Muscle memory myths

It’s tempting to always get the biggest and fastest memory kit, but how much RAM do you actually need? By Mike Jennings

Component lifespans are usually pretty easy to track. Processors get higher clockspeeds, more cores and smaller silicon; graphics cards get better clocks, more transistors and bigger heatsinks; and storage gets bigger and cheaper.

Memory is another component that’s constantly evolving: faster speeds, bigger quantities, more channels. Conventional wisdom suggests that adding faster and larger amounts of memory will allow games and applications to run faster, but that’s not always the case, which is why we’ve examined this murky situation.

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX

A feature-packed modder’s dream

So why is this Evolv ATX so much better that the ITX version, or the original Evolv Phanteks, released way back in September 2014? Quite simply, it’s the build quality. This isn’t a cheap case, oh no – it’s currently available for £140 over at www.overclockers.co.uk, and we’ll admit that figure is enough to make anyone wince. But then you unpack the chassis. And then you take a look at what’s included, and the stunning build quality that’s been achieved. You quickly begin to appreciate what Phanteks has managed to pull off at such a low (yes, low) price point.

Sapphire R9 285 ITX

A decent graphics card, but why would you buy it?

With AMD’s latest offerings to the bloodthirsty GPU gods right around the corner, it’s about time we wrapped up the last of the old breed. Compact and Mini-ITX machines have, over the last two years, become predominantly more popular as consumers lean towards cleaner, tighter rigs. This, coupled with the introduction of the Steam OS and in-home game streaming, means it’s suddenly become more appealing to build your own ITX dream machine.

MSI Cubi

Fantastically small home theatre PC in a box

If the MSI Wind Box was really just a tub of hot air, then the Cubi is a hurricane. A very good-looking hurricane. Sleek and small, with a clean design, our review sample is a treasure trove of golden hardware. It’s everything the Wind Box should’ve been.

Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB

Performance soothes the savage beast

Tech naming conventions are becoming a parody of themselves. Yeah, a solid-state drive Kingston wants to describe as ‘savage’. As well as ‘hyper’. With an extraneous ‘X’. We’ve seen more savage things at OAP days down the bingo.

But compared to some of the SSDs we’ve seen from Kingston, we’ll accept this latest drive has some call to use the HyperX nomenclature. It’s actually impressively speedy, and not just when compared to some of its more pedestrian stablemates. Put up against Samsung’s 850 EVO, resplendent with its 3D memory and in-house MGX memory controller, this Kingston effort manages to keep pace and, in some instances, actually outperform it.