Articles by Jacob Ridley, Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating to breaking things professionally at PCGamesN, where he was one half of a popular weekly YouTube show. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, Jacob is now managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC. He says he's determined to build a fort as big as a house out of case boxes. Jacob enjoys heading out of the office to report from floors, benches, and, if he's lucky, plush press rooms at the biggest tech shows, such as Computex and CES.

When he's not writing about components, you'll find Jacob trying to get away from the modern world as fast as possible by bike and pitching up camp in murky woods.

Latest articles by Jacob Ridley

A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor, resting against a colorful, Intel-branded box

Intel giving us a reason to be excited for Nova Lake: 'We've had a bit of a hole in our portfolio for high-end desktop, Nova Lake filled in that gap'

By Jacob Ridley Published 30 October 26

News More to come at CES 2027 in January.

News

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and an Intel chip with a white diagonal line dividing the two

Intel shifts Panther Lake capacity to data center chips while the memory crisis wreaks havoc on PC market; still sold out of budget Wildcat Lake chips

By Jacob Ridley Published 30 October 26

News "The next few quarters will be challenging for the PC market," says CEO Tan.

News

Compromised laptop could be to blame for record $6.3 billion cryptocurrency heist: Binance rushes to freeze stolen assets as experts blame North Korean group

By Jacob Ridley Published 30 October 26

News A DevOps engineer's compromised laptop may have been the first domino to fall in this record-breaking heist.

News

Best cheap SSD deals today

By Jess Kinghorn last updated 30 October 26

Deals Add more storage space to your PC for less with one of the deals I've spotted.

Deals

Best gaming monitors in 2026: the pixel-perfect panels I'd buy myself

By Dave James last updated 29 October 26

Eye candy The best gaming monitors balance price with panel quality, resolution and refresh rate.

Eye candy

Jensen Huang on stage at the Nvidia GTC event on the sidelines of Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, on Monday, June 1, 2026.

Nvidia CEO reportedly targeted by Chinese spy previously under suspicion for AI chip smuggling

By Jacob Ridley Published 29 October 26

News Nvidia says Huang would've only spoken about "ordinary business information" with a data center exec anyways.

News

Two handheld gaming PCs on a yellow background with the PC Gamer Recommended badge in the top right

Best handheld gaming PC in 2026: my recommendations for the best portable powerhouses

By Jacob Ridley last updated 29 October 26

Portable PC PC gaming is officially portable now, and these handheld gaming PCs are the best around.

Portable PC

The Havn HS 360 PC case in black and white on a desk.

Havn HS 360 review

By Jacob Ridley Published 29 October 26

Score: 90% Stunning simplicity.

Score: 90%

The PowerA LucidSound LS500 and Razer BlackShark V3 wireless gaming headsets float in a red gradient void. The PC Gamer recommended badge sits in the top righ corner.

Best gaming headsets in 2026: I'd bet my ears on these headphones

By Dave James last updated 29 October 26

Quality cans Treat your ears to some audio treacle with the best gaming headsets.

Quality cans

For the second time this year, Galax says it's not closing down: Palit-owned graphics card brand 'continues to operate as usual'

By Jacob Ridley Published 29 October 26

News Reports of the brand's death have been greatly exaggerated.

News

Half-Life: Alyx patch adds foveated rendering support a mere 6 years after the game's release

By Jacob Ridley Published 27 October 26

News Just took launching a VR headset with eye tracking for Valve to add it.

News

Black Friday listing image with Secretlab chair featured

Black Friday gaming chair deals 2026

By Jacob Ridley last updated 24 October 26

Black Friday Black Friday approaches once again, and we are seated for some cracking gaming chair deals this year.

Black Friday

Only $70 separates RTX 5050, RTX 5060, and RTX 5060 Ti AND the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is now the same price as the RTX 5070 in what I can only describe as pure carnage

By Jacob Ridley Published 22 October 26

News It's not pretty out there, especially for the RTX 50 series.

News

Black Friday listing image with a Silicon Power SSD featured

Black Friday SSD deals 2026

By Jacob Ridley last updated 22 October 26

Black Friday Black Friday will be here before we know it, making it the perfect time to scout out the ultimate storage upgrade.

Black Friday

A group of gaming laptops on a blue background.

Five things I want you to think about before you buy your first gaming laptop

By Jacob Ridley last updated 22 October 26

Laptop livin' Gaming laptops can be excellent, but you need to shop wisely to avoid making a mistake. Here's my advice.

Laptop livin'

A Cooler Master HAF II 500 case as I build a PC into it.

Cooler Master HAF II 500 review

By Jacob Ridley Published 22 October 26

Score: 80% Three mighty fans make for a mighty amount of airflow.

Score: 80%

Here's another gizmo to prevent your graphics card from melting - wouldn't it be nice if 12+4-pin connectors weren't a cause for concern at all?

By Jacob Ridley Published 21 October 26

News I'm thankful for accessories like this, but I wish it wasn't my problem to sort in the first place.

News

Two GameSir PC gaming controllers on a silver and white gradient background, with the "PC Gamer Recommended" badge in the top right

Best PC controllers in 2026: I've tested lots of gamepads and these get my recommendation

By Dave James last updated 20 October 26

Total control Grab one of the best PC controllers for when your keyboard and mouse simply won't do.

Total control

Intel bringing faster upscaler to Valve's Proton - XMX accelerated XeSS could come to SteamOS in boost to future Intel-powered handheld gaming PCs

By Jacob Ridley Published 20 October 26

News Intel giving SteamOS a little more love?

News

GameSir Nova Lite 2 controller in white colourway on a desk.

GameSir Nova Lite 2 review

By Jacob Ridley Published 19 October 26

Score: 87% The best deal in controllers at $30 or less right now.

Score: 87%

Three screenshots from a video showing a man receiving an RTX 5090 as a wedding gift.

Man moved to tears by RTX 5090 on his wedding day - $9000+ price tag brings a tear to my eye too

By Jacob Ridley Published 19 October 26

News Who among us wouldn't feel the same?

News

The Steam Frame's pancake lenses on display.

Valve is toying with a Steam Frame OLED and some Reddit users are already wondering whether to wait an excruciatingly long time for it even though it may never happen

By Jacob Ridley Published 15 October 26

News Gluttons for punishment.

News

Valve's new Big Art Mode in the Steam client in Big Picture Mode.

Steam's new Big Art Mode is a lovely visual upgrade for my living room setup

By Jacob Ridley Published 14 October 26

News Big Art Mode is looking fiiiine.

News

Gigabyte deletes blog post on Intel LGA1700 chips in early 2027, but it can't put the cat back in the bag

By Jacob Ridley Published 13 October 26

News Looks like Gigabyte made an error when it posted about Intel's upcoming LGA1700 chips last week.

News

Valve's Steam Frame headset design in its CAD file release.

Here come the weird and wonderful mods for the Steam Frame, as Valve drops the full CAD files for free

By Jacob Ridley Published 12 October 26

News I bet someone is already mocking up cat ears for this thing.

News

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