Table of contents for July 2020 in APC

It’s on again. Intel vs AMD. The world is back to normal. Phew. I’ve missed this… As Chris discovered through his long hours of testing fore this issue, Intel has indeed come back into the fight – though it’s not a ‘win’. Taking the lead in a few games with the usual single-digit percentage nose ahead isn’t decisive, and for multi-core productivity work Intel is still playing catchup. Still stuck on the 14nm node, and still with an albeit evolved Skylake core that’s been with us since the 6th gen, Intel has taken the relatively obvious route of cranking up the clocks with new and aggressive Turbo modes. “There are many that have looked past AMD’s Ryzen and Threadripper range thinking all the noise coming from enthusiasts around the world,…

Nvidia is getting sued by some upset investors who claim Nvidia mislead them by reporting crypto revenue as gaming revenue, according to a report at The Register. “Sales data demonstrated that, throughout 2017, 60% to 70% of Nvidia’s GeForce revenue in China came from sales to crypto-miners, not gamers.” reads the complaint. Such figures are similar elsewhere around the world. Analysts say that the under-reporting of GPUs for the crypto market lands somewhere around the US$1.13-billion mark, and when the crypto mining market started showing signs of bust, Nvidia’s stock price also dropped significantly. Of course, you’re probably thinking something along the lines of, “But the GPUs were gaming hardware, what’s wrong with putting them in the books under the gaming division?” We wouldn’t blame you for thinking this, but…

The past decade has been a wild ride for social media. In 2010, Facebook had amassed 500 million users and had easily usurped its hapless predecessor, MySpace. In the wake of Facebook’s success several other platforms have become permanent fixtures in our social lives: Twitter, Instagram, and more recently, TikTok, have an influence on culture and politics that would have seemed unlikely just ten years ago. The internet has never been a benign place, but it’s easy to remember the early days of Facebook with fondness: “fake news” had yet to be coined, the NSA and Cambridge Analytica scandals were years and years away, and the emergence of the “like” button had yet to gamify our social interactions. Social media as a net positive, as a way of “bringing people…

Let’s have a chat about that prodigal son of the custom PC world. Yes, I’m talking about liquid cooling. In particular, why it’s not nice. I know that’s going to sound ridiculous, especially given how in-depth our feature on it is in this very issue, but man is it frustrating at times. Over the last five years, I’ve had the pleasure of building somewhere close to 60 separate PCs. 12 of those have come with varying forms of liquid cooling, not including AIO builds. So I’ve toyed with everything in this niche hobby of a hobby. Alas, this gives me some serious perspective as to why liquid-cooling sucks. So let’s break it down. 01 The cost First and foremost, the biggest hurdle any would-be liquid cooler has to get past…

8 Tacoma An abandoned spaceship and a rogue AI are the backdrop for a gripping puzzle game, where you manipulate 3D security footage to glean information from your surroundings. 7 What the Golf? It’s golf, but not as you know it. Launch everything from houses to hot dogs with your trusty 9 iron in this surreal and hilarious sports sim. 6 Deep Sky Derelicts A bleak dungeon crawl through the empty husks of ancient spaceships. 5 Ape Out Take control of a painted gorilla and bust out of zoos, prisons and research labs, all to pumping jazz. 4 Into The Breach Sadly underappreciated, despite its blend of sci-fi puzzling and turn-based strategy. 3 Jøtun Gorgeous hand-drawn boss fights punctuate this jaunt through Scandinavian mythology, as you play a betrayed Viking…

We’ve been raving about Wi-Fi 6 for more than a year now: it made such a difference to speed and coverage when it first appeared that we needed to create new performance tests to measure it. But the barrier to entry has been high – not only do you need a laptop with a Wi-Fi 6 compatible chip to make the most of it, the routers themselves have, until the arrival of the TP-Link AX50 (page 44), been incredibly expensive. Along the road, two brands, in particular, have impressed us: TP-Link for its well-built, good-value, simple-to-use, high-performance routers and Asus for its super-charged, feature-packed units. Not everybody wants to (or can afford to) overhaul their existing network and some just want to augment it with the power and reach afforded…

Regular readers will know that we’ve been devilishly impressed with Asus’ mesh/router, cross-over devices. Starting with last year’s, two-node RT-AX92U, the systems all utilise two small routers with a dedicated, wireless, backhaul connection. Our long-term testing has found that they provide a consistent wireless connection, to the other end of our home, that’s as reliable as a wired connection. The end result is Wi-Fi coverage that is the fastest and most far-reaching on the market. Last month we reviewed a more-refined and better-looking (and better named) version of the RT-AX92U: the ZenWiFi AC CT8. Although it was based upon the last-gen AC Wi-Fi standard, it still put up some seriously impressive numbers. Now here’s the Wi-Fi 6 version – the ZenWiFi AX XT8. Our hopes were high. Set-up is one…

