Wireless routers: Take your home network gear to the next levell

THE BEST-SELLING MAG FOR PC HARDWARE, OVERCLOCKING, GAMING & MODDING /ISSUE 160

JANUARY 2017/£5.99
A million computers
are waiting to be built.

There may be countless ways to build a PC. But there´s one series of PC cases that
makes them all possible: Dark Base 900. It offers maximum flexibility to suit your
individual space requirements. And of course, it´s one of the quietest cases in the
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■ Repositionable motherboard tray and HDD tray with the option of inverse layout
■ Three virtually inaudible be quiet! SilentWings® 3 PWM fans
■ Full-circuit airflow system with noise-dampened vents
■ Four areas for water cooling radiators up to 420mm
■ Dark Base Pro 900 with LED illumination, window with tempered glass and wireless

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For more information visit bequiet.com *GfK data 2016

Available at: scan.co.uk · overclockers.co.uk · ebuyer.com · novatech.co.uk

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 Welcome Custom PC Issue 160

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3
 Welcome to Issue 160

84 Silence your PC
Whether you’re trying to concentrate
on an intense gaming moment, or
attempting to focus your tired brain on
some serious work, having a big box
full of hissing fans, buzzing hard drives
and gurgling pumps next to you is
going to rate highly on the irritation
scale. There’s no getting around the
fact that today’s silicon chips get very
hot – they’re like tiny pools of lava
sitting in PCBs – but with the right
information, you can keep these chips
cool without making a racket.
This month, we not only show you
how to build a quiet PC from scratch,
but we also share our top tips and
tricks for calming the noise from your
computer. There’s no reason to
sacrifice performance either – our
example PC uses an Intel Skylake CPU
and an Nvidia Pascal graphics card, yet
it’s still practically inaudible.

Highlights
10 5Gb/sec home networking
Richard Swinburne revisits the latest
networking tech.

12 Performing rights
Video game performers should have
the same working rights as movie
stars, argues Tracy King.
20 Samsung SSD 960 Pro
We benchmark Samsung’s latest
NVMe SSDs to see if they can live up
to Samsung’s performance claims.
27 Steampunk keyboard
It’s a modern mechanical keyboard
that looks like a typewriter. We try out
Nanoxia’s Ncore Retro.
38 Wireless routers
Edward Chester investigates the
latest routers to find out which ones
deliver the best bandwidth over
various ranges.
48 280mm liquid coolers
Want some serious CPU cooling
power, or simply a quieter system?
Antony Leather puts the latest
280mm all-in-one liquid coolers
to the test.
92 Hook, line and Sinclair
Ben Hardwidge explores the
various ways to bring his old ZX
Spectrum into the modern age, via
smartphone loading and even an SD
card interface.
96 Hobby tech
Gareth Halfacree gets his hands on
the Dremel 3000 Four-Star Kit, and
also tries out the new CHIP and
PocketCHIP.
104 Cool an M.2 SSD
Antony Leather shows you how to
add heatsinks and waterblocks to an
M.2 SSD, whether you want a super
cool drive or just some extra pizzazz.

4
 35
PRODUCTS
110 104 Reviewed REVIEWED
this month
Reviews
HEADSET
19 HyperX Cloud Stinger

SOLID STATE DRIVES

20 Samsung SSD 960 Pro 512GB
20 Samsung SSD 960 Pro 2TB

ATX CASES
22 In Win 509
102 96 24 BitFenix Aurora

MEMORY
26 GeIL Evo X

KEYBOARD
27 Nanoxia Ncore Retro

GAMING CHAIR
30 Noblechairs EPIC Real Leather
Gaming Chair

Custom kit
32 The Wallet Ninja 18-in-1
20 74 Multi-Tool
32 Corsair MM200
32 USB Circus Cannon V2
33 Lava BrightSounds 2
33 Power Wallet by Seyvr
33 Fellowes Memory Foam
Mouse Pad

Wireless router Labs

39 Asus RT-AC87U
40 Asus RT-AC88U
41 BT Smart Hub
42 D-Link DIR-879
Regulars Cover guide 44 Netgear X4S R7800
45 TP-Link AC3150
8 From the editor
84 38 280mm all-in-one
10 Richard Swinburne liquid cooler Labs
12 Tracy King 49 Alphacool Eisbaer 280mm
14 Incoming 50 Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280mm
51 Corsair Hydro Series H115i
16 Letters 52 NZXT Kraken X62
53 Raijintek Triton 280mm
32 Custom kit
36 How we test PC system reviews
56 Gladiator Apocalypse 1060
62 Elite products
58 PC Specialist LS-H02
73 Inverse look 60 Scan 3XS X99 Carbon RGB
80 The engine room Games
96 Hobby tech 74 Gears of War 4
76 Aragami
101 RealBench leaderboard 76 Shadow Warrior 2
102 Customised PC 78 Master of Orion

104 How to guides Hobby tech

109 Your folding milestones 96 Dremel 3000 Four-Star Kit
98 CHIP
110 Readers’ drives 98 PocketCHIP
114 James Gorbold 48 92

5
 OPINION
B E N H A R DW I D G E / FROM THE EDITOR
RIPPING YARNS
Ben Hardwidge wants to let go of optical media,
but the entertainment industry is holding him back
I
t’s tough trying to do the right thing when the
people you’re trying to help make it so difficult. As
you may or may not be aware, last year the High
Court made it once again illegal to rip DVDs,Blu-ray discs and
CDstoyourharddrive.That’saproblemforme,becauseIdon’t
want shelves full of needlessly big boxes of unreliable discs,
and plenty of my DVDs aren’t available to purchase as
legal downloads.
Like many people, I decided to do it anyway. I’ve spent the
last month using Handbrake to rip all my DVDs to my
SynologyNASbox,whichalsocontainsallmyCDsandrecords
(yes, records – it took me the best part of two
years). I can now stream my media collection
to any of the devices in my house.What’s more, Apart from a few notable
I can easily load up my iPad with a TV series
box set to watch on the train, and I don’t have
exceptions, most music
to listen to the irritating noises made by the download services don’t
dying motor in my Blu-ray player.
I’ve given up trying to do the right thing; it
offer lossless audio
just doesn’t make any sense any more.I’m not
going to sell my DVDs – they’ve all gone into boxes in the loft.
I’m not going to download content for which I haven’t paid
on BitTorrent – I’m happy to pay for it – I just want to enjoy
the media I’ve bought in a way that the optical disc format
doesn’t allow.
My relationship with optical media is a strange one.I don’t
feel any sort of attachment to it, and I won’t be sad when it
finally disappears. I’m usually the sort of person who loves
old technology,as you can see from my experiences with my
old ZX Spectrum on p92. I also have a large vinyl record
collection. Sometimes I like to put on a record, pour myself a
single malt,read a book and feel like I’ve escaped the modern
world for a bit,but I also like the convenience of digital media.
Ben Hardwidge is the editor of Custom PC. He likes PCs, heavy metal, real ale and Warhammer 40,000.
8
Now that all my DVDs are on my NAS box,my partner and
I can watch any of our collection on the Chromecast-
connected TV in the bedroom, or on our various computers,
tablets and phones, as well as the media PC in the lounge.
There’sjustnoreasonformetobeclingingontoopticalmedia
any more.
There are various reasons why people still prefer to buy
optical discs, of course. Not everyone has high-speed
broadband for quick downloading of games and movies,and
some people undoubtedly still prefer to buy a physical
product, so they can feel like they’ve actually bought
something tangible with their money.
The main reason,however,seems to be that
the entertainment industries can’t keep up
and want desperately to cling onto the past.
Apart from a few notable exceptions, most
music download services don’t offer lossless,
CD-quality audio – I have to buy a CD and rip
it with a lossless audio codec. Often, if I want
the extras that come with a film’s home
release, I’ll also have to buy the Blu-ray version, as the
download version only gives you the film.
But optical discs bring a whole load of problems. Playing
them requires moving parts that make noise and can also
fail.They also take up loads of space if you have a large library,
and they’re really struggling to keep up with the likes of
Netflix and Amazon Video – we’ve only just started to see 4K
Blu-ray players appear, years after the first 4K TVs came out.
It annoys me that I still have to make room for an optical
drive in my PC – I want to be one of the many modern people
who will happily buy a case without a 5.25in drive bay. But I
can’t – not because I’m not ready, but because the
entertainment industry isn’t ready.
editor@custompcmag.org.uk @custompcmag
 OPINION
R I C H A R D SW I N B U R N E / VIEW FROM TAIWAN
BEYOND GIGABIT
HOME NETWORKS
Richard Swinburne revisits the latest network tech to see if we’re
any closer to going beyond Gigabit bandwidth in the home
B
ack in Issue 149,I discussed NBase-T and its aim to go
beyondGigabitspeedswithexistingCAT5eandCAT6
cables. With speeds of up to 5Gb/sec, it could be a big
bonusforanyoneathomewithanSSD-equippedNASbox.We’ve
been stuck with Gigabit Ethernet for the best part of 15 years,
and I’m now keen to jump on the 5Gb/sec bandwagon.
UnlikeourfriendsintheUSA,whoarestatisticallythebiggest
buyers of 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking gear, in Europe and Asia,
houses are more likely to be made from bricks and concrete,
meaning that 5GHz Wi-Fi doesn’t work effectively. The result is
that sales of 802.11ac wireless networking gear
over here haven’t been as successful as in the
USA. I always opt for wired
From a personal perspective, I always opt for networking on any
wired networking on any non-mobile device,
for the sake of reliability and guaranteed non-mobile device
performance.Sincemovingthestandarddrives
frommyeverydayPC(seelastmonth’scolumn)andfittingsome
large SSDs into my NAS box, I find I’m regularly accessing the
network as an extension of my main rig. However, SSD-to-SSD
data transfer over Gigabit Ethernet leaves me bottlenecked at a
frustrating speed of around 100MB/sec. It’s frustrating when I
know my solid state drives are capable of much faster speeds.
As such, it’s great that NBase-T has been officially ratified by
IEEE as 802.3bz. This standard means that up to 100m of CAT5e
will support 2.5Gb/sec speeds,while CAT6 cabling supports the
faster 5Gb/sec bandwidth. Unlike the 10GbE standard, there’s
also an intention to implement support for 802.3at Power
over Ethernet (PoE),which could be very popular in the Internet
of Things era.
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
10
The downside is that NBase-T has, to date, been aimed at
businessanddatacentresratherthanhomes,so802.3bzrouters
andswitchesarelikelyonlyjustbeingaddedtoroadmaps–there
will still be a wait for the completion of low-cost chip and
platform development.To find out more,I talked to Peter Jones,
chairmanoftheNBase-Tcommissionandprincipalengineerat
Cisco.Unfortunately,heclaimedthateven2.5Gb/secor5Gb/sec
NBase-T networking will require modifications at the silicon
andplatformlevel–youcan’tsimplyupgradeexistingEthernet
designstoNBase-T,despiteusingthesamecables.Thiswilltake
some time,and Peter could only anticipate that
the time frame would be ‘soonish’before more
affordable options start appearing. Damn!
Inthemeantime,however,Asushaslaunched
its XG-U2008 switch with two 10GbE ports,
which currently costs around $250 US (£204).
That price isn’t bad when you consider that
other 10GbE switches cost north of $800 US. You can use up to
55m of CAT6 cabling with this setup too, which might be a
limitation for large businesses, but it’s fine for the home.
ThereallimitationisthatAsusdoesn’tcurrentlysellany10GbE
PCI-Eadaptorcardstogowithit!You’llhavetobuyasuper-high-
end LGA2011-3/X99 motherboard with integrated 10GbE
support, or, a Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly with an Asus
ROG10Gcard.WhyAsuscan’tsellthatswitchandapairofthose
ROG10Gcardstogetherasaneasy-upgradepackageisanyone’s
guess.The result is a high cost – you’re looking at spending well
overdoublethecostoftheswitchfortwoextra10GbEPCI-Ecards
oranewmotherboard.Ouch!Let’shope2017bringsnew802.3bz
chips and better prices.
@Bindibadgi
 OPINION
T R ACY K I N G / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS
PERFORMING RIGHTS
Video game performers should have the same working rights
as movie stars, argues Tracy King
W
hile various people are still trying to figure out if
video games are art,a subset of the gaming industry
is battling with one of the most significant concepts
in the arts: unions. Voice acting, motion capture and stunts
are now normal parts of game development, but the
compensations and safety requirements for the industry lag
decades behind film.
Broadly,unions exist to negotiate better conditions and pay
for members. In Hollywood, unions have so much power that
a strike can significantly affect the quality of a production
(Battlestar Galactica season three, anyone?) or close it down.
Film and TV production has long been in thrall to union power
– for good and bad – but because video games
are comparatively new, the majority of the
industry has managed to avoid unionisation. In October, SAG-AFTRA
SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild and the
American Federation of Television and Radio members picketed in
Artists), claims only 20 per cent of video game front of EA’s offices
voice and performance capture artists have
union representation, which has resulted in
poor monetary compensation, exploitation and even injury.
So the union called a strike. In late October 2016, SAG-AFTRA
members picketed in front of EA Games’ offices after nearly
two years of pay and safety negotiations failed.
The strike affected some of the biggest publishers, not just
EA.Insomniac,Disney,ActivisionandTake2Interactiveamong
others all ended up on the receiving end of the industrial
action, with SAG-AFTRA claiming performers have fewer
rights in video game performances than in equivalent TV or
film roles.
For example, when offered a film or TV role, a performer is
given a full account of the production and can make choices
about a role based on the entire script, story and genre. In
Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stories surrounding tech and gaming
12
games,it’s claimed,this information is routinely withheld,so
people find their performances ending up in games in which
they would not have wished to appear.
Another issue is compensation. In film and TV, you get a
‘performance bonus’ if the show is a hit. The more people it
reaches,or the more it’s broadcast,the more your performance
is worth. It’s argued that your performance is a contributing
factor to the success of the project.As it’s impossible to predict
a hit in advance,unions have historically negotiated scenarios
in which a performance bonus is hypothetically payable. In
video games, this scenario is currently ‘never’ – it would be
pretty depressing to find your voice suddenly in front of
millionsofpeopleinsteadofthethousandsyou
thought you were paid for.
The most famous example of this problem
is Jason Paige, who accepted a few hundred
dollars to sing the theme tune to one of several
imported animes. One of those animes was a
small show called Pokémon, and suddenly
Paige’s voice was a part of the biggest brand on
the globe. Toys that played the theme song when squeezed,
worldwide distribution of the show, a brand worth billions –
Paige couldn’t have predicted these outcomes when he took
the job, and he eventually sued and was compensated an
amount more in line with the size of the role.
SAG-AFTRA wants additional payouts if and when game
sales reach two million copies. It’s hard to find that demand
unreasonable, but publishers and developers are standing
firm. Not, I predict, for long, as the budgets of AAA games are
increasinglyexceedingthoseofmovies.Whetherunionaction
is the solution,or simple consumer pressure,eventually major
publishers will have to agree to rights for performers that are
standard elsewhere, or fail to attract the best talent.
@tkingdot
 CO M I N G S O O N / NEWS

Incoming
We take a look at the latest newly announced products
RazersnapsupTHX
Enthusiast peripheral maker Razer has just bought the majority of
assets of audio specialist THX, with Razer claiming to have brought all
of THX’s management and employees on board. The THX badge is
generally used as a
quality approval
system to denote
CoolerMasterunveils that a piece of
transparentkeyboard audio equipment
meets a certain
Cooler Master has launched a new ‘Crystal’ version of its acclaimed standard, and
MasterKeys Pro L keyboard, with a completely transparent shell. was originally
There isn’t even any printing on the keycaps – the whole unit is introduced by
designed to let through as much light from the RGB LEDs as possible. George Lucas in
Naturally, the lighting is customisable on a per-key basis, with a 1983, taking its
spectrum of 16.7 million colours, as well as programmable effects, name from his early
including breathing and some responsive effects. sci-fi film THX-1138. According to Razer, ‘THX will operate as an
The MasterKeys Pro L and S have sat on our Elite list for a good few independent startup under its own management and apart from the
months now, but we’re not sure if we’re ready to give up our printed ongoing business of its parent company. Further to the point, the
keycaps quite yet. The MasterKeys Pro Crystal Edition is available to audio technology business will have discretion to seek agreements
buy now from www.cmstore.eu for €179.95 (around £162) inc VAT, with other product makers, service providers and financial partners
with a choice of Cherry MX Brown, Blue and Red switches. apart from Razer’.

NvidiareleasesGeForceGTX1050and1050Ti
Nvidia’s current crop of Pascal cards have all leaned towards the pricey end of the scale,
including the GTX 1060, but the company has just fleshed out the Pascal lineup with two new
cheaper GPUs.
First off is the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, which has two graphics processing clusters
(GPCs) giving you six streaming multiprocessors, split into 768 stream
processors. As standard, cards will come with 4GB of GDDR5 memory
clocked at 3504MHz (7GHz effective), connected to a 128-bit wide
memory interface. Meanwhile, at stock speed, the GPU is
clocked at 1290MHz, with a boost frequency of 1392MHz.
According to Nvidia, GTX 1050 Ti cards have a thermal
design power (TDP) of just 75W, and don’t require
any separate power connectors, getting all their
power from the PCI-E slot.
At the cheaper end of the scale is the vanilla
GTX 1050, which just has five streaming
multiprocessors, giving you 640 stream
processors. As standard, GTX 1050 cards will
also only have 2GB of GDDR5 memory,
although it will run at the same 3504MHz
frequency as the GTX 1050 Ti memory, via the same 128-
bit wide interface. GTX 1050 cards will also have higher clock
speeds, with a stock 1354MHz base clock and a 1455MHz boost
clock. Unlike some of the higher-end Pascal chips, there will be no
reference ‘Founders Edition’ available, with cards only coming from third-
party board partners. Look out for a full review in the next issue of Custom PC.

14
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!

Please send us your feedback and correspondence to
letters@custompcmag.org.uk
4K on a budget
I’ve been building my own PCs for
around ten years, and I’ve been a
CPC reader for most of that time,
finding your mag helpful,
interesting and for the most part
unbiased. Like most gamers, I would
love to build a PC with a couple of
Titan X cards powering the
graphics, but I live in the real world
and have to be content with more
affordable hardware.
I therefore keenly follow new
developments in the mid-range
graphics card sector, and I’m
wondering if you’ve missed a trick
in your recent roundup in Issue 159.
I accept that cards such as the GTX
1060 and the RX470/480 are aimed
at 1080p and 2,560 x 1,440 gaming,
but what if I’m greedy and I want to
reach for 4K gaming on a budget?
I think there’s a good chance that
a pair of mid-range cards could
crack 4K gaming, and I’d love you to
challenge some manufacturers to
try. Give them a budget of £1,200
and ask them to come up with a 4K
gaming machine featuring twin
graphics cards.
As a single card, the GTX 1060
grabs the crown for best
performance and value, but unless
things have changed recently,
Nvidia hasn’t provided SLI support
for this range of cards. You’d need
to invest in a pair of GTX 1070s for
them to work in SLI, and that would
make a huge dent in a £1,200
budget for building a new PC.
The AMD Radeon cards, on the
other hand, come with CrossFire
support, so there are several
pairing choices available for
building a twin-card machine
within a £1200 budget.
I’m not a Radeon fangirl – I
currently have an Nvidia card, but
I’m getting frustrated with the
latter company’s apparent view
16
F E E D B AC K
Letters
multi-GPU configurations to
find the best value 4K setup.
There was a time when a
pair of Radeon R9 280 cards
could manage it, and we
later recommended a pair
of GTX 970 cards.
You’re right to say that the
GTX 1060 currently doesn’t
have SLI support.
Nvidia has shaken up its
SLI strategy recently – you can’t
Could a pair of that it has no real competition any officially run more than two Pascal
Radeon RX480 more and can get away with cards in SLI configuration either.
provide a
budget route to
charging whatever it wants for Perhaps a pair of Radeon RX480
4K gaming? new hardware. I’d like to see AMD cards could do it – we’ll aim to find out.
stealing back some sales, and if 4K
gaming on a budget is a realistic
way to do it, let’s make it happen! On the VRAMpage
NICOLA CHAPMAN Broadly, I would agree with the
sentiment expressed in your
Ben: I love this idea, Nicola – you could editorial about excessive amounts
be onto something here. Over the past of graphics card RAM, especially as
couple of years, we’ve tested various I’m the owner of a Radeon R9 390
PEDANTS’ PARADISE
G-Sync or FreeSync
Thank you for a great magazine. I’ve been subscribing
for years. There’s always something new and exciting to
read – love it. In Issue 157, on p26, you reviewed a 27in
ViewSonic monitor with FreeSync, and then on the Elite
pages you had a new favourite 27in 4K monitor from
ViewSonic (listed as being from Issue 157, p26), but it was
described as G-Sync monitor.
I checked back immediately, in case I’d missed something, and was ready to get out my
credit card out to order a 4K IPS monitor with G-Sync for only £480, but no, on p27 it clearly
says FreeSync! I thought‘okay, it’s a simple typing mistake missed in proofreading’. But
today I got my copy of Issue 158, and guess what monitor is on p74 in the Elite list? Yes, the
ViewSonic XG2700-4K, and it’s still marked as a G-Sync monitor. Now, can I please, please
buy a ViewSonic 4K IPS panel with G-Sync from you or somewhere else for £480? Please let
me know.
TARMO KAPPA
Ben: Yes, I spotted that one just before Issue 159 went to press – it’s fixed now. Your letter does
bring up the extreme pricing difference between FreeSync and G-Sync gear though. A 4K IPS
G-Sync monitor of that quality for under £500 would be fantastic.
I think there’s a good
chance that a pair of Twitter highlights
mid-range graphics Follow us on Twitter at @CustomPCmag
cards could crack 4K ImCinderz Any news the next issue, which will be with more powerful CPUs.

gaming on another mince pie

More VRAM can be useful if you play heavily
modded games with high-res textures
test this Xmas edition?
kiddser Mince pies in
the shops! December’s
issue just dropped but no
mega test! Aldi’s All Butter
were yum, would love your
opinion?
Ben: I know, I know, and there
are no mince pies in this issue
either. We had to delay the
pie test this year, as Paul
Goodhead (who used to write
Custom Kit and organise the
pie test) has just left Dennis
Publishing, and we had to
sort out a replacement.
Anyway, you’ll be glad to
know that there will be pies in
on sale on 8 December, with
subscribers getting it a few
days beforehand. Hopefully
that won’t be too late for you!
mike_overthere AM4 -
you think it’s big, you
forgot X99 – that’s
monstrous. You can bend
back the pins on an AMD chip.
LGA, on the other hand –
good luck with that (bin it).
Ben: Yep, the LGA2011-v3
socket used on X99
motherboards is big and has
many more pins than the
new AM4 socket, but AM4 is
substantially bigger than
AMD’s previous sockets –
hopefully that will equate
You bring up a good point
about LGA sockets too. I think
one of Intel’s reasons for
going down the LGA route
was possibly to shift
responsibility for returns.
If a CPU pin gets bent or
knocked off in shipping, it
gets sent back to the CPU
manufacturer, but LGA
effectively removes this
problem for Intel – instead,
any bent or damaged pins
end up with returned
motherboards.
It’s bad for us (and
motherboard makers), but it
makes sense for Intel – I’m
surprised AMD hasn’t
followed suit yet.

8GB. That said, I bought the card for

one reason only, which was that my
GeForce GTX 660 2GB was no
longer cutting it in my excessively
modded Skyrim install.
Running Skyrim Performance
Monitor, I can actually push the
VRAM use beyond 5GB. I’ve even
pushed 6GB at one point, although
that’s about as far as I can go. I did
try to add more 4K textures, but I
just got the ‘black face’bug, even at
the start.
As a bonus, however, my card
plays The Witcher 3 on Ultra
settings at 1080p, running at 60fps
for the most part, even when I
partially modded it with better
textures and so on.
PRAXIS22
Ben: Yes, as I found in my VRAM
testing in Issue 159, there are
definitely scenarios where a graphics
card can use large amounts of VRAM,
even at 1080p and 2,560 x 1,440 –
excessively modded games with high-
res textures are a great example of an
area that can benefit from plenty of
graphics memory.
Scan’s G-Sync- Ben: That’s absolutely not a silly
enabled 3XS question, Kevin – there’s a fair bit of
LG15 Vengeance
gaming laptop
confusion about active sync tech and
which hardware you need at either end.
G-Sync needs both Nvidia GPU
hardware and in the monitor. Nvidia’s
new GPUs all support G-Sync, but it
won’t work unless you plug your card
into a G-Sync monitor – the monitor
needs to know what it’s supposed to
do with the signal in order to
synchronise the frame rate with
the refresh rate, and a standard
monitor won’t do that. You can
think of the GPU card in a G-Sync laptop
For the most part, though, I still think the same way as an Nvidia graphics
8GB of memory is excessive on a card card– the laptop has the hardware to
that’s only designed to be running enable G-Sync on its own monitor, but it
games at up to 2,560 x 1,440. won’t be able to transfer its G-Sync
abilities to a non-G-Sync screen – it
would function as a standard screen
The missing sync with a fixed refresh rate instead.
I was kind of curious how a G-Sync
laptop would work when you plug
it into a non-G-Sync monitor? It
may be a silly question, but I hope
WHEN’STHENEXTMAGCOMINGOUT?
Issue 161 of Custom PC will be on sale on
you’ll indulge me. Yours, a long-
Thursday, 8 December, with subscribers
standing subscriber.
receiving it a few days beforehand.
KEVIN SANDS

Send your feedback and correspondence to letters@custompcmag.org.uk

17
 Reviews
Our in-depth analysis of the latest PC hardware

Contents
HyperX Cloud Stinger p19 / Samsung SSD 960 Pro 512GB and 2TB p20/
In Win 509 p22 / BitFenix Aurora p24/ GeIL Evo X p26/Nanoxia Ncore Retro p27/
Noblechairs EPIC Real Leather Gaming Chair p30 /Custom kit p32

18
GAMING HEADSET

HyperX Cloud Stinger/£50 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk / MODEL NUMBER HX-HSCS-BK/EM

ith so many manufacturers on the gaming

W headset scene now, there’s a huge amount of
choice, especially as most of the big players have
considerably upped their game. Nevertheless, HyperX has
consistently wowed us with the superb sound quality of
its Cloud and Cloud II headsets, which also offer great
value, and HyperX has just added another gaming
headset to its bow recently
too. This time it comes in
the form of the Cloud
Stinger – a £50 headset
that undercuts much of the
competition, but still packs a punch.
In this league, Corsair’s Void Stereo is certainly a
competitor, though, retailing for an identical price. Like the
Cloud Stinger, the Void Stereo also uses 3.5mm jacks rather
than a USB connection, with a 4-pole jack, plus a 1.5m
extension cable that splits into microphone and headphone The bass doesn’t drown out mid-range and high-end
jacks for PC users. The extension is frequencies either – guitar riffs and vocals were still
especially useful, as the 1.3m cable fixed reproduced well when listening to music. It isn’t perfect for
The big surprise to the headset isn’t quite long enough for mid-range and treble frequencies, though, and the balance
kicking back in your PC chair and watching is definitely more towards bass – we’ve heard slightly
is the sound video on your PC. clearer, more defined audio from pricier headsets. For the

quality from the Again, like the Corsair Void Stereo, the
Cloud Stinger has rotating earcups that not
money, the audio is surprisingly good.

50mm drivers only adjust to your head, but can also turn
90 degrees to allow for easier storage. As
a result, the Stinger’s box measures less
than 7cm thick, making us wonder if there was actually a
headset inside it.
The Cloud Stinger feels noticeably lighter than the Corsair
headset too, although the latter’s soft padding means that
it’s still pleasant to use for long periods.
On the plus side, the Stinger headset has slightly more
room for adjustment in terms of dealing with larger heads.
However, while both headsets use circumaural padded ear
cushions, the ones on the Corsair headset are slightly wider,
providing more comfort for larger ears. HyperX has also
opted for a faux leather coating, which looks good, although
Corsair has instead used breathable fabric, which may end
up making you less sweaty on hot days. Generally, the Cloud
Stinger is really comfortable to wear though.
The Corsair headset also has a dedicated microphone
Conclusion
With a price of just £50, the Cloud Stinger exchanges blows
with the Corsair Void Stereo. The latter’s larger earcups can
be more comfortable, but it’s heavier and less adjustable
than the Stinger, which also offers great audio quality for
the money. Really, the only headset that offers a clear lead
over the Cloud Stinger in this price league is HyperX’s own
original Cloud, which can now be bought for just £52 inc VAT
from www.scan.co.uk. It’s larger than the Stinger, but offers
more balanced audio and is slightly more comfortable to
wear. As such, the Cloud Stinger falls short of earning an
award, but it could be a very competitive value headset if
the price drops.
ANTONY LEATHER
SOUND DESIGN
OVERALL SCORE

mute button, while the Cloud Stinger simply requires the
/SPECIFICATIONS
Cup type Circumaural
Connection 3.5mm jacks
Drivers 50mm
Frequency response
50Hz-18KHz
Impedance Not stated
84%
adjustable fixed boom to be rotated upwards to cut 34/40 25/30
off the microphone. The sound quality from the VALUE
Stinger’s mic is generally good too, although there
was a little distortion at higher volumes and some
25/30
noticeable background noise in recordings. VERDICT
The big surprise, though, is the sound quality Decent audio, great bass and a comfortable design,
from the 50mm drivers. The bass is extremely although HyperX’s original Cloud is superior and only
strong and detailed, so anyone who prefers music slightly more expensive now.
with punchy bass lines will be served well, and this
strong bass means the Stinger excels in games too.

19
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

S O L I D STAT E D R I V E S

Samsung SSD 960 Pro 512GB and 2TB/

£306 incVAT(512GB); £1,178 incVAT(2TB)
SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk

ast month we took an in-depth look

L at Samsung’s new 960 Pro SSDs,
and now we’ve got hold of some
samples, so we can deliver our definitive
verdict. To recap, the 960 Pro drives
replace last year’s ridiculously fast 950
Pro drives, and share many of the
same features. They use the M.2 form
factor, PCI-E bus and NVMe standard
and are based on MLC rather than TLC,
so they have high sustained write speeds
and longevity.
Samsung builds on this spec with a new
controller (the 5-core Polaris) and new
48-layer 3D-VNAND (up from 32-layer) to
create what is, on paper, the fastest consumer
SSD you can buy. While SATA SSDs max out at
just over 500MB/sec, and the 950 Pro hits
2,500MB/sec read and 1,500MB/sec write, the of the drive except a sticker containing a thin layer of copper
960 Pro stretches to 3,500MB/sec read and 2,100MB/sec to help dissipate heat. The drives drop in speed by 5-10 per
write. These sequential read and write speeds are joined by cent with sustained use due to some thermal throttling, and
a big leap in random performance too. Samsung claims the sticker helps to increase the time this
The 950 Pro manages 300K IOPS read takes to kick in from 63 seconds to 95 seconds.
Onthereverseof and 110K IOPS write, while the 960 Pro
leaps to 440K IOPS read and 360K Performance
thedriveisasticker IOPS write. As for performance, these drives live up to Samsung’s

containingathin Joining the increased speed is

increased capacity. The 950 Pro was
layerofcopper limited to just 512GB but the 960 Pro
stretches all the way to 2TB, while 256GB
is no longer an option. Plus, you still get a
five-year warranty and the 960 Pro drives are rated to write
up to a total of 1.2PB – that’s 1.1TB of new data written
everyday for three years.
Other features include 256-bit AES encryption with TCG/
Opal support, and the accompanying Samsung Magician
software lets you easily upgrade firmware and check the
drive’s health. It will also let you secure erase the whole
drive or just individual files, and you can portion off a section
of the drive to be completely password-protected and
hidden from your OS.
You get four NAND packages on each drive alongside
the controller, with the drive’s DRAM stacked on top of the
controller to fit it on the drive. There’s nothing on the reverse
claims. Starting with synthetic benchmarks,
CrystalDiskMark showed those sequential read and write
speeds are accurate. The write speed reported is lower than
expected but, according to Samsung, that’s a result of
delays written into the benchmark – the drive is too fast for
the benchmark to keep up.
In the random read and write tests at a (Q32 4T), the
drives really show their capabilities. The read speed makes
a modest but noticeable jump from the 950 Pro while the
write speed leaps from 333MB/sec to 1,400MB/sec.
AS SSD is a more demanding test, so results don’t match
Samsung’s maximum numbers, but there’s still a clear
increase of 30 per cent in both read and write performance
from the 950 Pro to the 960 Pro. For random performance,
the trend set in CrystalDiskMark continues with a huge leap
in random write speed.
Iometer shows the claimed IOPS figures are well founded
too. The 2TB drive hits a colossal 491,967 IOPS read and
358,168 IOPS write, while the 512GB drive managed
335,732 IOPS read and 358,115 IOPS write. That compares
to 309,611 IOPS read and just 102,672 IOPS write for
Samsung’s older 950 Pro.
Moving on to more real-world benchmarks, though,
and the picture is different. We fired up the PCMark 7 and
PCMark 8 storage benchmarks, which run access traces of
real apps to test the effect of faster storage, and found there

20
 HOWWETEST
PAGE36

were just a couple of test scenarios where these drives had
any significant effect.
Compared with the 256GB 950 Pro, there was a 20 per
cent speed boost in PCMark 7’s Import Pictures test, and 50
per cent in the Start Apps test, but hardly any difference
compared to the 512GB 950 Pro. Also, there was almost no
difference shown in the other tests compared to either drive
– fast SSDs offer diminishing returns in most real-world use.
This trend continued in PCMark 8, where none of the
tests other than raw bandwidth showed any difference
between all the drives on test. Further driving the point
home, the Bootracer Windows boot time test showed next
to no difference. We also tested some game load times and
found you could save a few seconds, but we’re only talking
about a drop from around 15 seconds on a SATA drive to
around ten seconds on the 960 Pro.
Conclusion
The Samsung 960 Pro drives are astonishingly fast,
reasonably priced, and the five-year warranty and long
endurance makes them well suited to critical applications.
However, the lack of a cheap 256GB option makes the price
of entry very high. If you want the fastest 512GB SSD you can
buy then the 960 Pro 512GB is the drive for you, and if you
have the money and want loads of solid state storage space,
the 2TB drive might be very expensive, but its price per
gigabyte is lower than that of the smaller drive. However,
while the synthetic benchmark speeds are great, these
drives are overkill for most home users. The upcoming
TLC-based 960 Evo drives are likely to be better suited for
gaming and home PCs, netting you much of the same raw
speed, but with double the capacity for the same money.
EDWARD CHESTER

C R YS T ALDI S KMA R K P CM A R K 7
Sequential read and write 32-queue depth T1 (MB/sec) Import pictures (MB/sec)

Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 1,933 3,469 Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 35.3

Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 2,007 3,566 Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 35.4

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 1,531 2,600 Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 34.6

Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 532

fps 563 Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 30.7
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 0 10 20 30 40
Random read and write 32-queue depth T4 (MB/sec) Start apps (MB/sec)

Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 1,289 1,861 Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 94.6
100

Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 1,376 1,401 Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 91.1

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 334 1,139 Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 90.9

Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 362 404 Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 66.1

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 0 25 50 75 100

AS S S D P CM A R K 8
Sequential read and write (MB/sec) Bandwidth (MB/sec)

1,871 2,520 Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 522.5

Samsung 960 Pro 2TB
1,893 2,601 Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 501.6
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB
1,425 2,020 Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 323.2
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 302.3
0 750 1,500 2,250 3,000
Random read and write (MB/sec)
0 150 300 450 600
BOOTRACER (seconds)
Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 36.6 153.5
Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 13.86 18.87
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 37.2 151.6
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 13.76 17.51
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 34.1 144.8
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 13.89 17.5
0 40 80 120 160
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 13.48 19.9
Random read and write 64-queue-depth 4KB (MB/sec)
0 5 10 15 20
Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 1,204 2,113 Fast boot Cold boot Lower is better
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 1,255 1,293
IO M ET ER ( IO P S )
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 379 1,135 4KB random read, 32-queue-depth 4T

0 550 1,100 1,650 2,200 Samsung 960 Pro 2TB 491,967

Read Write Samsung 960 Pro 512GB 335,732

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 309,611

0 125,000 250,000 375,000 500,000

SA M S U N G S S D 9 6 0 P R O 5 1 2 G B SA M S U N G S S D 9 6 0 P R O 2 T B VERDICT
SPEED £/GB SPEED £/GB Samsung rewrites the
OVERALL SCORE OVERALL SCORE

88% 88%
50/50 13/20 50/50 13/20 rulebook for synthetic SSD
speed, but most home
BANG/BUCK BANG/BUCK
users currently won’t see
25/30 25/30 much of a benefit.

21
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

AT X C A S E

In Win 509/£150 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk

n Win’s glass-clad 900-series cases are among

I the most attractive PC cases available, but they
also demand a premium thanks to their aluminium
construction and copious use of glass panels. Thankfully,
the glass isn’t just limited to the super-premium 900-series
cases any more, though, as the excellent 805 and now the
509 also sport some glassware.
The 509 retails for £150, which is the same price as the
904 – the company’s smallest ATX-compatible 900-series
case – and costs a little more than the 805 too. These
prices seem a little odd, given that we’re talking about a
500-series case, which should be cheaper, but the number
nine at the end denotes that the 509 is a premium case
nonetheless, and one that’s very
flexible too, unlike most of the
The 509’s edge- 900-series cases.
The 509 looks fantastic, with an
to-edge tempered edge-to-edge tempered glass side

glass side panel panel and glass front section too,

although the latter only stretches
looks fantastic three-quarters of the way up the
front panel. It’s fairly reflective, which
makes it hard to photograph, but it
looks decidedly elegant when it’s sitting on your desk.
Whether the appearance is hindered by the inclusion of a
5.25in bay is down to your own personal tastes, but it’s good
to have the option, not just for an optical drive but also for a
reservoir or fan controller.
The front panel has a large vent down each side to
prevent the innards from being starved of air, and it’s
complemented by a large hexagonal grill in the far side
panel, which is made from steel. There are no roof vents,
but the 509 has excellent water-cooling potential, which
we’ll discuss in a moment.
The front panel connectors are fairly
/SPECIFICATIONS standard, with four USB 3 ports and
Dimensions (mm) 235 x 578 x 527 audio jacks – the case doesn’t have
(W x D x H) any fan controllers, though, which
Material Steel, tempered glass, plastic you’d expect from a SilverStone or
Available colours Black, or black and NZXT case at this price. There are two
red (ROG version)
colour options – a black variant with
Weight 14kg
Front panel Power, reset, 4 x USB 3,
grey details and an Asus ROG-themed
stereo, mic model, with red details. There’s also an
Drive bays 1 x external 5.25in, 5 x RGB LED illuminating the In Win logo at
3.5in/2.5in, 4 x 2.5in
the front, which is compatible with the
Form factor(s) E-ATX, ATX, micro-ATX
4-pin RGB headers on motherboards
Cooling 2 x 140mm or 3 x 120mm front
fan mounts (fans not included), 3 x and lighting controllers.
120mm side fan mounts (fans not The 509 supports up to E-ATX
included), 2 x 140mm or 3 x 120mm
internal fan mounts (fans not included),
motherboards, so it will have no
1 x 140mm/120mm rear fan mount problem swallowing an Asus
(fans not included), 1 x 140mm/120mm Rampage V Edition 10, and there’s
bottom fan mount (fan not included)
CPU cooler clearance 188mm
370mm of clearance for graphics
Maximum graphics card length 370mm cards too, with additional supports
provided to cater for hefty water-
cooled cards. If you prefer air cooling then there’s a
generous 188mm of CPU cooler clearance too.
In terms of cooling, the room behind the front panel can
be used to either house up to three 120mm fans or a pair of
140mm fans, and there’s a huge amount of space behind
the mounts, with enough room for a 60mm-thick radiator
with two rows of fans. You can also mount a triple 120mm
fan radiator in the three side fan mounts, which additionally
comprise 2.5in mounts (each 2.5in mount has holes for a
120mm fan too), with a fourth 2.5in mount sitting behind the
glass side panel – the latter straddles the front panel and an
internal support beam.
The grey beam mirrors the front panel fan mounts, so
you could also fit a radiator to it, although the additional
fan mounts also make useful mounting locations for the
latest reservoirs and pumps, which use fan mounts for
easier installation. It all adds up to a case that’s very easy
case to water-cool, even if it lacks roof mounts – a pair of
high-end graphics cards and an overclocked CPU would be
no problem.
As well as all the 2.5in mounts, there are also five 3.5in
tool-free trays – two in the roof and three in a removable
cage at the bottom of the case. If you have two or fewer hard
disks, we’d advise mounting them in the roof, so you can
remove the lower drive cage to reduce airflow restriction.
As you’d expect, there are also removable dust filters in
the bottom and front sections, although you need to remove
the front panel to get at the latter. Doing so also gives you
unfettered access to the front fan mounts. Sadly, though,
the case comes with no fans out of the box, so you’ll need to
either add some of your own fans or buy some new ones. In
Win has basically left the choice of cooling arrangement up

22
 1 2 3
There’s enough There’s 370mm The grey beam
room in the front of clearance for mirrors the front
for a 60mm-thick graphics cards, with panel fan mounts,
radiator with two additional supports so you could also fit
rows of fans for hefty cards a radiator to it

2
system, which had a massive impact on the cooling,
dropping the CPU delta T by 13°C and the GPU delta T by
12°C. These results even saw the 509 become a match for
Corsair’s Carbide 600C, so the 509 should even perform
well as an air-cooled case.

to you, presumably thinking that you’d want to use your own
premium fans anyway, but it’s still disappointing not to see
any fans at all included.
Performance
With no fans in the case, cooling was never going to be
brilliant out of the box, but the 509 has been designed with
water cooling in mind anyway. It wasn’t a surprise, then, to
see similar results to those of the fanless 909, with CPU and
GPU delta Ts of 76°C and 65°C respectively. We fished out a
pair of 120mm fans to gauge a half-decent air-cooled
Conclusion
The lack of fans is a tad disappointing, given that you’d at
least want a rear exhaust fan if you were water-cooling your
system. Just one fan would have helped the out-of-the-box
cooling, but equally, we can understand In Win’s reasoning,
considering that the case is mainly aimed at water-cooling
enthusiasts. The rest of the case is well thought-out, with
plenty of storage and cable-tidying options. The price,
though, is still a little steep, despite the tempered glass. The
509 is a great-looking case with excellent water-cooling
potential, but it’s also overpriced for what’s on offer.
ANTONY LEATHER

C PU LOAD DELT A T GP U L O A D D EL T A T
In Win 509 (no fans) 76 fps
76°C In Win 509 (no fans) 65°C
In Win 509 In Win 509
(2 x 120mm fans) 58°C 53°C
(2 x 120mm fans)
In Win 909 (no fans) 76 fps
75°C In Win 909 (no fans) 63°C
In Win 909 In Win 909
(2 x 120mm fans) 61°C 53°C
(2 x 120mm fans)
Corsair Carbide 600C 54°C Corsair Carbide 600C 51°C
(max speed) (max speed)
Corsair Carbide 600C 58°C Corsair Carbide 600C 53°C
(min speed) (min speed)
NZXT H440 2015 Edition 53°C NZXT H440 2015 Edition 51°C

0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
Lower is better Lower is better

COOLING FEATURES
OVERALL SCORE

81%
20/30 18/20 VERDICT
A great-looking case with most of the modern
DESIGN VALUE creature comforts, although it’s overpriced and no
27/30 16/20 fans are included as standard.

23
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

AT X C A S E

BitFenix Aurora/£87 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk / MODEL NUMBER BFC-ARA-300-KKWSK-RP

ith aesthetics being a hot topic in the PC case

W industry at the moment, one manufacturer that’s
been curiously quiet on the subject is BitFenix.
The maker of the popular Prodigy mini-ITX case and water-
cooling-friendly Aegis now has a fairly dated line-up that
lacks many of the recent fancy features we’ve seen with the
latest cases. However, the Aurora looks set to combine the
company’s value-conscious approach with some much-
needed aesthetic tweaks.
That said, the Aurora’s price of nearly £90 isn’t cheap,
especially as the similar-looking Aegis, albeit limited to
micro-ATX motherboards, is £10 cheaper. SilverStone’s
much more potent Primera PM01 is roughly the same price
too, but the Aurora sports a couple of
trump cards.
There’s room for Firstly, its side panels are made
from tempered glass. The main side
double 140mm-fan panel is smoked, giving a toned-down

radiators in the view of the interior that can be livened

up using LEDs. Meanwhile, the far side
front and roof panel is still made from glass but is
completely blacked out, hiding
unsightly cables, while still adding
some tempered-glass wow factor from this side.
The panels are held on by large thumbscrews, and
they look fantastic, with a high gloss sheen and attractive
bevelled edges. In fact, we’d even go as far as saying they’re
the best-looking glass panels we’ve seen on a case. The
other addition is lighting. The Aurora features a Molex-
powered 4-pin RGB LED header behind the motherboard
tray, which can be hooked up to most RGB controllers,
including Asus’ Aura-compatible motherboards.
The SSD mount next to the motherboard is connected to
it, with its own built-in RGB LEDs. The effect looks good,
although it looks a little lost on its own. Thankfully, if you buy
the case from Overclockers UK, you get an extra RGB LED
strip too. That’s great news – without
it, the default RGB lighting capability is
/SPECIFICATIONS a little wasted on just illuminating a
Dimensions (mm) 215 x 520 x 490 tiny SSD mount.
(W x D x H) The case is otherwise fairly basic,
Material Steel, plastic, glass and there’s a little conflict between
Available colours Black, white the luscious glass side panels and a
Weight 11kg case that looks like it would otherwise
Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, 2 x cost £60. However, while the front
USB 2, stereo, mic, lighting
and rear sections look a little basic
Drive bays 3 x 2.5in, 4 x 3.5in
in the photos, they’re quite attractive
Form factor(s) E-ATX, ATX, micro-ATX
in the flesh, and they also allow for
Cooling 2 x 120mm/140mm front fan
mounts (fans not included), 1 x 120mm reasonable airflow, although they
rear fan mount (120m fan included), 2 x aren’t as porous as a straight
120mm/140mm roof fan mounts (fans
not included)
mesh panel.
CPU cooler clearance 160mm
Another reason the price might
Maximum graphics card length 400mm seem a little steep at nearly £90,
however, is the fact that the case only
includes one 120mm fan. Out-of-the-box cooling,
therefore, isn’t likely to be stellar, especially as the front and
roof air vents are partially restricted. On the plus side, the
PSU has a removable dust filter, although the front of the
case requires the front panel to be prised off to get at a fixed
filter underneath it, which also gives you easy access to the
fan mounts.
The Aurora has excellent water-cooling support, though,
with room for double 140mm-fan radiators in the front and
roof, while the front section has space for a 60mm-thick
radiator and fans if you remove the two drive cages.
The case also includes reservoir adaptor in the box, which
enables you to mount a reservoir in either of the double fan
mounts. Your options are a little limited for air cooling,
however – there’s only 160mm clearance for CPU coolers,
which rules out many larger models.
On the plus side, there’s room for an E-ATX motherboard,
and there’s also a large CPU area cut-out and a trio of
decent-sized cable-routing holes.
There’s room for plenty of drives too, with four 3.5in
mounts – two in the roof and another pair in the base, both
in removable cages.
There are three 2.5in mounts for SSDs as well – two
behind the motherboard tray and the so-called SSD Chroma
mount next to the motherboard, which offers the RGB
lighting. There are no 5.25in mounts, though, so you won’t
be able to install an optical drive or a drive bay reservoir,
although this does mean you get plenty of space for water-
cooling gear.
Meanwhile, the front panel is located on the top of the
case, and offers a pair each of USB 2 and USB 3 ports, a
control button for the lighting, plus the usual buttons and
audio jacks.

24
 HOWWETEST
PAGE36

1 2 3
One of the SSD Only one fan There’s a large
mounts has RGB is included as CPU area cut-out,
lighting, and there’s standard – a very along with a trio of
a reservoir adaptor quiet 120mm decent-sized cable-
in the box too exhaust unit routing holes

Performance as well. The gorgeous side panels really do a superb job of

The rear fan proved to be very quiet and its noise wasn’t
noticeable above the noise from our graphics card with the
system under full load, which is probably due to the partially
blanked-off front and top sections. However, with just one
quiet fan and limited vents, the airflow was mediocre, with
a decidedly average CPU delta T of 55°C, a result that’s 5°C
warmer than SilverStone’s PM01 and 3°C warmer than the
Fractal Design Define S.
The graphics card was a little starved of air too, and while
the GPU delta T of 54°C was reasonable, the SilverStone
PM01 knocked a further 4°C off this result, and both the
In Win 303 and Fractal Design Define S were cooler too.
Conclusion
The BitFenix Aurora is a solid case with reasonable
performance, and it’s great to see the water-cooling
potential and inclusion of a handy pump/reservoir mount
livening up the aesthetics and the addition of RGB lighting is
welcome, even if there’s not an awful lot of it in BitFenix’s
default configuration. We’re not entirely convinced by the
rest of the case’s default design, though, as the interior is
quite bland, even when you factor in the RGB SSD mount,
and there’s also no PSU cover. The exterior feels a little
cheap too, as do the plastic curved panels.
That said, it’s easy to work with the Aurora and it makes
it easy to install a water-cooling system. A slightly more
colourful, luscious exterior and a more premium-feeling
interior would certainly help it out, as would an extra fan.
On the plus side, the additional RGB LED strip from
Overclockers UK transforms the case into what it should
have been from the outset. Assuming you buy one of these
bundles with extra RGB lighting, the BitFenix Aurora is a
great-looking case.
ANTONY LEATHER

C PU LOAD DELT A T GP U L O A D D EL T A T
BitFenix Aurora 55°C BitFenix Aurora 54°C
SilverStone Primera SilverStone Primera
50°C PM01 50°C
PM01
In Win 303 54°C In Win 303 52°C
Fractal Design Define S 52°C Fractal Design Define S 52°C
NZXT H440 2015 NZXT H440 2015
53°C Edition 51°C
Edition
0 15 30 45 60 0 15 30 45 60
Lower is better Lower is better

COOLING FEATURES
OVERALL SCORE

83%
23/30 19/20 VERDICT
Fantastic in some areas, and reasonable in others,
DESIGN VALUE but it’s easy to work with the Aurora, and it looks
25/30 16/20 good, especially with the added RGB LED strip.

25
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

D UA L- C H A N N E L D D R 4 M E M O RY K I T

GeIL Evo X/£120 (16GB3200MHzdual-channel)

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk

DR4 memory is going to be with us for a

D good while yet, and it will definitely be
compatible with Intel’s Kaby Lake
platform due in the next few months, so
we’re seeing plenty of innovation
with the latest premium
memory kits. Not only are
clock frequencies on the up,
but we’re also seeing some
great progress in terms of
lighting and aesthetics. It’s visual
pizzazz that’s the main draw of GeIL’s
Evo X kit, though, which the company
claims to contain the world’s first RGB
memory modules.
The likes of Corsair and Avexir, as well as GeIL, have
offered illuminated memory modules for years, with
increasing boldness. In fact, we’re surprised Corsair didn’t
get to the RGB stage first, considering its obsession with the stock 3200MHz frequency, even when we increased
RGB lighting in its fans and peripherals. A standard Corsair the memory voltage to 1.45V.
Vengeance LED kit with the same
capacity and frequency as the GeIL Conclusion
A red tab on top Evo X kit here (16GB dual-channel at The GeIL Evo X kit would undoubtedly look better without
3200MHz), costs just over £100, so the unsightly red tabs, and with just a pure 4-pin RGB
of each module you’re effectively paying just under £20 connection instead, although we can also see why the
for full RGB lighting control. company wants to enable the feature on older boards
enables you to You don’t need an RGB-capable without RGB headers. Dealing with cables trailing off the

alter the colour motherboard with 4-pin LED strip

headers to use the Evo X either. A (slightly
unsightly) red tab on top of each module
enables you to alter the LED colour and
lighting effect independently, so you can even set each
module to sport a different colour. You only get a fairly
limited colour selection here, though, and you’ll need to use
a 3-pin fan header cable that splits to power the LEDs.
However, if you hook up the LEDs to a 4-pin RGB
controller, such as the controllers found on Asus’ Aura
boards, MSI’s Mystic Light boards and Gigabyte’s Ambient
LED motherboards, then you can use the motherboard
software to control the Evo X’s LEDs with a full RGB
spectrum, along with any effects the software includes.
GeIL has also included a 4-pin splitter to enable you to
connect both modules to one of these RGB headers.
Syncing the LEDs to an Asus Maximus VIII Hero Alpha
saw the lighting work well in the vast range of colours,
generally matching the board’s own RGB LEDs
accurately, with bright, vivid colours. However,
/SPECIFICATIONS yellows and greens didn’t match up too well for
memory was a new experience too, giving you more
wires to tidy, and there doesn’t seem to be any way around
that issue at the moment. Thankfully, though, routing the
4-pin cable is fairly easy, as it’s quite small, so it shouldn’t
look too unsightly.
Even so, the Evo X kit offers some great-looking memory,
and if colour-matching your components is important,
these RGB LEDs will be worth the extra £20 compared with
Corsair’s Vengeance LED kits. They’re not perfect, of course
– they don’t overclock beyond 3200MHz, and the yellows
and greens aren’t particularly convincing, but the lighting is
bright and punchy, and kudos to GeIL for being the first
company to make RGB memory available.
ANTONY LEATHER
PERFORMANCE DESIGN VALUE
23/30 23/25 37/45
OVERALL SCORE VERDICT

Frequency 3200MHz
Timings 16-16-16-36
Voltage 1.35V
Height (from base) 60mm
Lighting Yes (RGB)
83%
some reason, but matching the DIMMs to any The first RGB memory available
other colour you’ve chosen for your case is looks fantastic, although it can’t
simple, and let’s face it, there’s currently no overclock and some colours don’t
other way to do it. quite hit the nail on the head.
Overclocking didn’t prove fruitful, though,
with the memory refusing to budge further than

26

M E C H A N I C A L K E Y B OA R D
Nanoxia Ncore Retro/£90 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.quietpc.co.uk
he keyboard market is still seeing plenty of
T innovation, despite the mechanical switch
takeover being in force for nearly a decade. Corsair
regularly releases keyboards based on new switch types,
such as the Cherry MX Silent, and other manufacturers are
keen on bolstering features too. However, few peripheral
makers have been bold enough to release a radically
different physical design, until now. Nanoxia – better known
for its cases and coolant – has just launched the Ncore Retro,
and we’re lucky enough to have nabbed an early sample.
There’s none of the technical bling usually seen on
enthusiast keyboards, with Nanoxia succeeding in its aim to
make it look like a keyboard from an old manual typewriter.
The chassis itself is simple, but weighty, and it’s extremely
well made and solid – its chrome-plated edges and keycaps
look spectacular. The rubber-capped feet on the underside
also twist down to raise or lower the height, which is a great
alternative to the often flimsy flip-out plastic stands found
on other keyboards.
Of course, the main difference between this keyboard
and a standard one, in terms of everyday use, is the rounded
keys. The downside is that the keys feel very different –
there’s much less surface area on which your fingers can
land, making it easier to make mistakes at first. Thankfully,
we got used to the keys quite quickly, although it felt very
odd indeed at first. The Ncore Retro is also a mechanical
keyboard, but it uses Kaihl switches rather than Cherry ones.
Currently, only Kaihl White switches are available on the
Ncore Retro, which are Kaihl’s counterparts to the
Cherry MX White switches.
/SPECIFICATIONS
Connection Wired, USB
In terms of tactile feedback, the Kaihl White
switches feel much like typical Cherry MX Blue
Cable 1.8m, braided switches, with a noticeable click about halfway
Material Steel and plastic down when you depress a key. Both Cherry MX
Switch type Kaihl White Blue switches and Kaihl White switches have
Backlighting RGB identical actuation forces and similar travel,
Extras USB pass-through, although the click is more pronounced on Cherry
wrist rest, additional
textured keys MX Blue switches. Likewise, Cherry’s MX White
switches have less of a click too, so Kaihl has
HOWWETEST
PAGE36
followed Cherry’s lead here, although the Cherry MX White
has a slightly higher actuation force and travel.
The extra feedback from the click is welcome given the
trickiness of using the keyboard at first, helping to iron out
mistakes and making the keyboard feel pleasant to use,
although Cherry MX Blues feel a little crisper. The key caps
are removable too, but the large ridge around the switch
means they’re incompatible with Cherry keycaps. The
keyboard is largely devoid of extra features too – there are no
dedicated media controls – you just get secondary functions
of the ‘F’ keys, and no backlighting. However, it does have
anti-ghosting, n-key rollover and a 1,000Hz USB polling rate.
Conclusion
Nanoxia’s Ncore Retro manages to combine vintage chic
with decent build quality and components – it doesn’t just
look good; it’s also a decent keyboard. Fans of steampunk
or the look of old-fashioned typewriters will love it. It isn’t
cheap, though, and there are clearly keyboards better suited
to long periods of typing or gaming. Thankfully, typing is still
pleasant, despite the rounded keys, and we soon got used to
them and the Kaihl White switches. A standard mechanical
gaming keyboard will offer more features and standard-
sized keys at this price, but if you like the Ncore Retro’s look,
it’s definitely worth considering.
ANTONY LEATHER
DESIGN FEATURES VALUE
37/40 24/35 20/25
VERDICT
OVERALL SCORE
81%
Pulls off the typewriter look
with style, while offering decent
switch action, although it’s
expensive and lacking features.
27
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

GAMING CHAIR

Noblechairs EPIC Real Leather

Gaming Chair/£490 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk

hen a price tag pushing £500 gets attached to a

W chair, that chair needs to be special, which isn’t an
easy thing for a chair. That’s perhaps the biggest
problem the noblechairs EPIC Real Leather Gaming Chair
faces; just how does a gaming chair set itself above its rivals
to the point where it can demand half a grand?
The noblechairs EPIC gets off to a good start with the
simple assembly process, which uses few components,
since the arms and plates to which the back of the chair
attaches are already attached when it
arrives. There’s no joy in putting a chair
together, of course – it’s always going to
be a nuisance, but at least in this case, it’s
easy, with little risk of messing up the
assembly. This chair can comfortably be
assembled by one person too, and while
the covers for the bolts that hold the back
in place are a little fiddly to fit, they only
require some poking and hoping with a video games in great comfort for long periods of time, which
couple of screws. There are no guards is a great feat for a gaming chair to achieve, but it’s also a job
over screwholes or any really fiddly parts that’s within the capabilities of chairs costing less money.

Relaxing was so that might fall off unnoticed once

assembly is complete.
The difference is felt most in the spaces between games,
when you’re able to concentrate not on the action but the
comfortable that The chair looks good too. The black,
white and red model we reviewed has
lovely squashiness of the headrest.

it bordered on one of the more adventurous colour

schemes but it’s well implemented, with
the blissful quality stitching. If you opt for an odd
colour scheme, you can rest assured it
will look good, although the noblechairs
range includes plenty of ordinary colour
schemes as well.
In terms of comfort, once our red
velvet lumbar and headrest pillows were
attached, relaxing in the EPIC was so
comfortable that the experience
bordered on the blissful and it also gives
your back plenty of support. You can tip it
back and adjust the angle of the back rest,
allowing it come far enough forwards to
closely support you if you’re planning to sit at a desk
concentrating on a game. Alternatively, you can tilt it back far
enough that you could almost use it for dentistry – there’s so
much flexibility that anyone will be able to get it to fit their
best posture comfortably. The PU leather arm rests (which
also feature soft cushioning) adjust quickly and simply too,
Conclusion
Of course, the big question mark hanging over the
noblechairs EPIC Real Leather Gaming Chair is the price.
You have to really want that extra quality and you have to be
happy to pay around an extra £150 over the ordinary chairs
in the noblechairs range to get it – they share the same
mechanical features but have different upholstering. The
extra money may well buy you some more longevity,
though, and while the EPIC is expensive, the quality and
comfort is superb, as is the simple assembly process. If you
have the money, and you want a good-looking, easy-to-
build and very comfy place to park yourself while gaming,
the noblechairs EPIC is about as good as it gets.
PHIL HARTUP
COMFORT FEATURES VALUE
48/50 22/25 13/25
OVERALL SCORE VERDICT

82%
moving up and down, out to the sides, forwards and back. Blissfully comfortable, very
That said, while the EPIC offers blissful comfort while flexible and easy to assemble.
you’re sitting back and relaxing, that isn’t the usual posture The EPIC is a superb, but very
for playing games or working, and while the EPIC is also expensive, gaming chair.
perfectly fine for gaming, it isn’t so out of the ordinary here.
You can comfortably plant yourself in the EPIC and play

30
 www.overclockers.co.uk

AWARD WINNING PCs • 3 year warranty on all of our systems • FEATURING GTX 10 SERIES CARDS

Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor

Z170 Motherboard
Up to 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 Memory
Samsung NVMe/SSD/Seagate HDD
80+ Gold Rated PSU
GeForce GTX 1080
Custom Watercooling

Get a gaming pc to suit your budget with the new Nvidia

geforce gtx 1060, 1070 & 1080 graphics cards! Intel Inside.®
Extraordinary Performance Outside.

Titan Neutron Techlabs Chameleon Titan Bayonet Titan ForceBox VR10

available with i5 & available with i7 & available with i5/i7 & available with i3/i5 &
NVIDIA GTX 1060 GPU NVIDIA GTX 1080 GPU GTX 1060/1070/1080 GTX 1060/1070/1080

WWW.OVERCLOCKERS.CO.UK // TEL: 01782 44 44 55

Overclockers UK | Unit 5 Lymedale Cross, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 9BT
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

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

M U LT I -TO O L

TheWalletNinja18-
in-1Multi-Tool/£9 incVAT

A ninja, either inflatable or activated by adding

water, that you could carry in your wallet
would be the best item ever created. The
Wallet Ninja isn’t as exciting, being a piece of
flat metal shaped like a credit card with a
selection of simple tools built into it, and none
of these tools seem ideally suited to infiltrating
a Japanese castle or providing a career for
at-risk radioactive testudines. You get some
spanners, screwdrivers, a bottle opener, and
assorted pointy and prying bits, plus there are
no blades or serrations, so it won’t chew up
your wallet. The tools can be awkward to use,
but they’re better than no tools if you’re in a
tight spot.
MALL NINJA IGA NINJA
SUPPLIER www.firebox.co.uk

M O U S E M AT USB GADGET

CorsairMM200/£11-£27 incVAT USBCircusCannonV2/£5 incVAT

The Corsair MM200 mouse mats have varying sizes, starting with Circus cannons are the best bit of any circus, because they represent
a relatively ordinary area of 256 x 210mm and going up to a gigantic the fastest and easiest way to exit the premises, essentially acting as
900 x 300mm. They’re thin and flexible with a cloth top layer that an ejector seat that saves you from places with clowns. The USB
tracks well and provides a smooth surface, while a textured rubbery Circus Cannon V2, however, isn’t big enough to be used
gripping layer on the underside keeps them in place against the desk. to escape from clowns and if you found yourself in a
The regular sized mats offer what you’d expect from a regular-sized situation where this was necessary then,
mouse pad, albeit in a much more portable form due to their alas, too many things have already
thinness, which allows them to be rolled up. gone wrong for a simple USB
The larger pads offer the ability to upholster vast projectile shooter with
swathes of desktop real estate, creating a space annoying software and
where you can fling around your mouse with strange projectiles to
reckless abandon and not worry about save you. As desktop
accidentally running out of room – artillery pieces go, and
perfect for gamers who prefer low- bearing in mind this isn’t
sensitivity action. The MM200s a hyper-competitive
are ideal for travelling, being technological field at
light, flexible and thin, but the best of times, the
this doesn’t compromise Circus Cannon V2 is
them at all – even if your a bit of a dud.
PC never goes anywhere, TAME
they’re still very good mouse mats. LION
RAWHIDE ROLLING SUPPLIER
SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk www.scan.co.uk

32

B LU E TO OT H S P E A K E R
LavaBrightSounds
2/£40 incVAT
The Lava BrightSounds 2 is a Bluetooth
speaker that boldly goes where most
electronic equipment fears to tread –
outdoors. An IPX4 water-resistant rating
means it should survive exposure to
British weather, plus it has a carrying
handle and dimmable light, allowing it to
act as a lantern, which could be handy for
camping trips.
The audio quality is solid given the
limitations of such a small speaker; it’s very
clear if not very loud, although its battery is
easily used up over the course of an
evening.
The battery indicator glows green when
it has power or if it’s charging, without
indicating how much charge is there, right
until it’s almost empty when the light turns
red and the music stops, which is
frustrating. Otherwise, though, the
BrightSounds 2 will make a happy camping
companion if you’re only going away for a
night or two.
DULL NOISES BRIGHT SOUNDS
SUPPLIER www.lavaaccessories.co.uk
Seen something worthy of appearing in Custom Kit? Send your suggestions to
P O R TA B L E C H A R G E R
PowerWalletbySeyvr/£60 incVAT
The Power Wallet is a leather wallet suitable for credit cards (and Wallet Ninjas, naturally),
and it also contains a battery and micro-USB port so it can be used to recharge a phone.
You can store five cards in it, although there’s nowhere for folding money or other
miscellaneous bits of paper.
The wallet is reasonably sleek considering it has a 1,400mAh battery inside it, which
gives it enough capacity to mostly refill the 1,800mAh battery on an iPhone 6, or around
half of the battery capacity of an HTC 10. If you don’t need masses of extra phone charge
and you don’t fancy filling your pockets with a chunky battery pack then the Seyvr is a
good bet, but it’s limited for the asking price.
WALLET GROMMACE
SUPPLIER www.firebox.co.uk
M O U S E M AT
FellowesMemoryFoamMousePad/£11 incVAT
At first glance, the Fellows Memory Foam Mouse Pad might provoke derision in the eyes of
your inner gamer snob. It’s small, rounded and inoffensive-looking, promising neither
extremes nor performance. It’s friendly and squashy, and probably wouldn’t hurt a fly, even if
you told it the fly had called it names. However, its memory foam wrist rest makes it so comfy
to use that it’s hard to complain.
In front of this cushion, there’s the cloth surface for
the mouse itself, which is fine as a surface,
although it’s very small and not ideal if you
have big hands or a big mouse, as you can
run over the edges – it isn’t built for gaming.
The bottom of the pad is initially slightly
adhesive, but the adhesive fades if you
relocate the pad more than a couple of
times. If you’re looking for a seriously comfy
mouse mat for work, though, the Fellowes
Memory Foam Mouse Pad does the job great.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
SUPPLIER www.amazon.co.uk
phil.hartup@gmail.com
33
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

Howwetest
Thorough testing and research is the key to evaluating whether a product
is worth buying, and deciding whether or not there’s a better alternative

PROCESSORS
We judge CPUs on whether they offer sufficient speed for the price. Part of a CPU’s speed score comes from how
overclockable it is. Every type of CPU is tested in the same PC, so all results are directly comparable.

INTEL LGA1151

+ + + + +
Intel Asus Z170 Deluxe 16GB Corsair 240GB OCZ AMD Radeon R9 Windows 10
LGA1151 (ASRock Z170 Extreme4 Vengeance LPX Arc 100 390X 64-bit
CPU for Core i3 6100 test) 2666MHz DDR4

INTEL LGA2011-V3

+ + + + +
Intel Asus Rampage V 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX Samsung SSD AMD Radeon R9 Windows 10
LGA2011 -v3 CPU Extreme 10 Edition 2666MHz DDR4 850 Pro 390X 64-bit

TESTS: We use Custom PC RealBench 2015, Cinebench R11.5 and a variety of games. We also test the power draw of the test PC with the
CPU installed. These tests reveal a broad range of performance characteristics, from image editing to gaming and video encoding to 3D
rendering. We run all tests at stock speed and again when overclocked to its highest frequency.

GRAPHICS CARDS
Graphics cards are mainly evaluated on how fast they are for their price. However, we also consider the efficacy and
quietness of the cooler. Every graphics card is tested in the same PC, so all results are directly comparable.

