Table of contents for May 2015 in Computer Shopper

ONE OF THE great joys of desktop PCs is that you can build one yourself from its component parts. PC components are all based on standards: there are standard sizes, standard interfaces and standard power requirements, so you can mix and match parts from all kinds of different manufacturers to get just the kind of PC you want at the right price for you. Starting on page 78, we’ve reviewed all the parts you’ll need to build a desktop PC. From powerful Intel and great-value AMD processors to full-size and compact motherboards, and from powerful graphics cards to help you play the latest games to beautifully made cases to hold all these bits together, we’ve got you covered. If you follow our advice, and that of the Build a PC…

INTERNET OF MISGIVINGS I have real concerns about the ‘Internet of Things’ (Shopper 325), home control and suchlike. Come with me now as I take you on a journey into our near future… [Everything goes wobbly and someone plays the harp.] I walk home from work and turn the corner into my street. For some reason all the curtains and blinds in my automated house are opening and closing at random. I also realise that the room lights are flashing on and off. I run to the front door and try the retina-scan entry. “You are not recognised,” the house says, calmly. “But it’s me!” I say. “Voice-print is not recognised,” replies my house. I fumble in my pocket and find the precious backup: a front door key. Inside it…

Seth Barton RAVES It may be expensive keeping abreast of the latest technological advances, but it’s a great way of fitting out your shed THIS WEEK I bought a new dishwasher. The reason was simple enough: the old one broke. Maybe it could have been fixed, but the machine was secondhand when I got it, loud and not terribly good at cleaning dishes, so it was time for it to go. Despite the device’s age, I’d never thought about replacing it. The same goes for my iron, washing machine and fridge. No-one ‘upgrades’ these kind of appliances; they simply replace the old ones when they wear out with whatever new model they can afford at the time. This is a good thing: the less avoidable waste we produce the better.…

THE BLU-RAY DISC Association has agreed on the specification for 4K Blu-ray discs, with films likely to be released in the ultra-high resolution by the end of the year. The Association has been working on the specification since last year, but has finally nailed down the details, according to the 4K website. The new spec not only bumps up the maximum resolution of 4K discs from 1080p (1,920x1,080) to 4K (3,840x2,160), but also includes a number of picture quality enhancements. These include high dynamic range (HDR) technologies, which bring a wider colour gamut, potentially increasing levels of detail in light and dark areas of the picture. Some manufacturers jumped the gun, announcing their 4K Blu-ray players before the standard was even formalised. Panasonic unveiled a 4K Blu-ray player at this…

RBS AND NATWEST will be the first UK banks to let customers sign into their accounts using the fingerprint reader on Apple’s iPhones. The move will mean owners of the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus won’t need to remember their login details to access their account from their mobile. It marks another critical step in the adoption of Apple’s fingerprint reader, which was introduced with the launch of the iPhone 5s in 2013. Apple allows customers to use the Touch ID system to verify purchases from the App Store and iTunes, and it has also been adopted by third-party app developers, including Amazon, Dropbox and Evernote. Touch ID is also a crucial part of Apple’s wireless payments system, Apple Pay. This has received widespread support from major credit card…

MAJOR TECH FIRMS are paying substantial sums to the makers of a leading ad blocker to ensure their adverts aren’t stripped from websites, according to a report in the Financial Times. Microsoft, Amazon and Google are among the companies paying Eyeo, maker of AdBlock Plus, to put their adverts on the software’s whitelist of permitted ads. By default, the AdBlock Plus extension has an option ticked to “allow some non-intrusive advertising”. The company’s website suggests this is a means of rewarding companies that don’t run intrusive adverts. “Starting with AdBlock Plus 2.0 you can allow some of the advertising not considered annoying to be viewed,” the FAQ on ‘acceptable ads’ states. “By doing this you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way.”…

INNOVATION IN WEB browsers has stagnated. The big players – Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Apple – have largely stripped features out of their browsers over the past few years, concentrating on keeping the web experience as clean as possible. Though not necessarily a bad thing, it has become almost impossible to choose one over another. However, look away from the mainstream and there are some interesting developments. There’s a bunch of niche browsers that offer unique features, something that provides a point of differentiation that’s more significant than a few milliseconds in a JavaScript benchmark. Here, then, is our pick of five alternative browsers for a more fun web. VIVALDI vivaldi.com Created by Jon von Tetzchner, the founder of Opera, Vivaldi eschews the current trend for minimalist browsers. The Opera heritage…

01 A basic digital camera will suit someone who wants to take pictures to view on their computer and create 7x5in prints. It should cost around £80, but there may be hidden downsides such as slow performance and very basic user controls. 02 Spend a little more and you’ll get a higher resolution. A 16-megapixel sensor has the potential to produce sharp prints up to A3 size, but only if it and the lens are of a suitably high quality. Very high resolutions in compact cameras tend to boost noise more than detail levels, so many of the best models strike a sensible balance by using a 12-megapixel sensor. Back-illuminated CMOS sensors tend to produce less noise than CCDs, but check our reviews to find out well how a particular…

01 If you want to shoot simple home movies, buy a basic flash memory camcorder. This should cost around £140 and will produce decent results in most lighting conditions. Check the battery life, which should preferably provide enough power for at least 90 minutes of recording. 02 Most camcorders are described as HD, but that’s no guarantee of good image quality. Ignore the number of pixels the sensor has and concentrate on the size of the sensor itself. The smallest sensors are usually 1⁄6in, and sizes increase in fractions to around ½in. A larger sensor gives you higer video quality and enables you to capture better footage in poor lighting conditions. An alternative technology often found in Panasonic camcorders uses three small sensors instead of one large one to produce…

