PCWorld - August 2016

AU G U ST 2016

WINDOWS 10

ANNIVERSARYUPDATE WHAT USERS WANT MOST

PLUS: AMD RADEON RX 480 REVIEW

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AUGUST 2016

» DEPARTMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

» FEATURES

7 News 125 What users want in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

43 Reviews & Ratings

139 Headphones buyers guide

149 Here’s How

» COLUMNS 172 Hassle-Free PC 176 Answer Line 33 Consumer Watch

178 Tech Spotlight 

About Us

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NEWS 8 Yes, Windows 10 subscriptions are coming, at least for enterprise

23 Nintendo’s releasing a miniature NES console packed with 30 classic games

14 Screens that fold and roll will arrive as early as next year

26 FAA compromise bill drops key drone privacy provisions

17 Confirmed: Only Microsoft Edge will play Netflix content at 1080p on your PC

30 Oil and water: Here’s Ubuntu Linux’s Unity desktop running natively on Windows 10

20 A smaller version of Raspberry Pi 3 is coming soon

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Tech and trends that will affect you today and beyond.

NEWS

Yes, Windows 10 subscriptions are coming, at least for enterprise

I M AG E : M I C ROS O F T

BY MARK HACHMAN

FOR OVER A year, Windows 10 customers have wondered whether Microsoft will offer Windows 10 as a service. Recently, Microsoft confirmed that it would—though just for enterprises at the moment. Beginning this fall, Microsoft will offer Windows 10 Enterprise E3, a special enterprise tier of Windows 10 that will cost $7 per user per month. Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, said cloud providers would now be able to offer three premier Microsoft services on a subscription basis: Microsoft’s Azure, Office 365, and now Windows 10. “For the price of a cup of coffee and a donut per day, you can get enterprise-class security on a per-user subscription basis,” Mehdi said onstage at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, 

Canada. “If you’re a cloud provider, this is now phenomenal.” Microsoft also struck a second deal with IBM to offer its Surface tablets as a service (go.pcworld.com/enterprisetosurface), essentially leasing them to customers on a per-month basis. Microsoft did not say which devices would be offered via the service, however, nor how much they would cost. Why this matters: For almost as long as Microsoft has offered Windows 10 as a free upgrade, consumers have wondered two things: What would Microsoft charge for a full license to Windows 10, and what does the phrase “Windows as a service” actually mean? We now know: subscriptions. But we still don’t know how (or if) this model will apply to consumers.

Windows as a (for now, optional) service According to a Microsoft spokeswoman, the subscription deal is not in any way related to Microsoft’s consumer offering. It’s worth highlighting, though, that a business of one employee can take advantage of it, however. “Windows 10 Enterprise E3 for CSP is for business customers of any size (including one person) to get enterprise features and

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Windows 10 Enterprise E3 offers what customers have been wondering about for some time: whether Microsoft would make Windows 10 a subscription service.

functionality on a per monthly/per seat cost,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said via email. “This new subscription model is not associated with our current upgrade offering or applicable to the Windows 10 consumer edition.” Up to now, Windows 10 has been a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. That ended July 29, 2016. After that, Microsoft charges $119 (go.pcworld.com/win10pricing) for Windows 10 Home, $199 for Windows 10 Professional, and $99 for a Windows 10 Pro Pack to jump from a licensed copy of Windows 10 Home to the Professional version. A “one person” business who bought the subscription would receive about 28 months of Windows 10 before paying the equivalent price of Windows 10 Professional. We know that Microsoft wants to encourage consumers and businesses alike to pay for its services like you pay the electricity bill, forking over a bit each month to keep the power on. Right now, Microsoft’s flagship subscription offering is Office 365, its collection of Office applications that Microsoft patches and adds new features to each month. Microsoft vice president of corporate marketing Kirk Koenigsbauer told partners in July that 70 million people pay to use Office 365 every month. When Microsoft reported its first-quarter earnings in April, Microsoft said about 22.2 million of those subscribers were consumers, and total Office commercial users were up 57 percent from a year ago. Microsoft has also indicated it wishes to extend that same model to Windows. A year ago, when chief executive Satya Nadella booted Stephen Elop from the Windows and Devices Group and handed the reins over to Terry Myerson, Nadella penned a very interesting rationale 

The deadline for Windows 10’s free upgrade is July 29, 2016.

NEWS

Microsoft’s subscription model for Office 365 has been an unqualified success, even extending to non-Windows platforms like Apple’s iOS.

for how he saw Windows in relation to the rest of Microsoft hardware: “WDG will drive Windows as a service across devices of all types and build all of our Microsoft devices including Surface, HoloLens, Lumia, Surface Hub, Band and Xbox,” Nadella said in an email to employees. “This enables us to create new categories while generating enthusiasm and demand for Windows broadly.” At the time, Microsoft executives made it very clear that buying a Windows license—or a device with Windows 10 on it—would ensure Windows owners had a license to Windows 10 for the life of the device. But Microsoft has also said that it wants to entice you to pay for additional services over that lifespan. In December 2014, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner (who said July 7 that he’d leave the company to become chief executive of Citadel Securities) justified (go.pcworld.com/ 

creditsuisseconf) the rise of $99 Windows tablets by explaining that Microsoft would “monetize the lifetime of that customer through services and different add-ons.” The real question is whether Microsoft would enforce its services in some way. The company seemingly put these questions to rest a year ago, but an enterprise subscription model for Windows unfortunately reopens them.

Security as a service means little to consumers If Mehdi’s comments are to be taken as a model for how Microsoft plans to sell subscriptions to enterprises—ongoing security—then you can see why small businesses and especially enterprises might be interested: They need ongoing patches and security updates, even if they want control of when to deploy them. Consumers probably don’t care as much. If Windows Defender were to be turned off or not updated, consumers could turn to a number of free alternatives from Avast, Panda, and others. A more pressing worry would be whether Microsoft would withhold patches and security updates unless consumers paid for them. This seems highly unlikely, given the potential security risks to the platform. However, Microsoft has clearly stated it will cease patching and updating Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in the next few years, spurring consumers and enterprises to migrate to its latest platform. Many consumers remain on Windows 7, an OS that launched seven years ago. If Windows 10 is the “last Windows,” will Microsoft continue to support PCs in 2023? A year ago, Microsoft opened the door to a great deal of speculation on how it would monetize Windows. Microsoft’s new subscription model for enterprises raises those questions once again.

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Screens that fold and roll will arrive as early as next year

I M AG E : LG D I S P L AY

BY AGAM SHAH

DISPLAYS THAT CAN be folded and rolled up have been shown in prototype smartphones, wearables, and other devices—but when will such products be available? Advances in technology suggest they aren’t too far off in the future. Such devices could start showing up as early as next year or 2018, said Jerry Kang, senior principal analyst for emerging display technologies and OLED at IHS. Manufacturers are trying to launch them in devices like tablets that can fold into a smartphone-size device. It’s possible to use these 

At CES 2016 in Las Vegas, LG showed a display that can fold.

NEWS

Manufacturers are trying to launch them in devices like tablets that can fold into a smartphonesize device.

displays in wearable devices, but reliability, weight, and battery life need to be considered, Kang said. Small folding screens will likely come before larger ones, mainly due to the economics of making such displays, Kang said. The displays will be based on OLED (organic light-emitting diode), which is considered a successor to current LED technology. OLEDs don’t have lighting back-panels, making them thinner and more power efficient. At CES this year, LG showed a stunningly thin paper-like display (go. pcworld.com/lgthinscreens) that could roll up. The company projects it will deliver foldable OLEDs by next year (go.pcworld.com/ lgflexdisplay). There are advantages to screens that can be folded or rolled up. They could lead to innovative product designs and increase the mobility of devices, Kang said.

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Samsung YOUM flexible display.

For example, it could be easier to fit screens around the contours of a battery and other components. It will also provide a level of flexibility in how a user can change the shape of a device. But challenges remain in making such screens practical, Kang said. A display has multiple functional layers such as cover lenses, touch panels, and polarizers, all made of different materials. A large number of layers could limit the ability to bend and fold. But removing layers also presents problems. For example, removing the touch panel could make such a screen useless for smartphones and tablets. The size of batteries and circuits are of lesser concern in designing bendable screens, Kang said. The screens can be folded around components. Displays that can fold and roll are an extension of flexible displays, which are already in wearables, smartphones, and TVs. For example, some TVs have flexible screens that are designed so that they can be slightly curved. Samsung and LG started using flexible AMOLED displays in smartphones in 2013 and are adapting those screens for wearables. Those companies are also leading the charge to bring displays that can bend and fold to devices. The sorts of flexible displays that are used in curved products are still in their infancy, but IHS projects such screens to continue siphoning market share from non-flexible displays. In 2022, 433.3 million flexible displays will ship, compared to 3.6 billion units of nonflexible displays.

Displays that can fold and roll are an extension of flexible displays, which are already in wearables, smartphones, and TVs.

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NEWS

Confirmed: Only Microsoft Edge will play Netflix content at 1080p on your PC BY MARK HACHMAN IF YOU WANT to watch true 1080p content on Netflix over your PC, you need to use Microsoft’s Edge browser. Recently, Microsoft claimed (go.pcworld.com/edge1080p) that its Edge browser was the only one of the big four browsers—which also includes Chrome, Firefox, and Opera—to offer 1080p resolution while playing Netflix content. A quick test of all four browsers by PCWorld proved this claim to be true, with the other three browsers capped at 720p. Why this matters: Microsoft’s been busy trying to rehabilitate the reputation of Edge, which suffered after the browser initially offered 

slower performance than its competitors, while also lacking the plug-ins and extensions that other browsers, particularly Firefox, have offered for years. Performance in Edge has since improved, and the browser now offers a few plug-ins for public use. These are important steps for Microsoft if Edge is to avoid the fate of Internet Explorer, which became known as the browser users loved to hate.

Showing off Edge The idea, then, has been to find niches where Edge shines. In June, Microsoft slammed Google Chrome’s battery life (go. pcworld.com/chromebatterylife), arguing that users on-the-go, and away from a power outlet, would be better served by Edge’s superior power efficiency. Now, Microsoft has publicized a Netflix support document (go.pcworld.com/ edge1080netflix), showing Netflix streams at 1080p on Internet Explorer and Edge, versus 720p on the other browsers. Using the “secret Netflix menus” (go.pcworld.com/secretnetflix menus) unearthed by Reddit users (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D) to display the resolution and bit rate, we confirmed that Microsoft’s claims are indeed true: You can receive a higher bit rate and resolution when watching Netflix using Edge than you can with, say, Chrome.

Netflix on Google Chrome. Note that it streams in 720p, not 1080.

Currently, Opera runs Netflix at a maximum resolution of 720p. 

NEWS

That doesn’t mean that die-hard Chrome or Firefox fans are out of luck, however: the Windows 10 Netflix app also renders Netflix in 1080p. (So does Apple’s Safari, though we do not endorse running a Windows browser that hasn’t been updated since 2012.) In a blog post, Microsoft claimed Microsoft Edge was built to take advantage of platform features in Windows 10, including the PlayReady Content Protection and the media engine’s Protected Media Path (go.pcworld.com/protectedmediapath). The company said it is working with the Open Media Alliance to develop nextgeneration media formats, codecs, and other technologies for UltraHD video, and with chipset companies to develop Enhanced Content Protection that moves the protected media path into peripheral hardware for an even higher level of security, and one that could be used to protect 4K media. That’s in the future, though. Currently there are many TVs and devices that support 4K Netflix streaming (go.pcworld.com/ netflix4k)—and the PC isn’t one of them. Still, if you’re the type of person who steals 20 minutes to watch part of an episode at lunch, and you demand the best quality possible, make sure you load up Edge.

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A close-up of the Netflix menu running on Microsoft Edge: note the higher 1920x1080 resolution.

A smaller version of Raspberry Pi 3 is coming soon BY AGAM SHAH

I M AG E : R A S P B E R RY P I.O RG

A SMALLER VERSION OF the popular Raspberry Pi 3 will go on sale in a

few months. Raspberry Pi is developing a new version of its Compute Module, a single-board computer that plugs into specific on-board memory slots. The new Pi will be more like a mini-computer inside a computer, and it won’t come with a power supply. The Compute Module will have similar circuitry to that of Raspberry Pi 3, a wildly successful computer that can be a PC replacement. But it will be smaller, with the memory, CPU, and storage embedded tightly on a board. The differences between the Compute Module and the Raspberry Pi 

I M AG E : R A S P B E R RY P I.O RG

NEWS

3 will be subtle. While the Compute Module will have a 64-bit ARM processor like the Pi 3, it won’t have Wi-Fi, Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi, said in an interview with IDG News Service. The Compute Module could ship as soon as this quarter, Upton said. It will be priced similar to its predecessor, the two-year-old Compute Module, available (go.pcworld.com/computemodule) from reseller RS Components for about US$24. The older Compute Module is based on the original Raspberry Pi. Like Raspberry Pi 3, the new Compute Module will work with Linux and Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT Core, Upton said. A Compute Module Development Kit, in which the Compute Module can be slotted for testing, may also be sold. The Development Kit could have multiple connectivity and port options, much like the Raspberry Pi 3. The Raspberry Pi 3 has sold millions of units and has evolved from a gadget development tool into a PC. The Compute Module could also appeal to businesses that want to put computers inside electronics or industrial equipment. Small computers are being used to operate factory equipment, and 

Raspberry Pi’s Compute Module released in 2014 is smaller than a regular Raspberry Pi board.

the Compute Module could fit in that scenario. Raspberry Pi is already successful among computing enthusiasts and tinkerers, but Upton wants to break into that industrial market. People are buying inexpensive Pi boards and increasingly putting them in equipment, either for testing or for real-world use, Upton said. The Compute Module falls into a category of devices called single-board computers, or SBCs. Like its predecessor, it’s likely the new Compute Module will be compatible with SODIMM slots, which are cheaper than PCI or SDRAM slots and can carry high-speed signals reliably. Companies like Atmel and Freescale also sell SBCs with microcontrollers that are used to test applications and hardware. The 64-bit ARM CPU in the Compute Module will be faster than microcontrollers on the other boards. Wi-Fi is a signature feature of Raspberry Pi 3, adding much-needed on-board connectivity features. The economics and small size of the Compute Module make it difficult to embed Wi-Fi circuitry.

Raspberry Pi is already successful among computing enthusiasts and tinkerers, but Upton wants to break into that industrial market.

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NEWS

Nintendo’s releasing a miniature NES console packed with 30 classic games BY IAN PAUL

IT’S APPARENTLY RETRO month for

Nintendo. After the insanely successful launch of Pokémon Go (go.pcworld. com/pokemongo faq), the video game company is dipping way back in the vault for the holiday season. Starting November 11, Nintendo is bringing back a miniaturized replica of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. The $60 Mini Collector’s Edition NES comes with a single controller replica and 30 classic NES games built in to the system—no cartridge necessary. You can pick up an extra classic controller for $10. Don’t count on using your old NES controllers—if they’re still kicking—with the new system. The new controllers are designed to plug in to the mini NES as well as the Wii Remote Control. When paired with the Wii remote, you can use the replica controller to play Virtual NES Console games on your Wii or Wii U. In another nod to the modern world, the mini NES won’t force you to 

pause your game overnight to keep from losing your progress. Each game has built-in suspend points that let you shut down for the night, and come back to the same point in the game the next day. But enough talk. What you really want to know are the games you get with the new system. Here they are: Balloon Fight Bubble Bobble Castlevania Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Jr. Double Dragon II: The Revenge Dr. Mario Excitebike Final Fantasy Galaga Ghosts’n Goblins Gradius Ice Climber Kid Icarus

Kirby’s Adventure Mario Bros.Mega Man 2 Metroid Ninja Gaiden Pac-Man Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream StarTropics Super C Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. 2 Super Mario Bros. 3 Tecmo Bowl The Legend of Zelda Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 

NEWS

That’s an all-star lineup, but purists may be disappointed that Nintendo went with the re-release version of Punch Out!! that drops Mike Tyson from the game. There’s also a couple of games in this list that were retro games even on the NES, including the Donkey Kong games and Pac-Man. Still, it’s nice to see these “retro retro” games included, since Nintendo’s classic library wouldn’t be complete without them. The story behind the story: Nintendo’s plan may seem a little ridiculous to emulation fans. Within half an hour, you can go from zero to a full NES gaming setup on a Raspberry Pi that plugs into your TV’s HDMI port. But those setups, such as RetroPie (retropie.org.uk), only provide the games in their original form, and sometimes they won’t play at all or are a little buggy. On top of that, you won’t have the controller or the new builtin suspend points to save your progress. Not to mention the fact that the games you download for RetroPie aren’t legitimate copies anyway, and emulation’s a legal grey area. The mini NES isn’t really for technically capable people who know how to cobble together a Raspberry Pi, anyway. This console will appeal to the masses who still harbor fond memories of their NEStinged childhood. When those people see this console on store shelves—and for just $60—there will no doubt be a lot of impulse buys so parents can replay these games with their kids.

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FAA compromise bill drops key drone privacy provisions BY JOHN RIBEIRO

A FEDERAL AVIATION Administration reauthorization bill that was

passed by the Senate in July has excluded key privacy provisions, including a requirement that commercial and government users of drones must disclose if they collect personally identifiable information of a person. The bill, which is a compromise short-term extension to ensure continued funding at current levels to the FAA, was passed by the Senate and then went to President Barack Obama to be signed into

DJI Phantom 3 Professional

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NEWS

A drone flies through the air during a flight test at Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus on July 27, 2015.

law two days before the existing authorization was set to expire. It was earlier passed by the House of Representatives. But Senator Edward J. Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said that the new bill, called the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016, was “a missed opportunity.” It does not include drone privacy provisions that he authored and were included in the Senate version of the FAA reauthorization bill that passed in April this year, the senator said in a statement. Civil rights groups have demanded drone privacy regulations, in the wake of moves to liberalize the use of the unmanned aircraft for commercial and other purposes. Recently, the Electronic Privacy Information Center said that the reauthorization had grounded privacy safeguards, though its proposal to require remote identification of drones had been included in the new bill. The provisions in the bill passed by the Senate in April would require

The new bill, called the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016, was “a missed opportunity.”

