Home//Maximum PC/October 2020/In This Issue
Maximum PC|October 2020STATISTICAL NUMBER CRUNCHINGTHERE’S NOTHING WE like more at Maximum PC than being presented with a challenge—a concept, a build idea, something grand that requires us to think a little more outside of the box than usual, and over the last few weeks we’ve received two interesting queries from the likes of Vincent Thompson and Tali Kadosh with exactly that. Just how do you go about building a good system for a data scientist or someone interested in statistical analysis? Well this issue I set Christian to task to build exactly that, looking at the parts and process required to build the perfect number-crunching rig for all of your at-home, stat-based desires. We originally set out to build this PC for a price point of around $3,000 to $4,000, but we’ve overshot that…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020DDR5 FINALLY FORMALIZEDJEDEC, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, has finalized the specifications for DDR5 memory. This 5th generation of DDR was originally scheduled for 2018, and Hynix built the first SIMMs that year, and we’ve have a number of “preliminary” DDR5 modules since. Now it’s all official. The maximum die density has jumped from 16Gbit to 64Gbit, and the maximum capacity to 128GB. Each DIMM has two 32-bit memory channels, instead of one 64-bit one, increasing the burst length. Memory voltage has dropped to 1.1V from 1.2V. A big change is the use of on-board voltage regulators; the module takes a straight 5V power supply from the mobo. Each module gets a VRM tuned to its requirements, rather than having a mobo set of VRMs that have to handle every eventuality.DDR5…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Tech Triumphs and TragediesTRIUMPHSMATERIAL YOU CAN’T CUTResearchers have developed a synthetic material called Proteus that is almost impossible to cut.FLIGHT SIMULATOR DVDYou can buy Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2020 in physical form, and it takes 10 DVDs to do it, including 90GB of maps.CHEAPER WHEELSApple wants $699 for a set of wheels for Mac Pro. 3rd-party sets appeared for $500 less.TRAGEDIESBYE, TOSHIBA LAPTOPSAfter 35 years and some of the best laptops of the 90s, Toshiba is quitting the PC business.EXCEL BEATS SCIENTISTSAfter years of Excel misreading gene names as dates, genetic scientists have resorted to renaming 27 human genes.BADPOWER FIRESThe firmware in fast chargers could be vulnerable to hacking, potentially turning devices being charged into firebombs.…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE LIST8 APPLE MUSIC 1 GB/HRBritish company Uswitch recently revealed which apps are chowing down on the most bandwidth in homes under lockdown. Apple Music clocks in at number eight.7 TIDAL 1.27 GB/HRJay-Z’s high-definition music-streaming service certainly demands more bandwidth than the likes of Spotify. Lossless audio and music videos are largely responsible for this.6 DISNEY PLUS 1.5 GB/HRFun fact: Disney’s new-on-the-block streaming platform uses 50% more bandwidth on average than Netflix, and 87.5% more than Amazon Prime Video.5 IHEART RADIO 1.65 GB/HRPodcasts and live radio shows have evidently been popular in lockdown, and iHeartRadio (formerly known as Clear Channel) has been hogging the Wi-Fi a bit.4 SOUNDCLOUD 1.65 GB/HRMore complex features like embedded widgets and downloads, as opposed to streaming, means that SoundCloud is a bandwidth-intensive way to listen to…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Tech Triumphs and TragediesTRIUMPHS MATERIAL YOU CAN’T CUT Researchers have developed a synthetic material called Proteus that is almost impossible to cut. FLIGHT SIMULATOR DVD You can buy Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2020 in physical form, and it takes 10 DVDs to do it, including 90GB of maps. CHEAPER WHEELS Apple wants $699 for a set of wheels for Mac Pro. 3rd-party sets appeared for $500 less. TRAGEDIES BYE, TOSHIBA LAPTOPS After 35 years and some of the best laptops of the 90s, Toshiba is quitting the PC business. EXCEL BEATS SCIENTISTS After years of Excel misreading gene names as dates, genetic scientists have resorted to renaming 27 human genes. BADPOWER FIRES The firmware in fast chargers could be vulnerable to hacking, potentially turning devices being charged into firebombs.…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE SCIENTIFIC METHODLET’S MAKE ONE THING CLEAR: We’re not scientists. We’re just slotting things into motherboards and praying it works, then writing funny words about it. We leave unraveling the mysteries of the universe to those smarter and better trained than us.But we are pretty darn good at building PCs, and we’ve had requests from the more scientifically minded of our readership for a tutorial on how to build a powerful home PC designed to work on data analysis, statistical modelling, and any other scientific endeavor. With lockdowns in effect, many of us learned to work from home, which is fine and dandy if you’re a writer but a problem if you need access to a lab. Those among you with a need to process huge datasets asked for a machine that…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020DATA-DRIVEN ASSEMBLYLENGTH OF TIME: 2–3 HOURSLEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY1 OPEN IT UPBEFORE WE START PLUGGING things in and screwing things down, unbox the Enthoo Pro 2 case and strip it down so it’s fully prepped for building in. The side panels come off easily via thumbscrews, and the exterior filters lift right off (either via plastic tracks or magnets), but the front panel can be a bit more challenging to remove. The push-pins on the back of the panel require quite a lot of force to release, but be careful not to damage the plastic. Underneath this panel (and its funky mesh window) is another dust filter, secured magnetically.You’ll need to install an HDD drive bay—the case should come with four—but we’ll get to that later. You can leave the plastic…11 min
Maximum PC|October 2020MEMORY MADNESSTHIS WAS A SURPRISINGLY easy build. The Enthoo Pro 2 needs more cable-management solutions, but it’s a big case with a bunch of useful tricks up its sleeve to make the build process run smoothly. Installing extra drives or case fans is a cinch; the upgrade potential for this build is nearly unlimited. There’s a ton of space for extra HDDs and SSDs, and our power supply has more than enough juice for them. The M.2 Aero riser card packaged with the motherboard means we could have up to seven M.2 SSDs—excessive for us, but perhaps not to those who routinely handle vast quantities of data.The Threadripper 3970X dominated our benchmarks, surprising nobody. Those 64 threads made short work of every CPU-bound task we threw at it, from Cinebench R15…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020CLOCK WORKSOVERCLOCKING boosts your performance, but what about your street cred? You can boast about your achievements to friends, but when you’re ready to show the world your skills, there’s competitive overclocking. Competitors enjoy a vast community online and at events worldwide. There are also prizes for winning competitions and breaking records. Competitive overclockers’ ultimate destination is HWBot, which hosts global overclocking competitions and maintains a database of world records. Place near the top of one of its ranking boards, and you’ve made it.Sound exciting? For those new to overclocking or interested in competing, we’re here to help. Here are successful professional overclockers’ best tips for getting started.Start with CPUs or RAM, not graphics cards. Premium graphics cards are usually more expensive than CPUs or RAM kits, so you’ll be more…14 min
