al We build the world's most advanced PCs. Experience a new level of performance with an award-winning Digital Storm PC. een os Built with the latest technology, highest quality components and backed by lifetime ea ee ee eas eee oe 8The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit OUP ORG) RA TU UP RL aS Ce nad UALR OULU me eC CD analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. AUN CRUST INEGI ELT Ha and protected as our use of technology grows. het ee See UC CCU SUC MC UC MeO RU chs (Ca mcgtable of contents 38 48 QUICKSTART THE NEWS Microsott's new Al PCs; AMD's ‘gaming woes; Apple's Mé chip makes iPad Pro debut THE LIST The best gaming monitors, Sinewisay SUBSCRIBE TODAY Subscribe to Maximum PC and instantly got ace DO back issues. CENTERFOLD ‘The lowdown on the Netgear Orbi 970. Al your photos in Lurinar Neo: Master LibreOifice 24; Use your tablet as second screen, LETTERS 14 DOCTOR 94 COMMENTS IN THE LAB 76 2TB LEXAR NM790 PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSD 4 SCAN TO GET THE ‘TOM'S HARDWARE inside (==. JULY 2024 4 li TINY * TOWER ULTIMATE POWER i = 32 40 50 REAL WORLD BEST FREE HOW To BACK UP BENCHMARKING SOFTWARE EVERYTHING ‘Nate Drake on haw Robertirvinereveals the Nick Peerstalks us DMark, UNIGINE and bestways to maintain your through how to Tore can measureyour online privacy without protect your data should PC's potential paying a cent the worst happen, 78 ACER 80 30 PREDATOR HPSPECTRE HOMEWORLD3 270 FOLDABLEThe world’s most comprehensive technology website An unrivalled mix of news, opinions, reviews and e All-new design, new homepage, new features and © Backed by over 300 years of editorial experi techradar the technology experts www.techradar.MAXIMUMPC editorial FALLING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE ‘suet wien it felt like we were seeing the end of new graphics cards this year, AMD surprised us by importing its RX 7900 ‘Golden Rabbit Edition'from China for a worldwide audience. True, AMD's gaming business is struggling in the face of strong competition from Intel and particularly Nvidia [see news fon page 9, but that hasn't stopped Team Red trom releasing some stellar products, helping keep the market more competitive inthe process, The RX 7900 GRE, then, is the star of this month's cover build, 3s masterminded by our resident master builder, Zak Storey. We reviewed the card in our last issue, and gave it a score of 8, leading me to ask Zak to prioritize it for a build. The card sits in between AMD's RX 7800 XT and RX 7900 XT at what is now sadly the mid- range price point of $550. That's the same as an RTX 4070, and $50 lower than the newer RTX 4070 Super. AS you'll read, those are comparisons that work out quite favorably for AMD's bunny-themed card, even against the more expensive Nvidia model. AMD is still behind when itcomes to ray tracing and Al-based upscaling, but the raw performance is there. It makes things a lot more interesting if you have $550- 600 to spend on a graphics card As| write this, Computex in Taiwanis just days away. Could Nvidia announce new consumer graphics cards? If they fo, itl undoubtedly be at the higher end, possibly either a 6080 or 5070— see page 10 for the latest speculation, As for intel, they'll no doubt be falling over themselves to talk more about Al but will they tell us more about the next generation of desktop CPUs? Youll be able to read all about it in these pages, whatever happens. v submit your questions to: The other theme running through this issue is OLEDs. | saw lots of them out at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but they're now here, storming the gates. We have the Alienware 4K model leading this month's reviews section, plus a 1440p screen from Acer. Next _month, 'm hoping for another OLED from Philips lve been effusive about OLED for gaming for a while now, along with our Tesident display specialist, Jeremy Laird, but will your next monitor be an OLED? Let me know by emailing me on editorlamaximumpc.com. In reviews, is a real tale of beauty ‘and the beast for our reviewer, Zak He's found the best-value PCle 4.0 SSD ever—good news for someone like me, who's still not convinced by the benefits of PCle 5.0 at current prices. He's also taken a look at a foldable laptop that isn't quite ready for primetime, I've been a big fan of foldable phones, and had been looking forward to similar portable PCs, but it seems like we're rot quite there yet. Turn to page 72 onwards tofind out more. A more efficient idea is probably to use a tablet as a second screen for your laptop, something you can do by reading our how-to on page 70. We also show you how to back up everything, stay private online, and choose the best web browser, all for free Enjoy the issue! Guy Cocker Guy is Maximum PC's editor-in-chiet, He built his first gaming PC in 1997 to play Tomb Raider on 3dfx, and has boon obsessed with all things PC ever since. UL 202 wl7quickstart L™ 1 AIs BASICALLY MATH, then ‘computers are obviously going tobe good at it. The basic idea fs nothing new, of course, what with a paper published jn 1943 that outlined the fiest model of a neural network. Since then, weve been waiting fon hardware that can really deliver on that notion. Well, Ais suddenly everywhere, all at once, and every technology company is falling over themselves to incorporate it into every process imaginable, Inevitably, that includes the PC. Microsoft's partnership with Openl is atthe forefront of the Al industry, and with that comes not only @ whole slew of new Al features for Windows, but a whole class cof machines—there is now an official Microsoft Al PC Bofore we get too excited, there is nothing terribly revolutionary here. The Al PC is a set of hardware and software specifications— some utterly trivial, some a litle trickier te achieve. Allyou need is an approved processor capable of 40 TOPS of Al processing (that's the tricky bit, more on which later), 1468 of DDRS and 25668 of SSD storage. Oh, and you'll also need a Copilot key on the keyboard. Microsoft heralds the result as the “fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built”, 2 grandiose piece of flummery. Arguably, What is really being cold is the integration of Al into Windows. So far, the Al PC consists of Surface, Surface Pra laptaps, and an army of new laptops from the usual suspects: Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung. Microsoft expects 50 million Al PCs to be sold over the next 12 months If that’s pretty predictable, there's @ catch. All of those systems are powered by the ‘Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, an Arm-based chip. There isn't an Intel or AMD x86 CPU in sight. This is also arguably the first truly serious attempt to get Windows running on Arm hardware That TOPS metric, Trillions of Operations Per Second, is used to measure the performance of Al, specifically the hardware NPU. It's the NPU specifically that must deliver 45 TOPS to qualify for Microsoft's Al definition, That's why AMD's Phoenix APU and Inte’s Meteor Lake laptop chips don't quality with their NPUs delivering 16 and 11 TOPS respectively. Nvidia's For now, only laptops with the new Snapdragon X Elite SoC meet the standard 8 | mamawe | vot 202s Microsoft reckons the C keys the Al toany question youmay have. latest RTX 40 GPUs, including its motile chips for laptops, all