Custom PC - March 2014 UK

8/12/2019 Custom PC - March 2014 UK

1/132 W TO:MAKE A RESERVOIR ISSUE 126 MAR 2014 4.50

T- W ,

11 cards reviewed

1080p to 4K

resolutions testedCards for everybudget, from136 to 793

GR APHICS

CARDSGEAR UP FOR THELATEST GAMES

Which Cherrykeyboard switchs right for you?

PLUS

NSIDE:BITCOIN MINING ON THE RASPBERRY Pi


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3March 2014

Welcome to Issue 126Editorial

EDITORBen Hardwidge

[email protected]

LABSMatthew Lambert

Mike Jennings

GAMES EDITORRick Lane

ART EDITORBill Bagnall

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Julie Birrell

CONTRIBUTORSAntony Leather, Gareth Halfacree,

James Gorbold, Jim Killock,Paul Goodhead, Richard Cobbett,

Simon Treadaway, Tracy King

PHOTOGRAPHYAntony Leather,

Danny Bird

Advertising

GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGERBen Topp

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+1 646 717 [email protected]

Custom PC is published monthly by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street,London W1T 4JD, a company registered in England number 1138891.

Entire contents Dennis Publishing Ltd licensed by Felden.

Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited. Custom PC is a trademark of Felix Dennis.

DONT T RY THIS AT HOMEThe advice and information provided in this magazine is given in good faith.

Dennis Publishing Limited cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption ordamage to your data or your computer system which may occur as a result of following orattempting to follow advice given in the magazine or on its website. If things do go wrong,

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4 March 2014

12HOBBY TECH

Gareth investigates Bitcoin mining

on the Raspberry Pi, reviews the GertDuino

and also looks at some ancient memory.

20EVGA Z87 STINGER

This month, its EVGAs turn in the

spotlight, with a premium mini motherboard

thats massively overclockable.

24PREMIUM HTPC FUN

We check out Steiger Dynamicsgorgeous Origen-based touch-screen case.

CORSAIR HYDRO H75Corsair brings the price of a dualfan liquid cooler down to just 65.

94 ENGINE ROOM CHROMENot to be confused with the Google

browser, Chrome is the fantastically advanced

technology behind Techlands Call of Juarez.

962014 PC GAMING

COUNTDOWN

We have a look at the PC gaming treats thatwill be on offer this year.

100GAMES FOR WINDOWS DEAD

What exactly happened to

Microsofts Games for Windows Live brand?

Rick Lane tracks its history to find out what

went wrong.

106WATERCOOLING THE

RADEON R9 290X

AMDs R9 290X GPU might be ridiculously fast,

but it also gets very hot, which in turn has a

throttling effect on frame rates. Antony

Leather shows how to water-cool it, andmeasures the difference it makes.

11030

cover storY

GRAPHICS CARDS

46

The graphics card world is now one of

the most overcrowded and confusingmarkets around, with many price points

occupied by numerous cards, and a bewildering

selection of model numbers and suffixes. Meanwhile,

a recent host of product launches, rebrands and

price drops has done little to ease the headache

of GPU shopping.

However, with AMDs product reshuffle

complete in the form of the R-series, and

Nvidias GTX 780 Ti also coming out, the

market has settled again. As such, now

is the perfect time for a graphics cardface-off. From the 136 Radeon R9 270 to

the 793 GeForce GTX Titan, weve pitted

the current crop of GPUs against each

other. Weve also looked at what cheaper

options bring to the table, and looked at

Nvidias hardware PhysX features too.

4


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114 96

118

1ssue 126

110GUIDE TO CHERRY

KEYBOARD SWITCHES

We detail the three main types of Cherry

switches used in mechanical gaming

keyboards Blue, Red and Brown to

help you choose the right one for you.

118HOW TO MAKE A WATER

COOLING RESERVOIR

Sometimes only a custom part will do exactly

what you want, particularly when it comes to

water-cooling reservoirs. Antony Leathershows you how its done.

118

46

110

12

12

Reviewed this monthHardware

MOTHERBOARDS20 EVGA Z87 Stinger

22 Gigabyte

GA-F2A88XM-D3H

CASES

24 Steiger Dynamics LEET Reference

28 Antec ISK600

CPU COOLER

30 Corsair Hydro H75

HEADSETS

34 Plantronics RIG

35 SteelSeries Siberia Elite

KEYBOARD

36 Func KB-460

Custom kit42 Divoom Bluetune Bean

42 Startech USB 3 Hard Drive Adaptor

42 Xsories Weye Feye

43 Griffin WoodTones

43 Divoom OnBeat 500

43 Combat Creatures Stryder

Graphics cards Labs test49 AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB49 Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB

50 AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB

52 Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB



58 AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB



62 Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB

64 Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan 6GB

Games86 Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag88 Deadfall Adventures

89 Need forSpeed Rivals90 State of Decay92 X: Rebirth

30PRODUCTSREVIEWED

Regulars8 From the editor

10 Tracy King

12 Hobby tech

16 Incoming

40 How we test

72 CPCElite products

84 Cynical hit

94 The engine room

98 Digital rights

129Retro tech130James Gorbold

Community112 For the win!

114 Readers drives

118 How to make a reservoir

124Letters

126Folder of the month

127Your folding milestones

e or

eed: Rivals

ate of Decay

Re rt

5March 2014

86


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Wow, Id better make sure I have an Nvidia card in 2014,

I thought, as I watched The Witcher 3 PhysX demo last

year look it up on YouTube if you havent seen it yet.

This was a key realisation for me. It was the very first time that a

proprietary GPU feature would actually persuade me to go with one

companys GPU over anothers since the 3dfx days.

Graphics card companies have been coming up with these

unique selling points for years. Back in the late 1990s, 3dfx had its

proprietary GLide API, and now AMD is similarly pushing the Mantle

and TrueAudio features of its latest GPUs, while Nvidia is pushing its

new G-Sync tech (which were going to be

having a proper look at next month).

Coverage of these unique features is

always a tough call for tech journalists. We

have to prioritise what we think most people

want, against what we personally might want,

while also giving the features the coverage

they deserve. In the early days, you also never

know whats really going to take off. At the

moment, hardly any real games use Mantle,

for example, but that might change in the future.

Likewise, Ive always had an interest in hardware-accelerated

PhysX as a technology, but until now, I wouldnt have considered

buying an Nvidia GPU just to get it. The snow effects in Batman:

Arkham Origins (see p56) look incredible, but Im not really

interested in that game, or any of the other games that support

hardware PhysX at the moment.

The Witcher 3, however, is a different ballgame for me. I loved The

Witcher 2, and the next game in the series looks to be promising a

Bethesda-style open-world environment, but with the superior

graphics, characters and combat that CD Projekt does so well. Its

the main game that Im really looking forward to in 2014, and havinghardware PhysX support will be a big bonus in terms of realism.

Would you buy an Nvidia GPU just

for hardware-accelerated PhysX?Yes, says Ben Hardwidge

Would I buy a specific GPU just for one game? No, that would be

silly, but I do also know plenty of people who bought a high-end GPU

a few years ago just to play Crysis at its highest settings a game

that was over in around 12 hours. Would I buy a specific GPU that

could play all the games I want, but that also had the added bonus

of hardware PhysX support for The Witcher 3. Yes, most definitely.

But this is the problem. The Witcher 3 is just one game. Im

particularly looking forward to it, but my opinion on games is

completely subjective a vast number of CPCreaders will have

no interest in it at all. Similarly, some people buy a GPU just for

Folding@home, or other distributed

computing projects that use GPU compute,

but others will have no interest in these

applications at all.

Subjectivity is hard to accommodate in

a hardware review thats based on raw

numbers, so the graphics card Labs in

this issue (see p46) has scores based on

performance across four current games, with

features such as hardware PhysX disabled.

However, to help you make your own decisions, according to your

specific priorities, weve also included a look at hardware PhysX in

Batman: Arkham Origins, including benchmarks, and weve also

included both Folding@home and Bitcoin mining benchmarks,

so you can still make your own judgement call, according to your

priorities. What are your priorities when making a GPU purchase?

Id be very interested to find out feel free to tell me at editor@

custompcmag.org.uk

Ben Hardwidge is the editor of Custom PC. He likes PCs, heavy

metal, real ale and Warhammer 40,000.

EDITOR@CUSTOMPCMAG ORG UK @CUSTOMPCMAG

Plenty of peoplebought a high-end GPUjust to play Crysis at its

highest settings agame that was over in

about 12 hours

GRAPHICSPRIORITIES

8 March 2014

from the editor


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Its just another year before the events of Back to the Future 2 come

true; I cant wait for my Hoverboard. One idea the film predicted

correctly was the emergence of controller-free gaming, with the

hapless McFly scorned for playing a vintage shooting game: You

mean you have to use your hands? Thats like a babys toy! Yeah kids,

hows your Kinect working out? Im not a fan of motion sensor gaming,

but before the Kinect and Wii days, I was an excitable child with access

to many different games. As such, I greeted the news that the Internet

Archive has made a bucket-load of vintage games available with joy.

