Innehållsförteckning för June 2021 från Maximum PC

MICROSOFT’S AUGMENTED HEADSET, the HoloLens, has found a large order at last. The US military has placed a contract worth $21.9 billion. The headsets will form part of an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS). An army announcement said that the IVAS offers “existing high-resolution night, thermal, and soldier-borne sensors integrated into a unified heads up display to provide improved situational awareness, target engagement, and informed decision-making.” Microsoft was less aggressive and wordy, stating that the IVAS will “keep soldiers safer and make them more effective.” It brings some significant abilities, including 80-degree night vision, instant sign translations, integrated navigation, and a link to your rifle’s scope, so you can keep your head out of trouble as you fire around corners. The aim is to deliver 120,000 headsets over the next…

MOST PEOPLE have at least heard of 3D printing by now. Not everyone, however, fully understands what it is, how it works, what can be created, its limitations, or even how 3D printing is driving technological advancement throughout the world and changing our everyday lives. 3D printing has exploded in popularity over recent years, and with the technology becoming more affordable, it’s now more accessible than ever. 3D printing is an ever-growing platform for many hobbyists, enthusiasts, and professionals alike, and is a technology that offers a feature set like no other. We are talking about a technology that is being used in a vast variety of fields, from product prototyping and construction to medicine, including customized prosthetics, orthotics, and more. It’s a process that is truly changing people’s lives…

Everyone who uses a computer uses a keyboard. The difference is, some people are happy with a $5 membrane board, some are happy with a $100-150 mechanical board. Then you have the enthusiasts. There’s never been a better time to be in the latter two categories. The mechanical keyboard space has never been so inclusive of end users and enthusiasts. Five to 10 years ago, anything smaller than a TKL board meant you were entering the enthusiast space. You’d be buying an HHKB, Ducky, Vortex/POK3R, or similar. Today, these names are far more popular, and many purist keyboard enthusiasts regard some of them as entry level. But they played a big part in shaping off-the-shelf boards. Nowadays, all the top brands offer a 60-percent keyboard. Companies such as Glorious have…

TIP OF THE MONTH GOOGLE CHROME LIVE CAPTIONS If you ever struggle to hear or understand an online video, you’ll want to know about this. Using Chrome, head to the three dots at the top-right of the screen, and open up “Settings.” Go to the “Advanced” section on the left, then head to the “Accessibility” menu. Here you should see a “Live Caption” option. Turn this on and you’ll be able to see captions for any video, which appear in a pop-up window. MAKE – USE – CREATE 58 How to edit RAW files in Adobe Photoshop 62 Run Windows on your Raspberry Pi 4 66 Build an epic next-gen gaming machine SWAMPED BY TECH As the months go on, it’s clear that the tech world has completely engulfed me.…

There are many benefits to both JPEG and RAW—and, of course, there are more than just these two file formats to choose from. JPEG is one of the most commonly used image file formats you can find. In simple terms, JPEG is compressed, while RAW is uncompressed, but what does that actually mean, and how does it affect an image? Typically, JPEG is set as the default file format for still images on the majority of cameras. It utilizes lossy compression for storing and displaying digital images. Due to its compression efficiency, it’s the most popular image file format. Most display devices and software have built-in capabilities enabling them to read and display JPEG pictures. The benefits include smaller file sizes (no need to explain why that’s an advantage), faster…

WE RECKON the Intel Core i5-11600K is Pat Gelsinger’s favorite CPU in this new 11th Gen Rocket Lake lineup, it’s certainly ours so far. Intel’s new CEO has been speaking at length recently about his desire for the company to return to its heyday—a return to the tick-tock CPU production cadence of yesteryear, and to putting engineering at the forefront of everything the company does. And the i5-11600K has a little of the nostalgia chip about it to us; a return to the days when our recommendation around a new CPU architecture would inevitably fall to the Core i5 CPUs rather than the top-end i7s. In this case, it’s a really strong recommendation over the lackluster Intel Core i9-11900K. This is one of the only new processors that should interest…

WHATEVER YOU decide to do, go a head and absolutely own it. This, surely, is the philosophy behind MSI’s MPG Artymis 343CQR. This thing is hilariously curved. Specifically, it’s a 1000R panel. In other words, its arc is such that, if extended full circle, the radius would be just one meter (3.28 feet). That’s some serious bend. Whether such an extreme curve is actually a good idea is a subjective call. Some people love curved screens. Others, not so much. Which is probably why the proportion of curved monitors on the market has subsided. Certainly, curved HDTVs were a passing fad. Anyway, one thing we’re sure of is that curved panels make more sense on larger, wider aspect screens. Which is where the 34-inch MPG Artymis 343CQR enters the scene,…

