PC & Tech Authority - April 2018 AU

116 Pages·2017·4.68 MB·English

GAME SMARTER,
NOT HARDER
MASTERKEYS MK750
With On-the-Fly Controls, Cherry MX Switches
and Removable Wrist Rest
The MK750 mechanical gaming keyboard is the sleeper hit for elite gamers. The
minimalistic, floating key design gives way to durable Cherry MX switches,
intuitive On-the-fly controls, dedicated multimedia keys, and hybrid key rollover
to ensure peak performance through the toughest battles. If that weren't
enough, a removable magnetic wrist rest gives comfort during long sessions,
while an RGB lightbar surrounding the bottom and sides gives subtle
illumination to your setup.
MAKE YOUR GAMING EXPERIENCE
LOGIN TECHDESK
FLASHBACK!
OLD THINGS ARE GOOD
W
e all love PCs, right? In far cheaper and just as capable clones. REAL TECH ADVICE
between hating them, that My fi rst PC, not counting the Olivetti XT YOU CAN TRUST!
is… If you are a child of an at work, was a clone 386DX/25. Man, I loved
earlier time, like me, then you that PC so much, it changed my life. I’d • Our tests are performed by
experienced reviewers in our
likely got into computers around the time of already enjoyed a couple of years with my
Labs in accordance with strict
the great technological transformation. That Amiga 500, but that doesn’t strictly count as benchtesting procedures
period when magical things appeared in a PC, and all I ever used it for was games,
• Our brand new benchmarks have
short order, transforming the world. Things surprise surprise. A 486 DX2/50 came after
been tailor-made to reflect real-
like mobile phones and the internet. The that, when I needed more power. world computing needs
perspective that comes with straddling a Thinking about those two PCs – and the
• We put tech through its paces –
period before, during, and after these things many that followed – it reminds me that seriously. From processing power to
arriving is something precious that I value. as always, choosing a new PC is a game of battery life, from usability to screen
I think we all remember the excitement compromise. When I bought the 386DX, brightness, our tests are exhaustive
of getting our fi rst PC. The sense of there were cheaper SX models all tempting • We will always offer an honest and
wonder and the keenness to get stuck in me, but I made a point to learn enough about unbiased opinion for every review
immediately and have a play with it all. Intel’s CPUs to understand the benefi ts of a
But what was it? And what technology full 32-bit architecture. And what it would THE PC&TA TEAM
surrounded it? Did you plug yours into bring to Falcon 3.0 and Wing Commander…
DIGITAL EDITOR
an analogue modem to connect to a BBS? Same story for the 486DX2, but in reverse, TECH AND GAMING
Did you live with a 14-inch CRT screen for the DX2 was cheaper than a proper 486DX
David Hollingworth
the fi rst ten years or longer? Did you fi nd and it seemed to me that the bus speed dhollingworth@nextmedia.
com.au
1.44MB fl oppy disks particularly fascinating, cobbling was of little real consequence when T: @atomicmpc
and like me, developed the annoying (to raw CPU power was what I needed.
SENIOR JOURNALIST
everyone around me) habit of thoughtlessly I’m sure you have some amazing stories
Anthony Agius
fl icking the marvelous little spring-loaded about your fi rst PCs and how you came by
cover back and forth as a bit of a fi dget? them, what you used them for and the effect
Well do we have the magazine page for they had on your life – then and now. Don’t
you! It’s called Retro, and each month we’ll hold back, write in, I love publishing that
SENIOR JOURNALIST
look back at a signifi cant (or just really stuff on our letters page! In the meantime,
Chris Szewczyk
interesting) piece of technology from the let our fi rst Retro help you fuel those
olden days. Check it out on page 24. I think nostalgic fi res. The old days were the best!
it’s an especially cool page, and not just for Yeah!