GETTING STARTED The download instructions on the opposite page show you how to connect to the download site. Please make sure that you type in the web address exactly as shown. You’ll need your coupon code the first time you log on. ANY PROBLEMS If you need help with any of the software this month, please send an email to letters@computershopper.co.uk. We check this inbox regularly. Please include the issue number of the magazine and your coupon code. WHY DOWNLOADS Software manufacturers have been requiring us to use online registration for some time now, but increasingly we’re being asked to provide the program as a download. In order to continue bringing you the best free software, we’ve revamped our download site. You need to use the unique code printed in…

THE AM1 RANGE contains AMD’s superbudget processors, designed for low-cost computers that are capable of simple tasks. Prices really are low: even the top-end Athlon 5350 costs less than £40. All the chips draw incredibly low amounts of power, and are rated at just 25W TDP. That’s a fraction of the power required by the high-end AM3+ chip. AMD has abandoned its usual cooler mount, creating a new one for AM1. The tiny chips don’t need as much cooling, and the new design means it’s possible to make smaller motherboards for smaller computers. We’re not overly impressed with the new cooler’s design, though. It uses just two clips diagonally opposite each other; they don’t make the cooler feel as secure as Intel coolers do, which use four clips. The instructions…

£140 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A superb enthusiast’s board, but only for those who are serious about overclocking THE LGA1150 ASROCK Z97 Extreme6 is a motherboard for high-end systems with overclocking at the very top of its ambitions. It uses the Intel Z97 chipset, meaning it has plenty of room for high-performance components and later expansion if required. Its UEFIBIOS isn’t as friendly to use as the menus found on cheaper, overclock-friendly motherboards, although there is an automatic mode that’s unhelpfully called ‘Advanced Turbo’. There were two options available for the Intel Core i5-4670K we were using: Advanced Turbo 20 or 30. The first mode, 20, overclocked the processor to 4.4GHz, giving it an overall score of 122 in our benchmarks, while mode 30 overclocked the processor to…

£32 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A very cheap microATX LGA1150 motherboard, but a very cramped design limits its appeal IF YOU’RE LOOKING to build a powerful but small media centre PC or compact workstation, the MSI H81M-P33 microATX LGA1150 motherboard certainly looks tempting, particularly at this low price. It has everything you need, although there are some design issues that compromise the board. The first issue is around the back of the board, where the rear-facing ports are so tightly packed together that some of them become unusable if a device is plugged in next to it. For example, the DVI port – which you’ll probably use if you choose not to install a PCI-E graphics card – is so close to the two USB3 ports they both…

RECOMMENDED £56 inc VAT • From www.lambda-tek.com VERDICT A competitively priced ATX FM2+ motherboard with plenty of room for future expansion THE FM2A88X PRO3+ is a low-cost but well-specified FM2+ ATX motherboard. It’s compatible with AMD FM2 and FM2+ sockets and there’s room for up to 64GB of RAM in the four memory slots. Even if you don’t want more than 8GB now, there’s space for future expansion with another two 8GB sticks. There are lots of PCI-E slots too, with two PCI-E x16 slots and three PCI-E x1 connectors. One of the PCI-E x16 slots runs at x16 speeds while the other runs at x4. The motherboard is compatible with AMD CrossFire but if you’re embarking on a proper gaming PC you’ll want a more expensive motherboard with a…

£80 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A well-built and generously specified microATX FM2+ board perfect for compact gaming PC builds THE MSI A88XM Gaming is an expensive motherboard compatible with AMD’s FM2+ and FM2 processors from the A-series and Athlon lines. It’s a microATX board, so should fit into more compact PC builds. Despite its size, it’s well designed and easy to work with. Some cheaper microATX boards cut costs by squeezing components into a smaller space, but MSI has used the microATX specification to its full advantage and filled the 244x244mm surface with a generous array of connectors. The four DDR3 RAM slots are rated for a maximum speed of 2,400MHz and a capacity of 64GB, so there’s lots of room for expansion. High-speed USB3 devices are served…

£75 inc VAT • From www.cclonline.com VERDICT A supremely well-constructed compact case that still feels spacious inside THERE’S A LOT to like about the Corsair Air 240. While it’s reasonably compact, it still manages to still feel spacious thanks to its efficient and thoughtful design. The case is a 397x260x320mm cuboid, and you have some flexibility in how you orientate your system. The Air 240 comes with adhesive rubber feet that you can attach to any of the three sides, so making your system a tower, either way up, or a flatter desktop-style PC. One of the Air 240’s side panels has a window and it looks particularly attractive with the window orientated on the top side, so showing off your components to the world. The case is incredibly well…

£60 inc VAT • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT The NZXT Source 340 has a clean, elegant design that feels sturdy and solid THE NZXT SOURCE 340 feels robust. It’s mainly made from steel, which gives it a sturdy build quality and is also pleasant to the touch. The front and side panels are glossy and there’s a choice of black or white models. Our black model looked particularly sleek. The top of the case has a matt metallic finish. Every part of the case feels well finished, and there’s no hint of sharp edges. The case’s cable management works well. Your power supply’s cables sit behind the motherboard tray, and you thread them through a vertical slot in front of the motherboard. There’s a vertical metal bar covering this slot equipped…

