Repair Like A Professional

A broken notebook doesn’t have to be repaired at a repair shop. Our experts will tell you what kind of minor damages you can repair yourself and what you need to look out for when doing so

Notebooks keep on outstripping conventional PCs, becoming so popular because they accommodate a computer with all peripherals plus battery in a compact body. But the high degree of integration increases the susceptibility to errors and complicates repairs. Furtheremore, the trend of thinner and lighter laptops aggravates the situation. With more affordable ultrabooks, special components or components soldered onto the motherboard are used, user-friendly screws replaced by adhesives and the weightsaving design is rarely the most robust one. Therefore, many notebook owners do not dare to repair the notebooks themselves. In view of higher costs and long processing times by the manufacturers service centre, Some end up buying new notebooks instead of repairing their current one.

Tinker Board

Asus’s new computer blows raspberries at its British rival

What is it?

A new single-board computer that’s being touted as a serious rival to the hugely popular (and British-made) Raspberry Pi. Made by Taiwanese company Asus, it runs a customised version of Linux – like the Pi – and is the same credit-card size.

Intel Core i7-7700K

Here we have it, the premier consumer enthusiast chip from Intel’s seventh generation of processors: Kaby Lake. The Core i7-7700K is the replacement for the Skylake family’s Core i7-6700K, and is a fully unlocked quad-core CPU with each core running at 4.2GHz with a 4.5GHz Turbo Boost clock.

It’s important to appreciate the extent of Skylake’s success since launching a couple of years ago and, in turn, the weight of expectation that Kaby Lake chips such as the Core i7-7700K carry on their pin-freckled shoulders. Architectural improvements to the Broadwell generation’s 14nm manufacturing process made for even more power-efficient processors, which both paved the way for a host of long-lasting yet reasonably powerful laptops and 2-in-1s, and enabled enhanced performance for desktops.

Skylake thus became the only kind of CPU worth bothering with, except for the occasional budget PC build. For portability, gaming or getting serious work done, however, Intel dominated, and will likely continue to do so until AMD finally launches its much-anticipated Ryzen chips.

Joy Division

Part console, part handheld: can Nintendo Switch put the house of Mario back on top?

The first real moment of magic comes, inevitably, in Breath Of The Wild. Disappointed as we are by Nintendo’s decision to set Link’s Switch coming-out party in  the same area of the game as E3 2016’s Wii U demo – this is our fourth playthrough of the new Zelda game’s opening section – that’s not really what we’re here for. After pottering around as Link, using the new Pro controller, for a few minutes, it is time: we slide the Switch from its dock and, instantly, the biggest Zelda game to date is running on a 6.2-inch screen in our palms. We have played bigscreen games on handheld displays before, of course, but the transition has never been so elegant, the results never so natural in the hands. A few minutes later the process is reversed, the tablet returned to its base station, the action returning seamlessly to the TV, resuming as quickly as we can pick up the Pro controller.

Sinclair Resurge Ltd

The ZX Spectrum is back – and there’s no need to dig out your tape recorder

Have you ever wondered what inspires Bossa Studios to dream up oddball games such as I Am Bread? Look no further than gamer-in-chief Henrique Olifiers, who had his childhood mind scrambled by eccentric ZX Spectrum games such as Jet Set Willy.

Intel Core i5-7600K

Third time lucky with 14nm

Pull up a seat, and get comfortable. The following is gonna get philosophical, maybe even a little epistemological. The new Intel Core i5-7600K is very cool, you see. But it’s also kinda crappy.

BBC micro:bit

A tiny computer for play and more

The Raspberry Pi showed that a simple circuit board could inspire more digital creativity than a full-blown PC. Hobbyists, kids and professionals alike have been using the Pi for nearly five years now to program gadgets, games, robots and all kinds of video, music and automation projects. The BBC micro:bit serves similar purposes, but with some notable differences.

Lenovo Yoga 900S

The novelty’s wearing thin

The ‘S’ in the name might stand for ‘slim’: at 12.8mm, this touchscreen laptop-tablet hybrid is one of the skinnier options. It’s also light, shaving 300g off of the Yoga 900, Lenovo’s top-end model. This is the company that took over IBM’s laptop division, so although it’s become known for its endless variety of budget two-in-one hybrids, it also wants to sell durable mid-range systems to people who don’t mind spending a bit extra for quality. And quality is what you see when you open the box.

Building A PC For The Future

Mark Pickavance talks about things you might well want to consider if you're considering building a PC in the next six months

There was a time that choosing the parts for a new PC was remarkably simple, because the choice was so limited. When Intel launched the i486, it only made two versions initially: 25MHz and 33MHz models.

These days, the opposite is true, and you're the confronted with a relatively huge range of processors, memory, GPU and motherboards that are widely available.

With so many options, it's difficult to know where to start. I created this small feature to show people preparing to build a new PC what things they might want to consider including and the things they could probably leave out. My suggestions won't fit every scenario, but they should help anyone building something new to strike a decent balance between what’s useful now and what could be ideal further down the road.

But first, let's talk about processors and the best choices for those who want longevity for their system.

Samsung 960 Pro 1TB

Samsung makes some scorching hot hardware, but not in the Galaxy Note 7 way

Dо you recall when the PC transitioned from IDE to SATA? Then most motherboards came with both ports, and I recall looking at IDE and wondering why they still existed.

SATA was so superior that, other than for legacy reasons, IDE became pointless practically overnight. I'm saying this since the new Samsung 960 Pro M.2 makes me view SATA ports in precisely the same way.

Are Cheap SSDs A False Economy?

Is it wise to stick to the cheaper side of the expensive solid-state market?

Although prices are dropping for SSDs and have dropped quite some way over the last couple of years, compared to the prices of traditional spinners or HDDs, solid state is still very expensive. This isn’t by a small margin, either. The price difference is large, and you can buy spinner hard disks with three or four times the capacity as a same-priced SSD. If you’re looking for storage, this makes the older hard disk option by far more attractive.

Refurbished Laptops Guide

How can you get the best deal on used systems?

Buying a refurbished system or refurbishing your own, is fairly simple when you’re talking about desktop PCs or simple consumer electronics like tablets and phones. But what about if you’re after a cheap laptop? They’re harder to repair and clean, and virtually impossible to outfit with new hardware outside of a few small elements. So what can you do, and what should you look for?

Over the next few pages, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about getting your hands on a refurbished laptop – and what you should expect to find if you want one.

Understanding Graphics Cards

If you’re thinking of buying a new graphics card, it pays to understand all of that jargon

One of the most high profile upgrades in the PC market has to be the graphics card. If you’re into games it’s an essential purchase, and one that requires inevitable upgrades as the technology and games become more and more advanced. Other users like graphic designers and animators also need good visual hardware, albeit often specialised, and not the same breed as most consumer models.

What Specification Is Required For Gaming?

Games really push today's PCs, so we look at what even the most modest gamer needs to have in their system

Games have always been a great benchmark of home computing power. Although the mighty CG mainframes we read about or powerful servers with multiple CPUs may take the cake in terms of pure mathematical muscle or rendering capability, when it comes home PCs, it's videogames that often push the platform. Indeed, the advance in PC power in general may have never come as far as it has without gaming pushing the envelope. Thanks in part to this entertainment hobby, we're graced with powerful video cards, masses of RAM and much better audio quality, so much so that many believe the home PC is the ultimate gaming platform. Indeed, in terms of technology, that really can't be denied.

Roccat Skeltr

A clever keyboard to unite the PC and the mobile device

Roccat's impressive range of peripherals has expanded recently with the arrival of the Skeltr, a keyboard that wjas originally announced a couple of years ago. It is designed to unite the mobile and PC platforms, with a set of features you won't find from any other manufacturer.

At first glance, it's a large (520 x 250 x 30mm - including detachable wrist rest) membrane keyboard with five programmable macro keys to the far left of the keyboard and a further three programmable profile keys located under the space bar. It is RGB backlit, allowing a combination of 16.8 million colours in a variety of effects and setups. It has a 1000Hz polling rate, 512KB of memory and a 32-bit ARM CPU helping to drive its many functions and features.

Western Digital My Cloud Pro Series PR2100 16TB

Western Digital goes all out for performance with their Pro Series PR2100

Western Digital's NAS solutions have been getting progressively better since it entered this sector and gradually polarised its range into home and business-oriented solutions. The new My Cloud Pro Series builds on previous designs by delivering more compact and refined offerings, in the form of the four-bay PR4100 and dual drive PR2100 reviewed here. The review system came with two of the latest WD RED 8TB drives pre-installed, though you can buy this unit with smaller capacities or as a bare system if you don't need the 16TB of potential drive space on offer.

Kingston KC400 SSD

Performance and enterprise class features? Sounds good to us

The recently released Kingston SSDNow for Business range consists of three main drives: the V300, KC380 and the KC400.

The KC400 and, indeed, the SSDNow for Business line is designed for enterprise client workloads, delivering constant performance and a high degree of stability for use in mission critical systems.

TP-Link Archer VR600 AC1600 Broadband Modem/Router

TP-Link gets practical about ac class wi-fi on its latest router

A few weeks ago, I reviewed TP-Link’s Archer VR2600, a router of mythic proportions. And now I’m back with its more calorie-conscious little brother, the Archer VR600, and it seems a generally more desirable proposition.

For less than £100, TP-Link plies you with a full VDSL modem, four gigabit Ethernet ports, dual USB ports and AC1600 wi-fi.

Chieftec Eco GPE-500s

A PSU designed to keep users and polar bears happy

Recently, Chieftec announced the release of a new line of power supply units: the Eco range. As you can expect from the name, these are PSUs that adhere to strict environmental values and are all present and correct where European standards are concerned.

Chillblast Fusion Nitro Family PC

A nice-looking, good all-rounder

The Fusion Nitro is a good example of an affordable desktop PC, with its own particular set of benefits and compromises. Its tower case is eye-catching, with Star Wars styling and the obligatory LED-lit window in the side. Chillblast – one of the leading system builders in the UK these days – has filled it with components that will satisfy a tight budget and broad requirements.