“Builders looking to assemble a modest system with a focus on aesthetics over performance (say, a home theatre / living room PC) will love this case.” Fractal Design’s Era breaks rank with the company’s signature style, thanks in part to a collaboration with Intel. The Mini-ITX case comes in black, blue, and rose gold, fitted with a black tempered glass top panel. The chassis is also available in white and silver equipped with a wood top panel. All models feature an optional vented top for added airflow. The chassis measures 325 x 166 x 310mm and tips the scales at 4kg. The glass top panel of the Era is darkly tinted, though the chassis comes with a second vented top panel for added airflow. Front panel I/O is fairly standard.…

When we reviewed Drafts last year, we said it was a good note-taking and writing app that lacked the best features from its iOS sibling. Those features have now been added, alongside improvements including Touch Bar support and the ability to post to Medium. Drafts is all about getting ideas down with minimum effort, and to that end it sits in your menu bar ready for action. You can use its icon to create a new draft ready to type, or create one from the contents of the clipboard, and you can add your note hands-free thanks to built-in dictation support. The app syncs with its iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch equivalents so you can create and view notes on the move. Your drafts can be set up as Markdown,…

It seems like recent Intel CPU generations have been akin to Plan B, C, and probably D. Most tech enthusiasts know that Intel should have had 10nm desktop products on the market a long time ago, along with a new architecture. 10th Gen is what it is, though, so rather than bash Intel, let’s keep in mind that 10th generation CPUs actually are faster and have more threads at each price point compared to 9th Gen models. The real question is, is it enough when faced with an AMD that continues to gain momentum? More threads and higher frequencies Despite being an evolutionary upgrade, there are a few fundamental differences, including an improved thermal design with a thinner die and higher copper content heatspreader. The whole Core range now includes…

It says a lot about Z490 motherboard pricing when the Hero – usually a value offering in the Asus Maximus range – sells for an eye watering $829. When compared to the Maximus XII Extreme though, the Hero is a true bargain! The Maximus XII Hero doesn’t look all that different to the outgoing XI Hero with the exception of a larger cooling assembly designed with multiple M.2 drives in mind. RGB seems to have been dialed down with the Z490 generation, with the Hero having just a couple of discreet RGB elements atop the chipset heatsink and I/O. It’s also the only board in the roundup not to include a backplate. The Hero comes with a 14+2 phase VRM design with each stage rated for 60A. It’s not inferior…

Compression fittings These are the main fittings for connecting tubing to hardware. They come in a variety of sizes, and vary depending on the tubing type you use. Some are for hard tubing and some for soft. As standard, on the male end of a hard tubing compression fitting comes a G1/4-inch thread and an o-ring, to stop leakage. Remove the compression cap on the female end, and you’ll see another two o-rings inside the fitting. This is where you’ll push the chamfered edge of your tube in and past, before sealing it with the compression cap, which features an additional o-ring. Soft tubing compression fittings are very similar. They still have a G1/4-inch thread, and an o-ring on the male side, but once the compression cap is removed, there’s…

How to Use Soft Tubing The issue with soft tubing is less to do with the process of fitting it, and more to do with identifying how to run a length of it. It’s all to do with bend tolerances. The shorter the length, and the tighter the bend you want, the more likely you are to kink it. If it kinks, coolant can’t flow around the loop, temperatures sky-rocket, pressure can build up, and it can damage the components within the loop. This is why it’s useful to plan the loop out beforehand, and even include a few 90-degree extension fittings here and there. A clean soft-tube build typically requires quite a few angled fittings. That aside, how do you actually do it? First, attach your soft-tubing compression fittings…

What to Expect Your build is finally finished, your loop is complete, and your system is up and running – what can you expect now? Well, first up, you’ll notice a dramatic reduction in overall temperatures, most notably with the graphics card. GPUs are one of the areas that benefit the most from liquid cooling. An Nvidia RTX 2080 Super, which typically runs at 85 C under load, will likely plummet to the 60 C range, if not further. This is great for overclocking and for stock overclock features, such as GPU boost. As for your CPU, this is where your mileage is likely to vary – some processors do benefit a lot, but if we’re honest, you probably won’t see temperatures much better than if you were to run…

Benchmarking can be an arduous process, full of frustration and confusion. Why won’t this test run? Why is this result so low? The sheer amount of different benchmarks is no help; hunt for figures for a specific component and you might end up with dozens of meaningless results. But never fear; we’re here to show you how we do things, starting with how exactly we test CPUs. If you’re curious about the performance of your system, or you’re assembling a fresh build and want to show off your specs, then benchmarking is the way to do it. In this tutorial, we’re going to explain each of the tests we use to evaluate the performance of processors. It’s worth noting that this guide is specific to Windows systems; we typically install…

“There may be times when you want your Mac to use just one specific Wi-Fi network, or even tell your Mac to ignore Wi-Fi altogether and to only use an Ethernet connection for an office network.” Networking is one of those things that can really make your head hurt. Fortunately, high-speed Wi-Fi networks are pretty common these days, and the macOS makes it easy to automatically connect to Wi-Fi, whether you’re at home, in your office, or in a public place such as a coffee shop that offers free Wi-Fi to use. Sometimes, though, you might need to take more direct control of the network settings on your Mac – particularly if you use a Mac at work, or have a MacBook laptop that you use in a number of…