£41 inc VAT • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT Not the most exciting-looking case, but the PS11 is easy to work inside and great value IF YOU VALUE the sound of silence, a quiet PC case should be a top priority. To this end, the Quiet Precision PS11 has foam-padded side panels to dampen the sound of the internal components, as well as foam in the top and front of the case. The PS11 takes in air from the front via side intake vents rather than through a typical mesh front panel, and this also helps to minimise the noise. The PS11’s design isn’t the most exciting we’ve seen. It also feels slightly cheap, especially the plastic front panel. The side panels are made from steel and have bulges to make room…

AMONG THE MID-RANGE AMD GPUs we’ve tested, the R9 270X is the least expensive. This is based on the AMD Curacao XT GPU, which has 1,280 GPU cores and a stock 1GHz core speed. Moving up a notch, you have the Radeon R9 280, with its Tahiti Pro core, 1,792 GPU cores and stock 827MHz core speed. INDIVIDUAL CARDS We’ve tested two cards based on the R9 270X chipset: the Club3D Radeon R9 270X and the PowerColor PCS+ R9 270X. The Club3D card has had its clock speed tweaked to 1,080MHz, while the PowerColor version will boost from 1,060MHz up to 1,100MHz under load. The Club3D card is more compact than PowerColor’s model; it’s 216mm long rather than 242mm, so may be easier to fit if you have a very…

THE GEFORCE GTX 960 is a mid-range GPU, built for 1,920x1,080 gaming at 60fps with all graphics settings enabled. It uses similar Maxwell architecture to the GTX 750, but its redesigned GM206 GPU has 1,024 CUDA cores running at 1,127MHz. When thermal limits allow, these cores can boost up to 1,178MHz. The GPU is paired with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM via a 128-bit memory bus. This reduces the overall memory bandwidth compared to the 256-bit bus we see on AMD cards at this price, but the GM206 GPU is designed to use that bandwidth more efficiently than previous-generation Nvidia cards. In real world terms this bandwidth will be ample for playing most games at 1,920x1,080; it’s only when increasing resolutions beyond Full HD that memory bandwidth truly becomes a concern.…

The app tray is where you’ll find all your installed apps in alphabetical order. If you have lots of apps they’ll be spread across multiple screens; swipe from right to left to see more. Tap an app to open it, or press down and drag the icon to your home screen to create a shortcut (the app itself always stays in the app tray). You can find out more about the app by dragging it to the App Info button at the top of the screen. You can install more apps by opening the Play Store app and searching for what you want. Click the Install button to download the app to your device. You can also install apps using your PC’s browser; simply head to play.google.com, log in with…

Wi-Fi Essential but simple. From the list of available networks, pick the one you want and enter the password, if required. Tapping a network you’ve previously connected to gives you the option to Forget the network (handy if its internet connection isn’t working) or Connect to it. Bluetooth Turn Bluetooth on or off by tapping the switch at the top. Bluetooth is handy for connecting to devices such as wireless speakers and headsets, but it drains the battery so keep it off when not in use. At the top of the screen you’ll see a list of Paired devices; tap one to connect to it. Below this are Available devices; tap one to start pairing it and it will give you a code, if required, to enter on the other…

Hackers have been busy this year, successfully attacking a wide range of businesses including the stock market, gaming networks, internet advertising systems, military sites, high-street stores, restaurants, Coca-Cola, AOL, eBay, Sony and Domino’s Pizza. Victims even include celebrities, whose nude self-portraits are now available on the web. Some of those targets look like the stuff of Hollywood movies, while others appear to be very mundane. Why hack the Steam network, Domino’s Pizza or Coca-Cola? Do hackers want an unlimited supply of pizza, caffeine-laden drinks and computer games? Or is something more sinister afoot? Motivations vary, with some attackers claiming to be activists while others are well-hidden and more likely to be focused on stealing data for financial gain.This data could be personal information; company secrets (such as the secret formula…

No thanks, Sherlock Q A couple of years ago I opened a Facebook account, mainly to download photos uploaded by my daughter while she was in Australia. I recently discovered the search engine www.emailsherlock.com, which attempts to find a person from their email address, and tested it with my own address. It found my name and surname, as well as my photo, all of which it obtained from Facebook. This makes me wonder if there is any privacy on Facebook. Deactivating my Facebook account made no difference: EmailSherlock could still retrieve my details. I reactivated my account and changed the email address, and EmailSherlock didn’t find any details. Without changing my address back in Facebook, I tried searching again for my old address, and was surprised that my details were…

Android devices and music production generally don’t mix, as the operating system doesn’t provide the low latency required for real-time effects. There’s lots of talk online about low-latency audio drivers for Android, but nothing yet that looks to us like a proper solution. Until it’s built into the operating system it seems unlikely that app developers will want to expose themselves to the inevitable barrage of complaints from confused and angry customers. IK Multimedia may have found a way to sidestep the problem, though. At the time of writing its iRig UA had just been announced,which the company claims will offer guitar processing for Android devices with a latency of just 2ms. In fact, all the processing happens in the iRig UA hardware, with the AmpliTube UA app simply acting…

Chris Finnamore “An internet-enabled smart fridge that monitors when she’s low on sherry and puts in the Ocado order” David Ludlow “A Netflix subscription with a profile locked to period dramas” Tom Morgan “Calendar software, to remind her to remind me to buy her something next year” Richard Easton “Chromecast, so she can relive the EastEnders Bobby reveal over and over until it’s taken off iPlayer” Seth Barton “A VR headset, so she can live in a world where her son is as successful, rich and witty as she always hoped” Katharine Byrne “Yet another kitchen gadget, because a blender, juicer, mixer, microwave, bread-maker and coffee machine just aren’t enough” Michael Passingham “The Samsung Galaxy MagBook (available for just £9 at magbooks.com) to replace me as her smartphone consultant”…