Now you’re a little more informed about the types of printers available, what do you need to get them running? Well, your filament—or material—choices are certainly not in short supply, so let’s take a closer look. Filaments are essentially spools of plastic, like a cable reel. They are typically sold in 750g and 1kg spools, and are available in a variety of different types of plastic and colors. Specifically for use on an FDM printer, each type of plastic has its own unique qualities. There are now even wood-based, flexible, and carbon filaments available, so there will certainly be something to cover your use case. Below are what we consider to be the three most common types of FDM filaments, plus a little look at resin. PLA Polylactic acid is…

YOU’LL NEED THIS RASPBERRY PI 4 We used the 8GB model. You also need an 8GB or greater microSD card, a wired Internet connection, and infinite patience. THIS IS IT, the real deal. No tricks involving VPNs or virtualization. This is the ARM port of Windows 10 running natively on a Raspberry Pi 4. Slowly. Best of all, it kinda works. Even with an overclocked Pi, however, it’s slow, bringing back memories of running Windows 7 on an Atom-powered netbook. It’s not unusable, but it does come with problems. The main one is that the Pi’s Wi-Fi doesn’t work, so you need a compatible USB adapter or an Ethernet connection. It can be very crashy when you connect to the Internet, unless you follow our genius tip below. So, you’ve…

THE LG GRAM 17 (2021) is the latest variant of the company’s so-far superb lineup of productivity-oriented laptops that focus on being as light as possible above all else. Powered by Intel’s 11th-generation mobile chips, it’s a laptop that mostly allows for fast, hassle-free productivity, making your daily workload a seamless experience at the office or at school. While the LG Gram 17 (2021) isn’t going to win any awards for style, it does offer pure function, poising it as one of the best choices for everyday workplace use. If you can stomach the price. Last year’s Gram 17 cost just over $1,749 for a similar spec. That ran on a 10th-gen Intel CPU, so we’ve seen a bit of a price hike going to the Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU.…

WE’VE COVETED AND recommended this case for some time, but it has a bit of a reputation among system builders as being, well, something of a cliche. Why? Mostly because it’s almost too good. In fact, it’s so good, and has received so many awards over the last couple of years, and been praised so much around the tech community for its incredible versatility, top-quality materials, and easy building experience, that it’s almost become a meme. “Oh, there’s another liquid-cooled Lian Li PC-O11-Dynamic build log, complete with the usual tubing runs, and distribution plate setup.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when you’re on the hunt for engaging builds and a sense of exclusivity and achievement, building in a chassis that everyone else has done to death can be…

CREATIVE HAS always been as olid competitor in the digital entertainment sector, offering products for a wide range of audiences. Having spent a long time in the audio market, the company certainly claims a lot with its SXFI Gamer headset. It says, for gaming, it sounds like you’ve been dropped into a battlefield, for music it sounds like you’re at a live concert, and movies sound like you’re in a theater (remember those?). These are bold statements, considering the price of this headset alone sits more toward the budget end of the spectrum. Are Creative’s statements backed up, or are they just lures to pull in new buyers? From the price point, we weren’t expecting premium materials, but the quality isn’t bad by any stretch. Although it can feel a…

WE’RE KNEELING on the ground, adjusting something like the dial on an AM radio to tune in on the frequency that will make a plant grow. We’ve been planting seeds for some time, absorbing different kinds of energy and crossing tendril-like bridges. We’ve spun a flower to turn it into a kind of star, and rotated the heavens faster and faster to make time pass—swirling the mouse on our desktop in a way the manufacturer of our mouse pad never envisaged. We’re here because, after selling watches on the street, we saw a woman get shot, and time stopped. It’s all very confusing. That woman was our lover, Miss Mass, first name unknown. She’s a singer but doesn’t say much, and she has a body built for just one thing:…

BUDGET WE’RE NOT SURE if we should be celebrating the fact that scalper prices are finally coming down with these graphics cards, but, er, scalper prices are finally coming down with these graphics cards—so, yay! Instead of being near three times the RRP, they’re now only twice as expensive, at least with the RX 6700 XT; the RTX 3060 is still three times the price, but it’s down from last month. We have a hunch that the only folk buying these cards at these prices are scalpers, trying to make a quick buck, but because the demand is decreasing as the cryptoboom seems to be easing off slightly, the prices for these GPUS are falling, too. It’s a slow meander down, sure, but it does look promising. At the time…

> Faulty Internet Gear > SD Formatting Issue > Streaming MP4s Frame Stutter Problem Doc, I’m experiencing an intermittent frame stutter issue in games as varied as World of Warships and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It’s not tied to graphics quality settings, as I’ve tried everything from maxed out to turning them down to mud, and still have the issue. I’ve tried killing all background apps/processes, I update regularly, whether BIOS, drivers, or firmware. I’ve tried stock voltages, PBO enabled, Ryzen Master OC, and so on but can’t resolve it. I built my PC in November 2019—key specs are Gigabyte Aorus Ultra X570 MB, AMD Ryzen 3800X CPU, 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR 3600 RAM with XMP enabled, plenty of cooling, 2TB Seagate Firecuda PCIe 4.0 OS drive, 1TB Samsung 970 Evo…