Maximum PC|October 2020CUTTING BACKYes, we know: This machine is monstrously expensive. So let’s talk about some more affordable alternatives. First up, you can eliminate RGB altogether and cut down to less memory; 32GB is a safe minimum for a system like this, but 64GB kits are also becoming more affordable. Stickingwith Corsair, the Vengeance LPX is slightly more basic but a bit cheaper. Alternatively, you could opt for a lower-price brand, like G.Skill. Making the change from AIO cooling to air cooling is always an option, but sTR4-compatible air coolers aren’t common and tend to be fairly expensive. A more realistic money-saver would be to downgrade the SSD, either to a 3rd-generation M.2 drive or a 2.5-inch SATA. Depending on how often you need to move large files around, a SATA SSD could…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGWe hardly have to feel bad for ARM, it’s not like it already owns the entire mobile phone and tablet space. In fact if things weren’t already looking a bit grim for Intel on the desktop and laptop front, consider that its cash cow of the server market is now under attack not by just a revitalized AMD but ARM as well. Server farms for decades have grappled with the issue that cooling costs more than running the darn servers, two-to-one back in the day, and even now one-to-one costs are a mark of a good cooling design. So if someone appears offering a way of reducing the power consumption of your servers you’re going to pay attention. That’s exactly what ARM has been busy doing.You might have heard of…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020HOW TOTIP OF THE MONTHGET A SPUDGER!Do you like Ryzen processors, but hate those delicate, exposed pins on the motherboard? Then you may want to invest in a spudger. This is essentially a tiny spatula (we recommend plastic ones, not metal) that can be used to carefully straighten up those pesky bent pins. We’ve salvaged more than one AMD chip with this nifty tool. And the best part? They’re super cheap!MAKE - USE - CREATEsubmit your How To project idea to: comments@maximumpc.com…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020ARMing the WorldNO ONE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED in the last years of the 20th century that the processor world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than Intel’s. Yet across the gulf of the Atlantic in a country called the UK, intellects vast and cool regarded the processor market with envious eyes, slowly and surely drawing their plans against Intel… Apple is dumping Intel processors for its own design of silicon. How did this happen, and what, if any, are the ramifications to the wider PC market? How can a processor design that started life in an obscure, failed British home computer of the 1980s now challenge the entire Intel empire? We’re going to delve into the ARM microarchitecture, have a look at how it’s advanced over the years, how…13 min
Maximum PC|October 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGWe hardly have to feel bad for ARM, it’s not like it already owns the entire mobile phone and tablet space. In fact if things weren’t already looking a bit grim for Intel on the desktop and laptop front, consider that its cash cow of the server market is now under attack not by just a revitalized AMD but ARM as well. Server farms for decades have grappled with the issue that cooling costs more than running the darn servers, two-to-one back in the day, and even now one-to-one costs are a mark of a good cooling design. So if someone appears offering a way of reducing the power consumption of your servers you’re going to pay attention. That’s exactly what ARM has been busy doing. You might have heard…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Revamp the Start Menu with Open ShellYOU’LL NEED THISOPEN SHELLAnd Windows 10.SINCE BRINGING BACK THE START MENU with Windows 10, Microsoft has tweaked and updated its app launcher numerous times. But if it still doesn’t quite hit the spot for you—and if you really miss the old-style Start menu—there is an alternative in the form of Open Shell.This free app brings back the pre-Windows 7 Start menu, giving some retro flavor to your PC. Open Shell gives you lots of different styles to play with, includes several different Start button options, and can even tweak other elements like the taskbar. It spun off from Classic Shell, which ceased development in late 2017. You can still download Classic Shell, but it is better to stick with Open Shell since it is actively updated by a team of…6 min
Maximum PC|October 2020HOW TOTIP OF THE MONTH GET A SPUDGER! Do you like Ryzen processors, but hate those delicate, exposed pins on the motherboard? Then you may want to invest in a spudger. This is essentially a tiny spatula (we recommend plastic ones, not metal) that can be used to carefully straighten up those pesky bent pins. We’ve salvaged more than one AMD chip with this nifty tool. And the best part? They’re super cheap! MAKE - USE - CREATE submit your How To project idea to: comments@maximumpc.com…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Corsair One A100OUR FAVORITE compact desktop PC is back! The Corsair One returns with, at first glance, no discernible changes. The solid metal case is exactly as we remember it—a thin tower with a tiny square footprint, gunmetal gray, with two tasteful RGB strips inlaid down the front. But this isn’t the same machine we’ve seen and loved before; this Corsair One is a traitor to its kin, because inside that outer shell is an AMD Ryzen processor.You might’ve guessed this already from the name: “a” for AMD, much like the Intel-powered One models use ‘i’. The processor in question is a Ryzen 9 3950X, a 16-core beast of a chip that currently occupies the top of the Ryzen pecking order. When it comes to gaming, AMD finally has a Ryzen chip…4 min
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RTX Remix - Q&A with NVIDIAMaximum PC|October 2020How to Delid Your Processor, and WhyYOU’LL NEED THIS PROCESSOR DELIDDING TOOL ($43, for Delid Die Mate, or $102, for Delid Die Mate-X) LIQUID METAL OR THERMAL PASTE (Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut, or Noctua’s NT-H1). + extras AH DELIDDING, THAT OLD, TERRIFYING PROCEDURE, usually only recommended for the elite. For the uninitiated, delidding is the act of separating the integrated heat spreader (IHS) from the top of the processor, and then replacing the stock thermal paste that the manufacturer has used with something a little more premium—usually liquid metal or a better thermal paste. Once upon a time it used to be quite the daunting procedure, involving all sorts of razor blades and torture devices, with a myriad of techniques used to carefully splice your processor away from its IHS, hopefully without damaging the silicon underneath (or…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Revamp the Start Menu with Open ShellYOU’LL NEED THIS OPEN SHELL And Windows 10. SINCE BRINGING BACK THE START MENU with Windows 10, Microsoft has tweaked and updated its app launcher numerous times. But if it still doesn’t quite hit the spot for you—and if you really miss the old-style Start menu—there is an alternative in the form of Open Shell. This free app brings back the pre-Windows 7 Start menu, giving some retro flavor to your PC. Open Shell gives you lots of different styles to play with, includes several different Start button options, and can even tweak other elements like the taskbar. It spun off from Classic Shell, which ceased development in late 2017. You can still download Classic Shell, but it is better to stick with Open Shell since it is actively updated…6 min
Maximum PC|October 2020HyperX Pulsefire RaidHYPERX IS NO STRANGER to the peripheral scene. Its Cloud range made a huge impact in the headset sector, and its keyboards have been solid too. Most recently, however, mice have become the company's focus.The Pulsefire Raid is the latest mouse from HyperX. It has a mighty 11 buttons, nine of which are fully programmable, while the LMB and RMB can only be swapped between themselves. There are five thumb buttons, four of which are in the usual place above where your thumb naturally rests, and one further forward towards the end of your thumb, seemingly in Narnia for smaller handed users. The scroll wheel has movement to the left and right, as well as being able to click down, and a button directly behind the wheel defaults as a…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Death Stranding“DO AS I SAY, and it will all make sense,” says Guillermo Del Toro’s character near the beginning of Death Stranding. That might as well be game director Hideo Kojima talking directly to the player, because, as with much of the Metal Gear Solid creator’s latest title, little does make sense. Even if you do as he says.Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Death Stranding at least has a unique apocalypse. The worlds of the living and the dead became connected, rain began making things age (known as "timefall"), and invisible ghosts now wander the landscape, violently exploding any living people they touch. What remains of humanity has retreated underground, but the cities have become disconnected. Your job is to wander roughly from east to west across the US, delivering cargo…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Corsair One A100OUR FAVORITE compact desktop PC is back! The Corsair One returns with, at first glance, no discernible changes. The solid metal case is exactly as we remember it—a thin tower with a tiny square footprint, gunmetal gray, with two tasteful RGB strips inlaid down the front. But this isn’t the same machine we’ve seen and loved before; this Corsair One is a traitor to its kin, because inside that outer shell is an AMD Ryzen processor. You might’ve guessed this already from the name: “a” for AMD, much like the Intel-powered One models use ‘i’. The processor in question is a Ryzen 9 3950X, a 16-core beast of a chip that currently occupies the top of the Ryzen pecking order. When it comes to gaming, AMD finally has a Ryzen…4 min
