40 JANUARY2021|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE395
01
AbasicPCcostingaround£350will
beabletoruneverydayoffice,
multimediaandeducationsoftwareandwill
easilycopewithsurfingtheinternet.Itmight
evenbeabletorunsomemoderngames.
ManyPCscanbesoldeitherwithor
withoutamonitor.Ifyoudon’tlikethe
displaythe manufacturer is offering, you
can always use your current one,orbuy
another one separately.
02
If you want to playgames, you’ll
have to upgrade the graphics card.
Budget cards such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX
1050 will cope well with many 3D games, but
to playthe latest 3D games smoothly (and
enjoythe best-quality graphics) it’s worth
upgrading to amore powerful card such as
the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070.
Choosinga... PCsystem
03
All modern PCs come with at least
adual-core processor and are
capable of most tasks. Anyone who
regularly undertakes demanding tasks
such as video editing and encoding
should consider ahexa-core or even
an octa-core processor.
04
There are plenty of good reasons to
upgrade the PC’s memory or hard
disk. If you’ll use your PC forgaming, video
editing or other demanding tasks, you’ll
need at least 8GB of RAMand alarge hard
disk; 1TB should suffice. Many newPCs have
an SSD,which speeds up the time it takes for
your PC to boot and forprograms to load.
05
Having plenty of USB portsis
always useful, as most computer
peripherals attach to these ports. Most new
PCs come with USB3 or the latest USB3.1
ports, which provide faster data transfers
when used with supported devices than the
older USB2 standard.
06
Most new PCs now come with
Windows 10 pre-installed. Don’t be
tooeasily swayed by the inclusion of other
software,though, as it maybethat you’ll
never use it.
07
While most PCs come in cases of
asimilar size,some have more
compact mini tower or mini PC cases.
These smaller PCs will fit under your TV
or on your desk more easily,but bearin
mind that they’re significantly harder to
upgrade than full-size machines.
PCs
CHILLBLAST Photo Zen
★★★★★
£1,240•www.chillblast.com
RASPBERRYPI
4ModelB
★★★★★
£34•thepihut.com
Photographers and
designers will love the
PhotoZen: aPClaser-
focused on media editing. To this end it
has aheavily multithreaded CPU, loads
of RAM, amulticardreader and even a
sound-dampening case,soyou can work
in peace with minimal fannoise.
Afaster processor,
quicker networking
and dual HDMI outputs
make the Pi 4amuch better desktop computer
than previous Pi models, and it hasn’t lost any appeal as acheap
hobbyist board, either.4Kvideo implementation could be better
–wehad issues getting smooth playback in Raspbian –but that’s
the only noteworthy concern.
PROCESSOROcta-core3.6GHzAMD Ryzen73700X•RAM32GB•FRONTUSBPORTS2xUSB2,
5xUSB3•REARUSBPORTS2xUSB2, 2xUSB3,4xUSB3.1•TOTALSTORAGE500GBSSD,2TB hard
disk•DISPLAYNone•OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows 10 Home•WARRANTYFive yearslabour
includingtwo yearscollectand return•DETAILSwww.chillblast.com•PARTCODEPhotoZen•
FULLREVIEWOct2020
PROCESSORQuad-core1.5GHzBroadcom BCM2711•RAM1GB•USBPORTS1x USB Type-C
(power),2xUSB2, 2xUSB3•STORAGEMicroSD card slot•DISPLAYNone•OPERATING
SYSTEMRaspbian•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.raspberypi.org•PARTCODEPi 4
Model B•FULLREVIEWSep 2019
ACERAspireXC
★★★★★
£400•www.acer.com
Not only is the Aspire XC
conviniently compact
and attractively cheap,
it’s got more than enough horsepower to
cope with most tasks and asmattering of
handy extras, including built-in Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth. We tested the XC-885 model
with asolitaryhard disk, but foralittle
extra you can add afaster SSD.
PROCESSORHexa-core2.9GHzIntel Core i5-9400•RAM
8GB•FRONTUSBPORTS1xUSB3.1,1xUSB Type-C•REAR
USBPORTS4x USB2, 2xUSB3•TOTALSTORAGE1TBhard
disk•GRAPHICSPROCESSORIntelUHD Graphics630•
OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows 10 Home•WARRANTY
Oneyearcarry-in•DETAILSwww.acer.com•PARTCODE
Aspire XC-885•FULLREVIEWSep 2020
PALICOMPAMDAbyss
★★★★★
£700•www.palicomp.co.uk
At this price,you’d
seriously struggle to find
amore comprehensively
capable desktop system than Palicomp’s
AMD Abyss. It can multitask with
serious applications just as well as it
can run games, and with its large,fast
NVMe SSD,itwon’t be slowed down
by storage.There’s alot of room for
future upgrades, too.
PROCESSORHexa-core 3.6GHz AMDRyzen 52600X•RAM8GB•FRONTUSBPORTS2xUSB2,
1x USB3•REARUSBPORTS2xUSB2, 2xUSB3, 2xUSB3.1, 1x USB Type-C•TOTALSTORAGE
512GBSSD,1TB hard disk•GRAPHICSCARD8GBAMD Radeon RX570Armor 8GBOC•
OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILS
http://www.palicomp.co.uk•PARTCODERYZ6•FULLREVIEWApr2019
YPI
f
rprocessor,
networking
alHDMI outputs
etter desktop computer
,andithasn’tlostanyappealasacheap