far exceed 45 TOPS, but simply do not quality. For now, only taptops with the new Snapdragon X Elite ‘SoC meet the standard, and it does rather seem like that was intentional. Later this year, AMD's new Strix Point APU and Intel's Lunar Lake chip will meet the standard, There have also been rumors about Nvidia and AMD getting into ‘Arm-based PC processors. Ina recent interview, Michael Dell was asked about an Al PC with Nvidia hardware. He said, ‘Come back next year” Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, added, “Exactly”. Nvidia certainly has most of the silicon it would need, the engineers, and funding, so Qualcomm’ dominance is unlikely to survive for long, However, the question remains whether the Al PC is all marketing ult or somethingmore substantial. In 2 lengthy blog post, Microsoft tries to. explain that the initiative is about pushing the integration of Al, rather than trying to invent a new clase of PC. Microsoft wants Copilot “Welcome to the AI PC Microsoft unveils a new type of computer front and center whenever you use your Windows rig, and With much of the Al running locally. Every task will have Al help at hand: searching, image editing, writing, and more. With that omnipresent approach, however, come concerns For instance, ‘Recall’ is a new Windows Al feature that tracks nearly everything you do, the sites you've visited, the images you've viewed, and so forth, taking snapshots as it goes. This creates a digital timeline you can explore and search. Can't find that picture of the cute cat you saw a few weeks ago? Recall takes you ta it. Useful? Yes. Private? Not really. It has been dubbed a privacy nightmare by some, and prompted calls for regulation. The snapshots are stored locally and encrypted but anybody with access to your system can view your activities for months, including financial, personal, embarrassing, and just plain private stuff. At least you can turn tof Alo this makes Microsoft's AALPC initiative a curious thing, Therearesomeusefulfeatures being touted underneath the ‘marketing and hyperbole, but equally pretty soon every new PC will have the qualitying hardware, and it's yet to be seen if there will be any truly compelling applications. that run locally on those NPUs, 25 opposed to the cloud, In the meantime, the new Copilot+ PC starts at $999, and is available to order. ChAMD'S GAMING DIVISION STRUGGLING A M D il ‘Tu FIGURES FoR AMD'S earnings for the fist quarter of the year have arrived, and the ‘gaming division doesn’t make for happy reading. Numbers are down by 48 percent year on year. Sales, in both discrete graphic cards and custom GPUs, have tanked Remember when we had trouble buying cards at all? No more. The market is flooded, and most of them are wearing green badges. Nviia currently has about 80 percent of the discrete card market, while Intel has pinched a percentage or two in the bottom tiers, This doesnt leave much room for AMD. Nvidia is flush with cash and resources, ‘0 going head to head in premium GPUs isa reach. The rumor is that AMD will abandon the high-end graphic eard market far its next-gen RDNA 4 GPUs, leaving Nvidia to play alone. Il follow the mney, meaning data centers, clouds, andl. There is one weapon left in ts arsenal, though: drop prices until you can sell everything you make.~Ck Tech Triumphs and Tragedies ‘A monthly snapshot of what's good and bad in tech ‘NEW STANDARD FOR ‘TRACKERS LAUNCHED Dubbed DULT, twarnsita trackers fllowing you, soi's notused ostalk peopl, SILENT RUNNING ‘Thesilence ofan electric car Isnt good for pedestrians: 2 study shows that twice as many peopte are hit by EVs over CE, ‘TAPE ISN'T DEAD ‘Shipments are up three percent 0152.9 compressed exabytes— tha’sa billion gigabytes each, ‘AY'S POWER PROBLEM, By 2026, t's estimated that LiMs willburnthroughas much poweras Japan MIND READING Researchershaveturned brain activity inte words thanks to tlectrodes, Well, certainwords ata77 porcontaccuracy. GOOGLE'S SEARCH SNAFUS Using Alto searchhasafew problems. Usershave boen told that staring nto the sunissae, ‘and o aata rock everyday ARROW LAKE GETS 21 SKUS of Intel's Arrow Lake CPU is ‘big deal. We have a new socket, process, tile-based construction, features, core architecture in Lion Cove, Al hardware, and more. Intel plans to release 21 SKUs (Stock Keeping Units]. I's the biggest launch since Alder Lake in 2021 There's new branding, too—na more i as Arrow Lake is to be the Core Ultra 200-series, The Ultra 100-series was the ‘mobile Meteor Lake, a tle-based design that never made it to a desktop. Top dog is expected to be the Core Ultra 9 285K with 24 cores. That's eight performance ‘and t6eficiency cores, or ‘8P+14E” in intel speak. It has a base clock of 3.6Ghz, and ‘a maximum boost of 5.5GHz, Then there's Uta 7 265K, with 8P*12E cores running at a base clock of 2.8GHz, and the Ultra 5 245K with 6P+BE cores, on the same clock, These are ‘leaks’, not official specs. ‘But with a launch expected later this year, the odds are high that these are accurate, Along with those are the usual mainstream 65W workhorses and 35W low-power models, Partnered with Arrow Lake will bbe a new mobile CPU: Lunar Lake. This sports. 4Ps4E configuration, and willface competition from Snapdragon, Apple's ‘new M3 chip, and AMD's finest Notably, Arrow Lake will debut the 208 process, while 184 is due for volume production next year. The catch is that only the CPUdiewithin ArrowLake willbe made onintel20Asilicon. Even then, isrumored that most Arrow Lake SKUs will use a TSMC process for the CPU die, That would rmean a pure TSMC chip, as the other tiles, are already made by TSMC. As for Lunar Lake, that’s pure TSMC. Even with the arrivalof Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake, Intel Will be nowhere near the technological driving seat in chip manufacturing, But depending on how good those Lion Cove cores are, it could stil look decent when it comes to performance. ~Chquickstart L/“™ @M4 APPLE’S NEW M4 CHIP ARRIVES New SoC makes its debut in the iPad Pro ene months after the M3 first appeared, there's already a new Apple M chip—this time in an iPad, the fist time new silicon hasn't debutedinaMac. The SoC uses 2nd ‘gen 3m process courtesy of TSMC, and is. the first time Apple has given its M silicon CPU cores a major overhaul. Single-core performance is improved thanks to both Jimproved IPC and higher clack speeds, There's improved branch prediction, and wider decode and execution engines, You ‘also get two extra efficiency cares—six in all, but the same four performance cores. The GPUstickstoten cores, albeit tweaked with Dynamic Caching, and hardware- accelerated ray tracing, In the new iPad Pro, the new silicon is partnered with what Apple claimsis the world's most advanced display: the Uttra Retina XOR, a dual-layer OLED panel. There's also a ‘pro’ camera system, including a LIDAR scanner, 12MP. still, and 4k video. Apple claims the M& can match the M2’s performance while using half the power, as well as the ‘leading’ laptop chip, while consuming a quarter of the power. That chip is the Intel Core Ultra 7 195H, Obviously, there isa strong Al angle. The Mé's neural engine is capable of 38 TOPS. Apple has the red and blue teams. comfortably beaten, although Qualcomm's 45 TOPS Snapdragon X Elite is no stouch. More immediately important isthe single core Geekbench score—the Mé reached ‘over 3,700, leaving Intel's Core i9-14900KS, bbchind at 3300, That means the tablet is ‘now mightier than the desktop, sort of. If We switch to multi-core, then the 32-care Intel trashes it. Still, for a tablet, that's Impressive. The Mé iPad Pro starts at $999, andifyouplay withthe configuration, ticking al options, it tops $3,000.