Maximum PC|October 2020LG UltraGear 34GN850WE KNOW WHAT you’re thinking: $1,000 for a 34-inch ultrawide 1440p monitor? And it doesn’t even have local dimming? At least, that’s what first struck us about the new LG UltraGear 34GN850. It ticks an awful lot of boxes, which you’d expect at this price point. But surely that much money buys you proper HDR support? Hold that thought for a moment while we consider what the LG UltraGear 34GN850 does give you. First up there’s 160Hz refresh. That’s enough for the vast majority of semi-pro esports aficionados. It ties in neatly with the claimed 1ms response of the LG’s Nano IPS panel. LG is one of the few monitor makers that actually produces LCD panels. In fact, it’s the world’s leader in IPS production, and thus has the pick…4 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Elgato Wave:3SINCE CORSAIR ACQUIRED the Elgato brand back in 2018 (yikes, that feels like a long time ago now), it’s been slowly expanding the options for would-be streamers. We imagine trade has been strong recently, as more people have sought to make some cash while confined to their homes as a pandemic ravaged the outside world. Starting with Elgato’s original selection of docks and capture cards, Corsair expanded into streaming decks, lighting, and even green screens. The Wave:3—one of Elgato’s two shiny new microphones—was the next logical step. Yes, that’s how it’s stylized. Not the Wave 3, or the Wave: 3. This microphone has demanded that we repeatedly print the :3 emoji all over this page of Maximum PC, and we’re furious about it. But weird punctuation aside, this is a…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BOOSTING WI-FIOver the past few months, the internet has been a lifeline for us all, keeping us connected to each other, our places of work, friends and families.However, nearly 70 percent of remote workers face technological challenges when working from home, according to Independence Research. Compounding that is the fact that M-Lab data indicates more than three-fourths of US states have actually seen slower internet speeds during the pandemic.So, how can you maximize every ounce of internet you do have? Here are 19 handy ways to help improve your Wi-Fi connectivity.Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/MPCWiFiBoost…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE BUILDSSponsored byBUDGETSATA SSD STORAGE has never been cheaper. TeamGroup has further reduced the price of its GX1 2.5-inch drive, and we couldn’t be happier about it: 120GB of SSD storage for under 20 bucks? A few years ago, that would’ve been impossible to find. Both budget builds have stuck with their drives this month, as the HDD kept its price and the SSD was cheaper. We’ve made changes elsewhere, though: A good deal on MSI’s RX 5600 XT GPU saw us making the switch from ASRock’s Challenger D model for our AMD machine, and we also swapped out the previous XPG memory for some fresh Z1 memory in bright gold, which was heavily discounted. Overall, we’ve made a modest saving on the AMD system.The Intel build is a slightly different…5 min
Maximum PC|October 2020INDUSTRY INSIDERAre gaming PCs finally in danger of being superseded by consoles? No, of course not: You can’t buy a $6,000 home console, but the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will be giving PCs a run for their money at the more affordable end of the scale. Recent claims state that the PS5 will be capable of running Spider-Man:Miles Morales at 4K 60fps (in “performance mode”), and the current pricing is believed to be $499 at the time of writing. Building a PC that has any chance of matching that performance at the same price is virtually impossible. The custom AMD chips that both new consoles run on are incredible, and no component available to consumers can match its value. The PS5’s graphical performance is expected to exceed that of…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020EDITOR’S PICKOPERA GAMING BROWSER Just a few short days before I sat down to write this, freeware browser Opera opened the early access phase of its latest product: Opera GX, billed as the world’s first “gaming browser.” Yes, you read that right. Opera GX is a Chromium-based web browser, with a sleek, customizable design and all the bells and whistles that Opera includes. That means a free VPN, Chrome extension support, and a built-in ad blocker. Then there’s the gaming features, and I’ll admit that I was intrigued. Discord and Twitch integration are unsurprising inclusions, but there’s also WhatsApp, Instagram, and more. Opera GX goes deeper than that, too; the GX Control panel contains limiters for CPU, RAM, and network resources, enabling you to keep your browser from guzzling system resources…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BOOSTING WI-FIOver the past few months, the internet has been a lifeline for us all, keeping us connected to each other, our places of work, friends and families. However, nearly 70 percent of remote workers face technological challenges when working from home, according to Independence Research. Compounding that is the fact that M-Lab data indicates more than three-fourths of US states have actually seen slower internet speeds during the pandemic. So, how can you maximize every ounce of internet you do have? Here are 19 handy ways to help improve your Wi-Fi connectivity. Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/MPCWiFiBoost…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE BUILDSSponsored by BUDGET SATA SSD STORAGE has never been cheaper. TeamGroup has further reduced the price of its GX1 2.5-inch drive, and we couldn’t be happier about it: 120GB of SSD storage for under 20 bucks? A few years ago, that would’ve been impossible to find. Both budget builds have stuck with their drives this month, as the HDD kept its price and the SSD was cheaper. We’ve made changes elsewhere, though: A good deal on MSI’s RX 5600 XT GPU saw us making the switch from ASRock’s Challenger D model for our AMD machine, and we also swapped out the previous XPG memory for some fresh Z1 memory in bright gold, which was heavily discounted. Overall, we’ve made a modest saving on the AMD system. The Intel build is…5 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Ryzen 4000 Series Reaches The DesktopAMD CONTINUES its quest to reach every segment of the PC market with the Ryzen Zen 2 by releasing a new set of processors aimed at one of the few remaining targets: OEM desktops with integrated graphics. AMD’s current crop of 3000-series chips don’t carry graphics, putting them at a disadvantage against Intel’s. The 4000-series offerings are essentially desktop versions of the 4000-series laptop parts, complete with the integrated Radeon GPUs, code-name Renoir. This means it doesn’t follow the 3000-series Chiplet design: It’s a single slice of silicon, and it lacks PCIe 4.0. AMD claims them as the world‘s first and most advanced 7nm x86 desktop processors with integrated graphics. It also boasts of enthusiast-level performance for gaming, with smooth 1080p gaming “right out of the box.”The main consumer version…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020MASSIVE TWITTER HACKIN AN EMBARRASSING security breach for Twitter, around 130 high-profile accounts were hacked, and tweets from these accounts promised to double any Bitcoin you sent them. The scam managed to net about $115,000 of Bitcoin from the credulous before Twitter closed it down. The