Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Custom PC UK

Deggs45 Been pricing up CPU, motherboard, graphics card, memory for a new build, OMG I’m looking at £700+ it’s not going to happen just yet, stick with my Xeon for now. Christmas wish. Ben: Yeah, if you want a proper upgrade from a Xeon system, you’re probably going to need to spend more than £700. You can still get a decent setup for less cash though. Working from our Elite list, you could get a 6-core Ryzen 5 2600 (£150), a Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming motherboard (£129), 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz DDR4 memory (£155) and a Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card (£149), which comes to a total cost of £583 inc VAT. DominicNeagle Looking forward to reading this month’s @CustomPCMag! Crypto is something I’ve got…

SUPPLIER www.cclonline.com Cooler Master’s MasterCase H500P ditches the usual mesh front panel in front of its fans, with the H500P donning a clear acrylic panel for a great view of its RGB fans. Thankfully, there’s also plenty of mesh around the edges of the front panel to allow air into the chassis, and all these holes are protected with filters to prevent dust. The front panel pops off easily too, allowing for easy vacuuming and access to the front fans should you wish to mount a radiator here instead. The main chamber is also covered by a huge glass side panel, which has a single screw to secure it, making it much easier to remove than most case’s side panels. The front I/O panel doesn’t offer much in the…

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk Reaching to over 60cm tall, the Cougar Panzer Evo is a sizeable case, although that height mostly thanks to its carry handles and large case feet. It’s strong too, with extremely sturdy construction worthy of its German WWII tank namesake. Add in its quartet of glass panels, which cover the sides, front and roof, and it weighs in at a hefty 17kg. Despite its various plastic offshoots, the case still has an edgy, attractive appeal to it, with carbon fibre-patterned corner braces and a busy front panel that includes the only manual fan controller on test this month. There’s just a single channel, but Cougar includes cables to power the four included red LED fans, as well as a three-way splitter to add a couple more fans.…

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk As well as making small form factor cases, Raijintek also dabbles with full tower cases that can house the largest desktop motherboards. The biggest model in its range is the Zofos Evo RGB. However, despite it being the biggest case on test, measuring over 60cm tall and deep, the Zofos Evo RGB still costs just £150 inc VAT. It’s equipped to house a monster PC too, with support for enhanced extended ATX (EE-ATX) motherboards, and it has ten expansion slots. Glass only occupies the main chamber side panel, providing a huge view into the interior, while the front of the case has a large removable plastic panel, with a pleasant glow from RGB LEDs surrounding a smaller removable panel in the front. Behind this panel you’ll find…

CPU 2.8GHz Intel Core i5-8400 Motherboard Gigabyte H310M S2H Memory 16GB Goodram 2400MHz DDR4 Graphics Palit GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Storage 128GB Hynix SC311 SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk Case Kolink Observatory Cooling CPU: Intel stock cooler with 1 x 90mm fan; GPU: 2 x 80mm fans; front: 3 x 120mm fans; rear: 1 x 120mm fan PSU Fractal Design/Chillblast 600W Ports Front: 1 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 2 x audio; rear: 2 x USB 3.1, 4 x USB 2, 1 x Gigabit Ethernet, 2 x PS/2, 3 x audio Operating system Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit Warranty Two years parts and labour collect and return, plus three years labour only return to base…

The build is bolstered by Scan’s rock-solid cable tidying SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk Scan’s new 3XS Vengeance Fluid Aura Ti Cr is packed with high-end technology and incredible design – so much so, in fact, that we weren’t sure where to look first. But let’s start with an intriguing component that sits beneath the EKWB waterblock. It’s Intel’s Core i7-8086K CPU (see p20) – a limited-run chip produced to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original 8086 CPU. It’s Intel’s first consumer CPU to boost to 5GHz, and the rest of the specification mirrors the i7-8700K – so you get six Hyper-Threaded Coffee Lake cores. Instead of leaving the chip to hover between 4GHz and 5GHz, though, Scan has permanently overclocked all its cores to 5GHz. The CPU is paired with…

