Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i Custom PC UK

NOBLECHAIRS TEAMS UP WITH BETHESDA Premium gaming chair maker noblechairs has announced a new collaboration with Bethesda Software, with plans to produce themed chairs based on Bethesda’s game imagery. The first game series to get the chair treatment will be Doom and Fallout, in the second quarter of this year, with more chairs based on other game series due to come later. The company has shared some concept art of the Fallout chair, featuring the iconic blue and yellow colour scheme, as well as Vault Boy and the Vault-Tec logos. Meanwhile, the Doom chair will be based on military green, and feature the Doom logo stitched on the headrest, among other design features. Keep an eye on noblechairs.com for more details in the future. In the meantime, we’ve reviewed the…

Most high-end all-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers won’t leave you with change from £100 these days, especially RGB-equipped ones. At over £130 inc VAT, Corsair’s H115i RGB Pro XT is well on the way to costing the same amount as a full custom loop, but we can’t deny that having a 280mm software-controlled, RGB lighting-equipped all-in-one unit is an attractive proposition, especially from a simplicity point of view. The H115i RGB Pro XT is compatible with all current CPU sockets, and it has a redesigned cold plate and micro-skived copper channels. It’s a USB-controlled unit, so you’ll need a spare USB 2 header to hook up to the pump. The pump has two 4-pin fan connectors to power the two ML140 magnetic levitation-bearing fans, and as these fans aren’t RGBenabled, there…

The ROG Strix Scope is one of the priciest tenkeyless (meaning there’s no numeric keypad) designs on the market, setting you back a whopping £149 inc VAT, although it does have a mightily impressive design. This unit undeniably looks the part thanks to its brushed aluminium top, bright per-key RGB backlighting and several other lighting zones. That aluminium contributes to the superb build quality, making this unit plenty strong enough to withstand being carried to LAN events. Its 365mm width makes it easy to transport too, and the lack of a numpad provides more desk space for your mouse and mousemat. The layout has been augmented with smart touches. The function row is doubled up with media keys, with a shortcut function of the Insert key switching between these modes.…

For the past few years, the most responsive gaming monitors have used 24.5in 1080p TN panels with 240Hz refresh rates, such as the AOC AGON AG251FZ. However, their relatively small size and resolution means they’re not all that useful for anything other than competitive gaming. Enter the AG273QZ, one of a new generation of displays that has the same blistering 240Hz refresh rate and 0.5ms response time but in a larger 27in screen size and with a higher 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. The key advantage is that you get a much more practical size and resolution for anything else you might do with your PC, plus you can run games at a much higher resolution. However, text on this screen – as on many TN-type LCDs – isn’t anywhere near…

Logitech’s G29 is a hugely popular midrange wheel, and although its £269 price may seem high compared with entry level options, it’s far cheaper than higher-end gear from the likes of Fanatec and Thrustmaster while still offering a serious step up in performance. Logitech actually produces two versions of this wheel: the G29 is for PC and PS4 while the G920 works with PC and Xbox One. They’re near identical but the G29 includes more buttons and a rev counter, so for PC users it’s the one to get. The G29’s PlayStation branding makes this wheel look a little immature in comparison with rivals. It’s noticeably smaller, too. Both the plastic body and the wheel are more compact than more expensive models, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.…

The past couple of months have been tough for everybody, and it’s likely the next few aren’t going to be any easier. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many of you will be stuck inside for long periods of time. Perhaps you’re living alone, or with a partner or flatmate, or with children. Perhaps you’ve been furloughed, or laid off, or are self-isolating with symptoms. All these scenarios pose unique challenges, and everyone is struggling with their own waves of bad news. But if there is a silver lining, it’s that there’s plenty of ways to keep ourselves and those around us entertained while staying indoors. For this column, I’ve put together a bunch of PC game recommendations to suit various situations. Portal 2 has recently received split-screen co-op support…

There were already several ways to  overclock CPUs before AMD introduced its newly competitive Zen architecture in 2017, but its  arrival brought with it a couple more considerations. Namely, whether to go the manual or automated route. MANUAL OVERCLOCKING Both AMD and Intel CPUs can be overclocked manually. This refers to the simplest way of overclocking them, which is to apply a set voltage and increase the CPU’s multiplier so it runs at a specific frequency. There’s nothing wrong with doing this and, as long as you try to reduce the voltage as much as possible rather than entering a single large voltage and leaving it at that, it’s all you need to do to get more performance out of your PC. There are some downsides to manual overclocking though.…

