Jacob Ridley

Jacob Ridley

Managing Editor, Hardware

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

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

Latest articles by Jacob Ridley

Razer BlackShark V3 Pro gaming headset
Razer thoughtlessly alienates half its audience with ad showing a man blocking out a woman's 'yapping' with its latest headset

By Jacob Ridley Published

News The ad is still live…

News
The Havn BF 360 PC case in both black and white with panels removed.
Havn BF 360 PC case review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 90% Excellent airflow and stunning good looks.

Score: 90%
aqua computer's Ampinel product for measuring and mitigating power demands on graphics cards.
Worried about melty graphics cards? This seriously capable gizmo keeps power in check for more peace of mind

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Ideally you wouldn't need to worry at all, but this Ampinel option looks like the next best thing.

News
An illustration of an old PC with Windows 10's background on the screen.
Time is nearly up for Windows 10—but is your Windows 10 PC screwed?

By Jacob Ridley Published

Win-goes Nah, you've still got time. Treasure it. Hold your PC close.

21 Comments
Win-goes
Microsoft Windows 10 wallpaper
A bunch of Steam players just made the switch to Windows 11 as Windows 10's death date is now less than two weeks away

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Welcome to Windows 11, gamers. It's, uh, fine?

16 Comments
News
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite headset.
SteelSeries unveils new high-end wireless gaming headset with a price tag that might be too dear for even my audiophile ears

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Is $600 a new record for gaming headsets? It's gotta be up there.

News
A bitcoin behind bars.
$6.7 billion in bitcoin scored in 'single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News A measly 61,000 bitcoins.

News
Intel Raptor Lake wafer up-close
'Much of the value creation in the semiconductor industry is occurring outside the EU' says EU member states, and they want a fresh plan to claw some chips back

By Jacob Ridley Published

News It'll take some serious cash or pressure to bring semiconductor production back to Europe, as the US is currently finding out.

News
The Hyte X50 PC case on a desk ready to be built into for testing and review.
Hyte X50 PC case review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 75% Pretty in pink (and assorted colours).

Score: 75%
Secure Boot settings in Steam.
Steam now lets you check if you have Secure Boot enabled: the security feature we're all going to have to get to grips with for Battlefield, Call of Duty and more

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Here's how to do it.

News
Corsair Frame 4500X ATX PC case throughout a PC build for testing.
Corsair Frame 4500X review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 80% A fishtank PC case that can be quite affordable.

Score: 80%
AMD Strix Point APU chip, held in a hand, with the reflected light showing the various processing blocks in the chip die
Nvidia and Intel joining forces could be seen as anti-AMD, but it just serves to highlight AMD's advantage with Ryzen and Radeon under one roof

By Jacob Ridley Published

APU A big benefit when it comes to AI.

9 Comments
APU
Doom Enhanced (1993) screenshot - chaingun firing at two floating cacodemons
Someone ran Doom to see how long it takes to crash out. It took 2 and a half years—roughly the same timeframe required to break many a retro game

By Jacob Ridley Published

News They don't make them like they used to.

7 Comments
News
NTDev's latest project, nano11, shrinks the Windows installation ISO down to under 3 GB.
This tiny version of Windows 11 fits into just 2.29 GB and is 'extremely aggressive' in removing bloat such as Xbox, Solitaire and Defender

By Jacob Ridley Published

News The debloating wizard is back at it again.

9 Comments
News
A gaming PC in the process of being built, using Radeon and Ryzen components and an Asus Pro Art PA401 PC case.
Moody and wooden, this PC and I have a lot in common: Asus ProArt Case PA401, Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RX 9070 XT build

By Jacob Ridley Published

Build it Who says you need rainbow RGBs for a good time?

Build it
The crowd cheers on the U. S. Team during the Sunday Singles Matches at the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits on September 26, 2021 in Kohler, Wisconsin.
'Ya jackass!' Europe's Pro golfers are wearing VR headsets that shout insults at them as they prepare for the American Ryder Cup crowd

By Jacob Ridley Published

News I do the same thing to prepare for work in the morning.

News
A Starlink satellite captured flying over the secretive Dingxin Airbase in China on Aug. 21, 2025 by one of the WorldView Legion Earth-observation satellites operated by U.S. company Maxar Technologies.
Satellite snaps Starlink passing underneath while taking candid shots of Chinese airbase: 'a very rare instance, but not impossible!'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Even with more stuff in orbit, the chances of this happening are extremely low.

News
The Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master X3D Ice motherboard on a gradient background.
AI, take the wheel: Gigabyte's latest motherboards will 'intelligently dynamically' improve performance of Ryzen chips by up to 25% in games through a built-in AI model

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Bot boosted.

7 Comments
News
A gaming PC in the process of being built, using Radeon and Ryzen components and an Asus Pro Art PA401 PC case.
Asus ProArt Case PA401 review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 72% Mysterious and lovely, but not for most high-end builds.

Score: 72%
A white gaming PC built using a Thermaltake PC case, Cooler Master fans, and an AMD CPU.
I've taken a proper bargain of a case from Thermaltake and built a gorgeous white PC with it

By Jacob Ridley Published

Build it A mighty air cooler from Cooler Master is the star of the show.

Build it
Two of the best captures cards on a blue background with the PC Gamer Recommends logo in the top right.
Best capture cards for PC gaming in 2026: whether it's streaming, recording, 1080p or the big 4K, these cards have you covered

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

Broadcast Show off your greatest gaming moments with the best capture cards.

Broadcast
Audeze LCD-S20 gaming headset on a desk with the planar magnetic drivers on show.
Audeze LCD-S20 Closed-back review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 76% Planar magnetic drivers with epic sound isolation.

Score: 76%
A screenshot of the Google Preferred Sources window with PC Gamer selected, over the top of a Google Search for Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Google now lets you choose who you trust for your gaming news—here's how to support PC Gamer and other human-made content

By Jacob Ridley Published

Help out I choo-choo-choose you.

61 Comments
Help out
Two pairs of headphones. One, a SteelSeries set with ANC; the other, an Audeze set with great passive sound isolation.
Active noise cancellation is the latest trend for gaming headsets: here's how a different design philosophy could do much better than half-baked ANC

By Jacob Ridley Published

Cut it out Listen.

Cut it out
An Alienware 16 Area-51 gaming laptop with RGB lighting in blue on a desk mat.
Alienware 16 Area-51 gaming laptop review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 80% An excellent Alienware chassis over top-tier components.

Score: 80%
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