company called the scam a “coordinated social engineering attack.”The number of targeted accounts hit has led to speculation that the perpetrators had help. A phishing trip may break into one account, but to gain access to so many at once isn’t easy without someone on the inside. One anonymous source who contacted the press claiming to be part of the attack said that the hackers had paid a Twitter employee for account access. Along with the fairly crude attempt to solicit money, some compromised accounts have…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020INTEL DELAYS 7NM CHIPS, AGAININTEL’S PROBLEM going beyond the 14nm Skylake processor to 7nm parts shows no sign of ending, as the company has pushed the release date back another six months, to late 2022, or early 2023. The project is now a full year behind schedule. Apparently the yield rates are terrible, although Intel says that it has analyzed the situation and that there is no “fundamental roadblock.” It can fix this. It also said that it has “contingency plans.” This means more stress on 10nm parts (lackluster, and way behind schedule too), and the “backport” of 10nm designs to 14nm for the desktop.Intel’s CEO, Bob Swan, said that the company will be “pretty pragmatic” about who makes its chips in the future. If Intel can’t get its own fabrication plants working smoothly…2 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Intel Core i9-10980XE vs AMD Threadripper 3970XROUND 1ValueAt first glance, the Threadripper dominates here. The i9-10980XE is currently priced at over $2,000, despite previous sales at closer to $1,000. The price will no doubt drop again, but the 3970X is available at the time of writing for $1,899.99, placing it far below the 10980XE in terms of price-per-core. The Threadripper also has higher base memory support and more cache memory, despite its lower price.However, the Intel chip’s RRP was in fact dropped to $979. One imagines that the high prices we’re seeing right now could be tied to COVID-triggered production issues, or general stock shortages, or simply a price hike for Intel to capitalize on lockdown demand. If we consider that sub-grand price point, the 10980XE looks a lot more reasonable. The 3970X, on the other…6 min
Maximum PC|October 2020DOCTOR> Test For Corrupt RAM> Ventoy Gets Blocked> Laptop Won’t BootRandom Freeze Part 2Hi Doc, regarding my earlier email about random freezes, by the time you responded, the whole PC had broken down: When I power on, the fans light up, and so does the RGB, but nothing else lights up, and the ROG logo does not light up when the machine is off. It was supposed to be on all the time.About the corrupt RAM, I have seen several blue screens with the stop codes "SYSTEM_THREAD_NOT_ HANDLED" and some other memory management error. I mainly play Terraria and Geometry Dash on the PC. I could try buying a new set of RAM from a different manufacturer, or is it the mobo? Finally, to answer your earlier question, I have…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020CUTTING BACKYes, we know: This machine is monstrously expensive. So let’s talk about some more affordable alternatives. First up, you can eliminate RGB altogether and cut down to less memory; 32GB is a safe minimum for a system like this, but 64GB kits are also becoming more affordable. Sticking with Corsair, the Vengeance LPX is slightly more basic but a bit cheaper. Alternatively, you could opt for a lower-price brand, like G.Skill.Making the change from AIO cooling to air cooling is always an option, but sTR4-compatible air coolers aren’t common and tend to be fairly expensive.A more realistic money-saver would be to downgrade the SSD, either to a 3rd-generation M.2 drive or a 2.5-inch SATA. Depending on how often you need to move large files around, a SATA SSD could be…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Intel Core i9-10980XE vs AMD Threadripper 3970XROUND 1 Value At first glance, the Threadripper dominates here. The i9-10980XE is currently priced at over $2,000, despite previous sales at closer to $1,000. The price will no doubt drop again, but the 3970X is available at the time of writing for $1,899.99, placing it far below the 10980XE in terms of price-per-core. The Threadripper also has higher base memory support and more cache memory, despite its lower price. However, the Intel chip’s RRP was in fact dropped to $979. One imagines that the high prices we’re seeing right now could be tied to COVID-triggered production issues, or general stock shortages, or simply a price hike for Intel to capitalize on lockdown demand. If we consider that sub-grand price point, the 10980XE looks a lot more reasonable. The 3970X,…6 min
Maximum PC|October 2020DOCTOR> Test For Corrupt RAM > Ventoy Gets Blocked > Laptop Won’t Boot Random Freeze Part 2 Hi Doc, regarding my earlier email about random freezes, by the time you responded, the whole PC had broken down: When I power on, the fans light up, and so does the RGB, but nothing else lights up, and the ROG logo does not light up when the machine is off. It was supposed to be on all the time. About the corrupt RAM, I have seen several blue screens with the stop codes "SYSTEM_THREAD_NOT_ HANDLED" and some other memory management error. I mainly play Terraria and Geometry Dash on the PC. I could try buying a new set of RAM from a different manufacturer, or is it the mobo? Finally, to answer…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020ARMing the WorldNO ONE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED in the last years of the 20th century that the processor world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than Intel’s. Yet across the gulf of the Atlantic in a country called the UK, intellects vast and cool regarded the processor market with envious eyes, slowly and surely drawing their plans against Intel…Apple is dumping Intel processors for its own design of silicon. How did this happen, and what, if any, are the ramifications to the wider PC market? How can a processor design that started life in an obscure, failed British home computer of the 1980s now challenge the entire Intel empire? We’re going to delve into the ARM microarchitecture, have a look at how it’s advanced over the years, how those…13 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THEY SEEM ARMLESSBack in the 1980s CISC seemed fine, but a plucky UK company called Acorn Computers Ltd wanted a processor to take on the IBM PC, Amiga, Atari ST, and Apples of the world. Its hard work in 1985 produced the ARM1, and to try and put its achievement into scale, Acorn Computers produced a fully functioning 32-bit CPU with just 25,000 transistors running at 8MHz. The original Intel 8086 has 29,000 and was an eight-bit CISC processor—contrast that to the Intel 286, which itself had 134,000 transistors and ran with a similar performance to the ARM2.Even so, ARM could have disappeared along with Acorn Computers. However, a small US manufacturer called Apple decided it needed a low-power processor for a new PDA called the Apple Newton, and ARM Holdings was…2 min
Maximum PC|October 2020MEMORY MADNESSTHIS WAS A SURPRISINGLY easy build. The Enthoo Pro 2 needs more cable-management solutions, but it’s a big case with a bunch of useful tricks up its sleeve to make the build process run smoothly. Installing extra drives or case fans is a cinch; the upgrade potential for this build is nearly unlimited. There’s a ton of space for extra HDDs and SSDs, and our power supply has more than enough juice for them. The M.2 Aero riser card packaged with the motherboard means we could have up to seven M.2 SSDs—excessive for us, but perhaps not to those who routinely handle vast quantities of data. The Threadripper 3970X dominated our benchmarks, surprising nobody. Those 64 threads made short work of every CPU-bound task we threw at it, from Cinebench…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020CLOCK WORKSOVERCLOCKING boosts your performance, but what about your street cred? You can boast about your achievements to friends, but when you’re ready to show the world your skills, there’s competitive overclocking. Competitors enjoy a vast community online and at events worldwide. There are also prizes for winning competitions and breaking records. Competitive overclockers’ ultimate destination is HWBot, which hosts global overclocking competitions and maintains a database of world records. Place near the