Table of contents for December 2015 in Custom PC UK

There’s a part of me that misses IDE cables. They might have taken up loads of space, and routing them neatly meant taking a masterclass in origami, but if you bought an IDE hard drive, you knew it would work with your system. There might have been several UDMA speed variations, but they were all backwards compatible if you were prepared to sacrifice speed. Of course, there were obvious reasons why we needed new storage interfaces, but IDE looks so remarkably simple compared to the current shambles of storage ‘standards’. The Z170 motherboards we’ve reviewed in this month’s Labs test (see p38) have to support a variety of different ports, sockets and standards to tick all the necessary feature boxes. There are regular SATA 6Gpbs ports and SATA Express ports,…

Video games are now apparently responsible for ruining the planet, and a whole generation of PC gamers has single-handedly doomed the human race to extinction through global warming. What have we done this time? Our gaming machines aren’t energy-efficient, according to a new study, and we’re in trouble. Before you don your tinfoil hat, though, I’m not debunking climate change or humankind’s contribution to it – that’s a matter of scientific fact. The question here is whether high-performance gaming PCs are a significant contributor and, if so, what can or should we do about it? The answer to the first part is yes, and no. High-performance gaming PCs as a group do use a lot of energy compared with, say, fridges but very little compared with the Las Vegas strip.…

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Graphics processor AMD Radeon R9 Nano (up to 1000MHz) Pipeline 4,096 stream processors, 64 ROPs Memory 4GB HBM, 1GHz effective Bandwidth 512GB/sec Compatibility DirectX 12, Mantle, Vulcan Outputs 3 x DisplayPort, HDMI Power connections 1 x 8-pin, side-mounted Size 152mm long, dual-slot AMD has taken the Fury X’s Fiji GPU, put it in a dual-slot card that’s just 6in long, and is claiming it’s cool, quiet and capable of high-detail 4K gaming. All of the R9 Fury X’s 4,096 cores, 256 texture units and 64 ROPs are enabled in the R9 Nano. It also has the same 4096-bit wide memory bus, which is connected to 4GB of HBM. HBM has a far smaller physical footprint than GDDR5, as it’s integrated onto the same ASIC as the…

SUPPLIER www.cclonline.com /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 2 slots: max 32GB DDR3 (up to 3400MHz OC) Expansion slots One 16x PCI-E 3 Sound Asus SupremeFX Networking Intel Gigabit LAN Overclocking Base clock 40–500MHz, CPU multiplier 8-83x; max voltages CPU 1.7V RAM 1.8V Ports 4 x SATA 6Gbps (Z170), 1 x SATA Express, 1 x M.2 (2280), 2 x USB 2, 4 x USB 3, 2 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x LAN, 6 x surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 170 x 170 Our Z170 motherboard Labs this month (see p38 ) looks at full-sized motherboards for Intel’s Skylake CPUs, but there are still limited numbers of mini-ITX Z170 boards. All is not…

Thorough testing and research is the key to evaluating whether a product is worth buying, and deciding whether or not there’s a better alternative PROCESSORS We judge CPUs on whether they offer sufficient speed for the price. Part of a CPU’s speed score comes from how overclockable it is. Every type of CPU is tested in the same PC, so all results are directly comparable. TESTS: We use Custom PC RealBench 2015, Cinebench R11.5 and a variety of games. We also test the power draw of the test PC with the CPU installed. These tests reveal a broad range of performance characteristics, from image editing to gaming and video encoding to 3D rendering. We run all tests at stock speed and again when overclocked to its highest frequency. *Please note:…

We’re quite taken with Google Cardboard. Its low-fi, home-brew feel appeals to our modding tendencies and it’s great being able to assemble a passable VR headset from cardboard. The end experience relies heavily on the smartphone you use to provide the display, however. It needs some grunt to run the games, and the higher the pixel density (ppi) of the screen, the better – a Nexus 6 worked fine in our tests, but an HTC One Mini (M8) struggled, for example. Gaming on the Cardboard was fun, as was flying around Google Earth, although the effectiveness of the magnetic button on our test model was patchy. The latter has been improved on the newly announced V2, however, so opt for the newer model if you can find it. SUPPLIER…

