Custom PC - November 2022

116 Pages·2022·74.4 MB·English

Welcome
Custom PC Issue 230
/ FROM THE EDITOR
RAM busters

M emory is one of the least well understood components
EDITORIAL DESIGN
in the PC. We know that more cores and faster clock
criticalmedia.co.uk
speeds generally make CPUs faster, and that more EDITOR
Ben Hardwidge HEAD OF DESIGN
stream processors make GPUs faster, but there are many factors
Lee Allen
[email protected]
to consider when it comes to memory, and it can be hard to work
DESIGNERS
FEATURES EDITOR
out their impact on performance. Ty Logan
Edward Chester
For example, what does that string of numbers on the back
[email protected] COMMERCIAL &
of your memory module actually mean? You might know that ADVERTISING
MODDING EDITOR
one of them is CAS latency, and that a lower figure is better, but
Antony Leather ADVERTISING
what are the others, and how does latency actually impact your Charlotte Milligan
GAMES EDITOR [email protected]
PC’s performance. Does latency even really matter when your
Rick Lane [phone]
memory is running at a fast clock speed?
CONTRIBUTORS DISTRIBUTION
There are so many questions people have about memory.
Gareth Halfacree, James Gorbold, Seymour Distribution Ltd
Do you really need more than 16GB for gaming? Does running
Mike Jennings, Phil Hartup, 2 East Poultry Ave,
memory in dual-channel mode actually make much difference? Reece Bithrey, Richard Swinburne, London EC1A 9PT
Is it really worth spending the extra money on DDR5? With both Stuart Andrews, Tracy King [phone]
AMD and Intel’s forthcoming CPUs promising support for DDR5, PRODUCTION EDITOR
SUBSCRIPTIONS
and DDR4 still going strong, we thought now would be a good Julie Birrell
Unit 6 The Enterprise Centre
time to take a deep dive into the world of PC memory. PHOTOGRAPHY Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal,
Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9PE
A really good place to start with this issue is to flip it over Antony Leather, Brian O’Halloran,
Gareth Halfacree Phone
and read James Gorbold’s column on p114, as it provides a really
01293 312182
interesting insight into the sales of DDR5 vs DDR4 memory. PUBLISHING
Email
From Scan’s perspective, DDR5 sales have been eclipsed by DDR4 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR [email protected]
sales across the board, in some areas by over 500 per cent. Russell Barnes Website
Next you’ll want to read our massive ten-page feature on p76, [email protected] custompc.co.uk/subscribe
which answers all the above questions and more, explaining
exactly how memory works and how the various different
ISSUE 230 This magazine is printed on paper sourced from
specs affect performance, complete with test results. If you
sustainable forests. The printer operates an
think having 32GB of high-speed DDR5 memory will give you environmental management system which has been
assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.
a gaming speed advantage over 16GB of DDR4 memory, then
Custom PC magazine is published by Raspberry Pi
you’ll want to have a good read of this feature and potentially Ltd, Maurice Wilkes Building, St. John’s Innovation
Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS. The
save yourself some cash. publisher, editor, and contributors accept no
responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors
Finally, when you’re all up to speed on how memory works,
relating to goods, products or services referred to or
and you know what you need, take a look at our Labs test on p44, advertised. ISSN: 1740-7443.
where we test 11 different DDR4 and DDR5 kits to find the best
ISSUE 230
options. Once you’ve read this issue, you’ll be fully versed in the SUBSCRIBERS
language of memory. EDITION DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME The information in this
magazine is given in good faith. Raspberry Pi Ltd
cannot accept any responsibility for loss, disruption
EDITOR or damage to your data or your computer that may
occur as a result of following or attempting to follow
Ben Hardwidge advice given in the magazine. If things do go wrong,
take a break.
[email protected]
@custompcmag
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CUSTOM PC / ISSUE 230
Contents
Welcome to Issue 230
Highlights
COVER
STORY
08 The state of Intel graphics

P76
The launch of Intel’s new graphics
cards hasn’t exactly gone to plan, but
Richard Swinburne still hopes they
will see the light of day.
10 Is the game industry really
recession proof?
Tracy King takes a sceptical look
at the latest speculation about the
games industry’s ability to weather
the incoming storm.
16 Fractal Design Meshify 2 Nano
Fractal’s new mini-ITX case is bold 56 Trackball Labs test 102 How to
and cold but isn’t the most compact Ideal for compact workspaces Antony Leather shows you how to
case in its class. and reducing the likeliness of a etch glass side panels and install a
repetitive strain injury, five of the water-cooling distro plate.
