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C U STO M P C / ISSUE 214

08 The graphics gap Richard Swinburne ponders where the graphics has gone in Nvidia’s upcoming Graphics Technology Conference.

10 A token gesture NFTs are the talk of the town, and while much of what they’re being used for seems dubious, they could find a fun place in gaming.

20 NZXT N7 B550 NZXT is trying to make inroads into the motherboard market, and this stylish white B550 board certainly makes an impact.

26 Antec DF700 FLUX Antec’s new sub-£100 case packs in an astonishing amount of features for its lowly price.

30 Corsair K65 RGB Mini Corsair enters the 60 per cent keyboard market with this stylish and tiny keyboard.

32 Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro Low profile and lightweight but with all the performance you’d expect from a high-end mechanical keyboard.

Highlights

ContentsWelcome to Issue 214

94 Off the chain Gareth Halfacree reviews possibly the smallest games console in the world

– The FunKey S is so small it will fit on your keyring!

100 Power saving? Pah! Some enthusiasts are making too much fuss about power consumption when it comes to judging the latest PC components, argues Antony Leather.

102 How to guides Antony Leather shows you how to etch designs into your case’s glass side panels, as well as how to engrave the metal parts of your case.

108 Sweet sixteen The step up to 16-colour EGA graphics in the 1980s was a revolution for PC gaming. Stuart Andrews looks back at its history.

110 PC in a CRT János Kerekes finds a new home for an all-in-one PC inside the shell of an old Sony Trinitron CRT monitor.

42 Budget gaming monitors Edward Chester puts several of the latest affordable gaming displays through their paces.

52 Compact containers Find the perfect home for your tiny mini-ITX system with our Labs test of eight mini-ITX cases.

71 Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part Two The latest expansion to the excellent Doom Eternal is another fantastic slice of demon-dominating fun.

78 Overclocking masterclass Antony Leather teaches you everything you need to know about overclocking the latest AMD and Intel CPUs.

88 How many cores do you need for gaming? Games haven’t tended to benefit that much from CPUs with more than two cores, but what’s the latest situation? We investigate.

COVERSTORY

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THE BEST-SELLING MAG FOR PC HARDWARE, OVERCLOCKING, GAMING & MODDING / ISSUE 214

ASS

CORE VALUES HOW MANY CORES DO YOU NEED FOR GAMING?

HOW TO ETCH YOUR CASE’S GLASS SIDE PANEL

MAKE YOUR CPU FASTER

24IN GAMING MONITOR GROUP TEST

PLUS

MINI-ITX CASES

RETRO TECH EGA PC GAMING IN 16 COLOURS

TWEAK OLD AND NEW CHIPSOVERCLOCK SOME OR ALL CORESSETTINGS FOR INTEL AND AMD CPUS

LEARN ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

MASTERCLOVERCLOCKINGFOR FREE

JULY 2021 JULY 2021 // £5.99 £5.99

ISSUE 214

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Cover guide

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102

Reviewed MOTHERBOARDS 18 Gigabyte Z590i Vision D20 NZXT N7 B550

CPU COOLERS24 be quiet! Silent Loop 2

CASES26 Antec DF700 FLUX

MONITORS28 Dell S3220DGF

KEYBOARDS30 Corsair K65 RGB Mini31 Corsair K70 TGB TKL32 Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro

PC SYSTEMS34 CyberPower Infinity X119 GT36 PC Specialist Torva Elite R

Custom kit38 G-Lab K-Pad Thorium38 Lifesaver Power Bank38 Asus ROG Wrist Rest39 Ugears Foldable Phone Holder39 ADATA SE900G USB SSD

24in monitor Labs43 AOC 24G2U44 AOC C24G2U45 Asus TUF Gaming VG24VQ46 BenQ Mobiuz EX271047 iiyama G-Master GB2466HSU48 iiyama G-Master GB2470HSU49 LG UltraGear 24GN60050 MSI Optix G241

Mini-ITX case Labs53 Cooler Master NR200P54 Jonsbo A455 Kolink Rocket Heavy56 Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini57 Phanteks Evolv Shift 258 SilverStone LD03-AF60 SilverStone Sugo 1561 Streacom DA2 V2

Games71 Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part Two72 Evil Genius 274 Mundaun75 Breathedge

Hobby tech94 Solo V296 FunKey S98 Retro Computer Colouring Book

38 PRODUCTS REVIEWED

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Regulars

3 From the editor

8 Richard Swinburne

10 Tracy King

12 Incoming

14 Letters

38 Custom kit

62 How we test

64 Elite products

70 Inverse look

76 Reality check

94 Hobby tech

99 For the win

100 Customised PC

102 How to guides

107 Folding@home

108 Retro tech

110 Readers’ drives

114 James Gorbold

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