people like me who grew up through it all,
GROUP ADVERTISING
but for anyone who wants to spend a couple MANAGER TECH
of minutes in each issue marveling at what AND GAMING
led us to where we are today. Cameron Ferris
[email protected]
It makes sense to kick it off with a look
at the IBM 5150 PC, or as we know it – the
NATIONAL
PC that started it all. Leveraging IBM’s ADVERTISING
immense reputation, we could now claim MANAGER PC&TA
ownership of an IBM in the home. Hindsight Sean Fletcher
[email protected]
reminds us that perhaps IBM should have
locked down the OS rights a little tighter,
CONTACT US
but thankfully IBM dropped the ball on that
and while the hardware is quite beautiful, p: [phone]
what this machine represents is a confused Ben Mansill e: [email protected]
and somewhat half-hearted attempt at EDITOR f: www.facebook.com/pcandtechauthority
owning the domestic market, naively bmansill t: @pctechauthority
ignorant that it would soon be overrun by @nextmedia.com.au
PC&TECH AUTHORITY APRIL 2018 3
CONTENTS
APRIL 2018
FEATURES LABS
26 68
THE BEST OF CES MESH WI-FI
What treasures did our team Is easier better than almost as
uncover while at the world’s good but cheaper? We test the
biggest tech show? leading mesh Wi-Fi systems
34
RWC
BACK TO FIREFOX
Is your browser getting you 100
down? It may be time to revisit
an old friend HONEYBALL
Jon gives his verdict on the
TECHDESK
deliberate hobbling of iPhone
68
8 processors, looks forward to this
year’s CPU developments, and
NEWS refl ects on the best of 2017
Continued botching of the 103 20
Meltdown and Spectre dramas 34
10 OCKENDEN
Lessons from Europe teach us
GAME NEWS what may come for the future of
A Civ clone and Close Combat e-commerce
rises again! 108
24
12
WINDER
CHIP NEWS Davey goes in search of
Intel may fi nally give us proper interesting cybersecurity fi rms,
thermal materials on CPUs, and and uncovers the link between
the crypto GPU shortage may the Israeli army and the most
soon be over innovative security startups
16 110
SYSTEM NEWS CASSIDY
Why are PC prices higher than WannaCry is no longer an active
any time in recent memory? threat, but you should still
18 remove the code from your PCs.
Plus, the case of the disappearing
INVESTIGATOR printer
When subscription services come
DREAM GEAR
back to bite you 10
65
24 90
RETRO A-LIST & KITLOG
YOUR 98
We look back at IBM’s 5150, the This is the dream list of the best
PC that started everything of the best FREE
APPS
HOW TO
DOWNLOAD THIS MONTH:
AND INSTALL • Auslogics • PhotoCommander15
THIS MONTH’S Boostspeed 9 •Tagman
•iClone 6 Standard
FREE FULL APPS!
4 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU
CONTENTS
44 REVIEWS
PCS & LAPTOPS
HP Spectre 13 42
Alcatel Plus 12 2-in-1 43
MSI Infi nite X 48
Acer Predator Triton 700 51
Asus GL503 52
Leader Resistance AiO 55
GPD Win mini PC 59
42
COMPONENTS
AMD Ryzen 2200G & 2400G 40
Fractal Defi ne R6 53
Samsung 860 Evo & Pro 56
Corsair H115i AiO cooler 59
MESH ROUTERS
Asus Lyra 74
Google wifi 75
Devolo GigaGate 77
Linksys Velop 77
48
47 Netgear Orbi 78
TP-Link Deco M5 79
Ubiquiti Amplifi HD 80
PERIPHERALS
Asus Blue Cave router 44
Sonos One 45
Asus DSL-AC3100 DSL router 46
QNAP TS-677 Ryzen NAS 47
Amazon Echo Spot 50
Samsung CH90 49in monitor 54
Draytek Vigor 2862Vac 58
Epson Ecotank ET-4750 64
Razer Blackwidow Chroma V2 65
56
Alienware Pro 65
Alienware Advanced 66
54 Cooler Master MK750 66
Tt Esports X1 RGB 67
Gamdias Hermes P2 RGB 67
HANDHELDS
Oppo R11s 60
Doro 6520 60
Blackberry Motion 62
55 GAMES
Civilization IV: Rise and Fall 86
Where Water Tastes Like Wine 87
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 88
64
PC&TECH AUTHORITY APRIL 2018 5
TECHDESK INBOX
INBOX
WE ASKED YOU WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR NAS...
EVERY DAY IS A NAS DAY
amplifi er with two zones speaker My current is a QNAP TS-251
I was reading your article in the January mag confi gurations (one for the theatre loaded with a pair of Seagate NAS
regarding NAS usage and I’d like to share how I use room itself and the other one for HDDs in Raid 1 confi guration.
mine, it might be different as the general public. the living room that can play There are two ‘streams’ of use -
I am using my NAS almost every day and love it. background music during family Acronis backups for my networked
I have backed up fi ve laptops and one business PC. and friends gatherings). computers and streaming media to
All prior (dead PCs) are on it as well. I created a docs I chose Asustor brand because my Samsung 4K TV.
library over the years where store all manual, receipts, they are relatively cheaper than the I replaced my backpack sized
tax, warranties, important docs etc. Basally everything big two brands such as QNAP or Nikon D5300 and lens collection
on paper is scanned in and stored on the NAS. As Synology and back when I looked with the hand-sized Panasonic
well as, I converted all old video tapes, music CDs, for NAS, the big two didn’t have DC-TZ90. Now, this is remarkable
DVDs, which de-cluttered greatly our house. Only direct HDMI connection. - if you set the TZ90 video capture
downloaded videos are not on it, due to space issues. I My main use is for mode to 1920*1080 at 25 FPS, the
need to upgrade to a 4-bay soon. entertainment, CCTV recording lens zoom range is 35 - 1942 mm
However, I access my NAS almost every day because plus backup important personal (35 mm equivalent), then I fi nd that
there is always something to scan in or to retrieve. fi les. With Asustor, I can install the picture is broadcast quality.
My wife loves it because if she needs something from Kodi, Plex and other download As a test, I uploaded a video to the
years ago, it is there. apps (usenet mainly) easy enough. TS-251 NAS and streamed it to the
I run a RAID 1 (which has saved my bum twice Some of their software still Samsung TV and there was zero
now), and have a external HDD attached permanently requires polishing, but their buffering. Beautiful. So now, a
which backs the whole NAS up every three days. I support team is great and main use of my humble QNAP NAS
rotate the external HDD about every month with an responsive (although they are is to store Full HD video which will
exact copy which is store off site at my parent’s house. working not from AU, thus be streamed to the Samsung TV.
So technically I have fi ve copies, that protects my in you need to cope with the time I tried streaming 4K video from
the worst case for one month data loss. So far this difference), and they keep releasing the TS-251 and it buffers about
has worked fi ne, Synology takes care of the updates patches (even the latest one for 50%, but as the quality difference
via hyperbackup. I just swap the external HDDs and Meltdown couple of days ago). between 4K and Full HD is barely
hyperbackup updates automatically the old one at the JOHANNES detectable, I’m happy with Full
next scheduled backup time. HD video which has the benefi t of
SYNERGISTIC
Yes I love my NAS, however I also have looked into smaller fi le sizes.
CONVERGENCE
an Asustor AS6404T or QNAP 431 as an alternative to a This ‘synergistic convergence’
Synology DS418 as an upgrade replacement. My fi rst NAS was a cheap and between the Panasonic Camera,
Hope this helps as to have an insight of what the nasty plastic box into which Samsung TV and QNAP NAS
other world is doing with their NAS. I loaded a large HDD. Lots of would make a good article for PC
THOMAS fi ddling was required to get it right, & Tech.
but it worked as a backup location New PC & Tech Authority format
ENTERTAIN NAS
for Acronis, but nothing more. is a huge improvement. Thank you.
I hook up my Asustor AS-6204T to my theatre room You are right about once a CHRIS
(over HDMI) which contacted to 5.1 Integra DRX-2 NAS user, always a NAS user.
WANT TO GET IN TOUCH?
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Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065
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TECHDESK NEWS
TECHDESK
NEWS
THE LATEST TRENDS AND PRODUCTS
IN THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY
RESPONSE TO
CHIP SECURITY CRISIS “CHAOTIC”
THE POORLY EXECUTED RECOVERY PROCESS HAS
BEEN MET WITH WIDESPREAD CRITICISM
C
hip makers, system builders and software
companies are still trying to come to terms
with the wide-ranging consequences of the
Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities – with
the industry’s response to the major threat described as
both “a mess” and “garbage”.
First discovered in June 2017, the two critical
weaknesses could allow attackers to sniff data as
it’s processed and they affect almost every mobile
and desktop processor. But, to date, fixes have been
randomly applied, glitch-ridden and confusing.
Patches for the problems – which affect Intel, AMD future processors was to leave the more people within the industry
and ARM processors to varying extents – started being problem partially unresolved, due should have been trusted to work
rolled out days after they were publicised in early to fears it would impact processor on possible solutions. “The way
January, but many of these had a significant impact on performance. This approach led to these issues were handled was a
performance. One Windows patch effectively bricked a vitriolic attack from Linux kernel mess; frankly, I expected better of
PCs running on AMD processors. chief Linus Torvalds, who said “the Google, I expected better of Intel,
“The response has been less than ideal, and in some patches were complete and utter and I expected better of the Linux
cases chaotic,” said Graham Cluley, an independent garbage. They do literally insane community,” wrote Colin Percival,
security analyst. “What’s particularly galling is that, in things. They do things that do not security chief of the FreeBSD
some instances, the fixes have caused more problems make sense.” operating system in a blog.
