PCR September 2015

FOR THE UK’S PC & TECH COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 2015

26 AMD’s Quantum PC We chat to gaming scientist Richard Huddy about AMD’s gaming PC.

28 New tech from Intel Matt Birch discusses what’s around the corner for Intel.

36 Behind the scenes We take a tour of Overclockers UK’s warehouse facility.

. 7 SEPTEMBER 2015 COMPUTER & IT RESELLERS z RETAILERS z SYSTEM BUILDERS z DISTRIBUTORS z VENDORS

WWW.PCR-ONLINE.BIZ

THE FUTURE OF

PC GAMING The PC is now the number one platform for gaming and it’s set to keep on growing…

18

WITH LIVE game streaming site Twitch receiving around 100 million viewers a month worldwide, sales of virtual reality headsets expected to reach 14 million by 2016, and the eSports market predicted to be worth $465 million by 2017 – the future of this market certainly looks bright.

In our PG gaming special we delve into these thriving sectors and look ahead to emerging tech and Steam Machines, as well as how the system building market is changing. Check out our guide to the five core pillars of PC gaming on page 18.

SYSTEM BUILDING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES – P18 HOW GAME STREAMING CAN BENEFIT RETAILERS – P20 WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THE VR MARKET – P22 EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ESPORTS – P24

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CONTENTS & COMMENT

Follow us @pcr_online

MEET THE TEAM

CONTENTS REGULARS

Dominic Sacco Editor

6 Analysis: Tech giants reshuffle

dsacco@nbmedia.com @Dom_Sacco

7 Analysis: Tablet sales rise 7 Analysis: System builder market

Laura Barnes Deputy Editor

8 Number Crunching 12 Appointments

lbarnes@nbmedia.com @roradrum

14 Events 16 Opinion

Jade Burke Staff Writer

FEATURES 18 The five pillars of gaming:

jburke@nbmedia.com @JadeBurke77

System building, steam machines, streaming, virtual reality, eSports Andrew Wooden Publisher

26 Interview: AMD

awooden@nbmedia.com

28 Intel on its new Skylake

@pcr_online

processors 30 Interview: Cherry 35 PDP’s new gaming range Jennie Lane Sales Manager

Overclockers

@jennielane1

RETAIL 51 Dealer survey reveals Sarah Goldhawk Account Manager

retailers’ marketing trends

sgoldhawk@nbmedia.com

52 Mystery Shopper: Online

@sarzgoldhawk

system builder special 55 Retailer of the Month Elizabeth Parker Production Executive eparker@nbmedia.com

PRODUCTS 41 PC gaming components and cases 47 Gaming accessories

Dan Bennett Designer

57 Recommended products

dbennett@nbmedia.com

OUT OF OFFICE 60 In The Hot Seat: Ebuyer’s

NewBay Media is a member of the Periodical Publishers Associations

Incorporating

Danny Young 61 Industry Tweets 62 The Last Word: YoYoTech’s CK

ISSN: 1742-8440 www.pcr-online.biz

Welcome to the future RIGHT NOW I believe we are on the verge of PC gaming’s second golden age.

You might remember the first – the arrival of Doom in the mid ‘90s through to huge hits such as Half-Life and StarCraft in the late ‘90s. Then came the slow transition to digital downloads as the industry fought its way through obstacles such as piracy and declining boxed sales.

Now, with millions watching games on livestreaming sites like Twitch, eSports selling out stadiums (I still can’t find a ticket to the League of Legends quarter finals in London, dammit), and virtual reality just around the corner, it’s arguably the most exciting time for PC gaming. Disites are also increasingly fighting over this space. For example, Tech Data hopes to become a one-stop shop for system builders by putting dedicated resources in place to support them, while VIP Computers has also signed major gaming brands in a bid to become a top gaming distie. And with that comes more exciting opportunities for retailers and resellers.

“Now, with millions watching games on livestreaming sites like Twitch, and virtual reality just around the corner, it’s arguably the most exciting time for PC gaming.”

36 Behind the scenes at

jlane@nbmedia.com

Editorial: 01992 535646 Advertising: 01992 535647

COMMENT

To celebrate, PCR takes a closer look at the opportunities around PC gaming in our five-page special on page 18.

Gaming system builders are enjoying serious success right now (see our special behind the scenes visit to Overclockers UK on page 36), with the likes of eSports, 4K and high-end accessories driving sales. Like OCUK and YoYoTech say, we all have to work together as a community to drive growth in this community-based sector. Intel has just launched its new Skylake processors, and is already working on some advanced memory tech (read our interview with UK channel sales manager Matthew Birch on page 28).

Beyond that, AMD is already thinking about 16K, having released a new smaller Fury Nano GPU and teased its Quantum concept PC (see page 26). This month we’ve also got interviews with Cherry and PDP, as well as a look at the latest gaming accessories and components.

Also, don’t forget to sign up to PCR Boot Camp North 2015, our next conference and expo taking place in Leeds on November 18th, over at pcrbootcampnorth.com.

We hope you enjoy the issue and it gives you some ideas for your business as we enter the new golden age of gaming.

Dominic Sacco, Editor dsacco@nbmedia.com

READ THE LATEST STORIES AT

PCR-ONLINE.BIZ ANALYSIS

Tech giants restructure With the likes of Lenovo and Microsoft cutting jobs and Google restructuring itself and working under a new brand, what does this mean for the industry? Jade Burke takes a look at how these reshuffles will effect the tech sector…

Lenovo boss Yuanqing Yang during Lenovo’s Tech World has cut the company’s workforce

MAJOR TECH firms have all started to restructure their workforce, but why are so many slashing jobs? One of the most recent cases has seen Lenovo cut 10 per cent of its workforce in a bid to reduce expenses in a competitive market.

In an email, Lenovo boss Yuanqing Yang said to his employees: “Changes in the market and in our competition are coming very quickly, and we must accelerate our transformation across the company.”

Around 3,200 members of Lenovo staff are expected to lose their positions, but they aren’t the only ones facing this problem. Last year, tech giant Microsoft confirmed it would lay off 18,000 employees globally as part of a restructure plan following its acquisition of Nokia.

But why are these tech companies choosing to cut their workforce? No doubt the completive nature of the tech market is an increasingly worrying factor for firms, which could indicate why

6 | PCR September 2015

businesses are choosing to do so.

Jeremy Davies, CEO and cofounder of Context, tells PCR: “Times are changing for PC market players as business and consumer needs shift.

“Until the next tech wave hits, and there are doubts over what this could be, major manufacturers such as Lenovo have to adjust to cope with either flattening or declining sales across most of the major product segments.

It’s a tough market and getting tougher, so adjusting expenses such as headcount is a logical move.”

But it’s not just vendors who are choosing to reshuffle; etailer Ebuyer.com has also rearranged its buying team with the addition of new recruits. An Ebuyer.com spokesperson previously told PCR: “There have been people who have left the team, however, these were for reasons that have nothing to do with the restructuring.”

Other vendors have also gone on to rearrange their businesses, for example PC

“Until the next tech wave hits, major manufacturers such as Lenovo have to adjust to cope.”

Jeremy Davies, Context

vendor HP announced it would split itself into two businesses known as HP Enterprise and HP Inc, which are to be put into action on November 1st, 2015. HP has since revealed that each business will now have its own board of directors.

Patricia Russo, lead independent director at HP, said in a statement: “We set out to create two boards with the most experienced and diverse members we could find to help each company win in their unique markets.”

Meanwhile, distributor Ingram Micro has also announced new chief executive roles in each of its country-level European businesses. This restructure aims to give more power to its local units, which sees former UK MD Brent McCarty stepping up to become the in-country chief executive.

McCarty said: “Our traditional distribution business is our core foundation but we are looking to offer our customers a full suite of services that

helps them compete more aggressively, reduce costs and deliver a better experience to their end users.”

Google has also announced the news it is restructuring into a selection of companies that will be known collectively as Alphabet. As part of the restructure, Google’s cofounder Larry Page is stepping up as CEO of Alphabet, which will see the company branch out into many new areas in tech. For example, Page revealed that Google won’t just be working on its Chromebook segment and will be embracing new ares of tech including drones, as part of the company’s new restructure.

The sky really is the limit now for Google, and other firms should start to look to the tech giant and set their sights higher. More companies need to be doing more then dabbling in the traditional PC, and embracing newer tech such as cloud services and virtual reality if they stand a chance in this competitive market.

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PCR-ONLINE.BIZ ANALYSIS

Tablets back on track AFTER previous reports revealed that the tablet market is in decline, analyst IDC has reported that the tablet market in Western Europe is now starting to stabilise.

During Q2 2015 total shipments reached 7.5 million units, contracting annually by 1.2 per cent. Weak demand for consumer tablets has no doubt contributed to this decline, while more consumers are opting for a two-in-one device instead to carry out tasks, for example market share for two-in-one devices jumped to 7.3 per cent in Q2.

However, although the market hasn’t seen an exact increase, the decline has started to soften as consumers are starting to look to tablets for various business needs. Daniel Goncalves, research analyst for personal computing at IDC, said: “The interest in two-in-ones that we observed in previous quarters is clearly materialising into corporate

“The most notable new twoin-one is probably the Microsoft Surface 3.”

Marta Fiorentini, IDC

deployments and consumer purchases, especially among professionals and students.”

Slate tablets are also on the up, according to IDC, as they are the preferred choice for carrying out vertical functions, while detachable devices have become popular among larger companies and the education sector. In particular, Microsoft’s latest tablet, the Surface 3, has proved to be a popular choice among consumers. Marta Fiorentini, senior research analyst for

personal computing at IDC, added: “The most notable new two-in-one model is probably the Microsoft Surface 3, but other new twoin-ones were introduced by well-established international players as well as several local or sub-regional vendors.

“The latter not only contributed to broaden the two-in-one offering but, thanks to the strength of their brand at a local level and the usually lower price points of their products, also helped boost the volume of the market for detachable devices, where their share jumped sequentially from below one per cent to over four per cent.”

Now that the market seems to be stabilising, perhaps now we will start to see a more prominent resurgence in tablet sales figures over the next few years. But with the likes of new small form factors and two-in-ones, time will tell if these devices will stay.

Big brands get building OVER THE last few years the system builder market has developed, with more tier 1 vendors returning with their own take on desktops.

Previously, system builders led the gaming desktop market, with high performance products designed for hardcore gamers.

Larger vendors including the likes of Dell and HP came into the PC market with competitive prices, which in turn forced some system builders into the gaming market, designing high-end PCs, but now larger tech firms have noticed this uptake and have returned.

Steve Ling, executive director for Caseking, explained: “The system build market has changed a lot in the UK over the last ten years.

It used to be very much more

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ASUS’s transforming PC tower

low-end or B2B and education based, and then obviously the tier 1s came in with cheaper and cheaper propositions, because of the scale of manufacturing.”

Gaming is starting to get taken seriously with the likes of Acer recently unveiling its Predator G6 desktop and ASUS launching its transforming PC tower.

But now that these brands are breaking out into the desktop gaming market, system builders are starting to feel the effects. Miodrag Relic, business development director for Caseking group, said: “Bigger vendors do have a place, especially on the B2B side for corporate customers, absolutely, they’re extremely strong when it comes to

notebooks too. And that is where they dominate. It’s difficult for us to enter that market because of the low price points and big production numbers.”

Some system builders churn out high-end systems for around £2,500, so it is difficult to sell numerous amounts, but it is much easier for these businesses to take on new tech that comes out, which is a benefit when it comes to the tech giants.

“As much as they would like to do so, it’s not easy for them (larger companies) to be flexible. As new technology comes, we can use it. Our time to market is very short – theirs is longer,” added Relic.

But does this mean that big brands will begin to lead the market, or will system builders continue to dominate?

News Bytes COOLER MASTER UNVEILS UNIQUE PC CASE Cooler Master has launched its customisable MasterCase 5 and Pro 5, which both come with FreeForm tech and ‘exterior expandability’.

The firm first unveiled the MasterCases at Computex 2015 in June.

KASPERSKY HACKS ITS RIVALS? Security firm Kaspersky Lab has been accused of damaging its rivals by marking non-threatening files as malicious.

Some of the rivals that were allegedly hacked include Microsoft, Avast Software and AVG Technologies, but the firm refutes the claims.

MICROSOFT DELAYS SURFACE HUB The collaborative display from Microsoft has been delayed, with shipping for the Surface Hub not expected until January 1st, 2016.

HANNSPREE PARTNERS WITH WATFORD FC Hannspree has renewed its partnership with Watford FC, which sees the firm as the club’s Official Display Technology Partner. The company hopes to increase the exposure of its brands with the new agreement.

ESPORTS TEAM WINS £6.6M AT EVENT A BenQ-sponsored eSports team took home a record $6.6 million during a Dota 2 eSports tournament.

Evil Geniuses secured the prize after defeating Chinese team CDEC 3-1.

LENOVO OVERTAKES APPLE IN PC STAKES Analyst Canalys has revealed that Lenovo has overtaken Apple in the PC market, with a 15 per cent share in Q2 2015.

Lenovo shipped just under 16 million units, some 240,000 more than Apple during the same period.

MORE SHOPS ON UK HIGH STREETS According to the British Retail Consortium and Springboard, the national town centre vacancy rate fell to 9.8 per cent in July, down from the 10.2 per cent in April 2015.

PCR September 2015| 7

STATS

Number

crunching

A round-up of the most important stats and facts in the tech channel…

100,000

7%

The worldwide tablet market declined by seven per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2015.

(IDC)

More than 100,000 store staff members worldwide have been trained to advise customers upgrading to Windows 10.

(Microsoft)

97%

97 per cent of consumers are clueless over what happens to the financial information they give to call centres.

(Elitetele.com)

56%

38m

16K gaming 16K gaming will be available in 12 years’ time, says AMD’s gaming scientist Richard Huddy.

(AMD)

Two in five 56 per cent of US respondents revealed they updated their Facebook page or liked a comment while using the toilet.

(Stop Procrastinating)

8 | PCR September 2015

European retail channels are seeing high inventory levels of notebooks, with 38.86 million notebook units shipped globally in Q2 2015.

(TrendForce)

Two in five British adults have been affected by data breaches, putting them at risk of identity theft or fraud.

(Experian)

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RECRUITMENT

Ebuyer’s big reshuffle New cloud role for Microsoft’s Nicola Young z Computers Unlimited appoints export manager z Tech Data bolsters cloud team EBUYER.COM: The retailer has made significant changes to its buying team, which will see ANDY HOLDSWORTH and LEE WEYMOUTH head up the division.

Weymouth and his team will be responsible for Ebuyer’s PC, laptop and mobile business, while Holdsworth will manage MICROSOFT: NICOLA YOUNG has taken on a new role within the tech giant as partner capacity and enablement lead. Young will be responsible for building the channel capacity for Microsoft’s cloud technologies revenue goals.

She previously worked as OEM channel sales lead for COMPUTERS UNLIMITED: The distributor has expanded its own-brand team, with its newest recruit ROB NEIL, as the firm’s export manager. He joins the distributor from audio firm Sonoro, where he was head of international business development.

Neil said: “I am very excited to be joining such a dynamic TECH DATA: Tech Data has announced the appointment of ANDREW BROWN as the firm’s cloud sales leader.

Formerly technical practice manager for the IBM hardware team, Brown has over 15 years of experience working with sales teams within distribution and reseller organisations.

SENNHEISER: Sennheiser has announced that TERRI MCLEAN is joining the company as its corporate sales manager for the South West. In her position McLean will be responsible for further developing the company’s growing presence, and will take control of management and business development.

12 | PCR September 2015

Andy Holdsworth (left) and Lee Weymouth (right)

other products including monitors, servers and more.

In addition, JONPAUL WARREN will lead a new imports team, where he will focus on improving Ebuyer’s range of products.

Ebuyer’s marketing team has also been updated, where SUE PICKERING will head up the department.

Nicola Young

Microsoft for the past four years, where she managed the company’s distribution strategy for OEM devices.

Now, Young will help to transform the channel across SMB to enterprise, to help increase Microsoft’s cloud sales and deals, including products such as Azure and Office 365.

Rob Neil

brand portfolio and look forward to developing the potential offered by the brands in the international markets.”

Glenn McClelland, group commercial director at Computers Unlimited, added: “Rob’s knowledge of international markets is second to none, with wide experience of all things audio.”

Andrew Brown (left) and Joel Wilson (right)

Terri McLean

In addition, JOEL WILSON joins the distributor as business development executive for the cloud solutions provider (CSP) and services provider license agreement (SPLA) programme.

Previously Wilson was part of the Microsoft Sure Step team, which works with partners ordering Office 365.

McLean brings over 13 years of experience to the role, having previously worked at T-Mobile, O2 and Cable & Wireless.

McLean said: “It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to help promote a company that has such a strong reputation and portfolio of quality products.”

DEAN WOODCROFT SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT, STONE GROUP MY DAY starts around 7am, sometimes earlier, with breakfast, coffee and a quick catch up on emails before I take a look at my schedule for the day. It can include anything from customer site visits to working on proposals at home or in the office. Although the majority of my time is spent working at home or travelling to see customers, I am in the office once a week.

The solutions architect role is a title that varies from organisation to organisation, although simply put, my job is to take a technical requirement or problem and translate it for all parties technical and non-technical. Then I produce a solution that illustrates how to transition from the current environment to the proposed environment, whilst working within the customer’s parameters.

If I am off to visit a customer, I will be out of the house early and on the road – last week I went to Surrey,

“If you can be confident that one piece of software will do the job of 10, why deploy 10?”

Yorkshire and Wales – visiting customers within councils, health, education and emergency services. Once on site I will meet up with the account manager from Stone and we will talk to the customer about their wish list. I can then go back to the office to develop the proposal and kit list.

Each customer has very different needs and parameters.

This is a part of the role I enjoy the most, there is no room for complacency or producing carbon copy solutions across customers.

My evenings during the week are usually dedicated to on-going study. I am working on a variety of certifications at the moment, which will be added to those already under my belt. My job demands that I am on top of the latest technological deployments and that I know how to use them to their best advantage – if you can be confident that one piece of software will do the job of 10, why deploy 10?

My home lab is equipped with networking and server equipment that I can use to test solutions, and work out new ways of utilising the technology.

After a busy week, weekends are definitely about relaxing and spending time with friends, watching F1 and going to the gym.

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EVENT PLANNER

Diary Dates SEPTEMBER 2015 IFA SEPTEMBER 4TH – 9TH, EXPOCENTER, BERLIN The annual tech trade show returns for another year, where attendees will get the chance to view some of the newest consumer electronics and home appliances. Taking place in Berlin, IFA attracts around 1,538 exhibitors every year and attendees from more than 100 countries, providing a meeting place for buyers, retailers and other experts from the European tech industry.

The UK’s channel calendar is full of important events.

Here are some highlights for upcoming dates…

DREAMHACK LONDON 2015 SEPTEMBER 19TH – 20TH, COPPER BOX ARENA, LONDON Computing festival Dreamhack is making its way to London for the first time this year. After attracting more than 104,000 visitors across its consumer events in 2014, London is the seventh country Dreamhack has expanded into. There will also be an expo where attendees can view products and solutions on show from various partners. Plus, there will be an eSports area, with teams battling it out for a cash prize.

SYNOLOGY DSM AND PRODUCT LAUNCH SEPTEMBER 16TH, 8 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON Synology is inviting channel partners and business and home users to its annual launch event, where the firm will showcase the latest developments in its DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system.

Guests will get the opportunity to meet with the Synology team, including the new MD and sales manager. Attendees will also be able to try the latest DSM and be in with a chance to win a Synology NAS.

NOVEMBER 2015 PCR BOOT CAMP NORTH NOVEMBER 11TH, ROYAL ARMOURIES, LEEDS This year welcomes back PCR’s Boot Camp North event, where retailers and resellers are invited to join for free. Designed to cater for IT resellers in the Midlands, Scotland, Wales and the North, once again the event will take place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. On the day, attendees will be able to sit in on the conference panel sessions and expert briefings, and check out the latest products and services.

TOP: IFA in Germany is fast approaching, providing a key meeting place for the tech industry. ABOVE: Boot Camp North will take place at the Royal Armouries.

COMPTIA JOINS WOMEN OF THE YEAR PCR IS celebrating women in tech with the return of our Women of the Year event, which will be held at Sway Bar in London on October 16th from 11am–3pm.

CompTIA has secured its place as event partner for this year’s event, where we aim to shine the light on some of the most inspirational women in the PC and tech industry, in the form of four new categories, including Rising Star (must be under 30), Marketing and PR, Sales, and Woman of the Year.

Nancy Hammervik, senior VP industry relations at CompTIA, said: “These awards recognise the best talent in the industry, and CompTIA is exceptionally proud to be supporting this initiative. Role models like last year’s winner Sarah Shields are important in showing young women the breadth of opportunities that jobs in technology offer.”

We have also selected a board of eight judges who will come

14 | PCR September 2015

together and decide the winners.

Headline partner Zaboura will be helping to make the final decision with the firm’s founder Maggie Zaboura taking part in the judging process.

Having delivered a speech at last year’s event, Hammervik returns with Lisa Carter, director of Mimram Media.

Last year’s Woman of the Year Sarah Shields, sales executive director and general manager of Dell UK, will also be joining the judging panel, alongside Adam Simon, global MD for retail business and development at analyst Context.

Charlie Le Rougetel, founder of independent communications agency Circus, Megan Moore from GfK and Caroline Miller, founder and MD of PR and digital services agency Indigo Pearl, make up the final additions to the line-up of judges. Book tickets, check out the finalists and find out more at www.pcrwomenoftheyear.com

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OPINION

eSports gets competitive eSports is on the rise according to HyperX’s business manager Edward Baily, which is why more resellers should stock up on components. Here he explains why…

Many of our gaming partners are LAST YEAR in Katowice, Poland, I focusing strongly in this sector; PC experienced first-hand one of the Specialist, Cyberpower PC, Scan and world’s largest PC gaming eSports Overclockers all have impressive tournaments: The Intel Extreme custom built system line-ups. With Masters World Championship. the arrival of DreamHack (the world’s To see (and hear) 12,000 passionate largest LAN Festival) to London in fans watching a League of Legends September the British audience is live final was amazing, but to know going to be able to experience that 642,000 concurrent viewers were eSports at its best, which will further also tuned in through Twitch TV inspire fans to custom build PCs to was incredible. their own specific gaming needs.

Last year it was estimated that With this growing trend of PC there are 323 million gamers in gaming, HyperX is constantly Europe alone; this number is only listening to fans through channels slightly lower than the 351 million such as Facebook and Twitter, which sports fans, according to market has led to the development of researcher Newzoo. This is why we products. In mid 2014 see huge growth in HyperX launched the the eSports industry first pro gaming and continue to headset called Cloud. support gaming from “The launch of It has since received grass roots players Intel Skylake will rave reviews around and events, to global tournaments and make higher end the world for its comfort and sound teams. Currently gaming systems quality. Furthermore, HyperX sponsors 27 professional eSports more affordable.” HyperX has continued organisations around Edward Baily, to be at the forefront the globe and is a title HyperX of consumer’s need for speed; recently sponsor of both the launching the HyperX DreamHack and Intel PCIe Predator SSD for the ultimate Extreme Masters gaming events. gaming PC systems.

The Newzoo report also states that The launch of the new Intel Skylake the global games market will jump CPUs at Gamescom was a major move from $83.6 billion (£53.5 billion) last into making higher end gaming year to $91.5 billion (£58.5 billion) this year, an increase of almost 10 per cent systems more affordable, which will only strengthen the market further. year-on-year.

It’s fair to say that not every eSports This significant market growth is fan games on a PC platform, but those reflected in our own global unit that do demand the best components growth of 30 per cent year-on-year. their money can buy. The bar for fast Console gaming remains popular, and reliable components is constantly however, PC gaming continues to go being raised and if they haven’t from strength to strength allowing already, resellers should be investing users to easily customise nearly every in this fast growing market. component of their PC. Edward Baily is the business manager for Kingston’s gaming brand HyperX in EMEA. www.kingston.com/en/hyperx

16 | PCR September 2015

Windows 10 a game changer?

Following the launch of Windows 10, will the new OS change the way players game? Here Microsoft’s UK PC accessories marketing manager Tom Phillips reveals why the firm is embracing gamers…

Xbox One – and potentially only I AM predominantly a PC gamer. I have to pay for the game once laugh to myself when I hear console (depending on the developer). gamers arguing about what is the If you wanted to, you could more powerful console. I smile to stream a game from your Xbox One myself when I hear people praising to your Windows 10 tablet whilst the brilliance of the digital lying in bed. If you wanted to, you distribution platforms of the various could bolster the number of app stores. opponents in your aging I tut to myself when people pay competitive game with the Xbox for mobile apps for long-time free One community. ‘If you wanted to – browser games. I remark to myself nothing is being forced, nothing is at the limitations that my console friends play their games under, and I changing the way you currently play – and that is great. sigh to myself when my casual Windows 10 doesn’t necessarily gaming friends aren’t as enthusiastic do anything revolutionary for as me when the Summer Steam people who only play games on Sale starts. their PC (although The keywords in DirectX12 is all of those incredible), but they comments are are now being ‘myself’ because as “Windows 10 is represented as a part a PC gamer, up bringing of the core audience untill now I have that Microsoft wants been comfortable together PC, to address and this that my chosen mobile and can definitely only be platform is the good for the future. ultimate gaming console gamers Windows 10 has platform. But this to form a single done something year something beautiful. It is unexpected coherent bringing together PC, happened. A door audience with no mobile and console was opened and a gamers to form a sign put up that distinctions.” said ‘all gamers are Tom Phillips, single coherent welcome here’.

Microsoft audience with no distinctions, and it Windows 10 was doesn’t do this with released and it an ultimatum – but with a choice. became clear that Microsoft was With the direction Windows 10 is embracing all gamers – PC gamers, console gamers and casual gamers – heading in, I will soon no longer be a PC gamer – but just a gamer. with this new platform.

Disclaimer: Although I work for With the new operating system Microsoft this article is my own Windows 10, universal game apps personal view and doesn’t and cloud saving mean users can necessarily represent Microsoft’s start playing a game on a PC and views or opinions. pick up where they left off on their Tom Phillips is UK PC accessories marketing manager at Microsoft. www.microsoft.com

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PC GAMING SPECIAL

The PC is now the number one platform for gaming in terms of volume and revenue – and it’s only getting bigger. PCR technologies to Steam Machines, virtual reality, streaming and eSports. Take a sneak peek at our article for a head’s up

ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO The system building market is a different beast to what it was ten years ago, with future developments promising to change it further. Dominic Sacco looks at some of the challenges and opportunities faced by the channel…

OVER THE past few months we’ve witnessed some of the most important developments in PC gaming.

The biggest change this year has arguably been the launch of Windows 10 in late July, and with it DirectX 12, a graphics API that drastically improves performance in games.

Microsoft now sees a bright future for PC gaming, having announced more major new games for the platform (Halo Wars 2, and Fable Legends to name a few) as well as integration with Xbox.

We’ve also seen the launch of Intel’s new ‘Skylake’ 14nm Core processors in August accompanied by a range of compatible motherboards.

Nvidia and AMD have of course been fiercely battling it out this year too.

Nvidia has released the GeForce GTX 980Ti, G-Sync laptops and 4K, VR and DX12-ready BattleBox PC systems, while AMD has launched its 300-Series graphics cards including the powerful Fury, Fury X and smaller Fury Nano.

John Medley, sales and marketing manager at PC Specialist, says these new technologies can help grow system sales – and PC gaming overall.

“There are a number of great features included in Windows 10, but we feel

18 | PCR September 2015

the addition of the Xbox App could be a game changer and help encourage ‘console gamers’ to make the leap of faith to PC gaming as they have a familiar platform to use,” he tells PCR. Chillblast’s sales director Ben Miles echoes Medley’s view. “Gaming is a massive part of our business and remains a focus area – it’s a growing market with a growing ASP,” he adds.

“Windows 10 can only be a positive influence on PC gaming, with Microsoft hugely increasing its focus on this sector.”

There are several big changes around the corner.

Intel has delayed its 10nm ‘Cannonlake’ processors from 2016 to 2017. This means Intel will release a refined version of ‘Skylake’, another 14nm CPU codenamed ‘Kaby Lake’ –

“Windows 10 can only be a positive influence on PC gaming, with Microsoft hugely increasing its focus on this sector.”

Ben Miles, Chillblast

something for system builders to bear in mind.

Intel is also working on new 3D XPoint memory with Micron, which promises to be a new class of non-volatile memory, up to 1,000 times faster than NAND. The pair hope it will power 8K gaming in the future. The ideal graphics system of the future could even support 16K. While this is exciting, AMD’s gaming scientist Richard Huddy says it’s still some time away.

“We have a good future, and will 8K be in there?

Yeah, absolutely it will,” he explains. “And I think when we get to 16K we’ll finally say: ‘Okay, that’s a done deal. We’ve done everything that the human visual system needs for folks with 20/20 vision.’ But we’ve got a way to go before we’re ready to

genuinely supply that. For the last 20 years I’ve been giving talks about photo rendering and saying it’s about ten years away.

“But now I can actually nail it down and say we should be able to hit that in 12 years’ time on a VR system at 16K. Comprise some small amount and take it down to 4K or 8K, and it’s clear that photoreal rendering is actually something that’s around five years away.”

There are other innovative developments emerging right now. The ASUS ROG In-Win H-Tower – a PC case that opens up by itself at the touch of a button – delighted visitors at Computex this year.

More gaming-focused system builders like Overclockers UK and Utopia Computers are turning to B2B workstations as an alternative source of revenue, and big vendors are turning their heads to gaming (Alienware has its own Steam Machine, and Acer will launch its Predator G6-710 PC in September).

Chillblast’s Ben Miles concludes: “We expect PC gaming to continue to grow, with new advances in GPUs and exciting new GPU streaming tech being at the forefront of this. We also expect availability of new hardware to improve, which will open up further opportunities.”

www.pcr-online.biz

PC GAMING SPECIAL

takes a look at five of the core aspects of PC gaming your business needs to know about, from emerging hardware on some of the new emerging areas of tech resellers and retailers should be considering for their own businesses…

FULL STEAM AHEAD The upcoming Steam Machines have finally been given an official release date, but will these devices score points with retailers and gamers? Jade Burke takes a look at what the machines have to offer the gaming industry…

IN 2012, Gabe Newell CEO and PC developer for the video game firm Valve, branded the launch of Windows 8 a ‘catastrophe’ and vowed to deliver a device similar to a games console, designed specifically for living room gaming. That device is now known as a Steam Machine.

The orginal release date for Steam Machines was sometime during mid-2014, however, they will now launch later this year on November 10th 2015.

But, now that Windows 10 has launched with gaming in mind with DirectX 12 and the availability of more affordable desktops and GPUs, will there still be a place for Steam Machines?

Ian Edwards, account manager at distributor Spire Technology, thinks so: “With many new game titles and the launch of Steam Machines coming later this year, I think now is one of the best times for PC gamers.

“For those who are serious about gaming, nothing really beats the freedom of a PC or the benefits of a keyboard and mouse when gaming, but it will be interesting to see how the Steam Machine controller does versus a keyboard and mouse.”

So far, a string of Steam Machine partners have been announced along

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Dell’s gaming brand Alienware has a Steam Machine on the way

with their own systems approved by Valve including Alienware, ASUS ROG GR8S, Scan 3XS ST and the Nextbox.

Other retailers are also signing deals with Valve, including GAME, who has struck up an exclusive partnership to sell the controller and Steam Link streaming device in the UK and Spain. However, the firm is yet to announce whether it will stock the machines themselves.

But, others remain sceptical about another edition to the gaming console market, as YoYoTech’s MD CK, explains: “I don’t think Steam Machines are the

“With new game titles and the launch of Steam Machines coming later this year, I think now is one of the best times for PC gamers.”

Ian Edwards, Spire Technology

solution – they’re just creating another console. I think Xbox and PlayStation are doing a fantastic job.

Especially with Windows 10 coming out as a PC platform using all those Xbox games – what will Steam do that’s different?”

But this isn’t stopping retailers and resellers creating their own take on the Steam Machine, including Dino PC who is working on a custom case for a Steam Machine, while Ebuyer.com has revealed plans to develop a range of specialist gaming desktops.

A mouse and keyboard are also still popular with gamers, and if Steam Machines start to take off

there is a concern these peripherals may take a downhill turn, but Michael Groom, UK MD for Cherry, remains positive: “The concept of the Steam Machine is great – but for some games, wired peripherals are a must.

“However, if current console gamers have a Steam Machine next to their Xbox or PlayStation in their bedroom, I would hope that peripherals will be on the increase and Cherry will be able to take a slice of the pie.”

But until these new machines hit the retail space, we will have to wait and see how popular they will be.

PCR September 2015 | 19

PC GAMING SPECIAL

GAME STREAMING IN STYLE As more users sign-up to streaming platforms such as Twitch to catch a glimpse of the latest game, it’s clear to see gaming is changing. Jade Burke takes a look at the growing sector and how these sites can benefit retailers…

LIVE GAME streaming is certainly proving to be a popular tool for watching games, with websites such as Twitch offering gamers a platform to view their favourite players in action.

Amazon acquired Twitch back in 2014 in a deal worth around $970 million and it’s no wonder the etailer snapped up the streaming service – in 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that the site on average had around 100 million viewers a month worldwide.

In addition, YouTube has gone on to rival Twitch with its own gaming website, YouTube Gaming, while Nvidia has launched the GRID, providing gamers with a streaming service in the cloud.

Meanwhile, retailer Overclockers has launched a new StreamR PC hardware range. It features a streaming console, software and the StreamR

20 | PCR September 2015

Elite System, which can be equipped with Nvidia graphics cards.

Live streaming gives enthusiasts the chance to watch gamers in action, whilst also having the chance to communicate with others in real-time, and it seems the craze isn’t going to end there, with retailers making use of streaming in store.

For example, Utopia Computers has introduced an alliance programme whereby gamers who have their own Twitch TV or YouTube channel can earn a percentage on any device bought from Utopia that was redirected through their Twitch channel.

James Dean, UK MD at PR firm Kuoda, says: “Twitch requires a fair amount of performance hardware in order to stream including added peripherals.

Companies could offer specific systems to attract this demographic.”

Streaming is becoming a big part of gaming, with many choosing to stream a game rather than tune in to watch the latest soap on the TV, which provides more opportunities for resellers. For example, new graphics cards and processors are essential to provide a better experience when settling down to watch the latest game. “eSports is a massive area of growth – the industry is expecting eSports to be more popular in terms of viewers than F1 and NFL and NHL combined by 2020,” explains Ben Miles, sales director at system integrator Chillblast.

“People like us can’t afford to pooh-pooh that as a fad because it’s anything but. People can see the graphics from a stream and think, ‘Well why can’t my PC do that?’, so it’s a driver of new business for us.”

However, although the industry is off to a

promising start, some gamers who are renowned for their streaming efforts in the industry have suffered due to copyright laws. For example, TotalBiscuit, real name John Bain, has often been caught up in copyright glitches. On one occasion he uploaded a video critique of the game Day One: Garry’s Incident, which has since been pulled down due to a copyright claim from the developer, Wild Game Studios.

Even though this is the case in some circumstances, streaming is starting to transform gaming, making it much more interactive and immersive.

Rich Marsden, director of VIP Computers, adds: “Streaming is huge and is helping to drive gaming to the next level. Twitch is really changing the shape of the industry in terms of engagement which in turn creates ad opportunities.”

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PC GAMING SPECIAL

THE SIGHTS OF MODERN GAMING With a number of vendors bringing virtual reality devices to market, consumers are looking to add this immersive tech to their array of gaming peripherals. Jade Burke finds out how retailers can add them to their portfolios…

22 | PCR September 2015

Sony’s Project Morpheus headset in action

©PHOTO CREDIT : Koelnmesse

VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) has been toyed about with for some time now, but with more and more vendors launching their own headsets, it seems the fad is here to stay.

No doubt the Oculus Rift is leading the way when it comes to VR, but now other vendors, including the likes of Sony with the Project Morpheus and Microsoft with the HoloLens, are jumping on the bandwagon with their own editions.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has since revealed that developers will be able to get their hands on the HoloLens within the next year, and the final consumer version of the Oculus Rift is expected to launch into retail later this year – VR doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.

Sales of VR devices are set to reach 14 million by 2016 according to the Topology Research Institute (TRI), with more vendors taking an interest in the wearable market.

“While I was at Gamescom in August, there was a queue around the hall to get to test the VR One,” explains Rob Hall, MD of PXS Distribution.

“It might have been a fad in the past but this market is now set to boom. A new app called Trinus VR for Android has just launched, which connects wirelessly to your PC and lets you stream games to your phone inside the VR One. This kind of tech means we now have the developers and hardware to make VR a reality.”

Hardcore gamers are constantly on the lookout for more ways to immerse themselves in a virtual world. VR devices are helping to create that and now Basemark and

Crytek have partnered to create a PC system test for VR gaming.

The benchmark will enable gamers and PC vendors to access the level of experience they can expect when running VR content, to help immerse themselves into another world.

VR devices aren’t just for gaming though, with doctors using VR to distract patients from pain and airline EasyJet using the technology to train their crew without having to build a separate fake cockpit.

For example, Neilson Holidays is using the Oculus Rift to give customers a taster of their holiday before they set off, transporting them to the Mediterranean or the ski slopes in Andorra. Also, Trillenium builds 3D VR shops for online retailers.

“It might have been a fad in the past, but this market is now set to boom.”

Rob Hall, PXS Distribution

Miodrag Relic, business development director for Caseking group (which owns retailer Overclockers), recognises the importance of virtual reality technology: “We will do our best to be there, once these devices launch at etail and retail.

“But time will tell. Once we see the technologies available, then it can go into sales and we’ll do our best to be there, because it’s part of our ethos – who we are.“ There are various ways retailers can use VR devices as well, for example demonstrations in store will entice more custom, plus there are various add-ons including software and games that can also be sold alongside.

Retailer Dixons Carphone has also revealed that VR is a key emerging sector, as the firm’s deputy group

CEO Andrew Harrison previously told PCR: “I think it’s quite exciting. I think it’s going to be one of the bigger trends over the coming years and we’re working quite hard on that in terms of how we bring that to consumers.

“From the things we’ve had a go on at the events, and some of the products available, you need very high-powered computers in order to do that. You need setup capabilities and a room to be able to do it in, and you need peripherals. People are going to need to come to physical retail places and explore what’s on offer.”

Now that more vendors and retailers are starting to embrace the VR trend, it seems these devices are here to stay and will no doubt make a huge impact on the way gamers play.

www.pcr-online.biz

PC GAMING SPECIAL

GET INVOLVED WITH ESPORTS The biggest PC gaming tournaments are now generating more money than some physical sports events. But how can you get involved? And what should you consider in this fast-growing market? Dominic Sacco explains…

WHICH SPORTS events hand out the most prize money across the globe?

It may not be surprising to see the UEFA Champions League at number one with a whopping $65 million in winnings, followed by the FIFA World Cup ($31 million) and baseball’s World Series ($19 million).

What’s more astounding is, according to Nvidia, the fourth biggest prize pool comes from The International – an annual PC gaming tournament where teams of five battle it out on a game known as Dota 2. Analysts also predict there could be as many people watching eSports in 2017 as those who watch NFL now.

This year’s Dota 2 International tournament handed out $18.4 million (£11.9 million) in overall winnings. The final, won by BenQ-sponsored team Evil Geniuses in August 2015, was watched by around 20 million viewers on Steam Broadcasting, WatchESPN, Google’s YouTube and Amazon’s Twitch. Evil Geniuses took home $6.6 million (£4.2 million), making one of its players, 16-year-old Sumai, one of the world’s youngest and richest eSports professionals in the process.

We’re not quite at that level in the UK, but the eSports scene here is on the up. Organisations like ESL, Gfinity and Multiplay (which is now owned by retailer GAME) run frequent tournaments with prize pools in the thousands of pounds, and the League of Legends 4 Nations contest has helped put the UK and Ireland on the map.

The League of Legends 2015 World Championship quarter finals are even taking place at Wembley’s SSE Arena this October, with tickets to the sold out

24 | PCR September 2015

Newzoo predicts that competitive gaming will be worth $465 million by 2017

event already going for hundreds of pounds on eBay. Gfinity also hosts tournaments – and opened the UK’s first eSports arena earlier this year at the Vue Cinema Fulham Broadway multiplex, with a 600-person capacity.

So how can you get involved? Well, for vendors and retailers, sponsoring a successful team or tournament is an obvious way of getting your products in front of millions. However, PCR understands individual sponsorship deals can reach six or seven figures.

Some companies run entire tournaments instead (like the Intel Extreme Masters with eSports organisation ESL), with others entering their own branded teams into tournaments, instead of sponsoring one. PC peripheral specialist Roccat has its own eSports teams.

But competition can be fierce. Overclockers UK dropped its League of

“eSports teams are a great way to endorse products and tournaments pull together a large viewership interested in competitive gaming.”

James Dean, ESL UK

Legends eSports team due to a disappointing run of results (however, the etailer has told PCR it is seriously committed to eSports and will return with a new team).

James Dean, ESL UK MD, tells PCR: “eSports is driving demand for performance and quality products due to the competitive nature of play. Teams are a great way to endorse products and tournaments pull together a large viewership to a focus demographic interested in competitive gaming.

“ESL is the only eSport company to run regional level tournaments as well as international ones.

Sponsorship opportunities therefore can be targeted to specific demographics, which in turn helps the communities grow. ESL can also introduce brands to rising star teams.”

There’s also the opportunity for official branded products as well as GPUs and PCs designed for eSports.

However, like almost every sport, there’s also an ugly side. Some pros have this summer admitted to taking performanceenhancing drugs to improve their reaction times. eSports leagues have since issued new anti-drug policies and tests, but this kind of scandal shows that eSports is still in its infancy.

Pro gamers have intensive schedules with many teams now living together in the same house, with poor diets and living habits. Players have been known to burn themselves out at a young age, with many pros retiring in their mid twenties, ending their careers short.

One thing’s for sure – competitive gaming is only going to get even bigger in years to come (it’s set to be worth $465 million by 2017, predicts Newzoo). So if your consumer-facing business is not already involved with eSports, then why not?

www.pcr-online.biz

INTERVIEW

AMD’s Quantum leap After revealing its Project Quantum gaming concept box, saying it could be one of the highest performing PCs on the planet, AMD is continuing to surprise. Dominic Sacco asks gaming scientist Richard Huddy about the firm’s tech…

W

hy should system builders power their machines with AMD’s new 300-Series (Fiji) graphics cards?

There’s a real appetite for the new cards, particularly around the opportunity for small form factor graphics cards. The Fiji is clearly very attractive to consumers, because it lets us play in PCs where we couldn’t get in before – and deliver a real performance experience.