Do you wish your computer was faster when booting and loading applications? Thanks to Crucial, you can achieve your dream of a faster PC or laptop with the MX100 SSD. The writer of our Star Letter will be awarded one of these solid-state devices, which can be installed in a desktop PC or a laptop. This super-fast SATA3 6Gbit/s SSD will make your computer boot incredibly quickly and make applications faster to load. With 256GB of storage space, there’s plenty of room for Windows and all your applications, too. PLUS We’re offering every reader who has a letter published and supplies their address a Computer Shopper ‘Ranter’ or ‘Raver’ mug.…

GOOGLE’S NEXUS 6 smartphone would have featured a fingerprint reader if it weren’t for Apple, according to Motorola’s former boss. The super-sized smartphone has a dimple on the rear that helps users grip the handset, but it was intended to be more than that. Dennis Woodside, former CEO of Motorola, which was bought and later sold by Google, says Apple scuppered the company’s plans to embed a fingerprint reader in the handset. “It was supposed to be fingerprint recognition, and Apple bought the best supplier,” Woodside told The Telegraph. “So the second-best supplier was the only one available to everyone else in the industry and they weren’t there yet.” Woodside claims the addition of the fingerprint reader “wouldn’t have made that big a difference” to the fortunes of the 6in…

CANON’S LATEST DSLR has one simple headline spec: a 50-megapixel sensor. The 5DS (and its sibling the 5DS R) can capture more detail than any previous DSLR. It’s a huge hike in resolution from the previous record holder, Nikon’s 36.3-megapixel D810. Canon hopes to bring medium-format picture quality to DSLRs, and for resolution it certainly matches the likes of Hasselblad. The resolution is more than double that of the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, which the 5DS closely resembles. The full-frame 50.6-megapixel sensor can generate images with an 8,788x5,792 resolution. With the right light and lens you should be able to make the most of the sensor. Canon also offers 1.3x and 1.6x crop modes, which let you reach out further with your lenses when shooting distant subjects. The high…

DIXONS CARPHONE AND Sky are set to add to the turmoil of the UK mobile market by launching their own virtual mobile phone networks. The as-yet-unnamed mobile network from Dixons is due to launch in the summer and will piggyback off the Three network, allowing customers to switch easily if they find their current deal doesn’t match their usage. “We will have something different from what is available elsewhere in the market with a more personalised service for the mobile customer that will let them tailor their price, minutes and data to their changing needs,” said the company’s Graham Stapleton in an interview with the Financial Times. Given that phones are often subsidised by the cost of the contract, it seems likely that Dixons will offer something similar to O2,…

01A basic laptop costing around £300 will run everyday office, multimedia and education software, but it won’t be suitable for 3D gaming. Many laptops at this price have a 15.4in case and weigh around 2.4kg, so they’re best used around the house and for occasional journeys. 02If you want to play modern games, you’ll need a laptop that has a dedicated graphics chip such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M. Good gaming laptops tend to have large 17in screens and weigh around 3kg, so they’re best suited to the home. 03 If you want a laptop that you can take everywhere, look for a model that weighs less than 2kg. For the best portability, look for one with an 11in or 13in screen. In general, the smaller and lighter the…

01 If you simply don’t have room in your home cinema setup for a set of surround-sound speakers, a soundbar is the next best thing. Whether you opt for a soundbar, which typically sits in front of your TV stand, or a soundplate, which sits underneath your TV, you’ll be getting significantly better audio than that provided by the weedy speakers inside today’s flatscreen TVs. 02 If you want to cut down on cable clutter, look for a soundbar with multiple HDMI inputs and outputs as well as Audio Return Channel (ARC). Not all soundbars use HDMI, with many making do with digital optical audio connections instead. This means you’ll have to connect Blu-ray players, games consoles and set-top boxes to your TV and run all the audio through a…

THE WITCHER IS a series that has remained under the radar of all but the most ardent action-RPG aficionados. The third game, Wild Hunt, looks set to change that. It’s an open-world RPG set in a medieval fantasy world, where you play Geralt of Rivia, one of a dwindling band of witchers, who have been genetically enhanced to become monster-slaying specialists. Geralt has a steel sword for fighting humans and a silver one for monsters; the combat system is pretty simple, with light and heavy attacks plus parries. Defensive and offensive magic lets you play with temporary defensive bubbles, traps that inflict area-specific damage on enemies and throwable bombs. Geralt has enhanced senses that let you track footstep trails, bringing an element of detective work to many missions. The Witcher…

Chat and Communication Digsby (Build 92) Access all your instant messaging services from one application; there’s support for Windows Live!, Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber. UPDATED Evernote 5.8.3 Store your notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and synchronise them between computers. UPDATED Mozilla Thunderbird 31.4 A powerful email client from the organisation best known for the Firefox web browser. Postbox Express 1.0.1 An email client that provides a comprehensive array of tools to help you manage your messages more easily. UPDATED Skype for Windows 7.1 Make internet voice and video calls for free, and buy credit to make calls to mobiles and landlines. Trillian 5.5.0.19 Use all your instant messaging accounts with one application; this program has support for Windows Live!, AIM, Yahoo! and Google Talk. Customisation…

