SPEC
withalarge,angled fan-equippedheatsink two M.2 ports is useful here, and it’s also a box that the
Chipset
AMD X570 cooling thechipset. This heatsinkis alsolinked Gigabyte board ticks. The ASRock’s one M.2 port is also on
CPU socket
to the large VRMheatsinkoverthe I/Opanel the underside of the board; we had to remove our SSD’s
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2) tospreadtheheatloadandaidcooling.The heatsink to install it on our test bench, so we couldn’t get a
Memory support fan wasn’t as quiet as Gigabyte’sone under reliable temperature reading. The ASRock also has the basic
2 slots: max 64GB DDR4 load, but the benefit wasclear, with allocation of four SATA 6Gbps ports.
(up to 4533MHz) significantlylowerVRMtemperaturesthat You get 802.11ax Wi-Fi, though, and the rear panel also
Expansion slots never topped 60°C.Thatwasaftera ten- includes a Thunderbolt 3-compatible USB 3.1 Type-C port
One 16x PCI-E 4
minute,100percentloadtest onourRyzen9 and clear-CMOS button. As with the Gigabyte board, some of
Sound
3900X,and the fanremained extremely the I/O panel is wasted on video outputs that are only useful
8-channel Realtek ALC1220
quietin gamesand shorter benchmarks. for people using AMD’s cheap APUs – for anyone else, more
Networking
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, Intel Unlike the GigabyteX570-IAorusProWiFi USB ports would be far more useful.
802.11ax Wi-Fi (see p24),theX570 PhantomGaming-ITX/ You also get both 3-pin and 4-pin RGB LED headers, should
Overclocking TB3has three fan headers, which still isn’t you wish to add lighting, and ASRock has included RGB LEDs
Base clock N/A, CPU multiplier ideal, butfar moreusefulthantwo. It also has along the underside of the board beneath the PCI-E slot,
22-63x; max voltages, CPU 1.6V,
RAM 1.5V the fullcomplementofaudioports,including which add an attractive glow around your graphics card.
anoptical output,sothere’s noneedtohave Heading into the EFI was a bit of a shock though. ASRock
Ports
4 x SATA 6Gbps, 1 x M.2 PCI-E 4, 2 x speakercablesdanglingfromyourfrontaudio has seemingly removed the fan control section, meaning
USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, jack topower 8-channel speaker systems. you’re left with the arduous task of manually setting the
2 x USB 3, 3 x surround audio out
However, a closer look at the rear I/O panel speeds for each fan, or installing ASRock’s software to tweak
Dimensions (mm) reveals a severe lack of USB ports. There are fan speeds more easily using fan curves. We reached out to
170 x 170
just four included, which isn’t enough for ASRock to get an explanation, but didn’t hear back in time to
26
Idle
63,012
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 62,302
66,237 ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 96W 109W
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact
65,176
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 101W 101W
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000
0 100 200 300 400
Load
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 788,321 855,064
0 250,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 0 100 200 300 400
HEAVY MULTITASKING

301,591 FAR CRY 5
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi
290,449 1,920 x 1,080, High settings
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
99fps 120fps
SYSTEM SCORE
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 92fps 120fps
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 303,361 307,207 95fps 120fps
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 295,023 308,658 0 40 80 120 160

0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
include a response. However, the fan control section is

missing from the manual too, making this decision look
like a permanent move, rather than a part of an early EFI.
Performance
Thankfully, the board overclocks well, hitting our usual
maximum 4.3GHz on our Ryzen 9 3900X with a 1.425V
vcore, and coupled with low VRM temperatures we
mentioned earlier. This board should be a solid partner for
AMD’s forthcoming Ryzen 9 3950X. respectively. Finally, the M.2 speeds using our PCI-E 4 SSD
In terms of performance, The RealBench system score were on the money, falling just short of 5GB/sec at
sat at 303,361 at stock speed, rising to chart-topping (for 4,996MB/sec, with a 4,258MB/sec write speed.
X570 boards) 321,266 at 4.3GHz. As usual, however, lightly
threaded tests such as the image editing score fell, thanks to Conclusion
the peak boost being reduced from 4.6GHz. Performance in We thought ASRock was on to a winner with the X570
Far Cry 5 was exceptional, though, Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3. It looks fantastic, its unique layout
PHANTOM OF with higher minimum frame rates allows for super-low VRM temperatures and it has a generally PERFORMANCE
THE OPERA
+ Excellent
than any other board, at both stock
and overclocked speeds.
balanced set of features. However, the lack of a second M.2
port, a small number of USB ports and the removal of the EFI’s
33/35
overclocker
Power consumption was rather fan control suite mean there are numerous flies in the FEATURES
+ Great VRMcooling
+ Thunderbolt 3
high, though, being 20W higher than
the Gigabyte board at stock speed, but
ointment. It’s still worth considering if you want to build a mini
Ryzen 9 3950X system later this year, but for now, Gigabyte’s
26/35
support a little lower when overclocked, likely cheaper X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi is a better buy. VALUE
THEPHANTOM
because we had to enable loadline
calibration on the latter. Audio
ANTONY LEATHER
22/30
MENACE
- No secondM.2 port performance was also a tad better OVERALL SCORE
81%
than the Gigabyte board, but not by a
- Only four rear margin your ears could discern, with VERDICT
Type-AUSBports
- No modern EFI fan noise and dynamic range levels of A unique and effective layout with solid performance,
control suite -108.6dBA and 108.6dBA but there are too many shortcomings.
27
R E V I E WS / HEADSET
stom P
u
C
WIRELESS GAMING HEADSET
E
PRE
CORSAIR VIRTUOSO
AD
M
IUM GR
RGB WIRELESS SE /£1 0 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
T
he Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE is a
completely different animal to any o other
Corsair headset we’ve reviewed, an nd in
numerous ways. Its price is in a different lea
Its £180 inc VAT tag makes it the most expensive eadset
Corsair has produced by far. If you’re still reading, that price
is arguably justified, though, as the Virtuoso RGB Wireless The sound d is incredibly
incre crisp and clear in the high end an nd
SE is a superb headset. mid-range frequencies for every y au o test we threw at it,
Itsall-aluminiumconstructionmeanstheheadsetfeels from vocals to guitar riffs, yet it still has conside ble p ch in
extremely solidwithout beingheavy, andtheheadbandoffers the low end too – the sound is a huge improvement over
a reasonableamountof paddingandflex too. Wedidgeta hint Corsair’s Void Pro RGB, which we also had to hand. This audio
ofpressure onourheadsafter prolonged use,though,anda reproduction was reflected in games as well as music, where
littlemorepaddingontheheadbandwouldhelp.However, the 7.1 surround sound was evident and very immersive – the
there’s a good amount ofpressure from theearcups sound quality of every aspect, from explosions to the pop and
SPEC to both sealin sound andprevent leakage.Battery fizz of nearby bullets, sounds fantastic,
Cup type lifeis good for up to 20 hours, andit’sboosted, with loads of detail. However, enabling VIRTUOSO
Circumaural thanks toanaccelerometerthat automatically surround sound can make music sound
+ Superb sound
Connection switches off the headset when it’s not inuse. squelchy, so it’s best to switch to stereo quality
Wireless, USB or
3.5mm jack
Both the RGB lighting and 7.1 surround sound mode for music listening. + Comfortable
are configurable in Corsair’s iCUE, but the former
Drivers is restrained and only appears in small Corsair Conclusion
+ Excellent build
quality
50mm
logos on the earcups. The microphone itself is There are plenty of good headsets
Frequency response
20Hz-40KHz detachable, which isn’t particularly convenient available for under £150 inc VAT, but the AMATEUR
Impedance
compared to pull-out or flip-down designs, Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE sets itself - Headband cushion
but the build quality and audio are excellent, apart with exceptional sound and build could be thicker
32 Ohms
with a bevelled aluminium mouthpiece and a quality. That said, if that cost is too much - Expensive
bendable arm. Meaanwhile, the circumaural for you to stomach, the standard model - 7.1 surround sound
faux leather earcups
e are well padded and sports otherwise similar hardware for makes music
sound poor
fold at right angles in both directions noticeably less money at £150 inc VAT.
to allow for easy storage. It comes with a standard microphone
T Virtuoso RGB Wireless
The instead of the so-called broadcast- SOUND
SE is equipped with a wireless
dongle, which is equally well
grade microphone, and you lose the
padded storage pouch and premium
38/40
made, but can also hook up aluminium earcup design, but it’s still DESIGN
to PCs and consoles using
an included mini jack cable
a decent headset. Your ears will
appreciate whichever version you
27/30
or a USB cable, with the choose though – the audio VALUE
latter providing a slightly reproduction is superb. 22/30
higher sample rate and ANTONY LEATHER
bit depth. However, even OVERALL SCORE
87
in wireless mode, with a
range that stretches to 60 VERDICT
fee
et, the audio quality from the Stunning sound and build quality,
50m mm drivers is exceptional. but it comes at a price.
30
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R E V I E WS / MEMORY
D D R 4 M E M O RY K I T S
THERMALTAKE WATERRAM
/£228 inc VAT £500 inc VAT
(16GB, 3200MHz, dual-channel) (32GB, 3600MHz, quad-channel)
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
I
f RGB lighting isn’t quite enough excessive bling through the middle of the block too, and with the various
for your memory, then there’s one more step you lighting modes, individual LEDs offer swirling effects around
can take to make your RAM stand out from the the acrylic top. The top sports G1/4in inlets and outlets, so it’s
crowd, which is adding water to the equation. Water-cooled simple to plumb the block into your own liquid-cooling
memory isn’t a new idea, of course, as companies such as system. Underneath the top is a large cold plate that sits on
OCZ were dipping their toes into the pool over a decade ago. top of the memory module heatsinks, and makes contact
However, Thermaltake hasn’t just added RGB lighting to its using a thermal pad.
memory waterblock; its WaterRAM kits include memory You need to screw the former to the latter using included
modules and digital addressable RGB controllers too, giving screws, which looks a little clunky compared with modern
you all the gear you need to spice up those boring DIMM slots. water-cooling hardware, but Thermaltake includes all the
Several kits are available, starting at £228 inc VAT for a gear you need. The contact surface area isn’t particularly
dual-channel 16GB kit rated at 3200MHz, and going all the large, but it was enough to knock 6°C off the temperature of
way up to a 32GB, 3600MHz quad-channel kit for an eye- the memory modules after a ten-minute Prime95 largefft
watering £500 inc VAT. Compared with your typical Corsair stress test. The modules were happy to overclock up to
Vengeance RGB Pro kits, you’re looking at a price 3866MHz too, although 4000MHz proved too much.
SPEC premium of around £230 for the same capacity,
Frequency
frequency and similar timings for the 32GB kit, and Conclusion
3200MHz / 3600MHz roughly £130 extra for the dual-channel kit. Even if you overclock your memory by a notch or two on the
Timings Thermaltake’s WaterRAM isn’t a cheap route divider, such as boosting 3200MHz to 3466MHz, and input a
16-18-18-38 / 18-19-19-39 to filling your DIMM slots, then, but you do get a higher DDR voltage, there isn’t really a need to water-cool
Voltage water-cooled RAM set. Of course, cooling prowess your memory. It gets warm, but not to a point where a well-
1.35V isn’t the only reason people buy water-cooling ventilated case couldn’t handle it. The difference here,
Height (from base) gear either. Aesthetics play a huge part in many though, is the RGB lighting and the pure wow factor of having
54mm
people’s decision to pay large sums of money for water-cooled memory.
Lighting their exotic cooling systems, and Thermaltake’s Thermaltake’s WaterRAM looks fantastic, it does actually
Yes (RGB)
WaterRAM does admittedly work and it’s easy to install, taking us less under ten
look fantastic. minutes to hook it up to our water-cooling
tom P
us
The large acrylic top is loop. Sadly, at these kinds of prices, it’s
embedded with RGB LEDs, prohibitively expensive. Given that
c
which can be controlled the rewards for water-cooling your

using your motherboard, or memory are far smaller than for
A
EXT
by an included USB- water-cooling

TR
WATER
DRAGON powered controller plus RE L your CPU or
+ Good overclocking Thermaltake’s TT RGB Plus ME U graphics card, PERFORMANCE
headroom software, with the former the WaterRAM is 28/30
+ Fantastic RGB synchronising fine with only for the few
lighting our MSI test people who want DESIGN
+ Lower memory
temperatures
motherboard’s own
RGB lighting system.
the ultimate RGB
hardware and have a
22/25
The LEDs are bright suitably large wallet. VALUE
WATER
BOATMAN and vibrant, and ANTONYLEATHER 29/45
they diffuse
- Very expensive attractively OVERALL SCORE
- Limited speeds
79
and capacities
through the slightly VERDICT
available opaque top. Awesome-looking water-cooled
- No performance Your coolant can memory, but it’s hugely expensive
gains be seen passing and cooling gains are limited.
32
Join us as we lift the lid
on video games
Visit wfmag.cc to learn more

R E V I E WS / LAPTOP
G A M I N G L A P TO P
ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS G

(GA502DU-AL025T)/£999 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
I
t’s received wisdom that cheap gaming laptops
are too compromised to be worthwhile, but Asus
is trying to change that perception with the
Zephyrus G. This £999 machine looks the part: it’s made
from matt black metal, with a clean and stylish design. It has
slim screen bezels, smart logos and a slatted speaker grille
– it looks like it could cost double the asking price.
Build quality is reasonable too. There’s only a little give
in the wrist rest and the screen doesn’t move much if you
press the lid. Asus’ machine weighs 2.2kg and is 20mm
thick, so it’s not particularly bulky either, unlike many
affordable gaming laptops. It’s not all good news about the
design though. There are three USB 3.1 ports and a Type-C
connection alongside an HDMI output, but there’s no
DisplayPort output, Thunderbolt connector or card reader.
There’s also only one audio jack.
The keyboard is a mixed bag too.
On the plus side, its typing action is very
SPEC light and fast, so it’s easy to skip across
CPU the buttons. The function row has
2.3GHz AMDRyzen 73750H
media and fan control shortcuts, and
Memory
16GB 2400MHzDDR4
there are four extra buttons for
opening Asus’ Armory Crate
Graphics
Nvidia GeForceGTX 1660Ti app, as well as controlling the
Max-Q6GB volume and microphone.
Screen There’s an adjustable white backlight too.
15.6in 1,920x1,080IPS The keyboard isn’t ideal for serious players who
120Hz
hammer their keys though. The base isn’t solid
Storage
512GB Intel660pM.2 SSD
enough, and the keys don’t have enough travel. It’s paired with 16GB of 2400MHz DDR4 memory and a
The layout has omissions as well – there’s no 512GB Intel 660p, and you get 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Gigabit
Weight
2.2kg numberpad, the Return key is single-height, and Ethernet support too.
Networking
the cursor buttons are small. The trackpad is fine,
Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, with a couple of decent buttons, but you’ll want to Performance
Gigabit Ethernet use a proper USB mouse for gaming. The cut-back GTX 1660 Ti remains solid for 1080p gaming.
Ports Meanwhile, graphics power comes from a In our tests it ran at minimums of 38fps or better at peak
3 x USB 3.1, 1 x USB3.1 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. It’s the Max-Q version, so quality settings. Averages often went beyond 60fps too, and
Type-C, 1 x HDMI 2,C, 1x it still has 1,536 stream processors and 6GB of switching it to Asus’ Turbo mode added a couple of frames
audio jack
GDDR5 memory, but its boost clock is reduced per second here and there..
Dimensions (mm)
360 x 252 x 20 (W xDxH) from 1770MHz to 1335MHz. Unusually, the Nvidia The pace here also means the Asus can handle esports
GPU is paired with an AMD processor. games at triple-figure frame rates, ideal for smooth
Operating system
Microsoft Windows10Home TheRyzen 73750H uses theZen+architecture gaming on the 120Hz screen. However, the GTX 1660 Ti
64-bit ratherthanZen2,soyoudon’tgetthemovetoAMD’s does have limitations. You won’t get tougher single-
Warranty efficient 7nm microarchitecture.TheCPUoffersfour player games running at more than 100fps unless you
One year parts and labour coreswith eightthreads viaSMT,alongsidebase and cut back the settings. It doesn’t have any dedicated ray-
return to base
boost speeds of 2.3GHzand4GHz. tracing hardware either.
34
38,161 216,644 27,850

GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING OPENCL
100,953 90,332
HEAVY MULTI- SYSTEM On the plus side, the speakers are surprisingly good.
TASKING SCORE They’re loud, with good high-end clarity and a surprising
amount of bass. The mid-range is muddy, but the audio kit
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER here is perfectly usable.
1,920 x 1,080, Highest Detail, TAA
We had no major thermal issues either. Fan noise is
present during gaming, and its volume is slightly louder than
Asus ROG Zephyrus G 54fps 68fps
we’d expect given the modest components, but we’ve
0 25 50 75 100
heard much worse. The CPU delta T of 66°C is just about
acceptable, and the GPU was 10°C cooler. The exterior RYZEN
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra Detail, DX11
panels remain relatively cool, and most of the heat is vented + Good 1080p
from the rear, with only a little heat being ejected from the gaming power
+
Asus ROG Zephyrus G 38fps 48fps
right-hand side – it won’t inconvenience people using Slick, smart design
0 25 50 75 100
USB mice. + Far cheaper than
As ever, though, don’t expect great battery life. With the most gaming
BATTLEFIELD V laptops
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings, DX11
screen at full brightness, the Asus lasted for 90 minutes in a
gaming test. You may be able to eke that out to two hours
Asus ROG Zephyrus G 49fps 70fps FALLIN’
with the brightness reduced, but you’ll need to plug into the
0 25 50 75 100
- CPU performance
mains for a proper gaming session. could be better
Minimum Average - Light, shallow

Conclusion keyboard
The Zephyrus G does have compromises, but there are - Mediocre screen
plenty of positives to be found in this £999 laptop. The GTX quality
1660 Ti handles mainstream 1080p gaming fine, and that’s
The AMD processor has limits too. It’s fast enough for enough for most people at this price. The AMD processor is PERFORMANCE
most people’s needs, but it can’t compete with chips such
as Intel’s popular Core i7-8750H. It was more than 10,000
fine for everyday use, and the Asus has a smart design that’s
relatively slim and light.
19/25
points behind the Intel chip in our single-threaded image There are inevitable issues though; the CPU performance DESIGN
editing benchmark, and it was significantly behind in our
heavily multi-threaded Handbrake benchmark too. You
isn’t blazing, the keyboard is shallow and the screen is poor.
The GTX 1660 Ti has no ray-tracing hardware either, giving it
21/25
can’t expect top-end CPU performance for under a grand less futureproofing headroom than RTX GPUs. You can’t HARDWARE
though. The AMD chip isn’t super-fast but it does the job.
Meanwhile, the screen’s 1080p resolution is well
expect everything at this price, though, and if you want a
solid laptop for 1080p gaming without spending the earth,
17/25
matched with the GPU, and its contrast ratio of 1,074:1 the Zephyrus G is a solid contender. VALUE
enables bright, punchy colours and plenty of depth at the
bottom end of the scale – an important aspect of any
MIKE JENNINGS 23/25
gaming screen. However, its colour reproduction is poor. Its OVERALL SCORE
80%
delta E of 4.65 is mediocre, and the panel only rendered 57.5
per cent of the sRGB colour gamut, giving it a limited range VERDICT
of shades. Games won’t look their best on this screen – but It’s far from perfect, but this laptop delivers solid
this 1080p panel is still usable. 1080p gaming for an affordable price.
35
R E V I E WS / KEYBOARD
W I R E L E S S K E Y B OA R D
LOGITECH MX KEYS
/£100 inc VAT
SUPPLIER logitech.com
LOGICAL
J
oining the newly revamped MX Master 3 mouse You can connect the keyboard either via its wireless
+ Stylish and (see opposite) is a new addition to Logitech’s dongle, directly via a cable or over Bluetooth. You can also
well built
keyboard line-up. The MX Keys is a slim, wireless pair it with up to three devices, then use the dedicated pairing
+ Convenient for use keyboard with a premium look and feel and several useful buttons to switch between each device on the fly. Using
withmany devices
extra features that, like the Master 3, potentially make it an Logitech’s Flow software, you can also transfer data
+ Logitech Flow ideal desktop work tool. between devices. Meanwhile, a host of multimedia buttons
software is great
If you’re familiar with Logitech’s other keyboards, you makes it easy to quickly change settings, with options such
LOGGERHEAD might recognise that the MX Keys is essentially a cut-down as screen brightness even included for when the keyboard is
version of the Logitech Craft. That keyboard incorporates a paired with a laptop or tablet.
- Expensive dial in its top left corner, that can be used to control all sorts of The typingexperience is greataswell. The keyboard feels
- Limited physical features, in the same way that a scroll wheel can be used to solidand stable, whilethe keysmaintain a crisp and responsive
features
zoom in and out or move around. With the MX Keys, you miss action, alongwith a pleasantly quietandlight feel. It takes a little
- Keys very shallow out on this dial. while toget used totheveryflatstyleof keys (even compared
What you don’t miss out on, though, is the slick design. with alaptopkeyboard) after so manyyears of using more
This surprisingly heavy, metal-clad keyboard is incredibly conventionalkeyboards, butyoudoget the hang of it.
thin and uses a very simple, muted grey and black
colour scheme. It also has lots of rounded corners, Conclusion
SPEC making for a keyboard that feels about as far from The MX Keys is a great-quality, slim
Battery life the aggressive styling of a gaming keyboard as you and wireless keyboard that’s ideal for
Ten days, or five months
without backlighting can get. people who want a compact, stylish DESIGN
Wireless range
10m
The build quality is also excellent. The steel
frame around the keys lends the whole unit a level
keyboard for use with several devices
at once. Its ability to quick-switch
18/20
Dimensions of rigidity that you wouldn’t expect for such a thin between paired devices is particularly FEATURES
132 x 430 x 21mm
Weight
keyboard. Meanwhile, even the briefest tap of the
keys reveals the quality of the scissor-switches
useful. However, it isn’t overly packed
with features and is decidedly
14/20
810g below. Likewise, the fine font used on the keycaps expensive. You can certainly get a PERFORMANCE
USB receiver
18 x 14 x 7mm, 2g
is crisp and sharp, with even and strong
backlighting throughout.
better core typing experience for less
money, but the MX Keys is still a great-
24/30
Warranty You don’t get that much in the way of physical quality wireless keyboard. VALUE
Two years
Connection options
features though. There’s a USB Type-C port on the
back, alongside the power switch, and you get a
EDWARD CHESTER
22/30
USB cable, USB receiver,
Bluetooth handful of extra keys, but that’s your lot, other than OVERALL SCORE
the optional wrist rest. Notably, along with the MX
78%
Contents VERDICT
Keyboard, USB receiver, Master 3, you don’t get removable batteries either, All style and some substance too.
USB-C charging cable which does put an inherent time limit on the The MX Keys is a quality keyboard,
(A to C)
wireless usability of the keyboard. although it’s also very expensive.
36
R E V I E WS / MOUSE
WIRELESS MOUSE
LOGITECH MX
stom P
MASTER 3 u
C
/£100 inc VAT
SUPPLIER logitech.com PP
D
ROV E
A
MASTER
L
ogitech’s MX desktops or pausing
+ Tracks on almost Master mouse has media playback.
any surface
been the standard If you use Logitech’s
+ Comfortable premium productivity mouse Flow software,
design
for many years now. Its you can also use
+ Loads of genuinely combination of a comfortable the copy and paste
useful features
(right-handed only) design, between computers
JACK extra buttons, wireless (even between Mac and
convenience and work-on-any- Windows). Just copy your
- Quite heavy surface sensor makes it easy to use content, move the mouse
- Pricey for hours, while adding genuinely useful to the edge of the screen
- Right-handers only features for desktop use. Now the (you can setup the gesture in
company’s back with its latest iteration, which the software), and the cursor
brings a raft of tweaks to the formula. and content will appear on your
First up is the new design. The whole mouse has been other device.
smartened up, with a simpler line pattern replacing the It all adds up to a mouse that’s fantastically versatile when
triangles of old. The whole of the back of the mouse is also it comes to general desktop work, especially when you
now covered in rubber for better overall grip and comfort, factor in its Darkfield sensor, which can work on just about
and the LED indicator for the battery level has been moved to any surface, including glass. However, we do wish there was
a position behind the second scroll wheel, where it’s easier just a little more freedom to completely customise the
to see. The USB port has also been updated to USB Type-C, function of each button and wheel.
so it’s more likely you’ll be able to rely on a single cable for all There are two main caveats. The first is that this mouse is
your charging needs. quite heavy by modern standards (141g), and the other is that
SPEC The second big change is the scroll wheel. It’s a lot of the desktop features – Logitech
now a solid piece of steel, with the grip lines Flow aside – can be replicated by
DPI
200-4,000DPI knurled right into its surface. What’s more, it offers keyboard shortcuts, which we found DESIGN
Buttons
Seven buttons, scroll
a clever new scrolling system. Like previous
versions of the MX Master, you can switch the
easier to use.
18/20
wheel, thumb wheel, mouse between a free wheeling or a click-by-click Conclusion FEATURES
18/20
gesture button
style of scrolling, but here the whole mechanism The Master 3 is a fantastically useful,
Wireless range
10m
comes from electromagnets. This allows Logitech easy-to-use and comfortable mouse
to offer an intermediary mode, where the wheel that brings a wealth of genuinely useful PERFORMANCE
24/30
Dimensions (mm)
125 x 84 x 51 clicks when moved slowly but freewheels when features to your general desktop
Weight
rolled quickly. A secondary all-metal scroll wheel computing. It’s no good for gaming, it’s
141g sits under the thumb, which can be used for a quite heavy and it’s also pricey, but it’s a VALUE
USB receiver
18 x 14 x 7mm, 2g
variety of uses, such as sideways scrolling.
Under the thumb, on the large thumb-rest
great option as an everyday work tool.
EDWARD CHESTER
22/30
Warranty platform, is another extra button that can be used in OVERALL SCORE
82
Two years conjunction with mouse movements to perform
Contents four extra functions. Hold it down and move the VERDICT
Mouse, USB receiver, USB-C mouse up, down, left or right and you can set off
charging cable (A to C)
The ultimate desktop productivity
one of dozens of functions, such as switching mouse, although it comes at a price.
37
R E V I E WS / PC SYSTEMS
GAMING PC
OVERCLOCKERS UK
TITAN KATANA
/£1,399 incVAT
B
oth of this month’s review PCs use the RTX 2070
Super, but the Overclockers UK Titan Katana
undercuts its rival from PC Specialist by £200 – a
significant saving. Impressively, unlike the PC Specialist rig,
the cheaper Katana’s GPU is also overclocked. Its KFA² card
improves the GPU’s boost clock from 1770MHz to 1815MHz,
and the card has two 100mm fans with RGB LEDs too.
The overclocked GPU is paired with an AMD Ryzen 7
3700X. It’s a solid CPU, with eight multi-threaded
cores. It’s not overclocked, but its base and boost Specialist’s 550W 80 Plus Gold unit offers a better balance.
SPEC
speeds of 3.6GHz and 4.4GHz are still respectable. The case is a Kolink Bastion, which has a tempered glass side
CPU
3.6GHz AMD It’s topped with a Cryorig H7 cooler that uses a panel, a roof-mounted dust filter and steel construction
Ryzen 7 3700X single 120mm fan. throughout. It’s also noticeably smaller than the PC
Motherboard The PC Specialist is a little better here, though, Specialist’s case, measuring 70mm shorter and 50mm
Asus ROG Strix with a Ryzen 7 3800X and a Corsair Hydro H100i shallower from front to back.
X470-F Gaming
cooler. That chip also runs at stock speed, but its The Bastion handles the basics. At the rear there’s a single
Memory
16GB Team Group Night higher clock speeds give it a significant edge over tool-free hard disk bay and one 2.5in drive mount. At the
Hawk 3000MHz DDR4 the 3700X. Those parts are paired with 16GB of front there’s a PSU shroud and plenty of RGB LEDs. There’s
Graphics 3000MHz memory, a 500GB Samsung 970 Evo reasonable space on the inside too, so it’s easy to work inside
KFA² GeForce RTX
2070 Super 8GB
SSD and a 2TB hard disk – it’s a similar spec to the this rig. Get beyond the basics, though, and this budget case
Storage
PC Specialist, although that machine has a Wi-Fi shows its limitations. Its tempered glass side panel is hinged,
512GB Samsung 970 Evo card too. but it’s tricky to open and doesn’t cover the whole side of the
M.2 SSD, 2TB Seagate Meanwhile, the Overclockers PC’s Asus ROG case. The steel used throughout the case feels flimsy, and
Barracuda Pro hard disk
motherboard looks good, with metal heatsinks, a cable tidying is mediocre – there’s plenty of visible cables,
Case
Kolink Bastion RGB pre-installed I/O cover and several RGB LEDs, plus with no rubber grommets in the cable-routing holes.
Cooling it can accept two more DIMMs and a second The Bastion has no intake fans and no front fan mounts
CPU: Cryorig H7 with graphics card. It also has the bonus of decent either, although fans can be installed in the roof and on the
1 x 120mm fan; GPU: S1220A audio, and it provides seven USB 3.1 PSU shroud. The only included fan is a 120mm exhaust. The
2 x 100mm fans; rear:
1 x 120mm fan connectors, a Type-C port and a PS/2 connector, PC Specialist offers better quality here – its case is stronger,
PSU as well as two M.2 sockets. with thicker metal, more USB ports and more fans. Finally,
Kolink KL-850M 850W There are several areas where the Katana’s both systems include warranties with three years of labour
Ports board is better than the Asus TUF board inside the coverage, but the Overclockers rig offers a much better deal
Front: 2 x USB 3, 2 x USB pricier PC Specialist. It supports Nvidia SLI, and it with a full three years of parts service too, including collect
2, 2 x audio; rear: 2 x USB
3.1 Gen 2, 5 x USB 3.1 Gen also has more USB ports and a third 16x PCI-E slot. and return cover.
1, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1 x However, the PC Specialist’s Asus TUF
Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x PS/2, 1
x optical S/PDIF, 5 x audio )
motherboard uses the X570 chipset, so it supports Performance
Operating system
PCI-E 4 storage, unlike the X470 board in the The RTX 2070 Super is a superb GPU that handles 1080p
Microsoft Windows Overclockers machine. gaming at amazing frame rates, and stays above 60fps at
10 Home 64-bit Meanwhile, power comes from a Kolink 2,560 x 1,440 in most games too. The overclocked card in
Warranty KL-850M, which is semi-modular and has an 80 this machine will easily handle VR headsets, and ray tracing
Three years parts and
labour collect and return Plus Bronze certification. It’s a decent PSU, but it’s works well, with a solid minimum of 51fps in Battlefield V with
also overpowered for the spec on offer – the PC High DXR enabled.
38
57,850 554,922 122,999

GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
250,962 222,083
HEAVY MULTI SYSTEM The Katana’s tweaked card was generally a couple of
TASKING SCORE
frames per second faster than the stock-speed GPU in the
PC Specialist too. This cheaper system does have a little SHARP
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
more gaming power, but it’s not a transformative leap. + Superb gaming
Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 3700X’s lesser clock speed made performance
it marginally slower than the PC Specialist rig in our single- + Solid CPU power
96fps 125fps
+
Overclockers Titan Katana
threaded image editing test, and it fell further behind in the Surprisingly
0 50 100 150 200 multi-threaded Handbrake benchmark. It’s still a great chip at low price
the price, though, with enough power to handle games,
Overclockers Titan Katana 67fps 85fps productivity tools and content-creation apps. The PC BLUNT
0 50 100 150 200 Specialist will just be a little faster. - Basic case
The Katana performed well in thermal tests too, despite its - Noisy at full load
lack of air intakes. The CPU and GPU delta Ts of 55°C and - No PCI-E 4
43°C are fine. There’s consistent noise from this machine, support
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra Detail, DX11 especially when the CPU is stressed, but it’s no worse than
the noise from its rival. PERFORMANCE
22/25
Overclockers Titan Katana 81fps 103fps
0 50 100 150 200

Conclusion
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, DX11
The overclocked RTX 2070 Super is the star of the show here DESIGN
Overclockers Titan Katana
0
63fps
50
76fps
100 150 200

– it offers amazing performance in this sub-£1,400 rig.
Elsewhere, the Katana is more ordinary though. The CPU
18/25
and case are fine, but the PC Specialist is better, and it has an HARDWARE
BATTLEFIELD V
X570 motherboard too. If you’re looking to get the fastest
gaming performance for a limited budget, though, the
19/25
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings, DX12, High DXR, DLSS
Overclockers machine offers a lot of gaming power for VALUE
Overclockers Titan Katana 66fps 80fps a relatively low price.
MIKE JENNINGS
24/25
0 50 100 150 200
2,560 x 1,440 Ultra settings, DX12, High DXR, DLSS OVERALL SCORE
83
Overclockers Titan Katana 51fps 59fps
0 50 100 150 200

VERDICT
Minimum Average Loads of power at a low price, but other areas of the rig suffer.
39
R E V I E WS / PC SYSTEMS
GAMING PC
PC SPECIALIST MAGMA
RTX SUPER / £1,599 inc VAT
SUPPLIER pcspecialist.co.uk
P
C Specialist’s Magma RTX Super isn’t designed B E N C H M A R K R E S U LT S
to be eye-catching or packed with innovative
design. Instead, this rig lets its hardware do the
talking. It’s one of two PCs in this issue that use Nvidia’s
RTX 2070 Super GPU. This new chip replaces the RTX
2070, and it has more stream processors, more RT cores
and boosts to higher clock speeds.
62,631 624,570 122,999
PC Specialist has slotted a Zotac-made version into this GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
machine. It has RGB LEDs and two hefty fans, but it’s not
overclocked – the GPU’s boost speed is locked at its
253,861 241,415
reference pace of 1770MHz. That’s still
SPEC impressive, but it lags a little behind
CPU the KFA² model inside the cheaper
3.9GHz AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Overclockers Titan Katana (see p38), HEAVY MULTI- SYSTEM
Motherboard which boosts to 1815MHz. TASKING SCORE
Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus The GPU is paired with a new AMD
Memory Ryzen 7 3800X processor, which has
16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro eight multi-threaded cores and is based SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
3000MHz DDR4
on the new Zen 2 architecture. It’s 1,920 x 1,080, Highest Detail, TAA
Graphics
Zotac GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB powerful, but it’s left at its stock base and PC Specialist Magma RTX Super 97fps 125fps
boost speeds of 3.9GHz and 4.5GHz, 0 50 100 150 200
Storage
512GB Intel 760p M.2 SSD, 2TB and PC Specialist hasn’t overclocked it – 2,560 x 1,440, Highest Detail, TAA
Seagate Barracuda Pro hard disk potentially a wise decision if gaming is PC Specialist Magma RTX Super 67fps 84fps
Case PC Specialist SR-819
your top priority, as all-core overclocks 0 50 100 150 200
Case on 8-core Ryzen CPUs often can’t go
PC Specialist SR-819
as high as the stock single-core boost
Cooling
CPU: Corsair Hydro H100x
speed. The CPU is topped with a Corsair
Hydro H100x cooler, making for a TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II
with 2 x 120mm fans; GPU: 2 x
90mm fans; front: 4 x 120mm stronger setup than the Katana, which 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra Detail, DX11
fans; rear: 1 x 120mm fan

has a slower Ryzen 7 3700X CPU and PC Specialist Magma RTX Super 81fps 99fps
PSU a smaller air cooler. 0 50 100 150 200
Corsair TX550m 550W 2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, DX11
The components attach to an Asus
Networking
Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, TUF Gaming X570-Plus. This board gets PC Specialist Magma RTX Super 59fps 72fps
Gigabit Ethernet the basics right, including a 16x PCI-E 4 0 50 100 150 200
Ports graphics slot and PCI-E 4 SSDs via its

Front: 2 x USB 3, 3 x USB 2, 2 x audio; two M.2 connectors. It also has six USB
rear: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 4 x USB 3.2
Gen 1, 1 x USB 3.2 Type-C, 1 x PS/2, 1 x
3.2 ports and a Type-C connection, and
BATTLEFIELD V
optical S/PDIF, 5 x audio you get ALC S1200A audio as well. The 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings, DX12, High DXR, DLSS
Operating system TUF sits at the affordable side of the

PC Specialist Magma RTX Super 68fps 81fps
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit X570 scale, though, so there are few
0 50 100 150 200
Warranty RGB LEDs and no Nvidia SLI support. 2,560 x 1,440, Ultra settings, DX12, High DXR, DLSS
One year parts and labour, followed by Comparatively, the Overclockers
two years labour only return to base. PC Specialist Magma RTX Super 52fps 60fps
One month collect and return, then machine’s X470 board does handle
0 50 100 150 200
return to base Nvidia’s SLI, and it has more USB ports,
Average
but it doesn’t have PCI-E 4. Minimum
40
Elsewhere, there’s 16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 memory, a
2TB hard disk and a 512GB Intel 760p SSD that delivered
reasonable read and write speeds of 1,867MB/sec and
793MB/sec. There’s a Wi-Fi card, too.
Power comes from a Corsair TX550m. It has 80 Plus Gold
certification, which is better than the Katana’s 80 Plus Bronze
PSU, but it’s only semi-modular. PC Specialist has also used
its own SR-819 case for this build. It’s a full tower with solid
build quality, tempered glass side and front panels and four
RGB LED fans at the front. Impressively, it has five front USB
ports. In all these areas, the PC Specialist case is far better
than the flimsy, small case used by Overclockers.
It’s large, allowing plenty of room to work in, and the
radiator for the CPU cooler can sit in the roof without
impeding other components. There’s one tool-free 3.5in bay
that can be accessed from the front, and room for two 2.5in
drives – more upgrade room than the Katana. And, while the
cabling at the front isn’t particularly neat, it’s better at the rear
than the Overclockers machine.
Finally, PC Specialist’s standard warranty serves up three
years of labour coverage, although you only get a year of The RTX 2070 Super just about manages 4K too,
parts protection, and just one month of collect and return although its minimums sit in the mid-30fps range. It’s a solid
service before it defaults to a return to base deal. turn of speed, although the performance is consistently a
couple of frames per second behind the Katana’s
Performance overclocked GPU. The difference won’t transform gaming,
LAVALY
The RTX 2070 Super is a great GPU even at stock speeds. It but it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re searching for pace.
will play any game smoothly at 1080p and 2,560 x 1,440, Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 3800X’s single-threaded image + Fast gaming
performance
with all our minimums either breaking or nudging the 60fps editing scores match equivalent Intel chips, and its extra
marker at the latter resolution. That also means VR cores help it to outpace Intel in multi-threaded benchmarks.
+ Versatile CPU
headsets and high refresh rate screens will run well too. It has the ability to handle most work and gaming tasks, + Decent case
Ray tracing isn’t a problem either – the Magma never and it’s a bit more powerful than the 3700X inside the
dropped below 52fps in our Battlefield V test with High DXR Overclockers UK rig. ICE COLD
enabled, and averaged a solid 60fps. The PC Specialist returned solid temperatures results - A little too loud
too, with CPU and GPU delta Ts peaking at 61°C and 48°C. - Basic
The only issue is noise - the Magma produces a noticeable motherboard
rumble when idle and during games, which is annoying. - Main rival is
cheaper
Conclusion
The PC Specialist Magma RTX Super impresses in several
key areas. The RTX 2070 Super will handle 2,560 x 1,440 PERFORMANCE
gaming brilliantly, and it’s paired with a versatile CPU and 22/25
solid components elsewhere. The case is good too, and you
get some futureproofing from the X570 motherboard. DESIGN
Comparatively, the Overclockers rig is cheaper and has a 21/25
little more gaming pace, but it’s rough around the edges.
HARDWARE
21/25
Both machines are noisy too, which makes them hard to
recommend outright. If noise doesn’t bother you, though, the
PC Specialist is fast and well built, offering a better-balanced
VALUE
21/25
system than the Katana.
MIKE JENNINGS
OVERALL SCORE
VERDICT
Lashings of pace at a keen price in a quality built, although it
could be quieter.
85
41
R E V I E WS / CUSTOM KIT
CustomKit
Phil Hartup checks out the latest gadgets, gizmos and geek toys
ANKER POWERPORT WIRELESS CHARGER

/ £25.99 inc VAT
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk
This simple-looking device is spectacularly useful, portrait or landscape position, so you can put your
if a little hard to define. The Anker is billed as a phone on charge whether you’re watching videos
wireless charger, because it charges compatible or checking social media. There’s an optional
smartphones wirelessly. However, while it mains adaptor that can increase the charging
charges your phone wirelessly, it needs a USB speed, but unless you let your phone run close
connection to get its own power. Once it’s plugged to empty and then need it to be suddenly full,
in, though, It makes for an easy charging setup it’s largely unnecessary. It’s a vast improvement
that doesn’t involve having to faff around with over messing around with charging cables, and
cables whenever you want to charge your phone. being shaped into a stand makes it much more
The charger is compatible with most recent useful than a simple flat charging surface.
iPhones and Samsung phones, and it also
works reliably through a phone case, in either PowerPoint Powerport
SPEEDLINKORIOS KLEARLOOK COOLING

RGB GAMING STATION / £22.99 inc VAT
MOUSEPAD SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk
/ £40.93 inc VAT

The Klearlook Cooling Station is a curious hybrid of a laptop
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk cooler with an adjustable tablet/phone stand. The cooling
comes from a long, paddle-style centrifugal fan, which pushes
The Orios is an RGBmousepad thatmanagestofeelworkmanlike, out a reasonable amount of air while making a reasonable amount
which is strange fora surface embedded withanarray ofsoftware- of noise too, although it thankfully has a three-step speed control.
controlled LEDs capable ofproducing ninedifferentpatterns and The cooler sits on your desk and you aim it as best you can into
16.7 million colours.Howdo youmake aproductfeellikeano-frills your laptop to assist the cooling, maybe at the back or the side,
affair when, to allintents and purposes,it’s basicallyone big frill? or propped up on the brackets – whichever works best.
The Orios hasan orthodox roundedrectangle shape,measuring There are two adjustable brackets that fold out, twist over and then
350 x 250 x 4.3mm,withtheUSBconnectiongoingintothetop, slide along, so you can use them to hold phones or tablets. They’re
while the lights go aroundtheedge, andalso illuminatethename and pretty clever – allowing you to prop up almost any sort of tablet-style
manufacturer logo.Thesurfaceislightlytexturedandbothresponsive device within reason, while also enab bling you to angle the cooling
and comfortabletouse. The lightingisn’tdazzlinglybright,butit’s for devices that don’t havve all their hot components in
responsive – thepatternsavailable cover the usual bases of breathing the bottom. It’s overkill for your average
and wave effects,andwhilethesoftware is perfunctory,it works.It’ss phhone, but it works well if you
all fine, but that’sreallyall there is to it,andwhenyou’re spending ov
ver haave a high-powered tablet.
£40 inc VAT foran RGB mousepad, it allfeels a bit underwhelming.
Frills Thrills ooling

Fo Cooling
42
CREATIVE OUTLIER GOLD
EARPHONES / £ 94.99 inc VAT
SUPPLIER uk.creative.com
connection and the ability to only This software enables the earphones to
use a single earphone if you want. simulate a more studio-like environment,
Another clever feature is that the carrying and the sound quality it provides is
case acts as a charger and holds enough fantastic, but it won’t carry over to movies,
power to fully recharge the earphones podcast apps or other media, where
Creative’s Outlier Gold Earphones are nearly almost three times. A full charge on the the earphones are quite ordinary.
superb, thanks to an array of smart features, earphones lasts for around 14 hours. The Outlier Gold Earphones are
yet a quirk in their feature set undermines However, while the Outlier Golds will great if your priority is MP3 music, and
them. They work independently of each happily play back any audio you want on their comfy snug fit makes them ideal
other, so rather than pairing your device to the your phone, whether it’s video, music, for exercising too, but they’re not ideal
two earphones together, each one is its own podcasts and so on, you only get their best as general-purpose earphones.
device and they work together. This can feel quality when employing the SXFI companion
awkward to set up, but the net result is a strong music software, which is limited to MP3s. Goldfish Gold
KLEARLOOKHEADPHONE
HOLDER / £8.99 inc VAT
The Klearlook Headphone Holder is a bracket designed to sit

under a table or desk and hold your headphones or gaming
headset. What sets the Klearlook apart from the usual headphone
holding competition is its use of a spring-loaded clamp, where
these devices usually use strong double-sided tape.
The trade-off is that you have to position the Klearlook
right at the edge of your table or desk because the clamp
won’t reach very far, whereas a sticky grip can be attached
wherever you want. On the plus side, this setup means the
Klearlook isn’t a permanent fixture. The arm on the Klearlook
also rotates, which gives it a degree of versatility.
In use it definitely doesn’t feel rock solid, but it can easily bear
a couple of kilos being placed on it and lifted off before it starts to
wiggle loose, at which point you just push it back on – no problem.
It’s a little inelegant, and the clamp means you lose a bit of desktop
real estate, but it’s an upgrade on leaving your headset lying around.
Noddy Holder Headphone Holder
Seen something worthy of appearing in Custom Kit? Send your suggestions to phil.hartup@gmail.com
43
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L A B S T E ST
Mighty Minis
Antony Leather tests five mini-ITX cases. Can they stand the heat?
Howwetest
O
ur case testing method is simple – use real, overclocked Results were taken from CoreTemp (alcpu.com/CoreTemp)
hardware in a standard system to see how cases perform in and GPU-Z (techpowerup.com/gpuz) and we subtract the
terms of cooling. Our trusty test gear includes an Intel Core ambient temperature from the results to give a delta T reading that
i5-2500K overclocked to 4.4GHz using a vcore of 1.3V and an Nvidia we can use to test in normal conditions across several days and
GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB with a blower-style cooler. This is installed into an varying temperatures.
Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe mini-ITX motherboard with 4GB of Kingston DDR3 We test cases in their standard configuration with only the fans
memory, a Crucial MX500 SDD and a SilverStone SST-ST45-SF SFX PSU. included with the case. Adding more fans would standardise the test
The CPU cooler is a low-profile Zalman CNPS 8900, which can fit into and improve airflow, but this wouldn’t be a fair reflection of the base
nearly all mini-ITX cases to obtain comparable numbers. We lock the performance of the case at its retail price. Where fan controllers are
GPU fan speed at 70 per cent to prevent automatic fan control from included, we test at the highest and lowest fan speed levels to see what
interfering with the results. impact the different fan speeds on offer have on cooling. We score each
We leave each case for 15 minutes, using Prime95 v26.6’s smallfft case using weighted calculations for their cooling, design, features and
test (mersenneforum.org) to load the CPU and Unigine’s Heaven value to give an overall score, with mini-ITX cases scoring additional
benchmark (unigine.com/products/heaven) to load the GPU. points on use of space and overall size.
Contents
Lian Li PC-Q37WX /p47 Raijintek Ophion / p50
Metallic Gear Neo Mini / p48 SilverStone LD03 / p52
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air / p49 Results / p54
46
Lian Li PC-Q37WX
/£225 incVAT
W
hile most manufacturers have bigger than the SilverStone
a couple of mini-ITX cases to LD03 too. The front and
their names, Lian Li has dozens side are covered in close-
to choose from, and one of its more recent fitting tempered glass with
efforts is the PC-Q37WX. It’s a monstrously the front panel sporting
expensive case but its £200 price tag does the usual buttons and
come with benefits. Build quality is sublime, ports, although we were
the case is all-aluminium and tempered
glass, and Lian Li has not only made the
a tad disappointed not to
see USB 3.1 Type-C here.
s mP
C
case storage-friendly, but it also has the The cooling arrangement
best water-cooling support on test too. sees the main fan locations
A
EXT
At 24cm wide and 35cm deep, the in the roof and base of the case,
TR
PC-Q37WX is reasonably compact, although with each offering a pair of 120mm RE L
its footprint is noticeably larger than the fan mounts that are 240mm radiator- ME U
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air and it feels compatible too. The roof area also offers
80mm total clearance. However, there’s
BLANK CANVAS HALFBAKED
only 130mm CPU cooler clearance.
Using a short graphics card opens up the + Fantastic cooling - Expensive
potential
base of the case for mounting pumps and - Average CPU cooler
reservoirs, but the PC-Q37WX uses a dual-

+ Dual chamber design clearance
chamber design, so there’s more space in + Excellent build quality - Requires an SFX PSU
the rear chamber to house a pump too. Lian

Li has even included rubber grommets to
allow tubing to pass through the motherboard With no fans included as standard, the CPU
tray. Magnetic dust filters are included for delta T of 69°C was poor, as was the GPU
the roof, base and PSU vents with the roof delta T of 63°C, which were both more
area sporting a beautiful laser-cut grill. To than 10°C off the pace of the best results.
keep size to a minimum, the grille at the rear
of the case is limited to 80mm fans and Conclusion
the SFX PSU mount in the rear chamber is The Lian Li PC-Q37WX might seem like a poor
mounted vertically, which are clever ways performer for the cash, but it’s clearly a blank
SPEC to make best use of the available space. canvas that can be used to create a monstrous
Dimensions (mm) 237 x 346 x 345 (W x D x H) To allow air into the case from the two water-cooled mini-ITX PC. Build quality is
lower fan mounts, the case sits an inch off unmatched, it looks fantastic and it’s one of
Material Aluminium, tempered glass
the floor courtesy of a skirt of aluminium the most unique and innovative cases here.
Available colours Black that has large perforated vents in its sides While it’s hugely expensive, if money was
Weight 5.25kg to allow air to enter. The entire area is no object, it’s definitely the case we’d buy.
Front panel Power, 2 x USB 3.0, audio jacks covered by one huge magnetic dust filter.
Building a PC into the case is made easier
Drive bays 2 x 3.5in, 2 x 2.5in
thanks to the roof and glass panels being VERDICT
Form factor(s) Mini-ITX removable. Lian Li also includes removable A stunning, well thought-out case with epic
Cooling 2 x 120mm roof fan mounts plates that hide cable-routing holes that lead build quality, but a price to match.
(fans not included), 2 x 120 base fan to the second chamber, which is clearly a great
mounts (fans not included), 2 x 80mm place for stowing cables. It’s also home to a COOLING FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
20/30 15/20
76
rear fan mounts (fans not included)
drive caddie that can house two 3.5in hard
CPU cooler clearance 130mm disks and a single 2.5in SSD with the other
DESIGN VALUE
29/30 12/20
Maximum graphics card length 320mm SSD mount located in the 80mm fan mounts,
which you’d sacrifice to install it.
47
L A B S T E S T / MINIITX CASES
Metallic Gear Neo Mini/£60 incVAT
N
o, that’s not a typo in the price There are two 240mm radiator mounts –
section, the Metallic Gear Neo Mini the one in the front can handle a 280mm
SPEC
Dimensions (mm) 190 x 380 x 355 (W x D x H)
really does cost just £60. But even in radiator or two 140mm fans, and an innovative
the flesh, we can’t quite see how the company side mount can draw in or expel air through a Material Steel, aluminium, glass
isn’t losing cash on every sale, given it looks dust filter-covered vent in the side panel. Available colours Black, silver
and feels like a case worth twice the price and Sadly, you can’t use both at the same time,
Weight 4.9kg
even includes a good chunk of aluminium too. while the side vent will also remove the sole
The internal design is rather basic, with a 3.5in hard disk mount. There’s a pair of 2.5in Front panel Power, 2 x USB 3, audio
jacks, RGB control button
miniaturised tower design and a standard ATX SSD mounts behind the motherboard tray,
PSU mount in the roof. The motherboard sits but that’s it for hard drive mounts. Drive bays 1 x 3.5in/2 x 2.5in
below this in a slightly recessed area of the The exterior is made up of two large Form factor(s) Mini-ITX
motherboard tray, which allows the CPU aluminium panels, but both are solid with no
Cooling 2 x 120mm/140 front fan mounts
clearance to stand at a healthy 160mm – far vents, so airflow is limited, apart from the side ( 1 x 120mm fan included), 2 x 120mm side
more than the Phanteks, Lian Li and Raijintek vent. Cable routing is also basic, with very little fan mounts (fans not included). 1 x 120mm
cases this month. There’s also space for a clearance behind the motherboard tray, but rear fan mount (fan not included)
345mm-long graphics card, so if you have thankfully, Metallic Gear has had the foresight CPU cooler clearance 160mm
hardware to transplant from an ATX system to include a little stowage area at the top, Maximum graphics card length 345mm
then apart from your motherboard, it should all complete with its trademark Velcro ties to tuck
fit in the Neo Mini. unused cables or lengths out of sight. While
the case is RGB-enabled, the only lighting is a LD03 and slightly warmer than the fanless
THE MATRIX THE MATRIX small LED on the underside at the front. Raijintek Ophion. Thankfully, the included fan
REVOLUTIONS
+ Can house standard
coolers and PSUs - Poor CPU cooling
Despite having a front fan included, cooling points at the graphics card, resulting in much
out of the box was rather poor with a CPU delta T of 65°C. better performance in this test. The delta T
+ Excellent value
- Not particularly That’s over 10°C warmer than the SilverStone of 53°C was only 3°C warmer than the
+ Great water- innovative Silverstone case, but significantly cooler
cooling support
- Large for a than Raijintek or Lian Li’s offerings.
mini-ITX case
Conclusion
A rear case fan is the first thing we’d buy if we
planned to own the Metallic Gear Neo Mini, as
its poor CPU cooling out of the box is the only
tom P
fly in the ointment of a decent-quality and
us exceptionally good-value mini-ITX case.