The first machine to break the exaflop barrier (that’s one quintillion floating-point operations per second) wasn’t a huge dedicated supercomputer built by a large corporation such as IBM, but a bunch of interconnected of PCs with ordinary CPUs and gaming GPUs. Welcome to the Folding@home project, which is currently undergoing a massive boom in popularity after it started targeting COVID-19 research. It’s effectively the world’s fastest supercomputer, and your PC can be a part of it. ‘It’s estimated that we have more aggregate compute power than the next top 100 supercomputers combined,’ says Dr Greg Bowman, Director of Folding@home and Associate Professor at Washington University School of Medicine. ‘Before the COVID-19 work, we had about 30,000 active volunteers on Folding@home, and something like 100 petaflops of compute horsepower. Since then,…

Canonical has confirmed plans to support the Raspberry Pi family of single-board computers across all future releases of Ubuntu Linux. ‘Going forward, new releases of Ubuntu will automatically support the latest Raspberry Pi device models. We will also strive to make Ubuntu available from day one for any new Raspberry Pi model,’ says Canonical’s Galem Kayo. ‘Our future support efforts will be centred around advancing computing education, fostering the digital maker culture, improving developers’ productivity and finally accelerating enterprise innovation.’…

The Corsair Hydro X Series XD3 RGB Pump/ Reservoir Combo features a high-performance DDC PWM pump, integrated RGB lighting and in-loop temperature sensor to drive even the most compact custom cooling systems. It has a high-performance Xylem DDC PWM pump controlled via PWM to deliver the perfect flow balance for your loop. There are also 16 individually addressable RGB LEDs, which light up the pump head to produce stunning, customisable lighting effects to match your build.…

The Corsair Hydro X Series XC7 RGB CPU Water Block combines premium construction, vivid RGB lighting and extreme cooling performance to become the centrepiece of your water-cooling loop. It has a nickel-plated copper cold plate and more than 60 high-efficiency micro-cooling fins, which efficiently draw heat away from your CPU, lowering operating temperatures and allowing for maximum overclocks. You can choose the AM4/LGA1151 or LGA2066 version.…

If you’re shopping for a new Wi-Fi 6 router, you’ll be surprised to learn that, despite certifications, not all products offer the same features. ‘Wi-Fi 6’ is the marketing name administered by the Wi-Fi Alliance, and it’s supposed to make it easy to understand that a product, such as a router, smartphone or motherboard, offers a guaranteed set of features. You’d think that two Wi-Fi 6 devices would work together at the best speeds with all the bells and whistles enabled, s case some are only optional in the certification list. The certification list is separate from the IEEE 802.11ax specification This certification list is separate from the IEEE 802.11ax specification governed by the IEEE. The 802.11ax specification is public for anyone to view, but the same isn’t true for…

What a mesh For the first time in years I’m looking at routers (as OpenReach has announced that FTTP will be in my area soon), and your article on the Netgear Orbi (see Issue 201, p30) raised a few questions. Firstly, how much?! Secondly, mesh seems to be the norm these days. My current 802.11n setup uses range extenders, but would you recommend mesh routers over separate range extenders? Thirdly, do all these modern mesh routers support FTTP and have the connections needed for fibre, or would I need some sort of fibre modem that’s networked to a mesh router to get Wi-Fi? ANDREW LEVICK Ben: I would absolutely recommend a mesh setup over using range extenders, if that’s your current setup. Having a mesh system means you don’t have…

When the original ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro was first doing the rounds, all-in-one liquid coolers didn’t even exist, and even heatpipe-equipped heatsinks were still relatively new. The original cooler was a great bit of kit, though, offering decent cooling for under £20, and enabling people to bin their CPU’s stock cooler and get lower noise levels and better cooling. Today, its replacement still costs the right side of £20, while taking aim at stock coolers and shaving a tenner or two off the price of cheap 120mm heatsinks. It’s still a compact 92mm cooler, though, so while ARCTIC claims it offers 10 per cent more cooling capacity than the original 115W TDP-rated Freezer 7 Pro, you won’t want to pair it with an overclocked Core i9-9900K or Ryzen 9 3950X. However,…

