GAME SMARTER, NOT HARDER MASTERKEYS MK750 With On-the-Fly Controls, Cherry MX Switches and Removable Wrist Rest The MK750 mechanical gaming keyboard is the sleeper hit for elite gamers. The minimalistic, floating key design gives way to durable Cherry MX switches, intuitive On-the-fly controls, dedicated multimedia keys, and hybrid key rollover to ensure peak performance through the toughest battles. If that weren't enough, a removable magnetic wrist rest gives comfort during long sessions, while an RGB lightbar surrounding the bottom and sides gives subtle illumination to your setup. MAKE YOUR GAMING EXPERIENCE LOGIN TECHDESK FLASHBACK! OLD THINGS ARE GOOD W e all love PCs, right? In far cheaper and just as capable clones. REAL TECH ADVICE between hating them, that My fi rst PC, not counting the Olivetti XT YOU CAN TRUST! is… If you are a child of an at work, was a clone 386DX/25. Man, I loved earlier time, like me, then you that PC so much, it changed my life. I’d • Our tests are performed by experienced reviewers in our likely got into computers around the time of already enjoyed a couple of years with my Labs in accordance with strict the great technological transformation. That Amiga 500, but that doesn’t strictly count as benchtesting procedures period when magical things appeared in a PC, and all I ever used it for was games, • Our brand new benchmarks have short order, transforming the world. Things surprise surprise. A 486 DX2/50 came after been tailor-made to reflect real- like mobile phones and the internet. The that, when I needed more power. world computing needs perspective that comes with straddling a Thinking about those two PCs – and the • We put tech through its paces – period before, during, and after these things many that followed – it reminds me that seriously. From processing power to arriving is something precious that I value. as always, choosing a new PC is a game of battery life, from usability to screen I think we all remember the excitement compromise. When I bought the 386DX, brightness, our tests are exhaustive of getting our fi rst PC. The sense of there were cheaper SX models all tempting • We will always offer an honest and wonder and the keenness to get stuck in me, but I made a point to learn enough about unbiased opinion for every review immediately and have a play with it all. Intel’s CPUs to understand the benefi ts of a But what was it? And what technology full 32-bit architecture. And what it would THE PC&TA TEAM surrounded it? Did you plug yours into bring to Falcon 3.0 and Wing Commander… DIGITAL EDITOR an analogue modem to connect to a BBS? Same story for the 486DX2, but in reverse, TECH AND GAMING Did you live with a 14-inch CRT screen for the DX2 was cheaper than a proper 486DX David Hollingworth the fi rst ten years or longer? Did you fi nd and it seemed to me that the bus speed dhollingworth@nextmedia. com.au 1.44MB fl oppy disks particularly fascinating, cobbling was of little real consequence when T: @atomicmpc and like me, developed the annoying (to raw CPU power was what I needed. SENIOR JOURNALIST everyone around me) habit of thoughtlessly I’m sure you have some amazing stories Anthony Agius fl icking the marvelous little spring-loaded about your fi rst PCs and how you came by cover back and forth as a bit of a fi dget? them, what you used them for and the effect Well do we have the magazine page for they had on your life – then and now. Don’t you! It’s called Retro, and each month we’ll hold back, write in, I love publishing that SENIOR JOURNALIST look back at a signifi cant (or just really stuff on our letters page! In the meantime, Chris Szewczyk interesting) piece of technology from the let our fi rst Retro help you fuel those olden days. Check it out on page 24. I think nostalgic fi res. The old days were the best! it’s an especially cool page, and not just for Yeah! people like me who grew up through it all, GROUP ADVERTISING but for anyone who wants to spend a couple MANAGER TECH of minutes in each issue marveling at what AND GAMING led us to where we are today. Cameron Ferris [email protected] It makes sense to kick it off with a look at the IBM 5150 PC, or as we know it – the NATIONAL PC that started it all. Leveraging IBM’s ADVERTISING immense reputation, we could now claim MANAGER PC&TA ownership of an IBM in the home. Hindsight Sean Fletcher [email protected] reminds us that perhaps IBM should have locked down the OS rights a little tighter, CONTACT US but thankfully IBM dropped the ball on that and while the hardware is quite beautiful, p: (02) 9901 6100 what this machine represents is a confused Ben Mansill e: [email protected] and somewhat half-hearted attempt at EDITOR f: www.facebook.com/pcandtechauthority owning the domestic market, naively bmansill t: @pctechauthority ignorant that it would soon be overrun by @nextmedia.com.au PC&TECH AUTHORITY APRIL 2018 3 CONTENTS APRIL 2018 FEATURES LABS 26 68 THE BEST OF CES MESH WI-FI What treasures did our team Is easier better than almost as uncover while at the world’s good but cheaper? We test the biggest tech show? leading mesh Wi-Fi systems 34 RWC BACK TO FIREFOX Is your browser getting you 100 down? It may be time to revisit an old friend HONEYBALL Jon gives his verdict on the TECHDESK deliberate hobbling of iPhone 68 8 processors, looks forward to this year’s CPU developments, and NEWS refl ects on the best of 2017 Continued botching of the 103 20 Meltdown and Spectre dramas 34 10 OCKENDEN Lessons from Europe teach us GAME NEWS what may come for the future of A Civ clone and Close Combat e-commerce rises again! 108 24 12 WINDER CHIP NEWS Davey goes in search of Intel may fi nally give us proper interesting cybersecurity fi rms, thermal materials on CPUs, and and uncovers the link between the crypto GPU shortage may the Israeli army and the most soon be over innovative security startups 16 110 SYSTEM NEWS CASSIDY Why are PC prices higher than WannaCry is no longer an active any time in recent memory? threat, but you should still 18 remove the code from your PCs. Plus, the case of the disappearing INVESTIGATOR printer When subscription services come DREAM GEAR back to bite you 10 65 24 90 RETRO A-LIST & KITLOG YOUR 98 We look back at IBM’s 5150, the This is the dream list of the best PC that started everything of the best FREE APPS HOW TO DOWNLOAD THIS MONTH: AND INSTALL • Auslogics • PhotoCommander15 THIS MONTH’S Boostspeed 9 •Tagman •iClone 6 Standard FREE FULL APPS! 4 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU CONTENTS 44 REVIEWS PCS & LAPTOPS HP Spectre 13 42 Alcatel Plus 12 2-in-1 43 MSI Infi nite X 48 Acer Predator Triton 700 51 Asus GL503 52 Leader Resistance AiO 55 GPD Win mini PC 59 42 COMPONENTS AMD Ryzen 2200G & 2400G 40 Fractal Defi ne R6 53 Samsung 860 Evo & Pro 56 Corsair H115i AiO cooler 59 MESH ROUTERS Asus Lyra 74 Google wifi 75 Devolo GigaGate 77 Linksys Velop 77 48 47 Netgear Orbi 78 TP-Link Deco M5 79 Ubiquiti Amplifi HD 80 PERIPHERALS Asus Blue Cave router 44 Sonos One 45 Asus DSL-AC3100 DSL router 46 QNAP TS-677 Ryzen NAS 47 Amazon Echo Spot 50 Samsung CH90 49in monitor 54 Draytek Vigor 2862Vac 58 Epson Ecotank ET-4750 64 Razer Blackwidow Chroma V2 65 56 Alienware Pro 65 Alienware Advanced 66 54 Cooler Master MK750 66 Tt Esports X1 RGB 67 Gamdias Hermes P2 RGB 67 HANDHELDS Oppo R11s 60 Doro 6520 60 Blackberry Motion 62 55 GAMES Civilization IV: Rise and Fall 86 Where Water Tastes Like Wine 87 Kingdom Come: Deliverance 88 64 PC&TECH AUTHORITY APRIL 2018 5 TECHDESK INBOX INBOX WE ASKED YOU WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR NAS... EVERY DAY IS A NAS DAY amplifi er with two zones speaker My current is a QNAP TS-251 I was reading your article in the January mag confi gurations (one for the theatre loaded with a pair of Seagate NAS regarding NAS usage and I’d like to share how I use room itself and the other one for HDDs in Raid 1 confi guration. mine, it might be different as the general public. the living room that can play There are two ‘streams’ of use - I am using my NAS almost every day and love it. background music during family Acronis backups for my networked I have backed up fi ve laptops and one business PC. and friends gatherings). computers and streaming media to All prior (dead PCs) are on it as well. I created a docs I chose Asustor brand because my Samsung 4K TV. library over the years where store all manual, receipts, they are relatively cheaper than the I replaced my backpack sized tax, warranties, important docs etc. Basally everything big two brands such as QNAP or Nikon D5300 and lens collection on paper is scanned in and stored on the NAS. As Synology and back when I looked with the hand-sized Panasonic well as, I converted all old video tapes, music CDs, for NAS, the big two didn’t have DC-TZ90. Now, this is remarkable DVDs, which de-cluttered greatly our house. Only direct HDMI connection. - if you set the TZ90 video capture downloaded videos are not on it, due to space issues. I My main use is for mode to 1920*1080 at 25 FPS, the need to upgrade to a 4-bay soon. entertainment, CCTV recording lens zoom range is 35 - 1942 mm However, I access my NAS almost every day because plus backup important personal (35 mm equivalent), then I fi nd that there is always something to scan in or to retrieve. fi les. With Asustor, I can install the picture is broadcast quality. My wife loves it because if she needs something from Kodi, Plex and other download As a test, I uploaded a video to the years ago, it is there. apps (usenet mainly) easy enough. TS-251 NAS and streamed it to the I run a RAID 1 (which has saved my bum twice Some of their software still Samsung TV and there was zero now), and have a external HDD attached permanently