top of one of its ranking boards, and you’ve made it. Sound exciting? For those new to overclocking or interested in competing, we’re here to help. Here are successful professional overclockers’ best tips for getting started. Start with CPUs or RAM, not graphics cards. Premium graphics cards are usually more expensive than CPUs or RAM kits, so you’ll…13 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THEY SEEM ARMLESSBack in the 1980s CISC seemed fine, but a plucky UK company called Acorn Computers Ltd wanted a processor to take on the IBM PC, Amiga, Atari ST, and Apples of the world. Its hard work in 1985 produced the ARM1, and to try and put its achievement into scale, Acorn Computers produced a fully functioning 32-bit CPU with just 25,000 transistors running at 8MHz. The original Intel 8086 has 29,000 and was an eight-bit CISC processor—contrast that to the Intel 286, which itself had 134,000 transistors and ran with a similar performance to the ARM2. Even so, ARM could have disappeared along with Acorn Computers. However, a small US manufacturer called Apple decided it needed a low-power processor for a new PDA called the Apple Newton, and ARM Holdings…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020How to Delid Your Processor, and WhyYOU’LL NEED THISPROCESSORDELIDDING TOOL($43, for Delid Die Mate, or $102, for Delid Die Mate-X)LIQUID METAL OR THERMAL PASTE(Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut, or Noctua’s NT-H1). + extrasAH DELIDDING, THAT OLD, TERRIFYING PROCEDURE, usually only recommended for the elite. For the uninitiated, delidding is the act of separating the integrated heat spreader (IHS) from the top of the processor, and then replacing the stock thermal paste that the manufacturer has used with something a little more premium—usually liquid metal or a better thermal paste.Once upon a time it used to be quite the daunting procedure, involving all sorts of razor blades and torture devices, with a myriad of techniques used to carefully splice your processor away from its IHS, hopefully without damaging the silicon underneath (or yourself for that matter).For many, it was…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE PERFECT BUILD (FOR ME)THIS IS ONE of my favorite builds of all time. The Hydra case is a ridiculously affordable ITX chassis that has such potential. I’ve seen liquid-coolers do crazy things with this, albeit with significant modding, and even as a stock build it looks impeccable. There isn’t official support for AIO liquid-coolers or radiators on it, but you could prop one up to the side, or drill some holes in the Hydra Mini and make your own bracket for one.Combining the Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB memory with the Asus ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming motherboard and that black Noctua cooler gives it a stealthy vibe, and works well with the subtle lighting elements. When configured, it’s very classy. The Capellix LEDs in the Corsair memory are seriously bright, and the swathe of…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Razer KishiAbout iFixit iFixit is a global community of tinkerers dedicated to helping people fix things through free online repair manuals and teardowns. iFixit believes that everyone has the right to maintain and repair their own products. To learn more, visit www.ifixit.com. BACKGROUND Razer’s new Kishi Universal Controller is here to turn your smartphone into a play-anywhere system, with real buttons and joysticks. Join us as we tear down this stretchy controller to take a closer look at its inner workings. MAJOR TECH SPECS Standard A-B-X-Y buttons, two clickable analog thumbsticks, one eight-way D-pad, plus a shoulder button and trigger button on each side Connectivity to a phone via USB-C or Lightning connector No internal battery, no Bluetooth, and no headphone jack Compatible with Android 8 Oreo/iOS 9 or higher, supporting…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Customize WordPress Blogs with a ThemeYOU’LL NEED THIS WORDPRESS SERVER Any reputable web host will do, or you can host it yourself on your own server. SO FAR IN THIS SERIES, we’ve helped you set up your own self-hosted WordPress website, populate it with pages and posts, and protect it in the form of added security and automated backups. With these nuts and bolts in place, it’s time to look at your site’s appearance. Content may be king, but if your site isn’t easy to read or—sad to say—attractive to look at, you’ll put off potential readers. Thankfully, changing the look and feel of your site to match its content is a relatively straightforward task thanks to WordPress’s support for themes. Each WordPress theme is a customizable template of design elements, spanning everything from your…6 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Elgato Wave:3SINCE CORSAIR ACQUIRED the Elgato brand back in 2018 (yikes, that feels like a long time ago now), it’s been slowly expanding the options for would-be streamers. We imagine trade has been strong recently, as more people have sought to make some cash while confined to their homes as a pandemic ravaged the outside world. Starting with Elgato’s original selection of docks and capture cards, Corsair expanded into streaming decks, lighting, and even green screens. The Wave:3—one of Elgato’s two shiny new microphones—was the next logical step.Yes, that’s how it’s stylized. Not the Wave 3, or the Wave: 3. This microphone has demanded that we repeatedly print the :3 emoji all over this page of Maximum PC, and we’re furious about it. But weird punctuation aside, this is a serious…4 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE PERFECT BUILD (FOR ME)THIS IS ONE of my favorite builds of all time. The Hydra case is a ridiculously affordable ITX chassis that has such potential. I’ve seen liquid-coolers do crazy things with this, albeit with significant modding, and even as a stock build it looks impeccable. There isn’t official support for AIO liquid-coolers or radiators on it, but you could prop one up to the side, or drill some holes in the Hydra Mini and make your own bracket for one. Combining the Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB memory with the Asus ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming motherboard and that black Noctua cooler gives it a stealthy vibe, and works well with the subtle lighting elements. When configured, it’s very classy. The Capellix LEDs in the Corsair memory are seriously bright, and the swathe…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Premiere Pro vs DaVinci ResolveTWO GREAT TITANS enter the arena. Only one will leave triumphant. These kinds of multi-camera, effects-laden scenes are precisely what Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve were designed to cope with, and it also neatly describes the battle between pro-level non-linear video editing apps. There must be a word for that.There’s room in this arena for both contenders, however. Nobody has to get hurt. In the red corner we find Premiere Pro, the shinobi from Adobe, famous for work such as Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate, and Sharknado 2: The Second One. Meanwhile, in the blue corner sits Australia’s finest, DaVinci Resolve, fresh from working on Deadpool 2, The Last Jedi, and 35 films at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival you’ve never heard of.This month we’re comparing nonlinear video…6 min
Maximum PC|October 2020INDUSTRY INSIDERAre gaming PCs finally in danger of being superseded by consoles? No, of course not: You can’t buy a $6,000 home console, but the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will be giving PCs a run for their money at the more affordable end of the scale. Recent claims state that the PS5 will be capable of running Spider-Man: Miles Morales at 4K 60fps (in “performance mode”), and the current pricing is believed to be $499 at the time of writing.Building a PC that has any chance of matching that performance at the same price is virtually impossible. The custom AMD chips that both new consoles run on are incredible, and no component available to consumers can match its value. The PS5’s graphical performance is expected to exceed that of…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020MacBook Woes and Headset ProsLOGITECH G603THERE’S A VAST ARRAY of IT systems we use to send every issue of Maximum PC. We use our in-house servers, Adobe’s CC suite, and a bespoke piece of folio software called Future Studio. However, to access any of that, you need to have a company-issued corporate Mac device.So I’m stuck with a MacBook. It’s portable at least, and the build quality is nice, but it is frustrating to use. The trackpad is annoying, the keyboard is horrible, the screen is tiny, and I’m not even going to mention the OS.I’ve wall-mounted an old 32-inch monitor, and have hooked that up to it using a USB-C to DisplayPort dongle. That’s great for the screen, but I really wanted a normal mouse back as well, so I’ve been testing Logitech’s…2 min
