Welcome
Custom PC Issue 197
EDITORIAL
EDITOR
Ben Hardwidge
[email protected]
FEATURES EDITOR
Edward Chester
[email protected]
MODDING EDITOR
Antony Leather
GAMES EDITOR
Rick Lane
CONTRIBUTORS
Gareth Halfacree, James Gorbold,
Mike Jennings, Phil Hartup,
Richard Swinburne, Tracy King
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Julie Birrell
SUB EDITOR
Nicola King
PHOTOGRAPHY
Antony Leather, Brian O’Halloran,
Fiacre Muller, Gareth Halfacree
PUBLISHING
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
Russell Barnes
[email protected]This magazine is printed on paper sourced from
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environmental management system which has been
assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.
Custom PC magazine is published by Raspberry Pi
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Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS.
The publisher, editor, and contributors accept no
responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors
relating to goods, products or services referred to or
advertised. ISSN: 1740-7443.DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME The information in
this magazine is given in good faith. Raspberry Pi
(Trading) Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for
loss, disruption or damage to your data or your
computer that may occur as a result of following or
attempting to follow advice given in the magazine.
If things do go wrong, take a break.A
MDhassenta large,Ryzen-brandeddemolition squad
intotheCPUmarketthisyear.WhileitsAM4 Ryzen
chipsarecomprehensivelytakinga wrecking ball to
Intel’sLGA1151chips,itslatestThreadripperCPUsarenow
bulldozingInteloutofthehigh-enddesktop(HEDT)space.
Intelis fightingback,ofcourse,withitslatest18-coreCore i9 CPU
(seep26)settocostundera grand– that’sa hugepricereduction
comparedwithlastyear,butit’sstillnotenough.Notwhen a 16-core
Ryzenchipundercutsit by£250(seep24),andthelatest
ThreadripperCPUsareavailablein24-coreand32-coreflavours (see
p16),withthe64-core3990Xwaitinginthewingsaswell.
Now,we’vehad24-coreand32-coreThreadripperCPUs before,
butinternallatencyproblemsmeanttheywereonlyreally
usefulina selectfewheavilymulti-threadedworkstation apps –
ingamesandlightlythreadedsoftware,theyweresignificantly
behindtheirAM4Ryzencounterparts.That’sovernow though.
ThelatestThreadripperchipscanreallydoit all– gaming, video
encodingandmassivelymulti-threadedcontentcreation
software– allinthesamechip.
Don’tgetcarriedaway,though,especiallyif yourmain
priorityis gaming.Unlessyou’reusingsomeseriously multi-
threadedcontentcreationsoftware,youwon’tseemuch benefit
froma Threadripperchip.Asourgaminghardwarefeature on
p78shows,it’sworthhavinga 6-coreCPUfortoday’sgames, but
yougetlittlebenefitbeyondthatpoint.
I countmyselfinthatcategory– I doa fairbitofvideo
encodingandgaming,whichmy8-coreRyzen7 chiphandles
fine.If youwanta killerPCthatreallydoesit all,though, the
latestThreadripperchipsshowthatyoureallycanhave one
CPUthatcan’tbestopped,offeringhugemulti-threaded
performancewithoutsacrificinglightlythreadedperformance.
That’sa massivedealintheHEDTarena.
Intelis alsostillstuckonits14nmnode,whileAMD’s CPU dies
arenowmanufacturedona 7nmprocess.What’smore, AMD’s
TRX40platformalsooffersPCI-E4 s supportforthelatest super-
faststorage.Intelshouldbeveryworriedindeed.
Core themerrier
DESIGN
criticalmedia.co.uk
HEAD OF DESIGN
Lee Allen
DESIGNERS
Ty Logan, Sam Ribbits
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custompc.co.uk/subscribeREVEALEDTHEHARDWAREYOUREALLYNEEDFORGAMNGHOWANTIALIASINGWORKSACCELERATECREATIONGAMINGPERFORMANCEWITHOUTCONTENTLOSNGALL
THECORESFROGEFGGAONLORCEHEMSNG£1GO 699 LAPTOPSRTX(^32) Cores (^24) CoresAMD3970XAMD3960XTHREADRIPPERTHREADRIPPER
(^18) Cores 16 INTEL10980XECOREi9
CoresAMD3950XRYZEN^9
ALL
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ISSUE 197
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EDITION
ISSUE 197
EDITOR
BenHardwidge
[email protected]
@custompcmag
/ FROM THE EDITOR