=cL 10 Tama | sc 202 Fat New HDD Drives EVERY TIME WE THINK THE magnetic hard drive is dead, new life is breathed into them. We haven't ‘seen a new 25-inch drive for years, the format seemingly peaking at STB. However, Western Digital has squeezed an extra terabyte in, Its new 6TB versions are available across WD's external My Passport range—four in all, as wall as ScanDisk’s ArmorATD. Prices range from $185 to $230, depending on the enclosure and ‘compatibility. This is, according to WD, enough to store 150 AMA garning titles. The drive is taller than the STB version, hence it's external rather than internal, not that there are many laptops with spinning drives anymore More useful, perhaps, are big 3.5-inch drives, as the last three HDD manufacturers fight for what's left af the market by building the biggest drives. Toshiba is planning drives of over 30TB, and claims to have demonstrated working 3278 and 317B drives using HAMR and MAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording and Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording). The 3278 model has ten platters, while the 3178 uses 11—the first to do so, Ithas plans for 3678 by 2025, and 40TB in 2026, Conventional magnetic recording tops out at a capacity of around 22TB, and the three players are in @ race to get the new recording methads into drives for the data center business. Seagate managed this with ts 32TB HAMR drives last year, and has plans for 30TB. Western Digital has a 28TB drive, and plans for 2678 HAMR drives. Ifyou want a consumer version, you'll have to wait, as the data centers will take everything built for the foreseeable future. -CL. New ChatGPT Openal has rere ented this fast new multi-modal version rnc ee paren eran Tete ea aa ee ooo enone te ern RTX 5080 to come first? Nvidia usually launches a new GPU family with a bang. Its next GPU architecture is Blackwell, and is expected to appear this year. Nvidia has shown a 2025 Foadmap, but nobody appears to believe that. The 4000-series Lovelace cards were stunning, but Nvidia's clumsy handting of cae their price and configurations ae cae knocked their appeal. Blackwell table for is hotly anticipated, and we'd love verbal and visual prompts in real tasee it before next year. But what cree Blackwell cards could land first? Cen) Earlyrumors suggestedallwemay get is an RTX 5090. More recently, that’s changed to the RTX 5080, the biggest gun saved for next year. Since AMD isn't providing hot Competition at the top level, Nvidia isn’t under any pressure to drop the 5090 first, but we still wouldn't be surprised to see both 5090 and 5080 announced together. Indeed, there isa small chance that by the Crs Pear Itwas then told an annou ene Caer Soci cae Pen ek es all pre-prepared, but still spooky. Openal claims that itis better at prereere reece an ate ea cere Nvidia will have pulled the covers ry a off something at the Computex trade show in Taiwan, -CLJarred Walton Em TECH TALK For Sale: Cheyenne Supercomputer IF THERE'S ONE THING WE KNOW about PC hardware, it’s that it becomes outdated. The Cheyenne supercomputer is testament to the rapid improvements over the past decade in the world of extreme scalability, coupled with a warning about things not always going as planned. Apparently, ongoing reliability, repair, and maintenance issues reached the point where the best option was to pull the plug and start afresh. Deployed in 2016, Cheyenne was the year's 2ist fastest supercomputer, with a score of 4.79 petaflops. Today, i's number 140 on the Top600 list—or was prior to being decommissioned. While it's not clear how much it cost, it replaced one that was around $25-§30 million, and its Derecho replacementisan HP-builtsetup that cost $35-$40 millon. It seems reasonable, then, that Cheyenne fell in the $20-$40 million range. Eight years later, it sold at auction for $480,085, It's interesting to read the auction notes, which state that “the system is currently experiencing maintenance limitations due to faulty quick disconnects causing water spray.” This on its own wouldn't be terrible, except that approximately tne percent of the 4,032 nedes were experiencing ECC memory errors. Washing its hands in the 150 gallons or so of propylene glycol coolant, the NCAR-WY Supercomputer Center decided to let someone else worry about parting things out. The 22 petabytes of storage that the system used aren't included, but there are 14E-cells, each containing two racks of quad-node server blades. There are 8,064 Intel Xeon E5-2697 vl processors, 4,890 646B DIMMS, plus power supplies, cooling, motherboards, networking switehes, and more. There are also two management racks that added 52 1U servers and 87B of DRAM, Altogether, the The gulf between Cheyenne and modern supercomputers shows how far things have come petaflops of compute and a power use of 2279 MW=nearly 53 petaflops per megawatt. AMD's El Capitan supercomputer should be finished in the near future, providing Cheyenne began service in2016. Ultimately, it roughly double the was sold ata fraction ofthe original cost performance of supercomputer weighs around 26,000 pounds. The gulf between Cheyenne and modern supercomputer hardware shows how far things have come since 2016, Cheyenne used around 1.727 MW of power fully assembled, or around 2.77 petaflops per megawatt. Its Derecho replacement delivers roughly twice the computational power {10.32 petaflops), though it also includes 382 Nvidia A100 GPUs, There's a discrepancy between what NCAR says about Derecho and the Top500 result, however, as it's supposed to be 3 19.87 petaflops supercomputer With 3:40 percent higher power draw than Cheyenne, that would yield 8.22 petaflops per megawatt. Contrast that with the fastest supercomputer today. The AMD- based Frontier supercomputer holds pole position, with 1,206 Frontir: i'snotallabout raw compute, however, as the GreenS00 list ranks the most efficient supercomputers. The current leader, JEDI, isnt even as fast ac Cheyenne in raw compute, boasting ‘only’ 4.50 petaflops However, its power draw is only 67kW—about four percent of the power consumption of Cheyenne for the same level of perfarmanc These figures use LINPACK results that focus on FP64 compute, however, and a lot of supercomputers are turning toward Al calculations using FP16 or FPS operations. New supercomputers sporting Nvidia Grace Hopper superchips will bring 200 exaflops of Al compute within the next year. No wonder Cheyenne got kicked to the curb. Jarred Walton has been a ‘and gaming enthusiast over 30 years ul 20a «(1quickstart =" ‘THE BEST GAMING MONITORS ‘waits most Pc comPonans have been getting pricier, many gaming monitors are cheaper. $250 buys you a lot more than it dd five years ago, though anew class of OLED panels has made things pricier atthe top end. In between, there's more choice than fever before, including resolutions, aspect ratios, panel types, backlight tech and plenty more. ‘Don't know Pixio? Seen the pricing? Don't panic, Corners haven't been cut where it counts. It feels abit cheap, but looks slick enough, and when it comes to image quality and gaming experience, there are no horrors. You get 2 1440p VA panel, Ims response, and 165H2 refresh. I's not true HOR, topping ut a 220 nits and lacking local dimming, but that's fine. $240, www.pixiogaming.com PIXIO PXC277 ADVANCED 5 ASROCK PHANTOM PG34WQI5R2B A contrasty VA panel, plenty of backlight punch if you run tin HDR mode, reasonable pixel response, and high enough refresh for ‘most gamer's purposes. $350 barely touches the sides when it comes ta graphics cards these days, but here it buys you 34 inches of realestate, 165H2 refreshrrate, Ims response, and even HOR support. Nice for ASRock’s first ‘gaming panel. $350, www.asrock.com 2 | mou | vt 2020 GIGABYTE M28U Looking fara slightly larger alternative to that LLG panel for not much extra cash? Try this alternative. Gigabyte's more affordable 4K monitors go down a treat—they're fast and bright, and you even get a USB-C hub thrown in, Between the resolution, Walz refresh rate, and IPS panel, i's a great all-rounder for 4K. Even beyond PC gaming, an HDMI 2.1 port offers 120Hz gaming for consoles, so its quite the package. $429, www.gigabyte.com S) LG ULTRAGEAR 27GR93U (E, TreLs Utrasear 76R72U is 6's I tech atits best. I's absolutely gorgeous, with colors that are accurately calibrated, crispy 4K visuals, and a zippy refresh rate, You will need a mighty graphics card to run this UtteaGear gaming monitor at its fullest, of course. Itruns Upto TAdHe, which isa tough task even with modern GPUs, Upscating will help with that, meanwhile the 4K precision makes this a great panel for getting seriaus stuff done, too. Overall, this is avery strong all-rounder, even ifit comes at quite a price. $425, www.lg.com tice Another day, another 32-inch, 4K, 240Hz QD. OLED stunner. Except this one’s cheaper and ‘every bit as good as the competition. An easy choice? For once, yes, This offers the same Samsung- sourced QD-OLED panel as more expensive monitors, including the Aous ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM, the Alienware 32AW3225F and the Gigabyte Aorus CO4900, but it's hundreds of dollars cheaper. As no-brainer recommendations 90, thisisas 1 MSI MPG321URX straightforward ast gets.$899, www.msi.com7 Jeremy Laird TRADE CHAT How to emulate x86's success LAST MONTH, | touched on the fact that the first official Microsoft Al PCs would be running a Qualcomm Arm-based CPU. This begs one obvious question: what about old software? Arm chips tend to be more efficient, but what good is that if you can’t use your favorite apps? The CPUcares in Apple's newMdchiparescary,as house Arm silicon. But the same The 7th Gen Microsoft Surtace will in scary fast. Seriously. The Mé cranks aut about applies to the hardware side of revealjust how well the Snapdragon 3,800 points in Geekbench 6 single core. That the equation. Apple's Arm-based XElite can emulate x86 software. compares with roughly 3,300 points for an Intel chips have hardware features and Core i9-14900K. Remember, that's an Mé running optimizations designed to improve found that the MacBook Air can ina tablet. I's only in the iPad Pro for now, not in x84 emulation, be surprisingly good for gaming any Mac computer. For instance, the way Arm and in some narrow scenarios, But The points that you can forget about assuming x86 order memory is based on there's much tobe proven. that Arm chips are efficient but feeble. They different models, known as weak Qualcomm can make a fantastic can be competitive and then some for raw and strong respectively. Apple chip for emulating old code, but performance. The problemis that you cen have all silicon incorporates both models, it won't be any good if Microsoft the performance in the world, butit doesrit count and that apparently makes a big doesn't play its part. Put simply, for muchif there's no software to run, Historically, difference for performance and Qualcomm doesn't control the Microsoft hasn't done a great job of supporting old efficiency when emulating. I's entire stack, and that’s a clear x86 software on Windows for Arm chips, not clear what, if any, hardware disadvantage compared to Apple. Supposedly, it's going to be different this time. elements the X Elite chip has for All that said, as | explained last Forstarters, somekey pps, including Chromeand improving emulation, month, Microsoft seems to be Adobe Photoshop, will be available in native Arm However, there's one reason to pretty tight with Qualcomm right format, For a lot of users, native Chrome alone think there may be some, The CPU now. It has chosen the latter to is almost enough. Far everyone else, emulation, cores in the X Elite were actually partner with and promote the first performance, and efficiency will be key. designed by startup called Nuvia, Al PCs, something that Intel and Critically, there are two aspects to any attempt which Qualcomm snapped up in AMD can't be happy with at all. ta emulate another CPU architecture, in this 2021. But here's the real kicker: It certainly seems lke Microsoft case Arm emulating x8, the software, and the prior to co-founding Nuvian 2019, is keen to pramote the Arm hardware, The upcoming 24H2 update forWindows its CEO, erardWilliams,wasnone platform, which implies that it 1W has a new translation layer known as ‘Prism’, other than Chief CPU architect might have put the wark in to get ‘which will convert code on the fly from x86 to Arm. at Apple for nearly a decade, The x86 emulation running well. It Inevitably, there's another comparison to be company was staffed by other won'tbelongbefore wefind out. By made with Apple and its Rosetta 2 emulation former Apple engineers involved the time you read these words, the layer, which was introduced when the Mac itself inthe company'stransition to Arm. first Laptops with the X Elite chip moved avay from Intel x86 CPUs to Apple's in- It's safe to say that Nuvia, and willbe ut, andthe tech community, therefore Qualcomm, knows all will be poring over every aspect of about whatitisin Applessilicon that performance. Things are certainly makes emulation run so well {getting interesting, Exactly how good the X Elite Some key apps, including will be remains to be proven. Six raw 4K pa Qualcomm has previously claimed fast, laced with extract Chrome and Photoshop, will be thst even games wil just work” of x88. Jeremy Laird eats available in native Arm format on the X Elite, and we recently and breathes PC technology. UL 202 w/ 13quickstart | = fall D) 7 AGAIN ‘THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES. > VPN vulnerability > Application tabs > Podman acceleration Are VPNs toast? The weaknessis known switchs designed to protect _One inal thing: if you Iwebeenreadinganews as Option 127,andallows against attemptstoforce followed Last month's story on the TunnelVision networks to change the yourtratfictobypassthe ‘feature tosetupa vulnerability for virtual foutetraffietakesto certain VPN. Therefore, ifthe lock WireGuard VPN server private networks, IPaddressesor websites, _isswitched on,you're safe to allowyouto dial home Apparently his—excuse basically giving bad actors _now-—andwere intho past, into your network, you're the pun—tunnel-sized the opportunity toreroute 00. Any attempts to bypass immune too. That's because hole in VPN security has traffic outside ofthe