Its tiny fantasy kingdom exists inside a standard-sized world DEVELOPER Polyarc / PUBLISHER Polyarc / WEBSITE www.polyarcgames.com Moss is a fascinating hybrid of a first-person puzzle game and third-person platformer, in which you guide a little mouse through a fairytale forest on a quest to rescue her abducted uncle. Players assume the role of a Reader, a god-like creature with the power to bend reality to its will. Early in the game, Quill the mouse discovers a gem that earns her your attention. In effect, you become her guardian, watching over her as she moves around the game world, and helping her to solve puzzles. Moss uses both a conventional platforming control scheme and the Oculus Touch function. You control Quill by moving and jumping as in any other platform…

Install CPU A word of warning before you start manhandling your new processor, and the motherboard for that matter, which is that the pins on AMD’s CPUs and Intel’s CPU sockets are very delicate, and don’t take kindly to being squished. Bend a couple of the wrong ones out of shape, and you may well end up turning your new gear into some very expensive paperweights. It’s also worth earthing yourself properly to avoid damaging any of your components with a sudden static shock. Anti-static wrist straps are cheaply available from most computer retailers. Before you start, you’ll also need to remove your motherboard’s CPU socket protector. On an Intel LGA1151 system, push down the front of the handle next to the motherboard’s CPU socket and lift the handle. Now…

Sinclair ZX Vega saga drags on Sinclair ZX Vega creator Retro Computers Limited (RCL) has broken its silence to publish a heavily edited video of what it claims is a production model, alongside the promise to begin shipping ‘the first batch of units’ by early July – almost two years past its self-imposed launch deadline. RCL hasn’t indicated how many units are in the first batch, sharing an image showing just ten empty casings and a PCB production photo dating from 2017, but it has confirmed the machines won’t include the promised 1,000 games. Indiegogo, meanwhile, has begun the process of chasing the company for refunds on behalf of backers.…

/MEET THY MAKERS Name Jo Puwalski (aka bjpc) Age 43 Location Braunschweig, Germany Occupation Skilled joiner Main uses for PC Gaming, Internet, work CPC: Why did you choose the Cooler Master Cosmos II case? Jo: I attended the Cooler Master Case Modding World Series (CMWS) event in 2018, where I came across the Cosmos II 25th Anniversary Edition. It wasn’t only a feast for the eyes, but it also instantly inspired a project name – The Cosmopolitan, coming from Cosmos. I wanted to carry on with the scale-model style of modding I’d started with my entry for CMWS 2017, a scratch build called Maker Theater. This time, I chose an even smaller scale of 1:160, giving me a great playground for my imagination. I saw a great opportunity to use…

Intel is reportedly working on a new line-up of mainstream CPUs that feature up to eight cores, according to a leak reported on www.coolaler.com. At the top of the rumoured heap is the 8-core Core i9-9900K, which has a base clock of 3.6GHz but can boost to 5GHz across two cores (or 4.7GHz across all cores), while also supporting 16 threads via Hyper-Threading. Next down is the Core i7-9700K, which still has eight cores but doesn’t have Hyper-Threading and can boost to 4.9GHz on one core. Finally, the Core i5-9600K is rumoured to have six cores and a 4.6GHz boost clock on one core. As always with the rumour mill, none of his has been officially confirmed by Intel, so it may turn out to be a load of guff.…

It’s an ingenious design that does a wonderful job of tidying cables SUPPLIER www.box.co.uk NZXT’s micro-ATX H400i (see Issue 175, p32) sported an automatic software-controlled cooling system, and at £150 inc VAT, it was one of the most expensive micro-ATX cases we’ve reviewed. At just £70 inc VAT, though, the ATX-sized H500 is far more reasonably priced, and while it lacks the fan control system, it supports ATX motherboards and has plenty of useful features. It’s reasonably attractive, if a little minimalistic, with just a small vent in the roof allowing the included 120mm roof fan to expel air, and this slot can also house a 140mm fan. It’s available in both black and white, with a mix of red and blue detail options too. Around the back is…