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that government and commercial drone operators should disclose if they collect personally identifiable information about an individual, including by using facial recognition. Operators would also be required to disclose how they would use the personal data, its use for advertising or marketing purposes, and when the sensitive information would be destroyed, according to Markey. The April bill would also require that government operators should disclose their drones’ location, purpose of flight and technical capabilities, such as cameras or license plates readers. In July, leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee announced a bipartisan and bicameral agreement on an extension of the FAA authorization through September 30, 2017, while Congress brokers a long-term reauthorization of the FAA. The FAA released in June its final rules (go.pcworld.com/faadrone rules) for the operation of what it describes as “small unmanned aircraft,” limiting their weight to 55 pounds (25 kilograms) and to flying only during day at less than 400 feet within visual line-of-sight of operators. Some companies have said these rules, which take effect in August, make large-scale deployment of drones for deliveries

P H OTO : I N T E L CO R P O R AT I O N

An Intel Corporation Yuneec unmanned aerial vehicle at 2016 Mobile World Congress.

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NEWS

unfeasible. The bill passed in July would prohibit drones from interfering with emergency response activities, such as wildfire suppression and law enforcement, and provides for civil penalties of not more than US$20,000 for those found in violation. Drones are also to be used for firefighting and restoration of utilities. The legislation also has provisions for the setting up of a pilot program for mitigation of airspace hazards at airports and other critical infrastructure using unmanned aircraft detection systems. The FAA in consultation with other agencies shall also convene industry stakeholders to arrive at consensus standards for remotely identifying operators and owners of unmanned aircraft. The FAA extension will provide short-term stability for the commercial drone industry, said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of drone advocacy group, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, in a statement. “Its provisions will help expand commercial operations, advance research and keep the airspace safe for all users—manned and unmanned,” Wynne added. The National Telecommunications & Information Administration released in May a list of voluntary privacy best practices (go.pcworld. com/droneprivacypractices) for commercial and non-commercial drone users, which were arrived at by drone organizations and companies like Amazon and Google’s parent Alphabet. It was recommended, for example, that drone operators that collect personal data should explain in a privacy policy what personally identifiable information they will collect, for what purpose, and if it will be shared with others, including law enforcement agencies.

Some companies have said these rules, which take effect in August, make large-scale deployment of drones for deliveries unfeasible.

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Oil and water: Here’s Ubuntu Linux’s Unity desktop running natively on Windows 10 BY IAN PAUL WHEN MICROSOFT INTRODUCED the Windows Subsystem for Linux

(WSL) (go.pcworld.com/w10bashshell), the common refrain was that you could use it to run Linux’s beloved Bash tool (go.pcworld.com/ w10hhbashshell) but full Linux desktops were out. Turns out that wasn’t exactly true. It didn’t take long for people to note you could run an X server (go. pcworld.com/w10linuxtrick) for windowed Linux applications. From 

NEWS

there, it was only a short hop to running the Linux desktop on Windows without using a virtual machine. GitHub user Guerra24 (go.pcworld.com/guerra2unity) recently posted a screenshot online showing Ubuntu with the Unity desktop running natively inside Windows 10, as first reported by OMG Ubuntu (go.pcworld.com/unityinstalled). The GitHub user also tested the Xfce24 desktop on Ubuntu (on Windows 10). As this is a bit of a hack, it’s not a perfect setup. Guerra24 says that dbus—a Linux utility that lets computer programs communicate with one another—had some performance issues, and sometimes the window server inside Linux would crash. You also can’t exit Ubuntu the normal way. Instead you have to close Compiz, the window manager, to get rid of the desktop. The actual use of Ubuntu is also limited. The only applications that will run are the ones sitting in the launcher. The terminal also will not open without a little extra trickery. Why this matters: Running Ubuntu natively inside Windows 10 may seem a little silly when a virtual machine would be far more stable. But it shows just how close you can get to truly running a Ubuntu Linux system right inside Windows without a VM. A properly configured Linux system may also run far better as a native Windows application compared to a virtual machine, which could help IT pros and others more easily manage Linux and Windows resources on the same machine. Besides, the idea of running a full Linux desktop natively inside Windows is just plain awesome. If there’s enough demand for this, who knows? In the future, Microsoft and Canonical might fix up the current WSL to make running an Ubuntu desktop on Windows 10 a more seamless experience.

It shows just how close you can get to truly running a Ubuntu Linux system right inside Windows without a VM.

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CONSUMER WATCH

Make smart purchases, stay safe online.

Vicious new ransomware takes your money and still deletes your files A new form of ransomware, called Ranscam, reminds us why it doesn’t pay to pay. BY IAN PAUL

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T

HERE’S A NEW form of ransomware—apparently built by

amateurs—that takes your money but deletes your personal files anyway. Security research firm Talos recently published a blog post (go.pcworld.com/talosranscam) about a new form of malware dubbed Ranscam. This ransomware follows the basic premise of previous variants. It claims your files have been encrypted, and thus inaccessible to you, then threatens to delete all your files if you don’t pay up. Ransomware’s scary premise prompts many people to fork over the dough in order to save their photos and other content. Ranscam ignores conventional ransomware behavior, however, and deletes the victim’s content long before they have a chance to pay up. In typical ransomware scams the user is usually prompted to pay up in Bitcoin, which is harder to trace than other forms of payment. After they pay it, and the transaction is verified, the files are decrypted and the ransomware deletes itself. The Ranscam authors, however, don’t bother with all those technical details and just hope for the easy payout without regard to the user’s files. The impact on you at home: The good news is Ranscam is still in its early days and doesn’t appear to be widespread. Nevertheless, it’s an important reminder that you shouldn’t trust that you’ll get your stuff back if you end up paying a ransomware scam.

Ranscam ignores conventional ransomware behavior, however, and deletes the victim’s content long before they have a chance to pay up.

How to guard against ransomware Ransomware can find its way onto your PC just like any other form of malware, such as through an email attachment or a malicious website. For that reason, your best line of defense is a solid antivirus and realtime malware protection program. PCWorld’s guide to assembling the ultimate free security suite (go.pcworld.com/ultimatesecuritysuite) can help on that front. Beyond that, however, you’ve got to back up your files regularly. That 

CONSUMER WATCH way, if you ever do get hit with ransomware you still have your files safely stashed away in a backup. The key, however, is to make sure you have a backup utility that uses versioning where files are saved at different points since its creation, so that if your backup files are also encrypted, you can rollback to versions from a few days previous, when everything was fine. Check out Lincoln Spector’s earlier discussion on the ins and outs of backups that protect (go.pcworld.com/ransomwarebackup) against ransomware. And don’t forget to make sure you have a double back-up plan that includes a local backup to an external hard drive, as well as a cloudbased backup service such as Backblaze or Carbonite.

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Goodbye, firstborn children: This study shows how wordy terms of service hurt users BY IAN PAUL IT’S NO SECRET that few people pay much attention to reading and understanding all the terms of service and privacy policies you come across online. Now a new study shows just how ridiculous and anticonsumer the lengthy agreements really are. The new paper, titled “The Biggest Lie on the Internet,” (go.pcworld. com/biggestliepaper) created a fake social networking site with



CONSUMER WATCH suggestive and outrageous clauses in its Terms of Service (ToS). But surprise! Nearly everyone joined anyway, as first reported by Ars Technica. The study takes its title from a common refrain about the phrase “I have read and agree to these terms.”

How it worked The study took 543 undergraduate students “from a large communication class at a university in the eastern United States.” The students were told that their university was working with NameDrop—the fake social network—and the students would be participating in a “pre-launch evaluation” of the website. As with any other service you sign up for online, you are shown the sign-up page and are asked to read the policies. Though there was a “quick-join” option that allowed you to skip the privacy policy without reading it. Unbeknownst to the students, the terms of service contained two questionable clauses. The first said NameDrop may be required to share your data with the government, including the National Security Agency (NSA). That clause is concerning when you really think about it, but it’s close enough to what you’d see in a real ToS. Twitter’s terms (go. pcworld.com/twittertos), for example, says, “We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.” NameDrop’s second crazy clause should’ve stopped most users in their tracks—or at least clued them in that the service wasn’t real. The second clause said all users agree to give their “first-born child” to NameDrop. If the user didn’t have children yet, their first baby would still have to go to NameDrop until 2050. In the end, the study says 74 percent of the participants skipped

Unbeknownst to the students, the terms of service contained two questionable clauses.



reading the privacy policy. Those who did read the privacy policy didn’t spend longer than 73 seconds, even though it should’ve taken around 30 minutes to read the whole thing. The average reading time of the ToS, meanwhile, was 51 seconds when it should’ve been closer to 16 minutes. Perhaps the most surprising finding, however, is that those who actually did read the crazy clauses signed up for the social network anyway. The impact on you at home: Even if you were a conscientious user who wanted to read all the various terms and privacy policies, you probably couldn’t do it. An older study from 2012 found that it would take you about a month every year to read all the privacy policies for every website the average person visits in a year. It’s simply impossible. But that doesn’t mean all is lost. A browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari called “Terms of Service; Didn’t read” (ToS;DR) aims to at least help you get the gist of what you’re agreeing to. You can download it directly from ToS;DR’s site (go.pcworld.com/tosdr).

An older study from 2012 found that it would take you about a month every year to read all the privacy policies for every website the average person visits in a year. It’s simply impossible.



CONSUMER WATCH

Chrysler launches bug bounty for connected vehicles after Jeep Cherokee hack BY JOHN RIBEIRO FIAT CHRYSLER AUTOMOBILES has launched a bug bounty program to

attract white-hat hackers to spot out cybersecurity flaws in its products and connected services. The program is focused on FCA’s connected vehicles, including systems within them and external services and applications that link to them. The move follows the remote hack and control of a Jeep Cherokee, one of the company’s products, by security researchers. That breach led to the recall (go.pcworld.com/jeephack) of 1.4 million vehicles last year. 

Fiat Chrysler is also moving quite aggressively in the area of autonomous vehicles, announcing earlier this year the joint development of self-driven minivans (go.pcworld.com/fiatselfdriving) with Alphabet’s Google Self-Driving Car Project. The bug bounty program offers between US$150 to $1,500 for a bug, which is small compared to the bounties companies like Google and Facebook offer, but reflects the concern of car companies to secure their cars from hacks as they plan to package more automation and connectivity into the vehicles. The automaker’s FCA US unit has teamed up with Bugcrowd, which offers crowdsourced application security testing, and will also manage the reward payouts depending on the criticality of the product security vulnerability. Bugcrowd claims about 28,000 security researchers on its platform. “We want to encourage independent security researchers to reach out to us and share what they’ve found so that we can fix potential vulnerabilities before they’re an issue for our consumers,” said Titus Melnyk, senior manager for security architecture at FCA US. Under the program, no legal action will be taken nor will law enforcement be asked to investigate researchers participating in the program provided they comply with certain guidelines. These guidelines include providing full details of the vulnerability, including information needed to reproduce and validate the issue by producing a proof of concept. Researchers also have to “make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our services,” and not modify, access, or retain data that does not belong to them. More details can be found at bugcrowd.com (bugcrowd.com/fca). Tesla Motors also introduced a bug bounty program on Bugcrowd (bugcrowd.com/tesla), and is currently offering between $25 and $10,000 a bug.

The bug bounty program offers between US$150 to $1,500 for a bug, which is small compared to the bounties companies like Google and Facebook offer.



News, tips, and reviews about smart homes, home security, and home entertainment.

TechHive helps you find your tech sweet spot. We steer you to smart-home tech products you’ll love and show you how to get the most out of them. www.techhive.com | Follow us

I was one of our nation’s hungry kids growing up. Today, 1 in 5 children in America struggle with hunger. But when they get breakfast, their days are bigger and brighter. Learning, attention, memory and mood improve. Together, we have the power to get breakfast to kids in your neighborhood — let’s make it happen. Go to hungeris.org and lend your time or your voice. Viola Davis, Hunger Is Ambassador

Hunger Is® is a joint initiative of the Albertsons Companies Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation, which are 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.

Photo By: Peggy Sirota

MAKE BREAK FAST H A P P EN SO KIDS CAN BE H U N GRY FOR MO R E

REVIEWS & RATINGS 44 AMD Radeon RX 480: Redefining what’s possible with a $200 graphics card

99 Best wireless keyboards: Cut the cord with Bluetooth and USB models

80 Lenovo Thinkcentre X1: All-in-one design done right

104 Acer Chromebook 14: You can brag a little

88 3DMark Time Spy tested: Radeon vs. GeForce

112 The 10 best PC games you haven’t played in 2016 (so far)



REVIEWS & RATINGS

TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS In this section, hardware & software go through rigorous testing.

AMD Radeon RX 480: Redefining what’s possible with a $200 graphics card BY BRAD CHACOS



H

UG YOUR MONITORS and hide the kids’ games. With the launch of the Radeon RX 480 ($200 for 4GB version on Newegg, $240 for 8GB version on Amazon), the next-generation graphics war is officially on, with both AMD and Nvidia now offering graphics cards built around underlying processor technology that represents a massive two-generation leap over what we’ve used for four long years. Welcome to the future. While Nvidia went for shock and awe with the ferociously powerful $600 GeForce GTX 1080 and $380 GTX 1070, AMD’s employing guerilla tactics to win the hearts, minds, and dollars of the masses, complete with an ad campaign rife with revolutionary undertones. The Radeon RX 480 is the first graphics card capable of cranking out VR without breaking the bank. Equally as impressive, it’s the first $200 card capable of delivering uncompromising 1080p gaming and damn fine performance at 2560x1440 resolution. This thing kicks the butt of the last generation’s Radeon 380 and GeForce 960. Let’s dig in.

Watch the video at go.pcworld. com/radeon rx480vid



Meet Polaris and the Radeon RX 480 Most of the Radeon RX 480’s boost stems from its use of AMD’s new Polaris GPU cores, which the company’s been teasing for half a year now. The industry’s been stuck using 28nm GPU cores since 2011, with all graphics cards released since then essentially iterating around the same underlying technology as both AMD and Nvidia skipped the 20nm generation. AMD Radeon Polaris embraces both 14nm transistors as well as RX 480 (8GB) advanced “FinFET” technology that make those AMD’s first graphics card shrunk-down transistors even more power-efficient. built around its cutting(Nvidia’s new Pascal GPUs utilize 16nm FinFET edge Polaris GPU delivers big performance and better transistors.) power efficiency for just Moving to 14nm lets AMD cram more technology $200 (4GB version). into its GPUs, too. As you can see in the chart on the next page, the Radeon RX 480 contains 2,304 stream processors, which are AMD’s equivalent to Nvidia’s CUDA cores—though it’s impossible to compare the two radically different architectures in sheer core counts alone. AMD’s previous $200 graphics card, the Radeon R9 380, packed 1,792 stream processors by comparison, and the more powerful Radeon R9 380X contained 2,048. The number of onboard compute units expanded from 28 CUs in the R9 380 to 36 CUs in the RX 480. AMD was also able to crank the RX 480’s clock speeds. The reference Radeon RX 480 boosts up to 1,266MHz out of the box, with a base clock of 1,120MHz. Its predecessors topped out at 970MHz. A big jump in stream processor count paired with a big jump in clock speeds means a big jump in overall performance—which we’ll get to in a bit. (Such a tease!) Team Red supersized the memory in its $200 offering, too. The older R9 380 and GeForce GTX 960 

PROS t%JɀUDIFBQQSJDF t/PDPNQSPNJTFTQ gaming, good 1440p gaming t$BOQPXFSWJɀUVBMSFBMJUZ headsets t#JHMFBQJOQPXFSFȼȼJDJFODZ over past AMD cards CONS t4UJMMOPUBTQPXFSFȼȼJDJFOU as GeForce cards t4UBCJMJUZBOEQFɀGPSNBODF issues with slick new overclocking software $240

REVIEWS & RATINGS both started with 2GB of onboard RAM, though pricier 4GB versions were also available. But the Radeon RX 480’s $200 version contains 4GB of memory, while an 8GB version—the model tested here—will sell for $240. That’s traditional GDDR5 memory, by the way, not the exotic high-bandwidth memory found in the Radeon Fury series or the newer GDDR5X memory found in Nvidia’s GTX 1070 and 1080. Sticking to GDDR5 no doubt helps AMD keep costs down—crucial in a $200 graphics card— and to be honest, it still holds up just fine for in-game performance. It’s important to note that the two RX 480 variants are clocked at different memory speeds: The 4GB model tops out at 7Gbps, while the 8GB model hits 8Gbps. AMD says the memory specs in custom cards by partners such as VisionTek, Asus, and Sapphire might vary,

Radeon RX 480 GCN Architecture

4th Generation

Compute Units

36

Stream Processors

2304

Clock Speeds (Boost /Base)

1266 MHz / 1120 Mhz

Peak Performance

Up to 5.8 TFLOPS

Memory Size

4/8 GB

Memory Bandwidtch

224 GB/s or higher

Memory Interface

256 bit

Memory Type

GDDR5

Board Power

150W

AMD FreeSync™ Technology

Yes

DirectX® 12 Support

Yes

Vulkan™ Support

Yes

VR Premium

Yes

DisplayPort Version

1.3 HBR / 1.4 HDR Readu

Below: A breakdown of the RX 480’s Polaris GPU, for you GPU nerds out there. The Polaris GPU also brings enhanced geometry engines, improved shader efficiency, updated memory and delta color compression engines, and more.



but will hit a 7Gbps minimum. Custom boards should be available now. Considering all the shader processors and RAM that AMD stuffed into this thing, it’s remarkable how small the card’s circuit board actually is, as we mentioned in our visual preview of the RX 480. While this is a full-length card (just under 9.5 inches in order to accommodate the cooling system’s heat sink and single blower-style fan), the PCB itself is only an inch or so longer than the diminutive Radeon Nano, and that card benefits from high-bandwidth memory’s extreme space savings. The RX 480’s memory chips must be laid out on the board itself. Custom mini-ITX versions of this card could be exciting. The Radeon RX 480 also swipes the Radeon Nano’s and the Radeon Fury X’s sense of style, mimicking their sleek black exterior and prominent Radeon branding, though the RX 480 feels a bit more lightweight and plasticky in hand. But you’ll only hold it in your hand to install it anyway. The Radeon RX 480 looks flat-out stunning— though as with the Nano, there’s no backplate on the reference version. You’ll get stunning visuals out of this thing, too. Polaris supports high dynamic range video via its singular HDMI 2.0b port and trio of DisplayPort 1.3/1.4 connections. 

Note how much smaller the Radeon RX 480’s PCB is; the back third of the card is just shroud and fan.