If you take a Fury, particularly a Fury Nano, you can build that into something which is very close to the standard media PC, and an HD PC, which is perfect.

The other thing is that if you take something like the Fury X where we built the reference cards with radiator coolers and liquid cooling built in, it can easily fit into a PC and make it beautifully quiet. These two opportunities – both quiet enthusiast PCs or something more media-centric, smaller and living room friendly – are great advances.

How can HBM tech push the PC gaming sector forwards?

The difference it makes in terms of power efficiency for our GPUs is extraordinary. It all comes down to the fact that we don’t have a lot of hot memory chips clustered around our GPU, all of which need extra cooling as well.

Instead, the memory is on the same package, it’s stacked up.

It also delivers about 50 per cent more bandwidth than the fastest GDDR5 cards. And this is only the first iteration – we’ll come to market next year with HBM 2 and stuff like that. And just like FreeSync, we’re driving it through an industry standard, so anyone can pick it up.

Speaking of your FreeSync monitors, do you think their 26 | PCR September 2015

prices will continue to fall, and what kind of demand do you expect to see compared to Nvidia’s G-Sync displays?

We’ll watch the demand. I’m personally optimistic about it and I think it will help us to grow marketshare. In terms of it continuing down the same path of being pretty inexpensive, the answer is yes. There’s no justification for a substantial extra price tag, whereas with G-Sync there is justification, and that hurts the consumer.

Nvidia charges a license fee for it – and there’s an extra piece of hardware in there

“The interest we got for Quantum after E3 was very high. We might well turn it into a real product.”

Richard Huddy, AMD

that has to be supplied which is quite different from the standard scaler. And the vendor has to pass on both of these costs on to the consumer. That simply isn’t the case in FreeSync setups.

AMD revealed its Project Quantum gaming PC at E3.

Can you tell us more about this, maybe the launch date, price and operating system?

I can’t. For us it was a concept PC and that’s really important.

It’s got a base of 10 inches by 10 inches and the total volume of the machine is just eight litres. A box as small as that could be one of the highest performing PCs on the planet. It’s also because

it’s completely liquid cooled, it’s going to be super quiet as well. But it is a concept PC. The interest we got immediately after E3 was very high. I would think that if we have the right kind of conversations with different OEMs, then we might well turn it into a real product. If that’s the case, maybe only one or a handful of PC manufacturers would potentially bring that to the market.

Will 8K gaming take off?

It will do, I’ve got no doubt about that, but we’re a little while from it. We’re only just at the stage where we can run a 4K display at a reasonable refresh rate. If you want to run a high-end game on a 4K display, then you need a couple of Fury Xs or something comparable. Now if you’re going to go for 8K gaming, you’re going to have to double up the pixels in both width and height – four times as much horsepower is going to be needed.

How do you envisage PC gaming will evolve over the next 12 months?

Hopefully everyone will be buying Fury Xs and Furys, so everyone will be in a state of pure ecstasy, but that’s me with the marketing hat on there. The best thing about PC gaming is it’s in such a healthy state. We have about seven billion people on the planet, and it’s widely estimated there are around 700 million people playing PC games – ten per cent of the world’s population. 66 million played League of Legends in the last month – around one per cent of the world’s population. So PC gaming is clearly in great condition. www.pcr-online.biz

INTERVIEW

‘We have the best tech to boost the PC market’ 2015 has been a hugely exciting year for Intel so far, having launched its 750 series consumer SSDs as well as the Core i7-6700K and i5-6600K desktop processors, aka Skylake. PCR speaks to Intel’s UK channel sales manager Matt Birch about the new tech and what’s around the corner – including powerful 3D XPoint memory…

I

NTEL’S SKYLAKE processors are finally here – and UK system builders are already selling their own systems powered by the desktop CPUs. While there have been some reports of initial stock shortages, more processors in the product family are coming later in the year.

“We just launched the Intel Core i7-6700K and Intel Core i5-6600K, our unlocked mainstream processors for desktop,” says Intel’s UK channel sales manager Matt Birch. “Coupled with the rest of the family line to come later in the year and the new technological advances on a platform, we believe we have a strong opportunity to reinvigorate the PC market through new experiences.

“We believe we have the best technology and one of the most comprehensive partner program for our system integrators.”

Of course, these new 6th gen processors support DirectX 12 and Windows 10, as do Intel’s 4th and 5th Core processors, as well as Pentium and Celeron processors based on these architectures. The 28 | PCR September 2015

Intel Atom x5 and x7 processors will also support DX12, giving the new API decent support as it grows marketshare. Intel says games written to support DX12 running on DX12 hardware “will run fast and efficiently in terms of low CPU utilisation”.

Intel also launched other new hardware earlier this year with the consumer NVMe SSD 750 series, giving retailers and system integrators the chance to offer customers faster SSD performance. “We believe the SSD 750 series provides the ultimate performance we see gamers and enthusiasts want for the best experiences, in terms of faster game load times or content creation,” Birch explains.

And there’s plenty more where that came from. In July, Intel and Micron announced they are working on 3D XPoint memory technology, saying in a statement they are “creating the first new memory category in more than 25 years”.

3D XPoint promises to bring non-volatile memory speeds up to 1,000 times faster than NAND, making

“eSports is incredibly important as it heralds an industry that drives tech advancements and innovation.”

Matt Birch, Intel

new innovations possible in machine learning, real-time tracking of diseases and 8K gaming. Is this the future of gaming – what about 16K, as mentioned by AMD? “It is one future, as there are a lot of new experiences the technology can enable,” says Birch. “We believe that technologies like 3D XPoint are critical to these new experiences though and we will continue to innovate.

“In terms of 16K, we have to look at a few drivers of new technologies. The adoption will depend on the ecosystem readiness, including hardware and content, and market adaption rate.

“First, there needs to be devices in the market to deliver beyond 8K, from monitors and TVs to the cables and graphics.

Secondly, game developers and film and movie industries will need to deliver content to create demand. Until these two items are cost efficient and readily available, 8K and beyond will not be the norm.”

Other PC gaming hardware on the horizon includes Steam Machines, which are

due to launch in November.

But Intel remained coy about the devices. “We look forward to successful launch on the machines but can’t comment on the sales forecast,” comments Birch.

Intel is also big on the eSports front, running its own Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) events each year, and sponsoring Twitch streamers and YouTubers.

“IEM is celebrating its 10th season, which we are hugely proud of,” Birch says. “It has been a flagship tournament, showcasing the best in gaming. eSports is incredibly important as it heralds an industry that drives tech advancements and innovation, a fundamental part of Intel’s core value.”

So what’s next for PC gaming as a whole? “The PC gaming industry continues to evolve, especially with all of these new experiences like live streaming, 3D, VR, etc all gaining momentum in the market. You’ll start to see new technologies and products that will support this ever-changing sector,” concludes Birch. www.pcr-online.biz

INTERVIEW

The keyboards of the future PC accessory specialist Cherry has launched the MX Board 6.0 – its first keyboard with RealKey tech. PCR asks Cherry’s UK MD Michael Groom about the firm’s ambitions in gaming, etail versus retail sales and the firm’s future plans…

H

ow is business? Has this year been more challenging compared to 2014?

Business has been brisk to say the least, with sales up on 2014’s figures. This is despite the fact that we’re going through a transitional stage in the business, with older products being made obsolete and fewer new products to replace them.

Certainly with the addition of the MX Board 6.0, turnover has seen a spike in the last couple of months.

How significant is the gaming sector to Cherry?

Cherry is the market leader in the production and supply of mechanical keyboard switches (the MX Series) that are used in the most prominent gaming keyboards in the market, so gaming is very important to us.

For our own keyboards, until June this year, it’s been less important as we concentrated on industrial and ‘standard’ products, but with the new MX Board 6.0 keyboard, it’s taken a bit of a different direction.

30 | PCR September 2015

Tell us more about the MX Board 6.0…

It’s new and exciting for this market. It’s a full-size, wired, backlit keyboard with an aluminium case and some unique features – including technology we call ‘RK’ (RealKey), which is an analogue system that gives the keyboard a response time of 1ms. On top of this, it has full ‘N’ key rollover, meaning all 109 keys can be pressed at the same time and they will all function, and there’s full antighosting on all keys. At £150 RRP, it’s at the top end of the market, but does offer features that will be widely used by the gaming market.

What about your nongaming products?

We have just released our new KC-1068 sealed keyboard, which is ideal for applications where spills or keyboard cleaning is an issue.

Also, our old smartcard keyboard, the G83-6644, has finally been laid to rest, now replaced by the new KC1000SC model – perfect for security applications. [We don’t offer accessories other

than keyboards and mice], but it’s something that has been discussed.

Does Cherry sponsor any eSports teams or Twitch streamers and Youtubers?

The only team we are very loosely involved with is

“We’re going through a transition, with older products being made obsolete.”

Michael Groom, Cherry Rize Gaming. We were formerly sponsors of Team eNigma, who have sadly disbanded and the Rize partnership has yet to get going fully, but we hope things will get moving shortly. We had some success with eNigma, with our name emblazoned on their shirts that went with them to each gaming

tournament. With Twitch/ YouTube, we’ll see how it goes – one of the MX Board 6.0s is currently with Ali-A but we really don’t know currently what he’ll make of it until a video goes live, but if we can gain some interest from the gamers who follow him, then it’s been a resounding success.

How much of your UK business goes through etail versus high street retail?

Our business through retail is very small and the majority goes through etail. Keyboards are always difficult though, as they are tactile products and we often get asked where customers can see or feel our products. Without a strong retail presence (something we’re looking at more closely), it’s very difficult to tell customers where to go, but it doesn’t stop them ordering via etailers. I do believe that retail for keyboards and mice is essential as they are products a customer needs to test and compare.

How much of a challenge is dealing with retailers who

heavily cut the price of some of your products?

Price cutting is always an issue, but without the ability to ‘price-fix’, we can’t combat against partners wishing to make meager margins or even sell at a loss. Fortunately, particularly within the more premium sector, the prices seem to be relatively stable – there’s always very healthy competition, but with price expectation for mechanical keyboards being high, selling below cost is generally not an issue for us.

What does the future hold for Cherry?

I think that Cherry will be one to watch in the future. If the MX Board 6.0 becomes as successful as it’s showing signs of, then there’s the potential for additional versions to appear – with more switch and smaller footprint options, for instance.

Our first gaming-related mouse should be shortly coming out, which I hope will be a springboard to additional devices specifically marketed towards the gaming arena.

But we can only wait and see. www.pcr-online.biz

INTERVIEW

Eye Candy PDP has been known for its wide range of peripherals, but now the firm is entering the PC accessories market with the help of its colourful Rock Candy range. Jade Burke speaks to UK sales manager Dave Nelson about the firm’s hopeful retail partnerships and how the industry is evolving…

G

aming has always been the core foundation for peripheral manufacturer PDP, but as more consumers look for different ways to make their gaming experience more immersive, the company has unveiled a string of new gadgets to fulfil these needs.

PDP has showcased some new high-performance accessories for PCs, with a pop of colour to suit any consumer. Dave Nelson, sales manager for the UK at PDP, tells me: “We found that when we introduced colour into the market place we have had expediential sales – almost a 55 per cent growth on top of those sales. So rather than cannibalising sales we’ve actually enhanced and widened the reach to our various customers by having these colours.”

Blue, red, green, pink and purple are all colours up for grabs with the new additions to the Rock Candy range, which PDP says has helped to expand the company’s reach to new customers, from the likes of children and parents to schools. Gamers are used to the traditional black, grey or white accessories, but now Rock Candy opens up a wider breath of choice for the traditional gamer.

Nelson says: “The Rock Candy range appeals to demographics aside of your traditional consumer, we find that it grows revenue by expanding the market without cannibalisation.”

Rock Candy has been a part of PDP ever since the range’s

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launch in 2012, with the firm shipping 3,951,841 controllers and counting in the US. But that’s not all; PDP was founded back in 1990 and has over 200 employees worldwide and has since generated roughly 150 million in revenue.

PDP’s new additions to the Rock Candy series currently consist of mice, keyboards and a console controller.

“The keyboard is actually water resistant and conforms to two standards, including IP66 and IP67.

“The IP67 means you can immerse the keyboard in a metre of water for around 25 minutes and it would still work. Not that we suggest anybody should do that,” explains Nelson.

And the mouse is just as impressive. Thanks to its HD optical tracking functionalities and 2.4Gz wireless technology, users can play games with a range of up to 30 feet, while its plug and play compatibility make it easier to use. And gamers won’t break the bank trying to get hold of one, with prices

PDP’s Dave Nelson says virtual reality is still in its infancy

“Rather than cannibalising sales we’ve enhanced and widened the reach to our various customers by having these colours.”

Dave Nelson, PDP

starting from £14.99 and reaching £29.99.

But, as with any new product range, competition is always a threatening fixture for many vendors, but Nelson is remaining optimistic about the new range, with plans to work with some big retail partners.

“We’ve got fairly modest expectations. We’ve had a look at the market, and it’s interesting to see that when we introduced this Rock Candy range into the video game space, how quickly we made an impact because we suddenly had that new footfall,” adds Nelson.

“We have our target accounts that we think would sell this, which is obviously Dixons, Argos, and main High Street retailers, and a bit of Amazon of course.”

Enticing gamers using colour is high on the agenda for PDP, but inspiration and innovation is key to the company when it comes down to its peripheral range.

Now with the addition of Windows 10 to the industry, and more immersive elements

currently transforming gaming, from virtual reality to the use of social media, Nelson believes the technology within gaming has come on leaps and bounds. “I still think virtual reality is in its relative infancy, but within the next five or six years with new processors and the advancements in tech, it will really get a fully immersive experience.

“I think we’re much more demanding these days, we want more from just sitting in front of a desktop, we want to interact and obviously add the social media element to it,” explains Nelson.

With technology partners including the likes of Disney and EA Sports, Nelson hopes to continue building on the company’s relationships with brands, wherever the market takes them.

“We’re really excited about the range, we’ve seen how our video game side of Rock Candy performs, and we hope to replicate that in the PC sector, and if we can do that, that’ll be a really good result,” concludes Nelson.

PCR September 2015 | 35

BEHIND THE SCENES

Harder, Better, In its bid to offer the fastest and the best systems on the market, Overclockers UK is becoming more than an etailer – it bought by Caseking, OCUK has doubled its warehouse size and headcount and experimented with a retail pop-up shop.

A

FTER ENTERING the Overclockers UK (OCUK) retail store, I don’t know where to look.