+ + + + = SCORES

4.4GHz Intel 16GB Corsair Vengeance Asus Maximus VIII Windows 10 The graphics card
Core i5-6600K LED 3000MHz DDR4 Hero 64-bit we’re reviewing

36
 Our benchmark suite,
CUSTOM PC REALBENCH 2015 co-developed with
INTEL REFERENCE AMD REFERENCE Asus, simulates how
people really use PCs
– a higher score is
+ + + + =100% + + + =100% better. You can
download them from
Intel Core 16GB of Corsair 240GB Asus Nvidia AMD 8GB of Corsair 256GB Asus
i7-4790K 2400MHz OCZ Maximus GeForce GTX A10-7850K 2133MHz Plextor A88X-Pro www.asus.com/
DDR3 150 Gene VII 780 3GB DDR3 M5 Pro campaign/Realbench

MOTHERBOARDS The
Motherboards are evaluated on everything from layout and features to overclockability
and value for money. Every motherboard is tested with the same components, so all Awards
results are directly comparable.
EXTREME
INTEL LGA1151 ULTRA
Some products are

+ + + + + gloriously over the

top. These items of
excellent overkill
Intel Motherboard 16GB Corsair Vengeance 240GB OCZ AMD Radeon R9 Windows 10 earn our Extreme
Core i7-6700K on test LPX 2666MHz DDR4 Arc 100 390X 64-bit
Ultra award.

INTEL LGA2011-V3 PREMIUM

GRADE
Premium Grade

+ + + + + + products are
utterly desirable –
we’d eat nothing
Intel Core Motherboard Samsung Samsung 32GB Corsair 2 x AMD Radeon Windows 10 but beans until we
i7-6850K on test SSD 850 Pro SSD 950 Pro Vengeance LPX R9 390X 64-bit
3200MHz DDR4 could afford them.

TESTS: We use Custom PC RealBench 2015 andTotal War: Warhammer, and also test the speeds of PROFESSIONAL
the board’s SATA and M.2 ports. We try to overclock every motherboard we review by testing for a Products worthy of
maximum base clock as well as overclocking the CPU to its maximum air-cooled level. We run our the Professional
tests at stock speed and with the CPU overclocked. award make you
and your business
appear even more
awesome.

APPROVED
Approved products
are those that do a
great job for the
money; they’re the
canny purchase for
a great PC.

CUSTOM KIT
For those gadgets
TESTS: By using the fast PC detailed on the left, we can be sure that any limitations are due to the and gizmos that
graphics card on test, rather than being CPU limited. We test Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Doom, Crysis 3, really impress us,
Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at their maximum detail settings, in their highest DirectX mode, at or that we can’t
several resolutions. High-end cards should be able to sustain playable frame rates at 2,560 x 1,440, live without,
while 1,920 x 1,080 is more important for mid-range cards; we also test at 3,840 x 2,160 for 4K there’s the Custom
monitors, and try to overclock every graphics card we test to assess the performance impact. Kit award.

37

The good Wi-Fi
Wireless standards keep improving, and the latest routers come with loads of
features too. Edward Chester puts the latest routers to the test to find out which
ones deliver the best bandwidth over various ranges
Asus RT-AC87U/p39
Asus RT-AC88U/p40
eople rarely consider upgrading
P their router, but replacing your
ailing router, or the brand-new
one that came with your ISP contract, can
result in big leaps in Wi-Fi speed and range.
Wi-Fi has progressed in leaps and
bounds over the past few years too. Older
Wi-Fi standards used the 2.4GHz band,
but the 5GHz band was introduced with
802.11n. Then, along came 802.11ac, which
also uses the 5GHz band and adds the
80MHz channel, as well as a host of new
signalling techniques such as more MIMO
(multiple in/multiple out) spatial streams
(up to three), higher-density modulation
(256-QAM) and beamforming to increase
baseline performance. The end result was
speeds of up to 600Mb/sec over 2.4GHz
and 1,300Mb/sec over 5GHz.
38
L A B S T E ST
Contents
BT Smart Hub/p41
D-Link DIR-879/p42
Results graphs/p54
Howwetest
Since then, we’ve seen tri-band routers
that add a second 5GHz band. Meanwhile,
MU-MIMO allows a router to talk to
multiple clients simultaneously, resulting
in greater overall throughput and a more
responsive and consistent network that’s
better suited for video streaming and online
gaming. MU-MIMO is a universal standard,
but it still requires support from clients, of
which next to none are yet available.
Another relatively new addition is a
form of band steering, often called
SmartConnect. Using SmartConnect,
the router shows only one SSID for all its
bands and actively manages which band
clients will be connected, based on signal
strength and band congestion, rather than
separating the SSIDs and connecting to
each one manually. We’ve tested
Netgear X4S R7800/p44
TP-Link AC3150/p45
SmartConnect here on routers that support
it. All the routers on test are dual-band
models, and all but one includes MU-MIMO
support. Most also include the same core
features: four gigabit Ethernet ports, one or
more USB ports and at least four aerials.
We firstly check to verify the Ethernet
ports are working at the correct speed,
then we use LAN Speed Test to measure
throughput (up and down) from the router
to a laptop with an AC1900 USB 3 Wi-Fi
adaptor. Tests are performed at a distance
of 2m from the router, 5m with one brick
wall separating the router and 10m with
two walls and a floor separating the router.
The speed of transfer from shared USB
devices is also tested, using the same test
software but with the laptop wired directly
to one of the router’s Ethernet ports.
Asus RT-AC87U/£158 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.box.co.uk

sus’ RT-87U is a more modest affair

A than the RT-AC88U (see p40),
although it still packs all the
essentials into its chassis, and sports several
premium features too. Joining the Wave 2
(quad-stream, 160MHz and MU-MIMO) Wi-Fi
features are four Ethernet ports are two USB
ports – one USB 2 and one USB 3 – and
access to Asus’ AiCloud service and
AiProtection for security.
The latter is powered
by Trend Micro and it
blocks malicious
addresses, attempted
intrusions and infected
devices. Meanwhile, AiCloud is Asus’
cloud storage service that lets you easily
share any data stored on devices connected
to the router’s USB ports.
This router can also claim to be the first
4x4 MU-MIMO router available, although it
claimed that honour the better part of two
years ago. Since then, it’s firmly established
The four removable test, with its long range 2.4GHz performance
being particularly low. However, its 5GHz
itself as a reliable option in the premium
router space. In terms of styling, the
aerials are sturdy and performance is more competitive, and it still
delivers very fast performance overall. It’s not
RT-AC87U is very much like the RT-AC88U easy to tighten, so they the quickest router on test, but it’s still a
but markedly smaller and with slightly less decent upgrade over most ISP routers, or any
aggressive lines. As with the pricier model, don’t tip over router that’s more than a couple of years old.
the front is home to one of the USB ports and Nonetheless, for the price Asus is asking,
buttons for the Wi-Fi and lights. Here, you it’s easy to cycle the power, rather than having there’s a little too much competition that
also get a host of LEDs, with the four Ethernet to unplug the power cable. Meanwhile, the offers higher performance. If you can find the
ports each given a light to indicate their status four removable aerials are sturdy and easy to RT-AC87U for a price closer to £140 inc VAT,
– a feature for which the RT-AC88U doesn’t tighten, so that they don’t tip over all the time, however, it would be a great buy.
have room. unlike some aerials.
Move around the back and you’ll find the Fire up the router and, like its sibling, the Conclusion
second USB port, the WPS button (which setup process is straightforward enough, if The Asus RT-AC87U can still claim to be
should really be on the front for easy access), not quite as slick as some of the competition. the first 4x4 MU-MIMO router, but its
the WAN port for modem connection, four Once you get into the main settings, there’s a performance is now outstripped by the
Ethernet ports, a reset button and power wealth of options too, although you miss out competition. However, it still delivers good
switch. As with all the other routers on test on SmartConnect with this router. Instead, overall Wi-Fi speeds, especially over the
this month, you get a proper power button, so you only have the option to access the two 5GHz band, and it will offer a solid upgrade
Wi-Fi bands separately. for anyone with an older routers. Pricing is
currently a touch high, but it will be a good buy
Performance if you can find it cheaper anywhere.
As for performance,
like the RT-AC88U,
the RT-AC87U has PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

85%
excellent USB transfer
performance, so it’s well
45/50 20/25
worth considering if fast VALUE
shared storage is a
priority. When it comes to
20/25
Wi-Fi speed, though, it’s VERDICT
not quite so impressive. A capable, fast and versatile Wave 2
On average, it’s the router, but it’s a tad too expensive for the
second slowest router on performance on offer.

39
 L A B S T E ST / WIRELESS ROUTERS

Asus RT-AC88U/£284 inc VAT

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com

here are two Asus routers on test

T this month, with the RT-AC88U
being the swankier of the two. It’s
packed with the latest tech, but with an asking
price of nearly £300, can it possibly be worth
the extra outlay? The big feature here is the
inclusion of NitroQAM technology, which gets
you theoretical maximum Wi-Fi speeds of
1,000Mb/sec (2.4GHz) and 2,167Mb/sec
(5GHz), with the right client devices. You also
get eight Ethernet ports, rather than the usual
four, and you can use link aggregation to
combine two Ethernet ports for a single
2Gb/sec wired connection.
Joining that lot, you get full Wave 2 (quad-
stream, 160MHz and MU-MIMO) support, a
quad external aerial array and two USB ports
(one USB 2, one USB 3). The latter can both
support USB hard drives and printer sharing,
so you can share all your files round the
house and give everyone access to a printer.
You can combine two to Asus’ claims. It ‘s comfortably the fastest
router on test in this respect, alongside the
The unit itself is one of the larger models
on test, though Asus’ own tri-band AC5300
Ethernet ports for Asus RT-AC87U. You can also combine the
router’s SSIDs using SmartConnect, which
takes the crown for being the largest router a single 2Gb/sec works well, with the Asus performing notably
available. The RT-AC88U’s angular lines and well at 10m. As with all the SmartConnect
red highlights are classic gamer fare, but it wired connection routers on test, though, the overall speed is
looks sufficiently understated and build faster if you choose the bands separately.
quality is good. Along the front is a row of USB port, Ethernet ports, WAN port and
eight LEDs for indicating power, Wi-Fi, WAN, power button. Inside, the whole lot is Conclusion
Internet and Ethernet activity. Sadly, you powered by a 1.4 GHz dual-core Broadcom The Asus RT-AC88U offers great network
don’t get individual lights for each Ethernet processor along with 128MB of flash performance at long ranges, and for that
connection on the front, or on the ports memory and 512MB of RAM. reason alone, it goes some way to justifying
themselves, though, making troubleshooting Setting up the router is reasonably simple, its premium, along with the eight Gigabit
a little more troublesome. although Asus trails the competition for Ethernet ports. Add the best-in-class USB
Also on the front, you’ll find buttons for slickness of presentation. You get a few transfer speeds, and a smattering of useful
turning the Wi-Fi on and off, and there’s a more features than in most router setup enthusiast and gamer features, and it gets
flap concealing the USB 3 port, which is systems though. For a start, there’s a WTFast even closer. Ultimately, though, with Wave 2
convenient for occasionally plugging in a USB GPN lifetime support for optimising game routers now becoming more affordable, the
stick to share files, but it would be better traffic, and there are plenty of USB options price premium is a little extreme, and most
positioned on the back for long-term sharing. too. You get Asus’ AiDisk feature for people will be serviced fine by routers
Conversely, the WPS button should be on the accessing your shared files from the Internet, costing considerably less money.
front for easy access, but instead, it’s on the the ability to plug in a 3G/4G USB dongle to
back, along with the reset button, second provide an Internet connection, plus iTunes
and Time Machine support. PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

83%
Performance 48/50 23/25
When it comes to performance, VALUE
the RT-AC88U delivers too. In
particular, long-range performance
12/25
was very impressive at both VERDICT
2.4GHz and 5GHz, but topping our Great 5GHz speed at long ranges, fast USB
results graphs in the latter at 10m. performance and loads of features, but it’s far
Its USB performance also lived up too expensive.

40
BT Smart Hub/£129 incVAT(£50incVATupgradeforexistingBTInfinitycustomers)

SUPPLIER www.bt.com

T’s latest Smart Hub is one of the

B few ISP-provided routers to be fully
Wave 2 capable. We expect to see
updated routers from the other major players
at some point, but right now, BT has a clear
advantage over its main competitors. It’s also
the cheapest router on test, so if performance
holds up, it’s a great option, especially if you’re
already a BT Infinity customer, in which case
it’s a £50 upgrade.
Like many ISP routers, the Smart Hub is
designed to be small enough to squeeze
through a typical letter box. It’s impressively
slim, and we like the way its feet spring open
when the router is removed from its box.
The downside is that you don’t get external
aerials; all seven of them are housed inside
the Smart Hub, suggesting it will have less
range than larger units with big external
aerials. Still, the box contains a power supply
with a long lead, making it easier to find the
right spot for it. Otherwise, you’re left wanting
for little. The design is smart and understated,
and you get a good array of features.
Along with full Wave 2 support and four
Its feet spring open Performance
The Smart Hub’s speed seriously impressed.
Gigabit Ethernet ports, the router includes a when the router is In fact, in several tests it was the fastest option
USB 2 port for sharing printers and USB and overall, it was comfortably in the top half.
storage, although the Smart Hub was the removed from its box It particularly excels when using the 5GHz
only router on test for which we couldn’t find band or SmartConnect. However, we couldn’t
a USB stick or hard drive that would work with include multiple LEDs to indicate the status get any USB storage working, and even if we
it. It’s also the only router on test to include a of many of the router’s features. had, it would be restricted to USB 2 speeds.
modem, with all others requiring a separate On one edge you’ll find an easy-to-reach,
modem, or to set your existing modem- chunky WPS button for easily connecting Conclusion
router into modem-only mode. Note that devices, while on the other side is a slide-out BT’s Smart Hub is the cheapest router on test,
there’s no WAN port on the Smart Hub, section that details the default admin and so it misses out on a few little features here
though, so you can’t use it with another Wi-Fi password settings. and there. However, when it comes to raw
modem or as an access point – cable users Setup is a cinch, with a simple wizard performance, it can mix it with the best of
need not apply. guiding novice users through the process. them, while offering a built-in modem. The
Hidden behind the silver band on the front Alternatively, you can skip this part and jump lack of a WAN port is a sticking point though. If
is a single light that glows a variety of colours right into the settings. The selection of options you’re already a BT Infinity customer then a
to indicate the router’s status. It’s enough for is fairly basic but with no obvious omissions. Smart Hub upgrade is a no-brainer, but for
judging at a glance if the router has detected a BT has chosen to merge the SSIDs of the two anyone else, we’d recommend spending a
problem, but more expensive alternatives Wi-Fi bands by default, but there’s no explicit little more money on the Netgear Nighthawk
mention of whether proper band X4S R7800.
steering is implemented.
Either way, you can easily
change them to being separate, if PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

86%
necessary. We tested using the
merged SSIDs and found the
45/50 18/25
router delivered good VALUE
performance, although, as with
other routers on test, it was
23/25
consistently slower than splitting VERDICT
the bands and specifically If you have a BT Infinity contract then the
choosing 5GHz. Smart Hub is a superb upgrade, although you
can’t connect it to a separate modem.

41
 L A B S T E ST / WIRELESS ROUTERS

D-Link DIR-879/£134
SUPPLIER www.amazon.co.uk

he DIR-879 is D-Link’s newest

T router and it sports a fancy
new EXO brand, four
aerials and full AC1900 speeds.
However, while it looks like it
should be a new dual-band
flagship, D-Link has in fact
skipped several features, making
it more of a mid-range unit. All of
which is fine, until you see that it’s
selling for a whopping price of
£160 inc VAT everywhere
except Amazon.
At first glance, you
wouldn’t suspect the DIR-879
was lacking any features compared
with its competitors. It has the same stealth-
bomber shape as the company’s monstrous
flagship tri-band AC5300 router, the DIR-
895L/R, and a snazzy orange paint job –
It showed the most expected given that it’s essentially a
standard AC1900 router rather than a true
clearly, no expense has been spared when it
comes to aesthetic design.
consistent speed Wave 2 device, but it’s remarkable that there’s
such a performance increase with Wave 2
However, those failings soon come to light. when SmartConnect routers, even when you’re using a standard
For a start, the external aerials are fixed to the AC1900 receiver.
chassis, where we’d normally expect to find was enabled In the end, the D-Link DIR-879 is a perfectly
removable ones. For most users it won’t decent AC1900 router that’s easy to set up
make much difference, but having the option devices connect, saving you having to faff and works perfectly well, but it’s priced
to replace a broken aerial or fit your own is around with managing separate SSIDs. It completely wrong in the UK. In most shops, it
always a plus. On the D-Link, the aerials fold works well too. Although the D-Link was far costs around £160 inc VAT, while you can get
down on top of the router when in transit. from the fastest router on test overall, it it for £134 from www.amazon.co.uk. Of
You also get just one status light situated showed the most consistent speed when course, it’s way overpriced at the former cost,
on the front edge, as opposed to the multiple SmartConnect was enabled. but it’s still £30 too expensive at the latter
lights we expect on a premium router. We Around the back of the unit you get a WPS price too.
were also genuinely shocked to find this button, a dedicated router/extender switch
router has no USB ports at all. Considering and a power button, along with the usual Conclusion
you can get AC1900 routers for under £100 reset button, four Ethernet ports and WAN There’s a lot to like about the D-Link DIR-879,
that still include one USB port, that’s a major port. The setup procedure is quick and easy including its striking design, easy setup and
omission. Basically, the DIR-879 doesn’t offer too. Meanwhile, the insides contain a 1GHz hassle-saving SmartConnect technology.
that much over older, cheaper AC1900 dual-core processor, 128MB of flash memory However, it simply doesn’t have the features
routers. The main addition is a fourth aerial, and 128MB of RAM. or performance to justify its current price. If
but it’s not a true four-stream design, and you can find it for closer to £100-£120 then
there’s no MU-MIMO or NitroQAM support. Performance it’s not bad if you don’t need any USB features,
You do get SmartConnect band steering It’s performance that really sees the but otherwise, you’re better off spending
though. This feature allows the router to take D-Link fall behind though – overall, it was your money elsewhere.
care of managing the band to which your comfortably the slowest router on test. It
trailed the fastest
routers right across PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

67%
the board and
particularly struggled
35/50 18/25
at longer ranges, VALUE
offering half the
speed of the fastest
14/25
router in our 10m VERDICT
test, at both A perfectly decent AC1900 router, but its
2.4GHz and 5GHz. price is far too high for the performance and
That’s all to be features on offer.

42
 L A B S T E ST / WIRELESS ROUTERS

Netgear Nighthawk X4S R7800/£178 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com

etgear’s Nighthawk
N routers were among
the most recognisable
of the first wave of AC1900
routers, thanks to their distinctive
all-black and angular design and
often class-leading performance. The
latest iteration, the X4S, adds MU-MIMO
technology to create the company’s fastest
dual-band router yet, rated at up to AC2600
speeds. Intriguingly, it replaces the Nighthawk
X4, and stock of that unit has already almost
completely dried up, yet its predecessor, the
original Nighthawk (R7000), continues to be
on sale.
Netgear has clearly taken an ‘if it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it’ approach to the
design of the X4S. It looks identical
to its predecessors, with a mean,
moody appearance. Four removable external
aerials sprout from the back, while a mass of
lights are arranged along the front, along with
You get a 1.7GHz performance, although it still has sufficient
speed – significant drops in performance are
two buttons. The lights indicate the status of
all the key router features, including individual
dual-core CPU, along more likely to be a result of poor Wi-Fi signal
than the USB connection. Our only concern
lights for each Wi-Fi band, while the buttons with 512MB of RAM with the R7800 is that we’ve found previous
enable WPS and turn Wi-Fi on and off. Nighthawk routers to be comparatively
You also get quite a rare feature, which is interfaces. Once up and running, the main unstable compared with other AC1900
an eSATA port. While it’s less common these menu offers all the usual features you’d routers, with crashes and resets a regular
days, it’s great to have an extra port, allowing expect, plus plenty of extras. ReadyCloud occurrence during prolonged testing. We’ve
up to three devices to be shared over your USB Access lets you access your USB not yet experienced such problems with the
network when it’s combined with the two storage from anywhere, ReadyShare Vault X4S, but it’s a nagging concern; hopefully,
USB 3 ports that are also included. provides automatic backup of files to USB Netgear has sorted these issues now.
Around the back of the router you get a storage and Kwilt support lets you add your
switch for turning off the front LEDs, as well shared USB photos to the your combined Conclusion
as the obligatory reset button, four Ethernet Kwilt photo library. Netgear’s latest Nighthawk router is arguably
ports, WAN port, power input and power its best yet. Faster and more feature-packed
button. Internally, you get a 1.7GHz dual-core Performance than ever, it delivers blistering dual-band
processor, along with 128MB of flash As for performance, the X4S didn’t Wi-Fi performance and is fully equipped for
memory and 512MB of RAM – a serious spec. disappoint. In particular, at 2.4GHz, the a Wave 2, MU-MIMO-filled future. Such
Setting up the R7800 is as easy as you’d Netgear and the TP-Link C3150 stood some performance demands a high price, of course,
hope, although Netgear aims the Nighthawk distance clear of all the others on test. At but £178 inc VAT isn’t unreasonable for what’s
at the slightly more enthusiast user, so it isn’t 5GHz, it was battling much more closely with on offer. The lack of SmartConnect support is
quite as simplified as the D-Link or BT the BT Smart Hub and Asus RT-88U for the a shame but it’s a small omission, and
honours, but it still came out on hopefully Netgear will add it in the future.
top when averaged across all
three test ranges. Sadly, one
feature this router lacks is PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

91%
SmartConnect, so we weren’t
able to see how it copes when
48/50 23/25
managing combined SSIDs. VALUE
Netgear has promised it will add
the feature in the future, but it’s
20/25
still unavailable six months on VERDICT
from launch. Class-leading speed, plenty of features and
Where the Nighthawk trails a reasonable price make the Nighthawk a
the Asus routers is in USB superb Wave 2 dual-band Wi-Fi router.

44
 ELITE
NEWENTRY
P62

TP-Link Archer C3150/£170

SUPPLIER www.amazon.co.uk

he Archer C3150 is TP-Link’s new

A flagship dual-band router, and it
packs absolutely all the latest tech.
There’s full Wave 2 compatibility, plus
NitroQAM for up to 1,000Mb/sec over 2.4GHz
and 2,167Mb/sec over 5GHz, and there’s
SmartConnect support too. For such a
powerful beast, the C3150 is surprisingly
muted-looking. Its rounded edges and slim
profile are finished in a subtle combination of
glossy and matt black plastic.
Unlike most of the other routers on test, it
doesn’t scream that it’s trying to make a
statement about its prowess, it just looks
attractively understated.
You’re not left wanting for any
physical features either. There are four
removable aerials, two USB ports and on top
of the unit you’ll find a selection of LEDs to
indicate most of the router’s functions. You
do miss out on a full selection of Ethernet
status LEDs though.
Those USB ports are arranged down the
left edge, and you get one USB 2 port and one
USB 3 port. You can share USB drives and
Setup is simple and Netgear to the post. All of this means there’s a
lot to like about this router. It doesn’t set the
printers with these ports, but TP-Link doesn’t the interface is neat, world alight in terms of features, but it has
offer any cloud storage integration or other solid performance and competitive pricing.
media server extras. Alongside the USB ports tidy and intuitive Certainly, if you want the convenience of
are the buttons for WPS, reset, and turning SmartConnect, it’s the better choice over the
the Wi-Fi on and off. trying to alter the SSID name using the Netgear, but for overall speed and features,
Having all these features on the side is Advanced Settings panel simply didn’t work. the Netgear just sneaks it.
definitely more convenient than the back, We had to use the Simple settings panel to
although you still end up not being able to see get it to work. That issue aside, the C3150 isn’t Conclusion
what you’re doing with them, as they’re all packed with extras, but it does offer a solid The TP-Link Archer C3150 is a fantastic router
hidden below the overhanging top. Around selection of software features. that’s packed to the gills with the latest Wi-Fi
the back are the four Ethernet ports, WAN Probably the most crucial of these features tech. Some of that performance won’t be
port, power input and power button. The is SmartConnect, which worked very well on tapped until MU-MIMO and NitroQAM clients
specs are good inside too, including the same the C3150, SSID issues aside. are available but, even for regular AC Wi-Fi
1.4GHz dual-core Broadcom processor found clients, it’s still among the fastest routers you
in Asus’ RT-AC88U, joined by 256MB of RAM Performance can buy. The Netgear remains our overall top
and 128MB of flash memory. As for overall performance, the C3150 choice of extras, because of the Archer
Setup of the C3150 is simple enough impresses a great deal. Across the board, it C3150’s lack of extra features, but the C3150
and the interface is neat, tidy and intuitive. trades top spots with the Asus RT-88U, BT comes a close second, and is the router to buy
However, we did encounter a bug whereby Smart Hub and Netgear X4S. At 2.4GHz, it’s if you want SmartConnect support.
particularly strong at all ranges,
while it starts to trail off at 5GHz,
particularly over longer ranges. PERFORMANCE FEATURES OVERALL SCORE

89%
Nonetheless, the C3150 is
clearly a very fast router,
47/50 22/25
representing a marked step VALUE
up from any Wave 1 AC routers.
What’s more, USB
20/25
performance is consistently VERDICT
fast. It can’t quite catch the two Great performance, features and pricing
Asus models for maximum make the C3150 a great option, particularly if
speed but it just pips the you want SmartConnect support.

45
 CHERRY MC
4000 Mouse
www.amazon.co.uk
£25.00

With a fast 1000/2000-dpi switchable sensor,

indicated by blue and red LED’s respectively, this
semantical mouse is a perfect addition to any desktop
for left-or-right handed users. High-speed motion

Best new
detection at 60ips and 360 degree sliding pad on the
base keeps this USB optical mouse moving across
the desktop. Six additional, programmable buttons
allow quick access to your commonly used functions.

Christmas
gadgets
Stuck for Christmas present ideas, or don’t know
what to ask for yourself? Then feast your eyes on
these seven innovative gift ideas…

CHERRY MX Board 3.0

www.amazon.co.uk
£64.00

The CHERRY MX Board 3.0 offers a perfect introduction to

mechanical keyboards, utilising Red, Linear MX switches under
each key. The keyboard design is low profile and simplistic,
yet robust and hard wearing, with laser-etched, wear-resistant
keycaps and individual keys tested to 50 million operations.
14 key rollover, Win-Key Lock and anti-ghosting technology,
coupled with a removable USB cable make this an ideal gaming
keyboard, but it’s perfect for both home and office use.

CHERRY DW 5100 Board

www.amazon.co.uk
£30.00

Break free from wires! The CHERRY DW-5100 is a stylish and comfortable
keyboard and mouse set, using 24GHz technology for an interference
free, 5m range. The mouse has a switchable
1000/1750-dpi resolution for fast desktop movement,
5 programmable buttons and a rubber side-grip for
added comfort. This ergonomically designed mouse
also has batteries that will last for up to 2 years between
changes. The keyboard is a low-profile design with 10
programmable hot keys and an on/off switch to help
conserve power. Supplied with a nanoUSB receiver, the
set is simply plug and play with no additional software
required.
 Promotional feature
CHERRY MX Board 6.0
www.amazon.co.uk
£142.00

With a solid aluminium case, magnetic quick-

snap wrist rest and bright red backlighting, the
CHERRY MX Board 6.0 is certainly striking to
say the least, but it also hides some incredible
features. Backlighting can be adjusted to 100 levels
on the Red CHERRY MX’s linear switches to find
the right intensity, there is full ‘N’ key rollover off all
109 keys, as well as full anti-ghosting technology and
Win-Key Lock. A braided USB cable provides simple
plug-and-play connection. Its secret ingredient, though,
is the exclusive RK technology, providing analogue
processing and the fastest response time of just 1ms,
just to give you the edge over the competition.

PORT Designs
Slim emergency battery 5000mAh
www.northamber.com
£29.99

The POCKET POWERBANK BATTERY 5000mAh by Port Designs

“Designed in Paris” provides you with emergency charge for your
smartphone for at least 2 full charges and comes with a 2-year
warranty! Charge your smartphone or any other USB rechargable
device on the go and this slimline device comes pre-charged and
ready to use. Part of the Port Connect range of mobile accessories
that are designed to enable users in both the work place and during
recreational time!

Specifications:
Specifications:
• Lithium-Ion Polymer battery
• 4 levels LED charge indicator
• Battery capacity 5000mAh
PORT Designs
• ON/OFF button
• Input Voltage: 5V
Solar Power Bank
• Input Current: 2A
• Output Voltage: 5V
8000mAH
• Output Current: 2.1A www.northamber.com
£39.99

Charges up to 2 USB rechargeable devices

simultaneously. Solar panel rechargeable battery
or USB charger. Shock- and splash-proof body.
Flashlight /SOS light included.

Urbanears
Plattan ADV Wireless
www.currys.co.uk
£80

Move around freely and listen to music without

the hassle of cables. Plattan ADV Wireless has
all the controls you need on its swipe interface.
Pair up with Bluetooth and enjoy up to 14
hours of playtime on a single charge. Includes
a washable headband and collapsible structure
for easy portability.

Megacoolers
Want some serious CPU cooling power, or just a quieter system? Antony
Leather puts the latest 280mm all-in-one liquid coolers to the test
Alphacool Eisbaer 280mm/p49
Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280mm/p50
hile 240mm all-in-one liquid
W coolers are quite capable of
taming an overclocked CPU, their
larger 280mm siblings can offer even more
cooling power at potentially lower noise
levels, thanks to their larger 140mm fans.
To test them, we’ve fitted them to our
two standard Windows 10 test systems.
One test rig has an Intel Core i7-4790K
overclocked to 4.4GHx with a 1.275V vcore,
a Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H motherboard and
4GB of 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix DDR3
RAM. Alongside these components sit a
240GB Intel SSD 730 and an AMD Radeon
HD 5770 1GB graphics card. Our other rig
sports an Intel Core i7-3960X overclocked
to 4.2GHz using a 1.275V vcore, an MSI
48
L A B S T E ST
Contents
Corsair Hydro Series H115i/p51
NZXT Kraken X62/p52
Howwetest
X79A-GD45 motherboard, 16GB of G.Skill
Ripjaws 1600MHz memory and a 128GB
Samsung SSD 830.
We install each cooler in our Corsair
Carbide 500R test case, with the fans
acting as exhausts, blowing through the
radiator in a ‘push’ setup, with the results
recorded for the highest fan-speed mode,
along with a ‘silent’ or ‘quiet’ mode if the
cooler has it. We’ve also taken sound
readings at maximum volume to help us
gauge each cooler’s efficiency in delivering
cooling while minimising noise.
We include cooling, design, features and
value scores in a weighted calculation to
give a final score, which is a combination of
all three. There’s a separate score for each
Raijintek Triton 280mm/p53
Results graphs/p54
CPU socket to take the different cooling and
mounting mechanisms into account, as
well as value for money. The features score
includes aspects such as software control,
lighting, expansion possibilities and PWM
fans, while the design score considers
installation, noise and the aesthetic appeal
of the cooler; the value score takes all the
results into account as well as the price.
We use CoreTemp to measure the CPU
temperature before subtracting the
ambient air temperature to give a delta T
result – this enables us to test in a lab that
isn’t temperature controlled.
We use Prime95’s smallfft test to load
the CPU and take a temperature reading
after ten minutes.
Alphacool Eisbaer 280mm/£113 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.aquatuning.co.uk

e were big fans of Alphacool’s

W smaller 240mm Eisbaer (see Issue
157, p28) and, at just over £110, the
280mm version is noticeably more wallet-
friendly than the offerings from Be Quiet!,
Corsair and NZXT. The 280mm Eisbaer
also sports the same refillable
reservoir as its smaller sibling, so
if you want to use coloured
coolant, it’s a simple task to drain
it and fill the reservoir again.
Alphacool includes a quick release
adaptor with the Eisbaer too, so you
can add a graphics card waterblock
without needing to drain the system. You
just need to top it up once you’ve installed
your new components.
The 280mm radiator is very similar to
Alphacool’s separate models, while the
pump is Alphacool’s DC-LT Ceramic Ultra low
noise model, which is certainly powerful
enough to deal with extra components in the may not see it perform better. The plus side, 50dB(A) on the NZXT and 55dB(A) on the
loop. This pump also proved to be very quiet, of course, is that it will be much quieter. Corsair cooler in their performance modes,
emitting a fairly low-level noise compared The Eisbaer isn’t the best-looking cooler on although the latter models made less noise in
with the gurgling, often high-pitched whines test either, but the reservoir and illuminated their quiet modes.
of other coolers. Alphacool logo do help to liven it up a bit.
Sadly, though, the 280mm Eisbaer lacks Installation can be a little trying on LGA1150 Conclusion
a couple of the additions we saw with the systems compared with some of the easier The lack of features compared with the
240mm model. Most notably, the fans are coolers on test as well, requiring you to hold other coolers on test means the Eisbaer
not 4-pin PWM models, so automatically the pins in the backplate – they can spin significantly loses out on points. The lack of
reducing their speed at low CPU loads can be around and pop out, and they’re also prone to PWM-controlled fans is a shame, although
tricky if your motherboard can’t control them. spinning in their sockets if you tighten the many motherboards now support control of
A splitter cable is included, though, so at least screws too much. However, it’s otherwise 3-pin fans to some extent. Despite its slow-
you can power them from one fan header. quick and easy to install, especially on spinning fans, cooling is excellent, but while
The Eisbaer also lacks advanced features LGA2011 systems. the Eisbaer offers the best balance of cooling
such as software control, which is found on Performance from the Eisbaer was and noise, it’s still louder than the Corsair and
some of the other coolers on test. exceptional in both our test systems, with the NZXT coolers with their quiet modes enabled.
The fans themselves are much slower powerful pump working to counteract the As a good-performing expandable liquid-
spinning than those supplied with the smaller slow-spinning fans, helped along by slightly cooling system, though, the Eisbaer is still a
model too, spinning at just 1,100rpm less restrictive, wider-spaced fins on the solid choice, especially at this price.
compared to 1,700rpm, although the larger radiator. A delta T of 54°C in the LGA1150
fans should compensate for the slower system and 34°C in the LGA2011 system were
speed to a degree. the best results on test, shared with NZXT’s VERDICT
This speed is the slowest on test, though, Kraken X62 in both cases, but with less noise Relatively quiet, expandable and offers great
so while the radiator is larger than that of the from the Eisbaer. Our sound meter measured cooling, but the lack of software control
240mm Eisbaer, the slower-spinning fans just 48dB(A) for the Eisbaer, compared to makes it less flexible than the competition.