REVIEWS & RATINGS



Those fancy new DisplayPorts also support video refresh rates up to 120Hz at 4K resolution or 60Hz at 5K resolution. DVI connections on reference designs have been phased out as planned, just like on the Fury cards. But fear not if you’re still rocking a DVI monitor: Custom boards often add DVI connections right back in. DVI really is going the way of the dodo, however, so it’s time to think about upgrading your display to a model with superior HDMI/ DisplayPort connections. Improvements flow out of the RX 480, too: When it comes to compute-intensive video-decode/encode operations, the Polaris GPU is more powerful than any previous AMD processor. The card sips down 150 watts of board power via a single 6-pin power connector on its edge. Nvidia’s GTX 1070 draws the same amount of power, but via an 8-pin connector for more overclocking headroom. We’ll get more into comparisons when we look at the RX 480’s power use. Overall, the Radeon RX 480 is an awfully attractive card that screams quality—not what you’d expect to find in the $200 price range. It’s a big change from AMD’s previous R200 series. But hardware is only half of the equation.

Overall, the Radeon RX 480 is an awfully attractive card that screams quality—not what you’d expect to find in the $200 price range.

Next page: The Radeon RX 480’s software tricks.



Continued: AMD Radeon RX 480

REVIEWS & RATINGS

AMD Radeon RX 480: Using WattMan for overclocking BY BRAD CHACOS

AMD TYPICALLY RESERVES new features for its yearly flagship

software launches, but it’s rolling out a great new tool alongside the RX 480: AMD WattMan. WattMan’s essentially a supercharged version of the OverDrive overclocking tool AMD has included in its control panel for a while now, with some cool new capabilities and a highly



The AMD WattMan interface in Radeon Settings.

unfortunate name that brings old Sony Walkman cassette players and crappy superheroes to mind. Seriously—who thought WattMan sounded better than OverDrive? If you’re the overclocking type, WattMan (found in Gaming > Global Settings > Global WattMan) delivers everything you need to tweak your RX 480’s power limit, fan-speed minimums and maximums, targettemperature minimum and maximums, GPU and memory clocks, and individual GPU and memory voltage levels. It’s pretty comprehensive, and AMD took things one step further with the introduction of GPU frequency-curve controls, which let you customize the overclocks for various dynamic power management states (DPMs). The RX 480 ships with a default frequency curve that affects clock speeds across the various DPMs, and you can apply an overclock by increasing that curve by a set percentage. Alternatively, you can manually set the overclock limits for each DPM using AMD’s new dynamic GPU frequency curve controls. That will let you tailor the overclocking profile to better fit your specific GPU’s potential, but the lack of an automated tool to find your card’s limits may restrict its 

A histogram tracking the Radeon RX 480’s behavior in Far Cry Primal.

REVIEWS & RATINGS usefulness in real-world scenarios. (To be fair, there are scanning tools to find your GPU’s limits for the Nvidia’s GTX 10-series cards, but they’re buggy as hell and irritating to use.) Increasing the power limit is vital to the RX 480 overclocking process, AMD representatives said. You can boost the RX 480’s power limit by up to 50 percent. You’ll find another handy tool at the top of the Global WattMan settings page in the form of a histogram that tracks your card’s current peak and average GPU activity, temperature, fan speed, and engine/memory clock speeds, and then displays the results as a graph over time. Studying the histogram can really help you hone in on how your card’s behaving, which is crucial to the overclocking process. Pergame histogram tracking can also be enabled in the new Profile WattMan tab in your profiles. Dorky name aside, the new WattMan tools, combined with the existing per-game overclocking options in the Radeon Settings app, provide GPU tweakers with a seriously robust, easy-to-read set of tools for boosting game performance across the board or in specific games. It’s wonderful to see what Radeon Settings, AMD’s sleek new control panel (go.pcworld.com/radeon hubtour), is evolving into. Unfortunately, our test system was afflicted by an issue that prevents us from being able to include overclocking results in our performance section. We managed to push our card to a five-percent simple frequency increase on the GPU clock, or a 1,335MHz max, which AMD engineers said was higher than their own sample. We also eked out an additional 150MHz in memory clock speeds. But applying the overclock actually caused performance to decrease, sometimes drastically. The more we increased the power 

Compute Preemption Graphics

Quick Response Queue

Shader Utilization

Asynchronous Compete

Time Graphics

Compute

*DIAGRAMS FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY

limit, the worse performance became, no matter how high we cranked the fans or fiddled with temperature settings. The Global WattMan section also appeared to have some stability issues, infrequently crashing the entire Radeon Settings app when we opened it. AMD engineers speculate the performance hiccup could be an issue with our motherboard’s power delivery, but there was no way to get a new mobo set up in time for testing. For what it’s worth, I’ve overclocked dozens of cards in this system without issue, and I heard from other reviewers who ran into similar problems with performance decreases during overclocking. AMD says its engineers and many other reviewers hadn’t run into the issue, however, so your mileage may vary. Don’t let our bizarre technical hiccups ruin your impression of this seriously slick, horribly named tool though. I dig it a lot—if it works.

Support for VR, DirectX 12 and Vulkan While WattMan may be the only high-profile new addition to join existing Radeon features like support for stutter-free FreeSync displays (go.pcworld.com/gvsfreesync) and the surprisingly potent Frame Rate Target Control (go.pcworld.com/frtc), AMD’s also loaded the RX 480 with everything needed to support the next generation of gaming goodies. Namely, virtual reality and cutting-edge “close to the metal” graphics APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan. “Bringing virtual reality to the masses” is the big marketing hook 

Here’s an AMDsupplied diagram that illustrates how asynchronous compute, standard preemption, and the new Quick Response Queue behave.

REVIEWS & RATINGS AMD’s using to push the RX 480. It feels a bit weird, since the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are still new, niche gadgets with $600 to $800 price tags that are anything but mainstream. AMD’s $200 card helps make the PCs you need to power the headsets much more affordable, at least. Think of it as laying the groundwork for wider adoption down the road. The Radeon RX 480 delivers the raw firepower needed to certify as “Capable” in Valve’s SteamVR performance test (go.pcworld.com/ steamvrtest), but the VR readiness doesn’t end there. AMD says the card offers lower latency and smoother overall frame times. That will pay dividends in traditional gaming and is doubly important to maintain a feel of immersion in VR. If frame rates start sputtering in VR, you’ll start spewing in real life. The 8GB of RAM in the $240 version helps ensure games that gobble up memory will stay smooth, too. Another key weapon in the Radeon RX 480’s VR arsenal (go.pcworld. com/vrarsenal) is its dedicated asynchronous compute engine (ACE) hardware. If your card does have trouble maintaining smooth frame rates in a VR game, the Oculus Rift uses a technique called “Asynchronous Timewarp.” Asynchronous Timewarp checks your headset’s position right before displaying an image, and if your head position has moved since the last frame was rendered, Timewarp will adjust the image slightly to match your current orientation. It reduces judder and keeps you from hurling. The GCN architecture that Polaris is based on includes ACEs that basically act as traffic cops, directing myriad graphics tasks to take best advantage of all available Radeon graphics resources

DOTA 2 FPS 4k Ultra 1440p Ultra 0 OpenGL

20

40

60

80

100

Vulkan



120

140

160

simultaneously, rather than using a queue-based “preemption” approach that forces the GPU to complete one task before moving on to another. ACEs let Radeon GPUs do more things at the same time— like performing Asynchronous Timewarp calculations without disrupting the main graphics pipeline. AMD recently added a new API for its ACEs. Dubbed Quick Response Queue, it allows developers to flag specific tasks—such as the aforementioned Timewarp—as high priority. The GPU’s ACE hardware then assigns highpriority tasks ahead of normal tasks, so timecritical functions get the quick attention they deserve while standard tasks continue to process, albeit with fewer resources. The Radeon RX 480’s ACE hardware can also deliver big benefits in the latest games, just now trickling out, that tap the all-new DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs. ACE delivers even more benefits with titles that lean heavily on both your processor and your graphics card—strategy games, for instance—and in situations where your graphics card significantly outclasses your CPU. You’ll see the benefits materialize in our Ashes of the Singularity DX11 vs. DX12 benchmarks later. Meanwhile, this AMD-supplied benchmark shows how Dota 2 behaves in DX11 vs. its beta Vulkan mode. (Vulkan rose from the ashes of AMD’s aborted Mantle API: go.pcworld.com/ mantleapi.) Nvidia’s new GTX 10-series cards include several new features (go. pcworld.com/geforcegtx1080) designed to improve asynchronous compute performance, but until more DX12 games start hitting the market, we won’t be able to thoroughly compare the Nvidia and AMD implementations. AMD’s ACE hardware gave AMD a solid boost over GTX 900-series cards in Ashes of the Singularity. But enough chit-chat. Let’s throw some games at AMD’s first Polarisbased graphics card.

The Radeon RX 480’s ACE hardware can also deliver big benefits in the latest games, just now trickling out, that tap the all-new DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs.



REVIEWS & RATINGS Testing the RX 480 in 6 benchmarks As ever, we tested the RX 480 on PCWorld’s dedicated graphics card benchmark system (go.pcworld.com/diygamingpc), which is loaded with high-end components to avoid potential bottlenecks in other parts of the machine and show unfettered graphics performance. Key highlights of the build: t Intel’s Core i7-5960X ($1,016 on Newegg) with a Corsair Hydro Series H100i closed-loop water cooler ($105 on Newegg). t An Asus X99 Deluxe motherboard ($380 on Newegg). t Corsair’s Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory ($65 on Newegg), Obsidian 750D full tower case ($140 on Newegg), and 1,200-watt AX1200i power supply ($308 on Newegg). t A 480GB Intel 730 series SSD ($250 on Newegg) t Windows 10 Pro To see how hard the 8GB Radeon RX 480 punches, we compared it to some obvious rivals. The current crop of $200-ish graphics cards are represented in the form of EVGA’s GTX 960 SSC, VisionTek’s Radeon R9 380, and Sapphire’s Radeon R9 380X. You’ll also find results for more potent cards: The Sapphire Nitro R390, EVGA GTX 970 FTW, MSI Radeon



390X Gaming 8GB, and the reference Nvidia GTX 980. We’re not including Radeon RX 480 overclocking results for the reasons stated earlier. I would have liked to pit the reference AMD RX 480 against reference versions of each of those cards; but well, I simply didn’t have any on hand. Of particular importance for comparison purposes: note that the EVGA GTX 970 FTW is a highly overclocked version of the GTX 970, which puts its overall performance midway between that of the stock GTX 970 and stock GTX 980. Read Anandtech’s EVGA GTX 970 FTW review (go.pcworld.com/atgeoforcegtx970) if you want deeper details on how the custom card compares against its stock counterparts. Beyond the hardware, we test each game with the default graphics settings unless otherwise noted. But we disable all vendor-specific special features—such as Nvidia’s GameWorks effects, AMD’s TressFX, and FreeSync/G-Sync—to keep things on an even playing field. Got it? Good. Let’s go. Next: Testing The Division, Hitman, and more



REVIEWS & RATINGS


AMD Radeon RX 480: Game testing results BY BRAD CHACOS WE’LL KICK THINGS OFF with Ubisoft’s The Division, a third-person

shooter/RPG that mixes elements of Destiny and Gears of War. The game uses Ubisoft’s new Snowdrop engine and is set in a gritty postapocalyptic New York City.

The Division, ultra preset 36.6

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

26.2 40

VisionTek Radeon R9 380

29.7 43.7

Sapphire Nitro Radeon 380X

33.1 55.4

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

37.5 57.5

AMD Radeon RX 480

41.4 52.8

Sapphire Nitro Radeon 390

40.7 57.2

MSI Radeon 390X Gaming 8GB

45.5 60

Nvidia GTX 980 (Reference)

48 0

10

20

30

40

50

AVERAGE FRAME RATE, HIGHER = BETTER 1080

1440



60

70

The Radeon RX 480 delivers a huge performance boost over the current generation of $200 graphics cards, outpunching the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 and the EVGA 970 FTW despite their hefty overclocks. More importantly, the Radeon RX 480 flirts with a 60-frames-persecond average at 1080p resolution with all the bells and whistles enabled in one of today’s more graphically demanding games. That’s damned impressive for a $200 card.

Hitman DX11, ultra 62.27

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

44.69 70.99


52.21 57.85


46.15 60.79

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

47.48 69.95

AMD Radeon RX 480

57.72


57.14

69.27 77.42


65.73 65.51


51.38 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

AVERAGE FRAME RATE 1080

1440

HIGHER = BETTER. SEE PROGRAMMING NOTE ABOUT GTX 960 AND RADEON 380 ON PAGE 62.



80

90

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Hitman, 1440, ultra 37.39

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

44.69 44.45


52.21


47.02 46.15

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

46.4 47.48 60.75 57.72

AMD Radeon RX 480

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

AVERAGE FRAME RATE

Hitman, 1080, ultra 54.79 62.27

EVGA GTX 960 SSC VisionTek Radeon R9 380

60.13


59.82 57.85

70.99

61.58 60.79

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

76.29 69.95

AMD Radeon RX 480

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

AVERAGE FRAME RATE DX12

DX11

HIGHER = BETTER. SEE PROGRAMMING NOTE ABOUT GTX 960 AND RADEON 380 ON PAGE 62.



80

90

Hitman The Radeon RX 480 walks into Hitman with a default advantage, because IO Interactive’s Glacier engine heavily favors AMD hardware. Programming note: Hitman automatically caps the game’s Texture Quality, Shadow Maps, and Shadow Resolution at medium on cards with 2GB of onboard memory. The EVGA GTX 970 FTW and VisionTek R9 380 were thus tested with those lower graphical settings. I’ve still included them in the graphs so you can see the comparative DX11 vs.

Rise of the Tomb Raider, 1440 39.41

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

27.52


28.19

38.47 44.76


37.1 57.3 52.57

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

56.65 51.22

AMD Radeon RX 480

59.64


50.82 61.05 55.21


66.03 59.25


0

10

20

30

40

50

AVERAGE FRAME RATE, HIGHER = BETTER High

Very high



60

70

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Rise of the Tomb Raider, 1440 57.12

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

42.58 51.91


38.03 62.32 50.98

Sapphire Nitro Radeon 380X EVGA GTX 970 FTW

81.98 74.63

AMD Radeon RX 480

81.14 73.41 78.59 69.09


85.59 75.05


101.46 90.43


0

20

40

60

80

100

AVERAGE FRAME RATE, HIGHER = BETTER High

Very high

DX12 performance on those cards, but note that their results aren’t a direct apples-to-apples comparison with the others. Surprise! The Radeon RX 480 solidly outpunches the overclocked EVGA 970 FTW, and it finishes in a dead heat with the overclocked Sapphire R9 390. That lead increases slightly if you use Hitman’s DirectX 12 support, which results in slightly lower average frame rates for GeForce cards, and higher average frame rates for AMD cards—but only if the card has 4GB of memory or more. Frame rates absolutely tank in DX12 with the 2GB cards.



120

Rise of the Tomb Raider Rise of the Tomb Raider favors GeForce cards—which makes it even more impressive that the Radeon RX 480 trades blows with the overclocked EVGA 970 FTW across the board. It’s also the most dropdead gorgeous game I’ve ever laid my eyes on. AMD’s new card falls between the custom, overclocked R9 390 and R9 390X here, and it utterly demolishes the older $200 graphics cards.

Ashes of the Singularity, 1080, high preset 36.8 34.7

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

42


35.1


35.6

46 54.5 53.8

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

56.4

AMD Radeon RX 480

38.8 61.2


40 62


41.4 58.3 56.6


0

10

20

30

40

50

AVERAGE FRAME RATE, HIGHER = BETTER DX12

DX11



60

70

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Ashes of the Singularity, 1440, crazy preset 5.4 5.1

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

10.7 9.6


23.3 20.9


27.9 29.3

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

29.3

AMD Radeon RX 480

24.8 33.4


26.7 36


27.9 28.4 29.4


0

5

10

15

25

20

30

35


DX11

HIGHER = BETTER

Far Cry Primal Yep, we use two different Ubisoft games in our lineup—but Far Cry Primal runs on a completely different engine than The Division. Far Cry Primal uses the latest version of the long-running and well-respected Dunia engine. We test the game with the free 4K HD Texture Pack installed. This game scales well across the board, and the RX 480 beats the EVGA 970 FTW across the board. At 1080p resolution, however, everything from the GTX 970 on up bunches together, with AMD’s 

40

$200 card delivering essentially the same frame rates as the GTX 980 and Radeon 390X. Performance gaps widen a bit at 1440p, though. And the competing $200 graphics cards never once came close to hanging with the RX 480.

Ashes of the Singularity Between the bolted-on DirectX 12 support in Hitman and Rise of the Tomb Raider and the inherent difficulties in testing Windows Store apps—which don’t support traditional overlays or benchmarking tools

Ashes of the Singularity, 1440, high preset 30.5 29.5

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

34.8 32


40.2


32.5 45.8 47.2

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

50

AMD Radeon RX 480

37


37.4

54.5 58.3


40.2 49.4 47.9


0

10

20

30

40


DX11

HIGHER = BETTER



50

60

70

REVIEWS & RATINGS like FRAPS—there’s only a single game with a stellar DX12 implementation to test: Ashes of the Singularity, running on Oxide’s custom Nitrous engine. Ashes was an early standard-bearer for DirectX 12, and it’s still the premier game. (It’s fun, too!) The performance gains it offers with DX12 over DX11 are eye-opening—at least when running on Radeon cards. The Radeon RX 480 can’t compete with the EVGA 970 FTW in standard DirectX 11 mode. But as with all the rest of AMD’s cards, flipping over to DirectX 12 causes performance to skyrocket—so

Ashes of the Singularity, 1080, crazy preset 8.6

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

21.1 6.4


20 28.2


24.3 33.8 35.5

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

35

AMD Radeon RX 480

28.8 39


29.9 40.5


32 35.7 37.4


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

AVERAGE FRAME RATE, HIGHER = BETTER DX12

DX11



35

40

45

much so that the Radeon RX 480 suddenly nudges out even the mighty GTX 980 in most tests. Why wouldn’t you use DX12 if you owned this card? Ashes’s DX12 implementation makes heavy use of asynchronous compute features, which are supported by dedicated hardware in Radeon GPUs, but not in the older GTX 900-series Nvidia cards. In fact, the software preemption workaround that Maxwell-based Nvidia cards use to mimic the async compute capabilities tank performance so hard that Oxide’s game is coded to ignore async compute when it detects a GeForce GPU. Those cards actually perform worse when running Ashes in DX12. Speaking of poor performance, the $200 2GB graphics cards from last generation really can’t handle playing at 1440p (or even 1080p, in DX12) on Ashes’ “crazy” preset.

