Table of contents for December 2020 in Custom PC UK

Nvidia has plastered itself all over the tech headlines over the past few weeks. Not only has the Green Team has stamped a tremor through the tech industry with its plan to buy Arm (see p12), but the launch of its latest Ampere-based GeForce GPU, the GeForce RTX 3080 (see p16), caused several retailer websites to come crashing down on launch day. Apparently not even Nvidia was prepared for the ferocious onslaught of sales.‘We expected the best ever demand for the RTX 30-series, but the enthusiasm was overwhelming,’ said the company in an online statement.‘We were not prepared for this level, nor were our partners. We apologise for this.’ It’s easy to see why so many gamers are clamouring for this new GPU when you look at the benchmark results…

RAZER CUTS PERIPHERAL CABLES Razer has introduced wireless versions of three of its popular gaming peripherals, the DeathAdder mouse, BlackWidow keyboard and BlackShark headset. ‘Every time we launch a new product, a lot of fans ask for a wireless version’, explained Alvin Cheung, senior vice president of Razer’s Peripherals Business Unit. Razer claims the £180 BlackShark V2 Pro ‘delivers lossless immersive audio for low-latency wireless gaming’, with quoted 24-hour battery life and 12m range. Meanwhile, the £130 DeathAdder V2 Pro has a stated 120-hour maximum battery life via Bluetooth, or 70 hours using Razer’s low-latency HyperSpeed wireless tech. There’s also an option to play games with a wired cable while it’s charging. The mouse weighs 88g and features eight programmable buttons. Finally, the £230 BlackWidow V3 Pro keyboard features Razer’s…

Amazingly, even though the RTX 3080 well and truly knocks the RTX 2080 Ti off its perch, it doesn’t represent the pinnacle of Nvidia’s new GeForce line-up. That honour goes to the RTX 3090. It uses the same base GA102 chip as the RTX 3080, but it has seven graphics processing clusters (GPCs) enabled. The result is a colossal count of 10,496 CUDA cores, along with 82 2nd-gen RTX cores and 328 3rd-gen Tensor cores. It also has a 384-bit memory interface, which is wider than the 32-bit interface on the 3080, and it’s backed up by a huge 24GB bank of GDDR6X memory. The result of the memory configuration is a huge total memory bandwidth of 936GB/ sec, which isn’t far off 1TB/sec. Sadly, our print schedule didn’t give…

While radiators for 120mm and 140mm fans occupy most liquid-cooled setups, they can’t fit in every case. Mini-ITX cases sometimes have 120mm fan mounts, but lack the clearance for actual radiators in them. Similarly, pump sections can be too large to squeeze into tight spaces, and long tubes can end up kinking. With these issues in mind, Alphacool has introduced the 92mm Eisbaer LT92. Its low-profile Eisbaer LT pump is supremely quiet, and its tubes measure just 25cm, so they don't trail through a small case. There are no cumbersome quick-release fittings either. You can also expand the cooler, as the pump section fittings use standard G1/4in ports. The smaller radiator means it will fit into popular small cases such as the DAN A4 and save space in other cases…

How we test AMD’s colossal Threadripper CPUs can work with lesser coolers but to get the most from them you need something a little more powerful. We’ve gathered eight of the latest Threadripper-compatible all-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers to see which is best placed to keep your many-cored PC cool and quiet. For consistent thermal testing, we’ve used a Threadripper 3960X that has been overclocked to 4.2GHz using a vcore of 1.265V. This is slightly higher than the CPU can manage at stock speed, so it should provide a decent workout for any cooler. We also use 32GB of 3466MHz Corsair Vengeance RGB memory along with a Samsung 960 Pro SSD and Corsair RM850i PSU. Our test system is housed in a Fractal Design Meshify C case and runs Windows 10.…