LGA1150 RESULTS LGA2011 RESULTS

/SPECIFICATIONS
COOLING FEATURES COOLING FEATURES Compatibility Intel: LGA2011, LGA2011-v3,
37/40 11/20 OVERALL
SCORE 38/40 11/20 OVERALL
SCORE
LGA115x, LGA1366, LGA775; AMD: Socket
AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1

84% 86%
DESIGN VALUE DESIGN VALUE Radiator size with fans (mm) 324 x 144 x 55
17/20 19/20 18/20 19/20 (W x D x H)
Fans 2 x 140mm
FITTING FITTING
Stated noise Up to 29dB(A)
MEDIUM EASY

49
 L A B S T E ST / 280MM LIQUID COOLERS
Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280mm/£130
SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk
e’ve reviewed a number of air
W coolers from Be Quiet! over the
years, but the Silent Loop series
represents the company’s first foray into
liquid cooling. There are three models
available, catering for single 120mm, double
120mm and double 140mm-fan radiators,
each equipped with Pure Wings 2 fans, which
retail for around £10 a pop. Its price tag of
£130 seems a little steep, though, given that
the Corsair H115i costs £20 less and includes
software control.
We suspect the same OEM manufacturer is
behind some or all of the components in both
the Silent Loop and Alphacool’s Eisbaer, as
the two coolers use an identical mounting
mechanism, tubing and radiator.
The cooling section is quite different
though. While the Eisbaer uses a large
reservoir and pump section, the Silent Loop
uses a more traditional compact pump and
waterblock, although it also has a fillport for
swapping out coolant to maintain it. Topping it
up can also reduce noise; a lot of the gurgling,
whining noises from pumps are due to low
coolant levels.
Be Quiet! claims its pump is supremely
quiet, thanks to a decoupled reverse-flow
design, which sees coolant pass from the
edges of the cold plate (the bit that sits on the
LGA1150 RESULTS
COOLING FEATURES
36/40 7/20 OVERALL
SCORE
77%
DESIGN VALUE
18/20 16/20
FITTING
MEDIUM
50
CPU) to its centre, when most coolers shift
the coolant from the centre to the edges. Be
Quiet! claims that this setup greatly reduces
noise and vibration. We have to agree – the
Silent Loop has the quietest pump on test at
normal speeds; only the NZXT Kraken X62
and Corsair Hydro Series H115i on their quiet
pump settings could get close.
The lack of software fan control is also
negated thanks to the inclusion of PWM-
controlled fans. Using a splitter cable, just a
single 4-pin CPU fan header is needed to tap
into your motherboard’s own fan control
system, although it would be good to see
some software control at this price too. The
lack of extra features is perhaps the Silent
Loop’s biggest problem considering its asking
price. For example, NZXT’s Kraken X62 has
great-looking RGB lighting and slightly easier
installation, and costs just £10 more.
The installation procedure was identical to
that of the Alphacool Eisbaer, with a plastic
backplate securing to four sprung screws – it’s
a tad fiddly on LGA1150 systems, but a breeze
with LGA2011 sockets. With a single 3-pin
header for the pump and a splitter cable for
the fans, one advantage of the Silent Loop
over the NZXT cooler is that it has far fewer
cables – if cable clutter is a concern, the Silent
Loop is ideal as a mess-free option.
LGA2011 RESULTS
COOLING FEATURES
36/40 7/20 OVERALL
SCORE
78%
DESIGN VALUE
19/20 16/20
FITTING
EASY
incVAT
The Silent Loop’s cooling was just a degree
behind the best result in both our systems,
showing that the latest batch of 280mm all-
in-one liquid coolers are a potent bunch. Only
the Alphacool Eisbaer was quieter under load,
with the Silent Loop matching NZXT’s Kraken
X62 for noise, although the latter was slightly
ahead on cooling.
Conclusion
The Be Quiet! Silent Loop is a great effort at
eliminating one of the bugbears of all-in-one
liquid coolers – pump noise. Its pump is far
quieter than any other pump on test, although
both NZXT and Corsair’s models can alter
their pump speeds to match noise, if not
cooling. However, the Silent Loop’s main
nemesis is its price. At £130, it’s around £15
too expensive to compete in terms of value,
especially with its lack of advanced features.
However, it remains a solid choice if you want
an easy-to-use, quiet cooler without cable
clutter, and you have the money.
VERDICT
A fantastically quiet pump and premium
fans, but it doesn’t perform any better than
the leading coolers and lacks most of their
advanced features.
/SPECIFICATIONS
Compatibility Intel: LGA2011, LGA2011-v3,
LGA115x, LGA1366, LGA775; AMD: Socket
AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
Radiator size with fans (mm) 319 x 144 x 55
(W x D x H)
Fans 2 x 140mm
Stated noise Up to 37dB(A)
Corsair Hydro Series H115i/£110
SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk
C
orsair is widely credited with
ushering in the all-in-one liquid
cooler craze with its Hydro Series
H50, around seven years ago, so the H115i –
its current flagship model – is carrying a hefty
weight on its shoulders. Thankfully, it has a lot
going for it. For starters, despite sporting
software control via Corsair’s Link dashboard,
it costs just £110 inc VAT, making it the second
cheapest cooler on test, undercutting the
NZXT Kraken X62 by a substantial £30.
It looks a little dated compared with the
NZXT cooler, though, and Corsair is in real
need of a refresh to keep up here, especially
as NZXT’s offering sports fantastic RGB
lighting, as well as a slightly better software
interface. The two coolers are physically
very similar, though, except for the pump
section. They appear to use identical
radiators and mounts, although the Corsair
has bigger tubing, a smaller pump section
and different fans.
The H115i isn’t totally devoid of visual
pizzazz either; it has an illuminated Corsair
logo on the pump section, so if you’re not keen
on the NZXT’s lighting, the H115i is a little more
understated. As with the Kraken, though, the
H115i has a mass of cables with which to
contend. It’s powered by a SATA connector,
but also has a USB cable to connect to a
LGA1150 RESULTS
COOLING FEATURES
36/40 12/20 OVERALL
SCORE
86%
DESIGN VALUE
19/20 19/20
FITTING
EASY
incVAT
header on your motherboard for the software
control, an rpm cable to connect to your
motherboard’s CPU fan header, plus a splitter
cable coming from the pump section to feed
the two 140mm fans.
Meanwhile, the CPU mount uses the
familiar Asetek backplate with mounting
screws around the CPU socket, secured with
thumbscrews over Intel or AMD clip-on
mounts that attach to the pump. It’s a
simple installation, apart from dealing with
the cables, although we found the Kraken
X62 easier to install, as its tubes aren’t quite
as thick.
Corsair’s Link software is generally
excellent, although NZXT’s CAM utility is
superior, being a little less messy, easier to
use and smartphone-friendly. Corsair’s Silent
profile was more effective at reducing noise
under load, limiting the fan speed to 60 per
cent, while the Kraken still ramped up to
maximum speed eventually. In its Silent
mode, the H115i was the quietest cooler on
test, measuring just 47dB(A) at close range,
although this setting resulted in the highest
CPU temperature, albeit by just 3°C.
In Performance mode, the Corsair
managed a delta T of 55°C, which was a
couple of degrees warmer than the Kraken,
which was also a little quieter. The H115i’s
LGA2011 RESULTS
COOLING FEATURES
38/40 12/20 OVERALL
SCORE
86%
DESIGN VALUE
17/20 19/20
FITTING
EASY
pump was also very loud at full speed, but it’s
a match for even Be Quiet!’s Silent Loop when
it’s running in Silent mode. There’s some
flexibility for tweaking, though, and a good
compromise is having the fans in
Performance mode but the pump in Silent
mode, which only resulted in a 3°C rise in the
CPU delta T and is well worth it.
Conclusion
The Corsair Hydro Series H115i is a superb
cooler despite its aging design, and it offers
great value for money too, especially on
LGA2011 systems, where it was a match for
the NZXT Kraken X62. The main fly in the
ointment is its pump, which is very noisy at full
speed, but switching to Silent modes solves
this problem with only a minor increase in
CPU temperature.
If you can’t afford the Kraken, the H115i is the
cooler to get if you want easy installation and
flexible software, while the Alphacool Eisbaer
is worth considering if you want to expand
your cooling loop at some point.
VERDICT
Corsair’s flagship cooler still holds its own
against the latest competition, but it needs a
refresh and its pump is noisy at full speed.
/SPECIFICATIONS
Compatibility Intel: LGA2011, LGA2011-v3,
LGA115x, LGA1366, LGA775; AMD: Socket
AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
Radiator size with fans (mm) 312 x 140 x 51
(W x D x H)
Fans 2 x 140mm
Stated noise Up to 40dB(A)
51

L A B S T E ST / 280MM LIQUID COOLERS
NZXT Kraken X62/£140
SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk
ZXT’s Kraken coolers have spent
N some considerable time sitting on
our Elite List, so we were originally
concerned to hear that the likes of the X61 and
X41 were reaching the end-of-life stage.
Thankfully, though, NZXT is replacing these
coolers with even better models. The rather
predictably named X62 is the successor to the
280mm X61, and retails for a fairly hefty price
of £140 inc VAT, meaning it isn’t far off the price
of EKWB’s Predator all-in-one expandable
liquid cooler.
However, you get an awful lot for your
money with the X62. For starters, it uses
NZXT’s new Aer P-series fans, which have
fluid dynamic bearings and a small hub for
better airflow. It also uses a new pump, which
promises better flow rates and lower noise,
and there’s also a great-looking array of RGB
LEDs and lots of lighting effects from which to
choose. The pump is also a little quieter than
that of the Corsair H115i, and it’s generally
easier to fit thanks to the use of thinner, more
flexible tubing.
Installation is also made simple by the use
of Asetek’s usual mounts, so whether you
have an LGA115X or LGA2011 system, you’ll
only be looking at ten minutes or so to install
the cooler from start to finish. Like the H115i,
LGA1150 RESULTS
COOLING FEATURES
39/40 19/20 OVERALL
SCORE
95%
DESIGN VALUE
19/20 18/20
FITTING
EASY
52
incVAT
the Kraken X62 is also powered by a SATA
connector, although you need to deal with a
mass of cables, as there’s a USB motherboard
header and you’ll need power for the two fans
as well. Thankfully, NZXT includes a 4-way
PWM splitter cable, which can not only
power the two included 140mm fans but can
accommodate a further two fans as well,
and control them using the CAM software.
Comparatively, the H115i is limited to using just
two fans out of the box.
The CAM software is also excellent and
even enables you to use a smartphone or
PC to monitor temperatures and graphs. You
can apply a fixed rpm speed, and Silent or
Performance profiles for the pump and fans;
as with the Corsair H115i, these can be
controlled independently. The Silent profile
isn’t particularly quiet under load, though, and
the fan profile seems to be set to allow the
fans to ramp up to maximum speed when the
CPU temperature goes above 60°C. This issue
is easily fixed with the software’s ability to
create a custom fan profile though. It can also
change speeds based on CPU, GPU or coolant
temperatures, which is handy if you’re cooling
your graphics card using NZXT’s G10 adaptor.
In terms of cooling, the Kraken X62 stormed
into the lead in our LGA1150 system, bettering
LGA2011 RESULTS
COOLING FEATURES
38/40 19/20 OVERALL
SCORE
91%
DESIGN VALUE
17/20 17/20
FITTING
EASY
ELITE
NEWENTRY
P62
the next best result by 2°C while being quieter
than Raijintek Triton and Corsair H115i. Only the
Alphacool Eisbaer was quieter, but it was also
2°C warmer.
The X62 also matched the best results in
our LGA2011 system, with its most efficient
noise-to-cooling ratio coming in Silent mode,
which added just 1°C to the CPU delta T, but
resulted in a 2dB(A) drop in noise.
Conclusion
The NZXT Kraken X62 offers fantastic cooling
and it can also be very quiet if you customise
its fan and pump profiles, where it still offers
very competitive performance. The software
makes this easy, as well enabling you to tinker
with the vast array of lighting effects, which
look amazing and make the X62 the best-
looking cooler on test by far. The Kraken X62
ticks nearly every box in terms of cooling and
features, and it’s easy to install as well, which
means it demands a premium, but it’s
definitely worth the extra cash if you have it.
VERDICT
Fantastic cooling and lighting, plus very
quiet operation once you’ve tuned the great
software. A great cooler.
/SPECIFICATIONS
Compatibility Intel: LGA2011, LGA2011-v3,
LGA115x, LGA1366; AMD: Socket AM3+, AM3,
AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
Radiator size with fans (mm) 315 x 143 x 55
(W x D x H)
Fans 2 x 140mm
Stated noise Up to 38dB(A)
Raijintek Triton
280mm/£98 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.box.co.uk

aijintek was one of the first

R manufacturers of all-in-one liquid
coolers to go beyond the normal
sealed-loop design, and instead offer a
refillable design, combining a waterblock,
pump and a large reservoir. Back in 2014, the
design served it well and the 240mm model
offered great value, especially with its manual
fan control dial. At £98, it looks good for the
280mm Triton in terms of value too – it’s the
only cooler on test to cost under £100.
The design is much the same as the
240mm model, with a large reservoir on top
of the pump and cold plate, along with a fill-
cap and clear tubing – it’s the only cooler on
test to have the latter. The box also includes
three coloured dyes that you can add to the
coolant and, as there’s a fill cap, you could
even use a third-party coolant from a
company such as Mayhems.
We’ve looked at expanding the Triton in a
previous modding guide, and while the tubing
can be cut and extended, the barbs have a The Triton’s price isn’t bad given what’s with the fans at full speed too, equalling the
threadlock on them. As such, you may need to included in the box, but Corsair’s H115i is much monstrous Corsair H115i at full pelt in terms
use a G1/4in tap to clear out the threads if you better equipped with software fan control, of decibels.
want to use your own barbs or fittings, but it’s and costs just over £10 more. The Corsair’s Comparatively, the Alphacool Eisbaer was
still possible to use your own fittings or just software made it easy to tune down the much quieter and managed better thermal
replace the tubing, which is compatible with H115i’s pump noise by dropping its pump results in both our test systems.
standard 13/10mm flexible tubing. In short, profile to the lowest setting. Sadly, unless you
adding a graphics card or additional radiator to have a way of controlling the Triton’s pump via Conclusion
this loop is definitely possible, although the its 3-pin header, it’s the loudest pump on test, Unfortunately, the liquid cooler market has
Alphacool Eisbaer has a quick-release fitting and it’s clearly audible in a quiet room with the moved on since 2014 and better, quieter
that makes doing so a little easier. system idle. coolers are now commonplace, meaning
Two features are missing from the Triton Also, while mounting the Triton was easier that the Triton is no longer the best option.
that were present in the smaller 240mm than Alphacool or Be Quiet!’s coolers, it Alphacool’s Eisbaer or Corsair’s H115i are
model though. The fans support PWM control, required far more parts – there’s a backplate, much better options if you’re looking for a
but there’s no power splitter cable for them, CPU-side mounting pins and a bracket. It’s sub-£120 cooler with a 280mm radiator.
and you don’t get the manual fan controller also essential to have the inlet and outlet of
that comes with the smaller cooler either. the pump at the bottom, or the inlet can draw
However, while you’ll need two 4-pin CPU in air if the coolant level is too low. VERDICT
headers, or to purchase a splitter cable, to In terms of performance, the Triton’s Good expandability options and a tempting
power the fans, we’d sooner use PWM than a CPU delta T of 57°C in the LGA1150 system price, but the Triton needs a refresh and a
manual fan controller, especially on a modern was a little warmer than the results from the quieter pump to remain competitive against
motherboard with good fan control software. other coolers on test, and it was pretty noisy the latest coolers.

LGA1150 RESULTS LGA2011 RESULTS

/SPECIFICATIONS
COOLING FEATURES COOLING FEATURES Compatibility Intel: LGA2011, LGA2011-v3,
34/40 12/20 OVERALL
SCORE 36/40 12/20 OVERALL
SCORE
LGA115x, LGA1366, LGA775; AMD: Socket
AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1

79% 79%
DESIGN VALUE DESIGN VALUE Radiator size with fans (mm) 310 x 140 x 57
15/20 18/20 13/20 18/20 (W x D x H)
Fans 2 x 140mm
FITTING FITTING
Stated noise Up to 35dB(A)
EASY EASY

53
L A B S T E ST / RESULTS

WIRELESS ROUTER RESULTS

LAN SPEED TEST LAN SPEED TEST LAN SPEED TEST
2.4GHz 2m range (Mb/sec) 2.4GHz 10m range (Mb/sec) 5GHz 2m range (Mb/sec)

Netgear Netgear Netgear

X4S R7800 152 231 X4S R7800 106 156 X4S R7800 390 548

TP-Link AC3150 202 211 TP-Link AC3150 132 147 BT Smart Hub 406 493

D-Link DIR-879 101 186 Asus RT-AC88U 87 125 Asus RT-AC88U 404 487

Asus RT-AC88U 96 146 BT Smart Hub 50 86 Asus RT-AC87U 274 474

Asus RT-AC87U 69 114 Asus RT-AC87U 35 55 TP-Link AC3150 401 418

BT Smart Hub 88 97 D-Link DIR-879 44 45 D-Link DIR-879 340 413

0 60 120 180 240 0 40 80 120 160 0 150 300 450 600

LAN SPEED TEST LAN SPEED TEST LAN SPEED TEST

5GHz 10m range (Mb/sec) SmartConnect 2m range (Mb/sec) SmartConnect 10m range (Mb/sec)

BT Smart Hub 188 231

Asus RT-AC88U 208 375
BT Smart Hub 414 494
Asus RT-AC88U 144 206

BT Smart Hub 199 329 TP-Link AC3150 175 186

D-Link DIR-879 85 145

Netgear TP-Link AC3150 416 419
X4S R7800 179 220
0 60 120 180 240

LAN SPEED TEST

USB shared storage (Mb/sec)
Asus RT-AC87U 168 214
D-Link DIR-879 316 364
Asus RT-AC88U 233 517

177 192 Asus RT-AC87U 224 517

TP-Link AC3150

TP-Link AC3150 213 484

Asus RT-AC88U 199 267
D-Link DIR-879 104 155 Netgear
203 351
X4S R7800

0 100 200 300 400 0 125 250 375 500 0 130 260 390 520

Write Read

280MM LIQUID COOLER RESULTS

LGA1150 TEMPERATURE LGA2011 TEMPERATURE Noise level
(delta T) (delta T) (dBA)

Corsair Hydro
NZXT Kraken X62 Alphacool
52°C 34°C Series H115i 55
(Performance mode) Eisbaer 280mm
(Performance mode)

Alphacool NZXT Kraken X62 Raijintek

54°C 34°C 55
Eisbaer 280mm (Performance mode) Triton 280mm

NZXT Kraken X62 Corsair Hydro NZXT Kraken X62

54°C Series H115i 34°C 50
(Silent mode) (Performance mode)
(Performance mode)
Corsair Hydro NZXT Kraken X62 Be Quiet Silent
Series H115i 55°C 35°C 50
(Silent mode) Loop 280mm
(Performance mode)

Be Quiet Silent Raijintek Alphacool

55°C 35°C 48
Loop 280mm Triton 280mm Eisbaer 280mm

Raijintek 57°C Be Quiet Silent 35°C NZXT Kraken X62 48

Triton 280mm Loop 280mm (Silent mode)

Corsair Hydro Series Corsair Hydro Series Corsair Hydro Series

60°C 38°C 47
H115i (Quiet mode) H115i (Quiet mode) H115i (Quiet mode)

0 15 30 45 60 0 10 20 30 40 0 15 30 45 60
Lower is better Lower is better Lower is better

54
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

PC system reviews
GAMING PC

Gladiator Apocalypse 1060/£928 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.gladiatorpc.co.uk

he Apocalypse 1060 gives away
T its star component right there
in the name, but we’re not
surprised that Gladiator is showing off
the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 – it’s
an excellent mid-range GPU, as last
month’s Labs test proved. The new
card shares the Pascal architecture of
Nvidia’s pricier GPUs, although its
GP106 core is different to the GP104
that forms the GTX 1080: it has 4.4
billion transistors rather than just over
seven billion, and cards are equipped
with standard GDDR5 memory, rather
than GDDR5X.
The GTX 1060 has 1,280 stream
processors – half as many as the GTX
1080 – and a 1506MHz core clock, which Asus has
upped to 1569MHz for the card in this machine. You
can run this Asus card faster – if you enable its OC mode in
Asus’ GPU Tweak software, it will run the core at 1594MHz.
Meanwhile, the Gladiator’s Core i5-6600 CPU runs at
3.3GHz and it’s a solid mid-range processor, but
this is also where the Gladiator’s budget begins
/SPECIFICATIONS to bite. It’s 200MHz slower than the i5-6600K
CPU 3.3GHz Intel Core we usually see inside mid-range machines,
i5-6600 and it doesn’t have an unlocked multiplier, so it
Motherboard Asus B150M can’t be overclocked by the usual means. It’s
Pro Gaming
Memory 8GB Kingston chilled by a Be Quiet! Pure Rock BK009, which
HyperX Fury 2133MHz DDR4 is a mid-sized heatsink with a single 120mm
Graphics Asus Nvidia fan attached.
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Likewise, the 8GB of DDR4 memory runs at
Storage 240GB SanDisk
Z410 SSD, 1TB Seagate a comparatively sluggish frequency of 2133MHz,
Barracuda hard disk although it’s the only frequency officially
Case Aerocool GT-A supported by the Gladiator’s Asus B150M Pro
Cooling CPU: Be Quiet! Pure
Rock BK009 with 1 x 120mm Gaming motherboard, which uses Intel’s B150
fan; GPU: 2 x 90mm fans; chipset and also doesn’t support multiplier
front: 1 x 120mm fan; rear:
1 x 120mm fan overclocking, even with an unlocked CPU. It’s a
PSU Aerocool Integrator micro-ATX board that shoehorns a handful of
700W decent features into a small, affordable product.
Ports Front: 2 x USB 2, 1 x It has Asus’ SupremeFX audio, for example, as
USB 3, 2 x audio; rear: 4 x
USB 3, 4 x USB 2, 1 x PS/2, 1 x well as smart-looking heatsinks and
Gigabit Ethernet, 3 x audio programmable lighting in the audio circuitry.
Operating system Microsoft The backplate has just four USB 3 ports,
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Warranty One year parts and though, and three audio jacks – there’s no USB
labour with first two months 3.1 support. There’s also only one 16x PCI-E slot,
collect and return, followed
by three years labour only which is already occupied by the graphics card,
and this card also blocks one of the 1x PCI-E
slots, leaving just one free for future
expansion. There’s a free M.2 port, but
it’s tricky to reach behind the graphics
card and the chunky CPU cooler, and the
memory slots are similarly afflicted in
terms of accessibility. On the plus side,
you at least get a 240GB SSD, although
the SanDisk Z140 isn’t renowned for its
fast speeds, and there’s a 1TB hard disk
for larger data storage too.
All the kit is installed in an Aerocool
GT-A enclosure, which is coated in
glossy black plastic and decorated with
slats on the top and meshed areas at
the front, while red LEDs blare down
from the roof. The front panel has two
USB 2 ports, a USB 3 port and sliders to
adjust fan noise, while the top of the
case has a hot-swappable SATA bay for
hard disks and SSDs. There’s plenty of room inside, but the
GT-A exhibits a few issues – the plastic used for much of the
build is flimsy, and the numerous empty storage bays are
kitted out with weak plastic caddies.
There’s a raised area for cabling too, but no rubber-ringed
routing holes, and Gladiator has only done a mediocre job of
keeping the cabling tidy. The Aerocool doesn’t look great on
the inside either, thanks to its garish red plastic accents. A
touch of colour is welcome, but here it looks cheap.
The system’s 700W Integrator PSU also comes from
Aerocool, and it sports a respectable 80 Plus Bronze rating. It
isn’t modular, but you can’t have everything in a sub-£1,000
built. However, the components here don’t need anywhere
near 700W of power, especially as you can’t add a second
GPU to this machine.
Gladiator sells this PC with a huge variety of configuration
options, though, including options with Core i3 and i7
processors, as well as dozens of different memory and
storage configurations – you can even have it built with
different motherboards, cases and GPUs. The Apocalypse is
protected by Gladiator’s standard warranty, which is a mixed
bag. It’s good to see four years of labour coverage – a year
longer than most systems, but there’s only a year of parts
coverage, with just two months of collect and return cover.
Performance
The GTX 1060 is designed for 1080p and 2,560 x 1,440
gaming, and the Gladiator excelled in these tests. Its weakest
1080p minimum was an excellent 52fps in Crysis 3, and it

56
 1 2 3
The Asus GeForce The 700W Aerocool There’s a Core i5
GTX 1060 card has PSU sports an CPU, but it isn’t a
a 1569MHz core 80 Plus Bronze K-series one, so it’s
clock speed certification badge not overclocked

pushed beyond 60fps in The Witcher 3 – our benchmark for

butter-smooth gameplay. The Gladiator never dropped 3
below 30fps in any of our tests at 2,560 x 1,440 either.
Meanwhile, the processor returned an overall benchmark
score of 96,740, which is fine, but it’s hardly going to set the
world alight – it’s no surprise given the comparatively low 1
clock speed. It’s enough power for modern games and your
usual work software, but other systems definitely offer more
power in this respect.
The storage system didn’t exactly steal any thunder either.
The low-end SanDisk SSD returned read and write speeds of
496MB/sec and 192MB/sec – the latter figure is downright 2
poor, even for a SATA drive.
On the plus side, there were no thermal issues. The
processor’s peak delta T of 35°C is excellent, and the GPU’s
top figure of 52°C is similarly impressive. Noise was fine too – is stuck at 2133MHz and the SSD is disappointing. The case
a consistent low hum emerged from the machine and never is a little garish, and there’s limited room to add components
got any louder during stress tests. in the future. It isn’t possible to get much more gaming power
into a machine that costs under £1,000 including Windows,
Conclusion of course, and if you want decent gaming performance on
The Gladiator’s overclocked GTX 1060 delivers solid 1080p a tight budget then it’s worth considering. Before you buy,
and 2,560 x 1,440 gaming performance, and the processor though, it’s important to consider this OC’s shortcomings,
has enough power to avoid significant games bottlenecks. In and consider spending a little more money if they’re likely to
other areas, though, this PC is more ordinary. The processor prove problematic in the future.
can’t be overclocked, the motherboard is limited, the memory MIKE JENNINGS

C PC R EALB ENC H 2 0 15
GI MP I MAGE EDI T I N G FALLOUT 4
Gladiator 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra Detail, TAA
Apocalypse 1060 47,924
Gladiator
0 12,000 24,000 36,000 48,000 57fps 68fps
Apocalypse 1060
0 20 40 60 80
HANDBR AKE H. 26 4 V I D E O E N C O D I N G 2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, TAA
Gladiator Gladiator
210,752 35fps 43fps
Apocalypse 1060 Apocalypse 1060
0 55,000 110,000 165,000 220,000 0 20 40 60 80
T H E W IT CH ER 3 : W IL D H U N T
LUXMARK OPENCL 1,920 x 1,080, High Detail, AA on
Gladiator
70,503 Gladiator 66fps 79fps
Apocalypse 1060
Apocalypse 1060
0 18,000 36,000 54,000 72,000 0 20 40 60 80
2,560 x 1,440, High Detail, AA on
HEAVY MULT I T A S KI N G Gladiator
Gladiator
48fps 53fps
114,186 Apocalypse 1060
Apocalypse 1060 0 20 40 60 80
0 30,000 60,000 90,000 120,000 CR YS IS 3
1,920 x 1,080, Very High Detail, 0x AA
S YS T EM S C OR E Gladiator
Gladiator 52fps 80fps
96,740 Apocalypse 1060
Apocalypse 1060
0 20 40 60 80
0 25,000 50,000 750,00 100,000
2,560 x 1,440, Very High Detail, 0x AA
I NT EL REFERENCE : 8 4 . 5 2 % Gladiator
34fps 49fps
Apocalypse 1060
0 20 40 60 80
Minimum Average
SPEED DESIGN
OVERALL SCORE

75%
18/25 18/25 VERDICT
Solid gaming performance for
HARDWARE VALUE a great price, but this machine
17/25 22/25 is very limited elsewhere.

57
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

GAMING PC

PC Specialist LS-H02/£3,499 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.pcspecialist.co.uk

his system’s enigmatic name signifies that it’s part

T of PC Specialist’s new range of liquid-cooled rigs,
and it’s an extensive one too. Unlike the entry-
level water-cooling gear we saw in PC Specialist’s LS-E02
(see Issue 155, p64), the LS-H02 features the company’s
high-end cooling kit. The two GPUs and overclocked 6-core
CPU are serviced by two vast radiators; a 360mm EK
CoolStream PE unit sits in the front, linking the reservoir to
the CPU, while a 240mm version is attached to the roof, with
tubes leading away from the CPU and through the two
graphics cards.
The loop is powered by an EK Revo D5 pump that sits
under a huge 250mm cylindrical reservoir, which takes pride
of place at the front. The loop is filled with white coolant, and
the GPUs are a highlight – they’re linked with an EK Terminal
Dual connector made from clear acrylic, which means that all
the tubing and coolant is visible, and the GPUs themselves
are covered with smart-looking acrylic blocks too.
The white coolant stands out in the Fractal Design Define a long while. The two GTX 1080 cards come from EVGA, with
S’s black interior, and PC Specialist has continued its their 1607MHz base clocks tweaked to 1708MHz. They’re not
monochrome theme elsewhere. The GPU and motherboard the only overclocked components either. The Core i7-6850K
power cables are neatly finished with black and white runs at 4.3GHz rather than 3.6GHz. It’s a 6-core chip with
sleeving, and the front and back of the case are enhanced Hyper-Threading, so this machine will be great with heavily
with LED strips that glow white. The Asus ROG logo has been multi-threaded software, although the vast majority of
programmed to match too. games don’t run any quicker with six cores than with four.
Several other colour schemes are available, There’s also 16GB of 3200MHz memory and a 2TB hard
/SPECIFICATIONS and PC Specialist also has different tiers of disk, and this rig marks the first time we’ve seen an Intel
CPU 3.6GHz Intel Core water cooling at different prices. The entry- 600p SSD inside a system, which fits into the M.2 slot and
i7-6850K overclocked level option has a smaller reservoir, one supports the NVMe protocol. Meanwhile, the familiar Asus
to 4.3GHz
radiator and only chills the CPU, while the ROG Strix X99 Gaming motherboard sits behind the hefty
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix
X99 Gaming mid-range kit uses a single radiator and pump hardware. It’s a good-looking motherboard with RGB
Memory 16GB Kingston to chill a single GPU alongside the processor. lighting, high-end Ethernet, and audio and on-board buttons
HyperX Predator 3200MHz Above the LS-H02 is the Extreme kit, which and displays. The backplate also serves up dual-band
DDR4
uses two reservoirs and two 360mm 802.11ac Wi-Fi and ample USB 3.1 connectors. We can’t fault
Graphics 2 x EVGA GeForce
GTX 1080 8GB radiators to cool a CPU and up to three GPUs. the board, although many of its features are hidden behind
Storage 512GB Intel 600p M.2 Meanwhile, the Define S chassis has a the rest of this rig’s components.
SSD; 2TB Western Digital Black subtle front panel made from aluminium, The system is all powered by a Corsair RM850x PSU,
hard disk
Case Fractal Design Define S and a side panel lined with sound-dampening which has ample power for the GPUs and CPU, and it sports
Cooling CPU: EK Supremacy material. The air intakes are covered with 80 Plus Gold certification. It’s fully modular too. Finally, the
EVO waterblock, EK dust filters, the storage trays have rubber LS-H02 is protected by PC Specialist’s standard three-year
CoolStream 360mm & 240mm
radiators, EK X3 250 reservoir, grommets and the motherboard is warranty. Labour is covered for the entire period, although
EK Revo D5 pump; GPU: 2 x EK surrounded by rubber cable-routing holes. you only get a year of parts and coverage, and just one
JetStream waterblocks; rear: Cables at the front are barely visible, and month of collect and return service. It isn’t a particularly
1 x 120mm fan
PSU Corsair RMx850 they’re routed perfectly around the back with generous deal considering the price of the machine.
Ports Front: 2 x USB 3, 2 x audio; cable ties and adhesive pads.
rear: 4 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 It’s a neat build, but there’s barely room for Performance
Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 2, 1 x PS/2, 1 x Gigabit any more gear. The two vacant PCI-E slots are Two overclocked GTX 1080s make for a potent gaming
Ethernet, 1 x optical S/PDIF, tricky to reach behind the cooling hardware force. The PC Specialist’s weakest 4K score came in Fallout
5 x audio
and Nvidia’s high-bandwidth SLI bridge, and 4, where it still managed superb minimum of 53fps at Ultra
Operating system Microsoft
Windows 10 Home 64-bit the handful of on-board headers are similarly settings. Its best result was in The Witcher 3, where it hit a
Warranty One year parts and hard to access. There are a couple of 2.5in minimum of 75fps. No game will prove problematic at 4K.
labour with first year collect and bays around the back, but that’s it. The LS-H02 isn’t slow in applications either. Its score of
return, followed by two years
return to base labour only Fortunately, the huge power on offer 379,439 in our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake video
means that upgrades won’t be necessary for encoding benchmark is exceptional, and its overall score of

58
 1 2 3
The huge 250mm The graphics cards The motherboard
cylindrical reservoir are linked with power cables
takes pride of place an EK Terminal sport black and
at the front Dual connector white sleeving

166,363 is incredibly fast. That said, only a few applications

will take advantage of those extra cores.
Then there’s the Intel 600p SSD, which is one of the first 3 1
affordable 512GBN NVMe 4x PCI-E 3 drives. Not surprisingly,
the 600p delivered mixed benchmark results, with a read
pace of 1,632MB/sec but a write speed of 528MB/sec. The
former score isn’t far behind Samsung’s NVMe drives, but 2
the latter only matches SATA SSDs.
The cooling system is exceptional. The CPU delta T of
44°C is very low, despite its overclock, and the graphics card
delta Ts of 35°C are even better. There’s no chance of heat
issues no matter how hard you push these components.
Noise management is impressive – the PC Specialist is
hardly audible when idle, and its fans only churn out modest
noise during stress tests.

