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

Crucial and WD_Black SSDs
Best cheap SSD deals today

By Jess Kinghorn last updated

Deals Add more storage space to your PC for less with one of the deals I've spotted.

Deals
Black Friday listing image with a Silicon Power SSD featured
Black Friday SSD deals 2026

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Black Friday Black Friday will be here before we know it, making it the perfect time to scout out the ultimate storage upgrade.

Black Friday
A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor, resting against a colorful, Intel-branded box
Intel takes massive chunk out of AMD's desktop CPU market share in unexpected turnaround - may be due to the red team's dominance in gaming chips, weirdly

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Ain't nobody buying gaming CPUs right now.

News
Nvidia's GTC keynote with Jen-Hsun Huang at Computex, Taiwan.
'Clear national security concerns that need to be addressed immediately': new letters to Jensen Huang from Congress strike a tougher tone for the ex-Nvidia CEO

By Jacob Ridley Published

News They threaten subpoenas if he doesn't show up, but he's intimated that he'll attend the meeting.

News
Nvidia's large presence at Computex 2023.
Next Nvidia CEO has to have national security as a 'top priority' says chairman of US Gov committee on China – claims Huang departure 'could have been avoided'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News A clear message to Nvidia's board.

News
The Nvidia logo next to a picture of the company's new CEO, Colette Kress.
Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia's new interim CEO?

By Jacob Ridley Published

News With Jensen Huang gone, someone has to fill his boots. That's Kress, for the time being.

News
A picture of ex-Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang next to the Nvidia logo.
How Nvidia got into this mess: timeline of Jensen Huang scandal and geopolitics leading up to it

By Jacob Ridley Published

Follow the story We're hearing a lot more about this now, but this story didn't totally begin with Jensen's admission of an affair.

Follow the story
A split image of Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, and Colette Kress, interim CEO.
Jensen Huang resigns, CFO Colette Kress appointed interim CEO at Nvidia

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Company co-founder seemingly ousted following multiple affair scandals.

News
Nvidia's GTC keynote with Jen-Hsun Huang at Computex, Taiwan.
Law firms lining up for a chance to bop Nvidia’s nose on behalf of its own shareholders; president Trump says FBI are sniffing around the AI company's case

By Jacob Ridley Published

News It's all kicking off now.

News
Black Friday listing image with Secretlab chair featured
Black Friday gaming chair deals 2026

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Black Friday Black Friday approaches once again, and we are seated for some cracking gaming chair deals this year.

Black Friday
A photo compilation showing Jensen Huang on the right talking at an event and an Nvidia GPU rack on the left.
Jensen Huang’s affair with alleged Chinese spy highlights how the GPU company’s dealings are now everyone’s business

By Jacob Ridley Published

Chip wars He used to sell gaming GPUs, now he's in the middle of a geopolitical quagmire.

7 Comments
Chip wars
Link in the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake reportedly running at 60 fps on PC just hours after game's official Nintendo Switch 2 release

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Visual and performance issues not quite ironed out yet, which will be music to Nintendo's ears.

22 Comments
News
Nvidia RTX 5090 and XFX RX 9070 graphics cards
Best graphics cards in 2026: These are the GPUs worth spending money in right now

By Dave James last updated

Pixel Pushers I've made a career out of prodding graphics cards and this has been the toughest set of recommendations I can remember.

Pixel Pushers
A picture of Nintendo Switch 2 dock with the console inside, and the Switch 2 box behind it
Switch 2 sales dropped 37% this summer, mostly before the price hike hit; Nintendo now expects sales to slump 16.9% in console's second year

By Jacob Ridley Published

News The Switch 2 is still comfortably ahead of the Switch in its first year, but it might not be ahead by its second.

19 Comments
News
A screenshot of the framedepth extension running on a Steam Frame in Chrome, with Enter Shikari playing on YouTube to test.
I'm watching YouTube videos in glorious stereoscopic 3D on my Steam Frame with just a free plugin and a long-forgotten dream of a new Nintendo 3DS

By Jacob Ridley Published

News It sorta looks like it's in three dimensions!

News
The Binance logo on a screen.
Dodgy download and spoofed job ad led to $6.3 billion Binance hack: attacker offered fake software and fake job to infiltrate company wallets and steal billions

By Jacob Ridley Published

News I'm feeling fresh appreciation for my company's mandatory cybersecurity awareness course.

News
The top 100 PC games

By Phil Savage Published

Class of 2026 PC Gamer's annual list of the 100 best PC games you can play—updated for 2026

120 Comments
Class of 2026
The Binance logo on a screen.
Users pull $3.6 bn from Binance as it reopens following $6.3 billion mega-hack - FBI says North Korean hacking group 'TraderTraitor' to blame, North Korea says nuh-uh

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Plenty of users still happy to deposit their funds into the cryptocurrency exchange nevertheless.

News
A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor, resting against a colorful, Intel-branded box
Intel giving us a reason to be excited for Nova Lake: 'We've had a bit of a hole in our portfolio for high-end desktop, Nova Lake filled in that gap'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News More to come at CES 2027 in January.

News
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and an Intel chip with a white diagonal line dividing the two
Intel shifts Panther Lake capacity to data center chips while the memory crisis wreaks havoc on PC market; still sold out of budget Wildcat Lake chips

By Jacob Ridley Published

News "The next few quarters will be challenging for the PC market," says CEO Tan.

8 Comments
News
The Binance logo on a screen.
Compromised laptop could be to blame for record $6.3 billion cryptocurrency heist: Binance rushes to freeze stolen assets as experts blame North Korean group

By Jacob Ridley Published

News A DevOps engineer's compromised laptop may have been the first domino to fall in this record-breaking heist.

News
MSI and Koorui gaming monitors on a green background with the PC Gamer recommended logo in the top right
Best gaming monitors in 2026: the pixel-perfect panels I'd buy myself

By Dave James last updated

Eye candy The best gaming monitors balance price with panel quality, resolution and refresh rate.

Eye candy
Jensen Huang on stage at the Nvidia GTC event on the sidelines of Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Nvidia CEO reportedly targeted by Chinese spy previously under suspicion for AI chip smuggling

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Nvidia says Huang would've only spoken about "ordinary business information" with a data center exec anyways.

News
Two handheld gaming PCs on a yellow background with the PC Gamer Recommended badge in the top right
Best handheld gaming PC in 2026: my recommendations for the best portable powerhouses

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Portable PC PC gaming is officially portable now, and these handheld gaming PCs are the best around.

Portable PC
The Havn HS 360 PC case in black and white on a desk.
Havn HS 360 review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 90% Stunning simplicity.

Score: 90%
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