Table of contents for October 2020 in Custom PC UK

We might not share Henry Cavill’s sex appeal, but we do share something in common with the star of The Witcher and Man of Steel (or The Tudors, if you’re more like me) this month, and it thankfully doesn’t involve us bursting out of our vests. As you may have seen, there’s a video of Cavill building a Ryzen PC in a Fractal Design Define R7 case. He calmly examines each component with an empathetic expression, as if he’s attempting to understand its inner wisdom, before sensually peeling off the film and installing it in his new system. I love it, and not for the same reasons as some of my female friends. It’s just great to see someone of Cavill’s stature enjoying our hobby, and doing a decent job…

As lockdown eases (or perhaps just lulls until the next one), we emerge, blinking in the sunlight after months indoors with only games and the Internet for company. To be fair, that’s not much different from my pre-pandemic life, but even as an avid gamer and ‘too online’ person, the past few months have been heavy in terms of screen time. Not just gaming, but doom-scrolling on social media and looking for new ways to kill boredom or get the dopamine hit usually provided by going for coffee or wandering around CEX. The past few months have felt like the world is on fire, but the usual external outlets for coping haven’t been available. That’s just about manageable for me, but what about those whose existing problems are exacerbated by…

AMD’s Ryzen 3 CPUs were largely expected to be the final additions to the Zen 2 range before Zen 3 landed later in 2020, except for a smattering of APUs, but it was clear that AMD isn’t willing to let Intel steal some of those single-threaded Cinebench scores with its Comet Lake CPUs. The result is three of AMD’s fastest ever CPUs, denoted by the ‘XT’ suffix, but are they worth the extra  cash? The Ryzen 5 3600XT here retails for around £30  more than the Ryzen 5 3600X, and has a similar price  to  Intel’s Core i5-10600K, but it also lacks a CPU cooler in the box. You also only get a 100MHz increase in the peak single-core boost frequency from 4.4GHz to 4.5GHz, while the base frequency remains the…

If you like mini PCs, then you’ll probably have heard of Intel’s Next Unit of Computing, or NUC platform. These tiny, but fully fledged PCs could fit in the palm of your hand, and the first ones made were ideal for HTPCs and office PCs, and even sported upgradable memory and storage. However, they were a little limited, with low-power embedded CPUs and no option for discrete graphics. Intel has recently been gearing up the NUC for a more power-focused design, though, and the result is the NUC 9 Extreme. It sports several individual PCBs and a separate 500W internal power supply, instead of the previous version’s external unit. The motherboard is part  of what Intel calls a Compute Element, which has an integrated blower-style cooler, and the whole section…

Asus' ROG Strix XG438Q is a bruising hulk of a display that outmuscles every other display in this Labs. Its 43in diagonal means it’s essentially a TV that should be viewed from a sofa or bed rather than sitting up close at a desk. While it does include a remote control, it doesn’t have a TV tuner or smart TV interface: it’s still essentially just a big dumb screen. The huge size and 4K resolution makes for a true big-screen gaming experience that’s ideal for both console and living-room PC gaming. Up close, the relative lack of crispness, when compared with smaller displays, is plain to see but from sofa distance, it isn’t noticeable. The feature list includes both AMD FreeSync and G-Sync compatibility with a peak refresh rate of…

The iiyama G-Master is the cheapest display in this Labs, with its price undercutting the Asus TUF panel by a slim 16 pounds. Both displays have the same 28in diagonal, which makes the iiyama and its rival the smallest 4K panels in the Labs. The iiyama has FreeSync that peaks at 60Hz, just like the Asus. That peak refresh rate is high enough to ensure smooth gaming in mainstream single-player titles – even if it won’t adequately handle frantic esports or fast games in other genres. The iiyama is the only TN display in the Labs, which usually means better response time and ghosting performance, but poorer colours and viewing angles. As such, it feels like an odd choice for a 60Hz, 4K screen. Speed isn’t of the essence here;…

One of relatively few consumer USB audio devices with line and microphone inputs for chat or recording, the Creative Sound Blaster X3 is a  tidy-looking square desktop-dwelling box with 7.1 audio out via four 3.5mm ports, microphone and line in ports, optical S/PDIF out and a headphone amp that supports impedances ranging from 32 to 600 ohms. A chunky knob on the top lets you control microphone and speaker volume, as well as the relative volumes of the X3’s unusual Audio Balance feature, which can send different audio streams to the sound card’s S/PDIF and speaker outputs. Exactly what you’re controlling at any given time is indicated by the colour of a bright LED ring. The X3 uses Creative’s own Super X-Fi ULTRA DSP with integrated DAC, and you get plenty…

