Jacob Ridley
Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, where he was one half of a popular weekly YouTube show. He would go on to run the team as hardware editor before joining PC Gamer's world-class staff as senior hardware editor. Today, he's managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll find him spending his days reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries. He's found reporting from floors, benches, and, if he's lucky, plush press rooms at the biggest tech shows, such as Computex and CES. But more often than not he's hunched over the office test bench evaluating the newest PC components.
When he's not writing about GPUs and CPUs, you'll find Jacob trying to get as far away from the modern world as possible by wild camping.
Latest articles by Jacob Ridley
![Intel Raptor Lake CPU render up close](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XfN8AE6eKosJu6NNPL7y4J-320-80.png)
Intel rounds out the Raptor Lake Refresh CPU lineup with a few cheaper chips though some are still basically Alder Lake
By Jacob Ridley published
CES 2024 Also now officially announced are the latest 14th Gen HX mobile chips that'll occupy space alongside newer, more exciting Meteor Lake chips.
![Diablo 4 with ray tracing enabled.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uGhnwwuvTYMNiEz69v7tNF-320-80.png)
Ray tracing coming to Diablo 4 in March, shadows and reflections getting a makeover
By Jacob Ridley published
CES 2024 Check out the teaser trailer from Nvidia's CES 2024 special address.
![MSI Prestige 16 on a desk running Cinebench R23](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7AXL7YFYD7MJM7YAjAkXJV-320-80.jpg)
Hands on: Intel's Core Ultra 7 165H is golden for gaming, if you can turn on XeSS, and mostly playable without
By Jacob Ridley published
CES 2024 I've had some time to tinker with Intel's Meteor Lake processor inside MSI's Prestige 16 laptop, and it's a reasonable gaming chip if you don't expect too much out of it.
![An Intel Core i7 14700K with an Intel Raptor Lake branded box.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3Z2HqiLD3L4KpA3YYtrFCe-320-80.jpg)
Intel Core i7 14700K review
By Jacob Ridley published
Core blimey A perfectly good stand-in for a Core i9.
![Fanatec ClubSport DD+ wheel base](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/i54ABK4dZTFBHqiyPxPsHc-320-80.jpg)
Customers left cold as Fanatec says Sony validation is delaying ClubSport DD+ wheel base: 'we expected to receive this approval sooner'
By Jacob Ridley published
News Customers that pre-ordered the base for delivery last year have now found out that licensing may be the cause of recent delays.
![An Alpine F1 car in F1 22 at Silverstone](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/72ykMsP27dLPvAgFeDhFjM-320-80.jpg)
Inside the F1 team treating esports like a Formula One Grand Prix
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Lights out I've seen the technical heart of Alpine, the F1 team bringing Formula One's obsession over data to sim racing tournaments.
![Year 2024 on an abstract flowing binary code background with dotted lines and glowing lights. New Year 2024 celebration concept.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bYMXsptXHJBCv3Pb93SGSQ-320-80.jpg)
The PC Gamer tech team's New Year's resolutions
By Nick Evanson published
Promises, promises What do you mean? Of course we'll stick to them!
![The PC Gamer Needlessly Terrible Hardware Name Awards 2023](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qRuqQpcw9f9E7KQCMKFtjP-320-80.jpg)
The PC Gamer Needlessly Terrible Hardware Naming Awards 2023: Our favourite awful names for otherwise reasonable products
By Andy Edser published
Awful It's award season here at PC Gamer, and we'd be remiss if we didn't point out some of the very best terrible, awful, no-good product names we've seen.
![PC Gamer hardware awards logo](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RSLmn56zUEpgdDf2BsrnxG-320-80.png)
PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2023: The winners
By Dave James published
The winners All the winners from the best tech released and tested in the past 12 months of PC gaming.
![digital landscape with digital technology elements ,concept of smart city and digital transformation.3d illustration](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UcMUYkshdjQsA4QFDJAYm3-320-80.jpg)
What we want to see from PC gaming tech in 2024
By Dave James published
Heart's desire The past 12 months haven't been the most inspiring, so join us in hoping for better from the year ahead.