There are rows of shiny new PC machines, monitors and motherboards placed on either side of the room, with a football table in the middle, a counter on the right and other PC accessories scattered around – it’s a geeks heaven.

To my left there’s a £5,000 Emperor gaming chair with three monitors attached to it, beckoning me to take a seat.

Before I can decide where to start, Miodrag Relic, business development director for Caseking (the group which owns

36 | PCR September 2015

Overclockers), Steve Ling, Overclockers UK executive director, and Steven Levitt, marketing specialist, enter the room.

There are no suits here – they’re all proudly wearing OCUK-branded T-shirts. These guys clearly live and breathe the brand; they wear their heart on their sleeves, and they are about to show me the inner workings of their gaming business.

Considering it’s based in an out-of-town warehouse site, the physical store is surprisingly popular, with a few customers browsing.

“One customer came all the way from Scotland to get

“We want to provide the fastest and the best price/ performance products. And if you want to be the best, it’s really important to get involved in the design stage.”

Miodrag Relic, Overclockers UK

some hardware for his system,” Levitt says.

We enter the door at the back of the room and join the hustle and bustle of Overclockers’ system building department. It’s full of workbenches, half-built PC systems and engineers putting the machines together. As we enter a room on the left, which is used for spray painting and modifying custom parts, a busy but cheery man stops what he’s doing to greet me.

It’s Craig Sheldon, senior technician – extreme systems (aka master builder to his peers), who tells me about the unique customer requests

and custom jobs he works on.

“First, we make sure what the customer has in mind is going to work, then we’ll go back and forth with them over email, making sure everything is going to be exactly what they want,” he says.

PACKING A PUNCH Returning to the bustling technical build department, I notice a high-end 8Pack system being put together on the workbench in front of me.

These can cost anything from around £4,500 to £12,000, and I’m told customers purchase them on a regular basis.

They take about a week to build, with most of that time

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Faster, Stronger tests components rigorously, working closely with vendors to improve their products and grow the market. Since being Dominic Sacco meets Steve Ling, Miodrag Relic and Steven Levitt for a tour of its Newcastle-under-Lyme facility… spent testing the system and its various parts. OCUK’s resident overclocking expert Ian ‘8Pack’ Parry pushes the system to the max before the engineer builds it.

Miodrag Relic explains: “These guys are craftsmen, they’re not just system builders anymore. We hand deliver all 8Pack systems, including installation. It’s like buying a new Ferrari – you expect the car to come with the keys and instructions. We do the same thing with computers. You can’t just sit in a Ferrari and drive it.

“The weirdest one we sold was an 8Pack system plus an Emperor gaming chair we had to deliver to Northern Ireland.

We sent it by normal parcel and when it got to the airport at Birmingham, they realised, oops, it will not fit in the plane! So we had to hire a van, go to the airport and pick it up, so we could still deliver it next-day as promised.

“Our guys drove all the way to Northern Ireland; they took the Liverpool ferry across to Belfast, and got seasick in the process, before reaching the customer’s address, which was an apartment block. The stairwell was narrow, so they had to dismantle the Emperor’s chair, take it in bits and pieces to whichever floor, and then assemble it. It took a long time.

“So we end up in such situations. But it’s a great service we offer – that’s what we do.”

It’s not just gaming or B2C PCs that OCUK builds either; the etailer launched its first range of RENDA workstations late last year for creative professionals. There’s a £3,500 system in a Phanteks chassis on the workbench beside me.

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Relic adds: “Because we have so much confidence in our system builders, we are confident we can offer a watercooled workstation – it minimises the noise of the system, and no one else can do it in the UK. We’ve won several awards from the likes of 3D World, Tech Radar and more. I reckon local system builders have a place for workstations now.”

We enter the warehouse – there are boxes of hardware stacked high along the aisles.

Relic tells me that the amount of stock Caseking has across its three warehouses (Budapest, Berlin and this one) is in the double digit millions of pounds.

All of Overclockers’ orders are picked and packed by hand, although Relic admits that the business could use automated picking in the near future.

“The correct item is in the box almost 100 per cent of the time,” Ling adds. “It’s extremely rare that a customer will receive something that’s incorrect.

They’re more likely to get their Haribo missed out than they are the specific product they ordered. We can’t afford to run out of Haribo, or else there would be a revolt on the forums!”

It’s true – Overclockers includes a pack of sweets with every order as a little extra thank you. It’s clear the etailer takes customer service very seriously: it reviews its RMAs every week (it has a solid 93 per cent service level on the day I visit), engages with its customers on its forums and social media every day, plus it offers free shipping for its most loyal forum members. It also provides a ‘delivery to

FACT FILE: Year established: 1999 Number of staff: 65 Warehouse size: 32,500sq ft Annual turnover: £44.8m Website: overclockers.co.uk Contact: 01782 444455

“We can’t afford to run out of Haribo, or else there would be a revolt on the forums! We are part of the community now – we are our customers. That’s our ethos really.”

Steve Ling, Overclockers UK

your desk’ and free repair service at different iSeries gaming events.

“We are part of the community,” Ling states. “We are our customers – that’s our ethos really. Part of our expansion was to provide a better customer service and to enable the company to do more things – that’s very important to us.”

Relic explains: “On Trustpilot we have a score of 9.5, which is higher than any of our immediate competitors. The vast majority of our customers don’t come from Google or other search engines or adverts, they come to us direct. We can’t disappoint those gamers and enthusiasts, we have to give them the best. That’s our market and we cater for them – we really don’t want to betray that ethos.

“If you look at our forums, it’s one of the largest and most influential on the planet.

When we post a product review on there – and it’s always an honest review – we can influence global sales of a certain product. We’ll tell the vendor honestly and openly what we think of their product. Sometimes they will pull the product and won’t sell it with us.

“We want to focus on our core community and expand it. We want to provide the best, the fastest and the best price/performance products. I cannot say we’re the cheapest on the market but we have one of the best services out there, and time to market is very important.”

This strategy is paying off.

OCUK’s turnover rose from £37.4 million in 2013/2014 to £44.8 million in 2014/2015, and while operating profit

isn’t up yet, Relic assures me it’s healthy. Since being bought by German firm Caseking in early 2012, OCUK’s staff headcount has risen from around 30 to 65, while its current 32,500sq ft warehouse is about twice the size of its previous location.

“We’re already wondering how soon we can move to the next one,” Ling admits. “It’s a nice problem to have, right?

We’ll just have to start exploring the options.”

We talk about some of the other challenges of being a top tech etailer.

“Once, we noticed a product in Germany was priced much lower than it was in the UK,” Relic adds. “We had a meeting with them and said: ‘look, please put yourself in order, we don’t want to disrupt your operations, we could legally move this stock from Germany to the UK and resell it here, and make more money’, but we didn’t do it.

“We brought it to their attention to resolve the pricing issue, and they did.

We helped the channel by putting pressure on them.”

A TECHIE’S DREAM A lot of companies nowadays say that they work closely with partners rather than just sell to them, however I feel OCUK really does have strong links with vendors, as I’m about to discover.

“This is the mess area now,” Ling exclaims, as we reach the far end of the warehouse.

There’s a table awash with modified components, from motherboards to GPUs, sticks of RAM, PSUs, Intel Skylake processors, fans and whatever else you can think of. There are boxes all over the place, with a huge tank of liquid

PCR September 2015 | 37

BEHIND THE SCENES

nitrogen situated away from the mess.

This is where Ian ‘8Pack’ Parry does his modding, using the liquid nitrogen to keep components cool as he takes part in extreme overclocking and benchmarking sessions.

“This is a man’s paradise,” Relic beams. “It’s also a mess.”

Unfortunately, 8Pack isn’t around today. I’m told he works very closely with motherboard and GPU manufacturers, visiting their head offices to sit down with the product managers.

“He will start tweaking, tuning, overclocking and pushing products as far as they will go,” Relic explains.

“It’s in our interest they all have the best possible products. We encourage competition – it brings the industry forward.

“We’re brand agnostic.

Some builders out there only give love to one brand, but we don’t do that. We want to give choice, we understand what each product can deliver and we can incorporate it into our system build. That knowledge comes from us working closely with the vendors. When it comes to overclocking, no one can beat us, because we know all of the checks. We advise the manufacturers what to do.”

I ask how much gear Parry has broken or damaged over the years in order to be the

38 | PCR September 2015

best. “Oh God,” Relic replies with a pained expression on his face, as his brain figures out the total amount. “Tens of thousands,” he adds.

Is that the number of pieces or value in pounds? “Who knows, who the hell knows,” Relic sighs. “We just want to be excellent at what we do. If you want to be the best, it’s really important to have this complete vertical integration and to get involved in the design stage.

“You want to offer the best possible product for the price so that the customer is happy.

Some other companies have a different ethos and approach. They might just focus on price point and that’s not who we are.”

A GAMING COMMUNITY After a quick tour of the goods-in area, passing a huge stack of Haribo crates, we head outside where a truck is unloading stock to be loaded into the warehouse.

“We use DPD and they’re so reliable. We’ve used them for many years and we’ve noticed more of our competitors are using them now as well,” comments Ling.

Before heading upstairs to OCUK’s offices, we pass a disused metal detector.

“We don’t use this anymore – we trust our staff,” says Relic, who also points out an employee suggestions box on

“We hand deliver all 8Pack systems including installation. It’s like buying a new Ferrari – you expect the car to come with the keys and instructions. We do the same thing with computers.”

Miodrag Relic, Overclockers UK

the wall. “We encourage people to drop in an anonymous message and tell us what they think, even if they have a complaint, they can tell us,” Relic explains. “I want people to be happy; a happy workforce is a productive workforce.

“Yes there is pressure, but we try to operate an environment where people are satisfied and enjoy coming to work in the morning. People make a company – not the other way around. Some companies forget that.”

Upstairs, there’s a series of meeting rooms and office desks. 8Pack has another room all to himself on the far left, where he designs and

tests out systems. Another room is purely for taking photos of products for the website (there’s a new chassis in here which hasn’t yet launched), while the PR and marketing, finance, sales and purchasing teams have their own rooms. In the corner of the latter sits Andrew Gibson, OCUK’s purchasing manager.

There’s a large pirate flag on the wall behind him. “That tells you all about his attitude to purchasing,” Relic jokes.

With the tour coming to a close, I ask the team if they will expand beyond this facility and open physical shops across the UK, following their trial at the HyperX pop-up shop in London earlier this year.

“We’re always thinking about new options and directions,” Relic states, dodging my question. “I can just tell you this. It will be an exciting next 12 months.

“You know when you have a job and you wake up and think: ‘Oh God, I have to go to the office…’ It’s not like that at all here.

“At some of the events we attend, I don’t need to be at the booth. But I’m there. Yes my feet hurt, yes I get tired, yes my wife she hates me because I’m never at home during the Bank Holiday,” he chuckles. “That all stands. But this is my community, it’s my crowd.

“It’s good to be part of this crowd – and I wouldn’t change it.”

Ian ‘8Pack’ Parry’s modding desk is filled with components

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SECTOR GUIDE

PC gaming components and cases Key gaming components from motherboards to graphics cards help gamers increase their performance, but with so many different options which ones should retailers be stocking? Jade Burke takes her pick from the crop…

ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO MOTHERBOARD

TRANSCEND 64GB SSD SATA III

GIGABYTE Z170X GAMING 5 MOTHERBOARD

RAIJINTEK TRITON WATER COOLING SOLUTION

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Using Intel’s 6th generation core processors, users can play games with its dual-channel DDR4 3,733MHz memory. It also comes with RGB lighting and Intel Gigabit Ethernet, as well as five-way optimisation.

Users can game and watch content lagfree thanks to this SSD’s DevSleep mode. It features fast transfer seeds including 560MB/s read and 460MB/s write and built-in Error Correction Code ensures data is transferred safely.

This motherboard supports 6th Gen Intel Core processors and features an Intel USB 3.1 controller. A USB Type-C reversible connector is also included along with Sound Blaster X-Fi for improved sound.

Raijinteks first all-in-one water cooler combines optimal processor cooling capabilities with a waterblock made of nickel-plated copper to help keep components cool. The two 120mm fans are also manually adjustable.

Specs: Intel Z170 chipset, Sonic Studio II audio, five-way optimisation, waterpump header.

Specs: 64GB, supports DevSleep, lowpower operation, aluminium casing.

Specs: Dual-channel DDR4 memory, three-way graphics support, dual PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 connectors.

Specs: Low-noise pump with graphite pump, reservoir with two integrated LEDs, 240mm radiator.

SRP: £185.76

SRP: £35

SRP: £149

SRP: £69.95

BE QUIET! SILENT WINGS 2 CASE FAN

ASUS STRIX 980 TI GRAPHICS CARD

EVGA GEFORCE GTX 970 GRAPHICS CARD

INTEL 6TH GENERATION CORE PROCESSORS

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Using an airflow-optimised fan blade design, these fans achieve virtually silent operation. It adds variable speed capabilities and can connect to the PWM header on a mainboard or fan controller to achieve control.

DirectCU III with Triple Wing-Blade 0dB fan design is available with this card, which provides maximum airflow. In addition, it comes with GPU Tweak II with Xsplit Gamecaster, which provides users with performance tweaking.

Double BIOS support comes with this graphics card, which also offers improved cooling when in use. In addition, a Memory MOSFET Cooling Plate (MMCP) and optimised Straight Heat Pipes (SHP) help to keep it cool.

Intel’s new 6th Generation Core i7-6700K and i5-6600K processors have been designed specifically for desktops and can play videos in Ultra HD 4K. Each processor supports DirectX 12 API and boasts Intel’s turbo boost technology.

Specs: 1,500 RPM rotation speed, fourpin PWM, 12cm case fan, direct hard mount option.

Specs: 1,317MHz GPU boost clock, Auto-Extreme tech with 12+2 phase, Super Alloy II.

Specs: 4,096MB GDDR5 memory, 1,190MHz GPU clock speed, Nvidia SLI ready, PCIe 3.0 x16.

Specs: Intel Quick Sync Video tech, PCIe 3.0 interface, 8MB cache memory, 4.0GHx base frequency.

SRP: £17.14

SRP: £639.99

SRP: £284.99

SRP: From $243

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PCR September 2015 | 41

SECTOR GUIDE

FRACTAL KELVIN T12 WATER COOLING SYSTEM

BE QUIET! DARK ROCK TF HEATSINK AND FAN

ASROCK Z170 EXTREME 7+ MOTHERBOARD

THERMALTAKE CORE V51 COMPUTER CHASSIS

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A silent ceramic pump has been incorporated into this system, which is strong enough to support expansion if users choose to include GPU blocks and additional radiators, which have been made from pure copper, plus it also supports all modern CPU sockets.

A high cooling capacity of 220W TDP comes with this heatsink, which supports overclocked CPUs in compact PCs. Six high-performance 6mm heat pipes with aluminium caps carry heat to the optimal location on the cooling fins, while the top-flow layout enables cooling for surrounding components.

ASRock has incorporated Intel’s 6th Generation Core processor into its Extreme motherboard, which supports dual-channel DDR4 memory and triple monitors. Nvidia Quad SLI or AMD three-way CrossFireX is also available with the board along with a range of ports including PCIe and USB 3.0.

Designed as an enthusiast’s grade midtower chassis, this case provides space for high-end hardware and liquid cooling expansion. With support for E-ATX, ATX and Micro ATC motherboards and GPU cards, users can incorporate most motherboards into the chassis.

Specs: Dedicated refilling port, 120mm fan diameter, 62.4 CFM airflow.

Specs: 1,400 RPM rotation speed, Intel and AMD processor capability, darknikel plated finish.

Specs: USB 3.1 panel, three SATA Express ports, 7.1 CH HD Audio, 12 Power Phase design.

Specs: Customisable 5.25-inch and 3.5inch drive bay, advanced ventilation, one front and two rear turbo fans.

SRP: £75

SRP: £61.42

SRP: £332

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ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 980 TI GRAPHICS CARD

SEAGATE 1TB SSHD

SUPERFLOWER LEADEX 750W POWER SUPPLY

CORSAIR HYDRO SERIES H110I LIQUID COOLER

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Combined with Nvidia Maxwell architecture, the GTX 980 Ti delivers 4K gaming and a virtual reality experience to screens. It also has enhanced horsepower thanks to the 2,816 CUDA cores and 6GB of memory.

Seagate’s SSHD delivers faster map load speeds and can boot devices running Windows 8 in less than 10 seconds. This SSHD performs up to five times faster than 7,200 RPM desktop hard drives, and improves overall system responsiveness by 30 per cent.

This power supply is compatible with Intel and AMD motherboards, and supports Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFireX graphics cards. The supply offers users up to 92 per cent efficiency and offers capacities of 550W to 2000W.

Designed for cases with 280mm radiator mounts, the PWM fans included help to provide heat dissipation for highly overclocked CPUs. It is Corsair Link compatible, meaning users can customise the cooling performance and change the RGB LED lighting.

Specs: 1,000MHz, 384 bit memory width, PCIe 3.0 port, maximum resolution of 2560x1600 pixels.

Specs: Available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, 8GB integrated NAND Flash memory included.

Specs: Modular cable design, 14cm two-way thermal control, 750W maximum power.

Specs: SP140L PWM fans, 113 CFM airflow, 140mm fan diameter, compatible with Intel and AMD CPUs.

SRP: £510

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42 | PCR September 2015

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SECTOR GUIDE

ZALMAN Z11 NEO MIDTOWER CASE

ASROCK Z170 GAMING K6 MOTHERBOARD

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PHANTEKS ENTHOO EVOLV ATX TOWER CASE

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A maximum of eight system fans can be installed into this case, along with a dual radiator water cooler. The inside of the case can be accessed via the onetouch sliding ODD door, plus a dust filter comes pre-installed.

Using Intel’s 6th Generation Core processors, this motherboard provides gamers with fast speeds as well as support for DDR4 memory. Two SATA Express ports are included along with support for triple monitors.

Three pre-installed Pure Wings 2 fans come with the case, along with a unique construction that provides cooling and air-circulation. It also houses a range of ports including two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports.

Designed out of aluminum, this case features Phanteks’ quick release side panels, a top radiator bracket and a new HDD mounting system. In addition, users can also choose from four LED colours to customise their case.

Specs: Transparent acrylic side, USB 3.0 support, anti-vibration and noise absorption, seven expansion slots.

Specs: 12 Power Phase design, supports Full Spike Protection, eight USB 3.0 ports.

Specs: Seven expansion slots, supports ATX and Micro ATX motherboards.

Specs: Black and grey colour options, SSD brackets, aluminium exterior, compact design.

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AMD A10-7870K APU

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ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING MOTHERBOARD

WD BLUE 4TB SSHD

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Gamers can play games in 1080p using this APU, while AMD FreeSync helps to provide smooth gameplay for users. In addition, AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture has been embedded within the APU.

The Define S case comes with silent features, as well as expansive air and liquid cooling support. It also has a clear straight airflow path and water cooling support, to help ensure components are kept cool when in use.

Based on Intel’s new 6th Generation Z170 chipset, the Gaming motherboard supports dual-channel DDR4 3,400MHz memory, and features ASUS PRO clock technology. The board also boasts a USB 3.1 type a/c and M.2.

This SSHD combines NAND flash SSD technology and HDD storage to help increase overall system performance compared to traditional hard drives. It is also available in 1TB capacity.

Specs: 4.1GHz CPU clock speed, 95W TDP, 1080p gaming, AMD Eyefinity tech, 12 compute cores.

Specs: Smart reservoir brackets, ModuVent fan slot, dust-free interior with dust filters.

Specs: Intel Z170 chipset, Q-DIMM memory slots, ASUS T-Topology built-in, five-way optimisation.

Specs: 8GB NAND flash, up to five times faster than traditional 5400rpm HDDs.

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PCR September 2015 | 45

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SECTOR GUIDE

Gaming accessories With PC gaming growing in momentum, more gamers are on the lookout for new peripherals to help immerse themselves and improve their skills. Jade Burke checks out the latest gadgets from headsets to keyboards and mice…

ASUS STRIX GLIDE CONTROL MOUSE MAT

CHERRY MX BOARD 6.0

ASUS ROG SICA MOUSE

TURTLE BEACH EAR FORCE RECON 50 HEADSET

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Distributors: Entatech, Exertis Home, Northamber

Distributor: Spire Technology

Distributor: Exertis Home

This gaming mouse mat has been designed with heavy-weave fabric for smoother control. The edge of the mat features fray-resistant embroidery for more durability, while the textured fabric allows pixel precise tracking.

This mechanical keyboard uses Cherry’s Red MX key-switches, as well as a red backlight. A quick-snap magnetic keyboard wrist-rest is also included, along with a response time of 1ms – one of the fastest in the world.

Designed to withstand the demands of MOBA gaming, this ambidextrous mouse comes with a DPI rating of up to 5,000. Plus, its easy-swap switch socket design lets users customise the mouse’s click resistance.

With 40mm Neodymium speakers and in-line controls, users can make use of the high-sensitivity adjustable boom mic for in-game and online chat. Plus, the mic can also be removed when listening to music or watching movies.

Specs: 40x30cm surface, 3mm depth, 208g, works with all sensor types.

Specs: Cherry RealKey analogue signal technology, 100 per cent anti-ghosting, the ‘world’s fastest’ keyboard.

Specs: 177g with cable, optical tracking, compatible with Windows 8.1, 8 and 7, 130 inches per second.

Specs: Compatible with Apple devices and PCs, leather-wrapped ear cushions, in-line controls, removable mic.

SRP: £15.99

SRP: £149.99

SRP: £29.99

SRP: £39.99

CHERRY MX BOARD 3.0

DYNAMODE CORDLESS HEADPHONE SYSTEM

ROCK CANDY WIRELESS KEYBOARD

QPAD 8K LASER MOUSE

Distributors: Entatech, Exertis Home, Northamber

Distributor: Meroncourt

Distributors: CentreSoft and Exertis Home

Distributor: Entatech

Four different key switches are available with this keyboard, including black, red, brown and blue, plus each key can take up to 50 million operations. N-key rollover technology also provides users with simultaneous operations.

A wireless range of up to 10 metres is available with this Bluetooth headset, which provides clear sounds thanks to its Nd speaker drivers. The headset also features noise filtering functionalities to cancel out any external sound.

Four colour options are available to choose from, including purple, blue, pink and green, plus the keyboard is also water resistant. It comes with a 2.4GHz wireless range, meaning users can play wirelessly for up to 30 feet.

Designed for right-handed users, this mouse features an advanced laser sensor for optimised tracking performance. The Qpad mouse comes with a five-finger grip and a 32-bit ARM processor controller unit.

Specs: Gold Crosspoint technology, anti-slip protection, detachable cable.

Specs: On-board controls, built-in battery with up to 12 hours of battery life.

Specs: Plug and play installation, water resistant, wireless technology, compatible with Windows and Mac.

Specs: Ergonomic, 16.8 million possible colour variations via RG8 LED lights, seven programmable buttons.

SRP: £74.99

SRP: £19.99

SRP: £29.99

SRP: £59.99

www.pcr-online.biz

PCR September 2015 | 47

SECTOR GUIDE

HYPERX FURY MOUSE PAD

AOC G2460PG DISPLAY WITH NVIDIA G-SYNC

COUGAR 700K GAMING KEYBOARD

HYPERX CLOUD II HEADSET

Distributors: Entatech, Ingram Micro, Simms International, Tech Data

Distributors: VIP Computers, Exertis, TechData

Distributor: Spire Technology

Distributors: Entatech, Ingram Micro, Simms International, Tech Data

The material used to create the HyperX mouse mat has been heat-treated for a more controlled glide. In addition, the natural rubber and cross-weave underside provides extra padding for the user’s wrist.

Users can view content across this display’s 24-inch screen with Nvidia G-Sync technology, which helps to reduce input lag and image tearing. The AOC display also comes with a 1ms response time and 144Hz refresh rate.

Inspired by military ‘stealth technology’, the keyboard features red Cherry MX mechanical keys and an aluminium brushed structure. A 32-bit ARM processor also offers higher speeds.

A newly designed USB sound card audio control box comes equipped with this headset, which amplifies audio. In addition, the headset also generates virtual 7.1 surround sound and helps to block out any external noise.

Specs: Four different sizes, natural rubber, heat-treated mat.

Specs: 130mm height adjust base, with tilt, swivel and pivot functions, Nvidia G-Sync tech, 24-ich screen.

Specs: Six programmable G-keys, 1ms response time, full key backlight, multimedia keys.

Specs: Red, pink and gun metal colour variations, USB audio control box, 7.1 surround sound.

SRP: From £7.99

SRP: £299

SRP: £99.99

SRP: £79.99

CANYON HAZARD KEYBOARD

HAUPPAUGE HD PVR ROCKET

COUGAR 700M GAMING MOUSE

TP-LINK AC1900 WIRELESS DUAL BAND ROUTER C9

Distributor: Northamber

Distributor: Exertis Home

Distributor: Spire Technology

Distributors: CMS Distribution, Exertis Home, Tech Data, Entatech, Spire

A rubber base helps to hold this keyboard in place whilst gaming, plus it has two LED backlight colours to light up the keys. 16 hot keys are included, with a total of 104 buttons overall.

Gamers can record their games using the Rocket, which is powered by a 1080p game capture reorder. It can record from either HDMI or component video, plus the video compression is done inside the Rocket.

The components of this mouse have been built on a folded aluminium chassis, while the arched frame supports the palm ergonomically. Users can choose one colour out of 16.8 million to set a unique colour profile.

This router supports next generation Wi-Fi and supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz speeds simultaneously, to provide a total bandwidth of 1.9Gbps. The dual frequency enables users to game and surf the web at the same time.

Specs: Backlight, made from aluminum alloy, yellow hazard design, wrist holder.

Specs: Record direct to USB drive, creates video compressions, 1080p video recording.

Specs: Laser mouse, eight programmable buttons, 8,200 DPI resolution, anti-slip design.

Specs: Detachable antennas, beam forming technology lock wireless signal, two Wi-Fi speeds.

SRP: £39.99

SRP: £119.99

SRP: £69.99

SRP: £109.99

CONTACT

48 | PCR September 2015

CentreSoft ................... 0121 625 3388

Ingram Micro............... 0871 973 3000

Spire Technology ........ 01202 828 444

CMS Distribution ........ 020 8960 6000

Meroncourt ..................01462 680060

Tech Data .................... 01256 788 000

Entatech ...................... 0333 101 1000

Northamber ................ 020 8296 7066

VIP Computers ............ 0871 622 7500

Exertis Home ............... 01279 822 822

Simms International ....01622 852800

www.pcr-online.biz

The search for our top women in the UK PC and tech industry is once again underway

Headline Partner

To attend the event on Friday October 16th at Sway bar, London, or for more information contact Andrew Wooden on awooden@nbmedia.com

Our aim is to shine the spotlight on some of the most inspirational and influential female execs in the PC tech industry. And we aren’t just looking for Managing Directors or CEOs either – we want to showcase the full range of roles within the business.

RISING STA AR | MARKE ETING & PR | SAL LES | WO OMAN OF THE YEAR

For sponsorship opportunities, talk to Jennie Lane at jlane@nbmedia.com

VOTE NOW @ www.pcrwomenoftheyear.com 50 | PCR September 2015

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Retail Only

FORGET ABOUT FACEBOOK

TOP 10 MARKETING AVENUES MORE THAN 100 retailers and resellers took part in PCR’s most comprehensive dealer survey to date.

Looking specifically at how dealers market their businesses, top of the list is their own website (71 per cent), with social media (35 per cent), email marketing (38 per cent) and online advertising (29 per cent) presumably driving customers to those sites, and then into their stores.

Mystery Shopper

Retailer of the Month

HOW YOU market your business is a vital aspect of attracting new customers, but I feel too much emphasis is being placed on social media. Sure, sites like Facebook and Twitter are significant avenues to consider, but they’re not the be all and end all of a company’s marketing plan.

In PCR’s latest dealer survey, we asked respondents for their marketing avenues, with the most popular being their website and magazine/newspaper ads. Social media was fourth, with 35 per cent of dealers saying it was an important form of marketing to consider.

This goes to show that while social media is growing, businesses shouldn’t get bogged down putting too much focus into that area.

Traditional marketing techniques are also favoured, with 45 per cent placing magazine or newspaper ads, inserts or advertorials, some 13 per cent using direct mail techniques and 32 per cent targeting customers with flyers or leaflets. A possibly under-utilised marketing tool in this sector is in-store events, with only 21 per cent of retailers saying they had engaged with their customers in this way.

WEBSITE – 71%

“Social media is not the be all and end all of a firm’s marketing plan.”

MAGAZINE/NEWSPAPER ADS – 45% EMAIL MARKETING – 38%

Sometimes it’s as simple as promoting your full range of products and services to the customers that come into your shop. If they come in as a one-off to buy a new keyboard or get their laptop repaired, chances are they won’t know your full offering, and you could offer something that one of their friends will be interested in.

Selling products you wouldn’t expect to find in a PC shop, like coffee machines, can also open new business.

Facebook is fine in moderation, but like your personal profile, it works best as an extension of your social life, rather than your core focus. I think the same can be said of business – focus on traditional marketing methods first, then supplement them with social media.

Dominic Sacco, Editor dsacco@nbmedia.com

SOCIAL MEDIA – 35% FLYERS – 32% ONLINE ADVERTISING – 29% IN-STORE EVENTS – 21% DIRECT MAIL – 13% TV ADVERTISING – 3% RADIO ADVERTISING – 1%

PCR takes soundings from its Retail Advisory Board on the biggest issues in the industry. The current members are: RETAIL ADVISORY BOARD

Craig Hume, Utopia Computers

Jason Eccles, SimplyFixIT

Phil Browes, HMV

www.pcr-online.biz

Mike Barron, Synaxon

Phylip Morgan, Network Group

Iain Shaw, Brigantia

Juliet Ward, Argos

Duncan Rutherford, Dabs.com

Gavin Holder, GHI Computers

Steve Ling, Overclockers UK

Chris Innes, Micro Plus

Jonpaul Warren, Ebuyer.com

James Gorbold, Scan Computers

David Chorlton, Maplin

John Church, Shop Direct

CK, YoYoTech

Jason Hockman, Tesco

Jat Mann, PC Pal

William Jones, John Lewis

Ben Miles, Chillblast

Vladimir Kuznetsov, DinoPC

Estelle Johannes, CompTIA

Steven Lightfoot, Pudsey Computers

PCR September 2015 | 51

MYSTERY SHOPPER

Online system builders After visiting online system builders last year for a gaming desktop, this month our Mystery Shopper returns to find a small form-factor PC ideal for gaming. Armed with a budget of £800, let’s see how they get on…

6/10 ECLIPSE COMPUTERS EVERYTHING was quite squashed on Eclipse’s website, but it was great to see that prices were highlighted making it easier when it came down to a decision.

It was easy to locate the range of small form-factor PCs using the navigation bar across the top, and I could narrow my search using the filter on the left hand side. A varied selection was on offer with prices

7/10 CYBER POWER

ranging from £138 to £500, but in the end I picked out the SFP Prodigy Series System.

A step-by-step guide then aided me through the configuration process, where I could choose my own RAM, motherboard and processors. Although, when it came to checking out, I was slightly shocked to see that the delivery was a pricey £14.95.

A SUMMER giveaway banner greeted me on Cyber Power’s site, and the bright colours made my visit even more enticing.

Unfortunately I couldn’t locate the mini PCs, as they were not under a separate category, instead they were hidden within brand names such as Intel and AMD. Eventually I found the Vapor P, priced at £478.80. All of the specs for

9/10 OVERCLOCKERS I KNEW I had to check out Overclockers for a mini PC, and although there was a lot of information crammed on to its homepage, just like last year when we visited, it was easy enough to find the mini PCs thanks to the navigation bar above the page.

I found the Gigabyte Primo Nano BT with prices starting at £193.99 – well in my price range. Once it boiled down to the configuration process, I was given an option to

52 | PCR September 2015

the device were listed alongside it, from what RAM was included, to its motherboard and memory, and I was also given the opportunity to change any if I wished to.

When it came to checking out, I had the option to pay using PayPal and I was pleased to see that the standard delivery was free of charge. I also didn’t have to create an account to complete my order, which was a great relief.

7/10 SCAN

add Windows 10, various security software programs and alternative memory sizes.

Once again I had to create an account to purchase my selected item, but there was a variety of payment options from PayPal and Visa to choose from.

I was also given the option to log in using an Amazon account, which proved to be a much simpler process compared to starting up a new account.

A LIVE webcast launch of Windows 10 is the first thing I see when I reach Scan’s homepage, before I notice the navigation bar situated above it. Although the bar was very comprehensive and laid out in alphabetical order, I struggled to find any mini PCs, something we found a problem with last year when we visited.

Instead, I tried using the search bar to find what I was after and voila – up popped some mini PCs.

There was a varied selection on offer, but the MSI Wind Box DC111 Mini PC System caught my eye.

After clicking to view the device, I found a series of reviews, which was a bonus, plus several images were also visible on the page so I was able to get a glimpse of the product I was purchasing.

Sadly, I could only pre-order the PC rather then buy it outright, which was a slight hindrance on my visit.

www.pcr-online.biz

MYSTERY SHOPPER

10/10 CHILLBLAST

8/10 UTOPIA COMPUTERS

WITHOUT A doubt, Chillblast had the best layout in terms of navigation and simplicity, and I was able to choose my PC by task, which took me to the system builder’s range of compact PCs. There were countless PCs available for me to pick through, but only two made it into my budget of £800. In the end I opted for the Chillblast Fusion Master Box, which came with the option to customise, and for an extra £35

I could add an Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell processor, which of course I did. Plus, it already came equipped with Windows 10.

After this stage, I got the option to include some peripherals from monitors to mice, and in the end my total came to £764.98.

I was given the choice of paying with Amazon or PayPal and I didn’t have to sign up, which is always a bonus in my book.

STAR STORE

GAMING screams out as you enter Utopia’s site with the homepage telling users they will get The Phantom Pain free with selected products.

After locating the mini PC range I had just two devices to inspect, and I decided to take the 4K-ready Hero, which came with the tagline ‘epic gaming in your living room’.

Similar to when we visited last year, there were plenty of specs listed about the Hero, and I was given four set levels to choose from when it came to configuring the PC.

7/10

7/10 YOYOTECH

DINOPC

I HAD some trouble trying to find my desired mini PC on the YoYoTech website, but in the end I found them positioned under the home/desktop PCs page.

There were a few on show for me to pluck my way through, but in the end I went for the Virtue Vesa Box 1, complete with Intel HD graphics and 8GB DDR3 memory. It was also priced at a bargain £269.99.

After picking my device, I was given the choice of which Office

SUMMARY

www.pcr-online.biz

This approach made it much simpler when it came to picking my components, and I opted for ‘Level 2’, priced at £719, which featured an Intel Core i3 processor and an Nvidia GTX 960. However, this was the highest set of specs I could get for my buck, as the other levels were way out of my price range.

Before I reached the checkout, I was given the option to add a custom paint design, but unfortunately that took me over my budget so I continued without.

software I preferred, as well as if I wanted a keyboard or a mouse. A series of images were also embedded in the page pointing out all of the device’s ports, which was a helpful addition.

When it came to checkout, I was pleased to see that I didn’t have to waste any time setting up an account, and could go straight through to entering my details. Plus, I could get my hands on the system in three to five days for £4.16.

ALL IN all, each system builder had an abundance of mini PCs for me to choose from this month.

Using a website to find a device, navigation proved to be of great importance, but Scan and Cyber Power were unfortunately disappointing when it came to

AS SOON as I entered DinoPC I was greeted with a headline reading ‘gaming PCs’ – just what I was after.

It even informed me that the prices started from £549.

Some of the compact PCs were a little pricey, but I eventually spotted the Mini Gamer for £599, down from £699 – a bargain in my eyes. Some of the specs were also already listed below the product, so I didn’t have to keep clicking on to different pages to find what I was after.

locating a mini PC. I appreciated the fact that the specs were listed beneath each product on DinoPC’s website, similarly I found Utopia Computer’s level system a much simpler way of configuring a PC. I was a little shocked to see how expensive some delivery prices

were, with Eclipse Computers offering to deliver my PC for £14.95, but I liked the fact YoYoTech included imagery within the products spec to point out its ports.

Overclockers proved to be a tough contender this month, but thanks to its competitive prices and

A free copy of McAfee Antivirus came with the device and I opted for a Core i5 processor when it came to customising the PC, taking the price up to £648.11.

I then got the chance to add some more items to my bill, including a monitor or a keyboard.

As I went through to pay I was welcomed by a new customer checkout option, since I wasn’t already a member, and had to sign up to make my final purchase. stress-free website, Chillblast was able to scoop the top spot.

I didn’t have to set up an account to complete my order for a PC and felt that the customer service given from the site was top notch, making Chillblast a deserving winner this month.

PCR September 2015 | 53

RETAILER OF THE MONTH

FACT FILE Year established: 2006 Number of staff: Four Address: 14 Cumberland Avenue, Dephna Group, Park Royal, London, NW10 7QL Telephone: 020 7183 8883 Email: info@jrlinton.co.uk Website: www.jrlinton.co.uk www.jrlintonapps.uk

JR Linton After scooping the Special Recognition award at Synaxon’s 2015 event, JR Linton’s MD Jeffery Linton is now looking to further diversify the retailer’s portfolio. Jade Burke asks about the firm’s online store and offline services…

How did the business start?

It started after we visited a show at the NEC in Birmingham back in 2006, where all these gadgets were on show. We were talking to Sony and Toshiba and they told us that we needed to go to a tuition team who will explain how to get stock.

What products and services do you offer?

In terms of online, we offer most hardware, from servers to headphones, processors and laptops. One of the services we started to offer a year ago is mobile apps to businesses in London. We build apps for specific businesses like a restaurant, we service the app, we teach them how to promote it, how to get more downloads and interact through push notifications. We also team up with other resellers in the dealer community like DMSL and Cloud Telephones, and whatever services they’re offering, we then use them as experts to our customers. www.pcr-online.biz

You currently offer VoIP services, what are the benefits of this?

For us it’s a situation where we close the loopholes, where we become a one-stop shop.

It’s nice to be able to provide IT support or sell hardware to a client, and then if they have an issue with their phone, you can help.

We’re also working with Cloud Telephones to install a cloud base IVR system, where you can queue up to 20 people on a phone.

Will you be stocking any new products this year?

Products wise, I think we have so many, but there was something we saw at the 2015 Synaxon National Conference. It was an air purifier and we are strongly looking at adding it to our portfolio, because a lot of the clients we have are businesses in London in office blocks.

Believe it or not, one of my clients has bought actual oxygen, and has it on each of their staff members’ desks.

What are the benefits of being an etailer?

We don’t rely 100 per cent on just being online, for example we have got our phone number stamped online, so customers can call us for sales and advice. I would sum it up by saying we can provide a very personal, classy service.

“Believe it or not, one of my clients has bought actual oxygen and has it on their staff members’ desks.”

Jeffery Linton, JR Linton

At the same time it’s just being there when customers need you. The customers that we visit on a monthly basis, their bills are never late and they’re quick to take on any advice that you give them, or

a solution. So I would sum it up as, although you’re online, make sure you have a very personal service that you can offer your clients, rather than trying to go far and wide.

Do you prepare for Black Friday? If so, how?

Yes we do. Usually there’s a lot of preparation, so we’ll speak to some of the distributors, and there’s always call-out days going on.

It’s a situation where you hope customers won’t just go for that one deal, and that they’ll come back again. We take part in it for the sake of it, just to say: ‘hey, remember us, spend some of the money with us as well’.

We find that the clients that keep coming back to us allow us to look after them. It means they’re more loyal, and we don’t have to wonder what’s going to happen in six months time with the business. It’s a bit like a culture rather than a strategy and that culture is really good.

The customers like it; it feels

good talking to them and hearing the results of the solution we provide to them.

How did you feel after receiving the special recognition award at the Synaxon Conference?

That was a surprise and a half because JR Linton was nominated for two categories – Etailer of the Year and Special Recognition. That was amazing and it had us pumped. We came back to London with the award and we’re in a situation where we’re talking to new clients and telling them we’re an award-winning company.

What does the future hold for the business?

We are exhibiting at the Takeaway Innovation Expo at London Excel in September, which we are excited about.

JR Linton will also be pushing mobile apps in the future, we will be pushing more cloud-based services, connection vouchers and lots of other services.

PCR September 2015 | 55

It’s not the perfect home until it’s the perfect view

winner

» That’s German attitude!

The be quiet! Silent Base 800 Window PC case is simply the perfect home for your valuable components.

It offers not only a perfect view inside your PC, but also a great symbiosis of noise prevention and cooling performance, a good usability and an extensive capacity for high-end hardware.

Available at:

An innovative construction, three pre-installed Pure Wings 2 fans, sound insulation features and tool-free mounting are only a few of the reasons why Silent Base 800 regular and windowed version are the perfect choice for high-end gaming gear and quiet systems.

For more information visit bequiet.com.

Entire be quiet! range available at: spire.co.uk, entaonline.com, and caseking.co.uk

56 | PCR September 2015

www.pcr-online.biz

Recommended Dedicated monthly product coverage

The latest tech Editorial planner

The Predator’s armour case houses an IceTunnel cooling system Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 graphics card comes with the desktop

A range of ports including two PCIE X1 slots are available for users

Acer’s game changer GAMING IS starting to gain momentum with Acer, now that the vendor has unleashed its ‘unstoppable fighting machine’, the Acer Predator G6-710 gaming desktop. This is the first in the series of Acer’s ‘game changing’ Predator range.

Powered by the latest 6th Generation Intel Core i76700K processors, the desktop delivers fast

processing speeds, whilst running on Windows 10. It packs 64GB of DDR4 dualchannel memory, which lets users play, stream, work or run any other tasks at the same time.

The ‘One-Punch’ CPU overclocking capability is combined with the IceTunnel cooling system, which helps to keep the desktop chilled when used excessively, while

Wi-Fi 802.11ac network connectivity is also available for users.

Andrew Hou, general manager for the stationary computing business unit at Acer, said: “We are thrilled to unveil our new Predator gaming machine for hardcore gamers that’s as enthralling on the exterior with its belligerent armour design as it is on the inside.

“It combines all the bleeding edge technology gamers need to perform at their best. And with performance to spare, they can rest assured their investment will last for many, many gaming sessions.”

The Predator boasts an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics card with UHD 4K2K 3840x2160 display capabilities and Creative Sound Blaster,

which users can personalise and tune thanks to the new UI. Plus, a set of audio jacks are also included, so the unit can be used for large groups who wish to play.

This is all packed into the Predator’s armour case, which allows for bi-directional inflow of air to enable the IceTunnel cooling, along with two M.2 slots, one PCIE X16 slot and two PCIE X1 slots.

