PCWorld July 2017

Tech and trends that will affect you today and beyond. INTEL HAS ANNOUNCED ship dates for its Core i9 chip family, but enthusiasts aren’t going to like it. The company is staggering the release dates over several months, and it’s saving the best—the monster 18-core Extreme Edition—for last. At the E3 show in Los Angeles, Intel said the lower-end 4-core, 8-core, and 10-core Core i9s would be available in June. The midrange 12-core Core i9-7920X will come next, shipping in August. The fastest of the Core i9 family will go on sale in October. Specifically, the 14-core Core i9-7940X, the 16-Core Core i9-7960X, and the 18-core Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition will be available about the time you’re planning your Halloween costume. The delay until fall for the highest-end Core i9 chips means AMD and…

WHOA. IF YOU thought Microsoft’s Windows 10 Fall Creators Update seemed somewhat lackluster so far, Microsoft just revealed a service pack’s worth of additions as part of Windows 10 Build 16215: dictation, predictive typing, a Find My Pen mode, full-screen Microsoft Edge, and tons more. Essentially, Microsoft appears to be bringing some of what’s best about Windows 10 Mobile (which received a few bug fixes) to the Windows 10 desktop, improving the way in which Windows uses pens and camera input, and adding literally dozens of small refinements across the board, including elements of Microsoft’s new Acrylic UI. Why this matters: Build 16215 points toward a Fall Creators Update that will bring a lot of welcome improvements and flesh out features that have remained minimal so far. Microsoft’s blog post lists dozens…

IF YOU CAN’T wait to order a new PC with AMD’s crazy 16-core Threadripper CPU, there’s bad news and good news. The bad news is, Dell subsidiary Alienware announced recently that it has secured an exclusive deal for AMD’s high-end chip through the end of the year. But before you get out your torches and pitchforks, there’s also good news here. The exclusive applies only to big-name PC rivals like HP and Lenovo. Smaller boutique gaming PC vendors will be able to build Threadripper systems, and DIY PC builders will have access to it, too. Why this matters: AMD’s much-hyped Threadripper (go.pcworld.com/mht) promises to bring the same tough competition to Intel’s high-end desktop CPUs that its Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 chips did for Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 chips. Alienware’s…

SAMSUNG JUST ANNOUNCED the world’s first FreeSync 2–enabled PC monitors, the 27- and 32-inch CHG70 and the utterly massive 49-inch CHG90 ultrawide display—which is essentially a multi-monitor setup without multiple monitors. Samsung’s displays extend the battle between AMD’s FreeSync and Nvidia’s G-Sync (go.pcworld.com/afs) technologies to the budding field of high-dynamic range (go.pcworld.com/hdrr) monitors. Nvidia’s already teased several G-Sync HDR gaming monitors (go.pcworld.com/gm) from Asus and Acer, though none are actually available to purchase just yet. Like those G-Sync HDR displays, these Samsung panels were built for buttery-smooth gaming. They pack HDR, QLED quantum dots (go.pcworld.com/qd), wide 178-degree viewing angles, and a significant 1800R curvature, along with blazing-fast 144Hz refresh rates and 1ms response times. A four-channel scanner’s also in place to minimize motion blur and ghosting. Those impressive specs are bolstered by FreeSync…

HEADSET PRICES HAVE come down drastically in the past couple years, but one company has ignored that trend: Astro, known still for its $200 A40 and $300 A50 even as the competition’s raced to the bottom. It appears the tides were too strong to resist though, as recently Astro announced its budget-friendly A10 headset. At $60, it’s both Astro’s least expensive headset and instantly one of the cheapest in the entire industry. Not that there weren’t compromises. I’ve spent some time with the A10 so far and…well, I can’t say I love the look of it. It’s recognizably Astro, but looks every bit the cheap A40 it is. Other budget-friendly headsets, like the Razer Kraken 7.1 (go.pcworld.com/rk7) and HyperX Cloud (go.pcworld.com/hxc), manage to appear high-end while still retailing under $100. I…

XBOX ONE X..That’s the official name Microsoft has given to Project Scorpio, the upcoming 4K-ready Xbox One successor that took center stage at Microsoft’s recent E3 2017 press conference. It will, in Microsoft’s words, be “the most powerful console ever.” That was Microsoft’s main message for the show, repeatedly emphasizing the Xbox One X’s advantages over the competing PlayStation 4 Pro (without ever mentioning its rival console by name, of course). And it sure is a powerful console. Read on for details on pricing, availability, specs, noteworthy features, and compatible games. Price, release date, and availability During its E3 press conference, Microsoft touted a “worldwide” release on November 7 for the Xbox One X, but the company has so far listed prices in only five currencies: $499 USD, £449 GBP, €499 EUR, $599 CAD,…