requires polishing, but their buffering. Beautiful. So now, a which backs the whole NAS up every three days. I support team is great and main use of my humble QNAP NAS rotate the external HDD about every month with an responsive (although they are is to store Full HD video which will exact copy which is store off site at my parent’s house. working not from AU, thus be streamed to the Samsung TV. So technically I have fi ve copies, that protects my in you need to cope with the time I tried streaming 4K video from the worst case for one month data loss. So far this difference), and they keep releasing the TS-251 and it buffers about has worked fi ne, Synology takes care of the updates patches (even the latest one for 50%, but as the quality difference via hyperbackup. I just swap the external HDDs and Meltdown couple of days ago). between 4K and Full HD is barely hyperbackup updates automatically the old one at the JOHANNES detectable, I’m happy with Full next scheduled backup time. HD video which has the benefi t of SYNERGISTIC Yes I love my NAS, however I also have looked into smaller fi le sizes. CONVERGENCE an Asustor AS6404T or QNAP 431 as an alternative to a This ‘synergistic convergence’ Synology DS418 as an upgrade replacement. My fi rst NAS was a cheap and between the Panasonic Camera, Hope this helps as to have an insight of what the nasty plastic box into which Samsung TV and QNAP NAS other world is doing with their NAS. I loaded a large HDD. Lots of would make a good article for PC THOMAS fi ddling was required to get it right, & Tech. but it worked as a backup location New PC & Tech Authority format ENTERTAIN NAS for Acronis, but nothing more. is a huge improvement. Thank you. I hook up my Asustor AS-6204T to my theatre room You are right about once a CHRIS (over HDMI) which contacted to 5.1 Integra DRX-2 NAS user, always a NAS user. WANT TO GET IN TOUCH? The PC&TA app m: Inbox, Level 6, Building A, 207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 If you prefer to enjoy PC & Tech Authority via your iPad or Android tablet, you can! Each issue is just $6.49 for iPad and $4.99 for e: i nbox@pcand techauthority.com.au Please limit letters to 200 words, where Android, and has all the content that you’ll find in the magazine. possible. Letters may be edited for style and to a more suitable length. Get the app: PC & Tech Authority for iPad http://tinyurl.com/iPADPCTA Go to www.pcandtechauthority.com.au and join in the conversation. Get the app: PC & Tech Authority for Android Also check out the Atomic forums: http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au http://tinyurl.com/ANDROIDPCTA 6 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU TECHDESK NEWS TECHDESK NEWS THE LATEST TRENDS AND PRODUCTS IN THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY RESPONSE TO CHIP SECURITY CRISIS “CHAOTIC” THE POORLY EXECUTED RECOVERY PROCESS HAS BEEN MET WITH WIDESPREAD CRITICISM C hip makers, system builders and software companies are still trying to come to terms with the wide-ranging consequences of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities – with the industry’s response to the major threat described as both “a mess” and “garbage”. First discovered in June 2017, the two critical weaknesses could allow attackers to sniff data as it’s processed and they affect almost every mobile and desktop processor. But, to date, fixes have been randomly applied, glitch-ridden and confusing. Patches for the problems – which affect Intel, AMD future processors was to leave the more people within the industry and ARM processors to varying extents – started being problem partially unresolved, due should have been trusted to work rolled out days after they were publicised in early to fears it would impact processor on possible solutions. “The way January, but many of these had a significant impact on performance. This approach led to these issues were handled was a performance. One Windows patch effectively bricked a vitriolic attack from Linux kernel mess; frankly, I expected better of PCs running on AMD processors. chief Linus Torvalds, who said “the Google, I expected better of Intel, “The response has been less than ideal, and in some patches were complete and utter and I expected better of the Linux cases chaotic,” said Graham Cluley, an independent garbage. They do literally insane community,” wrote Colin Percival, security analyst. “What’s particularly galling is that, in things. They do things that do not security chief of the FreeBSD some instances, the fixes have caused more problems make sense.” operating system in a blog. than the bugs themselves.” “Google discovered a problem TIME WASTED? and reported it to Intel, AMD and A STOP-PATCH ORDER Given that the industry had seven ARM on 1 June. Did they then Three weeks into the clean-up operation, Intel even months between Google alerting go around contacting all of the had to tell end users and system builders to stop chipmakers to the problem and operating systems which would downloading patches because they could cause announcing it publicly, critics claim need to work on fixes for this? Not machines to malfunction. “We recommend that that the companies should have even close. FreeBSD was notified OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, done more in the interim period to the week before Christmas – over software vendors and end users stop deployment of ensure a smooth resolution. six months after the vulnerabilities current versions, as they may introduce higher than “It’s easy for us as outsiders were discovered.” expected reboots and other unpredictable system to grumble about the chip behaviour,” the company said. manufacturers’ response to the Dell, Lenovo and VMware all followed up by telling vulnerabilities, and we don’t have their customers to stop downloading their patches. much insight about how much “Intel has notified VMware of recent sightings that resource they put into exploring CORRECTION may affect some of the initial microcode patches that the bugs and then testing that fixes provide the speculative execution control mechanism were satisfactory,” Cluley said. “But In the last issue we mistakenly for a number of Intel processors,” VMware said in a my overwhelming feeling is that listed the RRP of the Aten USB-C rather cryptic statement. the chip firms could and should Multiport Mini Dock UH3232 This angered people who had supposedly followed have handled this better.” as $69, it is in fact $119. Also, the best practice by patching systems promptly. Others also said that, while it was product is not sold by Laserco as Intel was also heavily criticised because one of its imperative to keep the weaknesses we stated. We apologise for any options for fixing parts of the Spectre vulnerability in secret until the patches were ready, confusion caused. 8 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU TECHDESK NEWS GAME NEWS THE GAMES PEOPLE PLAY FIVE CLOSE COMBAT GAMES TAKE COVER ON GOG THAT’S THREE OF THE ORIGINAL SERIES 10 CROWNS AND TWO OF THE NEWEST ONES Close Combat is a mostly highly regarded real- IS A NEW EPIC time strategy series that began in the 1990s. They were pretty hardcore, taking into account STRATEGY GAME cover and suppression, fatigue and morale, among a range of systems that went deeper than other popular RTSs of the era. Three of those games from the original series FROM THE DESIGNER OF CIV IV AND FROM THE ART DIRECTOR OF CIV V are now available on GOG: Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far, Close Combat 3: The Russian Front and Close Combat 4: Battle of the Bulge. M  Curiously, there’s no sign of the fi rst game. But to ohawk Games’ fi rst game was publishing arm of the Stockholm be honest, A Bridge Too Far is by far the best in the excellent Offworld Trading based developer. the series, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Company, a kind of strategic “Everyone here at Mohawk GOG has also nabbed two more recent Close resource management sim with is very excited to work with Combat games, 2012’s Panthers in the Fog and 2014’s Gateway to Caen. They’re okay and, unlike plenty of sci-fi shinies to distract you from Starbreeze on 10 Crowns, going the other three, have been available on Steam all the number crunching. But the people at back to our game development for several years. Mohawk are best known for their work on roots to make a classic historical 4X the Civilization series, including company strategy game with some important founder Soren Johnson, who was the lead and radical innovations to the access period - so we would expect a similar designer on Civ IV, and Dorian Newcomb, genre,” reads the Soren Johnson approach again. Mohawk has released some who was the art director on Civ V and thus quote in the press release. “I look concept art to get the mind racing. chiefl y responsible for that game’s stately forward to sharing more about DAVID WILDGOOSE optimism. the design with the strategy game Mohawk has just announced its next game community and involving them in and it defi nitely looks like it’s building on development as early as possible.” that Civ pedigree, while possibly adding in a 10 Crowns is still in the dash of Crusader Kings - or rather that’s how prototyping stage, so don’t expect we interpret the scant details in the press much in the way of fi rm detail for release. the time being. However, Mohawk 10 Crowns is “an epic-scale turn-based were very open with the Offworld strategy game that lets players create the Trading Company community greatest dynasty in world history.” It’s being during that game’s development - published by Starbreeze Publishing, the and it went through a lengthy early 10 WWW.PCAUTHORITY.COM.AU