56 AUGUST 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 378
01
Abasic PC costing around £350 will
be able to run everydayoffice,
multimedia and education software and will
easily cope with surfing the internet. It might
even be able to run some modern games.
Many PCs can be sold either with or
without amonitor.Ifyou don’t like the
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 RAM and alarge hard
disk; 1TB should suffice.Many new PCs have
an SSD,which speeds up the time it takes for
your PC to boot and forprograms to load.
05
Having plenty of USB ports is
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 bear in
mind that they’re significantly harder to
upgrade than full-size machines.
PCs
LENOVOIdeaCentre620S
★★★★★
£579•wwww.currys.co.uk
RASPBERRYPI
3ModelB+
★★★★★
£28•uk.rs-online.com
Mini PCs can be overpriced, slow
or even sold without RAM and
storage,but the IdeaCentre 620S
is acompletesystem that’s both reasonably
powerful and pleasantly affordable.The quad-core
Intel Core i5-7400T handles office work well
enough, while an Intel Optane Memory drive gives
the hard disk aspeed boost, and there’s even a
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti forextra graphical capability.
The ultimate
micro PC gets
even better
with faster CPU clock speeds and dramatically improved
Wi-Fi performance.The differences between this and the
standard Pi Model 3probably won’t be enough to be worth
adirect upgrade,but since this is no more expensive,it’s the
best choice fornew projects.
PROCESSORQuad-core2.4GHzIntelCorei5-7400T•RAM8GB•FRONTUSBPORTSNone•
REARUSBPORTS4xUSB3•TOTALSTORAGE1TBharddisk,16GBIntelOptaneMemorydrive•
GRAPHICSCARD4GBNvidiaGeForceGTX1050Ti•DISPLAYNone•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Windows10Home•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.lenovo.com•PARTCODE
90HC0011UK•FULLREVIEWMay2018
PROCESSORQuad-core1.4GHzBroadcomBCM2837•RAM1GB•USBPORTS1xMicroUSB
(power),4xUSB2•TOTALSTORAGEMicroSDcardslot•DISPLAYNone•OPERATING
SYSTEMRaspbian•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.raspberypi.org•PARTCODEPi3
ModelB+•FULLREVIEWJun2018
CHILLBLAST FusionRyzen7RTX
2070CustomGamingPC
★★★★★
£1,300•www.chillblast.com
From its multithreading-friendly
processor to its hulking Turing
graphics card, this desktop has the
hardware to breeze through all but the toughest
4K-resolution games. There’s not as much room for
internal upgrades as some mid-tower systems, but
the Fusion Ryzen 7RTX 2070 Custom Gaming PC
makes up forthis with high core performance and good pricing.
PROCESSOROcta-core3.2GHzAMDRyzen72700•RAM16GB•FRONTUSBPORTS2xUSB3•
REARUSBPORTS2xUSB2,4xUSB3,2xUSB3.1•TOTALSTORAGE250GBSSD,2TBharddisk•
GRAPHICSCARD8GBGigabyteGeForceRTX2070Windforce8G•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Windows10Home•WARRANTYFiveyearslabour, includingtwoyearscollectandreturn•
DETAILSwww.chillblast.com•PARTCODEFusionRyzen7RTX2070CustomGamingPC•
FULLREVIEWJul2019
ow
0S
core
ves
ty.
FRONTUSBPORTSNone•
LE
★★
£57
YPI
m
is a
pow
el
ultimate
ro PC gets
better
speeds and dramatically improved
diff bthand th
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-core3.6GHzAMDRyzen52600X•RAM8GB•FRONTUSBPORTS2xUSB2,
1xUSB3•REARUSBPORTS2xUSB2,2xUSB3,2xUSB3.1,1xUSBType-C•TOTALSTORAGE
512GBSSD,1TBharddisk•GRAPHICSCARD8GBAMDRadeonRX570Armor8GBOC•
OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILS
http://www.palicomp.co.uk•PARTCODERYZ6•FULLREVIEWApr2019
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