RETRO GAMING REVIVA

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THE BESTSELLIN
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IN , GAMING & MODDING / ISSUE 198

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 Welcome
Custom PC Issue 198

/ FROM THE EDITOR

A year to remember
he past year has been one to remember for the way it has

T shaken up the PC world. While AMD’s Ryzen debuted

back in 2017,the arrival of Zen 2 in August last year has
EDITORIAL
EDITOR
Ben Hardwidge
DESIGN
criticalmedia.co.uk

HEAD OF DESIGN
finally put to bed any nagging doubts about just how fast AMD’s Lee Allen
ben.hardwidge@raspberrypi.org
new CPUs could be.Even 3rd-gen Threadripper has made a strong DESIGNERS
FEATURES EDITOR
case for itself,as Antony Leather explores in our mammoth Ty Logan
Edward Chester
24-core PC build this issue,thanks to it taking a huge leap in single- edward.chester@raspberrypi.org COMMERCIAL
threaded and gaming performance over past iterations. & ADVERTISING
MODDING EDITOR
Meanwhile,we’ve seen DDR4 and flash memory prices drop Antony Leather ADVERTISING
to sensible levels,making RAM and SSDs ever more affordable. Charlotte Milligan
GAMES EDITOR charlotte.milligan@raspberrypi.org
We’ve also had the arrival of a swathe of ultra-lightweight gaming Rick Lane +44 (0)7725 368887
mice,putting to an end the strange trend for big, heavy mice that
CONTRIBUTORS DISTRIBUTION
were too cumbersome for many gamers. Not to mention Nvidia
Gareth Halfacree, James Gorbold, Seymour Distribution Ltd
bowing to pressure and adding G-Sync support to many Freesync Mike Jennings, Phil Hartup, Richard 2 East Poultry Ave,
monitors,giving us an even greater choice of displays. Swinburne, Tracy King, Simon Brew London EC1A 9PT
So,to celebrate all these arrivals and more, we thought it was PRODUCTION EDITOR +44 (0)207 429 4000
the perfect time to bring back the Custom PC Awards. Come Julie Birrell
SUBSCRIPTIONS
March this year,we’ll be celebrating all the best tech we’ve seen PHOTOGRAPHY Unit 6 The Enterprise Centre
over the past 12 months,and we want your help in choosing Antony Leather, Ben Hardwidge, Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal,
Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9PE
some of the winners. Head on over to p15 to get the full lowdown Edward Chester, Brian O’Halloran,
Fiacre Muller, Gareth Halfacree Phone
on which categories will be up for grabs, and which you can help
01293 312182
us choose – there’s a prize in it for one lucky reader too. PUBLISHING Email
Anewyearisn’tjustatimetolook back, though, but an PUBLISHING DIRECTOR custompc@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk
opportunitytocastourgazeforwards, and as you’ll see from the Russell Barnes Website
pagesofthismagazine,there’sone thing in particular that we’re all russell@raspberrypi.org custompc.co.uk/subscribe

excitedforin2020:Half-Life:Alyx.Willitbethegameoftheyear?
Well,asRichardSwinburnelaments,itmaynotbeformanyofus
thankstoitbeingexclusivetoVR.Butthenagain,maybethisisthe
yearmanyofusfinallytaketheplungeandinvestinaVRheadset.
HDR looks set to be ever more of a big deal too,with more
games including it,more video content available and more
screens supporting it. However,as we explore in our HDR buyers
guide,we’ll probably need to see a step change in the quality and
price balance of HDR displays before they really take off.
Here’s to enjoying the journey along the way as we find out.
Happy new year,folks!
FEATURES EDITOR
ISSUE 198 This magazine is printed on paper sourced from
RETRO GAMING REVIVAL ARE
A CRT MON TORS MAK NG A COMEBACK?
sustainable forests. The printer operates an
environmental management system which has been
assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.
Custom PC magazine is published by Raspberry Pi
(Trading) Ltd., Maurice Wilkes Building, St. John’s
Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS.
The publisher, editor, and contributors accept no
responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors
relating to goods, products or services referred to or
advertised. ISSN: 1740-7443.
ISSUE 198
SUBSCRIBERS
EDITION DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME The information in
this magazine is given in good faith. Raspberry Pi
(Trading) Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for
T E B ST

BU
BUI
EL
L LI G M G GA
A MING
G & MODD
DING

loss, disruption or damage to your data or your

computer that may occur as a result of following or
Edward Chester attempting to follow advice given in the magazine.
If things do go wrong, take a break.

edward.chester@raspberrypi.org

@custompcmag

3

Welcome o I su
Highlights
08 Half-baked
Richard Swinburne is excited about
Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx but less
about the hardware requirements.
10 Getting cross
Should games and religion
ever mix? Tracy King looks
at the latest game to try.
15 Custom PC Awards
The Custom PC awards are back
and we want to hear your thoughts.
20 Asus ROG Strix
X570-i Gaming
Antony Leather puts Asus’
more affordable mini-ITX
motherboard through its paces.
24 ARCTIC Freezer 50 TR
Are Threadripper CPUs too big
for air cooling? ARCTIC doesn’t
think so. Antony Leather turns
up the heat on the 50 TR.
30 Roccat Kone Pure Ultra
Roccat enters the ultralight gaming
mouse market with a rodent
that’s a little bit different. Edward
Chester puts it through its paces.
20
4
C U S TO M P C / ISSUE 198
OVER
P7
42 TRX40 moth
herboardLabs
bs 8 HDR monitor buyers guide
88
As 3rd-genThre eadripperhas The standards and technologies
impressedusm mightily,weask behind the recent raft of HDR
which motherbo oardshouldyou monitors is confusing.
g Edward
pair with yourprocessor?Antony Chester clears things up.
Leather tries out five of the best.
94 Hobby tech
54 HDR monitor Labs Gareth Halfacree talks to the man
HDR is the latest craze in PC monitors, behind Bitmap Books, tinkers with
but which is the one to buy? Six of the the SensorEq Coolipi and leafs
latest models are put to the test. through UNIX: A History and Memoir.
71 Conflict Zone 106 How to soundproof your case
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare gets
the mechanics right but Rick Lane
Keep a lid on your PC’s noise levels
with our guide to the easiest way to
wonders if the message is wrong. cut your computer’s cacophony.
78 24-core Threadripper
build guide 30
Antony Leather takes us through how
to build a monstrously powerful multi-
core mammoth of a machine in this
24-core Threadripper build guide.
 Reviewed
this month
32
PRODUCTS
Cover guide Regulars Reviews
REVIEWED
CASE
3 From the editor 18 Cooler Master MasterCase H100
78 112 LAPTOPS
8 Richard Swinburne 16 XMG Fusion 15
32 Asus ROG Strix SCAR III G731
RETRO GAMING REVIVA
R RE RT MONITORS MAKIN A COMEBACK?
10 Tracy King
MOTHERBOARD
THE BESTSELLIING MAG FOR PC HARD
D AR E, OVERC
CLOC
OCK IN
NG, GAMING & MODDING / ISSUE 198 12 Incoming 20 Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming

COOLER
BUILD
D 14 Letters 24 ARTIC Freezer 50 TR

PERIPHERALS
CORE 38 Custom kit
26 SteelSeries Sensei Ten
CR
REATE A MIGHTY
Y THRREAADRIPPER
R
RIG THAT
TH DOES IT
T ALL
LL, FR
ROM
28 Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero
GAMES ST
TO CONT
NTENT
NT CRE EATIO
ION
62 How we test
30 Roccat Kone Pure Ultra
64 Elite products PC SYSTEMS
34 CCL RaiderX
GUIDE TO
O 70 Inverse look 36 CyberPower Infinity X99 Super

76 Reality check Custom kit

HDR TECH AN STANDARD EXPLAIN D
OR GROUP TE
HDR GAMING ONITOR TEST 38 Diswoe Wireless Controller
94 Hobby tech
M
MARCH
R 2020 / £5.99

OW TO OUNDPROOF YOUR PC
38 Vodeson Wireless Keyfinder
38 Thermaltake Pure ARGB kit
99 For the win 39 Evercool PB-01 PCI Slot Fan Bracket
88 54 102 39 Klearlook Portable Phone Stand
100 Customised PC
Motherboard Labs
102 How to guides
24 44 ASRock TRX40 Taichi
108 Readers’ drives 46 Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming
48 Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme
114 James Gorbold 50 Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master
52 MSI Creator TRX40

HDR monitor Labs

71 55 Acer Predator CG437K
56 AOC AG273QX
57 Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ
54 58 Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ
59 BenQ EX2780Q
60 MSI Optix MAG321CURV

Games
71 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
72 Red Dead Redemption 2
74 Need for Speed: Heat
75 The Outer Worlds

Hobby Tech
96 SensorEq CooliPi
98 UNIX: A History and a Memoir

5
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Outside.
 OPINION

RICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN

HALF BAKED
Half-Life Alyx may be revolutionary, but it’s certainly exclusionary

fter waiting 15 years since Half-Life 2 was launched,and
A over 12 years since Episode 2 came out, Valve recently
announced its long-awaited follow-up, Half-Life: Alyx.
Valve states the new game is not Half-Life 3, and that the game
is also a VR exclusive. The trailer turns the hype meter past 11,
with some revolutionary first-person shooter mechanics that
make it look immensely awesome. However, Valve is pitching it
as being ‘made for Index’ – the company’s premium, extremely
expensive £919 headset.Unless you’re already into VR,this makes
the game exclusionary for most of us.
Valve has stated it’s committed to the Half-Life VR universe,
but we’ve heard its commitments before, many years ago. I
remember when Valve promised yearly releases of episodic
Half-Life content. In that time, Valve also
launched and dumped SteamBox, SteamOS,
Steam Controller and it also recently put the This
much-anticipated Valley of the Gods on hiatus. decision to push Valve’s
Now Valve wants us to drop nearly a grand
on its promises. Surely we’ve been burned too own expensive hardware As a complex device, it will always be several
many times to believe this.
Of course, we’ don’t have to play Alyx, but
that undersells Half-Life, which has had a persistent cultural
impact for 20+ years as one of the all-time greatest gaming
universes ever created, and it was unfinished. It hurts to
suddenly get the next installment after so many years, but
then find it’s hardware-exclusive.
We shouldn’t celebrate such a hugely anticipated follow-up
that denies players the opportunity of any experience, just
because it’s Half-Life. No one would have accepted Alyx being
hardware-locked as RTX-only, so why is this any different?
This isn’t a dig at VR, which is the ultimate immersive
accessory – it’s the exclusivity. It’s great to buy a racing seat,
wheel and pedals for racing sims, but they’re not required to
play the games – you can still play with a simple controller or
keyboard. Looking at the evidence, this is a business decision
to push Valve’s own expensive hardware – an ‘artistic right’ to
pursue its own vision at all costs.
To add context to this: in 2018 the VR market was worth
$3.8 billion US (including software and services), but the
PC-tethered devices such as Index and Oculus Rift made up
only a fraction of those sales. The PlayStation 4- based PSVR is
by far the largest VR market, with over four million headsets
sold, but Alyx won’t run on it. Meanwhile, in 2019 the PC gaming
hardware market as a whole is expected to reach $35Bn (the
whole gaming industry is $150Bn), so clearly PC-based VR is a
tiny fraction of the overall PC player base. Alyx
may be a bold step into the world of VR but on
is a business those numbers it seems downright foolhardy.
It’s not like you can wait for the (Steam)
sales to pick up a VR headset cheap either.
hundred pounds. You could buy an entry-level
VR headset, but reviews are frequently bad as
they lack some essential sensors.
It’s also exclusionary to those who can’t use VR headsets
because of visual disability, motion sickness, or they simply
don’t have the space to use it. Valve is one of the wealthiest
and most comfortably positioned gaming developers and
publishers – it could be more inclusive. Unfortunately, Valve
doesn’t have a track record of making the best decisions and
it seems to do whatever it wants, when it wants.“Valve-time”
is a thing, after all. The small nugget of hope here is that Alyx
will have mod support, so here’s hoping someone makes a ‘back
port’ to keyboard, mouse and monitor for the rest of us.

Richard has worked in tech for over a decade, as a UK journalist, on Asus’ ROG team and now as an industry analyst based in Taiwan @ricswi

8
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 OPINION
T R ACY K I N G / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS
GETTING CROSS
A new game trailer has mixed Christianity with video games.
But as Tracy argues, that’s nothing new
ecoveringfromvariousfamilyChristmastraumas,I’m
R reminded of the old adage ‘never discuss politics or
religion in polite company’. I would like to add a third
topic: video games.Ifyourpolitecompanyisanythinglikemine,
you’ve probably had some frustrating conversations about the
merits of your hobby. At best, we’re wasting our time when we
could be watching TV.At worst,gamers are turning themselves
into either zombies or crazed mass killers, depending on which
scare story your relative read in the Daily Mail this week.
Politics, religion and video games can cause arguments,
but at least we’re past the Mary Whitehouse era of religiously
conservative censorship, right? Whatever
daft opinions various folk might have about
the negative influence of Doom,there aren’t I suspect
placards and protests outside game studios. I Am Jesus Christ
We’ve seen off decades of hysteria about the
Satanic influence of everything from heavy isn’t particularly
metal music to Harry Potter. controversial at all
But now, there’s anewbadboyontheblock.
Enter ‘I Am Jesus Christ’,a Jesus sim‘coming
soon’to Steam. According to the video trailer, you play Jesus, going
around performing the miracles detailed in the New Testament,
culminating in a desert fight with the ultimate boss, Satan
himself. The trailer is reminiscent of the weird imported videos
I watched as a kid as a member of an American happy-clappy
church. It certainly doesn’t feel controversial. But according to
tabloids, Christians are ‘outraged’.
Except … I can’t find much evidence of actual outrage. All of
the media stories I’ve seen that claim outrage are citing one or
two vaguely sceptical tweets. A couple of tweets do not equal a
controversy.I don’t see Christian conservative groups protesting,or
think-pieces on religious blogs about why there shouldn’t be a Jesus
Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stories surrounding tech and gaming
10
sim(theonlyoneIfoundquerieswhetherthegame exists at all). I
suspectIAmJesusChristisn’tparticularlycontroversial at all, and
the tabloids are manufacturing yet another gaming controversy.
In fact, many branches of Christianity have long embraced
new media, including video games. They understand that the
bestwaytoreachyoungpeopleinanincreasingly secular society
is to go where the kids are. They learned their lesson from the
moral media panics of the 1980s.There’s Snapchat for churches,
andtheInstagramhashtag#Godappearsover40 million times. It
makessensetousegamestotalkaboutJesus,and indeed always
has. I’m no longer religious, but back in the 1980s, I had half a
dozen Christian games for my Tandy TRS-80,
and there has been a few per year ever since
(including Jesus in Space, which invites the
playertoteachbiblestories to aliens). There’s
evenaChristian-themedrip-off of Guitar Hero.
GamedeveloperJustinMcDaniel tweeted
his suspicion that the trailer is a publicity
stunt,awaytostandoutin a crowded Steam
marketplace and draw attention to their
actual games, and his theory has picked up attention.
It’s possible, but while everyone is talking about I Am Jesus
Christ, it’s largely to mock it, or embrace it as satire (the game
description describes Jesus as ‘privileged’, which suggests a
certain amount of tongue in cheek). While I’m not convinced a
fake or satirical Jesus game is a particularly effective way to drive
gamers to your back catalogue, it’s generated a ton of free PR.
Or perhaps the publishers, PlayWay SA, release concept trailers
and then make whichever game attracts the most attention. 
Either I Am Jesus Christ is a hoax, or it will be released
and the media will invent a controversy. Whichever it is, we’re
being played.
@tkingdot
 get
in the

4K
Ultra HD UltraWideColor Adaptive Sync
 I N CO M I N G / NEWS

Incoming
The RX 5500 XT
is alive Finally out in the wild is AMD’s Radeon RX 5500
XT, its new graphics board that – through board
partners – is already available with sufficient stock
out there. That’s not something that can be said for
every launch we got from AMD over the past year or so.
The RX 5500 XT is a Navi 14 GPU with 1,408 stream
p
processors and a base clock of 1670MHz to a boost of 1845MHz.
There are 4GB and 8GB versions and both use GDDR6 on a 128-
bit bus. Custom variants are expected to play around with clock
speeds, as always.
Price-wise, AMD is positioning this one in the slot where the
R
Radeon RX 590 used to sit. As such, expect to spend around $169
U for the 4GB version, and $199 US for the 8GB.
US
PHIL HARTUP

Lian Li has announced a new case, the Lancool 2. This

is a mid-range midi-tower, one that’s trying to walk a
line between chunky box housings and the ARGB disco
malarkey style of case. You thus get big, tempered glass
windows married up to a classic angular techy square shape.
Packed inside is an impressive cooling setup, with three
120mm ARGB fans installed by default, with room for five
more. The case can accommodate either 3 x 120mm or 2 x
140mm fans at the front, 1 x 120mm at the rear, 2 x 120mm
in the side cover to the PSU compartment and either 2 x
120mm or 2 x 140mm in the roof. The fan mountings also
work for 240mm or 360mm radiators. The Lancool 2 is
available in either black or white, priced at £82.99 (inc VAT)
for the former or £87.95 (inc VAT) for the latter.
PHIL HARTUP

12
 WORTH
£230

Express delivery
Gigabyte has unleashed a brand new PCI-E card, that will add compatibility with USB 3.2
Gen 2x2 to existing machines. The card has a catchy name – the Gigabyte USB 2.3 Gen 2x2
WIN!
Expansion Card – and it offers a single USB-C port for the rear of your machine.
It needs a PCI-E 3 4x slot, from which it draws all its required power. The card is based
A be quiet!
on the ASMedia ASM3242 host controller, and the first batch of them sold out pretty much DARK BASE PRO
instantly. Official pricing hasn’t yet been confirmed.
PHIL HARTUP 900 CASE!

Western Digital
offers more Blue
New off the Western Digital
production line is the latest version of
its Blue NVMe range of SSDs. Entitled
the SN550, it offers a read speed of
2,400MB/sec, four times faster than
a SATA SSD drive.
It will initially be available in
capacities of 250GB to 1TB, with
pricing at £50 (inc VAT) for the former
and £125 (inc VAT) for the latter. The
Blue SN550 is available now.
PHIL HARTUP

What’s that?
Our pals at be quiet! are offering a Dark Base Pro
900 Rev. 2 Silver case to one Custom PC reader.
The image above is a distorted close-up of a piece of
hardware featured in this issue. If you identify it,
email the name and page number of the product to
competition@custompcmag.org.uk, with ‘What’s
that? 198’ in the Subject field.

Awards Return Previous winners

As this very publication heads towards its 200th anniversary issue, we’re
marking the occasion with the long-awaited return of the Custom PC awards.
They’re arriving in March 2020, and we need your help to decide some of the
winners! Head over to p15 and find out how to cast your vote!
SIMON BREW
The winner from our Issue 196 competition was
Russell Amer, who correctly identified the Netgear
Nighthawk AX8 from p56. Congratulations Russell,
we’ll be in touch shortly to get your prize sorted out.
Terms & conditions
Competition closes on Friday 7 February 2020. Please see p103 for our
competition terms and conditions.

13

Letters
Please send us your feedback and correspondence to
letters@custompcmag.org.uk
CPUs for gaming
Now that Half Life Alyx has been
announced, I have finally convinced
myself that a VR set is necessary. This
will require a full PC upgrade in order
to support the minimum system
requirements. One aspect that’s
causing me some confusion is which
route to take for the CPU. Previous
system builds have been relatively
straightforward, as I just purchased
the fastest Intel CPU I could afford,
but now that
Ryzen has
stormed into
the market, the
decision is more
difficult. When
comparing a top
end Core i7 and
Ryzen 7, the Intel
product is
approximately
15fps better in
Far Cry 5.
However, all the
recent Custom PC recommendations
seem to point towards the purchase
of the AMD product line, which is
clearly superior in other tests. Can
you advise me on which route to
take? While I do the occasional bit of
video editing, my priority is gaming
and futureproofing as best as
possible for VR.
MARK GARDNER
Edward: While Intel does maintain a lead
in gaming, the 15fps figure for Far Cry 5
you refer to is when overclocked, and
obviously mileage can vary with
overclocking. At stock speeds, things are
much closer, which is why we err towards
AMD in many of our recommendations.
That said, if you are planning to overclock
14
F E E D B AC K
When’s the next issue out?
6
FEB
Issue 199
on sale on Thursday, 6 February
andgamingis your prioritythen Intel is
still thebestchoice.The9700K or
9600K would bethego-to options.
AMD laptops
I’ve got to say,I fully agreed with
Richard Swinburne’s column in the
last issue regarding AMD’s need to
get 7nm CPUs into laptops.Now my
current Sony Core i5 laptop is nearing
its tenth birthday,I’ve been putting
some serious research into its
replacement.Normally I’d try to avoid
falling into the trap of waiting for the
next generation of CPU to come out,
but for once,it seems like a smart idea
to do so.Intel’s current node has been
around for so long it seems foolish to
invest in it now rather than waiting
for their 10nm laptop parts en masse.
But equally,AMD will only be
competitive when they start selling
7nm Zen 2 parts.It appears to be a
case of who will get them out first
with matching components that
people want to buy? Here,Intel is
clearly in the lead,so for AMD to
make inroads into the laptop market,
it has to get Zen 2 into laptops as soon
as possible. If not, people like me will
grudgingly buy Intel again even
though on paper, AMD CPUs may be
better for our needs.
ANDREW LEVICK
Edward: Rumours are that CES 2020,
which will be happening the week this
issue becomes available, will see laptop
manufacturers showing off lots of shiny
new AMD models. How many there
might be and whether they come to
market in a sensible time frame is all to be
determined, but it should be well worth
keeping an eye on your favourite tech
news sites that week.
Big issues
I visited as usual the WH Smith store
at Edinburgh Bus Station on 7
November, expecting to find Issue
196 of the magazine, but instead
found Issue 197. Does this mean Issue
196 was abandoned? I no longer take
out subscriptions to any magazine, as
so many with whom I’ve had a
subscription have folded, and my
money was lost. Printing the date of
the next issue is I believe an excellent
idea. A synopsis of its possible
content would be useful too.
ANDREW SMITH
Edward: Issue 196 wasn’t abandoned,
you just missed it, by one day! You
happened to turn up on the very day
Issue 197 was released, so Issue 196
would have been taken off shop shelves.
However, you can pickup back issues
online at custompc.raspberrypi.org/
issues. The exact date of each new issue
is printed on this very page.
 C U STO M P C AWA R D S / 2020

THEY’RE BACK!
THE AWARDS
They’re back! It’s the return of the much-missed Custom PC awards
– and we need your help. We’ll be handing out the prizes in March of
this year, and we want you to help us choose some of the awards.
What’s more, there’s a prize draw for everyone who votes...
VOTE

THE CUSTOM PC TEAM WILL BE CHOOSING

NOW!
THE RECIPIENTS OF THE FOLLOWING:

• Technical innovation of 2019 • Best motherboard

• Issue 200 lifetime achievement award • Best gaming monitor

• Extreme Ultra – most lustworthy product • Best GPU

• Custom PC Component Company of the Year • Best CPU

• Best value component • Best gaming peripheral

• Best small form factor product • Best cooling product

AND THEN WE NEED YOUR

• Best networking product VOTES FOR THE FOLLOWING:

• Best case • Best Online retailer

• Best gaming monitor • Best independent system builder

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SPEC he XMG Fusion 15 is a highly i7-9750H CPU and their prices ranged between £1,699 and
CPU
2.6GHz Intel Core i7-9750H
T configurable laptop from German
brand Schenker. This particular unit
£1,999 – this is a popular price point.
The Fusion looks smart but unassuming. It’s made from
Memory has a couple of familiar components: an RTX black magnesium alloy, and it has no extravagance – the only
16GB 2,666MHz DDR4 2070 Max-Q GPU and a Core i7-9750H logo is a dark black shape on the lid. It’s one of the sleekest
Graphics processor. The RTX 2070 Max-Q is a cut- gaming laptops around and looks a little like a stealth bomber.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q back, more efficient version of one of Nvidia’s Build quality is good too. The base is solid with only minor
8GB
key GPUs. It has the 2,304 stream processors movement when prodded, and the screen is reasonably
Sound and 8GB memory of the standard mobile RTX sturdy. The whole machine is 20mm thick and it only weighs
On-board
2070, but its clock speeds have been reduced 1.9kg, so it’s lighter than every RTX 2070-based machine from
Screen size to 885MHz and 1185MHz. the Labs.
15.6in 1,920 x 1,080 IPS 144Hz
As for the Core i7-9750H, it’s a 6-core CPU It has three USB 3.1 ports and a Type-C connection that
Storage with base and boost speeds of 2.6GHz and supports Thunderbolt – a good selection. This laptop also has
1TB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD
4.5GHz. It’s used in virtually every high-end a card reader, which is becoming rarer.
Weight gaming laptop now. It has enough single- The keyboard uses opto-mechanical switches – hardware
1.9kg
threaded power to avoid bottlenecks, and its with the moving parts of a mechanical switch, but with a beam
Ports cores mean there’s ample bandwidth for of light for actuation. In theory, this means you get the added
3 x USB 3.1, 1 x Thunderbolt 3/USB
3.1 Type-C, 1 x HDMI 2.0, 2 x audio
photo editing and multi-tasking. weight and satisfaction of a mechanical keyboard but with
jack, 1 x SDXCs Elsewhere, there’s 16GB of 2666MHz improved response times. The keyboard also has per-key
Dimensions (mm) memory and a 1TB SSD alongside RGB LED backlighting and n-key rollover, but no numberpad.
356 x 234 x 20 (W x D xH) futureproofed 802.11ax Wi-Fi. The memory In practice, the opto-mechanical hardware is mixed. The
Extras could be faster, and machines with an SSD buttons have more travel than conventional ones, and they
Windows 10 Home 64-bit, Dual- and hard disk tend to offer more overall actuate quickly – keen gamers will appreciate the speed
band 802.11ax WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, storage space, but they’re minor complaints. gain. However, the buttons are light and wobble a little too
Gigabit Ethernet
In last month’s laptop Labs, there were four much. It doesn’t inspire confidence when compared to laptops
Warranty machines with the RTX 2070 Max-Q or the with normal mechanical keyboards, which are heavier and
Two years collect and return
full-fat version. Three of them used the more consistent.

16
 C P C R E A L B E N C H R E S U LTS The XMG is a few frames behind other machines with the
RTX 2070 Max-Q, and around ten frames behind laptops
with the full-power RTX 2070. So, while it’s solid, there’s room
for improvement.

52,899 394,114 103,313 The CPU is consistently at the top table when it comes to
i7-9750H speeds – faster than most machines with the same
chip. It will avoid game bottlenecks and tackle Office tasks and
GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING OPENCL photo editing better than most gaming laptops.
The XMG is impressive thermally too. The CPU and GPU delta
Ts of 59°C and 50°C are fine, and the exterior remains cool.

168,339 159,503 139.36%

Noise levels are good as well: the fan output is present during
gaming, but the XMG remained quieter than the vast majority of
gaming laptops. A headset will easily block it out.
HEAVY MULTI- SYSTEM INTEL PERFORMANCE The screen’s 1080p resolution and 144Hz refresh rate
TASKING SCORE INDEX ensure smooth gaming, even though there’s no G-Sync. The
contrast level of 1,139:1 is good as well, bringing vibrancy and
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER depth to the image. A maximum brightness of 319cd/m2 is
1,920 x 1,080, Highest detail, TAA XMG Fusion 15
more than adequate for most uses and should make this
XMG Fusion 15 61fps 81fps laptop usable in bright conditions, although some laptops do
0 40 80 120 160 push even higher.
The screen’s delta E of 3.09 is good but not great – and, FISSION
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II similarly, the colour temperature of 7,006K is a tad on the blue + Smart, solid,
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra detail, AA on
side, but not ruinous. The sRGB coverage level of 84.7 per cent light design
XMG Fusion 15 56fps 68fps is middling. The XMG’s screen has reasonable colours and + Great battery life
contrast, so it’s easily good enough for mainstream gaming –
0 40 80 120 160 + All-round decent
but if you need something for photo editing and the like, you performance
BATTLEFIELD V may want to look elsewhere. The speakers are only mediocre
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra, DX11
too. They’re very bass-heavy, but the treble range is muted FRICTION
XMG Fusion 15 68fps 91fps and indistinct, and the top-end is a little too tinny. - Rival machines are
faster in games
When it comes to battery life, this laptop is fantastic. During
0 40 80 120 160
gaming, with the screen at 100 per cent and 50 per cent - Poor speakers
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra, DX11, RTX High brightness, it lasted for two hours and 23 minutes, and then - Middling screen
quality
XMG Fusion 15 47fps 64fps
three hours and two minutes. None of its rivals could last for
two hours in those tests. In a work test, the XMG lasted for
0 40 80 120 160
a mighty seven hours and 35 minutes – more than twice as
Minimum Average good as most competitors.

Conclusion
There’s an awful lot to like about the XMG Fusion 15. Its battery
As for the trackpad, it’s large with a responsive surface and life is class-leading, and elsewhere this machine serves up SPEED
two crisp, shallow buttons. It works well for desktop duties but,
as ever, it shouldn’t be relied on for gaming – you’ll want a proper
solid gaming power, a fast CPU, a clean design and a decent
mechanical keyboard for no more extra cost when compared
22/25
mouse for that. with most rivals. It’s thermally impressive too. DESIGN
XMG offers loads of configuration options. Money can be
saved by dropping down to a GTX 1660 Ti GPU, or opting for
It’s not perfect. Many other machines with this GPU are
faster, and the keyboard is a little too light. The speakers are
22/25
lesser memory and storage allocations. Conversely, it’s possible poor, and the screen is fine but not the best around. Gaming HARDWARE
to add more memory and storage, and improve networking.
Longer warranties are also available.
laptops always involve compromise, though, and the XMG
does better than most. It’s a great option if you need something
20/25
smart for work and play. VALUE
Performance
The cut-back RTX 2070 is reliably quick. It ran our test games at
MIKE JENNINGS
22/25
1080p with minimum frame rates between 47fps and 61fps, OVERALL SCORE

86%
even with ray tracing enabled. There’s enough power to play
triple-A games and to play any esports title at 144fps – handy for VERDICT
the 144Hz screen. You’ll only get triple-A games at triple-figure Smart and sleek, with good design and battery life –
frame rates if you tone down GPU settings though. but not the fastest in games.

17
 R E V I E WS / CASE

MINIITX CASE

COOLER MASTER
MASTERCASE H100/£52 inc VAT

SUPPLIER ebuyer.com

e were quite fond of Cooler

W Master’s previous mini-ITX
cases. The Elite 120 and Elite
130 were compact, low-riding, but still
had room enough for long GPUs and
ATX PSUs. However, with the Elite 210,
things got a little trickier, with a smaller
chassis cutting the GPU length to a paltry
210mm, although it did still offer room
for an AIO liquid cooler. The MasterCase
H100 is another very small mini-ITX
case from Cooler Master, which is
different again. It’s more of a small
tower compared with its predecessors,
although it barely tops 300mm in any
dimension. However, the added height
hasn’t been put to particularly good use.
There arethree orfourinches above the e
motherboard that seemsto belargelywastedspace, t d
with a meshventin theroof aboveit.To mount a radiator here, so the evidence for the case using
SPEC therear is acarryhandle,butthisis inset its space rather ineffectively is easy to find. That’s not to
Dimensions (mm) intothecase.Thismeansthere’snothing say it’s not cute, though, as it feels a lot like a mini Cosmos
216 x 312 x 301 (W x D x H) protruding,butitdoesresult inacase case. The trouble is, it feels like Cooler Master has simply
Material that’sseveral inchestaller than itneeds lopped off a third of Cosmos and moulded it into a mini-ITX
Steel, plastic tobe.Hardwaresitsinasimilarposition chassis, rather than building something from the ground
Available colours toatowercasetoo, withtheexception up, which is essential with a mini-ITX case. It’s what made
Black, iron grey of thePSU,whichis mountedinour its predecessors so popular.
Weight least favourite position andoverhangs The GPU length limit is also very restrictive at 210mm,
3.3kg
themotherboard, sitting verticallyand but there’s plenty of short PCB graphics cards out there,
Front panel protrudingouttherearofthecase.This although the most powerful you’ll likely get to fit is a GeForce
Power, reset 2 x USB 3.0, stereo, mic
means that to getat your motherboard, RTX 2060 Super. There’s not a great deal of clearance
Drive bays
1 x 2.5/3.5in, 3 x 2.5in you’ll needto remove the PSU,which beneath the graphics card either and weirdly, Cooler Master
canmakethingstrickyif youneed to hasn’t opted to put a vent here. Instead, the base of the
Form factor(s)
Mini-ITX swapouthardwareoryouforgotto case is home to one shared 2.5in/3.5in drive mount and
Cooling connectsomething.Itwoulddefinitely one dedicated 2.5in mount. It would have been far better
1 x 120mm/140mm/200mm front benefitfromusinganSFXPSU. to mount these in the roof. As it stands, the GPU lacks
fan mounts (1 x 200mm fan included), While there’s room for sizeable ATX ventilation and the hard disk restricts its airflow further.
fan mount (140mm fan included)
PSUs – incredibly our 180mm-long Flipping the layout 180 degrees, so the GPU’s cooling fan
CPU cooler clearance
83mm Corsair RM850i fitted fine – there’s points at the roof, would have worked too. There’s a further
more wasted space between the two 2.5in mounts in a removeable tray that sits on the side
Maximum graphics card length
210mm front fan and the motherboard. of the chassis, but again, better use of the space would likely
There’s already plenty of room to allow for at least another 3.5in mount.

18
 T E M P E R AT U R E R E S U LTS
CPU DELTA T
Cooler Master MasterCase H100 65°C

0 25 50 75 100

GPU DELTA T
Cooler Master MasterCase H100 54°C

0 25 50 75 100

iPHONE
CPU cooler height is modest at 83mm thanks to the PSU on impressive, with aCPU deltaTof 65°C, althoughthatwould + Cute looks
top, but placing this vertically, as with other small cases such likely plummet usinga liquid cooler. The GPU delta T of 54°C + 200mm RGB fan
as Raijintek’s Metis, would limit the impact of the MasterCase wasalsohighforwhat isamodestGPUwithreasonable
H100’s secret weapon – a 200mm RGB intake fan. This cooling,meaningmostGPUs willlikely have torampuptohigh
+ Room for AIO
liquid coolers
delivered reasonable airflow despite being relatively quiet, speeds in orderto keep thingscool andpreventthrottling.
and the case even has room for 200mm radiators up front ANSWERPHONE
too, although finding room for the rest of your water-cooling Conclusion - Mediocre cooling
hardware could be challenging. Of course, your best course We wanted to like the Cooler Master MasterCase H100 - Poor use of space
of action is to use a 120mm or 140mm AIO liquid cooler, and and in some ways, it’s still worth a look. It’s cute to
there’s plenty of space in the front of the case for this and look at, can house a reasonably powerful system and
- Limited CPU
cooler and GPU
excellent ventilation too. There are no removeable dust filters, is supremely portable. Its RGB fan also looks great. clearances
but the vents are made from fine mesh, which should prevent However, we feel the internal design is flawed. There’s a
larger dust ingress. With fairly boring views through both side lot of wasted space and the lack of a dedicated exhaust
windows, Cooler Master has sensibly opted for steel panels, fan means there’s just the PSU and graphics card left to
COOLING
17/30
which likely helps it to hit a very low price point of just £50. get shot of heat. Unfortunately, both are often passively
Build quality is decent enough, it feels solid and there cooled at low to medium loads in modern hardware and
are four rubber-bottomed feet to help reduce vibration. this means things get toasty very quickly. It would be
FEATURES
The front panel offers the basics including two USB 3 ports,
audio jacks, power and reset buttons, and Cooler Master also
easy to make it smaller and improve cooling, especially
for the GPU, and while the ability to fit an AIO liquid cooler 13/20
includes a small wired remote to control the RGB lighting is handy, it won’t solve the more pressing issues of an DESIGN
should your motherboard not come so equipped. awkward installation, lack of cable stowage and poor GPU
cooling. This means we can’t really recommend it for mid 22/30
Performance to high-end systems, although for APUs and low-end VALUE
We’ve updated our mini-ITX test gear to include a Palit
GeForce GTX 1660 StormX OC 6GB – a tiny but powerful
GPUs it’s worth adding to your shortlist.
ANTONY LEATHER
18/20
GPU with a large cooling fan, which we lock to 60 per cent OVERALL SCORE

70%
speed. This is in part because our previous card was too long,
but with its blower-style cooler, it was also not particularly
representative of GPUs we’d recommend buying. With the VERDICT
CPU and GPU under full load, temperatures weren’t that A cute but flawed mini-ITX case that needs a major rethink.

19
 R E V I E WS / MOTHERBOARD

X 5 7 0 M OT H E R B OA R D

ASUS ROG STRIX

X570I GAMING
tom P
/ £257 inc VAT us

C
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

E
PRE

AD
M
IUM GR

e rejoiced at the return of

W the ROG Impact series of
small form factor (SFF)
motherboards, courtesy of the Asus ROG
Crosshair VIII Impact (issue 195). However,
the fact that this board didn’t adhere to the
mini-ITX 170mm x 170mm form factor and
cost well over £300 meant that for many it
was too pricey - and was too large - for a
number of smaller mini-ITX cases. Instead,
it’s the more conventional ROG Strix X570-I
Gaming we’re looking at here that will likely appeal to a width of the PCB and cools the chipset underneath. A
broader SFF audience, thanks to its more reasonable price heatpipe connects the chipset to the heatsink, with a small
tag and standard mini-ITX size. 30mm fan underneath for some added cooling. Below this,
That said, you won’t see any change from there’s a daughterboard connected to the PCB using a riser
£250, which still puts the Strix into premium cable, providing a home for the Realtek ALC1220-based
SPEC motherboard territory. Not that the X570, SupremeFX audio and an M.2 port. Yet another layer sits on
Chipset mini-ITX competition is a great deal cheaper. top of this, which is the M.2 SSD. This did an excellent job of
AMD X570
Gigabyte’s X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi costs cooling our SSD too, keeping the temperature at 50°C during
CPU socket
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)
around £215 while ASRock’s X570 Phantom our stress test, which is a whole 20°C cooler than the slightly
Gaming-ITX TB3 goes for closer to £240. odd arrangement with Gigabyte’s board.
Memory support
2 slots: max 64GB DDR4 The latter two boards have a few A second 30mm fan cools a similar heatsink on the other
(up to 4800MHz) shortcomings too. side of the board that deals with the 8+2-phase power
Expansion slots The former only has two fan headers delivery. There’s no VRM temperature in Asus’ software but
One 16x PCI-E 4.0 compared to the ROG Strix X570-I Gaming’s our own readings sat at 47°C on the top VRMs and 48°C
Sound three, which will at least allow you to power a underneath, with the latter benefitting from a large heatsink.
8-channel ROG SupremeFX S1220
bare minimum cooling arrangement of front It’s actually larger than that included on MSI’s monstrous
Networking fan, rear fan and CPU cooler. Unlike the Creator TRX40 motherboard, but Gigabyte has an even
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN,
Intel 802.11ac WiFi ASRock board, Asus includes two M.2 ports bigger one, spanning the whole underside of its board.
Overclocking
as well, with one heatsink-clad port on top Regardless, these VRM temperatures are cooler than
Base clock 96-118MHz, CPU and a bare port on the underside. Both Gigabyte’s X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi, which is passively cooled.
Multiplier 28-64; max voltages, support either PCI-E or SATA-powered M.2 There are no overclocking and testing tools on the PCB –
CPU 1.8V, RAM 1.8V
SSDs and the usual four SATA 6Gbps ports you’ll need to step up to the Impact for those – but it’s a
Ports are included too, so there’s plenty of scope similar story with the ASRock’s X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX
4 x SATA 6Gbps 2 x M.2 PCI-E 4.0, 3
x USB 3 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, for a decent storage setup. TB3 and Gigabyte’s X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi too, although the
4 x USB 3, 1 x LAN, 3 x surround Asus has done an excellent job with its latter at least has Gigabyte’s version of USB BIOS Flashback
audio out
R&D, cramming components onto the PCB. and the ASRock board has a clear-CMOS button. Due to the
Dimensions (mm) It has bolted a long heatsink to the southern packed I/O area, Asus has excluded an integrated I/O shield,
170 x 170
end of the board that spans two thirds of the which is a disappointing but understandable choice if there’s

20
 B E N C H M A R K R E S U LTS

GIMP IMAGE EDITING

Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming 66,152

65,667
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 63,012
62,302
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 66,237
65,176
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 65,285
65,173
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING nowhere to anchor it. A more questionable decision is the 3440 X 1440
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming 775,922 843,393
inclusion of display outputs. With space a premium here, + Good overclocker

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 810,876 821,320

we’d rather Asus had taken a similar route as the Impact and + Excellent design
included a clear-CMOS button or LED POST code display and cooling
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 788,321 855,064

Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 797,074 854,332 instead. Thankfully, with seven USB ports, you’re getting two + Plenty of features
0 300,000 600,000 900,000 1,200,000 more than the Gigabyte board and three more than ASRock’s
X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX TB3. The only shortcoming on 1280 X 720
HEAVY MULTITASKING
293,887
the I/O panel is the audio, where there are just three audio - I/O panel
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming component
292,132
outputs. This may hinder the use of many-channel speaker choices could
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 315,616 321,266
301,591 systems, but it’s fine for up to 5.1-channel systems. be better
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact
290,449
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 304,606
301,581
- Only three
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 Performance audio jacks
The Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming put in a solid effort in our - Expensive
SYSTEM SCORE benchmarks, with little differentiating it from the other
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming 289,976 306,283 boards on test, or even larger ATX models. The system score
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 303,361 307,207 of 289,887 at stock speed was a little low compared with the
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 295,023 308,658 best on test, with the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 297,727 311,257 TB3 managing 303,361, but it drew 20W more under load.
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
We should also add that the Asus BIOS was more up to date
Stock speed Overclocked and included various fixes and improvements, including an
AGESA update. This certainly seemed to have an impact on
TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION our Far Cry 5 test, where frame rates were much higher at
Idle stock speed and when overclocked.
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming 95W 144W Speaking of overclocking, having tinkered around in the
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 96W 109W superb Asus EFI, we hit the usual 4.3GHz with our Ryzen 9
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 101W 101W
3900X, but no more, even pushing the vcore up to 1.425V.
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 97W 102W
This matches most other boards we’ve tested, but the
0 200 400 600
Crosshair VIII Impact did manage 4.35GHz using the same
Load
voltage and CPU. Audio performance was good, but couldn’t
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming 240W 290W
match the Impact either, with a dynamic range of 107dBA and
262W 308W
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3
noise level of -106dBA. Power consumption was on the
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 249W 300W
money, except for an abnormally high overclocked load
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 242W 316W
figure, which was a good 30W higher than any other X570
0 200 400 600
board we’ve tested.
Stock speed Overclocked

SPEED
FAR CRY 5
1,920 x 1,080, High settings
Conclusion
Apart from the high overclocked power consumption and
33/35
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming 99fps 120fps
one or two odd feature decisions, the Asus ROG Strix X570-I FEATURES

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 94fps

104fps 119fps

120fps
Gaming is a fantastic mini-ITX X570 motherboard. If you
need the best but your wallet and PC case can’t quite stretch
30/35
99fps 120fps to the Impact, this is the board to get. VALUE
Asus Crosshair VIII Impact 92fps

95fps
120fps

120fps
ANTONY LEATHER
24/30
Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi 92fps 118fps OVERALL SCORE

87%
93fps 120fps

0 30 60 90 120
VERDICT
Stock speed min Stock speed avg A great alternative to the ROG Impact for those on
Overclocked min Overclocked avg
smaller budgets.

21
 R E V I E WS / CPU COOLER

D UA LTOW E R C P U CO O L E R FO R A M D T H R E A D R I P P E R

ARCTIC FREEZER 50 TR
/£60 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

SNOWMAN s efficient as AMD’s 7nm Zen 2 architecture is,
+ Copes with
AMD’s3rd-gen
Threadripper CPUs
A packing 24 cores under a Threadripper
heatspreader is still going to demand some hefty
cooling. If you’re spending upwards of £1,350 on a CPU,
+ Very affordable you’re not likely to be short of a bob or two of course. In which
+ Quietbelow case, while AMD’s Threadripper 3960X and 3970X dish out
mediumloads
plenty of heat, you’ll likely have the funds to find a powerful
SNOWSTORM and exotic liquid-cooling solution to deal with it. However, not
all of us are keen on opting for liquid cooling.
- Limitedmemory AIO liquid coolers can have pumps that are whiny, and their
clearance
longevity is often brought into question too, even if leaks are
- No long
screwdriver extremely unlikely. Meanwhile, custom water cooling is even
included
more niche and expensive. So just what are your options if
- Noisyat fullspeed. liquid cooling isn’t for you?
Well, there are in fact some air-cooled options for AMD’s
Socket TR4 and TR4X processors, such as this ARCTIC
Freezer 50 TR, which the company claims can deal with the
new 24 and 32-core 3rd-gen Threadripper CPUs. There’s
even better news too – it costs just £60.
For that comparatively small amount of cash, you get a
monster CPU cooler, equipped with snazzy RGB lighting,
one 1,800rpm 120mm fan and one 1,700rpm 140mm fan,
the latter two of which both sport fluid dynamic bearings.
It’s close to 15cm wide and deep too, but
SPEC sits 165mm tall, so it’s compatible with all
Compatibility AMD: Socket TR4, but the most height-limited ATX cases.
Socket TR4X The width is a problem though. There’s
Radiator size (mm) (with fans) 148 x
150 x 165 (W x D x H)
only 37.5mm memory clearance, which
means most RGB-equipped modules are
Fans 1 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm out of bounds and there’s only 5mm or so
Stated noise 0.4 sones clearance above ultra-short modules
such as Corsair’s Vengeance LPX.
T E M P E R AT U R E R E S U LTS
AMD SOCKET TR4X
One fan is fixed at the front of a pair of large heatsink
stacks while the other slots into the middle of them, once
you’ve installed the mounting plates to the CPU socket and
secured the heatsink. The plates are simple to install, but
you’ll need a long screwdriver to reach the cooler’s mounting
screws. The amount of thermal paste included is
questionable too – it’s barely enough to ensure proper
coverage of the enormous CPU heatspreader. Also, the first
time we installed the centre fan, the blades were touching
the heatsink, with an ensuing grinding noise. However,
reseating it fixed this.
When pitched against our Threadripper 3960X, the
Freezer 50 TR managed a delta T of 60°C, with 82°C
reported in AMD’s Ryzen Master software after a ten-
minute stress test. Our TRX40 custom water-cooling
system with a 360mm radiator managed a delta T of just
48°C. At full speed the cooler was certainly not quiet, but
from within the confines of a PC case, it’s not unpleasant,
although if you’ll be dealing with hours of heavy CPU
workloads every day, it’s maybe not the best option. At low
loads, though, it was inaudible above the thrum of the rest
of the fans in the system.
Conclusion
COOLING
31/40
The ARCTIC Freezer 50 TR isn’t
particularly quiet when pushed, it’s a
little tricky to install and offers next to
FEATURES
no memory clearance, so its appeal
might be rather limited. For a general- 16/20
purpose stock speed Threadripper DESIGN
system, though, it’s a reasonable, and
very affordable, choice that will just 15/20
about keep your monster CPU in VALUE
check, even during lengthy multi-
threaded workloads. 18/20
ANTONY LEATHER
OVERALL SCORE

80%
ARCTIC Freezer TR 50 60°C

Custom liquid cooling 48°C VERDICT

A very affordable heatsink that just about
0 25 50 75 100 tames AMD’s new HEDT CPUs.

24
 R E V I E WS /MICE

GAMING MOUSE

/£70 incVVAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk

they do have fo oibles. The four

side buttons are slightly
SPEC
wobbly and sofft, and some Weight
92g
gamers may fin nd the scroll
wheel too light. Razer’s Dimensions (mm)
126 x 68 x 39 (W x D x H)
buttons were a little more
consistent here e. Sensor
TrueMove Pro
When it comes to aesthetic (18,000DPI optical)
design, the Sen nsei isn’t
Buttons
particularly eye e-catching. 8 (left, right, scroll wheel, 2 x
It’s made from plain, matt back, 2 x forwards, top DPI)
black plastic, with no textured Cable
side panels and d only small 2m, unbraided
RGB LEDs in the e SteelSeries Extras
TEACHER here’s no gaming arena more competitive than logo and scroll wheel.
w RGB LEDs,
+ Great core esports, so it’s no surprise that the SteelSeries Razer’s rodent was much ambidextruous design
performance
Sensei Ten takes aim at its key rival by one-upping more outlandissh.
+ Impressive, high-
it when it comes to sensor sensitivity. The Sensei Ten uses an It’s missing many
m of the peripheral features found in many
end specification
updated version of the TrueMove 3 sensor used in the gaming mice too. There are no adjustable weights here, and
+ Smart,
SteelSeries Rival 600 – a mouse that’s already on our Elite no removable or braided cabling, although that’s par for the
ambidextrous
design list. This new version, called TrueMove Pro, has a vast course these days.
sensitivity level of 18,000DPI. It also doesn’t have any Build quality is consistently good, and the Sensei is lighter
PUPIL artificial acceleration or smoothing. than the Razer. It’s longer and narrower too. The size, reliable
- Soft side buttons Crucially – at least, if such specs are anything to go by – shape and grippy surface means that it feels comfortable
- Few extra features it’s more sensitive than the 16,000DPI unit inside the Razer unless you have unusually large hands, and it can be used
- A little expensive Lancehead Tournament Edition, which is our current Elite with fingertip, claw or palm grips with equal aplomb.
ambidextrous gaming mouse. That £80 rodent is designed The usual SteelSeries Engine 3 software is used to
for esports too. manage this mouse, and it’s a reliably good bit of software –
The 18,000DPI sensor will be overkill for mainstream well laid-out, with a broad range of options. Handily, five
gamers – it’s unusably sensitive if used at its maximum. different profiles can be stored on the mouse, although they
Yet that huge sensitivity ceiling means you can tailor the need to be switched using the software.
SteelSeries to your precise requirements. It’s ideal for fast-
DESIGN paced, twitchy games where accuracy and speed make a Conclusion
18/20 real difference. The option of switching to a high sensitivity is
also a boon for multi-monitor and widescreen setups. Users
The SteelSeries Sensei Ten is a very good option for esports:
it’s more sensitive and has better endurance than its main
FEATURES can traverse monitors without huge mouse movements. rivals, it has a solid ambidextrous design, and its main
16/20 Elsewhere, the Sensei’s sensor serves up a 450 in-per-
sec tracking rate, a 50g acceleration level and a 60 million
buttons are excellent. It’s also a little cheaper than some.
Conversely, it doesn’t look as eye-catching as the Razer, and
PERFORMANCE click endurance rating. Those two former figures match the that mouse has slightly more consistent buttons. Also,
27/30 more expensive Razer, and the endurance rating is ten
million clicks better.
considering the lack of features here, the Sensei is rather
expensive. This means that it can’t quite topple the Razer as
VALUE The ambidextrous Sensei has eight buttons: left, right, a our ambidextrous favourite, but it’s a superb alternative.
26/30 DPI switcher, the scroll wheel, and pairs of back and forward
clickers on either side. The main buttons use mechanical
MIKE JENNINGS

OVERALL SCORE hardware, and they’re tremendous – fast, consistent and

87%
robust, with a tiny bit more movement than you’ll find on
many other mice. The buttons are extremely well balanced – VERDICT
fast enough for competitive gaming and sturdy enough to A high-end specification and good core performance –
withstand frenetic play. The rest of the buttons are fine, but but few extra features.

26
 R E V I E WS / HEADSET

WIRELESS PC HEADSET

TURTLE BEACH
ELITE ATLAS AERO
/£130 inc VAT
SUPPLIER TurtleBeach.com

NINJA TURTLES he Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero packs p nty

+ Plenty of features
for the price T impressive-sounding words into its nam but
does its performance match up to its prize
+ Good overall winning, world-carrying, lightweight moniker? Yes an no.
build quality
This is a premium, wireless headset that includes
+ Good clarity such as ProSpecs glasses relief, Nanoclear speakers an
and power
TruSpeak microphone technology, but the thing you’ll not e
KRANG before any of those buzzwords is the design of this heads
It’s sleek, with its nearly all-black look, and there are some
- Noticeable nice touches of good build quality, such as the exposed steel
background hiss
- Shrill, tiring sound band and chunky earcup arm joints.
The cushioning on the earcups is also very deep and inside
- Limited headband you’ll see the speakers are covered by a near-transparent
adjustment
mesh that allows you to gaze lovingly at the 50mm drivers
below. There’s a chance this mesh lets a little more gunk
through than some speaker covers but not so much that it’s
a major concern to us.
Back to the headband and it provides an intriguing method
of fit adjustment. Instead of some sort of sliding mechanism
part way up the arms of the headband, the arms slide up and
down against the outside of the earcup. It means you get far
less adjustment than most headbands – there’s just 1cm of
movement on each side broken up into three steps for each
– although the adjustment is actually easier than most and
the position isn’t easily changed if you knock the headset.
The earcup cushioning is also excellent. It’s deep enough
to prevent your ears from getting squished and the foam
provides a secure grip. The ProSpecs refers to the padding
being accommodating to glasses wearers, but we can’t say
we noticed a huge difference compared with other headsets.
Adetachablemicrophoneslotsintotheleftearcupandit’s
ofthebendablesortratherthanamorerigidstylethatyoucan
flipoutoftheway.Itoffereddecentif
SPEC
Weight 390g
unspectacularvoicequality,withsome
basicdirectionalmicrophone-based
Drivers 50mm noisereduction.
ures x–thepowerbutton,acustomisablebutton,am ute
button,themicro-USB(sadlynotUSB-C) gingportand
analogueinputjack.Itfeelsalitt yandit’sespeciallyeasyto
knockboththevolum eelswhenpickinguporadjustingthe
e
he ssetusesasmallwirelessreceiverthatworks
inc nctionwithTurtleBeach’sexcellentcustomisable
softwarethatletsyouchangethefunctionforthose
customisablebuttons,adjustnoisegate threshold for the
microphoneandaddbassboost,plus it has a full graphical EQ.
However, regardless of the EQ, we just weren’t that sold
on the sound from this headset. It offers a decent amount
of clarity and power but there’s a shrill quality to its default
setting that, while it technically was probably good for
enhancing the audibility of some in-game sounds, made
for quite an unpleasant, tiring sound. There’s also a
persistent and particularly noticeable background hiss
that’s common with wireless headsets but we found more
noticeable here than on some. It also beeps in an
annoyingly loud and high-pitched
manner when you turn it on. DESIGN
Conclusion 16/20
TheTurtleBeachEliteAtlasAeroisa FEATURES
competent andfeature-richpremium
wirelessheadsetthat’scomfortable and
16/20
offersclear, powerfulsound.However, PERFORMANCE
itsheadband isn’t veryadjustable,it
producesnoticeable backgroundhiss
18/30
andwe didn’tgetalongwiththevery VALUE
treble-heavy,shrillEQ.
EDWARD CHESTER
20/30
OVERALL SCORE

In the box Headset, removable
mic, audio cable with inline
controls, USB charging cable,
wireless transmitter
70%
Alsopackedontotheleftearcupisahostof
otherfeatures.Therearetwovolumewheels– VERDICT
oneforheadsetvolumeandtheothercanbe A capable but not prizeworthy
customisedtoofferthingssuchasgame/chat wireless headset.

28
Join us as we lift the lid
on video games

Visit wfmag.cc to learn more

 R E V I E WS / MICE

LIGHTWEIGHT GAMING MOUSE

ROCCAT KONE
PURE ULTRA
/£60 inc VAT
SUPPLIER Amazon.co.uk

ULTRA
T
he Roccat
+ Very light Kone has been
+ Goodbutton around for a number of
arrangement years now and has come in all manner of
+ Easy toprogram variations in that time. The Pure Ultra version, though, is the
first one that has really piqued our interest.
ULTRON It jumps on the ultralight mouse bandwagon, boasting a
- Notparticularly weight of 66g thanks to it using a perforated honeycomb-
cheap like structure. What makes this mouse decidedly different
- Thumbbuttons from any of the other ultralight mice that use this sort of
aremushy
structure, though, is that it’s purely internal. The outer
- No ultralightcable surface just looks like a regular old mouse, with a matt
black plastic finish.
Roccat considers this a significant plus point for comfort,
but we’ve actually come to quite like the extra grip some
holey mice can provide. Nonetheless, the Pure Ultra does
have an excellent design in terms of overall ergonomics.
The deep groove for the thumb and slightly shallower
groove on the opposite side provide loads of grip, as does
the very lightly textured surface – it’s like a soft-touch finish
but feels slightly harder and smoother.
As is the style with these ultralight mice, there are few
features to note here. For buttons, you get left,
SPEC right, scroll wheel, back, forward and two DPI
buttons up top, all of which are of course
Weight
66g reprogrammable. Underneath you’ll find the
side but we still found it comfortable for
all grip styles – palm, claw and fingertip –
despite our fairly large hands (19.5cm from
middle fingertip to wrist). This was helped considerably
by the light weight and the grippy surface that ensured a
secure feel.
Tracking was flawless – we were unable to detect any
problems in it keeping up with our fast movements during
gaming. We also found the position of the DPI buttons to
work very well mid-game, although the thumb buttons
have too much travel before they register a press, and it’s
too easy to accidentally press the raised bit that sits
between them and so miss the buttons.
Roccat’s Swarm software is excellent, offering
customisation of every aspect of the mouse including
button functionality, polling rate and lift distance. Crucially, it
also lets you turn down the otherwise dazzlingly bright
RGB LED that lights up the Roccat logo.
We also think the Pure Ultra looks the part too, thanks to
its sleek all-black livery. It also helps that the Roccat logo is
quite funky-looking.
Conclusion DESIGN
The Roccat Kone Pure Ultra is an
excellent addition to the ultralight
18/20
gaming mouse market. It’s stylish, FEATURES

Dimensions (mm)
Owl-eye, 16,000DPI optical sensor that’s comfortable, performs flawlessly and 14/20
115 x 70 x 39 (W x D x H) based on the excellent PixArt 3389 sensor. is indeed very light. The only thing we
Inside, an ARM Cortex-M0, 48MHz processor were a little less keen on is the thumb PERFORMANCE
Sensor
Roccat Owl-eye (16,000DPI
optical, based on PixArt 3389)
and 512kB of memory keep things ticking buttons, which we found a bit 24/30
along, providing a 1000Hz polling rate. indistinct. The price also isn’t a
VALUE
Unlikesomeultralightmice,thecablehereisn’t standout bargain, but it’s reasonable.
20/30
Buttons
7 (left, right, scroll wheel, back, ultra-softandbraidedbutinsteadhasa EDWARD CHESTER
forward, 2 x top DPI)
conventionalrubbercoating.However,it’s
Cable reasonablyflexible,sodoesn’tinterruptyour OVERALL SCORE
1.8m, rubber
movementtoomuchandit’saplentiful1.8mlong.

76%
Extras On first impression, we expected not to like
Honeycomb internal
VERDICT
construction, RGB logo the shape of this mouse too much but in use Another fine entry into the world
we found it to be very good. It’s on the smaller of ultralight gaming mice.

30
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R E V I E WS / GAMING LAPTOP

G A M I N G L A P TO P

ASUS ROG STRIX

SCAR III G731/£ 1,499 inc VAT

SUPPLIER johnlewis.com

T
he latest Asus gaming laptop is a bruiser. It’s an old- than the rest of the base, the buttons have reasonable travel,
school, 17.3in machine that weighs nearly 3kg and and their action is consistent. It’s not as fast or as clinical
arrives with more coloured lights than the average as the heavier, higher buttons on mechanical laptops, but
Christmas tree. This machine has per-key RGB lighting and a this machine’s typing gear is good enough for mainstream
prominent ring of LEDs around the base, but it doesn’t just rely gaming and for esports.
on lighting for bold design. The lid and wrist rest are covered in The trackpad is mediocre though. It’s not particularly big, and
brushed aluminium, and the right-hand side is it’s quite far away from the front of the machine, so the front of
SPEC decorated with prominent ridges. There’s the laptop can dig into your palm. The buttons are also too soft
CPU more patterned material at the rear, and a for our liking. A USB mouse will be a necessity for most uses.
2.6GHz Intel Core i7-9750H
large, chrome-effect logo on the lid. The inclusion of a Core i7-9750H processor is welcome
Memory
16GB 2666MHz DDR4
It looks eye-catching, but there are thanks to its six cores and high clock speeds, but graphics
compromises elsewhere such as in build power comes from a GTX 1660 Ti, which is one of Nvidia’s
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB quality. There’s movement in the area weaker mobile parts. Elsewhere, there’s 16GB of memory, a
Sound
around the trackpad, and the underside is a 512GB SSD and a 1TB hard disk. That’s fine on paper, but the
On-board little creaky. The screen is stronger, but we’d SSD’s read and write speeds of 1,261MB/sec and 314MB/sec
Screen recommend using a sleeve at minimum to are mediocre, and leave the machine feeling a little sluggish
17.3in 1,920 x 1,080 IPS 144Hz protect this machine in transit. when loading apps and handling files.
Storage The weight of this laptop is an issue too. At The £1,499 machine doesn’t offer spectacular value for
512GB SK Hynix BC501 M.2 SSD, 2.9kg, it’s almost half a kilo heavier than most money. It’s not hard to find 17.3in machines with the same
1TB Seagate FireCuda hard disk
other 17.3in machines, and its 26mm-thick combination of Core i7 CPU, GTX 1660 Ti GPU and 144Hz
Weight
body is larger than many rivals as well. screen for under £1,400. If you’re willing to compromise on
2.9kg
The Asus serves up three USB 3.1 ports screen size, the GTX 1660 Ti can be found for under £1,200.
Ports
3 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x USB 3.1 and a Type-C connection alongside an HDMI Conversely, you’ll have to spend more to get significant
Gen 2 Type-C/DisplayPort, 1 port and Gigabit Ethernet. There’s no separate improvements. If you want a 17.3in laptop with an RTX 2060
x HDMI 2.0, 2 x audio jack, DisplayPort connection, though, and no card then you’re looking at £1,700 or beyond, or around £1,500 if
Dimensions (mm) reader. On the inside, there’s dual-band you’re willing to settle for a smaller screen and weaker CPU.
399 x 293 x 26 (W x D x H)
802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, but no
Extras futureproofed Wi-Fi 6. Performance
Windows 10 Home 64-bit, Dual-
band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth The keyboard has n-key rollover, a The GTX 1660 Ti is a solid GPU for 1080p gaming and esports,
5.0, Gigabit Ethernet, RGB lighting numberpad and a row of hotkeys for altering with minimum frame rates that ranged between 41fps and
throughout
volume, opening the Asus Armoury Crate 56fps in our test titles. This laptop will play triple-A, single-
Warranty app and tweaking fan speeds. It’s a chiclet player games at smooth frame rates, but not at the speeds
One year return to base
unit, and it’s decent: the underside is stronger required to properly use the 144Hz screen. Esports titles will

32
 B E N C H M A R K R E S U LTS

49,978 389,132 86,908

GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING OPENCL

170,973 156,866 137.06%

HEAVY MULTI- SYSTEM INTEL PERFORMANCE
TASKING SCORE INDEX

SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER never tinny. There’s

1,920 x 1,080, Highest Detail, TAA even some bass, which is
Asus ROG Strix SCAR III G731 56fps 74fps impressive even on a laptop
0 25 50 75 100 this hefty. A headset will be better,
but these speakers are peusable.
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II Unfortunately, the Asus takes a downturn when it comes
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra Detail, AA
to battery life and thermal performance. The Asus barely MUFASA
Asus ROG Strix SCAR III G731 45fps 55fps lasted an hour in a gaming test. It’s not a surprise that gaming + Solid 1080p and
esports speeds
0 25 50 75 100 drains the battery this fast, but as the XMG Fusion 15 (p16)
shows, there are some machines that can provide more + A large, high-
BATTLEFIELD V quality screen
meaningful gaming time away from a mains socket.
1,920 x 1,080, Ultra, DX11
Thislaptopisalsorarelyquiet.There’sanirritating, + Decent keyboard
and speakers
Asus ROG Strix SCAR III G731 44fps 57fps
noticeablefannoiseduringevenundemandinggaming
0 25 50 75 100
situations,andtherigoftenwhirrsintolifeevenwhenit’sidle. SCAR
Minimum Average
Thisisaby-productofthismachineusingitsTurbo - Loud, with poor
performancemodebydefault.SilentandPerformance battery life
modesareavailabletoimprovethefansituation,butthey - Heavy and bulky
hamperperformance.InSilentmode,ourWarhammer - No proper
scoredroppedto30fps,andtheAsusalsolostacoupleof ray tracing
run at beyond 100fps though – so you can use the full might of framesinPerformancemode,whichiscounterproductiveon
the display in games such as League of Legends and Fortnite. agaming laptop.
It’s a solid GPU, but the RTX 2060 is quicker: the Asus
scored 56fps and 45fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Conclusion
Total War: Warhammer II, but RTX 2060 laptops routinely The GTX 1660 Ti misses out on ray tracing, but it’s good
score around 70fps and 63fps in those games. Also bear in enough for mainstream 1080p gaming and for esports. SPEED
mind that the RTX 2060 has proper ray tracing whereas the
GTX 1660 Ti doesn’t.
Elsewhere, the Asus has a powerful CPU, a good screen
and speakers, and a decent keyboard. Sadly, though, this
17/25
The Core i7-9750H is fast, with its overall benchmark machine is bulky, with poor battery life and noticeable DESIGN
result of 156,866 impressing. It’s one of the best results
we’ve seen from this chip. Smaller laptops often throttle the
fan noise – and it’s not hard to find machines with similar
specifications for less cash.
16/25
CPU, which results in weaker scores. The Asus is worth investigating if you want a laptop with HARDWARE
The 1080p screen has an excellent contrast ratio of 1,652:1,
with a black point of 0.19cd/m2. They combine to make for a
bold looks, a large screen and a fast CPU – a machine for
work as well as play. However, remember that it’s easy to
19/25
screen that has plenty of depth and punch, with none of the find more quality and gaming speed elsewhere. VALUE
washed-out quality of lesser displays.
The delta E colour accuracy score of 2.52 is decent if not
MIKE JENNINGS 18/25
amazing, and the colour temperature of 7,083K is a little OVERALL SCORE

70%
on the blue side, but neither are wayward enough to cause
major problems. VERDICT
The speakers are surprisingly good too. They have A decent large-screened gaming laptop but it’s
ample volume, a clear mid-range and a high end that’s not a standout bargain.

33
 R E V I E WS / PC SYSTEMS

GAMING PC

CCL RAIDERX/£1,499 inc VAT

SUPPLIER cclonline.com

T
he CCL RaiderX is a rare beast at the
moment – a gaming PC where both the
CPU and GPU come from AMD. The
Gigabyte-made Radeon RX 5700 XT has the usual
8GB of memory and 2,560 stream processors, and
this model also ups the game clock (the frequency
at which AMD says the GPU is likely to run in games)
from 1755MHz to 1795MHz. That said, the maximum
boost clock remains unchanged at 1905MHz.
The GPU is paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X. It’s
an 8-core chip with SMT (giving it 16 threads), and it’s left at
its stock base and boost speeds of 3.9GHz and 4.5GHz. It’s all packed into a Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow case –
Those core components are paired with 16GB of 3200MHz a steel mid-tower chassis with plenty of lighting and a
DDR4 memory, and there’s a 1TB M.2 Corsair PCI-E 3 SSD as tempered glass side panel. The three 120mm intake fans
well, but no secondary hard disk. Meanwhile, power comes and the two 120mm exhaust fans all have RGB LEDs, and
from a Corsair RM650 – a fully modular unit with 80 Plus there are more lights in the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro
Gold certification. It’s impressive at this price. DIMMs, the CPU cooler and the graphics card. The front
The motherboard also comes from lighting flashes through the patterned front panel, and the
SPEC Gigabyte. It’s based on the AMD X570 steel used throughout is very strong – it’s a very sturdy case
CPU chipset, so it supports PCI-E 4, while for a sub-£1,500 machine.
3.9GHz AMD Ryzen 7 3800X also offering two spare memory slots, A PSU shroud obscures cables at the front, and CCL has
Motherboard a vacant M.2 connector and several done a good job of keeping the interior neat. It’s tidy around
Gigabyte X570 Gaming X
free SATA ports. It’s not suitable for SLI the back too, and there’s space for pairs of 3.5in and 2.5in
Memory
16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB though – the second 16x PCI-E slot drives. There’s also a control board for adding more fans,
Pro 3200MHz DDR4 only runs at 4x speed, plus this board and Corsair’s iCUE system means the lighting can be
Graphics only has entry-level Realtek ALC887 synchronised with compatible peripherals.
Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB audio and no Wi-Fi. The rear I/O panel The Corsair case isn’t particularly large, measuring just
Storage is basic too – there are four USB 3.2 446mm tall and 210mm wide. That makes it easy to fit into
1TB Corsair Force MP510 M.2 SSD
Gen 1 ports, but no Type-C connection. compact spaces, but it also means the interior is cramped.
Case
Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow There’s no optical S/PDIF output either, There’s barely any room between the motherboard and the
Cooling and only three audio jacks. PSU shroud, and the graphics card and Corsair Hydro H100i
CPU: Corsair Hydro H100i with 2 x The CCL’s £1,499 price brings it liquid cooler almost touch. Larger cases won’t necessarily
120mm fan; GPU: 3 x 90mm fans;
up against more conventional offer more storage space or better build quality, but bigger
top: 1 x 120mm fan; rear: 1 x 120mm
PSU
competition. PC Specialist’s Magma enclosures have more room in which to work.
Corsair RM650 650W RTX Super (see Issue 195, p40) was Finally, CCL’s machine is protected by a three year parts
Ports only £100 more expensive, and it and labour warranty with collect and return service – a
Front: 2 x USB 3, 1 x audio; rear: 4 x paired the same CPU with an Nvidia comprehensive deal that doesn’t skimp in any department.
USB 3.2 Gen 1, 2 x USB 2, 1 x Gigabit
Ethernet, 2 x PS/2, 3 x audio GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics
Operating system card. The Radeon 5700 XT is generally Performance
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit a faster GPU in our tests, but it lacks the The overclocked Radeon RX 5700 XT is great for 1080p and
Warranty RTX GPU’s support for hardware ray 1440p gaming. In 1080p benchmarks, it returned minimums
Three years parts and labour tracing, enabling realistic lighting and between 92fps and 111fps, so there’s enough pace for single-
collect and return
reflections in games. player games and easily enough power for esports games at

34
 B E N C H M A R K R E S U LTS

64,776 611,851 86,908

GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING OPENCL

248,589 235,649
HEAVY MULTI- SYSTEM
TASKING SCORE

SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER

2,560 x 1,440, Highest Detail, TAA

CCL RaiderX 79fps 101fps

0 50 100 150 200

3,840 x 2,160, Highest Detail, TAA

CCL RaiderX 42fps 54fps Meanwhile, the processor is fast. Its single-threaded image
0 50 100 150 200 editing result is level with equivalent Intel chips, and it’s quick in
our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake test video encoding test
as well. The CPU performance is superb for a sub-£1,500 PC. RAIDERS OF
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II
The SSD is quick too – its read and write speeds of 3,363MB/ THE LOST ARK
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, DX11
sec and 2,947MB/sec can’t match the latest PCI-E 4 drives, but + Very fast in games
CCL RaiderX 66fps 86fps this PCI-E 3 Corsair drive is plenty fast enough. + Excellent
0 50 100 150 200 Temperatures are fine too, with CPU and GPU delta Ts of 61°C CPU power
3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Detail, DX11
and 52°C respectively. However, the CCL is consistently noisy, + Sturdy, compact
producing a noticeable rumble, even when it’s idle. The noise case
CCL RaiderX 42fps 49fps

0 50 100 150 200 comes from the Corsair Hydro’s two intake fans, and they
TEMPLE OF
already use Corsair iCUE’s Quiet profile, so not much can be DOOM
BATTLEFIELD V
done aside from turning up your speakers or using a headset. - Noray-tracing
hardware
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra settings, DX11
Conclusion - Too loud and
CCL RaiderX 81fps 105fps cramped
The Radeon RX 5700 XT is a fast graphics card for 1080p and
0 50 100 150 200 1440p gaming, and it can even push you into 4K territory. - Basic motherboard
3,840 x 2,160, Ultra settings, DX11
Impressively, it’s faster than more expensive systems with
CCL RaiderX 53fps 60fps the RTX 2070 Super. Elsewhere, the CPU is great for both PERFORMANCE
0 50 100 150 200 work and gaming and the case is robust, plus you get good
memory, a solid warranty and a decent PSU.
23/25
Minimum Average
However, the motherboard is basic, the case is cramped and DESIGN
the machine is loud. The lack of ray-tracing hardware in the
AMD GPU is also an important consideration when it comes to
19/25
futureproofing. If you prioritise frame rates over ray tracing, and HARDWARE
high refresh rates. Its 2,560 x 1,440 minimums were decent,
too, with enough speed to play top-tier games at beyond
you’re not bothered by fan noise, then CCL’s machine serves
up ample power for a very good price. Just be aware of this
20/25
60fps. Even 4K gaming is within reach, with the CCL never machine’s shortcomings before placing an order. VALUE
dropping below 42fps at this resolution.
However, AMD’s GPUs don’t have ray-tracing hardware,
MIKE JENNINGS
22/25
so its Battlefield V frame rates aren’t comparable with OVERALL SCORE

84 %
those of RTX machines. That’s not an issue if frame rates
VERDICT
alone are your top priority, but it does mean you won’t be Compact, fast and affordable, but this all-AMD system
able to enable all the top eye candy in some of the latest makes a lot of noise, and there’s no hardware support
games, including Control and Metro: Exodus. for ray tracing in games.

35
 R E V I E WS / PC SYSTEMS

GAMING PC

CYBERPOWER INFINITY
X99 SUPER/£1,999 inc VAT

SUPPLIER cyberpowersystem.co.uk

C
yberPower’s Infinity X99 Super tries to fight
back against AMD’s multi-core dominance
with a serious piece of Intel hardware. The
Core i9-9900KS has eight Hyper-Threaded cores,
matching the core and thread count of AMD’s Ryzen 7
3800X, and it has a peak turbo frequency of 5GHz,
along with a 4GHz base clock. This will give it an edge in
some games and lightly threaded software, but it can’t
match AMD’s latest Ryzen 9 chips in terms of heavily multi-
threaded performance. There are no on-board or rear I/O buttons for tweaking or
CyberPowerhaspaireditwithanMSIGeForceRTX2080 overclocking, and you only get the basic Realtek ALC892
Supercard.TheGPUisfullyenabled, audio as well. The rear I/O is basic as well – you get single
SPEC givingit3,072streamprocessors,and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C connections, and two
CPU italsohas8GBofGDDR6memory USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, but elsewhere, you’re restricted to
4GHz Intel Core i9-9900KS runningatNvidia’simprovedspeedof USB 2 and there’s no optical S/PDIF output.
Motherboard 15.5GHz(effective).TheMSIVentusXS CyberPower’s machine squares up against the Stormforce
MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus
OCcardusedherehasfanswithsteep Crystal RTX 2080 Super (see Issue 196, p38). That machine
Memory
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX bladestoaccelerateairflow,andit’salso used AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X processor and an Asus ROG Strix
Black 3200MHz DDR4 overclocked,althoughtheboostclock RTX 2080 Super card with a slightly better overclock than the
Graphics improvementfrom1815MHzto CyberPower’s MSI card. The Stormforce PC arrived at £1,999,
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB 1830MHzismodest. but it now costs just £1,870 inc VAT. The Stormforce also added
Storage
Thesecorecomponentsarejoinedby a Wi-Fi card, and its motherboard offers PCI-E 4 support, SLI
512GB Intel 660p M.2 SSD, 2TB
Seagate Barracuda hard disk theusual16GBof3200MHzmemory, support, superior audio and more USB connections.
Case andthere’sa512GBIntel660pNVMe CyberPower has used a Cooler Master MasterBox NR600
Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 SSDanda2TBharddisk.It’sallpowered case for this PC. It looks smart, with a trio of RGB LED intake fans
Cooling byaCorsairVengeance650MPSU, that glow through the front mesh, and there’s another band of
CPU: Cooler Master MasterLiquid
Lite 240 with 2 x 120mm fans; GPU:
whichisreasonable,butnotoutstanding: RGB LED lighting on the inside. The interior layout is
2 x 90mm fans; top: 2 x 120mm it’sonlysemi-modularandhasjustan80 conventional – there’s a PSU shroud, rubber grommets for
fans; rear: 1 x 120mm fan PlusSilverefficiencyrating. cable routing and the cabling is neat. There’s loads of space too
PSU The MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus – the 240mm radiator for the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite
Corsair Vengeance 650M 650W
motherboard is a tad disappointing too. CPU cooler is barely noticeable, and there’s ample room to
Ports
Front: 2 x USB 3, 1 x audio; rear: 1 x It gets the basics right, with room for work. It also has five 2.5in drive mounts and space for three 3.5in
USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 extra memory, several 1x PCI-E slots hard disks. The chassis is untidy around the back, though, and
Type-C, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 2 x USB 2, 1 and RGB LEDs, and it also has two the PSU shroud and plastic front panel both feel a bit weak.
x Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x PS/2, 6 x audio
spare M.2 ports – one for SSDs and The CyberPower is protected by a three year labour
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit another for wireless modules. ALC892 warranty with two years of parts coverage, which is good to
Warranty However, there’s no SLI see, although you only get six months of collect and return
Two years parts and labour, plus one compatibility for adding a second service. Comparatively, the Stormforce covers parts and
year labour only. First six months
GPU, and the reliance on an Intel labour for the full three years, including collect and return
collect and return, then return to base
platform means no PCI-E 4 support. service for the duration.

36
 B E N C H M A R K R E S U LT S

60,470 632,779 122,999

GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 LUXMARK
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING OPENCL

256,726 243,643 212.88%

HEAVY MULTI SYSTEM INTEL PERFORMANCE
TASKING SCORE INDEX

SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER

2,560 x 1,440, Highest Detail, TAA

CyberPower Infinity X99 Super 79fps 101fps

0 50 100 150 200

3,840 x 2,160, Highest Detail, TAA

CyberPower Infinity X99 Super 42fps 54fps

0 50 100 150 200

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II

2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, DX11
threaded Handbrake test, though, the Intel chip was also SUPER
CyberPower Infinity X99 Super 66fps 86fps
faster than the AMD silicon, and the CyberPower’s overall POWERED
0 50 100 150 200
score of 243,643 was almost 20,000 points ahead. It’s good + Lashings of
3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Detail, DX11 CPU power
pace from Intel, but it’s not a surprise when the Intel chip
CyberPower Infinity X99 Super 42fps 49fps
costs £560, while the Ryzen 7 3700X costs £290. + Fast in games
0 50 100 150 200
The CyberPower is ordinary in other areas. Its SSD read + Loads of storage
upgrade options
and write scores of 1,834MB/sec and 983MB/sec are faster
BATTLEFIELD V than SATA SSDs, but mediocre compared with the latest SUPERFICIAL
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra settings, DX12, High DXR, DLSS PCI-E 4 SSDs. It’s not particularly quiet, either, with the six - Underwhelming
CyberPower Infinity X99 Super 63fps 72fps case fans producing a rumble during all tasks, even when motherboard

0 50 100 150 200 idle. This machine is louder than most rivals, including the - Unnecessarily loud
Stormforce, and it’s irritating. Thankfully, the CPU and GPU
3,840 x 2,160, Ultra settings, DX12, High DXR, DLSS
- More expensive
CyberPower Infinity X99 Super 39fps 47fps delta Ts of 62°C and 49°C are fine. than rivals
0 50 100 150 200
Conclusion PERFORMANCE
23/25
Minimum Average
The CyberPower Infinity X99 Super’s Core i9 CPU offers
a decent step up from the Ryzen 7 3700X, particularly in
games. However, it’s clear that other areas have been DESIGN
Performance
The overclocked RTX 2080 Super will play any game at 1080p
skimped on in order to get Intel’s LGA1151 flagship into a sub-
£2,000 budget. The cheaper Stormforce is nearly as quick
19/25
and 2,560 x 1,440 at high frame rates, including single-player in games, but offers more motherboard features, quieter HARDWARE
games and esports titles. Its 4K minimums of 42fps in two of
our test games are also playable, although you really want an
operation and a better warranty. CyberPower has put
together a decent sub-£2,000 gaming spec, but you can
20/25
RTX 2080 Ti to play games at 4K with real-time ray tracing – get a better balance of features for less money elsewhere. VALUE
the CyberPower dropped to 39fps in Battlefield V with High
DXR, even with DLSS enabled. The CyberPower was generally
MIKE JENNINGS
20/25
faster than the Stormforce across gaming benchmarks, OVERALL SCORE

82%
although only by a small margin.
The CyberPower’s Intel processor was a little slower than VERDICT
the Stormforce’s AMD chip in our single-threaded image Fast in games and great in applications, but it makes a lot
editing benchmark, but the difference is minor. In the multi- of noise, and some of the specs are a little underwhelming.

37
 R E V I E WS / CUSTOM KIT

Customkit
Phil Hartup checks out the latest gadgets, gizmos and geek toys

DISWOE WIRELESS CONTROLLER

FORNINTENDOSWITCH / £27.99 inc VAT

SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk

The Diswoe is a strange fish: a Bluetooth Nintendo Switch gamepad that

also doubles as a PC controller. On a PC, you can connect it via USB as well as
Bluetooth. The USB connection also charges the device with its on-board battery
pack, giving it six hours of use. The pad is lightweight but doesn’t feel flimsy with
enough weight to give its rumble motors something to work with, and the control
sticks and buttons are comfy and precise. That being said, this is a Switch pad first
and foremost, so although it shares a lot of visual similarities with an Xbox pad,
it doesn’t have analogue shoulder triggers. If you’re expecting the pad to handle
your PC and Switch needs all in one, this lack of analogue triggers is a big deal, but
if you’re after something with an eye on Switch emulation, this will hit the spot.

Datwoe Diswoe

THERMALTAKE PURE ARGBKIT

/ £41.53 inc VAT tom P
us
c

C
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk

The Thermaltake Pure ARGB kit contains three

IT
CU

ST
OM K
120mm PWM fans, an ARGB lighting controller,
VODESONWIRELESS and enough cables, screws, power cables and
parts to enable you to install the three fans with
KEYFINDER / £22.61 inc VAT relative ease.
The ARGB lighting on the fans consists of nine LEDs that can be
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk directly controlled by compatible motherboards, using the software
from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock. Alternatively, the supplied
The Vodeson Keyfinder is a fairly low-tech solution to the lost object light controller can handle the lights, with the fans connected to the
problem. It’s not very low-tech; you’re not tying your keys to your foot motherboard to control their speed. The fans are quiet and powerful,
or anything, but there’s no phone app, device pairing or GPS. You just with nine blades and rubberised mounts to reduce noise.
get a couple of colour-coded lozenges, plus a keychain controller that The patterns and colours available on the lighting controller are
makes them beep quite loudly. limited compared with what you ca can get from
o dededicated
d so
software
twa e
The trackers can hook onto keyrings with a loop, or there’s a couple but the visual effect is still
of supplied sticky pads. The range is limited to around 20m and the good. If you’re looking to dip
flashing light isn’t dazzling, but the 80dB beeping is hard to miss. In your toe into ARGB without
terms of a scenario in which they might be useful, think ‘misplaced in breaking the bank, this kit is a
house’ or ‘dropped in pub’, rather than ‘fell out of hot air balloon’. great start.

Lost Found Argh ARGB

38
EVERCOOL PB-01 PCI SLOT FAN BRACKET
/ £4.29 inc VAT
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk
This bracket enables you to install up to two fans
in an expansion slot in your case, in a manner
akin to the view you’d get if the two blower fans
of a graphics card suddenly dropped an inch.
That’s really all there is to it, and although it’s
difficult to go wrong with such a rudimentary job,
the Evercool does make a few slip-ups.
Firstly, it’s quite a snug fit for the fans. If they’re
even a hair over 25mm thick, you’ve got a fight
on your hands.
The thickness of most fans also means you’re
looking at occupying two expansion slots rather
than one, despite the single-slot backplate.
Seen something worthy of appearing in Custom Kit? Send your suggestions to
Also, there’s no help whatsoever with cabling,
and the bracket sits right out in the middle of
your PC, so it droops down slightly when two
fans are attached, and you need to deal with
wires going on adventures. Lastly, there’s the
efficacy of simply cramming extra fans into a
place in your case where they may not be that
useful. Only if your graphics card is particularly
starved for airflow – which probably hints at
other airflow issues – should such a bracket
be necessary.
PC Nay PCI
KLEARLOOK PORTABLE
PHONESTAND / £8.99 inc VAT
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk
The Klearlook portable phone stand feels a bit like
a Transformer that doesn’t know what it’s trying to
mimic. There’s a grippy clamp on the bottom and a
magnetic pad on the top, with a matching magnet
sticky pad that you can attach to your phone or
phone case.
The middle part of the stand rotates, extends and
forms into assorted reasonably stable platforms
for your phone, allowing you to take advantage of
horizontal and vertical edges, as well as flat surfaces.
The device is small and an awkward shape for a
pocket, but it’s easy enough to carry for trips when
you’re going to want to watch video on your phone
for longer than you can be bothered to hold it up.
Fall Stand
phil.hartup@gmail.com
39
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41
 L A B S T E S T / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS

L A B S T E ST

Ripped to
threads
Antony Leather puts five of the latest TRX40 Threadripper
motherboards through their paces

Howwetest
MD’s 3rd-gen Threadripper CPUs are the new high-end
A desktop performance kings, with excellent performance
in pretty much every area. You also get PCI-E 4 support
and a gargantuan amount of PCI-E lanes with the platform. What’s
more, this time around, motherboard manufacturers have focused
on bolstering cooling and power delivery to cope with the power
requirements of these monstrous CPUs.
As well as looking into these features, we test each motherboard’s
prowess in raw performance. Our test kit includes 32GB of
3466MHZ Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro RAM, a 2TB Samsung 970
Pro SSD and a Corsair 1TB MP600 PCI-E 4 SSD to test the speed
of M.2 ports. We also test M.2 heatsink performance, tapping
into our SSD’s internal temperature sensor to see how well
any M.2 heatsinks perform when running back-to-back runs of
CrystalDiskMark’s entire battery of tests.
We use Windows 10 with the 1903 update installed, plus an Nvidia
GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card. Our new motherboard and CPU
cooling rigs also sport Barrow Ropilema test benches and full custom
water-cooling systems, including 240mm radiators and Laing DDC pumps.
We use RightMark’s Audio Analyzer software to measure the
dynamic range, noise level and total harmonic distortion of the on-board
audio. Other tests include our RealBench suite of benchmarks, Far Cry
5, Cinebench R20’s single and multi-threaded tests, and total system
power consumption at both stock and overclocked speeds. Our scores
are based on a weighted calculation, including performance, features
and value, with the overall score being the sum of those three values.

Contents
 Results graphs /p43  Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master / p48
 ASRock TRX40 Taichi / p44  Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme / p50
 Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming / p46  MSI Creator TRX40 / p52

42
 TRX40 MOTHERBOARD LABS RESULTS’
GIMP IMAGE EDITING STOCK SPEED FAR CRY 5 FPS
62,310 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 61,394
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 62,130 62,359 Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 86 108

ASRock TRX40 Taichi 61,883 62,431 Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 85 105

61,656 Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 84 106

MSI Creator TRX40 60,569
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 61,238 62,292 MSI Creator TRX40 84 102

0 25k 50k 75k ASRock TRX40 Taichi 84 101

0 50 100 150

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING

OVERCLOCKED FAR CRY 5 FPS
1,056,956
ASRock TRX40 Taichi 1,056,770 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings
1,040,083
MSI Creator TRX40 1,039,452 Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 86 108
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 1,024,265 1,147,616 85 107
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 1,001,922 1,120,688 Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 86 107
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 924,073 1,040,534 85 107
MSI Creator TRX40
0 500k 1 mil 1.5 mil ASRock TRX40 Taichi 84 107

0 50 100 150

HEAVY MULTITASKING Minimum Average

329,881
MSI Creator TRX40 317,336 M.2 SPEED MB/SEC
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 323,369 372,231 CrysalDiskMark 32-queue depth

ASRock TRX40 Taichi 322,570 328,695 5,010

Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 4,280
320,529
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme ASRock TRX40 Taichi 5,008
314,823 4,269
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 298,061 323,798 MSI Creator TRX40 4,983
4,262
0 150k 300k 450k 4,789
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 4,117
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 4,642
3,963
SYSTEM SCORE
0 2k 4k 6k
ASRock TRX40 Taichi 366,338 367,959
Write Read
363,890
MSI Creator TRX40 360,325
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 358,471 401,296 STOCK SPEED TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION WATTS
Windows Desktop / Prime95 smallfft
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 352,131 380,453

Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 326,828 362,641 Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 141 440

0 150k 300k 450k MSI Creator TRX40 147 440

ASRock TRX40 Taichi 139 444

Stock Speed Overclocked
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 149 444

CINEBENCH R20 MULTITHREADED Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 152 444

0 250 500 750

Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 13,833 14,643
Lower is better
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 13,772 14,440

MSI Creator TRX40 13,748 14,684 OVERCLOCKED TOTAL SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION WATTS
Windows Desktop / Prime95 smallfft
ASRock TRX40 Taichi 13,640 14,762

Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 13,011 14,500 Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 212 511

0 5k 10k 15k Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 160 532

ASRock TRX40 Taichi 158 535

CINEBENCH R20 SINGLETHREADED Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 161 536

522 MSI Creator TRX40 171 622
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 506
520 0 250 500 750
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 498
519 Lower is better
ASRock TRX40 Taichi 505 Stock Speed Overclocked
MSI Creator TRX40 518
504
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 517 NOISE LEVEL DBA
500
RightMark Audio Analyzer 24-bit, 192KHz
0 200 400 600
MSI Creator TRX40 -113
Stock Speed Overclocked
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme -110

Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master -109

TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming -105
RightMark Audio Analyzer 24-bit, 192KHz
ASRock TRX40 Taichi -104
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 0.0018
0 -50 -100 -150
ASRock TRX40 Taichi 0.0019
Lower is better
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 0.002

Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 0.0021 DYNAMIC RANGE DBA

RightMark Audio Analyzer 24-bit, 192KHz
MSI Creator TRX40 0.0024

0 0.001 0.002 0.003 MSI Creator TRX40 114

Lower is better Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master 111

Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme 110

ASRock TRX40 Taichi 105

Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming 105

0 50 100 150

43
 L A B S T E S T / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS
ASROCK TRX40
TAICHI/£455
inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk
hen it comes to motherboard group
W tests, ASRock has often stolen the
show in recent years, offering class-
matching features for less cash than the
competition. The same seems to be true with
its new TRX40 Taichi. This board has what can
only be described as a monstrous set of
features for the money. Its price sits at least
£40 below the competition – the closest price
competitors this month are Gigabyte’s TRX40
Aorus Master and Asus’ ROG Strix TRX40-E
Gaming. With the cheaper price, you might
expect some significant shortcomings, but we
hardly found any.
Let’sstartwiththeVRMcooling,acriticalpartof
anymotherboardthatwillneedtodealwith32-core
CPUs,andeven64-coreCPUsinthefuture.
SPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-Gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4666MHz)
Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E 4, one 1x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1220
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Realtek 2.5 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 100-
200MHz, CPU multiplier 23-63x; max
voltages: CPU 1.55V, RAM 2V
Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps, 6 x M.2 PCI-E 4,
2 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 3, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244
44
stom P
u
c
C
E
PRE
AD
M
IUM GR
ASRock has
gone all out here, with a gigantic pair
of fan-assisted heatsinks. A pair of small fans
sits in the top side of a 54mm-tall skyscraper of
a heatsink, which has lateral fins to boost surface
area and is linked to a second large heatsink via
a heatpipe. The latter heatsink makes up the
entirety of the I/O shroud, which sits adjacent to
an integrated I/O shield.
The fans were quiet during operation, and the
VRM area was several degrees cooler under
load than either of Gigabyte’s efforts, with
similar readings to the Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E
Gaming. The top side reported a temperature
of 43°C and the rear side had a reading of 55°C
after dealing with our Threadripper 3960X for
ten minutes. The heatsinks sit atop a 16-phase
power delivery system too.
The downside to this massive heatsink,
though, is that you’ll need to be wary of large air
coolers. ARCTIC’s Freezer 50 TR, for example,
only fitted onto the board with the plastic
shroud resting gently against the heatsink.
The layout is good. There are no issues
with removing memory modules once a
graphics card is installed, as with the Asus ROG
Strix TRX40-E Gaming. Also, unlike several
other boards on test, the lowest M.2 slot has
an independent heatsink, meaning you can
remove your SSD without having to remove
your graphics card(s).
Amazingly, ASRock even manages to include
an M.2 expansion card similar to the ones offered
by MSI and Gigabyte’s super-premium boards.
This card offers a
further count of four M.2 ports, which use
thermal pads that attach to the large metal
housing and are actively cooled by an included
40mm fan. The fan wasn’t as quiet as the
ones on the VRMs, though, even at half speed,
which is togglable using a switch on the PCB.
However, the noise is unlikely to be an issue
unless your system is fully water-cooled.
Your SSDs will lack the underside cooling
provided by the M.2 expansion card included
with MSI’s Creator TRX40, though, and the card
isn’t as snazzy as the one included with the
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Extreme. However, this
feature is a huge trump card to play against the
similarly priced competition this month.
This card’s cooling setup chilled our Corsair
MP600 PCI-E 4 SSD to 43°C, while the board-
mounted heatsink saw the temperature sit at
54°C. These are both good results, with the latter
being 11°C lower than the on-board heatsinks
found on the MSI Creation TRX40 and Gigabyte
TRX40 Aorus Extreme. Of the two M.2 ports on
the PCB, only one offers both PCI-E and SATA
M.2 SSD support, though, and the expansion card
only supports PCI-E SSDs too.
The chipset heatsink sports a large 50mm
fan that was quiet during testing, although
it only really cools the heatsink and not the
adjacent M.2 heatsinks. All the fans are
exposed, so they may require cleaning to

remove dust, while most of the fans on
competitors’ boards are equipped with covers.
While there’s no fancy angled 24-pin ATX
connector or dual BIOS switches, the TRX40
Taichi has plenty of other features, including
power, reset and clear-CMOS buttons, an LED
POST code display and a USB BIOS Flashback
feature. There are also eight SATA 6Gbps
ports, making the TRX40 Taichi one of the best
boards on test for creating massive storage
arrays. Comparatively, the MSI Creator TRX40
only has six of them.
There’s one area where the ASRock is a
little lacking, though, which is the number
of fan headers. Its count of five headers is
the bare minimum we’d consider for any
ATX motherboard, but we expect more in
this league, given the likelihood of potential
owners using large radiators with multiple fans.
ASRock’s fan control features, in both the EFI
and Windows software, is fairly basic too, with
Gigabyte’s boards offering far more control, as
well as more fan headers.
The rear I/O panel is reasonably well
equipped, however, with two type-A USB 3.1
ports, a Type-C port and four USB 3 ports.
You also get 801.11ax Wi-Fi and one of the
Ethernet ports supports 2.5 Gigabit speeds
as well. Flipping the board over reveals yet
another feature too, with a large backplate
using thermal pads to cool the underside of the
VRMs, and it has an RGB LED strip, with four
more RGB headers situated on the PCB.
Performance
The benchmark results were all very close
this month, but the TRX40 Taichi matched the
4.35GHz overclock we achieved with the MSI
and Asus boards, using a vcore of 1.325V with
no other tweaking required. That’s more than
can be said for the two Gigabyte boards on
test this month.
The ASRock also offered slightly faster
M.2 speeds than the Gigabyte TRX40
Aorus Master, with 5,008MB/sec read and
4,269MB/sec write speeds. The Gigabyte
ROCK SCISSORS
+ Excellent features - Exposed fans
for the money
- Average fan control
+ Huge storage potential
- Could do with
+ Good cooling more fan headers
board offers marginally better audio
performance, but the two were closely
matched overall, with system scores of
366,338 and 358,471 respectively. They also
recorded near identical power consumption
figures, although the ASRock board was
slightly more power-frugal overall.
Conclusion
There are no poor boards this month,
and each one has its own strengths and
weaknesses. However, the ASRock TRX40
Taichi proved itself to be a match for the
best on offer from the competition, but for
a significantly lower price. In fact, in many
areas, it was better than its competitors, while
saving you four tenners. We’d like to see more
fan headers and more advanced fan control,
and you’ll want to make sure your case has
good dust protection, but the TRX40 Taichi is
otherwise a fantastic board for the cash.
VERDICT
Cheaper than the competition but with
similar or better features. A great board for
the money.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
33/35 26/35
VALUE
28/30 87%
45
 L A B S T E S T / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS
ASUS ROG STRIX TRX40E
GAMING/£490 inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk
ith Asus already showing us its
W flagship TRX40 board in the form of
the ROG Zenith II Extreme (see Issue
197, p22) last month, we were keen to see if it
could reproduce a similar level of
awesomeness for a more affordable price tag.
Costing close to £500, the ROG Strix TRX40-E
Gaming isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s one of the
less expensive TRX40 boards out there. It
certainly looks the part too, with a far more
refined and compact look than the ASRock
TRX40 Taichi, and a neutral, minimalist design
when it comes to colours and heatsinks.
Rather than opt for a lavish two-part, actively
o hea k for the 16-stage VRMs, though,
the board has a single unit th a pair air of small
fans inside it, which blow air through a densely
46
packed array of fins. This cooling system isn’t
as potent as the one on the ASRock board, but
the fans were quiet and they’re also protected
by a fine mesh on top, which should prevent the
need for regular cleaning.
Despite the lack of aluminium compared
with the ASRock TRX40 Taichi, the VRM
temperatures were only a little warmer on the
Asus board, with our measurements reading
48°C on the top and 55°C on the underside.
The latter sports a backplate that acts as a
heatsink too.
At the other end of the board is the chipset
and its heatsink, along with a Delta-made fan
thatshovesairthrough two finned air ducts in
order to boostcooling. However, it doesn’t really
pl a role olingthenearbyM.2portsor, as in
ecaseof the I eatorTR at rTRX40, the
Ms too.
Still, the fan spun at ina audible
levels throughout our te esting, and
u can tweak its pr ile in Asus’
Fan Xpert 4 software or the EFI.
Both systems are relatively
capable, and mo ore advanced
than ASRock’s, but they still
lack the extraa control offered
by Gigabyte e’s boards, such
as the abillity to switch
temperaature inputs
relating to fan speed.
The A
Asus board also
hass two more fan
aders than the
ASRock board.
Like the
ASRock board,
you also get
eight SATA
SPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-Gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4400MHz)
Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E 4, one 1x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel ROG SupremeFX
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Realtek 2.5 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 40-300MHz,
CPU multiplier 22-64x; max
voltages: CPU 1.7V, RAM 2.15V
Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps, 3 x M.2 PCI-E 4,
7 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 2, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244
6Gbps ports, but there are only three M.2
ports, and two of them are hidden under a
heatsink that requires you to remove your
graphics card in order to access them. That
could prove very time-consuming if your
graphics card is water-cooled. However, a
far more frustrating design feature is found
with the DIMM slots. Their lower levers hinge
outwards so that they sit in line with the
middle of the primary 16x PCI-E slot, meaning
you can’t install or remove your memory with
most graphics cards installed, especially ones
with backplates, such as our GeForce RTX
2070 Super Founders Edition.
The same isn’t true for the other boards
on test, which have the DIMM slots seated
much higher up the PCB, so be warned. Of
the three M.2 ports, only one also supports
SATA M.2 SSDs, which sits in a vertical mount
 GAMING
+ Sleek, moody design
+ Plenty of fan headers
and USB ports
+ Excellent EFI and
Windows software
WORKING
- Fewer M.2 ports
than competition
- Most M.2 slots are
difficult to access
- DIMM slot latches foul
16x PCI-E slot

south of the 24-pin

24 pin ATX connector and is
easily accessible. The other two M.2 slots
support either PCI-E 3 or PCI-E 4 SSDs, with
their combined heatsink doing a decent job of
chilling our Corsair MP600 SSD to 47°C.
From there on, the features take a bit of a
slide compared with the ASRock board. There
are barely any overclocking and testing tools,
with just a LiveDash OLED display for reading
POST codes and a power button. You also get
USB BIOS FlashBack, but there’s few extra bits
included in the box – there’s nothing like the M.2
expansion card that comes with the ASRock.
The rear I/O panel offers some respite, as you
get 11 Type-A USB ports, seven of which support
USB 3.1, as well as a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port.
The board does have a smattering of
RGB lighting too, which is almost absent
on the ASRock TRX40 Taichi, apart from its
underside. The Asus displays snazzy patterns
sitting on top of the fan grilles, as well as an
illuminated ROG logo on the I/O shroud, plus
you get a quartet of RGB headers on the PCB
for expanding your lighting system further.
Performance
At stock speed, the Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E
Gaming was a little slow, posting the
slowest results in our RealBench tests, but in
contrast, it also produced the quickest results
in Cinebench. There were no anomalies
in Far Cry 5 and the M.2 SSD speeds, as
expected, sat at 5,000MB/
sec and 4,269MB/sec
respectively for read and write.
The Realtek ALC1220-based
audio, dubbed SupremeFX,
was decent enough too. The
MSI and both Gigabyte boards
had slightly better audio
performance, but there’s really
not much in it once you get to
this point.
Meanwhile, overclocking
was fruitful, with our
Threadripper 3960X’s
maximum 4.35GHz all-
core overclock being easily
achievable using a vcore of
1.325V. This overclock saw
the RealBench system score
rise from 326,828 to 362,641,
although the Asus was still
a little slower than other
overclocked boards on test
in some areas. Finally, stock speed power
consumption was average at 444W, as was
the overclocked peak load figure of 535W.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to like about the ROG Strix
TRX40-E Gaming. It looks fantastic, and it
offers a solid base for building an extensively
cooled 3rd-gen Threadripper system with
plenty of NVMe storage and SATA hard disks.
Its cooling proved capable, and it overclocked
just as well as other boards we’ve tested too.
Apart from some slightly slow stock speed
figures, there are no performance issues,
and you get more USB ports and fan headers
than the ASRock TRX40 Taichi too.
However, ASRock’s offering is noticeably
cheaper, and it outstrips the ROG Strix
TRX40-E Gaming in a number of areas, most
notably with its M.2 expansion card, VRM
cooling and less troublesome layout, as well
as its overclocking and testing tools. As a
result, the ASRock is a better buy, but there
are still good reasons to consider the ROG
Strix TRX40-E Gaming, such as its excellent
EFI, useful software, abundance of USB
ports and moody aesthetics.
VERDICT
Needs to do more to justify its price, but the
Asus has a great EFI and good looks.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
33/35 22/35
81%
VALUE
26/30

47
 L A B S T E S T / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS
GIGABYTE TRX40
AORUS MASTER/£492
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
ith two very attractive boards to its
W name this month, Gigabyte must be
proud of its designers at the moment.
The TRX40 Aorus Master employs a huge
heatpipe-equipped heatsink array that
stretches right around the top and left side of
the motherboard. The heatsinks are by far the
most intricate examples on test too, with
dozens of small fins, which look more like CPU
cooler fins than the lumps of aluminium you can
see on the other TRX40 boards this month.
A small fan is included, but it only cools a
very small section of the heatsink. As a result,
the heatsink gets toastier under sustained
loads than some of the other boards on test.
Gigabyte’s software reported that the VRMs,
which sit above a 16+3-phase power delivery
system, were running at 69°C after ten
minutes in Prime95, with top and underside
measurements in the area hitting 48°C and 57°C
respectively. The ASRock TRX40 Taichi, with its
pair of larger fans, managed a little better here.
Still, the large backplate on the underside of the
board helps to cool the VRMs as well as protect
the PCB.
There’s more cooling action going on
with the three M.2 ports, which all support
either PCI-E or SATA 6Gbps M.2 SSDs. A long
48
inc VAT
heatsink sits beneath the chipset fan and
cools two M.2 slots, well out of the way of
your graphics card, while the third heatsink
sits beneath the main 16x PCI-E slot, so it will
be tricky to remove with your graphics card
in place. The lower heatsink managed to cool
our Corsair MP600 SSD to 58°C, which is
reasonable and only a few degrees warmer
than the result we obtained from the ASRock
TRX40 Taichi.
You also get the full count of eight SATA
6Gbps ports that we’ve seen on other boards
this month, and thankfully, the Gigabyte
has plenty of other nifty features too. There
are dual BIOS switches and Probelt voltage
readout points, as well as power, reset and
clear-CMOS buttons. You also get USB BIOS
Flashback and an LED POST code display.
Unlike the other sub-£500 competition, you
also get a right-angled 24-pin ATX connector,
which is great for cable tidying and certainly a
standout feature. There’s an impressive count
of eight fan headers as well, which can all
handle up to 2A or 24W apiece.
Illumination is fairly restrained out of the box
for Gigabyte, with just a small diffusing block
of plastic sitting in the I/O shroud, but you get
the usual four RGB LED headers if you want to
SPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-Gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4400MHz)
Expansion slots Four 16x PCI-E 4, one 1x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1220
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Aquantia 5 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 100-
200MHz, CPU multiplier 23-63x; max
voltages: CPU 1.55V, RAM 2V
Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps, 3 x M.2 PCI-E 4,
5 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
2 x USB 2, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244
add more lighting. There are no major layout
issues either, with the large heatsink at the
base solving some of the M.2 access issues
on the Asus board. Also, the Gigabyte’s DIMM
slots sit much further away from the top PCI-E
slot than the ones on the Asus board, with the
latches not coming close to interfering with our
test graphics card.
Meanwhile, there are seven Type-A USB
ports in total, which will be enough for most
people, and you get a 5 Gigabit Aquantia
Ethernet controller in addition to a standard Intel
Gigabit controller, plus 802.11ax Wi-Fi. Gigabyte
has also combined the Realtek ALC1220 audio
codec with an ESS9218 DAC and WIMA audio
capacitors. The box accessories are a little
lacking, though, especially compared with the
ASRock TRX40 Taichi and its hefty air-cooled
M.2 expansion card.

You do get RGB LED extension cables and
thermal probe cables, but you expect a few
more toys at this price.
Performance
With a stock speed system score of 358,471,
the TRX40 Aorus Master sits right in the
middle of the pack this month, with slim
variations in most tests, although it didn’t
suffer from the Asus board’s occasional
stock speed slowdown in the Realbench
tests. However, it was noticeably slower than
the other boards when it came to the PCI-E
4 speed tests, sitting around 350MB/sec
slower on the read speed – a problem that
also seemed to affect its more expensive
sibling. We can’t complain about the audio
performance, though, which is excellent.
Overclocking was a little disappointing,
as we hit a wall at 4.3GHz, which is 50MHz
short of the all-core overclock we achieved
with other boards. Again, the TRX40 Aorus
Xtreme had the same issue, and even
applying the extreme loadline calibration
setting didn’t net us a stable result at the
usual 1.325V. We also needed that setting to
get our CPU stable at 4.3GHz. That said, the
performance deficit was barely noticeable,
if at all, in most of our tests.
This overclock saw the RealBench
system score rise from 358,471 to 401,296,
with the latter actually sitting at the top
of the chart this month, despite the slight
frequency deficit. The Cinebench multi-
threaded score rose from 13,772 to 14,440
as well but, as usual, the single-threaded
Cinebench score fell a little, thanks to the
manual overclock disabling the CPU’s
4.5GHz peak boost frequency.
Gigabyte’s EFI is still a little dated and
messy-feeling compared with the likes of
Asus and MSI, but we do love its fan control
section. It offers far more control than any
MASTERPIECE HIT PIECE
+ Excellent fan control - VRMs lack
cooling headroom
+ Lots of overclocking
and testing tools - Dated and
cluttered EFI
+ Angled 24-pin
connector - Cheaper competition
other manufacturer’s EFI, including the
ability to switch fan response inputs to other
devices than the CPU – you could tag your
radiator fans to a coolant probe, for example.
Conclusion
The Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master looks
fantastic and has features that match or
better the competition in several areas;
it’s especially adept at controlling your
PC’s fans. Only the ASRock TRX40 Taichi
is a noticeably better buy, offering similar
features and more storage options, as well
as actively cooled VRMs, for less cash.
However, the Gigabyte fights back with its
right-angled 24-pin ATX connector and 5
Gigabit Aquantia Ethernet controller.
The main problems for the Gigabyte are
its sub-par M.2 PCI-E 4 speeds and lack
of overclocking headroom compared with
the boards from other manufacturers this
month. That said, 3rd-gen Threadripper
CPUs are arguably best left at stock speed
anyway. If you like the Gigabyte’s looks, and
if cable tidying and fan control are bigger
priorities for you than the number of M.2
ports, it’s still a decent board for the money.
VERDICT
Superb fan control and great looks, although
you can get more for your money elsewhere.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
32/35 24/35
82%
VALUE
26/30
49
 L A B S T E S T / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS
GIGABYTE TRX40
AORUS XTREME
/£830 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uk
f you thought the Asus ROG Zenith
I II Extreme was expensive, then
Gigabyte has well and truly
trumped Asus when it comes to stomping
your wallet. At over £800, this monster
motherboard is, thankfully, dripping with
features. It stretches out to the XL-ATX
standard, sitting a couple of centimetres
taller than your typical ATX motherboard, as
well as being wider. It has a similar cooling
arrangement to the TRX40 Aorus Master,
with a pair of finned heatsinks, but they’re
larger and are equipped with a thicker
heatpipe too, all covering a 16+3 power
delivery system.
The box is heavy as a result, not least
because the board also sports a huge
backplate that helps to cool the VRMs, as
well as providing a diffused strip of RGB
LED lighting. Gigabyte’s software reported
the VRMs sitting at a maximum of 67°C,
with our external measurements reaching
49°C and 58°C for the top and bottom side
of the PCB respectively – those figures are
well away from being toasty, although the
MSI Creation TRX40 was a little cooler. The
other factor that adds to the box’s weight is
Aorus Xtreme’s main accessory – a PCI-E
expansion card.
50
This card houses
four M.2 ports, w
are cooled from
which
m above
and below with large
thermal pads, and by
a blower-style ffan
that cools a larg
ge
copper heatsink that
sits on top of yo
our
SSDs. It’s equipped
pped
with a backplate and brushed metal top, so
it not only brings up the total number of M.2
ports to eight, but it looks great too and it’s
relatively quiet as well. If you have SATA M.2
SSDs, you’ll want to transplant them into
the board, as all of the PCB-mounted slots
support them. The rest are limited to PCI-E
SSDs, with all the ports supporting PCI-E 4.
The M.2 slots on the motherboard are all
covered by large heatsinks too, but require
much of the chipset shroud to be removed in
order to access them. Unfortunately, that will
also mean removing your graphics card as
well, which is potentially an issue if you plan to
water-cool your graphics card.
The chipset fan is also able to cool the
M.2 slots next to it, with some small notches
cut into the chipset heatsink. However,
we’d like to see more integration here, with
the fan aiding the surrounding heatsinks
more extensively – M.2 heatsinks could be
thermally linked to the chipset heatsink, so
the fan cools the lot.
As a result of this arrangement, the M.2
slots farthest away from the graphics card
only managed a temperature of 66°C on
our Corsair MP600 SSD, with most other
boards faring better. However, the expansion
card saw this result plummet to just 33°C. If
you’ll be torturing your SSD with hundreds
of gigabytes of data on a regular basis, it’s
definitely worth using the expansions card.
As well as a slightly ridiculous count of
eight M.2 ports, Gigabyte has also used an
ASMedia controller to add a further two SATA
6Gbps ports, bringing the total to ten.
Meanwhile, practically all the side ports
on the PCB are angled, which is fantastic for
cable routing, and Gigabyte has even put five
of the seven fan headers on the edge too.
However, this means you’ll need to route your
rear and roof case fans all the way to the right
side of the motherboard, which may require
extension cables.
The whole right-hand edge is also covered
by a large shroud, which has integrated
power and reset buttons and an LED POST
code display – the result is a supremely

sleek-looking PCB that belies its massive
set of features. There’s even a header for
the front panel connectors, and Gigabyte
includes a cable to run this off to the
spaghetti coming from your case, so you
can hide it properly.
The rear I/O panel also features an
integrated shield, and on this panel you’ll find
a clear-CMOS button, as well as Q-Flash
Plus button, which is Gigabyte’s equivalent
of USB BIOS Flashback, allowing you to
SPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4400MHz)
Expansion slots Four 16x PCI-E 4, one 1x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1220
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Intel 10 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 100-
300MHz, CPU multiplier 8-64x; max
voltages: CPU 1.8V, RAM 2V
Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps, 8 x M.2 PCI-E 4, 7 x USB 3.1
Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 325 x 275
update the EFI without a CPU installed. You
get 802.11ax Wi-Fi too, and a single Intel 10
Gigabit LAN controller that powers the two
LAN ports, although this obviously supports
standard Gigabit too. There are seven Type-A
USB ports, all of which are USB 3.1, as is the
Type-C port here.
Gigabyte has also tweaked the Realtek
ALC1220 audio codec to include an ESS
Sabre DAC and WIMA capacitors, as well as
a TXC oscillator, which the company claims
provides precise time triggers to digital-
analogue converters.
Performance
With all boards performing so similarly this
month, there’s not much to tell in terms
of performance. The Aorus Xtreme’s
RealBench results were in the middle of the
pack, and it was the quickest board in Far
Cry 5, but only by a single frame per second.
It also produced some of the lowest stock
speed figures in Cinebench, as well as M.2
speeds that were a couple of hundred MB/
sec off the pace. However, it also had some
of the best-performing audio on test, with a
dynamic range of 110dBA. Plus, despite its
massive PCB and feature set, it drew around
the same amount of power as the other
boards on test.
GIGABYTE BUG BITE
+ Massive feature set - Massively expensive
+ Potential for huge - Sub-par EFI
storage arrays and software
+ Excellent cooling - Disappointing
system control overclocking
headroom
Overclocking was a little disappointing, as
we could only reach 4.3GHz across all our
Threadripper 3960X’s 24 cores, whereas
Asus, ASRock and MSI’s boards all reached
4.35GHz using the same voltage of 1.325V.
This overclock saw the Cinebench score rise
from 13,011 to 14,500 and the video encoding
score from 1,001,922 to 1,120,688, so it’s
potentially worth doing if you’re primarily
concerned with multi-threaded performance.
Conclusion
There’s no getting away from the price of
the TRX40 Aorus Extreme, which will be out
of reach for all but a select few. Even then,
you have to ask if it’s worth it when boards
such as the ASRock TRX40 Taichi perform
well and offer similar storage expansion and
other features. We love the design tweaks,
though, and they make the board stand out
against the competition.
The issue, though, is that it costs so much
more than the Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme
and MSI Creator TRX40, both of which seem
to offer similar features. If you’re building a
liquid-cooled PC and plan on spending serious
amounts of cash on storage, this is a great
board, but it demands a silly amount of money.
VERDICT
An extreme motherboard, but with a price
to match.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
32/35 34/35
80%
VALUE
14/30
51
 L A B S T E S T / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS

MSI CREATOR tom P

us

C
TRX40/£675 inc VAT

A
EXT

TR
SUPPLIER box.co.uk RE L
ME U

e’re hoping be looking at a more However, in

W affordable TRX40 motherboard
from MSI next month, but this issue
we’re putting the company’s flagship TRX40
through its paces and, at a whopping price of
£675 inc VAT, the Creator TRX40 is a monster.
The cooling system is the most elaborate
example on test, with one of the longest
heatpipes we’ve ever seen connecting both
the massive VRM heatsinks with the large
5cm chipset fan. This means the whole
contraption is actively cooled, as heat is
transferred around the motherboard using
the heatpipe.
The fan, which only spun up under medium to
high loads and was quiet when it did so, also has
a small cut-out sections, which allow airflow to
reach all three M.2 ports too. These M.2 ports
also have thermal pads on the undersides,
catering for PCI-E 4 SSDs, most of which have
components on both sides that need cooling.
Still, compared with other boards on test,
the MSI’s M.2 SSD temperature was a fair bit
warmer, although it was still a good 20°C away
from throttling after a ten-minute stress test.
addition to the three
M.2 ports on the PCB,
the MSI also includes
an M.2 expansion
card, which is actively
cooled by a huge
heatsink and 10cm
fan. This kept the load temperature of our
SSD at just 33°C and, with four slots in total,
this card will offer the best home for heavily
used, fast SSDs.
We would also like to commend MSI for
placing all three of the Creator TRX40’s PCB-
mounted M.2 ports in a way that means you
don’t need to remove your graphics card to
access them. Plus, unlike the Asus ROG Strix
TRX40-E Gaming, only the top sides of the
DIMM slots have locking latches, so you can
remove your memory at will too.
The two huge heatsinks sit atop a 16-phase
power delivery system, and with a peak VRM
temperature of 62°C, this cooling system is
clearly very capable. However, the VRMs on
the Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme were cooler
still, perhaps due to the fact that the MSI
doesn’t have a large backplate to aid cooling –
instead, it just has two small metal strips.
While some may argue that storage is
largely moving to SSDs, especially where
motherboards such as the Creator TRX40 are
concerned, the fact that far cheaper boards on
test have more SATA ports than the Creator
stands out when the board costs nearly £700
– it has a lowly count of just six SATA ports.
The ROG Zenith II Extreme has two more, and
the mighty Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Extreme
has four more SATA ports, so they’re better
options if you have more than half a dozen
hard disks with which to contend. For most
people’s needs, though, the MSI’s six ports
will be more than adequate.

52

Besides, the board makes up for the lack of
SATA po orts in other ways, su as having
ha nine
fan headderss, three thermal probe headers
and cramming all its on-board features into
an E-ATX form factor, which is more flexible in
terms of case compatibility than the XL-ATX
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Extreme.
As you’d expect, there are plenty of
overclocking and testing tools, with on-board
power and reset buttons, and an LED POST
code display. Move round the integrated I/O
shield, and you’ll also find a clear-CMOS button
and USB BIOS Flashback button too. These
features are fairly standard, though, and other
boards now include lavish OLED displays and
voltage readout points – the MSI needs a bit
more here to justify its price.
SPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4666MHz)
Expansion slots Four 16x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1220
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Aquantia 10 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 80-200MHz,
CPU multiplier 10-63x; max
voltages: CPU 2.1V, RAM 2.1V
Ports 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 7 x M.2 PCI-E 4,
5 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 3, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 277
T
The rear I/O panel also offers nine Type-A
USB ports, five of which support USB 3.1. Plus,
like all other boards on test, you get 802.11ax
Wi-Fi too. MSI has included two LAN ports
as well, with one familiar Intel I211AT Gigabit
controller, but also an Aquantia 10 Gigabit
controller for a bit of futureproofing.
Meanwhile, on-board RGB lighting is fairly
low-key, with just a snazzy acrylic angular
panel sitting on top of the I/O shield. There are
three RGB headers to expand your lighting
system further, though, as well as a Corsair LED
connector that enables you to hook up one of
Corsair’s RGB lighting hubs.
Performance
With the second fastest RealBench system
score result on test, the Creator TRX40 clearly
didn’t have any issues at stock speed, and it
managed the highest multi-tasking score too.
It sits in line with the rest of the field in terms of
power consumption, with idle and load draws
of 147W and 440W respectively.
There were no anomalies in the M.2 speed
tests either, with our Corsair MP600 SSD hitting
a read speed of 4,983MB/sec and a 4,262MB/
sec write speed. The audio results were superb
too, with a dynamic range of 114dBA and noise
level of -113dBA – if you want the best possible
on-board audio, this is the TRX40 board for you.
As usual, MSI’s EFI offers a pleasantly clear
layout and plenty of tools, although Gigabyte
has a slightly better fan control section.
Overclocking was easy too, reaching our test
CPU’s maximum 4.35GHz all-core frequency
with the usual 1.325V without requiring any
extra tweaking.
CREATE DESTROY
+ Huge PCI-E - VRMs and M.2 ports
storage potential could be cooler
+ Innovative - Average overclocking
cooling system and testing tools
+ Plenty of USB ports - Dated appearance
and fan headers
This overclock didn’t see much benefit in the
RealBench tests, but the Cinebench score
increased from 13,748 to 14,684. However,
overclocking also resulted in a huge spike in
power consumption, which rocketed to 622W –
100W higher than some other boards.
Conclusion
We love MSI’s unique take on a super-
premium TRX40 board, and all tests (except
for abnormally high load power consumption
when overclocked) saw it perform well and
provide a solid, capable and expandable
home for a 3rd-gen Threadripper PC. We
love its innovative cooling system and there’s
clearly huge scope for creating a massive
PCI-E storage array.
The layout is solid too, plus the EFI is
excellent. It’s a little lacking when it comes
to overclocking and testing tools, though.
The design appears a little dated too, looking
similar to its X299 and X399 Creator boards
– the Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme has a little
more pizzazz for around the same amount
of cash, but it also doesn’t have as many M.2
ports. Otherwise, this is a superb, feature-rich
motherboard if you want to go all out on your
3rd-gen Threadripper system.
VERDICT
An innovative, feature-packed premium
TRX40 board with solid performance.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE
33/35 31/35
84%
VALUE
20/30
53
 L A B S T E S T / HDR MONITORS

L A B S T E ST

HDR monitors
High dynamic range is all the rage but which displays are worth your
time and money? Edward Chester puts six of the latest to the test

How we test
DR is the latest buzzword in monitor technology, with it
H designed to bring greater realism to our screens thanks
to a higher maximum brightness, greater contrast and
a wider range of colours. As we explore in our HDR buyers guide
(p88), though, things aren’t as simple as just seeing HDR on the box
and away you go.
There are different standards with different hardware
approaches that result in wildly varying resultant image quality.
The exact whys and wherefores we explain in said guide (it’s worth
reading first), so for now we’ll jump right into our testing.
To test the monitors, we first ran through our usual checklist of
tests. We looked at the design, build and other physical features
that each offers, including things such as ergonomics and
connectivity. We then assess image quality using a combination
of subjective tests – for things such as viewing angles and gaming
performance – as well as objective testing for image quality using
a colorimeter (X-Rite iDisplay Pro), checking for things such as
colour balance, gamma and native contrast.
Next, we enabled HDR to see what difference this made to
the overall viewing experience. We subjectively observed the
difference as well as testing for what we feel is the most crucial
aspect of HDR: the uptick in contrast. We used the DisplayHDR
Test app to show a maximum brightness spot in the centre of the
screen and black all the way around it, then used our colorimeter
to measure the white spot and the black areas.
We aren’t able to test DCI-P3 colour space coverage in HDR
mode, as our test software doesn’t support HDR, but for those
monitors that offer a separate high gamut (that is, HDR) colour mode
we turned this on and measured the display’s colour performance.
This we then took as representative of the colour coverage when
HDR is enabled. The two Asus displays lack a manual high-colour
gamut option, so we weren’t able to test this.

Contents
 Acer Predator CG437K /p55  Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ / p58
 AOC AG273QX / p56  BenQ EX2780Q / p59
 Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ / p57  MSI Optix MAG321CURV / p60

54
ACER PREDATOR
CG437K/£1,300
SUPPLIER acer.com
he Acer CG437K is a perfect
T example of the rather baffling array
of HDR monitors that are available.
Putting aside for a moment the fact that its size
makes it more of a TV replacement than a
conventional monitor, this thing has an
intriguing take on HDR.
Rated for DisplayHDR 1000 certification, it
boasts a 1,000cd/m2 maximum brightness
and a native contrast ratio of a whopping
4,000:1. However, there’s no FALD backlight
here to achieve that DisplayHDR 1000 rating;
instead it uses just 16 backlighting zones that
are controlled via LEDs along the top and
bottom edges of the screen.
These zones split the display in half top
to bottom and into eight columns across
its length, so that even the tiny cluster of
pixels required to illuminate a cursor results
in a huge area of the display being lit up.
Because of this, the CG437K doesn’t excel
at showing HDR content where the points of
contrast are quite small (stars in a night sky
or fireworks, for instance), but it can create
SPEC
Screen size 43in
Resolution 3,840 x 2,160
Panel technology VA
Maximum refresh rate 144Hz
Response time 1ms
Contrast 4,000:1
Display inputs 2 x DisplayPort,
3 x HDMI 2, USB Type-C
Audio 3.5mm audio in, 3.5mm
audio out, 2 x 5W speakers
Stand adjustment None
Extras FreeSync 2 HDR, 4-port USB 3 hub
HDR standard DisplayHDR 1000
inc VAT
quite a convincing
result where you
have larger broad
strokes of contrast,
such as a dark forest
floor and bright sky above, for example. DUTCH DILLON
What’s more, the sheer dazzling brightness of + Dazzling 1000cd/m 2
- Only 16 backlight
1,000cd/m2 means that the display impresses HDR zones
with its dynamic contrast from scene to scene. + Impressive native - Too large for practical
We normally consider dynamic contrast a bit of a contrast desktop use
cheat, but those moments where an explosion + Huge screen and - Slow response time
high resolution
goes off and the screen can blast you with light
make for an impressive spectacle. + 144Hz gaming
performance
At least there’s no debate about its HDR colour
performance. This display has a proper sRGB
colour mode for non-HDR and – as indicated by
its DisplayHDR 1000 rating – can also extend to The size and refresh rate also mean it’s
the required 90 per cent DCI-P3 when required. excellent for console gaming. As befits such a
Getting back to the size of this screen, then, large screen, the speakers are also decent.
much to our surprise, it works reasonably well
as a conventional monitor. Conclusion
The 4K resolution stretched over such The Acer CG437K represents the closest
a vast area results in the same sort of pixel thing we can currently get to what we
density as a 27in, 2K monitor, but here you consider true HDR performance, without
just get more desktop. That said, you really do resorting to the expense of FALD backlights.
have to crane your neck to see the top of this The maximum brightness is dazzling, while
thing and it certainly wouldn’t be our top choice the native contrast and colour accuracy in
for general desktop work. both HDR and non-HDR is impressive. Add in
Ironically, though, gaming is where we 144Hz gaming and adaptive sync and you get
found the size worked least in its favour, a lot for your money.
at least for anything competitive using a
keyboard and mouse. The nature of our eyes
is that we can only really concentrate on a VERDICT
relatively small area to pick out detail, so much We’re not entirely sure what the market is for
of the vastness of this screen is wasted. Plus, a 144Hz, 43in HDR display, but by and large
the native response time isn’t great, making for this one impresses.
a smeary look to the image.
For more cinematic games where you have IMAGE QUALITY GAMING OVERALL SCORE
26/30 22/30
80%
the luxury of taking in the whole scene, though,
it impresses, especially given the 144Hz refresh
FEATURES VALUE
16/20 16/20
rate (two DisplayPort cables required) and both
Freesync and G-Sync compatibility.
55
 L A B S T E S T / HDR MONITORS

AOC AGON AG273QX

/£470 inc VAT
SUPPLIER box.co.uk

he AOC AG273QX represents AG273QX only achieve es

T perhaps the most common type of
HDR display available at the
the same level of HDR as
many existing non-HD DR
moment. This 27in monitor uses a VA-type monitors can provide: that is, a contrast ratio
LCD panel that provides it with a natively high of at least 1,000:1 and at least 95 per cent of
contrast ratio of 3,000:1. Combine this with a the sRGB colour space.
slightly extended colour gamut and you have In the case of this monitor, it fails to make
an instant HDR-like monitor. the grade for higher classes of DisplayHDR on
However, the telling detail of this display is three counts. Firstly, its maximum brightness
its basic DisplayHDR 400 rating. If you recall tops out at 400cd/m2 (it actually did slightly
from our HDR monitor guide, this means the better than this in our tests, hitting 464cd/m2),
then its black level is too high (0.23cd/m2 is
well above the 0.1 required of the next level)
A OK AGONY and its extended colour gamut doesn’t reach
+ Natively high contrast - No backlight zoning 90 per cent DCI-P3.
As such, its HDR performance is more than
+ Good gaming - Lacks the contrast
performance for HDR a little underwhelming. By all means, the
- reasonably high native contrast and slightly
+ Decent image quality Fixed colour gamut
richer colours add a bit of dynamism but many
non-HDR monitors that use VA-type LCD
displays have the same inherently high contrast
SPEC
ratio anyway and this monitor’s colours don’t
Screen size 27in
extend as far as more capable HDR displays.
Resolution 2,560 x 1,440 What makes this particularly problematic
Panel technology VA is that you can’t turn off the extended colour
Maximum refresh rate 165Hz
range and use a standard sRGB colour
space. This makes the AG273QX, and many
Response time 1ms
other displays like it, unsuited to anyone
Contrast 3,000:1 who also requires a display for any work
Display inputs 1 x DisplayPort that needs accurate colours, such as for
1.4, 1 x HDMI 1.4, 1 x VGA photo and video editing.
Audio 3.5mm audio in, 3.5mm Otherwise, this display impresses. It sports
audio out, 2 x 5W speakers a nice design, with slim, low-profile bezels
Stand adjustment Height, rotation, pivot, tilt
and has a fully adjustable solid metal stand.
Connectivity options are plentiful too, with two
Extras FreeSync 2 HDR, 4-port USB 3.2 hub
DisplayPort and two HDMI inputs along with
HDR standard DisplayHDR 400 a USB hub. There are even surprisingly useful
Dimming zones 1 popout headphone stands on both sides of
the display.
Image quality out of the box is excellent
too, with a near perfect colour balance and
very good gamma – you should have little
need to calibrate this display. However, again,
the colours will look slightly oversaturated
compared with normal sRGB displays.
Gaming performance is good too, not least
thanks to the presence of both Freesync 2 and
G-Sync support and you get a 165Hz refresh
rate. The VA-type LCD panel has a rated
response time of 1ms, and sure enough, this
display feels impressively snappy for this type
of LCD. However, we still noticed the difference
in responsiveness compared with TN-type
LCDs in particular – if competitive gaming is
your thing, this wouldn’t be our first choice.
Conclusion
A nice design, plenty of connectivity and other
features, and good overall image quality
combine to make for a perfectly decent 27in
gaming monitor. However, its HDR is all but
pointless and despite its 1ms claimed response
time, we still found the use of a VA-type LCD
held back gaming responsiveness a little.
VERDICT
A good all-rounder but it doesn’t quite excel
at any one thing, least of all HDR.
IMAGE QUALITY GAMING OVERALL SCORE
24/30 20/30
72%
FEATURES VALUE
14/20 14/20

56
ASUS ROG SWIFT
PG27UQ/£1,900 inc VAT

SUPPLIER ebuyer.com

T
he Asus PG27UQ was the first that for such a colossal price,
gaming monitor to deliver a truly the relatively modest visual
spectacular HDR experience thanks impact of a 27in display is a hard
to its 384-zone FALD backlight. However, a sell. You can literally go and buy
high price and limited HDR content restricted two stupendously good 34in,
its appeal at the time of launch. A year and a ultrawide Asus PG348Q monitors
half on, though, how does it hold up? for less.
Well, the first thing to report is that, sadly, the That applies doubly when you consider Its IPS-type LCD provides excellent overall
price hasn’t dropped all that much. When first that you can buy the 35in, HDR-capable, Asus image quality –when combined with that
released, it went for around £2,200 inc VAT PG35VQ for a little over £600 more. For pure FALD backlight, it makes for the best image
whereas now it’s widely available for closer to big, bold, brash HDR content consumption quality you can get on a conventional LCD
£1,900 inc VAT. Saving £300 isn’t to be sniffed (watching video and playing games), we monitor – it’s even better than the PG35VQ.
at, but this is still a hugely expensive display. known which we’d rather have. The fact you can also switch between proper
What’s more, the other key limiting factor This also brings us on to the final major issue sRGB and high colour gamut modes (and
of this display, which is its size, also hasn’t we have with this display, which is its resolution. manually turn the variable backlight on and
changed. We said at launch, and still feel, Although we’re sure the 4K (3,840 x 2,160) off) also means it’s well suited to colour-
resolution doesn’t add a huge amount to the critical work applications too.
overall cost, it surely adds a little, while in many The display also has plenty of the premium
SWIFT SLOW ways not adding much to the display – it looks extras you’d expect for such a pricey model.
+ Spectacular HDR - Screen size limits lovely and sharp, of course, but 4K on a small You get a fully adjustable stand, all sorts of
image quality HDR impact
display has plenty of cons. It’s a pain to have to external lights for lighting up your desk and
+ Good gaming - 4K resolution costly scale everything on the desktop by 150 per cent a snazzy design. G-Sync is included too,
performance and unnecessary
to make things readable (and still often have although overall input options are modest.
+ Very good sRGB - Phenomenally
apps not scale properly), it’s hugely demanding
image quality expensive
to run games at the native resolution and it just Conclusion
generally feels like a bit of a hassle. The Asus PG27UQ remains (along the Acer
SPEC We felt at the time of launch that surely X27) the single best-looking 27in gaming
Screen size 27in a more sensible way of getting started monitor you can buy, with stunning HDR
Resolution 3,840 x 2,160 on the HDR path would‘ve been to have a and a pin-sharp 4K resolution. However,
conventional 2,560 x 1,440 resolution on we just feel most people would get more
Panel technology IPS
a 27in display and instead of 384 (24 x 16) from a larger display at this price.
Maximum refresh rate 144Hz individual backlights, just 96 (12 x 8) would
Response time 4ms have been plenty. Get a display such as that
Contrast 1,000:1
one to cost under £1,000 inc VAT and you’re VERDICT
getting somewhere. An astronomical price puts a huge dent in the
Display inputs 1 x DisplayPort 1.2, 1 x HDMI 1.4
So, we’ve given the PG27UQ quite a bashing appeal of this otherwise fantastic display.
Audio 3.5mm audio out (no volume control) so far, but let’s be quite clear, the PG27UQ is the
Stand adjustment Height, rotation, pivot, tilt single best 27in gaming monitor you can buy IMAGE QUALITY GAMING OVERALL SCORE
30/30 24/30
74 %
(other than the near identical Acer X27). Sure, it
Extras G-Sync, 384-zone FALD backlight,
several external lights, USB 3 hub isn’t the very most responsive when it comes
FEATURES VALUE
to gaming, but it’s quick enough and its image
HDR standard DisplayHDR 1000
quality is unsurpassed. 16/20 4/20
57
 L A B S T E S T / HDR MONITORS
W
hen we originally reviewed the
PG27UQ, we lamented its
relatively modest screen size
for the price and felt its 4K resolution
unnecessary. Enter the PG35VQ, which
corrects both those problems, although it
adds a couple of its own.
Most obviously, there’s the even higher
price. You can buy a 55in OLED TV for
watching all that HDR video and a 34in
ultrawide monitor for your PC and still
have change left over for a few games,
peripherals or whatever else you might
spend £500 on. FALD backlights are
expensive to produce, and the likes of this
display make that abundantly clear.
You get a total of 512 (32 x 16) backlights
behind this LCD display that combine to
create a truly dazzling HDR display. If you’ve
never experienced a display that’s capable of
really good HDR production, it’s quite a shock
to see just how much more lifelike images
can be. You almost have to adjust your brain
to take in what you’ve been missing out on all
this time.
This sensation is also down to the
extended colour range that HDR provides,
and sure enough, the PG35VQ covers this
GAMERS REPUBLICANS
+ Stunning HDR visuals - We prefer IPS for
desktop work
+ 28/30
Fantastic gaming
performance - Not ideal for colour-
critical work
+ Huge screen is great
-
for everything Mind-bogglingly
expensive
58
ASUS ROG SWIFT
PG35VQ/£2,600 inc VAT
SUPPLIER amazon.co.uk
with ease. You also get proper separate sRGB SPEC
and HDR colour modes, so you can use the Screen size 35in
PG35VQ for sRGB content creation. As with
Resolution 3,440 x 1,440
the PG27UQ, you can also turn the variable
backlight on and off manually, allowing Panel technology VA
you to play around with the extra contrast it Maximum refresh rate 200Hz
provides even on non-HDR content – using Response time 4ms
the variable backlight in non-HDR games can
Contrast 2,500:1
really elevate the experience.
We’re also incredibly glad to see the Display inputs 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 1.4
PG35VQ sport a 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, Audio 3.5mm audio out (no volume control)
as is standard for this size of display, rather
Stand adjustment Height, rotation, tilt
than anything higher. This means you don’t
have to mess around with windows scaling, Extras G-Sync, 512-zone FALD backlight,
several external lights, USB hub
plus you can run games at higher frame
rates than with 4K displays, when gaming at HDR standard DisplayHDR 1000
native resolution.
There’s one fly in the ointment though: this Conclusion
display uses a VA-type LCD panel instead of This huge, dazzling display is arguably the finest
IPS. Not only do we prefer the overall image monitor money can currently buy, and you’d
quality of IPS (especially for work and other hope so given its eye-watering price. However,
desktop use) but we find it’s a better option it’s still not quite perfect, thanks to the sluggish
for gaming too. Despite a whopping 200Hz pixel response of its VA panel. It’s a very good
refresh rate, this display doesn’t feel as HDR monitor, but not quite perfection.
clear and responsive as similarly speedy IPS
displays, thanks to its slower pixel response
time. It seems a strange choice too, as VERDICT
the main advantage of VA is better native You need to provide perfection to justify a
contrast, but with a variable backlight, you price as high as this and the PG35VQ gets
don’t need to worry about native contrast. very close, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Elsewhere, the PG35VQ delivers all the
premium touches you’d expect such as a IMAGE QUALITY GAMING
OVERALL SCORE
26/30
80%
stylish metal base, two external lighting
zones, G-Sync and a USB hub. It weighs a
hefty 13.6kg though – you’ll need a sturdy
FEATURES VALUE
desk for this one. 18/20 8/20

BENQ EX2780Q
/£450 inc VAT
SUPPLIER benq.eu
T
he BenQEX2780Q’s DisplayHDR
400 certificationimmediately tells us
this isn’t goingto deliverthe most
dazzling HDR display. However,asDisplayHDR
400 monitors go, this onehasa lot goingforit.
Crucial among its capabilities is that it offers
a manual option for switching it between Rec
709 (effectively sRGB) and DCI-P3 colour
modes, which has a couple of benefits. The
first is that, unlike the likes of the AG273QX and
MAG321CURV, you’re not stuck in a high colour
gamut mode when doing normal desktop
stuff. You can switch back to sRGB and see
everything as it’s supposed to look.
It also means you can do the opposite and
just manually pump up the colour saturation.
Q QUEUE
+ Great overall - No height adjustment
image quality
- Underwhelming
+ Good gaming HDR contrast
performance
- No gaming
+ Separate sRGB and settings in OSD
HDR colour modes
We wouldn’t be inclined to do this often but if
you want a more vivid image then the option’s
there. It also makes testing its high colour
gamut performance much easier.
Elsewhere, the EX2780Q has a slightly odd
combination of features. Its size is just 27in and
it has a standard 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, yet
it sports a TV-like designwith astand thatonly
offers tilt adjustment,and included withthe
display is a remote. This rather nicelydesigned
and easy-to-use zapper serves tonavigate
the on-screen menus,allowingyoutoquickly
and easily change things such as theinputs,
the colour mode, brightnessandvolumeof the
excellent built-in 2.1 speakers.
These are comfortably the best speakers
we’ve heard on a 27in monitor, certainly in
quite some time and possibly ever. They’re
loud, clear and although the bass isn’t exactly
groundshaking, it’s far fuller and more present
than most monitors.
Image quality impresses too. In Rec 709
mode, the display delivers a near flawless
colour performance. Colour balance is just
a smidge off perfect and
gamma is a little high but
overall, it’s as you’d expect
of a good quality IPS-type
monitor. Switch on HDR
and the colour gamut
ramps up to well in excess
of the 90 per cent DCI-P3
coverage required, hitting
99.4 per cent. You can tell
too, as this display provides
a surprisingly rich colour
palette for HDR content.
Sadly,though,the
contrastjustisn’tthere.
Withnotevenbasicedge-lit
backlightzonecontrol,this
displaycan’tpushbeyondits
basic1,100:1contrastratio.
That’sactuallynota
badcontrast ratio for an IPS
SPEC
Screen size 27in
Resolution 2,560 x 1,440
Panel technology IPS
Maximum refresh rate 144Hz
Response time 5ms
Contrast 1,000:1
Display inputs 1 x DisplayPort 1.4,
2 x HDMI 2, USB Type-C
Audio 2 x 2W and 1 x 5W
speakers, headphone jack
Stand adjustment Tilt
Extras Remote control, USB Type-C connectivity
HDR standard DisplayHDR 400
display, but it still pales in comparison with the
rest of the displays in this Labs.
Other intriguing additions include a USB C
video input to go with the DisplayPort and two
HDMI. There’s also a volume wheel on the
underside of the display, in case the remote
control isn’t to hand or the excellent rear-
mounted OSD controls are too slow for you.
When it comes to gaming, this display can
hit a 144Hz refresh rate and supports both
Freesync and G-Sync, so it ticks nearly all the
essential boxes. The 5ms response time is
a little sluggish, so it won’t be suited to very
demanding competitive gamers but it’s typical
for an IPS display. Oddly, the display offers no
gaming controls in its OSD, so you can’t change
overdrive or turn off adaptive sync, for instance.
Conclusion
The BenQ EX2780Q gets a lot of things right,
with excellent overall image quality and a
particularly impressive colour range in HDR
mode. Its powerful speakers and convenient
remote are a nice touch too. However, the
fixed stand, lack of gaming settings and basic
contrast in HDR mode means it doesn’t quite
stick the landing.
VERDICT
A bit curate’s egg, the EX2780Q is only
good in parts.
IMAGE QUALITY GAMING OVERALL SCORE
24/30 24/30
76%
FEATURES VALUE
14/20 14/20
59
 L A B S T E S T / HDR MONITORS

MSI OPTIX
MAG321CURV/£440 inc VAT

SUPPLIER box.co.uk

e looked at the MSI MAG321CURV a case, 2,500:1. The monitor relies

W few months ago and found it to be a
perfectly capable 4K monitor for
on this to create its HDR-like image,
along with its extended colour gamut.
those who want a fun, colourful picture. Also like the AOC, the MAG321CURV’s wide CURVACEOUS U BEND
However, we didn’t focus too heavily on its colour gamut can’t be turned down for use in + Very slim, yet - Basic HDR
large display performance
HDR capabilities, so we thought it worth a normal sRGB mode. However, the monitor
revisit, as its performance is representative of only extends very slightly, hitting 78 per cent + A great size for 4K - No G-Sync support

many a DisplayHDR 400 rated monitor. coverage of DCI-P3 and 103 per cent of sRGB,
LiketheAOCAG273QX,theMAG321CURVis compared to the 88 per cent and 124 per cent
a monitor that’sbased ona VA-typeLCD panel for the AOC. This means the MAG321CURV
that has an inherently high contrastratio, inthis looks far more natural in sRGB situations but
conversely, it looks noticeably less vibrant
SPEC than all the other displays in this Labs when it
Screen size 32in comes to HDR.
Where this display pulls things back a little
Resolution 3,840 x 2,160
is with that inherently high contrast. Rated at
Panel technology VA 2,500:1, we measured it as 2,774:1, so you still
Maximum refresh rate 60Hz get deeper blacks and a more punchy picture
Response time 4ms
than with many other displays. Nonetheless,
this is typical of the sort of display that tacks
Contrast 2,500:1
on the HDR moniker yet delivers little of the
Display inputs 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, meaningful impact of HDR images.
2 x HDMI 2.0, USB Type-C Elsewhere, though, this is a nice display. Its
Audio 2 x 2W and 1 x 5W 32in size partners well with its 4K resolution.
speakers, headphone jack Set Windows scaling to 150 per cent and
Stand adjustment Height, tilt you have an effective resolution of 2,880 x
Extras 2 x USB 2 ports, Freesync 1,620, making for a nice upgrade in desktop
area over a typical 27in display. You still get
HDR standard DisplayHDR 400
the inconvenience of that scaling not working
properly every now and then, but it feels like
a far more practical application of 4K than the
likes of the PG27UQ.
This monitor also looks the part thanks to an
impressively slim screen and narrow bezels.
You also get a height-adjustable stand and
plenty of connectivity, although the USB ports
being around the back is a bit inconvenient –
some displays have a couple of ports on the
side. The OSD is controlled by a mini joystick
on the back of the screen – as is the case with
most of the screens in this Labs – and it’s easy
to use. Around the back you also get a streak
of RGB lighting, if you’re into that sort of thing.
+ Good overall - 60Hz refresh rate
image quality limits gaming
When it comes to gaming, the 60Hz
maximum refresh rate immediately limits
the appeal of this screen for those who are
into competitive first-person shooters or
other fast-paced games. However, for more
cinematic fare, the combination of the 4K
resolution, huge 32in size, decent contrast
and good colour reproduction makes for an
impressive display, even if it isn’t quite what
we’d consider true HDR.
Conclusion
Decent overall image quality, a 4K resolution
and massive 32in size makes this an
appealing monitor for those seeking a
colourful, high-resolution screen for general
work and play. However, its 60Hz refresh rate
is a major limit to its gaming appeal and its
HDR is essentially pointless. It also doesn’t
have the image quality criteria to compete
with more professionally oriented 4K
displays so its exact appeal is niche.
VERDICT
A big 4K screen for a decent price but it’s not
without compromise.
IMAGE QUALITY GAMING OVERALL SCORE
24/30 18/30
73%
FEATURES VALUE
14/20 17/20

60
 MONITOR IMAGE QUALITY RESULTS
SRGB COLOUR TEMPERATURE KELVIN SRGB AVERAGE GAMMA
Deviation from ideal result (6,500K) Deviation from ideal result (2.2)

Acer Predator CG437K 30 MSI MAG321CURV 0.01

MSI MAG321CURV 78 Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 0.02

AOC AGON AG273QX 173 Acer Predator CG437K 0.03

Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 183 Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 0.06

Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 250 AOC AGON AG273QX 0.1

BenQ EX2780Q 459 BenQ EX2780Q 0.21

0 200 400 600 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Lower is better Lower is better

SRGB CONTRAST RATIO SRGB MAXIMUM BRIGHTNESS

Ratio of white-to-black luminance Brightness in cd/m2

Acer Predator CG437K 4,137 Acer Predator CG437K 813

2,774 Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 607

MSI MAG321CURV

AOC AGON AG273QX 2,695 Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 561

Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 2,484 AOC AGON AG273QX 465

Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 1,141 BenQ EX2780Q 366

BenQ EX2780Q 1,100 MSI MAG321CURV 364

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 0 300 600 900

Higher is better Higher is better

HDR CONTRAST RATIO

HDR MAXIMUM BRIGHTNESS
Ratio of white-to-black luminance
Brightness in cd/m2

Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 123,500

Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 1,318
Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 21,967
Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 1,235
Acer Predator CG437K 4,584
Acer Predator CG437K 1,192
MSI MAG321CURV 2,774
AOC AGON AG273QX 615
AOC AGON AG273QX 2,673
MSI MAG321CURV 364
BenQ EX2780Q 1,336
BenQ EX2780Q 294
0 50,000 100,000 150,000
0 500 1,000 1,500
Higher is better
Higher is better

SRGB COLOUR ACCURACY SRGB BLACK LEVEL

Average delta-E 2000 Brightness in cd/m2

Acer Predator CG437K 0.2 MSI MAG321CURV 0.13

MSI MAG321CURV 0.21 AOC AGON AG273QX 0.17

Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 0.23 Acer Predator CG437K 0.2

BenQ EX2780Q 0.25 Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 0.23

Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 0.34 BenQ EX2780Q 0.33

AOC AGON AG273QX 0.35 Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 0.53

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Lower is better Lower is better

HDR BLACK LEVEL HDR DCIP3 COLOUR SPACE COVERAGE

Brightness in cd/m2 DCI-P3 coverage in per cent

Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 0.06 BenQ EX2780Q 99.4

MSI MAG321CURV 0.13 Acer Predator CG437K 95.4

Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 0.17 AOC AGON AG273QX 87.6

BenQ EX2780Q 0.22 MSI MAG321CURV 72.3

AOC AGON AG273QX 0.23 Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ NA

Acer Predator CG437K 0.26 Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ NA

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 40 80 120

Lower is better Higher is better

SRGB DCIP3 COLOUR SPACE COVERAGE

Deviation from 70 per cent DCI-P3 coverage

Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 0.8

BenQ EX2780Q 1

Acer Predator CG437K 1.5

Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ 2

MSI MAG321CURV 2.3

AOC AGON AG273QX 17.6

0 10 20 30
Lower is better
61
 R E V I E WS / HOW WE TEST
How we test
MOTHERBOARDS
TEST PROCESSORS
 Intel LGA1151 Intel Core i9-9900K
 Intel LGA2066 Intel Core i9-7900X
 AMD AM4 AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
 AMD TRX4 AMD Threadripper 3970X
Our test gear comprises a GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders
Edition and a 2TB Samsung 970 Pro SSD (or a PCI-E 4 1TB
Corsair MP600 SSD on X570 and TRX40 boards). We also
use Corsair Vengeance RGB 3466MHz DDR4 RAM – a 16GB
dual-channel kit for mainstream systems, and a 32GB quad-
channel kit for HEDT systems.
We use Custom PC’s own RealBench suite, and Far
Cry 5 installed on Windows 10 Home 64-bit to test basic
performance. We also test the board’s SATA and M.2 ports,
and record the noise level and dynamic range of the
integrated audio using RightMark Audio Analyzer. We try to
overclock our test CPU to its maximum air-cooled level on
each motherboard, and record the performance results.
PROCESSORS
TEST MOTHERBOARDS
 Intel LGA1151 MSI MEG Z90 ACE
 Intel LGA2066 MSI MEG X299 Creation
 AMD AM4 Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master
 AMD AM4 (APU) MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon
 AMD TRX4 Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme
We otherwise use the same core spec to test each CPU.
Our test gear comprises an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Founders Edition (or an APU’s integrated GPU for gaming tests)
and a 2TB Samsung 970 Pro SSD. We also use Corsair
Vengeance RGB 3466MHz DDR4 memory – a 16GB dual-
channel kit for mainstream desktop systems, and a 32GB
quad-channel kit for HEDT systems.
We use Custom PC’s own RealBench suite, Cinebench and
Far Cry 5, installed on Windows 10 Home 64-bit, and record the
power draw of the test PC. These tests cover a broad range of
performance characteristics, including image editing,
gaming, video encoding and 3D rendering. We run all tests at
stock speed and at the CPU’s highest overclocked frequency.
62
MONITORS
We test image quality with an Xrite
iDisplay Pro colorimeter and
DisplayCal software to check for
colour accuracy, contrast and
gamma, while assessing more
subjective details such as pixel
density and viewing angles by eye. We also run games on
them to assess their responsiveness, and to see how well any
adaptive sync tech works, and to gauge their performance at
high refresh rates.
CPU COOLERS
We measure the CPU temperature with CoreTemp, and
subtract the ambient air temperature to give a delta T result,
enabling us to test in a lab that isn’t temperature controlled.
We load the CPU with Prime95’s smallfft test and take the
reading after ten minutes.
TEST KIT
Fractal Design Meshify C case, 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance
LPX memory, 256GB Crucial MX100 SSD, be quiet! System
Power 9 500W PSU, Windows 10 64-bit.
INTEL LGA1151
Intel Core i5-9600K CPU overclocked to 4.6GHz with 1.2V
vcore, MSI Z370 PC Pro motherboard.
INTEL LGA2066
Intel Core i9-7900X overclocked to 4.2GHz with 1.15V vcore,
MSI X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard.
AMD AM4
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 overclocked to 3.9GHz with 1.425V vcore,
Asus ROG Strix B350-F Gaming motherboard.
AMD TR4
AMD Threadripper 2950X overclocked to 4.1GHz with 1.425V
vcore, AMD Threadripper 2990WX overclocked to 4GHz with
1.3375V vcore, ASRock X399M motherboard.
GRAPHICS CARDS AWARDS
tom P
We mainly evaluate graphics us EXTREME ULTRA

C
cards on the performance they Some products are gloriously over the top. They

A
EXT
don’t always offer amazing value, but they’re

TR
offer for the price. However, RE L outstanding if you have money to spend.
we also consider the efficacy ME U
and noise of the cooler, as well
tom P
as the GPU’s support for new us PREMIUM GRADE

C
gaming features, such as real- Premium Grade products are utterly desirable,

E
PRE
time ray tracing. Every graphics card is tested in the same PC, offering a superb balance of performance and

AD
M
so all the results are directly comparable. Each test is run IUM GR features without an over-the-top price.
three times, and we report the average of those results.
We test graphics cards at 1,920 x 1,080, 2,560 x 1,440 and tom P
us PROFESSIONAL

C
3,840 x 2,160, although we omit the latter resolution on These products might not be appropriate for a
cheaper cards that are unable to produce playable frame gaming rig, but they’ll do an ace job at

AL
PR
rates at this setting. We also try to overclock every graphics FE workstation tasks.

N
O
SSIO
card we test to assess the performance impact.
tom P
us APPROVED
TEST KIT c

C
Approved products do a great job for the
Intel Core i7-8700K overclocked to 4.7GHz on all cores, 16GB money; they’re the canny purchase for a
Corsair Vengeance LED 3000MHz DDR4 memory, Gigabyte PP
D
A

ROV E great PC setup.

Z370 Aorus motherboard, Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240
CPU cooler, Corsair HX750 PSU, Cooler Master MasterCase
tom P
H500M case, Windows 10 Home 64-bit. us CUSTOM KIT
c

For those gadgets and gizmos that really

impress us, or that we can’t live without,
IT

GAME TESTS
CU

ST
Battlefield V Tested in DirectX 11 at Ultra settings on every OM K there’s the Custom Kit award.

card. If a GPU also supports real-time ray tracing, we then test

it in DirectX 12 with DXR enabled on Low and High settings.
We run through a one-minute custom benchmark in the
‘Under No Flag’ War Story, recording the frame rate
with Fraps.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Tested at the Highest settings
preset, with TAA. We run the built-in benchmark, and record
the frame rate from the GPU test.
Total War: Warhammer II Tested in DirectX 11, as the DirectX
12 beta currently causes stuttering issues on some GPUs. We
test at Ultra settings with FXAA, and run the built-in
b
‘Battle’ benchmark.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Tested at the Very High preset in
DirectX 12, running the built-
in benchmark.
POWER CONSUMPTION
We run Unigine Superposition at 4K
Optimized DirectX settings. We measure the power
consumption of our whole graphics test rig at the mains
during the test, and record the peak power draw. Bear in mind
that this result is for the whole system, not the graphics
card alone.
CUSTOM PC REALBENCH
Our own benchmark suite, co-developed with Asus, is
designed to gauge a PC’s performance in several key areas,
using open source software.
GIMP IMAGE EDITING
We use GIMP to open and edit large images, heavily stressing
one CPU core to gauge single-threaded performance. This
test responds well to increases in CPU clock speed.
HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING
Our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake H.264 video encoding
test takes full advantage of many CPU cores, pushing them to
100 per cent load.
LUXMARK OPENCL
This LuxRender-based test shows a GPU’s compute
performance. As this is a niche area, the result from this test
has just a quarter of the weighting of the other tests in the
final system score.
HEAVY MULTITASKING
This test plays a full-screen 1080p video, while running a
Handbrake H.264 video encode in the background.

63
Elite Our choice of the best hardware available

Core component bundles

The fundamental specifications we recommend for various types of PC. Just add your preferred case and power supply, and double-check there’s
room in your case for your chosen components, especially the GPU cooler and graphics card. We’ve largely stopped reviewing power supplies, as
the 80 Plus certification scheme has now effectively eliminated unstable PSUs. Instead, we’ve recommended the wattage and minimum 80 Plus
certification you should consider for each component bundle. You can then choose whether you want a PSU with modular or captive cables.

Budget system with Budget gaming system

integrated graphics Quad-core CPU, 1080p gaming
Needs a micro-ATX case. We recommend a
Quad-core CPU, basic gaming 450W 80 Plus power supply. See Issue 191,
Needs a micro-ATX or ATX case. p78, for an example build guide.
We recommend a 350W 80 Plus power supply.
PRICE
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
PRICE inc VAT
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
Intel Core #191
AMD Ryzen 5 #194, CPU scan.co.uk £118
CPU overclockers.co.uk £ 120 i3-8100 p78
3400G p20

AMD Wraith air #176 Raijintek Juno #191

CPU COOLER cooler included N/A £0 CPU COOLER overclockers.co.uk £12
Pro RBW p78
with CPU p80

AMD Radeon Zotac Gaming

RX Vega 11 #194 #197
GRAPHICS CARD N/A £0 GRAPHICS CARD GeForce GTX overclockers.co.uk £230
integrated p30
p20 1660 Super
into CPU

16GB 2 x8
8GB (2 x 4GB) GB) Corsair
Corsair Vengeance #191
Vengeance LPX #176 MEMORY scan.co.uk £60
MEMORY scan.co.uk £45 LPX 3000MHz p78
3000MHz p80 (CMK16GX4
(CMK8GX4M2A M2A2666C16)
3000C16)

Gigabyte B360M
#191
MOTHERBOARD DS3H cclonline.com £68
MSI B450M p78
#182 (micro-ATX)
MOTHERBOARD Mortar ebuyer.com £90
(micro-ATX)* p50

500GB WD Blue
#191
STORAGE SN500 ebuyer.com £65
p78
(M.2 NVMe)
500GB WD #191
STORAGE Blue SN500 ebuyer.com £65
(M.2 NVMe) p78
Total £553

UPGRADES
Total £313
SWAP AMD Radeon RX #190
overclockers.co.uk £270
GRAPHICS CARD Vega 56 p47
*This motherboard may require a BIOS update in order to recognise the new
CPU, which can be performed without needing an old CPU, downloading the Kingston A2000 #196
latest BIOS to a USB flash drive and pressing the Flash BIOS button SWAP STORAGE scan.co.uk £108
1TB p30

64
Mid-range all- Mid-range
purpose system gaming sys
6-core CPU, 2,560 x 1,440 gaming 8-core CPU, 2,560 x 1,440 gaming
Needs an ATX case. We recommend using a 550W power supply with real-time ray tracing
with 80 Plus Bronze certification. See Issue 193, p76 for a similar Needs an ATX case with room for a 240mm all-in-one liquid
example build guide. cooler. We recommend a 600W 80 Plus Bronze power supply.

PRICE PRICE
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT

AMD Ryzen 5 #195

CPU scan.co.uk £175 AMD Ryzen 7 #192
3600 p16 CPU overclockers.co.uk £300
3700X p14

Deepcool #192
CPU COOLER scan.co.uk £30
Gammaxx GT p52
ARCTIC Liquid #196
CPU COOLER scan.co.uk £65
Freezer II 240 p26
AMD Radeon RX #192
GRAPHICS CARD overclockers.co.uk £300
5700 p24

Nvidia GeForce #193

16GB (2 x 8GB) GRAPHICS CARD scan.co.uk £490
RTX 2070 Super p16
Corsair
Vengeance RGB #192
MEMORY scan.co.uk £120
3466MHz p21
(CMW16GX4
16GB (2 x 8GB)
M2C3466C16)
Corsair
Vengeance RGB #192
MEMORY scan.co.uk £120
3466MHz p21
MSI X570-A Pro #193 (CMW16GX4
MOTHERBOARD cclonline.com £150 M2C3466C16)
(ATX) p48

1TB Corsair #193 Asus ROG Strix

STORAGE scan.co.uk £200 #193
MP600 p26 MOTHERBOARD X570-E Gaming overclockers.co.uk £300
(ATX) p44

Total £975

1TB Corsair #193

STORAGE scan.co.uk £200
UPGRADES MP600 p26

Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2060
SWAP GRAPHICS #193
Super (adds scan.co.uk £375
CARD p16
real-time ray-
tracing abilities)
Total £1,475

UPGRADES
ADD SECONDARY Western Digital #166
overclockers.co.uk £105
STORAGE Blue 4TB p54
ADD SECONDARY Western Digital #166
overclockers.co.uk £105
STORAGE Blue 4TB p54

SWAP CPU ARCTIC Liquid #196 Corsair H100i

scan.co.uk £65
COOLER Freezer II 240 p26 SWAP CPU RGB Platinum #185
scan.co.uk £120
COOLER (240mm AIO p82
liquid cooler)

65
E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Core component bundles cont …

4K gaming system
stem Heavy multi-threading
12-core CPU, workstation
4K gaming with real-time Serious multi-threaded power,
ray-tracing abilities 1080p gaming
Needs an E-ATX case with room for a 240mm all-in-one liquid Needs an E-ATX case with room for a 240mm all-in-one liquid
cooler. We recommend a 650W 80 Plus Gold power supply. cooler. We recommend a 700W 80 Plus Gold power supply.
PRICE PRICE
COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT

AMD #197
CPU Threadripper overclockers.co.uk £1,350
AMD Ryzen 9 #192 p18
CPU overclockers.co.uk £480 3960X
3900X p14
Enermax
Liqtech II #186
CPU COOLER TR4 240 overclockers.co.uk £130
(240mm AIO p44
Corsair H100i
RGB Platinum #175 liquid cooler)
CPU COOLER scan.co.uk £120
(240mm AIO p20
liquid cooler) Zotac Gaming #197
GRAPHICS CARD GeForce GTX overclockers.co.uk £230
1660 Super p30

Nvidia GeForce #189 32GB Corsair

GRAPHICS CARD scan.co.uk £999 Dominator
RTX 2080 Ti p20
Platinum RGB #197
MEMORY scan.co.uk £280
3466MHz p20
(CMT32GX4
M4C3466C16)

16GB (2 x 8GB)
Asus ROG Zenith #197
Corsair
Vengeance RGB #192 MOTHERBOARD II Extreme overclockers.co.uk £700
MEMORY scan.co.uk £120 (E-ATX) p22
3466MHz p21
(CMW16GX4
M2C3466C16) 1TB Corsair #193
STORAGE scan.co.uk £200
MP600 p26

Total £2,890
MSI Prestige
#193
MOTHERBOARD X570 Creation overclockers.co.uk £430
p48 UPGRADES
(E-ATX)

Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2070 Super
(2,560 x 1,440
1TB Corsair #193 SWAP GRAPHICS #193
STORAGE scan.co.uk £200 CARD
gaming with ray scan.co.uk £490
MP600 p26 p16
tracing, and
some 4K
gaming)

Total £2,349
AMD
Threadripper
UPGRADES 3970X #197
SWAP CPU overclockers.co.uk £1,890
(32 cores - p19
massive multi-
ADD SECONDARY 4TB Western #166
overclockers.co.uk £105 threaded power)
STORAGE Digital Blue p54

AMD Ryzen 9 #197 ADD SECONDARY 6TB Seagate #166

SWAP CPU overclockers.co.uk £749 cpc.farnell.com £185
3950X (16 cores) p24 STORAGE BarraCuda Pro p50

66
 Mini PCs
Our favourite components for building a micro-ATX or mini-ITX PC. Always double-check how much room is available in your chosen case
before buying your components. Some mini-ITX cases don’t have room for large all-in-one liquid coolers, for example, or tall heatsinks. You’ll
also need to check that there’s room for your chosen graphics card. We’ve also recommended a small PSU and a low-profile CPU cooler, if your
chosen case requires them.

Mini-ITX Micro-ATX
Motherboards Motherboards
PRICE PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT
ASRock Z390 Asus ROG
Intel Z390 #185 Intel Z390 #189
Phantom scan.co.uk £187 Maximus XI overclockers.co.uk £285
(LGA1151) p50 (LGA1151) p28
Gaming-ITX/ac Gene
AMD X570 Gigabyte X570-I #195
overclockers.co.uk £227
(AM4 budget) Aorus Pro WiFi p24 AMD X399 ASRock X399M #179
AMD X570 Asus ROG Strix #198 scan.co.uk £330
overclockers.co.uk £270 (TR4) Taichi p28
(AM4 mid-range) X570-I Gaming p20

Cases AMD B450

(AM4)
MSI B450M
Mortar
ebuyer.com
#182
p50
£90
PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
Metallic Gear #195
Cases
BUDGET amazon.co.uk £60
Neo Mini p48 PRICE
Phanteks Enthoo #195 CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
MIDRANGE overclockers.co.uk £95
inc VAT
Evolv Shift Air p49
Lian Li #195 Fractal Design #180
PREMIUM overclockers.co.uk £225 BUDGET overclockers.co.uk £47
PC-Q37WX p47 Focus G Mini p46

CPU coolers Fractal Design #161

MIDRANGE scan.co.uk £80
PRICE Define Mini C p26
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
#143 #175
LOWPROFILE Noctua NH-D9L amazon.co.uk £43 PREMIUM NZXT H400i overclockers.co.uk £105
p17 p32

Power supplies
PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE

800W SFX
SilverStone
StriderSX800-LTI
scan.co.uk
#185
p82
inc VAT
£156 Networking
ATX Cases CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
PRICE
inc VAT

ROUTER TP-Link Archer #196

amazon.co.uk £280
WIFI 6 AX6000 p57
PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
MESH ROUTER Netgear Orbi #172
Phanteks Eclipse #176 amazon.co.uk £287
BUDGET overclockers.co.uk £55 WIFI 5 2-Pack (RBK50) p57
P300 Glass p28
be quiet! Pure #196
BUDGET QUIET aquatuning.co.uk £72
Base 500 p24 PREMIUM MESH Asus AiMesh #196
overclockers.co.uk £280
Phanteks Eclipse #194 ROUTER WIFI 6 AX6100 p54
BUDGET RGB overclockers.co.uk £84
P400A p24
Lian Li Lancool #184 #196
SUB£100 overclockers.co.uk £95 TP-Link Archer
One Digital p32 WIFI ADAPTOR overclockers.co.uk £60
TX3000E p58
Phanteks Eclipse #187
MIDRANGE overclockers.co.uk £135
P600S p24
#196 SINGLEBAY NAS #174
HIGHEND NZXT H700i overclockers.co.uk £170 Synology DS118 box.co.uk £150
p51 BOX p34
Phanteks Enthoo #187
PREMIUM overclockers.co.uk £200
Evolv X p24 DUALBAY Synology #174
Cooler Master #183 box.co.uk £193
LUXURY scan.co.uk £400 MEDIA NAS BOX DS218play p34
Cosmos C700M p28

67
E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Monitors
AMD FreeSync Nvidia G-Sync
PRICE PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT
24IN BUDGET #174
AOC G2460VQ6 amazon.co.uk £110 24IN AOC AGON #169
1,920 X 1,080 p52 amazon.co.uk £350
2,560 X 1,440 AG241QG p55
24IN MIDRANGE #191
AOC C24G1 amazon.co.uk £180
1,920 X 1,080 p28 27IN 2,560 X Asus ROG Swift #155
scan.co.uk £699
1,440 PG279Q p48
24IN 240HZ #187
AOC AGON
ESPORTS overclockers.co.uk £290 35IN
AG251FZ p48 AOC AGON #180
1,920 X 1,080 ULTRAWIDE overclockers.co.uk £700
AG352UCG6 p52
3,440 X 1,440
27IN Samsung #171
ebuyer.com £465
2,560 X 1,440 C27HG70 p28 27IN 4K Asus ROG Swift #181
scan.co.uk £1,900
PREMIUM PG27UQ p31

35IN
AMD FreeSync ULTRAWIDE
3,440 X 1,440
Asus ROG Swift
PG35VQ
scan.co.uk
#198
p58
£2,600

and Nvidia G-Sync

CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
PRICE
Non-gaming
inc VAT
PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
24IN BUDGET #190
AOC G2590FX overclockers.co.uk £175
1,920 X 1,080 p53 #194
27IN 4K AOC U2790PQU lamda-tek.com £280
p30
25IN MIDRANGE #190 #179
Asus VG258QR currys.co.uk £230 27IN Iiyama ProLite
1,920 X 1,080 p54 scan.co.uk £695
5,120 X 2,880 XB2779QQS p34

Peripherals and audio

Gaming keyboards Gaming mice
PRICE PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT

#176 FIRSTPERSON SteelSeries Rival #184

MEMBRANE Corsair K55 RGB overclockers.co.uk £45 scan.co.uk £74
p52 SHOOTER 600 p59

#181
MECHANICAL Corsair K68 RGB ebuyer.com £120
p53
#186
MMO Roccat Nyth amazon.co.uk £63
p53
MECHANICAL Corsair K95 RGB #164
scan.co.uk £140
MMO Platinum p26
Razer Lancehead
#177
Corsair K70 AMBIDEXTROUS Tournament currys.co.uk £60
PREMIUM #193 p53
Mk.2 Low scan.co.uk £125 Edition
MECHANICAL p56
Profile

Glorious PC
LUXURY Razer #193 ULTRA #195
scan.co.uk £189 Gaming Race overclockers.co.uk £45
MECHANICAL Hunstman Elite p59 LIGHTWEIGHT p58
Model O

68
 Peripherals and audio cont …
Game controllers Gaming headsets
PRICE PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT inc VAT
STEERING WHEEL Logitech G920 #159 Sennheiser GSP #194
currys.co.uk £200 STEREO amazon.co.uk £65
& PEDALS Driving Force p55 300 p56
Microsoft Xbox One #191
GAMEPAD argos.co.uk £35
Wireless Controller p56 Asus ROG #163
SURROUND cclonline.com £216
Centurion p49

Speakers WIRELESS
SteelSeries
Arctis 7
currys.co.uk
#178
p58
£119
PRICE
CATEGORY NAME SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT
PREMIUM Corsair Virtuoso #195
#192 scan.co.uk £180
STEREO Edifier R1280DB amazon.co.uk £120 WIRELESS RGB Wireless SE p30
p57

PCs and laptops

Pre-built PC systems
PRICE
CATEGORY NAME CPU GPU SUPPLIER ISSUE
inc VAT

BUDGET PC WITH INTEGRATED AMD Ryzen 5 3400G #176

Falcon Raptor RX AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 falconcomputers.co.uk £480
GRAPHICS stock speed p52

Intel Core i5-9600KF Nvidia GeForce RTX #197

SUB£1,000 GAMING AlphaBeta i5 RTX alphabetapc.com £999
stock speed 2070 Super p40

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Nvidia GeForce RTX #196

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Stormforce Crystal RTX 3.6GHz AMD Ryzen 7 Nvidia GeForce RTX #196
GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING stormforcegaming.co.uk £1,870
2080 Super 3700X stock speed 2080 Super p38

Intel Core i9-9900K Nvidia GeForce RTX #190

PREMIUM MINIITX Corsair One i160 corsair.com £3,250
stock speed 2080 Ti p32

Scan 3XS Vengeance AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Nvidia GeForce RTX #197
WATERCOOLED 16CORE GAMING scan.co.uk £4,499
RTX Ti Fluid OC to 4.3GHz 2080 Ti p42

Intel Core i9-9900X 2 x Nvidia GeForce RTX #145

DREAM PC Scan 3XS Barracuda scan.co.uk £9,791
OC to 4.4GHz 2080 Ti p58

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Asus ROG Zephyrus S Intel Core i7-9750H Nvidia GeForce RTX 17.3in 1,920 x 1,080 #190
PREMIUM GAMING amazon.co.uk £3,300
GX701GX stock speed 2080 Max-Q IPS 144Hz G-Sync p28

69
 Games
R I C K L A N E / INVERSE LOOK

CONFLICT ZONES
If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare wants to claim authenticity,
then its message needs to be consistent, argues Rick Lane

n a technical and mechanical level, the new Call of with terrorists during a gritty nighttime defensive battle, is
O Duty: Modern Warfare (see opposite) is a decent
game, both looking fantastic and feeling great to
it really appropriate for an achievement labelled ‘Love from
Above?’to ping up on the screen. How about ‘Got something
play. But it’s also a game at war with itself, wanting to be on your Face?’ – an achievement you receive for spitting on
simultaneously an important work of art, while also being your captor during the middle of a torture sequence?
a big daft lark. This is nothing new for Call of Duty or gaming Such tone-deaf jokes are entirely at odds with what the
as a whole, but in Modern Warfare this conflict is so extreme campaign is trying to achieve. Then again, the campaign is
that it completely undermines the game’s artistic intentions. also at odds with that message. One mission, titled Highway
The single-player campaign focuses on a supposedly gritty, of Death, sees you sniping a convoy protecting a terrorist
realistic depiction of contemporary war,going leader along a stretch of road where Urzikstan
beyond the themes of soldierly honour and civilians had previously been bombed by the
sacrifice that were the key hallmarks of the Such tone-deaf jokes Russians as they tried to flee the conflict.
series in its early years. In Modern Warfare, are entirely at odds It’s based on a real-life event that occurred
the sacrifice made by its leading characters is duringtheGulfWar,onlyinthis case, the bombing
not one of blood, but of morality. with what the wascommittedbyAmerican-led allied forces on
The war depicted in its fictional country, campaign is trying Iraqi troops while they staged a retreat. If you’re
Urzikstan, is one where civilians are targeted by pitchingyourmodern-dayshooter as ‘authentic’
artillery and chemical weapons, where soldiers to achieve then misrepresenting a controversial war act
hide within civilian populations, where the murder doesn’t seem the smartest way to go about it.
of children and other war crimes are committed indiscriminately. Even the presence of the multiplayer mode, with its typically
Because of this situation, the game suggests, the player’s daft set of wargames, is entirely at odds with the notion of
moral code needs to be as flexible as that of the enemy in order depicting warfare in an authentic way, especially when that
to emerge victorious. As Captain Price himself suggests: ‘We means frequent depictions of murdered children.
get dirty so the world stays clean.’ It’s grim stuff, but it does If game developers want to create difficult, challenging
succeed in creating a level of tension within combat situations, art about the nature of war, that’s absolutely fine, but they
as well as unease at some of the actions you’re required to take. have to commit to it wholly, across all the game modes, all
The problem is that the game frequently undermines itself the achievements – everywhere. Otherwise, the legitimacy
with tonal, mechanical and factual inconsistencies that range of that work is immediately going to be up for debate, and a
from the silly to the outrageous. For example, when you’ve game that could be interesting and thought-provoking ends
just used a drone to blow up several pickup trucks filled up coming across as crass and repulsive.

Rick Lane is Custom PC’s games editor @Rick_Lane

70
Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare / £49.99 inc VAT

DEVELOPER Infinity Ward / PUBLISHER Activision

VICTORY
I
nfinity’s Ward’slatestModernWarfarereboot is The multiplayer component is also far better than other
the strongest game in the series for years, with a more recent entries. The highlight is undoubtedly Gunfight, + Looks fantastic
no-holds-barred campaign and a fully fledged a tiny 2v2 team-deathmatch that takes place on compact + Strong multiplayer
multiplayer offering. The campaign aims to provide a gritty maps, where all players are given the same randomised offering
and authentic portrayal of today’s war zones, aiming for a tone loadout. It’s a pure test of FPS skill and adaptability, and its + Campaign has
that’s less like an action movie and more like the war quickfire rounds make it very easy to jump in for a few interesting
moments
documentary Restrepo. Set primarily in the fictional country of games. On the flipside is Ground War, a 64-player, capture-
Urzikstan – a thinly veiled analogue for Syria – it sees Captain and-hold scenario that’s similar to Battlefield’s Conquest DEFEAT
Price team up with soldiers from the UK, USA and Urzikstan as mode. It’s not as original as Gunfight, but it offers a satisfying, - Single-player
they hunt for a stolen brace of chemical weapons. large-scale mode that Call of Duty has hitherto lacked. game too grim
In some ways, this new direction works well. Early in the Modern Warfare is undoubtedly the most accomplished - Tone
game, you play an SAS soldier in London when terrorists Call of Duty in years. Both the campaign and the multiplayer undermined by
multiplayer game
attack Piccadilly Circus. The resulting scene is one of genuine game have plenty going for them. However, the campaign’s
horror and confusion as you try to pick out targets and save content is frequently challenging and sometimes downright
civilians amid the chaos. Modern Warfare also strives to unpleasant, and it just feels odd bolting such a dark and
ensure we don’t see its conflict in Urzikstan from a purely gritty single-player component to a silly (if well-designed)
Western perspective. One of the primary characters is Farah virtual paintball match.
Karim, the leader of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, who RICK LANE
becomes the focus of the story in the campaign’s second half.
However, the writers don’t know when to stop laying on /VERDICT
the horror. Every mission seems to feature a traumatic Technically
accomplished
scene, from children being shot to your character being
and undoubtedly
tortured in first-person. Worse, this attempt to provide an thrilling, although
unflinching portrayal of war is undermined by the presence the results aren’t
of a typically daft multiplayer game, alongside some always pleasant
questionable creative decisions (see Inverse look, opposite). to behold.
When it isn’t trying to traumatise you, the actual game is
pretty good. The guns and movement have a weightier, OVERALL SCORE
more impactful feel than previous Call of Duty games, and
the more tactically focused missions, such as Clean House,
are great for highlighting the detail of Infinity’s Ward’s
exceptional new game engine. 70%
71
 G A M E S / REVIEWS

stom P
u

C
E
PRE

AD
M
IUM GR

Red Dead Redemption 2 / £ 54.99 inc VAT

DEVELOPER Rockstar Games / PUBLISHER Rockstar Games

ockstar Games is a master of world design, but as Your gang acts as the game’s narrative crux, a device
R game designers the studio has relied on old tricks
for a long time. Grand Theft Auto V brought players
that previous Rockstar Games have sorely lacked. Almost
every mission involves a member of the gang, whether
an incredibly detailed city to explore, but struggled to give it’s robbing a train or helping them to track down another,
them a reason to explore it. The main story led players by the missing gang member.
nose through its tightly scripted missions, while the game’s This breeds an intimate familiarity with almost all of the
wide range of side activities were ultimately arbitrary. The 20-odd gang members, from its charismatic leader Dutch
crucial difference with Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) is that to a younger (but no less slippery) John Marston, to lesser
Rockstar makes that attention to detail the point. members, such as the fearsome Sadie Adler, whose cabin
The studio’s latest game isn’t just a visual triumph, but a you find at the start of the game, and the young Kieran,
tactile and narrative one as well. Every action, side mission a former member of a rival gang who earns his place by
and tiny cabin in the woods legitimises its place in the game saving Morgan’s life.
world through Rockstar’s sheer commitment to craft, and The script also does a lot of passive work, offering up
a design ethos that means every activity in the game is seemingly endless new dialogue or entire scenes almost
compelling for its own sake. every time you return to camp – regardless of whether
This is particularly apparent in the storytelling. Rockstar you’re on a mission or not. After a while, it begins to
has always held strong cinematic aspirations, but this is its introduce optional story missions, such as going fishing
RED first offering where the writing and, crucially, the characters with Kieran, or robbing a house with Sadie.
+ Astonishing match the ambition shown in the environments. Red Dead
visuals
2 is actually a prequel to the original. Set in 1899, it sees you
+ Great story assume the role of Arthur Morgan, a member of the gang of
+ Peerless open- outlaws John Marston is dispatched to eliminate 13 years later.
world design
You might think knowing the rough ending of the story
would render it rather moot. However, RDR2 plays with this
DEAD fatalism superbly. From the game’s chilly opening in the high
- Familiar combat mountains of the Grizzlies, your gang is locked in a battle for
Restrictive mission
- design survival. In those early moments the weather is their enemy,
but as the game progresses, society and the march of time
- Grindy online
component arise as the gang’s true adversaries.

72
 You find yourself wanting to do these missions, not missions don’t give you more flexibility in terms of how you
because of the reward that’s offered, but because it means approach them, letting systems breathe instead of dictating
you get to find out more about these characters. It makes exactly what you’ll be doing at each moment.
you keen to savour those quieter moments, not least Lastly, the online component, which lets you create your
because the gang is living on borrowed time. own character and explore Red Dead’s world with other
What’s truly remarkable, however, is that RDR2 applies players (either in a posse or hunting them down for bounty
this eye for detail to virtually every activity in the game, rewards), is hamstrung by a punitive levelling system that
lending every side mission, bounty hunt or minor location a requires an obscene amount of grind to get anywhere. /VERDICT
unique bit of writing or structure. Helping a woman whose It’s a shame, because the potential for fun multiplayer Despite a few of
horse has bolted might lead you onto some interesting titbit shenanigans is significant, and the levelling system gates Rockstar’s bad
about a local town that will prove fruitful farther down the off much of the fun. habits enduring,
line, while exploring a burned-out village might reward you Nonetheless, the single-player game alone offers there’s no denying
with a treasure map that begins a whole new quest. Even more than enough fascinating storytelling and compelling the stunning
open world
tiny cabins in the far reaches of the game world will house a exploration to mark RDR2 out as a classic. The PC version
and fantastic
unique scene or secret. It could be a small stash of money, or is also the definitive version, with mouse-look providing storytelling
the skeletal remnants of a suicide cult. greater control in combat, and there’s a truly dazzling array of Red Dead
Like The Witcher 3, RDR2 makes engaging with it in every of graphics options that lets you tailor your experience Redemption 2.
moment feel worthwhile, and that logic also applies to the precisely to the capability of your PC. If you own a rig that
mechanics. Each action has a powerful sense of tactility. If you can handle it, then RDR2 on maximum settings is one of the OVERALL SCORE
go shopping for supplies, you buy items by physically picking best-looking games currently available. If you don’t, you’ll
them up off the shelf. If you decide to hunt for bounty, you’ll
tear the ‘wanted’ poster off the wall and open it up in your
hands for information on the bounty’s name and location.
This commitment to detail renders a lot of the issues
simply have to settle for one of the most beautifully crafted
open-world games ever committed to code.
RICK LANE
92 %
with previous Rockstar Games moot. However, that isn’t
the same as confronting those problems directly, and
some of them are still present. Combat, for example, has
changed little in the nine-year gap between the two games.
It still uses a combination of cover-shooting and cinematic
‘dead-eye’ slow motion, complete with Rockstar’s unique
ragdoll physics engine, which sees characters stumbling
and tumbling as they’re shot down. It’s still entertaining but,
aside from some new weapons and the ability to play in first
person, it hasn’t evolved much.
The same goes for the mission structures, which still want
to choreograph your movements as intensely as those of its
NPCs. Admittedly, Rockstar squeezes an impressive amount
of variety from its old West setting, with missions ranging
from bank and train robberies to helping a man escape a
giant alligator in the swamps. Nonetheless, it’s a shame that

73
 G A M E S / REVIEWS

Need for Speed:

Heat / £49.99 inc VAT

DEVELOPER Ghost Games / PUBLISHER EA

HOT
N
eed for Speed: Heat sees Ghost Games (formed daytime races), but there’s also a good chance you’ll attract
from the ashes of Criterion Games) being inspired the police’s attention and get rammed off the road. + Day/night
mechanic
by its legacy. The result is a racer that combines Heat also sports a clever risk/reward system, where works well
the summery open-world fun of Burnout Paradise with the successfully evading the police increases your ‘Heat’ rating,
muscular car chases of Need for Speed: Rivals. earning you more Rep. However, you only get to keep those + Lots of different
race types
The story places you playing an up-and-coming street points when you end the night by returning to your garage. If + Thrilling night races
racer looking to make his name on the roads of Palm City. the police bust you before you get there, you lose them all.
By day, you participate in organised races to earn ‘Bank’ (or The result is that Heat’s night races offer by far the best COLD
‘money’ as it’s known by most humans). When darkness racing in the series for years. That said, there are still some - Handling still
falls, the game switches to illegal street racing, which problems. Firstly, the car handling, a long-running issue for isn’t great
increases the ‘Rep’ points required to partake in more Need for Speed, still isn’t up to scratch. Compared with - Awful story and
advanced races and unlock new cars and parts. Forza Horizon and even Codemasters’ GRID, Need for characters
This switching between day and night is Heat’s key Speed’s cars feel too lightweight, with not enough
mechanic, and it’s smartly designed. Changing between distinction between drives.
the two is performed manually, accompanied by a stylish Also, if you find Heat’s use of slang such as ‘Bank’ and
camera transition. Racing in the day is fun, with a wide variety ‘Rep’ a little annoying, that’s barely the start of it. Heat’s story
of activities on offer and plenty of cars to unlock, but the revolves around some of the most obnoxious, self-
illegal street races are the highlight. Not only do you race absorbed characters outside of Grand Theft Auto. When
among regular traffic at night (roads are cordoned off for they’re not oozing performative machismo (regardless of
gender), they’re moping around
because their ludicrously expensive
toy got confiscated by the police after /VERDICT
they were caught doing twice the Heat’s story and
speed limit. They’re so profoundly characters may
infuriate, but
unsympathetic that the writers have to
beyond that you’ll
make the police outright psychopaths find a thrilling
to make them seem worse. and imaginative
If you can grit your teeth through open-world racer.
the cutscenes, however, you’ll be
rewarded with the most enjoyable OVERALL SCORE
Need for Speed in years – a smart
blend of ideas that results in
scintillating racing.
RICK LANE
75%
74
The Outer Worlds
/ £29.99 inc VAT
DEVELOPERObsidianEntertainment/PUBLISHERPrivateDivision

T
he Outer Worlds’ premise is basically Fallout 4 in
space. It mimics Bethesda’s massively popular
RPG in every meaningful way, be it combat,
dialogue, environment design or questing. That isn’t
necessarily bad, but sadly it sticks far too closely to the
Fallout 4 template with only a fraction of the budget.
The result is an inferior imitator of a four-year-old game.
It’s set in the Halcyon Colony, a star system in the far
reaches of space controlled by a conglomerate of
corporations known as the Board. You play a wannabe
colonist whose transport ship ran out of power en route,
leaving you frozen in cryostasis for the best part of a
century. You’re eventually defrosted by an eccentric
scientist called Phineas Wells, who wants your help
thawing out the other colonists as part of a plan to take
down the Board. So begins a planet-hopping adventure
through the Halcyon system.
The writing and dialogue are snappier than Fallout 4, with
more entertaining characters and a sharper satirical edge.
Halcyon is a hyper-capitalist society that has brainwashed
its colonists into bright-eyed, plastic-smiled retail skivvies
who work themselves to the bone for meagre wages under
contracts so punitive that, if a colonist friend of theirs dies,
they’re responsible for covering their funeral costs. Quests
have a pleasing array of potential solutions too, with your
decisions potentially affecting the fate of entire towns. Elsewhere, however, it all feels perfunctory. The Outer OUTER WORLDS
Worlds closely mimics the look and feel of Fallout 4 but its + Fun concept
world lacks the scope and depth to make those systems feel + Good writing
meaningful. Combat, for example, has the same sluggish, and dialogue
slightly floaty feel as Fallout 4, but lacks the tactical depth
added by V.A.T.S. Meanwhile, the small maps lack much INNER DEMONS
opportunity for exploration and discovery. Consequently, - Clunky combat

quests often have to be condensed, with NPCs sometimes - Boring progression

system
asking you to retrieve objects that are literally in the next room.
The progression system also has little interesting to offer, - By-the-numbers
questing
being almost entirely based around minor increases of
passive abilities. Loot is seemingly endless, with every
building crammed full of items that you’ll constantly hoover /VERDICT
up, but rarely actually use. Meanwhile, your party characters The Outer
Worlds is a
are well-written and empathetic, and converse with each
lesser facsimile
other as much as they speak to you. However, they also of Fallout 4 with
spend most of their time off-screen, trailing behind you in no ideas to call
a way that creates an odd sense of disconnection. its own.
The Outer Worlds does its job to a basic standard, but
does nothing to stand out. If you played all of Fallout 4 and OVERALL SCORE
were still left wanting, The Outer Worlds will scratch that
itch. Otherwise, there are plenty of other virtual worlds
worth exploring before venturing into the Halcyon system.
RICK LANE
60%
75
 G A M E S / VIRTUAL REALITY
REALITY
CHECK
Rick Lane prepares for
the first new Half-Life
game in over a decade,
and plays the final Vader
Immortal episode, in our
monthly VR roundup
REVIEW
STAR WARS: VADER IMMORTAL
EPISODE III / £7.99 incVAT
DEVELOPER ILMxLAB / PUBLISHER Oculus
Finally, we have the conclusion to
ILMxLAB’s VR Star Wars experience,
which would have fared better as a single
product, if we’re honest. Nonetheless,
Episode III offers the most comprehensive
Star Wars experience of the trilogy,
giving you the widest range of equipment
yet and letting you battle the Dark Lord
of the Sith himself, as well as offering
the definitive version of its Jedi Dojo.
If only the Story Mode gave players a
little more freedom to experiment.
76
Having been left for dead by Vader at the
end of Episode II, Episode III sees players
gradually working their way back up into
Vader’s Imperial Fortress for a climactic
showdown. On the way, you’ll battle
Stormtroopers and even face down an
Imperial TIE fighter. Episode III undoubtedly
features the highest highs of the three games,
but it’s also arguably the least free-flowing
experience, with lots of stopping points for
dialogue scenes and overly scripted action
sequences. We’d hoped that this episode
would give players slightly more opportunities
to explore and experiment, but it still insists
you play to a specific beat, which is a shame.
On the other hand, it’s the most
mechanically diverse of the three games.
Alongside all the Jedi abilities accrued up
to this point, Episode III adds the ability
to wield blasters and throw thermal
detonators at enemies. The former work
fine – it would be hard to mess up grenade
throwing in VR. The blasters, on the other
hand, aren’t the easiest weapons to wield,
lacking usable sights and having to be
discarded once they’ve run out of ‘ammo’.
Ultimately, Episode III is a decent, but not
spectacular, conclusion to the series. As with
the previous instalment, the highlight remains
the Jedi Dojo; in Episode III, this sees you well
and truly complete your training. Most
importantly, it adds Stormtroopers to the fight,
hooray! Unfortunately, they keep their distance
when fighting, meaning you can’t attack them
directly with your lightsaber beyond throwing it
at them, which is a little disappointing.
This final iteration of the Dojo also adds a
bunch of new gadgets. The blasters and
grenades from the Story mode make an
appearance, and you can even wield your

saber in one hand while shooting a blaster with
the other. As you progress through the Dojo’s
increasingly challenging stages, you’ll also
unlock new types of saber, including the ability to
wield two lightsabers and a Darth Maul-style
double-bladed lightsaber. Shiny!
It may seem odd that a game that lets you get
face to face with Darth Vader ends up being
eclipsed by its own, secondary training simulator,
but it highlights the strengths and weaknesses
of current-gen VR. We’re still at the stage where
‘Do X in VR’ is the part that gets us excited, and
the ability to swing a lightsaber in VR is far more
enticing than standing around while Darth Vader
warbles menacingly at you. Vader Immortal is a
decent ride, it’s just a shame the story never lets
you truly unleash the Force.
LIGHTSABER LIGHT, SAVE US!
+ Most action-packed - Not enough freedom
episode yet to experiment
+ Best Jedi Dojo yet - No direct
Stormtrooper combat
VERDICT OVERALL SCORE
Despite some flaws,
OPINION
HALF-LIFE: ALYX
Well, hit me with a crowbar and call me a
headcrab, Valve has only gone and announced
a new Half-Life game. No, it isn’t Half-Life 3,
but it is a Half-Life game, and a proper one at
that. It’s called Half-Life: Alyx, and it’s set
between the events of Half-Life and its
sequel. Oh, and in case you hadn’t already
guessed, it’s a VR exclusive.
However, it’s not exclusive to the
monstrously expensive Valve Index headset.
Half-Life: Alyx will support all major PC VR
headsets, including the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive,
Oculus Quest and so on. Secondly, it isn’t just
a two-hour, proof-of-concept demo.
According to Valve, Alyx is a fully fledged
game, with a running time that’s
approximately the same as Half-Life 2.
On to specifics, the new game sees you
plays as Alyx Vance in an adventure across
City 17 before Gordon Freeman arrives to kick
the Combine right in the Doctor Breens. The
specifics of the story are obviously still
heavily under wraps, but from what’s been
revealed so far, it appears that Alyx’s father
Eli manages to get himself kidnapped again
and Alyx must rescue him. There are also
hints of a broader narrative beyond this, with
the G-Man doing his usual trick of looming
from the shadows in the game’s trailer.
Speaking of the G-Man, he’s looking a
mighty bit slicker than he did in 2004 (and he
was pretty slick then). Half-Life: Alyx is built
using Valve’s Source 2 engine, which
provides a substantial visual overhaul to City
17. Indeed, for a VR game, Half-Life: Alyx
you to use Oculus’ new PC-tethering
technology to get the optimal experience?
What we can say for certain is that the
Half-Life 2 art style remains intact. City 17
looks as you remember it, from the pastel
building facades to the bluish tint of the
Combine’s armour.
Play-wise, Half Life Alyx uses a lot of
familiar VR mechanics. It can be played sitting
down, standing up or at room scale (moving
around a room, tracked by sensors), while
players can move through its environments
using teleportation or standard forwards
motion. As you’d expect, it’s a first-person
shooter, so you’ll be wielding, firing and
manually reloading guns in your hands,
battling classic Half-Life enemies such as
Combine soldiers, headcrabs and antlions.
As for more novel mechanics, Alyx has its
own version of Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun
known as ‘Grabbity Gloves’, which lets
players grab objects from a distance –
useful in a VR environment. In the trailer,
we also catch a glimpse of a puzzle that
seems to involve Alyx using her hands to
trace electrical circuits.
Half-Life Alyx looks like a slick, well-made
and entertaining Half-Life game. That said,
Valve has apparently been working on Alyx
for five years, as it tried to find a way to take
that next step in the evolution of the first-
person shooter genre, much like Half-Life 2
did over the original game. Alyx’s use of VR
is allegedly that step, although the trailer
doesn’t show much that’s groundbreaking
from a VR perspective. Hopefully, that

74 %
looks very snazzy indeed. However, it’s
the third episode of
Vader Immortal still difficult to speculate how that experience will evolution will become clearer as Valve
ends with more of a stack across the various available headsets. divulges more info about Alyx in the run-up
bang than a whimper. For example, will the Quest version require to the release date of March 2020.

77
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION

WATERCOOLED
BUILD A

24
CORE THREADRIPPER PC
ANTONY LEATHER SHOWS HOW TO BUILD A WATERCOOLED
PC BASED ON AMD’S NEW 3RDGEN THREADRIPPER CPUS

W
hile AMD’s Zen and Zen+
Threadripper CPUs were
rather niche in their
performance thanks to their
relatively slow speed in single and lightly
threaded tasks, its Zen 2-based Threadrippers
finally bring some serious single-threaded
grunt to the party. They make for the most
powerful all-rounders the desktop PC has
ever seen, with massive single and multi-
threaded performance all in one processor.
This means that you don’t need a separate rig
for everyday computing and one for heavy
multi-threaded workloads. It makes absolute
sense to use your 3rd-gen Threadripper PC as
your one and only system.
This month we’re building a water-cooled
TRX40 system using the winner of this
month’s motherboard Labs, along with plenty
of other high-end components, to make
the most of AMD’s new platform and build
a system that’s as quick in content creation
as it is in games or just about anything else
you throw at it. However, we’re putting a little
extra focus on content creation, cooling, and
building a quiet PC, as this is still the most
likely reason many of us will be thinking of
building a Threadripper-based system.
You’ll need a sizeable budget for any PC
of this calibre, but you don’t need to go all
out to get great performance. We’ve cherry-
picked from the sweet spots to maximise
performance without spending silly amounts
of cash, but to still get a seriously potent
PC. We’ll also be delving into setting up a
TRX40 system, configuring AMD’s 3rd-gen
Threadripper CPUs and installing a water-
cooling system to keep these monstrous
CPUs in check.

78
THE BEST COMPONENTS FOR A
MULTIPURPOSE MONSTER
CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
£1,350 inc VAT
scan.co.uk
Nothing else in terms
of desktop CPUs
comes close to the
performance 3rd-gen
Threadripper offers, both
in terms of multi-threaded tasks
and bandwidth, with a total of 72 PCI-E
lanes. So, the choice comes down to either the
24-core Threadripper 3960X or the 32-core
Threadripper 3970X. Both sport Simultaneous
Multi-Threading, so they support twice as
many threads as they have cores and both
have the same amount of L3 cache at 128MB.
Crucially, they both boost to the same single-
core frequency of 4.5GHz. Meanwhile, the price
difference between them is significant – more
than £500 – and while professionals may
need all the grunt they can get, for a high-end
multi-purpose system, the benefits of the
extra eight cores and 16 threads are small to
non-existent in a lot of software. You’ll see no
benefits in games and we actually found that
some titles work better with the Threadripper
3960X if they have issues dealing with
high core count CPUs. Similarly, many other
programs have limits as to how well they scale,
with most seeing diminishing returns as you
move past 12 cores. HandBrake, Blender, POV-
Ray, Adobe Premiere Pro – they all see tiny or
non-existent gains moving from 24 to 32 cores.
This means that unless you absolutely need
the best performance possible and are willing
to shell out half a grand extra for your CPU,
the Threadripper 3960X actually represents
a far better proposition than the Threadripper
3970X. Our sample overclocked further too,
produced less heat and drew around 100W
less when overclocked as well. It’s also worth
pointing out just how much faster the new
Threadrippers are than their predecessors.
In many games, they perform similarly to
the class-leading Ryzen 9 3950X and Core
i9-9900K, although Intel often enjoys higher
average frame rates once overclocked. For
a not entirely gaming-focused system,
though, the differences are
often inconsequential.
Alternatives
As we’ve already
mentioned, there’s not too
much else to choose from if
you’re seriously keen on multi-
threaded grunt. The Threadripper
3970X is definitely the next step up,
providing more cores and threads that will
certainly benefit multi-threaded workloads,
but will do little elsewhere. Intel’s Cascade
Lake-X has received a bad press, but as we
showed in our review last month, it makes
a case for itself at certain budgets, even if
there’s been no manufacturing process
shrink, major architecture tweak or core count
boost. Its huge price cuts mean that the Core
i9-10980XE retails for less than £1,200, but
while that’s only a £150 saving, you need
to factor in that X299 motherboards cost
less than £150, while the cheapest TRX40
motherboards currently cost over £400.
That’s a £500 saving, which is arguably the
price you pay for dropping down to 18 cores,
but maintaining more PCI-E lanes than
either of the current mainstream desktop
platforms. It’s worth remembering that once
overclocked, the Core i9-10980XE does
outstrip the Threadripper CPUs in games, but
for power efficiency and raw multi-threaded
performance, AMD still has the upper hand.
MOTHERBOARD
ASRock TRX40 Taichi
£445 inc VAT
overclockers.co.uk
As the winner of this month’s motherboard
group test, the TRX40 Taichi is the clear
choice for this system. It undercuts the
competition on price while offering an
envious set of features, solid VRM cooling
and hassle-free overclocking. You even
get an M.2 expansion card that can keep
your M.2 SSDs cool and easily accessible
– perfect for the 4TB PCI-E 4.0 NVMe
storage array we’ll be building in this PC. It
doesn’t have many shortcomings, with just
a mediocre number of fan headers being
the only blot on its spec sheet. However,
with hefty cooling for the VRMs and
heatsinks for its on-board M.2 SSDs, it still
has enough for our water-cooling system’s
three fans and PWM-controlled pump.
Alternatives
If you need
the pinnacle
of TRX40
motherboards
then there’s
a few other
options. Our
favourite
is the Asus
ROG Zenith
II Extreme.
It’s actually
not the most
expensive
board out there, but it looks
fantastic, has a ton of features and
on-board cooling, but will set you back a
couple of hundred pounds more. If you’re
keen to keep the number of PCB-mounted
fans to a minimum, MSI’s clever Creator
TRX40 cools everything with a single
quiet chipset fan and also includes an M.2
expansion card. The king of the hill, though,
is Gigabyte’s TRX40 Aorus Extreme. It has
the most M.2 ports, fan headers and SATA
ports of any other TRX40 board we’ve
tested, superb fan control and even its M.2
expansion card looks sleek and menacing.
However, you’ll need to be making use of
those extra ports, as it costs nearly twice
as much as the ASRock TRX40 Taichi.
79
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION
MEMORY
32GB Corsair Vengeance
RGB Pro 3466MHz DDR4
£216 inc VAT
scan.co.uk
You’ll be hard-pressed to find any quad-
channel memory kits with less than 32GB
capacity, but as you can buy the latter with
high frequencies for barely more than £200,
there’s little point trying to scrimp. If you’ll
be splurging those browser tabs, opening
multiple programs and hiding all that in
the background for those casual gaming
sessions, then you could well see your
system use more than 16GB anyway, so
32GB is a sensible choice for such a high-end
desktop system.
Memory speed is also very important
with Threadripper CPUs just as it is with
Ryzen. The high speed interconnect, or
Infinity Fabric, which links various parts of
the CPU together is still tied to the memory
speed. This means that the faster memory
you use, the better performance you’ll see
in a lot of tasks. With 3rd-gen Ryzen, AMD
has improved the memory controller,
which can now hit 3,600MHz at a 1:1
ratio with Infinity Fabric. However,
we’ve found 3,466MHz to be the
sweet spot, especially as most
3,466MHz kits can hit, 3,600MHz
anyway. The best-looking RGB lighting
kit we’ve tested recently is Corsair’s
Vengeance RGB Pro, which costs a little
over £200 for 32GB. However, we prefer
it filling all DIMM slots on a motherboard,
as the lighting looks best with the modules
sandwiched together. Rather than spend
another £200 on four rather pointless
modules, we’ll be using Corsair’s Lighting
80
Enhancement Kit. These
are dummy modules that
cost a fraction of a real
kit, but make it appear
like all your slots are
filled. A pair of dual-
module kits only costs
£60, saving you £150,
but giving you all the
necessary eye candy.
Alternatives
Corsair’s Dominator Platinum
RGB memory has a slightly less vivid
lighting array if you want to dial down the
RGB and its non-illuminated Vengeance
modules are available in similar speeds
and capacities but for a little less cash too.
GRAPHICS CARD
Nvidia GeForce RTX
2070 Super
£489 inc VAT
nvidia.com
AMD lacks presence at the higher end of the
desktop GPU market and this means your
only option for a powerful GPU is Nvidia’s RTX
series. Even for a casual gaming PC such as
this, you’ll want at least an RTX 2060 Super,
but we’ve chosen the RTX 2070 Super, as it
has excellent performance at 2,560 x 1,440
and can handle plenty of titles at 4K too,
paving the way for using high refresh rate
monitors. The Founders Edition we’re using
sports a very snazzy and effective cooler as
well as higher frequencies than standard
models, but there are plenty of options from
third-party manufacturers out there if you
prefer other designs.
Alternatives
There are three more powerful options here,
but all are from Nvidia. The next step up is
the RTX 2080, which Nvidia has stopped
selling, but there are plenty of partner cards
still for sale, starting at around £600. It’s a
better choice if you want to dabble more in
4K gaming or high refresh rate ultra-wide
monitors and is only slightly less powerful
than the RTX 2080 Super, which doesn’t
offer particularly good value for money. At
the top of the stack is the RTX 2080 Ti, which
will set you back at least a grand. It’s a great
choice if you intend on gaming solely at 4K or
need maximum frame rates for high refresh
rate monitors, but demands
a hefty premium.
CASE
Phanteks Evolv X
£200 inc VAT
overclockers.co.uk
There are dozens of great options when it
comes to a case capable of housing a high-
end PC, but as we’re gunning for a water-
cooled rig and ideally one that’s expandable
in terms of cooling and storage, that does
narrow things down. One of our favourites,
though, is Phanteks’ Evolv X. We’re still not
sure how Phanteks manages to cram so
many features and so much premium
aluminium into cases that cost less,
but are often better than those of the
competition, but we’re not complaining
and the Evolv X is the pinnacle of its current
crop of attractive Evolv cases. Retailing for
£200, you expect a seriously high-end case
and that’s what you get here.
There’s a splash of RGB lighting, twin
tempered glass size panels and Phanteks offers
plenty of optional extras that allow for up to ten
hard disks to be installed or vertically mounted
graphics cards to be used. We’re more interested d
in the water-cooling support and Phanteks
delivers here too. There’s space for a 360mm
or 420mm radiator up front and 360mm or
280mm radiators in the roof, meaning it’s perfect
for adding some CPU water cooling now and
expanding your loop later to perhaps include the
graphics card or additional radiators.
Alternatives
If you prefer a more stand-out case then
Lian Li’s PC-O11 Dynamic is an excellent
choice. You’ll need to find room for its huge
footprint, and it comes as a bare shell out of
the box, but there are plenty of aftermarket
water-cooling add-ons.
COOLING
Corsair Hydro X water cooling
and SP120RGB Pro fans
£386 inc VAT and £40 inc VAT
overclockers.co.uk
We’ve opted for a water-cooling system to
deal with our toasty 24-core CPU this month
and it comes in the form of Corsair’s Hydro
X components. We’ve added its fittings for
flexible tubing, but Corsair does offer parts
for rigid tubing too if you become more
comfortable with that in future. Its XD5 RGB
pump uses the popular Laing D5 pump
with a PWM cable, allowing you to fine-tune its
speed to acceptable noise levels. It comes with
the necessary gear to install it to fan or radiator
mounts too.
The waterblock is the XC9 RGB, which is
compatible with both Threadripper and Intel
LGA2066 sockets. It’s simple to install, has
funky RGB lighting and pre-applied thermal
paste. We’ll also be using a 360mm radiator
with a trio of Corsair’s SP120 RGB fans, which
should be able to run at extremely low noise
levels even under load, plus 10/13mm tubing
and a fill port.
A ternatives
ARRCTIC’s Freezer 50 TR costs a lot les
tha
an most liquid coolers, never mind a
waater-cooling system. It won’t offer much
he room for overclocking, but it kept our
Threeadripper 3960X bel 85°C 85 C during
d
an end d stress test. For a better-
performing option, EKWB’s EK-MLC
Phoenix costs less than a custom loop and
offers a Threadripper-specific waterblock
section that connects to its modular quick-
release radiator.
PSU
Corsair RM850i 850W
£137 inc VAT
ebuyer.com
The Threadripper 3960X saw our system
pull around 500W from the wall during
a stress test last month, so you’ll need to
factor in a little more than that to cope with
a hefty GPU as well. Games won’t use
anywhere near the CPU’s full potential,
though, so it’s unlikely you’ll ever see more
than 600W being used. We’ve chosen
Corsair’s RM850i PSU for our system, as it
provides plenty of headroom, even if you
decide to manually overclock the CPU. Its
fan only spins up at high loads too, meaning
most of the time it sits silently in your case.
We’ve also added Corsair’s custom cable
set to the equation to jazz things up a bit.
SSD
1TB and 2TB Corsair MP6
£189 inc T and 69 inc VAT
overclockers.co.uk
While hard disks still have the best storage
to value ratio, SSDs are constantly catching
up and outstrip them by huge margins
when it comes to speed. With 2TB of PCI-E
4.0 NVMe storage available for less than
£400, if you’re building a blazingly fast
content creation machine, it can pay to keep
your programs and files on these speedy
devices. We’ve added a pair of drives to
our system – one 2TB Corsair MP600 to
house Windows, programs and games, and
another 1TB MP600 to act as a second drive
for your project files such as video clips. As
well as being able to dish out read and write
speeds in excess of 4,000MB/sec, loading
files off a second drive can have speed
benefits as well, but for the moment 2TB is
the largest desktop-focused PCI-E 4.0 SSD,
so you’ll need to double up if you want more
storage space.
Alternatives
It makes sense to opt for PCI-E 4.0 SSDs, seeing
as that’s one of the main benefits of the TRX40
platform and PCI-E 3.0 SSDs aren’t much
cheaper. However, it’s worth remembering that
you can get an 8TB hard disk for the same cash
as our 1TB PCI-E 4.0 SSD so if storage space
ismore important and you can’t afford to add
moreSSDs to the equation, Seagate’s 8TB
m
Ba arracuda can be had for less than £180.
TOTAL
£3,891
INC VAT
81
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION

BUILDING
THE PC

1
THE MP600 SSDS
HAVE LARGE
HEATSINKS ON THE
THEM THAT NEED TO
BE REMOVED PRIOR
TO INSTALLING
5

2
1 INSTALL CPU
Remove the Threadripper CPU from its
packaging, open the socket mechanism and
slide the CPU into the second metal tray from
the top. Then use the included tool to tighten
the three locking screws in the correct order,
4
which is listed on top of the tray.
3 INSTALL THE MEMORY 4 INSTALL WATERBLOCK
2 INSTALL WATERBLOCK With the memory, start by using the real FITTINGS
The waterblock comes with thermal paste memory modules and install them into slots We’ve chosen 10/13mm fittings and tubing
pre-applied, so you don’t need to apply it. The one, three, six and eight. This will ensure and the former are easier to attach to the
ports should sit one above the other, not side they run in quad-channel mode. The Light motherboard with it out of the case. Tighten
by side, as the former will ensure best Enhancement dummy modules can fill the them with a good amount of force with your
performance using a Threadripper CPU. remaining slots if you choose to use them. fingers and leave the locking rings off.

82
 6
7
5 REMOVE THE SSD HEATSINK
The MP600 SSDs have large heatsinks on
them that need to be removed prior to
installing them into the M.2 expansion card.
These unclip easily, revealing the SSD
underneath, which you can then slide out.
6 INSTALL SSDS
We’ll be using ASRock’s M.2 expansion card
with our build, which has four M.2 slots. It’s
bootable, so you can install your OS on it,
either as a RAID array or individual disks. The
cooling fan can also be controlled using
software. Place the SSDs at either end of the
slots, so they have each end of the heatsink to
themselves. Don’t forget to remove the
protective film on the thermal pads.
7 CONNECT PSU CABLES
We’ve used Corsair’s Pro PSU cable kit in
white. Attach the cables you need to the
modular connectors and leave the rest in the
box. This will mean you have far less to tidy up
once the PC is built.
8 INSTALL RADIATOR FANS
We’ve chosen to install the radiator in the roof
to shift the heat generated by our CPU straight
out of the case, but if you prefer, the front of
the case can also work. For roof mounting,
install the fans on the same side as the fitting
threads, so the fans push air through the
radiator. Test the hardware.
10
9 INSTALL RADIATOR
The Evolv X case has a removable radiator
mount in the roof, so it can be useful to
detach it and install the radiator out of the
case. Use the screws included with the
radiator to secure it to the mount, then
reinstall the mount back in the case.
10 INSTALL MOTHERBOARD
Connect the case cables for the power
button, USB ports and audio ports
to the motherboard, and then install
it in the case. You can now begin
installing the rest of the hardware
and water-cooling system.
83
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION
BUILDING
THE PC
11
12
11 INSTALL THE
EXPANSION CARDS
Using two expansion cards means you’re not
able to use the riser cable and vertical GPU
mount in the Evolv X, so we’ve opted to have
the two sat on top of each other. However, it’s
worth placing the M.2 expansion card as far
away from the GPU as possible to prevent it
from hindering airflow.
12 INSTALL THE
PUMP MOUNTINGS
The pump is equipped with its own reservoir
and the whole contraption can be fitted to
horizontal or vertical fan mounts. We’ll be
fixing it to a front fan, and the kit includes both
120mm and 140mm fan mount brackets and
everything you need to install it. The Evolv
X has two 140mm front fans that we’ll be
leaving in place, so use the 140mm mount and
secure this to the other section of the pump
mount, then install the pump on the front fan.
84
14
13 CONNECT THE TUBING
Connect one end of the tubing to a fitting and
use the locking ring to secure it. Now run it
to the next component, offering up a gentle
curve and then cut the tubing to size using a
large pair of scissors. You can obviously use
rigid tubing here too and Corsair offers rigid
tubing and fittings, but flexible tubing is far
quicker and easier to deal with.
14 INSTALL PSU
The PSU needs to be attached to a rear case
bracket, fed into the case, and then secured
using screws on the bracket. Next, connect
the power cables to the motherboard,
expansion cards as well as the Molex and
SATA connectors for the pump, lighting
and case fan hub.
13
15
15 CONNECT FAN POWER AND
LIGHTING CABLES
The Evolv X has a PWM fan hub and this is
perfect for connecting the radiator and case
fans to. Use the 4-pin connectors with your
radiator fans and 3-pin connectors for the
3-pin case fans. Connect the hub’s PWM
cable to your CPU fan header. This way the
case and radiator fans will spin up when
needed. You can also go ahead and install
the RGB lighting controllers for the fans.
16 CONNECT THE PUMP
PWM CABLE
We want to control the pump independently
– we don’t need to run it at full speed, as it’s
more than powerful enough to deal with a
single waterblock loop. To do this, connect
it instead to a free motherboard fan header,
so you can fine-tune it once your system’s
up and running.

17 TIDY THE CABLES
The cable routing on the Evolv X is excellent,
so you don’t need to spend hours doing this.
Gather the cables into groups and anchor
them using the various Velcro ties.
18 USE CABLE COVERS
The case has one last trick up it’s sleeve to
deal with the cable spaghetti, which are two
large cable covers. These sit over the majority
of the cable routes hiding most of your cabling
sins, so getting things perfect isn’t necessary.
16
17
19 INSTALL FILL PORT
The case has a fill porthole you can use if
you’d prefer to fill from the top of the case
instead of the reservoir. Install the port using
its locking ring on the underside and then
connect a spare tube fitting to it. You can then
run the tubing from this to the inlet port on top
of the reservoir.
18
19
20
20 LEAK-TEST
The fill port is also perfect for connecting
your leak tester. Ensure all ports and
blanking plugs are secure, and use a
leak tester such as this one from EKWB
to pressurise the system. You’ll likely
hear air escaping if there are slow
leaks, but the pressure gauge should
rise into the green zone as you pump.
Hold it midway and detach the pump.
If there’s no loss of pressure after
five minutes, you’re good to go.
85
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION

SETUP AND
OVERCLOCKING
Once you’re in Windows, download and install
ASRock’s Motherboard Utility software and
Quad M.2 Card Software. The former will let
you control the motherboard fan headers and
the latter the fan speed on the M.2 expansion
card. We’ve set the fans and pump to sit at low
speeds up to certain temperatures, but we’ve
kept the pump at low speeds for most of the
curve, as you’ll see very little benefit above 30
per cent power.
We’ve opted not to apply a manual
overclock, but instead make use of AMD’s
Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) settings
in the EFI. This increases the all-core boost
frequency and can help to maintain boost
frequencies for longer, boosting single
and multi-threaded performance. Start by
heading into the EFI and setting the XMP
profile. This will apply the correct memory
Tweaking Precision Boost
timings and voltages. settings is an easy way to
Next head to the Advanced section and overclock your CPU
then to AMD Overclocking. You’ll want to
change the PBO setting to Advanced, the
PBO Limits to Motherboard and also set If you want to apply a manual overclock to apply. Alternatively, you can apply a manual
a manual PBO scalar of 10X. Finally, set get the best multi-threaded performance, overclock. We’ve added 150MHz to GPU core
the clock override to 200MHz. We used we recommend you head to AMD’s Ryzen and set 500MHz in the memory frequency bar.
Cinebench to gauge the benefits to the Master software. This can apply an all-core
single and multi-threaded performance, overclock from the comfort of Windows, as PERFORMANCE
and were happy to see the single-thread well as allow you to try out AMD’s automatic Overclocking yielded various benefits in
score rising from 519 to 524 and the multi- overclocking and Precision Boost Overdrive. both lightly and massively multi-threaded
threaded score from 13,640 to 14,124. The For an all-core overclock, it’s a simple task of workloads, although not by significant
all-core boost benefited from between inputting a vcore and then a CPU frequency. amounts. The video editing score increased
50-100MHz frequency increases. A Our Threadripper 3960X managed to hit by 7 per cent and the Cinebench multi-
manual overclock will see that increase 4.35GHz using 1.325V, so we’d suggest threaded score by 4 per cent, but it was slim
further to 14,762, but the single-threaded starting at 1.35V and 4.2GHz and increasing pickings elsewhere. Still, at 2,560 x 1,440, it
performance falls to 505, so PBO is a more the frequency from there. Temperatures will never dropped below 60fps in Shadow of
balanced way of boosting performance. be your main enemy, so see how your system the Tomb Raider and stayed above 80fps
It’s worth noting that this will still increase fares, reducing the voltage if necessary. in Far Cry 5 too, with the latter gaining
power consumption and CPU temperatures, The easiest way to overclock your graphics 3fps on the minimum frame rate once
so it’s worth checking Ryzen Master. card is to use OC Scanner – an automatic overclocked. However, it’s worth looking at
Boosting the memory frequency is a simple overclocking tool that’s included with the power consumption, which increased
overclock too. You can simply head to the EFI several overclocking utilities including MSI by over 100W under load once we applied
and increase it to 3600MHz. Our kit was happy Afterburner. Click on the small vertical line these settings. Water cooling can certainly
to do this with no increase in voltage, although symbol next to the core clock bar and follow help to gain more performance, but with
it only added a single point to the single core through to OC Scanner. Click scan and then Threadripper, it’s all about keeping things
score in Cinebench and another 90 points to the software will test your graphics card and cool, especially as there can be modest gains
the multi-threaded score at 14,214. find stable overclocked settings, which you can from overclocking anyway.

86
 CINEBENCH R20

BENCHMARKS
Single-threaded test

CPC 24-Core Threadripper PC 519 525

0 200 400 600

Multi-threaded test

CPC 24-Core Threadripper PC 13,640 14,124

0 5,000 10,000 15,000

STOCK SPEED Stock speed Overclocked

61,883 1,056,956 322,570 366,338

FAR CRY 5
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra detail

CPC 24-Core Threadripper PC 84 98

87 100
GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 HEAVY MULTI SYSTEM
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING TASKING SCORE 0 50 100 150
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
2,560 x 1,440, Highest settings
OVERCLOCKED
CPC 24-Core Threadripper PC 66 81

67 83

63,120 1,126,259 331,098 372,383

0 50 100 150

Stock speed min Stock speed avg

Overclocked min Overclocked avg

GIMP IMAGE HANDBRAKE H.264 HEAVY MULTI SYSTEM
EDITING VIDEO ENCODING TASKING SCORE
POWER CONSUMPTION
Idle

158W

OVERCLOCKING YIELDED
CPC 24-Core Threadripper PC 158W
0 250 500 750
Load

VARIOUS BENEFITS IN BOTH CPC 24-Core Threadripper PC 444W 557W

LIGHTLY AND MASSIVELY 0 250 500 750

MULTITHREADED WORKLOADS
Stock Speed Overclocked

MSI Afterburner lets you run a scan of

your graphics card that will automatically
test for a stable overclock

87
F E AT U R E / ANALYSIS

HDR
DEEP DIVE
HDR IS THE NEXT BIG STEP IN DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
BUT ITS ARRIVAL HAS BEEN CONFUSED BY A HOST
OF DIFFERENT STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGIES.
EDWARD CHESTER WADES THROUGH THE MURKY
WATERS TO CLEAR THINGS UP
igh dynamic range is all about expanding the colours that

H our cameras can record, our computers can process and

– most crucially – our displays can reproduce. The colour
standards most of our devices use today are limited in the
colour range, brightness and contrast they can show, meaning that no
matter how good the display or image, it will only ever look so close to
real life. With high dynamic range, all these factors are expanded,
allowing for brighter colours, darker depths and more colour accuracy
in between.
At least, that’s the theory, but the end result you get from different
WITH MOST HDR STANDARDS,
screens that claim to offer HDR can vary wildly. Some supposed HDR THE ACCURACY WITH WHICH
displays can look little different to non-HDR ones while others are
positively dazzling. What creates this difference is a combination of COLOURS CAN BE DESCRIBED
different standards and different hardware, both of which we’re here
to demystify.
IS INCREASED FROM 8-BIT
PER CHANNEL TO 10-BIT
88
 What is
HDR?
On the surface, the definition of HDR
is a quite simple one: it’s blacker
blacks, brighter whites and more REC.2020
colour in between. However, defining
the standards behind these basic
ideas requires us to look in depth ADOBE RGB
at three fundamental definitions of
computer displays: colour depth,
colour space and contrast.
Colour depth is how accurately we sRGB
can define colours. For each of the three
primary colours (red, green and blue)
that are used to recreate all the colours
DCI-P3
we see on modern computers, each
colour channel can be set to one of 256
levels (8-bit). When combined, these can
define up to 16,777,216 colours. With most
HDR standards, the accuracy with which D65
colours can be described is increased
from 8-bit per channel to 10-bit, resulting
in a total of 1,073,741,824 colours.
As for colour space, this defines not
the accuracy of colours but the overall
range of them. So, a larger colour
space allows for richer-looking colours
while a small space results in a narrow,
duller-looking range. Most such colour
spaces are defined in reference to
the CIE 1931 xy colour space, which
approximately describes the full range The sRGB colour space is relatively small, so there’s plenty of room for improvement with HDR
of colours visible to the human eye.
The default for computing is sRGB; as
you can see from the colour space chart making it comfortably the most demanding a contrast ratio of 1000:1, so the
above right, this only covers a relatively of the most common colour spaces. brightest pixel on screen can be
small area of the CIE 1931 xy space - It’s this greater span of colour that 1000x brighter than the darkest
35.9% to be exact. Another popular colour necessitates moving to a more granular (although some VA-type LCD displays
space used a lot in the photography and colour depth. A depth of 8-bit is enough improve on this, with up to 5,000:1
print industries is Adobe RGB, which to cover all the visible transitions contrast ratios). Meanwhile, most
covers 52.1%, with it greatly extending between colours for sRGB but for larger HDR standards look to extend this
the range of green colour representation colour spaces, more numbers are to 10,000:1 and beyond. However,
in particular. With HDR, a range of colour needed to define all those colours. crucially, not all standards require
spaces are used by different standards, The final piece of the puzzle is contrast, any improvement on this 1000:1
but the most common are DCI-P3 and which is the difference between the level, which is largely why the arrival
Rec. 2020. DCI-P3 covers 45.5% of CIE brightest and darkest colours a display of HDR has proved so confusing,
1931 xy while Rec. 2020 covers 63.3%, can show. Most LCD displays can produce and sometimes underwhelming.

89
 F E AT U R E / ANALYSIS

What makes the introduction of HDR quite
such a complex beast is the number of
standards that have been introduced, such as
HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. However,
most of these pertain to TVs, cinema and
film standards. When it comes to monitors,
there’s thankfully only one standard that
is worth paying attention to, which is VESA
DisplayHDR. This defines seven classes of
display (five for LCD, two for OLED), each of
which has different HDR characteristics.
There are separate standards for LCD
and OLED because they’re fundamentally
different display technologies with different
pros and cons. While LCDs use a backlight
that’s filtered through an LCD panel, OLED
displays have no backlight but instead
each pixel emits its own light. This means
that LCDs tend to be able to shine brighter
but can’t show as deep a black level (as
some light always leaks through the LCD
panel), so that’s something the LCD HDR
standards lean into. Meanwhile OLED
displays tend not to be able to go as bright
but can show true blacks, due to each
pixel being able to turn off completely.
Starting with the LCD standards, the
first parameter it defines is the maximum
brightness of the display. This is the easiest
to understand, as the number for each
DisplayHDR level tells you the maximum
HDR
Standards
brightness: DisplayHDR 400 is 400cd/m2,
DisplayHDR 1000 is 1000cd/m2, and so on.
The next criteria is the maximum
black level; taken in combination with the
maximum brightness level, this gives us
the overall contrast. So, for DisplayHDR
400, the maximum brightness is 400cd/
m2 while maximum black level is 0.4cd/
m2, for a contrast of 1,000:1. Meanwhile
DisplayHDR 1000 drops the black level to
0.05cd/m2 for a total contrast of 20,000:1.
The next criteria is colour range. The
entry-level DisplayHDR 400 standard
just uses a normal sRGB colour range ( 95
per cent coverage) but requires true 8-bit
colour. Some cheaper displays can only
produce 6-bit colour and use dithering
or other techniques to emulate greater
colour depth, so these wouldn’t qualify for
DisplayHDR 400. Confusing things slightly
is that many DisplayHDR 400 displays
do provide extended colour ranges but
Summary of performance differences by tier
Minimum peak
Range of colour
luminance
Brightness in
Color gamut
cd/m2
DisplayHDR 400 400
either they don’t extend far enough or
don’t have the other requirements to
qualify for higher DisplayHDR ratings.
Indeed, such displays account for the vast
majority of so-called HDR displays.
Meanwhile, all the other standards
require at least 10-bit colour processing,
although this can be via 8-bit with dithering,
and a wider colour space coverage of
90 per cent of DCI-P3. The top of the
line DisplayHDR 1400 standard requires
95 per cent coverage of DCI-P3.
When it comes to the OLED standards,
these shift the emphasis from peak
brightness to peak darkness. So, while
DisplayHDR 400 True Black tops out
at just 400cd/m2, its black level is
rated as 0.0005cd/m2, for an effective
contrast of 800,000:1 (in reality it can
be infinite) while DisplayHDR 500 True
Black bumps this to 1,000,000:1. Both
standards also require 10-bit colour.
Typical Maximum
dimming black level
technology luminance
Brightness in
cd/m2
8-bit, sRGB Screen-level 0.4

10-bit, 90%
DisplayHDR 500 500 Zone-level 0.1
DCI-P3
10-bit, 90%
DisplayHDR 600 600 Zone-level 0.1
DCI-P3
10-bit, 90%
DisplayHDR 1,000 1,000 Zone-level 0.05
DCI-P3
10-bit, 95%
DisplayHDR 1400 1,400 Zone-level 0.02
DCI-P3
DisplayHDR 400 10-bit, 95%
400 Zone-level 0.0005
True Black DCI-P3
DisplayHDR 500 10-bit, 95%
500 Zone-level 0.0005
You can download the DisplayHDR Test app to check True Black DCI-P3
the quality of your display (colorimeter required)
The DisplayHDR standards set out several key criteria for classifying different types of HDR display

90

Conventional LCDs leak light even when a fully dark
screen is shown (top). Higher contrast LCD types
likes VA can reduce the leakage (middle) but variable
backlight control can stop it completely (bottom)
The DisplayHDR standards also account
for the difference between OLEDs and
LCDs by defining the dimming technology.
That is, the ability for a display to alter the
brightness of its pixels or backlight. For
OLEDs, the dimming technology is the
inherent ability for individual pixels to turn
on and off, so the two True Black standards
require pixel-level dimming control.
However, for LCDs, the only way to
provide the greater range of brightness
levels is to change the brightness
of the backlight, which can either
be done across the whole backlight
or in zones. DisplayHDR 400 only
requires full backlight control, which is
basically the same as those dynamic
contrast settings we’ve had on TVs and
monitors for years. It just makes the
whole backlight a bit dimmer when the
whole image is darker then brightens
it again for wholly brighter images.
For the rest of the LCD DisplayHDR
levels, some degree of zonal backlighting
control is required. However, this is perhaps
the single most crucial area where the
standards don’t go into enough detail,
In the
Zone
The Samsung CHG90 has just eight backlight zones so a single cursor lights up a whole row of backlighting
With FALD LCD displays, a cursor only illuminates one small patch of backlight, although you still get
some glow around it
as they don’t specify how many zones
are required, and having enough zones
is crucial for getting a true HDR effect.
The problem with not having enough
backlight zones is that the most visible
scenarios in which you’ll really notice HDR
are when you have areas of darkness next to
areas of brightness. That is, bright stars on a
night sky, a flashlight in a dark corridor or those
black bars above and below widescreen
video. These are the moments where you
want a display to show close to a true black
right alongside something much brighter.
With just a handful of backlight zones,
you’re still unlikely to have enough granular
control to be able to match the brightness of
the backlights closely to what’s on screen.
A perfect example of this is the Samsung
CHG90 display pictured above right. This
enormous 49in display has just eight
backlight zones meaning that just the handful
of pixels needed to illuminate a cursor in
the centre of the screen results in a huge
portion of the backlight having to be turned
on, creating a distracting bar of grey light.
The problem comes down to the way
LCD displays tend to work. Most use a single
row of LEDs along the edge of the display,
along with a series of filters and reflective
surfaces to create an even backlight for
the whole LCD. The single row is cheap to
make and allows for thin screens. However,
there’s almost no meaningful way you
can control the brightness of the backlight
in a specific zone – you can at most dim a
whole column or row. It’s these sorts of
panels that only achieve DisplayHDR 400.
You can also get displays that use two rows
of LEDs along opposite edges. Here, you
can at least design the backlight so that each
opposing row only illuminates half the length
of the backlight. In this way you can split the
91
F E AT U R E / ANALYSIS
display in half in one axis and into rows or
columns in the other. This gets us closer
to meaningful backlight control but, as
we’ve seen with the Samsung CHG90,
it still has major drawbacks. Displays
that are rated for DisplayHDR 500 or
600 tend to use this type of backlight.
Finally, you can get some displays
where the LEDs are mounted directly
behind the LCD in a grid pattern, allowing
control of individual blocks of the backlight.
These are known as full array local
dimming (FALD) displays. These provide
the closest approximation to the true
individual pixel control of OLEDs and make
for the best HDR experience. However,
they tend to be thick and expensive.
What’s more, while you tend to need
this type of control to achieve DisplayHDR
1000 certification, it’s not required. Also,
to get a really good HDR effect, you want
several hundred of these zones, whereas
only a dozen or so are required to meet
the DisplayHDR 1000 standard.
All told, in order to really learn about a
display’s capabilities, you’ll have to check
its DisplayHDR rating then hunt around
reviews or specs lists to find out how many
backlight zones it has and exactly what
colour depth it can produce. It’s a shame
the industry has made it that difficult.
At least if a display doesn’t carry any
DisplayHDR label, it’s a pretty surefire bet
that any supposed HDR features it has
don’t amount to much – it’ll probably have a
slightly extended colour range and dynamic
full-backlight control and not much else.
The experience you’ll get from an HDR
display obviously depends on what class of
HDR display it is. If you’re using a display with
only screen-level dimming then what you’ll
tend to find is games or video just ramp up
in overall brightness in certain scenes and
darken in others. Again, this is essentially like
the dynamic contrast settings we’ve seen on
92
What does HDR look
& feel like?
Turn on HDR and colour
saturation should go
up but contrast stays
the same, making for
a less impactful HDR
experience overall
monitors and TVs for many years, but the higher
peak brightness and extra colour information
can make its impact a little more worthwhile.
For instance, in the opening sequence of
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, as Senua is floating
down the river backlit by hazy sunshine, the
likes of the DisplayHDR 400-capable BenQ
EX2780Q up the brightness to emulate the
bright sunshine. This has the effect of also
brightening the dark areas of the image, so the
overall static contrast isn’t all that great, but the
dazzling effect can work surprisingly well.
However, this is a scene that really shows
such displays at their best. Flip to something
that’s predominantly dark but with some bright
highlights and while the screen brightness does
dim a little, adding to the overall atmosphere,
the punch is lost from any bright highlights.
What you will still tend to get with such
displays, though, is the extended colour range.
DisplayHDR 400
monitors in their standard
mode should just look like
any other decent quality
non-HDR display
This can look great – there’s just more
vibrancy and realism to certain colours.
Watch something like a nature documentary
where there are vivid greens from foliage
and reds from birds of paradise set against
a bright blue sky and everything feels just
a little more alive. However, a lot of the
time, the effect can be far more subtle –
especially with the dreary colour palettes
so beloved of many games and movies
– so the extended colour alone has never
really been enough to sell us on HDR.
Step up to a proper FALD LCD display such
as the Asus PG27UQ and you immediately
see what you’ve been missing out on with
screen-level dimming displays. Again,
taking that opening to Senua’s Sacrifice
as an example and, as well as the bright
sun dazzling you, you still get the true
darkness and shadows. Likewise, moving

to a predominantly dark scene with
bright highlights and you actually get that
brightness. You do still get some haloing
where the backlight can be seen brightening
the image around small bright objects
(the backlight zones are still much larger
than individual pixels), but in most games
and video, this isn’t really noticeable.
FALD displays really are the ultimate, and
we’d suggest only true, HDR experience
for LCD monitors, but unfortunately, they
don’t come cheap. What we’d really like to
see is monitors arriving on the market that
maybe drop the number of backlight zones
a little and get rid of the unnecessary 4K
resolution of the likes of the Asus PG27UQ so
that they’re at least a little more affordable.
Finally, using true per-pixel brightness
displays such as OLED is the ultimate
goal for HDR images. You get a totally
uncompromised contrast performance
where the very brightest individual pixel can
sit next to complete darkness. It really is a
shame that OLED monitors haven’t taken off.
The appeal of HDR will vary from person to
person. If you’re really into having a fun, bright,
vivid image, then the extended colour range
of even basic HDR displays will appeal to you,
and there’s plenty of cheap options out there.
However, if you care about having accurate
colour representation either for work or play
then at the very least you need a display that
can switch between colour modes and can
reduce its contrast to standard sRGB levels
when needed. These are a little rarer and
you’ll need to check the specs list or reviews
to find out.
Your decision will also depend on
whether you tend to watch movies and
other longer-form video on your PC or
whether you move to your TV for that.
Watching HDR content on the likes of the
PG27UQ or PG35VQ can look amazing but
Should you buy an
HDR display?
A DisplayHDR 1000
display can show
a much greater
range of brightness
at the same time
– note the much
darker log and
foreground water
the relatively small 27in or 35in size means
we’d always rather just go and watch on a
(considerably cheaper yet superior) 55in
OLED TV. If you don’t have room for a TV as
well, though, then an HDR monitor makes
more sense for getting the most from all
your PC has to offer.
Meanwhile,forgaming,thebenefitsof
HDR vary massively. It’s not something we’d
use in competitive gaming (and indeed isn’t
supported in most such games) but only in
more cinematic titles where it’s a case of the
bigger, more visually impressive the screen the
better. With the right games, HDR can look truly
amazing and can add greatly to the overall
atmosphere. Crucially, though, with FALD
HDR on a
DisplayHDR 400
panel can get very
bright but lacks the
contrast to show
deep blacks at the
same time – see
the lower portion
of the screen
displays, what you can often do is turn on
the variable backlight even for games that
don’t support HDR, giving you a more
engaging, high-contrast image. For non-
FALD displays, though, the extended colour
range is of less use in non-HDR games.
In the end, it still feels like the world of HDR
is bedding in a little. Right now, your choices
are still too split between displays that are
either a little underwhelming, due to a lack of
true HDR-like contrast, or are too expensive.
There’s still plenty of HDR fun to be had but
until we see OLED monitors become a viable
option, or FALD LCD displays start to come
down in price, the world of HDR remains one
that should be navigated with caution.
93
 C U STO M I SAT I O N / HOBBY TECH

G A R E T H H A L FAC R E E ’ S

Hobbytech
The latest tips, tricks and news in the world of computer hobbyism,
from Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Android to retro computing

I N T E RV I E W
Bitmap Books

S
am Dyer’s Bitmap Books launched
onto the scene in 2014, with a
crowdfunding campaign for
Commodore 64: A Visual Commpendium –
the spelling of the last word was a deliberate
pun, as Dyer explained in an interview
published in Issue 136.
It launched amid a collection of similar
nostalgia-fuelled publications, many of
which fell by the wayside, but half a decade
later, the business has only grown.
‘We now have 15 published books, which
include visual compendiums on the ZX
Spectrum, Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES) and Super Nintendo (SNES), as well as
a fully licensed Sega Master System visual
Sam Dyer’s Bitmap Books has made
compendium, two official SNK books on the a name for itself with high-quality,
Neo Geo and Metal Slug, a Point-and-Click nostalgia-fuelled coffee table books
art book and a book all about Computer
Role Playing Games (CRPGs) [reviewed in
Issue 192],’ Dyer explains. ‘We’ve worked Bitmap Books has succeeded where a whole book, such as paper stocks, special
really hard to keep producing innovative and number of competitors have failed, and Dyer inks, slipcases and little touches. I think that
exciting books, and we’ve continued to build credits the care and attention that goes into when people receive our books, they feel
our reputation in the retro book publishing each book. ‘It’s not just the page design,’ he special, and they see that a lot of love has
space. Quite a lot has happened!’ explains, ‘but the thought that goes into the gone into the creation. We’ve never wanted

94
 NEWS IN BRIEF
Intel stopsend-of-life driver downloads
Anyone with vintage systems to maintain is
warned that Intel has changed its support life
cycle plans, actively removing drivers and BIOS
updates for end-of-life systems. Previously, the
company made these files available to download,
but ceased further development. Those with
Pentium 4 and earlier systems that may be
affected are advised to visit custompc.co.uk/
IntelEOL for a list of download mirrors.
Dyer’s background as a designer
shines through in each layout
to be a publisher that releases a templated
set of books, one after another, that all look
the same. As a creative person, the constant
challenge to do new and exciting things is
what keeps me motivated.
‘Creating the Collector’s Edition slipcase
for the Metal Slug book was a good
example. We produced a slipcase that
played in-game sound effects, such as
“HEAVY MACHINE GUN”, when buttons on
the slipcase fascia were pressed. A book
slipcase with built-in sounds was a totally
new idea, and it’s gone down a storm!’
The licensed publications are relatively
new, and a distinct departure from the heavily
unofficial ‘Commpendiums’ that launched
the brand. ‘Working with Sega and SNK on
officially licensed books has been huge for us,’
Dyer says, ‘and me, personally, as I’ve learned
a huge amount about licensing and how that
world works. Doing licensed books is great,
and having access to official assets is huge.
Going official isn’t always possible, but it’s
good to have both options.’
There have been other interesting projects
too, including picking up translation rights to
non-English titles that blend in with the Bitmap
Books stable. ‘Translating other publishers’
books isn’t something we do a great deal of,’ Dyer
explains. ‘We tested the water with Generation
64 [reviewed in Issue 167], which was successful,
but I much prefer to create original works.
‘Saying that, we are just about to release The
SNES Pixel Book, which was originally a German
title that Bitmap Books has localised into English.
I was seduced by the gorgeous graphic design,
and it just felt like a Bitmap Books-style title that
would fit right into our range.’
Those original works, meanwhile, seem to be
getting bigger. ‘The biggest recent project has to
Bitmap Books isn’t above a gimmick or two, such as
this lenticular cover
beMetalSlug: TheUltimateHistory,’Dyer says.
‘Coveringsuchaniconicgameseriesin book
formatwas alwaysgoingtobeachallenge, but
whatmadeitharder was thatallthedevelopers
areJapaneseand non-Englishspeaking.
‘We managed to interview a group of the
original Metal Slug and ex-Irem developers,
which I’m hugely proud of because it had
never been done before. There’s a lot of false
information about the creation of Metal Slug
online, so it was cool to tell the truth and do
some myth-busting.’
Success was never guaranteed, though,
especially in those early crowdfunded days.
‘I honestly had no idea [we’d still be going],’
Dyer admits. ‘The way Bitmap Books has
evolved and grown makes me incredibly
proud, and I’m massively grateful to everyone
that has purchased our books and said nice
things about them. I think the more books we
publish, the better they get, and this excites
me. It drives me on to do something cool that
maybe hasn’t been seen before.’
There’s plenty still in the pipeline too
‘In early 2020, we’ll be releasing Atari
2600/7800: a Visual Compendium,
the seventh in the series,’ says Dyer.
‘We’ll then be publishing a book on Micro
Machines, called Micro But Many, shortly
followed by a very exciting book of
unreleased games, titled The Games That
Weren’t. We’ll then end the year with a book
all about Japanese Role Playing Games
(JRPGs). Busy times ahead!’
All of Bitmap Books’ in-print publications
can be purchased at bitmapbooks.co.uk, with
prices starting at £19.99 (VAT exempt) for a
hard copy and PDF download.
95
 C U STO M I SAT I O N / HOBBY TECH

PREVIEW
SensorEq CooliPi

T
he launch of the Raspberry Pi 4
(see Issue 193) brought with it a
dramatic improvement in
performance over its earlier single-board
computer brethren, but at a distinct cost:
considerably higher power draw and
operating temperatures.
Since launch, the Raspberry Pi Foundation
has released a series of firmware updates
designed to reduce the Raspberry Pi 4’s
power needs – with considerable success, it
must be said. However, many people are still
turning to third-party coolers (three of which
were reviewed in Issue 194).
The CooliPi, from Sensor Equipment
(SensorEq), is one among many – but it’s one
of the more eye-catching designs. Available
in a variety of mix-and-match colours,
the design combines a milled aluminium
heatsink with a 3D-printed plastic base to
provide both protection and cooling for the
Raspberry Pi 4 encased within it.
Traditionally, 3D printing is used for
prototyping and small-scale production runs.
SensorEq is opting to use the technology for
mass production, but founder Lada Myslik
The heatsink is milled to make
contact with the hottest-running
components, but not the PMIC
is confident he’ll meet demand. ‘We‘ve
ordered some more Prusa printers, so our
printing capability should be somewhere
in the hundreds per month ballpark,’ Myslik
explains. ‘And I presume some percentage of
buyers would print it themselves, and some
more could be served by third parties – who
can even charge for the print.’
This idea of local manufacturing is behind
the release of the 3D print parts for free
download. These files include both the case
bottom itself and a host of
optional extras, including
a VESA mount and a fan
mount. In a novel move,
there’s also a 3D mockup
of the heatsink, which can
be printed to check if it will
fit into other projects.
Whether you print the
plastic components yourself,
have them printed or order
from SensorEq, the design is
clever. Cut-outs are provided
for the outside ports, while an
internal bar routes out the CSI
and DSI cables if required. The
GPIO header can be routed out
Available in mix-and-match
colours, the CooliPi case is
has an eye-catching design
using an optional 90-degree adaptor board,
while a Reset Kit accessory provides soft-
switch support.
Assembly is straightforward, bar one
minor point – the milled contact points on the
underside of the heatsink leave the power
management IC (PMIC) alone, contacting only
the system-on-chip (SoC), Ethernet and USB
controllers. For normal use, it’s not a problem,
but Myslik admits stability under heavy
overclocking can suffer as a result.
It’s an issue Myslik is looking to resolve:
the preview sample we tested was provided
with a small copper shim to bring the PMIC
into contact with the heatsink. Another option
would be to modify the heatsink’s design, but
Myslik warns that this isn’t as straightforward
as it seems. ‘It’s not feasible now,’ he claims.
‘The main reason being the different heights,
and perhaps tilts of all the chips and inductors.
With just three main chips – as in the current
models – the heatsink plane tilt can self-
correct. With five more – the PMIC and four
inductors – I doubt it would fit in all cases.’
This minor point aside, performance is
impressive. Thermal interface material
isn’t included, so the review sample was
assembled using Noctua NT-H1 paste on

96
all contact points, plus the aforementioned
PMIC shim. Running a highly synthetic
workload across both the CPU and GPU, a
stock Raspberry Pi 4 in the open air soon
reaches its throttle point, even running the
latest firmware. Install it in the CooliPi, and
the temperature barely reaches half of the
Pi 4’s 80°C throttle point, before the ten-
minute workload shifts into a five-minute,
cool-down idle period.
For those using the CooliPi in extreme
environments, the optional fan adaptor
allows a 5V fan to be attached on top of the
heatsink to provide forced convection. In most
real-world scenarios, however, it’s likely to be
unnecessary; the passive cooling provided by
such a hefty lump of aluminium is more than
enough to tame the Pi 4. Without a heatsink, the Pi 4 soon throttles under a heavy synthetic workload
That aluminium slab, however, does
provide one cause for concern. The Raspberry
Pi 4 uses a ground-plane antenna for its
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio, with no easy way
to connect to an external antenna. Radio
signals don’t like passing through a block of
metal, but thankfully it’s an issue Myslik has
considered. There’s enough material milled
away from the heatsink’s underside to provide
a decent air-gap above the antenna, while the
underside is only plastic. In testing, there was
no discernible difference in the wireless signal
strength between cased and uncased.
While Myslik is still tweaking some
aspects of the design – in particular testing
ways to get some cooling to the PMIC – the
version as reviewed is available to order
now from sensoreq.com, with prices
starting at €31 for the heatsink and €19.20
for the base (around £27 and £16, both inc
VAT). The pricing is a definite negative point, The difference made by a massive lump of aluminium is undeniable

although understandable given its made-

in-the-EU, small-run status.
NEWS IN BRIEF
FirmwareupdatesslashRaspberryPi 4 heat output
A series of firmware updates, made available since launch, have dramatically
improved the power draw and heat output of the Raspberry
p y Pi 4. The updates
p
dropped its operating temperature after 60
seconds of a heavy synthetic CPU and GPU
workload from 72.1°C at launch with a 7.28W
power draw, to just 64.8°C now with a 6.41W
power draw. To update Raspbian, simply
open a Terminal and type:
sudo update && sudo full-upgrade
sudo shutdown -r now
All external ports are freely accessible – there’s
even a clever cover over the micro-SD slot

97
 C U STO M I SAT I O N / HOBBY TECH
REVIEW
Unix: A History and a Memoir
n his own words, Brian
I Kernighan was ‘present at the
creation’ of the Unix operating
system, ‘though not responsible for it’. As
one of Bell Labs’ researchers, however,
he certainly rubbed shoulders with those
who bear responsibility for the creation
of what underpins the modern Linux and
BSD distribution – and Unix: A History
and a Memoir is his attempt to document
its inception.
It’s a book which, Kernighan admits,
leans more towards memoir than
history, although with the assistance of
people who were there, and historians
who came later, it serves well enough
as the latter. Where the book focuses
on Kernighan’s personal recollections,
it reads smoothly; where it veers off into
historical recitation, it’s a little dryer.
You first notice the cover though.
While the use of a promotional image
Kernighan is best known as co-author of The C
Programming Language with creator Dennis Ritchie
Gareth Halfacree is a keen computer hobbyist, journalist and author whose work can be found at freelance.halfacree.co.uk
98
suggested by Kernighan to help sell AT&T’s
commercial Unix is an eye-catching choice,
the quality is terrible, as is the blurb on the
back cover. Kernighan, it seems, has opted
to use Amazon’s print-on-demand service
for the self-published title, without providing
a cover image of suitable resolution for print.
The overall effect looks like a knock-off. The
text inside is thankfully crisp and clear, but
the frequent photographs and illustrations
are reproduced in rather blotchy greyscale.
These minor issues are soon forgotten,
though, as the book is a fascinating read.
Plus, while some may question Kernighan’s
assertion that it’s aimed at a non-technical
audience, particularly when it comes
to explaining how a snippet of source
code works, it’s undeniably accessible.
The book opens on a history of Bell Labs
itself, and Kernighan’s role in the famous
The book is great, but the blurry cover art
‘Centre 1127’ from where Unix – and the C
gives the impression it’s a knock-off
language, on which Kernighan co-wrote the
definitive guide – sprung. Those unfamiliar how a short, simple program designed
with Unix may be surprised to read that its to copy from standard input to standard
original creator, Ken Thompson, built it in a output, has grown to feature no fewer
three-week period while his wife and child than 12 command-line options. Those
were visiting relatives – but that’s only one used to other operating systems will still
of the anecdotes likely to raise eyebrows. find plenty to retain their interest too.
The book walks through early ‘proto- This book would perhaps not exist
Unixes’, including Multics, and towards the if Kernighan relied on a traditional
end, it gives some time to the operating publisher rather than taking the self-
systems Unix helped to inspire, despite publishing route, but it would also benefit
its relative lack of commercial success. from the hand of a seasoned editor.
It also confirms Unix’ origins as an Some chapters flow better than others,
internal typesetting system for Bell Labs’ plus there’s the occasional inversion
frequent patent applications – or, at least, of chronology. Also, the attribution for
that’s how it was framed by its creators, provided images is scattershot, with
who weren’t authorised to waste their pictures are frequently credited to
time building an operating system. ‘Wikipedia’ and ‘Twitter’, rather than the
Those who use Unix, Linux, BSD or actual copyright holders. Nevertheless,
any other Posix-based system will find it’s an enjoyable romp through 40
much familiar in the book, and revel in years of computing history, and comes
origin stories for common tools such as recommended. Unix: A History and a
sed, grep and cat. The latter is the subject Memoir is available to buy now from
of an amusing rant, which bemoans amazon.co.uk for £15.03 (VAT exempt).
@ghalfacree
 F O R T H E W I N / COMPETITION

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A 27in AOC 144HZ
GAMING MONITOR
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By entering the competition, the winner consents to any publicity generated from the competition, in print and online. Participants agree to receive occasional newsletters from Custom PC magazine. We don’t like spam: participants’ details will remain strictly confidential and won’t be
shared with third parties. Prizes are non-negotiable and no cash alternative will be offered. Winners will be contacted by email to arrange delivery. Any winners who have not responded 60 days after the initial email is sent will have their prize revoked.

99

Customised PC
Case mods, tools, techniques, water-cooling gear and
everything to do with PC modding
Super-slim radiators
T
here’s a plethora of different
radiator sizes out there, and if
you know your fins-per-inch
from your bleed ports, then you’ll know
there’s more to your choice of radiator
than just its length or the fan size it
supports. The thickness of a radiator is
important for a number of reasons.
You may not have room for a 45mm
or 60mm-thick model in your case, as
drive mounts, cable-routing paraphernalia
or existing fan mounts might get in the
way. For this reason, people with small
to medium-sized cases need to make
do with thinner radiators. However, while
a thinner radiator’s cooling capacity is
ultimately lower than that of a thicker one,
there’s a few good reasons to use them.
Firstly, pushing or pulling air through
a thick radiator is hard. 60mm models
ideally need two rows of fans to offer
decent efficiency, further hampering their
compatibility in cases. In smaller cases
with tight spaces and a single row of fans,
using them is inadvisable, as the extra
restriction can result in poor performance.
Using a 30mm-thick radiator means
that a single row of fans can shift more
100
MODDING / OPINION
A N TO N Y L E AT H E R ’ S
air through the radiator than with a
thicker model, and will give you better
cooling efficiency. You also save on
coolant, as the radiator is smaller, but
the main benefit is that the radiator will
fit in most fan mounts.
I’m a big fan of small form factor cases
and all the above especially applies
here. Thin radiators are essential, but
even typical 30mm-thick models can
be a little large, potentially putting your
project’s water-cooling capacity at risk.
If you’ve found that your supposedly thin
radiator is still a bit too thick, there’s now
XSPC’s ultra-thin TX
a solution to your problem.
radiators measure I’ve just discovered XSPC’s ultra-thin
just 20.5mm thick radiators, which measure just 20.5mm
thick. That’s a whole centimetre thinner
than your typical half-height radiator,
and thinner than the radiators with all-
in-one liquid coolers too. Combined with
Noctua’s A12x15 fans, which are just
15mm thick and performed well in our
recent fan Labs, that means you can get
a complete cooling package that’s just
35mm thick.
Interestingly, the radiator sports
features that could see it offer similar
performance to normal-sized models
too. Its fins are packed in tight, using
a 22-fins-per-inch arrangement,
compared to 13-fins-per-inch for
many thicker radiators. This will add air
restriction, but also boost cooling by
increasing the surface area.
The surface area is further boosted by
these fins sticking out past the coolant
tubes, whereas on normal radiators
they sit flush. I’m already planning to
use them in my next PC mod, which is
extremely tricky to water-cool due to
limited space for radiators. The XSPC TX
radiators are available in white or black,
and in 120mm, 240mm, 360mm and
480mm sizes..
Cooling 3rd-gen
Threadripper
While AMD’s first and second
generations of Threadripper only
had niche appeal, with their sub-par
gaming performance and lacklustre
grunt in some lightly threaded
workloads, its 3rd-gen Threadripper
CPUs are much better all-rounders.
If you have the cash, they make for
superb multi-threaded powerhouses
that also keep up with tasks outside of
content creation and rendering. While
AMD’s 7nm Zen 2 architecture offers
clear benefits, though, the Threadripper
3960X and 3970X are still toasty
customers, requiring decent cooling
and at least an 800W power supply.
A CPU with a thermal design power
(TDP) rating of 280W is going to be
out of reach of most air coolers, but
some larger models are able to cope.
ARCTIC’s Freezer 50TR is a beast of
an air cooler, with 120mm and 140mm
fans spinning at up to 1,800rpm and
blowing air through a pair of large
heatsinks, each of which is equipped
with four 6mm heatpipes. However, if
you’re spending this much on a system,
Antony Leather is Custom PC’s modding editor
Adding water to the
Threadripper cooling
equation results in
lower temperatures,
quieter noise levels
and higher boost
frequencies
is it worth considering more elaborate
cooling? AMD’s CPUs do respond
better to lower temperatures, boosting
to higher frequencies at stock speed.
To investigate, I pitched the ARCTIC
ARCTIC’s Freezer cooler against a bunch of water-
50TR can keep cooling components from Corsair’s
a 24-core HydroX range, including an XR5
Threadripper
360 radiator, three 120mm ML120
3960X in check
– an amazing feat fans, XD5 RGB pump and an XC9
for an air cooler RGB waterblock, to see if it’s worth
spending more on elaborate cooling
for the latest Threadripper CPUs.
The ARCTIC cooler was certainly as
quiet as the Corsair cooling system when
idle at stock speed, but with the 24-core
Threadripper 3960X CPU under load,
the ARCTIC cooler was much louder than
the Corsair rig with the standard cooling
profile. Its delta T of 60°C, reported as
82°C in Ryzen Master minus a 22°C
ambient room temperature, is decent
for an air cooler, but it certainly doesn’t
leave any room for overclocking. The
peak all-core boost was 3.991GHz.
Switching to the Corsair water-
cooling loop, the temperature dropped
by 10°C to a delta T of 50°C. This is
significantly cooler, and the fans were
also much quieter. Interestingly, the
@antonyleather
all-core boost frequency sat 50MHz
higher too, reaching nearly 4.05GHz.
There’s clearly a benefit to
splashing out on liquid cooling for your
Threadripper CPU. The ARCTIC Freezer
50TR was happy to sit with our CPU
at full load at stock speed, and just
about managed to keep temperatures
within check. That’s impressive for
an air cooler, and it’s definitely worth
considering, especially as it costs just
£60, and doesn’t come with worries
about pump failures or leaks.
Its noise levels and cooling couldn’t
match our custom water-cooling
loop, though, with a clear benefit on
both counts. The custom loop opens
up enough headroom for overclocking
too, while allowing higher stock speed
boost frequencies. The price difference
is considerable, but you can also save a
significant amount of money by opting
for the 24-core Threadripper 3960X
over the 32-core 3970X.
The former is over £500 cheaper
– this more than pays for a high-end
liquid-cooling system, which means
your PC will make a far more pleasant
noise while you’re throwing multi-
threaded workloads at it.
101
 M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES

How to
Soundproof
your case
Antony Leather shows you
how to block fan noise by fitting 1 / USE A PRE-CUT KIT
Pre-cut foam kits are available from overclockers.co.uk, and they
soundproofing material to your case include noise-absorbing sheets that are pre-cut to size to install in the
vacant panels of specific cases. A pre-cut kit is a good place to start, as
you won’t need to cut the foam yourself.

TOTA L P R OJ E C T T I M E / 2 H O U R S

fyouwantyourPCtobeseenandnotheard,thenthereareplenty

I ofwaystocutthenoise.Quieterfans,liquidcoolingandlargeGPU
coolerscanallhelpbut,asanextratouch,somecase
manufacturersincludesoundproofingmaterialintheircasestoo.This
materialcanhelptopreventsoundbouncingoffthepanelsinsideyourcase,
inmuchthesamewaythatitpreventsechoesinasound-recordingroom.
Adding this material can help to cut the amount of noise made by
your PC, and also prevent side panels from absorbing the sound and
retransmitting it outside of the case. Thankfully, even if your case doesn’t
come pre-fitted with this material, there are several ways to add noise-
absorbing foam to your PC case, and you can even buy pre-cut
soundproofing kits for some cases. 2 / BUY A SOUNDPROOFED CASE
Alternatively, if you haven’t bought your case yet, Overclockers UK
also offers cases that have these kits pre-installed, meaning you’ll
have even less work to do.
TO O L S YO U ’ L L N E E D

Stanley knife
Most hardware stores

3 / MEASURE UP
If your case doesn’t have a pre-cut kit available, then all is not lost.
You can buy universal soundproofing kits, which include several large
Noise-absorbing sheets that you can cut to size. Don’t use standard foam – it can get
Tape measure PC case foam clogged up with dust, and its bumpy surface can hinder airflow too.
Most hardware stores overclockers.co.uk

102
4 / REMOVE UNUSED CASE FITTINGS
Customising your noise-absorbing foam means you can maximise its
use in your case, so it’s worth removing any fittings that you’re not using,
such as empty drive bays, to enable you to lay down more material.
5 / CLEAN CONTACT AREAS
Before installing the foam sheets, clean the areas you want to cover using
a surface cleaner or polish to remove dust and grime. Otherwise, the
sheets may not adhere properly and start to peel over time.
6 / CUT TO SIZE
Use a Stanley knife or a large pair of scissors to cut the foam sheets to
size. Minimise wastage by cutting out sections from the edges of the
sheets, using the pre-cut edges to reduce the amount of manual cutting.
7 / TEST-FIT FOAM
Once you’ve cut out the foam sheets to your needed sizes, test-fit them
in your case, prior to removing the protective backing, to make sure they
fit. You can then trim the edges as necessary.
8 / APPLY TO HARDWARE
Most foam sheets will have backing that needs to be removed to reveal
the self-adhesive surface. The adhesive is very strong, and it’s unlikely
you’ll be able to remove once the sheets are fitted, so only remove the
backing once you’re ready.
9 / FIX TO CASE
Once you’re sure you’re ready to install the foam, press it firmly into
place, smoothing over the whole surface to ensure the whole sheet is
secure. If some corners start lifting further down the line, you can use
a glue gun sparingly to reattach the sheet.
103
 M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES

How to
Clean your
waterblocks
Antony Leather shows you how to
1 / INSPECT WATERBLOCKS
get the gunk out of your waterblocks Identify which areas you need to clean before you dismantle your
system, so you can plan ahead. Inspect the coolant channels and fins
so they look as good as new for residue, and the metal and acrylic sections for dye and blemishes.
Identify areas that could do with a polish too.
TOTA L P R OJ E C T T I M E / 2 H O U R S

hen you first fire up your beautiful water-cooling loop, all your

W waterblocks are shiny, sparkling and clean. However, over time,

they can lose their lustre as their surfaces oxidise or become
stained by coolant or additives.
There isn’t a lot you can do to prevent this from happening, and while
cleaning kits such as Mayhems Blitz can help, they won’t remove all the
grime that can build up in cooling fins, or clean up tarnished metal or acrylic.
This month, we’ll look at how to clean your waterblocks to get them looking
as good as new. We’ll be dismantling, polishing and reassembling them, as
well as cleaning out any gunk that could hamper their cooling potential.

TO O L S YO U ’ L L N E E D 2 / IDENTIFY SURFACE MATERIAL

Many waterblocks use plating on top of copper, and you need to be
extra careful when polishing this with abrasive compounds. Autosol’s
standard metal polish works well on bare copper, but nickel plating,
for example, can be damaged by repeated polishing with Autosol.

Hex tools or precision

screwdrivers Microfibre cloth
Most hardware stores Most hardware stores

Acrylic polish
amazon.co.uk

3 / GET THE RIGHT TOOLS

Identify the tools you need, so you can get your PC up and running
again as quickly as possible. For example, if you can identify residue
built up in the fins or coolant channels, you’ll need plastic brushes or air
Autosol Liquid dusters to clean them. Waterblocks themselves also require specific
Chrome Cleaner Plastic bristle brushes tools to dismantle them.
amazon.co.uk Most hardware stores

104

4 / USE THE RIGHT CLEANER
For nickel-plated waterblocks, a chrome polish works best. It’s far less
abrasive than standard metal polishes, as chrome plating is similarly
delicate. We’ve used Autosol’s liquid chrome cleaner in this guide.
5 / USE PLASTIC BRUSHES
Fine coolant channels and fins can be tricky to clean, but a small plastic
cleaning brush can usually get into the grooves to clean them. We’ve used
an OXO Good Grips Deep Clean Brush Set, which costs £6 from Amazon,
and includes a brush with a micro plastic blade.
6 / DRAIN YOUR LOOP
For a full clean, you’ll need to remove the components from your loop. Start
by draining your loop, so you can remove the components without spillage.
7 / REMOVE WATERBLOCKS
Now go ahead and remove the waterblocks you want to clean. If
you’re using a pastel coolant, the aesthetic benefits of cleaning will
be minimal, unless you can see areas of metal or acrylic that have
blemishes and look unsightly.
8 / DRAIN COOLANT AND FLUSH
Before you open the waterblock, flush it with water first. This will
ensure that any coloured coolant is removed and doesn’t find its way
onto stainable surfaces. Tap water will be fine for this step, as long as
you dry the block within a few minutes of opening it, but otherwise, use
deionised or distilled water.
9 / REMOVE TOP COVER
Most waterblocks use hex screws to secure the top section to the
lower metal plate, so make sure you have the right tool ready. It’s also
a good idea to have a container ready to hold the screws while you’re
cleaning the block.
105
M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES

10 / SCRUB WITH SOAP 13 / POLISH ACRYLIC

Use warm water with a small amount of detergent to clean the surfaces Acrylic will also benefit from polishing, especially if it’s come into
of the components, taking care not to damage any rubber O-rings contact with coolant. Any mild abrasive polish will work here, including
that are present. Once you’ve removed the worst of the grime, flush it the chrome cleaner we’ve used, but a plastic polish will help to bring it
thoroughly with water and dry it using a microfibre cloth. back to a clean shine.

11 / USE POLISH 14 / CLEAN WATERBLOCK

Once dry, use a chrome cleaner to deal with nickel-plated waterblocks Once you’re finished cleaning and polishing, it’s important to clean the
and standard metal polish on bare copper waterblocks. Use a components to prevent the polish from entering your coolant loop.
microfibre cloth with medium pressure for 20 seconds or so, then Use a damp cloth to wipe them down, then rinse them with water
switch to a clean section of cloth to buff it to a shine. before drying again.

12 / CLEAN BLOCK COOLANT CHANNELS 15 / REASSEMBLE WATERBLOCK

The fins and channels may have residue from coolant, or even from the Once you’re happy with the finish, reassemble your waterblock,
manufacturing process, lodged in them. Use the brushes to clean these making sure the O-ring is seated properly. You’ll need to treat your
parts, or an air duster will also work. You can use a cotton bud to apply the loop as untested for the moment, so perform a leak test to make sure
chrome polish in harder to reach areas. your reassembled block is watertight.

106
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M O D D I N G / READERS’ DRIVES
Readers’ Drives
In The Loop
Peter Morey’s dual-reservoir
tower makes for a clean yet
intricate-looking system
Let’s start with the initial
inspiration. What made you
want to build your machine?
/MEET THY MAKER
Name Peter Morey
Age 36
Occupation
Service Engineer
Location Wiltshire
Main uses for PC Gaming
Likes Music, mountain
biking, action movies and
anything techy really
Dislikes Sprouts, romantic
comedies and cricket
108
tried to keep
it clean and
not too complicated.
Pete: I’ve loved PCs I believe I’ve achieved this.
since I was a teenager,
but it really took root What timescale was involved, Pete: I decided to go with EK Water
around four years and what challenges did you Blocks for the blocks, fittings,
ago. Which is when find in putting it together? pumps and radiators, using a
I finally built my Pete: I started this project 360mm SE in push config for CPU
first PC using all new around 18 months ago. The main and 360mm XE in push-pull for
parts and I’ve had challenge was the fact that I just the GPUs. I also tried hardline PETG
the bug ever since! kept adding more, so the build tubing, as I love the look. I had soft
kept changing. I went through tubing in the first two cases but
What design three cases until I settled on wanted to step it up for this version.
features did you this one. I kept needing more I did the cuts and bends by eye,
want to incorporate space as my cooling loop grew. used a heat gun and shockingly
into your build, and didn’t make any mistakes!
how did you go about Can you take us through the
implementing them? materials you used for the cooling Can you take us through
Pete: The biggest (and why), and what was involved the lighting? The effect
design feature has to in planning, measuring, cutting you were looking for and
be the cooling loop. I and bending it all to shape? how you achieved it?
wanted something
that was stylish
but not too ‘in your I went with smaller diameter tubing
face’ and remained
functional. That’s why and tried to keep it clean and not
I went with smaller
diameter tubing and too complicated
Pete: I went with Corsair for the
lighting, which includes two ML
140mm RGB fans and some of
Corsair’s RGB strips connected
to a Commander Pro. The GPU
blocks and reservoirs also
have RGB, which is controlled
by the motherboard.

Is there anything hidden

in there that we can’t see?
Is there something you’re
particularly proud of?
Pete: In the back of the case I’ve
managed to hide two radiators, 11
120mm fans, Corsair Commander
Pro and lighting nodes, flow
indicators and drain taps. There
are also four 2TB hard disks in RAID
for storage. I think my biggest
brainwave was to paint the SSDs
and various parts of the case white.
It was very gloomy inside before
and I think it breaks it up nicely.

109
M O D D I N G / READERS’ DRIVES

SYSTEM SPECS

CPU AMD 2700X 4.2GHz all cores

GPU 2 x Gigabyte Aorus 1080
Ti 11G Xtreme Edition
Case Thermaltake The Tower 900
Storage Samsung 970 Evo
500GB SSD, 2 x Crucial MX500
SSD, WD 2TB HDD x 4 in RAID
Memory 2 x 8GB Corsair
Vengeance 3200MHz
Motherboard Asus ROG
Crosshair VII Hero
PSU Corsair HX1000
Cooling EKWB CPU waterblock,
2 x EKWB GPU waterblock, 2 x
EKWB EK-XRES pump res combo,
EKWB 360SE radiator, EKWB
360XE radiator, 9 x EKWB Vadar
fans, EKWB fittings and PTG tubing

What spec did you choose
and why?
Pete: I went with AMD as my
first CPU was an Athlon 64,
which I loved to overclock, and
I’ve always appreciated the way
they aim at value. Plus, the new
Ryzen CPUs just keep getting
better and better!
What overclocks can you
achieve with that cooling system,
and how fast are the frame rates
from those two GPUs?
Pete: It mostly runs at 4GHz on all
cores but it’s stable at 4.2GHz. The
system was ranked ninth in
3DMark Time Spy but has since
dropped to around 15th. Another
attempt will be happening once a
few upgrades have been made.
I get over 100 frames in nearly all
games, 150 if it uses SLI. My monitor
is 3440 x 1440/100Hz, so while the
pixel count is high, the frame rate
rarely drops below 100fps.
What was the trickiest
part of the build?
Pete: The hardest part for me
was figuring out the water-
cooling loops. It took a while
to decide on the order and
routing. Overall, this case was
amazing to build in, making it
very easy for the most part due
to the sheer size of it! Although
wiring in the fan controller was
a pain, as there wasn’t much
room in the lower part once I’d
put all the rest in. I should have
fitted it first, but ah well.

110
 BE A WINNER
To enter your machine for possible inclusion in Readers’
Drives, your build needs to be fully working and, ideally,
based in the UK. Simply send us a couple of photos on
Twitter (@CustomPCMag) or Facebook (CPCMagazine),
or email low-res ones to editor@custompcmag.org.uk.
Fame isn’t the only prize; you’ll also get your hands on
some fabulous prizes.

Corsair K70 RGB MK.2SE

–CherryMXSpeed

WORTH
£170

The Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Meanwhile, its Cherry

What else are you working
on? Is the build finished?
Pete: It’s not done yet! I’ve got a
new fan controller from NZXT
to install along with a new
I’m also working monoblock for the CPU to help
on putting in a keep the VRMs cool. I’m also
working on putting in a Raspberry
Raspberry Pi and a Pi and a small screen where the
front two hard disk bays are, to
small screen where monitor temperatures. Not sure
how yet but I’m working on it.
the front two HDD
Are you completely happy
bays are to monitor with the end result, or do you
wish you’d done some of it
temperatures differently in retrospect?
Pete: I’m very happy with
where I am on this build, but
as I’ve said, there’s more to
come in the future!
SE is a premium mechanical
gaming keyboard that’s built
to last. It has a silver anodised
brushed aluminium frame,
as well as stunning white
precision-moulded, double-
shot keycaps. It’s built to turn
heads and withstand a
lifetime of gaming. There’s a
detachable, soft-touch wrist
rest too.
Alphacool
water-cooling gear
Water-cooling hardware
manufacturer Alphacool is
offering a choice of £150
worth of gear to every
featured Readers’ Drives
winner. For your prize, you
can select from DIY water-
cooling kits, the Eiswolf and
Eisbaer all-in-one CPU and
GPU liquid coolers, as well
as a vast range of individual
components, including
waterblocks (pictured),
fittings, reservoirs, pumps
MX Speed mechanical
keyswitches provide the
reliability and accuracy you
demand, with blisteringly fast
1.2mm actuation. There’s
also stunning per-key RGB
dynamic backlighting, 100
per cent anti-ghosting with
full-key rollover, 8MB of
on-board memory, plus
dedicated media controls.
WORTH
£150
and radiators. Alphacool
also makes coolant, tubing
and fans, as well as
modding and water
cooling-related tools.

111
 R E T R O T E C H / ANALYSIS

The return
of CRTs
Edward Chester takes a look at what CRT monitors may still have to offer
nearly 20 years after they fell out of fashion

C
athode Ray Tubes (CRTs) were once the one and but black trick the eye in such a way that it reduces the
only option for computer monitors. The hulking appearance of judder and blur in moving images. This is
great beasts took up masses of space on desks particularly noticeable with horizontal movement as seen in
across the land before the arrival of flat-screen display side-scrolling games such as Sonic the Hedgehog or when
technologies saw them rapidly consigned to history. you look left and right in a first-person shooter. The image
However, in retro gaming circles, it has long been held that appears crisper and can feel more responsive, even at far
CRTs are still the best way to play certain games, and more lower refresh rates than modern fast LCDs.
recently we’ve seen a growing wave of appreciation for The second advantage is that CRTs cope much
playing modern games on CRTs too. So, to see what all the better with odd and low resolutions. This is because
fuss is about, we took a step back in time to find out just what, they, to all intents and purposes, don’t have a strict
if anything, we’ve been missing out on all these years. native resolution. Whereas an LCD has 1,920 x 1,080
individual pixels in its LCD panel, a CRT simply adjusts
What’s so good about CRTs? the number of lines its beam creates and how often it
The reason CRTs have remained popular comes down to turns the beam on and off to create its pixels. As such,
several different image quality characteristics that come you don’t get the problem you have with LCDs when
about due to the way they work, and the first of these is the you run games at lower resolutions where the screen
scanline nature of the way they form pictures. has to spread a single pixel of the image across several
Because the image on a CRT is formed by a beam of pixels of the screen, often resulting in a blurry mess.
electrons that’s scanning across the surface of the Instead, while you may get visible blank lines between the
screen, the whole image is never visible all at once. lines of the image, the image itself remains sharp. This is
As the beam leaves behind particularly why retro games
any given area of the screen, still look so much better on
the phosphor on the screen’s CRTs. Blowing up a game
surface continues to glow for that originally ran at 640 x
a short while before fading. 480 onto a 1,920 x 1,080
However, because our eyes LCD screen looks crummy
take a moment to process the but still looks sharp on CRT.
image they’re receiving, The final piece to the
there’s enough time for the puzzle is viewing angles.
beam to come back around On CRTs, they’re essentially
again to refresh the image infinite – as long as you can
before we notice. In contrast, see the screen, the image will
LCD and OLED displays show appear as good as it does The way images
the full image for each refresh from straight on. OLEDs are produced on a
of the screen. largely retain the same quality CRT means that at
any moment, only
Now, the key here is that but LCDs – even the best ones
a small part of the
those moments where much – suffer in several ways when screen is actually
of the screen is showing nothing viewed from different angles. lluminated

112
 Do they
t work?
To test all these theoretical
T
advantages, we went out
and grabbed a 21in Sun
GDM-5510 CRT and an
HDMI to VGA adaptor, and
began experimenting.
This display can deliver up to
a 1,600 x 1,200 resolution with
a vertical refresh rate of 85Hz,
which may not sound all that
imprressive. But due to the scanline
nature e of the picture, 85Hz should in
theory be e enough for a responsive-
feeling gamiing experience.
CRTs retain N
Now, h ffirst thing
the t to note is that unlike LCDs,
perfect image the visible size of a CRT doesn’t correspond with the Up close, you can see lines when using a CRT
quality even when at low resolutions but the image still looks sharp
advertised size of the monitor. In practice, the visible size of this
viewed from
extreme angles 21in screen is roughly 19.5in, so we’re already a further few
steps down in visual impact from even a basic 24in LCD. on a CRT with these low-resolution games elevates the
Nonetheless, firing the GDM-5510 up and you’re experience over most LCDs.
immediately struck by... how much tweaking is required to get However, if you’re more interested in getting a CRT because
the picture set up correctly. With you think it will make all your gaming experiences better, we

CRTS COPE MUCH that out the way, this 17-year-old

screen put in an impressive
strongly suggest caution. For a start, the experience isn’t that
much better. Run an LCD at native resolution and high refresh
BETTER WITH performance. Contrast is weak rate, and it’s still a very nice experience. And, if you really hate

ODD AND LOW but colours are vivid and lifelike,

and the image is sharp.
RESOLUTIONS Next, we fired up some
games, and sure enough, the
experience was impressively
smooth. That scanline effect
does work wonders for motion blur. That said, the 85Hz
limitation of this screen was noticeable and we still preferred
the latest 144Hz and 240Hz LCDs for first-person shooters.
Most CRTs are as Next,we dialleddown theresolutiontojust 640x480and
deep as they are
firedupafewoldclassics,andwhileyouget noticeablelinesin
wide – there’s a
reason flat panels theimage, thesharpness is there. Whenit comesto theviewing
took over angle advantage, in practice,there arefewsituations
wherethis really makesa differencebutit
wascertainlystriking justhow stable
the image was.
Should you buy a CRT?
Based on our experience,
the choice of whether you
should buy an old CRT
monitor comes down to a
few different factors. The
first is whether you
dabble in retro games.
The sharp
image and
smoothness
that you
can get
motion blur, some LCDs come with a black frame insertion
mode that does a decent job of emulating the motion blur
reducing effect of scanline displays.
What’s more, going back to CRT comes with some serious
compromises in screen size, resolution and refresh rate. Most
CRT monitors top out at 21in and use a 4:3 aspect ratio rather
than widescreen, and these days we prefer widescreen.
There’s also the fact that the image quality isn’t amazing –
there’s no HDR here. CRTs don’t get very bright and they
degrade over time, so with any second-hand unit you might
get now, there’s a good chance it’s well past its best. Add in the
sheer hulking size of CRTs and their case gets weaker by the
minute. They don’t come cheap either – even 21in units such as
the one we tested go for several hundred pounds.
In fact, there’s really only one display that we would consider
brings enough to the table to make a viable case for replacing a
main gaming display, and that’s the Sony GDM-FW900.
Widely regarded as the absolute pinnacle of CRT monitors, this
24in display was one of the very few to offer widescreen and
could produce a full HD, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution picture at
120Hz vertical refresh.
If we could get hold of one of these 42kg(!) behemoths, we
would be very tempted to find a home for it next to our gaming
PC. The only trouble is, they don’t come cheap. Not even close.
At the time of writing, on eBay.co.uk there’s one that has a
starting bid of £1,600.
Have you experimented recently with CRTs, or have you
held on to your old one for all this time? We’d love to hear your
stories of your trials and tribulations, and to know just where
you found space to keep them!

113
 OPINION

JA M E S G O R B O L D / HARDWARE ACCELERATED

UNREALISTIC AND
MISLEADING
James Gorbold is fed up of benchmarketing
nfortunately, because two of the words in my job For example,comparing two systems,the first around £2,000
U title are ‘Technical Marketing’,I sometimes get dragged
into projects aspects of which drive me around the
inc VAT and the second around £3,000 inc VAT, were 150fps
and 180fps. In other words, both systems were capable of
bend. One such recent project required us to propose a new equally ridiculously high frame rates at 1,920 x 1,080.
range of systems and submit benchmark results at specific The second issue testing such high-end hardware
settings. The purpose of the project itself is not important; configurations at low resolution creates is that it encourages
what is was the frankly ridiculous settings at which we had the myth that certain CPUs are critical for gaming. While
to run the benchmarks. it’s fair to say there’s a quantifiable performance difference
Part of me was relieved to see that the benchmarks were all between the latest Intel and AMD CPUs at 1,920 x 1,080, once
real games, and not synthetic tests such as 3DMark.However, you crank up the resolution to a level the system will likely
two of the games were from 2016, with only one from 2018 be used at in the real world, the performance difference is
and none from this year,so none of them negligible. I get that it’s important to test
was really going to push the boundaries PC gamers by their nature products fairly and on a level playing field,
of modern hardware, let alone get gamers but find it dismaying that even to this day,
excited about recent advances such as DXR. are well informed and some reviewers continue this practice and
What upset me the most,however,was make sensible propagate this myth.
how once again I was being asked to run a I’m not, to be clear, accusing everyone
load of benchmarks at 1,920 x 1,080. This purchasing decisions of being disingenuous or engaging in
would have been excusable if we were benchmarketing,as I suspect the root cause
speccing up entry-level PCs, but even the lowest spec model for most of these low-resolution benchmarks is force of habit.
had a GeForce RTX 2070 Super, a graphics card that can deliver But that’s a pretty shoddy reason for anybody working in tech,
smooth frames at 2,560 x 1,440. Now this might seem a trivial an industry defined by innovation, to fall back on.
matter to get annoyed enough about to write a column, but Moreover, I know I’m not alone in thinking that upgrading
such ridiculous benchmarketing creates two serious issues. to a higher resolution is the primary reason to buy a high-end
The first problem that benchmarking high-end hardware PC or graphics card. Enthusiast PC gamers by their nature are
at a low resolution creates results that are near useless as a well informed and make sensible purchasing decisions. For
guide to help customers make their buying decision. Instead of instance, I’ve seen sales data showing that over 80 per cent
providing useful information such as what resolution monitor of monitors sold with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards
the system is optimal for, benchmarking high-end PCs at such have resolutions of 2,560 x 1,440 or higher. So with a new
a low resolution merely creates results that demonstrate that year now with us, can we finally get rid of this unsavoury
all such specs are ridiculously overpowered for 1,920 x 1,080. and aging practice?

James Gorbold has been building, tweaking and overclocking PCs ever since the 1980s. He now helps Scan Computers to develop new systems.

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