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

Crimson Desert's main character, Kliff, with a visual glitch on his face.
Crimson Desert is now somewhat playable on Intel Arc graphics cards, though Kliff's face didn't make it

By Jacob Ridley Published

News We managed to get the game to boot with the latest Intel drivers, but I'd hold off for now.

News
Dave's gaming PC on his desk
Where does your PC live? There is obviously one correct answer, can you pick it out?

By Dave James Published

Poll Don't hide your gaming light under a bushel. Or a desk.

Poll
Two screwdrivers on a desk with orange highlights, sold by the YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips, or LTT for short.
LTT Ratcheting Screwdriver and Precision Pro Multi-Bit Screwdriver review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 88% Serious tools.

18 Comments
Score: 88%
A Miyo keycap that includes a tiny watch face.
Here's a keycap that's also a watch, for the discerning gamer

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Two of my favourite things in one adorable unit.

News
An iPad Mini A17 and iPhone 16 on a desk with a gaming PC in the background.
Apple turns 50 today: here's what it does better than PC (no foolin')

By Jacob Ridley Published

Happy birthday The Mac vs PC debate is as old as the companies that make 'em. But even I can admit Apple silicon is a bit of a beast.

Happy birthday
LocalSend interface atop of the LocalSend website.
LocalSend is the most useful app I've come across in a very long time, letting me share files across devices with a couple clicks

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Open source and free.

News
The Thermaltake View 380 WS ARGB on a desk with various components fitted.
Thermaltake View 380 WS ARGB review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 83% Affordable and flashy.

Score: 83%
AMD Oberon APU from PlayStation 5 on a DualSense controller
Sony hikes the PS5 price by $100, PS5 Pro by $150: 'this was a necessary step'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Ouch, and for a generation that's over five years old.

News
A diagram showing the SR Pedal Stand Pro from SR Rigs.
This simple gaming chair bracket could have saved me years of sim racing with two wooden blocks holding my pedals in place

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Seems like a smart fix for a very annoying issue.

News
Cloudfest server throwing championship in Germany.
Tossing servers for sport: IT experts are once again seeing how far they can fling a server rack

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Rage against the machine.

News
A Keychron K2 HE on a background with the word 'Deals' and the PC Gamer logo.
You can grab a Hall effect gaming keyboard that we've consistently ranked as one of the best for $112 in Amazon's Big Spring Sale

By Jacob Ridley Published

Deal The Keychron K2 HE is pretty classy.

Deal
An image showing the retail boxes for an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, against a gradient green background, with a PC Gamer Recommended logo in the top right corner
Best CPU for gaming in 2026: These are the chips I recommend for gaming, productivity, and peace of mind

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

Happy Cores Fire up your rig with the best CPU for gaming. More cores, more clocks, more of everything that matters.

Happy Cores
Framework AMD mainboard running in a Cooler Master chassis, with SteamOS on it
Big update to SteamOS improves support for non-Valve handhelds, newer platforms, discrete GPUs, and Steam Machine

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Wayland has also arrived.

News
A Corsair PC case, the 3200D, on a desk with various panels removed and ready for a PC build.
Corsair 3200D review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 86% The price is a pleasant surprise.

Score: 86%
Intel Arc B580 graphics card
Intel must also hate waiting for shaders to compile as it begins rollout of pre-compiled code from the cloud for faster load times

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

News A handful of games supported at launch, including COD: Black Ops 7 and Cyberpunk 2077.

News
V-color single working DIMM RAM with dummy DIMM included.
You know it's bad when RAM manufacturers launch dummy kits to make it look as though you have dual-channel memory when you actually don't

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Hey, dummy.

7 Comments
News
The Antec Flux Pro Noctua Edition on a desk with various parts disassembled.
Antec Flux Pro Noctua Edition case review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 88% The only excuse you need for a Noctua build.

Score: 88%
The Wooting 60HE v2 with a split spacebar on a desk alongside the Wooting 80HE with a normal spacebar.
Split spacebars are surely the next big gaming keyboard trend

By Jacob Ridley Published

Amicable split Watch this space.

Amicable split
A PNY RTX 5070 Ti OC graphics card on a desk with a desk mat and pink light.
PNY GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB OC review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 80% A solid pick.

Score: 80%
The Thermaltake Minecube 360 Ultra ARGB Sync set up on an open test bench.
Thermaltake Minecube 360 Ultra ARGB Sync review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 70% Four screens, good performance, high price.

Score: 70%
G-Wolves Lycan 8K mouse
This upcoming gaming mouse weighs just over 28 grams without poking holes in it

By Jacob Ridley Published

News That is actually very impressive.

News
A Meta Quest 3S, alongside a Quest 3 and Quest 2, on a stack of PC Gamer magazine.
Meta's new FrameSync feature aims to make VR a little less nauseating

By Jacob Ridley Published

News As performance demands grow for Quest headsets, Meta's updating its frame timing technique.

News
Ubuntu's user screen in the settings.
Resistance to operating system age checks coming from *checks notes* open source calculator and an OS that may just exclude Californians altogether

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Open source operating systems are wrestling with how to comply with age-checking bills.

7 Comments
News
The Yoti homepage on an iPhone.
Scientists warn against crappy age verification: 'if implemented without careful consideration… the new regulation might cause more harm than good'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Scientists and researchers from respected institutions lay out the case against age verification as we're beginning to know it.

News
The Legion Go Fold Concept in horizontal mode.
Lenovo is going long with a foldable 12-inch handheld gaming PC concept

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Not sure what's weirder: the screen size or the tiny analogue clock displayed on the controller.

News
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Archives

Other versions of this page are available with specific content for the following regions: