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NSA plans Quantum- Resistant Encryption

Preparing for the challenges of quantum computing

NETGEAR SMART SWITCHES POTENTIALLY HACKED

Patched already but highlights flaws in the IoT

Tech Triumphs and Tragedies

A monthly snapshot of what’s good and bad in tech

APPLE EXPLORING RISC-V CORES

Job Opportunities Open Up for RISC-V Programmers

GOOGLE DEVELOPING CUSTOM SOC

Google Only Chromebooks Due to Arrive Circa 2023

Sony Alters PS5 Cooling

© GOOGLE, SONY, CORSAIR SONY HAS LAUNCHED its

Corsair’s 500mm RGB Fan

Corsair celebrated its “fan week” in August, by

EVGA’s Soldering Killed RTX 3090s

Following recent reports of multiple GeForce RTX 3090

PCIe Gen5 Is Coming

LAST ISSUE I talked about the upcoming switch to DDR5 memory for the next generation Intel and AMD platforms. Now, I want to talk about something we won’t see with AMD’s socket AM5, and most likely not on Intel’s LGA1700 Alder Lake CPUs either—at least, not on consumer parts. The specifications and requirements for PCI Express 5.0 are complete, and AMD and Intel will be supporting the tech soon enough, but initially only on data center hardware

Dear Microsoft: please don’t mess this up

ANOTHER MONTH GOES BY and there’s no sign of a crack in the weird wall of silence around Windows 11. As I write, it is exactly one month before the newly announced official release date for Windows 11, yet from the state of the preview builds—both dev and beta—you wouldn’t know it

MAXIMUM PC’S FAVORITE BUILDS

8 $300 BUILD CHALLENGE This might be a

DOCTOR

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES

LETTERS

WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON

THE BUILDS

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES

SILENCE OF THE FANS

Fans are so last year, right?

A QUIETER PLACE

How well will our silent system run?

LIFE IS JUST A STREAM

Learn the ins and outs of streaming with Sam Lewis

THE ESSENTIALS

WHEN IT COMES TO STREAMING, THESE PERIPHERALS WILL SET YOU OFF ON THE RIGHT PATH TO T WITCH STARDOM

COMPUTE THIS

The history of supercomputing turns out to be a tale of eccentric inventors, nuclear weapons, and a constant need to one-up the other guy. Ian Evenden explains

Stream Perfect

PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE

GET INTO UBUNTU

The latest version of Ubuntu has landed. Nick Peers discovers what’s new and shows you how to install it

Install Ubuntu 21.04

Looking to switch to Linux from Windows? Discover how to take Ubuntu for a test drive, then install it alongside your existing operating system

Wayland strikes back

Ubuntu 21.04 attempts to reintroduce Wayland as the default desktop server. Will it succeed second time around?

What’s new in 21.04?

It may not be packed full of eye-catching new features, but Ubuntu 21.04 features plenty of improvements

HOW TO

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC

Playdate

THIS MONTH WE DISSECT

Minimal vector portraits

YOU’LL NEED THIS ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CC 2020 https://www.adobe.com

Machine of the Month: Thomson MO5 (1984)

YOU’LL NEED THIS DCMOTO http://dcmoto.free.fr Minimum Pentium

Send online ads down a Pi-Hole

YOU’LL NEED THIS LINUX Some sort of Linux

LAB NOTES

I’m getting Fiber! All of the internet, all

Editor’s Pick: Corsair K55 RGB Pro XT

The best of the membrane?

AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT

Mainstream with a high-end price

AMD Ryzen 7 5700G

APUs make a more than welcome return

MSI Katana GF66

Is this budget laptop really a double-edged sword?

Razer Raptor 27

Is Razer’s refreshed Raptor good enough to justif y its painfully premium pricing?

PNY XLR8 CS3140 1TB

Can PNY’s fat new SSD keep cool under pressure from its rivals?

Asus ROG GS-A X54 00

Strix router is bettered by ProArt equivalent

HyperX Alloy Origins 60

Big things come in small packages

Steelseries Arctis Prime

A worthy addition to Steelseries’ pro range

HyperX Pulsefire Haste

Lightweight legend

Humankind

Human kind. Bear ferocious. Egyptian chariot terrifying

YouTube vs Twitch

Which of these video broadcasting giants is better?