We’ve seen extended contact plates do well in cooling AMD’s hefty Threadripper CPUs in the past and we were glad to see Cooler Master offering a reasonably priced RGB-equipped cooler with one too. The MasterLiquid ML360 RGB TR4 has a contact plate that completely covers the heatspreader, although not all of it actually sits under the pump to be actively cooled. Still, it’s better than leaving portions of the heatspreader completely to its own devices, so it will be interesting to see how it fares against more expensive coolers that have smaller plates. At £130, it’s reasonably priced for a 360mm AIO liquid cooler too, and while there’s no software control, its pump and fans feature RGB lighting with 4-pin compatibility for motherboards and a controller included for manual tweaking…

We’ve reviewed a number of 280mm AIO liquid coolers in the past 12 months, but despite an increasingly crowded market, the Fractal Design Celsius+ S28 Prisma still managed to pick up an approved award thanks to decent cooling, an innovative cable management system, full RGB lighting and reasonable noise levels. However, we’ve seen other coolers that did well on alternative CPU sockets not hold up when it comes to dealing with AMD’s Threadripper CPUs, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how the Celsius+ S28 Prisma will do in this group test. You get a useful hub located on the radiator that provides power for your fans, so you won’t need to run cables from them to your motherboard, with only the pump requiring a 4-pin header and RGB header for…

How we test We’ve tested six flight controllers of various types, with prices ranging from under £30 to £400, with plenty in between, and all of them will get the basic job done. When it comes to choosing which is right for you, though, there's a few factors to consider. The first is whether you just care about terrestrial flight or space flight too. For conventional aeroplanes, you just need two axes of movement: pitch and roll. To control these axes, the stick tilts forward and back and left and right. Then, you can control the rudder (yaw) either with separate pedals or via keyboard input. If, however, you’re working in space, you want to not only control pitch and roll but yaw as well. In which case, you’ll want…

If features per pound were the only scoring criteria, the Logitech (previously Saitek) X56 HOTAS would easily romp home with the win. This two-piece, Hands On Throttle And Stick (HOTAS) system, with separate joystick and throttle sections, is absolutely packed to the gills. The joystick offers three-axis movement and is festooned with buttons and hat switches. Meanwhile the throttle control has separate left and right throttle controls, so you can control the engines of multi-engined craft independently (or both controls can be locked together). There are also loads more buttons and hat switches on the throttle control, along with arguably the single feature that really elevates this whole setup in terms of core features, which is two further dials for left/right and up/down throttle control. Combined with the main throttle…

The Thrustmaster T.1600M is a feature-packed HOTAS flight control system with a separate 3-axis joystick and throttle control. It doesn’t look dissimilar to the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro with the addition of a throttle control, except this whole system is considerably more expensive than that controller, with the joystick alone costing nearly double the price of the Logitech. What does that extra outlay get you, other than the throttle control? Well, for a start, the joystick is truly ambidextrous. All the buttons are arranged in mirror image and the additional single throttle slider (so you still get throttle control, even without the separate throttle control) is right in the middle. You can even swap out the contoured panels on the stick to use it in a left-handed configuration. This ability…

The Iliad might be Western Literature’s original war story, but Homer’s poem is as much a character drama as an epic military tale. It’s not so much about Achaea vs Troy, but Agamemnon vs Priam, for example. Thankfully, A Total War Saga: Troy understands the importance of character in the Trojan War, featuring an excellent, personality-driven campaign. You can choose one of several heroes on either side of the Trojan war, with your goal ultimately being either the capture or defence of Troy. Each hero has their own unique play style that dramatically alters the slant of the campaign. Achilles, for example, is a master warrior, but he’s unable to temper his emotions, and his violent mood swings can dramatically affect the strength of both his army and his economy.…

A spiritual successor to Relic’s Company of Heroes, Iron Harvest asks ‘what if World War I had mechs in it?’ The answer, apparently, is that the Russian Revolution never happens, Poland is annexed by Russia as part of its truce with Germany, and Nikola Tesla becomes one of the most sought-after military minds on the planet. That’s the setup for the lavish strategy campaign, where you can play as three different factions duking it out as the fragile Armistice between the war’s eastern powers (alternatively named Rusviet, Saxony and Polania) teeters on the brink of collapse. A typical mission sees two factions battling over control points scattered across an isometric map. These control points generate resources you can use to construct new buildings and units, with the ultimate goal of…

To some of us it doesn’t feel like all that long since 144Hz screens were the bee’s knees, but with 240Hz monitors now commonplace and a new raft of 360Hz screens set to arrive in the coming months, it begs the question of just how fast we need to go before gaming monitors are truly fast enough. We won’t truly find that out until we’ve tested those 360Hz screens, but we wanted to test at least as far as we can with current technology. What’s more, there are several other factors at play when it comes to how responsive a monitor feels, such as response time, the LCD panel type and whether a display uses any form of backlight strobing blur reduction. We put all these factors to some subjective…

Raspberry Pi users looking to reduce advertising on their home network now have a simple-to-deploy option straight from Ubuntu Linux creator Canonical – the AdGuard Home Appliance. Showcasing the capabilities of Ubuntu Core and the Snapcraft system, AdGuard Home is designed to improve security and privacy by filtering out unwanted network traffic across the entirety of a network, and runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 or Raspberry Pi 4. A guide to installing the appliance can be found at custompc.co.uk/AdGuard. Those who would prefer a tool that can run atop Raspberry Pi OS can try Pi-hole (pi-hole.net) instead.…

In September, Nvidia sealed the biggest deal in semi-conductor history by paying $40 billion US for Arm. The good news is that Nvidia plans to keep Arm’s headquarters and IP registered in the UK and is even furthering investment with an AI research and education centre, as well as building an Arm/Nvidia-based AI supercomputer for research. However, there’s notably no commitment to keeping or growing UK jobs, as Softbank made when it bought Arm in 2016. Nvidia spends over 6x more on R&D in a year than Arm, so this gives Arm a huge shot in the, erm, leg Nvidia is looking to bolster Arm with its own GPU and AI technologies, which is good because Arm’s Mali GPU tech isn’t exactly held in high regard, and its Ethos NPU…

When should I buy? I love your magazine. As a thrifty PC builder, I’m always on the lookout for bargains and ways to get the most ‘bang for my buck’. I suffer from the classic ‘hang on until the prices drop’ syndrome. It’s inevitable while waiting for that to happen, newer products hit the market and I just endlessly wait to avoid buyer’s remorse. Is there a good time of the year to wait for types of parts, or is it possible to have a strategy for getting components for the best prices possible? DAVID NASH Ben: If you’d asked this question a few years ago, I could have pointed you towards definite patterns in the industry. Intel used to have a regularly predictable tick-tock cycle of CPUs, and Nvidia…

The R.A.T. Pro X3 Supreme has an eye-watering price, but that means you get customisation options that simply aren’t possible anywhere else. There are three palm rests, all with adjustable angles, and three scroll wheels with both metal and rubberised options included. The wheel’s tension level can be adjusted, and it has analogue tilt control, so finer sideways movement is possible. There are multiple rest options for your thumb and little finger, and both ceramic and PTFE base plates. It’s possible to create more than 100 different hardware combinations, so it’s ideal for fine-tuning your peripheral to extremely specific requirements. There are also ten buttons, including a sniper button, a DPI adjuster and a profile-switcher, and the mouse includes a cleaning brush, a carry case and a storage tray. The…

As one of our favourite coolers right now, and given its cooling prowess, the Alphacool Eisbaer Extreme 280 goes up against our mighty Threadripper 3960X and its 24 cores with a confident look on its face. This massive AIO liquid cooler sports a pair of 140mm fans and massive 280mm radiator enclosed in a shroud that houses its own refillable illuminated reservoir. The ability to top up this cooler is crucial, as the Eisbaer Extreme 280 is expandable, with quick-release fittings part way down the tubes allowing you to plumb in extra waterblocks and piping. The fittings separate easily with no spillage, making for an AIO cooler that’s both far more versatile than most and easier to work with than many custom water-cooling loops. At £197, it’s also extremely expensive,…

The Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT is a slightly updated version of the company's excellent H100i RGB Platinum coolers, which we loved thanks to its  quiet low-load performance mixed with blistering cooling at full speed (in addition to a  few extra decibels). It offered unparalleled cooling for a 240mm cooler in our tests, so we were keen to try a slightly jazzed-up version in  the form of the iCUE H100i RGB Pro XT. This model is reasonably priced for an all-singing, RGB-equipped, AIO liquid cooler. However, it does lack RGB fans, as do most coolers this month. Instead, it’s the pump section that brings the RGB party, with 16 individually addressable LEDs around the edge and in the centre of the pump top. These lights can be synchronised with other…

There’s not much that’s new over its excellent predecessor with the Kraken X63, apart from a refreshed design offering a slightly bigger LED ring and more vivid lighting. The fans are the same Aer P 140mm models as used with the Kraken X62 and the coolers look very similar too. Thankfully, the price has stayed the same, with the Kraken X63 leaving you with change from £140. Sadly, this doesn’t include RGB fans like you get with the slightly more expensive Fractal Design Celsius+ S28 Prisma, but there are a few additional features. The LED holographic pump top looks stunning and will jazz up any motherboard too. You also get software control courtesy of NZXT’s CAM program. We’ve had issues with this in the past, but with the Kraken X63,…

It’s hard to create simulation games with mass appeal, because simulators by their nature expect the player to already be interested in the experience being simulated. Whether it’s a hyper-realistic racer, a railway sim or a war game, simulation games are geared towards people who want the full, unfiltered experience of a specific part of life, and don’t need any persuasion as to why that might be entertaining. Microsoft Flight Simulator is different. This latest iteration of one of the pillars of PC gaming truly is an experience designed for everyone. Not only that, but its mass appeal doesn’t come at the cost of the enthusiast audience. Its simulation of flight is as true and dedicated as that of any other game in the series. The difference between this Flight…

REVIEW IN DEATH: UNCHAINED / £22.99 inc VAT DEVELOPER Superbright / PUBLISHER Superbright Originally released in 2018, In Death was a granite-hard fantasy rogue-like game that saw  players battling enemies with a bow and arrows in a randomly generated, dark Gothic world. In Death: Unchained is an Oculus Quest-exclusive version of that game, which simultaneously improves and diminishes the core In Death experience. As demonstrated by Apex Construct and Valve’s The Lab, archery lends itself naturally as a VR mechanic, and In Death: Unchained does a great job of replicating what makes virtual archery so enjoyable. You must learn how to draw your bow and aim accurately, as arrows can pass between a zombie’s legs or thunk into the shields of templar Knights. The combat engine also has a real…

As a child, all the boys wanted to become astronauts, and I was no exception. I’ve always been fascinated by science fiction novels about space  exploration, space travel, robots, spacecraft and distant galaxies. It was inevitable that this influence would find its way into my mods at some point. I first got into modding when I was invited to participate in the Cooler Master Case Mod World Series (CMWS) 2016 competition. Since then, I’ve prepared my projects every year specifically for this competition, and in 2017, I  even managed to take first place with my VEGA  project. The Sputnik project was no exception and was made specifically for the CMWS 2020 competition. Preparing for takeoff The first sketches of this Sputnik-inspired PC began to appear a couple of years ago.…

TBBlue’s ZX Spectrum Next computer (reviewed in Issue 202) has blown past a crowdfunding goal for a second production run, raising over £1.4 million at the time of writing. An FPGA-powered modern successor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the ZX Spectrum Next raised over £700,000 on its first crowdfunder. While launching two years late, it proved popular enough for a second production run, which will now take place with a view to shipping by August 2021. Prices have, however, gone up. The top-end ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated cost £230 in the original run, but now costs £325 (inc VAT). See specnext.com for more information.…

