Minetest: an open source Minecraft alternative

David Briddock compares this free block-based sandbox with its more famous Microsoft-owned rival

Microsoft’s recent $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, resulted in an outpouring of dismay, uncertainty and confusion within the huge and fiercely loyal Minecraft community.

To allay fears, Microsoft released statements saying its intention is to keep Minecraft just as it is. After all, it says, doing anything that upsets the Minecraft community would be foolish – not to mention a huge waste of money. However, as 2015 begins to unfold, Microsoft’s long-term plans for Minecraft are still unclear.

Dino PC Phoenix 17.3in GTX 980M SLI Gaming Laptop

We're used to gaming laptops that compromise in order to balance temperature, cost, weight and battery life, but Dino PCs latest Phoenix laptop casts aside notions of balance. It deploys two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs in SLI to deliver maximum gaming power.

Each GPU has 1,536 stream processors, a core clock of 1,038MHz and a boost speed of 1,127MHz, and each has 8GB of GDDR5 memory clocked to 5,000MHz (effective). The GTX 980M also uses the GM204 architecture - the same Maxwell hardware that underpins the desktop GTX 970 and 980 cards.

Arctic Accelero S3

Thanks to improving thermal efficiency, graphics cards sport a huge variety of coolers these days, with some recent GeForce GTX 960 and GTX 970 cards using semi-passive coolers that only spin up their fans during games. Arctic, though, claims its aftermarket GPU cooler, the Accelero S3, offers a passive experience even during games.

It won't cope with a GTX 980, but with a 135 W TDP limit, a 120W GTX 960 should be surmountable. The Accelero S3 is also compatible with a range of other graphics cards although some, such as the GTX 650 Ti, should only be used in well-ventilated cases. It can also be used to cool much more powerful models, but requires an optional fan module to boost cooling.

SteelSeries Siberia V3

If you've been into PC gaming for any length of time, you may well be familiar with SteelSeries Siberia headset. It's been a mid-range staple in the market for more years than we care to remember, and the V3 version here is an update to the V2 version.

Given the Siberia's popularity, it's understandable that SteelSeries hasn't radically tinkered with the formula. The V3 sports the same all-plastic construction of its predecessor, and opts for a similar floating headband arrangement too. This headband has been tweaked and slimmed down slightly, though, helping the headset to tip the scales at only 255g.

The PC modder’s guide to 3D printing

If you’re a PC modder, or if you’ve ever wanted to print small objects that you just can’t find anywhere else, 3D printing can be very useful. Antony Leather looks at what types of printers are available, how to design and print your own objects, and why owning a 3d printer can be worthwhile.

While they’ve yet to become as popular as inkjet printers, 3D printers have certainly captured a lot of headlines recently. Sending design files for wrenches into space for astronauts to print out is all very well, but many printer manufacturers would also really like to see their machines in the home, in the hands of hobbyists. The machines are certainly becoming more affordable, with DIY kits now available for less than £250.

Gizmo 2

Tо say the world of hobbyist-orientated, single-board computers is monopolised by ARM's multitudinous licensees is no exaggeration: from the freshly announced Raspberry Pi 2 through to the Nvidia Jetson TK1, the overwhelming majority of boards use a variant of the ARM architecture for their processor. The majority, but not all; the Gizmo Explorer Kit, an open-hardware creation built in partnership with AMD, was one famous exception that has now received an update.

The first factorto note about the Gizmo2 is that it no longer comes as a bundle package. The original Gizmo board was available exclusively as a kit put together by embedded development expert Sage Electronics. Buyers got a prototyping board that connected to a low-speed expansion header, and a time-limited JTAG debugger probe hat required registration to use beyond the first 24 hours.