Using the sites JSMESS emulator system, players can now revisit

Atari, ColecoVision and other games in their

browser, albeit without sound yet. Nostalgia is

powerful and some of the games, such as Pac-

Man and ET okay, not ET are still very

playable. The intent is honourable, to harken

back to the revolution of the change in the

hearth of the home, when the fireplace and

later television were transformed by gaming

consoles into a centre of video game

entertainment. Thats a sentiment I can get behind, but joy and

nostalgia quickly give way to a creeping uncertainty: is this legal?

Copyright is an increasingly difficult area to write about, as

technology makes once-sensible laws unenforceable and businesses

panic at shifting culture. Weve recently seen a panic among YouTube

game reviewers Lets Players - who have been hit by long-overdue

takedown notices for content to which they dont have the rights,

leading to awkward and often angry discussions about whether

enforcing those rights benefits the content owners anymore, and if

monetising someone elses creative content, albeit via your own

interaction with it, is acceptable.

Monetisation, it turns out, is the answer to whether the retrogaming project is legal. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

has an exemption for libraries, such as the Internet Archive, but most

importantly, it has a 2003 amendment that gives a free pass to games

distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require

the original media or hardware as a condition of access.

As the original consoles are no longer manufactured, for now it

seems safe. Whether the copyright owners will make a legal

challenge remains to be seen, but heres hoping theyll agree that

the historical and educational value of the project outweighs any

commercial concerns.

Finally, aclarification. In Issue 123 I wrote about Dr Angela Tinwells

research cited in a Guardian article, saying

people who display psychopathic behaviour

often are expressionless in the top half of their

face, which sets off warning signals in people

around them. I couldnt find the paper online

and was unable to corroborate the claim, but

Dr Tinwell has been in touch with a copy of her

journal article, Perception of Psychopathy and

the Uncanny Valley in Virtual Characters.

Dr Tinwell has clarified that this article was published in an

academic, peer-reviewed journal, Computers in Human Behavior.

If you read the methodology section youll see that I used an existing

empirical scale to measure psychopathy in humans called the

Elemental Psychopathy Assessment that is a self-report inventory

for assessment of psychopathy based on the five-factor model of

personality authored by Lynam et al in 2011. Two hundred and five

participants were used in this study. Also, the term psychopath is

not used in the journal article, but the medical term, psychopathy.

Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence

and statistics behind some of the popular media stories

surrounding tech and gaming TKINGDOLL

A 2003 amendment

gives a free pass to

games distributed in

obsolete formats

IS FREE RETROGAMING LEGAL?

The Internet Archive provides free access

to vintage games, but what are the legal

implications, asks Tracy King?

Sceptical analYsis

10 March 2014


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12 March 2014

The latest tips, tricks and news in the world of computer hobbyism,

from Raspberry Pi and Android to retro computing

hoBBY tech

GARETH HALFACREES

REVIEW: GERTDUINO

If youre a Raspberry Pi fan, you may have

heard of the Created by Gert Van Loo, who

worked on the Pis hardware design. It was

the first add-on GPIO expander announced

for the Pi, although not the first to market.

Initially a self-assembly kit full of tiny

surface mount technology, the

Gertboard was withdrawn and

re-released as a fully assembled

version although without any

changes to its incredibly unintuitive designNow Van Loo is back with a more compact

board dubbed the GertDuino, aiming to

bridge the Arduino and Raspberry Pi worlds.

Designed to sit directly on top of the Pi,

connecting to the GPIO header via a female

socket on the underside, the GertDuino

provides access to an on-board ATmega328

microprocessor, which is compatible with the

Arduino Uno, as well as physical pins that can

accept Arduino Shields.

Well, mostly compatible. As with the

Gertboard, configuring the GertDuino through

its various modes requires jumpers (supplied)

or strap wires (not supplied), with the latter

obstructing any Shield that needs a serial

connection. While this can be resolved using

risers to lift the Shield above the GertDuino, it

then becomes precarious and top-heavy.

There are, however, advantages to the

GertDuino. It includes six user-addressable

LEDs pre-installed, two buttons and an

infrared module at the top edge. This

module is driven by a second microcontroller,

an ATmega48, which is also user-

programmable, and provides the Pi with a

real-time clock (RTC) feature, provided an

optional button-cell battery is inserted into

the holder at the upper right of the board.

assume youll do your compilation and upload

via the command line, without the benefits of

the Arduino integrated development

environment (IDE).

That, thankfully, is optional. Its possible,

thanks to work by Gordon Henderson the

same chap who wrote the BASIC interpreter

for the Fuze to modify the Arduino IDE to talk

to the GertDuino, but even then there are

caveats. I spent an hour diagnosing why I was

getting verification errors uploading simple

sample sketches, before stumbling across

a comment on a web forum that explained

sketches need to be uploaded using the via-

programmer option, rather than directly a

circumstance thats entirely undocumented in

any of the official instructions.

If you can get over the steep initial learning

curve, though, the GertDuino promises much,

especially when you start using the ATmega48

for jobs such as placing the Pi into a low-

power sleep mode and waking it up at regular

intervals. The GertDuino is available now from

CPC(http://tinyurl.com/gertduino) for 22.50

including VAT and delivery.

Theres even a bi-directional level shifter, to

avoid any magic smoke getting out when the

5V ATmegas communicate with the 3.3V Pi.

Sadly, the experience isnt as rosy once you

start working with the GertDuino. As well as

the aforementioned jumpers, which must be

swapped around depending on the chips

youre tying together, the badly organised PDF

manual is hardly written with the beginner in

mind. From installing a hacked and outdated

version of the AVRdude programmer tool, to

setting the default fuses on the ATmega ,

which should really be done at the factory, it

isnt easy to get started. Worse, the examples

The GertDuino promises to bridge the gap between theArduino and Raspberry Pi worlds

The GertDuino is compact although its oversizedrubber foot near the USB ports gives it a slight slant

ve

ho

was

nced

et.

sign.

mpacth

You cant tell, but that LED is blinking as per the Arduino

Blink example sketch. Honest!


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14 March 2014

hoBBY tech

14

To say that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has

been enjoying a few column inchesrecently is like saying the Pacific Ocean is alittle wet. The hash-based system has

seen its value rise almost exponentially to

a high of $1,000 per Bitcoin at the time of

writing. For those who got in on what its

critics call a classical pyramid scheme,

its a path to riches; for everyone else, a

chance to dream about what could have

been if theyd started mining when

Bitcoins cost fractions of a penny each.

Despite an explosion of interest, its still

possible to mine Bitcoins. The days ofdoing so on your CPU or GPU have passed,however, and even expensive field-programmable gate arrays FPGAs) arentpowerful enough to make a difference.

Now, the game belongs to application

specific integrated circuits (ASICs)

designed specifically for Bitcoin hashing,

and its possible to save on your electricity

bill by running a few from the back of a

Raspberry Pi.

First, however, a quick disclaimer,

which is that its near impossible to

actually make any money at it.

Even joining a pool of miners, where

combined efforts lead to shared payouts,

its highly unlikely that youll ever earn a

large enough fraction of a Bitcoin to offset

the electricity used to run the ASIC and

the Raspberry Pi. Its an interesting

experiment, though, when approached as

a purely intellectual exercise, rather than a

get-rich-quick scheme.

Im using a Block Erupter ASIC,

available from eBay for around 20,

although this is possibly the slowest device

on the market at 300 million hashes per

second (MH/s); a Red Fury manages up to

2,700MH/s with the same form factor and

power draw, although it will cost you

around 150.

Top-end ASIC units can manage

600,000MH/s if you have the cash, but

remember the warning above about the

likelihood of ever earning your investment

back (you probably wont).

BITCOIN MINING ON THE R SPBERRY Pi

01Once youve

purchased a USB-

connected ASIC, the first

step is to make sure you

have the latest software

versions. Open a shell on

the Pi and run the following

command before rebooting the system:

sudo apt-get update && sudo

apt-get upgrade

02Because there are no reliable pre-built

binaries of the cgminer Bitcoin

hashing software for the Pis ARMv6 CPU,

well be compiling our own from source,

which means installing a few prerequisites:

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.

0-0-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

libncurses5-dev libudev-dev

autoconf automake libtool

03To ensure were running the absolute

latest version of cgminer, well check

out the source code from its GitHub repository

a socially minded site that combines handy

source versioning with easy sharing and

collaboration. Type the following:

git clone git://github.com/

ckolivas/cgminer.git

04Now its time to configure and compile

the cgminer software. This step takes a

little while when compiling directly on the Pi,

G ON THE RASPBERRY P

Mint your own Bitcoins with

a Raspberry Pi but dont

connect it up like this!

Youll need to install severalprerequisites on the Pi before

getting started

The latest cgminer code isalways available from the

projects GitHub page


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15March 2014

CUSTOMISATION

15

GARETHHALFACREEis the news reporter at

www.bit-tech.net, and a

keen computer hobbyist

who likes to tinker with technology.

ghalfacree

WIRELESS WEARABLES

A team of researchers from Nottingham

Trent University and Loughborough

University has released details of a flexible

and water-resistant fabric-based antenna.

Designed for wearable computers and

communication systems, the antenna is

produced using traditional embroidery

machines, modified to accept conductive

threads, which then print the antenna onto

the fabric itself. Monopole antennas are

bulky, heavy and prone to breaking, explained

Professor Tilak Dias. They also attract

unwanted attention for the military during

covert and secure operations. This new

design solves such problems by being small,

lightweight, flexible and weather resistant.

REPRAPPRO LAUNCHES

ORMEROD

Open-source 3D printing specialist

RepRapPro has announced a new, web-

controllable Arduino-compatible printer

dubbed the Ormerod. Claimed to be among

the most versatile on the market, the fused-

filament fabrication system launches with

the ability to print in a single colour of plastic,

with a three-colour upgrade

promised in the near future.

With a build volume of 200 x

200 x 200mm and support forboth ABS and PLA materialsthe company is

expecting thedesign whichis, as with its

other products,

open hardware

to sell well.

Retailerhttpuk.rs-online.comhas priced the kit at 599 inc VAT.

but it does work; just dont be surprised if

youre looking at an apparently frozen screen

for a few minutes. The following commands

will kick everything off:

cd cgminer

./autogen.sh --enable-icarus &&

make

The--enable-icarus option is required to

use Block Exploder ASICs with cgminer. If

youre using a different ASIC, youll need to

enable that instead. Possible values to follow

--enable- are:avalon, bflsc,

bitforce, bitfury, hashfast,

icarus, knc, bab, klondikeor

modminer. If youre not sure what you need,

check your ASIC manufacturers website for

details or just switch everything on with

multiple--enable-options.

05Now its time to connect the ASIC to the

Pi. Dont try to use one of the Pis USB

ports directly (yes, I know Ive done that in the

picture, but I learned my lesson afterwards),

as it draws a full 500mA far more than a Pis

USB port can handle. Instead, connect

a powered USB hub to the Pi, then the

ASIC to the hub. As an added bonus, this

enables a single Pi to run multiple ASICs.

When connected, check that its seen by

the operating system by typing:lsusb

06Finally, we can run cgminer, using

the handy Screen utility to make

sure it runs even when weve closed

down our terminal session. Type the

following to start mining Bitcoins:

screen sudo /home/pi/cgminer/

cgminer -o stratum+tcp://

yourpool.example.com -u

workername -p password

Replace the example URL, worker

name and password with your own details.

If youre not a member of a pool, join one

I use TripleMining athttp://tinyurl.com/

triplemine. To return to your terminal but

leave cgminer running, press Ctrl+A

followed by Ctrl+D; to see how its getting

along later, typescreen -r to resumethe detached Screen session.

e near future.

lume of 200 x

and support for

LA materials,

,

e

This symbol means the command should all

be on one line

The configuration and

compilation stage takes a

while on a Raspberry Pi, so go

and make a cup of tea

Once installed, run cgminer

and you should start rakingin those precious fractions-

of-fractions-of-fractions-

of-Bitcoins. Success!


16/132

NEW HARDWARE

16 March 2014

AVEXIR BLITZ MEMORYCOMES TO UKUK retailerwww.overclockers.co.ukhas announced that its now the

countrys exclusive dealer for Avexir BLITZ 1.1 memory. Designed

for overclockers, the LED-equipped modules are handpicked at the

factory, and start at 1,600MHz versions for 86, but go all the way up

to super-fast 3,200MHz flavours for 720.

We take a look at the latestnewly announced products

STEAM BOXES SHOWN OFFNow that Valves Steam OS beta has kicked off, weve started

seeing a few prototypes of third-party Steam boxes. The

designs range from set-top boxes to innovative designs that

can be attached to the back of the TV. One of the latter comes

from UK firm PiixL (www.

piixl.com), with its Jetpack

Steam box, which doesnt

compromise on graphical

power. According to PiixL,

the machines innovative

approach to cooling, using

centrifugal fans, with the components divided into separate

segments, means the slim box can handle 500W of thermal

headroom. According to PiixL, the VESA-mounted, slim

machine can accommodate an overclocked Core i7 CPU, as

well as a GeForce GTX 780 GPU.

EVGA LAUNCHES GTX 780 Ti K|NGP|N EDITIONNot everyone buys high-end graphics cards for gaming, or even for

compute performance. If youve ever been to an overclocking

tournament, youll know full well that overclocking and record breaking

are also part of the appeal, and EVGA has launched a card for exactly

that purpose, teaming up with K|NGP|N Lucido to create a GTX 780 Ti

card for competitive overclocking. Its ACX cooler includes 100mm fans,

and the PCB features a 14+3 phase power design (14 for the GPU and

three for the memory).

Meanwhile, its XOC voltage modification points, real-time voltage-

monitoring LEDs and three-plug power system (with two 8-pin and

one 6-pin PCI-E power connectors) should offer the power needed

to maintain record-breaking frequencies. In order to break world

records these days, you need some serious hardware, said K|NGP|N,

describing the card as the worlds best overclocking graphics card. He

says youll be able to expect GPU clock speeds at over 1.85GHz with

extreme cooling.

SAMSUNGLAUNCHES 1TBMSATA SSD

Spotting a gap in the market for mini

systems and laptops with plenty of

storage, Samsung has just launched

a new EVO 840 mSATA drive with a capacity of 1TB. To achieve this

feat, Samsung used four flash memory packages, each of which

contains 16 layers of 128Gb chips. According to Samsung, the

new 1TB drive is capable of sequential read and write speeds of

540MB/sec and 520MB/sec respectively. Other capacities of the

drive will also be available, including 120GB, 250GB and 500GB

flavours. The drive is expected to cost around 500.


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34PLANTRONICS

RIG

Game, headset andmatch!

24

STEIGER

DYNAMICS LEET

REFERENCE

Premium HTPC goodness

35STEELSERIES

SIBERIA ELITE

A premium headset,complete with lights

28

ANTEC ISK600

A tiny aluminiummini-ITX cube thats yoursfor 65

36FUNC KB460

Backlit mechanicalkeyboards dont have tocost the earth

20EVGA Z87

STINGER

An overclockable mini-ITXmotherboard

22GIGABYTE

GAF2A88XMD3H

Overclockable FM2+ fun forjust 53

42STARTECH USB 3

HARD DRIVE

ADAPTOR

Access old IDE hard drives

18 March 2014

Our in-depth analysis ofthe latest PC hardware

20


19/132

19March 2014

HOW WE TEST, P40

Corsair Hydro H75We take a look at Corsairs latest

half-height all-in-one liquidcooler, which includes two fans

and costs just 64 30


20/132

20 March 2014

HOW MUCH?

Price173 inc VAT

Supplierwww.scan.co.uk

Manufacturerhttp://eu.evga.com

Model number111-HW-E872-KR

IN DETAIL

ChipsetIntel Z87

CPUsocketIntel LGA1150

Memory support2 slots:max 32GB DDR3 (up to2,666MHz)

Expansion slotsOne 16xPCI-E 3, one mini PCI-E

SoundCreative SoundCore3D 8-channel

Networking1 x IntelGigabit LAN

OverclockingBase clock100250MHz; CPUMultiplier 8-80x; maxvoltages: CPU 2V, RAM 2.3V

Ports4 x SATA 6Gbps, 6 xUSB 2 (Z87), 6 x USB 3 (Z87),1 x LAN, 4 x surround audioout, line in, mic, opticalS/PDIF out, HDMI,DisplayPort, eSATA

Dimensions (mm)170 x 170

his month EVGA steps into the mini-ITX

limelight with its Z87 Stinger motherboard.

It retails for a whopping 173, so it wont be

going head to head against the likes of MSIs

sub-100 Z87i. Instead, it has more in common with

Asus lustworthy ROG Maximus VI Impact.

At first glance, its difficult to see why it costs so

much too. Theres no VRM daughterboard as with

Asus Z87I-Pro and Maximus VI Impact, with the Z87

Stinger only offering six power phases. Theres also

no on-board Wi-Fi, with just a vacant mini PCI-E slot.

However, take a look at the other specifications and

youll see that EVGA has clearly made more of an

investment elsewhere.

The Z87 Stinger apparently has a higher socket pin

gold content, which EVGA claims reduces inductance

and offers better power delivery, while the 10-layer

PCB supposedly improves overclocking stability and

provides better PCB cooling. The VRMs also

have a large heatsink sitting on top of them.

The layout has had considerable effort

poured into its design too. In fact, its the best

mini-ITX layout weve seen. The CPU socket

is nearer to top of the board than usual, and

there are no large heatsinks near it, while the DIMM

slots are located as far away as possible without

knocking the 24-pin ATX connector off the PCB.

The latter sits right on the edge, as does the 8-pin

EPS 12V connector and all three of the Z87 Stingers

3/4-pin fan headers. The only niggles are the USB 3

header and four SATA 6Gbps ports, which sit right

above the 16x PCI-E slot, although this will likely

make no difference in the vast majority of mini-ITX

cases. The Z87 Stinger is also one of the few mini-ITX

motherboards weve seen to feature power, reset and

clear-CMOS buttons, as well as an LED POST code

readout, with the latter also acting

as a CPU thermometer.

