Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

Letters

Bite the dust
I’ve been reading Custom PC since
the very first issue and I’m over the
moon at the improvements since
the Raspberry Pi buyout! There is
one feature I would absolutely love
to see in the magazine, though,
which has plagued me for decades

• how to build a dust-free PC.
  It doesn’t seem to matter what
  components or case I use, dust finds
  its way into my rig, and always has
  done (even in a tidy and smoke-free
  environment). I recently upgraded
  my son’s PC, and it took us longer to
  clean it than it did to install the new
  GPU. Is there any way to prevent
  this, and if not, how about an article
  full of your top cleaning tips? Keep
  up the excellent work with the
  revived magazine!
  RICHARD DAVEY

Ben: There’s no way to completely
remove dust from the equation I’m
afraid, Richard. PCs need an airflow
system that involves taking air from
your house into the chassis and then
exhausting it – you’ll always end up with
some dust entering the system. There’s
a few tips and tricks though. One is to
buy a case with removable dust filters
around the fan mounts – these trap a
fair amount of dust, and you just need to
occasionally give them a clean.

Wealsohavea guideonourwebsite

tomakingyourownonesatcustompc.

co.uk/dust– youonlyneeda pairof

tights.Youcanusea minivacuum

cleanertocarefullyremovedustfrom

yourPCaswell.I liketheideaofa

generalcleaningarticlethough– we’ll

putit onthelist.

GamingCPUs

I’vebeenlookingatupgradingmy

PCrecently.I’velookedatthespec

forthe‘mid-rangegamingsystem’

onyourElitelist,andamgoing

toworkwiththatone.However,I

havea coupleofthingstoconsider.

I currentlyusea Corei7-3770K

anda GeForceGTX970,which

handlesmoststuffprettywell,but

I definitelywanttochange

totheRTX 2070 togetreal-

time ray tracing.

I’m just don’t know how

big the difference will be

with my current CPU and

the current generation

of CPUs. I’m also not

looking to overclock it

all, so I’m wondering if

I can reduce the costs

a little by changing

the motherboard or

some of the other

components. I

already have a case

Please send us your feedback and correspondence to

[email protected]

FEEDBACK

JAN

Issue 198^9

will be on sale on Thursday, 9 January

When’s the next issue out? and PSU that will cope well with

the new parts. Most of my existing

storage will transfer to the new

build easily too. I could do with your

advice on this before I make any

attempt to get the pieces I need.

NICHOLAS LAMBOURNE

Ben: Well, this is timely – our feature

on p78 addresses the difference that a

CPU can make to gaming, so it’s worth

having a read of that first. In all honesty,

while the Core i7-3770K is old now,

it’s still a pretty good gaming CPU. It’s

worth upgrading to a CPU with six or

eight cores, but for you, it’s the GPU

that will make the main difference to

gaming performance.

You can also definitely save some

money. If I were you, I would look at

getting one of AMD’s latest 3rd-gen

Ryzen CPUs (the Ryzen 5 3600X

will be ideal for this if you’re not

overclocking), but running it on an older

B450 motherboard. You may need

to update the BIOS so the board will

recognise the new CPU, so ask the

retailer if they can do this for you before

you make your purchase.