Table of contents for August 2018 in PC & Tech Authority

I‘ve evolved. Moved up. Focused inwards and attained a heightened state of PC gaming nirvana. I know most of you like to game, every PCTA reader survey says so. Some hardcore, others casual, but almost everyone that reads this mag likes to put their machine to work rendering frames of escapist fantasy. So instead of blabbing on about more Computex stuff here, I’m sharing the thing that’s brought me much happiness recently. Besides, we have a good dozen pages on Computex elsewhere in this issue, so I’m indulging myself in a hopefully relatable story. I’ve always been a hardcore PC gamer. In case you wern’t aware I’m the guy that started our sister mag PC PowerPlay back in 1996. For a long time I tried to play every single game…

Last month I talked about my experience at the Intel Extreme Masters gaming competition, and it caused me to dust off some of my old games and relive some of my misspent youth. Of course, for Pro Gamers, let alone semi-serious gaming enthusiasts, the word ‘wireless’ is an anathema, from their mice, their keyboards, even many of their headsets are running good old-fashioned wires back to the PC itself to minimise any potential lag between their super-slick reaction times and the impending death of their on-screen counterpart. It’s the same for many of their devices at home. You and I, on the flip side, are more than likely very happy with the freedom that going wire-free provides, giving us the convenience of having a clutter-free desk, easy recharging capabilities, and…

KEYBOARD TRENDS Fighting through our jaded weariness about keyboards in general, some stuff worth talking about actually happened. For a start there’s a definite a shift away from stupidly over-stylised behemoths, towards simpler, austere designs. You can thank Cooler Master and Logitech for that, both companies always eschewed the crazy teenage aspirant pro-gamer stuff and their elegant designs seem to have finally influenced the others. Also, if your key caps aren’t raised up high over a flat slab so when you hold the keyboard up to your eyes you can see all the mechanisms, you’re just not in the game. KEYBOARD SWITCH NEWS In the period leading up to last year’s Computex, Cherry switches were hard to get for many manufacturers, with a few companies like Corsair securing entire production…

In 2018, there is still a perception among those who have yet to see the light that a NAS is primarily an external hard drive, but this is a long way from the truth. A NAS for home or SMB users is constantly evolving as a fully featured independent server capable of an ever increasing range of functionality. Synology has long been at the forefront of this evolution, providing a complete range of networked solutions that are perfect for powering your digital home or business. Synology constantly refine and release new products, and at the Synology Solution Exhibition at Computex 2018 there were many impressive products on display. THERE’S A SYNOLOGY NAS FOR EVERYONE Synology showed several new NAS models intended for the home and small business markets including the…

The latest major update to Windows 10 – the fifth since its original release in 2015 – is here. Clearly Microsoft continues to take seriously its promise that Windows 10 will be a constantly evolving platform, with new free features coming along at regular intervals. The official name “April 2018 Update” doesn’t make any grand claims, but it’s more unambiguous than some of the airy previous names such as the “Anniversary Update” and the “Creators Update”. It wouldn’t be Microsoft if there wasn’t a small catch, though: while Microsoft did make the update available on 30 April 2018, the nature of Windows Update means the vast majority of users didn’t get the opportunity to upgrade until well into May. The other nature of Windows Update means that you may have…

MSI make a mind-boggling array of notebooks but we’re better off for it. Not only is there a shape, size and configuration for everyone, the company seems to learn and evolve with each generation. The GS65 Stealth Thin is the latest version of its all-rounder line which strives to be portable, powerful, office friendly and great for gaming - all at once. These notebooks are typically the most desirable but frequently have flaws. So, how successful is this one? Our first impressions are very good. The lid looks great with its matte black and subtle, gold-outlined rim. The low-rent MSI logo is gone and so has the red MSI dragon: both replaced by an understated, gold, dragon print. It won’t be for everyone, but it’s more subtle and classy than…

All-in-One computers aren’t for everyone: their lack of upgradability and general lack of gaming prowess makes them feel limiting to many. But Dell’s latest 27-inch Inspiron hopes to change your mind with its speedy processor and Nvidia graphics. As such, should you buy one? We think everyone wants to like All-in-Ones more than they do: the idea of having a top-end computer built into a single screen offers obvious space and convenience benefits. In the opening Windows set-up, where many people start by repeatedly telling Cortana to bugger off, something happened: Cortana understood what we were saying. It can operate with Windows Hello’s face-recognition login too but you’ll need to raise the webcam (with neighbouring infrared sensor) that normally retracts into the top of the screen. Leaving this raised somewhat…

When you can buy a 32in, 4K monitor for less than $800, you might wonder how ViewSonic has the audacity to charge $1,200 for the VP3268-4K. The answer is accuracy. Or, to be more accurate about its accuracy, that it offers a pre-calibrated IPS display that – ViewSonic claims – can reproduce 100% of the sRGB spectrum. I was keen to put such boasts to the test. On switching it from the default to sRGB mode, the most obvious change isn’t a sudden improvement in colour accuracy but that the VP3268-4K goes from being a bright screen to something much dimmer. That’s because the panel’s sRGB calibration was performed at 120cd/m2 and, if you change the brightness, your results will change. Once you select sRGB mode, you’re locked to 120cd/m2.…

“the 970 Evo 1TB will reward you with blazing fast performance at a decent price” The Samsung EVO series of drives, whether the SATA or NVMe versions, have always been competitive by every measure. Whether it be value, performance, reliability, or even the number sold. As the Evo drives have such a strong legacy, anything less than hitting out of the park would be a disappointment. Can the 970 Evo fill the shoes of its illustrious predecessors? RIGHT IN THE SWEET SPOT The Samsung 970 Evo is a typical NVMe M.2 2280 (80mm length) drive that makes use of a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. The drive contains Samsung’s 64-Layer 3-bit MLC V-NAND (or Triple Level Cell). Samsung doesn’t enjoy the NAND technology advantage it’s had in the past, at least…

The Razer Lancehead Tournament Edition has several claims to fame. It has a whopping 16,000dpi resolution, it can track at up to 450ips and its sensor has a resolution accuracy of 99.4 per cent. That’s all well and good, of course, but these numbers pale in comparison to the real headline here: it’s available in pink! Black, gunmetal grey and mercury white are all options too, but where’s the fun in that? It’s actually a bit of a shame Razer went for a rather muted pink tone, as we could totally get on board with a proper electric shade of pink. It’s the gunmetal version that we’ve been sent for review, though, and it’s a very attractive beasty. Razer seldom slips up when it comes to aesthetic design, and its…

BenQ’s Zowie gaming peripheral brand isn’t exactly a household name but, unlike plenty of other peripherals manufacturers right now, one product it can offer is an up-to-date ambidextrous gaming mouse. In fact, the company offers a comprehensive range of them, including small, medium and large versions, each with a high or low-profile design. The ZA12 we’re reviewing here is the medium-sized, high-profile model. The profile refers to the height of the bump that sits under your palm. In general, lower-profile mice are preferred by fingertip and claw-grip users – the Razer Diamondback being the classic example – while a high-profile mouse is better suited to palm-grip users. Whichever grip style we used, though, the ZA12 felt good in our hands. The shape is as basic as it gets – and…

“The Antec Kühler H2O K120 is certainly cheap compared with the competition” We were amazed to see that Antec’s latest 120mm all-in-one liquid cooler – the Kühler H2O K120 – costs just $65. This super-low price makes the Antec cheaper than many current mid-range air coolers, and it even undercuts ARCTIC’s bargain-tastic effort with the Liquid Freezer 120. In fact, the Antec Kühler H2O K120 retails for less than half the price of NZXT’s Kraken M22. Despite the low price, the Kühler feels well made, and even the package even includes a blue glowing fan equipped with anti-vibration mounts to add some pizazz. In addition, Antec has also managed to route the pump’s power cable underneath the tubing’s braided cover, so there are no cables protruding from the pump at…

“Corsair includes a premium SP120 fan with the H60” As one of the first companies to enter the all-in-one liquid cooler market, Corsair has had a stab at nearly every radiator size and has also been adding to its line-up this year, with monsters such as the Hydro H150i. However, the H60 probably sounds familiar, as the company has simply used the same name for multiple generations of coolers of this size. This version, which is new for 2018, has an updated mounting mechanism that differs from the usual Asetek design, although it works in a similar way. There’s a backplate for Intel LGA115x motherboards, with all Intel socket mounts requiring the usual mounting pins and thumbscrews. You also now get two pairs of separate slide-on plates to cater for…

This isn’t strictly a Registry hack, and to be honest the name very much oversells it. Still, this trick conveniently exposes the complete range of Control Panel settings in a flat, searchable interface. To enable it, all you have to do is create a folder on your desktop called “GodMode. {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” (if the presumption off ends you, you can change the first bit to whatever you like). Then double-click to open it, and browse the settings and configuration options to your heart’s content.…

“Search – and Google in particular – obviously drives a lot of traffic, so news outlets have been looking to Google for help” Historically, the web has been free – giving the idea away without charging royalties was Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s main innovation, after all – but a number of factors point to a paid-for future. Most scary of all: it might be controlled by a Google paywall or yet another Apple subscription. It started with music. Record labels tried their best to digitally protect albums and songs, but the ease of piracy and rise of Napster meant that a generation of web users saw paying for music as voluntary to the point of being stupid. This culture didn’t change due to harsh crackdowns on music pirates, but because of…

Once again the newest OnePlus smartphone storms into our A-List. Our review is on page 54 and we loved it. This relegates the Samsung Galaxy S8 to the Alternatives category. Also new is the addition of MSI’s impressive Stealth Thin laptop (review on page 43). PREMIUM LAPTOPS DELL XPS 13 9370 Ultraportable This 2018 update to the all-dominant Dell XPS 13 keeps tweaks to the minimum: slimmer bezels, eighth-generation Intel Core processors and the promise of even longer battery life are the key benefits. Just note that Dell has embraced USB-C ports at the expense of the old-fashioned Type-A. ALTERNATIVES MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 2 A unique and versatile laptop with a screen that detaches to become a tablet. LENOVO YOGA 920 An ultra-thin convertible from Lenovo that not only looks…

NOMAD ESPRESSO MACHINE The problem with being a true coffee snob these days is everyone has caught on. Step 1: buy a machine that uses pods. Step 2: get guilty about how much “waste” the pods generate, throw out the pod machine and buy a “proper” espresso machine. How can you possibly stand out? Make your coffee in an actual pot on the stove like some kind of Italian? MOST WANTED: There’s a new way! The Nomad is a purportedly portable espresso-maker where you just fill a reservoir with boiling water, then rock the level back and forth like an olde-timey fire engine to pressurise the system. Then make use of the patented True Crema Valve and we guess a cup too, to make an espresso that actually looks like…

LaserDisc first became available on 15th December 1978, just two years after the launch of VHS and four years before CDs. It was available as a commercial product for over two decades, and the last official LaserDisc came out in 2000. The last film to be released for the format was from Paramount, Bringing Out The Dead. Back in the groovier times of 1978, it was a shark that was bringing out the dead. Jaws in the MCA DiscoVision LaserDisc was the first shiny video platter consumers could actually buy. LaserDiscs offered superior picture quality over VHS, thanks to the use of technology that came to be adopted, and more popularly used, by the CD or compact disc industry, and then the DVD market. They were the first commercial optical…

PCTA: These are evolutions, are they not, of the original Air 240 case? Yes! It’s a micro ATX case and there’s the regular version which is a dual-chamber design and comes with two standard 120mm fans and there’s the RGB version which is also the dual-chamber design with two RGB fans as well as a lighting controller. With that you can control all of the lighting in your case – light strips, fans and sync it all together with the other Corsair iCUE compatible products. PCTA: Being a dual-chambered case there are some advantages there and obviously you can manage your components more effectively? There’s three tempered glass panels on the front chamber of the case so you can highlight all your products – your cooler, graphics card and all…

We have several extremely nice new laptops being reviewed this month. It’s all a bit of fortuitous good luck, that – there certainly wasn’t a plan to have what amounts to a mini-group test. But look at them. Some real beauties from the usuals at Dell, HP, but as we’ve been seeing for a long time there is the emerging force from Taiwan, pushing as hard as ever to break into the mainstream laptop market with products that just keep getting better – and most importantly are starting to reflect what non-gaming laptop buyers want. Asus has always understood the wider laptop market and its low to mid-range VivoBook products have always balanced good performance with nice styling. The most extreme design you’ll see on a VivoBook is a choice…

While the royal blue finish of the ZenBook 13 may not be familiar on these pages, the fundamental design certainly is. This is the 2018 iteration of the ZenBook UX330UA, which ruled supreme on the A-List for over a year. While the external design hasn’t changed, Asus achieves a minor miracle inside by squeezing in Nvidia’s discrete GeForce MX150 graphics chip. That’s quite an achievement given the ZenBook’s slender 13.9mm frame. With such a slim design, you might expect a limited number of ports – yet that’s anything but the truth. Asus has squeezed in two USB 3 Type-A ports, one USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2), HDMI, microSD and a 3.5mm jack. Unlike the Dell XPS 13, Huawei Matebook X Pro, HP Spectre 13 and Apple’s 13.3in MacBook Pro, there’s…

Though there are many great new laptops entering the market, it’s refreshing to see something a bit different. Dell’s powerful new XPS 15 2-in-1 laptop-cum-tablet is just that thanks to some interesting features. It looks very slick with its black, milled aluminium chassis and carbon fibre composite palm rest. The materials naturally add an impressive degree of stiffness while keeping the overall weight down. Indeed, despite its solid appearance, it weighs only two kilograms. The screen is very thin and surrounded by a 5mm bezel. While this looks good, the downside is that the HD webcam is based at the bottom of the screen and so transmits an unflattering jowl-oriented profile to people you’re talking to. Still, it’s uniformly lit, impressively bright, has vibrant colours and excellent viewing angles. The…

If your business puts security at the top of your wishlist when it comes to laptops, the HP EliteBook 840 G5 should be on your radar. Although, judging by all the security features this machine boasts, it’s probably got a secret anti-radar protective coating. Not content with the usual defensive layers of smart card reader, infrared webcam and fingerprint reader, HP goes one step beyond: press F2 on this machine and the screen switches to privacy mode. You can still view the display face-on, albeit dimmed, but those to your left and right see a grey blur. Then there’s HP’s combination Sure Start Gen4 feature. While it may sound like a government-sponsored house-buying scheme, it’s actually an added layer of protection for your BIOS. If malware targets this and makes…

“Oculus Go utilises built-in directional speakers that do a great job of making everything sound like it’s playing in your head” One argument why VR has never hit the big leagues is the hassle: people don’t want the faff of setting up cables and trackers, while smartphone add-ons such as the Samsung Gear VR are awkward. Oculus Go solves this by bundling everything into one device. Gone is the Oculus Rift’s fabric-wrapped shell, with an understated matte plastic casing in its place. Oculus trades the Rift’s built-in headphones and hard, baseball cap-style headband for a soft-strapped design more akin to ski goggles, with audio integrated into the headset itself. A power button and volume rocker sit on the top of the headset, with a headphone jack and micro-USB charging slot…

“Covr provides the fastest to set up, fastest performing, zero-hassle blanket of coverage you’ll need” Whatever your home or office’s situation, whether you’ve got the latest optic fibre internet connection or lowly ADSL1, everyone knows that feeling of frustration when your mobile device won’t connect to the internet. Fortunately, thanks to D-Link’s new Covr system, it’s not something that anybody needs to suffer with any more. Wi-Fi has been around for a while, but even the latest Wi-Fi routers struggle to beam a signal upstairs or to the far end of a property. Wi-Fi extenders can help but tend to be fiddly to setup, suffer reliability issues and usually end up re-beaming a current network’s signal around the premises using a separate network with a different name! All this happens…

The Roccat Kova at first appears to be an absolute bargain, costing just $60, yet featuring a plethora of buttons, RGB lighting and an on-board ARM processor. However, the native 3,500dpi resolution of its optical sensor is the giveaway to the fact that this mouse is a getting a little long in the tooth now. Released at the end of 2015, its age is a perfect example of how left-handed and ambidextrous mice aren’t given quite the love of right-handed models. Not that Roccat is the only company whose ambidextrous options are limited to older models, of course. Even Logitech has only two ambidextrous models, one of which is seven years old. But back to the Roccat, the Kova is available in white and grey variants that, despite a busy,…

HOW WE TEST When testing CPU coolers, it’s important to examine performance across a range of sockets, as mounting mechanisms vary between them. Some coolers perform well on some CPU sockets, but not on others. For this reason, we now test cooling on LGA115x, LGA2011 and AM4 motherboards. As this is a test of maximum cooling abilities all our CPUs are overclocked too, so we can weed out the wheat from the chaff. Our LGA115x test system uses a Core i7-4770K overclocked to 4.3GHz with a 1.15V vcore, a Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H motherboard, 4GB of 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix DDR3 RAM and a 240GB Intel SSD 730. Meanwhile, our LGA2011 rig has a Core i7-3960X overclocked to 4.2GHz with a 1.275V vcore, an MSI X79A-GD45 motherboard, 16GB of G.Skill Ripjaws 1600MHz RAM…

“Both the fans and the pump can be daisy-chained together” ARCTIC’s Liquid Freezer 120 was featured in our last 120mm all-in-one liquid cooler group test, but ARCTIC hasn’t updated it since, and we’re largely glad about that. Despite its low price, the package manages to include two 120mm fans, along with a large, 50mm-thick radiator that makes for the most potent cooling system on test. There’s no RGB lighting here, though, and build quality feels a little light in places, but we’ve been using this cooler ourselves for several months and it’s held up well. The Liquid Freezer 120 uses the standard Asetek mount, which comprises a bunch of pins and thumbscrews for all CPU sockets. You get a backplate for LGA115x systems, while for AM4 systems you reuse the…

“NZXT has ditched nearly every cable attached to the pump” With so many solid offerings from NZXT’s other cooler models, featuring great RGB lighting and software control, we had high hopes for the Kraken M22. However, while this 120mm cooler also sports the hologram-like lighting of its more expensive siblings, that’s the only part of the cooler that can be controlled using NZXT’s CAM software. The pump and fan sport 3-pin and 4-pin headers respectively, so you’ll be relying on your motherboard to control them. Thankfully, though, that still means the Kraken M22 has an advantage over the likes of Corsair’s H60, where the pump is powered by a SATA connector and its speed is fixed. NZXT has clearly been listening to user feedback as well, and the company has…

E3 2018: 15 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PC GAMING SHOW THE PC GAMING SHOW IS ONE OF THE RARE CONFERENCES THAT IS 100% RELEVANT TO OUR PREFERRED GAMING PLATFORM It seems like the people behind the conferences agreed to keep the light on devs and heavy on trailers for E3 2018. With that in mind, here’s my pick of the 15 highlights from the PC Gaming Show at E3 2018. SATISFACTORY IS A PUNERIFIC TITLE For a rather ambitious-looking game. Maybe it’s because I’m obsessed with The Forest, but the initial Satisfactory trailer reminded me a lot of a sci-fi take on The Forest, sans hostile mutants. According to Game Director Oscar Jilsen, it’s a first-person city builder. You play as an engineer and you can solo it or drag in…

As you may remember I’m a huge fan of DJI’s Spark drone. Sure, it doesn’t quite offer the image quality of its bigger brothers, the battery life or even the range. But it’s small, relatively quiet, and plenty of fun. I was excited, then, to see it gain a little brother. Excited, yet apprehensive. The thing is, I’ve played with lots of “toy” drones and helicopters over the years – and they’ve been rubbish. Hard to fly, easy to crash, and quickly consigned to the back of my “why the hell did I buy this” cupboard – everyone has one of those, right? I’d come to the conclusion that, with the Spark, DJI had the size just about right. It’s tiny by “proper” drone standards, but big enough to pack…

First Valve got in trouble for taking a stand against sexual content in games, by ditching a mess of them from Steam. Then it stepped back from that decision, and let the games back on. Then the company allowed a game that let players become school shooters onto the store, for which it copped some justifiable flak, and so removed that game. Now, according to a blog post overnight, Valve’s basically decided this curation malarkey is just too damn hard, and announced it will be allowing developers and gamers to decide what gets published, and what gets bought. Valve stated in a post: If you’re a player, we shouldn’t be choosing for you what content you can or can’t buy. If you’re a developer, we shouldn’t be choosing what content…

When businesses fail there are lots of causalities. There are the owners of the business, employees, and customers. They can all suffer as a result. Here are some of the things you need to be aware of if you’re dealing with a company that’s in trouble. GIFT CARDS Gift cards are a great way to ensure you give someone something they can use without having to second-guess exactly what they might for a birthday, Christmas or some other special occasion. But it’s important to understand your rights when purchasing them for other people as they can, potentially, end up being a lot more trouble than simply slipping some cash into a card. Many of the issues with gift cards have been put into sharp focus with the closure of toy…

A THEMELESS YEAR With no new motherboard chipset or GPU to hang a million products off and spur a marketing war of identical products in heated battle, and with the VR-Ready craze in the dust, and not much else to bind the industry together in a united front of frenzied manufacturing, it came to AI and deep learning to hold the weakly waving theme flag. Nvidia’s Jensen gave a terrific presentation about driverless cars and robots, some enterprise products were big on deep learning, and faint hints of consumer products with user-awareness were mentioned, though with nothing actually to show. Let’s call Computex 2018 the Year of Hints that 2019 Will Be the Actual Year of Deep Learning. RGB – THEY’RE NOT DONE YET Each year we think we’ve hit…

We’re big fans of the latest generation of notebooks which aim to excel at office work, gaming and portability… all at once. This new Blade is Razer’s latest foray into that field and first impressions are good. We’ve always liked the classy, matte finish of Razer notebooks. While there may be debate regarding how the company’s funky green logo will fit into a conservative, corporate office, there’s no doubt that the move from rounded corners to sharper edges makes for sharper looks. The monolithic black chassis is sophisticated and cool irrespective of your favoured aesthetic plus it’s only 17mm thick. The lid is stiff and offers minimal flex while the milled, aluminium chassis is strong and has the bombproof quality that we’ve come to expect from Razer. The bezel surrounding…

There are all kinds of exciting and innovative gaming laptops to be found in the world nowadays, but Dell’s G3 17 isn’t one of them. Yet, is this a bad thing? It’s not uncommon for people to seek sober reliability and value in the face of flair, so is this what the G3 17 offers? First up, it’s big. The chassis is 41.5cm wide, 25mm thick and weighs a hefty 3.27KG. It feels sturdy thanks to its solid plastic body and there’s minimal flex in the large lid. It’s available in black or blue, but there are few design flourishes to get excited about. The lid is black plastic with curved edges while the shiny, blue, plastic Dell badge is as sophisticated as it gets. The chequered area around the…

Sometimes being a tech reviewer is an enviable position while on other occasions we’re taking it on the chin for our readers. Having put Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ through its paces, I’m still not sure which end of the spectrum this experience resides. The monitor is undeniably brilliant. But making it work is an exercise akin to breaking in a wild Mustang, negotiating with Rain Man and starting up a race car. Nonetheless, once we’d made the calculations for hyperspace, checked that its Flux Capacitor was fluxing and set turbines to speed, an ethereal glow came down from the heavens and told us all was well. That’s actually literally what happened: the first thing we saw was a Far Cry 5 loading screen with sunlight streaming into a forest glade.…

HOW WE TEST Ambidextrous mice have become a bit of a rarity these days. With most right-handed users preferring a mouse shaped specifically for that hand, and with lefties only making up around 10 per cent of the population, the market for them is limited. Being left-handed isn’t the only reason to go for such a mouse though. Some people, prefer the fit of an ambidextrous in the palm of their hand. Either way, while your options might be limited, the same isn’t true of the performance on offer. All the mice in this group test feature highly capable optical sensors, multiple buttons, precisely engineered ergonomics and a couple even have full RGB lighting. We’re looking for a comfortable shape that needs to be as universal as possible when it…

The SteelSeries Sensei has been one of the most popular mouse ranges of the last decade, thanks to its comfortable ambidextrous design, exceptional performance, and basic but practical feature set. Now the Sensei has been reworked in the shape of the Sensei 310, with SteelSeries boldly claiming that it has ‘the world’s first true 1-to-1 eSports sensor’. What that claim means is that SteelSeries has worked with sensor manufacturer PixArt to create a sensor that doesn’t introduce latency, add interpolation or affect jitter reduction. Called the TrueMove3, it also boasts raw stats of a 12,000cpi resolution (SteelSeries lingo for dpi), with stated tracking of up to 350 inches per second. They’re certainly impressive stats, although they’re also not groundbreaking. And sure enough, we couldn’t really notice the benefits during games.…

“What the Venom R10 lacks in airflow, though, it counters with quietness” A relative newcomer to the all-in-one liquid cooler scene, Akasa has opted for an unusual approach to the Venom R10 – it doesn’t come equipped with a fan, resulting in a relatively low price of just $120. That price is especially low when you consider that the Akasa has RGB lighting and full mounting mechanisms for all three of our test systems, while some coolers this month have opted to use the standard AMD AM4 plastic mount. Sadly, there aren’t enough screws in the box to mount two fans to the R10, but these screws are available for a couple of dollars should you wish to push the R10’s cooling to its limits. With no fan in the…

“Cooler Master has even included a basic lighting controller” The last 120mm all-in-one liquid cooler we saw from Cooler Master was its MasterLiquid 120, which put in a decent effort. However, not only has the company since revised the design and included a plethora of RGB lighting, but the new cooler also costs just $75, which undercuts the original cooler and comes close to making the ML120L the cheapest cooler on test. Both have the powerful MF120R RGB 2,000rpm fan, and the pump sports RGB LEDs. They can also both be controlled separately or together using an included three-way RGB LED splitter cable, allowing you to power an LED strip in addition to the fan and pump from one RGB LED header on your motherboard. There’s an extension cable for…

The Windows Registry is a bit like the engine in your car. You know it’s there, and broadly speaking you know what it does. But few of us fully understand its inner workings, and even when things go wrong, we’d probably be hesitant to dive in and start trying to make fixes and adjustments. In fact, it’s a good bet that most PCTA readers would be more comfortable tinkering with an internal combustion engine than getting hands-on with the Registry. There’s no need to be intimidated, though. The Registry is fundamentally quite a simple thing, and while some of its contents are best left untouched, there are plenty of useful tweaks and adjustments you can make as long as you have a little knowledge of what you’re doing. WHAT IS…

I don’t think I’ve ever cringed so much in an E3 press conference before, and that’s saying something. From the tacky pre-show banter to the off jokes and obvious pauses (and sometimes demands) for applause, things did not get off to a good start (or in between certain segments) for Bethesda’s E3 2018 conference. Thankfully, there was some gold in there, too. Here are 11 highlights from Bethesda’s E3 2018 conference. RAGE 2 LOOKS BETTER THAN RAGE That’s not the highest praise, but Rage 2 is starting to shape up. Despite performing that song from the trailer live, the gameplay segment took a more serious look at what’s on offer. Given its Avalanche behind the wheel, it should come as no surprise that there’s a smattering of Just Cause (the…

It was a somewhat grey and wet April Saturday. With a deadline looming, I’d come into the lab to try to get ahead with some work, and I needed a Windows machine to hand. My normal methodology here is to run everything in a VM, using either Parallels or VMware Fusion, both running on a decent spec of Mac. I like the separation of “church and state”, by having the base OS be something entirely different to the host. This is especially true when you’re testing antivirus and network security software. Handling Windows malware is somewhat easier when you know it can’t infect the base OS. And the Windows session itself is temporary, so can be blown away and restarted at a moment’s notice. But for some reason, I decided…

Be honest: how many “don’t touch it” machines do you have in cupboards? How many laptops that, no matter how patient you were, you were unable to restore to working order? I’ve seen some sin-bins of tens of laptops, consigned to the tin shed of posterity and decay, often by a basic viral infection. This simple accusation, that it was “virus wot done it”, often gets me into trouble, because the people carrying the keys to those tin sheds can’t match up what they saw happening to my assertion about the machines they can’t fix. “But,” they say, “XYZ antivirus didn’t say anything about finding a threat.” Sounds logical, but the truth is that nobody makes an antivirus product that announces it’s given up repelling borders. You receive an alert…