ONE OF THE issues with Intel’s Haswell processors was that they weren’t that much faster than the previous generation. However, the company has looked to fix that with its Devil’s Canyon line of CPUs. ARCHITECTURE Although the internal architecture of Devil’s Canyon CPUs remains the same as it is for Haswell chips, Intel has used a new thermal interface material. This reduces the heat of the CPU, increasing how far the clock speed can be pushed. This is particularly important for the ‘K’ variety of the chips: when we tested the Core i7-4790K, we managed to push it to 4.7GHz using the stock Intel cooler. Turbo Boost technology lets the processor overclock itself when there’s enough thermal headroom; with Devil’s Canyon, the chips can boost higher for longer. Devil’s Canyon…

£195 inc VAT • From www.dabs.com VERDICT A good-value LGA2011-3 board that’s a great choice for enthusiasts AS WITH ALL X99-based motherboards, the X99-A has eight DDR4 memory slots that can accommodate up to 64GB of RAM, and it supports memory overclocked to 3,200MHz. As for expansion slots, the X99-A has four PCI-E x16 slots and two PCI-E x1 slots, but the first PCI-E x1 slot will be obscured if you fit a double-height graphics card, as many people will. Three of the PCI-E x16 slots conform to the PCI-E 3.0 standard, while the other is PCI-E 2.0 and runs a maximum speed of x4. It’s also worth noting that your choice of processor will have an effect on the speeds at which the PCI-E x16 slots run if you…

£101 inc VAT • From www.dabs.com VERDICT Keenly priced with great automatic overclocking, this is a well-priced entry-level LGA1150 motherboard THE LGA1150 ASUS Z97-E is a well-priced ATX board, with lots of room expansion both in terms of SATA storage and PCI-E hardware. With the Z97 chipset comes support for extremely high-performance storage including SATA Express (SATA 3.2) and M.2 flash storage. While the former is very much a form of future-proofing, you can buy M.2 flash storage today, although it’s expensive. The are six SATA3 connectors, including two that can also be used for SATA Express pointing awkwardly to the side, and four more facing forward at the bottom of the board. There are two PCI-E x16 slots 55mm apart. Individually they run at x16 speeds but if you…

£79 inc VAT • From www.dabs.com VERDICT A decent motherboard with lots of handy enthusiast features, but it’s a little expensive THE ASUS M5A97 Evo R2.0 is an AM3+ motherboard that has a lot of features that will please those who spend more time with their case’s side panel off than on. There are lots of connection ports, though on the back you get a measly two USB3 ports and a slightly more generous eight USB connectors. Luckily there are two more USB3 connectors on a mid-board header, which can be connected to your case’s USB3 ports. Also at the rear are two eSATA connectors and, most strangely, a FireWire connector. There’s also a full complement of six 3.5mm audio jacks and an optical audio port. Of the two PCI-E…

£48 inc VAT • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT A cheap and cheerful microATX FM2+ motherboard, but there isn’t much room for future expansion THE A68HM-PLUS IS a compact and basic microATX FM2+ motherboard for PC builders on a budget. Its price is attractive, but whether you’re willing to put up with its limitations will be down to your future ambitions. The small size means that you don’t get a lot of room for expansion. For starters, there are just two RAM slots. This means that you’ll realistically only ever be able to have 16GB of RAM, because 16GB DDR3 sticks are all but non-existent at the moment. Elsewhere, there are four SATA3 ports, with two facing to the right at the bottomright edge of the board and another two close by…

£29 inc VAT • From www.morecomputers.com VERDICT A decent microATX AM1 motherboard, but there are better-specified boards available for less AM1 MOTHERBOARDS ARE among the cheapest on the market, supporting AMD’s cheapest CPUs for low-power, low-cost PCs. ASRock’s AM1B-MDH microATX is actually one of the more expensive, although at under £30 – the cheapest are around £20 – it’s hard to complain. Your money gets you a basic motherboard with plenty of rear-facing ports, including four USB and two USB3 connectors. This should be more than enough for your peripherals, and even if it isn’t, the four USB headers will give you more ports if your case has them. There aren’t any USB3 headers, so you won’t be able to add front USB3 ports. On the rear are three video…

£99 inc VAT • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT The Silent Base 800 is well constructed and has plenty of space for expansion THE BE QUIET! Silent Base 800 is one of the biggest cases we’ve tested, so factor that in if you’re limited for space. Its size means there’s lots of space to work in and room for powerful components. You have 290mm of clearance to install a graphics card, which is enough for even the most powerful models. If space is still tight, you can remove one of the 3½in drive cages to give 400mm of clearance. The Silent Base 800 supports larger than average fans, which generate more airflow at lower speeds, reducing vibrations and noise. The front and side panels also have soundinsulating material to absorb vibrations, and…

£99 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT The Corsair Obsidian Series 450D is a clean, well-designed case with lots of space inside CORSAIR’S OBSIDIAN SERIES 450D midi-tower case uses a sleek combination of brushed aluminium on the front panel and steel elsewhere. It feels incredibly well made and there’s no hint of any unfinished surfaces, making it pleasant to use to build a PC. The side panel is dominated by a large window, so if you have attractive components or are a dab hand at cabling it’s easy to show off your work. The inside is spacious, with efficient airflow, and lots of mounting points for fans and liquid-cooling radiators. The case comes with two 140mm fans in the front and a 120mm fan in the rear. The front mount…