It’s the first gaming monitor to deliver 4K at a 144Hz refresh rate SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk Yes, you read that price correctly. This 27in monitor costs well over £2,000. What could possibly justify such a high price? Quite a lot, as it happens. Although its size may be relatively modest, every other aspect of this display is at the bleeding edge of tech available right now. It’s the first monitor that can deliver a 4K resolution at a 144Hz refresh rate. It’s also the first gaming monitor to feature a full array local dimming backlight, with 384 individually controlled lighting zones that allow it to deliver the 10,000:1 contrast ratio required of true HDR. The use of quantum dot colour filters also means it can reproduce the wide colour gamut…

EXTREME ULTRA Some products are gloriously over the top. These items of excellent overkill earn our Extreme Ultra award. PREM IUM GRADE Premium Grade products are utterly desirable – we’d eat nothing but beans until we could afford them. PROFESSIONAL Products worthy of the Professional award make you and your business appear even more awesome. APPROVED Approved products are those that do a great job for the money; they’re the canny purchase for a great PC. CUSTOM KIT For those gadgets and gizmos that really impress us, or that we can’t live without, there’s the Custom Kit award.…

Dimensions (mm) 242 x 544 x 542 (W x D x H) Material Steel, plastic, glass Available colours Gun metal, white Weight 11.3kg Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 2, 2 x USB 3, stereo, mic Drive bays 2 x 2.5in, 2 x 2.5/3.5in Form factor(s) E-ATX (up to 272mm wide), ATX, micro-ATX, mini-ITX Cooling 2 x 200mm/3 x 120mm/3 x 140mm front fan mounts (2 x 200mm fans included), 2 x 200mm/3 x 120mm/3 x 140mm roof fan mounts (fans not included) 1 x 120/140mm rear fan mount (1 x 140mm fan included) CPU cooler clearance 190mm Maximum graphics card length 412mm…

Dimensions (mm) 266 x 556 x 612 (W x D x H) Material Steel, plastic, glass Available colours Black Weight 17kg Front panel Power, 2 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, stereo, mic, fan controller Drive bays 2 x 2.5/3.5in, 4 x 2.5in Form factor(s) E-ATX, ATX, micro-ATX Cooling 3 x 120/140mm front fan mounts (3 x 120mm fans included), 3 x 120mm/2 x 140mm roof fan mounts (fans not included) 1 x 120mm rear fan mounts (1 x 120mm fan included) CPU cooler clearance 160mm Maximum graphics card length 400mm…

SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com We’ve seen plenty of interesting cases come out of Thermaltake’s doors over the last few years and, like other manufacturers, it’s been focusing on the use of tempered glass and RGB lighting. The View 32 sits in the middle of its View series, but Thermaltake has still added plenty of premium features. You get tempered glass on all four panels, with the panels themselves individually packed in the box. The front and roof panels are also linked by a curved section of plastic, which helps to smooth over the blocky look you often see on glass panel cases. The front panel is located on top of the case and sports four USB ports, two of which are USB 3, plus a controller for the RGB lighting. The…

Despite its small size, there were no temperature issues SUPPLIER www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk CyberPower’s Infinity Mini GTX is a small, mid-priced PC that crams a lot of hardware inside a Cooler Master MasterBox Q300P case. All four corners of this case have sturdy rubber handles, allowing this 8.2kg system to be carried easily – or positioned in a different orientation. The handles are removable too, if you’d like to save more space. The case’s smart, modular design continues elsewhere. The front I/O panel can be moved to six different locations, and the rear side panel has rubber thumbscrews that function as rubber feet – perfect for positioning the CyberPower on its side. The Q300P is 450mm tall and deep, so it’s about as deep as a mid-tower case, but much shorter.…

CPU 4GHz Intel Core i7-8086K overclocked to 5GHz Motherboard Asus ROG Maximus X Formula Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3000MHz DDR4 Graphics Asus Poseidon GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Storage 500GB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 SSD, 2TB Western Digital Blue hard disk Case Corsair Crystal 570X Mirror Black Cooling CPU: EKWB Supremacy Evo waterblock, EKWB EK-CoolStream SE 360 radiator with 3 x 120mm fans, EKWB EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 pump; GPU: 2 x 100mm fans; rear: 1 x 120mm fan PSU Corsair RM650x 650W Ports Front: 1 x USB 3.1, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 2 x audio; rear: 5 x USB 3.1, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 4 x USB 2, 1 x Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x optical S/PDIF, 5 x audio Operating system Microsoft Windows 10 Home…

There are all sorts of reasons to have a stab at building your own PC from scratch, rather than buying a pre-built system. You get complete control over every single component you install, and you can also save a bit of cash, as you don’t have to fork out for labour costs or a warranty. Despite what cocky tech heads might tell you, though, doing it properly isn’t as simple as doing a jigsaw. If you fancy having a go at building your own system, but you don’t know where to start, then we’ll show you how to put together the whole caboodle, from testing and installing components to cable routing and airflow considerations. Also, if you’re not a beginner, but you’ve found yourself gawping in wonder at the professionally…

Raspbian gets first-boot wizard The Raspberry Pi’s Raspbian Linux operating system has received an update to make life easier for newcomers: a first-boot wizard. Walking the user through configuring aspects from the time zone to Wi-Fi, the wizard appears on first boot then automatically removes itself when its job is complete. It can also be cancelled by anyone who would prefer manual configuration. The same update removes some of the previously pre-installed software packages, and adds a Recommended Software tool to add them back on demand.…

To enter your machine for possible inclusion in Readers’ Drives, your mod needs to be fully working and, ideally, finished based in the UK. Simply log on to www.bit-tech.net and head over to the forums. Once you’re there, post a write-up of your mod, along with some pics, in the Project Logs forum. Make sure you read the relevant rules and advice sticky threads before you post. The best entrant each month will be featured here, where we’ll print your photos of your project and also interview you about the build process. Fame isn’t the only prize; you’ll also get your hands on a fabulous selection of prizes – see the opposite page for details.…

Allimity 3-in-1 Power Bank/ £20 inc VAT The Allimity 3-in-1 approaches the challenge of being a power bank that does useful jobs on the side with a degree of aplomb. Firstly, the device provides a surprisingly powerful folding lamp suitable for nighttime reading, or making you recoil like Nosferatu depending on which of the three settings you’re using. Secondly, it works as a simple folding phone stand. Finally, of course, it functions as a power bank, with two USB outputs to which you can connect your own cables, and a pair of built-in cables tucked along the side, one with a micro-USB plug and the other with a full-sized USB connector. As a power bank, it has a 10,000mAh capacity, which isn’t amazing for its size, but it’s enough for…

SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk Corsair’s SPEC comes in various guises, but the OMEGA RGB version marks the most expensive, feature-laden version, including a number of extras not found in the cheaper models. It still sports the same angular front panel, but the mesh has been replaced with glass, so the area now looks like a mini version of a swanky hotel atrium. The downside, though, is that the only area that allows air into the case is the small mesh section at the bottom, and the mesh is the only protection against dust too. The case comes in both white and black, with the main chamber sporting a large glass side panel. This panel secures with screws that require a hex key, which potentially makes it harder for LAN party attendees…

SUPPLIER www.overclockers.co.uk Like the Cougar Panzer Evo (see p43), the Lian Li Alpha 550X has tempered glass on the majority of its outer panels, with the front section giving a great view onto its three included RGB fans, which also offer individually addressable LEDs. The rear side panel is also glass, which means you’ll need to spend some time tidying your cables, but Lian Li has considered that issue too. There’s a large metal panel that sits over your cables and also acts a drive mount. In front of this panel, inside the case, you’ll also find an angled plate that not only hides the cables coming through to the front, but also provides a home for a tube reservoir. Ventilation isn’t a strong point with the Alpha 550X,…