Vim is a fiercely popular and featureful text editor, and you can enhance your Vim experience by enabling some advanced options such as auto-completion, smart search, and even polish your writings by using a thesaurus and dictionary. While all that can be done with a vanilla Vim installation, albeit with some modifications to the configuration file, with different plugins you can get additional useful features such as creating bullet lists, and can even transform Vim into a password manager, and more. Before we do that, however, it’s imperative to learn how to install plugins. The easiest way is to download the individual files into a dedicated directory, and update the ~/.vimrc file. The downside to this approach is that you have to manually install updates for each of the plugins…

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 are getting a modern re-release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC (via Epic Games Store) on September 4. After a string of teases from Tony Hawk himself and Summer Game Fest producer Geoff Keighley, the remastered pair was officially revealed during a livestream today. Vicarious Visions, which has handled other PS1 remakes like the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, has remastered both of the original Tony Hawk’s games, and they really do look stunning in motion. Keighley and Hawk discussed the new and returning features of both games with Vicarious Visions head Jen Oneal. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 supports classic D-pad and modern analogue stick controls, and its Create-A-Park and Create-A-Skater modes have been greatly expanded through new options and…

Tactics has a linear campaign, told with very pretty Unreal Engine cutscenes. It’s easily the best-looking tactics game I’ve played, and it’s hard to oversell how precisely this game translates Gears into an overhead turn-based perspective. Gears Tactics is an aggressive strategy game that throws piles of enemies at you, because it knows you’ve got frag grenades that can turn a pack of scurrying wretches into chicken nuggets, or a chainsaw gun that has a 100-percent chance to slice even a full-health Locust in half. While it first looks an awful lot like XCOM, Gears Tactics plays differently. Every turn in XCOM is about the tension of how few moves you can make. Gears is more freeform, giving each of the four soldiers you take into a mission three actions…

Subnautica engrossed me completely with its vast, detailed ocean and engaging sci-fi mystery. If you feel similarly, then you’ll want to play Deepdive, which compresses its ocean down to a lake, while flattening it to two dimensions for good measure. There’s no sense of mystery, unfortunately. In fact, there’s no plot in this at all; just the sea and a diver eager to explore its depths. Your little diver feels suitably vulnerable as you propel them around a hostile, teeming ocean. Your ultimate goal is to descend to its deepest point, and to do that you’ll purchase upgrades back at your lifeboat: you can enhance your speed, oxygen, inventory space, etc. Money is earned by scanning lifeforms, and by digging up precious gems. There’s a satisfying if hasty progression loop…

You play as a person who has decided to delve into a subterranean structure, for reasons hastily explained by the rather insubstantial ending. But let’s cast that aside and focus on the other character, you: an archaeologist sifting through millennia of junk. Each level of the ominous structure brings a new themed floor of carefully designed rooms: one might look like an alien garden, another a game arcade, yet another an eerie temple from a horror story. Its arresting imagery is drawn from sci-fi, horror and fantasy – it’s the scenery as plot, relating tantalising story fragments as you insist on interacting with simply everything. There are (almost) no repeats, either of objects or their text descriptions, and a line of exposition for nearly everything you can see: every weird…

Intel has acquired a rival in the Wi-Fi space. It purchased Rivet Networks, which makes the Killer-branded Wi-Fi cards and ethernet in gaming laptops from Alienware, Dell, Lenovo, HP and more. No price was disclosed when Intel announced the news via press release. The Rivet Networks team will join Intel’s wireless solutions group, a subset of Intel’s client computing group. Intel will roll the Killer brand into its own Wi-Fi lineup. Rivet also produced the Killer-branded software that minimised latency and allowed users to prioritise which software got access to bandwidth. “Intel will continue to sell Rivet Networks’ software technologies and the Killer line of products to customers,” an Intel spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware. “Intel plans to continue the vast majority of Rivet Networks’ existing products and services. Some minor…

“More than 100 protesters from the 37,000 member Facebook group ‘99% unite Main Group’ gathered on the parliament steps in Melbourne to voice concerns about 5G towers, vaccinations, the possibility that the government was microchipping citizens in order to control their minds, all while chanting the mantra ‘arrest Bill Gates’.” Back in APC 478 we covered the claims by right-wing US YouTuber and QAnon supporter Jason Sather that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had developed, patented and intentionally unleashed COVID-19 onto humanity as part of a global conspiracy, but we didn’t expect this niche outbreak of lunacy to actually survive, let alone grow into what it has become today. As it stands, northern Italian politician Sara Cunial made a speech on the parliament floor and then posted it to…

