Custom PC - UK (2019-12)

Welcome

Custom PC Issue 195

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

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

sustainable forests. The printer operates an

environmental management system which has been

assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.

Custom PC magazine is published by Raspberry Pi

(Trading) Ltd., Maurice Wilkes Building, St. John’s

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.

I

t regularlybafflesmethatsomanypeople still house
theirPCsincolossaltowercaseswithatleast four
unusedexpansionslots.Therearelegitimate reasons
fornotgoingdowntheminiPCroute,ofcourse.You might
genuinelyneedmorethanonePCI-Eexpansionslot, you might
wanttoinstallanelaboratecoolingsystem,oryoumight just
wantthegreaterairflowandeasierbuildingthatusually comes
witha largercase.
Ona personallevel,I stillusea discretesoundcard, and like to
haveroomformywater-coolinggear,soI’mstillquite happy
withmyFractalDesignDefineR6.Foranyoneelse, though, you
reallyhavenothingtolosebybuildinga miniPCthese days.
Asourmotherboardreviewsthismonthshow,the latest
minimotherboardsdon’tskimponperformanceor features
comparedwiththeirATXsiblings– youjustdon’twaste space
onsuperfluousexpansionslotsorextraDIMMslots. You can get
supportforAMD’slatest3rd-genRyzenCPUs,a 16x PCI-E 4
graphicsslot,twoPCI-E4 M.2connectors,ALC1220audio and
dual-bandWi-Fiallona boardthatmeasuresjust170 x 170mm.
There’sa greatchoiceofcaseswithallsortsofinteresting
designstoo,asshowninourmini-ITXcaseLabsthis month (see
p46).What’smore,Asushaspushedtheboatouteven further
thismonth,withthelaunchofitsfirst‘mini-DTX’motherboard
(seep22),whichhasanenormousfeatureset,butis only slightly
biggerthana standardmini-ITXboard.
Werecentlyrana socialmediasurveyonwhether people use
PCI-Eslotsforanycomponentsthataren’tgraphics cards. We had
over 100 responsesonbothFacebookandTwitter,and while
plentyofpeoplearestillusingtheirslotsforsound cards, HDMI
capturecardsandotherdevices,mostpeopledon’t use any more
thantheoneslotfortheirgraphicscard.
If thisis you,I urgeyoutoconsiderdownsizingfor your next
build– you’llgeta machinethathardlytakesupany desk space,
looksgreatandisn’tfilledwithexpansionslotsyou simply won’t
use.If you’refeelinginspiredtoplungeintotheworld of mini
PCs,takea lookatourbuildguideonp78toseehow it’s done.

Minimagic

DESIGN

criticalmedia.co.uk

HEAD OF DESIGN

Lee Allen

DESIGNERS

Ty Logan

COMMERCIAL

& ADVERTISING

ADVERTISING

Charlotte Milligan

[email protected]

+44 (0)7725 368887

DISTRIBUTION

Seymour Distribution Ltd

2 East Poultry Ave,

London EC1A 9PT

+44 (0)207 429 4000

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Unit 6 The Enterprise Centre

Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal,

Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9PE

Phone

01293 312182

Email

[email protected]

Website

custompc.co.uk/subscribe

BUILDGAMINGA TINYPCWITHOUT12CORE

SACRIFICINGSPEED

HOWYOURSOLIDSTATEDRIVEWORK

IRSTSPEECHTHESOUNDBLASTERSTORY

S

SIZEACTUAL

FULLBUILD8 PAGEGUDE

MGROUPNIITXTESTCASE

X570MOTHERBOARDREVIEWSMINI

THEBESTSELLINGGMAGFORPCHARDWAREOVERCLOCKINGGAMING&MODDING

ISSUE 195

SUBSCRIBERS

EDITION

ISSUE 195

EDITOR

BenHardwidge

[email protected]

@isleofshark

/ FROM THE EDITOR