Ashes’s DX12 implementation makes heavy use of asynchronous compute features, which are supported by dedicated hardware in Radeon GPUs, but not in the older GTX 900-series Nvidia cards.

Next: SteamVR performance and synthetic benchmarks.




REVIEWS & RATINGS

AMD Radeon RX 480: More Tests and the Bottom Line BY BRAD CHACOS

VR BENCHMARKS HAVEN’T been able to keep up with graphics technology. More granular VR benchmark tools promised from Crytek and Basemark haven’t hit the streets yet. That leaves us with no easy way to quantify the Radeon RX 480’s potential performance increase over the competition except for the SteamVR benchmark. Having said that, this tool is better as a pass/fail test for determining whether your rig can handle VR than it is for making head-to-head GPU comparisons. Here the RX 480 falls—barely—in the test’s green “capable” limits, just behind the EVGA 970 FTW. 

3DMark Fire Strike and Fire Strike Ultra We also tested the RX 480 and its rivals using 3DMark’s highly respected Fire Strike synthetic benchmark, which runs at 1080p.

RX 480 power draw Radeon Fury R200- and R300-series GPUs absolutely thirsted for power and sucked down massive amounts of energy. Nvidia’s supremely efficient Maxwell architecture completely owned AMD’s GCN architecture on this score. So how does the Radeon RX 480 stack up? Let’s take a look. Power is measured on a whole-system basis by plugging the PC into a Watts Up meter, then running a stress test with Furmark—which Nvidia calls “a power virus”—for 15 minutes. Our power and temperature tests represent a worst-case scenario, pushing a graphics

StreamVR performance test EVGA GTX 960 SSC

3.3


3.7


5.2

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

7

AMD Radeon RX 480

6.6


7.1


7.9


8.3 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

AVERAGE FIDELITY SCORE, HIGHER = BETTER



8

9

REVIEWS & RATINGS

3DMark 11 Fire Strike EVGA GTX 960 SSC

7751


7696


8377

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

10788

AMD Radeon RX 480

10451


10914


11784


12737 0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

OVERALL SCORE, HIGHER = BETTER

card to its limits. AMD’s Polaris architecture improvements and the leap to 14nm process technology has clearly paid dividends for the Radeon RX 480. The card offers performance roughly in line with the Radeon R9 390 or 390X, but it draws hundreds of watts less power. Hot damn. That’s great! When you compare the RX 480’s power efficiency against Nvidia’s GeForce cards, however, these gains look slightly less impressive. The RX 480’s gaming performance falls somewhere between that of the GTX 970 and GTX 980, and its power draw falls smack dab in the same place. To put it another way, leaping forward two full generations essentially helped AMD draw even with Nvidia’s last-generation product. Our test system draws the same 244W when equipped with either the GTX 970 or the GTX 1070, but Nvidia’s newer Pascalpowered GPU delivers performance slightly exceeding a Titan X’s. 

14000

RX 480 heat generation With that out of the way, let’s peek at the thermal results for this cornucopia of cards. Remember: Only the Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 980 are reference designs; all the other cards sport custom coolers of various efficiency. That makes this somewhat of an apples-to-oranges affair, but there are still things we can learn. Right off the bat, the Radeon RX 480 runs far cooler than the old

Whole system power use 230

EVGA GTX 960 SSC

77.9 308


112.3 28.2


84.5

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

82

244 247

AMD Radeon RX 480

90.9 421


108.6 483


94.6 256


81.5 0

100

200

300 WATTS

LOAD

IDLE

LOWER = BETTER



400

500

600

REVIEWS & RATINGS

GPU temperature, full load EVGA GTX 960 SSC

71


73


76

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

72

AMD Radeon RX 480

82


69


86


80 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

DEGREES CELCIUS

R200-series reference cards. The reference Radeon R9 290 hit 92 degrees Celsius, and the R9 290X hit a whopping 95 degrees max under load. (Those aren’t listed in this chart, but I have the data saved.) In fact, the Radeon RX 480 rarely surpasses 78 degrees in actual gameplay scenarios; as I said, we test a worst-case scenario. Bottom line: The RX 480 runs relatively cool and quiet, especially for a reference card, though it can get a little noisy at full tilt. Once AMD partners like Sapphire and XFX slap beefy custom-cooling solutions on the card, it’ll no doubt run deliciously cool and quiet. Be warned that temperatures ramp up very quickly once you start inching up the power limit during the overclocking process, however; you’ll need to really ramp up the fan speed to compensate, and that will make the card significantly louder. That’s true whenever you overclock, but it’s amplified with this reference board. 

100

Stacking up against Nvidia GPUs AMD’s sure kicked the Polaris GPU family off with a bang. The Radeon RX 480 is one hell of a graphics card—one that redefines what’s possible at affordable price points. Never before could you get uncompromising 1080p/60fps performance anywhere near this cheap. Never before could you get pretty damned decent 1440p performance anywhere near this cheap. And you sure as hell couldn’t get a VR-ready card for anywhere near $200. Now you can, and it’s all because of the Radeon RX 480. Kick ass. From power efficiency to performance, AMD’s basically created a more powerful GTX 970 clone for $200. Considering that the GTX 970 was crowned the people’s champion just last generation when it launched at a then-startlingly low $330, the Radeon RX 480 is something AMD should crow about—especially since the RX 480 can go toe-to-toe with the GTX 980 in certain games and situations. If you’re disappointed in the results, well, it’s probably because AMD set expectations unrealistically high when it told the Wall Street Journal that the RX 480 “delivers performance equivalent to that of $500 graphics cards used for VR.” It can’t. It doesn’t go toe-to-toe with the GTX 980 or R9 390X/Fury overall; it’s roughly equal to the $330 GTX 970 in Valve’s SteamVR performance test. AMD’s marketing hyperbole may wind up disappointing some, but the card nevertheless GTX 970

Radeon™ RX 480

Fan % setting

RPM

dBA

Fan % Setting

RPM

dBA

40%

1680

31.7

40%

1370

31.7

45% (Fire Strike)

1890

34.8

44% (Fire Strike)

1520

32.5

50%

2100

37.6

50%

1780

36.2

55%

2300

40.3

55%

2030

40.5

60%

2500

42.8

60%

2315

45.1

65%

2730

44.9

65%

2590

47.4

idle

1100

25.2

idle

947

26.2

ambient

0

23.2

ambient



23.1

We don’t have the equipment to test noise levels, but here’s an AMDsupplied chart that compares the RX 480 with the reference GTX 970.

REVIEWS & RATINGS

rocks if you consider it without preexisting expectations. So which version should you buy? I’d counsel waiting for custom versions from AMD’s partners to launch if you can. This fancy little beast should rock even harder with custom coolers and out-of-the-box overclocks. Memory-wise, the $200 4GB model should be just fine for 1080p gaming. Some games, like Rise of the Tomb Raider, are already exceeding 4GB at 1440p with everything cranked, though, and VR headsets rock a higher 2160x1200 resolution. Topping out your onboard memory limit causes nasty frame-rate slowdowns, which can make you feel pukey in virtual reality. If you’re planning to play at 1440p or to use the RX 480 for VR, I’d recommend spending the extra $40 for an 8GB model. 

Radeon RX 480: the bottom line A word of warning, though. Buy this card because it rocks at standard gaming today. Don’t bite because of promises. A lot of AMD’s marketing spin revolves around future-facing technologies that are up in the air. Yes, the Radeon RX 480 is a great entry-level option to get into VR, but there’s still no guarantee VR will explode like the industry hopes it will, especially with the first-gen headsets priced so high. The Radeon RX 480’s low price is a key step toward driving wider adoption, and buying one hedges your bets if VR does blow up. But it hasn’t yet, and it might not. Likewise, DirectX 12 and AMD’s dedicated asynchronous compute engine hardware is a major wild card. Results in early games like Ashes of the Singularity and the dedicated Total War: Warhammer DX12 benchmark show great promise on Radeon cards, and Hitman sees a decent gain, too. But will that hold true in every game? Only certain genres and PC



REVIEWS & RATINGS configurations? Yes, DX12 could very well wind up being a major boon for Radeon cards. But until DX12 and Vulkan games hit the streets in larger numbers and we’re able to observe wider trends, buy the RX 480 because it kicks ass today, not for what it might—or might not— do in the future. Again: Buy the Radeon RX 480 for what it can do today, and consider all these future-proofing technologies a bonus cherry on top. And I definitely recommend weighing the risks before you pick up two of these over a $380 GeForce GTX 1070. I only had a single card on hand, so I couldn’t test CrossFire performance, but Radeon chief Raja Koduri made waves when he ran a demo that showed dual RX 480s beating a GTX 1080 in the Ashes of the Singularity benchmark in DX12. But multi-GPU support has waned over the past couple of years, with numerous big-name games patching in CrossFire/SLI late or not at all. DirectX 12’s multi-GPU support is being heralded as the future for extreme system setups, but that puts the onus on time- and money-deprived developers to dedicate money and time to coding in and supporting multi-GPU configurations. Frankly, I’m skeptical about the future of multi-GPU systems (and sad about it). Something to keep in mind. What I’m not skeptical about is whether you should buy the Radeon RX 480. The answer’s an absolute, unequivocal yes. This is an unprecedented amount of performance in the $200 price range, and unprecedented power efficiency for AMD’s recent GPUs. Even if Nvidia slashes the price of remaining GTX 970 stocks to $200 to match the Radeon RX 480’s price, I’d still recommend AMD’s card. Really, there are only three graphics cards worth considering right now. If you’ve got deep pockets, Nvidia’s $380 GTX 1070 and $600 GTX 1080 offer mind-blowing performance for high-end gaming rigs. For anything under that, the Radeon RX 480’s the only game in town.

What I’m not skeptical about is whether you should buy the Radeon RX 480. The answer’s an absolute, unequivocal yes.



Today, every GTX 900-series, R300-series, and Fury card is essentially obsolete. The even-cheaper Radeon RX 470 and RX 460 are coming at some point in the future, and there’s no one who doubts that Nvidia has a GeForce GTX 1060 brewing. But right now, distinct battle lines have been drawn in the opening days of the next-generation graphics war. For the overwhelming majority of gamers today—the people with less than $300 to spend, and the masses with 1080p or lowerresolution monitors—the Radeon RX 480 is the only graphics card worth considering. AMD’s fulfilled its promise on bring high-end performance to the mainstream.



Lenovo Thinkcentre X1: All-in-one design done right BY JON L. JACOBI

ALLINONE PCS IDEALLY save space, minimize clutter, and allow

unrestricted access to the surface they reside on. None that I’ve seen have fully realized such design goals—until now. Lenovo’s ThinkCentre X1 (go.pcworld.com/thinkcentrex1) hits those targets dead-on. This all-in-one is also easy to use and fast enough that if I had to use it for my everyday computing, I’d be perfectly happy. And that’s despite the handful of changes that the ThinkCentre X1 could benefit from, like different color-coding for the always-on USB 3.0 port and the power jack, and options for a 4K UHD display or a touchscreen.

Watch the video at go.pcworld. com/think centrex1vid



REVIEWS & RATINGS Design, ports, and style 5IF5IJOL$FOUSF9DPNFTTUZMFEJOUIFVTVBM-FOPWPDIBSDPBMHɀBZ DPMPSTDIFNF XJUIBJODI YOPOUPVDIEJTQMBZ GFBUVSJOHBOBOUJHMBSFDPBUJOH4BJEDPBUJOHXPSLTQSFUUZXFMM CVUUIJT particular type reminds me of the haze you get on NJSSPST5IF9XPVMECFCFUUFSXJUIBGVMMNBUUF QBOFM MJLFUIFPOFPO5PTIJCBT;U$ go. Lenovo QDXPSMEDPNUPTIJCB;U) laptop. That doesn’t ThinkCentre X1 EFUɀBDUGSPNUIF5IJOL$FOUSF9TFYDFMMFOUEFTJHO though. AT A GLANCE 5IFLFZBTQFDUPGTVDITVDDFTTJTUIF9TTUBOE*UT This all-in-one doesn’t sport base is so thin that you can treat it as part of the bleeding edge technology, but XPSLTVɀGBDF:FUUIF9HJWFTOPGFFMJOHPG it performs well. It’s also the best AIO we’ve seen when it instability—it should withstand being pushed around comes to saving space, for repositioning without falling over. reducing clutter, and Another two factors are the unit’s wide range of maximizing desk access. tilt, and the low amount of pressure needed to adjust it. The result is hassle-free access to anything you’ve stored behind the machine, and less frustration when connecting cables or dongles to the rear ports. "GVɀUIFSTJHOPGUIF9TUIPVHIUGVMEFTJHOJTUIF BSɀBOHFNFOUPGJUTQPɀUTBOETXJUDIFT&WFɀZUIJOH you’re likely to leave plugged in connects to the back of the system: gigabit ethernet, Kensington lock QPɀU QPXFSKBDL BCJEJSFDUJPOBM%JTQMBZ1PɀUQPɀU BOEUISFF64#QPɀUT'PSNPSFEBJMZVTF ZPVMMmOE UXP64#QPɀUT POFPGXIJDIJTBMXBZTPO GPS charging purposes), a combination headphone/ microphone jack, and a media card slot on the lower left-hand side. 0OUIFMPXFSSJHIUIBOETJEFPGUIF9BSFUIF power button, mute button for the microphone, and computer/display switch. The latter is there because UIFCJEJSFDUJPOBM%JTQMBZ1PɀUDPOOFDUPSHJWFTUIF 

PROS t4VQFSTQBDFTBWJOHEFTJHO t$PNQBUJCMFXJUI7&4"NPVOUT t(PPEQFɀGPSNBODFXJUI44% configuration t&YDFMMFOUQPɀUBOEGFBUVSF arrangement CONS t"MXBZTPO64#QPɀUDBOCF confused with power jack t/P64# 5ZQF$ PS1$*F M.2

option to drive another display or output to the ThinkCentre X1’s screen from another computer. Of course, if you’re a lefty, you might prefer the side layouts reversed, but the general clustering was a good decision. My one complaint about the ports is the color-coding used by Lenovo. The X1 uses a power connector that’s very close in size and shape to a USB connector, and it’s yellow. So is the always-on USB port. I get it—power equals yellow. Still, I tried to plug the power connector into the USB port first time out. Arguably, I could have first consulted the user’s guide, but realistically speaking, my instinct won’t be outside the norm. One potential drawback is the lack of height adjustment. Taller users might want to opt for an arm mount—the ThinkCentre X1 weighs only 8.8 pounds, which even stylish lightweight arm-mounts can handle. You will need to buy a VESA mount, however. Lenovo’s lowprofile option for the X1 is $18. One other thing I should mention is that the arm of the stand is so 

The ThinkCentre X1 is thin, and quite light at 8.8-pounds sans stand.

REVIEWS & RATINGS thin, you’ll likely be able to see the cords, especially as it’s chrome. Black might have been a better choice for the wire-haters out there.

Components and performance Inside the ThinkCentre X1 are an Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB of DDR4/2133MHz RAM, a 256GB SATA SSD, and an Intel Wireless-AC 3165 card for dual-band 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. As expected with this choice of components, the ThinkCentre X1 is as fast as most people need for everyday tasks, like word processing and web browsing. In PCMark 8’s Home Conventional benchmark, which runs web browsing, writing, casual gaming, photo editing, and video chat workloads, this all-in-one machine scored 2,615. While processors with more cores and more power do outpace it, the X1 should feel plenty quick for basic tasks. The ThinkCentre X1 also performed as expected in our Handbrake encoding test, which involves converting a 30GB MKV file into a smaller MP4 using the program’s Android Tablet preset. For machines using a thermally constrained CPU, Handbrake is more of a soak test than a measure of performance: We use it to see how well the machine holds up under long, intensive tasks. The ThinkCentre X1 isn’t the fastest machine using a Core i5-6200U, but it’s still within the expected range. The Dell XPS 13 still comes out ahead likely due to fan speeds, whereas the Samsung Notebook 9 lags incredibly far behind because its processor’s clock speed drops (throttles) under prolonged heavy load. That said, the ThinkCentre X1 isn’t the machine you want for regular content creation, as you can see when compared to our PCWorld Zero Point machine, which is a standard 

The ThinkCentre X1 tilts to far greater angles than the average AIO, and doing so doesn’t take a lot of force.

desktop tower with a full socketed part (and three years old, at that.) Gaming on the ThinkCentre X1 is slightly below what you’d expect for its integrated HD 520 graphics. In 3DMark’s Cloud Gate benchmark, which is a synthetic DX11 test designed for typical home desktop systems and laptops, the X1 netted an overall score of 4,946. While that’s a little surprising, it again likely has to do with how Lenovo tweaked the fan profiles. However, even if the X1 had matched other Core i5-6200U systems’ scores, that wouldn’t change the fact that this all-in-one is only good enough for lightweight games. As for video playback, 4K UHD files played quite smoothly, as long as they were H.264 and not HEVC (H.265) or 60 frames per second The Thinkcentre X1’s SSD, a Samsung MZ7LN256HCHP-000L1, has a middling write speed of a little less than 300MBps, but it reads at a reasonable pace of 500MBps. To be fair, while faster SSDs are available, this kind of throughput speed is still light years better than a hard-disk drive. One aspect of the X1 that could be better is its speakers. There’s Dolby software on board to enhance the sound, but it’s still a bit weak. You’ll definitely want to use headphones or hook it up to a sound system.



The ThinkCentre X1’s ports are perfectly arranged and situated, though we wish the always-on USB port (not shown) weren’t the same yellow as the power jack.

REVIEWS & RATINGS

PCMark 8 Home Conventional Dell Skylake XPS 13 (Core i5-6200U)

2720

HP Spectre x2 (Core m7-6Y75)

2385

Intel Skull Canyon NUC (Core i7-6770HQ)

3618

Lenovo ThinkCentre X1 (Core i5-6200U)

2615

PCWorld Zero Point Desktop (Core i7-4770K)

3893

Samsung Notebook 9 (Core i5-6200U)

2642

Surface Pro 4 (Core i5-6300U)

2353 0

400

800

1200

1600

2000

2400

2800

3200

3600

4000

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

Handbrake Encode 0.9.9 (sec) Dell Skylake XPS 13 (Core i5-6200U)

6839

HP Spectre x2 (Core m7-6Y75)

9898

Intel Skull Canyon NUC (Core i7-6770HQ)

2880

Lenovo ThinkCentre X1 (Core i5-6200U)

7707

PCWorld Zero Point Desktop (Core i7-4770K)

3059

Samsung Notebook 9 (Core i5-6200U)

11818

Surface Pro 4 (Core i5-6300U)

6428 0

2000

4000

6000

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE



8000

10000

12000

14000

3DMark Cloud Gate Overall Dell Skylake XPS 13 (Core i5-6200U / HD 520 Graphics)

5609

HP Spectre x2 (Core m7-6Y75 / HD 515 Graphics)

4507

Intel Skull Canyon NUC (Core i7-6770HQ / Iris Pro 580)

11999

Lenovo ThinkCentre X1 (Core i5-6200U / HD 520 Graphics)

4946

Samsung Notebook 9 (Core i5-6200U / HD 520 Graphics)

5658

Surface Pro 4 (Core i5-6300U / HD 520 Graphics)

5668 0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000


Input ergonomics The keyboard and mouse provided by Lenovo are usable. They likely won’t beat out anything you already love, but they have enough heft that they don’t feel cheap. They’re also wireless, so there are no cables to litter the clean desktop space generated by the X1’s design.

Price and warranty You can get a ThinkCentre X1 for as little as $845 at the time of this review (thanks to an instant rebate through Lenovo’s storefront), with only 4GB of system memory and a 500GB hard drive. I highly recommend against that configuration because of the slower performance you’ll get from the hard drive compared to an SSD. Our 8GB/256GB SSD configuration costs a little over a thousand dollars, and you’ll be much, much happier with it (or even the 128GB SSD) than the HDD version in the long run. The standard warranty is one-year on-site. Upgrading to as much as four years of on-site service costs from $79 to $149. Notably, it includes the option of keeping your storage drive—worth noting for people 

14000

REVIEWS & RATINGS who dislike warranties that make you surrender defective hardware. One more plus for the ThinkCentre: The user’s guide shows you how to repair and upgrade the X1, which is quite easy. I’m a little tired of vendors who say there are no user-serviceable parts when a mere halfdozen screws would allow access. Kudos to Lenovo.

Conclusion To be perfectly honest, I’d like to see Lenovo take the outstanding basic ThinkCentre X1 design and realize it to the max: a 4K UHD display, a PCIe-NVMe SSD, Type C USB 3.1, and…a red (not yellow) always-on USB port. As it stands, however, 1080p is all most users need. The ThinkCentre X1 is easily fast enough, and forking over one $1,000 bill (instead of two) for a computer is more in line with the average budget. So let’s forget the wish list and just say that if you’re looking for a solidperforming, exceptionally well-designed all-in-one, this machine should be your starting point. And probably ending point.



Look Ma! No wires. Actually, you will see some such as the power cord and ethernet cable, which are not shown here.

3DMark Time Spy tested: We pit Radeon vs. GeForce in this major new DX12 benchmark BY BRAD CHACOS

WHEN IT COMES to benchmarking software, Futuremark’s 3DMark Fire Strike is the gold standard among PC enthusiasts. But there are limits to what Fire Strike can measure; as a DirectX 11 implementation, the tool can’t quantify how graphics cards perform with Microsoft’s cutting-edge DirectX 12 graphics technology. That’s a problem as more and more DX12 games hit the streets. Or rather, it was a problem. In July, Futuremark released its new Time Spy benchmark for the 3DMark suite, which is loaded with DirectX 12 features to put graphics cards to the next-gen test. 

REVIEWS & RATINGS Time Spy isn’t Futuremark’s first DirectX 12 benchmark; that honor goes to the API Overhead Feature Test (go.pcworld.com/ apioverheadtest) released in March 2015. But the Overhead Feature Test merely measured draw call performance in DirectX 11 versus DirectX 12 (or the now-defunct Mantle). Time Spy is a full-blown benchmark composed of several subtests that factor into an overall combined score. It’s the DX12 equivalent of Fire Strike, basically. And it lets you test with asynchronous compute both enabled and disabled, which leads to some interesting insights. More on those in a bit. Better yet: Time Spy’s coming to all versions of 3DMark, including the Basic Edition that’s free for personal, noncommercial use. (You can download it on Futuremark’s site, go.pcworld.com/3dmarkgamers benchmk, or by clicking the Download demo button on 3DMark’s Steam page, go.pcworld.com/3dmarksteampg.) Time to start your engines, folks—at least if you have Windows 10.



Vertices 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics test 1

3,900,000

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics test 2

2,600,000

3DMark Time Spy Graphics test 1

30,000,000

3DMark Time Spy Graphics test 2

40,000,000

Triangles

5,100,000 5,800,000

Tessellation patches

Computer shader invocations

500,000 240,000

1,500,000 8,100,000

13,500,000

800,000

70,000,000

14,000,000

2,400,000

70,000,000

The paid-for Advanced Edition of 3DMark (which offers additional features and benchmarks) is rising in price from $25 to $30 thanks to Time Spy’s inclusion, however. If you already own 3DMark Advanced Edition, you can purchase Time Spy separately for $10. But if you bought before July 23, you’ll be able to upgrade for $5 or buy the complete Advanced Edition for $10. Futuremark provided PCWorld early access to Time Spy to see how it handles. Let’s take a deeper look at this new DirectX 12 benchmark, and the performance results for a range of AMD and Nvidia cards.

Meet Time Spy Futuremark developed Time Spy with input from AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and Microsoft, with an eye toward testing DirectX 12’s unique advantages. By giving developers lower-level access to hardware, DX12 offers reduced processor overhead, better multi-threading support, and the ability to get “closer to the metal” of graphics cards. To drive home how much more DirectX 12 can process compared to DirectX 11, Futuremark provided a chart (above) showing the average amount of processing per frame in Fire Strike versus Time Spy. Beyond merely being built in DirectX 12, Time Spy also supports many of DirectX 12’s highlight features. That includes asynchronous compute, which allows compute and graphics rendering tasks to run simultaneously, rather than one after the other; explicit multi-adapter 

REVIEWS & RATINGS in the linked-node configuration, which essentially performs similarly to SLI or CrossFire, but allows the benchmark to pool the resources of the two graphics cards; “explicit synchronization between CPU, GPU, multiple GPUs, and multiple GPU queues”; and several other underthe-hood tricks like resource binding and data “heaps,” all running in a custom engine. Time Spy’s actually broken up into a trio of tests running at 2560x1440 resolution in the official benchmark configuration. It starts off with two graphics-focused tests that stress your GPU in differing ways while minimizing the CPU load, to get as much of a pure GPU result as possible. The first graphics test (pictured below) stars the titular time spy wandering through a museum that features artifacts and weapons from throughout time and space, complete with easter-egg-style nods to other 3DMark benchmarks and games like Halo, Far Cry, and Deus Ex. This first test “focuses more on rendering of transparent elements,” according to Futuremark. The second graphics test pans and zooms throughout the same museum, showing different areas illuminated by different light sources



than the first test. It “focuses more on ray-marched volume illumination with hundreds of shadowed and unshadowed spot lights.” The two graphics tests each receive separate scores, which are combined into an overall graphics score. Then a third test hammers your CPU—the fans on our test system’s (go.pcworld.com/diygamingpc) closed-looped cooler screamed during this section—while minimizing the GPU load. It features ice-like crystal clusters spreading throughout the screen using procedural generation, constantly transforming and growing. “The CPU test measures performance using a demanding combination of physics simulation, occlusion culling, and procedural generation,” Futuremark says. Once everything’s done running, the CPU score and GPU score are combined to generate an overall score using a “weighted harmonic mean.” So what does “weighted harmonic mean,” well, mean? Here’s how Futuremark describes it: For a balanced system, the weights reflect the ratio of the effects of GPU and CPU performance on the overall score. Balanced in this sense means the Graphics and CPU test scores are roughly the same magnitude. For a system where either the Graphics or CPU score is substantially higher than the other, the harmonic mean rewards boosting the lower score. This reflects the reality of the user 

REVIEWS & RATINGS experience. For W graphics + W cpu Time Spy Score = example, doubling the W graphics W cpu CPU speed in a system + S graphics S cpu with an entry-level Where: graphics card doesn’t W graphics = The Graphics score weight, equal to 0.85 help much in games = The CPU score weight, equal to 0.15 W cpu since the system is S graphics = Graphics test score already limited by the = CPU test score S cpu GPU. Likewise for a system with a highend graphics card paired with an underpowered CPU. Got it? Good. Let’s see how several modern graphics cards compare in Time Spy.

Time Spy tested We selected six cards to put Time Spy through its paces. With AMD pushing DirectX 12 so hard, as it takes superb advantage



of the dedicated async compute engine hardware inside Radeon graphics cards, testing the Polaris GPU-based (go.pcworld.com/ amdpolaris) $200 Radeon RX 480 (see page 44) was a no-brainer. That card’s competitive with Nvidia’s older Maxwell GPU-based EVGA GTX 970 FTW. We also wanted to test AMD’s older Hawaii GPU, so MSI’s R9 390X Gaming was added to the mix, along with its GeForce counterpart, the reference edition of the GTX 980. Finally, we also tested the Asus Strix Fury (go.pcworld.com/amdradeonr9furyrev) and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition (go.pcworld.com/geforce gtx1070rev) to ensure AMD’s Fiji GPU and Nvidia’s Pascal GPU were each tested. Why no Fury X (go.pcworld.com/amdfuryx)? Because we were under time constraints and installing its integrated closed-loop water cooler into our test system’s Corsair Obsidian 750D (go.pcworld.com/ obsidian750d) case is a pain if you’re swapping out a bunch of cards. Let’s see how things shook out. Focus mainly on the graphics (GPU) score. First impressions: The power of the dedicated async shader 

REVIEWS & RATINGS hardware inside Radeon graphics cards shines in this test. Excluding the ridonkulously powerful GTX 1070, Radeon hardware dominates Nvidia’s GeForce cards in this DirectX 12-focused test, lending yet more credence to the idea that AMD’s cards have an advantage in next-generation graphics technologies. Even the $200 RX 480 thoroughly trounces the GTX 980. (Note that Nvidia tends to hold an advantage in DirectX 11 performance, however, which still accounts for the vast majority of game releases.) The CPU scores are largely similar across the board, but we’re using a $1,000, eight-core Core i7-5960X. There’s a decent chance we’d see more variance in a system with a weaker processor, as “closer to the metal” APIs like DirectX 12 show larger performance increases in systems that are CPU-bound. Here’s the thing, though: Time Spy leans heavily on asynchronous compute to “overlap rendering passes to maximize GPU utilization,” which naturally favors the dedicated hardware in Radeon graphics cards. While many DX12 games will feature async compute, it’s not a



3DMark Time Spy (DX12) 3911 7396

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

3611 3971 7334

Nvidia GeForce GTX 980

3674 4299 7451

AMD Radeon RX 480

4001 4554 7211

MSI R9 390X Gaming 8GB

4276 4837 7342

Asus Radeon Strix Fury

4563 5742 7199


5545 0

GPU

1000

CPU

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

OVERALL

required feature of the API. You can disable async compute in a custom run, however. We did so to see how AMD and Nvidia’s cards compare with that crucial feature turned off, and to see how the GTX 1070—which includes key new async compute (go.pcworld.com/geforcegtx1080) features— performs in relation to the older GTX 970 and GTX 980. (Note that there is no overall score assigned in custom runs.) And we have a graph comparing just the graphics scores of the cards, 

8000

REVIEWS & RATINGS with async compute both enabled and disabled. Now isn’t that interesting. Nvidia’s GTX 970 and GTX 980 see very minor graphics score decreases running Time Spy with async compute disabled, but remain static for the most part. Meanwhile, the GTX 1070 sees a larger decrease (while still dominating overall), indicating that the async improvements Nvidia built into the Pascal GPU indeed make a difference. But the graphics scores for AMD’s cards positively plummet, driving home just how important the dedicated async shaders are for Radeon graphics cards—at least in DX12 games that take advantage of asynchronous compute. With async compute disabled, the Radeon cards tumble back down to relatively equal scores with their Nvidia counter-

3DMark Time Spy (DX12), Async compute disabled 7393

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

3590 7364


3647 7431

AMD Radeon RX 480

3598 7358


3692 7355


3944 7356


5221 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

OVERALL SCORE, HIGHER = BETTER GPU

CPU



6000

7000

8000

3DMark Time Spy (DX12), Graphics score only 3590 3611

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

3647 3674


3598 4001

AMD Radeon RX 480

3692


4276 3944


4563 5221 5545


0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

OVERALL SCORE, HIGHER = BETTER Async enabled

Async disabled

parts, similar to what we’d see if testing these cards in DirectX 11. Also compare the CPU scores between the two runs. It’s clearly dependent on the GPU’s async compute scheduling in some way, resulting in a fairly big difference when async compute is disabled.

Go forth and benchmark But don’t necessarily take our word for it. Want to see how your system handles DirectX 12, or simply try to push your rig to the top of the Time Spy leaderboards? Go download Futuremark’s 3DMark suite (go.pcworld.com/3dmarkgamersbenchmk)—and expect to see Time Spy results show up in PCWorld’s graphics card reviews in the future. Get it? Time Spy? In the future? Okay, I’ll stop now. 

6000

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Best wireless keyboards: Cut the cord with Bluetooth and USB models offering extras galore BY AOIFE M. McEVOY

A WIRELESS KEYBOARD frees you from more than a cable. It frees you

from the crummy slab you got for free with your Windows PC—does anyone like that one?—and it gives you options. The models we’ve reviewed vary in size, weight, key design, and compatibility with other operating systems and devices.



This is one category where it really pays to head to a store and try out a model you’re interested in. When we had our stack of keyboards in for review, people couldn’t help but touch and play with them. They all came with different needs and biases. There’s truly no one size to fit all, but our reviews aim to give you enough specifics to make a sound decision. See the next page for more on how we tested. Iogear’s Quietus RF Desktop (go.pcworld.com/ quietusrf) was quieter than some of the models we tested, though not all of them, so don’t focus on that BEST WIRELESS KEYBOARD selling point as much as the overall package: a nicely Quietus RF Desktop designed, well-equipped keyboard with the bonus of a This keyboard is, indeed, fairly wireless mouse, all for a very reasonable price. quiet, but we appreciated the Typing on this chiclet-style model, we enjoyed terrific travel and satisfying terrific travel and a satisfying (and fairly quiet) feedback of the keys even clicking sound. The 12 hotkeys, including instant more. The bundled wireless access to track management, volume handling, and mouse is a nice bonus. Read sleep mode, are especially handy. PCWorld’s full review (go. It uses just one AAA battery, which is supposed to pcworld.com/quietusrev). last for up to a year. $40 Despite its higher list price compared to the Iogear Quietus RF Desktop, Microsoft’s Wireless 900 Desktop (go.pcworld.com/mswireless900) costs basically the same if you shop around. Like the Iogear model, this RUNNER-UP one also bundles a wireless mouse. Wireless 900 Desktop It’s the runner-up primarily because it doesn’t have The Wireless 900 offers an as many hotkeys as the Iogear model, although it does impressive amount of have eight programmable keys. The other downer for customization via software, and us is the spacebar, which emits a loud thwack when it’s also nice to type on save for pressed. Considering this button’s constant use, that one key. Read PCWorld’s full thwack could get annoying fast. review (go.pcworld.com/ms We’d criticize the Microsoft keyboard’s use of two wireless900rev). AAA batteries versus the Iogear’s one, but those batteries are supposed to last twice as long—for up $50 to two years. 

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Key things to know about wireless models Wireless keyboards connect to a PC in one of two ways: via Bluetooth or a USB receiver. Some older Windows 7 machines may not support Bluetooth. On the other hand, if you need a keyboard to work across different platforms on newer devices, a Bluetoothenabled model is what you need. The latest Bluetooth 4.0 specification features low-energy technology to save battery, too. All the USB receiver-driven models in this roundup were flawless examples of plug-and-play keyboards. Pairing Bluetooth keyboards (compared to Bluetooth headsets, let’s say) requires a few more steps, and only one of the models was slightly flaky in maintaining its connection. Bluetooth keyboards tend to cost a little more but also offer longer battery life. As you’re shopping (particularly if you have big fingers), keep in mind that some hardware makers sacrifice the keys’ size and spacing to give you portability.

How we tested It was hands-on all the way with our keyboard testing. We spent at least one full workday typing exclusively on each model we tested, with follow-up time to allow for a learning curve. We assessed the primary typing experience: key design, typing feel, and even noisiness. We also tried the secondary features: hotkeys, switches and dials on multi-platform models, and even the ability to adjust the angle or other comfort characteristics. 

Iogear Quietus RF Desktop

We considered the size, weight, and durability of each model against its purpose—whether it was designed to be portable or desk-bound, and compact or fully featured. For instance, we balanced the rollable, water-resistant Adesso Antimicrobial Waterproof Keyboard’s resilient design against its unusual look and feel.

What to consider when shopping You’re going to use this keyboard every day, so make sure it fits your typing habits and your needs. Here’s what to keep in mind as you shop. Size: A model that will always sit on your desktop can be bigger and heavier, and usually some other advantages come with that. As more of us carry laptops or tablets, however, we’ll look for models that are compact or portable. These will sacrifice some features but be easier to take with you. Keys: Look for keys that are sculpted and spaced for typing comfort. This is why we encourage trying before buying: We’ve had very different experiences with traditional keys versus chiclet-style versus flatter key designs, and it’s surprising how little things like the texture or the amount of dimple will make or break a choice. Most mainstream keyboards use membrane technology, which is adequate for most users, but heavy-duty users and gamers will likely prefer keyboards with mechanical switches (which are not reviewed here). Windows hotkeys, or

Microsoft’s Wireless 900 Desktop keyboard 

REVIEWS & RATINGS even programmable keys, are great bonuses, especially for power users. Adjustability: Some keyboards offer no adjustment for angle or height. Look for models with adjustable legs or feet. We haven’t included ergonomic models in this round of reviews. Battery needs: All wireless keyboards use batteries. Check closely for the type and number of batteries you need, and whether a starter set is included. We note the vendors’ specified battery life at the top of each review. Price: When it’s so easy to get a keyboard for free, it can be hard to justify actually buying one. The good news is, you can get a solid model for as little as $40, including some of the ones we’ve reviewed. We show the MSRP for each model, but of course you can often find it for less at online or brick-and-mortar stores.

All our wireless keyboard reviews Keyboards are a very personal choice. Whether you want big or small, desktop or portable, with more or fewer buttons and adjustments, you can find it in one of our other keyboard reviews below.