Theres little to shout about in

terms of audio, however, with no

noise-isolated or discrete sound

cards as weve seen on other mini-ITX boards, but everything else

youd expect is in place, including four rear USB 3

ports, plus four USB 2 ports. You also get Bluetooth in

addition to an Intel Gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI port

and a DisplayPort connector. To spruce up the look of

the Z87 Stinger, EVGA has also included an I/O port

bracket that straddles the rear of the motherboard,

and improves the PCBs otherwise basic look.

PERFORMANCE

In our Media Benchmarks, the Z87 Stinger certainly

lived up to its name, recording the fastest image

editing score weve seen from a Z87 motherboard

2,124. This is slightly higher than both the previous top

mini-ITX scorers Asus Z87I-Pro and Maximus VI

Impact. Its video encoding score of 3,691 wasnt quite

top-dog, though, but still matched the Z87I-Pro and

was miles ahead of the MSI Z87Is score of 3,496.

The Z87 Stinger was back to the top of the graph in

the multi-tasking test, though, with its core of 1,747

beating the MSI Z87I and Asus Z87I-Pro by a sizeable

margin, and bettering the Maximus VI Impact by a few

points too. The overall score had the Z87 Stinger just

one point short of topping the graph, with the Maximus

VI Impact retaining its crown. However, the EVGA

board enjoyed a 69-point lead over the Asus Z87I-Pro

and a 177 point lead over the MSI Z87I.

Likewise, in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the Z87

Stinger nearly matched the Maximus VI Impact, with a

minimum frame rate of 97fps, and the two were level

in the Shogun 2: Total war CPU benchmark, with a

EVGA

STINGER

Excellent

layout; superb

stock speed

performance;

brilliant

overclocker

STINGY

No Wi-Fi or

discrete sound

card; expensive

CONSIDERABLE EFFORT HAS BEEN

POURED INTO ITS DESIGN ITS THE

BEST MINI-ITX LAYOUT WEVE SEEN

A superb overclocker,but its a little too pricey

Z87 Stinger


21/132

21March 2014

GIMP IMAGE EDITING

0 650 1,300 1,950 2,600

2,534

2,500

2,424

2,124

2,106

1,972MSI Z87I

Asus Maximus VI Impact

EVGA Z87 Stinger

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING

0 1,100 2,200 3,300 4,400

4,321

4,384

4,156

3,691

3,729

3,496MSI Z87I


EVGA Z87 Stinger

MULTI-TASKING

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000

1,843

1,868

1,736

1,747

1,728

1,663MSI Z87I


EVGA Z87 Stinger

OVERALL

0 750 1,500 2,250 3,000

2,899

2,896

2,779

2,520

2,521

2,343MSI Z87I


EVGA Z87 Stinger

Stock speed min Stock speed avg Overclocked avgOverclocked min

Stock speed Overclocked

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKY RIM1,92 0 x 1,0 80, 16x AF, 0x AA

0 40 80 120 160

fps146

fps150

fps147

fps150

fps137

fps143

fps97

fps108

fps98

fps108

fps91

fps100

MSI Z87I


EVGA Z87 Stinger

TOT AL WAR : SHO GUN 2DX9 CPU Test

0 11 22 33 44

fps36

fps41

fps36

fps41

fpsfps41

fps29

fps35

fps29

fps35

fps27

fps34

MSI Z87I


EVGA Z87 Stinger

minimum frame rate of 29fps. Meanwhile, all the SATA

6Gbps ports are controlled by the Z87 chipset, and

produced typical read and write results of 543MB/sec

and 518MB/sec respectively.

We had big hopes for overclocking, and we werent

disappointed. While the EFI wasnt as slick as Asus

systems, the Z87 Stinger booted fine with our Core

i7-4770K at 4.7GHz with a voltage of 1.27V, and raising

the vcore to 1.3V even saw it fairly happy at 4.8GHz,

although it couldnt handle our video encoding test.

However, this wasnt due to temperatures, with

the CPU remaining at around 93C under stress

testing a toasty temperature, but below the throttling

threshold. With more tweaking, and perhaps the

01The CPU socket is nearthe top, with no large

heatsinks near it, while theDIMM slots are located as faraway from it as possible

02Power, reset and clear-CMOS buttons are

included, as well as an LEDPOST code readout, which alsoacts as a CPU thermometer

03The I/O port bracketstraddles the rear of the

motherboard, and helps spruceup the boards appearance

addition of water cooling, this is potentially a super-

fast overclocker. The overclock saw the Z87 Stinger

finally top the overall score graph, recording 2,899

points just ahead of the Maximus VI impact and a

welcome 15 per cent boost over its stock speed result.

CONCLUSION

The Z87 Stinger is fast, very overclockable and has a

superb layout thats more cooler-friendly and less

cluttered than Asus motherboards. It also sports a

mini PCI-E slot something that both Asus boards

lack, although it also lacks Wi-Fi.

Its current price of over 170, though, is 70 higher

than MSIs Z87I, and 50 more than Asus Z87I-Pro.

The highly desirable Maximus VI Impact costs around

the same price, but it offers a plethora of software and

hardware features, most notably a discrete sound card

too. As such, it just edges the Z87 Stinger to the top of

our list, but EVGA certainly deserves a nod for making

such a top-notch motherboard.

AN TO NY LE ATH ER

TEST KIT3.5GHz Intel Core

i7-4770K, 16GB Corsair

Vengeance Pro DDR3

1,866MHz DDR3 memory,

128GB OCZ Vector SSD,

Corsair Pro Series Gold

HX750 PSU, Windows 7

64-bit

custom P

OVERALL

SPEED44 / 45

FEATURES23 / 30

VALUE 14 / 25

MINI-ITX MOTHERBOARD

01

02

03


22/132

22 March 2014

HOW MUCH?

Price53 inc VAT

Supplierwww.dabs.com

Manufacturerhttp://uk.gigabyte.com

IN DETAIL

ChipsetAMD A88X

CPUsupportFM2/FM2+A-series APU

Memory support4 slots:max 64GB DDR3 (up to2,133MHz)

Expansion slotsTwo 16xPCI-E 3 (one at 16x; one at4x), one 1x PCI-E 2 slot, one

PCI slotSoundRealtek ALC8878-channel

Networking1 x RealtekGigabit LAN

OverclockingBase clock100140MHz; CPUMultiplier 8-79x; max GPUfrequency 2,000MHz; maxvoltages: CPU +0.3V,RAM 1.9V

Ports8 x SATA 6Gbps, 8 xUSB 2 (A88X), 4 x USB 3(A88X) 1 x LAN, 4 x surroundaudio out, line in, mic, opticalS/PDIF out, HDMI, VGA, DVI

Dimensions (mm)244 x 244

ts pointless spending more than 100 on

a Socket FM2 motherboard when budget

LGA1150 motherboards can be had for half

the price; for around 250, an equivalent Intel

CPU, motherboard and discrete graphics card will

walk all over an AMD A10-6800K. Keep your choice

of FM2 motherboard within sensible fiscal limits,

though, and you can shave 100 off that price and still

end up with a decent gaming system.

Thats where Gigabytes micro-ATX GA-F2A88XM-

D3H comes in. At just 53, adding an A10-6800K will

mean your entire CPU, GPU and motherboard setup

will cost around 150. It also sports AMDs A88X

chipset, making it one of the cheapest motherboards

to do so, and it will support AMDs Kaveri APUs, slated

for release in early 2014, too. However, cheap doesnt

always mean cheerful, so lets take a closer look.

The PCB sports the familiar brown colour of a

budget motherboard, and the chipset heatsink is the

only cooling system in sight. Meanwhile, the layout

isnt bad but it isnt amazing either, with

both the USB header and CPU fan

headers located some way from the edge

of the PCB. The CPU socket is also quite

close to the DIMM slots, and none of the

SATA ports is mounted parallel to the

PCB. At this price, though, we can forgive

these issues; theres nothing majorly adrift after all.

Thankfully, there are no shortcomings with storage

options, with the GA-F2A88XM-D3H offering eight

SATA 6Gbps ports, all controlled by the A88X chipset.

It also has all bases covered as far as expansion goes,

offering two 16x PCI-E slots running with 16 lanes and

four lanes respectively, plus a further 1x PCI-E slot and

a standard PCI slot a decent collection for a budget

micro-ATX board. Fan headers are pretty sparse,

though, with just two offered in addition to the CPU

fan header. Not surprisingly, theres little by way of

overclocking features, with just a clear-CMOS jumper

and a dual BIOS to aid you.

Meanwhile, the USB ports on the back panel arent

exactly in abundance, with just two USB 3 ports andfour USB 2 ports the total of six is the bare minimum

needed to deal with a modern PCs requirements.

Theres also a dual-link DVI port supporting

resolutions of up to 2,560 x 1,600, and the HDMI port

will actually offer 4K support but only in conjunction

with AMDs forthcoming APUs not its current line-up.

Unlike the G1 Sniper A88X we reviewed recently, there

are no extra audio features either, with just a standard

8-channel Realtek ALC887 on-board sound card.