The first iteration of the Corsair Dark Core impressed with its versatile shape, excellent sensor and decent wireless performance. However, it still relied on older wireless standards that made for a slightly less responsive feel than wired mice or the best wireless alternatives. Now Corsair is back with an updated version that includes the company’s more responsive Slipstream wireless technology, along with a  better sensor, a USB Type-C connection and, of course, more RGB! The strange shape, with its two flared-out side sections, 134g weight and profusion of RGB zones don’t make it look particularly appealing for pure gaming performance at first, but looks can be deceiving. Its nearly symmetrical (but not ambidextrous) shape works surprisingly well for a variety of grip styles. The scooped sides provide plenty of purchase; along…

The ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401IV is the first laptop we’ve seen with an AMD Zen 2 processor, and in this machine it’s the high-end Ryzen 9 4900HS. The new chip is an 8-core, 16-thread beast. That’s two more  cores than you’ll find in Intel’s Core i7-9750H and the forthcoming Core i7-10750H – the most frequently used Intel chips in gaming laptops. The Ryzen 9 4900HS has a 3GHz base clock, and can turbo boost to 4.3GHz. The Ryzen 9 4900H is faster still, but this HS variant has been downclocked to aid power consumption. Likewise, the GeForce RTX 2060 GPU in this machine is a Max-Q model. It has 1,920 stream processors, 30 RT cores and 6GB of memory, but also has reduced clock speeds compared with the full-fat version.…

How we test Our case testing method is simple; use real, overclocked hardware in a standard system to see how cases perform in terms of cooling, noise levels, ease of use and build quality. We also take into account styling, any extra features and of course value. We score each case using weighted calculations for their cooling, design, features and value to give an overall score. We’ve updated our test gear to use more modern hardware including an Asus TUF B450M-Plus Gaming motherboard along with a Ryzen 5 1600, overclocked to 3.8GHz using a vcore of 1.365V. We’re also using a Palit GeForce GTX 1660 StormX with an open-air GPU cooler to better represent the majority of modern graphics cards. Its fan speed is limited to 60 per cent in…

The venerable Eclipse P600S still flies the flag for Phanteks when it comes to mid-range ATX cases. It offers a similar specification to the Evolv X while costing considerably less, coming in at a little over £100. It’s the biggest case in this month’s Labs test yet only costs a little more than the Lian Li O11 Dynamic and Corsair iCUE 465X, and has a feature set that should be the envy of every other case. Out of the box, it has a pair of removable roof and front section panels allowing you to switch between a cleaner look or more ventilation, with the mesh beneath fashioned from Phanteks’ own fabric, which it claims outperforms traditional perforated metal mesh. On the front section, a flip-up panel reveals a pair of…

How we test Racing games are popular right now, and the current lockdowns in place around the world mean that more and more people are turning to online racing – including professional drivers. It’s tempting to get involved when you see your favourites hitting the track, and it’s worth thinking about getting a wheel if you want to properly enjoy your driving. Upgrading to a wheel has numerous advantages. It’s more immersive thanks to realistic force feedback and more precise steering, and you’ll be able to improve your lap times and be competitive in higher-level events. There are several key areas to examine when looking for racing wheels. On the inside, you’ll want to pay attention to the kinds of motors and force feedback systems that are used. Belt-driven and…

The Drift O.Z. is one of the cheapest wheels on the market, so it’s understandably positioned as an entry-level offering, for gamers seeking to take their first step into the world of racing wheels. As if to lure those unlearned minds, it sports an eye-catching design. The softer plastic grips used on the 270mm-diameter wheel are finished in bright orange, and there’s a ring of ridged plastic in the middle that mimics metal. Its rock bottom price isn’t the only thing that appeals with the Drift. It’s the only wheel in the Labs with a gearstick, although it’s a sequential unit rather than an H-pattern device. Meanwhile, the face of the wheel has fifteen buttons, including a D-pad, and two useful shoulder buttons that sit round the back. Build quality…

In the past, Metro Exodus: Sam’s Story would have been a game in itself. This massive expansion to Metro Exodus adds another eight to ten hours of post-apocalypse shooting to the vanilla game. It can’t be faulted on quantity, but quality is a different matter. Sam’s story revolves around the eponymous US Marine side character from Metro Exodus. It takes place after the end of Exodus, and sees Sam striking out on his own as he attempts to find a way back to America. This quest takes him to Vladivostok, Russia’s Easternmost city, where he finds a potential ticket home in the form of a functioning nuclear submarine. However, the sub lacks the fuel rods needed to activate it, which are hidden across the city in the submarine’s former holding…

Besiege allows you to become the medieval equivalent of Back to the Future’s Emmett Brown or Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth. It’s a sandbox in which you build your own siege engines and lay waste to enemy fortifications, although half the fun is watching your wacky contraptions lay waste to themselves. The campaign sees you tasked with conquering four fantasy kingdoms on individual islands. These islands are divided into roughly a dozen individual challenges that require you to  build machines to solve them. Each challenge has two distinct phases. The first is the construction phase. Starting out from a single metal block, you use the mouse to hammer out a basic wooden frame that forms the skeleton of your siege engine, before adding wheels, weapons and other items such as armour plates.…

The modern PC enthusiast scene has always had overclocking at its heart. In fact, overclocking has been around as long or even longer than people have been modding and otherwise upgrading their PCs. A small tweak to a system bus, sometimes even by using jumpers, has progressed into a multifaceted industry of cooling, motherboards, thermal paste and delidding tools that are all designed to make overclocking your CPU easier, safer and more commonplace. This is why we at Custom PC love it. Sure, we like our PCs to be cool and quiet, but most of us learned our trade off the back of overclocking and will always look to eke out that extra bit of performance where we can. It’s why we love water-cooled PCs too. The extra cooling capacity can…

STEPS FOR ALL OVERCLOCKERS 1 APPLY XMP PROFILE There are several things you need to check in the EFI to ensure the rest of your system is running optimally, and can ramp up fans and pumps to deal with the extra heat. Start by applying the XMP profile in the overclocking section. This will set the correct memory speed, timings and voltage, which is especially important for AMD systems. 2 SET FAN SPEED CONTROL Allow your cooler to ramp up its fans to deal with the heat. In your EFI’s fan control section, ensure your cooler’s fans can hit full speed before it reaches your preferred maximum CPU temperature. If you’re using a pump, it will also need to be able to ramp up to full speed well…

We may already be several weeks into lockdown, and many of us will have already found umpteen ways to fill that social gap in our lives. However, if your resources are running dry, we’ve come up with a few fun ways to fill your time over the coming pages. Whether you’re after that competitive gaming thrill or just somewhere to hang out with friends, there’s something for everyone. FPS / competitive First-person shooters have long been a stalwart of ways to play online with your friends, but if ever there was a time to sync up with a few buddies and dive into the latest team-based options, it’s now. Of course, it’s likely that you’re already well ensconced if you’re into those sorts of games, and if you’re not, it’s…

A project to recreate the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in modern hardware has released a fully functional board design, although it requires original CPU and PPU chips for full functionality. ‘The design is as true to the original board as possible,’ its pseudonymous creator Redherring32 writes, ‘with subtle changes where needed to compensate for outdated/unsourcable parts, as well as some improvements.’ Redherring32 adds that ‘I am not in any way affiliated with Nintendo, I’m just doing this in my free time as a stepping stone into further Reverse Engineering work.’…

So here we are, another month into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and I thought it might be interesting to share some insider anecdotes about how this situation is affecting the tech industry. A significant proportion of Scan’s sales are ecommerce, and it shouldn’t be news to you that, like many online retailers, we’ve seen a massive spike in demand over the last few weeks. The first wave saw companies and universities buying up every webcam, headset, laptop and office PC they could find while they restructured their teams to work from home. Remote working isn’t just about client computing though; it also requires massive investment in infrastructure, such as servers and VPN configuration, so datacentres have also seen a surge in demand. More recently, a second wave has emerged as…

