Computer Shopper - UK (2019-10)

ISSUE 380|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2019 51

COMPONENTS

INTELCorei9-9900K

★★★★★

£479•www.amzn.to/2KYuQtF

AMD Ryzen72700X

★★★★★

£255•www.amzn.to/2JvaEyCk

Intel’s 9th-gen chips see it

finally joining the octa-core

club,including the flagship

Core i9-9900K. With Turbo Boost speeds hitting 5GHz

straight out of the box, it’s just as potent in single-core gaming as it

is in serious multithreaded workloads.

AMD’s second generation of

Ryzen processors gets off to

an auspicious start with the

mighty Ryzen 72700X. It’s faster than Intel’s

equivalent Core i7-8700K at stock speeds, despitebeing cheaper,

and temperatures staylow even when overclocking.

SOCKETLGA1151•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY3.6GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSIntelUHDGraphics
(^630) • WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.intel.com•PARTCODEBX80684I99900K•
FULLREVIEWJan2019
SOCKETAM4•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY3.7GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•
WARRANTYTwoyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODEYD270XBGAFBOX•
FULLREVIEWAug2018
THERMALTAKEView37
★★★★★
£110•www.scan.co.uk
Aspacious, feature-rich chassis
forboth ATX- and EATX-based
builds, the View 37 comes with a
gull-wing side window that’s perfect forshowing
off your handiwork.
CASETYPEMid-tower•MOTHERBOARDTYPEATX,EATX,microATX,Mini-ITX•SUPPLIED
FANS2x140mm•MAXDRIVEBAYS7x3.5in,11x2.5in•DIMENSIONS525x261x538mm•
WEIGHT11.8kg•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.thermaltake.com•
PARTCODECA-1J7-00M1WN-00•FULLREVIEWDec2018
HYPERXAlloyElite
★★★★★
£96•www.currys.co.uk
This is abrilliant do-it-all gaming
keyboard; the agile Cherry MX Red
keyswitches provide astrong foundation,
upon which HyperX has built acomfortable,detachable
wrist rest, dedicated media keys and customisable red backlighting.
The USB pass-through port is handy,too.
KEYBOARDSHAPEFullsize•NUMBERPADYes•CONNECTION2xUSB2•MEDIAKEYSPause/
play,mute,skip,volume•USBPORTS1xUSB2•WARRANTYTwoyearsrepairandreplace•
DETAILSwww.hyperxgaming.com•PARTCODEHX-KB2RD1-UK/R1•FULLREVIEWMar2018

01

Youdon’t have to spend much to buy

adecent graphics card that can drive

multiple monitors. The AMD Radeon RX 550

costs about £100, forexample,and while it

isn’t suited to playing the latest games in Full

HD,itisperfect forwatching videos,

browsing the web and playing basic games.

02

You’ll need to spend more moneyif

you want to playthe latest games.

Agood mid-range gaming graphics card is

the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which is

powerful enough to playall modern games

at Full HD resolution.

High-powered cards tend to be more

expensive,soexpect to payover £400 if

you want to playgames in Ultra HD at the

highest quality settings.

Choosinga... Graphicscard

03

Check that your chosen card has

the graphics outputs you need.

Only low-end cards now have VGA

outputs, but many come with aDVI-to-VGA

adaptor.Depending on your monitor,you

mayalso want an HDMI output or even

DisplayPort connection.

Bear in mind that AMD’s Eyefinity

triple-monitor gaming mode requires at

least one DisplayPort monitor,which

means your AMD graphics card must have

at least one DisplayPort output. Nvidia’s

Surround three-monitor mode needs only

DVIand HDMI ports.

04

The amount of memory acard has

is important if you want games to look

their best at high resolutions. Unless you’re

on atight budget, get acard with 4GB of

RAM, as this should allow you to select the

highest-quality textures in games.

05

Acard’s size,noise output and

power requirements are the final

considerations. Make sure your PC’s case

has enough room to accommodateyour

chosen card. Double-slot cards with large

fans tend to be quieter than single-slot

cards with small fans but will block other

expansion slots on your motherboard.

Also check that your power supply

can provide the power the card needs

and that it has the right connectors.

Many cards require asix-pin PCI Express

power connector,and some also need an

additional eight-pin connector.

MSIGeForceRTX2070Armor8G

★★★★★

£480•www.scan.co.uk

MSIMPGZ390GamingEdgeAC

★★★★★

£140•www.scan.co.uk

Whereas the RTX2080

and RTX2080 Ti charge

exorbitant amounts fortheir fancy ray-tracing and

anti-aliasing tech, the RTX2070 delivers the same features at amuch

more reasonable price.Itcan also handle 4K gaming without much

fuss, and MSI’s version stays very cool under load.

From built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi

and Bluetooth to high-end audio

connectivity,the MPG Z370 Gaming Edge

AC is stuffed with features. Addinagood price,easy overclocking and

awell-designed BIOS, and it’s perfect forpremium Intel-based builds.

GPUNvidiaGeForceRTX2070•MEMORY8GBGDDR6•GRAPHICSCARDLENGTH155mm•

WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.msi.com•PARTCODERTX2070Armor8G•

FULLREVIEWMar2019

PROCESSORSOCKETLGA1151•DIMENSIONS305x244mm•CHIPSETIntelZ390•MEMORY

SLOTS (^4) • PCI-Ex16SLOTS (^3) • PCI-Ex1SLOTS (^3) • PCISLOTS (^0) • USBPORTS2xUSB2,2xUSB3,
1xUSB3.1,1xUSBType-C•VIDEOOUTPUTS1xHDMI,1xDisplayPort•WARRANTYOneyearRTB

• DETAILSwww.msi.com•PARTCODEMPGZ390GamingEdgeAC•FULLREVIEWApr2019

gg

udio

Gaming Edge