With ten USB ports, Sandberg claims that the grandly titled Master Charger Pro can meet the charging needs of an entire family. At first glance, ten ports may feel like overkill for the job, but they’re soon filled once you factor in two or three devices for each family member. Thankfully, the ports also keep up their high 2.4A output regardless of the number of devices connected, so charging is consistently quick. On the negative side, it has looks that only a mother could love. The logistical challenge posed by tethering so many devices to one small box also shouldn’t be underestimated – we were forced to resort to building precarious stacks, which isn’t ideal when you’re dealing with expensive gadgets. SUPPLIER www.morecomputers.com…

We test each of the motherboards in this Labs test using an Intel Core i7-6700K, the highest-specification LGA1151 CPU currently available. Alongside this CPU is 16GB (2 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory. We also use an OCZ Arc 100 240GB SSD and an XFX Radeon R9 390X Double Dissipation 8GB graphics card. The CPU is cooled using a Corsair H110i GT liquid cooler and the system is powered by an Antec High Current Pro 850W PSU. All tests are performed with Windows 10 Home 64-bit. We first test each motherboard at its stock settings, resetting the EFI system to its defaults and setting the memory speed to 2666MHz using the built-in XMP profile before booting into Windows. We then attempt to overclock the board to its highest…

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3200MHz) Expansion slots Five 16x PCI-E, one 4x PCI-E Sound Creative Core 3D Audio Networking Intel i219 Gigabit Ethernet, Intel i210 Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 100–340MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; max voltages, CPU 2V, RAM 2V Ports 2 x SATA Express, 8 x SATA 6Gbps 1 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 6 x USB 3, 2 x Gigabit LAN, 6-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 304.8 x 263.5 EVGA’s Z170 Classified 4-Way is the only motherboard on test with 4-way SLI support. Normally, there aren’t enough PCI-E lanes on a Z170 system for four graphics cards,…

SUPPLIER www.box.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3466MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, two 1x PCI-E, two PCI Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Intel Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 80–500MHz, CPU multiplier 8–127x; max voltages, CPU 1.8V, RAM 2V Ports 3 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 1 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 3 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 (type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 (type-C), 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic IGP display outputs 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 305 x 225 As the cheapest board on test this month, the Z170XP-SLI’s feature list deserves particular scrutiny. Cheaper boards usually sell in greater…

DEVELOPER Kojima Productions / PUBLISHER Konami / WEBSITE www.konami.jp/mgs5 The Metal Gear Solid series has always been a great innovator in terms of stealth mechanics and creative play. Until now, though, the games have also come with a hefty side order of cinematic storytelling; depending on the particular game, this was either a welcome accompaniment to those delightful stealth systems, or an infuriating distraction from them. With the Phantom Pain, however, the lengthy cut-scenes and ponderous philosophising of its characters, previously hallmarks of the series, have been stripped back. Instead, the emphasis is on the player and their actions, which has two consequences. First, Metal Gear Solid V has one of the weakest stories in the series. Second, Metal Gear Solid V is the greatest stealth game ever. Players reprise…

Despite being a mightily impressive RPG in its own right, The Witcher II was also a rescue project for its Polish developer CD Projekt. Prior to its creation, the company had burned through a huge amount of money attempting to create an Xbox 360 remake of the original Witcher game, named The Witcher: White Wolf. This failure forced the team to curtail ambitions for a sequel, creating it in half the time it took to develop the original. Major cuts were made to the game’s content, particularly to the final act, and the game’s RED Engine, while undoubtedly beautiful, was poorly optimised at the time, resulting in fairly small environments. For The Witcher III, CD Projekt wanted to avoid these compromises. It wanted a seamless open world, blending sprawling countryside…