![Gear of the year banner with two logitech gaming mice](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kRJrctgqsvXz34DaTFhveN-320-80.jpg)
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best gaming mouse of 2023
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year Lighter, faster, and more responsive than ever; there's still tough competition to be the best mouse around.
![A cartoon CPU on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tuiWqdPaCg9BW44VRs8475-320-80.jpg)
We're on the brink of the biggest changes to computing's DNA and it's not just quantum that's coming
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Going nuclear We're not at the tipping point yet, however. The hardware is still nascent and "the thing that we haven't cracked yet is the software."
![Drop + xDuoo TA-84 OTL Tube Amp/DAC on a desk with tubes lit up](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bhvMShULGHtokhcAdrMyY7-320-80.jpg)
I feel this tube amp + DAC lends me some imagined audiophile credence but it's also the best thing I added to my desk this year
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year If you're going to be one of those audio guys, why not also look the part with a tube amp?
![A cartoon CPU on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/LDAKUxswu6iPuFfSBpkev4-320-80.jpg)
The spirit of PC building will keep our gaming machines from disappearing into the cloud
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Locals only "Similar to how muscle cars from the '50s haven't disappeared, the love for building your own desktop PC from the ground up... will make desktop PCs prevail."
![Best story banner for the 2023 game of the years](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qgEugV3f5b85Pep2Jtpnz8-320-80.png)
Best Story 2023: Alan Wake 2
By Jacob Ridley published
The Gotys Remedy's sequel kept us guessing.
![A cartoon CPU on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ngYmjKVD3ALJ48jPCD2W25-320-80.jpg)
Silicon won't run our gaming PCs forever but it's far from finished
By Jacob Ridley last updated
One step beyond The sheer mass of manufacturing might behind silicon will keep it thriving for a long time even if there are better options out there.
![A cartoon CPU on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/G2tk63qCCH2Pqi5UtnWgB5-320-80.jpg)
Cache is king when it comes to designing the gaming CPUs of the next 20 years
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Next steps Facing a power wall and the limit of physics, chip makers are in a constant battle to reengineer and re-evaluate ways to build a better CPU.
![Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora screenshots from the early game.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Ncb7Wt8BCxcvisHd5bydKo-320-80.jpg)
If Alan Wake 2 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are a glimpse of what games will look like in 2024, sign me up
By Jacob Ridley published
Makeover Mega detailed scenes lit by ever-increasingly more accurate lighting. That's a mouth-watering combo.
![A screenshot from Lethal Company of a dog-like creature eating a player.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JeroJTbJUvT2R8NE9jGGSj-320-80.jpg)
Lethal Company is a viral hit in no small part thanks to all the intense shouting
By Jacob Ridley published
It's the loud reactions that make this game so entertaining; it's a thrill to play it with friends or watch endless clips on TikTok.
![Gear of the year award header with a racing wheel in the background](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mY4f8xW8SWZuWCxUyMBBpU-320-80.jpg)
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best of the rest of 2023
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year We can't have a category for everything, so instead we've this one to recognise the other products we enjoy that don't quite fit elsewhere.
![PC Gamer Gear of the Year awards header with Steam Deck](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DmurwAJ5uu2EGs65de8c99-320-80.jpg)
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best handheld gaming PC of 2023
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year This year has been the best for PC handhelds since, well, ever. New products, loads of competition, but only one winner.
![Windows 11 OS' SSD error checking pop-ups](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/S8FJg8PTPtTMoNG8sCumbF-320-80.jpg)
For years I believed Windows to be making up problems with my removable drives. Turns out I'm the problem
By Jacob Ridley published
Finger pointing That USB stick did need repairing and it's all my fault.
![Jacob Ridley's Windows desktop and file directories.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/yojGQKKBVNMC57kv2NZ3VJ-320-80.jpg)
My PC is a mess. Is anyone else finding it difficult to manage all their files nowadays?
By Jacob Ridley published
I swear I used to be organised with my drives but now I've game libraries and files littered all over my machine.
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