TOTAL PROJECT TIME / 2 HOURS With graphics card coolers sporting ever weirder airflow systems, and elaborate water-cooling loops becoming more popular, some cases just aren’t flexible enough to point airflow in the right direction for everyone’s chosen setup. Budget cases in particular can often benefit from a few extra fans, and they often lack fan mounts in otherwise common locations, which would enable them to boost cooling or allow for water-cooling gear to be installed. In this guide we’ll show you how to create your own fan mounts, by cutting your own fan blowhole, and equip your new fan mount with a dust filter too. You’ll then be able to beef up your PC’s cooling in a variety of locations. 1 / SELECT LOCATIONS There are plenty of locations…

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, the first of a new breed of graphics cards based on the Ampere architecture, launched this month to overwhelmingly positive reviews. I’m sure by now you’ve already read the extensive coverage in this issue, so I’m not going to cover all that again. The main point to understand is that, because the RTX 3080 delivers such a huge increase in performance over previous-gen graphics cards, it redefines expectations. It delivers up to 50 per cent greater speed than the RTX 2080 Super; in real-world terms, this means the ability to play games at 4K with ray tracing enabled. It will take weeks, if not months, for yields to significantly improve This really puts the innovative but sluggish RTX 20-series GPUs firmly in their place, as…

When I think about gaming mythology, I usually think of Japanese culture. JRPGs have been my preference since early Final Fantasy, and I’ve played and replayed all sorts of JRPGs, from the Tales Of series through Valkyria Chronicles to Disgaea, and now prefer them. I like the folklore, the philosophy and the character tropes more than American and British equivalents, but it’s fair to say those three countries (and therefore their cultures) dominate games. Surprisingly, Japan has as rich and extensive a PC game development history as the West. The reason we Brits didn’t get many Japanese imports in the 1980s golden age of PC gaming was simply down to hardware differences. Early Japanese home computers had to accommodate Japanese text rather than written English, so porting titles for export…

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition looks deceptively modest and unassuming when you first unbox it. The packaging doesn’t present the card to you on a foam stand when you lift the lid, unlike the RTX 2080 cards, and it’s not built like a shiny metal tank with big green lights either. In fact, if you hold this classy black and silver card up to the light, you can see right through the right-hand fan vent, as the PCB is so small. Behind this humble appearance, though, lies an incredible piece of silicon engineering. We knew it was going to be quicker than the RTX 2080, but we weren’t expecting it to well and truly trounce the RTX 2080 Ti for nearly half the price. This GPU really makes ray…

The GSP 601 is the latest addition to the newly renamed Epos | Sennheiser line of gaming headsets. It’s essentially just a colour-updated version of the GSP 600, but we’ve not reviewed that headset before, so this is a good chance to take a look. Despite being nearly all made from plastic, it’s a very well-built headset with clear levels of finesse and strength to every part. Whether it’s the lovely smooth matt finish used throughout, the total lack of mould seams on the edges, or the sheer heft and ruggedness, this headset is built to last and feel good. It’s also a reasonably comfortable headset to wear. The headband is cleverly split in two, spreading the relatively hefty 395g weight of the headset while still allowing air to flow,…

There’s no shortage of laptops around with RTX 2060 graphics and Intel’s Core i7-10750H processor, but the Dell G5 is one of the more affordable options – at £1,299, it’s at least £100 cheaper than many machines with similar hardware. It also includes the full-fat version of the RTX 2060, which means its 1,920 stream processors and 6GB of memory are clocked to base and boost speeds of 960MHz and 1200MHz. The Max-Q model has a better base speed but a poorer boost pace alongside slower memory. Meanwhile, the Comet Lake-based Core i7-10750H has six Hyper-Threaded cores alongside base and boost speeds of 2.6GHz and 5GHz. There are no surprises in the rest of the spec either – the Dell includes 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD, but no…