Conclusion
At three and a half grand, the LS-H02 us undoubtedly
expensive, but it’s clear where PC Specialist has spent its
budget. The two GTX 1080s deliver incredible gaming
performance, the 6-core CPU is fast and powerful, and the
build quality is superb. The motherboard is great, and the
water-cooling system is quiet, good-looking and very
effective. You could buy a similarly specified system for less
money, but it wouldn’t be as cool, quiet or good-looking.
The only disappointment is the solid state drive, which
isn’t as quick as Samsung’s hardware, but is still plenty fast
enough for most people’s needs. The high price and huge
graphics power mean that only a select few need apply, but
there’s no denying the quality on offer. The LS-H02 is a
smart, subtle and well-made gaming rig that will scythe
through any top game at 4K.
MIKE JENNINGS

C PC R EALB ENC H 2 0 15
GI MP I MAGE EDI T I N G FALLOUT 4
2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, TAA
PC Specialist LS-H02 59,595
0 15,000 30,000 45,000 60,000 PC Specialist LS-H02 110fps 129fps
0 50 100 150 200
H ANDB R AKE H. 2 6 4 V I D E O E N C O D I N G 3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Detail, TAA

PC Specialist LS-H02 379,439

360000 PC Specialist LS-H02 53fps 65fps
0 97,500 195,000 292,500 390,000 0 50 100 150 200
T H E W IT CH ER 3 : W IL D H U N T
L UXMAR K OPENCL 2,560 x 1,440, High Detail, AA on

PC Specialist LS-H02 90000 155,809 PC Specialist LS-H02 124fps 157fps

0 40,000 80,000 120,000 160,000 0 50 100 150 200
3,840 x 2,160, High Detail, AA on
H EAVY MULT I T AS KI N G
PC Specialist LS-H02 75fps 88fps
PC Specialist LS-H02 195,260
0 50 100 150 200
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 CR YS IS 3
2,560 x 1,440, Very High Detail, 0x AA
SYS T EM S C OR E
PC Specialist LS-H02 114fps 178fps
PC Specialist LS-H02 166,363
0 50 100 150 200
0 43,000 86,000 129,000 172,000
3,840 x 2,160, Very High Detail, 0x AA
INT EL R EFERENCE : 1 4 5 . 35 %
PC Specialist LS-H02 57fps 82fps
0 50 100 150 200
Minimum Average
SPEED DESIGN
OVERALL SCORE

90%
23/25 24/25 VERDICT
Blistering speed and low-noise
HARDWARE VALUE operation from a smart, cool
23/25 20/25 and well-made machine.

59
 R E V I E WS / NEW KIT

GAMING PC

Scan 3XS X99 Carbon RGB/£2,500 incVAT

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk

can knows how to build a PC that will grab

S your attention. Its 3XS X99 Carbon RGB is
built inside a Corsair Carbide 460X with side
and front panels made from fashionable tempered glass,
and the rig is illuminated by fans fitted with RGB LEDs. The
chassis includes three 120mm fans at the front and a single
120mm exhaust, and Scan has fitted two more identical
spinners to the Corsair H100i V2 CPU cooler. They’re all RGB
fans, and by default, they run with a smart pattern: the fans
illuminate one by one, starting at the front, running to the top
and then to the exhaust, with white light circulating around
the outside of each fan until it’s fully lit.
It looks excellent, although it could be little distracting if
it’s sitting next to your monitor on a desk. Thankfully, Corsair
includes a fan controller to change the mode, colour and
speed of the lighting. The lights can be made to glow, flash
on and off, switch between colours or just to stay on or off
permanently. The Corsair 460X also measures just 464mm
tall, making it far smaller than many other towers with similar
power levels. That said, larger cases will offer more room for
further storage and expansion.
The case’s tempered glass is thick and the steel used Scan’s warranty remains generous too. Few other firms
elsewhere is strong. A metal shroud keeps the PSU and offer a year of on-site service, let alone a full three years of
hard disk hidden, and the motherboard is ringed with rubber parts coverage, but Scan delivers all the goods here.
routing holes. The interior is all black, which looks excellent
against the white lights. Scan has done a commendable Performance
build job too. The power cables at the front are braided, and The Scan didn’t disappoint in games, handling all our test
all the wires are routed tidily. It’s the same around the back, games fine at 2,560 x 1,440 and 1080p. It can even manage
where Scan has been just as fastidious. some 4K gaming, never dropping below 30fps in Crysis 3
The case is also filled with superb and managing a still playable 27fps in Fallout 4. That’s a
/SPECIFICATIONS components. The EVGA GTX 1080 card has couple of frames per second quicker than other GTX 1080
CPU 3.4GHz Intel Core had its core clock increased by over 100MHz to machines. Take the Box Cube Ranger, which had a GTX 1080,
i7-6800K overclocked to 1721MHz, and its illuminated logos look good a Core i7-6700K CPU and a price of £2,300, but could only
4.2GHz
inside Scan’s monochrome machine. The Core manage 28fps in Crysis 3 and 26fps in Fallout 4.
Motherboard Asus X99A-II
i7-6800K is a 6-core CPU overclocked to The Carbon followed up its solid gaming pace with a result
Memory 32GB Corsair
Vengeance LPX 2666MHz 4.2GHz. It will handle any computing task, of 154,015 in our RealBench 2015 benchmark suite. The
DDR4 although it won’t have much benefit in games. Scan’s lesser single-core speed means it falls behind in
Graphics EVGA Nvidia Meanwhile, Windows 10 is installed on a single-threaded tasks, but its extra cores see it open up a
GeForce GTX 1080 8GB
Storage 256GB Samsung
Samsung SM961 M.2 SSD, which is one of the huge advantage over the Box in the video encoding test,
SM961 M.2 SSD; 2TB firm’s newest NVMe OEM drives. The Scan is where it scored 374,344 compared to the Box’s score of
Seagate Barracuda hard disk muscular elsewhere too, with 32GB of memory 322,405. Basically, if you’re using any heavily multi-threaded
Case Corsair Carbide 460X clocked to a reasonable frequency of 2666MHz. software, such as Handbrake or rendering packages, the
Cooling CPU: Corsair Hydro
H100i V2 with 2 x 120mm The black and white theme follows to the 6-core PC is great, but it’s overkill for anyone else.
fans; GPU: 2 x 100mm fans; Asus X99A-II motherboard, which pairs its good The new Samsung SSD is great too. It delivered read and
front: 3 x 120mm fans; rear: looks with a deep roster of features. It has USB 3 write results of 2,535MB/sec and 1,801MB/sec in AS SSD’s
1 x 120mm fan
PSU Corsair RM750i 750W and USB 3.1 ports on the backplate, along with sequential read and write tests, which are very similar to the
Ports Front: 2 x USB 3, 2 x on-board buttons and displays, and Crystal results from Samsung’s SSD 960 Pro drives (see p20).
audio; rear: 4 x USB 3, 4 x Sound 3 audio. There’s no Wi-Fi or excessive The combination of loads of fans, a large CPU cooler
USB 2, 1 x PS/2, 1 x Gigabit
Ethernet, 3 x audio gaming features, but they’re the only omissions radiator and a Pascal GPU means there were no heat issues
Operating system Microsoft – in every other department, it’s an impressive with this machine either. The CPU’s peak delta T of 50°C is
Windows 10 Home 64-bit slab of PCB. The PSU is great too. The Elite- superb, and the GPU topped out just 1°C higher. Noise levels
Warranty Three years parts listed Corsair RM750i has loads of power, a were generally good too. The Scan is extremely quiet when
and labour. First year on site,
then return to base fully modular design and an 80 Plus Gold running low-intensity tasks, and during games, it pumped
certification. It’s also exceptionally quiet. out a consistent, low rumble that never proved too loud or

60
 1 2 3
A metal shroud White light circles The Samsung
keeps the power around the outside SM961 OEM SSD
supply and hard of each fan until it’s performs similarly
disk hidden fully lit to the SSD 960 Pro

irritating. The fan speed does ramp up a little when some

applications and games are loaded, but the fans calm down
after a second, so it’s just a minor issue, and one that can be
tweaked with some fan control.
Conclusion
There’s no question about the Scan 3XS X99 Carbon RGB’s
performance – the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 is incredibly
quick, the CPU is fast and versatile, and the SSD is stunningly
fast. The case is top-notch too, with a great design and
extensive lighting. If you want a powerful, well-built system
that’s also great for showing off then the 3XS X99 Carbon
RGB is the machine to buy.
MIKE JENNINGS

C PC R EALB ENC H 2 0 15
GI MP I MAGE EDI T I N G FALLOUT 4
Scan 3XS X99 1,920 x 1,080, Ultra Detail, TAA
47,836
Carbon RGB Scan 3XS X99
0 12,000 24,000 36,000 48,000 102fps 118fps
Carbon RGB
0 40 80 120 160
HANDBR AKE H. 26 4 V I D E O E N C O D I N G 2,560 x 1,440, Ultra Detail, TAA
Scan 3XS X99 Scan 3XS X99
37,4344
360000 59fps 74fps
Carbon RGB Carbon RGB
0 95,000 190,000 285,000 380,000 0 40 80 120 160
3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Detail, TAA
LUXMARK OPENCL Scan 3XS X99
Scan 3XS X99 27fps 35fps
83,627 Carbon RGB
Carbon RGB 0 40 80 120 160
0 25,000 50,000 75,000 100,000
T H E W IT CH ER 3 : W IL D H U N T
1,920 x 1,080, High Detail, AA on
HEAVY MULT I T ASK I N G
Scan 3XS X99 Scan 3XS X99
177,157 125fps 142fps
Carbon RGB Carbon RGB
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 0 40 80 120 160
2,560 x 1,440, High Detail, AA on
SYS T EM S C ORE Scan 3XS X99
85fps 98fps
Scan 3XS X99 Carbon RGB
Carbon RGB 154,015
0 40 80 120 160
0 40,000 80,000 120,000 160,000 3,840 x 2,160, High Detail, AA on
Scan 3XS X99
I NT EL R EFERENCE : 134 . 5 7 % 42fps 52fps
Carbon RGB
0 40 80 120 160
CR YS IS 3
1,920 x 1,080, Very High Detail, 0x AA
SPEED DESIGN
OVERALL SCORE

91%
24/25 23/25
Scan 3XS X99
90fps 138fps
Carbon RGB
0 40 80 120 160
HARDWARE VALUE 2,560 x 1,440, Very High Detail, 0x AA

23/25 21/25 Scan 3XS X99

Carbon RGB
61fps 88fps
0 40 80 120 160
3,840 x 2,560, Very High Detail, 0x AA
VERDICT Scan 3XS X99
30fps 41fps
Incredible power packed into a smart build with a Carbon RGB
0 40 80 120 160
bright, versatile lighting system.
Minimum Average

61
 E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Elite
Our choice of the best hardware available

Build a quiet performance PC

The parts you’ll need to build a very quiet PC that doesn’t compromise on performance. Not only does this machine feature
an Intel Skylake CPU and an Nvidia Pascal GPU, but it also makes use of a massive CPU heatsink and a fanless PSU to
eliminate fan noise, while the graphics card fans only spin up under heavy loads. You can see our full guide to building this
PC on p84.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

Cooltek Jonsbo UMX4 www.quietpc.co.uk Issue 160, p84 £129

Intel Core i7-6700K www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 145, p17 £339

Asus Maximus VIII Ranger www.box.co.uk Issue 147, p44 £161

16GB 2666MHz GeIL Dragon RAM

www.comwales.co.uk Issue 158, p53 £90
(GWB416GB2666C15DC)

Palit GeForce GTX 1060 Dual 6GB www.ebuyer.com Issue 160, p84 £180

Nofan CR95C IcePipe www.quietpc.co.uk Issue 160, p84 £80

500GB Samsung 850 Evo www.currys.co.uk Issue 158, p44 £150

Super Flower Golden Silent 500W www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 160, p84 £130

Microsoft Windows 10 Home

www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p17 £86
Retail USB drive

TOTAL £1,345

62
BuildabudgetgamingPC
The parts you’ll need to build a budget machine capable of playing the latest games at maximum settings on a 1080p
monitor, and even some games at 2,560 x 1,440. The machine has a discrete graphics card, a Skylake dual-core CPU and
DDR4 memory. The ASRock Extreme4 motherboard is also capable of base clock overclocking via a BIOS update.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

NZXT S340 www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 137, p54 £67

ASRock Z170 Extreme4 www.cclonline.com Issue 151, p84 £128

Intel Core i3-6100 www.scan.co.uk Issue 151, p18 £113

8GB (2 x 4GB) Corsair

Vengeance LPX 2400MHz www.ebuyer.com Issue 151, p83 £48
(CMK8GX4M2A2400C16)

Nvidia GeForce
www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 159, p43 £189
GTX 1060 3GB

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB www.ebuyer.com Issue 141, p51 £85

SilverStone Argon AR01 www.scan.co.uk Issue 132, p57 £30

EVGA SuperNova GS 550W www.cclonline.com Issue 146, p50 £77

Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 www.aria.co.uk Issue 104, p75 £61

Microsoft Windows 10 Home

www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p17 £86
Retail USB drive

TOTAL £884

63
 E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Buildamid-rangePC
Work PC
The parts you’ll need to build a solid quad-core PC with plenty of upgrade potential. This kit list gives you an
all-in-one liquid cooler and a K-series Core i5 Skylake CPU, meaning you can overclock it and get some serious processing
power. We’ve managed to get the Core i5-6600K Skylake CPU up to 4.6GHz, so it has some great performance potential.
Also included is a solid EVGA PSU, a fast M.2 SSD and 16GB of high-speed DDR4 memory. The core configuration assumes
you won’t be doing any serious gaming, however, and it relies on Intel’s integrated graphics.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

SilverStone Primera PM01 www.scan.co.uk Issue 157, p25 £90

Asus Maximus VIII Ranger www.box.co.uk Issue 147, p44 £161

Intel Core i5-6600K www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 145, p17 £230

16GB 2666MHz Geil Dragon RAM

www.comwales.co.uk Issue 158, p53 £90
(GWB416GB2666C15DC)

NZXT Kraken X41 www.alza.co.uk Issue 138, p57 £76

EVGA SuperNova GS 550W www.cclonline.com Issue 146, p50 £77

Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 www.aria.co.uk Issue 104, p75 £61

Samsung SSD 950 Pro 256GB www.shop.bt.com Issue 149, p48 £172

Microsoft Windows 10 Home

www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p17 £86
Retail USB drive

TOTAL £1,043

Gaming PC
The graphics card you’ll need to play current games at their maximum settings at 1080p and 2,560 x 1,440.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

1,920 x 1,080 and some 2,560 x 1,440

www.scan.co.uk Issue 159, p51 £239
NvidiaGeForceGTX10606GB

2,560 x 1,440 and some 4K

www.ebuyer.com Issue 156, p24 £460
Asus Strix GeForce GTX 1070 OC

64
BuildaperformancePC
Work PC
The parts you’ll need to build a high-quality, fast PC that’s ideal for multi-threaded workloads. This kit list features a high-
quality, well-built case, a feature-rich motherboard and an Intel Skylake Core i7-6700K CPU. This processor’s support for
Hyper-Threading splits the resources of the CPU’s four physical cores into a further four virtual cores, meaning it can
effectively handle eight threads at once. There’s also a solid Corsair 750W PSU, giving you plenty of headroom for
overclocking and adding another GPU, 16GB of DDR4 memory, a high-speed M.2 SSD and a proper liquid-cooling system.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

Cooler Master Cosmos SE www.scan.co.uk Issue 144, p41 £115

Asus Maximus VIII Hero www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 146, p20 £194

Intel Core i7-6700K www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 145, p17 £339

16GB Corsair Vengeance LED 3000MHz DDR4

www.scan.co.uk Issue 158, p56 £85
(CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R)

Alphacool Eisbaer 240 www.aquatuning.co.uk Issue 157, p28 £104

Corsair RM750i www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p55 £120

Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 www.aria.co.uk Issue 104, p75 £61

Samsung SSD 950 Pro 512GB www.currys.co.uk Issue 149, p48 £265

Microsoft Windows 10 Home

www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p17 £86
Retail USB drive

TOTAL £1,369

Gaming PC
The graphics card you’ll need to play current games at their maximum settings at 2,560 x 1,440 and beyond.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

1,920 x 1,080 and some 2,560 x 1,440

www.scan.co.uk Issue 159, p51 £239
NvidiaGeForceGTX10606GB

2,560 x 1,440 and some 4K

www.ebuyer.com Issue 156, p24 £460
Asus Strix GeForce GTX 1070 OC

Smooth 4K
www.nvidia.co.uk Issue 158, p20 £1,099
NvidiaTitanX

65
 E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Buildahigh-end6-corePC
Multi-threaded PC
The parts you’ll need to build a PC with serious power in multi-threaded software, such as 3D rendering apps, video
editing programs and optimised distributed computing software. The kit list features a 6-core LGA2011-v3 CPU, which is
overclockable using the motherboard and top-end cooler listed. Also supplied is 16GB of RAM, a super-fast M.2 SSD, 1TB of
extra solid state storage and Asus’ superb X99 Deluxe II motherboard.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

Phanteks Enthoo Luxe www.eclipsecomputers.com Issue 144, p53 £138

Asus X99 Deluxe II www.eclipsecomputers.com Issue 156, p43 £365

Intel Core i7-6850K www.aria.co.uk Issue 156, p26 £571

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 159, p43 £189

16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666MHz DDR4

www.scan.co.uk Issue 136, p14 £104
(CMK16GX4M4A2666C16)

NZXT Kraken X62 U PDATE D www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 160, p52 £140

Corsair RM750i www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p55 £120

Samsung SSD 960 Pro 512GB U PDATE D www.scan.co.uk Issue 160, p20 £306

Samsung 850 Evo 1TB www.ebuyer.com Issue 141, p51 £279

Lite-On IHAS124-14 www.shop.bt.com Issue 99, p108 £11

Microsoft Windows 10 Home

www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p17 £86
Retail USB drive

TOTAL £2,309

Gaming PC
Replace the Asus RX470 graphics card with another graphics card to enable 4K gaming on this system, or take advantage of
the Core i7-6850K’s 40 PCI-E 3 lanes and add two GPUs for smoother frame rates.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

2,560 x 1,440 and some 4K

www.ebuyer.com Issue 156, p24 £460
Asus Strix GeForce GTX 1070 OC

Smooth 4K gaming
www.nvidia.co.uk Issue 158, p20 £1,099
Nvidia Titan X

66
BuildaminiPC
Core components
The parts you’ll need to build either PC. This kit list gives you a solid PSU, 16GB of RAM, an overclockable Skylake CPU, an
all-in-one liquid cooler and Windows 10 Home 64-bit. Also included is a graphics card that can play current games at their
maximum settings at 2,560 x 1,440, and a high-speed M.2 SSD.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

Intel Core i7-6700K www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 147, p84 £339

16GB Corsair Vengeance LED 3000MHz www.scan.co.uk Issue 158, p56 £85

Corsair H80i www.scan.co.uk Issue 147, p84 £80

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB www.scan.co.uk Issue 159, p51 £239

Samsung SSD 950 Pro 512GB www.currys.co.uk Issue 149, p48 £265

Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 www.aria.co.uk Issue 104, p75 £61

EVGA SuperNova GS 550W www.cclonline.com Issue 146, p50 £77

Microsoft Windows 10 Home Retail USB drive www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p17 £86

Mini-ITX PC
The parts you’ll need to build a pint-sized powerhouse.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

Fractal Design Define Nano S www.scan.co.uk Issue 153, p22 £60

Asus Z170i Pro Gaming www.scan.co.uk Issue 147, p26 £144

TOTAL £1,436

Micro-ATX PC
The parts you’ll need to build a mini PC that doesn’t take up as much room as a full-sized desktop.

NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE

(inc VAT)

Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 www.scan.co.uk Issue 157, p53 £80

Asus Maximus VIII Gene www.aria.co.uk Issue 147, p42 £194

TOTAL £1,506

67
E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Cases
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

Budget ATX NZXT S340 www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 137, p54 £67

Sub-£100 SilverStone
www.scan.co.uk Issue 157, p24 £90
performance Primera PM01

Sub-£100
Fractal Design Define R5 www.scan.co.uk Issue 137, p20 £100
ATX quiet

Sub-£150 full-
Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 www.quietpc.co.uk Issue 144, p50 £137
sized ATX quiet

Sub-£150 full-
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe www.eclipsecomputers.com Issue 144, p53 £138
sized ATX

Sub-£150 mid-size
Cooler Master Cosmos SE www.scan.co.uk Issue 144, p41 £115
ATX

Fractal Design
Mini-ITX tower www.scan.co.uk Issue 153, p22 £60
Define Nano S

Fractal Design
Mini-ITX cube www.scan.co.uk Issue 150, p20 £53
Core 500

Micro-ATX Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 www.scan.co.uk Issue 157, p53 £80

Graphicscards
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

1,920 x 1,080 Nvidia GeForce

www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 159, p43 £189
gaming GTX 1060 3GB

2,560 x 1,440 Nvidia GeForce

www.scan.co.uk Issue 159, p51 £239
gaming GTX 1060 6GB

2,560 x 1,440 and Asus Strix GeForce

www.ebuyer.com Issue 156, p24 £460
some 4K gaming GTX 1070 OC

Smooth 4K gaming Nvidia Titan X www.nvidia.co.uk Issue 158, p20 £1,099

68
Powersupplies
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

EVGA SuperNova
Mid-range 550W www.cclonline.com Issue 146, p50 £77
GS 550W

Super Flower Leadex

High-end 550W www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 146, p52 £95
Platinum 550W

Mid-range 750W Corsair RM750i www.scan.co.uk Issue 146, p55 £120

Corsair Professional Series

High-end 1.2kW www.box.co.uk Issue 111, p40 £309
AX1200i

Networking
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

Netgear Nighthawk
Router D wwwebuyercom Issue 160, p44 £178
X4S R7800 U PDATE

Wi-Fi adaptor Asus PCE-AC68 www.cclonline.com Issue 128, p88 £67

Storage
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

Seagate Barracuda 2TB

Hard disk www.aria.co.uk Issue 104, p75 £61
ST2000DM001

Samsung 850
500GB SATA SSD www.currys.co.uk Issue 158, p44 £150
Evo 500GB

Samsung 850
1TB SATA SSD www.ebuyer.com Issue 141, p51 £279
Evo 1TB

High-performance Samsung SSD

www.currys.co.uk Issue 149, p48 £265
M.2 SSD 950 Pro 512GB

Synology
NAS box www.ebuyer.com Issue 154, p28 £147
DS216j

69
E L I T E / THE BEST KIT

Monitors
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

24in monitor Dell U2414H www.scan.co.uk Issue 129, p43 £192

27in 2,560 x 1,440 Acer

www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 155, p46 £400
FreeSync monitor XF270HU

27in 2,560 x 1,440 Asus ROG

www.scan.co.uk Issue 155, p48 £699
G-Sync monitor Swift PG279Q

ViewSonic
27in 4K FreeSync www.amazon.co.uk Issue 157, p26 £537
XG2700-4K

27in 4K G-Sync Asus ROG Swift

www.scan.co.uk Issue 151 , p42 £735
monitor PG27AQ

34in ultra-wide
Asus ROG Swift
curved G-Sync www.ebuyer.com Issue 157 , p42 £999
PG348Q
monitor

Peripherals
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

Cooler Master
Mechanical gaming MasterKeys Pro S www.box.co.uk Issue 152, p44 £100
keyboard (Pro L version recommended if
you need a numeric keypad)

Premiummechanical Corsair Gaming K70 RGB

www.box.co.uk Issue 154, p21 £150
gaming keyboard Rapidfire

Budget gaming Cooler Master Issue 149,

www.box.co.uk £19
mouse Xornet II p28

Logitech G402 Issue 139,

Gaming mouse www.currys.co.uk £40
Hyperion Fury p53

Ambidextrous Issue 150,

Roccat Kova www.box.co.uk £45
gaming mouse p28

Corsair Scimitar
MMO gaming mouse www.box.co.uk Issue 150, p17 £60
RGB

Wireless gaming SteelSeries

www.box.co.uk Issue 139, p61 £120
mouse Sensei Wireless

Steering wheel and Logitech G920

www.currys.co.uk Issue 159, p55 £230
pedals Driving Force

70
Audio
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

Asus Strix
PCI-E sound card www.scan.co.uk Issue 148, p28 £162
Raid DLX

Acoustic Energy
2.1 speakers www.amazon.co.uk Issue 142, p52 £129
Aego M

Razer
Soundbar www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 142, p57 £200
Leviathan

HyperX
Headset www.box.co.uk Issue 142, p46 £67
Cloud II

Surround-sound
Asus Strix 7.1 www.box.co.uk Issue 142, p43 £170
headset

Systems
TYPE NAME SUPPLIER FEATURED PRICE
(inc VAT)

Scan 3XS Z170

Quiet gaming PC www.scan.co.uk Issue 151, p60 c.£1,500
Vengeance

Scan 3XS
Dream PC www.scan.co.uk Issue 145, p58 c.£9,499
Barracuda

Sub-£2,000 Scan 3XS Z170

www.scan.co.uk Issue 155, p62 c.£1,950
gaming PC Vengeance 1080 GL

Mini-ITX CyberPower Hyper www.cyberpower

Issue 158, p60 c.£1,999
gaming PC Liquid 100 system.co.uk

Premium mini-ITX Overclockers

www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 154, p56 c.£3,990
PC 8Pack Asteroid

Scan 3XS X99

Premium PC www.scan.co.uk Issue 156, p64 c.£4,100
Carbon Fluid GL SLI

Overclockers
Water-cooled PC www.overclockers.co.uk Issue 150, p58 c.£3,414
Infin8 Toxicity

Scan 3XS X99

4K gaming PC www.scan.co.uk Issue 158, p64 c.£4,500
Carbon X SLI

High-performance Scan 3XS LG17

www.scan.co.uk Issue 159, p30 c.£2,550
gaming laptop Carbon Extreme

Thin and light Scan 3XS LG15

www.scan.co.uk Issue 153, p51 c.£1,480
gaming laptop Vengeance G-Sync

71
 Games

Contents
Inverse look p73 / Gears of War 4 p74 / Aragami p76 / Shadow Warrior 2 p76 /
Master of Orion p78 / The engine room – IRIS p80 / Indie corner p82

72
 OPINION

Howwetest
ll our graphics tests are performed
A on a high-end Ivy Bridge system,
which feaics cards in SLI or
CrossFire configurations configurations
We’ve tested each card in four separate
games. Our Battlefield 4 test uses a
60-second sequence from the start of the B E N H A R DW I D G E / FROM THE EDITOR
sin R I C K L A N E / INVERSE LOOK

HEADING HERE
BEYOND INFINITY
PLEASE
When video games allow us to explore entire galaxies,
Standfirst hereRick Lane
please asks where
Standfirst herethey canStandfirst
please possibly go next
here please Standfirst
here please Standfirst here please
T
herateatwhichgameshavegrowninthelastquarter Theproblemwiththisideaisthat,althoughagamethatlets
of a century never ceases to amaze me. In that time, you do anything is theoretically possible,a game that lets you

W
ow,I’d
gamesbetter
have make
shifted
sure
from
I have
twoandimensions
Nvidia cardtointhree
2014, I do anything enjoyably is another matter entirely.In GTA V,for
dimensions thought,
and nowas Ito
watched
stereoscopic
the Witcher
VR.An industry
3 PhysX demo
that was
last example, you find that funnelling these different systems
once dominated
proprietary
by platformers,
GPU featurethenwouldbyactually
shooters,persuade
is now led
me throughthesame,relativelysimplisticcontrolmethodreduces
by
togowithonecompany’sGPUoveranother’ssincethe3dfxdays.
sprawling open-world games that allow players to explore their impact, resulting in all those activities feeling the same.
entire
Graphics
cities,countries,worlds
card companies have andbeen
evencoming
galaxies.Games
up with such
these And in the case of Ubisoft, overlapping ideas doesn’t result in
as
unique
Elite selour
Dangerous
own judgment
and No Man’scall, according
Sky, whichtolet
your
youpriorities.
land on bettergames,butgamesthatfeeldepersonalisedandindistinct
What
and explore
are your planets
priorities
in awhen.
Ra nosse pre
galaxy comprising billions of stars,
feel like the culmination of a trajectory towards which the
from one another.
The alternative trajectory is to stop aiming big, and start
industry has been heading for decades.
But I also find myself asking what’s next.
electoribus apideli aiming deep. While massive, procedurally
generated spaces are undeniably impressive,
Gamescan’tfeasiblygetanybigger.Technically, Iftiandam
an entire quatur,
galaxy isn’t a good portion of the magic is lost once you
there’s still some room – the transition from begintoseethealgorithmicpatternsonwhich
galaxy to universe. But that seems rather
enough estotatur?
occum of a distraction theyrely.Bycomparison,anintricatelycrafted
implausible.Ifanentiregalaxyisn’tenoughof Ci
thendebis
youvel iliquamneed
probably sam game that lets you explore a smaller space in
a distraction then you probably need to
tosam
Quidebitis
serovides
consider
si
doloris
your priorities manywaysoftenretainstheplayer’sattention
consider your priorities. for far longer than even the most colourful,
As I see it,there are two possible trajectories utaque volectas random seed.
that gaming, broadly, can take. The first is the road to the That’s the secret of the success behind games such as
Übergame – the game that enables you to do pretty much Dishonored,DarkSoulsandtherecentrunofHitmanepisodes.
anything–aspacegame,shooter,racer,managementsimand Insteadofconcentratingonsize,thesegamesfocusonmaking
even a football game, all in one. theirworldslookandrespondconvincingly,spinningcountless
This sounds like a ridiculous prospect, but you only need to possibilities of play from subtly devised systems that react
lookatgamessuchasGrandTheftAutoV,orglanceatUbisoft’s with one another. Consequently, not only do certain levels or
output,toseethatit’sbecomingincreasinglylikely.GrandTheft areas of these games become memorable, but the player can
AutoVisn’tjustanopenworldcrimesim,itletsyouplaytennis, returntotheminentirelynewways–exploringdifferentpaths,
trade on the stock market and go hunting. It even lets you do experimenting with combat systems and so on.
yoga. Similarly, each new Ubisoft game expands the range of These games may not last forever, but their combination of
activities available to the player, with systems overlapping craft and flexibility means you can return to them over and
between games and slowly being absorbed into larger, more over again. And, like all great works of art, you can constantly
comprehensive experiences. find new ways to appreciate them.

Ben Hardwidge is the editor of Custom PC. He likesRick

PCs,Lane
heavy metal, real
is Custom PC’sale and Warhammer
games editor. 40,000. editor@custompcmag.org.uk
@Rick_Lane @custompcmag

73
 G A M E S / REVIEW

Gears of War 4/£45 incVAT

DEVELOPER The Coalition / PUBLISHER Microsoft / WEBSITE http://gearsofwar.com

t’s been almost ten years since Gears of War last Unfortunately, while the opening is conceptually
I revved its chainsaw-bayonet on PC. The very first
game graced us with a dodgy PC port before the
intriguing, in the act of play the game’s first act is something
of a letdown. The ‘DeeBee’ robots that form the backbone of
series released exclusively on the Xbox 360 for two sequels the COG’s new model army are nowhere near as fun to fight
and the pseudo-sequel Gears of War: Judgment. as the ferocious yet squishy Locust enemies. Their tactics
With such a great chunk of Gears of War absent from PC, are incredibly basic, either slowly advancing through gunfire
it’s reasonable to question whether there’s much point or simply attempting to rush you. Furthermore, shooting
jumping back into it at this stage, but hold that thought – them simply isn’t satisfying. The environment is also
Gears of War 4 comes from a new developer, The Coalition, underwhelming; the empty rooms and half-built structures
and brings a new main character, a new story and a new war. of the under-construction colony do little to show off the
At the same time, it smartens up the game’s landmark immense power of Unreal Engine 4.
cover-shooting and presents us with a brighter,
breezier apocalypse through a new engine and
a sharper, wittier script. The result, while hardly
revolutionary, proves to be a surprisingly
entertaining refresh.
Gears of War 4 takes place roughly 20 years
after Gears of War 3, wherein the armed forces
of the COG emerged victorious against the
fearsome Locust Horde. That war is now a
distant memory, and a new struggle has
OVERALL SCORE emerged in humanity’s attempt to rebuild

70%
/ VERDICT
It has its flaws, but
a sprinkling of new
ideas and a more
upbeat tone
ultimately makes
Gears of War 4 a
surprisingly
enjoyable romp.
society. In its pursuit of progress, the COG
has become an oppressive administration,
shunning any settlements that refuse to
adopt its hardline policies. These neglected
‘Outsider’ settlements respond by raiding the
technology from the COG’s prefab cities.
It’s on one such raiding party that we join JD Fenix
(son of the original game’s Marcus Fenix) and his
squad of ragtag outlaws. It’s a strikingly original
premise, exploring what happens once there’s no
more enemy to fight, and coming to the sad conclusion
that, when there’s no fighting to be done, humanity
turns to infighting.
Nevertheless, the combat is generally engaging enough,
with the blend of snappy cover shooting, cooperative
flanking manoeuvres and devastating melee attacks
feeling slicker than ever in the new engine.
However, the momentum at this stage comes mainly
from the characters. JD Fenix’s character is more in line with
the roguish charms of Uncharted’s Nathan Drake than the
grizzled grouchiness of his father, and the spirit of
camaraderie between him and his squadmates steers far

74
closer to buoyant adventurism than the chest-beating
machismo of the earlier Gears games.
Indeed, Gears of War 4 has a surprising sense of fun that
comes to the fore in a blistering second act, during which JD
reunites with his father at the rundown Fenix Estate, before
having to escape an all-out assault by the COG’s DeeBee
army. It’s intense, spectacular and at times genuinely funny,
featuring tough battles with missile-spewing helicopters,
and culminating in a desperate dash through a ‘Windflare’ –
a giant tornado that pummels the ground with lightning.
After these events, however, the strengths and
weaknesses of the game are reversed. The remainder of
the game focuses on a protracted rescue mission, which
leads to the revelation that the Locust race hasn’t been
destroyed, but has evolved into a more dangerous race of
creatures called the Swarm.
With the introduction of the Swarm, the combat instantly
improves. The Swarm units are smarter, more dangerous
and more varied than the DeeBee units, introducing several
new enemies such as the self-explanatory Pouncer, and
the Snatcher, which stuns its opponents with poisonous
quills before sucking them into its dripping, tentacle-filled
maw. There’s an expanded weapon roster to help players
counter this new threat, which includes the buzzsaw-
spitting buzzkill, and the tricky but devastating DropShot,
a launcher that fires hovering grenades that drive
themselves into the
ground when
detonated.
Yet while the
combat ups the
ante at this point,
the story starts to
drag. The middle act
has the distinct whiff of
filler, and the abortive
ending couldn’t be more
set up for a sequel if
Marcus Fenix looked into the
camera, winked and said,
‘Until next time, folks!’ The squad members’ chirpy dialogue
and witty observations help to sustain the sense of fun, but
their attitude feels increasingly disconnected from the grisly
combat and the increasing severity of the situation. There
are some fantastic individual moments, but none that lives
up to the spectacular escape sequence of the second act.
While the stakes are higher at this point, the scope remains
fairly small.
As with the single-player game, the multiplayer mode
offers a broadly similar experience to previous Gears of War
games, but with a few changes to keep it interesting.
Competitive multiplayer introduces several new modes,
such as Dodgeball, wherein killing an opponent will revive
a player on your team. Another intriguing new arrival is
Escalation, in which players fight with increasingly powerful
weapons, resulting in some thunderous exchanges towards
the end of a match.
The most significant change is made in the cooperative
Horde mode, where players attempt to survive against
ever-larger waves of enemies. Gears of War 4 introduces a
mobile ‘fabricator’, which can be carried around a map by
players, deployed at what they deem a suitable defensive
point, and used to build defensive objects such as barbed-
wire barricades and automated gun turrets. It’s
a smart addition that enables players to be
much more creative with their defences, and
adds a considerable lifespan to an already
substantial multiplayer offering.
Ultimately, Gears of War 4 is too cautious to
be a great game, toying with a few new
ideas before reverting to the
previous games’ popular
formula. Nevertheless, it’s
generally an exciting,
pulpy and surprisingly
likeable action game,
despite the gaping
chasm in the
PC canon.
RICK LANE
75
 G A M E S / REVIEWS

Aragami /£15 incVAT

DEVELOPER Lince Works / PUBLISHER Lince Works / WEBSITE http://aragami-game.com

ragami is a cunning magpie of a stealth game,
A borrowing elements from a variety of other
stealth games such as Dishonored and Splinter
Cell. Players assume the role of the eponymous Aragami,
a vengeful Japanese spirit summoned by a girl named
Yumiko, who has been imprisoned for many years in a
sprawling fortress city by members of the Army of
Light. You’re tasked with breaking Yumiko out of her
cell, either by sneaking or shanking your way through
OVERALL SCORE
of themselves without being seen. In Aragami, however,
you can only teleport into and between shadows – light is
Aragami’s main enemy.
Indirect light illuminates his blood red robes, and direct
light will drain his powers, prevent him from teleporting and
in some cases, obscure his progress entirely.
By sticking to the darkness, Aragami becomes a fast and
lethal presence, and the speed with which you can traverse
environments marks out Aragami from other stealth

70%
dozens of army soldiers.
Aragami’s stealth revolves around a modified version
of Dishonored’s blink mechanic, a short-range teleport
that lets players propel themselves a few yards ahead
games. If you’re skilled enough, it’s possible to cross an area
crammed with guards in a matter of seconds. Aragami can
also dispatch guards through a range of brutal canned-
stealth kills, and dissolve corpses with his shadowy touch,

/ VERDICT
A smartly designed
mashup of stealth
mechanics, but
Aragami is held
back from
greatness by poor
storytelling and
some obtrusive
level design.