It’s also water cooling-friendly and can
c
house full-sized coolers and PSUs, although

if you plan on air-cooling your PC, the
SilverStone LD03 is smaller and better still.
PP
D
ROV E
A
We can’t argue with the price, though, so if you

want to make the move to mini-ITX for as little
cash as possible, it gets our vote.
VERDICT
Excellent value and water-cooling friendly,
but there are better small, air-cooled cases.
COOLING FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

24/30 19/20
DESIGN
21/30
VALUE
19/20 83
48
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air/£95 incVAT
T
he original Enthoo Evolv Shift had
sub-par airfllow, which was a shame
because in mmany ways, Phanteks’
mini tower is one of the e most interesting mini-
ITX cases of the past fe ew years. However, even
though it can fit AIO coolers inside and has
space for additional fans to the single 140mm
model that’s included in the box, airflow still
tom P
isn’t great.
Thankfully, the company has listened to
us
criticism and taken drastic measures to drop
C
temperatures, but with hout altering the
E
PRE
attractive design of the e Shift too much. From
AD
the front, it looks the saame, but viewed from
M
IUM GR
the side, there’s no lon nger a tinted glass view
of the interior, as the side panels are now
covered in a fine mesh. The dense weave
allows a reduced view of the interior and from
shallow angles, simply y appears like a matt
black panel.
The benefit, though, is that both sides the
case have direct accesss to cool air, which will
be of huge benefit to lo ow-profile CPU coolers
and especially graphics cards. Out of the box, revealed release screws for the mesh panels, EVOLVE EXTINCT
though, the Shift is set up to have the GPU while the front and rear aluminium panels + Excellent cooling - Limited liquid-
cooling options
facing inwards, but it’s a simple task to swap simply slide on and off. + Small footprint
- Poor CPU
this around to make best use of the mesh Inside there’s space for up to three 140mm
+ Attractive design cooler clearance
panels. The panels also shed nearly 2kg of or 120mm fans plus two 120mm all-in-one - Requires an SFX PSU
weight, although they add a few millimetres to liquid coolers, as well as a single 3.5in bay and
the width. two 2.5in bays mounted on one of the side Conclusion
Still, the footprint of 186mm x 274mm is the walls. The CPU cooler height limit sits at a With a sub-£100 price tag, excellent cooling,
smallest on test, making the Shift a great desk mediocre 82mm and you’re limited to SFX a tiny footprint and space for liquid coolers, the
space saver. Popping open the top hinged lid size PSUs too, but graphics cards up to Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air is now an
350mm long can be used. excellent choice for a small but powerful PC.
SPEC Cable routing is reasonable too, with space The new mesh panels mean it’s not
Dimensions (mm) 186 x 274 x 470 (W x D x H) between the steel chassis and aluminium particularly quiet and you’ll need an SFX PSU,
panels providing much-needed cable storage. but it’s attractive and innovative, and the new
Material Steel, aluminium, plastic
Combined with a small amount of RGB Air version is a great choice for a mini-ITX case.
Available colours Black lighting, the Shift is an attractive case and
Weight 4.8kg reasonably priced too, given its extensive use
Front panel Power, 2 x USB 3, RGB control button of aluminium. VERDICT
The CPU delta T of 59°C is a huge Phanteks’ quirky, attractive mini tower gets a
Drive bays 1 x 3.5in/2 x 2.5in
improvement over the 76°C we recorded with serious airflow upgrade.
Form factor(s) Mini-ITX the original case and was enough for a solid
Cooling 2 x 120mm/140 front fan mounts second place behind the SilverStone LD03.
(1 x 140mm fan included), 1 x 120/140mm The GPU delta T was the best on test at 49°C COOLING FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
27/30 14/20
86
base fan mount (fan not included) ahead of the LD03, which is a 7°C drop over
CPU cooler clearance 82mm the original case too. The single 140mm fan
DESIGN VALUE
27/30 18/20
Maximum graphics card length 350mm was reasonably quiet, but the mesh panels do
allow a significant amount of noise to escape.
49
Raijintek Ophion/£120 incVAT
elooked at Raijintek’slargerOphion The GPU mount sits behind the CHILLING RAGING
Evo inourlast mini-ITX Labs test,but motherboard courtesy of a PCI-E riser cable + Compact - No room for AIO liquid
thistimethestandardOphionis and your graphics card points its cooler at coolers
+ Can house standard
goingupagainst the competition.The two the side panel as a result. However, this also PSUs and long - Expensive compared
graphics cards with better-equipped
casesarenearly identicalexceptthat the means that the case isn’t compatible with the
mini-ITX cases
Ophion is smallerstill, sacrificing its roof Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Impact motherboard + Good use of space
clearance to create a more compact case that’s as the cable isn’t long enough. The Ophion is - Limited CPU
cooler height
a fewcentimetresshorteras well as leaving small and attractive with tempered glass side
you withatennerinyourbackpocket too. panels, and a brushed aluminium front fascia,
This is fine if you won’t be considering a but mostly steel construction, although there SPEC
liquid cooler, but the reduced clearance and are no audio ports and just a single USB 3 port. Dimensions (mm) 174 x 375 x 245 (W x D x H)
smaller height comes at the expense of You do get a Type-C port, but it’s limited to USB Material Aluminium, steel
radiator compatibility here, with the Ophion 3 specifications and ties into the single USB
Available colours Black
being limited to 120mm fans. As there’s only 3 header cable. Raijintek has made good use
90mm CPU cooler clearance, you’re rather of the interior, though, with a dedicated 2.5in Weight 3.14kg
limited in your cooling options, with AMD’s SSD mount in the front of the case under the Front panel Power, 1 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3 Type-C
Wraith Prism coolers included with its more aluminium fascia, while the roof can be home
Drive bays 1 x 3.5in/3 x 2.5in, 1 x 2.5in
powerful Ryzen CPUs even off limits. The to a 3.5in hard disk or two further 2.5in SSDs.
Form factor(s) Mini-ITX
reduced clearance also means the case With no fans included as standard, the
ditches the third 120mm fan mount in the base Ophion was never going to top the charts and Cooling 2 x 120mm roof fan mounts
that’s present in the Ophion Evo, although a CPU delta T of 64°C is poor, although still (fans not included), 1 x 120mm base
fan mount (fan not included)
we did find half-height fans such as Noctua’s cooler than the Lian Li PC-Q37WX and Metallic
NF-A12x25 still fit. Thankfully, while CPU Gear Neo Mini. Clearly, a pair of roof cooling CPU cooler clearance 90mm
coolers are limited, the case offers a generous fans would greatly improve the situation and Maximum graphics card length 330mm
330mm of GPU clearance and a full-sized it’s a bit disappointing not to see them included
ATX PSU mount too, although given the price. The GPU delta T was equally
given the tight confines, we’d average at 61°C although still not Conclusion
definitely recommend the worst on test. The Ophion is a good effort from Raijintek
using an SFX PSU and coupled with a decent low-profile
to make your CPU cooler and pair of roof fans, its cooling
life easier. credentials would be much improved.
However, we feel the Ophion Evo is a much
better choice. It’s not much bigger, but
offers space for AIO liquid coolers, while
the SilverStone LD03 costs less and offers
better air cooling and water-cooling support
too. However, if you want a tiny air-cooled
PC that can house a full-sized graphics card,
the Ophion is definitely worth considering,
so long as you add a couple of roof fans.
VERDICT
Rather limited in cooling prowess
and features, but it’s extremely compact.
COOLING FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

22/30 15/20
DESIGN
23/30
VALUE
15/20 75
50
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SilverStone LD03 /£90 incVAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
A
long-time supporter of mini-ITX SilverStone seems to know a little more
cases and pioneer of SFX PSUs, about thermodynamics, though, as both its
SilverStone has generated a lot of 120mm fans, with a second in the base of the
interest with the LD03, as it seems to tick case, point skywards, making use of the
several key boxes for modern mini-ITX PCs. chimney effect when it comes to heat and
It’s attractive, with tinted tempered glass side airflow. However, the graphics card might not
panels and a pleasingly angular ventilated thank SilverStone for being positioned facing
roof section, all of which slide or pop off for the side panel, potentially impacting its
access to the interior, although this means ability to cool itself. The CPU, though, is well
cable-routing space is very limited. It has placed, thanks to the motherboard being
190mm of CPU clearance too despite its rotated 90 degrees, so if you end up making
diminutive size, 309mm of GPU clearance use of that 190mm of heatsink clearance, the
and can even house a 120mm liquid cooler. roof fan will vent your CPU cooler fan for
The price is reasonable too, at just £90, better cooling.
although the build quality is satisfactory rather To prevent dust ingress, the LD03 sports
than sublime, as with the Lian Li PC-Q37WX. a huge underside air filter and includes a
Slide off the top panel and it reveals the back separate filter on one of the side panels to
of the motherboard and other main external cater for the PSU, which is limited to SFX or
connectivity, as well as a 120mm roof fan. SFX-L in size. To allow air into the bottom
Next to this plastic roof fascia is the ‘front 120mm fan, the whole case sits on feet that
panel’, which offers the usual two USB 3 raise it up an inch or so to allow air to enter
ports, audio mini-jacks, power and reset more easily. For GPU cooling, there’s a small
buttons. The fascia has a hole in one side to vent next to the GPU mount to either let in or The chimney cooling clearly works, as the
allow cables to enter, much like the Phanteks exhaust air depending on the cooler style, CPU delta T of 54°C was the lowest on test by
Enthoo Evolv Shift Air, which is the only other although this vent isn’t equipped with a dust far, beating the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air
case with a tower arrangement. filter. There’s only space for a single 3.5in by 5°C and the Metallic Gear Neo Mini by a
hard disk and 2.5in SSD, but ditching the massive 11°C. Even the GPU delta T was one of
former will give you a second 2.5in mount. the lowest on test, at 50°C. What’s more, the
case was reasonably quiet, with just a light
ROBOCOP ROBODOG airflow noise thanks to the glass side panels.
+ Small footprint - SFX or SFX-L
PSUs only
+ Excellent cooling Conclusion
- Limited storage options
+ AIO liquid cooler and The SilverStone LD03 ticks more boxes than
large air cooler support - Nowhere to any other case on test with a reasonable price,
store cables
excellent air cooling, room for a large air cooler
as well as liquid cooler and a funky, compact
SPEC layout. Cable routing isn’t great and you’ll need
Dimensions (mm) 265 x 230 x 414 (W x D x H) to use plenty of cable ties but apart from this,
the LD03 is a fantastic mini-ITX case for air or
Material Steel, glass
AIO liquid cooling.
Available colours Black
Weight 5.34kg
Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, audio jacks
VERDICT
Superb air cooling, compact size and
Drive bays 1 x 3.5in/1 x 2.5in, 1 x 2.5in
reasonable price
Form factor(s) Mini-ITX
Cooling 1 x 120mm roof fan mounts (fan included), COOLING FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
29/30 15/20
85
1 x 120mm base fan mount (fan included)
CPU cooler clearance 190mm
DESIGN VALUE
Maximum graphics card length 309mm
23/30 18/20
52
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L A B S T E ST
Ultra
lightweight
gaming mice
Edward Chester investigates the latest trend
for ultra-light gaming mice
How we test
T
he latest trend in gaming mice is to go as light as possible, To test the mice, we concentrated on intensive FPS gaming, which is
with manufacturers even perforating the outer surfaces of their target market. These mice are all about being small, light, simple
their mice to shed weight. To test this development, we’ve and highly manoeuvrable. We tested their tracking in gaming, while
grabbed half a dozen of these mice, to see how they compare. also taking comfort, build quality, design, features and software
Nearly all these new ultra-light mice weigh well under 80g, but as support into account.
there’s so few of them that are quite this featherweight, we’ve also We also, of course, accounted for their weight, and whether they
included a handful of models that push the scales a little higher (up to include a new style of very light and flexible cable. A more flexible cable is
82g). As a point of comparison, even limiting the group test to sub- less likely to push back against your movements and disturb your aim.
90g mice would eliminate all but one mouse from the line-ups of This test also highlighted the importance of relatively subtle differences in
Corsair and SteelSeries, for instance, while many companies don’t mouse shape. All these mice have very similar, ambidextrous-style
make any mice lighter than 85g. shapes, but a few millimetres here or there makes all the difference.
Contents
BenQ Zowie S2 / p56 Logitech G Pro Wireless / p59
Endgame Gear XM1 / p57 Finalmouse Ultralight 2 / p60
Glorious Model O / p58 Razer Viper / p61
55
L A B S T E S T / LIGHTWEIGHT GAMING MICE
BENQ ZOWIE S2 BLACK/£65 inc VAT
B
enQ’s Zowie brand specialises in However, while the S2 is the company’s
stripped-back gaming tools. By lightest mouse, it’s actually relatively heavy
doing away with the frivolous by the standards of this group test, topping
extras and concentrating on what matters the charts at 82g.
for better performance, it has created some That said, with dimensions of 122 x 64 x
great peripherals. It would seem only 38mm, it’s one of the smallest mice on test, changed using the buttons on the underside
natural, then, that the company has a model making it inherently versatile for a number of the mouse. This can feel a little limiting, but
that fits comfortably into this category of of grip types and hand sizes. It’s easy for it’s sufficient for most uses and you can
lightweight, basic mice. medium to large hands to use the S2 for always tweak the speed of the mouse with
fingertip grip, although it’s a little small for a in-game settings.
WOWIE OWIE claw or palm grip. Its shape also has the main You also miss out on a lightweight cable,
+ Comfortable and - Too small for hump of the mouse towards the back, which with BenQ opting for a conventional rubber-
versatile shape larger hands
is normally conducive to claw and palm grip coated cable with no braiding. It is, however,
+ Excellent performance - Very basic for the price styles, but it only works here if you have reasonably flexible compared with some
+ Large side buttons - Not that light for its size smaller hands. cables, so it’s not too encumbering.
This style of shape can sometimes As for tracking performance, the S2 uses
SPEC interfere with fingertip grip, as the higher the Pixart 3360 optical sensor, so like the
Weight back end fills the space inside your palm other mice here with this sensor, we couldn’t
82g within which you move the mouse around. fault its ability to keep up with fast-paced
Dimensions (mm) However, because the S2’s back doesn’t action or slower, precise movements. As ever
122 x 64 x 38 widen all that much or go all that high, it with optical sensors, though, you’ll need a
Sensor works well for fingertip grips in medium to proper mouse mat to ensure consistent
Pixart PWM3360 (16,000dpi optical) small hands too. tracking performance.
Buttons The sides of the mouse lean inwards
Five (left, right, scroll wheel, back, forward)
slightly towards the bottom, but the slope Conclusion
Cable isn’t too aggressive, so it doesn’t feel like your The Zowie S2 is an excellent gaming mouse
2m, conventional rubber
fingers are sliding under the mouse, making that’s ideally suited for fingertip grip users
Extras
DPI and report rate buttons on base for a secure grip. The whole surface of the with medium-sized hands or palm and claw-
mouse also has a slightly soft-touch finish to grip users with small hands. It’s comfortable,
it that provides good purchase. relatively light and tracks well. However,
As for styling, the S2 is very plain, with no considering its very basic feature set, its price
RGB lighting and very little in the way of flare. is a touch high.
It’s just a drab blob of black (although, in
fairness, it’s also available in pink and pale
blue). Likewise, its button layout offers just VERDICT
the basics, with left, right and scroll wheel A great mouse for those with smaller hands,
buttons up front, and two thumb buttons on but it’s too costly for its basic feature set.
the left side. The shape is ambidextrous, but
not the thumb button arrangement. DESIGN FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
18/20 14/20
76
BenQ doesn’t provide software, so the
only settings you can change are the DPI
PERFORMANCE VALUE
24/30 20/30
(400, 800, 1,600 and 3,200) and report rate
(125, 500 and 1,000Hz), which can be
56
ENDGAME GEAR XM1/£54 inc VAT
E
ndgame Gear is a brand-new addition large hands may not find a grip style that quite
to the peripheral world, but it’s a works with the XM1.
company that comes with plenty of Adding to the sense that this mouse isn’t
pedigree. It’s part of the Caseking group of well suited to fingertip grip styles is the fact
brands, which includes the retailers Caseking that the sides are aggressively angled in
and Overclockers UK, as well as the chair towards the bottom of the mouse. In theory
companies noblechairs and Nitro Concepts. this angle helps to aid grip, as it ensures the
The XM1 mouse itself takes a less-is-more mouse can’t slip out from beneath your
approach to the lightweight mouse style. fingers. However, while it certainly prevents Conclusion
There’s no RGB lighting, no extra buttons and the mouse sliding downwards, the angle is The XM1 is a solid first attempt at a gaming
generally no frills. It just offers the basics in as steep enough to mean that the mouse slides mouse from Endgame Gear. It offers all the
light a case as possible, and it most certainly is upwards when you use it with a fingertip grip. essentials and great performance in a very
light, weighing in at just 70g. In terms of buttons, you get just left, right, lightweight package. The slightly back-heavy
Its shape is more suited to claw and palm scroll wheel and forward/back thumb buttons, and wide shape doesn’t make it ideal for fingertip
grips than fingertip use. The main hump of the but underneath the mouse, you’ll also find a DPI grips, though, and while it’s certainly cheaper
mouse sits towards the back, and the rear of button. Tap it and you can cycle through up to than some, you can get more features for less.
the mouse is markedly wider than the front. As four DPI levels, with the LEDs above indicating
a result, it tends to fill the area under your palm, which level you’ve selected. The levels for each
restricting movement when using a fingertip mode can be set in the XM1’s software, along VERDICT
grip. Its relatively small size also compounds with the function of each button. It’s a basic Great performance, but its shape isn’t the
this restriction, meaning that gamers with button selection but it’s enough for playing first- most unversally appealing and it’s not a
person shooters, which is the main focus of standout bargain.
ENDGAME INFINITY WAR mice such as the XM1.
+ Very light - Very basic feature set Meanwhile, the cable is a conventional DESIGN FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
14/20 14/20
76
+ Good for claw grip - Shape not ideal unbraided type that arrives full of kinks, so it
for fingertip grip
+ Grippy surface lies untidily on the desk. However, it’s slightly
PERFORMANCE VALUE
-
24/30 24/30
No lightweight cable more flexible than some mouse cables, so it
doesn’t affect the feel of the mouse if you use
SPEC it with a cord bungie.
Weight As for the overall quality of the mouse, it
70g looks and feels quite cheap, and the matt
Dimensions (mm) surface shines up quickly. However, it feels
122 x 66 x 38 solid enough, and the left and right buttons are
Sensor excellent. That said, we did find the side
Pixart PWM3389 (16,000dpi optical)
buttons to be a bit too flexible in our testing,
Buttons requiring a stronger push than some of the
Five (left, right, scroll wheel, back, forward)
buttons on the competition. Tracking
Cable
1.8m, conventional rubber
performance is solid as well. The Pixart
PWM3389 is a tried and true 16,000dpi optical
Extras
DPI and report rate buttons on base sensor and we found the XM1 performed
flawlessly in game testing.
57
GLORIOUS PC GAMING
RACE MODEL O/£45 inc VAT
T
he Model O is the only one of the The shape of the mouse is superbly
three most notable perforated designed. Its profile is symmetrical, with the
lightweight mice that we were able highest point of its bump located in the centre
to properly review in this group test, as of the mouse. The back is slightly wider than
samples of the recently announced Cooler the front (64mm vs 56mm), but the low slope SPEC
Master MM710 aren’t available yet, and the of the back means the rear of the mouse Weight
67g
various Finalmouse Ultralight models (see doesn’t fill your palm and get in the way when
p60) are sold out and discontinued. using a fingertip grip if you have medium- Dimensions (mm)
128 x 66 x 38
It’s good, then, that the Model O does sized or larger hands. The relatively flat sides
Sensor
an excellent job of showcasing the design mean your fingers don’t slide down them too. Pixart 3360 (16,000DPI optical)
approach. The big benefit here is, of course, However, both the lack of meat at the
Buttons
the low weight, and sure enough, the back of the mouse and the choice of a plain 6 (left, right, scroll wheel, back, forward)
Model O weighs just 67g, while the smaller textured plastic, rather than a soft-touch Cable
Model O- weighs a mere 58g. Those are finish, means this mouse doesn’t work well 2m, ultra-light
astonishingly low numbers for a mouse that for a claw grip – your hand just slides off Extras
still includes frills such as RGB lighting. the back. It’s decent for palm grip, though, DPI indicator on base
The downside is that you get dust and other if you have small to medium-sized hands.
crud inside the mouse, which was evident If you do have smaller hands, the Model inner cables underneath the loose-
after using our sample for just a week. It’s a O- offers the same shape but in a smaller fitting braided sleeve. Performance is
shame that GPCGR didn’t make it easier to package, making it an ideal alternative. top-notch as well. The Model O uses
dismantle the mouse to aid in cleaning it – you In terms of styling, its attractiveness the tried and trusted Pixart 3360 optical
have to peel off the guides and potentially largely depends if you like the honeycomb sensor, and it delivered flawless tracking
damage them to access the screws. look or not. Overall, the shape is elegant performance in our tests, as we’d expect.
and the RGB lighting down the sides
GLORIOUS CURIOUS and around the scroll wheel looks good. Conclusion
+ Very light yet - Not ideal for claw grip
Black and white versions in both glossy We love the shape, flexible cable, flawless
comfortable
- Silly company name and matt finishes are also available. tracking and superb button layout of this
+ Great for fingertip grip
- Holes can let in dirt The button selection is ideal as well. The incredibly light mouse. However, the absolute
+ Great value basic configuration is the same as all the deal maker is its low price. We have concerns
other mice on test, but with a tiny DPI button about the cable longevity, and it’s a shame the
on the top. This provides the convenience manufacturer has a questionable brand name
of a top-mounted DPI button without it (we know it’s originally a Zero Punctuation
getting in the way. The quality of the gag, but ‘glorious race’ looks highly suspect
buttons, and of the mouse as from the outside), but otherwise this is the
a whole, is also excellent, ultimate lightweight gaming mouse.
as is the wonderfully
flexible cable.
However, we do VERDICT
s mP
have concerns A near perfect design and low price make the
about the Model O a barnstormingly brilliant mouse.
C
longevity of
the cable. You DESIGN FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
18/20 18/20
92
E
PRE
can feel that

AD
there’s no
M PERFORMANCE VALUE
IUM GR protection at all
around the thin 28/30 28/30
58
LOGITECH G PRO
WIRELESS /£130 inc VAT
SUPPLIER logitech.com
W
e’ve reviewed the Logitech G Pro The finish of the mouse is plain matt black,
Wireless before and found it to be which can get a little slippery on particularly
a sensational mouse. Light, dry days, but otherwise feels very pleasant to
comfortable, feature-rich and yet wireless: hold. The balance of the mouse is also great.
it has every possible aspect going for it. Sadly, you can’t say the same about the
However, how does it stack up against these styling. Although this is a subjective area, to
dedicated lightweight mice? our eyes, it’s a dull-looking mouse for the
Well, for a start, one of the key features of money. However, in terms of features, it’s a SPEC
the very latest ultra-light mice is their use of cut above the competition for the most part. Weight
highly flexible cables that aim to reduce the For starters, it has a true ambidextrous 80g
resistance and interference of conventional design, with thumb buttons on both sides. Dimensions (mm)
125 x 64 x 40
mouse cables. With the G Pro Wireless, the You can swap out the buttons on the side
need for such a cable is eliminated, as its you don’t use for blanks, and both the Sensor
Pixart 3360 (16,000DPI optical)
wireless technology is good enough for you buttons and blanks fit perfectly – there’s no
Buttons
to play games competitively without any wobble and the buttons don’t come loose. Seven (left, right, scroll wheel, 2 x back,
cable at all. You can also just plug in a cable and carry on 2 x forward)
Thesimple designisverycomfortableto playing when you need to charge the battery. Cable
holdin your hand too. Measuring125x 64 x Like several other mice here, the DPI 1.8m, conventional rubber
40mm,it’salittleshorterandtallerthansome switching button is relegated to the bottom Extras
miceandithasquiteflatsides.However,the of the mouse. Wireless connection, DPI button on base,
replaceable thumb buttons
shapefitsafingertipgripplayingstyleperfectly. This mouse’s pièce de résistance, though,
is the way it packs so many features into such
ZERO WIRES ZERO HOURS a lightweight device. Despite the addition of a Conclusion
+ Surprisingly light - Button reliability issues battery for the wireless technology it still The Logitech G Pro Wireless continues to
and wireless
- Dull design weighs just 80g. That’s phenomenal. There prove why we were so impressed by it when
+ Great shape and
- Expensive are two big downsides to this mouse, though. it first arrived. It’s a brilliantly engineered,
truly ambidextrous
The first is the obvious one, which is its price. lightweight, ambidextrous gaming mouse
+ Versatile and
At £130 inc VAT, it’s mighty expensive, and that also offers the bonus of a wireless
comfortable shape
while you get the added bonus of a wireless connection. We almost love it. However, the
connection and swappable buttons, it doesn’t high price is a bit galling and the double-
entirely feel as feature-packed as you’d clicking button problem means it’s a gamble
expect for that price. whether you’ll get a reliable mouse.
Then there’s the problem that caused us to
drop this mouse from our Elite List a couple
of months back: the double-clicking button VERDICT
problem. Click the left button (it sometimes An incredibly lightweight design for a wireless
affects other buttons too but is most mouse, but reliability issues and a high price
noticeable with the left button) and it will dent its appeal.
sometimes trigger twice. There still doesn’t
seem to be a consensus on whether the DESIGN FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
18/20 18/20
78
issue is down to hardware or software, and it
doesn’t seem to effect every user, but it’s
PERFORMANCE VALUE
22/30 20/30
common enough that many people won’t
want to take the risk dropping £130 on it.
59
FINALMOUSE ULTRALIGHT 2
T
he Ultralight 2 is a tiny, incredibly comfortable to hold. It’s also finished in the raw
light mouse made by a company plastic from which the mouse is made, giving it
that’s played an enormous part in an intriguing beige and orange colour scheme
innovating and pushing the ultra-light mouse (one for Noctua fanatics perhaps?) It includes
market. A small group based in California, stick-on white foam pads that can bulk out the
Finalmouse only produced products in limited back and sides of the mouse. It’s a clunky
runs that would sometimes sell out in mere system, though, and one that didn’t convince
hours. The Ultralight 2 was the last product it us, either in terms of comfort or longevity. SPEC
released (back in August), with the group now Elsewhere, it has the same button layout as Weight
pledging to move onto designing footwear. the Model O (see p58) andusestheexcellent 47g
The Ultralight 2 weighs in at just 47g. It’s Pixart3389sensor–combineitwiththe Dimensions (mm)
far too small for anyone with medium to incrediblylowweightandyougetagreat 116 x 53 x 36
large hands, but the larger Ultralight versions gamingexperience.Alltold,despiteafew Sensor
Pixart 3389
will suit larger hands. The overall shape designoddities,thisisagreatmouse,butwith
suits most grip styles, and you also get a thegoingrateof~£150incVAToneBay(the Buttons
Six (left, right, scroll wheel, back, forward, DPI)
lightweight cable – another key innovation largerUltralightvariationsregularlygoforeven
Cable
pushed by Finalmouse. more),wecan’trecommendbuying one.It 2m
The mouse is heavily perforated all round, reallyisashameFinalmousedecidetostop
Extras
and even includes perforations on the sides makingthem.Here’shopingthecompanyhas Stick-on skins to adjust shape/size
where you grip it, which isn’t the most achangeofheart.
WIN
We’ve teamed up with the lovely folks at be quiet!
A BE QUIET!
to offer a brand-new Pure Base 500 ATX case to
one lucky Custom PC reader. Available with and
without a side panel window, the Pure Base 500
PURE BASE 500 CASE
provides ample space for high-end graphics cards In your choice of colour
and CPU coolers. Meanwhile, the switchable top
cover and two preinstalled Pure Wings 2 140mm
fans give you the option to focus your system
build on low-noise or airflow performance,
with space for radiators up to 360mm in size.
The sophisticated design of the Pure Base 500
means you can hide nearly all your cables, and
highlight up to two SSDs, helping you to create
neat system builds with great illumination. The
case comes in a choice of three base colours:
black, metallic grey and white, and the winner
gets to choose which colour they want.
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY AT

CUSTOMPC.CO.UK/QUIETCASE
The closing date for this competition is Friday, 8 November. See p97 for the full competition rules.
60
RAZER VIPER/£80 inc VAT
SUPPLIER razer.com
T
he Viper is Razer’s direct response Razer has done a reasonable job of balancing
to the new trend for ultra-light mice. the accessibility of the buttons for your
Considering the style hasn’t been thumb, as well as keeping them sufficiently
around all that long, we’re impressed to see a out the way so you don’t trigger them
peripheral juggernaut such as Razer respond accidentally with your little and ring fingers.
so quickly to it. Weighing in at just 69g, the However, they still aren’t the easiest thumb
Viper ticks the first box for being classed as buttons to hit. As for the other buttons, the
truly ultra-light. What’s more, Razer has Viper is as bare bones as the rest of the mice
achieved this weight while still managing to on test this month, with just left, right and
add a thin layer of rubber to the sides to aid scroll wheel/middle buttons, plus a DPI
grip. Most alternatives have done away with switch on the underside.
rubber as it adds to the weight of the mouse. In terms of styling, Razer has done its usual Conclusion
Another key feature that’s present and top job, with the RGB illuminated logo on the Superb performance, incredibly low weight, a
correct is an ultra-flexible cable. The one here rear providing just enough colour to elevate truly ambidextrous design and a fantastic
looks just like a conventional braided cable, the stylish all-black design. Build quality is cable make the Viper a seriously impressive
but the inner core of the cable is very thin- largely good too, although the feel of the piece of design. However, the loose left and
walled and flexible, so it provides very little main two buttons isn’t brilliant. They use right buttons and slightly awkward side button
resistance. It’s a joy to use even without a Razer’s new optical switches, which placement dent its appeal a little, especially
cord bungie. theoretically have a quicker response time given is high price.
Another key feature of this mouse is its true than normal switches. However, they require
ambidextrous design. It doesn’t just sport a a notably firmer press than most mouse
symmetrical shape, but it also has thumb buttons, and each button’s surface sits VERDICT
buttons on both sides. loosely on its switch (the front edge can be A fantastic first attempt at an ultra-lightweight
lifted a millimetre or so off the switch itself), mouse, but it has one too many niggles to
SNAKEBITE SHANDY giving it a rattling quality. justify its high price.
+ Very light - Rattling buttons We also found that if you press the right
+ Very flexible cable - button towards its outer edge, it catches DESIGN FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
16/20 14/20
74
Button reliability issues
+ True ambidextrous - Expensive on the body of the mouse, failing to trigger
design the switch. This latter point is potentially a PERFORMANCE VALUE
+ Fast optical switches manufacturing error, as the same doesn’t
happen on the left button, but it’s still a 24/30 20/30
potential problem nonetheless.
SPEC Meanwhile the shape of the mouse is
Weight excellent. The comfort curves on the buttons
69g
feel great, with just enough undercut to the
Dimensions (mm)
127 x 66 x 38
sides to aid grip without your fingers sliding
down the mouse. It’s also brilliantly balanced,
Sensor
Razer optical 16,000DPI and the low-slung design suits a wide variety
Buttons
of grip styles – we could comfortably use all
Seven (left, right, scroll wheel, 2 x back, 2 x three grip styles on this mouse.
forward) Likewise, performance is superb. The
Cable 16,000DPI optical sensor works flawlessly,
2.1m, ultra-light speedflex
and the combination of the light weight,
Extras excellent shape and flexible cable makes it
DPI button on base
effortless to use.
61
R E V I E WS / HOW WE TEST
How we test
MOTHERBOARDS MONITORS
TEST PROCESSORS We test image quality with an Xrite
Intel LGA1151 Intel Core i9-9900K iDisplay Pro colorimeter and
Intel LGA2066 Intel Core i9-7900X DisplayCal software to check for
AMD AM4 AMD Ryzen 9 3900X colour accuracy, contrast and
AMD TR4 AMD Threadripper 2950X gamma, while assessing more
subjective details such as pixel
Our test gear comprises a GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders density and viewing angles by eye. We also run games on
Edition and a 2TB Samsung 970 Pro SSD (or a PCI-E 4 1TB them to assess their responsiveness, and to see how well any
Corsair MP600 SSD on X570 boards). We also use Corsair active sync tech works, and to gauge their performance at
Vengeance RGB 3466MHz DDR4 RAM – a 16GB dual- high refresh rates.
channel kit for mainstream systems, and a 32GB quad-
channel kit for HEDT systems.
We use Custom PC’s own RealBench suite, and Far
Cry 5 installed on Windows 10 Home 64-bit to test basic
performance. We also test the board’s SATA and M.2 ports,
and record the noise level and dynamic range of the CPU COOLERS
integrated audio using RightMark Audio Analyzer. We try to
overclock our test CPU to its maximum air-cooled level on We measure the CPU temperature with CoreTemp, and
each motherboard, and record the performance results. subtract the ambient air temperature to give a delta T result,
enabling us to test in a lab that isn’t temperature controlled.
We load the CPU with Prime95’s smallfft test and take the
reading after ten minutes.
PROCESSORS
TEST KIT
TEST MOTHERBOARDS Fractal Design Meshify C case, 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance
Intel LGA1151 MSI MEG Z90 ACE LPX memory, 256GB Crucial MX100 SSD, be quiet! System
Intel LGA2066 MSI MEG X299 Creation Power 9 500W PSU, Windows 10 64-bit.
AMD AM4 Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master
AMD AM4 (APU) MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon INTEL LGA1151
AMD TR4 MSI MEG X399 Creation Intel Core i5-9600K CPU overclocked to 4.6GHz with 1.2V
vcore, MSI Z370 PC Pro motherboard.
We otherwise use the same core spec to test each CPU.
Our test gear comprises an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super INTEL LGA2066
Founders Edition (or an APU’s integrated GPU for gaming tests) Intel Core i9-7900X overclocked to 4.2GHz with 1.15V vcore,
and a 2TB Samsung 970 Pro SSD. We also use Corsair MSI X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard.
Vengeance RGB 3466MHz DDR4 memory – a 16GB dual-
channel kit for mainstream desktop systems, and a 32GB AMD AM4
quad-channel kit for HEDT systems. AMD Ryzen 7 1700 overclocked to 3.9GHz with 1.425V vcore,
We use Custom PC’s own RealBench suite, Cinebench and Asus ROG Strix B350-F Gaming motherboard.
Far Cry 5, installed on Windows 10 Home 64-bit, and record the
power draw of the test PC. These tests cover a broad range of AMD TR4
performance characteristics, including image editing, AMD Threadripper 2950X overclocked to 4.1GHz with 1.425V
gaming, video encoding and 3D rendering. We run all tests at vcore, AMD Threadripper 2990WX overclocked to 4GHz with
stock speed and at the CPU’s highest overclocked frequency. 1.3375V vcore, ASRock X399M motherboard.
62
GRAPHICS CARDS AWARDS
tom P
We mainly evaluate graphics us EXTREME ULTRA
C
cards on the performance they Some products are gloriously over the top. They
A
EXT
don’t always offer amazing value, but they’re
TR
offer for the price. However, RE L outstanding if you have money to spend.
we also consider the efficacy ME U
and noise of the cooler, as well
tom P
as the GPU’s support for new us PREMIUM GRADE
C
gaming features, such as real- Premium Grade products are utterly desirable,
E
PRE
time ray tracing. Every graphics card is tested in the same PC, offering a superb balance of performance and
AD
M
so all the results are directly comparable. Each test is run IUM GR features without an over-the-top price.
three times, and we report the average of those results.
We test graphics cards at 1,920 x 1,080, 2,560 x 1,440 and tom P
us PROFESSIONAL
C
3,840 x 2,160, although we omit the latter resolution on These products might not be appropriate for a
cheaper cards that are unable to produce playable frame gaming rig, but they’ll do an ace job at
AL
PR
rates at this setting. We also try to overclock every graphics FE workstation tasks.
N
SSIO
O
card we test to assess the performance impact.
tom P
us APPROVED
TEST KIT c
C
Approved products do a great job for the
Intel Core i7-8700K overclocked to 4.7GHz on all cores, 16GB money; they’re the canny purchase for a
Corsair Vengeance LED 3000MHz DDR4 memory, Gigabyte PP
D
ROV E
A
great PC setup.
Z370 Aorus motherboard, Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240
CPU cooler, Corsair HX750 PSU, Cooler Master MasterCase
tom P
H500M case, Windows 10 Home 64-bit. us CUSTOM KIT
c
For those gadgets and gizmos that really

