Custom PC Issue 117
Solid state showdown
As SSDs have grown in popularity, more manufacturers have entered the fray, with a heady mix of drive controllers, NAND types and branding. As such, while any modern SSD will be a great deal quicker than a hard disk, it's still important to choose the right drive. To help you, we’ve gathered 19 drives, from the affordable to the outrageously priced, to find the right SSD for you.
How much RAM do you need?
Sometimes it's tempting to splash out on a new 16GB RAM kit, but will it actually net you any palpable performance gains? Antony Leather benches various memory configurations with a number of usage scenarios to find out.
How to water-cool a mini-ITX cube case
Tiny cube cases don't have to mean big performance sacrifices, and with a bit of know-how you can squeeze a full water-cooling loop into one too. Antony Leather shows you how it's done.
Mobile versus desktop GPUs
What exactly do you get in a mobile GPU? Are the 'GeForce cores' the same as the stream processors in desktop GPUs, and how do they compare? Gareth Halfacree explains all.
Game therapy
Does the evidence for gaming as therapy hold up? Tracy King investigates.
The Leveson effect
New publishing legislation could have serious consequences for bloggers, argues Jim Killock.
AMD TressFX
We talk to AMD about the development of its new hair-rendering tech, already seen in the latest Tomb Raider game.
Mind control
Future game controllers could detect brainwaves via removable tattoos.
Dremel Multi-Max MM40
It's a Dremel, but not as you know it. We put this new high-speed oscillating tool through its paces.
Crysis 3
We've gone all-out on Crysis 3 this month. Not only has Rick reviewed the new shooter, but Harry has also benchmarked it on loads of current GPUs to see what you need to run it at maximum settings.
As SSDs have grown in popularity, more manufacturers have entered the fray, with a heady mix of drive controllers, NAND types and branding. As such, while any modern SSD will be a great deal quicker than a hard disk, it's still important to choose the right drive. To help you, we’ve gathered 19 drives, from the affordable to the outrageously priced, to find the right SSD for you.
How much RAM do you need?
Sometimes it's tempting to splash out on a new 16GB RAM kit, but will it actually net you any palpable performance gains? Antony Leather benches various memory configurations with a number of usage scenarios to find out.
How to water-cool a mini-ITX cube case
Tiny cube cases don't have to mean big performance sacrifices, and with a bit of know-how you can squeeze a full water-cooling loop into one too. Antony Leather shows you how it's done.
Mobile versus desktop GPUs
What exactly do you get in a mobile GPU? Are the 'GeForce cores' the same as the stream processors in desktop GPUs, and how do they compare? Gareth Halfacree explains all.
Game therapy
Does the evidence for gaming as therapy hold up? Tracy King investigates.
The Leveson effect
New publishing legislation could have serious consequences for bloggers, argues Jim Killock.
AMD TressFX
We talk to AMD about the development of its new hair-rendering tech, already seen in the latest Tomb Raider game.
Mind control
Future game controllers could detect brainwaves via removable tattoos.
Dremel Multi-Max MM40
It's a Dremel, but not as you know it. We put this new high-speed oscillating tool through its paces.
Crysis 3
We've gone all-out on Crysis 3 this month. Not only has Rick reviewed the new shooter, but Harry has also benchmarked it on loads of current GPUs to see what you need to run it at maximum settings.