“The Docker daemon must run as root. So, anyone who can talk to Docker has root privileges. As a result, any container running on the system can potentially obtain root privileges on the host.” Docker containers are cool. If you haven’t yet played with Docker, you’re missing a large world of easily deployed applications. For example, I can deploy NodeRed, Plex, Jupyter Lab, and Nextcloud servers, and run them behind a Traefik reverse proxy with a single command and a YAML text file. If you’re running an HTPC, NAS, or home Linux server, Docker lets you do just about anything. Containers (like Docker containers) emulate a filesystem, networking, and other OS components in order to allow applications to isolate themselves from the host OS. Containers generally don’t require dedicated resources,…

HyperX Ducky One 2 Mini Maximum minimalism. $209, pccasegear.com/products/50175 You may be surprised to learn that 60%-size mechanical keyboards are a huge cult hit. Fans proudly show off their creations made with custom keycaps and chassis’, and the biggest supplier of components is Taiwanese company Ducky. Now, the company has teamed with HyperX to produce this, and it’s quite lovely. The black keys are offset by red esc and return keys; it’s a conservative styling, but it does look fantastic, and because this is HyperX it also has an RGB ring around the egde if you want more... presence. Being 60%, you don’t get a numpad. Nor dedicated arrow keys – though you can still point using a fn combo. The key mechanism is HyperX’s own, and they feel most…

A couple of years ago Aorus was producing some of the most sophisticated and desirable gaming laptop chassis available, but recently these classic designs have been stripped of all character and reassembled in Frankenstein-looking arrangements. Take the new 17G, which has four different styles of vents strewn around the cheap-feeling CNC aluminium veneer. While we’re not particularly interested in having multiple different car grills slapped on our laptop, looks aren’t everything in a gaming laptop, and I’m sure someone out there appreciates the mashup. Fortunately there’s plenty of other talking points for the Aorus 17G, like its inclusion of gold-plated Omron mechanical switches that offer a deep 2.5mm travel distance and light tactile click on actuation. Or maybe the lightning fast 240Hz 17.3 inch FullHD display with Pantone X-Rite colour…

“Although the COVR system says that it will provide one seamless network throughout the entire home, it still needs an ethernet connection to an existing router: so it’s similar to every other mesh.” We’ve been a little disappointed with D-Link’s Wi-Fi products in recent months. For years, the company led the field but lately it’s been floundering in Asus’ and TP-Link’s wake. Here’s its latest mesh Wi-Fi system which D-Link tells us offers ‘new’ innovations like WPA3 security and Wi-Fi EasyMesh certification. Is this exciting enough to buy into? WPA3 was actually released in July 2018 and this isn’t the first device we’ve seen that uses it. Nonetheless, these technologies take time to hit the market and it’s still not widespread. WPA3 uses SAE (which stands for Simultaneous Authentication of…

There’s no shortage of competition in the 27-inch, high refresh rate gaming monitor space, and the MSI Optix MAG272CQR is neither the highest specced nor the best for your budget. Sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack, the most distinguishing feature is that it’s curved (where the vast majority of competitors still opt for flat screen displays at this size). It’s not a small curve either, with MSI opting for the tighter 1500R rather than a 1.8m radial arc. This may be a little divisive for hardcore gamers after the highest uniformity possible for competitive gaming, but if you’re that way inclined you’ll probably be opting for a 240Hz monitor. MSI’s Optix MAG272CQR - which is currently exclusive to JB HiFi – seems to have been designed to accommodate…

Young folk might need informing that printers were once one of the hottest properties on the tech market: the notion that you could print-out high-street-quality photos, in your own home, was mind blowing. But, in an age where photos are mostly viewed on screens, few people need them anymore. Of course, we still use printers, it’s just that they’re mainly for office work. But office printers are big and bulky. What happens if you’re on the road, meeting clients and need bespoke, paper contracts signed right there on the spot? Canon’s TR150 with battery certainly isn’t the first mobile printer we’ve ever seen, but its output turned our heads. At 322 x 185 x 66mm and at 2.1Kg it’s small, but still twice the size of mobile rivals. Fixing the…

Why use separate writing, note-taking and to-do apps when a single app can do all three? Noto is a simple, elegant writing app for iOS that can sync with its Mac sibling. Where most writing apps tend to go down the distraction-free route Noto is more colourful and action-packed. The interface may be a bit more exuberant than its rivals, but Noto still has simplicity at heart. You can switch between list and grid views, reorder by dragging and pinning documents to the top, and easily nest docs in a folder. Each document has a preview that includes images (if they’re at the top). On iPad there’s a bit more room and the folders and documents appear in a sidebar rather than full screen; you can choose whether to keep…

If you’ve made the decision to jump onto the Intel 10th Generation train, then you’ll need a Z490 motherboard to go with it, at least until the budget chipset ranges are released. Z490 boards are equipped with the new LGA 1200 socket, and even the more affordable ones feature improved connectivity, networking, power delivery components and (take this with a grain of salt) future 11th generation CPU compatibility. 10th Generation CPUs may not have shaken the foundations of the tech world, but they are faster. It’s important to consider the average consumers’ point of view. Not everyone upgrades every year. If you’re coming from something that’s several years old then upgrading will get you a faster system in every way. Faster cores and more of them, faster networking, faster and…

The first thing we noticed when taking the Z490 Aorus Master out of its box was its weight. This board gives the impression that it’s built to last, and at $799 we’d certainly hope it does! For the money, it’s clear the Master is a lot of motherboard. Interestingly, where some Aorus boards tend to light up like a laser light show, the Master really dials down the RGB with just a little bit of subtle lighting over the rear I/O and the chipset heatsink. The overall look is very understated, modern, and mature. The Master features a very strong VRM, with a 14 Phase 90A design fed by dual 8-pin power connectors. The VRM is cooled by a traditional finned heatsink assembly, something we love to see as it…

Reservoirs & pumps Reservoirs come in all shapes and sizes. Most common are cylindrical tubes with ports on the bottom and top, or integrated with a pump. However, distribution plates, 5.25-inch bay reservoirs, and rectangular reservoirs are also available. As for pumps, almost all of them are manufactured by a single company, Laing, then distributed to liquid-cooling brands, which house them in their own products. There are two main pump types, the D5 and the DDC. The D5 is a large form factor pump, ideal for liquid-cooling systems with multiple radiators, reservoirs, and waterblocks, whereas the DDC has a far smaller footprint, and is ideal for small form factor and ITX PCs. Fans We recommend fans with a high static pressure and a low noise rating. One of the best…

Now you’ve got everything planned, measured the case, and ordered the parts, it’s time to get on with the build. The first and most terrifying part of the process is the graphics card disassembly. This is perhaps the most dangerous part of liquid cooling. If you get it wrong, and knock off a capacitor or a memory chip, your GPU is as good as dead. And you can bet your bottom dollar few manufacturers will honor the warranty if that happens. So, where do you begin? Process Well, you’ve bought your waterblock and you know it’s compatible with your GPU. Now you’re going to begin to strip down the graphics card. To do this, first remove the backplate – you’ll find tiny Phillips head screws here, but a small precision…

When purchasing a product, you expect to get what you pay for. What is claimed on the packaging is what the product should do. In the world of hard drives things are usually straightforward when deciding on what to purchase. Choose the capacity you want, then pick from a drive range optimised for the intended application; like use in consumer machines (where price and power consumption are of importance), Network Attached Storage arrays or file servers (where RAID compatibility and vibration mitigations are important), or for a server where capacity, RAID compatibility and performance are all required along with solid reliability (large Mean Time Between Failure ratings). All this has been quite straight forward until recently, when Western Digital came under fire from users claiming they were seeing evidence that…

“Even before you try to drift off, Night Shift can help reduce the strain on your eyes by reducing the blue light from the screen, helping to prepare your body for sleep.” When it comes to your health and fitness, sleep is as important as exercise. The average adult needs between seven and nine hours of sleep every night. A lack of sleep can lead to poor decision making, high blood pressure, low mood, and weight gain, among other issues. Enough of the scaremongering: your iPhone can help you get a good night’s rest! Over the years, Apple has built several tools into iOS, such as Do Not Disturb that can be used to help you sleep. You may also be tempted to use a sleep-tracking app, but did you…

Last month, we looked at the basics of PSU ratings and how wattage is the prime rating we typically use to determine whether or not a particular unit suits a PC build. However, beyond the basics, looking at watts to compare models is a bit like comparing cars on the size of their engine – it’s important to some, but it doesn’t tell you the whole story. This month, we delve deeper, looking at the practical issues of cabling and noise. Mod your ‘larity’? Your average PSU will have a three-pin IEC socket to handle the standard PC power cable we all have dozens of filling up a box in the garage. But on the other end of that PSU is a series of connections to various components in your…

System Shock 3 has been in development at OtherSide Entertainment for several years, but things started to look a little iffy earlier in 2020. Key staff have either left or been laid off, including senior designers, lead programmers, and more. Despite assurances in April that the project was still underway, OtherSide dropped a bombshell in May: Tencent has taken over development. “As a smaller Indie studio, it had been challenging for us to carry the project on our own,” a spokesperson for OtherSide wrote. “We believe Tencent’s deep capabilities and expertise as a leading game company will bring the franchise to new heights.” Tencent is a true Goliath in the games industry. The Chinese conglomerate owns Riot Games (League of Legends) and Funcom (Conan Exiles) among many others. It also…

The managerial aspects of the Super Mega Baseball series have always been a bit weak, but the outstanding new franchise mode in Super Mega Baseball 3 lets you tinker with your roster over multiple seasons, wrestle with a salary cap, and presents you with far more situational decisions during individual games. Combined with several new on-field systems, Super Mega Baseball 3 has added lots of depth and careful decision-making both on and off the field, while still preserving the arcade fun of the earlier games. You can’t trade directly with other teams in franchise mode, but you can sign free agents, kick players off your team, and best of all, develop your players’ skills and attributes over time. During the offseason, young players join the league and older veterans leave…