impress us, or that we can’t live without,
IT
GAME TESTS
CU
ST
Battlefield V Tested in DirectX 11 at Ultra settings on every OM K there’s the Custom Kit award.
card. If a GPU also supports real-time ray tracing, we then test

it in DirectX 12 with DXR enabled on Low and High settings.
We run through a one-minute custom benchmark in the CUSTOM PC REALBENCH
‘Under No Flag’ War Story, recording the frame rate
with Fraps. Our own benchmark suite, co-developed with Asus, is
designed to gauge a PC’s performance in several key areas,
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Tested at the Highest settings using open source software.
preset, with TAA. We run the built-in benchmark, and record
the frame rate from the GPU test. GIMP IMAGE EDITING
We use GIMP to open and edit large images, heavily stressing
Total War: Warhammer II Tested in DirectX 11, as the DirectX one CPU core to gauge single-threaded performance. This
12 beta currently causes stuttering issues on some GPUs. We test responds well to increases in CPU clock speed.
test at Ultra settings with FXAA, and run the built-in
b
‘Battle’ benchmark. HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING
Our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake H.264 video encoding
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided test takes full advantage of many CPU cores, pushing them to
Tested at the Very High preset in 100 per cent load.
DirectX 12, running the built-
in benchmark. LUXMARK OPENCL
This LuxRender-based test shows a GPU’s compute
POWER CONSUMPTION performance. As this is a niche area, the result from this test
We run Unigine Superposition at 4K has just a quarter of the weighting of the other tests in the
Optimized DirectX settings. We measure the power final system score.
consumption of our whole graphics test rig at the mains
during the test, and record the peak power draw. Bear in mind HEAVY MULTITASKING
that this result is for the whole system, not the graphics This test plays a full-screen 1080p video, while running a
card alone. Handbrake H.264 video encode in the background.
63
Elite Our choice of the best hardware available
Core component bundles

The fundamental specifications we recommend for various types of PC. Just add your preferred case and power supply, and double-check there’s
room in your case for your chosen components, especially the GPU cooler and graphics card. We’ve largely stopped reviewing power supplies, as
the 80 Plus certification scheme has now effectively eliminated unstable PSUs. Instead, we’ve recommended the wattage and minimum 80 Plus
certification you should consider for each component bundle. You can then choose whether you want a PSU with modular or captive cables.
Budget system with Budget gaming system

integrated graphics Quad-core CPU, 1080p gaming
Needs a micro-ATX case. We recommend a
Quad-core CPU, basic gaming 450W 80 Plus power supply. See Issue 191,
Needs a micro-ATX or ATX case. p78, for an example build guide.
We recommend a 350W 80 Plus power supply.
PRICE
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
PRICE inc VAT
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
Intel Core #191
AMD Ryzen 5 #194, CPU scan.co.uk £120
CPU overclockers.co.uk £138 i3-8100 p78
3400G p20
AMD Wraith air #176 Raijintek Juno #191

CPU COOLER cooler included N/A £0 CPU COOLER overclockers.co.uk £12
Pro RBW p78
with CPU p80
AMD Radeon Palit GeForce

RX Vega 11 #194 #191
GRAPHICS CARD N/A £0 GRAPHICS CARD GTX 1660 cclonline.com £200
integrated p78
p20 StormX 6GB
into CPU
16GB 2 x8
8GB (2 x 4GB) GB) Corsair
Corsair Vengeance #191
Vengeance LPX #176 MEMORY scan.co.uk £76
MEMORY scan.co.uk £45 LPX 3000MHz p78
3000MHz p80 (CMK16GX4
(CMK8GX4M2A M2A2666C16)
3000C16)
Gigabyte B360M
#191
MOTHERBOARD DS3H cclonline.com £76
MSI B450M p78
#182 (micro-ATX)
MOTHERBOARD Mortar ebuyer.com £95
(micro-ATX)* p50
500GB WD Blue
#191
STORAGE SN500 ebuyer.com £66
p78
(M.2 NVMe)
500GB WD #191
STORAGE Blue SN500 ebuyer.com £66
(M.2 NVMe) p78
Total £550
UPGRADES
Total £344
SWAP AMD Radeon RX #190

*This motherboard may require a BIOS update in order to recognise the new ebuyer.com £220
GRAPHICS CARD Vega 56 p47
CPU, which can be performed without needing an old CPU, downloading the
latest BIOS to a USB flash drive and pressing the Flash BIOS button
64
Mid-range all- Mid-range
purpose system gaming syst
6-core CPU, 2,560 x 1,440 gaming 8-core CPU, 2,560 x 1,440 gaming
Needs an ATX case. We recommend using a 550W power supply real-time ray tracing
with 80 Plus Bronze certification. See Issue 193, p76 for a similar Needs an ATX case with room for a 240mm all-in-one liquid
example build guide. cooler. We recommend a 600W 80 Plus Bronze power supply.
PRICE PRICE
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT
AMD Ryzen 5 #195 #192

CPU scan.co.uk £191 AMD Ryzen 7
3600 p16 CPU overclockers.co.uk £330
3700X p14
AMD Wraith
Prism air cooler
CPU COOLER N/A - £0
included with
CPU Corsair H100i
RGB Platinum #185
CPU COOLER cclonline.com £110
(240mm AIO p82
liquid cooler)
AMD Radeon RX #192
GRAPHICS CARD overclockers.co.uk £320
5700 p24
Nvidia GeForce #193

16GB (2 x 8GB) GRAPHICS CARD scan.co.uk £500
RTX 2070 Super p16
Corsair
Vengeance RGB #192
MEMORY scan.co.uk £135
3466MHz p21
(CMW16GX4
16GB (2 x 8GB)
M2C3466C16)
Corsair
Vengeance RGB #192
3466MHz p21
MSI X570-A Pro #193 (CMW16GX4
MOTHERBOARD box.co.uk £150 M2C3466C16)
(ATX) p48
1TB Corsair #193 Asus ROG Strix

STORAGE scan.co.uk £230 #193
MP600 p26 MOTHERBOARD X570-E Gaming ebuyer.com £300
(ATX) p44
Total £1,026
1TB Corsair #193

STORAGE scan.co.uk £230
UPGRADES MP600 p26
Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2060
SWAP GRAPHICS #193
Super (adds scan.co.uk £380
CARD p16
real-time ray-
tracing abilities)
Total £1,605
UPGRADES
ADD SECONDARY Western Digital #166
overclockers.co.uk £105
STORAGE Blue 4TB p54
ADD SECONDARY Western Digital #166

STORAGE Blue 4TB p54
UPGRADE CPU Deepcool #192
scan.co.uk £30
COOLER Gammaxx GT p52
65
E L I T E / THE BEST KIT
Core component bundles cont …

4K gaming system
stem Heavy multi-threading
12-core CPU, workstation
4K gaming with real-time Serious multi-threaded power,
ray-tracing abilities 1080p gaming
Needs an E-ATX case with room for a 240mm all-in-one liquid Needs an ATX case with room for a 240mm all-in-one liquid
cooler. We recommend a 650W 80 Plus Gold power supply. cooler. We recommend a 700W 80 Plus Gold power supply.
PRICE PRICE
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT
AMD #182
AMD Ryzen 9
CPU Threadripper scan.co.uk £720
#192 p23
CPU overclockers.co.uk £560 2950X
3900X p14
Enermax
Liqtech II #186
CPU COOLER TR4 240 overclockers.co.uk £130
(240mm AIO p44
Corsair H100i
RGB Platinum #175 liquid cooler)
CPU COOLER cclonline.com £110
(240mm AIO p20
liquid cooler) Zotac Gaming #190
GRAPHICS CARD GeForce GTX cclonline.com £210
1660 6GB p44
Nvidia GeForce #189 32GB Corsair

GRAPHICS CARD scan.co.uk £990 Dominator
RTX 2080 Ti p20
Platinum RGB #188
3200MHz p19
(CMT32GX
4M4C3200C16 )
16GB (2 x 8GB)
Corsair ASRock X399 #170
Vengeance RGB #192 MOTHERBOARD Taichi cclonline.com £330
MEMORY scan.co.uk £135 (ATX) p47
3466MHz p21
(CMW16GX4
M2C3466C16) 1TB Samsung #188
STORAGE 970 Evo Plus ebuyer.com £210
(M.2 NVMe) p51
Total £1,848
MSI Prestige
#193
MOTHERBOARD X570 Creation overclockers.co.uk £450
p48 UPGRADES
(E-ATX)
Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2070 Super
(2,560 x 1,440
1TB Corsair #193 SWAP GRAPHICS #193
STORAGE scan.co.uk £230 CARD
gaming with ray scan.co.uk £500
MP600 p26 p16
tracing, and
some 4K
gaming)
Total £2,500 AMD

Threadripper
2990WX
UPGRADES (faster in some #182
SWAP CPU scan.co.uk £1,716
heavily multi- p24
threaded software,
not recommended
for gaming)
ADD SECONDARY 4TB Western #166
STORAGE Digital Blue p54
ADD SECONDARY 6TB Seagate #166
STORAGE BarraCuda Pro p50
66
Mini PCs
Our favourite components for building a micro-ATX or mini-ITX PC. Always double-check how much room is available in your chosen case
before buying your components. Some mini-ITX cases don’t have room for large all-in-one liquid coolers, for example, or tall heatsinks. You’ll
also need to check that there’s room for your chosen graphics card. We’ve also recommended a small PSU and a low-profile CPU cooler, if your
chosen case requires them.
Mini-ITX Micro-ATX
Motherboards Motherboards
PRICE PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT
ASRock Z390 Asus ROG
Intel Z390 #185 Intel Z390 #189
Phantom scan.co.uk £187 Maximus XI overclockers.co.uk £320
(LGA1151) p50 (LGA1151) p28
Gaming-ITX/ac Gene
AMD X570 Gigabyte X570-I #195 MSI X299M
overclockers.co.uk £227 Intel X299 #174
(AM4) Aorus Pro WiFi p24 Gaming Pro cclonline.com £255
(LGA2066) p24
Carbon AC
Cases AMD X399 ASRock X399M #179
scan.co.uk £330
PRICE (TR4) Taichi p28
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
AMD B450 MSI B450M #182
Metallic Gear #195 ebuyer.com £95
BUDGET amazon.co.uk £60 (AM4) Mortar p50
Neo Mini p48
MIDRANGE
Phanteks Enthoo
Evolv Shift Air
overclockers.co.uk
#195
p49
£95 Cases
Lian Li #195 PRICE
PREMIUM overclockers.co.uk £225 CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
PC-Q37WX p47 inc VAT
#180
CPU coolers
Fractal Design
BUDGET overclockers.co.uk £47
Focus G Mini p46
PRICE Fractal Design #161
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE MIDRANGE scan.co.uk £80
inc VAT Define Mini C p26
#143
LOWPROFILE Noctua NH-D9L amazon.co.uk £44 #175
p17 PREMIUM NZXT H400i overclockers.co.uk £120
p32
Power supplies
PRICE
Networking
inc VAT
SilverStone
#185
800W SFX Strider SX800- scan.co.uk £160
p82
LTI
PRICE
ATX Cases
inc VAT
Linksys EA9500 #182

ROUTER amazon.co.uk £250
Max-Stream p58
Asus ROG #170
PREMIUM
Rapture overclockers.co.uk £308
PRICE ROUTER p35
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE GT-AC5300
inc VAT
MESH NETWORK #172
Phanteks Eclipse #176 BT Whole Home
BUDGET overclockers.co.uk £55 (requires existing currys.co.uk £160
P300 Glass p28 Wi-Fi Triple Pack p54
router)
Phanteks Eclipse #194 #172
BUDGET RGB overclockers.co.uk £84 PREMIUM MESH Netgear Orbi
P400A p24 amazon.co.uk £246
ROUTER 2-Pack (RBK50) p57
Lian Li Lancool #184
SUB£100 overclockers.co.uk £95
One Digital p32 #128
WIFI ADAPTOR Asus PCE-AC68 scan.co.uk £58
Phanteks Eclipse #187 p88
MIDRANGE overclockers.co.uk £128
P600S p24
SINGLEBAY NAS #174
Phanteks Enthoo #187 Synology DS118 box.co.uk £155
BOX p34
HIGHEND overclockers.co.uk £200
Evolv X p24
DUALBAY Synology #174
Cooler Master #183 box.co.uk £210
LUXURY scan.co.uk £416 MEDIA NAS BOX DS218play p34
Cosmos C700M p28
67
E L I T E / THE BEST KIT
Monitors
AMD FreeSync Nvidia G-Sync
PRICE PRICE
inc VAT inc VAT
24IN BUDGET #174
AOC G2460VQ6 amazon.co.uk £126
1,920 X 1,080 p52 24IN AOC AGON #169
box.co.uk £378
2,560 X 1,440 AG241QG p55
24IN MIDRANGE #191
AOC C24G1 cclonline.com £176
1,920 X 1,080 p28
27IN 2,560 X Asus ROG Swift #155

24IN 240HZ scan.co.uk £678
AOC AGON #187 1,440 PG279Q p48
ESPORTS overclockers.co.uk £290
AG251FZ p48
1,920 X 1,080
#171 35IN #180

27IN Samsung AOC AGON
ebuyer.com £474 ULTRAWIDE box.co.uk £720
2,560 X 1,440 C27HG70 p28 AG352UCG6 p52
3,440 X 1,440
AMD FreeSync 27IN 4K Asus ROG Swift #181

scan.co.uk £2,000
PREMIUM PG27UQ p31
and Nvidia G-Sync

PRICE
Non-gaming
inc VAT
PRICE
inc VAT
24IN BUDGET #190
AOC G2590FX overclockers.co.uk £200
1,920 X 1,080 p53 #194
27IN 4K AOC U2790PQU lambda-tek.com £281
p30
25IN MIDRANGE #190 #179
Asus VG258QR overclockers.co.uk £290 27IN Iiyama ProLite
1,920 X 1,080 p54 scan.co.uk £695
5,120 X 2,880 XB2779QQS p34
Gaming keyboards Gaming mice

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#176 FIRSTPERSON SteelSeries Rival #184

MEMBRANE Corsair K55 RGB overclockers.co.uk £55 scan.co.uk £74
p52 SHOOTER 600 p59
#181
MECHANICAL Corsair K68 RGB ebuyer.com £110
p53
#186
MMO Roccat Nyth amazon.co.uk £65
p53
MECHANICAL Corsair K95 RGB #164
scan.co.uk £170
MMO Platinum p26
Razer Lancehead
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Corsair K70 AMBIDEXTROUS Tournament scan.co.uk £65
PREMIUM #193 p53
Mk.2 Low scan.co.uk £150 Edition
MECHANICAL p56
Profile
Glorious PC
LUXURY Razer #193 ULTRA #195
scan.co.uk £189 Gaming Race overclockers.co.uk £45
MECHANICAL Hunstman Elite p59 LIGHTWEIGHT p58
Model O
68
Peripherals and audio cont …
Game controllers Gaming headsets
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inc VAT inc VAT
STEERING WHEEL Logitech G920 #159 Sennheiser GSP #194
currys.co.uk £200 STEREO audioaffair.co.uk £79
& PEDALS Driving Force p55 300 p56
Microsoft Xbox One #191
GAMEPAD game.co.uk £50
Wireless Controller p56 Asus ROG #163
SURROUND cclonline.com £216
Centurion p49
Speakers WIRELESS
SteelSeries
Arctis 7
currys.co.uk
#178
p58
£119
PRICE
inc VAT
PREMIUM Corsair Virtuoso #195
#192 scan.co.uk £180
STEREO Edifier R1280DB amazon.co.uk £120 WIRELESS RGB Wireless SE p30
p57
PCs and laptops

Pre-built PC systems
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BUDGET PC WITH INTEGRATED AMD Ryzen 5 2400G #176

Falcon Raptor RX AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 falconcomputers.co.uk £480
GRAPHICS stock speed p52
Chillblast Fusion Ryzen 5 AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Nvidia GeForce GTX #189
SUB£1,000 GAMING chillblast.com £1,030
GTX 1660 Ti stock speed 1660 Ti p58
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Nvidia GeForce RTX #193

ENTRYLEVEL RAY TRACING CyberPower Ultra 5 Super cyberpowersystem.co.uk £ 1,209
stock speed 2060 Super p36
Intel Core i7-9700F Nvidia GeForce RTX #192

GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING PC Specialist Vulcan S2 pcspecialist.com £ 1,612
stock speed 2070 Super p38
3.6GHz AMD Ryzen 7 Nvidia GeForce RTX #194

GEFORCE RTX 2080 GAMING Chillblast Fusion Axion chillblast.com £2,200
3700X 2080 p34
Intel Core i9-9900K Nvidia GeForce RTX #190

PREMIUM MINIITX Corsair One i160 corsair.com £3,399
stock speed 2080 Ti p32
Intel Core i9-9900X 2 x Nvidia GeForce RTX #145