PERFORMANCE

In our Media Benchmarks, the GA-F2A88XM-D3H

proved to be a little slower than the G1 Sniper A88X,

especially in the video encoding and multi-tasking

tests. Its scores of 2,012 and 980 respectively

compared negatively to the G1 Sniper A88Xs scores

of 2,120 and 1.066 at stock speed, while the overall

scores were 1,423 for the G1 Sniper A88X and 1,353

for the GA-F2A88XM-D3H. Using the A10-6800Ks

on-board GPU, our game tests also showed a slight

disadvantage, with the G1 Sniper A88X holding a 3fps

minimum frame rate advantage in Left 4 Dead 2 and a

1fps advantage in Skyrim equivalent to 8 per cent.

Overclocking our APU proved to be a little tricky, as

we were first hampered by the inability to set a specific

CPU voltage, instead having to add voltage in steps to

eventually arrive at our usual 1.475V. This was no

different with the G1 Sniper A88X, though, and it just

takes a little longer than the usual method. This is

where our test CPU is stable at 4.7GHz and, amazingly,

the GA-F2A88XM-D3H was quite happy with this

600MHz clock speed boost. Sadly, it couldnt hit 4.8GHz

like the G1 Sniper A88X, but it also matched the latters

GPU overclock, boosting the clock speed from

844MHz to 1,050MHz.

This saw the overall score in the Media Benchmarksrise to 1,577 just 44 points short of the G1 Sniper

GIGABYTE

WINGSUIT

Good overclocker;

cheap; support

for future

Kaveri APUs

PARACHUTE

Limited

overclocking

features;

lacklustre

looks; average

stock-speed

performance

IT SPORTS AMDSA88X CHIPSET,

AND WILL SUPPORT AMDSKAVERI

APUS, SLATED FOR RELEASE IN

EARLY 2014, AS WELL

A super-cheap andoverclockable FM2+ board

GA-F2A88XM-D3H


23/132

23March 2014

SOCKET FM2+ MOTHERBOARD

THE ELD ER SCROLL S V : S KYR IM1,92 0 x 1,08 0, 1 6x A F, 0x A A

0 7 14 21 28

fps20

fps25

fps26

fps21

fps25

fps27

fps13

fps18

fps19

fps14

fps18

fps20Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X

(2,133MHz memory)

Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X

Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H(2,133MHz memory)

GigabyteGA-F2A88XM-D3H

LEFT 4 DEAD 21,92 0 x 1,08 0, 1 6x A F, 0x A A

0 20 40 60 80

fps63

fps67

fps76

fps69

fps70

fps78

fps48

fps54

fps58

fps51

fps54

fps59Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X

(2,133MHz memory)


Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H(2,133MHz memory)

GigabyteGA-F2A88XM-D3H

GIMP IMAGE EDITING

Stock speed Overclocked

0 350 700 1,050 1,400

1,170

1,202

1,065

1,085Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X

Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING

0 600 1,200 1,800 2,400

2,3212,012



MULTI-TASKING

0 350 700 1,050 1,400

1,2411,277



OVERALL

0 450 900 1,350 1,800

1,577

621,353



Stock speed min Stock speed avg Overclocked avgOverclocked min2,133 MHz memory is added at overclocked settings

2,3862,120

A88X, while the Left 4 Dead 2 minimum increased

from 48fps to 54fps, matching the more expensive

motherboard. The same was true in Skyrim, with the

GA-F2A88XM-D3H again matching the G1 Sniper

A88Xs minimum overclocked frame rate of 18fps.

As AMDs APUs see decent gaming performance

benefits from using faster memory, we added some

2,133MHz Corsair Dominator memory to the system.

However, we had to manually input the memory

timings first to get the system stable, with the board

returning overclock errors when we tried running the

memory at its rated frequency. Once wed done that,

the minimum frame rates increased again, to 20fps in

Skyrim and 58fps in Left 4 Dead 2 just behind the G1

Sniper A88X only a little tweaking in the settings

would be needed to make Skyrim playable at 1080p.

Its SATA 6Gbps speeds were good too, boasting read

01All expansion bases are

covered, with two 16x

PCI-E slots running with 16 lanes

and four lanes respectively, plusa further 1x PCI-E slot and a

standard PCI slot

02The heatsink on top of the

A88X chipset is the only

cooling system in sight

03None of the SATA ports is

mounted parallel to the

PCB, but thats forgivable for

the price

and write speeds of 545MB/sec and 501MB/sec

respectively, while stock and overclocked power

consumption were 39W and 75W respectively at idle,

and 143W and 198W under load.

CONCLUSION

Apart from a couple of niggles, such as mediocre

stock-speed performance and having to manually

input RAM timings, theres little to dislike about the

GA-F2A88XM-D3H. Its easy to overclock and there are

no major issues with the layout or features. If you can

put up with its little issues, you can save 30 compared

to Gigabytes G1 Sniper A88X. The latter is a better

board, but the GA-F2A88XM-D3H is exactly what you

want from an AMD APU motherboard its cheap

without compromising on overclocking. With support

for AMDs forthcoming APUs too, we have no

hesitation about recommending it.

AN TO NY LE ATH ER

TEST KIT4.1GHz AMD A10-6800K,

16GB Corsair Dominator

1,600MHz and 2,133MHz

DDR3 memory, 128GB OCZ

Vector SSD, Corsair Pro

Series Gold HX750 PSU,

Windows 7 64-bit

custom P

OVERALL

SPEED39 / 45

FEATURES 21 / 30

VALUE24 / 25

01

02

03


24/132


25/132

25March 2014

HTPC CASE

cool air to be drawn inside. In a bid to reduce noise and

vibration, theres a lot of noise-absorbing foam lining

the inside of the case and top panel too, while the panel

itself rests on neoprene-lined slats.

As youd expect in a case this size, theres plenty of

room for hardware, and installation is made simpler

with the addition of a removable motherboard tray. The

LEET supports up to E-ATX-sized motherboards, full-

sized PSUs and it has room for seven expansion slots

too. It can also house three SSDs, plus a further four

3.5in hard disks via two separate mounts, which are

tucked away at the front of the case.

Graphics cards up to 280mm in length are

supported too, and with so many expansion slots

supported, dual or triple-slot coolers are an option

too. Interestingly, Steiger Dynamics suggests the best

option for CPU cooling is an all-in-one liquid cooler,

with space for both a single 120mm-fan radiator in the

rear and a dual 120mm-fan radiator in the side fan

mounts. With an optical drive installed, there isnt

otherwise a lot of space for CPU coolers, although

theres 170mm of available, so our standard case test

cooler, the Gelid Tranquillo, fitted fine.

PERFORMANCE

The 92mm fan was exceptionally quiet, yet still shifted

plenty of air. The lacklustre out-of-the-box cooling

didnt yield terrible results either, with the CPU delta T

of 59C being a long way from the worst weve seen,

despite the low noise. However, a decent air-cooled

case, such as the Corsair Obsidian 750D, knocks

another 10C off this temperature, by comparison.

The GPU delta T of 54C was again not a dire result

either, probably helped by the large vent in the side

panel next to the graphics card. Again, some of the

01The use of 5mm

aluminium all round

means the case weighs in at

over 15kg

02Theres just one 92mm

intake fan included

as standard, with Steiger

Dynamics offering dual radiatorcooling options

03In a bid to reduce noise

and vibration, theres a lot

of noise-absorbing foam lining

the inside of the case

best cases weve seen perform much better, but with

the addition of a couple more fans, the situation would

probably improve considerably.

Besides, these temperatures are still fine, despite

being comparatively high, if youre not overclocking,

and you prioritise low noise over performance, which

is highly likely if youre building an HTPC.

CONCLUSION

The LEET Reference is a difficult case to classify, in that

it has all the hallmarks of an HTPC case but is touted

as a high-end gaming chassis. As such, out-of-the-

box cooling is comparatively disappointing, but you can

easily follow Steiger Dynamics recommendation of

using an all-in-one liquid cooler or even full-on

custom water cooling, which it can offer as part of the

case package. Its remarkably quiet in operation too,

and has an incredible amount of expansion room

compared to other HTPC cases.

You could easily add a high-end TV tuner card and

sound card, and still have room for a full-height, dual-

slot graphics card, several hard disks and SSDs, and

even an all-in-one liquid cooler. These features are

very rare in the world of HTPCs, but the LEET

Reference offers all of them, and still looks awesome

enough to look at home in a premium TV cabinet.

Its undoubtedly for those with lots of space, and a

fair amount of cash to spend on adding all the extras.

However, the possibilities have us drooling like Homer

Simpson over a doughnut.ANTONY LE ATH ER

CPU LOAD DELTA T TEMPERATURE

GPU LOAD DELTA T TEMPERATURE

Lower is better

Lower is better

0 15 30 45 60

59C

49CCorsair Obsidian 750D

Steiger DynamicsLEET Reference

0 15 30 45 60

54C

47CCorsair Obsidian 750D

Steiger DynamicsLEET Reference

custom P

OVERALL

COOLING 19 / 30

FEATURES 18 / 20

DESIGN28 / 30

VALUE 15 / 20

01

02

03


26/132


27/132


28/132

28 March 2014

HOW MUCH?