Whether it’s Blade Runner’s rain-soaked Los Angeles or the planet Coruscant in Star Wars, there’s something evocative about the image of a futuristic city criss-crossed with flying cars. And in the gorgeous, voxel-based Cloudpunk you get to be a part of one of those teeming skyways, driving a beaten-up hover car and delivering packages in a dystopian, multi-tiered city called Nivalus. This vivid, intricate metropolis is genuinely stunning to look at. A bustling sprawl of neon signs, roaming spotlights, colossal billboards, and hover cars scurrying back and forth between monolithic skyscrapers. It looks great up close too. Lower your car to street level and you’ll see pedestrians milling around noodle stands and seedy nightclubs. In the air: advertising blimps, trains streaking along suspended rails, and the glow of thousands of…

Programmer runs self driving car tech in GTA 5 Real autopilot software drives itself across Los Santos. While the natural inclination in GTA 5 is to rip down the road (or sidewalk) as fast as that rear-heavy Chevy you boosted from a grandma can go, if you play it long enough you probably had a go at trying to drive like you would in real life and it’s not all that easy, at least for mere mortals. So we were impressed when we heard 15-year-old programmer Leon Hilman had adapted the Comma Two self driving car software to chaperone him around Los Santos. Considering the software already has 24 million kilometers of on-road experience, it’s perhaps not all that surprising it can handle itself... now we just want to see…

APC is Australia’s oldest consumer technology magazine – having been consistently in print for forty years, since our first issue way back in May 1980 – and we take that heritage and responsibility very seriously. While our focus is obviously on the personal computer the very definition of the PC has changed and shifted markedly since the early 1980s. As such, we touch on many other areas of tech, too, from smartphones and apps to peripherals, accessories, and beyond. We have two goals: to find the best modern tech and to help you make the most of it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms. We know most people aren’t wed to a single brand’s products and use a variety of devices. And, like you, APC’s journalists want…

Epic Games recently showed off its new Unreal Engine 5 demo, which blew us away with its impressive graphics. Running on an AMD RDNA-infused PlayStation 5 (PS5) it made console gaming – or at least its future – look exciting and promising. And just in time for the PS5 vs. Xbox Series X next-gen console war to start raging. But what about the best gaming PCs? Did Unreal’s demo prove that consoles are finally clawing their way to the gaming throne? We wouldn’t bank on it yet. World Today News quoted Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri as saying the awe-inspiring demo will work “pretty good” on a PC running an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card. You’d also need a good NVMe SSD, (the PS5 also has an SSD).…

In a surprising twist, AMD has announced that it intends to enable Ryzen 4000 and Zen 3 support on its older B450 and X470 motherboards. This is going to be a ‘promise now, figure out the details later’ arrangement, but this should enable most (if not all) users running 400-series AMD motherboards to upgrade to the Zen 3 processors set to be unveiled later this year. The situation all started after AMD launched the Ryzen 3 3300X and Ryzen 3 3100 processors, and also gave users details about the upcoming B550 chipset that these processors were targeted for. Part of that announcement included a chart, showing how due to BIOS limitations, certain chipsets would only support certain AM4 processors. X570, for example, would support previous Ryzen 2000, current Ryzen 3000,…

“Is AMD’s approach of long term support with caveats the way to go? Or Intel’s with its recent trend of a maximum of two generations?” In our News Brief this issue (page 16), we wrote about AMD’s off and on again support for its future 4000 series Ryzen processors on B450 and X470 motherboards. This got me thinking about the issue of platform longevity. Is AMD’s approach of long term support with caveats the way to go? Or Intel’s with its recent trend of a maximum of two generations? The answer is of course, somewhere in between, but definitely closer to AMD than Intel! AMD has a long standing practise of promoting forward and backward compatibility for its ageing AM4 socket. You could theoretically run a 3950X processor on an…

Originally developed as part of a joint venture between Sony and Nintendo to make a CD-equipped SNES console, Playstation is now one of the world’s most recognised brands. For its 25th anniversary, we got our hands on the unit that started it all, the Japan-only SCPH-1000 model. We’re celebrating the only way we know – time to tear it down! Major tech specs • MIPS R3000 33.9 MHz, 32-bit RISC CPU • 32-bit GPU • 2MB RAM • 1MB VRAM • 16-bit 24-channel PCM stereo sound • 2x CD-ROM Drive Key findings • The Playstation was only available in Japan during its first year on the market. The most noticeable cosmetic difference between the Japanese and global models is the Playstation logo on the lid. The Japanese model sports a…

A few months back we reviewed Asus’ RT-AX3000 router which was a largely unremarkable router but for the fact that it was the first unremarkable router we’d seen that supported Wi-Fi 6. In a market that was full of large, expensive, ostentatious, spiky-looking spaceships, it was the first, sober-looking ‘affordable’ model we’d seen. Now, here’s a second soulless specimen from TP-Link. Could it be heralding Wi-Fi 6’s market maturity and, if so, will that help the technology proliferate amongst the masses? Our first impressions raised our hopes… this thing really is dull looking. You can even find it on sale as a ‘white-box’ unbranded product which typically means it’s avoided visiting a decent, industrial design studio. It’s a box with four, plasticy sticks sprouting from it. Routers looked like this…

Designed for business use, the VigorAP 912C is an affordable (~$350) wall or ceiling mount access point that can be used to create a mesh network. The sleek unit sports a single Gigabit LAN port equipped with Power over Ethernet (PoE), meaning it can be connected with one cable for reduced installation costs. It does come with a normal PSU in case your router doesn’t support PoE, as well as a mounting support and template. The access point has pretty typical specs; dual-band 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi with 2x2 MU-MIMO. In English, that means it can handle 867Mbps on the 5GHz band, and 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, and do so across multiple users at once. You can run the VigorAP 912C as a standard access point or range extender,…

We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to inexpensive streaming devices. But what if you’re after a bit more ‘oomph’ from the gadgets serving your TV? Enter the 2020 edition of the Nvidia Shield TV Pro. An Android-powered set-top-box / games console, it’s about as powerful as streaming devices come, and is jam-packed with features that will tempt movie and video game fans alike. Whether you’re after high-spec PC gaming streamed to your TV, or 4K movies in multiple HDR formats, it’s got you covered. In the box you get the console itself, a new-and-improved remote control and access to 20 great (if ageing) PC games that can be streamed over the internet as part of the GeForce Now service, which you can expand upon with your own purchases. The…

FileWhopper isn’t a cloud storage service in the traditional sense – it focuses on sharing files and folders rather than storing them, so it’s perfect if you need to shift large amounts of data to another person without keeping them stored on the web for a long period. To use FileWhopper, you do need to download a small application rather than using your browser – this is so interrupted uploads can be more easily resumed, and it means a smoother experience overall (the program can work in the background independently). The app deletes itself once the transfer is done, so no trace is left on your system. Unfortunately, the transfer tool is only available for Windows at the moment. We do like the simple pricing structure of FileWhopper, and its…

“If you have old hardware, or just want to explore the realms of desktop frugality, antiX is a great place to start.” The antiX project has been around since 2007. It was originally built to provide a lightweight edition of Warren Woodford’s KDE-based MEPIS distro family, an unsung hero in the battle to make Linux user friendly. MEPIS is no more, but antiX,now based on Debian stable, lives on. Its focus is still the same: to keep things light and useable. You may have heard of MX Linux (master of Distrowatch’s ranking algorithms). That self-described “midweight” distro is based on antiX too, adding a slightly beefier desktop and a generous helping of applications. They share some documentation, which is a little confusing. However, most of the time Debian docs will…

Asrock’s Taichi motherboards usually impress us. They’re not promoted as the solution for a particular sub-market, but instead focus on key features while sticking to a more subtle design aesthetic that should appeal to all kinds of buyers. Can the Z490 Taichi offer the sweet spot value we’ve come to expect from the brand? At $689 though, it’s now a premium level board, and it has to be judged as such. The Z490 Taichi doesn’t deviate too much looks-wise from its recent siblings. Why would you though with its lovely retro, almost analogue theme. It looks terrific. You get a nice splash of RGB lighting too of course. The Taichi has a beefed up 15-phase VRM system fed by dual 8-pin power connectors designed to cope with the demands of…

MSI can tend to overhype the gaming aspect of its products, but then all manufacturers have been doing that as it’s a vital market for PC manufacturers. But don’t let that make you think MSI are good for gaming only. On the contrary, some of their products truly are best in class. We think the MSI MEG Z490 Ace is one of those products. The Z490 Ace looks great with its subtle gold highlights and metallic elements. It’s good to have the primary M.2 slot above the GPU rather than cooking away underneath it. Other little things like the white post code display, fast booting and excellent fan control make the Ace across as a really refined and polished product. Even the M.2 installation is easy, with no need to…

If you’re struggling with some of the tubing runs in your build, it might be time for you to opt for a different strategy. Although hard tubing allows you to achieve far tighter bend radii than with soft tubing, there is a limit to how tight a bend you can create. Combine that with it becoming infinitely more difficult to secure a length of bent tubing the smaller it gets on either end, and sometimes it’s not worth using tubing at all. As tubing bends, it also widens at the point where you apply the pressure to form it. No matter how tight a fit that silicon insert is, you’ll inevitably have a slightly flatter tube at the point of the bend than you did before the bending process. This…

Game folder permission problems I have a new Asus TUF gaming laptop. I copied a game folder from my desktop PC to a thumb drive, then to my laptop to keep the saved files in sync when I traveled. When I got back, I tried to copy the files back to the thumb drive but got the error, “Your organisation does not allow you to place this file here.” I discovered it’s the folders rather than the files that won’t copy; I was able to create the folder and subfolders on the thumb drive then copy the files in the folder and subfolders, a slow chore. I’ve searched the Internet for solutions, but, no solution. Where are these permissions in Windows? How do we turn them off? THOMAS APC responds:…