DREAM PC Scan 3XS Barracuda scan.co.uk £10,149
OC to 4.4GHz 2080 Ti p58
Laptop
ps
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THIN AND LIGHT Scan 3XS Vengeance Intel Core i7-8750H Nvidia GeForce RTX 15.6in 1,920 x 1,080 #189
scan.co.uk £1,737
GAMING GL 2070 stock speed 2070 Max-Q IPS 144Hz p34
Asus ROG Zephyrus S Intel Core i7-8750H Nvidia GeForce RTX 17.3in 1,920 x 1,080 #190
PREMIUM GAMING amazon.co.uk £3,300
GX701GX stock speed 2080 Max-Q IPS 144Hz G-Sync p28
69
Games
R I C K L A N E / INVERSE LOOK
PHYSICAL COMEDY
Somewhere between scripted gags and overly serious immersive sims
is an interactive Looney Tunes, and Rick Lane wants it to get made
M
yfavouritegaminggenreistheimmersivesim.Games It’s odd because, since the golden age of LucasArts, comedy
suchasThief,DeusEx,SystemShockandDishonored has played a central role in the history of game development.
all rank highly in my personal greatest hits. I like However,thatcomedyisnearlyalwaysscripted.Games such as
games that let me solve problems in creative ways, where The Stanley Parable,Day of the Tentacle and Psychonauts rely
systems can interact and produce unexpected results. Since on written or visual gags,while generally being mechanically
the days of Ultima Underworld, the immersive sim has been lightweight. Meanwhile, games such as Tony Hawk’s Pro
the ultimate expression of this interaction, and the genre Skater and Half-Life 2 had players laughing themselves sick
commands a lot of respect within the industry. with systems designed for notionally more serious games.
In termsofthewidergamingaudience,however,immersive How has this situation emerged? I think it’s down to
sims have never seen the popularity of, say, Minecraft or assumptions made during the development of particularly
Fortnite. I’ve often wondered why, and I think influential games, which have carried over
it comes down to a question of tone. Generally throughouttheyears.Ifyou’remakinga comedy
speaking, immersivesimstakethemselvesvery I want a Dishonored game, for example, it’s natural to assume that
seriously. They’reoftendark,violentandcynical, that replaces your game will need jokes,and jokes require a writer.
as high-minded and unapologetically cerebral Hence, it becomes easy for that game to lean
as the developers who created them. magical powers with primarily on its writing.
It’s odd, in a way, because the same systems ACME-style gadgets That’s the standard LucasArts set in its
that makeimmersivesimssocelebratedarealso adventure games, using writing and humour
often set up to generate pitch-perfect slapstick to bolster games that are interactively fairly
comedy. Take the fantasy adventure Dark Messiah: Might simplistic,andit’sastandardthatmost comically driven games
and Magic. Its swashbuckling simulation lets you kick orcs sincehavefollowed.Ontheflipside, the immersive sim defined
down flights of stairs, trigger ridiculous physics-based traps itself as the go-to genre for systems-based interaction, and as I
and cast ice spells on the ground to make patrolling enemies mentioned,nearlyallimmersivesims adopt a very serious tone.
slip. Combine this spell with a nearby sheer drop (which are I think it’s time this situation changed. I want a game that
omnipresent in Dark Messiah), and you’ve basically got a lets me be the clown in my own slapstick circus, a Dishonored
player-generated Looney Tunes cartoon. You’d just need your that replaces your magical powers with goofy, ACME-styled
enemy to blink twice before they plummet to their doom. gadgets,wheretheguardsareanthropomorphic animals who
Dark Messiah is genuinely one of the funniest games I’ve literally see stars when knocked out. I want a comedy game
ever played. And yet, while it isn’t as deadly serious as Deus that’s more than choose-your-own-joke, and an immersive
Ex, it’s by no means a comedy game.In the past 40 years,there sim that uses its systems to do more than telling me the
has never been a purpose-built simulation comedy. world is rubbish.
Rick Lane is Custom PC’s games editor @Rick_Lane
70
tom P
us
C
Gears 5 / £47.99 inc VAT
PP
D
ROV E
A
DEVELOPER The Coalition / PUBLISHER Microsoft Studios
G
ears of War has made its name as a series where game’s post-apocalyptic world. In doing so, however, it’s GEARS OF WAR
big dumb men shoot big dumb guns into big dumb often forced to contend with existing settlements who + Great action
enemies, resulting in an experience that’s as don’t want to be colonised, to which the COG responds in
+ Surprisingly
satisfying as it is stupid. Gears 5 is bigger and bloodier than increasingly oppressive ways. strong story
any of its predecessors, but in a shocking twist, it’s no longer It’s a level of introspection you wouldn’t expect from a + Expansive
brainless. It manages to be the most interesting and game primarily concerned with chainsawing enemies in half, multiplayer
complex entry yet, without sacrificing the straightforward and it impressively explores these ideas subtly and balanced
joys of its grisly combat. with humour. Also, alongside its familiar (and still excellent) FEARS OF BORE
Gears 5 places you in the role of Kait, the series’ first combat, Gears 5 introduces more open-ended - Open-world
elements feel
female protagonist who originally appeared as a sidekick in environments. They’re traversed using a sailing skiff and rather outdated
Gears 4. The story revolves around her personal quest to include optional side-quests that elaborate upon the game’s
discover why she’s started having visions of the Locust world building. It’s limited compared with most other open-
Swarm – the Gears’ perennial adversaries – while she and world games, but it makes for a pleasing bit of downtime
her companions search for a way to reactivate a powerful between the gunfights.
orbital weapon known as the Hammer of Dawn. Speaking of which, although largely unchanged, Gears 5’s
It’s a straightforward plot, but it’s bolstered by a sharp combat has seen a few additions. There are new weapons,
and often genuinely funny script that also explores deeper such as a grenade-launching Lancer rifle and the powerful
thematic concerns about the nature of war. Once an Breaker Mace, but by far the more significant new feature
underdog army, Gear of War’s COG faction is now the de is Jack’s upgradable abilities. Jack is your robot drone
facto government of Gears’ world. Without a big enemy to companion, and in Gears 5 he can deploy a range of tactical
fight, it has instead turned to settling and colonising the powers to provide an edge in combat. These include a
cloaking device, a blinding flash, a powerful
armour boost and the ability to take control /VERDICT
of certain enemies. These abilities are Bigger and
particularly fun to use in co-op play, where smarter than ever,
Gears 5 marks
one player assumes control of Jack and
a triumphant
dispenses powers as they see fit. return for the
Add a robust multiplayer component, long-running
including Horde mode, Versus mode and cover shooter.
a new mode called Escape – which sees
players fighting through ranks of enemies OVERALL SCORE
85
as they’re chased by an oncoming toxic
wave – and you get the best Gears of War
game in years.
RICK LANE
71
G A M E S / REVIEW
stom P
u
C
Control / £49.99
E
PRE
AD
inc VAT
M
DEVELOPER Remedy Entertainment / PUBLISHER 505 Games IUM GR
I
t feels like Remedy Entertainment has been It’s a wonderful concept, and Remedy has an absolute
working towards Control over its entire ball crafting its version of it. As you explore the Bureau’s
existence. It takes the best elements from the beautifully brutalist spaces, you’ll find offices covered in a
studio’s previous games – the action of Max Payne, the post-it note that replicates itself endlessly, and bizarrely
horror and storytelling ambitions of Alan Wake, the stylish named Bureau departments, one of which is simply known
weirdness of Quantum Break – and brings them together as ‘Nostalgia’. One side mission sees you exploring an area
in one of the most distinctive settings we’ve seen in a piled to the ceiling with ticking clocks, as explained to you
game yet. It’s thrilling, gorgeous, incredibly weird and, just by a traumatised security guard who exclaims ‘It’s clocks
occasionally, extremely frustrating. Nonetheless, it will all the way down!’
stick in your mind for a long time. It’s easy to throw a bunch of random stuff at a creative
Control sees you play Jesse Faden, a young drifter who wall and see what sticks, but it’s the way Remedy balances
walks into the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) to apply for this randomness with the FBC’s own sense of order and
CONTROL the job of Janitor’s Assistant. Within minutes of arriving, she process that makes Control so convincing. The FBC resides
+ Amazing discovers that the Director of the Bureau is dead, and that in the Oldest House. Itself a paranatural object, the Oldest
production values
she has been selected as the new head of the Bureau. If House is only visible to people actively looking for it,
+ Thrilling combat
that sounds a bit odd, welcome to Control! Put your coat on existing at a midpoint between countless other
+ Lore that the toaster and strap yourself into the flamingo, because dimensions. It’s a place where chaos is just another day
you’ll actually
want to read you’re in for one wild ride. at the office, to which it responds with rigid order.
In truth, your reaction to the bizarre world of the FBC will This is evident in the House’s brutalist design, from the
depend largely on your familiarity with the SCP Foundation – sharp angles and relentless concrete, to the columns of
ANARCHY
an online collection of short horror stories framed as desks, rows of filing cabinets and prim, glass-fronted
- Lacklustre
scientific ‘reports’ from a specialist containment facility. The offices. It resembles an accountancy firm from 1979, and
upgrades
FBC is a reworking of the same idea. The Bureau is dedicated this austere, oppressively logical aesthetic forms a superb
- Combat can be
to the collection, containment and study of ‘paranatural’ juxtaposition to Control’s tidal wave of strange.
too difficult
- Some poor
objects, such as televisions that float in the air, or traffic lights Control’s stark, clean aesthetic serves another purpose
checkpointing that randomly teleport people when the right light flashes. too, namely as a contrast for when the action kicks off.
72
At the time of Faden’s accession, the FBC is under assault by
a hive-minded force known as the Hiss, which has possessed
most of the FBC’s security forces who will attack you on sight.
Control sets out as an ‘anti-cover’ shooter, and it takes a
while to get used to this after years of hiding behind a waist-
high wall. Jesse avoids damage not by crouching but by
sprinting, so you’re constantly running between hails of
gunfire to survive. What’s more, she has the power to
‘cleanse’ paranatural objects, absorbing some of their powers
in the process. Over the course of the game, she’ll learn to
levitate, briefly possess enemies and also throw objects
using the telekinetic Launch ability.
Launch turns Control’s gunplay from unremarkable to
exceptional. It’s basically Half-Life 2’s gravity gun without the
gun, but Remedy makes the idea special again through its
sheer destructive potential. Pick up a desk and launch it at an
enemy, and that desk will shear through glass windows and
metal railings before splintering into a thousand pieces as it
crushes your opponent against a wall. As you become more
powerful, you can lift a wider range of objects, such as forklift
trucks, other enemies and even enemy grenades, which
cause huge amounts of destruction on impact.
The visual spectacle of Control’s destructive combat is
astonishing. When all your enemies are dead, the clean lines
and tidy offices of the FBC are transformed into a dusty,
smoky, sparking mess, with bits of paper, shards of wood and
concrete littering the floor. One of my favourite little touches
is that, if there are no nearby objects for Jesse to launch, she’ll
simply rip a chunk of concrete from the wall and lob that at
her enemy. It’s wonderfully satisfying.
All that being said, combat is also where Control’s flaws lie.
It’s generally a challenging game, but there are times when
the combat becomes downright unfair, throwing a ludicrous
number of enemies at you, many of which are heavily
armoured. This, combined with some slapdash
checkpointing, makes a few of Control’s major fights hugely
frustrating experiences. As a side note, although most of the don’t want to be hindered by an irritatingly difficult boss fight.
core weapons and powers are fun to use, the surrounding It’s so strong that you’ll actively seek out the collectibles
upgrade system is lacklustre. because you’ll want to learn more about the FBC’s world.
In a way Control is a victim of its own success. The world You’ll want to know about every Altered Item, watch every
building and surrounding narrative is so good that you simply one of Doctor Hartman’s instructional videos about the FBC’s
research, listen to every monologue by the /VERDICT
former director Trench, and the mysterious, A thrillingly bizarre
otherworldly Board. action adventure.
The spectacular
Across visual, audio, environment and
combat and sheer
narrative design, Control stuns on every level. imagination make
Even little details such as the title cards for new Control one of the
areas are so wickedly stylish that you can’t help year’s highlights.
but smile. It’s more than enough to make up for
those two or three moments where Control OVERALL SCORE
91
really tests your patience. It’s comfortably
Remedy’s masterpiece, and one of the best
games of this year.
RICK LANE
73
G A M E S / REVIEWS
Remnant:
From the Ashes
/ £30.99 inc VATS
DEVELOPER Gunfire Games / PUBLISHER Perfect World
R
emnant: From the Ashes is a surprisingly
FROM entertaining mashup of The Division’s cooperative
THE ASHES gunplay and Dark Souls’ punishing boss fights. You an item that lets you craft a fire-spitting submachine gun.
+ Enjoyable planet- play a nameless hero tasked with eliminating the Root, a Some weapons can have their special ability switched out
hopping adventure
race of evil, Ent-like creatures who have taken over the for a custom mod, such as a power that spawns an allied
+ Increasingly earth. From your base in an underground research facility creature, or triggers an area-of-effect heal. The further
colourful weapons
known as Ward 13, you venture into the ruins of the game you progress into the Remnant, the stranger and more
+ Spectacular world either solo or with two other players. mechanically diverse it becomes.
boss fights
Remnant’s initial couple of hours are deeply uninspired. Remnant is also designed with replayability in mind. Its
Visually, it’s an assault of brown rubble and browner campaign is roughly 15 hours long, but it’s also dynamically
TO THE DUST
enemies, while the third-person shooting – albeit solid – generated, so maps and boss encounters can be entirely
- Boring opening
seems devoid of personality. After defeating the first major different across a campaign. For example, in our second
- Many bosses boss, however, Remnant suddenly becomes much playthrough, Singe was replaced by the Ent, a giant walking
over-reliant on
swarming more exciting. tree that tries to stomp you into mulch.
- Lacklustre story Suddenly you’re jumping between planets via an Although Remnant improves considerably across its
interstellar gateway known as the Labyrinth, battling length, it’s still not perfect. Beyond the tedious opening
radioactive cavemen in an ancient desert metropolis and hours, the story often feels like it’s being made up on the
/VERDICT wading through knee-deep water on a giant insect world. hoof, despite borrowing the carefully crafted storytelling
Despite a tedious
It’s a delightfully bizarre about-face, and the general conventions of Dark Souls. Also, while the bosses are
start, Remnant
reveals itself to improvement stretches beyond the aesthetic. visually impressive, they’re mechanically over-reliant on
be a thoroughly Like The Division, Remnant’s progression revolves swarming you with waves of regular enemies to make them
entertaining around loot. However, Remnant takes a very different challenging. It’s not only annoying, but it detracts from the
sci-fi shooter. approach to dispensing it. Rather than constantly drip- impact of these encounters, as you’re focused more on not
feeding incremental upgrades, Remnant has fewer, more being overwhelmed than actually fighting the boss.
OVERALL SCORE significant loot drops. Most of them revolve around the These issues impact upon Remnant’s quality, but its
7
bosses who, when killed, drop unique items that can be locational leaps and colourful arsenal ultimately win out.
used to craft new weapons and weapon mods. If you’re willing to put up with the drab early game, a
These items are usually closely linked to the boss in challenging and rewarding adventure awaits.
question. For example, Singe – a giant fire-demon – drops RICK LANE
74
Hunt: Showdown
/ £30.49 inc VAT
DEVELOPER Crytek / PUBLISHER Crytek
H
unt: Showdown is all about choosing your
moment. In the swamps of 19th-century
Louisiana, multiple teams of gun-toting hunters someone else to do the dirty work before getting the drop HUNTER
attempt to track down and kill a powerful, otherworldly on them. You can even choose not to engage with the Hunt, + Clever structure
monster, but you choose now to engage with the hunt. and simply go after lesser enemies to rack up experience + Incredible
You could approach the concept directly. Taking place in points before quietly exiting the map. atmosphere
a large chunk of sweltering Louisiana Bayou, you must However you choose to play, Hunt is always a powder- + Guns feel weighty
navigate the marshland in search of ‘clues’, supernatural keg ready to explode. Beyond the banishment phase, you
anomalies that help you identify the location of the never know where other hunters are located, or even how HUNTED
monster. On your journey, you’ll contend with various many of them prowl the map. Meanwhile, the environment - Lacks variety
lesser creatures, such as zombies and squid-like horrors is littered with noise-making traps and low-level enemies
lurking in the water. that tempt you into firing your gun, potentially alerting
- Permadeath
mechanic a
Once you’ve pinned down the monster’s location, you other hunters to your location. Add the slow, weighty guns step too far
can descend into its lair to fight it. The monster is randomly and general atmosphere of dread, and Hunt is one of the
selected in each match, and includes beasts such as the tensest and shooters on the market. /VERDICT
Butcher, who is basically Leatherface on steroids, or the Round by round, Hunt is great fun. However, overall it With an
Spider, which is, well, a big bloody spider. lacks incentives to play in the long term. There are only atmosphere like
Presuming you aren’t slaughtered by the boss, once it’s two available maps, a handful of monsters and the soup and a
smart multiplayer
dead, you have to ‘banish’ its soul. This essentially involves unlockable weapon roster is relatively small. Moreover,
format, Hunt is
waiting for a timer to count down, but during this phase from level 11 onwards, Hunt employs a permadeath an innovative, if
your location is broadcast to every other hunter in the mechanic – if your Hunter is killed, they’re gone for good slight, multiplayer
game, and they can pop over, shoot you in the head and with all their equipment, which can quickly take the wind shooter.
steal your prize. Even if you survive banishment, you still out of your sails while playing.
need to exfiltrate the map via one of several exit points, Still, if you’re intrigued by games such as Fortnite or OVERALL SCORE
72
while other Hunters can intercept you at any point during PUBG, but would like a slower, more methodical
that journey. experience, Hunt fills that gap in a creative and ferociously
That’s the beauty of Hunt, because you can instead atmospheric way.
choose to be one of those chancing hunters waiting for RICK LANE
75
G A M E S / VIRTUAL REALITY
CHECK
Rick Lane plays space
janitor in our monthly
roundup of all things VR
REVIEW
OPINION
CROSS AT
RED MATTER / £18.99 incVAT
DEVELOPER Vertical Robot/ PUBLISHER Vertical Robot
CROSSBUY
When the Oculus Quest launched Red Matter isn’t a game about being a lines of code, but by getting their hands
earlier this year, one of the big space janitor, but you could easily pretend dirty and performing manual repairs.
questions was whether it would it is. This sci-fi adventure casts you as an As such, maintenance-based puzzles
support cross-play for users’ interplanetary spy in a future where the form the primary interaction with Red Matter’s
existing Oculus Rift libraries. Oculus Cold War never ended. Dispatched to the world. Your first task is simply to open the
responded, saying cross-buy surface of Saturn’s Moon Rhea, you’re loading warehouse door, which requires
support was up to the discretion of tasked with infiltrating a research outpost you to find two fuses. One of them is located
the developer. As a result, some belonging to the Communist Republic of in a storage locker high on the warehouse
games on Oculus devices support Volgravia, and ‘retrieving’ (stealing) some ceiling, and you need to manually operate
cross-play, while others, such as top-secret documents. Upon arrival, however, a mobile gantry with big chunky levers to
Superhot and Job Simulator, need to you discover the outpost abandoned, get it. As you delve deeper into the facility,
be bought anew if you want to play with most of its core systems offline. you’ll need to reboot the power system, fix
them on a separate Oculus device. You need to get the base up and running the circuitry of an elevator and restart the
However, when it actually comes again before you can start thieving, which main reactor by physically pumping up the
to purchasing games, Oculus is where the whole ‘space janitor’ vibe water pressure and opening up the valves.
doesn’t make it at all clear which makes its entry. Red Matter has a chunky, Mechanically, Red Matter is
games support cross-buy and which retro-futurist aesthetic. In its universe, straightforward, largely using the touch
ones don’t. The answer is hidden in humanity has colonised the outer reaches controllers to let you grip and manipulate
a sub-category of games named of the solar system, despite not inventing objects. That said, it does have a few neat
‘Quest and Rift apps’ that’s very the flat-screen monitor, and you interact touches. For example, the documents
difficult to find on the storefront. with a semi-sentient security system that and signage that provide hints to progress
This situation is frustrating, as spits out punch-cards for you to read. The are written in Volgravian, so you must use
players obviously want to save Volgravians don’t fix problems by altering your spacesuit’s translator to decipher
money where possible, and cross-
buy is a pretty major feature –
developers who use it will want its
support made clear to potential
buyers. VR gaming is demanding
enough on the wallet without
storefronts obfuscating potential
ways to save money, and frankly, I
think cross-buy games should be
positioned front and centre on the
Oculus store.
76
NEWS
NEW VALVE VR GAME
Rumours have long circulated that Valve is working
on a much bigger VR title than 2016’s superb The
Lab, and the firm has finally provided a small insight
into this long-anticipated game. Speaking at the
DigiPen Institute of Technology, Valve programmer
Kerry Davis explained that the goal was to create a
world with fully simulated physics and interactions,
using doors as an example.
In the game, Davis wants doors to react to the
player as they would in real life. For example, you NEWS
VALITY
can open it by turning the handle, but if it’s already
ajar, you could simply push it open with your hand.
During his talk, Davis also revealed that Valve’s
FAIR
mystery game is running on Source 2; up to this
point, it has only been used for Dota 2 and Artifact.
With the PC VR space dominated by Oculus

and HTC, it’s hard to see an outsider
shaking up the business, but that’s German
startup Vality’s aim. The firm plans to
provide Ultra HD visual clarity in a headset
smaller than any PC VR unit currently on
the market.
It comes from a different approach to
structuring the headset’s visual display. All
current-gen VR headsets use a macro-
display with basic optics. This setup
requires the lenses to be set a certain
distance from the display, resulting in the
them. Meanwhile, you use your spacesuit’s box-like structure that hangs off the front
jetpack to gently glide between locations, and of your face. Vality, on the other hand, aims
it’s designed specifically to mitigate motion to build a headset with a much smaller
sickness without forcing you to teleport display and high-magnification optics to
around like Star Trek’s Q looking for his keys. compensate. Using this system, the
All of this happens within an atmosphere company claims it can provide near-retinal
that’s strange and creepy without quite resolution in a headset roughly half the size
descending into outright horror. Storywise, and weight of the original Oculus Rift.
Red Matter spins a sufficiently enjoyable The company has produced a
sci-fi yarn, albeit one that feels like it could be prototype headset that, while not at
fleshed out better, and the same can be said retinal resolution, already has a pair of
for the game as a whole. Allowing for getting RED MATTER DOESN’T MATTER 2,000 x 2,000 micro displays. However,
stuck on a couple of puzzles, Red Matter + Tense atmosphere - Short for the price the overall field of view is considerably
lasts no more than two to three hours. + Gently enjoyable - Not especially original reduced compared with current-gen
Length, of course, isn’t everything. But Red puzzles
headsets’ wraparound displays.
Matter also lacks a unique mechanic upon + Cleverly designed Vality’s headset is still in development,
movement
which to hinge its other ideas. We saw the mechanics with a commercial release not expected
same lever pulling, valve spinning puzzling until 2021. Vality also expects initial
in Star Wars: Vader Immortal, but that game OVERALL SCORE versions to be used more for enterprise
VERDICT
60
also let you swing a lightsaber for a couple of (such as VR training) than recreational use.
A gently entertaining
hours. By comparison, Red Matter feels a bit sci-fi thriller that, Nonetheless, it’s an intriguingly alternative
staid. It’s not a bad game, but it never stretches while engaging, also approach to headset design that could have
beyond being a gently entertaining puzzler. lacks a bit of a spark. significant advantages for gaming.
77
F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION
BUILD A Antony Leather shows you how to

build a small, but incredibly powerful
PC for games and content creation
PC hen it comes to buying decisions and layouts, Finally, if you just have a single PCI-E device and a few storage
W mini-ITX PCs require far more consideration in

terms of hardware than larger form factors.
There are several reasons for this, but it stems
drives, then do you need that hulking great ATX case?
For all that’s great about mini-ITX PCs, there are, of
course, some potential downsides. Mini-ITX motherboards
from the huge variety of cases on offer. As you can see in this only offer a single PCI-E slot, which you’ll likely want to
month’s Labs test (see p46) of mini-ITX cases, the internal use for a graphics card, so you can’t use an internal sound
layouts differ wildly. Some have ample room for water- card or capture card. Many mini-ITX boards have fewer
cooling systems, others are limited to 120mm all-in-one than four fan headers too, meaning you’ll likely need to use
liquid coolers. Also, CPU cooler height limitations can vary splitter cables for more fans. They’re also limited to two
from below 100mm to close to 200mm. Some mini-ITX memory slots so you can’t drop in another kit to double your
cases have plentiful options for storage drives, while others capacity in a future upgrade. Finally, it can be tricky to build
are limited to a single hard disk. a mini-ITX PC. However, it only takes a day to build your PC,
You need to ask yourself what you’re looking to get from and you’ll benefit from your tiny PC for years. Plus, all of
a mini-ITX PC. Is your goal to minimise your PC’s footprint the cases in our Labs test were fairly simple to deal with.
to save desk space? Maybe you’re looking for something Over the next few pages, we’ll be building a powerful
smaller and more compact to take to LAN parties or mini-ITX PC using hardware such as AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X,
university. A lot of people simply enjoy the challenges of a PCI-E 4 SSD and Nvidia RTX 2070 Super graphics card,
mixing and matching hardware, and find ATX systems and proving that mini PCs can be every bit as fast as an ATX
their flexibility rather boring, while others might be building a system. We’ll also look at each component choice in detail, so
second PC for gaming and web browsing, leaving their larger you can head out to etailers with your wallet, forearmed with
system free for work such as editing and rendering. the information you need to build your perfect mini-ITX PC.
78
SHOPPING LIST
CPU overclocking. It also has three fan headers
compared to the paltry two on the Gigabyte
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X board, so it can handle a lavish cooling enabled features such as ray tracing
i gaand DLSS.
£531 inc VAT setup without loads of fan splitter cables. Its raw performance means it’s faster than any
scan.co.uk If you’re not fussed about PCI-E 4 support, current AMD GPU too. It’s ideal for ultrawide
there are plenty of X470 and B450 options and 2,560 x a,440 monitors, or for 1080p
We’re basing our mini-ITX PC on the mighty too. The Asus ROG Strix B450-I Gaming gaming at high refresh rates. Nvidia’s excellent
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. It has 12 cores that is practically identical to the X470 version cooler means it’s reasonably quiet as well.
can process up to 24 threads at a time, so and can handle the Ryzen 9 3900X.
it can rip through multi-threaded tasks. Its Alternatives
boost clock of 4.6GHz also makes it AMD’s Memory If you’re happy with 1080p or 2,560 x
quickest new CPU in games and other lightly 1,440 gaming at reasonable frame rates
threaded tasks. It can also reach an all-core 16GB Corsair Vengeance then Nvidia’s RTX 2060 Super is an
boost of a little over 4GHz. Its TDP is 105W, RGB Pro 3466MHz DDR4 excellent buy. It’s a slightly better option
though, so you’ll need a decent cooler. £136 inc VAT than AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT and will
scan.co.uk shave around £90 off the price of the
Alternatives RTX 2070 Super. For the extra outlay, the
The Ryzen 9 3950X lands in November and Memory speed makes a big difference to RTX 2080 Super isn’t particularly good
could be worth the wait, depending on the performance of AMD’s latest CPUs, value – the best option for 4K gaming at
your needs. It has 16 cores, allowing especially with Zen 2’s improved high frame rates is the RTX 2080 Ti.
it to process 32 threads, and has memory controller. It can handle
a peak boost frequency of faster speeds than 2nd-gen Case
4.7GHz. Early results Ryzen CPUs and run at up
show it performing to 3600MHz in sync with Metallic Gear Neo Mini
similarly to Intel’s Core Infinity Fabric, but prices rise £60 inc VAT
i9-9980XE, which costs steeply above the 3466MHz mark. amazon.co.uk
more than twice as much. If We’ve opted for that speed, courtesy
you lean more towards gaming of Corsair’s 16GB CAS16 kit, which has The case is the most important choice for
than content creation and want to save low timings and fantastic RGB lighting too. your mini-ITX PC, and you need to strike
some cash, the Ryzen 7 3700X costs around a balance between compactness and
£200 less, but still sports eight cores and 16 Alternatives capability that matches your needs.
threads, which is plenty for most people. If you’re not fussed by RGB lighting, Corsair’s Cooling is crucial, especially with top-
16GB Vengeance LPX kit with the same end hardware. Mini-ITX cases usually have
Motherboard speed and timings costs just £117 inc VAT. less airflow than their ATX counterparts,
The 32GB version of the Vengeance RGB as there are fewer fans and less space.
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro will set you back £238 inc VAT, but it’s Consider adding fans if there are any spare
Pro WiFi only worth it if you’re a heavy-duty content fan mounts. All-in-one liquid coolers and
£227 inc VAT creator or if you run lots of virtual machines water cooling are great for mini builds
overclockers.co.uk – it will make no difference to games. too, because they can get rid of heat very
effectively and prevent it building up, which
Gigabyte’s excellent X570-I Aorus Pro Graphics card can happen quickly in a small case.
WiFi (see p24) costs £227 inc VAT, looks We’ve chosen Metallic Gear’s Neo Mini,
great and includes two M.2 ports, which are Nvidia GeForce RTX as it has plenty of scope for expanding
particularly handy for cutting cable clutter. 2070 Super cooling, with two locations for 240mm
radiators. It has reasonable cable-stowing
Alternatives £489 inc VAT options and it’s attractive too. It’s not the
nvidia.com
ASRock’s X570 Phantom Gaming ITX/ smallest case, but it does have space for
TB3 might be a better bet if you want to a 240mm AIO liquid cooler. It's essentially
Nvidia’s RTX 2070 Super provides smooth
get the Ryzen 9 3950X later, as its actively a miniature tower case, with all the space
frame rates at 2,560 x 1,440 (and it can even
cooled VRMs might mean cooler operating and ease of access you’d expect, just
handle 4K), while supporting Nvidia’s RTX-
temperatures, especially if you plan on with some interesting design tweaks.
79
SHOPPING LIST
Alternatives cooling our Ryzen 9 3900X and can ramp up
The three runners-up from this month’s Labs cooling to extreme levels when needed while
test are all excellent options. The SilverStone remaining quiet in games and at low loads.
LD03 offers great cooling, has space for
120mm AIO coolers and its unique design Alternatives Alternatives
looks fantastic. The Phanteks Enthoo Evolv If you prefer a cheaper, smaller liquid cooler Unless you opt for a more powerful graphics
Shift Air also offers good cooling, an even then Alphacool’s Eisbaer LT120 is a great card, there’s no point in considering a
more striking design, space for 120mm liquid choice. It comes with an expandable loop, higher wattage than 550W for your PSU,
coolers and has the smallest footprint on test two 120mm fans and can squeeze into tight but if you want to replace the PSU cables
as well as space for long graphics cards. If spaces, while its pump is very quiet too. If with braided or custom ones, you’ll need
you prefer tower cases then NZXT’s H200i air cooling is your game then Deepcool’s to step up to a fully modular PSU. Corsair’s
is also an excellent choice, especially if you Gammaxx GT BK is a fantastic cooler for AMD RM550x is 80 Plus Gold-rated, as opposed
want to use some form of liquid cooling. Socket AM4, and it’s able to cope with the to the CX-series’ Bronze rating, and it’s
Finally, the third option from this month’s heat dished out by AMD’s 8-core and 12-core fully modular, so you can fit alternative
Labs test is the Lian Li PC-Q37WX. You’ll Ryzen CPUs for under £40. It also looks cables from Corsair, as well as from custom
need to kit it out with fans in addition to great and it’s easy to fit, plus it includes clips cable creators such as CableMod.
decimating your wallet, but the high price to mount a second 120mm fan if you need to
brings lavish features and build quality boost cooling or lower your noise levels by SSD
with huge scope for water cooling too. having two fans spinning at lower speeds.
1TB Corsair MP600
CPU cooler Extra cooling £242 inc VAT
scan.co.uk
Corsair H100i RGB Platinum Corsair ML140 fan
£110 inc VAT £222 inc VAT You need to use as few cables as possible
cclonline.com scan.co.uk in your mini-ITX PC, so there’s a strong
argument for ditching both 3.5in hard disks
Using larger radiators usually means lower To balance the airflow in our PC, we added and 2.5in SSDs, as they each add two cables
noise levels, as the cooler can dissipate more a large, powerful fan to the front section to the mix. M.2 SSDs are the answer here, and
heat by using multiple slower fans, rather than to counteract the mighty Corsair H100i there’s a huge choice of speeds and capacities.
a single faster one. As such, 240mm all-in- RGB Platinum cooler’s exhaust fans. It can We’ve chosen Corsair’s 1TB MP600, as it’s
one (AIO) coolers hit the sweet spot, and the spin at up to 2,000rpm and will provide one of the fastest SSDs you can currently
Corsair H100i RGB Platinum is a great choice. the GPU and motherboard with greater buy, with sequential read and write speeds
Its dazzling RGB lighting looks fantastic and its airflow than the 120mm fan provided with nearly 5,000MB/sec and over 4,000MB/sec
powerful pump provides exceptional cooling. the case. We’ve moved the latter to the respectively. That’s all thanks to its use of the
It’s extremely quiet at low to medium rear fan mount to act as an extra exhaust. latest PCI-E 4 standard. With 1TB of storage,
speeds, but Corsair’s iCUE software allows there’s enough room for Windows, games
full control over the pump and fans to PSU and a reasonable amount of other data too,
fine-tune them to your requirements. so you can potentially ditch all other drives.
We’ve mounted it in the side of our Metallic Corsair CX550M
Gear Neo Mini, pulling the warm air from our £62 inc VAT Alternatives
CPU straight out of the case. This also provides ebuyer.com If you’re not fussed by PCI-E 4, then Corsair’s
a great view of the RGB fans through the side MP510 is still a very fast PCI-E NVMe SSD,
anel.
nel. The cooler is more than up to the task of The Corsair CX550M power supply offers but it costs over £100 less for a 960GB drive.
plenty of power, even for a high-end If you want a second M.2 SSD to act as a
system. It's also quiet and, more importantly data storage drive in place of a hard disk,
for a mini-ITX PC, it has a semi-modular then a 1TB Crucial MX500 can be bought
cable system. The ability to disconnect for around £100 inc VAT. It’s limited to SATA
cables that you aren't going to use with speeds, but that’s fine for secondary storage.
your setup is a massive advantage in
small cases, as they often have limited
options for stowing and routing cables. TOTAL: £1,882INCVAT
80
BUILDING
THE PC
5
3
2
1 Install CPU
With AMD CPUs, use the small arrow marks
on the socket and CPU substrate to align the
CPU pins with the socket. The pins are very
6
fragile, so take care not to drop the CPU, and
keep it in its protective housing until you’re
4 5 Install SSD
near your PC. Pull up the lever, lower the CPU Locate the M.2 screw in the motherboard box
carefully into the socket, then push down the 3 Remove SSD heatsink and install your heatsink-less SSD into the M.2
lever to lock it in place. We’re using the fan-assisted M.2 slot on our slot. It should click into place into the M.2 port
motherboard to house our Corsair MP600 and sit flush with the screw mounting hole so
2 Install memory SSD, so you’ll need to remove its stock you can screw it into place.
As there are only two memory slots on our heatsink first, by unclipping the retention clips
motherboard, there’s no need to worry about on the sides. 6 Reinstall SSD heatsink
using the correct ones to enable dual-channel The heatsink’s fan is powered by a connector
mode. Push down the clips on either side of 4 Remove chipset heatsink on the motherboard – make sure it’s firmly
the memory slots, and push the memory The motherboard’s topside M.2 slot uses a seated when you reinstall the heatsink, as it’s
down (the notches ensure it can only be small fan to cool the chipset heatsink and M.2 easy to dislodge it while installing the SSD.
inserted the right way around) until the clips SSD located above it. You need to remove the When you test your system, make sure the fan
flip back into place to grip the memory. top section in order to install the SSD. spins initially, to ensure it works.
81
7 11
TEST YOUR
HARDWARE OUT 12
OF THE
CASE FIRST
13
8
11 Install radiator
7 Test hardware Now install the radiator in the case’s side
Test your hardware out of the case before
10 120mm fan mounts. You want to have the fans
installation, so you can identify any dead-on- on the front of the radiator, exhausting air out
arrival items. It’s highly unlikely, but doing this 9 Connect case cables of the case, as shown.
test will ensure you don’t waste time building Before you install the motherboard, connect
your PC only to find you have a faulty the fiddly case cables such as the power 12 Remove front case fan
component. Rest your motherboard on its box, button and USB headers. It’s easier to hook Now you need to remove the front fascia in
install the cooler on the CPU socket, plug in a them up now than when the motherboard is in order to access the front case fan that we’ll be
graphics card and power supply, connect all the case. Use the motherboard manual for an replacing. The facia pops off easily from one
the components and make sure your basic in-depth description of what goes where. end and reveals the front fan mounts.
system will enter the BIOS before continuing. Unscrew the 120mm fan located here.
10 Install motherboard
8 Remove fan mount fascia With the cooler still attached to the 13 Install Corsair ML140 fan
The side fascia in the case covers the motherboard, install it into the case, taking Install the Corsair ML140 fan as far down as it
otherwise unsightly fan mounts that exhaust care not to stretch the cooler cables. will go in the fan mount, so it will provide more
through a vent in the side panel. This needs to Remember the motherboard has an airflow to the graphics card and M.2 slot. Now
be removed in order to mount our cooler. It integrated I/O shield, so you don’t need to reinstall the fascia and place the 120mm case
simply clips into place and lifts off by popping install it. Screw the motherboard in place fan in the rear fan mount, exhausting air from
it out of its mount from either end. with the screws provided with your case. the case.
82
BUILDING THE PC
14 16
19
17
20
18 Install PSU
18 Install the PSU in the roof of the case. There’s
no roof vent, so fit it with the fan pointing
16 Connect case fans down. Route all the cables through the nearby
15 There are only two fan headers on the cable-routing holes and thread them back
motherboard, and we’re be using both. Install through to the motherboard area to meet the
14 Install graphics card the rear fan to the CPU fan header and the appropriate hardware.
Now install the graphics card. Remove the front fan to the system fan header. The rear
PCI-E expansion slot covers on the case and fan will likely have the biggest impact on 19 Connect power cables
also check for stray cables blocking the PCI-E motherboard temperatures, so it makes sense Now connect the PSU power cables to your
slot. The case also comes in a vertical GPU to have the fans wired this way around. hardware. It’s best to route the GPU cables
mount version, but it’s best to have the under the graphics card, and there’s plenty of
graphics card face down for optimal cooling. 17 Remove unwanted space next to the motherboard tray to route
PSU cables the motherboard’s cables.
15 Connect cooler cables As our PSU is semi-modular, we can remove
The cooler includes a bunch of cables that unused cables to reduce clutter. Only connect 20 Tidy cables
need to be connected, so that the lighting the ones you’ll need, which in this system Finally, tidy your cables. There’s precious little
works and the fans can be controlled by the means ditching all the peripheral cables room in the Neo Mini behind the motherboard
software. Gather the cables around the back except for one SATA cable, which we need to tray, so you’ll need to make very good use of
of the motherboard tray and connect them. power the case lighting and CPU cooler. the included Velcro-equipped stowage area.
83
SETUP AND
OVERCLOCKING
Fine-tune the rear fan in the EFI’s fan control section
When you fire up your PC, head into the EFI