Mayhems revamps glass tubing Last month I looked at Mayhems’ glass tubing – a new take on hard tubing that follows on from acrylic and metal. It looked fantastic, but at that point it was still practically at the concept level. However, at the recent Multiplay i-55 event at the NEC in Birmingham, I caught up with Mayhems and the project has already made a lot of progress. For starters, Mayhems has now increased the wall thickness from around 1.5mm to 2.5mm – a considerable amount – so it’s now even stronger. I couldn’t even crack the tubing with the previous thickness with a hammer and a fair degree of force, so I’d have no qualms about using this type of tubing now instead of acrylic or metal in strength…

While we’re seeing a slowdown of PC sales, the often-touted death of the PC has been largely overstated, especially in the innovative land of startup firms. Of course, the PCs and laptops that were found in family homes and student digs a decade ago were mostly used as internet machines and word processors rather than powerful computers, and they’re often being sensibly replaced with tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, businesses may still be using PCs, but they’re spending longer between upgrade cycles. However, PC gaming, workstations and the enthusiast segment remains very strong. So, while big-volume PC businesses such Acer, HP and Lenovo are struggling, PC component manufacturers have pivoted towards gaming branding. Sadly, though, the gaming branding also seems to come with a strategy of shying away from genuine innovations…

Samsung announces super-fast M.2 SSDs Samsung has just announced two new M.2 SSDs that promise to smash speed records. The new SSD 950 Pro range supports NVMe over four PCI-E 3 lanes, and Samsung says the new drives can perform sequential reads at up to 2,500MB/sec, a speed the company says is 4.5 times the speed of its current SSD 850 Pro 512GB SATA drives. Meanwhile, the claimed sequential write speed of 1,500MB/sec isn’t quite as jaw-dropping but is still massively quicker than a SATA drive. The new drives use Samsung’s UBX controller and are equipped with 512MB of DDR3 cache. The company says the new drives also consume very little power, drawing just 5.7W at full load. The drives come in both 256GB and 512GB flavours, and we’ll be…

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com /SPECIFICATIONS Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 950, 1165MHz (boost 1355MHz) Pipeline 768 stream processors, 32 ROPs Memory 2GB GDDR5, 6.6GHz effective Bandwidth 105.6GB/sec Compatibility DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5 Outputs/inputs DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI-D, Dual-link DVI-I, HDMI Power connections 1 x 6-pin, top-mounted Size 220mm long, dual-slot The GeForce GTX 950 slots into Nvidia’s stack between the GTX 750 Ti and GTX 960, filling the important sub-£150 price point. Prices start at just under £130 and go up to around £150, meaning the Asus card on test here sits in the middle of the pack, hoping to impress with above average cooling, components and overclocking. Like all the GTX 900-series cards, the GTX 950 uses a second-generation Maxwell GPU – the 28nm GM206. This gives it full DirectX 12…

SUPPLIER www.kikatek.com /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3866MHz - OC) Expansion slots Two 16x PCI-E, three 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Killer E2400 Gigabit LAN Overclocking Base clock 100–340MHz, CPU multiplier 8–120x; max voltages, CPU 1.520V, RAM 1.8V Ports 1 x PS/2, 2 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps 1 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 5 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3 Type C, 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical, S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244 The two ASRock motherboards in this test join Gigabyte’s Z170XP-SLI in the sub-£110 family, making them among the cheapest boards on test. The…

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3400MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, three 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1500 Networking Intel i219v Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 40–650MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; max voltages, CPU 1.7V, RAM 2V Ports 1 x PS/2, 2 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps 1 x M.2, 4 x USB 2, 2 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 (type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 (type-C), 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions 305 x 244 Although the Maximus VIII Ranger is far from the cheapest board on test, it’s still notably less expensive than other…

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3466 MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, three 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Killer Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 80–500MHz, CPU multiplier 8–27x; max voltages, CPU 1.8V, RAM 2V Ports 1 x PS/2, 3 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 3 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 (type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 (type-C), 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8 channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI Dimensions (mm) 305 x 235 As with the Z170X-Gaming 5 (see p48), the Gaming 3 doesn’t sacrifice many features compared…