Maximum PC|October 2020HyperX Pulsefire RaidHYPERX IS NO STRANGER to the peripheral scene. Its Cloud range made a huge impact in the headset sector, and its keyboards have been solid too. Most recently, however, mice have become the company's focus. The Pulsefire Raid is the latest mouse from HyperX. It has a mighty 11 buttons, nine of which are fully programmable, while the LMB and RMB can only be swapped between themselves. There are five thumb buttons, four of which are in the usual place above where your thumb naturally rests, and one further forward towards the end of your thumb, seemingly in Narnia for smaller handed users. The scroll wheel has movement to the left and right, as well as being able to click down, and a button directly behind the wheel defaults as…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Beyond a Steel SkyANYONE WHO’S BEEN playing PC games for 26 years will have come across Beneath a Steel Sky, the cyberpunk adventure from 1994 that set the scene for so much that came after it. At the peak of mid-'90s puzzling, Beneath had a wise-cracking robot, a totalitarian regime, and much to say about divisions in society. That a sequel should come along after so much time had passed is unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome. It’s come with some upgrades too—an Unreal 4 makeover that allows Dave Gibbons’s comic book art to really shine, and the change from point-n-click to WASD controls is the right decision, but what’s really surprising is how fresh and relevant this return to Union City is. Robert Foster is from the Gap, the red Australian desert outside…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Premiere Pro vs DaVinci ResolveTWO GREAT TITANS enter the arena. Only one will leave triumphant. These kinds of multi-camera, effects-laden scenes are precisely what Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve were designed to cope with, and it also neatly describes the battle between pro-level non-linear video editing apps. There must be a word for that. There’s room in this arena for both contenders, however. Nobody has to get hurt. In the red corner we find Premiere Pro, the shinobi from Adobe, famous for work such as Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate, and Sharknado 2: The Second One. Meanwhile, in the blue corner sits Australia’s finest, DaVinci Resolve, fresh from working on Deadpool 2, The Last Jedi, and 35 films at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival you’ve never heard of. This month we’re comparing…5 min
Maximum PC|October 2020LETTERS> The Perfect $3K PC > Conceptual Artistry > Multiple 4K Streams $3,000 Build Queries First off let me say I am a huge fan of MPC as I have been reading for about four to five years. Now let me explain why I’m writing. I am 27 years old and have been incarcerated in the MDOC since 2011. I say that to give you an idea of how much tech I have actually missed out on completely. Reading this mag is the only way I have been able to keep up with the times, even though I’m unable to experience it yet. Next August I am coming up for release and frankly, I am in need of some assistance. I am looking to build a PC of my own…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020STATISTICAL NUMBER CRUNCHINGTHERE’S NOTHING WE like more at Maximum PC than being presented with a challenge—a concept, a build idea, something grand that requires us to think a little more outside of the box than usual, and over the last few weeks we’ve received two interesting queries from the likes of Vincent Thompson and Tali Kadosh with exactly that. Just how do you go about building a good system for a data scientist or someone interested in statistical analysis? Well this issue I set Christian to task to build exactly that, looking at the parts and process required to build the perfect number-crunching rig for all of your at-home, stat-based desires. We originally set out to build this PC for a price point of around $3,000 to $4,000, but we’ve overshot that…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Ryzen 4000 Series Reaches The DesktopAMD CONTINUES its quest to reach every segment of the PC market with the Ryzen Zen 2 by releasing a new set of processors aimed at one of the few remaining targets: OEM desktops with integrated graphics. AMD’s current crop of 3000-series chips don’t carry graphics, putting them at a disadvantage against Intel’s. The 4000-series offerings are essentially desktop versions of the 4000-series laptop parts, complete with the integrated Radeon GPUs, code-name Renoir. This means it doesn’t follow the 3000-series Chiplet design: It’s a single slice of silicon, and it lacks PCIe 4.0. AMD claims them as the world‘s first and most advanced 7nm x86 desktop processors with integrated graphics. It also boasts of enthusiast-level performance for gaming, with smooth 1080p gaming “right out of the box.” The main consumer…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020DDR5 FINALLY FORMALIZEDJEDEC, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, has finalized the specifications for DDR5 memory. This 5th generation of DDR was originally scheduled for 2018, and Hynix built the first SIMMs that year, and we’ve have a number of “preliminary” DDR5 modules since. Now it’s all official. The maximum die density has jumped from 16Gbit to 64Gbit, and the maximum capacity to 128GB. Each DIMM has two 32-bit memory channels, instead of one 64-bit one, increasing the burst length. Memory voltage has dropped to 1.1V from 1.2V. A big change is the use of on-board voltage regulators; the module takes a straight 5V power supply from the mobo. Each module gets a VRM tuned to its requirements, rather than having a mobo set of VRMs that have to handle every eventuality.…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020MASSIVE TWITTER HACKIN AN EMBARRASSING security breach for Twitter, around 130 high-profile accounts were hacked, and tweets from these accounts promised to double any Bitcoin you sent them. The scam managed to net about $115,000 of Bitcoin from the credulous before Twitter closed it down. The company called the scam a “coordinated social engineering attack.” The number of targeted accounts hit has led to speculation that the perpetrators had help. A phishing trip may break into one account, but to gain access to so many at once isn’t easy without someone on the inside. One anonymous source who contacted the press claiming to be part of the attack said that the hackers had paid a Twitter employee for account access. Along with the fairly crude attempt to solicit money, some compromised accounts…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020INTEL DELAYS 7NM CHIPS, AGAININTEL’S PROBLEM going beyond the 14nm Skylake processor to 7nm parts shows no sign of ending, as the company has pushed the release date back another six months, to late 2022, or early 2023. The project is now a full year behind schedule. Apparently the yield rates are terrible, although Intel says that it has analyzed the situation and that there is no “fundamental roadblock.” It can fix this. It also said that it has “contingency plans.” This means more stress on 10nm parts (lackluster, and way behind schedule too), and the “backport” of 10nm designs to 14nm for the desktop. Intel’s CEO, Bob Swan, said that the company will be “pretty pragmatic” about who makes its chips in the future. If Intel can’t get its own fabrication plants working…2 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE LIST8 APPLE MUSIC 1 GB/HR British company Uswitch recently revealed which apps are chowing down on the most bandwidth in homes under lockdown. Apple Music clocks in at number eight. 