We run a wide variety of tests on CPUs, using more software than we mention in our benchmarking tables. There are two pieces of non-benchmarking software we’d advise downloading; CPU-Z and HWMonitor. Both programs are freeware available from CPUID online, with a simple, ad-free download and setup. CPU-Z provides detailed system information, useful for checking what components are inside a system, while HWMonitor gives you live numbers for a wide variety of stats, from individual core clocks to component temperatures. The latter program is vital for CPU testing, since min-max tracking enables you to check the peak temperatures your processor hits while you’re running other benchmarks – particularly useful for keeping an eye on your CPU when stress-testing with a manual overclock. It can also be invaluable for identifying problem…

From lights to sounds, falling asleep made easy. If you have trouble falling asleep, try changing the temperature of your lounge and bedroom lights. Use warmer colours like yellow, orange and red. Cooler colours like blue and green can trick the body into thinking it’s daytime, and suppress production of the melatonin hormone. As the sun goes down, melatonin production increases, and your body recognises that it is time to sleep. In addtition, there are plenty of meditation and sleep-aid apps that produce relaxing sounds; listening to natural sounds is a proven way to relax the mind and body.…

In this month’s tutorial we will be creating a project that will alert us to any movement via a passive infrared (PIR) sensor. This will trigger a message to be sent to a service called IFTTT, which is used to receive inputs from various other services and then send outputs to other services. This message to IFTTT will trigger an output and image to be sent to a Telegram account alerting us to an intruder. With the Raspberry Pi powered off, connect the PIR sensor to the GPIO using the three jumper wires. Connect GND to GND, VCC to the 5V pin of the Raspberry Pi. Lastly, connect the output pin of the sensor to GPIO17 of the Raspberry Pi. Now connect the camera to the CSI port, just next…

Tokyo Game Show will not go ahead this September, its organisers have confirmed. The 2020 event was scheduled to take place between September 24-27, but like E3, Computex, and Gamescom, that will no longer happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus on a global scale and the situation remains unpredictable in Japan as well, the organiser and the co-organisers have reached this decision after a long consideration to place the utmost priority on the health and safety of visitors, exhibitors and stakeholders,” the statement from the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association reads. The Tokyo Game Show is one of the world’s premier games industry conventions, and has occurred annually since 1996. In 2018, the show attracted nearly 300,000 attendees to its Makuhari Messe venue.…

Disco Elysium is the kind of RPG that is well-suited to playing on a laptop, but preferably not an oversize gaming laptop. Developers ZA/UM seem to get this, because last month they patched the game so that it will run on basically anything. And by basically anything, we’re not exaggerating. If you’ve got a low-spec work laptop that’s just itching for some R & R, it can probably run Disco Elysium. It’s not just PC that gets the treatment, as most Mac units dating back to 2012 will now run the game. “We’re going to try to keep optimising so low that we break through the crust on the other side of the planet,” the ZA/ UM’s update reads. “Show us your scrapheap calculators and rusty adding machines and we’ll…

A few games have offered glimmers of the classic Bushido Blade’s essence in the years since its release, but the closest yet is First Cut, which is essentially Bushido Blade but in 2D. Duelling here is remarkably simple, but still replete with tactical possibilities. You have an attack button, which allows you to strike from on high, from a low angle, or straight in front of you. You can also dodge, by ducking down and darting behind, or dipping into the background. Slash your sword in concert to your enemy’s attack and you’ll parry it, and survive. Don’t and you’ll bear witness to a gory finishing move that will sever your head from your body, or chop you in half. It’s a basic system, perhaps, but this is really all…

Space whales. It’s a combination of words that leaps off the page at you, but the closest thing to an antagonist this gentle city-builder has aren’t to be feared: they’re only after your vegetables. Before We Leave is a non-violent city-building/4X game that wears its hexes proudly, a tiny bucolic sphere of them (plus 12 hidden pentagons to make it geometrically possible) hanging in the void whose inhabitants initially only know how to grow potatoes. The citizens of your new civilisation emerge from the ashes of an old one – and it’s a rather wonderful world to emerge into, all fertile plains and rocky highlands. Despite the occasional bit of wreckage from the prior owners of the continent before they nuked themselves into oblivion, the land is lush and forested.…

Dubbed “The God Computer” by the Japanese, the X68000 (or X68k for short) is perhaps the ultimate in 16-bit gaming. While console makers such as Sega and Nintendo often boasted “arcade-like” graphics, the X68k was the first home machine to provide genuine arcade graphics. The X68000 might not be famous in the West (it was only sold in Japan), but those in the know can expect near-perfect arcade ports. However, X68k ownership is an eye-wateringly expensive proposition, with any half-decent disks costing several hundred dollars, let alone the cost of the hardware itself. For most of us, emulation is the only option. Nevertheless, it can be tricky to know where to start, and that’s not even taking into account the language barrier of the Japanese operating system. So, let us…