than the bugs themselves.” “Google discovered a problem
TIME WASTED?
and reported it to Intel, AMD and
A STOP-PATCH ORDER
Given that the industry had seven ARM on 1 June. Did they then
Three weeks into the clean-up operation, Intel even months between Google alerting go around contacting all of the
had to tell end users and system builders to stop chipmakers to the problem and operating systems which would
downloading patches because they could cause announcing it publicly, critics claim need to work on fixes for this? Not
machines to malfunction. “We recommend that that the companies should have even close. FreeBSD was notified
OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, done more in the interim period to the week before Christmas – over
software vendors and end users stop deployment of ensure a smooth resolution. six months after the vulnerabilities
current versions, as they may introduce higher than “It’s easy for us as outsiders were discovered.”
expected reboots and other unpredictable system to grumble about the chip
behaviour,” the company said. manufacturers’ response to the
Dell, Lenovo and VMware all followed up by telling vulnerabilities, and we don’t have
their customers to stop downloading their patches. much insight about how much
“Intel has notified VMware of recent sightings that resource they put into exploring
CORRECTION
may affect some of the initial microcode patches that the bugs and then testing that fixes
provide the speculative execution control mechanism were satisfactory,” Cluley said. “But In the last issue we mistakenly
for a number of Intel processors,” VMware said in a my overwhelming feeling is that listed the RRP of the Aten USB-C
rather cryptic statement. the chip firms could and should Multiport Mini Dock UH3232
This angered people who had supposedly followed have handled this better.” as $69, it is in fact $119. Also, the
best practice by patching systems promptly. Others also said that, while it was product is not sold by Laserco as
Intel was also heavily criticised because one of its imperative to keep the weaknesses we stated. We apologise for any
options for fixing parts of the Spectre vulnerability in secret until the patches were ready, confusion caused.
8 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU

TECHDESK NEWS
GAME
NEWS
THE GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
FIVE CLOSE COMBAT
GAMES TAKE COVER
ON GOG
THAT’S THREE OF THE ORIGINAL SERIES
10 CROWNS
AND TWO OF THE NEWEST ONES
Close Combat is a mostly highly regarded real-
IS A NEW EPIC
time strategy series that began in the 1990s.
They were pretty hardcore, taking into account
STRATEGY GAME cover and suppression, fatigue and morale,
among a range of systems that went deeper
than other popular RTSs of the era.
Three of those games from the original series
FROM THE DESIGNER OF CIV IV AND FROM THE ART DIRECTOR OF CIV V
are now available on GOG: Close Combat 2: A
Bridge Too Far, Close Combat 3: The Russian
Front and Close Combat 4: Battle of the Bulge.
M 
Curiously, there’s no sign of the fi rst game. But to
ohawk Games’ fi rst game was publishing arm of the Stockholm be honest, A Bridge Too Far is by far the best in
the excellent Offworld Trading based developer. the series, so I wouldn’t worry too much.
Company, a kind of strategic “Everyone here at Mohawk GOG has also nabbed two more recent Close
resource management sim with is very excited to work with Combat games, 2012’s Panthers in the Fog and
2014’s Gateway to Caen. They’re okay and, unlike
plenty of sci-fi shinies to distract you from Starbreeze on 10 Crowns, going
the other three, have been available on Steam
all the number crunching. But the people at back to our game development
for several years.
Mohawk are best known for their work on roots to make a classic historical 4X
the Civilization series, including company strategy game with some important
founder Soren Johnson, who was the lead and radical innovations to the access period - so we would expect a similar
designer on Civ IV, and Dorian Newcomb, genre,” reads the Soren Johnson approach again. Mohawk has released some
who was the art director on Civ V and thus quote in the press release. “I look concept art to get the mind racing.
chiefl y responsible for that game’s stately forward to sharing more about DAVID WILDGOOSE
optimism. the design with the strategy game
Mohawk has just announced its next game community and involving them in
and it defi nitely looks like it’s building on development as early as possible.”
that Civ pedigree, while possibly adding in a 10 Crowns is still in the
dash of Crusader Kings - or rather that’s how prototyping stage, so don’t expect
we interpret the scant details in the press much in the way of fi rm detail for
release. the time being. However, Mohawk
10 Crowns is “an epic-scale turn-based were very open with the Offworld
strategy game that lets players create the Trading Company community
greatest dynasty in world history.” It’s being during that game’s development -
published by Starbreeze Publishing, the and it went through a lengthy early
10 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU