Mini Doom

A tiny version of a much loved classic this week

Doom is quite possibly one of the most infamous games in the PC's history. When it was released, it took the world by storm and generated both controversial news pieces as well as scores of pages of hints, tips, secrets.

The game catapulted the PC into the mainstream gaming market, where once the PC was a niche gaming platform, post-Doom found a PC in nigh-on every bedroom in the connected world.

Keeping Your Smartphone Charged On The Move

Struggling to keep your phone charged all day? Sarah Dobbs finds ways to give it some extra juice when you're not at home

If you could talk to your 2006-self about your mobile phone, Past You would probably be pretty amazed. The phone in your pocket today probably has a touchscreen, no keyboard, the ability to surf the web, GPS, and all sorts of other awesome things. On at least one count, though. Past You probably has a phone that outperforms yours: battery life.

Yup, while mobile phones like the old Nokia 3210 or even the swanky-at-the-time Motorola Razr V3 could go days without needing to be charged, your smartphone is probably starting to struggle by mid-afternoon if you've dared to actually, you know, use it. Make a few calls, check Twitter, use Google Maps to find your way somewhere, play a bit of Candy Crush, and you're probably looking at 40% battery left at best.

How to use an old PC and webcam to create a home-security hub

Wayne Williams shows you how to set up a home-surveillance system that stores its footage in the cloud

The most sophisticated home-security cameras don’t only alert you when an intruder is detected - they also save the footage they record to the cloud. This means you can view it from any device at any time, and your evidence is safe, even if thieves make off with your security cameras and other hardware.

There are plenty of great security-camera systems to choose from, but you don't have to spend a fortune on the latest setup if you already have an old computer and a camera or two to build your own.

In this article we look at the hardware and software you need to put together your own, modern cloud-based security system.

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.

Do Non-Gamers Need Discrete GPUs?

We all know that gamers need graphical power, but what about other users?

If you visit any graphics card website you’ll quickly be bombarded by images and screenshots from all sorts of games and gaming-related media. Specifications for graphics cards are usually focused entirely on how well they can deliver the latest graphical performance in the latest games, and many of the features of a card are designed to appeal to those who play games on a daily basis. Even a card’s physical appearance these days is often made to look sleek and attractive, much like something out of one of the games to be run using it.