VPN's the VPNwould result in an the only way into itis existed-since 2002.Itsays encrypted tunnel error or blank wobpag through your VPN tunnel, so the vulnerability aliows, The attack requires Evenif your VPN provider any traffic re-routed outside attackers toforce VPN apps someone to have offers suchakill switch, the VPN can’t get tot tosend and receive at least administrative control over make sure i's robust enough some of your traffic outside whichever local network toblackthe TunnelVision Tabs for any app ofthe encrypted tunnel. The you're connecting to,which vulnerability. have so many application élaimisthat you're onlysafe isthe first plece of good ‘iddier workaround windows openit can be a when the VPNrunsonan nev. fyouconnect through involves connecting tothe real pain switching between Android device or LinuxPC. your phone's cellular local network to obtainan IP —themall. De you have any Isthis rue, andifso, does network. oryou're using addressand other network tps or tots that could help itmeanthe VPN networks _VPNathomethrough your details, then switching your me bringabitof order tothe I've been using forall these ownlocal network, then you network settings so they're chaos? —Gerald Bromberg years have been utterly should be immune rom this manually configured. You Useless inal that time? type of attack anluse the same connection THE DOCTOR RESPOND: “Caitlin Tracey The isk comeswhen you details, but because you've The Doc's recommended connect through third-party specified these yourself solution, which he uses THEDOCTORRESPONDS:The —_Wi-Finetworks, such as _insteadoofusingthe DHCP on aday-to-day basis, isa headline of thisvuinerability public hotspots. Ifyou server, you're protected program called TidyTabs does make for grim reading, _relyan the DHCP server from any bad actor. {www.nurgo-sottware.com/ That said in practical terms, to provideyou with an IP ‘As for Android and products/tiytabs}.As the theriskcanbeminimized | address to-connect tothat_ Linux users being sate, name implies, it basically and even eliminated network, you would be that's not quite true lets you merge multiple completely. That'sbecause vulnerable ifthe network You'recertainly protected application windows into this vulnerability targets the itself has been configured to against TunnelVision when _a single tabbed window. networkyou're connecting use Option 121tore-route connecting throughyour__I's what Micrasoft’s Sets through. Itmakes use of traffic. There are, however, Android mobile, Because the feature would have offered weakness inhow DCHP workarounds platform doesn't support in Windows 10 hadit not Servers, which allocate First, checkyourVPN DHCP Option 121. However, been canceled back in 2019. IP addresses todevices provider doesn't offer while Linux has setting There are two versions that aren't configured protection against thiskind that minimizes the effects, _available—one thats free tomanually set these of attack. For example, itsnotimmune thanks tos for personal use, anda themselves, work. ExpressVPN's Network Lock side channel. professional license for $29 N submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpccom 16 | mwmanre T sur 2026The big restriction inthe free version is that you can only graup three windows, together at any one time— ‘once installed and running, roll your mouse over the top left-corner of awindow to reveal a small colored tab. Simply click and drag this on to another window to group them tagether—it the windows haven't been extended to the full height of the screen, you'll see semi- translucent tabs appear ‘above the window when it's in focus with the name of the app or open document fon each one. Just click a tab to switch toit, or click and drag the tab to separate the windows again, You can combine windows from different applications, allowing you to group items, by whatever criteria you choose. You can also create whitelists and blacklists to automatically set up tabs for certain windows, as well as exclude certain applications from working with TidyTabs. The free version gives all the core functionality you need to evaluate TidyTabs, but upgrading to the Pro version does more than simply remove the three-tab limit, You gain access to smart grouping ‘options, which make it ‘easy to combine windows from the same application (great when working on multiple Word documents, for examplel. You also get to choose a tab color scheme, rename or reorder tabs, define hotkeys, and fopena file ina window by dragging it on toits tab. If you're jugating lots of open Windows, then TidyTabs Is definitely worth giving ago. Jellyfin Podman problem Te migrated my Jellyfin media server from a native instance on my Linux server toa Padman container. Everything appears to be working okay, except | cannot getit touse hardware transcoding. Whenever it's unable to direct play files, it fails with an error unless! disable the feature, at which point itll transcode using the CPU, What am! daing wrong? ‘Edward Sundberg ‘THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: The Doc was able to get transcoding working in both Jellyfin and Plex containers with what can only be described as abit ofa botch Job. It basically boils down to giving the container access tothe GPU via the /dev/érif renderD128 directory. By default, your container is unable to access this folder because of a combination ofuser restrictions on that folder with the way User namespace mapping works in rootless Podman ‘Access tothe folder is through the ‘render’ group, Which has the necessary permissions. On a native Jellyfin install, a user is created that's automatically added as a member of the group. Docker users are told touse the -group-add' flag tolink Jellyfin, but it had no effact on either Plex or Jellyfin in our experiments, Instead, the Doc recommends taking some liberties with security and widening access tothe /dev/ rifrenderD128 directory. You can test this with the following command, which changes user permissions to allow all users to read and write to the directory: ‘sudo chmod 668 /davidsi/ ronderD126 Most decent VPN providers offer akiliswitch. Now, as tong as your Jellyfin Podman script has the following line, you should be able to enjoy the benefits of hardware transcoding: levioo=/devidris rendorD128/dev/dsi/ rendorDI28z0m\ Test by playing back a video that requires hardware transcoding—for example, by using your mobile phone and changing the playback settings to reduce the bitrate. Confirm transcoding Is taking place from the Jellytin server's web-based dashboard (click the button under the device's entryl, then keep an eye on CPU usage—it should be 30-40 percent rather than 95-100 percent when CPU transcoding is taking place. Cockpit users can monitor CPU usage from the Overview section, Once you've confirmed the fix works, you can enjoy hardware transcoding—until you restart your server, a8 this is one of those permissions that doesn't survive a reboot, You can either manually run the ‘chmod’ command after every reboot in future, or you can make it stick by editing 2 single file sudo nano /ib/udov) rules 4/S0-udev-defaultrules Locate the following tines: SUBSYSTEM=="drm' KERNEL=="ronderD™, GROUP="render’, ‘MODE="0880" SUBSYSTEM="Kfd", GROUP="rendor’, ‘MODE="0880" Change 460 to "666" in both lines, save the file and exit. The fix is now permanent, and