Over the past few years, I’ve come to the opinion that most games are far, far too long. So many games seem to be stuffed with content that looks as if it exists solely to make the game appear longer, and I find myself losing interest in their systems and ideas long before the credits roll. I’ve always thought this was a minority view, not least because I have a vested interest in games being shorter (it makes them easier to review). The majority of players must enjoy absorbing everything these games have to offer. Otherwise, why would developers spend so much additional money making them so long? These stats reveal that most players never finish the games they play However, it turns out that hardly anybody is getting the…

DEVELOPER Upstream Arcade/ PUBLISHER Raw Fury West of Dead is a tough-as-nails action adventure that sees you battling your way through a randomly generated, Wild West-themed underworld. It places you in the role of a deceased outlaw trying to find a way out of Purgatory, Wyoming, which is apparently where all cowboys go when they die. Each of its three chapters comprises multiple randomly generated levels through which you need to fight using weapons ranging from pistols to dynamite. If you die, you’re sent back to the saloon where you started, and the levels shuffle themselves anew for the next run. Given that West of Dead is a small title from a small studio, its production values are superb. The art style resembles a Mike Mignola comic strip that moves…

A fascinating experiment, The Under Presents: The Tempest is a live performance of Shakespeare’s final play, taking place entirely within a virtually constructed theatre you can access via Oculus Rift or Quest. It’s difficult to describe, but The Under is essentially a virtual cabaret club that you’re able to freely explore within VR. It’s a surreal place, where the confines of the club blur with vast, sprawling landscapes, like a hybrid between one of Grand Theft Auto’s virtual theatres and the passive multiplayer experience of Journey. The club has a variety of pre-made shows that you can watch, such as comedy and dance routines. However, the developers of The Under also use the space to put on live, ticketed shows, creating bespoke virtual sets and hiring professional actors to play…

When the hobbyist microcontroller revolution began, it centred around putting DIP-layout integrated circuits into solderless breadboards and flashing them with dedicated programming hardware. Projects such as Arduino (not the first, but undeniably one of the most successful) provided an alternative in the form of self-contained boards, combining microcontrollers with USB connections for programming and power. Today, hobbyists have a hoard of riches from which to choose, from ultra-low-cost bare ATtiny85 chips to high-performance single-board computers. It’s towards the upper end of this spectrum, in terms of features although not in cost, that Seeed Studio has launched the latest model in its Wio family: the Wio Terminal. The Wio Terminal is built around a Microchip ATSAMD51 system-on-chip, packing a single-core ARM Cortex-M4F microcontroller running at a stock 120MHz frequency, and it’s clockable up…

INTEL 7NM CHIPS DELAYED UNTIL 2022 Intel has announced more bad news about its manufacturing problems, saying that its first Intel-made 7nm products now won’t be seen until late 2022, or even early 2023. ‘We have identified a defect mode in our 7nm process that resulted in yield degradation,’ said Intel CEO Bob Swan at the company’s 2020 Q2 earnings webcast. ‘We’ve root-caused the issue and believe there are no fundamental roadblocks, but we  have also invested in contingency plans to  hedge against further schedule uncertainty,’ said Swan. In a very surprising move, Swan also said that one of these contingency plans could be outsourcing work  to third-party chip makers. Swan said that the company wanted to be sure it ‘delivers the most predictability and performance for our customers, whether…

It can be tricky to get a handle on pricing at the moment, with the pandemic meaning costs remain high for some areas of PC hardware, but even taking that into account, the huge price hike for the Ryzen 7 3800XT over the Ryzen 7 3800X simply isn’t worth it. If you shop around, you can pick up the latter for under £290, meaning there’s effectively a £100 markup. More importantly, though, the Ryzen 9 3900X, which has four more cores and eight more threads, costs just £30 more. Let’s see why AMD thinks this new 8-core kid on the block is worth so much more cash. On paper, the new CPU sports the biggest frequency uplift of any of the new XT CPUs, with a 4.7GHz peak core boost compared…

The VG289Q is one of the cheapest panels in this Labs, but you wouldn’t know that to look at it. It has a stylish base and slim bezels that, as well as looking trim, mean this screen could easily be used for multi-monitor setups. It wants for little elsewhere too. There’s an excellent 150mm of height adjustment alongside tilt, swivel and portrait mode pivoting, and the fast, responsive OSD is navigated using some easy-to-use large buttons and a mini joystick. Its 4K resolution is paired with a 28in diagonal, which is a configuration that makes for a very tightly packed pixel density of 157 pixels per inch. You’ll probably want to run this display at 150 per cent resolution scaling in Windows, to make text and icons a usable size.…

