Alan Dexter
Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.
Latest articles by Alan Dexter

These are the gaming laptops I'm looking out for after CES 2022
By Alan Dexter published
CES 2022 New CPUs, GPUs, and panels mean sweeping changes for laptops in 2022.

Kingston explains why DDR5 costs so much, and when it will be the dominant memory tech for PCs
By Alan Dexter published
Ramifications Intel's Alder Lake is the first platform to support DDR5, but what can we expect from the future of RAM?

PC Gamer Hardware Awards: What is the best SSD of 2021?
By Alan Dexter published
Gear of the year SSDs are now faster, bigger and available for less, what more could you want?

PC Gamer Hardware Awards: What is the best motherboard of 2021?
By Alan Dexter published
Gear of the Year The lack of GPUs makes system building tricky, but there are still some great motherboards out there.

PC Gamer Hardware Awards: What is the best CPU of 2021?
By Alan Dexter published
Gear of the year After being forced into the corner by AMD, this is the year that Intel came out swinging.

PC gaming in 2021: The hardware highlights and lowlights
By Dave James, Jacob Ridley, Alan Dexter, Katie Wickens published
Highs and lows It's been a wild ride of a year, and not all of it bad.

Innistrad: Crimson Vow has renewed my thirst for turning cards sideways
By Alan Dexter published
Staff Pick Even after 24 years, Magic the Gathering still manages to scratch that itch.

Save up to $220 on a mini PC this Christmas
By Alan Dexter published
Deals Treat yourself to a mini marvel starting from $299.

Save $250 on this RTX 3070-powered gaming PC over on Microsoft's store
By Alan Dexter published
Deals Who could have guessed that Microsoft was the place to go for bargains.

Save $100 on the speedy 2TB Samsung 980 Pro
By Alan Dexter published
Deals Didn't manage to pick up a PCIe 4.0 SSD in the sales? Don't worry, this is a great deal.

The best settings for Halo Infinite
By Alan Dexter published
Run rings around Halo Infinite's steep system requirements with our guide to the best settings.

Nvidia appears to be bumping the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Ti's memory specs
By Alan Dexter published
News Cards rumoured for much of the year finally appear to be heading our way.

Best gaming SSD deals heading into the holidays
By Alan Dexter published
Deals The deals never stop, but that's great news if you're looking to bolster your gaming PC's storage.

MSI Pulse GL66 gaming laptop review
By Alan Dexter published
Mismatched A powerful CPU and weak GPU make for an odd couple even at this tempting price point.

Best Black Friday gaming PC deals for under $1,000
By Alan Dexter published
You don't have to spend a fortune to get a decent gaming PC.

Save $650 on this 4K OLED gaming laptop from Gigabyte
By Alan Dexter published
Great for creative types that also want to enjoy some gaming.

Save $800 on this Nvidia RTX 3070-powered Razer Blade 15 Advanced
By Alan Dexter published
That's an impressive saving on an equally impressive gaming laptop.

Microsoft is finally pushing out the Windows 11 update that solves AMD's performance problem
By Alan Dexter published
News Now's a good time to check for Windows 11 updates.

This $999 Dell XPS gaming PC is great for 1080p gaming after a small upgrade
By Alan Dexter published
Dell is up to its old trick of only installing a single stick of RAM.

This is the cheapest 2TB NVMe SSD you can buy right now
By Alan Dexter published
Down to just $150, is this a deal that's just too good to ignore?

Save $80 on this Razer DeathAdder V2 mouse and BlackShark V2 X headset bundle
By Alan Dexter published
Deals The only obvious downside is the silly 'Battle Bundle' name.

G.Skill celebrates Intel Alder Lake's launch by setting a new world record for DDR5
By Alan Dexter published
News DDR5 hits 8,704MT/s using liquid nitrogen. Begun, the DDR5 OC wars have...

Save $300 on this 1440p 240Hz Alienware gaming monitor bang on PC gaming's sweet spot
By Alan Dexter published
Deals Dell is already pushing hard on some great monitor deals.
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