A NEW ERA… AGAIN

REMEMBER WHEN Microsoft said that Windows 10 was

The empire strikes back

Alder Lake is just the start for team blue

NEW ENERGY LAW HITS ALIENWARE

DELL ISSUES WARNING

WIN11 GOES BETA

Try it for yourself now

AMD’S RADEON 6600 XT LAUNCHED

AMD’s releases schedule just keeps rolling

Tech Triumphs and Tragedies

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

PLASTIC CHIPS

ARM builds a flexible SoC

Game fries cards

AMAZON’S NEW MMORGP, New World, has been delayed

Google builds a time crystal

There is, so the theory goes, a new

Prepare for the DDR5 shift

BUCKLE YOUR WALLETS, because the Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake and AMD AM5 platforms will entail some costly upgrades. Modern PCs utilize DDR4 memor y, but that’s all set to change with the next generation CPUs and platforms, ushering in a new era of memory bandwidth and capacity. The last time desktop PCs went through such a transition was five years ago, and early adopters often pay the price. Here’s what to expect from DDR5

THE LIST

MAXIMUM PC’S 8 UPCOMING GAMES OF 2021

Microsoft Could Threaten our National Security

WINDOWS 11 IS PERHAPS one of the most divisive operating systems we’ve seen come out of Microsoft for some time. It’s not any one design element that’s causing the problem, the biggest bugbear, by far, is the security requirements—and, oh boy, does it open up one heck of a can of worms

DOCTOR

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES

WINDOWS 11 PRIMER

Rise and shine, pull back the cur tains, there’s a new Windows in town

FIRST VISUAL IMPRESSIONS

■ STRAIGHT OFF the bat, you can tell that

ISSUES ARISING

TO BE (COMPATIBLE) OR NOT TO BE (COMPATIBLE)

WINDOWS INSIDER PROGRAM

© MICROSOFT One of the best ways to

WINDOWS 11 GAMING FEATURES

■ PCs AND GAMING go hand in hand—unless you are

THROUGH THE WINDOW

■ SO HERE WE ARE, Windows 11 is looming

NEXT-GEN NIGHTMARES

PC tech standards are constantly ch anging. Christian Guyton breaks down what to expect from the next g eneration of computer hardware

EVENT ON THE HORIZON

Ian Evenden explains how the Sun could one day take out our electronics and communications technology in mere moments

PLUG & PLAY PI PROJECTS

Jonni Bidwell explains how to make the most of the versatile Raspberry Pi device

Get your kit ready

Prepare your USB cables, SD cards and a cup of tea. It’s time to start looking at some Raspberry Pi projects…

Image recognition

Get into machine learning and train your Pi to recognise and classif y other Pis, without having to write a line of code

Multi-room Pi audio

Get your Raspberry Pi playing music around the house

Pi-based KVM over IP

If your PC won’t boot to an OS, use your Pi as a remote control

Environment sensors

How does our garden grow? With Raspberry Pis all in a row

Bitcoin Node with RaspiBlitz

Make the Bitcoin network bigger with a Pi and a large storage device

MotionEyeOS

Build your own motion-triggered home security camera

CENTERFOLD

PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE

HOW TO

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC

PS5 DualSense Controller

THIS MONTH WE DISSECT

3D Typography in Illustrator

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

Machine of the Month: Original Macintosh (1984)

YOU’LL NEED THIS A COPY OF MINI VMAC

How To Install Windows 11 Fresh

YOU’LL NEED THIS 8GB USB 3.0 FLASH DRIVE

High End ITX Art

G.Skills to Pay The G.Bills

Does Windows 365 mean the end of hardware?

Is your home PC about to disappear into the cloud?

Editor’s Pick: Immerse Gaming Hive Plug-in and Beyerdynamic MMX 300

Can a plug-in really boost your gaming experience?

Asus ROG Zephyrus S17

Kooky Keyboard

Acer Swift 3X

Could this be your portable productivity pal?

ASUS TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A

A 4K panel to satisfy both PC and console gamers?

Huawei MateView

Listen carefully, Huawei has a tall tale to tell

G.Skill Z5i

A case of two halves

Corsair HS80 Wireless Headset

The most comfortable Corsair headset to date?

Asus ROG Falchion

You Have My Sword

Asus ROG Gladius III Wireless

Asus cuts the cord but the Gladius is still held back

Elgato Facecam

A streamer's right-hand man?

The Ascent

C-beams glitter in the dark

Adobe Illustrator vs. Affinity Designer

Can the design newbie knock Adobe off its perch?

LETTERS

WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON

THE BUILDS

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES