With NZXT’s previous compact ATX chassis, such as the H510 Elite, the company went for a brute-force approach to ensure the cases had good airflow despite having a sealed front panel. We don’t blame the designers at NZXT for making that decision, as the H510 Elite looked fantastic and was also the bestperforming, sealed-front case … Read more
As one of several Z690 boards available that comes in both DDR4 and DDR5 flavours, the Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X gives you the option of jumping on either bandwagon, albeit with specific versions of the board supporting one memory type or the other. We’ve got the DDR4 version in for review here, but if you’re … Read more
While the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex has an eye-watering price tag, it’s beautifully crafted and dripping with features. The most prominent of them is an extruded aluminium heatsink spelling ROG on the bottom-right corner of the PCB. Read our Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Apex Review. This section forms part of a massive heatsink that, … Read more
If you’ve been put off an Alder Lake upgrade by the eye-watering prices of Z690 motherboards, then the cheapest example in this month’s Labs test costs £, which is certainly far cheaper than most examples we’ve seen. However, ASRock has had to cut back the Z690 PG Riptide’s features significantly to hit this price. Read … Read more
Aerocool aero 500 review – Aerocool is back with another one of its new Aero cases, which are part of the company’s PGS A series. This case, the Aero-500, looks a lot like the Aero-800 (reviewed last month), which looks a lot like the Aero-1000 (reviewed in the June 2015 issue). Now before you convince yourself … Read more
A case study in combating successful Swedish design. Read our Be Quiet! Silent Base 601 Review. With regard to system building, it almost always comes down to two trains of thought. The first is about showcasing. Presenting your components in a chassis that fits the bill, with LED lighting, tempered glass, reflections, you name it. The … Read more
We didn’t think it was possible for a mini-lTX case to land that improved upon traditional designs in a radical way, but Cooler Master’s MasterBox NR200P managed just that when we first reviewed it back in Issue 206. It’s reasonably compact, although is far from the smallest case we’re reviewing this month, but Cooler Master has … Read more
Table of ContentsNEW MOTHERBOARDS: WHAT TO LOOK FORCPU SocketsOther FeaturesPrice & ManufacturerMOTHERBOARDS: WHAT’S COMING UP?Intel: 2017 & BeyondAMD: 2017 And BeyondFuture FeaturesHOW TO UPGRADE YOUR MOTHERBOARDUPGRADE YOUR MOTHERBOARDChoosing A MotherboardInstalling Your New HardwareUh Oh…Step-By-Step Guide1 Preparation2 Dismantling Your PC3 Installing Your New Motherboard4 Reconfigure Your OSIntel motherboards guideIntel ChipsetsIntel ChipsetsSkylake Budget CPUsBudget: Biostar H110MHV3High-End: MSI H110M Pro-VDSkylake … Read more
Intel was never going to be without its performance crown for long, so with approriate pomp and ceremony Jacob Ridley introduces the new CPU king. Read our Intel Core i9 12900K Review. Meet Alder Lake, Intel’s all-new 12th gen processor architecture. It’s a core part of what may well be the beginning of Intel’s push-back … Read more
If you’re looking to build a powerhouse PC, one of the first things you need to do is pick your poison: AMD or Intel? Both companies are making some absolutely fantastic CPUs and adjacent platforms, so there’s really no wrong decision here. But to hell with that fence-sitting BS: It’s still a decision you have … Read more
PAUL ALCORN Intel had some catching up to do with Alder Lake, the codename for its 12th generation Core processors. For the past five years, AMD’s Ryzen family has battered it for core counts, value for money and all-round performance when it comes to desktop processors. Meanwhile, Apple has upended the whole power versus performance … Read more
Get ready to hear plenty about ‘Alder Lake’. It’s the codename for Intel’s new 12th-generation ‘Core’ processor series, which is set to make waves, not least for its use of heterogeneous cores. This month, we explain what this means, why it’s a great idea and why you’ve probably already seen it in Android and Apple … Read more