Custom PC UK February 2022

/ FROM THE EDITOR Number theory What’s your favourite number between 0 and 9? More to the point, would you avoid a product with a number you don’t like in its name? That’s honestly not a facetious question. Believe it or not, you wouldn’t be alone. Recently, a tech-savvy friend asked me which GPU he should buy for gaming at 1,920 x 1,080. I told him the Radeon RX 6600 XT would be fine. ‘No, no, I want GeForce,’ he said, ‘and I don’t want a card with a “6” in it.’ I raised my eyebrow and asked why. ‘It just seems too low,’ he replied. ‘I usually go for components with at least a “7” in them.’ He bought an RTX 3070 in the end. Uncritical thinking is the PC enthusiast’s enemy here,…

Last year (see Issue 201), I talked about Wi-Fi 7, the next-gen wireless standard. Even though we’re only just starting to see Wi-Fi 6E hardware appearing on the market, the Wi-Fi Alliance has been pushing forwards with its successor’s development. Now, 18 months later, I’ve obtained the road map. The first official Wi-Fi 7 spec (Release 1) won’t be launched until the end of 2023, but we’re likely to see early hardware being shown off in the first half of next year, maybe even as early as CES in January. These will likely be proof of concept platforms that emulate how a real Wi-Fi 7 platform works. The first flagship ‘draft spec’ Wi-Fi 7 products should then hit the market a year later in early 2023, ahead of the official release. The…

In the past month I’ve had scam attempts via phone call, text, email, Twitter and Gumtree, but fortunately I’m tech-literate enough to spot them. Even so, some of them gave me pause. The journalist Alex Hern recently tweeted that he received a phishing text that Apple Messages automatically put in a thread of legitimate messages from the purported sender (in this case Royal Mail). He’s a tech writer, so he caught it, but if the app couldn’t tell a fake courier from the real thing, what hope does the average non-techy have? The statistician Harry Carr replied to Alex saying, ‘had a similar experience with Sky earlier this month – even as someone pretty tech savvy they’re increasingly a nightmare to spot.’ Obviously, if you’re reading Custom PC, you’re not the target…

When’s the next issue out? Issue 221 on sale Thursday, 6 January Letters Tell us what you think of the mag, ask us questions and suggest your own tips and tricks for other readers! Send all your correspondence to custompc@raspberrypi.com Renowned gaming peripherals maker Razer has now turned its hand to making a desktop setup for work rather than play. The company’s new Pro range ditches the RGB lighting and black plastic but retains Razer’s eye for style and ergonomics. There are three new products in the Pro range – a keyboard, mouse and mouse mat. The Razer Pro Type Ultra keyboard features Razer’s Yellow mechanical switches, which are geared towards quiet operation and are rated for up to 80 million key presses. A plush leatherette wrist rest is also included with the keyboard, and you get…

Intel has confirmed that a number of games currently won’t run on its Alder Lake CPUs, due to an incompatibility with the digital rights management (DRM) system they use. According to Intel, the issue is a result of third-party DRM software seeing the CPUs’ E-Cores ‘as another system’. Intel says that the vendor of the DRM software is working on a software fix for the issue, and has also detailed a workaround by enabling Legacy Game Compatibility Mode in your motherboard’s BIOS, which puts the E-Cores on standby if you hit the Scroll Lock key before running an affected game. The full list of affected games can be found at custompc.co.uk/AlderLakeDRM, which will be updated as problems are resolved. The current list includes some high-profile titles, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in Windows…

Acclaimed PC cooling specialist Noctua has introduced LGA1700-specific versions of its low-profile NH-L9i coolers. There’s a traditional brown and beige version, as well as a black version, with the LGA1700 support denoted by ‘17xx’ at the end of the model name. Designed for use in small form factor cases, Noctua’s NH-L9i coolers feature a 92mm fan on top of a 95 x 95mm heatsink that’s only 23mm high. Noctua doesn’t quote a TDP rating for the coolers but gives it a Noctua Standardised Performance Rating (NSPR) rating of 59. According to Noctua’s compatibility list, it’s capable of cooling all the current Alder Lake CPUs, including the top-end Core i9-12900K. The Noctua NH-L9i-17xx coolers are available to buy now from amazon.co.uk for £40 inc VAT.…