RAZER ACARI / £59.99 inc VAT SUPPLIER razer.com The Razer Acari is an understated mousepad, with unremarkable 420 x 320mm dimensions. At first glance, it brings surprisingly little to the table, considering that its price would usually net you a pad with an array of programmable RGB lighting, or enough surface area to keep frost off a car. However, it’s when it’s in use that the Acari really shines, or rather, sparkles. The surface has a very light, even texture, which allows a mouse to glide across it, while still offering enough resistance to prevent it from slipping. The surface gets its sparkle from the oleophobic coating, which resists dust and oil while improving the accuracy and responsiveness of your mouse sensor. The net result of all this technology…

We spotted that the Antec Neptune 240 is compatible with AMD’s Threadripper sockets when we reviewed it first a couple of issues ago, so felt it would be fun to see how it coped with our current favourite CPU in AMD’s high-end desktop line-up. It comes equipped with a 5-port PWM fan and lighting hub. All five fan headers on the hub are standard 4-pin connectors, not proprietary ones like you find on some controllers and you can connect the hub to a single fan header on your motherboard to control all five fans at the same time. The RGB lighting uses 3-pin digital addressable RGB ports, so you can control the  lights on the pump and both 120mm fans. We love the fact that you can hook up to…

Like its baby sibling, the H115i RGB Pro XT has previously wowed us with its cooling and software control. However, with it sharing the same contact plate as the H100i Pro XT, it similarly struggles when it comes to keeping Threadripper chips cool. That said, it offers a little more headroom than its smaller sibling. This is a USB-controlled unit, like most of Corsair’s coolers, so you’ll need a spare USB 2 header to use its iCUE software to control the pump, fans and lighting. Two ML140 magnetic levitation bearing fans are fed by the pump section, but they’re not RGB-enabled so there's a few less cables to deal with. The 140mm fans are limited to 2,000rpm, which is 400rpm less than the H100i variant’s 120mm fans. This helps to…

We’ve looked at a pair of 360mm models in this month’s Threadripper cooler group test, with the NZXT Kraken X73 going up against the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360 RGB TR4. The latter is cheaper and has RGB fans as well as a pump, but it lacks the NZXT cooler’s software fan and pump control and general swagger. Like its sibling, you’ll need to fish out the socket adaptor that’s included with your Threadripper CPU in order to secure the cooler to your motherboard, but this does make it one of the easiest coolers on test to install. Using a 360mm radiator, it’s likely to be compatible with plenty of cases where 140mm radiators are too wide, plus the radiator is also a standard half-height affair so doesn’t stretch to gargantuan…

It’s astonishing just how low the price of capable joysticks can drop. This Logitech Extreme 3D Pro costs just £35 inc VAT, yet it includes three-axis stick control, a throttle control and 12 programmable buttons, along with an 8-way hat switch. The flight stick market sits in stark contrast to racing wheels, where you generally have to spend well over £150 to get even a passable experience. But back to the Extreme 3D Pro, this joystick doesn’t just impress with the sheer number of features for the money, but with its build quality too. While it’s all made from plastic, it all feels solid enough to survive plenty of years of gaming abuse, as well as tumbles onto the floor. The base also has a plentiful 200 x 200mm footprint, which…

The Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog has been a standout product in the flight stick market for almost ten years now. Modelled after the control system of the A10 aircraft from which this flight system gets its name, the Warthog is a serious piece of engineering. Built almost entirely from metal, is weight is colossal. The stick alone weighs over 3kg, and with its wide, relatively thin metal base, you definitely don’t want it to fall off your desk and land on your foot. That metal base does make for an immensely stable platform, though, and there are holes in it, making it easy to screw down the whole setup to your simulation rig. Nearly every switch is on par with the real deal too, with metal levers and the sort of…

It’s amazing what can change in a decade. Ten years ago, PC gaming was laden with a sense of foreboding. Console gaming was riding high, and manufacturers were pushing platform exclusivity hard. This situation left the PC without many of the biggest mainstream releases, including the likes of Halo, Fable and Metal Gear Solid among many others. Meanwhile, many of the PC’s most successful gaming genres – first-person shooters, real-time strategy games and MMOs – seemed to be slowly dying out, as the developers who normally made those games instead focused on catering to a broader, multi-platform audience. Microsoft has performed a complete about-face on its PC gaming policy Microsoft in particular appeared determined to paint itself as the villain here. Not only did it largely neglect the PC in…

Factorio is one of the best management sims in years. You play an explorer whose spaceship crashes onto a remote planet rich in resources. To escape, you need to construct a new rocket-ship and, to stand a chance of success, you need to automate the process, building assembly lines to carry resources to special machines that craft objects for you. Factorio’s focus on production and automation is what makes it special. Rather than crafting individual objects, you instead create self-perpetuating processes. A basic assembly line involves three key items – assembling machines that create objects, conveyor belts that transport resources to assembly machines, and inserters that connect conveyor belts to assemblers. At the outset, establishing production chains is simple enough. To make iron plate, for example, you need a mining…

FEATURE / DEEP DIVE Two years ago, Nvidia’s mighty Turing architecture brought acceleration for ray tracing to games, introducing the gaming world to the wonderfully realistic lighting, reflections and shadows of the movies. However, because ray tracing is such a different kind of computational problem to solve compared with traditional rasterised graphics, it has a totally different data flow and a comparative lack of ability to lean on the processing parallelism inherent to modern GPUs. Turing — and indeed any GPU design that wants to solve the same problem, including Ampere — had to be constructed in a particular way, which caused compromises in the design for regular workloads that don’t need ray tracing. Thanks to the comparatively large process node used to make Turing GPUs, they also consumed more…

ANALYSIS The hidden costs of 3D printing Much like two-dimensional printing, 3D printing started as the sole preserve of the well-heeled industrialist. In the years since the technology launched in anything close to a consumer-friendly format, prices have been plummeting. It’s now possible to pick up a 3D printer for under £200 inc VAT that’s capable of making surprisingly high-quality prints. But that’s not the whole story. Much like the owner of a 2D laser printer will need to budget for paper, toner and potentially fuser units and drums, the extras you need to enjoy success with your 3D printer can cost as much as the printer itself or more. This guide will help you to get an idea of the costs involved. It’s based on stereolithographic (SLA) printing; the…

Always check CPU waterblock compatibility When it comes to water-cooling your hardware, there are plenty of reasons to do your research first to make sure your new cooling system will not only handle the heat dished out by your components, but will also be compatible with your hardware. Radiators usually fit into appropriate fan mounts, for example – a  location with two 120mm fan mounts next to each other can usually offer a home to a 240mm radiator. You have to check clearance with other components, of course, but it’s true as a general rule of thumb, even in small form factor cases. Waterblocks are a slightly different matter. Graphics card PCBs tend to vary a lot and, unless you opt for a model made by the GPU manufacturer, such…

Because MS-DOS 6.22 is increasingly hard to obtain legitimately – your options are old floppies on eBay or an annual Microsoft Visual Studio subscription that costs over a grand – you’re better off with a modern open source DOS. We’re using FreeDOS, an actively developed MS-DOS-compatible operating system that’s sufficiently close to the original that neither you nor your software are likely to notice the difference. You can grab a copy from freedos.org It comes with quality-of-life features, such as PS/2 and USB mouse drivers It comes with quality-of-life features, such as PS/2 and USB mouse drivers, Tab command completion, file decompression tools and support for FAT32 file systems – it can handle soft reboot and shutdown commands too. Connect your FreeDOS PC to the Internet, and there’s an even…