Price65 inc VAT

Supplierwww.overclockers.co.uk

Manufacturerwww.antec.com

IN DETAIL

Dimensions (mm)260 x 369x 195 (W x D x H)

MaterialAluminium, steel

Available coloursBlack

Weight2.95kg

Front panelPower, reset,USB 3, USB 2, stereo, mic

Drive bays1 x externalslimline optical, 3 x internal3.5in, 2 x 2.5in

Form factor(s)Mini-ITX

Cooling1 x 120mm fan(fan included)

CPU cooler clearance170mm

Maximum graphics cardlength315mm

ExtrasIlluminated front

panel

eing no stranger to every case form factor

thats around at the moment, were surprised

that Antec hasnt jumped a little further onto

the mini-ITX bandwagon. Its made the odd

case in the past, but in recent years, most of its mini-

ITX cases have been focused on the HTPC and office

PC segments. However, thats all changed this month

with the release of its new mini-ITX cube, the ISK600.

Its decidedly on the small side, although not quite

as small as Cooler Masters Elite mini-ITX cubes.

However, the ISK600 is made almost entirely from

aluminium, with the rest made from 0.8mm steel,

meaning it weighs less than 3kg and has an exquisite

feel that only this type of metal can bring to a PC case.

Of course, this also means a small hike in the price

tag, which stands at 65, while Cooler Masters steel

Elite 130, for example, costs less than 40.

The ISK600 also lacks a 5.25in slot, in

order to keep the height to a minimum,

but Antec has at least included a slimline

optical drive mount. Below this mount

theres also an odd strip that stretches

from either side of the front fascia, and this adds a little

pizzazz by way of a blue backlight powered by a SATA

power connector. Its very subtle, though, and it doesnt

look garish, even in darkened rooms.

Below this strip youll find a USB 3 port and a USB 2

ports, plus the obligatory mini-jacks, and power and

reset buttons. The rest of the exterior is pretty bare,

apart from side vents in the front fascia and the larger

vents in the one-piece removable top shell.

Cooling-wise, theres a single 120mm fluid dynamic

bearing fan, and this is all youll be able to install.

Thankfully, theres just enough room to use a half

height, radiator-equipped, all-in-one liquid cooler with

a single fan, but anything more elaborate, such as a

custom water-cooling loop, isnt going to be an option

without modification. The one fan sits in the rear of the

case above the I/O panel a sensible setup, as it will

make use of the ISK600s ample air vents.

Meanwhile, the insides are a little abnormal in that

the PSU mount is located at the front of the case, with

the PSU sitting on its side, and an angled power

connector running from it to a standard kettle

connector at the rear. This means theres plenty of

room for modest-sized CPU coolers anything up to

170mm is fine although large tower coolers are out

of the question. Theres room for dual-slot

317mm-long graphics cards too, and the side vent

here means your graphics card wont be suffocated

either. Alternatively, theres room for two expansion

slots, so if you wont be gaming, youll have the option

to use the latest Wi-Fi cards, sound cards or TV tuners.

There are also plenty of storage options. Two

elegant slot-in drive mounts sit in the top, which can

house two SSDs and three 3.5in hard disks without

impeding on the space of another other components.

Installing hardware is fairly straightforward and

surprisingly hassle-free too, especially given the

cases miniscule dimensions. The top-mounted

removable drive mounts mean that all your storage

can be added at the end of the build process, making

cable routing a little easier, and theres some useful

space around the PSU to hide them too. The PSU

mount also sports neoprene padding to reduce

vibration, and there should be no issues with PSU

length or PSUs with modular cables, as you havenearly the entire width of the case at your disposal.

ANTEC

ALUMINIUM

Good build

quality; very

flexible; room for

full-sized graphics

cards; quiet

LEAD

Mediocre cooling;

limited water-

cooling options

THERES JUST ENOUGH ROOM TOINSTALL AN ALL-IN-ONE LIQUID

COOLER WITH A SINGLE FAN

A fantastic aluminium mini-ITX cubefor a great price

ISK600


29/132


30/132

30 March 2014

CPU COOLER

HOW MUCH?

Price64 inc VAT


Manufacturerwww.corsair.com

ModelnumberCW-9060015-WW

IN DETAIL

CompatibilityIntel: LGA775,LGA1156, LGA1155,LGA1150,LGA2011,LGA1366;

AMD: Socket FM1, FM2,AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2

Weight1.3kg

Radiator size (mm)120 x 120 x 25

Fan2 x 120mm

Stated noise31dBA

osting just 64, Corsairs new

Hydro H75 liquid cooler sports a

half-height radiator but is equipped with two

SP120L 120mm fans, both of which are PWM-

controlled, using 4-pin fan headers.

Out of the box, the H75 supports all major current

sockets including LGA1150 and LGA2011, plus Socket

AM3+ and FM2.

Corsair has also developed a unique mounting

bracket; its backplate has sliding socket hole pins, so

adjusting it for your specific CPU socket is incredibly

easy, although youll only need this for Intel sockets,

not including LGA2011. AMD users will need to

remove their cooler mounting brackets, with the

H75 screwing into the standard backplate.

We installed the fans in exhaust mode in the rear of

our case easily, although one of the rear threaded nuts

in the backplate started to turn in its mount while

removing it, so we had use pliers to prevent it from

moving while unscrewing the pin from the other side.

Weve seen this problem on numerous other coolers,

though, and thankfully, the H75 was easy to fix.

We connected the H75 with its fans maxed out to

assess its highest cooling potential and noise. It

managed a delta T of 40C in our LGA1150 test system,

which is 2C cooler than SilverStones Tundra TD03

and 3C cooler than Corsairs own H90. It also

matched many large air coolers, such as

Thermalrights Archon SB-E X2.

In our LGA2011 system, the H75s delta T of 47C

again matched the Tundra TD03, although one or two

large air coolers pipped it to the post, including the

Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 and Phanteks

PH-TC14PE. The H75 made a noticeable noise at

these settings, but it wasnt unpleasant. Plus, of

course, using the PWM function on the fans will

make it quieter.

CONCLUSION

While it lacks the SilverStone Tundra TD03s good

looks, the H75 is much cheaper and matches or

betters it at cooling. Its easy to install, bar one hiccupwith the backplate, its fairly quiet and its compact size

means it should have few case compatibility issues Itdoesnt quite better every large air cooler out there, but

if you want an all-in-one liquid cooler for less than 65,

this is the one to buy.

ANTONY LE ATH ER

CORSAIR

HYDROPHOBIC

Great cooling;

cheaper than the

competition; easy

to install

SOAKED

Slight issue with

backplate; some

large air coolers

are better

A great liquid cooler for less than 65

Hydro H75

scores: lGa2011

scores: lGa 5x

results

85custom PC

OVERALL

COOLING34 / 40

DESIGN25 / 30

VALUE26 / 30

FITTING EASY

85custom PC

OVERALL

COOLING33 / 40 DESIGN25 / 30

VALUE 27 / 30

FITTING EASY

Lower is better

Lower is better

INTEL LGA1155

0 12 24 36 48

40C

42C

40CCorsair H80i (high)

SilverStoneTundra TD03

Corsair H75

INTEL LGA2011

0 12 24 36 48

47C

47C

45CCorsair H80i (high)

SilverStoneTundra TD03

Corsair H75

ed with two

ch are PWM-

or current

, plus ocket

ounting

I


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35March 2014

GAMING HEADSETS

HOW MUCH?

Price168 inc VAT


Manufacturerwww.steelseries.com

Modelnumber51151

IN DETAIL

Cup typeCircumaural

ConnectionWired, USB or3.5mm jacks

Driver(s)Not stated

Frequencyresponse16Hzto 28KHz

Impedance32 Ohms

teelSeries Siberia range has been a favourite

among PC enthusiasts for close to a decade

now. Believe it or not, the first headset to bear

the frosty moniker was released way back in

November 2004. Competition is fierce in the gaming

audio market now, however, so the range has needed

to evolve to stay relevant. First we had the Siberia V2

(see Issue 118, p74) and now the Siberia Elite,

complete with Dolby Headphone support; a headset

into which SteelSeries claims to have poured every

ounce of its gaming headset know-how.

On the style front, the Siberia Elite is certainly

striking; huge rings of padding around the drivers

give the headset a super-sized appearance, while

illuminated rings on the ear cups can be programmed

to glow any colour you desire. Its all a little over the top

for our liking (although this is subjective, of course),

and while the padding looks arresting, more of it

doesnt automatically equal a more comfortable

headset. In fact, in this case, its arguably

the opposite, as the sheer bulk of the ear

cups and the headsets tightness makes

the Siberia Elite feel overbearing to wear

for extended periods. We felt like we were

strapping on a scrum cap every time we

sat down to indulge in a spot of gaming.

It all adds to the weight too; despite a skinny

headband, the headset weighs a whopping 428g

142g more than the Plantronics RIG (see opposite)

and 104g more than our current favourite headset, the

QPAD QH-90 (see Issue 118, p69). This added weight

makes a tangible difference to comfort too, particularly

after a long gaming session.

