
Jacob Ridley
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

Game of the Year 2024: Balatro
By Robin Valentine published
🏆 Hands down the best game of the year.

Best Multiplayer 2024: Helldivers 2
By Morgan Park published
🏆 Reinventing the live service game—for democracy.

It's been a bumper year for PCs but my pick for the best new hardware in 2024 is a chassis, surprising even myself
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year Flippin' brilliant.

PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best gaming laptop of 2024
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year A bumper year for gaming laptops, thanks to new CPUs and svelte designs. But only one can win.

Best Comedy 2024: Thank Goodness You're Here!
By Kara Phillips published
🏆 The biggest laughs of the year.

I've lost weekends to crushing dissenters and seals in Frostpunk 2 and that's why it's my personal pick for game of the year
By Jacob Ridley published
🏆 The frozen wastes are ripe for tyranny.

Intel quietly slips out another Raptor Lake refresh with the Core 200-series mobile CPU lineup
By Jacob Ridley published
News Not to be confused with the Core Ultra 200-series.

I finally built the mini PC I've been dreaming of and it made me realise we've come a long way from cramped cases and fiddly connectors
By Jacob Ridley published
EZ Since when was building a compact PC so simple?

Man who lost £500 million bitcoin fortune to bin day is fighting for a chance to find it in court, after more than 10 years in a landfill
By Jacob Ridley published
News If I lost a hard drive worth £500 million, you can be sure I'd never, ever stop talking about it.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires: 'Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime'
By Jacob Ridley published
News Co-CEOs to take over for the interim as a successor is found.

Don't try and squeeze too many ideas inside one PC build: For this white gaming PC with an RTX 4080 Super, I very nearly did
By Jacob Ridley published
The Build Follow along as I build a white gaming PC.

Meta Quest 3S review
By Jacob Ridley published
Budget VR A Quest 2, but better. Or a Quest 3, but worse. Either way, this is the best VR headset on a budget.

This Half-Life 2 themed RTX 4080 Super almost makes up for the fact we're about to hit the game's 20th anniversary and there's still no Half-Life 3 in sight
By Jacob Ridley published
News Almost...

iBuyPower RDY Y40 Valorant VCTA R003 review
By Jacob Ridley published
Shipshape A ready-made machine with a lot to offer.

Havn HS 420 VGPU PC case review
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Havn it large One of the best ways to show off your build.

AMD's top Ryzen AI mobile chip featuring Zen 5 and a juiced GPU is headed to a handheld gaming PC next month
By Jacob Ridley published
News The handheld I've been dreaming of since my hands-on with the HX 370.

What the heck, my BIOS screen is 1080p now
By Jacob Ridley published
News Asus has upgraded its BIOS screens to 1080p, starting with X870/E motherboards.

Mouse, keyboard or headset? Try to guess the Logitech product from the model name alone in our silly little quiz
By Jacob Ridley published
News Difficulty: hard (unless you work at Logitech).

This streamer's Twitch chat can actively ruin his game by activating a modded headset that temporarily blinds him or setting off an IRL jumpscare
By Jacob Ridley published
News Let him cook, chat.

This new keyboard built with switches also used in ATMs across Japan has led me down a rabbit hole of typing championships where contestants compete for a golden keyboard
By Jacob Ridley published
News Ever heard of Topre keys? They're the king.

Ayaneo Flip DS review
By Jacob Ridley published
Clever clamshell A compact clamshell containing everything you need for gaming on the go.

This computer built inside Minecraft has 1,107,419 blocks, over 15 million views on TikTok, and all started 'for the fun of it'
By Jacob Ridley published
Bits 'n' blocks "How do I surpass building a massive calculator? My answer to that question was to build a 32-bit computer," says creator Ryan Boulds.

Intel Core Ultra 200S desktop CPUs deliver 'one of the largest power reductions Intel has seen in quite some time' but may fall short of 14900K in some games
By Jacob Ridley published
News Intel talks Arrow Lake—price, performance and power savings for the less bendy chips of the next generation.
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