hardware transcoding should always be available going forward, Remote inspection ‘Airiendis offering me his old gaming PC for what he says isa knock-down’ price. He lives about 30 miles away, so I don't want to travel over to view it before I've done a bit of due diligence. He doesn't know much about PCs, 50 ideally, I'd ike to check out its spec remotely. Any ideas how this could be done? Timothy Ramos THE bOCTOR RESPONDS: Why not set up a video conference with your friend using a toot that allows desktop sharing? Most tools support this, including Microsoft Teams. Once the meeting is set up, ask your friend to look for an ‘option to share his desktop with you, then watk him through accessing Settings > System > About so you can look. Ifyou like it, ask him to download and run the portable version of HWINFO (wwhwinfo.com). Get him tolaunch the tool and make sure both Sensors-only and Summary-only are unchecked before clicking Start, This will let you take @ deeper dive into his system, Alternatively, if you'd rather be left alone to check the PC yourself and your friend is happy to let you poke around, suggest setting up a Quick Assist session in Windows, Launch the tool and click Help someone’. Sign into your Microsoft account, then ask your friend to open Quick Assist on his PC Communicate the security code on your screen to your friend, who should input it athhis end, and click Submit Once connected, request to take full contral. You're now free to perform whatever checks you need to learn what you can about your prospective purchase. © vue 202s | vam [15the transplant build =" TINY TOWER ee THE TRANSPLANT BUILD Zak Storey takes the RX 7900 GRE out for a spin in a tiny E-ATX Tower (WHEN IT COMES TO the ITX orm factor, ‘most will end up in one of two camps Either you love them because of the ‘minimalist aesthetic, small footprint,and that basie concept of absolute powor in a ridiculously small build. Alternatively, you hate them because of the lack of connectivity, limited case choices, and Ling asa result It’s one of the most controversial form factors out there. With components. getting larger, more power hungry, and requiring more cooling to get the most ‘out of them, i's becoming increasingly dificult to find support for it across the bboard as we move from generation to generation. INGREDIENTS But what if we were to tell you there was another way? What if we could mix the very best of both worlds? A small form factor case that didn't compromise ‘on cooling, with full E-ATX motherboard Support, and an intuitive layout that allowed you to squeeze in some serious power, without sacrificing in any one ‘area? Well, that would be perfect, right? But surety it doesn't exist? ‘Well then, with 24 cores, 32 threads, 3268 of 6,000 MT/s memory, one of the best value 4K GPUs you can pick up right ‘now, a super-premium cooling solution, 1200Ws of power delivery, and no less than 6TB of PCle 4.0 and 5.0 storage, all cooled via six 120mm fans and a 360mm radiator, this bulld here ticks all of the above boxes and then some. What's ‘more impressive is that it fits al of that ina tower chassis that measures, at its smallost, just 15.6 x 8.5 x 16.1 inches. To putthat into perspective, at Maximum PC, our first ever ITX liquid-cooled PC was built inside the incredible NZXT Manta, a case that by contrast measured 16.7 x 9.6 x.11.7 inches—over an inch larger in every measure. Well then, Ladies, gentlemen, friends, colleagues, and everyone else in between, Maximum PC is proud to present the Tiny Tower Ultimate Power build, Let's geodesically weave our way Imo the feature, shall we? paar L | pm cru Intel Core i9-14900K $549 “Motherbos Asus ROG Maximus 2790 Dark Hero $595 cPuceoter Phanteks Glacier One 360020 White $170 RAM 32GB |2x16GB] Crucial Pro Overclocking DDRS @ 6000 C36 ‘$105 1TB Crucial 1700 M.2 PCle 5.0x6 sin $502 27B Kingston Fury Renegade M.2 PCle 6.0 x4 sims ss03 ‘2TB Lexar NM790 M.2 PCle 4.0 x4 $17 oPU Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16GB $550 case Geometric Future M4 Caliburn ATX Mid-Tower $109 PSU 1200W Corsair RM1200x Shift 80+ Gold $206 120mm Fans Phanteks M25-120 PWM D-RGB Fans 3 Pack $30eeIntel Core 9-14900K $549 wwrsintel.com Time and ime again, we keep coming back tothe intel Core i9-14900K, and with good reason. At its core, this build is the very heart of the Maximum PC testbed, I's our {go-to chip for GPU, RAM, and SSD testing, ‘and delivers incredible performance for the price. Is effectively the pinnacte of what intel has managed to achieve with its Rocket Lake architecture. It’s not perfect, and if you've kept your fear to the ground on this one, you've likely seen news articles regarding motherboards producing pretty agressive overvolts and clock-speed boosts. However, you can now pick up an Intel default performance profile in most mobo B10Ses, and even with that slight drop in overall potency, the 14900K stil delivers supreme CPU performance, circumnavigating any potential bottlenecks you can imagine for any other component in your build. You're stil Likely to.see those 100 C running temperatures ‘and high clock speeds, but itll at least be a touch more stable, Fun news cycle data aside, the 14900K has someserious hardware atitecore lha, puns. including eight performance cores, with hyperthreading plus 16 effcient-cores, for all of those low- priority application processes that need managing, Combine that with 36MB of mixed smart-cache, and the 14900K quite happily dominates any task you throw att ‘Asus ROG Maximus 2790 Dark Hero $595 Is a bit odd when your motherboard ‘costs more than your CPU, and this one has arguably been the cause of a number ‘of headaches for us lt in the labs over the last few months ‘On the surface, i's an incredible piece ‘of hardware, One PCle 5.0 M.2 slot, four PCle &.0'M.2 slots, a phenomenal amount of USB connectivity bothin the rear and fon the board itself. Wi-Fi 7 as standard, 2.86) Ethernet, and a seriously hefty 20+1 VRM solution as wel. I's given Asus the ‘opportunity to push these chips to the nines when it comes to performance, and that has certainly come with some drawbacks in terms of system stability {we're looking at you, Core 7). Stil, with 2 few tweaks here and there, and come ‘adjustments to some of the Asus Al auto- overclacking nonsense in the BIOS, the 2790 Dark Hera isa great board for any connectivity aficionado, The only thing that does look a bit awkward {for a $595 motherboard) is that weird ‘Aura Grid’ rear I/O LED thing. I's nota display, so don't get your hopes up— thisisn'ta Formula board, unfortunately— but you can turn it off in the BIOS, and leave yourself with aclean mirrored finish here ine Phanteks Glacier One 2600305170 www phanteks.com For this build, we wanted to step away fromall ofthe crazy display AlOs currently out there topping $300, complete with messy cable management systems and nightmarish surrounds, and instead opt for something a little more low-key. This time, we've gone for the Phanteks Glacier (One 360030 in white There's no pomp or fanfare here—just simple, clean, elegant design, mixed with an intuitive mounting system, and one seriously hardcare backplate. It comes with support for pretty much every socket since the LGATI5x series and above, and also includes a set of Phanteks’ daisy. chainable D-RG3 fans.STEP-BY-STEP P.22 7 It's a fantastic