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

By Jacob Ridley Last updated
Light it up! Whether making your Twitch stream more professional or aiming for an ambient office environment, I've got the best lighting kits for your PC covered.

By Dave James Last updated
4K Vision The best 4K gaming monitor has all the bells and whistles an enthusiast could ever want or need.

By Jacob Ridley Last updated
Freedom Cut the cord with the best wireless gaming keyboards.

By Jacob Ridley Last updated
Quick digits The best Hall effect, optical or induction gaming keyboards are built for competitive gameplay, but they offer something for everybody.

By Jacob Ridley Last updated
Cool Breeze Our picks for the best CPU coolers will have your processor running cool with air or liquid during the hottest gaming sessions.

By Jeremy Laird Last updated
High speed Our choices for the best NVMe M.2 SSDs give you blisteringly fast load times.

By Dave James Last updated
Top Desks We've chosen the best gaming desks based on hours of playing on both sitting and standing desks, just to see which is worth your money.

By Jacob Ridley Published
News You shouldn't have to worry about expired certificates if you keep your PC up-to-date.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 You don't want to know how many times they mentioned gaming.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 AI and fears of further price increases have made for a strange CES for gamers.

By Jacob Ridley Last updated
CES 2026 A taste of the year ahead.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 Even AMD had its doubts about the utility of such a chip.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 David McAfee says it's something AMD is "very actively working on" but hasn't confirmed yet.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 Hey, if it means better battery life for laptops, I'm in.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 Be Quiet! has its eyes on the prize.

By Jacob Ridley Published
CES 2026 I'm debating how long it'd take for the novelty to wear off.

By Jacob Ridley Published
News Bye, bye, WD Black.

By Jacob Ridley Published
Coming up... RAM, Shmam. These are things to get genuinely excited about this year.

By Jacob Ridley Published
Gear of the Year Let's give it up for affordable all-in-one liquid coolers.

By Jacob Ridley Published
🏆 Best played with friends. And cigs.

By Jacob Ridley Published
News Random IOPS could increase by up to 80% for servers, says Microsoft.

By Jacob Ridley Published
News And it's fast at 240 Hz.
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