AT A GLANCE

Azio Vision Keyboard Wireless Edition (go.pcworld.com/azio visionrev)

Logitech K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard

HP K3510 Wireless Keyboard

(go.pcworld.com/k380rev)

(go.pcworld.com/hp k3510rev)

$60

$40

$30

Microsoft Designer Bluetooth Desktop

Kensington KP400 Switchable Keyboard

Adesso Keyboard Model WKB-2200UB

(go.pcworld.com/ msdesignerrev)

(go.pcworld.com/kp 400rev)

(go.pcworld.com/wkb 2200ubrev)

$100

$60

$30 

Watch the video at go.pcworld. com/acer chromebook 14vid

Acer Chromebook 14: You can brag a little about this laptop’s luxury details BY MELISSA RIOFRIO

ACER’S CHROMEBOOK 14 is the Chromebook you buy when you want something better than the typical, $200-ish browser laptop, but you’re not quite flush enough to afford the swankier Dell Chromebook 13 or the upcoming HP Chromebook 13. For a midrange price ($299 on Amazon), the Acer Chromebook 14 gives you an all-aluminum chassis and a very nice display, even if its performance and other attributes are less remarkable. 

REVIEWS & RATINGS The Chromebook 14’s best features The Chromebook 14 (go.pcworld.com/acerchromebook14) is Acer’s first all-aluminum model, with a brushed finish. Acer touts the all-aluminum chassis on the Chromebook 14, and for good reason. Amid a pile of Acer Chromebook 14 plastic competitors, the brushed-metal shell looks refined and feels great. Of course, the material is also CB3-431-C5FM durable and light, making the Chromebook 14 a AT A GLANCE comfortable 3.42 pounds by Acer’s specification. The Acer’s Chromebook 14 has a AC adapter (the typical black brick) and cables weigh few things to brag about: Its an additional 0.55 pounds. The laptop’s dimensions brushed-aluminum chassis and are a trim 13.3 x 9.31 x 0.67 inches. high-resolution display make it Encased within the lid’s slender bezel is an stand out among other JNQSFTTJWFJODI Y-&%CBDLMJU*14EJTQMBZ affordable models, even if Chromebooks have a reputation for mediocre screens, other features remain pretty with limited brightness and viewing angles. Most have basic. a resolution of just 1366x768, which suffices on an PROS 11-inch display but starts to look ridiculous when stretched over a 14-inch display. The Acer Chromebook 14’s screen looks crisp and has a good maximum brightness (236 nits by our measurement). The 170-degree viewing angle means it’s readable from all sides, and the anti-glare coating is another big plus. A higher-resolution display does use more battery. We logged 8.82 hours of life from the Chromebook TDFMM N"IQBDL VTJOH$S9135T benchmark. That’s a good amount of time, though not as long as Acer’s promise of up to 12 hours. I never expect to like a laptop’s speakers, which is why those in the Acer Chromebook 14 deserve mention for being surprisingly good. The dual set, nestled underneath the left and right sides, provide 

t4UVSEZ CFBVUJGVMBMVNJOVN shell t)JHISFTPMVUJPOEJTQMBZXJUI wide viewing angles t4VSQSJTJOHMZHPPETQFBLFST CONS t,FZCPBSEJTIBSEQMBTUJDXJUIB harsh throw t-JNJUFEQFɀGPSNBODFXJUI graphics-intensive applications $299

good bass and stereo effects. You might still plug in external headphones, but at least your laptop won’t sound like a cyberchipmunk if you have to use its speakers for a presentation. You also can’t argue with the Chromebook 14’s connectivity. It has Bluetooth 4.2 for the latest in close-range performance and privacy. Wi-Fi covers every available flavor with dual-band 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac/a/b/g/n.

The more typical features I don’t mean to seem ungrateful for the Chromebook 14’s good things, but Acer appears to have bet everything on those features, meaning the rest of the Chromebook is less remarkable. Anyone whose expectations were raised by the high-end look may be at least a little disappointed. I was particularly unhappy with the keyboard, which has the hardplastic keys and harsh, abrupt travel typical of entry-level Chromebooks—not what the Chromebook 14 is supposed to be. The large clickpad worked well. 

REVIEWS & RATINGS Direct connectivity is limited to just two USB 3.0 ports (firstgeneration, meaning a 5Gbps transfer rate) and an HDMI port. While the 32GB of eMMC storage is nice, I think a lot of users will miss an SD card slot—there’s none on this machine.

Performance: Stick with mainstream apps The Chromebook 14’s performance reflects its modest SoC: Intel’s Celeron N3160 quad-core running at 1.6GHz, with 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM and integrated Intel HD graphics. This setup will make it through mainstream web apps and a streamed movie—which is what most people with Chromebooks do—but this isn’t the Chromebook for bleeding-edge users tinkering with web gaming or other graphicsintensive tasks. Anecdotally, even running multiple media-heavy sites simultaneously seemed to strain the Chromebook 14, so keep it simple.

The Chromebook 14 has an IPS display of 1920x1080 with 170-degree viewing angles.



Because this is the first N3160-equipped Chromebook we’ve tested, we compared it with some recent N3060-based models, which are of the same Braswell generation, but with two cores instead of four. We also included the Dell Chromebook 13, which has a Celeron The chiclet-style 3205U instead of an keyboard on the SoC, so you can see Acer Chromebook 14 has hard how a higher-end plastic and a (and higher-priced) harsh travel. Chromebook There’s also a compares. large clickpad. The Chromebook 14 started off well with the Cr-XPRT performance test, which measures Chromebook performance in basic productivity tasks as well as more demanding activities, such as watching movies or playing games. It’s in the lead, if by a hair, compared to the other two low-end Chromebooks. Not surprisingly, though, the Dell smokes everyone. Basemark Web 3.0 recently replaced Browsermark 2.1 as Basemark’s 

The Acer Chromebook 14 has dual speakers on either side of the bottom panel. They provide surprisingly good sound.

REVIEWS & RATINGS comprehensive browser benchmark. The tests cover web-based technologies including WebGL 1.0.2 and WebGL 2.0 real-time graphics, as well as JavaScript. All three Chromebooks posted close scores, but the Chromebook 14 was a tad slower despite having a faster chip. (Note: We couldn’t add the Dell to the Basemark chart, as it was tested with Basemark’s predecessor, Browsermark.) Google’s Octane 2.0 JavaScript benchmark simulates advanced browser-based activities, including productivity applications, games, and interactive content. The Chromebook 14 posted slightly lower scores than its cohort, basically a certificate of attendance. Look at

The right side of the Acer Chromebook 14 has the headphone/mic jack and power port.

The left side of the Acer Chromebook 14 has two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, and a Kensington lock port. 

Basemark Web 3.0 (broad browswer benchmark) Asus C202S (Celeron N3060 @ 1.6 GHz)

97.54

Acer Chromebook R11 CB5-132T (Model N15Q8) (Celeron N3060 @ 1.6 GHz)

100.61

Acer Chromebook 14 (Celeron N3160 @ 1.6 GHz)

95.83 0

20

40

60

80

100

120


Octane 2.0 (JavaScript) Asus C202S (Celeron N3060 @ 1.6 GHz)

8,004


8,701

Dell Chromebook 13 (Celeron 320U @ 1.5GHz)

14,739


7,995 0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000


that Dell go! As if to drive home the Chromebook 14’s mainstream theme, you can see how it fared on OortOnline, a WebGL test that focuses on graphics-intensive applications and games. Even though it has a more powerful SoC than the two other Chromebooks (excepting the standout Dell), it posted the lowest score by a small margin.

The price of nice Acer’s Chromebook 14 is about look and feel. The aluminum shell and 

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Oort Online (WebGL) Asus C202S (Celeron N3060 @ 1.6 GHz)

4,070


4,060

Dell Chromebook 13 (Celeron 320U @ 1.5GHz)

5,130


4,010 0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000


high-resolution display do a lot to separate it from its lower-cost cousins and give you a better experience. You’re already paying a little more just for those two perks. It’d cost you even more to get better performance and features, but for mainstream users, the Chromebook 14 represents a fairly sweet spot.



6,000

The 10 best PC games you haven’t played in 2016 (so far) BY HAYDEN DINGMAN

WE RECENTLYPUBLISHED OUR list of the best PC games of 2016 (so far) (go.pcworld.com/bestpcgames2016), a.k.a. our Game of the Year list if Game of the Year lists were decided in June. Now, here’s its annual counterpart: The best PC games you might have missed so far this year. These are the weird-but-charming indies. The wonderful yet underadvertised B-tier. The games to add to the backlog and then play on a rainy Saturday. And 2016’s been a fairly strong year so far, what with Layers of Fear, Deadbolt, Hyper Light Drifter, and, well, quite a few more.



REVIEWS & RATINGS

1

Agatha Christie—The ABC Murders

Back when Agatha Christie—The ABC Murders (go.pcworld. com/abcmurdersrev) ($15 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/abc murderssteam] or GOG [go.pcworld.com/abcmurdersgog]) released, I thought it made for a decent little warm-up in preparation for Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter. And then The Devil’s Daughter released and…well (go.pcworld.com/sherlockddrev)… Point is: The ABC Murders might be the best detective point-andclick we get all year. It’s got wonderful storybook art, charming characters, and manages to nick some of the best parts of Frogware’s Sherlock Holmes games. It’s not very difficult, and some of the puzzles get a bit tedious, but all in all it’s a sweet and earnest game to while away an evening.



2

The Room 2

The Room series is possibly my favorite bunch of mobile games. Each is like a self-contained, fantastical puzzle box that spools out into something much grander as you play, a nesting doll of impossibilities. It took two years for The Room (go.pcworld.com/theroomsteam) to hit Steam, and now it’s taken two more for The Room 2 (go.pcworld. com/theroom2steam) to make its way over. But it has! It was made available on Steam in July. While not quite as elegant as the original, I’d still highly recommend it. Like most sequels, it’s “more of the same, but bigger.”



REVIEWS & RATINGS

3

Layers of Fear

It sometimes veers off into parody and heavy-handed tropes, but Layers of Fear ($20 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/ layersoffearsteam]) is a delightful horror game (go.pcworld.com/ layersoffearrev). Drawing on the likes of P.T. and Sightline: The Chair, Layers of Fear loves to mess with your perceptions. Was that wall always a wall? Or was there a door there a few seconds ago? And that’s just the beginning. It’s a grim and macabre sort of horror, but also one that tries its hardest to make an emotional connection with the player—one that goes beyond mere fear. As I said: It’s not always successful, but it’s still worth a look. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more games in the same vein soon. 

4

Duskers

Duskers ($20 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/duskerssteam]) is, I think, not for everyone. It commits some pretty grave design sins, in that it takes a long time to get going (we’re talking hours of investment), but not very long at all for everything to go horribly wrong and necessitate starting from scratch. For those willing to brave it, though, Duskers is an atypical real-time strategy game wherein you are scavenging spare parts from space ships. You do so by way of remote-operating a set of drones, and the whole game is rendered out in a chunky Apple II–esque interface complete with command line for certain tasks. I find Duskers flawed, but I admire its aesthetic and unique approach enough for it to earn a spot here.



REVIEWS & RATINGS

5

Hyper Light Drifter

To some extent I like looking at Hyper Light Drifter ($20 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/hyperlightdriftersteam]) more than playing it. Pixel art’s felt played-out for the past few years, but Hyper Light Drifter’s jewel-toned vistas are unbelievable, both in their complexity and in their beauty. Aside from that, it’s an ultra-hard action game that’s, at times, completely impossible to navigate. That goes for the micro level (“Oh, that was actually a door?”) and the macro (“Where the hell am I? And how do I get to where I thought I was going?”). And so I recommend Hyper Light Drifter with some caveats. Be prepared to explore the game, like an heir to the Zeldas of old. Don’t be surprised if you get lost, or if you have no idea what to do next. It’s pretty stellar if you bear with it.



6

Deadbolt

Deadbolt ($10 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/deadboltsteam]) hasn’t really had the same cultural impact as the studio’s previous game, Risk of Rain. But it’s not because the game is bad. Quite the contrary—Deadbolt is probably the best side-scrolling stealth game since Mark of the Ninja (go.pcworld.com/markoftheninjasteam). You play as the Grim Reaper, and your job is to clear out apartment buildings full of the undead. It’s a bit similar to the setup of Hotline Miami or Not a Hero (aside from the whole undead thing) but Deadbolt plays out slower, more like a large intricate puzzle than Hotline Miami’s frantic flow. Also, you can hide in a toilet and pop out to kill people.



REVIEWS & RATINGS

7

Shardlight

The latest in a long line of Wadjet Eye point-and-clicks, Shardlight ($15 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/shardlight steam]) is neither the best nor the most creative game in the studio’s history. But this is Wadjet Eye, and even the studio’s B-tier titles often have something to offer. Such is the case with Shardlight, a game set in a post-apocalyptic world torn between a corporate oligarchy and the undercurrents of revolution. Adventure Game Studio is a dismal engine and so Shardlight’s a bit rough around the edges, but this is still one of the best-written point-and-clicks of 2016.



8

Enter the Gungeon

Enter the Gungeon ($15 on Steam [go.pcworld.com/enter thegungeonsteam]) has one major flaw: Runs take too long. It’s the latest in the modern “roguelike-like” genre, like Spelunky or FTL or Binding of Isaac. But it takes too long to get difficult, which makes the early stages of each run a bit of a chore. That said: It’s excellent, especially once the difficulty ramps up. Dodging around, shooting like a madman in a blend of twin-stick shooter and bullet hell is great for killing a few afternoons—or playing in “one or two runs before bed” spurts.



REVIEWS & RATINGS

9

Goetia

First, some caveats: Goetia ($15 on Steam [store.steam powered.com/app/421740]) can be pretty obtuse at times, and there’s some small-developer jank to struggle through. Don’t be afraid to consult a walkthrough. I did. Many times. It was worth it, though. Goetia is an excellent puzzle-based pointand-click with a surprising amount of depth to its demon-infested world. This is a game for people who want a slower, more ponderous adventure—one with lots of reading, and lots of puzzling out obscure clues in notes. I don’t know if that’s a big niche, but Goetia’s near the top nevertheless.



10

Infra

Speaking of weird niches: Infra ($15 on Steam [store. steampowered.com/app/251110]) is an exploration/ adventure game where you play as “a structural analyst on a routine mission.” That’s a direct quote from the Steam page. Your job is to explore the less-accessible parts of a town’s infrastructure and photograph anything that’s decaying or dangerous: Cracked bridge, rusty support beam, et cetera. Or, at least, that’s the setup. Spoiler: Things are more than they seem. Infra is weird and sometimes a bit busted but it can also be exceedingly clever at times, with an amazing attention to detail that most games don’t possess. Plus, there’s something fascinating about playing a game as an actual person, not Joe/Jane Superhero. My only qualm is that only the first part of the game is out now. On the other hand, Part 2 is supposed to be free to all current owners when it eventually releases.

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REVIEWS & RATINGS

BONUS!

Stephen’s Sausage Roll

Okay, one more. A bonus pick! And I shouldn’t even put the game on this list because it already cracked into our best PC games of 2016 (so far) (go.pcworld.com/bestpcgames2016) list. Damn it, though—Stephen’s Sausage Roll ($30 on Steam [store. steampowered.com/app/353540]) is great. And there’s also a good chance you missed it, because it looks like a crappy Shockwave game from fifteen years ago. Yes, Shockwave. Not even Flash. If you want a puzzler that’ll twist your brain into knots and also make you strangely hungry for sausages though? Pick this game up.



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THE TOP FEATURES

IN THE

WANT



USERS

WINDOWS ANNIVERSARY

UPDATE B Y

M A R K



H A C H M A N

FEATURE

WINDOWS  ANNIVERSARY UPDATE

WINDOWS 10:

If you’re still running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you probably have a good idea of what’s “wrong” with Windows 10—some of which may be the reason you haven't upgraded yet. But time’s running out on that free upgrade offer (go.pcworld.com/w10deadline). Microsoft has said it’s willing to make changes to the OS based on user feedback, but how do you know it’s fixing that one key feature that bothers you? The short answer is you don’t. Well, not without a little assistance, anyway. Here’s the deal: Up until last fall, anyone could submit requests for new features or bug fixes for Windows 10, as well as vote up the suggestions of others, via Microsoft’s network of UserVoice sites. The problem is that Microsoft has done away with the UserVoice site for Windows 10. Now, the only way users can provide feedback is via the Feedback Hub app—which, of course, is only available for Windows 10. So what can a Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 user do? Peer over our shoulder! We can’t link directly to the requests themselves, but we can relay them here. We’ve rounded up the top requests Windows users have for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, plus a few features that Microsoft has already added (found in the Insider Preview Build)—and that you might not know about.

WHAT USERS WANT



UNIVERSAL

More than 7,000 users have asked for a “dark theme,” superimposing white text upon a black background. And the Anniversary Update (go.pcworld.com/ w10anupdatefeatures)—sort of. The current version of Windows 10 doesn’t allow you to configure a universal dark theme, but the Anniversary Update allows you to specify an “app mode,” with dark or light theme options. That works for some UWP apps, like Mail and Calendar, but not all, it seems—such as Maps or the Feedback Hub itself. Nor does it seem to apply to Win32 apps. User Philip K sums up the request pretty nicely: “If you want dark theme to be a success in the Anniversary Update, you should consider changing the whole windows UI for people who select dark theme (Explorer, Edge, Weather, News, etc...)—from one single click in Settings.” (Italics ours.)

DARK THEME



FEATURE


WHY CAN’T

CORTANA

SHUT DOWN MY PC About 8,000 people want Cortana to exert more fine-grained control over their PCs, namely the ability to shut down a machine via voice command. It’s not quite clear whether Microsoft plans to bring such control to Windows 10 with the Anniversary Update. Several Cortana improvements have already appeared as part of the Insider Build, including voiceactivated assistance from the lock screen. But consider this: We all know the frustration of having Windows shut down a PC unexpectedly to apply updates; this feature could compound that. True, the action would be tied to a voice command, but imagine that capability in the hands of a prankster—an obnoxious coworker, for instance, or even a YouTuber who might suddenly order your PC to shut down at the end of a video. Orally waking up the PC—as Microsoft has done with the Xbox One and which Intel showed off last year (go.pcworld.com/w10cortana)—is probably a more desirable trick. 