7 TIDAL 1.27 GB/HR Jay-Z’s high-definition music-streaming service certainly demands more bandwidth than the likes of Spotify. Lossless audio and music videos are largely responsible for this. 6 DISNEY PLUS 1.5 GB/HR Fun fact: Disney’s new-on-the-block streaming platform uses 50% more bandwidth on average than Netflix, and 87.5% more than Amazon Prime Video. 5 IHEART RADIO 1.65 GB/HR Podcasts and live radio shows have evidently been popular in lockdown, and iHeartRadio (formerly known as Clear Channel) has been hogging the Wi-Fi a bit. 4 SOUNDCLOUD 1.65 GB/HR More complex features like embedded widgets and downloads, as opposed to streaming, means…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020IN MEMORIAMMemory is one of the most common issues when trying to get a fresh build up and running. But if your RAM is giving you the runaround, don’t despair: There are many possible causes, and it’s generally not too difficult to identify the issue. First of all, go to the motherboard manufacturer’s website and double-check that your mobo definitely does support the capacity and frequency of memory you’re using. If it does, check for a BIOS update; if you’re running an outdated BIOS, that could be the source of your problems.If neither of those are the issue, try testing each stick individually, or moving them to any open DIMM slots. Ensure that you’re using the correct DIMMs; the motherboard manual should explain which slots to prioritize when installing memory. It’s…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020THE SCIENTIFIC METHODLET’S MAKE ONE THING CLEAR: We’re not scientists. We’re just slotting things into motherboards and praying it works, then writing funny words about it. We leave unraveling the mysteries of the universe to those smarter and better trained than us. But we are pretty darn good at building PCs, and we’ve had requests from the more scientifically minded of our readership for a tutorial on how to build a powerful home PC designed to work on data analysis, statistical modelling, and any other scientific endeavor. With lockdowns in effect, many of us learned to work from home, which is fine and dandy if you’re a writer but a problem if you need access to a lab. Those among you with a need to process huge datasets asked for a machine…7 min
Maximum PC|October 2020DATA-DRIVEN ASSEMBLYLENGTH OF TIME: 2–3 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY 1 OPEN IT UP BEFORE WE START PLUGGING things in and screwing things down, unbox the Enthoo Pro 2 case and strip it down so it’s fully prepped for building in. The side panels come off easily via thumbscrews, and the exterior filters lift right off (either via plastic tracks or magnets), but the front panel can be a bit more challenging to remove. The push-pins on the back of the panel require quite a lot of force to release, but be careful not to damage the plastic. Underneath this panel (and its funky mesh window) is another dust filter, secured magnetically. You’ll need to install an HDD drive bay—the case should come with four—but we’ll get to that later. You…11 min
Maximum PC|October 2020IN MEMORIAMMemory is one of the most common issues when trying to get a fresh build up and running. But if your RAM is giving you the runaround, don’t despair: There are many possible causes, and it’s generally not too difficult to identify the issue. First of all, go to the motherboard manufacturer’s website and double-check that your mobo definitely does support the capacity and frequency of memory you’re using. If it does, check for a BIOS update; if you’re running an outdated BIOS, that could be the source of your problems. If neither of those are the issue, try testing each stick individually, or moving them to any open DIMM slots. Ensure that you’re using the correct DIMMs; the motherboard manual should explain which slots to prioritizewhen installing memory. It’s…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020INTEGRATE, ASSIMILATESTAFF WRITERIf you were reading Maximum PC last year when Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics hit laptop processors, you’ll know that I love integrated graphics. If you know me in person, I’ve probably talked your ear off, waxing lyrical about iGPUs.And I’ll do it again! I regret nothing, I haven’t changed, and integrated graphics are still awesome. The latest to impress me was the Ryzen 7 4700G, a high-end Renoir APU packing eight cores and a hefty boost clock of 4.4GHz. Dedicated hardware heads have already managed to push that up to a 4.765GHz manual overclock, which is impressive.But I’m here to talk about the new IGs. It’s Vega, but not as we know it. The 4700G’s graphics are very well-optimized, to the point where early testers have been throwing out…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Razer KishiAbout iFixitiFixit is a global community of tinkerers dedicated to helping people fix things through free online repair manuals and teardowns. iFixit believes that everyone has the right to maintain and repair their own products. To learn more, visit www.ifixit.com.BACKGROUNDRazer’s new Kishi Universal Controller is here to turn your smartphone into a play-anywhere system, with real buttons and joysticks. Join us as we tear down this stretchy controller to take a closer look at its inner workings.MAJOR TECH SPECS• Standard A-B-X-Y buttons, two clickable analog thumbsticks, one eight-way D-pad, plus a shoulder button and trigger button on each side• Connectivity to a phone via USB-C or Lightning connector• No internal battery, no Bluetooth, and no headphone jack• Compatible with Android 8 Oreo/iOS 9 or higher, supporting device dimensions of 145.3-163.7mm…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Customize WordPress Blogs with a ThemeYOU’LL NEED THISWORDPRESS SERVERAny reputable web host will do, or you can host it yourself on your own server.SO FAR IN THIS SERIES, we’ve helped you set up your own self-hosted WordPress website, populate it with pages and posts, and protect it in the form of added security and automated backups. With these nuts and bolts in place, it’s time to look at your site’s appearance.Content may be king, but if your site isn’t easy to read or—sad to say—attractive to look at, you’ll put off potential readers. Thankfully, changing the look and feel of your site to match its content is a relatively straightforward task thanks to WordPress’s support for themes.Each WordPress theme is a customizable template of design elements, spanning everything from your page header and menu-bar navigation…7 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Air SupremacyLENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 HOURSLEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUMTHE CONCEPTHELLO! Well first off let me welcome you to our first ever build-it seen through the eyes of the person who actually does the building. Oh this feels good. Too many years have we toed and froed over whether or not to commit to this literary device, and yet here we are. The logic is simple: There’s a picture at the top denoting who built the rig (today, me), but in this section the builder still refers to themselves exclusively in the plural (our, us, we). Well today I’ve had enough, and have used my limited executive Editor power to decide that build-it can and will be experienced through the builder’s personal perspective. It sounds trivial, but it’s time for a fresh…12 min
Maximum PC|October 2020INTEGRATE, ASSIMILATESTAFF WRITER If you were reading Maximum PC last year when Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics hit laptop processors, you’ll know that I love integrated graphics. If you know me in person, I’ve probably talked your ear off, waxing lyrical about iGPUs. And I’ll do it again! I regret nothing, I haven’t changed, and integrated graphics are still awesome. The latest to impress me was the Ryzen 7 4700G, a high-end Renoir APU packing eight cores and a hefty boost clock of 4.4GHz. Dedicated hardware heads have already managed to push that up to a 4.765GHz manual overclock, which is impressive. But I’m here to talk about the new IGs. It’s Vega, but not as we know it. The 4700G’s graphics are very well-optimized, to the point where early testers have…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Razer Blade Pro 17WE SHOULD STOP reviewing Blade laptops, because we never want to give them back. The Blade Pro 17 is no exception; just a few days with this laptop and we’re already in love. We’ve got the top-spec model of the Pro 17, which comes with a gorgeous 4K touchscreen at 120Hz, ideal both for gaming and creative endeavors.This particular Blade retails at an eyewatering $3,799.99, but you definitely get a lot of bang for your buck. The processor is a shiny new 10th-gen Intel Core i7 chip, the 10875H—a speedy eight-core mobile CPU with 16 threads thanks to Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology. Backing that up is 16GB of SODIMM memory and an Nvidia RTX 2080 Super with 8GB of video memory, and a Max-Q design that makes it smaller and less…4 min
