PCWorld February 2016

PCWORLD EDITORS have spent several long, exhausting days in Las Vegas, combing the frenzied floors of CES 2016 for a glimpse of the future of computing, and we didn’t walk away disappointed. But don’t take our word for it; check it out for yourself. Here, all in one place, we offer the wildest and most powerful PC gear from CES 2016. AMD Wraith cooler Enthusiasts may sneer at stock coolers, but the vast majority of PC users don’t overclock their processors. So it’s nice to see AMD address the long-standing issue of noise in its stock cooling solution. The new Wraith cooler features a larger design with a bigger fan that runs constantly at lower speeds. That combination makes Wraith far quieter than its predecessor. Look for it to ship with undisclosed…

SEAGATE IS BOOSTING the maximum size of its everyday hard drives with an 8TB HDD optimized for NAS boxes. While larger consumer hard drives exist already, they tend to be for archival purposes only. Seagate’s latest drive is designed to fit in a network-attached storage (NAS) bay. NAS boxes can be used by consumers to store large quantities of videos, photos, and music on a local network, and are also ideal for creative professionals dealing with large media files. Desktop PCs could also make use of these drives in a RAID setup (go.pcworld.com/raidsetup). Seagate first announced its NAS-optimized HDD line in 2013 (go.pcworld.com/NASoptimized), promising to dampen vibration, consume less energy, and operate more quietly than conventional drives. However, the 8TB version demands nearly twice as much power as Seagate’s 4TB version, at…

YOU’VE HEARD OF Christmas in July. Well how about spring cleaning in January? Microsoft is kicking off 2016 with arguably its most significant Patch Tuesday in months. Microsoft has bid goodbye to all but one version of Internet Explorer (go.pcworld.com/goodbyeIE8910) and a Windows release (go.pcworld.com/cutoffwin8) it would rather forget. The biggest item on the chopping block is Windows 8. Not Windows 8.1—that sweeping update is still supported—but the original, non- Start-button version of Windows 8. After the update, Microsoft ceased support for the 3 year, 2 month, and 17-day-old operating system. That means Windows 8 is going the way of Windows XP; no more security updates, no bug fixes, nothing. Users still on Windows 8 will have to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or make the jump to Windows 10. Both are free…

IN A DECLINING PC market, high-priced gaming desktops and laptops are thriving. PC shipments totaled 71.9 million units during the fourth quarter of 2015, declining by 10.6 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a study recently released by IDC. But high-end gaming PCs are the fastest-growing segment alongside all-in-one PCs, IDC analysts said. Gamers upgrade hardware much more quickly than other users and are typically not affected by the industry trends that led to a decline in PC shipments overall. For one, smartphones and tablets haven’t replaced gaming PCs, as has happened with mainstream PCs, said Lewis Ward, research director for gaming at IDC. Gamers also aren’t price-sensitive, and are willing to spend to get the latest and greatest technologies. Many gaming systems are built by enthusiasts at home. Though a…

INTEL’S ITTY-BITTY MINI-STX motherboards (go.pcworld.com/mini-STXmotherboards) are poised to become real in 2016. Several PC makers and component makers were at CES this year, showing off early concepts of how they plan to use the new motherboard design, from mini-PC concepts to cases and, of course, the motherboards themselves. Intel first introduced the mini-STX in August, although it was christened “5x5” at the time to denote its size—generally 5 inches by 5 inches. This board is significant since it fills the gap between the Intel NUC and the mini-ITX form factor. It also allows you to switch out your CPU, unlike NUCs. Mini-STX motherboards come with an LGA1151 socket, allowing you to pick and choose your Intel processor up to 65W TDP, similar to mini-ITX boards. But it’s closer in size to the…

I’VE BEEN IMMERSED in some compelling virtual reality experiences before. Heck, earlier this week, trying a Mount Everest demo on the HTC Vive (go.pcworld.com/EverestVR) invoked my fear of heights to such an extent that I froze in terror for a long, long time. But I’ve never witnessed anything as, uh, stimulating as VR porn. And even if adult video isn’t your thing, these pioneering videos have a lot to teach about how to craft films made for VR, as opposed to shoehorning your traditional film into VR. Naughty America, one of the United States’ largest adult film creators, invited me to try their virtual reality experiences on a Samsung Gear VR at CES 2016, and how could anyone pass that up? But the experience wound up being far more vivid, personal,…