WE’RE NOT SAYING you should install all 50 of these programs at once, but these are our recommendations for software that we feel will hopefully benefit you in some way, give you a kick-ass experience, or simply add a little entertainment to your day. And who doesn’t like a freebie? Paying for things can get tiresome, not to mention expensive, but thankfully there are plenty of free alternatives or routes to take instead of delving deep into your pockets to buy an application. We’ve rounded up a wide range of programs here that enable you to improve your PC’s efficiency, customize your rig, get creative, or just have some fun. The free market has rapidly changed over the last decade. Cell phones have played a huge role in this transformation, because…

THAT GOVERNMENT-FUNDED space agency your taxes support, NASA, doesn’t just strap people to the top of a firework and aim them at the Moon. It doesn’t even do that much now, but focuses on robotic exploration of Mars and crewing the International Space Station. This is an agency, after all, that has three probes currently on their way out of the solar system, including the fastest human vehicle ever launched. It has put robots on Mars, probes on Venus (briefly), and sent more to investigate Mercury and the outer planets. Its latest Martian rover is a nuclear-powered laser-armed tank with a helicopter strapped to it. Along the way, you’d expect it to pick up some neat new technology—and it has. Some of it has become so everyday that we almost no…

YOU’LL NEED THIS ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CC 2018 ONWARD To view compatibility visit: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html. WINDOWS 10 64-bit, version 1809 or later. FOR THIS TUTORIAL, we’re taking a look at working with RAW images within Photoshop. A RAW picture is usually minimally processed and uncompressed. When you shoot in RAW, your camera captures all of the sensor’s data, resulting in super-detailed image files. Benefits of shooting in RAW include increased brightness, higher dynamic range, more colors in your images, and more scope to edit, because the files contain more information. Obviously, with a richer image, larger file sizes are to be expected, and image processing is required. RAW photography is nowhere near as quick as pointing and shooting in JPEG format, but when you’re shooting specific stills and need the best quality,…

YOU’LL NEED THIS BINARIES Binaries for Windows x86 are available online (www.smspower.org/meka), along with binaries for older Linux and DOS versions. Linux users may want to run newer Windows binaries through Wine. A MICROCOMPUTER? FROM SEGA? That may seem a strange idea, but before its famous consoles, Sega briefly experimented with home computing. Until the 1980s, Sega’s income came mostly from arcade machines, but the booming market in home gaming and home computing was simply too big to ignore, and it was time for Sega to test the market. Sega was unsure whether to put its weight behind home computers or simple game consoles. The company decided to hedge its bets with both: a console, the SG-1000, and a microcomputer, the SC-3000. Each model is based on the same underlying…

SO FAR, A MD’s Big Navi (aka R DNA2) line-up has focused on the heavyweight end of the spectrum, but that all changes with the Navi 22 GPU and the RX 6700 XT. Take a brawny GPU with 80 compute units, and tell it to go work out and get down to half that size, and you end up with a smaller chip that happens to clock exceptionally well. Building a fast graphics card involves striking a balance between many competing goals. Larger chips perform better, but they also cost a lot more and use more power. Crank up the clock speeds on a beefy chip and you’ll end up with extreme temperature requirements. AMD has learned a lot over the past several generations, and while Navi 22 might not…

IT’S ALWAYS GOOD when large brands release keyboards that used to be reserved for the enthusiast market. Sixty-percent keyboards have become more popular in recent years, which has brought the price down, because there’s more competition. The latest 60-percent board is the K65 RGB Mini, which has all the functionality of a full-sized keyboard, but is far more compact The difference is that you must press FN to use the keys that are usually found on larger boards. For example, you press FN-5 for F5, and FN-U, H, J, or K for the arrow keys. If you use arrow keys a lot, consider getting a 65-percent keyboard. Most of the keyboard works as expected, and during the time we used it, we enjoyed it for the most part. The RGB…

WHEN WE REVIEW a product, we look at the software as well as the hardware. Sure, most peripherals have good functionality without having to install anything, but if you want to unlock their full potential, installing the software suite is advised. In this head-to-head, we’re going to look at the two software suites we seem to get on with the best: Corsair iCUE and SteelSeries Engine 3. This isn’t to say that software from other brands is not up to scratch (Razer’s Synapse is another standout), but these two are our current favorites. Corsair iCUE comes in at a hefty 741MB for its latest version. Corsair has all the usual macro controls for keyboards, mice, and headsets, and with the acquisition of Elgato, you can actually integrate the Stream Deck…