24 AOC Agon Pro AG274QG latest trackballs are put through
With its 240Hz refresh rate and their paces by Edward Chester. 107 Retro tech
2,560 x 1,400 pixel resolution, AOC’s Stuart Andrews looks back at the Intel
new gaming monitor packs in an 69 Teenage Mutant Ninja Pentium Pro, a rather maligned CPU
impressive feature set, as you’d hope Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge at the time, but one that made a big
given its sky-high price. This nostalgic pixelated beat ‘em impact over time.
up provides some fantastically fun
27 Keychron Q1 V2 arcade action. 110 Readers’ drives
With its rock-solid build quality and Jerome Kelty guides us through the
versatile customisation options, the 76 C hoice memories creation of his ultra-minimalist mini-
Keychron Q1 V2 is a great keyboard Memory has always been a ITX chassis design.
foundation, but it doesn’t come cheap. slightly tricky part of a PC to pick
but with our comprehensive 114 Memory imbalance
28 Roccat Kone XP Air guide, we’ll tell you everything With DDR4 and DDR5 battling it out
With dozens of buttons, a charging you need to know to choose the for our affections, James Gorbold
dock and lots of RGB lighting, right RAM for your system. looks into the sales figures for both to
Roccat’s latest gaming mouse just see how the battle is shaping up.
about has it all. 86 Game Pass
Rick Lane takes a comprehensive
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44 Memory Labs test look at Microsoft’s Game Pass
Antony Leather tests out 11 game subscription service,
of the latest DDR4 and DDR5 exploring how it works with
memory kits to find the ones that developers and having a look at
offer the best bang per buck. some of the upcoming games.
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Cover guide Regulars Reviewed
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CASES PRODUCTS
76 86 3 From the editor 16 Fractal Design Meshify Nano REVIEWED
18 Thermaltake Tower 500
8 Richard Swinburne FANS
20 ADATA XPG Hurricane 140 ARGB
20 be quiet! Silent Wings 4 140mm
10 Tracy King
21 Thermaltake SWAFAN 12 RGB
21 Thermaltake SWAFAN 14 RGB
12 Incoming
MOTHERBOARDS
22 NZXT N5 Z690
38 Custom kit MONITORS
24 AOC Agon Pro AG274QG
40 How we test KEYBOARDS
26 Ducky One 3 SF
27 Keychron Q1 V2
62 Elite products
MICE
28 Roccat Kone XP Air
68 Inverse look
GAMING LAPTOPS
30 Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE
74 Reality check
PC SYSTEMS
34 Chillblast Fnatic Pioneer
94 Hobby tech 36 CyberPower Infinity X127 Plus
Custom kit
99 For the win
38 Geekey Multi-Tool
38 Kensington Combination Lock
100 Customised PC
38 PDP Electric
56 44 102
39 Lazy Readers
102 How to guides 39 Kensington Contour 2.0 Pro
Memory Labs
107 Retro tech
16
45 ADATA XPG Spectrix D45G
46 Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4
110 Readers’ drives
47 Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro
48 G.Skill Trident Z Neo
114 James Gorbold 49 G.Skill Trident Z Royal
50 Kingston Fury Beast DDR4 RGB
51 Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB
24 52 ADATA XPG Lancer RGB
53 Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5
54 Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB
55 Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB
Trackball Labs
59 Elecom Huge Trackball M-HT1DRBK
60 Kensington Expert Mouse Wireless Trackball
61 Kensington Orbit Wireless with Scroll Ring
62 Logitech MX Ergo
63 ProtoArc EM01
107
Games
69 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
69 Shredder’s Revenge
70 Raft
72 Starship Troopers: Terran Command
73 The Looker
74 Shores of Loci
Hobby tech
94 StarFive VisionFive
96 Flipper Zero
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OPINION
RICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN
THE STATE OF
INTEL GRAPHICS
Intel’s GPU division is hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and can’t get its cards
to market. Richard Swinburne hopes Intel can turn this situation around
he past few months of this year are set to bring us a them only quarterly security updates for the future. Just
T
bonanza of new hardware launches, and one standout focusing on 11th and 12th-gen CPUs, plus Arc GPUs, sounds
from the tsunami of hot new hardware is Intel’s like common sense, but there are still 10th-gen CPUs being
Accelerated Graphics Division (AXG), which is currently causing sold right now for PCs, and in laptops that still use older UHD
the company to hemorrhage billions as it struggles to launch graphics, leaving their owners with potentially months of
its Arc graphics cards. holes between security fixes.
After resorting to a paper launch in the initial Q1 launch Following the news of Intel’s GPU division shedding billions,
window, then missing the Q2 window, the past few months longtime graphics analyst and market researcher, Jon Peddie,
have seen Intel AXG continually struggle to kick a single card called it an embarrassment, and suggested Intel should sell
out the door. Leaks from graphics card makers and PC system or fold the division entirely. Peddie cited the fact that Pat
builders appear to tell a story that Arc cards are already made Gelsinger, Intel’s CEO, wasn’t afraid of making tough decisions
and waiting in warehouses, but the drivers just aren’t up to after he recently sold and killed off several divisions, including
scratch. The delay has got so bad that Intel’s own Intel Optane.