NEVER, EVER UPDATE

DRIVERS WITHOUT WITHOUT EXPRESS USER PERMISSION More than 7,000 people believe that Windows 10 should never, ever update drivers (especially graphics drivers) without a user’s permission. Normally, a driver update happens automatically: Windows scans your system, and if it detects a new, certified driver, it downloads and installs it, no questions asked. We generally consider this to be a good thing, as updated drivers typically provide upgraded performance. Some gamers, though, feel differently. “Certain drivers work best for certain hardware, device configurations, device BIOS configurations, and certain games,” accordng to user Toni F. “When playing an online fast-paced action game, the user wants the best experience possible. No glitches, no lags etc...There is NO WAY one driver version can solve all problems for every configuration there is. The LATEST is most often NOT THE GREATEST!” Comments on the Feedback Hub suggest that most users actually wouldn’t mind having driver updates turned on by default; but they at least want a toggle to disable the feature (or possibly revert to an older driver) if they so choose. Unfortunately, there’s been nothing in the Insider previews to indicate this is coming. 

FEATURE


PAGE HISTORY

IN MICROSOFT EDGE In 1987, IBM unveiled its next big step in the IBM PC space, the Personal System/2 (PS/2) line, which introduced innovations such as 3.5-inch floppy support, VGA graphics, OS/2, the Micro Channel bus, 72-pin RAM SIMMs, integrated mouse support (through the now-famous PS/2 mouse/keyboard ports), and most importantly, IBM’s first 386based PC. The 386 arrived in the highest-end PS/2 unit, the Model 80, which shipped in a hulking tower-based configuration that could support up to 2MB of RAM and two 115MB hard drives (consumer hard drives were typically about 20MB at the time, and still very expensive). Like all IBM PCs back then, the Model 80 was built like a tank (out of high-quality components and materials) and carried with it a tank-like price to match: $10,995, which could quickly go up to $20,000 or more depending on the configuration. To add insult to injury, customers had to buy an operating system (PC-DOS 3.3) for their Model 80 as an add-on item. That’ll be $120 extra, please. 

NO MORE FORCED

Only 3,800 users have chimed in with this one, but it’s a request that’s near and dear to our hearts: Without some explicit, in-your-face reminder that Windows is going to update itself, Windows 10’s appeal is significantly reduced. While some apps, like Word (especially the Office Mobile version, which saves on the fly), automatically back up your content, any apps that don't (such as web forms, for instance) are at risk of losing data if they happen to be open and unsaved at the wrong time. Microsoft lets Insiders know an update is coming via a fly-in notification that later stores itself in your notifications. It can be easy to miss, however. I’d like to see more: perhaps a dedicated icon in the taskbar—a red “U” (for update) next to the Notifications icon, for instance. If we can’t defer updates, something that rankles many users, better communication about updates is essential.

UPDATES!!

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FEATURE


UNIFIED EMAIL

The mostrequested feature for Windows 10 has, in fact, been added: unified inboxes, or the ability to merge mail coming to a variety of personal and work email addresses into a single folder. How do you enable that? In Mail, click on the Settings gear at the very bottom, then Manage Accounts. You should see an option to Link Inboxes, which will then open a window allowing you to choose which accounts you want to link. Many people like to keep their inboxes separate—that's my preference—but others like to see it all in one place.

INBOX



MAKE CORTANA PERSONAL, AND CONTEXTUAL

More than 5,000 people have voted up a request to make Cortana more contextual: In other words, if a user asks a question, Microsoft’s digital assistant should then understand the context if the user asks a followup. The submitter used this as an example: If a user says “Who is the CEO of Microsoft?” Cortana correctly replies, “Satya Nadella.” But if the user then asks, “How old is he?” Cortana doesn’t know who you are talking about. Ironically, context is already built into Cortana—even the version you’re using now. On Windows 10 (as well as the Insider builds) you can ask Cortana questions like: “How tall is the Empire State Building?” followed by “Where is it located?”—and receive correct responses to both questions. Or ask Cortana, “Who is the president of the United States?” followed by “How old is he?” and receive correct answers. But Nadella? Nope, not yet. Still, conversational context clearly needs to be more consistent in Cortana, (and Microsoft’s Concierge Bot: go. pcworld.com/msconciergebot). After all, it’s a central feature of Google’s Google Assistant (go.pcworld.com/googleassistant), which the company showed off at this year’s Google I/O. Microsoft says such improvements are forthcoming in the Anniversary Update, now that it’s allowing developers to teach Cortana to “understand” what a user is already doing when he or she asks a question. 

FEATURE


A BUILTIN PASSWORD

MANAGER APP FOR WINDOWS 10 About 5,000 people think that Microsoft should build its own password-manager app for Windows 10—which it sort of has already. Microsoft’s Credential Manager holds passwords for services like Skype as well as stored passwords for Internet Explorer. But users apparently want more—something along the lines of LastPass sans the subscription fees. (Incidentally, LastPass currently exists as an extension within the Insider version of Edge, but you’ll still need to subscribe to the premium service if you want passwords synced across your various devices.) This seems like a bit of a no-win situation for Microsoft, however: Users will either scream about how they have to pay to securely manage their passwords with a third-party service, or else moan about having to give up their passwords as well as their privacy to Microsoft.



DOWNLOAD LOCATIONS

IN MICROSOFT EDGE Over 8,500 users requested greater control over where Edge downloads are stored, and Microsoft has complied. It’s not easy to find, though: To configure it, you’ll need to access the Downloads tab via the three uneven blue lines (see the screenshot below). Then click the Downloads icon. From there, select the blue hyperlink, Open Folder. That will open the Downloads folder itself. Rightclick on any white space, select Properties, and you’ll have the option of selecting where any downloads are automatically stored. That doesn’t seem to include OneDrive, but could be an external drive. You can also right-click on a link from within Edge and manually select the location to which it’s saved.



FEATURE


PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE:

ONEDRIVE PLACEHOLDERS

It says something about the Feedback Hub within Windows 10 that only 5,664 users have requested that Microsoft bring back Windows 8.1’s use of OneDrive placeholders, while 21,000 (plus many more, if you include the multiple petitions) have begged Microsoft for this via the OneDrive UserVoice (go. pcworld.com/oduservoice) site. The terms vary—placeholders, “online only” files, or smart files—but the idea is the same: Users want to “sync” files from their PC to the OneDrive cloud. But they don’t really want to sync them in the sense that their files are stored in both places. They simply want a folder that lists the files they have stored on OneDrive, without separate copies being stored on their PC. (If you click on them, they download.) At the same time, users would like the option for documents or other new files to be automatically backed up to OneDrive— just like a picture taken with your phone. It’s really not that complex a concept, but Microsoft just can’t (or won’t) implement it. Meanwhile, Dropbox has (go.pcworld.com/dropboxinfinite). 

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FEATURE

HEADPHONES BUYERS GUIDE:

Which type delivers the best balance of great sound, isolation, and comfortable fit? BY THEO NICOLAKIS



FEATURE

HEADPHONES BUYERS GUIDE

I

n-the-ear, on-the-ear, and over-theear headphones all sound different. They also have their respective benefits and drawbacks. We set out to explore which kind of cans provides the best mix of noise isolation, comfort, price/performance ratio, and sound quality with a wide range of music.



ROUNDING THINGS UP For this roundup, I focused on headphone models priced less than $300. I then solicited some advice from Harman International’s Director of Acoustic Research, Dr. Sean Olive (seanolive.blogspot.com), who is also a former president of the Audio Engineering Society (aes. org/aes/seanolive). Dr. Olive and his colleagues have been at the forefront of headphone research, and Harman provided a number of headphones for this evaluation. After auditioning them, I settled on the JBL Reflect Mini in-ear monitors (IEMs), the AKG N60 NC (noise-cancelling) on-ear

AT A GLANCE JBL Everest Elite 700 headphones

JBL Reflect Mini in-ear headphones

AKG N60 NC on-ear headphones

MSRP $300

MSRP $60

MSRP $249 

Harman provided a wide variety of headphones from its AKG, Harman/ Kardon, and JBL brand portfolio.

FEATURE


headphones, and the JBL Everest Elite 700 over-the-ear headphones. I listened to each both at home and on the road to see how the different form factors performed in a variety of environmental conditions.

P H OTO G R A P H BY T H EO N I CO L A K I S

INEARMONITORS In-ear-monitors fit into your ear with either a silicone or foam tip. As with most IEMs that I own or have tried, the JBLs were light and comfortable—to the point where I’d forget I was even wearing them. My biggest complaint with IEMs at this price point is that you get a smaller sound stage and concede some of the dynamics, richness, and sweetness you’ll typically get with on-ear or over-the-ear models. Bass can also be hit or miss. Getting a tight seal with IEMs is very important because the bass response you’ll get is dependent on that seal. If the seal is too loose, bass will sound anemic. While IEMs are great for orchestral, jazz, and even certain kinds of pop and rock, they wouldn’t be my go-to phones

The Comply replacement memoryfoam tips made a dramatic difference in blocking ambient noise when paired with the JBL Reflect Mini in-ear monitors.



I M AG E : T H EO N I CO L A K I S

AKG’s N60 headphones fold for easy travel

for explosive bass or rich dynamic pieces. Typically, IEMs come with different sized tips to provide the best fit with the unique shapes of your ears. The tips help secure the IEM into your ear as well as block out ambient noise—sometimes to the tune of 25db or more. While the JBL Reflect Mini (go.pcworld.com/jblreflectmini) did a decent job of blocking out external noise, it wasn’t a stellar performer. I therefore reached out to a third-party company, Comply, which manufactures replacement tips from memory-foam (complyfoam.com) for various brands of in-ear monitors. These promise to block out more external noise than the silicone tips that come with most IEMs. And they live up to that promise, in my experience. They were a noticeable upgrade from what came in the package with the JBLs—especially in high-ambient-noise situations, such as inside airplanes and trains.

ONEAR HEADPHONES For me, on-ear headphones (also called supra-aural) can be hit or miss. 

FEATURE


Some models are too tight and others far too loose. While tight-fitting models can help block out external noise, they can become fatiguing and painful to wear for extended periods. The AKG N60s (go.pcworld. com/akgn60nc), however, felt just right. They were super light and comfortable—even for very long listening sessions. Another advantage of on-ear headphones is that they give you close to the sound quality of over-the-ear headphones in a more compact form factor. In fact, many models, including the AKG N60, fold for travel. Whether it was Adele’s “Hello,” U2’s Songs of Innocence, or Holly Cole’s Best of, the AKG N60s effortlessly reproduced just about any artist or genre I threw at them.

NOISECANCELLING HEADPHONES On-ear-headphones tend to be at a disadvantage in noisy environments. For that reason, some models, including the N60, feature active noise cancellation: They generate background noise that’s roughly an inverse sound wave to the noise you want to eliminate. Not all noise cancelling Noise cancellation isn’t just for on-ear models. Some techniques are the same. Aimed at over the ear models, such as JBL’s Everest Elite 700s air travelers, the AKG N60’s noise feature active noise cancellation, too. cancelling targets lower frequencies to cancel out most of the aircraft’s engine noise. I can say from firsthand experience that the effect is quite impressive. In contrast, the JBL Everest Elite are focused on a broader commuting and at-home audience, so they employ a wider noise-cancellation spectrum. 


Over-the-ear headphones, such as those of the JBL Everest Elite 700 pictured here, typically feature plush, large ear cups that seal out ambient noise for a lower noise floor when listening to music.

While the effects might at first seem magical, there are definite drawbacks that I noticed immediately. First, enabling active noise cancelling on any headphone—not just the AKG N60 or JBL Everest Elite 700—created a noticeable pressure on my ears. While this sensation might not bother some, it certainly bothered me and reminded me why I’ve never liked noise-cancelling headphones. Second, active noise cancelling effects the soundstage and (depending on the model) the musical presentation. For example, activating active noise cancellation immediately recessed the soundstage, making the overall presentation more relaxed. I found that it also thinned out the music. The effect was far more noticeable (and bothersome to me) in quiet environments as opposed to noisy ones. All in all, while I know many people love active noise-cancelling headphones, I much prefer a good seal (aka passive noise cancellation).

OVERTHEEAR HEADPHONES Over the ear headphones (also known as circumaural or full-sized headphones) are an audiophile gold standard for good reason. This 


FEATURE


type of headphone fully covers your ear. Open-back designs let you hear your surroundings. Closed-back models help seal out ambient noise and prevent sound from leaking into the environment (and nearby microphones, if you’re in a recording studio). Several times while I was wearing the JBL Everest Elite 700s (go.pcworld.com/ jbleverest700), I was completely unaware that someone was speaking to me. I just didn’t hear them. Circumaural headphones significantly lower the noise floor, allowing you to hear more details and get “deeper” into the music. On a nearly 11-hour transatlantic flight I recently took, for example, I measured 94dB of cabin noise using a SPL (sound-pressure level meter). The JBL Reflect Minis (with the Comply memory-foam tips) and the JBL Everest Elite 700 did the best job of isolating my ears from that cabin noise. I preferred listening to music and movies, however, through the over-the-ear JBLs because of the superior overall sound quality. Music comes from a wide, expansive soundstage with either openor closed-back circumaurals. Instruments take on a larger, more lifelike feel. This was certainly the case with the JBL Everest Elite 700. Orchestral works in particular benefit, but so does R&B. The larger 

Over-the-ear headphones are typically far larger than on-ear models.

drivers in an over-the-ear headphone deliver a better sensation of bass, too. Listening to Lorde’s “Royals,” for example, was a very different experience on the Everest Elite headphones compared to what I heard using the Reflect Mini ones. Generally speaking, over-theear headphones are better suited to for all kinds of music. The biggest drawback of over-the-ear headphones is their size and bulk. Over long listening sessions with the JBL Everest, my ears became a bit hot and uncomfortable. For that reason, I preferred wearing the AKG N60s or Reflect Minis for long sessions.

WE RECOMMEND While they aren’t the best for travel or an active lifestyle, over-the-ear headphones deliver the best balance of sound quality, noise isolation, and comfort. In-ear monitors deliver the best overall price/ performance ratio, and they can be great for jogging or workout sessions. A good pair of on-ear headphones, which let your ears “breathe,” can be worn comfortably during long listening sessions, and models with active noise cancellation go a long way to making up for the reduced isolation those models typically provide. Each type of headphone comes with its own pros and cons; and in an ideal world, we’d all be able to have all three types at our disposal. Everything else being equal, if your budget limits you to one type, we’d recommend circumaural cans over anything else.



F]Xcck_\k_è^jJ_\XËj[f^`jkiXè\[kf[f# k_\dfjk`dgfikXek`jfg\eè^[ffij% For more than 30 years, Canine Companions for

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A rare muscle disease keeps Shea confined to a

HERE’S HOW 150 3 hidden Android customization settings you need to try 155 How to use AMD’s WattMan, the powerful new overclocking tool for Radeon graphics cards

172 Hassle-Free PC When browser cookies go bad: How to avoid ‘bad header’ problems on favorite websites 176 Answer Line The hidden challenges of booting from a USB flash drive

164 Excel pro tips: Importing and parsing data



HERE’S HOW

How to build, maintain, and fix your tech gear.

3 hidden Android customization settings you need to try Unlock the System UI Tuner to hide and reveal status-bar icons, rearrange the Quick Settings buttons, and more. BY LINCOLN SPECTOR

IF YOU’VE EVER been annoyed by the clutter of icons along the top of your Android home screen, good news: There’s something you can do about it. Turns out there’s a trio of secret settings for customizing the 

Android user interface, and one of them will let you hide or reveal icons in the status bar. You can also rearrange the buttons on the Quick Settings pull-down on Android as well as make a small but important tweak to the Android battery meter. You won’t find any of these settings by poking around the standard Settings screen. Instead, you’ll need to unlock the hidden System UI Tuner first. Here’s how to do it.

How to reveal the System UI Tuner First, flick down from the top of the screen to reveal the full Quick Settings window shade, then tap and hold the Settings button (the one that looks like a gear) in the top right corner of the display. Tap and hold the Settings button until you see the little wrench icon appear.

Hold the Settings button for long enough, and a little wrench icon will appear next to the Settings button. Once you see the wrench, tap the Settings button again, then scroll all the way down to a new Settings section—the one marked System UI Tuner. When you first launch the System UI Tuner, you’ll see a warning that reads (in part) that “these features may change, break, or disappear in future releases” and to “proceed with caution.” Tap on Got It to continue—and don’t worry, you can always disable the System UI Tuner if you’d rather not mess with such “experimental” Android settings. 

After you dismiss the warning, you’ll have access to the System UI Tuner settings. Let’s take a tour, shall we?

Rearrange the Quick Settings buttons You probably already know how to reveal Android’s Quick Settings panel by swiping down from the top of the screen with two fingertips. What you may not know, though, is that you can add, remove, and rearrange the Quick Settings buttons—or at least, you can with help from the System UI Tuner.

Tap Quick Settings from the main System UI Tuner screen, and you’ll see the standard panel of Quick Settings buttons. To move a button, tap and hold it, then drag it over another button to make the two switch places. To hide a button from the Quick Settings panel, tap and hold it, then drag it to the Delete icon. To put any deleted buttons back, tap Add Tile, then tap the name of a button. If you want to revert to the old Quick Settings buttons, tap the three-dot menu button in the top right corner of the screen, then tap Reset.



You can rearrange or hide any of the Quick Settings buttons you wish, all with a little help from the System UI Tuner.

HERE’S HOW

Take charge of the status bar If all the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, alarm, and “Do not disturb” icons in the Android status bar are a bit too much, the System UI Tuner will help you cut down on the clutter. Tap the Status Bar setting to see a list of 10 status-bar icons, ranging from Cast and Hotspot to Cellular Data and Airplane Mode, each with its own switch. By default, each icon is enabled; to hide an icon, just flick off its switch. You can disable just about any icon in the status bar, save for the battery meter and the clock.



Just flick a switch to hide a specific icon from the status bar of your Android device.

A simple System UI Tuner setting will add a percentage reading on the Android battery icon.

See your remaining battery life as a percentage If you want a more precise reading of how much of a charge your Android device’s battery has left, you can use the System UI Tuner to stamp a percentage reading onto the standard Android battery icon. Go back to the main System UI Tuner screen, then flip on the Show embedded battery percentage switch. Once you do, you’ll see a tiny percentage reading sitting in the battery icon up in the status bar.

Deactivate the System UI Tuner panel Google isn’t making any promises about the features squirreled away in its hidden System UI Tuner. As you’ll recall, that initial Tuner pop-up message warns that any and all of its customization options may change or disappear at any time. If you’d rather not worry about when your favorite new settings will disappear, you can simply pull the plug early. From the main System UI Tuner screen, tap the three-dot button in the top corner of the screen, then tap Remove from Settings. You can always change your mind, of course; simply head back to the Quick Settings panel and tap and hold the Settings button again.



HERE’S HOW

How to use AMD’s WattMan, the new overclocking tool for Radeon graphics cards BY THOMAS RYAN

I M AG ES : T H OM A S RYA N

FORGET ABOUT FANCY third-party overclocking tools. For the first

time ever, AMD’s new Radeon Software Crimson driver packs everything enthusiasts need to tweak, fine-tune, and crank up their graphics cards—though only if you buy a new card sporting AMD’s next-gen Polaris GPU (go.pcworld.com/amdpolaris). One of the $200 Radeon RX 480’s (see page 44) biggest headlining features is actually a new Radeon Crimson overclocking tool dubbed Radeon WattMan. The ability to overclock your Radeon card with 

AMD-supplied software isn’t completely new: Prior to WattMan, AMD offered its less robust OverDrive tool since about 2007. (Older Radeon graphics cards still default to OverDrive, even if you install the latest Radeon Crimson software.) But while OverDrive offered control over clock speeds, the PowerTune limit, target temperatures, and fan speeds, it used a rather limited slider-based interface. Additionally, OverDrive’s controls weren’t very granular and lacked important features like core and memory voltage control, individual clock state control, and real-time graphing of all of these performance variables. These issues forced most overclockers to turn to robust third-party software like MSI’s Afterburner and EVGA’s Precision X instead. But AMD’s Radeon WattMan remedies all of these shortcomings. Here’s how to use it.

Getting around WattMan Working with WattMan is dead simple. Open up AMD’s Radeon Settings app and click the Gaming tab, then click Global Settings, and finally click the Global WattMan tab. You’ll be greeted by the interface shown below.



HERE’S HOW

WattMan’s most striking feature revolves around its real-time graphing, dubbed “Histogram,” which maps out your RX 480’s activity level, current core clock speed, memory frequency, temperature, and fan speed. In other words, every crucial measurement you need to monitor while overclocking your graphics card.

Best of all, if you see something weird on the graph—like a big clock speed drop—hovering your mouse over the issue will bring up the stats for that specific point in time. If you’re trying to troubleshoot a cooling or performance problem, WattMan’s graphing feature is a godsend. A thoughtful twist on this performance-tracking feature is the ability to use it globally or with only specific applications. AMD’s per-app Profile settings allow you to use WattMan to profile performance while a specific game is running for up to 20 minutes at a time. Select the game you want to profile, enable the Histogram option for it, and A histogram tracking the Radeon RX 480’s behavior in Far Cry Primal’s specific Profile WattMan settings.

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WattMan will begin recording when you launch the game. This application-specific profiling ties in nicely with the rest of WattMan’s overclocking capabilities, which can also be applied on a per-game basis. With the Profile WattMan tools located inside each game’s specific settings in Radeon Crimson, you can overclock your RX 480 in the games that need more horsepower and bump the target temperature down in less strenuous titles.

Playing with power WattMan’s powerful granularity is the application’s biggest strength, and that strength is most apparent in its clock speed and voltage controls. Like the power management technology found on modern CPUs, AMD’s PowerTune management engine switches between seven performance states, which are defined by unique clock speeds and voltages. Using the WattMan tool you can configure each of these seven states to your own personal preference.

For most people, that means overclocking the top clock state into the highest possible stable speed, up from the RX 480’s normal 1,266MHz boost state. But before you do that, you’ll want to increase the card’s power limit as much as possible. The power limit slider dictates the amount of power that your graphics card will allow itself to draw. If you increase it, you can reduce power consumption–related throttling—which can lead to higher stable overclocks—and if you decrease it you can reduce overall power consumption. During our testing, we found that the RX 480 

HERE’S HOW

performed slightly better if you set the PowerTune limit to +10 percent. Theoretically the RX 480’s PowerTune limit can be raised all the way up to +50 percent (or lowered to –50 percent). But AMD engineers say that +20 to +25 percent will probably be more achievable for most cards. Ah, the silicon lottery (go.pcworld.com/siliconlottery).

Graphically rich benchmarks like Unigine Heaven, which loops GPU intensive workloads and reports clocks and temperatures, can be useful for testing the stability and performance of an overclocked graphics card.

With that done, overclocking a graphics card (go.pcworld.com/ overclockgc) involves firing up a looping benchmark like Unigine Heaven and then increasing the core clock speed of your graphics card until the benchmark crashes. Then you reduce clock speed a bit and run it for a few hours to verify stability, continuing to reduce clock speeds if necessary. (Adjust the card’s power limit using the same technique.) We were able to push our RX 480’s clock speeds up to 1,330MHz, or about a 5 percent increase, before we ran into stability issues. 

When it comes to the per-state voltage controls, it’s best to focus your efforts on the highest three clock states, where the RX 480 spends most of its time during intense gaming sessions. State 7 is the boost state of the RX 480, where the clock speed in WattMan is set to 1,265 and the voltage is set to 1,131. The maximum voltage that WattMan can set for any given state is 1,150. If you want to overclock the RX 480, setting State 7’s voltage to 1,150 will improve stability while you raise clock speeds.

Chill out So now you know how to overclock the Radeon RX 480, and what to expect when using the tools. But WattMan tinkering with the goal of improving power efficiency shouldn’t be overlooked, especially given the unorthodox power consumption (go.pcworld.com/rx480fix) of RX 480 reference cards. Merely setting the PowerTune limit to –20 percent transforms the RX 480 into a significantly more efficient graphics card, with only a tiny hit to performance, as I detailed in an examination of the RX 480’s

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HERE’S HOW

power usage at SemiAccurate (go.pcworld.com/semiaccuraterx480). If you want to go further, “under-volting” is performed using a very similar process to overclocking, but instead of playing with clock speeds to increase performance, you decrease the voltages required to maintain stability at stock clock speeds. AMD’s WattMan makes this easy. But before we dig in, make sure that you have the Voltage Control toggle for both the GPU and the Memory in the Manual control position. If these aren’t both in Manual mode, your voltage adjustments won’t have any effect, in a bizarre WattMan quirk. The process for under-volting once again involves opening up a looping benchmark and letting it run while you incrementally reduce voltages. Eventually you’ll lower voltages too far and the benchmark will crash. Increase your RX 480’s voltages slightly from that point and then run the benchmark a few hours to verify stability. In our testing we were able to lower voltages for the top 3 states down to 1050 millivolts (mV) while maintaining stock clock speeds, which is an 81 mV savings over the default settings. Radeon Crimson’s Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) (go.pcworld. com/frtc) feature can also help you save even more power by capping the maximum frame rate of your GPU, so your graphics card won’t pump out more frames than your monitor can display. Why let your GPU render frames you’ll never see? Take the power savings instead.

Memory boost With a power-sipping under-volt or perhaps even a bit of an overclock

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applied, we can now turn to tuning the RX 480’s memory. Cranking up memory clocks can help increase performance. AMD’s WattMan again provides granular control over the RX 480’s onboard RAM, with the ability to over-volt the RX 480’s GDDR5 by up to 150 mVs and raise clock speeds from 2,000MHz up to 2,250MHz. We were able to hit a stable memory overclock of 2,200MHz, or a 10 percent overclock, after manually raising the voltage to 1,150 mV.

Fine-tuning Finally, AMD’s WattMan lets you define the RX 480’s most noticeable characteristics. You can manually set minimum and maximum fan speeds, a minimum acoustic limit, and maximum and target temperatures.

AMD’s stock settings for all of these are actually pretty good, but you can tweak them to your heart’s content. If you’re overclocking, you’ll probably want to increase the RX 480’s target temperature by three to five degrees to reduce potential thermal throttling while the card cranks away at higher clocks. Likewise, you’ll want to raise the target fan speed from the default 2,200 revolutions per minute (rpm) maximum to ensure your RX 480 stays cool under the increased heat. But don’t take this too far, because the RX 480’s blower-style cooler sounds like a ferocious hair dryer when it’s spinning at 100 percent fan speed. Our recommendation: Set the 

HERE’S HOW

target fan speed to 4,000rpm—it’ll be loud—and work down to an acceptable-to-you noise level from there. We found 3,000rpm to provide the best blend of acoustics and cooling.

Bottom line AMD’s WattMan is a major step forward for Radeon overclocking, and a stellar in-driver tool for gamers looking to get the most out of their new RX 480 graphics cards. If you’ve picked up AMD’s new mainstream champion and haven’t played around with WattMan yet, the only thing I have to say to you is, “U Watt Man?” Because I just had to make a joke about that horrendous name.

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Excel pro tips: Importing and parsing data BY JD SARTAIN DATA IMPORTED FROM other spreadsheets or databases is already

separated into fields, using something called a field delimiter—a comma, tab, space, or custom character—to separate one field from another. These databases import easily into Excel and place all the fields in separate columns. If your company pays bills and/or banks 

online, these sites usually offer copies of the company’s records in electronic form. CSV (comma separated values) is the most common data exchange format and, if offered, the best one to use. But what happens when all the data imports into one cell?

Importing & parsing data If you copy a block of data from a webpage, a word processing file, or other text file, then paste into Excel using the Paste > Special > Text command, all the data is dumped into a column of single cells. This means the records are copied into separate rows, but all of the fields are in one cell. What a mess! Now what? 1. Copy paste data from external source into Excel. Note: It looks like the data spills over into the adjacent columns, but only the first column contains the pasted information. 2. Select Data > Text To Columns. In the Convert Text To Columns Wizard 

dialog window, choose the Delimited button, then click Next. 3. In the next dialog window (Step 2 of 3, on the next page) select the delimiter— that is, the character that separates the fields. In CSV files, it’s a comma. Some databases use a tab, some use a semicolon. The only character that separates the data in this database is a space, so check the Space box. 4. Check the box that says: Treat Consecutive Delimiters As One, in case multiple spaces occur in one string of text. This setting also applies if your data has a delimiter of more than one character between data fields, or if the data contains multiple custom delimiters.

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HERE’S HOW

5. From the Text Qualifier dropdown list, select None, because the records are not enclosed with single or double quotes. 6. And last, click Next. 7. In the next dialog window (Step 3 of 3, on this page), Excel gives you the option to change the format of each column. The first column is selected by default. Notice the header says General. General works for all numeric fields. Because this is a text field, click the Text button to change this format. 8. Click anywhere in the second column, and the highlight moves to that column. If the selected format of General is incorrect, click the correct format for that column from the options above. In this case, Text is correct format.

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9. Repeat this process through all the imported fields. Then click the Finish button. 10. Now the boss wants the months separated. First, insert a column beside the Modern Months column so the parsed data doesn’t overwrite the information in column G. 11. Move your cursor to column G. Now select Insert > Insert Sheet Column. 12. Highlight the second field, Modern Months, in column F, and follow the instructions above to separate this one field into two fields. Note that the custom delimiter is the slash key. 13. Change the columns from General to Text and click Finish. Now the months are in two columns instead of one.

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HERE’S HOW

Use Text functions to polish the data 1. First, let’s replace the word time with the word month. Press Ctrl+H. Click the Replace tab. Type time in the Find What search box and month in the Replace With search box, then click the Replace All button. 2. Now, let’s join columns H and I into one field. Move your cursor to column J and enter the following text formula: =CONCATENATE(H3, " ", I 3). Note there’s a space between the quotation marks, so Excel places a space between the two words. Copy this formula from cells J3 down through J14. 3. For the next step, you need to delete the two columns H and I so the spreadsheet only shows the concatenated column J. But if you delete columns H and I, then column J disappears, because it’s expressing a formula based on the prior two columns. You have to convert J from a formula to a text value. 4. Select J3:J14. Press Ctrl+C (for Copy), move to column K3, right-click, and select Paste Special. In the Paste Special dialog box, choose Values and click OK. 5. Now you can delete columns H, I, and J, because column K has the completed text string. 

Note: In Excel 2016, there’s a new text function called CONCAT. According to Excel, it’s like CONCATENATE, but better, because it’s shorter, easier to type, and supports range references as opposed to just cell references. This means you can join the contents of several ranges: For example A3:C3, " ", D3:F3 would combine the contents of cells A3, B3, and C3, to cells D3, E3, and F3 with a space between the two ranges. 6. In 2016, CONCATENATE is not shown on the drop-down list of Text Functions (under Formulas > Text). If you prefer this function over the CONCAT function, look for it under Formulas > More Functions > Compatibility. Selecting functions from the menus provides access to the Wizard dialogs that coach you through the syntax of each formula. We’ll leave you with one last, great tip: The fastest and easiest method for joining the data in two or more cells is to use the ampersand. Yes, this little symbol works just as efficiently as the CONCAT and CONCATENATE functions. Just enter the formula like this: =A3& " " &B3. This simple formula joins the contents of cell A3 with the contents of cell B3, with a space between the two.

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HASSLE-FREE PC

HERE’S HOW

BY IAN PAUL

When browser cookies go bad: How to avoid ‘bad header’ problems on favorite websites SERVER ERRORS FOR websites you frequently visit are a pain. Most of the time these are temporary problems that the sites in question fix on their end after a few minutes. But there is one problem that does need your attention The dreaded “Bad Request” error.

Have you ever been refused service at a website you frequent with an error message that says, “400 Bad Request. Request Header or Cookie Too Large?” 

It’s an annoying problem typically caused by the Nginx web server, and it typically happens for one of two reasons. Sometimes the website using that software doesn’t allow browser cookies over a certain size, or cookies stored in your browser might be corrupted. The easiest way to solve this problem is by deleting the cookies for that site. The quick and dirty way is to delete all the cookies in your cache, but that would mean losing saved data for other sites—including logins. That’s a big hassle if you ask me. Instead we’re going on a targeted delete mission to get rid of the offending cookies. Here’s how to do that in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. Deleting cookies in Chrome.

Chrome Open a new tab and then type the following into your address bar: chrome://settings/cookies and hit Enter. A small window will appear called Cookies And Site Data. Type the name of the website you need to target into the search bar in that window. In my case it’s blogs.microsoft.com. Once the offending site appears in the main part of the window, highlight it, and then press the red X on the far right. Now try going to the problematic site again. If that still doesn’t work, go back to the cookies tab and delete any entries for the parent site (in this case it’s Microsoft.com). Now go back to the offending site one last time and everything should be working fine.

Firefox To delete specific cookies on Firefox, type about:preferences#privacy into the address bar and hit Enter. Now from the privacy tab that 

opens click the Show Cookies… button. Similar to Chrome, search for the website cookies you want to delete in the text entry bar at the top of the small window entitled Cookies. Select the ones you want to delete and click Remove Selected. Go back and test your site, and everything should be running fine. If not, follow the final steps mentioned above in the Chrome section.

Internet Explorer Click the Settings cog in the upper right corner of the browser window and select Internet Options from the drop-down menu. In the small window that opens go to General > Browsing History > Settings > View Files. This little trick will open a File Explorer window at the location where IE saves its cookies. Now search the folder you just opened in File Explorer for the site in question. Then delete the cookies you need to get rid of just like you would any other file: Click and drag the files into the Recycle Bin, or right-click the files and select Delete.

Microsoft Edge Microsoft’s newest browser doesn’t have the same granular options that the other browser do—at least that I could find. In this case, you’ll have to delete all your cookies and saved website data to get rid of the problem. 

Firefox’s cookies window.

HERE’S HOW

To do this, click on the three horizontal dots in the upper righthand corner. Next click Choose What To Clear under the Clear Browsing Data heading. Uncheck everything but the option for Cookies And Saved Website Data. Now click Clear, and you’re done. If that still doesn’t help, go back and clear the Cached Data And Files option as well.

Deleting cookies in Edge is currently all or nothing.

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ANSWER LINE

HERE’S HOW

BY LINCOLN SPECTOR

The hidden challenges of booting from a USB flash drive Windows and even your motherboard could be obstacles.

John O’Brien’s PC can’t boot from a USB drive. Every PC needs a way to boot into something other than the installed operating system. Removable boot media allows you to repair your Windows installation when Windows itself has become unbootable. It provides a clean environment for malware scanning and removal. It also allows you to try out various flavors of Linux without having to install any of them. Not that long ago, almost every PC had an optical drive, and booting from a CD or DVD was simple. But optical drives are becoming rare, 

and the only alternative boot media we have uses USB—usually a flash drive. And that can cause trouble. Today’s PCs come with a lot of protection—which is good—but it can get in the way. Somewhere in your BIOS setup screen, you’ll almost certainly find a Secure Boot option. If you can’t boot from a flash drive, turn it off. (The method varies from PC to PC, but Chris Hoffman offers some general guidance (go.pcworld.com/linuxsecureboot) in his article on installing Linux on a PC with Secure Boot.) Another issue: Most of today’s motherboards use UEFI instead of the old-fashioned BIOS, and an operating system that doesn’t support UEFI may not boot. Most motherboards support a legacy boot, but some PCs lack that option. Finally, most of today’s PCs boot immediately from the internal hard drive or SSD, without looking for bootable external media first. You have to do something special to make them look, and what you have to do depends on your PC. For instance, on my Lenovo X220 laptop, I press the power button, then repeatedly press and release F12 until the boot menu comes up and I can pick the appropriate option. But before I could make that work, I had to enter the BIOS Setup (F1), make sure that the UEFI/ Legacy Boot was set to Both, and that the UEFI/Legacy Boot Priority was set to Legacy First. I have two other Windows PCs, and each has its own unique way of doing essentially the same thing. One of them, a ASUS Transformer Book T100, lacks legacy boot capabilities. I can boot a Windows 10 recovery drive, but not most Linux distros. So what should you do? Go to your favorite search engine and look up the name and model of your PC (such as Lenovo X220) and either "usb boot" or ÁDVKGULYHERRW including the quotation marks. You’ll likely find useful instructions. I strongly recommend that you do this search, and test the instructions, when your PC is healthy. Then save the instructions where they can be easily accessed even when your PC won’t boot.

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Tech Spotlight A video showcase of the latest trends

Watch the video at go.pcworld. com/fenix rc40vid

Fenix’s RC40 is the ultimate flashlight

» When it comes to a

really good flashlight, it’s hard to beat the Fenix RC40. Upgraded this year, it’ll put out a scorching 6,000 lumens from its six-LED cluster. That’s enough output to reach almost half a mile away.

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PCWorld - August 2016

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