Tables are turning. While gaming has been a mainstream hobby for decades, it’s never been officially endorsed by the World Health Organisation before. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’ve had more than one rant about ‘gaming disorder’ and the WHO’s role in overmedicalising and stigmatising games in this column, so this new move is quite a shock. In 2018, the World Health Organisation declared ‘gaming disorder’ to be a real, diagnosable condition, despite plenty of evidence against it, and the pleas of academics for (at the very least) more data before medicalising a hobby. As I wrote at the time,‘if someone is obsessed with Doctor Who, for example, they are not given a special diagnosis of Television Disorder. If they lock themselves away to paint miniatures or collect Elvis memorabilia…

There’s an interesting battle between EKWB’s new EK-AIO 360 D-RGB and Corsair’s H115i RGB Pro XT (see p18) this month, and both approach premium all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooling differently. EKWB has gone for a 360mm radiator instead of the 280mm model used by Corsair, but the EK-AIO 360 D-RGB sticks to the realms of standard AIO liquid coolers with a slim radiator that’s 28mm thick and just under 40cm long. This is a far cry from the company’s monstrous expandable Predator and Phoenix coolers, but it will make it compatible with many more cases. Rather than relying on software to control its fan and pump speeds, the EK-AIO 360 D-RGB has separate 4-pin PWM connectors for both the pump and fans, allowing you to use your motherboard to control them.…

The Philips 439P9H is a mega-wide display with a  whopping 43in diagonal and a 3,840 x 1,200 resolution. It’s the same height as 34in ultrawide displays, but with an extra 10in of width, giving you the desktop real estate of two monitors, but without bezels breaking up the image. It also includes a webcam, which protrudes from the top edge and supports 1080p video for Skype and Zoom calls, as well as Windows Hello facial recognition. If you’d rather keep yourself private, the camera can be pushed back down into the frame of the display, which turns it off. In our testing, though, the webcam proved a pain to get working, with the cumbersome instructions and download options on Philips’ website making it less than intuitive. There are several other…

Fanatec’s CSL Elite starter kit is significantly cheaper than the Thrustmaster kit we’re looking at in this Labs, but it’s still based on the high-end ClubSport technology used in pricier Fanatec products. On the inside, that means a single-belt brushless servomotor with 6nm of torque. That translates to superb performance with the CSL Elite offering progressive, powerful force-feedback alongside smooth and accurate motion. The Thrustmaster provides 6.4nm of torque, and it feels more aggressive but less smooth. Both wheels are very good and incredibly powerful though – the vast majority of players won’t need to max out the motors. The Fanatec’s servomotor connects to a 970g wheel with a 300mm diameter – so it’s easily big enough to replicate real racing. The wheel is a little smaller and lighter than…

This is the most expensive wheel bundle Thrustmaster sells, and it’s the result of a collaboration between the peripheral firm and real racing company Sparco. That means you get a real Sparco wheel on this rig, and it’s a stunner. The 310mm diameter wheel is the largest in the Labs, and it’s the only one that's fully coated with suede. It looks the part, and it feels grippy and comfortable. The wheel isn’t just a little larger than the equivalent on the rival Fanatec – at 1.03kg, the wheel is also slightly heavier. The P310’s wheel is also more angled, and it sits further back. Depending on where you’re installing this rig, it may make the Thrustmaster more comfortable. The base unit is larger, heavier and more eye-catching than Fanatec’s…

Core component bundles The fundamental specifications we recommend for various types of PC. Just add your preferred case and power supply, and double-check there’s room in your case for your chosen components, especially the GPU cooler and graphics card. We’ve largely stopped reviewing power supplies, as the 80 Plus certification scheme has now effectively eliminated unstable PSUs. Instead, we’ve recommended the wattage and minimum 80 Plus certification you should consider for each component bundle. You can then choose whether you want a PSU with modular or captive cables. Mini PCs Our favourite components for building a micro-ATX or mini-ITX PC. Always double-check how much room is available in your chosen case before buying your components. Some mini-ITX cases don’t have room for large all-in-one liquid coolers, for example, or tall…

Doom Eternal pushes the classic first-person shooter series further than ever before. Not only is it the biggest Doom game ever made by some margin, but it’s also the most intense, the most mechanically diverse and the most violent. At its best, it’s the most thrilling FPS ever made. But compared with the 2016 reboot, which had nigh-perfect pacing and struck a delicate balance between old and new, Doom Eternal is also a less consistently enjoyable experience. Eternal is a sequel to 2016’s Doom, but it doesn’t follow directly from the reboot’s conclusion. Instead, it takes place several years later, when the forces of Hell have escaped Mars and overrun Earth. Observing the situation from an orbiting space station, the Doom Slayer discovers the invasion is being orchestrated by three…