The ProLite is a large, no-nonsense display that serves up admirable design versatility. It’s got loads of height adjustment, swivel and tilt ability, and it can swing into portrait mode; it also has side-mounted USB ports, excellent build quality and smooth movement. It’s no surprise when you remember this panel is designed for work alongside play. However, the iiyama’s po-faced design does have downsides. The aesthetic is staid, with a modest stand and thick bezels. The rival Philips 328E1CA/00 looks better, with its gently curved panel, slim bezels and stylish stand. However, that Philips screen has fewer adjustment options and no USB ports, which makes the Iiyama easier to live with. The iiyama uses VA LCD panel technology – just like the Philips – which should mean huge contrast. The…

DEVELOPER V1 Interactive / PUBLISHER Private Division Merging the first-person shooter with real-time strategy has been a risky prospect ever since the days of Command and Conquer: Renegade. Shooters are all about instinct and reaction, whereas strategy games are about planning and process. Sadly, Disintegration doesn’t come close to resolving this split. The game takes place in a futuristic Earth beset by plague and climate catastrophe. In response to the increasingly hostile environment, many humans have opted to have their brains transplanted into robotic armatures. This extreme human enhancement causes a social rift between Naturals and the Integrated, with a splinter faction of the latter known as the Rayonne declaring war on humanity and any Integrated who side with them. In Disintegration’s single-player campaign, you play as an Integrated celebrity…

DEVELOPER Sneaky Bastards/ PUBLISHER Humble Bundle Wildfire is a stealth game in which one of the key mechanics is setting stuff on fire. If you think that sounds contradictory, you’d be absolutely right. This debut game from website turned game developer Sneaky Bastards is a fascinating oddball. Every aspect of it is made really well, but it’s still very hard to be stealthy when EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE. You play a young woman living in a picturesque village of a nondescript fantasy Kingdom. Shortly after she discovers a fallen meteorite on the village outskirts, her home is invaded by off-brand Inquisition types who ransack the settlement and burn the woman as a witch. Miraculously, she survives, and in the process gains to the ability to manipulate the elements. Structurally, Wildfire…

Only a few weeks ago we were lamenting the lack of a proper VR X-Wing, and now EA has announced that Star Wars: Squadrons is in development, releasing later this year. A spiritual successor to LucasArts’ X-Wing and TIE fighter games, Squadrons is a space combat simulator that lets you take flight in the iconic spacecraft of both the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. Its single-player campaign takes place after the destruction of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, with you playing as initiate pilots on both sides of the conflict. The multiplayer game, meanwhile, lets you battle in a range of modes, from straight-up dogfights to large-scale, multi-stage space battles where you’ll blow up Star Destroyers and Rebel capital ships. Squadrons isn’t a VR-exclusive. It…

When the original Raspberry Pi single-board computer launched, it came with two ports sticking up from the surface of the board: a Display Serial Interface (DSI) port for embedded displays, and a Camera Serial Interface (CSI) port for cameras. The hassle of finding a suitable camera was quickly addressed with the launch of the Raspberry Pi Camera Module, a CSIconnected compact camera that’s proven popular both within and without the Raspberry Pi ecosystem – just count the number of other embedded projects that use the Raspberry Pi Camera Module for its low cost and reasonable quality. We say ‘reasonable’ because the actual output quality is undeniably rough, especially in low-light conditions. That’s despite there being an upgrade along the way, when the first design’s OmniVision OV5647 five-megapixel camera sensor went…

Tinkerer Zak Kemble has designed a ‘bridge chip’, which allows any PCI-E hardware to be connected to the Raspberry Pi 4, although its installation isn’t for the fainthearted. Designed to sit where the VL805 USB controller chip normally lives, meaning a steady hand and a hot-air soldering machine are essential, the ‘bridge chip’ (actually a simple PCB) disables the two USB 3 ports in favour of bringing out the board’s single 1x PCI-E lane. With a USB-format riser card, any PCI-E device can then be connected, as long as ARM drivers are available. The chip is available to buy from tindie.com for £5.17 (ex VAT).…