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3600MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, four 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Killer E2400 Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 70– 655.25MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; max voltages, CPU 2.155V, RAM 2.2V Ports 2 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x M.2, 3 x USB 2, 2 x USB 3, 2 x USB 3.1, 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line-in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244 There’s a strange assumption among motherboard makers that red and black is the colour scheme of choice for PC gamers. Not only is it used on the majority of…

Build a mini APU PC The parts you’ll need to build an affordable, general-purpose mini PC that’s ideal for putting in the lounge, based on an AMD APU. This machine will handle general computing and media tasks with no trouble, as well as basic gaming, although you’ll have to lower the detail settings. Build a budget gaming PC The parts you’ll need to build a budget machine capable of playing the latest games at maximum settings on a 1080p monitor. The machine has a discrete graphics card, a highly overclockable dual-core CPU and high-speed memory. Meanwhile, the Z97 motherboard gives you headroom to upgrade to a faster CPU later. Build a mid-range PC Work PC The parts you’ll need to build a solid quad-core PC with plenty of upgrade potential.…

Gimp We use Gimp to open and edit large images. Unlike our previous Gimp test, this one uses more than one CPU core, although it’s still more sensitive to clock speed increases than to more CPU cores. Handbrake H.264 video encoding Our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake video encoding takes full advantage of many CPU cores, pushing them to 100 per cent load. LuxMark OpenCL This GPU compute test is the only synthetic part of our suite, although the renderer is based on the real LuxRender physically based rendering software. As 3D rendering is a specific workload that not everyone will use, and because OpenCL support isn’t standard in most software, this section is given just a quarter of the weighting of the other tests in the final score. Heavy multi-tasking Our…

MILESTONES THIS MONTH TOP 20 OVERALL TOP 20 PRODUCERS WHAT IS FOLDING? Folding@home uses the spare processing cycles from your PC’s CPU and graphics cards for medical research. You can download the client from http://folding.stanford.edu and our team’s ID is 35947. Once you pass a significant milestone, you’ll get your name in the mag. You can also discuss folding with us and other readers on the www.bit-tech.net forums.…

Real-life mods I’ve just got back from Insomnia 55, where I met my favourite YouTuber DanTDM, and had a good look around the Expo hall, where I saw the Asus ROG Sica (and left £25 lighter as a result). However, the most interesting part of the day was seeing Pandora’s Purple Box, and Team Magoo’s Lumo on the OCUK and In-Win stands respectively. I’m sure you know how you can never really appreciate a mod until you’ve seen it in real life, and this was certainly true for these two. Seeing the water-cooling systems bubbling away is really something, especially when you see people coming to look at the mods who probably don’t even read any PC mags, and seeing them ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at these machines. Modders must be…

SUPPLIER www.amazon.co.uk Thecus’ W2000 distinguishes itself from much of the usual dual-bay competition by using Windows Server 2012 – essentially a massively cut-down copy of Windows 8, instead of an in-house OS. In fact, the OS is so cut down that you have to install many services to even be able to create shared network folders. As you’re using a Windows OS, though, many programs your average PC enthusiast needs from a NAS are easy to install, plus you can install your own backup or cloud services such as Dropbox too. It makes the W2000 hugely flexible, but there’s no getting away from the fact that, for the most part, delving any deeper, or carrying out relatively mundane tasks such as creating shared folders, can be a challenge that’s…

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1190MHz (boost 1291MHz) Pipeline 2,816 stream processors, 96 ROPs Memory 6GB GDDR5, 7GHz effective Bandwidth 336GB/sec Compatibility DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5 Outputs/inputs 3 x DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI-I, HDMI Power connections 2 x 8-pin, top-mounted Size 279mm long, dual-slot EVGA has ten GTX 980 Ti cards in its roster, and the Classified sits at the top, at least until the K|NGP|N edition is released. With a price of £620 inc VAT, however, it needs to prove itself. It’s based on Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU, which sports 2,816 cores, 176 texture units and 96 ROPs, and it’s paired with 6GB of GDDR5 via a 384-bit memory bus, which equips it with enough horsepower for 4K gaming. However, EVGA has…