pick, and performance fon those fans in particular is Kiley, clocking in 3.01 mmH20 and 64.3 CFM at ful lt, while stl only registering 30.2 dBA. at maximum RPM. That's not too shabby. Impressively, we found that the pump was actually the noisiest element ‘once we hadit all set up to our fan curves. correctly, and even then, once the system got a little settled, it soon faded away, We've gone with white this time to provide a little contrast against the dark black ff the motherboard and its supporting components. I's a small change, but it really gives the build a bit more of a three-dimensional feel because of it particularly when you start illuminating that interior with a touch of LED lighting. ‘3208 (2x1608) Crucial Pro Overclocking DRS 6000 6365109 wwwecrucial.com Iwasonlythe May 2024 issue thatwe used this same Crucial kit in another build, that ‘one featuring the RTX 4080 Super arnong other things, and we've turned to it and Crucial once more for one simple reason: memory profits. Sounds mundane, right? We've got all, these illuminated parts internally and so ‘much going on, and yet, somehow we've gone with a biand low-profile memory kit that clocks to just 6,000 MT/s? Well, as this build is more transplant than a fresh take, and its core is predominantly our testbed, versatility is key. A good review, and a good set of benchmark results, relies on consistency. Testing CPUs in particular requires every other component in that loop be of @ similar caliber. GPU, SSD, motherboard if possible, but the biggest challenge is memory. If youre using two very different kits of memory for both Intel and AMD, youre immediately going to invalidate your results. Searching around for two similar or identical kits, with timings that are parallel to one another, with the same frequency and capacity, can be challenging. For 9 long time, manufacturers produced kits with only either Intel's XMP settings or AMD's EXPO settings embedded on them. Got an AMD system? Buy this kit, but you'll be up a certain creek without a paddle if you swap talintel later dawn the line Excuses were used aboutstoragespace fn the DIMMs [for timings—can you feel our frustration there? but finally, Crucial broke the mold, and put both Intel and AMD profiles on a single kit of memary. That's why the Crucial Pro Overclocking kit is so valuable. 3268 of pristine DDRS, at 6000 MT/sIthe sweet spot for AMD and Intell plus consistent timings between both platforms? Consider us sold, and for only $109 as wel ‘TTBCrucial T700M.2PCIe 5.055172 worw.erucial.com Sometimes, the fastest ports aren't the most useful parts when it comes to building a decent testbed, and nowhere is this more apparent than with our OS SSD, Because we're utilizing that Asus Dark Hero as our motherboard of choice for SSO, RAM, GPU, and intel CPU testing, we needed an SSD that'd fit comfortably inthat PCle5 0slot and one that you could remove from tsheatsink, With that in mind, we've gone with the 1700 over the T708 with one reason in ‘mind: you can remove from its heatsink. Sadly, although the 1705 is significantly faster than the T700, its lack of an easily removable heatsink makes ita challenge, particularly it wewant to secure tin place and take advantage of the 2790 Dark Hero's gargantuan SSD heatsink. Ire still a good drive, with top-tier sequential performance, and decentrandom 4K (pretty much in tine with the bulk that generation of PCle 5.0 drives butt’ nt the quickest. That sai, TS at just $172 represents good valueright now. 2TBKingston Fury Renegade M.2PCIe4.0$173 wwrekingston.com (ur second key drive isthe Kingston Fury Renegade M.2PCle 4.0SS0. This is where We store all of our software and games for the copious amount of benchmark runs. we perform here at the mag and when testing hardware, ‘We've waxed lyrical enough about the Fury Renegade over the last few issues, but to cut a long story short, its got some seriously intuitive engineering behind it, coupled witha significantly chonkyfullfat DR4 cache, givingit quite the competitive edge in random 4K performance versus leven some of the larger PCle 5.0 drives out there right now, Yes, it's predominantly designed for consoles like the PSS, but its pure performance grunt makes it a ‘surefire pick as our secondary drive 2TBLexar NM790M.2PCle 4.05147 ‘wwrwlexarcom Three SSDs? In one build? Impressively, we've still got space for another two SSDs ifwe wantwith that motherboard. Still, our third SSD drive [predominantly operating as a backup drive, and fer any tertiary {games we might need to download, or video content we may need to storel, is the rather impressive 2TB Lexar NM790 PCle 4.0 SSD. For testing purposes, we'll be reporting on this drive in particular, as it's seriously top-spec PCle 4.0 SSD, but withthe caveat that i's currently available atan incredibly ow $147 That's phenomenally cheap for a drive of tis size on the PCle 4,0 standard, and given that we know the results as we write this, you won't be disappointed if you do Bick thie up for your primary drive Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX7900 GRE 1668 $550 veww.sapphire.com Peak RONA 3 GPU-that's how you should See the RX 7900 GRE. Also, we're starting to wonder if AMD's going to run ‘out of suffies with the rate its releasing these GPUs. The RX7900 GRE isdesigned to fit nicely in the power vacuum laying tween the 7900 XT and the 7800 XT. Why isnttit ealled the 7900? Good question. That said, for its reasonable $550 price tag, you get access to 80 Compute units, 5,120 shader cores, 160 Tenor cores, and 80 ray tracing cores, as well as a fairly healthy 2,245 MHz boost clock. It also packs in 16GB of VRAM to round it all ff There's a lot of similarities between how the 7900 GRE has been handled and the RTX 4080 Super. On the one hand, compared to the 7800 XT, there's a not insignificant hardware bump, particularly going from 3,840 shader cores up to 5,120 (25 percent more, if youre counting. Yet the clock speeds are actually significantly lower than the 7900 XT and the 7800 XT, both of which break that 2,400 MHz barrier, while the GRE slides in at just 2,245 laboutan eight percent drop, atleast on reference cards|, which will inevitably ‘mute that hardware bump we've seen, Either way the GRE looks to be the perfectentry-level 4K gaming GPU ortop- tier 1é40p graphics card, ifyou've got that kind of cash, and don't mind the slightly less potent ray-tracing performance Geometric Future Model 4 Cliburn ATX Tower $109 wo. geometricfuture.com Here, we have that 35L masterpiece, the Model 4 Caliburn, This isnt the first chassis we've seen from Geometric Future, and likely won't be the last either, as the case manufacturer continues to impress us with its incredibly innovative design full of clean, crisp details.The Model 4 has an incredibly small form factor, that much we've already established, but you may have spotted we listed ‘in its smallest configuration ‘as a caveat, as it can have four separate Configurations, depending on how you want to manage your build. Simply by raising the roof andits associated bracket, for removing a plate here and there, you can dramatically adjust everything from SSD placement and PSU support to vertical GPU mounting and radiator support, all without losing any of those beautiful style elements, including the L-shaped smoked glass window, mirrored front panel, and