Shadow Warrior 2 /£32 incVAT

DEVELOPER Flying Wild Hog / PUBLISHER Devolver Digital / WEBSITE www.shadowwarrior.com

lying Wild Hog’s Shadow Warrior reboot was

F arguably the best surprise of 2013, a fun and
inventive shooter that, although a little rough
around the edges, offered absurd action and an abundance
of heart (literally – demon hearts could be used as
weapons). We would be happy with a straightforward
sequel, perhaps with a lick of polish to the combat, but the
developers have radically reworked Shadow Warrior 2 into
a procedurally generated, co-op enabled gun collect-a-
thon. Just like its predecessor, it’s fun, inventive and
OVERALL SCORE rough around the edges.

75%
However, Shadow Warrior 2 is now a semi-open-
world game. The story and side missions are doled out
in a hub world area, and can be accessed from a map.
Once selected, the game generates the level layout
using several visually impressive environmental
/ VERDICT themes, such as a neon-soaked cyberpunk city, or
Shadow Warrior 2’s
extravaganza of rugged Japanese countryside populated by cherry
armaments and blossom and Buddhist temples. Each of these areas is
sheer fun make up prowled by unique enemies, such as mechs, cyborg
for its rough edges ninjas, yakuza henchmen, or hulking, fleshy demons.
and disappointing
There are also over 70 (yes, 70) weapons in the
co-op play.
game, ranging from swords and wolverine-claws,
through pistols, machine guns, shotguns and rocket
launchers, to truly weird weapons such as nailguns and
gauss cannons. There are even two chainsaw types, both
of which offer huge amounts of messy fun.
Unlike the levels, all weapons are also specifically
crafted, and although some of them share attacks and
reload animations, each one is different enough to
warrant experimentation. In addition, you can customise
each weapon by installing procedurally generated
upgrades, such as ice damage, explosive ammunition or
rapid-fire modes.

76
along with a raft of other powers that make him a truly
formidable avatar.
That doesn’t mean Aragami is an easy game, however.
The extremely perceptive guards can spot you even when
you’re completely shrouded in shadow if they’re close
enough. In addition, a single swipe of their devastating
light-swords is enough to propel Aragami back to the spirit
realm. As the game progresses, it adds further obstacles
such as eagle-eyed archers and devious flame traps.
The blend of a powerful lead character with similarly
capable enemies makes for a neatly balanced stealth
challenge, and it’s complemented by some impressive if
slightly artificial-feeling level design. Mission settings
include a misty, ancient cemetery, an idyllic water temple
Variety is the spice of Shadow Warrior, and the desire to
unlock the next death toy is the main propellant through the
game. However, the kitchen-sink approach to FPS design
comes at the cost of consistency. Many weapons, especially
pistols and shotguns, are frankly duff, while some enemies
such as floating drones are little fun to fight. Even the
trademark humour is a mixed bag, with some great off-the-
cuff witticisms, but also a lot of sex jokes and Wang puns.
The shooting is fairly basic but enjoyable, involving
dashing through large numbers of enemies, slicing and
and a sprawling army camp that leads into a vast, walled
town. Aesthetically, Aragami is beautiful, and it’s great to
sneak around these spaces, but they lack the organic detail
of the very best stealth games, with objects very obviously
placed to form routes and obstacles.
Easily, Aragami’s biggest flaw is its storytelling. The
confusing plot discusses many characters, locations and
events of which we know little to nothing. The dialogue is
expositional and laden with anachronistic phrasing, the
characters are thinner than rice paper and the whole
experience simply fails to engage. Aragami is a fun stealth
game, but it’s one you play purely for those sneaking
puzzles, rather than to see what happens next.
RICK LANE
shooting your way to victory. Ironically, although Shadow
Warrior 2’s new structure is designed with co-op play in
mind, the game is less enjoyable to play in co-op mode than
single-player mode, as it responds by making enemies
stronger, making your deadly arsenal feel considerably
less deadly.
That doesn’t make Shadow Warrior 2 a failure, however. It
offers a very different yet equally enjoyable experience to
the first game, even if it isn’t necessarily better.
RICK LANE
77
 G A M E S / REVIEW

Master of Orion/£23 incVAT

DEVELOPER NDG Labs / PUBLISHER Wargaming.net /

WEBSITE http://masteroforion.eu

he original Master of Orion spawned the ‘4X’

T moniker (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and
eXterminate), laying the template for countless
space strategy games. It was a groundbreaking, genre-
defining creation, but this reboot, published by World of
Tanks creators Wargaming.net, is anything but
groundbreaking. Wargaming has taken the Master of
Orion name, and used it to develop a space strategy game
designed to introduce new players to the 4X genre. The
intent behind it is admirable, but the decision to use the
Master of Orion name is questionable.
That said, as introductions to 4X go, you could do worse
than Master of Orion. The premise is the same as always;
you can choose to play as one of ten races, including boring
old humans, hive-minded robots and warmongering toad-
people, and attempt to assume control of a randomly
generated galaxy through various
means. You could try to become the
The galaxy is a most technologically advanced
civilisation, negotiate your way to the
kaleidoscope of head of the galactic council, or simply

shimmering drop fusion bombs on every planet that

isn’t yours until you’re sitting on top of
starlight a throne of dust.
Master of Orion does a fine job of
boiling down the complexities of 4X into
a game that’s quick and easy to play. A tutorial advisor
guides you through every step of your fledgling interstellar
civilisation, and the game keeps you appraised of which
aspects of your empire require your attention, be it a fleet
that needs orders, technology that requires researching, or
a colony that’s short on building instructions. Master of
Orion also minimises resource management. Constructing
new ships and buildings only costs time, and much of the
game’s strategy is dedicated to oiling the cogs of your
intergalactic machine – new structures and technologies
often improving build and research times in a simple
satisfying cycle of speed.
It’s also very attractive. The galaxy is a kaleidoscope of
shimmering starlight, motley planets and glittering dust
clouds. In addition, it boasts a ridiculously talented voice
cast, with the likes of Mark Hamill and Michael Dorn lending
both fun and gravitas to your alien encounters.
Perhaps most impressively of all, the game sports research well before the end. In addition, the diplomacy
OVERALL SCORE a fully 3D, real-time battle system that lets you take system makes it far too easy to be friends with everyone,

60%
direct control of your fleets. The control you’re granted
is very simplistic, but it’s enough to enable you to
make a difference in battles that, on paper, look like
foregone conclusions.
Sadly, the simplification efforts hurt the game
/ VERDICT elsewhere. The relatively small feedback loop never
A decent idea, but expands, meaning the tasks you’re doing at the
the new Master of beginning of the game are little different from those at
Orion is too simple the end. No matter what race you play, you also share
for its own good.
the same tech tree, which runs out of interesting tech to
while the surprisingly detailed espionage system is
undermined by the fact that spies are produced
automatically, making them an abundant resource.
There’s nothing wrong with the notion of a 4X game that
emphasises simplicity, but in Master of Orion, it comes at
the cost of innovation. Ultimately, it doesn’t offer any feature
that you can’t find in other, better space strategy games. It’s
far from a disaster, but it’s also far from what series fans
were anticipating.
RICK LANE

78
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 G A M E S / ANALYSIS

Maia’s engine has been

reduced from over 100,000
lines of code to just 40,000

R I C K L A N E / THE ENGINE ROOM

Return to IRIS
Rick Lane returns to Machine Studios’ colony sim Maia,
to find its workings have been very much changed

W
hen we last covered
Machine Studios’colony
sim Maia,and its
underlying technology IRIS,back in
early 2014,the game was still in
relative infancy. Only the base tech
and a handful of features were
implemented,and while it showed
plenty of promise,the game was still
some way from the granular,
AI-driven space-colony simulation
the developers planned.
Almost three years later (and
nearly five years into Maia’s
protracted development),there’s
light at the end of the tunnel.‘I’ve got
99 per cent of the assets done. Really,
it’s about finishing off the game,’
says Simon Roth,founder and lead
designer of Machine Studios. In that
time,a vast amount has changed in
the game’s core tech and systems.
The engine has been updated
considerably to make it more current
and stable,while the game’s complex
AI systems have been rewritten and
expanded to incorporate whole new
behaviours and characters.
At its most fundamental level,IRIS’
codebase is almost unrecognisable
from three years ago. The version of
C++ with which the engine was
written has been updated from a
mid-2000 standard to C++ 2014.
‘What that means is that so much
more logic can be rewritten,but with
a lot less code,’Roth explains.‘The
engine is now 40,000 lines of code.
At one point,it was pushing 100,000
lines of code,but there were just
cleaner,smarter ways of doing
things like multi-threading,which
previously required around 1,000
lines of code,but there’s now a
function that does it for you.’The
game is now less buggy,simply
because there’s much less code in
which bugs can appear.
In addition to reducing the
codebase by over half,Roth also had
to ensure that the game logic data
sits closely together in memory.
‘Processors keep getting faster,but
RAM hasn’t sped up. Our office
machines still use DDR3,’Roth says.
‘When it’s doing operations,the
processor can load chunks of data
from the RAM,put it into the
processor’s cache and then keep
using that cache as efficiently as
possible.’This situation,Roth points
out,is critical to crunching through
the calculations required to simulate
Maia’s interplanetary society.
Indeed,what makes Maia such an
enticing prospect is the granularity
of its systems and AI. The colonists
have a complex range of needs,and
the player’s ability to meet those

80
needs influences their physical and
emotional states,which in turn
affects their performance in their
jobs.Since we last spoke to Roth,
those needs have expanded
considerably.‘They currently have
around 50 needs. Each one is
balanced,so you have obvious needs
– food,water,thermoregulation,
heat and things like that,but there
are also social needs and moods.
They have sicknesses that are
simulated based on the lighting.
They can get depressed.’
Yet all this complexity is for
nought if it isn’t communicated
effectively to the player.‘When
there’s a bug,the player doesn’t
know if it’s a bug or not,’Roth points
out.‘There are a lot of features such
as needs that blend together,so
hunger and thirst are technically
kind of the same need,and social
needs mix in with a few of the
mental health needs and sanity.’This
is a problem with which Machine
Studios has been grappling for a long
time,and more recent updates have
been dedicated to solving it.
‘The colonists in the latest update
are given the ability to present
choices to the player based on their
skills,’Roth says.‘If they have a skill
and they spot a potential problem in
the base [that could be solved with
that skill],they can suggest doing
something to the player,who can
give them a yes or no answer.’
Interestingly,skills aren’t just
functional,but help to embellish
the world too.‘We added some fun
ones – for example,the colonists can
compose their own music based on
their mood.’Alongside skills,the
colonists can now send emails to
the player saying what they need in
the base,and they have expressive
animations and effects. If the base is
too cold,for example,the colonists’
breath will mist in the air.
Further compounding Maia’s AI
systems is the fact that the colonists
are no longer alone on the planet.
One of the biggest updates since our
previous encounter with Maia is the
addition of alien creatures. Initially,
the creatures just wandered
randomly through the game world,
but Roth recently changed the
creature AI,so they now have
different migration and behaviour
It’s now easier to interpret colonist
behaviour, thanks to plenty of
implicit and explicit information
Building a colony on an alien world throws up
unexpected challenges, such as your atmosphere
patterns.‘A creature migrating close
to your base is suddenly a threat to
your base,and will be a constant
threat to your base until it either
migrates away or you kill it,’Roth
points out.
‘The mole-rat-type creatures build
underground burrows,they spread
out and they can use thee burrows to
pop up in other places of the map.’
There’s also a bird-like creature that
sneaks into the player’s base and
steals objects from it,although Roth
had to change the game’s code to
make it a more visible in-game event.
There’s a problem though.‘Because
it’s simulated,basically I haven’t seen
it happen,’says Roth.‘It happened in
a livestream last week,and I went,
“Oh that’s the first time that’s
happened in a year.”’
Even the robotic drones,known
as IMPs,have had their AI retooled.
Initially using a system of hard logic
where direct orders from the player
led to direct obedience,the IMPs now
Maia’s IMP robots now share the same AI system as the
colonists, and can be manufactured using electricity
use the same system as the colonists
and creatures.‘They’re making
decisions based on everything they
want to do,’Roth says.‘The IMPs have
needs,but they’re different.’Roth
gives the example of an IMP needing
to recharge,but having to plan if it
recharges itself now or does another
task first.
It’s tough to make a dynamic and
unpredictable game respond in a
way that still lets the player feel in
control,and able to predict certain
outcomes,but Roth and his team
are closing in on that stage.
Fascinatingly,however,they
may soon break it all again by
implementing one of the last AI
features Roth wants in the game,
which he calls‘turning on insanity’.
Roth describes it as‘the ability
for colonists to just give up and
wander off. In the next update,
You start off with
we’re giving them pistols so they
plentiful water and
food supplies, but can shoot creatures inside the base,
they won’t last long but they can also go insane and just
start shooting each other. It’s not a
huge feature because all the code’s
already there,but it will change the
game’s dynamics’.
The goal for Maia has always
been to simulate the weirdness and
madness that inevitably bubbles up
in an isolated society on the knife
edge of survival.‘In all honesty,it
mostly works,most of the time now,’
Roth concludes.
81
 G A M E S / ANALYSIS

Beris aut quis dolorpo rehenist quis deles

et faceaquid qui re vendit fugitis dio. Et qui
ulparup tatection corendis et dolectat.

Rick Lane breaks down the latest indie games

R I C K L A N E / THE ENGINE ROOM

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Unt velicabo. Itaturit faceate sequas que core volorep erchilibus exerorest
volest, con repersp erchili quibustrum imus re molupta sequam conserumquo

Hob
P Techland’s Chrome engine
eople don’t talk about
Hot Lava
DEVELOPER much. Ie only
Runic Wild West
Entertainment / RELEASE TBA DEVELOPER Klei Entertainment / RELEASE TBA
games on the PC that are worth your
unic Games’ newest venture is a far cry from the ver the past few years Klei Entertainment has turned its
R O
time.
Perhapsrelentless
the reasonaction-RPG styling
for the lack of of its previous game, hand to stealth gaming, survival gaming and isometric,
buzz around Torchlight. Hob is ahave
oth iterations puzzle
hadplatformer in which the player turn-based strategy, resulting in three wonderful games
reassembles
their own. a planet. The world of Hob is one giant mechanism, its (Mark of the Ninja, Don’t Stave and Invisible Inc). Its next game sees
plants and animals live in and around giant clockwork contraptions. Klei explore 3D platforming, with a typically exuberant twist. Hot
Somehow, this world has begun falling apart and it’s up to you, Lava is a virtual version of The Floor is Lava, only this time the floor
playing as the titular Hob, to explore this world and figure out how really is lava. Played from a first-person perspective, you jump, climb
to piece it back together. and swing between obstacles, avoiding the floor at all costs. You can
The game world is largely open, allowing you to explore in any also slide along certain surfaces to build up momentum, and push
direction, solving the various puzzles how best they see fit. As you do through the stage at ridiculous speeds.
so, the shape of the game world will change, opening up new It’s a fast-paced parkour game inspired by the likes of Mirror’s
pathways and other areas to explore. Edge and Dying Light, with aesthetics deliberately designed to evoke
Meanwhile, the story is told without words or dialogue. Instead, it’s childhood memories. The various stages are inspired by places such
told visually, through environmental cues and your interactions with as schools, gymnasiums and suburban homes, warped and
various creatures you come across during your expedition (precisely expanded spatially, then threaded with a fiery theme. Meanwhile,
how you interact with them is uncertain). the art style and music is based on 1980s Saturday morning
While Runic is taking a bold new direction with Hob, there are children’s cartoons such as Thundercats and He-Man.
glimmers of its previous work. The art style, Atcamera
veri acest, omnitiand fast-
angle, Hot Lava represents Klei’s first foray into true 3D, which
de enderspis unt, ut
paced combat are all reminiscent of Torchlight. The question now is necessitates different techniques compared with designing two-
volestibus maiorep
whether the transition to a slower, more methodical style of game
ellorio nseque dimensional games. However, the early footage looks promising,
will be successful for the studio. occus, cor senis with slick visuals and impressive animations.

82
Hand of Fate 2
DEVELOPER Defiant Development / RELEASE TBA
and of Fate was a fantasy RPG that blended card-based
H deck building with real-time hack and slash combat. Each
round saw cards dealt into your hand, and the cards would
morph into 3D objects and enemies before your eyes, which you
would then have to overcome.
However, what made Hand of Fate exceptional was the Dealer,
who acted as both the story’s narrator and the game’s main
antagonist. Sitting opposite you, he would deal out your hand and
tell the story of your quest, all while trying to defeat you through the
cards he dealt and subtle psychological warfare. It was a fantastic
idea, enabling both the epic storytelling of an RPG and a smaller,
personal conflict between two people.
As such, it’s a pleasure to see a sequel in the works. In Hand of
Fate 2, the Dealer returns to help a new protagonist defeat the first
game’s main character, who has gone on to become the tyrannical
ruler of an oppressive nation. The story has a much broader scope,
with the fate of entire empires in your hands, while the third-person
combat from the first game has been reworked considerably. Mainly,
though, we’re excited by the prospect of another chance to square
off against one of the gaming world’s most underrated villains.
Luptae con cus voluptio. Ut et
Prey for the Gods parum, sunt harum sit, ut ut
DEVELOPER No Matter Studios / RELEASE December 2017
audist aliqui num ius dem qui
nspired by DayZ, Dark Souls and Shadow of the Colossus,
I Prey for the Gods pits you against titanic monsters in a
desolate frozen wilderness. You play a nameless girl
travelling to the edge of the known world, seeking the cause of
an endless winter, and finding that her civilisation’s
only chance of survival is destroying its gods.
The game blends tough survival gaming with epic
boss battles. As you traverse the frigid wilderness in
search for monstrous gods, you’ll need to gather
resources and seek out opportunities to warm up in
order to stay alive. The game sports exceptionally
detailed weather and snow effects to hammer
home the chilly environments.
Breaking up these long periods of struggle are bouts of intense
action, as you battle the massive beasts your religion idolises. They
range from hulking, troll-like colossi to half-eagle, half-dragon
Hello Neighbor
DEVELOPER Dynamic Pixels / RELEASE Summer 2017
ello Neighbor’s premise couldn’t be more straightforward.
H Break into your neighbour’s house, find a way into the
basement and uncover the terrible secrets that lie within.
This game intends to combine a small yet detailed environment with
a smart and adaptable AI to create a fiendish, dynamic sneaking
puzzle. Your neighbour’s house isn’t huge, but its layout is intricate,
and you’ll need to find your way around obstacles and contraptions
placed by your neighbour. Furthermore, your neighbour quickly
responds to any noises you make, and can sneakily creep up and
grab you from behind.
Most interestingly, your neighbour adapts to how you play. Try to
sneak through the front door a lot, and he’ll place cameras on the
porch. Use the back yard too much, and he might fill it with bear traps.
It’s reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid V’s approach to layered stealth,
where guards reacted to your play style. The main questions are
how the AI will be able to adapt, and how the game will encourage
you to repeatedly explore the game’s fairly contained environment.
The early footage indicates that the situation will get weird after a
while, messing with the player’s sense of perspective and so on.
Even at this early stage, though, Hello Neighbor looks pretty special.
creatures. As with Shadow of the Colossus, you
don’t fight these monsters by hacking at their feet,
but by climbing on them and seeking out weak
spots as they attempt to shake you off. Prey for the
Gods is being developed by just three people, but
the early footage looks incredibly accomplished, and the developers
have since received half a million in Kickstarter funding, so the
outlook is promising.
83
 Antony Leather shows you how to build a completely silent PC from scratch, and
also shares some tips and tricks for reducing the racket from your current system

T
here’s no getting around the fact that today’s
computer chips get incredibly hot. Despite all
manner of efficiency improvements over the past
few years, if you pack that many fast-switching
transistors into such a small space, the end result is
going to be a concentrated hotspot. Not only do the
processor, graphics card and power supply all need active cooling,
butyourcasewillalso haveatleastonefanitto shiftairflowoverthe
components and out the back.
The CPU has been a famous hotspot for a long time, and has been
thetargetofincreasinglylargerandmoreefficientheatsinks,aswell
as water-cooling systems, in an attempt to cut noise. These
improvements have been largely successfully too – the latest
heatsinks and liquid-cooling products are far more effective and
quieter than Intel’s reference coolers, or indeed any heatsinks from
ten years ago too.
Meanwhile,graphicscardshaveseensomeleapsforwardinterms
of both efficiency and cooler design, so much so that many Nvidia
models can now run at modest loads with their fans switched off.
Fanless powersupplies arereadily availabletoo,andthelatest silent
models can dish out over 500W while still sporting 80Plus badges,
which is enough power for most single-GPU systems.
Over the next few pages, we look at how to build a silent PC that’s
also equipped for lengthy gaming sessions, maximising the effects
of conduction and convection. However, we’ll also co ver numerous
waystocutdownthenoiseinyourexistingPC,takingsoundreadings
to see which options offer the best bang per buck when it comes to
killing those decibels.

84
BUILDING A SILENT PC
C
reating a silent PC is theoretically fairly easy – you just
need to remove any parts that create noise,such as fans,
pumps and hard disks. What isn’t so easy is then
providing enough cooling for your hardware. We had to make two
very small compromises with our PC build – there’s a fan on our
graphics card and a single 120mm case fan. As Nvidia’s Pascal
GPUs are so efficient,though,we decided to use a GTX 1060,which
can actually turns off its fans for the majority of the time,allowing
us to create a powerful gaming PC that only requires a little fan-
assisted cooling in games.
We also include options for building totally a fanless system,
but since gaming audio would likely drown out any noise from
this graphics card anyway,we felt it was worth making these two
small compromises in order to build a system capable of 2,560 x
1,440 gaming in the latest games,rather than mediocre
performance even at 1,920 x 1,080.
Secondly,ditching all your fans can be dangerous in a high-end
system,but you can have fans spinning slowly and creating
airflow without being audible.More importantly,on a particularly
hot day,a passive cooling system may not be sufficient to deal
with the heat. In order to avoid stability issues under all
conditions,it’s important to include one fan that can kick in if the
machine gets too toasty – think of it as a fail-safe. Anyway,
without further ado,let’s look at the hardware.

C P U A N D H E AT S I N K The CR-95C also reaches a long way

down the motherboard. As a result,
Intel Core on our Maximus VIII Ranger, the
i7-6700K/ £339 incVAT heatsink ended up obscuring the
SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk top 1x PCI-E slot, but it did at least
leave the 16x PCI-E slot clear –

Nofan CR95C just. Our graphics card doesn’t

IcePipe/ £80 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.quietpc.co.uk
With the thermal design power (TDP) of
even top-end Intel Skylake CPUs dipping
below 100W, there’s plenty of options for
dealing with the heat produced by a stock-
speed processor. To push our theory to the
limit, we’ll be using a Core i7-6700K – the
most powerful Intel CPU available with a
TDP of less than 100W. Sadly, all the current
Broadwell-E CPUs have TDPs of 140W,
which is asking too much of any fanless
CPU coolers short of using a massive
external water-cooling radiator. That’s an
option, of course, but in this feature we
focus on keeping all the hardware inside
the case and minimising costs.
There are plenty of examples of super-
large heatsinks being able to passively
cool CPUs, and they rely on the principle
of convection.
You have a couple of options here, but
the most popular one is Nofan’s CR-95C
IcePipe. This huge heatsink uses 160 small
heatpipes to create a massive surface area
that’s effectively cooled by convection in
your case. With a TDP limit of 95W, it
should be able to cool an Intel Core
i7-6700K, which has a TDP of 91W.
There are some downsides to the CR95C,
though, which are mainly due to its size.
You’ll be limited to using low-profile
memory that’s shorter than 32mm tall,
and you won’t be able to install
or remove it with the heatsink
installed. Some motherboards may
have heatsinks that are too tall to sit
under the CR-95C as well, but those on
our Asus Maximus VIII Ranger are quite
sizeable and there was still around 12mm
of additional clearance available. We
measured a maximum height limit of
36mm for motherboard paraphernalia –
any taller and you’ll risk these parts fouling
the heatsink.
come equipped with a
backplate, which is just as
well as it may have ended up
touching the CR-95C. Finally,
using a fanless cooler such as the
CR-95C means you’ll need to
choose your case carefully. You’ll
need at least 7mm of clearance
between the edge of your motherboard
and the top of your case, although
thankfully, this revised version of the
heatsink is smaller than the original
version, which had compatibility issues
with some cases.
Another consideration is ventilation –
you want plenty of vents, especially in the
roof, to enable convection to work its magic
and allow the heat emitted by the cooler to
escape – as hot air rises, it’s best for it to
escape through the roof of the case, so
a case with a minimum of two 120mm
mesh vents in the roof directly above the
heatsink will get you the best results.
ALTERNATIVE CPUs
You can use any sub-95W CPU with the
Nofan CR-95C, so a Core i5-6600K will
save you some cash. Similarly, if you
want to build a budget system, you could
also consider AMD’s A10-7890K, which
costs £137 inc VAT, but sports a Radeon
R7 GPU, which offers reasonable
performance in games at 1080p with
low detail settings.

85
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION
GRAPHICS CARD
Palit GeForce GTX 1060
Dual 6GB/ £180 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com
We thought long and hard about our choice
of graphics card. There are fanless cards
available, but they usually use older, low-
power GPUs, which will offer very limited
performance.There are also large heatsinks
for existing GPUs, but these can be tricky to
install, plus they’re usually humongous
and often require fans anyway. As we’ve
already mentioned, using a large, fanless
water-cooling radiator would work here,
but you’d need at least a quad 120mm-fan
model to passively cool a modern high-end
GPU during lengthy gaming sessions.
There’s a much easier and cheaper
solution to this problem, though, which is
to take advantage of Nvidia’s highly
efficient Pascal architecture.
Many Pascal cards use heatsinks that
can cool these GPUs passively at low to
medium loads, and only require their fans
ALTERNATIVE
GRAPHICS CARDS
The GTX 1060 is an ideal choice for a
quiet but powerful PC, as it has a TDP of
just 120W and most models only require
a single 6-pin power connector. That’s
30W less than the TDP of the GTX 1070,
there are semi-passive versions of the
latter too – if you need more grunt in
games, you can also consider this more
powerful option. However, you can
expect the fans on a GTX 107 card to spin
up more often, and you may need to
include an extra case fan to help out.
Finally, for a truly fanless GPU, your
current best option is Palit’s GTX 750 Ti
KalmX, which is available to buy from
www.quietpc.co.uk for £125 inc VAT.
86
to spin up under heavy loads in
games. We’ve opted for a Palit
GTX 1060 Dual 6GB, which
can switch off its twin fans
under low loads.
We’ll also be looking at how
to fine-tune the fan response in MSI’s
Afterburner tuning utility, in order to
extend the fanless operating time, so the
fans only spin up at maximum load. This
tweak means that the GPU won’t throttle
its performance, which is a real possibility
if you use a third-party cooler in a
completely fanless configuration.
Of course, this minimal use of active
cooling does mean our PC won’t be 100 per
cent silent all the time, but it’s a worthy
compromise for a huge increase in
performance. Alternatively, there are
completely fanless options too, such as
Palit’s GTX 750 Ti KalmX. Sadly, we couldn’t
find any more recent or more powerful
fanless graphics cards, but this situation
may change once Nvidia’s new GTX 1050 is
established,so keep your eyes peeled. If you
want to opt for another model of graphics
card, just make sure it offers a passive
cooling mode – some cards don’t support
passive cooling by default, although you
may be able to force fanless operation
using a utility such as Afterburner.
M OT H E R B OA R D
A N D M E M O RY
Asus Maximus VIII
Ranger/ £161 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.box.co.uk
16GB 2666MHz GeIL
Dragon RAM/ £90 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.comwales.co.uk
As we’ve already mentioned, the Maximus
VIII Ranger is compatible with the Nofan
CR-95C and the heatsink just about
clears this motherboard’s primary
16x PCI-E slot too. Smaller
motherboards may
run into issues
here, so we advise against opting for micro-
ATX or mini-ITX motherboards.
Another advantage of the Ranger is its
ROG EFI. Specifically, if you want to have a
modicum of active cooling for hot days or
lengthy gaming sessions, Asus’EFIs are
great for tuning your case fans – you can
make them switch off below certain
temperatures, which we’ll discuss later. In
addition, the Ranger has good heatsinks, so
it should be able to cope in a passively
cooled case. You can, of course, use any
compatible motherboard, but it may not be
able to tune the fans so precisely.
You also need memory that won’t clash
with the huge cooler. Despite its size, the
Nofan CR-95C does have a reasonable
height limit for memory modules, but the
32mm limit rules out the likes of Corsair’s
Vengeance LED memory. We ditched
memory heatsinks entirely with our
choice, and opted for GeIL’s low-profile
2666MHz Dragon RAM.
S TO R AG E
500GB Samsung
850 Pro/ £220 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.quietpc.co.uk
Once you’ve sorted out fan noise, the other
key step on your quest for silence is
ditching your hard disk and only
using SSDs. Once you remove all
the other noise sources, a hard
disk can become the main
sound producer in your case,
and a highly annoying one too.
There’s another reason not to use hard
drives in a quiet PC too, which is heat.
Hard disks don’t dish out the same level
of heat as a CPU, of course, but they do
produce significantly more heat than a

typical 2.5in SSD, so using solid state
storage is a double-edged sword in a
quiet PC. Assuming you don’t use a NAS,
completely ditching hard drives will mean
spending a lot more money if you need a
decent amount of storage space, but the
prices of even 1TB solid state drives are
coming down now.
We used a 500GB Samsung 850 Pro in
our system, but it’s also well worth
considering the cheaper Evo model, which
costs around £150 inc VAT, with a 1TB
version costing under than £290. The M.2
version of the 850 Evo is now slightly
cheaper too, but unfortunately, despite the
manual saying otherwise, the Maximus
VIII Ranger doesn’t support SATA-based
M.2 SSDs.
ALTERNATIVE STORAGE
If you need faster storage and can afford
the premium, consider a PCI-E based
NVMe M.2 SSD. Samsung’s new 960
Pro and Evo drives are much faster than
SATA SSDs, and they now come in large
capacities too.
CASE
Cooltek Jonsbo
UMX4/ £129 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.quietpc.co.uk
Perhaps the most important
decision you need to make when
building a quiet PC is which case
to use. We’ve mentioned that top
roof vents are vital, and you
ideally open mesh sections rather
than angled panels, as the latter
will only serve to hinder the
convection movement of air in
the case. Your case will also need
at least 7mm of clearance above
the top of the motherboard for the
Nofan CR-95C heatsink, and ideally mesh
sections in the base and front panel too.
The more convection airflow you can
ALTERNATIVES CASES
If you’re after completely silent PC and
you aren’t too fussed about gaming then
Streacom’s fanless cases are definitely
worth considering. Its new DB4 fanless
chassis, for example, looks absolutely
gorgeous and can cope with up to 65W
CPUs or even 110W CPUs with optional
extra heatpipes.
achieve, the cooler your hardware, and if
you choose a semi-passive graphics card
(like ours), you’ll be able to keep its fans
switched off for longer.
As well as convection, you also need to
consider thermal conduction when buying
a case. Lots of plastic should be avoided,
and it’s worth investing in an aluminium
case as opposed to steel. The former has a
thermal conductivity rating nearly seven
times higher than steel, and an entire PC
case can end up acting like a radiator,
adding to your PC’s ability to cool itself
without fans.
We searched for such a case and
managed to find one that should not only
perform handsomely but also costs under
£130 inc VAT. The Cooltek UMX4 is an ATX
case with an aluminium outer shell plus
large vents in the base and roof thanks to
a bottom-to-top cooling arrangement,
which is ideal for convection. The UMX4
is also big enough to accommodate the
Nofan heatsink, with the top vent sitting
directly above it to allow the heat to escape.
P OW E R S U P P LY
Super Flower Golden
Silent 500W/ £130 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk
Many PSUs support semi-passive operation
these days, from small SFX PSUs all the way
up to 2KW monsters.
At low loads, these power supplies
switch off their fans, just like semi-passive
graphics card coolers. In general, modern
PSUs made by decent brands are very quiet
anyway, even under moderate loads, but
unlike graphics cards, there’s plenty of
fanless PSUs from which to choose. Some
of them have limited connectors and often
limit the number of PCI-E plugs, though, so
check the specs before you splash out,
especially if you’re using a discrete
graphics card. Our GTX 1060 only requires
a single 6-pin PCI-E connector, so there was
plenty of choice.
In the end, we opted for a Super Flower
80 Plus Platinum rated Golden Silent 500W
fanless PSU. This power supply includes a
large heatsink that helps to keep the unit
cool, offering better fanless cooling than
normal semi-passive PSUs. It has four 6+2-
pin PCI-E connectors, so it could potentially
power a dual-GPU system too, as long as its
power requirements didn’t exceed 500W.
It’s a semi-modular unit, but this won’t
pose too much of an issue as you’ll likely
be using all the captive cables anyway.
ALTERNATIVE PSUs
A typical GTX 1060 system will use
around 300W of power in games, so we
opted for a 500W PSU to leave some
headroom. However, if you want to save
some cash, or if you’re building a less
powerful system, Super Flower also
offers a 430W model of its Golden Silent
PSU, which costs £30 less money from
www.overclockers.co.uk
87
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION
BUILDING THE PC
1 CPU and cooler mounts
If you’ve never built a PC before then
please read our PC building masterclass (see
Issue 157,p86) feature before you start.
As the cooler will block the DIMM slots,
you’ll need to install the memory before the
CPU cooler.Install the CPU and cooler
mounts first,as the large mounts are quite
fiddly to install with the memory in the
way.Lift up the lever by the CPU socket,slot
the CPU into place,push down the lid and
lever to hold it in place,and then apply the
thermal paste to the CPU,making a thin‘X’
shape over the metal heatspreader.The
cooler mounts use a backplate with screws
that secure to four silver bases on the CPU-
socket side of the motherboard.These bases
house four golden supports in place,which
fix to the heatsink.
2 Install memory
We’re using our recent Labs winner,
a GeIL 16GB 2666MHz kit,which has no
heatsinks and short modules,so they’ll sit
comfortably under the large heatsink.If you
intend to transplant your own RAM from
an older system,though,measure it first,
as there’s only 32mm of height available,.
Corsair’s popular Vengeance LPX DDR4
modules will fit here,but only just,while
G.Skill’s Ripjaws V DIMMs won’t fit,as
they’re too tall.
1 2
4 5
88
3 Remove case fans
If you want to create a completely
silent PC,maybe with the addition of a
semi-passive graphics card,consider
removing all the case fans.
The Cooltek UMX4 includes three case
fans as standard.Removing the roof fans is
a must to allow convection to behave as
efficiently as possible,but consider leaving
the rear fan in place,swapping it around to
act as an exhaust,then setting it to only
spin up when temperatures are excessive.
Such temperatures could be reached if
you’re playing games that heavily tax the
CPU as well as the GPU,or when gaming
on warm days.
For example,you could configure the
EFI to only spin up the fan when the CPU
temperature rises above 75°C.It’s important
to have a fail-safe for your hardware,so
we’ve kept the rear fan.
We’ll take you through how to configure
the EFI in the‘How to tame your PC’s noise’
section of this feature,which you can find
on p90.
4 Install motherboard
Installing the heatsink will mean that
accessing the top half of the motherboard
will be extremely difficult,so it’s easier to
install the cooler after the motherboard,
enabling you to secure all the necessary
cables.Put the motherboard’s I/O shield
in the hole in the back of the case,gently fit
the motherboard in place,and then screw
the motherboard into the case’s standoffs.
5 Install PSU
The UMX4 doesn’t mount the PSU in
the usual location – instead,it uses an
extension lead to position it at the front of
the case.This position is ideal for our needs,
as it will allow the PSU’s heatsink to be
positioned in the direction of convection,
while also sitting it near the roof vent.This
positioning also means that cables can be
neatly stowed away out of sight,improving
airflow.Your next job is to route the 8-pin
EPS 12V and 24-pin ATX cables behind the
motherboard tray,before bringing them
back to the corresponding sockets on the
motherboard via the rubber-lined cable-
routing holes.
6 Install heatsink
The Nofan CR-95C heatsink secures
to your motherboard using four sprung
screws,and it’s simple to just hold the
heatsink in place and screw them into
place.Tighten each screw a little one after
another,going from one screw to the one
diagonally opposite,and then to the next
diagonal pair,before locking them all
down completely.
3
6
7 Install graphics card
If your graphics card has a backplate
that touches the CPU heatsink,place a piece
7 8

of insulating tape between the two – there

shouldn’t be any issues with short circuits,
but the tape can help to prevent scratches.If
there’s no backplate,as with our card,just
be extra careful to not allow the heatsink to
touch the graphics card’s PCB.
A great way to avoid contact is to use
acetate sheet,which can be purchased in A4
size for a couple of quid.Cut out a sheet that
can sit on the rear of the graphics card and
secure it in place with adhesive foam pads.
When the graphics card is installed,hook 9
up a PCI-E power cable from your power
supply to it.

8 Install SSD and tidy cables

The UMX4 can house two hard disks
and four 2.5in SSDs,but we’ll only be
installing one SSD.An SSD can be either
installed behind the motherboard tray or
below the Jonsbo logo on the side of the
case.Go ahead,and install the power and
SATA cables too,placing the SSD with the
ports facing the front of the case as shown,
so the cable can be routed out of sight.You 10
can then tidy away the cables using the
cable ties included with the case.

9 Configure CPU
We’ll go into more depth about
tweaking fans for silent running in the next
part of this feature,but it’s important to
configure your CPU so it doesn’t generate
too much heat.Once your PC is powered on
and working,enter the motherboard’s EFI
system and go to the Extreme Tweaker
section,where you’ll be able to tweak
these settings.We started by fiddling
with the multiplier option,which is set to
‘sync all cores’by default when you set the
CMP profile. you’re video editing or rendering.While you to alter the fan profile.We opted for
With these settings at stock speed,and you’re here,set the EFI to ignore the CPU fan 0rpm until the GPU reaches 60°C,which
an ambient temperature of 25°C,the CPU speed,as there’s no fan on the CR-95C. then rises to 15 per cent speed – the
temperature went beyond 90°C,and well lowest speed setting we found without
into the 90s,before it stabilised,which isn’t
ideal.However,setting the multiplier to
‘auto’saw the thermals drop noticeably,as
10 Configure MSI Afterburner
We used MSI’s Afterburner
software (https://gaming.msi.com/
annoying clicks and whirs coming from
the fans,but with enough cooling power
to cope with games that aren’t too
we then weren’t forcing all the cores to features/afterburner) to tweak our graphically demanding.
reach the Core i7-6700K’s maximum graphics card’s fan speed.To start,unlink We then set the fan speed to rise to 35
4.2GHz Turbo frequency. the power and temperature limit sliders so per cent at 90°C,which allowed the
We then saw the temperature plateau at you can adjust them independently.Leave temperature to stabilise and avoid
85°C after ten minutes of using Prime95’s the power slider where it is,but increase the throttling in a consistent stress test using
smallfft test – a far more demanding CPU temperature limit to maximum,which will Unigine Valley,trailing off to 50 per cent
load than any game.During a ten-minute give you a little more headroom when the speed as a fail-safe in case the machine gets
stress test using Unigine Valley,the CPU graphics card gets hot. too hot.The noise is only just audible with
temperature never rose above 65°C;if you Next,click on the large cog-shaped your ear against the case at 35 per cent
use your Asus EFI to control a 120mm fan,it settings tab at the bottom.Then find the speed – it will easily be drowned out by
shouldn’t need to start spinning unless fan settings and check the box that allows even quiet gaming audio.

89
 F E AT U R E / CUSTOMISATION

HOW TO TAME YOUR PC’s NOISE

W
e’ve built a PC that’s silent for
most of the time,but adds
some fan assistance for the CPU
and graphics card in particularly toasty
scenarios. However,building a silent
PC isn’t without its issues or extra
expense,and the difference to your ears
between total silence and the noise created
by a couple of slow spinning fans is
practically negligible.
There are numerous ways to reduce the
noise made by your PC,though,and for not
much money. By reducing the speed of
your case fans,using a larger,quieter cooler,
or adding sound-absorbing foam,you can
drastically cut noise without having a huge
impact on cooling. To test the effectiveness
of these methods,we’ve used a sound
meter to measure the impact of our
tweaking,which measures the noise level
while resting on the top fan vent of the You can Tweak the fan curve to increase the fan speed as the temperature rises
case. The ambient noise level was recorded
at 30dBA – the minimum level we can test. At maximum speed,you can hear this fan speeds,although you’ll get more flexibility
spinning. At its lowest speed,though,the using the EFI software.
Configure EFI or software case fan was inaudible outside of the case,
The latest fan control options in EFIs and and while the airflow was significantly NOISE LEVELS
Windows software utilities are very useful lower than at maximum speed,it adds a MAX SPEED 40dBA
for controlling fan speeds,both with 3-pin significant amount of cooling potential to MINIMUM SPEED 35dBA
and 4-pin PWM fans. Some motherboards, the system. FAN SWITCHED OFF 30dBA
especially boards with an Asus EFI,can
actually stop a fan spinning all together,as Use a resistor cable We used a Noctua NA-SRC10 resistor cable,
long as the CPU temperature is below 75°C.
You can tweak this setting in the EFI or
Noctua NA-SRC10/ which saw a decent drop in noise from
maximum speed while still dishing out
Asus’Fan Xpert utility. For 3-pin or 4-pin £5 incVAT(boxofthreecables) reasonable airflow. However,it isn’t as
fans,you can run the fan tuning option, SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk quiet as an EFI-tuned fan.
which gives the software the information it
needs to control your fans accurately. There’s a much simpler way to reduce the Don’t use a hard disk
You can then use it to stop the fan noise your fans make than fiddling around If your PC is already very quiet,you may
completely below certain temperatures – with software. A resistor cable can be have noticed just how much noise comes
which is great for creating a silent PC under inserted between the fan cable and out of your hard drive. You can consider
certain circumstances. motherboard,reducing the supplied using a hard disk enclosure to muffle the
Alternatively,you can just run the fan at current to the fan. This method can work noise,but these enclosures can be large and
very low speeds and tweak the fan curve to with fixed fan speeds and variable fan expensive. Dropping from a 7,200rpm
increase the speed as the temperature rises.
We noticed the fan speed reading for 3-pin
fans wasn’t particularly accurate,though,
so check the fan is actually spinning when
it’s set to spin at a very low speeds. You can
control the speeds of chassis fans or a CPU
cooler fan here,but the latter is limited to a
minimum speed of 20 per cent in Asus EFI
systems.

NOISE LEVELS
MAX SPEED 40dBA
MINIMUM SPEED 30dBA
FAN SWITCHED OFF 30dBA A resistor cable between a fan cable and motherboard will reduce the current supplied to the fan

90
The general whine from our hard disk equated to around 3dBA
model to a 5,200rpm drive won’t help much
either,as slower drives still make noise. The
best way to kill the noise from your storage
is to go solid state with an SSD.
NOISE LEVELS
HARD DISK 35dBA
SSD 30dBA
AMBIENT 30dBA
Hard disks aren’t that noisy compared with
high-speed fans,but the clicks they make
while being accessed can be very annoying.
The general whine from the disk equated to
around 3dBA with the sound meter sitting
next to our silent PC,peaking at 35dBA
when the disk was being accessed – that’s
less noise than most fans,but the hard
drive is clearly still a source of noise.
Overclockers UK offers built-to-order kits of sound-absorbing foam for a variety of cases
Setting a custom fan profile can significantly reduce graphics card fan noise
Reduce graphics card fan speed
Not all graphics cards can switch off their
fans completely,but if you head to the Fan
tab in the MSI Afterburner settings,you
may find you can lower the fan speed to
zero,or at least run the fan at lower speeds
than normal.
We found an XFX Radeon R9 390X
wasn’t able to completely switch off its
fans,but we could prevent them from
spinning up too fast too soon. For example,
we set the fan speed to 20 per cent until the
temperature reached 80°C,when the fan
speed would increase to 40 per cent to stop
the card from throttling.
NOISE LEVELS UNDER LOAD
AUTO FAN PROFILE 56dBA
CUSTOM FAN PROFILE 48dBA
Use sound-absorbing foam
Noise Dampening
Kit/ £30 incVAT
SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk
Sound-absorbing foam is used in a number
of cases out of the box; it’s similar to
packing material,and if you use enough
of it,you can deaden the sound from your
PC,reducing the noise that hits your ears.
Overclockers UK offers built-to-order kits
for a variety of cases,from the BitFenix
Prodigy to the NZXT Phantom 820,as well
as offering universal kits that you can cut
to size.
NOISE LEVELS
NO FOAM 38.5dBA
FULL FOAM KIT 36.5dBA
We honestly didn’t expect the sound-
absorbing foam to make much of a
difference to the decibels,but there was a
clear drop in the noise level once we’d
added the sound-absorbing foam to our
system. With all the fans set to standard
levels,the sound meter registered 38.5dBA,
but this result fell to 36dBA with the sound-
absorbing foam.
The effectiveness of this method will
depend on the case you use,of course,as
any mesh panels will mean more sound
can escape the case – these kits are best
used in cases with mainly solid panels.
91
 F E AT U R E /

Ben Hardwidge explores the various ways to bring his old ZX Spectrum
into the modern age, via smartphone loading, a headphone amp
and even an SD card interface
nlikecelluloidfilm,vinyl some of the old games from my However, as some of you may
records and hardback childhood. The last time I’d tried had recall from my column about 1980s
books, there’s yet to be a beenseveralyearsago,whenIcouldn’t coding in Issue 152, I’ve recently been
tape-loading computer even persuade my LCD TV to find the having a play on my childhood ZX
hipster comeback. No one scoffs at weak analogue RF signal outputted Spectrum again.
yoursolidstatedriveandclaimstheir by the Spectrum. Withafewmoderntweaks,youcan
mono tape deck has a ‘warmer data For any younger readers among notonlygeta34-year-oldcomputerto
loader’,beforewaitingthreehoursfor you, well before we had HDMI, and output a signal to a modern LCD telly,
their computer to decide if it’s going before we even had SCART or but you can also do away with the
to load a game or not. composite video outputs, we used to frustrations of tape loading.
It’s this tape-loading system and have to connect video recorders and Despiteitsfailings–aflimsyrubber
the RF aerial output that were the early home computers to our TVs’ keyboard,colourclashes,unreliability
main barriers to digging out my old aerialsockets.Youwouldhavetotune and the lack of a power switch –
ZXSpectrumfromtheloftandplaying the TV to the computer’s channel. Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum still has a

92
faithfulfollowing. Somuchso,infact,
thatthereareevennewproductsnow
available, such as the Vega and Elite
Systems’Recreated ZX Spectrum.
These products aren’t for me
though.Wewereunimpressedbythe
plasticky production of the Vega
whenwesawit(seeIssue151,p30),and
the lack of a full keyboard rules out
text games such as The Hobbit and
Valhalla. Meanwhile, the Recreated
ZXSpectrumisreallyjustaBluetooth
keyboard that can interface with
Elite’siPhoneapp.It’sbeenthesubject
of various controversies, including
game developers claiming they
weren’tpaidduringitsdevelopment.
Also,thecatalogueofgamesavailable
on the app is pretty small. You could
always use it as a Bluetooth keyboard
with an emulator on a PC,but I didn’t
wantanemulator.Iwantedtousemy
original computer, and know that all
thesoftwarewasrunningnativelyon
its hardware.
ThefirstjobwastosolvetheRFoutput
problem,whichissurprisinglyeasyto
solve with a modding job. You
basically just have to dismantle the
computer, remove the cover of the RF
modulator (the silver box in the top
left corner), and effectively bypass it,
so you can send a video signal direct
to the phono output. You snip the
existing 5V power and video wires
betweenthePCBandmodulator,then
solder a wire between the RCA
A composite mod is a simple
soldering job, and makes it easy to
connect a Spectrum to a modern TV
output’s central pin and the
composite video output hole on the
PCB next to it.
More patient people would put a
decoupling capacitor between the
two parts, and others would remove
the modulator PCB entirely for a
cleaner job, but I just wanted to get
mine working, so I soldered a simple
wire in place. A Google search for
‘spectrum composite mod’will bring
up plenty of instructions and photos,
and there are also folks who will
do the job for you. You can even
buy readily composite-modded
SpectrumsoneBayifyouwanttostart
from scratch.
The composite output makes a
massive difference. Not only does it
save you faffing around with
analogue tuning, but the picture is
also solid – there’s a bit of flicker but
it’s much firmer than a jumpy RF
signal. It looks surprisingly good on
an LCD telly.
The Vega might
be convenient,
but it lacks a full
keyboard for
text adventures
With my Spectrum composite-
modded, the next step was to try to
loadsomeofmyoldgames.Istillhad
a cassette player for it, and some of
my old tapes. Soon it all came back –
getting the volume set to the right
level on the tape deck for the
computertorecogniseitbutstillload
it,andtypingLoad””beforepushing
theplaybuttononthecassetteplayer.
You then get a few flashing red and
cyan squares before the telltale
screeching starts.
Getting any of my old games to
load was a real challenge though.
Tape loading was a frustrating
experience back in the 1980s,but it’s
even worse when a tape has had
30-odd years to degrade. In the end,I
managedtoloadagrandtotaloftwo
of my old games – The Hobbit and
Scrabble. No Valhalla, no Manic
Miner. I needed a new plan.
I’d seen several videos on YouTube
over the past few years showing
speed loading. The principle is that
digital media is much more stable
than cassette media,so you can take
the audio of a Spectrum cassette,
speeditupseveraltimes,thenplayit
through the Spectrum on a
smartphone or MP3 player and load
games in a few seconds.
At least that’s the theory. The
reality is that there are a lot of
complications. The first is speeding
up the audio, and thankfully, a kind
personbythenameofFranciscoVilla
93
 F E AT U R E /
OTLA lets you speed up tape-loading audio files for speed loading
Rodriguez has come up with a very
simple way of doing it.The fruit of his
work is called OTLA, and you can
downloaditfromhttp://tinyurl.com/
ProjectOTLA – it’s a very simple piece
ofsoftwarethatenablesyoutoimport
avarietyofemulatorfiles,andspitout
aspeeded-upWAVorMP3filethatyou
can run on a computer,
smartphone or MP3 player.
You can download plenty
of abandonware Spectrum
titles that you can import
into OTLA from www.
wo r l d o f s p e c t r u m . o r g .
There are also games that
aren’tavailabletodownload,
though – Lemmings, for
example, is still very much
owned by Sony after it
bought Psygnosis and can’t
be freely downloaded.
With my games all
speeded up in WAV format, I
put them on my iPod, which
I plugged into the Spectrum.
Then came the next
complication – the output
from the iPod’s headphone
jack (and the one on my
iPhone for that matter)
94
An old iPod and a cheap headphone amp make for a workable speed-loading setup
wasn’tloudenoughfortheSpectrum
to pick up the signal.
SpeccyTape is
great for loading The next step was to get a cheap
programs headphone amp,so I ordered a cheap
with multiple Fiio E06 from Amazon.
components on a
I was now set to go, or so I thought.
Spectrum, although
you have to do it in It turns out that speed loading isn’t
real time anywhere near as reliable as people
would have you believe.
Basically, there’s now an
enormous amount of
information quickly
going into a very old and
slow computer, so you
frequently get errors.
When it works, though,
it’s great. You don’t just
get yellow and blue lines
on either side of the
loadingscreen,yougetall
sorts of colours, and the
beepsgoallovertheplace.
It’s much quicker too. I
managed to get Manic
Miner loaded in just 25
seconds, rather than the
several minutes it takes
on tape.
At this point, I also
discovered a nifty iPhone
app called Speccy Tape,
whichwillplayemulationfilesinreal-
time audio so that you can load them
directly into the Spectrum.
Handily, it will also detect the
variousdifferentchunksofaprogram
that’sdesignedtobeloadedinstages,
soyoucaneasilyloadthenextlevelof
acomplicatedgamewithoutstopping
and starting tapes.It will even search
World of Spectrum for files. It works
really well, but it doesn’t support
speed loading. By this point, I’d
exhausted the options for good old-
fashioned audio-based loading,and I
decided to try the next option.
There are various systems for
attachingstoragetotheZXSpectrum.
The real groundbreaking project was
DivIDE, which enabled you to
effectively attach an IDE interface to
the Spectrum’s interface port,
enabling you to attach both a hard
drive and a CompactFlash card to
the Spectrum.
However, the best product for
Spectrum storage at the moment is
calledDivMMC,whichyoucanbuyfor
just£50incVAT(or£70inacase)from
www.bytedelight.com).
The DivMMC is effectively an SD card reader with a Spectrum-compatible file browser, which plugs into the interface
port and even gives you a joystick interface
Put simply, DivMMC is an SD card
reader that you can plug into a ZX
Spectrum’sinterfaceportontheback.
The kit comes with a 2GB micro SD
card(withafull-sizedSDcardadaptor)
– you just need to plug it into an SD
card reader on your PC and transfer
your Spectrum files over (the
exception is TZX files, as they often
feature speed-loading components).
The DivMMC package even
contains a standard 9-pin Kempston
joystick port, so you don’t have to
sacrifice joystick compatibility.
Once your games, demos, utilities
and so on are all on the SD card,
you plug the DivMMC into the
Spectrum’s interface port and switch
on your Spectrum.
You’re then presented with the
standard Sinclair BASIC screen, but if
you push the blue button on the
DivMMC,ittakesyouintoasimplefile
browser. The interface works quickly
DIVMMC
and smoothly, and you navigate
it with the Spectrum’s arrow keys.
Youthenjusthighlightthesoftware
you want to run, press Enter and it
loads instantly – no blue and yellow
lines, no screeching – you’re into a
game within a split second. It’s
incredible. Your software is running
You browse the natively on the Spectrum, using its
DivMMC file
Z80 processor, 48KB of RAM and
system using
the Spectrum’s rubber keys, but you’ve removed the
arrow keys main barrier to play- loading times.
What’s more, there’s no faffing
around with various cables,
headphone amps, smartphones or
even cassette decks – it’s all in the box
on the back of your Spectrum – the
onlywiresyouneedareforthepower
supply and composite output. And
that brings me to another point –
power. If your game crashes, you
simply push the red reset button on
the DivMMC and it resets the
computer – you don’t need to
disconnect the power and restart the
computer. Not every game I tried
worksonDivMMC,I’llstillhavetouse
audio loading for some stuff, but for
the most part DivMMC is an amazing
Spectrum add-on that makes it truly
usable again.
95

Hobbytech
The latest tips, tricks and news in the world of computer hobbyism,
from Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Android to retro computing
REVIEW
Dremel 3000 Four-Star Kit
irst things first, a warning: if you
F already own a recent Dremel rotary
multi-tool, such as the Dremel
3000, which was released way back in 2011
as a successor to the Dremel 300, then the
new Four-Star Kit isn’t for you. While the
bundled accessories certainly add value,
the kit is an expensive way to bulk up your
supplies unless you need a second tool.
Instead, the Dremel 3000 Four-Star Kit
is aimed at folks treating themselves to an
entirely new tool or upgrading from an
outdated or broken model, as well as people
picking up a present for the modding-inclined
96
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
loved one in their life. It sits in the centre of a
three-item range launched specifically for
Christmas: the Three-Star Kit, with the bare
minimum of accessories and an ‘EZ Wrap
Tool Holder’ for storage; the reviewed Four-
Star Kit, which includes additional accessories
and add-ons, as well as a plastic toolbox for
storage. The top-end Five-Star Kit, which
swaps the plastic toolbox for an aluminium
version and adds yet more accessories,
including a detailer’s grip, shaping platform
and 75 individual tool parts.
Each kit, of course, includes the Dremel
3000 itself, and they share an additional
commonality: a competition asking users to
create a custom chess set, using
the bundled pieces for
inspiration, with the
promise of grand
prizes for the most
creative entries.
Before you get too
excited, however, the
‘free chess board and
pieces’ included with
each kit are simply press-out
cardboard tokens and a board
The Dremel Four-Star Kit houses its
contents in a plastic toolbox
printed on the back of the packaging. They’re
functional, yes, and handy if you need to
remind yourself what a chess board looks like,
but you’re not going to want to put them on a
coffee table.
The chess competition is an aside, though,
and unpacking the kit unveils the meat. Sadly,
the toolbox is a rather cheap affair. While the
lid locks with a fairly satisfying clunk of the
plastic latch, opening it up reveals a
completely barren interior. If you were hoping
for a box with cut-out sections to safely store
your shiny new tool without risk of damage
during transit, you’ll be disappointed.
Inside the box is the Dremel 3000 itself,
a corded handheld rotary multitool that sits
somewhere in the lower-middle tier of the
company’s range, and the accessories. The
largest of these accessories are the add-ons,
designed to adapt the Dremel for particular
jobs: a flexible shaft attachment gives you a
smaller tool head for reaching into tighter
areas (no sniggering at the back, there), with a
hook on the back of the Dremel body allowing
you to hang the tool while the shaft is in use.
The line and circle cutter, meanwhile, makes
neat cuts pretty simple. The final add-on,
described by Dremel as a ‘multipurpose
cutting kit,’ provides a trio of milling bits and
 You’ll find all the bits you need for
most basic Dremel-suitable jobs
in the kit, but more SpeedClic discs
would have been nice

a plastic, depth-adjustable guide and guard.

Each accessory is easy to add or remove from
the Dremel, with only the flexible shaft taking
a little time to set up.
The remainder of the box is occupied by
what Dremel generously describes as ‘a
range of 55 high quality accessories’, which
anyone who has purchased a Dremel product
in the past will know is a figure reached by

The EZ SpeedClic system makes replacing discs a The bundled flexible shaft is handy, isolating you
breeze, but you pay for the privilege from the motor’s hefty vibration at high speeds

counting every individual screw and sanding

disc as a separate accessory. In Dremel’s
defence, though, the kit’s contents are pretty
well thought out. It includes all the bits you
need to get started in most small jobs, from
grinding and cutting discs through to a
buffing pad, complete with a small jar of
polishing compound.
The highlight, though, is Dremel’s EZ
SpeedClic system. If, like me, your last
experience with a rotary multitool was using
a device designed and built in the 1980s or The speed control on the main body adjusts rotation
1990s, the EZ SpeedClic will come as a from 5,000 to 32,000rpm
revelation. Instead of the awkward tiny screw
to hold the cutting or grinding disc onto the The tool, meanwhile, behaves just the
mandrel, the EZ SpeedClic mandrel uses a same as when it launched five years ago.
sprung clamp, which affixes to the reinforced A slider provides speed control, from 5,000
centres of specially shaped discs. It makes to 32,000rpm. Near the latter end of the
disc changing a breeze, while the included EZ speed range, the noise and vibration become
Twist Nose Cap does the same for changing uncomfortable, despite the promise of a ‘soft’
bits in the collet. grip, although thankfully, most jobs can be
Bundled cutting
Sadly, Dremel has been a little stingy with completed with a mid-range speed setting.
accessories
make it easy to the EZ SpeedClic accessories: only two of the The Dremel 3000 Four-Star Kit is priced at
get neat results bundled discs use the system, with the £80, with the Three-Star coming in at £40
remaining discs using the old-fashioned and the Five-Star hitting £100 (all prices
screw-into-mandrel system. include VAT).

97
 C U STO M I SAT I O N / HOBBY TECH

REVIEW
CHIP & PocketCHIP
hen the CHIP single-board
W
The CHIP is certainly
computer hit crowdfunding site compact, but you pay
for it with a loss of ports
Kickstarter, it brought a wave of
disbelief with it. In those days, the £30 (inc
VAT) Raspberry Pi was one of the cheapest
single-board computers you could own, yet
NextThingCo was claiming it could offer a
device with higher specifications – even
including wireless connections – for just $9
US (around £8.40 inc VAT).
True to its word, though, the company
launched its compact computer at the
promised price point, and with specifications
largely bettering its Raspberry-flavoured
inspiration. The AllWinner R8 system-on-
chip (SoC) processor at the board’s heart runs
at 1GHz, compared to the original Pi family’s
700MHz clock frequency, and it’s based on
the newer Cortex-A8 architecture. The
512MB of memory compares favourably too,
and there’s the promised 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (adding $5 (around £3.89
and Bluetooth 4 wireless radio. NextThingCo excluding VAT) to your order.
has even managed to make the board more The CHIP does support digital video,
or less usable out of the box, including 4GB of but only with optional daughterboards
on-board storage that’s pre-loaded with a which also make use of the otherwise easily
Debian-based Linux distribution and a accessible twin-40-pin general-purpose
handful of software packages. input-output (GPIO) headers a pain.
Sadly, ‘more or less’ is about right – to hit its An HDMI daughterboard will set you back the NEON SIMD engine or any other newer
ultra-low price, the CHIP comes as a bare $15 US while a VGA output costs $10 US feature of the processor.
board – and, to be fair, the Raspberry Pi also (around £11.70 and £7.80 respectively, Compared with the Raspberry Pi Zero,
comes as a bare board in its basic incarnation excluding VAT). That’s right: both adaptors there are high points and low points for the
too. While a Pi can be used with an HDMI actually cost more money than the board to CHIP’s overall performance. Scoring 304.55
display, USB keyboard, and any smartphone which they connect. seconds in the SysBench CPU test compared
charger, though, the CHIP has no handy- Still, the CHIP at least has performance on to the Pi Zero’s 349.43s is a high point, as is a
dandy HDMI port; instead, you’ll need to its side, right? While the AllWinner R8 has an Dhrystone score of 1,860.9 MIPS compared
use a 3.5mm tip-ring-ring-sleeve (TRRS) ARM Cortex-A8 core, the operating system to the Pi Zero’s 1,237.3 MIPS. However, poor
adaptor cable to get stereo analogue audio makes poor use of its features. Treating it like optimisation robs the CHIP of floating-point
and low-quality composite video output. an older Cortex-A7, the CHIP’s OS fails to performance, scoring just 188.4 MWIPS in
Naturally, the adaptor will cost you extra, enable you to accelerate your software using the Whetstone benchmark compared to the
Pi Zero’s 340.5 MWIPS.
/SPECIFICATIONS The Pi Zero, meanwhile, offers an
CPU 1GHz Single-Core AllWinner R8 ARM explanation for the rather more
Cortex-A8
GPU ARM Mali 400
RAM 512MB DDR3
Storage 4GB eMMC
Networking 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth 4
Ports 1x USB, Analogue TRRS AV, 2x 40-pin
GPIO (1x 25-pin on PocketCHIP)
Display (PocketCHIP)) 4.25in, 480 x 272 backlit
resistive touch LCD
Size (CHIP) (mm) 62.9 x 41.3 x 14.8
Weight (CHIP) 30g
Size (PocketCHIP) (mm) 112.5 x 165.1 x 26.2
Weight (PocketCHIP) 267g For all but headless use, you’ll need to add either the
TRRS AV cable or a display daughterboard

98
The PocketCHIP looks fantastic, but the keyboard is a definite low point of The CHIP can be removed from the PocketCHIP without tools, but runs a
the design custom OS image

impressive PocketCHIP’s existence. With applications: a file manager, a Lexaloffle’s Pico-8 is a great
the competition offering a £4 board, terminal, a music tracker, a inclusion in the PocketCHIP’s
otherwise sparse software
NextThingCo needed a new hook for its help file, a text editor and
products, and it comes in the form of an all- Lexaloffle’s Pico-8. The PocketCHIP, sadly,
in-one accessory for the CHIP that turns it The latter is the star of the doesn’t come cheap. While a
into a fully portable Linux system, called the show. Based around the bare CHIP will cost you £12
PocketCHIP. specifications of a fictional (inc VAT) including shipping
Housed in a transparent plastic case that 8-bit games console, Pico-8 to the UK, the PocketCHIP
looks like it came straight from the 1990s, the lets you download and play a costs a whopping £73 (inc
PocketCHIP has a CHIP module nestled into variety of quirky games – or VAT) landed on our shores.
the rear of the box. It’s removable, but it’s make your own – directly on Both the CHIP and Pocket
installed with a custom operating system, the device. It’s also not exclusive to the CHIP, plus accessories, are available to order
which makes it useless when it’s PocketCHIP – Pico-8 can be installed on now ahead of expected November shipping
disconnected. It drives a 4.25in resistive Windows, MacOS and Linux. from https://getchip.com
touch-screen, which gives you a rather
woeful resolution of 480 x 272.
A small battery provides enough power for
five hours of active usage, and a subset of the NEWS IN BRIEF
GPIO features are broken out on the top of
the board. Adaptevatapesout1,024-core
It’s the keyboard that first hits you when Epiphany-V
you hold the PocketCHIP though. Based on
the same ultra-cheap design as Amstrad’s Parallel computing specialist Adapteva has
woeful SJS-1 joystick of the 1980s, each key is announced that it’s taped out an Epiphany-V
a metal dome that’s held over the circuit processor boasting 1,024 64-bit RISC cores. Based on the same tile-based architecture
traces with plastic laminate. It works, but it’s as the 16-core Epiphany-III that powers the Parallella single-board computer (see Issue
an uncomfortable experience – and given 137, p106), the Epiphany-V’s tape-out on a TSMC 16nm FinFET+ node was funded by the
how few SJS-1s survived the 1980s intact, it’s US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Adapteva’s previous top-end
unlikely to have a long life ahead of it. chip was the 64-core Epiphany-IV. So far, the company hasn’t announced plans to offer
The PocketCHIP is a very different beast to an upgraded 1,024-core Parallella board.
the CHIP. It uses a custom UI, with only six

99
 C U STO M I SAT I O N / HOBBY TECH

A N A LYS I S
Arduino and Arduino – friends at last
egular readers of this column may
R recall the ongoing legal battle
between Arduino LLC
and Arduino Srl – better known as
Arduino.cc and Arduino.org – over
rights to the ‘Arduino’ trademark,
among other disputes. This situation
led to the creation of the Genuino
brand, created by Arduino.cc for use
outside the USA where rival Arduino.org
holds the ‘Arduino’ trademark. In turn,
The formation Massimo Banzi and Federico Musto jointly
resellers such as Pimoroni abandoned of Arduino Holding could spell announced that Arduino.cc and Arduino.org
both brands (see Issue 159, p100), amid the end of the Genuino brand are merging
consumer confusion and bizarre exclusionary
tactics from Arduino.cc’s reseller division. have to keep two IDEs installed just to work also offer scholarships and initiatives to
When Issue 159 went to press, Pimoroni on both Arduino.cc and Arduino.org’s benefit the community in general, especially
was sticking to its guns and refusing to respective products. developers, although details haven’t been
purchase any more official Arduino boards, The partnership involves more than just provided yet.
instead pointing makers and hobbyists putting the lawyers back in their cages and ‘Today is one of the best days in Arduino
toward third-party boards compatible with unifying the Arduino IDE codebase though. history. This allows us to start a new course
the Arduino IDE. The company indicated, Together, the two companies will set up a new for Arduino made of constructive dialogue
however, that it was continuing to discuss the business – Arduino Holding – which will and disruptive innovation in the education,
matter with Arduino.cc, and was hopeful a become a single point of contact for all makers, and IoT [Internet of Things] fields,’
resolution would be forthcoming that would hardware wholesale and distribution for claimed Massimo Banzi, co-founder of
fix the problems for Pimoroni and all resellers. Arduino-branded gear, and Genuino-branded Arduino.cc. ‘The Arduino Foundation will
Sure enough, a resolution has come – and kit in the unlikely event that the brand lives on. allow us to champion the core values of the
it’s a complete cessation of all legal action While that may be good news for Pimoroni Arduino Community within the open-source
between the two Arduinos. and other resellers, there’s bigger news for ecosystem and to make our commitment to
Announced at the World Maker Faire New the market: the two companies are going to open source stronger than ever. This is really
York, the deal between the two companies form a new non-profit organisation, dubbed a new beginning for Arduino!’
could spell the end of the Genuino brand the Arduino Foundation, which will take on full Federico Musto, chief executive and
and a full reunification of both companies’ responsibility for the Arduino IDE and other president of Arduino.org, added that ‘we are
product lines, meaning you no longer open-source projects. The Foundation will thrilled to resolve the issues that have taken
place over the past couple of years, and the
team is working together to continue to offer
the best open hardware and software. We
NEWS IN BRIEF know how passionate our partners and
developers are about Arduino, and the growth
Intel drone-centric and loyalty has been astonishing. Arduino
developers will continue to see amazing
compute board technical developments including NFC [near-
Following the announcement of Intel’s field communication], BLE [Bluetooth low
Joule computer-on-module, the company energy], voice controls and more’.
has confirmed its desire to ingratiate itself into the maker market with its new Aero The new, reunified Arduino still faces
Compute Board. Based around a quad-core Atom x7-Z8700 CPU and packing 4GB of challenges, of course, including the increasing
RAM, the board is designed to provide a platform for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) number of cheaper and more powerful
development. The Aero Compute Board also includes an Altera Max 10 field- alternatives flooding the market, from the
programmable gate array (FPGA) co-processor driving 25 user-accessible general- ultra-cheap ESP8266-based devices (see
purpose input-output (GPIO) pins. The Aero Compute Board is priced at $399 US, with Issue 157, p98) and Arduino Uno clones to the
a computer vision accessory kit for $149 US (around £314 and £117 excluding VAT). ten-million-strong Raspberry Pi user base
and the £4 Raspberry Pi Zero.