Maximum PC|October 2020LG UltraGear 34GN850WE KNOW WHAT you’re thinking: $1,000 for a 34-inch ultrawide 1440p monitor? And it doesn’t even have local dimming? At least, that’s what first struck us about the new LG UltraGear 34GN850. It ticks an awful lot of boxes, which you’d expect at this price point. But surely that much money buys you proper HDR support?Hold that thought for a moment while we consider what the LG UltraGear 34GN850 does give you. First up there’s 160Hz refresh. That’s enough for the vast majority of semi-pro esports aficionados. It ties in neatly with the claimed 1ms response of the LG’s Nano IPS panel. LG is one of the few monitor makers that actually produces LCD panels. In fact, it’s the world’s leader in IPS production, and thus has the pick of…4 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Air SupremacyLENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM THE CONCEPT HELLO! Well first off let me welcome you to our first ever build-it seen through the eyes of the person who actually does the building. Oh this feels good. Too many years have we toed and froed over whether or not to commit to this literary device, and yet here we are. The logic is simple: There’s a picture at the top denoting who built the rig (today, me), but in this section the builder still refers to themselves exclusively in the plural (our, us, we). Well today I’ve had enough, and have used my limited executive Editor power to decide that build-it can and will be experienced through the builder’s personal perspective. It sounds trivial, but it’s time…12 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Beyond a Steel SkyANYONE WHO’S BEEN playing PC games for 26 years will have come across Beneath a Steel Sky, the cyberpunk adventure from 1994 that set the scene for so much that came after it. At the peak of mid-'90s puzzling, Beneath had a wise-cracking robot, a totalitarian regime, and much to say about divisions in society.That a sequel should come along after so much time had passed is unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome. It’s come with some upgrades too—an Unreal 4 makeover that allows Dave Gibbons’s comic book art to really shine, and the change from point-n-click to WASD controls is the right decision, but what’s really surprising is how fresh and relevant this return to Union City is.Robert Foster is from the Gap, the red Australian desert outside the few…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Looking to the StarsLAST ISSUE I SPOKE about dropping the amount of gaming I was doing to just one day a week. I’m glad to say, I’ve actually managed to do it. Language learning is going well, and my future wife is happy I’m spending more time with her too.We’ve been watching more TV together, particularly The Expanse on Amazon Prime. It is a very good, gritty space action drama set in the solar system, but it got me hankering for some good sci-fi gaming.I’ve been a Star Citizen backer since 2017, but I’ve not really played it since then, as there wasn’t much there. But I thought I’d give it a shot again. I jumped into Alpha 3.10, and oh boy have things changed.There’s multiple planets, moons, cities, mining, contracts, dogfighting, cargo-hauling,…2 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Razer Blade Pro 17WE SHOULD STOP reviewing Blade laptops, because we never want to give them back. The Blade Pro 17 is no exception; just a few days with this laptop and we’re already in love. We’ve got the top-spec model of the Pro 17, which comes with a gorgeous 4K touchscreen at 120Hz, ideal both for gaming and creative endeavors. This particular Blade retails at an eyewatering $3,799.99, but you definitely get a lot of bang for your buck. The processor is a shiny new 10th-gen Intel Core i7 chip, the 10875H—a speedy eight-core mobile CPU with 16 threads thanks to Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology. Backing that up is 16GB of SODIMM memory and an Nvidia RTX 2080 Super with 8GB of video memory, and a Max-Q design that makes it smaller and…4 min
Maximum PC|October 2020EDITOR’S PICKOPERA GAMING BROWSERJust a few short days before I sat down to write this, freeware browser Opera opened the early access phase of its latest product: Opera GX, billed as the world’s first “gaming browser.” Yes, you read that right. Opera GX is a Chromium-based web browser, with a sleek, customizable design and all the bells and whistles that Opera includes. That means a free VPN, Chrome extension support, and a built-in ad blocker.Then there’s the gaming features, and I’ll admit that I was intrigued. Discord and Twitch integration are unsurprising inclusions, but there’s also WhatsApp, Instagram, and more. Opera GX goes deeper than that, too; the GX Control panel contains limiters for CPU, RAM, and network resources, enabling you to keep your browser from guzzling system resources while you’re…1 min
Maximum PC|October 2020LETTERS> The Perfect $3K PC> Conceptual Artistry> Multiple 4K Streams$3,000 Build QueriesFirst off let me say I am a huge fan of MPC as I have been reading for about four to five years. Now let me explain why I’m writing.I am 27 years old and have been incarcerated in the MDOC since 2011. I say that to give you an idea of how much tech I have actually missed out on completely. Reading this mag is the only way I have been able to keep up with the times, even though I’m unable to experience it yet. Next August I am coming up for release and frankly, I am in need of some assistance.I am looking to build a PC of my own that can handle intense gaming as…8 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Death Stranding“DO AS I SAY, and it will all make sense,” says Guillermo Del Toro’s character near the beginning of Death Stranding. That might as well be game director Hideo Kojima talking directly to the player, because, as with much of the Metal Gear Solid creator’s latest title, little does make sense. Even if you do as he says. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Death Stranding at least has a unique apocalypse. The worlds of the living and the dead became connected, rain began making things age (known as "timefall"), and invisible ghosts now wander the landscape, violently exploding any living people they touch. What remains of humanity has retreated underground, but the cities have become disconnected. Your job is to wander roughly from east to west across the US, delivering…3 min
Maximum PC|October 2020Looking to the StarsLAST ISSUE I SPOKE about dropping the amount of gaming I was doing to just one day a week. I’m glad to say, I’ve actually managed to do it. Language learning is going well, and my future wife is happy I’m spending more time with her too. We’ve been watching more TV together, particularly The Expanse on Amazon Prime. It is a very good, gritty space action drama set in the solar system, but it got me hankering for some good sci-fi gaming. I’ve been a Star Citizen backer since 2017, but I’ve not really played it since then, as there wasn’t much there. But I thought I’d give it a shot again. I jumped into Alpha 3.10, and oh boy have things changed. There’s multiple planets, moons, cities, mining,…2 min
Maximum PC|October 2020MacBook Woes and Headset ProsLOGITECH G603 THERE’S A VAST ARRAY of IT systems we use to send every issue of Maximum PC. We use our in-house servers, Adobe’s CC suite, and a bespoke piece of folio software called Future Studio. However, to access any of that, you need to have a company-issued corporate Mac device. So I’m stuck with a MacBook. It’s portable at least, and the build quality is nice, but it is frustrating to use. The trackpad is annoying, the keyboard is horrible, the screen is tiny, and I’m not even going to mention the OS. I’ve wall-mounted an old 32-inch monitor, and have hooked that up to it using a USB-C to DisplayPort dongle. That’s great for the screen, but I really wanted a normal mouse back as well, so I’ve…2 min