Given the heft of the headset (and indeed the price),

you would be well within your rights to expect a

revelatory listening experience but alas, that isnt

the case. Sound reproduction is good, certainly, with

oodles of volume on tap, but it lacks finesse. Bass

tones are well represented, so audio doesnt sound

tinny, but the bass is often too dominant, encroaching

onto the mid-tones and confusing them. This was

forgivable when we were creating explosions inBattlefield 4, but it often made music sound imprecise;

we could detect far more definition between

instruments from the better-balanced QH-90.

Its possible to turn to the Siberia Elites excellent

software to iron out some of the balance issues, but it

isnt ideal having to set up a custom EQ to make a 170

headset sound as good as a 70 headset. Here you can

also enable Dolby Headphone, which does its best to

ape a 7.1 setup via signal processing. Weve always

found Dolby Headphone to be a little hit and miss, but

when it works, it functions surprisingly well. However,

weve found its more effective in games than when

watching movies or listening to music

CONCLUSION

SteelSeries has aimed high with the Siberia Elite, but

its audio reproduction is skewed too heavily towards

the bass end of the spectrum. This is fine for its

primary purpose of gaming, but you expect better

audio quality for the money. Unless you exist on a

media diet made up exclusively of explosions and

James Earl Jones monologues, youll be better

served by the cheaper and better-balanced QH-90.

PAUL GOODHEAD

STEELSERIES

DOLBY

Excellent

software; decent

build quality;

looks great

DUBLY

Too bassy; too

heavy to wear

comfortably for

long gaming

sessions;

expensive

THE ILLUMINATED RINGS ON THE

EAR CUPS CAN BE PROGRAMMED TO

GLOW ANY COLOUR YOU DESIRE

Visually striking but ultimatelylacking where it matters

Siberia Elite

scores

OVERALL

SOUND30 / 40

DESIGN 21 / 30

VALUE 17 / 30


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36 March 2014

HOW MUCH?

Price65 inc VAT

Supplierwww.ebuyer.com

Manufacturerwww.func.net

IN DETAIL

ConnectionWired, USB

SwitchtypeCherry Red MX

Cable1.8m, braided

MaterialPlastic

ExtrasWrist rest

unc has been making mouse mats for years,

but its recently been pushing deeper into the

peripherals market. The first example we saw

came in the shape of its MS-3 gaming mouse

(see Issue 116, p44). We loved its simplicity and

performance, so we were excited when the relatively

modestly priced KB-460 landed in the lab.

Not that you would necessarily guess the two

products were related if you put them side by side.

While the MS-3 is all about elegant curves and

swooping ergonomics, the KB-460 has so many

straight lines it looks like its been designed on an

etch-a-sketch. The result is an extremely severe,

businesslike-looking keyboard that wouldnt seem out

of place on a desk in an accountants office.

Only one purely aesthetic design touch

seems to have been incorporated, and

thats the bright red metal plate on which

all the Cherry MX mechanical keys are

mounted. Its a subtle touch, as only

small slivers of the plate can be seen

between the keys, but it looks good, especially when

combined with the red backlight.

The key switches themselves are of the popular

Red variety (see p110), meaning that they have a light,

linear action, making them ideal for gaming, as they

feel direct and responsive. This direct feel is enhanced

by the reassuringly solid chassis, which exhibited very

little rattle or flex.

Feature-wise, youd expect the KB-460 to be

relatively sparsely furnished, given its price point, but

that isnt the case. The board sports a bundled wrist

rest (covered in the same soft touch finish as the rest of

the board), two USB 2 pass-through ports, media

shortcut keys, N-key rollover and a cache of on-board

memory to store the custom settings saved to each of

the boards five profiles.

The KB-460 also boasts an innovative approach to

macros. Up to ten can be created and then individually

bound to any key via Funcs excellent and very clear

software. These are then only activated (and the

Windows key disabled) when you switch the board

into Func mode by hitting the Fn button and F12.

Its a slick system, giving maximum flexibility in

terms of macro key placement, while still enabling

the KB-460 to function as a normal keyboard when

performing more mundane tasks. It does slightly

preclude the use of macros for everyday tasks (such

as entering email addresses and so on), though, as

dropping into Func mode to use a macro, and then go

back out, is overly fiddly, but it works perfectly well for

gaming macros.

CONCLUSION

Theres a lot to like about the KB-460, not least the

price. Were used to seeing mechanical boards that

cost nearer to 100 than 50, but for 65 youre still

getting macro support, a USB pass-through, a wrist

rest, backlighting and excellent customisation

software. The styling wont be everyones cup of tea,

and it lacks the X factor of more expensive models, but

the KB-460 offers superb value for the money.

PAUL GOODHEAD

FUNC

FUNKY TOWN

Great software;

durable; well

priced

FUNKY SMELL

Aesthetically

plain; no on-the-

fly macro creation

THE CHERRY RED MX KEYS HAVE A

LIGHT, LINEAR ACTION, MAKINGTHEM IDEAL FOR GAMING

A well thought-out mechanicalkeyboard for a bargain price

KB-460

OVERALL

DESIGN34 / 40

FEATURES25 / 35

VALUE23 / 25

MECHANICAL KEYBOARD


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40 March 2014

Thorough testing and research is the key to evaluating whether a product

is worth buying, and deciding whether or not theres a better alternative

TESTS:We use theCustom PCMedia Benchmarks, Cinebench R11.5 and Total War: Shogun. We also test the resultant power draw of thetest PC with the CPU installed. These tests reveal a broad range of performance characteristics for the CPU, from image editing to gaming

and video encoding to 3D rendering. We run all the tests with the CPU at stock speed and again when overclocked to its highest frequency.

Graphics cards are mainly evaluated on how fast they are for their price. However, we also consider the efficacy

and quietness of the cooler. Every graphics card is tested in the same PC, so all results are directly comparable.

We judge CPUs on whether they offer sufficient speed for the price. Part of a CPUs speed score comes from

how overclockable it is. Every type of CPU is tested in the same PC, so all results are directly comparable.

The graphics cardwere reviewing

4.2GHz Intel Core

i5-3570K

AMD FM2IntelLGA1150

Nvidia GeForce

GTX 680 2GB

Asus F2A85-M ProIntel

DZ87KLT-75K

120GB OCZ Vector for

FM2 and LGA1150

250GB Samsung

SSD 840 EVO for

LGA2011

8GB Corsair

2,133MHz DDR3

16GB Corsair Vengeance

Pro Silver 1,600MHz DDR3

Windows 7

64-bit

8GB Corsair Dominator2,400MHz DDR3

Asus Maximus V

Extreme

Windows 7 64 bitSP1

Intel

LGA2011

Asus X79-Deluxe 16GB Corsair Vengeance

Pro 1,866MHz DDR3

amd fm2

Intel lGa2011

Intel lGa1150


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HOW WE TEST

41March 2014

Our benchmark suite

simulates how people

really use PCs, and a

higher score is better.

You can download

the suite from

www.tinyurl.com/

benchies2.66GHz Intel Core 2

Duo E6750

2GB of Corsair

1,066MHz DDR2

250GB Samsung

SpinPoint P120S

Asus P5K Deluxe

WiFi-AP

TESTS:By using the fast PC detailed on theleft, we can be sure that any limitations are due to

the graphics card on test. We test the four games

(right) at their maximum detail settings, in their

highest DirectX mode, at several resolutions.

High-end cards should be able to sustain

playable frame rates at 2,560 x 1,440, while 1,920

x 1,080 is more important for mid-range cards;

we also now test at 5 760 x 1 080 for three-screensetups, and 3,840 x 2,160 for 4K monitors. We

also try to overclock every graphics card we test

to assess the performance impact.

Some products are

gloriously over thetop. These items of

excellent overkill

earn our Extreme

Ultra award.

Premium Grade

products are

utterly desirable

wed eat nothing

but beans until we

could afford them.

Products worthy

of the Professional

award make you

and your business

appear even

more awesome.

Approved products

are those that do a

great job for themoney; theyre the

canny purchase for

a great PC.

For those gadgets

and gizmos that

really impress us,

or that we cant live

without, theres the

Custom Kit award.

Motherboards are evaluated on everything from layout and features

to overclockability and value for money. Every motherboard is tested

with the same components, so all results are directly comparable.

TESTS:We use theCustom PCMedia Benchmarks and several games, and also testthe speeds of the boards SATA ports. We try to overclock every motherboard we review

by testing for a maximum QPI, base clock or HTT as well as overclocking the CPU to its

maximum air-cooled level. We run our tests at stock speed and with the CPU overclocked.

