PC Gamer Presents - PC Hardware Handbook - May 2018

Okay, that price: ouch! Why the big bucks? Where are the compromises? And what makes this system so much better than the competi ...

FEATURE BUILD IT: The Intel rig of damnation It’s been a struggle to find a system in which we can use EVGA’s 1,600W T2 – withou ...

Although appearances shouldn’t really be a major factor when it comes to a decent workstation, we’ve got to admit that the beige ...

I ntel has had a bad time lately. A pair of far-reaching CPU security issues dubbed ‘Spectre’ and ‘Meltdown’ (presumably action ...

yet to see an attack as a result of these flaws. In fact, despite panicked reports about just how bad these exploits could be, I ...

HEAD TO HEAD 98 CPU COOLERS The best cooling solutions to keep your CPU chilled 68 86 Contents ...

68 BUDGET CASES House your hardware in the best cases for under £100 74 PROCESSORS We pit AMD and Intel’s chips head-to-head in ...

Seven of the best cases for under £100 BUDGET CASES Budget cases GROUP TEST ...

C ase design is getting smarter and with hard drives and optical disc drives being ditched, the latest models are smaller and mo ...

Budget cases GROUP TEST This makes the case impressively compact yet still leaves plenty of room for large CPU coolers and graph ...

Group Test BUDGET CASES 34 For a start, it doesn’t look too bad. It’s a bit boxy and utilitarian but it’s far from ugly and the ...

COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX 5 eu.coolermaster.com £55 FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R4 http://www.fractal-design.com £80 5 6 Starting with th ...

BITFENIX NOVA http://www.bitfenix.com £26 STACKED UP PRICE (£) CPU TEMPERATURE (Celsius) GPU TEMPERATURE (Celsius) 7 The main cu ...

PROCESSORS Intel and AMD trade blows in this CPU brawl T he arrival of Ryzen gave the CPU market the kick it had long been waiti ...

Dictionary Core/thread: Modern CPUs are made up of several processors called cores. Each core can run a piece of code, or thread ...

Processors GROUP TEST Otherwise it has all the other key features that make the Ryzen line so tempting. It’s unlocked for easy o ...

Group Test PROCESSORS 3 4 Nearly a year on, however, and the story’s different. Now Intel has a much more direct equivalent in t ...

5 6 85 %^85 % Processors GROUP TEST 5 This was because it had two cores, and while hyperthreading helped, the advantage from jum ...

STACKED UP PRICE (£) CINEBENCH R15 (POINTS) Single Multi (Higher is better) ASHES OF SINGULARITY (FPS) 1440p/high 1080p/low (Hig ...

Lay the foundation of your next gaming PC with one of the latest Z270 motherboards Z270 MOTHERBOARDS Z27O Motherboards GROUP TES ...