Maximum PC

PENTIUM G4600 TOPPLING THE CORE i5 TO FREE ANTIVIRUS
TOP S
Intel’s new budget
et Build It: How many cores It’s time you replaced
It
wonder reviewed PG. 85 do you need to game? PG. 72 Windows Defender PG. 20
W
N O.1
SPEED UP
MINIMUM BS • SPRING 2017 • www.maximumpc.com
FOR PC
HARDWA
RE
WINDOWS 10
Clear out the junk to
boost performance
Optimize your drives
for faster boot times
Get a faster system
in a few easy steps
HUGE SCREEN
SHOWDOWN
HDR, 4K, quantum dot
explained PG. 26
table of contents where we put stuff
SPRING 2017 QUICKSTART

12 THE NEWS
Intel Optane; China bans VPNs; 3D
TV is dead; Game Mode goes beta.
16 THE LIST
40 Maximum PC’s favorite things
we saw at CES.
SPEED UP
WINDOWS 10 A real test
of core
competencies.
R&D
60 AUTOPSY
We prize apart a PlayStation 4 Pro
and peer at its pieces.
62 HOW TO
Set up a Twitter bot; colorize black
and white photos; boost your NAS;
make better audio recordings.
72 BUILD IT
Are four cores still king in the
26 40 52 gaming world? We find out.
BIG-SCREEN SPEED UP RECOVER
DEBUT WINDOWS 10 YOUR DATA
Never before has the high-
end PC monitor market been
Give Windows a shot in the
arm by cleaning up and
Nothing is lost until you’ve
looked for it—discover how
LETTERS
22
so vibrant and innovative, optimizing your PC using to retrieve files you thought
so allow us to help you get a the OS’s own built-in tools were gone, and make sure DOCTOR
bigger and better view. and free third-party apps. others are deleted forever.
94 COMMENTS
IN THE LAB
78 83
DIGITAL MSI Z270I
STORM GAMING PRO
VELOX CARBON AC
85
84 INTEL
CRUCIAL PENTIUM 90
MX300 2TB G4600 STEEP
6 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

5*,#' '64!,
(' 1! (-1 (4,3% 6 *1(*-
6 ;3 <!£ ¥9 -2 ! -2+£' !6;36

'8-'9 '90;36f£!99 8!6,-$9
)."
)"
'!&@

k 25,*,1 3& &RUSRUDWLRQ $OO ULJKWV UHVHUYHG 25,*,1 ê2ë 6\PEROV DUH WUDGHPDUNV RI 25,*,1 3& &RUSRUDWLRQ
$OO RWKHU WUDGHPDUNV DUH SURSHUW\ RI WKHLU UHVSHFWLYH RZQHUV

+
˶ - , #'-'%6 -1 ' $ 6 2 /. 5*,1 -3**(,1+˷
#,#$ 4#1! 1,&,

7
|38-+-26$
k $OO ULJKWV UHVHUYHG 5DZ 'DWD LV D WUDGHPDUN RI 6XUYLRV ,QF

HAVE AN
ADVENTURE IN
TECHNOLOGY
N
MAKER SECRETS • HARDWARE HACKS • FUN PROJECTS
EW
!
NEW!
BUILD
•
19
YOUR
AMAZING
HANDS-ON
PROJECTS!
PG.19
OWN CREATE A
ROBOT FROM
COMPUTER
SCRATCH
The easy guide for PG.19
Raspberry Pi
users PG.32
FOR $25 MAKE A

MINECRAFT
MACHINE
Give an old Mac a new
PG.3
32
10
lease on life PG.36
$8.9 9 U S NO. 0 1 PG
G.36
ways science will
revolutionize BUILD YOUR
your home OWN DRONE
PG.90 Spread your wings
PG.90
and fly! PG.26 PG.26
P
PG
G.26
G.26
ON SALE NOW!
Order online at myfavouritemagazines.com
azines.com
or find it at your nearest store
a thing or two about a thing or two
editorial
Tuan
Gordon
Mah Ung
Nguyen
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief: Tuan Nguyen
Executive Editor: Alan Dexter
Senior Editor: Jarred Walton
Reviews Editor: Zak Storey
Technology Editor: Bo Moore
Contributing Editor: Chris Angelini
Contributing Writers: Alex Campbell, Alex Cox,
Nate Drake, Cat Ellis, Ian Evenden, Matt Hanson,
Jeremy Laird, Chris Lloyd, Nick Peers
Copy Editor: Katharine Davies
Editor Emeritus: Andrew Sanchez
THE NEVER-ENDING
ART
Art Editor: Fraser McDermott
Image Manipulation: Gary Stuckey
XXXXXXX
Photography: Future Photo Studio
PURSUIT OF MORE
BUSINESS
Vice President, Sales: Stacy Gaines, stacy.gaines@futurenet.com
Vice President, Strategic Partnerships: Isaac Ugay,
XXXXXXXX
isaac.ugay@futurenet.com
East Coast Account Director: Brandie Rushing,
PERFORMANCE
brandie.rushing@futurenet.com
East Coast Account Director: Michael Plump,
michael.plump@futurenet.com
West Coast Account Director: Austin Park,
austin.park@futurenet.com
West Coast Account Director: Brandon Wong, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX EMAIL was in course.)
brandon.wong@futurenet.com my freshman year of college in I’ll be honest; I still love checking
West Coast Account Director: Tad Perez, tad.perez@futurenet.com WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME fussing about upgrade.” The answer might surprise
Director of Marketing: Robbie Montinola 1988. I attended Dartmouth, and my inbox and discovering email—
Director, Client Services: Tracy Lam with hardware. Tinkering, tweaking, and you: displays.
Director, Retail Sales: Bill Shewey we had a system named BlitzMail. from friends, family, writers,
otherwise trying to squeeze out every Earlier this year, at CES, I witnessed
Ever y student was granted an email readers, PR people, whomever—even
PRODUCTION last drop of GPU and CPU performance. a flurry of display announcements. 8K
Head of Production UK & US: Mark Constance address and access to the system. if it has become a bit over whelming.
Production Controller: Vivienne Calvert You can find endless amounts of displays finally debuted, with some
Project Manager: Clare Scott Like most students, I didn’t use it at Between re years and my first job
resources that tell you what you should companies showing working demos.
Production Assistant: Emily Wood all. It’s hard for even me to believe, in PC Week’s lab in 1992 to actually
and shouldn’t do with your hardware. HDR is on the rise, primarily in HDTVs,
FUTURE US, INC. but back then I was in the habit of start usingaccounts, I’ve never had
One Lombard Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94111 But very little attention is given to the but it’ll no doubt show up in computer
Tel: (650) 872-1642, www.futureus.com writing letters and postcards. trouble keeping up. Until now. This is
operating system side of the computer, displays this year. Refresh rates are
I vividly recall the tipping point, partially what inspired this month’s
Global Chief Revenue Officer: Charlie Speight which is unfortunate, because that’s going up, too, and a new HDMI spec was
Vice President, Marketing & Operations: Rhoda Bueno though. In 1re years and my first job cover stor y. Over the last 18 months,
Finance Director: Ryan Lamvik ultimately where the results matter the announced, delivering 4K resolution at an
HR Generalist: Carla Marcos in PC Week’s lab in 1992 to actually I’ve begun to notice that my ability to
most. So we’ve gone and done just that. astonishing 120Hz. The display industry
start using it. Like a lot of corporate quickly parse, read, and respond to
SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE Windows 10 is, without doubt, one of is moving forward at an ever-increasing
Maximum PC Customer Care, workplaces, email was commonly email just isn’t fast enough anymore.
Future Publishing, PO Box 2024, Langhorne, PA 19047 Microsoft’s best releases of Windows. rate, and this will also push the PC.
Website: http://myfavouritemagazines.com
used for interoffice communications. I need to develop new systems and
It’s well made, stable, and chock-full of So, we took it upon ourselves to
Tel: +44 344 848 2852 But the volume wa989 in the middle shortcuts. I need to change my ways.
Email: contact@myfavouritemagazines.com features—some of which you may not bring all the newest bad-ass displays
of my sophomore year, I was eating I’m curious—are you finding
BACK ISSUES
actually want or use. Take, for example, into the lab, and run them through our
lunch with a few freshmen who were yourself in the same boat as I am?
Website: http://myfavouritemagazines.com Cortana, the smart assistant not unlike tests. Some are better than others,
Tel: +44 344 848 2852 talking about how great email was If so, what have you done to better
Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Echo, or Google but one result is consistent across the
REPRINTS for chatting up women. I remember manage your email life? Let me know
Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, Assistant. Sure, it can tell jokes, look up board: Current displays have advanced
South San Francisco, CA 94080 being shocked at the notion that at George@maximumpc.com.
information on Wikipedia, and search significantly in just a few years.
Website: www.futureus.com these guys didn’t have the courage to
Tel: 650-872-1642, Fax 650-872-2207 your computer, but I personally don’t Which brings me to my sage advice:
pick up the phone. Little did I know. XXXXXXXXX
Next Issue on Sale April 4, 2017 use it. I reckon my keyboard skills can Invest in a display. A good display is
I’d be lying if I said that I took to Finally, the winners of last month’s
get me what I need much faster. So I always the most expensive part of my
email the next day. I didn’t. It took challenge to identif y the fake Google
disable it, freeing up system resources build, because I spend all my computing
three more years and my first job app icon. For those scoring at home,
for other duties. time staring at it, and a good display will
in PC Week’s lab in 1992 to actually the correct answer was Google
Things don’t end there, though. There outlast your PC, for the most part. You
start using it. Like a lot of corporate Storage. Here are the winners: Keith
are other areas of Windows 10 that you might upgrade this and that inside, but
workplaces, email was commonly Lucas (who was the first correct
Future is an award-winning international media can dive into, and with a little know-how, the screen will be there for some time.
group and leading digital business. We reach more used for interoffice communications. response), Andy Man, Chris Brush
than 57 million international consumers a month
gain just not increased performance What do I use? Two 32-inch 4K
But the volume was manageable; I
and create world-class content and advertising from your PC, but enough performance to displays. But with 8K on the way, I’m
solutions for passionate consumers online, on tablet remember going two or three hours
and smartphone, and in print. witness actual usability improvements. ts. starting to get an itch.
without new email. That sounds
Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne Startup options, system services, es,
company quoted Non-executive chairman Peter Allen absolutely crazy now, but this was
on the London &KLHIÀQDQFLDORIÀFHUPenny Ladkin-Brand clearing out old system update files, and nd
Stock Exchange Managing director, Magazines Joe McEvoy the era before SPAM even existed.
(symbol: FUTR). more—our crack team of experts show ow
www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 As more friends started working
you a wide range of pro-level tricks to
and came online, the postcard- and Gordon Mah Ung is Maximum PC’s
take your rig by the horns.
©2017 Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine letter-writing days ended forever. deputy editor, senior hardware
may be used or reproduced without the written permission of Some of you might be thinking to Tuan Nguyen is Maximum PC’s editor-in-
Future US, Inc. (owner). All information provided is, as far as Future (That lab job was also awesome expert, and all-around muckraker.
(owner) is aware, based on information correct at the time of press. yourselves, “Well, I’ve done all that, chief, also known as “the pointy end of the
Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly
because after four years of using
but tell me what’s going to give me stick.” He’s been writing, marketing, and
with regard to products/services referred to in this magazine. We a Mac in college, I was able to get
welcome reader submissions, but cannot promise that they will be giant leaps in performance on my next raising hell in the tech industry for 20 years.
published or returned to you. By submitting materials to us, you back to PC gaming—after hours, of
agree to give Future the royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive right
to publish and reuse your submission in any form, in any and all
media, and to use your name and other information in connection
with the submission. ↘ submit your questions
questions to:
to: comments@maximumpc.com
comments@maximumpc.com
maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 11

quickstart the beginning of the magazine, where the articles are small
Intel’s Optane
Technology Ships
Commercial 3D memory finally arrives
THE LAUNCH of an M.2 SSD individual transistors. These
memory module is not first modules have two layers
normally of much interest, but of memory cells, but three-
Intel’s new 8000p is based on layer cells are due later in the
the company’s new Optane year. The exact physics and
technology, which has been manufacturing method has yet
several years in the making, to be revealed.
and responsible for quite a few Intel’s announcements about
promises along the way. The Optane veer into hyperbole.
modules come in 16GB and 32GB It will “change the face of
sizes, and you’ll need a specific computing with an unparalleled
set of hardware to run them: a combination of speed,
Kaby Lake chip, a 200-series endurance, and density.” These
chipset, a compatible M.2 slot, first modules are about three
and a compatible BIOS. They times faster than a standard
have been designed to boost SSD in random and sequential
Intel’s Rapid Cache Technology read. Write speeds are less Not quite what we were expecting, but it’s a start.
performance, and a small impressive—still capable of
number of machines have been beating SSDs, but by much and isn’t what we were sport “Beach” codenames—
announced that are Optane- slimmer margins. The 32GB promised. Early presentations Mansion Beach, Stony Beach,
ready, among them Lenovo’s module manages 1,600MB/s on about 3D XPoint spoke of speed and Carson Beach—each a
ThinkPad T570 and HP’s Envy reads and 500MB/s on writes. boosts of up to a thousand times family of Optane SSDs running
Curved 34. Latency is between SSD and SSD, and touched on the long- on PCIe or SATA. Its future as
Optane is Intel’s brand name DRAM. We have nothing on held dream of unified RAM and a DRAM replacement is less
for the 3D XPoint technology, price yet, but they won’t be storage. Alas, these claims have obvious. Conventional modules
a 3D memory system jointly cheap. Expect to pay around five proved elusive. The tantalizing are already cheap and fast, but
developed by Intel and Micron. times the price of flash RAM, or early proclamations were its use in servers cannot be
The tech has been in the labs twice that of DRAM. based on the core performance far away.
since 2012. Memory cells sit in Sure, they are fast, but of the chips at the cell level. Optane is having a slightly
a three-dimensional mesh, and you are right to feel a little Once it goes through all the difficult birth, and the 8000p is
use the change in resistance underwhelmed at this point. subsystems of the hardware and a bit of a dull start. However,
of the materials to store data. This doesn’t beat emerging software, the speed is degraded a huge research budget and
Importantly, there are no NVDIMM or NVMe technology, considerably. Perhaps it might much effort has been poured
have been wiser not to publicize into its success. This is just a
such appetizing claims in the taster. A single unified high-
first place. speed memory is still a long
Larger capacity SSD versions way away, but we do have
Memory cells sit in a 3D are currently being tested in
servers by IBM and Facebook.
commercial 3D memory that is
already faster than NAND, and
mesh, and use the change Before the end of the year, we
will see more mainstream
has an interesting roadmap.
You will be hearing a lot more
in resistance to store data. applications, which currently about Optane. –CL

quickstart
3D TV IS DEAD
NO NEW HARDWARE
IS BEING BUILT
THE LAST TWO BIG PLAYERS making 3D TVs—
LG and Sony—are to drop their support with
this year’s models. The format is dead, for the
mass market at least. Lack of content was obvious; there was very little broadcast 3D, and
even that has now stopped. Enthusiasm from consumers dropped off sharply, and the TV
people’s attention has shifted to HDR and 4K. 3D content will live on, but only through VR.
3D TVs came on the back of 3D movies, which appeared in sporadic waves since the
1950s, each powered by new technology. The first wave lasted just three years, and the
revivals fared little better. The current dalliance with 3D movies has at least attracted some
CHINESE BAN big budget titles, but there are signs that this is fading, too. The odds are that 3D will return
at some point, probably using yet another technology, but for now you had better start
ON VPNS hoarding those 3D Blu-rays if you want any use out of your 3D TV. –CL
Free trade for China, GAME MODE

but no free Internet GOES BETA
THE CHINESE MINISTRY of Industry and
It’s all about
Information has announced the start of a
14-month campaign to target the use of
consistency
VPNs in China to “clean up” the Internet, PRESS WINDOWS AND G in the latest
and encourage the “healthy” development Windows Creator Update, and you
of the industry. Running a VPN business enter the much anticipated Game
inside China will now require a state license, Mode. As expected, it’s mostly about
and presumably close co-operation with the resource allocation, specifically CPU and GPU resources to the game, getting all
authorities. President Xi Jinping recently processor cores running effectively, and keeping the GPU focused on the game
delivered a speech to the World Economic graphics. The emphasis is not so much on performance increases—these are
Forum on the benefits of opening up marginal, at 2–5 percent—but to get Win 10 rigs, Xbox One, and the forthcoming
world trade and world borders. The irony Scorpio console to offer a consistent experience. The target standard is 900p
is palpable. to 1080p for Xbox One, and 4K at 60fps for Scorpio. The “Games” section in
Details on the new rules are a little “Settings” sports the Xbox logo, and here you can configure each game. Win32
vague, but the clear targets are businesses support has been confirmed, too, which is welcome. You also have game
inside China who provide VPNs for its streaming via Beam, and a new Game DVR settings page. It’s about blurring the
citizens. The firewall that surrounds lines between platforms, and focusing on a consistent game experience. –CL
China has also started blocking VPN sites.
Large corporations are unaffected so
far. VPNs are popular in China to access
otherwise blocked sites, such as Google and Tech Tragedies and Triumphs
YouTube, and evade censorship on specific A monthly snapshot of what’s up and down in tech
subjects, principally anything concerning
dissatisfaction with the state.
The Internet arrived in China in 1994,
and the state started to attempt to control
it in 1998; a firewall for the entire nation
TRIUMPHS TRAGEDIES
followed in 2003. China’s efforts to control DRONEGUN BURNING LAPTOPS
the Internet were initially greeted with much We now have ray guns that can shoot HP has recalled over 100,000
skepticism in the West. The Internet was down drones with concentrated laptop batteries over issues with
electromagnetic radiation—not overheating and possible fires.
seen as too porous and too distributed to
available to the public yet, though.
be stopped. While it is still difficult to stop a
WIN 7 NOT SECURE
determined individual, the state has proved
INTEL BACKS 7nm It still has three years of official
remarkably effective at suppressing the
Intel is building a pilot plant support left, but Microsoft has
curious. In China, you expect to be tracked, to develop the 7nm process. warned that Windows 7 is now
and self-censorship is natural. Moore’s Law still has legs. intrinsically insecure.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, VPNs
are free to use and popular, even if the GOOGLE PARKING APPLE SLUMP
authorities aren’t always keen on the uses Google Maps will now include Apple’s share of the market has
they are put to. China has shown that it is a color-coded guide to how dropped to 6.1 percent of PCs
possible to effectively control what it was difficult it is to park at your online, down from 9.6 percent
once thought almost impossible to police. destination. Handy. barely a year ago.
Let’s hope nobody else gets any ideas. –CL

Jarred Walton
TECH TALK
The Current State of
Integrated Graphics
THE WORLD OF INTEGRATED GRAPHICS has a long and storied history,
most of which can be summed up as: they’re too slow and lacking in
functionality. For years, the most “popular” graphics chips have been
Intel’s, not because they were fast but because they were ubiquitous.
The good news is that Intel started putting more into play, and by targeting a closed
effort into improving graphics when it created HD platform, manufacturers can do
Graphics, in 2010. The latest iteration is its 600 more with less. The PS4’s custom
series, in the new Kaby Lake CPUs, which is largely AMD processor uses about two-
the same as the 500 series. A huge chunk of the thirds of the die space on graphics,
AD
processor is devoted to graphics—roughly one third with the relatively slow Jaguar CPU
of the die. But even so, performance isn’t stellar. cores relegated to one eighth of
I ran tests on 15 modern games, and even at low the die. The PS4 also uses GDDR5,
quality settings and 1280x720, less than half were with a 256-bit interface clocked at
playable. But there is some good news in that all 15 5,500MT/s, with over four times the
games rendered without any noticeable errors. Less bandwidth of a dual-channel DDR4-
demanding games such as Overwatch, League of 2667 configuration, and the PS4 Pro
Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, AMD’s Kaveri APU uses half the die should double GPU performance.
and many indie titles are also definitely playable. space on graphics functionality. I’m eager to see what AMD does
Perhaps more interesting is what Intel has with the upcoming Zen APUs. Will
been doing over the past seven generations of Kaby Lake at 440Gflops, are less it include a high-speed memory
Core processors. Intel more than quadrupled its than half the performance of the cache, along with substantially
mainstream integrated graphics performance GTX 1050 (1,733Gflops) and RX 460 more GPU cores? It could, and
going from first-gen to third-gen Core, but since (2,150Gflops) that represent entry- I’ve seen rumors of an APU with
then, most of the desktop parts (Broadwell being level dedicated GPUs. That’s a big potentially 1,024 Vega GPU cores—
the exception) haven’t seen much improvement. In part of why most gamers end up twice the number found in AMD’s
raw computational power, the fastest GT2 variants running a dedicated graphics card. current top APUs. Combined with
of Intel’s HD Graphics have sat in the 400-450Gflops Other factors include sharing stacked memory (a single 2–4GB
range since Haswell’s HD 4600 in late 2012. system memory bandwidth. Even HBM2 stack, perhaps), AMD could
AMD is only slightly better, with its top APUs, like with two or three times as many end up surpassing the performance
the A10-7890K, sitting at 887Gflops, while lower-tier GPU cores, without increasing the of its RX 460. Certainly, AMD has
parts like the A8-7670K (581Gflops) and A6-7470K memory bandwidth, a lot of potential the expertise to pull this off, but
(410Gflops) are well off the pace. More critically, performance is lost. An HBM2 cache I’m not convinced it will be enough
all of these parts, including desktop Skylake and is a potential solution, and Intel has to capture the interest of gamers,
used eDRAM caches with its Iris with price being a major factor. AMD
products, but few desktop users are might end up cannibalizing sales of
interested in improving integrated its $100-200 graphics cards in order
graphics when a quick upgrade to to sell more $100-200 APUs.
A quick upgrade to a dedicated a dedicated graphics card can more
than double performance. Jarred Walton has been a
graphics card can more than Consoles are a different matter, PC and gaming enthusiast
double performance. where economies of scale come for over 30 years.

quickstart
MAXIMUM PC’s TOP 7 THINGS FROM CES
7 MSI AM4+ MOTHERBOARDS

With Ryzen launching in the first quarter of
2017, AM4+ mobos are coming thick and fast. 3 AMD VEGA GPU
The future’s bright for AMD’s next-gen GPUs.
With HBM 2.0 and impressive compression
tech, that 4K screen might have a use after all.
6 RAZER PROJECT VALERIE

Although not to everyone’s liking, this
triple-screen gaming notebook touts a
total resolution of 11520x2160.
2 ASUS ROG SWIFT PG27UQ

Meet the future of monitors—once graphics
cards catch up. The PG27UQ combines 4K,
144Hz, G-Sync, and HDR in one sexy package.
5 AMD FREESYNC 2
The revolution of AMD’s variable refresh
rate. Similar to G-Sync, AMD is now
enforcing standards
including
low latency
and HDR.
1 iBUYPOWER
PROJECT SNOWBLIND
The transparent LCD screen was first seen at
4
Computex last year. Acting as a second display
via HDMI, you can run anything you want on it.
LG NANO CELL
TECHNOLOGY
LG is innovating on top
of quantum dot by
shrinking the
pixel size down
to a single
nanometer to
improve viewing
angles, even
beyond the limits
of IPS and VA.
16 MAXIMUMPC S P R I N G 20 1 7 maximumpc.com
Alex Campbell
OPEN SOURCE
Vulkan Can’t Bring
Games to Linux by Itself
FOR YEARS AND YEARS, being a Linux user meant giving up on the idea
of playing top-tier games when they’re released. For the most part,
that’s still true, but technologies are emerging that will make it easier
for developers to distribute games for Linux. Unfortunately, these new-
fangled technologies don’t solve all of the underlying issues.
The first big thing that offers promise is the Vulkan need. The formats allow them to
graphics API, the spiritual successor to OpenGL. As stop chasing library updates, and
an open API, Vulkan has promised a cross-platform distribute software images that are
API for developers who want to develop for Linux, known to run on the vast majority of
AD
Windows, Mac, and even mobile devices. (The API Linux systems without issue.
also shipped with support for the modern Wayland These formats also aim to
graphics server.) The API spec was published in unify distribution in the face of the
early 2016, and hardware released during the year fracturing caused by each distro’s
offered support for Vulkan. However, very few package management solution.
games offered support, with most released in 2016 Doomed? Actually, things are Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint have
opting for DirectX 11 or 12. Id Software’s id Tech looking up for Linux gamers, but deb; Fedora and openSUSE have
6-powered Doom was a notable exception, showing there’s still much work to be done. RPM; Arch and Manjaro use tar.xz;
the blistering-fast performance that Vulkan offered. Gentoo builds everything from
Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 also supports the API. shy away from Linux development source because why the hell not?
With a high-performance, modern graphics API is understandable. The market is This landscape is hell for software
available for Linux, one would thing there would minuscule compared to the number distribution (and creates a lot of
be a tidal wave of AAA games for Linux. That wave of gamers on Windows, and Linux work that volunteers have to do).
hasn’t come. A quick scan of a list of games with presents a moving target in terms Unfortunately, the three new
Vulkan support on Wikipedia shows eight games of libraries and drivers. Anyone competing formats—flatpak, snap,
written for Vulkan. Only two of those (Dota 2 and The who’s broken something like Wi-Fi and AppImage—suffer from the
Talos Principle) are available on Linux. (Id’s Doom is or Bluetooth support because of an same problem, in that there’s three
curiously Windows-only, breaking from id’s history update knows what I mean. That of them. Hopefully, 2017 will see a
of releasing shooters for Linux as well as Windows.) means a huge headache for very clear winner pull ahead of the pack.
There simply aren’t many games written for little return for a game dev shop. But even if one does, and developers
Vulkan yet, but given time, that will change. The But there are a few new packaging have a clearer and more stable
percentage of those games that are released for technologies that aim to fix that. platform to target, the chicken
Linux might not, however. The big reason developers Universal Linux “container” (penguin?) or the egg problem will
formats are one of the most likely persist: There aren’t many
important new ideas for desktop gamers on Linux because there
users. They differ slightly from aren’t many games for Linux, and
container technologies such as there aren’t many games for Linux
Linux is a moving target in Docker, and aim to unify the Linux because there aren’t many gamers.
terms of libraries and drivers; application distribution space.
These technologies promise to Alex Campbell is a Linux geek
a huge headache for very little allow developers to package their who enjoys learning about
return for a game dev shop. apps with the libraries that they computer security.

.@:: $< #?::+0BCC) "% 3%1 ? A:>AC) -,0*7+ 0++ %+
763" 7845$88
(333
*00 '6- ,*+'7 -/66/7,

C@4F=+ <B 5F2G

/?6 ;G@GEA?CF@ 8@?GD+ 3FEG C/,//BB -EF(G==FE

</% 5> <0B5 #2= 1A??G >C=&DA*
0#!B<B 8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'*

8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <BB ;7 ;-
/.45 /.&#5%

&?% >9AD 8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <BB ;-=

<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE*
04)28)#.2) #BB;7 :A2=9@' #B 1%0 ::>

<$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG
65)8)
2.5

.9DD 3FDFE -EF'EA22A"DG "A(DC'6? G*"FAE4

CDDGE >F9"DG:6F?, -EF C?6 :2AE? $GA2C@'
0 <BBB1"&= ) CDDGE CEGDG==,)3 <##
+4&#5%
$69@4GE"FD? ;G@:7 %<$*&G,3 3F2"F -FE?=

79CD?,C@ 0%B1 .5> 3A2GEA .C@'GE&EC@? GA4GE

5GA4&6F@G F9?&9? :: :)7 58.8 )94CF >)3
525)* ,85).
5.4 2. 8)8)245 )##. 2)5 22#2$5% 652&5 2 8) 542#&%
-@/CB AC C@B %>6>=C; !@BB@A=1 ,?:>91) +@1 ?AC1+@9* 8@B@A=CC3 20 =4C C8>76CA= ;?C< A?= ?B* @< 7B?6><C;5 ?B >0 1?8 @BC A?= 08::1 <@=><0>C;5 C >:: ><<8C @ 08:: BC08A; 87?A =4C BC=8BA ?0 @:: ?B>/>A@: C8>76CA=3 +C@B ,@B=< @A; %@ ?B %>6>=C;
!@BB@A=13 %>0C=>6C #?::+BCC #C94A>9@: -877?B=3 -@/CB AC C@B %>6>=C; !@BB@A=15 #? C@B %>6>=C; !@BB@A=1 @A; #4BCC C@B %>6>=C; !@BB@A=1 ,?:>91 '77:>C< =? A; $<CB< >A =4C $A>=C; -=@=C< ?0 '6CB>9@ ?A:13 =CA;C; !@BB@A=1 '&@>:@ :C) .4C9* ?8=
=4>< 9?67BC4CA<>&C 7@9*@/C ?0 <CB&>9C<877?B=3 -@/CB .?B7?B@=C 00>9C< .?B=AC1 .?8B=5 .>=1 ?0 2A;8<=B15 .@:>0?BA>@ #C:) ""3"3"5 @) ""3"3
?8B<) ?A;@1+B>;@1 )@363 + "7363,-# '6CB>9@A 7BC<<5 2-'5 @<=CB.@B;
><9?&CB .BC;>= .@B;< '99C7=C; + ? -8B94@B/C3 .@<4>CB< .4C9*< !C:9?6C;3 1 >;CBA .?678=CB5 2A93 ':: B>/4=< BC<CB&C;3 $:=B@ ??*5 .C:CB?A5 .C:CB?A 2A<>;C5 .?BC 2A<>;C5 2A=C:5 2A=C: %?/?5 2A=C: '=?65 2A=C: '=?6 2A<>;C5 2A=C: .?BC5 2A=C: 2A<>;C5
2A=C: 2A<>;C %?/?5 2A=C: &,B?5 2=@A>865 2=@A>86 2A<>;C5 ,CA=>865 ,CA=>86 2A<>;C5 &,B? 2A<>;C5 C?A5 C?A ,4>5 @A; C?A 2A<>;C @BC =B@;C6@B*< ?0 2A=C: .?B7?B@=>?A >A =4C $3-3 @A;?B ?=4CB 9?8A=B>C<3 ':: 9?67@A1 @A;?B 7B?;89= A@6C< 6CA=>?AC; 4CBC>A @BC
=B@;C6@B*< @A;?B BC/><=CBC; =B@;C6@B*< ?0 =4C>B BC<7C9=>&C 9?67@A>C<3 ,B>9C< @A; <7C9>0>9@=>?A< @BC <8 C9= =? 94@A/C >=4?8= A?=>9C3 7CAC; <?0=@BC @A; <4>77>A/ 94@B/C< @BC A?A+BC08A;@ :C3 +@1 6?AC1 @9* /8@B@A=CC ;?C< A?= >A9:8;C 0BC>/4=
?B <4>77>A/ @A; 4@A;:>A/ 94@B/C3 BCC $,- B?8A; -4>77>A/ &@:>; =? 9?A=>/8?8< $- ?B;CB ?A:13
7631 7845$88 7631! 7845$88 76"1 7845$88 76"1! 7845$88
(33 (1"33 (133 (1 33
*00 '6- ,*+'7 -/66/7, *00 '6- ,*+'7 -/66/7, *00 '6- ,*+'7 -/66/7, 45) (! /.&42.4 -2#.&

C@4F=+ <B 5F2G
C@4F=+ <B 5F2G
C@4F=+ <B 5F2G
C@4F=+ <B 5F2G

/?6 ;G@GEA?CF@ 8@?GD+ 3FEG C/,//BB5 -EF(G==FE

</% .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
<#%! .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
&?% 9@DF(G4 8@?GD+ 3FEG C/,/0B5 -EF(G==FE
&?% 8@?GD+ 3FEG C/,/0B5 -EF(G==FE
8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'* 8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'*
</% .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
<#%! .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB

8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B/B ;7 ;-
&?% <#%! .5><0B5 #2= 1A??G >C=&DA* 8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'* 8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'*

&?% 8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B!B FE <BB ;- C?6 ;,: 3
8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B/B ;7 ;-
&?% <#%! .5> FE .5> <0B5 #2=

<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE*

8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B!B !;7 ;-
<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE* 1A??G >C=&DA* C?6 ;,: 3

#BB;7 :A2=9@' #B 1%0 ::>

&?CF@AD 8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B/B ;-
0#!;7 :A@>C= BB 1%0 ::>

8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B/B ;7 ;-
<$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG
<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE* <$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG
<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE*

0#!;7 :A@>C= BB 1%0 ::>
0#!;7 :A@>C= BB 1%0 ::>

CDDGE >F9"DG:6F? -EF C?6 :2AE? $GA2C@' <$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG
8@?GD+ >9AD 7A@4 CEGDG==,)3 0!# 7D9G?FF?6 <$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG
<BBB1"&= ) CDDGE CEGDG==,)3 <##


$69@4GE"FD? ;G@ :7 %< $*&G,3 -FE?=
CDDGE >F9"DG:6F? -EF C?6 :2AE? $GA2C@'
5GA4&6F@G F9?&9? :: :)7 58.8 )94CF >)3

8@?GD+ >9AD 7A@4 CEGDG==,)3 0!# 7D9G?FF?6
79CD?,C@ 0%B1 .5> 3A2GEA .C@'GE&EC@? GA4GE <BBB1"&= ) CDDGE CEGDG==,)3 <## 79CD?,C@ 0%B1 .5> 3A2GEA .C@'GE&EC@? GA4GE
:DC2 4G=C'@ C?6 F@D* <%< C@(6 ?6C@

5GA4&6F@G F9?&9? :: :)7 58.8 )94CF >)3

$69@4GE"FD? ;G@ :7 %< $*&G,3 -FE?
5GA4&6F@G F9?&9? :: :)7 58.8 )94CF >)3

5GA4&6F@G F9?&9? :: :)7 58.8 )94CF >)3
76"1 7845$88 76"1! 7845$88 76"1!! 7845$88 76!"!! 7845$88

(1!3 (133 (1133 (33
*00 '6- ,*+'7 -/66/7, *00 '6- ,*+'7 -/66/7, 45) (1 /.&42.4 -2#.& 45) (1 /.&42.4 -2#.&

+
C@4F= <B 5F2G
+
C@4F= <B 5F2G
+
C@4F= <B 5F2G
C@4F=+ <B 5F2G
?6 +
/ ;G@GEA?CF@ 8@?GD 3FEG C/,//BB5 -EF(G==FE ?6 +
/ ;G@GEA?CF@ 8@?GD 3FEG C/,//BB5 -EF(G==FE ?6 +
/ ;G@GEA?CF@ 8@?GD 3FEG C/,//BB5 -EF(G==FE

</% .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
<#%! .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
<#%! .9DD 5> 8-: 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
<#%! .9DD 5> 1A??G >C=&DA* <0B<BB
8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'* 8>8)+ ;,: 3 $G(6@FDF'*
8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B!B ;7 ;-
8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B#B 0;7 ;-

8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B!B !;7 ;-
8>8)+ ;G.FE(G ;$ <B!B !;7 ;-
;7 >>,0BB15 1G2FE*
;7 >>,0BB15 1G2FE*

<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE*
<!;7 >9AD 36A@@GD >>,0BB15 1G2FE*
<$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG
<$7 #BB-1 5AE4 >ECG

0#!;7 :A@>C= BB 1%0 ::>
0#!;7 :A@>C= BB 1%0 ::>
:C@'DG 3FDFE 6C?G,> "A(DC'6? G*"FAE4
<$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG <$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG

8@?GD+ >9AD 7A@4 CEGDG==,)3 0!# 7D9G?FF?6
8@?GD+ >9AD 7A@4 CEGDG==,)3 <!# 7D9G?FF?6


79CD?,C@ 0%B1 .5> 3A2GEA

8@?GD+ >9AD 7A@4 CEGDG==,)3 0!# 7D9G?FF?6
8@?GD+ >9AD 7A@4 CEGDG==,)3 0!# 7D9G?FF?6

:F9@4 7DA=?GE+ ,.C 17# :F9@4 :*=?G2
:F9@4 7DA=?GE+ 3C@G2A :F9@4 :*=?G2


:DC2 4G=C'@ C?6 F@D* B% C@(6 ?6C@
:DC2 4G=C'@ C?6 F@D* B% C@(6 ?6C@

:F9@4 7DA=?GE+ ,.C 17# :F9@4 :*=?G2
:F9@4 7DA=?GE+ ,.C 17# :F9@4 :*=?G2

:DC2 4G=C'@ C?6 F@D* <%< C@(6 ?6C@
:DC2 4G=C'@ C?6 F@D* B% C@(6 ?6C@
39=?F2CG A@4 8@=?A@? -EC(C@' A? :); $7%31

quickstart
BY MATT HANSON
AVG AntiVirus vs. Bitdefender

Antivirus vs. Microsoft Defender
No matter how careful you are online, you can still be at risk of picking up a nasty virus
or other malware. If you don’t want to shell out for an expensive (and resource-hogging)
antivirus app, there are plenty of free tools to keep you protected. Far from being cut-down
and basic, even these free programs come with plenty of features to protect your PC. But are
they too good to be true, and how do they compare to the built-in protection that Windows
offers? We pit three of the most popular free antivirus tools against each other to find out.
AVG AntiVirus
also comes ROUND 1 ROUND 2
with a browser
plugin for
protection Features Ease of Use
when surfing
Defender has virus, malware, We want our antivirus app to
the Internet.
and spyware detection and be unobtrusive, and keep us
removal. Real-time protection protected with the minimum of
monitors downloaded files. fuss. In that regard, Windows
There’s no firewall. Cloud- Defender has a huge advantage,
based protection defends as if you’re running a recent
against threats identified on version of Windows, it is already
other users’ PCs. It comes installed and configured.
Bitdefender
preinstalled, with no ads or pop- Downloading and installing
Antivirus is
ups nagging you to upgrade. Bitdefender is straightforward,
both speedy
The free version of AVG scanning your PC during
and highly
features virus, malware, and the process. The interface
effective
spyware protection, and real- is streamlined and easy to
at spotting
time security updates. Unlike understand, and the Autopilot
nasties.
Defender, it comes with a plugin mode means you can leave it
to protect you from unsafe alone to get on with protecting
links, downloads, and email you. To scan specific files, just
attachments. A gaming mode drag and drop them.
(that cuts down on resources AVG’s interface has simple
used) is welcome, but if you indications letting you know if
want firewall or phishing your PC is protected, and a big
Windows
protection, you must pay. button to scan your system. It’s
Defender is
Bitdefender offers similar not as hands-off as the others,
preinstalled
features as AVG, plus comes but installation is simple. You’re
with Windows,
with Autopilot mode, which encouraged to install a browser
and never
configures security settings plugin to protect you while
nags you to
on the fly, enables automatic online, but it tries to change your
shell out for
updates, and more, with no homepage and default search
an upgrade.
annoying pop-ups, but AVG’s engine, which we don’t like.
gaming mode gives it the edge.
Tie:
Winner: Windows Defender
AVG and Bitdefender

ROUND 3 ROUND 4 ROUND 5 And the
Virus Scanning Scan Speeds Resource Use
Winner
In the latest AV Comparatives On our test machine, Windows Antivirus software can be Is…
benchmarks (which are Defender completed a Quick very resource hungry. With
carried out by an independent Scan in one minute, scanning Microsoft’s knowledge of Every one of these AV tools
company), Bitdefender blocked 11,288 files. We then performed Windows, you’d think Defender has something going for it,
1,618 out of 1,619 test cases a deeper scan on a full 100GB would have an advantage here. be it Windows Defender’s
successfully, with a protection hard drive, which completed in While performing a full scan, it convenience, Bitdefender’s
rate of 99.9 percent. AVG didn’t 26 minutes, 42 seconds. Next took up a peak of 275MB of RAM, excellent detection rate, or
catch quite as many, with 1,612, up was Bitdefender, and the with CPU use (a powerful quad- AVG’s speed and lightness. If
and 99.6 percent. Windows initial Quick Scan took just 49 core Intel Core i7) hovering you go with Bitdefender, you
Defender caught 1,570 test seconds. With the free version around 54.6 percent. When not can be sure your PC is as well
cases, for a protection rate of of Bitdefender, scan choices are in use, it used 152MB of RAM. protected as possible for a
97 percent. That’s still high, but a bit limited, so we dragged and Bitdefender was much more free program, and if you just
not quite as good as the other dropped the entire 100GB folder resource-intensive. When idle, stick with Windows Defender,
two AV products on test. on to the program to scan. That it used around 180MB of RAM, you’ll at least be protected
AV Comparatives also took just seven minutes, 10 but when scanning, it had peaks against the majority of threats.
tested the programs for false seconds, which is a lot quicker of 780MB RAM use (though However, the overall winner
flags—these are safe files or than Windows Defender. around 400MB for most of the of these tests is AVG. It comes
websites that are incorrectly AVG doesn’t have a Quick scan time), and CPU usage with plenty of features, has an
identified as harmful, and Scan option, though it offers lots spiking at 98 percent, averaging excellent detection rate, and
blocked by AV programs. Both of ways to configure scans, so about 70 percent. The price to decent scanning speeds. What
AVG and Bitdefender passed they only check the bits of your pay for such fast scanning. we really love, though, is how
the tests with no wrongly PC you want. The default is a Meanwhile, we were very few resources it takes up when
blocked files or websites, but full, deep scan. This is advisable impressed with the impact of running in the background,
Windows Defender incorrectly with all AV products, to make AVG. At idle, the software takes or even when scanning your
blocked 23 cases. While it’s sure your PC is completely safe. up 130MB of RAM, while in use computer. It does a great job
a close call between AVG and However, with our custom scan it only takes up around 160MB. of protecting your PC, while
Bitdefender (with Bitdefender of the 100GB hard drive, it took Better still, CPU use never went having almost no impact on
just edging a win), Windows 9 minutes, 48 seconds. Much higher than 14 percent—a far performance—like all good AV
Defender’s performance was faster than Windows Defender, cry from the stress Bitdefender products, you’ll hardly know
rather disappointing. but not as quick as Bitdefender. puts the PC under. it’s there.
Winner: Winner: Winner:

Bitdefender Bitdefender AVG

quickstart
THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...
> Workstation Power

er
> Mixing Memoryy
> Jumping to X99
X9
Workstation Power render to 17 hours or so. You
Hi Doctor. My son is a 3D digital could use a cheaper CPU, but
design student at Rochester anything lower than the -2630
Institute of Technology (RIT). will typically be outperformed
We purchased a Lenovo P700 by a 6- to 10-core 3GHz-plus
system for his design work and, single-CPU system, which is
of course, gaming. He uses also more affordable. If you
applications such as Maya, have the budget to go higher
RealFlow, and Adobe’s CC suite. than the E5-2630, a quick rule
He’s having an issue setting of thumb for rendering is to
up his hardware to reduce the use Xeon CPUs that end in a 0
time it takes to render projects (-2630, -2640, -2660, and so on).
in Maya—they take as long as 30 “Keep in mind that many of
hours to complete. I don’t think the other tasks you mentioned
adding more memory will help, (gaming, Maya modeling, and
and he’s already running dual all Adobe software) do not work
Xeon processors, with a pretty well with dual-Xeon systems.
good graphics card. There is extra processing
We looked for ways to overhead when you have two
better utilize both processors, physical CPUs, and unless the
but can’t figure that out. He software is good at utilizing
also thinks a second graphics multiple cores at the same
card might help, but can’t find Lenovo’s ThinkStation P700 may require higher-end CPUs for time—as rendering is—you
documentation supporting his optimal rendering performance. often get better performance
hypothesis. Any ideas you have with one CPU than with two. In
would be greatly appreciated. following guidance: “If faster with higher core counts, but fact, for gaming and modeling/
–Dave Fantauzzo render times from Maya are the E5-2609 v3 is only one step animation, four cores running
your primary concern, the up from the lowest-end CPU of at high clock rates yield much
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: The solution isn’t quick or easy. that generation. Upgrading a better performance.”
Doc is well versed in matters You are correct that more dual-Xeon setup isn’t as cheap
of hardware, but less familiar RAM likely won’t help (32GB is as adding RAM, but it’s the only Mixing Memory
with Maya, and the resources typically plenty), and as Maya thing that will help significantly. Dear Doctor, When it comes to
its renderer exploits. To get you uses a CPU-based rendering “For rendering, the Xeon memory, if I’m using the same
the best answer, the Doc went engine, upgrading the GPU E5-2630 v3/v4 is usually the brand and speed, does it matter
to his friends at Puget Systems won’t improve render times lowest-end dual-CPU config if I install two 16GB modules
in Auburn, Washington, who either. The weakest link in your we recommend to one of our with a CAS rating of 14 and two
test and write about optimizing son’s dual-Xeon workstation customers. Compared to the 4GB sticks at CAS 16? Both
configurations for workstation is the CPUs themselves. Two E5-2609 v3s your son has today, would be DDR4-3200. Or would
applications. Matt Bach, in Xeons can work very well for a pair of E5-2630 v3s could be a slower data rate at CAS 12 be
Puget’s lab, sent over the rendering, as they scale nicely expected to drop that 30-hour better? I’m doing some gaming,
↘ submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com

surfing the net, and watching BIOS settings to default. If the
old Tarzan movies. If I overclock, issue persists, you’re likely
it’ll be conservative. out of luck. Don’t be surprised
I also have a Samsung M.2- if this is the case; it could be
based boot drive and a Samsung that the capacity differences
SSD for user data. If I use an between 16GB and 4GB
external SSD for downloading modules are simply too great.
Internet content, and that In regard to your external
content is infected with a virus, drive question—yes, any virus
would only the portable drive be on one drive can potentially
affected, or could the contagion affect other drives as well.
spread to other devices? A $60
external drive lost to cooties The Right Connection
would be far better than the Hello, I’m a long-time
permanent drives. subscriber, going back to the
If this helps, I plan on buying days of Boot. In the January Gigabyte’s Z170X-Gaming 7 supports simultaneous use of its
a Core i7-6700K, an MSI Gaming 2017 issue, editor-in-chief Tuan CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT headers.
M7 or Asus Maximus VIII Hero Nguyen’s Lab Notes article
motherboard, a Corsair H110i “Short Circuits” intrigued me, diagnostic software still thinks I should make the jump to
GT cooler, a Samsung 850 EVO as I recently built a new system. I’m using Windows 8. X99? I still need to buy a new
500GB M.2, a Samsung 850 I double-checked and verified I’d like to remove everything motherboard and RAM.
EVO 1TB, an MSI GeForce GTX that I was using both the CPU_ and reinstall from a Windows I have a Core i7-4790K on the
1080, and a Be Quiet! Dark Base FAN and CPU_OPT headers, 10 Home disc. However, it is my Z97 chipset, and that’s working
900 chassis. –Ray Nimeth which Tuan warns against doing. understanding that because fine for me, but I’d like to take
I’ve had the system for a the laptop has UEFI, it requires advantage of the additional
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: Let’s month and have had no problem the original OEM partitions to cores, PCIe lanes, and support
start with your memory whatsoever. It consists of a Core boot. In other words, I can’t for full-speed M.2 drives. I want
question. The answer isn’t i5-6600K attached to a Gigabyte delete the OEM partitions and to get the most from my ROG
straightforward because Z170X-Gaming 7 motherboard, software before performing a Swift PG279Q, a task I suspect
it depends on a number with a Corsair H60 CPU cooler. full reinstallation. may require two GPUs.
of variables. First, there’s The radiator fan is connected to Is there any way around this However, I’ve heard that the
your motherboard’s BIOS. the CPU_FAN header, while the requirement, and how does one LGA-2011 v3 interface won’t be
Depending on how the firmware pump is connected to CPU_OPT. get a laptop with no operating used for Skylake-X and Kaby
was written, it might choose I left it as-is for the moment system to perform its own Lake-X. And some of the new
the slowest common memory because, like I said, zero installation? –Gerald Gibson Z270 boards that are coming
settings, the memory settings issues. Thoughts? –Mike H. out look quite tempting as well,
from a preset priority list of THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: especially with their support for
slots on the board, the serial THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: Tuan Updating an older system Intel’s upcoming Optane tech.
presence detect (SPD) settings was having issues with an Asus to Windows 10 sometimes I mostly do digital drawing
from a random module, or board; that company’s support requires a BIOS/UEFI update. and gaming, though I do use
it could refuse to boot when folks advised against using both For anyone else considering virtual machines from time to
presented with conflicting SPD headers concurrently to avoid this, depending on how old the time. Do you think I’d be better
information. The memory chips the problem he encountered. laptop is, it may or may not served making the jump to
on those modules could also be The Doc consulted Gigabyte support Win 10, or you may run the enthusiast X99, or finding
incompatible due to different about your motherboard, and into driver limitations. some other use for my new CPU
densities or capacities. was told that the CPU_FAN That said, if you have an and sticking with consumer
So, there’s a lot that could go and CPU_OPT headers can be optical disc drive, Windows platforms like Z270 or (gasp)
wrong—if you have the option to used together without an issue. 10 Home media, and the AMD’s Ryzen? –Jordan S.
avoid mixing kits, take it. CPU_FAN is either for a heat key, there should be nothing
If you already have them sink or radiator fan that can preventing you from starting THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: The Doc
both, try installing the modules ramp up and down based on afresh. Update the UEFI by wouldn’t jump to X99 for gaming
in alternate slots, so that the CPU temperature; CPU_OPT is downloading the latest version alone; your fast quad-core CPU
kits each populate one channel. an additional header that can from Lenovo’s website. Pop the is fine for that. Plus, a single
Check your manual for guidance provide 100 percent power all disc in your drive, and ensure GeForce GTX 1080 or 1070 will
on where to put the higher- the time to the pump. Each has your firmware is configured drive your QHD display well
capacity modules. Should your its own IC to control amperage to look there first upon boot. enough in the latest games.
system boot successfully at limits. You’re in the clear. Or, visit http://go.microsoft. Even if you do crave more
low baseline settings, dial in com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209 graphics performance, two x8
manual settings for the data Reinstalling Win 10 to download Microsoft’s media slots are plenty for CrossFire
rate, CL timings, command I have a Lenovo laptop that creation tool. or SLI. But virtualization does
rate, and voltage (that is, don’t came with an OEM copy of benefit from lots of cores and
use XMP). Specify the lower of Windows 8 and a UEFI firmware. Jumping to X99 cache. That could be reason
the settings between both kits. I upgraded to Windows 10 on Hey, Doc! I got my hands on a alone for you to make the
Should you run into trouble my own, and it was working Core i7-6850K for a great price, switch, if the workload is
booting up, try resetting the well. Unfortunately, the OEM and I’m wondering whether important enough.

big screen group test
BIG-SCREEN
DEBUT
Never before has the high-end PC monitor
market been so vibrant and innovative.
Allow Jeremy Laird to help you solve this
particular paradox of choice

A WINDOW INTO YOUR COMPUTING WORLD . That’s refresh rates synched with the output of their video
what a PC monitor is. The question is, do you want card. Then there’s the widespread adoption of far
your view to be a miserable, letter-box glimpse, or higher resolutions, such as 4K or UHD.
a broad, expansive, and liberating vista? Even more recently, there’s been a revolution in
OK, that’s a loaded way of posing the problem of colors and contrast. HDR, or high dynamic range, is
screen choice. It ain’t all about size. In fact, at the the latest technology to hit the display market. It’s
high end, generous proportions are a given. So it’s already pretty much taken over the high-end HDTV
all the rest that you need to worry about: panel type, segment. Now it’s beginning to assimilate monitors.
native resolution, and pixel pitch, for instance. However, the process will be more complicated
But that’s just the basics. The PC monitor market on the PC, as if the practicalities of implementing
is more complex than ever. That begins with a much HDR weren’t already complex enough. Point being,
broader choice of shapes and sizes. You can go you’ll be able to pick and choose between various
seriously big these days. You can also go seriously aspects of what has become known as HDR.
wide, thanks to 21:9 aspect ratio panels. And you An example is quantum dot technology. It’s
can go curved for a wrap-around experience. a color enhancement feature that isn’t strictly
Meanwhile, several spectacular new image- associated with increasing dynamic range, but
enhancement technologies have emerged over the it’s part of the broader HDR toolkit that’s
last two years. It wasn’t that long ago that refresh finding its way into PC monitors. So,
rates for LCD monitors were stuck at 60Hz. Now you let’s dissect the high-end PC
can go up to 160Hz. Gamers can also opt for dynamic display market.

LET’S TAKE A TOUR around the recent history of same, what’s the point? Likewise, is a screen hooked Above from left to right:
the high-end PC monitor. Remember when a 24- up to a PC while you sit on a couch 15 feet away a The Asus PA329Q has
inch widescreen monitor with a 1920x1200 native monitor or a TV? Similarly, it’s possible to go too advanced quantum dot
resolution constituted high end? We’re thinking big in terms of panel viewability. Beyond 40 inches, technology, but it’s the
2004, and the Dell 2405FPW. You can get something a screen situated at conventional monitor viewing purist’s choice.
close to that for about 100 bucks today. Incredible. distances requires a whole lot of head craning.
About three years later, Dell shook things up That said, many people who thought 30-inch The Dell UP3017Q is
again with the 3007WFP, a 30-inch 2560x1600 beast panels were too big 10 years ago are probably happily one of the first OLED PC
that was so spectacular at the time, it was hard to running 32-inch or 34-inch monitors today. What monitors to arrive—but
imagine anything bigger. But a further five years feels unwieldy at first, can soon make reverting to a it costs a fortune.
down the road in 2017, and the 3007 is toast. smaller screen seem restrictive. On a similar note,
Screen tech is advancing at breakneck speed. One where do projectors fit in? A projector can never be a LG’s 38UC99 is the
moment you’re marveling at the latest superwide direct replacement for a PC monitor, yet nothing can latest superwide
curved monitor, the next you’re having your entire compete with their sheer cinematic scale. curved-screen wonder.
field of view saturated by staggering HDR visuals
courtesy of a 55-inch UHDTV, and every monitor POINTS OF VIEW This HDTV is big and
you’ve ever used before suddenly seems tiny. Aspect ratio is another consideration. Superwide beautiful, but do you
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Choices must 21:9-aspect monitors are gaining traction. They’re really want a 50-inch
be made. You can’t have everything in one monitor. fantastic for movies. They work great with games. screen as a PC monitor?
For instance, let’s say you wanted a 4K screen with They can be thoroughly ergonomic for viewing
160Hz refresh, and 40-inch-plus diagonal. It can’t be multiple documents or web pages at the same time, Below:
had. So, you need to be clear on your priorities. too. But they’re also restrictive in terms of vertical 4K tech has now come to
Let’s look at gamer-centric tech, including ultra- resolution and desktop space. So, while you may projectors, too.
high refresh rates. High refresh on the desktop is be able to view documents side by side more easily,
nice. It’s hard to go back to a 60Hz panel once you’ve your view of each is more limited, which means
experienced 120Hz-plus. But, arguably, anything more scrolling. The 21:9 aspect is also distinctly
above 120Hz for the desktop is redundant. Adaptive sub-optimal for standard 16:9 HDTV video content.
refresh technology, including Nvidia’s G-Sync and Curved versus flat is yet another geometric
AMD’s FreeSync, is even more gamer-centric. If you conundrum. In our experience, this is a question
don’t game much, you can probably ignore it. of personal preference. Some people love curved
Now let’s move on to size and shape. Your options screens, others think they look ridiculous. We argue
are extensive and the choice subjective. It is also that the bigger a screen is, the more sense a little
intimately related to native resolution. For starters, curve can make. But just remember,
bigger isn’t always better. The UHD or 4K pixel grid of not all screens sport the same
3840x2160 sounds impressive. On a 32-inch monitor, curve. Some are curvier than
it gives a nice, tight pixel pitch, crisp fonts, and loads others. So, head down to your
of detail. On a 50-inch panel, it’s a whole different local store, and get a feel for the
ball game. At least, it is at normal PC monitor various radii of curve on offer.
viewing distances. You can move further away with All of which brings us to plain,
a larger panel, but if the apparent size is then the old image quality. Partly, that’s a

question of panel choice. At this end of the spectrum, a subject we covered in depth in our January issue.
it’s unlikely you’ll be considering a TN panel, though Long story short, HDR uses technologies, including
some gamers prefer TN at any price, thanks to its local backlight dimming, to dramatically increase
superior pixel response. For everyone else, it’s a the range of brightness a screen can display.
choice between IPS and VA panels, plus closely The new HDR standards also bring with them an
related variants thereof, such as Samsung’s PLS expansion in color spaces, and support for up to 12
tech, which is essentially IPS by another name. bits of color per channel—in the past, even high-end
Ultimately, the traditional divisions here remain. monitors have been limited to eight bits per channel.
IPS is the best choice for color accuracy and viewing A true HDR monitor is capable of much greater
angles, while VA delivers the best contrast and color highs and much lower lows than a conventional
saturation. So, you’ll want IPS for a super-precise screen. The results can be spectacular, but HDR
pro-style monitor, or VA for the ultimate in visual pop may not be for everyone. A 32-inch 4K IPS monitor
and punch. That said, those traditional categories with quantum dot technology is a very different
are blurring. An IPS display with quantum dot proposition from something like a large 4K TV with
backlight technology can have colors with even HDR capability, to the point where it’s more a case
more pop than VA with a conventional LED backlight. of what fits your needs than necessarily determining
What’s more, the emergence of HDR, or high which is better. You pays your money. You takes your
dynamic range, technology is complicating matters, choice. And the end result is a stunning screen.
Lenovo’s Yoga
WHEREFORE ART THOU, OLED?

X1 is one of the
first vaguely
affordable PCs
with an OLED
It feels like OLED has been the the first laptops with full OLED color display. When you sit in
display.
next big thing in monitor tech for displays have now gone on sale, front of the latest 4K HDR LCD TV,
about a decade. It’s been one of including the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 that’s easy to forget. The world’s
those technologies that seems to Yoga and the latest Alienware 13. display engineers have done an
always be just around the corner, Strictly speaking, the first amazing job of compensating
but somehow never arrives. OLED PC monitors have also for the obvious flaws in LCD
OLED, or Organic Light arrived. The Dell UP3017Q technology. But the advantage
Emitting Diode, tech has actually delivers an OLED panel in a OLED has, by virtue of each pixel
been successful on the small 30-inch 4K form factor. Problem being its own light source in
scale of smartphone displays is, it’s a $5,000 screen. OLED, terms of contrast, viewing, and
for several years. Scaling then, isn’t exactly mainstream. response, is simply too much.
the technology reliably and But it will be worth the wait Already, OLED beats LCD hands
affordably for big displays has when it does become more down in many areas, and it’s still
proven more difficult. However, affordable. That’s because, when a nascent technology. A decade
the major brands in the HDTV you get right down to it, LCD is a from now, OLED displays will
market went big on OLED at CES fundamentally borked technology be making anything with an LCD
earlier this year. What’s more, on which to base a large, full- panel look utterly ancient.

AOC
U3477PQU
Six hundred bucks, but still a bargain
slick, superwide not going to get 10- or 12-bit color support,
7
WHAT TO MAKE OF AOC’S VERDICT
AOC U3477PQU
U3477PQU? It comes down to your point of for instance. In strict terms, that limits your
view. If you’re a serious player in the true content mastering options. Nor can you A NEW HOPE Nice all-round
high end of the monitor market, it’s not expect the U3477PQU to be loaded up with package for the money; quality
going to be on your radar. But if you want to the latest gaming-centric goodness. It tops IPS image quality; slick chassis.
get a slice of the high-end action at a more out at a 60Hz refresh, it doesn’t support
PHANTOM MENACE Lacks high refresh and
attainable price, slap it on your shortlist. adaptive synching, and it’s completely flat.
frame synching; color capabilities limit
It all starts with the 34-inch LCD panel. That said, the U3477PQU is far from
content production support.
It’s a proper IPS item. It’s also 34 inches without gaming merit. AOC gives you four
across the diagonal, and packs a 3440x1440 levels of pixel overdrive, so you can decide $616, www.aoc.com
pixel punch. For most mere mortals, that’s if you want to minimize blurring by ramping
plenty. The 21:9 aspect ratio also adds an the overdrive to the max, in return for some
element of the exotic. AOC has done a nice inverse ghosting. That 34-inch 21:9 panel, SPECIFICATIONS
job of giving the chassis and stand a quality with its 3440x1440 grid, is a very nice
consumer electronics vibe, too. compromise for real-world gaming, too. Panel Size 34-inch
Image quality doesn’t disappoint, either. It’s big enough to feel cinematic, and the Native Resolution 3440x1440
It’s more vibrant than the more expensive LG pixel count provides lots of detail without
38UC99, even if it can’t match the quantum- presenting your GPU with a huge overload. Pixels Per Inch 110
dot brigade with their eye-popping colors. You could make a similar argument for Panel Type IPS
It doesn’t suffer from any major accuracy the U3477PQU as a day-to-day productivity
Max Refresh 60Hz
flaws either. There’s a little banding when monitor. We’d prefer 32-inch 4K for the
viewing gradients, but it’s subtle. The black superior pixel pitch and additional desktop Response 5ms
and white scales show virtually no evidence real estate. The 21:9 aspect ratio can also 1x DisplayPort,
of compression, so the factory calibration create its own problems: 16:9 TV content 1x HDMI,
Display Inputs
is solid. It’s IPS, so the viewing angles are looks silly (and small) framed by thick 1x DVI,
1x VGA
great, and both black levels and contrast black bars either side, for instance. Those
are good. It can’t compete with a VA panel or 1,440 pixels of vertical resolution will feel Connectivity N/A
an HDR screen with local dimming for really constraining for some. But at this price, VESA Mount 100 x 100mm
inky blackness, but that’s inevitable. it’s a decent compromise if you want a
Similarly, you have to be realistic about screen that can turn its hand to a little bit Warranty Three years
the overall feature set at this price. You’re of everything, and look slick in the process.

ASUS
PROART PA329Q
Time to put away the big boys’ toys
9
SUPERWIDE 21:9 aspect screens with crazy rotation to portrait mode. While the overall VERDICT
Asus ProArt PA329Q
curves? Wall-sized UHDTVs masquerading feel is robust, it’s far from chunky or old-
as PC monitors? Gaming gimmicks such as fashioned, thanks to a very slim bezel. What PRECISION TOOL Extremely
adaptive sync and 160Hz refresh? They’re you don’t get is a curved panel, zany refresh high fidelity IPS panel;
all very well, but it’s time to put away the rates, frame synching, or crazy levels of impressive color capabilities;
big boys’ toys and get serious. Enter the pixel overdrive. It’s all about precision. superfine pixel pitch.
new ProArt PA329Q, Asus’s shot at a lasting Fire her up, and initial impressions are
NOT SO COOL Not exactly cinematic in
monument to visual precision. glorious. The PA329Q is supervibrant, but
scale; requires a fairly serious investment;
It isn’t big by high-end standards. It’s without that uber-saturated look that many
not ideal for gaming.
just 32 inches. But it is 4K, which has TVs go for in order to achieve superficial
implications for pixel pitch and sharpness. punch. Think of it as both power and control $1,249, www.asus.com
As its name suggests, it’s aimed at serious when it comes to colors. The viewing angles
productivity, therefore the core technology are pretty much immaculate, too, and the
SPECIFICATIONS
is IPS, with added color-fidelity chops. anti-glare coating is superclean and free
In terms of color reproduction, that from grain or sparkle. Plus, there’s the Panel Size 32-inch
includes 10-bit per channel support, along razor sharpness due to that tight pixel pitch.
with a 14-bit look-up table for precision The basic calibration is bang on, with Native Resolution 3840x2160
calibration. But what marks the PA329Q out flawless detail in white and black scales, Pixels Per Inch 127
as cutting edge is the addition of quantum- and visually perfect gradients. The default
Panel Type IPS
dot backlight enhancement for even greater 6,500K color temperature is a little warm
color dynamism. The result is 100 percent subjectively, and the IPS panel can’t compete Max Refresh 60Hz
coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. with the latest VA screens for contrast and
Response 5ms
Asus also claims that factory calibration black levels. Likewise, support for a higher
4x HDMI,
guarantees a sub-two Delta E color space. refresh rate would be nice, but that’s limited
Display Inputs 1x DisplayPort,
The bottom line is that this display will by display interface bandwidth. 1x Mini DisplayPort
enable you to properly master content for In all other regards, this is a screen with USB, card reader,
HDR compliance, including the Rec. 2020 which you could have a long and meaningful Connectivity
3.5mm audio
video gamut. The PA329Q’s physical relationship. The advent of OLED tech
VESA Mount 100 x 100mm
bearing reflects its pro remit, too. There’s notwithstanding, it’s easy to imagine the
a pleasing quality to the chassis and stand, PA329Q still looking stunning in five years. Warranty Three years
the latter being fully adjustable, including It ain’t cheap, but it is a good investment.

BENQ
PD3200U
An LCD panel for old-school purists
for the BenQ PD3200U. and pleasing colors. The out-of-the-
8
SPARE A THOUGHT VERDICT
BenQ PD3200U
While the Asus ProArt PA329Q struts about, box calibration is mostly very good, too.
flaunting its quantum dot-enhanced colors, Black and white scales show no signs of IVY LEAGUE GRAD Lovely IPS
the PD3200U must make do with an LED compression, and if anything we prefer the panel; supercrisp 4K pixel
backlight. However, this otherwise similar BenQ’s default color temperature. It’s bang pitch; competitive pricing.
BenQ monitor has its own appeal. on. That said, a whiff of banding in gradients
HIGH SCHOOL DROP-OUT Modest overall
Mostly, that comes down to price. The is visible. Similarly, the anti-glare coating
proportions; can’t compete with the best
BenQ rocks in at just under $900, while the suffers from just a touch of graininess.
on color space.
Asus sports a much heftier $1,250 sticker. Move the frame of reference beyond its
Both share very similar core specifications Asus nemesis, and it’s down to personal $899, www.benq.com
and form factor: 32 inches of precision IPS preference. On the one hand, it blows away
panel, and the 3840x2160 pixel grid that all the larger screens in terms of crispness,
denotes full-on 4K action. Like the Asus, the detail, and accuracy. There’s no substitute
BenQ offers 10-bit per channel color, too. for more pixels per inch. On the other, SPECIFICATIONS
The PD3200U also cuts a similar dash it’s not gaming-centric. There’s no high
on the desktop. It aims for a sober suit refresh rate, no frame synching, no HDR Panel Size 32-inch
that majors on quality and functionality, or mega-bright backlight, or incredible Native Resolution 3840x2160
including a fully adjustable stand that contrast ratios. Its pixel response is merely
Pixels Per Inch 127
supports rotation to portrait. That said, it adequate, too. And at 32 inches, it’s not
doesn’t have quite as pleasingly slim a bezel going to fill in as a home cinema screen. Panel Type IPS
as the Asus. From there, you begin to see However, most of those complaints are
Max Refresh 60Hz
where BenQ achieves some cost savings. largely beside the point. This isn’t a gaming
The PD3200U delivers 100 percent of the monitor or a home cinema screen, even if Response 4ms
smaller sRGB color space, rather than the it can turn its hand to those tasks. Instead, 1x HDMI,
more fulsome Adobe RGB gamut the Asus it’s a conventional PC monitor that majors Display Inputs 1x DisplayPort,
notches up. Similarly, where the Asus is on productivity, and delivers an upscale 1x Mini DisplayPort
fully Rec. 2020 compliant, the BenQ only experience for a reasonable price. The Asus Connectivity USB, 3.5mm audio
musters the FullHD Rec. 720 color space. PA329Q may be the superior monitor, but
VESA Mount 100 x 100mm
In practice, however, the BenQ doesn’t it’s also more expensive. If you can’t quite
feel like you make much of a trade-off. It stretch to the Asus, you’ll be grateful BenQ Warranty Three years
really is beautiful, with subtle yet vibrant is offering this more affordable option.

EPSON
POWERLITE 5040UB
Kinda 4K. Definitely a projector
WANT A REGULAR 4K monitor? Not a up and to the right by half a pixel, and fire
8
VERDICT
Epson PowerLite 5040UB
problem. You can have one for 300 bucks. again. Rinse and repeat, except so fast the
Hell, you can get a 40-inch 4K TV for eye can’t see the oscillations, and add clever CINEMATIC Far more crisp and
even less than that. Prices really have image processing to smooth everything out. detailed than a 1080p beamer;
plummeted. But projectors? Not so much. The result isn’t true 4K. The math works super all-round image quality.
Projectors always have been a niche out to around four million pixels, where
IDIOSYNCRATIC Not actually true 4K; still
market. Volumes are lower, prices higher, 1080p is two million, and 4K is eight million.
pretty pricey; physically it’s a big beast.
innovation not as brisk. It also doesn’t help But from your video card’s perspective, the
that one of the major projector technologies, projector accepts a 4K input. But what about $2,999, www.epson.com
Texas Instruments’ DLP, remains locked your eyes? Without question, it’s a huge leap
down under patent protection. The likes over standard HD. The crispness and detail
of Intel flirted with shaking things up with is on a whole new level. If you’d never seen
LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon), then a true 4K projector, you’d probably believe
decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. this was the real 4K deal. Even if you had, SPECIFICATIONS
Anyway, just as 1080p FullHD was slow you’d probably be fooled. The step up to true
to make the move into the projector market, 4K isn’t as dramatic as the step from FullHD Projector Type Triple-LCD
so it is with 4K or UHD. But it is happening. to this pixel-shift option. 1920x1080
Resolution
There’s been a number of mega-money 4K It’s a very nice projector in general terms, with 4K pixel shift
projectors available for a while, but now too. LCD technology has come a long way, Brightness 2,500 lumens
the first consumer models are appearing. and the contrast and colors are superb. The
Contrast 1,000,000:1 (dynamic)
They’re not cheap—the Epson PowerLite full-feature optics are remote-controlled,
5040UB rocks the scales at $2,999, but which makes the 5040UB a cinch to set up, 120Hz (1080p),
Refresh
60Hz (4K)
it’s not some $20,000 monster aimed at even when installed on a ceiling mount or
professional installations. similar. It’s virtually silent in operation, Throw Ratio Range 1.35–2.84
There is a catch: It’s not true 4K. In fact, too. On the other hand, it’s physically a big Color Processing 10-bit
it’s a triple-LCD projector, with a native ol’ box, and the usual projector limitations
3D support, lens shift
resolution of 1920x1080, and what Epson apply. You can’t just stick it in any old room Other with remote control
calls “4K enhancement.” The details involve and use it any old time. Ambient lighting and memory function
what’s known as “pixel shift.” The idea is conditions need to be managed. But for Two years
simple: First, project the native 1920x1080 gaming and video on a truly cinematic scale, Warranty
(lamp 90 days)
grid, then use the optics to shift the grid nothing else here comes close.

LG
38UC99
Superwide? Make ours extra large...
AS YOU PLAN A GROUP TEST, and the slots fill available, it’s questionable how relevant
7
VERDICT
LG 38UC99
up, there’s usually one entrant that stands that all is. Instead, the 38UC99 seems to
out. One that feels like a winner in the major on what you might call traditional OSCAR WINNER Generous
making. This time, it’s LG’s new 38UC99. monitor qualities. Plenty of pixels. A high- proportions; plenty of pixels;
As a 21:9 aspect ratio panel, that’s quality panel. High-fidelity color support. A nicely calibrated; decent pixel pitch.
surprising. After all, superwide screens nice, enveloping panel curve. That kind of
RAZZIE NOMINEE Dull image quality;
are an acquired taste. But with the 38UC99, thing. On paper, it’s our kind of screen.
very expensive; short on frills and cutting-
LG has hammered the main shortcoming of As soon as you fire it up, however, it’s
edge features.
such screens—limited vertical resolution obvious something is missing—a sense
and desktop space—into the stands. of pizzazz. For sure, the pixel pitch is nice $1,499, www.lg.com
The first 29-inch 21:9 LCD monitors and crisp, albeit not as sharp as a 32-inch
managed just 1,080 vertical pixels. Then a 4K panel. For the most part, it’s nicely
new 34-inch generation arrived, and upped calibrated out of the box, too. The black
the ante to 1,440 vertical pixels. Good and white scales show loads of detail, and
SPECIFICATIONS
enough for most, but not quite enough for gradients are flawless. Additional points
everyone. Now LG has ramped the 21:9 should also be awarded for a proper Panel Size 37.5-inch
category up to 38 inches and 1,600 vertical execution of FreeSync that isn’t spoiled by
pixels. That’s gotta be enough, surely? nasty ghosting when enabled. Native Resolution 3840x1600
The rest of the specs look promising, But there’s no getting away from it. Pixels Per Inch 111
too. The overall pixel grid is 3840x1600, so Compared to the likes of, say, the Asus
Panel Type IPS
there’s oodles of elbow room. The panel PA329Q, and its quantum dot-enhanced
tech is IPS, and there’s 10-bit color support colors, the 38UC99 looks dull. It even looks Max Refresh 75Hz
enabling 99 percent of the sRGB color space. tepid next to some of the cheaper panels
Response 5ms
LG has also added a few extras in the form here. The outright contrast and black levels
1x HDMI,
of 75Hz refresh when used in concert with are underwhelming, and the anti-glare Display Inputs
1x DisplayPort
FreeSync adaptive frame rate technology. coating suffers from a little sparkle. All of
That still means there’s a number of which means it looks great on paper, and Connectivity USB
cutting-edge features missing. You don’t comes very nicely calibrated, but lacks VESA Mount 100 x 100mm
get really high refresh rates, HDR support, the kind of visual fizz you’ve every right to
Warranty One year
a backlight with quantum dots, or any of that expect at this price. It’s a certainly good
jazz. Of course, with very little HDR content monitor, but it’s definitely not a great one.

PHILIPS
BRILLIANCE BDM3490UC
Ahead of the curve or overpriced?
FORGIVE US A PHILOSOPHICAL interlude. If HDR, no quantum dots, no high refresh, no
7
VERDICT
Philips Brilliance BDM3490UC
you need to double-check both the product exotic color space support.
itself and its spec sheet to confirm the All that would be fine were it not for one POLE POSITION Nice IPS panel;
presence of a given technology or feature, other detail: It costs around $1,100. That’s high-quality chassis; solid all-
does that feature have any value? mega money given the overall spec, and round image quality.
Adaptive frame sync had us pondering means the Philips is not only nearly double
ENGINE FAILURE Staggeringly expensive;
along those lines. It’s one of those the money of the similar AOC monitor, but
limited feature set; panel curve is arguably
technologies where it isn’t obvious whether more expensive than the 100Hz, ultra-
too subtle.
it’s working correctly. But we’ve never felt curved, quantum dot Samsung CF791.
like that about curved LCD screens. They Question is, can the Philips somehow make $1,100, www.philips.com
split opinion, sure, but not being able to see up for its implausibly high price?
the difference hasn’t been an issue. In a word, no. Don’t get us wrong, this
Until the Philips Brilliance BDM349OUC, is a very nice screen. It has the measure
that is. That’s surprising, because it has of LG’s 38UC99 for colors, pop, and punch,
SPECIFICATIONS
the same 3800R curvature as several other for instance. There are no nasties from the
34-inch displays. The explanation very factory calibration, either. The white and Panel Size 34-inch
likely comes down to context. Both of the black scales look good, and the gradients
Samsung displays in this group test are so are nice and smooth. Ditto the anti-glare Native Resolution 3440x1440
curvy by comparison, the Philips looks flat. coating. The pixel response is decent for an Pixels Per Inch 110
The mild curve makes for moderate impact IPS display, and Philips includes an option in
Panel Type IPS
at most. That either makes it a good choice the OSD to tweak the overdrive levels, and
if you’re unsure of the merits of curved thus choose between speed and accuracy. Max Refresh 60Hz
panels, or a monitor that doesn’t fully The chassis has an intriguingly spacey
Response 5ms
deliver on the curved-screen proposition. design, and feels well put together, even if
3x HDMI,
Curvature aside, however, how does the the tilt-only stand is pathetic at this price. Display Inputs
1x DisplayPort
BDM349OUC shape up? On paper, it all looks All told, it’s a nice display. Shave $400 or
pretty familiar. The 3440x1440 pixel grid is $500 off the price, and it would be easy to Connectivity USB, 3.5mm audio
standard for a 21:9 and 34-inch screen, as recommend. We wouldn’t be surprised to VESA Mount No
is the IPS panel technology. Elsewhere, the see it experience a major price drop. Until
Warranty Three years
feature set is pretty thin when it comes to that happens, it’s impossible to recommend
image quality enhancements. There’s no when there are better screens for less cash.

SAMSUNG
CF791
Samsung gets a serious curve on
how quickly the 34-inch, Brilliance. Whether that’s a good thing or
8
IT’S REMARKABLE VERDICT
Samsung CF791
21:9 aspect segment has become almost not is subjective. Let’s just say if you’re not
a staple in the higher echelons of the PC sure about curves, steer clear of the CF791. BEAUTIFUL Gorgeous colors;
monitor market. Even with the addition of a Curvature aside, this is a great-looking epic, cinematic LCD panel; nice
curved panel, you’re still not talking about panel. It doesn’t immediately blow your gaming extras.
anything exotic. Just a few years ago, a 34- socks off like an HDR UHDTV playing high
BENT Extreme curve not to all tastes;
inch panel with such superwide proportions dynamic range content. But it’s more
ditto 21:9 aspect; pretty pricey for a
would have seemed almost preposterous. vibrant than a non-quantum dot monitor.
34-inch panel.
Still, even by the standards of such The default calibration is a bit warm
screens, the Samsung CF791 is special. for our liking, pushing flesh tones toward $999, www.samsung.com
For starters, it boasts an LED backlight pink. There’s a big gap between the color
enhanced with quantum dot technology. temperature presets, too, so you need to do
The basics of quantum dot involve materials a full calibration to dial that out. But that’s
that absorb certain frequencies of light, typical given the panel tech is VA, rather
SPECIFICATIONS
convert them, and re-emit. The “quantum” than IPS. Elsewhere, it’s well set up out of
bit is because the semiconductor crystal the box, with a good balance between detail Panel Size 34-inch
on which it’s based leverages a nanoscale in whites and black, and smooth gradients.
effect known as quantum confinement, Objective concerns aside, the subjective Native Resolution 3440x1440
which involves electron holes, two- experience rendering 4K video is stunning, Pixels Per Inch 110
dimensional potential wells, and the exciton even if the 3440x1440 native resolution is
Panel Type VA
Bohr radius. But you knew that, obviously. sub-4K fidelity. With that 100Hz refresh
Basically, it takes suboptimal light output and adaptive sync support, plus better pixel Max Refresh 100Hz
from an LED backlight, and buffs it up to response than just about any VA panel we’ve Response 4ms
enable increased color vibrancy and fidelity. seen, this is one heck of a gaming panel, too.
2x HDMI,
The CF791 also sports a couple of gaming- And it’s a good-looking hunk of consumer Display Inputs
1x DisplayPort
friendly features: 100Hz refresh and AMD electronics, thanks to Samsung’s typically
Connectivity USB, 3.5mm audio
FreeSync adaptive refresh support. snazzy styling. With that hefty curvature
Finally, it’s curved. Not just any old and the extreme 21:9 aspect, it’s an acquired VESA Mount No
curved, but 1500R curved. That means taste rather than a sure-fire hit, but if you’re
Warranty Three years
the curve’s radius is a yard and a half or looking for a 34-inch curved screen, the
so—over twice as curved as the Philips CF791 should be near the top of your list.

SAMSUNG
UN55KS9500
If bigger is better, we’ve found a winner
WORD TO THE WISE: Unless you are words, it leaps all the hurdles that TVs used
8
VERDICT
Samsung SUHD 9 Series
seriously considering a large UHDTV like to stumble over when used as a PC monitor.
the Samsung 9 Series as some kind of PC That’s thanks in part to the fact that LIFE-ENHANCING Spectacular
monitor, don’t try one just for fun. It will ruin this 9 Series Samsung is a member of the proportions; works
you for conventional PC monitors. It makes brave new army of HDR TVs. With support surprisingly well as a monitor; latest
almost every other monitor seem tiny. for the HDR 1000 standard come several HDR capabilities.
Take the LG 38UC99. It’s a 38-inch beast, features that help it perform in the exacting
MID-LIFE CRISIS Not exactly the last word
with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and by any sane environment of a PC, including expanded
in accuracy or practicality; fat pixel pitch
metric, it’s a big PC monitor. But we set it up color space, with 10-bit per channel
even with 4K res.
after assessing this Samsung monster, and capability, and an LED backlight augmented
it looked pitiful. At 55 inches, this Samsung by local dimming and quantum dot tech. $1,698, www.samsung.com
9 Series model is nothing special by UHDTV The result is stunning, but has its
standards (they go up to 78 inches), but set limitations. As a gaming monitor, it is
up as a PC monitor at PC monitor viewing staggering. The huge panel with plenty of
SPECIFICATIONS
distances, it dominates your field of view, curve makes for an incredibly immersive
and recalibrates your definition of big. experience. It is the most impressive Panel Size 55-inch
However, don’t go thinking this screen is gaming display we’ve experienced, though
a one-trick pony. This isn’t like the bad old the lack of both 120Hz-plus refresh support Native Resolution 3840x2160
days of large HDTVs, where size was all you and adaptive frame synching means it can’t Pixels Per Inch 80
got, and everything else—color accuracy, check every gaming box.
Panel Type VA
response, pixel pitch—sucked. Thanks to It’s stellar for 4K video content, too. But as
that 4K 3840x2160 grid, the pixel pitch is a conventional PC monitor for web browsing Max Refresh 60Hz
reasonable, if not awe-inspiring. Just as or productivity work, it’s less convincing.
Response Not quoted
impressive is the out-of-the box calibration While the pixel pitch is tolerable, fonts aren’t
and ease of use. Hooked up to a modern nearly as crisp as a 32-inch 4K monitor. And Display Inputs 4x HDMI
graphics card with HDMI 2.0 support, in you don’t actually get any additional screen 3x USB,
Connectivity
this case an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, this real estate. The practicality of such a huge optical audio-out
thing just works. What’s more, both black screen is questionable to say the least, too. VESA Mount 400 x 400mm
and white scales show plenty of detail, and And while the quantum dot-powered panel
Warranty One year
gradient rendering is smooth. There’s little, packs an incredible punch, it’s hardly the
if any, noticeable input lag, either. In other last word in accuracy.

And the winner is...

ASUS PROART PA329Q
FIRST, A FEW WORDS ON HDR. It’s undoubtedly have a huge amount to offer, though. The like any projector, it has niche, albeit highly
the screen technology du jour. But it’s also AOC U3477PQU is the easy pick as the cinematic, appeal.
of marginal benefit on the PC—currently. value proposition. For around $600, you That just leaves us with our podium-
The hardware is ready. You can buy an get a great 34-inch superwide IPS panel, position competitors, all three of which are
HDR screen, and the latest graphics cards wrapped in a slick chassis. Sure, it isn’t superb displays. The Samsung CF791 is a
from Nvidia and AMD are ready to roll. exactly loaded with extras, but it’s a large fabulous multimedia display. Whether it’s
The problem is the content. There almost heap of screen for the money. games, video, or productivity, it’s a delight
isn’t any. As for the Samsung 9 Series SUHDTV, in to use and genuinely innovative, with its
It’s a particular problem on the PC many ways, it’s the most stunning display quantum dot tech and extreme curve.
at the moment. Service providers who that we have ever hooked up to a PC. The BenQ PD3200U, on the other hand, is
are currently streaming in HDR, such as Thanks to its HDR-capable feature set, 4K the perfect foil for the CF791. It delivers
Amazon Prime, are yet to support the PC. resolution, and epic panel size, it makes for precision and accuracy in a straightforward
Meanwhile, true HDR PC games—rather a simply stellar gaming experience, even package, and at a competitive price.
than games that render in HDR internally, without frame synching or high refresh But the overall honors have to go to the
but then knock the output back to SDR— support. It’s not badly calibrated for use as a Asus ProArt PA329Q. It’s a serious piece
have yet to arrive. With that in mind, we PC monitor, either. However, its size is also of precision display engineering. It has a
would recommend viewing HDR more as an its downfall, both in terms of practicality, strong feature set for professional content
investment in the future, rather than a killer and the impact on pixel pitch. Epson’s creation, gorgeous high-DPI 4K image
feature today. The fact that few PC monitors PowerLite 5040UB, meanwhile, falls into quality, and plenty of future-proofing with
are currently HDR-compliant is therefore a category all of its own. As a vaguely the likes of quantum dot color enhancement.
no huge loss. affordable way to go beyond 1080p with a If you are serious about computing, it’s one
HDR or no, there are some fabulous projector, we highly recommend it. But just of the very best monitors money can buy.
screens on test this month. However, two
stand out as relative stinkers, namely the
Philips Brilliance BDM3490UC and the LG
38UC99. The Philips is undone purely by
pricing. It’s not a flawed product, it’s just
far too expensive. As for the LG, we had
The Asus ProArt PA329Q is a serious piece of
very high hopes. But its subdued, even dull, precision display engineering, future-proofed
image quality pulls the rug out from under
our enthusiasm. The remaining six screens with quantum dot color enhancement.

speed up your PC
Follow our tips for a

cleaner, healthier,
faster PC.

Give Windows a shot in the arm by
cleaning up and optimizing your PC
By Nick Peers
S
pring is in the air, so it’s the perfect can bring it back to those heady days of its tools that go further than Windows does.
time to take a virtual vacuum to your youth, when it performed with a noticeable Then we move on to tackle the problem of
computer. Every year, it’s the same zip. And this is where we come in. We’re duplicate files, helping you preserve just
old story: Despite your best intentions, going to reveal all the tips and tools you the essentials, and freeing up tens (or
you rapidly lose control of what goes on need to get your PC properly cleaned up hundreds) of gigabytes in the process.
to your PC, as programs are installed and raring to go. We’ll avoid snake-oil If you’re still not satisfied, we push the
and forgotten, while gigabytes of files— remedies, such as Registry cleaning, to boat out even further with our deep clean,
from documents to photos and videos— focus on techniques that actually make a revealing how to balance the competing
are copied multiple times to a myriad difference to your PC’s performance. demands of your PC’s resources, strip
locations, clogging up your hard drives. We’ve split the feature into four sections, back unnecessary services, and optimize
The result? A computer that’s slow to start, enabling you to take your cleaning as far older hard drives so they perform that bit
performs sluggishly, and is approaching as you wish. Don’t want to dig too deep? quicker. The end result is a revitalized PC,
the limits of your storage capacity. Our light clean focuses on quick and easy one that more closely resembles the lean,
The changing of the seasons brings the ways to clean out space using only those mean speed machine you bought, ready
whiff of new life, and again, you resolve to tools provided by Windows itself. Feeling and better able to face the challenges
clean out your PC, and see whether you a bit braver? We introduce a couple of you’ll throw at it over the next 12 months.

speed up your PC
A LIGHT SPRING CLEAN

Discover how much space and resources you can
reclaim armed with only Windows 10’s tools
A
light spring clean can free up when you next restart, Windows performs you no longer need or use. To do this,
drive space and improve your PC’s a complete check of your hard drive, click “Start > Settings.” Select “System,”
performance without involving attempting to correct any errors it comes followed by “Apps & features.”
any hard work or even third-party tools. across. If it finds and fixes any, you may All installed apps and programs are
Everything we feature on these two pages is immediately get a speed boost. Now repeat listed alphabetically—you can, however,
done using Windows’ own built-in tools, so for any other drives you have attached—if sort by size (useful if you need to free up
without further ado, let’s get started. you get a warning about forcing a dismount, drive space) or installation date. Go through
First, check your hard drive is in good we suggest hitting N, then Y to run the check the list, clicking any programs you no
working order. The quickest way to force when you next reboot. Once your drives have longer need, and choosing “Uninstall” to
Windows 10 to perform a complete check been checked, it’s time to begin cleaning. remove them using the standard program
on your hard drive is to right-click the installer. Some uninstallers leave Registry
“Start” button, and choose “Command Remove Unwanted Apps entries and program files behind—for a
Prompt (Admin).” Type the following into the How many programs have you installed more thorough way to remove programs,
command prompt window, then hit Enter: on your PC? How many do you still use? turn the page.
$ chkdisk /f /r c: Now is the perfect time to go through all
You’re told the drive can’t be locked the desktop programs and Microsoft Store Perform a Disk Clean
(because it’s in use), so press Y, then apps you have installed, cleaning out those Open File Explorer, and select “This PC”
on the left to reveal a list of all your hard
drives. Right-click your C drive (or the
drive Windows is installed on), and choose
“Properties,” then click the ‘“Disk Clean-
up” button. The step-by-step guide reveals
how the tool works—basically, it enables
you to quickly clear up all kinds of detritus,
from the contents of various temporary
folders to redundant system error logs, and
even older System Restore points. You can
run Disk Cleanup across other drives, too,
but it’s usually most effective on the drive
Windows is installed on.
It’s worth taking a pause before simply
deleting everything that Windows suggests.
For example, if you’ve just upgraded to a
new version of Windows, you should find a
“Previous Windows installation(s)” entry,
offering tens of gigabytes of data ready
to free up—don’t select this until you’re
happy you won’t be rolling back to that
Manage Backups previous version (note that Windows
usually deletes these files after a set time
Hopefully, you’re making good use of File backups (to reduce drive consumption going anyway; typically 30 days).
History or Windows Backup to ensure your forward), plus set a time limit for how long Recently installed a new driver and not
critical files are kept safe and sound. Both backups are kept (“Until space is needed” sure whether it’s causing problems? Don’t
methods store multiple versions of your is safest, but you can specify your own
backups, giving you the option of rolling back time). Click “Clean up versions” to clear out
the changes with individual files should you space by choosing what backups to delete
wish to restore an earlier version. (anything from all but the most recent to
This protection comes with a price, those backups older than two years).
however—increased consumption of drive If you use the Windows Backup tool, select
space. If you’re feeling the squeeze, reclaim “Back up and Restore (Windows 7),” and
some breathing room by removing the oldest click “Manage space,” then “View backups”
backups. Right-click the “Start” button and to manually select which backups to
choose “Control Panel.” File History users remove. Remember that older backups may
should click “Save backup copies of your contain files you have subsequently deleted,
files with File History,” then click “Advanced so be sure you haven’t mislaid any critical Before embarking on your cleanup, make
settings.” You can change the frequency of old files before cleaning up. sure your drives are error-free.

touch “Device driver packages,” otherwise
you lose the “Roll back” option in Device
Manager. Finally, if you’re in the middle of
troubleshooting a problem using a tool
such as WhoCrashed (www.resplendence.
com), deleting the “System error memory
dump files” is not recommended until you’ve
finished fixing your problem. Long story
short: Make sure you read the description
of each setting before choosing whether
or not to delete it, and if in doubt, leave it
where it is for now.
Trim Startup Items

One of the biggest bottlenecks of PC
performance is the number of processes
and programs running in the background.
We look at more extreme ways of bringing
these under control later on in the feature,
but for now, the most effective way to give
your PC a shot in the arm is to review—and
clean out, if necessary—the programs that Windows 10’s uninstall tool covers both desktop programs and Microsoft Store apps.
are set to start with your PC.
The simplest way to do this is with the resources, and if you find enough items to outside your user folder, for instance—
help of Task Manager, so right-click the disable, could make a noticeable difference while removing others.
taskbar, and choose “Task Manager.” to the performance of your PC. To manage these settings, type
Click “More details,” if necessary, then Don’t recognize an entry? Right-click it, “indexing” into the “Search” box, and
switch to the “Startup” tab. You’ll see a and choose “Search online” to search the click “Change how Windows searches.”
list of programs set to load with Windows, web for the underlying file name. Disabled Click “Modify” to choose which folders get
complete with publisher, status (enabled entries can be restored later—right-click, indexed, by selecting or unselecting them,
at this point), and—crucially—startup choose “Enable”—but if you’d like to remove or click “Advanced,” where you can change
impact. This latter column helps you them completely, explore the program’s the index location (handy if you’d like to
quickly determine which are the biggest own settings or preferences for an option store it on another partition for retrieving
resource-hogging programs. to do so, and they should vanish from sight. after a Windows reinstall), or switch to the
Some programs are—by necessity—vital “File Types” tab to choose exactly which
to the well-being of your PC, while others More Cleanup Tweaks sort of files you want to include in your
may be required on a regular basis, such One way to improve performance is to index. This latter tip enables you to tune the
as OneDrive or your cloud sync provider. take control of the Windows search index. search index to only find specific document
Others, however, can be safely disabled, This database helps speed up searches on or image types, if those are the kinds of files
so they only run when you want them to. frequently accessed folders, by scanning you typically search for.
To do this, right-click the offending entry, them for content, and storing them in a If you’re left feeling dissatisfied by your
and choose “Disable.” It’ll shave seconds database. Sometimes, you’ll want to add light spring clean, turn the page to dig
off your startup, free up memory and other folders to this index—data folders stored deeper and really start to clear the clutter.
FREE UP DRIVE SPACE WITH DISK CLEANUP
1. CHOOSE FULL SCAN 2. REVIEW SCAN ITEMS 3. MORE ITEMS TO CLEAN

The first time you run Disk Cleanup, you’re You should find Windows has found lots If you have System Restore enabled, you
prompted to wait while it analyzes selected more free space it can clear. Review each can launch Disk Cleanup again and click
parts of your system. When the scan item by highlighting it for a description. “Clean up system files” for a second time.
completes, you’re shown an amount of disk You can select or unselect boxes to add or Switch to the “More Options” tab, and
space you can gain. For a more thorough remove items to be cleaned—you should quickly wipe all but the most recent Restore
scan, click the “Clean up system files” see the space gained figure adjust. Ready points by clicking the relevant “Clean up”
button, and wait while the scan repeats. to clean? Click “OK > Delete Files.” button after reading the warnings.

speed up your PC
A MEDIUM SPRING
CLEAN FOR YOUR PC
Need to free up more resources? With third-party tools,
you can give Windows a more thorough clean
D
issatisfied with the results of spring up space without deleting those files you
cleaning with Windows’ own tools? didn’t know you needed.
Time to go further. In this section, Outside of its primary cleaning element,
we’ll perform a deeper clean on areas CCleaner offers a number of other tools.
already covered, with the help of free third- Its Registry cleaner is potentially the most
party tools, which can also reach areas not dangerous, so skip that. Instead, select
touched by Windows. As always, caution “Tools,” where you’ll find seven cleanup
should be your keyword. While cleaning out tools. The Uninstall section works in the
gigabytes of data is satisfying, it can lose same way as Windows’ Apps & Features
its allure if you’ve been hasty and discover tool, but is outclassed by IObit Uninstaller.
useful shortcuts, such as the Jump lists of Remove unwanted browser add-ons to Startup provides you with a more
programs, have been removed. boost security, privacy, and performance. comprehensive list of programs and items
that launch with Windows. This is split into
Remove Apps Thoroughly focuses on desktop programs only, so three tabs. “Windows” contains a list of
Standard program uninstallers tend to select “Windows Apps” to get a list of apps programs, organized by location (Registry
be conservative, leaving lots of detritus you’ve installed through the Microsoft or startup folder). It’s the same list as in
behind. This can soon mount up, and while Store, enabling you to remove those, too. Task Manager, with one crucial difference:
you could employ the services of a Registry Select “Toolbars & Plug-ins” to quickly you can permanently delete entries (with
cleaner, the best time to clean up after a review all the browser add-ons you have care), as opposed to just disabling them.
program is when you remove it. installed (all popular variants—IE, Chrome, Switch to “Scheduled Tasks” to review
Our tool of choice for cleaning out old Firefox, Opera, and Edge—are supported), what tasks Windows and other programs
programs is IObit Uninstaller (www.iobit. plus remove those you don’t want, need, or have set up—you’ll find items such as
com/en/advanceduninstaller.php), which recognize. It’s a quick and effective way to backup tasks, program update tasks,
offers a “powerful scan” feature after a trim down your browser’s resource usage. and so on here. Again, you can disable or
program’s standard uninstaller finishes. delete items. Select “Advanced” mode, and
This roots out leftover files and Registry Clean More Settings various Windows-related tasks are shown.
entries, which you review manually, then One of the best free cleanup tools is These should be left alone, so leave the box
decide whether or not to keep. CCleaner (www.piriform.com). The app unselected after reviewing it.
During installation, look out for prompts boasts a number of tools to help you clean One final tab—“Context Menu”—is worth
to install Advanced SystemCare Free—it’s out the detritus and recover gigabytes of exploring. Frustrated at how programs
from IObit, so safe, but not needed for this files. Its main cleaning component searches clutter up the menus that appear when you
feature. Once done, Uninstaller launches more than just basic Windows settings, right-click items in File Explorer? You’ll find
and you’ll see a list of desktop programs. A including browser settings (a source of these items here, referencing “Directory”
number of options appear on the left, from hundreds of megabytes of potential waste), (when you right-click a folder), “Drive,”
“All Programs” to “Large Programs” and plus popular programs, and apps. It’s and “File” (when you right-click a specific
“Infrequently Used.” The latter is good for tempting to click “Analyze,” then clean out file type—sadly, the actual file isn’t listed).
weeding out programs you’re not using. everything it recommends, but you’ll end up Disable or delete those you don’t want—
You’ll see a bin button appear on the right losing potentially useful settings. The step- if they keep coming back, examine the
of each entry—click it, and the program in by-step guide reveals how to use it to free program’s settings to see if you can disable
question is uninstalled. IObit Uninstaller them from there, or use its intransigence
offers to take a System Restore point as an excuse to remove the app completely.
before uninstalling, which we recommend
for safety purposes. It then invokes the More Tweaks
program’s own uninstaller—ignore The “Browser Plugins” tab works in a
prompts to reboot now—and performs its similar way to IObit Uninstaller’s “Toolbars
own powerful scan. This roots out potential & Plugins” section—it’s a matter of
leftovers in the form of files and Registry personal preference as to which one you
entries—you review the list, decide what to use. Skip the Disk Analyzer and Duplicate
remove, then reboot if necessary. Finder tools for now—we’ll look at these
To remove programs in batches, select (and more powerful alternatives) later on.
each program you want to get rid of, then Use CCleaner to strip back your context System Restore lets you view all the
click “Uninstall.” The “Programs” list menus to make them more manageable. Restore points on your PC. Each one is

clearly labeled, and you can remove them
individually or in groups (hold Ctrl as you
click each one to select it) without affecting
others. The most recent Restore point is
always grayed out for safety reasons.
The final tool, Driver Wiper, makes it
possible to wipe free space or (with the
usual precautions) an entire drive securely.
Instead of marking deleted files as space
available for writing over, making them
vulnerable to data recovery tools, you can
securely wipe the space by overwriting it.
This is slow, and should only be done
when you have sensitive data to wipe. You
can also wipe free space and mark non-
deleted files and folders for secure removal
from CCleaner’s main Cleaner component—
scroll to the bottom of the “Windows” tab,
and select each box (“Custom Files and
Folders” refers to any files or folders you
specify under “Options > Include”). If you’d
like CCleaner to securely wipe all files from
its Cleaner tool, go to “Options > Settings,”
and select “Secure file deletion (Slower).” IObit Uninstaller provides you with a powerful tool for removing extra leftover elements.
CLEAN OUT YOUR SYSTEM WITH CCLEANER
1. CHOOSE WHAT TO SCAN 2. REVIEW ANALYSIS 3. CONTINUE CHECKING

CCleaner’s Cleaner component comes with CCleaner performs a limited scan on the Scroll down to view all Windows settings—
some settings pre-selected. It’s a good idea chosen setting. To view exactly what it’s if in doubt, perform an analysis on the
to review these thoroughly, unselecting found, double-click the summary in the specific setting, or unselect it to exclude it
those you don’t want to lose, and selecting right-hand pane (such as “Microsoft Edge— from the full scan. When done, switch to the
the settings you’d like to clean. Unsure Download History”), and a list of all files “Applications” tab to see which programs
what files a particular setting might delete? is shown. Right-click files to exclude them are supported. Scan these in the same way,
Right-click it and choose “Analyze….” from future scans or open the parent folder. unselecting those you wish to leave alone.
4. ANALYZE AND CLEAN 5. CLEAN UP YOUR PC 6. MANAGE EXCLUSIONS

Once you’re ready, click “Analyze” and Ready? Click “Run Cleaner.” A warning Click “Options,” and select “Exclude” to
wait while CCleaner performs a complete dialog pops up—this is your last chance to review what items are excluded from your
scan. When it’s complete, a summary is back out (files are deleted, not sent to the scans. You can remove files you’ve placed
shown, listing all the components you’ve Recycle Bin). If you’re happy to proceed, here (Ctrl-click those files to select them,
selected, complete with how much space click “OK,” and watch as CCleaner clears then click “Remove”), or add files, folders,
you might save. As before, review individual up gigabytes of hard drive space to give you Registry keys (not relevant here), and file
components by double-clicking them. some much-needed breathing space. types to the list by clicking “Add.”

speed up your PC
MAKE YOUR HARD

DRIVE MORE
MANAGEABLE
Discover how to bring order to your chaotic hard drive
Y
our PC is hopefully noticeably scanning. If necessary, minimize the scan
zippier, but there’s still room for window while you work on other tasks.
improvement. Before we tackle You can review the results on the
a really deep spring clean, let’s divert “Duplicate Files” tab (“Duplicate Folders” is
our attention for a moment to hard drive restricted to Pro users only)—they’re listed
management. Unless you’re the most in no particular order. Focus on the largest
organized person in the world, it’s likely files by clicking the “Size” column header
your filing system is a little haphazard. And twice. You can now go through the list,
if you’ve got multiple hard drives, it’s likely manually selecting the duplicates you wish
you have multiple copies of files, too. to remove, or you can use the “Selection
First, consult the box below for general The scanning process can take some Assistant” buttons to speed things up.
advice on what to look for when rooting out time—hours, in fact. Patience is a virtue. If you have a single folder or location
and removing duplicates—this could save where your original files sit, you can specify
you from potentially deleting the wrong file music—or files to include or exclude, plus that with “Select by Location,” which tells
or files when you come to clean up. limit your search to files of a certain size Duplicate Cleaner to target files in other
and date. For a system-wide sweep, leave folders for deletion. Once done, you can
Find Duplicates Quickly the defaults as they are, and switch to the select all other files by clicking the magic
CCleaner comes with a built-in file duplicate ‘Scan Location” tab. wand button, and choosing “Mark > Select
finder, but it’s not very sophisticated. It Next, elect where to search using the by group > All but one file in each group.”
matches purely on file name, size, and tools provided—whether it’s entire drives Duplicate Cleaner offers many matching
date last modified. We want something or specific folders. If you want to exclude tools to try to automate the selection
more thorough, so download the free a specific location, add it in the usual way, process, but you may find it’s easier,
version of Duplicate Cleaner (www. then right-click it, and choose “Exclude quicker, and safer to go through the list
digitalvolcano.co.uk/duplicatecleaner.html), Selected Path(s).” When you’re ready, click by hand, weeding out unwanted files, and
which has all the functionality you need. the “Scan Now” button, and wait while periodically clicking “File Removal.” From
First, choose what to search for—the Duplicate Cleaner does its work—it’s not a here, you can choose whether to delete the
default options search files by content quick process, so be prepared to leave your file completely, or send it to the Recycle Bin.
rather than name, size, or date. You can also PC on for several hours or even overnight, The program can be quite slow at times,
set filters—such as documents, pictures, or depending on the size of the folders you’re and appear non-responsive. The trick is to
be patient, and it soon comes back to life.
If there’s a long list of files to clean, you
What to Look for space on your hard drive? It’s not uncommon
to take five or more shots to ensure you
may want to take a break. Simply close the
program—when you next launch Duplicate
When Cleaning get one usable one, but what about the Cleaner, your results are ready and waiting
Duplicates rest? You only want to keep the best copy,
but manually trawling through all your
for you to continue processing.
Backups of critical files are—of course— photographs can be a daunting task. Panic Manage Your Photos
important, so any file cleaning needs to bear not—we’ll reveal a tool that makes this job When it comes to managing your photos,
this in mind. Also, you may have renamed a that bit simpler. you need a tool that can search for similar-
file without changing its content, so a good The end result should be this: You have looking images, as well as identical
duplicate finder utility should not simply one master copy of your files, plus as many matches. You’ll have to upgrade to the
match files by their names (which could backups as you need. These could be stored Pro version of Duplicate Cleaner for that
be disastrous if two completely separate as an exact backup copy in one backup functionality, so our favorite alternative
files with the same name become linked folder (which you’ll need to identify to make is the free—and open-source—AntiDupl
together), but also by the file’s properties, sure it’s ignored by the duplicate file finder), (http://antidupl.sourceforge.net/english/
too, from its size to the date it was last or you might have them backed up using a index.html). Download the latest version,
modified—that’s especially important with tool such as Windows’ own File History, in and double-click the .exe file to extract the
digital photos that have been downloaded which case, the backup won’t be touched program folder. Open this, and double-click
from different cloud providers, each one by your file weeding. All other copies—or “AntiDupl.NET.exe” to get started. The step-
naming them differently. And what about slight variations—then become candidates by-step guide reveals the basic procedure
the legions of digital photos cluttering up for removal. you need to follow, but as always, it pays to

move slowly through each photo in the list,
to be sure you’ve got the right match.
By default, AntiDupl assumes the
first folder you added to it is the “master”
folder—the one where the files are (by
default) left untouched. When the search
results appear, you’ll see a preview of
each photo on the left, complete with basic
information confirming the match. Next
to each photo, you’ll see three buttons:
taking the first photo, the top-most button
deletes both copies, while the second icon
overwrites the second copy with the first.
The next button removes the top photo.
Below the two arrow buttons, you’ll
see three similar buttons, with the first
one highlighted in red, indicating that the
second photo is set to be deleted by default.
Below this is a button allowing the second
copy to overwrite the top one, and the final
button—the hand signal—allows you to You can configure Duplicate Cleaner to refine its search for specific content only.
mark this match as a “mistake,” ensuring
it’s ignored in future.
Click a button, and the desired action
is performed now, and the next item is
selected, ready for you to act on. You’ll see
similar buttons appear under the menu
bar—if you select multiple entries together
using Ctrl-click, you can click these buttons
to perform the same action on all the
matches. There’s also a “Process selected
results automatically” button for applying
the default action to all of the results—not
something we recommend, unless you’re
feeling very brave or working on a small set
of results.
As you go down the list, you’ll come to
photos that aren’t exact matches, allowing
you to remove similar photos, too. All
deleted photos are sent to the Recycle Bin
by default, giving you a fail-safe in case you
make a mistake, so be sure to empty the Bin
once you’re happy to free up the space. Speed up selection by having Duplicate Cleaner select all but one file in each lot of duplicates.
STREAMLINE YOUR PHOTO COLLECTION
1. SET SEARCH PARAMETERS 2. REVIEW RESULTS 3. PERFORM CLEANUP

Launch AntiDupl, select “Search > Click the play button and wait while As you click a button for each result, it
Options,” and select “Search rotated and folders are searched and compared (click disappears from the list, and the next item
mirror image dupls” if you wish (click “Background Mode” to minimize to the comes into view. Work through the list—you
“OK”). Now select “Search > Paths.” Click System Tray). When the scan finishes, can select multiple items at once using
“Add Folder” to add a folder or drive to AntiDupl lists all found duplicates and Ctrl-click. If you close the program, you can
search—repeat for as many locations as similar files. See the main text for advice relaunch it later, and the results are saved,
you need. Click “OK.” on what settings to choose for each find. ready for you to resume working.

speed up your PC
PERFORM A HEAVY-
DUTY SPRING CLEAN
Still not satisfied with your cleaning efforts? Read on
for a collection of more advanced cleaning tips
A
t last, we reach the final curtain. or attached via USB. Windows’ built-in
If your PC still isn’t running as defrag tool should be adequate for most
smoothly as you’d like, let us take people’s needs, but if you want to push the
more drastic steps to bring it under control boat out further, download and install the
in this last section on cleaning, diving free version of Defraggler (www.piriform.
deep to squeeze out every last possible com/defraggler).
optimization we can find. We’ll also reveal Defraggler can differentiate between
some final tips for optimizing drive space, SSD and HDD drives, so it only defrags the
to ensure your hard drive doesn’t fill up too latter. Go to “Settings Options > Defrag
quickly going forward. tab,” and you can optimize your drive by
First, you’ll notice that we haven’t moving larger files to the end of the drive,
included Registry cleaning as part of this which can help boost performance that
feature. Registry cleaners would like you bit more. It’s also possible to analyze and
to think they can perform minor miracles defrag individual files via the “File list” tab,
when it comes to performance. They can’t. or by right-clicking the file in File Explorer— Tweak System Restore so it doesn’t take up
Even if they weren’t justifiably shunned handy for a quick boost when working with too much space on your hard drive.
for their ability to delete critical Registry specific large files.
entries along with genuinely redundant visiting Services Manager, waiting while
ones, the act of simply deleting Registry Manage Services the services list is populated, and clicking
entries isn’t enough in itself to speed things Startup programs aren’t the only things “Backup,” select “Automatic Tuneup,” and
up. The fact is, Windows 10 is more than launching with Windows, extending your answer a series of questions split into four
capable of managing and optimizing the boot time, and grabbing resources—system sections: “Hardware,” “Security,” “Internet
Registry, so leave it well alone. (and third-party) services do, too. You can & Network,” and “System Functions.” Click
manually review and optimize these via “OK,” and any unnecessary services are
Defrag Your Drive the Services management console (type promptly disabled, providing you with a
These days, more and more people have “services” into the “Search” box), but for a minor speed boost.
SSD drives, which don’t require defragging. quick and easy optimization, download the Gamers should also check out Gaming
Older platter-based (HDD) drives do, free version of PC Services Optimizer (www. Mode. This enables you to temporarily
however, and it’s likely that you have at least smartpcutilities.com/servicesoptimizer. disable services by switching Gaming Mode
one of these installed, either internally html). Once installed, launch the app. After on to maximize performance for gaming
or similar processor-intensive tasks, such
as HD video editing. Click “Preset,” and
Switch to Portable Apps experiment with “Minimum,” “Normal,” or
“Maximum” settings, or manually select
Why let programs take more resources than that, but if you have to reinstall Windows which settings to apply. Don’t be surprised
they need? Instead of installing a program from scratch, the portable apps (and your if Windows changes appearance—when
on your PC—letting it scatter itself all over settings) survive intact. You can even you switch off Gaming Mode, things should
your hard drive, and take up valuable space store portable apps on a USB thumb drive, return to normal.
in the Registry—look to see if a portable enabling you to port them—and your If things appear to go wrong after you’ve
alternative is available. Portable apps are preferences—to another computer. made your tweaks, simply click the “Rescue
programs that restrict themselves to a A great place to start when building Center” button, and select your backup to
single folder; everything they need to run a portable app collection is www. undo your changes.
can be found inside that folder, so not only portableapps.com. Install the PortableApps
do you keep them in check (delete the folder, Platform tool, which provides a custom Start Visualize Drive Space
remove the program—completely), you also menu for easy access to your portable apps, Running out of drive space, but unsure
get to choose where they reside. plus makes it easy to install and update what’s gobbling it all up? CCleaner offers
Portable apps are a particularly good apps from its own extensive collection. You a Disk Analyzer under “Tools” that can
choice when you have Windows installed can add other portable apps—including provide you with a quick summary for
on a small system drive—such as a 64GB those portable tools we’ve covered in this individual or collected drives, split into
or even 32GB SSD. You can store the apps feature—by extracting them into folders various categories (such as pictures,
on another drive, and leave enough space inside the main PortableApps folder, and documents, or everything). When the scan
for Windows to run smoothly. Not only choosing “Apps > Refresh App Icons.” completes, a pie chart divides everything

up, while the largest files are listed below,
complete with a checkbox enabling you to
select specific files to delete via the right-
click menu.
An alternative tool to try is SpaceSniffer
(w w w.uderzo.it/main_products/space_
sniffer). This portable tool (be sure to right-
click it, and choose “Run as administrator”
to access all files on the selected drive)
provides a visual view based on folder,
rather than type, giving you insights into
where all the space has gone, rather than
what type of content is gobbling it up. Click
a folder to peer inside it, or double-click to
go inside, and drill down deeper until you
locate what’s taking all your space.
More Cleaning Tips

Type “restore point” into the “Search”
box, and click “Create a restore point.”
Verify System Restore is switched on—if
not, select your system drive, and click
“Configure” to do so. When you come to
CCleaner and SpaceSniffer enable you to visualize your hard drive usage in different ways.
allocate space, consider limiting it to 5GB
or 5 percent, whichever is smallest. This
provides a good balance between giving you
usable Restore points and not swallowing
up too much drive space.
One obvious way to free up space without
deleting any files is to compress them. The
obvious solution would be to right-click
the file (or folder), and choose “Send to >
Compressed (zip) folder,” but while you
can easily browse their contents in File
Explorer, third-party apps can’t access the
content unless you unzip it. An alternative
is to use NTFS Compression instead,
which compresses a selected folder while
retaining its content. The folder is a little
slower to process, but is more convenient
to use. To do this, right-click the folder,
and choose “Properties.” Click “Advanced”
under “General,” and select “Compress
contents to save disk space.” Remember, it
only works on NTFS-formatted hard drives.
One handy time-saving function is Jump
Rein in Unruly Programs
Lists, which appear when you click “>” next The act of running multiple programs (never default options as they are, and the main
to an application in the Start menu, or right- mind numerous background processes) window opens to show you what’s running
click its taskbar entry. It pays to take the time is a delicate one, requiring a fine balance on your device, and how Process Lasso
to manage these thoroughly—click the pin to keep everything running smoothly. It is balancing it. Its ProBalanced tool is up
icon next to an entry to pin it permanently to doesn’t always work, which is why your PC and running from the start, ensuring no
the top of the list, or right-click a redundant may sometimes seemingly grind to a halt or process can overwhelm the system with
entry and choose “Remove from this list” to act sluggishly for a few minutes. its demands. A summary tells you how
get rid of it. You can quickly clear all Jump If you’re running Windows 10 on an older it’s working, and the log reveals which
List entries using CCleaner (look in the PC or low-powered tablet or laptop device, processes have been neutered when their
“Windows Explorer” section of the cleaner). you may find it frequently sticks, due to the demands get too high (click “Insights” for a
Finally, if you want to take full control of competing demands of different processes. handy summary).
the startup procedure, download and run One solution is to scale back what you do— You can also tweak things further: Open
Autoruns (https://bit.ly/autoruns). Switch to keep open programs to a minimum, and the “Main” menu, and choose “SmartTrim”
the “Logon” tab, and you’ll find significantly trim startup back, too. to free up physical RAM when it’s safe to
more startup entries than those provided If this doesn’t help, then downloading do so. Select “IdleSaver” if you’d like to cut
by Task Manager or CCleaner. Unselect an and installing the Free version of Process energy usage, and choose “Gaming mode”
entry to disable it, or right-click it for more Lasso (https://bitsum.com/processlasso) for those times when you want to play games
options, including deleting it and checking it will, and it can even help on more powerful or perform other CPU-intensive tasks, such
for possible malware. setups as well. When prompted, leave the as ripping or encoding HD video.

SUBSCRIBE TO
THE GO-TO RESOURCE FOR PC ENTHUSIASTS…
CHOOSE YOUR PERFECT PACKAGE
1 2
THE DIGITAL EDITION THE PRINT EDITION
ONLY $9.00 ONLY $24.00
EVERY YEAR EVERY YEAR
Instant digital access on your Every issue delivered to your door
iPad, iPhone, and Android device. for a fraction of the store price.
3
COMPLETE PRINT
& DIGITAL BUNDLE
ONLY $28.00
EVERY YEAR
Get the print edition of
Maximum PC delivered direct
to your door, and instant
access on your iPad, iPhone,
or Android device.
On iOS &
Android!
THE EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE…

http://bit.ly/max-subs
Or call 844-779-2822 (toll-free)
TERMS AND CONDITIONS Prices and savings quoted are compared to buying full-priced US print and digital issues. You will
receive 13 issues in a year. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Your
subscription is for the minimum term specified, and will expire at the end of the current term. Payment is non-refundable after
the 14-day cancelation period, unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your statutory rights are not affected. Prices correct
at time of print and subject to change. Call center opening hours are Monday to Friday 8am–7pm, and Saturday 10am–2pm EDT.
For full terms and conditions, please visit http://bit.ly/magtandc. Offer ends: April 4, 2017.
recover your data
RECOVER
YOUR DATA
Nothing is lost until you’ve looked for it,
says Alex Cox
IMAGINE WITH US: The worst has set you back thousands of dollars, if it
happened. Everything you held dear works at all—or completely out of luck.
is gone. You ignored the clicking of the If you’re not just imagining things,
hard drive, those error messages, that and everything does appear to have
suspicious-looking file for too long. gone, stop using your PC immediately,
You clicked the thing you shouldn’t have and read on. And if everything seems
clicked. You emptied the Recycle Bin out fine, read on anyway. You might learn a
of habit after letting your kids near your few things that’ll save your bacon one
PC. And now? Now your photos are gone, day, and we’ll help you get your hands
your documents are dust, those precious on some tools that every home computer
family videos cast to the wind. Windows pro should have waiting in their back
has gasped its last breath. All is lost. pocket for the worst of times.
Except that isn’t necessarily the case. And don’t worry—we’ve not
Data has a habit of hanging around. And discounted the possibility that Windows
if you’re very lucky, and very careful, has simply collapsed under its own
you could—in this hypothetical scenario weight, rendering your precious data
—get all, or the vast majority, of your data comfortably stored, but otherwise
back. Note that we’re not going to be able inaccessible. By accessing your drive
to help you a huge amount in the case from another operating system entirely,
of massive hardware failure or physical you’ll be able to get all that stuff back,
damage, so if you’ve inadvertently sent too. And hey, if you fancy doing a bit of
120V to that SSD, or unwisely dunked digital forensics, but your drives are
your laptop in the bath, you’re either currently in a good state, why not delete
going to be on the hook for specialist a few old files from a USB stick and
clean room data recovery—which could follow along?

recover your data
BEFORE WE CAN EVEN THINK about Don’t let

doing any kind of data recovery, it’s Windows update
worth knowing how data is stored if you’re missing
on the typical drive. Every situation crucial files.
is slightly different, of course, and
we’re taking an incredibly basic
look at NTFS formatting here; other
filesystems work in different ways,
although with the right software,
you should be able to affect a
recovery from just about anything.
The typical drive is broken into
partitions. These aren’t physical
breaks, they’re logical—a certain more specific information about each of the parts stored in the MFT.
portion of the drive’s bits are the volume—most importantly, This is why mechanical drives tend
allocated, in a contiguous manner, it points to where the MFT is to slow down; the read head needs
to split the drive apart into located—and, if the partition is to jump around the drive to hit each
individually managed sections, both active and designated as a bit of the thing you’re trying to load.
known as volumes. Information primary partition, loads NTldr to SSDs don’t have this problem, since
about these volumes—their size, kick off the boot process. The same they can jump between sectors
location on the drive, and the like— sector is also duplicated at the very almost instantaneously (relatively
is stored in the drive’s Partition end of the volume, in case the first speaking, at least).
Table, which sits alongside the one goes bad, as is the MFT itself.
Master Boot Record (MBR) in the Sandwiched between these tiny STAYING SAFE
first sectors of the drive. The MBR is sections is the filesystem data So what does this all mean for you?
accessed when you boot your PC, so itself—the stuff the MFT points to. Well, consider this: When Windows
the BIOS knows where it’s heading. These are your files. When you start deletes a file, it doesn’t do anything
Each volume is invisibly broken a fresh NTFS drive, they’re stored to the filesystem data. It merely
into more sections. The Master File quite neatly; a few months or years scrubs the reference from the MFT,
Table (MFT) is the most important of into the drive’s life, they really are and allocates the file’s space as
these. It’s a database that contains not. Files are placed into whatever “empty.” The data itself is still there,
information about every file and space the MFT designates as free, almost in its entirety. For now. If the
folder on your drive, pointers to and while the system makes a good MFT later chooses to store a new file
them, and, in some cases, even stab at doing this sensibly, it often in the same space? Some or all of
entire files, if they’re smaller than needs to break your files apart, and that deleted file’s data will be gone.
about 512 bytes. Before the MFT spread them over several areas of This means the first critical step
is a boot sector, which holds a bit free space, with the references to of any data recovery effort (and a
PREVENT DATA LOSS

Recovering files is our of the most important not using your machine,
aim here, but all of this items. Copying them to ensuring they’re
can be avoided with a another partition on the duplicated when disaster
sensible computing same drive—or another strikes. If you don’t want
regime. If you care physical drive in the to pay for a subscription,
about your data, build same machine—is not it’s plausible to back
in a backup routine. The adequate. Move your up small pockets of
prevailing wisdom states backup away from your files on free services
that you should follow main machine—to a such as Google Drive or
the rule of three (three different floor of your Microsoft’s OneDrive, but
copies of your data, house, perhaps, or even unless you’re organized
stored on at least two off-site. If you’re hit by with your local and
kinds of media, at least a flood or a fire, your mirrored folders, you’re
one of which is kept off- insurance might buy you one step away from a
site), and it makes sense a new PC, but it won’t forgetful accident. If you
to get as close to this as cover your files. want to take it further, the form of DeltaCopy DeltaCopy makes
you can. Start duplicating An automated and customize your own (www.aboutmyip. scheduling backups
your critical files to a process is best— backup solution, check com/AboutMyXApp/ quick and easy.
cloud backup service again, something that out Linux app rsync DeltaCopy.jsp)—you
such as CrashPlan, and CrashPlan and its ilk (https://linux.die.net/ won’t find a more
using external media to offer—because it pulls man/1/rsync), which has versatile app when it
keep secondary copies vital files when you’re a Windows wrapper in comes to cloning data.

point we’re going to keep making) Expand your
is to stop what you’re doing Recycle Bin’s
immediately, and power down the storage limit via
drive. Don’t risk any of your data the “Manage”
being inadvertently overwritten, option.
because if you want it back, you
want it intact. Usually, you’d
shut down your machine using
the regular Windows shutdown
procedure, which is certainly the
optimal choice if your problem is
hardware failure, rather than a
filesystem glitch. It means your
drive’s heads (if it has them) are
properly and safely disengaged,
and any write operations completed
properly, thus avoiding potentially
corrupted files.
But there’s an issue with this: If
you have Windows updates waiting,
shutting down in the regular way is
essentially giving Microsoft license
to begin overwriting swathes of read-only mode, which mitigates destroyer of files: you. We’ll come to
your drive’s precious bytes with most of the risk to your data. human error later on. For now, we
patches that are, at least in the need to help the people who haven’t
current circumstances, less than VITAL PREPARATION done something silly.
helpful. So if you’ve headed for the What’s gone wrong? We don’t If you have a donor machine
Start menu to shut down, and you’re know for sure. You might, though. you can hook the drive up to (as a
getting the dreaded “and update” The structure of your drive means secondary drive), that’s the ideal.
suffix, it’s time to do something there are a few potential points of If you don’t have that luxury, you
we’d ordinarily never recommend: failure—the MBR, the partition need to cross your fingers that
cut the juice. Don’t even hold down table, the MFT, a problem with bad your file loss isn’t being caused
your power button for 10 seconds— sectors in the file storage area—and by a malfunction on your current
cut the power at the wall, flick the that’s not to mention mechanical machine. Keep it powered down
switch on your PSU, or pull the issues, a problem with your for now. Whatever the situation,
battery if you can. The next time motherboard’s drive controllers, a have a fresh external drive ready to
we use this drive, it’ll ideally be in malicious attack, or the ultimate transfer any recovered files to, and
STOP RECOVERY FOR GOOD

We’ve discussed the to your drive until it’s on the app, or even have
ways in which your drive full, but that’s madness. it grind through any
stores files, and how they Better to use a secure unused space on your
don’t really get removed deletion tool. partitions, applying its
when you delete them You have a few choices algorithms to that space
or format your drive. here, but we tend to to scrub it clean of any
What if there are files favor Eraser (https:// ghostly data.
on there that you really eraser.heidi.ie), which If you really want to
want to stay deleted, goes overboard in its get rid of all the data on a
and be excluded from efforts, overwriting drive—if you’re passing
any recovery efforts? your files several your hardware on or
We can use a little of times with specific recycling it, say—System
our knowledge of file random data patterns Rescue CD includes
storage to work out how in order to remove the tool Wipe (http://
to obliterate old data— them—and, on magnetic wipe.sourceforge.net),
the best way to make drives, the microscopic which does an intense,
sure files don’t rise from traces they leave thorough, repeated get rid of it, do as one of Eraser can make up to 35
the dead is to ensure behind—completely. We overwriting of every byte Maximum PC’s alumni passes over your data for
that “free” space on recommend you keep it of data on a drive. Or if once did: Take a hammer absolute removal.
your drive is completely hanging around—you the hardware doesn’t to your drive, and throw
overwritten. You could can securely delete files matter, and you’re it in a lake. But think of
painstakingly write files just by dropping them absolutely desperate to the fish before you do it.

recover your data
be aware that you may need to do a If you see

little manual cleaning up after. this ominous
Now, head to a second machine. If message in
you’re reading this and you haven’t TestDisk, your
actually suffered any data loss as partition table
yet, follow this advice anyway: is hosed.
As any good Boy Scout knows, one
must always be prepared. On your
second machine, download the x86
version of System Rescue CD from
www.system-rescue-cd.org, and
write it to a CD or USB stick. There
are many rescue-focused distros
of Linux, but this one—ugly text-
based interface and all—is ours.
PARTITION RECOVERY
Time to get some stuff back. Plug in
your large external drive, and boot
your affected machine from your
System Rescue CD media. You may
have to head into your UEFI menu
and disable Secure Boot before it
Type “startx” to
works. Hit Return to boot with the
fire up System
default options, and you’re thrown
Rescue CD’s
straight to a command prompt.
GUI, and access
OK, not the most welcoming
gparted.
introduction, but we don’t need
graphical finery for these tasks. (sda, sdb, and so on) as we’ll need name of which is somewhat out of
You may see a suggestion to mount this a little later. Ensure it’s date—it doesn’t just recover photos,
your drive at this point—don’t do it. selected, and hit Return, selecting but a host of known file types from a
This is a trap for young players; if the “Intel” partition type unless selection of over 480. But before we
your partition table is hosed, you’re you’re working on a particularly odd can use it, we need to mount your
going to want to work on the raw drive. Now choose “Analyze.” One of secondary drive to give it a location
disk first of all. So type “testdisk” two things is going to happen now: to send the files to. Mounting,
and you can begin taking a look If your drive is properly structured, essentially, is the process of linking
at your connected hardware. Don’t it finds the partition table, and lists a partition of your drive to a Linux
worry about creating a log file at the partitions—again, take note file—absolutely everything in
this point. of these, and those of the external Linux is a file—and telling Linux
You’re first given a list of all the drive you’ve plugged in for your exactly how it should be accessing
connected storage devices—with recovered files. If the partition that drive.
luck, you’ll see the affected drive. If table of the rogue drive is missing Presuming your backup drive
you don’t, you can safely diagnose or damaged (TestDisk looks for is NTFS formatted, we can use a
your problem as physical: Meaning a particular byte at a particular program called ntfs-3g to do the
there’s a cable loose, a power failure, Piriform Recuva point on the drive to discover this), mounting. First, create a mount
or your drive controller has gone up is a good low- you can select “Quick Search” to point—the folder location that’ll
in smoke. Presuming you do see the effort solution have it scan your drive, cylinder represent your drive—by typing
drive, take a note of its designation for deleted data. by cylinder, for the telltale signs mkdir /mnt/ntfs at the prompt.
of partition divisions. With any Then (replacing “sdb” with the
luck, it’ll find something, and you’ll partition designation that you
be given the option to restore the made a note of earlier) type
partition table. If not, you can ntfs-3g /dev/ sdb1 /mnt/ntfs to
choose to do a deeper scan, which solidify the link between the two
is a last-ditch effort; it takes a long locations, and bear in mind that you
time, and stresses a failing drive, will need the backup drive to be in
but if you have no other option, it’s good working order, too—if ntfs-3g
worth a try. detects bad sectors or NTFS errors,
it forces it into read-only mode.
CONNECTING DRIVES Now fire up Photorec by typing
With a healthy partition table, your photorec at the prompt.
drive should be in good enough
shape to work with—you can FILE RECOVERY
now start hunting for your files. This is the real meat of file recovery.
TestDisk usefully comes with a Photorec uses technical knowledge
companion program, Photorec, the of partition anatomy and the exact

bytes that make up certain file
types to skim through your drives
and automatically pull off corrupted
or lost files. And while its interface
is incredibly ugly, it’s the most
effective tool going. Once you’ve
Opened up a
started it up, pick your affected
drive like this?
drive (Photorec only works in read-
Then don’t
only mode, so it’s safe), choose the
expect to get
partition that you noted earlier,
your data back.
and select “Search.” Photorec asks
for a location to save its restored
files to—navigate through the
Linux file tree to find the mount
WHAT ABOUT RAID?

point we made earlier, and pick a
folder on your drive if you have one
prepared. Hit C when you’re done.
Photorec now sifts through your RAID drives, as you the flipside of the NAS, your main
drive looking for broken, deleted, or might imagine, can coin, RAID 1 and computer, or specialist
incomplete files, and does its best be tricky beasts to similar mirrored RAID hardware—goes
to recover them fully—grab a cold recover data from, and configurations bad, it could throw your
one, because this is going to take certain configurations positively aid in data drives into a position
a while. All being well, you should introduce issues of recovery; if one of your where recovering data
have the majority, if not all, of your their own. Run a striped drives goes down, you is entirely impossible.
stuff back at this point. set in RAID 0 formation, may need to invest a It’s not unknown for
There are simpler ways to get for example, and you’re little time and money in specialists to be able to
the job done. You’re welcome to asking for trouble— remirroring with a new engineer specific tools
stick within Windows and try yes, you’ll have some drive, but catastrophic for specific instances
running the portable version of of the fastest storage failure is only going to of RAID failure, but
Piriform’s Recuva from a USB stick going, but if one of come from your own this is a highly costly
(www.piriform.com/recuva/builds), your drives goes hand or a malware procedure, with no
which offers a pretty interface down, you’re stuck. attack. If this is the guarantee of success.
and the option to select precisely There are various case, you have the We don’t have an
what you’ve lost, rather than just options that claim to same chance to recover answer for the irony of
batch-copying everything, but be able to recover files files as you would with RAID being both safer
it’s more limited to inadvertently from RAIDs 0, 5, and a single drive. and more dangerous
deleted files, and isn’t particularly 10—ReclaiMe (www. The other issue than storing on a single
helpful if you have an ongoing freeraidrecovery. RAID introduces drive, other than to
malware issue. There are also com) is the most is the controller suggest, again, that you
overkill methods—for instance, prominent—but don’t itself. If whatever’s always keep stringent
you could, at the other end of the hold your breath for managing your RAID backups away from
spectrum, use partimage (included any decent results. On configuration—your your regular hardware.
with System Rescue CD) to pull off
a full bit-for-bit copy of your affected
drive, preserving it for later forensic
analysis. Check the guide at www.
partimage.org/Main_Page to see
how it’s done—you can compress
the image as it goes, fitting it on
to a smaller drive than the source,
A1 A2 A1 A2
and later restore it if you suspect
hardware failure.
System Rescue CD has one
more niche use, too. If Windows
B1 B2 B1 B2
itself has given up the ghost, and
is blocking your access to your
otherwise perfectly stored files,
you can mount both your original
C1 C2 C1 C2
and backup drives, and copy them
D1 D2 D1 D2
off directly. Alternatively, and this
may be a slightly more comfortable
option, you could boot up another Want speed
Linux live distro—the likes of and security?
Ubuntu—and manually back up Run four drives Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4
using a graphical interface. in Raid 1+0.

BECOME AN EXPERT
CODER THE EASY WAY
OUT
NOW!
WITH
FREE
DIGITAL
EDITION
DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR

Order online at https://www.myfavouritemagazines.com
or find us in your nearest supermarket, newsagent or bookstore!
examining technology and putting it to use
R&D
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC
TIP OF THE MONTH
ZAK STOREY
REVIEWS EDITOR
GPU VRAM
Memory seems to be one of the most
over-marketed products within the PC
enthusiast’s arsenal of componentry.
Whether it’s SSD cache being used to
speed up ageing hard drives, enticingly
large supplies of GPU memory on
a $150 card, or desktop DDR4 with
frequencies up into the 4,000MHz
range, it tends to be obscured by a
barrage of baseless promises.
DON’T INSTALL GEFORCE EXPERIENCE For example, MSI recently stated
that by increasing DDR4 frequencies
For people concerned about privacy, the latest Nvidia update from 2,400MHz to 4,000MHz, you’d
brought an unwelcome visitor in the form of required account see an in-game improvement in The
Witcher 3 of average frame rates from
creation to access any features. To counter this, head to www. 94.1 to 114.1. In tests in our March 2016
geforce.com/drivers, manually enter your conditions, and issue, we saw zero difference in frame
rates across 10 memory kits with a
click to download the latest drivers as an EXE. On installation, 800MHz difference between them.
deselect “GeForce Experience,” and you’re good to go. Check But my issue lies with graphics
memory, and how much is “enough.”
back monthly or whenever you hear about a new driver release. We had an argument with Asus’s PR
team regarding the appropriate level
of VRAM for various cards. The 4GB
1050 Ti doesn’t make sense to us,
MAKE – USE – CREATE when the 3GB 1060 is about $30 more,
yet performs almost three times
better. Asus’s argument is that games
require ever larger VRAM caches, and
you’d be future-proofing yourself by
getting a 4GB 1050 Ti over a 3GB 1060.
We disagree. If you game at 1080p,
3GB of VRAM is plenty for any game
today. Larger textures don’t provide
any more detail, and if you’re looking
to upgrade to higher resolutions, the
62 66 72 GPU will become the bottleneck. Don’t
Set up your own Boost your NAS’s How many cores iis
H fall for marketing lies—buy a card
Twitter bot on the throughput with enough? Our Build It with an appropriate amount of VRAM
Raspberry Pi link aggregation project finds out for the resolution and games you play,
and build a system around that.
↘ submit your How To project idea to: comments@maximumpc.com

R&D
presents:
THIS MONTH WE DISSECT...
PlayStation 4 Pro
About iFixit
iFixit is a global community of tinkerers dedicated
to helping people fix things through free online
repair manuals and teardowns. iFixit believes that
ever yone has the right to maintain and repair their
own products. To learn more, visit www.ifixit.com.

Fortunately, you can
still swap out the hard
drive, a PlayStation
staple since the PS3.
We’re a huge fan

of easy-to-remove
components.
BACKGROUND
Remarkably simple, The world of video game platforms has been changing quickly.
although that’s not Manufacturers have resorted to mid-gen refreshes to keep up
really surprising. with 4K TVs and VR headsets, and here’s the third iteration of
the PS4 generation. We may be amateur gamers, but we’re
revved up to tear the PlayStation 4 Pro down, professionally.
MAJOR TECH SPECS

• Eight-core AMD “Jaguar” X86-64 CPU, clocked at 2.1GHz
(up from 1.6GHz).
• 4.2Tflops AMD Radeon-based graphics.
• 8GB GDDR5 RAM and 1GB DRAM.
• 1TB removable and upgradable hard drive storage.
• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Ethernet, and Bluetooth 4.0 (LE).
• Blu-ray x6 CAV, DVD x8 CAV.
KEY FINDINGS
• The triple-decker design is a little different from the “first”
PlayStation 4, but that doesn’t stop us—without wasting time,
we flip the console over, pop the first panel, and hit pay dirt! A
single, standard Phillips #0 screw stands between us and
hard-drive-swapping glory.
• We’re gonna have to remove the “Warranty void if seal
removed” stickers to go any further. Adding insult to injury,
the screws hidden beneath are Security Torx screws—
designed to stop you getting in. With the case cracked open,
we can remove a large metal shield. Unfortunately, all this
does is give us a view of the motherboard’s backside.
• With the beast on its back, the opposite panel pops off after
some prodigious prying—but no “warranty void” stickers!
Alas, removing this panel isn’t the panel-cea we were hoping
for. We can pull out the power supply, but nothing else. While
you can’t remove the fan, you could certainly clean it from
here—maybe that’s why we’re granted this non-warranty-
voiding access zone.
• Thwarted by the lack of any more screw heads on the PSU
side of the PS4 Pro, we flip it back over and turn our attention
to the motherboard. Burrowing through a layer of shielding
behind the CPU reveals a cool X-shaped retaining bracket,
similar to ones we found in another console. And directly
underneath it, we dig up a plastic-and-metal cover that
seems to be the consumer electronics version of a pizza
saver, protecting the back of the board from the heatsink
retaining bracket.
• Repairability Score: 8 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair). No
adhesive makes disassembly and reassembly easy. The
non-proprietary hard drive is simple to access and upgrade
or replace—and doing so doesn’t void your warranty. While
you can clean the fan, removing it—and other components—
requires lots of (warranty-voiding) disassembly. Security
screws and tamper-evident seals discourage users from
disassembling and repairing their PlayStation 4 Pro.

R&D
Set Up a Twitter Bot

On the Raspberry Pi
YOU’LL NEED THIS THE SIMPLEST DESCRIPTION OF A TWITTER BOT is a program designed to produce automated
posts on Twitter. The most common use for bots is spam. The bot examines key words—cleaning
RASPBERRY PI products, for example—then responds with a promotional link for people to click to be taken to the
The brilliant mini-computer spammer’s website. The feature also has non-spammy uses, however. Bots can be programed to
costs under $45. See search for any word or phrase, and respond accordingly. One entertaining implementation of this was
www.raspberrypi.org. @BDZNappa, which searched for people tweeting the phrase “over 9,000,” to which it always
responded, “WHAT!? NINE THOUSAND?” Bots can also tweet from a text source, such as
@SunTzuBot, which tweets daily quotes from The Art of War. More sophisticated bots, such as
@JustDiedBot, actively search the Internet for source material. @JustDiedBot searches Wikipedia
3
for information about recent deaths, and tweets RIP announcements as they happen. –NATE DRAKE
A INPUT DETAILS
You are asked to fill in the “Application Details.”
For this tutorial, we’re creating a bot that regularly
tweets the Sherlock Holmes stories, but you’re welcome to
change the “Name” and “Description” as you see fit.
>> Under “Website,” for now simply put “http://www.
twitter.com.” Leave the field named “Callback URL” blank.
Check the box to say you agree to the Twitter Developer
Agreement, then click the gray button marked “Create
your Twitter Application.”
>> Make sure “Access Level” reads “Read and Write.”
1
If not, click “Modify App Permissions” to change it. Next,
PRELIMINARY STEPS click on “Manage Keys and Access Tokens.” Scroll to the
Bots have practical uses, too. They can be programed to tweet bottom of the page, and click the gray button marked
at regular intervals, so can be used as a “dead man’s switch” to “Create My Access Token.”
tweet a message unless you reset it every day. It’s also possible to >> You see a message saying the access token has been
schedule a tweet for a future date, so you can use the bot to send generated. Keep a copy of this page in a safe place, or leave
out reminders. it open in your browser, because we’ll need it shortly.
4
>> If you find any of these possibilities intriguing, you need to set
up a dedicated Twitter account for your bot. Do not be tempted to WORKING ON THE PI
use your existing Twitter account for this if you have one, because Next, open the terminal app on your Raspberry Pi or
repeated tweets could be mistaken as spam by Twitter, and your connect to it via SSH. We need to install some extra
account could be suspended. software by using the following command:
>> In order to proceed, we need a new Twitter account with a sudo easy_install pip
confirmed cell phone number. If you already have a Twitter account, >> Next, create a directory for the bot and open it:
visit https://support.twitter.com/articles/81940# and follow the mkdir holmesbot1 && cd holmesbot1
steps there to delete your cell phone number from your account for >> For this example, we’re going to use a Python library
the time being. created by Edwin Dalmaijer, named Markovbot. The
2
software essentially takes some text from a source (in this
CREATE NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT AND APP case, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) and randomly
Next, visit www.twitter.com and choose “Sign Up.” You can constructs plausible-looking sentences with it.
use any email address you wish, provided it’s not already >> You need to download and unzip the software with the
registered with Twitter. Choose a name that is appropriate for the following command:
bot. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’re creating a bot named wget https://github.com/esdalmaijer/markovbot/
Sherlock Bot, with user ID @holmesbot1 [Image A]. archive/master.zip && unzip master.zip
>> You are asked to provide your cell phone number, and then >> Move to the new directory with cd markovbot-master
confirm it by SMS. Twitter requires this for bots to reduce the and install more required software with these commands:
likelihood of spam. wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py && sudo
>> Once your Twitter account has been created, you may need to python ez_setup.py
click “Continue” a few times at the top-right to skip invitations to sudo easy_install twitter
import your contacts or follow other users. >> Next, we need to download a text file to use as the
>> Next, we need to create a Twitter application that allows your source for our bot’s random tweets. This file comes from
Raspberry Pi to access your Twitter account. Go to http://apps. the Project Gutenberg website, but feel free to use any TXT
twitter.com, then click “Create New App.” file you like:

wget http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1661/pg1661.txt
>> Then we create an empty file to place our code. You can choose
any name you like, provided you use the extension .py at the end: BOTS OF NOTE
nano sherlock1.py
>> Enter the following code in the new file:
import os
import time
from markovbot import MarkovBot
#####
# INITIALIZE
# Initialize a MarkovBot instance

tweetbot = MarkovBot()
# Get the current directory’s path

dirname = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) Bots have been around for several years, and some have
# Construct the path to the book thousands of followers. Some of them simply react to words
book = os.path.join(dirname, u‘pg1661.txt’) in tweets. For instance, anyone using the phrase “illegal
# Make your bot read the book! immigrant” can expect a response from @DroptheIBot saying,
tweetbot.read(book) “People aren’t illegal. Try saying ‘undocumented immigrant’
or ‘unauthorized immigrant’ instead.”
The @everyword bot began tweeting every word in the
##### English language in 2007. It tweeted a new word every half-
# TWITTER hour until it completed its task in 2014, after 109,157 words.
There are also bots that exist for political parody.
# The MarkovBot uses @sixohsix’s Python Twitter Tools, Mentioning the words “communism” or “socialism” provokes
# which is a Python wrapper for the Twitter API. Find it on the ire of @RedScareBot Robot J McCarthy himself, who tells
# GitHub: https://github.com/sixohsix/twitter you the “Red Storm is rising” and to “circle the wagons.”
@DeepDrumpf is a Twitter bot created by MIT, which uses
# ALL YOUR SECRET STUFF! neural network technology to analyze data and post tweets in
# Make sure to replace the bits in quotation marks below with the supposed speaking style of Donald Trump. The developers
# your own values, or try to find a more secure way of dealing claim the bot was trained via transcripts of Trump’s speeches.
# with your keys and access tokens. Be warned that it is NOT The twitter bot @factbot1 makes good use of images.
# SAFE to put your keys and tokens in a plain-text script! Creator Eric Drass programed the bot in response to the
tendency of some people to believe unproven facts, provided
# Consumer Key (API Key) they’re accompanied by an image. The bot regularly tweets
cons_key = ‘yourconsumerkeyhere’ nearly true and nonsensical facts. One such “fact” is that the
# Consumer Secret (API Secret) Canadian government derives 38 percent of its income from
cons_secret = ‘yourconsumersecrethere’ the sale of donuts. This is plausible, given the ubiquity of Tim
# Access Token Hortons cafés in the land of the maple leaf, but sadly false.
access_token = ‘youraccesstokenhere’
# Access Token Secret
access_token_secret = ‘youraccesstokensecrethere’ the words Construct the path to the book , so change the
file name to your own text file also.
# Log in to Twitter >> Now scroll down to the bottom of the code and note
tweetbot.twitter_login(cons_key, cons_secret, access_token, that, by default, this code will tweet once every minute.
access_token_secret) Change this if you wish—for example, to once a day:
# Start periodically tweeting. This will post a tweet days=1, hours=0, minutes=0 . Finally, you may wish to
# every minute. change the suffix placed after every tweet to something
# (You’re free to choose your own interval, but please else or to None .
# don’t use it to spam other people. Nobody likes spammers >> Press Ctrl-X when done, then Y, then Return to save.
# and trolls.) You can run your script at any time with the command:
# This function operates in a Thread in the background, sudo python sherlock1.py
# so your code will not block by calling it. >> Be sure to substitute sherlock1.py with the actual
tweetbot.twitter_tweeting_start(days=0, hours=0, minutes=1, name of your file. The terminal will show the tweets but
keywords=None, prefix=None, suffix=‘#IamSherlocked’) you can also check on the website.
5 ENTER YOUR PERSONAL VALUES

Once the code has been entered, you need to use your
arrow keys to navigate to
‘yourconsumersecrethere’ ,
‘yourconsumerkeyhere’ ,
‘youraccesstokenhere’ , and
‘youraccesstokensecrethere’ , and replace these with the values
6 GOING FURTHER
There are many more possible Python projects
you can do with Twitter, including responding to
keywords, automatic retweets, and even grabbing values
from web pages, such as stock market prices. Head over to
from Twitter’s website that you noted down earlier. Leave the www.raspberrypi.org/blog/tag/python/ to see some of the
quotation marks. You’ll also notice the file name pg661.txt under exciting projects that have been achieved with Python.

R&D
Colorize Black and

White Photos
YOU’LL NEED THIS ONCE, THE WORLD WAS BLACK AND WHITE. Created by MGM for The Wizard of Oz (a film cruelly
overlooked at the Oscars in favor of Gone With the Wind, which invented wind), color wouldn’t become
PHOTOSHOP mainstream technology until halfway through the 20th century, and even then pockets of resistance
Available from www.adobe.com. lingered, where people refused to install the relevant upgrades, claiming that monochrome was
good enough, and that they didn’t trust the free update not to give their eyes typhoid.
MONOCHROME IMAGE Pity the PC owner in this world of perpetual twilight. The twinkling LEDs in his keyboard could
Scour your family collection. only show shades of gray, Hercules made all graphics cards (they were fairly high res though), and
people weren’t really certain about dithering. Artifacts of this time still exist in the form of black
and white photos, but we can bring them into the present with a little image editing. Colorizing a
mono photo can never bring back the true colors from the moment it was taken, but it can have a
3
charming look all of its own. –IAN EVENDEN
A MAKE MORE COLORS

Create a new snapshot just as you did in step two,
and call this one “Skin.” You’ll see the snapshots
stack up above the History palette as you work. Next,
create some colors that would be appropriate for the
other objects and areas in your photo. We’re going to make
them for the gentleman’s suit, his hair, his sweater, and a
general background color, but you can make as many as
you need. To do this, we’re going to use the Adjustments
palette again, but this time using the “Color Balance”
adjustment, the icon for which looks like a tiny pair of
scales [Image B]. When you open it, you’ll find color sliders
that are paired off, so you can slide them between cyan and
red, for example, or yellow and blue.
1 CHANGE COLOR FORMAT

Open your image file in Photoshop. If you’ve scanned a black
and white photo or photographed it, you’ve probably got a file
that uses the RGB color format, which means each pixel is defined
by values of red, green, and blue. We’re going to change this to
4 COLOR EACH AREA
Look at the area you want to color, and mess with
the sliders until it’s the hue you want, or at least
an acceptable color if finding the exact shade is proving
difficult. You’ll notice that your changes affect the entire
CMYK, the format used in printing things like this magazine, for image, changing the skin tone color you created earlier, but
no other reason than we were messing around with the file, and this doesn’t matter. When you’ve finished, create another
we discovered it works better this way. Head to “Image > Mode new snapshot, naming it appropriately. Go on to do this for
> CMYK color” [Image A] and make the change—nothing should every color you want to use. Planning ahead is essential at
happen to your image, but the color format information up by the this stage, because it’s tricky to come back later and create
file name alters. a new color without undoing a lot of your work. It’s worth
2
making sure that the snapshot with the largest areas of
CREATE A SKIN TONE coloring on is created last, because this saves time.
Now we’re going to create the colors that will be used in
the image. First, go to the History palette, and create a new B
snapshot of your original image. To do this, right-click the most
recent History state (probably “CMYK color”), and select “New
Snapshot.” Select “Merged Layers” from the drop-down, give it
a name (such as “Original”), and click “OK.” Now, on the right of
Photoshop’s interface, you should find the Channels palette. If it’s
not there, open it from the Window menu. In the palette, select
the Cyan channel, and select a “Brightness/Contrast” adjustment
from the Adjustments palette (find it in the Window menu if it’s not
visible). Use this to brighten the channel and increase its contrast,
and hopefully you should get something resembling a skin tone
(we’re assuming that your photo has a person in it, because these
are the most common subjects for the colorization treatment).
Close the window when you’re done.

C
5 USE THE HISTORY BRUSH TOOL

The next stage requires a steady hand and can take some
time. We’re going to use a paintbrush tool to merge all the
snapshots we created into one image, making sure the colors
go in the appropriate places. Thanks to the mono nature of our
bursts, so you can use Ctrl-Z to undo any mistakes you
make, and use a selection tool to help you stay in the right
area if you need to. Feathering the edge of the selection
(Shift-F6) by a few pixels [Image D] can create a soft border
between colors if it’s looking a little harsh. Make sure you
source, the shading is taken care of for us—we just have to make save repeatedly as you go, and it can be worth creating
sure we don’t paint over the edges too much. Select the newest extra Full Document snapshots as you work, because
snapshot in the stack, usually the one at the bottom, and make sure the History Brush process can do strange things to your
that you’ve selected an image layer in the Layers palette, and not an History palette.
7
adjustment layer. Back in the History palette, click the checkbox at
the side of one of the other snapshots—it should appear like a brush FINISHING TOUCHES
with an arrow next to it; this is the History Brush tool. This can be a painstaking process, but it’s worth
6
doing for a result you can proudly present to an aged
START PAINTING relative. When you’ve finished, save the layers as a PSD
Now, as you paint, the colors from the checked layer should file, then flatten it, convert back to RGB, and export as a
be painted on to your selected layer [Image C]. Paint in short JPEG ready for printing.
D
CMYK COLOR
CMYK is used in commercial printing, and splits an image
into cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black), which represent
the inks mixed on the press to create any other color. Most
images designed to be viewed on a screen are RGB, which
uses a mixture of red, green, and blue light, to achieve the
same effect. Monitors, which operate in RGB, don’t always
accurately represent CMYK colors, especially where reds
are concerned, but a system of color profiles and screen
calibrators means colors can be kept consistent across
screens and on to the press. We’ve only used CMYK here,
because it made one step easier—you’ll want to convert back
to RGB before you finish, and not just because CMYK files can
be significantly larger than RGB ones.

R&D
Boost Your NAS With

Link Aggregation
YOU’LL NEED THIS DOES YOUR NAS DRIVE come with two Gigabit Ethernet ports? When plugged into a compatible
switch, the two ports enable you to combine the two connections using technology called “link
LACP-CAPABLE NAS aggregation” or “port trunking.” Link aggregation is a catch-all term for various methods of
Look for two Ethernet ports on providing a parallel network connection through multiple Ethernet ports. One basic use is
the back. to provide a layer of redundancy—if one port fails, the other can still be used. But a more exciting—
and practical—use for link aggregation is LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol).
SMART SWITCH LACP increases the throughput of your NAS drive, which means you can speed up the shoveling
This needs to support LACP, too. of data to and from the drive. Hurrah, you cry: double the transfer speed! Sadly, no. You can’t
increase the speed of a single network connection using LACP, but you can increase the available
bandwidth for multiple connections. This helps when two or more users attempt to access the drive
at once—for example, uploading and downloading files at the same time, or attempting to run two
movie streams simultaneously, which is why it’s often referred to as “load balancing.” Read on to
discover what equipment you need, how to configure it, and how to test your tweaks. –NICK PEERS
A
1CHOOSE THE RIGHT DRIVE
If your NAS drive [Image A]
has twin Ethernet ports,
check its manual or specs to see
what forms of link aggregation
C
it supports. Most drives should

offer LACP support, although
the terminology varies between
manufacturers: QNAP and
Synology drives refer to
“802.3ad dynamic,” for example.
If your drive doesn’t support
LACP, check to see whether it costs under $30, but doesn’t support LACP. Instead, you
provides its own proprietary need to shell out $69 for the next model up, TP-Link’s SG-
form of load balancing—see the T2008, which we’re using as the focus of this tutorial. If
“Wot, No Link Aggregation?” box on the right for details. you’re using a different model, you need to adapt the steps
>> If you’re in the market for a LACP-compatible drive, look for according to your switch’s instructions.
3
a higher-end SOHO or small business model—QNAP’s TS-231+ is
around $170 diskless, for example. BENCHMARK THE DRIVE
2
Take a rough and ready “before” benchmark by
BUY THE RIGHT SWITCH copying a large multi-gigabyte file, such as a drive
Most home routers don’t come with link aggregation image, to or from the NAS. Make a note of the transfer
support on board. The most cost-effective way to add link speed. Now repeat the process using two separate PCs
aggregation support to your home network is through a managed or Macs, and you should find the transfer speed is roughly
switch [Image B]. It’s important that you carefully check the link halved on each device, illustrating the current bottleneck.
4
aggregation features offered by your chosen switch, because
cheaper models may not have all the features you need (as we’ve IDENTIFY IP ADDRESS AND LOG ON TO SWITCH
discovered to our cost). For example, TP-Link’s TL-SG108 model First, verify that your NAS’s Ethernet cables don’t
need to be plugged into specific ports for link
B aggregation support (any ports can be used on the TL-
SG2008, so we’ve plugged our NAS into ports 7 and 8, the
two closest to the power switch).
>> Smart switches are managed one of two ways: either
through a third-party utility, or (in the case of TP-Link’s
TL-SG2008 model) through your web browser. Type its IP
address into your web browser, then log on using the required
credentials (if you haven’t previously logged on to the switch,
use the manufacturer defaults, then change them for
security reasons). If you’re struggling to identify your switch’s
IP address, use a tool such as Fing (www.fing.io) to locate it.

D
WOT, NO LINK
AGGREGATION?
Even if your switch or router doesn’t support link aggregation,
your NAS drive should still be able to support some limited
form of load balancing through its twin Ethernet ports using
proprietary technologies built into the NAS itself. Check the
port trunking or link aggregation settings for a load balancing
option that doesn’t require link aggregation: WD MyCloud
users should try the “Round Robin” setting, while Synology
boxes refer to “Adaptive Load Balance,” and QNAP users
should look for “Balance-alb.” These settings should support
load balancing and redundancy, so if one port fails, the other
continues to function. Attach each port to a different switch,
and the connection is maintained even if one switch fails.
5 SET UP LACP
Once logged in, click “Switching” on the left to expand the
look under “Control Panel > Connectivity > Network >
Link Aggregation.”
7
submenu, then click “LAG.” You’ll see three tabs across the
top—switch to the “LACP Config” tab. Check the two ports your TEST CONNECTION AND TWEAK SETTINGS
NAS is plugged into (“7” and “8” in our case), set the “Status” drop- Repeat your benchmarks—there’s now little or no
down menu to “Enable,” and click “Apply.” Check both boxes again, difference when one PC accesses the drive, but the
set mode to “Passive,” then click “Apply” again [Image C]. drop-off when two PCs are connected should be greatly
>> Ports 7 and 8 should now have “LAG1” under the “LAG” column. reduced (if not eliminated). If this isn’t the case, double-
Switch to the “LAG Table” tab, and verify it’s set to “Passive LACP,” check your settings—LACP should be enabled, but passive,
and the “Hash Algorithm” drop-down is “SRC MAC + DST MAC.” on the switch side, and just enabled on the NAS side.
8
>> Again, the steps vary for other setups—consult your switch’s
documentation to see how to implement a passive LACP system on SPEED UP SINGLE CONNECTIONS
the switch for the ports your NAS is plugged into. We lied when we said it isn’t possible to speed up
6
transfer times between your NAS and a single PC
SET UP NAS using LACP, but it requires a lot more effort. Find out
Open a new tab and log into your NAS through your browser. more with our editor-in-chief’s handy online guide at
Locate the link aggregation or port trunking section—QNAP w w w.pcgamer.com/how-to-set-up-nic-teaming-link-
users should go to “Control Panel > System Settings > Network & aggregation—just ask yourself if it’s worth it, though.
Virtual Switch,” then select “Interfaces,” and click “Port Trunking.” >> One tip if you go down this route—if you’re using the
Click “Add,” check both adapters, click the “Port Trunking Mode” TL-SG2008 to set up multiple LACP connections, assign a
drop-down, and select “802.3ad dynamic” [Image D]. Click the edit different Admin Key to each separate LAG pairing you set
button and verify “Layer 2 (MAC)” is selected. Click “Apply.” up [Image E]. When repeating step five of the walkthrough,
>> Synology users can find step-by-step instructions at www. set the Admin Key to “2” for this new grouping, which
synology.com/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/Tutorial/home— should identify itself as LAG2 when done.

R&D
From Crashing
YOU’LL NEED THIS WHY IS IT THAT YOUR PC always seems to develop problems at the most inopportune moments?
While Windows is pretty good at fixing its own problems, there are still frustrating times when its
A WINDOWS PC own built-in tools, from self-healing to troubleshooters, fail to do the job.
Running Windows 7, 8, or 10. There’s still no substitute for the self-help approach, and one of the best tools for this is the Event
Viewer. It’s where you’ll find Windows’ log files, a record of everything that’s going on, including
symptoms of problems both evident and still hidden away. By carefully examining these logs, you
can find out what’s causing all kinds of glitches, from obvious—if cryptic—error messages to more
vague issues, such as sluggish behavior or periodic freezes. This tutorial can help you decipher
these logs and find a solution to your problem. –NICK PEERS
A C
1 LAUNCH EVENT VIEWER

If you’re running Windows 8 or 10, the simplest way to open Event
the “Critical,” “Error,” and “Warning” sections (but don’t
panic—yet!).
3
Viewer is to press Win-X, or right-click the “Start” button and
select it from the Quick Access menu. If you’re running Windows 7, BROWSE EVENTS
press Win-R to open the Run dialog box, then type “eventvwr” Click “+” next to a section to expand it and view a
and press Enter. If prompted by User Account Control, click “Yes” summary of the events [Image B]. Focus on event
or “Continue.” types that last occurred around the time your problem
2
manifested itself (within the hour, 24-hour, or seven-day
GET A SUMMARY ranges). Double-click an event to open its Summary page,
The main Event Viewer screen appears [Image A]. The then try to identify possible events that correlate to the
middle pane should display three sections of information— problem you’re investigating.
concentrate on the “Summary of Administrative Events” section >> Review all instances of the event type, focusing on the
at the top, which displays a list of each type of event logged in the time and date each instance occurred. This can help link
past hour, 24 hours, and seven days. Pay particular attention to the event to your problem, but go through all event types
under “Critical,” “Error,” and possibly “Warning” to see
B whether there are multiple events linked to the problem.
Make a note of each one, then read on to discover how to
examine them in more depth.
4 GET HELP ONLINE

Make a note of the description—the “Details” tab
provides more technical data. You’ll notice an “Event
Log Online Help” link at the bottom of the “General” tab,
which if you click throws up a message—sadly, this doesn’t
work in Windows 10, but don’t worry; instead, open your
browser and go to www.microsoft.com/technet/support/
ee/ee_advanced.aspx.
>> Select “Windows Operating System” for “Microsoft
Product,” but leave “--All Versions--” selected. Type the
Event ID number into the “Event ID” box, and the same

D F
source as listed in Event Viewer into the “Event Source” box (for
example, “Application”) [Image C]. Click “Go” and a list of matching
results is shown. Click one to read more about the problem; if there
are multiple entries, try them all.
7 CREATE AND SAVE YOUR CUSTOM VIEW
If you want to create a filter that provides you with
information across multiple logs, or wish to create a
filter you can easily access in future, click “Create Custom
5
View” under “Actions.” It works in the same way as the
BROADEN OR NARROW YOUR SEARCH filter—to monitor more than one log with your custom
TechNet may return no results (or simply return some view, click the “Event logs” drop-down menu, and check
generic information about the fault that doesn’t really the logs you wish to include [Image E].
help). Don’t give up, though. Make a note of the Event ID, Source, >> Click “OK,” then give your custom view a suitable
and description under the “General” tab in Event Viewer, then type name, and choose where to save it within the “Custom
these into a search engine, and see what results come up. You may Views” tree in the left-hand pane. Going forward, you’ll be
find more troubleshooting information via a web page or forum. able to access this view at any time directly from here—
>> If too few results are returned, search for fewer words or it’s the perfect shortcut for targeted troubleshooting that
omit the Source or Event ID from your terms. If too many results takes an extended period of time to monitor and act upon.
8
come back, narrow it down by including more information. Include
specific references to file names in the event log, for example, CREATE AND SCHEDULE ALERTS
or provide more general information, such as your version of Change the name to something that will help you
Windows, hardware device, or software program. recognize it in Task Scheduler, and click “Next”
6
twice. Neither email nor “display a message” options
BROWSING & FILTERING LOGS work, so leave “Start a program” selected, and click
What happens if you can’t find the information you’re looking “Next.” Type “msg” into the “Program/script” box, then
for? It’s likely the events you need to track are buried away. type “*” followed by your message (for example, “*Error
Manually browse the logs to narrow your search. Expand “Windows Alert”) into “Add Arguments.” Click “Next > Finish > OK.”
Logs” in the left-hand pane, where you’ll find logs in categories. Use >> Event Viewer also lets you create alerts that are
“Applications” to search for program-related problems [Image D], triggered when specific events occur. This can be useful
and “System” for Windows and hardware. for troubleshooting underlying problems, as you may find
>> Logs record all manner of information, much of it irrelevant— a seemingly unrelated event is triggering the error, or get
at least when troubleshooting a problem. Click the “Filter Current early warning that something nasty is about to happen.
Log” button in the right-hand pane to filter the list a number of Once you’ve located the event you wish to monitor, right-
different ways: by the time it occurred, the type of event (focus on click it and choose “Attach Task to This Event.”
9
“Critical,” “Error,” and “Warning”), event sources, IDs, keywords,
or any combination. Click “OK” when done. REMOVE ALERT
Eventually, you may no longer want that alert
E popping up (because you’ve fixed the problem!). To
remove it, open Task Scheduler—type “scheduler” into the
“Search” box, and click “Task Scheduler” when it appears,
or press Win-R, type “control schedtasks,” and click “OK.”
Expand “Task Scheduler Library > Event Viewer Tasks,”
right-click the alert, and choose “Delete,” then “Yes.”
10 TROUBLESHOOTING MADE EASIER

Now you’ve discovered the basics of how Event
Viewer works, you can use it to help you track
down problems in the future. By examining your system
logs using its interface [Image F], you should be able
to locate the information you need to go out and not just
diagnose what’s ailing your PC, but also hopefully find a
solution to bring it back to good working order, too.

R&D
Audio Recordings
YOU’LL NEED THIS WITH AN INEXPENSIVE PC MICROPHONE, it’s easy to record your own podcasts, music, audio
books, or narration for videos. The results can sound great, but by taking a little time to enhance
AUDACITY them, you can bring them up to professional standards. Audacity is the perfect software for this; it’s
You can download it from powerful, but easy to use, and it’s free.
www.audacityteam.org. Audacity does an excellent job of cleaning up audio, but there are a few steps you can take to
ensure you get the best possible recording quality in the first place. First, make sure the input
SPITFISH volume is set correctly by right-clicking the speaker icon in the System Tray, selecting “Recording
An Audacity plugin available devices > Microphone > Set up microphone,” and following the instructions.
from http://bit.ly/1i1zfRG. It’s also worth using a pop filter to prevent noises being created by the rapid movement of air as
3
you sing or speak. Make your own by following the guide at http://bit.ly/1Y2JwWh. –CAT ELLIS
A MAKE YOUR RECORDING

Click the red button or tap Shift-R to start
recording. Try to keep a constant distance from the
microphone, and don’t worry if you trip over a word—pause
for a second and say that part again. You can easily cut any
mistakes afterward. Once you’re done, click the rewind
button, then click play to see how it sounds. It’s best to use
headphones for this.
>> If you notice background noise in your recording, select
a quiet bit of the track by clicking and dragging on a flat part
of the blue waveform. Click “Effects > Noise reduction”
[Image A], then click “Get noise profile.” Tap Ctrl-A to select
your recording, click “Effects > Noise reduction” again,
then use the sliders and preview to adjust the strength of
the effect. When you’re happy, click “OK.”
1 GET AUDACITY
Visit www.audacityteam.org/download/windows and select
the first option: “Audacity 2.1.2 installer.” This version contains
additional help files, in case you need them later on. The download
starts automatically; ignore the links that appear on the following
4 TRIM TO SIZE
If there’s a pause at the start of your recording that
you don’t want, click and drag to select this part
of the waveform, then tap Delete. You can also use this
technique to remove any sections of audio where you made
page. Run the software installer, leaving the default settings as a mistake and had to repeat yourself. If you only want to
they are. keep a small part of the recording, select that section, then
2
click “Trim Audio” beside the “Paste” button.
5
MICROPHONE CHECK
Launch Audacity and take a look at the microphone and ADJUST LEVELS
speaker settings at the top. Make sure these are set Did you accidentally move away from your
correctly, so you aren’t recording from your webcam, rather than microphone while you were recording? If so, some
your USB microphone, for example. If you’re not sure which device parts of the resulting audio might be louder than others. If
is selected, click the area marked “Click to start monitoring,” and that’s the case, tap Ctrl-A to select everything, then click
the input from the selected microphone is shown as a green bar. “Effects > Leveling,” and experiment with the options
B C

ENHANCE YOUR RECORDINGS WITH AUDACITY
3
2
6
4
5
1. RECORD AND PLAY 3. EFFECTS 5. WAVEFORM

Use these buttons to make and listen to In this section, you’ll find all of Audacity’s A representation of your recording.
recordings. Hover your mouse over each tools for refining recordings, plus Audacity records in stereo by default, so
one to see its corresponding keyboard creative options, such as “Auto Duck,” there are two tracks (left and right) with
shortcut and any variations. which enables you to speak over a music identical waveforms.
track by lowering its volume.
2. QUICK CONTROLS 6. RECORDING AND PLAYBACK
These buttons are used to cut, copy, and 4. SELECTION Make sure you have the correct input and
paste sections of audio. You can also Click and drag on the waveform to select output devices selected, to ensure you
mute a section (“Silence”), or cut away part of the recording. If you want finer aren’t recording via your webcam instead
everything before and after it (“Trim”). control, tap Ctrl-1 to zoom in. of your USB microphone, for example.
[Image B], checking them with the “Preview” button (the amount of
leveling required depends on your own recording).
7 TONE DOWN HARSH SIBILANCE
Re-open your file, selecting the option to make a
6
copy in case you need to undo your changes. Now
ELIMINATE PROBLEMS select “Effects > Add/remove plugins > SPITFISH >
If there’s a single particularly loud part of your recording, Enable > OK.” Tap Ctrl-A, then click “Effect > Spitfish
select it, then tap Ctrl-1 repeatedly to zoom in and isolate de-esser,” and experiment with the settings to tone down
the specific waves that are causing it. Make sure you have just the sibilance [Image C].
8
these waves selected, then click “Effect > Amplify,” and reduce the
volume by a few decibels. Use the “Preview” button to check how it EXPORT AND SAVE
sounds before clicking “OK.” Tap Ctrl-T to zoom back out. Your audio should now sound much better! Click
>> Harsh “s” sounds are a common problem in home audio “File > Export Audio,” and choose a file type. If
recordings, but there’s a plugin for Audacity called Spitfish that can you’re planning to edit it again later, or use it as a soundtrack
reduce them. Download it from http://bit.ly/1i1zfRG. Extract the ZIP for a video, save it in WAV format to keep the quality high.
archive to “Program Files (X86) > Audacity > Plugins.” Return If it’s finished, and you’re ready to share it, save it in MP3
to Audacity, click “File > Export Audio,” save your audio in WAV or WMA format; these provide compression to reduce file
format, then restart the program. size, and are supported by most media players.

R&D
ZAK STOREY, REVIEWS EDITOR
Just How
Many Cores?
s?
Is it time to ditch the old gaming adage?
LENGTH OF TIME: 2-3 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM
THE CONCEPT
SINCE THE LAUNCH of Intel’s Core
series processors, way back in 2009,
there’s been one simple rule associated
with its mighty lineup of chips: If you’re
into gaming, to avoid bottlenecks, you’re
going to want to equip yourself with a
Core i5, minimum. Four cores are king—
any more, and you’re wasting your hard-
earned dollar; any fewer, and you’re in
for a world of frame rate hurt.
However, a lot has changed since
2009. And although the incremental
processor performance increases Intel
has staggered out of the gates since
then have been somewhat lackluster,
cumulatively they’ve provided us
consumers with about a 70–80 percent
increase in computational performance.
So we got to thinking: As game devs
still haven’t managed to take advantage
of the multiple cores we already have,
does that old saying still ring true? Do
you still benefit from having a quad-
core, high-clocked i5, over a dual-core
i3? Or have those IPC improvements
lead us into an age when you can get
away with a cheaper Pentium for all your
1080p gaming needs? With Kaby Lake
finally introducing Hyper-Threading on
its Pentium range, allowing for dual-
core and four-thread budget offerings,
we decided to put it to the test in this
quad-optioned mid-range build.

m
CORE VARIANCES INGREDIENTS
DUE TO PAGE LAYOUT RESTRAINTS, we can’t put all four variants
STREET
of our system in the table on the right. However, as it’s only the PART
PRICE
processor that changes during testing, we’ll list them here.
Our base system features the Pentium G4600 listed in the table, Case Corsair Carbide 270R $70
with two cores, four threads, and a 3.6GHz clock speed (no turbo)
for a total of $1,236. The next uses Intel’s Core i3-7300, with two Motherboard Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming $165
cores and four threads, still sans turbo, packing an impressive

4.0GHz, taking the total to $1,278. The next step up is substantial: CPU Intel Pentium G4600 $87
the Core i5-7600K, a four-cored, four-threaded turbo behemoth,

capable of hitting 4.2GHz at stock, and bumping the price up to Memory 16GB (2x 8GB) Crucial Tactical @ 2,666MT/s $102
$1,361. And, finally, the Core i7-7700K. Four cores, eight threads,
GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB $245
and a 4.4GHz maximum turbo brings the total skyrocketing up to
$1,438—a difference of $202 from Pentium to Core i7.
PSU Corsair RM650X $109
We decided to take advantage of Corsair’s Carbide 270R. This
budget chassis checks all the boxes for our mid-range build. It’s
Storage 1 Sandisk Ultra II 240GB SSD $80
accessible, comes with just enough hard drive support to keep
us happy, and provides a clean-looking aesthetic inside and out.
Storage 2 Crucial MX300 1TB SSD $260
Cooling support is strong, and the addition of a clean PSU cover
made it a no-brainer. For GPU, we chose Nvidia’s GTX 1060 6GB. Cooling Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240
We could have gone with an AMD RX 480 8GB, but the GTX 1060 & 1x Corsair ML120 Pro Red $118
provides more frames per dollar than the RX 480, so it wasn’t a
Total $1,236
tough call to make. On top of that, two SSD hard drives and 16GB
of DDR4 pull this beauty right into 2017 with a bang.
1 COOLING ISSUES
COOLER MASTER’S LATEST 240MM AIO was a headache,

as it deviates from the traditional Asetek mounting
design. With most coolers, you secure the backplate to
the motherboard using double-ended screws of varying
sizes, depending on whether you’re attaching it to a 2011
board, a 1150/51 board, or an AMD offering. Then you
place the CPU block on the four screws, and secure it
with four thumb screws. With the MasterLiquid Pro,
Cooler Master has removed the screw between the
board and the backplate, so you have to position the
backplate through the board, with long pre-attached
screws. Then, while holding the backplate in place,
you position the block on the screws. Finally, while
somehow holding it so it doesn’t move, you use the
thumb screws to secure it. Pro tip? Find a buddy or, as
we did, literally use your head to hold the block in place.
2 DUST CONUNDRUMS
ONE OF THE FEW COMPLAINTS we have about Corsair’s

270R stems from the uppermost fan mounts—
primarily that they lack any form of dust cover. Being
an awkward size and not supporting 360mm radiators
either, regardless of its dimensions, makes things even
more frustrating when you’re on the hunt for a dust
filter. Your best bet, if building in this particular chassis,
would be to use two 120mm fans to blow air out of the
top of the chassis. This should at least prevent too much
dust entering your system while it’s running, although it
will need some loving maintenance to keep it truly clean
in the long term.

R&D
3 GPU CABLE ISSUES 5 PSU COVER
OH, THE PROBLEMS of using bits and pieces from our storage ALTHOUGH CORSAIR still doesn’t have quite as clean and
cupboard: We wanted to use a custom cable kit in conjunction beautiful a PSU cover as a lot of its competitors, it’s damn
with our Corsair RM650X power supply, just to spruce it up a good to see one included here. Three-quarter sized, it
bit, but our only kit had already been cannibalized for our provides plenty of ventilation for multiple orientations of
editor’s Dream PC from two issues ago, so there were only a power supply, and easily lets us hide the vast majority of our
few bits remaining. A single CPU power, one spare ATX power excess cables below. One thing that still haunts us from our
(specifically designed for the RMX, as the HXi has different 24- water-cooling days, however, is fan orientation. We always
pin requirements), and a single GPU cable. The GPU cable in advise that you install your power supply with the fan facing
question, however, was a dual connector, so we were left with down wherever possible, because a leak from the AIO or a
one part hanging out just below the GPU, which we couldn’t hide GPU block, for instance, is likely to kill it.
around the back, or behind the cable cut-out situated below.
4 CABLE MANAGEMENT SORTED 6 LED CORNUCOPIA
WE WENT ALL-OUT with this little build to get the cable COLOR CO-ORDINATION wasn’t at the front of our minds
management just right. Using a plethora of cable ties, we when we built this machine, but we’re actually quite
secured what we could to the back of the chassis, to make sure impressed with how it turned out. We threw in a Corsair
airflow wasn’t restricted, and to ensure that the rear side panel ML120 Pro in red in the back to spice it up a little, and help
was easier to replace—and, to be honest, to keep everything the air shift around efficiently inside, but the combination of
looking a little tidier. Take your time on this bit: Figure out which the red motherboard with the blue cooler and green GPU
cables go under what, and where you can hide stuff, without it actually kinda works, especially considering the price. The
being too much of a major issue. Z270X-Ultra Gaming does come with additional strips if you
do want to change out to another color—but, hooey, that’s a
lot of effort for not a lot of gain.

Although you can’t see it from the
1 front, it’s entirely possible to mount
two 3.5-inch hard drives in the back. Strip
1 out the crazy 1TB SSD here and replace it
with an HDD instead, and you could easily
save $200.
We had issues with the fans running

2 in push configuration in this chassis.
Cooler Master’s fan design allows the fan
blade unit to move forward, eventually
2 scraping against the chassis at higher
speeds. We added rubber spacers to stop
this from happening.
3 Gigabyte’s Z270X-Ultra offers

3 extra spacing between front panel
headers, making it easy to identify where
to install your power cables. Additionally,
we never install the HD audio pass-
through, because quality generally tends
to be far worse than via the rear I/O.
THE END OF THE ROAD FOR THE CORE i5?

WELL, THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS: a double it was certainly impressive to witness, it was would change? Well, if this were genuinely
whammy mini feature buried within Build It. also excruciatingly frustrating. a build for purchase, not designed for that
So, is this the end of the road for Intel’s Core i5 Cooler problems aside, it turned out to be wide range of processor testing, we would
series processor? Probably not. Legacies are a pretty clean-looking build. Keeping all the probably drop the 1TB SSD in favor of an HDD,
always difficult to quash, and just as AMD’s storage around the back of the motherboard potentially go down to a B250 motherboard to
Ryzen has one hell of a stigma to overcome tray actually makes a world of difference. And, save a bit of cash, use a lower specced PSU,
in the mind of the average PC enthusiast, so although the PSU cover is only a 75 percent and potentially even 8GB of DDR4, depending
does the concept of the Core i5 not being the case fit, it does leave plenty of room for on budget constraints. That would bring
king of gaming. radiators and cooling up front, and it grows this particular build down to around $630,
Take a glance at the Internet, and you’ll see on you after a while. Is there anything we including shipping.
dozens of commentators purporting that the
Core i5 is the way to go, and that even going up BENCHMARKS
to the Core i7 isn’t worth the cash, because you
only gain 10 percent performance in games. INTEL PENTIUM INTEL CORE INTEL CORE INTEL CORE
The reality, on the other hand, is very different. G4600 i3-7300 i5-7600K i7-7700K
Across the board, from one of Intel’s lowest Cinebench R15 Single/Multi
$80 chips all the way up to its mainstream 148/388 172/437 182/699 191/960
(Index)
rendering powerhouse at $350, there’s
CrystalDisk QD32 Sequential
absolutely no difference in game. It seems Read/Write (MB/s)
538/514 535/510 541/516 537/515
those IPC improvements have been making a
difference to the ecosystem after all—just not 3DMark Fire Strike (Index) 9,179 9,542 10,606 11,184
in the way we might think.
Building this particular system was actually Deus Ex Mankind Divided
25 25 25 25
(Avg fps)
considerably frustrating—mostly due to the
cooler being so incredibly annoying to install. Rise of the Tomb Raider
39 39 38 39
The backplate, coupled with the fans scraping (Avg fps)
the front of the chassis, and the pipes being

Far Cry Primal (Avg fps) 66 67 67 67
far too resistant to movement, really gave us
pause for thought as to whether this was the
Attila: Total War (Avg fps) 37 38 39 39
right cooler for us. We even had to unplug and
reinstall the PWM pump fan header at first,
Steam VR Performance Test
because it refused to pump water around 8.2 8.2 8.3 8.0
(Index 0–10)
the system, forcing our Intel Core i7, that we
tested first, to install Windows 10 on to the Best scores are in bold. All games were tested at the highest possible 1080p settings, bar Deus Ex (tested at Very
High graphical profile).
SSD at 99–100 C, at a paltry 200MHz. Although

Get the world’s best
Linux magazine
OUT
NOW!

Order online at www.myfavouritemagazines.com
or find us in your nearest supermarket, newsagent or bookstore!
reviews of the latest hardware and software
in the lab
TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED.
INSIDE
INSIDE
78 Digital Storm Velox 87 Razer Kraken 7.1 V2
80 Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming 88 SteelSeries Rival 700
70 Maingear Shift Super Stock PC
83 MSI Z270i Gaming Pro 89 Ashampoo Burning Studio 18
71 Samsung
CarbonSeries
AC 9 Notebook 90 Steep
72 84
3TBCrucial
Hard Drives:
MX300 Hitachi
2TB 91 Shadow Tactics:
Deskstar 7K3000 3TB
85 Intel Pentium G4600 and Blades of the Shogun
Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB
86 Corsair Carbide 270R 92 Lab Notes
74 Sony Vaio F21 Notebook
75 Blackberry Playbook Tablet
76 Videocard Roundup: Sapphire
Radeon HD 6790 and Zotac
GeForce GTX 550 Ti AMP Edition
78 Sentey Arvina GS-6400 Case
80 Intel 320 Series 300GB SSD
82 All-in-One Roundup: Sony
VAIO L Series VPCL214FX/W,
DIGITAL
MSI Wind Top AE2420 3D, and
STORM
HP TouchSmart
VELOX 610
PAGE 78
84 Logitech Z906 5.1 Speakers
86 Zalman CNPS11X CPU Cooler
87 Harman AKG GHS 1 Headset
88 Razer Onza Tournament Edition
Gamepad
89 Portal 2
90 DCS A-10C and Thrustmaster
HOTAS Warthog
92 Lab Notes
XXX XX
XXX XXXXX
XXXXXX
PAGE XX

in the lab
The Velox nearly matches Digital

Storm’s massive Aventum 3—for
several thousand dollars less.

Digital Storm Velox
White-hot performance
ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO, we put the giant inches) but not excessive, with a large side and all of our tests fared much better at
blue box that was Digital Storm’s Aventum 3 panel through which to see its glorious higher resolutions. Far Cry Primal, for
desktop to the test. It was a beastly gaming innards. Even better, the side panels attach instance, actually scored the same in 4K
machine, but heavy as hell, and just as via metal pegs fitted into rubber sockets, in as it did in 1080p, with its best frame rate
expensive. We’re thinking of the Velox as lieu of thumb screws. The panels attach and showing up in 1440p (95fps). RotTR and The
the Aventum’s little brother, and for a little detach with a snap, making it exceptionally Division scored 104 and 114fps in 1440p;
more than half the cost, it performs nearly easy to access the mobo and hard drive 76 and 70fps in 4K, respectively, all at max
as well as its elder sibling. cages. There’s a lot of empty space, giving settings. This is thoroughly impressive,
A big part of the Aventum’s $8,500 price things a minimalist aesthetic, but it also because even big brother Aventum
tag was due to its Hyper-Threaded Core i7- means the case can only accommodate one sometimes struggled to keep 4K frame
6950X, which checks in at $1,700. The Velox additional HDD in the main cage, and two rates consistently above 60fps.
makes up for skipping on the enthusiast- SSDs behind the motherboard. That’s not a Even at half the Aventum’s price, the
class CPU route thanks to Intel’s new Kaby lot of expandability for this level of system, Velox is still an expensive machine. Like
Lake processors. Our unit was outfitted but it should be enough for most users. most custom-built systems, you could
with a Core i7-7700K, overclocked to Either way, Digital Storm uses custom- probably shave $1,000 or more off the price
4.9GHz, one of the highest desktop core color sleeved PSU extension cables and by building it yourself, but Digital Storm
clocks we’ve seen on a prebuilt system. cable combs to keep things tidy, combined brings a lot to the table here. Between
While it doesn’t quite keep up with the with remote-controlled LEDs, making it all build quality and all the benefits of having
6950X in Cinebench R15 or x264, which very pretty to look at. a warranty and customer service, the
really take advantage of Hyper-Threading, Velox delivers on the promise of a top-end
the 7700K was hot on the Aventum’s heels BEAUTY AND BEAST gaming machine. –BO MOORE
in PCMark 8 Creative, with a score of 9,404. Aesthetics are one thing, but they don’t
9
To complement the Kaby Lake CPU, the count for much without performance to VERDICT
Digital Storm Velox
Velox features an Asus Maximus IX Hero match. Luckily, the Velox plays games as
Z270 motherboard. Slotted in there is 32GB good as it looks. The pair of EVGA GeForce BROTHERLY LOVE Beautiful
of DDR4-2666 RAM, and a 512GB Samsung GTX 1080s handled all the difficult tasks we build quality; outstanding
960 Pro SSD, connected via NVMe. For threw at them with aplomb, but sometimes high-resolution gaming
additional storage, the 960 Pro is backed faltered at the seemingly easier tasks: performance; way less
up by a 3TB Toshiba HDD. A Corsair H115i rendering games at the paltry resolution of expensive than the Aventum 3.
liquid cooler keeps CPU temperatures 1080p. We measured an average of 113fps
ESTRANGED FAMILY Few empty drive bays;
down, while the case is outfitted with across Rise of the Tomb Raider’s three-
poor 1080p performance.
Thermaltake Riing fans for everything part benchmark in 1080p at max settings,
else. Finally, graphics are handled by a while The Division registered 150fps at the $4,737, www.digitalstorm.com
pair of GeForce GTX 1080s, outfitted with same settings. Far Cry Primal, on the other
EVGA’s ACX 3.0 cooling solution. hand, pulled in only 82fps at 1080p—a low SPECIFICATIONS
Size-wise, the Velox’s all-metal chassis score for what should be an easy task.
Processor Intel Core i7-7700K
is exactly what we like to see from a top- This can largely be accounted for by SLI
@ 4.9GHz
end gaming desktop: big (22 x 19.5 x 10 not playing nice with lower resolutions,
Graphics 2x SLI EVGA ACX 3.0
GeForce GTX 1080 8GB
BENCHMARKS RAM 32GB Digital Storm
ZERO- Performance Series
POINT
DDR4-2666
Cinebench R15 (Index) 987 1,047 (6%) Motherboard Asus Maximus IX Hero
(Z270)
TechARP’s x264 (fps) 21.93 23.59 (8%)
Primary 512GB Samsung 960 Pro M.2
PCMark 8 Creative (Index) 7,675 9,404 (23%) Storage NVMe SSD
CrystalDiskMark 4K Read (MB/s) 54.85 58.79 (7%) Additional 3TB Toshiba

Storage
CrystalDiskMark 4K Write (MB/s) 171 215.3 (26%)
Cooling Corsair H115i 280mm liquid
Far Cry Primal (fps) 76 82 (8%) Solution CPU cooler, Thermaltake
Riing case fans
The Division (fps) 78 152 (95%)
PSU 850W EVGA SuperNOVA
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 41 113 (176%)
Case Digital Storm Velox Chassis
3DMark Fire Strike (Index) 15,026 25,974 (73%)
Warranty Lifetime Expert Care with
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% three-year limited warranty
Our desktop zero-point has a Core i7-6700K overclocked to 4.6GHz, an XFX Radeon R9 Fury X, 32GB of Kingston (three-year labor & one-year
HyperX Savage DDR4-2400, and a 256GB Samsung 950 Pro, mounted on an Asus Z170i Pro Gaming mobo. direct part replacement)

in the lab
RGB mobos? We
still don’t get it.

Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra
Gaming
A badass budget-busting bombproof board
WITH THE VAST MAJORITY of boards, as far Z270X-Ultra Gaming is currently available boards we’ve now tested, at 131W. And,
as average users are concerned, providing for a meager $165. That’s $30 less than the alas, that isn’t the end of the Ultra’s voltage
little beyond greater connectivity and ITX board we picked up from MSI this issue, problems. During our overclocking spree,
expandability, forking out the cash for and half the price of MSI’s overclocking and similar to all the boards previously
flashier mobos often makes little to no pro Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium we tested, it still managed to achieve the 5GHz
sense. Performance differentials are reviewed the issue before. silicon limit, but at a noticeably higher
almost non-existent, and taking a GTX 1080 Does it show? Sort of, but not in the voltage than the others, at 1.33V, with
and a Core i7-7700 from a $70 B250 mobo places you might expect. Performance only the Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon coming
all the way up to the $300 kings of Z270 across the board was actually pretty close, at 1.32V. Undervolting also failed to
will likely provide practically no difference impressive. At stock, it easily outpaced impress, with the Gigabyte again being the
beyond increased connectivity, better every single motherboard we’ve tested highest, at 1.12V at stock.
looks, and a flashier UEFI BIOS. Unless to date, scoring a pleasing 21.16fps Overclocking is only a small part of
you’re on the liquid-nitrogen cooling train, in X265, and a staggering 995 points the package, of course, and although
with a full-fledged arsenal of Core i7s consistently in Cinebench R15. Memory tweaking voltages can reduce overall
beside you, you’re unlikely to see much latency was also top-notch, coming in at an processor temperatures, it’ll probably be
difference, as the PC ecosphere tends to incredible 54.0ns. an afterthought for the majority of people.
lend itself more to silicon limits within the However, it’s not all plain sailing, and Voltages aside, the plethora of connectivity
processors themselves than anything the it’s only when you start looking at how the options, fantastic aesthetics, strong stock
motherboards can muster. board handles voltage, in particular, that performance, and price make the Z270X-
So, Gigabyte’s Z270X-Ultra Gaming you realize just where it’s coming unstuck. Ultra Gaming phenomenally good value
impressed us from the get-go. On the By default, the Ultra Gaming auto-fixes for money. And similar to the offerings
outside, it certainly looks like a high- CPU Vcore voltage between 1.3 and 1.35V— Gigabyte mustered last generation, we
end choice. A quick glance, and you’ll see at most, 0.1V higher than Intel’s prescribed can’t see many, if any, mobo manufacturers
brushed black aluminum heatsinks, the settings, and more than 0.05V higher than ousting Gigabyte from the top spot of best
now ever-present RGB lighting, a rear I/O most other competitors. Not only does this bang for buck just yet. –ZAK STOREY
shield, and a cornucopia of connectivity, improve general stability, but it also allows
including a single M.2 PCIe x4 slot, a U.2 Gigabyte to optimize CPU performance
9
VERDICT
Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming
connector, a bank of four SATA ports across the board at stock. The downside,
(including SATA Express), two separate however, is that it draws notably more GIGATON HAMMER Vast
SATA 6Gb/s ports, and two internal USB power from the wall under load, with our feature set; great aesthetics;
3.0 headers as well. No doubt a premium figures showing 156W maximum, with only RGB lighting if you want it; strong stock
offering, then? Well, perhaps not—the the XPower coming close out of the five performance; impressive price.
GIGGLEBYTE Voltages slightly high;
BENCHMARKS potentially higher temps because of that.
Gigabtye Z270X-Ultra Gaming Asus Maximus IX Hero $165, www.gigabyte.com
X265 Benchmark (fps) 21.16 21.02

SPECIFICATIONS
Cinebench R15 (Index) 995 977
FryRender (m:s) 3:32 3:36 Chipset/Socket Z270/LGA 1151
AIDA64 Memory Latency (ns) 54.0 59.5 Form Factor ATX
CrystalDisk Sequential Read/Write (MB/s) 3,073/1,562 3,131/1,546 Memory Support 64GB DDR4 @ 3,866MT/s
1x M.2 PCIe x4,

Power Draw Idle/Peak (W) 42/156 43/126 M.2/U.2 Support
1x U.2 PCIe x4
Far Cry Primal @ 4K (Average fps) 43 43 6x SATA 6Gb/s,
SATA Support
2x SATA Express
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme (Index) 9,532 9,442
Max PCIe Support 3x PCIe x16 (x16, x8, x4)
Maximum Overclock Achieved (GHz) 5.0 5.1
5x USB 3.1, 2x USB 2.0,
Lowest Undervolt @ Stock (V) 1.12 1.07 1x USB 3.1 Type C,
1x Intel Gigabit Ethernet,
Lowest Voltage @ 5GHz (V) 1.33 1.28 Rear I/O
1x PS/2 combi port,
1x DVI-D, 1x HDMI,
Best scores in bold. Our test bench consists of an Intel Core i7-7700K (separate chip to our Asus Maximus IX Hero
review), 16GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum @ 2,400, GeForce GTX 1080, and 250GB Samsung 960 Evo PCIe SSD. 1x S/PDIF out, 5.1 audio

BUY, FLY AND EVEN MAKE
YOUR OWN DRONE
NE W TECHLIFE HANDBOOK FROM THE
MAKERS OF
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
DRONES
148 OUT £9.99

PRINTED IN THE UK
TLB01 2016
PAGES OF KIT
TUTORIALS
& TIPS
NOW!
WHAT TO BUY HOW TO FLY MAKE MOVIES GO DIY PRO TIPS

The best new In-depth Awesome video Build your Get your
drones tutorials & stills own drone licence

2UGHURQOLQHDWhttps://www.myfavouritemagazines.com
RU¾QGXVLQ\RXUQHDUHVWVXSHUPDUNHWQHZVDJHQWRUERRNVWRUH
RU¾QGXVLQ\RXUQHDUHVWVXSHUPDUNHWQHZVDJHQWRUERRNVWRUH
MSI Z270i
Gaming Pro
Carbon AC
Z270 ITX offering
IN THE EARLY NOUGHTIES, an interesting
concept arose from our fervent pursuit
of more powerful technology: As
transistor size shrank, efficiency per watt
increased, and die size fell, manufacturers
aggressively pushed for smaller and
smaller devices. The ITX form factor was four USB 2.0 connections, giving a total of little more assurance—the weight of a GPU
developed in 2001 by VIA Technologies as eight. The Z170i has four USB 3.1 and two isn’t going to shatter them. And the M.2
a way of shrinking desktop computers to USB 2.0, for a total of six. And the Z270i has PCIe x4 slot on the back keeps us happy
a more manageable size, and it has since three USB 3.1 and two USB 2.0—a total of when it comes to super-fast storage.
become a staple for enthusiasts looking to just five. It sounds like a petty complaint, Performance was consistent, as
build a tiny desk-sitting powerhouse. but look at the plethora of peripherals that always, with little variance between many
MSI’s Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon is the connect via USB, and it’s easy to see how of the benchmarks. Memory latency took a
first in the latest line of Kaby Lake boards quickly those connections can be taken hit, and our X265 benchmark was the worst
we’ve seen that deals with ITX. And we’ll up. A mouse, a dual-port keyboard with a of the boards we’ve tested so far, but that
be honest: Although the on-board support pass-through, a webcam, a USB headset— was made up for by the lower power draws.
is as good as, if not better than, it has ever that’s five ports taken up immediately. Got Overclocking was a little under par—
been, the rear I/O gives us pause. This a wireless dongle? Too bad. A wireless our lowest undervolt from stock was 1.1V,
isn't limited to MSI, though—Gigabyte, controller? Not any more. the highest of the boards we’ve tested, and
Asus, and ASRock have all stripped down we managed 5GHz at 1.32V, compared to
the rear I/O of their ITX offerings, and put PIN POINTS the 1.3V of last issue’s more overclocking-
about 25 percent less stuff on it. Because, USB woes aside, MSI’s Z270i Gaming Pro oriented XPower Titanium. It is a solid
you know, ITX system users have fewer Carbon is a solid board. It’s nice to see the offering—it’s just a shame that the rear I/O
peripherals, or something. Yeah, we ITX layout get finalized, with 24-pin and is shrinking at such a rate. –ZAK STOREY
don’t get that logic either. Anyway, let’s 8-pin power getting concrete placement,
7
VERDICT
compare the Z97i Gaming AC against the and SATA and USB being more accessible MSI Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon AC
Z170i Gaming Pro and the Z270i Gaming than before. The reinforced DDR and PCIe
ANACONDA Solid performance;
Pro Carbon. The Z97i has four USB 3.0 and ports, although laughable, do give you a
M.2 port on rear.
BENCHMARKS EARTHWORM Limited overclocking;

disappointing rear I/O.
MSI Z270i Gaming MSI Z270 XPower Gaming
$180, www.msi.com
Pro Carbon Titanium
X265 Benchmark (fps) 20.57 21.15

SPECIFICATIONS
Cinebench R15 (Index) 982 984
Chipset/Socket Z270/LGA 1151
FryRender (m:s) 3:31 3:36
AIDA64 Memory Latency (ns) 66.3 59.7 Form Factor Mini-ITX
CrystalDisk Sequential Read/Write (MB/s) 3,160 3,249 Memory Support 32GB @ 3,800MT/s
Power Draw Idle/Peak (W) 41/117 45/131 M.2/U.2 Support 1x M.2 PCIe x4
Far Cry Primal @ 4K (Avg fps) 43 42
SATA Support 4x SATA 6Gb/s
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme (Index) 9,508 9,595
Max PCIe Support 1x PCIe 3.0 x16
Maximum Overclock Achieved (GHz) 5.0 5.0
Rear I/O Wireless ac, 2x USB 2.0,
Lowest Undervolt @ Stock (V) 1.1 1.09 3x USB 3.1 Type A,
1x USB 3.1 Type C,
Lowest Voltage @ 5GHz (V) 1.32 1.3
Intel Gigabit Ethernet,
5.1 audio, SPDIF out,
Best scores are in bold. Our test bench consists of an Intel Core i7-7700K, 16GB of Corsair Dominator
Platinum @ 2400, a GeForce GTX 1080, and a 250GB Samsung 960 Evo PCIe SSD. HDMI, DisplayPort

in the lab
Crucial
MX300 2TB
The cheapest
2TB SSD in town
SOLID-STATE STORAGE is one of the wonders
of the modern world. Thinking about it,
we’re reminded of the immortal words of
Arthur C Clarke, the great science fiction
writer. He reckoned that any sufficiently
advanced technology seems like magic.
Go back 100 years, and what would 750GB, and 525GB MX300 models. Only the limitations we mentioned mean there’s
anyone make of, for instance, a 256GB the entry-level 275GB model differs with zero chance of this drive setting any new
MicroSD card? The notion something so slightly lower performance. It also shares records. What you want is a reliable drive
tiny could store hundreds of thousands of the familiar Marvell 88SS1074 controller with no performance nasties. That’s what
books would surely seem like witchcraft. with the rest of the MX300 family. the 2TB MX300 largely delivers.
Nowadays, it’s pretty impressive that you Similarly, this 2TB model uses the In our synthetic performance tests, it
can bag a 128GB USB stick for under $25. same 384Gb TLC 3D flash memory dies delivers pretty much exactly what you’d
Despite that, SSDs aren’t yet the default as previous MX300s. It’s that unusual expect, with peak performance around
option for mass storage. That will happen capacity per die that leads to the MX300 500MB/s, and 4K results in the mid-20MB/s
eventually. But not yet, not even thanks to range having odd sizes, with this drive area for reads, and 120–140MB/s for
Crucial’s 2TB MX300. It’s about as close serving up 2,050GB. The MX300 range also writes, depending on the benchmark app
as you’ll get to a really big SSD aimed at has a dynamic write acceleration mode in question. It’s a similar story of generic
a mainstream audience. At $549, however, that switches a portion of the memory to SATA drive performance in our real-world
it’s getting on for 10 times the price of the SLC mode for increased performance. For compression and copy benchmarks. All of
cheapest 2TB magnetic hard drive. the 2TB model, the amount of memory that which means the MX300 ultimately trades
Of course, the MX300 still majors on can be switched to SLC mode is increased. on price, which is handy, because it’s
capacity rather than performance. That’s The MX300 also comes with Crucial’s comfortably the cheapest 2TB SSD you can
because it’s a SATA drive, rather than a PCI SSD management software, which enables currently buy. –JEREMY LAIRD
Express model, which brings limitations in you to tweak settings and performance.
terms of the peak bandwidth on the SATA Among other features, you can update the
8
VERDICT
Crucial MX300 2TB
interface and the inefficiencies of the AHCI firmware, monitor the health of the NAND
protocol it uses. The latter never being chips, and toggle the Momentum Cache BIG LEAGUE Mass-storage
designed with solid-state storage in mind. feature, which uses system memory to class capacity; very competitive
Thus, we’re talking peak claimed buffer random writes. pricing; no performance nasties.
performance around 500MB/s for reads If all that reads like a feature list without
ALTERNATIVE FACTS Mega money
and writes, and IOPs a fair bit below much real-world analysis, the truth is that
compared to a magnetic drive; PCI Express
100,000. The 2TB MX300, incidentally, the MX300’s real-world performance isn’t
drives are far faster.
has the same claimed performance for all that interesting. SATA SSDs such as
sequential throughput and IOPs as the 1TB, this are a fairly mature technology, and $549, www.crucial.com
BENCHMARKS SPECIFICATIONS
Crucial MX300 2TB OCZ Trion 100 960GB Samsung 850 Pro 2TB Capacity 2,050GB
Memory Type TLC 3D NAND

AS SSD Incompressible
469/480 513/436 513/499
Sequential Read/Write (MB/s) Controller Marvell 88SS1074
AS SSD 4K Random Form Factor 2.5-inch

24/119 31/92 41/126
Read/Write (MB/s)
Interface SATA
ATTO Sequential
526/535 564/517 404/427 Read Performance 530MB/s
Read/Write (MB/s)
Write Performance 510MB/s

5GB Zip (Seconds) 185 194 194
4K Reads 92,000 IOPs
30GB Internal Copy (Seconds) 197 263 160
4K Writes 83,000 IOPs
Best scores are in bold. Our test bench consists of an Intel Core i7-7700K, an Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero, 16GB Warranty Three years
Corsair Dominator Platinum 2,400MT/s, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080.

Intel Pentium
G4600
Hip, hip, hooray for
Hyper-Threading
IT’S VERY LIKELY end of days for Intel’s CPU
strategy as we know it. We don’t mean that
in an apocalyptic sense. Intel isn’t about to
suffer an existential calamity. But AMD’s
Ryzen processor is coming, and we’re
confident it’s going to shake things up.
That’s the context into which Intel’s for the CPU side of things. There’s no turbo about 15 times as much. Arguably, then,
Pentium G4600 arrives. Based on the mode, and the CPU multiplier is locked, so what matters is that for general-purpose
latest Kaby Lake microarchitecture, it’s overclocking is essentially a non-starter. computing, the G4600 gets the job done.
very much a child of the last five years Like all mainstream desktop CPUs, the It feels perfectly zippy for web browsing,
or so, when Intel ruled on the high seas, processor cores are only half the story— playing back HD video content, and most
across the land, and up in the air. Within literally, as integrated graphics make up anything else you’re likely to do day to day.
that narrative, the fact that Intel has almost half of the G4600’s 14nm CPU die. It even turns in decent numbers in
bequeathed the G4600, plus two other In this case, it’s an Intel HD Graphics 630 games, showing that the age-old problem
new Kaby Lake Pentiums, with Hyper- GPU, at the top end of the smaller of the of coding games to scale beyond a few
Threading capability constitutes news. two graphics cores Intel is sticking in its cores remains. Just don’t try to use it to
Hyper-Threading is the ability for each Kaby Lake chips. It has 24 execution units re-encode hours of 4K video or render a
CPU core to process two software threads to the 48 of the Iris Plus cores. So, even by pro-level 3D scene. In the current reality,
in parallel. And it’s been baked into every integrated standards, it’s nothing special. then, the G4600 is appealing. But change
Intel Core processor since Nehalem in But for $82, you aren’t getting special. is in the air, and the measure by which CPU
2008. Actually, it’s rumored that it was also What you are getting is very good value is assessed could be very different
in the Core 2 Duo, just not enabled. And, of single-threaded performance. The G4600 within just a few weeks. –JEREMY LAIRD
course, it was first seen in the Pentium 4 cranks out 151 points in Cinebench R15 in
Netburst chip way, way back in 2000. single-threaded mode. The Core i7-7700K
8
VERDICT
Intel Pentium G4600
The point is that it’s always in any manages 182. Put another way, if all you
desktop CPU model you buy from Intel; it’s were interested in was single-threaded VALUE PROPOSITION Excellent
just enabled or disabled to help cook up a performance, and overclocking wasn’t in single-threaded performance;
few different chip models. It’s the sort of your vocabulary, there’d be little reason to very cheap for an Intel Core-based chip; it’s
ruse you can get away with when you have spend more than 82 bucks on a G4600. got Hyper-Threading!
little to no competition—a situation that Flick the multi-threading switch, on
INDECENT PROPOSAL Feeble multi-
prevails today, but isn’t going to last. the other hand, and those numbers jump
threaded performance; locked CPU
Anyway, the Pentium G4600 slots in at to 385 and 970. The 7700K is only a quad-
multiplier; might not look so cheap once
$82, and offers up two Hyper-Threading core chip, of course. The 10-core Core i7-
AMD shakes things up.
enabled 3.6GHz cores, supported by 3MB 6950X monster will spew out about 1,750
of cache memory. And that’s pretty much it points in Cinebench. Then again, it costs $82, www.intel.com
BENCHMARKS SPECIFICATIONS
Intel Pentium G4600 Intel Core i5-7600K Base/Turbo Clock 3.6GHz/NA
X265 Benchmark (fps) 7.8 15.9 Cores/Threads 2/4

Cinebench R15 Single/Multi Core (Index) 151/385 179/663
Lithography 14nm
FryRender Benchmark (m:s) 8:56 5:46
Cache 3MB
AIDA64 Memory Latency (ns) 61.3 58.1
Memory Support DDR4 2,400MT/s
Power Draw Idle/Load (W) 46/69 44/103
Total War: Attila @ 1440p (fps) 36 40 Memory Channels Dual
Far Cry Primal @ 1440p (fps) 76 77 Max PCIe Lanes 16
3DMark Fire Strike Dedicated GPU (Index) 11,679 15,762 Graphics Intel HD 630
3DMark Fire Strike Integrated GPU (Index) 1,003 1,159 Graphics Clock 1,150MHz
Best scores are in bold. Our test bench consists of an Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero, 16GB Corsair Dominator TDP 51W
Platinum 2,400MT/s, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080.

in the lab
Corsair
Carbide
270R
Classy chassis
comprised of
compromise
THERE’S LITTLE WE LOVE more than a
case that cuts that fine line between
sophisticated and garish. Corsair has long
been a master of balancing on that knife
point, its chassis beautifully comprised of
elegant panels shaped in a manner that
would put Apple’s design studios to shame.
But they’ve always come at a cost. Literally.
Most of the high-end cases pass the $100
mark by a mile, with only the Carbide 400C another chassis. Our biggest gripe with of a PSU cover. The Corsair Carbide 270R
scraping in just under the margin, and the top fan mount lies with the fact that it’s is a happy medium between the two. It’s
anything else relegated to ITX lovers. huge and has zero dust-filtering. If you’re not perfect, but for the price, it’s damn
The Carbide 270R bucks that trend. running any setup other than exhaust, impressive, and definitely one of our top
Coming in at a reasonably affordable $70, you’re going to have a bad time when it three mid-range chassis. –ZAK STOREY
it’s the first Corsair case that incorporates comes to keeping the inside of your chassis
8
VERDICT
the look and feel of the more sophisticated dust-free, and for a windowed case, that Corsair Carbide 270R
400C but at a more aggressive price can be a real deal-breaker.
CARBON FIBER Stylish; good
point. The front panel curves down into a
cooling support; easy to build
smooth, brushed aluminum-effect plastic CONSPICUOUS BY ABSENCE
in; PSU cover; intuitive storage design.
finish, with the front I/O tucked away down The rest of the chassis is very spartan.
the side in a recess. You’re not spoilt for There’s no 5.25-inch drive bay, no hard CARBONITE Lack of dust filtering;
choice there, though, with a single power drive cages in the front, and a simple three- confusing top cooling mounts; lack of
button, two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and quarter-length power supply cover across rubber grommets.
microphone pass-throughs, a hard drive the bottom of the rig, with a cable cutout to $70, www.corsair.com
operation indicator, and a single reset route those pesky front panel connectors.
button. On either side (once you get past Turn the case around, and you’re greeted
SPECIFICATIONS
the front I/O), you’ll find a large section by one huge CPU cutout, two 2.5-inch SSD
of filtered fan intakes, around one inch mounts on the back of the motherboard Form Factor Mid-tower
deep—more than enough to keep your tray, and two 3.5-inch hard drive mounts
Motherboard Support ATX, microATX,
choice of front system fans well fed. on the left-most panel closest to the front. Mini-ITX
Speaking of cooling, there’s room Cable tie points are plentiful, but there Colors Available Black
for a 360mm/280mm radiator in the are no rubber grommets protecting the
Window Options With or without
front (3x 120mm fans or 2x 140mm), a cable routing holes. Although not hugely
240mm/280mm radiator in the roof (2x important, it can help hide cable mess, and 3.5-inch Support 2
120mm/140mm), and a single 120mm is something we’d have liked to have seen. 2.5-inch Support 2
radiator in the rear. Pretty neat, if water We can’t help but go back to that price,
Radiator Support 280mm front, 280mm
cooling is your thing. The vent on the roof is too, and compare it to the competition. roof, 120mm rear
something of a nuisance, though. It’s really For $70, you could get NZXT’s S340 case, 3x 120mm front,
Fan Support
long—at first glance, you’d be forgiven for which looks crisper and cleaner, and has 2x 140mm roof,
thinking you could mount three 120mm substantially better dust filtration systems 1x 120mm rear
fans there. Unfortunately, it’s just shy of than the 270R. It is, however, more limited Dimensions 20 x 8.3 x 18.1 inches
being the right size for that, although with in its cooling support. But if that’s a
Graphics Card 14.6 inches
a touch of modding and some seriously problem, you could swap over to the Fractal Clearance
secure screws, it wouldn’t be too hard to Define S instead, coming in at $80, which
CPU Tower Clearance 6.7 inches
mount a 360mm radiator in the top, then provides you with full unhinged access to
mount additional fans on to it. However, up to two 360mm radiators top and front— Weight 16lb
at that point, it may be worth just buying but with an increase in size, and the lack

Razer Kraken
7.1 V2
Exploring the
depths of bass
THIS IS NOT THE FIRST time Razer has
unleashed the Kraken, and it’s not the
first time we’ve faced it down. Its first go-
around, when we reviewed the shiny white
Kraken Pro V1 in December 2015, didn’t
exactly impress; its bass-above-all-else
sound stage was a bit much, and we had
trouble with the mic. Can this 7.1 model,
which sits alongside the newly-tuned Pro
V2, offer us something more palatable?
We’ll address the issues we had with
the original shortly—let’s begin with the
benefits (or not) that the 7.1 offers over the
Pro model. The most obvious difference is
the lack of a four-pole jack, consigning the
7.1 to USB-based use only. There’s also a
bit of added virtual surround technology, clear, rich, quality sound that’s leagues objectively a better headset than the first
Razer’s Chroma LED lighting, a MEMS above any tiny electret in this price wave of Kraken cans.
microphone in place of the Pro’s more bracket. The noise canceling is decent, too. The microphone is out of this world, the
standard electret number, and active noise This is an utterly, utterly impressive piece padding luxurious, the gimmicks ladled on,
canceling through Razer’s Synapse app. of gear. We’d like to see MEMS spread and the sound, er, enhanced. But you’ll find
Like the V1 before it, this Kraken is a all the way across the mid-level headset a much more balanced sound elsewhere
mighty aluminum monster—light, strong, market, and it’s a valid reason—one that in the market. This is an explosive gaming
and padded to within an inch of its life. It isn’t silly pretty lights—to settle for USB- headset, and if you’re not consistently
has even fatter circumaural ear pads— only headset solutions. immersed in a world of combat, you’ll
replaceable with oval models, which would be disappointed. –ALEX COX
suit larger ears, but only if you’re willing to BASS CAMP
7
VERDICT
pay for the upgrade—and despite its snug That’s one check in the box, then. So Razer Kraken 7.1 V2
fit, this is a headset that you can wear what of that all-important sound stage?
CRACKIN’ Tremendous mic;
from dawn to dusk without worrying about We were a bit concerned when Razer
supremely comfortable;
squeezing or discomfort. described it as “louder” than its older
tweakable sound.
The 7.1 virtual surround is, frankly, a sibling, which we diagnosed with acute
bit weird. It’s highly adjustable through Gamer Syndrome, as it leaned so heavily CACKIN’ Over bass-heavy; poor 7.1;
the app, but so subtle that it might as on the bass. Let’s begin with the good pointless lighting; USB only.
well not be there. When you do happen to news: through Razer’s 50mm drivers, $99, www.razerzone.com
catch a moving sound, it feels as though the crackles of treble and burbles in the
the Kraken is painting more of a vertical middle are present and sound perfectly
than horizontal picture, a disconcerting correct. You won’t be dragging anyone in SPECIFICATIONS
sensation, which throws one out of the to listen to your new headset, but there’s
Driver Type 50mm neodymium
game somewhat. The Chroma lighting, nothing missing, and a rich, satisfying level
similarly, might as well not be there, of sound reproduction is on offer. But then Impedance 32 ohms
seeing as you’ll ideally be wearing this the bass kicks in, and those clear tones get
headset rather than looking at it. It’s all hammered down by a relentless assault of Frequency Response 12Hz–28KHz
about making a statement to those around low-frequency sound, boosted to within an
Design Style Closed back
you; if you’ve been dying to state “my ears inch of its life, and sometimes beyond the
are glowing purple,” more power to you. point of clarity. It’s more pleasant than its Microphone Type MEMS
Here’s something the Kraken 7.1 V2 predecessor, and you can futz with the EQ
Connectivity USB 2.0
does oh-so-right, though: its 5V-powered controls in Synapse to calm it down a little
microphone. Retractable into the (or, if you’re a real masochist, switch on the Weight 12.3oz
earphone and perfectly poseable, the unnecessary bass boost), but this headset
microelectromechanical, fully silicon- is positioned as a skull-shaker, and that’s Cord Length 6.6 feet
based construction of the mic pulls in a precisely what it does. And, overall, it is

in the lab
SteelSeries
Rival 700
Perfection in non-
ambidextrous form
STEELSERIES: a legend in the hardware
world. Its reputation is only trumped by
its own new products supplanting itself
on the way to the top of the peripheral
hill. The company is neither the huge
production foundries of Logitech, churning
out hundreds of thousands of products
each year, nor the niche-audience-slaying
design houses of Mionix or BenQ Zowie,
but a happy mix of the two. And that more than the mouse itself and a small themselves are exceedingly precise,
balance speaks volumes. With a legacy cardboard box. You’d be forgiven at this and don’t cause any jitter in your mouse
encompassing products such as the point for thinking that the Rival 700 is a positioning. We bound this feature to one
Sensei ambidextrous gaming mouse, the wireless mouse—it’s only when you dig a of our focus buttons in Sniper Elite V3, and
HV3 lineup of headphones, and even the little deeper that you begin to understand had no trouble picking off targets at our
first ever Rival, SteelSeries has definitely what’s going on. In short, the choice of usual rate.
cemented its place in our hearts when cable rests with the consumer. You get All in all, the SteelSeries Rival 700 is a
it comes to those additional little input one six-foot braided cable, one six-foot well-tuned, customizable gaming mouse
methods we use on our prized systems. plastic-coated cable, plus a plastic-coated at the pinnacle of its field, designed to
That said, mouse development seems three-foot cable. On top of that, you can incorporate absolutely everything in
to have come to a grinding halt, certainly also swap out the cover on the rear belly today’s gaming mouse market. It does cost
as far as innovation is concerned. With of the mouse to either a glossy black or an $80, which is a lot for a pixel-pointer, but
high-dpi optical sensors now perfected, anti-sweat soft-touch variant instead ($15 it’s well worth it in our eyes. –ZAK STOREY
RGB lighting mastered, and a plethora for the pack).
9
VERDICT
of mice in a variety of shapes, sizes, and And then, of course, there’s the sensor. SteelSeries Rival 700
button complements, it’s hard to imagine By default, the Rival 700 comes with
TRUMP VS. HILLARY Fantastic
where the pointy rodent will go next. Well, an optical PixArt 3360, pumping out a
optical sensor; strong
that’s what we thought, until two mice whopping 16,000 dpi if needed, with zero
ergonomics; no hardware
in particular caught our attention in the hardware acceleration. However, if optical
acceleration; classy design;
last 12 months: Mionix’s vital-statistics- is simply not your jam, you can grab
strong software suite; tactile
tracking Naos QG, and SteelSeries’s yourself the PixArt 9800 laser module
feedback; swappable cables and sensor.
extravagant flagship, the Rival 700. We instead for $25. Simply unscrew the four
didn’t manage to get the latter into the mag Phillips-head screws underneath, place MCDONALD’S VS. BURGERKING A touch
at the time—not for lack of trying, mind your new sensor inside, and wham-bam- too pricey.
you. We initially had our hands on a sample thank-you-ma’am, you’re all set. $80, www.steelseries.com
in the office way back in April 2016, when Customization aside, there’s a few little
we thought it was absolutely fantastic. extras that really make the Rival 700 stand
However, due to SteelSeries’s concerns out. You can’t quite seen the OLED screen SPECIFICATIONS
with the braided cables being too “grippy,” in the above shot, but it enables you to slap
Sensor Optical
the company (frustratingly) delayed the any number of small GIFs or images on
release, and took the mouse back to the the side of the mouse, alongside in-game Sensitivity 100–16,000 dpi
drawing board for another four months, notifications—not particularly useful,
Sensor Model PixArt Technologies
to redesign the cable—yep, SteelSeries is granted, as you should be looking at the PMW3360
that serious. screen. But what’s most impressive is the
Polling Rate 125Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz,
inclusion of rumble feedback—you can 1,000Hz
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX assign tactile feedback to any of the seven Programmable 7
So, here we are at last, with the mythical buttons, in a variety of ways. Although not Buttons
beast sitting in front of us. The SteelSeries hugely useful for the two main buttons, LEDs Two-zone—16.8
Rival 700. We rarely speak about the having a tactile response from whichever million colors
unboxing experience in our reviews, but button you press helps train your brain to Cable Lengths 6ft and 3ft
with the Rival, it’s something else. You get use buttons that you would otherwise get
Weight 4.8oz
a small rectangular box, split diagonally. confused about, making it one neat and
Opening it up on its hinge reveals nothing surprisingly useful addition. The vibrations

The cover
designer
has a few
graphics
to get you
started,
or you can
import
your own.
Ashampoo Burning Studio 18

For those who haven’t dumped the optical drive
WE LIKE ASHAMPOO. It’s hard to hold anything stereo in your car. Now, we’ve never had a we’re working on communicating with some
against a software company whose slogan problem getting in our Benz and worrying cyborg future-Zak to find out if they live up
is “We make software!” And we admire its that a CD might have been made with a to their promise). That’s the kind of long-
directness—even if we’re not totally sure Ford in mind, but we’re talking about MP3 term data archival capability untouched by
about that name. CDs here, and not all car stereos want the hard drives.
We respect it, too, for still making same folder structure from a disc, so it’s a You’re mainly buying convenience and
burning software in 2017, when the world thoughtful inclusion. The app also includes peace of mind when you purchase an app
has long since moved on to flash or cloud an equalizer for tweaking the output of your like this. With so many functions bundled
storage for transferring files. There are music files when burning as a standard into one package, you’d have to skip across
a great many uses for those shiny disks, audio disc. several free apps to get the same level of
however, and with BDXL discs capable of Movies get a similar level of attention service, and deal with a dearth of updates,
holding 100–128GB of data, the market for to detail—with MPEG-4, H.264, and AAC or poor coding, or a lack of compatibility
them as an archivable backup solution is added to the list of supported formats, the with disparate hardware. If disc-burning
strong. But in a world where you can find masterpieces you shoot on your cell phone is still something that’s important to you,
DVD burning apps for free on the Internet, can be committed to shiny polycarbonate Burning Studio 18 is packed full of features
why go to the effort of paying for one? for posterity. That these are also common and works well. Anyone else should just buy
Fans of the Burning Studio series will formats found on torrent sites (or so we’re a big USB drive. –IAN EVENDEN
no doubt be wondering why Ashampoo has told) is merely a happy accident. The app
done a Microsoft and skipped a number, wants to be an editing suite, too, bringing in Ashampoo Burning Studio 18
going straight from Burning Studio 16 to 18. cuts and transitions, sound effects, photo
VERDICT THE BURN Comprehensive
7
Something to do with 17 being an unlucky slideshows, and a cover designer.
features; useful backup
number, apparently, and anyone who’s felt It’s also a backup app. Large amounts
capabilities; straightforward
better for noticing that a building lacks a of data can be stored across multiple
to use.
13th floor will surely sympathize with that. discs, thanks to disc-spanning, and there’s
So, what’s here that’s worth paying compression and password-protection, THE BIRD Many PCs now sold without
for? Free apps tend to be limited in scope, too. The main reason you’d want to do this optical drives; 2TB hard drives are cheap .
so having every feature in one place is rather than chuck everything on a suitably
RECOMMENDED SPECS Dual-core 1.8GHz
certainly nice. Along with the standard sized external hard drive is longevity—while
CPU; 2GB RAM; at least 128MB VRAM;
burning of data folders to a disc, and the most disc formats offer only a lifespan of up
Windows 7 or newer.
production of audio CDs, you get a mode to five years, Millenniata’s M-Discs claim
that tunes a disc especially for the model of up to 1,000 (although this is difficult to test; $60, www.ashampoo.com

in the lab
Events sometimes see you Trudging uphill to a
joined by NPCs, or you can start point is a pain.
team up with human players.
Skiing backward is
Complete an event, and you easy, and trees don’t
keep going, ready for the next. mind if you hit them.
Steep
We can see our house from heeeeeeerrrrrrre!
THERE’S A POINT in Steep when the your board leaves a distinct pattern of landscape. Instead, it decided to spin him
mountain starts talking. It has an echoing, depressions, rather than cutting smoothly around, flipping from left to right so fast
female voice, the sort of thing you’d expect through—and the curious lack of feedback that the game couldn’t keep up (the frame
from millions of tons of rock if it had from running over someone else’s trails. rate was locked at 60 for most of our time
been possessed by the spirit of Galadriel, The ability to change the time of day is a nice with the game, sacrifices being made in the
perhaps seeking a winter getaway. touch, as are the hot air balloons, anchored fidelity of distant objects rather than let the
It’s odd, because you’re not expecting somehow in the air above the Alps to provide fps dip). And once Steep crosses the line
it—up to this point, you’ve been encouraged additional launching points for wingsuiters. from a game about barreling down hills as
to jump off things, and whoop it up—and Imagine a Far Cry game with no main fast as you can to one of pure analog control,
what the mountain says cuts to the heart quest drawing you to specific areas. Instead, that mountain’s words start to make a lot
of what Ubisoft intended with the game. It wherever one side-quest takes you, you more sense. This is a playground, and it’s
describes itself as a playground, a place to pick up three more. You can go where you through exploration and having fun that you
make memories, and takes things too far by want, and progress is made by completing can make it your own. –IAN EVENDEN
pretending to be puzzled by the weird “skis” events, scoring points by performing tricks,
VERDICT
8
people are using on its slopes. discovering areas, missing obstacles, and Steep
Skiing is one of four sports in the finding creative routes down the mountain.
DEEP Good sense of speed;
game—five, if you count walking. There’s As you advance, more areas unlock, and you
plenty to discover; well-
snowboarding and paragliding, too, or you get a feel for the mountains. They really are
calibrated controls.
can ease into a wingsuit, dragging one of Far a playground, with no penalties for messing
Cry 4’s more distinctive modes of transport up, and speedy restarts if you really can’t WEEP Occasional glitches; inconsistent
out of the closet, and jump off a mountain get back to the course. collision detection; patchy signposting.
whenever the mood takes you. We had a few moments when we
RECOMMENDED SPECS Intel Core i7-3770K
Graphically, there’s a lot of white, couldn’t, the game finding it impossible to
@ 3.5GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0GHz; 8 GB
although special mention has to be made decide what to do with our boarder when he
RAM; GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390.
of the crunchy snow simulation, even encountered the back of a building, or one of
if it sometimes appears too “digital”— the interminable snow fences that litter the $50, http://steep.ubisoft.com, ESRB: T

Being discovered brings extra guards
running from nearby buildings.
Shadow Tactics:
Blades of the Shogun
Shadow tactics: stand by wall with sun behind you
FROM A ROOFTOP, you see it all. The guards use your heroes one at a time, but entering now sounds rather like a movie portraying a
move in predictable patterns, their vision Shadow Mode allows you to set up moves bachelor party, in which someone thinks it’s
cones making it explicit what they can and in advance, which are then carried out hilarious to dress up as a Nazi, rather than a
can’t see. Your samurai partner is in some at the press of a key, and this can lead to gritty wartime tactics game.
bushes just behind a guard and his officer, perfectly timed ambushes or, more likely, In doing this, Shadow Tactics feels like
though neither is looking in his direction. abject failure. So load and have another something new, even if it’s just the latest
Up high across the map, a sniper awaits go. The game absolutely encourages you to point on a line that stretches back to the
your command. All you have to do is spin quicksave, even going as far as assigning original Syndicate. It would be easy to
the winch, and a crane will drop its load it a button on the controller, if you’re using imagine this harsh but mostly fair game in
on three guards, while your samurai cuts one. It nags you if you’ve spent as much as third-person, à la Hitman, but we’re glad it’s
down his two, and the sniper drops the an entire minute without saving, but only remained the way it has. –IAN EVENDEN
remaining witness. They carry out their offers your last three saves for reloading.
8
VERDICT
orders simultaneously, and there’s nothing This makes it a game in which trial and Shadow Tactics:
left to stop you entering the next area. error are the way forward, but one that’s Blades of the Shogun
Shadow Tactics’ name reveals its not going to punish you too badly for making
LIGHT Engaging tactical
purpose. A top-down stealth game, the latter, despite its occasionally punishing
gameplay; appropriate art style; simple
rendered in a lovely, painterly style, it’s difficulty level.
control scheme.
probably not pushing your GPU as hard as It may be set in Edo-period Japan, with
Dishonored 2 would, but taxes the wetware shogun, samurai, and shinobi taking major DARK Can obscure the way ahead;
between your ears just as much. Its world is roles, but Shadow Tactics evokes a later animations rely too much on bobbing
one of predictable patterns and overlapping period in world history and an earlier one heads; quicksaving may annoy purists.
attention spans. Opportunities overlap, in videogames: the WWII-set Commandos
RECOMMENDED SPECS Intel i3 fourth-gen
coalesce, and dissolve as you watch, until games. This isn’t a bad thing, as it’s
3.5GHz or AMD quad-core 3.9GHz; 6GB RAM;
you judge the moment is right to strike. always good to see fresh ideas pumped
Nvidia GTX 570 or AMD Radeon HD 6950.
With up to five characters under your into a stale genre. It’s been 14 years since
control, attacks can get complex. You can Commandos 3: Destination Berlin, which $40, www.shadow-tactics.com, Not ESRB rated

in the lab
JARRED WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR
AMD’s Ryzen
Looks Promising
Double the cores, double the fun, but no six-pack
I’VE BEEN HEARING about AMD’s Zen, now in IPC compared to its existing Excavator
Ryzen, for what feels like forever. The Zen architecture, with clock speeds of at least
architecture was first mentioned in 2012, 3.7GHz on the eight-core part. Architectural
and ever since, the repeated refrain of AMD changes include a reworked, more efficient
CPU apologists has been “just wait for Zen.” pipeline. Each core is a six-wide superscalar
That wait is finally over, and Ryzen is now design (four-wide fetch), compared to the
available. But as we go to print, I still don’t previous four-wide design, the branch
know exactly what AMD’s Ryzen lineup will prediction is more accurate, and cache
be in terms of core counts, clock speeds, latencies and bandwidth are both improved.
and pricing. It’s quite the contrast compared The result is that Ryzen should be much
to AMD’s open discussion of the Ryzen more competitive with Intel’s CPU offerings.
architectural details, not to mention Intel’s Interestingly, AMD apparently won’t have
routinely leaked product roadmaps. a six-core model; instead, it will have an
Here’s what I do know. AMD is planning eight-core chip without SMT as its mid-tier
on a full release of Ryzen processors, all offering. That means that at each product Making AMD CPUs competitive again.
multiplier unlocked. Ryzen uses a quad- segment, AMD will deliver double the cores/
core module as its building block, with threads as Intel. Intel will almost certainly versus Core i5’s 4C/4T, even with slightly
SMT providing eight threads, similar to maintain its lead in per-core performance, lower clock speeds, Ryzen should come out
Intel’s Hyper-Threading, and 8MB L3 cache. but if 4C/8T Ryzen SR3 goes up against ahead in many benchmarks. We’ll have the
AMD claims a 40 percent improvement Core i3’s 2C/4T design, or 8C/8T Ryzen SR5 full skinny next month.
TUAN NGUYEN ZAK STOREY

Editor-in-Chief Reviews Editor
There’s this trend in the PC lot of “gaming” gear doesn’t Why don’t we include the price resolutely stuck on Windows,
space called “gaming.” What do anything for actual gaming of the operating system in our but don’t want to cough up
does that mean? Contrary performance. It just means builds and system features? $100 for the latest version,
to what you might think, it’s you’re going to pay more for It’s a question that often there is another option: the
hardware that puts aggressive something made cheaply, to comes up in the office. For Windows Insider Program.
aesthetics and RGB lighting cash in on the gaming train. the most part, we shy away Simply create a Windows Live
before useful innovation. This isn’t about choice or from the decision, because account, sign up to the Insider
Manufacturers are marketing taste. It’s about the definition the needs of the individual vary Program, download and install
the living diodes out of of gaming. Give me quality and massively across all of our the Windows 10 technical
hardware, and attaching the performance over marketing readers—some use Ubuntu, preview, and you get a fully
word “gaming” to just about hype and gimmicks any day. I’ll others Debian, Windows 7, 10, unlocked version of Windows
anything. Unsurprisingly, a take the cost savings, too. and so on. That said, if you’re 10 for free.

GEEK
TESTED &
APPROVED
APPROV
APPRO V ED
Editors’ Picks:
Digital Discoveries
Bo Moore, technology editor, and Alan Dexter,
executive editor, share their latest tech loves
TRON V9.9.0 DISKDIGGER
Antlion
Being my family’s on-
call tech support, I’ve
run into my fair share of
My smartphone recently
decided that it no longer
liked my microSD card.
ModMic4
systems compromised I can’t remember if it WE HAVE A PENCHANT at Maximum PC for
by a pile of bloatware, was after a restart or high-quality audio. Although there are
unnecessary toolbars, and viruses. Most update, but my screen displayed a prompt some pretty snazzy gaming headsets,
of us know the standard system recovery saying that the Samsung microSD wasn’t they tend to meander well into the $250-
utilities—CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and their recognized, and would I like to try to format plus range for anything close to decent
ilk—but there’s an even better option, before it? An offer that the phone couldn’t deliver sound reproduction.
going nuclear, and reinstalling the OS. on, as it appeared to have been corrupted. Turn your head to audiophile offerings
Tron is an open-source script that Long story short: No matter how many without a microphone, however, and
automates the full process of cleaning and machines, adapters, tools, and OSes I tried, you can easily find pairs for under
disinfecting a Windows system. First, it I couldn’t get the card to play nicely again. $150 (Audiotechnica’s ATH-M50Xs,
preps your system, creating a restore point, A dead microSD card is hardly the stuff for example). For the vast majority,
and running tools and scripts that ensure of nightmares, particularly as the data that no mic is no problem, but for gamers,
the rest of the process runs smoothly. Next, really matters was automatically uploaded lacking a way to communicate with your
it runs cleaning utilities such as CCleaner to my Google account. Even so, it’d be good buddies can be a deal breaker. And for
and BleachBit, followed by de-bloating, to take a look at what’s on the card before I those unwilling to chunk out for a $200
ditching OEM bloatware, toolbars, and other consign it to the big trash bin in the sky. dedicated desktop microphone, there’s
pre-installed apps (excluding useful stuff The problem is that Android 6.0 has not a huge deal of choice.
such as Calculator and Paint). Disinfection changed the way it handles SD cards, so Except, maybe there is. Antlion saw
is handled by Malwarebytes, KVRT, and plugging the card into Windows (or Linux) this gap in the market, and jumped in
Sophos, while a series of scripts check and reveals nothing. So I turned to file recovery with this fantastic modular microphone.
repair Windows. Finally, Tron updates and tools to see what was lurking beneath its Available in two models, the 4 and the
optimizes your system, patching Adobe, seemingly blank surface. One tool that did 5 (the 5 has both a four-pole and a USB
Java, and whatever else needs updating. well, and was free to try, was DiskDigger—a adapter), the ModMic attaches to the
It’s an impressive list of tasks that should portable app that scans for a selection of side of any headset with a small adhesive
take care of almost any problem. Even files, and allows you to save them off with magnetic clip. Don’t need the mic today?
better, it’s a single download that, once minimum fuss. It took a while to scan the Pull it off your headset, and place it in
started, runs itself—though it can take six to entire card (30 minutes for 32GB), but did its faux leather case. Sound quality is
eight hours to finish. recover a few MP3s and a couple of log files. impeccable, and the mic supports up to
Free, www.bmrf.org/repos/tron $15, www.diskdigger.org 24-bit 192KHz without worry, delivering
some fantastically crisp and clean sound;
not too bass-heavy, not too tinny. The
adhesive sticker is easy to remove, and
it comes with a variety of clips to secure
the ModMic’s cable to your standard
headphone cable, too. There’s very little
to dislike—we just wish it rotated a bit
better on that magnetic mount. –ZS
$50, www.antlionaudio.com

comments you write, we respond
WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...
> Replacing Fans

> Core i5 vs. Core i7
> OwnCloud Woes s
Cooler Fans fans to deal with: the three push configuration, at the 2.9Hz). This surprised me. A
Zak’s piece on his upgrade Be Quiet! fans on the case, front of the radiator, out of few years ago, I got a Core i7
build had me reading it at the Corsair fan on the GPU sight, and then have the LED with a Lenovo T440P, and
least six times to make sure radiator, and two NZXT fans variants pulling air through, was never that impressed
I learned all there was to on the Kraken cooler. All of while on display. with the speed. I just
be learned (“The Ultimate these stock fans are LED Unfortunately, the cable assumed it would be faster
Upgrade,” Feb 2017, pg. 68). and PWM. I was tempted to tidy bar NZXT includes and better than any Core i5.
There was one confusing change them for matching stops you from installing Now I’m confused about
part, though: I could not tell Corsair MLs with white an additional pair of fans what to buy when I next
if he replaced the very good LEDs, but decided not to. inside the chassis, because upgrade in a year or two. I’m
stock fans on the new NZXT Zak added two Corsair fans the bar sticks out at an odd a business user, with some
Kraken cooler with Corsair to the inside of the Kraken angle at the top, preventing heavy computing with Visio
MLs, or if he added them to radiator. Did he replace the the radiator or fans coming plugins, running semantic
the inside of the radiator, two stock fans on the Kraken back any further. On top of web inference engines,
meaning the radiator would radiator with the two Corsair that, you can’t mount them and I use Lightroom a fair
have four fans in push-pull. MLs, or are there four fans outside the chassis in the bit, but no video editing.
I can’t tell if the two stock in push-pull? –Greg Johnson inch of space given by the I’m not a gamer. The last
fans are there on the front of front panel for airflow, as game I played was Q-Bert
the case, or if he discarded REVIEWS EDITOR ZAK STOREY you’ll suffocate them, and at a grocery store in 1980. I
them and replaced them RESPONDS : The fan situation there’s also the magnetic got addicted and quit, cold
with the Corsair MLs. was a mixed bag. I knew dust filter in the way, too. turkey. –Michael Uschold
For a new builder, fan I wanted to use Corsair’s I’m a bit particular when
placement and control is ML120s, because I wasn’t it comes to cooling, and EXECUTIVE EDITOR ALAN
very confusing. massively fond of Corsair’s prefer all the fans to be the DEXTER RESPONDS: The
My first build is about to old-school SP series, due same model, as (I like to tell frequency of a processor
be the Kaby Lake i7-7700K, to the excessive noise they myself) it gives me a greater shouldn’t be confused with
Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro produced. The ML120s drop understanding of the noise its performance. A single-
900, and I just switched the well below 500rpm, and and airflow I’m passing core CPU running at 5GHz
cooler from the Corsair H115 produce Noctua-rivaling through the system. I also will be thrashed in most
to the NZXT Kraken X62, figures, so they were love consistency when it metrics by a quad-core
which he loved in his build definitely my preference. comes to aesthetic decisions chip running at 2.5GHz.
(you used the 52, but also Originally, due to the like that. So, I’m not actually Generational improvements
said 240 radiators now had lack of available airflow in using push-pull, but if I can also be a factor—a
less appeal, and suggested the S340 Elite, I intended could, I would. modern chip running at the
280 radiators, with 140 to run the Kraken X52 in a same frequency as an older
fans). I’m also using the MSI push-pull configuration, Apples and Oranges model will outperform it,
GeForce 1080 Seahawk X like you said. I actually went On page 53 of the February especially with laptops—a
GPU, which has a radiator out and bought another issue, the table says lot of Intel’s advances have
and included Corsair fan. two ML120 Pros—but just the Core i5-7600 is 31 focused on mobile.
That means I have three the standard ones. Theory percent faster than the As far as your specific
brands of new PWM LED being, I could place them in Core i7-7700T (3.8 versus comparison goes, it is a bit
↘ submit your questions to: comments@maximumpc.com

more complex, because it to work, there are certain there are files inside it. Only that he considered this an
you’re pitching a full- dependencies that need to then can you change the upgrade is baffling. I have
fledged desktop Core i5 (the be sorted, such as a working ownership of those files. done upgrades with a fresh
7600K has a TDP of 91W) database to operate from, We ran through the install of Win 10 without a
against a low-power Core i7 a web server to integrate whole tutorial again, just to key, and Win 10 activated
(the 7700T has a TDP of just with, and a whole host of make sure (using a laptop automatically because it
35W). So while the Core i5- permissions to sort out. running Ubuntu 16.04, which recognized the computer.
7600K does run at 3.8GHz, While it looks like it’s file forced us to do a few things Your magazine caters to
and the Core i7-7700T runs ownership that has tripped differently), but it definitely advanced computer users,
at 2.9GHz, they’re designed you up, the fact that you’re does work. So keep going, and your readers expect
with very different uses getting a “No such file or and good luck! advanced technical info and
in mind—the Core i7 can directory” error suggests advice. –William LeDuc
be found in tiny NUC-sized it’s the previous step that Not an Upgrade
machines, while the 7600K has failed. Just to recap I do not agree with the fuss EXECUTIVE EDITOR ALAN
is for more bullish systems. the process: You need to Alan Dexter made about DEXTER RESPONDS : We’ve
Given what you use your download the latest version Windows 10 activation, upgraded lots of machines
machine for, though, I’d of OwnCloud from https:// and, based on Windows 10 without issue here on
recommend a top-end Core owncloud.org/install, making licensing, I don’t believe he Maximum PC, but that
i7, although which particular sure you get the OwnCloud was eligible for activation of wasn’t the point of my
model you go for depends on server build, the one that Windows 10 on his computer. rant—it was the fact that
what machine you’re looking has the “tar.bz2” extension. What he describes as an the process can go wrong,
to buy—your options for Next, go into a terminal upgrade is really a new PC. and when it does, it’s
laptops are more limited by window, and make your So, to expect Microsoft to frustrating. For instance,
thermals than what you’ll way to wherever you’ve recognize that he had done when you say, “there was
see in desktops, and some downloaded it, then unpack a simple upgrade to his PC nothing in the machine to
of Intel’s naming conditions that tarball with: is ridiculous. There was identify the old computer,”
can be confusing (the Core $ sudo tar -C /var/www/html nothing left in the machine I assume we have to ignore
i7-6500U, for instance, only -xf owncloud-9.1.3.tar.bz2 to identify the old computer. the SSD? Or the fact that
has two cores), so it pays to Make sure the files are It is also obvious that he said installation was tied to
look at the details. unpacked by browsing to was basing his complaint a Microsoft Live account?
/var/www/html/, and on an OEM license, which Just to reiterate why
Raspberry Cloud making sure there is an is not transferable to a I had to upgrade in the
I am having trouble with “owncloud” directory, and new computer. The idea first place, it wasn’t on a
the “Create a Pi Cloud with whim; it was because the
OwnCloud” feature from the motherboard had failed. And
November issue, and have [NOW ONLINE] as a seasoned upgrader,
spent hours trying to figure
out issues on my own. I am WHICH GRAPHICS SETTINGS you’ll know that when your
motherboard dies, it isn’t
having trouble installing SHOULD I DISABLE? always easy to find direct
OwnCloud (the current replacements, so before
version is now 9.1.3). Yes, I you know it, you’re looking
did read the update in the at a major overhaul. There’s
“Letters” of the magazine’s nothing in the Microsoft
Holiday 2016 issue. licensing agreement that
Here is where I am stuck: prevents this, at least on
sudo chown -R www-data: a full or upgrade license.
/var/www/html/owncloud/ As you say, an OEM license
{apps,config,themes,updater, does prevent certain
.user.ini} upgrades (and, indeed,
chown: cannot access ‘/var/ direct technical support),
www/html/owncloud/apps’: but that wasn’t the case
No such file or directory here—something underlined
–Joseph Keller We love cranking game terrible. Graphics options by fact that the machine was
settings up to 11. But even and their impact vary from activated after talking to a
EXECUTIVE EDITOR ALAN with top-end hardware, game to game, so it’s a support engineer.
DEXTER RESPONDS: There’s there are some settings that good idea to check out a While you may not agree
no doubting the appeal offer little visual difference game-specific optimization with the fuss I made, and it
of running your own but can have a large impact guide, but we’ve come up may not line up with your
cloud server, but getting on your frame rate. And with a selection of settings experiences, highlighting
a server up and running if you’re running on older that generally provide problems where they exist,
isn’t always easy. Even hardware, you should the least “bang for your and making our readers
with a detailed tutorial turn these down to boost buck” in terms of detail aware of potential problems
that runs through the main your frame rate without versus performance. (and their solutions) is
installation, there’s going to making everything look http://bit.ly/2jpIvKh part of what we do here on
be problems—in order for Maximum PC.

The home of technology
techradar.com
Sponsored by a part-by-part guide to building a better pc
blueprint
BUDGET MID-RANGE
INGREDIENTS INGREDIENTS
PART PRICE PART PRICE
Case Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX $70 Case NZXT S340 Elite $100
PSU EVGA 450B Bronze $45 PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 550 GS Gold NEW $80
Mobo MSI B250I PRO Mini ITX NEW $90 Mobo MSI Z270 Gaming M3 NEW $160
CPU Intel Core i5-7600K NEW $250

CPU Intel Pentium G4600 NEW $90
Cooler Corsair H100i v2 $103
GPU Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 3GB $195
GPU EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 $390
RAM 8GB (2x 4GB) Avexir Core Series DDR4-2400 NEW $52
RAM 16GB (2x 8GB) G.Skill V Series DDR4-2400 NEW $92
SSD 240GB PNY CS1311 NEW $60
SSD 256GB Intel SSD 600p M.2 PCIe NEW $100
HDD 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 7,200rpm 3.5-inch SATA NEW $44 HDD Western Digital Blue Series 1TB 7,200rpm NEW $50
OS Ubuntu Desktop Linux 16.04 LTS 64-bit $16 OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $100
Approximate Price: $662 Approximate Price: $1,425

WHAT A PRICE DROP THIS TIME AROUND! This issue enlightened us KABY LAKE COMETH, and although it seems to have added very little
about one key tidbit of information when it comes to system building: to overall performance, it’s difficult to argue with a new chipset
In this day and age of supercharged IPC performance, the desire and slightly better performance for the same price. This month, we
for a more substantial processor on a base system like this is null decided to piece together something of a themed build. This checks
and void. As long as your GPU has the necessary heft, and you’re all those clichéd red and black boxes, the color scheme that’s
buying a modern CPU, you’re not likely to encounter any bottlenecks. become synonymous with gamers. We also decided to change a few
This is where the Pentium G4600 comes in. At $90, it’s a wallet- things around in an attempt to bring the storage up to modern-day
pleasing $115 cheaper than the Core i5 we recommended in last standards—or at least, more modern. Dropping Samsung’s 850 Evo
month’s issue—and, honestly, you won’t lose a lot by jumping ship. 250GB SSD, we went with Intel’s 600p M.2 PCIe SSD instead. At only
And if you’re just looking for a standard office PC, you can strip out $3 more, this budget offering tops out at nearly 1,600MB/s sequential
the GPU, swap out the SSD for a 120GB variant, along with a 500GB reads for snappy program load times. Trying to scrape back a bit of
HDD, and that’ll take this already paltry figure all the way down to cash, we dropped the WD Black drive for a Blue variant instead, saving
an outstanding $438—not including a copy of Windows 10, of course us a sweet $25, and we also went for an ever so slightly cheaper kit
(which we talk about on page 92). of DDR4.

blueprint
THIS MONTH HAS SEEN the biggest changes ever hit to our Turbo build.
We decided it was time we appeased the small form factor gods by
opting for this classy yet powerful microATX system. The decision
came about primarily because of the phenomenal saving we could
achieve on the EVGA X99 Micro 2. At $183, it’s over $40 cheaper than
the MSI X99A SLI Plus from last issue, yet it still provides us with all
the connectivity and power we were utilizing anyway. Because of this,
we had to swap out the chassis to something more fitting—Fractal
Design’s Define Mini C Windowed edition—shaving off another $82,
and then managed even greater savings by swapping from MSI’s GTX
1080 Gaming X to EVGA’s SC Gaming ACX, which propped us up with
TURBO another $60 on top. This meant we could plump for some fancier
accessories elsewhere, and still save a boatload. We bumped up the
cooler to the stunningly beautiful NZXT Kraken X52 AIO, and could
even afford to drop another $30 on Corsair’s legendary Dominator
Platinums. We also saw a price drop of $84 on Samsung’s 960 Pro
1TB. What this all adds up to, even with the splurge on prettier
cooling and memory, is a saving of $186 over last issue. Pump that
into the processor, and you could grab the slightly better specced
Core i7-6850K to net an additional 12 PCIe lanes and a 0.2GHz core
clock increase at stock. However, we’d advise you to just grab a
custom cable kit and some better fans instead.
For more of our component recommendations,

visit www.maximumpc.com/best-of-the-best
UPGRADE OF THE MONTH
INGREDIENTS
PART PRICE
Case Fractal Design Define Mini C Windowed NEW $88
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W $100
Mobo EVGA X99 Micro 2 NEW $183
CPU Intel Core i7-6800K $440

NZXT KRAKEN X52
Cooler NZXT Kraken X52 240mm AIO NEW $150
Choosing how to cool your prized processor is always a curious
GPU EVGA GTX 1080 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 NEW $590 decision. For instance, forking out extra cash for what amounts
to a slim 240mm radiator rarely offers any greater advantage
RAM 32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair Dominator
over another model, outside of a better designed fan and
Platinum DDR4-2400 NEW $250
easier mounting solutions. However, we just can’t get past
SSD 1TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD $630 how fantastic the Kraken X52 is. With a plethora of lighting
options, it’s a meeting of minds between the gaming RGB craze
HDD 2x 2TB WD Black 7,200rpm 3.5-inch SATA $238
that’s been forced upon us and a desire to retain a degree of
OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $100 professionalism that, arguably, all our readers wish to see in
their purchases.
$150, www.nzxt.com
Approximate Price: $2,769
Maximum PC (ISSN 1522-4279) is published 13 times a year, foreign orders must be prepaid. Canadian price includes postage The Official Xbox Magazine, and PC Gamer. Entire contents copyright
monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue, by and GST (GST #R128220688). PMA #40612608. Subscriptions do 2017, Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
Future US, Inc., One Lombard Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, not include newsstand specials. POSTMASTER: Send changes part is prohibited. Future US, Inc. is not affiliated with the companies
CA 94111. Phone: (650) 872-1642. Fax: (650) 872-2207. of address to Maximum PC, PO Box 5852, Harlan, IA 51593- or products covered in Maximum PC. Reproduction on the Internet
Website: www.futureus.com. Periodicals postage paid in San Bruno, 1352. Standard Mail enclosure in the following editions: of the articles and pictures in this magazine is illegal without the
CA, and at additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled None. Ride-Along enclosure in the following editions: None. prior written consent of Maximum PC. Products named in the pages
by Curtis Circulation Company. Basic subscription rates: one year Returns: IMEX Global Solutions, PO Box 25542, London, ON of Maximum PC are trademarks of their respective companies.
(13 issues) US: $24; Canada: US$40; Foreign: US$40. Canadian and N6C 6B2, Canada. Future US, Inc. also publishes @Gamer, Mac|Life, PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

9000
9016

Maximum PC

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Maximum PC

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

PENTIUM G4600 TOPPLING THE CORE i5 TO FREE ANTIVIRUS

SPRING 2017 QUICKSTART

6 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

6 ;3 <!£ ¥9 -2 ! -2+£' !6;36

k $OO ULJKWV UHVHUYHG 5DZ 'DWD LV D WUDGHPDUN RI 6XUYLRV ,QF

FOR $25 MAKE A

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 11

12 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

Free trade for China, GAME MODE

14 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 15

MAXIMUM PC’s TOP 7 THINGS FROM CES

7 MSI AM4+ MOTHERBOARDS

6 RAZER PROJECT VALERIE

2 ASUS ROG SWIFT PG27UQ

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 17

04)28)#.2) #BB;7 :A2=9@' #B  1%0 ::>

 <$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG

76"1 7845$88 76"1! 7845$88 76"1!! 7845$88 76!"!! 7845$88

39=?F2CG A@4 8@=?A@? -EC(C@' A? :); $7%31

AVG AntiVirus vs. Bitdefender

20 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

Winner: Winner: Winner:

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 21

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...

> Workstation Power

↘ submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 23

26 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 27

28 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

WHEREFORE ART THOU, OLED?

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 29

30 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 31

32 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 33

34 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 35

36 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 37

And the winner is...

38 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

Follow our tips for a

40 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 41

A LIGHT SPRING CLEAN

42 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

Trim Startup Items

FREE UP DRIVE SPACE WITH DISK CLEANUP

1. CHOOSE FULL SCAN 2. REVIEW SCAN ITEMS 3. MORE ITEMS TO CLEAN

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 43

44 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

CLEAN OUT YOUR SYSTEM WITH CCLEANER

1. CHOOSE WHAT TO SCAN 2. REVIEW ANALYSIS 3. CONTINUE CHECKING

4. ANALYZE AND CLEAN 5. CLEAN UP YOUR PC 6. MANAGE EXCLUSIONS

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 45

MAKE YOUR HARD

46 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

STREAMLINE YOUR PHOTO COLLECTION

1. SET SEARCH PARAMETERS 2. REVIEW RESULTS 3. PERFORM CLEANUP

maximumpc.com SPRING 2017 MAXIMUMPC 47

48 MAXIMUMPC SPRING 2017 maximumpc.com

6 ;3 <!£ ¥9 -2 ! -2+£' !6;36

k $OO ULJKWV UHVHUYHG 5DZ 'DWD LV D WUDGHPDUN RI 6XUYLRV ,QF

04)28)#.2) #BB;7 :A2=9@' #B 1%0 ::>

<$7 /0BB-1 5AE4 >ECG

76"1 7845$88 76"1! 7845$88 76"1!! 7845$88 76!"!! 7845$88

39=?F2CG A@4 8@=?A@? -EC(C@' A? :); $7%31