promotional giveaway in March had to give winners Thankfully no one else has joined in the chorus
The drivers
CPUs rather than the Arc graphics cards they had won. – after all, most of Intel’s CPUs benefit from some
Intel has produced some in-house benchmark just aren’t up form of graphics system, and it’s not like the driver
videos showing its performance advantages in requirement would go away in that case. Even AMD
to scratch
DirectX 12 and Vulkan, but DirectX 9, DirectX 11 and is now putting a little slice of Radeon in its AM5
OpenGL games were notably absent, and many of CPUs, in order to ensure that PC builders can run
them are still many played regularly. For DirectX 9 games, the CPUs without discrete GPUs if needed.
such as CS:GO, Intel’s own support pages admit that Arc Gaming has now propelled the PC market for over a decade,
doesn’t support them natively, and instead uses Microsoft’s with GPUs taking an ever larger slice of the pie with every new
D3D9On12 interface, which emulates DirectX 9 on DirectX 12. generation. Intel simply has to work it out. The head of Intel
That tends to seriously weaken performance when compared AXG, VP Raja Koduri, tweeted in response, ‘We are very much
with cards that have native support, but there should still be committed to our roadmap,’ and promised ‘four new product
enough performance available – DX9-era games aren’t exactly lines by the end of the year’.
demanding. Some graphics enthusiasts are also beginning to We’re on the precipice of having a third option in the graphics
endorse the (unproven) theory that Intel is also using a DXVK market, and after years of grossly inflated graphics card prices,
implementation to convert DirectX 11 games to Vulkan. enthusiasts would be worse off without an Intel Arc option in
In an attempt to streamline driver development, Intel has the mix. Let’s hope Intel can make it work by 2023 and that Pat
stopped making drivers for all non-Xe based GPUs, affording Gelsinger keeps his finger off the Eject button.
Richard has worked in tech for over a decade, as a UK journalist, on Asus’ ROG team and now as an industry analyst based in Taiwan @ricswi
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OPINION
TRACY KING / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS
IS THE GAME INDUSTRY
REALLY RECESSION(cid:2)PROOF?
Tracy King takes on recent media reports about the game industry’s
ability to weather current and future market conditions
oney. I like it, as does my landlord, my Steam wallet labour market that’s scuppering the ‘unemployed people
M
and the local café that keeps me supplied in coffee buy games’ theory of 2008. This time it will be different, the
and Wi-Fi. No person or business is unaffected when articles claim, because that same level of unemployment
the economy tanks, and in Britain we’re in a cost of living doesn’t exist now.
crisis, a weather crisis, a healthcare crisis, an energy crisis, an This sort of cherry-picked data doesn’t give a true picture,
inflation crisis and a political crisis. and the behavioural guesswork blurs the image even further.
In other words, here comes a recession, and most of us are One analyst suggests gaming will decline because people with
about to get poorer. If everything gets more expensive – not disposable income are socialising outside again. And that’s
just products on shelves but every service and element of a true, but that will settle into pre-pandemic norms, or even
country’s infrastructure – then prices will go up while disposable worse, as the recession hits the restaurant and entertainment
income goes down. But will that affect our gaming habit? industry. It’s not much fun going out if your friends can’t afford
There’s no such thing as a recession-proof it. As such, I have little patience for the consumer
industry, but one or two have historically come behaviour predictions in such articles.
This sort of cherry-
close. In the USA, the video game business has Plus, we’re still figuring out post-pandemic
picked data doesn’t
previously been able to get through some tough culture, whether working from home is here to
financial times, and some even argue demand give a true picture stay, how long we’re now prepared to commute
for games goes up because of unemployment. and so on. Each of these factors affects a different
However, some journalists are warning that it aspect of the game market. Less commuting
might be different this time. In the past two months, I’ve seen means fewer mobile and handheld games, but more leisure
several articles from respected publications claiming that, yes, time for gaming at home on a PC or console.
in the 2008 recession (USA), the industry saw growth, but this Predicting the behaviour of gamers in the next 12 months
time it will be different. Maybe. Possibly. These articles have based on the past 12 months is wandering into black magic, as
an air of cautious pessimism, followed by a lengthy series of is predicting how the game market will perform in a recession
examples of game companies that are now reporting less based on how it fared in 2008. It’s not the same industry now,
revenue or a declining market. and while some aspects will probably fare badly (I worry for
There are lots of them. For example: ‘Activision Blizzard Twitch and Patreon, for example, which might struggle to
reported $1.64 billion net revenue, a $700 million dip in revenue adapt their funding models), others will be fine, and evolve
compared to the same time period last year.’ However, because or innovate quickly.
the USA currently has a strong labour force (as does the UK), So nice try media, I respect you for trying to predict the future
the company claims its workforce has expanded by 25 per cent under complicated circumstances, but the data isn’t there to
in the same period, which indicates growth. It’s this strong conclude if the video game industry is recession-proof.
Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stories surrounding tech and gaming @tkingdot
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