Gareth Halfacree is the news reporter at www.bit-tech.net, and a keen computer hobbyist who likes to tinker with technology. @ghalfacree

100
 DOWNLOAD FROM
WWW.ASUS.COM/
CO M M U N I T Y / TESTING CAMPAIGN/
REALBENCH

CustomPC BENCHMARK YOUR PC

Download the benchmarks from
www.asus.com/campaign/Realbench
and, before you run them, disable any
power-saving technologies in your
BIOS that change your CPU clock
speed, or the leaderboard won’t reco
your overclock frequency properly. To
rd
post a score on the leaderboard, go to
in association with Save Upload File in the RealBench 2015
app’s Results menu, and save your
results in an RBR file. You need to sele
ct
Give your PC a workout with our new benchmark suite, and Offline Uploads on the leaderboard
site, sign up for an Asus account and
see how your rig compares to other readers’ machines upload your file.

Gimp
We use Gimp to open and edit large images.
Unlike our previous Gimp test, this one
uses more than one CPU core, although it’s
still more sensitive to clock speed increases
than more CPU cores.
Handbrake H.264 video encoding
Our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake
H.264 video encoding test takes full
SHOUT OUTS!
Thismonth’sbigshoutoutgoes to
smudgesmifwithasystem score of
237,708.Helpedbya Core i7-6950X
processor, an EVGA X99Micro2
motherboard anda pair of PascalTitan
Xcards(goodfor the OpenCL test),
smudgesmifhasnowhitthe number
two spot,althoughsuper overclocker
8Packisstillin the numberonespot.
advantage of many CPU cores, pushing
them to 100 per cent load.
LuxMark OpenCL
This GPU compute test is the only synthetic
part of our suite, although the renderer is
based on the real LuxRender physically
based rendering software. As 3D rendering
is a specific workload that not everyone
will use, and because OpenCL support isn’t
standard in most software, this section is
given just a quarter of the weighting of the
other tests in the final score.
Heavy multi-tasking
Our new multi-tasking test plays a full-
screen 1080p video, while running a
Handbrake H.264 video encode.
Scores
RealBench 2015 breaks down the scores for
each test, then gives you a total system
score and a percentage reference score.
On an Intel system, the 100 per cent
reference score comes from a stock-speed
Core i7-4790K, with 16GB of Corsair
2400MHz DDR3 memory, a 240GB OCZ
150 SSD, an Asus Maximus Gene VII
motherboard and an Nvidia GeForce GTX
780 3GB graphics card.
On an AMD system, the 100 per cent
reference score comes from a stock-
speed A10-7850K APU, with 8GB of
Corsair 2,133MHz DDR3 memory, a
256GB Plextor M5 Pro SSD and an Asus
A88X-Pro motherboard, using the APU’s
integrated graphics.
CHROME WARNING
At the moment, Google’s Chrome
browser flags up the RealBench 2015
download as potentially harmful, and
we’re aware of this issue. The file is
perfectly safe, however – please ignore
this warning.

CUSTOM PC REALBENCH 2015 LEADERBOARD

RANK SYSTEM SCORE REFERENCE USERNAME MOTHERBOARD CPU CPU CLOCK MEMORY PRIMARY GPU
1 275,683 240.9% 8pack Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 5.5GHz 16GB Kingston 3000MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X
2 237,708 207.7% smudgesmif EVGA X99 Micro 2 Intel Core i7-6950X Not reported 16GB Corsair 3200MHz Nvidia Titan X (Pascal)
3 233,375 203.9% ian.parry3 Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.6GHz 32GB G.Skill 3200MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X
4 231,781 202.5% CustomPC Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X Not reported 32GB Kingston 2666MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X
5 229,929 200.9% mikey Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.44GHz 16GB Corsair 2709MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980
6 221,477 193.5% Chris_Waddle Asus X99-Deluxe Intel Core i7-5960X 4.62GHz 16GB Corsair 3000MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X
7 219,938 192.2% roosauce Asus Sabertooth X99 Intel Core i7-5960X 4.69GHz 64GB Corsair 2446GHz Nvidia Titan X (Pascal)
8 219,415 191.7% Luke@DinoPC Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.6GHz 16GB Corsair 3276MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X
9 216,006 188.7% terrystone1 Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.61GHz 16GB Corsair 2992MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
10 215,694 188.5% dubai1 Asus X99-Pro/USB 3.1 Intel Core i7-5960X 4.7GHz 32GB Corsair 2800MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
11 212,062 185.3% TEL Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.62GHz 16GB Corsair 2750MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
12 211,331 184.6% Menthol Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X Not reported 32GB G.Skill 3200MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
13 208,975 182.6% Angel Asus X99 Deluxe Intel Core i7-5960X Not reported 128GB G.Skill 2448MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980
14 206,723 180.6% stuart Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.41GHz 16GB Corsair 3000MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti
15 203,784 178.1% simonedwards2003 Asus X99 Deluxe II Intel Core i7-6950X Not reported 64GB Corsair 2666MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
16 198,971 173.9% Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.4GHz 64GB Corsair 2400MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
17 197,964 173% Carbonleg Asus X99-E WS Intel Core i7-5960X Not reported 32GB Corsair 2400MHz AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
18 196,095 173% Nik Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.2GHz 64GB Corsair 2666MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
19 194,595 170% dax Asus Rampage V Edition 10 Intel Core i7-5960X Not reported 32GB Corsair 2133MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980
20 189,230 165.3% shadowsrayne Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel Core i7-5960X 4.2GHz 32GB Corsair 2133MHz Nvidia GeForce GTX 980

101
 MODDING

A N TO N Y L E AT H E R ’ S

Customised PC
Case mods, tools, techniques, water-cooling gear
and everything to do with PC modding

We need sexier-looking
storage
I love my SSD and I daresay that, if
you’ve invested in one, you’re pretty
keen on yours too. The speed boost
they provide is unequivocal and my
SSD is without doubt one of the best
upgrades I’ve made in recent years.
Last month I spoke about the latest
M.2 drives and how they combine
compactness and speed in a super-
attractive if slightly expensive
package. However, while you can now
pick up a 3,000MB/sec 1TB SSD for
under £400, there’s a crucial piece
missing from these new drives, and
indeed SSDs in general. They all look
decidedly boring.
Your average 2.5in SSDs usually
come clad in a plastic or metal case,
but apart from a flashy sticker or logo,
manufacturers have done surprisingly
little to portray them correctly as speed
daemons. I remember doing one of
Custom PC’s first SSD Labs tests
EKWB has even
produced a waterblock
for Intel’s meaty
750-series cards
Samsung’s around seven years ago when they
awesome 950 Pro were finally available in useful
only had a plain-
looking sticker, capacities, and one stood out from the
which usually crowd, which was made by Samsung.
ended up facing Not only did it win the test, but what
downwards
really won me over is that it looked
gorgeous too, with a brushed silver
aluminium case.
If you take a look at the latest SSDs,
though, they’re all very similar-looking,
usually with just a sticker to jazz them
up a bit, although Samsung has at least
added bevelled edges to its current
2.5in SSDs. M.2 SSDs are even worse,
often just include a generic white
sticker, along with a highly unattractive
green PCB. Even Samsung’s
awesome 950 Pro only had a plain-
looking sticker, which ended up facing
downwards in most M.2 slots.
The only exceptions are some M.2
and U.2 SSDs that use PCI-E adaptors
to mount to the motherboard. Intel’s
750-series card-based SSDs also
have a meatier size, and EKWB has
even produced a waterblock for them.
It’s overkill for most users, of course,
but it can help to get heat out of your
PC as well as looking great. The M.2
form factor has received similar
treatment from Aqua Computer too,
with its Kryo M.2 PCI-E adaptor
allowing 60mm and 80mm SSDs
to be water-cooled, albeit using a
PCI-E adaptor rather than your
motherboard’s native M.2 port.
But water-cooling your SSD is
overkill for many people, especially if
you’re really only trying to make your
drive look better – they should look
good in the first place. This situation
seems odd to me given how, under
the hood, so many SSDs are identical.
Many of the drives made by third

102

parties use the same controller and
memory chips as each other – the only
difference is the case or label.
There’s also the cut-throat pricing
and intense competition we’ve seen
from the likes of Crucial and Samsung,
the latter of which can make all the
components of an SSD. That may be
one reason why we don’t see much
effort put into the design of SSDs – a
few extra dollars on the price could
result in dropping sales.
However, I’d argue that adding some
pizzazz to an otherwise practically
generic product could make an SSD
stand out from the crowd – it could
benefit all the manufacturers that can’t
build their own SSDs from the ground
up. Corsair, for example, uses a
combination of Phison’s PS3110-S10
controller paired with Toshiba’s 15nm
TLC NAND memory with its latest
Force LE SSDs, but the drives just have
top labels to differentiate them. I’ve yet
to see any drives with lighting effects,
or any fancy touches beyond simple
aesthetic additions such as Samsung’s
bevelled edges, yet it would be so
simple to make some changes to
dramatically improve the physical
designs of these drives.
Perhaps one of these
manufacturers could take one of
Samsung’s 4x PCI-E 3 NVMe M.2
SSDs, such as the new 960 Pro, and
encase it in a small, colourful, anodised
heatsink – an idea that clearly doesn’t
interest Samsung. There’s enough
space for such a heatsink not to be an
issue on most motherboards, even
mini-ITX models, and I’d definitely pay
an extra tenner or two to jazz up my
SSD a bit, so it doesn’t stand out like a
sore thumb on my motherboard.
Thankfully, there are a few ways that
you can improve the look of your SSD
Antony Leather is Custom PC’s modding editor
Far left: Aqua – even if they wanted to modify an
Computer’s Kryo SSD’s size beyond the 2.5in
M.2 PCI-E adaptor
allows 60mm and
specification, they could just supply
80mm SSDs to be a custom self-adhesive mount that
water-cooled secures to the inside of your case. Let’s
hope someone out there is listening.
Left: Corsair’s Force
LE just has a sticker
on the top. Where’s Coke PC
the custom chassis Those of you who follow the latest
and lighting Corsair
modding news online will likely
can do so well?
remember the fake Irn Bru-cooled PC
yourself. Painting a 2.5in SSD is easy, from a few months ago. However,
and I’ll be looking at the process of US-based PC manufacturer Maingear
doing so in a future guide. Your M.2 has built this stunning In Win 909-
SSD can be tweaked too. You can buy based PC (pictured below) for Coke
or create your own heatsink and even eSports to exhibit at TwitchCon. The
water-cool it. Alphacool sent me its centrepiece of the PC is a real Coke
M.2 SSD heatsink this month, along bottle that acts as a reservoir at the top
with some custom components, and in of the case.
this month’s guide, I’ll show you how to There’s plenty of internal
install them and even water-cool your customisation too, with the graphics
M.2 SSD (see p104). The heatsink itself card being flipped on its side to show
is fairly simple, using just two off the Coke-coloured coolant.
aluminium plates clipped together In case you were wondering,
with some thermal pads. The end though, it’s never a good idea to use
result is a vastly better-looking SSD real soft drinks as coolant, unless you
that should fit in any M.2 slot. want to spend a weekend cleaning out
I can’t be alone here in wanting my every component in your water-
pride and joy to look the part, especially cooling system. To see more of the
when it comes to 2.5in SSDs. There’s PC and Maingear’s other stunning
very little reason for manufacturers to PCs, head over to the company’s
worry about compatibility issues either @maingear Twitter account.
The graphics card has been flipped
on its side to show off the Coke-
coloured coolant
PC manufacturer Maingear
built this stunning In Win 909- The centrepiece of the PC is a real Coke
based PC for Coke eSports bottle that acts as a reservoir at the top
@antonyleather
103
 M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES

How to B E FO R E YO U S TA R T

Coolyour
M.2SSD
Antony Leather shows you how to
add heatsinks and waterblocks to an 1 / IDENTIFY SSD LENGTH
M.2 SSD, whether you want a super- You can create a heatsink or waterblock to suit any size of M.2 drive,
but Alphacool’s current HDX heatsink only supports 80mm (2280)
cool drive or just some extra pizzazz SSDs. If you don’t know the size of your drive, measure it from end to
end – it will likely measure 80mm; other lengths are rare for SSDs.

TOTA L P R OJ E C T T I M E / U P TO 5 H O U R S

hile motherboards are undergoing an aesthetic revolution

W with coloured PCBs, RGB lighting and extensive coloured
shrouds, SSDs are stuck in the dull ages. You might get a
fancy label or logo print on a 2.5in SSD, but M.2 drives look decidedly
boring. Even some of the fastest ones only sport a simple label, with
a hideous green PCB sticking out like a sore thumb.
Thankfully, adding a cooler will not only improve your M.2 SSD’s
looks, but could also extend its lifespan and preventing thermal
throttling in some situations. There are ready-made heatsinks
available, which are cheap and simple to install. It’s also easy to create
your own heatsink and even spray-paint it to match your case’s colour.
What’s more, if you have some standard DIY tools available, you can 2 / CHOOSE COOLING TYPE
even create your own M.2 waterblock. If you do indeed have an 80mm drive then the Alphacool heatsink
is cheap and easy to fit. However, you can also consider making a
custom heatsink or even a waterblock, whatever size of SSD you’re
TO O L S YO U ’ L L N E E D using. Now is the time to decide.

A D D A N A L P H ACO O L H DX
Alphacool HDX M.2 Thermal adhesive
Heatsink / pads /
www.aquatuning.co.uk www.aquatuning.co.uk

Alphacool HF 14 Smart Aluminium

Motion Mini cooler / heatsink /
www.aquatuning.co.uk www.ebay.co.uk

1 / ALPHACOOL’S HDX HEATSINK

The Alphacool heatsink simply uses two aluminium plates held
Thermal adhesive / 3mm copper sheet / together, with thermal pads underneath. Most motherboards have
www.watercoolinguk.co.uk www.ebay.co.uk enough space to house it, as it only sits a few millimetres on top of the
SSD itself.

104
2 / IDENTIFY COMPONENTS
You need to check where the components on the SSD are located, so
you can correctly place the thermal pads later in step five. Check the
underside for any memory modules, as you’ll need to use thin pads on
these parts.
4 / REMOVE ADHESIVE
If there’s any sticky residue left over from the label, remove it with
thermal paste cleaner. If that doesn’t work, use a household spray
cleaner such as Mr Sheen to break down the adhesive first and then
use a thermal paste cleaner or rubbing alcohol.
6 / INSTALL HEATSINKS
Place the heatsinks onto the thermal pads in turn, making sure they
line up with the pads and edges of the SSD. You’ll need to keep holding
it together, as there’s no adhesive – use an elastic band or cable tie
temporarily if necessary.
3 / REMOVE LABEL
You need to remove the label to enable efficient heat transfer, but
hold onto it in case you want to sell the SSD later or make a warranty
claim. It’s simple to remove it using a scalpel blade if needs be; use a
hairdryer on a low setting to warm the adhesive first.
5 / APPLY THERMAL PADS
You get three thermal pads in the box. If your SSD has components on
both sides, you need to use the two thinner strips. If, as on our drive,
the components are all on one side, use the thin strip on this side and
the thick strip on the rear.
7 / FIX WITH CLIPS
Finally, install the clips that hold the two sections of heatsink together.
You can either slide them into place from one end, or edge them
into position from the side. Don’t use pliers for this job, as you’ll risk
damaging the SSD.
105
M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES

M A K E YO U R OW N H E ATS I N K

8 / CHECK COMPATIBILITY 1 / CHECK CLEARANCE

Check the SSD fits in the slot and underneath any nearby expansion If you plan to create your own heatsink, you first need to measure
cards. Slots that support several M.2 sizes are usually quite deep, but the clearance available above the SSD. The heatsink we’ll be using is
the heatsink wasn’t compatible with Gigabyte’s Z170N-Gaming 5, and 6mm high and can be found on eBay for around £2, if you search for
it probably won’t work with other rear-mounted M.2 slots either. ‘20mm heatsink’.

2 / MARK UP HEATSINK 3/ CUT TO LENGTH

You want to cover all your SSD’s components, but leave the end You can use a Dremel, hacksaw or small table saw to cut the heatsink.
connector and screw mount point clear, so you’ll need around 70mm Make sure you wear protective eyewear and use a low rotational
of heatsink to cover an 80mm M.2 SSD. Mark up your heatsink speed so you get an attractive, smooth cut.
appropriately so that it’s ready for cutting.

4 / FILE EDGES 5 / TEST-FIT

Use a finger file to smooth the edge you’ve cut and remove any metal With the heatsink cut to size, place it on the SSD and mount it into the
shards. If you want an off-the-shelf look, you can also use 300-500- M.2 socket. You can now check that no other parts on the board foul
grit sandpaper on the cut edge to achieve a perfect finish, especially if the heatsink before you attach it to the SSD.
you want to paint the heatsink.

106
6 / ADD THERMAL ADHESIVE
Stick the heatsink to the SSD with liquid thermal adhesive or a
self-adhesive thermal pad. If you use the former, mix the two parts
together and apply the mix to the SSD’s large modules. If you’re using
a thermal pad, simply cut it to fit the heatsink.
A D D A WAT E R B LO C K
1 / USE A BASEPLATE
To create a waterblock for your M.2 drive, you first need to create a
baseplate to sit on the SSD. You’ll need 3mm copper sheet to make
it, which is readily available on eBay, costing under £5 for a 100 x
100mm sheet.
3 / CUT WITH DREMEL OR TABLE SAW
Copper is fairly soft, so it will be easy to cut using a Dremel, hacksaw
or table saw. Make sure you use protective eyewear and use a low to
medium rotational speed to achieve a smooth, clean cut.
7/ PLACE HEATSINK ON SSD
Place the heatsink onto the SSD. If you used a thermal pad, you’re
ready to go. If you used thermal adhesive, it will take an hour or two to
set before you try moving your SSD.
2 / MARK UP BASEPLATE
The plate needs to measure 70mm long and 20mm wide for an
80mm M.2 SSD, so mark up the copper sheet with these dimensions
(if you have an 80mm SSD), using the edges of the sheet for two
edges of the baseplate to save you some cutting time.
4 / FILE EDGES
Use a metal file to make the edge as smooth as possible and deal with
any metal shards. You can also finish off the job with 300-600-grit
sandpaper to create a super-smooth finish.
107
M O D D I N G / HOW TO GUIDES

5/ MARK UP WATERBLOCK HOLES 6 / DRILL HOLES

The waterblock will be screwed onto the baseplate, so you’ll need Use a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw thread – in our case, a
to mark up its holes with a marker pen, placing the block in the 2.5mm drill bit was perfect for our 2.7mm thread. You may need to
required position. hold the copper in a clamp or tape it down on your surface while you
work, removing any stuck fragments with a file.

7 / TAP SCREWS INTO BLOCK 8 / FIT O-RING

We’ll tap the threads into the copper using spare screws, then use the We’re using Alphacool’s HF 14 Smart Motion Mini cooler waterblock,
screws included with the Alphacool HF 14 Smart Motion Mini cooler which sits on the baseplate and uses an O-ring to prevent leaks.
for the final fit. The M3 screws are the same size as 2.5in drive mount Install the O-ring in the baseplate and line up the holes with the ones
screws, so your case likely included some of these. you just drilled.

9/ SECURE TO BASEPLATE 10 / FIT WATERBLOCK

Place rubber washers onto the screws to make the holes leakproof, Mount the block with a self-adhesive thermal pad, thermal adhesive
then insert the screws into the waterblock and secure the HF 14 to the or with the lower section of Alphacool’s HDX heatsink and clips
baseplate. If the screws protrude from the end of the baseplate, file (shown), putting thermal pads on any short chips so that the plate
them down a little, so they fit flush. sits flush. You can now fit barbs and start leak-testing.

108
 CO M M U N I T Y / FOLDING

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109
 M O D D I N G / READERS’ DRIVES

Readers’ Drives
ROG3DMod–
JointheAuraRepublic
Alexander Hede took full What specs did you
choose and why?
favourite mod is based on an Intel
NUC,which I made to resemble an
advantage of Asus’ 3D support Alexander: The main purpose of old Intel microprocessor.
this machine is to show off the
for printed parts, as well as its custom 3D printed parts and the What difficulties
Aura lighting.It’s been shown at did you come across?
Aura lighting system, to make Gamescom and IFA,and it will be on Alexander:The Rampage V is an
show at different fairs over the next E-ATX board,but the Core P5 only
this striking open-air mod few months.When I get it back,it supports ATX or smaller
will be my main rig – mostly used motherboards,so there were a few
for CAD,rendering and gaming. problems along the way.Since I
The Rampage V edition 10 was couldn’t move the motherboard,I
What originally inspired you chosen for its Aura capabilities and had to move all the other parts,
to build the project,and how did support for 3D printed parts.I’ve which led to me drilling and tapping
you find working with the Core P5? always liked the Rampage boards,so some new holes,making my own
Alexander:Asus contacted me it was an easy choice.Meanwhile, customised pump brackets and
about making a build to show off its the Core i7-6950X is a beast of a CPU cutting some extra slots.Another
new 3D printing project,called that will be very helpful for the problem was painting the 3D
‘Make It Your Own’,as well as its projects on which I work – the more printed parts;for some reason,the
Aura lighting.The idea is that you cores the merrier.I’ve also used a lot black paint turned out grey on the
can customise your own of Dominator Platinum RAM and 3D print material,even though it
motherboard with 3D printed parts, love the look of the modules – I came out black on any other
so it fits better with the theme of mainly chose the ROG edition of this material.I tried using lots of
your project.Due to the short time memory for the colours. different primers first to see if the 3D
frame,we decided to Finally,the Strix GPU was chosen printed material was reacting with
opt for a ready-made because the Aura software will let the paint,but none of them worked.
case instead of you sync the light on the GPU with In the end I bought a few different
a complete scratch the motherboard. brands of black spray paint and
build.After looking for found one that worked.I still don’t
a few days,we chose What other mods know what was wrong.
the Thermaltake Core have you built?
P5,as it’s an open case Alexander:I’ve Why did you use rigid tubing,
and all the parts are built my own and did it present any issues?
spread out,so most of computers for the Alexander:I’veI’ve used a lot of soft
the motherboard is past 20 years,but tubing and all-in-one
visible.The case is well I’ve only been liquid coolers before
designed and working modding for a few in other mods,
/MEET THY MAKER
Name Alexander Hede on it is easy. years.Over the mostly due to their
(aka Ace_finland) past couple of ease of use,but the
Age 34 Where does the years,I’ve built layout of the Core P5
Location Finland name come from? around ten mods. makes rigid tubing
Alexander:The name Most of them were ideal.As I hadn’t
Occupation Development
engineer is just a combination of different projects used rigid tubing
Main uses for PC CAD and the features Asus for Computex,CES before,I got a lot of
gaming wanted to show off.It and other fairs,but extra tubes.After
Likes Gaming might not be the most a few of them were spending an
Dislikes Olives and pickles innovative name,but it built for personal hour practising
serves its purpose. use and fun.My bending,I also

110
SEETHEFULL
PROJECTLOG:
http://tinyurl.com/
ROG3DMod

111
M O D D I N G / READERS’ DRIVES

started to wonder what I’d got

myself into – the bends either
stretched or kinked and there was
always a minor imperfection on the
pipe.After a few more hours and
several pipes,I started to get the
hang of it though.Eventually,I was
ready to make my first pipe,which
was then fairly straightforward,
although I did end up making a
few extra pipes due to some of
them ending up with minor
imperfections.The hardest part
was getting all the pipes in perfect
straight lines,even when they had
2-5 bends in them.

CPC: What tools and

machinery did you use?
Alexander:As this mod had a lot of
3D printed parts,the main tool for
the project was SolidWorks.Asus
supplied some of the 3D printed
parts,but the rest were designed by
myself and then ordered.I also used
my homebuilt CNC mill to make a
new logo for the CPU waterblock.
Other tools that I used include a
cordless drill for drilling and tapping,
a saw to cut some holes and a file to
clean up the cuts.I also spent a lot of
time soldering cables between the
LED strips – it took a while to get
them all working.
How long did the build
process take?
Alexander:I usually don’t count the
hours that I work on a project,but
from the first email,it was six weeks
until Gamescom started.My best
guess would be that there were
around 100 hours spent generating
ideas and concepts,plus choosing a
BE A WINNER
To enter your machine for possible inclusion in
Readers’ Drives, your mod needs to be fully working
and, ideally, finished based in the UK. Simply log on to
www.bit-tech.net and head over to the forums. Once
you’re there, post a write-up of your mod, along with
some pics, in the Project Logs forum. Make sure you
read the relevant rules and advice sticky threads before
you post. The best entrant each month will be featured
here, where we’ll print your photos of your project and
also interview you about the build process. Fame isn’t
the only prize; you’ll also get your hands on a fabulous
selection of prizes – see the opposite page for details.
case and doing the design work.The
modding and painting itself took
around a week to finish.
What did you learn from
the build process?
Alexander: The biggest lesson I
learned is how to bend rigid tubing.
It took a long time to understand
how to get the pipes perfect without
stretching or kinking them.I’m very
happy to have spent time learning
how to do it though – it will be a
smaller step to use rigid tubing in
upcoming mods now.The other
lesson (which I’ll never learn) is to
plan for the unexpected.There are
always some parts that don’t fit
together no matter how good your
planning,which leads to working
very late nights in order to finish the
mod within the set time frame.
SYSTEM SPECS
CPU Intel Core i7-6950X
Graphics card Asus Strix GTX 1080
Case Thermaltake Core P5
Memory 32GB (4 x 8GB) Corsair
Dominator Platinum ROG Edition
3200MHz
Storage 512GB OCZ RD400 SSD
Are you happy with the end
result,and is there anything you’d
do differently if you built it again?
Alexander: I’m happy with the end
result.The more I look at the case,the
more I like it,but no mod will ever be
perfect – there’s always one part I
could improve.There are some small
imperfections I would like to fix.
Most people won’t notice them at
first glance,but they’re frustrating
when you’ve been staring at your
mod for hours and know where to
look.The only major job I would have
done differently is cutting the GPU
bracket,so only one card would fit on
it,which would make the whole
build cleaner looking and less deep.
I did plan to cut it originally,but I
wasn’t sure I would be able to cut it
perfectly with the time I had left,so
I decided to leave it be.
Motherboard Asus Rampage V
Edition 10
PSU Corsair AX860i
Cooling EK fittings, Mayhems X1 fluid,
Thermaltake waterblock, pump/
reservoir combo and radiator

112
 Win all these prizes!
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Phobya Modding Kit

VALUE £50inc VAT MANUFACTURER www.phobya.com,www.aqua-tuning.co.uk

The Phobya modding kit is designed with the modder in mind, offering braided extension cable gives you extra routing options in your case,
great value for money and quality products. The kit includes Nano-G 12 and it also enables you to run up to four fans from one compatible
Silent Waterproof 1,500rpm multi-option fans, motherboard header. Meanwhile, the Phobya SATA 3
which use an innovative fan-blade design. cables included in the kit offer the same
As standard, the fans include braided black great quality braiding as the rest of the
cables to keep your case looking as neat as Phobya range, while also securing your
possible. The fans are also supplied with a connection with latched connectors.
special cable that lets you run the fan at 5V As well as this, the kit includes the
rather than 12V, reducing the noise Phobya SlimGuide Controller, which
emitted in order to help you to build gives you the option to vary
a silent system. the speed of other fans in
The kit also includes the your case, while the Phobya
60cm Phobya 3-pin Molex to TwinLEDs let you shine a
4x 3-pin Molex Y-cable. This pre- light on your mods.

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 OPINION
JA M E S G O R B O L D / HARDWARE ACCELERATED
MY BATTLE AGAINST
PC NOISE CONTINUES
But a new monitor is a great distraction, says James Gorbold
E
ver since PCs have needed cooling fans, I’ve been in
aconstantbattletomakemysystemsquieter.Idon’t
mind the positive aural feedback that a mechanical
keyboard provides, but I detest buzzing fans, the whine of
pumps and vibrating electromagnetic coils.
A few months ago, I had to rebuild my main PC’s aging
cooling system, as the old one was struggling and belching
out burned dust into the room. It was all fine and dandy until
I replaced the knackered, old wafer-thin carpet in my study
with a solid wooden floor. Unfortunately,
while the new floor looks amazing, the solid
surfacereflectsand,tosomeextent,amplifies While the new floor looks
vibrations,sonowmyPCseemsmuchlouder
than before. It’s even reached the stage that,
amazing, the solid surface
whilewritingthiscolumnonachillyautumn reflects and, to some
morning, I can hear the PC whirring away
even though its sitting idle in Word, using a
extent, amplifies vibrations
mere 0.3 per cent of my CPU resources.
The new Noctua CPU cooler I fitted a few months ago
has the quietest fan in the PC, and the fans on my EVGA
graphicscarddon’tspininWindows.Thenthere’sthe120mm
exhaust fan in the roof of the case, which is the youngest
component in the PC and spins at just 900rpm, so it barely
makes a murmur either.
Instead,thefrequencythatthenewwoodenflooramplifies
isthenoiseemittedbythethree180mmintakefansthatdraw
cool air into the case through a grille in the bottom. They’re
theoriginalSilverStonefanssuppliedwiththecase,sothey’re
a good six years old. Unfortunately, 180mm fans never really
took off as a trend, so there’s very little choice when it comes
tofansthislarge.Forinstance,therearen’tanyofthenewuber
James Gorbold has been building, tweaking and overclocking PCs ever since the 1980s. He now helps Scan Computers to develop new systems.
114
quiet magnetic levitation fans available in 180mm models.
Maybe it’s finally time to ditch this case in favour of a more
modern chassis, marking the first time in over 30 years that
I’ve ever had to upgrade a PC because of a cosmetic change to
theroominwhichitlives.Inthemeantime,I’mgoingtodisable
one of the intake fans when I’m not gaming, as three 180mm
fans really aren’t necessary to keep the system cool while
I’m working.
On the plus side, I have a great new distraction from fan
noise while gaming now – after months of
prevaricating, I’ve finally taken the plunge
andboughtanewmonitor.Anybodywhohas
been reading this column, or my Scanzone
newsletter, will probably be able to guess
which one – the glorious Asus ROG PG348Q.
My PC upgrade philosophy has always
been to go for the highest resolution,and the
best-quality monitor available – your
monitor is an investment, and should outlast every other
component in your PC.
The PG348Q certainly ticks all the right boxes, featuring a
34in curved IPS panel with a native resolution of 3,440 x 1,440.
The ultra-wide aspect ratio, 21:9 compared with 16:9, really
drawsyouintogames,whileG-Syncremovestearingartefacts
in games.It’s great for work too,enabling me to have multiple
documents or RDP sessions open at once for maximum
productivity. Quite frankly, it’s the best upgrade I’ve made in
years and it’s much more enjoyable than a 4K monitor. I still
fancy a VR headset,but while the Vive and Rift are impressive
in their own right, I still haven’t seen a killer VR game that
makes a headset look like a necessity.