(press Del) and start by configuring your
memory. Select the XMP profile to set your
memory to the correct speed, timings and
voltage. In this case, it’s 3466MHz and 1.35V.
Next, head to the fan control section. We
need to fine-tune the rear fan, which is
connected to your CPU fan header. We’ve
reduced the fan curve, so it only reaches full
speed when the CPU hits 100°C. Below this
temperature, the fan runs at around 50 per
cent speed, but you can fine-tune the speed
to suit your needs.
The easiest way to overclock your graphics
card is to use OC Scanner – an automatic
overclocking tool that’s included with
several overclocking utilities, including MSI
Afterburner. Click on the small vertical line
symbol next to the core clock bar and follow
through to OC Scanner. Click on Scan and the
software will test your graphics card and find
stable overclocked settings. Alternatively,
you can apply a manual overclock. We added
150MHz to the GPU core and set 500MHz in
the memory frequency bar.
We’ve decided not to overclock our Ryzen
9 3900X for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you
lose its peak 4.6GHz boost speed and, with
the all-cover overclock of our chip maxing
out at 4.3GHz, that’s quite a climb down for
gaming performance. The CPU will also run
hotter when overclocked, and while you do
gain multi-threaded performance, you lose
all-round performance, especially in lightly
threaded workloads. IF MULTI-THREADED
However, if multi-threaded performance
is your top priority, start by overclocking to
4.3GHz and apply a vcore of 1.425V. Then
PERFORMANCE IS YOUR
use Prime95 without AVX enabled to stress-
test your system for ten minutes, keeping a TOP PRIORITY, START BY
careful eye on temperatures. You can then
start to reduce the voltage in 0.01V steps until
you encounter stability issues, then raise it
OVERCLOCKING TO 4.3GHZ
two notches to keep your system stable.
84
BENCHMARKS
CINEBENCH R20
Single-threaded test
FAR CRY 5
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra detail
63,710
GIMP IMAGE
CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 521 CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 87fps 100fps EDITING
0 150 300 450 600 92fps 104fps
CINEBENCH R20 0 40 80 120 160
797,976
Multi-threaded test
3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Detail
CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 7,223
CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 48fps 54fps
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000
51fps 57fps
HANDBRAKE H.264
VIDEO ENCODING
Stock speed Overclocked 0 40 80 120 160
POWER CONSUMPTION SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
291,940
Idle 2,560 x 1,440, Ultra detail
CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 101W 102W CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 78fps 93fps
0 150 300 450 600 84fps 99fps
Load 0 40 80 120 160 HEAVY MULTI

TASKING
CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 341W 397W 3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Detail
0 150 300 450 600

CPC mini-ITX gaming PC 45fps 52fps
294,844
Stock speed Overclocked 48fps 52fps
0 40 80 120 160

SYSTEM
Overclocked min Overclocked avg SCORE
Select the XMP profile to set your memory

to the correct speed, timings and voltage
85
F E AT U R E / ANALYSIS
olid state drives (SSDs) have

well and truly established
themselves as the first choice
for PC storage, with hard drives
all but relegated to bulk, long-term storage
only. Their much faster access times have
brought about a revolution in the way we
expect our PCs to respond, with boot times,
game load times, file access and much more
SSDS ARE THE NEW STANDARD FOR COMPUTER now measured in seconds rather than
STORAGE, BUT WHAT MAKES THEM TICK AND minutes. But what lies at the heart of this
change in our computing lives? How exactly
ARE THE LATEST ULTRAFAST DRIVES WORTH IT? do SSDs work, and exactly what difference
EDWARD CHESTER R EXPLAINS ALL do they make? Read on to find out.
86
There’s not a lot
going on physically
inside an SSD
the cancelling
g effect of the floating
gate and switch ono the transistor. If a small
voltage is required, there’s no charge on
the floating gate, but if a stronger voltage is
Crucially, though, required then the ere must be a charge. This
once power is turned off voltage is known as the threshold voltage.
to a conventional transistor, the This stored chaarge is our crucial single bit of
charge drains away from the control gate data. We can now w store in it a 1, for when the
and the inversion layer once again becomes cell is discharged or a 0 for when the cell is
insulating. In this way, a standard transistor is charged. Why does a cell return a 0 if it’s
volatile, as it can’t retain knowledge of the on/ charged? Becausse the charge is negative, so
off state of the transistor when power is lost. a discharged cell has a higher voltage than a
WHAT A SSDS? For long-term
g storage,
g , we need a non- charged cell
cell.
The data storage capabilities of SSDs are volatile transistor, which is where the floating
derived from the same silicon wizardry gate transistor comes in. ERASING DATA AND
behind CPUs and GPUs. By manipulating the In floating gate transistors, there’s a second WRITE ENDURANCE
surface of
o a wafer of silicon, etching it and gate between the control gate and the source Oneofthemostfundamentalproblemswith
adding va arious layers of other substances to and drain of the transistor. This gate is flashmemoryisthat,inordertoaddchargeto
it, microscopic circuits can be formed. It’s this completely insulated from the rest of the thefloatinggate,youhavetoforceelectrons
reliance on
o a solid-state, purely electrical transistor, so no electricity can flow through it. throughaninsulatinglayer.Thisprocess
storage mmedium that makes SSDs so fast – As such, the gate is ‘floating’. degradestheinsulatinglayertoapointthat
moving electrons
e around is many orders of However, by applying a strong enough eventuallyitfails.Evenbeforethatpoint,the
magnitud de faster than spinning disks and voltage to the control gate, electrons can be chargethefloatinggatecanholdcanreduce,
moving read/write heads. forced to punch through the insulating layer to makingitmoredifficulttoreliablyreadthe
the floating gate. As the electrons build up, a thresholdvoltage.
FLOATING GATE TRANSISTORS charge is formed inside the floating gate. As Thisdegradationoftheinsulatinglayeristhe
The secre et to SSDs is the transistor, but it’s this charge increases, it impedes the normal reasonwhyflashmemoryhasawrite
a slightly different type of transistor to the switching operation of the control gate (which endurancerating.Typically,asinglecellcan
ones you u’ll find in a CPU or DRAM chip. With happens at a much lower voltage), until it bechargedanddischargedaround100,000
a processsor or DRAM transistor, it operates essentially blocks the control gate. timesbeforeit’snolongerusable.That’swhy
as a simp ple switch: thecontrollersfor
when a ssignal is
sent to on ne terminal
IN FLOATING GATE TRANSISTORS, THERE’S flashmemoryareso
carefulabouthow
(the control gate), A SECOND GATE BETWEEN THE CONTROL dataiswrittento
it causes current to
flow betw ween the
GATE AND THE SOURCE AND DRAIN OF memorycells,
ensuringthatwrite
two other terminals THE TRANSISTOR operationsareshared
(the source and aroundthedriveas
drain). It’ss just like your finger sending a Crucially, because a relatively large voltage evenlyaspossible.Incomparison,youcanwrite
signal to your lights by flicking a light switch. is required to force electrons in and out of the toharddrivesectorsagainandagainwithout
Digging a little deeper, what’s happening floating gate, when power is turned off, there long-termharm.
inside the transistor is that when a voltage is isn’t sufficient voltage to force the electrons Anotherkey issue is that data can onlybe
applied to the control gate, it causes electrons back out from the floating gate, so the charge erasedinlargeblocksatatime,becausealarge
to build up in the otherwise non-conductive remains. This gives us the crucial non-volatile voltageisrequired toclearthetrappedcharge.
layer (inversion layer) that connects the aspect of our memory. Instead, if you want to Typically,flashmemorycellsarearrangedina
source and drain. When this electron build-up change the charge on the gate, you can invert grid,wheretheentiregrid isreferredtoasa
(charge) is high enough, it causes the the voltage to the gate, forcing the electrons block,whileindividualrowsarecalled pages.
inversion layer to become conductive, back out, which is how the floating gate (or Pagesizesareintheregion of 2KBto16KB,
allowing current to flow between the source memory cell) is erased. with128to256pagesperblock, givingyou a
and drain. This is the very essence of To read data from the floating gate, totalblocksize ofbetween256KBand4MB.
semiconductors: they can be both conductive a measurement is taken of the voltage While datacan beread and writtenat the page
and non-conductive depending on their state. required at the control gate to overcome level, it canonlybe erased at the block level.
87
A regular transistor can’t retain

its state once power is lost
SLC AND MLC hold charge over time. This affects all types of
A conventional memory cell can store cell, whether the cell is single- or multi-level.
a single bit of information, as the However, because multi-level cells are
floating gate is either charged or operating on much tighter ranges of charge
discharged. Memory cells of this type level, it takes far less time for the reduced
SOURCE BIT are called single-level cells, or SLCs, overall charge capacity of the cell to corrupt
LINE WORD LINE LINE as the charge is only set to one level. the data retention of the cell.
CONTROLGATE However, by carefully controlling So, whereas a single-level cell typically
the exact level of charge in the gate, has a write endurance of 100,000 write
N P N cells can also be used to store more operations, MLC cells have around 10,000
than one bit of information. So, instead and a TLC just 3,000. Now, most cells can
of the charge level (and subsequent operate in all three modes, so the NAND or
threshold voltage) being set to one of its controller can potentially downgrade a cell
Floating gate transistors have an isolated gate two levels (full or empty) it can also be from TLC operation to MLC or SLC, as it wears
that stores a charge permanently
set to four levels (empty, one third full, out, but this depends on a number of factors,
two thirds full or full) or even eight such as whether there’s actually enough
levels. These cells are known as multi- room on the disk to reduce its volume.
WORD LINE level cells (MLCs) when two bits of This ability to have cells operate in
CONTROLGATE information are being stored, triple- different modes is also exploited by SSD
SOURCE BIT level cells (TLC) for when three bits are manufacturers to get the best of both
LINE FLOAT LINE being stored or even quad-level cells worlds. It’s now commonplace for SSDs to
GATE (QLC) for the latest four-bit cells. dynamically assign a portion of the drive
The big advantage of having to operate in an SLC mode so that the SSD
N P levels in one cell is can still offer fast write speeds. There’s
that you can greatly increase data generally a limit on the size of this SLC
density, as one cell can now store write cache, but it’s often large enough to
two, four or even eight times the accommodate most large file transfers –
As such, there can be considerable information of a single-level cell. However, they’re typically in the region of 10-30GB.
complication when a drive starts to fill up and there are two big disadvantages. When the write operation has finished and
you want to write (and particularly overwrite) The first is that the performance of the the SSD has a break in writing duties, it can
some new data. The SSD controller may cell drops as the number of charge levels move the new data to longer-term TLC
have to copy data from one block and increases. That’s because the circuitry has to storage, so it can retain its overall capacity.
squeeze it into another block (or several do a lot more careful checking when reading However, for situations where a drive is
other blocks), before erasing the empty the charge level and changing it. With SLC, you constantly being hammered with new data,
block and writing the new data back to the just dump in the charge and only need check it these write caches never get a chance to
cleared block. once to see if it’s above the threshold voltage. purge themselves, exposing a drive’s inherent
This is where the much-fabled TRIM However, with MLC or TLC, you have to be far MLC or TLC write speeds. That’s why the likes
command comes in. Previously, when an more careful. This situation impacts both read of servers or other high-demand applications
SSD was told to should only ever use
delete data, it
wouldn’t actually
BY CAREFULLY CONTROLLING THE EXACT SLC-based SSDs.
erase the data LEVEL OF CHARGE IN THE GATE, CELLS CAN WHY NAND?
(because doing too
much erasing will
ALSO BE USED TO STORE MORE THAN ONE One of the more
often overlooked
degrade the BIT OF INFORMATION aspects of the
memory faster) but terminology
just mark it as ignorable. However, when it and write performance but it’s particularly bad surrounding SSDs is NAND. People who did
comes to moving the data around for write for write performance, with TLC cells being 6x some GCSE-level electronics might recognise
operations, the SSD would still copy this data. slower for write operations compared to SLC, it as a term for a logic gate, but how does that
The TRIM command tells the SSD that it can for instance. relate to flash memory? Well, by connecting
skip rewriting the ignorable data the next The other big problem with multi-level cells multiple floating gate transistors together and
time it performs a block erase, preventing is write endurance. As we’ve established, wiring them in a certain way, we can form a
the steady build-up of deleted, but not continually erasing and reprogramming a cell string of memory cells (a word) that functions
erased, pages on an SSD. causes it to break down and lose its ability to in the same way as an extended NAND gate.
88
SLC NAND MLC NAND TLC NAND
That is, only when all the VTOTAL
transistors are on (all the inputs
TOTAL VOLTAGE 111
to the gate are switched to 1) will
CELL CAPABLE 11
they send a 0 signal to the bit line
OF STORING 110
(the output of the gate). 1
The reason NAND is still
used when talking about flash 101
memory devices – rather than us 10
just calling it flash memory – is 100
because there is also a different
type of flash memory that uses 011
a NOR gate arrangement of 01
transistors. Here, instead of 010
the floating gate transistors 0
being connected in series with 001
only one connection to the More charge-level 00
bit line at the end, each has granularity increases 000
its own connection directly data density
to the bit line. As a result, it’s SLC MLC TLC
1BIT/CELL 2BIT/CELL 3BIT/CELL
faster to read from NOR flash,
which makes it well suited
for direct code execution, as
used in embedded devices.
However, the downsides to SLC MLC TLC
NOR flash are that it’s slower to
erase and write new data, it’s WRITE CYCLES 100K 10K 5K
more expensive to make and it
can’t reach the data density of BITS PER CELL 1 2 3
NAND technology. That’s why
READ LATENCY
nearly all PC flash memory
MICRO SECONDS
25 50 100
devices, such as USB memory
sticks, SD cards and SSDs, are
WRITE LATENCY
made using NAND flash. Multi-level cells
MICRO SECONDS
250 900 1,500
increase data
3D NAND density but reduce
performance ERASE LATENCY
There’s one more key and lifespan MICROSECONDS
1,500 3,000 5,000
development in the physical
mechanics of modern flash
memory: 3D NAND. With this
relatively new development, instead of What’s more, 3D NAND can provide CONTROLLERS
transistors being formed in a single layer on improved performance, better endurance As with any computer storage, an SSD isn’t
the surface of a piece of silicon, they’re and lower power consumption than standard just storage cells; it relies on several other
formed in multiple layers, stacked vertically. NAND. That’s why, in the last handful of components to interface with your PC. In the
Specifically, the whole structure of the years, nearly all bulk flash memory has case of an SSD, these include a portion of
transistor is morphed so that the source, switched to a variation on 3D NAND. high-speed volatile memory (DDR), several
inversion layer and drain extend vertically Bear in mind that, when comparing the flash memory controllers, a central processor,
from the base substrate. The control gate manufacturing technologies of 3D and 2D a portion of NOR flash to store firmware, an
and floating gates are then formed around NAND, it’s not meaningful to compare the interface controller (SATA, PCI-E) and much
the channel that runs between the source node size – the typical 22nm or 7nm figures more. These parts all work together to
and drain. you see attached to silicon manufacturing organise how data is written to or read from
This arrangement enables manufacturers processes. That’s because the process is the device, ensuring the device delivers and
to massively increase the overall density of fundamentally different, with the focus being retains its data in a speedy fashion while also
the memory cells, with the latest 3D NAND on packing in more layers, rather than getting controlling wear levelling, garbage collection,
chips packing in 96 layers of NAND cells. more detail per layer. encryption and so on.
89
By and large, much of the terminology It’sthefactthatmodernSSDscanmanage a The SATA standard tops out at 6Gbps
when discussing controllers is intuitive. A long and complex queueof datarequests (typically 550MB/sec), whereas
faster processor (with multi-core chips now that’scrucialtothemmaintainingperformance. SSDs have long since been able to
commonplace) will allow the SSD to surpass that figure, with modern drives
coordinate its tasks faster. Likewise, the RAM NVME, SATA AND pushing upwards of 4,000MB/sec.
is used to buffer data as it’s moved between FORM FACTORS This led to the development of a new
the NAND, processor and host interface. Recently, the biggest change in the SSD drive interface standard called NVMe that,
You’ll often see references to a controller’s world is the introduction of M.2 drives. instead of using a separate drive-specific
number of channels, which refers to how These small drives slot directly onto your connection standard, plumbs straight into
many NAND flash banks with which the motherboard and can provide considerably the PCI-E bus of your PC, the maximum
controller can communicate simultaneously. faster performance than SSDs of old. bandwidth of which tops out at 3.94GB/
With modern controllers, they rely heavily on The first wave of SSDs (and many current sec (PCI-E 3) or 7.88GB/sec (PCI-E 4) for
spreading the load of both read and write drives) were built around the existing the 4x connection used by SSDs. Drives
operations across multiple channels, to keep standards of hard drives. They came in laptop using this new standard can be connected
up with demand, which is why lower-capacity hard drive-sized 2.5in form factors, and to the PCI-E bus with a variety of physical
drives with fewer NAND chips/banks have connected via conventional SATA data and methods, but the two most common are
lower performance. power cables. However, these standards M.2 drives or PCI-E expansion slot cards.
Were it not for the latest controllers having held back the potential of SSDs in two basic
upwards of eight channels, SSDs wouldn’t be ways. The first is that the physical form factor PCIE 4
able to deliver anywhere near their current of an SSD can be far smaller and more The latest development in SSD storage is
performance– the flash alone can’t keep up versatile than a hard drive. Why stick to a the move from the longstanding PCI-E 3
with demand. 2.5in hard drive shape when you could have standard to PCI-E 4 standard. This doubles
That’salsowhyyou’ll see‘Q32’mentioned a far slimmer, narrower and lighter design? the available total bandwidth on the PCI-E
a lot whendiscussing SSDs,asitreferstothe What’s more, the SATA standard also bus, allowing SSDs to break through the
queuedepthof dataread and writerequests. limited the overall potential speed of a drive. ~3,500MB/sec barrier that was starting to
limit performance on the
very fastest drives.
NOR BIT LINE We looked at the Corsair
MP600 in issue 193, where
it delivered impressive
WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD maximum sequential
LINE 0 LINE 1 LINE 2 LINE 3 LINE 4 LINE 5 speeds 5,008MB/sec read
and 4,268MB/sec write.
It’s not quite the massive
leap we saw when moving
from SATA to NVMe,
but it’s still a significant
bump. However, PCI-E 4 is
currently only available on
AMD X570 motherboards.
NAND BIT LINE THEORETICAL

PERFORMANCE
GROUND BIT LINE DIFFERENCES
SELECT WORD WORD WORD WORD SELECT The end result of the move
TRANSISTOR LINE 0 LINE 1 LINE 6 LINE 7 TRANSISTOR to PCI-E buses, 3D NAND,
multi-channel controllers
and, of course, the raw
capability of NAND flash
in general, is that we now
have some phenomenally
fast storage. Even the very
NAND and NOR flash memory are both still used earliest SSDs showcased
with each having advantages and disadvantages the massive drop in access
90
Samsung’s latest Moving allyourcacheing,projectfileand
Phoenix controller has
five CPU cores and
scratchdiskstoanNVMeSSDcanimprove
talks to eight NAND performancein some tasks, such as importing
channels at once media,by up to 40 per cent.That’snot to be
sniffed at, and certainly forprofessionals any
saving is worthwhile,but the difference is still
small compared withthe improvementwhen
upgradingfromahard drivetoanySSD.
Thebig caveat here is thatif you’reusingan
SSDforthese sorts of applications, thenusing
a more expensiveSLC(orMLC)baseddrive is
far more preferable to using aTLCor QLC
drive.Thelargenumberoferaseandwrite
operationsthat areperformed willwear out
the drivequitequickly,soyou’llwantthe
robustnessof such premiumdrives.
time for solid state storage when compared are faster. PC life is just immeasurably Likewise, there’s a host of other more
with hard drives, with a typical hard drive improved by this one simple upgrade. specialised applications that put aconstant
taking around 10 milliseconds to reach a piece What’s more, with prices having steadily heavyloadonSSDs,such asservers and
of requested data, and a typical SSD taking dropped and capacities risen, it’s now a cheap certain scientificapplications.Inthese
just 0.1 milliseconds – that’s 100 times faster. and viable option to have, say, a 1TB SSD as instances, again, it’sgenerally a caseofthe
This in turn leads to the colossal your PC’s only non-volatile storage. Unless fasterandmoredurablethebetter. However,
performance difference between hard drives you absolutely need the massive bulk storage performanceandthenumber ofreadsand
and SSDs when it comes to random read and of 4TB or even 6TB drives (which, with our writes vary massively dependingon the
write performance, where the drive is having ever-growing picture and video collections, exact application.
to jump all around its storage system to find and the massive files of today’s games, isn’t
bits of data. Here, where a hard drive might out of the question), we wouldn’t bother with THE BEST SSD FOR YOU
struggle to deliver 600 input/output hard drives at all. So,what’sthebest SSDforyourneeds?For
operations per second (IOPS), even a basic Where the situationgetstrickier is when the sheerconvenienceofnot needingtouse
SATA SSD can deliver 100,000 IOPS. lookingatupgradingyourexistingSATASSDs cables, these dayswe’drecommendanM.2
Meanwhile, although the earliest SSDs tothelatest ultra-fastmodels.Putsimply, NVMedrive such as the great-value Corsair
weren’t that much MP510,the960GB
faster at reading and
writing larger chunks WHERE A HARD DRIVE MIGHT STRUGGLE versionof whichyou
cangetfor£125inc
of data, these days TO DELIVER 600 INPUT/OUTPUT OPERATIONS VAT.It’snotthefastest
IOPS, EVEN A BASIC SATA SSD CAN DELIVER

the difference is M.2 drive, but it’s
huge. While a typical plenty fast enough,
hard drive might just
about be abletoreach
100,000 IOPS andit’saffordable
andconvenient.
200MB/sec read and write speeds, a modern therearen’tthatmany situations where the Ifyouneedanevenlarger singledrive, you
NVMe SSD can deliver 20x that figure. advantageisparticularlypalpable,assuming canget upto2TBM.2drivesorupto4TBSATA
yourSATA driveisn’tparticularly oldandlow- drives, but bothoptions areexpensive.Instead,
REALWORLD capacity.In last month’s£100upgradesfeature we’d recommendlooking intohowyou can
PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES we compared amodern 1TBNVMedrivewith bestsplitup your data andload it onto a couple
The theoretical performance advantage of a 500GBSATAmodel,and it saved amere two of drives, ideallywith onebeing a cheap hard
the latest SSDs is clear, but what matters seconds on Windows boottime and made driveormaybeanolder SSD.
in the end is how it affects our everyday nodifferencetotheloadtimes ofacouple Ifyou’re looking fora drive that’s going
usage, and here we actually see a more ofgames wetried. Infurther testing, wedid to beusedfor a scratchdiskinAdobe
nuanced picture. If you compare any SSD seeahandfulofinstanceswhereyousavea Premiere, orsomeother application where
from the past six or seven years with any second ortwo,but byand large, non-volatile it willbehita bitharderandmoreregularly
hard drive, you’ll see clear benefits across storageis no longer thebottleneck here. than intypical PCusage, then anydrive
the board. Windows boots faster, games and In higher-demand applications,suchas that’s based on SLC or MLCstorageis the
apps load faster, programs such as video videoeditingsoftware,thedifferencecanbe waytogo,such astheSamsung 970Pro
editors respond quicker and file transfers morenoticeable. (M.2)orSamsung860 Pro(SATA).
91
C U STO M I SAT I O N / HOBBY TECH
G A R E T H H A L FAC R E E ’ S
Hobbytech
The latest tips, tricks and news in the world of computer hobbyism,
from Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Android to retro computing
I N T E RV I E W
Ryan Brown from Quarter Arcades
T
he nostalgia-fuelled ‘mini’ console That’s where Quarter Arcades,
trend is in full swing, despite a few from Numskull Designs, come in.
missteps along the way – such as ‘Well, the pun certainly helps,’ says
Sony’s ill-received and rapidly discounted Ryan Brown of the company’s
PlayStation Mini, which failed to include any naming, and the related decision
of the platform’s most well-remembered to scale its products down to
games. However, consoles were already one quarter of their original
pretty compact; what happens if you apply sizes. ‘It’s mostly down to their
the same concept to some larger items of manageable size; we think
yesteryear, such as arcade cabinets? they’re still fairly large, but small
enough to be reasonably stored
or displayed in UK homes, and
easy enough to move around
should you want to do so.
‘They’re collector’s pieces as
much as they’re meant to be
playable, so they should be the
perfect size to display in a cabinet,
Numskull’s Quarter Arcades do just what the
or on a shelf. Plus, of course, unlike name says, bringing quarter-sized arcade cabinets
in the USA, most people in the UK to the home
simply don’t have the space to
keep several full-sized arcade cabinets in counterparts, bar a move to an LCD in
their home, so this is the next best thing!’ place of a CRT, weren’t Numskull’s first
The Quarter Arcades machines, creation; that honour goes to a range of
The attention to detail extends to the US-style which are designed to be as close as game-branded products, such as hats,
coin slots, which are obviously non-functional possible in appearance to their full-sized mugs, figurines and even scented candles.
92
NEWS IN BRIEF
Hackers unlockRaspberry Pi 4 PCI-E slot

Engineers Tomasz Mloduchowski and Colin Riley
have been working at gaining access to the
Raspberry PI 4’s PCI-E bus directly, desoldering
the VL805 chip and soldering a proper PCI-E slot
in its place. They’ve enjoyed surprising success.
Riley’s work is particularly impressive: as well as
connecting a bunch of USB 3 cards to the PCI-E
bus, he also connected a SATA controller and even a pair of high-performance GPUs.
While drivers for the latter aren’t yet available, his experiments continue. More
The reduced scale does have a casualty: information is available from mloduchowski.com and labs.domipheus.com
a switch from CRTs to small LCDs
Impressively, the marquees – complete

‘The two co-founders of our company, we’re proud of more than anything else with original arcade art – light up
Ben Grant and Matt Precious, grew up with the range, and something we strongly
playing arcade games themselves. So, believe we do better than the competition.
with our pre-existing relationships with a ‘We literally buy an original arcade cabinet
lot of companies such as Bandai Namco, of each game on which we work to produce
who own Pac-Man, Galaga and so on, as a 3D digital model and compare it with
well as our history with official gaming the original cab. We do this multiple times
merchandise, it was a natural progression again throughout the development phase,
for us to create the Quarter Arcades.’ with multiple prototypes sent over to us to
The desktop Quarter Arcades cabinets compare against the real deal. Of course,
include Space Invaders, Dig Dug, Track & we also work in unison with the licence
Field, Galaxian, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and holder, who has to approve everything
the original Pac-Man. So far, Pac-Man has and can be very picky about the details!
launched and Galaga is soon to follow, with We’re at the point where we spend a not
the remainder scheduled for mid-2020. insignificant amount of time comparing
They’re not to be confused with some of the screws on top of the cabinets.’ and don’t live up to our standard,’ Brown
the ‘1,000-in-1’ knockoffs though. Each At their heart, of course, the Quarter admits. ‘For those customers, we’ve been
cabinet plays a single game that’s fully and Arcades are emulation machines, but very happy to replace their cabinets. As Pac-
officially licensed. There’s attention to detail they’re accurate ones, claims Brown. ‘The Man was our very first release, we have of
in the build process too. ‘The accuracy is a emulator runs on a board inside the cabinet’ course taken on a lot of feedback from that,
big, big thing for us,’ says Brown. ‘It’s what – which is based on the Allwinner V3 Arm and applied it to Galaga and future cabinets.’
SoC – ‘running an accurate original arcade Speaking of future cabinets, the
ROM of the game, with the whole thing company’s current list of upcoming
looked over with a fine-toothed comb by machines is by no means exhaustive.
both ourselves and the licence holder.’ ‘We’ve started with the obvious classics
The launch of the first cabinet, a Pac-Man because they are, of course, very popular
system, wasn’t without its teething troubles and very important to people,’ says
though. Some early adopters complained Brown. ‘Starting with the most beloved
of poor build quality, while others were classics really helps us open doors to
disappointed by the inability to adjust other, more niche arcade games, and even
settings controlled by physical DIP switches potentially games that never reached the
on the real cabinets. There were also arcade, now that we’ve proven ourselves
complaints about lack of a high-score save to retailers who stocked and found
system – despite having an internal battery, success with our previous cabinets.’
which is used to allow the cabinets to be More information on the Quarter Arcade
played without a wired power connection. cabinets is available from numskull.com,
‘The majority of cabinets have been along with links to purchase Pac-Man or
The team at Numskull has outlined a range of
cabinets to come, and teased some never-before- received incredibly well, but as with all pre-order the other systems at £149.99
seen systems to boot products, there will be some that are faulty and £129.99 respectively (both inc VAT).
93
The hardware side of installation

is solderless and easy, but the
software is another matter
REVIEW
Seeed Studio
Grove AI HAT
A
first glance at the Seeed Studio in one. The two primary processors are 64-bit
Grove AI HAT reveals a surprising parts running at between 400 and 600MHz
amount of hardware for a Raspberry and are based on the open RISC-V instruction
Pi add-on board. There’s a reason for this: it’s set architecture (ISA). These are joined by a fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), AES encryption
not really a Raspberry Pi add-on board. co-processor dubbed the Kendryte and SHA256 hashing. There’s also 6MB of
To clarify: the Seeed Studio Grove AI HAT Processing Unit, with Kendryte also being the static RAM, and an additional 2MB of SRAM
can, indeed, be connected to a Raspberry Pi’s creator of the SoC that powers the Sipeed for the AI accelerator.
general-purpose input/output (GPIO) just like module, which in turn powers the Seeed HAT. Seeed’s contribution to the design is the
any other device that adheres even vaguely to Designed for accelerating artificial HAT-form-factor carrier board. This includes
the Raspberry Pi’s Hardware Attached on Top intelligence workloads – hence the name of an impressive count of six of the company’s
(HAT) standard. It doesn’t have to be though: the HAT – this co-processor offers a claimed Grove connectors for external hardware,
it’s capable of operating as an entirely 230 giga-matrix-multiplications (GMULps). covering one digital IO, one pulse-width
independent development board, thanks to That’s not all you’ll find hiding under the modulated (PWM) IO, one I²C bus, one
the Sipeed Maix M1 AI Module at its heart. metal shield either, The module includes an UART and two analogue-to-digital (ADC)
This bulky part, covered by an etched audio processing system supporting up to converters, along with an on-board digital
metallic shield, is effectively three processors eight microphones, additional accelerators for microphone and accelerometer.
Right
The Grove AI HAT
has a good layout,
with plenty of
connections for
external hardware
Left
It’s a HAT, or so
says the box, but
don’t expect it all
to work on a
Raspberry Pi
94
Used as a standalone development board,
the Grove AI HAT is surprisingly compact
There’s also a connector for a camera and an

LCD, both sold separately.
The hardware, then, is impressive. When
it comes to actually using the Grove AI
HAT, sadly, it starts to fall down. The first,
and biggest, issue is that there’s no way to
The HAT, as its name implies, leans
actually program the Grove AI HAT from heavily on Seeed’s Grove connectors
the Raspberry Pi itself. Seeed’s demo for external hardware interfacing
program – a face-recognition application
based on a pre-trained data set, and which There’s nothing about offloading traditional There’s even the potential to simply use it as
requires the ‘optional’ camera and display deep-learning workloads, such as TensorFlow an unusual Arduino-compatible, or to play
to be fitted to the Grove AI HAT with no or Caffe, although Seeed indicates that its around with the RISC-V ISA at a lower level.
option to use an existing Raspberry Pi engineers are looking into adding it. For beginners, though, the documentation is
Camera Module – does demonstrate an If it arrives, however, it’s going to hit a simply too sparse and the example projects
interface between the Raspberry Pi and bottleneck. Using the GPIO header as its sole too limited. Coupled these shortcomings with
the HAT. However, its purpose is simply connection to the Raspberry Pi sorely limits its incompatibility with the Raspberry Pi as a
to count the number of faces detected. the amount of data that could be shuffled programming environment – which will only
The actual programming has to happen back and forth between the two otherwise change if Kendryte decides to put in the time
on a traditional x86 desktop or laptop. independent machines. The Studio Grove AI and effort to make its toolchain compatible –
For a device that claims to be a HAT for the HAT is by no means a cheap drop-in and the Grove AI HAT is a sadly mislabelled
Raspberry Pi, that’s a major oversight – but it’s replacement for an accelerator such as the and mistargeted device.
not wholly Seeed’s fault. The company is Google Coral USB Accelerator, which uses a For professional developers, the Sipeed
leaning heavily on a toolchain developed by USB 3 link to provide a high-speed connection M1 AI Module itself may be of more interest:
Kendryte, the company behind the K210 SoC to its well-supported Tensor Processing Unit the company has aggressively priced it at
powering the HAT, and at present, Kendryte (TPU) co-processor. $9 US in individual unit quantities, dropping
hasn’t released a toolchain that’s compatible Seeed positions the part as suitable for edge to $6 in volume (around £7.50 and £5 exc
with ARM host systems. AI projects, smart building monitoring, robotics VAT and shipping).
The documentation is also poor. Seeed has and even medical equipment. For the hobbyist, More information on the Seeed Studio Grove
only released three example programs, and the board’s low price – $28.90 US (around AI HAT is available from seeedstudio.com.
only the facial recognition demo uses the AI £24 ex VAT and shipping) – could make it a More information on the Maix M1 AI Module,
functionality or a Raspberry Pi; the remaining tempting toy even with its various limitations. meanwhile, can be found on sipeed.com
two demonstrate simple Grove interfacing
with external hardware using the Arduino IDE.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Boldportsigns VellemanandPimoroni licences
When Saar Drimer announced the Boldport Club
was shutting its doors, it was disappointing. Now,
though, it has opened up new avenues thanks to
licensing agreements for the company’s iconic
circuit designs. Drimer has confirmed licensing
agreements with Velleman and Pimoroni, giving
the two companies the rights to manufacture
and sell Boldport-designed soldering kits,
including the Ligemdio LED tester, new
Cordwood Puzzle variants and the bare bones
The Sipeed Maix M1 module is built around a Cuttle Arduino-compatible.
Kendryte K210 dual-core RISC-V processor
with AI-accelerating ‘KPU’
95
REVIEW
Pimoroni Inky wHAT
W
hen building a self-contained third colour
Raspberry Pi project, there’s into the mix –
always the question of how to red or yellow,
display its data. A traditional LCD panel is a depending on
colourful option, but draws a lot of power and the model.
glows brightly at times you might not want to E-Ink and
be disturbed. An OLED display is compact other e-paper
and eye-catching, but a little cramped. displays, known as
Meanwhile, devices such as the Pimoroni electrophoretic
Unicorn HAT and its HD upgrade are neat displays, are typically
and colourful, but lack the resolution for any found in e-readers.
display beyond simple icons. They work by floating
The Inky wHAT, meanwhile, comes rather or sinking coloured balls
out of left field. Based on an E-Ink display, depending on charge;
and building on the earlier Inky pHAT displays unlike an LCD, the display
for the Raspberry Pi Zero range, the maintains its contents even The Inky wHAT offers a surprisingly large,
though relatively low-resolution, E-Ink
oversized add-on board – the ‘w’ stands for when powered off. display for any Raspberry Pi
‘wide’ – adds a 4.2in display panel via a The result is a panel that draws very little
solderless connection to any Pi’s populated power and relies on reflected light. While that infrequently updated data in a friendly manner.
GPIO header. means it’s readable in bright sunlight, unlike a Bundled examples, written in Python as is
The display is reasonably sized, but also typical LCD, it’s also impossible to read in the usual for Pimoroni products, showcase
relatively low-resolution at 400 by 300 dark, which may be a blessing or a curse, displaying calendar information, famous
pixels. In the base model, any one of these depending on your project. E-Ink displays are quotations, or even using one as an oversized
pixels can be black or white – the black being all about trade-offs. In good lighting they’re name badge.
a very dark grey and the white being a very incredibly clear, but in poor lighting they’re With a little hacking, it’s possible to cram a lot
light grey, as is usually the case for e-paper unreadable. They don’t need ongoing power of information on the screen too. Using the
style displays. Two upgraded variants add a to maintain an image, but they take a free Tom Thumb font designed by Robey, with
surprisingly long time to refresh that image. tiny 4 x 6 characters, you can cram up to 80
The 400 x 300 resolution is low and individual
pixels are clearly visible if you look closely, but The slow-refresh issue can be seen in the horizontal characters and 42 lines onto the
it’s enough for a lot of projects Inky wHAT in spades. While the black and display – a total of 3,360 characters – while
white model – and still being entirely readable.
the three-colour The only downside of the Inky wHAT, for
models, when run anyone who doesn’t need full colour or
in black and white animation at least, is the price. E-Ink displays
mode – refresh in aren’t cheap, and Pimoroni’s HAT hardware
six or so seconds of bumps up the price to £42.50 for the black
flashing and blinking, and white versions, or £49.50 for the three-
refreshing a display colour variants (both inc VAT). For the money,
running in three- you do get mounting hardware, a booster
colour mode takes header for solder-free installation, and a board
around 30 seconds. that breaks out GPIO pins to provide access to
It’s not for the Pi’s I²C and SPI buses, as well as a single
animation then. general-purpose pin, 3V3, and 5V pins and a
Where the Inky wHAT ground pin. The Inky wHAT is available now
excels is displaying from pimoroni.com
Gareth Halfacree is the news reporter at www.bit-tech.net, and a keen computer hobbyist who likes to tinker with technology. @ghalfacree
96
F O R T H E W I N / COMPETITION
WIN
A ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 1660
GRAPHICS CARD
The lovely folks over at Zotac are offering a GeForce
GTX 1660 Gaming graphics card to one lucky Custom
PC reader. Based on Nvidia’s latest Turing
architecture, this card is packed with 1,408
stream processors and 6GB of fast GDDR5
memory. Get ready for your gaming
performance to become fast and strong.
Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming really

impressed us in our last graphics cards Labs test
(see Issue 190, p44), never dropping below 70fps in
our Battlefield V 1080p test, and staying well above
50fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex:
Mankind Divided too. What’s more, it’s exceptionally
quiet, draws hardly any power and has plenty of
overclocking headroom.
• 1,408 stream processors
• 6GB of 8GHz (effective) GDDR5 memory
• Nvidia Turing architecture
• 1785MHz GPU boost clock
• 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 outputs
• HDMI 2b output
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY AT

CUSTOMPC.CO.UK/WIN
Competition closes on Friday, 8 November. Prize is offered to participants worldwide aged 13 or over, except employees of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the prize supplier, their families or friends. Winners will
be notified by email no more than 30 days after the competition closes. By entering the competition, the winner consents to any publicity generated from the competition, in print and online. Participants agree
to receive occasional newsletters from Custom PC magazine. We don’t like spam: participants’ details will remain strictly confidential and won’t be shared with third parties. Prizes are non-negotiable and no
cash alternative will be offered. Winners will be contacted by email to arrange delivery. Any winners who have not responded 60 days after the initial email is sent will have their prize revoked.
97
MODDING / OPINION
A N TO N Y L E AT H E R ’ S
Customised PC
Case mods, tools, techniques, water-cooling gear
and everything to do with PC modding
Is it worth water-cooling Navi? Putting a
waterblock on a
O
ver on p102 you’ll find a guide
Radeon RX 5700
to installing a waterblock on XT can knock
AMD’s latest Navi cards, 38°C off the core
which is likely going to be a popular temperature at
peak load
decision for Navi cards, despite their
sub-£400 prices. I certainly wouldn’t
want to sit next to the blower cooler of
the RX 5700 XT for long periods of time,
but as there are plenty of reference
models around, buying one and water-
cooling it is easy. However, there are
other benefits to water-cooling your
hardware other than noise reduction. To start, the stock cooler hit 82°C higher. The memory speed also
Processors are becoming more in AMD’s Radeon Settings WattMan ramped up further, hitting 982MHz
intelligent in the way they boost section during a ten-minute stress compared to 872MHz at stock speed.
frequencies and respond to your test at standard fan speed settings, The GPU temperature fell massively
cooling system’s capabilities, adding with a peak boost frequency of too, down to just 44°C at the end of the
extra megahertz to their clock speed if 1930MHz. The software also reported stress test.
temperatures are kept below certain that the card was drawing 169W of With boost frequencies being
levels, or maintaining a higher boost power. I then used a 240mm radiator responsible for a great deal of the peak
frequency for longer. This is true for with two 120mm fans spinning at performance of modern hardware, it’s
CPUs as well as graphics cards, and 1,000rpm, along with an EKWB D5 useful to identify any metrics that the
Navi is no exception. pump and reservoir as the cooling hardware uses to determine those
As well as the GPU core, the system, plus EKWB’s EK-Vector frequencies, as well as whether there’s
waterblock I used in the guide covers Radeon RX 5700 XT D-RGB Special any way to manipulate them, such as
the VRMs, memory and various Edition waterblock. boosting cooling.
other small hotspots on the PCB, After the same stress test, the Even if you don’t plan to overclock
plus it has a passive backplate. I software showed an increase in peak your graphics card, AMD’s RX
set about seeing just how much power draw to 190W, along with a 5700-series cards respond well to
cooler the RX 5700 XT ran when it noticeably higher peak clock speed water cooling, with significantly higher
was water-cooled, compared with boost. This figure rose from 1930MHz boost frequencies being observed. In
using the stock cooler, while also at stock speed to 2007MHz once fact, the 2007MHz I saw with my
monitoring its boosting frequencies. water-cooled – a handy 77MHz reference card is similar to many pre-
98
overclocked cards that cost around £70 The MasterFan
more than a typical reference Radeon SF360R uses
one PWM cable
RX 5700 XT. PowerColor’s Red Devil RX and one RGB
5700 XT, for example, has a boost cable for three
frequency of 2010MHz and costs £450 fans, significantly
compared to £375 for the cheapest reducing cable
clutter
card that I could find equipped with
AMD’s standard blower fan cooler.
This saving covers more than half
the cost of a waterblock for the RX
5700 XT, so if you were planning on
buying one of AMD’s new 7nm
graphics cards and already have a
water-cooled CPU, adding the
hardware necessary to water-cool it
might not cost that much more than
stepping up to a pre-overclocked card,
and will likely offer higher boost speeds
and the same or better overclocking
headroom. Plus, of course, your
graphics card will then be one of the
quietest components in your PC too.
Cooler Master’s MasterFan installing fans easier, whether they’re huge amount of cable spaghetti in a
SF360R ARGB being fitted inside cases or onto small space. The situation quickly
Last month we looked at Cooler 360mm radiators, by creating a single gets ridiculous if those fans have
Master’s MasterFan SF120R ARGB fan object that can be installed in one go. separate cables for RGB lighting too,
(see Issue 194, p44), which offered There are two benefits to using the with you ending up with six cables for
decent airflow and RGB lighting for a MasterFan SF360R ARGB here. Firstly, just three fans. Plus, due to the size of
reasonable price, and did pretty well instead of needing 12 screws to install the radiator, one fan often ends up
for itself in our 120mm fan Labs test. a trio of fans in your case or onto a sitting too far away from the rest for
However, this model is only one small radiator, you just need four. its cables to be routed neatly, and
part of Cooler Master’s latest range of That’s a massive boon in my eyes. It then requires an extension cable.
fans, and this month I’m looking at the not only reduces time, but it also cuts Cooler Master has thought of this
larger MasterFan SF360R ARGB – a Cooler Master’s down on faffing. When you’re lining up situation too, as the MasterFan
triple 120mm fan bracket equipped new SF360R a 360mm radiator inside a case and SF360R ARGB links these connections
ARGB makes fan
with three embedded 120mm fans. mounting the fans on the other side of together internally. A single 4-pin
installation easier
The MasterFan SF360R ARGB is while also giving a fan mount – at the front of your case, PWM cable controls all three fans,
designed for one job – to make you pretty lighting example – yo
for exampl ou won’t need to fiddle while a single 3-pin digital RGB cable
around with deals with the lighting.
individual fans, The lighting includes effects that
trying to get them make use of the three fans, although
to line up with they’re not as fancy as those that can
the radiator be deployed using a more advanced
mounting holes. RGB controller, such as those from
The second Corsair. However, as the MasterFan
benefit is cable SF360R ARGB costs just £60 inc
tidying. Installing VAT, and can be connected to your
three or four fans motherboard’s 3-pin RGB headers, it’s
on a radiator an affordable way to add three RGB
means you have fans to your case or liquid-cooling
to deal with a radiator, and it’s convenient.
Antony Leather is Custom PC’s modding editor @antonyleather
99
M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES
How to
Leak-test a
water-cooling
system
Antony Leather shows you how to 1 / CREATE YOUR LOOP
Build your water-cooling loop into your case, making sure that you
avoid leaks in your water-cooling connect and tighten every fitting and section of tube. You don’t want
to have to make alterations after you’ve leak-tested it, but it’s easy to
system by using a pressure tester retest if you do need to make some changes.
TOTA L P R OJ E C T T I M E / 1 H O U R S
W
ater cooling can be a very rewarding way of reducing your PC’s
heat and cutting its noise, as well as making it look fantastic.
What’s more, it’s now easier than ever to set up, with loads of
off-the-shelf parts available. However, the dark side of water cooling is
that water and electricity don’t mix – even if you’re using deionised
coolant, it’s always best to be safe. Leaks, therefore, should be avoided at
all costs and remain one of the fears of anyone dipping their toes into the
reservoir for the first time.
Leaks occur for a number of reasons, such as a forgotten port plug on a
graphics card, a loose fitting, a missing O-ring, a damaged part or even a 2 / IDENTIFY VACANT PORT
defect. Thankfully, these issues can be discovered before you fill your You’ll need a vacant port to attach the pressure tester, which comes
loop with liquid by using a pressure tester. These testers work like bicycle with a standard G1/4in connector. This port can be on a reservoir or a
spare port on a waterblock, but ideally somewhere that’s easy to
pumps to pressurise your loop and, by adding a pressure gauge, they
access without dismantling parts of your loop.
enable you to see if any air escapes from the loop, identifying a potential
leak. Here, we’ll show you how to assemble a pressure tester and
connect it to your loop, and offer some advice if it doesn’t all go to plan.
TO O L S YO U ’ L L N E E D
3 / ATTACH DOUBLEENDED MALE FITTING

The EKWB pressure tester we’re using has a double-ended G1/4in
male fitting that connects to the tester, and then to your vacant port.
Install this fitting to the leak tester’s single G1/4in port first, using a
Leak tester wrench with a small amount of pressure to make sure it’s tight.
ekwb.com
100
4 / ATTACH TO VACANT PORT
The vacant port in your loop can be on any component, but ideally
shouldn’t involve detaching existing tubing, as that join won’t then get 7 / PUMP UP TO 0.50.75BAR
pressure tested. It’s fine to use an angled attachment if the tester is too The pressure gauge includes a green section that indicates the
big to fit in your case. required pressure to mimic the pressure your loop will face. Start
pumping and aim to stop between 0.5 and 0.75bar. If the gauge stays
at or near zero, check the pump section is attached securely, and
there’s no sound of air leaking from anywhere else in the loop.
8 / CLOSE VALVE
5 / ATTACH PUMP SECTION Once you’ve reached the green range on the gauge, stop pumping and
The leak tester’s pump section isn’t installed out of the box, but anyone immediately close the ball valve. This will prevent air escaping from the
who has used a bicycle pump will be familiar with the parts. You just pump section, which might make you think there’s a leak. If the pressure
need to screw the end of the cable onto the end of the ball-valve section gauge stays steady for ten minutes, your loop is airtight. If it drops,
of the pump. tighten all your fittings and try again.
9 / USE TISSUE PAPER

6 / ENSURE 2WAY VALVE IS OPEN Pressure testers are great, but they don’t account for heat expansion.
Unlike older pressure testers, the EWKB tester includes a ball valve. It’s worth adding tissue paper to your fittings and running a stress
This can be opened and closed to prevent air leakage. Before you start test to warm up the coolant for an hour. While they’re rare, slow leaks
pumping, make sure the valve is open by lining up the lever with the caused by the coolant and components warming will be revealed, with
pump cable coloured coolant leaving a stain on the tissue paper.
101
How to
Water-cool
AMDNavi cards
Antony Leather shows you
how to banish the blower, and 1 / IDENTIFY GRAPHICS CARD
As with all graphics cards, make sure you buy the right waterblock
fit a waterblock to one of AMD’s for it. Small changes to the PCB layout can mean the block will fit one
card, but not another similar model. Reference cards are often the
new Navi cards best option if you intend to water-cool them, but you can usually buy
blocks for third-party models too. Identify your exact model.
TOTA L P R OJ E C T T I M E / 1 H O U R S
W
hile AMD’s Navi-based graphics cards cost under £400, it’s
still perfectly reasonable to want to water-cool them. In fact, if
you bought one with a stock cooler, it’s a good idea, as these
coolers make a horrible racket when the GPU is running at full load.
Thankfully, EKWB has released several full-cover waterblock options for
the Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700.
There are plenty of hotspots on AMD’s new 7nm GPUs, and
waterblock installation can be fiddlier in some places than on Nvidia’s
RTX cards. In this guide we’ll show you how to fit the EK-Vector Radeon
RX 5700 XT D-RGB Special Edition waterblock, as well as the backplate
that’s included with it. However, the backplate is also available separately 2 / CHECK COMPATIBILITY
if you opt for a less fancy waterblock instead. Once you know the precise model, use the compatibility charts
of waterblock manufacturers such as EKWB, Alphacool and
Thermaltake, to check which water blocks are designed to fit your
TO O L S YO U ’ L L N E E D exact card.
GPU waterblock
and backplate
overclockers.co.uk
3 / CHOOSE WATERBLOCK
There’s usually a range of waterblocks available to suit different
tastes, and you’ll want to match your block’s aesthetics with the rest
of your system. There are both transparent and closed versions of
Precision Philips EKWB’s Radeon RX 5700-series waterblocks, so decide which style
Thermal paste cleaner screwdrivers best suits your system.
overclockers.co.uk Most hardware stores
102
4 / TEST STOCK CARD
Before you fit the waterblock, test your graphics card works. If it’s a rare,
7 / REMOVE STOCK COOLER SCREWS
faulty sample, it’s infuriating to go through the hassle of installing the
Now do the same for the stock cooler screws, starting with the
waterblock and adding it to your loop, only to find it doesn’t work.
lone screws and finishing with the four screws located in the four-
pronged metal plate, which sits behind the GPU core. Face the cooler
downwards while you do this part, and once you remove it refit the
screws in the cooler for safekeeping.
5 / REMOVE BACKPLATE SCREWS

Start by removing the screws on the rear of the card that hold the 8 / USE HAIRDRYER
backplate in place. Use a small container to keep the screws safe, as it’s Occasionally, the core’s thermal paste can act like glue and prevent
easy to lose them. you from removing the cooler, and you don’t want to force it and risk
damaging your card. A simple trick if you’re finding this part difficult is to
warm the rear of the PCB using a hairdryer. This will soften the paste and
make removing the cooler much easier.
6 / REMOVE BACKPLATE
The backplate should lift off easily, but some use thermal pads, so lift
it gently. Place it to one side, as you can reattach the backplate to your 9 / LIFT COOLER
old cooler later. If there are thermal pads and they get stuck on the Carefully lift the PCB from one end, so the entire PCB raises a
PCB, remove them and replace them on the backplate where they’re centimetre or two away from the cooler. Don’t lift it right off, as there
supposed to sit. will be several cables that need to be detached.
103
10 / DETACH CABLES 13 / APPLY PASTE AND PADS

Our model includes both lighting and fan power cables on separate The thermal pad application is rather complex with Navi, as there
sides of the cooler. Once you’ve lifted the cooler clear of the PCB, use a are numerous small chips that need to be covered with thermal
pair of needle pliers to pull out the connectors, but don’t yank them by pads, and you’ll need to cut out these pads yourself. Pay careful
the cables. Grab the connectors and pull them gently out of the sockets. attention to the instructions.
14 / INSTALL WATERBLOCK
11 / CLEAN COMPONENTS Place the waterblock down onto the PCB, then flip it over and install
Use TIM cleaner or isopropyl alcohol to clean the GPU core, RAM the new screws provided with the waterblock. Lightly tighten the four
modules and VRMs with a lint-free cloth. This will ensure the new screws around the GPU core first, then apply more pressure, moving
paste and pads can adhere to a clean surface and work effectively. from corner to corner to apply gradual, even pressure. Then move on
to the rest of the card.
15 / FIT BACKPLATE
12 / TESTFIT WATERBLOCK A backplate is a very good idea, as it includes thermal pads to assist in
It’s important to test-fit the water block, not just to check it fits, but to get the cooling of the card, and you can’t refit your cooler’s stock backplate
familiar with how it slots in place. This will prevent you from needing to once the waterblock is fitted. A backplate is included with some
wiggle it around to line up the mounting holes, which will result in a nasty blocks, such as the one we’re using, and they include longer screws
mess if you do it after the thermal paste and pads have been applied. than the standard waterblock screws, so you can mount it.
104
R E T R O T E C H / ANALYSIS
The Sound
Blaster story
Ben Hardwidge talks to Creative Technology founder and CEO, Sim Wong Hoo,
about the development of the iconic Sound Blaster brand
N
ow celebrating its 30th
birthday, the Sound
Blaster made a
massive impact when it was
launched back in 1989. It seems
bizarre now, but at that time,
gaming was still considered to be
a frivolous novelty for the PC,
which was primarily a business
machine. While the Atari ST and
Commodore Amiga had half-
decent sound capabilities, most
PCs came equipped with only a
mono PC speaker, which simply blurted our chirps and beeps er, codenamed ‘Killer Card’ was
The first Sound Blaste
launched in 1989, commbiningg MIDI synthesis
y with 23KHz
like an excitable 1970s telephone. PC audio was terrible.
audio playback
If you wanted proper music in your games then you
needed a MIDI card. Rather than playing back a music
recording like current games, MIDI music is a bit like a Word needing masses of processing power, or a massive hard drive
document. In a Word document, the fonts are stored to store a recording. AdLib was one of the first companies to
somewhere else, and the Word file just stores the formatting, market a MIDI music expansion card for the PC, making a
meaning you can store a huge number of words and pages in massive difference to games, but the Sound Blaster went
a very small file size. In the same way, with MIDI, you have the one step further by combining MIDI music with basic
sounds stored on a synthesiser card, and a game’s music file sampling capabilities.
just tells it which sounds to play when. The result was an audio system that could give you decent
This started with basic FM synthesisers such as music in games, as well as sampled speech and sound
Yamaha’s OPL2, which modulated frequencies to simulate effects. It changed the PC’s sound forever and sold by the
instruments, and then later went up to ‘wavetables’ of bucketload. It was the final part of the equation needed to
sampled instruments to create much more realistic transform the PC into a proper gaming machine. Thirty years
sounding music. after the original Sound Blaster card was launched, we
In the days before we had very powerful CPUs and masses caught up with founder and CEO of Creative Technology, Sim
of storage space, this meant complicated musical scores Wong Hoo, to talk about the history of the iconic Sound
could be performed in games using tiny files, without Blaster brand.
105
f
featured a stereo 12-voice music synthesiser. This product
became quite a hit in Asia. It was our first highly lucrative
b
product, and back then, that meant a lot for a small company
p
ssuch as Creative.
In 1988, I felt the time was right for me to go to the USA,
which was the world’s largest PC market at the time, and my
w
m
mission was to create a PC sound standard for the whole
world. A lot of people felt this was an impossible mission,
w
cconsidering our small size and limited resources at the time.
While I was in the USA, I learned that the market for music
W
ccards had started to gain traction in the gaming industry.
The later Sound Blaster 2 increased the playback We quickly approached key game developers to support our
sampling rate to 44KHz, still on an 8-bit ISA card m
music cards. As an unknown company from Asia, it was very
challenging initially. However, we soon gained the respect of
CPC: Let’s start right at the beginning. What made you think several key developers, because of our prowess in technology
there was a definite market for a discrete sound card in and commitment to
the 1980s? supporting these developers.
Sim Wong Hoo: Let me go a little bit further back. I started To target this gaming market,
MY MISSION WAS
playing with microcomputers in 1979, when there was only a we changed the name of our TO CREATE A PC
handful of them around. They were either dumb or only music card to Game Blaster
managed some beeps. At that time, I was designing some and dropped the price by half.
SOUND STANDARD
computerised seismic data logging equipment, which my
former French boss claimed to be the most advanced in the
In the process of talking to
these developers, they
FOR THE WHOLE
world. When the equipment was brought to operate in oil rigs, strongly requested a sound WORLD
nobody believed that it was possible that a Singaporean had card that could support voice. I
designed this equipment in Singapore, which had no high-tech told them that we had already done it in 1986, but removed the
industry at all. feature due to lack of support for it. I told them that if they were
With a strong background in digital and analogue willing to support it, we could do a joint development. The first
technologies, plus acoustic knowledge, coupled with a deep company with which we worked closely was Broderbund, with
interest in the science of music, I had a burning desire to bring its Carmen Sandiego series of educational games. The project
sound into the computer world. In fact, my first secret name of this sound card was ‘Killer Card’. Broderbund
microcomputer project in the my French boss’ company was developed its new voice-capable games with a crude
writing an electronic organ program in machine language that prototype version of our ‘Killer Card’. This card actually consists
could be played on the computer keyboard, much to the of two prototype boards, interlinked together with a whole
chagrin of my boss. I left his company and started Creative in bunch of wires.
1981 with a mission – to bring sound into the computer world. The ‘Killer Card’ became the Sound Blaster, and it was The Sound Blaster
It took Creative another five years, until 1986, launched in November 1989 at Comdex in Las Vegas. And with Pro added an IDE
before we developed a PC – the Cubic CT – that had the voice-capable games from Broderbund ready to ship, interface, enabling
Creative to sell
sound and music capabilities. This was five years Sound Blaster was ready for prime time. Michael Jackson
multimedia packs
before the term ‘multimedia’ for PC was even coined. But we passed by and was attracted to the only booth that generated with a sound card
were too early, as there wasn’t any third-party content to computer audio throughout the entire Comdex show – the and CD-ROM drive
support it, especially voice-capable
software. Creative faced a Herculean task
in marketing the Cubic CT, especially in a
tiny market such as Singapore.
In 1987, after some soul-searching,
we decided that the Cubic CT was too
complex an animal for a tiny startup in
Singapore to handle. We decided to focus
our energies on just the music portion of
the Cubic CT, for which we had developed
some cool software, such as the Intelligent
Organ in 1986, which enabled you to play
orchestra-like music with just one finger
tapping on the keyboard. This became our
Creative Music System music card, which
106
synthesiser, so by default, it automatically supported a wider
range of software from the two standards, giving users the best
of both worlds.
CPC: The first Sound Blaster made a killer product by

combining PCM audio with FM synthesis, but its sampling rate
was limited to 23KHz. Why was the sample rate so low?
Sim Wong Hoo: The sampling rate was low simply due to
component cost, and the performance of PCs at the time. A
mass-market 8-bit analogue-to-digital converter wasn’t
available at that time, so analogue-to-digital sampling was
performed in software using the digital-to-analogue converter.
The Sound Blaster 16 made full use of the 16-bit ISA interface,
Because it was software, it was limited by the speed of the PCs
enabling CD-quality 16-bit/44KHz sampling at that time. Anyway, a 23KHz sampling rate is good enough for
8-bit, as the benefit of increasing the sampling rate is drowned
Creative booth. I showed him the demo and presented our out by the coarse 8-bit output anyway.
technology,andhestayed for 30 minutes, even though his
minders wantedtousher himaway after five minutes. CPC: PC games had very limited audio features at this time –
Obviously he wasawed. how did you go about getting game developers to implement
At Comdex, peoplelined upin20-person queues in front of Sound Blaster support?
three cashiers inourtiny300squarefoot booth – we sold one Sim Wong Hoo: After the initial success of Sound Blaster, we
Sound Blastereveryfourminutes.Thiswas a phenomenal started to engage the entire gaming industry, and supported
successandSound Blaster tookofflikea rocket after that. To developers to put audio into their games. We provided them
date, over400millionunitsof Sound Blaster have been sold. with a free Sound Blaster Developer Kit, which was the first of its
In fact,all PCstodaystillretaintheoriginal Sound Blaster kind in the industry, as well as free consultancy. We even helped
compatibilityintheOS. game developers certify their games as ‘fully Sound Blaster
compatible’ at no cost.
CPC:Whatwerethelimitations ofthese old cards in
comparisonwithlaterSoundBlasters? CPC: What was the thinking behind adding gameports to the
Sim WongHoo: The SoundBlaster was an 8-bit sound card backplates of Sound Blaster cards?
withalowsamplingrate.Theaudioquality was coarse and Sim Wong Hoo: It was very simple to do, and we had the space
verybad bytoday’s standards.Butgoing from no sound to on the backplate to include a gameport. This also saved a
‘got sound’ was agiant step for the PCat that time. Users precious slot for users who wanted to play games with joysticks.
werethrilledby thisnewcapability,andits highly affordable
mass-market price. CPC: It took a while for Creative to make the MIDI output of
THE AUDIO The OPL2 synthesiser
was a two-operator FM
Sound Blasters MPU-401-compatible. Why was this?
Sim Wong Hoo: MIDI wasn’t our focus at the time – it was a
QUALITY WAS synthesis chip and could small, niche and hard-to-service market. The original Sound
onlygenerate nine-voice Blaster did have a MIDI interface hidden in the gameport. It was
COARSE AND BAD mono music. ‘Two-operator’ put there to give a positive answer to curious people who asked
BY TODAY’S means it uses only two sine about MIDI but didn’t need it. This limited MIDI features didn’t
waves to modulate each cause any loss Sound Blaster sales. We eventually did make our
STANDARDS other and generate different MIDI interface MPU-401-compatible and, as we had expected, it
kinds of musical made no difference to our sales. The fact is that almost all our
instrumental sounds. While it sounded slightly better than our users didn’t care much about this compatibility.
own 12-voice stereo synthesiser, it was still rudimentary in the
realm of electronic music instruments. CPC: The Sound Blaster Pro came on a 16-bit ISA card, but
was still only an 8-bit card really. Why did it need a 16-bit
CPC: The first Sound Blaster used a Yamaha OPL2 FM ISA interface?
synthesiser, making it AdLib compatible. If AdLib hadn’t done Sim Wong Hoo: The Sound Blaster Pro was a stereo version of
this first, do you think the first Sound Blaster cards have had the Sound Blaster, which was a requirement of the Microsoft
different MIDI synthesis? Multimedia PC standard. It supported additional interrupt and
Sim Wong Hoo: The first Sound Blaster did have a different DMAs, which were only found on the 16-bit bus.
music synthesis system – that was already in our Cubic CT PC
in 1986. In fact, the first generation of Sound Blaster supported CPC: The Sound Blaster Pro also came with an IDE interface to
both the Yamaha OPL2 FM synthesiser and our own 12-voice control a CD-ROM drive. What was the thinking behind this?
107
Sim Wong Hoo: The CD-ROM drive that met the performance on the PC. Many of these cards suffered high returns as
requirement specifications of the Multimedia PC initiative was users found them not to be that Sound Blaster-compatible.
originally a very expensive, Japan-made CD-ROM drive with a After the returns, the users would usually then buy original
complicated and expensive SCSI interface, which cost over Sound Blasters.
$2,000 US. This expensive drive would have immediately
derailed the multimedia PC initiative. CPC: Take us through the development of the EMU chips for
So Creative solved this nightmarish scenario by the later 16-bit Sound Blasters – what were you looking to
co-developing a new and inexpensive CD-ROM drive achieve with this level of advanced synthesis?
with MKE (Japan). Creative significantly improved the Sim Wong Hoo: The EMU was the grandfather of wavetable
performance of this low-cost drive by developing a synthesis, earlier than Yamaha and Roland, pioneering
proprietary CD-ROM drive interface on the Sound Blaster, wavetable synthesis way back in the early 1970s. EMU joined
as well as new driver software. This innovative driver went the Creative family in 1993, and we started using its
against conventional wisdom of needing an Interrupt wavetable chips in Sound Blasters to provide much better
and DMA for high-speed data transfer. Instead, it used music synthesis and FM synthesis. It was a major
the CPU to access the CD-ROM drive directly and create breakthrough for PC sound cards at that time.
a huge buffer of data in advance, thereby increasing The subsequent EMU chips – for example, EMU10K1 –
performance tremendously. besides doing wavetable synthesis, were also fully
Putting the CD-ROM interface on the Sound Blaster was programmable acoustic digital signal processing engines
an obvious advantage in that you also didn’t require an that powered our game-changing Environmental Audio
additional expansion slot for a CD-ROM drive controller. It eXtension (EAX) system. This enabled multiple
also simplified the sales of our Multimedia PC Upgrade Kits, simultaneous voices to be processable in hardware.
which comprised a sound card, CD-ROM drive and some
CD-ROM titles. CPC: Even though so many decent MIDI sounds were
available, via the AWE 32, AWE 64 and various wavetable
CPC: The Sound Blaster Pro 2 introduced OPL3 synthesis – cards, OPL2/OPL3 is still considered the ‘sound’ of the era –
what could this do that you couldn’t do on OPL2? it’s the default in DOSBox, for example. Why do you think
Sim Wong Hoo: OPL2 had two operators and nine voices, wavetable synthesis didn’t quite catch on in the same way
while OPL3 had four operators, 18 voices and stereo output. as FM synthesis?
FM synthesis with four operators used four sine waves to Sim Wong Hoo: FM synthesis supported many old games,
synthesise music, which provided a richer timbre and thus which is why it’s still found to be the default in DOSBox. As
created better-sounding musical instruments. PCs got a lot faster, and supported larger memory, I guess it
was easier for developers to stream music directly in games.
CPC: Several competitors started producing cheaper Some of them used their own software audio engines.
‘Sound Blaster Pro-compatible’ cards in the early 1990s –
how did these affect your sales, and was there any licensing CPC: The AWE32 was expandable via standard 30-pin
involved in claiming compatibility with your cards? SIMMs, but the AWE64 wasn’t. What was the reason for In the heyday of
MIDI gaming audio,
Sim Wong Hoo: These so-called compatible sound cards had this decision?
the massive AWE32
negligible effects on our sales
sales, despite selling at lower prices
prices. Sim Wong Hoo: The AWE64 was targeting a much bigger could be expanded
In fact, they helped to create a larger awareness for sound market and, to be cost-effective, we had to remove the using 30-pin SIMMs
108
memory upgrade functions. The
built-in memory was sufficient
for most applications. The
AWE64 subsequently became
a runaway success.
CPC: Some hobbyists have

found ways to clone old ISA
Sound Blaster cards, ordering
a pre-made PCB and soldering
in the components (such as
the Snark Barker). Given that
Creative hasn’t made these cards
for 25-odd years, do they have
Creative’s blessing?
Sim Wong Hoo: We have no issues with individual hobbyists The Last big ISA Sound Blaster launch was the AWE64,
who are nostalgic about our very old Sound Blaster cards. with the Gold version coming with 4MB of memory
CPC: We recently did a social media survey on how people For example, Sound BlasterX AE-5 offers dedicated
use their spare PCI-E slots, and 19 per cent of our high-quality components, and proprietary technologies
respondents used a dedicated sound card. What do people such Xamp, which drives individual headphone channels,
get from a dedicated sound card that they can’t get from providing much better headphone audio transience. It can also
integrated audio? drive two extreme ends of the headphone spectrum, from
Sim Wong Hoo: In the first place, I think motherboard audio is 600 Ohm studio monitor headphones to 16 Ohm sensitive
horrible. Many engineers, especially digital engineers, think in-ear monitors.
that PC audio is achieved by simply putting a decent DAC on a Then there’s the Sound Blaster audio processing technology,
motherboard. That couldn’t be further from the truth. A good which can be personalised to suit individual entertainment
audio design requires a good analogue section. needs such as specific game profiles. It has features such as
There are many contributors of noise on any motherboard, Creative Multi Speaker Surround 3D technology (CMSS 3D),
so designing a good analogue section on a noisy which is able to provide 3D surround audio on just two front
motherboard is almost a speakers. There’s also the Crystalizer, which helps to restore
IN THE FIRST defeating cause. On a
powerful gaming computer,
details that are otherwise lost in compressed audio, and
DialogPlus, which enhances speech clarity in movies.
PLACE, I THINK the noise from a powerful In fact, we have also moved beyond the internal sound card.
CPU is even worse. This To serve users who don’t have a slot for internal sound cards, we
MOTHERBOARD problem is magnified by have a family of external Sound Blasters, which provide the
AUDIO IS on-board Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
and so on. The final nail in
same high-end audio performance and features.
HORRIBLE the coffin is the multiple CPC: How much of Creative’s revenue comes from Sound
GPU cards found on the Blaster cards these days, and how does this compare with
most powerful computers, which to me makes motherboard the past?
audio unredeemable. Sim Wong Hoo: The sound card revenue of today obviously
Creative has many, many years of experience and can’t be compared with the heyday of Sound Blaster in the past,
expertise in pristine audio design. This expertise spans when we used to ship millions of sound cards a month. That
digital, analogue and acoustic audio domains, all of which are said, Sound Blaster is still an important contributor to our
necessary for superior audio performance. Sound Blaster revenue. Plus, with the recent launch of our Sound Blaster AE
was well established decades before motherboard audio series, we are seeing a renewed interest in sound cards.
became pervasive. Over the years, as motherboards became
more powerful and noisier, our Sound Blaster cards, despite CPC: What’s next for Sound Blaster?
being plugged into the motherboard, were always a few Sim Wong Hoo: Super X-Fi is our latest revolution in
steps ahead in being able to preserve this pristine quality. headphone audio. It provides holographic-like audio
If users are willing to spend money on an expensive high- experience in headphones that’s as good as the real thing. To
end graphics card, it would make total sense for them to the headphone industry, it will be like the transition from black
invest in a worthy sound card to complete the entertainment and white TV to colour TV. Super X-Fi will be seen in upcoming
experience. Even our lower-end sound cards provide good Sound Blasters, and this could well reignite the audio
audio, and retain a big following to this day. revolution for the world.
109
M O D D I N G / READERS’ DRIVES
SEE A VIDEO OF
THIS PC AT
custompc.co.uk/ApexIV
Readers’ Drives
ApexMKIV
Let’s start with actually started as a Core i7-4790K Are there any plans to
the initial inspiration. with two GeForce GTX 980s, all air- expand the loop to cool the
What made you want cooled, and it’s since progressed to graphics card too?
to build Apex MKIV, the one you can see now. Liam: in a word, yes! I plan to
and where does the change out the motherboard later
name come from? How did you go about this year to a board with an X299
Liam: To be honest, the planning the loop and chipset, and I will include the GPU
initial inspiration for measuring up? in the loop when I do this. I’m in the
this build was a Liam: When it came to planning stages of debating whether to
combination of the the loop, my priority was having as upgrade the case and go with a
/MEET THY MAKER
Name Liam Alex Betts YouTube channels much tubing visible at once. I drew dual-loop setup, or to just add the
Age 19 LinusTechTips and out the loop on a picture of my PC GPU into the current setup.
Occupation IT co-ordinator JayzTwoCents. I’ve and, once I was happy, I began to
at PC Howard Ltd watched both of them bend the tubes. I practised a couple Did you have to modify your
Location Stamford for years and I always of times on a few offcuts and then case in order to accommodate the
Main uses for PC loved the amazing proceeded with the real thing. water-cooling gear?
Gaming, video editing and overkill builds Jay built, When it comes to measuring, I Liam: Yes, I did. I had to drill two
general everyday use and the detailed build simply eyeballed the runs – I was holes in the floor of the upper
Likes I absolutely love IT – logs Linus did at the pretty lucky in that respect! Once I compartment, so I could pass the
I’m currently studying
for my CompTIA A+ and time. They were had the bends at the correct angles, tubes through and into the floor.
N+ exams fascinating, I was I would cut and deburr the ends The purpose for this mod was to
Dislikes I hate mushrooms! determined to build and test-fit them before moving hide the pump, which resulted in a
my own! This build onto the next piece. very clean look to the fluid setup.
110
I started by putting the pipes in
place once I’d bent them so they I chose to use PETG
would touch the floor, and then
proceeded to draw around the
tubing because
tubes, so I knew exactly where to
drill the holes in the floor. After all,
it’s much less
I only had one chance! prone to cracking
I used a step drill bit to get the
holes to the size I needed, then I during bending
installed two pass-through fittings
from EK. These allowed me to hide and deburring
the sharp edges from my drilling,
which gave me the opportunity to
add fittings into the floor to give
the machine an even cleaner look.
That’s an enormous amount

of cooling power for just a CPU. Is
there an overclock and what sort
of temperatures are you getting?
Liam: The CPU is a Core i7-6800K.
It’s getting on a bit now, but I
currently have it running stably
at 4.5GHz on all cores. The
temperatures under load usually
sit at around 50-60°C. I love the
overkill cooling system – it means
I can run the fans at basically
silent speeds and still have
fantastic temperatures.
111
M O D D I N G / READERS’ DRIVES
SYSTEM SPECS
CPU Intel Core i7-6800K

overclocked to 4.5GHz
Graphics card Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition
Storage 250GB Samsung 970 Evo
SSD, 2TB WD Black hard drive
Memory Corsair Vengeance
3000MHz DDR4
Motherboard Asus ROG
Strix X99 Gaming
PSU Corsair HX850i
Case Cooler Master
MasterCase Pro 5
Cooling EK Supremacy Evo RGB
CPU waterblock, EK 500 RGB
reservoir, Alphacool 360mm
radiator, EK-XTOP SPC-60 pump,
EK fittings, Mayhems X1 coolant,
Corsair LL140 fans, EK PETG tubing
What, to you, are the benefits

of water cooling over air cooling?
Liam: It’s a mixture between looks
and performance. A properly
planned custom loop looks
amazing, and the cooler
temperatures mean you can get
higher clock speeds, which in turn
means better performance.
How did you go about

planning the lighting?
Liam: I knew I wanted the
Corsair LL-series fans in the build,
as they’re simply awesome!
However, I also wanted to
illuminate the fluid in the system,
which is why I added the RGB
strips (also from Corsair).
112
BE A WINNER
To enter your machine for possible inclusion in Readers’
Drives, your build needs to be fully working and, ideally,
based in the UK. Simply send us a couple of photos on
Twitter (@CustomPCMag) or Facebook (CPCMagazine),
or email low-res ones to editor@custompcmag.org.uk.
Fame isn’t the only prize; you’ll also get your hands on
some fabulous prizes.
Corsair K70 RGB MK.2SE

–CherryMXSpeed
WORTH
£170
The Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Meanwhile, its Cherry

What specs did you choose The Cooler Master MasterCase Pro SE is a premium mechanical MX Speed mechanical
for this PC, and why? 5 has excellent support for drives, gaming keyboard that’s built keyswitches provide the
Liam: I chose a Core i7-6800K CPU, radiators, SSDs – you name it, it has to last. It has a silver anodised reliability and accuracy you
an Asus ROG Strix X99 Gaming space for it. However, once you’ve brushed aluminium frame, demand, with blisteringly fast
motherboard, 16GB of Corsair installed a giant 360mm radiator, as well as stunning white 1.2mm actuation. There’s
3000MHz RAM, a GeForce RTX it becomes difficult to fit the pump, precision-moulded, double- also stunning per-key RGB
2080 Ti, a 250GB Samsung 970 Evo PSU, cables and a hard drive into shot keycaps. It’s built to turn dynamic backlighting, 100
NVMe SSD and a 2TB hard drive. the basement. It’s very compact heads and withstand a per cent anti-ghosting with
I chose the hardware because, down there, and was extremely lifetime of gaming. There’s a full-key rollover, 8MB of
at the time of the original build difficult to fit it all together. detachable, soft-touch wrist on-board memory, plus
(when I had the GTX 980s), it was rest too. dedicated media controls.
pretty much the best setup money What did you learn from the
could buy. build process?
The exception was the CPU, but Liam: I learned that building a
Alphacool
water-cooling gear
I couldn’t justify spending custom loop can be extremely time-
thousands of pounds on one! GPU consuming and difficult. However,
power has always been paramount it can also be one of the most fun
to me though. I recently changed projects you can do as a PC builder. Water-cooling hardware
out the two 980s for a single RTX It’s well worth it once you’ve done it. manufacturer Alphacool is
2080 Ti, which I can say was an offering a choice of £150
excellent choice. The RTX card is Are you completely happy worth of gear to every
fantastic and outperforms both of with the end result, or do you wish featured Readers’ Drives WORTH
my old cards by quite a significant you’d done some of it differently winner. For your prize, you £150
amount, especially now that SLI in retrospect? can select from DIY water-
has less support than previously. Liam: I absolutely love this rig; it cooling kits, the Eiswolf and
gives back every time I sit down Eisbaer all-in-one CPU and
Did you come across any and play a game. The only bit I GPU liquid coolers, as well and radiators. Alphacool
difficulties? If so, how did you would have done differently is to as a vast range of individual also makes coolant, tubing
solve them? use Mayhems Pastel Fluid instead components, including and fans, as well as
Liam: One of my challenges was of X1. The opaque colour would waterblocks (pictured), modding and water
getting all the hardware inside. have looked amazing. fittings, reservoirs, pumps cooling-related tools.
113
OPINION
JA M E S G O R B O L D / HARDWARE ACCELERATED
PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE
James Gorbold loves PCI-E 4 and quad-channel memory, but claims
they’re unnecessary in terms of gaming performance
W
hen it comes to processors, be it CPUs, GPUs or co- enough is a serious challenge. With the rapid rate of GPU
processors,youcanneverhavetoomuchperformance. development, the industry is now scrabbling to build faster
After all, nobody would willingly choose to play a and faster storage arrays.
game at 15fps or wait longer than necessary for a render or With SATA SSDs and hard drives out of the question, the
encode to complete. But not all parts of the PC’s architecture only sensible option is a PCI-E NAND or Optane-based SSD. The
are created equal, so improvements to some areas can have a issue here is that the SSDs can’t use too many PCI-E lanes, as
greater or lesser impact on performance than others. that starves other components of bandwidth. Simply adding
TakeRAM,forexample.Formanyyears,successivegenerations more PCI-E lanes isn’t viable either,as it has a very high cost in
of premiumIntelandAMDprocessorshavehadhighbandwidth, terms of processor real estate,and makes motherboard layout
quad-channel memory controllers as opposed to the lower- extremely complex and costly. For these reasons,it’s far more
bandwidth dual-channel memory controllers of mainstream efficient to provide 7.9GB/sec of bandwidth from four PCI-E 4
CPUs. However, multiple studies have demonstrated that, in lanes than from eight PCI-E 3 lanes.PCI-E 4 is also a blessing for
games at least,quad-channel memory is networking,enabling NVMe over Fabric
not appreciably faster than dual-channel configurations running at over 200Gb/
– the only quantifiable benefit is seen Stepping down from 16 to eight sec from a single NIC.
in complex content creation workflows, PCI-E 3 lanes already has All that said, I can’t see PCI-E 4 having
such as video editing and high-end CAD. nearly such a large impact on GPUs.
The PCI-E bus,which is used to connect barely any effect on gaming Stepping down from 16 lanes to eight
CPUstocomponentssuchasGPUs,storage PCI-E 3 lanes already has barely any effect
controllers, SSDs, I/O controllers and NICs, has an equally on gaming or rendering performance. And in deep learning,
chequered impact on performance. The latest incarnation, which is very bandwidth-intensive, Nvidia already has a
PCI-E 4, is an interesting case in point, as it makes the world of workaround for the limitations of PCI-E, NVLink. In its most
difference to SSDs and NICs. NVMe SSDs now have up to 7.9GB/ basic form, it runs at 50GB/sec, much faster than the 31.5GB/sec
sec of bandwidth available, unlocking much higher read and that 16 PCI-E 4 lanes will provide. Plus, in some configurations,
write speeds, as demonstrated by Corsair’s MP600 (see Issue NVLink already scales to 200GB/sec.
193, p26). However, while these sorts of transfer speeds are While this talk of deep learning might seem a bit off-topic in
amazing on paper, in my experience, there’s no quantifiable Custom PC, it’s becoming extremely influential in component
speed difference compared with a PCI-E 3 SSD in games. design, with manufacturers queuing up for a slice of the
That said, PCI-E 4 is a godsend for workstations and servers, market. Just look at how much of a song and dance Nvidia
particularly for deep learning and other AI workloads. Deep made about the Tensor cores in the Turing architecture, which
learning isn’t only incredibly compute-intensive; for systems was designed first and foremost for deep learning, and later
with multiple GPUs, feeding those GPUs with data quickly repurposed for gaming.
James Gorbold has been building, tweaking and overclocking PCs ever since the 1980s. He now helps Scan Computers to develop new systems.
114

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FIRST SPEECH THE SOUND BLASTER STORY

HOW YOUR SOLID STATE DRIVE WORKS

BEND YOUR REALITY

aocgaming.com @aoc_gaming @aocgaming @aocgaming

/ FROM THE EDITOR

As our motherboard reviews this month show,the latest CONTRIBUTORS DISTRIBUTION

We recently ran a social media survey on whether people use

computer that may occur as a result of following or

Contents Welcome to Issue 195

08 Very expensive chips

FULL 8-PAGE 70 Inverse look PERIPHERALS

RICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN

VERY EXPENSIVE CHIPS

T R ACY K I N G / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS

PURE BASE 500

The be quiet! Pure Base 500 case combines customizable and

 Exchangeable top cover for silent or high-performance systems

Incoming When’s the next issue?

Cooler Master launches

AOC launches budget

Fractal Design releases new

AMD RADEON RX 5300 XT SPOTTED

NEW GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARD DETAILS LEAKED

What’s that? 16-core Ryzen and

AMD RYZEN 5 3600 RESULTS

GIMP IMAGE EDITING SYSTEM SCORE

0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING CINEBENCH R20 SINGLETHREADED

0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 0 200 400 600 800

HEAVY MULTITASKING CINEBENCH R20 MULTITHREADED

0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 0 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000

Stock Speed Overclocked Stock Speed Overclocked

TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION FAR CRY 5

Intel Core i5-9600K 95W 96W 95fps 123fps

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 181W 204W 74fps 95fps

0 100 200 300 400

Stock Speed Overclocked

66fps 83fps Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 65fps 79fps

0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200

Stock speed min Stock speed avg

Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse 122fps 153fps

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 129fps 155fps TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION

0 50 100 150 200 AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 295W

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 323W

Zotac RTX 2060 Super 81fps 92fps

0 50 100 150 200

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING Load

0 250k 500k 750k 1 mil 0 100W 200W 300W

Stock speed Overclocked Overclocked min Overclocked avg

0 250,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 0 100 200 300 400

Stock speed Overclocked

Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 297,727 311,257 99fps 120fps

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 303,361 307,207 0 40 80 120 160

Stock speed Overclocked Overclocked min Overclocked avg

0 250,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 0 100 200 300 400

Stock speed Overclocked

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 315,616 321,266

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 303,361 307,207 95fps 120fps

Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 295,023 308,658 0 40 80 120 160

Stock speed Overclocked Overclocked min Overclocked avg

include a response. However, the fan control section is

S TA R T 12-month subscription to the print magazine

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