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Feature: Another good omen?
The new HP Omen 15 could be the gaming laptop to end all laptops
Out of all the gaming laptops I've tested so far, there have been very few that have justified their often extortionate prices. In fact, the only one I'd consider buying myself right now is Dell's Alienware 13 - and even that's not completely free of flaws. But after seeing the new HP Omen 15 laptop in the flesh, it looks like we might finally have…
When you think of Elgato, the first thing that probably comes to mind are their video capture doodads with the many cables and names like HD60. If you're an avid Twitch streamer, though, you may be more au fait with their many-buttoned Stream Deck controller instead. Well, it's the latter family Elgato are growing today, as they've just announced the arrival of the Stream Deck…
Feature: For those on a shoestring budget
As much as I love the Acer Predator XB241H, I appreciate that not everyone has close to £400 / $400 to spend on a 24in 1920x1080 gaming monitor. Fortunately, there are plenty of other 24in screens out there that cost a heck of a lot less. Case in point: BenQ's GW2480 goes for just £123 / $150. What's more, it also looks way less 'gamery'…
Feature: Devil in the details
It’s the little details that make HP’s new Omen Sequencer keyboard and Reactor mouse so great
I won't lie. When HP announced a string of new Omen peripherals at this year's Computex show in Taiwan, the thing that really caught my eye was its supposed ear-cooling gaming headset. It even had a cool-sounding name and everything. The HP Omen MINDFRAME. Sadly, that was the one thing missing from the HP Omen demo day I went to last week. I did, however,…
Feature: Happy hunting
If you like your clacky keyboards, Razer's new Huntsman is going to be right up your street. This thing is LOUD. Much louder, I'd say, than any other keyboard I've tested so far, and I'd probably even go as far as saying it's clickier and clackier than the Cherry MX blue switches found in mechanical keyboards like the Fnatic Streak and HyperX Alloy Elite. This…
Feature: A 24in 1920x1080 gaming monitor that's hard to beat
After testing what seems like 387,001 monitors with AMD FreeSync support, I've finally got another honest-to-goodness Nvidia G-Sync one on my desk today, the Acer Predator XB241H - and boy, it's a good 'un. Part of Acer's XB1 range, this particular incarnation is the 24in, 1920x1080, TN model. It also comes as a 24in, 2560x1440 jobber and several different permutations with 27in, 28in and 32in…
Some motherboards go in all for LEDS; others, like Asus' TUF motherboards, opt for a more rugged, industrial kind of look – which can make buying RAM for the latter a bit of a nightmare if you can't stand the idea of blinking rainbows or, heaven forbid, even the smallest dash of colour interfering with your PC's serious military vibe. Well, today I bring good…
Feature: Deal or no deal
This year's Amazon Prime Day is almost at an end. At midnight tonight, Amazon's big day o' deals will be over for another year (or, you know, until Black Friday in November), so if you had a look at the deals yesterday and thought, 'Hmm... I could do with a new SSD or graphics card', then you've still got time to pick one up. I know Amazon is…
Feature: Solid state of the art
Buying an SSD can be a nightmare when there are so many models to choose from, but the good news is that there's never been a better time to buy one, as prices are down (especially if you're eyeing up Amazon Prime Day deals right now) and availability is high - which is why we're here to help you in your quest to find the best gaming SSD…
Feature: An inspired choice of gaming laptop?
Dell Inspiron G5 15 review: GTX 1060 power for less than a grand
Try looking for Dell's Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming laptop series these days and you'll likely find they've been scrubbed from the internet. That's because they've now been replaced by Dell's new (and infinitely easier to parse) Inspiron G series, one of which I've got on test here today - the Inspiron G5 15. Now packing proper Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake CPUs, Dell's new Inspiron…
Lian Li’s bonkers Strimer RGB power cable is now up for pre-order
Just when you thought PCs had reached their maximum RGB capacity, case maker Lian Li has only gone and plonked another 12 of them straight onto your PSU's main power cable. First announced at this year's Computex show in Taiwan, Lian Li hope their new Strimer RGB cable will bring yet another taste of the rainbow to your beloved tower - and it's now available for pre-order.
Feature: Word of mouse
Steelseries Rival 310 review: The best gaming mouse under £50
These days, it seems like any half-decent gaming mouse requires at least fifty of your fine British pounds or sixty of your finest American dollars. That's still a lot more than I'm willing to fork out in most cases, but sometimes, I admit, it can be worth the extra expense - such as the Asus ROG Gladius II (£68 / $80) and its handy, dedicated…
The July discounts continue this week, this time on the rather good Samsung 860 Evo SSD. Currently our top recommendation in our best gaming SSD rankings, you can now grab a 250GB 860 Evo for as little as £66 in the UK, or a mere £105 for the 500GB version, the latter of which also bags you a free copy of The Crew 2.
Feature: Vim and vigor
When MSI sent me their Vigor GK80 mechanical keyboard earlier in the year, I was only able to test the version that came with red Cherry MX switches. You may recall, however, that it's also available with silver Cherry MX switches as well. Well, now I can finally give you a proper verdict on which one's better, as the silver Vigor GK80 has just arrived…
Feature: GPUs and HDR explained
What graphics card do I need for HDR and what PC games support it?
HDR on PC is a bit of a mess, but provided you haven't been put off by Windows 10's hazy support for it or the astronomical prices of the best gaming monitors for HDR, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get a graphics card that actually supports it. Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD…
Feature: Our HDR guide has it all
If you've thought about buying a new TV in the last couple of years, you'll no doubt have been bombarded with the glorious three-letter acronym that is HDR. Standing for 'High Dynamic Range', HDR is a type of display technology that's all about making the things you see onscreen more realistic and closer to how they'd look in everyday life. That means improved contrast, a…
Get £400 off the Alienware 17 laptop today, plus loads of other Dell deals this week
Back when I wrote about other bits of tech, July was always the month where everyone was desperate to show you what goodies they intended to stuff down your stocking come the end of the year. Christmas in July, they called it, and it was downright depressing. Now, however, it seems to be morphing into more of a Black Friday in July kind of deal, as we…
Feature: Return of the king, or nostalgia gone too far?
Nostalgia for utilitarian late-90s/early noughties PC accessories: truly, this is the darkest timeline. And I am its villain, for it was I who felt a tingle of absurd fondness when Katharine announced that the Microsoft Classic Intellimouse, a physically almost identical remake of the Windows gang's once-ubiquitous USB mouse, had arrived atop her trembling tower of plastic and cabling. It was I who proffered the…
Feature: Take Five
Acer Nitro 5 review: A budget gaming laptop with one massive flaw
'Gaming laptops' and 'cheap' aren't words that normally go together. Decent machines need well over a grand to be sunk on them. But Acer’s Nitro 5 is a stab at making a budget laptop gaming around the £800 / $900 mark. At that price, you get an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor (you'll have to wait for one of Acer's Predator Helios laptops before we get a proper 8th…
Feature: Anything but the B-team
Asus ROG Strix B360-F Gaming review: A great foundation for Intel Coffee Lake PCs
When Intel first introduced their 8th Gen Coffee Lake CPUs, anyone looking to upgrade their processor only had a single choice of motherboard chipset: the rather expensive Z370. Mercifully, Intel have now expanded their 300-series family to encourage budget builders to make the jump too - and the B360 chipset is one of them. To find out if it's any cop against pricier motherboards, I've got…
