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

An MSI monitor on a blue Cyber Monday background
It doesn't get much better than this 4K 144 Hz dual mode IPS gaming monitor from MSI for $200 this Cyber Monday

By Jacob Ridley Published

Cyber Monday There goes that 4K price premium...

Cyber Monday
The Proton logo on a blue Cyber Monday background.
Proton helped me ditch Google for emails, calendar, cloud storage and more and you can get its excellent VPN for $2.49/month over Cyber Monday

By Jacob Ridley Published

Cyber Monday Cut Google out of your life, one app at a time.

Cyber Monday
A Razer gaming chair on a blue Cyber Monday background.
The best thing about this gaming chair is that it doesn't look like one, and it's even cheaper for Cyber Monday than it was last week

By Jacob Ridley Published

Cyber Monday A gaming chair for the discerning gamer.

Cyber Monday
An ASRock graphics card on a blue Cyber Monday background.
A great way to get 16 GB of VRAM without breaking the bank: this RX 9070 is $530 in the Cyber Monday GPU sales

By Jacob Ridley Published

Cyber Monday Under MSRP is what we like to see.

Cyber Monday
A Meta Quest 3 on a Cyber Monday background
You can score a $75 gift card with a Quest 3 for Cyber Monday, making the VR headset I use regularly even better value

By Jacob Ridley Published

Cyber Monday It's not money off but it's the best Quest 3 deal I've found so far.

Cyber Monday
Black Friday listing image with Secretlab chair featured
Black Friday gaming chair deals 2025

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

Black Friday Black Friday has passed but the Cyber Monday gaming chair deals are taking over.

Black Friday
Black Friday listing image with a Silicon Power SSD featured
Black Friday SSD deals 2025

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

Black Friday Black Friday is over, but if you're looking for the ultimate storage upgrade, it's over to the Cyber Monday SSD deals.

Black Friday
Two handhelds on a yellow background with the words 'Black Friday' down the side.
I take my game library with me when I travel and there's no reason to miss out with these Black Friday handheld gaming PC deals

By Jacob Ridley Published

Black Friday You don't need to spend lots to play your PC games on the go.

Black Friday
Two motherboards and two sticks of RAM on a yellow background with the words Black Friday on the side.
(Sold out) RAM prices are ridiculous but Newegg is literally giving sticks away with this AM5 motherboard—easily the best Black Friday motherboard deal

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

Black Friday What a deal in today's market, and it's still going strong on Black Friday.

Black Friday
The Wooting 60HE+ and accessories on a yellow background with Black Friday down the sides.
Wooting is giving away a travel case and wrist rest this Black Friday when you buy the pro gamer's weapon of choice, the Wooting 60HE+

By Jacob Ridley Published

Black Friday Analog switches and a neat little carry case.

Black Friday
The Hyte Q60 liquid cooler on a yellow background with the words Black Friday on the side.
The Hyte Thicc Q60 is the most ridiculous liquid cooler I've ever used and it's now over half off for Black Friday

By Jacob Ridley Published

Black Friday A liquid cooler with its very own screen, processor, and even RAM.

Black Friday
Crucial's P510 on a yellow and red background with Black Friday written on it.
It's that time of year when you can pick up Crucial's budget PCIe 5.0 SSD for the same price as a PCIe 4.0 drive

By Jacob Ridley Published

Black Friday 1 TB for $90. Or 2 TB for $140.

Black Friday
Asus' Falchion RX Low-profile keyboard on a yellow background.
My biggest problem with this compact ROG keyboard was the price. Now it's at its lowest ever on Amazon, I'm back to singing its praises

By Jacob Ridley Published

Black Friday It has excellent and unusual media controls.

Black Friday
Arctic's Xtender PC case on a white desk with various parts being installed to build a functional gaming PC.
I build loads of gaming PCs and this is the first to make me regret my decisions with my own personal rig—here's what you need to build it yourself

By Jacob Ridley Published

Chilly Tinted glass makes everything look better.

Chilly
Image of a Cougar gaming chair taken at Computex 2023
Five things I always tell people before they buy their first gaming chair

By Jacob Ridley Published

Saddle up I've been testing gaming chairs for eight years, and here's what I always tell people looking to buy one.

Saddle up
Thermaltake View 390 Air chassis on a desk. We're building a PC into it for testing and comparison with other PC cases.
Thermaltake View 390 Air review

By Jacob Ridley Published

Score: 80% Let there be light!

Score: 80%
Valve's new Steam Machine during a visit to Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington. The Steam Machine is a compact living room gaming PC.
How much is that Steam Machine in the window? Let's talk potential pricing for Valve's new living room gaming box

By Jacob Ridley Published

Steam Savings We don't know the price of the Steam Machine—but we can take a pretty good guess.

98 Comments
Steam Savings
Two of the best PC joysticks, the Thrustmaster Warthog flight stick alongside a Logitech G X56 HOTAS, on a two-tone grey background
Best PC joysticks in 2026: These are my top picks for everything from flight sims to space shooters

By Dave James Last updated

Locked On The best PC joysticks take you to new heights.

Locked On
Valve's new and improved Steam Controller during a visit to Valve's HQ in Bellevue, Washington.
How grip sensing was added to the new Steam Controller is a 'typical Valve story' involving a passionate employee moving desks

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

News One Valve employee essentially made it happen.

9 Comments
News
Valve's new Steam Machine during a visit to Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington. The Steam Machine is a compact living room gaming PC.
Valve recommends sharing your game library on microSD card between Steam Deck, Steam Frame, and Steam Machine: 'They're fully interoperable, just bring it along with you'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Saves downloading them all again.

News
Valve's new and improved Steam Controller during a visit to Valve's HQ in Bellevue, Washington.
Valve announces the Steam Controller and it's genuinely good: 'we knew we needed to make this controller'

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

News The new Steam Controller is a smart way to play PC games on the sofa, stealing the Steam Deck's clever controls.

28 Comments
News
Valve employees, left-to-right, Steve Cardinali, Gabe Rowe, and Clement Gallois, at the Valve offices in Bellevue
Valve on viral marketing and leaks: 'Everybody assumes we have some sort of like grand plan... and it's literally just somebody fat fingering something'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News You're probably thinking about this sort of stuff a lot more than Valve is.

News
We're using Valve's new VR headset, the Steam Frame, at Valve's HQ in Bellevue, Washington.
Foveated streaming is the genius tech behind Valve's Steam Frame and its seamless wireless gaming performance

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Making wireless VR truly possible.

News
Hands-on with Valve's new VR headset, the Steam Frame, during an interview at Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington.
Valve is all over Arm: SteamOS launching for Arm alongside the Steam Frame, new FEX translation layer for x86 and Arm, and Arm games are coming to Steam

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Now Arm is Valve's best friend.

News
Valve's new Steam Machine during a visit to Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington. The Steam Machine is a compact living room gaming PC.
Valve believes its new Steam Machine could open up a whole new world of SteamOS desktops: 'Put it on, say, something that's running an RX 9070 XT, you would be good to go'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News "We're really interested to see what other companies do with the form factor."

7 Comments
News
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