Contact: Exertis Home (01279 822 822), Exertis IT (01256 707070), Tech Data (01256 788 000) | Price: £1,299

www.pcr-online.biz

PCR September 2015 | 57

RECOMMENDED

ASRock revamps range FOLLOWING the release of Intel’s 6th Generation processors, dubbed Skylake, ASRock has developed a range of new motherboards featuring the Z170 chipset.

The firm has revamped its motherboard product lines, including the Extreme, ASRock Gaming, Pro and OC Formula Series, all boasting Intel’s new processors.

The Extreme Series includes a generation of high performance motherboards, specifically tailored for designers and enthusiasts, with the Z170 Extreme7+ (pictured) spearheading the series. The board has four PCIe Gen3 x16 slots, which support graphics cards and workstation pro graphics cards. It also features three SATA Express ports and three Ultra M.2 slots. The

Plus, the Pro Series has been updated with the edition of the Intel chipset, including the Zi70 Pro4, Pro4S and Z170M Pro4S, which all boast 64GB of memory.

Lastly, the Z170 OC Formula motherboard from

The Extreme7+ features three SATA Express ports

“The Extreme Series has been designed for designers and enthusiasts.”

Extreme6+, Extreme6, Extreme4+ and Extreme4 make up the rest of the range.

In addition, ASRock has unveiled the Gaming Series,

with the Z170 Gaming K6+ taking the top tier position.

This board packs PCIe x16 slots for building CrossFireX and SLI configurations. It also

boasts a USB 3.1 panel and a range of SATA Express ports.

The Gaming K6, Gaming K4, Gaming K4/D3 and Gaming ITX/ac complete the range.

the OC Formula Series finalises the collection. This board holds DDR4 DIMM slots that can reach speeds of up to 4,000MHz, plus four PCIE Gen3 x16 slots and three Ultra M.2 slots.

Contact: Entatech (0333 101 1000), Spire Technology (01202 828 444), Target Components (01977 739 300) | Price: From £136

The sky’s the limit Razer weaves in

OFFICIALLY known as Skylake, Intel’s latest 6th Generation Core processors have been unveiled. The two new quad-core CPUs include the i7-6700K and the i5-6600K, with more processors expected to launch later this year.

Designed exclusively for desktops, the i76700K has been clocked at 4.0GHz while the i66600K has been clocked to 3.5GHz. The new selection of processors also support DDR4 memory and is said to achieve 30 per cent greater performance than a three-year-old PC based on Ivy Bridge architecture. The chipset is also believed to be able to deliver speeds that are 20 per cent better than Haswell chips and 10 per cent better than current Broadwell chips.

Intel’s Turbo Boost 2.0 technology is also included with the new chips, while Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology also allows each processor core to work on two tasks at the same time.

Contact: Avnet (01344 662 000), Hammer (01256 841000), Ingram Micro (0871 973 3000), Microtronica (020 7786 3400), Tech Data (01256 788 000) | Price: i7-6700K $350, i5-6600K $243

more colour DESIGNED specifically for tournament-grade controls, Razer has unveiled its new mechanical gaming keypad, dubbed the Orbweaver Chroma.

It provides gamers with 20 fully programmable Razer Mechanical Switches, an eight-way directional thumb-pad, an adjustable hand, thumb and palm modules and a range of lighting features.

Min-Liang Tan, co-founder and CEO of Razer, commented: “The Razer Orbweaver Chroma is the ultimate instrument of game control and style. It’s a powerful feeling to have all essential gaming keys at your fingertips, without any distractions, on a device that offers absolute comfort.”

The customisable key pad features built-in green Razer Mechanical Switches that come with a required actuation force of 50 grams, meaning commands are given as fast as a users’

fingers can trigger them. Plus, the Orbweaver comes with up to 16.8 million customisable colour options, as well as a range of lighting effects, including Wave and Breathing, which are all enabled through Razer’s Synapse driver software.

Contact: VIP Computers | 0871 622 7500 | Price: £119.99 58 | PCR September 2015

www.pcr-online.biz

RECOMMENDED

Lights, camera, action Corsair and Cherry TOMTOM HAS expanded its portfolio of cameras with the addition of the new TomTom Bandit, the first 4K action camera that comes with a built in media server.

Video highlights can be marked on the go with the Bandit, and by shaking a connected smartphone, these clips are arranged into a video that can be shared instantly. Users can also record scenes in slow motion and create time lapse recordings.

A microSD card slot unit is included with the Bandit, while a 1,900mAh battery provides users with up to three hours battery life when

collaborate

recording in 1080p HD. In addition, the camera is also waterproof in up to 50 metres of water thanks to the additional use of the dive lens cover, and comes with a range of sensors including GPS, Speed, G-Force, Altitude and Rotation.

CORSAIR AND Cherry have teamed up to produce the new STRAFE RGB Silent gaming keyboard, the world’s first keyboard to feature Cherry’s MX Silent switches. These switches help to lower the actuation of the keyboard, and deliver greater speed and precision when in use.

The new switches, combined with the noise-supressing architecture of

Contact: DirekTek | 01494 471100 | Price: From £299.99

the keyboard chassis make the STRAFE 30 per cent quieter than other mechanical keyboards.

In addition, the device offers users customisable backlighting with up to 16.8 million colours and lighting configurations and effects. Each key on the keyboard can be programmed with automated macros using CUE (Corsair Utility Engine) software.

Contact: Entatech (0333 101 1000), Exertis Home (01279 822 822), Exertis IT (01256 707070) | Price: TBC

Editorial Planner

A look at the biggest features coming up in PCR over the next few months...

2015

YEAR IN REVIEW

OCTOBER 2015

NOVEMBER 2015

DECEMBER 2015

DISTRIBUTOR SPECIAL

SECURITY SPECIAL

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

PCR finds out what resellers and retailers really think of the distributors within the channel. We also compile a list of distributors’ profiles for retailers, featuring contact and stock details.

We take a look back on our PCR Women of the Year awards, and prepare for our upcoming Boot Camp North event. We also review the state of the security market this month.

With the year coming to an end we look ahead to 2016 and review Boot Camp North. We also find out when disties will be open during Christmas and highlight the newsmakers of the past year.

Sector Guides: Apple accessories (Mac/iPhone/ iPad), Apple software.

Sector Guides: Security software, security hardware (CCTV), health and fitness tech.

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PCR September 2015 | 59

OUT OF OFFICE

FUN AND GAMES MEMBERS OF the industry flocked in the masses to this year’s Gamescom event, where all manner of weird gadgets and gizmos were on show.

The trade let their hair down with attendees checking out the gaming booths, while others were seen wandering around with virtual reality headsets on, which depicted all kinds of out of this world experiences.

But it wasn’t all fun and games, throughout the event various talks and conferences were held, giving listeners an idea of where the industry is heading. But judging by the pictures, it looked like this year’s event proved to be a great deal of fun.

IN THE

HOT SEAT Danny Young Fish are one of the biggest phobias for Ebuyer’s content manager Danny Young, here he tells PCR why…

How competitive are you (inside and outside of work)?

I am very competitive, almost childishly so. I like to win and sulk if I don’t.

What was your first job?

I worked in a garden centre in Sheffield when I was 14, selling Christmas trees. It was incredibly cold, but I got plenty of tips from drunken post-pub shoppers.

What’s the strangest thing you have cooked or eaten?

Starfish, it was terrible. I had it in Beijing last year and it tasted like a warm fishy pork scratching with black goo in the middle.

I also had a ‘grub’ that tasted like a warm teabag.

Do you have any phobias?

I hate fish. Particularly small unpredictable ones. Can’t trust them, unless they are on my plate.

What’s your dream car?

I’m not a big car fan, nor very knowledgeable. However I like the concept of a VW camper driven around the Mediterranean.

If you could go back in time what would you do?

Probably invest in Google, seems like those guys have done well and could do with the money.

What’s going to be the next big thing in tech?

I think it might be something mundane but helpful like better battery technology. Everyone is getting fed up with their phones, tablets or wearables dying after 20 hours.

60 | PCR September 2015

FROM THE ARCHIVE PC Retail October 2003 WE GO back to the very first issue of PCR to see how tech has changed…

AMD launches the new 64-bit version of its Athlon processor with the Athlon 64…LG announces the Super Multi Write Plus Drive, which the company claims can re-write all three DVD formats…Pure Digital announces the first DAB clock radio in the form of the TEMPUS-1…

Trust picks up two retail gongs at the European RetailVision event, with Best Retail Strategy and Best Vendor…Dixons ends its agreement with Freeserve and signs up AOL as its new ISP for customers…

PLUS…A City & Guilds survey reveals one in seven need help with switching their computer on and off at work…A peripheral vendor creates a range of ‘smart sofas’ complete with built-in microchips…

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OUT OF OFFICE

NEC JOINS CHARITY GOLF DAY EMPLOYEES from NEC Display Solutions (pictured below left) took part in a recent golf day, where £21,000 was raised for Sense International, a charity that supports deafblind people in developing countries.

The tournament, which took place at Buckingham

Golf Club, saw the likes of celebrity golfers and famous football players take part, including Ray Clemence and Luther Blissett, (pictured below right).

This is the second year NEC has taken part, raising thousands for the charity’s

‘Finding Grace’ campaign, which aims to raise funds for a programme to screen 300,000 infants in Kenya and Uganda with deafblindness. All in all it seems the day was a great success and will certainly make a difference to the children’s lives.

140 CHARACTERS OF NEWS AND VIEWS What the industry’s been tweeting about this month…

Intel UK @IntelUK What do #Intel engineers look like? This. #ILookLikeAnEngineer Gemma Telford, IT Marketing Agency @gemmaitmarketng Great to be included in the Diversity Drive piece in this month’s PCR mag! :) #alwaysgotsomethingtosay! @it_mktgagency Nancy Hammervik, CompTIA @nhammerv Proud to work with PCR on 2015 Women of the Year!

It came from…

JAPAN

DESIGNED for nursery kids, this friendly pink robot can take photos and can dance with children. Dubbed Meebo, UniFa Co Ltd is responsible for creating the disco-dancing machine, which can also check the temperature and give vocal warnings to children about avoiding heatstroke.

Armed with the slogan ‘He is a hero. He is your friend’,

Meebo can even save lives from natural disasters as he can provide an earlywarning earthquake alert.

For now, Meebo is being offered through a package called Rukumi, where the droid is rented out for a monthly fee of ¥9,800 (£50), so perhaps soon enough schools in the UK will be able to get their hands on their very own Meebo robot.

CROWDFUNDING CORNER CUSTOMISED with Windows 10, the Fusion Micro mini PC lets users surf the web, check emails, load apps and play games. It features an Intel Cherry Trail Atom chipset for greater performance and Wi-Fi with 5GHz speeds.

Although it is a mini device, it packs a punch with its DDR3L 4GB RAM, while varied storage options are available, including 32GB and 64GB. Gamers also won’t be disappointed, with its built-in Intel HD Graphics.

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Eugene Kaspersky, Kaspersky Lab @e_kaspersky I don’t usually read @reuters. But when I do, I see false positives. For the record: this story is a complete BS Anna Cheng, Intel @starhawke13 2 processors down, rest of the family to go!

Happy launch everyone!

Chuck Robbins, Cisco @ChuckRobbins Thanks and congratulations to all of the great people @Cisco who worked so hard to deliver record results for Q4 and FY15! #WeAreCisco Microsoft UK @MicrosoftUK Our CEO @satyanadella has taken the #ALSIceBucketChallenge for the 2nd year in a row! #WindowsInsiders your turn!

AMD_UK @AMD_UK Windows 10 is finally here! Did you upgraded today or are you still waiting? #Windows10 Lexus @Lexus Watch the first steps in the journey of the Lexus Hoverboard. #LexusHover #AmazingInMotion

Powered by a Micro-USB port, the Fusion Micro can also plug into an HDMI port and transform any display into a PC, plus it also works

with projectors, so now users will have no excuse when it comes to delivering that dreaded presentation Monday morning.

Paul Tomlinson, Mirus IT @PT_MirusIT Finishing off my presentation for @autotask event next week - Really excited to be on the same line up as rugby legend @CliveWoodward

PCR September 2015 | 61

THE LAST WORD

Community is key to PC gaming Brands who want to succeed in the PC gaming sector shouldn’t focus on sales numbers and price cuts, but must show passion, find their niche and give back to gamers to help grow the community, argues YoYoTech MD CK… THE PC system building market has totally changed. It has reinvented itself out of gaming.

At YoYoTech we saw this market emerging years ago and realised this is where the future of PCs would lie. Going forwards, we must be creative.

We’ve all got to find that angle and our own little niche. You’ve got to bring some uniqueness to your brand. There’s a lot of opportunities in the open market for gamers and gaming companies, so we’ve just got to keep our creative hat on, come up with ideas and listen to the community. We’ve got to bring something new, not just try to

We will also be looking at sponsoring players that stream games online very soon. We’ve grown from a small company due to our local customers, so as we grow we’d like to give back to the community. And I believe that it’s important for gaming brands to give back to the community and grow it.

Gaming is all about the community, and the community all buys from each other.

There will be more opportunities around the corner too, like virtual reality, which could be the future of gaming – but I think these companies need to be smart

“eSports is very important. I think it’s the bread and butter of the industry.”

CK, YoYoTech do what everyone else is doing or what the tier 1s are doing, or compete with the consoles.

Gaming is all about imagination.

I had a meeting with Microsoft recently and they said the UK gaming market is in double-digit growth. Windows 10 is also a good move, and with DirectX 12 and more Xbox games coming onto PCs, as well as Intel Skylake systems, it’s all fantastic news for the channel.

Looking beyond new hardware, eSports is very, very important. We’re about to make some real announcements regarding eSports in the coming months. I think it’s the bread and butter of the gaming industry and we must not ignore it.

with how they launch their headsets. There needs to be product loyalty. I hope it doesn’t become another product which is a [price] bloodbath on Amazon or something like that.

I just hope the community realises how important it is for them to support local vendors and factories, because without that, gaming would not have grown to this level that it’s at today. The bigger beast always just wants to sell and tries not to give anything back, but PC gamers are loyal and passionate.

They’re the reason quality products are always coming out – because they’re forcing higher quality. For gaming to grow to the next level, the passion needs to remain there.

Editorial: 01992 535646 Advertising: 01992 535647 Website: www.pcr-online.biz Twitter: @pcr_online PCR is published 12 times a year by NewBay Media - Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire SG14 1JA. Fax: +44 (0)1992 535648. © NewBay Media 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The contents of PCR are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. Printed by Pensord.

62 | PCR September 2015

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