£144 inc VAT • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT The Enthoo Mini XL has a top-notch specification, but you certainly pay for it THE PHANTEKS ENTHOO Mini XL’s name is misleading, as it isn’t a small case. It may be designed for microATX motherboards, but at 260x480x550mm it’s as big as some full ATX cases. The Mini XL has aluminium faceplates and a steel chassis and feels well made. The Mini XL’s real appeal is to anyone who might want to disassemble and reassemble a case to their own specification, letting them set the case up for optimum airflow. For this reason it is mainly held together with screws instead of rivets. There are plenty of options for installing liquid-cooling radiators, too. The premium price means you’re not left wanting for accessories,…

THE MOST POWERFUL Nvidia-based card here is the GeForce GTX 970. Nvidia originally pitched the GTX 970 as a die-harvested derivative of the flagship GTX 980; this means the company would re-use chips that weren’t able to run at full GTX 980 speeds for the less powerful model, rather than let them go to waste. The GTX 970 was understood to have three fewer streaming processors than the GTX 980, meaning fewer texture units and a slower core clock speed, but it otherwise retained the same 4GB of GDDR5 memory and 2MB of L2 cache for accessing it. However, it turns out an error in the specification tables that went out to reviewers and board partners means this isn’t the case. Instead, one of the GTX 970’s four memory controllers…

Depending on your security settings (see page 121), your lock screen could be there to avoid accidental pocket calls, or it could be a serious barrier to fraud. Either way it usually shows the time and the same information as the home screen. Notification cards on the lock screen mean you can see who’s called or emailed you without having to unlock the phone. Double-tap on a card to go directly to the appropriate app to respond. At the bottom are three icons. Put your finger on the phone or camera in the corners and swipe out to go straight to the dialler or camera app. Swipe up from the lock icon on the bottom of the screen to unlock the phone and go to the home screen.…

Screen lock A Screen lock is undoubtedly the best way to secure your data. The default version of Android has four options for locking your screen, though only three are secure. Swipe is just that: you simply have to swipe the phone to unlock it. It stops you accidentally calling people or starting apps when the phone’s in your pocket, but not much else. Pattern and PIN are both popular, letting you swipe a quick pattern across nine dots onscreen, or simply punch in a four-digit number. You can also use a longer Password if you really feel those options aren’t secure enough. Once a Screen lock is set up, you can also add a Smart lock, which automatically unlocks your phone under certain circumstances. You can set up a…

A long way from the point-and-click hackers are those who truly understand how software and hardware work at a low level. These are the people who find security holes in the software we use on a daily basis. What they do once they find these holes depends heavily on their own motives. Some will report the hole to the developer of the affected software and expect at least credit or, ideally, a bounty. Companies that provide paid rewards include some banks and a range of companies as varied as Google, AT&T, Facebook, F-Secure, Instagram, Mozilla, PayPal, Samsung and Yahoo!. Another way to earn a living finding exploits is to sell them. Exploithub.com claims to be “the first legitimate marketplace for validated non-zero-day exploits”. The generally accepted definition of a zero-day…

Latency is an important but thorny issue for music production, and never more so when playing a guitar through an amp simulator effect. The clean sound goes into the device, is processed using various effects and then comes out again. The time it takes for this to happen is called latency, and high latency can make it completely impossible to play the instrument in time. On a Windows or Mac computer, setting latency is a dark art, with the computer’s hardware, the audio interface, the recording software, the number and complexity of plug-ins and the choice of audio driver type all having an influence. Set the latency too low and drop-outs occur, introducing clicks in the audio. Thankfully, it’s a lot easier on iOS devices, in so far as there’s…

BRAND AWARENESS Although ISIS is synonymous with a bunch of murderous gangsters, misguided marketers have recently used the name to try to flog household brands, including TV sets at Tesco, and a range of ceramics from HRH the Prince of Wales. Now Google is looking to buy the mobile payments company formerly known as ISIS for $100 million. ISIS was set up by T-Mobile and Verizon, although creating a global caliphate doesn’t seem to have been in their original plan. Nonetheless Zygote will keep tabs on Google for any news of it trying to buy other suspiciously named brands, including ETA Electronics, PROVO Hotels and KKK Turbochargers. MISSPRINT In a crafty patent application, Apple, the world’s most profitable corporation, is looking to extend its TouchID fingerprint recognition system. The company…

CONTACT LETTERS letters@computershopper.co.uk London W1T 4JD DOUBLE JEOPARDY Shortly after seeing the article on multiple monitors in Shopper 323, I had to update a few Excel worksheets. Seeing the benefit of having the worksheet and VB Editor windows on two monitors, and knowing I had a spare monitor in the loft, I went to a well-known auction website and bought a second-hand graphics card. Plugging this into a spare PCI slot, connecting the monitor and setting it up took minutes and, sure enough, splitting the windows across two monitors made debugging my Excel macros much easier. I don’t normally need a second monitor so I simply used the system with it powered off. Then January arrived and I had to go through my usual end-of-year tidying up, which involves updating…

BUILD YOUR OWN PC From page 78 we’ve tested the components you need to build your PC, and next month we show you how to put it all together. Whether you want a budget PC, a gaming powerhouse or something compact and quiet, we reveal the tricks you need to make a professional build and help you install the operating system you want ELECTION SPECIAL We find out how technology can improve our democracy, from voting and community engagement to MPs’ accountability DASHBOARD CAMERAS Protect yourself from insurance fraud and capture your cross-country jaunts with our selection of car dashcams ON SALE in newsagents from 16th April LIGHT PAINTING With a camera set to long exposure and some torches, you can create beautiful light paintings. We show you how DIY…