SUPPLIER TBC /SPECIFICATIONS Connection Wired, USB Cable 1.8m, braided, detachable Material Plastic Switch Type Cherry MX Brown (Blue and Red available) Backlighting Red/blue dual LED, per-key USB ports None Wrist rest No Extras 105-key rollover, Windows lock, media keys, key puller, replacement function key, on-the-fly lighting control, on-the-fly macro recording Most keyboards with complicated macro and lighting customisation options manage these features through software. There are a few exceptions, however, and adding itself to that list is CM Storm’s Quick Fire XTi. This new keyboard offers multi-colour per-key backlighting, five on-board profiles and programmable macros for almost every key, yet it’s also fully plug-and-play with no need for software. The Quick Fire XTi has an extremely minimalist design; it’s about as small as possible for a full 105-key keyboard. The…

Generally, sound bars blast audio straight forwards, and Orbitsound says this state of affairs results in a below-par experience for everyone not lucky enough to be in the central audio sweet spot. Its solution to this problem is the A70, with clever audio processing and an additional pair of end-mounted speakers. It really works too – audio felt much fuller and richer from every angle than with a standard soundbar, with very little variation no matter where we stood. A wireless subwoofer adds bass punch, and with 300W of output, you’ll need to wait until the neighbours are out before you push the volume up to full whack. At £500 inc VAT, it clearly isn’t for everyone, but with on-board Bluetooth for streaming music and the ability to pair it…

With over 219,000 Kickstarter backers pledging $8.7m for it, card game Exploding Kittens created a hubbub when it first broke cover in January. It’s now on general sale with two decks available – Original and NSFW. The game plays like a cross between Uno and Russian roulette, thanks to a central draw deck that’s laced with instant death via the exploding kitten cards. It’s simple to pick up and takes just over 15 minutes to play – the aim is to be the last player left unexploded. Play revolves around using your hand cards to minimise your explosion risk, whether by skipping your turn to draw, or by reshuffling the central deck. It’s a fine balance though; while drawing from the deck can be perilous, it’s also the only way…

The performance improvements from Intel’s new Skylake CPUs may be more evolutionary than revolutionary, but the new motherboards that accompany them bring interesting changes to the table for high-end gaming PCs. Dual-channel DDR4 memory and optional USB 3.1 are part of the offering, along with 4x PCI-E 3 SSD storage in the slim M.2 form factor, massively improving the bandwidth for M.2 storage over the previous Z97 chipset. However, there’s a huge number of Z170 motherboards from which to choose, with a variety of prices and feature sets. We’ve already covered some of them, both in our initial Skylake coverage and in a roundup last month, but that’s still only scratched the surface of the staggering range on the market. As such, this month we’re looking at a far wider…

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3866MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, four 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Intel Gigabit LAN Overclocking Base clock 90–600MHz, CPU Multiplier 8–120x; max voltages, CPU 1,520V, RAM 1.8V Ports 3 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps 1 x M.2, 8 x USB 3, 2 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type C, 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244 A SRock’s two motherboards on test are very close in price and, if you ignore the branding and red colour scheme of the…

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3400MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, three 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Intel Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 40–650MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; max voltages, CPU 1.7V, RAM 1.8V Ports 1 x PS/2, 1 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps 1 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 4 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 type-A, 1x USB 3.1 type-C, 1 x Gigabit LAN, surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244 Amusingly, the competition between Asus and Gigabyte seems to now extend to brand tie-ins with Wargaming.net.…

SUPPLIER www.box.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3466MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, four 1x PCI-E Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Killer E2201 Gigabit Ethernet, Intel Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 80–500MHz, CPU multiplier 8–127x; max voltages, CPU 1.8V, RAM 2V Ports 3 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x M.2, 4 x USB 2, 3 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 (type-A), 1 x USB 3.1 (type-C), 2 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical, S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244 Gigabyte’s Z170X-Gaming 5 is a little cheaper than the Gaming 7 (see Issue 146, p21), but retains many of…