perforated ventilation, Similar to the Model 8 we looked at in the May 2024 issue, the Model 4 takes advantage of a similar chimney airflow design to alleviate heat build-up, leaning into natural convection rather than fighting it, as you'd find in other cases, For top-line stats, you get up to E-ATX motherboard supportlalthough we'd stick with ATX for optimal cable management! upto 360mm, bx240mm,and tx 120mm radiator support, mounting locations for nine fans total, and PSUs [dependent on install orientation] up to 180mm in Length. It also house up to four x 25-inch SSDs, or 2x 25-inch and 2x 35-inch hard drives instead, and lastly, GPUs will clock out at around 405mm long, although slightly shorter will make your life a litte easier if you're running an AIO inthe floor. I's alot of case for $109, that’s for sure, ‘1200W Corsair RM1200x Shift 80+ Gold $206 Big graphics cards require big power supplies to support them, and with the way things are going (bearing in mind that Nvidia's T2VHPWR connectorfeable and the initial design of the 4090 was to support up to 600W of power draw before ‘manufacturers kicked up a fuss}, we don't see that changing any time soan, For a solid testbed, then, having a big PSU is key, To that end, we're sticking with the RMx Shift, I's been a staple ina umber of our builds now, and will likely remain so. Corsair has built the Shift 2 little different, as it's shuffled all of the modular power connectors to the side of the unit, rather than the rear. it actually works rather well in our build here (you'l see why in a bill, but it can lead to some compatibility issues with other cases, so do bear that in mind ifyou decide to make the jump tothe shift ite Why the shuffle on the power connectors? Simply put, in. any other traditional case, with the PSU inthe floor, this will place the connectors right in front of you as soon as you remove the rear side panel on your chassis, meaning you don't have to fumble around, trying to disconnect or connect a power cable for that extra SSD you've just bought Phanteks M25-120 PWM D-RGB Fans 3 Pack $30 worw.phanteks.com For our backup fans (or exhaust fans, in this instancel, we've gone with a set of Phanteks M25-120 PWM D-RSB units in White. These aren't the most glamorous of solutions, but if we're honest, they still look great, and. pack plenty of performance. Here's the thing, though: they're still A-RGB, and can daisy-chain into our D-RGB units on our Al too, soit’s all controlled off a single RGB header for ease of access, (On top of that, this triple 120mm kit here is ust $30—a great price for a good ualty fan kit. What's not to love?LENGTH OF TIME: 2-3 hours DIFFICULTY: Hard his is probably one of the hardest builds we've had to create here at Maximum PC, and that's a heavy statement for us to make, After all, we're veteran builders here, with hundreds of published build lags to our name, and multiple liquid-cooled rigs under our belt, including a few in some seriously space- restricted cases. Yet, throughout this process, working in the Model 4 had to be approached with an ‘open mind. We've always been advocates fof the notion that your build process should be fluid, Take alookat your chassis before you start installing anything. Tey to identify where you might hit a snag or bottleneck. Think about your clearances, and where your hardware will sit. Would it be easier to install the fans first? Where will your cables go? Should you wire everything earlier or later, or chop off those front panel headers entirely? System building at the upper-most level is an intricate puzzle. That's not to say that the Model 4 is @ bad case, but If you're installing some seriously insane componentry, youre going to have to think like this Mid-range and entry-level systems with smaller power supplies, less chunky GPUs, and smaller coolers will be easier to work around, but if you intend to push this chassis to its absolute limit, then buckle up, because its going to take some thought Fortunately, whenever we thought a problem was about to occur, the Model 4 quickly pointed out a way it could adapt to that problem, More often than not, it was us overlooking particular element of the chassis land not reading the manuals that ‘came with itl that led tothe issues. ‘As for the core of this build, it's effectively 2 transplant; moving fone testbed system over to another Downsizing, without compromise, in an ‘attemat to reclaim abit of desk space, and build a kick-ass system that doesn't quite dominate the entire workspace. Unlike our typical build order, with 2 transplant build, things are a litle different. You'll likely recognize that system there in 1 Jmthat's our feature build fram the May 2024 iseue, with a few minor alterations to make it suitable for our testbed scenario. Yep, Wwe ditched the NZXT board in favor of the PCle 5.0-supporting 2790 Dark Hero— perfect for SSD testing and beyond. You'll also notice that we swapped those fans ‘round on the AIO mounted tothe ‘rear’ o the Medel 8 to act as intakes instead, and shifted the Corsair iCUE Link 150i LCD block around by 90 degrees. The former was o help keep our cooling incheck, and help while benchmarking GPUs fa couple of degrees wor't hurt you and your bull, ut when benchmarking, consistency is key]. As for the latter, that helped straighten out those tubes a touch, along with clearance with our larger GPUs, Still, first. things first: a complete disassembly of our Model 8 system. Removing the RTX 4080 Super, along with the memory, and removing the cooler, before finally getting the motherboard and the power supply out as well, We've left a few components in here, too. The CPU and the primary and secondary M.2 850s can stay put during the transfer. An interesting shag here was on- board removal. We'd taken out all the screws securing it in place, but forgot the additional motherboard standoff ‘screw underneath that big bulky PCle 5.0 aluminum M.2 heatsink. Mary frustrating minutes later, it clicked, and we removed the M.2 heatsink and that final screw. With al the kit finally retrieved from the Model 8, we set aside the motherboard for later, making suretoinstall the NM79into the PCle 4.0 M.2 slot below the Kingston drive [ J. One thing to note: you ‘can see our motherboard's M,2 Thermal pads are getting a little battered. You can buy replacements from Amazon for around $10. This is highly recommended if you're an SSD reviewer, but less so i you're just changing SSDs now and again. Hey Zak, why don't you take a chassis with an’ incredibly “compact internal layout, and use a bespoke shifted power ‘supply that wasnt designed fori?" That's pretty much how you ean sum up this next segment. The Model 4 has a unique side panel and chassis design. We, of course, didthe usual teardown, The sis window is {an L shape of toughened smoked glass— ‘imply it thet off at the hinges. The rear panel isa folded perforated structure that sits on top and slides into notches on the rear, secured up top with push pins. Youremave thatviaatabat the top back of the case {just push it up and off). With that out of the way, you can then begin to configure your PSU solution. The PSU will sit at the front of the Model 4, and you can mount it in two orientations: one with the PSU power connector facing up (requiring you to raise the roof and rear radiator bracketl, or one with the PSU