APPLE CEO TIM Cook has made some remarkable claims about the supposed health benefits of the forthcoming Apple Watch, claiming it will help wearers avoid what he called “the new cancer”. According to Cook, the Apple Watch, which is due to launch in April, will alert users if they’ve been inactive for a prolonged period of time. “If I sit for too long, it will actually tap me on the wrist to remind me to get up and move, because a lot of doctors think sitting is the new cancer,” Cook said during an interview at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference, according to The Guardian. “Ten minutes before the hour, it will remind you to move. We have a lot of people using the Apple Watch at Apple,…

BRITISH LEGAL CASES could soon be settled in an online court similar to the system used to settle disputes on eBay if proposals submitted by the Civil Justice Council in February are accepted. The virtual courtrooms could be used to settle civil claims of up to £25,000, and could mean cases being resolved without any human intervention, according to a report authored by Professor Richard Susskind, who says the system could be up and running by 2017. “When a conflict is handled using ODR [online dispute resolution], a traditional courtroom or hearing room is not employed,” explains Professor Susskind in the report. “Instead, the process of settling a dispute is entirely or largely conducted across the internet. In other words, dispute resolution services are made available as an online service.…

VIRGIN MEDIA HAS announced a huge new investment in cable broadband services in the UK. The £3bn of private investment connects around 4m homes and businesses to Virgin Media’s cable network, which should provide broadband speeds of at least 152Mbit/s. Virgin Media claims it’s the largest investment in the UK’s internet infrastructure in a decade. Dubbed ‘Project Lightning’, the initiative will take five years to complete, finishing in around 2020. In doing so Virgin Media will increase the number of properties connected to its network by around a third, up from the half of UK properties currently hooked up. That will mean nearly 17 million premises in the UK will be connected. Where exactly the service will be expanded is yet to be decided. However, you can register your need…

01 All tablets rely on an operating system (OS) to run apps. You have two main choices: Apple’s iOS, which runs on the iPad Air and iPad Mini, and Android, which Google licenses to various manufacturers. If you own an Apple or Google smartphone, you can download your apps, music and so on to a tablet that runs the same OS, so it makes sense to stick with a compatible device. There are also Windows RT tablets, which use a cut-down version of Windows 8, but they are much less common. 02 It’s important to pick a tablet that has a goodquality high-resolution screen. Many budget tablets have 1,280x800-resolution displays, but better tablets have Full HD 1,920x1,080 panels, and we’re starting to see tablets that have even higher screen resolutions.…

01 A network-attached storage (NAS) device lets you store media, documents and other files on its hard disks so that you can share them with others on your network. Some have disks already installed, while others are empty enclosures into which you install your own disks. You should buy one with a Gigabit Ethernet interface, as these provide the highest transfer speeds. To use a NAS device at these speeds, you’ll need computers with Gigabit Ethernet network adaptors and a Gigabit Ethernet switch or router. Computers with Fast Ethernet adaptors can still access the NAS device, but only at up to 100Mbit/s (12.5MB/s). 02 The amount of network storage you need depends on the types of files you use. If you want to store Word and Excel documents, for example,…

AMD’S A-SERIES processors are designed to offer brilliant all-round performance, with a high-quality CPU and GPU bundled together in one package. These processors consist of the FM2 and FM2+ processor models. They’re not as quick as the FX range in 2D tasks, but with high-quality graphics, they’re brilliant all-rounders if you don’t want to buy a dedicated graphics card. These chips are also extremely well priced, letting you build a powerful system on a tight budget. ARCHITECTURE The latest generation processors, codenamed Kaveri, use AMD’s Steamroller modules for the CPU and GCN 1.0 (Graphics Core Next) units for the GPU. Kaveri processors will only work with an FM2+ motherboard. Kaveri was pre-dated by the Richland and Trinity generation of processors, and both of these will work with FM2 or FM2+…

£180 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A terrific-value LGA2011-3 motherboard with all the expansion and overclocking features you could want THE ENTHUSIAST COMPUTING market peaks with Intel’s powerful and eye-wateringly expensive Haswell-E processors. Accordingly, the motherboard market has responded with a selection of ultra-expensive LGA2011-3 boards. However, there are some great boards on offer for under £200, too, and MSI’s X99S SLI Plus is one of the most keenly priced. While the MSI X99S SLI Plus costs less than its rivals, there’s still plenty to like. It has 10 SATA3 ports and supports 128GB of DDR4 RAM overclocked to 3,333MHz. There are plenty of USB ports, with eight USB3 ports (plus four further headers) and two USB ports (plus four headers). The motherboard’s UEFIBIOS is relatively straightforward for newcomers,…

£51 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A compact LGA1150 motherboard for a reasonable price, but it is quite basic MICROATX MOTHERBOARDS ARE great for building smaller PCs and they’re often a lot cheaper than full-sized ATX boards, at the expense of some features and ports. Even so, there’s generally enough expansion for most people, as the Asus B85M-G shows. You get a total of four USB3 connectors, with two at the rear of the board and two mid-board for connecting to the front panels of your case. A further four USB ports are at the rear, with another four at mid-board. There are also four SATA3 connectors, but only one of them faces upwards, with the other three off to the side. If your microATX case is very compact…