Lair of the Clockwork God is a game of two halves. There’s Ben, a die-hard adventure game protagonist who refuses to do anything without first looking at it and attempting to talk to it. There’s also Dan, a wannabe indie platformer who explores his emotions via the medium of jumping. The game smartly reconciles these two diametrically opposed gaming genres, while throwing in enough jokes to give a hyena hiccups. Clockwork God sees its twin protagonists Ben and Dan returning from a jungle expedition to find a flower that cures cancer, only to discover that London has been ravaged by every single apocalypse happening at once. To save the city and the planet, they need to activate Earth’s automated defence systems by teaching its AI algorithm how to emote like…

Overclocking is possible thanks to two separate factors. Firstly, the way PCs work necessitates that the CPU is essentially controlled by your motherboard. In other words, various multipliers and system bus frequencies, as well as features included within the CPU itself such as Turbo Boost, directly impact your CPUs frequency. Normally, you don’t need to worry about any of this if your PC is operating at stock speed, but if you so desire – and if your particular CPU allows – it’s possible to tweak these settings to increase performance. THE CPU CAN JUST BE REPACKAGED AS A MODEL WITH FEWER CORES It’s very similar to tuning your car. By adjusting settings in the engine management system software, it’s possible to boost horsepower and torque. Of course, if your car’s…

Some of us are lucky enough to overclock various systems on a regular basis, but we chatted to someone who does it on a daily basis and in extreme ways too. Ian Parry, better known as 8Pack, is one of the world’s best overclockers and currently builds crazy PCs for Overclockers UK. We caught up with him to get his top tips on other settings you can tweak and opinions on all things overclocking. So Ian, what would be your top tips for the various CPU sockets around at the moment when it comes to overclocking? I’d start by setting the XMP profile on the memory in the EFI. Then I’d make sure the board is setting correct voltages and timings for the memory too. I’d also set a degree…

REVIEW ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated To say the ZX Spectrum Next has been a long time coming wouldn’t be an understatement. The initial board-only design of the reimagined 8-bit microcomputer was reviewed way back in Issue 176, with the expectation that the fully cased, retail-boxed version would be swift to follow. An optimistic delivery deadline of January 2018 came and went. Now, the hardware is finally reaching backers – and it’s  fair to say it’s been worth the wait. Based on hardware from TBBlue and housed in a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3-inspired housing, which would prove to be the last work of noted industrial designer Rick Dickinson, the ZX Spectrum Next isn’t an ARM-powered emulator; it’s a fully functional microcomputer powered by a Xilinx Spartan-6 field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The…

Hands on with Corsair’s XD3 RGB Corsair is still relatively new to custom water cooling, but its first Hydro X-series products, from rigid tube fittings to waterblocks and radiators, were a good start. I particularly liked the pre-applied thermal paste and pads on the waterblocks, as well as the XD5 RGB pump/reservoir combo unit. It looked good, it had RGB lighting and the pump could be controlled using your motherboard too. Corsair also included two adaptor plates to mount the pump in fan mounts at various angles. It was expensive, but these sorts of inclusions meant you had all the gear in a single kit. However, the XD5 isn’t exactly small, and you’ll struggle to fit it into cases that don’t have plenty of clearance around fan mounts. It’s nearly…

Before the beloved Sinclair computer brand was bought out by a fresh and furry-faced Alan Sugar in 1986, Clive Sinclair’s engineers were working on a project to inject new life into the ZX Spectrum, codenamed ‘Loki’. With custom silicon enhancing the graphics and sound of the ZX Spectrum core, and a 7MHz Z80H CPU, it could possibly have rivalled the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. The ZX Spectrum Next on p94 gives us a glimpse of some of the potential. What actually happened, though, was the Sinclair PC200. The PC200 was Amstrad’s last roll of the black and red Sinclair dice, aiming to build a home business machine with family appeal. It was basically a black, rebadged version of Amstrad’s PC20, with an RF output enabling it to be plugged…