The warranty is excellent, with two years of collect and return parts cover SUPPLIER www.very.co.uk The Chillblast Fusion Polestar Extreme represents a new tactic from the Bournemouth-based builder. Instead of selling systems directly to customers, with this machine being exclusive to retailer www.very.co.uk. It also features a locked Core i5 CPU and a cheaper motherboard chipset in order to get the price down. The Intel Core i5-8400 is a full Coffee Lake chip, complete with six cores and a 2.8GHz stock clock speed, but there’s no Hyper-Threading, it can’t be multiplier-overclocked and Chillblast has only fitted an Intel stock cooler to it. The Pailt Dual GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card runs at stock speed too, but its specification is still closer to the GTX 1080 than the GTX…

CPU 3.7GHz Intel Core i7-8700K Motherboard Asus Prime B360M-K Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666MHz DDR4 Graphics Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Storage 250GB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk Case Cooler Master MasterBox Q300P Cooling CPU: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120 with 1 x 120mm fan; GPU: 2 x 90mm fans; front: 2 x 120mm fans PSU Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 600W Ports Front: 2 x USB 3, 2 x audio; rear: 4 x USB 3.1, 2 x USB 2, 1 x Gigabit Ethernet, 2 x PS/2, 3 x audio Operating system Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit Warranty Two years parts and labour, plus one year labour only, return to base with first month collect and return…

DEVELOPER Bugbear Interactive/ PUBLISHER Bugbear Interactive/ WEBSITE www.wreckfestgame.com Known as ‘Next Car Game’ for much of its time in Steam Early Access, Wreckfest harks back to carnage-centric racing games such as Flatout and Destruction Derby, only with a modern physics engine and sparky particle effects beneath its battered banger’s bonnet. Despite suffering a difficult development, the final version delivers on its destructive promise, although it takes a while to get its wheels up to temperature. Wreckfest offers a single-player campaign, custom races and dedicated online play. The campaign charges players with climbing the rusted rungs of a career ladder that trades out Formula One cars and Ferrari Testosteronas (that’s how you spell it, right?) for dented muscle cars, three-wheeled vans, and, er combine harvesters. Indeed, Wreckfest is at its best…

No. 2 Phillips/crosshead screwdriver PC building tools don’t come much more essential than the No.2 crosshead screwdriver, which you’ll use for most of the large screwing jobs, from installing your motherboard to tightening up thumbscrews. It’s best to have one with a long, thin shaft, rather than a short stubby one, so you can easily get it into tight spaces and have plenty of reach. If your screwdriver doesn’t already have a magnetic tip, then slowly run a strong magnet up and down the shaft several times. You’ll find a magnetic tip invaluable if you fumble with any of the screws inside the case, where they then risk shorting out your motherboard. Mini screwdrivers Some screws will require a smaller tip than a No.2 screwdriver, such as the fiddly ones…

TOTAL PROJECT TIME / 48 HOURS Although some cases are available in a range of colours now, they usually still only come in black, white or grey. If you like a splash of vibrant colour with your tech, you’ll likely need to take matters into your own hands. Thankfully, it’s easy to spray-paint your PC. As long as you have a reasonably sized, well-ventilated work space, the UK’s warmer summer months offer a great time to jazz up your PC case, whether it’s old or new. As well as colours, there are also many spray effects that can give your PC a great-looking and unique finish. This month’s guide looks at how to prepare your case for spraying, the precautions you need to take, how to achieve the best finish…

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 1700X Graphics Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Case Cooler Master Cosmos II Memory 32GB Patriot Viper LED (red) DDR4 3000MHz Motherboard MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium Storage 480GB Patriot Ignite 2.5in SATA SSD, 480GB Patriot Hellfire M.2 NVMe SSD, 8TB Western Digital Gold hard drive PSU Cooler Master V850 Cooling Custom water-cooling loop with Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU waterblock, Eisblock GPX Plexi GPU waterblock, Eisblock MBX MSI 01 motherboard cooling set, HDX 3 M.2 cooler, 240 x 30mm and 360 x 30mm NexXxos radiators with Cooler Master RGB 120 fans, Alphacool chrome double pump top with 2 x VPP 755 Eispumpe pumps, Eiszapfen chrome fittings with 13/10mm satin hard tubes, 250mm Alphacool chrome Metal reservoir (skyscraper edition!)…