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk /SPECIFICATIONS Chipset Intel Z170 CPU socket Intel LGA1151 Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3600MHz - OC) Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, three 1x PCI-E, one PCI Sound Realtek ALC1150 Networking Intel Gigabit Ethernet Overclocking Base clock 98–341MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; Max voltages, CPU 2.155V, RAM 2.2V Ports 1 x PS/2, 1 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 1 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 4 x USB 3, 2 x USB 3.1 (type-A), 1 x LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out IGP display outputs 1 x DVI, 1 x DisplayPort Much like the other less expensive Z170 motherboards on test, the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro only omits a few of the main features found on its bigger siblings. What’s…

The game industry is obsessed with secrecy. Publishers guard information about their games with the vigilance of a spy agency protecting an informant. Every detail revealed about a game in development is controlled by a marketing schedule stricter than a Victorian schoolmaster, and developers are kept silent by punitive non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that can result in lawsuits if they let slip an inconsequential fact about a game at the wrong time. Standard critical journalism practice, such as playing games prior to release in order to write a timely review, is becoming increasingly difficult to perform, as PR companies drip-feed review copies for maximum exposure over the longest time possible. Even specifying precisely when a game will become available for review is often too much to ask, which makes keeping a…

DEVELOPER Ubisoft Montpellier/ PUBLISHER Ubisoft Montpellier/ WEBSITE www.ubisoft.com/en-GB/game/zombi Originally a Wii U launch title called ZombiU, Zombi sees you playing a survivor of an undead outbreak in London. After an introductory sequence that sees you chased into the London Underground, your character awakes in a safehouse created by an ex-soldier who calls himself the Prepper. The Prepper takes it upon himself to be your mentor, teaching you how to scavenge for supplies, battle the undead and stay alive, although he’s completely fixated on survival. If you want any semblance of hope, you’ll have to step out from under his protective yet controlling wing. What makes Zombi immediately stand out from other games of its ilk is its eerie atmosphere. The game does an awful lot with very little; environments are…

With the release of AMD’s Radeon R9 Nano (see p18), mini-ITX fans have never had it so good. The Nano currently represents the ultimate in terms of short-PCB gaming power, and while it can’t quite handle every game at 4K, it comes tantalisingly close. You can, of course, spend more money and use a GTX 980 Ti, but it’s a much larger graphics card, and you’ll be left with less room for a tidy build. This month, we’ve decided to take full advantage of the Nano by building a tiny PC that also sports an Intel Core i7-6700K, 16GB of RAM and a 512MB SSD – an awesome rig for gaming and much else besides. As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also worked with Parvum Systems to create a custom…

REVIEW E-textile kits Hands on with Adafruit’s Gemma Starter Kit and Kitronik’s Electro-Fashion Deluxe E-Textiles Pack The world of wearables can, at first glance, seem unwelcoming to the hobbyist. While making device similar to an Apple or Pebble smartwatch is perhaps a little overenthusiastic for a first project, there’s an easy way to get started with a simpler project: conductive thread. In a traditional circuit, electricity is carried via copper wires or traces on a circuitboard. Conductive thread is designed to replace this material: it carries electricity just like wiring, although less efficiently, but can be used almost exactly like cotton thread – it can even be placed into a sewing machine. A spool of conductive thread on its own isn’t enough, though, and that’s where a pair of starter…

I’ve waited almost a year for the 3K ultra-widescreen IPS monitors with G-Sync that were announced at CES. The wait was so long, in fact, that I’m now considering skipping this upgrade altogether and going for a VR headset when they first go on sale early next year. After all, a display upgrade is such a big expense that it’s only worth it when there’s a huge change in quality or experience. A VR headset is just that – a change in experience unlike anything before. Well, not quite anything. I’ve been a VR enthusiast for years, but early VR headsets were too bulky, the resolution wasn’t high enough and they were far too laggy. I remember as a young journalist in the 1990s being very excited to have a…