Is USB Type-C finally a must-have? USB standards seemed to get stuck on USB 3 for an eternity, and even though Type-C ports and USB 3.1 (then USB 3.1 Gen 2 and now apparently USB 3.2 Gen 2, just to confuse everyone even more) Type-A ports have been present on motherboards for a number of years, precious few desktop devices actually used them for a long time. Indeed, a quick search on Amazon seems to bring up more laptop-focused devices, such as MacBook port hubs or USB Type-C hubs, than anything else. However, more and more smartphones are now using the Type-C interface for charging, as are other devices such as wireless headphones. I have Type-C SSDs and a Type-C USB hub as well. The latter has been particularly useful…

When Ben first told me he was writing a retro PC article this issue, based on a Pentium MMX, it immediately brought back a rush of memories. Beige mini-tower cases, motherboards packed full of DIP switches and jumpers, and hours spent tweaking autoexec.bat and config.sys to free up enough RAM to run the latest Origin game. Still,at least by the mid-1990s,most PC games and applications were supplied on CD-ROM, eliminating the tedious process of installing games via floppy disk. I still get shivers thinking about how long it took to install Strike Commander from eight disks and OS/2 from over 20 disks – they took literally hours to copy and decompress. Within a couple of years, many games wouldn’t even run on a non-MMX CPU It’s a far cry from…

AMD has always generally offered good-value competition against Intel, which has sustained the firm’s popularity over the years. It still offers good-value CPUs, but its platform affordability is being seriously compromised by the ‘mid-range’ B550 chipset, as the motherboards based on it are simply too expensive. A large percentage of boards based on AMD’s previous B450 chipset could be bought for well under £100, but B550 boards start at over £100 and soon dive into the X570 price range, which is itself expensive. The price of X570 motherboards could be forgiven, since X570 is the premium chipset, and when combined with the 3900X and 3950X, it arguably edges into entry-level HEDT territory. However, B550 should be the chipset that opens up AMD’s latest tech to everyone, with some options in…

Caught red NANDed I love your mag, even if the change of publisher turned out to be a bumpy ride for some subscribers like me, but I’m not going to write about that. Far more importantly, there is a stark error in the ‘Anatomy of a PC’ feature in Issue 203 – the schematic provided is for a NAND gate. For AND, the output and a resistor would be on the emitter side. That’s just something I couldn’t pass as an electronics guy. BARTLOMIEJ DZIEGIEL Edward: Well spotted! A typo at an all-important stage resulted in the wrong diagram getting replicated, and the similarity between the two meant it slipped by during all our checks. Nand the moral of the story is … Turn it down! A couple of things…

The final piece of our Ryzen 3000-series XT puzzle is the Ryzen 9 3900XT, which now sits between the Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 9 3950X in terms of price, retailing for £480. That’s currently around £40 more than the Ryzen 9 3900X, which means this CPU has to do less to make it worth the extra cash than the Ryzen 7 3800XT, which costs almost £100 more than its predecessor. Frequency-wise, there’s not much to get excited about. The peak single-core boost speed has risen from 4.6GHz to 4.7GHz, making it the joint fastest CPU in AMD’s arsenal in terms of clock speed, matching the new Ryzen 7 3800XT and older Ryzen 9 3950X. Like the other two XT CPUs we’ve reviewed this month, the TDP stays the same…

The Elgato Key Light is an LED light panel designed for streamers and other content creators, aiming to give them an easy-to-use, software-controllable setup for lighting their streaming or video-making area. It provides integration into the company’s streaming ecosystem, allowing for remote control via your PC, phone or one of Elgato’s dedicated Stream Deck hardware controllers, so you can control your lighting without leaving your desk. The Key Light can provide up to 2,800 lumens of illumination and ships with a stand that clamps to your desk. The company also offers the smaller Key Light Air, which puts out 1,400 lumens and comes with a weighted desktop stand. Both stand options are compatible with the company’s Multi Mount system, which provides further stands and adjustable arms for mounting other lights,…

The EW3280U is one of the pricier panels in this Labs, but BenQ tries to justify this by deploying features for media use. There are beefier speakers than anything else at this size, for instance, alongside a remote control and an attempt at HDR. This 32in panel looks the part. It’s got slim bezels along three edges, while the bottom bezel is thicker in order to accommodate the audio gear – and is decorated with a smart mottled pattern in a dark bronze shade. Build quality is great, and around the back, there’s a USB-C port with 60W of power delivery. There are a few design niggles though. That USB-C port isn’t accompanied by any full-sized USB ports. This panel isn’t massively adjustable either: it tilts and supports 100mm VESA…