£50 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT The MSI 970A-G43 is a cheap AM3+ motherboard with all the features you could want for a modest build THE MSI 970A-G43 is an ATX AM3+ board for AMD FX processors. It uses the AMD 970 and SB950 chipsets designed to make the most of eight-core processors, so we kitted ours out with an octa-core, 4GHz AMD FX-8350 chip to see what the board is capable of. We ran our 4K multimedia benchmarks with the processor clocked at stock speeds, and it managed an overall score of 99. Go to the UEFIBIOS, click the OC Genie II button and the motherboard automatically alters your processor and RAM clock speeds to what it thinks will be a stable overclock. It clocked our RAM to…

£64 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A good-value FM2+ motherboard that does the basics without any fuss, but there’s no automatic overclocking THE GA-F2A88X-D3H is a mid-range ATX AMD FM2+ motherboard with just about everything you’ll need for a moderately specified PC build. It supports AMD processors using either the FM2 or FM2+ socket and it uses the A88X chipset. It’s a spacious board to work on, with all the headers and ports spread nicely around. There are only two USB3 ports at the rear, but there are two further headers on the board if your case has spare ports. You get a total of eight slower USB connectors, with four on the back and four additional headers. You’ll have no problem connecting all your peripherals, but you’ll need…

£24 inc VAT • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A superb-value microATX AM1 motherboard with all the features you could ask for and a great price AM1 MOTHERBOARDS ARE about as basic as you can get, but if you’re looking to build a tiny PC designed for the simplest of tasks, they’re great value. The MSI AM1M is one of the cheapest AM1 boards on the market, and has an easy-to-use and fairly spacious design. The microATX board measures just 226x173mm. Normally this would make for a cramped board, but the inherent simplicity of the AM1 platform means there aren’t an awful lot of ports and connectivity to squeeze into this small, rectangular space. The rear of the board has all the USB and video outputs you could want at this price,…

£90 inc VAT • From www.box.co.uk VERDICT The Pandora looks great and its compact size will be a bonus where space is at a premium THE MICROATX BITFENIX Pandora cuts a svelte figure. Its curved front contrasts with its precise straight edges and the case is wonderfully slim. There are large power and reset buttons on the top with two USB3 ports that are easy to access, next to the standard headphone and microphone jacks. The Pandora is made from aluminium and steel. It looks great, but the brushed aluminium side panels surprisingly feel a little cheap. There’s a large viewing window to show off your components and PC building skills. The front hides a small 2.4in 240x320 programmable display that you can customise with any icon you want. By…

£27 inc VAT • From www.cclonline.com VERDICT The Cougar Spike is a reasonable case for those on a tight budget AT £27, THE Cougar Spike may appeal to PC builders on a modest budget. In truth, the low price is a fair reflection of its build materials, which feel cheap. It does mean the case itself is very light for its dimensions, at just 4.2kg. The Spike won’t appeal to those who appreciate a clean, uncluttered design, but we rather liked its aggressive styling. The vents at the front are hidden behind a geometric pattern, and the Cougar badge in the middle looks like a homage to an Italian supercar. Cougar describes the Spike as a gaming tower, and this seems apt as the case can accommodate a graphics card…

£46 inc VAT • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT An inexpensive compact case, but it’s not particularly good-looking or easy to work in THE SHARKOON CA-M is a compact box that’s inconspicuous enough to be hidden away next to your TV or hi-fi. There aren’t any fancy windows built into the side panels and it all looks rather basic and industrial. The case is made from aluminium, and is light at just 1.8kg. It has a matt brushed metal design with rounded front corners, but this rounded finish doesn’t extend to the rear corners, which are sharp and feel unfinished. On the top of the case are two USB3 ports, and the front panel has two USB and separate microphone and headphone jacks. There’s lots of clearance between all the ports, so…

THE RADEON R7 250 is the cheapest AMD GPU capable of playing modern games at 1,920x1,080 at reasonable detail levels. The R7 250 can get all the power it needs from the PCI Express socket, so doesn’t need an extra PCI Express power connector. A standard R7 250, such as the Sapphire R7 250, is based on the AMD Oland XT architecture, with 384 GPU cores and a core 1GHz clock speed. Confusingly, Sapphire’s passively cooled Radeon R7 250 is actually a rebranded Radeon HD 7750, so is based on the Cape Verde Pro core, with 512 GPU cores and a clock speed of 800MHz. This architecture is a couple of years old, but as we show in our graphs on page 114, the GPU can still hold its own…

THE GEFORCE GTX 750 was the first Nvidia GPU to use Nvidia’s new energy-efficient Maxwell architecture, which replaces the previous Kepler designs. The company claims that each Maxwell core can deliver greater performance than an equivalent Kepler core, as well as twice the performance per watt. The GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti reference design is so power-efficient that many cards can operate purely on the power from a PCI-Express x16 slot, without needing any extra power connectors. Each card draws a maximum 60W from the PCI-Express bus, meaning you’ll only need a 300W power supply and an empty PCI-Express x16 slot to upgrade; AMD’s closest rival in terms of performance, the Radeon R7 260X, requires a 6-pin power connector. The main difference between the GTX 750 and the GTX…

Filter a spreadsheet Q I use Excel 2010 to store information related to people’s names. Column A contains the names, and Column B is for entering data about the person. The names aren’t in alphabetical order (the sort criteria is determined by other factors), which causes a problem: when I want to enter data, I have to scan through the entire column. Is there a way to filter and search the spreadsheet, so that I can quickly jump to the person I want to edit? Richard Grant A Yes, Excel has the feature you need. Select the range of cells containing your data, including the title at the top. On the Data tab, click Filter in the Sort and Filter group. To find a particular name, click the drop-down Filter…