Intel Core

i7-4770K

Intel Core

i7-4960X

Motherboardon test

Motherboard

on test

16GB CorsairVengeance Pro Silver1,600MHz DDR3

6GB Corsair VengeancePro 1,866MHz

Motherboar AMD A10-5800K Motherboardon test

16GB Corsair

Vengeance Pro

Silver2,133MHz

Nvidia GeForceGTX 680 2GB*

120GB OCZ Vector Windows 7

64-bit

Windows7

*Please note: We test AMD FM2 motherboards using the on-board graphics, not the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 2GB 3GB

Intel lGa2011

amd fm2Intel lGa1150


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ADAPTOR CABLE

STARTECHUSB HARD DRIVE ADAPTOR If you use old hard disks for backup or archive storage, or work with old PCs

professionally, youll know it can be a chore to connect old hard disks to modern

motherboards, as many dont have IDE ports anymore. Thats where thishandy Startech adaptor comes in, enabling just about any hard disk to behitched up to a high-speed USB 3 port thanks to its SATA, IDE40-pin and IDE 44-pin connections. Setup is a breeze, asit works without drivers, although the need for anexternal power brick to power the hard disk isan annoying necessity that means youllneed to be working near a spare wallsocket. At only 27, this a sound

investment if you find yourself

handling lots of different

disks regularly.PGPARALLEL PORT USB 3

rice 27 inc VATSupplierwww.dabs.comanufacturerwww.startech.com

, or wor w t o

disks to

42 March 2014

Custom KitWe check out the latest gadgets, gizmos and geek toys

Written by Paul Goodhead

Seen something worthy of

appearing in Custom Kit?

Send suggestions to

[email protected]

BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

DIVOOMBLUETUNE BEAN

01The Bean, which is just larger than an egg, occupies

the ideal niche for a Bluetooth speaker; its cheap

enough to take to the beach or festival without overly worrying, but

not so cheap that wed rather remove our ears than listen to anything

played through it. Its fine for use used outdoors too, with a thick rubber

exterior to soak up everyday knocks, and a bundled karabiner

for clipping it to a bag or belt hook. The charging port is alsoweatherproofed under a chunky rubber tab. Predictably, audio

lacked bass, and distortion rears its head at higher volumes, but

its surprisingly good for a speaker of this price and size PGHAS BEEN MAGIC BEAN

Price25 inc VATSupplierwww.amazon.co.uk

Manufacturerwww.divoomusa.com

PHOTOGRAPHY ACCESSORY

XSORIESWEYE FEYE

03The ingenious Weye Feye isnt much

larger than a Zippo and, once

connected via USB, it enables a a DSLR to be

controlled remotely via a tablet or phone

running the free Xsories app. You get a live

video feed from the camera, and the ability to

adjust various settings. It even has its own

on-board battery, so it wont unduly drain your

cameras juice. Its all incredibly slick, with

time-lapse and touch-to-focus functions

that wouldnt be available on many old

cameras otherwise. Some lag is apparent

between the camera and the on-screen

image, but it was never enough to bother us or

ruin a shot. Its perfect for wildlife photography,

and while 200 may look expensive, its a lot

cheaper than the professional gear with which

its competing PGSNAPS PHOTOS

Price195 inc VAT Supplier www.amazon.co.ukManufacturerwww.xsories.com


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BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

DIVOOMONBEAT 500

05At 80, and around the size of a housebrick, the OnBeat 500 is more of a

living-room (or hotel) speaker than a ruggedtravel companion, although its eight-hourbattery means its portable. Its party piece isbuilt-in NFC compatibility put an NFC-equipped phone on the OnBeat and it will

instantly enable Bluetooth, pair the devicesand start streaming music. However, audiooutput is simply good rather than great. Thesound gets muddled beyond 70 per centvolume, and the tonal balance is bass-heavy,making music sound a touch lifeless. Theresa lot of technology here for 80, though, if youprioritise convenience over sound quality PGON HEAT ONBEAT

Price80 inc VATSupplierwww.amazon.co.uk

Manufacturerwww.divoomusa.com

CUSTOM KIT

43March 2014

ATTACK ROBOT

COMBATCREATURESSTRYDER

06Strutting loudly across the office like a miniatureMonkeylord (if this confuses you, go and play Supreme

Commander immediately), the Stryder patrolsits territory, fending off trespassers with aflurry of darts. Its all rather impressive; youcan tilt the weapon up and down, andswivel the body independently from thelegs, meaning no direction or angle issafe. Theres nothing tame about theweaponry either the darts travelaround 30 feet, meaning they come outof the weapon at a fair old lick. You canalso duel if you have two of them, withthe first robot to sustain three hitsautomatically powering down. Of course,its around five minutes of fun, and then tenminutes of trying to find where all the dartswent. Maybe someone should invent a dart-gathering robot next PGHUMAN OVERLORD ROBOT OVERLORD

Price40 inc VATSupplierwww.smythstoys.comManufacturerwww.combatcreatures.com

HEADPHONES

GRIFFINWOODTONES

04Given the sea of plastic, steel

and aluminium that currentlyreside in our lab, its easy to see whythe Griffin WoodTones caught oureye. Available in walnut, sapele(pictured) or beech, we wereinstantly smitten with the styling,which struck just the right balancebetween chintzy old-world charmand modern elegance. Theysound brilliant too, with a lovelybalanced audio profile that we

found refreshing, given howmodern commercial headphones

tend to prioritise bass over all

else. As a result, theWoodTones tackled everythingfrom orchestral pieces tometal tracks with aplomb.Chuck in the fact that theyre

comfortable and lightweight and,at 75, theyre a bargain PG

BALSA MAHOGANY

Price75 inc VAT

Supplierwww.griffintechnology.co.uk

Manufacturerwww.griffintechnology.co.uk


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ver the past few years, the graphics card market hasbecome one of the most overcrowded and confusingmarkets around when it comes to PC components.Theres now a massive variety of price points occupied

by numerous cards, which have a bewildering selection of model

numbers with a variety of suffixes. Meanwhile, a host of product

launches, rebrands and price drops in recent months has done littleto ease the headache of GPU shopping.

Nevertheless, with AMDs product stack reshuffle now complete in

the form of the new R-series, and Nvidias GTX 780 Ti also having been

launched, the market has settled again. As such, now is the perfect

time for a graphics card face-off. From the 136 Radeon R9 270, up to

the 793 GTX Titan, weve pitted the current crop of GPUs against

each other. Weve also looked at what cheaper options bring to the

table, and investigated Nvidias hardware PhysX features too.MATTHEW LAMBERT AND MIKE JENNINGS

We test all the latest and greatest PUs to findthe ideal candidates for your next upgrade

46 March 2014

GRAPHICSCARD

SHOWDOWN


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48

48How we tested

49AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB

49Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB

50AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB

51 Is it worth buying a cheap GPU?




56 Inside Nvidia PhysX

58AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB



62Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB

64Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan 6GB

66Feature table

68Results graphs

47March 2014

HOW WE TESTED, PAGE 48


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48 March 2014

how we test

All our graphics tests are performed on

a high-end Ivy Bridge system, which

features an Asus Maximus V Extreme

LGA1155 motherboard and an Intel Core

i5-3570K running at 4.2GHz. Alongside these

components is 8GB (2 x 4GB) of Corsair

Dominator 2,400MHz DDR3 RAM and a

256GB Samsung SSD 840 Pro SSD.

Meanwhile, power comes from a LEPA

G1600 1,600W PSU, capable of powering up

to four high-end graphics cards in SLI or

CrossFire configurations.

We tested each card in four separate

games. Our Battlefield 4 test uses a

60-second sequence from the start of the

single-player campaign mission Tashgar,

while Crysis 3 is tested using a custom

60-second, macro-recorded play-through

from the single-player mission Red Star

Rising. For BioShock Infinite and Batman:

Arkham Origins, we use the games built-in

benchmarks, recording a 40-second and

60-second sequence respectively.

Although these benchmarks feature their

own frame rate counters, we record every

test using the freely available FRAPS tool to

ensure accuracy.

Typically, each game is tested at its highest

detail preset with v-sync disabled, although

there are some exceptions. We disable anti-

aliasing in all games in the 4K (UltraHD)

tests, as at this resolution it otherwise

becomes too demanding for any cards to

achieve meaningful results, and the high

pixel density makes anti-aliasing largely

unimportant anyway. We also leave anti-

aliasing disabled at all resolutions in Crysis

3, again because its overly demanding, and

leave hardware PhysX disabled in Arkham

Origins since its a feature exclusive to Nvidia

cards (see p56).

SCORING STANDARDS

Following on from our previous graphics

card Labs (see Issue 119, p58), we adopted a

weighted scoring system for GPU group tests

thats designed to highlight meaningful and

real-world performance differences. The

Performance component of the final score is

calculated through a point-based system,with points allocated according to the

minimum frame rate achieved in each test.

We focus on minimum frame rates, as its

these that youll really notice when your

games slow down.

We consider 30fps to be the minimum

target for games to remain smooth and

playable. As such, a minimum of 30fps or

more is worth three points at 1,920 x 1,080,

two points at 2,560 x 1,440 and one point at

both 5,760 x 1,080 (AMD Eyefinity/Nvidia

Surround) and 3,840 x 2,160 (4K). If a

minimum result exceeds 60fps, we award

0.5 bonus points on top, while a result of

between 25fps and 29fps (which weve

consistently considered to be borderline

playable) receives half of the 30fps points

for the appropriate resolution.

We use these points to calculate the final

Performance percentage, which is weighted

towards 1,920 x 1,080 and 2,560 x 1,440, the

most popular mainstream and high-end

gaming resolutions respectively.

Meanwhile, multi-moni

Custom PC - March 2014 UK

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