The Philips is the only curved display in this Labs, and this panel’s 1800R shape is elegant. The smart, subtle shape is paired with slim bezels, a metallic stand and a slim, hollow base that’s made from metal. In this Labs, the 32in Philips display competes with the iiyama ProLite XB3288UHSU-B1, which is the same size and £30 cheaper. In terms of aesthetics, the Philips looks far better, and will be equally at home in an office or gaming den. However, it undermines its superb looks with a dearth of practical features. The 328E1CA/00 can tilt back and forwards, and it supports 100mm VESA mounting, but that’s it – the Iiyama has height adjustment, swivelling and pivoting. The Philips has no USB ports, and the plastic used on its rear…

If you’re looking for a small DAC that will mesh well with hi-fi separates, Cambridge Audio’s DacMagic 100 fits the bill. It’s a small square box with a USB A port to hook up your PC, as well as one optical and two coaxial S/PDIF inputs. Its only output is a pair of RCA stereo ports. It includes an external power supply and can’t take power from the USB bus. Unlike most of the audio interfaces we’ve looked at this month, it doesn’t include a headphone pre-amp, so you’ll need to connect this to an amp and speaker system or pair of powered speakers for your listening pleasure. There are two buttons at the front: one to switch in and out of standby mode and another that switches between each…

The iFi Zen DAC is a compact but pleasingly heavy desktop audio interface with a stylish metal chassis that belies its price. It has an integrated headphone amp with a 1/4in stereo port at the front, as well as rear RCA outputs for speakers, and its pre-amp can be enabled or disabled for either of these. A switch at the back selects between fixed mode – in which the pre-amp and the DAC’s front volume knob are disabled – and variable mode, which engages the pre-amp and allows you to control its volume directly from DAC, which is particularly welcome when watching movies on headphones. There are two further buttons on the front: Power Match and TrueBass. The latter is an analogue bass boost, intended to compensate for the loss…

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. 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…

DEVELOPER Mimimi Games / PUBLISHER THQ Nordic Originally the domain of games such as Jagged Alliance and Commandos, the real-time tactics genre has lain largely dormant for the best part of 20 years. Then, in 2016, Mimimi Games launched Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, an extravagant and challenging tactical epic that saw players controlling a motley group of Ronin on dangerous missions in Feudal Japan. Desperados III is Mimimi’s follow-up to that game, and it’s bigger, tougher and more inventive. Desperados III is a prequel to the 2001 original, charting the early years of charismatic outlaw John Cooper and his gang of likeable antiheroes as he travels across America searching for a man named Frank, who was responsible for the death of Cooper’s father. Their search brings them into…

DEVELOPER nDreams / PUBLISHER nDreams, Oculus Studios We’ve found some odd hiding places in stealth games, from bins to cardboard boxes, but Phantom: Covert Ops puts you in the role of a special forces agent who operates exclusively from the confines of a one-man closed canoe. Yes, really. This VR stealth game takes place in Eastern Europe during the mid-1990s, and your goal is to investigate some ‘hostile wetlands’ occupied by a rogue militia. It’s an inescapably odd premise, but the idea is to create a VR experience that can be played sitting down without breaking the immersion and, despite a few stumbles, Phantom largely succeeds. The game comprises around seven linear missions, which see you infiltrating enemy dockyards and installations using the waterways of the marshland. You control the…

We’re guessing that many Custom PC readers could easily build a top-notch PC that uses all the latest hardware. However, customising your rig with RGB lighting, water cooling and more unique tweaks, such as applying vinyl patterns, can be a daunting step up. Water-cooling hardware, lighting controllers and vinyl cutters aren’t cheap, and it helps to know what gear you need as well as what you want to achieve first. In this feature, we’re not focusing on cramming the most expensive hardware into your computer, although we have used decent gear. Instead, our main priority is taking you through the customisation steps, showing you how to build a showstopping PC that’s kitted out with hard-tube water cooling gear, RGB lighting and custom vinyl details on the front. Whatever your PC’s…

The MEGA65 project, which aims to sell a microcomputer inspired by Commodore’s never-released Commodore 65, has opened pre-orders for the first developer kit models. Built around three field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), the MEGA65 aims to do for Commodore fans what the ZX Spectrum Next (see Issue 202) did for Sinclair fans, including full backwards compatibility with Commodore 64 software and accessories. The dev kits aren’t cheap, however: pre-orders cost €999 (around £904 inc VAT) from trenz-electronic.de, ahead of a planned Q4 2020 delivery date.…